Journey to the center of Equestria

by Rarity Belle

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Anthro, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other
Length: 541974

Tremors of the earth itself plague the land of Equestria. Soothsayer Twilight hopes to stop them with some help. Together with five strangers, she must travel to a place where nopony has gone before. They must go to where it all began and stop it.

"Sometimes, it's more about the journey than the destination."

Turmoil struck Equestria! Tremors from deep within the earth cause the whole nation to be shook wide awake. Nopony knows where they come from, nopony is able to predict where the next one hits. Though in Canterlot Castle, there is only one soothsayer who has an eye for them. Only one soothsayer tries to make sense out of the mess. That soothsayer is nopony else then Twilight Sparkle.

The unicorn anthrony can't believe the quest that the goddesses of the sun and moon have given to her. That she has to travel to a place where nopony has ever been before in order to stop the terror of the ground. If she doesn't, the land can turn into nothing more but a barren wasteland, extinct from all life. Tasked with a impossible task, the desperate search begins.

A search that is not just about finding the origin of it all, as well as five other beings that should accompany her. Along the way is nothing certain and the anthronies will get to know one another. Perhaps even more than they would have liked. Different breeds and races mixed together for one quest only have to set their differences aside and work together. If not, the land's darkest forces just might get their hands on them. Dark Witches and those living on the other side of the ocean are always lurking for their next victim. Chances are that they all get more than they bargained for.

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- Coverart equals anatomy
- Coverart created by Somnias (Simp)

Published 2015-02-20 11:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-03-02 21:09:44 UTC

Chapter III

The violet rimmed eyes of Twilight looked in utter horror. She had noticed just what was going on with Burning Spring. The stallion was sweating for his life, as if he had entered some sort of sauna but the very scent of his sweat gave everything away. The smell of fear began to reek through the whole classroom. All of the other students began to fear the worst of the worst as Twilight’s eyes showed them all that her brain was working in a literal overdrive.

The mulberry unicorn had not a clue of what she could be doing, so the only thing she thought up was to sedate him and hope for the best. Both her hands and horn coated themselves into the magical aura before it also began to surround the body of Burning Spring.

Silent whispers were being made by her as she prayed to the goddesses themselves that he would have been brought back to their realm. Seconds looked like hours as the hearts of every single anthrony in the room was literally beating inside of their very throats. The levels of danger that were present were literally astronomical. Yet none of the other students even dared to interfere in the magical events.

Not even whispers came from the other anthronies. Yet Twilight finally managed to bring the conscious of Spring back into the land that they occupied. Their realm of existence, to be exact. Yet the stallion himself was still out for the count. That was a fact that worried Twilight a lot more. The teacher then levitated the body up and prepared herself to teleport away.

Her head turned over to the rest of the class before she spoke her words in a rather saddening tone. “Class has been dismissed. You’re all free to go, no homework.” In a flash of raspberry light had she then poofed out of the room. Something that left the students there with a questioning gaze upon their faces.

None knew what would be happening from that point onwards. So the only thing that they could be doing was to pack their bags and leave the classroom quietly. Both Wishful Star and Sky Comet were among the last ones to leave. Yet their interest had been peeked by their zebra classmate.

They never had spoken much to him because of the fact that he was the true silent type, yet the two found that it was time for a change of plans. He was a bit of a loner, perhaps by choice, but that wouldn’t stop them from at least approaching him.

So when the two friends stood across the hallway, it was the zebra who finally left the room. “Oi, you, can you get over here please?” Star spoke up to him. The zebra stallion was actually surprised by the fact that somepony called him out without adding an insulting name. Which caused him to gently made the crossing.

Once they were in his whispering range of each other, the words of mixed emotions were released from under the hooded cloak. “What is it that the two fine anthronies desire from a humble zebra like myself?” He was afraid, the both of them could hear that instantly in his tone. But afraid for what, they couldn’t pinpoint though they did have some ideas.

“What’s your name?” Star asked him in a calm and kind tone. One that actually showed her interest as well as respect towards him. The zebra stallion rose a bit up from his gentle bow as he never had expected that question to be released from an anthrony’s mouth.

“M-My name?” he repeated as he didn’t truly believe the facts as they were. The eyes made numerous blinking motions below his hood before finally taking it off. The mohawk in his mane was small but still clearly present as the stripes across his face took an interesting pattern that always seemed to be changing. “My name is Dolicho,” he said while placing the emphasis on the ‘li’ part and spoke the ‘ch’ out as a ‘g’.

“Dolicho?” Sky Comet repeated to remember it. He had the name firm inside of his mind. “Three months in our class and nopony even knows your name.”

“Most don’t even bother with one from the outside lands. The anthronies of Equestria find themselves too good for the zebras of the Great Plains that lays across the sea,” answered Dolicho before he covered his head with the hood again.

“Hey, you want to come with us, you know how to play Dragon Defender?” said Wishful Star in the hope to break the ice. Yet Dolicho had to think about that for a moment as a thoughtful groan was being released.

“Come on, it will be fun,” the mare added. A thing which only added more to the nervousness that was going through the zebra. The two friends hoped that he would agree upon their invitation yet could understand if he declined.

Yet after the moments of silence did the zebra simply gave a nod towards the two of them. “I shall join the game,” he simply said to them. The both of them smiled and took off with –what was hopefully– their new friend.

~~~~

In the meantime had Twilight teleported herself into the hospital of the castle. There she paced up and down in front of the bed. Minutes had he been lying there with his conscious continuously slipping. It drove her almost to the verge of madness as she couldn’t understand most of the things that were going on.

She was a brilliant soothsayer, but from time to time there were facts that even slipped through her mind. And Burning Spring’s little misadventure was something that caused everything to come to a screeching hold. Not even the thoughts about what was actually wrong in their lands could be found.

Slowly but surely did the situation of the stallion improved as he finally opened his eyes again. “W-What happened? Why is..?” he mumbled to Twilight, who stood at the hoofend of the bed. The expression upon her face was everything but happy with him as she released a deep sigh and shook her head. Burning Spring released a small gulp before he turned away from her head.

“What you have done today, is something I never want any student of mine to see. For despite the fact that you were brave enough to make the descend back, perhaps not willingly though. You are also foolish.” Twilight then closed her eyes before a deep sigh was being released from her nostrils. “Terribly foolish as you could have died back there and then. I don’t even think that you know the sheer amount of luck you had back there.”

“Teacher, please tell me where I have looked into,” asked Burning Spring in a weak tone. He was still trying to regain most of his strength. Twilight couldn’t decipher whether or not it was still an act of the anthrony, or that he really was still regaining everything. She didn’t even care about it at the moment really. He had gone to a place that was thought to have lost with time itself. A place where only the utter darkness of a soul reigned supreme.

She released a deep sigh through her nostrils before she leaned forward and placed both of her hands against the bed. Her eyes looked up to his. “You have gone to a place where I only had wished it existed in books and myth. A place so dark that it is nothing compared to the black holes in the universe,” explained Twilight with a stern tone to him before she continued. “You have been looking into a place that we like to all the Void of Nothing. The inner circle of Tartarus, if you like. Nothing lives there, nothing grows, absolute darkness and your worst fears reign supreme.”

Yet her words were thrown back at her almost instantly. Burning Spring had a little and nasty surprise up his sleeve that he would be delivering to her. “A mare, spoke to me. Humming an old, nursery rhyme,” he coughed out to her. He then dropped back onto the pillow. His words caused the mare’s eyes to spring open as wide as they possibly were allowed. Never in her life had she expected those words to be coming from him.

“What, did she say?” Twilight asked through. The dreaded memories from times forgotten surfaced again. Though right after her words she turned her attention away from the stallion. There was a single tear that rolled down the cheek of the mare just before her eyes closed. The memories that she relived were aching her heart more than anything. A deep sniff was then given off before the tear was wiped away and she turned back around. “Well, what rhyme did she say?!”

The tone remained the same and Burning Spring looked at her with a shocked expression. He didn’t even ask why she cried and couldn’t understand why she went at him like that. Yet in the meantime tried his mind to remember everything. Slowly did the words came back to him. The first thing that went through his body was a stone cold shiver before he whispered them loud enough. “Twinkle, twinkle, little… star. That’s, that’s what she said,” he repeated for Twilight.

The unicorn released a deep groan through her throat. She imagined just what it could have meant to the world. But the rhyme was so well known throughout the land, that pinpointing the actual purpose for it remained unknown for the time being. “Alright then, you stay here while the nurse checks you up for the last time. As for tomorrow, you will be transported over to the battlemages.” That was her final judgement on the matter.

Those words came as a shock to him and immediately sat straight up in his bed. “W-What?! You can’t do this to me!” Burning Spring exclaimed, confirming the thoughts of Twilight. He had been playing with her for the most part, yet his words spoke the truth. “What is my family going to think?! What do I tell them when I can’t become a soothsayer?”

It was then that some of the wires inside of Twilight’s head snapped and she looked the anthrony with a glare of death in the eyes. “You should have considered that fact before you bought out the judge. Soothsaying isn’t a job you can get with paying a lot of bits. It has to come from the mind and the heart and you, you lack both,” she said to him in a stone cold tone. Both her hands had ignited themselves with the magical aura.

The heat of the powers that surged through her could be felt at Spring’s hooves. The stallion prayed in silence that she would be stopping soon enough with the torture. “You have the temper of a battlemage and lack all the powers of a soothsayer. Be glad I don’t banish you from this place. You’re nothing but a scam and a fraud who just thinks to become the wisest around here. Tough love, for it’s not going to happen.”

Burning Spring gulped a couple of times loudly. He had realized the trouble he had gotten himself into and Twilight finally discharged her powers. The unicorn then simply left him alone in the room and wanted to head to the library.

~~~~

Along the way had Twilight managed to bump into one of her least favorite figures that the whole place had. Beatrix Lulamoon and Twilight Sparkle both landed on their bums from the crash and they looked one another straight in the eyes. “Sparkle,” spoke Trixie when she got up.

“Lulamoon,” returned Twilight in the same growling tone. Then she rose her body back up. “Out of everything, I have to be walking right into you. Suppose it is also a good thing, for a change.”

That actually managed to confuse Trixie a lot more than she originally would have thought. One of the eyebrows rose themselves up as she dusted off her own attire a bit. “And how come? What do you have for me, hm?”

Twilight released a small chuckle in response to the looks before she came down to her business that she had with the other. “Tomorrow you shall be receiving a new student. Does the name of Burning Spring ring any bells by you?”

“How can’t it?” Trixie replied before she gained a smirk over her face. “Words have it he got launched into a place he wasn’t supposed to be during your classes. I do suppose that is why you are giving him the transfer?”

“So they told it that quickly already, didn’t they? Ugh, can’t these youngsters keep a secret anymore? Anyhow, yes. That is indeed the reason of why I’m sending him to you. He’s a battlemage through and through. You’ve seen the look in his eyes, right?” Twilight questioned her colleague. She turned her head gently sideways to judge the coming words.

“I have, it shall be interesting to see where he is actually capable of,” replied Trixie to her. After which she turned around and made her departure from Twilight without a single word. To which Twilight was actually happy about. The last thing she wanted was Trixie nagging at her ears about how she was better than her. Not to mention the fact that she actually seemed to have behaved, a fact quickly forgotten by Twilight once more.

Yet it still didn’t answer all of Twilight’s questions. The unicorn released a soft exhale before the matters were brought back to her mind. More specifically, the matter of what he had actually seen in his trip. Only one place held the answers and that was the massive library.

~~~~

Hours had gone by and the sun was already lowering itself down into the hills. The darkness of night had engulfed itself over the land like a wave of sea water. The candles of the library were ignited by the magical charges of several unicorns. Their harmonic light had an unusual calming effect to all of the anthronies present.

Yet Twilight had been hiding herself behind a stack of books, papers and scrolls that seemed to have been ancient of nature. Not many knew where she was digging for and found it best for both parties just to leave her alone. Perhaps the wisest decision that they could have made in the event of things. Yet the anthrony unicorn herself didn’t seem to be getting any wiser.

With the glasses that were placed upon her nose she read line after line of history in the hope to figure out who or what he had possibly seen. “Ugh, out of everything in the history of this land, he has to see something impossible,” muttered the mare muttered to herself. She laid the book down and shoved it aside in silence.

A growl was released by the unicorn when she took another book from the stack and opened it without even looking at the very title. Pages were flipped as dust was being sent up, the book was old. Even older than the one she had previously and that one spoke about the first year of the anthronies.

There was a certain glee that began to fill Twilight. She made the realization that the book she had went even further back in time. All the way back to where their land was still occupied with the previous owners and dominant race. The violet rimmed eyes rose up from the book and off to the side. There they saw the entrance of the library as well as the skeletons of what some believed were their ancestors. The elusive ponies themselves.

A skeleton of an earth pony, pegasus and unicorn stood there in perfect harmony and fully displaying each race’s best capabilities. Nopony truly knew whether or not the anthronies were actually evolved ponies, but Twilight was among those who supported the science behind it.

“What further secrets do you have for us?” she mumbled before returning to her book.

The unicorn continued to read through the pages for an eternity as she took each and every single letter deeply towards her. The descriptions of events so many years ago all went past her but no exact dates were given by any of them. That was the fact that managed to get her off of her guard pretty easily. The sheer fact of no dates meant there wasn’t any kind of reference point.

“Well now, what’s this?” she mumbled to herself as she had reached a part of the book that was curious yet dangerous. “The darkest hours had fallen upon us when…”

“When the monster of darkness had spread its wings over the room and looked down towards her older sister. All whom were present could feel the hatred and rage coming from the dark entity. Death was imminent for many as the horn charged up to release its deadly load of arcane powers. Those who survived the first wave would most likely be devastated by the second. A nightmare of the moon, that is what it was.”

“What it was… Nightmare of the moon, nightmare of the moon,” mumbled Twilight. She was brought back to the present day. Something about the way that the words were written down in the book, almost managed to tangle her inside of it and take control of her. Almost as if the book itself was coming alive and wanted to draw the mare in.

“Nightmare of the moon…” All of the sudden went her eyes wide, a small gasp for air was being given. She thought to have cracked the code of the words and quickly left her seating. The unicorn rushed through the entire library with the desire to find the one book. “Where is it, where did they place it?!” she whispered to herself. All while she continued the vivid search for the desired book. It laid there somewhere, she was sure of that.

Yet then did the mare come down to the realization that her book wasn’t in the light covered area of the library. The book she needed was of a darker purpose. One that shouldn’t be read by soothsayers in general. So Twilight began to look for the deepest and darkest corner of the library.

Her eyes slowly fell upon a shelf that was completely shrouded in darkness. Every, single step she took did feel more uncomfortable than the last. She was on the right track, all the sounds of the library faded away from existence as whispers of darker intentions took over.

Whispers to control or burn the world, enslave the population or slaughter them all. Tempting pacts with devils unknown could all be heard talking inside of Twilight’s very own mind. Yet the unicorn didn’t even blink at them all. She had only one goal in mind and would be doing everything to make that goal a reality.

Whispers could only be doing so much and when the unicorn stood before the shelf, her eyes looked at all the titles of the books before she picked just one of them. It didn’t matter to her how curious the rest of them would be, for she had where she came for. Quickly she turned back around and left the dark corner of the library with her book.

~~~~

The anthrony unicorn had returned to her seating and opened the dark book before her. The tempting dark arts it contained were only countered by Twilight’s own magic as she began to read through each of the pages. Her eyes were focusing upon just two little words that would either confirm or bust her own theory.

She hoped to be wrong in the case. Though Twilight was a mare who was rarely wrong on a matter. Before she even knew it, she had discovered just what she was looking for. The book was simply dropped down to the table. The mare leaned backwards in her chair. There was a shocked expression that could be seen clearly over her face before the eyes closed.

“That can’t be, he couldn’t have seen her. Impossible, just impossible. It’s scientifically not possible that such a thing exists, that she exists,” muttered Twilight to the air. The book laid open on a page that had an illustration of a couple black robed anthronies worshipping a third goddess.

A heathen goddess who on her own ruled the entire underworld and everything that was bad for the world. “Nightmare of the moon… Nightmare Moon,” said Twilight to herself with a sigh before she closed the book. She had her answers and wasn’t happy about it. “The Dark Witches…”

~~~~

After she had cleaned her spot and returned all of the books to the rightful places, Twilight Sparkle was officially done for the day. Everything that had happened during the day itself was something that almost had fried her mind. She wasn’t all too happy about it yet the desire to sleep had finally made its way into her head.

With the matter solved, another one was added in the form of a question. A question which perhaps not even she had the power to answer. “What would Nightmare Moon want with a soothsayer like him? Why take one now? Maybe she smelled him?” the mare explained to herself. Though then she made the probably wise decision to shake the matter off of her.

She was almost near her room when the clunking sounds of a heavy armor could be heard echoing through the hallway. The curiosity of Twilight was captured and she turned herself around to see what was going on. In her eyes she caught a celestial guard who stopped right before her nose. One that was panting deep and held a rolled up scroll sealed with a house mark. “S-Soothsayer Sparkle, it happened again. They hit again,” the guard brought out while being out of breath.

Twilight’s eyebrow rose up in a confused manner as she shook her head a couple of times. “Take it easy, catch up with your breath and then tell me what happened,” she replied while placing a hand upon his shoulder. The guard nodded and took a couple deep in- and exhales before trying to find the right words for the matter.

“They happened again, this morning in the mountains of the west. Entire peaks just crashed down like branches from a tree. Whatever is causing it, it’s something big and invisible,” the guard spoke up before he handed over the sealed letter. “This letter, is from house Belle. Rich family that owns a lot of the land in those very regions. Their servants have made detailed reports of what actually happened and the damages done.”

The unicorn calmly took the letter from him before she nodded to all of his words. She could understand the massive amounts of damage done to the mountain chain that walked there. Twilight just never anticipated that their trouble would actually reach up to there. “I shall be reading the letter as soon as I can. You did a good job bringing it to here as soon as you did. It may give a bit more inside on the matter at hand.” Twilight then said before she released his shoulder again.

“Whatever beast it is, it must be stopped before more casualties come. What if it attacks Cloudsdale or worse, Canterlot?” the guard replied in utter paranoia. Though the mare looked at him with a dead serious glare in her eyes.

The letter was calmly placed in one of her pockets before a deep exhale was released through her nostrils. “As much as I would give you right, I have to say that it will leave Cloudsdale alone unless it makes contact with the ground. As for this ‘beast’ of yours, it isn’t.”

The guard rose both of his eyebrows before wanting to argue the words but Twilight cut him off first. “There is no beast that is invisible and devastates through our land. No Ursa Major or other celestial constellations that have come to bring doom upon us. No, our trouble lays beneath the surface of the earth we walk on. Earthquakes shock all corners of our land.”

The high word was out, that was what was wrong with Equestria. Tremors that caused turmoil of the biggest degree there was. Earthquakes that were getting powerful enough to devastate entire mountains. Yet something didn’t feel right. Something was actually off about the whole event of things.

Twilight couldn’t pinpoint it, yet was determined to discover it. “Resume your post or return to there where you came from. Your help is no longer required by me,” the unicorn replied. She gestured him to remove himself and turned back to resume her path. The guard made a small bow before her and was then off again. Off to return to the place where he originally had come from.

The letter was taken out of her pocket and placed in one of the many window sills that the hallway was rich. The unicorn didn’t even try to hide it as she laid both of her arms crossed into the sill and opened the letter with her magic. The document was unfolded before her eyes and she began to read it aloud.

“Good day soothsayer Sparkle, it has come to our attention that you are the one who has been investigating the strange tremors that have been plaguing our land for some time now. Enclosed in this document you will find an arcane list of damages and casualties caused by the tremors in the mountains that took place on the morning. We hope to have informed you enough and perhaps you can come and see it for yourself. With the kindest of regard, House Belle.”

Twilight released a deep huff after she was done and conjured the arcane list up. “Me going out there to inspect the damage? Not a chance in heaven that I will be doing that, not with a stuck up family like theirs,” the mare muttered whilst the arcane list continued to unfold. And finally she began to read through the entirety of the thing.

Surprise after surprise came to her. The amount of detail that was given to her was astonishing. It almost made her feel as if she actually walked through the debris field. Yet that also happened to have been the sheer problem. The amount of damage done, the amount of mountains that were leveled with the ground itself was unheard of. “Nothing in the world has that kind of power yet it happened. What causes these things?” she mumbled to herself. She folding the list back up and let go a deep exhale. It all just troubled her mind a lot more than it should have.

The unicorn continued upon the journey towards her bedroom and released another, gentle sigh. She was the one they had to call, yes, but not even she had all of the answers that they needed. Which was about just the biggest shame there was.

The door of her bedroom fell back in its lock and upon the desk it still remained like ever. The reminder to see whether or not she happened to have been right. Yet there was one thing that she knew. “Under the mountains walks a fault line, so the chances might be there that this one was natural.” Twilight said to herself as her eyes continued to look over the map from the distance. “It still doesn’t explain the rest of them though.”

With a deep sigh did her horn charge itself up and once again was her attire changed into the simple nightie. The unicorn dimmed all of the lights present in her room to near nothing before she allowed her head to fall upon her pillow. The body positioned itself a bit better within the bed. After that, it was all covered by the blankets.

Before Twilight even knew it, had she made the departure from the land of the wake to the realm of the dreams. Dreams that were pleasant and calm to her. The serenity of her mind was something that only a few things could be giving to her. She would figure everything out. In its own time and its own right. For there is a time and place for everything.

~~~~

In the meantime had Wishful Star, Sky Comet and Dolicho played through their fifth round of Dragon Defender. The zebra had finally managed to get a hold of the rules of the massive role playing game. The board took more than three arcane squares divided over multiple altitudes. It was an intense game with a lot of strategy involved yet the three of them actually had a lot of fun.

Dolicho had never played it before but had to admit that it was a lot more fun than the games he was used to. “Who’s ready for another round?” asked Star while she looked to the two stallions in the room. Even though it was just a game, it was always Star who managed to beat the two of them somehow. Sky Comet had already made the joke that she was some kind of super player a couple times before, and Dolicho was about to believe it.

“As much as the offer is appreciated, Wishful Star, I’m afraid I have to decline on another round. There is business with my potions that I need to attend do I want to have them ready by tomorrow afternoon,” he answered to her in his always respectful voice. The zebra stallion then stood up and made a bow before the two of them. “If you want to excuse me, I bid thee a good night and a good game.”

Then he just walked out of the room and towards his own. Despite the rather interesting manner of leaving, both Star and Sky had to admit that they made some progress in becoming the zebra’s friend. For whether he liked it or not, Dolicho actually let out a couple of chuckles during the game. Especially when he foresaw what would happen during some of their turns.

“Silent type, but he’s alright,” said Sky Comet. Then he took a hold of his glass and took a sip of the content. “Makes me wonder why we never spoke to him before.”

Wishful Star chuckled a little bit to herself before her head was calmly shaken from side to side. She had a rather interesting answer upon the fact as it was. “You may thank your Star for that. Burning Spring has been spreading rumors about him since forever. Kinda sad actually, but I think he got what he deserved when he was brought away.”

“Heh, no argument there really. What goes around comes around, they always say.” Sky took the dices again and placed his dragon upon the designated spot. “So it’s just going to be you and me again. You better hold on to your cider, princess. For I shall give you no mercy this time.”

“Oh please, Sky, we all know who happens to be the best player, right?” Star chuckled to herself before she took the last sip out of her cider mug. “Aah, let’s do this. I’m ready for you.”

Chapter IV

Sunlight. Once again there was it that ever so cursed sunlight that tickled itself against the eyelids of Twilight. A moan and a groan came from the mare. She brought a hand to her face and covered up her eyes. Yet something about that very same sunlight was different about the rays of sunlight that tickled her.

Normally they would have come to her from the side whereas these rays seemed to have come from the top. It was a realization that didn’t do too much to Twilight as she was still moaning and groaning to the fact she was woken up again. Her sleep was something that was rather dear to her and she really didn’t wanted to be disturbed by it. The hand was removed from her face and brought to her chest where she released a sigh.

Which was naturally followed by an inhale. An inhale of air that went through her nose and thus also brought the many scents with it. Scents that were unusual got recognized by the nose and that caused Twilight to actually shocked up and out of her sleep state and open her eyes. She wasn’t home anymore, that much was certain. Though where else she probably could have been was a fact that had yet to be discovered.

The eyes opened themselves under a lot of force and in the first seconds was Twilight just blinded by the power of the sun. The mare sat up straight on the edge of something. Though she couldn’t feel the ground below her hooves. “What in the names of..?” mumbled the mare in disarray. She rubbed both of her eyes and blinked to get them adjusted to the light.

Slowly did the splashes of green do their turn within her eyes while the shapes were made. “The Canterlot gardens? Did they really pull that prank out with me again?” she said to herself. There was another groan that left her which was followed up by a yawn. The eyes were shut with force once more before carefully opened to reveal the world around her.

The thing that she saw was nothing she ever could have expected to see in her entire life. The grassy fields below her hooves and the numerous colorful flowers weren’t typically found in the Canterlot gardens. Not to mention the bed she was on, one quick glance over it revealed it to have been a cloud on which she slept. “Where, am I?” questioned Twilight aloud in a confused tone. It would have been moments later that she dared to make the leap.

A leap that was only half a hoof high from where her own hooves dangled in the air. The unicorn stood up from the bed which began to dissolve the second she left it. Yet then there was a realization that went through her, something that caused her to come to a standstill with a massive shock. “My nightie,” she quickly spoke before looking down to her clothing.

Yet much to her own surprise, there wasn’t anything unusual as she looked like she was ready for class with her normal attire. The blue robes around her body were perfect as ever and only caused a raised eyebrow from the mare. “What in the name of everything am I supposed to be making out of this?” the mare mumbled to herself as her eyes continued to look around.

They caught the grassy fields and the hills on which she stood on one of the highest tops. Before her laid a land that was unknown to her, forests came and went as a single solitary peak could be seen off in the far distance. The sun shone calm and brightly over her hair as Twilight still tried to find the location she was.

“No, it can’t be that this is the western mountains ridge. Am I then in the Great Plains? Impossible, that is almost all desert or savannah.” Nothing about any of the geological structure made any sense to the soothsayer. Despite the fact that she didn’t came out of the castle much, she did have a pretty good understanding of just how the world looked like.

“Impossible. Utterly impossible.” Though then she made probably the wise decision to turn herself around and witness a part of the land that had been going unnoticed to her since she woke up. Her mouth dropped open in utter disbelief as her violet rimmed eyes took in whatever they saw. The sights revealed to her were something that was unseen and unbelieved before. Twilight couldn’t believe it herself if she didn’t know any better just where she was.

“No, this can’t be. This just can’t be right? It’s impossible that I’m here. I mean, what have I done to ever be granted the chance to come to this place?” exclaimed and explained Twilight for herself. She perhaps wouldn’t even have dared to believe the place she was in.

When she looked to the other side of the world, there was the same sight to behold. Exactly the same sight as if it was, perfectly mirrored from the other one. The only difference had to have been the massive fact that where she stood in the warm light of the sun, the mirror image was covered under the darkness of night.

Two worlds that were the same, but having different times at the same time. It was enough to make Twilight’s head spin with the sheer physics that went behind everything. Which made her come to the one realization that she perhaps had to throw out all of the believes that she knew about the world. For she no longer was in the world as she knew it. Instead she was found in the realm of the two beings they praised and loved with equal might.

Twilight Sparkle had somehow made the ascend up towards the planes of the goddesses within her sleep. Or they might have called for her personally for whatever reason. Though that would have been the more unlikely answer to most of the questions that the mare had. Yet she knew suddenly and fully just where she had ended up.

A particular part of the plane of the goddesses that was untouched for millennia and only very few soothsayers had actually the honor of visiting it. Her own teachers had told her about the place as well as certain books she had read.

“The garden of the goddesses, there where the sun and moon rule with a might and power equal and where few have dared to venture,” were the words that Twilight whispered to herself. Straight afterwards was there another shock that went through her body. They demanded that a soothsayer always paid their respects to them. Which was something Twilight still hadn’t done to the both of them, yet.

The horn of the unicorn charged itself up before it began to draw an celestial sign in midair and made a polite but respectful bow towards it. “Sun goddess Celestia, I thank thee for allowing me to come here today.”

Then did the sign turn flat and fell down to the grass where it began to leave burn marks. Black stripes covered the area right next to each of the arcane drawn line before it faded out of existence. Leaving only the burned mark upon the grassy hill.

Nothing happened to Twilight as she still stood within her bowed down position and silently prayed that it would remain that way. Normally she didn’t have much to fear from the goddesses their power when she would make the ascend, yet that time she was right inside of their home. The inner sanctum, some might have called it. It was considered to the holiest place in the entire plane of the goddesses.

One wrong move and they could break the communication forever, that was the way Twilight was thinking about the scene. Most likely just to be safe and not get into too much troubles.

Her horn allowed itself to be charged again as it drew another symbol in the air. That time the lunar sign as Twilight spoke the words in a respectful tone. “Lunar goddess Luna, I thank thee for allowing me to come here today.” Once again did the symbol fell down to the ground and faded away, leaving only the burn marks.

Twilight remained in her bowed down position until she got some sort of sign from either of the great spirits that she was allowed to move again. Which was something a lot easier said than done actually. It felt like minutes that Twilight just stood there, paying her respects to the goddesses she had served for most of her life.

“I, I understand that this is very pretty and all, but if I may be so free to ask, why did you brought me here?” Twilight then dared to ask aloud before a calming wind of a whisper traveled over her back. It was the sign she had hoped to be getting and calmly rose up from her position. She was granted access by both of the goddesses to enter and travel further through their inner sanctum. Yet the nature of her quest still remained unknown. Whichever the case was going to be, it was something that not even Twilight could be fully figure out.

~~~~

Back in the castle of Canterlot were both Sky Comet and Wishful Star still playing their game as it reached the tensions climax. The both of them still had just one more move and it was all or nothing for the both of them. “It looks like we are at a stalemate here,” said Star after she took a sip from her water. She looked over each and every possible maneuver that could be done.

“You tell me,” replied Sky while he did pretty much the same. They could continue moving their pieces around and therefore keep the game going forever. One of them had to fall from glory in order to make the game complete. It was an impasse that the two had encountered so many times since the discovered how the other played the game.

“One hit with my fire-sword and you’re out for the count but if you move away I lose. Tough, tough, tough,” mumbled Star to herself before she made a gentle growl. There wasn’t much that could be done for her to achieve victory. It seemed to have been an endless stalemate as they continued to move away from the other and coming in closer.

“I think we can best wrap this up and file it under the category of ‘unfinished’ or ‘impossible’, what do you say?” commented Sky before he let out a huge yawn. Star simply allowed herself to giggle softly before she nodded to his words.

“I think that that would be best yes. The sun is almost about to rise again anyway. No class today right? …Right?” questioned Wishful Star. She didn’t seem to be certain about the facts anymore. And who could really blame her for the fact, they had been playing around with the game for over eight long hours. Five of them were spend with the zebra stallion called Dolicho who then left to do his own things.

Both of the unicorns discharged their horns and therefore allowed the game to finally be finished in some way. Star began to stretch her body a bit and cracked most of her bones back into their respectable places before she stood up and dropped on her bed. “And you, get out,” she said in a playful snarl to the other stallion, One who had a difficult time containing his laughter.

“Alright alright missy. I shall be leaving you then,” chuckled Sky. Then he left the mare alone and made the journey back to his own room. But before he entered through the door, there was something else that managed to capture his attention.

There was a strange green light that came out of the cracks below the door that led to Dolicho’s very room. Normally he wasn’t the most curious of stallions, but that time there was something about the light that wanted to make him witness more of it. Almost as if it was a massive light show personally given to him.

Sky fell down to his knees and placed one of his eyes in front of the keyhole. The other eye was closed and he started to peek through the hole in the hope to see something that would perhaps be giving him something of an idea of what was going on. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he might have had.

~~~~

Twilight was wandering down the slopes of the hills. She had closed in to perhaps the deepest valley of the entire place and noticed the most impossible fact that it had. She had reached the place where she wanted to go, the one place that was actually right for her feelings. The exact, separation line.

The very line that separated both the eternal day and the eternal night from one another. Across the floor of that very valley it walked in a straight like a straight line which was just perfect. The eyes of Twilight twinkled gently as she noticed just the sheer beauty that it carried before her mind made the discovery that something mysterious also could be found there. To her it didn’t feel right that both day and night were there at the same time and at almost the exact place.

Yet on the other end it also felt rather normal for her. It was a feeling that couldn’t be truly described by anything or anypony really. It was once more one of those times that she had to let go of her reality and embrace the reality she was in.

So with one last slide down the slope had the unicorn managed to finally get to the bottom of the valley and she calmly walked over to the separating line. The very line which she had to cross with half of her body. “I just hope that this is going to work,” she mumbled to herself. A deep exhale was taken through her nostrils while she hoped for the best.

Anything could happen and Twilight knew that fact all too well. It was quite literally a do or die moment for her as she gathered all of her guts and dared to take the step forwards. Or better said, sideways. What followed was the classical sight between good and evil. Half of Twilight was covered in the bright sun and she just looked like normal.

Whereas her other side was shrouded in darkness, covering the other half of her body in an ominous atmosphere. That was how it looked, revealing two sides of the same mare without her even knowing the facts as they were.

The unicorn anthrony calmly lowered her body down into a sitting position as her eyes were closed upon themselves and the meditation pose was taken. She wanted to know why the goddesses had called her there and she wanted to know it sooner than later. “Goddesses of the universe, please tell me why you brought me here today. I know that patience is a virtue, but on some matters there isn’t much time that can be lost in order to complete the task ahead. So please, do tell me why I am here,” where the words that Twilight pleaded to the goddesses themselves. She was almost getting desperate as of why she was there.

Seconds it remained silent after her plea had been send out into both directions of the mirrored lands. Hope was slowly making way for nothing else but despair as the sheer hope of getting to know why she was there became fainter by the minute if not the very second.

Yet out of nowhere and literally without knowledge of Twilight herself, they came. Two howls of wind rushed towards her from different directions of the land. Howls of wind that whispered faint words in an ancient of dead language. A mixture of multiple tales told together where Twilight couldn’t get any wiser from.

It was even slightly annoying that she didn’t understood a single word from it. But as she said herself: patience was a virtue. She then could feel the two winds swirling around her as her eyes were kept closed. The tales of old reflected down upon the unicorn before imagines began to appear over her closed eyes.

Almost like a movie it played out before her. And horrible were the sights that she saw. For the images played out before her eyes went accompanied with the sounds of animals as well as anthronies dying left and right.

Before her swirled a massive sphere of an orange glow. The sun? No, it couldn’t have been the sun, the surface was too rough to be the sun. A core of something? Most likely the case. But the core of what, remained the question. The more Twilight’s attention was focused upon the very core, the more she forgot about the screams around her and noticed something else.

That very sphere was made out of something their land had plenty of: rocks. It was a massive sphere of molten magma and rock. Which could only mean one thing in the mind of Twilight. That she was looking towards the core of their very land. The very center of Equestria.

Once again was the mare struck with disbelief about the matter before the screams of the dying beings returned in their full force before the sounds of a tremor silenced everything. A tremor unlike anyone they had seen before. The mother of all earthquakes would be silencing the entire land at one point.

“A-All fine and such, goddesses, but, what do you want me to do with this? I know I’m supposed to tell this but, it isn’t exactly a fun message. For it looks like you’re going to, cleanse the world as we know it.” Those were the words that Twilight dared to speak up in a frightened voice as both of her eyes opened slowly.

The howls of the wind all of the sudden changed their direction and therefore their spoken language into one which Twilight did understood. Words of an ancient language she had studied came forth out of the howls and the unicorn was shocked by what she heard from them. “Wait, wait, wait, l-let me get this straight here alright? You want me, to find five other beings and actually put a stop to all of the tremors before the mother of earthquakes hit? How... How in your names am I supposed to do that?!” Twilight exclaimed and she went directly into the will of the two goddesses.

Although she didn’t perhaps go straight against it, she was more wondering to the fact as to how she could possibly succeed upon the fact. Which was something a lot more complicated. “Oh, yes, right. I just go out there, recruit five beings and go down there. No, that’s…that’s not very wise, not even from the both of you, aah!” The unicorn began to scream in pain while both howls of wind had called upon two bolts of lightning, which Twilight got hit by at the same time.

All of her muscles had begun to spasm while she was forced to be levitated into the air. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have questioned either of your words, goddesses!” she pleaded for her life. After which she was dropped back to the ground. The mare fell down on hands and knees before she coughed a couple of times. The lightning bolts had simply disappeared but any spirit to fight wasn’t there anymore. “Please, tell me how I can stop, the reformation of our land,” brought Twilight out in a weakened voice. She spat some saliva into the grass while her body gave the last shocks before it was continued again by nothing else but her brain.

The howls of the winds changed over into the chiming of soothing bells which tickled within the ears of Twilight, causing them both to twitch. The sounds got translated inside of her mind to words which the unicorn could actually understand but they never seemed to have given any form of straight answer to her. Without any minute in between the words, were the eyes of the mare forced to close again as the locations of where she could find the other being shot before her eyes.

Locations that varied from places she knew to places she would never, ever in her life have even considered to be going to. Yet it was the will of the goddesses that she would be going there. Though perhaps the strangest part had to be the simple fact that she knew where to go and which routes to take to come to the very same locations upon the times of day they were pictured in.

It was complete and utter madness that was going through the mind of Twilight as the locations were so distant yet so familiar at the same time. Something didn’t seem to be one hundred percent right. Though she wouldn’t wanted to question it. Not against them.

Each image was like it was a memory for her before being stored in the back of her head, as if she had been to the places in the past yet the adventures still had to happen. It was more than enough to drive her fully over the edge of madness that time. Nothing could have ever prepared her for the events that were going to fold out, but she would be right in the middle of it all.

“What, what have you done to me?!” Twilight exclaimed to the two of them. She had again managed to get up on her hooves. She was still a little wobbly from the thunder strike, yet she managed to maintain her balance and opened her eyes again. The mare almost directly looked towards the two gusts of wind that were still chiming like the calming bells.

“I want answers for a change and you two are the only beings in the universe that hold them! Why do you send me on this quest, why don’t you pick someone who is a lot more older and a lot more experienced in the outside world then I am?! Why, why, why, why?!” It was safe to say that the mare’s mind had hoped for a peaceful encounter with the beings she loved. What she got was a near impossible quest which most likely was even going to be one way trip.

“Oh no, that’s good. That’s really good actually. Just because of my mastery in the arcane arts and I’m a teacher, I am the most suited anthrony for this entire operation. No, that is some great logic from you two.” Twilight muttered in anger towards the goddesses before she closed her eyes again, expecting another strike raining down on her.

Yet there wasn’t anything that happened. Instead the chiming bells continued to talk to her. They explained the situation as they thought that it was the best way to be explained. Twilight gave a couple of slow and gentle nods towards the two entities before a deep sigh was released. “I, apologize, for that little outburst just yet. It doesn’t happen every day that one gets such an assignment from the goddesses. I, understand the points you’re giving to me, but I’m just doubting myself whether I shall succeed or fail,” the mare answered in a humble tone to the two goddesses.

Who in return took the words as a sign of goodness and gave her the last words of encouragement. They knew that she could succeed upon the quest as only she had something that many soothsayers had forgotten through the gears of time. She was honest about their work. She was one of the few who actually kept herself to the code of soothsayers. A code which she had spoken before actually, during her class before the events with Burning Spring.

It made Twilight realize just where the two entities came from and finally she could understand their decision to choose her. That didn’t mean she was particularly happy about the fact though. She rather would have stayed in the castle and live her life as she had done before. She even began to blame herself for going to sleep that very night as she thought that it would have made any kind of difference.

But it didn’t matter in the slightest. The dices of the goddesses themselves had been cast as if all of their lives were some sort of game for them to enjoy. The outcome –as well as the progression– of how and when were the remaining factors that were still open. That was the only factor they didn’t have any power over. All they could be doing were to give small pushes into hopefully the right direction.

“But, I have one question, the locations you showed me were four. I need to gather five beings, how am I supposed to find the fifth?” Twilight then asked to the two of them. She had a point though, they did only show her four locations where she could gather the beings. The chiming of the bells in her ears explained everything to the best of their abilities. “So either you really don’t know, or it shall be revealed in time to me. Great,” she said before another sigh was being released. “This is just great, you know that? I mean, I’m about to embark on this grand adventure and you don’t even give me the proper clues… What am I supposed to do with it all?!”

What followed was perhaps the most unexpected thing from the entire event. The goddesses themselves actually began to speak towards Twilight. Gone was the chiming of their bells, gone was the chiming of their winds. Instead the skies were filled with the two heavenly sounding, feminine voices of they who she worshipped. “Follow the leads you already have gathered, but make haste, young Sparkle. Time is nopony’s friend.”

Soon afterwards did her entire world just turn into nothing but darkness and black as it seemed that the night had taken over the entire land. But in reality it were Twilight’s eyes who were closed upon themselves and she was brought back to sleep by the goddesses. Never did they reveal any sort of physical form, but their magical auras could be seen.

A brilliant golden one like the sun and a naval blue like the moon began to dance around Twilight as her body slowly began to dissolve itself from the plane and thus making the descend back to her world. Back to the world where she originally came from to fulfill her given task.

“Do you think she shall succeed, sister?” one of the voices echoed in the same tone as before. But the difference was that it sounded worried. Worried about something that may not have been told before.

“Only time shall be able to tell that sister. But I have my fate in her. She is different than most of the beings that I have encountered in my life. She might be worthy to carry them,” the other voice spoke in return. Then the both of them fainted away. Leaving behind nothing else but the scenery that was their inner sanctum, their very garden.

~~~~

Through the keyhole was Sky Comet peeking right into side the room of Dolicho. All in order –or hoping– to see just what caused the strange green light to come from the cracks under the door. But there was nothing in the entire world that could have prepared him for the facts as they were about to be played. All of the sudden was the door being opened and the stallion fell right into the doorway. Only to end up in front of a pair of zebra hooves.

“Usually I don’t question, but this time I do. What are you doing here?” the voice of Dolicho penetrated into Sky’s ears. There was nothing that could be considered as an excuse for the matter and he found that it is was the best to just come clean with the zebra. Which meant telling the truth to him. Something where Sky sometimes was having a bit of troubles with in the long run.

The stallion crawled back up to his hooves before he straightened his attire and mane a bit. “Well, truth be told. I was peeking through your keyhole,” said Sky Comet in a tone as if nothing had happened. A tone which caused the zebra himself to actually raise an eyebrow. Almost as if he didn’t fully believe the words spoken by the stallion with whom he had played the game for so long.

“You were peeking through my keyhole, which I shall not take out of the context, and why is that, if I may ask?” Dolicho asked through. He wanted to know the finer details of it all. “Don’t tell me they set you up to this, did they?”

“W-What?” Sky stuttered before he regained himself. “No, I wasn’t send by anyone. Look, can we discuss this inside. That light is really bright and attracts attention easy.” The zebra looked behind his back and then back to Sky before he gave a small nod. He gestured the unicorn stallion to come in before closing the door behind him.

Sky was actually mesmerized by the way that the room looked, almost as if he was in a completely different world. Which he was in more perhaps more manners than one. “I guess this is what your house looked like on the Great Plains, didn’t it?” he asked of the zebra with a certain humbleness and interest to his tone.

The zebra would have just nodded while he walked past Sky and further towards a cauldron. “It indeed resembles a home in my home country. Equestrian architecture is fine, but I do prefer the environment I grew up. Notice the sand around your hooves, for example.” Dolicho then pointed down to the ground and sky actually noticed the sand tickling against his hooves for the first time.

“W-Wow, I have to admit, that’s awesome. How did you manage to get all of it in here. I mean, when you want to hang a painting on your room you already need to have a certificate that they rarely give,” commented Sky. He was genuinely impressed by the looks of the room.

“Miss Sparkle provided me with the means necessary to feel myself as if I was back home. She’s a bit scattered or, excuse me the term here, absent-minded from time to time. But she’s a good soothsayer and friend to have.” In response to the words there wasn’t much that Sky Comet could do outside of a well meant chuckle and the shake of his head.

“Tell me about that fact. But, uhm, before we do anything else. There, is another reason why I peeked through your keyhole. The light, mainly from the cauldron caught my attention. What are you cooking up, if I may ask?” asked Sky with a careful tone. All in the hope he didn’t offend the zebra and was genuinely curious as to what he was brewing.

“Ah, that is actually quite the interesting tale, Sky,” said Dolicho, “I told you I was going back to my room to prepare the potions that I require for the coming day. What you saw was just the beginning of it. Well, it’s the last one actually. I was about to close it all and get some sleep myself.”

All of the sudden did Sky Comet knew where the conversation was heading and he felt himself like the land’s biggest idiot at that point. Perhaps it was right, perhaps it was not. It didn’t really matter much to the zebra stallion as it was the first time he actually allowed somepony else into his room. “That’s, something I should have realized Dolicho. I’m sorry for peeking in the way I did, but I also want to thank you for showing me this. Hey, uhm, if it’s alright with you, can Wishful and I come back tomorrow so she can also see the beauty of the Great Plains?”

The question literally came out of nowhere and the zebra stallion had to scratch behind his head for a moment or two. “I, don’t see any problem with that, actually. She seems like a mare who knows how to behave. So, sure. Just knock whenever you feel like. I do not have many plans anyway,” replied Dolicho. Then opened the door of his room to let Sky out.

It was when the two had said their goodbyes, the door was closed and he sat in a chair that it came. The fact that the zebra began to fear. “Where have I gotten myself into this time?”

Chapter V

A violent shock was the very first thing that went through the very body of Twilight. In response of it, she moved it in all sorts of manners. Manners that perhaps weren’t all too good for her, especially when she flew through the air. Mere fractions of a second later was her face met with the cold, hard floor of her room. Which resulted in the anthrony giving off a deep groan of utter discomfort.

There had been days where she had been awoken a lot easier but that day belonged to perhaps one of the rudest awakenings she had ever experienced in her entire life. Her hands hoisted the body back up. The mare then assumed a sitting position before the head laid down on the side against the mattress. Twilight was a lot at that point in time, but awake she wasn’t. Not even close to be actually. Yet the duties of the day were knocking at her doorstep.

Perhaps not literally, but in her mind was every last trouble already bursting its way through. Matters that didn’t really matter anymore to her like whether or not Burning Spring had actually gone to the lesson of the battlemages, or how he was actually doing. All sorts of those kind of things rushed through her mind.

Matters she didn’t even wanted to think about if she had to be honest. The body got turned a quarter way before both of the arms were laid crossways on the warm and solid mattress. The head was placed on top of the forearms while the hurricane of thoughts inside of Twilight’s mind continued to rage on. A hurricane that needed to be brought down before she would be doing anything else.

“Focus Twi, you have to focus on their given task,” she mumbled in a tired voice towards herself. That was just before a small yawn managed to escape her lips. Not even the sun had peeked over the hills yet which meant it was either the middle of the night or just before the dawn. It got her an idea that may or may not have actually helped her in an attempt to lower the hurricane.

The head rose itself up from the forearms and she looked over to her window. The horn calmly charged itself within the magical aura before the curtains were moved to a side. The darkness of the night and the majestic light of the moon itself fell in her room. Within seconds had the mare gotten her hooves down to the ground and she stood straight against the bed.

Her nightie waved with calm in the wind that always managed to get through to all of the small little cracks within the walls and window. Her hands were placed behind her back while she approached the window sill. There did her eyes began to just look over the nightly peace just before a calming sigh was released through her nostrils.

Something about the everlasting darkness of the night managed to calm her down a lot more then what ever else inside of the entire world. Something within that grasp of the unknown, Twilight could have found her peace. As unusual as it seemed or sounded, many of the soothsayers actually had to admit the fact they also felt that way.

The longer the mare gazed towards the moon itself, the calmer her mind seemed to become. From that hurricane of thoughts there was only a small breeze left which only carried the most important thoughts to her. Thoughts that mattered, like the quest given to her. “How am I able to do all of this, let alone with five more of them?” Twilight questioned to herself. A deep sigh was released afterwards. Ideas flowed through her mind, but no good one’s came.

The mulberry unicorn turned away from the window and glanced over her desk where she saw the notes of two nights ago. Almost instantly she remembered what she wanted to do with it all, but deep inside of her knew that it couldn’t have been that way. “No, the fault lines don’t walk in the area’s hit, only in the mountain chain it does.,” said Twilight in a tone of confusion. She had rushed over to her desk and looked to something.

Both of her eyes were placed firm upon the map of the land. She had placed her index finger upon the chain of mountains while the rest of the places hit by tremors were marked with a red coloring. “Either new lines are coming out of nowhere, or there really is something below the soils,” she mumbled to herself. A fist was slammed into her desk in all of the frustration.

The eyes of the mare were closed with force. The watery lines of tears could be seen through her eyelashes. She was at the verge of crying when she was already thinking that it was impossible to complete the task given to her.

Yet she knew that with crying, there was nothing to be gained whatsoever. So one of her hands wiped away the beginnings of the tears before she released a deep sniff through her nose and exhale through the mouth. “O-Okay Twilight, keep yourself together now. There’s nothing that can’t be done. You have their guidance after all,” she pleaded to herself with the genuine hope that it wasn’t going to be misplaced at all.

“A shower, I need a shower to refresh myself…” Together with those words did the anthrony leave her desk and disappeared within the bathroom. Not even a minute later could the water be heard splashing against her body and the floor as silence came from her. There wasn’t much that could be done other than to get her thoughts back in one straight line.

~~~~

Many minutes would have passed before Twilight finally killed the seemingly endless stream of water that would be hitting her body and began to dry herself off from the thoughtful shower. Words couldn’t really figure it out for herself as she just couldn’t place everything on one solid line. When the anthrony finally left the bathroom was there only a towel to be found around her body. While both her hair and tail were still dripping from the waters.

Her eyes looked over to the stuff that was on her desk before she remembered something. Something vital and it hadn’t been remembered before. She could have declared herself crazy on the spot as to why she hadn’t come up with it before. Something inside of her made gave away the near crystal clear images and memories of the events as they happened in the garden of the goddesses.

Twilight was almost dumbstruck that she even remembered the locations that were given to her. She knew how to walk to them, but she still had not a clue of where they could possibly have been. Her mind was unique in that aspect, she could be walking almost blindly to a place. Though when asked to give direction to it, it became almost impossible to do.

The images of the conversation and the locations were shooting past her eyes as if there was nothing else upon her mind. With the towel still wrapped around her body she took place behind her desk and allowed the waters to be dripping and traveling down her mulberry skinned legs as an arcane set of drawing items were conjured in.

“How could I have been that scattered that I forgot about that very fact?” the mare mumbled to herself. She then began to draw eagerly. Everything that was on her mind was drawn out before her. From the beginnings of the meeting to the point where she was sucked back to her own plane of existence.

~~~~

Hours later were both Wishful Star and Sky Comet ready to head over to Dolicho’s room. The stallion had assured the mare that he was a good guy and she believed him on his word. Also mostly because of the fact that he wasn’t wounded or eaten from the previous night. Together they walked through the castle with their attire a bit more casual than on other days.

Not a care in the world did the two of them seemed to be having as they calmly hummed the same song together. Which eventually caused them both to giggle. “I didn’t knew you know that little song,” Sky chuckled up as he looked over to Star.

“I may not be having heard it all the way, but my mother is a fan of classical tunes so I may or may not have picked up a few notes myself,” replied Star with a silly smile going across her lips. In a split second had her entire expression changed again. “Oh help…”

“Hm? Oh no,” answered Sky. He turned his attention forwards and saw exactly the cause of Star’s change in emotion. Somewhere in front of them and coming towards them, walked the stallion himself. The stallion who had almost died if it weren’t for Twilight. “Burning Spring, in a battlemage attire?” Sky Comet whispered to himself before she quickly shook his head. “Impossible.”

Yet the stallion that was walking towards them released only a deep and loud huff that they had to move aside. Which the two students did gladly. So without any further word did the stallion move passed them before disappearing in another hallway. And leaving two confused students together.

“But that, that couldn’t have been, how did he?!” Wishful Star sputtered out. She couldn’t even formulate normal sentences at that point. The sheer shock of seeing perhaps the biggest quack of their class being transported over to the strict classes of Beatrix Lulamoon wasn’t something they both had expected to see that day.

“Well, from the looks of it, it seems to be that way actually. I mean, he wore the attire for them, he headed into that general direction. I think, we’re finally rid of him,” summed Sky up. He turned back to see where Spring had been going too. Yet neither of the two wanted to set in a wild goose chase for nothing.

“Finally!” Wishful Star exclaimed happily. She just took the stallion by both of his cheeks and forced her lips upon his. Sky Comet’s eyes went as wide as they possibly could have become before the he tried to work his way out of her hold.

Seconds later it was Wishful Star who released the kiss and made a couple of disgusting sounds. She almost wanted to clean her mouth and tongue. Sky Comet wiped his lips clean with a forearm before looking over to the mare. “What’s your problem?!” he questioned to her in a genuine surprised tone before noticing the massive blush upon the mare’s cheeks.

“Let’s say I am really happy that he is finally gone and that we never speak of this again. Ever. Understood?” Star replied to him with a blank face. She dared to watch the stallion in the eyes. Who could only be giving a nod to her words. “Good, shall we go back to Dolicho then?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. As if there wasn’t enough strange stuff going on already,” muttered Sky when he walked past Star, only to receive a fist on his shoulder. “Ouch, where was that good for?!”

“I just needed to be doing that in order to release some frustration. Sorry for it by the way,” the mare said in a tone that was semi meant and semi playful. Which drove the stallion up to a point where he didn’t knew what she actually meant with it. So all he could do was to give a shrug before leading her to the room of the zebra stallion.

“Miss Star, sir Comet, welcome into my humble home,” said Dolicho after he had opened the door of his room and allowed the two of them to enter. Once the door was closed again they could both feel the entire change of atmosphere again. The change that meant they weren’t in Equestria anymore, but in a well-constructed hut in the middle of the Great Plains.

“Dolicho, this is, a-amazing,” was all that Star could say. The mare took every single inch of the room to her. From the sand on the floor to the cauldron in the middle with the crisping fires, to the shelves filled with potions and last but not least, the masks of traditional zebra rituals. “Why, why haven’t you said anything about all of this to the class?”

“Because, little Wishful, Equestrian anthronies are a lot quicker done with their predicaments about another species. You barely manage to accept the three species you can be. Adding zebra’s into the mix would only make things more complicated,” he explained to her. He also pointed them both to a couch like a true gentlecolt. “Though it has come to my attention that you have a particular interest in our culture, which brings me to the following question: why haven’t you approached me before?”

It was a question that was rightfully asked by him. Yet the unicorn mare had the greatest of difficulty to find an answer upon it. “Perhaps it’s because, well, you know I can be from time to time. A bit of a loose cannon and, every time I wanted to ask you there was something else that came in between. Either this bozo here, or something else.”

“Hey! Don’t blame me for it,” replied Sky with a quick snarl. Though Dolicho just erupted out in laughter. Somehow he found it funny, while the stallion didn’t really saw the humor into the matter yet made the decision to just go with it.

“A rather valid reason if I may say so. So go ahead, what is it that you like to know?” he said before he wandered to the shelves of potions. His eyes quickly scanned each labeled bottle before he took a few out. “I’m an open book when it comes to our history.”

“Well in that case,” the mare began. She stood up and walked over to the shelves of potions as well. “I would love to know what most of these are and what uses they have.” It would be the very beginning of a long day of getting to know pretty much the entire zebra history and culture. Something that was exciting for one and perhaps a lot more boring than anticipated for the other.

~~~~

Twilight had laid down each of the drawings. A deep and content exhale was being released from her nostrils. She had done it. In just a couple of hours’ worth of time had she made picture perfect drawings of the scenery in her mind. Though most of them were immediately burned again as they didn’t hold any actual value to the unicorn.

The burned drawings were mostly those of the garden itself, images she didn’t wanted to show to any other being out of nothing but utter respect for the goddesses themselves. Before her remained four images though. Four images of the four places she was set out to be visiting and gather the beings for her quest.

There was however, one small problem. The fact that not even Twilight would have been able to face. She had not a clue where they actually laid. Sure that the map was laid out in her mind, but she didn’t knew which image was which location. Another deep groan was the result of it as the unicorn leaned back in her chair and pulled the towel up just a little bit more over her chest. “The only downside of living your life in a castle like this, you don’t know anything of the world,” she spoke to herself. Then she finally stood back up.

Her arms removed themselves from the towel which then dropped to the ground as she walked back to the bathroom with a gentle sway in her hips. “Good thing I know somepony who might be able to give a bit more inside information on the locations,” she chuckled to herself before the towel was levitated towards the bathroom and the door closed itself.

Soon enough did the mulberry unicorn leave the room again. But that time she was all made up and ready to actually present herself to the world outside. Which was exactly the thing she would be doing if everything worked with her.

The arcane drawings upon her desk were folded up and stored away inside of her mind. Though the map of Equestria remained where it had been for days already. “I’m not sure if I am even going to be using it again,” she mumbled to herself in a calm tone. Only to then turn herself away from it again and gave a small shrug. If she would be needing it again, she knew where to find it.

For the time being there were more important matters that were on her mind. Matters that made the relations perhaps a little bit too close for most anthrony’s their liking. But for Twilight was it a literal heaven.

The door closed itself behind her and her blue robes were once again following her every step. She wandered through the castle with her hands behind her back. Noon was about to be called in and the mare realized just how much time she had spent drawing all of her artistic works. It was almost a bit of a shame that she couldn’t place it anywhere to show the rest of them all.

Not that it really mattered to her though. Twilight was more than happy with the fact that she could be throwing them away. She was a researcher and thus known to the fact that once something had expired, there was little to no reason to actually keep it laying around. Years of experience had taught her that it would only become a mess.

Yet the drawings were specific, too specific even. Specific dates of specific times of day and all drawn from the field of view of an anthrony about her size. “So I have to be in the exact spot as the drawing, in order to find those with whom I’m going to be travelling?” Twilight then realized to herself. One of her eyebrows shot up almost right afterwards. It was an insane idea, but perhaps it was the only idea that would have actually been able to work on the matter.

The unicorn gave a gentle shrug before she reached the place of her destination. A place which she could have visited a lot more in the past actually. It was the office of nopony else then the captain of the celestial guards. The one stallion to whom she could tell all of her problems and always find soothing words for the wounds.

~~~~

The unicorn knocked a couple of times on the door and began to wait for an answer of any sort. Anything would have been better than the eternal silence she sometimes surrounded herself by. “Who’s there?” a male sounding voice was heard from the other side. It’s neutral tone didn’t fool Twilight one bit. The mare knew exactly who spoke those very words.

“Who do you think that it is?” she answered in her signature tone. A little giggle was being released straight away. Inside of the office could the stallion be heard laughing as well before the door was covered within a light bluish magical aura. Soon enough the door was swung open and Twilight entered the room.

The place she ended up in was the office of the captain of the celestial guard and it was shown in every possible way. Lots of sunlight were allowed into the room as the pillars next to each window were plated in perhaps the finest gold there was. Yet despite it, it was thought to be a massive sauna as the overall temperature of it was rather comfortable.

When the door was closed behind her did Twilight place both of her hands on the back of the chair in front of the desk where the stallion sat behind. A stallion with a white skin and three toned blue colored hair. “Well, aren’t you going to hug me?” she said to him with a teasing grin that went gently crossing her lips.

“You? Never in my life,” the stallion returned just as teasingly before he stood up. “Instead I’m going to show you something else.” Before Twilight even knew what would happen next were the strong arms of the stallion found around her. She was lifted off of the ground a bit, just like that.

Twilight herself erupted out in a massive chuckle before she wrapped her arms around the stallion. “Hey big brother.”

“Hey little sis,” he replied to her before giving a small peck on the cheek. “How’s life for you? Where have you been sitting actually, that might be more appropriate.” The two let go of one another as Twilight walked over to the chair her brother sat in before, and bluntly allowed her bum to land into it.

“Well, I have been going around and about like you. Doing what I’m supposed to be doing really. Which did leave me with little time for you I’m afraid,” answered Twilight while her brother sat down in the other chair.

“Oh did you now? Well that’s indeed good to hear, yes. And you do know that sitting in my chair, might end up giving you a five day trip down to the dungeon, right?” he said with a small grin forming below his nose.

“You wouldn’t send your own sister down there. Besides, you know I am not going to destroy anything, right?” Twilight said in response. The stallion erupted out in a gentle chuckle. He gave a nod towards her before the stories of what they had done previously to their encounter came loose.

“Hey Shining Armor, can I, tell you something a bit personal?” Twilight eventually dared to ask. But only after their conversation had died down a bit. The stallion was of course a little bit confused by whatever she could be meaning, yet gave her the benefit of the doubt.

“Sure, go right ahead, what do you want to tell, Twily?” replied Shining Armor to her. He prepared himself for the absolute worst to come. But what he got was something he never could have expected. For the entire tale of Twilight actually venturing up to the garden of the goddesses and the quest that was given to her simply baffled him.

It baffled him but also worried him a lot more then he gave away on first instances. “You know I am not the first one to deny your ascend to it, but I do find it unusual that they give such a quest to one like you. No offence but these tremors are a real menace. Anthronies are dying out there and you have to stop it?” repeated Shining Armor. He couldn’t believe the facts as they were presented to him. Both of his hands traveled through his hair while a small groan came from his mouth. He knew his sister had a nick for trouble, but he never saw that one coming.

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t go, as it would mean that you have to defy their very will. What I am going to say though, is that you need to be careful along the way. I know you haven’t traveled much outside of these walls but trust you old brother, nothing is what it seems. Anthronies lie to you in a manner as if they are selling the truth. You have to keep your eyes open for that,” warned Shining Armor to her. There was one little thing that came to him. Something actually made him think about the facts and perhaps, how he could be changing it. “What if I go with you?”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed before she rose up from her seating.

The stallion also rose up and placed both his hands upon her shoulders. “Hey, hey, hey, no need to get that mad, especially at me. You said they instructed you to gather five other beings for the quest. What would you say if I’m one of them?”

Yet as a response could Twilight only be shaking her head at first. Even though she wanted to take her big brother with her, something about him didn’t feel right. As if he wasn’t ready for the journey to be made. “No, I, I can’t ask that of you Shining. You’re needed here a lot more then that I need you there and you know it. No, they also gave me something else. Something that I need to show you,” she said before her horn charged itself up.

The captain of the guard released her from his hold and patiently began to wait whatever would be revealed to him. It were the drawings that were made viewable for the unicorn stallion and as they appeared in the thin air before him, his own magic brought each one close. “So you can find your companions here, on these drawings, Twily?” he said in a tone almost reeked of disbelief. Shining Armor had a hard time accepting the fact that simply drawings could locate any other companion for it.

Twilight gave a nod to him. She would have answered his question with a confident tone. “Yes Shining, I know that I can find them there. The only question that I still have, is the reason why I came here, to you,” were the words that she said.

“I knew it, I knew there was something you needed from me. You almost never come to visit me here unless you require something. So, spit it out, what is it that you need from me?” Shining replied to her. He looked over the images and right into his sister’s very eyes. Simply waiting for the answer to come.

Twilight looked back into his eyes with a deep glance before she nodded calmly. “I want you, to make from these images actual locations. Can you figure out, where in Equestria they actually are?” the mulberry mare asked while she wiped a small strand of her mane out of her eyes.

Shining took each of the images into his own magic and spread them out over the desk before he dropped his body back into the chair. The formal attire he wore wrinkled a little bit as he repositioned himself within it before giving his eyes the time to look at everything.

~~~~

Minutes of silence went through the office of the captain. Not even the normal guards dared to interrupt the two of them. Silence had become their greatest friend and while her brother was looking over the images, Twilight made use of the time to look through the windows.

The office was shaped in half a circle and thus gave a near perfect view upon the valley that laid below. Not to mention the endless stretching plains before it would be consumed by the woods of Everfree. Something about those woods did gave her the creeps. It had always done and gave her that for as long as she could remember it. Yet she was safe up there, in the castle of Canterlot.

Her eyes looked as far as they were allowed and in the far distance she saw the one city where only stories came about. The capital of the pegasi themselves, Cloudsdale. A city that was born from the ancient days and still used to that very day. A city of both pride and mystery, the pegasi were always ready to go head on in any attack. From the three races, they held the highest moral for any kind of war to be fought.

Of course it was all just something stupid in the eyes of Twilight, but she had to admit that their city looked amazing in the afternoon sun.

“I think I have them all figured out, Twily,” said Shining eventually. He brought the mare out of her concentration with his words. Twilight turned herself back around from the window and even walked up to her brother. She place one of her hands upon his shoulders while the other was used for support as she gently made the bend over to the desk.

“So, tell me where they are please. You have me rather curious here,” the mare replied to her brother as a smile came to her face. But for the words that were coming next, there wasn’t much in the world that could have actually been able to prepare her.

With a deep sigh had Shining Armor pointed to the first one. “This one here, is right here in Canterlot. It’s the harbor at the other side and foot of the mountain. I couldn’t make out a name of the vessel. But it seems to be one of the bigger ships that anchor there. Think about the size of the Everlasting Sun.”

“You mean the heavy gunned frigate?” questioned Twilight. She got only a nod out of her brother. “Alright then, that’s easy to remember. What about the other three?”

Shining Armor laid the first image upside down. Then he tapped his index finger upon the second one. “This one is in Cloudsdale, which is always on the horizon at this time of day before making its way back to the south. I dare to say it is the air force base, but I may be wrong. It has something to do with their military parts though. Doesn’t look like any of the weather factories.”

“And you know that because..?” Twilight teased him before a giggle was being released. But the stallion couldn’t really laugh about the matter. He had heard things about those very same factories that were better left untold to his younger sister.

Instead he decided to go with a much more safe answer. “Regular inspections have granted me the opportunity to visit them every now and again,” he calmly said to her. He turned the image upside down. “I hope you got it, it’s Cloudsdale’s military department, where exactly I do not know.”

Twilight nodded to the words before he pointed to the third one. “This one looks to me, like it’s the hospital for wounded soldier that’s found along the way of Cloudsdale from Canterlot. Judging the coloring of the room you see and the way the walls are made, I just have that hunch. Haven’t been there a lot myself thankfully, but more often than not I had to look up a wounded soldier there.” The stallion closed his eyes when he tried to actually visualize the entire place before him once more. “Yes, it’s that hospital. One ran by a very nice mare, if I may say so. Very kind and knows just about everything, for a pegasus that is. Exceptions of the rules are everywhere.”

Twilight rolled her eyes off to one side. She was having enough of his rambling about that mare. She knew where to look for and that was probably the most important part of the thing. Yet it still remained one more image. And that was the image which Shining Armor hated the most. Yet he couldn’t let his own flesh and blood down, not with the land on the line.

“And what about the last one? Have you been able to discover where that is?” Twilight asked him. She was getting more and more curious about it. Yet the captain of the guard released another sigh through his nostrils.

“I have discovered its location yes, but I’m not happy that you have to be going there, Twily. Absolutely not happy about it,” he spoke to her in a concerned tone. His eyes closed themselves for a minute. Once more had the silence taken over their place and Twilight couldn’t fully follow just where her brother was going to with his words.

“Big brother, it is place something bad?” she brought out almost in the tone she had when she was a foal. It only added more to the guilt that Shining carried as he had to tell her what kind of place it was. Though it had to be told, even if it was devastating for his heart.

The eyes opened up again and they turned over into Twilight’s direction. “Yes Twily, it’s someplace bad. Terrible even. This right here, it’s a pirate town at the eastern shores of Equestria, a lawless place where the gun and drinks are mightier than logic and reason. I don’t know who you try to find there, but I warn you. And I mean this with the whole of my heart.”

He stood up from his chair and took Twilight’s shoulders with the both of his hands and looked her deep in the eyes. “Whatever you plan in that coconut of yours, do not go alone to that very place, alright? They’ll be eating you raw before you know it. Promise me, promise you won’t go alone,” he begged of her.

It was rare for Shining to carry such fear and worry within his voice, which meant all the more to Twilight that he meant his words. Which resulted in her saying the only words she could, “I promise, big brother.”

Chapter VI

A couple of hours had passed since Twilight left the office of her bigger brother. She could be found just wandering through the castle for the moment. Nothing seemed to have been on her mind except trying to imagine the vessel where she would be finding the first mate of the entire journey to be taken. Something within the mare’s very stomach began to turn and twist inside out as she didn’t know who she would be expecting.

Anything could have been expected from that point onwards really and whether she liked or not, it had to be done. So with a raised head did the mare began the journey down the side of the mountain. With fresh air that entered her nose was filled with the salt of the sea which caused her nose to spring wide open. But the smell wasn’t all too nice to say the least. Usually she was found more inwards in the castle, looking over the land that laid behind it instead of the water in front of it.

Mumbles and grumbles that were inaudible for most of the anthronies upon the staircase were released by the mare before she finally managed to get some form of rest from her trek. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, it was one of the few times that she actually looked towards the ocean.

The mare wasn’t particularly fond of the watery body, yet she had to admit that it did carry some interesting aspects to it. Her violet rimmed eyes looked over the waving waters while the ships came and left the port of Canterlot.

It was a true sight that she loved to see from time to time, but nothing compared to the calm of the valley. A calm which she actually needed more than anything. “The endless oceans, with the land of the Great Plains behind it,” she mumbled to herself. Twilight stood on a small platform that was used at the edge of each staircase.

There was even a small and unoccupied bench where she could sit down in order to have a better view on the matter. She allowed herself to drop in the bench itself before just looking over the waters that never seemed to end.

Waves upon waves she saw being broken by the piers that stretched out into the sea. Vessel after vessel was witnessed as it either left the massive port or entered it. Above her was the near cloudless skies and the massive castle which cast its mighty shadow over most of the port. It was hard to believe that their castle was actually standing in such a manner against the mountain. The sheer drop against the staircases were built was something none would have ever thought to have been possible.

Safely put, Canterlot was also a technological wonder when it came to the engineering capabilities of the three races. Perhaps that was the very reason of just why the soothsayers found themselves most at home there. It was only another guess in the pile of mystery. And for a change didn’t Twilight minded it as to how her home was constructed. She was perfectly fine with the way it was and she only wished that it could be kept that way.

With her head resting upon the top of her hands while the elbows were placed upon her thighs, the anthrony had leaned a little bit forward when a seagull began to sing for her. A song that wasn’t really appreciated by her at all. It sounded like a cat being tortured to a tenth degree. The only problem happened to have been the little fact that the gull never seemed to be going away.

Instead it decided to stay home near Twilight. The unicorn’s best guess was the fact that its next was somewhere alongside the face of the mountain and that she was dangerously close, but not close enough to be attacked. “Fine, fine, fine,” she said directly against the creature before she stood up and continued on the way down.

The further Twilight walked down, the more silent the seagull luckily got. The mare rolled her eyes backwards and allowed an annoyed sounding sigh to be released.

~~~~

After a trek of about half an hour downwards did Twilight finally stood upon the stone floor of the harbor. Her heeled shoes clacked against each of the rocks. Though her feet were just happy she didn’t have to walk in that strange and abnormal pose anymore. Now that she was at the bottom, she remembered the words of her brother all too well and made the decision to go to the place where most of the navy ships laid.

A small bay at the northern end of the harbor was reserved for all kinds of ships with military purposes. A little fact Twilight discovered when she was looking at it all from the top. It seemed to have been easy which way she had to be walking, but down there it appeared that everything was just changing constantly.

So with a dose of good –and perhaps foolish– luck did the unicorn anthrony plan her way through the harbor. Luckily for her, there was a small map near her location and the second it came in her eyes, she began to plot out the route to the northern part. A part that was still open for the public to view the mighty vessels, as long as they didn’t walk in front of the hooves of the marines.

Something that was perhaps a lot easier said than done.

The unicorn had been wandering through the harbor for nearly another hour before she finally noticed the navy ships to take a hold of the horizon. So far had she only seen merchant ships high and wide and in all kind of shapes and sizes. It was good to finally see the vessels of the navy in her eyes as it meant to her that she was going in the right direction.

Though before she would be making the final step towards the place, the unicorn got a bit of a crazy idea. Quickly had she ran over to a small wall and climbed on top of it. Her hand coiled itself around the lamppost before she just gazed over the place she had walked through. A place filled with chaos like no other.

And among that very chaos, she began to recognize the many patterns it was rich. Which made her come to the one conclusion that the whole place wasn’t just one chaotic mess. But more a well-oiled machine that was working in many different rhythms and each of them was perfectly in sync with the rest of them.

“Wow,” was one of the few words that Twilight for the entire scenery. Never had she set a hoof in the harbor and everything she saw was just amazing. Though it also showed to the unicorn how little she knew from the world and the harbor was literally the backyard for her. She thought to have known Equestria thanks to the maps and everything, but Twilight quickly realized the fact she knew nothing of the real deal.

The unicorn dropped herself from the wall and released the lamppost. She would continue to walk further up into the navel space. She came there with a mission and she would succeed upon the matter one way or the other. Whether or not it was going to be simple remained to be seen. Her brother had said she needed to look near the prides of the navy, the heavy armed frigates. Perhaps it was just Twilight’s luck that all seven of those vessels were actually in the docks.

While she counted each of the ships did the courage of the mare dropped down into her shoes. She turned back around to the very first ship afterwards. If she wanted to find the one anthrony that was worthy of joining her did she had to be going past all of them. And that would be a long time while time wasn’t one her side. The sun was already beginning to lower itself.

Time was of the essence as Twilight walked past the first vessel. Yet none of the sailors that were either onboard or walking on the dock around it seemed to have either an interest in her or seemed fit enough to join her. Calmly did the unicorn shake her head as she realized that none of them could become her partner.

Which was quite the bit of shame as there were a couple of cute looking stallion in her eyes. But a mission was a mission and she couldn’t divert from that fact. So the first vessel was released from her eyes as she made her way to the second one.

There she actually walked up on the ramp to enter the ship but was quickly shooed away by some of the crewmembers. “Wait, you don’t understand! I need to speak to an official of yours. It’s very important.” Twilight said to one of the sailors who looked over to his mate. He simply signaled with his head that he needed to get somepony else.

“You’ll be waiting here, nice and tidy, right? I don’t wanna clean the deck again, understood?” returned the sailor in a truly deep and slightly growling tone towards the mare. She was set upon barrel. Twilight nodded as she really didn’t want have a fight with the muscular stallion.

Soon enough there was a stallion who looked like the captain that came into her direction. The expression on his face showed that he wasn’t happy at all. “I hope this is important indeed. We’re supposed to be setting sail within ten minutes,” said the stallion in a higher pitched tone then Twilight had expected. Not to mention the size of the earth anthrony was also a bit smaller than originally thought. She was literally looking at a miniature version of an earth anthrony. “Well?”

The contained laughter of the unicorn actually told the captain enough. Even the unicorn knew that she wouldn’t find anyone worthy to join her. The captain rolled his eyes and turned back around to leave her. “May I suggest you try it on her majesty’s pride vessel, Forward unto Dawn? Maybe the captain there won’t be so funny, or well mannered.” And with those words was he gone once more. The two sailors that Twilight first encountered returned to her.

One of them simply signaled with its hand that she had to leave via the ramp and the unicorn did that with please. Once she stood back on the dock, her head rose up to see the two still standing there. “If I may ask, which vessel is the Forward unto Dawn?” she asked the pair of them in a polite tone.

One of the sailors throw his thumb over his shoulder before saying something to her. “Forth vessel after this, last in line. That’s the one yar looking for. Enjoy taking to that captain.”

“All hands on deck!” was then shouted from the wheel and the two stallions disappeared from the railing. They were ready to sail out and Twilight had the information that she needed. All that she needed to do then, was to go and find the majestic Forward unto Dawn.

~~~~

It didn’t took her long to cross the docks again and to reach the last ship in the line-up. The only vessel that she had missed upon her initial searching of the place. She had the mentality of it not being important or that it would all reveal itself within time. Which it indeed seemed to have been doing to her. A little point she could whack herself over in the head actually.

Yet the vessel itself was the most beautiful one she had ever seen. At the bow stood a statue of a pony with a horn attached to the bowsprit and wings fully opened. The wings themselves were attached to the actual hull of the thing. It was something that Twilight hadn’t seen before as the expression of the statue was angered while it had also assumed a charging pose.

“The first vessel to always fire the shots,” said Twilight with a faint smile. She looked to the side of the hull and began to count the sheer amount of cannon hatches she saw. It was well armed and with its size, also good defended. Which only made speed an issue that perhaps was more easily solved. Not that she cared that much for it in the moment.

She wasn’t there to investigate the seaworthiness of the ship. She needed to talk to somepony on the thing. Once again she noticed a ramp that was leading up to the main deck. With a quick little sprint she managed to get there before making the ascend past the hull. It certainly felt amazing that she could be entering such a mighty vessel, weren’t it for the problem she hadn’t asked any kind of permission from anyone or anypony.

Once the mare stood on top of the ramp and even placed just one of her shoes upon the deck did the literal impossible happen to her. For all of the eyes of pretty much each of the sailors on the deck were suddenly aimed towards her. Eyes that were filled with anger, lust and overall just cranky looking. It didn’t seem to be looking good in the unicorn’s eyes and when one of them stood up did Twilight realize that she had gone out of the frying pan and into the fire.

For the sailor that stood up was a gray skinned pegasus stallion with only one wing. With only his pants and shoes on, the muscles of his arms and chest were clearly visible as he cracked his neck a couple of time. “Looky here laddies. Look at what Old Bonesnapper spots over here. A mare all alone on the vessel of the goddess herself, without permission.”

“Stowaway!” one of the other sailors began before the rest of them slowly followed. The chance to leave the ship wasn’t there anymore either as other crewmembers had blocked it off and had forced the unicorn to take steps forward.

“How can it be a stowaway if we haven’t even left port?! Even so, a stowaway on board of this mighty vessel? Tsk, tsk, tsk, and those clothing? Taken from the admiral, I presume?” he chuckled up to the mare. That was before Twilight noticed another thing around him. While his left wing was nowhere to be found, his right eye was constantly focused upon her. Almost as if he was blind on the other one yet there was still an eye present.

“Glass eye,” whispered Twilight inaudible in surprise. She then realized that she had to say something back to the giant pegasus. He was literally towering above her with a head and a half. “Stowaway? I don’t know what you’re talking about here. I came here from the docks, looking for somepony.” Arguing about whether or not she was a stowaway was among the least of her worries with them all.

“Oh, you hear that lads? She came looking for somepony, who of you dogs is the lucky one to have claimed her?!” he bellowed over the deck. Afterwards he erupted out in a deep and sinister chuckle. Only to then throw himself forward gain and look Twilight directly into the eyes. “Nice trick lass, but it ain’t gonna happen. We don’t like stowaways upon our ships and feed them to the sharks at sea when the admiral isn’t looking.”

“Break her bones, feed her blood to the sharks before they decide what will happen next!” another crew member spoke while he drew his sword. But Old Bonesnapper simply took the blade in his hand and forced the sailor back. A thing which left his hand wide open thanks to a cut.

“No! You shall be having nothing to do with this madness. She’s mine,” the giant spoke. He rose back up and spread his one wing as wide as it possibly wanted to go.

Trouble, that was where Twilight Sparkle had gotten herself into mere minutes after she had entered the deck of the vessel. Only thanks to a miracle she could be saved from becoming food for the sharks. All sorts of excuses went through her head as she didn’t had the desire to become lunch for another being.

The blood covered hand of Bonesnapper was still bleeding heavily when the other sailor sheathed his blade again. There was one excuse that the mare had thought about and it was then or never. “If, if, if, if I may for a moment,” pleaded Twilight towards the gray skinned pegasus. Who only looked back down to her before a huff was being released. Yet she was allowed to continue.

“If this vessel is indeed dedicated to the goddesses themselves, what would you think they say when they hear that the sailors directly under their command are feeding innocent beings to the sharks? Do you think they will be happy with you lot, or do they call the heavens down upon you?”

The question itself was actually rightfully placed. All of the crewmembers couldn’t hold in their laughter before Bonesnapper silenced them all. He then took an inhale to answer her question. Yet before he could say another word, there was a stomping sound on the deck that wasn’t heard before. A rhythmic stomping of metal against the very deck of the vessel.

The stallion began to chuckle in a sinister manner before he took a step aside. “Hehe, hehe, look who is coming now. You have made her angry, answer for your deeds,” he added as some sort of strange encouragement to Twilight.

The unicorn honestly didn’t understand a single word from it but just went with it. She was so close that she could almost smell the being with the stomping leg. More and more crewmembers took a step aside before a massive puff of steam was released and blocked Twilight’s view even further. Which resulted in the stomping continuing as some sailors were pushed aside just like that. What followed was that a silhouette of an earth anthrony that stood before Twilight among the fog and it simply released a deep exhale.

Only then the smoke cleared itself from the deck and Twilight was confronted with the nature of the being. Which being an orange skinned, blonde haired earth anthrony mare who wore a massive naval trenchcoat with a cutlass sheathed at the right side of her body. But it was on the left side that the most interesting thing had been revealed to her.

For the entire left leg of the being had been amputated and replaced with another leg. One made out metal and steam which was the source of the stomping. Twilight gulped a little bit before she dared to speak some words towards the anthrony. “A-Admiral Applejack, I presume?” she questioned to the mare without her signature hat.

Yet there wasn’t any response in the form of words that came from the other mare. As the brilliant green rimmed eyes looked over the unicorn anthrony with a judging expression. Something didn’t seem to be right. And she would be going towards the bottom in order to discover just what was wrong.

The blonde haired anthrony then focused her attention back on Twilight before a deep exhale was being released. “Ah am indeed admiral Applejack. But what Ah wanna know, is who in the name of seas yer happen to be,” she snarled in a low toned voice towards Twilight. Though as the unicorn wanted to answer the question, she noticed how the hand of Applejack moved over towards her cutlass.

Business was about to be coming a lot more serious and Twilight felt the sheer amount of tension that was building up between the two of them. In an instant it happened though. Time slowed down before Twilight’s very eyes. She did a step back in order not to get hit by anything. What happened next was that the admiral drew her cutlass and pointed it straight towards her.

The soothsayer gulped deeply as she rose her hands up in a manner that she couldn’t be grabbing anything. “Ah said, Ah wanna know who for the devil’s arse ya happen to be.” The eyes of Twilight went literally cross as she looked at the tip of the mighty blade. One good slash and she could either be killed by it, or had her bleeding to her death.

It wasn’t the most ideal situation of where she wanted to end up in, but she could also understand the reason behind the rather viciously looking manner in which Applejack handled her. The biggest clue was the entire crew of the vessel. But with the tip of the blade pointed at her nose, it even feeling the cold steel it carried, there was little else that Twilight could be doing. Yet one thing that she could be doing was to tell the admiral the truth as it was known to her.

With another gulp she crawled back towards the admiral and dared to speak her words of truth. “M-My, my name, is Twilight Sparkle. I am here solitarily because I’m looking to recruit other anthronies, f-for a journey I’m going to undertake,” she spoke in the honest truth. She always kept her eyes upon the green rims of Applejack. Hesitant as they were, but honest they appeared.

The admiral herself calmly stroked her chin under a loud exhale. She processed the words that were being said against her. She could tell it within Twilight’s very eyes that she was speaking the truth. Yet even the most experienced liar could show the lie as the truth. Another little fact that she noticed instantly was that Twilight was unable to keep herself together in the big world.

Applejack knew that Twilight was a soothsayer and even with the words answering her question, there was yet another question that had risen up in her mind. A question that perhaps was a lot more interesting towards her. “Oh shut her up and throw her in the brig!” one of the crew members said.

Without even looking to the sailor, Applejack had reach inside of her trenchcoat and pulled out a flintlock pistol. One which was being cocked and aimed at the sailor. “If ya wanna see another day, Ah reckon to y’all to shut it. Either return to yar stations, or watch in silence as Ah’ll be dealing with missy here.”

What happened next was something that nopony could have ever imagined to happen and that was that the gun was actually fired. All of the crewmembers did a massive step back while some were looking for wounds. But not even one of them had found even a scratch. Which was something perhaps for the better for all of them.

“Consider this, yar only warning. But Ah still wanna get mah answer from yar mouth as Ah have one more question,” said Applejack while she hid her flintlock again. The eyes were once again focused upon Twilight herself and she allowed the final pieces of questioning to leave her mouth. “What does a soothsayer like herself, outside of the castle walls and what for kind of recruiting, eh?”

It was the kind of question where Twilight really hadn’t hoped for to get and with both the crew looking as well as her own eyes staring down the tip of a blade, safety wasn’t a feeling all too much present.

Another gulp was being released by her. Applejack’s patience began to wear thin in the moment. All around her there were the rumors of the crewmembers. They all spoke about death and destruction of the soothsayer. Yet the admiral wasn’t in the mood to end somepony’s life that day. Even if it was true that Twilight was testing her steel nerves more than well.

For the silence that had been started, took already in more than a minute. “Well, Ah’m waiting for yar answer, soothsayer. Mah patience isn’t infinite. Ask them lot if ya like.” To that had a lot of the crewmembers actually agree upon. Applejack was a patient mare, but when that very patience wore thin, anything could have happened.

Twilight then stood for a moral dilemma that had been playing itself in her mind ever since their game had started. At one end did she wanted to say why she was there, on the other she didn’t. Simply because of the fact that the other crewmembers were listening in with the pair of them.

She needed to get the admiral crazy enough to separate themselves from them all. So that they could be speaking somewhere in private. Which was a hope easier said than done. Yet there was an chance. One chance, which was all that she needed.

The soothsayer gently gathered all of her guts together before she dared to openly speak up against the admiral in words that no party had ever expected to come. “Admiral Applejack, I would love to tell you exactly the reason of why and how and everything. But before I do that, I have only one desire and that is to discuss the matter somewhere private.”

Applejack went literally numb from the words. The silence took her over for a change. The crew of the vessel didn’t even dare to speak a single word about the matter. Each and every one of them just silently watched as to what would happen next. Old Bonesnapper himself spread his one remaining wing before he released a deep growl as the only audible response from the crew.

He wanted to have seen action between the two of them. Perhaps even a fight to the death in order to satisfy his bloodlust. Yet in the silence of the moment did Twilight took her time to look around and see just what kind of sailors were aboard of the vessel. It was the pride of the navy yes, but with one massive flaw.

Its entire crew seemed to have been made out nothing but scum. Perhaps once she got to know them they had a golden heart, but they hadn’t showed it to her yet. And who knew, perhaps they never would. “Admiral, I can promise you that everything will be made clear to you, if you will allow me to explain the situation in private.” Twilight’s words pressed against Applejack in an attempt to get her to the point she wanted to go.

Yet the admiral herself didn’t seem to be so certain. Though she did lower her sword and leaned a little bit against it. Out of her eyes came the expression of understanding as well as curiosity. Without a word was the sword sheathed and her mouth opened to speak some words in a calm tone. “Alright, follow me to mah cabin. We’ll see what yar story is.” She then turned around to the rest of her crew and gave them all a hard eye. “As for the rest of y’all, back to yar stations!”

With those words had each of the crewmembers to leave for their very stations. Whether it was somewhere up in the masts of the mighty vessel, or somewhere below decks, they went without a complaint. Not any verbally spoken, that is. “As for ya, come with me,” gestured Applejack while she pointed to Twilight and guided her over to the captain’s cabin.

~~~~

Once inside of the cabin, it came to Twilight’s attention that it fairly much was set up in the same manner as Shining Armor’s own office. The admiral never took place in her chair as Twilight sat down in one before the desk. The earth anthrony was waiting for any kind of explanation to come from the unicorn herself.

“Okay, the problem is that these tremors are causing havoc in the land,” Twilight started.

She was immediately interrupted by the admiral though. “It’s not just the land that has them, partner. Ah feel them at sea too. Rogue waves that come and go without warning, capsizing our ships without mercy. Tell me, ya know a way to stop them things, right?”

The words of the admiral opened a whole new window for Twilight as she never even could have imagined that the tremors were also to be found out in the ocean. Which begged the question of why no place had ever been hit by a tsunami yet. But that was a question for another time.

“Actually, I do have a way, yes. But it is going to require your help, admiral. I’m going to set up a team for an expedition in order to stop these tremors or at least find the cause of them. Before the whole of Equestria is going to be submerged in nothing but eternal hell from the fires of lava. What is your answer admiral. Are you ready to go ashore and find out just what causes more havoc than anything seen in this world? Or do you cower upon your ship when the world as you know it will burn like tartarus?”

It was a deep threat that was being made against the admiral and Twilight knew that all too well. She even used words she normally wouldn’t even have dared to be using. Yet it did seem like she had broken the shell of the admiral. For a deep sigh was being released as she remained stationary by one of the windows and looked out over the near endless ocean.

What Twilight didn’t knew was that the screams of forgotten battles were raging through her skull. The eyes closed themselves off from the world for a moment. She took small steps with her amputated leg before finally turning herself around to face Twilight. Applejack calmly walked over to her desk and placed her arms crosswise over the back of the chair. Once again did the staring contest erupt between the pair of them.

"Ya know what Ah call this plan of yars? Insanity at its complete and utter finest. There’s just no putting it in any other way from mah point of view. What yar saying, is that you want to go probably under the surface. All in order to find the source of them tremors like that. Partner, Ah don’t know how high ya been getting with them ascends of you, but that ain’t a realistic plan and yar know it,” said Applejack, not spilling a single thought on the matter unspoken.

The admiral was perhaps right in more than one way when there was thought about. It was indeed a plan that came straight out of the loony bin, but it also was their best shot at most likely saving their beloved homes and dear ones. In an instant was the chair flung backwards against the wall as Applejack slammed her fist hard into the oaken desk. It even left some cracks along the way before the confirming words were spoken from the bottom of her soul.

“Count me in.”

“Beg your pardon?” asked Twilight in response. She had a difficult time understanding the whisper of the admiral. “What did you just say?”

The green rimmed eyes of Applejack met the violet ones of Twilight. The mare then repeated herself once more. “Ah said that ya could be counting me in for this quest. Ah don’t need protection from anything, but yar the one who needs all the more.”

Chapter VII

Twilight was both relieved and confused by the words that were spoken by the admiral. What could Applejack have possibly meant with her words? The only logical thing was to just flat out ask her. “Admiral, what did you mean by that?” she questioned aloud. Their eyes once again met with one another and the stare was given.

Applejack herself allowed a deep exhale to leave from her nostrils. She then calmly shook her head from side to side. The eye contact between the two of them was broken before the admiral turned her body around. She placed her hands on both sides of the window that was directly behind her. She didn’t have a true reason of why she spoke her words, so the reason had still to be formulated within her head.

“Ah think,” she began while her tone showed a lot more sympathy than previously. “Ah think Ah said it, ‘cause you’ll be needing it more than ya think. Y’all fancy soothsayers up in the castle don’t know how this world works in reality. Temptation ‘round every corner, anthronies trying to get a use out of ya. Y’all up there, Ah’ve seen numerous falling for it.”

It was perhaps the most reasonable explanation that she could be given to Twilight. It was indeed the truth of the matter. Something where not even the unicorn could be going in against even if she wanted to do it. The only thing she could be doing was to accept it, which she did by a simple nod and one word. “Alright,” said Twilight in response, nodding a bit. Though one more question remained to be answered for her. A question that perhaps wasn’t her place to ask.

Though with the way their conversation had been going already, anything could happen. The green rimmed eyes of Applejack looked over the endless ocean as the little engines inside of her leg never ceased to make noises. Everything from boiling water to small whistles did their turn. One thing was certain, it never would have been silent around the earth anthrony.

“Admiral,” was suddenly echoing through the cabin. The stare broke itself from the waters and focused upon the reflection of Twilight within the window. The calm looks in her eyes showed that she was a rough and tough sailor, as the vessel did continue to bob gently from side to side. Something Twilight had noticed from the beginning yet Applejack never worried about.

“Please, call me Applejack. And yar name being, again?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” the soothsayer quickly answered. She got a simple nod from the admiral, the name would be remembered. “Applejack, when you leave the vessel, who will be left in charge? I don’t suppose you can conjure up arcane monitors to inspect them all.”

The only thing that Applejack could do in response was to chuckle to herself. The mare turned herself back around and crossed her arms over each other as she gave a smirk towards Twilight. “Ya really think, Ah would leave them all on their own, on mah vessel? Nah, there’s somepony else in command beneath me. Ah’ll be getting him.”

Without any further interruption from Twilight did the admiral leave her spot. She wandered back to the door of the cabin. Only to open it in a powerful swing before she did a step or two forward. “Commodore Apple, attention!” she bellowed over the deck in the hope that the right anthrony would be hearing it.

Seconds came by before below decks the stomping of two heavy hooves could be heard. At least for Twilight that was the case. The mare looked down to the floor as she could exactly pinpoint where the stomps came from. She slowly began to fear for the worst that Old Bonesnapper might actually have been this new, commodore Apple.

Only time would be deciding for her who was going to be who and how the game was going to be played out. She could only hope that it was going to be in her favor. Maybe not much, but anything was better than nothing.

Then there was the silence of the heavy hooves and Twilight stood up from her chair. She wanted to see whomever would be coming over the deck and into the cabin. Though the surprises that were still in store for her, were unexpected to say the least.

Seconds later did the stomping return over the deck before she head a stallion’s voice that spoke in a low tone. “Ya needed me, admiral?”

“Get in, we’ll discuss it in private,” replied Applejack just before she moved out of the way. The first one to enter was the mysterious commodore. Twilight was given the full glory of him. Never in her life had she expected to see a stallion like that coming in.

With his fire-red skin, perfectly blonde hair and sap green eyes while being nicely wrapped in a spick and span attire. It was another whack in the face of the mare. A mare who had to help herself not to fall in any kind of love with him. Yet as their eyes met, there was though certain roughness within them for certain but also something else.

Twilight couldn’t really place it what she saw within his eyes as he made a small bow before her. “Milady,” he simply spoke in his low toned voice before coming back up. The door fell back in its lock after which Applejack walked back to her desk. Despite her having the amputated leg, she still had mastered the simple ability to walk without much of a problem. Whether that was something of a trouble, Twilight didn’t knew. She wouldn’t ask that in the moment.

“Commodore Apple, Ah called ya here ‘cause of the fact that things are gonna change,” said Applejack. A thing which immediately got the attention of both other anthronies. “Ah’ll be joining miss Sparkle here in a quest, until mah return shall you be having the command of the vessel. Don’t disappoint me, brother.”

The commodore made a salute to the admiral before he nodded to the request. “Don’t worry sis, she’ll be in good hands.” The admiral nodded to his words before she gestured to Twilight to come with her. The stallion himself then walked up to the seating and did something the admiral had done countless times already, staring over the ocean.

~~~~

Sometime later could both Applejack and Twilight be found wandering around the docks in silence. With their hands both nicely placed behind their backs and their tails were only swaying from side to side with every step they took. The blue robes of Twilight against the gray trenchcoat of the admiral did clash horribly with fashion senses, but there wasn’t any other way around it.

It was navy attire and there just wasn’t much that could be done against it. Besides, fashion was actually the least of Twilight’s worries as there were countless other matters to be found upon her mind. “Applejack, if I may ask you another question?” Twilight started. She looked over to her partner with a set of keen eyes.

“Another one? Ya been asking questions a lot, haven’t ya?” she returned with a chuckle. They left the naval space and walked into the commoners harbor. Once again did the busy life of the everyday anthrony enter into Twilight’s ears while she tried to keep her focus upon Applejack.

“Well, kinda. I really want to know with who I’m going to be traveling with.”

“An understandable reason of thinking, shoot away.” The eyes of the admiral then focused themselves upon Twilight. The two of them came to a standstill almost in the middle of the road.

“The way you spoke against the commodore, it almost makes it seem as if you two are family of each other,” brought Twilight forth. She felt like a horrible person to have even considered asking such a thing. Yet it was perhaps the only question that she could come up with as her mind constantly was nagging her about it.

The admiral herself couldn’t do much else then to release a gentle chuckle as she shook her head. “Yar observation is mighty fine, Ah can see that. He’s mah bigger brother in fact. Apple family generations used to farm apples no matter what, until the zebra threat a couple of years back. Mah brother and Ah were the first of our family to leave the farm life, and do som’thing else,” answered Applejack to her in a calm, collected but also sad tone.

“Do you miss it, life at the farm?” Twilight then carefully asked. She was weary not to get the admiral trapped on her hooves. Which was actually just about the last thing that she wanted to do.

Applejack turned her attention fully back to Twilight and dared to look her in the eyes. “Ah made a disgrace of mahself and mah brother by leaving that farm, ‘course I want to go back to that normal life. But years of navy, can even change the most humble of anthrony into som’thing else.”

It wasn’t an answer that Twilight had actually expected to come from her. But it was something that she also could understand to a certain degree or more. She knew that some families in the land had been doing the same for many generation and that changes within it meant exile. Though the wondering of asking even further then she already had done, wasn’t there. Instead she wanted to change the subject as soon as she possibly could and Applejack would hopefully silently agree on it.

“So, you think your brother can handle the crew? No offence, but they all seemed to have been a little…” said Twilight. She couldn’t even finish the sentence due to not being able to find the right words in her mind.

“Dysfunctional?” Applejack simply finished before she began to walk again. Twilight quickly joined her afterwards with a small nod towards the words spoken. “Yeah, some of ‘em are indeed a little bit dysfunctional, but Big Mac shouldn’t have any problem with ‘em. He’s the silent type, but make him angry and it will be yar arse that’s dumped in the ocean.”

“And you call yourself loyal to the goddesses?”

“Ah never said that!” Applejack snarled in return. The tension between the two mares rose up once more. “Ah don’t care whether or not we are under some kind of protection of celestial beings. Ah run mah ship the way Ah want it! Am Ah clear to ya?”

A growl of disagreement was being let out by Twilight as she had a difficult time actually accepting the words as they were spoken to her. She couldn’t even believe it really. Yet it was the only thing she could be doing. “Fine, you’re clear to me.”

“Good.”

Minutes more came and went while they just continued to walk through the harbor in silence. The stomping of the steam-driven leg almost became as worse as water dripping into the sink at night. It was slowly driving the unicorn to madness. A madness that she better could have contained before something stupid would happen.

With the sun in the cloudless skies and heading towards the hills to be lowered, Applejack looked like she was truly enjoying herself. Almost as if she was actually happy to be off of the vessel. Though the question that Twilight then asked was something she never should have done. But the control over her vocal chords wasn’t there anymore, it just flapped out of her mouth like the snap of a finger. “What happened, to your leg that made it, the way it is?”

All of the sudden did the eyes of the admiral turn open as wide as they possibly could. She slowly turned her head towards the soothsayer as if a curse was cast. “Beg yar pardon partner, but what did ya just ask of me?” The orange skinned mare couldn’t even believe it herself actually. The sheer audacity of a soothsayer to ask her that question that shouldn’t be asked by anyone.

The anger that was filling up within the eyes of the earth anthrony almost became actually visible as Twilight knew that she had made a massive mistake on the matter. Yet no plea in the world would have been good enough to make right what she had done wrong.

Whatever sunny mood the mare used to be having had all changed into nothing but a violent thunderstorm that was raging outside of anypony’s view. Though internally did all the wires of the admiral simply snap as if they were nothing at all. Thoughts about brutally taking the life of the soothsayer filled the mind of Applejack.

Whichever manner she would be choosing, it would always pack out badly for her. For she was going to be the prime suspect which most likely would give her a dishonorable discharge from the navy. She stood at a crossroad she never wanted to stand.

Twilight had already taken a couple of steps backwards from the panting earth anthrony as she also tried to calm her down. “Y-You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to. I am sorry I asked, alright?” the soothsayer said in the attempt to ease the tension. But nothing would have been enough to take down the mind of the admiral.

The only one strong enough to do that, was Applejack herself. Her green rimmed eyes then focused back upon the soothsayer and she gave her just a hateful glare. “Ah don’t wanna talk about it,” she said in a low and growling tone. She just turned herself around and began to walk away. The soothsayer herself was actually happy about the fact that she got off that easily, but it did make her question the allegiance of the admiral. Would she still be loyal to Twilight? There was only one way she could think of that could have any sort of impact on the matter.

“If you need something, ask around in the castle, most of the guards can pinpoint you to me!” she called out to the departing mare.

She only received a signal with one of Applejack’s hands in what seemed to have been a waving motion before the two were truly separated. The enraged admiral had made a turn and was just out of Twilight’s field of view. It made the soothsayer feel horrible about it, but that was life sadly enough.

With a deep exhale that came from her nose had Twilight lowered herself in one of the dozen benches that stood next to the road. Both of her hands were used to keep her head up as the eyes were closed and the whispers did their turn.

“This is not how I expected things to be going. But what can I do about it? Not my fault she can’t handle such a question, I mean, I don’t see many walking with something that she does.” It was just one of the many theories and excuses that she made up for herself not to place all of the blame upon herself.

Yet there was one little thing that dominated everything. Something which caused the soothsayer to lean back into the bench and look up into the red skies above. “And with that mare I will be needing to travel with. No, that’s just going to be amazing. Simply amazing Twilight. Thanks you two, I mean, oh just forget it already.”

Then there was nothing else but silence that came from the soothsayer. A silence that some could have considered eerie when they walked past her. While others didn’t even seem to be noticing the facts as they were. To Twilight, it didn’t even matter. She couldn’t be caring less about what the others thought of her in the moment.

The situation was already bad in her eyes, but who was to say it wasn’t about to get worse? She still had to collect about four other beings in order to help her with her quest. That was the fact that had Twilight worried even more. She knew there were four more, but she didn’t knew how they would be reacting against the matter. So the only thing that she could do in her own mind was to just go for it. Would they be as bad as Applejack, worse, or better? It worried her to no end.

“Next stop is going to be Cloudsdale,” said Twilight to herself. She stood up from her bench and began to walk over towards the staircase that led her back to the castle. It was perhaps the most logical way to go for her. Up to the city of pride, there she would be going to the air force base stationed there. With her experiences from the naval admiral, she really wanted to do any of the military institutes just right away in order to get them over with.

Wishful thinking it might have been, though the outcome of one encounter never set a hoof for the next one. It was a fact Twilight knew all too well. Many of her students were that way. Many that were weak and fragile at first instance managed to surprise her the most in the very end. Which was always a pleasant surprise to her. The events with the admiral, not so much. Still, Twilight shouldn’t complain too much about it, she still had an almost hellish ascend back upon the stairs.

“One last time, then go to bed and tomorrow morning it’s going to be a hunt in the library,” she spoke to herself. Twilight then set her hoof on the first step. Luckily for her she would be going upwards, meaning that she wouldn’t have to worry about just balancing upon her heels at one point.

Time wasn’t of the essence for her in that moment, but a good night’s worth of sleep was something that would even reshape the dullest of minds. The mind of Twilight had been dull since she had wandered up those three thousand or more steps of the staircase on the side of the mountain.

Exhausted and defeated was the way that Twilight felt when she finally reached the top of the thing. Yet she could have gone and just walked through to the castle. But instead she allowed herself to make the turn and see the ocean by night. With the moon high in the skies were the waters almost perfectly flat. Not even a breeze of wind blew in or out of the harbor, stranding many ships that couldn’t come out in time.

~~~~

When the eyes of the mare finally opened themselves again, she was once more teased by the light of the sun and a deep groan was released. Her morning mood still hadn’t changed and it wouldn’t anytime soon. Yet she was freshly awake again and the deeds of the day were loud and clear to her. She needed to find any interesting piece of information about the pegasi city of pride in order to find the next member of her team.

A thing that she knew was actually a lot easier said than done. She finally got out of bed and did her morning routine. A routine which ended by her soothsayers attire magically placed around her body.

The mare made a couple swirls in front of a mirror before she sighed a bit to herself. “This has to go when I’m leaving, I can’t run on these shoes at all, not to mention the fact this blue turns sour quickly,” mumbled Twilight to herself just seconds before she left her room. The direction she needed to was all too well known to her.

There where she knew next to nothing about the world as it was, she knew the castle like the back of her hand. Almost blindly she could be walking towards the library of the place and not bump into even one other anthrony. Which was actually the way she preferred it.

Along her route was she greeted by a couple of guards. Among them she saw the one anthrony she really didn’t wanted to see. An exhale of annoyance was left through her nostrils as Twilight really didn’t wanted to even speak to her. Though her wish got actually shattered thanks to the little fact that the other being began to talk to her.

Not just talk to her but even joining her in the way towards the library. Something that Twilight never would have sought behind Beatrix Lulamoon. “This student you send to me, is indeed the perfect battlemage. However, his anger makes him delirious. He is still angry about not becoming a soothsayer and almost ignited my class the other day,” said Trixie to Twilight. Though the soothsayer could have sworn she saw a bit of a worried look within Trixie’s eyes.

A look that was clearly noticed by Twilight as she couldn’t understand even one bit about it. “Are you, afraid of him?” she questioned in a genuine tone of simply not knowing the facts as they were. It was just as much of a surprise to see Trixie the way she was as some of the guards that they both passed.

“Afraid I don’t really want to say, more worried. He needs to calm down but there is simply no reasoning with,” the blue unicorn said. Her tone gave away that she was really out of hope. “Hey, you think the library has something about what can be done against it?”

On that question, there wasn’t really an answer that Twilight could be having for it. Perhaps it did, perhaps it didn’t. Even the tone in which Trixie spoke caused her to raise an eyebrow. The battlemage had never spoken about the library in a good light in her presence. Yet she couldn’t let her colleague down on the matter. It just didn’t feel right for the unicorn to do it.

So when she released a thoughtful moan from her throat, the gears inside of her head were send back to work on the matter whether she personally liked it or not. “Well,” she started and in the eyes of Trixie could the twinkles of hope be seen, “perhaps there are a couple of scrolls that might help you out. You’ll be having to ask the librarian for them though. As I’m not really sure they have them, it’s just a guess.”

A guess or not, it had answered that question where Trixie was after and gave the unicorn a thankful smile before changing her pace into a higher gear. The two anthronies parted their ways and Twilight simply shrugged for a moment before she began to mind her own business again.

Whatever Trixie would find in the library, it didn’t concerned her too much.

When Twilight Sparkle finally had arrived in the library was she given the permission to gather all of the books they had about the massive pegasus city of pride. For about two hours had she already been reading while the morning crawled past her. Time went by at a slower rate than expected. But perhaps the slow time did help her for the fact that she could be reading almost everything at her own pace.

So did she learn about the massive weather factories where almost half the population seemed to be working. The very structure of the place as it became clear to her that it was built upon actual clouds. Those were just many of the dozens of secrets that were revealed to her. But one thing always came back to her, the massive amounts of pride the pegasi took within their ability to fly and their control of the weather.

It almost seemed like something that was a dictatorship within the city, even though it didn’t have an actual mayor. Instead the city had a counsel of numerous pegasi who would govern the city. But that wasn’t even the cherry on the cake, for the air force of Equestria never existed. It had always been the c.a.f. who had been protecting their very skies. “C.A.F.? Cloudsdale Air Force?” Twilight mumbled in confusion. She couldn’t believe the fact yet could reason to the way the decision came to be.

All of the pegasi came out of Cloudsdale or its traveling path. Which meant that it was rare to see pegasi living someplace else unless they choose for it. But that never answered the biggest question that Twilight had about the matter. The biggest one had to be the fact that none of the books she was reading told her an exact date of when the city had actually been created.

Which made her then belief that the place was actually older than the anthrony race itself. Her eyes removed themselves from the book and pointed upwards to see the three pony skeletons again. Her attention was fixed upon the pegasus one before a gentle smile just grew itself below her muzzle. Another support for the ever conflicting theory between creation and evolution.

~~~~

Only after the hours had gone by did Twilight thought that she had more than enough information for the city. The mare calmly sorted every book out again before she placed them on the shelves that they were found. Though it was when she placed the last book on the shelf that she noticed how Trixie was struggling with reading her own scrolls.

Clearly had the blue anthrony once again taken too much hay in one go and Twilight rolled with her eyes before she left her. It wasn’t her problem to begin with and she rather kept it that way. Perhaps that is she could have spoken out of luck that Trixie hadn’t seen her placing the books back.

When Twilight left the library and was calmly walking through the hallways of the place, she began to consider the things that she needed in order to make the journey over to the city. Near the evening was the city the closest to them so if she could get there before the city did, it would be a perfect timing.

Yet there came the troubles, timing. She had spent a little bit more time than anticipated within the walls of the library that haste was of the essence. The time to carefully pack her stuff wasn’t there anymore and she only had herself to blame for it.

The unicorn could almost place the palm of her hand against her face when she realized the facts as they were but never made the decision to give up. There was still plenty of daylight left and the moral to travel the distance was actually pretty high. So the only thing she could be doing was to give in against everything and just go for it.

“No, no, no, no, I am not going to wear those bloody shoes during the trip. Nor this entire outfit really,” muttered Twilight to herself. The mare stood practically naked in her room and looked over her outfit that she had worn for years already. The time to change was there and there wasn’t really that many options without destroying one or two pieces.

It wasn’t the thing she wanted to do, but it was a thing she had to do. With a deep exhale that came from her nose she made the decision on what her new attire would become. With a charges of her horn and guidance of her fingers had it all happened in a spectacle show of light. It engulfed the unicorn in a sphere which confused her as the pieces of her outfit floated into the air.

Only to also disappear within the sphere of light as she crafted whatever she needed to have in order to get through the trek. Once the orb of light erupted out in a million or trillion sparks, the new outfit for Twilight was revealed to herself. Something that was breezy, open and rather comfy sitting.

When her eyes looked into the mirror, they saw the deep purple boots made out of leather with fur rings halfway up her lower leg while a pinkish pant covered the rest of her legs. Not to mention the fact that upon her left leg her signature sign could be found. One massive pink to purple star surrounded by six smaller ones.

It was considered to be her sign of birth. Every anthrony had such a sign somewhere hidden in their lives. For some it was obvious while others almost never would encounter it. Yet the fun didn’t stop there. For going up to halfway her upper arms were a pair of fingerless, near crimson red or purplish gloves to be found while her head was covered by a hood made out of the same material as her pants.

Yet the fact that surprised her the most, were just the couple of straps that covered her upper body while two strands of hair reached down and stopped at the middle of her chest. The good thing was that the straps and the hair covered her more precious body parts but she wasn’t really happy about it.

Though for an attire to travel with –especially with the likes of Twilight– it was good and comfortable enough to go with. As time was something she couldn’t lose any more in her eyes.

With the minutes having past and numerous guards giving her a set of strange eyes as they couldn’t believe what they had actually witnessed, Twilight Sparkle stood at the doorway she only came through perhaps once a year. It held an emotional value to her as it was the head entrance of the castle and the very way she once walked as a little filly to apply for the school.

How the times have changed over the course of years. It still brought a smile to her face as she remembered that first time so fondly. It almost seemed as if nothing could destroy that memory. And now, she would be walking past it again in order to leave. To leave the safehaven that she had always trusted in order to make the trek to the city of pride.

A small watery line appeared below the mare her eyes as her legs began to tremble slightly. In one way or the other, she was going to make the leap into the big world outside of the castle walls. With the wind gently blowing in her face and carrying the scents of nature itself, it was almost calling her, inviting her to come out and witness its very beauty.

With a deep in- and even deeper exhale had the tear faded away from her eye. Then the both of the violet rims set themselves upon the world ahead. Without a single word was the first step taking outside of the castle’s boundaries. For the first time in her life –or after a tremendously long time– would Twilight Sparkle have left the ground of the castle in order to find the next member of her company.

Whatever she would be encountering out there, it was guaranteed to both be wonderful and terrible. For the tremors that shook the land still lingered deep within the deepest and darkest parts of her mind. No packed gear could be found around the unicorn but she had packed enough things with her. Everything she carried was stored in an distortion of spacetime. Harmless and having a near infinite amount of storage.

Her journey had begun, slowly but surely was the distance between her and the castle getting greater. Yet she didn’t feel bad about leaving the castle. She did feel about the fact that nopony accompanied her. Even though she promised her bigger brother to go with somepony else, Applejack had never let any sound of her be heard. It was something that worried Twilight a lot, but it wasn’t something she had to focus upon.

She had to focus upon the road ahead, as well as the city of pride that appeared upon the horizon in the lowering sun. Time would tell her tale, all of their tales. Bit by bit, piece by piece. And second by second.

Chapter VIII

Hours on end had Twilight been walking already. Her journey had brought her down the mountain of Canterlot and straight to the great plains that were stretched out before the enormous castle. While her head was constantly focused upon the road that laid ahead of her, it was her mind that sometimes wandered back to the halls she had been running through since she was a young mare. A smile always came to her face as she realized even one of those moments.

Whether it was her first lesson, or the first attempt to ascend into the plane of the goddesses, it didn’t matter. It made her all actually feel rather good about the journey she had taken for herself, or that she had gotten it by the mightier beings themselves. She knew the dangers were still lurking around every last corner for certain. Though it didn’t really matter to her in the moment.

The first day of travel had to be ending perhaps sooner or later. The sun was already setting and the unicorn had no desire to travel alone in the dark. Darkness was considered to be her greatest enemy simply because of the fact that it was unknown what would happen a couple hooves away. Darkness shrouded words of truth and reformed them into a truthful lie. That was the lesson she remembered from her own teacher.

Yet not all of the darkness was bad, for it also allowed them to watch the skies up high and therefore the magnificence of space itself. Astronomy was something that Twilight did every so often, though she merely did it to watch the beauty of both the stars and the nebula’s hidden among the realms of deep space. One of the few places that an anthrony perhaps never would be setting a step.

Though she continued walking over the plains. And there was a sudden but ever so chilly breeze from the Frozen North that managed to hit her frontal. What happened next was a cold shiver that traveled down the entire spine of the unicorn. The mare then began to stroke both of her upper arms in order to remain on temperature before a gentle growl was being released by her.

The near nothing that she wore over her chest was the massive suspect for the event and Twilight wasn’t all too happy about it. She wasn’t happy about it when she first saw it but made the decision to actually stay with it for the time being. Though times could have changed rather quickly and all of the sudden.

“Okay, this needs to change, as soon as possible,” she mumbled up. Her body had come back to the right temperature for her feeling. Her violet rimmed eyes then turned away from the ground and looked up into the skies. She then noticed how the last remains of the sunlight were inching away behind the hills. The night was coming in faster than she had anticipated.

Time was thus running short and she needed a place to shelter for the night. Perhaps it was a good thing that there wasn’t any rain or clouds predicted for the night. Which in return meant that the unicorn could just take it easy with just what kind of shelter she would be making.

As her eyes tore themselves away from the lowering sun, they looked over the plain in order to see just what would be the best for her to crash down. Outside of a couple of bushes there wasn’t all too much that could be seen.

That was until she noticed a tree standing in the far distance. A tree that seemed to be the perfect camping place for the anthrony and it was her initial decision to go straight there. Her legs were once more kicked into gear before she calmly walked over to the lonely tree.

A tree that actually seemed to have gotten bigger and bigger with every single hoof she came closer. It was something that managed to surprise Twilight more than it should have. One of her eyebrows rose itself up just before she reached the tree and couldn’t believe what she saw.

That very tree was one of the rare specimens that could be living up to a thousand years. The anthrony couldn’t help herself but to give a small inspection over the entire bark of the massive tree before she erupted out in nothing but sheer laughter. A laughter that was joyful within the ears as if she was genuinely happy about what she had discovered.

"Oh my, aren’t you a beauty among your kind?” said Twilight in a mesmerized tone to the tree. She was even petting its bark with one hand. To others it might have seem a little bit unusual in the way she was going around and about, but it wasn’t every single day that one would encounter a seven hundred and forty six year old tree in the middle of a plain just outside of the castle she lived.

The anthrony did a couple of steps back to take the whole tree in her eyes before she let out a content sigh and calmly charged up her horn. Mighty tree of the grand plain, do not fear me. For I don’t mean to harm you as my only desire is to rest against your bark for the night, the mare spoke in her mind and directly towards the tree itself.

Once the horn had discharged, there was only the waiting game that could be played. And how long that would have taken her, remained to be seen.

Though it took only seconds, but for Twilight it seemed to have been minutes before the branches in the top of the tree began to sway. They swayed as if there was a powerful wind blowing through them. Yet the wind didn’t blow at all. Slowly but surely managed the rest of the branches to have done the same.

All until the bark of the tree gave one massive creak and even seemed to have moved half a hoof. Most of the anthronies would have called it witchcraft and they were semi right on the matter. Yet for Twilight it meant that the tree trusted her. The being from centuries of age trusted her enough that she was allowed to sleep against its bark.

Peace was made between the tree and the unicorn to a certain degree. Would Twilight ever physically have cut or burned the bark, the tree would awaken. Which was about the last thing she needed in the moment. With a smile that stood upon her face had Twilight accepted the invitation in silence and gratitude. The mulberry anthrony walked up towards the bark before she dropped her bum into the grass where she crossed her legs and leaned back against the bark.

A bark that almost acted like some sort of a pillow to her. A small giggle was released by her before one of her hands coated itself within the magical aura. Only mere seconds after it was a small ball of fire levitated towards her side and away from the tree.

A groan from the bark was heard again which caused Twilight to look up before she rolled her eyes. “I made you a promise, remember? I’m not going to burn you down, but I have to keep myself warm at night,” she spoke to the tree. Who in return gave off a different toned groan. Only to then let the silence dominate the place again.

The purple and magical fire was levitating a bit above the ground and didn’t require any kind of fuel outside of Twilight’s near constant arcane feeding. With her other hand she allowed herself to conjure up something that every soothsayer had and always had proved useful. Her ‘void portal’ opened itself in front of her. Twilight then looked into the distortion of spacetime itself.

All of her stuff was nicely placed in an ordered fashion and she took out a book as well as some food. Yet the moment she took the food in her hand, her stomach released a grumble and she finally made the realization that she was hungry. Never in her life had Twilight walked that much in one go as she had done today. Which came to the surprise of her that she even managed to do it the way she did.

She took out both the book and the food before the portal was closed again and disappeared out of their plane of existence. The sandwich was being consumed at a gentle rate while she looked towards the rays of light shooting over the hills.

The last remaining light shot itself over the skies before it seemed to realize that the darkness had come in. That their time of shining had gone and only would return for the next day. And as the last light faded away had the entire plain where Twilight traveled upon simply shrouded itself into nothing but darkness.

Never was there even the faintest form of light to be found outside of her own fire. It did make her a sitting duck for anything that wanted to harm her. Weren’t it for the fact that she had a massive tree as her friend, or at least as ally. For the tree she leaned against was one she had only read about in books and always needed to be treated with respect.

They were beings of a world gone by where respect between all the living beings was mutual and only that what was required was taken. Though the times had changed and a lot of those ancient values had been taken out. So to an extent was the tree itself actually happy that it managed to encounter a creature that treated it with the same respect it treated her.

The unicorn anthrony swung her head to the other side of the land before her body almost followed suit and she laid down in the grass in order to watch something that stood literally equal to the rising sun. Something that many didn’t really watch as they deemed it uninteresting. But it was the rise of the moon that was so much more interesting to Twilight. For its way and light revealed hidden paths among the darkness and only those brave enough to travel them would discover just what they carried.

Calmly and gently it managed to crawl over the horizon. Its weak light was cast over the land. The tail of Twilight began to sway from left to right while she held her head up with both of her hands. A massive smile of near pure glee stood across her lips. She was enjoying the scene, so much.

Bigger and bigger did the rock in the skies became. Then it had finally risen all the way out of its hiding place and showed itself once more to the world. Its cobalt blue light shone mighty and powerful as it also was the signal that the night had begun. A content sigh was being released through the nostrils of Twilight before a smile was formed with her lips.

“The sun and moon always in perfect harmony, showing those who live under it the way of life,” whispered Twilight in a calm tone. She tried her best to get some kind of inspirational quote out there. Something that for her mind didn’t really work. So instead she rolled back up against the bark of the tree and looked at the book that laid in the grass.

A book that was perhaps too dangerous for anyone with a closed mind to read as it contradicted everything that the anthronies believed, or were allowed to believe. The book was taken within her hands and opened upon the page where she last left off. Only to begin reading again until she was too tired to continue, or something else would happen.

It was a peaceful sight to see her sitting against the tree like that while the purple flames crisped near her. The only light to be found out there and it lead to the interesting scene with the mulberry skinned anthrony.

An anthrony who was deeply sunken within her book and the more she read out of it, the more interested she became. Minutes had she already been laying there while wondering what or why. For the book spoke about subjects that were truly questioning believes, which included hers. Though it was only when she lowered the book again and looked up to the star filled skies that the words left her mouth.

“We anthronies think we have done it all so far, that our industrial revolution shall change the land, but what if we destroy everything that makes us, us, is also taken away from us? So many think the world is in our hands, that we can control its very breath with our magic. But we can’t, for the forces greater than us are always there.”

Twilight then looked further into the darkness that surrounded her before she continued to speak her words in that calm but also questioning tone. “Those who remain in the shadow shall never be seen by those standing in the light, yet their plans shall always be revealed by any form of light shone upon them.”

Then her attention was turned back to the fire. The little flames reflected themselves within her eyes. She gained a small smile across her face. “Yet those who remain in the light shall always be seen. One needs to find the balance between light and shadow, to find out who one is. Only then, a soul can be having rest. A true rest.”

Even in her mind did the words sound pretty much ridiculous. But she didn’t minded it all too much. A quick shake of the head was given in order to get rid of everything that was plaguing her before she continued reading in her book.

The book told about the many myths that Equestria was right and the evolution of pony to anthrony. How many thousands of years it had taken for the simple equines to develop into the beings they were today. It did explain a couple of matters, mostly as to how they referred to the sexes as both a stallion and a mare.

Twilight wanted to delve deeper into the mythology with all of her heart. But she was never allowed due to different things getting in the way such as her classes. Those were a prime example of just why any form of massive research to their own history was more often than not just cancelled. “We’re all just pawns in the chess game of those greater than us. We think we’re kings and queens, but we’re far from it. Shame that most don’t realize that. Then again, ignorance always has been a bliss,” said Twilight in a calm chuckle. She then placed her head against the bark and closed her eyes for just a little moment.

Her words of wisdom were perhaps well placed, but there weren’t any ears that could be listening to them. Perhaps it was something for the better though, as many soothsayers didn’t support Twilight in her quest for the truth behind the book. Perhaps it was a saddening fact or perhaps their world simply still wasn’t ready for the discovery of a literal lifetime.

~~~~

Just about two hours had the mare been reading through the book before she finally placed it back aside and leaned once more against the bark of the tree. With her eyes gently closed and a calm breeze of cool wind blowing past her, life just couldn’t get any better for her. She forgot about almost everything for just a moment in time while the thoughts never ceased to swirl.

She just didn’t thought about them. Calm and peace could be found within the mind of the anthrony unicorn before a deep and long exhale was being released by her nose. How long has it last been since she even had slept below the starry skies of Equestria? The unicorn couldn’t remember as all that she knew was that it seemed to have been a lifetime ago.

It were those little moments that made her realize just how fast time was actually moving. A day was literally nothing for her yet an event that happened only a year ago already seemed to have gone so far by. Time was a curious thing, most anthronies could agree upon that fact. None of them fully understand its concept and some didn’t wanted to know it.

But all of them knew one little thing. Which was the very fact that time was not their friend. It never had been and it never would be. Their time was limited upon the face of the land and they had to be making the best out of it before they would leave it again.

The reason why they lived was often the question that then popped back up. A question so simple, yet something that many scholars still hadn’t figured out at all and whatsoever. Their very reason of existence remained a mystery that perhaps wouldn’t have been solved at all.

Or perhaps were all the answers right under their noses.

The book that Twilight was reading through could have given some sort of information about it. The book was controversial as hell of course, as it went pretty much straight into the anthrony’s believes. Yet all of it did make sense in the long run and when thought about deeply. The book was respected and accepted, the author -though untraceable- was also a respected mare or stallion within the library.

It was the confirmation of the goddesses that always questioned the soothsayers. They never neither confirmed nor denied the facts on whether or not the book had it on the right end. Yes, even the goddesses knew the book was there and they knew the answers for certain. But they never gave a straight one to anypony who asked them.

A matter for yet another day, that was how Twilight’s mind was working. The mare had been up pretty much all of the day and the next morning she would be leaving at first dawn towards the pegasus city of pride. A long night it certainly would have become and she made herself comfortable against the bark of the tree.

Even the clothing –or lack thereof– around her chest still was something that worried her. The excuse she then gave to herself was that she would be doing that somewhere in the morning before leaving. A promise she wanted to keep vividly.

There wasn’t much else that she could be doing outside just trying to get some sleep and rest for the night. A sleep that she would have gotten weren’t it for one single little fact. Over the plain itself could the stomping of a hoof be heard, followed up by some mechanized sounds. Both of Twilight’s ears twitched before it if before she opened her eyes again.

Her violet rimmed eyes then stared over the whole place in the hope that she would have been able to figure out something about the sounds. The unicorn was too tired to stand up and she eventually gave up looking as the sounds only did seem to becoming closer.

Different shades of shadows had been seen by her for certain. Though she didn’t actually believe that they could be doing much harm to her. Yet when the sounds came closer, she began to worry herself. The tree itself remained dormant while the anthrony charged up both her horn and hands. If it wanted to harm her, there was only one way it would be getting to her.

It was also in that moment that she actually regretted that the fire was burning that bright. For not only did they reveal her location, it also prevented her eyes from getting used to the darkness. “Who goes there?!” Twilight then exclaimed. She needed to know who or what was coming her way. Whether it be friend or foe, it didn’t matter to her.

A growl was the first thing that followed her immediately afterwards as she was ready to shoot a blast of magic towards the shadow. Slowly it managed to walk into the light of the fire and was revealed to be a certain somepony she had met before. When the other being finally was revealed to Twilight, the magical charges were all dropped as her mouth literally dropped itself.

Never could she have expected to see that same anthrony standing before her again. Never would have expected that she would be standing in front of her again. With one last puff of steam that came from under the trench coat, the other anthrony finally spoke the words that were on its mind.

“Twilight Sparkle, yar a hard mare to find.” That tone, only one anthrony that Twilight knew spoke in that tone and even that strange, southern accent. Twilight looked even further and noticed the orange skin within the purple fire, as well as the couple of freckles near her eyes.

“A-Applejack? Is that, you?” the unicorn then dared to question. She said it a tone of utter disbelief. She didn’t wanted to believe even that it was Applejack who stood before her. Especially not after the way that they had separated the day before.

“The one and only,” answered Applejack. She walked past Twilight and sat down to the left of her. She leaned against the bark of the tree who let out a groan before it went silent again. Questions where the thing that was filling up the mind of Twilight. The mare wanted to know pretty much everything as to how she had found her and why she came back for her.

Yet the questions were perhaps not her place to ask. Though the will to know the answers was there for certain. “If you don’t mind, I have a couple of questions for you.”

Applejack’s head turned itself towards Twilight after she had taken out her flintlock out of her coat for a small clean-up. “As long as it ain’t ‘bout mah leg, go ahead,” the earth anthrony spoke up before she focused herself back upon her weapon.

“Trust me, your leg is about the least of my worries now. No, I want to know why, why and how you came back here, for me.” Twilight then asked the admiral as she prepared for the worst thing to be coming.

The admiral herself looked down the barrel of her gun before she gave a gentle chuckle in response. “Ah said ya were a hard mare to track down, partly true,” began Applejack. She then placed her weapon back inside of her coat. She then turned her attention back to Twilight to tell her the story. “So Ah was walking through the castle…”

~~~~

And the more she wandered through the castle, the more hopeless she began to feel herself. Never had Applejack expected the place to have been that big or massive. As an admiral who was only used to the size of her own ship, entering the castle was like a whole new world to her. Yet she knew that she had to find Twilight somewhere inside of that cluttered mess.

“Hey you!” Applejack then called out to one of the guards. A yellowish skinned stallion turned around in order to face the admiral and the two of them had a bit of a stare down. Though it was the guard who blinked first from the serious look that was visible within Applejack’s green rims. “Ah wanna know where Ah can find Twilight Sparkle, now.”

The guard himself gulped a little bit before he tried to form his reply. With a hesitant voice he finally managed to speak his words and they were not for the better of any kind. “Soothsayer Sparkle has left the castle, a couple hours ago. I don’t know where she went to, but other guards said she might have gone to the plains. M-Maybe her brother knows. This hallway, take a left, second right, third door to your left. Shining Armor’s the name you need.”

“Thanks,” huffed Applejack to him. She left the yellowish skinned, blue haired stallion alone and followed the direction that was given to her.

It wasn’t much later that she found herself knocking at the door. The one that hopefully lead to the office of this Shining Armor. “Come in,” a stallion’s voice on the other side said before the admiral walked in. Before the two even knew it, they were standing eye to eye with one another. Both inspecting every last inch of the other to see if there was going to be a threat.

It could be called a military thing, as if all of them were a little bit jumpy. Yet who could be blaming them all for that little fact? Their country had been at war not even ten years ago. “Captain, Shining, Armor, Ah presume,” said Applejack just before she placed both of her hands upon the back of the chair in front of the desk.

“The one and only, admiral Applejack,” answered Shining in a sly tone. He kept on inspecting the earth anthrony through his glasses. A pair of glasses that were eventually taken away from his nose. He stood up in a calm manner and left his desk for what it was. “What’s the honor that brings you here today? Need new recruits again, or…”

“Yar sister.”

“My what? …Wait, no. Don’t tell me…” stated Shining Armor. He had already began to fear the worst. Even though he was about to blow a fuse or three at the same time, he still managed to keep his mind calm and collected. The expression upon his face turned back to neutral when he needed to know how everything was going to pack out. “What do you want from my sister?”

“Ah need her location, now,” demanded Applejack while her green rimmed eyes looked stern into those of him. “She came to me talking ‘bout them tremors and how she could solve ‘em. But now she left without me. So, where’s she hiding her hide?”

The news was actually a lot better than the stallion could have thought but it also worried him. He knew that Twilight had gone someplace for certain, but little did he knew that she left out a partner already.

A deep sigh was being released through his nose before he nodded to the admiral. “I think, she’s on the plains outside of Canterlot itself. Heading towards either Cloudsdale or the hospital. You might catch her if you’re quick. Daylight becomes scarce and darkness upon the plains is about as bad as the Everfree forest.”

The admiral herself knew exactly where the captain was talking about. She knew that she needed to make haste. She needed to run like never before for a distance almost unearthly for her mechanical leg. “Then Ah’ll be on the way, thanks for the information, captain,” she said to him before sticking out her hand.

Shining Armor needed a little second before he shook her hand and in the blink of an eye was she just gone. “Go with the goddesses their speed,” he mumbled just after the door had fallen back in its lock.

~~~~

“And as Ah wandered down the slopes of the mountain, Ah hurried as fast as Ah could over the grassy field. Ah was about to be giving up all forms of hope on finding ya, ‘til Ah saw that purple fire. Ain’t a natural color so it had to either be ya, or somepony else. Glad it has been ya. So, now Ah’ll be asking a question. Where are ya heading for?” said Applejack when she finished her story and gained the curiosity within her tone as to where the next stop would be.

Twilight had been listening to the story with a pair of open ears as she tried to figure out why the admiral went to her brother and what kind of lecture said brother would be giving her when she came home. But all of that was set aside in order to answer the question of the admiral. “The next place I’m, or we, are going to, is Cloudsdale. The C.A.F. might be holding our next anthrony of interest.”

“The air force? Partner, ya been laying in the sun too long? Those high flying windbags wouldn’t even dare to look at us. We’re the lesser in their eyes. How do ya think you’ll be getting one of them crazy enough to come?” Applejack questioned to the unicorn. She was both honest and genuinely confused about the words that Twilight had said to her.

“Look, I don’t know how I will be getting him or her for this madness, but there is a way. Pride is something that is easily dented. And you said it yourself, they are high flying windbags. Maybe there is something that can be used as some kind of leverage between all of us,” said Twilight then. She held up both of her hands like they were weighing something.

“Mad ya are. I call ya nothing but mad,” the admiral replied. Yet then she gained a grin across her lips. “But Ah like it. Let’s show ‘em who's really in charge.”

“But why did you come after me? That’s what I really want to know right now, Applejack. I mean, I thought I had lost you as a team member back in the harbor,” asked Twilight with great care. All done in the hope not to stomp upon one of Applejack’s hooves.

Applejack knew that the question had to come one moment or the other. So there wasn’t else that she could be doing in order to avoid it. She had to answer it to the best of her abilities even if it seemed impossible to do. “Alright, let me put it this way. When Ah said Ah was going ‘long for yar protection, Ah meant it. Ah ain’t doing this for mah own fun, but to see ya will be able to tell the tale. When Ah left ya, Ah was pissed as hell. Nopony holds the right to ask me that question, but after Ah cooled down, Ah realized we had never met. Ya couldn’t have known ‘bout the rule previously. Guess that’s why Ah came to search ya out.”

"Wow,” was the only word Twilight could bring out. She didn’t knew how to react to the facts as they were presented to her. Was she going to be happy about it, or would she scold the admiral for it? In reality, there was nothing that happened outside of the fact that one of her arms traveled over both of the admiral’s shoulders. “I do really appreciate that Applejack, honestly. But, I think we have to call it a night if we want to reach Cloudsdale tomorrow.”

“Ya got that right partner,” the orange mare replied. Twilight retracted her arm and smiled towards the naval admiral. The both them then leaned against the bark of the tree where they would eventually fall asleep against in a peaceful manner. Simply waiting for what the next day would be bringing to them. What kind of encounters they would be coming across in the massive clouded city of pride?

Chapter IX

The sun slowly managed to crawl back upon the horizon once more. It was the admiral herself who was the first to wake up of the two. She calmly stretched her arms up against the bark of the tree before she got up. Some of the bones in her still functioning leg snapped themselves back into place while she used it as leverage to get her mechanized one on solid ground.

As wonderful as the steam powered leg was, as much of a hinder it also proved to have been. A hinder that was perhaps a lot bigger than she originally had wanted to get out of it. Her eyes looked deeper than the casing and straight into the massive gearing mechanism as well as the little furnace for the water to boil above.

The sights caused a deep and sad sounding sigh to be released by her mouth. The green eyes turned over to the sun for a moment. It was in that little moment that she lost her balance and fell against the bark of the tree while cramp came in her good leg. Applejack gritted her teeth together as she tried to withstand the pain that was surging through her body.

Events like that happened almost every single morning to her. It was a thing that drove the mare always to the edge of insanity. But once the starting up had been done, she could do pretty much whatever she wanted. Mornings weren’t for everypony’s favor. Yet Applejack was that one thing Twilight wasn’t: she did happen to be a morning mare.

So when she finally allowed herself to be released from the bark of the tree did the mare a couple of steps over the grassy underground as the springs that connected the lower leg and the hoof constantly adjusted themselves to the differences of height. Eventually was the admiral happy with it before her eyes turned over towards the still shrouded pieces of the land.

The darkness that surrounded the parts of the land caused a smile to form themselves over the lips of Applejack. She watched just how the sun calmly invaded its territory before announcing that the morning had fallen upon them. It was a wonderful sight to see the sunlight slowly crawling over the massive planes and towards the mountain of Canterlot.

The very mountain that Twilight called her home was still standing on the horizon. Though it had shrunk to about one third of its original size. They had already covered a great distance for certain, but it would only become greater as they needed to head to the grassy fields at the border of White Tails Woods.

It would be there that they would be finding the massive city hopefully coming towards them and therefore allowing them both to enter it in the search for the third member of their company. Behind her did the moans and groans of Twilight fill the air and Applejack calmly turned herself around to greet her with a nod.

A nod which was then followed up by a warm smile as she walked back and almost limped with her steam powered leg. Twilight –despite being sleepy– of course noticed it and wanted to offer her help before the orange earth anthrony shook her head calmly.

Instead she offered the unicorn a hand to get up. The hand of the admiral was gladly taken before the unicorn mare was being pulled up to her hooves. The strands of hair once more fully covered her chest. It was a bit of a painful realization for the mare. She did release a deep sigh through her nostrils and Applejack almost immediately knew what she was referring to.

So without a word was Twilight excused by the admiral. The unicorn then walked to the back of the tree with some grumbles leaving her mouth. Grumbles that were inaudible and perhaps best left that way for other ears. Behind the tree could the raspberry colored magical aura be seen before a bright light took over the entire scenery.

Which meant that Applejack was actually caught on two fronts. On one side she had the light of Twilight’s magic, on the other she had the rising sun teasing its way through her closed eyelids. She could only hope that one of the two would fade out quickly before she would be going blind.

Luckily for the admiral was it Twilight’s light that faded after a couple of seconds before she heard some bones being snapped into their respectful places. It was a terrible sound to hear for certain but it was required within every single body, every single day. The mare simply shrugged the sounds off as she turned a valve or two that was located beneath the casing on the underside of her leg. Things still weren’t running all too smooth for her but after the small changes were made it felt as if nothing had ever happened.

It brought a tear to her eye when she was remembered just by who and how she was given that very leg from. It still devastated her from the inside out but also made her into the rock hard mare that she came to be. She wouldn’t take nonsense for an answer by any means whatsoever. The events happened in the past, were the building foundation for the person in the future. A simple saying not often used by anyone but one that was all the more true.

In the end did Twilight return from the her location behind the tree and the changes were obviously notable. For where she was basically naked around her chest, was then all of the skin covered up in a top that was the same coloring as her pants. Not the most fashionable solution by any means, but a solution nonetheless.

Twilight walked up to Applejack and gave her a nod that she was ready to go. They would be eating their breakfast along the way towards the city of pride. Neither of them knew just what they could be expecting to see, they could only be hoping that it would have been something good.

In response did Applejack nod back and together they began on the second leg of their journey. The mission to reach the fields of White Tails before the city would arrive. Perhaps that was also where the problem laid.

~~~~

Hours upon hours had the two of them traveled in almost complete silence before they were just one hill away from reaching the fields. Their journey had brought them dangerously close to the woods of Everfree. A forest where nopony wanted to even look at. For one glance was already more than enough to send the shivers down the spine on even the hottest of summer days. Nopony knew what caused it and all they knew was that black magic was the cause.

But the woods of White Tails and its fields laid behind a vast ridge of hills where both of the anthronies had been trying to get over for almost half an hour. Hill up and down was never a good thing for either of them.

Yet they managed to do it. Somehow they both managed to reach the top of the last hill and Twilight was the first to just lower herself into the grass on top of it. She panted deeply to herself as the sweat was being wiped from her forehead. The burning sun was nice to lay in, but to walk in it almost was like a living hell. Perhaps it was a good thing the trees of Everfree were as large as they were, for they cast a massive shadow in which the two could walk.

Applejack arrived only a couple seconds later on top of the hill but she never sat down. Instead she gave her eyes the time to watch over the field of grass before them and noticed something that perhaps wasn’t supposed to be there. For in the middle of the field there was a massive body of water to be found. Sure it looked like a couple of puddles but even with the sun burning like it did, it should have vaporized already.

The admiral took off her hat in order to wipe away the few strains of sweat. She pointed to the water in the field that had stretched out before them. Twilight’s eyes simply followed to wherever the index finger was pointing towards before both of her eyes went wide. Out of all the thing she had expected to see was that about one of the last.

The water on the ground meant that the ground there was either quicksand in disguise, or that it was so squishy that it almost could act like a trampoline. A trampoline that was ready to burst at any given time and would swallow whomever thought it was funny to make it burst. A gulp was being released by Twilight as she placed both of her hands in front of her face.

The scene was nothing like she ever would have expected to see. It could have been considered the worst of the worst but that had yet to come.

“Ya think we’re too late for the show?” Applejack asked when she turned her attention back to a still visually confused Twilight. She had only seen the city of pride from the far distance and from inside of her room. Never had she been up close to the metropolis of a city, she didn’t have even the slightest of clues to whatever would be coming or happening.

"I, I don’t know. All this water in front, this I didn’t expect,” replied Twilight in an honest and confused tone. Then both of her hands were lowered again. “The city still needs to come here, one hour tops. Although I am really curious as to why that water got here.”

“Hmpf, Ah reckon ya wanna go in there? Forget it. Ground is held together with that very same water. One wrong step, and yar swimming with grass, literally,” answered Applejack to her. She received a raised eyebrow from Twilight. The unicorn was more curious to the fact as of how the admiral would be knowing such a thing from that distance. “Secrets of the trade,” she chuckled up. Applejack placed both of her hands behind her back and eyed the skies a bit. “So, we wait now?”

“That’s the plan yes,” replied Twilight. She knew more than enough about the mysterious puddles of water from the ground. While she still questioned almost all of the possibilities around it, the desire to fully investigate just wasn’t there anymore. Which perhaps was for the better.

Twilight was actually right on the matter. For within three quarters of an hour had it appeared on the horizon. The first buildings of the massive city had revealed themselves to their eyes, and the horizon just kept growing and growing. Faster and faster did the city appear to get to them while both Twilight and Applejack looked calmly upon the scenery.

The busy life within the city then entered their ears. The floating place came closer without a single sound. It just drifted along the currents of the wind at the altitude it cruised. A true work of beauty by the pegasi, that had the both of them to admit immediately. Yet the biggest show had yet to come.

Only when the city covered all of the field and the massive shadow that it cast almost made it feel like it was night below it did it happen. Both of the anthronies looked to the city before they heard a roaring and deafening sound coming from the city. To be exact, the clouds under the city.

What happened next was something that neither mare could have ever believed to have seen with their own eyes. They were staring right at the origin of the watery field. Thousands of liters, tens of thousands of them were poured down onto the grass. It almost seemed like it was trying to fill up a swimming pool in the quickest way possible, or drain it for that matter. Both Applejack and Twilight looked at the scene with an open mouth as they couldn’t believe it.

Never in their lives had they seen so much water being dumped out of one place at one go. It was both breathtaking as well as horrifying to see. Yet the entire scene didn’t even last for half a minute. When the water finally stopped it seemed that the floodgates were closed again. There was however, one other little problem they had to deal with.

Applejack tore her attention away from the waters of Cloudsdale. She glanced over to Twilight with a serious and questioning gaze. “Uhm, might have asked this before, but how are we gonna get inside?” she asked in a concerned tone. The pegasi race was unique when it came to that aspect. While the earth anthronies were a lot stronger in their physic when it came to the other races, it were the unicorns who could tap into the arcane arts, but the pegasi controlled the weather. Not to mention the little fact that their wings also gave the ability to actually walk upon the clouds.

Twilight turned her head over to Applejack with a small grin going across her lips. “Oh don’t worry, I know just the spell that we need in order to get in,” she said as her horn and hands began to coat themselves in the magical aura.

"What?! No! Don’t you dare!” exclaimed Applejack. She really didn’t wanted to become the guinea pig for some kind of magical experiment. Though before she could have flown Twilight to the throat, the near thinkable had happened and the both of them had disappeared from the spot.

Somewhere scattered into tiny, invisible flakes, they traveled towards the outskirts of the city. Only to then reappear under a poof. For Twilight had teleported the both of them right into the city itself.

~~~~

Somewhere within the outskirts of the massive city of pride did the second poof appear which caused both Twilight and Applejack to reappear as if nothing had happened. Which sadly also meant that the admiral had her hands around the throat of the soothsayer. “Why you little..!” she exclaimed while Twilight’s sounds of strangle could be heard echoing through the alleyway. Some sounds that caused the eyes of less friendly types to turn their way.

Three pegasi watched the events happen with their eyes. Though one of them lowered his sunglasses to keep watching in silence. The unicorn managed to punch the earth anthrony in the shoulder before signaling her to look around her. Luckily the message came over and Applejack looked all over the place with an expression of confusion.

She let go of Twilight’s throat who moved over to a wall as support. She only hoped to catch up with her breath. The admiral continued to look around before she noticed that she was actually standing upon the clouds of the very city. Once again it seemed like a massive smack in the face for her. The mare almost had not more clue of what she could do or had to believe.

So her attention was turned over to Twilight with a question readable within her eyes. “I’m not going, to ask for an apology.” Twilight said after she had recovered from the strangling with a couple of last coughs. “What I am going to say though, is magic. Just, magic. Alright?”

The answer sort of managed to calm the admiral down before she continued to wonder, only to get the same answer out of Twilight every single time. “So, Ah can walk on clouds and ya teleported us here?” she eventually said to Twilight. Applejack still couldn’t believe it. She was an earth anthrony and far from being used to either magic or standing on clouds. Thankfully the mare understood that problem of hers rather well and she nodded calmly.

"Yes, you can and yes we did. Now can we please just go?” Twilight then spoke up as she wanted to head out of the alleyway. Only to be stopped by the three pegasi that blocked their paths. The trio of them never had taken their eyes off of them and the one that wore the sunglasses stood in the middle.

He took a deep inhale before a smirk went across his lips while the blue skin almost shone in the sunlight. “Well, well, well, what do we have here. Two lost mares who aren’t even from the pegasi race. Tsk, tsk, tsk, you two are a long way from home by the looks of it. Tell me, what are your names?” he spoke up in a polite tone. Twilight fell for it but Applejack wouldn’t have any of it at all.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle and this i-”

Before Twilight could even finish her sentence was she being interrupted by the admiral. “Mah name ain’t one of y’all’s concern. Now beat it, before Ah do it to ya.” She growled up towards the three of them. With both her cutlass and flintlock still ready, the temptation to take either one and go loose was greater than ever.

The sunglass wearing pegasus released a small ‘hmpf’ before he snapped his fingers. The other two pegasi took out weapons of their own which caused Twilight to gulp a bit. Suddenly it had become a matter that seemed to be going about life and death. “You made a big mistake missy, threatening one of us, not many tell the tale.”

“Yeah? Well Ah’ve been through lots of thing Ah wasn’t supposed to tell the tale from,” snarled Applejack towards the three of them. She pushed Twilight back to keep her out of the battle. It was the first act of the admiral actually offering protection to the soothsayer and it made the unicorn realize she didn’t lie when Applejack had said it.

Twilight was indeed the one who needed her protection. “Oh how unwise of you. Send those my regard will you?” the pegasus returned to her. He took off his sunglasses and looked her straight in the eyes. “Do as you please.”

“Big mistake.” Before the stallion even knew what was going on was there a sheer amounts of pain that went going through his body. It made it known to him that something had gone terribly wrong. He then followed the arms of the admiral as it was stretched out and noticed the blood covered blade.

“N-No,” was one of the only things he could say before looking at his hand. Though his hand actually laid upon the ground. Tears were already coming to his eyes as he heard the sword slicing through the air again. But that time it stopped merely an inch from his chest.

“Beat it and leave us alone,” growled Applejack in a commanding tone before the three of them simply obeyed her words. They ran off like dog ready to lick their wounds. Perhaps a bit too literal of an indication. The orange skinned mare then sheathed her sword again before she signaled Twilight to come with her. For they had a much bigger bird to catch.

The two had left the alleyway and they came into one of the many market streets that the city was rich. Yet much to their surprise were a lot of pegasi actually walking upon the clouds. Only perhaps half a dozen were actually flying through the skies. It did create a nice blend of color as the feathers of the wings caused a warm palette to become a reality. However, it also caused the earth anthrony and the unicorn to blend in rather nicely. It wasn’t causing too much of either a distraction or disturbance among the crowd.

They were just like two tourist that were dressed a bit too compact for the kind of weather. “Aren’t you hot in that coat, I mean, it’s full on leather from the looks of it,” asked Twilight at one point as they were halfway through the street.

“Nah, it’s breezy as hell. It kinda adjusts to the climate yar in. Tropics, this thing become a fridge. Snowy mountain, it become a warm bath. Well, ya get the idea,” the mare replied before she erupted out in a gentle chuckle before her head was shook. “Oh that was a bad joke, wasn’t it?”

Twilight gave a little shrug as response before she replied with some words of her own. “Truth be told, I have heard a lot more jokes that were even more terrible than that.” Which caused the both of them to actually erupt out in a gentle snicker.

It felt good for some reason. Even if Applejack was this rough and tough sailor who took literally no nonsense from anypony, she still had that gentle side of her somewhere hidden and tucked deep away. Perhaps just Twilight’s entire personality caused it to come up. Who would know the facts as they were. Yet they didn’t matter to the unicorn at all, she was at least having some fun.

“Hey, here’s a map of the city!” exclaimed Twilight. She had noticed something that stood at the side of the road. They had left the busy market street behind them and turned into a side street which led them over to a little park. The admiral herself rose a gentle eyebrow before she had a look herself.

The pair of them began to figure out just where they were and where they had to be going. “So, we are here, in the near south corner of town, but need to north… Great, can walk through half the city again…” muttered Applejack barely audible. Twilight turned her focus to her and almost wanted to point to her horn.

“Don’t even think about it. One teleport was bad enough, and Ah still gotta go back.”

“Okay, okay, sorry for thinking about it, captain Grumpy,” responded Twilight with a gentle smile. She slowly began to memorize the route towards the airbase. The names of the streets were easy to remember, the question would be if it also was stated obviously into which street they would be going.

The admiral released a small exhale to her nickname before she just rolled her eyes and sighed. Some anthronies wouldn’t even have changed with the gears of time, that much she knew for certain. “So, we’re good to go?”

“We’re ready when you are.” Not even fifteen seconds later were the both of them wandering again through the city of pride and simply took in the massive structures made out of nothing but clouds as well as the architecture they all seemed to be sharing with one another. It was both a beauty as well as a horror to see.

~~~~

The pegasi race was one that loved war, not yet glorifying it but it was rather close. Yet who could blame them for it? They were a proud race of anthronies who almost constantly were placed under the highest amounts of pressure that there was. So it was a little logical that they honored the greatest heroes of their time with massive statues.

Though the more statues they came across, the more they realized they were getting closer and closer to the airbase. In their ears they already rang, the ones who went almost at the speed of sound. Those few dare devils that were almost breaking the barrier of sound itself. “Well, Ah reckon we’re in the right place,” commented Applejack when they neared a fence that was looking straight over the runway.

Twilight nodded before her eyes looked over the runway itself where she saw two pilots taking off at an incredible speed. “They really want you to see what they are doing, don’t they?” she spoke up as Applejack slowly began to get what she meant.

“What do you want from them? They are pegasi in body and soul. Showoffs but helpful when needed, Ah promise ya that.” For some time they would be looking to the trainings that were given upon the runway itself while their eyes were also peeled to the skies. For somewhere upon that air base would the third member of the group be revealed. The question just was: where?

Both Applejack and Twilight continued to look towards the skies. They made the realization that they needed to get in close and personal with the pegasi. Which meant that Applejack had to come in close with pretty much her biggest rivals in warfare, the air force itself. Both the Equestrian Navy and C.A.F. never had been the greatest of friends from one another. Something that would help them in the right way, or from the frying pan into the fire.

“Well, standing here isn’t really going to be doing anything either. We have to find a way inside that isn’t guarded by pegasi asking for some sort of identification,” said Twilight when she finally managed to tear her eyes away from the acrobatic stunts that were being performed in the air. It was amazing to see, but it indeed didn’t help them an inch further at all.

“Heh, no need partner. They’ll allow anyone on there as long as you have a valid reason when being asked,” answered Applejack in her defense. The two of them left the fence and looked for some sort of an entranceway placed along it.

They simply walked down the length of the entire fence and therefore the entire runway before they finally managed to find a way in. The way that would be leading them in was actually the normal entrance of the place so they were quite in luck. Weren’t it for the fact that there were still two pegasi keeping guard.

The two of them looked at the guards for a couple of minutes and how they handled the pegasi that were entering and leaving the airbase. Out of that could the two of them conclude that they wouldn’t be doing anything to stop them. Perhaps they would even be helping them to find the right anthrony they are looking for.

Although they both knew that that chance was very small.

So with all the courage in the world did the two anthronies walk up to the gate and joined the line, which only consisted out of two other pegasi. The two pegasi in front of them were allowed through pretty much without a hitch. It was only when Applejack and Twilight wanted to enter the base that they were stopped by one of the muscular guards.

“What is the purpose that an earth anthrony and a unicorn have upon the airbase of the C.A.F.?” he asked the both of them in a dead serious tone. The eyes kept on inspecting the pair of them. Of course he was just doing his job, but it still annoyed the living daylight out of the other two.

“We came here to blow it all up, happy now?” Applejack replied before she rolled her eyes. “Mah goodness, ‘course we ain’t gonna do that! We’re just here to watch and see how y’all work. Heard stories on some vessel that y’all are the cherry on the cake.” It was of course a massive bit of flattery, but a pegasi praised for its work more often than not would be leaving its guard down.

Which was exactly the thing that happened in the case of Applejack and Twilight. The guard nodded calmly to the two of them before he waved them through the checkpoint. Without much hesitation did both of the anthronies make their way past the point.

With a quick pace in their hooves did they make a little sprint until they were out of his hearing range. “How did you knew that would work?” Twilight asked curiously as she really wanted to know the secret of Applejack.

“Years of sailing with Old Bonesnapper. Every pegasi is alike, they take pride in their stuff. Remember that for later, it’s useful advice around this lot,” said Applejack with a faint smile. Then they calmly continued over the base’s ground. The search for the new recruit had begun and they had not even a single clue as of where to look. Whether it be mare or stallion, general or janitor.

~~~~

The eyes of both of the mares looked over pretty much every single pegasi that they saw, but none of them actually seemed to hold any of the capabilities where Twilight and Applejack were looking for. Beginning about those, neither of the mares even knew what they were looking for inside of a pegasus of that caliber. They actually didn’t knew what was required for them to find outside of the fact that they would know it when they saw it.

“This is just complete madness, it’s like we’re looking for a needle in a haystack and ya know it, Twilight,” spoke Applejack in an annoyed tone. She took her hat off again and shook her head a little bit. It was perhaps the first and only time that she was granted a perfect view of the hat of the admiral.

Calmly it waved next to her while she simply watched over the insignia that it was supposed to carry. But the sign of the celestial sun wasn’t there. Instead there were three apples positioned in a triangular shape to be found upon it. Twilight knew instantly what it was, it was the mark that had marked Applejack for the rest of her life. Whether the admiral knew it or not, it just happened to be that very way.

“Come on, let’s look over here. Or perhaps in the barracks we can find somepony that will be able to help us.” Twilight said as she tried to get the hope back in Applejack. Although that was something a lot easier said than done.

The hat was placed once more upon her head before a deep sigh was also released. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” she muttered up before following the unicorn into one of the barracks.

When they both entered the barrack was it the cool air that surprised the both of them. They felt themselves almost comfortable inside of it. Something which a lot of the cadets also seemed as they were all either sitting around a table or laying in their bunk beds. In that aspects was the navy not all too different from the air force. Which was much to Applejack’s glee.

It still remained to be a needle in a haystack though. When Twilight looked over all of the pegasi that were inside, there wasn’t even one who seemed to be capable to join them. It was that outcome that led to Twilight saying a series of words that would were almost like a shot to the heart for Applejack. “We have to ask some of them, we need to know somepony in command who can help us with it all.”

Grumble after grumble was being released by Applejack as she tried to formulate a reply upon the words. It wasn’t something she wanted to do at all, but it was perhaps their only shot if they didn’t wanted to spend days, if not weeks inside of the place. So with a deep sigh she finally came to the conclusion. “Fine, ask them. Let’s see what their squabbling mouths got to tell.”

Twilight didn’t understood much from the words, but she was glad that she had agreed upon the facts as they were. So without much trouble did the anthrony stand on top of an empty table and almost instantly became the focal point of attention. “Now that I have your attention, who is the highest in command. Myself and my partner will be needing a couple of words with him or her.” Twilight spoke up as she looked past the eyes of all of the pegasi.

“Grand field marshal Spitfire, is the one you’ll be needing for that. Somewhere out on the runway, flaming hair. Can’t miss it,” one of the recruits said to them. The rest all gave a slow nod of agreeing. Which meant for both Twilight and Applejack that they had found the one pegasi who could be helping them further. So the quest to find this Spitfire was on.

Chapter X

The two anthronies thanked the cadets in the barrack before they left and were once again delivered on the mercy of the blistering heat. The second that they both got out of the barrack was the nice and cool environment traded in for the heat of the sun. Neither of the two were particularly happy about the facts as they were but neither of them decided to speak a word about the matter as it was.

It was a thing that was most likely for the better. They needed to find that one mare they were after. The mare with the flaming hair that couldn’t be missed by any kind of eyes. Problem just happened to be that those two always managed to get themselves into the biggest of troubles for just about nothing. They knew they were after a mare with flaming hair, but what specific kind of flaming hair?

Just the coloring represented flaming, or actual flaming hair? It was something that most would have taken as something that was said in the figural sense of the way, but both Applejack and Twilight were rather safe than sorry. “They said she would be out on the runway, grand marshal. You know how the outfit looks?” Twilight asked to Applejack with a genuine wonder in her tone.

But the admiral herself calmly shook her head before the words were left in that same manner. “Ah’m afraid Ah don’t know what it looks like, Twilight. Can be anything really. Do Ah look like a flyer to ya to begin with?”

"What? No, of, of course not. I just thought that maybe…”

“Maybe Ah would know it? Well Ah don’t.”

“Fine then, captain Grumpy,” replied Twilight in an inaudible tone before the two of them continued their path along the runway with hopes of finding the grand field marshal. But with all of the pegasi still out there during the hottest part of the day, that was truly easier said than done.

It annoyed both of the anthronies a big bit. Yet they never dared to show it to either one present. Their tensions didn’t needed to be cut at all if they wanted to get out of the city in one piece. Applejack almost had to remind herself at a constant rate upon the fact that it was thanks to Twilight’s magic that she could walk upon the clouds that the city was built upon. So she better not anger the soothsayer too much if she didn’t wanted something bad to happen to her.

It wasn’t a thing where she was looking forward too at all but it was a lot better than falling to her doom somewhere, someplace. That was another thing of the moving city, they knew that the horizon almost constantly changed as it drifted in the wind. What they didn’t knew was where exactly they were drifting. They could be heading to the Frozen North and be somewhere over the desert for all they knew.

It was difficult to pinpoint their exact location as the smell of ocean water wasn’t to be found anywhere. Which meant that they had gone further into the main land. Which on its own turn made Applejack even more cautious about pretty much everything. Whether the admiral liked it or not, she would have to play the game by the rules of Twilight Sparkle, whatever the rules then would be.

Yet that same Twilight Sparkle showed signs that were unseen by the admiral before. Her hand released a small magical charge every now and again. Not to mention that it also spazed together into a fist for only the fraction of a second. It were only minor things but if the soothsayer was brooding something. A thing that would almost destroy the relationship that Equestria had with Cloudsdale. Then it could be simply said that the tremors were becoming the least of their worries.

Applejack stood still while Twilight continued to walk. Only to get the hand of the admiral placed upon her shoulder a mere second later. A gentle ‘wha’ was being released by the soothsayer before she was forcefully turned towards the orange skinned earth anthrony. An anthrony who looked her deep in the eyes while she took a deep inhale.

“What are ya planning with that magic of yars?” she bluntly asked in a snarling whisper. It was loud enough for Twilight to hear it, but silent enough for those around them. The looks in those green rimmed eyes was dead serious as Twilight didn’t knew where she was talking about.

“P-Planning? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not planning anything, why would I plan anything that involves magic?!” Twilight hissed back to her in a whisper. While it could be seen within her eyes that Twilight didn’t told her a lie, Applejack still didn’t know it for sure. A lie was easily told for a unicorn, that much she knew. Yet something about the very tone in which Twilight caused her to be send down a wild goose chase.

So the only thing that Applejack could do was to actually cut right down to the chase of the matter and confront the unicorn there and then. “Magic’s flowing through yar hands. Explain what you planned on doing,” she hissed up in return while her teeth were gritted against one another. The hold upon Twilight’s shoulders got even stronger as the admiral wanted to know the finer details.

It was through the words of the admiral that the eyes of the mare sprung open wide. That was just before she realized what was going on. Something that caused her to almost hit herself right in the face. She couldn’t do it as another little spaz happened. “I know what you’re referring to,” said Twilight then. She had admitted that magic was indeed flowing through her hand.

“So, what were ya planning to do?” Applejack continued to ask. Though Twilight placed her hands around Applejack’s upper arms. The tingles of the arcane power suddenly surged through the other mare as well and her body had a bit of a difficulty accepting it before it returned back to Twilight. “What did ya do?”

“I, did nothing,” the soothsayer replied as she looked the admiral dead in the eyes. “I don’t control this bit of power! Nor do I have a clue what can cause it.”

“Is it going to be dangerous, for us all?” Applejack then asked through as she wanted, if not needed, to be knowing the whole truth behind the matter. A matter that was actually a lot easier said than done. Twilight calmly removed the hands of the admiral off of her shoulders before she released a deep sigh through her nostrils. Only then it became known to Applejack that her horn also had troubles trying not to be ignited by any sort of kind.

“Ya be needing to release some steam, for the looks of it,” she then spoke up towards Twilight when she remembered the signs. Even though a unicorn’s body worked out a lot differently, the signals were actually the same in both cases. “Ain’t there something ya can do ‘bout it, to vent yar magic?”

The question itself wasn’t something that Twilight had actually expected to come from the admiral, but she was glad that she said it. Even though she didn’t wanted to believe it at first instance that she needed to vent her powers, the reality came through to her like a massive shock. One massive spaz was shot through her entire body before she knew what needed to be done.

The solution itself wasn’t something that she particularly enjoyed doing as she had never trained herself upon the matter. Yet something told her deep inside of her that it was the best thing that she could be doing for the time being. “There, there is a little something. But it’s going to render me almost completely blind,” admitted Twilight. She gained a confused look from the admiral.

“Say what now?” Applejack couldn’t believe the words that were said to her as she took Twilight once more, but that time by the shoulders. “Look, we’re runnin’ outta time here, tell me what ya need to be doing and Ah’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

Twilight nodded to the words spoken against her before she took a deep exhale. An exhale that also caused a raspberry fog to leave her body and flow upwards, into the skies. “Ah didn’t saw that one coming,” the admiral said quickly. Moments later had she lost track of the fog and returned her attention back on Twilight. “Go, go and do what ya need to be doing.”

The soothsayer gave one last nod before she closed her eyes and took a deep exhale before she took a deep swig of air. Both of her hands slowly began to charge themselves with the magic she possessed as the darkness behind her eyelids gently managed to get some color behind it. She began to see the world once more. The same world but in different colors and shapes. Right in front of her stood the outline of Applejack with nothing else but a green line that kept on irradiating in a worried manner.

“I’m fine, Applejack,” she then spoke in a calm tone. Her head turned in other directions to see what was going on. “Yeah, I’m fine.” All around her she noticed how the colored outline of an anthrony reflected most likely a part of their personality as well as looking at the waves of light they irradiated in what kind of mood they would have been.

“What did ya do?” the curious admiral asked of her. She did still hold Twilight by her arms, but released the sheer amount of tension she carried in her hands.

"I opened my eyes for the aura world. It takes a lot of magic to do and allows me to watch the world with literally a set of different eyes. However, I can’t physically open my eyes right now. Even if I try my best, they just won’t. So, I’m afraid that you have to guide me over to this grand field marshal,” explained Twilight to the admiral. She released a very silly squee sound from her body afterwards. A sound that first caused Applejack to tilt her head before she shrugged it off and nodded to the words. She understood them and knew what needed to happen.

“’Right then, so we’re gonna play it like that. Should be easy to guide ya over the runway. As long as there ain’t coming something out way from the skies.” Even though it was said as something like a joke, both of the mares knew that they must have been seen by somepony else. That gave the both of them a feeling of insecurity as they really didn’t wanted to stand out from the crowd.

Though with the things they had already done, that was perhaps a task that was a lot harder than it originally seemed. Time wasn’t their friend anymore or at all as they needed to find that one cursed mare out of a sea of nearly a hundred.

The both of them walked over the runway while Applejack kept an eye out for a mare with the flaming hair. Twilight focused herself upon the aura’s of the other anthronies. Perhaps that was the thing they meant, that the one they needed had a flaming aura. It was a farfetched idea for certain but an idea nonetheless.

“Ya be seeing something with those eyes of ya yet?” Applejack asked when she slowly walked over the runway itself. A little fact that she didn’t realize was that she was getting too close to the middle, the very place where most of the pegasi would be landing. It would only have been a matter of time before they asked about accidents.

“Not seeing anything really. I can’t believe that this Spitfire is that hard to track down!” Twilight muttered in response. She had an actual struggle to see further than a couple dozen hooves in front of her. The anthrony flung her head backwards as she released a deep growl from the bottom of her soul. She was through it all, she really just wanted to go home and be done with it. But if things would have been only that easy.

“What’s that..?” the soothsayer then said. She tilted her head to one side in order to await. Yet the whisper only came as a faintly spoken word to Applejack. The admiral wanted to know what was being said. Though instead of turning around and question it, she just continued to walk onwards as if nothing had happened.

Fractions of a second went by while Twilight finally puzzled the pieces together within her mind. The aura that she saw right above the two of them was heading straight towards them. The magical flow was cancelled instantly and the mind of the mare went into a sudden overdrive. It began to work so fast, that time almost crawled down to a standstill.

Twilight’s eyes were finally opened again. The soothsayer looked straight up and into a pair of aviation goggles from the pegasus that was coming down. The reflection of her own eyes within those same goggles only made even more certain that time to get out was there. Without much thinking did the muscles of the unicorn move themselves forward before she tackled Applejack towards the ground.

The admiral didn’t even knew what was going on when her face smacked down on the black tarmac of the runway. She wanted to hit Twilight with the question of what was going on before a shadow blocked the sunlight for just a moment.

All of the sudden was there the sun again shining down upon their faces. Both of the anthronies looked as to what had happened. Whatever could have caused their fall down on the runway. The both of them were treated with the same kind of scenery. And it was one they perhaps weren’t all too happy about.

Within their eyes they both caught a pegasus taking off again into the skies. A pegasus that was white of skin, poured into the skintight suit of the C.A.F.’s most special forces before disappearing within the clouds again.

If it was a crash, it didn’t seem like it. If it was a landing, why didn’t the pegasus land further away. No, what happened to them almost seemed like it was staged. That, or they were both at the wrong place and the wrong time. Not that it all mattered too much really. When the mind of Twilight returned back to its normal state of going around and about, the sounds also returned to her ears.

“Hey Twi, thanks,” brought Applejack forth in an honest and humble tone. She had realized that they had escaped a three-person crash in the middle of the runway. Without much trouble did the admiral got back upon her hooves before she offered Twilight a hand once more. Who took it once more before she got pulled up to her feet again. “Heh, perhaps we both be needing to watch one another’s back,” said the admiral with a well-meant chuckle.

The soothsayer herself couldn’t do much else than to laugh at the matter as well because otherwise the scare of her life would be shocking through her. Which was about the last thing she wanted to have on that very day. “You’re welcome, Applejack and, well, let’s not discuss that right now shall we? We are having bigger issues at hand.”

“True that indeed,” replied Applejack. She then asked the most important question there was. “Hey, ya alright? Ya seem a little shocked ‘bout it all.” The mare then placed a hand on the cheek of Twilight as she looked the soothsayer deeply in the eyes to make sure there wasn’t something else going on.

“Yeah, yes, I’m fine. Just, just a little bit shocked that’s all,” answered Twilight. She tried to avoid the looks given to her by Applejack. She pushed the arm of the mare away. “I said I’m fine, alright?”

“No ya ain’t. Ya never acted like that before, what’s wrong?”

There was no more denying the facts as they were, who would she fool by telling that she was alright? Nopony would be falling for it, especially a mare like Applejack who had seen just over a thousand and one cases of pretty much everything. So with a deep sigh did Twilight told her what was actually wrong with her. “Look, I’m not used to putting my life on the line in a physical manner. I rather just make the two way trip up and down to them than anything else. That’s what’s wrong with me. I don’t belong here.” Twilight had finally come clean with the admiral.

“Hmpf, ya don’t belong here? Then why are we here?” Applejack countered with a huff. It was something that Twilight didn’t saw coming for the admiral and both of her eyebrows rose themselves up. She truly didn’t have the slightest of clues on just what was going on or what she had to say about it.

“I, I don’t know, alright! I’m just all foggy right now. It’s not every day I almost get hit in the head like that!”

“Calm down partner, it’s nothing to be getting stressed ‘bout. Stressing ya can do when ya’re old enough. But not now,” said Applejack to her. She once again placed her hands upon the shoulders of Twilight. But for the first time since the whole fiasco did she also look over the shoulders of the mare and further down the runway. Only to see a sight that she really didn’t wanted to see coming towards the both of them.

“Uhm, Twilight, Ah think we’ve found who we came looking for.”

~~~~

Applejack couldn’t have been more right. Because on the three mile long runway there was a storm heading exactly their way. Using the powerful, light brilliant, feathered wings, it came closer like a ball of fire. Twilight then slowly turned herself around in order to witness just what was going on and couldn’t believe it with her eyes.

The ball of fire that was mixture of yellowish gold, orange and amber that came rushing towards them at the speed not even the fastest earth anthronies could run, something told Twilight that they indeed had found the right mare. Though from the looks that were given to the pair of them, they couldn’t expect a friendly conversation.

“’Member what Ah said, talk ‘bout their pride. Should be doing the trick,” managed Applejack to whisper in Twilight’s ear before the fire ball colored pegasus finally slowed down in front of them.

I pray to the goddesses that you are right, otherwise it’s your head they’ll be having, Twilight said to herself in her thoughts. She could only pray for the best of things to be happening. Whether or not it actually was going to be the way that Twilight had opened for remained to be seen.

The pegasus pulled its body up which caused it to finally go vertical before a gust of wind traveled past both of the other anthronies. What was revealed in the eyes of Twilight and Applejack was indeed the anthrony with the flaming hair. The patterns that were going into it indeed resembled an ongoing fire.

Neither of the two dared to speak to the pegasus as it landed and the wings were tucked together nicely behind the back. Which then revealed a mare to the two of them, a mare that wore the attire of a drill sergeant that didn’t look all too happily out of her eyes. A deep huff was released through her nostrils as she walked closer to the two of them.

“And just what are you two thinking, to come onto the runway the way you did? Thanks to you two, one my cadets almost died if didn’t you duck and he pull up again. No excuses, I need to know the truth,” the mare spoke up as she placed her hands in her sides and began to wait for the words to come from either Applejack or Twilight.

Of course had the pegasus seen that Applejack was from the Equestrian navy and the feelings of both horror and disgust already were flowing through her body. But it was Twilight who dared to speak up first, remembering the words of the admiral. “Look, we aren’t here to cause any trouble, especially not to end somepony’s life here, but we simply must speak to grand marshal Spitfire. It’s of the utmost importance. We have been trying to find him for all the time now, without much luck I’m afraid.”

Only after the words had been spoken did Twilight realize how stupid the words actually sounded. Especially with Applejack’s own words echoing once more through her mind.

All of the sudden did the pegasus erupt out in a deep laughter before she shook her head. What was so funny on the matter couldn’t be soon discovered by the other two mares. All they could hope for was that it actually calmed the rage that was going through her. Yet then there was once more the silence as only the sounds of their surroundings could be heard.

A silence that was eventually broken by the pegasus herself as she spoke in a nearly seducing tone towards them. “Did the cadets tell you those stories? Hmh, seems like they will be needing another lesson. Because first of all, it’s grand field marshal. Secondly, Spitfire isn’t a he. But a she,” the pegasus said to them. Then she pointed to herself. “I am Spitfire.”

It was the biggest shock that both Applejack and Twilight had received all day. Both of their eyes went as wide as they were allowed to go. The both of them also gulped deeply before Spitfire focused her attention upon the admiral. “So do tell me, what are the pair of you doing in my playground, hm? I mean, an admiral of the navy that’s walking into the skies. Not to mention with a leg like that, tsk, tsk, tsk.”

If Applejack didn’t know any better, it almost seemed like the pegasus was either mocking or taunting her. Either way, she didn’t like it for one bit and just wanted to literally smash her head in with something. Though Twilight placed a hand upon her shoulder before she quickly shook her head.

The rage that was to be found inside of Applejack needed to be contained or released in another way. Unfit to talk was the word left over to Twilight. “Funny that you start about that, the whole ‘why we happen to be here’ part, really. We’re looking for a pegasus in fact. Nothing wrong, but we are on a mission to find the best of the best. As words have it, the best of Cloudsdale stand under your watchful eye, right?” Twilight tried to give some affection to Spitfire by playing the harp of pride.

At first instance it indeed seemed to be working. Spitfire stroked her chin while a couple of interesting sounds were being given off by her. “That indeed is the truth, yes. A lot of great pegasi are indeed under my eye. But I still wonder, why would I give you one of my recruit just like that?” The question was rightfully asked. Not to mention that it was one that drove Twilight straight back in her corner.

She needed help from Applejack more than ever and the admiral knew it. If it meant that she would shatter her own pride in order not to see her home becoming one giant mess of lava, so it be. “We be needing a pegasi for a variety of things, matter of fact. Everything from recon to precision airstrikes. The seas are rough these days with ‘em pirates lingering ‘bout. Best to be going over prepared then realize ya running short in the heat of things.”

It was a tale that Spitfire could understand completely. Pirates had been a massive menace and threat both in the air and at sea. Especially those that hailed from the griffon empire. Those really didn’t have any kind of mercy left within their bodies. “Alright, I see your point here admiral,” said Spitfire. She took a step closer towards the pair of them. “I think I know just whom will be perfect for the spot. Promise me to bring her back, alive and well.”

“Promised,” spoke Applejack and Twilight in choir. The pegasus gained a smirk upon her lips.

“Alright then, listen up and follow me,” added Spitfire to her words. She would have turned herself around and flapped her wings once before they almost majestically tucked behind her back. Both Applejack and Twilight each joined a side of her as they kept their focus upon the grand field marshal. “The pegasus that you are looking for is at this runway on the very moment. Though I warn you, she’s a bit of a trigger happy girl. So you might encounter her with her weapons drawn at you. Something you shouldn’t be worried about, admiral.”

It were far from the words that Twilight and Applejack had hoped for, but they at least gave the two of them something about the personality of the mare they would be meeting soon enough. “Anything else that we need to know about this pegasus?” Twilight then asked. The soothsayer wanted to know more before they would be heading into the place.

Spitfire came to a standstill and she turned around to face Twilight as a whole. The expression upon her face turned almost into a motherly one. The eyes were looking straight into the violet rims. Applejack knew that trouble laid almost around the corner when stuff like that would happen and simply rolled her own eyes as she stared at the yellowish golden wings.

“Know that if you treat her with the respect and care that you want to be taken care of, she will be the most loyal of anthrony pegasi you will ever encounter in your life. Nopony in all of my years of training has more commitment to a cause then that she has. Nopony, you hear me,” said Spitfire to her. Then her expression softened up by a whole lot. “I have trained her since she first came here, Wonderbolt extraordinaire without a doubt. Still rough around the edges after all this time, but I like it that way. A bit of paranoia can’t hurt anyone, right?”

"Ya really don’t wanna start about paranoia in the hearing distance of a soothsayer, grand field marshal,” warned Applejack to Spitfire. Iit was her turn to gain a massive grin across her lips. The words were heard by the pegasus, but she never turned herself around to face the other mare.

Instead the eyes of the yellowish gold pegasus continued to be looking over Twilight. Both the twitches of insanity could almost be seen clearly traveling over her body. “Hmpf, a soothsayer you say? What are they doing so far out of the castle these days? You got lost along the way home?”

“Bad move,” whispered Applejack without a sound. She took the marshal firm by one of her wings and forced her down to the ground. Before Spitfire could react to what happened, had Applejack’s mechanical leg been forced upon the chest. The action left the pegasus immobile on the ground. The admiral then leaned a bit forward with a dead serious face of her own. “Never, insult her when Ah’m near. Am Ah clear to ya?”

Spitfire didn’t even try to struggle her way out of the hold as she looked into the eyes of Applejack with a disgusted expression. “As crystal,” she brought forth. Moments later was the leg removed with a nod from the admiral herself. She then wanted to help the pegasus back up on her feet, but the offer was declined as got up using her wings. The mare then simply took off into the air before she growled her last words against the two of them. “Be glad I’m not going to make any official business out of this. For she will be also giving you enough troubles to worry about.”

~~~~

A couple minutes of silence had already been going through both Applejack and Twilight before it was the admiral who finally dared to speak as up they were going to the other end of the runway. “Well, as far as first impression go, ah reckon that went pretty well,” she chuckled up to herself. Then she noticed that Twilight didn’t really laugh about it. “Hey, it was supposed to be funny.”

A sigh was being released through the nostrils of the soothsayer before she focused her attention to Applejack and spoke her words in a mixed tone. A tone that showed that she wasn’t sure what was actually right and wrong. “Yeah, I suppose, but threatening her like that, doesn’t that go a bit far? Even by your standards?”

“Puh, Ah reckon she does it with all of her cadets. Ain’t no harm in returning what has been done, right? Ah mean, what goes around comes around, right?” said Applejack in an attempt to make the situation better in her eyes. And much to her own luck had Twilight to agree upon the facts as they were presented. A thing that caused her to silently sigh in relief.

“I guess you’re right,” said Twilight before a smile finally went across her lips.

"Hey, there we go. There’s the smile Ah wanted to see from the beginning.” Applejack spoke up in a gentle chuckle before she nodded to the calmly to herself. Her eyes then turned themselves forwards towards the end of the runway. “Well, Ah reckon that’s her over there.” She then pointed to a lonely pegasus who was training unlike anyone they had ever seen before.

The sharp angles that were taken when she was in the air, the precision dives that were being made. Just the sheer physical strength and the agility of the pegasus made Twilight stand perplex. “That, is some highly skilled flying, credit where credit’s due,” she spoke as Applejack could only nod to the words. Yet they still had a rather long way to go before they would be reaching her.

When the two of them finally reached the mysterious mare, they both could see that she sat down on the tarmac of the runway. Her cyan colored skin was almost invisible against her outfit and her rainbow colored hair. Applejack had a difficult time not to make a joke about it before she placed the final step.

A step which also released a puff of steam. A puff of steam which was rather loud in noise and caused the pegasus to immediately turn herself around with a pair of spread wings. Twilight and Applejack had not a clue of what was going on as the smoke was being used against the pair of them. Yet when it finally cleared, they were each looking down the barrel of a flintlock.

Twilight released a deep gulp while Applejack didn’t even seem to be reacting. “So,” the pegasus said when she cocked both of her weapons. “What do have here? Who are you and what do you want from me?”

“L-Look, can we, can we discuss this a-all in private?” Twilight stuttered up. She constantly shifted her eyes from the gun to the mare and back again. “It’s, it’s rather important business that we have to d-discuss a-and not allowed f-for all ears.”

“Yeah, well what if I don’t want to?” the mare replied to the two of them. She took a step closer to them. Her threats weren’t hollow, that much could Applejack already tell. So perhaps the best way to deal with her was to play the game her way.

The green rimmed eyes of the admiral looked deeply into the moderate cerise eyes. “Why don’t ya start, by telling yar name, partner?” she then asked to her.

It was a question that did stop the mare in her tracks. Her wings tucked themselves again behind her back. An inhale was taken by the pegasus while she still kept the pair of them under shot. “My name, is major Rainbow Dash.”

Chapter XI

Both Twilight and Applejack were staring down the barrels of the flintlocks which were aimed at them by the rainbow color haired major. Whether she would actually shoot the two on the spot was a question that remained to be seen. Caution was given off by both of the other anthronies though. Neither of them even dared to make any sudden movements.

Both of the guns were cocked and ready to fire when major Dash wanted it. The moderate cerise rims were constantly switching between both the soothsayer and the admiral. A deep huff was then released as she never even showed a grain of doubt. She was a pegasus, always one hundred percent confident of what they would be doing. Even if it meant that there would be nasty cost.

There still remained a lot of mystery around the major as Applejack knew that she needed to find any kind of manner to calm the mind of the pegasus. It had to be her as Twilight almost had a set of shivering knees while she continued to stare down the barrel. The fear and fright was actually readable within her eyes and not something that was particularly hard to miss.

Even Rainbow Dash saw it within the eyes but made the probably wise decision not to give any attention to it. Seconds seemed to have passed like hours while the silence had taken over the mood. One wrong word and it could all be over for the company. Under the blistering sun there was no room for error. One mistake and they could have waved their lives goodbye.

Applejack released a deep exhale through her nostrils. Her eyes had eased up but she also made a gentle growl that come from her throat. She wanted to speak her words so desperately yet she was secretly afraid that she would be the one that would blow the entire operation. Which was about the last thing where the mare had been hoping for to do.

Caution had to be executed on a regular base before the eyes of the soothsayer and the admiral finally met up with one another. Even though they didn’t said a word against the other, they knew exactly what they were thinking about. Two simple blinks acted as nods. Nods that spoke about the fact of understanding.

In the end though, was it Applejack who gave an actual calm but firm nod with her head. The admiral turned her attention back to the major with a pair of good eyes. “Major Dash,” she started in a respectful tone when her eyes met those of Rainbow, “would ya kindly lower yar weapons so we can discuss the matter that’s upon us? We ain’t demanding ya to listen, but ya gotta give us a try.”

The pegasus listened to the words as they came past her ears. There would be a deep exhale released by her that ended with a chuckle. But her weapons were never lowered. “Once you have been through what I have been, you’ll figure out that those most honest are either drunk, young or staring down the barrel of your gun,” she said to the both of them almost in a threatening tone. “So you, better start to tell me the truth before the clouds are painted red.”

Those words managed to get a massive scare from Twilight as she made a small yelp. A little something that broke the attention between the two military ponies. They glanced over to the soothsayer. It was in fact a massive mistake. It gave Rainbow Dash another point she could focus herself on.

Even though the major had never actually seen a soothsayer, she knew how one looked like the second she saw one. There was a gust of wind that came in and the tail of Applejack’s coat as well as the open jacket of Rainbow began to wave within it. The tension was even more present and the pressure was there. Something had to happen to bring the whole situation right down upon the right pair of legs. The only problem happened to be the question of what.

Seconds later did the attention of the two mares focus back upon the other and their conversation erupted. A conversation that was everything but pleasant to listen to. “Ah know, that even when facing the barrel of a flintlock one can still sell a lie as the truth. Yar logic ain’t applying on us partner. Ya need a new strategy if ya want any kind of answers outta us,” said Applejack in an honest tone. She placed herself a bit firmer upon the cloud-asphalt of the runway.

Yet those words didn’t fell in the right throat hole for Rainbow. She did a step closer and placed one of her guns right up against the nose of Applejack. The cold steel of the barrel against the nostrils was something that made her heart skip a beat before it raced faster. Out of all the close encounters that the admiral had, that one happened to have been a little bit too close for her liking.

“So you wanna take your secrets to the grave, I presume?” replied major Dash in a cold tone. She forced her weapon even the slightest bit more into Applejack’s face. The anger was truly visible within her eyes when somepony dared to question her authority. Twilight had the feeling that something terrible would happen and that was about the last thing she needed and wanted.

Against everything that was said and done already, it was Twilight herself who finally dared to open her mouth against Rainbow. The violet rimmed eyes focused themselves upon the cerise ones while the words left her mouth. “Listen, major, we never came here with the intention for a fight with you. We came here on the behalf of something else. Something, much more important.”

Rainbow’s attention turned over to the soothsayer. Then it were her own words that got hissed up behind her teeth. “What could be more important than the fate of Cloudsdale and the C.A.F. all together? Tell me, soothsayer. And when you are on an answering role, tell me also why you have left that castle of yours and why you look like that.”

It were rightfully asked questions where Twilight had little to nothing against. She had to tell the major the truth, but out there in the open did the wind carried their words. The wrong ears were always listening from the darkest corners was a thing she had learned. Somepony else could have gotten scent of their journey and what they could have planned wouldn’t have be helpful at all.

A deep exhale that was being released at first, then Twilight took a deep inhale while she gathered her guts in order to answer. Yet before she could say even one word, she was cut off by Applejack. “How ‘bout the land yar city flies under eh? Without that land, y’all be dead quicker than a ship sinks. ‘Member that y’all still require that very land as yar food source. Now imagine it all gone. Whole of Cloudsdale starving, cause ya couldn’t keep ya finger off the trigger.”

Powerful words were spoken indeed, that much had Twilight to admit from the admiral. Though whether or not it was enough to break the pegasus remained to be seen. Until then, it was perhaps better for Twilight to keep quiet. The matter didn’t ask for her help, never had been.

Seconds slowly turned into minutes as the flintlocks of Rainbow never even moved one bit in her hands. The thoughts that were racing through her mind were certainly processing the words spoken by the admiral and she knew they were true. The city still depended on the land below and without it, they would all die of starvation.

Eventually there was a massive exhale that was released through her nostrils before the guns were raised into the air and uncocked before they disappeared again in the holsters under the waving jacket. The cerise eyes never lost track of the both of them. “So, what are you two planning?” the pegasus asked from the both of them.

Twilight released a deep exhale in relief. The mare was glad that she wasn’t staring down a barrel anymore. Applejack on the other end just scratched her nose a little bit before it began to twitch calmly. “Is there any place we can discuss this matter in private? It’s a really sensitive matter,” said Twilight in the hope that Rainbow would finally agree upon it.

Though much to both of their surprise gave the anthrony pegasus a nod as a confirmation to the words. “Yes, there’s a place where we can discuss it privately. The office of grand field marshal Spitfire. Follow me,” answered Rainbow Dash. Without a further word had the major just walked past the two of them. There wasn’t much that either Applejack or Twilight Sparkle could be doing then to follow the blue skinned, rainbow haired major of the Cloudsdale Air Force.

~~~~

It was after a small walk over across half the runway that the three of them finally turned to a series of buildings. Once again was it the second that they had walked through the doorway that the cool air of the place took them over. While they did like the sun, its blistering heat had caused a strain of sweat to travel down their faces. Yet it was Rainbow Dash who didn’t even seem to be affected by it whatsoever.

Perhaps it was a little pegasus thing, given that they lived nearly constantly under the sun. Perhaps they had a built up some form of resistance through the gears of time itself it. Twilight could only wonder about it. Whereas Applejack couldn’t care less about it.

Through the hallways they walked with calm while other cadets came and went past them. None of them gave much attention to them but Twilight could hear them talking behind their backs from time to time. Not that she minded it too much at all. It was in fact a strange case to see the unicorn and the earth anthrony walking the cloudy floor of the buildings. Twilight and Applejack would have just shrugged it off before Rainbow opened a door. “If you please,” she said in a voice that was genuinely trying to be polite.

Both of the other anthronies nodded thankfully to her before they walked into the room. A rectangular room that held a couple of dossier cabinets, near countless pictures upon the walls of green and a desk with three chairs. The door was closed and locked behind Rainbow as she then pointed to the other two to sit in the chairs.

Without a question they just did what was asked of them. Rainbow walked even past them and the desk, only to lean up against the wall between two windows that were located on the backwall of either side of the desk. Her arms were crossed over each other as she looked the pair of them once more in the eyes. “So, now that we are in private, can you two finally tell me what you need of me?” Rainbow then asked of them. She had to admit that she was secretly curious as of what they had in store for her.

Twilight looked over to Applejack who did the same. But that questioning gaze with those violet rims were already enough of a hint to the admiral. She simply gave a nod to Twilight before she leaned her body a bit more against the back of the chair. “Allow her to explain,” said Applejack. The admiral gestured her hand over to Twilight. The story would be told by the one who knew it all.

The soothsayer all of the sudden gained the full attention of the major. One who waited in calm for the words to come. It was then or literally never that she held the power to get Rainbow Dash on their team. “Alright,” she whispered before most of her guts were gathered once again and a deep inhale was taken, “I trust that you are familiar with the tremors that have been causing havoc over the land of Equestria.

“Oh yes I am. Everywhere the city flies, there always seems to be another one happening,” commented Rainbow while she acknowledged the words. That did relief Twilight a lot as it meant she didn’t have to tell her that whole story either. “So, continue.”

“Hm? Oh, yes, sorry. Well, what we have planned is to gather a team and then try to find out what causes these tremors and possibly put a stop to them. That’s, basically what we’re going to try and do,” Twilight then spoke up as she realized once more just how insane her plan or quest happened to be.

Rainbow’s eyebrows both rose themselves up. Though her face turned into an expression of wondering as she really didn’t have a single clue. “Wait, wait, wait. Hold a moment here,” the major said then. She was in the need to know the finer details. “I’m a pegasus who has almost never set a hoof on the ground. Now you want to go under it, and find the source of the tremors that plague your land? Why would you be needing a pegasus for in the first place?!”

The words were directly turned around and fired back at Twilight. That very same Twilight released a gentle sigh through her mouth. There wasn’t really an answer that she could think about that would have been seemed as logical. For there was no actual logic in the entire operation to begin with. “It’s not a matter of how, why, when and whether you want or not. It’s a matter of being there for the right reasons. If you don’t join us, the world as we know it might change forever.”

All of the sudden was it Applejack who interrupted Twilight. She gave a really blunt example of a possible future. “Years from now, when Equestria has changed for the worse, they be asking y’all: what did ya do when the world changed? And all ya can answer with is this: Ah just stood by and watched after declining the solution. Ya wanna do that for yar city? Ya wanna dent yar pride that much? Accept the facts major Dash, yar needed for this and ya know it.”

With the interruption of Applejack were the feelings inside of Rainbow’s heart pumped up even more. The pegasus really didn’t have the slightest of clues anymore. She could decline but if it really would dent her pride that much, she was better off dead. Yet if she accepted the offer, there also would be a chance that she would die. Though then she would have died for the right cause.

It was morally difficult to say the least. Both of their words sounded honestly, but as Applejack had stated once before: even when looking down the barrel of a flintlock, the lie could still be sold as the truth. That was the saying that really drove the pegasus off of her edge. She suddenly flung the chair back before she just took place into it and leaned back within it.

Her head was dropped backwards as much as it was allowed. Then she released a massive exhale through her mouth. Both of the other anthronies could actually hear the strain that they had managed to place upon the mind of the pegasus. It wasn’t something good to begin with. Yet they could only hope on the fact that everything would be working out just fine for them. Though it was only a hope.

That very same hope was something where neither of them actually trusted upon a whole lot. Twilight continued to judge the moment as the seconds ticked by as Applejack simply laid back in her own chair while waiting for the answer to come.

Thousands of thoughts raced through the mind of the mare in the chair behind the desk. Thousands of thoughts that went about pretty much every aspect of her life. The offer that was given to her was something she never had expected to be given in her entire life. Growls and moans were released by the deepest part of the body as the back of the chair creaked and squeaked with almost all of her motions.

Unsure of what to do and deeply in doubt was the best way to describe the situation of Rainbow for the moment. “A soothsayer and an admiral of the navy, asking a pegasus to go underground to stop a series of tremors. Heh, sounds like the start of a bad joke really,” the pegasus then muttered up just loud enough for the two to hear them. “When you think about it.”

Twilight was shocked by the words while Applejack felt that Rainbow didn’t hold respect for anything anymore. “Tis a terrible joke when nothing being done ‘bout it partner. Ya really don’t wanna be the one responsible for the madness that shall follow.” Her words were honest and powerful, only adding to the mental scale in which Rainbow was weighing the odds in against.

Odds about her making it out alive and how well she would adapt to the surface. Madness, that was the best word for pretty much everything. Madness surged through all three of their minds as they literally had no clue of what would be working and what would be just full of baloney. Yet that was something perhaps a lot easier said than done.

Minutes had passed by like they were hours in the cooled down office of grand field marshal Spitfire. The silence of Rainbow was a thing that began to worry the other two more and more. In order to break the near endless waiting, Twilight had begun to look upon some of the pictures that were hanging in the office. Her interests were certainly peaked while she began to wonder what had been the story behind all of them. Perhaps tales she would have liked, but she assumed that more of them were tales of war.

Wars fought by the grand field marshal herself as she led her soldiers charge into battle. War was something that Twilight had never experienced before in her life and it perhaps was for the better. It was just about the thing that she wanted, to land in the middle of a warzone. Though with an admiral and a major joining the group, tensions could become high enough that a war would indeed break loose. She could only hope those two could behave themselves for the time being.

Her violet rimmed eyes then slowly turned over to the windows and she calmly peeked outside. The scenery that was given to her was basically the back of the city itself. Skyscrapers made out of clouds rose up after a field of open cloud as countless pegasi were flying through the air as if it was nothing.

It brought a gentle smile to her face. The unicorn enjoyed the pallets of color that showcased itself before the sides of each building. With the sun shining down against it all, it almost seemed like modern pieces of art were painted right before her eyes. The canvas was the building and the paint were the pegasi.

Yet Applejack had never taken her eyes off Rainbow during it all. She was still waiting for the answer to come. With a small huff it became known that she really was having more than enough of it all. But the pegasus was still doubting her mind off.

It was only after a grueling fifteen minutes that Rainbow Dash finally flung herself forwards in the chair and placed her arms against the desk. She glanced the two anthronies deeply in the eyes before her words were spoken in a lower tone than they had expected. “Alright then, I’m in. It’s another perfect opportunity to show the diversity of the city itself. So yeah, count me in as well. As long as she doesn’t command me.”

The index finger was waving into the direction of Applejack who released a simple huff. Twilight knew that she needed to step in before the fires would rise up again. So she nodded calmly to the words of the pegasus before saying some of her own in a kind but demanding tone. “Nopony listens to anypony but me. I have set up this plan, so I have the highest of authority.”

“Good,” said Rainbow before she chuckled, “chance of a certain death, risky plan with minimum chance of succeeding. Yeah, my kind of thing right there.” It was basically the entire actual reason of why Rainbow would have joined them. But it was discarded by her as a simple joke. A joke which both Applejack and Twilight didn’t really follow, or didn’t want to.

Though the two of them were relieved that Rainbow made the decision to join them and not leave them hanging. If the pegasus had declined, things could have looked a whole lot sour. Twilight knew that Applejack went with her because of protection and Rainbow for the kick she would be getting out of the journey. Neither of them actually went because they wanted to help the land.

Each of them had so their own plans and reasons to get along. Twilight could only hope that the two remaining beings –as well as the mysterious one– would be coming because they heeded the call that their land needed them. Though most likely they wouldn’t. Two out of the five didn’t, that proved already so much for Twilight.

Though she was also happy that she came along, as it meant that they had half of the team complete. Herself, Applejack and Rainbow Dash formed half of the team of six. But seeing how difficult it was before Rainbow finally said yes to the matter, it only troubled Twilight how long it would be taking the others.

It would have been a worry for later though. As they were still dealing with the pegasus herself. Applejack on the other end was of course happy that major Dash had joined their company, but she still had her own thoughts about the matter. It was a triggerhappy mare for certain and she could only hope that she was as loyal as Spitfire had made them belief.

A true opinion about Rainbow Dash couldn’t be formed yet by Applejack. That was for the simple fact she hadn’t seen her in any actual action yet. She did respect the pegasus on her rank, but on a much more personal level, she didn’t.

Twilight finally showed the pair of them a gentle smile. She had come out of her chair and placed both of her hands upon her knees. She wanted to stand up before one last thing came across her mind. Something that she had to tell Rainbow before anything else would be happening. “Major Dash, now that you’re part of this company, the central meeting point will become the castle of Canterlot. Once the others have been gathered, we shall make our departure as quick as allowed.”

Those words didn’t really fell into the right throat hole for Rainbow Dash as she calmly rose one of her eyebrows and glared at Twilight with a cynical glare. “Listen soothsayer, I hardly remember your name and now you think you can command me to come to that ancient castle? Hmpf, not going to happen. I can promise you that much already,” the major replied with a blunt tone. One that enraged Applejack’s inside. While the outside pretty much remained as if she was made of steel. Not even the slightest of changes were to be witnessed.

“Hey, if you have a better alternative, I gladly hear it,” exclaimed Twilight in response. Her voice was a bit higher pitched than she would have liked. It was a tone that caused both Applejack and Rainbow to look at her with a gaze of both question and wonder. Neither of the two knew what to do, whether they should be laughing or just not say something.

In the end they both made the possibly wise decision to not say anything about it and just continue with the conversation. “Fine, you want to call me on another manner? Here you go,” the pegasus then spoke up before she reached inside of one of her pockets.

Out of it came a whistle in the shape of a cloud and a thunderbolt. It lacked any kind of coloring but it seemed to have been old. Ancient even. “Blow on the cloud and aim the bolt to the skies. And watch the magic happen. But I warn you, only call me when you’re absolutely certain that you will be leaving. I don’t want to be flying over to that castle for nothing, understood?”

Twilight gently took the mysterious looking whistle over before Rainbow took out another one that was exactly identical with just one exception. The one the major carried was colored. The cloud was white whereas the lightning bolt was blue, yellow and red. Thousands of thoughts raced through the mind of the unicorn just before her fingers coiled up around her whistle.

Could it have been that that design was actually the mark of Rainbow Dash? It was only something that could be wondered about before Twilight shook her head. The unicorn tightened her grip around the whistle a bit more before Applejack got out of her chair.

A cloud of steam was being released by the leg before she fully stood straight again and both of the pegasus and the unicorn looked at her with a gaze of wonder. “What? Don’t look to me like that. Ah needed to recalibrate a couple of things here,” huffed Applejack out before the two pairs of eyes took themselves away from her. It was a massive moment of relief for the admiral before her hand went behind her leg and turned some of the valves.

Yet one of the things where they both were still wondering about was that whistle. Twilight wanted to try it inside but that didn’t seem like a great idea in the slightest. So they could only just wonder whether or not it was something that would actually work or not. It was also strange really, that a whistle would have been able to call the pegasus, even if she was at the other side of the country.

The admiral didn’t really believe it but she still accepted the facts as they were. Even if she didn’t like them one single bit. Twilight on the other end actually believed that it would have been able to call Rainbow, but the trick was whether or not there was a maximum range on the thing. When the need would have been there, they would have figure it all out. Their only hope would be that it wouldn’t have become too late for them.

“So, shall we leave then?” Twilight then asked to the both of them. She felt that their business had been done there. Rainbow placed her own whistle back inside of the pocket where she took it from before she gave a nod to the soothsayer. They both left the comforts of the chair and it was Rainbow who was the first to walk walked up to the door and unlocked it.

It was a miracle that nopony had disturbed them during their little talking about the possible fate of their lands though. Yet that could have been seen as a good thing for the three of them. None of them wanted to think about the bad stuff that could happen during the trip as it seemed like that that would still be a long way away. Something they could have only hoped.

The door was opened again by Rainbow and the admiral was the first anthrony to leave, followed up by Twilight. Rainbow came third and closed the door behind her before she stretched one of her arms. “Oh oh,” whispered Applejack loud enough for Twilight to hear. Sshe then looked deeper into the hallway to see what was coming.

There she saw the grand field marshal coming her way. Her near golden skin reflected in the lights as the fiery mane almost looked like as it was on actual fire. The last thing they wanted was a run in with her. Yet much to their surprise had Rainbow taken another route. Where the two went right, she had taken left and was nowhere to be found. They were on their own and they knew it as soon as Twilight had turned herself around to see where the other pegasus was.

Spitfire came closer and closer. All the way until she was finally within talking distance of the two. And words were released immediately. “So, you three foals are finally done in my office. I will only ask you two this once: what did you do inside? What did you spoke about?” she spoke to them in a demanding tone. The mare really wanted to know the finer details about pretty much everything that had been going on.

She wouldn’t have gotten any word outside of Applejack though. The tough sailor remained on her ground firmly as she didn’t even look back into the eyes of the grand field marshal. The tension between the navy and the air force had always been there. Years of silent wars had caused that Applejack wouldn’t talk against any member of the air force unless it was absolutely necessary. And the case she was in, was everything but that.

A calm exhale was given by her before she gave a gentle shake of her head and began to walk again. She knew that trouble could be coming out of it but she really didn’t wanted to talk to Spitfire. Though the strange thing was the little fact that Spitfire actually allowed her to go just like it. But that never meant that Twilight was actually safe. For the soothsayer stood literally in the direct line of fire of the golden yellowish pegasus.

The white shirt that was worn under the normal attire was perfectly visible given the fact that the blouse had been unbuttoned from top to bottom. So when Spitfire made her turn to the soothsayer, it gently flew through the air before their eyes finally met with one another. “Which brings me to another question that I have, what is a soothsayer doing here?” Spitfire asked before she narrowed her eyes. Despite their rather seductive looks, they were still piercing through the soul of Twilight.

Uncomfortable was the best way to describe the situation for the soothsayer. So what she did was to bravely take a step forwards and just walk past her like Applejack did. All of her guts were gathered once again as she managed to keep a straight face. Closer and closer she came to the field marshal before she past her like that.

Everything seemed to have been packing out nicely for the soothsayer. The bit of confusion that was visible in the eyes of Spitfire once she walked by was oddly satisfying. But that same wonder suddenly turned into anger as Twilight could feel something squeezing in her upper arm. Her head quickly turned around to see that Spitfire held her and the eyes glared of thunder.

“I asked you a couple of questions of which I desire to know the answers of,” said Spitfire in a demanding, but also partly hissing tone towards the soothsayer. Whether Twilight liked it or not, it seemed like that she had to tell the field marshal the truth. Unless the soothsayer could be finding some kind of loophole that she could use.

Chapter XII

The eyes of Spitfire were still locked firm against those of Twilight while the silence came to the soothsayer. She didn’t had any idea of what she could have done in the matter outside of telling the truth. But if she told the truth to the grand field marshal, who knew what would have happened to their entire quest? Of course there was also another thing she needed to do. Twilight had to keep her own pride intact, no matter what would happen next.

Of course she could yell out to Applejack that she needed her help in one way or the other, but that would only show that she indeed needed all the protection that she possibly could be getting. No, Twilight Sparkle just had to toughen up and take the game into her own hands. To prove the two anthronies that she wasn’t a near helpless foal as they pictured her.

The eyes of the unicorn narrowed themselves only seconds after the words had been spoken against her before her horn charged itself up in the raspberry colored magical aura. Though as she began her charge did the hold of Spitfire became more powerful as she tightened her grip. It was a feeling that Twilight just wasn’t used too and found it everything bit nice or polite. She needed to get out of the pegasus’ hold and she only could come up with one way that could be done.

“Well, I’m waiting,” continued Spitfire to hiss through her teeth. She even brought her head closer to the soothsayer. Though a bit further ahead in the hallway had Applejack turned herself back around and was leaning against a wall. Her arms were crossed over one another as her green rimmed eyes calmly looked over the scene.

She wanted to know just how Twilight thought she could be resolving the situation without her help. It was perhaps even allowed by the admiral that there was room for her to grow. Experience told her that even the least trained sailors could become the biggest assets over time itself. Applejack could only hope that the same fact would be going for the soothsayer. “Ya can do this partner,” she said in an inaudible whisper towards Twilight. Then there was a smirk that traveled over her lips in calm. Applejack saw something in Twilight’s eyes, a fire unseen before.

“I owe you nothing, grand field marshal,” hissed Twilight back through her own teeth. The mare knew it was there or never. Something had to be done about it and the moment was just there whether it was liked or not. All of her energy focused itself in her magical powers as their never broke the contact.

Spitfire really wasn’t pleased with the answer that she got out of the soothsayer and tightened her grip even further. She then continued to give the unicorn a couple of shakes in the hope it would cancel out the spell she was preparing. “You have the duty to tell me where you take one of my soldiers on.”

And then it finally happened. Under a massive poof and a bright, raspberry colored light did Twilight just disappear from their plane of existence. A mere second ago did Spitfire held the sleeved arm in her hands, then she held nothing anymore but air. It was strange of the grand field marshal and it wasn’t something that she was really happy about. Soon afterwards did she turn around her spot in the hope to see her somewhere.

“Where are you?!” she exclaimed towards the air. Her eyes had turned into a glare of thunder. A glare of thunder which actually managed to miss the admiral as a whole. Then again, Applejack did stood completely still and just watched over the scene without a word. Yet she had to admit that it was a great use of the spell. She had managed to get out of Spitfire’s hold without causing much of a fuzz. At least in her own eyes. That, and it was just great to see the air force receive a kick in the butt for a change.

The smirk never had left the face of the admiral as it actually had turned into a nasty grin as she shook her head calmly. It was moments later that the raspberry lightning strikes came back into existence and Twilight poofed back into their realm of existence like that. With the magic fading away from her horn, she took on a bit more of a regal posture while her eyes turned back to Spitfire.

A Spitfire who was still surprised about everything. The demand to know the answers was still there of course, but she didn’t shout it out by her mouth. Her eyes on the other end were screaming as loud as they possibly could have been.

Something that Twilight did notice before she took a step back to join Applejack. “The answer upon your question, is the simple fact that the three races of anthronies shall be reunited as the ponies of old. Three races, living under one joined flag,” brought Twilight forth as her excuse. It was a witty one but the tones which she gave to Spitfire actually made it seem believable. The calm in it, the truth that she seemed to be speaking about it all.

“W-What?” Spitfire brought out in confusion. She brought a hand to her forehead in order to rub it. She couldn’t believe a single one of the words that were spoken against her and she wanted to argue against them just so much. Though Twilight had already turned her back to her and walked past Applejack. “You planned, what?!”

Though neither mare gave her any more attention and they walked away from the scene. Applejack gave a gentle and calm nod that said to Twilight she had done a good job. Spitfire was left confused about it all as the two anthronies made their departure from the building. “I need to talk to Dash, asap,” were the last words that the two could hear coming out of the mouth of the field marshal. Who then just left the hallway and walked into her office to see what had happened to it.

Both Twilight and Applejack never would have thought in their lives that it would actually be working, but somehow it did. The two of them had escaped the clutches of the grand field marshal and had gained a new member for their company of troublemakers. Whether the two liked it or not, they were just that. Because wherever they went, trouble would always be close by.

With a calm pace in their hooves did the two walk towards the entrance of the building before Applejack stopped Twilight with an arm. “What’s the matter?” she asked while she looked over towards the admiral.

“Ya sure ya already want to leave? ‘Cause out there ain’t nothing but sun and ya know it,” returned Applejack in a concerned tone. “Ah have mah hat, but ya have nothing upon that scalp of yours. Ya sure ya don’t get a sunstroke?” The concern was rightfully placed. The blistering sun against an unprotected head was something that not many anthronies could withstand for long.

Yet Twilight released a gentle chuckle before she placed her own hand on the shoulder of Applejack. Even through her coat she could feel the coldness of it traveling onto her skin. A gentle shiver was given by her before she looked even deeper into Twilight’s eyes. “What have ya done?”

Twilight released a gentle chuckle as she took the hand back off and placed both of her arms behind her back and took the first step. “I’ll tell you outside,” she simply said to the admiral. Then she made the massive step of leaving the cool insides to the blistering outsides.

Applejack did have little to no confidence that whatever Twilight had done actually would have worked. Though staying inside wouldn’t really have helped them with their quest in any other way. So even the admiral walked back into the heat of the sun as her coat almost immediately adjusted itself again.

She walked up to Twilight who had already began the journey towards the fence so that they would leave the air base. Once she had caught up with the mare, the most important question was asked again. “What have ya done to yarself?”

The violet rimmed eyes of Twilight turned over to Applejack. She let out a gentle giggle at the looks of her eyes. “Let’s just say that whatever magic has been fabricated into your coat, I also have now, kinda.” In an instant did the face of the admiral turn into a confused expression. She had not a clue of what was being said. Had Twilight actually taken the arcane powers of her coat one night, or was it something else that she had done?

“Ya really need to be more clear with me here, cause Ah didn’t understand a single word from that,” she spoke in an honest tone to the soothsayer. It was of course something that Twilight had expected to come out of her mouth and could only agree on it. She needed to explain the matter a bit more if there was going to be any kind of cheese made.

“Alright, simplified version then,” said Twilight with a dry voice. She looked in front of her and began to whisper. “When you said that your coat adjusts itself to the temperature outside, I have been thinking about stuff. Manners to keep one cool or warm and not having to be packed in tons of clothing. Basically, there’s a little shard of ice that surrounds my heart as we speak. That keeps me cool and caused you to shiver. It’s complicated soothsayer magic, really. Harmless.”

Baffled was the best way to describe Applejack’s reaction to the fact that there was an actual shard of ice somewhere in Twilight body. Even though she really didn’t understood how it worked, she also really didn’t wanted to know. Her own coat was already a marvel, but the words of Twilight made it almost look like it was a shame.

“Ah think Ah know enough,” she spoke up before they continued to travel further towards the checkpoint in silence. Only the soles of the shoes and the metalized leg of Applejack were the sounds that were obvious against the asphalt. An cloud asphalt that was then turned into more traditional clouds as they walked through the checkpoint without anyone stopping them.

~~~~

Minutes later they could be found again wandering through the massive city and Applejack only had one question that had been plaguing her mind. “Can’t we, go back down now? Ah mean, Ah don’t really think there’s anyone else up here that wants to join us,” she questioned to Twilight. Applejack was almost begging the unicorn to take her back down to the surface of the land.

A deep exhale was being taken by Twilight before she gave a calm and single nod towards her companion. “Yes, let’s do that. The altitude is also nothing for me really. Just hold on tight alright?” she said before her horn charged itself up again. Applejack did remember the first time they teleported themselves up and she wasn’t a fan of it. She would be doing it again but at least she knew there was going to be land under her hooves again.

That was the plan at least. Small sparks of magic left the horn of the unicorn before under both a poof and an explosion of light the two just disappeared. Many of the pegasi that were either walking or flying around them couldn’t believe what they saw and thought it was actually an attack. Only to then realize there was nothing going on.

It was a relief for them, for they really didn’t wanted to have to fight anyone at the moment. So the everyday life quickly managed to pick up the pace again as if nothing had happened.

Somewhere down the massive city of pride did the orb return to the scene and out of the explosion came both Twilight and Applejack. The admiral shook her head a couple of times as she really wasn’t used to the mechanics of a teleport. It scrambled her brain perhaps a tad bit more then she would have liked and she was already rubbing her forehead.

“Let’s see where exactly we are,” mumbled Twilight to herself. All while she gave Applejack the time she needed to adjust herself again. The hills that surrounded them gave an indication they might have been near the sea and that they were actually grass covered dunes. Though something wasn’t right in the eyes of Twilight. She knew the way that the currents of air were going and the city itself literally went against the currents that time.

It was a clear indication that they had arrived at a place where not even the city of the pegasi would be daring to go or come close to. “Interesting indeed,” she whispered to herself. Her legs began to carry her up a hill. The unicorn was in the need to have a vantage point of something in order to see just where they had managed to end up

Once she had climbed up the hill with both her hooves and hands, Twilight wiped the grass out of her palms before she finally rose back up and gave her eyes the time to look at the surroundings. But the things that she saw were all but pleasant. “Oh no,” was all that she could say before Applejack turned her attention towards the soothsayer.

The admiral knew that something was wrong. Though instead of calling out, she made the decision to climb the hill itself and witness the possible horror with her own eyes. The struggle was great as the slopes were rather steep and her steam powered leg actually had quite the bit of trouble keeping up.

Moan and groan were released by her before she finally did reach the top and stood next to Twilight. The earth anthrony fixed her hat before her green rimmed eyes looked over the massive stretch of land. A massive stretch of land that was covered in trees as far as the eye could see. A massive forest laid before them and Twilight knew all too well what forest it actually was. Something Applejack didn’t.

“Ain’t looking too bad, now is it?” she said while she pointed out a possible route through the place. In an instant had Twilight turned herself around and took the shoulders of Applejack with her hands. They were forced to look into each other’s eyes and the admiral could see the sheer anger and fright within them. “Did, did Ah said something wrong?”

Twilight’s head began to shake calmly and gently as she just wanted to smack the admiral across her face. Yet somehow she managed to maintain herself with a series of deep exhales. Only once her mind was calm again she released the admiral and turned her attention back to the forest before them. “That, admiral, is the Everfree forest. Anthronies have nothing to say about it and is the biggest forest that lays between Canterlot and the Frozen North. Judging everything, I would say we are standing with our eyes towards Canterlot. Meaning we have to go around it.”

“’Round it?! Ah beg your pardon partner, but that’s gonna cost us days we don’t have!” Applejack immediately exclaimed. She really wasn’t looking to walk around the place in a big arc. “What lays in there that ya don’t want to go in there Twi? What secrets does this wild forests hold.”

“The Dark Witches,” whispered Twilight almost inaudible for the admiral. A quick shake of the head was given before she rose an eyebrow towards her partner and hoped she would repeat it again. “The Dark Witches,” she then spoke up a bit louder, “servants of her who mustn’t be named. Soothsayers gone rogue, unicorns who made pacts with demons. Death lurks inside of that forest Applejack. I can feel it as we speak.”

It was true, for when the earth anthrony looked at the hand of Twilight could sparks of a black aura be seen travelling through it. It only made her wonder even more about the matter but perhaps it was better she knew less about it. “These, Witches, as ya call ‘em, are they dangerous?”

“Extremely.”

“They can kill you?”

“Instantly if they want.”

“No chance of bargaining?”

“Not a single one of them reasonable.”

That did it for Applejack. With the words of Twilight surging through her mind, it made it seem like the only way they could be going was actually around the forest. If the words of Twilight were true about the place, going through it was an almost certain death for them both. “So what’s the plan?” she then asked to the unicorn. Twilight’s eyes never took themselves off of the woods.

“The plan, is that we walk around the woods as much as we can. One step inside of the tree line and they all know we are there. Even one of them finding out that we are there could spell disaster for us. Stories do their turn, about a Dark Witch who... I’ll tell another time,” said Twilight before she shook her head. “It can wait for now.”

“So is it gonna be right or left?” Applejack asked, she decided to change subjects instantly. Her eyes looked back over the darkened woods of Everfree and tried to see which end had the shorter distance for them to cover. “Not to mention, who’s next on our list?”

It made Twilight actually chuckle a little bit. A chuckle that she needed more than anything in the moment of time itself. But even she had to calibrate the distance of either side that they were standing on. Soon afterward did Twilight thought to have the right answer. “From the looks of it, the right side seems to be shorter. I can’t remember the way that the place is actually walking anymore and pinpoint our exact location.”

“Doesn’t matter, Twi, we have a heading and the wind is favorable,” her partner replied just before she placed a hand upon the unicorn’s shoulder and smiled. “But Ah still wanna know whom our next one is going to be.”

The unicorn calmly glanced back to Applejack before her lips curled up into a small smile of her own. “We, are going to see the doctor.” An eyebrow was raised by the admiral. She didn’t fully understood the words. “The hospital that stands on the other side, leading to Canterlot, that’s where we are going to,” the mare added as explanation. Hoping to clear things up for the earth anthrony.

“Sounds good enough for me actually. With that triggerhappy mare on our team, any kind of medic is great,” added Applejack with a gentle smile. She then removed her hand again and nodded. It was the go-signal, their journey around the woods of Everfree had finally begun. They could only hope that the everything would be in their favor for a change. Wishful thinking in a harsh reality.

~~~~

Hours on hours had been going by already as the sun had already lowered itself beneath the hills and the moon was shining brightly. The night had set in already and it was the last place where the both of them wanted to be in and around. With the forest of Everfree only three dozen hooves away, they were really toying with the devil’s tail.

A fireball could be found within the hand of Twilight and was used to act like a torch while they both walked calmly by. Or at least they tried to do that. For the eyes in the forest were always following them. They followed their every last move and traced them. Almost as if they were waiting to finally be able to attack the two of them out of nowhere.

“Timberwolves, manticores every day, but a Dark Witch is the last one you want to come across,” muttered Twilight to herself. Whether or not she knew, but Applejack could hear the words.

"But didn’t ya say they couldn’t come out of the woods?” she asked with a strange curiosity in her tone. New facts were revealed to her the whole time, she needed to know the details.

“Oh believe me, they can move out of the forest if they want, nothing holds them back. It’s only that the dark magic is the most powerful there and there they feel the most comfortable with. They can charge any moment, but prefer to seduce you to come into their domain. Because one step out of the woods and they travel into the realms the goddesses can’t watch them,” said Twilight.

“So, basically it’s a game of hide and seek?” Applejack then replied. It did resemble the game a little bit in her mind.

“You can say that, yes. But the only problem is that this version of the game is a lot more intense. Let’s keep it on that fact shall we?” Twilight said in response. It became only more and more difficult for her to actually keep her focus upon the road ahead. Almost constantly were her eyes drifting away and into the trees.

Only to see figures of her past and possible future as shimmers in the light of her fire. It was a thing that drove her crazy as she saw her parents shaking their heads as if she had failed. But there was also this one stallion that looked so charming, so cute. A stallion that was perfect in her every possible way.

The true love of her life, the perfect stallion. The unicorn had to shake her head a couple dozen times in order to stay on the right track. None of it was real as all of it were manners to get one into the treeline. Even after a couple bashes to the head it didn’t seem like something was going better.

Applejack also noticed how figures of her past and distant future were revealed to her. Yet there was one who took the crown for her. Something that could be seen as her Moby Dick, her greatest nemesis who she wanted nothing else but down by the blade of her own sword. Her eyes had a difficult time actually taking themselves off of that cursed being.

It was nearly impossible as even the light of the moon placed the creature into the brightest light. An unicorn with an ivory skin and deep purple hair. The devil herself had Applejack called her in whispers. It drove the two of them to madness itself as they knew none of it was real. But the illusions were done in such a manner that it actually did seem realm.

“Twi, Ah don’t like to break to ya, but we gotta set up camp here and now. If we wanna get through the night, we have to do the smart thing,” called Applejack out. Twilight froze upon her spot. Slowly and shivering did she turn herself around with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you sure you want to spend the night here? Next to the cursed forest?” the unicorn then said, disbelief filling her voice. Twilight needed to know exactly what her partner meant and whether or not she was actually sane enough.

“It sounds crazy, but if we don’t get our sleep, we’ll only be an easier target and ya know it,” the admiral countered. The fireball in Twilight’s hand lit up both of their faces in the night. It was something that neither of the two wanted to do but Twilight knew Applejack was right.

Once taken from their sleep was an anthrony indeed more sustainable to the fact that it could walk into the woods. So the only thing they could do was to set up camp and hope for the best.

So said, so done. The two of them expanded their distance from the woods a little bit and sat down at the foot of a hill while the fires crisped between the two of them. Blankets weren’t needed because the temperature was actually still rather pleasant. The two of them had shut their eyes for a couple of minutes.

But sleep they never did. For the thoughts continued to roll through their minds as they couldn’t stop thinking about the manner in which the forest would be trying to lure them in. Though there was one other matter that plagued Applejack’s very thoughts. “Hey Twi, when ya spoke of that one Dark Witch, who did ya mean?”

The mare released a deep exhale through her nostrils as she really didn’t wanted to be reminded to that fact. But she had to tell the truth to the admiral as she knew it. “Alright, but it isn’t a pretty tale. Words have it that one time, long ago, one anthrony unicorn managed to make a deal with her who-mustn’t-be-named. Before the deal was completed, said unicorn had already taken off and hidden herself into the woods.”

“Bet one of ‘em was pissed,” chuckled Applejack. She tried her best to lighten the mood a bit. But little did she knew what chain of words she had unleashed.

“Oh you have no idea how much. Words had it that the dark mistress herself is still hunting this anthrony to this very day. Lurking through the shadows in the hope to catch a glimpse of her, before taking back what’s rightfully hers. And that one unicorn, most likely has been hiding inside of that vegetation before us.”

There was a gentle gulp was being released by the admiral. Applejack had never expected something like that to happen. She was used to the seas with their high tides and massive waves. Magic was about the least of her worries, but from the words of it, it would be changing rather quickly. “But this dark mistress ya spoke of, whom is it?”

The soothsayer really didn’t wanted to say the name of the devil itself but felt like she was required to do it for her partner. A deep inhale was taken before the eyes of Twilight opened up and stared into the countless stars in the skies. “Her name, is Nightmare Moon.”

“Ah heard of her back in class once,” added Applejack while she fixed her sleeping position. “Let’s say Ah know enough. Night.” And just like that had their conversation ended as if it was nothing. Twilight simply gave a small shrug before she also closed her eyes again and wanted to get some much needed sleep of her own.

Only minutes later it seemed that the both of them had fallen into a deep sleep for the night. But while it was true that the mind of a tired was easier seduced, the easiest one was the mind of a sleeping anthrony.

~~~~

The sunlight began to tease the very eyelids of the unicorn. Twilight felt that something else then grass was laying against her back. Something didn’t feel right yet everything felt just so comfortable at the same time. She didn’t wanted to open her eyes because of the simple feeling that it felt like she was actually sleeping in her own bed.

But there was the problem as it then just surged through her mind like that. She hadn’t slept in her own bed for a couple of days. The last thing that she remembered was that she and Applejack went to sleep against the foot of a hill and looked over the woods of Everfree. Was it all a dream? Was everything they had done up to that point a dream and she had awoken only just from it?

It was an explanation that was really farfetched, but one that wasn’t entirely impossible either. The only way to figure it out truly what happened to her was to give in to the teasing sun and open up her very own eyes. Which was something a lot easier said than done.

Quiet moans were released by the unicorn before she began to turn and twist within the bed and for the first time actually felt the blankets she laid under. Everything looked just so right but also so wrong at the same time. And it was that feeling that caused her to forcefully open up her eyes again before she shot up from the bed.

Half of her body had risen out of the bed while the eyes were blinded by the light of the sun. A deep groan and growl was being released as she started to rub her eyes in the hope to make them adjust quicker to the sudden burst of lights.

After only half a minute did the eyes of the mare finally reveal themselves back to the world. With a couple of blinks did everything became known to her. Everything that could be seen was revealed to her and it wasn’t what she had expected. Twilight had expected the torture room of some kind of ancient castle that stood deep within the forest.

Instead she found herself laying in what seemed to have been a hospital room. “What on earth, has happened?” Twilight mumbled to herself. Yet then her ears twitched in response to a second voice filling the room. A voice she knew too well.

“You tell me, partner. Woke up like this an hour ago,” the well-known voice of the admiral spoke to her. Quickly did Twilight manage to turn her body around and she looked upon the relaxed earth anthrony. She really just laid down in her own bed as if nothing had been the matter. Almost as if she was on some sort of vacation.

Her coat was hung up next to the bed. Twilight tried to figure out just had happened with everything and everyone. Both of her hands were placed at the side of her head. The memories did flow back to her from that previous night. She knew about what she had spoken and discussed. But after they had fallen asleep, there was a massive black gap until she woke up in the bed.

“I wish I could tell you, Applejack. But I really don’t know how we ended up here. No tingles of dark magic flow through my fingers so, I think this is the real deal. We are actually in a hospital. A hospital that has us as its patients. So many possible things could have happened but which is the actual one?” wondered Twilight. She looked to both of her hands and noticed the lack of dark sparks.

Everything was literally turned upside down and inside out for the two of them. Nothing made sense anymore and that was just the thing they really wanted. To know the sense of the situation and actually get to know what happened to them both.

“Shall we call a nurse, or a doctor?” Applejack then asked after one of her eyes had opened up and was staring calmly towards Twilight. Who simply released a nod before she dropped her own body back into the pillow and gave up the fight. There was not much that she could be doing in order to make her remember.

“Doctor, nurse?!” Applejack called out as loud as she could. Then only the waiting game could be played for the pair of them. Time would tell what their story had been, whether they would be liking it or not.

Chapter XIII

After the yelling for the doctor or the nurse had been done did neither of the two really had any other idea. Any indication of just how long it would be taken before they finally would be able to speak to another anthrony. Hope was something that wasn’t kept really high in the matter for rather obvious reasons and when the two of them laid in their beds, there wasn’t much that could be done to begin with. Of course they could try to get out of bed and see how well their legs were doing, but who was to say that all of them around them wasn’t just some kind of hallucination?

It was a question that always managed to trouble Twilight’s mind. The mare was constantly looking around to the place. She needed to know for herself what happened, what actually had happened to the both of them. Even though she didn’t have any memories for the events, there might have been traces left. Not much but perhaps enough to get them on some sort of a trail. Risky business was the thing that Twilight was about to embark too, but her mind persisted that she would be doing it, no matter what.

The head of the unicorn slowly turned itself over to Applejack before her body rose itself up in a sitting position again. A deep exhale was being taken before the words left her mouth. “Applejack, I need you to watch over me,” she spoke in a semi confident tone while the other part of it just reeked of the insecurities that she had.

The admiral didn’t fully understood the words that were spoken against her and gave a quick shake of her head. “W-What do ya mean, Twilight? Been watching ya since we went to Cloudsdale. So what are ya mumbling ‘bout now?”

It were words that actually caused Twilight to giggle softly to herself before she placed her hands against each other in the manner a soothsayer would do it before they would ascend to the planes of the goddesses. “Let’s say you have the duty of guarding an ascending soothsayer.”

“Beg yar pardon?!” Applejack exclaimed straight away. She didn’t even have the slightest of clues on what she had to be doing. “What am Ah supposed to do?!”

“Just, just make sure my body doesn’t get destroyed, more I don’t ask. I think and hope, to find answers in their realm,” spoke Twilight in a rather calm tone. Then the aura around her horn and hands appeared once more. Arguing against the mare wouldn’t have helped Applejack one bit, for she wouldn’t listen for a single bit. Twilight was the kind of mare who would be going through the ultimate sacrifice to get done what was required of her or what she wanted to know.

Stubbornness at its finest, that was the only thought that went through the mind of Applejack as she felt the tingling of the magic going across her face. Almost as if it was looking for its own place to latch on for some unknown reason.

The green rimmed eyes looked at the body of Twilight while it remained in the same position without changes. The magic was powerful enough to make her keep sitting down on the bed the way she did and not to mention the fact that she was already gone. The admiral released a deep sigh through her nostrils before her head was turned straight again.

“Great, now ya left me as well in this place. What’s the worst that can happen anyway?” she muttered up to herself. The mare didn’t had a lot of faith in the matter to begin with, not anymore at least. But if there indeed was a chance that the both of them could be helped on the matter of remembering, Applejack would embrace it with both of her hands and hold tight.

Though she would be having her own manner of actually getting to know the truth to her. It would have been in a manner that not even she could have predicted. When the admiral’s ears began to twitch, her attention turned over to the door that slowly opened. Which resulted in her almost instantly wanting to reach for either her blade or her flintlock.

Yet both of the weapons weren’t where they were supposed to be. That fact meant that Applejack was left over to the mercy of whatever being would be entering through the doorway. Whether it be good or bad that came through, time was the only thing that would be telling the tale. The admiral could only mentally prepare for the possible torture that was about to be coming.

~~~~

The eyelids of Twilight were twitching a little bit. Carefully even as a cold but calm breeze of air traveled past them. Her ears twitched gently as she heard the leaves of the trees dancing within that very same wind. She didn’t had a true clue of where she had landed, but from the sounds it looked like she was in the right place. Exactly the one place she wanted to end up. Though the power to get up in the grass that laid beneath her was something easier said than done.

The grass and the ground felt like the most heavenly mattress that she had ever laid down upon and simply didn’t wanted to get up. The temptation to fall back asleep again seemed to have been too big in the first place, yet it was soon afterwards that the determination returned to the unicorn.

Both of the eyes opened themselves and they were blinded by the light of the moon that shone down powerful, causing numerous reflections to happen which blinded the mare. Twilight closed her eyes again as she then sat the right side up while rubbing her eyes calmly under a groan. One thing was for sure, she had ascended to their plane of existence.

Only when the eyes were opened up again was the truth of the matter revealed to the mare and she couldn’t be happier in fact. Because as her eyes looked forward, they could see the massive moon shining down upon the face of the land, but also the one place she needed to be.

Because before Twilight had it stretched for miles and miles without end. A massive forest that was made out of crystalline trees as the leaves were made of glass. Yet their music was the same as their earthly counterparts. “The forest of memories,” whispered Twilight to herself. She got up on her hooves and placed both of her hands behind her back to assume a calm pose.

A smile then came across her face as a gentle exhale came through her nostrils. The near colorless trees shone brightly in the light of the moon as its rays went straight past the barks and branches, causing them to be filled with a white light. It was a sight that was remarkable to see and even more amazing to behold.

Twilight paid her respects to the two goddesses by drawing their symbols into the air with her arcane power before she made the first step towards the woods. And then another, followed by another, before she was just walking towards the tree line. “Don’t look at other trees. Find your own and see what you can find,” the mare mumbled to herself before her head hung itself low.

She really didn’t wanted to look at any other tree outside of the one that was claimed to be her own. It was all because of the really simple fact that the trees contained the memories of every single anthrony that ever lived or still lives. Memories ranging from far and wide and only suitable for one anthrony.

If one would have looked into a memory that wasn’t their own, the brain could be destroyed while it tried to place the memory somewhere in the timeline. Even though it has no recollection of it. As beautiful as the forest seemed, so deadly it was as well. There was one massive advantage to it all. One could look to the trees and not see a single thing.

Only when the bark was being touched would the memories start flowing through the anthrony as if it was part of the tree itself. Twilight knew that fact all too well, stories of older soothsayers being consumed by the memories of others wasn’t something that was that uncommon. But it managed to tear her heart apart every time when she heard or read about it.

“Beauty is also deadly,” whispered Twilight with certainty to her tone. She continued to wander through the forest. Her mind had reminded her on the latest incident of a soothsayer getting its mind demolished. Tranquil for life it had become, forgetting everything and not being able to reform any new memories.

The mare shook her head a couple of times before she huffed a bit through her throat. Only then she stepped up her pacing and wanted to continue traveling further. While the soft grass under her hooves gave away for them, the journey would be everything but simple.

That was at least the thought that she had in her mind. Yet then, among the darkness of the night and the shining light of the moon there was something to be heard that Twilight recognized out of thousands. “Impossible…”

Her body turned itself around on the spot as her ears were perked in the hope to find the general direction of where it came from. That laughter, that ever so happy and innocent laughter of her as a filly. It was almost downright creepy that Twilight heard it, but it could also give her a lead to her tree. “Where are you coming from, eh?” she questioned herself almost silently. The laughter was heard again within her ears.

In the end did Twilight manage to lock herself upon the location of the sounds and she gave herself a rather powerful nod. She knew what way she needed to be going in order to find her tree. The only problem was whether or not her own filly giggles would lead her to it in a straight line. Most likely not, but the thoughts were nice enough.

For what seemed to have been hours had Twilight been wandering around the forest as she still hadn’t found her own tree. Yet the volume of the giggles only seemed to have become louder with ever so many dozen hooves she advanced. Closing in was the thought that dominated pretty much all of her mind.

She had to be close, she could feel it and almost even taste it. The air got filled with scents that all reminded the unicorn of moments of her life. Whether it was with her parents or with her brother, or just alone in her study. All kinds of happy memories began to flow through the mind of the mare. Her tree, her own memory tree was close by.

The unicorn kicked her pace up a bit higher as she gained more and more ground. Yet it was the giggle that she had followed that faded more and more with every single step she took. Eventually did the unicorn just stop near a tree. One tree out of thousands, nothing about it seemed to have been out of the ordinary from that place.

Weren’t it for the one single fact that all of her memories and the scents in the air had led her to it. She was gazing once more upon her own tree of memory. The one thing in the entire world that would possibly be giving her and Applejack one for of answer as of what happened to them.

Hesitation came to the mare when she closed in with the tree even more. The feelings of it being hers became stronger while the sparks of magic traveled out of her hands. Instead of returning to her body, they went almost straight into the tree itself. Remarkable to say the least. What followed by Twilight was that she took a couple steps closer and raised her hand towards the bark.

She could almost touch it. It was so close by her that she could almost feel the tree ‘breathing’ with the events that had happened in her life. “Hello old friend,” she spoke in a tone as if she had seen somepony who she thought to have lost a long time ago, “I hope that you have the answers I’m looking for.”

All of the hesitation and doubt within her body had to make way for the muscles doing their job. The palm of her hand touched the bark and the magical powers of both entities came surging to live, even managing to merge together. The magic of the tree as well as Twilight’s own managed combined itself together to form the bond that was needed for her to become part of the tree.

Shards of the crystals that the bark was made of began to engulf the hand of Twilight before they even crawled up slowly towards her wrist and lower arm. Scream of utter pain were released by the mare while the memories were all relived like she was actually there.

Memories of past and close present all surged through her mind at once. A mind that morphed them all into a manner as if she was actually at the moment it all happened, but stood on a different location. She had to travel to some of the most recent memories and once she got accustomed to the pain, it was a race against the clock.

Twilight really didn’t wanted to end up as a piece of the tree she had called her friend for so long. So the only thing that could be done was to search rapidly. With her eyes closed and her breathing decently under her control did the mare began to look for any kind of memories that she could be having from that one unknown night.

The desire to know what had actually happened to the two of them was something that went even further as to stopping the tremors of the land. The sheer amount of dedication that came from the mare as her eyes kept themselves forcefully shut wasn’t something she had done often.

“Come on, come on, show me something, anything!” she yelled out towards the tree. She had come closer and closer to the moment. She was only seconds away of possibly figuring out just what on earth had happened to them as her memory was at the part where she spoke about the Dark Witches of Everfree.

“So close, just, just show me anything!” Twilight spoke before she gritted her teeth firmly together and almost hissed her words out. The crystal shards had already moved up to her elbow as everything became suddenly a race against the clock. She was so close to both figuring it out and becoming part of her tree.

That was until there was nothing but darkness that suddenly fell over the memories that the mare carried. Not even the faintest shimmer of light managed to show her anything up to the point she went asleep to waking up in the hospital. “No, that’s, that’s impossible. No magic,” she muttered to herself before her own horn discharged itself.

With the magical connection gone from the two of them could Twilight easily take her hand off of the bark again. The crystal that grew just so vividly moments ago, simply fell off of her arm as if it was a piece of dead coral. “No magic in the world is that powerful to completely destroy memories as a whole,” whispered Twilight in disbelief. The eyes went up and glanced towards the moon.

There she saw the image that had always been in it. An image that never had left even if so many had wanted it. The mysterious face of an entity banished ever so long ago. “The mare in the moon,” she said to herself before the gears and cogs turned and twisted inside of her head. Nothing about it all made sense to her and nothing about it seemed to have been right within her eyes. There was something going on that she didn’t see.

The unicorn perhaps had focused herself too much upon the smaller details instead of the bigger picture. “Applejack’s tree,” said Twilight then. There was a shock that went through her body. She looked around the place in the hope to find any form of evidence that the memory tree of the admiral was somewhere around there.

Though it was only then that she realized the most important lesson once more. The fact that she wasn’t allowed to watch the memories of others. And with good reason too, especially for a mare like Applejack. Her past was troubled and clouded, perhaps best left a secret for the world. One wrong word and Twilight could have unleashed a war with the admiral.

Twilight gently shook her head as she didn’t found it a wise decision to actually go and look for the tree of the admiral. She would be needing to descend again, descend back down and into her body and tell her partner that she had failed in figuring out what possibly had happened.

It was a longshot to begin with. But it was the only place where the possible answer could be found. Twilight turned herself away from her tree and placed her hands behind her back as her eyes focused upon the road ahead. Only one way she could be traveling from there on out. “Return the way I came,” she spoke up louder than any of her previous words before the steps were taken.

Every step she took caused more trees to fade away into the distance. As if they were consumed by the darkness of the eternal night itself. But in reality they just faded away as Twilight’s very soul was taking the steps down. The soul was ready to merge itself back with the body it had belonged to since the day of birth.

“I wish that you had an answer for me today, but I suppose not every entity holds the answer to everything in the universe.” Those were the last words that Twilight spoke in a proud and wise tone before everything collapsed around her. Everything got consumed by the darkness of the night as Twilight lost her grip of reality. Or at least the reality that she happened to be in.

~~~~

The horn and the hands of the unicorn discharged themselves from the magic and the eyes calmly opened up again. A deep exhale of defeat was released by her as her hands began to rub through the eyes. “Well, that turned out differently than expected.” Twilight spoke up before she released a deep sigh and dropped herself back in her bed.

Applejack could be heard chuckling softly before a third voice filled her ears. “Remarkable,” a shy, feminine sounded voice got heard within the unicorn’s ears. A voice that caused a shock to go through the soothsayer that was stronger than the most powerful spell she ever endured. Almost instantly did her entire body shook back up in a sitting position and noticed a third anthrony just standing there. One that stood almost next to her bed.

Confusion was the thing that went through the mare her mind as she looked to the goldish yellow skinned, light pink haired, blue eyed pegasus. “W-What..? Forgive me b-but who in the name of the goddesses, are you?!” Twilight exclaimed while her heart was racing in her throat. The sheer surprise of seeing another pegasus standing before her like that, didn’t do her mind good.

She was so fixated upon the face and the wings that the soothsayer actually missed the most important part of the other mare. The whole fact that she wore a doctor’s coat. A smile suddenly went across the lips of the pegasus as she took a step closer. “There’s nothing to worry about, soothsayer. I’m a doctor in this hospital. You’re in safe hands.”

“And, how do I know that, exactly?” questioned Twilight to the mare. She didn’t trust the mare for one bit. She had all the right in the world to be doing that of course, and the doctor wouldn’t really held it against her. So the glasses were removed from the pegasi her face and placed in a pocket of her coat. Afterwards she simply pointed to Applejack who was having her own set of words that she needed to say against Twilight.

“Ah know her, Twilight, she’s the one who patched me up before Ah got mah leg. She’s the mare who, well, stitched mah stump,” pleaded Applejack for the doctor. She said it in a tone that was both thankful as well as filled with horror. It was a double sided story for the admiral and listening to the words, Twilight understood that completely.

The soothsayer simply nodded to the words of her partner. She had listened to each of them with the greatest of cares. Which then resulted in the mare turned her attention back to the good doctor. “So doctor, do tell me, what is your name?”

“The name’s Fluttershy, miss..?”

“Sparkle.”

“Miss Sparkle, I heard from Applejack that neither of you two seemed to be remembering what happened to you and, she also told me you went looking for answers,” said Fluttershy while she recapped the entire scene for her alone.

“That’s correct yes. A trip to the forest of memories, but it didn’t turn out to be as profitable as I personally would have hoped. All but black darkness surrounded even the tree when it came to that point. If, I may ask, do you have an idea how we got here?” Twilight asked the doctor as she hoped for some sort of good answer to finally head her way.

Fluttershy began to giggle softly before she nodded calmly. “I know exactly how you two got here. But not even I have the full story though.” For both Applejack and Twilight it was more than enough. Even if she knew just a little bit about that had happened to the pair of them, they would be satisfied with it. However, it could also become something that was more dangerous.

Not to mention the fact they didn’t even knew what on earth was wrong with them. They felt fine, but who wasn’t to say that some parasite was living inside of them after the little endeavor? Questions upon questions followed by a cloak of riddled answers followed them. They needed clarity and they needed it then.

“Flutters, take a seat and tell us will ya?” Applejack then spoke up in a semi demanding tone as she wanted to know it. “Ya been teasing me with it for long enough. Now that Twi’s back here, ya can tell it right?”

The doctor turned her attention over to the admiral before she gave a gentle nod. “That I can now yes. But do you really want to hear it, is the question that remains?” she took a couple of steps back in order to look the two anthronies straight into the eyes as she saw the pair of them nodding. They were certain they wanted to know the answers to the troubles they have been going through. So the only thing that was left to for Fluttershy, was to tell them what happened. “This is what happened, as I was being told by them who found you. I was just…”

~~~~

…working around the clock as she always had done. Fluttershy’s day never had a quiet moment in it. That very night wouldn’t have made a single change. The doctor could be found in the main lobby of the hospital after she was done with the many check-ups on the patients. They ranged from all three races as well as some ‘outsiders’ who were kept there for rehabilitation from their wounds.

Nopony was violent towards the doctors, for they treated each patient with respect and the care they needed. Not to mention the fact they knew the rituals of the country of origin. The eyes of Fluttershy eventually fell upon a griffon in a doctor’s coat. He had come in through the front door and was panting deeper than ever.

It was something that caused Fluttershy to look up a bit strange towards him. “What’s the matter with you? Strong head wind?” she asked him before he shook his head.

The griffon walked up to her and his talons ticked against the stoned floor with every step. He tried to get his breath back before finally speaking the words that needed to be said against the mare. “Ready an operation room, two anthronies, edge of Everfree. Multiple stabs,” he managed to bring out. Moments later was it Fluttershy that knew enough.

She placed a hand upon his shoulder and she nodded. “Alright, have them brought in and I’ll get the best doctors to work on it. But you have to come to my office. I need to know exactly what happened.”

The griffon nodded and already went ahead to the office of the mare. Not even ten seconds later had two more griffons entered the hospital. They both carried the two wounded anthronies in their arms. Fluttershy reacted quickly by letting two stretchers coming in and then pointed the doctors to the operation room.

When the mare finally did turn up in her own office, there was a deep sigh of relief that went through her. The griffon himself had already caught up with his breath and was taking a sip out of a glass of water. The mare herself sat down in her chair behind the desk and locked her eyes on him. “So tell me, what happened to the pair of them?”

The griffon placed the glass back upon the desk and leaned a bit forward. “I don’t know what they had to search there, but as I examined the poison that was on the wound, it was supposed to kill them. But it didn’t, as if they were kept alive by the force of the goddesses themselves. However, the poison isn’t used land wide. Oh no, whatever these two did, the C.A.F. wants them dead.”

Those words caused the eyebrows of Fluttershy to be raised. She really didn’t follow it anymore. His words were true for certain but she just couldn’t wrap her head around the facts as they were. “So, a hit by one of the special forces? This is going to be interesting when Spitfire comes in,” the pegasus said aloud. There was a deep sigh that got released through her nostrils. “You may go now, but not a word to anypony about this. I don’t want her over my floor, understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” the griffon replied. They shook each other’s hands and the griffon departed from the office. Leaving only a wondering Fluttershy in the room, a Fluttershy who wondered about just what the two of them done to get the air force that pissed off.

~~~~

“And that brings us to now, three days after you were brought over here,” said Fluttershy before she ended her story. That was the story as she knew how it happened. Whatever happened prior before the griffon found them was unknown to her. And perhaps best left that way for all of them.

It had been three long days since the two anthronies had been out cold. But the story of Fluttershy made Twilight think. Which was perhaps something that was either for the better or worse as they could accuse the entire C.A.F. for the act. However, before the doctor would speak any other word had Twilight finally opened her mouth again as she shook her head.

“I don’t think it’s the air force who did it. I don’t really see Spitfire as a mare who wants those who defy her dead. It’s the city of pride we talk about here.”

“You don’t know the horrible stories that do their turn, miss Sparkle,” commented Fluttershy. After which she took a seat herself. “Stories of horror roam the streets if you know where to look. It’s the city of pride, yes, but they also forgot to mention the sheer corruption that going on. As well as the shady tales about the factories of weather.”

The doctor really didn’t have any good word left for the city and the both of them noticed that immediately. Even Applejack didn’t knew why Fluttershy was having such a grudge against the city, but it was perhaps a story that would be told through time itself.

“So,” Twilight then continued as she released a small exhale, “I think forces of Everfree managed to get us. As you told, the poison is special and should have killed us. Pegasi, never really do that if you look into the history of their battles. No, whomever did this, resides in Everfree and wants to place the blame on the city.”

Applejack nodded calmly to the words that were said as she understood the direction where Twilight was coming from. “Ah have to admit, that’s some reasonable thinking ya done there partner. But we don’t know nothing for certain.”

“And that’s perhaps the best,” said Fluttershy when stood back up in order to make her departure. “Everything is fine with you two, the wounds have been healed and shouldn’t leave any scars. If you will excuse me, I have other patients to attend.”

It was in that moment that both of the anthronies knew that they couldn’t let her go. For their quest to succeed, they needed a doctor or a physician. They had the best one in the land right before them. It would have been stupid not to at least ask her. So instantly did the horn of Twilight charge up and locked the door before Fluttershy could even reach it.

She turned herself back around to watch over the two with a raised eyebrow. “Are you two going to prevent me from doing my work?” she then asked in a stern tone. Her hands were placed in her sides and one of her hooves was tapping the stones of the floor. Annoyed was the best word to describe how Fluttershy felt herself in that moment.

“Not at all, we’re going to ask you for a favor,” answered Twilight. Who then quickly shoved the matter off to Applejack to do the word.

Though the admiral wasn’t really subtle with them. As she bluntly stated where they needed her for. “We need ya for our quest, Flutters. We need a medic on our team and yar the best in the business. So, what do ya say? Ya be taking this chance to leave these walls behind, and see the world while making it a better place?”

Silence. Nothing else but complete and utter silence came from Fluttershy. The pegasus didn’t even knew a single word of what had to be said on the matter. She wanted to scream, cry and just so much more. But instead there was nothing that left her mouth. She took only steps backwards. Almost as if she had contacted some kind of horrible disease in their bodies.

All that the two could be doing was to keep calm and pray on the fact that the pegasus would eventually understand the way that the two of them came from with their words. “Once in a lifetime chance,” the admiral added to only add to the visual stress of Fluttershy.

Chapter XIV

The words of both Applejack and Twilight Sparkle really had managed to get the shy part out of Fluttershy. She was still sitting down with a near defeated expression upon her face. One of her hands was almost rubbing her face at a constant rate in a manner. She didn’t even thought it was possible what they had asked of her. They wanted her –a doctor of all– to go on a quest of an unknown magnitude? They had to be crazy, right? Nopony in the world was that stupid to make sure that they would embark on such a quest.

Insane, that was how Fluttershy thought about the matter. The mare finally managed to crawl out of the chair herself. Both Applejack and Twilight held themselves silent while they inspected every last motion made by the pegasus. Her wings were about to burst open while they already they gave gentle but also stressful little flutters. Perhaps it was to bring more air around the mare so that she wouldn’t faint from the thoughts that were racing through her mind.

It did seem impossible that Fluttershy would even agree upon joining their ridiculous quest. But they needed a doctor to help them more than they knew. Twilight did know healing spells, but if Applejack had to be believed on her words, Fluttershy was irreplaceable when it came down to medical treatments. She would bring a value unknown to the team but only if they managed to get her either crazy enough or persuade her.

The pegasus continued to pace up and down the room as she really had not a clue of what she needed to be doing. Every last second looked like it was an hour in her mind. Thoughts of horror ran through her mind. Thoughts that caused the coldest shivers to go down her spine before she shook her entire body for a couple of seconds.

“I, I need to know, a couple of things,” said Fluttershy to them. She turned her attention back towards the two wounded mares. Her eyes peeled to Twilight first, who she sat straight in the bed and looked back with a calm set of eyes.

It was when she looked over to Applejack that the trouble began. The stern look of the admiral caused her to yelp quietly while her wings spread themselves just that little bit. She was afraid, terrified even about answering the request. One wrong word and she thought that everything would be over. The knife was slicing on two sides for her, and both sides needed her.

“Well, ask away,” replied Twilight in a calm and collected tone. The last thing that she wanted to do was to scare the doctor even further off than they already had done. Perhaps the more direct approach of Applejack wasn’t the best one in their accomplishments. She couldn’t really blame the admiral for the fact, she always had been direct to the matter.

Though that didn’t took away that Twilight wanted to smack her right in the head over it. There was a time and place for everything, as the saying went. The soothsayer just hoped that at one point, the both of them would be appropriate. Yet Fluttershy looked back to Twilight. She even stumbled over her words. “T-This quest o-of yours, what, what does it c-contain?”

The question of questions was being asked and it was up to Twilight to answer it. A heavy duty had fallen upon her as she swallowed her dry mouth a bit. Only to then open it again with the words leaving it. Words that would change the course of the pegasus her life. With an exhale did the words leave the mouth of the Twilight as she told the truth as bare boned as she possibly could be getting it out.

“As you know, our land is being tormented by these tremors. Whether it was liked or not, I was chosen to find a team together and make a stop to them. How, why and when I can not say at this point. But somehow these things can be stopped by the power of six beings. There are already three of them. With you, it shall make four and thus getting us a step closer to bringing once more serenity to our land,” explained Twilight to the doctor.

Applejack listened to the words and had to admit one fact: the words came out of Twilight as if she was a preacher. And not the kind that was actually enjoyable to listen to either. No, Twilight preached like a heavy believer. One who always thought to have been right no matter what as everything could be placed somewhere in religion itself.

So the only thing that the admiral could do was to roll her eyes away from the soothsayer and allow herself to be consumed by her own thoughts. The faster she had sunken in her imagination of the water splashing against her face as her ship sailed out, the better.

“W-Wait, wait, wait, y-you want me, to join this q-quest, to stop the t-tremors?!” Fluttershy both stuttered and exclaimed at the same time. The pegasus really didn’t even have the slightest of ideas that such a thing was even possible. Yet it only added more and more to the stress of the mare as she was going into an overdrive with her mind.

All the thoughts, all of the horrors that suddenly rushed itself towards her was something that caused her to gulp and took steps back. She continued to take steps back before finally crashing down into the chair as her wings folded open all of the way. Then she simply laid there, still pondering her thoughts while she reached for her glasses. “N-No, that, that can’t be. There’s no way… No!” Fluttershy exclaimed before she managed to place the frame back on her nose.

“I know it’s hard to believe, even I had troubles doing so when I first heard it. But the longer I thought about it, the more the realization came that it actually could be working.” Twilight still replied in that calm tone while she tried to persuade Fluttershy with her own charm.

Even though the pegasus was shy, she still stood firm on the ground with her mind. She believed what she wanted to believe and the words of Twilight didn’t really fell into that category. So with a bit of struggling did the mare managed to crawl out of the chair and her wings were then tucked nicely behind her back once more.

“I, I can’t leave this place. All of the doctors and the nurses need me here, not to forget the patients themselves. I understand what you two want, but I can’t leave my home at the snip of fingers like you two. I’m sorry, but I have to decline. I won’t partake into this, this madness!”

Twilight gave her a gentle nod while Applejack didn’t even respond to it all. The magical charge around her horn disappeared and thus it also allowed the door to be opened again. Finally it gave Fluttershy the chance to get out of their presence. Something that she loved to do.

For it took her only seconds before she finally was out of the room and had closed the door behind her. She just left both Applejack and Twilight there like that. The unicorn fell back in her bed as she released a deep exhale through her mouth. After all they had been through, it felt like she had hit the biggest wall yet.

What could be done in the matter as they were both in? If either of them knew the correct answer to that one, Twilight would be relieved beyond belief. Had their quest, though barely started, already failed? That was one of the thought that surged through the mare her mind. A mind that didn’t stop at anything or nothing.

Applejack then turned her head back over to Twilight before she shook it. From the looks alone it seemed that she didn’t had even one right word for the action of Fluttershy. It was something that Twilight could understand for certain, but the anger wasn’t rightfully placed. That was also a fact they had to keep in mind. The very fact that they couldn’t force another anthrony to join their quest.

The admiral went because she wanted to give protection to Twilight, the major came because it would have been a massive boost for the city of pride. Only the soothsayer actually seemed to have set out for the protection of their land. It was a troubling thought that they all came for different reasons. But the chance was once they had seen the threat they were up against, all of the thoughts would be merged together into one: protect the land they know and love.

“Ah hate to admit it, but what she did was just shameful,” the admiral spoke loud enough for Twilight to hear it. The soothsayer herself had to admit that it was indeed rather shameful what Fluttershy had done to them. Though the points still stood firm on the ground.

“We can’t make her to come and join us, Applejack. You pick your crew only out of those who want. If they don’t want, your ship won’t sail,” said Twilight as a metaphor for the situation they were in. Something which Applejack actually understood and even gave a nod towards. “Still, I can’t help but to feel as if we have failed already.” The thoughts inside of Twilight’s mind were clouded and troubled, none of them made sense as they all were visions of a future that wasn’t happening. She saw the very destruction of their land before her eyes.

Geysers of lava boiling out of the ground as if they were nothing. The land torn and ripped to pieces by forces even greater than the fury of the goddesses and demons combined. The screams of those who died as their world perished beneath their hooves.

Horrifying thoughts that eventually caused her to shock up. She satt straight on the bed once more. She panted deep while her hands held her head while a groan was being released. A groan that stood for both the pain and anger that coursed through her body. Pain in the fact that their cause was lost, anger for the grim future to come.

The eyes of Twilight fell shut before there was something that Applejack hadn’t seen from the soothsayer before. There was a small watery line that appeared just below the eye. Out of that, there was a little tear that traveled down the cheek. It headed towards the chin before finally dropping itself unto the blankets of the bed.

She had to say something, anything towards the unicorn to hopefully make her feel better about the situation. But what could she say about the matter? Thoughts also began to race through her mind as she continued to be pondering it for words suitable for the situation they were both in.

It was difficult, she had to admit that much but didn’t wanted to fail Twilight. Yet the inspiration for her words came out of a rather unexpected corner. Her own experience in the field of naval warfare, to be exact. There was a time where something extraordinary happened to her and her fleet. Something that could be happening to their team as well.

“Twilight, listen up to mah words,” said Applejack in a calm and clear tone. None of the official business could be heard within it. Almost as if she tried to be as down to earth as she possibly could have been, or perhaps as friendly. Twilight didn’t care yet she still listened to the words that would be coming.

“Even though the doctor said she wouldn’t come, it doesn’t take away that we have a powerful team already. Besides, we still need two more anthronies. That makes five, mahself included. Five beings, changing the fate of Equestria like that. It can work, ya just have to believe it. Even small numbers, can take out a bigger enemy,” the admiral spoke as she had also raised up from her bed and had swung her legs over to the side so she would be able to actually face the soothsayer.

“Complete or not, we’re going in. We’re gonna stop, whatever is causing this madness.” Those last words were hollow though. Not even the admiral believed that they could be making it down into the depths without anything. Yet the tone in which she spoke was confident enough to make Twilight wipe her tears away.

The unicorn made a sniffle of two. Then she finally dared to open her eyes again and looked towards her partner. The redness within them was normal by Applejack’s standards before the words left her mouth. “I know we can do it, it’s just, it’s just that, the burden of keeping everypony healthy falls on me. You said she knows how to deal and heal every kind of wound. I know perhaps only a quarter of it all.”

It was a matter that indeed was true, and also something that caused Applejack to ponder her own mind gently on the matter. Yet she didn’t wanted to believe that their cause was lost already. Perhaps Fluttershy was needing a bit more persuasion, Applejack-style.

~~~~

A few more hours went by in silence from the two of them before the door was finally opened up again. Applejack had once more laid down in her bed while Twilight had fallen asleep. The thoughts that were racing through her mind were more than enough to knock her out. Which was perhaps a thing for the better as it gave the admiral some time to think about other matters that troubled her own mind.

When the doctor entered, the hopes were held up that it was Fluttershy herself. But instead they got an earth anthrony who closed the door behind her. She walked to both ends of the beds without a single word and looked at the charts that were placed there. The more she read the scrambles written down upon it, the more a smile managed to grow upon her face. She then looked over to both Applejack and Twilight before she gave the two of them a nod. “From the looks of it, everything is fine and you are allowed to leave if you like,” she spoke up in a kind and caring tone before a small bow was being made.

Applejack returned the polite greet by tipping her imaginative hat towards the doctor before she smiled back. “Thanks doc, Ah’ll wake her up and then we’ll see how fast we can be on our way again,” she replied to the doctor. Who only gave a nod in return before making her departure with the charts of the two of them.

Once the door had fallen again in its lock, the admiral spoke the name of the unicorn a couple of times in order to wake her up. With a moan and a groan did the eyes of the mare open up and she rolled her head over towards Applejack with an annoyed expression. “Wow, talking ‘bout a sour face,” she mumbled to herself. Then she said what she actually wanted to say. “We’re allowed to leave if we like. Ah reckon we get out as soon as we can. Getting too much memories of this place, if ya catch mah drift.”

“Hmpf, I get you Applejack. Just, just give me the time to properly get up for a change,” replied Twilight to her. The mare rose her body back up from the bed and swung the blankets off of her body. Her legs were then gently brought over to the sides before the hooves touched the ground. She then had to raise her entire body up from the bed and did so without much of a hustle.

There were only a couple of balance issues at first before she stood firmly back upon the floor of the room. It felt good to finally be out of that bed and the stretches that were done only confirmed that part more.

Applejack then just followed suit after she adjusted the valves of her leg once it stood again on the ground. Then it was her time to rise back up from the bed. Which was done so with a massive release of steam which caused Twilight to turn around. “That wasn’t supposed to happen!” the admiral yelled out before she turned another set of valves. After a couple of seconds did the eruption of steam finally die down. Though the earth anthrony was engulfed within the steam. Steam that actually caused her to cough a couple of times while she waved it away.

Twilight on the other end saw that everything was going to be fine for the admiral and she walked up to one of the windows their room had. The eyes were granted a sight on the outside world where they looked over the sights to be seen. Pretty much everything what she could imagine was shown before her eyes. Including a weak shining afternoon sun. There was perhaps just one shot at it all, and Twilight decided to take the bull by the horns.

Without meditation or ascending to the planes of the goddesses did she began to talk towards the sun itself. “Have we failed already? Have we failed because we didn’t get Fluttershy that far enough that she would be joining us? Or is there, another one that we can try?” That were just some of the questions that were spoken.

The questions also rang deep inside of the ears of Applejack. She was still busy waving the steam away before she finally caught the sounds completely. “What in tarnation are ya talking ‘bout?” she questioned Twilight. The earth anthrony had not even the slightest of clues. There wasn’t any response that came from Twilight on the matter. It did leave her already thinking that she was talking to somepony else.

When the curtain of steam finally gave way to the window, Applejack immediately knew with whom she was talking and rolled her green rimmed eyes away from it under a small grumble. The gaze of infinity that Twilight had within her eyes was something that meant she wouldn’t even have been able to break through it, even if she wanted.

Once again were the two stopped dead in their tracks because Twilight just had to talk to the sun goddess like that. It slightly did annoy Applejack, but she could still understand the very reasons that laid behind it. She didn’t agree with them at all, but she still respected them. It was the least that she could do because of them traveling together. So whether it was liked or not, the two had to respect their manners of going around and about.

Luckily for Twilight, Applejack wasn’t the most difficult mare when it came to it. Yet Twilight’s questions went unanswered by the goddess of the sun. Not even a whisper in her ears could be heard that could indicate some form of help or new light upon the matter. A deep sigh was released through the nostrils of the mulberry skinned unicorn before she turned herself around and nodded towards the admiral. “Let’s go, we have others to find.” Twilight said in a tone that didn’t spoke much emotion.

A tone that actually scared Applejack a little bit as she hadn’t heard it coming out of her mouth before. Yet it also caused something to spark within the admiral. Something that she had thought about earlier that day. Whether Twilight wanted it or not, somepony would be getting another visit. “Lead on, Ah’ll follow.”

So said, so done. After the two of them had left their room, they wandered through the hospital and followed the little signs that said ‘reception’. They figured that the entrance laid there as well, or at least close to it. Much talking there wasn’t done between the two of them as their thoughts were ranging from two different ideas and points of standing.

Applejack had placed her hands behind her back as the tail of her coat waved with every step she did as Twilight’s gaze was a bit dreamy. They had their own ideas about the matter and Applejack wanted to see some action. Or perhaps, the action that was needed from the two of them. Twilight might have gone too soft on the doctor whereas Applejack would have come in with the hard hammer.

Once they reached the reception of the hospital, there was a hand placed upon Twilight’s shoulder and they both came to a stop. The insane idea, worth only one shot, would be executed by Applejack. It was all or nothing that she would be playing. But if they got her with them, it would be making all of the differences in the world. “Twi, could ya wait over there a bit? Ah gotta make some appointments for mah leg,” she spoke to the soothsayer who calmly nodded. “Thanks,” was then added with a warm smile and then the two separated their ways.

Twilight went to the waiting room whereas Applejack walked over to the desk of the reception. Luckily for her weren’t there many anthronies standing in line. Only two happened to be standing before her and the mare was actually thankful for that, as it gave her the time to properly think about the words that she would be saying.

For the task that laid ahead of the mare was something that wasn’t really considered to have been easy at all. Yet it had to be done in her own eyes. She wanted to give it at least a try, whether it would work or not remained to be seen.

Once the queue was over and she stood at the desk, the clerk behind it released a gulp. He had seen the leg she carried of course. Combined with the sheer posture of the earth anthrony, it only added up to the levels of intimidation. “Hey, look, Ah’m just gonna fall in with the door in house here. Ah need to speak to Fluttershy immediately. Ah need to make a couple of appointments for mah leg.” Of course it was a massive lie, but it was a lie for best-will.

Who knew how the clerk would have reacted if she had flat out said she needed to speak to her in order to persuade her over to join a quest of madness? That wouldn’t have been the world’s greatest idea and she knew that. “Hmm,” the clerk began before he looked through a couple of papers. “Well, her schedule says she should be within her office. I presume you know the way?”

The admiral nodded to the words before she thanked the clerk for the cooperation. A clerk that was actually relieved by the fact that she finally was gone and that he could be going on about his work. However, there was one little shock that managed to get through his body as he realized the massive mistake that had been made.

He hadn’t checked upon the fact whether or not Fluttershy was actually able to receive any visitors. Another gulp went through him as he couldn’t stop Applejack anymore and warning the doctor couldn’t be done either. “Oh I’m so going to get fired for this…” he muttered to himself before trying to continue his work.

Twilight had made her way to the waiting room and had taken a seat in one of the chairs. The sheer emptiness of the room was something that got to her almost straight away. Shortly afterward she just charged up her horn and began to play some games with her arcane powers.

Little games that she used to be playing pretty much all of the time when she was still a little foal. Games that managed to bring a gentle smile across her face as the genuine happiness and the memories all came flowing back to her. Memories of the past and times gone by. Times where she didn’t had to care so much about everything and everypony.

Times that were good, bold and perhaps a little naughty. The little endeavors her brother and she had when their parents were out. The sieges on the imaginary castles that had been made. All of those things caused a calm exhale to go through the mare. An exhale that made her happy that she was standing at the point in her life as it was.

The violet rimmed eyes of the mare turned over to the counter of the reception for just a quick moment and she noticed how Applejack didn’t stood there anymore. To her it meant that that waiting game was over and she could focus herself upon the return of the mare, however long that would be taking her.

~~~~

The admiral walked through the hallway that was leading up to the office of Fluttershy. Though she couldn’t resist herself to watch through the glass windows of the other doors. Each door was leading to yet another office where anthronies were working around the clock. Everything seemed to have become just so busy for the lot of them, yet with what did the mare not know. Which perhaps was a better thing as it would only trouble her mind even further and a lot more.

With her pacing calm and her leg functioning the way it was supposed to be, the mare had finally reached the door of Fluttershy’s office and looked through the window. The mare was just sitting there with her head bend over some paperwork. Nopony else was in the room, it was about the near perfect situation for the admiral.

There was a gentle exhale that was being released through her nostrils before she opened the door and walked through. The calm and peaceful atmosphere of the office was suddenly disrupted with a roughness like the sea. Something that Fluttershy did feel but she didn’t wanted to look up just yet. She had to finish a certain something before she would look at who was bold enough to disturb her in the moment.

Yet as Applejack closed the door behind her, she locked it. It was done so quietly that the sounds didn’t even went into the ears of Fluttershy. Only a slightly annoyed exhale was being made by the mare before she continued to work as if nothing had happened to her yet. Though when applejack’s eyes moved themselves away from the desk, they looked through the rest of the room.

What was revealed to her was the well-known doctor’s office. Even the sofa for mentally troubled patients still stood there next to the fireplace. A sofa on which she had laid perhaps a time too much for her liking. All of her nasty memories returned to her from the times that she had been lying upon the thing after the amputation of her leg.

The mare shook her head a couple dozen times before she looked over to the dossier cabinet of the mare. Patient records was the first thought that went through her. Whatever it was, she couldn’t really tell as it was never explained to her. So each time that she looked at it, there was a different thought that went through her mind.

Nonetheless, even though she knew the office just so well, there was one thing that was even new to her. For as her eyes turned back to the still eagerly working Fluttershy were the same eyes caught by something that didn’t really seemed to be fitting. A blue light managed to capture the imagination of the admiral.

A blue light that caused her entire body to freeze as she thought that it was nopony else but her. Yet when Applejack looked at the origin of the lights, the revelation was something a lot more friendly. Behind the mare stood a massive fish tank that was actually integrated in the wall. The tank was about half a time wider than the desk of the mare and filled with some colorful fish.

The more the admiral looked into the tank, the more she began to realize just what parts of the ocean were recreated. From the looks of it, it looked like the Southern Currents were made inside of it. The strange yet beautiful and brightly colored fish that swum in its gave it away right away for her.

Countless little fish were swimming through the tank as if there was nothing else that they could be doing. Which they couldn’t to a certain degree. It caused a quiet chuckle to come from the admiral before she shook her head. The tank did gave her the nice distraction of the task that laid ahead. A task of which was reminded the second she laid her eyes back on Fluttershy.

The mare was busy writing down the last couple of notes with a quill. After that had she finally even dared to look up to the other anthrony. The eyes of the two mares met up with one another and Fluttershy could read the sheer determination and sternness inside of those of Applejack. While Applejack only saw fear within the rims of the doctor.

“W-What are you doing here, Applejack?” Fluttershy then finally asked of her. She wanted to know the finer details about everything. Yet she didn’t get a response in words from the mare. The earth anthrony only walked closer towards the desk in silence.

Only once she could place her hands upon the back of the chair before the desk, did the words come in a calm yet decently eerie tone. “Oh not so much really. Ah’m just here to get a couple answers from ya.”

It was a series of words that caused the pegasus to raise an eyebrow before she thought to have understood the situation as it was. “You, want to know who stabbed you, don’t you?” she then asked in return in the hope that it was the answer where the admiral was looking for.

Sadly enough for the pegasus, it wasn’t even close. Then Applejack released a calm chuckle through her mouth before she shook her head. “Ah’m afraid that that isn’t the reason why Ah came to ya. No, mah question is a bit more, personal shall we say.”

Before Fluttershy could even react to what was going on, Applejack had flung the other chair backwards and made the final couple steps forward. She turned her hands into a pair of fists before she crashed them into the desk of the mare and looked her deeply into the eyes.

It was in that moment where she locked her eyes upon the blue rims of the pegasus and almost hissed her words through her teeth. The deadly question she had wanted to ask. The question of, “where is your sense of duty, Fluttershy?”

Chapter XV

With the words of Applejack still ringing inside of her mind, the doctor herself did became stiff in her own chair. Each one of those words managed to hit her like a sledgehammer against the walls of stone. She was a pegasus, a being of pride and Applejack had done the one thing that would be breaking any pegasus. She hadn’t just touched upon her pride, but she had shattered it. Or at least tried to do so.

That one question, the question of where her sense of duty laid, was something that the mare had never expected to come out of the admiral. She hadn’t expected to run in her again for a second time. Not after she had declined the offer to begin with. The doctor remained frozen in her chair while the quill calmly dropped down to the desk, dripping its ink upon the piece of paper.

Those piercing and determined green rimmed eyes of the admiral never took themselves away from the mare. She wanted to have an answer and would be getting it out of her in one way or the other. Whether Fluttershy herself would have liked it or not. Neither mare made a single move with their bodies as their eyes did the entire conversation between them.

The silence in which the pair of them sat was uncomfortable, tense and highly flammable. One wrong thing and the dangerous cocktail of mixed emotions would explode, resulting in the two mares fighting with either words or hands.

“Ah want mah answer, now,” hissed Applejack through her teeth in a dead serious tone. She really wanted to know what held Fluttershy back the way it was done. Yet there was a secret to everypony. Some were willing to share it as others wanted to keep it hidden until the end of their time. Fluttershy, was a bit of a special case in and of herself.

The mare knew that she was cornered by the admiral. That there wasn’t any right or wrong answer upon the question that was being asked either. But which answer she would decide to give, would bring trouble for either of them. That was the part where the moral debate was raging on like nothing that had ever been seen before.

Deep inside of Fluttershy’s mind did all of the possible outcomes of their conversation came by. All while one was even more bleak than the next. It terrified the good doctor down to her very soul. She wanted to stand up and scream against the admiral that she had no business with her anymore. But on the other she wanted to agree with her. The odds were continuously weighed against one another. Something that only added more to the stress that the pegasus.

“Ah don’t have the whole day here, Flutters. Yar gonna tell me, now. Where, lies, your, sense, of, duty?!” Applejack exclaimed in a tone as she almost yelled to the mare. A mare who in response managed to thaw herself out of the ice she was worked in.

Finally did Fluttershy have the ability to do what she wanted with her body again. The very first thing that she did was standing up and looked the admiral straight in the eyes for a couple of seconds. Deep and loud exhales were given by the mare as she made it known to her adversary that she really didn’t enjoy the way their conversation was going.

Yet instead of hitting her with anything, the pegasus just turned her attention away from the earth anthrony and walked over to a series of windows that looked over the plains of grass. Her hands were placed behind her back. Then the longest and deepest exhale had been released by the doctor. One filled with both doubt and fear.

Doubt of what she had to do, while the fear was of the unknown. Unknown were the facts to her, facts of how each of the anthronies would react to her decision. Whatever her decision might have been.

“So that’s how yar gonna handle it? Walk away the way you just did? Like pretty much every other thing?!” Applejack yelled to her. Then she slammed her fist into the desk in frustration. The desires to just punch the pegasus right back to earth were there without a doubt. Though hurting the doctor like that would only end up in an dishonorable discharge for her.

That was about the last thing that she wanted to have happen to herself. No, the game had to be played mentally while keeping her hands at bay. Something that Applejack wasn’t really all that good in, but she had to try it. Their team needed a doctor of any kind, and she stood against one of the best in the business.

“Ah ain’t gonna tolerate ya with anything else anymore if ya decide to stay. Ah want mah answer on the question asked. Fair and square. What ya decide to do afterwards is yar own business. But know Ah won’t be tolerating you like the physician ya claim to be,” the admiral growled to her. The chair was rolled back by her and took place into it.

Though her words did have some impact on Fluttershy. She did turn herself around and rested her body against the windowsill as her arms went cross over each other. “Oh look at you, missy all-grown-up! For the love of the clouds themselves, listen to yourself for a change!” the doctor exclaimed when she had gathered her guts to speak against the admiral.

“You are nothing but a big meanie who only looks after herself. You say you joined them for her protection, but I don’t believe it for a second. There’s something else in it for you. Something not even you fully know yet,” added Fluttershy before she quickly turned herself back around. The quick and short inhales were enough for Applejack to realize that the pegasus was nearing the edge of crying. It was obvious to see within the eyes of the other mare.

Emotionally weak and quickly taken away by anything that involved nature, that was the best description given for the pegasus. It was something that didn’t suit Applejack one bit. The words the doctor spoke against her were harmful for certain. Yet they would be nothing by what the admiral had planned next. It was even cruel in her own mind. But it were desperate times.

Desperate times always ask for desperate measures. So with a gentle exhale from herself did Applejack leave her spot again and she turned Fluttershy her back. Her eyes were facing the dossiers cabinets with the pictures hung above them. A turn and twist came to her own heart as she was actually doubting whether or not she would spill the words that were on her mind.

At one end she found it was time that the truth needed to be told, on the other end, it would be truly devastating for the pegasus. But it could be giving that little push she needed in order to get her to join their quest. If Applejack knew one thing, it was just doing that.

“Ya know. There’s one little thing that had been bugging mah mind ever since ah first came here. Something unusual ‘bout you, Flutters.” Applejack closed her eyes before the dry throat made another swallow. It was then or never, she had to speak the words for not only her best will, but all of their. The difficult to ignite flame had been sparked long enough. The time was there to turn the tinder into a flame.

"Ah don’t believe ya can heal any kind of wound, without ever seen any form of combat,” the admiral commented in a confident and almost hateful sounding tone. But the underlying one was filled with nothing but doubt and pain of her own. She could then only await whatever reply Fluttershy would be giving to the matter. Patience was required to play the game full.

The pegasus herself released a sniffle of sadness while she caught the words but there was also something else inside of her. Something that caused her to look up a bit strange towards the window. For her eyes looked right into a reflection of themselves and they even managed to catch Applejack in it.

The teeth were being gritted together when she allowed a quiet growl to be released from her throat. Nopony would be talking about her word like that. And Applejack would be feeling the full fury of the pegasi her own words. With one turn was her body going around and she faced the admiral once again. Her pink hair waving in the wind as if it was dancing. But the steps that the hooves made were everything but pleasant.

Once the pegasus had reached the desk, she smashed both of her hands into it before the words of hatred were being released. No sadness could be found within her tone, only pure and flaming anger. “Now you listen to me, and you listen very careful, missy admiral. I can heal any kind of wound there is out there with the snip of a finger. I know how to heal them, but I also know how to cause them!”

“Ya wouldn’t,” replied Applejack to her. Yet out of curiosity had she turned her body back around to look at the pegasus. Her arms went over each other while the stern looking eyes met the enraged pair. Two mares that held powers in their own and equal rights were clashing up against one another. Nothing good has ever come out of that and their argument wouldn’t be any different. “Ya wouldn’t even be able to hurt another anthrony, even if ya wanted.”

The eyes of Fluttershy narrowed themselves while she reached for something inside one of the drawers of her desk. “Don’t tempt the doctor,” she spoke to the admiral. Fluttershy had taken out a bottle with a strange liquid inside of it. The bottle itself bore the skull and crossbone mark which meant that it was a dangerous substance of some sort.

Applejack looked at the bottle and tried to identify exactly what it was where she was looking at. But nothing in her mind could even come close to the thing that Fluttershy had in her hand. “So, yar gonna blow us and probably half of this place up, like that?” she then asked. The initial thought that she had was that it was nitroglycerin.

“Hmhmhmh, oh Applejack. Always a bit naïve, aren’t you? No, this is a little bottle of cyanide. You know what this does, right? It can kill you instantly. So think again when you come barging in and threatening me!” the pegasus yelled up to her. She waved the bottle around as if she were drunk.

Whether the pegasus was bluffing or not was unknown to the admiral. All she knew was that she had to take the situation calmly from that moment onwards. If it was actual cyanide that was in that bottle, they could both be dead before they knew it. It meant that the mare had to change her entire plan of action and reaction. Which did help Fluttershy in perhaps more ways than one.

“Well if ya just told me where yar sense of duty laid, we wouldn’t have been here now!” the earth anthrony then replied in a bit of a raised voice of her own. It was just enough to make it noticeable, which it did beautifully. The eyes of Fluttershy were narrowed once again when she released a deep huff through her nose.

It was only after the huff that she even attempted to speak any sort of words. Words that possibly could be answering the question of the admiral. But perhaps not in the manner that she would have liked. “My sense of duty lies with the anthronies in this hospital. Not by the pair of you. If that’s going to cause the end of the world, so it be. But I know I will at least die, doing what I always have done.”

“And ya can prevent it all from happening if ya come along!” Applejack then exclaimed as she took a hold of the other side of the desk. Once again were their eyes locked in a deep stare. One that once again led the conversation. Argument to join and to decline all went across their rims as the both of them stood firm to their believes.

How much more was required to get Fluttershy crazy enough that she would be joining them? Applejack could only think of one last thing that she could try. A strange and downright crazy accusation of complete and utter madness that she couldn’t build up with much prove. Yet it was worth a shot in her mind. Only time would knew which one of the mares was right.

“Ya say ya know how to treat every kind of wound in anthrony. That makes ya very skilled, but also incredibly old. Judging yar looks, ya ain’t even forty. So how can a landlubber like yarself know all of that, eh? Unless of course, yah made a deal with the devil. Ain’t that yar secret?”

Even Applejack thought that she would have gone too far with her words because she basically accused Fluttershy to have made a deal with one of the Dark Witches of Everfree. Or perhaps even Nightmare Moon herself.

The words were more than enough to make the pegasus gasp for air. Her wings sprung open to both sides. Never in her life had she even could have expected such an accusation to come her way. The only way that she then saw to get out of the trouble was to do the unthinkable for her. Yet she was blinded by her own madness and rage. The little bottle of cyanide was set down upon the desk before a fist slammed itself into the wood.

Their eyes still locked against the those of the other meant that anything could still happen. Yet there was something that not even Applejack could have expected that left the mouth of the pegasus. “Fine, you want your answer, you get your answer,” she wheezed up. Then another growl was released towards Applejack.

The amounts of anticipation that went through the earth anthrony were unknown to the pegasus. Though she felt a moment of complete and utter silence going through her body. It seemed as if time itself had slowed down to the point where seconds looked like hours. Her eyes quickly turned themselves on and off from the admiral as the thoughts raced through her.

She had her answer ready of course. Though the underlying thoughts of it perhaps being the wrong decision still rushed through her. Yet there was no way back, not anymore. Time began to tick again in its normal speed and the words had to come out of her. So with a calm, collected and sure tone she spoke the couple of words. A series of words that she could possibly be going to regret with the rest of her life.

“I shall prove to you once and for all how wrong you are, count me in for this,” said Fluttershy. A thing that was much to the glee of Applejack. Whether it was liked or not by the pegasus, she had been bait for the admiral since their first meeting. The admiral herself was truly happy that she had gotten the answer that she wanted to hear out of the pegasus.

The wings of the mare were finally tucked back against her back again before their eyes broke the contact with each other again. Not to mention the fact that the mood also instantly lightened up to a more comfortable degree.

With Fluttershy also having joined their little company, it meant that they were consisting out of four out of the six beings. It was of course a worry that they were still two short. Yet with the massive victory that Applejack had achieved over the doctor, it wouldn’t come to her until much later.

“Doc, ya have no idea how glad Ah am to hear that. We can really use somepony like yarself on this.” Applejack then spoke up in a kind hearted tone before she stuck out her hand to shake it with one of Fluttershy. The doctor herself was a little bit hesitant by shaking it, but she eventually did it nonetheless. No words came from her as a response, a little something that the admiral could understand.

“Oh, yes, before I forget again. We also managed to get major Rainbow Dash of the C.A.F. for this. Might be doing some good for yar feelings.” Those words were actually quite unexpected to have come out of the admiral’s mouth and Fluttershy could hear the difficulty that Applejack had to say them. Normally the air force and the navy would be at each other’s throats. Yet now they would be working together.

Stranger and stranger had the case become in the eyes of the pegasus. But on the other end she was also a little bit relieved. With the knowledge known to her that another pegasus would be joining them, there was the little feeling of the major being able to stand with her. It was something that a lot of pegasi did for each other, they would be standing together and tall when they were together.

There where both the earth anthronies and the unicorns had to be drummed together in order to fight a common enemy, the pegasi did it automatically. Nopony could truly explain of how and why it came to be that way, but it just was part of their nature. Perhaps the ability to fly and control the weather forced them to become a true unified team that over the centuries only became stronger in bounds? It was one of the many miracles their land was rich.

Nopony knew the answers and nopony wanted to know it either. It was a it was and that was the way it was supposed to be lived with. Something a lot actually agreed with. Yet Fluttershy’s hopes were high but she knew they could just as easily be shattered again. Perhaps her hopes were too highly placed in the other pegasus.

She didn’t knew, she honestly didn’t knew. Though the thought of one other pegasi in the group comforted her. Even if she had no idea that she and Rainbow were total different. Something the mare would discover as the time would have been there. When the need was high and the company actually needed to leave the place. Time would tell whether or not Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would be getting along with each other.

~~~~

Back in the waiting room had Twilight Sparkle been sitting calm. She had never ceased to toy around with her arcane powers though. Some of the adult mares and stallions shrugged it off. Others shunned it off while most of the fillies and colts were actually amazed by her little tricks.

It was almost as if a magician was playing for them. Tricks with disappearing arcane birds in a hat, to that same hat turning into a bird of its own. Magnificent was the words that would come to mind by Applejack as she watched over the little plays. She had returned from the office with good news. Though didn’t wanted to disturb the peace and calm that Twilight was in. Not to mention the younger anthronies. It wasn’t her place to go down and wreck the party.

But Twilight took of course notice of the mare that leaned against the entrance. Her eyes were begging if she could continue just a little bit more to wrap the show up and her audience could leave in peace. Applejack simply gave a nod in response before she continued watching as to what magical trick would be pulled off then.

Minutes went by before the show was finally over and the fillies and colts all let out a sad sounding ‘aw’ before they either returned to their parents or seat. Only once they were all gone stood Twilight up again and began to calmly make her way over to the admiral. Who in her eyes seemed to have been oddly happy about a little something. The unicorn couldn’t quite place her hand on the matter, thought she was having an idea or two.

“I do suppose that your little talk with her went, well?” the unicorn asked once they had cleared the waiting area. The two of them were walking towards the entrance of the place. It was a carefully asked question though. There was no indication as it when the mood of the mare would swing backwards again.

Yet the earth anthrony managed to remain happy as she nodded to the spoken words. “Our talk indeed went rather well. Ah tell ya outside though, might cause too much commotion inside,” replied Applejack then. They walked through the glass doors of the hospital.

The both of them were then finally surrounded by the fresh air of the outside world as well as its cool and warm breezes of wind. The day was just perfect in Twilight’s eyes and Applejack had a look towards the skies. Not a single cloud was carried inside of them which meant something good for the both of them.

They continued to walk away from the place for about a minute or five before the unicorn began to question herself whether or not Applejack would actually tell her what had happened. She of course didn’t want to play rude and thus waited for the mare to start about it all herself.

Which was something that was done a lot sooner than Twilight had expected. For it was only after they had walked around ten minutes that the mouth of the admiral opened up again. “Well, let’s say we finally have our doctor. She’s in for the quest.”

Those words, those very important words were said in that oddly normal tone. A tone that indicated as if it was the most normal job in the word, had the unicorn baffled. There wasn’t much more needed or her entire jaw just would have dropped itself towards the ground. All sorts of questions began to race and rush themselves through her mind. Questions on which she wanted an answer on just so badly. Yet knowing it was Applejack that she was speaking against, such a thing was perhaps easier said than done.

Nonetheless, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t try it in the very least. “H-How did you manage to, to get her crazy enough after she firmly said no the first time?” the mare asked in all of her curiosity. Twilight would lie if she said she didn’t wanted to know the finer details.

With the wind blowing against their backs and the path clearly visible before them, the two of them walked over the plains of grass that stretched themselves as far as the eyes could see. Canterlot was their heading and with luck they would be getting there the following afternoon. At least that was the plan in their minds.

Applejack just began to chuckle to herself before she calmly shook her head towards Twilight. “Twilight, take this from me, when a anthrony says no the first time, usually there’s a manner to get ‘em to join ya anyway. Ya just need to being in that extra little bit of persuasion and leverage.”

“Don’t tell me you threatened her!” Twilight exclaimed out of the blue. The mare immediately thought about the worst of the worst on the matter. Her eyes went as wide as they were allowed before they turned over to the admiral with a pleading glare in them. She could only hope that she was dead wrong.

“Ah never threatened her. If Ah did, Ah would be having all of mah officers standing ‘round mah ship and ready to discharge me like that,” she replied with a snap of her fingers. The explanation was more than enough for Twilight to understand that she didn’t threaten her, but it still made her wonder as to how she did it.

It was a wondering glare that was caught within the eyes of the admiral herself before she simply would explain what she had done. Yet the truth as she would have told it was a slight bit different from reality. “Ask her enough questions and compare the answers ya get. Then ya can judge whether or not she’s willing to go. Naval persuasion, let’s keep it on that, shall we?”

It was fine for Twilight. She wasn’t in the mood and didn’t had the desire anymore to figure out what had been done to the doctor onboard of their quest. They had a doctor and that was the thing that counted the most. They didn’t had to rely on her anymore for any of their torments or pains. Which was relief bigger than Twilight every could have thought after their discharge from the hospital.

Though there was one question that still lingered through the mind of Applejack. One question that would shock their worlds in their own manners. One question that would perhaps silence Twilight for the rest of the trip. And that question was being asked at the moment they reached the top of a hill.

A hill that looked out of the never ending planes with the mountain of Canterlot in the far distance. “Who else is required for the team? What’s our next destination?” All of the sudden it felt as if Twilight had seen a ghost floating by.

Her entire face began to turn white just before she felt her stomach turn and twist inside out. The question couldn’t have been more inappropriate when it came to timing. As for the answer, it would have been even more terrible than anything she had ever said against the admiral. For just a second could Twilight actually smell the scent of treason and mutiny that was done on so many ships. Not to mention the gunpowder that had burned away as well as the salt of the sea.

Piracy, that was the very first word that came to Twilight’s mind after the scents had faded away again. The town of pirates would have been their next heading and knowing she travelled with the admiral herself, things could turn ugly really after. Perhaps it was luck that came into play, as Applejack didn’t notice how pale Twilight had become in the span of just a couple of seconds.

The feelings of sickness also hadn’t faded away as another moral dilemma was being presented towards the soothsayer. Would she be able to tell an admiral of the royal Equestrian navy that they would be going down to the most pirate infested town of the land, in the hope to ransack one of them? Of course not.

All kinds of possible scenarios went through the mind of the mare as to how Applejack would be reacting to the matter. Everything from taking it in calmly to tackling her against the ground and setting a blade to her gullet came by. It wasn’t something that she actually preferred happening to her at all. A shudder came through her body as she had fallen behind just that little bit.

A deep exhale then left through her nostrils as she dared to speak the words that were on her mind. “I, I’ll be having to look up where the next location is. I can’t tell you for certain right now,” excused Twilight. Her eyes went up to the grassy fields that had the sun shining bright across them.

It was an answer that satisfied the admiral. It meant to her that they had to go back to Canterlot either way. The two had been through so much together already. It was only the beginning of the trip that was going to be undertaken though. “Something Ah can understand. Just gimme a holler whenever yar ready to head out again. Although, if ya don’t mind me asking, you planned something else in Canterlot?”

“Hm? W-What?” Twilight reacted a bit shocked. She hadn’t thought about that answer and didn’t understand Applejack’s question at all. Perhaps the mare was just that little bit too far off in her own mind, perhaps she just didn’t wanted to know what was being asked to her.

“Ya plan on visiting family as well?” Applejack then asked. It was in the hope that it would clear things out for the unicorn. Which it luckily did. Those words could be understood by her pretty easily. There was a silent sigh of relief that came from Twilight’s direction before the thoughts continued to race through her mind again.

“Well, I suppose that you can say that I might look up my brother. Perhaps even my parents. They do live just outside of the castle. But what about you?” said Twilight the hope that she could be turning the attention back to the admiral. Even though it didn’t truly interest her what she would be up to, it was always better than talking about what she would be doing.

The admiral released a chuckle when her hands were placed upon her back and she leaned just that bit forward in the wind. “Well, Ah think Ah’m going to look how mah ship has been doing since mah departure. Not to mention, how mah own brother has been doing. And who knows, if there’s time, make a quick stop at the family farm, for ol’ time’s sake.”

The idea sounded wonderful to listen to and the unicorn turned to visualize the farm of her family. Yet none of her vision could have ever even compared themselves to the reality of the place. Though she had to admit one thing to the earth anthrony. “That does sound like a wonderful thing yes. You, still having family on the farm, I presume?”

“Hehe, oh yes. Ol’ granny Smith and mah little sister Apple Bloom guard the place now,” the admiral replied in a gentle chuckle. The thing that immediately stood out in Twilight’s mind was the lack of the word ‘parents’. She didn’t knew what had happened to them, but if even Applejack didn’t name them, there was only the worst possible thing that could have been thought about.

All of the sudden did the mare felt sorry that she had asked the question. Yet the admiral didn’t seemed to have any troubles with it. Who knew how long it had been since her parents had left her life. Perhaps she had never even known them. So many more questions were opened up, but most of them would never receive an actual answer.

So the subject had to be changed once more, hopefully into something a bit more friendly. “Your sister is going to keep the farm, I take it. Since you and your brother are both in the navy and all,” said Twilight while she hoped it wouldn’t have fallen into the wrong gullet.

The admiral just gave her a chuckle before she shook her head. “She’s gonna keep the farm and when Mac and Ah are too old for this, we return to the only true home we had ever known. Probably go in her service though. Bells of the future, Twilight. First things first.”

Those words couldn’t have been more true. First things first, Twilight repeated in her head before her eyes were shut down for just a moment, first be needing to get rid of you and then make my way to that cursed town. It were dark thoughts without a doubt. But in Twilight’s mind it really would have been for the better if Applejack just didn’t went along. That she didn’t even knew where she would be doing.

But a thing like that was more often than not a whole lot easier said than actually done.

Chapter XVI

Finally it came into both of their eyes once more. After another day worth of travel had they finally managed to walk their way back. They had come to the one and only place that they both could be calling nothing else but home. Before them had it become bigger and bigger as time went by. The mountain of Canterlot and the massive castle it bore almost stood directly in front of both Applejack and Twilight Sparkle. It felt good for the two of them to know that they were almost home.

It felt good because they knew that they could spend some time with both friends, family and perhaps loved ones. The only downside of the trip had to be the fact that they had to walk up the mountain in order to reach the settlement and the castle. While it was true that a railway was in the make to make it quicker up the mountain, completion of it was still nowhere near in sight.

The green rimmed eyes of Applejack were turned away from the mountain and up into the skies. There was one thing she wanted to know more than anything else in that moment of time. She wanted to know just what the weather would become for them. The sun had been burning on their scalps for days with cool breezes, but their terrain of travel had been flat. Climbing the mountain with that kind of weather would have been a massive disaster and the admiral knew that fact perhaps better than anypony else.

Her eyes scanned over the skies as if they were looking for a target of any kind. Twilight didn’t actually minded it as it meant that she had a bit of a moment of both calm and peace. A moment that was rather welcome for her mind, if the truth had to be told. Even though she never admitted it to the admiral, Twilight was hesitant about the next location that she would be going to. Not to mention, all the troubles that would be coming with it.

“Well,” Applejack’s voice suddenly filled the air. It captured the attention of Twilight with a gentle ‘hm’ to her. “Ah reckon the weather’s gonna stay like this. Clouded skies and breezes from the North. Should be an easy hike up the slopes. Though Ah admit, mah legs were feeling a lot more comfortable on the flat.”

The words managed to get a chuckle out of Twilight before she calmly shook her head a couple of times. “The thing not designed to make deep bends?”

“What?” the admiral asked with a raised eyebrow. She originally didn’t fully understood what Twilight meant before both of her eyebrows suddenly went up. “Hey! This leg was designed to tackle anything. Hell, Ah climb in the rigging of mah ship at lightning speed if Ah have to. Come on soothsayer, let’s visit home again.”

Home, that one little word was something that meant pretty much the world to Twilight. Home, a place where she hadn’t been in so many years. Her actual home was somewhere outside of the castle. The place where both her aged mother and father lived in perfect harmony and were proud that their children had become the mare and stallion they are.

Home, a word so little yet with such a big meaning for everypony in the land. A word that can make one lose track of reality for a little while, which was exactly that happened to Twilight. The admiral had to snap her fingers a couple of times in the soothsayer’s face before the head shook itself a couple of times again.

“W-What?” Twilight asked in a truly questioning voice. The mare didn’t have even the slightest of clues of what was going on. The eyelids made a couple of blinks before they were turned over to Applejack with a questioning gaze to be found deep within them.

“Ah think ya travelled a bit too far back in yar mind partner. Let’s go,” she simply said before taking on the lead for the pair of them. Twilight continued to shake her head a little bit before she just blindly followed the admiral to the path of the mountain.

It didn’t really matter to the unicorn what had happened. The troubles that flooded her mind again were a thing more than enough to make her wonder countless things again. Yet first things had to happen first. She needed to get rid of Applejack in a friendly manner before she would have been able to prepare herself for the other part of her trek.

The situation wasn’t something where Twilight wanted to be in, but the results were just like that. She couldn’t say against the walls of fate how she wanted to have it and expect it to be that way. Nopony had control over fate, and that was perhaps the best to remain that way.

Their trip to both Cloudsdale and the hospital had taken the both of them a couple of days and the city of Canterlot stood never still. Which meant that the both of them had stories to share and to listen to as well. Stories that could be liked or just shrugged off like that.

Only once the two of them stood at the top of the mountain, they stood before the actual entrance of the village that was Canterlot’s very own settlement. Applejack and Twilight looked over the main street that was leading to the castle. The admiral placed a hand on the soothsayer’s shoulder and smiled a warm one. “Ah think this is where our ways part for now Twilight. Ah’ll be needing to go down again to the docks to see how mah brother has been holding them lot together.”

Twilight released a little giggle in response to the words. Then it was her calm and soothing tone filled the air for a change, “I think that indeed would be a good thing to do yes. They might even have something interesting to tell you.” Though the hardest part still had to come and she wanted to stay ahead of Applejack no matter what.

“Hey, uhm, before I forget again. I will be busy for the coming days right here in Canterlot. So it might take a good week before we will be able to head out again. I mean, I still have my classes and such,” she added to her words. A thing done in the faint hope to get rid of the admiral.

“It’s fine, Twilight, Ah know what yar dealing with. Take yar time and give a call when yar going out again,” the admiral answered. Applejack nodded in a calm manner to the unicorn and then they finally parted their ways. Applejack went into one of the side streets and disappeared out of her field of view. Leaving only Twilight to continue to wonder whether or not she had fallen for the lie that was told.

But the time to think long about it wasn’t there. There was another problem that needed to be faced and Twilight needed to get to it as soon as she could. She wanted to get out again as quickly as she possibly could and get the fifth member of the team. But things wouldn’t have becoming any easier for her whatsoever.

~~~~

"So, Beatrix, your week is up and the commander-in-chief has told me you managed to keep yourself rather, civil, as he put it,” were the words of Shining Armor. The stallion sat in the chair behind his desk as per usual. His eyes looked sternly into those of the mare against him.

In a chair of her own sat nopony else but Trixie, who was there for reasons they both knew. Reasons that didn’t needed to be explained but the questions still had to be answered in one form or the other. Yet the battlemage had a massive grin going across her face before she finally replied with her own words. “When one threatens me to expel me of this place, I will be making certain that something like that isn’t going to happen, Shining. You and I both know that. So a word of advice, keep your hands off of me in the future. You can’t make me anything.”

“Hmpf, only as long as you keep yours off of my sister,” the captain of the guard replied to her just before he crossed his arms over one another. Trixie only released a chuckle. She laid down a bit more and cross her legs over each other.

“So that’s what all of this is about?” she then asked as if he didn’t mean his words, “you did all of that just to make sure I wouldn’t touch your sister again? Oh Shining, it shall be your emotions that will eventually become your own undoing, yet you fail to realize that fact as it is.”

Those words were harmful for certain and he wouldn’t let them pass like that, but there wasn’t much else that he would be doing with her. Not anymore. “Go, go and get out of my sights will you? Just having you on my floor makes me want to vomit.” And with those words was the chair glided back before Trixie stood back up and made one last, insulting wave before she vanished out of the office via a teleportation spell.

“I hate that mare, so much.”

Just when the stallion thought that he would be having a moment of peace for himself, there was another knock on the door. Minutes had already passed since Trixie had made her departure and he was working on some filing of his own cabinets. The knock was a little distracting but he couldn’t ignore it. So with the glasses still standing on his nose, he looked over the door and spoke the magic words, “come in.”

Seconds later did the door open. The anthrony that entered it was one that he just couldn’t believe one bit. The entire body turned around in order to get the mare in full view. The glasses were taken off the nose to inspect her even more. “T-Twilight? Looking good, if I may say so.”

It was the very first time that he had seen his sister wearing anything else outside of the signature soothsayers outfit she was always seen in. The mare closed the door again. Then she sat down in the chair and allowed a giggle to leave her. “Why thank you. But, I shall be dropping in with the door once more. I need information. And I need it quickly.”

“Hey, what’s the rush? It doesn’t happen every day that you stumble in my office, nor that you have been gone for over a week like that or change your wardrobe. Tell me what happened first and after that we’ll be seeing what else I can do for you,” her older brother replied and insisted. He walked over to the desk and sat down on the edge of it. One of his legs was still standing firmly on the ground as the other hung off of the side from the knee down.

There really wasn’t any form of escaping for Twilight. Her brother was a firm stallion who would almost always gets his ways with his charms. Not even his own sister or parents were safe from it. Not to mention the fact he had his way with words. Which meant that it was a losing battle from the beginning for the mare.

The only thing that she could do was to tell him what happened. Not everything of course. Certain parts were left out for his own best-will. It was better that he didn’t knew that she had been stabbed by something that roamed the woods of Everfree, or that she had stared down the barrel of a flintlock on more than one occasion.

Eventually was it Shining’s turn to walk again as he removed himself from the desk with a chuckle. “Well, well, well, looks like my little sister is finally getting to know the world as it is. So, what do you need my help with? I mean, you are having a pretty strong team already. A doctor, an admiral and a major. Including yourself, that equals power,” Shining Armor said to her with a smile.

“Well, you see, Shining, that’s the problem. I still need two other beings for this to work and I have only one location left. That pirate port,” replied Twilight to her brother. She would have repositioned herself a bit better in the chair, awaiting the fury of her brother to come.

It was at the mere mentioning of the hellish place that Shining Armor’s face turned from happy to sour in a split second. He really wasn’t happy about her even considering to be going to that place, still actually. After everything she had already been through, it was difficult for her older brother to just let her go. He really didn’t wanted to see her ending up in a place like that. “I just hope that your are wise enough not to go along and take any of your teammates with you. For I tell you, that place is dangerous.”

“That, that’s the problem really. I do plan to go alone,” commented Twilight and she prepared herself for the heap of trouble that would be coming in for real. There was no way around it in the mind of Twilight and the only thing that she could do was to prepare for the words of her brother. Though her decision stood firm and she was confident that it would work.

Yet if that was enough to actually survive in a place like that, was something that had to be seen first in order to be believed.

Shining Armor’s face slowly turned from white into angry red. Most of the veins in his forehead almost seemed to pop. He was angry at her. Really, really angry at her for making the decision. Furious was the feeling that just surged straight through him. One more word and the whole ticking time bomb that was her brother could have been set off just like that. So the silence between the two of them was kept while the stallion began to pace up and down.

He walked all over his office in order to just lower the anger he had stored inside of him. The last thing he wanted to do, was to hurt his own flesh and blood in a manner that he would really come to regret it. Not to mention, the realization had to be made that it wasn’t his quest.

All of that never changed the fact that Twilight was how own little and beloved sister. He would be going through Tartarus and back in order to bring her back, if it was needed. So for minutes he simply kept on walking around in circles. All while trying to control his anger.

And then, finally, after about fifteen minutes of complete and utter silence that made it seem like fifteen hours, Shining Armor spoke the words that came to his mind. “And why, exactly, do you plan to go alone?”

It wasn’t a series of words that were expected by the unicorn as she actually blinked a couple of times towards them. Had her own brother just said them to her, in a calm and ordered fashion? Or did she just hear them wrong? No, that couldn’t have been. She had heard them perfectly. Which led to only one possible answer to come from the unicorn. An answer that was reasonable enough, whether the stallion wanted to believe it or not.

There was a deep exhale that was released from Twilight’s nostrils. She finally gathered the actual guts to speak up against her older brother in an impossible way. “Look, don’t get me wrong here, but it is a pirate town. If I take Applejack with me –an admiral of the navy with a steam powered leg nonetheless– I think she will be standing out there like a sore thumb and you know it,” countered Twilight straight away. The words that she said were more than true, she thought.

Applejack –especially with her leg– would be an easy to spot prey for any anthrony who wanted to do her harm. Not to forget the fact that the anthrony they needed perhaps wouldn’t even show up as soon as her presence was made known. “No Shining, taking either Applejack, Rainbow or Fluttershy with me is out of the question on this one. And don’t even think about saddling me up with one of your guards. Remember the last time?”

“You mean, when he got ‘accidentally’ incinerated? Yeah, not a smart move on your department,” replied Shining Armor to her with a stern set of eyes. Though he began to saw the truth in his sister’s words. There just wasn’t a good way to go into that town the way he wanted her to go. The stallion just dropped himself back in his chair while he rubbed his face from pretty much all possible angles before there was a deep sighing groan released from the very core of his body.

“You really aren’t happy about this, are you?” Twilight asked with a careful tone. The strain was obvious to see in both his eyes and on his face. The stallion simply gave a nod at first before he leaned backwards and took the time to think of an answer.

“It,” he then began after a silent minute. “It indeed is a difficult matter, sis. I mean, it isn’t every single day that one wishes to travel up to the hellhole of the land. What would mom and dad say when they figured it out. Or even more discouraging, they begin to realize that you were found dead in the place. I mean, a soothsayer in that place?”

“Shining, you’re seeing ghosts!” Twilight all of the sudden had interrupted him.

The stallion was literally baffled by the fact that she even managed to speak such words up against him. But it did make him a little bit more aware of the situation as a whole. She had been through the hospital, Cloudsdale and Canterlot harbor without much of a problem. At least in the story that she told him. So perhaps was he indeed seeing a bit of a ghost left and right.

“Alright, perhaps you’re right. But I still hold the right to keep my worries about you. Don’t you ever forget that, Twilight. So I will tell you this and I sincerely hope that you are going to live up to the promise I want you to make,” the stallion said to her in an even more serious voice.

One of the mare’s eyebrows rose itself up. It did manage to get the attention of the mare more than any other of his words. She was becoming curious as to what he would be saying to her and both of her ears perked themselves up just that extra little bit. She wanted to hear all the words, word for word, imprinted in her mind if they were important.

The stallion let out a sigh. “I’m not going to make you promise to come back without a scratch. But for the love of the goddesses, wear a disguise in the least. Something long and closed, dark of nature. Like a trench coat and matching little hat or something. The less they see of you, the better it is for your own health. Promise me, you will be going in there with a disguise, Twilight.”

Once more was it a series of words that went rather unexpected for the unicorn. Yet she could still understand them with every fabric of her mind. Not to mention the little fact that it wasn’t something truly unreasonable. She eventually gave a nod to the request of her brother. “Alright, that should be easy actually. Trying to not jump out of the crowd like that. Yes, that should help a great deal as well actually.”

“Thank you,” replied Shining Armor with gratitude. No words could describe the massive worry that had fallen off of his shoulders.

The two of them continued to talk about the town for a bit more. Twilight needed to know every last bit that was known about the place before she would be making her departure. She wanted to know what kind of anthronies were hiding there. Not to mention as to why it was as rough and brutal as her brother pictured it.

Yet the tale that she got instead wasn’t something for the faint of heart. For her brother explained that the place was home of deserters from all kinds of wars. Griffons, zebra’s and all three of their races were all dumped on one spot that was meant to be a prison for them after they were caught again. But they managed to break out and turn the prison inside out, literally. The prison was run by the prisoners and to that very day still was.

Its harbor hidden away in a series of caves and caverns that changes with every tide. No naval ship had ever managed to anchor inside of it which led to believe that that an assault on the place was impossible. Which was even made stronger by the rather gruesome replies they sometimes had gotten from there.

“Sounds, nice,” replied Twilight in a near sarcastic tone. There was a shudder that went all over her spine. It wasn’t a pretty feeling that she would be walking into a place where violence was on the order of the day. Though the world rarely was actually all about moonshine and rose scent.

“And, any locations of the latest tremors as well as their intensities?” the unicorn asked as she was getting a bit more curious. It was her field project after all to say the least. She was curious as to how many tremors there had been in her absence and how strong they were. If there was any pattern to be discovered within them, they might have been able to calculate both its strength and location which could result in a full on evacuation of the area.

“Actually, there have been some guards that came to me with messages about them, yes. They were coded for you but since you were absent, well, I kinda opened them and filled in the blanks. The map is brought to your room after each new location. Three tremors, all different parts of the land. I can’t make anything out of it really. But if you can, go right ahead,” explained Shining Armor to her. He was actually a little bit ashamed and embarrassed by the fact he had gone through his sister’s mail the way he did.

Which was a good thing in her eyes, it would be teaching him not to do it again. Though on the other end it did save her a lot of work of filling in the blanks herself. “Thanks Shining. I will be having a look over it while packing again and, we’ll see from there. Thanks for everything brother,” she said to him before she got out of the chair.

Without any form of hesitation she walked over to the chair the stallion sat in and gave him a firm and tight hug. The hug was returned by her brother as he didn’t actually wanted to let her go, but realized that even little fillies eventually had to grow up in mares. “Stay safe out there Twilight, just stay safe.”

“I will big brother, I will.”

~~~~

With the four walls of her room finally having enclosed her once more, Twilight Sparkle was glancing over the map that she had been using since day one. A map that showed each location of the tremor and the strength it carried. Not to mention the lines faintly drawn from place to place. There was simply no pattern to be found as it varied literally every single time.

Even calculating the distance between each tremor up to the most recent one to see some kind of chain like effect to start wasn’t there. “Either we haven’t reached the end of the chain yet, missing shackles or just not having a pattern at all,” mumbled Twilight to herself. The quill got laid down after she had gone through the calculations once again. It could be driving her to utter madness and she would be looking up strange if it actually would be doing it.

There was no pattern or effect to be found within the markings on the map. Frustration continued to lead her on as the mare folded the map up again and she continued packing her bags with the needed stuff. Of course they would be saved in her personal void stage, but she still wanted everything in bags just to be sure.

“I hope that once we find the answer, it’s going to be a good one,” she said aloud. There was another travel bag made ready by tightening the rope of the opening. “And not a half assed one.” But whichever would be giving her the truth remained to be seen as a realization went through her entire body.

The pirate town was the farthest place she would have travelled to in all of her life. Cloudsdale already looked pretty far, especially given its floating nature. Yet it was the town of pirates that still laid even further north than any visited place before. If Twilight didn’t know any better, the mare would have been able to go to the Frozen North itself and visit another soothsayer who lived there on its own. One that she only remembered vague in her memories.

The times were strange and it was something that the unicorn could feel too deep within her very own soul. Changes in the wind that hadn’t been felt for years had all of the sudden returned to them. Time as they knew it would perhaps be coming to an end and it all rested upon her shoulders. No pressure there, at all.

“It’s going to be, curious, to see how they live up there. Well, best to be going off now, before Applejack knocks at my door again,” said Twilight to herself when she stored the last bag in the storage compartment and closed the hole of distorted reality. There was nothing else that she could be doing, outside of hoping for the best to happen to her and her plan.

Time came and went as Twilight sat in her chair. She pondered whether or not she had actually missed a pattern of any kind in the maps she had made. But every single time that she went over them in her head, the same results always managed to return to her. She had made the right calculations and there wasn’t any equal to be found within them.

Whatever caused them truly did it at random times, locations and strengths. No two tremors were ever the same. Perhaps they were close to some, though never enough for Twilight to call them a match. It was even impossible to match them. For when one match was found, the other two usually didn’t hold up and didn’t increase or decrease with a steady amount.

So in the far end of things and with the moon standing high in the skies, Twilight found that it was time for her to just leave. Leave off in the middle of the night without saying a single word to any other being. Not even the lunar guardian bat anthronies that stood guard.

Almost like a phantom had she walked through the castle with her leather boots. Quick and silent, sometimes not even the guards heard her coming with their highly sensitive ears. Yet when they would be asking the question of where she would be off to, they would always be ignored by her. No straight answer, or any answer at all, was given off by the mare.

They wanted to go after the soothsayer of course, but something inside of them told them that it was for the better if they didn’t. Her worries shouldn’t have become theirs. That was the mentality in which the bat-anthronies worked and they had all peace with it.

Eventually there was the gate again. The gate that was the entrance of Canterlot castle itself. The unicorn never stopped in her tracks or slowed down to admire the scenery that was being created with help of the moon itself. She had a heading and she was determined to go as quick as she could.

~~~~

Somewhere back inside of the castle, through its darkened hallways walked a figure in a black coat. Its body covered up from all of the sides as one of the hooves made a rather signature and ominous stomping against the floor. It was uncertain what the desires of the mysterious anthrony were but the guards never actually stopped it.

Something about the entire posture made it look like it was actually a familiar being to them. Which in and of itself was already something unusual. Yet the being had been haunted with both thoughts and dreams about the adventures the unicorn had embarked on. It was unusual to visit somepony deep in the night, but it was universally known that Twilight Sparkle was a hard worker and wouldn’t have backed down that easily from something.

When the being turned into the hallway of the unicorn’s bedroom, it was caught as a bit of a surprise that there wasn’t any light coming from under the door. Though it didn’t scare the being off at all. Instead it walked up closer towards door before being in the range to knock at it.

When the first knock fell upon the wood of the door came the realization that shocked through the being. It wasn’t even locked! With the creaking wood and hinges had it just moved right out of the way. Curiosity had taken over as the door was pushed open even further before the darkness of the room engulfed the entire place.

Only then did the being took a step or two inside of the room and a couple sniffs of air were taken. Almost as if it wanted to smell whether or not there were magically placed traps somewhere. It literally wanted to sniff out the magic of the place.

Though much to its luck, there wasn’t anything that could be found in that sense. So the search continued inside of the room. Perhaps the most obvious place to start was with the drawers of the desk. Something of interest had to be kept in there that could be helping with the ‘investigations.’

With a couple of quick steps had the being managed to walk over to the desk and opened the lowest drawer it could find. Yet what it found was seemingly empty, weren’t it for four arcane pictures that were almost just flung in there. The levels of curiosity only managed to rise as the moonlight cast its shadow into the room.

All four of the pictures were taken out and spread over the desk. It were the four pictures of the locations that Twilight had to visit in order to find a being for her quest of madness. Each one was noticed and tabbed with a finger of the being while the breathing only became shocked by one.

It was by the last picture that the hand of the being began to shake as if it had seen a ghost. “The Vengeful Belle,” was whispered all of the sudden. A name that was followed by a shiver of freezing cold went over the spine of the being. “Impossible.” And then it just turned itself back around, changing the pace into a higher gear as it left the room of Twilight and looked from right to left before taking a turn to the right.

Nothing in the world could have been sure about whom the being was. Though it obviously knew a lot more about vessels then Twilight would ever have been able to. One name and one word was enough to drive every sailor on the seas crazy and lose hope. If what the being thought was going to happen was about to happen. Big mistakes would be made by all parties that would be present.

Chapter XVII

Time became nothing more but a simple measurement. The soothsayer had continued her journey to the once-prison-turned-town with all the strength that she had in both her mind and muscle. Time had lost its significant value while she just wandered over the paths that were laid over the massive cliffs before they turned into the beaches against which the ocean itself splashed.

For nearly a day and a half had she been wandering about like that. She went both around and about to find the quickest way to get to the nameless settlement of scum and villainy. But it didn’t do her any good whatsoever. Even on the night that she left didn’t the mare grant herself any rest and she had been going until the next evening. Almost a day and a half without sleep, awake for just over thirty hours wouldn’t have done any anthrony good.

Though the words of her older brother didn’t go unnoticed. The unicorn was already wearing her disguise of a long coat that was buttoned up while a cloth hood covered most of her head. The only real parts of her body that could be seen were the tips of her boots as she walked, the hands if she waved them around and pieces of her face.

But she looked like a commoner who was down to its luck, therefore having little to no valuable things upon her. It was a faint hope that everypony would be leaving her alone. For a fight on those cliffs was just about one of the last things she wanted to have liked. Yet those same cliffs always managed to get her attention, the sun continued to back down into the waters of the ocean.

The eyes of Twilight had a difficult time actually keeping themselves focused upon the road ahead. Here and there was a lost tree which stood next to the way, acting like some sort of long forgotten shelter. Those trees were just that though. Actual trees with no intelligent mind controlling them. Or perhaps better said, one that gave them a sentient mind.

Beneath her and down the rocky cliffs did the waves crash and break over the banks of sand that was the beach but also those that were hidden deeply under the water. It would have cost manier ship their lives and crews, that treacherous they happened to be.

Speaking about vessels, the eyes of the unicorn managed to see a couple of them sailing near the horizon as nothing was on their mind. It was a rather curious and pretty interesting sight to behold for her. So interesting even that she took off from the beaten path and walked over to the edge of the cliffs.

After a little inspection whether or not the rocks would have been able to hold her, the unicorn lowered down in order to sit in the grass while her legs dangled over the edge. It was a breathtaking view that she got. The sights of the waves breaking, the ships sailing with the setting sun. Truly an image that could be pictured upon a postal card anytime soon.

Inspiration and thoughts surged through the mind of the mare. All while she continued to watch the scene. Her body had leaned itself back as the hands were used for support. Minutes she just sat there while she enjoyed the views. Though calculations never even once dared to be leaving her side. There was something oddly calming inside of her mind as well.

Almost as if the breeze that was blowing gently in her face, also made its way into her skull and managed to become a boss over the hurricane that was released into it. Something just made her watch and wonder. Time seemed to have come to a standstill as the unicorn’s breathing remained always the same. Even though it were actions that lasted seconds, their timing was always the same.

Whether it was in- or exhale or the time between the two of them. For just a moment it appeared that Twilight Sparkle herself was a well-oiled machine that didn’t actually do anything useful. Not that the fact mattered anything actually, as the unicorn did genuinely enjoy the view that was given to her.

The sun continued to lower itself beneath the horizon as the darkness continued to crawl back up on her from behind. Seconds away they were from seeing the final rays of light. Only in mere seconds would the land be delivered on the mercy of the night itself.

Mere seconds in which Twilight continued to watch the final rays fading away as if they were nothing. Until it actually happened. The last rays of the sun fell behind the horizon and the darkness finally could be grasping everything into its hold.

The night had officially begun from that time onwards. The animals that lived into it made it well known within the first fifteen minutes mark.

The unicorn stood back up and moved away from the cliff with some steps. Her eyes had been adjusted to see shapes into the dreaded darkness. She felt tired, burned up and exhausted. Rest was the thing that she needed and was going to be the one thing that she would be getting.

Canterlot laid behind her a day and a half, nopony who had been following her from there would have made it to her location that quick. So the worry could be shrugged off of her shoulders. She continued to walk a bit more up the path before she finally crashed down near a tree that was actually a bit bigger than any of the others she came across on the path.

Though the thought wasn’t something that could be stood still by for long, as she just crashed down and placed her back against the bark of the thing. Once she had made herself as comfortable as she could had the magical aura appeared around both her hands and her horn.

What followed was that two little flames in each hand were awoken and would be acting as her source of heat through the night. And sadly enough a beacon for any and all to be witnessed if they so desired. For the purple aura could be seen from pretty much every direction there possibly was. Yet little did Twilight knew, that she had left the relative comforts of the frying pan…and could be found right into the fires of Tartarus itself.

~~~~

The following morning was there something unusual about the way Twilight woke up. She had expected to see a much less wider shadow from her position. She was wide awake, the sun was rising brightly but her eyelids remained closed. But with everything still combined, she could know that something was wrong.

Perhaps the anthrony had just a sense for trouble? Perhaps the underlying calculations of her unconscious mind did it all before she realized it. It didn’t actually matter, there was trouble and she needed to open her eyes in order to inspect it.

Whatever it was that looking at her, staring at her or even standing right next to her, Twilight wanted to know before heading out again. If she was allowed to, that was. So with little to no effort was the head turned towards the mysterious shape behind her eyelids. And then they were opened. In the second that they went open, the violet rimmed eyes met the handle of a flintlock that went against the side of her head.

Before Twilight could even look who did it or what was going on, did she felt her body falling down to a side before he mind went unconscious once more. Nothing else but the deepest and blackest darkness was there that managed to engulf her again.

She didn’t knew what had happened and didn’t even wanted to know for her own sake. Her only thoughts were that she would be getting out of there alive and unscratched. Even though the latter seemed to have been impossible already, the first on the other end still seemed to have been a possibility.

Hours seemed to have gone by just like that before the muscles inside of Twilight’s body managed to work again. The brain calmly but surely kicked back in before a groan was being released by the mare. A mare who then felt that she was tied up against a tree.

All of the sudden were there thousands of thoughts that raced through her. Thoughts about being captured by one of the witches of Everfree, or that she was dragged off to the town already and thrown in an overgrown jail cell. She didn’t knew it for certain, but the answers weren’t exactly looked for either.

The eyelids struggled to open up as she felt something wet running from the side of her head. Something that wasn’t sweat and immediately there was another realization that went through her. It must have been her blood that made the trip. A quiet gulp was being released while the eyes tried to open themselves with all the power they had.

What happened next was that they were blinded by the light of the sun. It burned right into them even though it was standing high in the skies. A yelp came from Twilight as she shook her head a couple of times. Not even her arcane power could be called upon as that connection still wasn’t reopened. It made the situation only worse as she was then delivered to the mercy of anypony who did it.

Thousands, if not millions of thoughts raced through the mare as the levels of curiosity and ignorance continued to grow as if they were nothing. Twilight wanted to know so much what happened but she could fill in the blanks like that already. Yet she thought that she needed to have a visual sight to actually confirm it all.

Once her eyes had grown accustomed to the light of the sun –and therefore the day– had the unicorn a look around as much as she was allowed. It was then that she came to the realization that something strange had happened. Something that she hadn’t expected in her entire life and as her hearing even came back, the shock only became greater.

Though the thing that she saw was the fact that she hadn’t moved even a single inch from the tree she was knocked out again. It actually was the same tree, surprising enough. Twilight couldn’t explain the matter to herself in any way or form. Though she noticed a black figure standing in front of her, one that she saw from the top of her eyes.

In front of her and looking out towards the ocean near the cliffs did it stood. It must have been that figure that did everything to her. Twilight wanted to speak her words just so desperately but she couldn’t. Simply because of the fact that her ability to speak still hadn’t returned to her. So all that came out of her mouth were yelped of utter gibberish.

They did managed to capture the attention of her captor who took a couple of steps back. And what happened next did so in a split second. For before Twilight even knew there was a sword that was being placed against her throat. Its cold steel sent shivers down the entire body of the soothsayer.

She really had managed to somehow get herself deep into trouble. Weren’t it for the fact that she began to recognize the figure that held her ransom. Something about the mysterious figure caused her eyebrows to go up as the name of one anthrony came to her mind. A thought which was only made stronger by the fact that a puff of steam came from under the coat.

“Ah want to know, everything,” was all of the sudden spoken against her in a deeply threatening voice. One that Twilight also recognized in a mere instant. There wasn’t any doubt anymore in the mind of Twilight. She had been knocked out, captured and was questioned even, by nopony else but Applejack herself. Nothing made sense anymore for the soothsayer as it almost seemed that the world had been turned upside down, literally.

Yet she also –somewhere– felt that she had failed. Obviously had the admiral managed to catch scent of the location she was heading and wouldn’t let her go under any given circumstances. It was both an annoyance and a relief for the unicorn, as it meant that the other anthrony didn’t wanted to break her promise.

Seconds had gone by without an answer as Applejack finally rose her head up and set the blade even further against Twilight’s throat. Almost as if she was willing to cut right through it. “Ah said: Ah want to know, everything,” repeated Applejack in that same enraged tone and Twilight knew it was serious.

There was no more hiding it from the admiral, all that she could be doing was to just spill it out if she wanted to live. For the sword was about to pierce through her skin and make her bleed to death. A little something that was about the last thing she wanted to have happen to her. There wasn’t much else that she could be doing outside of telling the actual truth to the admiral. “Alright, I’ll tell you.” Twilight then spoke up before she finally saw the tension fading in the green rimmed eyes of the admiral.

“’Bout time.” Those were the only words that were spoken by the admiral before she perked up her hears. She really wanted to know what in the names of heaven high had been possessing Twilight so much to embark on it alone.

“You, probably know to where I am heading right? Well, the only reason of why I didn’t call you in was of one, simple, fact.” Twilight’s ability to speak had returned luckily in its full on glory. She could say the desired words against the admiral again. But whether or not they would have been liked, still remained a fact to be seen.

The unicorn could only hope for the best as she was going to say the reason against the admiral. “You, plus that town, doesn’t really stand equal to a good visit. I won’t bring you in unnecessary danger, Applejack. You might have sworn to protect me, but I can do the same for you in my own way. There, that’s the reason of why I left without a notice.”

To Applejack it was indeed the truth. Herself and that town indeed didn’t equal a pleasant time. Yet Twilight seemed to have been oblivious to the fact which ship she had seen. A fact that worried the admiral a lot more than that it angered her. The unicorn honestly didn’t have a single clue of whom she was about to ask to go on their journey.

If the whole matter could be placed in the admiral’s hands, she would be doing pretty much everything in order to prevent it from happening. Even despite all of that, there was still a shock that went through the earth anthrony. Something that wasn’t expected at all. The little fact that Twilight actually had the guts to go in alone.

It was the thing that caused the mare to lower her blade before she turned herself around. Before Twilight could even speak another word, the sword was stuck into the ground and the admiral just left it alone. Both of her hands were placed behind her back while she stared once more to the near endless ocean.

Respect had to be given to the soothsayer in a way, the admiral had to admit that. But she also had to admit the little fact that it was complete and utter insanity that couldn’t be competed again. “Ya know, Ah reckoned ya were a smart filly, but hearing that, only makes me wonder whether or not yar actually that smart. Ah mean, ya wanna go in there?! Like that?!”

Concern was the tone that filled the voice of the admiral as she didn’t even have a clue whether or not the plan would have even worked. She could only hope that it would have been, but there wasn’t much hope to it actually. Not from her side in any case.

“Yes Applejack, I do still want to go in there, like this,” replied Twilight then in a calm voice. She didn’t even made an attempt at getting out of the hold. “I never asked you to come this way and yet you were stubborn enough to do it. All the strain you have right now in your mind, you could thank yourself for it.”

The words came on hard by the earth anthrony as she knew where they would be going up against, or at least thought to be knowing it. For even though the arcane picture was burned in her mind, she could still have seen a thing or two a little bit different in the night. Perhaps it wasn’t the vessel that she knew all too well that she had seen.

Perhaps it was a ship that looked just like it? Applejack could only hope from that point on, a hope that would either fly away or secure her to the ground in a figural manner. “Yar insane, Sparkle, absolutely insane. Ah mean, nopony is going into that place just for a pleasure trip. Well, outside of the obvious ones actually. Mah point is, ya don’t know how that place works, ya really expect to just barge up to somepony and tell ‘em to join your quest? They are pirates, unreasonable with and ya know it,” spewed the admiral forth in grumbles.

There was a moment of silence from the admiral as she took a couple of deep breaths. Twilight wanted to speak a pair of words of her own but made the decision it was probably a lot wiser to not say anything for the time being.

“Ah reckon ya have witnessed a couple of pirate trails back in the day? Last one ended ‘bout five years ago. Ya must have had something known of it,” Applejack then spoke again. Which resulted in the eyes of the unicorn growing wide. She did knew about them, she even witnessed the last trail because she had to. The things she saw, the stories she heard going across the courtroom, were unbelievable to say the least.

Twilight released another gulp before she found the guts to charge up her horn. With two little poofs in and out of reality she managed to get out of the ropes that held her against the tree and continued to just lean against it with her arms crossed.

The memories of the last trail were horrible, especially since she was still considered young in the eyes of everypony else. It was madness in and of itself to actually make her watch it. As she still heard the hammer falling as the final judgment was being spoken. A stone cold shiver travelled down her spine before the admiral looked Twilight back into the eyes. Something about the look inside of them warned her for the troubles that would be coming.

“Ah am going to warn ya, one last time, Sparkle. Stay away from that place. We don’t need any being from that place, trust me. The only thing they are going to give us, is a bigger load of trouble than them tremors,” huffed Applejack to Twilight before she also crossed her arms.

“Well, one pirate among an admiral, major, doctor and soothsayer, sounds like quite the challenge to beat in my eyes, Applejack,” returned Twilight in a sly manner. Then she removed herself from the bark of the tree. Her arms were placed just on the sides of her body. She began to pace a little bit up and down on the spot. “Well, don’t you have anything to say against that?”

It almost seemed as if Twilight was actually trying to lure the admiral out of her comfort zone and get her to become violent. Which wasn’t something that would really happen that easily with the admiral and in Twilight’s case was it perhaps her saving grace.

“You know,” the unicorn then continued while she walked closer to the admiral and allowed herself to chuckle softly. Once the chuckle had faded off of her face by a skewering glare of the admiral, the unicorn then continued her words in a dead serious tone herself. “I was given this task by the goddesses of the sun and moon. They tasked me with finding five beings and stop the trouble that is causing it all.”

“And yet they only gave you four locations,” commented Applejack with a sober tone. Twilight wanted to argue against it before she realized something. She had never told the admiral anything about the locations of the anthronies they could find. Which could only have come down to one point in the mare’s mind. She wasn’t happy about it at all.

Her eyes narrowed themselves to near splits to that. Twilight released a deep huff through her nostrils. “So, you have been into my room then? You broke into my place, my sanctuary and defiled it?! I thought you were an honest mare, Applejack, but it seems like that at sea, everypony turns into the villain. What do you have to say for yourself?”

If there was one thing that shouldn’t be done against Twilight, it was to break into her room and look through her stuff. She was a mare that was rather fond of her privacy and didn’t wanted to have it disturbed at all. Yet the admiral had a good enough reason of why she did that. Something that Twilight herself had completely forgotten about.

“Well it ain’t mah fault if ya forgot to lock yar door!” Applejack returned to her. Which resulted in Twilight’s wall of defensive words being just shattered. She was almost one hundred percent certain that she had locked her door for the departure. Then it turned out to be that she hadn’t. Though the one thing that she did knew for certain was that the arcane drawings were placed inside of their drawer.

Which in her mind still placed Applejack in the prime spot of a thief. “You didn’t have the right to go through my stuff like that and you know it!” she exclaimed as the anger became more apparent inside of her. Twilight was becoming furious at the admiral, never in their time together had she even remotely expected that the orange skinned mare would have been capable of doing such a thing. It sickened her to no end.

“Well excuse me for being curious, princess Twilight,” growled Applejack in return. She could see how the horn and the hands of the mare that became charged with her magic. Though only it remained that way. The amounts of power that were charging up just remained charging. “But Ah also wanted to know what we’re going to be up against.”

It probably was about the worst excuse that she could have ever given to the soothsayer but it at least did happen to be some sort of an excuse. The unicorn released a couple of deep growls from the bottom of her soul as she continued to skewer her own eyes into those of Applejack. The tables were turned out of her favor and the admiral knew that fact.

She only saw one way to calm the mare down and that was to give into the situation as it was. The admiral threw both of her hands into the air before the words of defeat were spoken out of her mouth. “Fine, ya wanna go down there? Be mah guest. Just never said ya weren’t warned ‘bout it. Ya wanna go in that rat hole and try and convince one of ‘em? Best of luck.”

The magical charges of Twilight then disappeared as quick as they came. The eyes turned into a bit more friendly set. They still irradiated the anger but also something new. When Applejack looked into the violet rims, she noticed how there was a strange determination to be found within them. A determination that was soon enough backed up by the spoken words of the mare. “Oh trust me, Applejack, I shall go in there and find the one anthrony I’m supposed to be looking for. It’s how I found you, Dash and Fluttershy. Luck be on my side one more time before the troubles begin.”

It were powerful words, the admiral had to admit that little fact to the unicorn. Though it never took away from the fact that Twilight was called utterly foolish and stupid inside of the mind of the admiral. It was a plan of utter madness and she knew that. Nopony in that place would just willingly to barge off their ship and go with them.

Not once the other members of the team were known to them. “So ya really think, ya can persuade a pirate into joining a quest to save the land eh? Just how thick are ya?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, admiral. I, am, bonkers!” Twilight exclaimed to the other mare. With her arms she made a couple of waving motions that always started at her head. “I don’t usually think too much about my actions as they are in I have something you have lost a long time ago. I still have faith in everything getting to a good end.”

“Ah learned that lesson the hard way and in a manner ya can’t even imagine!” Applejack hissed through her teeth as the angered looks were exchanged between each other. “Fine, you wanna get yourself killed? Go right ahead, ain’t none of mah business anyway,” she then huffed out. It would be fractions later that she realized just what she had said.

Immediately there was a form of regret that went through the mare as she really didn’t wanted to speak those words yet they just came like that. There was just one more excuse that she could be using to get Twilight stupid enough or herself. She had to come alone. She had to come along for the ride and see what would happen. Applejack was actually willing to join the madness that was about to happen.

Though the admiral also realized that she stood powerless against the decisions of Twilight. She had to admit that little fact to her, determination was aplenty in her body. The mare wouldn’t back down at anything in order to complete a quest, not even with a sword set at the gullet. At least that time. Who knew how she would react if it happened a second time.

Despite Twilight being so determined, it was difficult for the admiral to figure out just where it came from. Whether it came forth out of utter stupidity or her sense of duty. It was tough to decide which was the actual cause. Applejack wanted to say the latter but was more leaning against the first one.

There was no more way around it or about it. Whatever was going to happen to Twilight Sparkle, Applejack would be feeling responsible for it. For the promise that she made when they started, was one she didn’t intend to break. So with a deep exhale that came from her nostrils did the admiral walk back to her sword.

Once she had reached it in silence, that same silence had been going on for nearly two whole minutes already. Neither Twilight nor Applejack knew any of the words that they wanted to speak in order to either soften or toughen the situation they were in. Which actually was a good thing, for the last thing the unicorn wanted then was yet another quarrel on her mind.

The admiral took her sword out of the ground and finally sheathed it while glaring over to Twilight from the corner of her eyes. There was no dominated emotion to be found in either one of their eyes. The pair of them were conflicted by which emotion they should be feeling. Anger, sadness, comfort, happiness and every other emotion there was known to them came and went just like that. It was a difficult situation to begin with, only made harder with the coming in of Applejack.

Once the admiral had sheathed her sword again had the mare turned fully back to Twilight. She rose her head up a little bit so that she could look her truly in the eyes. “Ah take mah words back, it is some of mah business. For Ah made a promise to you when we left, and Ah don’t intend on breaking it because of this argument. Ah may have been foolish to follow ya out here. But it’s better than hearing any alternative. Ah’m sorry Twilight, Ah have done things Ah perhaps shouldn’t have done and Ah regret them.”

The honest words of the mare managed to get their impact on the unicorn. Twilight hadn’t expected them to come out of her mouth either that quickly or that honest sounding. Which resulted in the unicorn simply softening up for the admiral before she spread both of her arms.

Before the two even knew it was Twilight hugging the admiral tightly as the other pair of arms coiled up around her own back. The two of them had emerged into a tight hug that couldn’t be broken that easily.

“I, I forgive you, Applejack. You did what you had to do and to get mad at each other for something this, stupid, isn’t really working out either. You know, with the world at stake,” spoke Twilight almost in a whisper. There was something that she felt rolling down her cheeks, it were tears. They silently traveled over her skin, before they fell down on the shoulder of the admiral.

“Thanks, ya have no idea how much those words mean to me,” the other mare replied in a calm and quiet tone. With her lips had she managed to crack a gentle smile.

Twilight wiped her tears away before the hug was being broken by the pair of them before they turned to the ocean. It was calming for the both of them which was something rather fortunate, as it meant that both of their minds could be given some calm and peace before the unaskable question was being asked.

An unaskable question that came from Applejack as she placed all of the facts on a row and allowed herself to release a deep sigh through her nostrils. “Hey Twilight, ya happen to be having one of ‘em coats and hats? Ah’m going in as well.”

Filled with surprise had the other mare turn her head over to the admiral as she didn’t have a true clue on how to react to it. For it was the mare who said she wouldn’t be going to that town that was actually asking to go with her. Something didn’t really make sense to the other mare, but if it was going to be that way, it was going to be that way.

Not that the unicorn actually minded it all too much, yet little did she knew just the reason as of why Applejack wanted to get along for the trip. The earth anthrony always seemed so flat, but few knew what really laid beneath her orange skin. Fewer wanted to know which demons she housed.

Chapter XVIII

Over the dusty roads they travelled without trying to get much attention to themselves. Two anthronies wandered there, both wore the long coats and the hats covering their eyes and most of their faces. They didn’t wanted to be seen or recognized to say the least. Nopony knew what exactly they wanted but they knew one little thing for certain.

The fact that they would be getting into a heap of trouble if they angered either of them. Perhaps it was through luck or just science of Twilight’s mind that the two of them looked a lot more muscular under the coats. Applejack had no idea how it worked but she was glad that it worked.

Not even one anthrony even dared to be asking them anything. Nor were they stopped on the way towards the city of pirates, the mysterious inside out turned prison. Getting in would be easy, that wasn’t much of a worry to them. It was the getting out part that had Twilight wondering. Few word were exchanged between the two anthronies as their pace remained calm and easy. Any sign of weakness that would have been showed by them could be exploited.

Even though they were a long way away from the place, neither of them could deny the fact that the tensions already had been raising. They were on the road that headed to the place as more and more ships could be seen sailing through the night. Ships that were actually on a certain admiral’s hit list. The shine within the eyes of the earth anthrony was something that concerned Twilight.

Though to break up at such an important part of their journey or to even leave Applejack alone in the place was out of the question. They would stay together so there was only one thing that Twilight could be doing.

“Applejack,” she started while her violet rimmed eyes looked over to the admiral and away from the sea. With the wind blowing in their backs and the salt of the sea filling their noses, they were constantly reminded just where they were. And exactly who, ruled under the moon. “I know these ships belong to anthronies you need to capture, but don’t make any movement against them. Our mission, has the priority.”

The words of Twilight were some that got to the admiral like a brick being tossed at her. For the orange skinned earth anthrony shocked up from her dreams and blinked a couple of times. The words were processed inside of her mind before she gave a rather confused looking nod towards the other mare. “Y-Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ah understand. What did ya think Ah would be doing anyway, eh? Going in guns blazing?”

It was an attempt to soften up the situation they had gotten in but it didn’t exactly help for Twilight. The unicorn was still worried so she found that it was time to play open card to the admiral. “Don’t, call, the navy.”

Those words would have tugged on a couple of heartstrings from the admiral. All of the sudden she seemed like she had seen a ghost of yesterday. The vibrant orange skin turned more towards white. In the ears of Applejack they could be heard, those screams of pure agony and terror as the waves kept on crashing.

The memories that returned to her like the water on a beach was but turning. She saw herself again, standing on a deck as a deckhand of a vessel that was doomed to sink. Far off in the distance it laid, that formation of rocks with the jolly roger waving right above it. She remembered it, she remembered everything.

Twilight wanted to comment on the sudden change of appearance from the admiral but she was never given the opportunity to do so. “Don’t worry, Ah won’t make the mistakes as they once did,” countered Applejack in a dead serious tone. It was only after she had released a deep exhale through her mouth that the eyes of the mare were turned back forward.

The unicorn didn’t really knew what she had to say about it or what she could be doing against it even. All she could think of was the little fact that everything seemed to be alright despite the sudden change of emotion inside of Applejacks tone.

What Twilight didn’t knew was that there was a massive shiver going up and down the back of the admiral as she kept on reliving the past. The unicorn made the decision to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the time. She didn’t even knew what was going on in the mind of Applejack and that was perhaps left that way.

The only thing that actually seemed to have been able to get the admiral back in the there and then was the hellish thundering sound of a cannon being fired. The two of them didn’t knew where it came from but Applejack almost instantly pulled Twilight back down with her as they bend through their knees.

“What in tarnation?!” the admiral exclaimed before they heard the impact noise. A dull noise of grass being shifted around while earth was moved. It was close, too close for the earth anthrony’s liking. Yet they were also close enough to the walls of the town. The feelings weren’t the greatest and perhaps it was just a warning shot that was being fired towards them.

They both hoped it wasn’t of course, but the chance was there that it could have been. “I don’t like this, let’s make a way for the gate, now,” said Twilight. The admiral only agreed upon the matter and they changed their pace up and ran over towards the city.

Their eyes constantly peeked over the walls and the sea in the hope to not see a flaming, boiling cannonball being hurdled into their direction. The cavern system in which the ships sailed to dock was clearly visible but neither of them had the time to actually investigate the matter.

Once they were in the safety of the city’s gate, the two of them were finally allowed to get some breath. The only problem was that the total darkness of the hallway had dominated. Not even a single candle was lit up, so Twilight gently charged up her horn to shine some light on the matter.

The two anthronies were just standing there. They leaned against the walls and were covered in the raspberry light. Neither of them heard the soles of the boots that were coming their way. Out of the darkness it then came. A rotten looking hand had managed to get Twilight and spun her around, all to look straight into the face of the mysterious stranger.

With the light that was shining down upon it, the face of white was revealed, one eye missing and the other bloodshot. The unicorn released a deep ‘wha’ sound from her mouth. Twilight didn’t even knew what was going on. But the figure just stood there, looking her deep in the eyes while it began to wheeze.

Wheezes that were blown almost directly into her face and Twilight was truly getting uncomfortable with the whole situation. She was shivering but Applejack didn’t have her sword. It would have to be a matter of muscle in order to solve the situation as it was. Something Twilight was familiar with by then.

“Beware of them,” the stranger spoke in a deep but also broken voice. Twilight wanted to question the stranger. But then he released her arm and hurled back into the darkness. The events were just so quick that Twilight didn’t even knew what she had to be doing. Yet the only thing that came to her mind was to widen her light.

The charge was increased to a truly noticeable rate and everypony that was looking into their direction could have seen them. Yet from the stranger itself, there was nothing to be found. At least, that was how it seemed. “Beware of whom?” Twilight asked herself with a raised eyebrow. The winds picked up again, yet they came in from a different angle that time.

“Winds of change, come and go as they please. Fortunate for desperate sailors,” enlightened Applejack. She knew exactly what kind of wind was blowing their way. Twilight first wouldn’t believe it, weren’t it for the fact that as she turned around to face the admiral, there was a piece of paper that was flung into her face.

After a couple spits and spats was the charges reduced to just a normal flashlight again before it the piece of paper was taken off of her face. The eyes of the soothsayer looked at what it said as she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Clearly there must have been some sort of mistake with everything. For the thing that she read on the piece of paper wasn’t possible, not in their time. “Beware, of dragons?” questioned Twilight when she looked Applejack right in the eyes and showed her the piece of paper. The little torn piece did show that one word of ‘dragon’ on it, but if it was the thing they should be watching remained to be seen.

“Ah don’t know any ships that want me dead that have that in their name,” returned Applejack just before she realized just what had been said. “A-Ah mean, ships Ah’m hunting.” The correction went unnoticed by Twilight as she was too busy trying to figure out just what on earth it could have meant in the first place. Something that was Applejack’s saving grace.

“Come on, we have to go in and ya know it. Ah welcome thee, in the worst place of Equestria,” the admiral said after she had removed herself from the wall and took a couple more steps into the hallway. Twilight placed the little piece of paper in one of her coats pockets before she joined Applejack.

The magical charge of her horn actually decreased before as the lights of the place where more than enough to show the two of them the outline of the place. It was Twilight who was looking out her eyes, whereas Applejack looked in a slight disgust.

Before them did the prison-turned-city stretch out like the horrifying beauty it was. Homes that were built into the walls or against them, streets and houses covering the courtyard as if it was a real town. Everything just looked like a town surrounded by a massive wall that only seemed to be having one exit.

The lights of the homes and the candles that were burning on the street gave each of the homes an oddly friendly look and managed to cast a little bit of light into the darkness of the place. That was just the exterior. When the music was caught in their ears, the singing of mares in bars and the glass either being broken of clanged together, they realized the place was filled with life that went on both day and night.

“Welcome to the biggest scum bar in the land, soothsayer,” commented Applejack to Twilight. Her eyes looked over to the unicorn with a serious look. “Here ya will be finding yar partner. Ah hope ya know what you have been doing.”

“So do I…” Twilight stated before she released a gulp. With her eyes had she looked once more over the world as it was. Something just didn’t feel right about the place, as if all of the evil in the land had come to that place. Almost, as if she had another place of interest right there.

~~~~

For five minutes had the two anthronies been going slightly undercover in the town filled with pirates. None of them made a talk to them and the two wanted to keep it that way. Though they weren’t getting any closer to the point of where they needed to be. So Twilight directed the admiral to perhaps the best known bar in the town.

Yet that same bar also had a massive point that turned everything down to it. For as the two came closer to it did the side of it is becoming clearly visible. There they saw perhaps the most dangerous thing of them all. Almost the whole wall is just covered in wanted-posters for anthronies. Wanted-posters for pirates that Applejack remembered ordering like yesterday.

Most of the faces she remembered, but there were some that were even from before her time as an admiral. Yet there was something strange about that wall. Something where Applejack couldn’t quite place her hand on.

Twilight herself looked at the wall a little bit more curious before she thought to finally realize just what it was. “It’s a hall of fame,” she whispered nearly inaudible towards the admiral. The earth anthrony suddenly turned her head towards the soothsayer and almost wanted to remove her hat just to be able to hear it even better.

No word managed to leave the admiral’s mouth, Applejack seemed to have been in a state of shock. A state of shock she had never entered in her life before. The town was insane, that much she had to admit. They were idolizing the worst scum that was out there on the seas. But it was nothing compared to the shock still waiting for the mare.

Twilight had already gone around the corner and wanted to enter the bar as she realized that Applejack was gone. A cold shock suddenly went through her and she rushed back to the corner in the hope to find the admiral unharmed.

Even before she managed to make the first step, the admiral came around the corner, mumbling words to herself that not even the unicorn was able to make something from. “You alright?” she asked her in the hope to get some response out of the earth anthrony.

“Hm? What? Yes, yeah, course Ah am, why wouldn’t Ah?” Applejack replied to her. It was in the hope that Twilight would be oblivious to the facts as they were. Though if she could still fool Twilight, was a question in and of itself.

Yet the unicorn wasn’t in the mood to argue with the admiral so she just allowed it to sail away for the time being. “Get in here,” she just spoke up and walked back to the door of the bar. There was no turning back, whatever they would be finding behind that very door, they would be having to deal with like that.

Twilight placed her hand at the door knob and pushed the door open. With the opening door did the sounds became louder, the scents stronger and the hopes continued to rise.

What they encountered was fairly much the thing they could have expected in the first place. The music that was being played by the band were happy tunes that seemed to be calming most of the anthronies there. Wasn’t it for the music, certainly the mares dancing would have done the trick. Tables were full of crew members of various ships all spending their hard earned bits like that.

Both Applejack and Twilight weren’t looking for anthronies like that, they needed somepony with information, lots of it. And the only one who perhaps could be having some information was the barkeeper. Thought just going up to there wouldn’t have helped them in any way, they had to buy their way in.

The two of them closed the door behind them and walked calmly up to the bar where two stools were still free. The waiters were going off and on as they took the plates filled with drinks to other tables. The two of them calmly sat down and they looked at the near countless bottles of liquor that were standing above the bar, the choice in booze was at least rich in Twilight’s eyes.

Yet the only drinks that really seemed to have been ordered were beer, gin and rum. The bar itself really had a sailor mood and feel to it. Everywhere there were pieces of a ship hung up as if they were just taken and taken away like trophies. Perhaps it even was that way.

Though out of everything was it the mirror that was standing directly in front of them that could have been their saving grace. For that mirror was big enough to make them see the whole of the bar with minimum effort. If there was another anthrony coming their way, they would be able to see it. Not to mention the fact that they could spy on others if they wished.

It took him a couple of seconds, but then the barkeeper finally managed to get to the two of them and took their orders. “A rum for me, as for mah partner, something less strong. She can’t hold her liquor,” the admiral said against the stallion, who released a chuckle.

He then lowered his body and allowed one of his arms to lay itself upon the bar as he pointed a finger towards Twilight. “So you can’t hold your liquor, eh? Why did you came to this place in the first place?” His yellowed teeth were almost a pain to look at for the soothsayer. The breath that left him was horrible to say the least.

She still had to answer him though, as the admiral wouldn’t help her out that time unless things would have gotten really tricky and iffy. “One isn’t allowed to drink if you have the first watch.” Twilight made up as an excuse from her limited knowledge of how ships and sailing worked.

The barkeeper understood the direction she was coming from and simply nodded before chuckling. It also gave the two of them this strange feeling that he could be trusted. Maybe not as much as an actual friend, but enough to get some information out of him.

Though with the stallion gone to get their drinks was Applejack looking around the bar while she kept her head hidden as much as possible. “As Ah thought…” she mumbled.

The soothsayer didn’t have a clue on what the mare was talking about and perhaps wouldn’t even wanted to know it. Though the words still managed to leave her mouth, the sheer curiosity that was going through her actually managed to almost break her. “What’s what you thought?” she asked with a slight tremble in her tone. Fear had taken over as she didn’t even dared to look over to her partner.

The admiral gently nudged her head to a couple of other anthronies that were sitting on the other side of the bar. Then her voice spoke up in a low and careful tone. “Some of ‘em made it in mah personal hit list. Anthronies that Ah hate with every fiber of mah body, gently put, Ah hate ‘em.”

It were blunt words but they at least were understandable for Twilight. Which was pretty much all that counted in the moment. Whether it was liked or not, the tension was high once again as Applejack wanted to continue talking about the anthronies. “No, I’m not interested in on whom you have a grudge against, we’re here for somepony else, remember?”

“As crystal,” the admiral whispered just before they got their first drink. The barkeeper gave them a couple of glances before he turned back around to help other clients. Whether he was onto them or not remained to be seen. The two didn’t mind it as they had their drinks and Applejack took a swig from her rum.

Twilight was still curious as to what was in her glass. She eyed the liquids for a moment and then took a gentle sip. All of the sudden were the taste butts on her tongue teased with the sparkling taste of apple cider. It wasn’t what she had expected, but it was delicious in her eyes. Though those same eyes never stopped looking around the bar for their own safety.

Wasn’t Applejack looking around, then it were Twilight’s eyes who scanned the mirror constantly. Much talking wasn’t done between the two of them and it managed to work its way towards the barkeeper. The silence from the two mares gave him a rather genuine concern.

It was after a couple of drinks that the barkeeper actually stayed by the two of them to enter the conversation. Both of the anthronies actually seemed to be able to keep themselves together pretty well despite the amount they had already drunk away.

“So, why the silence, lasses?” he asked in his curious tone. The eyes constantly switched between the two mares. It was a little bit where Twilight had actually hoped for, for it meant that they could be talking to the right anthrony without stepping on somepony’s hooves. Which was exactly the thing they were looking for.

Though the question remained whether or not he would actually have been able to tell them what they needed to know. “My partner and I are, calm, because of the simple fact we believe a certain vessel has come in. A vessel of which we don’t want trouble from.”

“Jah? What vessel are you talking here, eh?” he replied to her. He leaned against the bar. Whether it was Twilight’s intention or not, she managed to get the full attention of the barkeeper. One of his assistants took the job over while he just focused himself upon the two of them. Curiosity was the right word but perhaps he was also going to hear them out.

In the mind of Twilight did the picture of the vessel shot by countless times. How much did she wanted to tell him exactly how it looked? In the end, she just did it. The more she spoke about the ship, the whiter the stallion seemed to become. He just couldn’t believe it, for there was only one ship in the cavern system below that looked like that. A mighty vessel that he knew all too well.

“Ain’t no doubt on the reasons of why you want to keep yourself quiet. The crew of the Vengeful Belle don’t go easy on anyone,” he spoke in a concerned whisper before he peeked his eyes into the bar. Immediately he saw some of the crew members that sat at the tables, clashing their glasses together and just enjoying the time they had.

“The Vengeful Belle?” Twilight repeated in a near silent whisper. At least she had a name for the ship they were searching to. “What about its captain?” she then asked to the barkeeper. Whose eyes turned back to her with a bit of a questioning gaze. Had she asked him the wrong question already? Or was he thinking about the words that he needed to tell her? Little was known about it but Twilight could only hope for the best.

Yet the thing what happened next was that the stallion placed a finger on both of his lips and shushed her silent. The looks in his eyes turned into a dead serious one as he didn’t wanted the conversation to be getting too loud.

“There’s a rumor, of whom captains that cursed vessel of yours. An unicorn that lives under the name of White Widow. A stunning beauty to see, but as deadly as a manticore and as sly as a griffon. That’s one mare you don’t want to mess around with. I understand why you want to keep quiet,” the barkeeper spoke to them. He almost felt sorry for the two of them.

Applejack’s eyes turned themselves over to the barkeeper just for a moment at the mentioning of the name. She even stopped taking a swig from her drink for just a little moment. Something about the name gave a bit of her away.

“She is ferocious, ain’t stopping for anything or anyone. If you have that ship on your tail, it’s over. Don’t even bother loading the cannons, she’s like a phantom of the sea. No, not a phantom, it’s that other creature, opposing of mermaids…”

The three of them were all of the sudden engaged in a battle of actually finding the right word for the creature that the barkeeper wanted to name. All kinds of things came by like that but none of them were right. That was until Twilight finally dared to open her mouth. “Like, a siren?”

Within a second did the barkeeper clapped his hands together before pointing to the mare with a massive smile on his face. The concern of somepony having heard the relief of emotion wasn’t there as they were all clapping because of the show being over. “A siren of the sea, luring you in with beautiful songs before ripping out your heart. You two, your crew, your ship, made a powerful enemy.”

Applejack had been listening to the whole story of the barkeeper with literally a ton of salt. She didn’t believe much of the words that he spoke about this White Widow. She was even getting more and more fed up with the talk about the mare.

In the end of it, she got so fed up that she dropped her bits on the bar. Only to leave the stool and simply walked away from the conversation like that. Literally in an instant had the admiral been gone and left Twilight there with the barkeeper. “What’s her problem?” he asked the unicorn, who only shrugged a bit with her shoulders.

“If I will ever be able to figure her out, I deserve a prize,” replied Twilight before she finished yet another mug of her cider. “But please, continue about her for just a bit more. The more I know, the better it is.”

“Tsk, you can better stay on land,” the barkeeper said to her in response. Then he released a huff from his nostrils. The stallion took a step back, took the bits left by Applejack and crossed his arms over each other while taking a rest against the mirror. “Stay on land, never go out on sea again, if you value your life that is.”

The unicorn nodded to the warning and took out the bits for her drinks as well. “Thanks for the info, now I have to reclaim my mate, if you don’t mind,” she said to him as some sort of an excuse. She wanted to use any excuse just to make sure to get the hell out of his place and get back by Applejack.

Twilight wasn’t attached to the admiral in any way, but she also didn’t wanted to have her ending up in a gutter or anything. It was a thing that was troubling since the very beginning for her, or since the admiral actually left. With a steam powered leg and no sword to fight with, getting into trouble was easier than getting out.

The soothsayer had almost left her seating when the voice of the barkeeper entered her ears once more. “Unless of course, you want to rise to the challenge and face her in a duel. I know where the ship is being docked. But it will cost ya.”

The offer certainly was something tempting in the eyes of Twilight, but if they had to get the most feared pirate of the seas in their group, any bit of information helped no matter the cost. “Alright,” she said before she turned back around to face the stallion, “name your price and let’s see if we can come to an agreement.”

“As you wish, milady.” The stallion uncrossed his arms again and flung himself a little bit forward before he took her cider mug and filled it again, but with rum that time. The mug was set against his lips and within twenty seconds was the whole thing just gone.

With a loud tok did the thing made a connection to the wood of the bar as he said his price. The bidding war for the location of the Vengeful Belle had begun.

“Hahaha, hahaha, whahaha! I hope you have everything ready for your own funeral lassy! You’ll need it!” the barkeeper bellowed up after Twilight had paid the price for the location and actually got the right one. The price she had to pay was still heavy, but a lot less than she had originally in mind.

Though it was the warning that was given to her as she left that worried her. Every single anthrony in the place had heard it without a doubt but they just didn’t wanted to react to it. All that remained to be doing for Twilight was to find Applejack again. Before she would be doing that though, she had a little score to settle with the barkeeper himself.

When she made her departure had her horn charged itself up lightly. One of the bottles behind the stallion was calmly levitated up. Before he could even do a single motion it came crashing down on his head, breaking the bottle and pouring the liquids all over his scalp. It was both a cold shower and a knockout blow at once.

Not to mention an event that pretty much got the whole bar erupting out in a massive fight as if it was nothing. “Good evening,” added Twilight then in a stone cold voice. Moments later had she closed the door behind her.

Once again she stood on the street in the dead of night and looked around the place in the hope to find Applejack somewhere. Which was something that was truly something a lot easier said than done. Yet in a town filled with scum and villainy, trouble is something that’s a lot easier to find. It only different to the kind of trouble that would either create a mess, or a giant mess.

Not even a minute after Twilight had left the bar, she felt something pushing up against her and forcing her against the nearest wall. Her head crashed into the stone bricks which made her a little bit light headed before she managed to get a grasp of reality again. It were seconds but they seemed like minutes to her.

Without any warning was she turned back around to face the mysterious attacker. In her eyes she caught a dark coat and dark hat with just a little bit or orange skin visible. Only one anthrony in the world and that she knew of had that combination and just from the looks alone it could already be seen that the being was angry.

And then the words came in that accent that could be recognized out of thousands. “Ya better heeds mah words Twilight, for Ah am only warning ya once. Stay away from that ship, ya don’t know whom yar going to be dealing with and what trouble ya be getting in.”

Though the words didn’t really go through to Twilight. Instead she charged up her horn and teleported herself out of the hold of Applejack. With a poof was she gone and with a poof she reappeared behind the earth anthrony. With their backs together did Twilight drill an elbow into the spine of the admiral so that she was either flung towards the wall or down to her knees.

One moan of pain was all that came out of the earth anthrony before the unicorn just walked away like it was nothing. “I don’t care what you say, I’m done with warnings from everypony here. Don’t walk in my way again if your only intent is to stop me.”

With those words spoken did Twilight simply leave the admiral in the literal mid of the town. All while she left for the vessel of the dreaded and feared captain, who was dubbed: White Widow.

Chapter XIX

With a moan and a groan from the hit in her back was Applejack just furious about what had happened. The admiral never would have thought that Twilight was even capable of doing what she had done to her. Never had she expected that the soothsayer would actually and physically managed to harm her in any way or form.

Her back was aching like hell while both of her hands were sticking in the mud of the road. Annoyance and anger were both racing through the mare as she straightened her spine as much as possible. The artificial leg that she carried was clearly to be seen but in the moment she didn’t care about that. Every last one of her senses had set itself upon getting revenge.

Revenge on Twilight, revenge on others. The feelings were flowing through her body at a rate unseen by her before. The normally calm, collected, stern but honest green rimmed eyes had been turned over into else but glares of hatred. She managed to rise herself back up from the ground and blinked only once with her eyes.

Wheezes were released by the earth anthrony as she looked around while gentle puffs of steam almost leaving her nostrils with every single exhale. She was angry to the core, that much could have been for certain already. “Ah’ll find ya and Ah’ll gut ya. The both of ya,” the mare spoke to herself. A deep growl of almost pure hatred was released into the air.

Luckily for Applejack, was her volume kept low so nopony who was passing her would have heard the words. Yet there was one little thing she had forgotten about. The fact that she didn’t have her sword. Not that it mattered too much in the moment to her. Her hands could be just as deadly as the sharpest sword.

The mare wanted to do a step into the direction she thought would be leading to the place where Twilight would have gone. Yet as soon as she tried to move her steam powered leg, the thing simply refused to work. Curiosity suddenly rose itself in the body of the mare as she wanted to know exactly what caused it.

The earth anthrony bend herself over before she lowered through her good leg. The coat was flung aside so that she had a better view on the leg. A leg that wasn’t covered by the pant-leg of her trousers for obvious reasons. Not even when she wore a disguise did she wanted to have anything covering it directly.

The eyes looked over the leg from hoof to hip before they finally managed to see what was wrong. Technically she didn’t saw it, but as her hand went over the valves in the back of the thigh it became apparent some of them had been closed off. Who had done that was unknown and Applejack didn’t care.

She opened the valves quickly into the right places before she felt the steam crawling up to her face. The boiling water didn’t even hurt her as she gently got back up again and took another step forward. A step that that time went without a single hitch.

The earth anthrony was content with the smooth motions her legs was making. Then her eyes looked out for some of the scum that could be watching through the shadows. The last thing she wanted was to be recognized by any of them.

Once again were both head and body hidden away from the crowd. The mud on her hands got wiped away on the coat. It did gave her two very distinct stripes of brown over it which clashed with the black nature of the coat itself. If even one anthrony recognized her, the game would be over and the battle for her life would begin. The admiral really was in the den of the manticore then.

Applejack had to make haste if she wanted to catch up with Twilight and give her the payback she deserved. Although something like that was easier said than done. On the other end of the spectrum, it would have been a lot easier just to look for an anthrony with pretty much the same coat and hat.

~~~~

Speaking of Twilight Sparkle herself, the unicorn soothsayer had managed to walk her way down to the docks. She had to calm herself down so much in order not to be amazed by the way the pirate port had been constructed. For she was looking at a cavern system carved out by the sea itself with only one or two ways of actually being able to sail in and out of the place.

The place was lit by countless torches of either the docks themselves or the vessels that were anchored there. Yet the fun didn’t stop there, for bodies of water were actually responsible for the moving of the vessels.

Bodies of water moved each ship safely in and out of the narrow gauge that separated the port from the free oceans of Equestria. “So that’s how it happens,” she mumbled to herself before she continued to walk down the stairs.

The scars of battle could be seen on each of the vessels while the next was even crazier in design than the last one. Vessels from all shapes and sizes, armed with all kinds of weaponry and a crew even more bloodthirsty than the last were seen by her eyes.

Uncomfortable was the best word to describe the feeling that was going through Twilight’s heart. Though she had to remain calm no matter what. They could smell her very fear if they wanted to. The unicorn didn’t wanted to get in a fight with any of the crewmembers of any of the ships but the odds wouldn’t always be in her favor.

Though right in front of her they appeared like they were nothing. Half a dozen drunken stallions that were still taking swigs of rum out of the bottle and had camped down at the walkway. They were actually right in Twilight’s way to walk to the one dock she needed to be. The unicorn came to a standstill on a safe distance from the six of them. With a calm set of eyes had she looked if there was another way around them.

She didn’t care if she had to walk around two other ships, as long as she didn’t had to cross that lot would she be happy. So her eyes began to scan around the place in the hope to find something that could be helping her.

Yet luck was on her side. Just to her right and a little bit in front, there was another walkway that separated two vessels. Relief went through the mare without a doubt but she still had to come pretty close to the scum that were sitting there.

"You can do this Twilight,” she whispered to herself . Then both of her hands were placed inside of the coats pockets. The unicorn anthrony then continued to step forward at a calm pace. She tried not to mind the drunken sailors too much before she would make her turn.

Though she didn’t go unnoticed in their eyes. Even the feminine shape of her body was picked out just like that by the drunk eyes. The saying went that the most honest anthrony was a drunk one. It didn’t took long before their voices filled the air and Twilight began to believe that little fact right on the spot.

“Hey pretty lady, come over here and have some fun with us!” one of them yelled to her in an unusually kind tone. Moments later would he erupt out in laughter. The unicorn just didn’t understood what the joke was and tried her utmost best just to shake them off of her mind.

Which was something that was actually a lot easier said than done. More and more of those words came into the ears of Twilight. Only once she finally had made her turn did she thought it would have been all over. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Pretty lady! Where are you going to?!” the same sailor spoke towards her again. With all the might in his body did he try to get up from his position. He managed to stand back on his hooves for about ten seconds. Then he crashed back into the bag of wheat he had been sitting against the whole time already.

For a moment there was silence while Twilight ceased her walking in an utter fear for the sailors. She thought that anything and everything that could have happened there and then. Small drops of sweat were traveling down the sides of her head as she hoped it would all end well.

It also revealed to the unicorn that she truly hadn’t a clue of what was going on in the world and how to react to it. While it was true that she knew bits and pieces of it, she hadn’t seen every single layer of society. Right there, she found herself in the lowest one of them all. Time crawled down to a near standstill as she waited for the reply of the stallions to happen.

Seconds went by in silence while the stallions were looking at each other. They all bellowed out in a deep and genuine happy laughter then. Something about the crash of their own mate had caused them to forget Twilight’s entire existence. Which on her turn gave her a free pass.

It was something for which the unicorn was truly happy about as she felt the weight being dropped off from her shoulders. Though the troubles weren’t over yet. For she had to find the right vessel first and then hope she convince the captain.

“Alright then Widow, ready or not…here I come,” she said to herself as a deep breath was taken. It would have been then or never that her journey would have continued. The time to look for the mighty vessel that simply known as the Vengeful Belle.

It felt like almost an hour had passed by before Twilight Sparkle finally managed to find herself walking down the walkway that would be leading her to the right vessel. One more turn was made and the unicorn stood face to face with the stern of the ship. A ship coated in a white paintjob with spots of blue on places left and right.

Twilight had to admit that it looked like a beauty. Weren’t it for the fact that there wasn’t any light that shone out of the windows of the captain’s cabin. But to already make a judgment about whether or not the captain was home, wasn’t on its right time. No, she had to investigate a little bit more before such a verdict would have been able to be created.

So the only thing she could do was to walk around the ship and watch what it actually was. As it turned out to be, the ship shared characteristics from a naval war frigate but was about half a time shorter. It was still a massive vessel in Twilight’s eyes. Even if it was a lot shorter than those from the navy.

Yet she quickly made the connection that due to its smaller size, it could hide a lot easier inside of the cavern system. “Curious, highly curious,” the mare mumbled to herself. Then she noticed the two decks with the ports for the cannons. It was a vessel armed to the teeth and carrying three masts, the white and blue paintjob only added to the beautiful looks.

Though when Twilight continued to look up on the mast, she could see it waving in the wind that stood decent in the cavern. That flag that made even the toughest of heart tremble, the dreaded Jolly Roger. It waved with pride in the wind, showing the alliance to everypony.

The eyes of the unicorn tore themselves away from the flag. A deep exhale was given while she blinked with her eyes. The thoughts were too conflicting for her at the moment. Twilight decided to walk a bit more towards the bow. She wanted to see just what kind of figure the ship had taken to itself. What had it claimed to spook every other vessel with?

Slowly and carefully did the unicorn got to the end of the walkway and watched how the lines that connected the ship to the dock. It was bobbling very lightly into the calm waters of the cavern. Then her eyes finally saw the bow statue.

What happened next was that she almost reached for her heart and fear and took a couple of steps back. For never in her life had she even dared to expect the bow statue as she saw it. It was a true horror to look at and she immediately understood of why anthronies called the captain by the nickname of White Widow.

The statue that stood at the bow was an interpretation of the frightful devil herself, Nightmare Moon. Only the upper body was carved out of the wood but that was more than enough. The horn had connected itself at the tip to the bowsprit while one arm was stretching out as if it wanted to grab something. Yet the hand was held in such a manner that it was holding something up.

The other arm went at the side of the body, reaching for a sword that hung on the side of it. But that wasn’t even the worst of it. The worst of it was that it was the image of Nightmare Moon, the spirit that the soothsayer and fairly much everypony who had at least heard of her was afraid of.

Yet on that vessel –the proclaimed terror of the oceans– it was the bow statue. Twilight rubbed one of her hands almost constantly over her face as she even began to wonder just where on earth she had gotten herself into. “The terror of everypony, glorified as a bow statue… Guts, lots and lots of guts they must have.” Those were the only words that Twilight could be speaking up before she walked back past the hull of the ship.

There only happened to be one thing left to do and that was to actually board the vessel. Luckily for her was there another walkway that went up and towards the top deck. So that was exactly what the thing that she did.

Mere moments later had the soothsayer gotten on board of the vessel and she allowed her horn to gently scan the place to sense any dark magic. If the magic of Moon would have been present would the situation have gone from pretty much impossible, to downright impossible.

Agonizing seconds came and went for the unicorn as she continued to scan the vessel. Traces of magic were found but they weren’t as dark as those in the woods of Everfree. It was a massive relief for the mare but she knew that she still just had to be careful about it. One wrong move and everything could be over.

That was actually already the problem. Twilight didn’t have Applejack with her to protect her, which meant that she was already on her own. Not to mention there was another matter, a matter that Twilight wanted to forget as soon as she noticed the flag. Yet she couldn’t help it that eyes were from up there were watching her.

It was a feeling that had never left her and as she began to wander over the deck in the hope to find anyone, it still was there. Always present and always lurking. “Maybe, that’s where the magic comes from?” Twilight said to herself as some sort of an excuse. An excuse that went something along the lines of a spell being cast over the vessel. A spell which would give everypony who got aboard the feeling of being watched.

Though she couldn’t have been more wrong on the matter. For high up in the masts, in the crow’s nest of the middle mast there was something. Something that had been awoken just by Twilight’s very presence upon the vessel. A pair of sapphire blue rimmed eyes were almost constantly looking down to the mare just to see what had been in store for her.

The ship wasn’t as deserted as Twilight thought it would have been. Not to mention the fact that she still thought to be having the element of surprise to her side. Though not one, but two anthronies actually had it a whole lot better than that she did.

Round and round she went on the top deck, all while looking towards whatever would even indicate a little bit on a little hump of flesh that was sleeping. Though there was nothing that could be seen. Perhaps beneath the deck she would be having more luck, but that meant that she would actually be giving the advantage to another anthrony.

Which wasn’t something she actually wanted to do in the moment. Yet the longer she stood on the deck, the more the feelings of fear were crawling up to her. All of the sudden her very guts just told her to get the hell out of the place. Something would be going down terribly and the last thing she wanted was to get caught in the crossfire.

With a quick turn did the unicorn go around. She wanted to walk back to the boarding ramp with a quick pace to her hooves. Though her luck was running dry. For a hat wearing figure made its way up and blocked the way out for her.

The unicorn released a deep gulp while she took gently steps back and tried to calm any form of anger that was going through the anthrony with gentle motions of her hands. “I, I didn’t mean to just sneak aboard of the ship the way I did, you have to believe me. I, I didn’t enter without permission, well, kinda did but, but you have to hear me out!”

Twilight didn’t have a clue against whom she was talking. Whether it had been a crewmember or the captain itself. Anything could happen in the moment as not even a single part of the body was released to her. All that was shown was that black hat and mud stained coat. The breathing of the unicorn became more and more uncontrollable when she tried to talk her way out of the situation.

Yet from her partner there was nothing else then silence that was given off. The other anthrony did continue to walk up to her with a calm pace. The sounds of a metal hoof against the wooden deck made Twilight think that the other anthrony had a peg leg of some kind. But she was looking in the opposing direction of what was actually going on.

“H-Hey, s-say something, will you?!” Twilight exclaimed. The fear in her body continued to rise to highest she hadn’t seen or felt before. She was scared, she was truly and honestly scared in the moment. Anything could have happened and she prepared herself for that very thing.

Yet high up in the crow’s nest, that same being that had been looking at her, found that it was time to make itself known to the two of them. For the situation was escalating quickly and in its own mind were the two of them were trapped like rats. Which was exactly the place they needed to be. So one arm of the being rose itself up and got a hold of the rope that hung there.

Only to then just step over the edge and almost in total silence made its way down to the deck of the vessel. It knew Twilight was a unicorn because it had seen the horn shining so that was the most logical pray to be caught.

Once the being set both hooves on the deck, they moved forward in silence. The eyes looked in almost every direction to make sure nothing was there. Once again would Twilight be in for the scare of a lifetime. What was about to happen, could have been the showdown in all three of their lives. Something grand was about to happen, that was the only certainty.

“Come on, tell me something, anything!” Twilight begged towards the hat wearing figure. She really just wanted to know who it was that was keeping her on board of the vessel. Of course she could have just teleported her way off of it but that meant also another thing. The very fact that certain mysteries wouldn’t be solved. And mysteries unsolved wasn’t a good thing for the unicorn at all. She needed to know everything that was happening in the moment of time.

The two of them were so focused upon each other that the third figure could just sneak up behind Twilight without being spotted. All of the sudden it then happened. All of the sudden did Twilight felt an arm going around her neck. It almost began to choke her right before she was pulled backwards.

The next thing she knew was that the cold steel of a barrel was placed against her head and the hammer was cocked. Once again was she held under shot by an anthrony that didn’t spoke a word. One could have said it became a routine for her. Though Twilight had never gotten used to the feelings of hanging in the balance of life and death.

A loud yelp was released by the unicorn. In an desperate attempt had she tried to call upon her magic. But the arm was so tight around her neck, that it blocked off any magic that wanted to travel to her horn. She was rendered useless. The eyes couldn’t even move around to see her captor. She had gone out of the frying pan and into the fire. Fires that wouldn’t be extinguished that easily.

What could she have done? She was cornered between two fires. At one end there was her captor, on the other there was the mysterious, mud stained stranger that just remained standing there. Twilight thought she needed a miracle to get out of the mess she had gotten in.

Oh Shining Armor, how stupid I have been, I should have listened to you and just not have gone. Applejack, I am so, so, so, so sorry that this had to happen. I really, really should have listened to you two and not have gone, were just some of the words that the unicorn screamed to herself in thought as she continued to look at what would be happening next.

Though luck might have been on her side just a little bit more than she originally would have expected, or even could have thought. The head of the silent stranger moved itself up to finally face both Twilight and her captor. Not even her wildest dreams could have come up with the revelation. She was finally stopped being dragged around and her eyes quickly shot upwards to see the middle mast of the ship clearly.

That was where they had stopped. Her captor had the mast in its back and used the unicorn as some sort of living shield. But when the eyes turned back to the stranger, that stranger didn’t appear to be all that strange as originally had been thought.

But the orange skin already gave it away, not to mention those freckles just below the eyes. The mysterious stranger was nopony else then the admiral of the navy, Applejack. The second that Twilight realized who it was, there was both a shock of happiness as well as terror that went through her body. She never would have expected the admiral to find the vessel on her own.

Yet somehow it all happened, somehow it all worked out. Outside of the fact that Twilight couldn’t perform her magic, Applejack didn’t have access to her blade and they still didn’t know the identity of the captor. At least Twilight didn’t. Everything else seemed to have worked out.

A deep huff was being released by the admiral. Her arms were crossed over each other and her green rims didn’t look into those of Twilight but further. Instead they went over her shoulders and towards the being who had captured her. Happiness wasn’t to be found within the eyes, the glare of a past long forgotten could be seen for just a second.

“Oh no,” did Twilight whisper to herself as she still tried to get herself out of the hold. But it was a losing battle. Never would she even have been able to win the battle against the other being. The hold was just too strong to be broken by her chicken-strength. Which rendered her just useless and at the mercy of Applejack and her captor.

“Looks like the winds of change have brought us together once more, White Widow,” said Applejack then in a confident tone. She took a step closer. The barrel of the gun was placed even more firm again Twilight’s head while her eyes had gone wide from the mentioning of the name.

Once more there was something going on that she never in her life could have expected to have happened. A deep gulp was being released when the realization went through her that she was held as a living shield by the anthrony they needed to get in their team. As far as first meeting would go, it could be considered to be pretty terrible to say the least.

All of the sudden was there the sound of another horn charging itself. The blue magical aura revealed more of the scene. It was only used as a flashlight for the admiral to know against whom she was talking to. In the eyes of the admiral did the scene came. There they stood, both Twilight Sparkle with her hat taken off and the coat still on. But there was an arm covered in the sleeve of a white blouse that went to another body. A body of a white skinned, purple haired, unicorn mare.

A stunning unicorn that managed to surprise Applejack every single time. She carried the face was that of a true lady from high classed cities itself. But that was all deceit, for beneath there laid a ruthless monster that wouldn’t stop at anything from getting what she wanted. That was White Widow in a nutshell, a true femme fatale who ruled the seas but never was crowned queen.

Twilight wanted to turn herself around so badly and look the other unicorn in the eyes. But she just couldn’t because of the position she was held into. She was truly and really rendered useless. Not even a single muscle could be turned without being hurt. For her there was only one other explanation to be given. She had been enchanted by the pirate as well to feel that pain.

She had to give it to her, it was a good tactic. “Don’t do anything stupid, Applejack! I want to see the light of day again!” pleaded Twilight in a struggle. Even talking hurt her mouth badly as it were. It then all came down to Applejack with the wonder of whether or not she would be making the right decisions. All that the mulberry mare got out of the admiral, was nothing more than a huff before the eyes went back to that stare over her shoulder.

“Hmhmha,” the lady-like but also cutting voice of White Widow chuckled up. Then the actual words left her mouth. “So it looks like we once again stand against one another, Jackie. But the place is unlike you. So do tell me before I blow her brains out, how on the name of the demons of the sea did you managed to find me here. Talk, quickly. I’m not feeling as patient tonight.”

The threat was something that made Twilight’s eye turn into the direction of where the barrel made contact with her head. There she noticed the flintlock pistol that was being held with a firm grip. “T-Tell her!” Twilight added while the fear was still surging through her body.

“No,” the admiral replied. She unbuttoned her coat and just allowed it to wave in the wind. Her steam powered leg was clearly visible and Twilight just couldn’t get the connection made in her head even if she wanted. What did she mean with it?

“No?” Widow repeated with a raised eyebrow. One of her eyebrows rose up in a curious manner. Only to be followed by the laughter once again. “So I take it that this mare is of no value to you then? You know me, I don’t back away. Not anymore.” The once so lady-like tone had taken a turn for the darkest as the eyes of the white skinned unicorn narrowed themselves.

“Oh Ah know that, partner. Ah have been on the hunt for ya ever since. But she, holds value to me. I want to end her life before ya be able to do!” Applejack replied. With a puff of steam that left her left leg had she taken another step closer.

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed as she didn’t even knew why Applejack wanted to do such a thing. That was until she began to dug back into her mind and realized that little fact of the events as they had played out after she had left the bar. “Oh, that’s why…”

Another grumble left the admiral when she tried to fix her leg but never took her eyes off of the pair of them. Something on which Widow could actually capitalize on. “From the looks of it and from the words I have heard, you two have been traveling together for some time now, haven’t you? Which means that you know the other fairly well. So allow me, soothsayer, do you know what caused your friend to walk with such a leg?”

The attention was suddenly turned towards Twilight. The unicorn felt the two pairs of eyes piercing right into her soul. Comfort wasn’t a thing that was given by either of them but she didn’t know the answer on the question. At least, not the answer that she wanted to give.

At first there was a deep gulp before the mouth of the unicorn managed to open itself up and talk the words of truth towards the pirate. It was all that she could be doing in the hope to postpone the inevitable. “N-No, I, I do not know that,” answered Twilight to the pirate captain, who released a simple chuckle in response.

“You soothsayers are always so predictable,” countered Widow with a grin. Twilight began to wonder just how the news of their journey had gotten any kind of scent to a mare like her. But that was a question for another time. One problem could be tackled at once. And right then it was to get her out of Widow’s hold. “Me and Jackie…”

“Don’t, call me that!” Applejack replied in a snarling tone as she had fixed her leg again and just bluntly interrupted the pirate from talking. “Mah name, is Applejack and ya know it.”

White Widow just rolled with her eyes as she released an annoyed exhale through her mouth. “Fine then darling, whatever you want. So as I said, me and Applejack here are going back a long time. Long before the whole zebra conflict of years gone by. But that is only part of the story. The whole story went something along the lines of this…”

“Don’t ya tell her!” growled Applejack just before she took another step closer. In a flash of lightning had Widow moved the flintlock away from Twilight’s skull and aimed it just of Applejack’s and fired a warning shot that went straight past the admiral. The whistle of the musket echoed within her ear and she knew trouble had arrived.

The admiral came to a standstill and rose both of her hands when the second hammer got cocked. The barrel was placed again against Twilight’s head. The expression that was given by Widow had turned into an annoyed one. The other mare didn’t bluff and meant the words she would say. “I’m going to tell my story and you’re going to like it, Jackie. I’m queen and master on these planks, not you. Something that you should have learned a long time ago, commodore.”

Applejack released another deep huff before she took a step backwards. It was unavoidable. Twilight would be getting a history lesson of the relation between the two mares. “It all began, two long weeks before we would be setting sail to stop the zebra ships…”

Chapter XX

So many years ago –during the great conflict that waged between the zebra’s, the griffons and the anthrony’s– was the armada of Equestria sailing at full speed over the oceanic waters. They wanted to make certain that their home wouldn’t be invaded by those striped beings. Not to mention the war- and bloodthirsty griffon race. At the head of the fleet was no other ship then the pride of the navy. A ship so beautiful and so well armed that it often was considered a one-ship-armada.

But it was on one of the last vessel in the fleet that she could be found. She stood next to the helm with her arms behind her back. The green rimmed eyes looked over the deck as well as both the waters and the weather. The ocean was calm, too calm for her own liking as the skies didn’t have a cloud in them.

Yet it was the wind that was sailing them all at near full speed over the idle ocean. No waves seemed to be created, at least not that they could be seeing. Whatever laid over the horizon, whatever would happen, many of them knew that it was nothing else but a one way trip. As for the anthrony who stood next to the helm, she would be making it a two way one. Little did she knew just the price she had to pay in order to get back.

After a couple moments of staring there was the door of the captain’s cabin that opened and out of it came a stallion in formal attire. He was the true boss of the ship, the actual captain of their war frigate. The mare had turned herself around and gave him a respectful salute before she nodded.

Her body then turned back over to the deck and her voice with the southern accent could be heard yelling over it. “Captain on deck! Present yarself!” she spoke before the captain walked further and went up a couple of stairs. The eyes of the anthrony looked after him and saw how he placed himself before a railing and the third mast their ship had.

He was given a great view over the deck. Slowly but surely did all of the sailors came closer to the helm. They wanted to know what on earth was going on and what the captain had to say to them. The green rimmed, orange skinned anthrony left her position by the helm and joined the others. There was nothing for her anymore near the captain.

She then just stood there with her arms once again behind her back as she looked over to their captain. The mare had to admit that despite his roughness, he still was a little bit cute. Though she would have denied every single accusation of having a crush on him. Which was perhaps something for the better.

The captain’s brilliant blue eyes clashed against his green skin but he still managed to impose as a figure of authority. All of the sudden he placed both his hands against the railing and the words left his mouth in that deep, low but always concerned tone. “Gentleman, milady, today is the day that we set sail for the journey towards the battlegrounds. For many of you possibly a one way trip. You all know why you’re here, to defend your homeland and families!”

All of the sudden did the crowd go wild simply because of the sheer confidence that the captain spoke in. Though his words weren’t done yet, far from it actually. If they only knew what trouble still laid next to them. Yet they didn’t had to wait long to get a visual demonstration.

A ringing sound began to take their turn inside of their ears. Almost like something that was faster than the speed of sound suddenly had past them. The order between the sailors was broken just like that. The captain dropped his head a little bit at first before he released a deep sigh through his nostrils. He really didn’t wanted to fight the war that was going on, most of them didn’t want to.

Yet when he looked back up could the trails of the pegasi be seen in the air. Whatever caused it, they didn’t know. All they know was that most of them had some sort of unique trail behind them as they flew by. “Well, here comes the C.A.F.,” he muttered to himself before returning his attention to the crowd below.

“The zebras and the griffons have made an alliance with one another and made a deadly move against Equestrian law. They declared war upon us,” the captain said while his eyes went from left to right. “They want to destroy us once and for all. But we aren’t going to make that happen. This fleet is the first of many to blockade the witchdoctors and sorcerers from the zebras. Their home is in the Great Plains, that is where they shall stay! We hold the power to drive them back!”

With those powerful words did all of the sailors began to chat the song of their ship. They were pumped for the events to come, the battles to be waged. Yet there was one massive problem in the plan, most of them were inexperienced. Most of them didn’t even knew what it felt like to be at war to begin with.

A little something that the captain does know all too well. Only once the sailors were silenced again by a spell from his horn, a horn that was hidden under the tricone hat did he continue. “The pegasi give us support from the air as much as they can, meaning they will be dealing with the griffons as it is our job to focus on the zebra ships. Tricky bunch, so don’t let your guard down!”

And that, that was only the beginning of one of the most deadly conflicts in the whole of anthrony Equestrian history. The war that would be fought out was something few would be able to shrug off. Traumas of the zebras and their witchcraft were common while the griffons tore through ships like they were nothing.

Yet somehow, despite all of the trouble and setbacks did the Equestrians manage to drive them further and further back to where they belonged. Negotiations were out of the question. They would destroy the alliance that was made and that alone became the raging fire in each of the anthrony’s heart.

~~~~

It was near the end of the war –or the conflict– that was raging between the three species when the final fleet was dispatched to solve it once and for all. At the helm of the pride of that very fleet stood nopony else then the green rimmed, orange skinned earth anthrony. She had allowed herself to sail in the middle with her massive stallion-o-war while the smaller frigates surrounded them.

The seas were rough and the clouds went dark. The wind was still in their favor and they managed to pick up speed. But they all knew that only the griffon race was brave enough to fly deep within thunderclouds. The orders were clear, they were to give the last blow to the biggest fleet they had seen from their enemies so far.

Though it all came at a price most of them didn’t wanted to pay at all. Their moral was low, if not completely depleted. Yet the mare who stood at the helm never got that determined look out of her eyes. Something inside of her made her continue to wanting to wage the war that was going on. A little something on which many declared her crazy for but they never spoke it aloud. Which was done with rather obvious reasons.

A lot of crewmembers had already left, or were gone. Because whether they knew it or not, the mare at the helm had seen her fair share of death and destruction. For she was there when the first fleet was nearly obliterated. Perhaps it was through luck that their ship got only away with minor damage. But one broken mast and one crashed captain later had them running for their lives.

That level of pain, that level of grief, that level of destruction, all added up in the mind of the orange skinned earth anthrony and made her as stern as she was that day. Determined to deliver the final blow as ordered.

“Commodore Applejack, permission to land?” a pegasus screamed out of the air towards the anthrony at the helm. The green rimmed eyes looked up to see the pegasus. Then it gave a nod. The distance between the two of them made it impossible to determine whether or not it was a stallion or a mare and the tones got carried away in the wind.

With a graceful landing got the pegasus at the back-deck of the ship. Applejack signaled another anthrony to take her place at the helm. Without a question did the switch happen and for the first time since they left did the commodore left the helm.

The leather coat was to be found around it while beneath it laid the standard commodore’s attire with some rewards attached to it. Medals and honors of things that were done in the time by the navy. With both of the legs still fully functioning she made her way up to the place where the pegasus landed.

Only to find a stallion hanging in the rigging of the third mast. His wings nicely tucked behind his back and he finally noticed that it was a her. His eyes looked at her with a set of respectful eyes. “Report?” Applejack simply spoke up as she walked closer to him.

The pegasus had to chuckle to himself a little bit before he dropped himself down to the deck itself. Though as he tried to stand, it became obvious that he never had developed any kind of sea legs. For his body was wobbling all over the place as he tried to get his balance. Applejack couldn’t blame him for that as the ship was rolling quite the bit.

It was after a couple of seconds that the stallion finally managed to find his place and whipped a couple of sweat stains from his face. “I have tons of things to report. As wonderful as those griffon airships are, they are easily spotted in these dark clouds. Though little packs of griffons are left and right as well. Don’t worry about those, Cloudsdale should have dispatched a ship of their own,” he said with some disbelief to his own voice.

Those words caught the commodore by surprise. She leaned against the railing and watched the raging waters. Only a small piece of wood was the thing that separated Applejack from standing on her ship and falling into the near endless ocean. Yet she couldn’t truly understand the words of the pegasus. “Cloudsdale has never dispatched a ship before, why change it now? What matter of pride y’all gotta defend now?” she questioned to him before her arms went across each other.

Those words caught the fully geared, orange rimmed pegasus a little but by surprise. He hadn’t expected them to come out of her. “Well, I don’t know! It just happened alright. A ship made out of clouds and armed with thunder cannons, is surely going too hard to detect and deal massive damage. I think, if I may speak freely ma’am, even Cloudsdale is getting enough of this. We just want to have it over and be done with. That’s my best excuse for it.”

The commodore released a deep huff through her nostrils before she shook her head calmly from side to side. “Ain’t judging Cloudsdale wrong when it comes to it, this event has been going on too long for mah own liking. But what can we do ‘bout it eh? Orders are orders,” replied Applejack to hum. She removed herself from the railing again and just walked over the back-deck, letting her mind be filled with the troubles of the events to come.

“Ah tell ya, soon as this is over, Ah’m gonna retire. Never gonna forget how the crushing defeat went during the first few days of the conflict.”

It was something that the pegasus could actually agree upon with a whole lot. “You’ll never get the screams of fallen comrades out of your head. Always thinking you could have saved them even though you couldn’t. Nightmares as powerful to keep you asleep for what seemed to be an eternity, feeding off of you like a parasite. Land of friendship and harmony, it was once called… I see little back of that.”

The eyes of the commodore calmly turned back towards the pegasus before the entire head followed. “Ya been reading that book, haven’t ya? The one saying that we evolved from ponies?”

The pegasus could only reply to that by giving a nod towards her and the earth anthrony who on her own turn rolled her eyes backwards in a sigh of disgust. “Read it mahself, loads of pointless rambling if ya ask me. And no, Ah ain’t in the mood to discuss a dumb book, clear?”

"Tks, as crystal, commodore,” the pegasus replied almost in a chuckle before shaking his head. “But back to business, griffon airship is ours, just make sure that your formation is broken up when you enter the fight. If the airship comes crashing down, chances that one of your ships will be damaged shall remain minimal.”

“Ah heard ya on that one. The fleet shall separate once we see the zebra ships. But answer me, just where on earth is that griffon ship?” the commodore asked. She began to become just that little bit curious to the matter. She wanted to know just where the dangers were lurking from as well as expected to be attacked literally at any given time.

The pegasus spread out his wings in order to stretch them before one of them pointed to a particular piece in the skies. “Sailing right next to you, in those dark clouds. They are waiting to attack you as we speak. Somehow they didn’t notice me, or they do their trick again as a couple months back with the seventh fleet.”

“Our worst defeat yet,” commented Applejack on it. Her little hat was taken off and she held it against her chest. “The seventh fleet was caught by surprise even though they knew the griffon ship was there. But they played dumb before just appearing right out of the skies, piercing through the command ship and firing all cannons at once.”

“It was a massacre, nothing could have prepared them,” the pegasus replied before he took off into the air. “As lovely as the vessel is, I prefer the skies where I don’t get tossed around that much.” For the first time since their conversation –or possibly since they had left their home– had Applejack gained a small smile on her face as she chuckled to the words.

She could completely understand the direction he came from before he left her again. “We’ll meet again sometime. Stay safe up there!”

Though any form of immediate reply she didn’t got. It almost seemed like as if the pegasus had spotted something that wasn’t supposed to be there. Almost like he had seen a ghost. Something wasn’t right and he pointed towards the bow of the vessel. All that time, they both had only been looking back and towards the direction they came from. “You might want to watch this,” he spoke up towards her as his wings made powerful flaps to stay at the same speed as the vessel.

Applejack turned herself back around before she noticed a little scene playing out. A scene she hadn’t seen before and she wanted to know the finer details of it. With hurry in her hooves had she made her way over to the rigging of the mast and with one jump did she stood on the railing, holding herself by the stays while leaning far out. The waters below her were a terrifying sight to behold but she didn’t have time.

What she caught in her green eyes was a scene that never had played out in her career before. Baffled and angered were the two things that she became literally at once. She knew the name of the ship, but not its captain. Though soon after the events had taken place, she would be knowing the name all too well.

“What in tarnation are we having here?!” the mare replied in horror. With her eyes she watched as just two, then three ships just took off from the convoy. They were following one leader ship as it seemed to be turning back around, turning back home. “What do we call things like this?” Applejack then yelled to the pegasus.

The sheer amount of anger that was to be found within her voice was something that ever terrified the pegasus down to his sheer bones. Yet there was only one word that he could be speaking against her to call the creature by the name. “Mutiny.”

“Aye, mutiny… Go back to your station, Ah handle this situation mahself. Great talking to ya and all, but matters arise Ah never expected.” Applejack replied as she dropped herself back on the deck and rushed over to the stairs.

The pegasus shrugged a little bit as the chance to say goodbye to her wasn’t there. So the only thing he could be doing was to go back up into the skies and keep on spying on the griffon ship.

“What do they think they are doing?! Everypony, raise the alarm! Mutineers on three of our ships! Ah want full communications set up now!” With the command that was given did each of the sailors knew that it wasn’t any kind of drill that they would be in. Of course had they seen how the ships had made a turn but they thought it was part of some kind of plan to surprise the zebras.

Never could have expected that mutiny would be playing a part in the in their final act of the conflict. Though some began to whisper that it had to happen eventually, and it just did. The bells were rung and everypony upon the vessel immediately knew that something terrible was happening. All of the sailors got on deck in record time as the orders were shouted to them by Applejack.

“Where is that darned unicorn?!” she bellowed over the deck. Applejack was in the need to find somepony who could allow her to communicate with the other ships. Enraged but also desperation managed to hit the commodore, she didn’t had a full idea of what she could be doing in and to the matter.

“I’m here, commodore,” an unicorn anthrony spoke when she reached the helm. Applejack herself just gestured her towards the captain’s cabin and they both entered the place. Once the door was closed could they both be found in a place few deckhands had been and the unicorn was looking her eyes out.

Everything just looked so wonderfully placed. From the sables that hung on the walls for display purposes, to the massive desk on which Applejack sat down. Though she only sat there for twenty seconds before she got up again. Her body turned itself around towards the windows of the stern and there she saw it sailing. Sailing in the wind and just like that, away from them.

The unicorn then remembered her own duty and charged up her horn. The white magical aura coated the black horn and an arcane screen appeared next to Applejack. An arcane screen where for the first few seconds nothing could be seen upon. Only to reveal the images it carried some time later.

The commodore turned herself towards the screen and looked into the eyes of the anthrony she was facing. “Give me your captain, now!” she demanded while she spoke in a deeply angered tone. Without hesitation did the other unicorn ran to the top deck before ceasing at the helm. And at the helm she stood, the one mare who had begun it all and would become the bane of Applejack’s very own existence.

She just stood there with her purple boots, black trouser and white blouse. That cursed white skinned, purple haired demon of a unicorn. The four flintlocks on her belt and the one at her thigh made it unmistakable. “Ah should have known. Trouble follows you everywhere!” Applejack growled towards the unicorn.

“Hmpf, listen to yourself here for once darling!” the ivory white unicorn returned to her. Her hands never let go of the helm for a one bit. “You really don’t see that what you are trying to do is just hunt us all into death, do you?!” Those words, those words alone were the first ones to be spoken against the commodore Applejack. And those very same words came out of the mouth of the anthrony who would be going down into the books as nopony else than White Widow.

“Ah ain’t gonna be hunting anypony into death! Ah am going to end this war once and for all and ya know it, partner,” replied Applejack to her. The urges to draw her sword were there without a doubt. Though the realization just came to her that she couldn’t step through the screen. So the sword was left alone and an index finger was pointed towards the other mare.

“Look, I don’t care what you have been planning in that coconut of yours, dear, but I’m not going to partake into it. My crew isn’t going to partake into it. You find other dogs to do your bidding. You might be the commodore over us, but your orders are from insanity at its finest. Seven trips Jackie, seven trips I have already done with this crew and each time they said it was the last one. But it never stops. I am done. You hear me, I am done with it all.”

It was a smack in the face for the commodore. Despite the fact that White Widow was a tough mare to be working with, she was a brilliant strategist. At least that was how the stories about her went. That was why she didn’t gave her any orders as to what to do. She was such a skilled captain and then something like that happened. It was more than enough to place a couple knots in the stomach of the commodore.

“So this is how y’all gonna play the game? Yar entire crew agreed on leaving? What ‘bout that second ship?” Applejack questioned to her. Her eyes peeked out of the window to see the final traces of the two deserting vessels. The third one seemed to have joined the fleet again for whatever reason. Possibly they had gotten a scent of their conversation.

“They came out of free will, Jackie,” replied Widow to her. She then turned the helm a couple dozen times to the port side. She really just wanted to get the hell away from the fleet as quickly as she possible could.

“Free will, ya say? Ya sure ‘bout that one?” It became truly difficult for the earth anthrony to not just erupt out in anger and yell the words that were on her mind. Though there was not much more needed to make her do just that. White Widow always had been the kind of mare who would be pushing other anthronies far over their limits in the first place.

“Oh trust me, Jackie, I am sure of that one. Now if you will excuse me, I have a life to live.” It were those words that were, spoken in that calm and lady-like tone that caused the earth anthrony to just blow all of the fuses that she had inside of her head. The loss of perhaps the best strategist in the Equestrian navy could only be followed up by a couple words of anger. Words of anger, that would seal their fates until they died.

“Ah declare ya and yar crew as mutineers! Ya lot shall never be safe in any in any Equestrian port. And Ah shan’t rest, until Ah have yar head in a plate. Have Ah made mahself clear?!” Applejack bellowed in a truly enraged tone. The wheezes of her emotions were sent through her cabin. Perhaps it was for the better that nopony else could be hearing her rampaging.

Though a response of Widow never came. Instead was the connection just broken between the two vessels. Applejack finally allowed herself to drop her body back in the chair. Everything suddenly rushed back to her about what had just happened. And she wasn’t happy about it.

There was only one more series of words that she could speak up on the matter before she would pursue her never-ending destiny. Simply words which were a lot easier said than done. “End this war, open the hunt.”

~~~~

With the cannons that fired their deadly cargo to one another, the two ships of fate were entangled in a deadly battle with one another. At one end there was the vessel of the recently promoted admiral Applejack, while on the other side there was the vessel of the by then still growing, infamous captain, White Widow.

Somehow had one managed to track the other down and on that stormy night of fate, they were engaged into the greatest of battles with one another. The time to board the ships wasn’t quite there yet, but with the way they were circling around, they got closer and closer. Both of the ships were still sailing despite having taken multiple broadsides of cannon salvo’s already.

The hulls were damaged and with every big wave was there water that came in. But the captains of the ships were too stupid not to blow everything off. The determination of seeing the other pretty much dead was at the top of their priority list.

“Prepare to board, ladies! Show them the mercy we always show!” White Widow yelled over the decks. Then her signature chuckle could be heard all over the deck. The cannons of both vessels were retracted. Firing at such close range would do more harm than good to their own ship. Yet the crews of both ships prepared themselves to enter the other vessel.

Chaos was the thing that followed when both crews entered the other vessel. Applejack had to fight with countless pirates with both her sword and her flintlock. She even managed to shot an anthrony holding a couple of grenades with went off a few seconds later. The earth anthrony shielded herself from the blast as the smoke filled the area.

“Come out!” snarled Applejack in an angered tone. Moments later had she heard a sword being drawn in all of the commotion. Out of the fog and dust she came, like the devil herself did she walk up to the admiral in a calm pace. “So, finally courageous enough to fight me, eh?”

“Hmhmhm, no, the opportunity finally allows it,” the ivory unicorn spoke up as she removed her coat from her shoulders and looked Applejack dead in the eyes. “Let us dance through the storm,” she added in a bit of a seductive tone before their fight erupted.

Sword clash after sword clash happened just like that. Applejack and White Widow were locked in the battle of their lives and both crews knew they didn’t had to attack them. As much as they wanted, they understood it was their fight and not theirs. So the two crews continued their own madness.

Blocks and stabs were done by the both of them as it seemed they were at an impasse. The two of them were blocking the attack of the other as their faces were brought close enough to each other. “Looks like we might be equal dear. How are you going to kill me, hm?” Widow chuckled. With her eyes had she hinted to the flintlock.

Applejack immediately knew what she meant, but the honor that she had herself was something that she wanted to keep up high. Even if it would be costing it her life, a fact that Widow knew too well about the admiral. The urge to get out her pistol was high and it was even visible within the rims she carried. “Come on Jackie, I know you want to.”

The events that happened next all went in a lightning flash. All of the sudden there were two shots fired. One massive explosion that seemed to have gotten from below decks and the splinters of wood were sent flying through the air. The second was the white smoke that came from the barrel of a flintlock pistol.

White Widow felt the pain suddenly rushing through her body. She quickly puzzled the pieces together though. Her free hand went over her abdomen and felt something warm gushing out of it. There was no doubt about it, she was shot down by Applejack. Not to mention the fact that when she looked off to the side, there was a horrible sight. The mare noticed how her own ship was sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

Somepony beneath decks had managed to load the cannons and fired the shots at literal lethal range. It was all game over from the looks of it but the forces of heaven and earth had picked White Widow as their favorite that moment. Because there was a secondary shot fired from the cannons not even ten seconds afterwards. A shot that knocked Applejack off of her footing and fell down to the deck.

Widow saw her chance clean. With one massive slash of her own sword had the debt been paid back and in full. She took her sword towards her again that was covered in blood of the admiral before she looked for an escape. The admiral yelled it out in pain before the pirate captain managed to get a getaway.

They had done it, they had sunk the ship of White Widow and managed to harm her. But at a truly terrible price to be paid. Half of her own crew was gone as well as something truly precious to the admiral, her very own leg.

~~~~

White Widow held a massive grin upon her face while she still held Twilight captive. The other unicorn had stopped struggling all together after she heard the story. A tale that was filled with revenge and sadness, but it also showed her a different look on Applejack. All of the puzzle pieces slowly were placed upon their rightful spots in the mind of the unicorn.

Which all added up to a horrible picture in the end. “I knew why you didn’t told you, you didn’t wanted to let her into our ancient feud of blood. Understandable. Shame though, because who do I have right here?” Widow chuckled before the eyes were narrowed again. She had Applejack right where she wanted, and hoped to be able to keep her for a little while longer.

“Was it worth it, tell our history to a soothsayer who doesn’t needed to know it?” the admiral then asked the pirate in a dead serious tone. But reason was something the captain had forgotten a long time ago. Insanity had taken its place because of the mare she had become. “Ah remember yar name. Yar actual name, Widow. Supposed to be faded from history, but it’s saved right here in mah mind,” added Applejack while she tapped the side of her head with a dead serious look. Widow simply rose an eyebrow to the words as her curiosity had been awoken again.

“Don’t do it, Applejack, I don’t want to die yet!” Twilight pleaded as she felt the barrel placed even more firm against the side of her head.

“No, do it, dear. Tell her, my real name. She has that right to know, right?” White Widow grinned just before she shook her head calmly.

Applejack released a huff through her nostrils. Then she spoke the two words in a tone that didn’t carry hatred or anger, no happiness or glee. But just that eerie, monotone voice. The name that she spoke was none other than, “Rarity, Brittenburg.”

Chapter XXI

With the name of the pirate captain that rolled out of the mouth of the admiral, Twilight Sparkle had begun to fear for her life even more. She gulped deep before her eyes were forced shut while the prayers were being made. Prayers to both of the goddesses that her end would be a quick one.

She fundamentally believed that her life would be ending there and then. By the hands of an anthrony who perhaps couldn’t be reasoned with at all. Flashes of her life went by her eyes before the silence of time came in. Nothing made a sound, everything was silenced as the unicorn didn’t even call upon her magic.

When the time was finally there, there wasn’t anything that happened. The winds inside of the cavern were picked up by her ears again. Time itself began to travel again to its normal speed before she noticed something. Something was taken off of the side of her head. Twilight didn’t know what she could be doing outside of opening one of her eyes.

Slowly but surely was one of her eyes carefully opened up in the hope to see a good sight. Though what she got to see was something that was highly debatable on that fact. For the eye looked straight into those of Applejack who still stood there.

She just stood there with her arms crossed against her chest as her green rimmed eyes staring sternly towards the two of them. Yet it was in the reflection of the pupil that Twilight saw the thing she had never expected.

Rarity Brittenburg just stood there as well, grinning like the madmare that she was.

The pirate captain had a massive grin that went across her face. She felt almost proud on the fact that somepony still knew her name, her actual name. The very name that she had lost so many years ago. It was a mad delight to say the least and Applejack could tell that in an instant. Something still didn’t seem to be right though, there was no harsh return.

Applejack knew Rarity and the admiral had expected a reply by then. Though she also knew the fact that she didn’t had to make the other captain angry. A deep exhale was released by the admiral as the arms uncrossed themselves and just hung off the side of her body.

The grin of the other unicorn turned into a light chuckle just before the words finally dared to leave through the mouth. “When you speak about the devil, it’s said that he shall arrive, my dear,” she spoke in that unusual lady-like tone for her.

Applejack released a deep huff in response. Her expectations were matched by the words of the unicorn and it was her turn to come up with a massive counter for them. “Unless the devil appears to be like a she, in that case, she’s everywhere.”

"Now that doesn’t make a lick of sense,” the soothsayer then whispered. Her words were just loud enough for Rarity to hear them. Who oddly enough actually gave a nod towards them. It was something that caused the mulberry mare to think a little bit before the battle of words was released once more.

“Though, do tell me dear, how’s that brother of yours doing? I remember him being the feisty one at night. Oh how good he was at his secondary job,” taunted Rarity then towards the admiral with a sickening grin across her muzzle. The words caused Twilight to go fully wide eyed when she made the horrid connection of the words.

The truth was something she didn’t wanted to believe at all. Applejack on the other end became furious at the mare. The veins inside of her eyes became visible. The urge to draw her own sword and flintlock almost won. The fingers twitched vividly before they were curled up into a fist. Rarity’s grin was the thing that only added insult to injury.

“That one night stand of yars wasn’t worth it! He made a mistake and he knows it! Ah made sure of that,” replied Applejack to her. Her head turned itself away from the scene. The horrible thoughts all returned to her like that.

The news that her own brother had slept with the captain was something that still shuddered her to that day. Even though the stallion got himself under control, the rumors never left. Sometimes a lie is easier to take as all the truth does is making one’s heart ache.

“Oh did you now? I wonder how that must have been doing then? Hmhmhm, maybe I should leave it to my imagination,” the pirate captain said. It began to dawn upon her just how Twilight tried to struggle her way out of the hold.

“And where do we think we’re going to, hm?” she questioned when the barrel of the gun was placed once more in the side of the head. The action almost instantly caused the hostage unicorn to fall silent again. The motions ceased to exist just like that.

It couldn’t end like that in her eyes. Somehow that insane mare was needed for the journey that still laid ahead. But Twilight was in no position to talk to her. Applejack on the other end might have been. It was a long shot and the mare knew that. Though if they wanted to have any chance of getting out of there alive, it was well worth the risk in her eyes.

“Applejack, Applejack! Look, look at me!” yelled Twilight towards the earth anthrony. It was a thing that caused both of the other mares to shake their head a little bit and give the unicorn their full attention. “I don’t care, what happened between the two of you in the past. We’re here for a mission remember? A mission of great importance, as well as your promise. I, I don’t want to hurry things here, but I think it’s time that you tell her the truth of the matter! No more petty insults or cutting words… Please, tell her what she must know.”

The words caused Rarity to look strangely towards Applejack. Who in return noticed the genuine surprise and curiosity within the sapphire blue eyes of the mare. A deep groan came from the throat of the admiral. The head was shaken softly in response. It wasn’t a denying of facts but more one that said she needed to get her facts straight.

"What is it, that I should be knowing? That the fortress is being surrounded by your fleet? That you have come here just to put a musket ball through my head and therefore finish the job?” That were just two of the near dozen possibilities that came out of the mouth of Rarity. Her eyes had narrowed themselves towards her old rival as she held Twilight even closer to her. Anything could happen and she would have been prepared.

The admiral shook her head from side to side as she released a deep exhale. “No you fool, it’s something else that’s the matter here. Something that, for a change of pace, doesn’t involve you in its center,” said Applejack in all of her honesty.

The pirate captain released a rather loud ‘heh’ before she began to circle around the admiral over the deck. Applejack did the same as they maintained the same distance from one another. Twilight was forced to walked with them as the argument broke loose. An argument that could very well have been the chance of a century.

“Ah am quite certain that Equestria is getting more and more in turmoil. Things are changing all ‘round us while you are at sea, raiding like you do,” started Applejack while their circling never ceased. “So Ah’m gonna ask ya this, ya ‘ware that earthquakes were happening all over the land?”

The words caused Rarity to think deeply to herself. Though she never took her eyes off of Applejack. It was hard to tell for her whether she knew it or not. “I spend little time on land and what I do, I still do just in the docks with a good bottle of rum. Or wine, whichever one I can happen to get my hands on. So no, I do not know about these ‘earthquakes’ of yours. And if so, why should it matter to me?”

“Because, old fool, of the rather simple fact that everything can be destroyed by them on land! Every last bit of land that you know, gone after a mega quake,” commented Applejack.

“Which makes the anthronies force to live on the water where we have the free game. Don’t you see, it’s a golden business for us! We can raid, plunder and get everything we need without ever having to go on land again! For once, you’re a harbinger of good news. And this little mare here, shall be my first prize.”

“Ah don’t think so, Brittenburg,” the admiral then came back. A moment later had she drawn her own flintlock from her belt. The hammer was pulled back and she was ready to shoot if needed. Though the risk of hitting Twilight was a considerable fact that always remained.

“Go on, shoot me. I know you want to. Or have you made a promise to this little mare? A promise you never, ever are going to be able to live up to?” The head of Rarity was lowered towards Twilight’s eye level before the whispers were made, “what, did she promise you?”

To answer or not to answer was the question that raced through the mind of the mulberry skinned unicorn. Though given the situation, she was the weakest link. So the only thing that she could be doing was to answer truthfully. “She promised me, to protect me on this journey,” she then whispered back.

An answer that made the ivory skinned unicorn grin greatly to herself. Her head rose itself back up as her eyes looked over to Applejack. “Protection? That’s what you promised her? And look where she is now. Do you call this, protecting?”

“Minor setbacks happen, Brittenburg. And another thing, occupational hazard.”

“Oh don’t be so tough around me Jackie, but do continue. Why shouldn’t I think so?”

On those words was there nothing that could be said, outside of the truth that was waiting to happen. Earthquakes had a natural going of flows and once they were out of land, the bottom of the seas provided a good enough substitute.

“Tell me,” the admiral began while her eyes narrowed themselves to near slits, “had an increase in rough waves these past few months?”

For Twilight it was all sailor talk. She had no idea what a ‘rough wave’ could have been, but was afraid she would figure it out soon enough. Though there was one other little fact that seemed to be interesting her. All aboard the vessel there wasn’t any light or lantern burning. The only light came from Rarity’s horn, if she cancelled her magic, she would be having a massive advantage.

Something about the words of Applejack must be of interest to her. That, or their very presence was enough for just that. Twilight couldn’t tell for certain and she perhaps never could. Which was perhaps something for the better in her eyes.

“Rough waves you say? We may have had a couple more then we would have expected. Why does it… oh, oh!” Suddenly did the unicorn began to make sense of the situation. All of the puzzle pieces were falling nicely in their spots and that worried her. “Oh,” she then added in a near monotone voice. Almost as if she had lost all the previous fires for the fight with the admiral.

Rough waves were waves that come out of literally nothing. They would tower over pretty much every vessel that they come across. They were among one of the most dangerous things a sailor could come across at sea. They were nothing but a literal business killer for Rarity as she had actually seen potential victims being devoured by them.

That was the very reason of why she had fallen so silent against Applejack. No sound came from the ivory unicorn as Twilight even held herself silent for other reasons. Hesitation had fallen upon the pirate captain. A hesitation that was a hard act to follow up to.

What could be done in the matter? What should have been done in the matter? Yank a musket ball through the skull of Twilight? Quickly aim her weapon to Applejack and return the favor from long ago? Or something else? Rarity couldn’t tell as all of the possibilities were racing through her head. Hesitant and uncertain of things had the pirate captain wandering in the dark.

“I propose a negotiation,” said Rarity all of the sudden. The silence was broken while they still circled around. Something that caused both of the other mares to glance at her with a strange glare. “I want to negotiate and hear further about the matter.”

The ice was broken, went through Twilight’s mind. The other unicorn was at least reasonable enough to continue listening to their words. Then the hopes were open on the fact whether or not either of them would end up doing they would come to regret.

Applejack nodded before an exhale was released through her nostrils. “Alright then. Ya want to hear the whole story. Yar holding it.” She then pointed to the soothsayer with her weapon.

“What?!” Twilight screamed towards the admiral in surprise. Before she could speak another word, she was turned around. Finally was the mare granted a live view on the face of the pirate captain. A face so refined that it almost seemed to belong to nothing else but a lady of high society. Something wasn’t right about her yet in a way it all did make sense as well.

“Tell me,” the ivory unicorn began, “that what I need to know. Short version please.”

Twilight released a deep gulp as the horrors surfaced in her mind before the stutters left her thought. Stutters that annoyed the mare pretty much to no end. Almost had she smacked the hostage unicorn with the handle of her weapon. Almost.

The soothsayer came back to her senses and talked to the mare what she had seen in a brief moment. “So that’s why I’m organizing this expedition, this is why we came for you. To make a stop to this violence of nature.” Of course she hadn’t spoken about the fact that she had actually been to the planes of the goddesses themselves. Certain details were best left untold.

“So, you got together a band of misfits. I mean, an admiral from the navy, a lieutenant from the air force, a medic of all trades and now you want a pirate captain to that? All to stop, earthquakes?” To Rarity, it didn’t make a lick of sense whatsoever.

“Major, but you’re correct on it, yes,” confirmed Twilight to Rarity. Whose head them peeked over the shoulder of the soothsayer and looked into the eyes of the admiral.

“Seriously, what kind of drink do they serve up there in Canterlot these days?” She didn’t believe it for a second. But she had to admit to herself that the words of the soothsayer did rang some form of truth.

Easy it wouldn’t have been but Rarity knew exactly how she could get a confirmation by promising nothing. “Alright then, let’s say I do believe this all is real and that it can be stopped.” Without a warning was Twilight turned back around and held firmly against the body of Rarity again. “There are going to be conditions that need to be lived up to considering me in on this. Equestria wants me dead, and you know that.”

“Cloudsdale doesn’t,” the soothsayer struggled to say. The arm of the ivory unicorn almost choked the life out of her. “The doctor doesn’t, doesn’t hold grudges. It’s only, A-Applejack.”

“And you,” added Rarity. Her eyes looked down for just a second. “But of course, Applejack. Trouble follows me wherever I go, doesn’t it? Problem happens to be, you’re so good at sniffing it out and following it.”

“Shut up and name yar states of the negotiation!” Applejack snarled in return. She truly wasn’t in the mood to talk to Rarity. She had to if they wanted to have any form of success through.

Rarity grinned once more before she tightened her grip around Twilight’s neck just a little bit more. Even through her mulberry skin it was visible that she was becoming more and more purple. Air was running low yet she wasn’t allowed to go. “Oh I shall name them, Jackie, I shall.” The grin faded away from the face in order to make room for a little chuckle or two.

The arms of Twilight began to struggle around. It felt almost like all of the air had gone out of her lungs. To make matters worse, there wasn’t any fresh air delivered. To which the pirate finally loosened up just a little bit. It resulted in Twilight taking a massive swig of fresh but also salty air.

“I propose a truce between us. I know you want me dead, six hooves down in the ground in a coffin at an unknown location. But I’m not giving you that satisfaction anytime soon. If her words are true and I do decide to join up with this quest of madness, I desire not to be harmed or hurt by any of your doings. So no backstabbing, or stabbing in general, shooting me and so on. You keep your hands off of me, clear?” That were the terms that Rarity had for the admiral.

That term alone was already enough to make the admiral swallow a massive pill. Rarity was still the iron lady that she was all that time ago. Something that troubled Applejack on more before she almost whispered her words. “As crystal.”

“Secondly,” the pirate continued. Whatever her second desire could have been was something neither of the two could have ever predicted. “When everything is over, when we’re truly safe again and call it quits, I’m able to freely go. I can just walk away without a problem. Twenty four hours after I’m gone, our truce ends and war returns as usual. What say you, admiral Applejack?”

The seriousness in her voice, the tone in which she spoke her words stinging like a cutlass. It was another massive pill that needed to be swallowed by the admiral. She had the most notorious pirate in the land right in front of her and she wasn’t allowed to do anything to her. It wasn’t just Applejack’s pride that was standing on the line, it was the entire navy’s. At least it felt like that in her own eyes that was.

“You, you must be joking!” Applejack hesitantly replied. There was no way in the world that she could believe the very words that she had just heard. Though they were the truth. They were the truth spoken by the pirate captain.

“Does this face look like it’s joking, Jackie?” Rarity replied in a cold and stern tone.

That did it for the earth anthrony. There wasn’t any other way to plead or talk herself out of it. The terms named by Rarity were some of the hardest she had ever heard in her life. Not to mention that little fact that she still held Twilight. One wrong move and the soothsayer might join the history books herself. A difficult matter, was putting the events lightly. It was near impossible for the admiral to agree on the terms.

Though one matter still hadn’t been confirmed, whether or not Twilight had actually spoken the truth. “Jackie,” was suddenly echoed over the deck of the Vengeful Belle. “Look me in the eyes and tell me, whether or not the words are true from the little mare here.”

It was a thing that Rarity knew perhaps a little bit too well from the admiral, the very fact that lying one of her strongest points. “I’m waiting,” she added to make the earth anthrony stress out even more.

The admiral got an even more difficult time. A groan was released from her throat. All of her courage had to be gathered to actually look into the eyes of the pirate captain. For Applejack it seemed like those sapphire blue rims were a hellish, blue fire. Her devil, her greatest demon stood before her and looked down the barrel of her own flintlock.

It was about one of the worst nightmares that had come to live for her. Short in- and exhales were given off by the earth anthrony as she didn’t knew what needed to be done. For the first time since they had boarded the ship, it was her who was uncertain of the events. Her green rimmed eyes looked into the blue hellfire as the words soon enough followed.

“Everything, everything she spoke, was the truth. If, if we don’t do anything, Equestria as we know it, shall be doomed,” brought Applejack out with a tremble in her voice. Even her southern sounding accent had completely vanished for the moment. She was terrified, completely and utterly terrified for the first time in a long time.

Rarity on the other end of the circle could only grin to the matter. She knew the words were true and the trek was real. Though somewhere deep inside of her there was the feeling of duty calling her. Destiny awaited her at the gates of hell no matter what. Everything she had done in her life after deserting the navy was wrong.

Facts that were well known by the unicorn, perhaps it was that which caused her to agree on going. Something that could possibly redeem her soul a little bit or lighten the burden that was given to it. “Alright, I’m in. But only, if my conditions shall be applied.”

It was as if Applejack was smacked in the face for a second time. Or as if somepony had actually driven a knife right into her heart. The stomping of her metal hoof on the deck ceased to exist. Another deep exhale was being given off by her as she didn’t knew what to do. Twilight wanted to meddle herself just so much into the matter. But she knew that it was a standoff between the admiral and the pirate.

A saddening fact for perhaps an even more saddening event. The tough pill was swallowed by the admiral. Pride was something that had to be set aside for the time being. Whether it was liked or not, there was only one way in which it all could end. “Alright,” the admiral started with an exhale. “Ah accept yar terms. On one other condition of mah own.”

Then it was Applejack who was going to throw in another curveball into the mix. Something that caught the attention of both the soothsayer and the pirate. “Yar ain’t going to be luring me out. No taunting, no tricks, no nothing. Fair ‘nough for ya?”

The answer to that was something which was a lot easier than the previous statement. “I do not see a problem with that little fact. Fine, no nothing shall be added to the list. I just hope you’re able to keep your end of the bargain.”

“It’s usually ya who doesn’t do that,” the admiral whispered to herself. Then she uncocked her flintlock again. The weapon was safely placed back in its holster while Rarity did the same. In the eyes of Twilight it seemed to be all over. Even though the tension between the two could still be felt clearly. It was uneasy to stand in between the two of them, two titans of the seas they were.

And then, just like that, was the soothsayer released from the hold and pushed forwards. Finally was the soothsayer free out of the hold and finally charged up her own horn. It would only act like a light source to fully investigate the pirate captain. Where Applejack was granted a full view already was Twilight’s turn just then.

What she saw in her eyes was something that was both deadly and beautiful. A mare with the traits of a lady while vicious-looking like the sea itself. Her purple, thigh high boots with two flintlock holsters were impressive enough. Yet it was the white blouse that caught the interest of the mare even more. Two belts went across it, both carrying more holsters for the weapons as well as the sheath of a sword.

It was safe to say that the mare was literally armed to the teeth. Though something under the blouse caught the unicorn by surprise. A bluish light faintly irradiated itself from under it. Almost as if the magic of the ivory skinned unicorn didn’t only channel through her horn. Twilight made probably the best decision not to comment on it.

But they had done it. They had managed to get the feared pirate captain in their company. The infamous White Widow had joined their ranks in their quest of madness. Something that wasn’t all too happily celebrated by Applejack. Their company was complete for four-fifth. Only one member seemed to be missing from that point on. A member who was also the most difficult one to figure out.

“What? No slap in the face, no harmful words from you, soothsayer? Heh, are you trained for these kind of matters or something?” questioned Rarity to her. One side of her lips turned up to give a cheeky grin.

Twilight shook her head softly as their eye contact was never broken. “No, I believe that calm can conquer every single situation. This one, wasn’t mine to handle. It was hers.” Her thumb then pointed over her shoulder, towards Applejack. Who was still grumbling deeply into herself about the whole event.

“The calm before the storm is often the most enjoyed thing before it actually happens. You soothsayers are a special bunch, I give you that much. But much is kept from prying eyes, never forget that. Turns and twists shall get in your way which might be part of a bigger plan. Yet the answer you can find, back where you began.”

“And a philosopher. Well that’s unexpected for certain,” returned Twilight almost happily. Though the happiness was short lived as Applejack finally managed to get herself to speak words.

“Now that ain’t making a lick of sense to me!”

“Ugh, metaphors and wise words, dear. You wouldn’t understand if you tried.”

“Perhaps. Come on Twilight, the sooner we are off of this tub, the better.”

"Wait, there’s just one more thing,” the soothsayer spoke up.

Both the admiral and the pirate captain glanced over to Twilight with a gaze of the unknown. Something just didn’t seem to be right in their eyes. They also made the possible mistake that she wasn’t that much of an actual threat. Rarity did a step closer as Twilight summoned something in the palm of her hand.

Only to then stick that very same hand out towards her. The curious unicorn held her own hand below that of Twilight and a raspberry colored, arcane piece of parchment fell into it. “It’s our rendezvous point, be there on time please,” the soothsayer spoke up in a near whisper.

“Why are you whispering there?” Rarity then asked her. To which she only got a shrug.

The light of the raspberry horn faded out of existence, only to soon be followed up by the sapphire blue color leaving the realm of existence. Complete darkness could be found on the deck of the Vengeful Belle. Yet one thing didn’t sat the pirate right. Her ship was called a tub, that was about one of the biggest insults one could give to her.

“Also, tub?! Listen to yourself on that rubber duck of yours, Jackie!” Rarity snarled coldly towards the admiral. Shortly afterwards could her hooves be heard leaving over the planks as both Twilight and Applejack made their departure from the vessel as well.

Rarity Brittenburg had faded into the darkness of both the night and the caverns system while the other two had returned on the docks. “A tub yes, what else am Ah supposed to call it?” Applejack added as she wanted to continue the conversation. Even though her conversation partner was pretty much lost.

“Let’s, let’s not go over that shall we?” Twilight asked didn’t had a clue what was going on between the two. She just wanted to maintain the peace for as much as possible. Which could be seen as almost an impossible task.

~~~~

Minutes had they been wandering through the harbor of the pirate town. They both began to realize something. The time wasn’t in their favor and they were both dead tired. Twilight’s own fears and frights all rushed at her as she realized how close she had been to death in the past couple of encounters alone.

Yet Applejack still had the difficulty of actually accepting the fact that her arch nemesis would be joining them. They needed a place to stay and think about the events as they were and would be going down. They both made way for the streets themselves where Twilight hoped to be finding the way back to the bar they had entered before.

It was a long shot but if they had a room available it would have been pretty much their only choice. She didn’t wanted to risk it to go to another bar or small hotel. She was a little bit familiar with the one she tried to find. Yet something continued to chew upon her consciousness. Something that almost hammered that what she had done was not right.

Which was true in perhaps one way or the other. Yet it was needed to get her because of their demands. Though why they would ask her to, was something that Twilight never actually questioned. Therefore making her look like a pup to do the bidding of the goddesses themselves.

Applejack had so her own means to drop herself deep in her thoughts. Rumbles and grumbles of her mind soared through the skull. All while the ideas themselves seemed to be even crazier than reality itself. All manners of tricks that Rarity could use on her were evaluated by her mind, tiring her out even more as they arrived at the bar.

Twilight opened the door for her and the warm light and the smell of rum filled both of their noses. The both of them were still wearing their coats and hoped to be in a pretty good disguise for the time being. Though neither of them was actually counting on that very fact.

The admiral entered the place and was soon followed up by Twilight. Who then slid past her and made her way quickly over to the bar itself. There she got to talk with the barkeeper once again as the earth anthrony just watched over the events.

The bar was almost in exactly the same spot as they left it, which both troubled yet relieved the admiral. It wasn’t something to be sure about whether it was good or bad. Quite frankly, she didn’t care much about it either. She was dead tired and just wanted to spend the night in a good bed for a change of pace.

Whether or not that wish would have been fulfilled was something that remained to be seen. Twilight had returned to her and spoke one simple sentence, “got us a room, upstairs.”

Chapter XXII

The door that fell back in its lock and Applejack had finally the time to just drop her body down unto the bed. She wanted to get the much needed sleep. She was dead tired and the events to come weren’t something that made things anymore calm inside of her coconut. The earth anthrony stumbled over to the cheaply looking two-pony bed before she just crashed into it.

Twilight on the other end was a little bit more by knowledge and she sat down on a small chair. Her eyes looked through the whole of the room just before a deep sigh was released through her nostrils. Something about everything never made sense and with the words of Rarity actually going through her mind, the difficulty of everything only became more apparent to her.

“Hey Applejack,” she started, “can I ask you something?”

The admiral herself was too tired to even lift her head out of the pillow. Which resulted in her actually talking through it. “What’s on yar mind?” she replied in a muffled tone. One that was weak and tired sounding yet curious at the same time.

“About your brother and, well, you know…” It was a touchy subject but the soothsayer wanted to know the truth behind the matter. Even if meant that she had to crush the feelings of Applejack.

Something which Twilight could do easily. Though the other mare had a whole set of different plans when it came down to the matter. For a deep groan was released through the pillow as it almost seemed the mare would turn around. Yet the orange skinned, black coat covered body never moved itself. Instead there was another reply that was mumbled up through the pillow itself.

“Ah don’t wanna talk ‘bout it. Family and naval business. No soothsayer has anything to say ‘bout that. Now, lemme sleep!” She was cranky, that much could Twilight easily determine. Perhaps it was just for the better to let her get as much sleep as she could. Something that Twilight also could use for the time being.

The soothsayer stood up from the chair and made a little walk through the room they were in. It was just a plain looking, ordinarily fashioned hotel room above a bar. Not much had to be expected in the first case. The violet rimmed eyes of Twilight moved over to the window where she saw the city stretching until the horizon.

Or better said, she looked at the house on the other side which formed the horizon. Another exhale was released through her mouth as the curtains were closed and her horn shone a faint light. Mumbles were given off by her before the raspberry coloring emerged from the lock of their room. “The way the keeper is, that’s how he trusts his guests,” she whispered to herself. Then the light fainted from existence.

The spell that she had performed was meant to keep any other being out of the room unless they allowed it to enter. Something that seemed to be rather helpful in the eyes of the soothsayer given their location. The snoring of Applejack fell in her ears. The mare looked over to the lump of admiral that laid on the bed.

She hadn’t even moved a single inch from the moment she had dropped down. Twilight on the other end was a little bit annoyed by the fact she had to sit through the cutting of an entire forest that night. “Just, bloody, great,” the mare muttered to herself before she dropped her head on the pillow. Only to close her eyes and let herself fade away into the realm of the dreams.

Hoping for a morning, that would be a lot better than the night.

~~~~

There was a coldness, nothing more but an icy and chilly coldness engulfed the body of the soothsayer. She laid shivering in the bed while she was brought back out of her sleep. Everything seemed to have turned upside down in her mind already. Drunk from her sleep did she turn herself right side up. Only to realize something that wasn’t supposed to be there.

The body of the mare grinded itself a bit more against the bottom to make certain of her suspicion. She knew that the mattress of the bed wasn’t too comfortable, but it felt to her like she was laying on stone cold rock. A groan was being released and the eyes of the unicorn opened up again. She had no idea of what she could expect to see. She hoped for something good of course.

Darkness was the only thing that they saw while her brain came back to full throttle. Together with her feelings coming back were the suspicions being confirmed. She actually laid on solid rock for whatever reason.

As soon as that realization had come through to her, had the unicorn shot right up from her spot and glanced all around her. She wanted to know where she was and if there was anything she could do to the matter. Thankfully she didn’t seem to be tied up in any way or form. Another problem happened to be that she was actually alone in the place.

Twilight wanted to call out for Applejack with the whole of her heart. Though such a thing would have given her position away. There wasn’t all too much that the unicorn could be doing in her case. All but one thing, which was to actually go out and investigate where she had been brought too. Thoughts about the spell being destroyed rushed through her as the uncertainties only rose up further.

Slowly but surely had the soothsayer moved herself at the side of the cave she was in. All around her were the stone cold rocks tunneling their way before her. Strange curiosities raced through the mind of the mare. “Somewhere in the harbor? Rarity who managed to find and kidnap us? What’s going on here..?” Twilight questioned to herself almost in silence as she walked further and further down the given path.

Going back wasn’t really an option anymore for her. The only way that could be gone was forward. Towards the answers, towards the troubles. Moving forward inside of the tunnel while she kept her back firmly to the wall. Not even a single torch was lit to illuminate the way. The strange case in which Twilight found herself was about to get a whole lot stranger.

After minutes of careful sneaking did the eyes of the mare caught something. Something that was a totally different color than the darkness that surrounded her. She saw a warm, inviting color that popped up around the next corner. Yet that same color could also have been the color of a warning. There where was light, didn’t necessarily have to be peace.

Slower than a snail in reverse had Twilight made her way around the corner where the light came from. Caution was something that was executed even more by the mare as her eyes peeked around the corner. All in the hope to see what she wished to be seeing.

It almost seemed as if the goddesses had actually taken Twilight in their favor. For around the corner wasn’t much to be seen. Nothing but an empty hallway that stretched itself to a doorway was caught in her eyes. The sights were something that caused a feeling of relief to flow through the mare, yet she still had to travel further.

Closer and closer she came to the doorway and with even more caution she traveled under it. Nothing could indicate to her just what she would be finding after that treacherous arch had been past. For there wasn’t anything actually visible after it. It literally was a blind step of fate that she had to take. A thing that Twilight hesitantly did.

Soon enough had her body traveled through the archway with a set of firmly closed eyes. Anything could have happened and she knew that. Though the thing that did happen was something that caught her actually by surprise. For where she had expected to be taken by other anthronies, there was a rather harmonic sound.

The sound of fire that danced in harmony. That sound, the very rhythms of the fires and their heat were enough to get the unicorn even further down the brink of craziness. Her eyes were opened widely and they immediately began to inspect the area that she was in.

Much to her surprise was she still inside of the cavern system. Yet she had to be in a different part of it. For the room that the mare was in almost looked like half a sphere. A sphere that was perfectly crafted in ancient times, gone by the gears of time. All that remained of that once so smooth surface were cracks in the very rock. Cracks that seemed to have come from that very place.

As if something had tried to break out, instead of in. Yet the massive elephant in the room was the source of the light and the heat. Twilight’s eyes were gently turned over to the middle of it. There they could witness the sheer beauty that was her ‘host’.

Twilight was staring at the ball of magma that she had seen before in her visions. “Impossible,” the mare whispered to herself. The feelings rushed all over her mind. Everything literally happened at once. The sheer amounts of uncertainty about it all only seemed to be rising inside of her. Nothing made sense to her in the moment. And it was about to get even more crazy.

The more the mare stared into the ball of magma, the more she seemed to saw a shadow that swirled actually within it. A shadow that moved itself at a slow and steady speed inside of the molten rock. “That, that can’t be done. Unless…” All of the sudden went her eyes wide again. In that moment had the realization hit her. “Oh no, no, no, no, that can’t be right? Nightmare Moon taking over the sun? Corrupting it into her own way and create eternal night?!”

The words of a madmare often spoke the truth was a well-used saying. But that idea was so crazy that even Twilight herself had a difficult time to actually believe her own words. While the idea certainly was possible, it didn’t seem actually likely.

Twilight placed her hand on her forehead was a moan was released. “I’m an idiot, how can the sun be here? What are we, a zillion miles beneath the surface? Well, maybe not a zillion. One, perhaps.” The unicorn began to wander around the place a bit more while she inspected everything that there was to be seen.

Danger seemed to be a long way away all of the sudden. Which was something that the mare didn’t really seemed to be minding at all. It meant to her that she just had a lot more time to inspect what needed to be done.

“Oh this is clever, this is very clever indeed. I feel like I’m awake, but I’m still inside of a vision created by them. Highly interesting,” she said. Then a smile could be found across her lips.

She was actually right on the matter. For Twilight was wandering through a vision that had been made by the goddesses themselves. Yet its purpose remained unknown to Twilight in the moment. She still had actual difficulties to determine whether the ball of magma was actually a ball of magma, or perhaps maybe even pieces of a star.

If it was a star that was housed down there, they wouldn’t be out of the danger zone for a long time to come. “If that goes supernova, our whole existence can be whipped from the universe. If, it is a star after all.”

Ideas flowed through the mind of the mare as she began to draw some of them out on an arcane piece of paper. “What could have happened is that comets and asteroids began to cover up the star by arcane powers, to form the land on, which… Oh you have to be kidding me! It’s the core of Equestria itself?!”

A sudden revelation was made by the mare. One that she perhaps knew for a long time already. Yet finally had she the confirmation on the looming thoughts. It was the very place that their journey would be taking them, the very center of their land. Not the center of the surface, but the center of the hunk of earth they called home.

“Oh this is just great…”

~~~~

With a deep gasp for air went the eyes of Twilight open again and she found herself panting deeply on the bed. Applejack was not to be found next to her though. Instead had the admiral taken place in the chair and was gazing to the outside world. Only to have her attention shift back to Twilight once she woke up.

“It was, it was, it was a vision,” stumbled Twilight out before her body was dropped back down. “Though if it’s true…”

“If what’s true?” Applejack then asked out of curiosity. Without any sign did the body of Twilight rose itself back up again and gazed almost idiotically towards the admiral. A set of eyes that spoke the words of uncertainty were given to her before a sigh was released. “Nevermind.”

The soothsayer on the other end tried to make sense out of everything she had seen and the situation as a whole. Which could only have made her come to one conclusion. “I think, it’s best if I do not say that for the time being. Hey, what, what have you been up to so far?”

Those words caused the admiral to raise an eyebrow. She wouldn’t have expected that such a question came out of the mouth of Twilight. “Nothing too much really. Figuring out a way to get out of here as soon as possible. That, and waiting on ya ‘course.”

Twilight released a little giggle in response to the matter. With her hands had she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, sorry about that. Dreams were interesting this night. Hey, I’m going to refresh myself a little bit and then we shall look for a way out. Any particular path in mind?”

The admiral didn’t had to think long about that answer. They were in a pirate infested town and she was the one mare pretty much all of them wanted to see dead. If they would have just walked out of the place, it could have created a deep suspicion. “We’re gonna travel by sea. Ah ain’t walking that darn end again with this leg and Ah need to be at sea one more time, before this all begins. Ya can live with it?”

The soothsayer nodded her head calmly up and down. She could understand the reasoning behind the words and who was she to deny the earth anthrony that one last pleasure of the rough seas.

~~~~

Sometime later were they wandering once more through the harbor of the place. Even in the bright daylight it still looked somber and dead. The light of the sun only penetrated a couple of gaps in the ceiling of the cavern, possibly made by the very residents or nature had taken an interesting course with it.

Either way, with the sunlight they allowed in and the torches lit, it wasn’t a pleasant sight to behold at all. And somewhere in that mess of ships and drunken sailors had both Applejack and Twilight to find a anthrony crazy enough to bring them to Canterlot. That was a task that was actually a lot easier said than done. A fact they both knew perhaps too well.

The stomping of the admiral’s metalized leg didn’t really help either. Though they had the luck that the sounds seemed from somepony with a peg leg. Perhaps that was why she wanted to go to the harbor that badly, thought Twilight to herself before she chuckled only once.

For them it was going up and down the boards of the harbor to find a vessel that didn’t seem to be too big or too small. Yet every time they had found the right vessel, the crew didn’t appeared to have been too fondly with them going aboard.

Which resulted in the fact that they took off just as quickly as they came.

Their situation seemed to be hopeless as they just wanted to return home. None of the ships would even think about going to the heavily guarded port of Canterlot, that much they could tell straight away. Not to mention the fact that the Vengeful Belle had already left the port. It eliminated the possibility of asking Rarity for a lift.

Minutes had turned into hours when the two of them walked down the so maniest ramp to one of the docking areas. They saw a smaller vessel laying there that seemed to be loading itself up with goods. Applejack turned her head over to Twilight who simply gave a shrug. It was all that they had in the moment. Perhaps their only hope of actually getting out of the place.

It was at least worth the shot to ask whether or not the vessel would go to Canterlot. With the courage and morale raised just a little bit did the both of them took calm steps forwards. When they got closer to the ship, they were greeted by a pegasus anthrony stallion who looked to the both of them with one visible eye.

The other one had lost all of its color and they both knew that he was blind on that eye. The smoke that came out of pipe and the beard under his chin, he was an old fish in the profession. “Can I help the ladies with something?” he spoke to them while he laid a sack over his back. The sack itself was not only held by both of his hands, but his wings actually coiled around it on his back.

In the eyes of Twilight it seemed painful yet the stallion looked like he didn’t even notice it. “Well, Ah hope ya can. We’re looking for passage,” explained Applejack to him.

Only to get a raised eyebrow and a short answer back. “I’m not into anthrony smuggle, not anymore! I told them before I wouldn’t take another job, ladies, excuse me but I’m due to sail out.”

His words confused Twilight even more as she had not even the slightest of clues what he was talking about. Sadly enough did Applejack know exactly what he meant. Yet her knowledge of the seas was the thing that would have saved the day. The pegasus walked aboard of the ship, yet Applejack quickly followed him up the ramp.

Once they both stood on deck, the stallion would just drop the sack and turned himself around to face her. “Entering the ship of another captain without permission is trespassing. I already told you, I am not doing it anymore!”

“Sir, sir, ya have to calm down for a moment here,” replied Applejack to him. She even gestured it with her hands. “We ain’t talking about smuggling here, but a legitimate passing. We’re paying whatever ya want.”

The offer was something that the stallion couldn’t refuse yet his bones told him two things. The first one that he had heard that voice somewhere before. Even though he couldn’t place it as Applejack was covered in the black coat. The second was that he held more power than originally thought. Weren’t it for one little detail that he missed. One detail that was of great importance.

“And just where, do the ladies want to be dropped off?”

“Canterlot,” the admiral replied in a humble tone towards him.

“Canterlot you say? Your accent sounds familiar to me, but I can’t place it. Might be nothing. Canterlot, Canterlot, Canterlot, heh. Call your friend, you’re coming with me,” the pegasus replied before a smile went across his face. The pipe was removed from his mouth as he continued the words. Twilight was gestured up to the ship as he continued. “Canterlot is actually the last port I need to stop for supplies. Been having a little trading route between here and there, if you know what I mean, hehehe,” he cackled up in a well meant chuckle.

“Ah heard ya.” Applejack replied as she wasn’t all too fond of the fact told to her. Though she was relieved that he would actually sail to the place. It didn’t matter to her just how long they would be on their way, as long as they would be getting back home. Yet the urge to ask was too great at one point. “How long do ya think we’re on our way?”

“To Canterlot? I’d say a day or two. Need to make a couple stops here and there along the coast,” the stallion replied. Then he walked off to undo the ropes and give them the chance to sail out. Twilight and Applejack were about to return home once more.

With the vessel finally free from its hold were the docks left behind them. Both Twilight and Applejack had taken a position near the bow. Never had seen the way out of the place but that would change soon enough.

The ship was sailing to one of the openings and the stallion began to whistle a tune that was unknown to either of them. A tune that was haunting, empty and sorrowful. The stuff of nightmares went through both of their heads without much effort.

Though what happened next, and most likely because of it, was something that the two couldn’t have guessed in a million years. For the tunes became louder and louder the more they went into the passageway. And the passageway responded to them. The eternal darkness that laid before them caused the waters beneath them to move more violently than before.

Both of the mares had troubles believing what they saw before the entire vessel was picked up by water. They wanted to scream on top of their lungs as they genuinely thought that they would smash against the cliffs. Yet the stallion continued to whistle the tunes longer and deeper which caused the waters to be manipulated by it.

They were dragged along by the waters to the safety of the infinite ocean. Through the treacherous cavern system they traveled almost without a hitch or trouble. The only thing they had troubles with was keeping their breakfasts and lunches in. The ride they were given was something that was a little bit on the hefty side.

Neither of them were ever so happy in their lives to finally see the sunlight again. To them it meant to them that the rollercoaster was over. Or they hoped that at least, because they got to sea.

“What on earth was that for sorcery?!” muttered Applejack towards the soothsayer in a low kept tone. She didn’t wanted to have the pegasus actually hear her words. That very same pegasus she gave a shady look from under her hat.

Twilight herself was just baffled as well. Nothing in the world had taught her that what they had seen was actually possible. “Manipulation of water like that, I can only guess the whole place is heavily enchanted by something and somehow. An investigation for a later date, that I promise you,” whispered the soothsayer in return before she stood up.

The unicorn removed the hat from her head and gave it a couple of gentle shakes. The hairs were shaken loose from her body which almost shone in the light of the sun itself. A beautiful sight to behold, that much was to be true. “Captain?” Twilight then asked when she walked over to him. “Do you have any stories to tell? An old stallion like yourself, must have hundred stories about the ocean.”

“You interested in an old lad like me? That’s a first for the youth of today. But I do have a couple of stories yes. Call your friend, then I shall share them with you,” he replied with a gentle smile. It was just before a puff of smoke was released through his lips.

Hours and hours he had been telling his stories about the adventures he had on the oceans. Stories that actually interested Twilight a whole lot more then she would have thought. Stories that got out of the nostrils of the admiral. An admiral who still hadn’t removed the hat from her head. Her identity remained unknown as only pieces of the orange skin were visible below the darkness.

“Those are some interesting stories you have indeed sir. Thanks for sharing them,” the soothsayer said to him in a thankful tone.

Yet Applejack had a couple of troubles keeping her words before her. “Yeah, thanks for ‘em.”

The words of the admiral caused the old pegasus to shake his head a little bit. Something inside of him told him that she was trouble waiting to happen. Something just assured him of that fact. The accent, the way she spoke, it all seemed as if he had heard it before. Somewhere in a past long forgotten and buried deep away.

“I need to know,” the stallion spoke up as he rose up from the crate he had taken position on. Without a second thought in his mind he just walked over to Applejack. Who on her own turn tried to stop him as he pushed the hat further down. A struggle between the two erupted but was ended just as quickly. The old pegasus was thrown to the ground while Applejack stood there with the hat removed from her head and in his hand.

The face of the pegasus became as pale as snow the second he looked at her. Almost like he had seen a ghost of yesterday. Tears sprung into his eyes, then they were closed forcefully. “No, no, no, no, this isn’t happening, this can’t be happening! After all those years, the demons still find me!”

"Demons?” Applejack questioned. She was wondering what he actually meant by that. “What demons are you talking about, old fool?”

“You!” the stallion screamed out as he crawled back to his own spot. Twilight found that she needed to do something about it. She gently made her way over to the poor pegasus and placed a raspberry coated hand on his shoulder.

The magic that began to surge through the body of the poor soul managed to calm it down significantly. So much even that he even got back to his senses but never dared to look Applejack in the face. “It’s, it’s a long story. But I’m, I’m the last survivor of her old crew. Before she only got, them.”

“Who are you talking about here?” Twilight carefully asked him. She stroked the shoulder even more. “You can tell me.” She had no idea what it was all about.

“B-Brittenburg, W-White Widow.” And in response went the eyes of Applejack even wider than they had never been before.

The calming magic of the soothsayer allowed the troubled pegasus to tell his story without any interruption or stutter from his side. It felt to him as if the memories were opened and he was reading them up from a page out of a book. Both Twilight and Applejack kept their ears firmly open to catch every last spoken word out of it. “It was on the voyage to the final battle, Brittenburg had done her mutiny against the navy as some other ships followed her. Though they quickly returned back to the fleet.”

Suddenly there was a little break in his words. The eyes were closed for only a second. It seemed that he was digging up even more memories to give them both an accurate timeline of the events. “I was aboard one of the ships that decided to follow her, we had her on screen for a long time and she convinced me to join her. So when my ship returned to the fleet, I deserted from it. I joined her crew until that fateful day. That day she blow it all up.” His index finger was pointing to Applejack.

The earth anthrony was immediately reminded to the dreadful day he spoke about. The day that she lost her leg but did sink the ship of Brittenburg. A terrible day in the books of the admiral, a day even worse for the stallion. “Among the rubble and broken wood I laid, more dead than alive. I was ready to meet them, as the sun blacked out by a shadow. Horror came to me, as I felt the cold hand of death grasping me more. Only to be pulled out of the water by another naval ship. I saw you, fighting her before firing the shot. After that, black…”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me on that oh so great day,” commented Applejack in a sarcastic tone before Twilight shushed her.

“There’s, there’s a fact about Brittenburg, brilliant strategist, but also keeps morals high. She never ends a life just like that. Unlike others, she’s hesitant, about taking a life. She’s still good, just troubled.”

"’Just’ troubled? She’s just about the biggest threat in the ocean, nothing ‘just troubled’.” Once again was Applejack shushed by Twilight before she got a snarl in return. Yet she allowed the words to be sunk inside of her thoughts. It did explain why Twilight wasn’t that easily killed by her.

That very same thought also went through Twilight. The two of them looked at one another as they tried to make something out of the information that they had just gotten. Perhaps there was still something they didn’t understood about Rarity. Or that there was something that was long forgotten since she left. Who could tell? Who wanted to tell?

~~~~

The days came and went before the little vessel finally made its way into the harbor of Canterlot. After having explained to the stallion that neither of them shall speak a word about what he said to them, they were allowed to leave. The promise was easily made by Twilight, Applejack on the other end had some troubles coming to terms with it.

He was a former member of Brittenburg’s crew after all. Yet in the end she simply agreed to not say a thing. She had a lot bigger fish to fry. “I thank you for everything, sir,” the soothsayer thanked him and she made a polite bow. The admiral did the same but without the words.

“You were great company all around, just don’t mention it to anypony, eh?” he replied to them both before waving them off of the ship. Twilight waved back with a smile as the admiral just wanted to get away as soon as possible.

With the night over Canterlot did the two anthronies wander a little bit together before they came to a crossroad. “So this is it then? We’re going to split up until the great gathering? Ah mean, Ah’m off to mah bunk if ya don’t mind it,” said Applejack when she crossed her arms over each other.

Twilight nodded in the light of the magical lanterns. “Afraid it’s going to be like that, yes. Hey Applejack, goodnight,” were the words that she spoke. And with those words did the two shook their hands for the last time. “And thanks, for everything so far.”

“Don’t mention it, partner.”

Then were they just off. Off to go their own ways once more. Applejack returned to her bunk to get some good sleep. While Twilight still had the hike to the castle before her. As well as some other things that needed to be done. Things where Applejack better wouldn’t be involved in. The soothsayer had to visit her brother.

Chapter XXIV

The words of Applejack still flowed richly into her ears. Twilight had walked further into the comfortable looking lounge. She then closed the door behind her while her eyes looked to everyone. Nopony needed to exactly know what was going to be said against each other, if they could even understand the drunken tongues of the mares to begin with.

The unicorn calmly made her way over to a free seating that was next to the hatted figure. Twilight had a rather good idea of just who that would have been. She gave all of the other mares a nod or two and a smile before she finally sat down. Her body was resting in the velvet cushioned chair and her legs went cross over each other. There they simply sat, like good friends waiting for something to happen.

The admiral.

The major.

The doctor.

The pirate.

And then there was the soothsayer.

It was a sight that was almost unbelievable for the mare. So unreal for her that she actually took a glass and drunk from it. Whatever it was, she didn’t know. All that she knew was that it was a rather strong beverage. The gasps for air that were made and the quick reaction of placing the glass back went accompanied by the difficult faces she made. It told Applejack more than enough.

The admiral erupted out in a deep laughter as she slapped her own knee with glee. “Seems like Twi can’t hold her liquor! Hahaha, oh that reminds me of the ol’ days back on the farm!” It became almost instantly clear to Twilight that the mare of high responsibility had reduced herself into nothing more but a simple deckhand.

Applejack was literally drunk as a skunk in her eyes. “Very, funny, Applejack. Can somepony tell me what it is?” Twilight asked the lot of them. Her eyes calmly went over each of the mares but all of them shook their heads. That was until she came to the hatted figure. The face was never seen and the body cloaked under a summer’s coat of purple fabric.

Then it spoke up in that refined and lady-like tone. A voice that confirmed the thoughts of the soothsayer as well as stating just what she had tried. “That, is rum from the Great Plains. Helps to ease the travels that lay ahead. Strongest of the strongest, she’s been sipping from it all night.” An arm went up and in the palm of it laid a folded fan that pointed to the admiral.

Twilight followed the directions and didn’t seem to be surprised by the facts as they were. “Yeah, I kinda had figured that little fact. Still, this stuff is illegal right?”

“Hmhmhm, it isn’t. As long as you aren’t caught,” the refined tone of the mare spoke towards her. The soothsayer tried to glance under the lid of the hat but never saw a full face. All that she got to see were two little parts of sapphire blue circles that were lit up among the dark. She knew everything she needed to know on the matter.

Yet there was another matter that required her attention perhaps a little bit more urgent than any other. “So, why did you bring it in the first place?” Her voice was curious about it. Twilight wanted to know more about it all. Just a moment she forgot that the ears of both the doctor and the major were also listening to her.

The cloaked mare moved herself up a little bit more to Twilight in order to whisper the words in her ear. She didn’t found it the time to share the information with the others. Which was perhaps one of the best things that could have been done in the moment of time. “A peace offer. Believe it or not, but your clean, little admiral there, loves that kind of rum. It gives a harder hit than her own cider could have ever done.”

"Wait, they have their own cider branch?”

“Long story, too boring to tell.” The mare then returned to her seating and gave a cheeky smile from below the hat. “Have another drink, I don’t assume we shall be leaving tonight.”

Suddenly was the attention focused upon her. Both the doctor and the major looked with a set of curious eyes. “What? You all know why we’re here right? To stop the tremors that, oh forget it. I’m not good at doing these kind of things. You know why you’re here and that’s that.”

The words were true, each of them knew just why they were there at that given time. It was just that that particular mare spoke the words upon the matter that caught the two off guard. Applejack was too drunk to even notice a bit. For she had fallen asleep already because of the rum. A little something that annoyed the major perhaps a tad bit too much.

“So this is the great admiral Applejack, when she’s sober she’s a whole lot more to the eye,” the mare said before she let out a chuckle. The glass that she had held another liquid inside of it that was being swirled around. Twilight’s best guess was that it was some kind of whisky.

“You should see her when she’s sobered up, Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh, you still remember my name,” the blue pegasus chuckled up.

“One doesn’t tend to forget something when it’s said to one when facing the barrel of a flintlock,” replied Twilight with a calm tone. Another drink was poured for the soothsayer then.

“Come again?”

“Nevermind.”

Hours had gone by while the four mares kept on drinking and talking about the events that were to come. Events that possibly would be changing their lives in manner they had never seen. Yet the identity of the mysterious anthrony was never given off. Not even a name came forth out of her. Which made Twilight wonder if they had actually and properly introduced themselves to each other.

Though it would have been a matter for a different day. The night was chiming in and they needed to be gone at first light. Or that was the plan at least. “Ladies,” said Twilight eventually. With it had she gained the attention of two drunk mares and one relatively sober. “May I suggest that it is for the better if we decide to call it quits for now and meet one another at first dawn tomorrow at the restaurant? Tomorrow is going to be a long day and we need to cover a lot of ground.”

With disagreement stood each of the anthronies up. They didn’t had the desire to go as their times together were rather pleasant. Yet to everything had to come an end which was a fact they all know all too well. Rainbow Dash gave a punch in the stomach of Applejack who shocked up and suddenly was wide awake. “Wha, what?” she questioned before noticing that everypony left.

She knew what time it was and almost quietly followed them up. Twilight was the only one who remained in the lounge for just a bit longer. She had to make sure that each of them actually would be leaving and not had gone straight into yet another bar.

With the door that fell in its lock had Rainbow Dash locked herself off from the world. With her body undone from her clothing and her travel attire ready to go, she dropped herself into the bed with nothing else but her underwear. The room was cool by temperature as she snuggled up against the heavenly bed.

It almost felt like the thing was made out of the clouds from Cloudsdale itself. “Always watching the details, those Canterlotians,” she mumbled to herself. A massive yawn left at almost the same time. She was tired and she knew it. There was nothing else that could be done outside of closing her eyes and gain some sleep. The mare didn’t wanted to think about the travel they would be doing the following morning, let alone the thousand and one manners their journey could actually end. The hurricane that raced through her thought ceased to be.

As quickly as she laid down in her bed, that fast she had also made the departure to her dreams. Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep with a massive grin going across her face as the light of the moon managed to penetrate the windows.

In another room had Applejack arrived and she just dropped her body on the bed. But instead of falling down, she had actually maintained a sitting pose upon it. She looked at her bags filled with clothing, washing gear and whatever else she had packed in the hurry. Despite being drunk, the admiral could still think quite clear for herself. The clothes were removed from her body before she changed them in for a naval pajama. One that covered all the areas of her body and just had a comfortable feeling for her.

It was her favorite pajama in fact. One that had been in her possession ever since she first joined. Yet the time to think about all of the adventures she had in her younger days wasn’t there. Instead she reached over to the nightstand and took a picture in her hand.

That same hand was then brought before her and the image on the photo was revealed to her. It was an old, black and white picture of one of the happiest moments in her life. Her older brother, her beloved grandmother and her sweet little sister as well as herself all standing before the family’s farm.

It was a scene that brought both a tear and a smile to her. “Ah hope Ah’ll be seeing that barn again soon enough. Mom, dad, wherever ya are, watch over us, Ah’m begging,” she whispered up to herself. A kiss was given to the picture. Only after that could the admiral finally get the much needed sleep she required.

In yet another room had the doctor made herself comfortable. She wasn’t tired, instead she was nervous as all hell. Finally had the time come for her to prove to others just where her sense of duty laid. Though it came with a massive price as the tears were flowing out of her eyes like there wouldn’t be any tomorrow.

She was out of her comfort zone, gone out of the environment that she knew the best and just dumped into an adventure of action and excitement. Stress she could live with, action itself on the other end was something she wanted to forget as soon as possible.

“C-Come on Fluttershy, you can, you can do it,” the mare whispered to herself. She even tried to make the tears stop falling. Something that was a little bit easier said than done. The yellow skinned anthrony quickly turned herself around as the hand covered her mouth and the other held the elbow.

She was desperate for the times to come and she had all the right to be. With her tears still flowing did she made the decision to just watch over the city bathing in the lights of the moon. Perhaps it would have been enough to calm her thoughts, or sooth her to actual sleep.

Somewhere in another room had the hat wearing figure made her little home. Finally she finally dared to remove the hat from her head. The head was given a couple of shakes before the purple hair fell freely back into a series of curls. The coat was unbuttoned even further before taken off which revealed the white blouse beneath it.

It was nopony else then the pirate captain herself. Rarity Brittenburg stood in the room while her eyes went shut for a moment. A deep exhale was taken by her while she held one hand carefully before her belly. The magical aura began to surround both her horn and her hand as the eyes were closed firmly.

What followed next was a moan and a groan that came from pretty much the very soul of the mare. She seemed to be in a sort of pain that just wouldn’t go away no matter what she tried. “Oh, if I could only, repay you for that,” she muttered in a whisper. One that was followed by a groan.

After a mere minute would the aura disappear once more and the unicorn would undress herself even further. Her boots were thrown by her sack of stuff as the blouse was placed over a chair in the room. Yet below the blouse she wore an upper body covering black top. The unicorn had one last look over her gear before she dropped herself into the bed, hoping to be granted some sleep for the short night.

And finally there was Twilight, who could be found pacing up and down inside of her room. Thoughts ran wild, ideas came and went to her. Ideas of doom and heaven went past each other as if they were nothing. With her hands behind her back and her attire changed that screamed she was ready to hit the hay, she just wouldn’t allow herself.

The unicorn was riding on so little sleep that the boundaries of both reality and her own mind were becoming blurry. She hadn’t drunk much alcohol that evening yet her mind seemed to be screaming that she had done it. It was a thing that just drove her crazy.

“Enough!” she screamed to herself eventually. Her body was dropped on the heavenly bed as her face planted itself right in the pillow. “Enough, enough, enough, enough!” she continued to repeat as the storm of thoughts needed to stop.

She wanted it to stop more than anything else in the moment. That hurricane of thoughts that had tormented her for so long already. It made her sick to the very bone. Yet the worst part was the fact that there wasn’t any magical spell that could lighten up her pain. From the looks of it and in her own words, she was both blessed and cursed.

Time would tell whether or not Twilight would be sleeping. And for how long.

~~~~

The following morning had everypony gathered themselves at the restaurant. Most of them were taking a cup of coffee in order to wake up even further and wash the booze away. Only Rarity was having a cup of tea, which she calmly sipped away. All of them were wearing lighter versions of their normal attire or just casual hiking clothes.

They all knew what day it was and despite the sun being up for so long already, there wasn’t any trace of Twilight to be found. Which caused Rainbow to nearly constantly look around and eventually mutter the words that were on everypony’s mind. “What if she just bailed out on us?”

Applejack was eating a slice of bread with cheese at the moment. She shook her head to the statement. “She wouldn’t,” she said with a mouthful, which was in great disgust of Rarity. “If she really wanted to leave us, why bother getting us in the first place?”

The admiral did have a point in the eyes of the major, thought the situation still remained one and the same. It was a strange one to say the least. Fluttershy took another sip of her coffee as she wanted to reply on the matter. Though she then fell silent again as she looked into the rims of Rarity. Something about them mesmerized her. Not in a way of love but in the way of curiosity. The troubles of the soul seemed to be written right in them for her idea.

Eventually came Twilight rushing into the restaurant while everypony was long done. She panted like mad and had stopped at the head of the table. She looked like an absolute mess. Her hair and tail were going in all directions while her face looked like it was hit by a train or something. It surprised them all that she still had managed to get her clothing right.

“S-Sorry to keep you all, waiting here. But I have, I have been, busy.” Twilight struggled to get her words out . Not only did she stumble over her own words, but also said them through the gasps for air. “Give, give me maybe, five more minutes to calm down, then we’ll see further.”

All of them could understand it and the unicorn dropped finally down in a chair of her own. She levitated the pot of tea and the plate of bread over to herself before she finally began on her breakfast.

The night had been rough for Twilight as she constantly saw that spinning ball of magma or that dying star every time she closed her eyes. It drove her to madness and possibly a lot further beyond. Sleep wasn’t something granted much to her so she had to use spells to fight off the tiredness. Which in and of itself only dropped her even further down the vicious circle.

“Now,” the soothsayer began after she had taken her slice of the breakfast and charged up her horn. “I hope that all of you have packed your gear. We shall not be carrying it ourselves though, instead we place it in a void storage.”

“Void storage?” repeated Rainbow questionable with a raised eyebrow. Never in her life had she even heard about such a thing, neither had Fluttershy in fact.

“It’s a distortion in spacetime,” added Rarity from under her hat. She rose her head up just a little bit to look the others in the eyes as she continued her words. “Unicorns can bend the reality around them to their will, create little pockets that only they can access within one universe. A void storage is in essence an endless warehouse. Though once in, only the caster can pull it back out.”

Twilight was even surprised by the fact that Rarity knew so much about them. Never had she expected that the teachings of the storage was given outside of the soothsayers. “You’re almost right though. It has never been tested in recorded history that another anthrony or being has been physically locked inside a void storage. Don’t worry, your stuff will be safe. No risk of it being stolen, and no weight to carry around. I predict a lot of running to come.”

Whether they liked it or not, each of them had to give off their luggage by Twilight. Only to perhaps never see it again if she spoke lies. It was a thing that none of the mares liked for the right reasons. Yet if the alternative was wandering with bags and sacks of dozens of pounds, they had their choices made rather quickly.

When the sun stood in its midday position had the company finally left the safety of the hotel. They were just wandering towards the edge of Canterlot. It was actually a little bit funny in the eyes of Rarity. She just wandered through the city and not being chased by anyone. Then again, she hadn’t done any shoplifting, yet.

What she did do though, was looking her eyes out on everything that stood on display while Fluttershy walked behind her. The shy pegasus formed the rearguard and the one who almost constantly had to get Rarity’s attention to keep by the group. It was perhaps the only flaw that the pirate captain had. The little fact that she was obsessed with shiny things.

And everything in Canterlot was pretty much all so shiny.

Then it finally came into their view. The very archways that went over in the walls. Walls that would be going all around the city in order to protect it. The gateway of the world came before them. Once they would have gone past it, there wouldn’t be any way back for them. Not until their job was done in one way or the other.

Each of them had a look at the massive stone archway and the massive engraved anthrony guards inside of the solid granite. They just looked as marvelous as they always had done. The protectors of the city, the saviors of the land. At least that was the legend made up behind them.

Silence overtook all five of the anthronies as they passed the archway. Twilight began to whisper a prayer to the both of them with the hopes of a good and safe trip as well as a return. Only to have it end with her drawing the symbols of both the sun and the moon quickly in the air.

All of the others wondered why, but they knew it wasn’t their rightful place to actually question it. If Twilight believed in the goddesses as much as she said she did, who were they to deny the facts as they were?

~~~~

They had long been gone from the city of Canterlot as the question of questions was being asked to Twilight. The question that was burning in the mind of every anthrony that was with her. Yet out of all of them, it was in fact Rainbow Dash who was the first to open her mouth. “Hey Twilight, did I got it right? Anyway, where are we heading for now?”

They were walking down the paths carved out into the mountain down to the foot of it. Applejack’s metal leg had troubles keeping itself together from the sometimes steep drops that it made. Which then always resulted in her muttering and turning some valves on the back of it. Though the question of Rainbow Dash still wasn’t answered.

Twilight was walking in front of the company as she allowed a gentle sigh to be released from her nose. “You wouldn’t believe it even if I showed you. But, we’re heading to the Frozen North,” the soothsayer said after she had turned her head around to face them all.

None of them could believe that they would be going there. The disbelief was actually and clearly readable in their eyes. Even Rarity rose her head a little bit to look the soothsayer deep in the eyes. “And why don’t we just take the train to it?!” Rainbow then exploded.

There wasn’t anything that Twilight could have done against it, she was scared of it. An angry pegasus was capable of doing a lot of unpredictable things. All eyes were suddenly aimed at Rainbow as her wings sprung open and flapping angry. Yet out of the company was it Applejack who laid a hand upon the major’s her shoulders. “Ain’t no train going up there, partner. Only way we can reach the Icy Plains is by walking. Ya can go fly if ya like, but do ya like waiting days for us to arrive? Besides, now ya can enjoy the views of Equestria for a change.”

The only response gotten out of the pegasus were inaudible grumbles that didn’t even make sense to Applejack. It was the same Applejack who gave a gentle smile as well as a nod towards the pegasus. “Good gal.”

Hours more had they kept walking without pretty much a single sound being released by any of them. Something which made the road ahead even longer than it already was. Perhaps it was considered a massive saving grace that none of them asked how long it still was. Though Twilight knew to be careful with what she thought.

When one spoke of the devil, it is said that he actually appears. So she tried to set her mind on other things that didn’t had anything or much to do with the trip that laid at hand. There was of course the matter of them not having introduced each other properly to one another, let alone Twilight having done it to them. With the exception of Applejack knew nopony of the company who she was and what she did.

To them she was some crazy lunatic who told them that she knew a manner of stopping the tremors that caused Equestria to be in such turmoil. So as they left the foot of the mountain far behind them and made their way over to the plains that stretched themselves to the horizon, the time was there to give a proper introduction for a change.

The soothsayer turned herself around and actually began to walk backwards as she said the words that she had to say to them. “My name, is Twilight Sparkle. I may look like an idiot to a lot of you because I’m a soothsayer. You might say that there isn’t any use for me anymore in this land. Perhaps. But what I do know, is that if there is a way to make these tremors stop, us five shall be able to find it.”

“What’s the meaning of this, introduction, of yours?” asked Rarity curiously. In her own mind couldn’t she fully understand what was going on. She wasn’t alone in the matter though. For neither Fluttershy nor Rainbow Dash actually had any form of idea about what was going on.

The soothsayer rolled her eyes a little bit to each of them. “It’s so you know who and what I am. I don’t think you had a lot of time yesterday to get to know one another.”

That statement was something that caused Rarity to chuckle a bit in herself. “If I may counter that argument dear, there are three kinds of anthronies that always speak the truth. Foals, angry ones, and drunk ones. Believe me, before you arrived and out of personal experience, I have gotten a bit of information about all of them,” the mare said under a gentle grin.

“While that might be true, Rarity, it isn’t the other way around, I’m afraid.” Those words alone were more than enough to make the pirate shut herself. “Thank you, if you want.” She then pointed gently to Applejack who knew exactly what time it was.

“Well, might just give it a shot,” she said to herself. What did she had to lose anyway? She gained the eyes of all of them. “Mah name’s Applejack, born and raised in the southern parts, joined the navy and through years became an admiral. Now Ah’m stuck here, looking for tremor sources. Something different Ah’d say.”

The company nodded calmly towards her. She did spoke the truth about the change. Though it also meant that another anthrony had to say their words. Applejack knew exactly who she had to point to. Her finger almost seemed to be stopping at Rarity who quickly managed to dodge it.

Which resulted in Rainbow being chosen as the next victim of the always humiliating introductions. With a deep sigh she gained the eyes of the other mares. “Fine,” she nagged before she took a jump and began to levitate above them. “Name’s Rainbow Dash, major of the C.A.F., I think you all know what that means. Born and raised in Cloudsdale and here for the same reasons as missy naval over there.”

“Oi!” Applejack growled up.

“Oh and, one last thing: don’t get on my bad side,” added Rainbow then quickly. She glanced back in the eyes of the admiral with a smirk. Applejack let it go for that time, it wasn’t worth the fuzz.

The next anthrony who was chosen was Fluttershy. Yet the mare almost instantly hid herself behind the flocks of hair that hung before her face. She was terrified. It was a fear they all had, but amplified about a zillion times. There wasn’t much to the introductions though, at least in their eyes.

With a comforting expression in the eyes of Twilight was the courage scraped together. Finally there would be the words they would be waiting on. “I’m, I’m Fluttershy and I, I’m just a medic who runs a h-hospital. Also, I’m a… A…”

“A what?” Rarity then interrupted with a stern sounding voice. Something which caused the shy pegasus to yelp a little bit before she retreated as far back in her hair as possible. The pirate captain knew instantly that she had done something wrong yet couldn’t really place it.

“N-Nevermind,” was the only word that was being added by Fluttershy. Though it was spoken in such a low and quiet tone, that it almost seemed she hadn’t spoken it at all.

"Which brings us then to you,” replied Twilight quickly to Rarity. The white unicorn had managed to betray herself by saying the words to Fluttershy. It resulted in a grumble being released by her. A grumble that was followed up by a sigh in defeat. She had given in.

“Fine then, have it your way again,” she muttered against the other unicorn. With one graceful motion was the hat removed from her head. Which then allowed the hair to fall back in its curly nature. “The name, is Rarity Brittenburg. One that may not say much to you. As my alias is much more well know. I’m the captain of the notorious vessel named ‘The Vengeful Belle’. Yet now I’m here, stuck because she called me in. Any questions? No? Good.”

Everypony instantly knew who she was at the naming of the vessel. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow had heard of the infamous captain that went by as White Widow. Yet they weren’t as shunned by the introduction as Applejack. The pegasus luckily never had a run-in with her. Something that was best left that way.

Fluttershy was even becoming more interested in the unicorn than that she was scared about her. Which was something that almost had never happened before the warning came from the mare. “I don’t want the revelation to be spilled outside of this group, alright? Many want my head, and I intend to keep it.” Rarity said to all of them in a dead serious tone.

Each of the pegasi knew that if she was anything like her reputation said, she would be doing anything to keep her head attached to her neck. Both the major and the doctor gave a nod to the pirate captain before she let out a small smile. “Good, glad you both agreed on that.”

The introductions were finally over and the silence was a thing that returned in pretty much full force. They just didn’t have much that they could even be talking about in fact. Twilight’s thoughts began to race again through her head as she wasn’t allowed to do anything else. None of them seemed to be willing for a break yet and before them they gloomed.

They gloomed on the horizon like predators lying in wait. The treetops of the woods of Everfree. Would they be going around it, or go straight through it? Both weren’t an option in Twilight’s mind.

Time progressed further and further, the distance to the forest became shorter and shorter as Applejack and Twilight had separated themselves from the others. With the evening having fallen in, they made the decision to set up their camp on the plains. Both the earth anthrony and the unicorn had settled down on a fallen tree trunk as the words of thought were spoken in all truth.

"Ah say we go ‘round the forest. Ya know what it did last time to us right?” the admiral said to her. And she did have a point on the matter. “Clear skies are said to last for days, so we won’t be accidentally getting too close.”

“That’s what I’m worried for actually. That forest is evil, Applejack. Everything you fear, multiply it by a thousand and covering an area as big as your imagination and you pretty much have the essence of Everfree. No, around it isn’t really an option. We’re on a deadline here. I don’t know when it’s going to blow beneath there.”

That was a new fact for Applejack. She knew that their journey wouldn’t be an easy one, yet the words Twilight said didn’t make sense anymore. “Beneath? As in, underground? Twilight, where are we heading too? Actually, heading to.”

“If I only knew Applejack.” Twilight then turned her head over to the camp where she saw the other three preparing their dinner. “If I only knew…”

Chapter XXV

Both Applejack and Twilight walked back to the campsite with no idea on what to do next. Though the night was still young and the forest was still a long way away. Yet the decision had to be made at one point or the other. Whether it was liked or not, they all heeded the call of Twilight. And it would have been her who should be giving the sign to either go through Everfree of go around it instead.

Fluttershy was cooking the dinner for each of them above the campfire. Both Rarity and Rainbow sat relaxed on another treetrunk. The tent behind them seemed to be too small for the five of them but Twilight had enchanted the thing perhaps a little bit too much. In their eyes they noticed how the other two mares finally came back and it was the major who gained a grin across her face.

"So the two lovebirds finally returned, hm? Was it any good?” Rainbow questioned the both of them in a teasing and almost insulting manner. Rarity couldn’t really help herself and she let out a giggle in response. One that was blocked by her hand.

The pirate captain had made a promise to Applejack and she intended to actually keep it. Yet both Twilight and Applejack shook their head. They dropped down once again on a trunk of their own. “We ain’t lovebirds, partner. Never will be. Ah just happened to be the first one to be called in for this. Ain’t nothing special to it,” the admiral replied with a calm tone to her voice before she sniffed the smells of the cooked dinner. “What’s for supper?”

Fluttershy was still stirring through the content of the kettle as the words of the admiral were hammered into her ears. Her entire body was placed on high alert all of the sudden as she almost let out a small yelp of terror. “Uhm, well, I, I don’t have much to work with, so it’s a stew of, well, everything that we have and could spare.”

“Traditional naval meal then,” muttered Applejack. It seemed like she had already lost her appetite. “Throw everything in a kettle, make it become soup. Ah’m not even gonna ask what’s inside of it.”

“For the better,” the yellow pegasus replied quickly. The plates were then levitated up by Twilight and she gave one to each of them. “Dinner’s ready.”

After a dinner that could have gone much better, the anthronies had made the decision to call it an early night. The fires were kept on raging as they set up a watch system that would each be taking them about two hours to complete. Rarity was the first one who volunteered to take the first watch. Others could see immediately why she wanted to do such a thing though.

They didn’t complain about it, but they all knew that their sleep would be disturbed at one point or the other. “Sleep tight you lot,” the white mare said to them. Rarity made one last waving sign to them. Only to then watch the whole company slip away through the doorway of the tent.

It was still something that surprised the unicorn perhaps a little bit more than it should have done that they all could be fitting inside of it. “Soothsayers, interesting bunch,” mumbled Rarity herself. Then her eyes were turned up to the stars and moon high above them.

Songs of the sea slowly filled up the area while the hums were made by the unicorn. She had to keep herself awake with something on the great and silent plains. Not even the usual birds, critters or insects could be heard.

Inside of the tent did it became apparent that the insides were a lot bigger than the outside. Even though Fluttershy wanted to know how it actually worked, it was perhaps a matter left unanswered because of one single fact. The little fact that she most likely wouldn’t be able to understand a single thing from what Twilight would say.

All she knew for certain was that she had a place to sleep that was both safe and dry. More she really didn’t needed to know. Neither did the major and the admiral. All four of them had been walking for most of the day and they were tired. Weren’t they physically exhausted, they would have been it mentally.

The latter was more than true for Twilight. As much as her legs were almost killing her, it was the constant rambling of her mind that prevented her from falling to sleep as quickly as the others. During the night she even thought to have heard Rarity relieving herself from her watch and commanded Rainbow to take the second one.

Everything was blurry until the unicorn finally began to drift away into the void of her own mind. The hurricane of thoughts came to a gentle hold as the mare was granted her much needed sleep for a change.

~~~~

Only to have it disturbed again in the early morning. The unicorn rose herself up from the bed and hit her head against the one right above her. Almost instantly she fell back down and placed both of her hands against her forehead. “Why for the..!” she exclaimed quickly before silencing herself further.

Applejack was staring down at her with a confused gaze but then continued with her morning ritual. Twilight was actually glad that the earth anthrony didn’t make any form of comment to her stunt. Though she couldn’t help it but to sit right up in the bed and give the anthrony above her a punch through the mattress.

Not even a second later was it Rainbow Dash who came crashing down from the top bed and landed face flat on the floor of the tent. A deep groan was being released by her as her body slowly was hoisted back up. The magenta red rimmed eyes sought those of Twilight with a glare of thunder. “Was that really necessary?” Rainbow asked in an annoyed growl towards the soothsayer.

Twilight just waved it off as she got up and made her way over to the bathing area. “Hey, I’m talking to you!” Rainbow exclaimed after her. The pegasus was actually surprised over the fact that somepony just left her like that.

“Well, I’m not talking to you!” Twilight snarled in return. Only then she was gone from the eyes of the other anthronies.

“Geez, somepony is having a morning mood…”

“Tell me ‘bout that,” the admiral added before she closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. “Give her some time though, she’ll come back ‘round. Ah hope.”

Time went indeed by. Their breakfast was consumed and the tent folded up again. Their journey ahead was something that still troubled Twilight down to her very core. It was in fact the reason why she was so cranky almost the whole time and actually treated most of the company’s members like plain dirt.

Each of the anthronies quickly realized that it was perhaps better not to speak a word against her about anything for the time being. Only when they really needed to know something they would ask and hope not to get a sharp and burning comment in return.

~~~~

What not all of them knew was that the road was leading them directly to the woods of Everfree. The very woods they had all heard about in their youths yet never believed its stories at later ages. Though the tales told about that wood were all the more true.

The tree tops became higher and higher as the forest was drawn nearer to them. Rainbow Dash had taken herself to the skies and was flying almost constantly ahead of the group or right above them. As annoying as it was sometimes, it was always better to have eyes in the sky.

Applejack and Fluttershy had formed the rearguard together as the coat of the admiral wasn’t buttoned at all and therefore just flowed in the wind. Fluttershy couldn’t believe the sheer beauty it carried as it danced, nor was there another little something she didn’t fully caught. “How aren’t you freezing?”

“Heh, been sailing the ocean for as long as Ah can remember now, gotten used to it, is mah best guess at least,” replied Applejack to her with a smile. Only to have that same smile disappear again as she almost walked straight into Rarity’s back. “What in tarnation?!”

“We’re here,” answered Twilight with fear reeking from her voice.

Before them it laid, the dreaded intersection that would either save or destroy their land. The intersection had one road leading down to the forest of Everyfree and a path that went directly into it. While the other path was the one used a lot more often. The path that went around the place and brought safety to most.

“So, which way are we taking?” Rainbow asked after she landed back on her feet. The wings were tucked behind her back while she placed her arms on the sign that stood right in front of Twilight. “Should be easy enough, right?”

“Well,” the soothsayer began just before a deep sigh was released through her nostrils. “That’s the problem actually. It isn’t something easy. You know those woods behind you, Rainbow?”

The pegasus turned herself around and had a good look over the trees. Only to turn back around facing Twilight with a look of the unknown in her eyes. She didn’t have any idea what those woods were. “No clue,” she then said with a shrugged pair of shoulders.

Twilight almost wanted to plant the palm of her hand in her face, yet she didn’t do it. Instead she just collected her mind and took a couple of deep breaths. “That, major, is the wood of Everfree. As you might know, everything that’s evil is to be found in there. It’s also one of the furthest stretching pieces of forest in Equestria.”

“I can take on a few hydra’s,” interrupted Rainbow all of the sudden. Then it was Rarity who actually brought the palm of her hand to her face and released the deep ‘ugh’ sound from the core of her body. Something which caused a set of strange eyes from Rainbow to look at her. “What?”

“Rainbow, the decision to make the call isn’t easy. For the Frozen North lays north east of here. Problem is that the route around the forest is going south. Meaning we backtrack a terrible lot,” explained Twilight while the rest of the group walked forward. They all joined Rainbow in standing near the sign to give the soothsayer their fullest of concentration.

“And what about that rests inside of the woods?” Rarity asked. With a hand she stroked her chin a little bit. “What sort of evil can we expect. You said everything, but I hardly do believe that.”

“Hate to admit it, Twilight, but she’s having a massive point,” said Applejack to back up Rarity for once. Something that the ivory unicorn hadn’t expected in a long, long time.

The soothsayer herself began to pace up and down while the thoughts were crunched together. “What can be expected? What can’t be expected, is the better question. The servants of Nightmare Moon live there, the Dark Witches. Demons from realms long lost and forgotten are said to dwell through the darkness. Not to mention, the attackers of myself and Applejack. Our worst fears, lay in those woods. Who’s willing to face them head on in either this life or the next?”

Two hands were stuck in the air suddenly. Two hands that belonged to both Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “I think, that we are wanting to take our chances through the woods,” said Rarity for the pair of them.

“Hey, speak for yourself, I’m just going to fly over it and meet you on the other side.”

“Wow, you must be a great team player, aren’t you?” Rarity whispered to herself as she rolled her eyes away from the pegasus.

“So that makes two for going into the woods, who’s against it?” Twilight then said as both her and Applejack’s hands were raised into the air. Only Fluttershy couldn’t seem to be making a decision on the matter. Something that actually frustrated the lot of them a lot more than it originally should have.

They were at an impasse and literally stuck at nothing more but a crossroad. The levels of frustration that went through Twilight seemed to be going through the metaphorical roof. The veins inside of her eyes widened themselves while her horn was having a difficulty keeping itself under control. Something was about to blow sooner or later.

Applejack was the only one who noticed the sheer amount of difficulty that the soothsayer was having. All of the others were actually busy with something else that caused their attentions to be taken away.

The admiral made her way over to the unicorn with haste. She placed both of her hands on the shoulders and just turned the mare around. Only to then actually push her down the road a little bit until they were out of hearing distance from the others. All of them suddenly glanced over to the strange sights and couldn’t believe what they saw.

Mumbles and whispers were released by the lot of them as they didn’t know it anymore. They had no idea of where to go and that was probably something that they wouldn’t for a long time to come.

A little bit down the road came Applejack to a standstill. She turned the unicorn around wit care before their eyes looked into one another. “Ah know this is gonna be difficult for yar coconut, but ya need to calm down and tell me what yar thinking about, Twilight,” she spoke in a stern tone. The hold tightened itself further.

Spurts of magic left the horn of the mare and they danced away within the winds. They left a little trail of glitters as they went. “’Cause that face, ain’t right for this.”

“Don’t you think I don’t know that?” Twilight then returned almost in a snarl. She tried her best to keep everything under control. Which was something a lot easier said than done. What followed were deep in and exhales that came through her mouth.

“Take yar time, take yar time.”

Finally it seemed as if the soothsayer had calmed herself down enough to get a reasonable conversation out of. Something that was actually much appreciated by the admiral. The blood vessels inside of the eyes narrowed gently but surely again. “It’s, it’s just that I do not know how this all is going to work out Applejack. I can’t just say that we either go right into the woods or that we wait a whole lot longer by going around it. Timing, Applejack. It’s all about timing and I don’t think that the goddesses have a concept of that.”

The other mare listened to the words with the greatest of caution as she wanted to understand the words in the least bit. Which was actually a whole lot more difficult. “Ain’t gonna say Ah understand yar troubles Twilight, for Ah don’t. What Ah do know, is that ya have to look at what we have, and what we’re gonna be up against. Out of that, the decision will roll.”

The admiral turned herself around and finally let go of the shoulders of the soothsayer. Her arms just hung next to her body then. Her green rimmed eyes looked over the rest of the group. The longer she stared towards the anthronies just hanging and talking around the sign, the more she formed an idea of her own. A crazy one but one that might be working out in the long end.

“Hey Twi,” Applejack started before she turned herself around once again, “we’re pretty well armed, right? Ah mean, Rarity has her blade and flintlocks, Ah have mine, Rainbow has hers. Fluttershy’s our doctor and Ah’m sure ya have something up yar sleeve as well.”

“Where are you going with this?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. With a hand had she taken a strand of hair out of her eye. “Are you planning to make a full on assault on the forest? On a forest?” Twilight wasn’t able to connect the dots of Applejack’s mind just yet. They both operated on levels that were completely different from each other. Which often meant that they wouldn’t be able to understand the other.

The admiral shook her head under a chuckle before she replied to the words. “No, no, no, what Ah mean, is that we have enough armaments with us to make certain, we’ll be able to cross the woods in one piece.

Finally did the unicorn understand the direction of where the admiral came from. It was a plan of craziness, she had to admit that much right on the spot. Yet perhaps it was actually crazy enough that it might be working out in their favor. “I see what you have cooked up, though I’m still not liking it,” she returned with a sigh that left through her nostrils.

Though if all of the odds and chances were summed up into one big pile, they were actually more than ready to make a move towards the forest and cross its deadly ground. Countless ideas of the terrors they could be facing rushed through the mind of the mare suddenly. The faster she would be done with it all, the better it would have been for all of their health. “Alright, let’s go. Let’s go to the girls and give them the final words on the matter.”

“Sure thing partner,” said Applejack in a calm tone. A nod was given with her head. The admiral turned back around and walked up the path again to the others. Twilight remained standing there for just a little bit longer as she began to once again question just what was right and wrong.

Only to discover that there wasn’t a right and wrong in the traditional sense of the words. “Oh I’m gonna hate myself so much for this,” she whispered up to herself in a mutter. Her hands were placed behind her back. She then followed up behind Applejack, who wanted to bring the news to the rest of the anthronies of the group.

“Listen up y’all, the decision has fallen,” said Applejack in a raised tone. One which caught the attention of everypony present. All the eyes of the anthronies looked over to the admiral who took a step aside to let twilight pass. The soothsayer glanced all of them in the eyes for just a moment until they were closed again. A deep exhale came through her mouth while Rarity already began to fear the weight of the decision having become too much.

“The decision, has indeed fallen for me. After long thinking and consideration with my closest associate, I think it’s safe to say that we go into the woods. We are all armed pretty much to the teeth so we should be able to fight off anything that comes our way. However, it means that you have to walk, Rainbow.”

“What?!” the blue pegasus exclaimed right away. Both of her wings sprung out with a powerful force. One of them almost knocked Fluttershy down to the ground if she didn’t held herself to the sign. “Y-You can’t be serious, right? I mean, me, walking?! Though a forest?! What’s going on in that coconut of yours?!”

“Silence!” Twilight shouted back to her in a raised voice. She made a couple steps closer to the anthrony and was just an inch away of not squeezing her throat shut. “This decision isn’t one I liked to make. But with the time already wasted and the stuff that still lays ahead, it’s the best we can be doing! So I don’t want to hear about you whining of not being able to fly!”

Yet where Twilight restrained herself, Rainbow was going literally all in. She pressed her head against that of the soothsayer with a growl. “Flying is what I do, I was born to do it and will do it until the day I die. You try it, being cut off of your magic for a day because you have to do something, somepony else told you. Somepony you don’t even know!”

“You’re here voluntarily remember? I have never, ever, even pushed you to coming here. You want to go, go. But remember the shame you bring on your people,” hissed Twilight through her teeth. Then she applied just that little bit of extra force to the forehead of the other mare.

Though the statement did it for Rainbow. Twilight had learned from Applejack and used the information to make the sly comment. Dent a pegasi their pride and hell breaks loose. Or in their case, the stubborn Rainbow became like a pup that allowed everything. “F-Fine, have it the way you want,” she said in a tone that had lost all of the spirit to even want to fight against Twilight.

The soothsayer and major finally parted with their foreheads as Twilight made some steps backwards. “Any others that wants to argue about whether or not we should be going inside? No? Good. Then I want all of you locked and loaded in five more minutes.”

There were without a doubt two sides to Twilight Sparkle. One was the almost clumsy looking soothsayer that just wanted to have the best for everypony. While the other side almost seemed to be a tyrant that would be doing everything to get its way. It was a dangerous combination in the eyes of Rarity. She thought that the soothsayer would in fact have been corrupted by something. Or that she already was it.

It didn’t took away that she pulled out two of her most trusted flintlocks out of their holsters and looked down the sights. The hammers were pulled back before she assumed a more relaxed pose with them. Their barrels faced upwards for a change of pace. Her eyes looked down to the sheath of her sword and gave it a gentle nod. Only once the time would have been there, it would have been trusted upon as well as the strange device that could be seen peeking through her sleeve. A little something she wanted to remain out of view until the time was there.

Rainbow Dash did pretty much the same with her weapons. The only exception was that did them individually. She had to be certain that her weapons were in tiptop condition if anything even wanted to get remotely close to them. Applejack drew her sword and looked down the blade portion of it. Nice and sharp, exactly how she liked it.

The valves on the back of her leg were opened a little bit more which would give her an increased reaction time as the springs were used to her advantage. The only disadvantage was the fact that it could actually destroy her leg entirely. A risk she was willing to take.

Among them all was the almost scared to death Fluttershy. She quickly hopped from anthrony to anthrony without saying a word, yelping only softly when she heard the sounds of another weapon. It not only terrified her, it also seemed to be haunting through her. For a mare who claimed to never had seen any combat, had the facts almost showed the other statement. Though nopony wanted to make an argument with their doctor for probably the best of reasons.

Quickly had she made her way over to Twilight with a glance in her eyes. The watery eyes below the irises already said more than enough to the unicorn whose horn was charging up. “You’ll be in the center, Fluttershy. It’s probably for the best if we do that. Getting you hurt isn’t something that’s standing on my agenda for today.”

The statement made the mare finally yelp in her high pitched tone as the wings sprung open to the side. A gulp was given off by her before she finally dared to return a series of words. “W-When is it standing, i-in your agenda?”

“Never,” the soothsayer quickly added. Moments later had she stuck out an magical aura covered hand to the side. The ground began to tremble and rip itself open to make something come out of it. Fluttershy had a difficult time believing what happened next. For there was a staff that rose itself out of the ground. A long staff with an orb at the end of it, surrounded by claw like armaments.

Twilight coiled her fingers around the shaft and let the remaining bits of aura flow up to the orb itself. The white sphere on top suddenly turned into a raspberry colored one as it seemed to be ‘activated’ by her. “Hello old friend, missed me?” the unicorn grinned towards it. Naturally it scared Fluttershy only more.

“W-What does that do?” she carefully asked while pointing to the very staff. Twilight’s eyes followed the directions given to her before she nodded calmly. She understood what Fluttershy meant. Whether she was ready to hear the truth was another matter.

“This staff amplifies my combat magic like spells based on fire and ice. Massive beams can be fired from it and if that all fails, let’s say this orb isn’t from the softest material either.” Twilight spoke up with almost a silly smile coming to her face. Though it were the words that came next which caused her mind to think deeply about them. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, you’ll be safe. We’ll all be safe.”

Sometimes a reassuring lie was a whole lot better than knowing the terrible truth. Especially for a mare like Fluttershy. Who also had gone through a drastic change of personality, a thing that Twilight could clearly tell. “You don’t get outside much, do you?”

“N-No, why?”

“Nothing, just wondering.”

With their weapons ready, locked and loaded had the time come. The time to get across the first of many hurdles of their journey could finally begin. Each of the anthronies had their weapons ready. Twilight stood in front of them all, assured and confident. Her violet rimmed eyes glanced over the woods of Everfree for just a couple of seconds.

Only to give a short and powerful nod with her head. The time to get in was there. The time to cross the forest of darkness had come to them. The first steps were set, which were then followed by the others following suit. Warnings had been given off by the unicorn before they had entered and they all were pretty keen on making certain they would keep themselves on them.

Fluttershy was the only anthrony that could be found in the middle as both Rainbow and Applejack formed the side guards. With Twilight up front and Rarity in the back it seemed like the best way to divide the tasks. Twilight knew that the dark witches had made their home in the forests and with them losing daylight by the minute. Which meant that the race was on to find the exit.

Not too much later were they wandering through the dense forest. It seemed like hours had gone by already. Though the possible cause for that little fact was that they went at a snail’s pace. Twilight just had to make certain that they wouldn’t become corrupted by some kind of magical force that was flowing through the air. She rather played it safe then to be sorry later. Even if it meant they probably had to spend a night in the place.

Which was the next thing she was on the lookout for. Her eyes went off the beaten path and past the massive trees to find some place of shelter. Their tent could have been something, weren’t it for the fact that it would look like they were actually sitting ducks. The residents of the forest knew it like the back of their hands. If only one thing seemed off and they would all be knowing it.

The attention of the ‘locals’ was the very thing that Twilight tried to evade at any given cost. Both Applejack and Rainbow looked at one another every so often and would give a nod that everything was still clear. It comforted the both of them so much that they knew the same sign language. To them it meant that they didn’t differ all too much in training.

Though there was something about the whole forest that seemed like it was constantly watching them. Rustles within the treetops while there was no wind, shimmers of shadows rushing away into the darkness and almost inaudible growls of creatures that weren’t sounding too friendly. It scared Fluttershy almost to a literal death as her eyes were constantly looking up, down and to her sides.

Even though she was the one in the middle and protected by the others, she still felt herself as unsafe as she could. Not even Twilight’s magical staff seemed to be reassuring to her anymore. What they could be finding around the next corner, might have been their very end in her eyes.

Hyperventilation on a level that they couldn’t hear it was the thing that happened next for Fluttershy. Her eyes never ceased their movements as all her thoughts tried to be happy. Sadly enough was it the last little point, on which she failed miserably.

“Hold on a minute here,” said the soothsayer just before she stopped dead in her tracks. The pathway that they had been following so far began to split itself up into two. Two directions that could be going into every possible hell that was imaginable to the lot of them.

“What’s the matter, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked. Her eyes never stopped with looking around. Not even Applejack seemed to be having the time to be doing that actually. They were all on the constant lookout for everything.

“Ah’m not liking this a bit. Can’t we move already?” the admiral quickly said. The urges to take another step were there. Yet she was stopped by the staff which was planted right before her. The earth anthrony almost went cross eyed and wanted to accuse Twilight of treason.

Weren’t it for the fact of the words that left her mouth. Words of madness and reason. “Shhshhshhshh, quiet will you. And listen…” Those were the words that she whispered out of her mouth. Curiosity struck all of the other mares as they ceased their sounds as much as possible. Their ears were perked up to catch even the faintest of whispers in the air. All of them were on high alert for whatever they could be hearing.

Tensions rose between them all while Twilight began to hear the things again. The whispers in the air, the whispers of dark words and deeds. Dark words spoken in a tongue that was known to only a few. It had to be something impossible, thought the mare to herself as she shook her head. For there was one word that seemed to be calling her. One tone, one sound, that haunted through her mind like that.

For a couple more seconds she continued to listen. The coincidence could be eliminated by that point. Something within that very forest was calling her out. It spoke her name loud in the dark language of old. Something had set its eyes on her and she wanted to figure out what.

Without a single thought that was going through her had Twilight rushed down one path. All of the other mares wanted to stop her but the unicorn never gave any words. “After her!” Rarity shouted just before the chase was on. A wild goose chase through pretty much the whole of Everfree. All caused because of something that couldn’t be explained at all. What would they find at the end of the path was the unanswered question.

Chapter XXVI

With the group right on her heels was Twilight making her way through the vegetation of the forest. She ran and ran as fast as she could. Branch and root were avoided by like they were nothing. It almost seemed in the eyes of the chasing group that she exactly knew where to be going. Which was a thing that was in their personal disadvantage. There were Twilight seemed to be going both swift and agile, they were slow.

The soothsayer gained more and more ground ahead of them while Applejack wanted to call out to her. “Twilight, where are ya going to?!” she yelled on the top of her lungs. The admiral was having it the most difficult than any of the others. The uneven ground under her metal hoof wasn’t something she liked or preferred. Not to mention the speed in which she had to run. It must have been actually years ago that she ever had run as fast as she did that very day.

The rest of the company didn’t hear any response from Twilight. The realization kicked in slow. The realization of them not being able to catch up with the mare. Rainbow is the first one to do what everypony else is thinking. For she is the one that pulls on the breaks just like that. The others soon followed suit and all of their eyes looked into the direction the soothsayer had run into.

All four of the remaining members were panting deep to themselves. They laid their bodies against the trunks of the trees. Applejack allowed her body to slide all the way down to the ground before she pulled up her metal leg. “Outch, bloody hell!” she muttered to herself after just barely touching the casing.

Fluttershy’s ears perked themselves straight away. They also caught the hissing sound that could be heard for just a fraction of a second. She thought to know what was wrong with it yet her energy to look at it hadn’t returned yet. The doctor just stood panting against a tree like the others.

Seconds had gone by when most of them had returned to their normal breathing and began to look around. “What could have triggered her, to dart away like she did?” Rarity thought aloud. She wanted to make some form of sense out of the situation. Yet in the corner of her eye did she noticed how Rainbow already sheathed her flintlocks again.

“Don’t do that yet, dear, we might still get some company. Would be a shame if you wouldn’t be prepared,” she replied to the action with almost a bit of a tease in her tone. Something that didn’t fell in the right throat hole for Rainbow Dash. The pegasus turned herself around towards the pirate captain with a gaze of thunder within her eyes.

She then walked over to the ivory skinned mare and pressed her forehead against that of Rarity. “And I don’t need a filthy pirate to tell me what to do. Has anypony ever told you that can be an extreme pain in the butt?” she hissed through her teeth. The words could only be heard by the unicorn who narrowed her eyes.

Yet as her eyes were narrowed, the lips turned themselves over into a little bit of a grin. A smirk perhaps. “Oh trust me, major, I have been told that a long time actually But…” Out of nowhere was there the sound of a flintlock being cocked and Rainbow could feel the cold steel of it resting against the bottom of her mouth. “I always am prepared, whatever the situation asks from me.”

Rarity then gave her a wink and before Rainbow could even react had she given a kiss upon the nose of the pegasus. “Ciao.” The flintlock was removed from her body as Rarity then just walked away as if nothing had ever happened.

Rainbow Dash kept on standing there with a baffled expression in her eyes. Words couldn’t even be released by her as she literally had no idea what had happened, or perhaps why it had happened. In the meantime had Fluttershy gone over to Applejack and was attending to the leg to the best of her abilities.

“I, I would throw a couple of cold water towels over it, but everything is in that storage. I’m afraid we have to wait until it’s cooled down by itself,” said Fluttershy to the admiral. A hand was held upon the earth anthrony’s shoulder. The admiral could understand the words and becoming angry wouldn’t have helped their situation at all.

“Hey Shy, still thanks,” she replied with a weak smile going across her face.

“It’s nothing, though I may think what the problem is.”

“Oh trust me, I know who the problem is,” the voice of Rainbow Dash suddenly spoke up. The heads of the other two mares turned over to the direction and saw the mare hovering in the air. “Rarity’s the problem. She’s just, just crazy! She kissed me! Me out of all of us!”

Both Applejack and Fluttershy just rolled their eyes a little bit. Though the admiral released a light chuckle. “She only kissed ya because ya were stupid enough to fall into her bait. She’s a strategist, a damn fine one at that. But she’s lost her mind since she deserted, she ain’t the same one. Tries to be, but just doesn’t. The sea does strange things with ya, major Dash.”

Those words were comforting for Rainbow, albeit it being just a little bit. The excuse of Rarity being insane was actually enough for her to know that the kiss wasn’t something that was meant as an act of love. Or anything else for that matter. A gentle sigh of relief was released through the mouth of the mare as she then glanced over to the forest. “You have any idea where exactly we are, or where Twilight could have been gone off to?”

The question was something that neither of the mares could answer. Though Applejack may have been the only one that was able to give some enlightenment on the case. “Ah don’t think she’s gone rogue. Ah have heard stories about soothsayers deserting the castle like that, to become what they call a ‘dark witch’, but if Twilight would become one, we would have seen it. Ah mean, it ain’t from one day to the next that such insanity strikes.”

Fluttershy nodded to the words whereas Rainbow only gave a shrug in response. Rainbow was a pegasus, most of her mind would be filled with nothing but air. That was actually where the two pegasi of the group differed. Rainbow was an airhead who always wanted to go to the extreme of things and make her city proud. Fluttershy on the other end had spent most of her life on the ground while taking care of both animal and anthrony. Cloudsdale could be left cold for all she knew as her pride. Her own pride was pretty much nonexistent anymore.

“Hey, anypony seen where she went off, I mean Rarity this time,” the major asked out of the blue. The words got the eyes of the other mare to look around their locations with a confused gaze. The pirate captain was nowhere to be seen, or heard. Applejack wanted to get a higher view and she tried her best to stand up.

It was a thing that only resulted in the fact that her leg seemed to be jamming up for the first time in a long time. Fluttershy’s attention shifted at the snap of a finger. The admiral was pushed down to the ground. The two looked into each other’s eyes for just a fraction of a second. Only to then quickly glance the other way again.

“Rainbow, can you inspect the near direct area for her? I need to attend to Applejack’s leg before anything else,” the timid pegasus spoke with a unseen amount of certainty to her voice. It was something that had always amazed the admiral every single time she saw it. That sheer determination whenever there was a medical issue at hand. Yet that shy, quiet and timed anthrony around pretty much everything else.

“You know how that leg works?” asked Rainbow in response. The mare just wanted to be sure. The last thing they needed was the leg to be blown to bits and pieces. Yet the answer to that question wasn’t one she had actually been preparing herself for.

“I’m the one who placed it there, of course I know how it works. Now go!” Fluttershy said in return before she shooed the major away. The strange day had become a whole lot more stranger in Rainbow’s eyes.

Though she quickly took off and flew away from the remaining two mares. Yet in the corner of her eye did she always kept the one spot of where they were. The search for Rarity wasn’t something that was easily done. And she was literally a white blob in a black forest.

In the timespan of minutes was the pegasus just busy in the attempt to find the missing mare. Something that both gave her time to think about the words previously said against her, as well as thinking about where she could be going. Or what she could be doing.

"Come on, come on, where are you?” she spoke aloud to herself. Her magenta red eyes shifted at a constant rate from right to left. The pegasus had flown in circles around the location of Applejack and Fluttershy. She had hoped to find the mare somewhere. Yet with each minute that passed by, the chances seemed to have been looking to that Rarity had also deserted on them.

In the end did she came by a small opening in the forest. A small opening that carried the reddish light of the evening sun. And there, in the middle of that tiny little opening did she found the white blob she had set out to find. The feelings of the relief that went through the pegasus weren’t matched by a lot in world.

When she looked closer to the scene, she could see that the horn was charged up and the arms were placed upon the lower belly of the mare. Rainbow had only a view of the backside of Rarity but could see literally everything that could be going on there. She had to know what the pirate was doing in that clearing.

So high in the tree branches she took place without making any sound. Not even the leaves rustled more than they should have been doing. Her breath became almost minimal as she began to spy upon the other mare. “What are you up to?” she mumbled to herself without a sound. The eyes primed against the mare, leaving every other thing behind her.

The horn of Rarity finally discharged itself as the hands fell down to her sides. The head rose itself upwards to the skies while a deep inhale of air was taken. Only to be followed by perhaps an even deeper exhale.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what to think of the matter. All that she had seen were the actions from behind. Actions that were unknown yet didn’t seem to be all too harmful. Rarity was a pirate and not a witch. That conclusion was made pretty much instantly and seemed to be stupid the more the major thought about it.

Yet something still didn’t seem to be all too right with her. Perhaps time would tell the story of the pirate, as time would do for them all in the end. Rarity then gently turned herself around before she began to once again just wander. Wander straight to the tree in which Rainbow laid spying.

The pupils of the pegasus became as small as possible when she realized just what was going to happen. She could only hope from that moment onwards that she wouldn’t actually be caught by the unicorn. Being caught by the pirate, would perhaps do a lot more than just dent her pride.

Closer and closer did Rarity came. The unicorn’s eyes were kept straight forward. Almost had she passed the tree where Rainbow had hidden in. The pegasus dared to look down from her branch and got pretty much the scare of her life. The unicorn was right below her. Something had caused her to stop dead in her tracks and to look around.

Rainbow’s heart began to pump faster and faster. The hopes on not being spotted only grew higher and higher. One look up and everything would just be done for the rest. The eyes were firmly shut as she continued to speak the hopes out in her mind time and time again.

Nothing. Complete and utter nothing was the thing that happened to Rainbow. No zap of magic was shot up or did words came from the pirate captain. Just the silence of the forest that came over them could be heard. The very next thing that Rainbow could hear were the hoofsteps of Rarity. The hoofsteps of a Rarity that was continuing on her way back to their location that was.

Only when the steps were silenced did the pegasus even dare to open up her eyes. A deep sigh was released through her nostrils. She was genuinely relieved that she hadn’t been discovered by the other anthrony. Luck was actually upon her side for a change of pace.

Though she still had to go down to the site as well. The pegasus just shrugged a little bit to herself before she dropped herself down from the tree. If she was going to be the last one to come back, but not being spotted by Rarity, it would have been worth it in her eyes.

~~~~

Finally had even Rainbow Dash made it back to the camp and all of them looked to each other. Fluttershy had done a great job with the leg of the admiral in the meantime. She had figured out just what the problem was. The overheating of the leg was caused by a clog in one of the systems. A temporal fix had been made that should have kept the thing running for a day or two, at max. They couldn’t do anything without Twilight, for she held of course the only key to the void storage their stuff was placed in.

“So,” the admiral said when she placed her hands behind her back. With her eyes did she look into those of the others with a serious gaze. “What’s the plan going to be? Ah mean, we need to find Twilight obviously. But where do you think we can find her?”

“Uhm, didn’t, didn’t she…” Fluttershy began suddenly. She gained all of the eyes of the other anthronies and gulped deep. The levels of attention given to her made her a whole lot more nervous than she originally had thought it would. A gentle yelp was being released her as the wings actually stayed in place for a change.

“Go on, please,” said Rarity then. Her hand slowly gestured that she had to hurry up. Rainbow Dash just crossed her arms over each other, quietly waiting for the words to come.

“Didn’t Twilight say something, that we had to listen?” Those words were the giant breakthrough in the problems that needed to be solved. Though there was still more to the theory of the mare. “If, if we listen, and follow the sounds, we might end up by Twilight.”

“We might?” exclaimed Rainbow. She then uncrossed her arms and set them in her sides. She didn’t really buy into it yet wanted to know more about it. “What are you thinking here, doctor?”

“It’s, it’s just a theory!” the other pegasus quickly returned in a high raised voice of fright which went accompanied with a yelp.

“But an interesting one at that,” added Rarity into the mix. “It’s worth a shot now, isn’t it? I mean, Twilight is still out there, counting on us to come and get her. Fluttershy, would you be doing the honors?”

With those words did she even gain the genuine attention of Applejack. Even though the admiral hated the pirate’s guts, she still managed to surprise her. Fluttershy herself knew exactly what needed to be done as she gulped a little bit. Then she closed her eyes and perked her ears to get every sound in the woods.

All of the others were as silent as the grave. The time to find their soothsayer had come. They had to hear what kind of secrets the forest were holding from them.

“Come, come closer. I’m waiting for you,” a voice whispered within the rolling winds. The voice a mare that was both sick and twisted. Yet eerily welcoming at the same time. The eyes of the doctor suddenly widened themselves just before she took a step or two backwards. Which resulted in her almost falling against a tree.

“It’s, it’s there. A, a voice. From there!” She then pointed in the general direction from which the tones came. Rainbow quickly noticed how it was from where the wind came from, making her even more suspicious about the matter. There was no other way, they had to follow the creepy voice in the wind to find the anthrony they were looking for.

Whether they would be on time was something that remained to be seen. “Let’s go everypony and keep yar eyes and ears open,” said Applejack. The company of four set out once more. Whatever they would find, they wouldn’t think of that just yet.

Sentence after sentence had they heard being spoken in the wing. The group followed it. Their pace was slow, they didn’t wanted to trip over anything or bash into something. Not to mention the fact that Applejack’s very leg couldn’t run anymore. The fix made allowed it to work, but run it couldn’t do anymore until it was done properly.

Each of them had their weapons primed as both Rainbow and Rarity formed the rear guard with their flintlocks. Applejack walked in front with her sword drawn and ready as Fluttershy once again stood in the middle of everything. Whether or not she was actually happy about the matter was something that remained to be seen.

They travelled for what seemed to be half of the forest as shimmers of shadows were seen in the still setting sun. It was something that troubled the lot of them, within minutes they would be out of daylight. Haste was of the essence but they just couldn’t make it.

The voice continued to taunt them to follow it, which they heeded pretty much down to the very letter of everything. They answered the call. The call of coming closer, and closer, and closer until they arrived just there.

They finally were on the location that they needed to be. The one place where the sounds from the winds seemed to be originated from. The one place where they possibly could be finding Twilight Sparkle. At least that was the hope for them.

For before them it stood, still mighty after all the years of beating it took. An ancient looking castle which was covered in moss and battered down by the weather of centuries. Towers half standing and sides riddled with holes. It was actually a drastic sight, especially when they all imagined how it would have looked in its prime days.

“So, she’s in there?” Rainbow asked with a curious gaze being irradiated from her eyes. Nopony could truly be answering that question but the odds seemed to have been heavily against them. Rarity was the only one who gave some sort of a response. Which only was just a nod that went accompanied with a massive exhale.

Fluttershy gulped a little bit, she still heard the serpents tone within her ears. Calling her in to come closer whether she wanted it or not. It almost seemed to have drove her crazy as her head was being shook from left to right. “No, no, no, get, get out of my head!” she whispered before she pulled her ears down with her hands. The tears were almost flowing out of her eyes again as she was truly terrified.

Applejack then turned the mare quickly towards her and forced her to look deeply in her eyes. “Listen, listen!” she said in a raised voice after having forcefully removed Fluttershy’s hands from her ears. “We have to go inside if we want to find Twilight, the voices are carried inside of the wind, inside is no wind. We are actually the safest, inside of that infernal place.”

Without any more sympathy shown to the pegasus, she let her go and took the first step. “Let’s go.” All that the others could be doing was to follow the admiral suit. Whether they liked it or not.

~~~~

In the time that their little adventure happened, had Twilight reached the castle and she was wandering through it. Signs of the conflicting book being true were seen yet they couldn’t be investigated. Even though Twilight wanted to do it just so much, she couldn’t bring herself. Something had called her to the dreaded location and she wanted to know exactly who it was.

For the voice in the wind was one she seemed to have remembered. Days long gone by, it was impossible, right? It was impossible to hear voices echoing from the past into the present. The world of Equestria was truly a magical place, so who could have proved the other being true?

Too many questions were rolling through the head of the unicorn. She walked through the hallway. A hallway with only two possible ways to leave it. Either at the end of it, or through the one doorway in the middle of it. The unicorn didn’t mind it too much about the one in the wall. For she wanted to reach the opposing doorway.

Not even a glance was given off to the content what could be seen inside of the room, Twilight just deemed it all too tempting in the moment. She didn’t needed any more distractions than there already were for her. The hurricanes of thoughts in her mind were already bad enough as they were, the last thing she needed was a secondary whirlwind inside of her skull.

Though if the unicorn had actually looked inside of the chamber, perhaps the biggest mystery of their age would have been solved. Inside that very room stood an altar. An altar with five arms which each were holding up an orb. Those very arms seemed to have been able to circle around the center piece which on top of it which carried another orb.

Time had made sure the place was unrecognizable yet the hints of the past were everywhere. The alter hidden in the cobwebs was perhaps the biggest discovery that could have ever been made in anthrony history. Not to mention the broken stained glass windows on the opposing sides of the room. Shattered and busted out as if they were nothing.

Yet the images still laid on the stone floor. Burned within the very stone from years of intense light being forced down them. The sun, the moon and two alicorns that stood proudly below it. Two alicorns, with four legs and the body of a pony.

The more Twilight wandered through the castle, the more nervous she actually became. Where did she had to go once inside? Topside, downside? Obviously ground level didn’t hold the answers that she needed. And once again she stood at an impasse that was dictated by something rather simply. A staircase. One staircase was actually enough to throw her off balance more than anything.

On that same staircase she could actually have walked either up to one of the towers, or down into the basement and possible torture pits of the castle. Whose castle it was, why it was built in that place were unknown. Twilight could only speculate about the very purpose of the place. “Perhaps a temple, built for her?” she mumbled to herself. One of her hands touched the cold stone. The stone was from the of the pillar that ran through the center of the spiraling staircase.

Her eyes closed themselves while her horn wanted to charge up. Yet the charge was never completed. A haunting, organ-like tone suddenly pierced through her ears. It was something that of course scared the living daylight out of her, but also began to make her wonder where it came from.

Once she had recovered from the scare and made her heart pump normal again and discovered that the tunes were actually part of a song. A song that didn’t seem sad or dark, just haunting through the nightmares everypony had. “Impossible that it is you. It can’t be you!” Twilight exclaimed in response. She thought of perhaps the one being she had met in her life that could play the massive instrument that well.

No time was wasted as the unicorn soothsayer rushed herself down the stairs. The music came from that direction. That much was something she had figured out easily. Though the fact that she didn’t know was the one that a blast from the past was about to turn its ugly head towards her.

Staircase after staircase was ran down by the unicorn until she finally reached the most bottom floor of the castle. Nothing but darkness surrounded her as not even a single torch was lit. Her eyes weren’t fully adjusted to the lack of light but the sounds definitely came from that very floor. The race was on to confirm the thoughts that she had going within her.

Her horn lit itself up as careful steps forward had been taken. Caution was the thing that was executed more and more by the mare. For if it really was the being she had in her mind, danger was going through the roof. Step after step it became louder, closer and more haunting.

The tunes of the organ that were being sent through the castle had one place of origin, an open doorway at the end of the hall. Twilight’s hooves went as slow and silent as they possibly could. The closer she came to the doorway, the fainter her aura became. Within the mysterious room did the torches burn and light was being created within it. If the being was still oblivious to Twilight’s presence, that could have worked in her advantage.

Step by step she inched closer. Closer towards that open doorway in the hope not to see what she had pictured already a thousand times behind the organ. The soothsayer was so close to finding out the truth, that strains of sweat were going across her forehead. Fear began to fuel her, courage managed to be just dropped down like that. Danger lurked behind the very doorway.

The violet rimmed eyes of the mare tried to peek through the doorway. She was hoping to see any kind of reflection of the being that was playing the organ. But the room was empty. Outside of the torches, organ and its mysterious player was there nothing to be seen. Not to mention the angle in Twilight stood made it impossible to see who it was.

She had to do the one thing she really didn’t wanted to do in order to figure things out. That very thing was to actually go into the room. Twilight had to go in and face perhaps a head-on confrontation with whoever sat there.

A quiet gulp was given off by the mare before she finally dared to make the last couple of steps. The last couple of steps which she may have actually made in her entire life. Or perhaps the last couple of steps before she figured out, somepony had been playing some kind of sick joke.

How much she prayed for the latter one to have been the truth.

On the chair before the organ it sat. Not having changed a bit since their last encounter. The red, yellow and orange beast. Twilight was exposed and unable to move a bit as the fears filled her entire body. It almost seemed as if she had seen a ghost. Which she actually had in perhaps more ways than one.

There was the closing tune of the organ. The tune was made by ten fingers pushing down ten keys at the same time. The door behind Twilight flung back in its lock. The dark, maroon red wings of the beast spread themselves while the tail swayed from side to side. Slowly it stood up and covered its body with its very wings. It took a couple steps sideways, away from the instrument.

The soothsayer wanted to charge up her magic and just zap the beast. But she quickly figured out that her own magic was rendered useless for some reason. Which caused more fear to rush through the unicorn while the beast had turned itself into her direction. With almost graceful steps and the clicking of heels it walked in front of the organ.

Its eyes closed and the wings covering the body it just stood there. Until the time for the massive revelation was there of course. For suddenly did the wings spread themselves once again open to reveal that one sight. That one sight Twilight never had hoped to see again. For before her stood the demoness she had fought once before in her life.

The wings, the tail, the color pattern, it all became obvious for the unicorn instantly. Yet the name was almost impossible to speak out. Yet she somehow managed to gather the strength she needed in order to do just that. “Sunset, Shimmer,” she managed to get over her lips. Her voice trembled with both fear and fright just by speaking that name.

“Exactly,” the demoness returned to her in a tone filled with anger and hatred. Yet her eyes irradiated nothing but insanity. “Everypony pays their dues, Sparkle.”

What happened next all went too quick for Twilight to realize and process. The last thing that she remembered was a devilish laughter taking place. A couple of zaps and then there was the pain going through her body. She didn’t know what exactly caused it but she did have a couple of thoughts about it.

What actually happened was that Sunset Shimmer kept teleporting herself in and out of existence to punch Twilight on various spots on her body. The last teleportation was made and the punch was given which resulted in Twilight falling down to the ground.

Sunset landed back down on her feet where she continued to laugh like a true maniac. The orbs of fire within her hands were almost ready to be cast and Twilight closed her eyes. The battle was one sided once again. Sunset was stronger than the unicorn would ever be able to have been. She feared that her life would have been ended in that very moment.

Yet something unusual then happened. She heard the wings taking off and before she knew it was Twilight pushed against the wall with the talons of Sunset firmly around her neck. Her hooves still touched the ground but only just. The demoness had the soothsayer exactly where she wanted her to be.

The eyes of the mare opened up in a slow manner. She could see the amounts of hatred within those of her enemy. Though that wasn’t the only thing she saw. Though the deeper she looked into those very same eyes. The more she noticed something else. That very something was nothing else but the past.

To be precise: their past. A past which she began to relive from memories of her own.

Chapter XXVII

Years ago was when it all happened. Everything that went wrong already began on the first day of the new school year. There was a much, much younger Twilight Sparkle who stood in the door opening. One that was leading to the room which she would be sharing with another anthrony for at least the coming year. Her violet rimmed eyes gently looked over towards the other mare, who was busy unpacking her own things and preparing her side of the room.

Twilight then cleared her throat in a loud manner to get the attention of the other unicorn. A unicorn with a light brilliant amber skin and hair that seemed to be on fire. At least it was colored in that way. The ears of the mare perked themselves up in response to the sound. She turned herself around towards Twilight with calm.

Then the young mare noticed the moderate cyan colored rims that the other unicorn carried. And for just a moment had the silence set in. That awkward silence as the two began to check each other out. Twilight carried a couple of her books before her while the other mare was dressed rather casually. She couldn’t have been there for more than an hour. That, or it was going to be the type of anthrony who wasn’t looking after the rules at one. Twilight really hoped it was the first.

“So,” the other mare started in a rather stern tone, “you’re going to be my roommate for this year? Hmhm, should be fun. You look like you’re able to handle yourself,” the mare replied before she crossed her arms over each other.

Twilight gained a small blush across both her cheeks. She hadn’t expected the compliment. At least she took it as a compliment. Though it also may have come due to the fact that she was already wearing three quarters of the school’s uniform. “You look rather, nice yourself as well,” replied Twilight with a little giggle to her tone.

That was what did it for the other mare. The little twinkle that she suddenly got within her eyes showed that they would be able to work together quite well. “Hey, name’s Sunset Shimmer by the way.” Sunset had introduced herself before she stuck out her hand to shake Twilight’s. The other unicorn struggled a little bit to get her own hand out but with the help of her magic she levitated the books into the air.

“Name’s Twilight Sparkle. Pleasure meeting you, Sunset,” replied Twilight in a genuine happy tone. A smile could be found going across her lips. Yet before the unicorn even knew it, was she pulled into a hug by Sunset. The mulberry unicorn was surprised to say the least. Though the hug itself didn’t felt all too uncomfortable either. The only logical thing that could be done was to return it just as tight.

Thus went the arms of Twilight around the body of Sunset to settle their debt right away. Something which resulted in the both of them actually laughing before they finally broke the hug again. “Yeah, it’s going to be awesome to be your roommate. Hey, you try to become a soothsayer as well?” asked Sunset before she dropped down on her bed. “I hope you don’t mind that I choose this bed already, I can’t stand the morning sunlight. More of a, sunset person, if you catch my drift,” the amber mare chuckled up in a well-meant manner.

The room itself was a rather large one with two desks, two chairs and a table. Not to forget two massive bookcases for anything that they would be studying that semester. And then there were the two beds. One of them stood almost right below the window while the other –on which Sunset already laid– stood at the far side of the room.

It was a bit of a strange request, but also one about which Twilight had to let out a giggle of her own. She caught the little joke that was told. Whether it was intentional remained to be up for asking. So the unicorn dropped her books on the one available bed as her body then followed suit. The legs were crossed over each other before the palm of both of her hands got a hold of her knee.

The unicorn nodded before she would be speaking her reply to Sunset. “Yes, I’m also trying to become a soothsayer. Got passed by the initiation test with flying colors and now, now I’m just waiting for the first lessons to begin.”

The initiate response of Sunset was almost a huge groan of literal annoyance. “You don’t know how to party, do you? Hey, you want to go to the party tonight? You know, the one to open the coming year?” asked the mare to her. A strand of hair was removed out of her eye. So that was perhaps the reason of why she was dressed in such a manner, thought Twilight. Twilight didn’t even knew there was a party going on, or would be happening.

She never had been the mare to party like others of her age. Instead she would just delve right into a good book and read about the complex world the characters had their adventures in. Though if that would be the only character treats that would be clashing, Twilight was willing to pay the toll. Though she shook her head calmly from side to side. “As much as the offer is nice, Sunset, I’m not really one for parties. Though, if you go, and this goes for all other parties as well.”

“Yes, I’m listening,” replied Sunset with a small yet devious grin that went across her lips. It was a thing that made Twilight rethink her words a little bit more. For everything that she said could of course be used against her. Which was about one of the last things she wanted.

“Could you just, come here quietly and for the sake of everything, no stallions.” Finally was the high word out of Twilight and it just felt good for her to finally have said it. Sunset Shimmer tucked her legs up on the mattress before she assumed a cross legged position. Though once again couldn’t the fire haired anthrony not keep her giggles together.

“Oh Twilight,” she began in a tone that was both sarcastic and serious at the same time. Therefore setting the other unicorn on a different track. “Do you honestly think I’m the kind of mare who goes to a party and flirt with every single stallion she sees? I’m well aware this is a tough semester for the both of us. So, I think it’s a requirement that I follow up those rules, don’t you agree?”

It almost seemed like a dream that had come true for Twilight. Sunset Shimmer was one of those few anthronies that understood Twilight almost as a whole. It was a massive weight that fell off of her shoulders that went accompanied with a light exhale. “I’m glad you understand, Sunset,” replied Twilight before they both stood back up.

What then followed was that the two of them gave each other another massive hug. “You sure you don’t want to go, just this once?” Sunset then whispered in the mare her ears. The only reaction she got out of Twilight was a slight shake of the head. Which was more than enough for her.

“Alright then, then I best be off now. See you tomorrow again, Twilight,” the mare added just before she broke the hug and left the room with a gentle pace. Twilight only followed her to the doorway where she would lean against one of the sides and wave her roommate out before the arms went cross over each other.

A chuckle left through the nostrils of the mare as she began to shake her head once more. Though the reason of why she did it that was for a different one than previous times. “I think I’m going to like her perhaps a little bit too well. Still, she doesn’t seem to be too wrong about everything.” Twilight said to herself as she walked back into the room and realized she still had to unpack all of her gear.

~~~~

The following day were both Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer sitting in one of the many classrooms where the soothsayers would be trained. It was their very first lesson and the teacher had already given them a tough assignment. To actually prepare themselves for a trip towards the planes of the goddesses. It didn’t mean all too much to the teacher, for he just needed to know who was where exactly.

The time to study the basics of the trip was given to each of the anthronies present. Both Twilight and Sunset were sitting next to each other. They both opened their books and began to read through the content that it carried. Of course it was all hocus pocus when they read through it the first time. Neither could make something out of the words straight away.

Yet the more times they went across the things, the more they slowly began to realize just what was being asked of them. Slow and steady had they all managed to understand the concept of traveling towards the planes. The real question there was who actually possessed the magical abilities to make it on the first go.

After almost an hour of intense studying said the teacher that the books needed to be closed. The very fact was there that they had to try it. Of course were they scared about the whole ordeal. Simply because it literally seemed to have been a literal baptism by fire.

Which naturally resulted in the little fact that there were absolutely no volunteers for the matter to begin with. A little something that the teacher had already predicted. Yet he still asked the question through the classroom. Only one hand went into the air oddly enough.

The eyes of the teacher looked down at the hand and noticed the mulberry skin. He then followed the arm down with his eyes until the face of Twilight Sparkle was clearly visible within his eyes. It actually surprised him that she was the first one who wanted to go. For not even Sunset Shimmer had stuck up her hand.

Twilight was then called down to the front of the class where the teacher had already made the preparations. Though just before the anthrony would leave her seat, her arm was taken by Sunset. “Hey, you know what you’re going to be doing, right?” she asked in a genuine nervous tone. Yet the other unicorn nodded in calm towards her new friend. Without a word was the arm set loose again as Sunset and the rest of the class began to watch. They would all watch just how Twilight would be making her ascent towards the planes of the goddesses.

After a massive show of light it became apparent that Twilight had some sort of special powers. Even the teacher had never seen such a thing in his life. Twilight Sparkle had actually managed to not just make the leap out of her body, but as well rise up towards the home of the goddesses. It was only the landing that was a little bit on the rough side.

That was a little something they hadn’t really read about yet. So when Twilight came back, she wanted to stand back up again. But almost immediately she fell back down again. The teacher rushed in and before she could hit the ground had he caught her. He then laid her carefully upon the ground and said to the class it would take about five minutes for her to become the old one again.

He didn’t lie. For within five minutes sat Twilight straight up again. She even rubbed her head a little bit. The good news was told to her and she just couldn’t believe it. She even thought that the teacher had been making a mistake of some sort. It seemed to have been just impossible for her to get it right on the first time. Yet that was the matter of the situation. She had it right, on the first try.

Almost all of the class began to clap before the unicorn as they had found the greatest and deepest of respect for her. Something that nopony would have ever denied from her. Even Sunset Shimmer had a flabbergasted expression on her face as she continued clapping.

Once Twilight had returned to her place, she and Sunset began to talk to each for a little bit. Other students began to try the same thing. Having seen just how easy Twilight it actually made look to make the ascend. They all thought they would have been having the same abilities. The only problem was that they actually didn’t possess it. For many failed to even get into the trance that was required.

Of course it wasn’t a big issue as it meant that they needed to be trained even more. Then it was finally the turn for Sunset Shimmer to try it. “Hey, good luck,” said Twilight to her with a smile. The same smile was returned by the other mare as well as a powerful nod. She would succeed, one way or the other and perhaps no matter what.

Silence had once again come to the classroom as all eyes were preying upon Sunset Shimmer herself. Would the unicorn with the fiery hair be able to make the ascend and witness the beauty that was the realm of their beloved goddesses? Time was the only thing that held the answer. Seconds ticked away as the mare tried to get herself into the trance required. The light of her horn and hands was given off before the spirit was sent upwards.

Nopony even dared to breathe as that was about the most dangerous part of the whole trip next to coming back. The shifting from one realm to the next was the most dangerous part of all. Twilight’s eyes were constantly looking over the body of Sunset to see if anything had gone wrong with it, but she never noticed anything. “Could it be?” she spoke with only moving her lips. Not a single sound came out of it before the other unicorn came almost crashing down back to their realm.

The results were pretty much the same as Twilight’s. Out of the entire class were there just two anthronies that were capable to get to the plane and back right there and then. Something that surprised the teacher even more was that it were the two anthronies that shared a room together. He knew exactly what needed to be done with them.

The class was over had both Sunset and Twilight to wait a little bit longer as their teacher had some words he wanted to tell them. Both just shrugged it off and as everypony else left, they remained seated.

The teacher walked up to them and leaned against a table while his hands were used as support. The words that followed were some of the most unexpected they had ever heard in their lives. For they were too advanced for the classes that were given to them. They were already two truly powerful unicorns who knew how to deal with their abilities and gifts.

That was going to be the very reason of why he would be sending them to something special. Something that hadn’t been done in quite the bit of time. He was going to send them to two truly experienced soothsayers in order to be trained both individually and personally. For having the both of them under the supervision of just one experienced soothsayer was a danger in and of itself.

Neither of the mares could believe the words that were being told to them as they both squealed in delight and hugged each other once more. Too much annoyance of their teacher. Yet when the sounds finally stopped, they thanked their teacher and made themselves ready to head to the next class for the day. The final words that the teacher told both of the mares was that they could expect their new teacher knocking at their doors the following morning.

~~~~

So said, so done. With the day behind them and their homework done, both Twilight and Sunset simply lay in their beds in peace. The both of them were deeply lost within their dreams as the night crawled by at its normal pacing. The following morning would the both of them wake up and do their morning routines as per usual.

Though the eternal debate stayed whether or not they should stay in their room and wait for their new mentors to show up, or go to class like everypony else. Neither of the two seemed to be certain on what to do as each argument given was countered almost immediately. Which was a little something that caused the both of them to be highly annoyed.

Then there finally was a knock on the door. Both of the mares looked at each other and got the same idea. They both charged up their horns and opened the door at the same time. Which allowed their mysterious visitors to enter their room.

What followed was something neither Twilight nor Sunset had expected to happen. For in the door opening stood an aged stallion. His eyes were irradiating wisdom as well as a strict discipline. The gray skin he carried combined his white hair told the both of them enough. Though behind him was another anthrony. One that Twilight knew all too well in fact.

“C-Cadence?” she stuttered out as she couldn’t believe it. The pinkish skinned unicorn nodded towards the mare as she closed the door behind her. “I, I can’t, I can’t believe it. Why, why are you here?”

Cadence on the other end allowed a little giggle to leave her throat. Sunset hadn’t even the faintest of clues of what was going on between them. Yet it was the stallion who with one gesture of his hand got both of the students to sit down upon Twilight’s nicely made-up bed.

On the opposing side took Cadence and the mysterious stallion their places. The four of them gazed into each other’s eyes for a solid minute. The silence spoke more than enough words to fill up a book in the eyes of Twilight. Until finally the stallion would be speaking the words that were on his mind.

“My colleague and I heard some, interesting, news about the pair of you,” he began with his low toned voice. One that reeked of age yet was still crystal clear for some reason. “The two of you have ascended up to the planes of our beloved goddesses and gotten back, on your first day here. For which they asked us two to take you under our astral dusted wing. Something we are willing to do, but at a cost. We require undetermined attention from you. I know you’re young and in your prime, that you want to party, but I’m afraid that can’t be done anymore after you say yes.”

“Could, could you tell us your name, sir?” Sunset Shimmer asked. They were spoken in the moment she noticed a small gap in between his words. It was a question that caused the stallion to crack a gentle smile before he shook his head.

“Oh, where are my manners. I’m sorry, miss Shimmer, but allow me to properly introduce myself. The name, is professor Latsyrc,” the stallion said to her. He made a polite little bow on his place. “But what do you say, are you willing to proceed with your training?”

The answer to that very question was written within stone itself.

~~~~

Months turned into years. Both Twilight and Sunset were working under the wings of their new teachers. Twilight’s mentor was nopony else then Cadence whereas Sunset had gotten the stallion named Latsyrc. The both of them saw a drastic change in their lives as their whole social life was pretty much busted.

Not that either of the two cared that much about it really. For they were getting lessons in their art of soothsaying from perhaps two of the best. Though where Cadence went on a little easy on Twilight, Latsyrc almost spared no mercy on Sunset. Though he wasn’t reforming her into his own image, far from it even. But the strain he allowed the mare to work under was something almost unheard of. Something that perhaps contributed to one of the most dangerous assents that Sunset had.

Which happened to be her genuine love for the magic that the unicorns carried.

There wasn’t anything within the world that she seemed to be loving more than magic in general. Always was she on the move or on the lookout for a new spell book or a new spell or even a new ability. It was a little bit funny for Twilight to see another anthrony working as vividly as she would be doing.

Yet there was one thing that almost bugged the mulberry unicorn at a constant rate. While Sunset’s studies on the light forms of magic were always wonderful and ones she even liked to help on, it were the ones on dark magic she didn’t wanted to have anything to do with. Though on one day would the explosion of Twilight’s mind happen. Something that would result in perhaps the greatest tie in their history and possibly the birth of her greatest nemesis.

“No Sunset! I’m not going to help you with this madness. It’s not what we’re supposed to be doing and you know it. I don’t even want to hear another word out of your mouth, understood?” Twilight exclaimed as she had turned herself around to face Sunset from her desk. The questions that had been asked previously, all had become too much for her in the moment.

“But Twilight, listen to me here for change. I do not want to live in the dark magic. I don’t want to become a Dark Witch. But what I try to be doing here, is to gain knowledge in how to protect ourselves from their dark magic. The king of chaos is always lurking in the library. Danger from the Frozen North hungers for power and then, you have the devil herself,” explained Sunset to the best of her abilities. Though she knew it was pretty much a losing battle that was waged. Twilight wouldn’t listen.

Though there might have been just one little something what she could be doing in order to make her come to her senses. It was to play the philosophical harp. “No, no, no, no and again no!” Twilight exclaimed to her friend. She had turned herself around again.

Little did either of the mares knew that the corruption of the dark magic had already taken a hold onto Sunset. Countless and illegal experiments which were done even without Twilight knowing had opened up the mind. It was ready for influences that weren’t as pleasant as originally expected.

A deep exhale was being released through the nostrils of Sunset, it was then or never that she would be speaking her words. “When the wrong deed is done for the right cause, who is actually to blame?”

“Sorry b-but, what did you just say?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow from behind her desk. Slowly but surely she turned around from her chair and gazed into the eyes of Sunset Shimmer perhaps deeper than ever before. “Repeat that, please.”

~~~~

Once again could Twilight be found hovering into the realm of the goddesses as she was under the guidance of Cadence. The two had managed to build up an even stronger bond together because of the single fact that they had known each other since Twilight’s youth. They knew exactly what the other could be doing and never dared to speak against the other for they might have been right.

Twilight was a smart filly whereas Cadence had more experience. Two little things that combined the best of both worlds together. Yet the words of Sunset Shimmer were never faded from her mind. Even when she was just wandering through the grass in the fields they echoed through her. She hadn’t told Cadence or Latsyrc about them for reasons she couldn’t even explain to herself.

Perhaps she didn’t found it really necessary that they needed to know it? Or maybe was she waiting for the right time to tell the pair about the troubles. Whichever the case, it wouldn’t really have been helping her in any form or matter. The body of Twilight lowered itself within the grass in order to take a long and deep sniff from a flower.

The scents that entered her nostrils had a rather harmonious effect on her as they managed to calm her mind for just the shortest of time. A thing that was nice suddenly rushed back into her nose and it managed to give her a massive smile.

To her it felt like she would have been in the actual heaven. She didn’t wanted to return though, but more than a few minutes just wasn’t granted to her. Just a few minutes she could be staying in the realm of the goddesses and wander around.

Even under the guidance of Cadence was she improving with every single ascend that she made. Though that never stopped Twilight from doing her own little experiments. Experiments that were in fact legal. They used the same tactics Cadence had given to her. Unlike the mare she once dared to call a friend.

The unicorn dropped herself into the grass before a tear began to roll from her eyes. A tear which held the reflection of the moment in which their friendship was broken. It was after a massive argument that Twilight and Sunset couldn’t find it together anymore. They began to differ just too much from each other up to the point they didn’t even recognize the other.

It was perhaps a good thing that Sunset never began wearing black robes, because that would have set off more than enough alarm bells. Though the longer Twilight laid in the grass, the more she thought back to times gone by and memories she cherished. Yet something else was about to happen. Something that would come back years from that moment to haunt her in the flanks. The birth of perhaps the most powerful witch the land had seen next to the devil herself.

All of the sudden was the whole realm shaking upon its very foundation. Strikes of lightning came crashing down at speeds unseen but they never touched the ground in any way or form. Something was wrong, that much was certain. Though what and who was the question that remained to be seen.

Twilight Sparkle managed to get back upon her hooves quick. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked around. Though all that she saw was a darkness surrounding her. The whole area she was in seemed to have turned darker and there was only one thing that left her mouth. “Oh no, this can’t be happening.”

The spirit of Twilight Sparkle –the one who was traveling over the planes of the goddesses– took off into the skies in an attempt to find something. Twilight wasn’t stupid in the least. She knew exactly where to look for. Even though she didn’t had any interest in partaking in Sunset’s research, she still learned a thing or two about the darker arts of the magic. Combined with just some of the dangers that were housed in the realm of the goddesses.

With a near lightning speed was Twilight flying through the air in search for that one little spot. That one spot where both ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ were the closest to one another. The small line that actually separated both the realm of the goddesses with the realm of the demon named Nightmare Moon.

There must have been one spot where it was so thin for a soothsayer to travel from one to the other. Why the doorway wasn’t used by any other demon was a question that was perhaps best left unasked for the time being.

“Come on, come on, where are you?!” she muttered to herself. Her horn had coated itself within the raspberry color. Her hands weren’t coated in the magic as she wasn’t preparing any spell. Instead she was doing some readings about just where the weakest point might have been. Though the answer would actually have been a lot more obvious than it was originally thought.

~~~~

When she was soaring through the realm, there was a dark doorway on the ground. A doorway that was in fact steaming shadows into the planes itself. Instantly knew Twilight that that was the place where she needed to be and soared down.

Once on the ground, she approached the doorway and peeked through it without ever even daring to go through it herself. It was a distortion into the reality of the goddesses, it could be closed at any moment. Or worse, it would have widened. Twilight didn’t wanted to get stuck in that darkness either though what she saw was something that broke her heart even further.

The laughter of the dark mistress herself could be heard echoing from all sides while Sunset Shimmer stood on the other side. She was engulfed in the streams of shadow while she screamed it out in pain. A true and terrible pain was going through her body as it began to change, distort time and reality itself.

Twilight couldn’t look anymore at the scene. The levels of her comfort zone had been surpassed for the longest of times. She wanted to forget what she saw and just get her friend back. Something which was perhaps impossible to do. Though she would be setting everything on everything just to do it.

The eyes of the real Twilight opened themselves again and she gasped for air. The unicorn then quickly got up on her hooves in order to make the run for Sunset’s room. They didn’t share the same room anymore as a direct result of their broken friendship. Yet even with them hating the guts of each other, Twilight was still prepared to do everything in her power to help the other mare.

Through hallway and corridor she ran without looking back. Only to a couple other students she said that both Cadence and Latsyrc had to be called to Sunset’s room as soon as possible. Before the group could even react had she darted off again.

Tears began to fill the eyes of Twilight when she came closer to the room. What horrors would she be witnessing when it was opened? What dangers would be faced? All fears and thoughts just vanished as she set her hand upon the door handle. Instantly she pulled it down and threw the door open.

There it then stood. The very sight she had hoped to not see. Both of her hands are brought to her mouth as she begins to shake her head. For the spot where Sunset usually sat to meditate for her ascend, then stood the demoness. A demoness that was hovering over the floor and had turned herself around the second Twilight had opened the door.

“No, this isn’t happening. This isn’t how your legacy ends,” managed Twilight to speak through her hands as the tears only became stronger. “You can’t do this to me!”

“Hmhmhm, oh but I can, Sparkle,” the demoness spoke in return. She raised her hand and formed a claw with her talons. It resulted in Twilight being levitated off the ground by the throat. “You soothsayers always kept this information to yourself, she offers you power greater than anything you can imagine. I don’t want to rule the world, silly. I want it to be like me.”

“But then, she’ll rule, in eternal, d-darkness!” Twilight struggled to say. She tried to get the magical force off of her throat. “Y-You want that?!” Any attempt she did was futile. There was nothing that could be done against the demoness. Twilight was just not powerful enough to beat her.

“If that’s going to be the price, this world has to pay... I’m willing to settle the debt. But you, won’t even live to tell that,” the demon of Sunset spoke. Then came a laughter that could be classified as satanic.

“Not on our watch, vile monster!” the voice of Latsyrc all of the sudden bellowed from behind Twilight. The next thing she knew there was a massive zap of magic that ran past her followed by her following to the ground. Her body dropped itself down to her bum, before her head finally hit the stone hard floor.

Fading in and out of her consciousness, Twilight could hear Latsyrc giving the order to Cadence to get her out of there. Only to have it fade into darkness again and felt that force applied on her throat. A force that was becoming more and more realistic.

Chapter XXVIII

The eyes of Twilight widened themselves. The mare was brought back to their own realm and time once more. The realm in which she was pinned down against the wall by the hand of the demoness that was once her friend. I also caused a realization to kick in for just a moment. With her own hands she struggled up the arm of Sunset Shimmer to loosen the grip. But the talons at the end of each finger had drilled themselves right into the stone of the wall.

Escape was impossible unless Twilight could think about something really quickly. Though her mind was busy working on a couple of other things that went through it. Her breathing became less and less as the demoness managed to squeeze the very air out of her throat. Yet amongst the slow suffocation did Twilight manage to speak some words. Albeit them being spoken with a great struggle.

“They, they never, b-banished you. T-They never broke, the deal, as, as they told. I-Instead, they d-dumped you here. B-But I c-can help you. If you, a-allow me!” the soothsayer exclaimed in a struggle. Her breath only became shorter and shorter. Time wasn’t truly on her side and she knew that fact. It was almost too late, almost.

The eyes of the demoness narrowed themselves and they gazed deep into those of Twilight. A growling snarl was then released from whatever remained of the creature’s soul. “You, helping me?” she spoke in a snarl. Her tail flicked itself from side to side like a whip ready to strike. “You would rather help me to see me six hooves below the dirt! No Sparkle, you choose your side a long time ago. And it isn’t the right one.”

“A-At least l-let me try!” Twilight exclaimed to Sunset. She struggled even more to lighten the grip around her throat. It was a shame that her skin was already a shade of purple, otherwise Sunset could have seen her enemy becoming that very color. Very little air was allowed into the lungs of the soothsayer as the demoness gained a satanic grin across her lips.

“You never wanted to help me when I asked. Look where it got me now, Sparkle. In perhaps a strange way, I am your creation!” What happened next was that a devilish laughter filled the room before the face of the demoness was brought even closer to Twilight. The flaming pattern of the hair and the fire red skin, accompanied with the irises, it was a true fuel for nightmares. The worst of all had to be the fact that Twilight couldn’t look any other way.

The tip of the demoness’ wings even had horns or perhaps even the very bones that stuck out at the very end of them. They looked dangerously sharp but weren’t long enough to lethally impale another anthrony without dangers for the user. What they could be doing though was leave a nasty flesh wound from the looks of it. But it was nothing from that happened to Twilight.

Twilight continued to gasp for air. The wings drilled into the wall so that the unicorn could only look right at the demoness. The unicorn’s world had become a whole lot smaller. Yet the words of Sunset’s demon form being her creation was something she never could have expected to come.

“I, I didn’t, make you! You, made a deal with her!” the soothsayer managed to say. The struggle to get loose still wasn’t won or lost, it was still going on all of its fury. She remembered the day all too well, the day that it actually happened. Every minute and every single second she still had the sights burned on her retina.

“Wrong,” the demoness whispers in a hiss. A hiss that showed her serpent tongue. “You could have stopped me, for I saw you standing at the doorway that time. You just watched as she turned me into this. You wanted to know, what would happen, didn’t you?” The words that Sunset spoke were just about the most pure venom that there was.

Something must have had deluded the mind of the demoness over the years she had been living in banishment. Sunset must have remembered the events in her own way. A way that was a whole lot more self-centered instead of objectively. “You think it was a mere coincidence that you stumbled upon me?” she hissed towards the soothsayer. The demoness retracted her face just a little bit. The other hand rose itself up as it curled up into a position to hold a ball of fire.

“No Sparkle, I lured you here. You couldn’t resist the tones of an old friend calling your name in the dark words of old,” continued Sunset before the grin returned just as devilishly. In her palm could it be found. A ball of fire that was ready to almost literally be shoved down Twilight’s throat.

The violet rims of the unicorn glanced over the ball and she could see her end within it. It terrified her to the point where she began to cry. The powerful soothsayer had begun to cry like a foal in that moment. Which in return managed to amuse Sunset Shimmer. All the way to the point where she balled her fingers into a fist which vanquished the ball of fire.

What she did next was to deliver a massive punch forward. Twilight noticed the motions happen and closed her eyes with force. She began to wait for the impact to happen. The next thing that could be heard was that of stone being shattered as pieces of the granite wall fell down to the ground. For just a moment didn’t Twilight have any feeling going through her. Everything within her body had gone numb as she feared the worst.

She never dared to open her eyes again. For within her own mind she thought to have actually departed from their world to the very next. But then she was brought back to reality. For that haunting and strangely seductive voice of the demoness filled her ears. “I’m your worst nightmare, and you, of all beings, you shall burn with me.” After the words had been spoken could Twilight feel the serpent tongue traveling down one of her cheeks.

“N-No!” Twilight managed to say. She was literally at the last inches of her breath. The unicorn happened to be just so close to suffocation as even more force was applied to her throat. The struggle on the other end had been seized the moment she noticed the first of Sunset traveling into her way.

"What?” Sunset asked when she watched how Twilight opened her eyes again. The mare looked through her hair into the eyes of the demoness who could see a strange glance within them. Not one that managed to actually scare her, but at least got her worried by a little bit.

“I shall never, burn with you,” the soothsayer managed to say both loud and clear. Of course was it a thing that not even Sunset had actually expected to happen. Yet the words also caused her to become perhaps a whole lot more angry that she needed to be. For right after the words had been caught in her ears could the burning sensation be seen in her eyes.

She had the chance to snap the neck to the unicorn right there and then. To end years of mental torment once and for all. But that was too easy. Taking Twilight hostage and take her magic like that was too easy. No, Sunset was a feisty demoness. She wanted her enemies taken down in the glory of battle itself. She felt that she needed to work to end the life of the other unicorn.

“You shall, burn with me!” the demoness shouted as the forces applied to Twilight’s throat only became greater. Yet the talons managed to cut themselves through the stone and get an even greater hold of the mare. “I’m your worst nightmare, and you… You are my great triumph!”

“N-Never shall I, b-become something like, t-that,” brought Twilight out. She still looked through her own mess of hair into the eyes of the demoness.

“Let’s see about that for ourselves!”

The wings of the demoness were taken out of the stone wall in a split-second before the deed was done. With a powerful motion of her arms, had Sunset Shimmer managed to throw Twilight across the room. The landing place for the soothsayer was one that could have been a whole lot more comfortable though.

The place she landed into was nothing else but the system of pipes that the organ carried. Twilight could ready herself for the impact all she wanted, it wouldn’t have made any difference though. The pain that was then racing through her when one of the pipes acted like a blade of some sort. What happened was the deafening sound of the metal pipes clashing against each other that was sent through the room.

A thing that didn’t even manage to budge Sunset Shimmer out of the way. She just wanted to see Twilight Sparkle dead for once. The body of the unicorn dropped itself down to the keys of the instrument as both of her hands actually managed to slap right into them. It released a hellish sounding sound that came through the distorted arrangement of metal pipes. The sound of a ghost howling or somepony yelling itself to death was released into the world. Or perhaps even nails going over a chalkboard was sent into the room and far beyond that.

~~~~

The company of four mares had been wandering around the castle to the best of their abilities, yet hadn’t found a single clue of Twilight. After minutes of searching through the interior of the place could they all be found in the room with the strange, cobweb covered altar. Rainbow Dash had taken position on one of the stone orbs as the others just stood there while looking around themselves.

Only Applejack was pacing up and down in a pondering manner. She knew that Twilight couldn’t have been all that far away. Rarity even told her she caught a sniff of Twilight’s magic in the hallway they came through. “Ah can’t believe this, all this way and she’s just vanished from the face of the earth!” the admiral exclaimed.

“Happens all the time at sea, dear, you know that just as well as I do,” replied Rarity then. She was cleaning her flintlock a little bit during the calm. It was perhaps the only thing she could be doing to either not annoy anyone else or to constantly think about Twilight’s or their land’s fate.

“This is different, Brittenburg,” said Applejack in return in a normal tone. They really seemed keen in keeping their truce alive for as long as it was needed. “The sea’s constantly shifting, drifting us apart. Land, doesn’t do that. Well, usually.”

“Like any of this was normal to begin with,” muttered Rainbow Dash to them. She leaned her body against another stone orb. An orb that surprisingly laid well against her upper back and therefore was the most perfect backside.

“I’m not even going to discuss that,” the doctor mumbled to herself. She lowered herself down to the foot of the altar and leaned against that. With her legs laying lengthways over the floor and her hands resting upon her belly, she thought to have had an almost perfect view of the situation.

Though nothing could have prepared them for the things that would be coming next.

Applejack was pondering, Rarity was cleaning and both of the pegasi were resting. Out of nowhere did the distorted sound of the organ penetrated itself through the walls. All of the anthronies got the scare of their lives because of it. They hadn’t even the faintest of clues of just where the haunting and terrifying sounds actually came from.

When the air became calm again, Fluttershy was shivering and curled together. Rainbow Dash had been knocked off of her place, both Applejack and Rarity looked at each other with a look of questions. “You think..?” Rarity dared to ask. She made a motion with her hand pointing down.

“Oh yes, Ah think that,” replied Applejack. Then she got a strange grin going across her face. None of the other anthronies could even know the fact of why she was just that happy after such a devastating sound.

“Alright everypony, time to hit the dungeons. Weapons locked and loaded. We’re going in!” the admiral yelled to them al. Not much later had she drawn both her sword and flintlock. Applejack was the first of the company that got out of the chamber and continued to walk down the hallway. Even though the others really didn’t wanted to head further down, they still had to do it if they wanted to have any hope in finding the one anthrony that got them together.

“All for nothing, and nothing for all!” spoke Rarity with a cocky grin. She readied her other flintlock. Rainbow Dash followed both quick and silent. Fluttershy realized only a couple seconds later that everypony had left. She let out a loud yelp of terror before rushing over to the others.

They would find Twilight, no matter the cost.

~~~~

Speaking of Twilight, the unicorn had managed to stand up from her impact with the organ and held a hand over the right side of her body. Even in her hand she could feel something warm gushing itself out of it. She knew well enough what it was, though she couldn’t die like that or at the hands of the demoness. She wouldn’t allow herself to do such a thing.

“What’s the matter? Feel like you lost something, Sparkle?” Sunset chuckled up before she just showed Twilight a toothy grin. Then it hit the unicorn. Something was indeed missing from her, something that she needed just so much. Her breath was still out of her control as the eyes began to look around the place. She wanted to speak the words that were on her mind and ask the question yet the sounds just weren’t allowed to leave her. All that she brought forth were groans and moans.

Though she knew exactly what the problem was. She knew exactly what had been missing from her. The thing happened to be her very own staff that had just been gone. The thing was nowhere to be found within the room by the glances that she took around it. The thing seemed to have just vanished into thin air if the mare didn’t know any better.

Luckily she was one that knew better. Her best conclusion was that after the door had been closed, the staff had rolled out. It seemed to have been unlikely but it was literally the only thing that the mare could be thinking of.

But much time to gather up her strength wasn’t given. Sunset Shimmer closed in their distance while Twilight still stood there. Weak, feeble and absent in her mind. Her end could have been right there as the flames began to engulf the hands and forearms of the demoness. “Everything burns with me,” she growled in a demonic voice. Once she had said that, did the signature laughter followed almost up right away.

“Oh just shut up for once, would you!” Twilight managed to return to her as she thought to actually be back in their school time. “Just, shut up!”

But the wish was never granted. The horn of the demoness began to coat itself in the cyan colored magical aura. The next thing that Twilight knew was that they were both engulfed in the light of a teleportation spell. A spell that literally could be bringing the both of them to any given location that Sunset Shimmer wanted.

With Twilight’s own magic still suppressed because of a force field that was set over the room, any changes in directions couldn’t be made. The unicorn could only pray on her life she wouldn’t just be dropped in a pool of lava somewhere inside of Tartarus.

The lights began to fade quicker and quicker, the real world once again too its shape. The mare managed to look around her and inspected the place she was in. Even though her mind was still pretty much like scrambled eggs, she realized that they were still somewhere in the castle. Though where exactly couldn’t be told. All she saw were broken windows and a strange looking altar.

“Mwhahaha, this is going to be all too easy,” the demoness spoke to her. That got the attention of Twilight. With her arms still flaming could the mare only hope that whatever happened next, would be something that was quick.

The soothsayer’s arm never left the bleeding side of hers as her other hand got a tingling feeling into it. That very same feeling told the mare everything she needed to know. For the first time she had been captured by the demoness could a faint smile be found across her lips.

Sunset Shimmer walked once more closer towards Twilight with her hands flaming. They were ready to fire the shots that she want too. Everything was going right according to her plan. She was literally that close of finally exterminating Twilight Sparkle from the face of the land. There was however, one little problem. A little problem that she seemed to have forgotten about.

Her sheer hatred for Twilight Sparkle and years of perfecting her plan in utter isolation had caused her to see one thing not as clear as it should have been. The demoness closed in even further and she almost stood right in front of the mare. Then she pulled her arm back to deliver the fiery punch. “Now, burn with me!” she bellowed up in a sickening tone.

Twilight on the other end was having enough of it all. In the short time that Sunset pulled back would she release a massive blast of magic from her hand. A blast so powerful that it even managed to get the demoness knocked out of the way. Resulting in her finally taking a flight.

The wings of the demoness were then spread again. She made a controllable flight out of the unexpected take off. With no roof anymore above them was the sky not the limit anymore. Yet the eyes of the monster gazed down to Twilight and noticed how both the hand and the horn were coated within the raspberry magical aura.

“How, how’s this possible!? You shouldn’t be able to use it!” Sunset yelled down to her. The anger was already building itself up. Anger that Twilight hadn’t seen in a long time by any being and she could also see the flames taking their shape again. Except that time they covered the whole body of the demoness.

Though Twilight did have an explanation of why she could use her magic again. One that actually was quite logical in her eyes. Which on a deeper level of her mind, made the thought of why she hadn’t been killed in the room with the organ. “Your shield of disabling magic only works on your room. But I don’t think we’re in your little hidey hole anymore. Now come on and finish the job for once!” the soothsayer yelled to the demoness as she prepared herself to the best of her abilities.

“You are going to play it like that? Fine. I shall take a bite out of the cake and enjoy slaughtering you. As I said, you are my greatest triumph!” Sunset Shimmer yelled towards Twilight with a serious tone. More and more energy began to coat itself around her horn. The wings of the flaming demon were tucked in behind her back which caused her to fall back down to the ground.

With one massive impact she landed hooves first onto the ground and glanced up to Twilight. “I changed my plans. I don’t just want you dead, I want that head of yours on a mount on my wall,” she growled up towards the soothsayer.

“Bla, bla, bla, you’re a lot of talk, but no bite!” Twilight countered in a nagging tone. It was perhaps stupid to do, the demoness was still too powerful for her. But she knew that one little fact that when Sunset got annoyed. It resulted in her thoughts becoming a lot more scattered with her mind. The equation was that the more annoyed Sunset was, the less she could be thinking straight.

The only problem was still that she could become a real menace with her spell. Too much variables were lingering in the mind of the unicorn as she hoped for her plan to work. But the thing that she next was something she hadn’t really expected to be found.

Sunset Shimmer then had drawn an arcane blade out of the ground. A blade that soon enough began to coat itself in the flames as the blare portion itself was this vibrant cyan blue coloring. A blade forged out of hatred caused the soothsayer to gulp a little bit. She had to fight that, as it was being handled by an angry demoness, while she was hurt.

“Just another manic Monday,” mumbled Twilight before she conjured up a shield to block the slashes of the blade.

Sunset hacked and whacked to the best of her abilities in order to break the arcane shield. Though the two powers cancelled each other out every time. Yet with each swing that was being made could Twilight feel the literal heat of the moment. The scorching flames of the sword came dangerously close to her with every single slash.

Even though her shield had a great difficulty. For it felt like it was being burned to a crisp. The horn of the soothsayer constantly charged itself up and released blasts of all kinds of magic. Ice, fire, stone even and telekinesis were among those shot right at Sunset Shimmer. Yet the demoness showed little to no actual interest in them. She avoided them before coming right back at the unicorn at the snap of a finger.

“Just die for once!” Sunset snarled to her ex-friend. She forced the blade further and further into the shield. Though Twilight wouldn’t budge one bit. Her legs had been covered in the stones of the floor which made her technically a part of it in order to keep herself upright.

“Oh trust me, you will find out I’m not that easy to get rid of. Then again, you never paid much attention to me after the first year,” countered Twilight with a little bit of a struggle inside of her voice. The near constant hacking of Sunset’s arcane sword would bring its toll in the end.

~~~~

Someplace else in the ancient and broken down castle did the company of four mares walk at the tips of their hooves. Silent and quickly they maneuvered themselves through the remains of the staircase on which Twilight had gone down from easier. Rarity was the one anthrony who could use her horn to light up the area.

The brilliant sapphire blue aura was being cast in front of them and around them. Light wasn’t a problem for them anymore. It was only the things that were hidden among the darkness that concerned the lot of them. Each of them had their weapons drawn and ready to face the impossible when needed.

Step by step did they came closer to the closed door that was leading to Sunset’s room. The room that had the shield around it. The closer they had gotten there, the more Rarity’s own magic began to conflict with something. The lights of her horn began to flicker an unusual amount of time after each other. Something that caused the attention to be caught by all of the others.

“What’s the problem, Rares? Can’t even keep up a simple light anymore?” Applejack asked in a manner that could be seen as joking. But Rarity knew that she was dead serious on the manner. The unicorn just shrugged a little bit before she gestured for them all to stand back just a little bit.

Once they had cleared the area for her, one of the arms was stuck out in front of her as the hand formed a gripping pose. Almost as if she wanted to hold something that came from the arcane. “You sure ‘bout what yar gonna be doing?” Applejack then asked to her. The admiral wondered what would happen next. Something that each of them actually thought about.

“Applejack, if I wouldn’t be sure, I wouldn’t be doing this. I just hope I don’t wake every living thing down here,” replied Rarity just before she shushed the group. It was most likely her moment to shine and there couldn’t be made one single mistake. The hand coated itself within the magical aura as well before the entire arm began to shake a little bit.

Enormous amounts of magic were rushed through the unicorn. Somewhere in the darkness it could be heard moving. Something clattered against the stone in a rapid manner as if it would have been coming their way. None of them knew what to expect, but suddenly the sounds stopped and all that could be heard was a whoosh into the air.

Which was followed up by the sounds of something impacting against an anthrony. The body of Rarity fell down to the ground and her magic was cut short. With no light to guide them, the others couldn’t have done anything to help her. All they knew was that they could be making it worse than it already was.

Seconds it remained dark until something began to give off a shimmer of light. An orb began to faintly light itself within the raspberry colored magic. It faded in and out of existence for some time until it finally just caught the vibe. A sudden burst of light illuminated the whole hallway again. What then revealed the scene to the other anthronies.

None of them had ever imagined just what had happened but they could picture it all pretty well. Rarity’s nose was bleeding heavily and on her chest laid a staff. Most likely had she called upon the thing. But instead of appearing in her hand, it rushed past it and hit her right in the nose.

The more Rainbow was looking down at the design of the staff, the more she began to recognize the shape. Fluttershy hurried herself over to Rarity in order to help her. But she was quickly ‘pushed’ away as the unicorn didn’t require her help.

“Hey, isn’t that staff..?” Rainbow started. Everypony then took finally a good look to the thing. The shapes it carried were familiar to all of them. There was no mistaking it.

“Ah think yar right, partner,” said Applejack. She had confirmed the thoughts. Fluttershy just went wide eyed as Rarity’s fingers coiled up around the handle of the staff. “It’s Twilight’s.”

The other unicorn continued to gaze over it with an expression of the unknown carried within them. She couldn’t be tying the ends together one bit. It just didn’t make sense to her. She wiped the blood away from her lips before just hung her head backwards.

“What I don’t get is this,” stated Rarity from the awkward position, “why would Twilight leave her own staff here? It just doesn’t make sense to me. The way she held it in the forest, it almost seemed that they were inseparable.”

The horn of the mare charged itself up once again. It created a mixture of raspberry and sapphire blue light that was being irradiated down the hallway. What followed a was a deep groan from the mare as she set the bones right back in her nose and closed the veins that were bleeding. Something that wasn’t all too happy to listen to but it had to be done for the right reasons.

They all wanted to return topside again and continue to argument as a massive explosion knocked them all right back on their hooves. Terror took over as they all looked at each other with scared expressions. Just the sheer volume was enough to get them all worried. “Ah think we better go,” said Applejack with a worried tone.

All of the others hadn’t really too much trouble following that very advice.

~~~~

The company rushed over to the hall they had taken a rest through before and they noticed the lights of fire which came out of the chamber. It was without a single doubt that they had to be there. The light that the staff irradiated only seemed to have become stronger the more topside they went. Twilight must have been there.

They all rushed into the room and stood just there for a moment or two as they saw the demoness for the first time in their lives. Fear took them over before all of their flintlocks were pretty much fired. Shots were fired at a demoness who had struck down Twilight and wanted to deliver the final blow.

The musket balls were flying all around her ears, piercing through her wings and overall just being a massive annoyance. The creature turned its head over to the mares and noticed they had the sheer amount of numbers.

There was only one thing that she could be doing and that was to actually make a retreat for her life. “This isn’t over!” Sunset shouted towards the lot of them. She then shot away not one, but two massive fireballs into their direction. Only after that she just faded out of existence, waiting for another chance to end the life of Twilight Sparkle.

The company was then split up into two little groups to avoid the fires of hell. Fluttershy rushed herself over to Twilight with Rarity. Nopony else wanted to get close to the struck down mare as both Applejack and Rainbow Dash set up a safe distance. They feared that every single moment that monster could have returned and gotten for them.

The last thing they wanted was that the demoness would be getting another finger on Twilight. From the looks of it, the being already had enough fun with her. The doctor of the group quickly inspected the damage that was done. She shook her head to Rarity. “It’s hopeless, she’s both impaled and burned. She needs a lot of rest and time to recover.”

All of the sudden there was a cough that came from the mulberry unicorn. The other two anthronies laid her on her back with care. They began to listen to the words that were being said to them. “She isn’t, a, a Dark Witch,” managed Twilight to say through her coughing.

For Fluttershy it actually was just about the most perfect moment. Even though she didn’t have the needed gear to properly help the wounds, there was enough around her to get a temporary fix. “Keep her talking, Rarity, I need to get some things. Make sure she stays with us and give me that staff!”

“Alright, alright, no need to become the tempered one,” answered Rarity before she gave the staff to Fluttershy. Who on her own terms began to think if the staff could be used to actually open the void storage and get everything she needed. It was of course a longshot, but that was most of what they did in the first case.

“She’s a, a league of her, of her own,” coughed Twilight. Rarity began to stroke the side of the soothsayer’s face. Both hot and cold constantly shifted from one another as the mare continued her story. “She never paid her price, to the dark mistress, their deal was never, t-truly settled.”

“Ah, it’s working!” Fluttershy spoke happily. She had managed to open the void storage. Then the quest for her gear began and therefore the actual treating of Twilight. “Everything is going to be alright. Just give me the time to fix everything. Applejack! You’re up next.”

“Just make it quick, Ah don’t wanna stay here more than needed. This entire stinking forest is giving me the creeps,” the admiral replied sternly before a shudder went over her spine.

“Understood,” replied Fluttershy. The task of helping both anthronies laid before her. It was the first time to show them all just what she was capable of. Whether or not she actually would have been able to help the both of them in such a short amount of time remained to be seen.

“Well, here goes nothing,” the doctor said. She prepared herself for the pedicures to be made.

Chapter XXIX

“Twilight, are you sure that you’re alright? I mean, it’s a nasty cut that you have made there. Last thing we need is an infection spreading itself through it. It could kill you stone dead!” Fluttershy exclaimed in a dead serious tone. A tone that most of them hadn’t heard coming out of the mare before. Though they didn’t have their first serious medical incident yet. There was a first for everything and Twilight just happened to be that.

“I suggest that you stay calm here for a bit of time. She isn’t coming back!” It didn’t matter if she was talking to an actual wall or Twilight herself though. For the unicorn didn’t gave it any sound. She shrugged the words spoken to her off. Instead she just stood there with a stare of infinity.

She stood by a broken down window and gazed upon the world outside. The bandages that went around her body were treating the wound nicely. But the blood was still coming out of it. Something that caused the whole place to just become red. Though it didn’t bleed as heavily as before.

“I give up. It’s like talking to a deaf anthrony,” muttered Fluttershy to herself. Then her arms went cross over each other and turned her attention away from Twilight. Fluttershy wasn’t in the mood anymore to even talk one of the others. The soothsayer was weak, covered in patches that were filled with ice in order to prevent the burned areas from becoming even worse.

Normal fire was already a hell to treat by the doctors. But fire that was produced by the arts of the arcane was something that was a different degree. It even stood above the third degree mark of burns. The yellow skinned pegasus made her leave with a deep sigh in her tone. Yet she was soon enough followed by Applejack.

Both Rarity and Rainbow didn’t gave the scene much attention. For the both of them still feared the dreaded fact that the demoness herself might actually return. A fact that was just as much true for Twilight.

Over the darkness of the night she gazed into the forest. All of its horrors had awoken and were ready to strike out whenever it was desired. Comfortable wasn’t exactly a feeling that went through each of them. The dangers were out there but that same danger could have gone just as easily inside of the castle walls.

The violet rimmed eyes never took off from the area as the purple, arcane light orb of the staff was the only light in the whole castle. Whether they liked it or not, they were basically inviting any harmful spirit to just come their way. Though on the other end, that was perhaps the thing that they would be needing. It was just a crazy thought that rushed through the mind of the unicorn. As well as a couple others. Though there was one in particular.

She scratched her chin a little bit with both the thumb and the index finger before the words finally left her throat. “When the wrong deed is done, for the right cause. Who is to blame?” she spoke up aloud to not only herself, but also the other two mares that were still present. Which resulted in both Rarity and Rainbow gazing upon one another with a literal baffled expression.

Certain points in their own lives they could have placed that very question. Something they never, ever would have expected to be able to. Rarity’s moment was of course when she deserted the navy as Rainbow had so her own little secrets.

"Why, why do you say those words, darling?” Rarity dared to question. With a calm pace had she walked over to Twilight. Even though her trot was calm, there was still that very hint of uncertainty going through her. There was something troubled her as if something had managed to pierce itself through her soul and mess her up good.

The soothsayer then turned herself around to face Rarity in the light of the staff. Yet the words that came afterwards were everything but nice. “Those were the words she spoke to me, before everything just went downhill. Before she became the monster you four have seen today. No, it’s nothing personal. It’s a matter that’s as old as time and space themselves. Perhaps, I shouldn’t be bothering you with my own past. Some things are best left untold until it is time for them to be rev-”

Then were her words cut off as a shot of pain which was sent through the body of the mare. She winched a little bit as she reached for her shoulder. On top of it laid one of the ice packs that was supposed to keep everything as cool as possible. Which it apparently did not for just a couple of seconds. “Hate that fire when it’s used against me.”

“She appreciates the work ya did for her, doc,” said Applejack to Fluttershy. The both of them stood in the hallway. The two of them had separated themselves in order to have a bit of a talk together. A thing that was actually much needed. Though the conversation had been going on for a long time and Applejack happened to be already repeating things.

“I know she does, but she needs to follow my advices,” countered Fluttershy for the almost countless time. It was feeding her up that Twilight didn’t do what she was told when it came down to the medical grounds. “Who’s the doctor here? Me or her?”

“Ah know, Flutters, Ah know. But please calm yarself down. She can handle herself,” the admiral replied. Something that didn’t felt right for the doctor though. Yet a reply was never be able to be given. There was a roar that did its turn through the whole of the castle.

All of the anthronies readied themselves. They took their arms and prepared themselves for the possible battle that would be fought. That was until the words of Twilight actually managed to call in. The words that left the throat of the unicorn were some of the most unexpected of the entire journey so far. “Run, away. Run away!” she shouted while she gestured for them all too leave.

As quick as she could she made her way over to her staff and used it as a third leg for the time being. They needed to get out of there as quickly as they could. They needed to get out of the forest of Everfree as quickly as they could. The sooner, the better.

The lights of the orb on top of the staff faded when the rest of the anthronies left the room. They pulled in both Applejack and Fluttershy without a question asked. Though the admiral was of course a bit slower which resulted in her and Twilight both forming the rear guard for the time being.

Each of them knew they had to go to the Frozen North and they knew exactly where the north laid so anypony could have taken the lead for the moment. Which was a massive, massive relief for the soothsayer. But Applejack couldn’t resist to ask the question of questions. “What’s going on?” she hissed up through her teeth, almost in silence.

The ears of Twilight actually had to perk her ears on the words. At first instance she didn’t even understood them too well, before the lights finally were switched on. “The guards of Everfree, the timberwolves of Tartarus have been released. Their hunting season has begun and on the menu, everything in sight,” the soothsayer replied in the same hissing tone. “To the north we need to head! Use the stars if you… have… to, oh no. No, no, no, no!”

Without a single warning came the whole company to a standstill as they tried to gaze up into the skies above them. But that what they caught in their eyes was everything but the stars. For the entire night sky had just vanished into thin air. Instead had the vegetation of Everfree taken over. No stars to guide them, no road to lead them, they were trapped in the woods with the wolves making their way through.

“Oh this is bad, this is actually, really, really bad,” exclaimed Rainbow Dash while she couldn’t stop flapping her wings. She wanted to just take off into the air and find a route out. Yet doing so meant that she had to leave the company behind. Who knew just what horrors would have happened when she would have gotten back, and which were still waiting on her?

“Oh quiet, you big foal!” snarled Rarity towards the major. She tried her utmost best as well to keep calm in the matter. Though that was also something perhaps a lot easier said than done. They had no direction to go yet, maybe they never would have gotten it in the first place. All they could hope for was that Twilight would be having an ingenious plan of some sorts.

Once it again it was up to the soothsayer to get them out of the mess. Then again, when thought about it clearly did it happen to be Twilight who had gotten them there in the first place. Rarity was one of the first to have figured the little fact out, though she wouldn’t be openly blaming the mare for anything.

“Maybe there’s a spell that I can use,” mumbled Twilight to herself. She tried to channel the magic through her hand and into the staff. Though much time wasn’t granted to her when Applejack yanked her with her. “H-Hey, w-what are you doing?!” she exclaimed. Twilight was taken right out of her much needed concentration.

A worded reply she wouldn’t have gotten out of the admiral. Instead there only was a finger pointing behind her as they ran away as fast as they could. The mare tried to follow the finger to the best of her abilities and gazed in the darkened distance. Only to see just where they were running away from.

Within the darkness of the night it walked, it’s eyes flaming red and haunting like there wouldn’t be a tomorrow. A growl as low as anything came while as the trees moaned when it came by. Twilight had thought the things for impossible, yet the opposing was given right to her.

The very thing that had set its eyes upon the group was nothing else but an alpha timberwolf. Bloodthirsty and ferocious. The creates of the forest knew no mercy and trying to stay ahead of the pack was the only thing that probably could have been saving their very lives.

They ran and they ran through the darkness of the Everfree. The sounds of the chasing timberwolves behind them only became more threatening. Applejack’s leg began to play up again of course. The temporal fix wasn’t designed for such sudden extremes. “Buck it, Ah rather live with a new casing then being eaten alive!” she shouted to herself before she gave off that extra bit of push.

Time was the thing they needed but also the thing they didn’t have anymore. At least not with the speed that the wolves of wood were heading their very way. It was in a literal split second that Twilight had more than enough of the chase and wanted to call it off, her way.

The horn coated itself within the raspberry colored aura as it was channeled through Twilight’s hands and into the staff. The orb began to shine once again a vibrant raspberry color before the unicorn just stopped. “You go ahead, I’ll be back soon!” shouted Twilight to the others.

Luckily for her had they listened and kept on running. Though Rarity was in fact smart enough to ignite her own horn a little bit. The soothsayer herself made from contact with the ground as the wolves came closer. They were only five seconds away from Twilight as the staff was aimed forward and the orb towards them.

What then happened was a massive burst of magic that send the creatures just back to their very basics, twigs and sticks. Their hearts, the beating hearts of moss, leaves and other forest material and magic was left alone by the unicorn. She was on a mission to buy time, not to exterminate them.

One last glance was given over the scene as the lights faded away into the orb would Twilight turn herself around and hoped to see the light of the mare. A light that was literally her shining light at the end of the tunnel.

Though it wouldn’t have been the case. The light which she had so desperately hoped to witness wasn’t there. Though what she did caught was a scent. A scent she hadn’t smelled before actually. A scent that was so strange yet so familiar at the same time. Out of the possible conclusions there was only one that seemed to have been actually likely.

“Oh you clever mare.” Twilight replied to herself as she began her trek again. She would keep going until the source of the scent had been found. That sweet scent of the arcane was one she recognized out of thousands.

Step by step she followed her nose through the darkness of the woods. Following it under branches and over roots, quick as she could. The trail would be cold soon enough and she wanted to have found the other members of the company preferably before that very time.

Time was kind to her, for in the time that she had taken to defeat the beasts of Everfree had the company thankfully managed to stay safe at a certain place. The task that was given to the unicorn was to make it there before anything bad would have happened to her, or them.

Though little did she knew was that another set of eyes were preying upon her. A moderate cyan colored set of eyes were watching from the shadows when she went by. Everything it had gone by was there that vague burst of flames.

~~~~

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy had been running as fast they could have ever done in their lives. They didn’t wanted to be caught and much to their surprise they managed to get on a clearing. A clearing that even had a little source of water streaming down a small creek. It was literally a blessing from the heavens themselves.

If it wasn’t for both Rarity and Applejack becoming just that little bit suspicious about it. “Ya thinking what Ah’m thinking?” the admiral asked over to the pirate captain.

“Haunted forest, wolves chasing our tails after a demon attacked us, all of the sudden there’s a pond of water and open sky? Too good to be true. Don’t drink from it. Understand?” replied Rarity. She added everything together with the help of her fingers. The warning on the other end was given off in a dead serious tone.

Applejack nodded to the words. The streams of sweat could be seen traveling down her forehead. They were tired, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. The whole package was wrapped nice and times four. But the time to think about it just wasn’t there. They still had to get Twilight.

Speaking of Twilight, that was the thought that ran through Fluttershy’s mind. “She knows, which way she needs to be going, right? I mean, we can’t leave her like that, wounded.”

“Of course we can. Really easy actually,” the pirate chuckled up. Though the chuckles ceased almost instantly as she got the cutting glares of every other anthrony. “Okay, okay, excuse me for trying to lightening the mood. Instead I just blew up a powder keg. But to answer your concerns Fluttershy, I have left us a trail for our little soothsayer to follow. She couldn’t have been that far behind.”

In the moment that she spoke those very words, the rustles of the leaves could be heard. They all prepared themselves for another battle to come. They had been through a lot in one night already, why would it have stopped for them right there?

Agonizing seconds ticked away, all of them anticipated just what would have come out of the darkness. The fear of the unknown was the thing that rushed through all of them. They didn’t knew whether or not it would have been Twilight, a pack of timberwolves or perhaps the demon they only had seen for less than a minute.

With the flintlocks ready to fire and the blades eager to stab, the anticipation could be felt clear. Tensions were high when the small wire was almost cut by the blade. Applejack wanted to give the command of opening fire just so badly. Yet she knew in the back of her head that she just had to wait. That was the part that was killing her. Not her steaming leg, as Rainbow Dash actually thought.

Fluttershy had hidden herself behind the army of fighters while her eyes constantly patrolled over the backs of them. The last thing they needed was a surprise attack in the back. Time ticked away at the rate of an hour per second in their minds.

Yet out of the leaves she appeared. Out of the leaves had she finally come to rejoin them. Twilight Sparkle herself had returned to the group to continue to trek. Relief went through each of the anthronies as they just couldn’t describe how happy they actually were. They had their expedition leader back in the group and that was all that counted.

Rarity finally dared to discharge her horn while all of the weapons were sheathed again. They all wanted to know exactly what Twilight had done to the creatures. But none had the guts to ask the question. Something else seemed to have spooked the unicorn already. Another matter on an already long and dreaded night.

The mare walked calm yet hesitant over towards the waters that could be found within the pond. Her eyes were never torn off of it as the words rolled off her tongue. “Has any of you, drunk a single drop of this water?” she asked to them in a dead serious tone.

“Didn’t dare to take the risk. After everything tonight already, Applejack and I decided it was best left untouched,” replied Rarity, who also took another step closer. Her eyes peeked into the flat waters. Not even the wind could have managed to make little waves beneath it.

“Good,” the soothsayer replied. She closed her eyes for just a second and released a deep exhale of relief. “Because you don’t want to drink this stuff. It’s not natural.” That caused the levels of curiosity to actually raise within the other anthronies. “No, stay there. Rarity, you move back as well. I don’t want any more nasty surprises tonight.”

The pirate captain gave a nod before she had one last glance into the waters and saw something that wasn’t her own. Yet at the same time it also was again. It confused the anthrony a whole lot. Within the waters she caught herself wearing a black, formal gown while her reflection also held something in her left hand.

“Go, now,” demanded Twilight to the other unicorn. Taken out of trance, Rarity would shake her head a couple of times before she finally walked back. The other three of them had no idea what was meant with the words or what had been seen within the waters. Either way, they knew it was trouble and that they didn’t absolutely need anymore.

The reflection for Twilight was something a lot more sinister. The longer she stared into her own reflection, the more she noticed how she was changed into a demon of her own. A demon that looked much like the one in which Sunset Shimmer had transformed into. “No,” she whispered to herself just by making the motions with her lips, “that’s not how it shall end. That’s not how my life, shall end. It’s not how it has been either. Yet somehow, a connection between past and future…”

“Twi? Ya coming? Rainbow has found a way out with the help of Fluttershy,” said Applejack in a raised tone to get the attention of the unicorn. Who in return was violently taken out of her concentration, which had distorted the image. One last look was given before she just walked away.

“Yes, yes, sorry about that. It’s just, it’s a long night already and, well, we don’t have everything down on the right path, do we?” the mare pleaded for herself. Both of the pegasi landed back on the ground. Her attention shifted over to the pair of them as the staff was used to lean against. “Please, have some good news,” the soothsayer almost begged them.

Both of the pegasi gave a nod towards her. Which made her look back up in an instant. “Do continue,” added Twilight to her words while the other two remained silent. Rarity just crossed her arms over each other while Applejack placed hers in her side. One in her side and one on top of the hilt of her sword. They were interested in the words that had to be spoken.

“Oh yeah we do. We figured out which way to go. Seems like little Fluttershy here, is also a little stargazer,” said Rainbow with a smile. A pat on the back of the other pegasus was given by her. The pat in return had the effect that Fluttershy almost yelped a little bit too loud for her own liking. “We have to go into that way, if we want to head to the Frozen North.” Rainbow quickly added as she pointed into the direction.

Twilight’s face was almost beaming with happiness from that moment. “Well? What are we waiting for? We have to go that way!” she said to the group as she was almost ready to make her leave. Thankfully it was Fluttershy who held her on her ground as the second part of the words were spoken.

“However, if we take a slight detour, we can be out of this cursed forest by going that way. Set up camp a long way away from here and finally get some sleep,” the major said before she released a great and long yawn.

The soothsayer had little choice but to agree on the plan. If it would have taken them out of the forest, she would just have been happy. There was only one slight little problem with the route that Rainbow had been plotting out for them. Making the trek was calculated in the speed that a pegasus could fly. Not the speed in which an earth anthrony could be walking with.

That was the little something that came biting her back sooner or later.

“Alright then, let’s go. March it, ladies,” spoke Twilight to the company. Only single nods were given to both of the pegasi as silent thanks.

Fluttershy and Rainbow formed the rear guard for a change as the yellow skinned one had one question bobbling up her mind. “Why did you gave me that pat? It hurts!” she whispered through her teeth in the hope that none of the others would be hearing it.

“Hmpf, you’re a pegasus. Supposed to be strong to fly head on in the most strongest of winds,” replied Rainbow almost in a cold voice of her own. “There are so many things I can say to you right now. But I make it my decision to not make my mouth dirty on them.”

~~~~

Finally they couldn’t take another step. They had been reached at their limits and all they wanted to do was just to sleep. Rainbow was called in by Twilight with the question of why they hadn’t reached the outskirts yet. A near pointless and long discussion followed from the two of them until the truth of the matter finally came to light.

The soothsayer could literally just bury the major six hooves below the dirt in that moment of time. Though she managed to maintain her calm, oddly enough. After the help of a couple deep in and exhales she finally was able to stay actually calm in front of the pegasus and signaled all of them to set up their camp there. Though they wouldn’t be building up the tent.

Instead they would be sleeping on the forest floor with nothing but their sleeping bags and their clothing. It was a costly mistake that had been made by the major. One that the whole company all had to pay for. Their hopes were shattered into pretty much nothing.

A watch system was required as Twilight began making a little fire. They all sat or leaned against trunks from trees as the flame of arcane fire actually caused her shoulder to burn again. Another winch of pain was given off by the mare as she levitated the fire to the middle and ignited it.

Though when she ignited it was the pain at its worst. Fluttershy watched every single thing from Twilight’s body happening as it did. Monitoring every last aspect in the hope that it wouldn’t become worse. “Twilight, I suggest that you shouldn’t create fire anymore from your powers. It seems to be standing in direct contact with the burned areas of your body.”

"It’s called ‘arcane fire’ for a reason, Fluttershy. But since you are the one who first opened your mouth, I take it that you want to do the first watch?” the soothsayer said in an annoyed tone that came forth from her lack of sleep.

The yellow pegasus hadn’t even the faintest of ideas on what to do. Though going into an argument with Twilight Sparkle was just one of those things she really didn’t wanted to do. So the only thing that she could be doing was to silently accept the fact that would be having the first watch.

All of the other anthronies went into their bags as they also were just gone like that. The snoring of the four other mares and the crisping of the fires did have an oddly harmonious sound within the ears of the pegasus. Almost as if they played out in the rhythm of the forest. A forest that didn’t wanted them dead for a change of pace.

Even the always so vividly thinking Twilight Sparkle was just gone in an instant. The hurricane of thoughts that used to be racing through her, had just ceased to exist for a moment. Everything was blank inside of her head. All of the systems had just shut themselves down. Rest and peace had finally fallen over the mare, for as long as it would last.

Though while Fluttershy just sat there, watching the forest and getting used to its sounds, she could only pray on the very fact that nothing terrible would actually happen. If the stories were true, they could still be in for a truly nasty surprise. A surprise that was hers to signal through to the others. Which was actually a thing that was a lot easier said than done.

In order to kill just a little bit of the time that she would be sitting there, Fluttershy came up with the idea to hum some songs to herself. The tunes were both quiet and peaceful, yet they managed to reach a far end into the wilderness. The sheer amount of volume that the pegasus had inside of herself was something that wasn’t matched by a lot of things in the world.

The events that followed could have been described as unbelievable. For out of almost every corner of the woods they came. All kinds of critters and smaller animals to see just who was speaking to them within their own languages.

Rabbits, owls, rats, porcupines and hedgehogs were among some of the massive numbers of creatures that all made the journey towards the pegasus. Of course they were scared of her at first. It wasn’t every day that a being from her size was talking to them in their own languages and tongues.

Though the longer the pegasus continued to hum her songs, the more the creatures actually felt themselves to be comfortable around her. They snuggled and tickled her left and right which caused the tunes to be disrupted by a couple of giggles that came forth.

It was just about the most perfect alarm system there was in the whole wide world. If even one of the critters, or all of the creatures would just flat out flee, danger would be lurking right around the corner. Perhaps it happened to be something that the pegasus knew and that was why she used it. Or she genuinely needed the company of the animals to sit through her watch.

Either way did the green rimmed eyes of Applejack looked over the scene from her bag with a smile going across her face. At least one anthrony was having the time of her life in that dreaded forest. The humming of the doctor had woken her up but she didn’t minded it. The tunes that entered her ears were pleasant ones to listen too. Not to mention the little fact that she would be having the next watch anyway.

So all the sleep that she could be getting was welcome. As the humming continued and the creatures managed to gather themselves around the group was everything going to be just fine in the eyes of the admiral. Eyes that began to once again have their troubles to remain open.

The weights that were resting on her eyelids forced themselves down and down until they were closed all of the way. There wasn’t much else that could be done then to just sleep. Sleep for the time being and wait for the call. The call that she had to watch over their little camp site.

The call perhaps came a little bit too early for her liking. The pegasus was softly shaking her inside of the bag. With a groan of annoyance had she opened her eyes again and stared right into those of Fluttershy. Whose rims were actually reflecting off from the arcane fires. The admiral knew exactly what time it was yet she didn’t wanted to.

Only after a full minute of actually hard thinking she managed to get herself out of her bag. With the cold air of the night covering her body all of the sudden, it served as a good wake up call. Though the call quickly faded again as she took her refuge against the tree. She had to stay awake one way or the other.

She had just about the near perfect manner to be doing that. Her own metalized and steam powered leg needed to have some maintenance. She wouldn’t be doing that much during her guard duty, or so she hoped. For all of the creatures were gone after the humming stopped. Which meant that she had to trust upon her eyes and ears if she wanted to survive the night.

Silence took over once more while the quiet snores of Fluttershy were added to the anthronies that were already and still vastly asleep. It was a long night, of an even longer trip. Who could be saying what laid before them the following day?

Chapter XXX

The circulation of the watch continued all the way through until deep in the next day. Even though the sun was already high and shining down bright into the woods of Everfree, the anthrony who was having the last watch decided to have them let their sleep. Major Rainbow Dash was the last of the group to be having the guard shift as she just peeled her eyes into everything that seemed to be just that little bit unusual.

The hours of the morning just ticked away while the sleeping mares had been cutting down the whole of Everfree with their snoring. A sound that was actually highly annoying for the pegasus but also one she could live by. Her spotting point was something a little bit more unusual. For Rainbow made the decision to hide herself somewhere up in a tree. A tree from which it was difficult to spot her but she would be having all the time to look around. As well as being able to see what could be heading their way.

She rather played it safe than sorry and even with the light of the sun that shone down upon her, she still remained difficult to be spotted. Though one thing had to be admitted by all of them, the night was a lot different than they had expected. The calm after the storm was genuinely taken advantage of as the rest of the company still laid vastly asleep.

Only Twilight wasn’t granted the guard watch as she was having her own difficulties to deal with. Being wounded by the devilish creature and hunted by the timberwolves made certain she could be sleeping all night long. Rainbow wasn’t even mad on it. She could understand that Twilight wasn’t the same old as she came her to know.

The magenta red rimmed eyes continued to pry themselves through the vegetation of the forest in the hope to see a sight she had been seeing for a long time already. The calm of the woods. Of course had she seen wolves and even shades of anthronies wandering through the forest, but they all stayed on a relatively safe distance. Their location was known by pretty much everything that lived inside of the woods.

Yet they did have something they didn’t. And that was the light of the sun. The very light that seemed to vanquish most of the dark souls and spirits that wanted to harm the group. The wind that made the leaves rustle was something that comforted the pegasus as well as gave her the chills.

The wind that she felt was the one that came almost straight from the Frozen North itself. Almost as if it was going to repeat the thing that had been done before. Almost as if that same wind would be calling them again, for yet either another problem or revelation. Or in the worst case scenario, it would have been both.

Rainbow got a shiver down her spine as she sat a little more straight upon the branch afterward. “Now that’s just cold,” she mumbled to herself. Her head turned itself gently around. With that was the wind not only blowing into her back but also right in her face. It was without a doubt a good wake up call for not only her but the entire group as well.

Though just below her could Rainbow hear the sounds of the other anthronies finally waking up. Those sounds caused a massive weight to be fallen off of her shoulders as it meant they had come safely through the night itself. The pegasus nodded calm to herself while she thought to have done a rather good and impressive work when it came down to guarding the place. Little did she –or any of them– knew that the forces of Everfree were still preying upon them.

With a couple of quick, swift jumps and her wings, she got back to the forest ground where she silently greeted all of the other mares. Their mumbles of ‘good morning’ weren’t exactly sounding all too happy but it was just another day at their office.

Breakfast was served a little while later. Everypony had managed to make itself up for the day. All of them were widely awake as they either leaned against trunks from trees or sat on them. They had already wasted precious daylight and any further delay would be causing them to sleep yet another night in the hellhole.

Something Twilight really didn’t wanted to at all. The soothsayer herself extinguished the fires with one mighty blow of her hands. The dying fires almost looked sad that it had to leave them after having protected them all night long alongside the watch. Yet Twilight showed little to no mercy.

Eventually she turned herself around to the eating company of mares as the words left her still tired throat. “So today, we need to get out of here as soon as we can. I’m still planning on taking the detour and walk around the last bit of Everfree. Unless any of you objects against it, that is.”

“After what we have seen yesterday? No thanks. Just keep going straight and let’s get out of here.” Rainbow was the first to reply once more. All of the others could have said their own words but the major just spoke the ones that they all had upon their very minds. Which then made it rather pointless to also comment.

“Good, then I, I, ah!” Twilight winched in pain before she fell down to her knees and reached all over her bandages that went around her middle. “Pain, pain, pain, pain!” she exclaimed in despair. Fluttershy knew more than enough.

All of the other anthronies of course wanted help her, though their expertise in the medical field were pretty much zero. Only the doctor held the knowledge with which she could be helping the unicorn. So the yellow skinned pegasus quickly made her way over to her and dropped herself next to her. A strand of hair was placed between both of her ears as she needed to have her eyes completely free from any other obstacles.

“Hey, Twilight, listen to me. You have to lay down. You need to stay flat if you want me to investigate.” Fluttershy’s calm and kind tone echoed through the air and into the air of Twilight. Even though the words happened to be well meant, they weren’t taken that way at all by the unicorn.

“You try doing that, while it feels like you’re on fire!” she snarled towards the doctor. Another winch was being given by her. Fluttershy just rolled her eyes away for a second before she forced the unicorn down with all of her strength.

“Can any of you just hold her for me?! I need to inspect if the wound has been infected,” yelled Fluttershy to the other members of the company. In an instant had they rushed forward in order to get a hold of Twilight. Applejack threw herself on the legs of the soothsayer to prevent her from kicking anypony else. Whereas both Rainbow and Rarity each took an arm. It still left the matter of her head being able to move around.

A little fact that worried Fluttershy as well. She had already began to remove the bandages slowly. The screams and curses that came out of the soothsayer were just painful to listen to for all of them. Luckily she never charged up her magic to zap them all off of her. If they didn’t know any better had the soothsayer actually become afraid of using her very own magic. But the head, the head of Twilight never wanted to stay still.

It was a massive annoyance for all of them and Rainbow was perhaps the only one who actually managed to do something against it. A forearm was placed against the throat of Twilight. Though she never squeezed it down like Sunset Shimmer. It was more meant to keep the head in place instead of suffocating the soothsayer.

“Keep quiet will you!” hissed Rainbow through her teeth towards her. Rarity focused her attention of Fluttershy. Whatever could have happened to the mare, it wouldn’t have been something nice or good.

Slowly but surely were the gruesome details of the wound revealed to each of the anthronies present. The nasty flesh wound that was being made by the organ pipe just didn’t wanted to heal up even as the blood was clotting to seal the wound. The eyes of the doctor went over almost over every single inch of it as she was looking for an infection of some kind.

“What do ya think it is, doc?” applejack asked in a low tone as the legs of the unicorn wanted to just keep on kicking her right in the belly. “It’s bad, ain’t it?”

Yet Fluttershy shook her head from side to side. “Bad it isn’t. Losing a limb or an eye, that’s bad. This is just a minor setback. I don’t see any form of infection luckily, but the pain shouldn’t exist. Unless…” The doctor had come up an idea. One that seemed to have been almost too crazy to actually work. It was a long shot, but they were all running out of options.

She left the body of Twilight with haste and instructed the others to keep it down to the ground. Curses and nasty words were flung all over their ears but they knew they weren’t meant, luckily. Fluttershy then reached for the staff of the unicorn with which she managed to open the void storage again.

Fluttershy was truly lucky to have figured out that it was something that actually worked into her own advantage as she began to search for her medical stuff. Bags were taken out, opened up and searched through until they were finally placed back again. Time and speed were both of the essence as she took a couple of test-tubes from a bag.

Then she closed the storage again with the help of the staff. As quick as she went, she made her way back to the unicorn. The deed that needed to happen next was one from which she wasn’t all too happy about. Yet it was one that needed to be done in order to perhaps save the life of Twilight. Her eyes looked over to Rarity as she asked the question. “Captain, do you know a really powerful light spell, like a flare or anything. But one that can be taken hold of for a long time without being fired.”

The request was something Rarity hadn’t expected to be coming out of the mare her mouth, but she didn’t argue against it. Whether it was liked or not, Fluttershy was in charge for the moment. “Yes, yes I think I might be having one,” she replied with a bit of a struggle. The arm of Twilight wanted to do its own things.

“Good, because I will be needing your help soon enough,” the doctor said before she dropped herself once again next to that of Twilight. One of the three test tubes was being opened and with a deep exhale did Fluttershy just drive it right into the wound.

A scream of agonizing pain was released by the soothsayer as it felt as if vultures were picking from her insides already. “I’ll kill you all for that! Oh just you wait until I’m out of here! The pain I shall give each of you is something you won’t forget!” she growled and snarled up to the other mares. Of course she didn’t mean them but she had no control over anything anymore.

“Yes, yes, yes, just keep quiet!” Rainbow snarled in return . She had almost stepped over the borderline of squeezing the throat shut. But the chance was never given to the pegasus when Fluttershy rose the tubes back up again. All three of them were filled with blood and the three remaining anthronies were looking at it with a curious expression.

“Guess this is where I come in?” Rarity then asked. Fluttershy turned her attention over towards the pirate captain and gave a simple nod. It was indeed her time to literally shine. The doctor reached inside of her coat where she took out a pair of glasses that were unlike any other they had ever seen.

The glasses that were set on the nose of Fluttershy almost looked like they would be fit for a welder of some sort. “You all might to look away or close your eyes really firmly. The light that comes is going to be really, really bright,” she said to the other mares. Rarity lowered her head a little bit.

Applejack and Rainbow couldn’t be doing much else than to just obey to the actions. They both turned their attention away from Fluttershy as Rarity began to charge up the spell. Slowly did the sapphire blue colored magic became brighter and brighter. Almost to the point where it was even whiter than her actual coat.

Rainbow Dash moved her arm from Twilight’s throat and over to the eyes which she blocked off. She placed pressure against as well so that she couldn’t be going any other way. The doctor then turned a couple of knobs upon her glasses before the three test-tubes of blood were held within the light separately and then together.

The pegasus would have taken her sweet time in order to analyze the blood under different settings from her glasses in the hope to throw out a lot of predictions. One by one they were actually eliminated but the eventual conclusion that she came from was one that perhaps wasn’t liked all too much by the others.

One that even endangered the life of Twilight Sparkle herself. As well as showed the utter insanity that was Sunset Shimmer. “She planned it all along. Everything that happened, she must have planned it,” mumbled Fluttershy aloud. She couldn’t believe what she saw inside of the blood.

Each of the tubes was given a long time to be looked at. The light of Rarity revealed the secrets that laid within. Secrets that didn’t exactly made the pegasus happy in the least bit. “Oh this isn’t good… Rarity, can you..?”

Without a further word spoken had Rarity already began to discharge of her horn. Mere seconds later it was safe again for them all to look at the doctor. “It’s not an infection, she’s poisoned or cursed by something. Something that I don’t even know what to think about. Something arcane, that’s for certain. It is mutating her body from the inside out, that is why she’s having so much pain right now.”

Though as Rainbow removed her hand from the eyes of the soothsayer. They looked like the eyes of a demon for just a couple of seconds. The major stared down into those very same eyes before she saw them literally changing back into the normal sized eyes again. Whatever was happening to Twilight, it wasn’t going to be pretty in the least bit.

“Ah, girls. I think, Twilight might be turning into that thing she fought. The eyes, they, they kinda looked the same, for just a moment,” stated Rainbow almost immediately to the rest of the group. All of the eyes were aimed at her. Fluttershy rushed herself over towards the soothsayer’s head, she had to confirm it.

“W-What did you do to get the conclusion, to get the eyes like…” With a couple of oddly funny looking hand gestures she explained what she wanted to see. As Rainbow Dash actually managed to get it and did it again. Though that time for a whole lot shorter.

Once the hand was again removed from the eyes were the demonic pupils visible for only a fraction of a second. That was something that concerned Fluttershy a whole lot more all of the sudden. “Oh this isn’t good at all,” she said to herself. Applejack and Rarity were left quite literally touching the dark. Though before either of the two could have even asked about what was going on, Fluttershy was giving them the answer.

The glasses were taken off of her nose and placed back inside the pocket of her coat. She stood up and began to pace up and down near the head of the unicorn, who managed to actually have calmed down her struggling. Either she realized it didn’t help, or the pain that surged through her body had laid down a whole lot. Either way were the other anthronies very happy that she remained quiet.

“Believe it or not, but Twilight is turning into one of those horrid creatures we saw her fighting against. I don’t, I don’t have the solution for that on the spot. If there even is one to begin with actually.” Fluttershy spoke up as she released a deep sigh afterwards.

Though deep within the mind of Twilight did the conflict just rage one again and again. The memories that she was forced to live through time and time again almost seemed to be more devastating than the fact that she was slowly turning into a demoness. The mental image of Twilight went past the memory of her standing next and staring into the pond of water where she saw it. Her own demoness form in the same fashion as Sunset Shimmer.

It was unbelievable that that puddle of water actually held the power to look right into the future. A fragile looking future that was actually about to become a reality. Though her mental image even dared to travel further backwards. All the way back to the moment just before she tore herself open on the organ pipe. For that was the very moment in which the unicorn realized that everything had gone wrong.

Never had the blade of Sunset pierced through her body and never could the balls of fire have had the power to infect her. So the only logical –yet at the same time illogical– explanation for the whole thing was that either all of the organ pipes were coated within the poison, or just the one she crashed into.

It was a conclusion of madness of course. But it was the same madness in which Sunset Shimmer had actually fallen into. The poison was something that came from the depths of Tartarus, possibly even created by the devil herself. Otherwise had the demoness become even more powerful than Twilight could have ever imagined her to be.

Then she was knocked back into the there and then again. The body of the unicorn began to spasm just a little bit as bit as she regained control over all of her muscles. She had to fight the transformation and actually manage to get the stuff out of her body. There was only one way that she knew that could be helping her to purify her body. A way that wasn’t all too harmless either.

“N-Not on my, w-watch,” the mare managed to say in a weakened tone. The attention was again shifted over to the unicorn. Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack loosened their grips on the mare. “I shall not, b-become, like, like you. I won’t, become… your triumph.”

None of the mares knew exactly what she was talking about, but they all had a pretty good guess as of what she was aiming for. It was the real Twilight Sparkle who said to those words against the air. The two anthronies who held her arms offered their hands to slowly rise the mare back up into a sitting position which was taken all too thankfully.

“Keep fighting it, Twilight, do whatever you have to do,” said Rainbow. Applejack almost felt herself just a bit useless. But then again, none of the others did have a steam powered leg that could literally break at any given moment. They were far from getting out of harm’s way and they all knew that little fact.

“My staff, I need my staff to c-channel the magic, purify the poison flowing through… Ah!” The unicorn began to winch once more. The pain shot through her body and down her spine. It knocked every single nerve out of her for just a fraction of a second. Twilight had in fact been dead for that fraction of a second. For nothing in her body worked in that small instance of time. Not her muscles, not her heart and not her brain. It was only because of the high currencies of arcane power surging through her that she managed to get back into the land of the living.

All of the others held the mare to the best of their abilities as Applejack rushed over as fast as she could. The admiral looked around for the staff before she finally found it on the spot where Fluttershy left it.

She then rushed back and gave the arcane tool to Twilight. From that moment on they could only hope that the mare would be able to recover. Yet in the meantime had Fluttershy really quickly managed to change the blood soaked bandages with a set of new ones. All of them were actually surprised to even see it. “When..?” Rarity began to wonder before she just made the decision not to question it.

The staff was finally back in the hand of its rightful owner, who thanked Applejack with just a simple nod. Words couldn’t be released from her mouth when she struggled to get up. But she did get up under her own powers and strength. Something that the other hadn’t expected her to be doing that quick already. Though they had to admit that they were glad she could be doing it.

With both of her legs trembling did stood Twilight just there. Her eyes looked over each member of their little company before a deep sigh was released. Those very same eyes then closed themselves for a couple of seconds as the question wasn’t asked. But the knot was just cut in half. The decision had fallen upon Twilight and she was determined to do just that.

“Pack up girls, we keep on trekking,” the soothsayer said. It was a thing that caused the lot of them to actually raise their eyebrows high. Never had they expected that the weakened Twilight would have been even able to make the journey further out of the forest. Never had thy expected that she even wanted to continue traveling the way they would be doing.

With one flick of her horn was the void storage opened again. The sleeping bags were rolled up. Fluttershy didn’t found it a great idea to begin with. Which she then addressed to the soothsayer. “Are you wanting to be killed here, Twilight?!” she exclaimed in a whisper to the mare with the mulberry skin.

Only then did the eyes of the mare turn themselves over to Fluttershy. Twilight’s lips gave off a weak smile. “Oh Fluttershy, I’m weak, feeble. This forest, is going to be my death if I don’t, if I don’t get out of here soon. I heard what Rainbow said, my eyes turn already once exposed to darkness. Can you image, can you image what would happen to me, if I stayed here for just another day?”

Those words were more than enough to silence the pegasus. The scenarios went through her head as vivid as ever before a deep shiver was send down her actual spine. “I, I see your point.” Within her eyes could the terrified expression already be found. She was terrified for her life that Twilight would eventually turn into a demoness and side with the other. Making them a near invincible team to wreak havoc in Equestria.

“It’s going to be alright, doctor. I just, need to purify, my body. Send the corruption, to my stomach and then, well, one of two ways actually,” said Twilight while she gained a shiver as well. Luckily she knew a little bit of how to be getting the arcane poisoning out of her body, but she never had been actually having to do it. Until then. Something just didn’t feel good about doing it in the first place but it had to be done. No matter the cost.

~~~~

Time had passed by them as if it was nothing. The group was once again wandering through the forest. With all of their weapons locked and loaded were they again ready to tackle any enemy that came their way. Though they weren’t looking for trouble in the first place. Instead they wanted to just out of the forest and get as far away as possible before the evening would be setting in. They gave themselves until the moon would rise again to travel just to be sure.

They could only have hoped that after it, they would have left the forest behind them. Though as their eyes looked deeper and deeper into the darkness of the woods, they began to realize more and more just what horrors could be found within them. The darkness wasn’t the thing that they were afraid of, with the exception of Fluttershy that was. The rest of them were a whole lot more scared about the things that could be found within the darkness.

What kind of horrors were lurking for them behind it? What kind of troubles from their past could be found and perhaps above all, what enemies could be made? Yet they had the luck on their side that they consisted out of three abled anthronies that knew their way with their weapons as well as an almost fully disabled unicorn with a staff. They were a dangerous lot to cross and fighting would ensure of even one thing as much dared to go after them.

It was perhaps the safest to travel in the numbers that they did, but it never ceased the fear that was traveling through their eyes and hidden deep inside of their hearts. Fears that caused the trees to moan within the wind as they moved in and out of their positions.

They just needed to get the hell out of there as fast as they could. Rainbow’s route was still the quickest and the pegasus took off into the skies every so often to inspect whether or not they were still going the right way. Not to mention whether or not there was any form of trouble that laid ahead of them.

Though every time when she landed were the two questions asked by the same anthrony every single time. The question of whether or not they went the right way, and if trouble laid ahead. Yet the answers were almost every single time the same. They were going the right way and trouble didn’t seem to be lying ahead of them.

Though it was easier said for Rainbow then for them to find out. The pegasus rose of course over the leaf covered tops of the trees which means she had not a single of what was actually hiding within the vegetation. Maybe it was for the better that they didn’t knew what laid in front of them.

Twilight on the other end was still busy purifying her body. All of her arcane powers were was focused upon both her body and the staff. The staff was used to store the cleaned blood for a little while before it was pumped back into her heart. Yet all the pieces of the corruption were sent down to her stomach. There they combined itself with the acid that laid within it. It made her nauseous for certain but it was the price that she needed to pay in order to be cleansed. It was a lot better than becoming a demoness for certain. At least in her eyes it seemed that way.

Rarity and Fluttershy couldn’t help themselves but to also keep a watchful eye over the other mare. They always looked at her from two sides. Though their pace had come down to a snail’s pace. But they were at least advancing forwards. That alone made the whole thing just worth it in their own eyes.

A couple minutes further down the makeshift road began to Twilight to feel herself both better and worse, at the same time. The time was there and her blood had been filtered from the corruption. It was a sickening process to begin with that would only have been gotten a whole lot worse. The throat of the unicorn seemed to have been on fire. The stomach wasn’t really liking the amounts of corruption that it held and just wanted to throw it out. In the only way it knew how.

Quickly did Twilight look from left to right before she left the group alone and ran off somewhere in the bushes. All of them glanced right after her. They wanted to go after her until they heard the gross sounds that came from behind the bushes. The sounds of somepony throwing up was never a pleasant one and Twilight confirmed that very thought.

A couple more hurls and splashes could be heard before the eerie silence had once again returned. But Twilight hadn’t yet. It scared off the other a little bit. They wondered just what would have happened to her. Fears and horrors once again began to consume their hearts as worries filled their minds.

Nopony spoke a word while all of them were prepared to deliver the blow if it was needed. They were ready to fight the demon that could appear at literally any given second. Seconds seemed like minutes in their eyes as the anticipation was becoming dreadful.

Then she appeared. The unicorn soothsayer finally appeared out of the vegetation with a smile that went pretty much from ear to ear. All of them lowered their arms as the sighs in relief actually followed right away. They were just so glad that it wasn’t the demon that stood before them. And from the looks of it seemed Twilight to be cured.

“So, you doing better now?” Rainbow Dash asked her with a tilted head. She never stopped inspecting the unicorn to see whether or not it would have been actually her. It was something that the others couldn’t deny her. But they all knew that it was the real Twilight who stood there.

The soothsayer gave a nod towards the pegasus. “I think I am. My blood has been filtered and every last bit of corruption has left my body as far as I know. I think I’m all ready and set again. However, I did save one little thing.” She then held up a little test tube of her own that was filled with a black goo. “This, is what caused me to change. I need to analyze it once this all is over. To prevent any other innocent anthrony to be turned into one of those beasts.”

“A noble cause indeed, Twilight,” replied Rarity. She gave the mare a genuine impressed nod. The rest of them were just horrified that Twilight had picked up some of her corruption.

“Thanks Rarity, but I think it is best for us that we finally continue to our destination. I don’t want another night in this place.” Those words could be understood by all of them as the soothsayer quickly hid the tube again out of their eyes. Of course there was still the stab wound that concerned her, but that was wound made in her flesh and one that would be healing itself over time.

In the late afternoon had they finally managed to do it. They had finally managed to themselves out of the dreaded forest of Everfree. Each member of the company of extraordinary mares stood on top of the same hill. Their eyes looked over the setting sun as the winds of ice blew in their faces once more. They were heading into the right direction again.

Behind them laid the forest of dangers and nightmare fuel. But before them, before them laid the never-ending plains of Equestria. Plains that could be going into a literal eternity before they would be cut off by the mountains that separated the parts of the land.

With the wind that blew through their hair, stood each of them in a different pose looking over to the plains. All seemed to be smooth sailing from that point onwards. But they all knew that once they hit the mountains of the north, the smooth sailing would have become a massive storm. But for the time being, they took the time to savor the moment. They would just watch over the near endless beauty that their land to offer in the setting sun.

Chapter XXXI

They had seen the plains after they had escaped the clutches of the wood of Everfree stetching before them. Now the company had been wandering over them. Their pace was set in a low gear. A thing done because the leg of Applejack still needed to be fixed. Running was something that they couldn’t be doing, let alone give a couple of sprints. Then again, it wasn’t really needed for any of the mares within the company to run away from something on those plains.

Neither the hills nor the plains were a thing that gave little to no danger. Yet not a single and actual road ever came in their sight. Pinpointing their position was another thing that was a lot easier said than done for each of them. All that they knew for certain was that they would stop when the darkness came in and that they would be heading north. How far into the frozen wastelands they would be traveling still remained a matter unknown.

Not even Twilight knew just how far they had to go into it if they wanted to reach Cadence and get some form of information about the whereabouts of the deepest caverns in Equestria. Yet her mind couldn’t stop pondering as the fear for an earthquake actually hitting them where they walked was something that was always present.

“At least we would be quicker to the possible source,” the soothsayer mumbled to herself before she gave another winch of pain. One of her eyes were shut with force while the shot of pain made her come to a standstill. Rarity was leading the company for the time being. In the corner of her eye she caught the events with Twilight.

Both Applejack and Fluttershy rushed themselves over towards the mare and asked whether or not it had gotten any worse. But the soothsayer just told them that she needed to take it easy. Her body had a lot of work for itself if it wanted to heal the stabbing wound. “Why don’t you heal the wounds with a spell?” the pirate then asked. She was wanting to continue the way forward. They just couldn’t do anything else then to follow the lead of the ivory anthrony.

The words of Rarity weren’t falling into the right places for the other three mares. Twilight released a small huff as she straightened her body again. The other two knew that it would be alright again and slowly formed the rear guard again. Applejack needed to know a couple of things about her leg before Fluttershy would be acting as the very mechanic of the thing once more.

Twilight on the other end made her way forward towards Rarity where they engaged themselves into an argument from unicorn to unicorn. “Because, missy know-it-all, I really don’t think magic would be the right instance to speed up the healing rate of my own body. Not after having fought a demoness of all creatures,” the soothsayer almost hissed through her teeth.

Only to get an almost stone and stone cold glare from Rarity as she returned the words in the manner she looked. “Well maybe you shouldn’t have darted off like you did? What did you wanted to achieve anyway? You knew that forest was hunted and harmful right? Yet you manage to just run away on your own. That’s asking for trouble, soothsayer.”

“Something you have experience with,” muttered Twilight under her breath before she returned the words of Rarity, “I thought, I hoped, that the sixth member of the company actually would have been Sunset Shimmer. That somehow she had seen the light as well and was wanting to work with us for a change. I do suppose that dreams, will be dreams”

The words that entered Rarity’s ears caused her to fall silent. She hadn’t thought about the two having a history together. At least that was the thing that she made out of it from the spoken words. Twilight hadn’t shared anything about the identity of just whom it was that attacked her for personal reasons. “It begins to make sense to me actually, albeit it being only a very little bit.”

The soothsayer could only nod to the words that were said to her. It was a bit of a complicated history that the pair of them had together. And one she rather would be forgetting then constantly remind herself from. Although that was a little fact that was a lot harder to accomplish. “Let’s just say that I was wrong and my punishment is to live with this pain for as long as it is needed. Though I have one little question about you,” said Twilight then.

Rarity’s sapphire blue rimmed eyes turned themselves back towards Twilight with a curious expression within them. There could be coming anything and everything out of the mouth of the mare from that point onwards. “Go ahead, as long as it isn’t too personal that is,” she said to her with an unusual kind tone. Perhaps she tried to remain on everypony’s good side on purpose. That, or there might have been bits and pieces left from the being that once stood proudly upon the deck of a naval ship. Nopony knew the real answer to that very question. Not even Applejack.

“What are you having strapped on your arm? There’s this weird bump that doesn’t seem natural to me in any way. It’s hidden right under it,” said Twilight. Her own eyes almost constantly shifted between the bump that she saw on the sleeve of the mare her blouse, as well as her eyes.

The question in and of itself was something that made Rarity chuckle a little bit as she shook her head calmly from side to side. “That my dear, is something I have been tinkering on ever since I left the navy,” replied Rarity quick and in a lower tone. None of the others needed to be knowing the thing she carried with her. She preferred to keep it a secrets for all of them.

“It’s a harpoon that’s strapped to my arm. Helpful to get other anthronies to you, but also to make some quick getaways. It’s a thing I rather keep hidden and still looking for a way to get it fully flush against my arm. That’s all you need to know about it,” revealed Rarity then to Twilight. A grin was given to the soothsayer and Rarity placed both of her arms behind her back.

Soaring through the skies, Rainbow had returned at almost lightning speed. Wearing no goggles had paid a heavy price on the eyes. She couldn’t fly at the speed she really wanted. Each of the company’s members knew what it meant when they saw that blue blob and the rainbow trail behind it. Only one anthrony was actually capable of doing so.

Rainbow Dash had returned from her reconnaissance flight with some good news for a change of things. The pegasus landed back on the solid ground just before she rushed up to Twilight. Of course had she seen how Applejack and Fluttershy were talking to one another, for they hadn’t even glanced up as the pegasus made her fly by.

“What are those two eggheads talking about?” the mare asked while she pointed to them in a concealed manner. Twilight didn’t even knew what was going on as she had of course her own conversation with Rarity. Though the moment she turned herself around it became rather obvious just what the subjects were.

A little smile came across the face of Twilight before she focused her attention once again upon Rainbow. “I think, that they are talking about her leg. It still needs to have the major repair that we can only do at a resting place. For which I hope that you be heaving good news for, do you?”

The pegasus then nodded quick to confirm the very thoughts that Twilight had. It was a massive relief for Twilight that there was at least some form of shelter in the vast emptiness of the plains. “A couple miles from here there are a couple of loose trees and bushes. Just a bit off from the northern direction. Should be a good place to set up camp for the night. Perhaps a mile or five away from now,” said Rainbow, remembering what she had seen.

“Thanks Rainbow,” said Twilight in response. Then her mind began to make the calculations that were required for the time of travel, as well as the amount of sunlight that they still had. “Meaning, we should be there within an hour or three.”

“If everything goes right, yeah, we should,” replied Rainbow while she laid her arms in her sides and gave her wings the final stretch before tucking them away.

~~~~

And indeed three hours later did they finally arrived upon the little spot that Rainbow had seen for them. With the pegasus who took over the lead from Rarity to guide them. She took the shortest route there was to get to the spot. But the mare didn’t lie about it. It really was a little slice of heaven among the grassy desert. Whether they had liked it or not but the sun had been hammering itself upon them for the longest of times already.

The couple of trees that stood in a circle formation would have been the perfect shelter for them. Their tent could be standing right in the middle of it all. Even though Twilight was having her doubts on the matter as a whole. Something just didn’t seem to be all too right about it.

She had to investigate the scene before they would be setting up their camp. Something that caused a lot of groans from the other team members. But it was either wait, or sleep in a circle of arcane magic that would be doing anything to get its intruders away in the dead of night.

The horn of the unicorn charged itself up in the raspberry colored aura. Twilight then walked around and around the place without aim. Fluttershy had asked for the staff and opened the void storage in order to take out the things that she needed to fix the leg of the admiral. Applejack laid herself on the ground while her arms were used as support for her upper body.

The Applejack’s eyes looked into those of Fluttershy as a deep exhale left through her nostrils. “Alright then, let’s do it. Fix mah leg again, doc.” The doctor herself allowed herself a little giggle before the procedure would have begun.

Both Rarity and Rainbow looked over the scene with a set of horrid glancing eyes before they quickly turned away again. For the legless Applejack wasn’t something they had desired to see. “Turn yar heads away! Never taught to y’all that it’s impolite to stare at an undressing lady?!” Applejack exclaimed as she was just as unhappy about the fact.

Quickly did the unicorn and the pegasus turn their bodies around as they hoped that Twilight would be done soon enough so they could set up their camp. “Can hardly call her a lady, though.”

Minutes had gone by before the all clear sign had been given. The facts were revealed that it was indeed an arcane circle. But the circle itself hadn’t been active for dozens of years. Almost as if the magic that was stored within it had just faded away from actual existence. Relief overflowed the mares as Twilight took her staff again and opened the portal to summon the tent.

The tent itself was set up within a mere minute thanks to all of the magic that it carried. Everything inside of it remained the way it was supposed to be and had been in their eyes. A couple of the branches from the trees were used to start a fire that would be kept burning through the night. Instead of an arcane one, they used an actual one as it didn’t gave off too much light.

The orange and reddish color of flames were a whole lot less visible over the plains then a bright and deep purple one. With the tent being set up didn’t Rarity and Rainbow knew just how fast they had to get inside of it to escape the reality of the sights.

Twilight on the other end had walked back up to the two anthronies and asked them if they would be needing anything. Not to mention what the actual problem happened to be. Fluttershy took her eyes off of her work for a second as the admiral pointed to her. “Ask her, she’s the brain behind the whole thing,” said Applejack to her.

The doctor released a little squee just before her more serious side surfaced again and did the words that needed to be said. “There’s a problem in both the gears and the hydraulics of the leg. I just need to replace a couple of them and see if I can get the liquids fixed. I never designed the leg to be going into forest terrain, so this was actually a first for it,” explained Fluttershy to the soothsayer. Who in return nodded that she understood it.

“I see, well, good luck with that Fluttershy,” replied Twilight before she left the two of them alone once more. It was her time to cook up dinner and plot a course for the next day. Though just before she wanted to walk away, that very fact was something that rushed to her mind. “Any of you know what the nearest town might be? We need to supply ourselves again and get some good beds for a change. Doubt we can make it to the Frozen North in just one go.”

“Ah ain’t sure ‘bout the nearest town, Twi, but if Ah have a general understanding of where exactly we are, Ah might be able to pinpoint it. Ah’ll be back with it tomorrow morning. Ya just prepare dinner and get some sleep.”

Said dinner was simple because of Twilight’s injury and the mares didn’t really have anything to complain about when it came down to her cooking skills. But the sun had already set itself as the land was covered within the darkness of the night. Applejack, with her leg fully fixed and working as it should had been offered to take the first watch.

When the other mares had gone to bed, she approached Twilight with a question. “Hey Twi, can, can ya get mah guitar out of that storage of yars?” she asked almost in an embarrassed tone.

The soothsayer herself could be found at the entrance of the tent. She gazed over the ever stretching plains of Equestria. Though as the words fell within her ears, she calmly turned herself around with a raised eyebrow. “Applejack, my staff is standing over there, I’m pretty sure you can do it yourself,” she replied.

“Well, ya see, that’s the problem, Ah don’t know how to do it,” the admiral replied in a genuine tone of uncertainty. Something that caused both of Twilight’s eyebrows to be raised up in surprise. She hadn’t actually expected those words to have gotten out of the mouth of the mare.

A couple of blinks were made before the soothsayer was finally back on earth. “Alright then, quick lesson. You take the staff in your hand and think about the item you need stored in the void storage. What should be happening next is that a small burst of magic actually is going to get it for you. All you then have to do is to reach inside the rip and take the item out, followed by closing it again of course,” exclaimed Twilight as bare boned as she could.

It was already far too much magical talk for the admiral to even follow one bit of it to begin with. Twilight actually saw that little fact and rolled her eyes. There also was a deep sigh that left from her nostrils as she knew exactly what time it was. “Anything else you might be needing out of it, before I’m off to bed?”

“Some maps would be nice too.”

So said, so done. Finally had Applejack left the tent for what it was with everything she needed and looked for a tree where she could dump her body against. With the fires raging on in their controlled status, their light was used to shine upon the charts. The eyes were constantly shifting between them as well as the stars that were standing. With her rusted navigation skills she tried to figure out their exact location.

Her fingers were used to locate the nearest town in the plains which happened to be a strange little place that gave her all too much memories of happiness. “Now Ah hope we are somewhere in the neighborhood of that,” she chuckled to herself. Her eyes went down once again.

So it went for a couple of minutes. The stars were identified quick and with the help of her brain, Applejack managed to almost pinpoint their location. At one point in time was one of her fingers circling around a little area on the map. “Meaning we’re here, the town lays over there, given that we walk at a certain speed constantly, Ah’d say we would be arriving early evening tomorrow.”

From the sounds of it had Applejack managed to find not only the nearest town, but also the quickest route to make it to the town. A little town that laid a bit further north of them. A town that also held a tremendous sentimental value for the admiral in person. With a smile that beamed off of her face she fold up the maps again as the route was almost drilled in inside of her actual skull.

She knew where to walk, how to walk and be on time. The question only was if the rest would have been able to keep up with her. It didn’t matter in which town they landed, as long as they landed in any form of town’s life. Then it was the guitar that was being taken from the ground and the strings were fine tuned.

After that she began to play a couple of melodies of old upon her trusty instrument. Calm and cheerful tunes were played not too loud to keep the rest of the beings asleep inside of the tent. Applejack was literally that close to start singing shanty’s from the high seas. But always managed to not do it just in time.

Even though there wasn’t a single word that was being sung from the mare, the tunes that left the guitar did still manage to pierce into the tent. Only one anthrony was awoken by them. The familiar tunes and ways the music came made her think of days gone by. Days that were long gone in fact. Days that reminded her of more prideful manners of living.

The sapphire blue rimmed eyes of Rarity opened themselves wide. Constantly had she heard the tunes and couldn’t sleep because of them. As annoying as it actually seemed to be, as much she loved them. With one quick motion of her body did she ended up standing next to her bed and began to dress herself again.

Soon afterwards did the mare appear into the outside world and her hoofsteps caused Applejack to stop playing for just a little moment. Her green rimmed eyes reflected the fires as they saw Rarity approaching. “Evening,” she said in a simple tone. The unicorn dropped herself against the same tree, but on the other side.

“Evening to you as well,” the pirate replied. The eyes were aimed upwards once more. “I, I have been wondering something, Applejack.” Then the attention of the admiral was suddenly shifted over to the pirate with a genuine interest. No harassment, no wise insults, just a plain old saying.

“Go right ahead, what’s on yar mind,” replied Applejack while as she once again tuned her guitar. In the meantime and unknown to the admiral had Rarity taken out a harmonica out of a pocket from her blouse.

“Every time I look at one of them, I can’t help but to see shady looks being returned to me. Almost as if they do not trust me, or don’t trust me yet. I know I’m not really the nicest mare to be hanging around it, but a bit of politeness can’t harm them, right?” she spoke while the harmonica was spun into every possible direction. The thing darted in front of her eyes, reflecting in the fires.

“Ah have seen the looks they give you when you walked up front today, they weren’t really ‘bout that. Yet they don’t have the courage to tell it right in your face. Fear, uncertainty? Who knows. Who knows what might be going through their minds. All Ah know is that some things are taken by the sea, never to be seen again,” the admiral said. Then she once again began to play a little tune.

"Perhaps I’m too hard on myself, they need to have more time to get to know me. My reputation, is only a shimmer of who I actually am yet dictates my life,” answered Rarity without emotion. Afterwards did she decide to give a quiet blow through the harmonica.

Immediately did Applejack’s ears perk themselves. It was a sound she hadn’t heard in literally years. That, and combined with her guitar they could change the subject of the conversation. But not before she had answered the last series of words. “Ah wonder how that’s possible, but ya can best give ‘em all the time to get to know ya a bit more. Flutters seemed to be interested in knowing ya actually. Rainbow, she’s just an airhead. Like all of them from Cloudsdale.”

“And what about Twilight, what is her play in all of this? Why did she went to the extent of getting the four of us?” Rarity then continued to question. It was actually becoming an annoyance for the earth anthrony but also something that showed her something else. He very fact that Rarity perhaps wasn’t as crazy or as much as a loose cannon as originally thought.

“Five, there’s supposed to be a sixth member of the band of misfits, but that hadn’t been found yet. Could be anyone for all Ah know. But Twilight’s play in this, is she’s the one leading the expedition and hopefully being able to get it to a good end. If not, ya heard it yarself. Equestria, will be gone,” returned Applejack. She tried to stay optimistic, but that faded quick as it came.

“A grim future indeed,” replied Rarity. Once more did she blew through her harmonica. Applejack on the other end remained silent as she thought about a couple of tunes that she could be playing. There was one song in her head that she knew Rarity would be knowing still. The earth anthrony began to play on her guitar and it took the unicorn a bit of thought before she finally caught on with the melody.

Yet the words of the lyrics that were supposed to be going with it, had managed to escape the mare for a tiny little moment. She tried to remember the song as it was being sung for the longest of times on the sea. A shanty that was recognized by any self-respecting sailor in fact. But aboard her own ship there were other shanties and songs sung whenever they were sailing.

So it was up to Applejack alone to make the memories come back to her. The first tunes of the shanty were repeated almost over and over and over as they were almost like a perfect loop. But when the harmonica of Rarity filled in the gaps, there was only one thing the earth anthrony could be doing. And that was to start singing without her southern accent in her voice.

“What do we with a drunken sailor, what do we do with a drunken sailor, what do we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?” she sung while the tunes progressed themselves to fit the lyrics.

Rarity’s mind was still digging itself to get the lyrics for it. But the words that were spoken and the constant repeat showed that Applejack was waiting for her to filled in the gaps. The more she blew the tunes through her harmonica, the more she realized just which shanty Applejack had begun to sing. Truth be told, it was one of her favorites.

Suddenly and out of nowhere did the text that went accompanied with it, return to her mind as if it had almost never actually left. Finally was she able to continue the shanty and just sing along. “Way-hay, up she rises. Way-hay, up she rises. Way-hay, up she rises, early in the morning!” Rarity then sung before Applejack continued almost instantly.

“Put him in the long boat ‘til he’s sober.”

“Pull out the bung and wet him over,” sung Rarity before she blew on her harmonica and Applejack took over again.

“Put him in the scuppers with the deck pump on him.”

“Heave him by the leg in a runnin’ bowling’,” sung Rarity a little bit faster before Applejack took over one last time.

“Tie him to the taffrail when she’s yard-arm under.”

And then the two of them sung together to finish up the little shanty. “That’s what we do with a drunken sailor, that’s what we do with a drunken sailor, that’s what we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning!”

For perhaps the first time in a lifetime could the two of them laugh with one another again. The shanty itself was just insanity but it were all little tricks and things that they actually had done to sailors in the past. The shanty spoke of truth perhaps in more than one ways. None the less were the instruments silenced as the laughing continued.

For the first time in a long time they were genuinely laughing as the memories resurfaced from times that they could still be working together. That, and every sailor knew that shanty and the dangers of being drunk on the ship he or she served on.

“Oh that was a lovely little song, now wasn’t it?” Rarity giggled before she shook her head from side to side with calm. More and more memories came back to her about her own navel time. Memories of which she thought to have forgotten them, but still was very fond of them. Memories that she wanted to cling on, for her dear life.

“Aye, it makes everything so much better when ya sing a shanty with two. Hehe, oh Ah remember him just so well. The whole crew just found it an amazing idea to do. Placed him in the long boat and dragged it after mah ship, when he finally woke up, no idea. Until we all began singing from the hind deck. Ya should’ve seen his face!”

Just for a moment had both of the anthronies forgotten their differences and treated the other actually as a literal equal to the other. No grudges, no debts from the past and above all, no feuds. Their treaty was held up high by both sides and even though they were having a lot of fun, they always kept that in the back of their heads. For anything could change almost instantly.

But for them it didn’t actually matter. For the admiral once again took her guitar and began to play a couple of tunes on which Rarity followed with her harmonica.

Though time wouldn’t have it, that the right words would be spoken. For at one moment deep into their nightshift was the unaskable question almost being asked. “Hey Rares, why did ya..?”

Much further than that wasn’t the admiral allowed to go as she was interrupted by the other mare. “Don’t ask it, please. I’m enjoying the night for what it is and I have no plans to have it being ruined. You know another shanty we can sing?”

“Heh, got enough of ‘em,” replied Applejack. The decision was made to just drop the subject altogether. Which might have actually been for the best for the pair of them. Mere seconds later did both the guitar and the harmonica release their sounds again. Only to be followed up by the lyrics that came out of either Rarity’s or Applejack’s mouth.

But back in the tent had another anthrony woken up because of them. The mulberry unicorn was awake, but never did she got out of her bed. Instead she just listened to the fun that the two seemed to be having. A smile went across her lips because of it. It was almost too wonderful to be true that two enemies could put their differences aside for so much and just could sing along.

It almost brought a tear to her eyes before a yawn broke up the harmony of the scene. Not that it mattered all too much for Twilight Sparkle though, she needed her sleep as the wound around her middle had to heal.

~~~~

The sun slowly made its way over the horizon. Both Applejack and Rarity still leaning against the tree and playing their tunes. During the whole of the night had they been singing shanty’s and brought up actual fun memories about their adventures at both sea and land. Nothing could have ever indicated that they were just about the most sworn enemies from each other, if anything, they were actually looking like friends that hadn’t seen one another for the longest of time.

Rainbow Dash was the first one to come out of the tent and start her morning flight when she noticed the two sitting against the tree. “You two, hadn’t taken any sleep last night?” she asked them with curiosity. Though a yawn escaped her lips. She couldn’t believe the thoughts her own mind had created. The two of them must have had some sleep, right?

Applejack and Rarity turned their attention over to the pegasus with a curious expression upon their faces. “Uhm, from the looks of it, not really,” the pirate captain replied. She laid the harmonica on one of her legs. “Really, has it been that long that we have been talking? Well, you learn something every day, that much is for certain.”

“From the looks of it, we indeed have,” chuckled Applejack before she laid her head against the bark of the tree. “Ya can say what ya want, but we have been having fun alright. That, and nothing even dared to be getting close to us. Ain’t no bigger threat than a drunken sailor.”

“Early in the morning.” Rarity quickly added. Rainbow Dash on the other end just shrugged it off as she had no clue what they were talking about. Only to then take off for her morning flight.

A couple of minutes later came Twilight out of the tent and Applejack noticed it in an instant. As quick as her steam powered leg allowed it she tried to stand up. Only to then make her way over to the unicorn with the maps. “Twi, Ah told ya Ah would be getting back at ya for it.”

“W-What?” the unicorn mumbled to her. She was surprised to actually see Applejack standing there in the first place. But then she realized just what the earth anthrony actually meant with it. “Oh, yes, uhm, did you figure it out?”

Applejack nodded before she unfolded the map. “Ah did. Look, we’re here right now, and the nearest most northern town is right here. Appleloosa. Family of mine lives there. The only problem is, it rests in lawless Equestria. Tis in the last frontier and anything can happen there, most likely will. So, ya wanna make the wager and just go for it?”

“Family you say?”

“Mah family pretty much build the town and mah cousin’s one of the head anthronies there,” confirmed Applejack. Twilight’s glance became more doubtful with the second. She needed just a little bit of time to think about whether or not they would be going to the place. But Appleloosa was the closest place to get provisions according to the map.

“Once again, you lot manage to set me at a difficult decision. I, I get back to it after I stretched my legs, alright?” And then had Twilight just taken off. Without waiting for a reply from the admiral had she just gone off to do her things.

Chapter XXXII

The company had just been wandering over the same plains they had crossed the day before. With her hair waving in the calm breezes of wind was she sunken deep inside of her how thoughts. The unicorn soothsayer stood once again at an impasse. Of course she could have decided to keep on trekking towards the Frozen North and pray that they would eventually come across something that resembled food, or they could take yet another detour and go to the town of Appleloosa to stock up.

The images of the map continued to rush themselves through the mind of the mare it did seem like the most logical step for them to be taken. “Always ready to help, but never been able to make the hard decisions,” mumbled Twilight to herself. A deep sigh was released through her nostrils in the hope to calm her mind. The words were perhaps a little bit more then true.

It had of course proven itself time and time already on the trip that whenever there was a tough decision that had to be made, Twilight needed to think. Yet she hurled herself into danger’s way just like that. Perhaps it was for the better that she had separated herself from the others just for a little bit. While the winds that ran past her ears were catching her attention.

Her eyes turned themselves over into the air itself and she simply stared down the horizon as the sun came up. What was wisdom in the moment? That was the question that rushed through the mind of the mare. The best decision to make it up to the Frozen North and still be well supplied.

Of course had Twilight the ability to summon the food that was required for each of them. It was something that she could have done easily in fact. The only problem would have been the little fact that it would have been far from fresh. Not to mention the taste of the arcane energy wasn’t something that was loved by any and all.

She hadn’t tried it on the trip yet and wouldn’t be doing it either. If any of them got to know just what she could actually do with her powers, all hell would be breaking loose within a moment’s notice. Or so she thought at least. Her eyes turned themselves back over to the camp where she glanced over all the other anthronies finally having gotten out of their beds or returned as well.

Rainbow Dash spoke a little bit with Applejack about subjects that Twilight thankfully couldn’t hear. If their troubles would also have reached her, her mind would have been going into a massive shutdown before the day had even actually and properly began.

The unicorn shook her head a little bit as she then continued on her small walking over the plains. The moist grass below her hooves of the dew was feeling oddly comfortable to her body as the hands were placed upon her back.

At one end she could just make the journey straight up north. On the other end, they perhaps couldn’t. It was a literal powder keg that could be blowing up at any given moment given all of their personalities. Twilight shook her head calmly from side to side as she weighed the odds, risks and rewards against one another. A decision had to fall there and then.

All of the other mares were already having their fair share of the breakfast that had been made by Fluttershy when Twilight finally returned from her little trip. Each of them greeted her with a couple of simple words before the mare herself sat down on the makeshift table.

Almost right away had she then reached out for a slice of bread and a cup of warm tea as her eyes quickly glanced once more over each of them. She had to bring the news to the lot of them eventually, so why would be she be waiting? The answer to the question could actually be found in the major of the air force who opened her own mouth just as Twilight wanted to take a bite.

“So…” Rainbow Dash began as she set her own cup back on the table and looked over to the soothsayer. “The plan for today is to reach the Frozen North right? Clear skies ahead and mild winds, that’s my weather forecast for the day.”

But much to everypony’s surprise did Twilight shook her head. All of them didn’t fully understood the fact of just why. Why would she not have wanted to go straight to the North as it was their heading? Could the mare have been spooked by something else that they didn’t know? They were right on that, albeit it being partly.

“Why wouldn’t be able to go, dear? Rainbow just told us that if we make haste, we can be reaching it before nightfall or early next morning,” replied Rarity. She had shifted her position a little bit. One leg was thrown over the other while her sapphire blue rims almost penetrated into the soul of Twilight. That haunting set of eyes made it uncomfortable, yet she had to overcome intimidation.

“Because Rarity, the rest of you,” the soothsayer began. The slice of bread was laid back on the plate. What then followed was a deep exhale that came through her nostrils. The eyes closed themselves for a minute. “We’re running low on provisions. While it is true that the void storage contains food, it is only good for a certain amount of days. If it goes to spoil and we end up eating it…” A gulp was then released by the soothsayer as her entire appetite just seemed to have vanished.

Once again she looked up at everypony present and could only speak her words of worry. “Let’s say the way back home might be even longer, if there’s even going to be a way home.” Those words felt like a massive sledgehammer pounding itself through a brick-built wall as if it was nothing.

Commotion between the members of the company wanted to erupt in pretty much it fullest of glories, yet they managed to keep themselves calm for one reason or the other. Perhaps they weren’t willing to fight in the early morning. Or they didn’t wanted to give Twilight yet another headache next to her side still healing as well. Who would have actually told the facts as they were?

“What, uhm, w-what’s the plan going to, to be?” stuttered Fluttershy. Her kind but shy voice filled itself in the air. All of the eyes were once again aimed towards Twilight. All but one set of eyes. For the admiral was glancing over all the other anthronies for just a moment before she returned her attention as well.

Twilight leaned back just a little bit. There was a deep sniff made by her. One that acted as an inhale through her nostrils. “Well, Applejack had been plotting a course to the nearest town. Family of hers seems to run it and they are willing to share a big bit of their food supply for our trip. But there’s one catch however. It means that we have yet to take another detour from the original route. The place is close to where we need to be, so I suggest we make haste,” explained Twilight.

Grumbles and mumbles were the things that followed. None of them had even heard of Appleloosa before in their lives. Perhaps it was something for the better as well as Applejack had something to confess. She might not have been entirely honest and could have plunged the whole company in a spiral of nothing but death and despair.

The admiral tore her attention away from the table and glanced over the endless plains of Equestria. Plains that would eventually shift and change into something a whole lot more dangerous. Something that only she knew and perhaps Twilight as well. But they were in need of extra provisions, so the risk seemed to have been well worth it. If only they wouldn’t figure out the thing that Applejack had done in order to get them crazy enough to go.

~~~~

With their breakfasts eaten and the gear once again packed were they ready to leave the circle of trees. The fire was finally put out by Twilight’s magic and the last checkups were made. They were all ready to once again head into the wild, wild world that was their Equestria. Given the fact that Applejack herself already knew how to walk the route from there to Appleloosa itself, it was voted that she would have been the leader for the company for that day.

The admiral would be leading them right into town where they would hopefully get the aid they needed. All of them had packed everything again and gave a nod to one another. They were ready to go and that was exactly what the admiral did. She took the first step towards the place with her steam powered leg and they were all just off. Off into the literal unknown once again.

Time and time again they kept on walking as if there wasn’t anything happening. But there was something happening. For the longer they seemed to be walking, the more the landscape seemed to be changing. Though the changes that were seen didn’t actually seem to be for the better. For the grassy fields out of which the plains existed slowly turned themselves into savanna before the hot sand was just scorching beneath their hooves and shoes.

The admiral had lead them straight into the biggest sea that could be found upon the land itself. Each of them wanted to complain about the little fact, but the earth anthrony always said that she knew what she was doing. It was an actual surprise for Twilight that none of them even dared to play mutiny against her. Though what didn’t happen then, it certainly could be happening in the future. The dice still had to be cast about their fate, was another thought that went through Twilight.

The eyes of the soothsayer had turned themselves into the skies . She tried to determine the time of day as something else caught her eyes. For high within the skies stood the beating sun. It’s warmth just hammered the lot of them down and making them drink their reservoirs of water like they were nothing. Yet they couldn’t drink all they wanted. They had to preserve a lot of it for when the time was actually there.

Shirts were taken off and head-scarves were made out of them to at least keep the blistering heat off of them for as much as it was possible. Never in their lives had they been tortured in such a manner and it was clearly visible. From Rainbow Dash to Fluttershy, each of the mares sweat like never before. Even Twilight herself had fallen victim to it, she almost was about to faint.

She lived on the fine line between fainting and staying with them actually. Of course she wanted to use a massive spell to cool them all down. Though every time she even as much as tried to get in contact with the arcane powers there was the feeling of fainting already. With her head pounding itself inside of her skull did it seem to have been actually better to endure the heat then to lose her consciousness beneath it. Something none of them were actually happy about.

“Maps, maps, where did I leave the maps?” Twilight whispered up to herself. She tried to find the very same maps that were given to her by Applejack. Even though they were in a small pouch that rested on the side of her body, the dreaded heat caused her to not think clearly in the slightest.

Eventually she did reach inside of the little pouch and took out the one map that she knew held of the answers. For one little thing had been off for the whole time. One thing that just didn’t make sense from the moment she noticed it until them. And that very little thing happened to be the thing they all cursed in the moment. Nothing else than the sun itself.

Twilight just hoped that her suspicions weren’t right as it did seem to her that the sun was traveling with them, instead of crossing their path. “This can’t be true, now is it?” she mumbled almost inaudible for the rest. She separated herself just that little bit from the group. Not that they would really be missing her that much in the moment, thanks to their own little misery.

The eyes of the unicorn continued to go upwards and glanced over the skies. Nothing could even indicate of where exactly they were so the answer wasn’t hidden in the skies. It must have been inside of the map itself that the answer was hidden. At least that was the logical reasoning of the unicorn, for as much as she still had that thing.

An exhale was released through her nostrils. Twilight looked once again over the route they were walking. It seemed to be heading them right into the northern direction. For just a couple of minutes she just stared at the thing as if it would eventually give away its very secrets.

Minutes went by as Twilight felt herself shifting between the world of blistering sand and the world of darkness as everything around her faded in and out of existence. The feelings of fainting became only stronger with every step she took. It was her brain that tried to kick back into its fullest of gears which perhaps wasn’t the brightest of ideas in the moment.

“Oh my head,” she spoke up a little louder. In response was it Fluttershy who turned herself around. Next to Twilight was the doctor the one who formed the rearguard and caught the words within her ears. She saw the near devastated Twilight just wandering along like she was on her last reserves. A gulp was released by the mare as she reached for a flask in the side of her hip. Near instantly she actually stopped and waited for Twilight having passed the distance between them.

Then the two of them would have been walking together as the pegasus offered her flask. Twilight’s dulled out eyes looked first towards the mare and then the flask. But the action that Fluttershy wanted to be done, wasn’t. Instead she got a shake of the soothsayer’s head as she gestured with her head she didn’t need it. That was something that told Fluttershy that Twilight was about to dehydrate herself.

If dehydration would have fallen upon Twilight herself, who knew what would be actually happening next? “Twilight, you need to drink. Even if it is just one sip. One sip of nice, cool water in this heat. I’m a doctor, remember? I know what’s best for you,” plead Fluttershy to the mare while they looked at one another.

The stern look that could be found within the eyes of the doctor compared to the dulled out rims of Twilight were perhaps more than enough to convince the both of them from their suspicions. “Don’t make me chug it down your throat,” the doctor then said in a serious tone. Those words caused the purple skinned mare to raise an eyebrow as she hadn’t expected those words to have come out of that normally so quiet mouth.

But it proved the fact once again that Fluttershy was perhaps the best in the field of what he did. It made her feel oddly comfortable whenever there was a medical emergency, or she at least seemed to have been that way. Twilight couldn’t tell and she really didn’t wanted to. “Fluttershy, I’m fine. Trust me,” mumbled Twilight with her dried up lips. Next to that did the pain in her side also return like fire. A winch was given off as the hand that held the map was pressed against it.

Once again did the yellow skinned pegasus glance over Twilight before she shook her head with a sigh that came from her nostrils. “Just take a sip, will you,” she spoke up in a stern and demanding tone towards the other mare.

But Twilight wouldn’t be having any of that. “I’m old and wise enough, to know what I’m doing for myself and my body, mom.” That was the biggest mistake that Twilight could have ever made against Fluttershy. In that instant did she knew what was wrong, there was no more turning back. Fluttershy looked over to the rest of the company and gave a whistle with two of her fingers.

The sudden noise that was given off caught the attention of all three other mares and when they turned around, they caught a falling Twilight. All of their eyes went wide as they never thought to be seeing the scenes they did. Gulps were released by all of them as Fluttershy dropped herself on her knees and set the flask against Twilight’s lips. Whether the unicorn liked it or not, Fluttershy was going to chug the water down her throat.

“Is she going to be alright?” Rainbow asked in a truly worried voice. The eyes, for perhaps the first time during the trip, irradiated actual fear. Rarity brought a hand to her mouth as Applejack just pushed the two of them aside. She walked forward with the sand crushing into the gears of her leg.

Fluttershy never took her eyes off of Twilight. A hand was placed upon the forehead of the mare. A mare who actually kept on drinking the waters given to her. Applejack eventually stood next to the doctor. The admiral wondered if she could help in any way or form. “She’s going to be fine, Rainbow. She needs but a couple of minutes to come back by again. She’s dehydrated and delirious for the moment. The foolish mare didn’t drink anything for over an hour, that is my best guess.”

A massive weight fell off of the shoulders of the pegasus in that moment. Her eyes closed themselves for a moment. Yet Rarity placed her arms again next to her body while she looked over the fallen mare. “You need me to do something, Fluttershy?” she just plainly asked were as Applejack just did nothing.

The pegasus nodded before she spoke the command. “If you could give her a gentle shock, she should be returning to normal again. Took the liberty to fill my flask with some medicine that dissolve in water as well. When she comes back, she should be the Twilight we came to know.”

Rarity nodded as her own horn charged itself up and released a small blast of the arcane magic right into the chest of Twilight. The sparks of sapphire blue aura travelled over the chest of the mare as the wait began again.

Applejack couldn’t look at it anymore and left the spot to form once again the head of the company. Fluttershy, Rainbow and Rarity all seemed to have found it a little bit unusual for the admiral to do such a thing. But Rainbow quickly took their attention away from her. “It’s always Twilight who gets these things. Don’t any of you find it odd?” asked Rainbow then. She spoke the things that were traveling on her mind without much consideration of them.

While the words were indeed more than true, they were also complete and utter useless. The head of Fluttershy finally moved itself up and towards Rainbow. The eyes that were given to the other pegasus happened to be unpleasant to say the least. “She’s a soothsayer, major. Soothsayers aren’t used to getting out of the castle much. Let alone if they have to travel to places like we’re going to. So, would you kindly just shut up about it? Your words are not something we need now.”

“Fine then missy nurse,” replied Rainbow. She turned herself around and just left Fluttershy by. Rarity couldn’t do much else then to release an annoyed sigh before she began to just wander through the sands.

“It’s, doctor, by the way,” corrected Fluttershy under her breath to Rainbowl. All while Twilight slow but steady managed to get back into the there and then. There came a smile from ear to ear upon the face of the pegasus as she was just genuinely glad that the mare had returned safely to them. “How are you feeling Twilight?”

"Actually,” the soothsayer began. She blinked a couple of times with her eyes. Everything both made sense and not at the same time. Her mind still had to make everything correct about what was actually what. Eventually she shook her head quickly and got back on her hooves with the help of Fluttershy. “Doing a lot better, thanks Fluttershy.”

“No need to thank me, just doing my job,” the pegasus replied. She then let out a little squee.

Twilight couldn’t help it but to giggle a bit to herself. Though the go sign was given off again. “Where would be we if you hadn’t come along?” she then asked towards the doctor. Who on her own turn just left the question unanswered for obvious reasons. The two of them joined themselves once again by the company as the unicorn remembered what she had to be doing.

Quickly was the map brought before her again and for the first time noticed Twilight the way it was folded up. “Hello,” she mumbled under her breath as she began to unfold the thing. Corner by corner was revealed by her up to the point where the massive revelation was revealed to her.

“That, lying, mare…” Twilight spoke up under her breath. Her eyes looked up from the map and set her sights upon Applejack herself. The revelation that was made to Twilight, confirmed her earlier suspicions. The company of mares had been traveling into the wrong direction. The company went with the sun towards the west instead of crossing it to the north.

The soothsayer was furious in the moment until she realized once more that they were low on provisions. Then she suddenly could understand just why Applejack had been doing the thing that she had been doing. Technically hadn’t the mare been lying to them, on the other end was something shattered. The trust that the soothsayer had placed within the admiral was dented. Not that it all mattered much really anymore. For the map had been folded back up and placed back in the pouch.

Becoming angry after having fainted the way she did, it wasn’t the wisest of things to do. So it came down on the fact that Twilight had to trust her upon Applejack perhaps once more and just pray that everything would be going the way it was supposed to be. Even if that perhaps wasn’t the plan as a whole.

Yet a little bit further up in the company had Rarity more than enough of walking through the desert. She hungered back for the ocean and its many mysteries. She wanted to return to the helm of her ship and take full command again. “I wish I never had said yes to this dreaded and good for nothing quest,” the pirate muttered to herself just loud enough for Rainbow to hear.

Even though the two didn’t trust one another, they were often seen together for one reason or the other. Perhaps the pirate and the major found that they were the best conversation partners for each other or them together gave off the least amount of danger. Who could tell? Rainbow gave a cutting look right to Rarity when she caught the words.

It didn’t took long before the pegasus herself returned some of her own with a whisper. “Quit you moaning and groaning. Don’t you have a bit of pride and respect left within you?”

Those words caused Rarity to raise an eyebrow as she wanted to know the finer details of just what was being said to her. “And how do you mean that? I have a lot of pride and respect inside of me.” Rarity returned in a cutting tone as her eyes narrowed themselves to just small openings. “What are you trying to tell here, rainbow?” She didn’t intend to speak the name of the mare, but merely the thing that her tail was. Which naturally was a literal rainbow of colors.

Though Rainbow herself didn’t caught the insult as she continued her words. “They found you, which I heard is pretty difficult to do in and of itself. Not to mention the little fact that they managed to actually get you on this. You owe them both that respect,” she said in a dead serious tone towards the pirate. A thing which actually did manage to silence her.

Rainbow was more than right on her words though. They did manage to find her and get her crazy enough to actually join the quest of madness they all had embarked on. But how Rainbow Dash could have been so positive in the troubling time remained a mystery to the pirate. Perhaps it was a little pegasus thing. Something that could have something to do with their matters of pride.

Pegasi were just strange beings for Rarity to begin with. Bat anthronies on the other end, those she could understand within the literal snap of a finger. Then again, they weren’t the brightest lights either. Rarity released a deep sigh through her nostrils before she took another swig of her water and peeled over the horizon.

There they meant to have seen something that wasn’t there before. One of her eyebrows rose itself up as she left Rainbow and even walked out in front of Applejack. The admiral then got a surprised glance within her eyes as she kept on walking. Something had sparked the attention of Rarity. And whatever managed to be doing that was highly worth of their time.

“What are ya looking at partner?” Applejack then questioned aloud. The attention of both Twilight and Fluttershy was then also gotten as they looked first over to Applejack before their eyes shifted over to Rarity.

“Look over there, on the horizon. Isn’t that where we’re heading to?” asked Rarity with squinted eyes. Her finger pointed towards something that could be seen far in the back. All of their eyes looked as best as they could into the direction of the finger and then they finally saw it.

The couple little buildings that were erected within the heat of the desert. All of them thought to be hallucinating for certain. That was at least until Applejack began to chuckle to herself and spoke the relieving words. “There it lays, Appleloosa. We’re almost there. Perhaps an hour or three if we ain’t be caught in a sandstorm.”

~~~~

The company approached the town within the estimated time while nothing interesting happened. Applejack spoke about pretty much everything there was needed to know about it. Everything from its history to the cousin of hers that they would be meeting. The stories that were done made it look like a lawless place in the old Wild West. It couldn’t have been that bad, right? That was the thought that each of the anthronies had as they came in closer to town.

In the end could the group of mares be found just standing in front of the main street. All of them lined up with Applejack in the middle. Rainbow and Rarity stood left to her as Fluttershy and Twilight stood right of her. Each of them had that haunting glance within their eyes. A haunting glance of trouble and a long, long journey behind them.

The local residents looked over the group of mares and they already began to fear the worst. Even with Applejack’s leg shining brightly within the sun, they couldn’t have been anymore then trouble. Nopony knew what they were waiting for and quite frankly they were actually happy that the mare didn’t walked in guns blazing.

Within minutes was the main street cleared with the exception of just one stallion. A stallion that had walked out of a building and made his way over to the mares. His attire was almost a textbook cowboy in the mind of Twilight. His stetson covered the eyes but the massive moustache could still be seen below it.

The flintlocks that hung on the side of his hips looked threatening as his fingers were constantly twitching to get them. It were five mares that seemed to be well armed –two of them were unicorns no less– against a single, earth anthrony stallion. Of course he had the right to be worried. For the group of mares, they didn’t look they would be traveling just through.

Then was the head flicked back and the mares all glanced into one blind eye as well as a ruby red rim in the other. Something had gotten to the stallion that must have been unspeakable of. None of them wanted to know the story as most of them decided to let Applejack do the words that needed to be said. “What’s yar business here?” the stallion spoke up to them. He narrowed his eyes again. “Are ya bounty hunters? Or are ya trouble makers?”

“Neither, partner,” replied Applejack. She gave him a small tap of her admiral’s hat. The stallion was still cautious about everything as he allowed the mare to speak further. “We’re here to get some provisions in the legal way. Our travels are still long and our food’s almost gone. Ah promise, ya won’t be having too much trouble from us.”

The words sounded honest, genuine even in the ears of the stallion. It did ease him a little bit. Though he knew all too well that not every honest face did have honest intentions. He released a deep ‘hmm’ from his throat before the silence returned again.

Seconds ticked by as if they were minutes. The silence from both the company of mares as well as the stallion almost was standing at the point of becoming too much for one of the parties. But Applejack knew exactly what they were doing there. The stallion was testing their mettle. All they had to do was just sit it out.

“Ya’re allowed to enter town, but one bit of trouble and Ah make sure ya can’t rest ever again. Every bounty hunter in this land will be knowing about yah lot. Am Ah clear?” the stallion then replied in a terribly stern tone towards the mares. He wasn’t kidding, that much they realized.

Applejack gave a nod to the stallion as she knew exactly what he was talking about. Appleloosa didn’t have any laws outside of those that were made up by the anthronies that lived there. Lawless, that was the place. A true town from the Wild, Wild West. “As crystal.”

“Good,” the stallion said before he then turned himself back around. Without a further word had he walked back towards the building he came from.

Applejack on the other end gestured the rest of the mares to follow her. Together they all walked down the long street up to a place they could only guess it was owned by her cousin. The scent of apple cider and stronger drinks hung around the place as the admiral released a deep sigh.

“Alright, ya lot come in after me. We haven’t seen one another in the longest of times,” said Applejack to them all. With a hand placed on the door, she was ready to open it.. All of the other mares nodded just before the admiral entered the place. What would happen inside was something that went over their wildest imagination.

“Braeburn!?” Applejack shouted after she entered the bar. She glanced over the anthronies that were present. All of them had heard the words and those at the bar went aside with unseen haste. Only to reveal a near frozen stallion just leaning against the bar. Frozen in fear he glanced back into the eyes of the admiral.

His mouth moved a couple of times as the entire bar just went silent. Not even the piano was playing its tunes anymore. All of them were afraid of the mare with the metal leg for whatever reason. But finally did the stallion behind the bar managed to get a word out of his mouth. One simple word managed to get out though. “J-Jackie!?” he exclaimed in utter confusion.

Chapter XXXIII

The silence inside of the bar was even more dreadful than outside of it. The rest of the company of mares didn’t knew what they had to do in the situation. Of course they could be just barging in like a group of thirsty travelers. But they just needed to have any kind of confirmation from Applejack that they could actually enter without much of a problem.

The dreadful silence was one of those things that none of them could be living it. It drove them all to complete and utter madness in one way or the other. Seconds seemed to have turned everything over into just minutes as the blood was pumped through their bodies at a high rate. One wrong word and each of them knew that they would be having the whole town right up their flanks.

All of them shared the same thought that was surging through their minds as they either stood or sat down on the wooden porch of the bar. Their eyes couldn’t dare to look inside of it as perhaps the horrors of their lives could be playing themselves out right there and then. Danger was the scent that reeked within the air. Yet the silence had to be broken eventually by somepony. That somepony was none other than Rainbow Dash. “How long until everything goes to Tartarus?” the major mumbled just loud enough for the others to hear it.

Almost in an instant did the heads of the group of mares turn over into the direction of the major. But all of them were looking at her back as she stood bend over by the wooden fence that separated the porch from the street. Even though the words were harsh and even terrible, they were still right on the matter. It was all just a matter of nothing else but time. Time they perhaps were running out of.

Back inside of the bar had Applejack never taken her eyes off of the stallion. His light goldish skin was reflected in both the lights of the place as well as the sun as wore a typical western outfit. The gamboge and amber colored hair looked a little ruff under his stetson. The pistachio colored eyes he carried were still in a truly massive shock about just what was happening and who was in fact standing in front of him.

Never in his life he would have expected to see her standing right in front of him like that. But one of the guests became impatient and drew his flintlock as he got up from his place. The stallion made his way over to Applejack where she once again stared down the barrel of a weapon. “Can’t a stallion enjoy a nice drink for a change without being interrupted?” he asked through his teeth. The piercing eyes didn’t do too much towards Applejack emotions though.

Though she was having enough of standing at the other end of the barrel and huffed a bit towards the stallion just before she set her hands in her sides. Her own eyes pierced just as deeply back into his as they began their stare-down. Who would win the competition was something none of them knew. Even though a lot of other anthronies inside of the bar wanted to partake in the action, the entire attitude of Applejack showed them that she was a stone cold badass.

They valued their lives a little bit more than to just wanting to waste it in a fight with the admiral of the Equestrian navy. The frozen stallion behind the bar slowly regained his ability to speak. But the first words that came out of his mouth weren’t the ones he wanted to speak, for it was literally gibberish that was thrown out there.

“Calm down!” he managed to say to both Applejack and the other stallion. Their stare-down was broken up as the admiral glanced over to Braeburn. The other stallion turned himself around and without a second thought, had aimed his weapon to the other stallion. Who oddly enough only rolled his eyes backwards. “Oh this again?”

“Yes, this again,” the stallion replied before he cocked the weapon. Yet before he could even fire a single shot had the hands of Applejack wrapped themselves around his throat and began to choke him.

“Pick your enemies wisely, Boulder. That’s my niece you just insulted. And let me tell you, she isn’t going to play nice when that happens. So I suggest you apologize, now,” said Braeburn then. It was him who actually got a grin that went across his face.

The air left Boulder’s lungs with every quick exhale that he took. All the way up to the point as to where he slowly began to turn purple. “I, I’m s-sorry!” he managed to say under his breath as the flintlock was being dropped.

Applejack only then released the stallion and gave him one last glance of pure thunder. “And get out,” she growled to him. Boulder had no idea just how quick he had to get away from the place. Almost like a scared cat he ran out of the bar, past the rest of the company and down the street.

The mares outside looked after him while he got out of dodge. They had not even the slightest of clues on what was actually going on. Though perhaps it was better that they didn’t. Rarity shrugged a little bit as she continued to put on her maroon colored trench coat and matching hat. Twilight glanced over the change of attire and thought it was oddly fitting for the scene. Mysterious, dangerous and saying not to mess with her.

Back inside had Applejack made her way over to the bar and taken place on a stool. That was the universal signal that everything seemed to have become alright. Slowly but surely did the conversations resume themselves as the piano began to play again in its happy tunes.

“So, what can I do for you, niece?” Braeburn asked while he tapped a glass of his finest apple cider and gave it to the admiral.

“What Ah need of ya, of better say, what we need from ya, is a place to spend the night and supplies for the coming days,” replied Applejack. The glass was taken and set straight on her lips.

“Wait, who’s ‘we’ here, Jackie?” the stallion replied in a whisper. He needed to know the finer details of everything. He had to know details that most likely would have been best left untold. But the admiral had no choice. She couldn’t lie all too well against a family member. So the story of their adventure was being told, but with the most crucial details being left out.

Instantly did the stallion understand why they had come to Appleloosa. He leaned against the backside behind the bar. His arms went cross over his body while he nodded. “Now it all begins to make sense to me. I should be having a couple of rooms that are still available for you five. Provisions can be get all over town, as you remember from your last visit. …And, Jackie, don’t start thinking strange about me but, nah it comes later,” said Braeburn before he shook his head again quick.

The admiral placed her second glass down on the table and nodded to her cousin. “If ya say so, but Ah thank you for letting us stay. The keys, please?” the admiral said. A hand was held up to receive the all-important keys that would be leading them towards their rooms.

Hesitantly were the keys given to her before she finally left the stool. The clunking sound of her leg against the wooden boarding echoed through the whole bar as anthronies couldn’t resist themselves to look at the mare with the metal leg.

Back outside she appeared as a bringer of good news for a change. Applejack chuckled a little bit as she showed them all the keys for the rooms. Relief was something that filled each of them as they had expected for things to be going a whole lot more troublesome. “Ah’d say we check our rooms and then just wander ‘round. Get the things we need and come back here as soon as we can.”

“Are you suggesting that we are just going to wander through a city we do not know?” the hat wearing Rarity questioned in a voice that was hinting towards suspicion. She couldn’t really believe that Applejack had spoken those words.

“Fine, then y’all may be going tomorrow if Ah care,” replied Applejack then with another chuckle. “It ain’t like ya can get lost in this place, with its one main street.” She did have a point there actually. There wasn’t much else that the anthronies could be doing then to take their keys and go to their rooms.

~~~~

Finally had Twilight turned the key into its hole and opened the door. The sun had already set itself behind the horizon and the cool night had taken place for the blistering day. Their dinner consisted out of typical western styled dishes with a hint of apples within them. Lots and lots of apples in fact. It must have ran within the family, was a thought that Twilight almost constantly had on the matter.

Her eyes glanced over the room and noticed just how simple it actually was. Just a bed and a chair were placed into it as well as some pictures from earlier times. “Cozy,” she whispered to herself after the door was closed. The staff was placed against the hoofend of the bed before the mare dropped herself down on it.

A deep winch in pain followed together with a slight snarl. Her wound still needed to be healed but the sudden crashing motion didn’t really help with it. “Oh this is just gonna hurt, so, so much,” the mare muttered to herself. Though she swung her body further up the bed. Her head finally rested upon the pillow and all she wanted to be doing was just sleep.

The horn and the hands charged themselves up one last time. Her right hand began to slowly stroke the bandages around her body. She wasn’t speeding up the healing process for one bit though. Instead she was applying some anesthetic to the place. It would become numb and thus giving Twilight both the time and space to not worry about it too much, for the moment.

After the spell had been cast were the eyes closed as she laid motionless upon her bed. All of the others must have already been vast asleep. Every day was another massive battle for the lot of them, exhaustion was something almost constantly lured right around the corner. Waiting for them, anticipating them even.

In the middle of the night did the eyes of the soothsayer forcefully open themselves. Her ears couldn’t bear the sounds anymore that had been tormenting her. Somewhere around her was the creaking of a bed going on and on and on. Either in the rooms directly next to her or across her it must have happened. It drove her to insanity itself if it would continue any or much longer or further.

But being as sleep drunk that she was, Twilight did rose up from her bed and made her way back to the door. The normally so rational thinking of the mare had just vanished. In the moment would she let her actions speak for her.

The door was being opened and the dead tired, wide veined eyes glanced through the lit hallway. Her ears perked themselves to hear the creaking of the bed and turned herself over to her right. There, that was where were the sounds coming from. With a grumble beneath her breath did she made her way over to the door next to her room and didn’t even look whether or not a board was hung up.

Her hand just reached for the doorknob and turned it just because. Much to even her own surprise did the door actually open. Before anypony within it could react was it flung open. Though the sight which would have been revealed in Twilight’s eyes weren’t those that she had expected. For she saw both a mare and a stallion in the bed that were both naked as on the day they were born.

The mare sat on the pelvis of the stallion with hunched legs. The other mare turned just her head over to face Twilight with a gentle motion. “Would you close the door, doll? The air is getting chilly here. It’s not good for him, if you catch my drift,” said the hot, seducing voice of the mare. Gentle streams of sweat went down her back. The stallion said nothing, but his hands were wrapped around the waist of the mare.

Even with her dead tired eyes did Twilight saw the streams of sweat travelling clearly down the mare’s back and head. Not to mention the bright red blush that went across her cheeks. Instantly did Twilight knew where she had walked into and just closed the door again with haste.

Back on the hallway did the unicorn shook her head a couple of times just before the sounds of the creaking bed returned. The only sentence that she could be speaking as she laid back in her own bed was one of utter discomfort. “We sleep, in a brothel, ran by Applejack’s cousin. What a messed up family does she have!?”

For the rest of the night did the unicorn just had to endure the sounds for as long as they would be playing themselves out. Though she wouldn’t be taking any second chances anymore. Both of her ears were stuffed with plug to make sure no noise would come in. Finally was she granted a bit of sleep. Finally could she enjoy the bed that she was in.

~~~~

The following day had each of the other mares packed their bags for the stuff that they needed to gather. All of them were just so happy they asked Twilight the day before to get access to the void storage, for the soothsayer was nowhere to be found. Each of them were sitting at a table and taking their breakfast before they would be going out.

Of course they wondered where the soothsayer happened to be, but the words of Fluttershy were in fact comforting enough. For she spoke about the rest that the unicorn needed to let her wounds heal. Not to mention the little fact that she finally would be getting the rest she needed.

“The stress inside of her eyes, unbearable to look at sometimes. Constantly is she thinking about something and everything at once,” said Fluttershy after she had finished her plate. “But if you will excuse me, the time is there for me to explore the town a little bit. Any of you staying here, in case she does come down?”

Applejack was the one who nodded towards the words. “Ah’ll be staying here. Mah leg needs some cleaning and Ah need to be having some good words with Brae as well. She shouldn’t be too difficult to miss.” Those words were a relief for Fluttershy as she thanked the admiral and finally left the table.

One by one they then slowly left the table in order to do the things that they needed to be doing. Only Applejack remained sitting inside of the bar for just a moment longer. Only to then stand up and walk out of the place. Far she didn’t go though. There were a couple of chairs that stood on the porch. Chairs that had a nice little view over the main street of Appleloosa. That would have been the near perfect place for her to not only crash down, but to do her job.

Which was exactly the thing that she began to do.

~~~~

Fluttershy on the other end wandered a little bit up and down the main street. She glanced over each of the houses that could be seen. The whole scenery of the town was that of the typical Wild West always been pictured within the stories she read. The adventure tales of Daring Do and the quests which she did.

A little giggle was released by her as the town almost looked like one that came forth in one of the many books about the pegasus. Who could say but perhaps it was actually used as the setting for it? Fluttershy’s thoughts began to run wild and plenty as she was just taken by the atmosphere.

So taken in fact, that she even walked out of town. When the blistering sun stood once again upon her face was she brought back to the time where she needed to be and shook her head a little bit. “W-What?” she questioned herself. Before her was nothing but desert landscape. When her head turned itself around to watch, more desert. Only when she looked straight back, Fluttershy saw the town of Appleloosa standing there.

The eyes of the pegasus went wide for a moment before she just rushed right back into the main street. Soon enough was she back within the safety of the place and a massive sigh of relief was released through her mouth.

Her trek continued and brought her eventually to one of the buildings that was standing at the side of the main street. But it was exactly the place she was looking for. A little pharmacy that most likely would be having the stuff that she needed in order to make the trip.

A couple of things she still required and she needed to just restock on the stuff that was used to bring Twilight back. “Let’s see what you got for me,” the timed pegasus said to herself before she walked inside. Hoping to find the things that she was required to find. Hopes were set high and expectations low. Anything could happen inside of there. Both good, bad and downright terrible.

Yet out of everything that the pegasus needed, there was something else that was also required. Something was about to happen to her. A thing that nopony actually knew or needed to know about her. A secret kept hidden about her for so long and one she preferred to keep that way for the longest of times. But she knew that every secret eventually would leak out no matter what. She had to prepare herself for the moment, as it felt it was laying right around the corner, waiting for her. Hunting her, teasing her.

~~~~

Rainbow Dash on the other end had just taken right off into the skies after her own breakfast had been consumed. There wasn’t much on her mind outside of her morning flight and routine. From the air did the town look even more bleak and grim in her eyes. The whole place was just strange to her. Rainbow couldn’t actually wait to get out of there. Yet time wouldn’t allow it yet.

All of her muscles were kicked into their highest gears as the pegasus climbed up higher and higher into the atmosphere. The trail of rainbow colored lights that she left behind her was something a lot of town residents saw of course, but they hadn’t any idea as of what they needed to think about it. Some even discarded it just like that, as if it was nothing.

Dangerous it didn’t seem and it did have a certain charm to it for sure. So the only thing that they could be doing was to either watch it for the time being or just to ignore it any further and continue upon their daily routines.

The pegasus climbed higher and higher in the air until the heat of the sun became almost too much for her. The desert was nothing like the grassy fields above which Cloudsdale had been set and the sun was just without a grain of mercy. So the only thing that could be done to counter it was to return back to the ground.

Her wings were tucked back against her body. Before she even realized it, was she falling down towards the earth again. The amounts of speed that she gained became greater and greater with every second of falling.

Yet the time to enjoy the view wasn’t there. She was counting inside of her head when her wings needed to take over again. Never had she admired the beauty of the desert nor would she ever at that rate.

All of the sudden were the wings opened once more and acted like a parachute. They dropped down her speed almost to nothing just before she would be crashing right into a roof of a building. She just hovered a little bit over the roof and got a little genius idea for herself. Rainbow didn’t had to stock up on all too much and they would be leaving the following day. So she reckoned that she had more than enough time.

The mare dropped herself onto the roof and just laid down on top of it. The wings were tucked again behind her back and she placed her hands behind her head. The legs were crossed over one another as the eyes went shut. Rainbow would be enjoying a bit of a sunbath for the time being.

Minutes had become a couple of hours while the bright yellow sun kept on hammering itself against the skin of the pegasus as well as the attire she wore. Sleeping wasn’t granted to her due to the heat of the roof. At one point it seemed like it had become just that tad bit too much for her.

In the end she sat right back up and stretched both her arms and wings again. Her eyes were closed for a yawn to pass through her mouth which then made a couple of smacks. Once the eyes were opened again, she caught something within the corner of them. Quickly did the head turn itself over into the general direction.

She couldn’t believe what she saw in her eyes, for one of the buildings that stood off of the main street was actually a book store. A bookstore that could be holding one of the many things she still needed. “Impossible,” the mare whispered to herself. She had to know it for sure.

With a quick jump and glide of her wings she managed to get down on the ground again. She then hurried herself towards the bookstore and looked through the windows. There were many books seen that weren’t even in production anymore. “Vintage books, or just not many buyers?” Rainbow questioned to herself as she weighed the odds off against one another. Anything could actually have been possible in the moment.

But she needed to be certain of her case. And the only way for the pegasus to become certain of her business was to just go in and ask straight up whether or not they had what she was looking for. For the fact was that the major of the air force also had a little something for the books that were written by A.K. Yearling. Who was in fact better known as the author of the bestselling series about the adventurous Daring Do.

Without any form of hesitation had the pegasus walked through the door and the scent of old books just filled her nostrils right away. A scent that was at least ten times more powerful than when she would be standing in front of her own shelves. The chances were small that she would find the book she was looking for, but the chance was there. That alone was more than enough for the pegasus to take it with both of her hands.

~~~~

Rarity Brittenburg on the other end had found the shop she was looking for rather quickly and with strange ease. The signs that were hanging off of the house at the main street easily indicated just what was being sold were. Provisions were of course something that stood high upon her list, but not that alone, in fact. Something else was also standing on top of it. Something that was a whole lot more interesting towards her personally and something she had always desired to have.

The hammer and the anvil were a clear enough indicator that the blacksmith of the town had its shop set up there and the heat of the force could be felt outside already. It must had been dreadful for the smith to work there. Not only was there the heat of the forge, but resting outside was something that couldn’t be done either.

Still, somehow seemed the place to be operational and the unicorn opened the door. What followed was the little bell that rang through the place. Not to mention the slap of cold air that greeted the pirate captain. It certainly was a bit of a pleasant surprise that she felt the cool air hitting her, as it meant that the place had a decent air-conditioning system within it.

The place looked nice, tidy even. Countless weapons were stored behind arcane protected glass and the unicorn had a look at each of them. All of them just seemed to have been made by the hands of an anthrony. The question arose within her of who that very anthrony happened to be. In her ears she caught the fires of a forge being dimmed. Then the heavy boots echoed over the wooden floor.

Rarity tore her attention away from the weapons on display and glanced over the only other being in the store. Her sapphire blue eyes fell upon a mustard skinned, blacksmith attire wearing, two toned purple haired mare. She had to admit that she hadn’t expected the sights that she saw. Not to mention the little fact that the mare actually seemed to be a unicorn.

“Can I help you?” the mare asked towards Rarity in a well meant, but slightly rough tone. Of course she couldn’t be blamed for her manner of speaking as the other unicorn didn’t exactly wore the most friendliest of attire herself. She was in disguise and hidden within plain sight.

“Well, I hope that you can, actually. I, want to have an exact copy of the blade I’m carrying right now,” said Rarity. Then she drew her sword and placed it in both of her hands. She drew it slow, without any sudden movements that could frighten the blacksmith. The smith herself had a look over it when it was presented to her. The horn charged itself and took it out of her hands with care.

The blacksmith’s eyes went even further over the piece of steel before she stroked her chin a little bit. “It certainly is an old piece of metal. Seen a lot of blood in its time. I’m not certain if I can make a full on replica of it, but I should be able to make an identical looking one. Maybe even stronger. This beauty is made in the Great Plains, griffon styled actually. They use a different metal over there. But as I said, it should be doable.”

“Oh thank you so much, I think it should be doing just fine with an identical one. And yes, it has seen indeed quite the bit of blood. If, if it isn’t too much asked…” Rarity continued before she just went silent for a moment. She had to play her cards right in order to get the thing that she desired. Even if it was the request of a madmare.

“Continue please. I’m actually wanting to hear what you have to say,” the smith replied before she gave the sword back to Rarity. Who on her own turn sheathed it again to get it out of the way.

“Can I instead order two sables that look just like that? Then this one can be put on display for preservation. And, maybe a bit of a strange request, but can you also make the sables in such a manner that they can be mounted to my arms via special braces?”

To the request could the smith only raise an eyebrow. In all her years as a blacksmith had she never even heard something like that. Anthronies in Appleloosa sometimes did came with some unusual requests for her, but never had they been asking for something that ridiculous. So the only thing that the unicorn smith could be doing was to shake her head a little bit from side to side. “I can make the two sables for you, but I can’t make them arm mountable as well. That’s just insane, if you excuse me the terming here,” she spoke up in a collected tone. “It won’t do the blades honor.”

It might actually have been a good thing that Rarity wore such a large hat, otherwise the smith would have been able to see the bright red blush of slight embarrassment that went over the cheeks of the mare. “Alright then, then just the two sables it is going to be. When, do you expect them to be done? I have to leave tomorrow in the morning.”

“Well,” the smith began, “it’s not super busy here, so I would say I can have them and their sheaths done within an hour or seven, possibly eight. It takes a bit of time to make the handle and form the steel to the right size and thickness, even with magic.”

Rarity nodded towards the explanation that was given to her. “You mind, if I stay here then and clean my flintlocks?”

“As long as you don’t end up shooting me, go ahead.”

~~~~

Applejack on the other end was still sitting on the porch of the bar where she was cleaning her leg. All of the sand that had gotten into the gears and the springs looked like it could almost have destroyed the thing. It was never designed to make long trip, make long runs or desert climate. It was designed to keep her safe at sea, to keep the mare able to run across the deck if needed and protect itself from the salt in the water.

It was at moments like that that the realization went through the anthrony just what shortcomings the leg actually had. Grumbles after mumbles were released by the admiral as she just continued the job. It wasn’t one she preferred to be doing of course, but it was still one that needed to be done no matter what, how, why or when.

All throughout the morning did anthronies walk in and out of the bar. Some wondered about what happened to her, others just didn’t even look up strange. And then there was the third kind, those who actually walked up to her and asked the questions on their mind. Questions which the admiral didn’t mind to answer, as long as they weren’t about her own personal history of course.

In the end did Twilight surface again and she was pointed outside by Braeburn, who said that Applejack could be found there. So when the middle of the day was announced by the massive clock tower, the unicorn finally showed her face to another member. She dropped herself down in a chair next to the admiral. Twilight couldn’t get the image out of her head though.

“Something’s troubling ya, Twilight? If yar wondering where the rest of ‘em are, all ‘round town to gather the supplies we need for the trek further north,” said Applejack. She was cleaning the shell of her leg. That was one of the last things that needed to be done before it was finally over.

“It’s not that. It’s that your cousin, is actually running a brothel. I, uhm, kinda ran into, you know,” said Twilight to her. She couldn’t even bare herself to say the scene that she had witnessed.

“Ah know, Ah had the same last night, asked Brae ‘bout it today. Turned out he’s tight with money. Should have asked the family though. Apples support one another through thick and thin,” commented Applejack in a disappointed tone. Her leg was finally done with its cleaning.

“As you should have told me we were going the wrong way,” the soothsayer replied under her breath and inaudible for Applejack. Together they remained sitting there. They watched all over the town of Appleloosa until the sun would be setting itself. They were waiting, waiting for the heat to be changed in cold. In the deserts they would be going from one extreme, right into the other.

Chapter XXXIV

The sun was setting itself over the town of Appleloosa. Twilight and Applejack been talking about the history of the town for some time. Not to mention one other little thing. Twilight released a deep sigh through her nostrils. Her head was shaken from side to side. Disappointed was perhaps the word that she was looking for to describe Applejack in the moment.

“All of it combined, still doesn’t give you the right to lie against me or any of us, Applejack. Yes, we’re a band of misfits thrown together in order to mythically stop these earthquakes. But we need to be able to trust upon one another,” said Twilight after the conversation was already over for the admiral. But the soothsayer wouldn’t have any of that. She would be stating the facts as they were and make the admiral face her wrongs for a change.

“Ah already told ya Ah’m sorry for not saying we would be going here, alright? What more can you want from me?!” Applejack exclaimed. Her head was turned towards Twilight once more. “What else do ya want to hear out of me? That Ah was wrong all those years ago at sea? Ya soothsayers had nothing to say about it and ya were still laying in a cradle when it happened!”

Those words were in fact harmful for Twilight, but the admiral was more than right. All of the mares were far in their thirties or even forties, but the unicorn was still in her early twenties. She was the youngest of the bunch even though they all looked like they were in their mid or end twenties. All three races aged differently and soothsayers in general had a rather complex aging system to begin with.

“Don’t bring age to the matter as it is just a number of how long you have been around here. An anthrony of ten can have seen just as much as one of ninety,” snarled Twilight back towards the admiral before a huff followed it all up.

Applejack on the other end released a single ‘ha’ before she focused her attention back on the main street. “Don’t make me laugh, Twilight, we all know this ain’t gonna work. But fine, ya want to know why Ah said we should have come here? Resources. That’s all Ah can say.”

“Resources?” Twilight repeated in a questioning tone. One of her eyebrows rose itself up. She couldn’t really believe the words that were said to her. But Applejack was one of those mares whose mood and alliance constantly shifted to make sure it was in her benefit. “So you just wanted to come here for resources and to see your cousin? Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware it’s a long trip, but you could have been honest!”

“Honesty and them lot? Not really gonna happen, partner. ‘Specially Brittenburg,” replied Applejack in a bitter tone as her eyes narrowed themselves a bit. Twilight was becoming fed up with the whole argument about Rarity and she found it even stupid that Applejack was still hunting her for that very reason.

“You’re as stubborn as a mule sometimes, you do realize that, don’t you?” she said to the admiral. The earth anthrony then stood up from her chair and just gave a nod towards the soothsayer. Without any further word had she walked into the bar and took a seat upon one of the stools that stood near the bar.

“Of course, drown your sorrows again. Typical sailor,” muttered Twilight to herself before her eyes closed themselves a little bit. She wanted to get some more rest before the trouble of dinner would be beginning. But much sleep wasn’t going to be granted to her, for the thoughts constantly rushed through her.

If Applejack and Rarity hated one another so much, why could they been having so much fun on that one night. Countless explanations went through the unicorn until one came to her. One that came to her like a stagecoach hitting a wall. “She’s sobering up!” the soothsayer exclaimed. She almost shot right up out of her chair.

A shot of pain could be felt immediately going through her side as the right hand was pressed against it. A deep inhale was taken through her teeth which gritted themselves against one another. She was in pain, she was in a terrible pain. But perhaps the pain she was going through was a whole lot better than where Applejack was going through.

Quickly she walked through the doorway of the bar and charged up her magic in one hand. What first happened between the cousin and the niece would then be happening between the admiral and the soothsayer. “Applejack!” Twilight shouted through the bar as she closed in the distance right away.

The admiral herself was downing a glass of something when the word entered her ears and she almost spat the liquids back out. Yet somehow she still managed to keep everything inside of her. The mare turned herself around on the stool and before she knew it, there was a massive punch that impacted upon her cheek.

The force of the punch was powerful enough to knock the mare upon the bar and knock her unconscious on impact. The deliverer of the punch was nopony else then Twilight ,who was waving her hand quickly from side to side from the self-inflicted pain. Even with the magic surging through her hand was Applejack a tough nut to crack. Something that Twilight discovered the hard way. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, oh that hurts!” she exclaimed. The mare was even dancing a little bit on the spot.

"Wow, wow, wow, hold it right there missy!” Braeburn said while he suddenly had aimed a blunderbuss towards Twilight. As soon as the soothsayer noticed the little fact, there wasn’t much that she could be doing then to release a gulp. “What did ya do to mah niece?”

There wasn’t any real escape that Twilight could be taken to avoid the shot of the massive weapon. One shot and half the bar would be literally wiped from the map. “I, I, I realized something about her. Something, I didn’t know until now. Her, mood swings.”

In response went the eyes of Braeburn from angry to almost sympathetic looking. The blunderbuss was hidden behind the counter again. Then he glanced over his knocked out niece. One of his hands began to stroke the cheek of the mare as a conversation between the two erupted. “She’s indeed having trouble of that. She holds her family high as well as her job in the navy. Not to mention the hunt for Brittenburg.”

“And in order to cope with it all, she began to drink and she’s only happy when being drunk,” dared Twilight to say. She expected another explosion of the stallion to happen. But instead he just turned his head back towards her and nodded. “The swings are at their worst when she’s sobering up. I don’t think, I have ever seen an actual sober Applejack in a very, very long time.”

Braeburn couldn’t help but to let out a single chuckle from his throat in response to the words. Until the words of his side left the throat. “Nopony has seen a sobered up Applejack in a long time. Not even her own brother with whom she sails. He had warned her if she took much of the family’s trademark cider, she would end up being an alcoholic. But I think it’s much too late now.”

“It’s never too late, Braeburn,” the mulberry mare replied to him. She leaned against the bar for a little bit. “All that she needs is time, lots and lots of it. And let her just be happening to be having a lot of that now that she’s on the journey with us.”

Those words took Braeburn actually by surprise. If he had heard it right in mind, was Twilight really offering him help to get his niece back to the state in which she used to be? To make her again that hard working, prideful admiral of the navy with a clean slate? “You sure you are able to handle her? I mean, you can’t knock her out every time she’s drunk.”

Twilight nodded with her head towards the words for they were more than true indeed. “Well, the first thing would be to have her actually sobering up for a change and not make her drink anything alcoholic. Next, this is possibly our last stop for a long time to come so, she’ll be having time aplenty to arrange things.”

Braeburn stopped stroking the cheek of his niece. Then he nodded towards the words of the mare. “Sounds reasonable to me. Even though it is highly insane. I do admire what you are willing to do for her. Not many would be doing it and even less know who she will be when actually sober.”

“It’s that of course, and I don’t want to get shot by a drunken admiral in the heat of battle,” replied Twilight in all honesty. To which the stallion had to release a chuckle. “Can, can you bring her to her room and take off any flasks she has? It’s time to bring your niece back to the honorable mare that she used to be.”

The stallion behind the bar simply nodded and left his position to haul his very own niece over his shoulder and made his way towards the rooms. “I just hope this turns out a lot better than I expect it to be.” Twilight whispered to herself as she turned around and aimed her eyes for the doorways. She would be on the lookout for the other members of their company to finally return to the bar so they could be having their last supper in Appleloosa.

~~~~

Slow but sure had each of the mares enter the bar again. At first was there Rainbow Dash who walked in a whole lot more happier than usual. It was something that surprised Twilight as she gestured her over. “You seem oddly happy today, you had some good luck getting the supplies or something?”

“Hehe, make it the ‘or something’-part, Twilight. Yes I have the supplies you asked for. But also something I have been looking for a long, long time. You’re a soothsayer, right? Living in Canterlot with that massive library,” said Rainbow in a hyped up tone. She took a seat next to the unicorn. Whatever the major’s game was, Twilight had no idea in the moment. All she could do, was play along for the time being.

“Uhm, yes. Canterlot Castle is having a massive library, yes,” replied Twilight. She still hadn’t even the slightest of clues on where the conversation would be going to.

“Suppose you don’t have any fictional adventure books?” Rainbow then asked through as she began to reach inside of her bag.

“We, actually do have a section that is filled to the brim with fictional stories. It’s fun reading them once and awhile,” commented Twilight with a small smile. Yet nothing could have prepared her for the thing that Rainbow would be showing her next.

Out of the bag and sealed in plastic it just appeared. A copy of the first ever published Daring Do book. The eyes of Twilight went wide as she didn’t know what she actually saw right before her. “B-But that’s, that’s not possible. Is, is it first print? The cover on it is different.”

“Oh yeah, this is the original first print of the story with the original cover art for it. They changed it with the second run. But you know what’s even more awesome?” She then tabbed just below the cover art and Twilight came in just a little bit closer. Only to see that through the name of the author was actually a signature of said author.

“Wow, that’s really a one of a kind find indeed,” said Twilight to Rainbow. She was genuinely impressed by the sights that she saw. She hadn’t truly expected that something like that could be found in a store within the town of Appleloosa, but Rainbow had somehow managed it. “I didn’t know you were a fan of Daring Do though.”

“You never asked me if I was or not,” chuckled Rainbow Dash in response. Then she placed the book back in the bag. “But, uhm, I have a question. Can you save it on a special place in the void storage, someplace where almost never something comes? It’s, it’s the pride of my collection now and a flight to Cloudsdale takes me about four days from here. Not to mention I have to confront Spitfire again when I arrive.”

Twilight allowed herself a little giggle before she nodded for confirmation. Before she even knew it had she received a hug from the pegasus that was both tight, firm and genuine. Only to have her then darting off towards her room. Though as Rainbow went upstairs did Braeburn came back down from it.

The stallion took his usual place behind the bar and poured a drink for himself. “So it runs in the family,” the soothsayer spoke up in a sharp tone. To which the stallion only shook his head.

“Nah, doesn’t run in the family, but a drink on its time isn’t wrong in my eyes. Only having like, three glasses per day. And no, I don’t stand up or go to bed with it. And yes, Applejack is sleeping peacefully in her bed.”

It was another relief that went through the mare as both Rarity and Fluttershy entered the bar. They saw Twilight sitting at the bar and they both walked up to the mare. Rarity carried a rather large case of something as Fluttershy held both of the bags. “Before you ask, I offered my help but she insisted,” said Rarity before wishing the two of them a good evening.

“Oh, kay…” answered Twilight. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t confused about the matter. The bags were placed next to the one of Rainbow and it shook the unicorn right out of her confusion for the moment. “So, uhm, Rarity, what are you having there actually?”

“Wait, as in, Brittenburg?” Braeburn questioned. He couldn’t believe the facts. “So she spoke the truth. You did join them. Forgive me, but my niece isn’t really fond of you and I can see why.”

“Oh trust me, a lot of anthronies are thinking that way,” answered Rarity. Her head rose just a bit to make him stare into her eyes. “Still, we have the same cause in mind, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Long story actually, now that I think about it.”

“Rarity, the case,” whispered Fluttershy then to her.

“Hm? Oh, yes! Sorry,” the pirate answered before she brought it forward and opened it. Twilight, Braeburn and Fluttershy were all granted a sight at two beautifully made sword sheaths that actually took their breath away. “Aren’t these two of the most amazing sables you have ever seen in your entire lives?” she then asked before closing the case again.

They all had to agree upon the fact as it was. The hilts and the sheaths were already amazing, let alone the actual blade that rested inside of it.

“They are stunning actually. Where did you get them?” Twilight asked out of curiosity.

“From the smith down the street…” But before Rarity could speak the name had Braeburn simply taken over the words like that.

"Agate, heh, I knew that mare would still be having something on her craft. Everypony knows everypony in this town. But I suggest you lot prepare yourself for dinner, heard you would be leaving tomorrow again for the Frozen North. Jackie told me perhaps a bit more then she should.”

Twilight rolled her eyes a little bit before she nodded. “That’s indeed true yes. Girls, I think it’s time we prepare ourselves for it then.” It couldn’t have been a better idea for any of them. They were hungry and tired from the whole day of wandering or working. Yet it would be the days that came next that they would be needing their strength.

No stops would be found along the way, it was a straight up race to get to the home of soothsayer Cadence as quickly as they could. Hail, snow, ice and storms they would have to cross. But those were worries for later. First there was going to be a good dinner ahead of them to celebrate their last day in the town.

The following morning was everypony standing near the bar. Applejack had managed to haul herself out of bed. She was rubbing her head at a constant rate. The mare stood with the lot of them but never spoke a word. They had missed the mare during dinner and Twilight had told them all just what had happened to her. Each of them could understand the logic behind the actions. Rarity was actually happy that somepony would be dealing with her drinking problem.

With the whole company that stood in the bar, there were some of the guests actually became a little bit uncomfortable. But they weren’t carrying too much of their weaponry in sight. Which in return comforting for most guests, though others actually became whole lot more paranoid because of it. Anything could have happened with that group of strange mares.

Nopony had to speak a single word against Applejack. She was going through the worst hangover yet. All of her flasks had been taken or refilled with water. They all were ready to finally go. All of them still wore the same attire as the bags of supplies had been stored nice and easily within the void storage. Rainbow’s book was placed on a special little vault which was joined by Rarity’s old sable. Her new ones could be found sticking out the bottom of her trench coat just a little bit.

They were all ready to hit the road again. They had to hit the road again in fact. They all thanked the stallion for letting them stay at the bar and then it was back into the wilderness that was the desert. Braeburn waved after them for a little while as they left the bar and town. He kept standing outside of his trusted place all the way up to the point where the mares had disappointed behind the horizon.

“And so begins yet another chapter of their tale. I just hope that those earthquakes never hit this place. Time shall tell, for Appleloosa, Applejack and their company,” the stallion mumbled up to himself. He walked back into the bar to continue his daily routine. A routine that was always the same, day by day.

~~~~

Days turned themselves into nights which then followed up to be days again as the company just followed the lead of Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn soothsayer had taken the full responsibility to get them as fast as she could to the Frozen North and to this soothsayer Cadence. Not to mention the hopeful entrance that would send them to the caverns beneath the earth.

From time to time had some of the company’s members to be reminded why they couldn’t go into any ordinary cavern system. There was no cavern system in their land that ran that deep. Myth and legends spoke about only one system that ran all the way down to the core. One that managed to hide through the gears of time and nopony alive could be knowing exactly where it was.

Of course there was the preparing for disappointment if not even Cadence would be knowing where the entrance laid. It was a fear that constantly hunted the mind of Twilight as they continued to just walk. Whether it be under the blistering sun or the cool moon, they kept on going until they couldn’t anymore.

It wasn’t a lie that there wouldn’t be any other town until they would have been back. For they didn’t came across any other living anthrony in the desert. Left and right did they saw the remains of some who tried to cross but ultimately and obviously failed.

Applejack on the other end had become even more cranky than ever as she was still sobering up. All of the alcohol that had been stored inside of blood was released with every day but an enjoyment to see or listen too she wasn’t. She raged and raged about how she would end the life of Rarity in perhaps the most gruesome manners she knew. Yet the trench coat wearing mare never gave them any hearing.

Between the two of them was Fluttershy who always managed to keep the two separated from one another. If they had to listen to the nonsense that the mare yelled in order to get the actual Applejack back, it had to be that way. Even if it was just that annoying for them all too listen to.

Days had gone by and on one evening long after they had left the desert and were again on savannah territory. Fluttershy had asked to Twilight to sit down on a tree stump in order to inspect the wounds. The unicorn just sat down while the mare allowed the inspection to happen to her. The bandages were removed from her body by the doctor who then threw them away.

The dried up blood wouldn’t have been anything good for the body of the mare at all. Yet the eyes of the doctor looked at the wound and even gave it a couple bits of pressure left and right. The winches that Twilight made weren’t as violent she had them expected to be and the tissue of her body seemed to be healing the area quite nicely.

“It’s actually a lot better than I could have expected. At this rate I think another ten days and the wound will be nothing but a small scar,” said Fluttershy in a genuine happy sounding tone towards the soothsayer. Who on her own turn couldn’t be doing anything else but smile in return.

“Thanks Fluttershy. And, do you have anything on Applejack?” the mare asked as she remained sitting on the stump. She only moved a little bit so that the doctor could lower herself down as well.

The yellow pegasus did it thankfully before the rest of the words were released through her mouth. “She’s still having the withdrawal symptoms but from the looks of it, she seems to be going the right way. I would put her on watch tonight, just to see how that goes.”

Twilight nodded with calm in response. It was the information that she needed to be knowing. “Then I suggest its first going to be me, then you and you wake Applejack again for her watch. She won’t do anything to you, I hope,” the soothsayer said in a genuinely concerned tone towards the mare. Little did Twilight knew just how close they were to the Frozen North.

For when the two of them were talking to one another, there came a gust of wind that caused the hairs in the back of their neck to stand up right. The cutting cold was more than enough to actually send a shiver down their spines and both of the mares knew what it meant. “We’re close,” they both said together.

It was more than true. The ice cold wind could only have originated from the Frozen North. It had travelled down the mountains that separated the North from the rest of Equestria. One more day, possibly two, and then they would be standing in the snow. But first, the night would fall again.

Deep in the night did the eyelids of Applejack twitch softly. She was brought out of her sleep. The mare felt herself terrible and rose her body up from the bed she laid in. Both of her hands were brought over to her face as she began to rub it firmly. “Oh mah head, what have Ah been doing these past few days?” she muttered almost without a sound to herself. The groans of annoyance left her.

In her pajama did she leave her bed and took the guitar in one hand. A guitar that was placed alright right next to bed as she had been playing it just before she went to bed. She was still sobering up even after days of not having drunk a drop of alcohol. Nothing felt the same for the mare and even with her sleepy head she noticed how the bed of Fluttershy was in fact empty.

“Heh, must still be on watch then,” the admiral mumbled before she made her way out of the tent. The musty smell of the tent had almost become too much for her. She needed some fresh air. Some fresh air to get her mind back together for as much as it was allowed. For the brain was still pounding itself against her skull.

The mare left the tent and walked towards the fire made of the arcane lights before she would drop her body next to the one large tree they had come across in a long time. Perhaps it was stupid to set up camp near such a sore sight in the landscape. But it had worked before and each of them as naturally well-armed.

So the admiral rested her head against the bark of the tree. Only then did she began to play a couple of tunes upon her guitar. Fluttershy was nowhere to be found though, so she naturally kept an eye out for the pegasus if she would be dropping by. It was actually a wish of the earth anthrony that the two would be meeting one another soon enough.

Though their meeting perhaps came from another way then Applejack had anticipated.

While the tunes of the guitar were sent into the air, couldn’t Applejack help herself but to hear the slurping of liquids. Almost as if something above her was drinking from something. Something that perhaps should have been kept as a secret. But every single secret was of course doomed to be surfaced at one point or the other.

The tunes of the guitar stopped for a moment and so did the slurping. She began to play another tune on it that was a little bit slower and less noisy. Both of her ears were perked up to catch the mysterious sound again. Yet that time she only got the screeching sounds of bats leaving the tree. “What in tarnation?” she muttered to herself. The sounds were killed off and the mare stood up from her position.

She wanted to have a better look at the bats that left the tree as a shocking revelation was made to her. “No, this can’t be happening. This ain’t happening!” she exclaimed to herself quietly as she knew exactly what those bats happened to be. “How can that vermin ever gotten this far, to this one single tree in the literal middle of nowhere? Unless ‘course…”

Her eyes glanced themselves upwards into the leaves of the tree and constantly followed a massive body shifting. It was something that had confirmed her suspicion as a small smile was cracked upon her face. She then tore her attention away from the tree and looked over to the stand of the moon.

A full moon was shining right down on them. In the moment did everything began to make sense for Applejack. “Ah, now Ah’m starting to see how it all fits together. Ah should have realized this a long time ago, Fluttershy,” spoke Applejack in a quiet tone.

There wasn’t any point in hiding anymore. The revelation had to be made before the admiral. If it could only be kept to the admiral though, it meant that the rest wouldn’t be having to know it whatsoever. “Ah know yar up there, Fluttershy. Ya can come out now if ya want to. Ah promise Ah won’t be hurting you.”

The words seemed to have been actually too good to be true for the creature within the trees. But due to its natural shyness it remained nicely hidden among the branches of the tree. “Fine, suit yarself then. But can ya at least talk to me?” she then followed up in the faint hope to get some sort of response out of the being.

Patience was a virtue and Applejack had in fact a lot of patience, even in her sobering process. There were rotten apples thrown down in front of her then. The admiral took one of them and held it before her eyes. It appeared rotten at first glance, at second glance there was another revelation. One that mortified her down to the soul.

It wasn’t rotten at all, it was shrunken down to nothing but a solid core. All of the waters were just sucked out of it. Once again it was proof enough for Applejack. “Ya ain’t fooling me here anymore, Ah worked on a farm for the first portion of mah life, ‘member?”

What followed was a deep sigh that came from the tree itself, or better said: the creature that had hidden itself within the tree. “It’s no use, is it?” the voice of Fluttershy spoke up. But the voice was changed, sounding a bit more dark and perhaps even thirsty. Something wasn’t right about the voice and Applejack knew exactly what was wrong with her.

“It’s like the old tales. Anthronies cursed, only to be revealed under the light of the moon. So tell me, what are ya?” Applejack pushed on in the hope to get some answers out of the shadow. The lights of the fire didn’t reach that far inside of the leaves so the creature always remained hidden. The creature that was thought to be, Fluttershy.

“I’m indeed cursed, cursed to suck the life out of the fruits I come across. It keeps me young, able to do my work. It’s, it’s a wish I had so long ago, but regret now,” the voice spoke up before a gentle sniff was being released. “I’m a vampire, a fruit-vampire. H-Harmless to others, devastating for fruit. But, many make the mistake about me being the real deal and so the hunts begin again and again and again.”

Applejack carefully listened to the words that were being told to her as she nodded calmly with her head. Even though the subject was a heavy one to discuss, she focused all of her attention upon trying to help out the mare who so long ago helped her. “And that’s why ya began yar own hospital, to stay away from all the others that want to harm ya? Smart decision actually. Also explains another thing.”

“And that, being?” the creature inside of the tree replied with a curiosity in its voice.

“Explains how ya can have seen every kind of combat wound, without having been in combat and know so much about medicines. Ya ain’t thirty three as ya claim, so how old are ya actually?” Applejack revealed towards the creature. Though her words had one backfire that she didn’t had expected.

“Does it matter how old I am? I’m alive and that’s both my greatest blessing and my greatest curse. Just, just don’t tell this to any of the others. I don’t want them nervous of me as well. The tension between you and Rarity is more than enough to deal with.”

Applejack released a deep sigh through her nostrils as she understood immediately what the creature meant. She tore her attention off of the tree as a tear travelled down her cheek. The only thing that could be heard was the rustling of leaves as something big left and the flapping of wings could be heard.

But the admiral didn’t had the guts to be looking up towards the creature that left. The truth about Fluttershy, the actual truth about the doctor still remained a mystery. Was she truly a monster, or was it all some sort of sickening trick? One that was set up by both her and Twilight to get the sober Applejack back even faster? The admiral herself didn’t even wanted to know.

The earth anthrony just dropped herself down against the tree again and released a deep sigh. Her watch had begun and she had a lot to think about in that time. Perhaps more than she originally wanted to admit.

Chapter XXXV

The following day did the company wake up as they would have done every other day. The whole group prepared themselves to hit the day once more. They changed their nightly attire for a more appropriate one. Everypony still wore almost the same outfits as when they left Appleloosa, with the exception of Rarity of course. Both of her maroon trench coat and hat had been placed back in the storage. There was no need for her to walk incognito anymore with so few other anthronies around.

It was actually something that felt like a massive relief to the unicorn. It meant that she was free to do what she wanted to do. She wasn’t restricted by the fabric of the clothing anymore. Only the attire which she normally wore could become a hinder if they would got in trouble.

The mares all had a bit of a conversation with one another as Fluttershy rose herself up from her bed. The shy and timid pegasus stretched her arms a little bit before her lips were smacked a couple of times. Only to then be still followed up by a massive yawn.

Yet the appearance of Fluttershy also meant something else to the company. Something that they hadn’t really been expecting to happen nor could they have ever thought it. With all of them present in the tent, it meant that Applejack had been standing on watch for almost all of the night.

The eyes of Twilight went wide. She realized the fact and just rushed out of the tent like that. She wasn’t even halfway done with preparing herself for the day to come when she did it. With her hair still being a literal mess she appeared in the outside world. Her eyes glanced from right to left in the hope to find the earth anthrony still sitting there.

Luck was on her side once more for a change. Leaning against the tree she sat, with the dried up strains of tears that went across both of her cheeks and appearing to be deeply asleep. Applejack had cried herself to sleep that night. Twilight seemed to be knowing the reasons behind it. She calmly walked over to the mare and began to stroke one of her cheeks lightly.

The admiral shocked up from her sleep when she felt something touching her during the rest. The body went from sleeping to awake in literally a split second as the eyes widened themselves. The pupils inside of them looked all over the place until they noticed how Twilight was standing right next to her. Or better said, sitting next to her on her knees.

“Good morning to you as well,” the soothsayer said with a gentle smile upon her face. She was relieved that the mare was still among them and not had either just left them or anything else. “How are you feeling today?”

The first thing that came out of the orange mare was a deep groan. Her head placed itself a bit more against the tree. “Ah feel terrible. Mah body just cries for a drink but mah mind says no,” said Applejack as she was honest. The tones in which the words were spoken already told more than enough for Twilight.

Even though she shouldn’t have been all too happy in the situation, she just was it. Because with Applejack sobering up did they had a much more focused admiral who could be taking the place of the drunken mare. Though the process of getting from one to the other was a rather painful one.

“It’s alright, Applejack, I think you’re on the right road. Every day without alcohol is a victory for you,” answered Twilight. The smile was being cracked upon her face a bit further. The words couldn’t be denied by the admiral as she knew exactly what was meant with them.

She nodded her head calmly as the rest of the company left the tent. None of them actually greeted her as they saw her as a letdown or they just didn’t had the simple desire to speak to her. Either way, it was once again something that the mare could be understanding completely. “Ah think Ah owe them all an apology, don’t Ah?” she asked in a whisper to Twilight. Who on her own turn had a look over all of the other mares before she gave a nod to the admiral.

“Yes you do.”

Fluttershy still couldn’t be found outside of the tent when both the admiral and the soothsayer stood up from their location. Her absence sort of confirmed the suspicion that the admiral had about the timid pegasus. Everything about the whole events from the night before made sense to her. It all just fit the picture so well in her own eyes despite sounding insane.

But when the doctor did finally appear, the two of them had glanced into each other’s eyes by pure accident. The blue rims of the pegasus met the green ones of the earth anthrony. For them did the seconds just melt right into hours, they burrowed themselves deep into the soul of the other.

Not even Fluttershy was daring enough to break the stare. Breaking it meant that she would then confirm the thoughts of the earth anthrony. All that she could be doing was to just stand there and keep on standing there while their eyes were locked.

Applejack needed to know whether or not Fluttershy was in fact the thing that she thought she was. But the longer she stared into the eyes of the mare, the more she began to realize the fact that the pegasus wouldn’t be letting anything go. Nothing about her was revealed, for it constantly shifted between the monster and the timid mare.

Whichever happened to be the truth, Applejack had to face the reality of the situation. So it was her who first broke the eye contact and turned over to the rest of them. Fluttershy was relieved by the fact that the admiral had torn her attention away from her as it was shown by a deep exhale.

The admiral herself walked over to the breakfast table that Twilight had conjured up and simply stood at the head of it. “If Ah may get y’all’s attention,” she said. The eyes of all the other mares looked over to her with a questioning gaze in them. “Ah, Ah want to apologize for mah behavior most of the trip so far. Life, ain’t kind to me as Ah would have hoped. Ah drown mah sorrows with a couple of drinks every night to hit the next day.”

“Get to the point already,” growled Rainbow to her. Her stomach rumbled. She was hungry while the food stood before her. And it was the admiral who prevented her from eating anything.

“All Ah want to say, is that Ah’m sorry. Ah’m sober now and intent to keep it that way. That’s all.” After the words had been spoken did the mare lower herself upon a chair as she began to prepare her own breakfast.

“Finally,” the major muttered in response. She could finally return to her breakfast. But even though Applejack was once again actually and properly sober, it troubled Rarity. How much more ruthless could the admiral become when she was placed against the unicorn? How much more troubles could arise if those two were alone?

Caution had to be executed by Rarity in the hope to stay on the admiral’s good side. She had to make certain that the treaty that was made up by the both of them, actually remained that way. Even if it would have been impossible at one point or the other. Hopes were needed to be kept high, hopes that perhaps weren’t even present anymore for any of them.

~~~~

The day progressed as usual. The mares had walked through the savannah and noticed just how slow but steady it turned into a bit of tundra like. They were leaving the one extreme behind and would be making their way over to the next. They left the warmth behind them, only to step right into Equestria’s natural freezer.

Hills became more and more frequent while the whole of the company wanted to go around them instead of constantly going over the very tops they carried. Even Twilight realized that it was something that couldn’t be happening. If they would be going over the top constantly, they would have been worn out quicker than anything.

So the decision had been made in unison that they would be wandering around each of the hills even if it would be taking them just so long. Yet as the trek was going into its full speed did Twilight received an arcane letter. It was the first time in a very long time that she had received something like it. So naturally it surprised her.

The rolled up parchment was opened and the eyes of the mare began to read through it. Of course was the rest of the company curious as to what was actually standing into the letter, but they made the decision to not ask anything about it. So they would just continue as if nothing happened.

Before Twilight realized it in that moment. It was her who had formed the rearguard of the company while her eyes continued to gaze over the letter. At one point or another was it lowered from her eyes and they turned up towards the skies. The lips of the mare moved up and down as if she was talking right into nopony else but herself.

It scared the others a little bit but they knew that deep in their mind, she wouldn’t be the one hurting them. They all thought that some form of revelation had come to the unicorn. A revelation that perhaps wasn’t as nice or bright as they would have hoped it to be.

They were more than right upon the matter. For the soothsayer couldn’t believe the words that were written within the very letter. It wasn’t even a letter, it was a downright report. A report on the most recent amount of earthquakes and tremors that had plagued their land. Ever since they left had the rumbling of the ground increased itself in both power and times. Equestria was suffering from them a whole lot more than Twilight would have originally expected.

The coordinates that were given in the report once again all pointed to random area’s on the map. Sometimes inhabited and other time just on plains or at the foot of mountains. “I can’t make anything of this,” the mare muttered. Twilight felt the grass just disappearing below her hooves and realized just where they had entered.

Finally she dared to look up and put the report in one of her side pouches. The purple rimmed eyes of the mare glanced over the scene that laid in front of them. They had made it, they had actually made it. Each of them were staring in awe at the horror itself. A horror that none of them had wanting to see for years to come.

They had arrived in the Frozen North and they were looking straight that massive maw-like structure that stood between two massive mountains. It was a reminder of a dark king that once ruled the frozen wastelands with an iron something. The Maw was the passage that gave the most easy access to the North and the rest of Equestria, but also was one of the most feared.

“Are ya really planning to guide us through the Maw?” Applejack asked before another realization just kicked right in. A realization of which none of them hadn’t really thought about. “Ah mean, Ah wonder yar bravery, but going inside of that is like suicide.”

“I do intent to travel through the Maw, Applejack. It’s the only place easily accessible and can give us a clear lead towards the location of soothsayer Cadence. I almost dare to say she resides on the spot where the castle once stood,” answered Twilight. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the Maw for a single second. The mountains that edged on either side were just as threatening, but a whole lot more dangerous for those who didn’t knew.

“Well, here goes nothing,” said Rarity before she shook her head from side to side with a chuckle. It was funny for her in one way or the other. None of them even wanted to know actually why. None of them even wanted to know, Rarity was just strange in their eyes. A fact she loved.

“Did any of y’all brought any winter clothing with ya? For it ain’t gonna be the desert out there. It’s merciless up there, the most northern tip of Equestria lays just beyond that gate. It’s waiting to cover your frozen flanks in the snow,” said Applejack while taking a step or two forwards.

But that was the very thing they all hadn’t thought about. Their given information was that they would be travelling downwards, into the crust of the earth they walked upon. They didn’t expected it to be in the frozen wasteland. So none of them actually had any kind of protective winter gear ready. “As Ah thought…” Applejack muttered before her eyes glanced over to Twilight.

The soothsayer understood right away what was asked from her and she stepped forward. Applejack then returned to her original place, Twilight was the leader of it all. She must have had a plan of some sort, or so they desperately hoped. “Since none of you brought any winter clothing and I had forgotten about it myself, there’s only one thing that I can do to make us get into the snow without either walking or teleporting back to Canterlot first,” said Twilight to them all.

Feelings of relief went through all of the anthronies as there was still something what could be done. The only problem was the thing that would have been done. For none of them knew just what exactly was being planned inside of the head of the mare. They could only be guessing what would be happening next.

Returning wasn’t an option though. They had to push on and conquer both of the snow and ice. Twilight stretched out her arm a little bit before the hand engulfed itself into the arcane aura. Only seconds later was there a tiny little flame seen right inside of her palm. All of them had to tilt their heads just a little bit to actually see it and they began to wonder how that little flame could be keeping them safe. It didn’t make that much sense to them in the moment.

“I hope you intend to make that flame bigger, Twilight, otherwise we will still freeze to death,” commented Rainbow before anything else could have been said. The quick reaction was given a stern glare from the soothsayer in return. For the mare wasn’t done yet, far from it actually. The explanation from her side still had to come.

The unicorn soothsayer released a deep and slow exhale. The flame only became more intense in its color. Yet it never seemed to have been growing or decreasing. Its purple color only became either brighter or weaker with both the exhale and the inhale. None of the other mares knew what Twilight was doing, but they knew it was better to keep silent for the time being. They were rather safe than sorry when it came down to the magical powers of the mare.

Once the flame had reached a certain depth level of purple did the mare turn herself around. Twilight had turned towards the Maw and the land that laid behind it. For just a couple of seconds she remained standing there before her body turned back around. All of the questions would be answered through time. And that time was right there, in that very moment.

“This, is a little arcane flame. This is what is going to keep us warm as we wander through the Frozen North. How, you might ask. That is an excellent question. But I think a demonstration would be better,” said Twilight before she brought her hand with the flame closer towards her chest.

The closer it came, the more it began to rage and flicker. Almost as if there was more fuel around her. Then it just disappeared before their eyes. It vanished right into the body of the soothsayer who began to dance a like she had been eating something that was a little too hot.

All of the other mares had no idea of just what to make out of the madness they saw as only Rarity could be tying the knots together. Or at least she hoped that she could have been doing it. Eventually stood Twilight still again and coughed a couple of times. Out of her mouth appeared a couple of grayish to black clouds that traveled up into the skies.

The tears were wiped out of her eyes before she looked again over the company of mares. “Wow, that, that’s a bit intense actually.” She shook her head from side to side before another moan left her body.

“But, what is it now?” Fluttershy asked. She wanted to know the finer details of the little trick that was done. “Where, where did that little flame go?”

Twilight’s eyes then looked back up and focused their attention upon Fluttershy before the words left her mouth. “That little flame, is now inside of me. As we speak, it is coating my heart in a warm, pleasant and little fiery coat. It should be keeping the blood at a normal temperature as it passes through the four chambers.”

“Meaning there will only be warm blood flowing through the body, which as a result prevents hypothermia through the direct cold?” Fluttershy then not only asked, but in fact reasoned by tying the ropes together as they were given to her.

“Exactly doctor,” the soothsayer said before she coughed another time. “Oh my, that’s, that’s a powerful little fire that’s going inside of me. A-Anywho, who’s next?”

Not many volunteers took a step forward afterwards. The trouble in which they had seen Twilight was a thing they didn’t wanted to go through. But if they would have any chance up in the frozen wastelands of the North, that flame needed to be coating their heart. And if it meant that they had to wander around the place with near boiling blood in their bodies before plunging themselves into sub-zero degrees, the question was out the picture.

Slow but sure did all of them walk up to Twilight. The soothsayer conjured up flame after flame and allowed it to coat their very hearts. They all would be safe from the cold but the massive amounts of arcane energy that were surging through the soothsayer could have been just enough to make her go haywire. Not to mention the fact that her own flame was still not for the full one hundred percent under control.

A lot of magic was being consumed by Twilight as she coated each heart of the company’s members within the fire. “This is the furthest I have ever gone with my arcane arts, then I have ever done by another anthrony,” said Twilight while she looked over to the prepared team. “Here goes nothing.”

With those three words did she turn herself around to face the massive and horrifying Maw once again. But that time, they were prepared to take it head on. They were more than ready to tackle the whole of the Frozen North. They were ready for the cold, harsh nature of the place.

With the location of the old castle written inside of her memory was it the most likable place for Cadence to have been going to when she moved. It was the only structure with something of a foundation and which wasn’t covered in tons and tons of snow and ice. They all just walked at a normal pacing towards the massive Maw as the flames in their hearts did their work. Even with the icy winds rushing themselves against their faces, it felt like a summer’s breeze upon their cheeks.

The Maw itself was the dangerous passage between the North and Equestria. The thing thanked its name due to the near hundreds of icicles that hung there. Icicles couldn’t only be found on the ground, but on the sides as well. Dozens of razor sharp icicles that hung threateningly on the covered ceiling of the place. All ready to just drop right down upon the unsuspecting anthrony.

Fluttershy was of course scared to death when they came closer and closer. But Rainbow made a rather wise observation. “Hey Twilight, you think that the Maw is actually responsible for all the cold wind that blows through Equestria?” she asked with a strange curiosity in her voice. Her legs were kicked in a higher gears to walk next to the soothsayer.

“The Maw isn’t called like it for nothing. Researchers have discovered a long time ago that not only wind was blowing out of it from the North to Equestria, but at certain parts of the year it goes vice versa,” explained Twilight to the best of her abilities, without going all too techy on the major. “You can see the Maw as the giant mouth of the North, it devours everything that enters. But it also breathes air both in and out.”

Those words caused a little bit of a shudder to travel down the body of the pegasus as she didn’t feel comfortable all of the sudden. “Well, that’s good to know,” she then mumbled up. Though as she kept on walking next to Twilight.

Below their hooves did the rocky ground of the tundra gave way to the snowy field of the icy plains. They were close enough to the Maw to actually see just how enormous the thing happened to be and the levels of caution were increased by a terrible lot. One wrong move and all of the icicles could come crashing down on top of them. Or even worse, cause an avalanche.

“Look behind you one last time,” said Twilight when the Maw was leading the company of mares up a hill. “Behind you lies the last glimpse of Equestria as we know it. Green, lively and wonderful. After this hill, all we will be seeing are rocks and ice for who knows how long.”

The members of the company had one last look behind them as they realized that Twilight wasn’t lying. Even though the ‘teeth’ of the Maw they could still be seeing the green fields of the savanna and the occasional bush that sprung up on the tundra. “May the goddesses be with us,” the mulberry unicorn said to herself. The arcane symbols of the moon and the sun were then drawn into the air. Only to have them fall back into the snow.

They were ready to tackle the second leg of their journey, they must have been ready if they wanted to actually accomplish what they had set out to do. Whining and complaining could be done all they wanted but it wouldn’t be stopping Twilight at all. For she hurried herself up the hill to see just that what laid behind it.

The falling snow was the only sign for them all to leave the place and follow the unicorn upwards to the top. Each of their hooves only sank perhaps up to their ankles into the snow, which was a little bit unusual. As they would have expected to be dropped down right into their middles. Perhaps it was a layer of fresh snow they stood on and below their ankles could only the iced snow be found.

They didn’t care about it, the company had another mission to keep up. And that mission was to actually stick to Twilight while climbing the slopes of snow.

The unicorn soothsayer was the first one who got at the top of the hill. She had to cover her eyes with her hands. The burning sun and the white snow made it pretty much the land’s biggest mirror for sunlight. “Oh this ain’t going to be good,” she mumbled to herself. With her eyes she looked over into every direction she could see.

When the rest of the company arrived and had their own fair share of the view, there was only one conclusion that could be drawn from it. It was amazing to look at, but it also was terribly dangerous. Their eyes were looking at a near never-ending plain of ice and snow while the mountains left and right emerged and spiked to the clouds.

“Beautiful,” the doctor said when she got a faint smile upon her face. The others could only agree to the spoken word but they also knew that the danger would be lurking around. Dangers from creatures that none of them had ever seen in their lives. Not to mention the fact that the flames in their hearts actually worked.

Their hooves were standing right into the cold, cold snow but they didn’t felt a single thing from it. Their hooves were nice and warm as Twilight took once again the word. “Across the fields before you lays the route towards the remains of the castle. A route long gone in snow that went past the glaciers hidden below. The desert heat is nothing compared to the depth of an icy glacier.”

“But, what about setting up camp? The sun’s already setting,” stated Rarity while she pointed towards the lowering sun. Twilight released a little giggle in response as she shook her head from side to side.

“Rarity, it’s the Frozen North. The sun never sets here, only in winter and autumn does it that. We’re in spring right now. It might lower a little bit, but never to its full. It should create a nice looking, reddish icy plain though,” stated Twilight before she gave the go signal again. They had to walk the plains of ice and snow, whether it was a thing that would be liked or not.

The pirate captain released a little grumble left and right as she was the last one to leave. Thus it was her who formed the rearguard.

~~~~

Hours had gone by as the sun had stopped setting itself and remained in the position that it stood. The red light that it gave off was something nice for a change. The dreaded reflection upon the snow itself had finally been gone as it seemed they were wandering through the depth of Tartarus itself. With the orange orb being something of a flame and the red light its cast light.

As beautiful as it seemed to be, that distracting it also was. For when Applejack was trying to fix her frozen up leg by surging boiling hot water through its system could she hear the screech of Rarity. Yet the pirate captain wasn’t be seen anywhere. “W-What?” she questioned to herself.

Of course didn’t the sound go unnoticed to the rest of them. All of the anthronies turned themselves around and looked over to the location where Rarity could have been. But none of them saw the pirate walking with them anymore. There was only one other solution that could be done and that was to call out for her.

The name of Rarity echoed over the plains. Three out of the four anthronies spoke it up in three different directions. Only Applejack didn’t say a word as she felt a chapter of her life closing off. If Rarity Brittenburg would have died, she could finally take that off of her list. Of course she knew that their treaty was still going and she wouldn’t be breaking it. But if Rarity had fallen into a glacier, that would have made all the difference in the world.

Yet the moment of relief was destroyed as the voice of the mare came from under the ground. “I’m right here! Into this nasty, nasty icy hole with… N-Nevermind!” The unthinkable had happened. Somepony had fallen right into a glacier. Twilight rushed herself over towards the hole where the sound came from. She approached it with caution in the hope to not fall right after her. The last thing they needed was a double rescue mission.

Only when she knew that it was safe did she drop herself on both hands and knees. The eyes looked down into the hole itself in the hope to see Rarity somewhere. But the mare was consumed by the darkness. Though her voice still could be heard. “Oh Twilight, what am I glad to see your face. If, if it isn’t too much asked, can you get me out of here? My conversation partner is, uhm, well, kinda, frozen.”

“Conversation partner?” questioned Twilight down the hole. She didn’t have a clue on what was being said to her. “What are you talking about?”

“Long story! Now get me out of here if you please!” snarled Rarity upwards.

“Alright, alright, give me a moment,” commented the soothsayer. She then removed herself from the hole. “Hang in there!”

"As if I have nothing better to do…” Rarity muttered to herself as she charged up her horn a bit more. The darkness of the glacier was suddenly lightened up even further as another revelation came. Rarity had luckily managed to shoot off the wrist mounted harpoon into the ice and she was literally hanging at its threat.

She could hoist herself up, but that meant that she would run out of rope at one moment. The other reason of why it wasn’t done was that it could actually destroy the connection between the metal and the ice. Resulting in a fate she really didn’t wanted to think about.

Back on the topside was Applejack grumbling to herself. The admiral was so close to getting rid of Rarity once and for all. But fate itself wouldn’t allow her the victory that she wanted. She was angry about it, so angry even that she simply refused to help Twilight when it was being asked. That of course infuriated the soothsayer again who exploded right on the spot.

“You are just such a dense mare, you know that?! You can help her, to get in her right book but no, what does missy do? Simply refuse because of an ancient old grudge. A grudge that doesn’t even make a whole lot of sense to begin with! You don’t hold the right to decide who lives or dies on this quest Applejack,” yelled Twilight to her. Her anger was justified, but it wasn’t the right time.

Twilight stopped then for a little moment in order to calm herself down as well as to catch up with her breath before she continued. “You aren’t the leader of this group, but I am. I only got you first of everypony else, because you were the closest one I could have gotten! And even with the knowledge of Rarity coming with us, you still made the decision to come along. Why? Because of the promise you made to me?”

Twilight was just furious in the moment. It was a thing that each of the mares could be telling that right there and then. Not only was she angry to Applejack, she was also disappointed in the other mare. Disappointed that she couldn’t set her feelings aside to help another anthrony. “Fluttershy, if the enemy knocks at the door of your hospital, do you allow him entrance and do you try to fix him up as best as you can even though you hate him?”

With the sudden mix of Fluttershy into it, the pegasus looked at all of the other mares as she didn’t fully understood that what was happening. “Um, well, y-yes. Of course I’d help him. He’s in the need of medical assistance.”

“That’s all I needed to know,” the soothsayer said before she turned back to Applejack, “now it’s your turn.”

It took the company a good set of minutes, but finally was Rarity back on the snowy ground they all had beneath their hooves. With the combined effort of all the mares and some magical solutions of Twilight, had they saved the other unicorn. Even the admiral did help them to get Rarity out of there. The unicorn was relieved that she was finally out of the hole and hugged everypony to thank them.

But when she came to Applejack, she stuck out her hand to shake it as a token of goodwill. Yet it was the admiral who simply turned herself around and began to continue forward again. She left behind a group of confused beings. Beings that didn’t understand the decision in any way.

“Who is actually the bad anthrony here?” the pirate mumbled to herself afterwards. After which she shook her head from left to right.

Chapter XXXVI

Uneventful, that was the very word with which the series of following days could be called. Only three days and three nights had they spent upon the icy plains. In those three days had they not encountered a single living thing. Or anything made out of ice for that matter. The plains were dead while the route to the castle was a long one. The castle of the ancient king laid right in the middle of the middle. The one place that was still just so far to travel towards.

The company hadn’t seen the night in the longest of times. The sun never set itself further than halfway. Their nights consisted out of the reddish glow that covered the whole of the frozen land. Yet their flames managed to keep their blood warm. The coat around their hearts was actually more than enough to make certain that everything would remain in the ways that they were supposed to be.

Hypothermia wasn’t going to be a problem for any of them. Yet both Fluttershy and Twilight were constantly on alert towards the symptoms of it, just in case. Though they couldn’t help themselves but to feel watched when they traveled along. Nothing on the plains seemed to have been living there, but the eyes. Those prying eyes that were always aimed at the company. It was something that managed to terrify them to the brink of death.

“It’s the isolation of this place, it makes you see things that aren’t there,” had Twilight explained. Everypony seemed to be suffering from the thing. But even though the mare said her words with confidence, not even she knew whether or not there was actually nothing roaming the fields. Only the next night could possibly tell for certain just what was lurking at the group of mares.

Words had it about hulking giants that were about twice the size of the normal anthrony that were wandering through the place. Hulking giants who were made entirely out of nothing but ice and hatred. Their souls as black as the former king of the land. The hatred that the king carried towards everything had caused the very Windigo’s to descend upon him and created the eternal winter that raged on. Legends still had it that the king remained alive, as long as the North remained frozen.

The legend was known to them all, but some had forgotten it as it was being told as this fable. A tale for the foals when they would be going to bed. Yet Twilight knew that every legends had core of truth thrown into it. Much like every legend their land was rich.

How much she prayed to be right on the matter of isolation, especially when she was on watch during the fourth night. With her staff locked in her tight hand, Twilight was ready take on everything that could be heading their way. In the reddish glow of the sun did everything appear to be calm. But she knew it was just the calm before the storm.

Her eyes peeked at a constant rate through the horizon in the hope to see nothing. They were scanning an area that was the size of Cloudsdale itself all the time. The group had set up their camp right in a valley. Perhaps not the smartest idea for the dangers of avalanches. Then again, if the snow decided to move with them on top, there wasn’t any other place they could be going.

Yet Twilight wasn’t unprepared herself. Out of caution had she cast a shield around the tent, that should have been able to protect them and take the near crushing weight of the snow on top of them. Her purple rimmed eyes continued to look further, further and higher to the mountain tops.

There she saw something that she to have been impossible. For among the snow there was also something else wandering. Something clear with a black dot, high on the mountain ridge. “Impossible,” she whispered to herself as the rest of them laid peacefully asleep. It couldn’t have been possible that she was looking right at one of the giants, could it?

Seconds she continued to look at the thing as it suddenly came to a standstill. She then felt a set of prying eyes which fell upon her. For the first time there was actually a cold shiver down her neck. The flame was still working and there wasn’t any wind. The case just had gotten a whole lot stranger.

The unicorn left her position and took a couple dozen steps forward in the snow. The snow in and of itself was also a problem, its depth sometimes caused them to advance only a couple miles instead of the ten they had always planned to reach at least. The Frozen North was only have been a quarter of Equestria’s soil, but could be the harshest mistress to conquer.

The eyes of Twilight continued to look at the thing. She never wanted to get it out of her eyes. She needed to be certain just what it was, whether or not it actually was a hulking giant of myth. Talking against a creature born out of hate wouldn’t have helped at all, she had to find another way that would be keeping her close to the tent and not to make her climb the whole mountain.

Slowly did the horn of the mare charge itself up, while the orb on top of the staff did the same. The magic was channeled through her body and into the object before it was raised over her head. What happened next was that a massive shot of arcane energy had been released in the form of a flare. It most likely happened to be the only hope that Twilight would be having to discover whether or not it actually was a hulking giant.

Closer and closer did the flare came to the location of where she thought to have seen the beast. But when she then looked closer at it, the realization of it not being there anymore set in. Her eyes blinked a couple of times as her arcane energy just floated away. On the top of the mountain ridge was nothing to be seen anymore. Nothing, no clear thing, no black dots.

The mare scratched herself behind the head as she hadn’t even the slightest of clues about what was happening to her. “Is paranoia finally getting to me as well? Have I really been that fixated upon finding whatever laid behind those ridges that I imagined seeing one?” she questioned to herself before her hand stroked her chin.

She then just turned herself around and walked back to the tent. She would be needing her sleep more than anything and somepony else would be taking over the watch for the rest of the night. For the following day they would be heading right up the mountain ridge where Twilight saw the creature. Over the top it should have laid, the very remains of the ancient crystal castle.

Though as soon as Twilight had turned her attention away from the ridge, something else was happening right on top of it. The crashing and crushing of ice could be heard clear as crystal before a deep groan was being released by something.

Shards of ice and snow began to gather themselves together before they would be forming a massive figure. The figure that Twilight had seen, was actually there. It’s face turned purple as the flare was still travelling past the ridge and the eyes narrowed themselves a little bit.

It had found its prey again, but the creature of ice never set in the chase or dropped down. Instead it just trudged through the snow and ice, carrying an arm behind it. The hand had morphed itself into a spiky ball of icy shards that could be used as a weapon. Another groan followed and actually echoed through the valley where the tent stood.

Twilight almost wanted to enter the tent when she caught the sounds within her ears. “Something’s out there for certain,” she said to herself. In her mind she tried to figure out just what it actually was that could be hunting them. She decided to not enter the tent just yet and turned back around. She did a couple of steps forwards.

Once she stood in the right place where both of her legs stomped right into the snow until she had a good place to stand. What then followed was that she rose the staff with both of her hands above her head. Arcane whispers were released through her mouth as the symbols began to cover the staff. Only then was the staff rushed back down into the ground and a wave of fire emerged from it. A wave of fire that would be circling the tent and its protective shield.

Arcane fire was being used to give the tent a secondary layer of protection, it’s intense heat would be melting anything that would be getting too close to it. Twilight seemed to have been content with the execution of the spell as the barrier that separated fire and ice was mere nothing. Nothing would be getting to them.

But whether it was paranoia toying with her or there was actually something out there, couldn’t be told by the mare. “Better safe than sorry,” she mumbled to herself. After which she finally walked back to the tent. The next anthrony in line was ready to do the watch. And that anthrony happened to be Rarity.

~~~~

The day came once again and Rarity had stretched her legs a little bit as she had been keeping the watch until the sun would ‘rise’ again. The unicorn on the other end had actually fallen asleep within the last hour before she shocked back into action.

Though during her watch hadn’t she seen a single thing about what was wandering over the ridge. Nothing had caught her eyes as everything felt like it was actually dead. Frozen in time like pretty much the whole place. She got back up on her hooves and began to just walk a bit more around to stretch her legs.

Twilight happened to be the first mare to leave the tent and for the first time she actually asked again for a report. “Nothing, complete and utter nothing,” replied Rarity as a direct response of the question. “I swear, I haven’t seen or heard anything during my watch. But a question for you, how do you plan to cross the ridge?”

Rarity knew where Twilight would be heading to. Only the manners of how they would be getting there was something that always managed to capture her imagination. “We break up the tent again and walk into the route we intended to follow, we came in by the low part of the valley. So the only logical thing is that we keep on walking up and then turn unto the ridge,” the soothsayer replied as plain as she could.

The explanation was actually enough to get Rarity concern again, yet one last question still lingered within her mind. “And what if there is a steep drop on the other side?”

“Please, don’t even start about it, okay?” Twilight replied. She followed her words by giving the unicorn a really nasty look with her eyes. “Another problem for another time.”

“Okay, okay, I was just wondering,” replied Rarity quickly before the soothsayer disabled not only the arcane fire, but also the shield around the tent. They had survived yet another night in the dreaded place. Yet who was to say there wouldn’t be many more to come?

Not too much later was the company back on its hooves. All of them were walking up against the mountain of snow in the valley. The depth remained the same though. They only sank in up to their ankles while they should been having gone down too far in their middles. Or being buried inside of the stuff. It surprised all of the anthronies but Twilight’s attention was constantly focused upon the ridge where she had seen the dreaded creature.

“Why aren’t we sinking so far?” Rainbow asked then. Curiosity had gotten the better of her about the whole thing. It was also a little bit strange that it was her who asked the question. The major of the air force was known to sometimes just take off into the air and fly around to scout ahead. None of the other members really questioned it aloud though.

“It’s because of the permafrost,” answered Fluttershy. She would be taking the heat off of Twilight for a change. The unicorn hadn’t even heard the question in fact.

“Permafrost?” the cyan pegasus replied with a tilted head. Never in her life had she heard a word like it. It even sounded like Fluttershy would have made up the word just to give some form of answer to her. “You’re kidding me here, right?”

“I’m not,” the doctor replied while she turned herself towards the major. “The ground we walk on has been frozen of decades, centuries, millennia perhaps. It’s always subzero here, everything freezes shut and not even the tiniest of gaps can escape it. When everything is frozen and remains like it for years, it eventually becomes permafrost. It holds the atmosphere as it was ages ago, times before the factories were invented.”

“Hey, don’t become a treehugger on me, alright? I respect your beliefs, but I have had a bit enough of that,” said Rainbow then in a stern tone. The tone was actually more than enough to give the pegasus a little scare as she then held her mouth again. “Good, and thanks for the lesson on this, permafrost.”

The doctor only let out a little squee just before Applejack decided to meddle herself into the mix. “Ah’m glad it’s permafrost, mah leg couldn’t handle that much snow and ice being thrown against it. Running on all cylinders here just to prevent it from freezing up,” she said aloud. All of their attentions were given to her. They could actually understand of just why the admiral was so happy about it.

Yet the pirate of the group couldn’t believe why Twilight was so fixated upon the ridge they were walking to. “Twilight? Twilight!”

Finally there was some reaction that came out of the unicorn as she shocked up out of her concentration. The attention was then turned over to Rarity with the question being asked. “Why are you calling me? Did we miss it, or something?” she asked in an almost sarcastic tone.

But Rarity shook her head as she then gave her own words again. “No, we didn’t miss anything yet. I’m just wondering why on earth you keep on staring towards the ridge. Have you seen a ghost upon it or something?”

All of them expected a reply about she was looking at the geological structure of the ridge or how the snow could be staying on top of it. “I, I think I have,” said Twilight then. Those words were some of the category that they had never expected to see. “I, I can’t say for certain. But during my watch last, ‘night’, I meant to have seen something wandering on top of it. Never saw it again afterward though.”

Rarity released a deep ‘hmm’ through her throat. The others just glanced over to the soothsayer for a moment before they would continue their journey. Plowing themselves through the snow of ages to get to the place they needed to be. “An interesting matter indeed. But don’t wind yourself up about it too much. If it has left, it has left. We’re well-equipped remember, I think we can handle a couple of beings here, just as much as everywhere else.”

“I can only pray you’re right, Rarity.”

“So do I,” the pirate whispered under her breath. Then her sapphire blue eyes looked one last time over the ridge.

~~~~

Finally had they made it, finally had they made the journey out of the valley and had turned towards the stone ridge that they needed to be going. There were they granted a wonderful sight over the plains as well as something they had been dying to see for a long time already. For their eyes were looking at the very foundation of the crystal castle.

Massive shards of dark colored crystal could still be seen sticking out of the ground, bending in ways like they were the teeth of the Maw. They were at the right track at least, that much was certain for all of them. “Hey, look over there, what’s that?” Fluttershy then said as she pointed with her finger into what seemed like nothingness.

All of the anthronies followed the finger and they all came out on the same thing. A small, chapel-like igloo in the middle of the snowy foundation. None of them could believe the facts as they were as some actually became just that little bit scared about it.

Fluttershy lowered her hand again as the feelings of relief were traveling down the spine of Twilight. They had found it, they had found the possible place where soothsayer Cadence could have been hiding herself. Relief was being exhaled before it would be making place for terror.

It was right behind them, on mountain slope behind them and on its far side could the howling winds be heard. The winds travelled far and wide before they went straight past their ears. Applejack’s twitched heavily as she then turned herself around. Though the sights she saw were of something that was just unbelievable. “Ah, Ah don’t wanna make panic, but Ah think it’s best we just go down. B-Blizzard storm!” she stuttered before a finger pointed to the black clouds that that were heading their way.

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed just before she quickly turned around. Immediately did the pupils rims shrink themselves in size as a truly massive blizzard storm was heading right for them. “Run! Just run as fast as you can to the foot of the mountain! Roll for all I care. I don’t want any of us on the summit of this place when that erupts!” she shouted to all of them.

And so had the race for the company begun. They wanted to clear themselves off of the top of the mountain as quickly as possible. They ran down with the steps of giants before they all be tumbling over and roll down the rest of the mountain.

Tumbling down like things thrown down the stairs they went, screams and yells of terror were released by all of the mares as Rainbow managed to work her way into the skies. She zapped down as quickly as she possibly could to await the others. Her only hope was that there wouldn’t have been any broken bones.

In the end had each of them reached the foot of the mountain, albeit it dizzy and completely disorientated. No bones were broken luckily, only a couple of bruises and bumps. They could be speaking of complete and utter luck that they managed to get out of there the way they did. But the clouds still loomed above them as the first flakes of snow were dropped.

“It’s best if we keep on moving, find some form of shelter to hide in for the time being!” Twilight said while the other agreed in unison. They had to wander for as long as they could, as long as the weather allowed it. Who knew how bad it would be on top of the mountain by then, a thought none of them wanted to think about.

Yet the more they wandered through the building blizzard storm, the more of those strange, little igloo’s they encountered. All of them were made out of nothing but ice with an extinguished fire place within them. “How long since these have seen life?” the soothsayer questioned to herself as she traced over the symbol that was carved in one of the blocks of ice.

The more she travelled over it with her finger, the more she realized it was actually the symbol of both the goddesses. For the sun and the moon were merged into one symbol. “We’re close, she must be somewhere around here. Look for a chapel bigger than the rest.” She then turned herself around to look over to the black clouds above them. “And please, for the love of the goddesses themselves hurry, we’re literally running out of time here.”

Winds howled passed their ears while the flakes of snow rained down upon them like hail. The very fires that were resting inside of their hearts were given a hard time to keep the blood on the right temperature. Nopony knew just how cold it actually was outside, but if their flames were having troubles, it meant it was perhaps better to take shelter somewhere.

With the greatest of difficulty did the group manage to walk forward. All were hoping to find that one last chapel in which they could be hiding themselves for the storm. Everypony was sticking close to each other as losing even one inside of the storm would be resulting in an actual death. Yet each of them were just so glad they weren’t standing on the top of the mountain anymore.

Who knew just how bad the weather had become on the very top of the mountain? In their eyes it was well worth the risk of getting the bruises and bumps they have gotten. For they were safely down there.

"Where’s that bloody thing?!” Rarity exclaimed as she turned her attention all around her. She wanted to see something, anything that resembled something like an actual igloo. But the fact that remained unknown to them was that they had past the last little chapel already. They were crossing over the massive foundation of the destroyed crystal castle with the hopes of getting better weather.

Somehow, somewhere where their prayers actually be heard. With the wind that howled behind them, Rainbow Dash couldn’t resist bit to look up at the mountain. There she saw something that wasn’t seen in a long time. “I see blue skies!” she yelled over the heads of all the other mares.

In a near instant did everypony came to a hold in the storm. They looked into the direction the pegasus was facing. She was right, they all saw the clue blue sky travelling behind the black clouds. Soon enough would the storm be laying down, that much was true. And soon enough could the search for Cadence actually resume.

But for the time being did they had to suffer the storm. Their fire coated hearts had to work even faster in order not to make any of them freeze to death. Suddenly had hypothermia become the least of their worries. Freezing to death however, had taken its rightful place in all of their minds. How long would the storm last above them? What if the wind would have been laid down? They would have still been trapped.

Hope, hope was all that they had in the case as they had to push on. Push on not only for themselves or Twilight, but push on for Equestria itself. If they would fail in their quest, the land would be lost. The risks were great, their lives even greater, but their home was them dearest.

With the passage of time had the storm been lowered. Finally had the dreaded blizzard storm just travelled passed them and the five mares were hugging one another tight. Not out of thanking that they had survived, instead they were warming up their bodies. The little arcane fire wasn’t powerful enough to keep them completely warm.

Failures had come as the storm had reached its peak and each of them were shivering as a direct result. The coat still worked, but not as much as Twilight would have liked. They all needed to give it a little moment before the warm blood would be pumped again through their bodies. Until then, all they could be doing was to hold the hug firmly.

“T-That was, t-t-terrible,” the major of the air force said with clattering teeth . She rubbed her arms over the back of both Rarity and Fluttershy. All of them had to agree upon the facts as they were, none of them had even looked at the location they were. For all they knew they could be on an island in the tropical seas, it didn’t matter for them. As long as that terrible cold would have been removed out of their systems and bodies.

Each of them rubbed over the backs of the others before the warmth of their bodies had finally returned to them. It must have been one of the closest calls that they had made during the whole trip so far. But they weren’t out of the fire yet.

For when Twilight rose her head up, she stared right into the entrance of something. Something that she hadn’t seen before. The hug was broken from her side as she then went around the rest of the mares. Then was the hug broken as a whole while all of their attention was turned over to the same thing as Twilight. “This must be it…” she spoke up as she looked at the largest igloo chapel she had seen so far. “This has to be it.”

The soothsayer then rushed towards the entrance of the igloo without a second thought. Though she had to admit that she was surprised to see a door that was made out of nothing but ice. Confused about it, she still knocked upon it as the rest of the mares just looked towards it from a distance. Yet something told them all that they had to get in closer. That they had to see the events that would be happening next.

So that was exactly what they did. Even though they were all truly hesitant about it, the group of mares still walked forward towards the door. A door that was being opened and in its way stood a mare. A mare with a horn larger than any unicorn they had seen and a pair of wings upon her back. The rest of the company –as well as Twilight– were genuinely surprised to see the state in which the mare was. They thought that it was impossible to have both a horn and a pair of wings.

It seemed like it was actually possible for an anthrony to be having both. They needed to know the finer details of it all even if it was just a well-kept secret. Yet the eyes of the mare in the doorway went wide as she didn’t expected any visitors to be coming her way. Though the whole expression changed the second that Twilight laid her arms in the neck of the mare and pulled her in for a hug.

“Oh Cadence, it’s so good to see you again! Finally have we managed to find you among the frozen plains, you remember your Twilight, right?” said Twilight in a voice that was truly overjoyed. Yet Cadence herself had a little bit of a difficulty to gather the knowledge of the mare.

All of the sudden did the eyes went wide and a small gasp for air was being made. “Twilight?! As in, Twilight Sparkle?!” Cadence then said in return. She couldn’t believe that it was actually Twilight who was standing in front of her. “Oh my goodness, where and how have you been?”

“I’ll tell inside, can we please come in? We have been sitting out that blizzard storm outside just yet,” said Twilight before the hug was being broken again. Without a word were they just allowed to enter the igloo as the soothsayer was the first to enter. Who was then naturally followed by the rest of the company of mares. All of them had their introduction with the other soothsayer before they walked further into the warm living room.

The igloo itself was in fact a whole lot wider than they had expected as well as higher. Even though it was a chapel to honor both of the goddesses, it also happened to be the home of the other mare. And like a good hostess had Cadence closed the door behind the last anthrony and she was busy setting tea for the lot of them.

Yet then did the question of questions do its turn. “How is it possible for an unicorn to have both a horn and a pair of wings?” Twilight dared to ask to her old mentor. Because the last time that the two had seen one another, the wings weren’t there.

Cadence herself chuckled up softly as she removed a strand of hair out of her face before the answer came. “When a soothsayer does something exceptional, he or she is granted an option by the goddesses. To become an anthrony that carries both the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn or not. Though who accept become a creature that is called an alicorn. Really rare to come across actually. I believe I was the first one in, fifty years? Maybe even longer if my memory serves me right.”

The words were already a tough pill to swallow for the rest of them. They didn’t really buy the story though. Even though the evidence of it being true was right in front of them. “An alicorn,” the younger soothsayer said while she stroked her chin. “Curious, highly curious.” The word wasn’t something new for her, for in the book about the evolution of the anthrony she had read that alicorns were also existing within the time of the ponies.

Something didn’t seem right in her eyes though. But the thought was lost the moment that Cadence walked back in with the cups of tea. Everypony was just happy that they finally would be getting something warm inside of them next to the fires. They could really, really be using it for a change.

Cadence took place in the one remaining chair inside of the igloo as she focused her attention upon her former pupil. “I don’t take it that it is mere a meeting of seeing one another again, is it?” she asked towards the mulberry mare who was just taking a sip of her tea.

The liquids were swallowed before the cup was being set down. Twilight then shook her head as the truth of the matter had to be told. “I wish it was, Cadence, I really do. But I’m afraid this isn’t. I’m sure you have heard about the tremors that have been hitting Equestria right?”

“Heard of them? Why do you think the castle has been fallen to its foundation?” Cadence then said to show Twilight her position in the game that was played. “But yes, I have heard of it.”

The younger soothsayer nodded towards the alicorn before she released a deep exhale. There must have been a way in which she could tell the whole story in just two, maybe three sentences. The mare took a deep inhale before it was slowly being exhaled. “Basically, I have gotten a vision in which the goddesses themselves told me on how to make an end to all of this. The only problem is that we have to go to the deepest cavern system in Equestria, a cavern system on which I was told you might be knowing where it lays.”

The words actually came a little bit shocking over towards the alicorn. She coughed a couple of times as some of her tea had accidentally fallen inside of her trachea. With a couple more coughs that followed was the emergency avoided before she looked deep into the eyes of Twilight.

The stare was returned just as deeply as Twilight already began to have her doubts about Cadence. Something told her from the bottom of her heart that that Cadence wasn’t the Cadence she came to know.

“I do have to say sorry here, Twilight. I honestly do not know where the entrance to such a cavern system laid. I’m sorry to say, but you wasted your time coming here,” said Cadence in a sympathetic tone. She tried to show compassion towards the group of mares. A compassion that didn’t seem natural to Twilight in the least bit.

“Well then…” the younger soothsayer just answered with. Her cup was set again to her lips and closed her eyes. She was waiting for the commotion to be released by the other mares. All while she would be brooding on her own little plan of action.

Chapter XXXVII

After Cadence spoke her words and the rest of the anthronies had all processed them inside of their brains, only then did the unthinkable happen. A massive commotion between the lot of them just erupted like a dormant volcano that had finally managed to be going off. Had they really been going all the way up to the Frozen North and faced the dangers along the way just to realize that their quest would have been pointless?

It wouldn’t have been the first time that some of them learned that lesson in the hard way. Rainbow Dash was as per usual the one who started the fires that would be fueling the boiler of rage. “We've come all the way up to this forsaken, cold and terrible place just to hear that you didn’t know where the entrance lays?!” she shouted up towards not just Cadence, but through the whole of the room. She was pissed about it and nopony could actually prove her wrong about it.

But it wouldn’t have been long before the whole group just faced one another. Rarity and Rainbow both stood up as they walked to one another with a glare of thunder inside of their eyes. Applejack was wanting to stand up, but with the pirate already up it didn’t seem like the best idea in the world.

“Oh now you just have to listen to yourself here Rainbow Dash, major of the C.A.F., you squeal and you squeal like a foal that’s just being born,” growled Rarity in return. Before even she knew it, it happened. The flat palm of her hand met up with the rainbow haired mare her cheek and the sounds of a slap echoed through the igloo.

Rarity’s eyes went wide. She had never intended to do the action but Rainbow slowly crawled back up to match the unicorn with her eyes. She rubbed her sore cheek a little bit while looking right back into those sapphire blue rims. “Oh, you shouldn’t have done that. You know what you are?” the mare then taunted.

“Go ahead, tell me, I can take it,” snarled Rarity in return. Yet she regained her regal posture and laid her arms crossways. Both of their eyes irradiated a thunder before both Applejack and Fluttershy had stood up as well. Not even the admiral or the doctor could be stopping what would happen next, but they thought it was a good idea to get a hold of either mare.

"You’re nothing but a lunatic who was raised in a wealthy family, sent to the navy and then began to mute! I know your tales, Brittenburg. You aren’t as original as you think that you are!” Rainbow bellowed to her. The pegasus tried her utmost best to release herself from the admiral’s hold. “You’re nothing but a spoiled filly!”

Those words were another smack in the face for Rarity. The unicorn pirate’s rage was racing through all of her body. How much she just wanted to smack the literal bones out of the major’s body. Yet somewhere deep inside of her mind there was still the break that could be placed for all of the actions. Something for which she secretly was actually happy about.

It didn’t mean that the words were stinging any less though. They were prying right at her heart, teasing their way in and ravaging it. The story of the major was only half true but Rarity tried to mask it by saying it would all have been lies. “I’ll kill you for that statement once I have the chance!” she snarled towards Rainbow. Who on her own turn had Rarity right where she wanted.

Then came the admiral who decided to join in upon the action and the madness of the two mares. “Not if Ah end yar life first, deserter!” the blonde haired anthrony shouted just before she tightened her hold on Rainbow a bit more. “Ah promise yar death will be painful, tormenting like the years you have been gnawing at mah life!”

“Oh so now you blame everything on me?!” Rarity answered. Another huff was released by her. Though much to her own surprise was the hold of Fluttershy a whole lot stronger than she originally had anticipated. “You have been wanting to end my life for so long, so long it made you turn to the bottle! You’re no more fun, Applejack. You used to be a jolly sailor gal, but now… Now I see nothing back of the statue that you once were.”

Again and again where the soul hurting insults thrown at one another as Fluttershy, Twilight and Cadence just kept themselves silent. They didn’t know what they could be saying in the matter or what they could be doing for that matter. They all wanted it to end, but what would have been required to do such a feat?

The arguments continued in the matter of seconds, eventually they came to the point where they were all caught up with their wrongs. They had arrived at the point where they actually were in time. Held by the others and facing the other in unbelievable odds. They needed a new somepony to blame. And that anthrony happened to be nopony else then Twilight Sparkle.

Accusations of the greatest of crimes were sent flying through the air which finally managed to get the attention of the anthrony. Finally was she taken right out of her concentration and her violet rims looked over to the mares she called ‘company’ for so long. She would be having a series of tough words with them, all of them. Whether they liked it or not.

What followed was that a deep exhale being released through Twilight’s nostrils as she also stood back up. With her hooves touching the icy ground did she simply walk through the igloo with her hands behind her back. “So, now you lot blame me? You blame me for being the only anthrony in this forsaken country that actually has some knowledge on stopping these tremors. The major, the admiral and the pirate. I should have expected you all to turn against me at one point or the other.”

“It wasn’t us who send us here! You were so stupid to come all the way to the Frozen North, in the hope to get one answer but you got nothing!” Rainbow yelled up towards her as she once again tried to break free. Without much luck once again.

“Quiet Rainbow, your words mean nothing to me at this moment,” returned Twilight as cold as the weather outside was. Though she lied about the fact, the words of the major actually did have an impact on her. Something that was a little bit on the big side in fact.

But the chance to speak what was on her mind wasn’t granted to her. The commotion once again fired up as the shots were fired all around. Fluttershy could speak of luck that she wasn’t called out by any of them. A fact which she really, really wanted to keep that way. Yet on the other end had Twilight been having enough of their bickering. More than enough, if she was honest.

Of course she knew that everything could have been going wrong on their trek. Of course she knew that not everything would have been going nice and easy. She only had one actual lead in the real world as to where the entrance could be lying. Though that everything would be crashing down together was something she wouldn’t have dared to even dream about. Something didn’t feel right in her very heart. Almost as if some form of corruption was nesting itself within it.

The fires raged and waged on as the mind of Twilight sank again in the very thoughts she carried. Yet with all of the harmful words that were being spoken around and about her, that was something that was actually easier said than done.

The unicorn charged up her horn and with a deep growl she conjured up four arcane tubes of glue and placed the liquids on the mouths of the mares. What happened next was that the silence finally returned to the room as all of their lips were sealed together. Among them were those of Fluttershy for good measure.

Only two anthronies were granted the ability to keep on talking, which were Twilight and Cadence. “So, now that the calm has returned to this place, sit down, all of you!” Twilight demanded before she released a small huff through her nostrils.

There wasn’t much else that the mares could be doing to actually obey that words as they were. So in silence did they all went back to their chairs and quietly sat down. Whereas Twilight began to pace up and down as the words left her mouth. Words spoken in an ancient language that was thought to have been dead. Deader than dead actually.

Whatever the words were, the glare inside of her eyes didn’t become any better about it. All of the anger that the three of them demonstrated before could be found within the eyes of the unicorn. She was angry about something, more angry than she had possibly been in her entire life. Fear was therefore the emotion that took all of them over. None dared to look right at Twilight in order to escape her wrath while Fluttershy hid herself within the pinkish hair.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Cadence asked in a seemingly sympathetic tone. Then she got out of her own chair. The alicorn made her way over to the unicorn with care. A hand was laid upon her shoulder. “You know you tell your old mentor, everything, right?”

Those words, said in that exact tone was just the thing that caused the unicorn to go haywire. Everything she thought to have been knowing up to that point was literally crashing against each other and everything else. She thought to have known exactly what was being wrong with the place. With the land even, with Cadence.

With a shake of her shoulder did the unicorn tore herself away from the alicorn. In that moment there was a light, greenish aura that was being sucked up into the pinkish hand. A hand that then curled itself up to a fist for a fraction of a second before it was put to rest again.

The alicorn wouldn’t be giving up that easily. Curiosity had been awoken inside of her own body and she wanted to know exactly what Twilight was thinking about. “It pains me in my heart to see and realize that you have come all the way up here, and not have anything to show for it.”

“How can you..?” Twilight then replied in a barely audible whisper, “how, can you?” Her words were repeated while Cadence didn’t even have the slightest of clues about what was actually going on. The clueless expression inside of her eyes could have been a dead giveaway at first. But with unicorns did the matter always lay deeper. The truth always laid deeper, no matter what.

“How can you have forgotten one of the most important pieces on Equestrian history? Have those couple of years here really torn apart your mind that much?” Twilight then bluntly asked before she turned herself around to face her old mentor. “You just left me and Shining Armor like that. Never even a letter to the stallion that loves you!”

A shocked Cadence was looking back into the eyes of Twilight as the thoughts couldn’t have been more wrong. It wouldn’t have mattered what the alicorn exactly said towards the other mare, it all would have come wrong to her. That didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be trying to talk her way out of it thought.

“Sit,” commanded Cadence then in a demanding tone to her. The mare herself walked back to her own chair as seconds later the same would have been done by Twilight. The unicorn sat down upon the chair and crossed her legs while the arms were laid on the elbow rests. A deep sigh was released through the mouth of Cadence as she calmly shook her head from side to side. “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. I have been here, for so long. I have been hunting for the remains of the dead king for so long.”

“He’s dead and his magic ceased to exist! You know that just as well as I do,” countered Twilight immediately. Only to receive a shake of Cadence her head. “Wait, you, you don’t want to say that… You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The further she spoke her words, the deeper she looked into the eyes of the mare who called herself her ‘mentor’. The more she looked inside of them, the more she began to realize that something was different. “His magic never ceased to exist, he roams the icy plains every day. Hidden in plain sight. Groaning in the wind and appearing as an ice giant. Equestria is never save nor shall it be from that dreaded, black hearted king.”

Words that stung were once again released towards the company of mares, words that especially meant a lot towards Twilight as she allowed her head to be hung. She was at the verge of giving everything up. Everything that she knew and had done so far was more than enough to make her wanting to go back home. To crawl in her bed and cry herself to sleep, or to death. Whichever came first.

"This can’t be, this can’t be possible. No, no, no, no, no, no,” repeated Twilight to herself in a low toned whisper. She was desperate, furious and angry at the same time. A combination of emotions which one mustn’t see a unicorn in. With the power of magic at their disposal, nasty things could happen. Which was the exact thing what the mares of the company realized. They wouldn’t be moving a single muscle just to remain out of the line of fire.

Twilight’s head rose itself back up as she looked again deep into the eyes of her former mentor and realized the fact she had been missing. For under one certain angle of her head did the usual light purple rims into something that was more aiming towards moderate harlequin coloring. The change of color was spotted by Twilight clearly but she tried to mask the discovery.

“What can’t be possible, Twilight?” the alicorn asked. The other mare was genuinely curious about the matter. A thing that was readable within her very eyes.

Everything began to make sense in that very moment. Twilight evaluated the events as they were. Everything began to fall into their rightful and respectable places. Why couldn’t Twilight have seen it earlier that something was wrong with her mentor? Why did it took so long to finally realize the facts as they were?

There was only one more thing that she could be done and that was to do something that could actually have her killed if she was wrong. For even though everything began to make sense to her, that wasn’t a guarantee that everything would have actually been that way. The Frozen North changed one’s perception about all of life.

Even with the flames in their hearts to keep themselves warm, everything could still be altered. Much like when Twilight thought to had seen the hulking giant on top of the mountain ridge. “What can’t be possible, you ask?” the mare then said as her eyes were being narrowed. In her mind had all of the alarm bells gone to chime as she seemed to be rather certain of her business.

All that she had seen and heard so far out of Cadence were good, but they weren’t things said and done by the actual Cadence. “Well, don’t leave me waiting here. What have you discovered?” the alicorn asked with a slightly tilted head.

The only word that would be coming out of the mouth of Twilight would have been sealing the fate of everypony inside of the room if she was wrong. If she was right, a whole new pack of trouble had begun. After a deep inhale she spoke the one word that could summarize everything that wasn’t possible in the moment. “You.”

The ears of Cadence twitched a bit in response to the words as the horn of Twilight charged itself up right after it. Her arm was stretched out and in the air was an arcane hand summoned. A hand that rushed itself forwards and closed its fingers around the neck of Cadence. Before anypony could be doing anything else was the alicorn lifted right out of her chair and pushed against the wall.

At the tips of her hooves she stood while also struggling for breath. While Twilight just sat there like a dark tyrant. She was still locked inside of her chair with the aura being around both of her horn and the extended hand. Mumbles of words were spat towards her as the mares of the company wanted to protest against the actions that were done.

Though one glare of the maddened eyes of Twilight was more than enough to shut them up. She almost sat there as if she was the highest crime boss in the entire land. As if she could be doing whatever she wanted and actually managed to get away with it. More or less did that happen to be the case. They were in Frozen North, nopony knew exactly where Cadence was. All seemed perfect in the soothsayer’s eyes. Which was the one glaring flaw it had.

The fingers of Twilight squeezed themselves a little bit which then resulted in the arcane hand squeezing the throat of Cadence just a little bit more. With deep and growling exhales that left the mouth of the unicorn were already a clear enough indicator that she was angry. Angry about something that Cadence had done.

None of the other mares knew just what was happening right before their eyes or just why Twilight was doing the things she did. Of course they wanted to protest, to stand right in her face and slap some sense into her. But they didn’t dare. They hadn’t seen the full extent of Twilight’s powers and abilities. And the then knew why.

The unicorn held the power inside of her to turn into a Dark Witch if she wanted. She could become one of the devil’s servants at any given time. That close she seemed to be living on the edge between the realms. At least that was the explanation that the rest of them all got for it. Terrified for her angry side was the thing that the mares were. But the fun wasn’t over yet.

The more they looked towards the unicorn, the more they could have sworn that they noticed the hair become more wavy. Almost as if something had set it on fire. The eyes of the unicorn had closed as some deep breathing was being done. From the looks of it did she wanted to keep herself under control and in check. Yet Applejack feared that the worst had yet to come.

Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy all looked terrified towards the events. They couldn’t bare it anymore. But they had to be staying there unless they either wanted to go back into the freezing cold, or become Twilight’s next victim.

Without a single word did the eyes of the unicorn open themselves up and she rose herself up from her chair. The glance she gave to Cadence was something that terrified the living daylight out of the alicorn while the changes happened before their very eyes. The very skin of the unicorn changed from mulberry into something a lot more bleak, almost colorless some dared to think. But that change was only the beginning.

Within her eyes had the purple rims made way for nothing but two massive, blood red dots that would give nightmares to any and all who watched over it. And then it just happened. Just like that it happened to Twilight Sparkle. The hair that the unicorn carried changed itself into literal fire. A never ending, always burning fire that was placed on top of her scalp and replacing her tail.

For a second it almost seemed as if the devil herself had arrived inside of the room. The eyes of Cadence looked right into the devilish appearance of the unicorn and she managed to release a deep gulp. To all the others, it would have seemed as if the unicorn had actually become the thing she always had feared of becoming.

Perhaps the powers of Sunset Shimmer had finally kicked in and they would have made the unicorn into her servant. Nopony knew for certain what was happening or happened with Twilight. But again, they were pinned down to their locations. There was literally nowhere else that they could be going to. Whether they wanted it or not, they would be watching to the events to come with a literal front row seat.

Cadence became more and more terrified of the unicorn when the steps closer were being made. The heat of the flames reached her body while she began to sweat to herself. How much longer could the torment have been going on? “Where is she?!” Twilight yelled in her normal voice. No hinting towards demonic nor was it lowered. It was just the normal yelling voice of the younger soothsayer. It managed to surprise all of them, even the pinned down alicorn.

“I, I beg your pardon?” the mare on the wall managed to say. She blinked with her eyes a couple of times. “I don’t, I don’t understand what you are saying. W-Where’s Twilight?”

“I’m right here, I’m just really, really, really, really angry because somepony keeps on lying to me!” Twilight growled towards the other mare. The arcane hand tightened the throat a little bit more. The horn charged itself up more before a massive blast of arcane energy was being released right unto the belly of Cadence.

Nopony dared to even be watching to the events as they were happening. They were all just terrified about everything. Was she killing the alicorn because of the weeping sounds that filled the air? Or was she literally torturing her? None knew and none wanted.

Yet in the eyes of Twilight appeared the very thing that she was looking for. The blast hit the belly of the other mare and the light gray cerise skin she had just melt away. Which in return was being replaced with a deep gray one. “There you are,” the unicorn said before the horn almost discharged itself. “Reveal yourself to me, now!” Her words were shouted towards the being.

“Oh what fun is there in still playing along?” a changed voice spoke up out of the mouth of the mare. A feminine voice that sounded highly seductive combined with a little echo already inside of it. “You finally managed to be getting me, Sparkle. They said that you were the smart one.”

“Who said it?”

The mare on the wall then allowed herself to release a little and eerie giggle before she shook her head calmly from side to side. “The thoughts of Cadence said that to me. But go on, try to figure out, what I actually am. You’re on the right way so far. Let’s finish the sprint here.”

It seemed to have been madness itself to give into the demands of the beast that was pinned before them. The mumbles of broken words were released by the other mares as they said and gestured not to play along. Something on which the ‘Cadence’ could play in really nicely.

“What will you be doing, Twilight. Listen to the lot you travel with, or going out at your own intuition? Look where the both of them have brought you already, hmhmhm, I’m not going to be surprised by your actions. I know all about you. Every, last, detail,” the being spoke to Twilight. The expression of shock filled the eyes of the unicorn for just a little moment.

A shock which then made its way over into downright anger. Twilight couldn’t believe that the thing knew what it said to be knowing. Though perhaps the biggest surprise was that it managed to breathe so freely despite being choked to near death. Something wasn’t right and the time to reveal just what had been talking to them was about there.

“Show yourself, show me your real form!” Twilight demanded. Finally she rose the mare off of the ground and pinned it even further against the wall. For the first time since it was being captured it showed signs of having trouble with breathing.

The facade was just over. The time had come to reveal its true colors was finally there.

The horn of Cadence changed itself up in a brilliant green colored aura which soon enough made the transition to the rest of the body. The entire body of the mare covered itself within it as the moans were released through the mouth. “Oh this feels good, to finally be rid of that stinking body of hers,” the voice spoke up in a highly content tone before the aura finally faded away.

All of the mares were looking at something that they hadn’t seen before in their very lives. For on the wall, there where Cadence used to be pinned down stood another creature. A dark gray skinned, oddly green clothed creature. Its jagged horn made already sure it wasn’t a unicorn that any of them would be knowing.

Twilight knew enough already. The very thing that stood before them, a thing with actual holes that went through both its lower legs and arms was one of her worst fears. The holes made the mares think right away of it being something like a cheese but laughing about the matter they sadly enough couldn’t.

The mouth of Twilight opened once again in order to ask the all-important question. Not the question of who she happened to be, but what she was going there. “What is a Dark Witch doing so far from the boundaries of Everfree?!” she asked in a raised tone of pure and utter anger towards the creature.

The creature managed to chuckle through its choking just before the answer was given to Twilight. “Simple, just like yourself,” was being said to her. Those words caused the unicorn to almost snap the last couple of wires that were still intact. She was literally that close of going berserk against anything and everypony that she would be coming across.

“Don’t you lie to me!” Twilight replied while she forced the Witch even higher off the ground. Then there was another revelation made towards them. The buzzing of insectoid wings did their turn nice and clear. Wings that managed to keep the Witch level inside of the arcane hold.

“I’m not lying to you at all, not all of it at least,” the Witch chuckled before she shook her head a little bit. “I am not living off of Moon’s energy like the rest of those parasites. I live on love and prefer isolation. You think it was a mere coincidence that your little Cadence had to be moved up here? Partly, but the rest, you’re looking at the mastermind of it all.”

The words felt like somepony was hitting upon her skull with a sledgehammer. Never had she encountered a Dark Witch who was actually that cunning and sly with its actions. What deal must have been made with the mare of darkness to gain such abilities, was a thought that raced through Twilight.

“Enough about all of this madness, tell me the name you wish to be addressed as,” the flaming unicorn spoke. To that point, she still seemed to be reasonable. Which came as a massive surprise to the Witch. Who had thought that Twilight had become mindless and just wanted destruction and answers everywhere. Even with all of the information about Twilight known to her, there were still things hidden about her.

“Address me, as Chrysalis, the last name you will hear before you forget what it feels like to love somepony or to be loved. For your love, is all mine,” spoke Chrysalis with a sinister chuckle. Only to have the hand squeeze her shut even further. The laughter was cut short much to the thanks of all of the other mares in the room.

Twilight still wouldn’t have been done with the Witch though. For she needed to know where exactly her old mentor was to get the answer out of her. There were still too many questions, too much risks and far too much at stake to have their journey end there. They had to push on and the only way that that could happen, was for Chrysalis to tell Twilight exactly where Cadence was. The real Cadence.

“A shape-shifting Dark Witch, that’s a new one for me, I have to admit that to you. Original, easy to hide and blend in. Only question that I am having now is, where do you leave the originals of the beings you copy?” the soothsayer growled up.

“Oh you really are an enjoyment to listen to, Cadence already thought highly of you, but her thoughts are nothing compared to seeing you in real life. Bravo indeed. Bravo,” said Chrysalis. She couldn’t help herself but to let out another chuckle.

Twilight on the other end was having more than enough about the event as they were and she squeezed the throat even further. More and more couldn’t leave or enter the lungs of the Dark Witch who then came to a rather sudden realization.

Chrysalis was literally laughing her own life away. The last thing she wanted to be doing was to die at the hands of Twilight Sparkle. For so long had she lived her live in peace and isolation, why would she be throwing it away then?

“I’m going to ask you this, one more time and I want an answer to my question this time. No words, no nothing. Just point, just point in the one direction of just where I can be finding her. You ready? Here comes my question: where can I find, the real Cadence?” Twilight asked to Chrysalis in a demanding, low and overall just unpleasant sounding tone.

Yet it did its work nicely. The Dark Witch actually became scared about what would happen if she didn’t cooperate with Twilight. Which resulted in her only being able to do one more thing. Chrysalis pointed with her finger down to the floor. Twilight began to wipe the snow with a hoof.

Beneath the thin layer of snow was a massive sheet of ice, and below that a cavern which seemed to be stretching for eternity. She knew exactly where Cadence happened to be held as a prisoner. She was literally that close again to meet her former mentor again. But the dangers still weren’t over. Not by a long shot.

Chapter XXXVIII

The orb on top of the staff charged up a bit further. It caused the glue to be removed from the mouths of the mares. Which allowed the others to speak again. Their lips were finally broken from one another and all of them just rubbed them for a couple of seconds. They could ask how it was going with Twilight of course, but they had heard the entire conversation between her and Chrysalis.

“None of you, move a single muscle,” the mare said while she only turned her eyes towards them for a couple of seconds. “I’m not going to take any chances with this.” The words were all acknowledged by the rest of the mares who simply nodded and just had Twilight have her way. There wasn’t much else that they could be doing if they want to stay on the mare her good side.

Then did the eyes of Twilight focus themselves back towards Chrysalis. “From the looks of it, both you and I are going to make a little trip to the basement of the castle. I hope you’re packed for the cold, Witch,” the soothsayer said in a tone that almost sounded sadistic as the eyes of Chrysalis went wide. She was actually terrified to near death about going down there, for she hadn’t been there in ages and who knew how the real Cadence would have reacted to her.

The chance to struggle and to fight wasn’t granted to the being as the arcane hand still held her within its firm grip. There wouldn’t have been any escape until the final absolution was given to Chrysalis. Who on her own began to fear for the end.

No words were spoken by either of the anthronies inside of the room. All while Twilight’s staff kept on charging once more. Time would decide when it would be that the two of them would be going down, time would decide when they would be coming back. And time would decide, with whom they would be coming back.

Finally got the massive burst of magical energy sent into the real world and within a split second had both Twilight and Chrysalis just left the room. On the spots where they used to be standing were only two last bolts of arcane lightning before the emptiness of the place got to them. That was when they all realized that the beings had just left the room as it was.

Meaning that Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were all just left alone in the igloo chapel. It wasn’t the most comfortable place for them to have ended up in, but at least it was a whole lot better than standing outside and waiting for another blizzard storm to be happening. Everypony thought the same thing about the situation, a massive rehash of what happened around Sunset Shimmer.

“Ah don’t know ‘bout you lot, but Ah say she loses her mind every single time she’s coming across one of them Witches. Ah mean, this is the second time and look at her,” said Applejack. The admiral tried to make some sense out of the situation she was thrown in.

“Albeit that being true, you had to admit that you didn’t know the facts as they were, until after Twilight had realized everything,” replied Rarity. She did happen to be having a massive point on the matter. Nopony could have ever predicted that the soothsayer they happened to be after was actually a Dark Witch impersonating her. “To keep silent about her erupting into flames…”

“Ah told ya, that other thing must have infected her with something,” the admiral quickly replied before she got back up on her hooves.

Suddenly it was Fluttershy who’s very eyes went as wide as possible and signaled to the admiral to come back. “Come back here and sit down. You remember what Twilight said right? Maybe there are more of those shapeshifters around here,” she spoke up in a literally terrified sounding whisper. The fear was real within her eyes and Applejack looked back to her with a dead serious look.

“Ah know Ah am the real me, doctor. Quit being such a scaredy cat for once. Ya made it this far already,” returned Applejack in a calm and collected tone. But the pegasus did happen to have another point. Who was there to say that there weren’t any other of those creatures just lurking at the lot of them from that moment onward?

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked with care. The words caused Rainbow to have a little bit of a chuckle to herself. In the moment she had a little inside joke, which the others couldn’t follow. Or perhaps they just didn’t wanted to follow it. It was either the first or the last, but never both.

The admiral then turned her attention back towards the yellow skinned pegasus with a thoughtful expression upon her face. She remained standing there for just a couple of seconds before the words finally were said. “Ah’m certain Ah am the real me. See, nothing to be afraid of. Besides, Ah need to have mah leg working. Systems can’t be getting jammed, am Ah right?”

The knowledge of the fact that Fluttershy was the anthrony who had given Applejack her leg was just used against her for a change. The doctor knew the terrible conditions that the North was in and they were a downright death sentence for the steam powered leg. It already was a surprise that it managed to keep on working for as long as it did since they had entered it.

"Fine, fine, fine, fine, have it your way again then! Just don’t come knocking at my door if something terrible happens, again,” replied Fluttershy before she laid her arms cross over her chest and gave the admiral her nastiest look.

Which in the case of Fluttershy actually looked she was playing to be angry. Playfully anger was the thing that was given to the admiral. The other mare just shrugged it off as she began to walk over to the moved snow.

Rarity and Rainbow were both sunken deep into thoughts of their own as they both just wanted to get the hell away from the place as fast as they possibly could have. The cold was not meant for them, they both belonged to other places within the land of Equestria. One belong high up in the air as the other belonged on the high seas that had one thing in common. The fact that it was a lot warmer.

They differed so much from each other, but the desire to go back to the thing they came from was only greater. The sounds of the wind howling by as she soared through the skies or the breaking of the waves as the ship cleaved through them, those were the sounds that filled their minds. The two of them actually decided to close their eyes for a moment and gain some of the much needed sleep. A sleep that wasn’t laid away for either Applejack nor Fluttershy.

The admiral herself was staring down into the darkness of the hole that Twilight had seen as well. Her hand stroked her chin before she shook her head from side to side. She couldn’t have believed that the unicorn actually had been daring to do down there. Not to mention the little fact that she wouldn’t have been that difficult to miss with her flaming hair.

“Flutters, what do ya think? Has Twilight been infected by something? Or is that whole, fiery hair thing-y normal for a soothsayer?” It was the one question that still troubled and haunted the mind of the admiral. The visual fury of the unicorn was something she never had the desire to see ever again.

Her eyes turned themselves over to the doctor while she waited for the response to come. But Fluttershy shook her head in a calm manner. She denied the fact that Twilight had been infected with anything. “I don’t think she is infected. Used to be, but not enough to cause serious harm. She said that she had filtered her very blood to get the poison of that other thing out of her, I wouldn’t say she has kept any of it inside her body. No, I think it’s something else that triggered it.”

Finally could the mare be talking about the medical affections, her very hometurf and trade in life. Nopony in the company knew more about healing, potions and patching up then she did. The admiral took a couple of steps back before she leaned against a little table. “So, what do ya think it is then?” she questioned to the doctor in a genuinely interested tone.

A sobered up Applejack was much like Fluttershy and Twilight themselves, a mare with literally two sides of her personality. That observation was one that had been made rather quickly by the pegasus before she dropped herself into thoughts for a little moment. “Hmmm, if I may say so, I think it has to do something with a trauma in her youth. I mean, she did saw her friend become that thing which roams in Everfree.”

“Aye, yar having a point there indeed, doc, but Ah don’t think that’s the main reason though,” the admiral replied as she used both of her arms to stabilize herself. Her metal leg was stretched a big bit as the gears inside of it began to crack and creak softly. She needed to loosen up the joints from the freezing cold, or risk getting them stuck.

Of course was the igloo nice and warm, but the speed at which the leg thawed was still uncomfortable for the earth anthrony. “No, I think it’s all of her anger that is venting through.” Fluttershy continued. “But instead of it being delivered as punches as you or I may be doing it, Twilight becomes that. I do admit that she could almost pass right away for a demoness though. She looks terrifying like that.”

“Ah agree on that actually. Ah hope to never see that side of hers ever again. Ah don’t fear much, but that state of her mind…” A shiver went down the spine of the admiral at the mere thought. Which then chimed in the silence of the company. A silence that they all loved.

"But, what do you think that they will be encountering down there?” Fluttershy asked after a brief moment of silence. She wanted to be kept on talking as the igloo itself got to her. Much like the rest of the Frozen North did even the hut made out of ice have the problems of feeling isolation. Although on that thing it made a little bit more sense given how it was all covered up.

Not to mention with both Rainbow and Rarity asleep did the silence just happen to be uncomfortable to say the least. But Applejack gave the anthrony first a shrug followed by a face of genuinely not knowing. The mare had not a single clue about just what would have been encountered down there. “If Ah only knew. Traps? Wine? Torture dungeon? The actual Cadence? An army? Ah don’t know and Ah don’t dare to be making any predictions on it.”

Perhaps it was about the wisest decision that the mare had made sense they had entered the northern, icy plains of the land. What could be encountered down there? What was there to be found or gained outside of a certainty of death? It was a thought that caused the mare to shake her head softly. “Small chance of success, certainty of death. What are we waiting for?” she then asked aloud to herself.

The thought of why she had said yes against the trip or not leaving the minute she realized that Rarity would be getting on board rushed through her. Thoughts that haunted her since the first day that they actually left. Though the answer upon all of the question was perhaps one that could be given by nopony else but Fluttershy.

“Because, you have a sense of duty?” she returned in a questioning tone. It was about the most perfect opportunity to finally get the admiral back for the trick that had been played upon her for a long time. The manner in which they had gotten Fluttershy on board might have been the very reason of why Applejack actually stayed.

Another chuckle was being released by the admiral. Then she shook her head once more. “Heh, ya might be having a point there. And Ah made a promise to her, to keep her safe no matter what,” said Applejack, reminding herself of the reason she was there.

“You really think she needs more protection?” Fluttershy asked with care. She wanted to know the finer details about the matter. But the words seemed to have been traveling past the ears of a deaf anthrony at first.

Only when the pegasus gave a little snap with her fingers did the eyes of Applejack look back towards the doctor. “Hm, oh, yes, sorry. Ah, Ah was sunken in thought for a little moment. At first Ah thought she needed, but now, now that I have seen her like this… She’s a strong one, Fluttershy. Perhaps better than any other would be in time.”

The doctor gave a gentle nod towards the mare before her eyes closed themselves for just a bit. The chance to get some sleep was given to all of them as Applejack would be standing on a watch. Her eyes looked over all three of the beings before a deep sigh was released through her nostrils. “Why have Ah made a mess of mah life?” she then asked as the eyes turned over to her leg.

Finally was the question of questions being asked. The simple word of ‘why’, a word with only three letters. Yet it dominated most of the anthronies their very lives.

~~~~

All the way down in the hole did the aura of the unicorn appear again. Only to be followed up a split second later with both of the beings. Twilight still held Chrysalis by her neck, they both rubbed their heads a little bit. The teleportation spell didn’t really like it that the black magic of the Witch was traveling with it.

“Oh that hurts so much,” the soothsayer said before she straightened her back a little bit. A soothsayer that was still on a literal fire. Lights they didn’t need to be worrying themselves over too much as they had their own shining little light. Twilight’s hair had been more than enough to act as a massive torch.

Right next to the anthrony torch did the darkness consume everything again. The eternal darkness of the cellar of the castle was something neither of them were afraid of. But it was that what lurked inside of it that caused them to think twice about moving too fast. Not to mention the sheer freezing cold in which they were dropped got too the Dark Witch.

Of course did she also happen to have a flame that was coated with her heart, but that flame wasn’t nearly as powerful enough then the one Twilight had given herself or the mares. The shivers went up and down the spine of the other creature as its wings were tucked around the body. The insect-like wings were literally tucked against the body to form a transparent dress.

Twilight’s eyes looked at it for just a moment before her attention turned back to the creature’s eyes. “Which way do we have to travel?” she asked in a demanding tone.

“I prefer to be going topside again, if you do not mind.” Chrysalis replied in a cold tone before she rubbed her arms to stay warm. “I’m not made for this kind of terrain you know.”

“Well that’s your own fault then, shouldn’t you have come to the likes of this place.” Twilight replied as she also let out a snarl of annoyance. The Dark Witch really reminded the unicorn about an actual bug and ever since that connection had been made, history was being written.

Chrysalis released a growl of her own before she pointed into the darkness. “There, follow the tunnel and then you will come to your old mentor. Can I just leave now before I freeze to death?”

The answer that she got wasn’t one she originally had intended to hear from Twilight. For her throat was squeezed again, up to the point that almost no air would have been making its way into her lungs. It remained that way for a couple of seconds before the unicorn finally allowed herself to release the Witch. “Next time, I won’t be so generous with your life. Am I clear to you?” she said in a dominant tone before she began to walk forward.

“As crystal,” the Witch simply answered. Then she decided to follow the unicorn soothsayer for some reason. Yet so many accidents could have happened to the walking torch, so many manners in which she could have killed her. But none of them would have been worth the effort in her eyes. Her own neck could have been snapped just before she could be doing anything else.

No, Chrysalis had to play it safe for the time being. She might have been a servant of Nightmare Moon, but she didn’t follow the laws that were given to her. An outcast within an outcast society was what she was. At least that was how Twilight saw it the more she thought about the matter. The Witches were a strange bunch of beings and nothing like the textbooks said about them. That much was already discovered in the eyes of Twilight numerous times.

Both long and tedious was the way through the hallway. Both Twilight and Chrysalis couldn’t help but to look at the near countless things that were stuck into the walls. Finally did Twilight realize just where Rarity’s ‘conversation partner’ came from. It was a sinister thought, for anthronies of all ages were frozen within the icy crystals.

The grumbles that were released by Twilight as a direct response of it caused Chrysalis to be put on high alert once more. “These aren’t my doing. I swear to everything dark. No, these have died millennia ago. Stuck in the permafrost ever since.” Chrysalis replied in a honest tone towards the unicorn soothsayer.

“I know you aren’t as bad as you seem, even though I want to squash you like a bug,” replied Twilight before she increased her pace just a little bit.

“Well, thanks… I guess?” Chrysalis replied before she also joined the changed pace. Soon enough they would have gotten to where they needed to be. Soon enough would they have been at the spot where Cadence was held captive. Soon enough they would be able to finally separate their ways for a change.

“You’re welcome,” the unicorn said with a mocking tone to complete the insult. Chrysalis released a little huff through her nostrils before just deciding not to listen to it anymore. There were more important and urgent things on her mind.

The more they wandered through the hallway, the more there seemed to have been a secondary light. A light that could be seen from the other end of the hallway. Twilight turned her head over to the Dark Witch with the wondering of what it possibly could have been. That little twinkle inside of her eyes was already enough to make the Witch roll her eyes away.

“Keep on walking, she’s right in there if you really want to find her,” said Chrysalis before she made a shooing gesture with her hand. “Go on, go and get her. It’s not like I expected any kind of company anyway.” The words were just odd, they spoke right against one another. At one end did Twilight wanted to believe them as they were, on the other she knew that they could have been a massive lie. There was something that Chrysalis held behind.

Yet she also knew that Chrysalis was actually right on the matter. Nopony with the right mind would have even been thinking about going up to the Frozen North, let alone getting the Dark Witch that far enough to make it show its most prized trophy. So the only thing that Twilight could be doing to carry Chrysalis with her as she made the final stretch of the journey.

The last couple dozens of steps before they finally were standing in the room where the lights came from. But the lights weren’t from the torches, they were blue. Icy blue in fact. The revelation of just what was causing it came the second they both walked into the room. The place was nothing that Twilight could have expected. She had walked straight into a massive cellar.

Inside of that massive cellar of the once great castle, there was a massive room with a dome for a roof. Something told the unicorn that it actually was a place where they could be praying to the goddesses themselves as she inspected the very dome of it. The drawings and art that could be seen actually confirmed the thoughts.

“This can’t be true, can it?” she whispered to herself. Chrysalis didn’t even say a word while she looked right in front of her. The stern glance in her eyes upon the object in the room caused her to have gotten mixed feelings. Yet Twilight’s own eyes fell upon one of the torches.

It was blue fire that raged like mad but it never gave off any form of heat. Cold fire, literal cold fire was lightening up the room. But if cold fire caused it to be lit up, how could Cadence have survived for that long?

The unicorn then focused her attention upon the middle of the room. And in a circle that had the symbols of both the sun and the moon was she placed. Two columns with chains hung it up by its arms as the horn had a protective ring around it. There it hung, the beaten up, near starved mentor of Twilight Sparkle.

Finally had she found the one anthrony where she was looking for and released a deep squee even with her flaming hair. The squee was loud enough to cause the ears of Cadence twitch before her head weakly rose itself.

The first being she saw in her eyes was the nasty Chrysalis and she tore her attention away from her instantly. Only to then notice the ball of brighter light. Her attention shifted once again and as soon as the two sets of eyes met with one another, the feelings of happiness and actual relief were surging through the mare. “T-Twilight?” she said in a weak voice.

The unicorn herself gave a nod as she wanted to take another step. But as soon as her hoof set itself once again upon the floor did the roar of power came. The roar that she had heard before on the mountain ridge.

All three pairs of eyes then shrunk themselves to the smallest possible sides as they didn’t believe the thing they just had heard. But each of them had so their own reasoning for not wanting to. Twilight because it confirmed her thoughts. Chrysalis because she didn’t expected it. Cadence because she thought the thing had left a long time ago already. “The guard,” she managed to say just loud enough towards the two of them.

Shards of ice and snow came from the blue flames which began to build up the very body of the guard. Slowly but surely it managed to build itself up in front of Cadence and the other two mares. “No… No. No, no, no, no, this isn’t happening,” the younger soothsayer exclaimed. The ghost from the past, had become a ghost of the present.

Though because of the fact that the guard originated out to the blue fires, it caused those very same fires to go literally extinct and therefore plunge the room back into darkness once more. Only the heart of the being, that black, rotating orb of black goo and the fiery hair of Twilight were the sources of light. Cadence was rendered useless with the ring around her horn and Chrysalis wasn’t allowed to touch upon her magic.

The battle between Twilight and the guard was one that was easily dealt with though. The magical charge of her horn was being released under a loud scream of utter pain. A massive burst of flame and fire was shot right into the direction of the ice giant who began to melt and evaporate just like that.

Both Cadence and Chrysalis couldn’t believe what they saw and both knew that she wasn’t a mare to be messed with. A gulp was being released by Chrysalis after the hulking giant had disappeared again and she looked at the arcane hand still holding her throat. All of the sudden did that thing look a whole lot more threatening.

“That, that was, interesting,” said Cadence. Twilight rushed over to her old mentor. Before there was any other word that could be said to either of them had the nuzzles been initiated. Twilight giggled a little bit with a massive smile. The warmth of the flames from her hair began to heat up Cadence as well.

It felt so good to have warm blood flowing through her for a change. Cadence her own flame was dying, if not already extinct. The warm feeling caused a couple of blushes to appear upon the alicorn her cheeks as she also regained the ability to speak properly. “Hey Twilight, long time no see.”

“Terribly long time, Cadence. But we can talk, once we’re out of here,” replied Twilight before she placed both of her hands on the chains. She caused the heat to be flowing through them. The shackles went from a frozen state right to a molten one just before they broke. Cadence was then caught by the unicorn who smiled and nodded.

The horn was then again charged up to an incredible level as Chrysalis realized that the arcane hand was gone from her neck. Though before she could be doing anything had the trio been teleported out of the place. All that was left in the room was a puddle of water that was freezing up again and a prisoner who had been escaped.

~~~~

Back in the chapel had Applejack also closed her eyes for a little bit before the giant poof of magic reappeared. Twilight Sparkle, Cadence herself and Chrysalis had all three been teleported back out of the cellar and shocked up the other mares. All of them were looking all over the place as if they had missed something. Until they realized just what exactly they had missed and looked to the beings that were standing right in front of them.

But Chrysalis was having another set of plans, she was finally free again. Not to mention the little fact that she plainly wanted escape the wrath of the elder soothsayer. So with one flash of green magic she morphed herself into the body of some kind of two headed flying creature and just took off like that.

The mares screamed a bit in terror as Twilight wanted to set in the chase. But Cadence managed to stop her just in time. With a simple hand placed upon her shoulder did the calm return to the mare as the ring was dropped. “No my student. Leave her. Leave her to roam the icy fields outside. If you squash her, millions will return. Believe me, I have seen what her kind of witchcraft can be doing. A dark shadow seems to overwhelm the land, but then you realize it’s not darkness. But a pest. A pest that drains emotion out of anthronies and leaves behind husks to be converted.”

“C-Converted?” asked Fluttershy, she couldn’t believe the words. “Do, do I want to know?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to,” added Cadence. She turned Twilight around and gave her a nice, big hug. A hug to welcome her student to the Frozen North as well as to make her return back to normal. “Everything is alright, Twilight. I’m back here, you are safe. You’re all safe again.”

Slow but sure did the fiery hair manage to calm itself down. All the way up to the point it was just the normal hair again. The skin got darker and darker all the way until it had reached its right coloring again. “Hmhmhm, now there’s the filly I remember. But do tell me,” the elder soothsayer said before she broke the hug a little bit. Both of her hands could still be found upon the shoulders of Twilight. “What is it that brings you here? What brings all of you, here?”

“It’s a long story, matter of fact,” replied Rainbow Dash, quick as ever. But instead they only received a giggle from Cadence. Then she finally let go of Twilight completely. She dropped herself down in her chair and some of her bones snapped right into their respectable places.

“I’m quite certain it was. So go right ahead, I have the time to listen,” she said with a smile before gesturing Twilight to another empty chair.

The unicorn released a deep exhale through her mouth as the story was once again formed inside of her head. The story of their journey so far and what had been playing out before it. Then she told it. She told every last bit towards her old mentor. Not a single detail had been spared, all of it was just being told as if it was nothing.

“My my, that’s quite the journey you have been undertaking so far. Dangers lurk around every corner, some of these fine looking mares gave you a bit more trouble than they should have,” said Cadence afterwards. She was genuinely impressed with the accomplishments of her student so far. “But I think I know what question is going to be asked right now. But please, do ask it.”

All of the mares were just that slight bit embarrassed by the fact of what they had been doing prior to their arrival by the elder soothsayer. Though it was also something that seemed to have been easily or quickly forgotten again. For the attention turned over to the younger soothsayer who asked the question. “Cadence, do you know the way, to the center of Equestria?”

Even with the question being expected was it still a massive shock for the older mare. The wings of the alicorn actually wanted to spread themselves out a little bit before she scratched her chin. “So you think that the answer to your quest lays in the deepest and darkest parts of our land. Places unknown, undiscovered and even unwalked for countless millennia? I do admire the bravery that each carry inside of you though.”

“Thanks Cadence, but, do you know of such a place? Shining told you might have it,” said Twilight and spoke her words in a humble sounding tone. Her horn charged itself up as the arcane map had been conjured up once more. The one map that held all of the locations of the earthquakes and tremors that had happened ever since.

But Cadence had something else to say on the matter. “Chrysalis was also looking for something like it. She wanted to make a place to call hers and to live with her ‘children’. A place a long way away from here and everypony else. But she only took my memories with her transformation. She didn’t took the one thing where it is actually stored.”

“And that being, if I may ask?” Rarity asked as she didn’t have a clue anymore about anything. “You, Twilight and I are all both unicorns, but I understand very little of what you’re saying.”

“It’s a long story, milady Brittenburg. Something most soothsayers won’t even understand either. But the location of the doorway is stored in my heart. The one thing that a Dark Witch doesn’t have anymore, no matter what deal is being made with Moon.”

Despite everything still being as clear as mud to her, Rarity just nodded in a matter that she understood what was being said to her. Cadence on the other end charged up her own horn as she glanced over the map. The words that were whispered by her made her look deeply over the map. Her eyes were looking for that one area. That one area that held the doorway.

“Near the top of the lonely mountain in the east, you shall find it. The one mountain whose peak is never covered in snow. Upon its peak you find the way you’re looking for. But access isn’t given to all. Only those that know, can enter,” said Cadence while she circled the lonely mountain with some arcane energy of their own.

That was their next heading, that was the location they had been trying to get for so long already. The one location where they could enter the very earth they walked. Finally could they begin on the third leg of their journey.

Chapter XXXIX

Everypony was staring down at the arcane map while both Twilight and Cadence moved themselves behind the chairs where the rest of them were sitting. The route that they needed to be going was known to them. They finally were having a heading that they could be going and hopefully make a stop to the troubles that were tormenting the lands they lived in. But everything was a whole lot easier said than done during the tip. That much they had all figured out by then.

The eyes and fingers of the mares all were aimed towards the map as they tried to figure out the best way for them to travel through. What would have been the best route to make sure they would actually arrive without cuts and bruises. With the Dark Witch known as Chrysalis still being out there did the danger of course existed that the creature would come to hunt for them.

Not to mention the rest of the icy giants that would be coming to have some revenge for their molten down friend. Choices had to be made as the group remained silent. Only the fingers moved themselves through the air as they hoped to spot the one place where they possibly could be walking safely unto the lonely mountain.

The eyes were focused upon all of the readings that stood on the map and they all watched just where the earthquakes had actually been hitting places. Some of them were fairly old of course, but others were fresh. And there was one of them that managed to scare the living daylight out of the major of the air force. For she thought to see a mark by a place that she knew all too well enough.

“Hey Twilight,” she started before she pointed to the mark, “that place over there, isn’t that were Cloudsdale also drops it’s excess water back into the ground?” The attention of the younger soothsayer turned itself over to the spot as her mind began to dig.

Much to the unicorn her own surprise did the other hands lower themselves before they all waited for a response to come. The mind of the mare rattled and rattled as she tried to figure out whether or not it was actually the place. It certain looked like it, that much had to be given.

“From the looks of it, it looks like it yes. Twi and Ah have seen it just before we got into Cloudsdale to get ya,” said Applejack after she turned her head into the general direction of the major. Who on her own turn looked as if she had seen a ghost.

A gulp was released by the mare as she was actually terrified about the fact of what could have possibly happened with the excess rainwater. “T-The crust, did it, did it rip itself open or something?” she asked with a slight tremble in her voice. She was scared. Scared to death that something horrible would happen because of the massive amounts of water that the city always dropped there.

Twilight then went through the notes she had stored in her mind before the right ones were picked out. “The crust has been ripped open yes, luckily one of the weather factory’s employee’s noticed it and no water has been brought into the crust yet. Who knows what will happen if it does, giant geyser perhaps?” the unicorn replied. Though she could see the relief upon the pegasus her face. The feelings of relief were sent through the whole group as it meant that Cloudsdale was still safe. But the company itself was still on the lookout for a route towards the mountain that could be carrying them down. Down into the deepest depths of their homeland.

The eyes of Twilight were set once more upon the map as her hand moved itself all over the place. “We can of course go straight over the icy plains again, risk walking into a glacier and be there within four days. Or we’re going the way we came, walk at the foot of the mountain ridge and go up the lonely mountain,” she said. In her eyes were it the two only options that they had.

If it indeed were the only two that they had, the lot of them knew exactly which route they would be taking. They had all more than enough of the icy weather and hungered towards seeing the sun actually set again. There was however, one little catch on the whole event.

“If we go over the icy plains, we can just easily walk up on the ice and permafrost as if it is nothing. If we walk around the chain, we have to face near impossible to pass cliffs and steep inclines. Which do you want to take? Cold but easy, or warm but hard?” Twilight simply purposed.

That decision was a thing that fell a little bit uneasy and tough on each of the anthronies. They were given the choice in which they would be traveling for the next leg of their journey. They all had more than enough of the cold weather they had been facing for so long already, they wanted a bit of a warmer climate. Nopony could be truly blaming them as they were used to the warm Equestrian summers and the calm winters.

None of them were used to sitting it out in literal subzero temperatures and it showed. So the decision had fallen upon nothing else but personal preferences. They had the tools, the knowledge and the resources to make it around the mountain ridge before climbing the slopes of the lonely peak. Though it may have eyed easy on the first go, there was a thing which told them that danger was lurking around the corner again.

Something else had gotten them right into their sights. Something they hadn’t seen in a long time. Something that had been brooding its plan for a couple of years, waiting for the right time to actually strike down.

The thoughts were let loose while the options were all considered. Though it was Fluttershy who asked the first question to the soothsayer. “Twilight, if we go over the icy fields, how long will the flames in our hearts still be burning?” she asked with a genuine curiosity to her voice. If the flame would be burning for long enough, they could of course be making it without a problem.

“I can replenish the flames any time it is needed, Fluttershy,” replied Twilight in a simple tone. Though she looked the doctor into her eyes. “Hypothermia isn’t going to be a problem for us nor is water and food. We have stocked up so much in Appleloosa, we are having more than enough. So it’s really coming down to the choice I have been giving to you.”

A small groan was being released by the pegasus as she didn’t knew what she had to choose for the trip. Both options had so their advantage, but on the other end did they also happen to have their disadvantage. They were all caught between a rock and a hard place at first instance.

“Okay,” the younger soothsayer said after a couple of minutes. “The time has come to make our decision. Which way shall be we going towards the mountain in the east?” Finally had the time of voting come and not everypony was certain the directions that they had to be going. Yet the choices had been made. It was then or never, they had to take a pick.

Each of them said the direction that they wanted to be going and the answer was always the same. They all wanted to walk back to the foot of the mountain chain that separated Equestria with its Frozen North and walk east from there until they came to the mountain.

Twilight nodded calmly towards the decisions that had been made. “Alright then, it seems like we will be walking a bit longer, face a difficult climb but you are at least comfortable. Good to know,” she said aloud before her attention shifted over to the elder soothsayer. Almost as if she was waiting for some kind of approval from her former mentor. A mentor who couldn’t do anything else then to give a gentle smile.

“Twilight,” started Cadence when she placed a hand upon Twilight’s shoulder, “I’m not your mentor anymore. Nor are you my student anymore. I can’t decide for you which is the right way to go or which is the wrong one. You have to discover that fact for yourself. Your company has spoken about the route they want to travel, a good leader uses that information.”

The younger soothsayer gave a simple nod towards the words. The horn of Cadence charged itself up a little bit. Then she drew a line that was leading from the location they were, down to the mountain chain itself. Though the place where they would be ending up wasn’t the dreaded Maw. Instead it was someplace else. Twilight tilted her head a bit to the side with a raised eyebrow. “I don’t understand…”

“Hmhmhm, I expected as much. Many believe that the Maw is the only place where Equestria and the Frozen North meet up and access is granted. But it isn’t. Follow this route and you shall be brought to a safer exit. Through a tunnel that is leading directly into the very mountain that is only a couple miles off from the Maw,” said Cadence just before her lips turned up into a smile.

Twilight nodded once again before she gave a massive hug towards her former mentor. It just felt good to her to finally be holding the mare who had meant so much in her life again. The hug was returned when Cadence actually felt the same way about Twilight. The two of them just held the hug tightly for a couple of seconds.

“Hey, you’re running out of time, remember?” the alicorn then whispered into the ear of Twilight. Whose eyes sprung open as she realized just how long they had been holding together. The hug was broken between the pair of them. Twilight allowed herself a little embarrassed chuckle. “Good luck, to all of you. You shall be needing it if you want to climb the mountain from that side.”

The rest of the group had gotten out of their seating as the arcane map had been rolled up. They all thanked Cadence for her words who in return thanked them all for finally releasing her from the prison. One last and massive hug was given to the whole company. They all knew that there was had yet another travel over the icy plains going to happen.

Everypony made herself ready to make yet another cross over the plains. All of their gear was being packed again before they had to walk back the way they came. Which meant they had to go once again over the mountain, through the valley and then the plains themselves. The trek would be tough and each of them knew that clearly.

Which in return was exactly the thing that terrified Twilight. She knew how hard it would become to return back to the Equestrian soils. Yet the decision had been made. They would be going back to the sun filled lands before attempting to scale the peak. To find the doorway that would be leading them into deep of the land they loved.

“Looking at you, makes me think of my own mentor. An old stallion with a massive beard who almost constantly was actually wandering around and about. Looking for an adventure,” said Cadence with a well-meant chuckle. Their weaponry didn’t scare her one bit as she understood why they carried so many things with them. “And look at you, finally having the void storage mastered, haven’t you, Twilight?”

The unicorn nodded as she closed the storage once again. “Yes, it took me a lot of time, but I finally have mastered it. Hey Cadence, can you do me one little favor?” the mare then said and asked. The unicorn walked back to her former mentor and placed a hand upon the larger mare her shoulder. “Write to my brother from time to time. He’s still madly in love with you.”

Cadence couldn’t help herself but to chuckle softly as the words were caught in her ears. “I shall, Twilight. I shall. He’s still looking as handsome as ever, right?” To that couldn’t anypony be keeping their laughter together and therefore they all released well-meant chuckles towards the duo of mares.

Twilight didn’t really understand the joke that had been made. Instead she just shrugged it off and nodded towards Cadence. “He still is yes. Just don’t forget it, okay?” she said to her mentor as she gave her one last hug and a small peck on the cheek. The rest of them thanked the elder soothsayer once again before they would be leaving the igloo.

To walk into the wide, wide world that was stretching itself in front of them. To travel the icy plains one last time before they would scale the mountain. Time and time again did they thought about which way would actually have been better. It didn’t really matter to them anymore actually. They were finally on their way once again. They were ready to walk the way they needed to be going.

All of the anthronies were already stepping through the snow as Twilight was the last one to leave the chapel She almost constantly waved towards Cadence who then waved in return. For minutes did the situation kept on playing out like that before the group of mares was finally out of her sight.

The elder soothsayer released a deep sigh through her nostrils as she leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed over each other. The thoughts that ran through her head were everything but pleasant ones. Horrors of long ago came back to her as if they had only happened the day before. Time was running out for all of them if they wouldn’t be succeeding, but the questions remained. “Are they strong enough to set their differences aside and actually work as a team?” the mare wondered to herself. Only moments later did she shook her head again.

Her eyes were aimed towards the snowy landscape again as the calm before the storm had set in. An unusual calm was traveling its way over the plains where the castle once stood. The eyes of the mare looked over the crystalline remains of the outer walls before she shuddered in terror.

So many bad memories were returning towards her at once. Her wings even spread themselves out as she turned back inside. The door was being closed behind her and the body was dropped in one of the many chairs. “First Sunset Shimmer, then Chrysalis… Who is next on the list of foes that they shall be facing? Which trouble is the next thing they will be getting across? What is the next obstacle that will put their trust to the test?”

Cadence just sat in the chair while she stroked her chin a little bit. Certain bits and pieces weren’t really working out for her mind. She needed to have some form of comfort. A certainty of comfort that would allow her to sleep well for the first time in a time long forgotten.

The mare all of the sudden left the chair. She wiped the hair out of her face and walked to the middle of the room. There she would be doing something that hadn’t been done in a long time. She would try to communicate with the goddesses themselves. To hear what they actually had to say about the quest of madness on which Twilight had been sent.

As well as to try to get in touch with a very special certain somepony out of her life. Life was once again kind to her, but would it also have been for her former student and her company? Questions rose up but the answers weren’t easily found. The fun in life was finding those very answers.

~~~~

It didn’t matter to the company of mares that they had to walk back over the icy fields to get back into the warmth of the land that they knew and loved. Even if it would be taking a couple more days of travel for them all. They would be able to walk around without a flame in their heart to keep themselves warm.

That alone was actually the biggest bonus they would be getting out of everything. The steepness of the mountain that they had to be climbing within a couple of days could be leaving them literally cold.

If they had to cross the icy plains of Tartarus for the last time, they would be doing it with love. Each of them knew that something better laid on the other side of it all. Something that could actually be of aid for them all. Something that kept their hopes and thus the morale high.

For a few more days had the company been traveling the route that Cadence suggested when they finally arrived at the spot where they needed to be. Finally were they at the one mountain that would be having the mysterious tunnel through which they could be wandering. Though finding the tunnel was something a little bit easier said than done.

All of the mares began to do their job after the tent had been set up. They had all agreed upon one more night of sleeping out there. Only after that they would be wandering through the tunnel and set up camp again at the foot of the lonely mountain. Why it was actually called the ‘lonely mountain’, was something that Twilight and the rest were still wondering.

But they didn’t really care why a place was called a way that it was. That pretty much would have come down to the fact of why a chair was called a chair. It wouldn’t help to be questioning the matters as they had been set up so many years ago already.

“Rarity, Rainbow, if you can be checking along the west side, then Applejack and Fluttershy are going over the east side. I take the south side for myself,” said Twilight while she faced the company of mares. Of course could she have placed Applejack with Rarity, but that would escalate into an all-out and downright war. It wasn’t a risk she was willing to take at all.

“All fine and such, but what is the searching area?” Rarity asked out of curiosity. A good question to be asked indeed. They knew they mountain that had the tunnel, then they only had to find it. Twilight turned herself around to face the rocks of the mountain chain and made a couple gestures with her hands. Almost as if she was dividing the place into three separate and equal slices.

Rarity rolled her eyes to the back of her head before she finally got an answer right out of the mare. “If you and Rainbow take from there to there, then Applejack and Fluttershy will be taking it from there to there. I do what is in the middle of it. Any questions?”

There luckily weren’t any questions that could be asked to the unicorn as the mare had literally showed them the directions of where they all would be needing to look. So the only thing they could be doing was to team up and just go. Go to their side of the mountain and pray on the fact of finding the entrance.

“Before I forget, don’t start to scream. I will be on my side of the mountain so come to me if you have found it. Then we come in and pick up the last group. If you don’t find anything, just come back to me. That last thing I want in this place, on our last day, is an avalanche to just delve us all under. We’re this close girls, it’s time to give everything that last little push,” said Twilight as both instructions and a little pep talk.

With the sun already setting itself, they only had a limited amount of time to discover just where the opening of the tunnel had been located. Easy it wouldn’t have been to find it but that was something they all knew. The teams were made and they all just went to their side of the mountain. Yet Twilight stood back a little while longer.

Her eyes glanced up into the atmosphere with a questioning or wondering gaze clearly visible upon her face. Something else was also troubling the unicorn or she was just looking at the visible stars. Real tiny dots of light could actually be seen in the cloudless skies above them. Her attention was then focused back upon the sun itself.

A sun that was setting itself faster than expected. Sooner or later would they had been engulfed within the reddish light that it carried at night. Haste was of the essence. Even the unicorn then finally managed to kick herself into gear. They had to find the tunnel towards the other side, no matter the cost.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were inspecting literally every inch of the rocky side. Rarity knocked every two hooves to hear whether or not there was any deviation within the sounds as Rainbow did the same but a bit higher. The two of them had been discussing the best tactic of approach and that was the thing that came out.

They weren’t really in the mood to just wander the place twice or three times in a row. They wanted to find the tunnel and that was it. Nothing more and nothing less. But their method was slow, painstakingly slow. Not to mention that it also was a near death wish for their hands. Or better said: their knuckles. With all of the tapping on the rocky side it wore out the skin around the knuckles faster than anything ever could have done.

As painful as it was, they had to bite on their teeth and just go with it. There wasn’t any other way that either of them knew in order to deal with the situation that was given to them. “I hope that the others are having a bit more luck. Not hearing anything and ending up with broken knuckles after this, I guarantee you that,” said Rarity towards her partner before she continued to listen.

"Yeah, you aren’t the only one who is having that trouble actually. My fingers are just killing me here, if they are still attached,” said Rainbow to the pirate. She then continued doing her ‘job’.

Time and time again couldn’t the mare find anything. No secret entrance way, no nothing. Twilight was using her magic in order to help herself a little bit with all of the problems that they would be facing to get in the mountain. She knew the passageway had to be there somewhere, the question was where it happened to be.

She was standing at the verge of going mad when Fluttershy rushed her way over to her. The yellow darting dot was also caught by the other two members who then rushed themselves over as well. Could it have been possible that both Applejack and Fluttershy had found the entrance to the tunnel? From the looks of it, it seemed to have been that way.

Not much later had the entire group gathered itself to perhaps the most obviously hidden doorway in the history they had ever come across. For they were looking at the insides of a tunnel that were literally just covered up with a couple shards of ice. It was the only place on the whole mountain that wasn’t riddled with rocks or anything else. No, it was just icy spikes that prevented anything from entering it.

Not that it mattered too much though, for they had finally found the entrance of the mythical tunnel. Finally they could return to their base camp and get some much needed sleep before they would be passing through it. Finally could they have been going to bed and not having to think about anything at all for just a couple of hours.

No watches were set up, no fire was made, all that protected the tent was the shield of Twilight Sparkle. Which for some of them actually was more than enough protection. They just wanted to get the hell out of the place if they had to be honest. And who could be truly blaming them for the fact? Given the fact that they were still neck down in the snow.

~~~~

The following day had the tent been cleared again and the group was ready to hit the tunnel. One by one they disappeared into the gaping hole of molten ice. The unicorn had used her staff to evaporate everything that was in the way. From the looks of it did everything still seem to be sturdy, albeit a bit on the small side. The first one who dared to be going in was Applejack, who was followed by Rainbow. Then came Fluttershy as Rarity and Twilight formed the rear guard.

They were on their way, they were on their way out of the frozen hell. Finally could they be breathing again normally and Twilight remove the flames coating their very hearts. None of them were happier to see the magic finally being removed from their bodies. The only problem was that Twilight did it inside of the tunnel.

The flames went extinct in all of their hearts, therefore they lost the only source through which their blood would have been kept warm meant one other little thing. They were once again exposed to the elements that were raging outside. The winds that usually blasted themselves against the mountains before returning were then blowing straight into the hole. Sending their coldness right down the spine of every other mare.

Luckily wasn’t the tunnel as long as they had anticipated it to be. After a couple of minutes could Applejack see the light at the end of it. Feelings of relief came to each of the mares as they were just downright happy. Happy because they could just close of the frozen chapter of their story.

In the end were they all standing on a small platform at the end of the tunnel. Those who dared, took a peek into the abyss beneath and the slope upwards. The threatening looking peaks were still a danger as ever but the bottom of the mountain didn’t seem to be that far. With one well-placed side could they all have been down in seconds.

The risk seemed to have been well worth the rewards before both Rainbow and Fluttershy took off into the skies. They would be both flying down to the ground in order to catch the rest of them. It was actually the first time in a long, long time that the doctor was in the air again. But it wasn’t a thing she had forgotten. A pegasi would never forget how to fly through the air with the greatest amount of ease.

Something for which the doctor was actually happy about. With the two pegasi down already, the rest of the company just made the gamble before they all made the slide down. One by one they came all back on the ground that really belonged to Equestria and they were all just genuinely happy to have left the area behind them. Though the new troubles were already arising. They had to make their way over to the other mountain.

They had to make their way to the lonely mountain and set up their camp there while also being on the lookout. Twilight knew it wouldn’t have been the last that they had seen from Chrysalis. Even though it seemed like the Dark Witch was literally thrown out of the picture, the soothsayer knew that she could be back at any given moment.

Naturally she didn’t lay the matter before the others as they were already walking into the direction they needed to be going. So far did everything seem to be going well. Well enough compared to the first to legs of the journey that was. Yet trouble was always something that was lurking right around the corner and coming at times when it wasn’t needed.

~~~~

The sun got up again after a night of actual darkness. From the company was Twilight Sparkle the first one to have gotten out of bed and done with her morning ritual. She sat down upon the fallen tree trunk with the maps before her eyes as the others slowly managed to get out as well.

All of them were surprised to see the unicorn already up and planning out the possible route ahead. But as they turned their heads over to the mountain they knew exactly why the concerned look stood upon the face. For the lonely mountain did honor its name.

It’s peak was higher than any of the others and almost seemed to have been like a guard’s house to some of them. Or perhaps even a lighthouse in the case of Applejack and Rarity. Yet the incline was just steep. Almost vertically did the massive rock come up. Climbing it would have become a massive problem for all of them except the pegasi.

When they first saw the mountain the other day, the courage to scale it just sank down right into their hooves. Gulps were released as they saw just what was in store for the next day.

Though Rainbow Dash was the only one who was either stupid or brave enough to disturb the unicorn with a couple of questions that were bubbling into her mind. She calmly sat down upon the tree trunk as well before her mouth opened.

At first there was a massive yawn which was then followed up nicely by the words of questioning. “Hey Twilight. Have you gotten a course already that can help us up there?” she asked bluntly towards the concentrated mare.

A concentrated mare who then turned her attention over to the major with a glance of thunder. “No Rainbow, I haven’t been able to do that yet. And if you please would just leave me alone for a moment, I can concentrate myself further.”

“Fine, if you want that,” said Rainbow when she stood back up. The pegasus stood back up and Twilight did notice the wings of the mare. Then there was a shock of realization that went through her. A realization that had hit her like sledgehammer. How could she have been so thick?

“Rainbow! Wait up!” Twilight said after her. Moments later she hurried herself towards the pegasus. The major was of course surprised by the facts as they were and gave the soothsayer a look with a raised eyebrow. “Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow, I, I have a favor I need to ask of you.”

“Uhm, okay. Go, right ahead,” the pegasus said in return as she had not even the slightest of clues about what Twilight was thinking about.

“Can you fly ahead of us now or when we’re going up the mountain to plot out a course? Having your wings gives you of course a visual on it, which works ten times better than a map.”

Without a word could Twilight feel the index finger of the pegasus poking against her chest, while the two of them continued to exchange looks. “Actually missy… That’s, that’s not the worst idea I have heard, actually. Yeah, yeah I can do that. Why shouldn’t I? Just tell me when you want me to be going off.”

“How about whenever you feel like you’re ready to tackle the situation?” Twilight returned before she had a small smirk going across her lips.

Chapter XL

The rainbow haired pegasus was scurrying around in both the tent and the void storage in order to get the stuff that she needed. Rope was without a single doubt a thing that she required in order to complete the rather treacherous journey that had been laid ahead of her. With the mountains behind them and the winds that came from two sides were the levels of danger already high enough. But if she had to pull even one of the other mares up, everything could have literally ended in the biggest catastrophe yet.

Only time would have been able to make the others learn whether or not they even was a safe passage up to the mountain. Rainbow Dash had slowly gathered everything she thought to have needed and placed it all over her shoulders like massive belts. A deep exhale was being released through her mouth before she gave a powerful nod to herself. In the reflection of the small mirror that stood next to her bed she looked at herself with a face of determination. “You can do this Rainbow. You can scout the route ahead for them,” she said to the mirror image.

Or better said: the mirror image said to her. That was the intent that the pegasus had for the events. There was no way back anymore, it was literally all or nothing in that moment. The mare had to go into the air and hope that there would have been any kind of path that could be leading the other anthronies up to the top. Only the fact whether or not there actually was one was still gnawing deeply in her mind.

She knew the dangers of mountain chains perhaps better than anyone. The pegasus was used to fly through them during patrols for the city of Cloudsdale. She knew exactly what kind of dangers were lurking around both on the sides as well as the massive tops. No rest was granted to any of them in the air. Only once they had made a touchdown, did they manage to have the time to catch some of their breath. Before they had to fly out once again.

Happy memories weren’t a thing the mare had about her time as a patrol’s pegasus. But the job had to be done and taken seriously as enemies of the city could be hiding themselves literally everywhere and strike at any time. Which made her think back to the time where Twilight said that nopony had opened the floodgates of the rainwater.

Calculation after calculation were made within her mind about the force of impact of the steam that would be rushing back up as a massive geyser. But the more she thought about it, the more her worst fear became actually true. If the waters would have been dumped and touched the magma that was running through the veins of the earth, there wouldn’t have been any more hope for Cloudsdale to be saved.

Despite the fact that the city was built to be both stern and tough, it was also both weak and fragile. The whole place was made out of nothing else but clouds and they weren’t too stable by nature to begin with. A shudder travelled over the back of the mare. Rainbow just couldn’t believe that her home had escaped a mere certain death.

The eyes of the mare looked back into those upon the little mirror before she stood up from her bed. She had to not only make herself proud, but also the group. She was chosen to do that very job for a reason by Twilight. Whatever the reason might have been was unknown but pure logic was the most logical answer in Rainbow’s eyes.

Finally did the pegasus appear out of the tent before it began to fold itself up again. The admiral made her way over to the major and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Ah’m glad yar willing to fly ahead of us. Eyes in the skies are always something appreciated by anypony.” Applejack said with a small smile before she brought the mare a bit closer towards her.

Rainbow was overwhelmed by the fact that Applejack even thought about giving her a hug like she did. Why would she have done that in the first place, was one of the thoughts that went right away through the mind of the pegasus. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Just, just be ready to follow my lead, okay?” she said quickly before she managed to break the hug with Applejack. The pegasus really didn’t enjoy any of those things whatsoever. Even if they were well meant, she just wasn’t a massive fan of them.

“Alright then, partner. We’ll be climbing behind ya,” said Applejack before she gave the pegasus the space to become airborne and set out on the task that was given to her. With the admiral out of her way did the mare spread her wings in a glorious manner as her head was aimed towards the skies.

Not a single cloud could be seen in them but she still placed the goggles before her eyes. The howling winds was still something she wished to protect herself from. Nothing could indicate to Rainbow just how bad it would have been up there as none of the trees moved. Which meant to her that there wasn’t any wind on the altitude that those were on. Problem just happened to be that she had to be going higher. Much, much higher.

A gentle exhale was being released by the mare before she jumped up into the air and gave a truly powerful flap with her wings. Instantly had she traded in the ground for the air she felt home in. Soaring through the skies already with the rainbow trail behind her she made way to the right altitude. Reconnaissance was the thing that needed to be done by the mare before anything else would be happening.

But just as Rainbow was flying nicely through the air, she noticed in the corner of her eye how Twilight gestured her to come back. The cyan pegasus didn’t even have the faintest of ideas why she had to return. Though it was better to come back. She didn’t wanted to leave Twilight hanging down there.

So her wings steered her back down to the earth where she landed upon only a couple seconds later. The mare went down on one knee as a fist was touching the ground as well. Nopony knew whether or not it was something that she did for the show or that was how she actually landed. But then the mare got back up and removed the goggles from her eyes. She then spread her arms in a confused manner towards the unicorn.

“Why did I need to come back then? Did you forgot to tell me something?” she said in a genuinely confused tone. But also a tone that was slightly hinting towards utter irritation. She could have been up there, already plotting a course for the group to walk.

Twilight shook her head a little bit as her horn charged itself up. “I didn’t forgot to tell you something. I forgot to give you something,” the soothsayer said. She gained an even more confused expression from the pegasus. Rainbow had lost track of whatever the soothsayer meant as a whole and just decided to throw herself at it. As long as she could be returning into the air, she would have been happy.

The magical charge was released and on both of their heads it appeared. Appearing like a raspberry colored gaze that merged itself into something different. Before Rainbow could even realize it had her right ear been covered with something that wasn’t usually there.

“Can you hear me?” Twilight asked while she also had something going into her ear, but also another something that went before her mouth. Near instantly did Rainbow understand just what Twilight had done. She then looked down towards her own mouth and noticed how that same little arcane arm was there as well.

“Loud and clear,” replied Rainbow through the little mouthpiece.

“Good, these arcane headsets should keep us in contact when you’re up there. So no need to come down and tell us where to go. Feed everything directly through to me and we shall walk,” said Twilight then. It was then her who gave the pegasus a pat on the shoulder. “I think that we’re all ready and eager to leave. Rainbow, have a good flight and keep everything together up there.”

“Ha, I should be telling that to you, for it are you lot who are going to be walking. Bye bye!” And then she was off once more. Off into the skies to continue doing the thing she had been set out to do. The two mares remained in contact with another as they tested the long range communication skills that the items had. It didn’t matter how far Rainbow went up the mountain, the connection luckily remained standing.

A massive relief came through on the mulberry unicorn. She finally knew that the company could actually be departing. Yet one other member was doubting about something. Fluttershy was constantly wanting to spread her wings before she tucked them back again against her back. Rarity noticed it in the corner of her eye and turned herself around to confront the mare with it.

“What are you planning to do in that coconut of yours, Fluttershy?” the pirate captain asked in a concerned tone. They had only seen Fluttershy flying once so none of them knew whether or not the mare was any good at it. But if joining Rainbow was going to be the plan, a lot of trouble had to expected as well as the discovery of perhaps hidden pathways.

It was a tough pill to swallow before Rarity gestured the other unicorn over. “Hm? You want say something, Rarity?” asked Twilight towards the pirate with a raised eyebrow.

The pirate released a little nod before the words left her throat. “Why yes, it seems like Fluttershy here, wants to join Rainbow up there.”

Those words caused the soothsayer to look at the doctor with an even stranger look as she landed a hand upon her back. “I’m not going to stop you if you want to go up there, but think about it before you ask. You have been living a life on the ground for so long now.” The words of Twilight were meant to keep the mare thinking.

But instead they only acted a coal for the fire. The yellow skinned pegasus then finally turned herself around to face Twilight. “Two pairs of eyes in the skies are better than one, isn’t that something that is always been taught to any of you? Do you see any other pegasi around here that can probably help Rainbow getting the job done?”

“That’s both a yes and a no, actually,” replied Twilight before she nodded, “fine, I hope you have your goggles, because for all I care, you can go up there as well.” Twilight placed the mouthpiece against her mouth. “Sparkle for Dash, Sparkle for Dash, come in Dash.”

Silence was the thing that took over for a couple of seconds before the voice of Rainbow could be heard within Twilight’s very own ear. “Dash here, go ahead.”

“Fluttershy here also wants to join you in the skies and help the searching for a route upwards. Is it safe to send her to you, or do you want to keep her on the ground?” Twilight then asked through the headset. It was a fair enough question that needed to be asked no matter what. If Rainbow didn’t need the other mare in the skies but she still went, their troubles would have become bigger. Both mares were still doubting the fact if it was wise to send her up though.

“It’s a big mountain and two pairs of eyes see more than one. I say send her up, if she can handle it. But if she can’t handle it, don’t expect me to go easy on her. She might be or doctor, but she has decided to live on the ground for the longest time now. Dash out.”

“Copy that and Sparkle out.” Then the attention of the unicorn focused itself again upon the remaining pegasus as her horn charged itself up. She said the words that Rainbow said to her and simply waited for the response to come.

“Well that’s a bit harsh, don’t you agree?” Rarity replied to the other unicorn who nodded. But it wasn’t their decision or call to make. It all came down to Fluttershy and even Applejack had come in to see whether or not she would be doing it.

The attention of the three mares might have been a little bit overkill. The hesitation of the timid pegasus actually seemed to have become too much. Finally she snapped and just gave a nod. A nod that she would be joining Rainbow up in the skies above them. Whether the major would be happy about it or not was something that remained to be seen.

Twilight then quickly returned the nod and allowed the arcane headset to take its shape upon her head. Then were her aviation goggles taken out of her coat and she placed before her eyes. They looked old, ancient even. Just to show the lot of them that the pegasus hadn’t flow a whole lot within her life.

“Take off whenever you’re ready Fluttershy,” said Twilight before she gave one last nod. She spoke those words over the headset. “Here goes nothing.” And it was literally nothing. For none of them had ever seen Fluttershy flying through the air. Of course they saw her sort of doing it when they rushed down the slopes the day before, but technically seen that was gliding instead of flying.

With the lot of them having taken a step or two back was Fluttershy granted all of the space she needed in order to take off from the ground. Both of her wings spread themselves as the goggles were fixed for one last time. All that the rest could be doing was to wait for the moment to happen. And for Fluttershy to not disappoint Rainbow Dash.

With one jump into the air she allowed her wings to flap like mad. Each of them thought that the pegasus would fall out of the skies like a brick, but the splashing sound never seemed to be happening. So the rest of them glanced up to see where the mare had gone off to. And in the skies they saw her, climbing towards the altitude where Rainbow was to start the flight.

Twilight took the mouthpiece again and spoke the words through it to each of the mares. “Good luck up there, if there is going to be something that we need to know, you know the name to call,” she spoke through the headset.

“Roger,” the cyan pegasus replied.

“Acknowledged,” the voice of Fluttershy said before they could only hope that everything would be going alright. Though knowing their luck, it could have gone any way.

What was the most surprising for each of the mares was the fact that Fluttershy managed to get airborne and maintain flight in the way that she did. It was true that she happened to be a whole lot slower than Rainbow, but she took the time to look around and see which ways were actually accessible for the rest of them.

It still didn’t feel right in the guts of the pirate. Rarity looked at the two of them working the way they did with a keen eye. Something deep inside of her just spoke of the fact that they were actually the dead weight in the moment. The feeling gnawed at the mare while she turned herself around and began to walk away for a little bit.

She began to pace up and down with her hands behind her back. Deep in thoughts she constantly tried to push that one thought right out of her mind and just leave everything as it was supposed to be. But that was something just wasn’t allowed to the unicorn. It seemed like every single unicorn was having some sort of mental issues that caused them to become an oddity of races.

Then again, being normal was only just a concept that was generally accepted by the local area. It was a thought that the unicorn philosophized about one night when she was wandering the decks of her ship. Normal didn’t exist, never had and never would. The world, was chaos everywhere.

It were thoughts like that which caused the unicorn to actually stay sane to a certain degree. If she wouldn’t have been thinking that deep about certain things in life, who could have told her how everything would be packing out.

Twilight Sparkle on the other end was waiting for any reply to be made towards her from both of the mares about something where they could be starting to walk. Applejack at last, was just looking over to the slopes and tried to discover a way to walk herself. With her leg it meant she would be having to take it easy, but easy wasn’t something that would be happening that day.

Once again it seemed like she had to place her leg through yet another extreme. It was almost literally killing her that her leg was put from one extreme right into the other. “Why didn’t Ah bring mah pegleg?” she grumbled to herself just loud enough for Rarity to hear.

“Because with a pegleg the trouble be getting ten times worse. Trust me on that one. I have seen you walking with it,” the pirate replied almost out of the blue. Though it was a series of words that she perhaps shouldn’t have said.

“How did ya..? Ah only walked with the pegleg after ya cut mah leg off. Don’t tell me ya were in Canterlot harbor when Ah docked after that assault, did ya?” questioned Applejack with a raised eyebrow. If it was true, it was a fact she never knew that about Rarity. If the pirate had actually seen her with the pegleg, it meant that she was a better tracker then Applejack ever could have been. “Better question would be, why?”

“Why?” Rarity returned to Applejack. Rarity was glad to have an actual argument with the admiral. Finally had she found something to focus her attention upon that was something different then Fluttershy’s flight. “Because I’m not the soulless monster you picture me as. You shot me, I got picked up by a vessel that made its way to Canterlot, unfortunate as it was. Arrived there a day before you did. I have been hiding myself for all those hours while my wounds were still bleeding. I just had to make sure whether or not you had survived.”

“And if Ah didn’t..?” Applejack simply asked. The admiral wanted to know the even finer details of Rarity’s side of their shared story. Though the answers that she would be getting could either completely surprise her, or just shock her for life once more.

“Heh, if you wouldn’t have survived, I wouldn’t have been here either,” commented Rarity in return. The pirate lifted up her blouse just for a little bit. What was revealed to Applejack were the three sapphire blue gems placed in a pattern that represented a sideways triangle. The shapes of the gems were the classical sharp rectangular shapes and seemed to be glowing faintly.

Even Twilight saw the gems as they were. She couldn’t help herself but to look at it for a second. There was only one thing that could have been the perfect description for the formation and the gems. Three word she whispered. Three word she whispered into the air but also so that neither of them could be hearing it. “Her cutie mark.”

Applejack looked at the gems before her head rose itself back up again and the blouse was lowered once more. “What are ya trying to say here, Brittenburg, what’s yar game today?” the mare said when she crossed her arms over each other.

A faint grin went across the lips of Rarity. One of her hands took a refuge to her side. “Who would you be, without me, Applejack?” It was a question that caused both of the other mares to actually look over to Rarity with a confused expression clearly visible upon their faces. What on earth could she be talking about when it eventually came down to the matter?

Neither Applejack nor Twilight seemed to be knowing the answer to the matter. The grin only got bigger upon the face of Rarity before she tore herself away from Applejack and continued to pace up and down the spot. As much as the admiral wanted to argue against the words that were said, it was perhaps best left unspoken as the thoughts alone were enough nightmare fuel.

Applejack then turned herself around as well and wanted to greaten the distance between her and the pirate. She was simply baffled by the fact that if she hadn’t survived the onslaught, the other unicorn wouldn’t have been walking around the face of the land either. Whether it was genuine or a sweet little lie she didn’t know. Nor did she really care for it either.

“Dash to Sparkle, come in,” spoke Rainbow to them from high in the skies . With her eyes she glanced over the mountain side. “I have found a route that you lot can be walking up to, but you have to go to the western side of the mountain. From there you can walk up in a zigzag pattern to a platform. We’ll see it from there again.”

Twilight listened with great care to the words that were spoken to her before she nodded to them. “Understood Rainbow. Western edge of the mountain, follow the path to the platform. Wish us luck. Sparkle out.”

“Good luck to you indeed, Dash out.” Then the unicorn looked into the direction of both the other anthronies and gestured them to come her way. Without a word did both of the mares actually come up to her as they were wondering just what on earth the unicorn wanted from them.

But the twinkle inside of her eyes actually told already more than enough to the both of them. “So they found a way, now didn’t they?” Rarity said as Twilight nodded right afterwards. All three of them were just relieved about that little fact before the soothsayer took the lead over them. “Hey, where are you going?”

“Western edge of the mountain, Dash said there was a way for us to go up the mountain in a zigzag pattern.” Twilight replied before the rest of them just followed without a question.

“Ah just hope Ah ain’t scraping the metal of mah leg,” the admiral said to herself as she glanced one last time over towards the mountain itself before joining the rest of them.

~~~~

“Me and mah big mouth,” the voice of Applejack muttered while the scraping of metal again rock could be heard with every single step that she made. She had already formed the rearguard just in case but not even that could be disguising the sound. The way they had to walk on the small ridges was literally with their backs pressed against the side of the mountain. But at least they were ascending upon the thing. Even though the incline was gentle, it was already a massive chore of Applejack to be keeping up.

Twilight formed the middle group and constantly had an eye out for both Rarity and Applejack as the last thing she wanted was for them to be dropping down. Or possibly even worse, flying at each other’s throat. But so far did everything seemed to be going so well. The mood was tense given the fact they were literally in the balance with death itself. But they did had a wonderful view over the land of Equestria already.

Zigzag after zigzag was being made by the by the group of mares. Twilight stood in direct contact with Rainbow for new information. She needed to know when exactly the next turn would happen while Fluttershy kept her eyes open for avalanches or any of those other nice little things that would be dropped off of a mountain.

The only concern that Rainbow seemed to be having about it was whether or not Fluttershy’s voice was loud enough to warn them. But then she realized she also carried one of the headsets with her. It was a bit of a relief for certain. Yet with that it also ended. Time would tell whether or not the pegasus was actually cut out of the right wood to handle the job.

Time came and went before the group of mares stood on the platform that Rainbow had looked after. Climbing, walking and tiptoeing had become just regular parts of the day for the unicorns and the earth anthrony. But when they finally arrived, they realized just how unstable the rocky platform happened to be. It wasn’t sitting right in the guts for Twilight and Rainbow immediately went back into the skies to search for something a little bit more stable.

It was a slight mistake, but one that could have been costing them their lives if they were a bit more careless with their legs. Fluttershy had made the decision to stay on the ground for a change. A change that was gladly appreciated by Rainbow Dash. The pegasus had to gather up her strength to carry another anthrony all the way over to the next platform.

There wasn’t any other way that they could be going without the breaking of bones or necks. All they could be doing was to just sit it out and wait for Rainbow to return with some good news. But Rarity and Applejack were having so their own thoughts about being picked up and transported through the air.

Neither of the mares of the sea seemed to have been fond of it of being hauled through the air and they knew that little fact of one another perhaps better than any other mare in the land. Anthronies of the sea loved the sea and water in general. They were home there, that’s where they belonged. Not in the air, the air was for wind, pegasi and birds.

“Ah swear to ya Brittenburg, we be getting ‘em back for this. Tie ‘em the mast of a ship and make ‘em enjoy the ocean,” said Applejack while she looked over the side of the rock. Beneath them laid nothing more but the valley that they had been sleeping in for the night.

“There’s also something that is called overkill, remember?” the pirate captain replied as she gave the admiral a true shady look. Applejack just gave a little shrug. She wasn’t sitting with the facts as they were. Applejack just enjoyed the thoughts for the moment. “You of all, should know that.”

But the train of thoughts was being disturbed when Rainbow had discovered another platform. One which might have been the actual one where they needed to be. Twilight actually happy with the words as she was already picking out the first anthrony to be send upwards. Who happened to be Applejack.

“Karma Jackie, karma,” chuckled Brittenburg to her. Fluttershy also got back up in the air. Applejack released a couple of grumbles before she finally just gave into the situation as it was. There was no escaping it, they all had to fly at one point or the other so she might as well be done with it.

Rainbow Dash had returned to their platform and both of the pegasi took a hold of the admiral’s hands. From that moment onwards it was a little bit scary as the admiral was hoisted up into the air. She would only been having to let go at the end of the trip. But the danger of slipping of the pegasi their hold was a fear that seemed to have been ever present. And something both of the pegasi constantly thought about as they went around and about.

“You certain that you want to be going last, Rarity?” asked Twilight when both Rainbow and Fluttershy had returned from dropping off Applejack. But the unicorn insisted that the soothsayer would be the one to be going first. It was perhaps a lot better for her own sanity that she wouldn’t be stuck with Applejack on a small platform, hundreds of hooves from the nearest form of actual solid ground.

The other unicorn just shrugged before she then took the hands of both the pegasi and allowed herself to be carried away. What then happened to Rarity was that she continued to pace up and down on the platform. Creaks within the rock could be heard all the time, but never had she felt the thing move a bit. But if it would eventually crash down, she could at least trust upon her harpoon to get stuck in the rock.

It may have been a little security, but it meant the whole world to her. The last thing that she wanted and would have needed in the moment. They were once again so close to finishing another leg of their journey. It would have been just a shame if she would have to cancel the rest of her trip.

After some time did the two pegasi return for the third time and they picked up Rarity without a word. Then it was her chance to fly again and the mares flapped their wings as hard as they could to bring the mare over to the other platform. A platform that seemed to have been right on the border between the normal Equestria and the Frozen North. The grip was tightened just a little bit as Rarity tried to keep her body as still as possible.

Her eyes looked over the whole area with a set of wide eyes already before she felt her head becoming a little light. Most likely it was the actual lack of fresh air on the altitude that caused her to be looking like that. Either way, they were almost there.

In the end had they reached the platform again and wanted to drop off Rarity safe and sound. But the wings of Fluttershy had other thoughts. Those were just tucked against the body of the mare. Which caused not only her, but also Rarity and Rainbow to fall down to the rocky ground.

With three smacks did the mares crash land down on the platform and their arcane headsets just faded out of existence. Rainbow was the first one of the three to stand up and she didn’t look too happy about the stunt that was pulled off. “Where in the name of Tartarus was that good for?!” she exclaimed towards the other pegasus. A deep huff was then being released through the mouth.

“Stupid idiot,” the mare then added before took back off into the skies. Leaving an almost crying Fluttershy behind her. Yet even though Rarity had landed face flat against the rocks, she still placed a hand upon the back of the other mare and began to slowly stroke it. All in the hope the calm the mare down from the words and the deeds.

“They’ll pull by, hopefully,” the soothsayer said before she looked around once more upon the platform. Once again they saw just a wonderful sight that stretched itself before them. It was always one of the highlights of the trip, that they would be seeing landscapes that were both beautiful and truly magnificent.

The sight they saw that time was the near perfect border line that separated the frozen wasteland of the North with the sun filled Equestria. Just the contrast between the two places made it almost look they had landed on a different planet.

Never in their lives could they have even imagined that their land held such wonderful sight to be seen. Each new one was more awe inspiring than the last one. The time to enjoy the sights was finally taken for a change. Rainbow had been flying off to some other place to get her own peace.

Chapter XLI

With a simple sob and a sniff that went through her nostrils did Fluttershy her utmost best not to erupt into tears. After her failed attempt on landing with Rarity in her hands, the doctor felt herself miserable. It had only happened less than two minutes before, but she was completely off the beaten path because of it. She tried so hard not to just burst out into tears in front of them all.

It was perhaps the hand of Rarity that stroked calm over her back that caused her to become a bit more calm. Yet the storm that Rainbow had caused within her head after the words would still be raging on. Speaking of the rainbow haired major, she walked past Twilight with a huff and didn’t even care for the scenery that was given to them all.

Instead she just spread her wings again and wanted to take off for once again. For they still weren’t at the top of the mountain as they thought. Her goggled eyes were looking at the clouds that she could almost touch with her hand. The wings were flapped at a decent speed to drive them away before the revelation felt within her very eyes.

All of the sudden it became apparent to her just why it was called ‘the Lonely Mountain.’ The eyes of Rainbow blinked a couple of times as she didn’t have the slightest of clues anymore. “Impossible, no. That, that can’t be. I have flown… What?!” the mare exclaimed to herself, therefore getting the attention of Twilight.

The soothsayer turned herself around towards the pegasus and calmly walked up to her. “Something the matter, Rainbow? Are we sitting too high for your calculations?” asked Twilight with a little giggle in her voice. Almost as if she found it funny that the pegasus was having a near heart attack. Which in one way was actually the case given the deed done to Fluttershy.

But Rainbow shook her head in denial. They weren’t too high to find the entrance towards the cavern. “We’re too low,” the pegasus said before she turned her gaze over to the unicorn. She then pointed with her hand into the skies. The soothsayer rose one of her eyebrows as she couldn’t follow the other mare one bit.

“Are you saying, what I think you are saying?” Twilight questioned before she looked through the made gap in the clouds. What her eyes then saw was something truly unbelievable. For the thing that they had missed, was rising high above them. “So that’s why the mountain is named like that. Well, you learn something every day, don’t you?”

Silence had fallen over the rest of the mares as Twilight turned herself back around with a defeated face. They thought to have been that close to finishing the leg of their journey. But instead they could be counting on yet another hike up the mountain.

“Applejack, can I talk to you for a moment?” the unicorn asked with a near somber tone to her voice. The admiral was still admiring the scenery moments before the words were caught within her ears. Just the tone alone caused her face to turn into something that was a whole lot less pleasant to be witnessed.

“’Course ya may,” replied Applejack. Her hand were placed behind her back. With her trench coat waving in the wind, she turned back to watch over the valley. Twilight made the decision to stand next to the earth anthrony once again as the news was being shared with her.

And Applejack was not happy about it at all. “So, at least a quarter of the mountain is still hidden within that fog? That’s what ya’re saying?” she repeated in a question to get all of the information right.

Twilight gave only a nod at first before she laid her eyes upon the world below them. All of the trees looked just so small. Almost as if it were all toy models. Perhaps it was better that they didn’t saw any kind of town in the distance or Canterlot. For it may have only increased the feelings of being homesick to some of the mares.

A deep sigh was released by the unicorn before the words flowed out of her mouth. “That is indeed correct yes. We still have to go a quarter up to the mountain before we are at our destination. But what I do not get is why we haven’t been able to see the mountain’s true size. Why didn’t Rainbow of Fluttershy notice those clouds before?”

“A great question, but nature is something one doesn’t play ‘round with much,” said Applejack while she stroked her chin. Many things couldn’t be explained and the mare knew that fact all too well. Certain events just couldn’t have been done by dark or white magic. It was a third kind, the one that only Mother Nature held.

In the meantime had both Rarity and Fluttershy gotten up from their own locations and dropped themselves against the side of the mountain. Their outfits were both dusted and raffled because of the stone and dust on top of the platform. Yet they were still oblivious to the fact they still had to go a quarter way.

Perhaps it was better that they didn’t know it yet, for in one of the goggle’s glasses was a massive crack. The eyes of the yellow skinned pegasus looked over it with a set of teary eyes. She couldn’t believe it that after all of those long, dreaded years, she somehow had managed to break them. To her, they weren’t just goggles to fly with. Far from it in fact. For they were actually a family heirloom.

“No, no, no, no, no,” the doctor whispered to herself. She couldn’t believe the events presented to her. Yet Rarity didn’t truly knew how to react to the situation. To her it just seemed to be a crack in the glass. Nothing too special about that, one could be saying.

“Fluttershy, it’s just a crack. Nothing to get all dramatic over,” said Rarity then before she laid a hand on one of the pegasus her shoulders. But that almost caused the mare to erupt out into tears. The fight became visually harder and harder as Rarity slowly began to realize just what she had done.

A gulp was being released by the mare before the head of Fluttershy could suddenly be found lying on her shoulder. The pirate captain had to blink a couple of times in order to see if it was really happening. Once again didn’t she had a clue on what to do. She was rough and tough mare of the seas, she hadn’t had another anthrony laying its head upon her shoulder during her school time.

Yet she could almost physically feel the sadness that was flowing through the pegasus. With a deep exhale was the only action done she could be thinking of. That was to let her arm go over to the other shoulder of the mare. “Tell me, if you want,” she then said in a kind tone, “tell me what’s on your mind.”

Rarity didn’t even knew whether or not it would be working, but anything was better than a near nonstop crying Fluttershy in the moment.

The pegasus wiped her tears away from her eyes. The doctor didn’t wanted to look like a wimp in the eyes of the captain. Even though it was already far too late for that. The goggles were laid down upon one of her legs as the eyes closed themselves off from the world.

“Long, long, long ago, when I was still a filly in Cloudsdale, my mother gave me her goggles because she thought I would be a great flyer, like her. But, I decided to live my life on the ground. Even though, she wasn’t happy with it, she still supported me however she could,” told Fluttershy while she continued to fight the tears.

“When, she eventually passed away, I swore I would keep her goggles forever. As a final honor. And now… Now that honor is broken, s-shattered…” The struggle seemed to have been a literal lost cause for the pegasus. Her tears couldn’t be stopped anymore. Without a single warning did they just began to ran down both of her cheeks.

Rarity had listened to the whole story with perked ears and finally understand a little bit more about the history of the item. She could then understand why Fluttershy seemed to have become just so sad about it. It almost reminded the pirate of her own past. Or at least, bits and pieces of it.

The doctor was pulled a little bit closer towards the captain in order to comfort her. None of the other members were in the need of a crying Fluttershy nor could they actually have been using it. Whether it was out of genuine interest to help her, or just to make her shut up, was still a question asked in the mind of Rarity.

“Just, just cry for the moment and after all of this is done, we’ll be looking for a smith that can set in a new glass if you like,” the mare said in the faint hope it would be relieving some of the stress that had fallen upon the pegasus.

Much to her surprise was there a little nod being made in top of her shoulder. The doctor had agreed upon the proposal. Then it would only have been the question whether or not Rarity would actually live up to it. Though that was a problem of a different day.

They were having a much, much bigger problem to be dealing with at their moment in time. The scale of the mountain had to be conquered was that very problem. But there had to be a safe way that led them to the summit as well. And each of them could point exactly just who would be the one to fly up again.

Twilight had turned around and let her eyes fall on Rarity and Fluttershy for a moment. Only to then just shake her head to get a couple of thoughts out. Her attention then focused itself upon the rainbow haired pegasus. “Are you sure you want to go up there?” Twilight asked after she had walked in a bit closer. “You have that odd look within your eyes. That eager but terrified glare.”

“Who’s terrified?” Rainbow asked to her. The goggles were fixed a bit. “I ain’t afraid of anything up there.” Then came that strange and cocky smile she carried.

The soothsayer gently shook her head in response. “That’s what you keep telling yourself. These clouds are strange. You haven’t spotted them earlier even though there’s a cloudless sky. So, what is the sorcery behind it and why are you so eager to go up there?” Twilight continued to ask. She did have a massive point. It was cloudless when they scaled up the mountain earlier.

What followed was a deep sigh that was released through the nostrils of Rainbow. Her head lowered itself against her chest as the eyes were turned towards the unicorn. “I can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

“From the rest, maybe. But not to me. Something troubles you, Rainbow. Something dear to you seems to be in danger. Or you have seen this kind of magic before. Or trickery, depending on how you like to call it,” replied Twilight in a faint whisper. None of the others needed to hear the words that would be exchanged between the pair of them.

“I have seen this before, and I pray to the goddesses in silence that it isn’t what I think it is. And if it is what I think it is, I pray even harder that it is an old cast. If it is recent, the whole mountain isn’t safe for us anymore, never had it then been,” whispered Rainbow Dash before she rose her head again. She was visually terrified about just what could be laying on summit of the mountain.

Yet the only manner of actually discovering the facts as they were, was to go and physically be up there. Which was exactly what she had in mind. “Wish me the best of luck, for I’m gonna be needing it.” The unicorn nodded before she placed a hand upon her shoulder. Once again there was a nod given. But that one spoke about she could be doing it. Rainbow gave a short but powerful nod in return, before she would be taking off.

~~~~

Soaring through the skies and the clouds did the worry within the magenta red eyes of the mare only seemed to have increased itself. Closer and closer she had gotten to the top and so rose her troubled mind. She could be expecting anything up there, from the loneliest peak to an entire army. Or worst of all: an actual and legendary, fire-breathing dragon.

Her flintlocks wouldn’t be enough to save her, they would just delay the inevitable for the mare. Perhaps that was why the mare didn’t fly as fast as she would have done in a normal situation. Rainbow almost crawled up towards the top of the mountain. It was unlikely for her to do such a thing yet it still happened. Something had given her the creeps and that was never a good thing.

In the end did the pegasus just close her eyes and made a jump for it. One last and powerful flap with her wings was given before she dropped herself down again. The wings were tucked against her back in mid-flight, which then caused her to fall back to the rocky top.

Her heart was beating deep within her throat as she landed with one hoof, one knee and one fist upon the rocks. A small shockwave was sent through the stones as the mare just remained idle. She was breathing deep towards herself as she thought to have her brains blown out any second.

But it was that silence. That dreaded silence that managed to crawl right up to her. The dreaded silence of nothing happening to her. It was in fact a lot more terrifying than anything she had ever done before. Thoughts raced through her head as the winds howled past her ears.

Anything could happen at any given time. That fact was for sure and scared her. All she needed to do was to listen and obey.

For almost a minute had she held her pose on the ground, while waiting for something to happen to her. Whatever could have been done to her remained unknown, as nothing was in fact happening. Yet there was still something. Something that managed to surge itself through her ears.

The sounds of a flag that was waving in the heavy wings on top of the mountain. Finally did the mare dare to open up her eyes as she rose her body up. Slowly but surely she managed to regain her rightful posture and glanced over the barren summit.

There was literally nothing else to see, almost as if something had cut away the very top of the mountain just to flatten it for something to come. But that wasn’t something that scared her. For many mountains in Equestria were formed that way so it was all natural.

What did scare her though was the fact that the sounds actually belonged to a flag waving within the winds. For her magenta red eyes were aimed directly at a flag with symbols she knew perhaps all too well. “Oh no,” were the only words spoken by her. Spoken in a tone of true worry. Almost as if she had seen an actual ghost.

Careful steps closer were made towards the flag. Rainbow thought that she had to be hallucinating. There was no way that that very flag could have been waving upon the top of the mountain like that. Yet each step she took confirmed the unbelievable. “No… No. No, no, no, no, no, this isn’t happening. This isn’t real, they are not here!” the mare exclaimed to herself as the steps backwards were being made.

The feelings of terror were placed at the right spots as a deep gulp was being released by her. She began to shake her head from right to left in a violent manner as the hands were placed upon the sides of her head. She needed the time to think about the situation but that simply wasn’t there.

“I have to warn the others, they may not fall into the trap,” said Rainbow to herself. In an instant had she turned back around and wanted to spread her wings. She wanted –if not needed– to return to the group and tell them the mountain was everything but safe for them to enter.

“Not, so, fast, pegasus,” a voice then rolled through the wind. A voice that sounded male, both deep and strong. Rainbow turned herself back around in the direction of where it came from. But on the slab of rock was nothing to be found. So she quickly turned her attention towards the clouds. Only to see two blobs of shadow shoot through them.

“You can come out now, I know exactly who you are,” taunted Rainbow her mysterious speaker. Though she didn’t lie for she knew exactly just who and what the speaker happened to be. But knowing the matter didn’t make it any easier for her. Her eyes were constantly shifting between left and right. Any time it could happen. Any time could they have revealed themselves before her.

What followed then was a loud screech that went through the air. One which was then followed up by another one. Then the two blobs managed to drop themselves down towards the ground. Two shockwaves were sent through the rocks while Rainbow had to cover her eyes for a moment. Two figure had landed before her, that much was certain. When she removed her arm from her face again, the time had come to meet her mysterious visitors.

“I should have known,” growled Rainbow when she was looking towards the two figures. Each of them wore a full set of armor, their hands didn’t have fingers, but full on talons. Their mouths reshaped into an eagle’s beak while the legs had the paws of a lion. “Griffons,” she spoke in anger, “always causing trouble within Equestria’s borders. You think you can outrun me?!”

The two griffons began to chuckle to one another as their eyes were covered with their helmets. “I’d like to see you try. Been a long time since this beak tasted fresh meat,” one of the griffons said to her with a cocky smile.

“Sorry to keep you waiting any longer,” the major replied before she quickly managed to get airborne again. The mare then dropped herself alongside the slopes of the mountain. She had to reach the group of mares before the griffons would even be having gotten their scent.

Yet little did she knew was that the two soldiers had already set in the chase after her. They all three rushed down the side of the mountain at a great speed. Due to the speed did everything seem to slow down and take its sweet, sweet time.

Time itself had managed to slow itself down for the pegasus and the griffons as the made their descend. The pegasus looked up from her graceful falling to see where exactly the beasts happened to be. For her liking they were too close, but the time to reach for her flintlocks and shoot them wasn’t simply there.

The major couldn’t be doing anything else then to guide them away from the company of mares. Even if it was going to be the last thing that she would be doing for the group. A deep sigh was released through her nostrils before the eyes were closed for a mere second. “Let’s do this,” she said to herself. The eyes were opened again and the tricks could begin.

The wings of the pegasus were tucked in and the speed only increased. The platform that held the other mares came dangerously close on her eyes as none of them were looking through the hole that she had made. Most likely it would have been better that they weren’t watching, given the immense speed at which the mare was coming down.

Rainbow had only one shot to tell the group that there were griffons and that they had to prepare themselves. For she was having a plan of her own and had the most knowledge of the creatures. A sick feeling went through her guts as she didn’t felt comfortable with at all about what would be done to them, yet it had to be done. It has to be done, Rainbow, for the sake of the group, she thought to herself and repeated that very line over and over.

Then there was the breaking point. The wings were spread again as she soared over the platform. “Griffons are coming down, prepare your arms!” she yelled in a tone and voice loud and clear enough to be heard by every last one of them. All of the other anthronies turned their attention to the soaring pegasus who then turned back up into the skies and disappeared within the clouds.

Applejack blinked a couple of times as she couldn’t believe it. “Are ya sure, she hadn’t gone crazy, Twilight?” the admiral spoke while she held a hand by both her sword and flintlock. The soothsayer didn’t reply in words. Instead she would have summoned her arcane staff right in her hands. Rarity drew both of her newly bought swords as Fluttershy remained hidden away.

But the pirate noticed exactly where the pegasus was and drew one of her own flintlocks as well. With a whistle she managed to get the doctor’s attention and threw the weapon into her direction. Fluttershy managed to get a hand on the weapon and did the actions that were needed to prepare it. If it would have been needed, she could fire the weapon.

The admiral was having answers enough as she drew both her sword and flintlock out. There would be a battle waged sooner or later. They had all heard the tales of the griffon’s and how they would be fighting their enemies. Not to mention that on the sides of the slopes, they would be having the advantage simply because of flight.

Finally they came, soaring out of the skies and crashing into the rocks of the platform. The two of them simply rose up from their little impact craters and brought out their swords. Their eyes hidden beneath the helmets made the scene only more troublesome for the mares that would be battling them.

“This doesn’t have to end in a bloodbath, anthronies. You know we have some honor left within us. Lay down your arms, and we will let you live,” one of the two soldiers spoke towards them with his deep and low toned voice.

“Like that is ever going to happen. You are beasts that hunger for war and flesh. If we would submit, we would only be an easy meal!” Twilight yelled out at them. Her horn charged itself up.

“So shameful, but so truthful as well. But, I like it when my meat puts up a fight,” the other griffon replied with a chuckle to his voice. The both of them didn’t even have normal blades, instead they carried cleaver looking blades. The both of them were still soaked in the dried up blood from the enemies they had slain with it.

“Looks like meat's back on the menu,” the first griffon spoke just before he jumped into the air again and began to hover over the battlefield.

“Oh believe me, you might find out we aren’t that easily caught as the fish of the sea. You want dinner, work for it,” countered Rarity with a low toned voice. The pirate readied herself for the events to come. The blades sliced through the air as she assumed a battle ready pose. Twilight had been charging up a couple of spells as Applejack simply had aimed her flintlock to one of them.

Fluttershy was too terrified to do anything. She remained as silent as she could in the faint hope that she wouldn’t have been discovered. She could only hope that it would actually remain that way. “So it be, prepare to die, you pieces of filth,” the second griffon spoke before he charged over to the group with his powerful lion legs.

Before any of the anthronies knew what was actually going on, the fight between the three of them versus the two griffons had erupted. The blades of the mares clashed against the cleavers of the beasts while Twilight fired spell after spell to attack and defend.

Ice, fire and wind all did their turn past their ears and into the direction of the beasts. Yet those very same beasts had been evading the charges like they were nothing. The one that charged over land had set its sight on Rarity against whom he crashed and forced her to the ground. The blades of the mare were ripped out of her hands and fell down her sides.

The unicorn couldn’t do much else anymore then to charge up her own horn and speak out a shield that would be protecting herself from the cleaver. A cleaver which literally hit the shield a second after it had been send up. But one of the griffon’s hands had still managed to get a hold of her shoulder.

The talons on that very hand had drilled themselves into her flesh as she reached out for her sword. She wanted to make the pain go away in the only manner that she knew. Returning it, in double.

Applejack had fired a shot at the flying griffon while she kept an eye on Rarity. Twilight wanted to help her but the flying beasts had set in. He wanted make a literal dive bomb on the group. The staff of the unicorn was charged and a massive burst of magic would have been released into the air. Lightning that originated from the orb were sent all over the place, including the griffon.

The longer the mare continued to charge the beast, the more she began to realize it had almost no effect on it. “Shoot, Applejack, shoot!” Twilight shouted before she discharged the staff and dropped herself off to the side.

Behind her stood the admiral with her flintlock already aimed at the beast and a smirk going across her lips. “It’s a long way down, partner,” she said before the shot was being fired. The barrel smoked and in the distance did something drop down.

The griffon had been hit right in the chest and had come crashing down towards the ground. Seconds later it fell upon the platform while the admiral blew the smoke away from the barrel of her weapon. She then rushed over to finish the job with her sword.

The sword of the admiral was raised into the air and then lowered again at an incredible speed. She thought to have ended the life of the griffon, to be done with one of them. But fate had other plans in mind. Just before there would have been any sort of hit, the sound of metal clashing against metal could be heard.

Within her eyes saw the admiral that the impossible had happened. Somehow had the griffon managed to turn himself back around and he had deflected the incoming slash. Despite being wounded, he still carried the flame of battle inside of him. “Impossible,” the admiral whispered.

“No, brute force!” the griffon soldier replied to her. Moments later she got a kick in her belly with a lion paw. The admiral was then sent flying through the air before she crashed against the platform once again. The dust that was send up caused nopony to be able to see what was going on.

Though inside of it laid the mare with her blade at one end and her flintlock at the other. “Oh… That, hurts,” she said to herself in a moan as she hollowed out her back. “Pain, pain, pain! Pretty sure, that’s mah spine!”

In the meantime had Rarity managed to get a hold of one of her blades. The mare just swung it up towards the leg of the griffon. Moments later did the grip on her bleeding shoulder become only more painful, before it finally let go.

The beast then removed itself from her body and the unicorn quickly got back up before she discharged her very own shield. Her eyes glanced up into the air and noticed how the attacker was bleeding from his hip. “I told you, you have to work for your dinner,” she said to them with a nasty frown. With one swift motion she drew another one of her flintlocks and fired right at the griffon.

Who on his own turn was hit in the other leg and began to scream out in pure agony. The beast dropped itself down from the skies and just crashed into the ground. It all seemed over, the attack seemed to have been done.

Yet Twilight wasn’t so sure of that little fact. Anything could still be happening. “Where there’s one, there’s usually a lot more,” mumbled the soothsayer. Her eyes looked up into the skies, watching them for any more trouble. Though they were peeling to see any form of Rainbow Dash or any other being outside of a griffon that could come for them.

The matter about Rainbow was something they all had on their minds, but made the possible wise decision to not speak a word about. In the corner of her eye she then saw how Rarity wanted to end one of the griffons. “Don’t!” she yelled in a demanding tone. Then she zapped the blade out of her hand.

“W-What?!” Rarity questioned before she switched between her still bouncing blade and the smoking staff of Twilight. “D-Did I miss a memo?”

“Leave them alive, both. I need to have a word with them,” said Twilight before she walked over to one of the beasts, “Tell me, everything.”

Instead of an actual answer did the bleeding griffon just released a chuckle through his throat. Not a single word was shared with Twilight as long as she was looking at him. Only when she turned herself around would the howling sound of help be released. The mare then quickly turned herself around again and wanted to zap the beast as the words were finally said. “You made, a great mistake.”

“Hmpf, wouldn’t be the first one,” replied Twilight in a cold tone. The desire to end his life became really tempting. “And definitely not the last.” But fate had once again favored their enemies. For out of the sky they came. A near dozen of the beasts all dropped down upon the stone platform.

The only difference was that they carried a full set of armor, making them practically invincible. The eyes of Twilight looked from left to right before she just dropped her staff to the ground. “It’s no use girls. Yield, or we shall perish.”

“Look who has gotten smart,” the wounded griffon spoke before another chuckle was released. All of the other mares then just dropped their weapons like that as well. They all wanted to live another day and not die horribly at the talons of the griffon. Though that seemed to be a quicker death than boiling in the lava that flowed underneath Equestria.

“We yield, but we wish to speak with your commander. Now,” growled Twilight clear towards the group of griffons with a dead serious glance in her eyes. Even though she looked serious, the griffons couldn’t help it but to laugh. They laughed and laughed as if somepony had given them a strong drink.

But then were they all pushed aside. Out of the crowd stepped a griffon covered in armor with special markings. It did a couple of steps forward before standing stationary again. Twilight looked at the markings and realized it was the blood of anthronies that was smeared over it. It almost looked as if their dying hands made one last gesture for mercy. A mercy that was never shown. Where have we gotten ourselves in this time? Twilight thought to herself. She –just like the rest of them– awaited the words of the griffon to come.

Chapter XLIII

With all of the others locked up in the brigs of the massive airship, there was only one anthrony that could be making any kind of difference for the group. And that very anthrony was nopony else then Rainbow Dash herself. Even though she had let them all hang during both the fight and their capture, she was still out there, alive and kicking. She was hidden in plain sight. Rainbow had seen everything with her own eyes and wasn’t happy about it for one bit.

Her eyes had seen just how the brutal arrest went and the fight between her partners and the griffons. The sounds still rushed through her head as she wanted to get it all out of there. But the case may not have been that. She had to do something, to get them all out of there. One way or the other, they would be getting off of griffon ship.

For Rainbow Dash had managed to hide herself way up within the clouds after she had come down again. The clouds that were used to disguise the top of the mountain also had become her place to stay during the fight. She had a perfect view on the platform but said to herself not to make any intervention. The reasons behind it was that she knew how the griffons worked. Rainbow could be speaking of actual luck that they didn’t found her or went looking for her.

That was pretty much the saving grace that the mare had. The fact that none of them actually went searching for her meant that she could remain hidden and not move from her location. Only when the group of griffons and anthronies moved did she move as well. The thoughts of terror went through her as she skipped from cloud to cloud within the air.

Never did she took her eyes off of the group while those same eyes also warned her about the dangers that laid in every other direction. From time to time she even had to hide herself within a cloud just to avoid glaring eyes. Whether those eyes were hostile, or friendly.

Her first objective was to stay hidden from everything until she knew where the mares would have been brought. After that could the plan be formed of getting them out as well as the possibilities of all the errors that she would be making. Though that was a thought she rather skipped in the first place.

Finally she did she caught the dark clouds and the clouds did their job very nicely. They managed to scare the pegasus down to her very soul. Clouds that dark only could have meant the most severe of thunderstorms in her mind. She was terrified that the griffons were actually flying straight into the place before they disappeared out of her sight.

“Impossible,” the major said to herself in a trembling tone. Rainbow had to shake her head a couple of times. She just couldn’t grasp her head around the fact that the griffons had not only entered the clouds, but that there wasn’t anything happening either within them. If those clouds would have been static charged, they would have been toast a long time ago.

What was unknown for the pegasus was that within the clouds, the massive airship could be found. A tactic that was used often in the conflict. But also one that had sunken deep down in her mind. The pegasus was oblivious to the facts as they were.

The mare remained hidden within her little cloud for as long as it was needed. Of course she just wanted to rush right in and get the other anthronies back. But she couldn’t let her disguise drop in broad daylight. If even one of the griffons that was chasing her –or belonged to the group that captured them all– would have spotted her, it would have been over.

The thoughts of being torn to pieces by the claws and beaks of the barbarians was an unsettling one. Yet also one that made her determination of not being found only bigger. Naturally there were griffons that flew by from time to time. Griffons who didn’t seem mind that little cloud to be there. The threat levels of that tiny cloud compared to the giant thing were next to zero. There was nothing inside of that little bundle of white fluff that could possibly be of harm for the vessel, or the emperor.

The griffons made only one little mistake though. For Rainbow Dash was dangerous enough to just be that on her own. If she had to, she would end the lives of all the soldiers that came in and out of the clouds to find her partners.

While the sun had set and the moon rose gentle across the skies, the pegasus had remained hidden in the clouds. The beginning of night would have been time to get to the others. With no light to work with, were it the eagle sharp eyes of the beasts that worked a little bit less. Which meant mostly that Rainbow could get past them undetected. That was the plan she had at least.

Rainbow made sure that there were no other beings in her nearby area before she dared to leave the cloud. Her wings made powerful flaps to propel her forwards in silence. The last thing she needed in the moment, was to be spotted and speed was of the essence. The first one was debatable in her mind. For she wasn’t sure whether or not she could remain undetected until the very end.

Speed however, was something that she did possess. The major could fly at an incredible speed thanks to years of training, her body was almost to the limits of its capabilities. All those years of training finally paid off when she could use the skills all at once.

Darkness then followed, complete and utter darkness followed the pegasus while she had entered the dark clouds. Yet she could feel straight away that the clouds were just for show. There was no static electricity that was flowing through them at all. She almost wanted to say that the clouds had been ‘dead’ for a long time.

‘Dead clouds’, as many residents from Cloudsdale referred to those kind of clouds. They were clouds that looked like they would be carrying something, but instead were empty. It was something every pegasus had to know and had to learn the differences between a dead one, as well as their counterpart. Which were of course the living ones.

“Dead clouds, I should have known. Not even the griffons are stupid enough to make their homes inside of fully charged thunder clouds. Though no doubt they are able to make some if they want to,” whispered Rainbow to herself while she continued to soar through the darkness.

Only to have her eyes blinded by something she never could have predicted to have seen in her life. All of the sudden did the light shine right into her eyes. Without any sound that left her mouth was an arm brought before her eyes to make her look away.

The pegasus made the wise decision to return back into the clouds for a moment and re-see the situation as it was. Something unexpected had happened and she didn’t happen to be the greatest of fans when it came to the unexpected.

Once again hidden within the clouds did she remained only a small distance within them as the arm was removed from her eyes. Rainbow had to see just what it was that almost blinded her and she wanted to know it there and then.

Once the eyes could be looking again towards the origin of the light, she was standing for a massive surprise. At first there was a deep gulp that came from her throat before the words dared to leave in a whisper. “Oh no…”

Within her eyes she caught it, just as the rest of them had seen it earlier that very day. The massive airship of the griffons still laid there, just hovering within the air as the great fires fueled the balloon that was used to carry the thing through the air. Those very fires happened to have been the cause of her being blinded.

Yet on the rest of the deck there wasn’t any other light to be found. It almost seemed as if the griffons were cocky enough to spare themselves the trouble of setting up torches all along the upper deck. And who could be truly blaming them? They were having the fires of the burners that kept the ship level.

Even though the sights that she was presented with were almost coming out of an old tale, she knew that the rest of them happened to be on that very ship. Rainbow had to get aboard and find them without being noticed before the hardest part would come in: getting them all off.

Time was of the essence once again, the nights didn’t last all too long in their specific area. The pegasus shook her head a couple of times before one strong nod of determination was given. She was more than ready to finally begin upon the journey she had to make. The hope was only that the others were ready for the breakout.

Her wings were spread to their furthest before the mare took off with an incredible speed. The journey towards the ship was made literally within a couple of seconds as her rainbow trail could have been the only giveaway. Something that faded only a mare second later out of the skies.

Rainbow had landed down on the deck near the bow of the ship as silently as she could. Her whole weight was carried by her wings until she had made touch down. She didn’t dare to crash herself into the wooden planks because of the noise it could make, thus attracting any griffon out.

Once she stood safely on the deck were the wings tucked behind her back and she stood within the darkness of the night. Even though the light of the burners was bright, it wasn’t enough to lighten up the darkened bow of the vessel. Which in return was a massive relief for the pegasus. Her eyes then glanced over deck as a whole with the intention of watching a guard or two.

But she didn’t saw any living being upon the deck of the ship. Of course there was the wonder where they could have been. The thoughts were disturbed by a roar that came from behind her and up. Quickly did the pegasus turn herself around as she made herself as small as possible as well. Her magenta red rimmed eyes looked over the skies in the fear of seeing a griffon heading straight towards her.

There she saw the griffon, flying through the air. Its speed was normal, its attention away from the ship. It wasn’t heading right for her as she had expected, instead it seemed to have been just circling around the ship. “So that’s where the guards are, not aboard, hm? At least one deck is safe, but what about the others?” said Rainbow to herself. She gently rose back up on the deck.

All of her thoughts raced through her mind as to where she would be going first. Of course she was familiar with the layouts that the ships of the griffons had. The mare had been studying them for months during the great conflict so long ago. But the one she happened to be on was one unlike anything she had ever seen. One that must have been built after it.

Next to being captured was getting lost her second greatest fear aboard. The body turned itself back around towards the rest of the ship, her hooves began to make the delicate steps on the wood. She had to go beneath decks no matter what.

The longer she was out there, the greater the chance was of her being captured. Meaning the rescuer needed some rescuing. Perhaps the levels of fear that surged through her body could be deemed as unnecessary, wherefore the mare could be stamped as just paranoid. Yet all of the pegasi that were in the air force had to be afraid. If they weren’t, they weren’t even allowed to go in the air.

Fear was the drive that made them to the decision that could either make or break their battles. The fear surging through the body caused them to be alert of everything, to notice all that moved almost instantly. Their reflexes were almost unmatched when they were in battle. That was the whole reason why they were also so jumpy, and not to mention: shady.

Hunched over and sneaking at a slow pace, Rainbow had managed to gain ground while her eyes looked out for everything. Not only was she looking for other griffons, but she was also heading towards a hatch that could be leading her beneath the deck.

Something that resembled an entrance way would have been more than welcome within her eyes. And finally did she notice it, finally did she notice the staircase that would be letting her move down. The only problem was the little fact that it laid right next to a burner. She would have been spotted right away even if she tried.

But it was perhaps the only chance that the pegasus had without flying off the ship and squeezing herself through one of the cannon holes at either of the sides. It was a risk that needed to be taken. The griffons were out there and circling the ship as they kept the guard. But what about somepony standing at the helm?

Another thought began to circle through her mind. Rainbow felt herself getting more and more uncomfortable. Everything just came to a screeching hold within her mind, the helm! She hadn’t thought about the helm during her time being there. It could have been a massive longshot, but if she could make her way up to the helm, there must have been some manner where she could be descending to the lower decks.

It was of course a thought of utter madness. But given the location she was on, a bit of madness would have been the least of her worries. She had to try it, whether it would fail or succeed she didn’t care about.

The pegasus would have set everything on everything before she took the first steps. There wouldn’t have been any turning back anymore. She had continued her journey through the light and towards the helm of the ship. Only the goddesses would be standing at her side, hopefully.

Constantly did the eyes of the pegasus move themselves up and down, from left to right. All to make sure she would haven’t have been captured or taken away. The thoughts always lingered deep within her mind as she feared every second could have been her last. The healthy –or close to unhealthy– dose of paranoia was surging through her body like always.

Her heart was beating inside of her throat while all of the senses were set on the detection of the griffons. Rainbow was terrified. Her face might not have shown it at all, but she was in fact scared to death. Little strains of sweat could be seen traveling down the sides of her face as she wondered what on earth she was doing there.

Second after second did time crawl by. Every second was more dreadful than the last. Rainbow only became more and more uncomfortable about the whole situation. But she had made it. She had managed to sneak her way over the light engulfed deck. She stood right next to the massive helm of the equally massive ship.

A great relief went over the mare. Rainbow felt like she had done something that seemed to have been just impossible to do. But her quest was far from over though. She still had to find a hatch that would be leading her down to the lower decks. And from there would another quest begin.

The quest to find the weapons of the rest of the anthronies so that they could at least be fighting for themselves if they had to had also begun. Rainbow pulled out one of her own flintlocks and pulled the hammer back it just in case. She was ready to kill a griffon on sight if she needed, and probably wake up the whole of the ship afterwards.

She slipped through the hallways of the vessel as if she were a ghost. With all of the creatures that were aboard, were presumed asleep. There was a little bit more freedom which she could be taking. It still was an utmost requirement for her to be as silent as possible though. One wrong step and the griffons would be waking up.

It was a literal and constant fear that never ceased itself down in the mind of Rainbow as she walked over a deck that was just filled with massive cannons. But not only was that her only problem, the sun was one as well. Or better said, the upcoming day. Something inside of her told her that she had to hurry up and get them before dawn. As that very dawn was only an hour or two away.

A gulp was given off by the rough and tough major of the air force as she then continued her way to find the next staircase. After she had walked down the hatch behind the helm, she had come in the little compartment where all of the higher officials would be finding their rest in actual beds instead of hammocks.

Not to mention the fact that the deck she was on, was only connected to the vessel via that very hatch. Twilight nor the rest of them had ever seen the deck Rainbow was on as the spinal staircase was just shut upon that deck. Given the fact that the heaviest cannons were standing right there, Rainbow could be making sense out of it. Even if it was just a tiny bit.

To her it meant that she had to walk all the way back to the bow, past a couple other quarters before she finally could descend another deck and get on the spinal staircase that would be leading her to both the armory as well as the other mares.

In silence had the pegasus managed to sneak her way through the whole of the deck and she had just reached the quarters as a ray of light was cast out of one of them. The door of one of the cabins was open just a little bit. Yet that little bit could have been enough to seal her fate. The voices that came out of the room were interesting enough for her to begin with.

Yet there was one voice within that very room she could be recognizing out of thousands. “Gilda,” she said with only her lips moving. No sound ever came from the mare as she inched her way closer. She needed to hear just what was being said within the room and more importantly, to whom it was being said.

Anything that was having Gilda involved, meant a lot of trouble was heading their way no matter what. She couldn’t let the opportunity slip by her as she inched even closer to the door opening. She would have made certain to actually stay out of the rays of light as her ears were perked like never before. She was ready to play her role as a spy for a change.

Though the words that would be caught, wouldn’t have been glad ones.

Inside of the cabin was Gilda wandering up and down, while another griffon was just sitting on her bed. His attire spoke the fact that it must have been some kind of higher official. But the female griffon had her hands behind her back and wore a bit more casual attire for some reason. “We have four of them, four anthronies captured and right in our midst as they wanted to do something on top of that very mountain. Imagine the damage if their bodies are send to Canterlot itself,” said Gilda to the griffon, her voice was overjoyed. Almost sadistic even.

The other griffon stretched his wings just a little bit before a chuckle was being released. “Oh they would crawl to Cloudsdale with the news and they would be giving of the declaration of war at the snap of a talon. And then the whole conflict shall be repeating itself once again. But with this time, it shall be us who come out as the victors. To expand our territory in Equestria itself.”

“The world would be too big, but if we can get Equestria to fall under griffon rule, that would mean we can control the world to our liking. You know what that means right? Griffon, supremacy,” told Gilda to him. Her beak managed to form a sickening smile across it.

But then she turned her attention away from the other griffon and glanced over to the door. Something deep inside of her told her it wasn’t right to have it open and the cold breeze of air that went over the wings could have been an indication of just why. A shiver was given off by the griffon as she then walked over to the door and slammed it shut.

Rainbow gained a little bit of a scare before she then blinked a couple of times. The pegasus was having a great amount of trouble to actually process all the information that was unwillingly given to her. Not to mention the little fact that it made her angry as all hell. The griffons wanted to take over Equestria and therefore the world?

What kind of madness had they been brewing up in the years after the other conflict? It was only one of the many thoughts that rushed through her mind as she wanted to know the finer details of course. But those details were blocked out from her forever. With the door being shut was there no other way she could be listening.

Though the feelings of just rushing into the cabin and literally knocking some sense into the griffons was almost getting the upper end of her. She wanted –if not needed– to punch something so hard that the bones would be snapping. The panting of the adrenaline that was surging through her body almost seemed to have driven her right of the edge.

The urges were becoming just that big and she was getting almost that desperate of actually doing it. She couldn’t control herself anymore, she felt like she was going to explode and go almost berserk. Yet one tiny little bit of her managed to remind her about a little fact. The fact that she was having a mission of her own that needed to be completed.

Despite the fact of her wanting to give the griffons such a good payback, doing it alone wouldn’t have been right. But with the group she had been traveling with for so long already, the chances would only be getting better and better.

The rage and fury that was surging through her body managed to calm itself down as she quietly walked past the door and made her way down the other set of stairs. She had to find the rest of the company before she would be doing anything else.

Caution and safety were standing high for her once more. But the boiling rage would never cease from her body and mind. The time to free her partners had come to her. Even though she wouldn’t be having any plan about what she would be doing next.

~~~~

After a series of decks where Rainbow could just be walking through as if it was nothing had the pegasus eventually set her hooves on the lowest of the lowest deck. No lights were on but her eyes had gotten adjusted to the dark by then. She could be seeing well enough to recognize any shape or form that was hidden within it.

Her eyes looked from left to right before she finally noticed the very brigs where the rest of the mares had been locked up. Of course had she tried to find the weapons of the anthronies, but without success. She had figured out that they were in the armory, but said armory was locked with two separate keys that probably were hanging around the necks of two random griffons.

So the luck of getting their arms was out. But the luck of finding the rest of the mares was actually there. Which in and of itself was another major relief for Rainbow Dash. Finally she seemed to have found the rest of the group as she walked over to the brigs.

The silence was almost unbearable and dreadful as she walked at the tips of her hooves. If it weren’t the anthronies she was looking for in the cages, who knew just what might have been inside of them? Questions rose up as if they were nothing while the answers were kept waiting from her. Time would reveal everything to her. She just hoped that time wouldn’t let her wait long enough.

Eventually she just set one of her hands on one of the doors and looked inside of the cage to the best of her abilities. She thought to be seeing nothing that resembled any of the anthronies she had been traveling with, but when she listened came the definitive answer.

All of the beings inside of the cages had been rolled up in a blanket for the night so their forms were unrecognizable, but the sounds of a steam powered leg could be recognized out of thousands. Finally had she found the group again. Finally they were all reunited like that again the relief that was going through the pegasus almost had become too much.

“Girls, wake up! It’s me,” the major spoke up in a whisper. Rainbow was hoping for the others to become awake. Speaking louder was one thing that she didn’t wanted to do aboard.

What followed after the calling of Rainbow Dash were a couple moans and groans as the voice of Applejack suddenly filled the air. “Lemme sleep Dash, it ain’t mah watch.” She then turned herself around in order to sleep further before her eyes shot open wide. “Rainbow, Dash?” Applejack added when the shock of the realization had gone through her.

The admiral was the first awake and she scooted over to the door of her cage to see Rainbow. She needed to have a couple of good words with the mare about manners, but just seeing her standing there was a sight in and of itself. “Ah would slap yar head off if it weren’t for these bars,” she added to her already so colorful pallet of words.

“Yeah, well get in line. The griffons won’t be too happy when we are all broken out of here. Speaking of…” Then the others were woken up by a gentle whistle that came from Applejack’s very own leg. All of the anthronies shocked awake. They began to rub their eyes under yawns and winches of pain.

“What on earth was that good for?” the voice of Rarity mumbled just before she charged up her horn. Within the light of the horn was the face of Rainbow revealed as it stood on the opposing side of the bars. “Oh hey there Rainbow.”

Silence then came from Rarity before she blinked a couple of times. Her mind was having some trouble to process the very fact that Rainbow Dash was standing there, outside of the barred door. “R-Rainbow?!” she then exclaimed as quiet as she could.

Soon it was Twilight’s own horn that became charged as well. Which allowed the cyan skinned face of the pegasus to be coated in both a sapphire blue and raspberry light. “Yes, it’s me. All me, here and now. Before you all blame me for not partaking in the fight, be glad I didn’t. Because if I did, we would all be inside of there and who would be saving you then?”

“So, you have a plan on getting us out of here?” Twilight asked. The mare had some genuine wonder within her voice. She couldn’t truly believe that a mare like Rainbow would be having a fully doctored out plan. She was a major after all who used to receiving commands from higher up only. Something that greatly worried the unicorn.

But the other unicorn couldn’t help herself with chuckling. “Oh this is just too rich, but if you happen to be having the keys to these cells, I think we would be greatly in your debt.” Rarity spoke up after she had managed to calm her voice down.

“And, have you thought about the fact of just how exactly we would be getting down from, oh I don’t know, a freaking airship?” added Twilight in a whisper. Alarming the griffons on duty wasn’t something she wanted to do. But in return she only got a shady look from the pegasus.

“Hey, be glad that I’m at least this loyal to have crawled my way over a massive airship from the griffons, alright? Secondly, I make the plan up as I go and I shall find those keys for you Rarity.” Rainbow as before she turned herself around. “Right, the keys.”

Behind her were three deep groans of annoyance as two slaps could be heard. The pegasus closed her eyes for a moment and pretended that it hadn’t happened. Then her eyes were opened once more and glanced over the stuff that could be seen in the light. “You really think they would be hiding the keys this close to the cells?” she mumbled to herself before her eyes started off again.

The search for the keys was going within full motion before all of the five anthronies began to realize one little fact. Even though the darkness of the clouds it could easily be picked out and the cracks within the woods told all the same story.

Rainbow turned herself around to face the brigs as she gasped for air. All of the other mares followed her example as they walked over to the doors of their cells. The light that was penetrating through the wood could have meant one thing and one thing only. “Sunrise,” the admiral whispered. Applejack shook her head greatly from side to side. She couldn’t believe the facts as they were.

But from the looks of it, they had ran out of time. Time that was precious to the lot of them. “Hide!” Rarity whispered after she had turned herself around quickly towards Rainbow. The major understood it immediately and began searching for a little hiding place.

Just in time she had managed to get away from the peeking eyes, as a griffon came down the stairs. It’s full armor clunked with every step there was being taken. But Rainbow noticed how he held one key in his hand and another ton at the side of his body.

There was only one logical explanation that she could be giving to the situation and it wasn’t a happy one. For the broad griffon looked menacing enough. Yet he was nothing else but, “the keymaster,” whispered Rainbow when she stroked her chin.

Another griffon made his way down the stairs and the mares were taken out of their cells and lined up. For what though? Rainbow didn’t knew. But she knew she had to join the group if she wanted to have any chance when it came down to finding out what would have been going on.

So when both of the griffons were locking the doors again, she slipped out of her hiding and joined the queue in silence. None of the mares were cuffed, which was a massive relief for Rainbow. Simply because it meant she could just join them. Though she would have gotten a couple of strange looks from Rarity who was standing last in line.

The keymaster and the other soldier turned themselves around to see the prisoners standing there. “Oi, there were only four of ‘em, right?” the soldier asked after he was done counting the mares.

“Who cares, four or five, it’s early morning. You think I’m clear right now? ‘Specially after last night? Let’s bring ‘em all to the emperor. He’ll decide with to do with ‘em. Four remain, one gets eaten, I don’t know and couldn’t care less ‘bout it,” the keymaster replied before he commanded all five anthronies to march forward.

Twilight was right, they would be given an audience with the emperor. Finally they would be having the chance to speak to one of the mightiest griffons in the whole world. If only there would be some degree of reasoning. That was the fact that kept on gnawing at the mind of the mare.

Chapter XLIV

The keymaster and the soldier were both dead tired from the night before. They just didn’t care whether or not there were four or five anthronies in their line. They just commanded the lot of them to walk behind them. With the soldier up front and the keymaster behind them, Rainbow couldn’t help herself but to almost look over her shoulder every so often. Only to see the keys just dangling around and about at his side.

Their means of escape were easy, they weren’t cuffed at all, they weren’t held in place by any other griffons. But out of the group there were only two pegasi. Two pegasi who only had the lifting capability of only two other anthronies in the eyes of the griffons. Which in the long term meant that one of the anthronies would have been left behind by them. Either to serve as bargaining chip or just as poor and unfortunate soul who would be left to rot.

It were facts that the whole of the group knew as well, except it was even worse. They did have the lifting capability of carrying two anthronies but the distribution of the both of them was vastly different. The major could carry one and a half, whereas the doctor was only able to lift up half an anthrony.

Those kind of details were the thing that worried Twilight pretty much to no end. The mare stroked her chin almost all the time. She was the one who walked behind the soldier up front. Thoughts turned and twisted themselves in manner that were previously unseen by her. Twilight was looking for ways out while they walked through the decks of the ships.

Ways out there were plenty of, but each of those ways ended sadly in one of two ways. Either they would be killed by the talons, beaks and weapons of the griffons before they could make their second move. Or they would be literally just falling down to their deaths if Twilight’s and Rarity’s arcane energy wasn’t enough to catch the others and teleport them all out of harm’s way.

Too many variables were the things that Twilight was struggling with. Every single variable was one too many and one that could be changing each of their fates on the spot. No, it was perhaps the best thing to do, to follow the soldier to the cabin of the emperor and listen to what he had to say. With that thought did Twilight release a deep sigh, finding peace with her decision.

After that would the company hopefully have been able to do that they needed to be doing. Yet the hopes of actually being able to just became slimmer by the second. Twilight wasn’t looking at the situation that happily anymore as the memories of the war reports she had read time and time again all came back to hear. She began to prepare for the worst yet hope for the best.

The rest of the company was just walking in the straight line while Applejack’s very leg caused the commotion to arise within the other griffons. Each of them had served in the war or in the very least heard about it. So the clunking of the leg against the wood was more something along the ways of a ghost of the past which headed their way.

Strange eyes were given to both the admiral and the pirate captain. Even though they hadn’t seen the admiral with the leg before, the orange skin was more than enough to make them recognize her. There weren’t many anthronies in the navy –certainly at that time– who wore that kind of skin.

Then there were growls that came from pretty much every single hammock there was on the deck as they walked for the furthest staircase. But both the keymaster and the soldier weren’t in the mood to deal with a horde of angry griffons in the morning.

The growling matter would have been solved in pretty much the only manner a griffon could be solving their problems. All of it was ended with a loud snarl given off by the soldier before the keymaster took over the word.

At first he chuckled to himself, he couldn’t believe how all of the others reacted to the presence of the mares. “So, it seems like some of you scums know some of the prisoners. You might want to tear them apart and devour them before breakfast. You lot be my guest, but know you’ll be having to plow through me first. So, who wants the first bite?!” he shouted over the deck. His eyes were piercing over each and every single griffon with a thunderous stare.

All of the other griffons suddenly turned silent as they didn’t seem to be daring to fight the keymaster. Their lives were perhaps just a little bit too valuable for them then to have them ended by the brute of a griffon.

“Do Ah wanna know, what ya did to ‘em lot to make ‘em that terrified of ya?” Applejack asked as she turned her attention over to the keymaster. Who on his own turn just turned his head towards her and rose an eyebrow. His beak then curled up into a sadistic grin. In that moment did the admiral knew more than enough. “Ah see.”

None of the other mares knew what the silent words meant. But they weren’t in the mood to figure it out either.

With the silence that went over the deck did the keymaster eventually release a deep huff through his nostrils. The eyes scanned each and every last other griffon before he gave just a simply nod towards them all. “Now there are some good ladies. Back to your jobs, these are for the emperor.”

There wasn’t any denying within that demanding tone. All of the griffons had turned from savage beasts into nothing else but scared, little kittens. They were all genuinely afraid for the keymaster and Applejack seemed to why that was. A secret she wouldn’t share, just yet.

The group then continued to walk further over the length of the ship as they were then send up a series of stairs that would be leading them to the captain’s cabin. Or in their case, the cabin of the emperor. What they could be expecting there was something none of them knew. Though they had figured would be grand.

Facts and figures were turning inside of the heads of the other mares. They wanted to find out manners of escaping their very holds. Naturally did Rainbow just wanted to fly away from the place and take the rest with them. But the limitations of her body prevented that very thing. As annoying as it was, she also took a certain delight in meeting the emperor of the griffons.

Not many anthronies of Cloudsdale have had the ‘privilege’ of meeting the emperor of the griffons. Perhaps the reason was because after the conflict the two races severed all the ties they had with one another. Or they just didn’t want to meet one another. One way or the other, it didn’t matter for Rainbow.

~~~~

In the end they came to a door that Rainbow seemed to have missed at her first little adventure through the ship. Though how she could have missed it was a mystery for her. The door was almost twice as big as any of the others. When Rainbow looked around the deck when there came another realization to her. She hadn’t been on that very deck before. She had only been on the top deck of the official’s quarters and that deck wasn’t there.

The doors were possibly one or two decks lower than where she got inside. “How big is that thing behind here?” she mumbled to herself. The math was done inside of her head. She assumed the general size of the vessel, the location where she dropped down and a couple other variables. Whether or not she happened to be right would be discovered within the next couple of seconds.

The soldier opened the door and the anthronies were blinded by the light of the rising sun. Their eyes were shielded from the light with hands and arms as they were commanded to get inside.

Almost like blind dogs did they just obey the order and before they knew it was the door shut behind them. Each of them assumed that they would be left alone with just the emperor right there. Something that was actually too good to be true. Just them and the emperor of the griffons? That must have been the joke of the century. Rainbow was still having her flintlocks as the others were stripped from head to hoof on any other weapons.

Slowly but surely did their eyes managed to work themselves around the sunlight and they began to see things clear again. Their arms were all lowered before they were given the sights of the emperor’s place.

It had confirmed the very suspicion of Rainbow in the blink of an eye. The place where they were standing, reached from one of the lowest decks up to the top deck. Hundreds of little windows were placed in the frame of the back while the sunlight penetrated through it as if it was nothing.

The room itself was riddled with statues of the emperor in all kinds of poses whereas a couple of guards stood at each end of the room. All of them wore a full set of armor attire and carried a spear in one hand. If any of the anthronies would be trying something funny, they would be all over the place. And finally, there was the emperor himself.

He just sat there on his elevated throne with a talon stroking his very chin. His striking blue eyes glanced over each of the anthronies like a winter’s breeze. His feathers were even whiter than Rarity’s skin could ever be. Though his owns skin was browner than the most ripe apple tree. He truly was a being of royalty. But that wasn’t all he carried, for his wings were hidden behind a cape and a sable hung off the left side of his body.

“Bow,” he just spoke towards the anthonies before him. His tone was both cold and demanding. He made certain within the first couple of seconds that he wouldn’t be taking any jokes from the mares. They were his prisoners and he could do with them whatever he wanted.

In response didn’t the mares know what they had to be doing when it came down to the matter. They all looked at each other as if they were trying to ask if they had heard it right. The griffon emperor then narrowed his eyes as a growl was released through his throat. His mood was already a little pesky to begin with given the early morning. They didn’t need to become the greatest of annoyances to him.

“Bow,” he spoke a bit more clear and even more demanding.

All of the mares knew that he meant it and they looked at each other one last time before they looked back at the emperor. It only took them a couple seconds afterwards before Twilight was the first one to actually make the bow before the griffon emperor.

She made a rather polite looking bow and held that pose before the rest of them followed her example. Each of them took a different pose but it all ended up in a bow nonetheless. But the bow that was given towards the griffon emperor wasn’t one of respect as he was used to.

Instead they all gave him one of nothing else but submission. They had all listened to his simple demand to bow before him. The mares held their posture for a couple of seconds as the beak of the emperor formed a little bit of a sadistic smile. He was actually taking pure and utter delight in the fact that they obeyed him without a single thought.

He stood up from his throne and walked down the couple of steps before he leveled with the mares. The anthronies looked at the lion paws of the emperor and they could all clearly see just how long and sharp the nails were. Terror was filling their bodies when he paced in front of them.

He was taking his sweet time with the group of mares, something what some of them weren’t truly appreciating. Especially Applejack with her steam powered leg seemed to be having the most trouble with it all.

“Rise back up, I want to see your faces for a moment,” he said to them. The emperor even gestured with his hand they had to come back up. The mares were relieved they could finally stand up again and did that with a lot of pleasure towards themselves. Finally they could be asking the all-important questions, if they weren’t asked to them first.

With the mares back in their standing position did the emperor of the griffons glanced over each of their faces. It almost seemed as if he was selecting the entire group at something that was still unknown to them. A little fact that terrified Fluttershy to no end, while Rarity remained unusually cool about the facts as they were.

It almost seemed as if she had been through some kind of process before. Applejack didn’t even wanted to know how such a thing was possible as Twilight had some ideas. Rainbow on the other end just assumed a regal pose before the emperor.

The emperor himself smiled once again towards the group as a little chuckle left his beak. “Good, good, each and every one of you are looking really nice and have been good spoil from my men. But the questions are still riddling within my very head. I’m pretty certain that you would be knowing those very questions as well. Am I right?”

Twilight appeared to have been the only one within the whole of the group who was actually willing to talk with the emperor. Since none dared, it was her that took a step forward. All of the guards pointed their spears towards her and spread their wings. They were all ready. Even though it was a bit scary to look at, the unicorn stood her ground and looked the emperor right in the eyes.

The emperor himself gestured to his guards to stand down as not many beings even had the guts alone to stand up against him. “I think you have a question that you want me to ask. Or do you desire, to answer the unasked question?” he asked of her before he came a bit closer to her.

Just the whole way he was dealing with them was unlike anything she had seen from any griffon so far. He tried to reason or at least outsmart the group rather than outnumber or outfight them. Perhaps there was a little chance of trying to reason with the beasts. Even if it was just so small would still be one they took with both hands.

Twilight gave him a simple nod before she spoke her own words. Words that probably would be turning the tide into her profit for a change. “Oh I do have an answer for the unasked question. However, why don’t we make it a bit more interesting?” she said to him, wanting to tempt him.

Those words caused the other anthronies to look at one another with a scared expression. Was Twilight really trying, or actually taunting the emperor of the griffons themselves? In what pool of madness had she been sleeping for the past night? How far had her mind destroyed itself just to come up with something like that?

“Twi, are ya sure ya wanna do this? It’s, it’s the emperor, remember?” Applejack struggled to say before placed a hand upon the soothsayer’s shoulder. The admiral almost had come to the point where she would be knocking some sense into her. It was a thought that a couple of them shared. Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity shared the thought, while Fluttershy just wanted it to be over with.

“Girl, you have no idea how hard I want to smack you right now,” the pirate hissed through her teeth. Rarity even gave a couple of cutting glares towards the soothsayer. The major didn’t spoke a word, but Rarity knew exactly what was surging through Rainbow’s head. Not to mention that she saw the handles of the flintlocks sticking out.

The urge for Rainbow to just take one of them out and aim it at the emperor was tempting for her. Her fingers twitched gently as the arms were already retracted to draw them. Rarity wasn’t saying a single word about the whole thing. She didn’t wanted to be the direct influence of the trouble that most likely would be following afterwards.

The fingers of Rainbow Dash continued to twitch. Both the emperor and Twilight were just looking at one another. The glances given off within their eyes were some of the most serious that either party had ever seen. The words of Twilight didn’t go to the ears of a deaf being though. For when the emperor replied, there was something that came out of his mouth.

Words that weren’t expected left it. “And what is it that you are proposing?” he asked before just circling the mares in an ominous manner. “You desire me to let you go, after you have given me enough answers? No, no, no, that’s not going to happen. But please, do tell me your offer.”

The unicorn soothsayer took a deep inhale as a response. The hand on her shoulder was shaken off, she would do it alone. It would have been her versus the emperor. Her focus was regained to him before the words of her mind came into the real world. “An answer, for an answer.”

Even the emperor himself had to admit that he was actually surprised about the matter. He wouldn’t have dared or thought that anyone was brave enough to ask him that very thing. “Interesting conclusion, I do give you that,” he said to her as he stroked his chin again. A little moan of thoughts was released through his throat while the eyes were focused once again upon the unicorn. “Alright. I’ll bite in this little game of yours. So, to make the unasked question, asked. Who are you anthronies?”

Relief was going through Twilight when she knew that he had agreed upon the fact that they could at least be talking to one another. Yet straight away was she bombed with the question. She had to give an answer to it that was almost the same, or pretty much the same as she gave to the commander. Whether she liked it or not, Gilda could still just barge in at any given moment in time.

“Me and my, company, are travelers and explorers. We have been sent out by Canterlot officials to investigate the disappearing peak on one of the mountains. Now it’s my turn. Who are you?” Twilight both answered and asked the griffon. A griffon who erupted out in a laughter before he continued to play the little game they had tangled themselves in.

“Oh dear me, Canterlot has finally gotten a scent about what we’re doing here? About time they would finally recognize it. So that’s why then send you lot. Curious choice. But for your question…” He then gave another grin with his beak. The name of names was being spoken through the room. “I am emperor Sharpbeak Razorclaw the Second, a name you might remember well.”

“Pleasure meeting you,” added Twilight in a tone of sarcasm. The soothsayer was getting just a little bit fed up with his tone. He thought he was the greatest of all, that he was the center of the universe. If he only knew what else was out there to push him back in his place.

“But, it’s my turn to ask another question. Why does your team consists out of two of Equestria’s greatest enemies?” Sharkbeak asked while he peeled his eyes over to both Applejack and Rarity. Not much remained hidden from the griffons. The feud between the two mares of the sea was one they all knew about. One they even loved to follow, if they had to be honest.

Twilight released a little chuckle before she shook her head. She had to lie herself out of it. Luckily, she knew the right lie. “One can’t live without the other. Day and night, sun and moon, light and shadow. They are always in one another’s path walked. Watching the back of the other while hating their guts. But never, stabbing them in the back. ...So far.”

The words of Twilight summed up the relation that Applejack and Rarity had with one another almost in a poetic manner. Almost as if she had been wanting to say those very words for a very long time already. The two mares of the sea looked at one another with a little twinkle in their eyes, just before they glanced the other way again.

“You keep them as toys? Making them live with one another and see who snaps first? Oh, oh, oh, you’re a cruel mistress, soothsayer,” replied Sharpbeak with a grin. Then he pointed to Twilight with one of his talons. “Cruel, but honorable. Ask your question, if you have any left.”

Those words were some of the hardest that Twilight ever had to endure in her entire life. Never was she called ‘cruel’ before by anyone. Yet the way he showed her how both Applejack and Rarity had to work together, made her rethink her actions. Whether she had liked it or not, the emperor was perhaps more than right on the matter.

A quick shake of the head was given by the unicorn in the attempt to get everything back in a row. “Never cruel or cowardly, never give up and in,” she mumbled to herself when her eyes met once again with those of Sharpbeak. “My question is, what you’re doing at the top of that mountain? Something obviously has happened and you’re the doing of it.”

There was a sigh being released through the nostrils of Sharpkbeak. He couldn’t truly hide the facts anymore. He had to play open cards to honor their agreement with the mares. “My shaman’s are powerful, taught in the way of brews and potions thanks to the zebras of the Great Plains, but they are still nothing compared to their might. No, it’s indeed my doing. A grand palace shall be placed there. A palace for the rightful ruler of this forsaken land.”

In an instant had his mood just shifted over from calm and collected, to hateful and burning. The glances within his eyes just terrified the anthronies as they all did a step backwards. “Five anthronies, five heads worthy of being sent over to Canterlot. That must be enough to get your high command to join Cloudsdale itself, and try to fight us. Before realizing it’s a losing battle.”

“Wait, wait, wait, am Ah hearing this right?!” Applejack exclaimed as she needed to be absolutely certain about everything. “Are ya willing to redo the conflict of years ago?! Are ya mad?!”

“Silence!” Sharpbeak shouted before he drew his sword. The tip of the blade was set at the throat of Applejack who released a deep gulp in response. The cold steel in the early morning weren’t two things that she liked all that much. Trouble had risen up and they were all in the eye of the storm. What could any of them have done, to make sure it wouldn’t end in a bloodbath?

Twilight did also a step back the moment the sword was drawn and gestured with her hands that everyone had to take it on calmly. For she remembered a little something that happened on top of the mountain. “Wow, wow, wow, okay, okay, okay, listen. Listen to me emperor Sharpbeak.”

“That’s emperor Razorclaw, for you,” Sharpbeak said to her. His attention shifted from one mare to the other. “And why should I listen to a soothsayer of the likes of you? A cruel mistress tangled within the web of your own goddesses. Two all powerful forces that control everything? I don’t believe in fairy tales anymore, filly. So you better give me some good information.”

“Basically, don’t build on top of that mountain. Just, don’t. Okay? Just, don’t.”

A huff came from the emperor as he wanted to know the finer details behind the words. Yet the chance wasn’t given to them as somepony else opened the door and walked in. Everypony immediately recognized the griffon who entered the place. It was nopony else then Gilda, the commander they had encountered before. One they remembered a bit to vividly.

What then happened must have been something out of instinct. The griffon just forced Twilight back in the line with the others. A loud ‘wha’ was being released from the soothsayer as she was placed back with the sharp talons. She could be speaking of luck that they didn’t pierce through her flesh though.

Then Gilda moved in front of the group of mares and glanced over each of them as she spoke her words. “You need to learn some respect when you’re standing before the might of emperor Razorclaw the Second,” she huffed through her nostrils. Her eyes then looked over Rainbow Dash and the entire sight set within them began to change. She couldn’t believe the things that saw happening before her and wanted to make a comment about it.

For Rainbow Dash was the only one who had managed to escape the clutches of her hold. Though before she could be speaking even one word on the matter did she receive a smack from the emperor. “Commander Gilda!” he bellowed towards her. The sword was taken off of the throat from the earth anthrony and sheathed again. “I was having a perfectly good conversation with the soothsayer until you barged in. Go to the corner and let us finish our talk, before I will have you carried away. Am I understood?”

"As crystal,” the commander replied as she rubbed the back of her head. The curled up talons of the emperor made a hard contact with her skull and she grumbled to herself. The words couldn’t be heard by anyone but they could assume they were bad about everyone that was present. The griffon then walked over to the side of the room where she would lean against the wall with her arms crossed. Silently brooding her plans of action.

Sharpbeak then gestured to Twilight that she could be taking a step forward again. “Please, soothsayer, tell me why it wasn’t a great idea to build on top of that lonely mountain? I’m all ears to your pleas to save the surrounding land,” he spoke almost in a mocking tone towards her.

Everypony had of course seen just how hard Razorclaw hit Gilda and it was something that was actually well deserved. But Rainbow was the one who couldn’t actually keep her things together as she struggled to keep her laughter inside of her.

Though the attention of most being shifted over to the emperor and the soothsayer while they continued their conversation where it left off. Him hitting Gilda also showed something else towards Twilight. Something of which she wasn’t a full one hundred percent certain. From the looks of it, it seemed that the emperor could be reasoned with, yet the question to which degree was the thing that remained unknown to her.

A great exhale was released through her nostrils when she looked Sharpbeak deep in his eyes. She wanted to speak the words so eagerly but she had to find a way that still concealed them just a little bit. She placed both hands together before she rubbed them a little bit. The gears in her mind still twisting about what was the best thing to do.

“I’m still waiting on your answer,” said Sharpbeak. He seemed to be getting a little bit impatient about it all. It was then or never. The mare had to throw out everything and play an open card with the creature that wanted them all dead or enslaved. Once more were they faced with a literal impossible task.

“Just the other day, that mountain got hit by a tremor from the ground itself. And these tremors have been tormenting Equestria’s land for months already. I have been keeping track of them as well and noted all of their locations and strengths. But that mountain is special. It seems to be the very source of all the earthquakes. Just ask Gilda about how many times she has felt it when up there,” brought Twilight then forth to the emperor himself.

Sharpbeak himself was baffled by the fact that things like that could actually have happened. Yet he still rose an eyebrow to the fact that Gilda might have been known more about it all along. “How long, have you been knowing this, commander?” he asked her with a threatening tone in his voice. He was serious about the matter, she would tell him. One way or the other.

“We, we only, maybe for about a week! We thought it would have died down by then. I would tell you everything, wouldn’t I?” Gilda replied to the emperor. She was visually already hesitant about pretty much everything.

The emperor released another huff before he turned his attention back to Twilight. Obviously was Gilda just lying her flanks off, but the soothsayer didn’t wanted to place her into more trouble. “Continue,” added Sharpbeak then with a gesture that Twilight should speak further.

“A-Any structure placed upon it, with the increasing strength of the tremors, would just collapse like that, at one point or the other. It’s impossible to have anything solid build on top of it as it will be the death of everything inside of it.” Twilight explained him to the best of her abilities.

It almost seemed to have been funny to him with the way she was moving her hands around and about. “So you’re telling me, that mountain is basically a volcano ready to erupt? To place it in a perspective that I can understand,” the emperor spoke with a raised eyebrow.

“A volcano without lava, yes,” commented Twilight with a nod.

Once again was there a growling sound that filled the room. But that time it was the emperor himself who released it as he was set on a crossroad. A crossroad that only would have been made more difficult by Twilight. “You’re an honorable griffon, you plan is crazy but manageable. However, once done and you do live in your mountain castle, imagine yourself dying by falling debris in your sleep. For that is something that will happen if you build on top of the mountain.”

In an instant had the eyes of Sharpbeak turned over to Twilight. He was trying to figure out what she was truly saying to him. “Do you desire to meet your end by falling debris? From my eyes, that doesn’t seem like an honorable death to a griffon. More like, swatting a fly.”

Even though the emperor looked sternly into the eyes of the soothsayer, he was beginning to doubt his plans. In his mind he quickly tried to make some sort of deal as Twilight continued her words. “I may not have been entirely honest though. Canterlot has never sent any of us to investigate the mountain. Where’re here to put a stop to the tremors once and for all.”

The new pieces of information were quickly soaked up by Razorclaw and worked within his new plan. Shortly afterwards he would be having one that would benefit him from every possible side. “Alright then, soothsayer. Then I propose this to you. You go to where you have to be going, while the other four remain here, with me, on this very ship,” the emperor said in an honest sounding tone.

Yet Twilight wouldn’t be having any of that. She looked over to the other mares and they all had that same glance in their eyes. They all just wanted to stay at her side for as long as it was needed. So the unicorn had to shake her head. “I’m sorry, emperor Razorclaw the Second, that’s not going to happen. Those mares either go with me and we solve it together, or it won’t be solved at all and Equestria shall become nothing but a barren wasteland of volcanic activity. So the choice, is yours.”

Chapter XLV

Griffon emperor Sharpbeak Razorclaw the Second was caught between a rock and a hard place. The words that Twilight Sparkle had said to him were a literal devastating blow to his entire plan. Rethinking the entire plan wasn’t an option simply because there wasn’t anything else that he could be thinking about.

The fact was so visible that even Fluttershy could be reading it right out of his eyes. He may not have lost his regal posture before the soothsayer, yet that glance within his eyes told her everything that she needed to know. There was no returning to a previous point in time, the griffon had screwed up big time.

All that he could be doing was to either admit defeat or tangle himself further into the web of problems he was in. The emperor released a deep exhale through his nostrils before he once more began to wander about. He just wandered around the room with his throne while the sun faded away within the clouds. Seconds turned into minutes as the rain became more and more apparent on the glass. The tide was turning, almost literally in their case.

Silence had taken over the room as Gilda remained in her posture against the wall. She looked over the group of beings just standing there as one of her lion’s paws was placed against the wall. She wanted to see action, she wanted to see blood being spilled, she needed an old debt to be settled. Time was her ally in the moment, yet nopony knew how much time they would be having.

“Alright, you say that you need this miserable lot to your assistance when you plan to go down there. Seems fair enough, but that leaves me being cut out of any deal we can be making. That’s a risk I’m not going to be taking here, soothsayer,” spoke Sharpbeak. He then pointed one of his talons to Twilight herself.

The soothsayer on the other hand just remained rather cool under the whole situation. On the surface at least. It was within her heart that she terrified for the pain those very talons could be inflicting on her. She had to stay tough before the emperor and show him that the anthronies wouldn’t go down easy. Not before him.

“It wasn’t my idea to be captured by your men in the first place. We just happened to be at the wrong time, at the right location,” said Twilight when she crossed her arms over each other. The unicorn soothsayer narrowed her eyes. Awaiting whatever words and actions would be done by the griffon. Bad it would be without a doubt, she just hoped it wouldn’t have been that terrible.

The emperor erupted out in a laughter which could be dubbed as comical. Sarcastic would probably have been a good choice as well. The laughter was sent through the whole of the cabin before he began to shake his head. All of the other anthronies didn’t have the slightest of clues about why he was laughing that hard or that much to begin with.

Yet Twilight could almost smell the words that he would be speaking. “Oh what kind of cruel fate has fallen upon you, cruel mistress. Finally the tables of your own faith have turned themselves against you! The goddesses you worship, no long have you within their eyes. You’re a broken toy to them, left at my mercy. Hmhmhm, and I promise them, by the holy divine, I shall demolish you!”

“You’re mad! Complete and utter mad!” Twilight exclaimed straight away. The mare couldn’t believe the words that were spoken by the emperor. One minute he could be calm and collected, the next he was a complete lunatic.

The emperor himself turned himself away from the group as he then hunched over to hide his face within his cape. “D-Don’t look at me! I, I tried to, hide, him. He’s not me, he’s not the person you have been talking to this whole time soothsayer. He’s the madmen while I, I’m the…griffon emperor.” Razorclaw said as his voice was mixing all over the place. One was low and gentle while the other was high pitched and insane.

Twilight couldn’t do much else then to blink a couple of times as she tried to place some of the logic behind the events. Though there wouldn’t have been much logic behind anything from that moment onwards. “This isn’t possible, you can’t be..? Right..?” she dared to ask. With care would Twilight approach the maddened griffon.

“I can’t be what? Worthy of ruling?” the emperor said as he still hid his face behind both a wing and the cape. “Speak your words, soothsayer!”

There wasn’t any doubt in the soothsayer’s mind. “You’re, a schizophrenic. And a terrible case as well. One side is the gentlemen you desire to be, while the other is who you really are. Gone mad with the power of the shaman’s,” said Twilight before she came even closer towards the deteriorating griffon. None of the other anthronies didn’t have a clue about what was going on.

Only Fluttershy seemed to have been able to make some form of sense out of the whole events. Her eyes suddenly sprung up wide as she couldn’t believe the theories that she came up with. “Oh no, no, no, no, Twilight!” she exclaimed before it was all too late.

In one swift motion had the maddened emperor turned himself around and drawn his sword. A sword that was set at the chest of Twilight. The tip had landed just above her beating heart. The anthrony came to a sudden stop before she released a gulp. She looked at the tucked away head of the emperor and feared what kind of horror laid behind it. “Don’t, take another step,” he said in his gentle but demanding voice. “Twilight huh? So that’s your real name than, soothsayer. The wrong time at the right place you said to me, earlier.”

“Well this is new…” the soothsayer muttered under her breath. To her it became more of a chore than anything else that something was pointed at her. Weren’t it flintlocks, it were swords. Weren’t it swords, it were talons around her throat. “Yes, I did say that. Is that of any significance for you, emperor Sharpbeak?”

The griffon released a chuckle or two that sounded so creepy that even Gilda got out of her relaxed stance. She hadn’t seen the emperor that mad for a long time. Something had gone terribly wrong within his mind and they could only sit out the hell he would be thrusting them all in. “Significance, you say? Oh yes. Yes it is of great importance for me. For it tells me you want something that is on that mountain. Soothsayer Twilight, what is it, that you require from that very mountain?” he asked of her. He wanted to know what she knew about that place.

“You sure the other guy won’t come back?” the mare asked almost casual. Twilight then took a step or two away from the blade. She just wanted to be out of the range to be actually safe from anything. If needed, she could just teleport out of the way and reappear behind him.

“Oh he won’t come out, but please, tell me…” He then turned his head back towards Twilight and that ice cold stare had returned to his eyes. The gentlemen had oppressed the madmen, but for how long remained the silent question. “I do not like it, to be kept waiting.”

“Don’t tell him anything Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled after which she became the attention point of the emperor’s blade. His body turned itself around with the hunch still in his back. The crooked appearance he gave them all was terrifying to say the least. A look like that, with eyes as cold as ice and a blade that sharp were just a downright recipe for disaster.

The eyes of the emperor were glancing over the pegasus’ whole body before the glance of remembrance came with his eyes. Twilight wanted so badly to just walk up to him and knock him out from behind, yet the chance to do so wasn’t really given to her. She could try all she wanted but the guards still formed a problem.

“You, I do remember you very well but not very fondly,” said Sharpbeak towards the major mere split seconds before the blade was set upon her throat. “So many years down the road of madness after that last raid. So many years upon this wretched throne! You have any idea what it does to a mind like this?! You remember me, don’t you. Tell me, you remember me!”

Rainbow was silent and baffled in the moment. She couldn’t tell how scared she was with his voice piercing in that higher pitch and the cold steel upon her neck. Anything could be happening in the moment but she also had to remember the facts as they were. Something in the past connected the pair of them, something about a raid.

Being a major in the air force had she helped to stop just so many raids and she quickly went past each and every last one of them. Certainly there must have been one inside of her mind that told her something with griffons.

“Answer me, soldier!” Sharpbeak shouted towards the pegasus to add to the pressure.

There it then was. The single memory where she was looking for. The one memory that could have been placed at the right time and the right place. A terrible memory in which new enemies were created as the rain poured out of the skies like it was nothing. The pupils of the major shrunk to their smallest size possible as she could only whisper one word. “No…”

“Oh yes,” the emperor replied straight away. “You do remember it, don’t you?”

“Y-Yes.” That was the only thing Rainbow could say against him before her attention was shifted over towards Gilda. The feelings of both hate and love rushed through her body as she saw her standing there. Perhaps the reason why Rainbow could be finding it so well with Rarity was because they had gone through the same. More or less, the same.

Her mind brutal enough, her body weak enough, the memories of that terrible and wretched day were returning towards her as if they had only been lived the day before. Finally had the key been found to the chest with chains. The chains were removed and the box, the dreaded box was opened inside of her mind.

The box that contained one of her most harmful and darkest memories.

~~~~

With the rain that was splashing in her face they all stood there, ready to take on whatever would have been thrown in their way. They would be able to take it out no matter what. They were ready for the attack. They were ready to defend their homes. They were ready to defend, Cloudsdale itself.

And within the pouring rain they came like hornets. Hundreds of griffon soldiers all came from the darkened skies as the soldiers of the air force were shooting up. Battles took place left and right of her as those wounded fell down from the skies like flies. Some landed on clouds, others just went straight to the ground.

It was the worst assault they had yet gotten from the griffons but the worst had yet to come. Among their midst was Rainbow Dash fighting for her life and home. Until the biggest sledgehammer hit of them all came. For out of the dark clouds they both came like phantoms. Both dressed in armor and avoiding the muskets out of Rainbow’s trusty flintlocks.

Punches and kicks were both given and dealt by all three of the beings until Rainbow almost couldn’t take it anymore. Only then they revealed themselves to her. One of them was nopony else then her old fillyhood friend, Gilda the griffon.

The other never said a name of some sort, but those striking blue eyes would be haunting her for the rest of her life. Devastated by the facts of just who she would be battling, it only seemed better in the eyes of Rainbow to admit her defeat. Her heart was crushed and they didn’t care. Words weren’t exchanged as she only dropped herself out of the skies. To only fly away from the battle and leave everything for what it was.

~~~~

“Ten years it has been, since that last raid on Cloudsdale. Ten years it has been since you dropped yourself out of the skies. Ten years it has been, since you dropped your loyalty for the city of pride. Words have it you tried to redeem yourself ever since. Perhaps why you want with this quest of madness, perhaps?” Razorclaw taunted the pegasus as he could see that she was mentally breaking.

“Have they ever told you, how exactly the battle was ended, hm?” he then continued. It almost seemed like he was willing or wanting to drive Rainbow down into the abyss of madness in which he had fallen such a long time ago.

“N-No, I don’t want to, I don’t wanna know,” managed Rainbow to say to him. Her mouth tried its utmost best not to fall into a stutter.

“Too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway. We lost, because some good-for-nothing anthrony had spilled out all our secrets towards her commanders. All of our tactics and techniques were just laid bare for you pegasi to use them against us. Not only are you a deserter, but you’re a traitor! A deserting traitor, tsk, tsk, tsk, never thought I would be getting across that,” revealed the emperor.

“This is madness!” Twilight interrupted without a warning. She was having more than enough of the events. Rarity placed her hand before her face while she let out a short but loud exhale. Applejack was calculating on what she could be doing best. Fluttershy got to know a side of Rainbow Dash only few had seen. A side even less dared to speak about as hell broke loose in the cabin.

“Madness?” the emperor countered. His eyes shifted away from Rainbow and towards Twilight. “This, is, Griffon Empire justice!”

“Justice?! How can this be justice?! You’re mentally devastating the anthrony before you. Are all of your subjects loving you, or have you gone mad with the powers that they gave you?” Twilight asked through. She didn’t seem to be scared about anything the emperor could be throwing at her.

He was mad, deluded perhaps. She knew that a mad creature could be making some strange hops. But she also knew the little fact that everything had to come back down. The soothsayer only had to wait for his sanity to come back to him, no matter how long that would have been taking him.

“It’s justice, in my way. We, have a debt to settle,” he said in a stone cold tone. His eyes shifted back towards the major of the air force. But then he went eerily silent. A silence that hadn’t come from him earlier. It caused the rest of the mares to almost be even more uncomfortable than that they already happened to be.

Something inside of the mind of the deluded emperor told him that he had made not only a great mistake, but perhaps an even more powerful enemy. The exchanges of looks that both him and Rainbow made as the tears travelled down her cheeks were powerful to say the least. “No,” he could only whisper to himself.

Within those magenta red rimmed eyes he saw the fires burning. The fires of the destruction where he had hungered for such a long time. They were suddenly used against him and it terrified him to near death. A thing that was unexpected and he didn’t saw coming.

But time wasn’t his friend anymore and the madness that had been flowing through his body a moment ago, had all been released with terror. While it was true that his own blue icy eyes could strike fear, it were those magenta red rims that truly terrified him to the core both there and then. The fires were still burning within them the longer he stared within them. As terrifying as the experience was, time seemed to have been slowing down to a near crawl.

The events that happened next all went down in a flash of lightning. For Rainbow didn’t care about the pain that she would be getting. She wanted her own pain, the pain that was tearing her heart to literal pieces to stop. With one hand she got a hold of the sable and made certain she would be having a firm grip on it.

Afterwards she just yanked it out of the emperor’s hands like it was nothing. She then grabbed the feathers by his throat and pulled him towards her before the blade was set upon his throat. Literally within a second or two had the emperor been held hostage by the debt he wanted to settle of so long ago.

Of course he could try to reason with the madmare, naturally he wanted to do so. But he also knew that it wouldn’t have been any help for his side. There was no actual reasoning with the mare who held him on his spot. With the cold steel of his own blade set against his own neck, all he could be doing was to demand the wishes of the mares.

The guards had already aimed their spears to the pegasus when she began to shift her body from right to left. Almost like she wanted to warn the guards not to came any closer. A signal that they all well received and actually stayed their ground.

Only Gilda was the one who dared to take a couple of steps closer towards her emperor. “Commander, I order you to halt you pace!” ordered Sharpbeak in his demanding tone. But the commander didn’t stop coming closer. Instead she only seemed to have increased her pacing. Rainbow Dash her eyes began to twitch the closer the commander had gotten. “I’m ordering you, halt your pace!”

But the words were spoken into the ears of deaf beings. Gilda didn’t stop and she could almost touch the nose of the emperor if she wanted to. She walked blindly past Twilight and Rarity. Her eyes weren’t even diverting from her targets. The only thing she saw were both the maddened major and the pleading emperor.

How wonderful the scene was set up, it almost seemed to have been too good to be true within her own eyes. The beak of the commander curled itself up to a nasty grin before the words left her throat. “And so does the era of Razorclaw the Second come to an end. His life taken by at his own ship, by a dweeb. Oh this is just a humiliating story!” she spoke up in a sickened pleasure before the chuckles left her mouth.

“Ah’m gettin’ sick and tired of this nonsense,” the admiral of the Equestrian navy muttered to herself. Then she gave the commander a massive kick with her metal leg. The kick wasn’t received all too well by the body of Gilda and she was flung both backwards and down to the floor. She crashed into it with her back as she began to have trouble breathing.

The kick was powerful enough to have shattered at least one or two ribs inside of her ribcage. At least it felt like they were shattered. Gilda was out for the count and all it took was one unexpected kick. Though it also made Applejack wonder how much time they would be having before any other griffon would have gotten the scent that something was wrong.

So her eyes shifted over to Rarity who looked back and they both nodded. The two of them were thinking at the same thing and they would be the ones to execute it. The pirate captain darted away towards the door that was leading to the cabin of the emperor and she began to do her job.

The job that she had to do was to listen for any griffons that would have been going their way to cause perhaps that little extra bit of trouble that they wouldn’t be needing whatsoever. Anything was shaking in the moment and everything could be happening if they didn’t watch out. Trouble could come from the least expected corner as madness was constantly transporting itself from one being to the next.

With the ears of Rarity firm at the door and her horn charged up a little bit, Applejack took it upon her to watch through the window constantly, while Fluttershy didn’t know what she needed to do. Which then resulted in her just standing there. Twilight was watching the scene that was playing out before her, the sheer madness that Rainbow irradiated was terrifying to say the least.

“You have made me angry, very, very, very angry,” spoke Rainbow through her gritted teeth She placed the sword even closer to the neck of the emperor. The cold steel was barely cutting through his skin when he prayed to everything holy that she wouldn’t end his life there and then.

“I, I’m sorry, I didn’t know, w-what was happening to me! I didn’t mean to, to bring back such terrible memories for you. I, I honestly didn’t meant to do it. B-But I can’t control him, you know. He’s, he’s my biggest enemy, I’m my biggest enemy!” Razorclaw pleaded for his dear life as the eyes were closed firmly.

Any second could have been his very last and each of the mares in the room knew that. The dead serious look that Rainbow was having within her eyes told them all more than enough. Even though each of them were also having a different task to fulfill, they constantly were looking at Rainbow as well. She had become a true danger for not only the emperor, but also for the group. They needed to try to reason with the dangerous side of the anthrony before they could be doing anything else with her. That was a job where Fluttershy perhaps could be helpful for.

Twilight gestured with her head that she needed to go over to the maddened pegasus and try to help her. It was an anthrony in the need of medical assistance, so why would Fluttershy deny her that very help? The doctor nodded one powerful time before she carefully walked up to Rainbow.

The closer she got, the more she could hear the near animalistic growling that the pegasus constantly did. Something didn’t seem to have been right whatsoever. A pegasus shouldn’t be growling in the manner that Rainbow was doing. It only indicated to Fluttershy that she was gone, far gone for that matter. A strange case it happened to be, but there was no time to investigate it.

Yet it still didn’t stop her from placing a hand upon a shoulders. The mouth was brought over to the ear of Rainbow. Silent words were then whispered within it. Words that nopony else then Rainbow could be hearing. Not even Sharpbeak could hear anything from what Fluttershy was whispering within the ear of Rainbow.

But it somehow managed to do the job that it was needed to be doing. Within the eyes of Rainbow did the fires die down. The anger, the rage and the cropped up emotions of the pegasus all seemed to just flow out of her body the more Fluttershy spoke to her.

Twilight could only watch over the scene as she was trying to figure out what kind of magic was possibly used to calm the pegasus down in such a manner. Only to discover that there wasn’t any magic in the room outside that of Rarity. And Rarity wouldn’t have the knowledge or the know-how to calm a rampaging pegasus down like that. Not from what she had seen anyway.

The soothsayer was fascinated by the daring actions of the yellow skinned pegasus. And the whispers just continued to be spoken. Whether or not they were repeated didn’t matter, it managed to calm the pegasus down even further. So calm even that she began to blink with her eyes about what had happened.

“W-What? W-Why am I..?” Rainbow asked when she finally was back in the land of the wake. Or at least in the land where she needed to be. Her eyes went down to see the blade set on the throat of the emperor before Fluttershy finally took her mouth away from the ear.

“Keep him like that Rainbow, there’s one more matter I like to discuss with the little emperor right here.” Twilight said as she then came in closer. Rainbow did what was asked of her right away, but she still had the questions inside of her head.

Questions that were shared by Twilight while Fluttershy just calmly removed her hand from Rainbow’s shoulder and then walked back as if nothing had happened. “What has she done to me?! What has any of you done to me?!” Rainbow exclaimed to them. It was no secret that became only more terrified about the matter. She wasn’t angry at all, but she was scared to death about what happened. She needed to know, to give her mind some form of closure on the matter.

“We’ll explain once we’re off of this ship, first I need to have one last little talk with him over here. Trust me Rainbow, everything is going to be alright for your mind and memories,” said Twilight to her. Then she finally stood before the emperor. Her hands were placed behind her back and her eyes stared down right into his icy cold rims.

Even though the shiver travelled down her spine, there wasn’t any form of motion given off by the soothsayer unicorn. Within the eyes of the emperor she didn’t saw the mighty ruler he thought to have been when they first entered. Instead she saw a weak and feeble creature that didn’t knew what to do. A creature that was split into two pieces. One which was both regal and proper, while the other was mentally insane.

A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the mare before she began to shake her head. “How have you lived with yourself, for such a long time and not caused too much damage? You lock yourself up in here, don’t you? You’re not the real emperor anymore. So what’s your game? Trying to win back the throne at home?” Twilight asked him firm. Those were the only answers that she would be needing out of him. Or the only ones that she wanted out of him.

But the emperor perhaps made the smart decision not to answer any of the questions that were asked to him. Their little game of an answer for an answer had been thrown out of the window. Instead of that, was it Twilight who stood in the demanding position. She knew that the griffon was still a being of both honor and dignity. Which was going to be the way in which she would be treating him when she came to her final demands.

Even though the struggle emerged inside of the emperor to break free out of the pegasus her hold, he knew when a battle was lost. Even though his guards could have easily taken the other mares out, what cost and sacrifice would he have brought upon himself? At worst, he would have died. That was the worst case scenario that he imagined before his eyes.

It was a risk he wouldn’t dare to be taking that very day. Not with everything that was told and shared with him. “Name your price, cruel mistress. Name the price you desire me to pay for you, as long as you allow me to live my life furthermore,” spoke Sharpbeak in a defeated tone towards her. “That, is my only desire, to be kept alive furthermore. Whatever else you want from me, I can get for you. Name it.”

The soothsayer listened to the words of the griffon. The ears of all the other mares had been turned over to the pair of them. In that very moment there was anything and everything that could be happening to them. There was everything that Twilight could have said to him if she wanted to.

She had managed to bring the emperor of the griffons down to the knees while she thought about the demands she could have. As well as keeping up her end of the bargain. Though all of them knew that there wasn’t all too much that they could be asking for. Even though Twilight could be looked at with a new glance, she still remained that kind soothsayer she portrayed herself to be.

“Your demand,” she began before she paced up and down in front of the griffon, “isn’t something unreasonable. I would have desired to end your life, just to end your torment once and for all. But if you desire to keep on living with it, it’s not my place to interfere. I shall honor your demand, emperor Razorclaw the Second, on one condition.”

“Name your price,” the griffon replied. He was relieved that she would be leaving him alive. Yet he was sad at the same time as it meant that he had to keep on living with his mental curse.

Twilight nodded calm before she came to a standstill. Her body was facing the rained down window that separated them from the air outside. The storm was still going on as everypony held in their breaths. They wanted to know exactly what Twilight would have asked from Razorclaw.

Then was the moment there. Finally there was the moment where Twilight would be speaking her demands for the group. Among the silence of the cabin she began to talk. Loud, clear and without any nonsense.

“You shall release us, all five of us and bring us back to the top of the mountain you picked us up from. No harm shall be done and our weapons are returned to us. In return, we let you and those who serve under you on this vessel live. The mission given to us, didn’t ask for this event to happen. We never asked about getting to know the plan you set up. But knowing what I know now, there’s only one last demand I can give to you.”

“And that being?” Sharpbeak dared to ask. The demands up to then seemed to have both fair and reasonable enough. Yet he knew that could change any second.

“Cease your activity here and return to your home. We might let you live, but who is to say the air force will once they find you?” Twilight added as she finally turned herself around to face the griffon. The stern look within her eyes told him more than enough. There was only one thing that he could be saying against the demands made.

~~~~

All five of the anthronies stood at the railing of the massive airship as it was sailing them all towards the mountain they had left from. Rainbow was informed about the events as they had happened and wasn’t really happy about it. Something about that whole ordeal just didn’t suit her one bit. Though she had to thank Fluttershy with the whole of her heart that she did what she had done.

“But, how do you call something like it?” Rainbow asked as she looked the mare in the eyes. The honest curiosity was something that was reflected and Fluttershy only allowed herself a giggle.

“There are more mysteries in the world then you know, major. Mysteries that perhaps are best left unspoken about until the time is there to truly reveal themselves. Besides, I’m a bit more mysterious as a doctor, when I don’t answer all of the questions,” the doctor replied before a little smile came to her face.

Each of them had been given back their weapons and once again they were locked and loaded. With the mountain inching closer to them while the griffons held up their end of the bargain as well. Rainbow had one last look behind her and stared right in the eyes of Gilda.

One last cutting look was given to the other before Rainbow turned herself back around. She wasn’t in the mood to argue against a griffon and all she wanted to was to the hell off of that vessel. Even though everything seemed to have been calm, each of the anthronies knew deep in their hearts that there was another attack just waiting to be coming.

They all suspected that it would happen one moment or the other. That the emperor would break his promise and send all of his griffons right at them. Perhaps they were misjudging the being, perhaps were they just preparing for a series of events to come. Nopony knew, nopony could tell. They lived by the second in that point of time. Some said it was the calm before the storm, others thought they were in the eye of it all. And then there were some who didn’t think of anything.

Chapter XLVI

Their eyes were placed upon the top of the mountain. The airship began to make the turn in order to drop them all off. Of course could Sharpbeak have just sent in a couple of his own griffons to do the job, but he didn’t trust them in the company of mares. With the way the talons had been set in the shoulder of the pirate captain already was it perhaps better to not take any risks from his side.

He could only have hoped that the anthronies would have done the same to him and his men. Gilda had recovered in the meantime and she stood next to the griffon at the helm while the emperor stood by the mares. His silence was something wasn’t really scary or anything anymore. The looks within his eyes didn’t do anything to the mares either. They knew what he was capable of and with all their weapons returned to them, they could be taking him hostage once more if the situation called for it.

The airship then made its way sideways to the mountain and managed to come to a standstill within the winds that ravaged over the summit. The boarding ramp was then extended by a couple of griffons who set their paws upon the ground. Each of the anthronies looked at one another before they all gave a slow but powerful looking nod.

They could be ending yet another chapter of their adventure. They could be ending another chapter of literal and utter madness and just leave it behind them. Finally they could be returning to the leg of their journey they had been wanting to complete for such a long time already. They all had one last glance over the emperor before their heads turned the other way.

And then they just went. One by one they just went over the boarding ramp towards the summit. The sooner they would be having the solid ground under their hooves, the sooner they were overall happier about the fact that it all was over.

Seconds later stood the whole of the company at the summit of the mountain. They were higher than any of them had ever been on the place. The actual summit of the mountain did have a majestic view over both the Frozen North and the rest of Equestria. A view they couldn’t enjoy as the airship was still the one thing that worried them.

Sharpbeak just stood there, with his hands behind his back and that crooked look to him. They were expecting him to say something about the cannons that needed to fire at any given moment. They were expecting him to break the promise now that they were on the ground again. Yet the boarding ramp was tucked back into the floor of the top deck. One of the two griffons then flew over to the flagpole. From which it glanced to the mares before it took it with him.

Yet when it flew back, Rainbow’s eyes couldn’t remove themselves from it. The feelings of hatred began to once again surge through her body. The pegasus was in the need to have at least one griffon dead, perhaps just as a warning for taking the other mares. But when would have been the best time to do such a thing?

The griffons all returned to their ship before it set sail once more. The burners for the balloon were fired up and slowly was there movement within the massive wooden beast. It managed to leave the mountain’s side, it seemed to be going over towards the Frozen North. But Twilight could already see that it only went that way to turn around.

“They are coming back for one last time, probably heading east after the mountain to return to their own empire. I hope,” the soothsayer said to them all. Though the calculations never ceased within her mind. So many things could still have gone wrong in her eyes. So many thing could still have changed the facts as they were. So many things, could still have changed the course of history.

Rainbow gave them all a rather eerie looking grin before she drew out one of her flintlocks and aimed it towards the vessel. The hammer was pulled back and she was ready to fire its deadly payload into one of the poor and unfortunate griffons who happened to fly in her way. “Might as well give them a little warning, don’t you agree, admiral?” the major said while she held her weapon steady. Rainbow was more than ready to be the first one to fire.

The fear in the eyes of all the other anthronies was clearly readable. They didn’t predicted that Rainbow would have been the one who could possibly break the promise that they had made. Not even Rarity had expected such had thing, but it was Applejack who returned a series of words.

“Normally Ah would give ya yar right, but in this case Ah’d say ‘no’. We made a deal with the emperor and Ah intend to stick with it. Last thing we’re gonna be needing here, is a graveyard because somepony was stupid enough to attack the imperial flagship with a flintlock!” Applejack explained to the best of her abilities without sounding either too angry or mad. Something that didn’t really work out for the earth anthrony. Applejack had yelled the last part in a tone that almost certainly would have been deemed as ‘losing her mind.’

The flintlock of the major kept being held up to the skies. Twilight didn’t dare to intervene that time. Her knees were shaking and she didn’t had the faintest of clues on what to do. Of course she could channel a powerful spell through her staff to make the flintlock break or misfire, but that required time to say the spell. Time in which Rainbow could have fired the shot already.

She was in the need of help from an outside source but nopony seemed to be able to talk some sense into the cyan skinned pegasus. Not even the doctor could have been doing it. Her whispers weren’t even tried as she had already explained that Rainbow was still too sane for them to work. Meaning they were running out of options while the ship only came closer.

The vessel was almost at the summit again and the company could hear the chanting of the griffons in their own language. Words they had never heard before in their lives were riding the winds as echoes from the speaker. Somepony had to do something to ensure that it wouldn’t have turned into a bloodbath.

Yet the help came from a rather unexpected corner. When Rainbow had aimed her weapon upon an unsuspecting griffon, she almost was ready to squeeze the trigger and fire. Though instead of firing the musket ball, there was the white hand that laid itself on top of the barrel, who brought it down in calm.

Rainbow just let the events happen while both her arm and the flintlock were aimed down towards the ground by that eerie looking hand. Her attention then shifted to see to whom the arm actually belonged. The eyes of the two anthronies crossed one another right away as Rainbow was looking deeply in a set of sapphire blue rims.

The rims themselves remained oddly calm before the words left the mouth. A mouth that laid a bit further down the face. “I can understand your anger against their very race. You have all the right within the world to shoot them to nothing but a pulp. However, you have to remember the little fact that we made an agreement with them,” was spoken towards Rainbow.

“An agreement they would never honor,” the major hissed through her teeth. The eyes were still staring at one another. Not even blinks were made between the two anthronies. It was a literal stalemate of power between two titans in their own right.

The rest of the group all took a little step back. Both the unicorn and the pegasus were having their argument together. The last thing they wanted was to be sucked up right in the madness of their own doing. The last thing they needed was to be getting involved and pick a side.

“Perhaps. Perhaps they wouldn’t have honored it when somepony else was having the command. It is true that Sharpbeak is the mad emperor, but the side we have seen the most seemed honorable in my eyes. So, taking everything into account: if he can see that we keep our end of the deal, he will be keeping up his,” explained Rarity to the best of her abilities to Rainbow. Who on her own was still having a little bit of trouble sucking everything up.

But a deep huff was released through the nostrils of the mare. The eyes did close themselves a little bit further. They were never fully closed but the eyelids did allow themselves to be closed about halfway. The stares that were then exchanged as the ship silently floated by which made it almost seem like the scene out of a war story.

A story of war where a lot of pegasi would still be talking about years after it. About her, who didn’t fire the shot yet therefore saved the day.

Only once the airship had moved itself out of the way did the unicorn continue with her words. “Honor is a precious thing, we can lose all of it in an instant. Don’t make this that instant, Rainbow. I do not care about what you have done in your past, what I do care about is the present. The here and now, you understand me?”

The gears inside of the pegasus her head were turning and spinning at speeds previously unseen. She tried her utmost best to actually make a lick of sense out of the words that were being said to her. At one end she could understand them pretty clearly while the other part of her all found it a little bit of hocus pocus. “I, I think I understand you,” she eventually said to the pirate. The hammer was lowered again and the flintlock was stored away in its holster.

The pegasus mare had one last look over the airship before she separated herself from the group. Rainbow required a little bit of time alone. She had to be alone to get the facts straight in her head and to get everything working the way she wanted it all to be. As difficult as it seemed, Rarity made it seem as if the pegasus had done a good deed.

Rainbow couldn’t help herself but to occasionally glance towards the airship as it seemed to be traveling to the east as she had sat down upon a couple of rocks on the summit. The cold winds of the Frozen North and the warm ones of Equestria had an interesting effect on the summit. For one part of her body was almost freezing while the other was warmed up.

It could have seen a torture for the body, but Rainbow seemed to be enjoying the odd treatment of winds. Then again, the pegasi race always had been a bit of a strange one for anyone that wasn’t a pegasi themselves. Whether it was admitted by those that lived in Cloudsdale or not.

Rarity had returned to the group and just stood there with her arms over each other. She wanted to know exactly what would be happening to the rest of them on the summit. Yet her actions had caused something to happen in her nemesis that she couldn’t have predicted at all.

In the corner of her eye did the unicorn thought to have seen the lips of Applejack curl themselves up a little bit to this odd smile. Her eyes then shifted over to the face and they indeed saw that they were curled up. “What are you so happy for?” Rarity then bluntly asked. She didn’t have a clue of just why the mare seemed to be genuinely happy about something.

Though what she didn’t knew was that Applejack never had expected the pirate to honor the deal that was being made up. Applejack had expected that she would actually have joined in the fight and fired the first shot. The images of Rarity being this ruthless monster that plundered and sailed all she wanted continued to once again clash with the images given to her there and then.

It confused the admiral perhaps a whole lot more than it originally should have been. All of the images conflicted with one another and it made her mind a giant mess. Was Rarity truly her enemy there? Or did she just deluded herself with years of hunting down the mare? Stories about her raids were being glorified in the taverns. Tales which were then caught up by the spies of the navy. Nothing made a lick of sense to her anymore and anything was possible.

For the moment, the strategist with whom she had set out seemed to have returned to her. The question remained for how long said strategist would have been there. Though that was a matter for a different day to worry about. In the moment, they all were having different things on their minds.

“Oh, ya know, just glad to finally be off of that airship. Ah ain’t the greatest when it comes to the skies. Flying’s for the pegasi as a ship’s supposed to be in the sea,” lied Applejack to the pirate. Even though it was a terrible lie, the other unicorn just shrugged a little bit with her shoulders before she actually bought the lie for what it was. Something that came as a relief for the admiral.

“So Twilight,” said Rarity before she set her hands in her sides. Her attention had switched over to the soothsayer. “What’s the plan that you’re having for us now?”

“A rather simple one actually. A simple one, for a change, I might say actually,” returned Twilight when her horn charged itself a little bit. In the air was then an arcane rendition of the mountain drawn with the platform they had been standing on before as well as the very top they were. “This is the mountain right here and I think I have found the entrance way when we were picked up by the griffons.”

“Oh did ya now?” Applejack asked curiously. Though her words did seem to come over as something a little bit more sarcastic. Fluttershy rolled her eyes to the back of her head as she then came closer to the group. She wanted to know what would be happening and what plan of madness had been cooked up.

“Yes Applejack, I did,” countered Twilight before the mountain was spun around. Only to stop before the eyes of Twilight. There was another place that had been marked on top of it. Then it was spun again towards the rest of the group and they all looked at it.

Even though the dominant color was raspberry, the details that could have seen within the magic still baffled them. For the place that was added was a little archway made out of stone that seemed to have been sealed up. Each of them knew exactly what it was as their hopes were already kept up high again.

It meant that they didn’t had to go all over the mountain once more to find the doorway that would be leading them all down to the center of Equestria. There was only one small little problem. A problem that was being addressed by Fluttershy. “And how, exactly, are we getting there? I don’t think there’s just a staircase walking to it,” the doctor said to them. She did happen to have a point.

A point which was razor-sharp and all of the other mares could have seen it there and then. Twilight spun the mountain back to her eyes before she looked over whether or not there would have been any kind of staircase down towards the entrance way. The last thing she wanted was to be flown by Rainbow again.

Seconds ticked by while they gazed over the arcane map. All while the silence became the most dominant thing on the summit. Not even the major of the air force seemed to have been making any sound. The silence on the summit was only broken by the constant howls of wind that did their lovely turn literally every second.

Those same winds never ceased to exist on the top of the mountain. Though the last thing they wanted was to spend the very night on top of it. Yet finally there were the relieving words from nopony else but Twilight. The unicorn had mapped out a possible route that they could be traveling down to the entrance way. “Actually Fluttershy, there is a staircase that seems to be walking down to the entrance way. It’s a natural one, but it is still one,” commented Twilight when she seemed to have been delighted. There even was a gentle smile formed by her lips.

With the way of traveling stored in her head, the unicorn removed the arcane mountain from existence as her horn discharged itself. “There’s only one major but. We’re not going all at once. I’m not all too certain whether or not it’s the actual entrance way so it might actually be best if I take one with me.”

Gulps already came from Fluttershy before she made a step or two backwards. The last thing she wanted was to join the unicorn on a quest to nothingness. No, she preferred to stay on the summit with the howling winds in comparison. Of course could Twilight have taken Rainbow Dash with her. Though that still left the two powder kegs of both Rarity and Applejack wide open.

If either of the two decided to explode right in somepony’s face, Fluttershy wouldn’t have been able to calm them down. So the only option of the being who could have been going with her was Rarity Brittenburg. The unicorn glanced in the eyes of the other unicorn who understood the silent message almost right away. “If it really works, point me the way, milady,” replied Rarity. The mare wasn’t all too happy about doing with the soothsayer though.

~~~~

After a little hike down the slopes of the mountain and some close incidents of not having paid too much attention to the formation of the rocks, had the two mares finally reach the little platform where the archway was built right into the mountain. Rarity couldn’t believe it when she saw it gaping before her. There even was this little twinkle inside of her eyes as she touched the stone with her hands.

“Wow, I, I have to give it to you, Twilight, there’s indeed an entrance way here. But, how long has it been untouched by hands?” Rarity dared to ask, while Twilight began to inspect the surrounding. The soothsayer remained silent for just a couple of moments though.

“If I only knew, Rarity, I would say it hasn’t been touched in thousands of years given the rock formations. But with the griffons also aware of this place, they might have destroyed it,” the soothsayer replied to her. Then she finally turned her attention over to the blocked off entrance way. “There must be way inside of it, isn’t there?”

“What if we just blow the rocks up?” Rarity suggested while her horn was already charging itself up. But Twilight immediately shook her head. Blowing it up wouldn’t help anyone. No, they would have to deconstruct the ancient doorway block by block. As tedious as the job seemed to have become, it was always better than just barging in. “Fine, have your way again. Just don’t look up strange if it is going to take half a day.”

“Time is something I happen to have a plenty of, I just hope the mountain does as well.” Twilight simply commented as her horn charged itself up. A small beam of arcane power was then sent into the wall and came in contact with the concrete that was used to seal the entrance way. “Help me if you please, either remove the blocks or melt away the concrete. Or, both.”

Time came and went when the hours passed by like they seemed to have been nothing. Neither of the unicorns knew for how long they would have been working themselves upon the blocks but they were finally done. Finally did the pair of them created a doorway that was big enough for the anthronies to squeeze themselves through.

The eyes of both of the mares stared into the eternal darkness as the wind was finally allowed to make its way into the new entrance. “How far do you think it is?” Rarity asked. She turned her attention over to Twilight who was probably already having an idea or two about how to measure the depth of the doorway.

The horn of the soothsayer began to charge to itself up again. Though before Rarity could have said another word was an arcane flare send forwards. It travelled for a couple dozens of hooves before it came to an abrupt standstill.

“What..?” both of the unicorns asked to each other as they couldn’t believe what they had seen. They were used to a lot when it came down to magic, but that scene was something they hadn’t seen before. The eyes turned back into the entrance and towards the arcane flare.

Then they finally saw it, hidden within the light that was irradiated. The flare was stuck in the rocks that once belonged to the ceiling of the place. All of the sudden it felt like somepony had been hitting Twilight with a sledgehammer in the very stomach. Her guts turned and twisted in manners she didn’t even thought were possible.

The crushing realization of defeat came to her as their only way to the center of Equestria seemed to have been destroyed by the gears of time itself. “They stopped us, long before they knew what we would be doing. I, I’m not going in there, Rarity. I feel… sick,” said Twilight before both of her hands reached the sides of her head. Her brain was jumping all over her skull and the constant banging wasn’t good for the mare at all.

Rarity had seen enough as well as she had one last glance inside of the tunnel. Not even a single side way was revealed to her. Not to mention the fact if they would have started hauling out the massive boulders, who know how much damage there actually was to the structure. “Let’s go back to the others. This is just madness and you know it Twilight. We can’t go this way. There has to be another way to get in.”

While the words of Rarity surged through her ears, Twilight was already witnessing the darkness taking over as a whole. The land shrouded within the terror of the volcanic activity because they had failed their quest. Not only had she failed herself, but she had failed Equestria. Yet worst of all, she had failed the very goddesses who had given her the task.

Though the mare was only brought back out of her mental state by a little shock from Rarity who then gestured to the unicorn that they needed to be going back up to the top. The other mare nodded calmly and together they made the trip back to the very summit.

~~~~

Once back on the summit would Rarity have shared the story with the rest of them. She also spoke about the fact that they needed to set up their camp there. The other mares shrugged a little bit as they were visually devastated by the fact that they didn’t found the actual entrance way. Even though they wanted to complain about the facts as they were. Though each of them knew that they couldn’t bring their complaints to anypony.

There just wasn’t anypony who could be blamed in the matter that they happened to be in. The anthronies did the only thing that could have been done and that was to just set up their camp and spend the night on top of the windy summit. The following day they would be discussing the facts as to what they would be doing next.

It took them only a matter of minutes before the tent was set up and the anchor points were set securely. The tent actually stood like a house as each of them hoped to their dear lives that the mountain would remain quiet. Perhaps it was enough reason to set up a watch system for the night, Though the whole event with the griffon emperor and all of the things on the ship, as well as the added possible defeat, had worn them all out both mentally and physically.

All of them were just done for the day and they all wanted to do nothing else but to sleep. Even though Twilight wanted to have a watch system, the rest of the mares just all wandered to their beds and dropped down on them. They were done, they were so done with everything for the moment. All that they wanted to do was to just sleep.

Twilight wouldn’t have been that cruel as to take it away from them. So she just nodded calmly to herself as she then also went to bed. The sun was already setting itself just above the horizon and as they all closed their eyes, each of them would have been traveling towards the world of their dreams.

~~~~

The next morning –still within the darkness of the night– was Fluttershy the first of the mares to be woken up by something she couldn’t remember. Whether it was because of the howling winds or just her mind decided the fact she had enough sleep. It didn’t matter to the mare. She began to stretch herself a little bit in her bed before she left it.

Her attire was changed from her nightie to the more appropriate travelling outfit before she left the tent. The pegasus thought that some form of meditation would have been helping her to collect her own thoughts for the day.

For even Fluttershy was heavily defeated by the facts as they were given. They had come such a long way to start the last leg of their very journey, but everything came to a screeching halt all of the sudden. It wasn’t something any of them were glad with of course. But the mind of the doctor knew that there was always a second way, pretty much how Rarity thought about the matter as well.

The yellow pegasus made her way over to the rocks were Rainbow had dropped down the day before and there she crossed her legs over one another. The eyes were closed while the cold and warm winds were travelling over her body. A gentle moan of satisfaction was then released.

Which in return was followed by the shiver sent down her very spine. But the longer she sat down there, the more she had gotten used to the weather going around her. Her eyes were being closed as the first rays of the sun had been peeking over the horizon. None of them would have been hitting the mountain yet, though time would slowly make a change in that.

While the sun kept on rising itself over the horizon, the light touched the last little remains of the actual summit of their mountain. A light that then slowly but surely travelled all the way down to Fluttershy’s closed eyes. Soon enough she felt that her whole body was being coated within the light of the fresh sun and she released a relaxed and quiet moan towards it.

It all just felt so good for her mind and body. The only problem just happened to be the sound of stone that moved entering her ears. The pegasus tried to dispatch the sounds as something that rolled off the mountain. But the sounds seemed to have actually a lot closer by her. Actually, they were right at her back.

But, moving stone? How in the name of Equestria was that possible, was a thought that went through the doctor before her eyes shot open. Could have been that there was something else right upon their very path? Fluttershy could only hope for the facts being true.

Quickly did the mare turn herself around and there she saw it happening right before her eyes. As unbelievable as it seemed to be, it was actually true. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, the pegasus would have declared herself crazy. Perhaps the others would be doing the same to her as well. Whether it was something good or bad couldn’t have been really discovered in the moment.

Quick as she was, the mare would remove herself from the rocks. With big eyes had she walked over to the still forming entrance way. Her eyes stared inside of the darkness that it carried and the fear managed to once again get her body within its grasp. The pegasus was becoming terrified. The eternal darkness within and the howling winds at the summit made a terrifying combination for her mind.

But she was staring right down in the way that could have been their very saving grace. It was an entrance way that only appeared when the sun was hitting it from the right angle. The pegasus suddenly let go of all her fears and embraced herself within the enjoyment of having found such a thing. She couldn’t have been happier in the moment.

Her attention kept itself upon the doorway while she felt she should have gotten to Twilight and the rest as soon as possible. But the longer she stood there, the more the entrance-way began to reform itself again.

Once again were the rocks on the move and Fluttershy tried her utmost best to stop them from doing that, even though it was a complete failure. In the end did the rocks look once more like they had always done, as if they were part of the side of the actual mountain.

“Twilight must know,” the doctor said before she rushed back to the tent.

“Twilight, Twilight!” Fluttershy yelled when she entered the enlarged tent again. In that moment did all of the anthronies sat up again with an expression in their eyes of the unknown. “Twilight, I think I’ve found another entrance way! The rocks on the small peak, shifted open to create some form of an entrance.”

Both Applejack and Rainbow turned their attention towards the pegasus with a raised eyebrow. “Gal, are ya certain ya ain’t on something?” Applejack said, which caused her to be the first one to declare the doctor for actual loco.

But Rarity on the other end just dropped herself back down in the bed and turned around. She needed to have a bit more sleep before she would be anything that very day. Twilight on the other end began to stroke her chin. “Alright, let’s say it is true what you have seen, I’m ready for an investigation. Just give me the time to change and prepare. Then point me to this entrance way of yours.”

Fluttershy was more than delighted with the response. Twilight did believe perhaps only a little bit, but that little bit might have been actually enough to win her over for the leg of their journey to have been completed. So that they could begin with the final one, the one they had all been both looking forward to and been fearing for their little lives.

The leg that would have brought them down to the very center of their beloved land.

Chapter XLVII

After Twilight had changed her attire and was done with her entire morning routine, the soothsayer had finally left the tent for what it was. Fluttershy would have pointed her to the exact location of where she had seen the magical doorway appearing. “So, what you’re telling is that you saw the stone physically move out of the way during one period of the sun’s rising? Sounds to me like there is some kind of magic at play here,” repeated Twilight before she approached the spot.

Her hands then moved themselves all over the place while she tried to actually get a feeling as of where the magic could have been surging through the whole of the place. With her horn lightly charged up and the aura to be found around her hands she tried her utmost best to actually and physically get to feel the channels of the doorway’s arcane energy.

The doctor just stood there with a massive smile upon her face. She had looked down the very hole that would be leading them down to the center of Equestria. She couldn’t have been happier. The only question was whether or not it was something that would be repeated. Was it a once in a year event? Or perhaps once in a week? Or was the event happening daily?

Fluttershy couldn’t tell for certain but she didn’t care about it whatsoever. She was almost one hundred percent certain that that very doorway would have been the one. The one that would be leading the lot of them over to the place where they needed to be. And that very place was the center of Equestria itself.

The quest of madness and insanity, the quest that had brought both friend and enemy together, the quest that had already placed them against near impossible odds, was slowly getting to an end. The bones of the doctor could be feeling the change in the wind as the frozen one seemed to have been dying down.

“Hey Twilight, is it normal that the freezing wind lays down?” Fluttershy asked when she looked around her. She could have sworn about the fact that that very wind was there about a couple minutes ago. So what changed?

The hands of Twilight were still going over the wall and the even began to knock. She really tried to see just where the hidden entrance could actually have been hidden. Yet the words of Fluttershy were in fact acknowledged by her. The attention of the unicorn was shifted over to the pegasus with a raised eyebrow. If there was one thing that she knew how to do, it was multitasking.

Though it almost seemed to be as if Twilight still didn’t knew what had happened. But the more she began to pay attention to that little fact, the more she began to realize that the pegasus was actually right on the matter. Something was off about it all and the mare couldn’t place to herself what it seemed to be.

Twilight removed herself from the wall and she took a couple of steps away from it. Her thoughts were going all over the place as she tried to feel the chilly wind that had been tormenting them for so long. “Unusual, where did that wind go to?” she spoke to herself. Her body turned over into the direction of the Frozen North.

The eyes of the mare narrowed themselves up to the point they were almost fully closed. For with the ice and snow reflecting tons and tons of sunlight which were just hurting her eyes to look to the frozen plains. Yet she couldn’t understand how the wind would just be laying down for a matter like that.

There must have been some sort of logical conclusion behind it all and Twilight was actually determined to figure out what it could possibly have been. “Sudden drop in the freezing winds, all over the Frozen North. Look, not even the finer snow is moving. It means there’s no wind a the whole of the place. Which is unusual,” the soothsayer said to the doctor.

Neither of the mares knew exactly just what could have caused everything to have become the way they were. Though they were having both their own theories on the matter. Theories that ranged from the good, all the way over to the insane. Yet there was one that seemed to have been the most likely of all.

“I have heard rumors, that once or twice a year, all of the winds in the Frozen North just stop for about a week. Why, is never said. It just stops and drops dead, only to pick up again,” whispered Fluttershy to the unicorn.

Twilight began to once again stroke her chin. She too, had heard those very rumors as well. “Some say that the magic that keeps the circulation going has to recharge every year or every six months. Perhaps it is the time that we’re in right now. And possibly, that week gives the magic of the mountain the chance to open the doorway. Oh that’s clever,” the soothsayer said to herself.

Her attention shifted right back towards the rocks of the mountain as her horn charged itself up, “Oh how could I have been so foolish? It isn’t about my magic interacting with the magic of the doorway, no… It’s the magic of Mother Nature herself messing with us all. Oh that’s clever, annoying for certain. But it is just so, so, so clever!”

The aura around both of her hands only became more intense before the hands were placed at two parts of the mystical entrance way. The massive bursts of arcane magic that were being sent through the rocks were supposed to make it move.

There wasn’t anything that happened to the rocks though. It just remained dead in the water like that. None of the stones even moved a single inch apart from a couple that were just falling off the side. The aura around the hands then faded away from existence while Twilight took her hands off of the stone. She turned her body around and leaned with her back against the wall.

Fluttershy’s eyes looked over to Twilight with a look of uncertainty. A look that was literally begging her for an answer on the question of what they needed to be doing next. “I’m having a theory, a crazy one, but it’s one,” said Twilight, “and it’s better than having nothing.”

The ears of the doctor were immediately perked as she began to listen more carefully. “Tell your theory, Twilight. I’d like to know it,” returned Fluttershy before she scooted over to the soothsayer. Soon enough could the both of them be found just standing there, leaning against the rocks of the mountain’s actual peak.

“Tomorrow morning, before dawn, we all gather ourselves right here and once the entrance way has formed itself, we will be going at it. We just rush in and pray for the best to happen to us all. I don’t, I don’t see any other way from which we could be doing our things. Perhaps it is madness, certainly. But it might be our only hope of getting where we need to be,” explained Twilight before she pointed in the direction of the frozen plains.

“As soon, as that wind starts to blow again, our chances of actually getting into this mountain without breaking it open like a nut, are gone for another six months to a year. I don’t think we are having that much time left given everything,” the soothsayer added.

Fluttershy could be understanding the words as a whole and she was even a little bit scared about them. She wasn’t really ready for the facts as they were and the theory just was riddled with holes. “A-All likely and s-such, but what if, if you’re wrong?” she dared to ask.

Only to receive a rather cutting look from the eyes of Twilight. But the look was soon changed into one of doubt. She, Twilight Sparkle the soothsayer, began to actually doubt about her own abilities. Of course did the chance exist that she was dead wrong about it all.

“I don’t know, Fluttershy, if I’m wrong about my theories, I think we just missed our only opportunity. But I’m not ready to give myself in just yet. We have gotten all this way, went through so much dangers already. We have seen madness itself, so why wouldn’t there be just that little bit more of it?” said Twilight with a voice of mixed emotions.

“But our luck eventually does run out, doesn’t it?” the doctor whispered. She was terrified to speak those very words. Though those words caused the unicorn to nod in a strange calm. Those words were perhaps a whole lot more true than they should have been.

“Oh yeah. Luck eventually does run out, I just hope there’s that tiny little bit left inside of the pot for us. So that we can complete this trail of madness in two ways.”

Those words, spoken in that almost somber tone caused the pegasus to raise another eyebrow. “You think it’s a one way trip?” she asked without any form of stutter. Yet the fear was still audible within her voice. Twilight simply gave a shrug as a response.

Twilight honestly didn’t knew whether or not it was going to be a one or two way trip. Of course she hoped the latter, but after having seen everything altogether. She wouldn’t have been too surprised if it actually was just one way trip.

The decision to not answer the question was one that had two effects coming down. The first one was that it terrified Fluttershy to the fact it actually might have been a one way trip. Yet the other showed her that there might have been a slight chance of it going both ways. But Twilight was still thinking about the actual way back.

In the meantime had the unicorn removed herself from the wall as the rest of the mares also had come out of their beds. They were all dressed up and ready to hit the day if they needed to. But the mare spoke the words about the fact that they needed to wait for the next day if they wanted to actually get inside of the mountain.

Naturally she didn’t told the rest of them what she had told Fluttershy. That information was supposed to remain confidential for the rest of them. Who knew what gears and switches of madness would be given off of they actually knew that their little plan had a higher rate of being a failure then a success?

It was a risk that Twilight wasn’t willing to take at all. She had to keep every last one of the mares at her side until they were either in the center or on the way back. The thoughts that rushed through her head weren’t the most pleasant one and as time crawled by. The unicorn simply dropped herself unto the ground before her eyes stared off into the distance.

She was out of answers upon all of the questions that she would be getting. She needed to do a bit of research in perhaps the only place she knew it was possible for her in that timing. So the unicorn assumed her meditational pose and closed the eyes off from the world.

Though just in that moment could the heavy, mechanized leg of Applejack be heard walking past her. “Yar gonna make the travel up there, ain’t ya? Best of luck finding the answers ya need. The others might have taking yar words for what they were, but Ah saw the doubt in yar eyes. Ya think ya know it all, but in fact ya know just as much as we all do,” the admiral spoke to the soothsayer in a tone that didn’t seem all too friendly actually.

Yet the soothsayer herself opened just one of her eyes and looked up to the admiral. “As much as I want to thank you for your input, Applejack, I also have to make the little note that it pretty much is not helping me in any way or form. But yes, I’m indeed going to try and reach the celestial planes. Hopefully there’s something in there that can help me figuring out just what exactly it is I’m looking for,” answered Twilight with an annoyance clearly audible within her tone.

“Now if you please want to excuse me and stay out of my way until I have returned, that would be greatly appreciated.” The admiral just shrugged a little bit in response before she continued on her way. Where she would be going didn’t come up in the mind of Twilight. For she just closed her eye again and began the mental preparations to make the ascend up to the planes.

~~~~

The storm inside of her head was raging more violent that it had ever done as all of the matters she needed to be having and answer upon just rushed back to her like that. The hurricane that was her mind was released once more in its fullest of glories as the soul of the unicorn began to detach itself from the body.

Twilight looked through the eyes of her soul and saw how the others were just doing their own things, all while her body remained stationary. One last glance was given over the lot of them, then she turned her attention upwards and the soul was just on its way. It shot up into the skies and far above it like an arcane missile being fired.

The soul travelled through both time and space in the search for the celestial planes. It wanted –if not needed– to land in one specific location to get the answers that she needed to have. Answers that could possibly change her entire viewpoints of the travel they all had been undertaken. The eyes of the mare always kept a watchful eye out for that one location as the gates of the planes came into her eyes.

All of the sudden was she then just there. Twilight had made the ascent to the planes of the goddesses just like that. A routine job had it become for the unicorn and every time she went up, there wasn’t really anything of interest to see for her. She had seen all of those things along the way for countless times already.

The massive creatures that supposed to be living within the seas, the ships that sailed out of the port of Canterlot, the once beautiful crystal castle of the Frozen North. All those things had she witnessed more than once. They weren’t getting old in her eyes, but just uninteresting in the moment. With a deep exhale had the soul taken off again as the eyes looked over the planes themselves.

Planes that seemed to be stretching to a near infinity until the little tips of the mountain ridges separated the celestial with the lunar plains. She needed to find her place as soon as possible. Everything depended on it if she wanted to figure out anything about how they needed to be tackling the situation.

The pressure was building inside of her mind. That time might have been the last chance to talk with the goddesses themselves about her journey. If they somehow would have gotten into the mountain, who was to say that the communication spell still worked? It worried Twilight perhaps a little bit more than it originally should have been doing. But the fear was rightfully placed.

The unicorn then began to soar over the planes at the speed not even the fastest pegasus could be travelling. She was soaring through the skies of the planes while her eyes were kept open with firm. One blink and she might have missed the very place she needed to end up.

Twilight Sparkle was getting more and more curious about everything they had done and had seen. From Sunset Shimmer to Chrysalis, to the griffon emperor himself. They had conquered so many obstacles already in their trip, so why would they be slowed down by a broken entrance and one that was only appearing at certain times of day, or year?

All kinds of questions were surging through the mind of the mare as she needed to figure out certain bits and pieces more than anything. Yet the most important question was the one she didn’t dare to be asking to anyone. The question that could be spreading their imaginations wide and was either the most wonderful heaven they had ever seen, or the worst hell they could have ever heard.

All she had for an answer was that sphere of magma or the dying star. She still wasn’t sure just what exactly it happened to be. Her feelings told her that she was actually right with the both of them. It was just another fact that worried the unicorn to near death.

“Where is it? Where is it?” she muttered to herself. Twilight kept on flying through the air of the planes. Twilight needed to find that one little location in the vast stretches of land that were the mythical and mystical planes. But the beating sun was something where even her soul was getting trouble with. It’s heat became only more intense as she soared over the place that could only be named as a desert.

Yet in that very desert she was needed to be. Within that desert laid the place of knowledge that she needed to have. But the usual spire that soared into the skies wasn’t there to be found anymore. It had broken down and fallen over a terribly long time ago. It had happened in a time where the devil herself had once managed to enter the plains right there.

In the corner of her eye she thought to have seen something that actually resembled that very broken spire. Her curiosity was of course taken by it and the unicorn turned herself quickly around. She flew closer and closer to the structure that laid half buried within the sand and couldn’t believe what she caught within her eyes.

For within the sand it just laid as if nothing had touched it for thousands of years. A smile of relief was released through her mouth as she finally had found it. She had actually and finally found the place she was looking for. Twilight Sparkle had discovered the location thought to be lost to her: the Celestial Library.

The unicorn dropped herself in one of the spire’s many windows and fell down to the very floor of it. But because of the fact that the spire laid at its side, the staircase she had to walk on didn’t really work her way. But she happened to be a soul of a traveling soothsayer.

She had the power to soar through the likes like a pegasus, so why wouldn’t she have the power to walk through vast matter? Which was exactly the thing she did. The fear of actually crashing right into the bottom of the staircase was one that remained present. Nothing should have been taken for certain within the realm of the celestial goddess.

One moment the laws of nature and Equestria could apply, the next could everything have been thrown out of the window. Next to the two goddesses, there also happened to be a third creature that roamed the place. A creature that very few soothsayers actually dared to speak about.

They knew it existed, but that was it. Yet that creature was a trouble for another time, the unicorn was approaching the bottom of the staircase. With one deep exhale she actually dared to take the step forward. She thought to be walking right into the stone out of which the staircase was made, but much to her own surprise did she just walked through as if nothing happened.

At the other side of the staircase did the mare turn herself around and looked back the way she came. “Alright then, this is something interesting to know. Time to head to the library and see what I can find before tomorrow morning hits.”

So said, so done. Twilight travelled all the way down the spire and eventually further down into the ground where she was met with the vast emptiness of the massive underground library. Why the library with so much knowledge was hidden right in the desert was something that she didn’t knew. Perhaps it was also better that she didn’t knew. Twilight wasn’t in the mood to meet the librarian of the day.

The unicorn was just wandering through the massive halls with each held bookcases that were going sky high and were filled to the brim with arcane scrolls. It pretty much could have been heaven and Twilight would have been happy with it. Because it felt like actual heaven in her own eyes. She was in the biggest library in existence, whether it was in the planes of the goddesses or the real world. No other library that she knew of was bigger than that one.

Not even the one in the lunar plane could be matching the sheer size and scale of the one she was in. But she remember that she wasn’t there just to look at the scenery. She was there for business and that very business would she be doing.

The unicorn walked over to a series of tables with chairs and took place upon one of them. Yet the screeching sounds of the same chair being pulled back was the only sound that filled the entire library. Suddenly did the eyes of Twilight from left to right as she hoped not to have awoken anything.

Though the sounds were loud and cringe worthy enough to do exactly that. After a couple of seconds of returned silence, she simply released a deep exhale and took place on the chair. A chair which was then moved forward again as Twilight laid both of her arms upon the tabletop.

She was ready, ready to begin her search through the thousands of scrolls. The horn began to charge itself up as her eyes were closed. The scrolls in many different bookcases gained the same raspberry aura around them as the horn and were levitated towards her.

Everything was different in the planes of the goddesses, even the libraries. They were far from the conventional ones that everypony was used to. In these kind of libraries one wouldn’t just pick out a scroll and read it. No, one would have to take place and call upon its magic as that would be doing the job.

The mind only had to think about just what it would be needing or doing and the magic would be picking out the scrolls that were even remotely based upon the subject. Then the scrolls would have brought over to the reader who would be scanning them as quick and best as they could.

So it also happened to be the very case in Twilight’s. The scrolls that went past her eyes were records from years ago. Not just a couple dozen, but thousands as well. She needed to know if there was anything written about the thing that they could be encountering in the center of their very world. Scrolls as long as the length of the library went past her eyes in seconds as she read all of the content it carried. Yet none held any form of answer.

It almost felt to her as if they weren’t allowed to be knowing just what was resting in the center of Equestria. Either it would have been that, or the anthronies of ages old didn’t knew a way to be getting to the place. All of the scrolls actually caused more questions to be risen up inside of the unicorn then to have answered them.

Nothing spoke about a ball of magma or a star that laid in the center of their world. Yet perhaps she could be finding the answers she was needing by going even further back in time. So all of the scrolls were placed back in their rightful places as the eyes of the mare stared into nothing but the emptiness of space.

Her mind began to think about a couple more subjects that she could have used in order to gain just that little bit of extra information. And there came the scrolls once again. They danced within the arcane powers she had before the eyes of the mare read through the content they carried.

Things best left untold all surged through her eyes as history was playing itself out before her eyes. Finally did she then came to the last scroll of the series and the dates alone said it was old, ancient even. But did it happen to be actually old enough to have been a clue on the matter.

Time and time again was she reading through the countless scrolls of arcane power. All the way up to the point where she would just be giving everything up. For her feelings it seemed like she had been gazing through every last scroll in the entire library.

Twilight had learned about tomes previously left unimagined and spells powerful enough to suck the very life out of anypony. She had read about how the dark magic was actually created and pieces of Equestrian history long before the anthronies even came about.

But there was nothing. Nothing inside of the library that could have been brought her one step closer to the task that was at hand. The mare released a deep exhale through her nostrils as she tried to fight the tears back. All that she wanted to do in the moment was to just return to her body, return to bed and cry herself to sleep.

Not even the mighty Twilight Sparkle, the bookworm under the soothsayers, the one who always was having some form of a plan or anything else, had anything to work with. All that she had were the mental images and those simply weren’t enough for her. She was at a dead end for once.

Though when all hope seemed to have been lost, the whispers in the wind finally had found their way into the ears of the unicorn. The wind circled around her head as the whispers were whispered within the ears.

Almost in an instant sat the unicorn straight in the chair. The horn would have discharged itself, she was listening to them. She listened with care to the world that the goddess of the sun was having to say against her. “But, I, I am a strong mare. It’s just, it’s just that nothing seems to be making sense to me right now. Everything I try, I can’t seem to be getting more information about the subject,” replied Twilight against the whispers.

She was waiting for the answer upon her words as a gentle, but an oddly polite giggle filled up the room. Almost as if an older mare was looking at her from a distance. The eyes of Twilight shifted over to the origin of the sounds but there wasn’t anything to be seen within them.

“Strange…” she mumbled to herself as her ears were perked up again. For the whispers of the goddess were once again said to her. “What do you mean with, ‘there’s a first for everything’? I don’t understand, there must have been being down there before right? It’s just, oh for the love of… No, not you!”

Twilight was getting only more annoyed as she shook her head from side to side. “Just, just leave me alone, please. I’m having so much troubles on my head and now that I don’t have any form of information about down there, what’s the profit of having me still here? I learned things I shouldn’t have because of my hunger to power.”

And then there was silence. Complete and utter silence had taken over while Twilight turned her head from right to left. She hadn’t actually expected the fact that a goddess would just leave her hanging the way they did it. It was madness in her own eyes, but something else inside of the library was madder than her.

With a shock did the eyes of the unicorn turn themselves upwards and from right to left. She heard the steps of another being, a physical being, wander through the halls. Only one would could have been released out of her mouth before she felt her contact with the realm just breaking up. “Chaos,” was that one word she said aloud.

Then the soul of the unicorn just shot up into the skies, through the stone ceilings of the library and back into the skies that would be burning her hair off. The unicorn then was almost immediately sent back the way she came. Something was breaking the contact with the planes and she wasn’t happy about it.

Closer and closer she came to her actual body. Only moments later was the final dive being made. Before Twilight knew what was going on, she could feel the stone cold muscles and bones of her body once again just sitting there.

~~~~

Her eyelids were having the greatest of trouble opening up as she wondered just how long she had been sleeping there. The whispers of the other mares came into her ears, which caused her to become really curious about what was happening or actually had happened.

With all of the strength that was still inside of her body did the mare force her eyelids open and she took a deep swig if fresh air. All of the bones and muscles were put to work right away as she crawled herself up. The darkness of the place was then falling over her as she realized that it was the middle of the night. Or even worse, they were terribly close to the second morning.

The unicorn was still a little disorientated when she walked around almost like a chicken without a head. Everything stopped making sense for a moment until she saw the shimmers of the other mares just standing there.

“Look who's finally back. Flutters told us to pack up and wait for you before heading through that doorway she had seen yesterday,” commented Rainbow with her usual cocky smile going across her face.

“Wait, yesterday? S-Somepony, tell me the bloody time!” exclaimed Twilight almost straight away. The mare truly didn’t have even the slightest of ideas where in the timeline she happened to be. Though when she heard the answer that was given to her, only a gulp could have been released.

For as it turned out, it was the second day. The day where they would be putting the theory of Fluttershy right to the test and see whether or not they truly would be starting on the last leg of their journey.

“So, what do we do now?” Twilight asked when she knew both where and when she actually was. The other mares pointed to Fluttershy who on her own turn pointed towards the first rays of light. The first rays of light managed to hit the stone of the actual peak and from there on outward, it was only a matter of time before either the stone would move, or it would remain dead.

Twilight suddenly realized what would be happening and she prepared herself for everything and anything. The light continued to crawl itself down the rocks as the last words were spoken.

“Everypony packed and ready to go?”

“E’yup,” answered Applejack before she assumed a stance of running.

“Everypony also knowing that after this, there is no turning back until it’s all over?”

“We do,” replied Rarity, who also assumed a starting pose.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

“You said it,” said Rainbow before she flapped her wings a couple of times. A deep exhale was then being released through each of their mouths. The sunlight was touching all of the rocky face and then it began. Within their eyes they all saw it happening. Yet none of them could be believing the facts as they were.

Stone was moving, shifting and transforming before their very eyes. The entrance way was revealed to them all and only Fluttershy could be saying the words where everypony else was thinking of. “Let’s go!”

Chapter XLVIII

The stones continued to morph themselves into the doorway were the eyes of every anthrony peeled upon it. The last thing they wanted, the last thing they needed, was to be left out of the fun once more. Slowly did the morphing stone came to a standstill within their eyes. The doorway was formed, the last leg of their very journey was about to begin. They could almost taste the victory that was within their reach.

There only was one last thing that they had to conquer, and that thing was the mountain itself. Nopony thought about the things that they would be seeing further down there, they just didn’t care about them. They didn’t mind whether or not there would have been some kind of subterranean kind of beings living there. All they cared about, especially within the moment, was that they would be getting through that doorway.

“On the count of three!” Twilight yelled to them. Each of them were more than ready to make their way through.

“Three!” Rainbow Dash shouted before the soothsayer could have said any other number. But upon the calling of that number, all of the mares just rushed themselves towards the doorway. All of the fears for the unknown were left behind them. All they wanted was to get off of the summit and right into the hole with light.

Their shadows danced in the light that was cast into the tunnel as they rushed past the stone entrance way. Their shadows then travelled even further down into the place until they were all out of light. The light that was cast within the tunnel only reached so far before the absolute darkness would be taking over again.

Even the mares would have reached that very point eventually. Whether they would have liked it or not, the lot of them came to a standstill just after the sunlight had stopped casting. All of them were already panting as they never had expected to give that much force before lunch. They had asked the absolute of their bodies by taking the gamble of running in the way they did.

Twilight gasped a little bit for air while her eyes shifted between the light and darker side of the tunnel. It almost had something strangely poetic in her eyes. That they would be leaving the light to wander in the realm of darkness, or something along those lines at least.

“So, what’s the plan now, Twi?” the admiral asked while she leaned against the wall. She was dead curious on the facts as they were and how the unicorn would have been reacting to them. But the light of the sun was constantly inching away from them.

The higher the sun would have been rising, the less light would have entered the tunnel. Yet it was a slow process, one that could be taking just a couple of minutes to finally be fulfilled. Which in return gave the mares plenty of time to think about their next strategy. “I say, we make our own light and follow the path to wherever it is taking us,” said Twilight before she allowed her horn to be coated within the raspberry aura. The mare had called again upon her magic to form some light.

“Rarity, you take the rear guard and charge up your own horn, I shall take the front and pray for the best,” the soothsayer added. The pirate captain herself wanted to argue against the deal being made before her eyes, but then she realized the little fact that she was the other unicorn in the entire group.

“Understood,” the pirate then simply said before her own horn charged up. The sapphire blue aura that was being created then mixed with the other and it created an oddly harmonious mixture of light. The group then formed one massive line in between Twilight and Rarity, for they were ready to tackle whatever else would be thrown at them.

It was only a second or two later that the other unicorn of the company perhaps made a rather shocking realization. “Say, Twilight… You don’t happen to be knowing whatever will be happening when the sunlight has completely faded? Outside of the entrance being hidden again,” said Rarity to the soothsayer in a worried tone. In her ears she heard the stones already shifting back to their original position behind her.

“Actually, I don’t know that little fact,” the soothsayer said just before her eyes went wide and her skin turned pale. She had also heard the stones shifting back and what followed was both a deep gulp from her throat as well as a gruesome realization. “Girls, run. Run as fast as your legs can carry you!” she shouted before the legs were kicked into their highest gear.

Straight away did the remaining mares look at each other before they were pushed into running by Rarity. The last thing that the pirate wanted then was to be crushed by shifting stone. Twilight knew of course that the rocks had to shift back for a long way as she didn’t hear the echo of the hollow space behind them. The only question remained: how far would the rocks be pulled back?

It wasn’t a risk they were willing to find out at all. So they ran and they ran through the tunnel as fast as they could. Seconds seemed to have molten into minutes as the tunnel seemed to have been never ending.

All the while that crushing and crunching sound of the rocks pieced its way right into their very ears. Terrifying it was to say the least, but at least it acted as some sort of massive wake up call for the lot of them.

~~~~

What seemed to have been minutes for them, had in fact only been mere seconds. They had finally reached the end of the tunnel when the sounds of the shifting stone had stopped. The silence that took over as the trembling hooves silenced themselves was one that could be classified as eerie. The entire tunnel was silent, not even their own breathing or the sounds of the charged horns could be actually picked out.

But then it followed were the sound of them all trying to catch their breath again. They were exhausted from the second run of the day. Yet in the back of their heads they all knew it wouldn’t have been the last time that they would have kicked their legs in such a high gear.

Twilight turned herself around and walked past the rest of the mares with a worried expression upon her face. She then placed a hand upon the shoulder of Rarity who she then gestured to follow her. The pirate could only do what was being asked of her and with their horns fully lit, the mixed light became both wonderful and eerie at the same time.

“How far do you think we have ran and how far the stone has retracted? I did some tests the other day to kinda determine how far it would have gone, but I didn’t have anything to go with,” confessed Twilight before Rarity stroked her chin afterwards.

She then nodded with calm towards the soothsayer before her eyes looked into the far distance. “It’s difficult to tell actually, but I would almost dare to say that we have ran over a hundred yards, but we also have been making a small descend. I mean, look at the path we came from, we didn’t even realize we were going down. I think it has formed some kind of ceiling.” Her arm was raised to point at the ceiling and the way back.

Twilight processed the words and views within her own mind as she saw that Rarity did happen to be having a massive point on the matter. They had indeed been going down as well as the possibility of the rocks having formed some kind of ceiling. “A likely theory indeed, meaning we can’t stay too long here before our oxygen just vanishes.”

“I shouldn’t worry too much, if there was no oxygen in this place, the vacuum should have first struck. And let’s not forget this is a mountain. There are holes literally everywhere if you dare to be looking. The howling winds always find their way. Out-, or inside,” replied Rarity before the two returned back to the group. A group who had done a little bit of investigation themselves.

“Welp, tis a good thing ya didn’t ran much further, Twi,” said Applejack while she fixed her hat. Those words alone caused the soothsayer to give the other mare a raised eyebrow in confusion. “Look just a bit further, ya find the answer there.”

Still not being entirely certain about just what was being said to her, Twilight just did what the admiral said. With her light revealing more and more of the way that laid ahead of them, the realization suddenly kicked in. “Oh my…”

For just a couple yards in front of them laid yet another archway carved within the stone. But that archway was having a little bit of a surprise in store to them. What laid on the other side was nothing but a spiraling staircase. Who knew what would have happened if even one of them had managed to tumble down the thing?

“That’s, that’s something lucky indeed right there,” said Twilight when she shone her light a bit more unto the staircase. “But it seems to be the way that we have to be going if we want to reach out goal. Girls, I think I can say this with safety now. But I welcome you…”

Twilight then turned herself around and cast her light upon each of the anthronies with a massive smile. Even Rarity’s light fell into the near nothingness by comparison. “We’re going to start on the last leg of our journey.” Her tone was a mixture of happiness and sadness. But none captured the sadness that was hidden within her undertone. Not even the soothsayer was aware of it.

All of the mares then gained a massive smile across their faces. They felt like they had finally accomplished the thing they were hungry for so long. Weeks had they been walking through the land of Equestria. From the dreaded forest of Everfree, to the desert where Applejack’s cousin lived. From the icy plains of the Frozen North to the airship of the maddened griffon emperor himself.

Finally could they all be placing those things behind them and do the one thing they had all come together for. To stop the tremors that had been tormenting Equestria for such a long time. “I think it is safe to say, that we’re in the last little stretch here.”

“Ah heard ya, partner,” said Applejack before she gave a calm but respectful nod.

"I have to admit, I never thought we would be making it, but here we are,” replied Rarity before she made a polite and respectful bow for the soothsayer.

“Onwards, and downwards,” added Rainbow. She made a salute before the unicorn.

“Go us! Woohoo!” Fluttershy said before she shied away a bit. For the eyes of the others were turned towards her with a questioning gaze within each of them. “W-Well, a-all the good lines w-were already, t-taken,” she whispered before the other mares just gave a shrug. She did happen to have a point on that little fact actually.

"Alright,” the soothsayer continued as she summoned her staff again. The light of the horn was then channeled into the orb which then would be acting as this massive torch for the lot of them. Twilight then just turned herself around and walked back to the staircase. Only to take the first step down the spiral by herself. The rest would have followed her without a word, yet.

~~~~

Minutes would they have been walking around and about the thing without seeing any kind of platform that would be giving them a bit of rest. The longer they went downwards, the gladder she became about the fact she had stopped just in time.

For if one of them had fallen down, there wouldn’t have been any chance of survival. The sheer length of the staircase plus the increasing velocity of the tumbling anthrony weren’t looking all too good in the result book.

The light of the staff was a powerful one but their fields of view were just so limited. The steep spiral of the staircase prevented them all from watching what could be laying beneath. Not to mention that there was a major lack of windows. What did settle them though was the fact that there weren’t any cobwebs. Which meant that they wouldn’t be walking right into a spider’s den or anything the like.

Even though they were all rough and tough mares from either their past or the journey, they were still greatly afraid of creepy crawlers. Perhaps certain things just wouldn’t be going away at all. Then again, some of them preferred to have it that way. Especially Fluttershy was one who couldn’t handle change very well.

“How long is this bloody thing to begin with?” Rarity muttered a little bit too loud as they all continued walking down. Yet her words were caught in all of their ears. They wanted to stop, but Twilight just kept on walking step for step.

“Taking into account we went in at the summit, take off probably thirty yards for our initial descend, that’s the height of the mountain we still have to be going. My best guess is that this staircase runs the entire height of the mountain. After that, we’ll probably be stuck in a massive cavern system,” returned Twilight calm to her after some calculations in her mind.

“Your words, not mine,” added Rarity then in a whisper. One that wasn’t caught by any other being. It all had just gotten a little bit too much on her nerves. She wasn’t used to such a confinement of space. She was a mare of the sea who was used to lots and lots of freedom and ways to go around.

But down there, there she was just stuck by doing one thing and could only go in two directions. She could be going back up, or stick with the company and continue downwards. Her head had turned to her back and there where he light ended, the eternal darkness began again.

She wasn’t a mare who was scared of the dark, but she was scared to death for the things that could be lying within it. So the decision to stick it out with the company was being made quickly. A decision she didn’t seem to have any regrets from, yet.

“Hey girls,” said Twilight after many more minutes of silence. The unicorn had stopped her pace and she stood just there. She just stood still upon two of the near countless steps that they had walked already. “I think, I think we’re at the bottom.”

“What makes ya think that?” Applejack groaned up as her steam powered leg needed some constant adjusting thanks to the constant pounding it received from descending upon the rock solid stone.

“Big stone archway, dark massive room behind it, you know, those kind of things kinda give it away,” commented Twilight to the admiral. Then she took a couple more steps forward. Much to Rainbow’s surprise, she didn’t seem to be descending downwards anymore. But in fact was she almost walking straight, or at least on a flat surface.

“The hell..?” the major whispered before she followed quickly. After her did the rest of the company follow almost like they were blind sheep. For they couldn’t believe that they had finally reached the bottom of the seemingly never-ending staircase. Rarity was relieved, it meant that she could finally just leave the dreaded thing behind her and begin to worry about the next problem.

A problem that perhaps was a little bit too much of the good stuff, or at least when it came down to the shift of scenery. For when the company was through the stone archway did they had indeed reached the end of the staircase. But they were standing in a massive, massive room that was covered in darkness.

Only the lights of Rarity and Twilight were shining and that troubled the soothsayer. They were literal bait there and then. Then again, anything that would be living in the darkness would have had eyes developed for it. Which meant that anything most likely couldn’t handle the light too well. Which was a relieving thought, for the time being.

“How big do ya think this room is?” Applejack questioned a little bit too loud for their liking. Her voice was just send over all the walls of the room and the echo’s that were given off bounced all over the place. Until finally everything calmed down again.

Their attention all shifted over to the admiral with a glare that wasn’t kind to say the least. The admiral herself gulped a little bit as she knew that the beings that didn’t know they were there, knew it then.

Silence took over once more when everypony kept themselves quiet. All of their ears were perked in order to hear whether or not there would have been something, anything, heading straight into their direction. But all of them also knew that if they wanted to communicate, they had to do it in whispers.

The loud echoes were literally the last thing they needed in the dark room they found themselves in. Seconds did the silence stay until Twilight was having more than enough of it all. She needed to know everything about that very room. So the orb on top of the staff charged itself up even further.

Before anypony could say it was either a good or a bad idea had the unicorn fired an arcane flare right into the skies. She had expected it to it the ceiling within at least three seconds. There was the first major mistake she had made. For instead of three, it took the flare six seconds to reach the top of the chamber.

It already revealed it massive height to each of them but the fun didn’t end there at all. When it slowly came back to the ground, the revelation of a giant chasm was revealed before them. All the mares their eyes just went wide when the enormous gap in the ground was revealed to them.

Not only was the mountain incredibly long when it came to its depth, it was literally formed over some kind of enormous crater. The anthronies were smacked in the face from one miracle with the next, while none of them could even believe the facts as they were revealed before them.

“Now that’s something big indeed,” said Rarity after she had approached the edge of the chasm. She even dared to be looking over the edge and into the dark abyss. With the flare still sailing down towards the bottom of it, it became apparent that it was not only massive, but massively deep as well. A gulp came from the pirate as she returned to the rest of the group.

“Bad news, it goes on for probably a quarter the size of the mountain. We’re going in deep, literally. We’re going deep into the soils of Equestria,” she said as the grand scale of their expedition suddenly fell into sheer nothingness. Everything that they had done so far fell into the nothingness compared to the treks that still seemed to lay ahead.

Twilight then darted forward with the hope to find the flare still sailing down. She could only hope that Rarity’s assuming were right. As she stood near the edge, her eyes looked over a indeed still falling flare. But where Rarity only looked towards the flare, Twilight gave her eyes the time to inspect the surrounding of the walls.

There! She saw something that perhaps could be of help to them. Something the in face of the cliff that they had to walk down it laid. It rested there as if nopony had walked over it for so many years. But the light she had was facing away. The flare was getting too far away from her to see anything.

So the staff was charged up again in order to make a new flare. One that was fired at a different angle. It’s bright and powerful lights shone down the sides of the cliff and it was revealed to her once again. “Oh now that’s just clever. Very, very clever indeed,” said Twilight said to herself with a grin. She had noticed the strange deformations within the rocks.

And it were those strange deformations within the rock that possibly would be giving not only her, but the whole of the company a bit safer means of getting to the bottom of the chasm. With a smile on her face she returned to the rest of the group.

A group that was looking at her with a rather strange expression as they didn’t really knew what they needed to be expecting from the soothsayer. Rainbow and Rarity decided from the beginning not to speak a word while Applejack wanted to take the word. But she was actually cut off by the most unlikely being of the who trip.

Fluttershy was the only one who spoke up the question that they all had going through their minds. “What are you so happy about?” she asked in a whisper. Her own natural curiosity as well as her fear for everything that could possibly be dwelling within the darkness had caused her to be highly alert.

“I think, I found us a way down the chasm, all the way down to the bottom of it. There’s only, one little problem we might be having with it though,” replied Twilight. Her eyes shifted to everypony’s. She knew that one of them could already have been guessing just what it was that was standing in their way.

“Let me guess,” the pirate captain spoke while she crossed her arms over each other, “more stairs?”

Rarity couldn’t have been more right on the matter. In order for them to descend, they had to scale down the dozens of staircases that were embedded within the very rocks at the side. “I’m afraid we have to. From my second flare I saw how there’s a series of staircases just caved right inside of the rocks themselves. Who has made them, or how they have come there is unknown to me,” the soothsayer spoke up as she looked to all of them.

“Well it beats drilling through the chasm if you ask me,” muttered Rarity before she closed her eyes for a moment. “Can’t you just teleport us all down there, Twilight?” It was a rather legitimate question to be asked. As well as one where Twilight was getting unwanted attention for.

But the unicorn knew the dangers of doing such a thing more than anypony else in the company. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils before she shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do such a thing, I don’t know what is actually down there. For all I know it is riddled with spikes or razorsharp rocks. Or even worse, golems from era’s gone by. Last thing we need is us all teleporting to our doom.”

The methods might have been a little bit farfetched for the let of them but they knew that Twilight was actually right about the matter. If she didn’t knew where they would be ending up after a teleport, the consequences that followed could have been disastrous.

“Looks like we have to scale the stairs then, again,” muttered Rarity in disgust. She was getting a growing hatred to those things. “I heard stories of a wizard of old who liked stairs, you think he might have been something to do with it?”

“You mean the dark entity known as Sombra? It could be entirely possible. Dark Witches never really die nor are they specified as to be only females. Their body gets consumed by the earth but their souls are sent back to Nightmare Moon. Who keeps them nicely stored until they are needed again. Or until they dare to bargain again with her,” explained Twilight almost right away.

Even though she never had been a fan of the darker arcane arts, ever since the original sighting of the demoness that was once her friend had Twilight forced herself to learn as much as she could about them. Revelations best left untold were made before her eyes, stories surfaced that were best left on the bottom of the ocean floor. Wounds were opened, that laid too close to her.

“You name a male Dark Witch, a Dark Wizard?” Rainbow then asked. Strange as it was. she had gotten a genuine curiosity towards the subject.

“You do, Rainbow. But please, can you all shut up about it? The matter isn’t something that I like to be talking about at all. Especially in a place like this.” Twilight then asked of the group as her horn and staff charged themselves up.

The anthronies all nodded towards her. Which then resulted in a thankful smile coming to her face. “And now, for something different.”

The company just waited for the events to come while Twilight summoned five wooden sticks from an arcane portal that formed itself next to her. All of them wondered just what on earth she tried to do as nothing about it actually seemed to have been making any kind of sense.

But as soon as the tops of the sticks were lit on fire, they all understood right away what the point of them was. “Torches, finally we can see where we’re going.” Rainbow chuckled up before Twilight handed them all one of the torches.

“Going with Rarity’s logic here, that the mountain is riddled with holes and the wind blows in fresh oxygen, we should be having enough to breath as well as to keep the torches burning. Sure, arcane light is a bit more safer when you start to think about it, but our magical reservoirs are depleted at one point. Refilling them requires a lot of time so, this is the best solution for the time being,” said Twilight before she pointed to Rarity.

The pirate captain nodded and she discharged her own horn. With all of them having some form of light, they could all decide the way they would be traveling down the stairs. Twilight used her staff as some kind of walking cane as she was the first one to make her way over to the place.

Within the lights of the torch it appeared, that one hole in a seemingly perfect straight line. “Well, here’s to going down to Tartarus,” spoke Rarity to herself before she blinked. “Never thought I would say that.” The longer the unicorn stood before the staircase, the more she began to lose her faith in the fact that it would have been a two way trip.

They were still one being short to have the group actually complete and they were in their last leg. The eyes of the unicorn were shut forcefully as she began to fight back the tears. In her eyes it seemed that whatever they would be doing next, they would have already failed no matter what.

“So close, but so far away still,” she whispered quietly to herself just before the eyes were opened again. The raging fires crisped within her ears as she turned her head over to the rest of them. “I have to get going, they trust me, they have followed me after everything we have done so far.”

The bunch of strange mares just stood there, they were waiting for Twilight to take the first steps downwards. Waiting in anticipation of what laid in fact at the bottom of the very chasm. But Twilight still wasn’t done with her thoughts. She was in fact far from done with them. “They aren’t just some random beings picked from all over the land. No, they are something far more precious to me now. They aren’t just a doctor, a major, an admiral and a pirate. No, they are…my friends,” the soothsayer whispered up.

Only then did her head turn itself forwards again and she looked down the steps of the staircase. One last deep inhale was taken by the unicorn before she finally dared to take the first step. The step was being set, the anthronies were on their way to reach the bottom of the chasm. One single step at a time.

But as they were wandering downwards could Twilight actually hear the mares talking about the way back. The adventures they would be having and would have been able to share among friends and family. It only strengthened the sad feeling that she was having.

She couldn’t believe that she had failed at one little point that was actually that crucial for their entire trip. Though there was one little fact that Twilight had forgotten. The fact that even in their darkest hour, there would always have been a light shining somewhere. The only question that remained was whether or not she could actually see that very light.

Staircase after staircase was being wandered down by the mares. The minutes just crawled by like they were nothing at all. All of their legs were pretty much busted because of the very bouncing that they did. Any cartilage in their legs surely must have been gone by then. Not only did they seem to be walking straight down for a quarter of the mountain, they actually seemed to be walking the whole of the mountain once again.

Naturally did everypony just wanted to complain about the facts as they were, but all of them surprisingly held their mouths for whatever reason. Something that caused a major relief for Twilight once they had finally reached the bottom of it.

The soothsayer was the first to stand on the solid ground again and her eyes looked over a massive plain. Nothing could be seen as far as their eyes could see. Then again, they couldn’t be seeing that much to begin with.

The lights of the torches shone down to the greatest of their abilities in the faint little hope that they would have been able to see something, anything, to place them on the right track. For the last leg of their journey also seemed to have become the most difficult one.

They all had to navigate through the darkness of the caverns and straight into the deeper levels of the system. Troubles would arise without a single doubt, they only wondered when they would be coming.

For everything that possibly was hidden among the darkness terrified them. They weren’t scared for the darkness itself. But they were scared to their soul about what could have laid inside of it. What kind of terrible creatures they could possibly encounter. A fear that started deep within the soul of Rarity before it spread over to the rest of the mares.

Minutes later where they just wandering through yet another series of caverns. A series of caverns that laid on the far side of the chasm. The light of the torches burned vivid as it caught the attention of another being. A being who didn’t seem to be any of the mares. Its body hidden in the darkness, propelling itself forward like a snake and was as silent as a mice. Not a single sound was being released from the creature.

But it knew they were there. It was looking at them with a set of vivid blue eyes. They almost reflected every part of the light but none of the mares seemed to be noticing it. The pinkish looking scales that covered the area next to the white of the eyes could also be seen from time to time.

Only for the creature to eventually dive behind a series of rocks. It would be lying in wait. Waiting for the mares to make a precious little mistake. A mistake that could change the whole course of their journey either for the better, or the worse.

Chapter XLIX

“How long have we been wandering around these parts already?” Rainbow asked. The fact was getting on her nerves that she couldn’t fly away from the place. The urges to just spread her wings and take off into the skies only grew with the minutes passing by. But the mares were locked inside of the cavern system. They didn’t have a single thought about just where they would be having to go as Twilight only seemed to have been following her nose.

“Ah don’t know, four hours? Ten minutes? Everything seems the same down here. Not to mention it’s getting colder,” replied Applejack while as her torch was held up high. The freezing cold was something that they all felt and it was real easily explained to them. The deeper they went, the colder it would be getting until they would be reaching the lava flows. At least it was something that Twilight said to them just to reassure their very thoughts.

The major of the air force released a gentle grumble from her throat. The very feeling of something watching her crawled yet again over her back. It tickled her, gnawed at her, but she never saw anything. The mare turned herself around quickly and waved a bit with her torch. The eyes shifted from right to left and back. She wanted to see something within that eternal darkness.

Hisses and growls she thought to be hearing far away from their location, but those could also have been rocks falling in the far distance. Their echo’s might have been the things that Rainbow caught within her ears. Perhaps it was a little creepy, perhaps she was just getting jumpy about everything. It was the place that would be taking care of it for all of them.

It was both uncomfortable and claustrophobic despite being wide open. The closed in feelings were created by the facts that their torches only had a limited range of casting their lights. The very light they both loved and hated at the moment. At one end it gave them the opportunity to look exactly where they would be walking, not to mention the fact they could see.

Yet they all hated it as they couldn’t let their eyes adjust to the darkness. It was either looking into the bright light or end up watching into a wall of eternal darkness. Not even Twilight was actually happy with the facts as they were but she had to bite herself through it. Of course she could have decided to make everyone drop their torches and just tell them to sit still for a couple of minutes.

Those very same lights also happened to be things that a lot of things inside of the cavern system hadn’t seen for centuries or not at all to begin with. It formed one of the most perfect defense mechanisms there was. For even Twilight realized that something was looking at them.

Something was staring them down from beyond the darkness. Something that was hidden in plain sight but still invisible. Suspicion and curiosity combined with a great caution were given off by the unicorn as she seemed to have turned more silent than ever before by the rest of the group.

All of the anthronies were worried about that very silence she gave off. Something wasn’t right within the mind of Twilight, that much they could tell right on the spot. But just what it happened to be remained the question that needed to be answered for them.

Fluttershy was almost gobbling herself up because of the levels of fear hidden inside of her body. The timid and shy doctor wasn’t used to caves like she was in then and she really just wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed, thinking it was all but a bad dream she was in. She even whispered those very same words to herself just to give her some form of courage.

Which resulted in the urges of Rarity rising. How much she wanted to just slap a hand upon the doctor’s shoulder and tell her it was all real. How much did she wanted to do just that. Though as she moved her arm up did the entire shoulder area just began to bring her pain once more. A deep winch was given off by the mare before she stroked it with her other hand.

Perhaps it scared the doctor in the way she wanted wasn’t something that seemed to have been a wise idea. Then again, most of the ideas that the unicorn would been having didn’t seem like they were actually wise ones.

"You alright?” Fluttershy asked when she noticed the winch that Rarity had given off. The pirate opened one of her eyes a little bit. The shocks of pain were still travelling through her body. What could she be answering to the doctor that wouldn’t be setting off any kind of alarm bells inside of her head?

“Yes, yes I’m fine. I just made the mistake, that I moved it again. N-Nothing too harmful. Ow,” managed Rarity to speak just before the pain was finally leaving from her body. “Oh that’s better. Hey, you don’t happen to have any potions, do you? You know, to speed up the process?”

The question was one that caused Fluttershy to think and seemingly made her forget about the words exchanged earlier. “Hmmm, I might be having something in the void storage. It’s only a flesh wound that you have gotten from that talon so it shouldn’t be troubling you too much. When Twilight decides that we may be getting a break, I shall get it and apply it to your shoulder,” said Fluttershy before her head turned over to Rarity with a gentle smile.

It could be seen as a major relief for the captain. Not only had she avoided the conversation subject, but also would be getting something that would be making her able to heal just as quickly. Rarity formed a little smile of her own when she looked back to Fluttershy. She didn’t wanted to say it out loud with the rest of them wandering next to them. But she was eternally thankful for the fact that Fluttershy took so much care in each of them.

The pegasus was truly having her heart on the right place, or she just loved her job. Perhaps a combination of the both would have been more on its place. The unicorn then turned her head back forward as the eyes began to scan through the darkness. She needed to find some form of rest, a place where the lot of them could be just taking a little break.

Eventually they came near an opening in the rocky formation. The ways would have been expanding themselves both sideways and upward as the torches’ light travelled further and further up. All of them were tired and just ready to hit the brakes for a little while. Even though Twilight wanted to continue, she too was too tired to take another step.

“Alright everypony, let’s take a break here. Don’t leave too far from here, last thing we need is one of us getting lost in this system. It’s treacherous enough as it is with us all together,” said Twilight. Then she was approached by Fluttershy. The two of them then engaged themselves in a little conversation before the unicorn eventually nodded.

With help of the staff was the void storage opened and the pegasus reached inside for something. Once the hand was retracted while holding a little vial with a strange liquids inside of them, the storage was closed again.

The doctor then made her way over to the captain. Both Rainbow and Applejack had decided to sit down for the moment. Where Rainbow sat in the crossed leg position, Applejack made the decision to just stretch her legs. Not because she wanted to, but because she couldn’t bend her metal leg into that direction.

“Rarity, if you can stand against the wall please, then I’m going to apply the serum to the wound. It’s made from ingredients that are both found in the woods of White Tails as well herbs from the sea. …So…” Fluttershy spoke up before she awkwardly fell back into a silence. A silence that didn’t seem to be settling the pirate captain too much.

“So what?” Rarity asked before she crossed her arms. Once again there was a shock of pain going through her. Though not as bad as when she wanted to raise her wounded arm. “You’re not telling me everything here, are you?”

With the accusation fallen into her ears, the doctor made a little step backwards. It almost seemed as if she was actually getting a little bit scared of the pirate. And she had all the right reasons to be. For the serum would be having some certain side effects. “Well, uhm, you, you see, it’s kinda made with… Sea urchin venom.”

“You what?” Rarity spoke straight away. The mare couldn’t believe the words that she heard. “You are happening to be actually aware that the sea urchin is highly venomous along the Equestrian shoreline, right?”

“And that’s why!” Fluttershy exclaimed in a squeak just before she took a step forward. “Once the venom is concentrated enough, it can be used for all kinds of purposes. Including healing. Just how do you think the skin of a sea urchin is as though as they are?”

“I have lived most of my life on the sea, but I do not know all too much when it comes down to marine biology, doctor. So please, enlighten me upon the answer that you are willing to give me,” growled Rarity in a tone that could almost be seen as sarcastic. But in reality was she just anxious for the treatment that would be coming next.

Sea urchin venom within a healing potion? It must have been one of the craziest things that she had heard in the past months. But if it would be helping, she had to make one massive apology to Fluttershy. “They practically bathe in their own venom. Which turns the skin into something as hard as rock. Of course, with the little amounts that I used in this vial, you won’t be getting an iron skin or anything.”

“Well that’s a relief, saves me the rusting parts,” chuckled Rarity. Her eyes gently shifted from Fluttershy over to Applejack, who surely must have heard the words. And not be liking them.

“Ah heard what ya said, Brittenburg. And to make ya bubble burst, Ah ain’t rusting away with mah leg. It’s coated in a paint that prevents it,” countered Applejack before she turned some of the many valves. Calibrations had to be made almost constantly, or she just needed to keep herself busy with something. If not anything in the depths.

“Just the fact that you heard it was good enough for me, dear,” returned Rarity with another chuckle before she got a rather annoyed glance from Fluttershy. “What? Can’t I make a bit of fun every now and then either?”

The doctor just rolled her eyes away before she gestured to Rarity to walk against the wall. The unicorn just shrugged a little bit and turned herself around. It were doctor’s orders after all. She walked up to the wall. Yet when she arrived, Rarity seemed to notice something rather strange.

There were thousands upon thousands of white strings traveling up and down the side. “Oh don’t tell me…” Rarity said to herself. She seemed to be knowing just what time it already was. Everything looked exactly like it had done in the classic books, it all looked like cobwebs of spiders.

So either there was a massive colony hanging right over their heads, or the colony had already ventured further and left the webs behind. Rarity prayed to the latter as she turned herself back around. Her body was then dropped against the rocks as her teeth were pushed together.

Much to her own surprise did the webbing not stick at all and Fluttershy was finally allowed to do her thing. The doctor came closer to the pirate captain before she gently removed one side of the blouse to make the bandages visible. Then were those very bandages were taken off.

The blood coated and sweat stained bandages were thrown aside before the doctor then looked at each of the wounds to the best of her abilities. “You may speak of luck that those talons weren’t coated in a poison, some real nasty things could have been to you if they were,” she said as everything seemed to be on the right track.

“Thanks for the encouragement. Next time a surprise griffon attack comes in, I’ll check first. Just hurry up now, would you?” Rarity spoke up as she wanted to get the treatment over with. It was however a major relief that the bandages were finally off the side of her body. Finally it felt like she could be breathing normally again.

“Yes, yes, yes, just give me a moment.”

The cork was removed from the vial before the doctor placed her hand in the neck of the pirate. She began to measure the heartbeat of the mare in order to see whether or not Rarity was calm enough for the treatment. The last thing she needed was for Rarity to go in shock because of the violent reaction her body made when it came in contact with the potion.

“Heart rate seems good enough to me. Are you ready? It’s going to sting, a lot,” said Fluttershy in an honest tone. Her eyes looked right into those of Rarity. The dead serious look within the doctor’s eyes caused Rarity to gulp a little bit.

Though there was only one answer that could be given on the matter. One answer that would end everything. “Just do it,” she replied before the vial was held just above her neck. The doctor nodded towards the pirate as she wanted it herself.

Finally would the liquids have been released and be poured the skin of the mare. They travelled down her neck, over to the shoulders where some drops already would have entered the wounds. The unicorn gritted her teeth together as the burning sensation slowly tried to get the better of her.

But the treatment was far from done. Fluttershy had emptied the whole vial on the neck of the mare which was then followed up by a massage. The doctor would be making certain that the whole shoulder was nicely coated within the potion.

At the cost of Rarity almost losing her mind sadly enough. The burning sensation that was surging through her whole body almost drove her over the edge of killing the doctor. Perhaps it was because of a hand stuck against her chest and the webs at her back that she remained so calm. Though a little sailor’s curse left and right was released every couple of seconds.

It seemed to have been hours for the unicorn, but in fact it had only been just a couple of minutes that the pegasus had been treating her wounds. In the end of everything did the doctor take a couple of steps backwards, to avoid any kind of fury that the mare would be having. “Okay, you have to take it easy for at least a day or two. After that, the wounds should have been fully healed.”

Rarity immediately reached out for her burning shoulder while a large hiss came through her teeth. She wasn’t happy with the whole ordeal but it would have worked. She was glad to have undergone it as it would be over soon. A couple of last curses did leave the mouth of the mare before the blouse was raised back up as a whole.

The whole body of the unicorn was once again covered and she removed herself from the cobwebs. With a difficulty in her pace did the unicorn approach the doctor who could only take a step or two back. Then it was all just too late for her. She was captured by the unicorn.

Though not in the way that originally seemed to have been the matter, for Rarity had captured Fluttershy yes. But she held her in a tight hug for some reason, almost as if she was saying a massive thanks towards the doctor. It may have been a silent one, but a thanks was still a thanks.

Once the doctor began to realize just what was happening to her, she couldn’t help herself but to return the hug just as tightly towards the pirate. “It’s nothing Rarity, honestly,” she added in a whisper before the captain began to chuckle calmly to herself.

After a couple of seconds was the hug between the two mares broken. After which they each went their own ways again. Rarity made her way over to Twilight to discuss where they would be going next. Whereas Fluttershy was walking to the major and the admiral to hear a couple of stories.

The time that they were given off was just great. For just a moment of their time could they be doing things they normally couldn’t. Which was to actually rest to their heart’s content. Of course they wanted to continue walking, but they didn’t even have the slightest of clues about where they needed to be going.

Applejack had made the comparison before during their times in the caverns, and she wasn’t afraid to say it again. “We’re a mighty fine ship without a heading. We’re having no way to know where we be needing to go… So we just sail, sail the ocean until we die. Becoming the ghost ship everypony fears.”

“Lighten up, would you? You had me captured by the first part, but as soon as you began on the second part I was just jumping off your train,” replied Rainbow Dash when she almost seemed to be getting tired of the words of the admiral.

The pegasus was ready to stand up from her place when all of them were shushed silent by both Rarity and Twilight. None of the mares knew what was going on but they didn’t even dare to be moving one bit.

Their eyes shifted when the absolute silence took them all over. The sound of silence was the only thing that could be heard clearly as the anthronies began to listen to it. And they listened all just so carefully. Rainbow Dash was still halfway her rising motion when she was ordered to just stop by both of the unicorns.

All of their ears twitched when they caught a sudden sound. A sound they couldn’t believe to hear. Something that they all thought to have been actually impossible was caught within their ears. All of the mares looked at one another with an expression of terror. None of could believe the sounds they heard, and again, and again.

Almost as if it was hunting them, actively searching them out. Nothing made sense to them all in the moment but they knew something was terribly wrong. “Incoming!” Applejack yelled without a warning. All of the mares hurdled to one another as both Twilight and Rarity charged up their horns.

Before they knew it there was a massive arcane shield that surrounded them all. The shield only seemed to be having a raspberry colored aura meaning that only Twilight had cast it. Though when they looked at Rarity it became clear that she was giving her own powers to the soothsayer. Which in return made the shield even stronger.

Then it finally happened. The sounds that had been hunting them came once more. For what was hunting them wasn’t some kind of mythological creature out for their heads. Nor was it a nice little anthrony who was looking for her mommy. No, the sounds that they had heard were nothing more than the sound of a tremor heading their very way.

A tremor that had finally knocked upon their very door and was surging itself through the massive room. Rocks were separated as if they were nothing while the floor cracked left and right. The shield was literally the only thing that prevented from being crushed by the falling rocks above their heads.

None of the mares had a good look to the area that laid above them, but they all went out from the absolute worst. And for the first time since their journey had begun, could Twilight say that she had been inside of an actual tremor.

It had been a little desire of her ever since they first appeared to happen. The only problem was that she wanted to study them, learn from them as they happened. She didn’t wanted to be stuck thousands of hooves beneath the earth when they could be happening. The strength of the shield was literally the only thing that would prevent them from being squashed by the falling rocks.

With the added strength that Rarity gave her, that shouldn’t have been too much of a problem. For the shield felt like it was made out of the toughest of steels and wouldn’t be bending for anything. At least it felt that way, whether or not it actually would be that way could only be discovered if there was something that fell on top of it.

A theory none really wished to test out there and then.

“Ready or not, here comes the rain!” Rainbow yelled just before the first rocks seemed to have left the ceiling. And mere fractions of seconds later did the massive thuds of falling things echo in their ears. It weren’t the natural crashes of the rocks as they were used to. No, the sounds that they would be hearing in their ears was something more, organic.

None of them could be making any sense out of it, but as long as the tremors were still going on the way like they were, it wasn’t safe at all to leave the protective shield. The mares hurdled all together a little bit more which allowed for Twilight to decrease the size of the shield and make it even stronger.

Whether they wanted it or not was one of the ‘rocks’ actually heading straight for them. With a loud thud it landed right on top of the shield, before just sliding off and rolling back into the darkness. Again didn’t it sound like any of the things they were used to.

Terror and curiosity were both racing through the anthronies as they could only be hoping about that everything would have been over soon enough. Prayers were already spoken by some of them as Twilight increased her powers only.

Safety was her number one priority and they all had to be dealing with it. Nopony would be getting out before the tremors were over. Quite frankly, none of them even wanted to be going out. It stormed literal ‘rocks’ outside. The shaking of the earth must have been powerful enough to make the entire mountain shake once more as Twilight realized something.

Perhaps they were getting closer and closer to the epicenter of the whole thing. And possibly the very reason of why the mountain was hit that often was because of its location. One side was constantly battered down by the winds of the Frozen North, while the other had the winds of Equestria. It was a likely theory in the moment at least.

Constantly being both ice cold and boiling hot could have caused a shrinking and expanding effect like with certain metals. Of course it was just a farfetched idea, but anything in the moment made more sense than the rocks leaving only squishy thuds instead of the screeching and pulverizing sounds. A theory on which Twilight was thinking to keep her thoughts away from the real problem.

Though after a little while did the tremor finally lower itself down into near nothingness. It had disappeared just as mysteriously as it had come. The unicorn did keep the shield up though, she knew that an aftershock could have been hitting them literally at any given time. If the aftershock was just as powerful as the actual tremor and the ceiling would be giving away, it would have been game over for all of them.

Seconds ticked by while the aftershock just didn’t seem to be coming. Nothing else but silence took over the place when Twilight finally agreed upon lifting the shield. The raspberry, arcane shield was removed from the plane of existence as the unicorns both discharged their horns.

All of the anthronies stood back up and began to look around with the torches back in their hands. Something hadn’t been making a lick of sense to them for the whole time. And they would be figuring out just what it was, why it was. Even if it meant they would uncover the creeping truth.

“It never made sense,” the doctor spoke up as she looked up to the ceiling and noticed something that none of them had actually seen before. “T-T-Twilight, can you, shine a bit o-o-o-of light, t-there?” Something had spooked Fluttershy terribly, that much was certain. Though whatever would have been enough to spook Fluttershy usually meant that it wasn’t all too bad.

With that assuming did the unicorn charge up her horn and shone a bit of light against the very ceiling of the place. Only to fall head first into a revelation she didn’t wanted to fall at all. “Oh this is terrible… Nopony, move, a, muscle,” demanded Twilight in an instant. Everything remained standing in the position they were.

Rainbow Dash was almost touching one of the ‘rocks’ when she was ordered to remain still. Applejack was maneuvering herself between two of the ‘rocks’ and had to keep her breath in to not be hit by either of them. Rarity was actually standing just behind Twilight before she also turned her gaze back up. Whatever laid up there, it wouldn’t have been good at all and they knew it.

From the frying pan straight into the fire, that seemed to have become a recurring theme for the company of mares during their travels. And once again had they managed to find themselves into the deepest of trouble. “When will our fortune just change for a bloody time?” Rarity asked just before she released a deep gulp.

When they entered the room, the ceiling was black and covered in rocks so the group didn’t pay all too much attention to it all. But after the tremor had the revelation come to them all. For right above their heads was the weight of several tons of stone held up by something that every time surprised them.

All of the rocks that had come loose and should have been fallen down on top of them was instead all just held together by the webs that were created by spiders. That alone explained why Rarity had seen the webs earlier, though it didn’t fully explain everything. “But wait,” said Applejack before she then just so carefully removed herself from the space between the two ‘rocks.’

“If those are webs, then these must be…” Applejack added. Fractions later she knew exactly what the ‘rocks’ happened to be. Rainbow Dash just released a deep gulp as everything was already too late. For the ‘rocks’ that made the organic sounding thuds weren’t rocks at all. They were the things that lived inside of the webs high above them.

The sounds of plates that originated from numerous exoskeletons being snapped into their respectable places, had begun to flood the place with an eerie sound of pure horror. The clacking of the teeth against one another as the abdomens smashed themselves against the ground.

The wakeup call was there, and everypony was doing just that. Suddenly the sounds came from all around them and the mares just rushed over towards both Twilight and Rarity. All of them were scared to their near deaths as they finally had figured out where they had been walking into.

“Girls, we’re in a spider's den,” commented Twilight. She didn’t have anything else to say.

“Thanks captain obvious!” Applejack snarled up a bit too loud. The attention of the beasts was turned into their direction by one of them as it rolled back around on its legs. Legs that seemed to have been stretching for an eternity and were made for agility in the rocky environment. It still didn’t took away the fact that the thing was ugly as hell.

Fluttershy released a scream of pure terror before she turned herself away from the beast. Its clacking teeth became more violent as it caught the five mares within its eight eyes. Fresh meat was dropped at its doorstep for the first time in a long time. Naturally wouldn’t the creatures be letting the opportunity slide away like that.

It was the nature of the creatures to say the least, even though the mares weren’t too happy with the fact of them being on the menu chart. Which in and of itself was a first on their trip. Twilight began to quickly look for a way as the rest of the mares all waved their torches towards the giant spiders. They could only be hoping that they would have been terrified for the light of fire.

Which they luckily were as they also took a step or two back whenever the torch was waved in front of them. “Yeah, come and get some!” Applejack shouted up towards one of them as she began to wave even more violent with it.

The eyes of Twilight couldn’t help it but to see that the way they came was blocked. Meaning that they could only delve deeper into the cavern system. Which was basically the turf of the spiders. None of the mares would be knowing exactly just what laid the gateway. They all could just assume that there was nothing else but trouble.

“It our only shot, girls! Run! Run away!” Twilight shouted to them all. Though she was the first of the company to just leave the scene for what it was. The rest of the group followed quick as they could and all gave everything to outrun the creatures.

Where the mares all just ran in a row of two and almost perfectly straight down the path before them, the spiders were in fact more of a hinder towards themselves. Stamped and crushed by the legs and abdomens of others they were as they all wanted a slice of the pie brought before them.

Zaps of magic and the musket balls from flintlocks were all released into the air and into the directions of the monsters to make sure they would be keeping their distance. But the monsters didn’t know of any stopping. They would continue to get the mares even if it would have been the last thing they would have done.

Starved and hungry for flesh that wasn’t from one of their own they all were. The roars of the creatures and the clacking of their poisonous fangs terrified all of the anthronies. Yet out of the mares it was Fluttershy who was the first that was closing in on the giant beasts. Whether she was running out of stamina or if she wanted to try something else was a question left unanswered. But returning for her just wasn’t an option without being eaten themselves.

The pegasus was in fact having a plan of some sort. She turned herself into the direction of the beasts and used her wings to propel herself backwards towards the group of mares as well as her own legs. Then there was the sternest look she could be given off, given towards the spiders. She could only have hoped on the fact that it would have done something to them.

But unfortunately for the pegasus were the spiders so old, so hungry and so driven by their cause that it didn’t have any effect. One even managed to crawl a bit out of the group and wanted to take a massive bite out of Fluttershy. It’s fangs closed in only a mare inch before the pegasus who in a fraction of a second had just vanished.

She had vanished from being right in front of the spider and reappeared almost right next to Twilight. “Run for your lives!” she yelped with her loudest voice. A command that the rest of them were already doing as quick as they were able to.

Their hopes to outrun the creatures of the caverns had turned into a desire and a wish. They knew the spiders wouldn’t be getting tired any time soon and with the adrenaline that was surging through them, they wouldn’t either. Yet who would have been the party that would have given up first? The spiders with their ferocious teeth, or the mares with their quest burned in their minds?

Chapter L

With the spiders hot on their trail and tail, the company of mares made their way through the cavern system. They didn’t know where they would be running towards, they didn’t even knew what would be laying around the next corner. All they knew for certain was that the danger was literally right behind them. The clacking of the jaws against each other and the thumping of the venomous fangs as well as the abdomens against the rock shocked through the whole of the cavern system.

None of the mares could been thinking about anything or everything. All they wanted to do was to stay alive and survive the encounter. Something for which they would be trying their utmost best at no matter what. Their legs carried them as fast as they were actually allowed as the fear was readable in their very eyes.

None of them had actually liked spiders in their lives and then they were chased by beasts many times bigger than they had ever thought to encounter one. It wasn’t just a run for their very lives, but also one to get them all straight out of their nightmares.

Yet what else could they be doing? Of course they could just zigzag from left to right through the caverns all they wanted. But the spiders seemed to have been a whole lot more agile to be doing such a thing. Their eight legs carried them over the walls like they didn’t even existed. The laws of nature seemed to have been defiled by them as they didn’t only walk on the floor, but also on the sides and the ceilings.

Nopony dared to even look behind them as it meant they would be one step closer to losing total control. Their weapons nor magic seemed to have had any effect on the exoskeleton of the creatures. Hundreds of not thousands of years of evolution had caused them to become their size. Not to mention that their armor had grown to be just too thick to be penetrated by anything.

So any plan of a counter attack was quickly laid to rest by the mares as their fight or flight reaction told the lot of them to run. Just run as fast as they could to a place of safety.

The lights of the torches were the only lights that could be seen through the cavern system and most likely the actual case of why the spiders were so eager to get them. Not only would they be getting a meal of different meat for a change, they didn’t had to do too much of actually getting it. It ran right in front of them with lights and all.

Despite the fact of their eyes only being used to near and absolute darkness, the spiders seemed to have been surprisingly resilient to the light of the torches. Almost as if they knew what it was. All of those thoughts also occurred within the mind of Twilight as the blood was pumped faster than ever through her body.

The blood rushed through her body which allowed her to not only run like crazy, but think like mad as well. Thousands of thoughts about the spiders and their species in general began to cross her mind, including manners to perhaps lose them.

Hundreds of spider repellents were thought up but those could only be used on the normal spiders they had in Canterlot. Not on massively oversized, cavern dwelling, literal monsters of spiders. So the thoughts had to be disposed of just as quickly as they had come. The unicorn soothsayer was running out of options, literally.

She knew that at any given moment in time, they could be making the wrong turn and became the mean for a couple dozen hungry spiders. The last thing they wanted to be end up with in each of their books. The mares continued to run down their own lit up path before Twilight made the decision to turn left.

If the cavern system was indeed connected in the way that it all seemed to be and she continued to run the same distance, they would run in a square. A square that should have brought them right back to the den of the spiders. Perhaps not the wisest place to return to, but at least they could be plotting a course from there.

Even if it meant they had to face the rest of the den at once…

The more they began to run in a straight line again after the first turn left had been made, the more each of the mare could be hearing something in their ears. Next to the sounds of a couple spiders crashing against one another, or into one another. It seemed they weren’t agile enough to make the really sharp turn that the company had made. No, there was another sound next to the crashing and screeching of the spiders. A sound that the company knew all too well. A sound that they really hadn’t been expecting to be heard down there.

“Running water,” the soothsayer whispered to herself. Her ears had begun to perk themselves into every possible direction. She wanted and she needed to know exactly where the place was as it might have been their only hope to get rid of the dreaded creatures.

"Y’all hearing what Ah’m hearing? Ah might be crazy, but that does sound like running water! Lots of it!” Applejack yelled to them while her steam powered leg was taking a constant beating. She wasn’t even running normal anymore at that point. Instead the joints inside of the leg had been locked and she ran like she was having an actual pegleg.

Even though the sight seemed to have been quite comical while she moved forwards, it surprised Rarity that she could maintain the speed they were running at. Yet the words were right, they all had heard the sounds of the running water. “Sounds like an underwater river to my ears!” Rarity replied when her eyes began to look both left and right.

They needed to cross that underground river, even if the currents would be dragging them along, they would be crossing it. “I think it’s coming from straight ahead!” Rainbow spoke up as she jumped into the air and wanted to take off. Only to have her head crash into the ceiling of the cavern.

The body of the pegasus was dropped down again before she rubbed her head. Yet one of the deadliest mistakes had been made. She had come to a standstill.

The other mares came to a screeching hold and turned themselves around as the spiders surprisingly enough had done the same. They too had come to a standstill before the pegasus. Hundreds of eyes suddenly were peeled upon Rainbow Dash. The major of the air force on the other end continued to rub the top of her head.

Her entire skull was just hurting like hell. Every last little bit just bonked its way into every possible direction. The contact between her head and the ceiling may not have been long, but the ceiling consisted out of a couple thousand tons of pure, unbroken rock. A fragile skull against that, the outcome was never really a doubt.

“Oh, I see pretty little stars,” chuckled Rainbow when she seemed to have been completely off of the world. Her hand reached out to a series of eyes from one of the spiders. Who in return extended its venomous fangs to bite her.

Seconds were playing in the matter while Twilight had to be doing something. She had to prevent that the rainbow haired major would become a little meal for the monsters. Which was in and of itself easier said than actually done. So in the heat of the moment did the mare charge up her horn and where Rainbow’s hand was almost touching the fang, suddenly there was only air.

The spider had just thrust its fang down to piece the hand when it realized there wasn’t anything anymore. Eight eyes suddenly turned back to a state of anger before they were focused on the massive orb of light. And in that orb of light, as blurry as it seemed to have been she laid. Its meal laid in the arms of the mulberry skinned being.

A screech was given off by the beast which caused the others to go over into a literal frenzy. Twilight looked over the events as another thought seemed to have been confirmed to her. “So you’re the leader of the little group, sorry to take your dinner,” she said in a whisper towards the giant arachnid and then just ran away again.

It was the only thing they could do, carry Rainbow and run once again. With the spiders hot in their trails as well. They had escaped once, they had escaped twice but the creatures would be making sure that the third time wouldn’t have been the charm.

Yet nopony would been having an infinite amount of stamina. While the little events of Rainbow’s crash certainly were a warm welcome to the team, the second run they were doing would have been a lot more exhausting than the mares had originally thought it was. Not to mention the little fact that twilight was carrying the still deluded major.

“Where do ya wanna have us heading to, Twilight?” questioned Applejack as they formed the rear of the company. Rarity had taken it upon herself to lead them while Fluttershy could be found right in the middle of them.

But the soothsayer was just clueless in the moment. She wanted to go to so many places, but only a select few of them were actually open for suggestion. Though there was one suggestion that would be dominating all of them. As they could still hear the water running within their ears. “If Rarity can be leading us towards or actually to the water, I’m going to be just happy enough. When we reach it, we’ll be seeing further what’s gonna happen,” replied Twilight replied in a frightful tone.

With the spiders hot on their tails were the caverns beginning to split themselves open even more. Even though it seemed to have been that was wonderful, it actually was a terrible something for the mares. Yes, they would be having more space to run around. Problem just was, so did the pursuers. While the caverns opened up, the hurdled ball of fur and terror began to spread itself.

When it was spreading itself, it would have been gaining more and more ground upon them all. The seconds were literally ticking away. In the corners of their eyes saw both Applejack and Twilight the front legs of two beasts upon the walls. The two of them didn’t even dare to be looking behind them. They were both too terrified about the fact that if they would, all they would be seeing would be a pair of razor-sharp fangs.

A fear that was very well and rightfully placed within the anthronies. For the distance between them and the monsters only seemed to be decreasing. “Rarity, anytime now would be nice!” Applejack shouted while the streams of sweat travelled down her face.

“Working on it, just, just gimme a tick!” Rarity snarled back as her eyes had constantly been going up and down to find some form of help to them.

“We don’t have a tick here!”

“Here goes nothing!” Rarity out of nowhere shouted. Finally she made another sharp turn to her left. The rest of the company could only barely follow her as they as well made the turn and began to follow her again.

Once again could the crashing sounds of the spiders colliding with one another be heard through the caverns as the ceiling seemed to be closing in upon them once more. Though Rarity had managed it, they had returned into a smaller cavern once more. Relief came to the mares but they weren’t out of trouble yet.

Though the spiders quickly managed to regroup themselves and continue the chase. While the mares were having a little head start on them, they just didn’t know of any quitting. There was only one way that would end the chase once and for all, and let each of the anthronies live.

The sapphire blue eyes of the pirate captain continued to scan every last single angle that was given to them as they ran past. With the lights of the torches all being centered again into a much more confined area, finding entrances of side caves and ways had become a whole lot easier. Not to forget the little fact that the sounds of the water seemed to have gotten louder.

“It’s somewhere around here. We must be close to the water. Just, just hold on for a little while longer!” Rarity shouted while she sounded confident in her words. Yet in reality she didn’t have a single clue about where she needed to be going. For the caves were messing with her head, the echo’s that were traveling through it could have gone from every direction and the threat behind them was a little bit too real in her eyes.

Running ahead was all they could be doing. Running ahead of the spiders and pray on their dear lives that nothing terrible would have happened. Though the latter part could already have been scratched from their papers. As being chased by the spiders in and of itself was actually pretty terrible already.

Rarity could have sworn to herself that she would have gotten crazier by the minute. The further she ran, the more the sounds of the running water seemed to have become louder. Taken in the moment, the unicorn slowed down her pace to a standstill. She glanced into a side cavern. Her eyes had gone wide as the light of her torch touched upon the end of the cave.

The other mares just rushed past her as they thought that she was actually crazy and Applejack hoped on the fact that she would sacrifice herself. Even though the admiral was sobered up and after all of the chances she had witnessed that completely shattered her thoughts about who Rarity actually was, old habits never seemed to die down.

“Girls, in here, quickly!” Rarity yelled only a second after they had ran passed her. She then disappeared into the side entrance just before the hesitation came to the rest of them. They had to run back for just a little bit in order to catch up with the pirate. But that little bit did mean they would be running towards the spiders.

There didn’t seem to be much choice of what they could be doing. The mares looked at one another and gave one powerful nod. With Rainbow still held in the arms of Twilight, they silently agreed upon the plan before they ran once more for their lives.

~~~~

Mere fractions of seconds later had the spiders sensed that the anthronies were actually heading straight into their directions. Which to them meant they could be readying their fangs for the charges to come. They had finally sealed the fates of their very preys. Finally would the hunting have been over and they could be eating all that they wanted from the fluids the mares carried within them, as well as feast upon their fresh flesh.

The only problem was that the mares didn’t seem to be running into their fangs nor did the hairs upon their legs sensed them anymore. The whole train of spiders came to a standstill before the abdomens were pounded against the ground again. At first it was one before the rest of the entire group had followed.

The mares had barely escaped the razor-sharp fangs of the creatures. They had barely escaped from a near certain death as the four of them stood panting in the side cavern. The distance between them and the spiders was great enough to catch their breath for a little moment. They were glad, they were glad to have been still alive.

“Thanks Rares, ya saved us all, for now,” panted Applejack before she realized something terrible. Something that they were all still carrying within their very hands. “Oh no…” Her eyes looked straight into the flames of the torch that Rarity was carrying.

The pirate captain wiped the sweat of her face as she just remained standing there. “It’s nothing, you would have done the same to save them all.” Rarity replied before she noticed the near hypnotic stare in which the admiral was looking. “What are you..? Oh no, no, no, no, no, how could I have been so stupid?!”

Before Twilight or Fluttershy could react was there something else. The tapping of two forelegs against the ground could be heard loud and clearly. A spider had entered the side cavern and without a doubt had seen the light of the torches. If it hadn’t seen that, the sonic waves that it was sending through the earth gave away their position.

“Oh we’re dead… Everypony, run, run like the wind! The water isn’t far from here!” Rarity shouted while she then helped everypony getting back up on their hooves. She was guiding them to the other side of the cavern. She prayed to be right on the fact of it being close as the sounds had only gotten more and more intense.

“Keep on running!” Twilight spoke to them. Her eyes were lost in the darkness. Before them there was only a stretch of light as behind them Rarity formed the rearguard. They needed to have the water found and they needed it quickly.

Though fate wouldn’t be forgetting about those who had done a wish upon the lady of luck herself, the elusive Miss Fortune. Little sprinkles of hope were given to them as the wish of a certain somepony was given in. For whether Fluttershy liked it or not, she happened to be the first one to spot the water.

In a way that was less than controversial to begin with. For a huge splash could be heard as the torch suddenly had gone out. All of the mares gasped for air as the noticed it, but thankfully could the pegasus just rose back up from the liquids.

“Found it,” she said after she spat out the waters from her mouth. Her body then turned around to face the others. Her clothing was drenched in the liquids before the other mares then took a step into it. Oddly enough did it feel actually cool to them. Not cold, not hot, just perfect. Though drinking from the clear water was something highly advised against, even Fluttershy said so as the taste lingered in her mouth. A taste that wasn’t pleasant at all.

The mares walked as far into the little but powerful river as they could. It surprised them just with how much force the water was rushing past them. They could be speaking of luck that none of them had slipped yet into the deeper parts. Where Fluttershy had fallen face flat, the height was only up to their ankle. Past that, it came up to their knees. Meaning that it was shallow water.

The currents of the waters on the other end were strong and the mares all struggled to get a good footing. Then they heard the hissing sounds behind them. Immediately did they all just turn themselves around and noticed how the spiders just stood there. Finally was it time to see whether or not the theory of Twilight would have been a success or a massive failure.

“So, what do we now?” Applejack asked in desperation. Sshe seemingly was getting more and more nervous. Yet the spiders just remained standing there. They were all looking at the mares but they seemed to actually be afraid of the water. The tips of the legs were almost constantly placed in and outside of the river.

Yet none of the beasts seemed to be brave enough to cover it. None of the beasts were brave enough to drop themselves into the puddle of water. The forelegs of the creatures continued to pounce upon the watery surface as the abdomens were smashed against the rocky ground. They were pissed at the mares, they were pissed at them for the fact that they had managed to have gotten away.

“Yeah, come try and get us now!” Applejack spoke to them before she released a massive chuckle. Only to end up with a near cutting glare from Rarity’s side which she caught almost right away. “What? Did Ah say som’thing wrong in yar eyes?”

“Not in mine, but in theirs. Just, just keep silent, would you?” she asked of the admiral. Twilight wasn’t in the mood to see a swimming spider within the next few minutes. If even one of the beasts managed to get the bright idea to just jump into the water, everything would have been thrown out of balance.

“Suppose yar having a point there,” the earth anthrony said before they all saw how the horde of beasts began to turn themselves around. With screeches, roars and pounds they all left the cavern. They all just left their prey to be just dangling in the water. But they would return once the time was there. For within the second any of the mares showed herself in one of their neighborhoods, they would be knowing it.

The scents of each of the anthronies was buried deep inside of the senses of the spiders. They would be having their own little revenge when the anthronies would be making the mistake to meet them again, or to look them up.

Twilight on the other end couldn’t be more happy. Her theory seemed to have been working. “I knew it, thousands of years of wandering the rocky sides of the caves has made them afraid for something as simple as water, haha!”

“All fine and such, dear, but what direction are we going now? Up streams, or down streams?” Rarity asked while her attention had turned away from the cavern and towards the unicorn. A unicorn who was still holding the knocked out major and gestured with her head towards the side of where the currents came from.

“Upstream it is,” the soothsayer then said before she took the first step. “I know all rivers start out somewhere, a spring as small as only a couple of drops might be enough to create this river. Down streams I have no idea what we will face. Maybe we’re only a minute from a giant waterfall.”

Her words of worry were right, for the speed at which the water rushed past their legs could have meant a lot of things at once. Though even the water came to only their knees, it still troubled Fluttershy on the fact of why the spiders didn’t cross it. If their legs had only entered deep enough, they would have been able to cross it without much trouble.

A shudder went over her spine as she thought about the horrors of what could then happen next. Thoughts that were truly unpleasant came through her before she just locked everything up inside of her head. She needed to think about things that actually were a whole lot more pleasant.

Happy thoughts just needed to flow through her mind and one such thought was that their exoskeletons would have gotten weak within the liquids. Almost like their skin would ripple up would the exterior armor of the spider have become weak, brittle and even break off. Which then left a naked spider to roam over the ceilings.

It was the thought of a naked spider that caused her to giggle deeply to herself as it looked just plain out ridiculous. The other mares looked back for just a moment or two before they would be leaving the mare alone in her own little world again. Perhaps it was better to just not meddle themselves into the business that the pegasus was having.

~~~~

The more they walked up the stream of water, the weaker the currents seemed to have gotten in their eyes. Not only that though, the area seemed to become lighter as well. It was actually much to their own surprise that exterior light was traveling down that deep into the cavern system.

It also caused the lot of them to be righteously on their guards. The weapons were locked and loaded as the hands were taken on the hilts of the swords they carried. They weren’t out of danger yet. They wouldn’t have been for a long time.

“Light? This deep down? Something just doesn’t seem to be right. Extinguish your torches. If it is as bad as I think it is, we need to run without light. …Meaning, swim down streams as fast as possible. After those spiders, I’m not taking chances anymore,” reasoned Twilight in a whisper. Then the hissing sounds of flames dying could be caught in her ears.

All of the lights that the mares carried went out as not even the arcane lights would have been called upon. They knew they were getting close to the source of the underwater river, for the water became only less and less the more they travelled. Time would tell just what they would encounter. Good or bad, it all depended on what they saw as friend, and enemy.

Around the corner it then appeared before them all. The very spring of the river they had been walking up. The formation of rocks that stood almost in a symbolic pillar from which the waters ran. A water that seemed to be just so fresh that they could be drinking it.

It was enough to let a lot of moss cover the immediate area as some sort of grass as a ray of light was cast right over the rock. “Impossible, this can’t be true,” said Twilight just before she laid Rainbow down in the moss and took careful steps forward. “A shrine? This deep down? But, but where does, the light come from?” Twilight asked herself as she could be found scurrying all around the little spring.

"Twilight, take it easy will you? We’re all tired and beaten down. You mind if we just sit down for a little bit?” Rarity asked of her. The pirate did have a point though, a thing Twilight fought against. Without waiting for any actual answer did the mare just drop herself into the moss and leaned her back against the rocky side of the wall. Comfortable it wasn’t at all, but it was at least better than nothing.

“Yes, you all just take a break and try to get Rainbow back to normal. I need to, I need to be looking at a few things around here,” returned Twilight while she waved with one of her hands. The mares just shrugged it off as Applejack finally could be leaning against the wall and fix her leg. The first thing she did was to unhook the very hook that held the joints together.

Fluttershy took over the care of Rainbow and she began her normal procedures in the depths of the cavern. Even though there was nothing to work with, she would be finding a manner to be working with. “Just a simple bash to the head, bleeding very lightly, the moss should be spongy enough to soak it all up. Probably just ten minutes before you’re woken up again Rainbow,” she spoke towards the knocked out pegasus with a little smile.

In the meantime had Twilight continued her research and had fallen to an unlikely conclusion. “From the looks of it, we’re back in the Frozen North. This place most lay even more west than we have been going thus far, for right above here, what allows the light to enter is a thick sheet of ice. But I don’t get it how everything could grow here, I mean, it’s not like… Oh, but it is.” Suddenly did the soothsayer fell in silence before she shook her head with a calm.

“No, no, no, that can’t be true? What else can be living down here outside of them? I mean, taking everything into consideration…” The soothsayer seemed to have gotten even more paranoid as Rarity was struggling with the thought about whether or not she should be standing up to help the mare.

Though mere seconds afterward she came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t have been worth the muscle power to do so. “What have you discovered now, Twilight?” she asked as if it was the most normal day of the week.

“Shush, shh, shh, shh, silent. Everypony, keep quiet,” the soothsayer then replied. Nopony knew what the mare was even wanting at the point anymore. She seemed to have lost her mind completely and they wouldn’t be surprised if she actually had to. But Twilight was having a good reason to silence them.

The prying eyes of something they still hadn’t seen were spying upon them, to be more specific, upon her. “You know that feeling when you know something is staring at you, but you have no idea where it is? …I’m having it now,” she whispered loud enough for them to hear it.

Then it happened, fractions after she had spoken her words was there something that sprung out of a dark hole and actually went over Rarity before it managed to coil itself around the body of Twilight. All of the mares screamed it out as they drew their weapons.

Whether they needed to fire upon the pink, scaled, something they didn’t know. They didn’t even know what it was doing to the soothsayer as the shape was actually recognizable. Terrified had Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy hurled themselves against the wall and just watched over the events unfolding before their eyes.

The eyes of Twilight looked at the creature that had coiled up around her and could only make one assuming as the air was squeezed out of her body. She was already making gasps for air as the eyes exchanged the looks with one another. Then the mouth of the creature decided to open and it spoke its words in a near perfect Equestrian tongue. “Oh I’m so, so, so, so super happy to finally meet new faces down here! You know, normally nopony comes to visit me, but now that you’re all here, can we be friends, friends, friends? Please? I promise I am good fun, fun, fun!”

Everything that Twilight could have thought was thrown right out of the window. For when the hands of the creature were placed upon her very shoulder, she knew exactly what it was and was once again smacked in the face. Legends spoke about such creatures as nopony alive had seen them. Only the tales of old spoke about them living above the ground before drawn beneath it.

There was only one word that could be describing the pink, scaled, snake like being that had coiled itself around the soothsayer and wasn’t squeezing her like a prey. Instead did the creature just seem to be hyper active and happy. How such a thing was possible, remained a question for all.

But the word that Twilight was looking for, was the word of, “lamia.” The creature coiled itself up even further around the mare who realized she had to do something. Either her friends would shoot it down, or she would end up with a broken rib cage.

With only mere seconds to spare had the mare charged up her horn quicker than ever. In a massive poof that had she vanished from their reality for the moment. The creature dropped down to the ground and almost confused began to look around to find Twilight. “H-Hello?! You still there? New friend? Hello!”

When Twilight appeared a mere second later and the eyes of the creature were turned around towards the soothsayer. A soothsayer who stood there, panting for her dear life as the horn lost its magical aura. “There you are!” it spoke before it then rushed back to the unicorn.

The eyes of Twilight went as wide as they possibly could, the pupils shrunk down to near nothing. She had to say something to make the charge stop in the moment. Though only one other word seemed to have gotten right into her mind. “Pinkie!”

Chapter LI

The lamia came almost to a screeching hold as soon as Twilight had yelled the one word of her mind towards it. Almost as if it was genuinely confused about whether or not it was actually aimed right towards it. The head was tilted over to one side and it told the soothsayer more than enough. The creature indeed didn’t understand a single thing about that little word. Though on the other end, it suddenly had gotten aimed both the flintlocks of Rarity and Applejack.

“Twilight, tell me that this, this, this thing, is actually safe. I’m not in the mood to run away from something again,” said Rarity in a dead serious tone to her. Her opinion was in fact shared by both Applejack and Fluttershy. All three of them were still tired from running, so they could only hope that the soothsayer would have found a manner.

The eyes of the unicorn shifted over to the little group before she gave them all a massive and eerie stare. “No, no, no, no, don’t be so stupid! You’ll only frighten it, this might be our only chance to see a near tame lamia,” explained Twilight to them. Fractions later she rushed she rushed over to them. The barrels of the weapons were pointed down while the glance in the eyes told them all, that she knew what she was doing. Or at least hoped to be knowing it.

In the meantime had the lamia moved itself over to the spring and coiled up around the rock. Almost as if it was bathing within the sunlight that was cast down. On the other end it also gave the lot of them a chance to see how it actually looked.

A body that was the length of perhaps three anthronies stuck together with scales going from bottom to top. The snake portion of the body was something they could understand, but it was the top half that worried them. For it had the body of a female anthrony, slender and gorgeous while the hair on top of the head was all puffy.

Pink was the dominant color of the creature. It had both pink scales and a slightly deeper colored pink hair. So it was perhaps only logical for Twilight to have called the thing, Pinkie. Though one thing still troubled the mares a little bit. The fact that it wasn’t wearing any kind of clothing and the scaled breasts therefore just bounced all over the place with every motion made.

“Right, like that’s the dreaded hunter we all feared,” the pirate captain muttered in response before she shook her head. Now that she had the actual time to look at the lamia, it became pretty apparent to Rarity that it didn’t seem to be as ‘evil’ as they originally had thought it would be. The way it was sunbathing on the spring just told them all that it didn’t have any anger inside of it. A comforting thought for two of the three.

Applejack still had so her different set of thoughts about the creature. The admiral knew that everything could suddenly turn itself against everything. “See? It doesn’t mean to harm us. Remember what it said when it coiled around me just yet?” Twilight asked before she got a couple of strange looks from the rest of the mares. “…Nevermind.”

“Ah still don’t like it, Twi, look at it. Ah mean, anything can happen with it. It’s, it’s a loose cannon,” said Applejack said. Though she stored her own flintlock back in its holster and pointed over to the creature. She might have had a point or two but she also forgot another little fact. One that was pointed out by Twilight while she aimed her finger to both Rarity and Rainbow.

Silence would have taken over the admiral. The mare she didn’t really knew how to react to the words told to her in the language of the signs. It was in fact more than true though. For both the major and the pirate were both loose cannons as well. “I think I have made my point here, now then, let’s see what else can be thrown at her,” added Twilight to her words. That was just before her attention turned over to the lamia.

The unicorn soothsayer stood back up and calmly closed in on the sunbathing creature. “Pinkie, is, is it alright if I call you Pinkie?” Twilight asked as she didn’t want to start off at the wrong hoof. In the blink of an eye had the reflexes of the creature caused the brilliant blue rims to have fallen upon the unicorn.

“I don’t mind it, I like it! It fits me,” the lamia returned in its near annoyingly high pitched voice. One that even spoke about the creature being a female of the race. Yet none really dared to believe that it actually was a mare, or a female for that matter. It was all just too weird in their eyes. Though things were about to a whole lot stranger.

Twilight charged her horn in calm. Her hand reached out for a rip through space and time. The void storage was opened just to the side of Twilight and she needed to have something –if not anything– in the hope to gratify with the creature. Some bits of food had to be shared with it in order to gain its, or better said: her, trust.

Once the arm had retracted itself again did it held a slice of strawberry pie and Twilight took a deep sniff from its scent. The lamia did the same as it didn’t seem to be used to the smell at all. It’s nostrils moved up and down as it only took short breaths in.

Every single exhale was done through the mouth in the order or attempt to preserve the smell inside of the nose. The tongue moved itself over the lips. A motion that granted the anthronies a sight over the teeth it carried. Once again it confirmed her suspicion, for they looked like those of a snake. Rows and rows of dangerously sharp, tiny teeth could be witnessed within the mouth.

The unicorn said her prayers in her mind as she extended her arm with the slice of pie. “If you want it, you may have it. It’s good food, delicious even,” she said to greaten the desire for the piece even more.

Yet the lamia wasn’t as crazy as they originally thought it was. It became withdrawn all of the sudden. A second ago it was nicely and calmly bathing inside of the sunlight cast down, the next it had shied away behind the formation of rocks that formed the spring.

Twilight couldn’t help herself but to giggle a little bit to herself. She had seen the kind of reaction for by manier animal and Pinkie didn’t seem to be a change upon it. Despite its look with the rest of the mares, it appeared to have been a lot more animal than actual anthrony.

So the only thing that Twilight could do was to place the slice of pie onto the moss and then take steps back. Which was exactly the thing that she did and backed away from the prying eyes behind the spring. Only to rejoin the rest of the mares.

They only seemed to have forgotten the little tiny fact that Rainbow Dash still had to wake up. None of the anthronies had even thought about it able to be doing some harm, but their thoughts had been wrong before quite some time during the trip. There were no guaranties on it.

In the moment they could only have hoped that Pinkie hadn’t been giving much attention to the knocked out pegasus. They hoped even more that said pegasus wouldn’t be waking up too soon. Yet on the other end, they kind of wanted her to. They were caught between a rock and a truly hard place. Whichever would have come first for them?

Seconds went by before the lamia even dared to leave her shelter. Slowly did the whole body managed to coil itself off of the spring and slithered forward, towards the piece of pie. The curiosity for the piece of food was so much greater than her sense of danger. She had to know where that heavenly scent came from, and whether or not it was actually as good as Twilight made it out to be.

Finally had she reached the slice and coiled her body around it, almost as if she was protecting herself with a barrier. Nopony could be seeing just what was going on while the seconds ticked away. Anything and everything could be happening from that moment on. She could have gone in a frenzy or became literally tame to them all. They hoped the latter of course.

Seconds ticked by before the sounds of the slice of pie being devoured were heard. Only to have the silence return once more afterwards. A silence that was only to be broken by the coiling body of the lamia again. For it had gone out of her hiding and just laid there with her body as the anthrony part of it stuck straight up.

“Hmmm! Juicy!” she spoke before she rubbed her belly with one hand and wiped away the juices of the strawberries and her own saliva with the other. From the sounds and looks of it, it seemed to have liked the pie. But whether or not it was actually tame remained to be seen.

Twilight then stood back up from her place and did a couple of steps closer once more. “See, I told you it was good, didn’t I?” she spoke with a genuine smile of happiness going across her face. The lamia just nodded as the hands were placed to the side of her body.

Rarity couldn’t help herself but to feel a little hypnotized by the bouncing breasts of the creature. It didn’t appear that it could actually sit still. It carried something magical for her, which was perhaps a little bit annoying. Her attention shifted all over the place except to where it needed to be. Up to the point even where she brought a hand to her forehead and lowered her head in it.

“What’s wrong, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. The pegasus had then scooted over to her side and already began the visual inspection of the mare. “You seem, off.”

“I wonder what gave that away,” the pirate replied in a near sarcastic tone just before the eyes were closed. Nothing seemed to have been making sense anymore in her mind. They were facing a creature that was half snake, half anthrony for crying out loud. How was she supposed to be reacting towards it all? She had seen so much, but that creature was a new thing for her.

Everything from the trip had just become a little bit too much for the unicorn pirate. She was used to seeing strange beings for certain, but those were all deep in the ocean. Creatures that were worthy of being labeled as ‘monsters of the sea’ but this, this thing? It had caused her mind to not only in overdrive, but also to have a small meltdown.

“Fluttershy, would you be a dear and just leave me for now? There’s nothing wrong with me, outside of this pounding headache, alright? It’s just, difficult to process,” said Rarity to the doctor. She shooed Fluttershy away with another hand.

The doctor couldn’t be doing anything else than to just obey the silent command and left the unicorn. Though actually left alone she wasn’t. For Applejack was having one last thing she wanted to say about the matter. “At least ya ain’t the only one who’s having delusions of creatures.”

“Applejack, shut up!” Rarity hissed through her teeth, “just, shut up!” The ivory unicorn was angry. She was pissed off at everything in the moment. All because her mind couldn’t comprehend the events that were happening.

“I think…” Twilight started before she was stopped in her sentence. The nakedness of the creature also came to her as well as something else. A thought that was just so crazy, it might actually be working. They were still on the hunt for the sixth member of their company, the goddesses had never explained who they needed to get for that spot. Yet they also had never told her what she needed to get.

Perhaps it was a loophole found in the system of the goddesses, but Twilight thought to have found the last member of their little company of misfits. That very lamia that stood there, bouncing a bit from right to left and back with her body, could have been the very being they were looking for. It was a literal once in a lifetime opportunity and Twilight would be taking it with both hands.

“You thought..?” Pinkie giggled before she placed her hands cross over her body, blocking off the view of her breasts for the lot of them. Something that was highly appreciated by them all. “Well go on silly, tell me! Not like I can spill a secret to anyone down here.”

“I think, I have found a new name for you. A full name that is. I, do not know if you had a name before though,” said Twilight with care to her voice. If she would have offended the creature in any way, the chance to gain a new ally was flying out of the figurative window.

When the words were spoken, the happy expression of the lamia did turn into something else. Something that could only be described as sad. The posture and pose of the body may not have told it, but the expression within the eyes screamed everything. “I, I had a name, once… But I lost, it.”

The soothsayer nodded gently towards the creature as she closed in the distance even further. “Pinkie, then your new name shall be: Pinkie Pie,” she said with a smile going across her face. She could only have hoped that the labia would be liking the name. Only then would they have been one step closer to getting her to join the company.

Rarity still laid with her head almost between her legs afterwards. Everything still was too much for her. Though if Rarity was already having troubles with it all, how would Rainbow Dash be reacting? The pegasus major groaned and moaned a couple of times as she came back to her knowledge. The eyes of Fluttershy shrunk themselves, she had forgotten about Rainbow as a whole. “Oh no, no, no, no, Twilight, she’s waking up!”

The screaming whisper in which Fluttershy yelled, did got the attention of Twilight. Who shifted her attention over to the waking pegasus. Anything could have happened with the loose cannon that was Rainbow Dash. And most likely would everything happen. She had to talk herself out of the situation quickly before things would have gotten nasty and out of control from all sides.

“R-Rainbow, if you can hear me, lay down. A lot has happened and you need to be talked by. Fluttershy, go to her and inform her,” said Twilight before she turned around to face the other pegasus of the company.

The doctor released a calm nod before she crawled back up and left the admiral and the pirate. The two powder kegs of the company were left with one another, though the risk of an explosion didn’t seem to be there. With Rarity still half knocked out and cringing at every thought, her fuses were just gone for the moment.

Not to mention the little fact that Applejack didn’t wanted to start another war. Perhaps for one of the few times during the whole trip could the two been left alone and nothing would have happened. Rarity charged up her horn calmly as its sapphire blue aura shone brightly and then vanished from time to time. It almost acted like a lighthouse when she performed her spell. Though which spell she would be speaking out, was unknown to the soothsayer.

Fluttershy had made her way over to Rainbow. The doctor placed a hand against the chest of the mare. “You need to stay laying down for a little while. What can be seen can be, not what you had expected,” she said to Rainbow.

“H-How bad, can it be?” the major asked before she felt the moss below her. That fact alone was strange to say the least. Yet after she had knocked herself against the stone ceiling was everything lost. “Did we, lose the spiders?”

The doctor nodded in calm before she spoke her words on the matter. “We lost the spiders yes, but you flew against the stone ceiling and your head gave away. Twilight had carried you all the way until we came to a little spring. We’re still there, but also have a visitor who, isn’t actually normal.”

“Have you seen with who we travel with?” Rainbow chuckled in a weak voice. She then reached for her head with one hand. “Oh that joke was bad. Can’t be that bad though.” She then pushed the hand of Fluttershy off of her body and rose up in a sitting position. The hand was still rubbing all over the place as she hoped to stop the bouncing of her brain that way.

“Uhm, uh, well, hmm, you might be, how do I say this..? Surprised, that’s the word I’m looking for. Just, just don’t do anything, stupid,” replied Fluttershy when she realized that she couldn’t be winning the battle at all.

Curiosity had struck the pegasus as she looked over to direction in which Twilight stood. At first there wasn’t anything strange to be witnessed. Only when her eyes turned a bit she noticed the lamia just standing there. A couple of slow and heavy blinks were made by her eyes before the body felt back down into the moss. “Nope, can’t do it…” And then she fainted again. Something Rarity also wished to be doing.

The lamia and the soothsayer continued to exchange glances to one another. Neither of them wanted to be doing harm to the other and their very eyes told them so. Yet Pinkie always had that little bit of animalistic nature within her. She didn’t seem to be trusting the group just yet. There was just one sentence that sounded like music to Twilight’s ears. “I like that name,” she spoke up with a smile.

It was a massive relief off of the shoulders from Twilight. It meant to her that they were one step closer to actually getting the lamia right in their little band of misfits. Even though the soothsayer considered the company as her friends, she couldn’t help herself but to view them all as she saw them a long time ago. The time when she first met all of them.

“I’m glad that you like it,” said Twilight when she took another step closer towards the lamia. Pinkie Pie didn’t even move a muscle for a change as she was either waiting for the right moment to strike or she actually had begun to trust the soothsayer.

Rarity couldn’t be taking it anymore. Everything combined had caused her to just became a living, breathing, wreck of a mare. Her mind had become a massive disarray of thoughts and plans as if she needed to sober up. She was drunk without having drunk a single drop of alcohol. She was gone without having gone someplace. Nothing of her mind seemed to be making sense to her anymore. Rarity only wanted one more thing to do, one last desperate attempt.

She had to splash some water in her face. She had to do that in the hope to wake up in the bunk of her own ship. Everything had turned into the looks of a massive dream in her eyes. At first did everything make still a bit of sense. Yet as time went on, the less sense there was being made. It not only devastated Rarity, but was one of the few things that managed to break her entirely.

Without a word stood the unicorn up and she began to walk towards the spring of the river. The unicorn wandered passed Twilight without even looking up. She walked past Pinkie without even looking up. She was just so fixated upon the fact that everything was a dream of her own little world. Though how the dream could have been ever made remained a question to be answered.

Rarity made her way over to the spring while all of the mares and even the creature were staring at her. Silence had taken over the place, only the rushing water could be caught in their ears. The eyelids of Rainbow Dash twitched a bit when she returned to the land of the wake. Fluttershy looked quickly back to the other pegasus and gave her a little smile. A smile that said that everything would have become alright.

The major rose calmly up from her position and saw the lamia once more. Though she didn’t seem to be fainting a third time. In fact she just tilted her head to one side before her attention turned over to Rarity. Whatever the mare had planned out for herself, it couldn’t be good.

The pirate captain stood by the spring, all of the eyes aimed at her like some kind of horror story. Her hands formed a little bowl and allowed it to be filled with water. The look inside of her eyes turned from desperate to happy. She believed holy in the fact that she would have been saved from her nightmares. “Goddess of the moon, give me your grace and relieve me from this nightly torment,” she said to herself before the water was splashed in her face.

Twilight was simply baffled by the fact that Rarity –out of all the anthronies with them– was calling upon a goddess for help. Though the help wouldn’t have come to her. For with the water splashed to her face, it was stone and stone cold. A shiver travelled down her spine just before the unicorn turned herself around.

While the waters were still dripping off of her face did she look over to each of the anthronies and the lamia. “It’s real, isn’t it? E-Everything we have done so far, it’s all real, isn’t it?” she asked in a voice of true disbelief. Not a single fiber of her body was wanting or ready to believe the facts as they were.

But everything they had done up to that point was real. There wasn’t anything in the world that could have taken her out of the reality of life. “S-Sorry, but everything seemed just so, sur-, so surreal to me,” apologized Rarity to them. After which she walked back to her original resting place.

Rainbow’s eyes followed the broken down unicorn as she actually took a form of pity on her. She had always pictured Rarity as this badass who wouldn’t back down for any and all. Yet she was broken that easily by something like that. Then again, she was having a difficulty of her own to actually believe it.

Though with the interruption being over, Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked back at one another for just a second or two. Then the soothsayer was the first one to turn herself around and she made her way back to the rest of the mares. Pinkie wanted to ask what she would be doing but decided to remain quiet. Her body was coiled up around itself even further before she dropped her anthrony part right on top of it.

The soothsayer sat down by the mares, while Rainbow stood up and managed to walk her way over to the rest of the group. She then leaned against the wall where her arms went cross over each other. She had to be hear whatever Twilight would be having to say. The last to join the company again was Fluttershy. With the five of them could the talking begin. But whether it was about the good, the bad or something else remained to be seen.

“I think, we have found the sixth member of the company,” started Twilight. Straight away did the eyes of each of the mares go wide as they were hit by yet again an unbelievable fact. “Before you all open your mouth, let me finish. We’ve been looking for a sixth member ever since we left but we didn’t found it. Now it is being thrown right into our laps.”

“But it’s an animal!” Applejack exclaimed in a whisper.

“She is not!” Twilight replied in an angry tone, “she’s just as much anthrony as you and I. She has only developed herself to be able to live in the subterranean world. Whether you like it or not, we need a sixth member, she is the perfect candidate. Albeit being a bit of a loose cannon. But we aren’t strangers to that. It’s a risk. One I’m willing to take.”

Rarity leaned further against the wall as her head was thrown back as much as it was allowed. “Fine, go ahead, it’s not like I have been smacked with the unbelievable once today. If you think she’s the one, fine by me. Just know, that I won’t hesitate twice if she tries something funny.”

The words of Rarity were shared by the lot of them. Perhaps only Fluttershy had a small deviation of the path but she didn’t wanted to voice her own opinion on the matter. Which meant naturally that the group had decided that Pinkie Pie would be called into the group.

Twilight nodded in calm to the group of the mares and left them for what they were. She then made her way over to Pinkie Pie again. The lamia wanted to rise again but the soothsayer gestured with her hand she could remain sitting or lying down, or whatever it was she was doing.

The unicorn then lowered herself into the moss and assumed a cross-legged position in it. It was time to play open card with the lamia. It was time to reveal to her just why they were there and what they had actually planned to be doing with her.

“Pinkie, I don’t know if you have noticed but the past couple of months, tremors have been hitting. Have you sensed them, or felt them yourself?” the mare asked of her. She placed her hands together while the elbows took a rest upon her knees.

Much to her own surprise did the lamia give a nod to confirm the thoughts. She was well aware of the tremors from the looks of it. Yet the words that would be leaving her mouth could literally change Twilight’s whole perspective upon them. “I haven’t only sensed them, I have also been within one of them! Wasn’t fun at all… All the rocks just falling down on you. I loved those rocks!” Pinkie exclaimed to her before her tail was waggled a little bit.

The unicorn had one look at the wagging tail and noticed something she hadn’t seen before. The scales near the end and for the length of about her own leg were all a bit disfigured. Obviously had Pinkie been hurt by the falling rocks. One must have had the chance to get her and scar her like that. “I, see what you mean,” she said before her attention then turned back up towards the eyes.

“Me and my, little band of mares behind me, we aren’t here for just a little visit to the caves. Something you perhaps could have seen already. We’re here on a mission that has something to do with the tremors,” continued Twilight to explain to the best of her abilities without spoiling too much in advance.

"Well duh, if you were here for sightseeing, you wouldn’t have come up streams. I have been, uhm, kinda, following you since you came from the stairs. I thought you were all spider toast!” exclaimed Pinkie in a bit of an embarrassed tone before the disbelief took over. To Twilight it meant that Pinkie seemed to be knowing perhaps enough of the cavern system to bring them to where they needed to be.

Perhaps the thought was farfetched, but they had encountered a lamia and giant spiders before, why wouldn’t that be true as well? “So there was something lurking at us back there. I already felt a set of eyes spying at my back,” returned Twilight before her lips curled up into a small smile.

“But tell me why are you all here?!” Pinkie said while she became a little bit impatient.

The soothsayer nodded, she would be getting up to that point. The lamia was quickly diagnosed by both Twilight and Fluttershy as having a couple of mental disorders. Something that gave her both a great lack of patience and hyperactivity. Two things that would actually have been the death of any kind of predator. Especially one within the underground caverns.

“Alright, because you ask it. We have been send out to find the cause of the tremors and stop them. For not only are you having problems with them, the world above has it as well,” the soothsayer said with a bit of difficulty in her voice. Whether the lamia could believe there was still a world above or not.

Though Pinkie giggled softly to herself as she then pointed up to the sheet of ice through which the sunlight was being cast. “I know there’s a whole world up there, just never been there and don’t intend to.” For the next set of words that would be leaving her mouth, her tone had changed into one that sounded highly uncomfortable, even from her side. “You plan to, stop the tremors? Y-You can’t. Something else, lurks in the darkness around you. Those spiders you have seen earlier, are nothing compared it. Every last lamia is scared to death for it. None of us even dare to venture that deep into the dark realms. He’s watching, he’s hunting, he’s waiting…”

The soothsayer listened with the greatest of care towards the words of the lamia when one little fact arose in her. Every last lamia, she repeated in her head. That implied the fact that Pinkie Pie wasn’t the only or the last one. It meant that there was a whole society of the creatures hidden somewhere within the darkness of the caverns.

Both of the beings spoke their words loud enough to be captured by the rest of the mares. And those four mares would been having their own little theories and explanations about the events as they had been going down. Especially Applejack’s curiosity was awoken by the mentioning of the mysterious ‘he’, as well as the chance of there being more lamia’s.

“Forgive me for interrupting, but can Ah ask ya som’thing, Pinkie Pie?” the admiral asked of the lamia. She had to be have some form of clearance within her mind. The lamia gave her the right of speaking and the questions were asked. “Ya’re saying that somewhere ‘round here, an entire city is filled with, well, yar kind? And just who is this ‘he’ that ya spoke of? What danger is unknown to us?” The high words were out, the answers would be waiting for them all.

Whether she had realized it or not, but Applejack had torn open a massive wound in Pinkie’s heart and was pouring salt within it. Though the lamia couldn’t blame her, they couldn’t have known. So even with the watery lines of tears already forming did she spoke the story short and simple. “There’s a city hidden in the rocks. One I once was part of. But I was chosen to become the latest sacrifice for him.”

“But who is this, him?” Applejack asked through. She wanted to know.

The eyes of Pinkie shifted their attention from the ground over to Applejack. With just the way she was coiled up on top of her own body, the glare that was given towards the admiral was creepy to say the least. “The Gorgon One…”

Chapter LII

Twilight could see just how terrified Pinkie Pie appeared to have become after she had spoken that one name through the little spring. This mysterious ‘Gorgon One’ had caused her to tremble down to her very soul. Whatever the being was believed to be and just why she was sacrificed to it, must have been equally terrifying. On the other end it showed to Twilight that the lamia of that particular city didn’t seem to believe in the fact that the goddesses of the sun and the moon, were the actual supreme beings of the world.

Though the unicorn wasn’t in the mood to argue with a snake-like anthrony that could easily have crushed her if it wanted. She required to have more information about the creature that Pinkie seemed to be so frightened of. Every last bit that may or may not have been a help would be truly appreciated by the soothsayer. Yet the question was difficult to ask for her.

With the whole of her heart, she almost couldn’t ask it because of the terrified expression that rushed through the blue rims that Pinkie carried. Twilight had to do it though, she had to ask the unaskable question even if it was only for the good of them. They didn’t knew anything from down there whereas Pinkie might have known a whole lot more. That very knowledge could they have used right in their advantage.

With a deep exhale that was released through her nostrils did Twilight ask what she didn’t wanted to ask. “Pinkie, can you tell us more about, this Gorgon One?” she asked in a weak tone, almost as if she wanted to show that even she was actually afraid of the creature. In reality did she wanted to show a bit of sympathy towards the lamia while at the same time get the information that they needed.

The eyes of Pinkie turned back to the unicorn as her scaled ears twitched at the question asked. “You, you never, heard of Him?” she returned towards the mare. Who on her own turn released a shake of her head. As much as she wanted to have some form of information about him, it simply wasn’t given to her or granted to her because of whatever reason. Not even the books of old spoke about a creature going under that very name.

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard from him on the world above. If you don’t want to, it’s fine. But, we need to know what we will be facing if we want to make a stop to all of this,” replied Twilight to the lamia, who was once more caught between a rock and a hard place.

At one end, Pinkie just didn’t wanted to tell the anthronies anything as the truth was hard to face. On the other she did wanted them to tell everything, as it could mean they could protect her. But on the third hand, she had been living near that spring for so long without having encountered anything that was actually dangerous. Outside of the spiders, but she had her tricks for those.

The lamia didn’t uncurl herself from her body as she just remained laying on top of herself, the tail stopped wiggling itself before a deep exhale was released through the nostrils. Almost as if she let go a deep sigh. “Alright,” she started, “but first, tell me who you are. Who you really are. I’m not stupid you know.”

Those words caused a little bit of distraction to come in the eyes of all the other mares. Where was she talking about? How could she have seen through any possible façade put up? All of the mares had the same questions, but their answers would always been different. Twilight was the first of the group to stand up again and just plainly ask what was on their minds. “What has made you come to that conclusion, Pinkie Pie?” she asked.

The lamia’s eyes turned up as the body soon enough followed with a hiss through the teeth. Twilight and Pinkie once again began to stare each other deep in the eyes when the exchange of words happened. “You smell all different, your scents reek from faraway places, yet here you all are, stuck in a cave. Why, I ask. Why is that?”

“We already told you, we’re here to put a stop to the tremors,” replied Twilight with a respectful tone. She wasn’t in the mood to get into an argument with Pinkie, but then she made the realization that she hadn’t introduced herself, nor the rest of them, to the creature. The eyes of the mare went wide as soon as she figured that part out. “Oh, you mean, our names? Don’t you?”

The lamia’s tail began to slap itself against the ground while the nods were given. Any hint of anger towards the group literally vanished like snow in the sun. “Mmhm, your names I never caught. You gave one to me, but now I wanna know yours too!” Pinkie spoke in her usual and at the same time unusual, happy tone.

“Seems like a formal introduction is at its place then. The name is Twilight Sparkle, soothsayer from the castle of Canterlot,” the mulberry unicorn spoke before she made an oddly polite bow before the creature. It was a thing that hadn’t been expected by Pinkie at all.

Soon after her did the rest of the company followed up in a similar fashion. But when Applejack came around, the lamia was naturally curious about the steam powered leg. Even before the question could have been asked had Applejack already shushed her about it. She didn’t need to know everything about them or their kind.

Hence why Twilight didn’t spoke about the goddesses that she believed in.

But then the curtain had finally fallen for Pinkie Pie. There was no escape and she had to do it. She had to talk about the creature she didn’t wanted to discuss with another being. Her eyes closed themselves for a couple of seconds as the face seemed to be dropping itself. “He’s said to have created our world, down below. When the top world changed too much, we’re all driven back into these caverns. There it was Him who built our cities and gave us our homes. It was because of Him that we became the way we are.”

“Sounds like brainwashing to me,” whispered Applejack to Rarity. The admiral wanted to know if the ex-strategist could be working out something around the words. Yet the pirate captain only released a gentle nod before she focused her attention back on the story being told.

“We lived in harmony for so long, but from time to time He required a sacrifice. He’s the god of the earth and rock! Of course we couldn’t deny Him, He shaped everything so, so we did His bidding. Even when He became silent so long ago, we still continued the rituals. We believed that among the silence, He still slithers. Watching over us from the darkness,” explained Pinkie to them.

“Sorry for interrupting here, Pinkie, but, how long has it been since he had gone silent?” Twilight asked then. The mare wanted to have more information for herself. She wanted to make a little timeline inside of her head that made some form of sense. That way she could view exactly what happened when and possibly tie events together.

“He’s been silent longer than I am living. Hundred, two hundred years perhaps?” Pinkie replied. She thought it didn’t matter. What else was interesting was that she used years as a measure of time. Whether a year in the lamia city was the same for them, remained to be seen though. For the time being, they just went with the story as it was being told.

“And, what happened when the first tremor hit?” Twilight asked through. She needed to get to the bottom of the barrel to get all of the required information out of the being. Her eyes had narrowed themselves just a little bit as she glanced over Pinkie with a serious stare.

That stare alone was in fact enough to make the lamia realize that the beings from the world above wouldn’t just mock her for anything. At least one of them was were genuinely interested in the words she had to say. Whether they would have been used for their own good was a thing that still remained to be seen of course. “At first, we thought nothing of it. Tremors happen often for us, light ones that is. But when they became more violent, we thought that the Gorgon One was angry.”

“…Hence an increase in sacrifices which included you. But once they had kicked you out, you learned there wasn’t anything waiting. So basically now you’re waiting to, to what actually?” Twilight pulled one of her eyebrows up. She didn’t seem capable of figuring out on what the lamia was still waiting for.

“Anything! Him, death, you. Anything to just, just get me out of here, I, once I had found this place, I always kinda, dreamed to visit, the world above, you know,” said Pinkie with hesitation in her voice. Her fingers tapped each other in a nervous manner. Which was in fact right what Twilight wanted her to be doing. Pinkie wanted to go with them, to be released from the place she came to call ‘home’. It was an idea of madness itself of course.

Yet getting the lamia to actually leave was a fact more difficult to be proved. “Though, I know this spring like the back of my scaled hand. I know every last rock that sits and stands here. I wanna go, but at the same time I can’t!” Pinkie then yelled to them. She frailed her hands into the air. Twilight took a small step back because she wasn’t certain of the events that would come soon.

Twilight’s eyes shifted between parts of Pinkie’s body at a constant rate. Of the snake like body would have made a jump towards her, everything could have started from beginning again. “Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie! Listen to me, listen to me, very carefully,” said Twilight in a commanding yet soft tone.

Straight away had she gained the attention of the lamia once more who tilted her head. “Huh, listen to what?” Pinkie asked to her. She didn’t got the words spoken to her. Not that it mattered much to Twilight, for the creature had become calm once more.

“I think it is best if you show us exactly where your city rests, we need to have more information about what we might be facing in our quest. For we plan to go to a place we believe that is the origin of the tremors,” said Twilight in just the calm tone. She had to keep the lamia at her good side if they wanted to achieve anything and everything with it.

Those very words caught the attention of every last creature in the neighborhood of the spring. Was Twilight really that crazy enough to go to a settlement occupied with only those snake like beings? Then again, they had to admit on the fact that they might have been knowing a little bit more about everything and all.

The rest of the company could only agree in silence on the decision that had fallen. They didn’t knew what was true wisdom in the moment. For them it all just seemed like utter madness. Yet then they were painfully reminded where they were and what they had done already. Their entire quest had been madness so far, so why would that fact be changing then?

Nods were given off by Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy as they all agreed upon going to the city of stone, in stone. Only Pinkie Pie seemed to had her own difficulties about going. She was sacrificed to pretty much their version of a god. So returning to the city could be seen as a major disgrace of disrespect. Or even worse, it could anger the Gorgon One even more than he already was.

All of it played a part in the mind of the lamia before her body was dropped once more. She took a rest upon herself while the eyes were closed for only a couple of seconds. Silence was the sound that engulfed the room for them all. Silence of uncertainty and unfamiliarity. Twilight could only be hoping that the lamia would give her a positive answer.

Pinkie Pie had just opened her eyes once more did they stared right into those of Twilight with a stare that couldn’t be described. It was within those purple rims that the lamia saw something she had been missing for a very, very long time within her life. For she saw the comfort that nopony had given her for months. A genuine comfort that spoke about helping her through the difficult time she was going through.

Seconds just ticked by as if they were nothing. The company waited for the answer that would have been thrown at them. Whether it would be good or bad, they knew just how their encounter would be ending. Tons of different scenarios went through all of their heads from a peaceful departure to her sending the spiders after them.

Of course were some of the thoughts just madness, but they couldn’t be helping themselves about it actually. The little doom scenarios inside of their heads would be getting the upperhand from time to time. Which in and of itself wasn’t a good enough thing. Only Twilight seemed to have been able to keep her head low to the ground and therefore the ability to think clearly.

Then did the mouth of the lamia open itself and did the words do their turn around and about the spring. Words that most likely would have surprised every last being there. “I’ll bring you there,” said Pinkie in a monotone voice. She knew that the possibility was there that she herself wasn’t allowed into the walls because of their religion.

Though it was a risk that seemed to be worth taking in her own eyes. Even with the guards being a bunch of tight guys. She knew somewhere in the back of her head that she could always just have tried to get through. As unsettling as it was, she had to try it.

There was a massive relief that went from the shoulders of Twilight as she allowed herself a deep exhale through her mouth. She couldn’t have believed that Pinkie actually would be showing them the way towards the city. Yet that still left just one question unasked. A question that was actually better left that way until the time was there.

Perhaps the opportunity to ask it was there and then. Twilight knew that Pinkie was the sixth member of the company. She still decided to just take her time and watch the lamia first a bit more before she would ask whether or not she wanted to join the company. First things first, was the thought that went through Twilight’s mind.

“Before we go, is there anything that you still want to tell or do, Pinkie?” Twilight asked the lamia. She knew they wouldn’t be returning for a long time to come. But the lamia had already uncurled herself, she was even searching the spring for a couple of things. “W-What are you doing?”

The creature was rubbing its back against the rocks, almost as if it was having some form of itch that just wouldn’t be going away no matter what. All of the mares were looking a little bit surprised to the scene. They didn’t seem to be daring enough to interrupt the lamia. As unusual as the events seemed to have been, that harmonious it also appeared.

For Rarity was once again taken by the bouncing, scaled breasts of the creature. A little bit of a blush even came to her face before she tore her attention away from it. Fractions of a second later did she receive an elbow of Applejack to her arm. The tick was light, but enough to get the pirate captain’s attention.

Her sapphire blue rimmed eyes looked right into the vibrant green ones from Applejack with a wonder in them. The rims of Applejack on the other end were having a little twinkle in them before she grinned towards her nemesis. “Ya in love, Brittenburg?” she chuckled in a whisper.

But Rarity just released a deep huff through her nostrils as she wasn’t particular liking the comment that was being made to her. In fact, she was hating it more than anything else. “No, I am questioning my sexual orientation, happy now? Don’t open that pit, Jackie, for I can tear you down in a second,” replied Rarity in a dangerously low tone.

She meant every last word that was spoken. The eyes of Applejack went wide just a moment later. “Ya wouldn’t dare to say it,” she whispered before her eyes narrowed again.

“Have you kept up with the records of me? I don’t just bluff. I bark, before I bite.”

Then it was Applejack’s turn to release a huff before she went silent again. The unicorn seemed to have been glad that the admiral became just that. Rarity’s eyes began to shift between any other place and the lamia. Even up to the point where she had to shake her head a couple of times. Something had to happen to that snake, and she would take care of it personally if she had to.

After a couple of minutes had the lamia returned to the rocks that formed the spring and coiled herself around it. She gave one last squeeze to the rocks with a moan. Then she finally let everything go. Her body dropped down to the ground before the eyes turned over to Twilight. “Marking my scent, this is my place. And my place alone. I don’t want it to be infested with spiders after I come back,” she said to the soothsayer with a smile.

It was there and then or it was never. Twilight had to ask the question that was on her mind. She couldn’t be living with herself if she didn’t or wouldn’t be asking the question there and then. A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the unicorn as the rest of the mares were already preparing themselves to leave.

They walked by the unicorn and walked down the gentle and little stream of the river. “Pinkie, a-about going home. There’s something that I need to ask you. Something I better ask now before it might be too late,” the soothsayer said while the others went passed them.

The eyes of the lamia widened themselves a little bit before an eyebrow was risen up. She didn’t seem to be fully understanding the words. “What do you mean, Twilight? Have always come home thus far. Even with my trips to the city.”

“But I take it you never went into the city?”

To that could the lamia only give a nod. She had been visiting the city after her sacrifice perhaps more than three times, but she always stood on the outside of it. The mares were planning to go inside of the place and get some much needed information. “I bring you to the city and then it’s back home for me,” commented Pinkie to the matter.

Twilight couldn’t help herself but to let out a single chuckle to the words. They were just so simple sounding, but they also were something terrible at the same time. “What I want to ask you, Pinkie, is… Is if you want to travel with us. Travel with us to the center of everything and put a stop to it all. You said it yourself, you were waiting for something to happen. Now is the chance to take it with both hands.”

Twilight’s words continued to echo within the mind of the lamia as she didn’t knew what she needed to be doing. Of course did the words sound like a dream that had become true, but she had been living at the spring for such a long time. So who knew just how she would be ending up. For all she knew, she could be ending as one of the mares their very pet.

Thousands, if not millions of thoughts rushed through the mind of the lamia as her hair almost seemed to be deflating itself. Yet the unicorn made perhaps the wise decision not to talk any further word until the questions came. Questions that perhaps could hold the answers to everything that was required.

But Twilight was having a point. Pinkie had indeed said that she was waiting for something to happen and the chance was given to her, by them. Her eyes had one last look over the spring just before a deep exhale was being released through her nostrils. Silence took over the lamia once again while her body spun around and around.

Glances to the area’s where she almost seemed to have grown up went past her eyes before she finally turned her gaze back to Twilight. All that she could do was to give a nod at first. A nod that confirmed the words that were said to her. For Twilight was having a major point. “Yeah, you’re right… I said I wanted something different. Guess I’ll be taking it with both hands then,” replied Pinkie. Though her tone was a mixture of both somber and happy.

Almost as if she wasn’t certain about her decision. Yet the words had been said already. There wouldn’t have been any way that she could return to her original points. Whether the lamia wanted to believe it or not, she had joined the company of misfits on their impossible quest.

“Well, now that you’re on the team, catch!” the voice of Rarity echoed through the caverns as something was thrown into the direction of Pinkie. The lamia caught the object with an incredible speed and reaction time. Then she released an angry hiss towards the pirate. “Oh shush and put it on would you!”

“Put it, on?” repeated Pinkie with a cocked head. She didn’t seem to be understanding one bit of the words. Though in her hand wasn’t something that felt hard. Instead it seemed to be sort of soft. Quickly did she unravel the soft thing and held it before her eyes. Straight away did she notice just what it was and began to giggle deeply to herself.

“What so funny?” Rarity asked her while she rose up an eyebrow. Rarity didn’t thought it was actually that funny what she had shown Pinkie Pie, but apparently did the lamia do so.

The thing that Rarity had thrown to her was a shirt out of her own collection. It may not have been much, but it at least kept those bouncing breasts right out of her eyes. As long as the lamia would be wearing it, she would have been happy about it. “Just put it on will you?” Rarity added while she became a little annoyed.

The lamia then indeed proceeded by putting the thing on and made sure it was sitting good around her body. “Thanks Rarity!” she exclaimed happily before Twilight coughed a time or two. “Hm? Oh, yes, sorry! Follow me!” And finally were they off. Off towards the city of the lamia’s where everything could once again happen.

~~~~

The entire group of six beings had begun their very travels towards the lamia city. With Pinkie having taken over the lead for them all, they could only be hoping that she would show them over paths that they could actually travel over and didn’t had to turn and twist their bodies around like snakes.

Whether they liked it or not, they weren’t as maneuverable as Pinkie appeared to be. For the giant lamia managed to make her swift way through almost everything. All of the rocks didn’t seem to be hurting her one bit, nor did they seem to be able to scratch her.

In order to kill some time had all of the anthronies asked the lamia questions about pretty much everything. They ranged from the facts of the ritual from which she was the sacrifice from to the size of the city and who governed over it. Twilight had instructed them specifically to not mention anything from the world above. Even when Pinkie would ask something about it had the answers to be kept vague.

Pinkie Pie wasn’t as stupid as she made herself to be believed from time to time either. She knew almost in an instant that the group of mares was having some secrets behind their backs. Which resulted in her not answering all of the questions that they had. She didn’t fully trusted the mares yet and nopony could be blaming her. Not to forget the little fact that the lamia had been going through some tough times of her own. So naturally she didn’t answer all of the questions.

There did happen to be one little question that Twilight kept on wondering about. For when she practically walked next to the lamia, her eyes were always granted a look upon it. With the torches having summoned and ignited could they once more see the road ahead as it coiled and twisted with every turn. “Say Pinkie, your scales seem to be highly resistant to the sharp rocks here, but that scar on your tail tells me a different story… Are all lamia so strong when it comes to resistance to the ground, or at least the rocks?”

“Nope,” the creature replied almost right away. The answer came as a surprise for the soothsayer as even more connections to the world atop were made. “You have to train yourself to get such hard scales. Wander through the caverns for hours, days, months! Tis fun exploring them!”

Making sense didn’t seem to have been an actual priority for the lamia. Twilight discovered that little fact all the more while they simply continued to wander through the caverns. All the way up to the point where she even just gave up about trying to make sense with the creature. She was more than done for the time being and required a little bit of mental rest.

Which in and of itself was actually a thing that Pinkie also required as she was tired from the questions being asked to her. In silence did Twilight gesture to the rest of the mares to not interrupt the lamia any further. Just to be safe than sorry.

The company understood the message while their torches went from left to right. They were still cautious about the spiders that might have been walking anywhere in the system. After their original encounter had all of them a constant fear embedded within their bodies. A fear that none of them were happy with but managed to keep them right on the tips of their hooves.

“Okay, out this hallway and to the left lays the underground city,” said Pinkie before she released a sigh. “To my left lays my home… But I can’t go back.” Sadness was the emotion that took her over almost completely and she once again turned into an entirely different being. Twilight took a couple of steps forward and placed a hand upon the shoulder of the creature.

“You have us to back you up if needed. You have joined us, remember?” Twilight said with a genuine smile that went across her face. It managed to cheer up the lamia just a little bit. Though the sooner they would be on their way again, the better. Pinkie wasn’t looking forwards to the reunion at all and her eyes screamed it out.

The company of mares made their way through the hallway in silence and then turned left. In their eyes they caught the massive stone wall with the equally massive carved out gate within it. It was impossible to imagine that something that big could actually have been standing there. Not to forget the time it had been resting there. Thousands of years of history went into that rock and each of them were just amazed by the sights they saw.

The near countless torches that illuminated the doorway and the nearby surrounding. It was a sight that was both simple yet magical at the same time. None could have ever imagined that they would be walking right up against it. And one of them, hid itself behind the whole of the group.

“Wow, this, this is, this is just amazing,” Twilight became more baffled while she stepped further. Her eyes glanced from the top towards the bottom before she noticed the guards. “Now that’s interesting,” she mumbled to herself. For the guards were about the same size as Pinkie Pie, with the exception of having armored plating all over their body.

As much as Twilight wanted that they hadn’t seen the company yet, so long had they been keeping an eye upon them. “Who dares to wander over the land lamia king?” one of the guards grumbled up in a low toned voice. “You do not look like lamia to us, nor are you spiders. What is your very purpose in the holy city?”

“Well, delusions of grandness are on their place,” commented Twilight without a sound and moved her lips only minimal. Not even any of the other mares heard the words she spoke. “Me and my, companions, good sir, are here to stock up and learn more about our path ahead.”

“Path ahead? Ain’t nothing past the crossroad you just came from except more darkness,” the other guard said as his bright yellow eyes looked over the company. “You are looking like surface dwellers. Finally figured out you can come and get us again? Armed to the teeth but not eager to shoot. Rare treats these days.”

“Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say?” Twilight replied almost instantly afterwards. Twilight didn’t seem to be able to make anything of the matter, which wasn’t a first after everything. But the chance to explain anything to them wasn’t given. For as the guard wanted to make his reply, the ground beneath their very hooves and skin began to quake.

“Tremor!” one of the guards yelled before he slithered off to a room in a side cavern. The other guard pointed to all of the mares and towards the same entrance way. They understood that they were guided to some sort of shelter bunker. One that was hopefully able to protect them all from the incoming hit.

Mere seconds later had each of the beings hunkered down within the shelter bunker and the door was closed. Much to all of their surprise was the thing actually a metal box. A metal box that seemed to have been made out of layers and layers of thick and sturdy stuff.

Time to think about it there wasn’t as the gnawing of the rocks against it was unsettling to say the least. Sharp tips scraped themselves against the outside of the box as the violent tremor went past them all.

"The Gorgon One is pissed,” the guard with the yellow eyes said after he finally dared to uncurl himself. Terror was something embedded within their very mindsets while Rainbow Dash couldn’t tolerate any of it.

The pegasus major stood up from her spot and glanced both of the guards deep in the eyes. “And that’s exactly why we’re here. To put an end to the tremors once and for all. You said there was nothing else but darkness, but we know the answers lay beneath that darkness. We aren’t afraid of the dark nor what’s inside of it!”

“Heh, wonderful spirit you have there, admirable. Loyal, but you ain’t gonna make it down there. Stopping the tremors? No, only the Gorgon… Wait, no… Don’t tell me… No!” His eyes had fallen upon Pinkie Pie and both of the guards took up their arms right away.

“That’s why he’s so angry at us, he hasn’t found you yet! You were supposed to be his dinner for a very long time ago! Go, all of you… Go! You aren’t welcome in the city of the king! Go before we do you all something!” the guard bellowed to them.

“Can’t we talk about this for a moment?” Rarity answered as she took a step forward. Only to just miss the lance hitting her. “Oh, kay, not going to happen I presume.”

“Make haste in leaving the city… The Gorgon One is always lurking and hunting, he is condemning us all to Tartarus if he doesn’t get her!” the guard shouted as he forced all of the mares to go out of the metal box.

Twilight couldn’t help herself but to found herself intrigued by the culture of the creatures. But even she had to run all the way back to the crossroads. But the guards continued to walk after them, their weapons drawn and almost pointing them through their backs. “You ain’t gonna give up, are ya?” Applejack whispered towards the soothsayer.

Who on her own turn gave of a nasty looking grin. “Oh, just you watch me,” she said before her horn coated itself within the raspberry aura.

Chapter LIII

The arcane power kept on collecting itself around the horn of Twilight. Both of the lamia guards were glancing towards it and one another. They were aware that magic was a force that was existing within their world. They all had felt the powers of the arcane surging through their bodies at one point or another. But they couldn’t believe that there were actually beings who could call upon it.

Twilight’s own anger towards the guards was only increased when one of them poked Pinkie Pie with a lance and commanded her to move on. That did it for the unicorn in fact. She was having enough of the city already and she hadn’t even seen the insides of it. Even though Pinkie was a lamia like the rest of them, they treated her like garbage. Just because she was sacrificed towards this Gorgon One didn’t automatically happen to mean they could do to her as they pleased.

“Outch, watch it!” Pinkie exclaimed after the shock of pain had gone through her body. She began to rub her back a bit with a frown upon her face. “Too much to ask to show them the insides?”

“Silence, you have no more right to talk to any of us,” the other guard spoke in a dangerously low tone. The yellow eyed one seemed to be the only one wanting to show a bit of mercy towards Pinkie. But his sense of duty and orders from higher up all just prevented him from actually doing so.

“Oh now you have gone too far!” Twilight shouted towards the guards after she had abruptly turned herself around and released all of the stored magic that she had. With deep exhales that went through her nostrils did the light of her horn became brighter. She was angry at the guards, but not just angry in any normal manner of the word. No, she wanted to show them both that they could be standing their ground if they were pushed too far.

And they both had pushed the mares too far, or at least Twilight.

With the massive outburst of the raspberry light nearly blinding their eyes did everypony just had to look away for a moment. Among the blindness of the light could the sounds of wood being bend be caught clear within their very ears. Whatever happened, the company was happy that Twilight wasn’t breaking their very bones. But whatever else she might have done, remained a question to be seen. An answer they would discover soon enough.

The hallways of the cavern were engulfed within the raspberry light and everything that didn’t knew they were there, must have known it by then. It would either set in the hunt for them, or retreat to darker domains.

It was in fact the second thing that was done by pretty much all of the spiders that were in the neighborhood. Spiders that had dared to follow the company within the darkness of the caves. But with such a bright light and arcane powers that came forth out of so much anger, all they could be doing was flee. Flee for their dear little lives and hope that that light was never witnessed by their eyes again.

The guards were both shuddering with their bodies. They felt the wood in their very hands vibrate like mad. What was happening to it? What was that thing, doing to it? And how could it have called upon the powers of the arcane like that? Did they anger some kind of other god they didn’t knew about? Or had the surface dwellers managed to evolve in such a way that they could tap into it? All of those questions went through the heads of the guards without ever being spoken.

Countless questions went through their heads as they could only be guessing the answers upon them. Whatever would be happening next, it wouldn’t have been something all too pleasant. But they were still alive, still alive and kicking. That said something about the massive power that the mare in front of them possessed.

Wheezes were made by the body of Twilight while the lights still became brighter with every single exhale. For a couple seconds did she just stood there with the lights being almost as bright as the sun. None of the members of the company dared to look right into it whereas Pinkie sought shelter within her own body. She had coiled up around herself and placed her head in the middle of it, on the far side so that she would stare into the darkness.

Pinkie was terrified as well, the last thing she wanted was that Twilight would be ending lives because of her. But if no other chance was going to be given to the unicorn, what else could be done? Where would Twilight have drawn the line of it being enough?

Finally did the lights began to lower themselves. Finally did the natural darkness of the caverns and the light of the torches return to it. But there was one more little surprise in store for the lot of them. While Twilight remained standing there, the wheezing that went through her nostrils, she had tapped into another kind of magic.

A kind of magic she didn’t wanted to tap in ever since an accident had happened with it. It wasn’t the dark magic she feared, but one equally as destructive. All of the mares held their torches high as they wanted to see what was going on, but also not burn anything in the process. Yet their eyes were caught by something.

Something that terrified them as the lights of Twilight’s horn had completely vanished. Their torches seemed to have gotten a will of their own. For the flames that sat on top of it seemed to become more intense with every exhale Twilight took. Yet with every inhale they became normal again.

Rarity couldn’t believe it and the rest couldn’t believe it either. Twilight was a mare who remained to be filled with surprises from the looks of it. It turned out that she also had the knowledge of the pyromatic arts. In other words: the art of fire. Terror struck all of the beings as they were scared to their deaths. If Twilight would have lost control over herself there and then, who knew and could tell just what would be happening to them all?

The wheezes continued for a short period of time. Then Twilight had managed to calm herself down. The breathing became regular once more while the light of the torches also returned to normal. Relief came to all of the creatures as Pinkie dared to uncoil herself. They knew that they didn’t had to anger Twilight, but they didn’t knew she was capable of doing such acts.

The eyes of the unicorn moved over to the guards just before the dreaded words were spoken. For finally they also had a clear view over their lances again. The guards looked at their weapons and saw just how far the wood had managed to bend. It almost made a perfect curl around and the tips were pointing right at them.

“W-Witchcraft!” the yellow eyed lamia exclaimed just fractions before he dropped his lance. “You’re a witch! A bringer of darkness upon our flourishing times. You’re a harbinger…”

“Of what?” Twilight said in a dead serious and cold tone towards him.

The creature gulped loudly as he saw his life almost flashing past his eyes. “O-Of, death,” he dared to speak. All of his muscles managed to ready themselves in a split-second for any possible retreat that he would be making. The guards only had to return back to the doorway and they would have been safe. For behind that doorway, there was safety. Out there, only danger lurked, always.

But Twilight released a grin in return towards the guards before she shook her head. “Oh no, no, no, no, I’m no harbinger of death. No, I needed to make a point clear to you,” she spoke in that same serious tone. If it was only thrown a couple of tunes lower it would have become monotone. The unicorn was really shifting upon the edge of becoming that, and staying as threatening as she appeared to be.

“What do you wish from us?” the other guard dared to speak. He had set his lance into the ground and thus became more negotiable. It almost appeared then to have become some kind of unusual scepter worthy for some high council member or something. Applejack and Rainbow couldn’t help themselves but to let out a chuckle. Fluttershy was too scared to think of anything else as the problems could be hitting them any time again.

Though Rarity was brooding upon something else. She had placed herself against the wall and just watched over the events. “I want you to stop hurting her. You may have sacrificed her to the Gorgon One, but we have taken her into our company. She shall be our guide to lead us into the underground caverns. You said there was no path, but there always is for those who look.”

The guard could only release a deep huff in response. Even though he was terrified of her power, he still had a duty of his own he needed to accomplish. They needed to remain out of the city. Which was exactly what he demanded from the group. “We won’t hurt her, as long as she doesn’t show her face into the city or the gates ever again. Next time she comes, she’s going to be dinner. Am, I, clear?” The words were spoken tough, but the heart was still afraid.

“As crystal,” the soothsayer replied before she turned around. Then she walked away from the guards. Who did the same and made their way over to the doorway again. The rest of the company could only follow Twilight into the deeper darkness. They wouldn’t be having a single clue as of what they needed to do. Nor did they know what laid behind those stone doors.

“Applejack,” the pirate captain began while her horn was charged slight, “you know my abilities, right? If you trust me for a change, you know I can succeed upon what I have planned. But my window of opportunity is only getting smaller and smaller.”

The admiral didn’t fully realize what Rarity meant at first, but as she looked behind her did everything became clear. “Are ya really wanting to do an espionage mission? Right here, right now? Are ya cr- No, don’t answer that one.”

“You know me too well,” chuckled Rarity before she gave a little rune to the earth anthrony. “Keep this with you, and I’m able to find you among the dark of these caves. My magic is connected to it, it will always guide me to it, thus to the group.” The rune fell in the hand of Applejack who was having a rather difficult time actually believing that Rarity dared to place so much trust into her.

But on the other end, it showed just how much Rarity was willing to place their grudge aside for the quest. The fingers of the admiral coiled up around the stone before she placed it in a pocket of her coat. “Alright, go ahead, Ah inform Twilight. Go, before Ah change mah mind again.”

“Thanks Jackie,” the pirate captain replied. Rarity even went so far as to make a polite bow. Her horn discharged itself before she then just left the group. Just like that, was Rarity gone.

“She’s planning on what?!” Twilight exclaimed seconds later after Applejack had explained the crazed plan to her. “Don’t tell me she’s actually that crazy.” Her pace came to a screeching hold before she looked back over to the stone doorway. And upon the path leading towards it, she walked. Without a torch or anything in her hand, sticking as much as possible to the shadows.

“Oh I can just dump her back into the ocean right now, seriously! How stupid is she?” Twilight exclaimed while she growled softly to herself. But Applejack on the other end could only release an actual chuckle in response.

A hand was placed upon Twilight’s shoulder before she looked into the eyes of the admiral. “Believe me when Ah say she knows her stuff. Ah’ve seen the reports of her actions and seen her in combat mahself. She may appear to be sweet, sugar and nice. But she carries a lot of spice hidden behind her. If any of us can infiltrate that place, it’s her.”

Twilight turned her eyes back over to the doorway and noticed how it was standing open. With the guards making their way inside, she could only see Rarity slipping through it. “I hope you’re right.” Then did the door close in upon them with a loud and stony thud. Rarity was inside of the city while the rest of them were out there. “I hope so, that you’re right.”

Applejack didn’t wanted to say it right in the face of Twilight, but she was praying in silence to herself that she was that. Rarity was possibly the biggest loose cannon that the whole company had. Always appearing to be calm, collected and strong, but deep inside of her laid a vicious creature. One that formed the whole inspiration of her being the bloodthirsty captain she was always pictured to be.

The very picture which Applejack eventually came to believe that that was the real Rarity Brittenburg. “Believe me, she’s full of surprises,” was perhaps the safest thing that could be said about the unicorn captain.

Twilight released a gentle nod before her attention came back to the rest of the group. “Alright everypony, we set up our camp right here. All we can do is wait for her to return, if she ever comes to return.” And with those words was the camp set up for all of them. A rather simple one at that as the tent wasn’t summoned up. Instead they only took out smaller things like sleeping bags and equipment to make a campfire.

Comfortable it may not have been but their options were truly limited within the cave.

~~~~

With the door having closed upon her from behind, Rarity did realize that she was on her own. No more help would be ready for her should she have fallen into the problems. But her eyes focused themselves upon the two guards. No doubt they would have gone to a higher official to tell just what happened. So all that she had to do, was to follow them and listen in on that very conversation.

The only problem was the fact that it was a lamia city. Which resulted in her admiring the scenery first from the shadows. Spires that reached all the way up to the ceiling were shown to her eyes as she couldn’t believe just what she saw. All of those massive stones were carved out to either become homes or working stations.

Countless of those spires could be seen through the entire stretch of the opening in the caverns. Her eyes continued along the ceiling to see if there was any hole that could be connecting them to the upper world. A little chuckle was already released to herself as the thought alone was idiotic.

There wasn’t even the slightest bit of sunlight to be found within the whole of the cavern though. Yet there still was some source of light that the creatures used. Curiosity and surprise took the mare over as she moved from one spot to the other. She had to keep an eye out on those two pesky guards while also making sure nopony noticed her scurrying about.

Two things that seemed to have been impossible to do. But when she looked down to her crouched body and rubbed a hand over the gems on her lower belly, it only proved to her that she had stood against impossible odds before…and survived.

Sneaking through the shadows, Rarity moved in silence. Her hooves covered by the leather of her boots caused her to walk without a sound. Even though her clothing was white and her skin even whiter, she somehow managed to blend in with the darkness. That, or the lamia were actually blind enough to not notice her.

The lights that lit up the whole of the city were some she thought to have lost a long time ago. Every time that she went past one of them there was a little tingle in her horn. A little tingle that told her that her magic wanted to connect to another kind of magic, or vice versa. That allowed her to get to the conclusion that those lights, weren’t normal lights at all.

“Magelights, that’s something I haven’t seen in a long time,” she whispered to herself while the eyes had focused on one of the lantern posts. On top of the post could it be found, the grayish or white light that was being cast right into the city. “No wonder my horn is going in overdrive here, it’s caught here for centuries at least. It wants to go, it wants to vanish. But something keeps it there.”

Interest had been born within the body of the unicorn while she continued to sneak further up. Lamia’s came and went past her, but they didn’t notice the mare at all. It wasn’t a feeling that caused her to be that comfortable with everything. Surely they must have seen her right? Surely they must have at least smelled her, right?

Smell, that could have been the answer. Pinkie’s nose could have developed itself while she lived in a near constant danger. The lamia inside of the city lived a pretty easy life. Their meals were prepared and all that good stuff. They didn’t had to leave for anything. It was their very little world. They didn’t knew what was behind the gates.

They didn’t knew what laid further into the darkness. “Now that’s just something cruel,” the mare whispered up again while she stroked her chin. Her eyes then focused back upon the guards and she followed them.

Time and time again wasn’t there anything that seemed to have been able to detect her. It really was like Canterlot in one strange way or the other. They weren’t paying attention for something strange to happen, they all thought that safety was right there, within those very wells. Not only Canterlot felt like that, every major city without a reputation felt that way.

A feeling that both comforted as disturbed the pirate captain. Her eyes constantly shifted over from left to right as she was always worried about somepony actually noticing her. The fears kept her reflexes as sharp as they needed to be.

Her sapphire blue eyes kept a great eye out for the two guards who made a turn left and then right. Rarity just followed and then saw their final destination. A place that wasn’t a massive spire reaching for the top, but a massive building that seemed to have been carved right into the rocks themselves. It reminded her of some ancient ruins she had once sailed past but never entered.

“So here we are then? The palace of your little, king. This should be interesting for certain,” said Rarity to herself in a whisper. The doors opened before the lamia and they entered the place. The unicorn made the decision to take the head on assault. Rarity just rushed over to the closing door and slipped through just before it closed like it normally would.

She had done it, she had entered the palace of the king, as she called it. She could continue with her investigation about the situation. The mare could only hope that she wouldn’t have been captured by any of the guards that wandered through it. Though the light was blinding enough already. But she was a pirate captain, a fierce one at that.

Rarity knew how to save herself out of almost every sticky situation though. At least she thought to have been knowing it. With her legs in a crouched position had she already made herself as small as she possibly could have done. Her eyes watched through the hallway before they finally dared to be looking up. “Chandeliers, fire to keep the lights on. But those must be connected somehow…” she mumbled to herself. Ideas were flowing, but which were right?

There was only one more thing that she could be doing. The unicorn rose up from her position after the guards had left the hallway. A deep exhale was taken by the mare before she made a sprint towards the opposing wall and ran up against it in silence. When she lost her momentum, there was a jump made in the direction of the support beams for the chandeliers. It could have been her only chance to have gotten a bird’s eye view of the whole place.

But the execution of her thoughts didn’t go really in the way that she had originally planned them. For instead of ending with her legs upon the wooden beam, only her arms and top of her head managed to have raised themselves already. “At least I’m up here, got that going for me.” She only needed to get the rest of her body upon the thing and then she could continue her searches.

There wasn’t any other way she could be crawling on top of the beam without making some form of noise. But if she kept on hanging there, the lamia would eventually have found her by both her dangling legs and tail. “One swing, Brittenburg, one swing is all that it takes and you know it,” she whispered to herself before the eyes closed.

Deep in- and exhales were released through the nostrils of the mare before she finally dared to do the action. She began to sway her body from right to left in the hope to eventually be able to throw a leg unto the beam. A little bit of acrobatics was being performed by the mare, not that she could complain too much about it though.

She was physically able to do it, but the moans and groans came almost naturally. And every moan she released through her mouth caused her to become more vulnerable of being captured. Time was running out and she knew that better than any other being that could be present. “Come on, come on!” she muttered to herself while the swings kept on happening. “Don’t tell me I have forgotten it, did I?”

Finally had she managed to get a leg over the wooden beam and the other then soon followed suit. Her whole body was placed upon the thing, her tail laid itself perfect within the gap of her legs. Only when looked up could the silhouette of the unicorn be seen. There wasn’t any other way that she could be spotted. At least none to her knowledge in the moment.

A deep exhale was being released through her mouth. Rarity was just glad that none of the guards had taken the time to investigate the strange noises in the hallway. If they had even heard them to begin with that was. Her eyes then looked over to the support beam and she could indicate the actual size it had.

“Perfect for a lamia to either coil up around or to just slither on, meaning I won’t have too much trouble walking over it,” said Rarity to herself before she rose up. Yet straight away had she to assume a crouched position again. There was a lamia that had managed to make its way into the hallway and stood still, right below her.

The sleeve of the unicorn was rolled up to reveal the hidden device she always carried with her. Her trusted harpoon that had saved her skin in more than one event. The sharp tip of the tiny harpoon was aimed directly at the head of the lamia, though she prayed to the moon goddess that the thing would just move away from her.

Rarity didn’t wanted to cause any more trouble than she would be having too. Her eyes were closed while the prayers were said without a sound. Only the motions of her mouth revealed that she was saying something. But what remained unknown.

In the end did the lamia just leave through the doorway of the palace, relieving Rarity. She didn’t had to fire her harpoon and for that was she just happy as anything could be. A massive weight fell off of her shoulders before she then proceeded to relocate her two guards again. But she had lost just so much time with everything that it must have been impossible to actually find them again.

It could be seen as a lost cause as she walked over the beams. The walls that separated the beams from each other only had holes that size she could be crawling through within them. Security didn’t seem to be really a priority for the residents of the palace. Then again, only city and such, Rarity could figure it out.

Not to mention the fact that she was thankful for as it meant she didn’t had to break her neck a couple dozen times. With swiftness had she managed to make her way through the holes and over the beams. She had to find the room that carried the elusive king of the lamia. A room that was probably located all the way in the back.

Whether it was a mansion, palace or a castle, the layout was always the same. The most important figures were in the most well-guarded and protected area’s and in a palace within the rocks, that meant all the way in the back.

Over beam and through hole did Rarity make haste. She was as silent as a shadow while covering as much ground as she could. The mare prayed that she was still on time. On time to capture the conversation between her two little guards and the king.

One more hole and she was there. One more hole and she was in the room where the sounds came from. The sounds of a massive creature talking to its subjects. Rarity couldn’t have picked the wrong room, unless the echoes were going to be a whole lot more confusing for her. With one last squeeze through it round shape she managed to get into the room.

A room that was massive and cast within the brightest of lights. And there it laid. A creature too horrible to describe, it almost made Rarity actually vomit on the support beam. A gross looking, fat slug, she could only describe it as. If that was the lamia king, she wondered how many of the creatures had actually seen the thing with their own eyes.

A shudder travelled down her spine before she moved herself over to the middle of the beam and assumed her final, crouched position. She would be listening to the words that would have come to her attention and ears. Anything important could have helped her, anything involving traveling. Much to her surprise, the guards she had been chasing through the whole of the city had only just began their talking to the king. “Right on time, exactly when you’re needed Rarity, as per usual,” she giggled quietly to herself. The mare had so her moments, that happened to be one of them.

Her eyes and ears were focused upon the creatures down there. Whatever they would be having to say, would be caught by her.

“So, what news from the gate?” the king spoke while his triple chin moved in all kinds of directions. “Why have you returned so early to me after another tremor had hit. Why aren’t you, making repairs to it?” His tone was low and deep, almost having an echo to itself without anything done to it. The more he spoke, the more Rarity became disgusted by it.

“My king, we bring you disturbing news. She has returned, the pink one,” one of the guards spoke up. Rarity couldn’t tell from her position which guard said which words as the backs of their heads were turned towards her. “We think, we think that the Gorgon One is angry at her, because she’s still alive.”

“Hmpf, anything else of information that is of value of disrupting my slumber?” the king growled to them. It almost didn’t seem to be mattering to him that Pinkie had returned or that she could have angered the Gorgon One. Something else was going on, that much could Rarity already tell. She wouldn’t be surprised if the slug upon the throne was in fact this mythical ‘Gorgon One’.

“Y-Yes, one other matter. Five beings from the older world managed to find the gate, with the help of the pink one. They spoke about having taken her to them as a guide to the deeper caverns. But, s-such a thing can’t be e-existing, right?”

The guard was terrified because all of his beliefs were shaking at their very foundations. They also knew just massive parts of the lands. From the looks of it were the guards allowed to know of the world above them. Though what laid deeper than the city was something not even the king seemed to be willing to share with them. Which made Rarity wonder, just what laid there?

A shudder was given off by the king before he erupted out in a deep laughter. A laughter that caused the other two lamia to slither back. “Oh my little guards, so ignorant about the worlds we know. There are many things that you do not know about anything. But, I might share a secret or two with just the pair of you. Only problem, you might end up in the insane asylum!”

“What?!” both of the guards exclaimed at the same time. Things had taken a turn for the worst as Rarity readied herself for a battle to come. Her dual swords and the harpoon were more than ready to get into action. But the words of the king, surprised all three of them.

“No, I want those beings gone. None other must know from their existence. This city has kept itself secret for so long because we remained forgotten.”

“A-And how do you wish to, do that?” one of the guards spoke in a terrified tone. Yet the answer was already known to him as there was only one way such a thing could be done against it. “And, and what about the sacrificed one? End her too? End, one of our own?”

“If you have to, do it. Let me tell you a little secret about her,” the king said before just about one of the biggest revelations was revealed to Rarity. “The gorgon one hasn’t been heard from in over a couple of centuries, these tremors have nothing to do with him. Her sacrifice was a needed one. She wasn’t poor, she wasn’t sick, she was perfectly healthy. She was thrown out of the city because she was mentally unstable. Her mind bounced from left to right and nothing inside of this hole could bare it anymore.”

The king took a moment to catch his breath as he then continued further. “So that’s why her name was pulled ‘randomly’ to be the next sacrifice for him. It has nothing to do with anything, except getting her out of this place.”

“But then, everything you told us, is a lie!” one of the guards yelled while he dared to come closer to the king. The anger was visible within the eyes, yet the disbelief was even greater.

“And who dares to follow you? They would declare you insane and charge you. You have nothing to prove my words on boy. Now sit down!” the king demanded as his tone had turned dangerously. He wasn’t kidding, the guards indeed didn’t have any actual evidence on the fact that the king was lying to the whole of the city.

But high above them did Rarity knew the truth about Pinkie Pie. The reason for her sacrifice was only to cover up banishment and letting her live her life as she seemed fit. Only to become dinner for the spiders that ravaged down there. It could be rocking the world of the lamia for certain. But first would Rarity’s world be rocked. For the beam she had been sitting on gave away.

The unicorn looked behind her when she noticed how the thing was scraping against the wall before it finally dropped. In a split second had the unicorn jumped off of the beam and revealed herself to the king and his men. She landed in the signature pose Rainbow Dash always assumed after she had landed to minimize the chances of getting too much damage to herself.

But she was in the light, out there and in full view of the king. The thoughts in her mind slowed down to a crawl while it seemed as if time would be slowing down. Her chance to shine, her chance to soar, her chance to escape had then arrived and she would be taking it with both hands.

Everypony of the company had to know exactly what she had learned. The only problem just happened to be, that she had to get to them first. The guards on which in the room, had different ideas on that.

Chapter LIV

The room went into a complete disarray when the captain landed down on the ground. The two guards had turned themselves around to face the incoming threats. Even the eyes of the king himself turned over towards the back with a shocked expression clearly visible upon his face. He couldn’t have ever expected that something would have been that bold to invade his very own home. The only problem was: he didn’t knew Rarity at all.

With the unicorn still in her position, the beam crashed into the ground with the chandelier dropping itself behind her. A deafening sound was sent through the whole of the room and far outside of it. The metal crashing into the stone ground and the fires raging up for a moment caused a dramatic, but rather unnecessary effect behind the mare.

“Impossible!” the king managed to speak aloud. The guards had not a single clue of what they could be doing against the mare. But she was having a couple plans for them. They both glanced over the blades she carried as well as the visible holsters of the flintlocks. One thing became certain right away, the very fact that she was dangerous as all hell.

In the mind of the unicorn was time still slowed down as her head rose itself gently up. Gently for her, fast for them. The sapphire blue rims made their way past the guards and they looked straight into the confused eyes of the king. A king who gave the order, the order she didn’t wanted to hear at all. “Bring me her head!” he snarled towards the guards. Then he took a couple of slithers back for his own safety.

The last thing that the king wanted was that she came for him. To be more specific: his head. His eyes shifted with almost constant terror from right to left, as well as up. Where there might have been one, there always could have been more.

The unicorn got up from her stance and revealed herself as one of the anthronies that the guards had escorted away from the city’s gateway. “Hello boys, missed me?” said Rarity in a teasing and seducing tone. Her eyes closed themselves half way to add to the look. A sensual giggle was then left through her throat before she shook her head. “My head? What? No plate for it? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you have much to learn. But thanks for the stories.”

“What stories?!” the king growled up just as his eyes went wide. “No…” There wasn’t any other way in his mind. That mare must have heard all of the words that were spoken against the guards. That was the reason for the greatest alarms of all to be rung through the palace. “Get her!”

The guards both made jumps forward in the hope to get the anthrony. But Rarity just smirked to the pair of them while she admired their attempts. Attempts that she neglected with every step she took back. “I’m afraid that you will have to try, harder,” she taunted them. The mare held her hands by the hilts of her swords, ready to draw them when she needed.

The three lamia’s in the room almost knew just what time it would have been once they saw the hands resting on top of them. “Halt,” the king then shouted. He made a couple slithers back forward. He almost dared to actually come off of his throne just to speak with her. “You seem reasonable enough, how about we make a little deal, hm? Name your price and I can get it in gems. What’s it going to be, beautiful? Your weight in sapphires, an emerald statue of you? Tell me.”

Rarity rolled her eyes quick when she realized that the slug of a king was either falling in love with her, or tried to prevent a bloodbath from happening. She hoped so bad for the latter thing to be true. But when her eyes turned back towards the slug, a grin formed itself upon her face. “Make it your weight, and we might be having a deal,” answered Rarity with an even more devious grin upon her face. She had him right where she wanted.

Of course the king wouldn’t agree upon it for his weight would probably consume the whole treasure chest they had on sapphires. “I have to decline that offer,” he said to her and she knew more than enough. The time to make her departure was there and the unicorn would have taken it with love.

Her eyes had been shifting upwards to see whether or not there was another way she could be escaping. Of course the lamia would have been crawling the ceiling the moment she would set a hoof on the beams. Given the fact that they were quicker and more maneuverable upon it, it seemed like a losing battle. “Need to improvise here,” the mare mumbled to herself without a sound.

The eyes then turned over to the king to give her final answer. Then the sleeve was rolled up once more. The lamia were all granted a sight over the harpoon that she carried around her wrist and lower arm. Fear took over before all three creatures slithered back again. The weapons had been drawn from the anthrony’s side and they were seemingly powerless to do anything.

“You decline my offer? Well then I have to tell you that I decline your offer. Once again, thanks for the stories you shared with me and I hope I never see you again. Tata!” Rarity followed up her words with a small wave and a wink towards the sluggish king. Then she aimed her arm up and fired the harpoon into the rocks above the room.

The guards rushed forwards and tried to capture her, but the mare was already gone. The last thing the king and his men saw from her were the legs and the tail fading into the darkness above. It could have been a miracle that the lights of the chandeliers didn’t reach all too high as they created a couple of pretty good hiding spots.

The fury could be seen within the king’s eyes. He was not just angry at the mare, no, he was furious at her. Not only had she perhaps heard one of the greatest secrets involving a certain lamia, but she had also invaded his home and almost threatened to take his life. “Find her, rally up all of the guards and find the wench! Bring me her still bleeding head upon a plate…before I take yours!” he shouted towards the two guards.

Who on their own turn gulped deep before slithering towards the door. There were their eyes constantly peeked upwards in the hope to not see a white demon falling down upon them all. A constant fear that began to nestle itself within them. Their perfect little sphere of living in harmony and all was broken up by the pirate captain named Rarity. One more place where she caused trouble that could be written down.

~~~~

Back inside of the caverns had Twilight conjured up an arcane fire that would be keeping everypony warm inside of the freezing place. It was one little thing they didn’t really seem to be minding though. Yet it was quite the bit colder than they would have liked, but at least it wasn’t freezing as hard as in the Frozen North. The cold in the caverns could be walked off luckily.

Only when they would be sitting somewhere stationary, they would be relying on a fire. Which they actually were that time and for the time being. Twilight was just pounding her head on all kinds of different matters. Though Rainbow and Fluttershy both lied in the sleeping bags and were actually lightly asleep. The two needed their rest from all of the things that had happened.

Whether they liked it or not, they had lost their sense of time. The lack of sunlight messed up with their internal clocks much more than they wanted to admit. They didn’t even knew when it was morning, afternoon, evening or night. The caverns had only one mode that was always presented to them. And that mode was nothing else than an eternal night. So the mares were a bit more relying on the fact of just how far they could be pushing on with everything.

Pinkie Pie laid curled up upon her body while she watched over Applejack’s metal leg. The thing shone bright in the lights of the fire and its gold color was something that caused a little twinkle inside of the lamia’s eyes.

“Don’t even think ‘bout it, ‘kay?” Applejack asked to her before she granted the creature a little grin. For the first time since their introduction, there was a little bit of interaction between the two of them. “Ah don’t know if ya have an affection for precious stone and metal, but this here, is vital to me.”

Pinkie tilted her head a little bit as she didn’t seem to be understanding all of the words that were being said by the earth anthrony. Which resulted in a sigh given off from the admiral. “Basically put, you stay off, otherwise Ah can’t walk.”

“Oh!” Pinkie exclaimed before she giggled. “Oki Doki Loki!”

“Beg yar pardon?”

“Don’t even question it, Applejack,” the voice of Twilight filled the space after she did pick up the sounds that the two of them had been making. “Her mind is something unique. Capable of understanding us, but in a simpler version.”

The admiral listened to the words before she gave a nod towards them. It sounded reasonable enough to her. Though she really hoped that Pinkie would be staying off of it as the leg was indeed vital to her. “How long until Rarity’s gonna be back? Wanna place a wager, Twi?”

“No, I’m busy. I’m thinking about manner to ascend to the planes of the goddesses without too much of a hassle. Some things about me still worry me,” replied Twilight. She didn’t even look up or opened her eyes from anything. Yet whether she knew it or not, she had in fact spilled one of the secrets she wanted to keep away from Pinkie.

“Goddesses? What are you talking about, Twilight?” the lamia asked of her in a curious tone while she uncurled herself a little bit. “Do you have other believes up there as well?” Pinkie didn’t seem to be angry about or anything, she seemed to be curious. Just, curious.

“One day, I might tell you, Pinkie Pie. It’s too much to tell right now. With a friend stuck inside of those walls, if I begin that story I might not be done before it’s too late. Just, remind me on telling you eventually, okay?” the soothsayer replied with a calm tone to her voice. The lamia nodded before she dropped her body once more upon the rest of her snake like abdomen.

Applejack closed her own eyes for a minute as she was struggling with a valve she had always some troubles with. One way or the other it never seemed to be wanting to cooperate with her. Luckily for her was that very valve not one of the most important ones. Though it still didn’t took away it was highly annoying.

Minutes had gone by while the curiosity towards Rarity’s reappearance only became greater with each passing one. The entire company of beings remained silent though. They all had sunken into their thoughts or in some form of a deep sleep. Peaceful, that was the word that the situation could be described as.

A peaceful situation that only confirmed the saying that all of them were angels when they were asleep. The mares just laid there with their thought giving the free run while the ears of Twilight had always been listening to everything. She was on the lookout for anything to be heading their way. Whether it be the near silent walking of a giant spider or the slithering of another lamia.

Twilight would be making certain that she would be knowing everything that was needed. All while she thought about a thousand and one things. The hurricane of thoughts continued to rage through her mind as per usual.

But just when she thought to have solved the matter, the commotion inside of the city could be heard even through the walls. The eyes of the mare finally opened themselves up as they were glanced over into the direction of the gateway. “Well that sounds like our Rarity could have crashed that party pretty well,” she said to herself before she woke up the rest of the mares.

The other anthronies weren’t particularly happy with the fact that they were woken up from their slumber. Yet when they caught the sounds of the city in their ears, they knew it was time to pack up again. At any given moment could Rarity have come barging through that doorway together with a couple dozen guards up her tail.

The urge to do everything fast came to everypony as the bags were rolled up in a near instant as well as the fire being extinguished. Within two minutes would they have been more than ready to just hit the deck of they needed to. Everypony was ready for the possible battle that could be coming.

They also knew the little fact that Rarity herself was more than capable of saving her own skin. So even if she would have been captured would the pirate always have found a manner to escape the clutches of the lamia’s. Each of the anthronies knew that, only the lamia of the company was having trouble believing in the facts as they were presented.

Where the rest of them all readied themselves up did Pinkie Pie just coiled up further around herself as she was scared to death once more. She knew the damage that the city guard could be doing to a being if they got their hands upon them, so she could only pray on the fact that Rarity would come to them safely.

In the pocket of Applejack was something that began to vibrate slight. Something that vibrated against her leg, up to the point of it becoming an annoyance. She seemed to have forgotten what she had placed into it until she realized exactly what it was again. The eyes of her went wide after her hand reached inside of the pocket.

The rune was taken out and a bright light engulfed the company. Twilight turned herself around straight away and she looked at the rune. Her eyes would only have gone wider as she didn’t believe the sights presented before her. “But that’s impossible. That’s a rune of way finding. Where, where did you got it from Applejack?”

“A rune of whatta now?” the admiral said first before she shook her head. “Uhm, R-Rarity gave it to me, for safeguarding. She said her magic was connected to…”

“...It so she could be finding her way back to us,” the soothsayer finished before a bright smile came to her face. “Oh she never ceases to amaze me in both ways. Not a soothsayer but brilliant with magical powers. Perhaps that is how she always manages to stay away from naval ships. Or not, I do not know her full magical extent.”

“And can we keep it that way? Ya unicorns scare the living daylight out of the rest of ‘em sometimes,” responded Applejack as blunt as ever. She did have a point on the matter though and Twilight had to only agree upon the face.

“True, we are scary sometimes. But hold on to it, then she will be able to find her way back to us. I’m starting to think she might be needing it more than you realize.” Twilight replied before she turned around and once more faced the gateway. Her horn began to charge up calmly while she looked through her massive array of spells that hopefully could be of some use to her.

~~~~

Inside of the lamia palace had Rarity been hanging off of the rocks above the light line from the chandeliers. Her eyes watched quickly from her new vantage point and she saw something that caught her interest. A hole covered in cobwebs at the far end of the room. A hole that almost seemed to be right over the king’s very throne. “It’s that, or it’s nothing, Brittenburg, time to make your escape,” she said to herself.

Her body had to come in action again while the guards had already jumped on top of the beams themselves. In all of the rooms had the guards been on the lookout for Rarity and they wouldn’t be stopping at nothing before she would have been captured. So it perhaps was the only means of escape that she had.

She began to swing towards the beams of the throne room and eventually detached her harpoon from the rocks. The mare was flying through the air for a couple fractions of seconds before she finally landing upon the beam. A small thud caused the king to have some form of indication of where she would have been gone too.

His eyes looked upwards with a nasty growl which came from his throat. With no guards left in the room, he was on his own if the mare decided to drop down on him. But in his ears he caught the hooves walking over the beams as the harpoon was winched back.

The sleeve of Rarity’s blouse was placed back over the little device while she walked over the beams with haste and caution. One more jump and she would have been by the hole that she saw before. The only problem happened to be the cobwebs. It meant to her it was not only infested with spiders, but also that it wasn’t used in a long time.

She could only hope on the fact that it would have been leading her someplace better than inside of there. Anything to get her out of the palace was something she would be taking with love.

One last jump through the air before the silence returned into the room. The dreaded silence of nothing moving on top of his head and nothing happening anywhere else. The dreaded silence before the storm would be hitting. The lamia king gave his eyes the time to look around and see whether or not the unicorn could be spotted somewhere upon the beams.

He didn’t see anything that even remotely resembled the mare and a major feeling of relief came over him. He had escaped the clutches of the anthrony, while placing his own around her very neck. He wanted her head before him, no matter what. The fury could be witnessed clear in his eyes, he would end her life no matter what.

In the meantime had Rarity been crawling through the cobweb infested hole and growled deep to herself. Moment after moment had she to come to a stop and remove the webs from her face. Luckily she didn’t feel any spiders moving alongside her body or saw them in front of her. Though the only problem she carried was the fact that she was surrounded by eternal darkness.

A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as her horn began to coat itself in the sapphire blue aura. “Guide me back home,” she whispered just before the aura became more intense. It shone down the place she had to crawl as it sought contact with the rune. Which resulted in gentle tucks of her magic.

A smile came to her face as she knew the rune had been found. She was having a heading and the intense concentration of arcane magic caused the cobwebs to be burned out of existence wherever it touched.

Finally could the unicorn be making some speed and progress in her escape. She could be making haste and still end up on the one place she was required to be. A little something that caused a massive weight to have fallen right off of her shoulders.

Minutes later and with all of the guards in the city aware of the anthrony running through it, Rarity had gotten out of the palace and finally managed to break back into the city. She didn’t knew where she had landed though. All that she knew was that it was some sort of alleyway. But with the magic still tucking her into the right directions. The time to take a rest wasn’t there and she needed to keep moving quick.

With her body half covered up in remains of the cobwebs did the mare only removed those that went easily before she rushed out of the place. She had to get to higher ground and the spires formed the perfect place to do so. Her harpoon was having enough range to get her higher up with every jump so the game could begin.

She left the alleyway at a pace of running while the sleeve was rolled up again. The mysterious device was revealed to the public who were actually more shocked about the fact to see a being with legs. Yet everywhere she went and left shocked impression behind, the guards seemed to be knowing where they needed to go.

“Au revoir boys!” she said to them before her harpoon was aimed to one of the many spires and made a small salute to the guards that appeared right in front of her. The harpoon was fired off and found its way into the rocks highly above. Long before the guards could do anything had the unicorn been going up and to one of the spires.

Only to then drop herself again and look for the next best solution. Her eyes constantly looked around to see guards, civilians and grappling points she could swing to. All three things asked a lot of her mind, but it was something she was trained in. Every raid upon a ship was the same as she always looked out for those three points and possibly added a number four or even a five.

Swinging from spire to spire, all while her athletic body made backflips and flips over many and more lamia who didn’t even knew what was happening. Deep breaths from her body were released every so often while the streams of sweat travelled down her face. Her eyes were on the constant lookout while the magic kept on guiding her.

She wasn’t too hard to miss in fact. Given the fact that she was the only creature with legs in the whole of the city, while also carrying a massive flashlight on top of her head. No, the plan wasn’t as well executed as she originally thought that it was. But she was happy that it was at least some form of a plan that was going through her.

The unicorn always managed to be just one step ahead of the guards when the spires eventually ran out. Which resulted in her having to run over the streets of the city. The gateway she had to be taking, was close to her. The tugging of her magic became more intense as she noticed just where she needed to be.

Everything came back to her and the places were remembered. Rarity knew that she was close, but so was the guard. Not to mention it still left the problem of the gateway probably being shut by the creatures. A problem that she needed to solve on the spot.

Deep exhales were released by the unicorn as her magical powers increased themselves with every passing second. The door was in her field of view and it was tightly shut. Luck was on her side that there weren’t any guards lurking around so she could do what she wanted. Which was the kind of freedom that she preferred over every other.

A grin came to her face when she had one last look behind her. Her head turned back forward to see the way was clear. “Here goes nothing,” the unicorn said before she released a massive charge of magic. Like a massive bolt of lightning it was propelled forward, towards the door. A door that would be receiving some of the heaviest pounding it ever would have gotten.

The charge of Rarity wouldn’t be eating through the rock like some kind of acid though. Instead it would explode every millisecond. Meaning there were countless little explosions that all counted up into becoming one giant explosion of a second or two.

Nothing in the world could be holding it out against so much force being placed upon it at once. What then resulted of course in the door being shattered. The massive stone door had been destroyed by Rarity as if it was nothing. And with the dust clouds settling in did she jumped through the hole that was being created.

The unicorn was out of the city, but she wasn’t away from danger yet. In her eyes she caught how Twilight stood there with her horn charged up and how Applejack held the rune in her hand. An odd satisfaction was given off by the mare as she seemed to be glad that her arch nemesis had actually kept herself to her word.

Only one problem was left, the couple dozens of guards with their lances and swords that were hunting her. Rarity began to hope that Twilight was having some form of an idea on the matter as her magical reserves had been depleted from the massive spell she had cast.

Time was running out and something had to happen, anything.

~~~~

The mulberry soothsayer stood there while she had been collecting magic around her horn for a couple of minutes. The levels of arcane power she had collected could have been giving her one of the greatest shows in her life. But with Rarity still in the way could the levels of danger also have been raising through the caverns and all the way up into the skies.

The unicorn could hear the guards chasing Rarity. Though the pirate captain could only run as fast as she could towards them. It was then or never that she would initiate the plan she had cooked up. The rest of the company remained silent as they didn’t dare to disturb the concentration of the unicorn. Even Pinkie Pie dared to get out of her hiding spot in order to watch whatever would be happening next.

Even though the guards still hadn’t been going through the broken doorway, Rarity could feel their breath right in her neck. It was disturbing to her, uncomfortable even. Her eyes looked directly into those of Twilight as she closed in the distance to the group. “Anytime now, dear, I’m not the one who’s going to complain!” she shouted towards the other unicorn, hoping on something.

Twilight gave a strong nod in return before she gestured with her hands that Rarity had to get out of the way. Confused by the signal, there was only one direction where the pirate could have been going to. With the full speed she had from her running did she steered to her right side before coming to a standstill against the walls of the cavern.

Her sapphire blue rimmed eyes glanced over the incoming guards. That was just before a desperate glare was given off towards Twilight. “Whatever you have planned, now would be the right time to do it!” Rarity exclaimed while the first guards made their way over the broken door.

“There she is! And there they are!” one of the guards could be heard shouting before the rest followed up. They were hungry for blood, they were in the need to please their very king. And for their king they would be doing everything he asked from them.

Rarity released a gulp as the magical power of Twilight seemed to have gotten only more intense. Finally was the time there to release the stored magic and reveal just what she had been cooking up the whole time.

The raspberry aura of Twilight’s magic filled the whole cavern once more. The soothsayer herself released a deep and powerful sounding roar. A roar that turned deeper and deeper in tone the longer it went on. Zaps of arcane power jolted away like lightning bolts into every direction while the massive charge was pushed out at once.

Every last bit of stored arcane energy was pushed out of her horn and then one of the most unbelievable things happened. The unicorn levitated herself up a little bit as the forces began to form something around her.

A massive, scaled, almost clear and raspberry colored foot had set itself upon the ground not long before another one followed. Two massive hands with talons the size of an anthrony’s leg set themselves upon the walls before the whole thing showed itself.

All of them caught a massive creature that resembled a dragon of old in their eyes. A massive, raspberry colored and almost clear dragon that had set its eyes upon the guards. But Rarity could see its very heart. A heart that came much to her own surprise. A gulp was released by her before she shook her head a couple of times.

“No!” she exclaimed in utter disbelief. Her eyes must have been cheating on her, right? For where the heart of the creature laid, was something else to be seen. Something that she came to know pretty good over the course of their journey.

Instead of an actual heart, sat Twilight Sparkle there in a fetal position. All curled up and with her eyes closed while her horn continued to emit the powers of the arcane. As unbelievable as it seemed, that unbelievable the scene was. None of the lamia that stood in the hallway could believe what had just happened and to where they were staring at.

Another roar was given off by the dragon before it made its way over to the guards with a growling tone. The guards already retreated at the massive stomping the beast did with each step. Only a few of them were actually brave enough to remain standing.

Though their bravery would also have been turned into fear when the flames left through the mouth. Under a deafening roar were the flames released like a flamethrower. Twilight wasn’t taking it lightly. She wanted to get rid of the guards and she wanted to do it good at the first try.

Not that anypony could have actually blamed her for it though. More and more flames were being spewed out of the dragon’s mouth before they finally came to a stop. The doorway was covered up with a bunch of seemingly never ending flames. Flames that would burn everything that tried to get through them.

They were safe for the time being. The massive dragon began to fade away whereas Twilight lowered herself back to the ground. Her hand reached for her head as the magic faded away from her horn. Rarity removed herself from the side of the wall and looked with a worried expression in her eyes.

“I, I’m fine, Rarity. Go! All of you, hurry! Pinkie lead the way!” Twilight yelled before she changed her pace into a slow, running one. The desire to get away from the city had gotten to all of them. They didn’t even care if they had gotten the information they needed or not. All they wanted was to get out of there as soon as possible.

Pinkie heeded the call and began to slither in front of the company. All of the mares joined her one by one. Twilight was the last one to join and knew her magical reserves were low, just like Rarity’s. Both of the unicorns were almost out of magic, so they hoped they wouldn’t be encountering something that relied on magic anytime soon.

Rarity wanted to say a couple of words against Twilight about what happened. But the soothsayer just released a huff and a couple of unfriendly words. “Shut up, and run! Talking can be done later, alright?”

Chapter LV

The lamia was leading the way for the company, but Pinkie didn’t rush over to the entranceway that they came from. No, instead was the creature guiding them straight into the deeper parts of the cavern. The parts previously untouched by any and all that lived there. The torches of the mares illuminated the nearby surroundings while all they could see was nothing but rock.

The corridors were narrow, perhaps a little bit too narrow for their personal liking. But Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to be having a problem as she slithered through them like they were nothing. Not to mention the little fact that everything seemed as if she knew what she was doing or where she was going to.

Twilight and Rarity had formed the rear guard and they were on a constant lookout for anything that possibly could have gotten their way. Anything from the spiders, to the lamia guards to perhaps the mysterious Gorgon One. Rarity knew of course that he had been silent for so long, but who wasn’t to say he had the desire to wake up any time soon? None knew the answer to that.

Troubles always followed the company of mares, nothing on their trip had been going easy so far and it worried each of them. Some could be dealing a little bit easier with it as others were near death terrified because of them. Fluttershy was scared for everything. The torch was a little lifeline for her. The second its flame would have faded, who knew what would happen to the doctor.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were a lot less worried about anything happening to them. Their faces irradiated even an unusual kind of calm. Yet it was behind that calm that their worries hidden. Their beating hearts as the eyes shifted constantly from right to left. Even with the fact of nothing being able to come in from their sides, they still felt as if the rocks themselves were watching them, haunting them.

~~~~

All the way back at the stone gate of the lamia city and after the dragon had vanished had the guards been collecting themselves. They stood ready to fight the mares as they ran away. The guards wanted to chase right after the group until they saw exactly in what direction they were going.

In a near instant did the charging group came to a standstill of their own. Not even the commander of the group was in the mood to chase after them. He gulped deep while he stared them down, disappearing into the darkness. He saw their lights becoming fainter and fainter before they just disappeared. The little twinkles in his eyes just faded. They had gone. They had gotten away.

All of the guards were scared for their lives. The mares had gone into the direction where they were scared the most for. They had gone deeper into the caverns and they didn’t knew a single bit about what could be waiting for them around the next corner. Troubles would arise without a doubt for them all.

Everything was better than being sent down there. The commander turned himself around and had a good look at each of his men. “We’re not going further. I make this clear here and now. The first one of you saying we should continue, good luck. I’m not moving in inch further into that hellish place. They have sealed their very own fate and they know it. Turn around and retreat,” he spoke in a confident tone. One that was actually used to mask his scared one.

He was terrified for the horrors that possibly were waiting on the other end of that very cavern. None of the lamia knew what really rested there, but they had all heard the stories of monster beyond their wildest dreams. Creatures made out of both rock and lava, guardians of the underground and never showing any mercy to any and all.

Whether or not it was true was something that wasn’t confirmed nor denied in the years that they had lived. But the tales were passed over from generation to generation. Fear for what lays behind the gates of the city was given to the lamia from the day they were born.

One last glance was given off by the commander into the direction of the cursed hallway. A deep exhale was then released via his nostrils as the eyes closed themselves just a little bit. “Rather have the fury of the king over me than the uncertainty of the unknown,” he mumbled to himself while he turned back around.

~~~~

For minutes had the company of mares been running their lungs out for any- and everything that could possibly be dwelling behind them. They were out of breath and had to make a little stop somewhere. Pinkie Pie luckily understood the silent messages that were given to her and she would have come to an abrupt standstill. They would be taking their rest there and then before they would move on, forward and downward once again.

Surprise after surprise came from the lamia when the mares spread themselves. Each of them leaned against the walls to their sides to catch up with their breath. Rarity and Twilight couldn’t help themselves but to keep looking upon the road they had been travelling. They needed to see if anything was actually heading their very way.

But the road remained empty for seconds. If the guards had made the decision to chase after them, they would have been either hearing their commotion or seen their lights. They saw neither. The two unicorns kept on breathing heavily while their hearts were beating faster than they had ever done. Even with all of the chaos and trouble that had fallen upon them, they could still be laughing about the matter.

A little something that wasn’t shared with the rest of them, outside of Pinkie Pie. Though the lamia could release a smile about pretty much everything there happened to be. A little something that none of the mares could actually wrap their heads around.

They remained there for a little bit of time as the questions arose inside of the mind of Twilight. They had been passing corridors which had multiple manners of access, so why didn’t the lamia go through one of those in order to shake of the guards? Was there perhaps a deeper reason inside of the lamia’s mind for guiding them almost perfectly straight? The only way to get to know it, was to ask her aloud.

“Pinkie Pie, can I ask you something?” the out of breath Twilight said to the best of her abilities. The lamia shifted her attention over to Twilight before she then gave a simple nod. The question was allowed from the creature. “Do you, happen to know these parts of the caverns? Or are you just running around?”

The creature couldn’t help herself but to let out a gentle giggle. The head was being shook by her as she then gave the reply that none of them had expected. “I know these caverns like the back of my scaled hand. We’re told not to go that way, but I have been sneaking further down for a long time now. Not much to see though,” said Pinkie with a silly smile.

To even demonstrate it further, the lamia had risen up her right hand and showed the back of it towards the group as she spoke her words. “Though, nah, you’ll see.”

Curiosity was then awoken in Twilight perhaps more than ever. Pinkie Pie wanted to give them some kind of warning about something terrible or wonderful. Whichever it would have been, the pressure of asking the question was high inside of Twilight’s mind. But it was never asked by the mare. If the lamia said that they would be seeing it, so it be.

The rest of the company just remained silent while they caught up with their breaths for good measure. They had been running for so long through caves that were far from perfectly straight to begin with. Naturally they would be needing the time to catch their very breath.

Yet on the other hand were they relieved that Pinkie Pie seemed to be knowing exactly where they needed to be going. How she had figured it out, when she had figured it out didn’t matter for the group. They were just glad she knew something about it all.

The longer they stood there though, the more they began to realize something. Something that they all had felt beneath their hooves. “We ain’t going back to the spring we found you, are we?” Rainbow dared to ask. She hoped that her suspicion wouldn’t have been turned into a reality.

The lamia nodded towards her words, shattering them against the rock as if they were nothing of value or anything else. “My spring is nice and all, but it won’t help you. You said you needed to go deeper, that’s where I’m taking you then. Deeper into the earth, teehee.” Pinkie tried to say in a most serious tone before it would turn over into plain mysterious. Only to be followed up by a little laughter, she couldn’t believe she had said those very words.

As pale as snow had the rest of the group turned when the words caught in their ears. None dared to question the lamia anything anymore from that point onwards. All that they could be doing was to just follow her and pray silently on the fact she wouldn’t have turned against them. The urge to draw their weapons already against the creature was there, but Twilight shook her head to each of the mares. They had to place the same trust in her, as the soothsayer did. And hope it was rightful.

Even if the lamia would have been downright insane.

For many more minutes would the company have been walking down with Pinkie Pie at the helm of everything. The lamia hummed a couple of tunes to herself while the mares just followed her like blind sheep. In a strange and unusual manner were they actually like a couple of sheep following their shepherd. An unusual resemblance to the whole scene which came up.

But they hadn’t encountered anything while they kept on traveling. Their hooves could feel they were going down with every step. They went down slopes and staircases hidden from their eyes. The torches were their only light that they had. The how’s and the why’s rose up in each of the mares as they wanted to know where they were going and who had actually build the staircases.

Obviously they weren’t designed with lamia in mind, so it must have been some form of anthrony. That was the reasoning in the mind of Twilight at least. But for how far she would have been right on the matter was to be discovered. “Pinkie, just how far is it?” Twilight dared to ask.

No response came from the creature as it continued to slither forwards. Unusual really, for the unicorn had been speaking up in a loud enough tone as far as she knew it. A little shrug was given off to Rarity. Both of the unicorns refilled their magical reservoirs with time. The pirate captain closed her eyes for a moment and she then just focused upon the task that laid ahead of them.

So many things could have happened deep within those very caves. So many things could have been going wrong, but it almost seemed as if the place had been going untouched for dozens of years. No dust, no cobwebs, no nothing. Twilight’s ideas were rising through the roof as all kinds of theories had been made up by her.

Ranging from the reasonable sane to the downright insane, the plans did all cross through her mind. But which ones were the right ones remained to be seen by any and all. Who knew what could be waiting for them around the next corner. Silence and echoes were two things that the predators inside of the caverns had been developing ever since they went underground.

Move silently and hear everything, that was the primary rule down there. Twilight’s head rose itself upwards a little bit as if she tried to let the sunlight hit her skin and clothing. Yet the sun was high, high above them and wouldn’t show itself down there. A sad fact for the unicorn as she released another deep exhale through her mouth.

Rarity kept an eye upon Twilight. The pirate noticed that something didn’t seem to be a full one hundred percent Twilight. Then again, she had only been travelling with the mare for so long and only was knowing so much about her. It was impossible that she already knew the whole being. Though the pirate was having enough knowledge of their kind to know when something was troubling another being.

“What’s wrong Twilight? Aren’t you feeling your magic flowing through your veins again?” she asked with curiosity. She also revealed the fact she knew that something was off about the mare.

The other unicorn turned her gaze quickly over to the ivory skinned mare with a near raised eyebrow. “Hm? Oh, s-sorry,” brought Twilight out. A hand was brought over to her forehead. “No, I was thinking about how nice sunlight upon your skin can be. I mean, we haven’t seen the sun in such a long time, let alone the moon. These caverns mess with your sense of time, that was my problem just yet.”

Rarity gave a small nod in return, she seemed to be understanding that very fact well enough. It was one that was actually true. For all they could know was that they would travel right in the middle of the Equestrian night and still not be knowing anything about it. “It indeed is a good brainfry, I give you that much, Twilight. Just, take it easy for a moment, okay? I mean, that spell you did back there, never seen something like that in my life. W-What was that? If I may ask, of course.”

“Something dangerous,” the soothsayer replied straight away to her. She was serious about it. “Something I do not wish to do again anytime soon, clear?”

“As crystal, but, tell me what it was,” replied Rarity to her. Though she insisted upon Twilight to say exactly what it was she had done. The captain was persistent, that much had to be given. Even up to the point of where it be became annoying as all hell for the soothsayer.

With a deep exhale gave Twilight into the demands of the other unicorn. She would be telling Rarity exactly what it was, while at the same time, she wouldn’t say a word. “It’s a spell soothsayers learn once they are capable of performing it. It requires almost all of your magic and then you better pray you are able to hold control. Every anthrony, shares traits to dragons of old. We, know the spell to unlock that part of us and, use it in combat if needed. Or better said: demanded.”

Rarity couldn’t believe her ears. She knew that dragons had been roaming their land once upon a time, she had even seen the fossilized remains of the creatures in various museums. But that they all held a little bit of a dragon species in their heart was something that she could have never expected nor have dreamed about.

“The casting is dangerous as you become the heart of a dangerous beast. One wrong thought and you can see your friends as enemies. You might say you have never seen it before. Such a thing is correct. Deep inside of the mountain ranges far away we practice the spell, hidden from any nosy eyes hidden upon the surface,” continued Twilight, her voice turning more somber with each word.

“Yet you remain touching in the dark here,” spoke Rarity in response. She had a genuinely interested expression upon her face. It was a little thing that delighted Twilight. As it meant that the unicorn was interested in learning more about the subject instead of drilling it into the ground as so many had done before.

“Very few anthronies know we possess this kind of magic to begin with. You lot, are probably the first outsiders to have seen my dragon form. A form that I do not wish to become a second time this trip. My dragon is dangerous, nearly uncontrollable without the right thoughts. Even the highest soothsayer who has seen it, claims so. …And I have no desire to become such a beast again.”

The pirate could understand the reasoning behind Twilight’s words. It was dangerous to see her the way she was from time to time. The fury she could be showing to something were perhaps pieces of the dragon wanting to come to the outside world. “I’m not going to push you to become that thing again, I only asked what it was and my answer is given. No, that kind of magic is best kept out of the eyes of the public. Too many bad things can happen.”

“Exactly.” Twilight responded just before the silence between the mares returned.

“Heh, and that comes from me,” added Rarity with a light chuckle.

~~~~

Sometime later did the lamia came to a standstill and she turned her body quickly around to the rest of the group. With a smile upon her face she spoke the words that were lying upon the tip of her tongue. “We’re here. We’re, where we need to be. Deeper, into the caverns.” The words were said in a semi-serious and in a semi-ridiculous tone before she gestured with her hand that they needed to look into the darkness.

The only sound that could be heard were the torches as their fires crisped every so often. Wonder took the mares over as they wanted to know what exactly was happening there and then. But they were limited by their restricted amount of light. Curiosity of the unknown took them all over as both Twilight and Rarity took a step forward.

The two unicorns of the group would have been able to open up some kind of light to illuminate the whole area. The two mares nodded to one another as Twilight summoned her staff and Rarity had already began to charge up her horn. The pair of them would shortly after that release two blasts of magic into the sky.

Two blasts of magic that would be circling around each other before merging together. Under the sounds of a loud bang did the explosion of light happen. A mixture of sapphire blue and raspberry was sent into the room. That very light was in fact powerful enough to make everything visible.

Both of the unicorns couldn’t help themselves up to give off a chuckle in response to it. Together had they created the most powerful light that the place had seen in perhaps years, if not decades, maybe even hundreds. The wonders of the room were revealed to them and the torches were extinguished. Only to have them being stored away in the storage once more. There was no more need for them, not in the moment of time they were.

Before their eyes it appeared, the massive hole in the ground that seemed to have been taking everything there was. Once again had the company found themselves upon the top of a cliff with nothing else but a sheer drop at the other end of it. “Well, this seems to be like a repeating theme,” the major of the air force muttered up before her attention turned over to the soothsayer. “What do we do now?”

“Now?” Twilight repeated before she gave off a little chuckle. “Now we go and see what exactly lies within there of course. It can’t be that bad, right?” the rest of the mares only shrugged to the words of the mare. There wasn’t really anything that they could be arguing against and with when it came down to it.

So the company of mares made their way the only way they could, forward. With tensions rising and hopes being held high, anything and everything could have happened to them all. Pinkie Pie made the decision to remain a little bit behind all of them. She was the only one that knew what could be found at the bottom of the cliff. A surprise to rich to actually spoil for any of them.

Closer and closer did the group of mares came to the edge as they all caught the horn of a statue in their eyes. Curiosity was awoken deep within the beings and they got even closer to the edge. More and more bits of the statue were revealed until they stood at the very edge of the cliff.

Nopony could be believing the facts as they were presented to them all. Nopony could have ever even predicted that they would be finding that they had found. Yet in a strange manner, it all seemed to be making sense. Everything began to make sense for at least Twilight. “No…” she said as she shook her head vividly from right to left. “It’s impossible, right? You, you see what I’m seeing right?”

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy nodded to the words. Which meant to twilight that they were looking exactly at the same thing as she was. “But this means… All our beliefs and legends…”

“Shattered?” added Fluttershy in a whisper. The eyes were given to her for just a single second. Then they turned back to the statue. A statue that they never could have thought of having seen. They had fallen from one miracle, straight into the next. The impossible, had become possible.

For at the bottom of the cliff, in the middle of the ‘pit’ it stood with a striking pose. A pose that was regal, honest and kind all at the same time. The horn indicated that the species was unicorn, but the wings on the back suggested a pegasus. But most notable of all was the fact that it wasn’t an anthrony that stood there.

No, they were looking at something that had four hooves and walked upon both its hands and feet. “This can’t be, right?” Twilight said in disbelief. The mare still didn’t believe in the facts as they were. Her eyes looked better at the statue and she noticed how the head and chest were decorated with pieces like a crown and a crest piece.

It told her straight away that that being was something or somepony important, not to forget the seemingly waving mane and tail. Twilight then got a little punch from Fluttershy who pointed to the flank of the being. “Look there, that mark…” she said in a shy whisper. Then Twilight’s attention shifted over to the spot of attention.

The eyes of the unicorn became wider with every passing second. Because right there, at the flank of the statue it rested. A symbol that she knew just so well and had drawn so many times before. “No… No, no, no, no, no!” Twilight exclaimed just before she took a step back. “This can’t be true! Yet, the evidence is given right before me!”

Nopony knew what she was talking about but they all wanted to help her out so much with her problems. “What’s going on Twi?” Applejack asked who had walked a bit closer to the unicorn. A unicorn who had dropped herself down to the ground and was reaching inside of the void storage.

Mere seconds later she pulled out a book and closed the entrance way again. The book was held before her eyes as her body began to visually shake already. “It can’t be, right? How can it be?” she questioned to herself before the book was finally flung towards the group.

The eyes of all the mares finally had a gaze upon it and knew right away which book it happened to be. “So, yar saying, it’s actually the truth?” Applejack asked then. She didn’t knew either that she could be believing and what not.

“All the evidence we need is gathered right before us. I was reading through that book, because it had interesting theories about our natural evolution and wanted to prove it to all, I just never would have thought that, that they were actually true,” returned Twilight. She began to not make any sense whatsoever. Everything was shaking on its foundation while the company constantly shifted their eyes between the statue and the book.

“That right there, is, is not just a statue of any old being. No, the book goes in great detail about her specifically. That, the statue depicted right there, is nopony else then, princess Celestia of Equestria before she made the planes her new home,” answered Twilight finally. What followed was that her head was shaken numerous times.

Her foundations of belief were rocking back and forth while she couldn’t believe a single fact of what was shown before her. Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn who had been believing in the theory of evolution from pony to anthrony with all of her mind, was seriously doubting it as the facts were revealed to her. “That, is the goddess of the sun, long before she would leave this realm. My goodness, e-everything. It’s t-true. A-All true…’

“To think, we’ve been mocking the book for so long…” Applejack said to herself before she returned to the edge of the cliff. Her vivid green rims had one more look over the imposing statue before she closed her eyes. All of it was just a little bit too much. The rest of them remained in silence as they couldn’t find the words nor deeds that seemed to be rightful in the moment.

Everything was rocking the believes that the anthronies had been seen and done. Yet if the outside world would have gotten scent of it, how would they have been reacting towards it? That would have been a matter for a different day. Twilight managed to crawl back upon her hooves and dared to make the steps forward. She joined Applejack at the edge of the cliff and the rest followed.

Fluttershy picked up the book and held it against her chest, even Pinkie Pie came with them. There they then stood, the company of mares and beings who had been fighting the impossible odds so many times before. Numbed by the facts given to them about their very own believes and reasoning.

Yet somehow did all of it managed to make a massive a smile upon the face of Twilight. She then placed both of her hands on the shoulder of Applejack as well as Rainbow. “Looks like that author, wasn’t as mad as everypony thought he was. Thousands of years ago, imagine the whole of Equestria filled with beings just like her. Walking upon four legs, living a life like we do now. He was right, he was just right. We have, ponies as our ancestors.”

Those words were difficult to swallow for a couple of mares in the group, but they couldn’t deny the facts as they were given to them. There only rested one more thing to be done, discovering why they were there. “Come down, there’s one more thing I want to show you.”

“Hmhm, Pinkie, I think this is already enough for the time being. It’s marvelous that you discovered this little settlement,” said Twilight towards her with a genuine smile. She was in fact content with everything as it was in the moment. Which in and of itself made Pinkie frown a little bit.

“You think that doorway we saw on the mountain, leads to here?” Fluttershy asked after she noticed the houses that stood on the opposing side of the pit. It almost seemed as if there had been being living there so many years ago. Where they had been going off to remained unknown though. Perhaps for the better when it came down to her sanity.

“No, we’re too far in either direction of the wind. Perhaps through tunnels it can lead to here, but if it goes straight down like the staircase, highly unlikely,” replied Rarity just before she heard Pinkie slither by behind her. “And where are you off to?”

“The bottom of the pit. As I said, there’s one more thing I want to show you,” the lamia replied to the pirate.

After a bit of arguing against Twilight had the whole company managed to make their way down the couple of stairs and finally they stood at the bottom of the pit. From the top of the cliff was the statue already impressive, but they had the chance to see it in an even fuller glory once they stood at the bottom. Ten times bigger it almost appeared when they looked at it again.

“Wow, this is just, amazing,” sighed Twilight just before she drew the arcane symbol of the goddess of the sun into the air. She naturally still wanted to pay the mare a great amount of respect. For she was granted one of the rare views upon her physical form. Nopony had seen such a thing in who knows how many years. Not to forget that it stood in a book that was declared as mad. Evolution was a fact given to them there and then. Twilight’s long cause had come to an end, but against what price?

Yet the longer they walked around, the more they came to the realization that there wasn’t anything else that could be helping them to go on further. A realization that slowly managed to settle itself each of the mares. It almost seemed as if that very statue was a dead end. None dared to speak about it as Pinkie Pie had slithered up to what could be seen as the front of the statue. “Twilight, come and take a look at this will you?” asked Pinkie while she tapped on something.

Something that could only be described as a golden plate or something along those lines. The unicorn soothsayer turned her body around and caught the lamia in her eyes. She just shrugged a little bit and made her way over to the creature. “What have you found?”

“You know I was here earlier, right? I took my time to explore a little bit and when I read what stood here, I just returned back to my spring. But you, you’re a smarty-pants. You might discover what it means,” returned Pinkie before she allowed Twilight to read the words.

The unicorn turned her attention towards the plate and wiped away the dust that had been gathering itself on top of it for so long. She blew the final remains of it away and lit up her horn. The orb was indeed more than enough to give her the light she needed, but she needed to be certain that everything what was carved into it, was readable to her.

“The sun and moon, both equal in shine shall reveal the doorway. Even in the darkest moment, there’s always a shimmer of light to be found. Sun or Moon, both equal, both different. Balance is the key to everything,” was the text that Twilight read from the plate. She shook her head a couple of times in response. “I’m sorry but, what the hell was that?!” If it was a riddle, it was one where Twilight didn’t happen to be knowing the answer upon. If it was a quote said by princess Celestia, who knew to whom or what it could have been referring to?

No, there was only one place where Twilight could have gathered her answers. The planes of the goddesses and to be more specific: a library. It was about the only thing that Twilight could be doing in the moment. She had to make the ascend up and pray on the fact she would have been able to discover just that what she needed to know. “Sun, moon, equal, shine, doorway… So many ideas, but which one is right?!” the unicorn mumbled just she assumed the position to make her mind ascend upwards.

“Here goes nothing,” were the final words before she closed her eyes.

Chapter LVI

The soul of Twilight Sparkle was leaving the caverns deep and made its way through the thick layers of the rocks that separated the company from the world above. Even when she came back to the top did she continue to rise upwards. The mare had set her mind on something she hadn’t been gone too much before. A place that was mostly hidden and forgotten from everypony.

A place where the nightmares of those who lived all gathered and the night always shone. A location that would even be giving Twilight the creeps no matter what and why. Yet she thought that that place would have been the best one to go to. She had to find something upon the words that she had read upon the plate. Something that could be helping her and aiding her further in her quest of madness.

Higher and higher did the soul of the mare rise up until it just faded away. Faded away out of the realm that was known to all of the anthronies and made the jump over to the planes of the goddesses. The planes where Celestia ruled together with her sister, Luna.

Nothing was sacred anymore. For Twilight knew the history as it was by then and she released a deep sigh through her nostrils. She had wanted to believe the evolution theory for so long, yet when it was finally revealed to be true, even she did have trouble believing it as it was. The unicorn shook her head a bit from side to side as she tried to place the thought aside.

No matter how hard she tried, it always returned to linger right in the back of her head. Waiting for possibly the right moment to strike her when she least wanted it. It was how most thoughts in her mind worked in fact. Lying in wait before making the strike that’s needed to set the mare completely off course.

Her eyes glanced over the beautiful celestial planes while the sun was shining bright before and in her eyes. There was only one little problem though: she didn’t had to be there. She had to go to the other place. The place where the darkness constantly reigned. The lunar planes were the very places that she needed to be going.

The soul of the mare made its way over the grassy fields like a soaring pegasus. She had to reach the border that separated both light and dark from one another. There wasn’t any other choice as she had to wade herself into the darkness that reigned over the ominous planes. Only there could she find the location she needed to be. Only there, could she find it.

That one place that probably held the answers she was looking for or at least would be giving her a sense of direction. Everything came with a price though. For the influences from the devil herself were present in the very land of darkness.

Legends had it that the lunar goddess and the devil once shared the same body before the devil took over. Many years later was she then banished to her own dark realm, but pieces of the devil still remained within the lunar goddess.

A shiver went down the spine of Twilight when she thought about the facts as they were. She couldn’t believe how it must have felt to have the actual devil roaming through the body one carried. Her eyes were torn away from the border for just a couple of seconds as she gave her mind the time to come up with a plan. For no doubt would Nightmare Moon try to get to her.

On the mountain ridge that separated the light from the darkness had the unicorn made her descent. All the way down until her hooves touched the ground of the summit. Her eyes glanced over to the realm of darkness but further than a couple hundred hooves she couldn’t witness.

Not even the light of the moon was strong enough to light the faces of those very lands. It worried Twilight to no end before she stroked her chin a little bit. She knew where she needed to be, she knew how she could have gotten there even. What she didn’t knew was what she would encounter on those plains.

A deep exhale was released through her mouth as she eyes constantly shifted from left to right and back. She needed to know exactly where she would be ending up with everything. Yet in the planes of the lunar goddess, that was something that nopony knew. Even the soothsayers who had made that place their home couldn’t tie the ropes together.

“Alright then, time to take the step, Twilight. You have gotten this far already, so why not just continue like you’ve been doing all this time?” she said to herself. Then her eyes just turned over to the border of both light and dark. It was such a simple looking line in her eyes but one that made all the differences within the whole wide world.

A deep exhale was being released through the nostrils of the unicorn once more before she nearly blind had set her steps into the direction of the lunar planes.

~~~~

A little bit later was the unicorn soaring through the skies of the dark planes with the moon always in the corner of her eye. Its light was weak but bright enough to give an odd sense of hope. The unicorn couldn’t really place it in her mind. Yet every time she looked up to the thing, there were two feelings that went through her. One of hope, but the other was sadness.

Why could she be feeling the sadness of the rock? It was a feeling that not even she could truly understand. All that she knew was that she had to keep her attention focused upon something else. Something that was a little bit more in her territory.

Like a massive open field in the literal middle of nowhere, for example. Her eyes gazed over the place and a smile grew below her nose. She had reached her destination, or at least part of it.

The soul of the mare made the descend down towards the ground once more. Her hooves touched the soft and moist grass before she would be taking her first steps forward. The unicorn never dared to enter the field as a whole and therefore remained a little bit around the edges.

Words in an ancient tongue were spoken up by her while her horn charged itself a little bit. The aura of her magic was perhaps the only other source of light on the entire plane for as much as she could see. Hopes were made up all while the preparations for the worst came in. It was then or never that she could be finding the answers she needed.

With her horn she drew the lunar symbols into the air before they were sent out over the field. Only to be dropped in the grass before the mare just began to watch. She hadn’t done any of it before nor had she seen any of it before. Yet she knew there was a place there that could be of aid to her from the worlds of the soothsayers who had visited the realm before.

A place of unimaginable knowledge and powers was hidden from the gaze of the sun. Everything that was once a secret has been stored there. Yet caution was advised, open the wrong scroll and one could be getting to know something it was never supposed to know.

The symbols were in place and they burned themselves into the grass itself. Soon enough had the whole field been caught on fire and it began spread itself over the whole of it. Though it never seemed to have even dared to come any closer towards any of the other vegetation there was standing around. Just the field and its grass would have been burned to a crisp.

In the end did the flames had to die out because of their lack of fuel. Which resulted in a field of nothing but scorched earth. Twilight hoped that they were right on the matter of what would be coming next. Because if they were wrong, she had just destroyed something that belonged to the lunar goddess. A goddess who probably was watching her every move when she thought that.

“From the scorched earth it shall rise, rise and be built like the day it was put together,” the soothsayer repeated to herself. It was what some of the soothsayer had told her, or what she caught up from them at least. She could only wait while the seconds seemed to have been actual hours within her mind.

Yet then it happened. It finally seemed to be happening within her own eyes. The magic that was used to burn all of the grass off of the field had recollected itself together to form perhaps one of the most magical looking buildings that the mare had ever seen.

A building that just rose from the ground as if it was nothing. In her eyes did Twilight caught spires which stood at each of the corners and a gothic-like exterior. The whole structure just fitted the theme of the lunar goddess so well. All of the statues that were placed all around the building of anthronies in different poses. One striking factor of the statues was that none of them carried any kind of face.

All of them were highly detailed, but their faces looked like they had been worn off by the acidic rain. The unicorn didn’t stood still at it for too long though. She had to enter the place while it was still being built before her eyes.

Before her eyes was a library being built. A massive and vast library that was worthy of competing against the celestial one in the desert. Though the location of that one was a little bit more favorable. The nightly air was both cool and calm. Perhaps a little bit too calm but Twilight didn’t seemed to be minding that fact, yet.

While she stood inside of the walls while the ceiling and the shelves were still being created from the countless tons of arcane magic that seemed to have been used. “Wow,” was the only word that she could be saying against all of it. Never in her life had she expected that the build of a library could have been that breathtaking. But there was the moment, right before her.

The flames in the chandeliers all shone a bright and powerful light before the unicorn quietly walked through the hallway. One massive hallway with multiple levels filled with scrolls was what she saw. Every last thing that didn’t belong in the other library was sent over to that place. And Twilight could see straight away why such a thing was done.

The strange, gothic-like exterior was just about doubled on the interior. The place was dark, eerie and highly uncomfortable. Not the kind of place where the mare would have loved to be stuck at night. Despite the fact that the night always had reigned there to begin with. The unicorn shook her head a little bit to get all of the dark thoughts out of her head.

She had to focus herself upon the matter ahead while the clouded mind of the mare was a great subject for the darker influences that the place carried. Almost as if the place had some sort of will of its own. Thoughts of pasts rather forgotten by her returned as something seemed to have been prying open her very mind.

~~~~

Minutes had done by before they turned into hours. With the darker influences all around her, Twilight had set herself upon the difficult task of discovering just what the riddle or the quote actually meant. The mare was having countless of ideas for certain but she needed some kind of proof that one of her eyes actually was getting close or be the thing that needed to be done.

It was a difficult task for certain because the scrolls didn’t spoke of too much in their rights about what the answer could have been. Only vague hints were given off to the unicorn. Hints that either proved or wronged her own theories. But she wasn’t making all too much process with them.

The hands of the mare were rested against her head while a deep groan was given off through her mouth. She was annoyed, angry and even more confused than she used to be. Nothing seemed to be making sense anymore to her while she wanted to keep on figuring stuff out.

The mare closed her eyes for a couple of seconds as the words on the golden plate were repeated over and over again. There must have been something that she had missed, right? That somewhere must have stood within one of the many scrolls that the library carried. The right answer upon the riddle was stored had to be found. Yet she still had to find that very scroll.

Another sigh was given off by the mare as she then leaned back against her chair and just looked over the scene as a whole. As beautiful as the library happened to be, that eerie and confusing it also was.

“Why doesn’t anything you two do make a bit of sense. Guess that old habits never truly die, am I right?” Twilight spoke towards the ceiling of the place in an annoyed tone. Silence took over just before the whispers could be caught within her ears. Whispers of a being whom was darker than Chrysalis, more cunning than Sunset Shimmer and a whole lot more dangerous than the Gorgon One.

“Whatever you can offer me, I decline upon it. I have no intent to rise to power nor do I have the wish to becoming involved in an unpayable debt. So leave me alone!” Twilight yelled all of the sudden towards the other voice in her head.

The voice on the other end didn’t seem to be leaving though. Instead it had taken up the tone of the unicorn herself and spoke to her directly. Almost as if the mind was speaking to Twilight herself. Whispers of grandness were promised to her, knowledge of the worlds beyond words and the infernal cages of Tartarus. The knowledge to prove each and every being wrong on the spot. The opportunity to bend time, to her very will.

“No, no, no, no, no, I know who you are! And I shall not fall before one of your traps like my friend once did! You are nothing but an echo of the past trying to get a firm footing in our world. I command thee to leave this place and leave me alone, Nightmare Moon,” the soothsayer yelled on pretty much the top of her lungs. Desperation had setting in, hoping it would leave her alone.

She was angry at the devil herself. Angry that she had consumed one of her only friends during her years of long ago. Never would Twilight have been able to forgive the devil for doing such a horrible thing to such a wonderful student. “Leave now, and never come back!” Twilight said in a tone that was almost classified as desperate. “Leave now, and never, come, back!”

Silence. Nothing else but the original silence had returned to the library. No more voices in her head outside of her own one, no more whispers in the faint air. No nothing. Could it have been that the unicorn’s mind was strong enough to repel an attack of the devil? Or had the devil just given in for this one time? Who knew, but Twilight wasn’t in the mood to figure it all out.

Twilight was still having her own problems when it came down to figuring stuff out. She still had to discover the answers upon the riddle or quote that was given to her. Something that proved to have been a lot harder then she would have expected it to be.

“Sun or moon, both equal, both different. Balance is the key,” she repeated to herself. The rest of the words didn’t seem to be holding that much value to her. It was the last part that had the greatest amount of worth to her. It almost felt as if she could find the answer right there.

“Balance, balance, balance… What could be meant with it? Like, tuning the light of the sun and moon to one another that they are in balance? No, that’s too easy…” Twilight mumbled before one of her eyebrows rose itself up. But was it really that simple?

Yet from that idea there was another spark that rushed through her. “Lessen the light of the sun to bring it down to the shine of the moon is not equaling it out. But lessening the light of the sun and bring that light to increase the shine of the moon makes them equal! Balance is the key, the light emitted by both objects need to be the same!”

Twilight had it in her eyes, she had the answer that was needed upon the riddle or the quote. There only was one other little problem that she needed to overcome. Where the words meant metaphorically, or did the actual sun and moon had to cancel each other out?

The second that realization went through her did the eyes of the mare turn themselves wide. She had solved one bit of the puzzle via the mentioning of words within the scrolls her eyes had gone by. Yet another problem was already right at her doorstep. “Why can’t these things never be easy..? Just, why?”

With a grumble in her tone were the scrolls placed back in their rightful places before she just left the library as a whole. Her eyes were given one last look over the thing before she would be taking off to the skies once more. She had the answers that she needed or that she could be finding. All that rested to her was to execute the thoughts she had within the realm of the physical world.

Her eyes were closed in a calm manner while the world around her began to fade itself away. She was making the descend back to her own body which stood in the middle of the caverns. Only then could her theory be tested out. A theory that was actually still in the make with every passing second.

So many things could have been the answer upon it, so many things could have been gone wrong at her end. Yet through a miracle did everything just seem to be going as it should have been doing. A little fact for which she was happy in secret.

~~~~

The eyes of the unicorn finally opened themselves again. Twilight Sparkle had returned to the physical realm again. Her legs were snapped into place mere seconds before she rose herself from her sitting position. The time had come for her to perform the thoughts she had. She wanted and needed to have the answers upon the questions in her mind and she needed them then and there.

The return of the soothsayer wasn’t something that went unnoticed by the others though. All of the mares knew almost in an instant that she was back when they heard the snapping legs. Twilight had returned and they could only hope that she was having some form of good news. For they didn’t have that sadly enough.

“Twilight, I know you’re busy, but there’s something that we need to be telling you,” said Rarity. The pirate captain was the first one to walk up to the soothsayer. The soothsayer turned herself around and rose an eyebrow towards the pirate captain. What in the world had they been doing while she was up there? Twilight hoped with the whole of her heart that they hadn’t be doing something that could be classified as downright stupid.

“Well, what happened, Rarity, I’m waiting,” said Twilight in a less than patient tone. She had to keep her thoughts together in order to not lose them at all. Which was perhaps a little bit easier said than done, especially for a mare like herself.

An exhale came through the mouth of the unicorn before she nodded. “Yes, yes, sorry. While you were away, we heard howling through the caverns. Not an injured creature or wolves from the sounds of it. But something we have no idea about. It can be anything really, possibly just the wind, as Applejack already said. But Pinkie’s scared to death for it,” explained Rarity.

“Hm? How so?” Straight away had the attention shifted from the theory over to Rarity. Pinkie was not only their guide during that time. The soothsayer had silently taken it upon herself to also take care of the lamia in the best manner that she could.

“Well, she says it’s, it’s that gorgon one she believes in,” spoke Rarity up. The pirate then knew that she had to come clean with the soothsayer. Her revelations of the palace weren’t spoken before to her knowledge so the time was there to finally come clean. The mare walked closer to Twilight and placed a hand upon her shoulder.

Then the mouth was moved over to the ear and the words were whispered within. “When I was in the palace, I heard the lamia king saying that the gorgon one had been asleep for such a long time. If it really was him, we’re in deep trouble. Pinkie was never a true sacrifice, he just needed to get her out of the city without killing her.”

The revelation that was being made within the ears of Twilight was not a thing she had been expecting that quick out of her descend. Yet she still nodded to the words and placed a hand upon Rarity’s shoulder. “I appreciate it that you finally told me this, I really do. But if that is indeed the Gorgon One, we need to make haste and I probably be having the one solution. Can you, comfort her a little bit? At least until we can go further,” asked and pleaded Twilight of her.

Rarity nodded in return to the request that was given to her. “That I shall, Twilight. Do what you think is best and we’ll see from there,” she said. The distance between the two widened again.

“Heh, haven’t we be doing that since we began this trip?” asked Twilight a bit louder. That way could the departing Rarity still hear them.

“Without a doubt,” the pirate captain returned. After which she continued on her way to find Pinkie and comfort her in perhaps the only she knew how. Even if that way was little bit on the rough side of everything.

Twilight just shook her head a couple of times before she returned her attention towards the statue. Her eyes were looking at it from every possible angle and she noticed something strange. If a line would have been drawn from the horn to the ground, the line would never hit the ground itself.

Not even princess Celestia would have been able to shoot blasts of magic after a certain degree. “Curious, perhaps behind there,” mumbled Twilight to herself. She could be seeing everything falling together in the puzzle she was solving. “Oh that’s clever. That’s clever indeed.”

The next thing she tried to discover where the eyes of the alicorn. She was for the most part interested in what position they were standing and where they were looking at. One eye was quickly discovered but the pupil seemed to have been gone or forgotten. As strange as it was, it actually helped the mare with her own investigation.

The next eye was a little bit more tricky to be found because of the waving mane that were in the way. Yet it was there and once again without a pupil of any kind. The soothsayer nodded to herself as she knew more than enough to perform what she thought was right.

She took a couple of steps back as her horn charged itself up. Her hands were spread outwards and her fingers coiled in the manner as if she would be holding up a fireball. But instead of a fireball were there two orbs of light that formed themselves. One of them was as bright as the sun and moved itself over to the left eye of the pony.

The other orb was as weak as the moon and placed before the right eye. Only to then be merged within the eyes to become the pupils that the alicorn of the sun seemed to have been missing. The wait began for the mare to see if anything of interest would be happening. The longer she waited, the greater the feelings became that nothing would have been going on there. The two orbs of light were placed in the right location for her feelings, but she hadn’t in- and decreased the levels of light. “Balance is the key,” she repeated to herself.

The eyes of Twilight went wide when she remembered those little words. Her horn increased itself in aura as the light of the sun began to decrease. Yet the light of the moon was increasing before her very eyes. There must have been that one point where the two of them would be equal to one another.

Minutes it would have taken for the unicorn to not notice any kind of difference within the two orbs of light. Minutes she was trying to equal the both of them out to a degree they were perfect. “Come on, come on,” she whispered quietly to herself. Her magic took away from one and added it to the other.

The rest of the company had been looking at her with some strange sets of eyes but they didn’t spoke a word would what was right or wrong. Twilight was the one who had been going up, Twilight was the one with the possible answers upon everything. They were just there for the protection of everyone in the moment.

Which was exactly the thing they did. Rarity was comforting Pinkie Pie while the ears of Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy always kept themselves perked for the howling to return. That haunted tone that was screeching through the sets of caverns. As eerie as it was, as unsettling as it happened to be, it gave them all a sense of urgency.

They wanted to continue onward, but they were at a dead end for the time being. Only Twilight could be changing their fortune around and the unicorn knew that fact all too well.

With the lights finally being equal to one another had Twilight discharged her horn and she took a couple of steps out of the way. Whatever would be happening next, it certainly would have been spectacular to watch. Both of the orbs had turned into goldish colored rims when they were tuned by the magic of Twilight.

She could only be hoping that she was right upon her thoughts and that it all had been for something. The attention of the company was turned towards the statue as a whole all of the sudden. There was a thing inside of it that began to rumble. Something began to rumble as if it hadn’t been in motion for a very long time.

The eyes of the other mares couldn’t believe what they saw. Yet in their eyes did they all got the same view. The horn of the alicorn pony that stood there began to coat itself within a golden aura. An aura that only became stronger and stronger with each passing moment of time. Seconds it was charging up before it would just held the magic there.

“And now? We say a spell or something?” Pinkie Pie dared to ask aloud. She was curious to the events. She only got a pair of strange eyes from Fluttershy the rest of them just waited in anticipation.

Even though nothing else was happening, Twilight did knew that she had done the right thing. Her theory had worked and she couldn’t be more happy about that. It wouldn’t have mattered too much if the events that would be coming next would have been a total failure. It still meant that she had conquered both the riddle and the dreaded library. That was enough for one day, for her.

The tension rose and rose while the thoughts of something else happening to the statue decreased. The hopes of some kind of blast being fired off from it had been pretty much going down the drain and Rainbow had already turned her back towards it.

None of them believed in the fact as it was anymore. It simply wouldn’t be happening. Yet Twilight was the only one that remained hopeful on the matter. Even with the others having given up, the unicorn soothsayer held her leg stuff and she knew that something would happened.

“Light our darkest hour,” the mare said in a whisper. Twilight tried to remember what it said on the plate. Her eyes closed themselves for just a second when a massive rumble was sent through the room. The anthronies turned back around to see the statue and they were just in time to see what was going on.

All of the arcane power that was stored in the horn was released into the world and straight into the opposing wall. A wall that created a massive doorway just like the one they had been going into the mountain with. The sight was marvelous to behold but at the same time also a little bit eerie.

For it could have meant that the entrance they couldn’t be going through, actually would have been leading them straight to there. The light that was cast from the statue revealed not only a doorway, but also the staircase that was resting behind it.

None of the anthronies could be believing the facts as they were presented. They must had been seeing everything in their lives by then. Something about the whole scene just made their jaws drop almost to the ground. The sheer power that was being stored inside of the statue wasn’t something to be toyed around with.

Silence had taken the lot of them over. But it was a good silence, a silence that only the sheer amazement of something could have made. Words wouldn’t have been able to express the situation that they were in.

Twilight gleamed like mad just before she said her words towards the rest of the company. “I think it’s time for us to continue on. We’re going further down from the looks of it.” The mares and the lamia could only nod as they then made their way over to the doorway.

One problem that struck them right away was the sheer amount of heat that came from it. Almost as if somepony had opened the door of a sauna. A sauna that was about ten times hotter than the comfort zone from each of them.

“Lava,” the admiral of the navy said in a bleak tone, “only that creates such heats.”

Twilight nodded to the words. It was indeed the sheer heat of magma that made its way upwards and towards them. Highly uncomfortable for certain and a pain to get through. But it was the thing that had taken a refuge down below. They were entering the fiery domain of the molten rock. Deadly streams of the stuff could be making a hazardous mission even more terrible with just one wrong step.

The soothsayer was weighing the odds of everything of against each other before she nodded powerful. “There’s no other way, we have to go through it. We’ll see how it goes and if it becomes too dangerous or too exhausting, we can probably teleport out. I remember this place well enough to do such a thing.”

Nopony of the company could argue against the facts that were given to them. It was perhaps the only thing that they could be doing in the moment. So one by one, they all entered the doorway and made their way over to the staircase. A staircase that would be guiding them even further into the pits of Tartarus, for all they knew.

Chapter LVII

Pinkie Pie was the last of the company to still be standing outside of the doorway. The lamia was just loving the heat that came from the deeper parts of the cavern. It warmed her cold blood to a temperature that she just enjoyed. She just couldn’t enjoy them to their fullest though. For her own fears were playing with her mind. The lamia constantly looked up and down, left and right to see the mysterious origin of the sounds that was caught within her ears earlier.

Of course had Rarity’s help of giving her comfort, been of aid in one way or the other. But it was far from being all okay with her. She might have said to the pirate captain that she was alright after the whole ordeal, but she was far from it. Her heart was still racing inside of her chest as every last nerve was ready to detect anything.

The flight or fight syndrome of the lamia was at near constant high alert. There wasn’t anything that seemed to have been what it was anymore, in her eyes at least. It was perhaps a good thing that she couldn’t sweat with her body, because otherwise she probably would have been drenched with the body fluids all of the time. She was scared to near death and happened to be the last of the company who needed to make her way through the stone doorway.

There couldn’t have been a more dreaded event happening in her life. The mind of the lamia began to work so hard and so fast, that time seemed to have been slowing down before her. Seconds turned into minutes while she just stood there, her body was coiling around herself at a constant rate, in the hope to not see anything in the empty caverns.

And least of all did she wanted to see, Him.

Pinkie’s bright blue eyes were always looking through the pit and the surrounding cliffs to see if there was anything that wasn’t supposed to be there. Her eyes just caught nothing. There was nothing that could have been with them in the pit or on the edges of the cliffs. Yet that never meant that there wasn’t anything on the other sides of the cliff.

Light was seriously lacking because the horn of the stone statue had discharged itself and the orbs inside of the eyes vanished. The doorway was open and there wouldn’t have been any more need for them. Simple as that. It wreaked havoc inside of the mind of the lamia. The adrenaline began to pump even faster through her body as she only became more and more scared about every- and anything.

But why couldn’t she move? Why did it felt like half of her body had been turned into nothing but stone? Why did it seem that she was glued upon her spot? Why was she unable to just shoot into the doorway and join the rest of the company. Or even better: why didn’t she call out to them?

All of those questions were not being asked by the lamia herself but they were floating around there. Just the mind which was thinking of them remained to be a question in and of itself. What could she have done in the moment?

Pinkie Pie tried everything that she knew to keep herself calm. Thoughts that ranged from the sweet moments with her family through her life up to the meeting of the company of mares. Though every time she thought about the mares, the horrors eventually came. Those cursed spiders that would have been hunting them like there wouldn’t be a tomorrow.

A shudder travelled down the entire spine of the creature. One that was reaching all the way back to the actual tail. Words never seemed to have been able to leave her mouth as her breathing was done via her nose. Constantly was the attention shifted from everything as her eyes gently got used to the natural darkness of the place once more.

An eerie place it was, that much she had to give them all. Never in her life could she have expected to have ended right there. It almost felt like she was just so far from her comfort zone, even after everything she had done already.

Nothing was what it seemed within the darkness and Pinkie Pie was no stranger to that very fact. She was in fact well aware of the things that could be happening right in the darkness. Whether it was good or bad happened to be something that remained to be seen. Though as she knew her luck lately, it probably would have been the latter.

A gulp then came from her mouth when her eyes had fixed themselves upon something. Something that wasn’t there a couple moments ago. Her entire body then just seemed as if it was made out of nothing but stone.

She had been caught by something and she was unable to yell it up to the other mares. It was as dangerous of a combination as it ever could have gotten. The lamia wanted to scream, shout and make as much noise as she possibly could to get the attention of them all.

But there was nothing that would be leaving her mouth and body. Not even a groan was released from her throat to question the thing she saw. Though what was it that she caught inside of her eyes? The lamia wasn’t certain about that herself.

In her eyes it looked like another lamia that just slithered in calm past the edges of the cliff. Not a guard because it lacked any kind of armor. No, the lamia that Pinkie saw was a whole other kind. Then her ears caught that howling sound again. But that time she seemed to be able to actually give the location to the origins.

Where she located the sounds was even more terrifying than anything she had done up to that point in her life. For the sounds came from no place other than the slowly moving body. Her eyes went as wide as they were allowed in the moment and once again wanted to scream.

Yet if she screamed, she would have given away the location of not only herself, but that of the company as well. A gulp was silently being released as her eyes continued to follow the thing for just a little bit longer.

Though it was no use. The lamia on top of the cliff surely must had noticed her. Pinkie then got the whispers of their own language within her ears. But the accent and the dialect in which it spoke were old, ancient even. Fear was injected even further into the lamia as she feared that her worst possible fear had come true.

That on top of the cliff was nothing else to be found then the feared and dreaded, Gorgon One. The lamia that slowly slithered past her was nopony else then the dreaded creature she had been sacrificed to. She couldn’t and wouldn’t believe it no matter what. She didn’t wanted to believe it that he finally had come for her flesh.

The syndrome of either fight it or flee from it kicked in and Pinkie may have made the smartest decision yet about the matter. Her entire body felt as if it could be moving again and she just made a run for it.

The lamia was scared pretty much to her death. The desires to have her life ended by the Gorgon One while they were so close by the end goal of the mares weren’t too high either. With one last howl that went through her ears did it marked the spurt of energy that boosted her body. Within the fraction of a second had the lamia gained all control back over her body and she just jumped with all of strength into the doorway.

She was through it though, but not without one last warning from the devil that was at the top of the cliffs. Within her ears she caught the last couple of words that he had to say to her. “Dinner, is, served,” were the words that echoed through her ears. An echo that was low of tone, filled with sinister intentions and overall not pleasant to listen to.

A last shudder of fright was given off by the lamia when she slithered at near top speed towards the rest of the company. A company who were already a little bit further ahead than Pinkie would have liked them to be.

~~~~

But in the end she managed to catch up with the five of them and she panted a little bit. She was safe though. She was once more in the lights of the torches that Twilight Sparkle had summoned for the lot of them. She was safe with them, as they travelled in big numbers. That could have been the thing that scared him off the most. At least she hoped that it did that.

“Pinkie, there you are. Where have you been sitting for the past minutes?” the soothsayer asked of her. Twilight allowed Applejack to lead them for just a moment. The unicorn soothsayer let the other mares pass by before and Pinkie would be walking next to each other.

The lamia did her story of what she had heard and had seen, resulting in a deep concern from Twilight. It actually contradicted the words that Rarity had said to her earlier. Who she could believe and who was actually right on the matter remained to be seen. But from the looks of it, it could have been going two separate ways.

“I don’t think he will be getting you any time soon, Pinkie, I mean, look at us. We’re armed to the teeth with anything ranging from swords to spells. We should be fine if he decides to come after us,” commented Twilight in the hope that it would just reassure the lamia. She had to make sure that Pinkie felt safe by the lot of them. Though deep in her mind was Twilight weighing the odds of against one another. What if Pinkie was right and the Gorgon One was actually waiting for them out there? They would be walking right into his trap and not realize it.

The thoughts were quickly dispatched from again though. The unicorn shook her head a couple of times. She didn’t knew for how long she was awake, or how long the events had been going on down there already, but she felt her mind just drifting off to places unheard and unseen. The problem was actually shared by every last one of them.

The tent had to be set up sooner or later. Otherwise they would be traveling right into the magma stream with a sleepy head. Which meant the risk of falling into it becoming only greater.

Twilight gave a smile to the lamia and a pat upon her shoulder, as if she wanted to say that everything would be turning out alright for the lot of them. Such a wonderful lie that seemed to be. A lie which may actually had some hidden kind of truth to it.

Then the unicorn moved herself back up to the front of the company by passing by the other mares as quickly as she could. The eyes of Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy gazed over her for just a moment before they then just shrugged it off and returned to their very own things again.

Applejack on the other end got an eye of the unicorn as Twilight ended up walking next to her. Yet just when the admiral wanted to say something, they caught the sound in their ears they didn’t wanted to hear. That crushing sound of stone being moved over itself once more. It echoed through the whole cavern they were in and it only meant one thing.

“Looks like the entrance way has been sealed off, Applejack, no other way to go then forwards. But, look at the bright side, we’re getting closer and closer to the origin,” said Twilight with a faint smile upon her face. A smile that was meant to be reassuring for the earth anthrony.

Applejack wasn’t from the day before though. She knew when a cause was lost and they were getting dangerously close towards that very fact. “Hate to break it to ya partner,” the mare began in a whisper just before she released a deep exhale. “But Ah think we’ve just gotten out of the frying pan, and further into the fires. Ah mean, we’ll be going up against lava somewhere at the end of all this!”

The whispers of the admiral were taken into a truly careful consideration by the soothsayer, who actually nodded in calm towards them all. “Certainly that you are having a point there. One I do not doubt or judge against it. We’ll indeed be facing the magma of the inner Equestria soon enough. The blood that keeps our land alive, if you like.”

The other mare narrowed her eyes a little bit. She couldn’t really believe the words that Twilight had just said to her. Yet on the other end was the unicorn giving her a right. Which naturally gave a rather odd feeling of satisfaction to her. “All things aside, what’s magma and when, when, when are ya planning to let us sleep again? Ah feel like Ah’ve going around for three days straight.”

“Hmhmhm, magma is what you call lava if it hasn’t been erupting yet. What comes out of a volcano is lava. What can be found in here, is called magma. But to the more serious matter we’re having,” commented Twilight. She had one quick glance over the rest of the mares of the company. All of them indeed looked dead tired with the bags clearly visible beneath their eyes.

It was time that they needed to rest and they needed to be doing it quickly if they wanted to be kept on high alert. So the decision was being made actually a whole lot quicker than anypony could have expected it from Twilight. “We set up camp here, or at the next intersection. Nopony wants to walk any further and we’re all dead tired. You know what to do, right?”

The earth anthrony nodded towards the words. Applejack knew exactly what needed to be happening. But the most satisfying thing was that they finally could be taking their rest. Even if the others weren’t aware of that little fact just yet.

For a couple minutes more had the company of mares been walking through the heat of the cave when they finally noticed a little extension of the rocks. A little place where they could be setting their tent and Twilight just nodded. They would be sleeping there for who knew how many hours. All that they knew for certain was that they stayed there for as long as it was required.

They needed their rest and finally was it given to the lot of them. Pinkie was ordered to keep a bit of distance while the rest of the mares went working on the tent itself. Twilight waved around with her staff before she opened portal after portal and the massive tent came out of it. One by one did the rest of the mares all do the things they needed to be doing in order to secure the thing into the solid rock.

A smile came to the face of every last mare once the tent finally stood back up again. It was nicely hidden from the beaten path and with rocks behind them, they weren’t worried about something sneaking up to them from behind. They felt safe and Pinkie was just amazed by the thing.

Though there happened to be just one little question that was surging through her head. The tent was obviously smaller than the six of them. “So, how are all of us going to fit, in there?” she asked as she then pointed to the tent itself.

Twilight couldn’t help herself but to let out a small chuckle from the words spoken. “Pinkie, I’m a unicorn, remember. I can use my magic to do pretty much whatever I want. The tent is enchanted to be bigger on the inside. There’s enough room for all of us. And yes, even you.”

The face of the lamia was then gleaming from happiness. She darted over to Twilight and gave her a tight hug. Where the soothsayer feared that the rest of the body would have followed as well, it actually remained to just the arms going around her. Which was a massive but silent relief.

“Girls, c-come take a look at, this,” the voice of Fluttershy echoed through the cave and caught the attention of all the mares. Even in the dreaded heat they still managed to get over to her location and looked at the exact thing of which she was pointing to.

“This is not good,” said Rainbow while she shook her head already.

“Where there’s one, there’s more,” added Rarity while she stroked her chin.

“All leading up to one big pile,” replied Applejack to the rest of them.

“But where is it?” Twilight asked.

What they had seen, what Fluttershy had pointed out, was something that laid couple dozen hooves in front of the tent. But it could have been the most disastrous thing that they had come across so far. Something that was only meant to destroy everything in its path. Something that didn’t have any mind of mercy and always driven by the currents it carried.

Nopony was happy with the discover but on the other end did they happen to be having some kind of heading. A heading that wasn’t looking pleasant at all to begin with. For the thing that Fluttershy had discovered was nothing else but a small magma current. A little current that seemed to have come from a place higher up.

The eyes of Twilight followed the little stream up into the rocks as the prayers were already made by her. “I just hope so much there isn’t any kind of magma chamber above our heads. Before you ask, I can’t see through solid rock, okay?” she said also to be done before anyone else would have said a single word on the matter.

The company could be understanding the words she said, but it was Pinkie Pie who had remained silent for the whole time. She was looking at the magma stream with both of her hands stuck to her head and the elbows took a rest upon the rocky surface. It almost seemed as if she was captivated by the motions that the boiling magma made before her very eyes.

In the end had the time of sleep to come for each of them. The watches were once more initiated by them. Pinkie Pie was left out of the watches as they all deemed her a little bit too new to be taking on such a heavy responsibility just like that already. The lamia didn’t even argue against it and she went back into the tent with silence around her.

A tent that was a little bit unusual for her though. She couldn’t believe that the space inside of it was in fact bigger than it was on the outside. Unicorns and their magic was not the greatest combination in the world. A thought many actually shared with her all across the land.

The lamia coiled herself up around her body as the rest of the mares all retreated into their beds. Twilight had offered herself to take on the first watch so that the others could be getting their much needed sleep already.

Time and time again did it felt like the unicorn would have been falling asleep during her nightly operations. Though in the end, even Twilight Sparkle couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. Fighting the losing battle was pointless and she just gave into her desires to sleep.

~~~~

Once she woke up again, the mare did look to both left and right. Twilight thought that she had forgotten something, or that something else had happened. Her mind went straight into the natural overdrive just before she began to inspect the place inch by inch.

Both the in- and the outsides of the tent were searched thoroughly to see whether or not there had something been snooping around. Luckily for her didn’t that seemed to have been the case. Her body on the other end felt like it had gotten more than enough sleep to carry her on for who knew how long.

But the changing of the guard wasn’t something that she was looking forward to. So instead of waking up another mare to have her be taken over, she just returned to the little magma stream and watched over it with a pair of calm eyes.

Its gentle but boiling hot currents were a thing that she had to keep in mind. The deeper they would have been going, the more heat there would be given off by it. And that was just one little stream. As there was said before, it would eventually all just come together. And if she knew the luck of the company, all of the streams of magma would have gotten together right at the place where they needed to be.

A deep exhale was being released by the mare. she turned herself around and returned to her original position. Then just continued to wait for the rest of the mares to come out of their sleep.

Eventually could they have been trekking again. After the tent was folded up and stored away, and everyone had their breakfast was the company once more ready to hit the road. Twilight looked over each and every one of them before a faint smile managed to grew upon her face. They were ready, ready to do whatever was being asked of them.

They had been going on for a couple of minutes already and the intense heat of the cave became only worse and worse. Pieces of clothing were already removed from their bodies in order to compensate from the intense heat that was plaguing them. But the worst thing had yet to come. For as Twilight turned into the next curve, she came to a sudden and abrupt standstill.

“What’s going on now?!” Rainbow exclaimed while she was getting a little bit more annoyed on the matter to say the least. The unicorn soothsayer pointed forwards and with the light of their torches and the magma stream they noticed that there was a cave in right in front of them.

The natural path was blocked off at first glance. The closer the unicorn walked up to it, the more it seemed that there was a doorway. A small one, one that came dangerously close to the magma stream. But it was their only shot of getting past it.

“Okay girls,” the soothsayer said after she had returned her attention back to the group. “From the looks of it are we having a small window of opportunity. But it is dangerous as your head will get dangerously close to the magma. Meaning, I want you to stick your head above a pot of boiling water that’s about ten thousand times worse.”

“Are you crazy?!” Fluttershy exclaimed straight away. She had noticed just how absurd that whole plan of hers happened to be. For one of the few times it was actually the doctor who opened the argument and she hoped that Twilight was only joking on the matter.

But the unicorn was not, sadly enough. Neither was she crazy nor was she joking. She shook her head as the words left through her mouth. “No Fluttershy, I’m not joking. I can conjure up a shield that can protect you all from getting burned. You might feel the heat, but you won’t burn. So my question is, who dares to go first?”

Silence came forth. Nopony dared to be moving up first towards the magma currents. Nopony was in the mood to have their heads almost being burned off by the countless amounts of magma that were flowing through the place.

Rainbow’s eye however shifted from right to left and back as she almost felt mandatory that she should have been the first one to cross the lines. Which then happened to be the thing she did. She was a pegasus after all, their whole city was built upon pride and slight bits of honor. Thankfully did the mare possess both in great amounts and didn’t wanted to lose either.

The pegasus was ready to hit it after a small talk of encouragement from Twilight and a massive arcane shield being strapped to her back. The mare had to bend her back in such a way that she would have been able to walk through the one open crack.

Nopony dared to be saying a single word upon the matter. They all were scared for their lives that Rainbow would be starting to scream the lungs out of her body as she caught fire. Twilight’s magic intensified itself to make the shield even thicker just to be safe.

Nothing came from the pegasus. Not even her hooves made a sound when they were setting themselves against the ground. Not for a couple of tedious, agonizing and devastating seconds. Nails could have been bitten off there and then as the mares were becoming more and more anxious about everything. Silence never was a good thing. They needed to know whether or not Rainbow had actually made it. Out of them all did Twilight seemed to worry the most.

“I’m okay!” was then spoken from the other side of the stones. “Just watch out in the middle, it gets really, really tight. Twilight, amp your shield up a little bit, you owe me some hairs.”

A massive relief came from the rest of the mares as they knew that the pegasus had finally gotten safely on the other side. Which meant that it was time for the rest of them to follow. Whether they wanted or not.

Twilight would have been the last of the mares to have made her way through the cave in and once she was on the other side, she noticed a sight she didn’t wanted to see. As all of the mares were practically standing in their underwear. The eyes went wide before they were turned away from the scene. She didn’t wanted to see who was wearing what underneath their clothing.

When she had turned herself away was there yet another realization that came to her. It was hot as hell itself down there. Perhaps the collapsed cave had blocked a whole lot of the heat that was stored inside of the cavern. She could have been both right and wrong on the matter.

It didn’t matter though as she had to find a way to cool the lot of them down and not have them walking around in their underwear. “Suit up would you all? I think I might be having something that can cool you down.”

“But I just had pulled everything out!” Rarity exclaimed as she then grumbled to herself.

“Quiet drama queen!” Twilight snarled towards her. “Just do as I say!” The heat was even getting to her already and that was never a good thing. A mind that was in overdrive and a near unbeatable heat always added up in trouble.

“Good lord, sorry,” replied Rarity when she began to place her clothing back on her body.

A few minutes later had everyone their clothes back on and they all looked at Twilight. With her horn charged and the hand stuck out, they could only guess what would happen next. The eyes of the unicorn went from both left and right as she looked over each of the mares with great care. “A couple of days ago, hypothermia was our greatest enemy. Now it’s the exact opposite. If we aren’t careful enough, we might be overheating ourselves to an extent unseen. So there’s only one thing that I can do in an attempt to lower the core body temperature. And that is to cover it in ice.”

“Ya ain’t planning on freezing us to death in this place, right?” Applejack asked before she crossed her arms over one another. She was in fact a little bit skeptical about the whole thing. Yes it sounded like a wonderful thing, but on the other end would then have ended up with shards of ice coating their hearts.

“No Applejack, I do not plan on freezing you all. It works a bit strange, but the warmer it gets, the more ice is being made. The colder it gets, the less ice. A bit of, reverse nature, shall we say. Now, if you all want to just stand still for a moment,” said Twilight while six little shards of ice had formed themselves in her hand.

Five shards danced at the tips of her fingers while the sixth one remained right in the middle of her palm. Most likely was the one in her palm for herself. The rest be getting those upon her fingers. Pinkie Pie looked a little bit uncomfortable towards the shard before she just gave in.

It was true that the lamia’s needed heat in order to thrive given her semi cold blooded nature. But too much heat would also have been the death of them. So she allowed Twilight to shoot the shard straight for her heart.

Which was exactly the thing that happened. All six of the shards were sent through the room and found their ways into the bodies of the company’s members. There they would have been travelling all the way to the hearts and began to cover it within their icy grasp.

The saying of a heart that was as cold as ice was perhaps never getting more literal for the six of them. But it worked, it actually worked. For as soon as the ice shards had covered their hearts could, they feel the heat around them dropping. Their blood was being cooled down to degrees previously unseen and Rainbow even exhaled vaporized water for a second or two.

All of them got a massive shock from the cold. Each of them made a small little dance upon the spot. They were ready to hit the next part for the caverns. With their hearts cooled down and their engines running smoothing was there no other way than going forwards.

But even with their hearts covered in ice was the problem of the heat a near constant recurring one. The thing that would have caused it was soon enough revealed to their very eyes. For after a couple more turns and twists along the way, they all finally got to the one place where they couldn’t be believing their very eyes.

The source of all the heat inside of the caverns was nothing else but a giant or enormous lake of magma. Twilight’s fear of sleeping under a magma chamber was thrown away as they were standing right inside of one.

They were standing right inside of the magma chamber of some sort of volcano. The assuming that it would have been leading up to a volcano was made and given off by the fact that the ceiling of the place reached high. Really, really high.

The major of the air force had her eyes firmly peeled upon that very ceiling as she couldn’t believe the facts as they were. Something about it had gotten her attention and she wasn’t happy about it. “I think, I think this is the Volcano of Solitude,” she said to the group.

Nopony understood where she was talking about with the exception of Twilight. The unicorn rose an eyebrow towards the pegasus as she said her own words. “You mean the volcano that wiped away nearly everything in the neighborhood and created a massive desert, just, of the… Oh my goodness, she’s right.”

Still didn’t understand anypony what the two were talking about, at all. “Long story short, massive eruption, cities in the nearby area got wiped of the face of the land, everything turned into a black desert.”

“Ah,” the pirate captain only said when she finally got it. “Question though, how do we cross it? For I see an entrance way on the opposing side. I take it that swimming is excluded from it all?”

And once more were they thrown from one hurdle into the next. If one didn’t know any better, it would have been said that everything was trying to stop them from what they were doing. Almost as if they weren’t allowed to move themselves over into the center of their land and stop whatever had caused the tremors.

Twilight and the rest looked over the massive lake of magma and she nodded towards the unicorn. “Yes, we have to cross it, problem is indeed how.”

Chapter LVIII

Before the company of beings it stretched like as far as the eyes could see. A massive lake that was filled with the hottest stuff to be found in their entire land. The boiling rocks in the red water-like substance gave of an intense heat that made the icy shards in their heart work almost in actual overtime. Nopony had any idea on how they needed to be going across it. What they did know was that the scene in and of itself looked amazing and breathtaking.

The giant magma chamber that they stood in was truly one of mass and the hanging rocks from the ceiling made the scene only more spectacular. Though that wasn’t all that was going on there. Far from it actually. For left and right were there rocks that gave away because of the intense heat. Numerous rocks just broke apart as if they were nothing under the pressure that was given off.

“Timber!” Applejack shouted just before everypony did a couple of steps back. They all heard the crack above their heads and aimed their eyes directly towards the location. They needed to see it, they wanted to see it, is they had to be honest. Even though it probably would have become a terrifying sight to witness, they believed they owed it to themselves.

Pinkie Pie coiled and twisted around herself upon the spot while her eyes went from left to right, as well as up and down. It almost seemed like she wasn’t really that content with the shards of ice covering her heart. Yet she also knew that if she would have taken it out, the heat would have gotten to her sooner than anything.

The lamia was a tough one though. She had survived situations that almost no other had done in such a long time. She should have been proud of herself of having been alive for as long as she had been doing. Which she also happened to be, secretly.

The cracks of the rocks above them became even louder until the final snap echoed through the chamber. There it then went, the icicle of stone came crashing down towards the boiling magma. Only to be consumed by it and serve as fuel for the fires.

With a massive splash it landed in the substance and rose up for one last time. After that, it fell down to a side and before the mares could say anything, had it gone under the surface. They could only watch in utter amazement. For none of them had seen something that violent from nature in their recent memory. They were used to pretty big storms made up in Cloudsdale, but the magma was nature doing its intended job.

But the rock that crashed into the magma lake also opened the troubles of what would be coming next. How would they be crossing it all, without being burned alive and to a crisp? A series of questions that were rightfully upon their place, that much was certain. Everything was just one massive variable in the mind of the soothsayer.

Speaking about Twilight’s mind, there was something else that bothered her since they had arrived at the magma chamber. Something that was being said by one of the mares in an earlier state. Once everything had calmed down a little bit did she took a step or two forward and turned her attention towards nopony else then Rainbow Dash.

“And just how are you so certain this volcano is the one of Solitude? What makes you think about that fact to be so certain of that all?” Twilight questioned after her hands were placed at her sides. The question was of course rightfully asked, but Twilight did it in such a manner that she was suspecting the major from something.

The other members of the company turned their attention towards both Twilight and Rainbow while they raised their eyebrows in confusion. Of course they wondered about the situation themselves, but they wouldn’t have treated the pegasus as some sort of convict.

Yet Rainbow herself seemed to remain oddly cool and calm about the whole matter. She simply crossed her arms over each other and released a small huff through her nostrils. “The city of Cloudsdale needed to get its hot air from something to help in the weather-factories. This was the only suitable place on the original route of the city. Only once we discovered that the ceiling had formed, we changed our course for other places,” explained the pegasus to Twilight.

Twilight then rose an eyebrow herself. Almost as if she didn’t seem to fully believe the facts as they were presented to her. “So, you want to say you had pegasi actually flying into the crater, down to the magma chamber and none of you even once saw either of the doorways? A little suspicious, don’t you agree?”

The company all groaned pretty much at the same time while they silently declared that Twilight had become just downright crazy. Was she really accusing Rainbow Dash on the matter like that? But that same Rainbow knew that she had to defend herself from Twilight’s sharp words, no matter the cost. She had to find a way to talk herself out of the crazy words that were said to her. Something that most likely was more easier said than done.

Luckily for her did she happened to have the truth on her side. Her lips curled up into a small grin before she answered upon the accusation that was being made. “How can we have seen it, if the magma, as you call it, was high enough that it covered both of the doorways? You know volcanic activity a lot better than any pegasi does, Twilight. We came here for our hot air and that’s that. Any other words you wish to share? Or insults to give?”

Twilight wanted to open her mouth on the matter but she was cut off by Fluttershy. The doctor took a hold of Twilight’s arm and just dragged her along for a couple of steps. Confused did the soothsayer just let her body being guided by the other pegasus until they were nearly at the edge of the magma lake.

The eyes of Fluttershy looked over it before she pointed to the other entrance way. “That’s where we need to be going, Twilight. You’re accusing Rainbow of knowing where we are doesn’t help. It doesn’t help at all if we know where we are to begin with! You set those gears in your head working on finding a way across, you understand me?!” she growled in a low tone.

The doctor inside of her had fully returned. Not a grain of shyness, fright or anything else could be noticed within the tone of her voice. She was talking her words confidant and even a little bit angry. She meant her words. She meant them with every single one she spoke up.

Twilight dropped her head against her chest and nodded calmly to not only herself, but to Fluttershy as well. “You, you’re right, Fluttershy. Bickering like that is not going to help anypony getting any further. It’s just…”

“Just what?” the doctor interrupted her with a questioning gaze in her eyes.

“It’s just how to get across it,” commented Twilight after which she turned her head over to Fluttershy. “I have no idea how we can cross this boiling lake. Magic might do the trick, but it would need constant resupply and there are only two unicorns in the group. Not even the pair of us are powerful enough to get everypony over.”

The doctor nodded with a gentle motion to the words spoken to her. She laid a hand upon the shoulder of Twilight. “I’m certain that you will discover something that can get us across. You haven’t let us down since we began, so I don’t see why you would be doing it now. But it’s your call. Though…”

“Though what?” Twilight returned to Fluttershy, the tables were turned all of the sudden.

“Can’t you just teleport over to the other side?”

“Ha, if only such a thing was possible. No, the heat of the lake would interfere with everything. Even if we manage to go over the coolest parts, we still be ending up with burned atoms all around,” the soothsayer explained to the best of her abilities. It wasn’t a risk she was wanting to undergo unless it would have been absolutely necessary.

“Alright then. You just sit here and figure something out, I’ll go talk to the girls and, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy while her eyes glanced with haste over to the lamia in the group. She still wasn’t all too comfortable about the fact that they basically had a giant snake just roaming around.

Twilight nodded to the words and Fluttershy made her departure from her. The soothsayer just dropped down into the ground below as her mind began to rattle. With the magma almost behaving like the gentle rolling waves of the sea did she knew there was a current inside of the stream. It may not have been much, but at least it was something they could be looking at. They needed a vessel. A vessel of some sort that was able to carry them. That made two things that were a certainty. Two down and only so many more to go.

The pegasus returned to the group and gave Rainbow a gentle nod. Who on her own turn was genuinely surprised by the fact that a pegasus like Fluttershy would have defended her. A mare who had left the city of Cloudsdale, still seemed to have had some bits of a true pegasus hidden inside of her. It was a little something that caused the mare to gain a gentle smile upon her face. “Thanks Fluttershy, I do appreciate it what you did for me just yet,” said Rainbow before she patted the other mare on her shoulder. Unlike the last time, it was both gentle and calm.

“It’s nothing, Twilight just needs to cool off from time to time but she fails to realize it from time to time. Sadly enough. I only did what seemed best.” The attention of the mare then turned back to the soothsayer. “Which is for her to work out a way to get across the lake.”

The major and the other two mares couldn’t help themselves but to chuckle softly towards the words. They all knew that they were true and that there wasn’t any other way for Twilight to have relieved herself from the frustration. Though whether it was actually a good idea to give it off against Rainbow in the way she did was something that remained to have been seen.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Applejack asked towards the doctor while Rarity just stood there. With one hand in her side and the other upon the hilt of her sword in a relaxed position. The pirate captain just watched over the events as they would be coming down upon her.

She didn’t thought that any kind of input from her side was really necessary for any of them. Perhaps she was right, perhaps she was wrong. Her decisions were standing firm no matter what. Her eyes only shifted to look at the speaker of words or to watch the situation upon the lake once more. There had to be a way across, a way that they could be using, right?

~~~~~

Minutes had gone by while Twilight just sat there. She sat there like a foal who was trying to figure things out for itself. It seemed almost as if she was playing with a series of toys instead of doing any actual any research. But the eyes were misleading them all.

For Twilight was in fact doing a whole lot of research at that moment in time. With her magic had she levitated up small pieces of rock and placed them within the magma. She would then calculate the time it took before it vanished. Only to then multiply everything together.

Everything together just came down to a massive number. The mare her eyes opened up widely for just a moment as at the same time a gulp was being released. “That’s impossible, right? Multiply everything by the amount and you would need a ship the size of a naval vessel… Might as well build a bloody bridge over it then, if you don’t think it was crazy enough yet.”

The inner mutters of Twilight were an utter devastation for her moral support. The facts seemed to have been truly unbelievable and they could have actually been just that. But the unicorn was certain there must have been some sort of alternative that the group could have been using in order to cross the deadly streams.

“I’m not going to teleport us all together or one by one. The amount of magic that’s needed in order to do such a thing are astronomical. Not to mention the heat becoming able to morph our atoms into the shape it wants… No, it’s lunatics work to do something like that. Only those with a wish of death do such a thing. I do not have a wish of death yet.” Twilight had begun to argue with herself in whispers inaudible to the rest of them.

Whispers that may or may not have been leading them all to the solution of their problems. Solutions had to be found on the matter for she wouldn’t fall back to the last resort that she had. Her eyes closed themselves gently as she leaned back against the rocky surface. The time to think in silence had fallen upon her and who knew, perhaps the answer she was looking for came falling from the skies? Or the ceiling, in their case.

Pinkie Pie found herself becoming a bit more uncomfortable in the presence of the company and made most likely the wise decision to make her departure. At least she thought it was a wise decision. The lamia just darted away from the group of talking mares without being noticed by anyone and slithered past the rocks.

Her pace was calm, gentle even. Which was something odd for the always twitching creature. But it actually came from the icy shards that she remained that calm. Her heart coated in ice made her a little bit slower than usual. Whether she liked it or not, she still happened to be part reptilian. That included a little bit of cold blood inside of her. Lamia’s would have become a lot more active in the neighborhood of massive heat sources, but would slow down during colds.

That was most likely the reason of just why the lamia had been sticking to the spring and the sunlight for such a long time. She must have gotten her energy out of there. Her eyes shifted constantly from the rocky walls to the boiling hot magma.

She sure loved to be in a hot place but the boiling rock was getting a little bit too much of the good stuff. The only thing that she could be doing was to naturally stay as much clear from it as she possibly could have been.

Which was in fact working out pretty well for her. The lamia leaned more towards the wall than anything else as she continued to slither away. Her mind had sunken away as the eyes had been closed almost halfway. She almost appeared to be daydreaming and from what happened next, she could have sworn she was.

When Pinkie was just slithering away from the group, in a flash did everything became black before her eyes while her body crashed into the ground itself. Uncertain of what had hit her did the lamia crawl back up quickly and turned her body around with a growl.

Her eyes were opened wide and they shifted all over the place. One of the mares must have done something, right? That was the thought she was having at least. Only problem happened to be that all of the mares were still standing in their original positions or sitting by the lake.

“…What?” Pinkie exclaimed in a whisper and to herself. She turned her body the other way. She hadn’t found the origin of why she had tripped, but she had discovered something else. For her eyes were staring into something shiny, something bright and something pretty big.

The lamia was captured by the mesmerizing sights it carried and actually went into the little side cavern. Whether it was a trap or not remained to be discovered by her.

“Hey, any of you seen Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked when she noticed that the pink blob of snake had left the scene as a whole. The attention of the other mares turned over from the pegasus to the nearby surroundings and they all began to look for her.

Yet Applejack was the one who replied to the matter. “Yer wasting yar time, she’s gone slithering over the rocks there. She’ll be back soon enough, Ah hope,” she said to the company just before she gestured with her hand to where Pinkie had gone off to.

A massive relief came to each of the mares. They at least knew where the lamia was, or thought that she was. A massive weight could be dropped from their very shoulders and they were just so glad on that little fact.

They all thanked the admiral in silence for her hawk eyes and returned to their normal conversations. But Fluttershy couldn’t help herself but to look at Twilight every so often. It almost seemed like she knew through what kind of stress the unicorn was going. The sheer amount of mental pain that was plaguing her the way it did.

It must have been devastating for the soothsayer, to have the entire weight of the team resting upon her very own shoulders. All of the responsibilities and such. Yet it wasn’t that different from her and her hospital. She was having a great respect for the unicorn, that much was certain from her side. Anything else remained to be the question.

The voice of Pinkie Pie was loud enough that it travelled all over the place in loud echoes and managed to get the attention of each of the mares. “Hey!” she shouted first, “look at what I found!” Eyes were both shifted and opened into her direction and saw the lamia waving with her arms. Perhaps it was the moment where Twilight had been waiting for all that time?

Perhaps Pinkie had found the thing that would have been able to get them all across the lake without much of a problem? Then again, almost everything they had been doing so far was a little bit of a problem. The soothsayer got back up on her hooves and stretched herself a little bit. Bones snapped back before she gestured to the other mares to follow her. They all would be knowing just what Pinkie Pie had found for them.

“Isn’t it beautiful? Huh, huh, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Pinkie exclaimed in happiness while she slithered back into the side cavern. The rest of the company finally managed to make their way in and they were all presented on just what Pinkie had been wanting to show them all.

Their eyes just went wide from amazement. They never could have believed that their very luck would have been turned around. Finally there was something that was going with them and they just couldn’t believe it.

Within the side cavern it just stood as if it was nothing. The answer upon the question of how they would be going around the magma lake. The answer? A vessel made out of what seemed to be the purest diamonds in the world. The toughest material that was known to their kind.

“It’s, it’s, it’s amazing,” stuttered Twilight when she couldn’t get any other words over her mouth. The rest of them just all gasped from disbelief. Never had they expected a giant, diamond carved longboat to be found just inside of a side cavern. Yet there it laid, just like that

Which in and of itself had set the admiral to thinking. “Ain’t it a bit suspicious though, that that thing just rests there, waiting for us?” Applejack asked to the group. She was right on the matter though. It indeed was a little bit suspicious when there was some thought placed about it. But the others just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

Which was much to the annoyance of the admiral herself. She released a deep huff in response just before she crossed her arms. But a couple of seconds later had the mare just given up. Her arms were raised into the air for a fraction of a moment. “If y’all don’t wanna question it, fine by me. Help yarself, Ah’d say.”

“Applejack,” the soothsayer said before she turned herself around. Her eyes looked the earth anthrony right in the eyes. “This might be our only shot of getting across. Yes, it is looking suspicious, but it can be our greatest help. Never look a gifted horse in the mouth, remember?” She then gave the mare a smile and turned herself back around.

Applejack felt like she was left in the dark for some reason. Almost as if they knew things that she didn’t knew. Then again, everypony was having secrets for everypony, no matter what. No matter how much information they shared with each other, an equal amount always remained hidden deep inside of their very souls.

The mare released a deep huff on the matter before she too came in closer to inspect the longboat. There wasn’t anything else that she could be doing at the time really. She had to admit that fact that it was well crafted. Other than that compliment it wouldn’t receive.

Rarity was the one who was the most captured by the sheer beauty of the longboat but she also was the first one to have a good look at it all. She saw herself this little expert in gems. After having raided so many merchant ships, she had gotten a little taste for the finer gems in life. Diamonds were among those she desired the most out of them all.

So her hands went all over the hull of the diamond longboat to see if there would have been any imperfections with it all. “Don’t hold up your hopes too much, Twilight, the magma has been eating away from this. The sides here are a little bit chewed away. Yet see the burn marks here?” Rarity’s finger pointed to a coal black spot that was visible, clear as day.

Spots like that could be seen at the bottom of the longboat all around and those worried Rarity a whole lot. “It shows that it has been used to get across the magma lake, I just don’t know whether or not it can hold one, two more trips. Judging the size of it…”

“Only three anthronies can be sittin’ inside of it,” spoke Applejack when she had popped up on the other side of the thing. “Meaning we’re gonna do two trips.”

“Thank you for the information, Applejack,” replied Rarity in an almost sarcastic thankful tone. “As Applejack said, it’s going to require two trips, meaning it has to go across the lake at least three more times. I don’t know if it will be able to hold. Diamonds are hard and tough, certainly. But if they can be that hard is a question I dare not to answer. It’s your call though, Twilight.”

The soothsayer nodded in calm to the words that were being said to her. She took them all into consideration before a smile was given off to Pinkie Pie. “It’s beautiful, Pinkie, you did a good job finding this,” she said towards the lamia. Who on her own turn released a little squee which caused them all to smile for just a little moment.

“I think, if it has to make three trips at least, it would be best if I also coat it in the shards of ice. At least the outer hull that is. It’s going to get boiling hot once upon the lake. Should protect the longboat from the heat as well as those inside of it from it. Everypony, I think we have found our manner of transportation. Oars are included by the looks of it,” said Twilight then.

The group was as happy as they could have been. Finally did they have a manner in which they could be traveling over the lake of magma. Finally could they actually venture further once more. Finally were they one more step closer towards reaching their final goal.

A final goal that was lying directly into a place some would have referred to as the lion’s den. Somepony had stored the longboat there after it had made its way out one last time. And they would be going directly into the place where it came from. Perhaps not a smart decision, but it was all part of the quest they accepted to take.

~~~~

With all of their might and the magic of both Twilight and Rarity was the vessel pulled out of the side cavern and pulled upon the little ‘beach’ that separated both the rocky sides and the lake of magma. Then were they all granted a bigger picture of the longboat and saw it within the light of the magma. They had to admit that it looked even more impressive than it had been doing inside of the cavern.

It even seemed to have been able to make the trip without being covered in ice. But Twilight’s decision stood firm. She would be coating the outer hull in a layer of ice similar to the shards around their hearts. It was a matter of being rather safe than sorry. They had seen what the magma did to a icicle of stone, they wouldn’t dare to think about what it could be doing to flesh. More specifically, their very own.

The horn of the unicorn and the orb of the staff were both charged up as the casting of the spell had begun. Twilight was doing her utmost best to make certain that everything would have worked out the way it was supposed to be.

Rarity had taken it upon herself to look at the oars that laid inside and nodded to herself. One on each side while the third anthrony could be relieving one of the others if it was needed. Her eyes shifted over to the other doorway at the end of the room.

The calculations were made in her mind about the time that was required to make the journey from one end to the other. She took into account that four of them had never been holding an oar before. “Just about an hour…” Rarity whispered to herself before there was a deep exhale released through her nostrils. “Which is just great.”

Once Twilight was done with the coating of the hull, she whistled all of the mares to gather themselves to her. Each of them came as if they were good dogs and listened to the words that she had to say. “Okay, what I’m going to say next sounds stupid, but it’s the only way we can be getting over the lake in two trips. The hull is iced and should provide cover from the heat. Now then, who wants to go first?”

Of course there weren’t any volunteers when it came down to it. Something which Twilight had expected to happen and already taken into account. There was only one way that all six of them would have gotten to the other side without problems. And the soothsayer knew exactly how.

"Applejack, Fluttershy and myself will be the first ones to go. After that can Rarity pull the longboat back to this side and then she, Rainbow and Pinkie enter it. Once we’re all on the other side, we’ll be dragging the thing on the shore as high as possible. Any questions?” said Twilight while she just made up the schedule on the spot. That was the plan and they had to deal with it.

“One, are you out of your mind?” questioned Rainbow. The pegasus even raised a hand like a good school-filly. Though they all knew it was to mock the soothsayer, Twilight included.

“Actually, I kinda am seeing how I’m down inside of a volcano! Not to mention, you all are probably ripe for the loony bin as well at this point. Given the fact that you came with me. Now get in,” said Twilight in a joking tone at first before it turned over into a dead serious one. When it came to magma, there was no room for error because there was only shot to be given.

The longboat was going over the lake of magma like it would have been going over the waters of the sea. Slow but steady it managed to crawl forward while the eyes of the mares on board constantly looked for any faults that could be happening to it.

For them it seemed as if time had come down to nothing but a crawl. They were all terrified for their lives. Even Applejack who was a weathered sailor had to admit she was scared. The fear was visible within their very eyes while both Twilight and Fluttershy were rowing the longboat. They made long, heavy strokes that didn’t brought them up to speed, but at least made them cover a great distance with each one.

Death seemed to have been lurking right around the corner in their eyes as they were all three nervous as hell. Anything could have happened. From an unexpected wave to a giant monster that roamed the lake.

Of course were most of their thoughts just madness and ghosts from their own mind, but there was some form of truth to them. Anything could have happened to them.

Which resulted in them only becoming greater once they had set their hooves upon the ground of the other side of the lake. Sighs of relief were made as Twilight intensified the strength of the icy shield even further in case Rarity had forgotten the spell.

The unicorn soothsayer finally waved to the other side of the lake and Rarity understood it right away. With her sleeve rolled up and the wrist mounted harpoon clearly visible, she took aim. Mere seconds later was her shot fired away.

She prayed on the heavens high that the shot would have been a direct hit, otherwise she could be looking for a new hook. But much to her own surprise and luck was the thing a hit and got stuck into the top of the longboat. Exactly where she had aimed.

The longboat was hauled back to the other side for the final three mares to make it across. Once the little vessel was there would the three of them boarded it. Rarity and Rainbow took on the oars as they commanded Pinkie Pie to sit still no matter what.

Rarity remembered the spell that was given to her and she charged it up right away. For on the way back, it didn’t had a constant charge of resupplied ice. On the third trip it would be having just that. Then they were off. They were just off to make their way to the other side of the lake and get back to the rest of the company.

Behind them laid an underground civilization and a locked door. In front of them a magma lake and beyond that, who knew what would have been lurking at them all?

Chapter LIX

“Steady as he goes. Rainbow, slow down on the peddling,” spoke Rarity when they had almost reached the other side of the magma lake. All three of them had feared for their very lives with each stroke they made. Every little movement could have been the last one and they were highly aware of that little fact. They wanted to get out of there as quick as they could, but couldn’t haste.

Silence was the thing that took them all over until the final stretch was in sight. Rarity could be found standing at the stern of the long boat and Rainbow was peddling with both of the oars. She managed to actually get the thing forward against the currents of the lake as Twilight, Applejack and Fluttershy all watched from the other size.

Applejack knew what needed to happen and nudged Twilight in her side. The soothsayer turned her head over to the admiral in confusion. Who in her own turn nodded towards the little longboat. “They be needing help to get it ashore. All of it needs to be out of the magma,” she said in a dead serious tone. One that Twilight could understand without a doubt.

The mare released a gentle nod towards the admiral and began to charge up her horn. The horn of Rarity had also coated itself within the aura as the two unicorns looked to one another. “Levitate out?” the pirate captain asked.

"Levitate out, but carefully and not too high off the ground,” replied Twilight almost straight away. Then both of the unicorns gave each other a powerful nod. With their powers combined should they have been actually able to and melt the ice away from the hull as well as levitating it over to the much cooler ground as well.

There it then hovered. It was levitated off of the ground by mere inches while it continued to crawl its way forward. Rainbow had made sure that the oars were magma-free and placed the pair of them on the places where they belonged. Pinkie could only watch as the longboat just left the lake they had crossed moments ago.

Only once it was actually safe for them all to disembark, would they have known it was completely safe. Although they used that term loosely as they were still next to a giant lake of magma that had taken a rest below one of the land’s most notorious volcano. Inch by inch did the longboat crawl over to the land as the ice was melted away.

All that remained from it was nothing more but mist and water. Water that would be finding its way back towards the magma and to be turned into nothing but steam. Twilight had a quick look after the first cloud of steam had been sent upwards. It worried her perhaps a little bit too much, but the gasses didn’t seem to actually have been able to go anywhere other than the side entrances.

The mare shook her head as she knew that there were more important matters to be worked out. The longboat came to a complete standstill as it was placed upon the actual ground and the three passengers disembarked from it without a hitch.

Everypony was reunited with the rest of the group and there was a moment of genuine happiness. For once again had they defeated a massive hurdle that was thrown into their path. Even though the dangers had risen up to unbelievable heights, they all had to admit that fact that the lake itself held a certain charm to it.

A deadly one that, but one nonetheless.

With the longboat back on the dry could they be making their trip further down into the caverns. Everypony turned themselves around to face the entrance of the next tunnel they had to be going through. It was the one way that hopefully would have brought them closer towards their goal.

Desperation was still something that lingered deep inside of their very minds. The desperation of them not finding the place they had to be going to. The desperation of the events that would have followed if they didn’t succeed within their quest.

But for Twilight was there another and more persistent danger that seemed to have been lurking around. The gasses inside of the massive chamber could be vented through both of the side caverns and possible holes that were invisible to them. Yet there still was the worry of huge amounts of methane gas and sulfuric acid vapors. Those two combined could become a silent but deadly killer.

The eyes and nose constantly shifted and twitched as she took sniffs from the air. The last thing she wanted was to be suffocated by anything before they had reached their goal. “Let’s go, we had the time to enjoy the view. Time to head deeper into the caves. Rarity and I will act as torches. I do not trust the caverns anymore,” said Twilight to the lot of them.

“How do ya mean?” Applejack asked before she rose an eyebrow. A little thing that was shared by pretty much all of the other members. They couldn’t really understand why Twilight didn’t wanted to give them all torches to light up the path ahead of them.

“The reasoning is simple, poisonous gasses plus open flame equals boom,” explained Twilight bare to the bone. Even Pinkie Pie could have understood the reasoning of the soothsayer. Which she actually did to everypony’s surprise. “Arcane light doesn’t irradiate any form of heat unless the unicorn desires so. Meaning we should be safe from that little fact.”

“But what about attaching the light to the torches? Won’t that create any heat?” Fluttershy asked after some thinking.

“She’s having a point,” added Rainbow. But Twilight already shook her head before all of them could have said their words upon the matter. Defeat once more came to the company as the explanation was made against them of just why.

“If either Rarity or I would place bits of our arcane powers upon a torch, it would need a self-sustaining fuel source. Heat, would be that thing. I do not know how much heat it would generate, but I’m not taking the risk. This air is poisonous, let’s go. The longer we stand here, the greater our chance of passing away is.”

The words of Twilight were grim without a doubt. Yet they could all understand them in one way or the other. They had smelled it in their noses, they had even seen it in distant pasts. The gasses of the underground were getting a hold on each of them. Whether they wanted it or not, they would fall victim to it if they would remain there.

Their only hope was to venture even deeper into the crust of the lands. Deeper to where the gasses didn’t reach any of them. It was a long shot once more, but one that perhaps could have been working out the best for all of them.

Twilight and Rarity had charged their horn to the brightest shine without creating any form of heat. With only the charge coating their horns and no spell being cast, it only irradiated the light. Which was exactly the thing that they needed. The unicorns were content with the shine and the soothsayer happened to be the first one to disappear in the new tunnel.

What followed was that the rest of the mares while both Rarity and Pinkie were the last two to enter. They formed the rear guard once again as the pirate kept a close eye on the lamia. She didn’t wanted to say it aloud, but she was still having her doubts about the creature. Something about her just seemed to have been off. Unusual even.

She kept herself silent on the matter though. Yet deep within her sapphire blue rims it was clearly visible. The troubles that she thought about were there. They always had been there, ranging back to their initial encounter.

~~~~

Minutes turned into hours while the company of mares kept on wandering through the cavern. Nothing was the thing that they encountered. A whole load of nothingness surrounded them for the moment. Their only hint was to go deeper. So every time there was a crossing, they would have gotten deeper into the cavern.

The magma lake was high above them but they all knew the dangers it carried. The heat from it could be felt through all of the rocks which luckily didn’t burn their hooves to a crisp. Twilight’s spell to keep their hearts cool seemed to have been paying off rather nicely. Yet the dangers were still lurking around every last corner in their minds. They didn’t have a clue about the wildlife.

Who knew what they would be encountering right around the next curve. Who knew what kind of horrors they would be seeing at the next opening. What ghosts of yesterday would be roaming the dreaded place.

There was nothing but silence that could be heard. Not even the breathing of the anthronies could be heard. Just a complete and utter silence. No echo, no nothing. Silence had taken over everything. None dared to whisper up as they all felt themselves becoming uncomfortable. It almost seemed as if the devil herself was watching them from beyond the shadows. She gazed upon the group of mares as if they were her prey and she could strike at any given moment.

Hours must have gone by when the company of mares couldn’t take it anymore. Hours they must have walked through the new cavern system and only have gotten deeper than before. Where they were was unknown, nopony had drawn their route upon a map of Equestria or anything. Not even Twilight could figure it out with her mental notes.

The soothsayer knew the steps that had been taken, she knew the locations of where they had turned and she even knew the directions of the wind by each turn. Yet all of that combined didn’t gave them a clear indication of where they were.

A deep exhale was being released by Fluttershy just before she spoke her words. “Can we take a rest here, Twilight? We’re all dead tired again. The air is getting thin and I’m sure, you’re having trouble as well.” But the soothsayer wanted to push on. She wanted to continue going forwards and discover what laid around the next corner.

Perhaps the place they needed to be going was resting right around it. They only could be knowing it for certain if they went on and took a look. Yet that was the very thing that Twilight did as well. She took a look at the faces of each of the mares and felt that a hard decision had fallen upon her once more.

Twilight saw how all of the faces were long, tired and just downright exhausted. But she was still filled with energy from the goddesses knew what. None of them knew why Twilight could still be that active about everything. Though they all thought it had something to do with the fact she was a soothsayer.

“Fine, we’ll set up camp right around the next corner. If there’s an opening we’re going to be in luck. If not, we’ll have to make one,” said Twilight before they then continued to walk further. Even though Twilight wanted to push on, the compromise was made. They would be traveling further, but only to the next corner. When that one would arrive though was anypony’s guess.

When the next corner came into their view, the feelings of relief were released by the mares. They all knew that rest was literally right around the corner. Twilight stood still at the intersection and had a great look around with her arcane light. A light that reached to ends far in front of her before it was once more consumed by the darkness.

Her eyes were peeled forwards as she kept on gazing for a suitable resting place. But all that they saw was a whole lot of nothing. Which made the mare come to a rather interesting decision. “We’re going to set up camp right here. In the middle of the road. I’m not going to take any second chances. What lays behind the darkness is anypony’s guess and not to be found out right now. So you have your way, set up the tent and get some dinner. If anypony needs me, give me a shout,” commented Twilight before she opened up the void storage portal to grab some things.

The words that the mare had spoken to each of them were perhaps a little bit unusual to say the least but she meant them in the right way. At least they thought of it that way. Not that there was much to complain about, for they could finally be taking up the rest that they required to have.

Minutes had gone by before the mares had finally set up the tent and found themselves all inside of it. The limited space on the outside didn’t really gave them a chance to have their supper on the outside. But inside of the tent they could at least have a couple of flames in order to keep themselves warm and have light.

Applejack was preparing their dinner once more while they all sat down on the beds. There just wasn’t enough space inside of the tent to set up a table. Not with the admiral cooking inside as well. Nopony truly had a complaint about it though. They also took the opportunity to get some shut eye as well. Or at least Rainbow did that.

Pinkie was slithering around a little bit uncomfortable while both Rarity and Fluttershy had dropped themselves upon the bed of the pirate captain. The two of them were just talking about everything they had done and seen in their lives.

The more Rarity listened to the tales of the doctor, the more she became suspicious about the fact that Applejack could have been right all that time ago. That there was more to Fluttershy then at first glance was given away. Perhaps she did have a much darker secret held close to her heart. None of the mares knew and none wanted to actually pry at it.

“Say Flu- Oh hey Pinkie,” said Rarity before she blinked with her eyes a couple of times. There where she thought to be talking with the doctor just a moment ago, she stared right into the eyes of the lamia. “It’s quite, an interesting manner to make an entrance.”

Pinkie giggled and allowed herself a gentle squee to be released from her body. The unicorn rolled her eyes a little bit as the pegasus released a quiet giggle. “You, wanted to ask something, Rarity?” the timid pegasus then said in the hope to catch the conversation back up.

“It’s not that important, Fluttershy. It can actually wait until a later date. But Pinkie, you know it’s rude to just drop in, when two anthronies are having a conversation. Didn’t they thought you any manners in that place of yours?” The voice of Rarity was both kind and stern at the same time. Combined with the cutting glare within her eyes, the deadly combination was just complete.

The lamia’s smile faded from her face the second she heard the words and shied away from the unicorn her face. She only looked at Rarity with shady looks from her own but knew that the unicorn demanded her answers in silence.

“W-Well, they did, taught us,” replied Pinkie. Rarity then crossed her arms in response and gave an even more eerie looking glance from her eyes. “But, I kinda, forgot, them. It’s not easy to live in a cavern!” she then exclaimed while her arms were then frailed all over the place.

“Okay, okay, okay, I believe you!” the pirate captain returned while she leaned away from the lamia not to get hit by the arms, or anything else for that matter. “But think about it next time, alright? Two beings might be having the more intimate conversation they ever had in their lives or are in a heated but civil discussion.”

The lamia dropped her arms back to the mattress and used them as support for her body. She then released a nod towards the words of Rarity. “Oki Doki Loki. Mind if I stay here, with you two?”

“No,” replied Fluttershy straight away.

“Yes,” said Rarity at the exact same time. Which resulted in a pair of strange eyes from both the lamia and the pegasus. Once the unicorn realized what she had done, there was a little blush that came to her face before she allowed herself an awkward giggle. “Sorry, I meant no, of course.” It all was just a lie to keep everypony happy and not end with yet another skirmish she didn’t want.

Rarity already had to look out for Applejack just to be certain, the last thing that the captain needed were two new enemies that would be knocking at her gates. The awkward giggle died down as the unicorn leaned a bit backwards and closed her eyes.

In the meantime had Rainbow been brought back from the realm of the sleep and had heard the whole conversation between the three of them. She couldn’t help herself to not chuckle at it. It was just that idiotic to listen to. “Sounds like the navy is having some issues when it comes down to their manners, don’t they?” the major chuckled just before she opened one of her eyes.

The eye moved over towards Rarity who had opened her own. The two mares stared each other down before they both shook their head a little bit. Rarity was actually negative about the words that Rainbow had spoken, while the major was just satirizing it even further. “No problems with manners in the navy, major Dash. But I’m the kind of mare who is used to civil manners and chivalry. One can say it’s in my blood.”

“You saying you’re having blue blood in those veins of yours? Don’t make me laugh, a pirate like you?” Rainbow then said just before she shook her head from side to side. She just couldn’t believe a single word that came out of the mouth of the mare.

“And what if I do happen to have blue blood coursing through my veins?” Rarity pried. She wanted to know the further details and intentions of Rainbow’s words. Pinkie and Fluttershy kept themselves silent as they had no intention of getting involved in the clash of titans.

“All I’m saying is that you wasted your blue blood by becoming a pirate. You can kiss all of those sweet little benefits, goodbye. And don’t give me the crap of me not knowing how it feels to work or anything,” replied Rainbow in a near stone cold tone. She had her one eyes pinned down on Rarity.

Who on her own turn only released a deep huff and she pulled her nose up. “Hmpf, listen to yourself, pegasus. Born and raised in the city of pride, everything has a cost within there. No, I’m going to spare you all that crap indeed. And so what if I wasted my blue blood. Who ever said I wanted to be royalty anyway? Besides, it was all before of Applejack that…”

“What’s with me?” the admiral said when she finally returned to the group with dinner for them all. “Twi, soup’s on.”

Mumbles came from the outside of the tent before they could hear the bones being snapped back in their respectable places. Twilight had gotten up and would be returning into the tent. The green eyes of applejack then looked back at the mares on the beds as she was still waiting for her answer.

“This is none of your concern, Applejack,” returned Rarity in calm. The skirmish between the pirate and the major seemed to have ceased down with the interference of the admiral. Though who could be saying for how long that would have been.

“If yar saying so,” said Applejack before she went away again to get the plates. Only once she came back a couple seconds later were the final words upon the matter spoken. “Ah just don’t wanna end up with a dagger in mah back.”

“Heh, with our treaty still standing? Not going to happen, Jackie. You know I have still some bits of decency left,” chuckled Rarity while she took a plate and filled it with the content of the pan.

“Ah hope ya keep on having it until this all is done,” added Applejack as one last note before they all would begin with their dinner. Twilight was actually the last of the mares who came in and greeted all of them with some simple words.

She took place upon her bed and began with her dinner as well. The silence that had taken over between the six of them was a thing that could be cut with a knife to break it. Tension was standing strong between the lot of them. Each of them had their respectable worries as well as troubles.

Nopony knew what they would be expecting next and they rather wouldn’t been thinking about it either. Death, was always a possible visitor for them all. Who knew what shady figure was lurking outside of the tent as they were eating. Nopony could tell, nopony wanted to tell and nopony should have told.

The darkness concealed a lot of things from their eyes. But they would meet another danger sooner or later. That was one of the things that was a certain as the sunrise in the morning.

While the dinner went on, Fluttershy couldn’t be keeping her eyes off of the lamia. She found the creature just fascinating to witness and did so to great extents. But she never seemed to let the alarm bells go off inside of Pinkie’s mind. The doctor was examining the creature while also eating her own dinner. It was the near perfect cover up in her own eyes, if only the lamia wouldn’t figure it all out.

Pinkie on the other end just remained silent while she enjoyed the cooking of Applejack. A thing they all shared there in fact. Despite being a rough and tough mare of the seas, she knew how to make the greatest of delicacies with only the simplest of ingredients. It didn’t matter what it was, it always tasted good and there always was plenty of it to be found.

The eyes of the doctor went over pretty much all of the scales and she tried to figure out the whole anatomy of the creature. An anatomy that both made sense and didn’t at the same time. She understood how the snake portion worked and how the anthrony portion worked. What she didn’t understood at all was the link between the two different kinds of bodies. While it was more than true that it was there, she didn’t know just how something like that would have been a possible feat to begin with.

Rarity on the other end was a little bit disgusted by the creature. She was eating her dinner in perhaps the most civilized manner that they all were eating in. And then there was Pinkie Pie, who ate like a literal wildebeest. The unicorn wanted to shake her head just both so hard and so much at the same time that she would have been afraid of losing it.

Yet she managed to keep all of her nerves together for all times sake. The last thing she needed was yet another fallout with the lamia. She had seen the sheer power the snake possessed as it curled up around Twilight. Luckily for the soothsayer could she teleport out. The pirate captain on the other end wasn’t that fortunate when it came down to her magic.

So if Pinkie’s body would have coiled up around her, she would have either been squeezed or had to be saved by the rest of them. Rarity had to just suck it up for the time being and just live with the facts as they were. Sooner or later would the creature have removed herself from her presence again. Or so she hoped at least.

It wasn’t that she truly was disgusted by the lamia, she just didn’t felt herself too comfortable whenever it was near her. She couldn’t truly explain how it all worked. Whether it worked upon her intimate desires or just with the facts of what anthronies were supposed to be looking like, she didn’t knew. Nor did she wanted to know the answer upon the question that was surging through her mind. For everything just seemed to had become a massive cloud.

A slight grumble was being released from her throat when she realized that little fact happening. Her eyes closed themselves off from the world for a little bit time before she would keep on eating her dinner with her eyes closed.

Everypony continued to be doing that. Rainbow had even crawled out of her laying position and sat up straight on her bed. But that dreaded silence was the problem that they all were having to deal with whether they liked it or not.

Something Applejack had become hell-bent on to change. Her eyes shifted over towards Twilight. Perhaps one of the most illogical questions to have been asked, was then asked. “Hey Twilight, what do ya think we might be finding when we’re in the center? Like, what do ya personally think there is?”

It was the same old question asked in a new jacket. The unicorn released a deep exhale through her nostrils before she placed her fork back on her plate. Her eyes turned over to Applejack with almost little to no twinkle to be found within them. Almost as if somepony had sucked all of the life right out of them.

Which happened to be a little bit true in Twilight’s case. She didn’t wanted to admit it herself, but she was tired from the wandering through the cavern. Not only that though. She also felt that they were running out of time and they needed to be finding the center as quick as they could.

But the question still went unanswered by her. What did she personally thought they would be encountering in the center of Equestria? Another deep exhale was released as the gears inside of her head were turning and twisting into pretty much every single direction. Nothing seemed to be making even a little bit of sense anymore as there was nothing in her mind that could possibly have been helping her in any way or form.

“What I think we shall encounter there? What can’t we encounter there, might have been the better question. For all I know, every last Dark Witch has gathered herself upon the ground and tries to darken our very center. Maybe there’s a giant colony of spiders that have their webbing stuck around the core which causes the tremors. Hell, there might even be a dragon for all I know.”

Twilight honestly didn’t know the answers. She didn’t knew what they could have encountered in the very center of Equestria. But she had a way of actually getting there. A pretty simple one at that. “The answer to all of our questions lays in one simple direction: deeper. We have to get deeper and deeper, more into darkness until we finally are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“But who knows how long that’s going to be taking. I thought we were on a matter of time here,” said Rainbow while she looked the soothsayer almost straight into the eyes. The mare nodded in return as Rainbow did happen to have a point.

“Yes, we’re on a matter of time, one that actually manages to let itself wait for something,” replied Twilight. A quiet groan was released through her throat before she closed her eyes for a little moment. “We have to travel even deeper than the magma lake, to who knows where deep inside of the crust of Equestria to stop something that maybe can’t even be stopped.”

“Which makes you question, why you have even began doing this? It’s too late to turn back now anyway. Might as well finish what you started,” added Rarity before she finished her plate. Finally had her eyes opened up again and she gazed over to Twilight as she said her words.

The unicorn nodded to confirm the words of the pirate captain. For she was hitting the nail straight on the head. “Not to mention, if we manage to find a way to bypass the doors we have been traveling through and make it back out to the mountain, I expect Chrysalis to appear any second. Sunset I’m not too worried about as she keeps Everfree for herself.”

“Yeah, thanks for bringing them lot up again,” said Applejack in a sarcastic tone towards the soothsayer. Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest move to start about two of the beings that wanted to put an end to their lives. Or at least Twilight’s.

After their dinner would the company have gone to bed quite early. All of them were broken and tired from the day they had behind them. They needed their rest and every last one of them travelled into a deep sleep.

All of them were deeply asleep as the lights were dimmed. All of them laid just so peacefully in their beds. Nothing could have gone wrong that ‘night,’ right? They were underground, they were thought to be safe from anything. Which did happen to be the case for most things actually. But there was one massive danger that never ceased to exist. And that danger was the tremors.

In the middle of their sleep did the first very few shocks came through. Not enough to wake all of them, though only Pinkie was woken up by them. The tiny vibrations within the ground she managed to pick up and made her worry. Where there was one, many more would have followed.

Before she could even wake the others were they all woken up by the tremors. For they had not only increased in their size, but also in their violence. Something terrible was about to happen and each of the anthronies knew that. All that they could do was to rush with putting their clothes on and get out of the tent as fast as possible.

Everything happened in less than seconds before the mares finally stood on the outside of their tent. Twilight was already busy taking it apart when an orange glow came from the direction that they had come from. All of the eyes went wide as they couldn’t believe it. None of them wanted to believe what was heading their way, but Rainbow was either brave or dumb enough to ask it. “T-Twilight, w-what’s coming our way?”

“That, is most likely, the magma from the lake we crossed so many hours ago,” commented Twilight before she put on a quote that had been said many times before. “Run!” It wasn’t something that needed to be said twice to any of the anthronies. They all feared for their lives as they could only see the lights of the magma. Who knew how far the magma was still away from them? Or more importantly, how fast it was traveling towards them.

With the tent being collapsed even further, the mares could have only ran the direction they didn’t wanted to go. They could only run as fast as they were allowed into the unknown. They had to stay ahead of the magma no matter what and impossible as it seemed.

Chapter LX

Right around the corner it then came. The thick but oddly fast magma had no intention of stopping. It boiled everything that came in its way, but much to the company’s luck and surprise did the foundation of the cavern remain intact. Yes, it was boiling hot, but somehow and thanks to something else, the whole cavern hadn’t just molten wherever the magma touched. It possibly had been the one saving grace that the company had in order to make their escape.

But their route was riddled with turns and twists that they had to take. Yet the magma could just crawl its way not only through it, but also over it. The massive amounts of the liquid rock were more than enough to burn every last obstacle in its way and wake. The fear was once again all too real in the eyes of the beings that ran away. Twilight and Rarity had their horns powerfully charged up and shone a combined light down the cavern.

A light that was powerful enough to make the terrible darkness vanquish for just a moment or two. They could see what was in front of them, but they didn’t knew what laid behind the protective barrier. For all they knew had they passed once more a couple dozen spiders that were vastly asleep.

They didn’t knew and they really didn’t wanted to know it either. The shudders that were travelling down the bodies of each of the mares as they as much as dared to be looking behind them was horrible. The sheer amount of magma that was chasing them at the higher than expected speed wasn’t too comforting.

It came closer and closer with each passing second. Twilight then realized that they couldn’t outrun it even if they tried their utmost best. So perhaps the only thing that they could be doing about it was to protect themselves in a way that hopefully would have been working out.

The soothsayer constantly watched over her back and towards Rarity. She really didn’t wanted to continue with her plan of madness, but it could have been their literal only hope of making it out alive and unburned. “Listen, I’m having a plan to possibly make the flow stop for at least a little while.”

“And how much is a ‘little while’?” Rarity asked while she didn’t cease her running. She didn’t even dare to look right behind her. Her head was only turned a little bit so that her eyes could watch Twilight and Twilight only. “Also let me guess that it is something highly dangerous and possibly idiotic.”

“Doesn’t sound like me, but possible, yes,” replied Twilight while she glanced once more behind her. “I can put up a shield, have the magma clog up there and possibly, just possibly have it freeze up to make another seal, like the ceiling in the volcano.”

Rarity’s mind had some trouble to connect the dots of the plan together. It seemed indeed like a plan of madness and one she wouldn’t really be partaking in with whatsoever. Yet if it did happen to be their only way out, she gladly would have taken it.

Though there was one little thing that kept on bugging her. A little, but rather important fact was the thing that kept on chewing upon her mind. And she had to break it to Twilight before she would do something really, really stupid.

“So basically, you want to seal our only known way out to keep the magma from coming right after us, that’s what you plan to do here, aren’t you?” she said in a rather emotionless tone. Almost like she was content with the plan already. Sure it sounded stupid without a doubt, but for Rarity it was the final nail in the coffin that told her that their trip would have been a one way.

They would become the unsung heroes of Equestria who hopefully had stopped the tremors and allowed life to flourish in their lands. It was perhaps a grim future for them but if their land could thrive on, there was no other way it could have been done. Though to make matters worse hadn’t Twilight even confirmed or denied the words of the unicorn yet.

“Rarity, it is like you can read my mind. Yes, it will seal up our only access route that we know of, but we can dig another one or just look for another.” Twilight replied as she formed a genuine little smile upon her face.

“I just hope that you know what you’re doing. Because I don’t feel like dying in here!” Rarity snarled up towards the soothsayer.

“Less talk, more action! Do what you have to do, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted. That very argument was supported by both Fluttershy and Applejack.

“Do what you gotta do!” Pinkie yelled from the rear as she had formed the rearguard by herself. That actually all did it for the unicorn. She would create a shield and freeze the boiling magma into solid rock. That was what she hoped at least.

Whether it was going to be liked or not, it was something that needed to happen, no matter what. The unicorn gave a powerful nod to herself before she would have summoned her staff once more into existence. Twilight Sparkle then allowed the others to pass her as she lowered her own pacing. She had to be the rearguard if she wanted it all to work.

It had to be her who was the last being in the whole line of beings. Only once Pinkie had slithered past her she would have waved around with her staff. “You lot have to guide me! I’m going to walk backwards!” the mare shouted without any warning beforehoof.

It terrified everypony that she said those words. It meant that one anthrony had to yell into which directions Twilight had to be going. And that without messing it up whatsoever. As if the risk wasn’t great enough already.

Out of everypony in the company did it happen to be Fluttershy who had taken the role of caretaker upon her and with every turn they made, she yelled it through to Twilight. It was the only way it could have been done without the soothsayer coming to a standstill.

A standstill and an incoming magma flow weren’t two things that seemed to be particularly working out pretty well for anyone. The magical aura around the horn increased itself as the sphere of the staff became brighter and brighter. The time was nearly there to cast the spell.

The prayers were said and the wishes made in silence. If they made a difference was something that remained to be seen by all of them.

Fluttershy managed to guide Twilight through the turns and twists without much of a hassle at all. She seemed to be knowing exactly into which direction she needed to be going and what to yell towards the unicorn. Perhaps years of surgery had perfected her ability to speak up all of the different directions in the reverse order for somepony who was facing the other way.

That, or it was just blind luck that the two happened to have every single time. But whichever it was, it seemed to be working. The lights became more intense as the company could only run forwards into the unknown.

Twilight was running backwards and she was working on the last preparations of the massive shield and the manner to cool the magma. It only was one shot that she needed, but that could have either made or broke her. A gulp was released through her throat as she finally spoke the chant of the spell in the ancient tongue.

Nopony understood a word from the little chant before the whispers also were faded away by the roaring waves. But finally there was something happening with the staff of Twilight. It was swung from both left and right in manners nopony had even expected to be possible.

But the shield was formed nonetheless. The massive shield that should have been good enough to have protected them was created. It reached through the whole side of the cavern. From left to right it covered every last little bit of the way.

They only hoped in silence that the thing was strong enough to hold the thousands of tons of magma that would be pushing itself against it within the next series of minutes. Yet the mares had all come to a standstill a couple moments after the shield was raised. They had their heads turned over towards it, but their bodies were ready to dart away if needed.

Twilight’s magical power was exceeding everything she had ever done before while the pressure of the magma only became greater. Even though she wanted to already freeze it up, she had to wait. She had to wait until the stuff was high enough to be frozen. That meant that it had to cover the whole of the cavern. If not, there would have been gaps through which it could escape and therefore rendered the whole attempt just complete and utter useless.

The seconds were slow, tedious and agonizing. Every passing second there were many more tons of magma pressing up against the shield. The face of the soothsayer already showed it in its fullest that she was struggling to keep up with everything.

With Rarity being the only other unicorn in the group, there was only so much that could have been done. Ye the struggle through which Twilight was going was a whole lot more than just holding up a simple light. “Not again,” the pirate captain muttered to herself.

It was the only thing that could have been done in the matter if they didn’t wanted to have shield just completely shattered. Rarity began to charge her horn even further before she released all of the magic it carried at once. A massive ray of blue light was shot towards Twilight. The unicorn soothsayer felt the increase in power and knew what happened to her in an instant.

It was then or never, she had to use the magic given by Rarity and place it for a good cause. With a deep exhale and another chant in the ancient language did it had to happen. To her eyes was the cavern filled up pretty much to the bring at the other side. Which meant that she could do what she needed to be doing.

Then it finally happened. With one massive burst of magic did the shield turn into the purest form of ice there was out there. The sheer coldness of the ice was in fact a combination that came forth out of the combined magic of both herself and Rarity. Even the air began to liquefy itself if the company looked close enough towards it. At their side of the shield it looked like that, who knew just how cold it was at the opposing one?

It must have been terribly cold though. For the magma began to turn gradually back into rock again. The boiling hot and molten stone didn’t seemed to have been standing much of a chance against the solid coldness from the shield. The rocks were formed and once the whole area had been nothing else but rock, Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Have, have we done it, Rarity?” she dared to question herself before a gulp was given off. The fear of removing the shield was still present inside of her and she didn’t wanted to destroy perhaps the only thing that stood between them and thousands of tons of boiling hot magma.

Rarity had made her way over to Twilight. She was still irradiating the ray of support magic towards the soothsayer. But she placed a hand upon the soothsayer’s shoulder and gave a nod. “It think, I think we did it, yes. From the looks of it at least,” returned Rarity while she gained a genuine smile across her face.

Rarity then discharged her own horn and looked over to the wall that had been created. Behind it did lay their way back for certain as well as the deadly magma. It was time for the shield to be released from its foundation and see whether or not it would hold together all by itself. Rarity gave one last nod towards Twilight who understood the meaning.

The horn of the soothsayer was being discharged and the aura from both it as well as the orb just faded out of existence. The shield was the next thing that faded away and Rarity made her steps closer towards it. With a great care in each hoof she placed, she inched forward.

Only to eventually have been able to actually touch the stone wall. But when her hand got closer and closer towards the stone, the colder the air seemed to have gotten there. Which was a clear indication of the thing holding itself together. The pirate captain seemed to have been content with the stuff as it was.

She then made her way back to the company with haste and nodded in calm. “It seems to be holding everything together, for the time being,” said Rarity before her attention shifted over to Pinkie Pie. “You happen to be familiar with these grounds? I know we’re passed the statue, but there must be more ways leading to the same thing, right?”

All hopes were then placed upon the lamia. She had said she knew a great deal of the cavern systems that were going through the ground and all. So perhaps there was a little bit of a chance that she knew the system they were in as well. Yet with all of the eyes aimed at the lamia, she became a little bit scared. Not to mention that the question was repeated a thousand times inside of her head.

Because of the fact that she was so nervous, the lamia did just spin around upon the spot. She was looking for spots that she knew. Spots that she would recognize out of thousands to identify the hallway. Her eyes gazed and gazed as her body turned and turned. Yet there was nothing to be seen in her eyes.

“N-No, I don’t, know these parts,” said Pinkie eventually in a defeated tone. “I never could get past the statue.” It was of course a massive bummer for the whole company. They had hoped that Pinkie would have known anything about the place. But it was in fact a long shot to begin with.

“Which means,” the pirate captain started while she gazed away from the company and further into the darkness that was natural to the caverns, “we’re going in deeper while almost literally being blind. No information, no nothing.”

“What else did ya except, Brittenburg?” Applejack began before she crossed her arms over each other. She managed to get the attention of the pirate who gazed upon her with a simple expression. “Ya expected detailed maps hanging ‘round here with little notes saying where ya are?”

“Not per say, but some information certainly would have been nice, Jackie. But how about we stop any further bickering between us and focus upon the task ahead?” Rarity returned while she wanted to keep the peace between both her and Applejack for just a little bit more.

The admiral gave a nod towards her nemesis and the company turned itself around to face the darkness. Deep exhales of many mixed emotions were released through the nostrils of the company’s members as the first steps were set.

All they knew was that they needed to go down, down, down and down once more. They needed to lower themselves into the soils of Equestria even further than they already had. But that was something which was in fact a whole lot easier said than actually done. Luckily they didn’t had the flow of magma to worry about anymore.

At least not that they were actually aware of. The magma was all nicely sealed away behind another barrier of actual and massive rock. Twilight and Rarity should have been making certain that it all had worked out in their very own favors.

That was the easy part though, the hard part was to find something that could be guiding them even further down into the cavern system. Which in and of itself resulted in each of the beings diverting a little bit from the main path. They were all a little bit scattered in the hope to figure out where exactly they needed to be going in order to complete what they needed to be doing.

The only problem was that nothing seemed what it actually was. For doorways appeared but disappeared when they arrived. They thought to have heard small river flowing in the dead silence of the caverns. It just overall messed with their heads.

They there all just so desperate that they all needed to have something to which they could be clinging to. Something that told them that there was some form of hope left within the world they had entered.

~~~~

Yet after what seemed of hours of searching, could even that very little form of hope have been just flushed down the drain. There wasn’t anything that felt like it mattered anymore to any of them. They all had hurdled themselves together as the light of both Rarity and Twilight were the only two things that illuminated the place.

Deep exhales were released by each of the company’s members while the heads were hung low. “So what’s the plan now?” Rainbow asked of them. She wanted to know what they all had upon their minds. “Do we just, give up and watch the land crumble?”

“‘Course not, we be needing to find something in this mess,” countered Applejack before she then looked over to Twilight. “Ain’t one of them riddles able to help ya out?”

Twilight looked back to the admiral before she shook her head. “None of the riddles that I have faced in my life could have prepared myself for any of this. I just, am clueless. I do not know what to do right now and I don’t think I can make the ascent now. Not with the magma still up there,” the mare said with a desperate glance in her eyes.

“Actually,” the lamia said then. Pinkie pointed with her finger in a motion that she knew something. “You remember the riddle at the statue?”

“What does that statue has to do with the things we’re doing here?” Twilight asked as she had to admit one thing. Her curiosity had been peeked. “What are you thinking in that head of yours, Pinkie?”

“Didn’t it say something about lighting up in your darkest hour? I, I may sound stupid here, but we’re behind the statue, right? Perhaps, and this is a small chance, the riddle wasn’t only to just open the doorway, but also…” Pinkie didn’t finish the whole sentence, Twilight would come in.

“Also to guide you through!” Twilight exclaimed while she slammed a fist in an open palm. In an instant did all of the switches inside of her turn themselves back on as the gears all clicked back into the places that they needed to be. The desperate glance was replaced with a hopeful one. The words of Pinkie had brought something to light she had forgotten.

All of the mares didn’t understand a single bit from it. They didn’t knew the riddle that was placed near the statue. But for both Twilight and Pinkie, it seemed to be making a whole lot more sense. And if it made sense for them, they could only hope it made so for them as well.

The unicorn soothsayer grinned like mad just before she completely discharged her horn. Not even the usual emitted light was visible from it anymore. Which only left Rarity with the one source of light. The mare looked a little bit worried as Twilight gestured with her hand that she had to lower it as well. Or better yet, extinguish it completely.

A gulp came from the pirate captain as she closed her eyes. In the darkness of her eyelids did she discharge her horn as well and the place had fallen once again back in its natural darkness. The darkness that consumed everything returned as if it was nothing. The company could feel its cold grasp striking them. The icy shards in their hearts had become perhaps a little bit of a hinder than a help in the moment.

Yet on the ceiling it then formed itself. All of the mares looked up and saw just how countless little things formed some kind of natural light. A natural light that would have enabled them to follow it and hopefully brought them to the right way.

“Impossible, all of the bacteria are irradiating the lights… But that means, no, it can’t be that they even had the powers over that, right?” Twilight whispered to herself. Yet the only thing that they could be doing in order to get the answers was to follow it. They had to follow the ceiling covered lights to whether it would be leading them.

The mares had to admit that it was having some kind of strange moody atmosphere when it came down to the fact. It looked lovely with the blue casting off from the ceiling and the floor. But much time to witness the near magical scenery wasn’t there. For Twilight was already following the stream of light irradiating bacteria.

The rest was not having much choice but to follow her to the best of their abilities. The further they walked, the more comfortable everything seemed to have gotten. But what they didn’t knew was where it brought them. Their eyes just wouldn’t get used to the darkness around them and even Pinkie Pie struggled to witness anything.

Without a warning were there six screams that echoed through the tunnel. There then wasn’t anything seem by the mares anymore. No bacteria, no nothing. But they were picking up speed. They were picking up speed by a whole lot in fact.

There was only one explanation that could have been given for that fact, and that was that they were going down a slide of the rocks themselves. Whether or not they had made a mistake when it came down to planning remained to be seen. For as far as Twilight knew had they actually followed the stream of light.

Their screaming only became more intense as the rocky bottom of the slide suddenly disappeared. They were floating through the air, or better said: falling through it. And then there was nothing else but silence. After the six thuds had been made was there silence. Just complete and utter silence.

Fluttershy was in fact the first of the mares who released a groan after they had been laying there for perhaps a minute or three. Everything in her body was just sore but it didn’t felt like she had broken anything. Which was actually a massive relief for her.

Rainbow then released a groan and had positioned herself almost up right. She was rubbing her head among the darkness and watched a little bit around her. Though not much else then dark was the thing that was being witnessed by her. Seemed like they had gone once more out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Applejack and Rarity regained their consciousness about the same time and managed to find one another before just leaning back to back against the other. The two remained silent as they inspected everything from their body. Had they broken anything? And was everything still working the way it was supposed to be?

Twilight and Pinkie Pie were the last two to have woken up. Though not even Twilight called upon her magic as her head was just so sore. If she didn’t know any better, it could have been sworn that she had fallen straight upon her head. Yet Pinkie Pie was getting off the easiest, even though every muscle in her body seemed to have been in pain.

They weren’t out of danger just yet. The very seal that Twilight had made a while back was in for a nasty surprise. High above them it could be seen, that orange glow had returned to them once more. But in the moment, none of the mares did seem to care. It almost seemed as if they knew that it would fall right on top of them and end their very lives there and then. Perhaps the strangest of facts happened to be that they were happy about it.

They were happy to die if the magma would have fallen upon them. After all of the trouble that they had been going through already to reach the center of Equestria and still not having found it, there wasn’t much else they could have done.

Though the skies it soared until it than just crashed right against the rocky bottom of the pit. The seal had returned to its maker and it would only have been seconds before the magma would have hit them. All six of the beings closed their eyes as the final prayers were being made.

All of them were ready to go, they wanted to go in fact.

Finally did the magma managed to hit the ground and they began to wait for the agonizing pain to come. That burning sensation before everything would have just been over once and for all.

Though the pain just never came to them. They heard the magma flowing with clarity, but it never managed to be hitting any of the mares. None of them seemed to have been able to understand just what was going on there and then. But the lights in their eyes could already been a sign. So the only thing that they could have done in the case was to just look. Open their eyes and look to the world outside.

~~~~

Six pairs of eyes were opened and were placed upon a curtain of magma. They had seen it all by then, for they were looking straight at a massive waterfall of nothing else but magma. Yet to make the matter more interesting, they followed the streams that were leading towards something.

It wasn’t filling the place up like it had done in the lake. Instead was the magma guided to some place behind them as the gutters were transporting it. Something didn’t seem right and all of them got up at almost the exact same time.

Curiosity struck them all as they looked behind them in order to see. To see what laid behind them and what the magma happened to be casting its deadly light over. The sights that they saw weren’t the prettiest to say the least. Nor were they some of the most desired.

What they caught inside of their eyes was something gruesome. A terrible sight that probably had explained why the longboat could have been found where it did. Their very eyes had been resting themselves upon a small and abandoned settlement. The reason of why it was abandoned? The marks of fire could have been a clear indication of that little fact. Everything was simply burned to a crisp but something didn’t feel right.

If it happened recently, there were no bodies to be found. If it happened a couple dozen to a hundred years ago, there were no skeletons or fossils to be found. Each of them felt it though, as if prying eyes were looking straight at them. The dead still lived in the town.

“Caution is the thing we need now, we do not want to wake the dead. Foul magic is at play here. Whatever you do, don’t break or touch anything. We’re only traveling through it. …With all the shudders taken for granted,” the soothsayer said to them. Her horn had felt it the moment she laid her eyes upon it.

Dark magic was indeed at play in the place and she had to be cautious about everything and everyone. One wrong move and perhaps an army of dead things would be standing right before them. Everypony nodded in response to the words of Twilight. She was the expert in magic so they knew whom to listen to when it came to magical matters.

Even if they didn’t believe in things like ghosts, they didn’t have any other kind of explanation for it. Ghosts were resting there, which was all there could have been said. Spirits that were trapped inside of the physical world while their bodies had decayed ages ago. A fate worse than death.

The company would be traveling over the market place of the settlement while the magma was coursing through all kinds of channels that were made into the ground. The system was genius but also having trouble with it. That was perhaps why the whole town got eradicated, everything got burned because of a magma overflow. Only the houses remained standing and other elements made out of stone itself.

It was a gruesome sight to witness it in the light of the magma. But neither of the unicorns dared to call upon their magic. Perhaps the arcane energy could have been enough for the spirits to be woken up. After all, it was a clash of both white and black magic that would be happening. Somepony surely would have been noticing it if it would happen.

Though the dangers came from a whole other corner. Pinkie Pie was just watching her eyes out as she couldn’t believe that there was another town or settlement hidden beneath the rocks. And that one laid even deeper than her own city or anything else she had come across in her time. It was just pure amazement.

Weren’t it for the fact that her tail was swung all the way across and over countless things. Every time it happened to have good until that one moment. That one time she swung her tail a little bit too low and managed to hit something on a table. When she realized what she had done, had her eyes went wide and she tried to catch it.

The sounds of the shattering could be heard in the ears of all the anthronies. Not a single word was spoken by any of them, but their attention immediately shifted back. There they saw Pinkie with a stretched out hand just before the broken object. Then their attention was caught again by trembling hooves. Hooves that seemed to have gotten out of pretty much every single direction.

There they all appeared. The ghosts of both yesterday and those passed away. All kinds of different colored spirits had come into existence. Some came through the walls, others through the windows but some even came through the doorways as if they were just leaving their houses. Time to make a friendly chat wasn’t there though, for the weapons were drawn again the anthronies right away and they were all rallied up in a circle.

The closer they looked towards the dead anthronies, the more the mares could see that they looked like they died. Burned, charred and missing complete parts of their body already. The gruesome sights made them turn their stomachs as they looked away from the spirits.

But only one of them spoke up against the mares. A brightly white one stepped forward, one without a weapon and appearing to have no skin left whatsoever. “You… You’re different. A great light, is found within you. You aren’t like, her. Not yet at least,” the spirit spoke in an echo. One that was aimed directly towards Twilight.

The unicorn was having a difficult time to understand just what the spirit meant and needed to have more answers if she wanted to have anything to work with. “W-Who are you, a-and why are you, s-still here?” She was terrified of the ghostly weapons, one swing and she could pretty much join them. But deep inside of the eyes of the spirits it almost seemed as if they didn’t wanted to draw their weapons. All they wanted was to be left at peace.

“We, are the settlers of this place. To protect it from any danger it could be facing. But we weren’t prepared for her arrival. She was swift and merciless. None of us stood a chance when the lava began to rise. Her power, unequaled by any,” the spirit said before it gestured to all the other to lower their weapons.

It was a massive relief for the mares. But Twilight just had to know one more thing before they could be having a full on conversation with the spirit. “Name this, her, you speak of,” she spoke up in a demanding tone as she made herself as big as possible.

“I’m certain, you know her name as well and know of whom I speak. If not, the name you seek is Nightmare Moon.” That name alone made the feelings of Twilight sink like a brick. She wasn’t prepared or had thought about the fact that Nightmare Moon was actually capable of doing such things. Once again was there soot thrown in their dinner and they had to deal with an army of ghosts.

Just another day for the company of mares.

Chapter LXI

With the knowledge of Nightmare Moon having some kind of involvement in the deaths of the settlement, Twilight Sparkle was at the verge of another mental collapse. Even though she didn’t show it to anypony, even though she tried to hide it even from herself, it still lingered deep within her mind. It was haunting her, hunting her even to degrees both unknown and unspeakable.

The ghosts that had surrounded them all faded from existence with the exception of the bright white one and perhaps two dozen more. It was a massive relief that the things would have finally left the mares for what they were. But they were still on their guard. While it was true that Twilight’s heart spoke the words already said, the ghosts were having a difficult time to identify just what laid in the hearts of the other mares.

The soothsayer shook her head a couple of times before she spoke up her words against the ghost. “It pains me to say, but there simply isn’t anything that I can do in order to help you. I want to, I really, really do. But there’s just, nothing inside of my own arsenal that could possibly be breaking the curse laid upon you,” she spoke to them with a tone that was filled with perhaps the deepest regret she had ever felt in her life.

But the ghost itself just shook its head. It almost seemed as if it was glad that Twilight spoke her words in the way she did. The very fact that she wanted to help them out of their dire situation was a thing that was enough to be appreciated. “Don’t hit yourself in the head with it, living one, we've been here longer then time has been running. Or so it seems, this is all we have known for an eternity and shall we know. Your visit will soon be forgotten as we all return to our slumbers. The curse that Moon had placed upon us, was one that prevented anything from moving further,” the ghost returned to her. It hoped that it would calm the strain of the mare’s mind.

Those words alone caused some eyebrows to have raised by the anthronies. Something just didn’t felt too right in the eyes of Applejack as she constantly began to shift between the ghosts that were still surrounding them. “Ah didn’t like those words, explain yarself, now.” Her demanding tone was one that caused a couple of ghosts to growl towards her in a sinister tone.

But all of them just got a growl in return from the admiral. She appeared to be though against the undead spirits but deep inside of her heart was she just as scared as a foal. All of them were actually scared to death for the spirits. Once again were they facing something that they had never expected to have happened within their lives.

The bright ghost nodded in an understanding manner before the moans and groans of its brethren were released. But those were all nullified by one giant moan that came from the talking ghost. Almost as if that one was the only one who held the most intelligence through the years. “Our curse, was to be an undead army and storm the center of your land all that time ago. We would have succeeded, if it wasn’t for the fangs… A terrible things lays beneath, far worse than any of you can imagine,” it spoke to all of them.

“That still ain’t explaining anything. Are ya gonna stop us if we would try to continue forward?!” Applejack exclaimed towards the ghost. She finally focused her attention upon the talking ghost. Who made an unusual gesture towards the admiral in return.

Silence was the sound that took over for just a little bit of time. A silence that was eerie and calming at the same time. Eerie because of the ghosts, calming because it gave the mares the time to actually think about their next cause of action.

“Applejack, please be quiet for a change will you? I know you will do everything to protect me, but this matter is a little bit more sensitive and can’t be solved with sailor talk or action. Am I understood?” Twilight hissed through her teeth towards the admiral.

The earth anthrony nodded with her head before she made a return to her spot and continued to keep an eye or two out for trouble. The soothsayer focused herself again upon the ghost as she repeated the question asked previously. “If we would dare to pass the other side of the settlement, down to the deeper regions of the land, would you come after us and do what you have been told to do?”

The ghost just released a gentle moan through its undead body before it calmly shook its head. It was something that caused a massive relief within the mind of Twilight Sparkle, but the troubles were far from over. That much she knew as well, for there was always something else hidden among the trees of the forest. Something ready to jump at any given time.

“We shall let you go, even if it means we defy the orders of Moon herself. Each of you know a great deal of pain that is both physical and emotional. No, having us block you in the way of your quest would only be another smash of a sledgehammer in your moral confidence. However,” the ghost spoke just before it pointed a finger over to the far side of the settlement, the very way that they needed to be going.

“However, what? You will chase us?” Twilight replied to the ghost. She had to know exactly what was going to be happening with them once they had left the settlement. “You don’t turn us into ghosts yourself when we’re asleep, right?”

The ghost itself had to chuckle a little bit to itself as it found her humor interesting. It had been a long time since it had laughed like that, that much could have been told straight away. “No, if you somehow manage to pass away beyond the gateway, know that there’s always room for more ghosts in this place. We would welcome you all with open arms, but you wouldn’t be bound by the curse, meaning you could just roam around and return, to the surface.” The ghost then looked up to the ceiling of the room just before a deep exhale was being released.

The surface, how long had it been since the mares had made their departure down into the deadly abyss of rocks and stone? None of them could tell, none of them could even tell how the rising sun and moon looked anymore. It was something that they took so for granted, yet there was a world that didn’t even knew it all existed.

The mares looked up to the ceiling as well for a couple seconds. Twilight then lowered her head once more to face the spirit. They were on the turf of the ghosts, they were both the lord and masters of the place. If they wanted to pass through it, there was only one thing that could have been done to grant them access to the tunnels at the other side of the settlement.

And that was to ask. Just ask for permission to leave and venture onward. “Wise spirit of the settlement we have entered, we would like to ask you to grant us permission to cross beyond your realm. To venture even deeper into the caverns and find what we’ve set out to find so long ago.” Twilight’s tone was respectful, humble and begging for the permission she wanted.

The ghost fell into a deep silence while it thought about the sheer amount of possibilities that it had. But hundreds of years without having seen a living thing had taken a toll upon it, it didn’t knew what it wanted in return. It had already gotten the respect from the unicorn that it wanted. Not to mention the fact that she was in fact asking them permission to continue forward.

“The reasons of why you happen to be here are your own, whatever quest you have been sent out on to is also something only you can worry about. Dead men tell no tales, as they said. The permission for you six to continue shall be…”

Once again did the ghost fell into a great silence as it almost seemed it was still in doubt about what it needed to be doing. At one end could it just have ended the whole quest right there. On the other could it allow them permission and thus hopefully resolve the matter that was going on through the whole of Equestria.

When it opened its eyes once more were they aimed straight towards Twilight herself. The eyes didn’t just look at her violet rims, but also right into her soul. Everything that had ever been done by the mare was weighed against the odds of the decision that would be given to them. The unicorn could only have stood her ground and hoped for the best thing to come.

“Granted.” That was the one word that the whole of the group was actually hoping for to hear. Even though they perhaps never would have been able to understand just why the permission was given to them. But they wouldn’t have been the ones that would have been complaining about the facts as they were.

The six members of the company all made a bow before the spirit. Only for it to continue its words in the haunting tone. “She carries a great will inside of her soul, a bright light to help every last being. Your desires to help us are strong within you, however…I’m afraid that you can’t be helping us. The power of the devil is strong, stronger than you can ever become. One can call it luck you have never encountered her. For you’re close to matching her, but lack the know-how of the dark arts.“

That almost felt like a massive hit right in the face of Twilight. Once again was she confronted with the fact that she lacked the knowledge of the dark magic that fueled the devil herself. But the ghost was also right, Twilight did wanted to help all of them with their problems. She wanted them to finally be free from their torment and live a much more comfortable life in the afterlife that she believed in. Wishful thinking it may have been, in the eyes of the others.

The company rose up from the bow they had made and Twilight’s purple rims stared into those of the ghost. “I’m so, so sorry of what happened to you. First being burned to death before being locked here for all eternity. I don’t know, how it all came to be and…I lack the knowledge and resources to make it undone. I’m sorry but, I just can’t help you.”

“Woe not for the dead, living one. Woe for those still alive. For they shall never know the freedom that death can give one. Woe for those who never found their true selves in the time spent living. In our time here, we realized who we were, before slowly forgetting it. This, is all that we know. This, is all that we love. This, is our slice of heaven.” The tone of the ghost was calm and peaceful.

It almost made it seem as if it really didn’t wanted to be dragged out of the place and be send someplace else. A little fact that Twilight could have understood, if she wasn’t blinded too much by her own emotions.

It took Rainbow Dash to get a hold of Twilight’s arm. She then shook her lightly to get the mare out of her dreams and back in the real world. “W-What? S-Sorry, my thoughts slipped off. But yes, I can see your points. You wish to remain here and fulfill your duties as they were placed upon you by Nightmare Moon. There isn’t anything that can be bargained with. So this, is going to be our farewell,” she said to the ghost with a weak smile.

“…Finally,” the pirate captain whispered to herself. The place was getting on her hooves as she just wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. The sheer amount of shudders she had gotten from the place and not to forget the cold breath always traveling down her neck were far from pleasant to say the least. A thought which was shared by the rest of them.

Safe passage was granted by the spirit of the settlement. If they would have died along the way would they have been welcome in the place to stay and call it home. But they didn’t had any intention to make the latter one becoming a reality. They wanted to succeed and return to the surface. Even if the thoughts and rays of hope were just so small of actually getting it done.

The company of mares walked in calm away from the group of ghosts and moved into the direction where the border was. The very place that would have been sending the lot of them over to their literal final stretch of the journey. Or so they hoped at least.

The ghosts returned to their eternal resting place one by one, all but the talking spirit vanished from the plane of existence. It kept on watching as the company walked away. Only after they were near the archway would the last whispers have been spoken by it. “Beware the fangs, beware for what lays beneath… Never, lose your guard.”

Perhaps they were words of comfort, perhaps they were a major warning. Though sadly enough for the ghost did the group of mares knew those very words for a very long time already. In the end did even the talking spirit just vanish from existence. The settlement had turned once more into nothing but a ghost town with the magma acting as its light source.

It still looked as creepy as ever when it came down to it and none of the company’s members were having any actual intention of looking back at it. They only had one goal in their minds and that was to just move forward. The time to finish the job had gently fallen upon them all.

Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Applejack just didn’t look back at the settlement. They were happy to have finally left it for what it was. Yet Twilight herself seemed to have had a couple of issues with it all. She didn’t had the knowledge to save them from their prison, but perhaps there was something in her arsenal that could have helped them to ease their suffering just a little bit.

It was a massive gamble and the unicorn knew that. They were the undead but rebellious servants of the devil herself. Which meant that the chance of things having gone wrong was still very much present there and then. Yet the unicorn became determined to execute the thing that she had wanted to be doing.

She allowed the rest of the mares to take the lead from her and thus she formed the rear guard once more. Twilight charged her horn. With the staff held in one hand and the other free, it was time there to execute her plan. All of the other mares stopped in their tracks and turned around for something. The unusual light among the orange glow of magma had gotten their attention.

Even though some wanted to just shout to Twilight about what she was doing, none actually did it. Whatever she intended to be doing, they would be having a massive respect for the unicorn. The free hand was brought up in front of the mare her face and had coated itself within the raspberry aura. Nopony know what would come, they only hoped it wouldn’t have angered the ghosts to degrees that they would have come after them and possibly end their lives.

But the thing that Twilight did was something that none of them could possibly have been expecting. For with her hand he drew the symbols of both the sun and moon goddess before they were sent over to the square of the settlement.

There they would have been just placed down upon the ground like burn marks before the mare discharged her magic for a little bit. She then turned around and looked at the group of mares and realized they needed a new set of torches. With the magma flowing in the way it did, she didn’t saw any harm in actually having the torches lit up.

Out of the ground they appeared and were given to the anthronies. Even Pinkie received one and then did the magic of the unicorn finally discharged itself completely. In silence did the group of mares leave the settlement and made the decision to venture even deeper into the ground.

They could feel it all deep inside of them. The very fact that they were actually just that close to their goal. The goal that seemed to have been utterly impossible.

The symbols were lit up for just a moment or two before they faded away and shifted into a burned mark like state. The magic of the goddesses was doing its work pretty quick. It would have been rooting the dark magic of Moon out and hopefully make the settlement a little bit more free from the devilish grasp.

But the devil herself, the one who was locked deep inside of the inner circle of Tartarus itself, was having other plans. Her head was moving through the always foggy area that was created by the dark clouds that came from her nostrils. Though without a warning did she felt an aching pain in her heart. Or better said: the black hole that had taken the place of her heart.

Something was wrong and the devil knew that. It had been a terrible long time since any being actually had been able to wound her in the way that was being done. Nightmare Moon had closed her eyes for just a moment as she groaned in pain. The aching pain in her heart made her even reach out for it.

“What has that little thing done?!” she groaned to herself while the magic began to travel through the fog. “Their influence, may never reach that place. No, it has to serve as a clear reminder that I am also still in this game.”

The haunting tone of the voice and the sheer determination within had all contributed to the massive amounts of dedication that the devil would been having for everything. The hunt was on for the group of mares via the eyes of the ghosts. “I knew that place would have been giving me more trouble then that I needed. Grraw, my mark shall reign and my mark only!”

The devil then shot a massive ray of dark purple magic through her domain, after which she dropped herself back on the throne. A throne which was made out of bones from creatures long gone. The top however, was finished off with a skull that could only have been from a dragon. But the body of Nightmare Moon was never revealed in any physical form. Only that haunting set of eyes were truly given off through the fog. Everything else remained hidden right within it.

There where the goddesses of the sun and the moon were only appearing to those in need as a whisper, the devil had actually a bit more of a physical form. Perhaps it was better that it was left unknown to the things that laid within that very fog.

Back in the settlement it then appeared. It emerged out of the ground like a purplish hellfire. It managed to simply burn away both the symbols of the sun and the moon and replaced it with the symbol that was her own. She wouldn’t have wanted any intervention from anypony else in her little settlement.

Punishment for letting the mares escape would have been there eventually. But compared to what had been done already, Nightmare Moon couldn’t be doing much anymore. She had locked the ghosts up in that place and that was in fact the worst thing she had possibly been able to do against them. The ghosts only hoped that she wouldn’t have gone after Twilight Sparkle and her company.

Speaking of the company, they were wandering through the caverns once more. But the thoughts always kept on chewing against Twilight. She just didn’t seemed to have found any kind of comfort when she placed the symbols on the ground.

“Hey Twi, why did ya even place ‘em on the ground, if Ah may ask?” the admiral asked in a genuine curious tone. The others weren’t really that interested in hearing what would come next, but they knew all that they would just pick it up anyway.

“I did that, because I hoped that the goddesses would have been able to pick it up and thus make the settlement a little bit more habitable for them. That the grasp of Moon would have been loosened up for just a bit so they can just wander whenever they wanted,” replied Twilight in a sad tone. She still felt genuinely sorry for the spirits trapped inside of that place.

Though she had no idea of what happened or even if her plan would have happened at all. They were so far underground that even Twilight’s connection to the goddesses became fainter with almost every passing moment. They were deep in the grounds of Equestria, far deeper than they ever should have been.

“Ah see, ya tried to redeem them all a little bit? Honorable indeed, but whether it works…”

“Remains to be seen,” added Twilight before a deep exhale was being released from her nostrils. Applejack could only have nodded to that before the silence returned to the two of them.

~~~~

Further and further they walked away from the settlement as the thoughts of smooth sailing finally dared to have made its way into their minds once more. After all, how far could it have been if the ghosts had seen the place? That thought was motivating for all of them as the pace was kept high.

The light of the torches shone both bright and proud into the cavern while they always listened for sounds that weren’t supposed to be there. They didn’t want to be fooled twice by the same trick twice. They knew that spiders could have been surviving in pretty much every situation, so why wouldn’t there have been a couple in that part of the underground caverns?

Though the spiders were among the things that they didn’t wanted to encounter at all. Their arachnophobia would have made certain of that little fact and with the encounters still fresh in their minds, it was less than ideal to say the least.

While they walked further down, it was Twilight who had dared to taken the lead again. Though Fluttershy also had moved herself up front and joined Twilight in the lead. She didn’t say it straight away, but there was a little matter that was boiling up in her mind. One that had been there ever since they had been going past the statue of the princess of Equestria, the alicorn Celestia.

Twilight and Fluttershy travelled in silence and the soothsayer could clearly see that the doctor was sitting with something. Yet the words just wouldn’t have been able to be left through her mouth on her own. Fluttershy wanted to speak the words just so much and they were even laying at the tip of her tongue.

But in the end was it Twilight who had to open the conversation with her. It wasn’t a thing that she minded all too much. She knew the personality of the doctor and therefore knew that she was both timed and shy. She wouldn’t have been the kind of anthrony who just opened her mouth and said what was on her mind. Hence the reason of why she was heard from so little during the whole of the trip.

“What’s on your mind Fluttershy? Obviously you are sitting with something. Perhaps you would like to share that thought you’re having with me?” the soothsayer spoke while she gave the doctor a genuine, small, well-meant smile.

Fluttershy on the other end released a little eep. She wasn’t expecting Twilight to actually react to her. Then again, she was walking all the way up front with the leader of the company. That had never happened before and most likely wouldn’t be happening anytime soon again either. The doctor nodded calmly to herself before she would speak the matter that was troubling her mind.

“W-Well, ever since, ever since we went past that statue, I’ve been thinking about it. That book, is actually the truth of our entire, species,” managed Fluttershy to stumble out. The words had gotten the attention of the soothsayer almost straight away. Twilight would have lied if she said that she wasn’t curious as to where the pegasus would be taking them.

“What are you going to say, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in return. She became only more curious with every second of silence. “What has your mind been thinking about all these past days?”

“It, if it’s, if the book is true and we know it, how do we bring that news to the land? I mean, they have the right to know it, right? But we can’t just barge in and tell thousands of years of religion have been flushed down, the drain basically.” Fluttershy explained and stuttered up.

But she was having a massive point. The book that was being seen as highly controversial by almost everypony in the land happened to be the truth. And not only that, the six them of them had all the evidence right in their hands. How they would have brought it over to the rest of the world was something that remained to be questioned for a long time to come.

Twilight allowed a deep exhale to be released through her nostrils before she looked over to Fluttershy. A thing which caused her to lose all sense of direction in front of her. All that mattered to her mind in the moment was the fact of how they would have been able to bring the news to the land. Yet only one way seemed to have been the way that wouldn’t lead to too much trouble. “I think it’s best if we keep it to ourselves. I mean, we don’t have any drawings of it and it lays too deep for public visiting or excavation,” she commented on the matter.

The unicorn shook her head from side to side before her eyes were closed for a little bit. “No, if we bring this news to the land, we would shatter the believes of so many beings who had been growing old with them. I say, it is best that we keep all of this to ourselves. We know that it is true and if we are subtle enough, we might be able to spread it.”

The doctor released a little nod in response to the words of the soothsayer as she seemed to have been content with them. They seemed to have been pleasing her enough to lay the matter to rest. Though as one matter was being resolved, another one was standing ready for them.

For both the doctor and the soothsayer were the first two to walk through the curve that laid ahead. “Wow,” did the both of them say in choir as their eyes were stuck on something they had never expected to see.

Once again were they gob smacked with something that seemed both impossible and that they had never expected. From the looks of it, the miracles still weren’t out of the land yet. They just looked for them in the wrong places.

For they came once again in a giant stone chamber. One with a giant hole in the middle of it and one that went through the ceiling as well. The eyes of Twilight quickly managed to have picked up a staircase which meant they could at least walk down, again. A grumble was being released from her mouth though. She wasn’t in the mood at all to once again walk down a series of stairs.

Yet the most impressive feature of the room was still something that needed to be seen. More members of the company entered the room until they were all just there. With their hooves moving forwards gently did the group of mares walk over to the edge of the cliff and dared to look down into it.

Their eyes were met by a chasm that seemed to have been running for an eternity without an end. Yet there was also something that said to each of them that that chasm could have been the last one they needed to have gone through. That they were just that close of finally being on their destination.

The group made a couple of steps back when they realized something they should have realized before. The chasm was actually lit by something they never held possible. They even felt it upon their skins before the icy shards kicked back in weakly. There was a massive column of light that was sent down from the ceiling, all the way down into the chasm.

The light eventually gave way to the darkness that laid beneath it, but the sight alone was something majestic to see in and of itself. None of the mares were having any words to say upon the matter. All of them just were amazed by the scene.

A scene which may not have been much, but at least was able to give them some form of hope. A form of hope that brought them all together and in unison they decided to set up the tent again. Perhaps a foolish move after it had only barely survived the magma flow, but they needed a place to rest and to tackle their plan of attack in peace.

So the unicorn soothsayer opened the void storage again and pulled out the tent. A tent that was a little bit ruffled up as the unicorn didn’t have the time to fold it up nicely when they were being chased by boiling rocks.

The tent was set up with both ease and haste, even with the faults that were to be found within the fabric. The torches were set down at the entrance way and the group disappeared within it. Only Twilight seemed to not have entered it.

It was Pinkie Pie who came outside mere seconds later and asked the question that possibly shouldn’t have been asked. “Are you coming, Twilight?” she asked in a kind but also seemingly excited tone.

The unicorn had turned herself around and gazed with her eyes over the column of light when the sounds were caught in her ears. “No Pinkie, I’m not. I require a little bit of time alone, by myself. My mind and I need to agree upon a couple of things. Have a good rest if I don’t speak to you anymore.” And then she was just off. Off to who knew where but remained in the nearby area of the tent.

The lamia nodded towards the words that were spoken and she then returned back into the tent to bring the news to the rest of them. Nopony would have been certain about the facts as they would be happening next.

Chapter LXII

“Twi ain’t coming?” Applejack asked while she was working once again on the dinner for each of them. The lamia had told them exactly what Twilight had told her and most of them could actually understand the reasoning behind it all.

“I don’t get it, why does she need to separate herself from us all? Like, have we done something wrong?” Rainbow asked without much thought going through her. Her eyes looked at the group with a curious gaze. She was in fact the only one who didn’t understood Twilight’s very reasoning of being separated from them. The words were cringe worthy for all of them though.

Rarity released a deep sigh through her nostrils as she wanted to argue with the pegasus, but made perhaps the best decision not to do it. She valued her own sanity and if she would argue against such an airhead as Rainbow happened to be, she would be busy for a long time to come without a doubt.

Yet Fluttershy was the one who had taken it upon herself to defend the unicorn soothsayer from the harmful words. “Listen Rainbow, we haven’t done anything wrong whatsoever. She just needs some time alone. She has lived in that castle all of her life and has no idea of the outside world, from one moment to the next she’s dropped in this massive adventure.”

“So, your point is?” Rainbow asked through. The pegasus still didn’t understood a single thing from the words that were said. What followed was that both Rarity and Fluttershy brought their hands to their foreheads. There possibly wasn’t a way that Rainbow was that stupid, right?

“It means ya back off,” commented Applejack, but nopony heard her words. Then she spoke a bit louder. “It means that Twi ain’t used to getting involved in these kind of things, Rainbow. Her mind has troubles to process everything that is both seen and done. Ya’re used to the thing as ya had been fighting in the last war remember? Twi was only a foal at the time, or not even born yet. Yar used to action and adventure, y’all actually,” explained Applejack as bare boned as she possibly could have gotten.

Finally there seemed to have been a little light that went on inside of the head of the pegasus. It luckily resolved the matter for the rest of them, but the admiral was still not entirely certain about what she needed to be doing with Rainbow. Either way, the matter had to wait as their dinner was ready for them.

With their dinner being eaten in silence did the group returned to their conversation almost straight afterwards. Even though Applejack had called out to Twilight that it was ready and they had even saved her a plate, the unicorn soothsayer just didn’t come. Whatever she was doing, she was sunken deep inside of her mind.

Perhaps she wasn’t just thinking things out, perhaps she was also just trying to place everything right in her mind. The anthronies could only guess because the lamia didn’t found it her place to meddle herself in with. Anything could have happened with the ticking time bomb that happened to be Twilight’s very own mind.

The dangers that were always lurking combined with the rivalry within the group caused for a tension where the blade was already set upon. One wrong move would have been more than enough for everything to have snapped. And thus for everything to have fallen as if it were nothing. They all would then have been thrown into the abyss that was waiting for them.

Much like the chasm that laid outside. A deep sigh went through the nostrils of Applejack as she stood near the entrance of the tent. Her eyes looked over to Twilight while she held her arms cross over each other. It pained her to see the unicorn just like that.

Not much later had both Rainbow and Fluttershy made the decision to go to bed early in case there would have been a night watch and they would have been called right in the middle of it. Pinkie just slithered around the massive tent as if she was looking for a good place to curl herself up and fall asleep as well.

But thanks to her own energy reserves was that something a little bit easier said than done. Yet Rarity walked over to the admiral and joined her in standing there. She took place upon the opposing side and laid her arms crossways over each other. Her sapphire blue rims stared deep into the bright green ones of Applejack.

Silence took over the two anthronies as neither had the words to say. But in their eyes they knew exactly what they needed and meant. The two mares of the sea could read each other’s eyes just like an open book. The pages would have been turned with every shift the eyes made to further enhance that little metaphor for them both.

The silence between them was in fact good enough for Rainbow and Fluttershy to fall asleep under as even Pinkie managed to get exhausted. She then just curled up around herself and closed her eyes. That marked the signal for the two sailors to start talking in whispers.

“What are ya doing here? Ain’t ya supposed to get yar beauty sleep or something?” Applejack snarled in a whisper towards the pirate captain. The unicorn only shook her head a little bit from side to side in return. She wasn’t expecting the admiral to be friendly towards her for one bit. Seemed like her expectations had been placed rightfully so.

“No Jackie, it’s not yet the time to do such a thing. Even now that you've sobered up all the way and haven’t drunk a single thing since we left Appleloosa, you’re still as cold and heartless as ever against me. I don’t care what causes that, as there’s a new pain in your eyes. A new stress, if I may say so,” replied Rarity just before she pointed one of her fingers towards the admiral’s eyes.

“Heh, that obvious? Ah ain’t gonna be making mah mouth dirty on yar first words. But yes, Ah’m worried, ‘bout her. One moment everything seemed fine and dandy, the next she just crashed or devastated,” said Applejack in a bit calmer tone towards Rarity.

Whether she liked it or not, the admiral was genuinely glad that she was having at least somepony to talk to. Not to mention that that somepony even understood that she was having another problem up her flanks. “She’s a remarkable mare, I do have to admit that with my heart. Few are like her and even less would become like her through the ages,” answered Rarity just before she turned her head slightly towards the soothsayer and gave a gentle smile.

“Ah just don’t get how somepony can change like that, that quick.”

“Oh it’s pretty easy, actually,” commented Rarity while she made the gestures with her hands. “Twilight’s mind can only handle so much outside of its comfort zone. I personally think she had been sitting with the feelings a whole lot longer, but she never had found either the time or place to empty them. I think she does now.”

“Ya think?” Applejack replied with a raised eyebrow.

A gentle ‘hmpf’ was released through the throat of Rarity before she cracked a small smile. “Oh believe me, I think she does. She even left her dinner standing remember? When during the whole of the trip has that ever happened to her? No, we might best be off and leave her. Your wish to protect her only goes so far, Applejack.”

Applejack then turned her body full towards the pirate with the eyebrow still raised. “What are ya hinting at, Brittenburg?” the admiral replied when her eyes shifted back towards the other unicorn. The sapphire blue rims of her eyes were two that somepony could lose itself in if they weren’t careful. Thus they made them open for all kinds of suggestions made by her.

But Rarity just laughed it off before she shook her head once more. “Jackie, Jackie, Jackie, it really sounds like you don’t know me at all anymore. Then again, we only had one battle together before I made my decision to leave. Ever since, there always has been this hatred in your eyes.”

“Can ya blame me? But get to yar point,” exclaimed Applejack quick and in a growling tone.

“No I can’t, but what I mean is that we leave her there for the night. There’s only one anthrony that can save her, and that is Twilight herself. The matter is mentally, Jackie. Your blade wouldn’t really help,” finished Rarity before she had one last look to both Applejack and Twilight. After that she just nodded with her head and made her departure from the entrance. Only to look up her own bed and delved straight into it.

The admiral herself fixed her cap a little bit upon her head after which she also had one last glance over to the unicorn. A deep exhale was what followed through her nostrils as her eyes then finally managed to tear themselves away from the broken down soothsayer. The mare then also made her way over to her bed and dropped down upon it.

The steam powered leg was removed from its braces and before she knew it, she laid underneath the blankets of her bed. Pondering her mind upon what could actually have been troubling Twilight just so much, all of the sudden. That was the fact that remained to be unanswered for her. How Twilight had broken down just that easily and just like that.

But Twilight herself was having different battles to fight. She had curled herself up against the rocky wall and almost appeared to have been actually asleep, if watched from the back. Though the unicorn was far from being asleep. She was wide awake with the ghosts of her mind haunting her. Her mind laid in shambles for all that she knew and every thought was hurting her just so much.

The tough leader of the company of mares had become nothing more but a crying foal. While she leaned against the side next to her were the tears streaming out of her eyes. They made their way to her nose and her head was bend over just a little bit before they would make their way to the ground. Mentally devastated, that was perhaps the best way that Twilight’s current state of being could be described at best.

Though worst of all had to be the fact that she didn’t knew how to solve the matter. All that she knew was how it was being caused. It was the fact that Rarity had said before, together with Fluttershy. Twilight had lived all her life in the castle and was only just at the beginnings of her twenties. She was the youngest of them all and had already been battling with old friends and imposters of caretakers.

The whole trip just seemed like one that only could have been designed by nopony else then Nightmare Moon herself. Almost as if the devil herself wanted to toy with nopony else then Twilight Sparkle. Everything combined from the events, to the rivalry between everypony to the location that they were, it all added up to the facts that everything just seemed dreaded to her.

The silent cries of Twilight didn’t slow down or increased themselves. They kept on flowing at a constant rate as another thought entered her. The thought that was turned over into the fact that she had to push on no matter what. She had to just keep sucking up everything and deal with all of it if they wanted to save their very land.

It was a fact that truly was a lot easier said than done upon everypony’s mind.

After minutes had the mare even cried herself to sleep. Which meant that every last member of the company laid comfortable in their beds or against a rocky wall, but they were all asleep. All of them had left the realm of the wake to likely join them all again in the realm of the sleeping ones.

What they would encounter in their dreams remained unknown for good reasons. Twilight knew that the troubles she would be facing would have been actual troubles. Events encountered before played out inside of her mind as the alternative endings were created by her mind.

If she had only done one little thing differently, the whole outcome of pretty much everything would have been completely different. Not only did such a thing happen with the battle against Sunset Shimmer, but it also happened with Chrysalis, Pinkie Pie and the massive spiders. The dreams of Twilight Sparkle had turned themselves over into the most horrifying nightmares she had ever had in her life.

Fear was her companion and she wasn’t happy about it at all. Though how worse the events seemed to have been, it is said that they only could have gotten better. The thing that was never told, was that they also could have become worse. A lot worse.

~~~~

For not even a couple of hours into their sleep would all six of them be disrupted from it. The sounds that originated out of the very bottom of the chasm could be heard loud and clear but the vibrations were never felt. The sounds of the tremors were heard within each of their ears but they never felt anything. That was the thing that frightened them the most before realization came setting in.

It meant that they were either so close to the epicenter that the force wasn’t that great yet, or that there was something else that moved at the bottom of the chasm and thus created the sounds. Most likely something which was along the lines of a giant animal or creature. Nopony wanted to check it out as they preferred to remain in their beds. Not even Applejack would have gotten out to check upon the facts as they were.

They didn’t feel any of the vibrations which were mostly associated with the tremors so they all prayed on the fact that they weren’t walking right into them. As long as it wouldn’t be hitting them, they all thought that everything was fine.

The company inside of the tent made a massive realization however, they assumed that the sounds were from the tremors being sent upwards. Which in their books meant that they were close to their destination. Whether they liked it or not, they finally seemed to have been reaching the goal of their very trip.

Finally could they say that they were almost there.

Yet Twilight was having different thoughts about the matter. She constantly had to think about the words that the ghost had said to her. That they needed to be careful of fangs. But what fangs were meant with that? The fangs of a fruitbat or something the like? Or perhaps the mythical vampthronies also seemed to have been existing deep down there? Or even worse?

Who could tell and who wanted to tell? That remained a series of questions that just went unanswered by anyone. The ear of the unicorn soothsayer was placed against the wall in order to listen through the rocks and so she hoped to get to know a little bit more information about anything that would have been going on.

But all that she caught were the sounds just travelling away from her until they just faded away. Where they would have been going to was something that remained to be questioned and seen. The head of the unicorn then turned itself over towards the chasm as well as the rays of light that were travelling down from it.

She was expecting to still see the lights of the sun being cast down to it but got something else. The light hadn’t faded away, not at all. No, the light of the moon was cast down right into the chasm. The bright, silvery light of the moon shone down through the hole and illuminated the walls of the place.

Twilight had to know whether or not it would have been able to shine through the darkness that blocked out the sunlight. But her body was weak and feeble in the moment. She didn’t had her dinner and it was being felt by her stomach, which kept on rumbling.

She didn’t possess the physical strength anymore to hoist herself up and walk to the edge of the chasm. So all that she could be doing was to just take it easy and continue on her rest. The mare then laid her head back against the rocky wall and closed her eyes. With the sounds of the tremors still surging through her ears did she closed her eyes in another attempt to get the sleep that she needed.

In the meantime and back in the tent had everypony been sitting upright as they were talking to one another about what they needed to be doing. Rarity had suggested they should pack the tent at least and prepare for a possible evacuation to the epicenter.

Rainbow and Fluttershy didn’t agree with the plan and proposed that they would just drop back into their beds, nothing would be happening anyway. The major managed to carry the doctor along in her argument by the simple fact that they were the two pegasi of the group.

Applejack had proposed to remain calm and listen further to the situation but it already stood two against one against one. Which meant that the pegasi of the group had won. Rainbow was therefore the first one who dropped herself back in her bed and closed her eyes.

The levels of annoyance between both Rarity and Applejack about Rainbow soared pretty much through the roof while Pinkie laid herself down next to Fluttershy. The doctor stroked through the hair as if she was petting a dog. It felt unusual yet familiar at the same time for Pinkie Pie. The tail of the lamia twitched happily, it was being splashed over the floor of the tent while the doctor continued with her motions.

Fluttershy didn’t had the intention to let Rainbow walk over her like she did, but what happened had happened. None of them could change the facts as they were and they could only accept them. The rest of the mares released a deep sigh through their nostrils. Even they then just closed their eyes and dropped back in their beds. It was the only thing that they could be doing, besides hoping that everything would have gone good until the next morning.

Slowly did the moonlight beam fade away and for a couple of minutes there was nothing but darkness being cast down into the chasm. Until the first rays of sunlight made their way down to the rocky cliffs and into the abyss. Whatever laid beneath there, nopony could be knowing that for certain but they would have been the ones to figure it out one way or the other. Whether they liked it or not.

Twilight Sparkle was the first of the whole company who would have woken up from the slumber and she shocked back into the land of the wake. Her body began to struggle and she realized that she had to get out up as quick as possible.

Her brain was still bouncing inside of the skull from the crying of the night before. Speaking about the crying, the dried tear stains could be found almost all over her face. She wiped them away with haste in order to appear a little bit more decent if any of the other mares would have gotten out. She took long and deep inhales through her mouth to calm herself even more.

Somehow had the soothsayer managed to feel herself getting a lot better. Whether it were the thoughts that had finally placed themselves upon the rightful locations, or the sheer ability to not think about it to begin with remained to be seen. For the moment was there a new and fresh Twilight Sparkle who stood in the starting blocks.

She was ready to hit the new day and to see what laid at the bottom of the chasm, if it even had a bottom. Who knew, perhaps it was a hole that didn’t brought them to the center of Equestria, but instead brought them somewhere else in the land. It was a thought that caused an odd chuckle to come out of her mouth.

It just didn’t make sense whatsoever, but it made her happy in the early morning so it had to count for something. Though luckily for her wasn’t there anypony else near her and from the looks of it there also didn’t seem to have been too much damage from the tremors.

Everything seemed to have been nicely intact as she continued to gaze around the rocks. Without having been able to wash her face yet, the unicorn charged up her horn and summoned a little bit of water which was then splashed right into it. Only to be rubbed in a little bit more with her hands so that it reached all over.

Quiet moans of a certain delight were released by the mare as the water acted as a massive wake up call for her. Finally she had enough energy surging through her body to make it over to the edge of the chasm and not fall into it. Her senses were sharp again and her magic was flowing, for as much as they could have been in the early morning.

The unicorn made her way over to the edge of the chasm that was filled with the light of the sun. In one of her hands she summoned and conjured a little fireball that would be acting as a torchlight. Perhaps the sunlight could only reached that much down, like it would have been when hitting the waters in the ocean.

But the little ball of fire would always cast an immense amount of light to the sides of the chasm. Which in return meant that she could always follow it. No matter how deep it went. At least that was the plan and function behind it all. If it actually would have been working was something that remained to be seen by the unicorn.

She didn’t held her hope up too high though. for everything had been a struggle so far. So why wouldn’t a simple fireball down a hole become easy? It was a thought that made the unicorn chuckle almost to herself as she realized just how ridiculous it actually seemed to have been.

With her hooves nearing the edges and the ball of flames being ready to shot down, the time was there. Not only look at the events as they would pack out, but also see the chasm in the reddish morning light of the sun. Her eyes looked over the edge and stared right down into the massive hole. A massive hole that was coated within a beautiful light.

The reddish light created did have an interesting effect upon the whole thing as it was being cast in a red light. It almost made it look like the whole chasm was on some kind of fire in and of itself. The red glow that was given off almost could be seen as magma, a little thing Twilight rather wouldn’t have been reminded on.

“Well then, what else are we having here?” mumbled Twilight to herself. Then she looked further into the gaping hole. Her eyes followed the whole reddish glow until it just stopped. She then squinted her eyes to near nothing as she wondered just what could possibly be laying beyond it. Anything and everything just rushed through her mind as she kept on wondering to herself any and everything.

But the mare knew that she had the solution right in her hand. If she would have let go from the fireball, the answer would have been given to her after a little bit of time. It was so easy, yet at the same time was it just so hard as well. It felt to her as if there was a life threatening decision that needed to be made if she dropped the thing or held it in her hand.

The seconds began to melt away before her eyes as the glow on the chasm turned more and more into an orange one. The sun was shifting and soon she wouldn’t be having the time anymore to distinguish the fireball from the sun.

The unicorn just closed her eyes and allowed gravity to do the job for her. The ball of fire was dropped out of her hand and began to soar down into the chasm. With the heat gone from her face did Twilight open her eyes again and she looked down. She looked straight into the chasm again and followed the little ball of fire with her eyes.

Down and down it went as the eyes could keep following it quite clearly. Not even a blink was being made by the unicorn as she was intensely focused upon the fact of following the little thing. But just when it was about to travel further than the light of the sun, it vanished. It simply vanished right before her eyes and straight out of existence.

“What in the name of..?” Twilight said to herself in a genuine surprised tone. She hadn’t expected that such a thing would have happened and her eyes almost went cross in their sockets. The unicorn couldn’t believe that the ball of fire had just vanished from their realm.

Perhaps it was a massive teleportation hole that would be guiding them over to some kind of different plane of existence? But if that happened to be the case, why would there have been stairs? All of the questions rose up while the mare discharged her magic. The unicorn couldn’t wrap her head around the facts as they were given to her and the last thing she needed was exactly that.

Hundreds of possible explanations went through her mind as she hoped to find some kind of answer just by looking at the abyss over and over. Not much to her surprise, there wasn’t any kind of information gathered by looking down at it. She had known it all the time actually, but simply refused to believe it herself.

The mare shook her head a couple dozen times before she caught the other company’s members leaving the tent. All of them were made up and ready to hit the day while Applejack gestured her over for breakfast. A thing that Twilight needed more than anything in the moment.

Not much later could all of the mares be found at a makeshift table and were all eating their breakfast. It was the first meal for Twilight since the breakfast of the day before as they had skipped lunch. So naturally was she almost starving for anything. The admiral had taken that into a deep consideration and prepared an extra big meal just for the soothsayer.

Nopony complained about it, luckily. Where they did moan over though, was the revelation that came from the unicorn. The disappearing fireball and her will to climb down the stairs weren’t two things that would have been done with favor of everypony. The ball disappearing was already enough to worry all of them.

But the fact that Twilight wanted to go down and travel down the stairs towards the thing that consumed it was questionable for all. Surely she must have lost her mind in the night. But there wasn’t any actual way to make the unicorn change her mind. Their entire mission could have been summarized in just a couple of very simple words though: go down. Those two words had formed the foundation of everything they had done so far.

So why would they stop at something like that? The stairs appeared to be once more carved right into the rock like they had seen before. So that shouldn’t have been the biggest problem in the world. What did worry them though, was the thing or things that could possibly be hunting them at the bottom of it all.

Nopony knew what could be wandering at the bottom, if they would even reach the bottom to begin with. But they also realized the fact that they were just close to reaching their goal. Even though they didn’t wanted to do any of it, the mares of the company agreed upon going down and into the chasm.

It was the only chance that they had that was clearly leading them all to something. Whether it would have been good or bad remained to be seen. They had faced impossible odds before and came out unharmed and unscratched, they could be testing their luck perhaps one more time.

~~~~

A couple of minutes would have come to pass when the whole of the company just stood at the edge of the chasm again. All of the eyes were aimed directly down into the abyss and they followed the light down. Down until it just gave away into nothing else but utter darkness.

“Seems to me like that whatever rests at the bottom, just doesn’t want to be found. Air doesn’t have the same resistance as water when it comes to breaking light,” said Rarity while she pointed to the black floor and the orange glow on the wall. She was right upon the fact, but the only way they could have known it for certain was if they would have gone down there themselves.

“Heh, let me have a fly down there and we be knowing it in no time just what lays beneath there,” said Rainbow fractions before she pumped her chest. The cocky pegasus was ready to make the descend down and hoped that they would actually let her go.

It had been too long since she could actually have flown down or away from something. The last time was when she tried to get away from the spiders and almost became spider-chum. A fact that none of the anthronies had actually seemed to have forgotten either. The head of Applejack immediately shook itself from side to side as she didn’t deem it a wise idea at all.

“And what if yar flying right into the maw of some giant beast which then closes? Then we’ve lost you. No, Ah say we listen to Twilight and just take ‘em stairs to walk down. They give us some kind of safety. Other than that, Ah don’t know what we can be doing,” commented and countered Applejack before she got a torch tossed over to her.

The mare caught it and looked over to whom threw it. It was nopony else then Twilight Sparkle who did it. The soothsayer was ready to make the descend down the stairs. The rest of the group looked into her direction as well and the clouds could already be seen hanging right above them. Nopony wanted to climb down anymore stairs.

But the answer they had been waiting for laid perhaps right at the bottom of it. They all had gotten a hate and love relationship with the stairs they had encountered in their lives. With a couple of deep sighs did the company of mares made the silent decision to just follow the unicorn down.

Down into the unknown once more as they could pray upon the fact that whatever laid at the bottom of the staircase wouldn’t consume them all in any way or form. It was a wishful thought to say the least.

Chapter LXIII

Whether the company liked it or not, they had to walk down the staircase in order to figure out just what would have been going on with the disappearing light. Whether they liked it or not, they had to scale the treacherous looking steps of the staircase. Deep exhales and groans were released by all of the members. Yet out of everypony was it Twilight who had taken it upon herself to be the first to go.

The unicorn soothsayer would have been the first one of them all to scale the staircase downwards. What she would encounter after every step was unknown to her though. Everything could have happened and she knew that. The words of the ghost continued to race through her mind as she seemed to have been constantly on the watch for the fangs that were mentioned.

But what exactly could have been meant with them? Could it be meant that they had to look out for icicles made out of rock that fell down? Or did they had to look for actual fangs that were placed somewhere inside of the wall as some kind of trap? Twilight couldn’t tell and she didn’t wanted to be doing it either.

Though the thoughts continued to race through her mind.

Every step she took did her hooves felt just how steep and even slippery the stones were. Nopony had been wandering them for so many years, but somehow had water managed to find a way to scale down it. Only one explanation could have been figured out for the fact that there was almost a perfect gullet at each step.

“Rainwater,” mumbled Twilight up. Not loud enough to make the words audible for all of them. But at least Fluttershy heard it who was walking almost straight behind her.

“What do you mean with that?” the doctor whispered in return when her eyes focused upon Twilight. They all had to be careful that they wouldn’t lose their focus as one step placed wrong could have been their very end. Caution was given off by pretty much every last mare of the group.

Twilight turned her head towards Fluttershy before the game began. A game that would give the muscles in her neck a much needed workout. Twilight began to shift her head from back to front within seconds from each other. Her body had turned almost sideways to keep everything under the right checks. The road was slippery but the doctor required some explanation.

Perhaps it was the worst situation where Twilight could have thought about getting in. At least it was better than they had to fight some monsters or creatures along the stairs. Perhaps it didn’t mean all too much to any of them, but the feelings of relief were only greater with each step taken. Each step taken downwards meant they were one step closer.

Either they would have been closer to their goal, or one step closer to an unavoidable roadblock that was the pitch blackness beneath them. The soothsayer had finally given the doctor the time to answer the question that was being asked. “The ray of sunlight has to come from somewhere along the surface, Fluttershy,” she explained before she took another step down.

"So that means that there is some kind of natural cavity inside of the rocks. Which then means that there’s also a way for things on the outside can get in. The water used in rain always wants to travel downwards so…” Twilight continued when she then realized a little fact but lost it almost straight away again. She had almost slipped from the staircase but luckily managed to keep herself together barely.

The doctor eeped just before she reached out for Twilight’s arm and held her tight. It all happened in a split second but the whole company came to a standstill. The soothsayer was brought back up as the fear could still be seen clearly within her eyes. She was breathing a bit faster and heavier as she couldn’t believe it almost had been over for her.

“It, it’s okay… I’m fine, I think,” said Twilight to the rest of the mares while she gasped for breath. It was a terrifying experience for her.

For a couple of minutes did the silence return to the group to them. Fluttershy was sunken in her own thoughts. The spiraling staircase that went around the chasm had finally come to a point where they could see where they had started their descend.

The thing wasn’t the fastest when it came upon the fact of making the incline down, but the steps were just so many. She had even taken the lead from Twilight for a moment, it was her turn to do the little trick of the constant shifting of the head. The pegasus turned her head over to the mulberry skinned soothsayer and asked the question that burned upon her tongue. “When you said, that the light had to enter from somewhere, you mean that there’s an escape route? Like, an actual way out for all of us?”

The question was one that laid heavy in the heart of Twilight. She closed her eyes for just a little moment. Of course she wanted to say that everything would have been getting alright for all of them, that they all would have been able to make the departure from whatever laid beneath. But it was the lamia that bared her the most concern.

Twilight shook her head a bit. She didn’t had the desire to think too much about it all. It all just added upon the massive weight that was already resting upon her shoulders. The last thing she needed was that she would have made her own burden even heavier. So the only answer that could be given to Fluttershy was one that seemed to have been both vague and clear at the same time.

With a deep sigh before her words, she spoke them from the bottom of her soul and with a low tone to her voice. “There might be a pathway to the surface, yes. An escape route for us all to take if we dare to do it. That, is all I can say about it actually.”

The doctor understood the worry within the tone of Twilight and made the decision to not ask any further thing about it. The last thing she personally wanted as to become the trigger that would have send Twilight on a near unstoppable rampage through the cavern. Or worse, that she would become an emotional wreck.

The eyes of Twilight looked over to the chasm they were walking down and couldn’t take them away from the light that was being cast down. It didn’t matter how or where she looked inside of it, it always stopped at that one point at the bottom of it. The place where the light just ceased to exist and the place where she had lost her little ball of fire.

Sooner or later would they all be knowing exactly what it was and whether or not it was safe enough to continue. Troubles were made before her eyes as they were actually understandable, but at the other end there also was some kind of discomfort inside of the mare.

She released a deep exhale through her nostrils, the eyes were closed for just a moment once more. What could she have expected at the bottom of it? What could she have found there? What final thing was lurking for each of them beneath the black floor, if it was even a floor to begin with.

Not many things seemed to be making sense for the mare right then, but she knew and prayed upon the fact that time itself would give her the answers that she needed. Even if they would have been just as vague as the whispers of the goddesses.

With Fluttershy still leading the company of mares, the steps were taken both light and secure. While it was true and perhaps a little bit annoying, they didn’t make any haste for anything on that staircase. But that way they could all be certain that their footing would have been more secure than if they would just place their hooves down in a hurry.

Every step closer would have brought them over to the black floor like thing and that greatened the worries of the doctor. She was a mare of medicine and not one of arcane arts or anything in that direction. The eyes of the pegasus turned into a worried gaze while she continued to stare down the next step.

Each one taken brought the darkness closer towards her and closer towards the rest them. It worried her to no end as she almost seemed to crumble under the fact of having taken the lead. Yet for Twilight it seemed like a great test to test the self-esteem of the doctor and build further upon it. Even though that was a little something that was perhaps a whole lot easier said than actually done.

Yet the soothsayer was prepared and willing to take the risk. With her mind broken only a couple hours before, there wasn’t really any notice from it visually. Everything just seemed to have returned to the Twilight that they came to both know and love a little bit. The unicorn soothsayer had cried her troubles away and the company didn’t even knew about it.

Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse. Nopony could have truly told that part of the tale that they were writing at that very moment in time. All while they were sunken in thought.

Without a warning was there just a massive eep that came from the doctor. She then placed herself against the wall. Not a single step would have been made by her while she violently shook her head. Whatever had caused her to stop was something that must have spooked her out greatly.

The whole company even came to a screeching hold as they all wondered either in thought or aloud just what happened. The major of the air force was the third mare in line and watched how the doctor just crippled right before her eyes. “And you call yourself a pegasus?” she growled up towards the other mare.

“Rainbow, silent you. Fluttershy doesn’t really mean it. She’s just scared. And did you forget the fact she’s gotten used to a life on the ground?” the soothsayer hissed through her teeth towards the major. The point had been made clear to the rainbow haired pegasus who just released a shrug. “For crying aloud, you are just impossible to work with, aren’t you?”

“Hey, if I could have just flown down there, we wouldn’t have been waiting on miss Scardy-pants over there,” snarled Rainbow in return. She almost pressed her forehead against that of the soothsayer in anger.

“Would the pair of you be quiet now!?” the voice of Rarity echoed over the other mares. She had gotten the attention of the pair of them and they just looked scared. Her voice was dominant enough to make the both of them crawl back in their holes. For a change had the side of Rarity that she used on the high seas revealed itself to them all.

Which naturally caused some suspicion for Applejack to be born. The admiral began to question whether or not the unicorn was actually as forgiving as she claimed to be. But an accusation there and then could have been suicide. The location just wasn’t really favorable when it came down to it and she was highly aware of the facts as they were.

Both Rainbow and Twilight dropped their conversation whereas the pirate captain crossed her arms over each other. The time had come for them all to get to know just what would happen next. The soothsayer nodded one time to herself as she then looked behind her. Her body then followed suit as she took the last couple of steps down.

She walked past Fluttershy and began to realize just what had her so spooked in the first place. A gentle chuckle even came from the throat of the mare before she hunched down. Her arms were placed upon her knees while the eyes were granted a sight further downwards.

Then they traveled over the sides of the chasm and she nodded once more to herself. A deep exhale was given off through her nostrils as she shook her head lightly. It then turned to the best of its abilities to the rest of the company. “Look at the light of the sun, and look before me. The answer can be found right there before any of you start to bicker again.”

Of course were the words of Twilight brought in question before the company did exactly what she said. But they were cautious in doing so. The last thing they wanted was for any of them to have dropped or fallen down into the chasm.

For they had reached the final destination of the sunlight. The anthronies noticed how the light of the sun just seemed to stop existing upon the black floor that blocked their way. Everything began to make sense for the lot of them as they had finally scaled the chasm.

But they were far from done. They were just so far from being done. The unicorn began to charge up her horn lightly as she looked over to the floor. Something didn’t seem to be right about it. The staircase almost seemed to have dropped at half a step before it was consumed by the darkness. No, the floor that they were looking at was hiding some other thing. Yet whatever it was, Twilight was certain that she would discover it one way or the other.

Behind her did the rest of the company whisper about the things that could be laying at it or beneath it. The things that they still would encounter as they would travel onwards. None of the words spoken by the mares could possibly have been right.

They ranged from the rather sane enough stuff to the downright insane spoken by Fluttershy. The doctor seemed to have been able to calm herself down to the best of her abilities, but everything still was one massive panic attack in her eyes.

Whether it was intentional or not, it did create a gentle smile across the lips of Twilight. A little, gentle and genuine smile before she shook her head a little bit from side to side. “You should listen to yourselves. You all speak of riches and wealth from ancient ponytales. Tales that may or may not have actually happened,” she said to each of them.

The unicorn turned her head over to the rest of the group while her legs were a little bit stuck in the hunched position. “We have faced some unbelievable facts, certainly. But that doesn’t mean that it will still be the case. As far as I know, this can be the end of our journey.” She then made the realization of just how discouraging the words sounded that she had spoken.

A little but also embarrassed sounding squee was released by her before she tried to correct her statement. “Basically, what I’m trying to say is, don’t hold up your hopes too much. Alright?” Nopony could actually have been mad at the words that were spoken by Twilight as they were more than true indeed. Her words rung a bell that hadn’t chimed in a long time in any of them. The bells of reality itself kicked back in, and it was hard.

The unicorn soothsayer then returned to her little experiments. She tried her utmost best to figure out just what the stuff happened to be. She had to know out of what exactly the floor was made from before they would even dare to cross it. Safety had been a priority all along the trip, even though it sometimes just wasn’t lived up to. She couldn’t rush or be with haste, not in that moment.

The rest of the company took the chance to make some good use of the time of. Finally could they be taking a bit of rest from the near constant wandering down the staircase. It had been a terrible trouble for their legs. Those had to endure the full weight of the mares every so many seconds. Their knees were burning and their feet felt like broken and blistered.

Only Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to be having the troubles from it. Her snake-like body just slithered down the steps. But even she felt that her body was being sore. The muscles of her body had clamped themselves against the steps all of the time to get a good grip. Which meant that she was clinging at least to three different steps at once and any given time. Luckily she had formed the rearguard as she was the one creature that took the most space to make the descend.

Time would be able to tell them all just what exactly was waiting for them all at the floor. But the first signs already showed them, that there was a whole lot more going on than they originally had thought.

Agonizing minutes had come and gone while Twilight performed every single test that was known to her without having to set up a giant laboratory. Even though she was a mare of spiritual connection to the goddesses themselves, the unicorn also happened to be a mare of science. She needed to have some kind of logical explanation behind everything before she would place the matter before the goddesses.

A great researcher did she happened to have be for certain. Her eyes were never taken away from the glass flask that seemed to be containing a little bit of the floor. Her horn charged up brighter and dimmer every so often as the mental notes were taken by her.

Everypony else just watched in patience as they hoped that the unicorn would have been able to give them an answer quick. Yet with the knowledge they had gathered from Twilight over the course of their journey, it most likely would have been taken a terribly lot of time plus some.

Not only that, but even the whispers that were being made by the unicorn already sounded rather discouraging. Whispers like ‘this can’t be’ and ‘how can something like that be possible’ were just two of the few dozen that the mare managed to say to herself. They didn’t make sense to the company of course.

The question was if they even made some degree of sense to Twilight herself. From the looks and sounds that were given off, they didn’t. But they never underestimated the soothsayer. She always had a little trick up her sleeve that they had to be careful for. A little last ace that she could trump out of her hat and turn the tide of the events.

The company hoped that it would have happened at least once more. And that it would have happened right there, in the moment that they needed it perhaps the most.

The minutes continued to crawl by at perhaps the slowest pace they had been going since they began their whole ordeal through the land. Nopony was certain of anything as Twilight never told them directly what she was either working on or what she had discovered.

The unicorn would have needed a solid confirmation first before she would be doing anything else. A smart decision that they all could agree upon, even though it was never spoken. None of the mares dared to make a conversation with the others outside of whispers. They were scared to death to what would have happened if they had taken Twilight out of her concentration.

But the time to make the revelation to them all had to be there at one point or another, right? Nopony could have been researching the same thing forever and ever more, right? At one point there just had to be enough evidence gathered to make a conclusion, unless that conclusion seemed to have been madness itself to begin with.

The eyes of Rarity had turned over to the rays of light that were shone down into the chasm and noticed they had been turned orange. It didn’t make sense to her as it didn’t seemed to have been that long since they were stopped. Perhaps the hole laid at a place that had a shorter day cycle then that they were used to.

Anywho, the light of the sun was running out and that was all that she knew for certain. Anything else remained just a massive gaping hole that only could have been filled up with the answers of Twilight. The other mares had actually taken the opportunity to crash themselves down against the rocks and gain some rest to refuel their engines. Something to which Rarity would also return to.

Finally there was something happening inside of the body of Twilight. The unicorn came out of her hunched position and allowed the bones to be snapped in their rightful places. The mare then turned to face the others. She held the glass flask in her hand. The magical energy just left the horn and gave them all an expression of worry. An expression of not believing what she had discovered.

The silent news already brought the rest of the mares down to the ground in a figurative manner. They could understand that whatever the words of the mare would have been, they wouldn’t have been the most pleasant ones to listen to.

A deep exhale was released by the unicorn. Twilight got all of the eyes aimed directly at her. Five pairs of eyes were resting upon her as she had to share the news with every one of them. The news that shocked her very foundations of believes. Not a word had yet been spoken as the tension only rose higher.

“Come on, speak what’s on your mind,” taunted Rarity. She tried to pry the soothsayer open just a little bit. She was curious and actually witty enough to make the comment that was on everypony’s mind. A thing that was both a blessing and a curse to say the least.

The soothsayer released another exhale when she realized that she had to tell them all that there was something she had to say. So she went with the most logical thing. “You, might not believe any of my words, as even I have a hard time to believe them. But one thing is for certain,” said Twilight before as she looked back towards the floor.

“That floor, is not solid. It’s some kind of smoke from a creature thought to have been last seen almost a millennia ago. What I’m having in this flask is exactly the right composition for something powerful enough to block out the sun as it does,” the soothsayer added to her words.

Curiosity and fear had both been raised inside of each of the mares. Their curiosities were all spiked because they wanted to know just what it was that the floor was made of. The fear which was born out of the tone that Twilight was speaking in. Never during their journey did the mare seemed to have been so afraid with the truth.

There had been facts where it already seemed unbelievable, but that time was unlike any other. She had seen that something she believed in holy was just smashed against the rocks and shattered in a zillion little pieces.

“The smoke that this floor has been constructed of, the smoke that I’m holding in the flask right here, is of something that I can’t even properly name,” spoke Twilight before she took a deep inhale. She had to get the name of the thing out in the group to watch the responses that would have gotten out of each of them. So there was no other way than to actually tell them. “Before you all erupt out, I will tell you what it is from. The smoke comes from nothing else, than a frightful dragon.”

Within an instant had the eyes of each of the mares filled themselves with the greatest amount of fear. There was still a dragon living among them? There actually was a dragon living near the center of Equestria? It kinda made some sense in the mind of Twilight. She could finally have placed the words of the ghost into the rightful place.

The fangs that they needed to worry about had been the fangs of the dreaded dragon. However, they had been rampaging through the cavern dozens of years or centuries before. Perhaps the dragon who had created the smoke had died of a natural cause. Dragon’s smoke was known for its ability to keep lingering in a place for a terrible long time.

It almost never seemed to disappear or vanish out of an area unless blown away by another force. Twilight was familiar with the stuff as there used to be entire farms for it. All because of the given the fact that it would be used in many remedies and spells. Even her own staff was created with a little bit of dragon’s smoke to enhance the elemental abilities that it carried.

But some years ago had all of the dragon’s smoke been farmed and did the rush for the good stuff came to an rather abrupt end. For years they had been able to mine it before everything had ran dry.

“Please, don’t erupt out in a massive yell against me. I’m only saying that this stuff is dragon’s smoke. Whether or not there is an actual dragon still walking around beneath it is something I do not know. But all that I know is that we need to continue our path down and just finish this once and for all!” Twilight spoke while she rose an arm into the air.

She wanted boost not only the morale of the mares, but also the confidence. Even she knew that they were all close to reaching their final destination. If the truth had to be told, Twilight was silently done with the quest. She hungered for a return to the surface and enjoy once more the wonderful lights of the sun and moon as they were supposed to be.

For the time being though, they could only done one thing. Take the steps once more. Take them further downwards and into the abyss of darkness.

“Just how much is there of this stuff?!” Applejack exclaimed while she waved the smoke out of her eyes. The company didn’t keep track of the time, but they were certain that they had been walking through it for at least five long minutes. Nopony was certain how thick the layer was but they knew that the temperature increased.

The heat that was getting to each of them caused their shards of ice to grow only further inside of their chests. The shards became thicker and thicker as they tightened only more around their hearts. They needed to keep their cores cooled down otherwise they would have been cooked alive. Which was a thing that none of them were waiting on to happen.

Twilight had taken a small sprint down the steps and was nowhere to be found after the first minute that they had been walking through the stuff. Nopony was certain of just where the mare had been gone off to. Which meant that they could only hope that she would have returned safely to them. Even though that very thing seemed to have been a high hope for them all.

~~~~

In the end there was the light again. The light of the magma that was flowing beneath the crust of the earth they walked upon. They all noticed it and increased their pacing just a little bit. Soon enough would the whole of the company have found itself standing upon a small platform. A small platform in the middle of the chasm.

Coughs were released by every last being as they all saw black from the smoke. Each of them noticed just how black the face of the mare in front of her was, but also just how black the clothing had all gotten. They all just appeared like dirty and worn out rags that were only good for either burning or just throwing away.

“It’s soot,” the soothsayer spoke before she had placed her hands behind her back. “One of the most common ingredients of dragon’s smoke. But come, take a look for yourself and see, where we have ended up, this time.”

Everypony gained a curious look upon their faces. None actually dared to believe the words of Twilight as they were said to them. Eyebrows were raised before they all made the steps forward. Each of them made them carefully until they stood next to the unicorn and gave their eyes the time to look at the view.

A view that would be giving Tartarus a run for its bits. The company was staring down at a hellish plane that seemed to be stretching out all over the place. A hellish plane that looked like the inner circle of the place that they called hell. They seemed to have walked down to the very and literal version of hell of their land.

“But, that isn’t possible. Nopony can just walk into Tartarus, right Twilight?” Rarity dared to ask. The pirate captain was just as confused as everypony else.

The soothsayer confirmed the thoughts that the pirate captain had as nopony could just barge into Tartarus, not like the way they were doing at least. “No, this isn’t Tartarus. Ladies, I welcome thy at the place we have been hunting for, for so long.”

A deep inhale was done by the unicorn before she placed her arms just next to her body. “We’re at the center, of Equestria.”

In their eyes they caught the pillars of magma just shooting up as if they were waters from a fountain. The liquid rocks were boiling at temperatures that they had never encountered before in their lives as the steam travelled up via various cavities. Icicles of stone hung from the ceiling and some were as long as Pinkie Pie when she would stretched herself completely.

Not to mention as thick as when she laid curled up. Their tips looked like daggers and would crush anything that even thought about getting under them. No, the place may not have been the inner circle of Tartarus, but it perhaps was the closest visual representation that the company ever would have gotten for it.

Geysers of magma and molten rock spewed their cargo up towards the ceiling which then seemed to be melting as if there was nothing holding them back at all. All in all did the terrain just appear to be inaccessible and inhospitable. If anything lived down there, it would have perished a long, long time ago.

They had crossed a lake of magma before in a diamond, ice cooled longboat and already having some troubles. They were then faced with what could have been standing equal to an ocean of the stuff.

The admiral looked over the scene with her eyes and released a deep gulp at first, before the most obvious but unbelievable question was being asked. “Do we, do we have, to cross it?” Her tone was filled with fear, she wasn’t certain about anything. Once again was the whole company just go smacked about the facts as they were.

Once again were they treated with a sight that was as beautiful as it was dangerous. One that would remaining haunting their minds for ages to come because of just that.

Chapter LXV

“That’s, that’s true. We’re in this together and, it would be a shame if we didn’t finish what we started,” said Twilight to the mares. It was hard to say for her, but then her lips curled up into a weak smile. But the smile was a well-meant little thing. She released a deep exhale through her nostrils before she stood back up on her hooves.

What had caused it, they didn’t know for certain. But for one reason of the other they all just emerged in a massive group hug. A hug that was given tight to all of the mares. For the moment they all found each other equal. Nopony was different, they were all in it together and they would be solving it together as well. They had been chosen to perform the task, they were almost done with it.

Just for a couple seconds did the hug held itself together before the group just split up once more. The hug was broken as the mares all knew what question was going to be needed to asked. The question of just how they would be proceeding. The most dreaded question of all.

Before them laid a maze of magma and one wrong step would cause them all to lose their lives. The maze and the lake were a dreaded combination to tackle and one that required more thought than anything else they had done thus far.

Nopony asked the question, because they all knew the answer upon it. One way or the other did they had to cross it, whether it was liked or not. The unicorn soothsayer turned her attention away from the group as she glanced over the boiling rocks in the lake.

Hundreds of thoughts began to cross her mind as only one seemed to be reasonable enough for her. One thought that perhaps could have given off the right thing they needed to be doing in the matter. Yet even then, it was only a small margin of success that they would be having.

Anything was better than a wild goose chase though. So Twilight continued to think about her idea while she stroked her chin a gentle bit. Everything had to be worked out exactly as she needed it, otherwise troubles would arise. Calculations were made about the size of the room and the surface it carried.

Whatever laid beneath she didn’t took into calculations for the time being. As long as they would have been brought over to the middle of it or to any other source of where they could have been going down once more.

Nopony spoke a word, not even to each other. Silent as the night they just waited for the words of Twilight to come and see what she had to tell. Silence had taken over with the occasional interruption from the ceiling crumbling down.

Every once and awhile would the icicles of rock just crumble down and disappear within the sheer vastness of the magma lake.

Yet Twilight would never have removed her gaze from anything or all. For she had delved too deep in her thoughts while she continued to go past every possibility there was.

Minutes would have gone by while the mare paced up and down in front of the other mares. Countless of ideas had been surging through her head. The soothsayer tried to figure out which one would have been the best. Which one of those ideas would have been the best to go with.

In the end did she turn her head over to the mares with a smile going weak across her lips. She had figured out just what would have been the best out of her mad ideas. The craziest of them all could just have been the one that actually work. All it took was a bit of craziness to find the genius, or so the saying went.

The rest of the mares all perked their ears in order to hear what Twilight had to say to them. With the fullest of their attention did they give the mare the time to speak. “I’m having a plan, a plan that’s utterly madness but one that possibly can be helping us to get through the magma lake. And before you ask, no. I don’t intent to make a diamond longboat here.”

“May I ask why?” asked Rarity after she rose a gentle eyebrow to the unicorn.

“Simple, I do not know how to summon or carve diamonds and the temperature here is a lot warmer than at the previous lake. With this kind of heat, the diamonds would even melt even if they had been coated in ice. It simply isn’t going to work,” explained Twilight to the captain.

Who on her own turn gave her a gentle nod. The explanation was enough to work it and it also gave away for another thing. Just what was the idea that she had come up with?

“So, what’s that mind of yars having planned then?” Applejack asked. The admiral was the one more who spoke the words that were on everypony’s mind.

Twilight released the smile once more before she finally revealed just what she had planned on doing. “Okay, so what I have planned is, now that I know the rough dimensions of the place, is to make the way appear for us. It’s really simple actually but it requires a lot of magic to do. I plan to cast a spell that will reveal the way to us in a rather simple manner. Colored traces.”

“And, are you sure about all of this, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. She was genuinely concerned about the whole plan. “If it requires all of your magic, who is to say you can defend yourself if you wake something up?”

Twilight turned her head over to the doctor and nodded calmly to her words. She was just so right with them. If the mare would release all her magic at once for one spell, she would have been defenseless. “That, is a problem I haven’t still fully been working out. However, our main priority is just to get the spell done. For all I know, we might be sitting right in the epicenter of every tremor and are they already busy destroying the whole of Equestria.”

“So you’re saying, you much rather have your own magic depleted and the way revealed then the other way around?” Rainbow added into the mix as she didn’t saw the logic behind the actions that were wanted to be done. Then again, the pegasus had never fully understood the unicorn culture to begin with.

“That is indeed correct, Rainbow. Rarity knows the arcane arts good enough to defend herself and hopefully me as well,” returned Twilight before she pointed over to the pirate captain. “Not to mention the fact that most of you carry quite the assortment of weaponry as well. I think, we’ll be just fine. We have made it so far against demons and shape-shifters.”

There weren’t any words known to them that could have countered Twilight’s. So there was only one thing left to do. “Well, whenever you’re ready, Twilight, do your thing,” said Fluttershy. The doctor had enough information to place her trust and faith in the unicorn. The unicorn nodded to the pegasus and quickly made her way over to the edge of the maze.

There she would charge up her horn with a set of closed eyes and allow whatever would happen, happen. The unicorn just stood there with her staff in one hand and the other curled up into a fist. She released deep exhales through her nostrils while deep inhales went through her mouth. All that the other mares could do was to wait for whatever would be happening.

They stood in a circle with their eyes all peeled to Twilight before the horn began to coat itself in the raspberry aura. The charge became bigger and bigger as her hands and staff also got coated with the arcane energy.

They had seen some charges made by the soothsayer, but that was perhaps one of the biggest that they had seen in their lives. The amounts of magic that were called up by the mare were just unparalleled by anything they had witnessed. Perhaps they were getting just that extra little bit more than where they had bargained for.

“Should we stop her?” Pinkie Pie said in a worried tone. The lamia’s eyes shifted near constant from left to right. She wanted to make sure that everything was going well with Twilight. Yet the other unicorn of the group placed a hand on the lamia’s shoulder.

"She’s going to be fine,” said Rarity in a reassuring tone. “This, is normal for a unicorn. But you might want to take a little step back when the discharge happens.”

“W-Why?” Pinkie stuttered, after which she looked Rarity straight in the eyes.

"That’s a lot of magic she carries there,” the pirate captain answered in a simple tone.

Pinkie seemed to understand the words that were said before she remained firmly on the ground. A little gulp was released by her throat before she closed her eyes. She didn’t had the desire to see what would be heading her way nor did she had the intention to do anything else.

The sounds of the magical charge became louder and louder with every passing second. Lashes of raspberry colored lightning were released from the horn and slamming into the ground with a soft sizzle. How long, before something good or bad would have happened?

The circle formation of the company had an interesting effect as even the magic of Twilight seemed to notice that. The unicorn soothsayer began to have a more difficult time to get everything under control. The eyelids were firmly shut against one another. Something had gone wrong with the preparations of the spell and she didn’t knew what it was at all, she didn’t even have a clue.

Whispers could be heard inside of her head that spoke of different chants and charms then the spell she wanted to cast into the wide world. Something was messing with her and the unicorn didn’t like it at all. Something was toying with her but it wasn’t Nightmare Moon or any of the Dark Witches that laid under her.

No, the voice in her head was soothing, manly and calm. Perhaps that combination of things was the thing that made her utterly terrified of it all. She didn’t had the control anymore while she also tried to listen to the words that were being spoken to her.

Words in a tongue and language unknown to her did their turn. The tongue was old, that much she could tell for certain. Anything else still remained a massive mystery to her. Whatever had managed to crawl inside of her head, it must have been doing so to aid them all instead of prevent them from reaching their goal.

The amounts of magic that had been stored in the horn almost became too much, the whispers faded out of her head and Twilight could only release everything as one massive blast. “R-Ready or not, here it comes!” she shouted under the sounds of a groan of pain. Twilight was used to channeling large amounts of magic through her horn, but the amounts she carried in that moment of time were even new to her. For everything was a first, the saying went.

Every last ounce of magic she possessed and could make was all directly sent towards the horn for the blast. A blast that eventually came in the form as a massive thunder flash. A thunder flash that didn’t just went one way, but went into five other directions.

“No! E-Everypony, stand, stand still!” Twilight shouted before she realized just what had happened. But her words hadn’t been spoken yet or the five other mares had been captured by the raspberry lightning.

Fear took everypony over for a moment. They all feared for their lives as they possibly could have been ended there and then. Yet it was the opposite that happened. Instead of getting weaker, they felt themselves stronger.

Each of the mares just felt stronger the longer they stood in the lightning. A lightning that began to change color from every mare it hit. The raspberry color disappeared whereas Rarity’s flash became white, Applejack’s became orange, Fluttershy’s became yellow, Rainbow’s became blue and Pinkie’s became pink.

The energy that was sent towards the mares a moment ago all channeled back to Twilight after the color changes. The soothsayer was still trying to understand just what happened to them and her. But she couldn’t give a definitive answer upon it in the moment. All she could say was that they had become conducts of some kinds for the magic she had released.

Their formation had caused them all to become conducts for their own kind of magic which was being absorbed by Twilight. She felt herself stronger than ever before and her staff was raised upwards. Her horn couldn’t hold that much power, so the only logical way to channel it out was through the staff.

Her body managed to turn around and the steps she made were heavy. It felt like her hooves were stuck in cement or glued to the very rocks. Her eyes looked to everypony as the tears were spotted in all of their eyes. Even her own eyes weren’t able to be kept dry. The sheer amounts of power that was flowing through each of them just surpassed any expectations that they had.

“O-Only one way to end this,” the soothsayer said with hope in her eyes. Twilight then aimed her staff to the middle of the group. All of the mares nodded as if they knew what would be happening from the get go. Perhaps the initial blast gave them the same whispers in their heads as they had given Twilight. But where the soothsayer didn’t understood them, they did.

The staff then released the massive magical charge it carried as the soothsayer released a yell of pain. The power that rushed straight out of her body just hurt her so much. Never in her life had she expected that a charge of magic could have been that painful.

Yet in the middle of the group it formed itself, a massive orb. A massive orb that began to take the colors of the rainbow to itself when it was still being build. The mares all looked over the thing with a face of wonder as well as trouble clearly readable upon it.

Whatever the orb was, whatever it would be doing in the end, they had created it. They had helped in its creation and they alone would have been able to face the consequences. For all they knew, that would have been a rainbow colored bomb to explode the whole place. Of course the thought was utter madness, but that was a daily thing for them all by then.

The orb turned into a sphere the longer it was being created and the mares were all taken by the changing of colors. One moment it perfectly matched Rarity and the next it matched Applejack. They didn’t knew what it was, but they knew it would have something to do with the events to come. Twilight looked up to the orb with a painful expression as the power surges were almost getting too much for her.

“I-Im, Imp-possible,” said Twilight to herself. The last bits of magic were conducted through her and her staff into the orb. Finally had the ordeal been over and finally could she discharge her horn without the risk of anypony blowing up because of the broken circuit.

They all lost their color around them and the magic finally faded away from them all. The mares were all breathing deeply to themselves before they looked over to the orb with a worried expression. None of them knew what it was or what it would be doing.

Yet that didn’t stop them from falling down to their bums. The sphere was suspended in the air by itself and high enough for the mares to see each other from under it. Everypony thought the same, but only one could probably give the answer.

"N-Not what I, h-had intended, really,” spoke Twilight before she rubbed her face with a hand. She was still panting the hardest of them all as bits of smoke even left her horn and staff. “Never k-knew that magic, was that, that powerful actually.”

“But what’s that?” Pinkie asked as she pointed to the sphere. She even wanted to approach it but she was stopped by Fluttershy’s arm.

The doctor shook her head as the lamia looked to her with a confused expression. “I think it’s better if you just stay here for the time being.” The creature dropped her eyes a little bit as she stayed put. Only to receive a rather welcome pat on the head by the doctor. A gentle squee was being released by the creature before the attention focused back on Twilight.

“I think, it’s some kind of magical conduct. It must have stored the energy given off by you five, as well as mine,” thought Twilight aloud after she had taken the time to catch up with her breath. “But what it caused, is unknown to me.”

Without a warning did she stood up and simply approached the thing. Everything in her mind told her to touch it, even if it was just one fraction of a second. She had to place her hand upon the thing to see what would happen next. Every last bit of sense inside of Twilight then told her to not do it. Which caused the unicorn to be dropped once again in a fight with herself.

“I have to! I need to know,” she spoke aloud after a couple of seconds. Everypony feared just what those words could have meant but they didn’t scurry back or away. Instead they remained sitting where they were.

The hand of Twilight reached out for the surface of the magical sphere as she hoped it wouldn’t turn out in something bad. Then it happened, before she knew it had she placed her hand upon it and felt the magical energy surging through her. Suddenly her eyes went wide as she released a small gasp for air.

What happened then was that the orb launched itself into the air and travelled over to the lake of magma. The eyes of the mares followed it and what then happened was something that went far over their own imagination.

The orb just disappeared beneath the surface of the magma. All their work had just vanished like that. And for a couple of seconds there was nothing that happened. Though just when it seemed that the mares had lost all of their hopes of something good happening, there was a massive explosion happening right on the spot where the orb had entered the lake.

Out of instinct stood everypony back on their hooves and saw the huge column of magma just rushing up towards the ceiling. “N-Now would be a good time to run!” spoke Twilight when as she looked for an exit or other high lying place.

Though the only thing she saw was the tunnel through which they came from. That would have been a guaranteed death trap. “Never mind that,” the mare added when she noticed that their only means of escape would have been more trouble.

“Twilight, either my eyes are lying to me, or this is really happening!” Rainbow shouted up. With a finger that trembled had she pointed to the column.

The soothsayer turned herself back around to see it for herself. The sights that she caught within her eyes were some of the most unbelievable they had seen during the whole trip. For the magma that was boiling hot one moment, seemed to be turning into stone right before their very eyes. It almost seemed as if the lake was cooling off for whatever reason.

It went from pure magma, to pure rock in the matter of possibly less than five minutes.

“Unbelievable, no, this can’t be,” said Twilight as she was just baffled about it all.

“There’s yar proof, it’s happening,” countered Applejack with disbelief to her voice. Not even the mare of the sea could believe it. Her eyes had played a lot of tricks over the years but for once in her life she was certain about what she saw.

“L-Look over there!” Fluttershy screamed to the best of her abilities as she pointed to a gap. Instantly did the eyes of the mares look towards the place where she pointed and once more they couldn’t believe what they saw. For at the gap it was formed, almost as if it was being carved out of it live before them.

A staircase. Another staircase that would be leading them even deeper into the lake. There was no more going around or about it, the mares of the company just knew that they were on the right track. At the bottom of the place laid the destination they had been working towards for such a long time. “Girls, I think, I think we’re going to cross it by hoof. But be careful, I have no idea just how hot the magma remains beneath us,” commented and warned Twilight. She took the first daring step over to the rock solid used to be magma lake.

One by one they followed the unicorn while adrenaline was the only thing that managed to keep them all standing up. They were all pumped up and ready to tackle anything that would have been thrown in their way.

They came closer and closer to the edge of the cliff where the stairs had been formed and none of them could resist the urge. Before they walked down the stairs, they needed to know exactly what laid at the bottom of it all.

But as they made their way over to the cliff, they all realized just how cold the magma had become. The magma hadn’t just cooled down a little bit so that the top layer would have been able to become solid again. No, it felt as if there was barely any magma left in the entire lake.

It was both a relief as well as a trouble for Twilight as she hoped that they hadn’t disturbed the natural flow of it too much. Then again, the answer was also pretty obvious when she thought about it.

Closer and closer they came to the edge of the gap in the ground and six pairs of eyes looked down. Six pairs of eyes which glanced down into the abyss that played out before them with curiosity. Six pairs of eyes all were fallen upon the same thing. The thing that they had only been able to dream about since their journey had begun.

At the very bottom of the abyss it just rested. There it then finally was and revealed to them in its fullest of glories. The sphere of magma that had been tormenting the thoughts of Twilight for so long. Finally had they discovered it and finally could they work on the solution of the trouble that had formed itself on the surface.

Nopony released a single word when they saw it. Nopony had the right words to say actually. Nopony was having anything that matched up with the unusual beauty of the sphere as it was presented before them. All of them were baffled at the sheer size it had and how it spun on the spot.

They were there, they were ready, they had made it. Almost had the company made it.

“Everypony, one last descend,” the soothsayer eventually spoke. Twilight was more than ready, she was even heading over to the staircase. Everypony else just blindly followed her. They felt the rush of adrenaline already fading away from their bodies.

Slow but sure they realized just how much power had also been drained from them all with the charge of magic. Gasps for breath were made by them all as the eyes could be kept opening with difficulty.

They needed to stay in the game just a little bit longer to achieve the unachievable. They needed to keep their heads together for one last staircase, after that they would just crash down. Step by step it became more and more difficult for them all to stay focused.

Even Twilight was having her issues as she just trudged down the steps. There wasn’t anything else that she could be doing in the moment. Only once they had reached the end of it all would they have been able to catch up with their breath.

Which was much needed. The mares just crashed down against the staircase as soon as they had reached the ground floor. Deep exhales were given off as their eyes could only focus upon the massive sphere. They had done it, they had gotten that far. Only one problem still remained, what would have been next?

Everypony had crashed down against the staircase because they all felt just exhausted. None of them had been used to giving off that much energy in the way that had done to fuel the massive magical orb that caused the lake to be turned into stone.

It didn’t took them long before they all had passed out and had fallen into a light slumber. The mares of the company just laid there as Twilight was the only one who still seemed to have been awake. She wanted to make more observations about the whole thing before anything else would happen.

But the chance wasn’t given to them. She had been the main conduct of the whole operation and it was her magic that had been depleted the most of all. So the only thing that the mare could do was to give in to the losing battle and pass out as well. “Perhaps, a little bit of sleep, can’t be harmful,” said Twilight to herself before her body would have dropped itself against the side of the staircase and she closed her eyes.

Within seconds had she lost her consciousness and had she travelled off to lands only she could enter. Sleep to regain their energy, that was perhaps the best description of the events that happened at the moment. Though the question of just how long they would have been knocked out remained unanswered.

~~~~

Minutes, hours, maybe even seconds had gone by when the group of mares all woke up seconds after one another. The system of who woke up first and who became second was never fully expected as they only knew that they were awake again.

They all came back to the land of the living as the expression on their faces were turned to confused. All of them were having different memories of the events as they had happened. Whatever had caused them to be knocked out in the first remained unknown. They all have their thoughts, but those would not have been spoken by any of them.

Twilight was the first one who managed to crawl back up on her hooves. Her eyes looked over the rest of the mares first. Everypony seemed to be waking up at their own pace and she could live with that. They were waking up, that was the priority of the trouble that they were having.

Only then she turned herself around and glanced over the massive sphere of magma. A sphere that was even levitated in the air by an unknown source and never seemed to lose any of the boiling cargo it carried.

It almost seemed as if it was having its own gravity pull for some reason. Twilight couldn’t make anything out of it as she scratched herself behind the head. They had reached their destination finally, then the second stage of their problems could begin. “What’s next?”

“First, let’s get to it a bit closer,” said Rainbow to them. The pegasus pointed in the direction of the sphere. “It may seem close, but it isn’t. It’s a trick that’s being played on your eyes, Twilight. The cliff was also much higher. Some nasty perception messing magic is going on here.”

“How, do you know, all of that?” Twilight asked the major with a confused expression clearly visible within her eyes. The unicorn couldn’t fully understand why the major had the knowledge of such a thing, especially because she didn’t. Twilight just had to know it.

“The griffon shaman’s used it during the war. They would make the ships seem closer than they originally had been so we would fire at things not even there. I reckon, about a mile of rocky terrain before we finally are there,” explained Rainbow to the soothsayer. Who at her own turn just released a massive shrug and nodded calmly.

Rainbow probably would have been right on her words and the soothsayer wasn’t in the mood to argue against them. The one thing that they could be doing from then was to follow the intuition of the pegasus and hope on the fact that she was right.

“Let’s go then, the last mile is always the toughest they say. I think they were pretty accurate,” said Twilight as she replied the go signal for hopefully one last time. Though they were all having fresh courage and energy to guide them. And what was one mile on the trek that they had already been doing so far? In their eyes it was nothing compared to the rest.

One mile of nothing but the magma sphere before them, that was all. One mile to think about what needed to be done next. One mile to come up with an escape plan.

And a mile that also was walked easier then they all would have thought. The company had walked the mile quicker than they ever could have expected and had passed a magical barrier that acted like some sort of mirror. Rainbow had explained to them that that was the barrier they needed to cross in order to see the real place.

Though once they were through it did, they finally saw it for the first time in the reality of the situation. The massive sphere of magma was actually there. It was still levitated and still not losing anything from its cargo. Once again there wouldn’t have been words that could even come close to the feelings that the mares were having.

It remained just as amazing and wonderful to look at as it was with the perception shields up. The mares of the company were relieved that they finally had reached their destination. They had done it after all. They had done the seemingly impossible and reached the very center of Equestria. Joy suddenly overtook the mares as they almost were ready to erupt out in a party.

But the feeling of joy was quickly taken over by the feeling of fear. A fear that crawled forward out of the unknown. None of them knew either what would be happening next or what they could be expecting to happen next. The fear of the unknown primed each of them. It sharpened their senses and made them anticipate the events to come. If they were to come to begin with.

Chapter LXVI

With the fear of the unknown still surging through their bodies, the mares would have just kept looking at the massive sphere of magma. None of them knew what would be happening next, but all thought about something good. Though their bodies were prepared for the worst possible thing to strike. Not even Twilight had some wise words about the matter while she prepared herself as well.

They had done it though, they had reached the center of Equestria, but were stuck. Never was there told just what would be happening after they had arrived there. Everything always told them to keep on going. It was perhaps not a well thought out plan as Twilight would have hoped.

Though it was the soothsayer who allowed her eyes to fall back on the rest of the company. One thing still bothered her a little bit as her attention shifted over to Rainbow Dash. There was one little matter that haunted her mind and she needed to have some form of peace upon before she or they would continue. “Rainbow, can I ask you something? Something, apart from this,” asked Twilight to the major in a kind and polite tone.

The remaining mares all rose an eyebrow. It seemed that Twilight had once more taken the chance to get a hold of something small. Yet it wasn’t their place to argue with the soothsayer so they just shrugged it off. But Rainbow narrowed her eyes a little bit before she rose an eyebrow. “What do you want from me now?” asked Rainbow in a cautious tone.

“Just a bit of information to get a matter out of my head,” returned Twilight just before she made her way over to the pegasus. A pegasus who nodded calm in return as she seemed to be willing to answer the burning questions. “Alright. You said that the griffon shaman’s used the perception magic, right?”

The major had to think about it for a second before she returned her answer in the form of a nod. “Okay, but my question is, how did you manage to spot it? How did you see it while nopony else noticed it?” asked Twilight of her. A question that may have been out of place though.

Once more was the unicorn just digging for information. Which came much to the discomfort of Rainbow herself. The pegasus let out a deep sigh through her mouth as she seemed to have been having more than enough from everything.

She was done with the questioning of the unicorn. She was just utterly done with it but never made it apparent to the rest of the company. The remaining four mares all had their eyes peeled upon the two of them as they were waiting for something to go horribly wrong. They were waiting for their moment to stop the two of them.

“Twilight, first of all, I’m at least twenty years older than that you are, remember?” Rainbow growled to her in a low tone. “Secondly, I have fought in the war myself and seen it countless times. The shamans think it is so effective, but once you know that there are borders that shimmer like hot air. Guess you can fill in the rest of it now yourself.”

Twilight gave a nod to the major. She could indeed have filled in the blanks that were on her mind. The matter was made clear enough to her to be able to work it in the way that she wanted to. Which meant that she could finally focus herself upon the real task that laid before her. She had to find a way to do something with the massive sphere of magma.

Of course she could have tried to use her magic, but the problem with that was the fact that she still hadn’t recharged her magic. The massive orb that was used to turn the magma lake into stone had consumed just so much.

Which left her with barely any options to go with. There were just so little things that she could be doing in the moment. “I think, that we have to get inside of it in one way or the other. But the question is how we are going to do such a thing,” said Twilight while she stroked her chin a bit.

The eyes just shifted from left, right, up and down while she tried to make sense out of it all. The thing had its own gravity pull, that she knew. So it must have meant that the core of the sphere was hollow. Which opened up yet another problem. How would they be getting right inside of a sphere that is probably all magma?

The shaking motions of her head had told not only Twilight, but the rest of the company as well, more than enough. She was standing at an impasse that couldn’t been battled no matter what she would have tried.

Groans and moans left the mouth of the soothsayer while she tried to figure out something that hopefully would have been able to get her and them one step closer to fulfilling their duties. Yet the rest of the company was having so their own fair share of doubts about what would be happening. Not only to them, but also to the world around them.

Rarity crossed her arms over each other and she rose an eyebrow to the whole matter. “Hmpf, you honestly think we are able to find a doorway straight into the heart of that thing? Not even with the most powerful diamonds you’re going to be able to do that. It’s the core,” she said.

“What are ya talking ‘bout?” asked Applejack to her. The admiral’s curiosity had been awoken by her nemesis. “Are ya saying..?”

“I am indeed saying that,” countered Rarity straight away while she turned her head over to the admiral. “This, is the literal hottest point. We might not feel it because of ice in our hearts, but it’s boiling in here. One drop of sweat would instantly be vaporized.”

“And how do you know that?” was returned to her from the admiral.

The pirate captain released a little grin as she looked the earth anthrony straight in the eyes. “I like to use nature to help me a little bit when it comes down to certain matters, Jackie. I have studied a bit of magma back in school and it always managed to stick for some reason. Much like how you still know how to pick ripe apples,” returned Rarity in calm, lady-like voice.

“Leave mah family out of this, Brittenburg,” growled Applejack towards the unicorn.

“I’m not involving them, I’m just saying you have the knowledge still somewhere.”

“Can you two be quiet?!” Fluttershy exclaimed in a rush. Then she covered her mouth with both hands. But the bickering mares had heard that words and shifted their gaze over to the pegasus.

Only to realize that they once again had erupted in a pointless battle. There wasn’t anything else they could be then to cease it. Which was luckily the thing they did. The attention was turned back towards the sphere and Twilight.

For seconds would they have been watching over the things when they could’ve sworn that something didn’t seemed to have been right. Something was in fact giving off trouble from inside of the sphere. For it began to boil even more violently than before.

Almost as if there was something inside of it, that wanted to come out. The mares could only be taking a couple steps backwards and hope that everything would be turning out alright for them. Gulps were released as the boiling became even more fierce and they just anticipated what would come next.

Though the events that would happen next were some of the most unbelievable they had ever seen. For the sphere of magma erupted open like water. The surface of it was torn open like the water in the ocean while something managed to slice through it.

There, at the near top it happened. A giant, greenish, fin-like something came out of the sphere before it disappeared again within it. But it wouldn’t have just given that tiny show to the mares, they would be sitting in the front row seats for something else. Something a lot more powerful.

It was when the fin-like something broke the tension with the magma once more that there also was a secondary something. Which happened to have been a sonic boom that banged straight through their ears. They all covered their precious ears while the sonic boom was also aimed directly at the rocks above where the impact happened.

Suddenly did the eyes of the unicorn soothsayer go wide as she realized what was happening. Everything began to make a little bit of sense and she could finally tie the ropes together. “Oh, my, goodness,” were the only three words that Twilight could have said.

The sonic boom crashed against the rocks above and shattered them on impact. But the shockwave that was created by it managed to travel through them for miles and miles to come. Eventually it would result in exactly the thing that had been tormenting the lands of Equestria for so long already.

The fin-like thing of the creature that lived inside of the sphere of magma was the main suspect. The main convict when it came down to the matter of their homes. They were all witnesses of the events and they all were just utterly terrified of them.

Nopony had ever even considered or even thought about the fact that there probably was a giant creature that lived inside of the sphere. Yet that just happened to be the case. Any old theories that they were probably having were all thrown straight out of the window. They were going to face something that perhaps nopony had seen before.

Though also words of some time ago were remembered by a couple of them. Twilight remembered the words of the ghost back in the broken settlement as she turned around quickly. “Did the ghosts tell any of you a date, how long it had been since they had come down here?!” the soothsayer exclaimed quick. The fin disappeared again within the sphere, resting for the time being.

The hopes were kept up high by all of the mares as they thought that somepony would be having the answer that they were looking for. While the seconds ticked away, the feeling of disappointment came setting in the hard way.

Nopony had caught anything of a time period of when the spirits tried to enter the place. So it could have happened a year ago, but just as easily been ten thousand years ago for all Twilight knew. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils before she gave a gentle nod. “Alright then. Well, I think we need to change our strategy a little bit.”

The company all sat down on their bums and they kept on looking over the sphere of magma. Despite it being the cause of all the tremors and earthquakes in their lands, it still held a power that was unknown to them. It managed to capture their wildest dreams and attention and just nullified them. Yet it was almost calming to see the orb spin the way it did.

Slow but steady, almost like the sun but deep down in the earth they walked upon. The mares had trouble to take their eyes off of it. The beauty of the natural thing seemed to take them over one by one, captivating their imagination. They were staring at the core of Equestria, after all.

Though in the back of their heads they all realized just what was the real reason of them being there. They knew why they were there. The problem just happened to be the little fact that it almost was impossible to break through the magma barrier.

“You think we can just knock upon the door?” Pinkie Pie said in a well meant chuckle as she laid curled up on top of her own body. Some of the mares released a chuckle as well as they realized the joke that was being told.

Others had remained as serious as they had always been and didn’t even change the expression. Twilight closed her eyes and focused herself mainly upon the recharging of her magic. Perhaps that sphere wasn’t the brightest of ideas yet it did help them in one more than one way.

The unicorn took deep in- and exhales while she seemed to have lost the connection with the rest of the world. Though where Twilight had ‘wasted’ all of her magic with just one spell, Rarity was still having more than enough ready to be fired if needed.

That same thought also went through Twilight and she hoped that the pirate captain was willing to help her in yet another plan of utter insanity. None of the company’s members were aware of just how exactly they would have been able to enter the sphere of magma and the answer wouldn’t have been thrown at them from the skies.

Even though they wanted that to happen, the rocks above them just didn’t allow it.

Deep exhales were released by all of the anthronies while the lamia seemed to have fallen asleep. The creature had to regain her own energy. The thoughts of the mares had been running wild in the meantime. All of them thought about way through which they could be entering the sphere.

Though all of their manners ended up in the same way. The little and horrifying fact that they would have been burned alive by a shower of the stuff. They didn’t even had a clue of what kind of creature even had such a fin.

It could have been a prehistoric monster that roamed the place for all they knew. Whatever laid beneath the surface of the magma, they knew that one way or the other they would figure it out. And had to stop it.

That discouraging thought caused all the mares to release a deep exhale through their nostrils before they nodded to themselves. They knew how far they had gotten from and how close they seemed to have been to their final goal.

Going back wasn’t an option, for most of the ways back had been blocked off and they didn’t had the desire to get lost in the unknown realm of the underworld. Applejack stood up and began to pace up and down. Her steam powered leg constantly jammed itself against the rocky floor which was much to the annoyance of a couple other mares.

They never made a complaint about it though. They knew that she meant it well and Applejack was actually the only one next to Twilight who was thinking about a way to get inside of the sphere of magma. “Ah reckon ya can’t just freeze it all up and carve a way in?” she spoke aloud to the soothsayer. Twilight then turned back around to face her with a genuine confused expression clearly visible upon her face. She didn’t seem to understand exactly what was meant by the admiral.

“What do you mean, freeze it up?” she repeated with a raised eyebrow, “like, freeze up the core of our entire land?”

The reply got the admiral to think and she placed her hands behind her back. Applejack closed her eyes for a moment. “When ya say it like that, it indeed sounds terrible. But, in theory, what would happen if ya did?” she said in a genuine curious tone. She wanted to know the possible outcomes of the events if they would have been playing out.

Twilight turned back to the sphere of magma and did the calculations that were required with haste. Her mind crunched the numbers quick, she only had to make estimations instead of being really precise. “Well, if I managed to freeze up the core, I think that the Frozen North would expand overnight by half its current size. The heat of the magma travels far and wide and to places unknown to us,” she brought forth. A desperate future would have arrived if it happened.

Applejack nodded calm to the words before she released another sigh through her nostrils. “So, if ya manage to freeze it up, we basically be still dooming the land. But if ya unfreeze it again, how long until everything is turned back to normal?”

“That, that depends on how long the freeze has been kept going, admiral,” said Twilight with a worried expression clearly visible. It couldn’t have been meant that she had to freeze the whole thing up, could it? Applejack wasn’t that stupid, was she? Twilight could only speculate about what would be happening next as Rarity stood up.

The pirate captain made her way over to Twilight and began to whisper words within the ear of the soothsayer. The eyes of the mulberry skinned unicorn went wide as she couldn’t believe a single word what was being said to her.

Nopony knew what they were talking about, all that they knew was that it horrified Twilight. And to a certain degree, it would also horrify them all. Gulps were given off by the soothsayer as she turned her head slowly towards the pirate. “Are you crazy?!” she exclaimed in a worried tone. The words that Rarity had been saying had crawled right under her skin.

Twilight was terrified of the words and wanted everything to just be done and over. Yet she also realized the fact that there perhaps wasn’t any other way through which they could be going. After the exclaim had the silence returned between the two unicorns while they had a little stare down.

Rainbow Dash nudged Fluttershy’s upper arm and pointed to the pair of them. “I don’t like where this is going to, do you?” she asked the other pegasus of the company. “Unicorns under each other like that often means trouble.”

But Fluttershy was having more than enough from it all. She released a huff while she crossed her arms over each other. Then she gave the pegasus a cutting glare while her words were thrown into the world. “I do not know what kind of brainwash they still are doing up there in Cloudsdale, but I am working constantly with unicorns and they never had given me any kind of trouble. You just don’t know their manners of dealing with stuff, major Rainbow Dash,” the pegasus said in an annoyed whisper.

Yet the very same whisper was heard by both the earth anthrony and the lamia. They both shifted their eyes of the pegasi of the group and rose an eyebrow or two. “What do you mean?” Pinkie asked to them, she was just before Applejack.

“Missy rainbow here says that when two unicorns are talking like that against each other often results in trouble for the non-unicorns. Or, us. But I know that they wouldn’t be doing such a thing. Twilight wouldn’t at least,” answered the doctor in a growling tone.

“And Rarity ain’t powerful ‘nough to take us all on at once with her magic,” added Applejack into the mix. It was starting to look pretty bleak for Rainbow’s statement and the mare quickly realized who she had to keep as a friend.

“I’m sure they are both planning on making the tremors stop, but Rarity’s idea was just crazy enough that it might just work,” commented Pinkie while the tip of her tail swayed from side to side. That slice of the pie they all hadn’t thought about. All of the sudden did everypony turn silent and gained an embarrassed blush across their faces.

Pinkie would have released a giggle before she shook her head a little bit. The inner joke that was only known to the lamia caused the massive smile to reappear upon her face as she laid her upper body on top of the rest.

“Twilight, you know just as well as I that that is the only way we have as a possibility of entering the thing,” spoke Rarity in a whispering tone towards the other unicorn. The soothsayer was having a difficult time to really accept the facts as they were, but she also saw the truth in the pirate’s words. A truth she rather hadn’t seen though.

The mare of the sea couldn’t have always been trusted, yet her words that time rang only the truth. Twilight stroked her chin at first. Then the hand could have been found all over her face. A deep groan was given off by her as she tried to see an alternative upon the matter. There must have been another way to achieve the same thing, or so she hoped.

But the more she thought about it, the more time they were wasting upon trying to find anything. So perhaps the only thing that could have been done was to give Rarity her right and go with her idiotic plan. “So, what you want to do is to give me all of your magic, or almost all of it. And then? Have me release all of it to find a magical doorway that may or may not even be there?”

That was the whole plan in a nutshell. A massive longshot that only would have worked if Rarity knew the anthronies of old well enough. “Twilight, it’s the only way something could have been getting in there. There is no other way it could have been done. All those stairs, that sphere of magma, all is either pony, or anthrony build. There’s a doorway and magic never fades.”

“That’s true,” replied Twilight before the worried expression loosened up a little bit. She still had her doubt on the matter though. “But what do you think we will encounter inside of it?”

“That, my dear Twilight,” the pirate said while she gave a little grin to the soothsayer, “is a worry for later. First things first, right?” To that could Twilight only nod as she began to pray for her life that the other unicorn would have been right.

~~~~

Moments later had both of the unicorns gathered themselves before the sphere of magma with the other four of them right behind them. Rainbow Dash was naturally still having her issues with the pair of them as the rest all had made their peace.

Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were ready for anything that would have been thrown their way. The three of them had mentally prepared themselves for the events to come, the instructions were clear and the moment was there.

Twilight and Rarity both released deep exhales through their mouths as they called upon their magic. The soothsayer didn’t use her staff as the horn seemed to have been powerful enough for it. The pirate allowed her horn to be coated in the sapphire blue aura and just let it settle there for a moment or two.

Then it was shot towards Twilight like a massive bolt of lightning. The soothsayer took the magic to her once more with a small yelp of pain. The extra surges of power that went through her body had to be converted in her own magic via the long way. Which meant that everything had to travel through the whole of her body before it could be used by her.

The surges of magic caused a unique effect on top of Twilight’s horn though. The mixture of color that was both sapphire blue and raspberry could be seen clearly by all of them. The thing that they were doing was new. For neither of them had even tried it before prior to the journey. While it was true that Rarity had given her magical energy to Twilight once more, the soothsayer never had attempted to use Rarity’s magic straight up as her own. There would be a first for everything.

But finally there was the blast shot into reality. The massive blast against the sphere of magma. The blinding light caused all of the mares to look away while the unicorns just covered their eyes. They had to focus upon their task if they wanted to have any chance of succession.

Mere seconds later did the light fade away and the mares all glanced over to the sphere of magma. The massive cast was still dissolving when they already began to notice that something had changed. Their eyes were peeled for anything out of the ordinary. And soon enough did the smiles upon the faces of the unicorns told the whole story.

The unicorns both discharged their horns and witnessed the events first hand. They couldn’t believe the facts that were revealed to them. Everything was almost the way they had imagined it to be. For they were staring at the entrance way. The entrance way that was carved out of the purest diamonds ever found.

Diamonds that were hard enough to withstand the massive heat of the magma sphere and was one of the most well hidden entrances in the land. Relief went through every single being as they felt that they had managed to do something that they never could have even thought to be doing. Yet they had managed to do it.

They had uncovered the one way that would be leading them straight into the heart of their land. The beating, living heart of their so beloved Equestria.

“Hey Rarity, how long does that portal remain open?” asked Twilight before she had a look to her magical partner. The pirate captain only could speak some gibberish before she began to count on her fingers. “I take it that that is not all too long, is it?”

Rarity just nodded and they all realized just what would happen. They were running out of time to make it into the place and figure out exactly what was going on once and for all. Yet that brought a whole other matter to itself.

When both of the unicorns wanted to take the steps inside, they realized that they were the only two anthronies going. None of the other beings even dared to take a step closer. It almost seemed as if they had been afraid of entering the place. To them it seemed like they would be entering the tomb of some kind of ancient king and raid it.

The unicorns both released deep breaths through their nostrils as they glanced each other in the eyes. There had to be a way to get them all inside of the sphere. “Just, get on with it!” Rarity exclaimed when she noticed how the doorway was already sinking on them. “There’s not much time to think about ethics!”

“Rarity’s right,” the admiral said in response. She never thought to give that mare right once more. The earth anthrony was the first of the four who took a step forward. “We promised to stick together, if ya have any intention on keeping that promise, Ah reckon ya might be joining us.”

Those words were spoken in that honorable tone that only an admiral of the navy could give might just have been doing the trick. The rest of the mares realized straight away what needed to be done and they all rushed over to the entrance way.

Twilight and Rarity stood at the sides of it as they helped everypony to get in. Their eyes were peeled upon the ceiling as it seemed like at any given moment it could just collapse on them. Fear had taken them over as their finally managed to haul Fluttershy inside. The hesitant pegasus had taken her sweet time, but finally was she too inside the sphere.

Relief was given off by all of them as before them a hallway stretched. A hallway that was only a couple dozen hooves long but it kicked in yet another realization. The place seemed to have been a lot bigger on the inside that it showed on the outside.

“What the hell..?” Rarity whispered while she couldn’t believe the facts as they were revealed to them. Behind them had the wall caved in again and they had been locked inside of the sphere. Perhaps the only way out was by performing the spell again, but that was a problem for later. For the time being did they have another issue at their hands.

“Follow it?” Pinkie Pie asked. The lamia was curious to see where the hallway would be taking them. She actually spoke the words that were on everypony’s mind. The answer laid ahead. Just a little bit further ahead and they would have discovered the trouble of their land.

“Let’s go,” the soothsayer said and thus was she the first one to make the step. The rest of the company just followed. Rarity formed the rear guard for unknown reasons. Her eyes had one last look over the closed exist before she released a deep exhale to herself.

Her attention turned back to the rest of the mare as even she had lost the spirit of it become a two way trip. But if that place was going to be their tombs, they had one amazing place to find their final resting place.

Once they had walked through the hallway had the company of mares found themselves in a massive chamber. A chamber that resembled the outside of the sphere but with a brilliant diamond floor for them to stand upon. Curiosity had struck the mares as they couldn’t believe what they saw. But the wonder would only have gotten bigger.

There were two massive shadows that had been cast down upon the floor and those shadows belonged to two separate creatures. The mares were all mesmerized by the facts of just what could possibly leave such an imposing shadow upon the ground. But in the mind of Twilight were the words already ringing.

The words of the ghost were almost constantly repeated by her. The eyes of the mares finally dared to be looking upwards. Whatever they would be seeing, it would have been something that would knock them right out of their shoes. That much was certain, but what exactly they would be seeing was a fact that remained unknown for just a moment.

Their eyes were peeled at the ceiling of the sphere and none could believe what they saw. For in silence they flew there. In silence they flew past the edges of the magma sphere. The mares couldn’t believe what they saw.

The silence was remained upon the ground as high in the air the roars began to happen. Before anything else could have been said or done had one of the flying creatures sliced the hollowed sphere of magma. Seconds later it returned back to the inside without a scratches visible upon it.

Nopony believed what they saw, but what was it that they saw to begin with.

In their eyes it looked like creatures of old, but the creatures that they saw were supposed to have gone extinct so many years ago. They both shared the similarities of giant reptiles with wings as one was scaled completely in green and the other in purple. Only the eyes were different on each of them.

There where the green scaled lizard carried purple eyes, it went vice versa for the other. Nopony believed what they saw yet Twilight only had one words for the creatures that were flying there. It must have been the most well-kept secret of Equestria. The creatures that were flying there were nothing else but, “dragons,” exclaimed Twilight in a quiet and amazed tone for them all.

Chapter LXVII

The whispers of Twilight were caught in the ears of pretty much every other beings that stood there. That one word which she whispered caused all of the mares to widen their eyes even further. They didn’t know whether or not she was right on the matter. While it was true that the creatures shared treats of the legendary dragons, it didn’t mean that they actually were the creatures of old.

Then again, who were they kidding in the first place? They were just trying to make sense out of the place where the nonsensical always held the upper hand. They weren’t in their own universe anymore. They couldn’t play by the rules that were known and used for the longest of times. Instead did they had to return to zero and learn everything once again.

The eyes of the mares all looked to the swirling dragons as they couldn’t believe it. They actually were seeing beasts that should have gone extinct so many years ago. Nopony had the right words to say nor the deeds to be done. They were once again touching in the dark as they could only hope on the fact that the creatures wouldn’t toast them at first glance.

The mind of Twilight was constantly turning and twisting around everything. There must have been something in her vast mental library that could have been of aid to them. She must have read something about the creatures of old that would have been able to save their skin.

The light bashes made against her head by the palm of the hand sent and eerie sound through the whole sphere. The mares of the company turned around to face Twilight and signaled her in silence to stop doing whatever she was doing.

Yet the unicorn didn’t gave them an answer. She had sunken too much in her own thoughts to realize exactly what she was doing. Which resulted in perhaps the most foolish action that could have been done.

Everypony else looked back up to the dragons. Each of them noticed how their heads weren’t focused in front of them anymore. Instead were they swirling around with their heads aimed directly at the mares themselves. Each of them realized that trouble was about to get to them, if they weren’t quick with something. But what could they have done in front of dragons?

The dangers were high enough and somepony had to take Twilight out of her concentration. Applejack took it to herself as she nudged the unicorn rather hard in the side.

In an instant was Twilight’s concentration broken and she shocked up. The pain in her side which was caused by the nudge caused her to both groan and growl at the same time. She wanted to end the life of another being there and then for ruining her much needed concentration.

Yet when she noticed that the arm of Applejack was pointing towards, her eyes followed. The mare then saw the magnitude of trouble they were in. A hand was brought to her face before she calmly shook her head. It wasn’t happening, it couldn’t have been happening.

The dragons had aimed their heads to the company of mares as if they were circling around their prey. The fangs were the things they needed to be most cautious of, the fangs that belonged to the mouths of the dragons were the sharpest things according to ancient legends.

The soothsayer quickly regained her thoughts moments before she gestured to each of them. They all needed to drop themselves down and give a bow to the creatures. Much like the pegasi, dragons were creatures of great pride and respect. The job was simple enough, treat a dragon with respect and one shall receive that same respect.

Hopefully.

The mares nodded to the soothsayer before they made the bow to the diamond floor. Each of them had their own manner in which they would make the bow. Some were simple while others were properly high class bows.

And then the waiting game would begin for them. The waiting game that would have determined whether or not they would end up as toast or continue in the actions of their quest.

Streams of sweat had begun to run down the sides of their faces, they weren’t getting it too warm though. No, they were nervous. Nervous for the events to come and the things to happen. Who knew in what kind of mood the dragons would have been and if there could be reasoned with.

Twilight dared to look up to the creatures with her eyes wide open and was granted perhaps a front row seat for whatever would happen next. The soothsayer took calm breaths just to get her nerves under control. The last thing she needed, the last thing any of them needed, was that she or they would lose their focus.

High up in the sphere of magma were the two dragons still flying through the air. They made calm motions with their wings while each looked over to the group of mares. They had both seen the bows that the creatures had made but they weren’t too certain.

In their own eyes did the bow seemed to have been out of fear rather than respect. Whether or not they would have come down anytime soon remained another question to be see. But as they kept staring to the company, there was a strange shift in their eyes. It almost seemed as if they recognized the anthronies for whatever reason. That shocking expression when one saw another being or object it knew but hadn’t seen in a terrible long time.

The growls that were then released by the giant creatures terrified the company even more before they finally altered their course of action.

Within seconds were the two dragons getting closer and closer to the mares. Twilight saw it all happening while her fight or flight syndrome kicked in. She wanted to run away just so badly but her hooves didn’t want to take a single step. She knew that she had to keep on standing like that.

With the altering of the course did the shadows of the dragons shifted all over the place. That caught the attention of the other mares in return. All together were they watching for the scene to come and it wouldn’t have been one to disappoint.

The dragons both would have charged the fires they carried in their mouths. The plumes of smoke left the nostrils of the creatures as the fires matched the eyes they carried. Whatever would be happening from that moment onward did nopony knew. They wanted to run away so badly but just as with Twilight, their hooves couldn’t do a single step.

They were forced to watch the events happening before their eyes and silently had the mares made peace with it once again. They looked over the smoking and swirling dragons as they always seemed to have barely missed one another in flight.

The scene was spectacular to witness yet horrifying at the same time. The fear of the unknown struck them all as the dragons had both reached the end of the sphere. They were far away from each other and just hovered in the air.

The eyes were locked upon one another as their mouths were filled with the fires. Small flames even managed to escape from it through the fangs and the lips which moved every so often. Yet then it finally happened. The unthinkable thing finally seemed to happen.

The flames that had been building inside of the mouths, were finally released into the world. A bright purple and bright green flame were called into the world and shot towards the other. In the middle did the two columns of fire met up with one another and began to spiral around.

The third column was created and the creatures glanced even deeper into each other’s eyes. Suddenly they just rushed forward after the fires ceased from their mouths. But that central column managed to remain standing for some reason.

The two began to circle around it for a couple dozen times before they would have done the unthinkable and just crash right into one another. But not just one another though. For the two creatures of old would also have crashed right into the column of their own made fire.

An explosion happened as the whole room turned to white for a moment or two. The mares of the company left a gasp for air as they were shocked at the events that had been playing out. Had something go wrong? What else was happening inside of the sphere?

Those were the kind of questions that rushed through their minds at the moment. Whatever had happened, they couldn’t have been to blame for it. Right? The mares tried to make sense out of the possible shimmers that the white light carried.

But they just didn’t saw a thing. It felt like somepony would have shone down a powerful arcane light straight into their eyes. They could only pray on the fact that everything was alright.

Seconds later it would have happened, seconds later could they hear the roaring sounds echoing through the entire place. A roar that was in fact a mixture of the sounds given off by the two dragons before. Yet they didn’t sound like two separate beings.

The light began to fade away and the mares were granted their first sights of just what had happened. Their mouths dropped open in both utter amazement and fear. Just for a second or two they glanced over the thing and turned their heads back down.

The bows of fears and frights had turned into bows of utter respect as before them stood the impossible. Twilight was the last mare to lower her head and closed her eyes. The image that was burned on her retina would remain there for a long time to come.

The very image that they all saw was one of the most unbelievable they had seen during their whole journey. The sights that were granted to them in the middle of the sphere couldn’t have been justified with words.

At the spot where the dragons had crashed together it stood tall and mighty. With both of its legs and arms resting upon the diamond floor, it had made contact with the ground. A long neck that held the head in a regal position above them all. The wings that were laid next to the body in calm and a tail that would have placed Pinkie’s to shame.

It just sat there in both a regal and relaxing pose. A green spiked, purple scaled dragon that literally made the mares dwarves in its eyes. Its eyes glanced over the company members as a plume of smoke left its nostrils. It didn’t seem frightened by their appearance or their entrance to the place for some reasons.

If anything, they would have managed to awaken his curiosity. One of the talons he carried at his fingers began to tap the diamond floor. Shockwave after shockwave was sent through it as the eyes kept themselves firmly upon the mares.

The mares on the other end didn’t dare to say or do anything unless it said or allowed them to. So once again had the waiting game began. One that they were willing to play for as long as it would have been needed.

Though they didn’t had to wait all too long actually. In their minds it may have seemed like seconds or minutes, but the time was a whole lot shorter. A deep and low sounding exhale came from the dragon’s body just before the deep voice spoke the words. “Arise you six. You, are worthy of my time,” he spoke to them in an honorable, deep voice.

At least, they thought it was a male dragon given the tone he carried in his voice.

All of the mares stood up from their bows as some placed their hands behind their backs to not be seen as a threat while others just allowed it to dangle. Their eyes looked up the neck of the dragon before they were finally met with his eyes.

Just the sheer size of the creature that they were seeing was imposing enough already to make them have nightmares. Intimidating as it was, he just sat there in a relaxed pose. But they knew that the time had come and Twilight was the guinea pig to do what needed to be done.

Even though he was a beast of old, even though he could have been found in the very center of Equestria, even though he might have been the last living dragon in existence, he was responsible for the tremors the plagued the lands above.

Twilight took a couple of steps forward and gulped deep. She noticed how his head and eyes followed her every movement. She was kept in a sharp eye by the breast and he wouldn’t let her go with anything funny. Which she could understand, but she didn’t knew the borders of the creature. With all of the courage gathered asked the mare perhaps the most obvious question in the universe.

“Can you, tell us your name?” she asked the dragon of old.

The dragon released a toothy grin as he then lowered his head to the unicorn. But as Twilight looked into the eyes, she noticed there was a newborn sadness within them. Almost as if the asking of his name was already enough to drive him to tears. That fact alone, made her extra cautious about him.

“My name, is the first thing that you ask of me?” the dragon repeated before he laid his neck on the ground. Doing so enabled the creature to look her directly in the eyes. Twilight’s head almost stood normal as she glanced back into his eyes and nodded. A deep exhale was released through the nostrils which caused her long hair to be blown away for a moment. “My name, is The Eternal One,” he replied to them all.

The tone in which he spoke the words were conflicting with one another. Twilight could not only sense that, she could even feel it too. He had to think about the name for a moment or two before he told them it. Which meant to her that he was lying to them, or something else was playing.

Would she do it? Would Twilight have been crazy enough to argue against a dragon of old? Especially with the scenes that they just been witnessing? Everypony prayed on the fact that the unicorn was wiser than that. Yet they didn’t knew where the loose cannon of Twilight would have been aimed at. Let alone being fired at.

Prayers were said in silence and mental voices before they returned their attention to the unicorn and the dragon. They hoped so much that she was wise enough. What happened was that they hoped for the best but were preparing for the worse. They knew Twilight longer than that day. They had known her long enough by them to realize that nothing seemed what it was around her.

Perhaps that was the reason of why they were just so worried.

The eyes of the unicorn narrowed themselves as she replied with words of her own. “Something tells me, Eternal One, that that isn’t your actual name. It sounds more like a title given to you by somepony else.” Behind her could the five slaps in the faces be heard. All of the anthronies facepalmed at the same time towards her.

They couldn’t believe it. But Twilight was either daring or stupid enough to argue against a dragon. One that was probably a thousand times her own age, no less. The urges to not step in and smack the mare in the face were high everypony yet they managed to keep themselves standing. For what would happen next was something that they didn’t even wanted to interfere with.

The dragon released a deep exhale through its nostrils, the mare did happen to have a right on the matter. The sadness inside of the eyes only became greater but he tried to hide it by the words that were spoken. “You have no right to talk to me like that! Give me one reason why I shouldn’t roast you straight away,” he growled to her with a terrible growl in his tone.

He meant the words that were spoken though. He would have grilled them all in just a heartbeat if he had the chance. Yet somehow he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it because of the sadness in his eyes. That was the card on which Twilight was playing. Or at least she hoped that she was playing on it.

“Your eyes tell another story, but what is the story they tell you?” the soothsayer asked of him. Her tone tried to remain calm. Yet the undertone was already filled with fear for the fury.

That question alone was perhaps more than enough to make the dragon tremble upon its feet. It never had expected such words to have gotten out of an anthrony. The reply that was going to be made had to be one that was carefully formulated. She was a clever mare, she saw through things most wouldn’t even consider.

Attention was given to Twilight in the fullest of glory as she took it up a notch. “Would you care to tell me, or us, your story?” she asked in a polite tone. She needed to know everything about the beast that could be known about it. One way or the other would she just pry the information straight out of him.

Whether the dragon liked it or not. Not to mention, if he realized what was happening.

In his eyes had everything changed in a split second. Nothing seemed to be what it was as her voice echoed inside of his head. It began to haunt him as it seemed like a ghost of the past who had returned to him. Something wasn’t right at all. The sadness in his eyes made place for a burst of anger and rage as his tail smashed itself against the floor a couple of times.

“I don’t remember my actual name anymore!” he bellowed towards Twilight before the neck rose back up. Soon enough was the head followed and the two hands were placed firm on the floor. Out of his mouth there came a column of fire which was shot straight to the ceiling together with a roar of either power of sadness.

Twilight had to take a step or two back as she finally seemed to have been stepping on the toes of the ancient creature. But the words that he spewed to her rang truth. That genuine rage that was given off to all of them made Twilight realize that it had been an issue he had been dealing with for some time already.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! You don’t have to remember your name. I only said that the one you gave me wasn’t your actual one,” explained Twilight in the faint hope that it would manage to calm the beast down and come back to its senses.

Even though the chance was rather small for that to happen, it was worth a try in the least. No other member of the company even dared to speak up a single word. All of them were just too terrified about the fact that he would roast them at any given time.

Only then did the fires stop coming from his mouth before he quickly managed to regain his posture and regal pose before the unicorn. The head was almost laid down on the ground but given just enough space to talk. There was another matter that had come to light for the dragon. A question that needed to be answered by any of them.

“Why, are you here?” he asked of the company and showed them all his teeth. Once again he tried to intimidate them all. But the glance in his eyes just was too kind to have become threatening. Either that, or Twilight had been reading the emotions all wrong from the get go.

“That, that’s a long story actually,” the soothsayer replied to the dragon. She began to figure out a way to tell him everything in a short version. Seconds ticked by as the only sounds in the place was the boiling magma and their breathing. “Okay, I think I have it summarized. The lands above are having tremors, earthquakes if you will.”

“Earthquakes above?” the dragon repeated before he rose an eyebrow towards them. “What causes them?” If they didn’t know any better, it almost seemed as if he was willing to help them all in the quest to stop the tremors. Yet he didn’t realize that he was the cause of it all.

A terrible fact that had to be brought to light by nopony else then Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn soothsayer released a deep exhale through her nostrils as she told the rest of the tale as she knew it. “From what we have seen, it is you that causes them. When your wings slice through the magma here, it is visible on the outside. You, cause the tremors in the lands above.”

In an instant had the dragon’s eyes turned from kind to sorrow. He realized the fact of his own mistakes and turned his head away from the group. Twilight rose an eyebrow as she never had expected the creature to be doing just that. Dragons never turned their head away from their conversation partner. Not until it was deemed over at least.

Things were only getting more and more strange and bizarre. “They said it couldn’t hurt too much. They said that it was good for me to slice through it. They told me, it was for my own best will to be placed here,” the dragon mumbled under his breath, yet they all heard it.

In response did everypony look to Twilight with confusion. The soothsayer looked on her own turn back to all of the mares with that very same expression. The words spoken by the creature in that monotone voice just baffled all of them. It wasn’t like anything they had ever expected to see happening.

Yet the questions still rose up. The most obvious one was of course who the mysterious ‘they’ were. Twilight shrugged as she read the questions in the eyes of every mare and didn’t how to answer them. The best thing that they could be doing in the moment was just to remain silent and allow the soothsayer to continue with the conversation.

The unicorn didn’t knew what she had to do in order to get the attention back from it. “E-Eternal One, we still hadn’t finished our talking, not yet at least,” dared Twilight to bring forth. As disrespectful as it sounded, it was the only way she knew to get him back on track.

It seemed to have worked though. The dragon turned his head back towards her and allowed another plume of smoke to be released through his nostrils. “You aren’t going to put me down, are you?” he asked her in a dead serious tone. “Many have tried before, under the name of her, but they all failed as they fell before me. My breath and my talons, have seen their share. Let that be a lesson, to all of you.” His eyes moved away from Twilight and then to the rest of the company’s members.

Each of them got a share of the ice cold glare that the creature could give them. They were just terrified about it all. One wrong motion or word and he would have noticed it. Despite it being as old as their imagination, the dragon still had a very keen observation sense. Nothing would have left his eyes and the mares felt like as if they were chained down to the ground.

Gulps were given off by both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. They weren’t a fan of the creature to begin with. Though with the knowledge that it constantly would be watching them as well, they were literally terrified of it. Perhaps it was understandable but Twilight didn’t care for it in the moment. There were other thoughts that plagued her mind and she needed answers upon them.

She just hoped that they were smart enough to not do anything stupid, unlike herself though. Yet the thoughts of Twilight began to travel even further back in time. She remembered of course the settlement with the ghosts quite vividly.

It was there when the connection was being made. The connection that possibly would be changing everything that she knew. Her fist was slammed in the palm of her other and as the eyes went wide. “I think I know exactly of whom you’re speaking here. The settlers that had been conquered by Nightmare Moon, right?” Twilight just bluntly said to him.

The dragon shifted his attention back to the unicorn before he gave her a nod. “Yes, they came here so long ago… Their weapons ready to end my life once and for all. But instead, they got what they deserved. They joined the devil, that was the only thing that they could receive. Pain beyond measure,” the dragon returned to her, showing no sympathy for the ghosts.

The words were harsh and Twilight couldn’t agree with them. She knew the story behind the settlers as the dragon only knew his side. Yet she didn’t had the desire to argue against it. The fear for his flames was still great in her heart and she had to deal with it one way or the other. Perhaps the only thing that could be done then was to return to their conversation as it was.

“But, if we can get back on track here for just a moment,” stated Twilight while she made some gestures with her hands. “We know that you cause the disruptions within our land. The question is, how are we going to solve it without putting you to, eternal rest. I just want this to resolved peacefully if that’s a possibility.”

The eyes of the dragon narrowed themselves while an expression of remembrance came to him once more. The words that echoed in his ears and the tone in which they were spoken were familiar. All of it reminded him of the past that was forgotten so long ago. A deep exhale of nostalgia seemed to have left his throat before the words were returned to her.

“That’s exactly as one of them would have said it. Always looking for the middle road to be walked. Even in places where it was thought to not exist,” the dragon replied to Twilight before his lips curled up in a genuine small smile.

Though because it was given by a dragon, it just looked plain creepy in the eyes of the mares. Once again were the mysterious ‘them’ mentioned by the dragon. Yet who were these ‘them’ and ‘they’ that the creature spoke of? Who were they and what was their connection between the seven of them?

Applejack’s anger began to race through her as they didn’t get any straight answer out of him. Instead he would always divert from the course and come back to facts that didn’t seemed to be mattering much at first. His words caused her to be fed up with everything as the steam powered leg almost began to tremble.

The pistons and hoses managed to go in a state of overdrive while Applejack was that close to snapping out against the creature of old. Respectful or not, she would state her mind as it was and see what would happen from there.

Again and again it happened and the patience of the mare was running dangerously thin. Twilight’s conversation with the dragon of old didn’t seemed to be making much sense to anyone. For it was the dragon himself who was constantly diverting from the course. Rainbow had already given up on following as Fluttershy and Pinkie tried to conquer their fears.

But enough was enough. Finally had Applejack reached her breaking point and snapped like a little twig. The admiral took a couple of steps forward and away from the group. She walked even further than Twilight as her steam powered leg clashed against the diamonds with every step.

“And now ya listen to me, alright? Ya might be this big beast of ancient times, but Ah’ve fought creatures ten times worse than ya! So yar gonna tell us exactly who these ‘they’ and ‘them’ are, as well as yar excuse for terrorizing our land, right now!” Applejack yelled in a growling tone.

They could all understand the anger of the admiral without a doubt, but whether or not it was on the right was remained to be seen. The dragon was not used to those kinds of words being spoken to him. So it resulted in a deep growl that came from his side. Applejack then froze up in fear when she realized the trouble that she could have potentially caused.

“And you, remain silent for the rest of this conversation! You have no right to speak to me like that nor shall you ever!” the dragon returned to her while the fires could be witnessed already in the throat. As close as Applejack was to snapping a moment ago, that close the dragon happened to be by then.

Fluttershy looked over the scene as it played out before her. The doctor realized that she had to do something. She had to do something in order to prevent it all becoming one giant massacre and that they would all end up as ghosts.

The pegasus removed herself from Pinkie’s side and quickly covered the distance between Applejack and the dragon. She looked to both of the beings with a demanding expression clearly visible before the words left her mouth. “Quiet, the both of you just be quiet and think about your words! Applejack, we’re having only one shot at this and if you screw it up, you can kiss everything that’s even remotely dear to you goodbye!” the doctor said to her. She had whispered her last words towards the admiral. Her tone was haunting to make it stick with her.

Applejack nodded calm in return, the words of Fluttershy did happen to be true, whether it was liked or not. Slow but sure did she took her steps back to the rest of the group. Then the doctor focused herself upon the dragon. With the feelings of fear crawling up inside of her, she said her words in a rather confident sounding tone. “I apologize for my friend here, she’s having a rather short temper, shall we say. Twilight, if you want to continue, please do.”

And then did even Fluttershy remove herself from the scene so it only left Twilight and the Eternal One. That was the way it started and so it would have ended.

The soothsayer nodded to herself before she asked the question once more. The question that hopefully would be gotten a straight answer upon for once. “Do you know, how to stop the tremors that plague our land right now? Do you know a way to fly inside of here and not slice through the magma. Or better asked, do you dare to argue against ‘them’ and do what you think is right?” It were tough questions to answer for the dragon, that much was already obvious to them.

The face of the dragon turned as pale as snow when he heard the words which were asked of him. They were hammered inside of his skull as the eyes had been closed. Something about the words had awoken something inside of him. Almost as if an old key had been found to a door that mustn’t been unlocked.

Though the key was placed in the hole, turned and the door opened. But instead of something terrible that would happen, all kinds of wonderful memories began to fill the mind of the dragon. Including a series of words that were spoken by them, a long, long time ago. “Only those, who carry their aura can restore Equestria to how it once was,” he said to the company. His words were spoken in a tone that was both emotionally filled, as well as monotone at the same time.

Chapter LXVIII

“Only those who carry their aura can return Equestria in its former state,” the pirate captain repeated. In her mind she tried to figure out what it possibly could have meant. The mare had been brooding upon the words that were spoken by the dragon for the longest of time already. Though not even she seemed to have been able to make something out of it.

They still didn’t even knew who the mysterious ‘they’ or ‘those’ were. Who know just what else was required to finally make their lands a little bit more safe. Madness itself seemed to have taken over everything that they loved and adored in the moment. Nopony had a single clue on just what could have been meant with the words or how they needed to proceed in their doings.

Rarity moved a hand to her chin and began to rub it just before she had started to pace up and down. The flow of thoughts that she had needed to keep on going if they wanted to have any chance of success. Though that perhaps was the trouble they had. They didn’t had the time to do such a thing. They were on a ticking time bomb that was the dragon itself.

While it was true that it could be calm and collected at certain times, he could also just be as unpredictable as anything else. No, they needed to play everything with caution and hope upon the fact that all would work out in their favor. Even if it meant that they would have to do some ridiculous things.

Twilight looked back in the eyes of the dragon while the whispers were caught in her ears. Naturally she wanted to reply to them because the other mares were saying the most idiotic things that they could have ever imagined. Anything and everything was said about what it could have meant and even plans to return to the surface were given off.

The soothsayer rolled her eyes before she and the dragon returned to their own conversation. “Do you happen to have any idea who might have said those words to you and for who they might have been meant? Because there is not a whole lot that we can be working from right now,” said Twilight to him. She would lie if she said she wasn’t genuinely confused.

Her mind spoke about one thing while her heart was yelling right at another. Not much made sense in the moment, that statement was more than true for her right there and then. The soothsayer released a deep exhale while her mind continued to figure out whatever it could have meant. Though she had already given herself a slim chance of discovering that very answer.

Though the dragon had also closed his eyes and let the gears rattle for the moment. He too needed to remember exactly who, what and why the words were being remembered the way they were. The longer he thought about them, the bigger the shadows ended up being. He wasn’t having a clue about who would have said the words and when they were even said.

To him it seemed like there had been four lifespans going over all of it. Four of his lifespans worthy of time that the words had been spoken to him. Four times his current age, events from that long ago had to be remembered one way or the other. It angered the creature perhaps a whole lot more than that it should have done.

A growl had come from his throat. Twilight and the rest of the mares shifted their attention back to him as they prayed on the fact that they would be left in one piece.

But as soon as the dragon rose up an arm, they all realized that it was trouble that laid ahead. Whatever would be happening afterwards, they could only guess upon. “Why does my memory fail me, every single time when I need it?! What magic did they cast over me to prevent me from remembering me?!” the dragon exclaimed in utter terror before the fingers curled up into a fist.

Fractions of seconds later did the shockwave travel through the diamond floor. The mares of the company had their difficulty to keep on standing upon her hooves as they looked over the scene. The massive fist of the dragon had travelled down to the floor and smashed it.

The eyes were granted an even more unbelievable sight the moment he removed his hand again. For at the impact point was the diamond floor actually cracked as if it was a nut. None of them could believe it as they thought that the diamonds were the purest in the land.

“Unbelievable and impossible,” the pirate captain spoke to herself, “the proof is given though. His arms are strong, the muscles are capable to producing that much energy…”

“It ain’t happening, is it?” Applejack asked aloud. She had feared that the judgment day had arrived for them all in that moment. It was a thought of terror for certain, but perhaps it was indeed the prelude to the trouble that would come if they didn’t solve the matter in time.

That primal fear then rushed through all of them before the eyes went wide. Those couple of words said by Applejack caused them all to be on high alert as Twilight dared to approach the creature again.

“Hey, hey, hey,” the soothsayer said in a calming tone before she came to standstill. With her hands she gestured that everything was alright and that everything needed to be calmed down for just a moment. The dragon watched and listened to her before he finally gave her a nod in return.

But the defeat inside of the massive beast was only bigger. Never in its life had it expected to be confronted in the way that it would have been. The massive creature just dropped all kinds of formalities and regulations that was normal for a dragon. Instead it just dropped itself down to the ground and laid down on its belly. The hands were laid cross over each other as the neck had only risen up just a little bit.

The creature was tired. He was tired of constantly forgetting the words that had to be remembered. He was tired of constantly being placed in the mental pain he would gain from it. He wanted it to be over and perhaps, Twilight and the company were just enough for him to be broken out of that dreaded circle.

Then at the other end of the spectrum, he felt that he belonged there. That he belonged in the place he had been for so long. Memory once again faded upon him as he tried to see the world as it was above.

Nothing but static took over. His memory left him once again and the head of the dragon was dropped to the ground. Twilight had to turn her body almost all the way around to keep an eye contact with him.

The unicorn looked him in the eyes once more and saw the pain he had worked himself in. The terrible pain of wanting to remember something or speaking something that laid at the tip of the tongue. Yet it simply couldn’t be done. A deep sigh was given off by her as she approached the dragon even more. Perhaps it was stupid what she would be doing next, but she felt it was the right thing to be doing in the moment.

Inch by inch she walked further towards the dragon until she was in reaching distance. Nopony had an idea of what Twilight would be doing next but they could only hope that it would have been something ‘good’, or something that wouldn’t give them a heap of trouble. The mares held their breath as they had also seen that the creature was just done with it all.

Whatever would happen next was a thing that nopony knew. A thing that had occurred so many times during their trip already. Who could possibly tell what was going through the mind of Twilight, let alone the dragon?

The arm of the soothsayer began to reach out for what was thought to be the cheek of the dragon. The hand fell upon the purple scales he carried and the touch had been made. Twilight tried to remain as calm as she could possibly be, hoping that he would notice that little fact of her.

It was an action that none had thought about, but it seemed to have been working out nicely so far. The dragon’s eyes only shifted over to the unicorn with a questioning gaze in them. But he allowed the actions to happen to him.

Twilight then began to stroke the cheek of the dragon with a slow motion while she gave him a gentle smile. Silence took the room over and the harmony between anthrony and dragon almost seemed to resonate through the magma sphere. It couldn’t have been explained through words alone, but the company felt a comfort they hadn’t felt in a long time.

They felt as if everything was going to be alright in one way or the other. Even when it all looked that everything would have just gone to hell, they still saw it that way. No words were said as the mares all closed their eyes and moved on their spots. Their bodies went slowly from right to left as if they were enjoying their favorite pieces of music.

~~~~

For a few minutes went the scene undisturbed. Even the dragon seemed to be enjoying himself. The stroking over the scales on his cheek had the effect that Twilight wanted to give him. She wanted him to be calmed down and just for a moment lose the troubles that had been building up inside of him.

Whether the dragon knew what she wanted or not, didn’t matter in the moment. He was glad that he could place the troubles of his mind behind him for a moment and just enjoy the touch of an anthrony. The lips had curled up into a toothy smile and the eye contact between the two was never broken.

Yet to every silence, there must have gotten an end to. Even their scene was no exception to it. Finally did the dragon dare to speak the words that had been haunting his mind for some time. His mouth opened up while the words were almost spoken in a whisper. “Why are you, doing this?” he asked to the soothsayer in a genuine interested and confused tone.

Though Twilight didn’t had the actual answer upon the question. At least not one that she could give to him straight away. Her mind had to think about it for a couple of seconds before she would reply to him. “You’re troubled, there’s no need to trouble you any further than that we already have. You looked like you needed some form of rest and, that’s what I hoped to give you.”

There was a single chuckle that was released from the mouth of the creature before he nodded with his head. The unicorn was right with her words, that much he could tell. “You seem to know an awful lot about dragons. Tell me, are they still roaming the skies as so many years ago?” Suddenly had the conversation taken a turn of which none thought it would have gone in.

The mares released deep gulps all of the sudden. They were brought out of their trance just like that. They all thought that he wouldn’t like the answer that they would give him. But would they have been able to lie to him? And they weren’t directly to blame for it, right? Dragons went extinct thousands of years ago according to lore. Long, long, long before any of them were even born.

None of the company’s members wanted to answer the burning question but somepony had to do the dirty job. And the appointed mare to do just that, was Twilight again. Whether she liked it or not. The fact was made apparent to her as no other mare spoke the words.

A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as her eyes went shut for a moment or two. “I, I’m afraid, that the last dragon flew away thousands of years ago. They are gone, gone from Equestria and possibly, the world,” commented Twilight in a sad tone. She struggled to fight her own tears. She took it to herself that there were no other dragons left in the skies to hold him company.

Then again, how would that have been packing out to begin with?

The ancient dragon’s eyes went wide as he was struck with confusion. “No… That can’t be. I, I’m not here for, that long. I can’t be here for that long!” he replied to her. The mind of the dragon seemed to process time a whole lot differently than the anthronies were used of it.

Twilight would have wiped her tears away before she looked back to him and nodded. “I, I’m afraid it’s true. I don’t know why you have been put here though, but you are the last, dragon.” Her tone had changed to one of utter sadness before the dragon released a deep exhale. He couldn’t believe that he was the last of his entire species.

The last one that was alive and he was locked inside of the magma sphere To the world above had the species just gone extinct while their world was basically powered by one. None knew that little twist in the tale and it was best left that way.

The soothsayer took a couple of steps back before she had a deep glance over to the company. Then there went a shock through her. Twilight had once more realized just why they had come to the place. The eyes went wide before a shake with the head was given. The unicorn turned her gaze back to him and she started to dig through his spoken words.

The contact with the creature had been broken and Twilight was pacing up and down. Six sets of eyes followed her while the train of thoughts had departed from the station. Nopony knew where it had set its destination for. All they knew was that she tried to figure out something.

Motions with her mouth were made as she constantly repeated the words of him to herself. Every last one that was spoken was vividly remembered by the mare while she snapped her fingers from time to time. “There must have been something that you have told us, that can help us stop the tremors,” mumbled Twilight aloud, though she thought to have said it mentally.

The dragon turned his head towards her just before the words left his mouth. “The reason of why, you are here. I remember that.” That opened up a whole new scale of thoughts that raced through the dragon. Anything was possible from that moment onward.

Yet one thing was figured out just as quickly: the dragon had not a clue what should or could have been done to make the tremors stop. Though the answer was perhaps a little bit too obvious. So obvious that not even the clear thinking Twilight would had figured it out.

The matter of the tremors wasn’t the only one that was going through her in the moment though. She also remembered the fact that he spoke of a group that was only labeled as ‘them’ and variations thereupon. She had gotten curious as to who those beings had been. Naturally they were from times long gone by and wouldn’t be alive anymore.

At least she hoped that they wouldn’t have been alive still. For at one end, she also desired to go back home and wake up in her bed. Yet the reality of the situation told her differently many times before. “Aura, aura, aura, those who carry their aura can bring Equestria back in its former state…” Twilight muttered up while she stroked her chin in a thoughtful way.

“Can it be that..?” Her gaze turned over to the dragon before she came to a standstill. Perhaps the answer could be given by him after all. It was another madmares idea but perhaps one that would be working out like a little charm. Twilight turned her body back to the dragon and approached him even more.

The creature looked her straight in the eyes and noticed how the madness had been evolving in them. A gentle growl was being released by him as he didn’t like what he saw. “What, have you, planned?” he asked her just before the smoke left his nostrils in a powerful way.

And once again didn’t nopony of the company dare to intervene with the events. They all saw it as something that had to be done between Twilight and the dragon. They would only have gotten in between the pair of them when the actual hostilities would happen. But when the fight would break out, if it would break out, none knew.

Which was exactly the thing that kept them all on edge. The uncertainty of the unknown and future had the five mares right in its grasp and would only let go once it had decided to do so.

“My plan, Eternal One, is quite simple actually,” started Twilight when she charged her horn in a gentle manner. The raspberry aura was summoned while she began to draw right into the thin air. Motions were made by her hands and the symbols appeared in the air.

Charts were summoned and everypony present looked at them with a baffled expression. Had Twilight completely lost her mind for real? It wouldn’t have been something new, but to lose it right there and then, in front of a dragon that could devour them like that, that was new. Hopes were kept high on the fact that she knew what she was doing. Yet silently they all prepared for the worst.

"Speak your mind, for I’m not understanding anything you show me here,” the dragon replied. It was him who actually worded all of their thoughts at once. He rose his head up and gave the unicorn the fullest of attention. His tail moved over to the other side before one of the wings stretched itself. It seemed that he was ready to take off, but then just re-positioned himself better.

Twilight nodded to the dragon as she began her explanation. One that was said in a tone of an excited scientist who had discovered the reason of why they were there. “The plan is simple and actually revealed by you. You said that only those who carried their aura can restore Equestria. Their aura’s need to be the same. Their, aura’s.”

The soothsayer kept on hammering in that one little word yet nopony understood directly what she meant with it. She could had aimed it at the ceiling and it would probably had made a whole lot more sense.

“So what is yar plan?!” exclaimed Applejack who was touching in the dark. Everything was getting once again upon her nerves. She wanted to know what would be happening next before anything else would happen. A huff was released through her nostrils as she crossed her arms and set her steam powered leg firmly upon the diamond floor.

“My plan is, to uncover our aura’s and see, whether or not it is the same as theirs. If it is, we’re having the best shot at restoring our land. It’s simple! It’s dead simple, that’s why the goddesses showed me those images… You five!” Twilight replied. She had then pointed her finger to the rest of the other mares. She seemed to have found the answers while the rest remained lingering within the darkness.

“Oh that’s clever, that’s really, really, really clever,” said Twilight to herself. Connections that hadn’t been made before, had been made. Everything began to make sense to her. Every last little bit of their journey had then began to make sense to her. That was the whole reason why she had to travel with the five of them. Though the dragon, he didn’t understand a single thing of what she said.

Twilight turned back around to face him with a mad smile going across her face. “Which brings me to you. You must know something that can reveal the aura’s of anthronies, right? I mean, they wouldn’t have put you here if you didn’t know such a thing.”

“And who are you, to know my abilities?” the dragon hissed through his own teeth. The smile in combination with the words weren’t working out for him at all. The soothsayer realized that soon afterwards and made a polite bow before him as if she was saying that she was sorry.

A huff was released by the beast as he took the words she spoke into deep consideration. Perhaps, somewhere left in a dark corner of his mind he knew that one little thing. Perhaps, perhaps not.

“Does it really matter what and what I don’t know? I’m just going with the information here that has been given to me. I am only assuming that you are having such a power and figure things out from there on outward,” added Twilight. It had to act like some sort of an apologize to the dragon. The creature nodded to her once before the thoughts took him over.

“Yet the question remains, do you have such an ability and can you use it?” Twilight was starting to push the ancient creature from that point onward. She was that close to perhaps the most amazing discovery of the whole trip. So naturally she wouldn’t let anything stand in her way to get to it. Not even a so many thousand year old dragon.

The dragon on the other end rose his head up a little bit further. “It’s a longshot, but it is worth a try. If your words ring any truth, I am indeed placed here for a reason. Whatever that one might be. And I indeed may be knowing the ability that you are requesting. But beware, dragon magic works vastly differently than yours,” the creature said to each of them.

With the warning given off did Twilight release a gentle nod. Then she walked back to the rest of the company. They would leave the dragon in silence to let him prepare for the task that laid beforehand. The soothsayer prayed on her dear life that she had made the right decisions for the events to come.

If not, they were all unable to tell how it would have ended. Though the thoughts rushed through them and it gave them all a shudder. Only once Twilight stood back by the mare was it Fluttershy who dared to ask the question that was just one of many in their minds. “Are you sure this will work, Twilight?” she asked in a truly scared sounding tone.

The soothsayer looked back in the eyes of the doctor with a calm expression. “I’m positive that it will work, Fluttershy,” the soothsayer replied with a faint smile going across her lips. The doctor calmed down from the words. They had been a massive weight on her shoulders. She turned her attention back to the dragon while Twilight did the same.

“I hope,” the soothsayer then added in an inaudible whisper.

The dragon shifted from his position countless times before he finally had taken a regal posture. The plumes of smoke that left his nostrils could have been a clear indication that something was going to happen. All of the mares just held their breaths in as they were too afraid to make even a single sound.

“You desired me to do this, you shall be to blame if something goes wrong, am I clear to the six of you?” he spoke to them. His eyes glanced over each of them. The dead serious stare in them made all of the mares just nod. He couldn’t have spoken the words more clearly to them and they all knew it. No argument happened, no words of protest, no nothing.

The dragon gave a nod back to them all before he closed his eyes. The time to reveal what he could do had fallen upon him. The deep in- and exhales that came through his mouth managed to calm the beast down as all of his scales began to lighten up.

The wave of light that started at the tip of his nose, made its way all over his body. The effect that was revealed to them was just marvelous to say the least. The company couldn’t believe that they would see the magic of the dragons in action one day. It was a wish granted of which they had never asked.

Yet it was happening right before their very eyes. The magic that the dragons carried was released by that one dragon who called himself the Eternal One. The scene was just too beautiful to look at and all wanted a piece of the pie. Which resulted in the mares quietly lining up before him. The group of mares had changed their positions into one line and held their heads high as the arms were placed behind their backs.

Why they did that was unknown to them all, but even Pinkie Pie did it. Whether it was the influence of the dragon’s magic or just a nice gesture of utter respect to him, remained an unknown fact. Their eyes just kept focused upon the creature as they awaited the judgment that would come from him.

In the darkness behind his eyes there wasn’t anything that could be seen. The dragon was staring literally in the dark, whereas the scales had turned into a lighter color. The magic that surged through him was indeed a whole lot different then what coursed through either Twilight or Rarity. His magic was more powerful, more ancient and more violent in both release and discharge.

Thousands of years he hadn’t used it and only allowed it to store or released it as flames. Then he suddenly had to apply it on his vision because some being commanded him. Perhaps the task was deemed to be a little bit difficult by him but he wouldn’t let them be disappointed.

Words were leaving his mouth in the tongue that only the dragons themselves could have understood. The words spoke of deeds long gone by and times lost in the skies themselves. The scales lost even more of their color as the eyes began to smoke gently.

Twilight had started to fear that he had tapped into the dark magic because the similarities were there. That was until she had a closer look. The very smoke that left his eyes wasn’t thin or anything the like. No, the smoke that left his eyes had the same characteristics as the dragon’s smoke they came across earlier. Would it have been possible that the smoke wasn’t just huffed and puffed out as they had always thought, but were actually the tears that the dragons shed?

If that happened to be the case, they had been mining something gruesome instead of helpful. For the moment could Twilight only speculate on the matter as she still waited for him. Perhaps she wouldn’t even get an answer to the question that was surging through her mind.

The dragon shook his head a couple of times from side to side while the eyes continued to smoke. Hidden among the darkness was it revealed to him. Six shining lights were seen behind the closed eyelids. Eyelids that only kept themselves further shut as soon as the lights were seen. The head of the dragon moved in a little bit closer to inspect every last light in the line.

“No, but that can’t be true,” he whispered to himself in the language that they could all understand. Yet they didn’t understood the words that he said. The more the dragon looked into the lights of the anthronies, the more his memory began to come back. Days of the past were suddenly unlocked just like that.

“Impossible, yet, the facts,” the dragon said in utter disbelief. For the aura’s that those six mares carried was exactly the same as from those who he had lost so long ago. It took him a great effort to keep his tears under control, but he couldn’t help himself. For thousands of years had he been all by himself and then, they had returned to him. “The elements of harmony, aren’t dead, nor reactivated.”

The company had lost the dragon way of sense completely. His words just didn’t make any sense to them whatsoever. Elements of harmony? What was he talking about? Those kind of questions would have rushed through the mares while Twilight recalled the pages of the book. The book that had been right the whole time.

She tried to remember if it ever had spoken about these mythical ‘elements of harmony’. Yet before she had found anything, the dragon spoke his words again. Her attention was immediately grasped by him again. For any bit of information from that point on would have been something they could use.

“You six, you carry them inside of you. You carry the essence, traces of those who I had lost so long ago. F-Finally,” the dragon said when a watery tear rolled down his cheek. All of the feelings that rushed through him almost seemed to have gotten too much for him. Even a sniffle from his nose could be heard as the creature had become a seemingly emotional wreck.

Which they could understand from his angle. Though they didn’t really like it.

The dragon took a deep inhale as his eyes remained shut. The scales remained dulled out but the words, the words continued to once again travel in the air. “The six bearers of harmony from my time… Twilight Sparkle.” Suddenly did the soothsayer’s eyes went wide as she heard her name in the air.

“Applejack.” The admiral’s eyes went wide as she heard her name.

“Rainbow Dash.” The major’s eyes went wide as she heard her name.

“Fluttershy.” The doctor’s eyes went wide as she heard her name.

“Pinkie Pie.” The lamia’s eyes went wide as she heard her name.

“And finally, Rarity.” The pirate’s eyes went wide as she heard her name.

Never had they even spoken to the dragon before yet he seemed to be knowing the names of all of them. If there ever had been a moment to be creeped out during the whole of the journey, it would have been that time. Nopony understood it of just how he knew their names, but they didn’t found it their place yet to question the dragon.

Perhaps, the bearers of the elements happened to share their names and only their names. But that was impossible, for they also carried the aura’s of them. There was a lot of explaining to do by pretty much every single force in the universe. The mares? They couldn’t make anything to it.

“Yes, a fitting gift, for all of them,” the dragon said just before he wiped another tear away and nodded to himself. “Hold still, please.” It was the only thing that they could be doing by then. All of the mares stood their ground as they too closed their eyes. Whatever would happen next, they were ready for it.

With all of the revelations made to them, there was still room for one more just because it could. And they were all just ready to take it. In the mouth of the dragon could the light already be witnessed. The green fire that was crawling its way up from his throat.

Only to be released in a calm manner and towards the mares. They felt the heat of the fires as it would have molten the magical ice around their hearts. But the fire didn’t burn them. Instead it was just a warm and pleasant fire. But also a fire that gave them all powers beyond their wildest imaginations.

Chapter LXIX

While the dragon’s fire consumed all of the mares, they all felt the surges of power that were going through their bodies. A silence had befallen inside of the sphere of magma when they all opened up their eyes again. Whether the dragon knew what he had done or not, was a fact that remained unknown. But even the beast opened up his eyes again. All of them were looking at each other and saw the true nature of the flames.

The flames carried the color of their skin and they felt the magic surging from their hooves to their heads. The arcane powers never seemed to be hurting any of them at all, but real pleasant it didn’t feel either. It felt as if they would be bursting out at any given moment in time. Perhaps that was the whole goal of the fire.

The silence was maintained and the mares turned their gaze to the dragon. Who saw six different colored torches literally standing before him. The scales returned to their more deep purple state as a well meant smile came to his face. He had made peace with the past and knew that the beings he once loved, still lived on. Perhaps not in the way he had hoped, but it was better than nothing.

The feelings of the mares went in fact much deeper than that they had originally anticipated. Not only could they feel their own essence taking power in their bodies, they also felt the essence of the others going through them. Once again were they all conducts for some magical act to happen.

Yet perhaps the fact that remained to be the most mysterious of all, had to be the one that showed them all the dragon’s essence. Suddenly were all the eyes aimed towards the ancient creature and they felt it. They felt the heart of a happy baby dragon beating inside of it. The dragon seemed to have been genuinely happy for the first time in a long, long time.

But the events were far from done. They couldn’t be walking with that much magic in their bodies for an eternity. No, they had to release it in one form or the other. But it was as the words of the dragon said: ‘Only those who carry their aura, can restore Equestria.’

It was confirmed that they carried the aura’s of the mythical bearers of the even more mythical element of harmony and they were charged with perhaps one of the most powerful forces in the land. One that made them slightly blind on their deeds. That, or they were losing brainpower as it consumed just so much.

Nopony was able to move a single step while the thought of rushing out did occur by both Rainbow and Rarity. Whether they liked it or not, they were just vastly different than the normal, honest anthrony. Which made it all the more better that they couldn’t take a single step forward or backwards.

“Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few,” the dragon said and it broke the silence. His tone almost seemed like he was singing the words rather than just plainly speaking them. For there was an odd and calming melody in them and his tone.

What would be happening next remained a fact to the unknown as the dragon rose himself up. “And then, the grand finale shall take place.” The ancient creature closed his eyes again before the scales began to dull out once more. The magic of the dragon was charged and the whole inside of the sphere began to resonate.

The resonation of the sphere originated from the dragon but it quickly managed to find a way to the six mares. In their ears they all caught the harmonious hums of songs lost by time. Words of languages they had never even heard before and the warmth of a cool summer’s day could be felt upon their skin.

It seemed to be an utopia where they had gotten themselves in. They didn’t want to leave the place for they felt comfortable at staying as long as the feelings remained as well. Though that was probably the biggest trap of them all.

They couldn’t stay. They had a duty to fulfill and the dragon realized that fact again. He too had enjoyed the sounds and feelings that were going through all of them. With a deep exhale he initiated the last stage of the spell casting.

In the middle of them all there was a white orb that appeared. A brilliantly white one that would put even Rarity’s skin to shame. The whitest white was revealed to them all even behind their closed eyes. They just had to look away from it for a moment as the shine of it was too powerful. Only the dragon kept on watching over it as he had built in eye protection.

He had to keep looking at it because otherwise there would have been a whole lot more trouble than he both would have liked and could chew. The orb began to expand upon itself as it engulfed the entire sphere in its light.

Just for a moment it seemed like they had ended up in a place that could only have been deemed as a side place of the realm of the goddesses. Where it actually was and how it came to be didn’t matter to any of them.

The charging sounds of their magic had then come into existence. The mares looked at one another with questioning gazes. The discharge was about to happen, that much they knew. But whether they would feel anything from it was up to debate.

Without a warning did the mares began to levitate in the air and they all pumped their chests forwards. None of them had any powers over the actions as they happened though. It almost seemed as if the magic had a mind of its own and did whatever it wanted with the mares.

Moans and groans of pain were given off by all of them as they felt all of the magic gathering in their chest. What happened next was a thing they didn’t knew.

The only thing that the mares heard afterwards was a massive explosion before they all lost their consciousness. Both the magic and the ability to stay awake were gone from each of them. The six mares would have fallen to the ground again where they had fallen asleep.

The dragon on the other end was the one who remained awake and glanced over his sphere after the explosion had settled down. His eyes had a worried look at first before he just nodded to himself. “Time, makes everyone, a little rusty,” he said to himself before his attention turned over to the mares.

They all six beings just laid there, knocked out and vast asleep. He gave a nod to himself before the body dropped itself to the diamond floor once more. He had then silently taken it upon himself to keep a watch over them.

The dragon would protect them from any and all that would try to do them harm. His arms went cross over one another as he began to wait. To wait for anything to come or happen. His mind never would be drifting off from them, he had found those who he had thought to have lost. He wouldn’t be letting them go that easily again.

~~~~

Hours had gone by while the dragon kept on watching over the mares. Nothing of actual interest seemed to happened and he was content with such a thing. They needed their rest after the performance that was done by them. He knew the total amount of energy would have knocked them out any way. The question just was for how long they would have been out for the count.

His eyes constantly shifted over the sleeping mares as his mind brought him back to the days before he was locked up. Time and time again he was reminded upon facts of his older life. Days of joy and sadness all went through him. He loved it because for the first time in a long, long time he could remember events and days that were locked.

His memory had returned to him as well and all it took were six anthronies that seemed to have gotten out of nowhere. The smile that was formed by his lips caused him to look happy once more. Even the fangs seemed to have disappeared from his mouth.

“And all, would have been right once again,” he said to himself before there was another tear that came to his eye. Once again he allowed the tear to travel down his scales before it would be dropped to the diamond floor.

Peace and harmony had returned inside of the sphere and he allowed his eyes to be shut for just a moment. Nothing would be happening, he thought to himself. So he tried to get some sleep for himself as well.

Though the eyelids of the dragon twitched a little bit when the ears caught the sounds of another being entering his domain. But the way of just how it was getting in was vastly different than any other manner he knew. The resonations in his ears caused him to raise his head up in a calm manner. Almost as if he had expected it to come.

The eyes were opened while the head turned around to see what would be happening. A gentle growl was then released from his throat. There was an invader of his domain, an invader that he didn’t granted access to his domain as well. But with the mares still vast asleep, he could only work in whispers and silence. In any other case there would have been a massive roar given off to the invader already.

His eyes had been peeled to the ceiling of the sphere before he finally saw it. A bright, white light managed to penetrate itself through it and levitated over to him. The orb of light came to a standstill almost directly in front of him. The dragon released a plume of smoke through his nostrils to make apparent that it wasn’t welcome.

Though the orb didn’t gave it any heeding. Instead it began to shift its very state of being. It became larger and formed the body of a pony. If any of the mares would have been awake, they could have noticed that there was a striking resemblance between the being in the orb of light and the stone statue of princess Celestia.

That revelation also came to the dragon who only had to give one glance at the creature inside of the sphere. The sphere itself never faded away, instead there were only shimmers of the being that could be watched inside.

“Why are you here, princess? Why after such a long time, you decided to finally pay me a visit?” the dragon spoke to it in his own tongue. He had to make certain that the mares wouldn’t be eavesdropping on the pair of them for reasons untold. Reasons that were best left in the dark.

The being in the orb nodded calm before it replied in the same tongue. The language of the dragons was spoken by the both of them and their conversation was everything but kind. “The reason for that, is because you hold something that’s dear to us both,” the being in the orb replied in a kind, but old mare’s tone.

“The essence of the elements?” the dragon asked just before he looked over to the sleeping mares. “I won’t have you let them take away again. Not unlike last time. You think you locked all of my memories, but they unlocked most of them again. No, if you are going to separate us again, allow me to properly say goodbye.”

The creature in the orb nodded again in a way that it agreed upon the request of the dragon. “I shall grant you that. You have been keeping this place safe for so long, it’s the least that I can do for you. But also remember this, you couldn’t say goodbye to them before because you were so far, far away,” the mysterious being said to the dragon.

The dragon got again a tear in his eye as the being in the orb spoke her words. The golden magical aura began to coat around him as another memory wasn’t unlocked, but given to him. He closed his eyes to relive the moment, for just a moment.

His eyes eventually opened up again as he glanced over to the being with a worried expression. It couldn’t have been true what he saw, right? It couldn’t have been possible that the six of them were capable of doing what they did, right? “How long..?” he asked her.

“Longer then you exist.”

“It’s a circle, an endless circle that must be kept going through the ages. T-Twilight,” the dragon said while he wiped the tear away. His mind had gotten fragile and he didn’t knew what to believe anymore. He could only look to the being in the orb and pray she had one last answer for him. One last answer that may have settled the situation for him.

“All six of them, are part of nature now. They always had been since they passed away. They were absorbed by the elements once their time had come before they would be returned to nature. They are here, they are all around you. You just have to, look,” the other being spoke before it turned its attention towards the group of mares. With a watchful eye it gazed over them.

The dragon did the same and he looked at all of them. There was a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time going through him as he rose an eyebrow to them. The scents that were then picked up by his nose turned his gaze into confused.

Naturally didn’t the sniffing go unnoticed to the other being. “You smell them, don’t you? You smell the scents of those you once loved. Go ahead, tell me what you see. There’s never a wrong answer and you are aware of that.” The being in the orb turned its attention back to the dragon. Only to start waiting for the response to come.

“They carry them inside of them, their aura’s matched them all. Could it be, that…”

“That some friendships are stronger than the ending of a life? Yes. That is indeed true. But time needs to bring them together and all of this, was perhaps the only chance to give them that chance.” The being in the orb then released a gentle chuckle before it shook its head. “Those six, always have been remarkable. Ever since they first set a hoof in the world, there was this special connection with all of them. I think, it is the most powerful thing that has ever existed.”

“Friendship, the ultimate power to possess in the world,” the dragon said with a smile going over his lips. The being in the orb could only have nodded towards them before the attention was turned back to the sleeping mares.

“Let them sleep for now. Only when they are about to wake up can you send them back to where they belong. If you want to say your goodbyes to them, now is the time, Eternal One. But never forget, they are always watching you, they are always with you,” the being in the orb said.

The dragon glanced back to the being in the orb before he finally gave a nod in silence. Their conversation was dropped as the being coated in light morphed back into just the sphere. No words were spoken anymore between the two of them as the orb just vanished from thin air. Gone with the wind, was perhaps the right saying that could have been used in the matter.

Yet the dragon wanted to keep it a mystery to himself actually. Shortly after that, she had disappeared, he had one last glance over to the mares and spoke his words in normal Equestrian. “Perhaps you can never replace those who I loved, but you six are getting very close to doing just that. Go now, go back to where you came from and continue to live your lives,” he spoke up to them. His tone calm, collected but hinting towards a sadness unknown.

The green fires in his throat lit the whole thing up before they were shot gently towards and over the mares. The fires began to consume them all, bit by bit they faded out of the place as the dragon fixed his arms upon the floor. He just looked at them all disappearing without a further word said.

Of course he wanted to say the words that were hidden upon his very heart, but the moment was just too beautiful to ruin. The six little and magical vortexes that allowed the mares to travel out of the place had their charm. For each vortex was swirling in the manner that they actually represented the mares.

His eyes couldn’t be torn away from them all as a massive smile could be clearly seen. Only once the vortexes had transported all of the mares out of his domain, he would have spoken the words that were on his mind. Only once he was completely alone would he have been able to speak the words that were weighing down on his heart.

Those words came for a place few had come. The words that came directly out of his heart and were aimed to the mares. They were spoken in the tongue of the dragons themselves. He most likely was the last one in existence, but would make sure that he wouldn’t perish like the rest of his kind. The words spoke of power inside of them.

The fortune they had that they had found one another. But above all, he spoke of the luck that they would be needing in order to continue living their lives. For that was the greatest wish he had for them all. That they could live their lives in the same way that they had done so many years ago. His words were strong, powerful but spoken with a tiny heart.

He meant all of what he said and would show it if he could. The dragon finished his words by a small word to both the sun and the moon goddess before he would spread his wings again. The powerful flaps that were given caused him to be lifted off of the ground and once again into the air.

His entire body then would have began to coat itself within the orange fires while he remained hovering in the middle of the sphere. The time had come once again to be separated from himself in the one way he knew how.

The flames that were created deep inside of his body were shot out through his mouth and they engulfed the whole being. Hidden in the flames did the split of the dragon happen. For with one last roar that came out of the shared body, the thing wasn’t there anymore. Instead there were two similar but smaller roars that came into existence.

Out of the ball of fire they came. One went out the left side as the other choose the right one. The two dragons flew in perfect harmony as they circled through the sphere once again. They were the engine of the core that always filled their lands. They were the engine that kept the whole land, if not their whole world, spinning in control. And yet, nopony knew of his existence except the six mares of the company.

The two dragons continued to soar through the magma sphere, but they never would be hitting any of the sides, yet they remained in the position that they had always flown. The very core must have expanded upon itself. That was the only logical explanation that could be given to it.

“I am the alpha,” the green scaled, purple eyed dragon spoke.

“And the omega,” the purple scaled, green eyed dragon added.

Then they both released a blast of fire towards the ground. It seemed as if they would be drawing something on it, but what it would be remained a thing to be seen in time itself. Time which hopefully would had become a lot kinder to him as he knew that they hadn’t been gone completely from the world.

~~~~

The eyelids of Twilight Sparkle began to twitch before she released a deep groan of annoyance. Something was teasing her eyes and she wasn’t happy about it at all. Whatever was doing it, whoever was doing it, it better be stopped soon. “Lemme sleep!” the mare groaned aloud just before she turned around.

Though where she first had thought to feel the soft mattress of her bed, the realization quickly managed to set in. It wasn’t as soft as her mattress at all. Instead it felt even more fluffy, almost like grass or something like it.

Not to mention that warm feeling that was going across her spine and clothing. The eyes of the mare remained shut. Twilight had turned herself around to face the darkness again. Nothing seemed to be making a whole lot of sense to her and she wasn’t glad about that little fact. Something had to change and she needed to know exactly what was happening, or had happened.

Instantly were the eyes opened up and she rose her body up. The eyes were instantly blinded by something that she hadn’t seen in a long time. Her head lowered itself again as she began to rub in her eyes. “Bloody hell, that just hurts!” she exclaimed a little bit too loud as the migraine also came in her mind.

In her ears she caught something blowing as well as the rustling of things all not heard or seen in a terrible long time. All of it just added up to the fact that they were back on a place where they hadn’t been for a long time. Twilight didn’t understand anything but with her eyes still adjusting, there wasn’t anything she could be going for or doing.

Another groan was given off by her as she hoped that her wildest dreams perhaps had gotten true. That for once during the whole hellish trip, luck had finally been standing greatly in their favor without any nasty side effects.

Slow but sure did the eyes of the unicorn managed to adjust themselves to the light source and finally she could be looking up. The mare opened her eyes fully and saw everything that there was to be seen. Instantly there was just a massive shock that went through her as she never had imagined to see what she saw ever again.

“B-But that’s, but that’s impossible. We were, there a moment a-ago,” she managed to bring out. That was before she rose up from her place. It didn’t make sense whatsoever and the unicorn could only hope that it wasn’t a dream that they had ended up in.

Twilight would be looking at the world which she had left so long ago. She was looking at the world that she took for granted with every waking day. She was looking at the world that she, and the rest of them, called home.

A couple of tears jumped in her eyes. The unicorn just felt glad on the fact that they had finally managed to return to the place where it all had begun. They had returned into the land that they both knew and loved. And to make matters even better, the beautiful sunrise was there. They had all returned topside and Twilight felt a massive weight just dropping off of her shoulders.

In the moment she didn’t wanted to know just how they had managed to get from point A to point B. Instead she was grateful for the fact that they had managed to get out of there safe and sound.

An idiotic sounding chuckle was released by her mouth as she began to just dance in the grass beneath her hooves. It didn’t matter how moist it was from the dew, all she wanted was for all of the locked up emotions to just be vented out and. Which happened actually at quite the enormous rate.

Minute after minute did the rest of the company’s mares woke up from their slumber and none could have believed it. None could believe that they had been actually outside of the place without a scratch. But the gaps in their minds had to be filled in eventually and one day.

Though in the moment did they all pretty much the same as Twilight. They just expressed how happy they were that they finally had returned topside. The massive sighs of relief were given off by everypony as they shook their hands just from happiness. They didn’t knew what to do else, they had done what they had set out for.

They had stopped the terror of the tremors that had been plaguing their lands and the lands themselves were still in one piece. At least from what they could see. But two things still were a debatable thing. The first one being the place of where exactly they were and the second was how Pinkie would react on the fact that she was topside.

Rainbow Dash was one of the last mares to be woken up from her sleep and had a little difficulty to realize what had happened and just where they had ended up. But as soon as she had realized that they were topside again, she took a deep swig of fresh air. It just felt so good to be able to breath actual fresh air and not that musty mess found in the caverns.

The fresh air caused her wings to flutter a little bit and Rainbow glanced over to the skies. Only a cloud could be seen left and right as the warm rays of the sun fell upon her skin. “Oh what the hell,” she said to herself before she jumped in the air. Before anypony could say anything about it, the mare had launched herself into the air and was gliding through it.

She hadn’t been able to fly for such a long time, there wouldn’t have been anypony in the land to take the moment away from her. She needed to fly for her feelings. It was in her blood and the chance was finally there to do it. The chance was given and she took it with both of her hands. A little something where nopony could have blamed her for.

Twilight could understand the sheer enthusiasm that the pegasus carried when she finally turned herself around. Finally she gave her eyes the time to look at the place where they had woken up. For right behind them it stood both tall and prideful.

"So that’s where we are then, makes backtracking a whole lot easier,” commented Twilight to herself while she looked up the face of a mountain. A gentle chuckle went through her as she realized just how far they had travelled, what dangers they had conquered and what troubles they had overcome. The feelings were just euphoric for all of them as they had done the seemingly impossible.

Yet for every action was there always an equal and opposing reaction. The gladness of the mares, turned into sadness. The happiness, turned into fear. The lamia of the group had awaken from her slumber and for the first time in her life she had felt wet grass beneath her. She knew what moss was, but the different texture of grass tickled her too much. Not to mention the fact that she was looking straight in the sun and the skies.

Pinkie Pie was only used to small caverns and caves with a ceiling. The skies above her seemed to have reached out for both an eternity and infinitely. So naturally it terrified her down to the core of her soul. She began to shake upon her spot as the primal fears of her body seemed to have taken her over.

While it was true that she had dreamed about being on the surface on multiple occasions, she had never expected that it would have been looking the way it did. Then again, she was only used to the little pond that had a view upon the Frozen North.

Nopony had told her how the rest of Equestria looked like and she never asked about it. Yet all of that just contributed to the fact that she wanted to return back into the darkness of the mountain. A mountain that she caught within her eyes after a couple turns had made with her body.

How she had missed such a massive thing in the first place was still a debatable question. But she just wanted to go back inside of it and continue to live her life as she was used to. On the other end, inside of the mountain did the Gorgon One still roam free. She hadn’t forgotten that fact and the way he slithered past the cliff above the statue of the pony princess.

A shudder went through her body while she thought back to it. She had escaped a certain death once already, she could start a new life up there, with the mares of the company. Though she would have been the most unusual of them all, who wasn’t to say that she would be captured and taken away?

Too many fears went through the lamia. Pinkie just didn’t felt herself comfortable anymore. There had to be a way to get back to the place she loved being. With her eyes glancing over the partying mares, Pinkie began to slither away from the group. She silently and quickly made her way for the foot of the mountain.

There she would be searching for an entrance way that could be working in some manner for her. She had to find a hidden entrance or a crack inside of the rock that would allow her the access that she needed. She couldn’t stay topside and perhaps they would agree. So instead of with a bang, the lamia would be going out with a fizzle.

Her time with the company was over as she found an opening behind a couple of boulders. It was big enough for her to crawl through and she did that in a heartbeat. The faster and further she would have been away from the surface, the better it would have been to her sanity.

Yet there were always prying eyes in the land that laid above. The doctor had seen what Pinkie Pie did and rushed over to Twilight in an instant. Against who she would whisper the words and gained the full attention of the unicorn soothsayer.

“So you’re saying, that Pinkie just left like that and without a words? Oh this is bad, this is, really, really bad, actually,” said Twilight to Fluttershy. The feelings of joy had disappeared from her eyes. “We, we’ve gotta get her back one way or the other. Who knows what she has to face inside.”

“But, she knows how to survive there, right?” Fluttershy added before she and Twilight made their way to the hole.

“Yes, but I’m not leaving her like that. She’s a friend of mine, Fluttershy. Just like all of you lot are. Only one way to get her back, back where we began.” The two mares looked down into the hole that was big enough to carry them. Hoping they would have been able to catch up with the elusive Pinkie Pie.

Chapter LXX

A whistle was sent through the air. One that caught the attention of every remaining anthronies that stood at the foot of the mountain. Three sets of eyes turned around in order to see what would be going on and what would be happening. Confusion struck them all as they noticed how both Twilight and Fluttershy were standing at the rocky formation.

They didn’t knew what had happened but would discover the facts soon enough, perhaps a little bit too soon for their own liking. They all had just managed to adjust themselves to the atmosphere that laid above the ground.

The admiral, the major and the pirate all joined up by the doctor and the soothsayer, who both gave them a worried look. At first didn’t they understood the reason of why such looks were given off to them, but the question would soon enough be answered.

For the other three mares didn’t had to speak a single word as Twilight had taken it upon herself to answer the things almost instantly. She only had to look one time in the questioning eyes of the other mares before she knew what was going on. What followed was that there was a deep exhale left through her nostrils and she hunched over to the entrance way.

Her eyes shifted a little bit between both the darkness and the mares that she called her friends. It was actually a silent plea, a silent plea for help. Their help was required perhaps one more time until the whole adventure could have gotten to a closure.

Yet the mares were thick. They didn’t understood a single thing of the emotions that were going through Twilight. Nor did they had any idea about what they could say other than the fact that she was staring at a giant hole. Fluttershy on the other end released an annoyed exhale as she almost wanted to point out the fact that Pinkie Pie had just vanished from the face of the lands.

It only took a couple of seconds, but then Twilight finally spoke up the words that she wanted to say to them all. “None of you noticed that Pinkie Pie has gone? No? Well, she has. And according to Fluttershy has she crawled right into this hole,” explained Twilight to the three of them.

Nothing of imminent responses were received by the unicorn. Rarity only rose an eyebrow, Rainbow remained standing and Applejack crossed her arms. It almost seemed like as if the three of them weren’t interested in the fate of the lamia at all.

The fact was understandable for Twilight, but it still made her just furious about it. The creature had shown them the way through the darkness of the caverns and that was the way how she was going to be repaid for her work? Twilight just found it unethical to say the least.

Her attention shifted once again over to the hole as she said the words that laid the most upon her heart. “I beg of you three, even with all of this over. I beg of you to join me one last time. One last adventure before we are going back home and possible, separate our ways again.” The tone in which Twilight spoke her words was filled with sadness, she couldn’t bare it to herself that Pinkie had just gone like that.

She thought that she was to blame for the fact that the lamia was just gone. But not even she remembered the way they had used to travel back to the surface of the lands. Fright, that must have been the cause for the actions. The fright of the world above, it was the only answer that Twilight could give properly to the matter.

At the same time was she still waiting for the other mares to give their answers upon the question. She had hoped of course for the best results from the lot of them. Though at the other end had she already prepared herself for disappointment. It had taken Twilight already a great effort to bring them all together in the first place. So why would they give up their differences then and help her once more?

The worst thoughts of the unicorn came true when she listened to the replies that were given by the others. Replies that were only spoken mere seconds after the beg and plead for help had been given. Applejack shook her head and the eyes went shut for a moment or two, she denied.

“Ah’m sorry Twilight, but Ah can’t do this anymore. After everything we’ve seen and done, Ah ain’t going back underneath the ground to get her out of it again. She’s made her decision and we made ours. Our quest is over, simple as that,” the admiral said in a dead serious tone. But that some tone didn’t wanted to either disrespect Twilight or make her feel even more uncomfortable.

Rarity and Rainbow did share that same thought, which brought the pirate to another matter that had to be done for her personal gain. The matter of her own escape. And she didn’t wanted to admit the facts as they were, but she was just glad that the lamia had made the decision to leave.

Yes, it had cost her a shirt but at least she was rid of that hyperactive snake thing. No, Rarity had never managed to see the good inside of the creature. Perhaps from time to time she saw bits and pieces though. But she never believed in Pinkie as much as she had placed her faith in others.

“Okay, so this is how it’s going to be then?” Twilight replied as she turned her gaze back to the lot of them. “Fine.”

“Uhm, Twilight,” the doctor then spoke before she would have laid a hand upon the arm of the soothsayer. The body of the unicorn turned around just a little bit further as she then looked Fluttershy in the eyes. The glance that was caught in those precious eyes, meant the literal world to her. It seemed that Fluttershy would mean her every single word that would be spoken next. “If you want, I want to go down there as well. Pinkie Pie is special, not just because she’s a lamia. She as a person. I, I can’t explain it other than, being special.”

The words were almost enough to bring a tear to Twilight’s eyes as she couldn’t believe that the doctor was actually willing to go down with her once more. Out of everypony that was present, it happened to be perhaps the most unsuited anthrony for the job who was willing to go with her.

There was a massive weight that fell down Twilight’s shoulders for just a moment as there was at least one another mare she could be building upon. Only to have the realization kick in that it actually was Fluttershy that she was talking to.

Straight away there was a new weight dropped upon her shoulders that spoke of the fact that she had to keep an eye out on her as well. Though there was one thing that could have been considered her luck. The very fact that Fluttershy wasn’t the kind of mare who would be going out there and exploring all by herself.

At worst would she be removing herself a couple hooves away from the unicorn. The two anthronies nodded to one another as a sign that they were ready. Afterwards would Twilight turn her head to the rest of the mares with a rather serious message for them. “Don’t leave yet, we’re going back together as a completed group. I hope that this doesn’t take long.”

“Best of luck you two, you’ll need it to find her again,” said Rainbow Dash before the two mares nodded to her in a thankful manner. Only to then just disappear in the darkness of the cavern once more. They had done it, they had actually managed to crawl themselves through the tunnel and had entered the mountain again. The search and wait had begun for both of the parties.

Deeper and deeper did both Fluttershy and Twilight walk in a hunched position. The very ceiling of the cavern was a lot shorter than they had anticipated. “Looks like this was just made for them and them alone,” the soothsayer mumbled while she had her horn charged. It provided the much required light in the darkness and they both held their arms out to the sides.

Fluttershy nodded to the spoken words before she said her own ones. “I just hope that Pinkie is okay, where do you think she could have gone to Twilight?”

The question struck the unicorn literally at every possible side as she didn’t knew were the lamia possibly could have been gone off to. Yet the ideas quickly began to flow through her mind. Countless places went through her as she imagined every last one of them. Her eyes went from right to left as they not only watched the tunnel, but also the rooms she visited mentally. Out of that she could make only one viable assumption.

“I would say she has gone back to the spring. Or at least she tries to. She can’t be that far ahead of us,” commented Twilight after which she increased her pace a little bit. The doctor would have just followed in silence and she listened more to the spoken words. “Yet something just doesn’t add up, why didn’t she just tell us that she was terrified. Instead she just left like that…”

“She’s an animal, Twilight,” returned Fluttershy with the difficulty clearly audible in her voice. It was even hard for her to say the words and Twilight understood that she didn’t mean them in the way they could be picked up as. “She’s a creature of nature. Instincts act before anything else. She was terrified of the land she saw, so she returned straight to what she knew. Animals don’t say their goodbyes either, they just do what they need to survive.”

The soothsayer nodded with her head in a calm manner as she did understood the direction out of which the doctor came. But it still stung like hell in her heart. “No offense taken in your words doctor, as they do speak only truth. It seems like the lamia have evolved more into beasts than anthronies, but who can blame them?”

The question went unanswered as the two mares continued to pick up their pace once more. They felt the need to close the gap between them and Pinkie as quick as possible. The last thing any of them needed was that they would have been lost inside of the mountain.

~~~~

Deeper inside of the mountain was Pinkie Pie slithering away. Her heavy breathing indicated that she had been giving her everything for some time already. All of the fears and frights that she seemed to have had for the word above had vanished completely. For she was back in her own world.

A world that existed out of nothing else but stone, low ceilings and countless upon countless rocks. Not to mention the daily spider or two. The lamia granted herself the time to just catch her breath in the darkness. Luckily for her had her eyes actually managed to adjust themselves to it again and she saw as she always had seen the things.

The eyes of her kind were specially made to see through the dark. Even with the little amount of light that there was did it still looked like a normal day in her eyes. Night vision was something that all of the lamia had developed over the course of their evolution thanks to the subterranean style of living. It was perhaps the most needed thing in their entire lives. The ability to see where nopony else could see anything.

The coast seemed to have been clear for her to catch up with her breath. Which she then did gladly. For the lamia was exhausted beyond belief. She didn’t knew for how long she had been fleeing but it was a terrible long time. That was all that she knew and remembered.

Her eyes went shut for just a moment after the body was thrown against the side wall. Her entire body just lost all of the tension that it carried as she felt herself comfortable again. The stone cold rocks resting against her scaly body had an interesting effect to say the least. Pinkie knew that she was back on the place where she belonged and didn’t wanted to leave under any circumstances.

Yet to all good things must come an end, as the saying went. The reality of the situation kicked back into her after maybe a minute of relaxation. Within her ears she caught that sounds of something she had never wanted to hear. Not after the initial encounter at least. It was just impossible for it to have been there, with her, at that specific time.

Within her ears she caught the slithering of a creature which she had only seen once before. But Pinkie knew more than enough to identify what and whom it was that went there. Instantly had the eyes opened up again and she looked all around the place. Fears and frights once again filled her as the lamia tried to get away from the location.

No matter which way she looked or wanted to move, there always have been a stone cold breath blown straight into her face. Pinkie didn’t saw who it was, but she knew that it was around there somewhere. And it had her cornered.

“W-Who are you?!” Pinkie Pie yelled while she tried to remain a tough act against the unknown thing. Yet if there was listened carefully to her tone, it could have been clearly heard that she was utterly terrified. She was terrified for the unknown and with good reason. For dark magic had been used against her. Which naturally excluded the fact that perhaps Twilight was trying to torture her. “S-Show yourself to me!” the lamia exclaimed before she even knew what she had said. The hands were brought to her mouth in order to prevent her speaking any more stupid words.

But the thing that roamed through the darkness heeded the call that was given to it. It went straight into the words and would be doing anything to utterly terrify the lamia even further. Suddenly there was a voice among the darkness, one that was just as dark as the surroundings and as low as it could possibly be. Yet it was crystal clear to listen to at the same time.

“You know, exactly who I am, my child. You know exactly why, I have come for you. Time’s up,” were the words that were spoken by the creature in a dark tone. Not much later could the slithers over the surface be heard again. Pinkie became more terrified as all of her thoughts indicated that there was just one being in the whole of the land that possibly could have said the words.

“I see you realized now, go ahead, speak my name, child,” the voice spoke to her. It almost seemed to have captured the glister of realization that went through the eyes of Pinkie Pie. Which meant that the thing was close to her. Perhaps a little bit too close for her own liking.

“You reek of the fear they always drenched about me, you thought I didn’t exist anymore, yet here I am, lurking at you like a predator and a prey. Can you guess which one you are? Hahahaha, go ahead and speak, my, name!” the creature among the darkness demanded from Pinkie Pie.

But the pink scaled lamia was utterly terrified. She couldn’t bring out a single word, let alone say the name of the demon that was haunting and hunting her. But she also knew that he would continue to taunt her in various and horrifying manners of she didn’t do anything to possibly save her own skin.

The lamia turned her attention from left to right as she wanted to make certain that the thing wasn’t standing too much in her general direction. Only once she had deemed the coast clear would the lamia had turned away from the wall and slithered a little bit more towards the middle. There she took a deep breath and looked straight ahead.

“I know who you are, and why you’re here,” she spoke just before the eyes narrowed down, “Gorgon One.” The lamia didn’t had a clue of how much guts it took her to say those words. Yet they came out just so fluently. Pinkie didn’t know why and the fears only became worse.

The events of what followed up next all just happened in a flash of lightning. Pinkie didn’t saw it coming but before she knew it was she staring right in a pair of green and scarlet eyes. They were followed up by a low growling hiss and a high pitched scream of terror before the silence returned to the place.

~~~~

Further away in the caverns walked both Twilight and Fluttershy. They tried their best to remain on the course that Pinkie Pie had been slithering. They followed all the possible leads that showed them that a lamia had gone through the place. Which was actually a whole lot easier than that they had expected it to be.

They didn’t knew when they would be meeting up with the lamia, but they made use of the time to tackle the plan for when they would be back out again. “You really think she’s going to come with you?” the doctor asked in a genuinely surprised tone.

Never had she expected that Twilight would have spoken up the plan that she had said only moments ago. “If she desires to do so herself, it seems like the most logical answer to me. She would be having a better life, that much is a certainty and what will happen afterwards is a fact that remains to be seen,” replied Twilight before she took a look over her shoulder.

Fluttershy was still having her doubts about the whole plan, but it was better than leaving the lamia just down there. The strokes over her chin told the unicorn more than enough as she gave off a gentle smile. “It’s going to be alright with her. Besides, how much further can she possibly have gotten?”

The answer upon the question was given in a form that neither of them had expected. Because the answer was given right in the form of a high pitched scream that travelled all over the place. The eyes of both Fluttershy and Twilight went wide the instant it happened. The echoing scream of utter terror haunted their minds before the silence returned.

Twilight turned her head back around to see where it came from as the words were released from her mouth. “Things just never go easy, do they?!” she muttered in an annoyed voice. The entire tone in which she spoke was also filled with anger while she also became afraid for some reason.

Twilight had become afraid of just what might had happened to Pinkie Pie and what horrors just the two of them would be facing. Trouble laid once more ahead of them as the increased their pace. They had to get to the place of the scream as fast as possible.

“W-Wait for me, Twilight!” the doctor exclaimed when she noticed that the other mare had already kicked her gears into the highest possible. They both began to run as fast as they could in the faint hope to be on time. Hopes had to be kept high while the preparations were made.

The preparations would hopefully have soothed up the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths. Twilight had cast a spell that allowed them to find the origin of the scream a whole lot easier. Once they finally arrived on the place where Pinkie last was, the two mares only found an massive emptiness. They were already too late.

Something had taken away Pinkie Pie to who knew where inside of the place. The doctor and the soothsayer both felt as if they had been crushed by a massive boulder. They had let the lamia down and neither of them had a way to get her back. Not without blowing up the whole mountain that was.

Ideas of madness rushed through the mind of the unicorn as she paced up and down. The ground beneath her hooves managed to endure the constant trembling that was made as Fluttershy had so her own manner of finding the traces she needed.

The pegasus had initiated an actual investigation in the faint hope to find some kind of trail that would be helping not only her, but Twilight as well. She had to find something that could be helping the both of them.

Her eyes went from left to right as she just gazed over everything cast in the raspberry light. It perhaps wasn’t much from which they could be working with, but at least it was something for her. The pegasus moved over to the wall and placed her hands gently on a couple of places. “Cold,” she whispered to herself before she moved it again.

“Again, cold,” she said before the action had been done a couple of times. Yet the next time she had placed her hand upon the wall, there was something strange. It almost seemed as if it felt warmer. Warmer than the rest of the wall at least.

The hands of the pegasus would have shifted around to find the exact spots of where the wall appeared to have been warmer. She thought of a ludicrous idea that probably could have been leading her to something of interest. For if the wall was warm, it meant that something had placed itself against it.

Not all too long ago either. It was a massive boost in the morale of the doctor. Fluttershy felt herself almost relieved on the matter for some unknown reason. But they still weren’t a single step closer in getting the lamia back. And Twilight wasn’t doing all that much either.

An outline could finally be made by the doctor as she took a couple of steps back. With her finger she then traced then the area’s where she had felt the separations of cold and warm. Much to her own surprise it took the form of the upper body of an anthrony. Which meant only one thing to her. “Pinkie was here,” she whispered to herself. Then she turned around and took a step forward.

Yet just as her hoof had set itself down on the ground, there was another feeling that rushed through her. For one hoof stood on the stone, stone cold floor while the other had been set on a place that seemed to have been a whole lot warmer.

The eyes of the mare went wide as she realized that she needed Twilight more than ever. “Twilight!” she exclaimed a little bit louder than she would have liked. But the unicorn was drawn out of her concentration and looked over to the doctor with a confused expression. “Do you have a spell that can trace heat? Like, lead you to the source of a heat signature?”

The unicorn had to think about it for a second or two before she nodded in confirmation. “I indeed do have a spell, but I do not see why it would be needed here,” she said to the doctor, “she’s cold blooded, remember?” Obviously she had no idea just what had been discovered. But Fluttershy almost straight up ignored the last part as she gestured to the mare that she had to just conjure it up.

Twilight didn’t have the slightest of clues about why she had to do such a thing, but if the doctor ordered it, it was best to just go with her plans. The horn charged up even further before the spell was being released. A tiny raspberry colored orb was called into existence and before the two could speak another word, it had gone. Gone to find the heat signatures that were scattered all over the place.

“I seriously do not understand why you wanted me to perform this spell, Fluttershy. There is nothing here and you can clearly see that,” commented Twilight to her. Her voice sounded like they had wasted an opportunity of some sort.

“You may see it, yes. But when you feel around there might be something left,” returned Fluttershy with a small smile that went across her lips. The soothsayer still didn’t understood a single thing about the matter and just gave it up. The results of the tests would probably reveal more to her than that the doctor would actually give away.

When the orb was finally done with its search, Twilight had expected it come back to her as if nothing happened. But instead it began to travel away from them. It went straight past Fluttershy and further into the caverns.

Neither of the mares could have believed the sights that were given to them before the smile of Fluttershy only would have gotten bigger upon her face. “I’ll be damned, you were right. Fluttershy, I’m just so glad that you have decided to come with me,” the soothsayer said in response. Twilight just couldn’t thank the mare enough for everything. She wouldn’t had thought about the actions that the doctor had done or to summon the orb to begin with.

“Thank me later, we first have somepony else to find,” said Fluttershy just before she placed a hand upon Twilight’s shoulder. The soothsayer nodded in return as the two of them then went onward to follow the orb. It was the only thing they could have done.

All that they could have done was to follow the orb and keep on following it until it had reached its final destination. Where it would have been and what they would have encountered all remained music for the future to play. What they did knew for certain was that they were one step closer, one step closer of getting the lamia back.

Silence had taken both of the mares over as they wandered deeper and deeper into the caverns. The light of Twilight’s horn had decreased down to the point of which she could only see a couple hooves in front of her. She had hopefully made them as small of a target as possible. For the last thing that she wanted was that they would have been spotted by anything or anypony.

Neither of them knew what horrors were housed inside of the mountain, but one was about to be revealed. For the little orb continued to dance around and about more and more vividly. It only meant to Twilight that they had gotten closer and closer to their final goal. She made the orb return to her before it simply vanished out of existence.

Something didn’t seem right in the eyes of Twilight while the formation of rocks opened up before them. She could have been wrong but it seemed as if something big laid just around the corner. Caution had to be given off by both of the mares as they quietly approached the place.

Their eyes turned around the corner and the mares were granted a sight that would be burned on their retina for times to come. There was indeed an opening in the formation of rocks and it walked out into a massive chamber. A chamber that was actually lit up by numerous torches. At least they were having light that could be of aid to them.

But the most horrifying part had to be the stone statues that stood there. The statues that stood scattered all over the place. None were arranged in actual ways that represented any kind of symmetry. One feature seemed to always have returned to the statues though. The fact that they were all from lamia that had struck a terrified pose. Whether the statue was still whole or whether it had crumbled by force, the frightful pose could always have been seen.

Fluttershy wanted to just walk straight into the room just before she was stopped by Twilight. The soothsayer turned her head to the doctor and pointed to one of the statues. “Sentries,” whispered Twilight to her. Fluttershy didn’t seem to understand just what the unicorn meant with her words and had a better look.

Terror managed to strike down deep in her heart when she finally did notice it. The doctor released a deep gulp as she noticed that something was moving. But that was impossible, it was a statue right? How could something about it have moved to begin with? Yet it was presented to her there and then.

The very eyes on the statue that Twilight had pointed to were in constant motion. A gasp for air was given off by the doctor as she was just utterly terrified. And for all the right reasons. It just seemed like a horror tale played out before their very eyes.

Whether they wanted to admit it or not, they realized that the fears of Pinkie Pie and the mysterious Gorgon One perhaps weren’t as far-fetched as originally thought. Not to mention that they would have shattered the words of Rarity flat on the ground.

The two of them looked even further into the room and finally there was a little bit of good news for them both. For they had found Pinkie Pie. The lamia laid on a table at the far end of the room and seemed to have been held unto it by dark magic.

It didn’t matter to them anymore. They had found the being for who they had come for. The doctor and the soothsayer were strong enough to overcome anything that would have been thrown right at them. At least they hoped that they were that. Though they just never showed that doubt as they walked into the room.

The second that the mares had entered the room were all of the moving eyes pointed straight at them and they kept following them. As creepy and eerie as it seemed, that it felt as well. Dozens of eyes stared at them but they didn’t look back. The mares only had eye for Pinkie, who looked back at them with a horrified expression.

“Go back! You shouldn’t have followed me back here! You just, just doomed yourselves!” she exclaimed as she tried to throw everything at them just to make them disappear again.

Yet that easily wouldn’t the two mares give up. They had gotten such a long way and they would return with her. “We’ll never leave a friend hanging, Pinkie. Never,” said Twilight before Fluttershy supported the words with a powerful nod of her own.

But the words were in vain, the laughter of another being had filled the room. The deep and low tone in which the laughter came forth from caused a shiver down all of their spines. Pinkie knew exactly what being it was and wanted to call it out.

Before she could even speak one single word, the body of a giant lamia had dropped down upon the ground and send a cloud of dust upwards. Hidden among it, it would be speaking the next series of words. “How precious, you two have come to rescue your already dead friend. Tsk, tsk, tsk, seems like I’ll be having dinner for three, mwhahaha!” the low toned voice spoke to them. Both Twilight and Fluttershy noticed that there was a genuine insanity in the tone.

“Spare us your threats and tell us your name!” Twilight yelled towards it, she released a growl afterwards. Only to then assume a pose of battle ready. She was ready to just give another fight if it meant that Pinkie Pie would have been saved.

The creature among the dust chuckled up once more before the words left the mouth. “Some call me, the Gorgon One. Others from times long ago remember me by a different name.”

“And how does that name ring?” Twilight dared to ask. The magic was already collecting itself around her horn in case it would be needed.

The Gorgon One grinned through the mist before it finally would reveal the words not spoken by ages. “You must know, you are from the world above. But perhaps you don’t remember it. Mhmhmh, the name I carried when I was a surface dweller was Lord Sombra.”

Chapter LXXII

Fear was running vividly through both Twilight and Fluttershy. The two mares both looked at the transformation. A transformation that was happening right before their very eyes. Slowly it managed to crawl up the body of the doctor. Slowly it managed to consume her even further.

Stone itself could be seen across her body. Nothing else but cold stone could be seen around her hands and hooves so far. It didn’t show any signs of slowing down the process, it just kept on crawling further up on both the legs and the arms. Fluttershy wanted to scream as loud as she could in pain, but was prevented that by Twilight.

The hand of the soothsayer was placed upon the mouth of the doctor before the clothing was removed from her body. All but her underwear had just vanished in a zap of magic. The eyes of Twilight gained a look of discomfort next to the horrified one. She wasn’t fond of the fact that she had to strip one of the mares that she called a friend. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but this is for your own best will, I won’t take any personal pleasure in this,” used Twilight as an excuse for herself.

The hand was then removed from the mouth of the doctor. The pegasus just wanted to slap the living daylight straight out of the unicorn, but she managed to behave herself. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils. She felt the stone crawling up even further around her body and the tears sprung in her eyes.

“I don’t care what it takes, Twilight, just don’t let me die here, not like this!” the doctor exclaimed. Fluttershy she was in a genuine state of both fear and fright. Anything could have happened to her and Twilight was her only hope. The soothsayer on the other end stood there as she watched the stoning happen for a minute or two.

Silence had taken over the unicorn while all kinds of spells went through her mind. Everything was considered in the short amount of time that she had. There must have been something inside of her arsenal that could have been of help to her, right? Twilight tried to think of everything, but nothing came up.

Though only a static sound played itself out in her head before she stroked her chin a little bit. The unicorn had a couple of ideas but all of them were just blocked by other thoughts. Anything could have interfered with the solutions as the stoning wasn’t done by any conventional manners of magic. Fluttershy had been exposed to a form of magic with which Twilight had no experience with.

“There’s nothing that comes to my mind to help you, and I doubt that there are any herbs around here that can help you,” mumbled Twilight while she felt the fears rising inside of her own body. The moans and groans of pain that were given off by the doctor went through marrow and bone. One by one did she lost bits of her body to the stone.

She could try to fight it off of course, but the magic of Sombra was just too powerful to do anything against. All that could be done was to pray for the doctor. At least, any other anthrony would have done that. It mustn’t been forgotten that Twilight was at the case. And she wouldn’t have stopped for anything.

“If I apply any of those spells to you,” she stated just before she lowered her legs. An arm reached out to the cheek of the doctor and the fingers stroked it gently. “It might speed it up at worst. I’m so, so sorry, Fluttershy. There isn’t anything I can do for you outside of, being here until the end. An end I never wished for you, of anypony that came along.”

The tears had collected themselves into the eyes of the soothsayer as well. The whole matter was just dreaded to her. There wasn’t anything that she could do to ease the pain her friend was going through. Not a force in the world was powerful enough to make her pain go away, to make both of their pains go away.

“T-Th-,” was whispered in the room. The soothsayer would have looked around to where it came from and wiped away her tears. She realized that it came from nopony else then Fluttershy. Her ears were perked while the doctor tried to speak again. But the difficulty was getting to her even more. There really wouldn’t have been that much time left for her.

Even though the stone only reached to both her elbow and her knee, it felt to her like she was hanging at her last line of life. “T-There’s, Pinkie, Pie.” Slowly did the eyes of Twilight went wide as she too realized that little fact. The lamia for which they had gotten down there was still among them and close by.

How could Twilight have even forgotten such a fact? It was still a thing that needed to be seen in time. But she was ever so glad that the doctor made the statement to her. A feeling of relief was released through her body as there was a shimmer of hope that Pinkie knew anything about the matter. If anything could have helped, it would have been Pinkie Pie.

With a small chance having opened for Fluttershy survival, the soothsayer knew what she had to do. She gave the cheek of the doctor one last stroke before she stood back up and turned her body around. There it came once again into her view. The massive stone table in which the pink scaled lamia laid.

The lamia was still held in place by the dark magic and Twilight nodded to herself. She knew that she had to get Pinkie, but had to leave Fluttershy for a moment. It was without a doubt a hard thing to do. She didn’t wanted to depart from her side given the current conditions.

Though when time went on, she did found the courage that was needed. One small step at a time was made by the soothsayer. One small step at a time until she stood at the table. Both of her hands were placed at the edge and her eyes looked over to Pinkie Pie.

A gentle smile formed itself upon her face before the horn charged its magic. Another tear was quickly wiped away from her eyes before the spell was cast. Luckily for her was the dark magic easily overcome. Pinkie’s rescue was perhaps a little less flashy than they had anticipated when they began. Though nopony could complain about it in the moment.

The moment when motions could be made again would Pinkie have opened her eyes, glancing around the scene. Outside of the emptiness of the room did she saw Twilight just standing there. Her body rose itself up with a confused expression clearly readable upon her face. She hadn’t even the slightest of clues about why anypony would have gotten after her.

But the questions couldn’t be asked, Twilight had pointed over her shoulder. Pinkie didn’t understood it but she feared for the worse. She had heard the sounds of the battle and the whispers at the end, but she didn’t dared to look at it.

Though the time had come for her. The time to witness the damage that had been done to Fluttershy had to be revealed to her. The lamia stretched her body a little bit so that she could have looked over the shoulder of the soothsayer.

Only to have a gasp for air to leave her mouth. Both of her hands were brought over to her mouth as the tears also sprung in her eyes. Words couldn’t have been spoken by either party as the mental devastation that was raging on, had defeated the both of them.

Without a word had Twilight turned herself around and wandered back to the stoning mare. Inch by inch had it crawled up further to the pegasus her body. If it would have reached the heart or the head, it would have been game over.

Pinkie dropped herself off of the table and slithered quickly back to the two anthronies. She took place on the opposing side of the doctor who was in agony. The feelings of her limbs being turned to stone were devastating. It not only did it tore Fluttershy physically, but mentally just as much. The realization of death became one that was all too true.

Though Twilight hadn’t given up the hope just yet. Pinkie Pie had been freed. It was perhaps a longshot, but anything was better than that they wouldn’t be having anything to go with. A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the mare as her horn charged up.

Fluttershy dared to open up her eyes and glanced straight into the light. Gasps for air were made as no word followed up. Only after the fifth attempt she could finally speak in a broken language. “What, you, plan?!” she spoke slow and in a painful tone. She needed to have answers and she wanted them quick, before another moan was released by her mouth.

Twilight looked the mare deep in the eyes and the little twinkle of hope could be seen deep within them. Everything that could be tried, would be tried upon the mare. Charge after charge was being pulsed down into the pegasi her heart. Pulse after pulse had Twilight changed up the spells to see which one were having an effect.

Pinkie just stood there with a horrified expression upon her face. Now that she had seen what the Gorgon One was actually capable of, she suddenly felt incredibly stupid that she had gone back into the mountain. She was the one who had caused it upon the mares and she felt like she had to take responsibility. The question could be asked at her at any given time, so she might as well prepared herself for the answer to give.

Twilight seemed to have been done with the pulses of magic. She seemed to have found a spell that was in fact worthy of being able to slow the curse down. Perhaps the levels of pain would increase as everything just went slower, but it was a risk that Twilight was willing to take for the pegasus. If there was anything that could reverse the effect of the eyes, she would have taken it.

The horn of the unicorn discharged itself as a whole. Twilight then began to look with a more keener eye to the stone. She picked up one of the hands and held it close before her eyes. Every single inch of stoned skin was shown to her as she tried to figure out just what kind of stoning it was.

Was it the kind that only gave some sort of stone coating over the skin, or was it the kind that actually turned flesh, blood and everything in between straight into stone? Those kind of things still had to be figured out for the definitive cure to be found.

The soothsayer placed the arm gently next to the body and closed her eyes for a moment. In her mind she compared it to other kinds of stonings she had seen in her life. She had to find at least one that matched with the typing she was dealing with. The only problem happened to be the very little fact that this stoning was done by a creature whose very magic was based upon it.

Twilight herself was only used to the stoning done through spells in classrooms. Never had she dealt with a wild stoning, but for everything there would have been a first. Whether it was actually liked or not.

A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the unicorn before she dropped her body to her bum and assumed a sitting position. Her eyes opened up against as she shook her head calmly from right to left. It was even worse than she had expected.

Not only didn’t the type of stoning add to anything she had seen before, it even seemed to have been a lot worse. The body was turned into stone as a whole, all the bones, flesh and blood would have become pure granite for all Twilight knew. But the worst part had to be the fact that the soul of the being would remain locked inside of the statue.

Ready to be called upon by the master whenever it was needed until it was destroyed. A gulp was released by the unicorn. She only knew it just by inspecting the stone as it was forming, casting Fluttershy. But in silence and without aura had she also activated her horn. A horn that had been scanning the dark magic with which the spell had been cast.

That information revealed just so much more to her. That was the revelation that caused her to know most of the things. They were once again out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. Yet what was worse than any other time was that there were only two of them. Only Twilight and Pinkie would have been able to solve the matter.

No words could have been spoken by Twilight and she shook her head once more. It was just more bad news after the last in the eyes of Fluttershy. Who in her own turn had become tired, she was tired of waiting until death came to get her.

The eyes of the doctor were shut with strain again, after which her whole body gave a little spas or two. Cries for help and mercy that went accompanied with agony were given off by her. The doctor wanted the pain just to be stopped. But with the pain that was surging through her body, there also was another thing that happened to the once to calm, timid and shy doctor.

She would turn into a beast. A beast that was looking for somepony to blame her very misery upon. And who better than the mare who had convinced her to go down and spoke the reduction spell over her? The eyes were set upon Twilight while the wheezes left through her nostrils.

The sheer amount of effort that was collected by the pegasus to place all of the blame on the soothsayer was truly remarkable. But she had lost her mind in the moment. Fluttershy wasn’t the Fluttershy that they all had come to know and perhaps love.

Soon enough had the two mares gotten each other. Twilight had begun to prepare herself for the words that would be following. Just by looking into the thunderous glance of the doctor she realized that it wouldn’t have been anything pleasant. A deep exhale was given off by Twilight before she spread her arms.

“Okay, speak up what’s on your mind. Place all the blame for everything upon me. Now is just as good of a time as any,” she said to the doctor. Fluttershy just released a deep huff in response as she was ready to spew the words of hatred.

Her voice had changed as she began to speak. Every last word that came out of her mouth was just spoken in the deepest form of anger. An anger that neither Twilight nor Pinkie had seen before, not from her at least. “You, give me, a slow, painful, death, Sparkle!” she spoke through the pants for air.

Talking had turned into a difficulty for Fluttershy. The stone was still setting course for her heart and head while she tried to fight it simultaneously. “You’re to, blame, f-for everything! T-This whole q-quest of yours… D-Die, by a m-magic o-overload!”

All of them were powerful hits, all of them were powerful enough to make the eyes of Twilight tear up a little bit. Perhaps the doctor was right on the matter. Perhaps it was a lot better if she had ignored the words of the goddesses and not had partaken in the quest. Perhaps it was just better if they all didn’t do anything.

Then again, there were many sides of the same coin. The best example that Twilight could give in the moment, was that the knife sliced at two sides. One piece was clear to her as it had happened while the other was the ‘what if’ part of it all.

A tear managed to escape the eye of the soothsayer and it travelled down the cheek. “Perhaps, I’m indeed to blame. But you have to believe me, I’m not giving you a slow death, Fluttershy. I’m trying to find something that might help you with your problem. All I need is more time,” the unicorn replied with a great sadness in her tone.

Pinkie Pie had turned around and faced the two of them. The tones in which Fluttershy spoke against Twilight were just unacceptable for her doing. The urges to just slap some sense right into the being were there. Her hands balled up to fists as she gritted her teeth firmly together. She wanted to slap something just so badly, and one wrong word could have been enough to make her burst.

Twilight curled up upon herself and she wrapped her arms around her legs. She would almost have laid her head upon her knees. She had one more thing to say to Fluttershy, or at least she wanted to do such a thing. Instead she couldn’t keep her tears to stop flowing. The powerful unicorn soothsayer had erupted once again in tears of sadness.

“Oh look at you, big foal!” Fluttershy snarled to her without any interference. Though before she knew what had happened, had Pinkie launched herself forward and delivered the slap in the face. The lamia could be found on top of the body of Fluttershy with her hand ready to give the face of the mare yet another slap.

She stood there, panting deep herself, the fires could be witnessed right in her eyes. “Go ahead, I dare you. I double dare you, to speak like that again! Come on big mare, are you scared all of the sudden?!” Pinkie said in an angered tone. She was far from done with Fluttershy. Even though the pegasus was literally dying beneath her, she would speak every last word that was on her mind.

“Twilight has only helped you to the best of her abilities, she had called upon all of you because she had the reasons and the means to do so. So don’t blame her for everything that has happened. You’re all equally to blame! Stoning or not, it’s not a way to talk to her, after all she had done for you!”

The sudden slap in Fluttershy’s face also translated over to Twilight. For the unicorn soothsayer opened her eyes wide again when soon as the words echoed in her mind. She blinked a couple of times as she couldn’t believe the words that were being said by the lamia.

The soothsayer rose up from her position as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She had to stay strong, she had to remain in the lead. The mare looked over to Pinkie and gave her a nod before the unaskable question was asked. “Do you know, how to reverse or stop it?”

It felt as if the lamia had been hit by a brick all of the sudden. Twilight was asking for her aid in the matter and Pinkie had prepared for that ever since she felt it would have been asked. Countless matters had already been going through her head upon how she would answer the question. But also there had been matter going through her about solutions.

Anything that could have helped them to probably help the slowly turned to stone doctor. Anything would have been a help, but Pinkie only could come up with one thing that probably could have helped them. A thing that she wouldn’t want to share with them for reasons unknown.

A deep exhale was released by the lamia as she slithered off of the body and looked in the eyes of Twilight. Who in return noticed instantly that there was something going on. The lamia knew something but it would be coming at a terrible high cost. A little something that she didn’t wanted to rush out by any means.

The soothsayer got a hold of her staff again and held it as some sort of walking cane. Almost as if it was used as some sort of third leg. Time would be granted to the lamia to get with an answer. Though some haste was required because of the fact that Fluttershy still laid there.

A minute or two passed by like that. But to them it felt like two whole hours had gone by. The lamia was curling around herself as she didn’t knew what she had to say to the soothsayer. She could have told her a massive lie and risk the death of Fluttershy upon her name. Or she could have told the truth and risked a great pain happening to her.

It was a massive scale upon which the lamia balanced. Both thoughts weighed deep upon her mind and she didn’t wanted to do either of them. Yet she knew that –even though she only knew the company for just a couple of days– that Twilight could be trusted. Pinkie had gotten a strange bond with her. Almost like that between a dog and its owner but with the exception of her being a little bit less obedient.

She looked back to Fluttershy and noticed how the mare had returned to gasping for air. It just looked horrible in her eyes which were closed a mere second after it. What could she have done in the matter? Lying was of course the easy thing. But could she live with the fact that she had ended the life an innocent mare? Not to mention the fact that lord Sombra probably would be going straight after her.

Lying seemed to have been a great solution in the short term of time. The truth however, was one that seemed to be the better option. Yes, she would be having pain for a short time. But at least Fluttershy would have had a chance.

The thoughts raced through her mind for a couple of seconds before she opened her eyes again. They were aimed directly at Twilight once more just before the words followed up. “There, there’s probably something that, that I might have that can stop it. I, I don’t know about reversing it.”

The hopes of both Fluttershy and Twilight just sky rocketed upwards when they heard the words. The doctor wanted to exclaim in happiness, but the groans of pain had become almost too much for her. So only Twilight was the one who released a deep exhale of relief. “Care to tell, what exactly it is that you can do to her?” Twilight asked in an honest and respectful tone to the lamia.

The soothsayer was treading upon new terrain in that moment. The soothsayer had become a student again for a change. Whether Pinkie liked it or not, she had turned into the teacher. Whether they knew their roles or not remained to be seen by them all. The eyes of Pinkie were shut for a moment as she wanted to say no on the question, but it was too late already to crawl back.

Pinkie braced herself with her body before she spoke the words. “The turning of a statue can be stopped, but only by a gruesome act,” she explained in utter terror to them. Twilight didn’t even dare to interrupt her as her eyes did constantly look down to see if Fluttershy’s conditions were getting any worse.

Another deep exhale filled the room as it originated out of Pinkie Pie. “In order to stop it, one must consume the blood, of a lamia, through the mouth. F-Fresh, blood.”

The eyes of Twilight went wide of horror when she heard those words. Never in her life had she expected to hear such things. Yet there they were spoken almost as if they were nothing. The soothsayer released a deep gulp before she rubbed her face. There was no proper response to the matter with the exception of possible one.

One that made Twilight feel even sick to her very soul as she asked it. “Are you, willing to, to do it? Cut yourself, to save her? It’s, it’s not an everyday sacrifice, you know that as well as I do.” Pinkie looked back to Twilight as there was only one reply that could have been given to the matter. There was however, one massive gamebreaker. Proof that nothing went ever easy.

The doctor had listened to the words as well and her eyes had shot open wide because of them. She gasped for air a whole lot more vivid while she tried to speak the words of worry. Twilight and Pinkie didn’t understood a single thing of what was being said so they placed their ears closer. And there they caught it. There they caught possibly the biggest change that they had ever heard in anypony in their lives.

The secrets that the doctor had for all of them had to be laid bare. All of them just had to be revealed in order to prevent any kind of further harm. For that was the thing that probably would have happened if Pinkie fed her blood to Fluttershy.

With the ears ready and primed were both the soothsayer and the lamia listening carefully to whatever the doctor had to say. Through the gasps of air she spoke them in a tone of utter terror and fright. For the first time in her life had the doctor actually been afraid for something to happen. “D-Don’t feed, m-me blood. I’m, I’m, I’m a, f-fruit…”

She had to recollect her breath for a moment and gave a dry swallow. What followed next was a cough. Twilight thought that she was just playing with them as Pinkie kept her attention close to the doctor. Whatever would be coming next, it would have shocked them both. “I’m a, fruitvampthrony,” the doctor then exclaimed. That last word was pushed out into the world to the best of her abilities.

Twilight and Pinkie were almost just got gob smacked because of them. Out of everything that they possibly could have heard out of the doctor, it were those words that had been spoken. So long ago had Applejack thought that she heard a change to Fluttershy. A change that turned out to have been actually true. “Oh my goodness,” the soothsayer spoke up softly. She couldn’t believe the fact that Fluttershy was a fruitvampthrony.

Though at the same time it did explain just so much. Countless things about the doctor’s life were explained right upon the spot. But those were all matters that didn’t matter at the time they were in. Yet Pinkie was confused. She didn’t understood the words that were spoken and focused herself upon Twilight. “What’s a fruitvampthrony?” she asked to the unicorn.

The soothsayer ruffled a little bit with her own hair as it was throwing just so much soot into their dinner. Everything from which they thought was to be working could have been flushed down the drain just like that. New plans had to be forged as well as explanations given. She released a deep sigh as one thing at a time was being done. First, the explanation. Secondly, the new plan.

“A fruitvampthrony, is basically a vampthrony. They live upon the juice of living things. A normal vampthrony drinks the blood of another being, according to folklore. A fruitvampthrony does the same, except it does it by fruits like apples, pears and so forth. Harmless, but often confused with the real deal by times long gone by. Gosh, one wonder unto the next, this trip keeps on amazing me,” said Twilight before she rubbed her face once more. “Depending on how you look at it, really.”

The facts given to her were just mind-boggling. Naturally she would have loved to conduct some experiments on the doctor, weren’t it for the fact that said doctor was slowly dying. “But, why can’t she drink my blood?” Pinkie asked as the confusion had only struck higher to her.

“Because,” started Twilight started when she also began to think of new plans, “she’s afraid that if she drinks blood, the transformation will actually set in further. Making her a bloodthirsty monster, instead of a fruit juice one. …That’s something I didn’t expect to say. But where was I..?”

The unicorn turned her gaze down to the doctor and noticed something that shouldn’t have been there. “Oh my, change of plans!” she exclaimed. The body of the doctor had made a significant jump forward in the stoning process. It had almost reached her heart and the breathing became even heavier. There perhaps was only one more thing that could be done in order to save the doctor.

Yet Twilight wasn’t ready to do such a thing yet. But their talking had caused the events to have gotten to the lengths of what they were. The chance was big that Sombra would have won the round and claimed his first anthrony in a long time. Tears sprung in the eyes if Twilight before she shook her head. The unicorn couldn’t believe it.

She couldn’t believe the fact that she had made the events come down to such a critical matter in time. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as the tears were wiped away. “Okay, there’s still a little bit of time left. Just a tiny little bit. Oh you two are so going to hate me for this, but it’s the only way I can possibly save you,” said Twilight while she looked over to Fluttershy.

The doctor glanced back in the eyes and the hope for anything had gotten desperate. Anything that could have saved her life would have been more than welcome. The eyes of Fluttershy turned into an old pair as they finally revealed her true age. But she, she was still far from being done with the world. Everything she had accomplished in her time, everything that had happened to her, she didn’t wanted to throw it away just yet.

The horn of Twilight charged itself with a gentle motion. Then the eye contact was being broken. For what happened next could Twilight only pray to the goddesses. Her eyes went shut as they turned to Pinkie. Her head was tilted forward and then the whole scene just seemed to have gotten straight out of a horror story.

Before the lamia could have even done a thing, there was a sharp pain that went through her. Quickly did she glanced down her body and noticed how an arcane knife had pierced her body. Stutters of disbelief were released by her as she looked back to Twilight. “Y-You, s-stabbed m-me,” she brought out while the knife remained stuck.

They both knew that if they would remove it, the wound would have gotten worse. Then it happened. The stream of blood travelled over the blade while Fluttershy’s mouth was opened by the magic and her head held in place. The blood travelled in a near perfect arc straight into the mouth.

Just for five seconds could the doctor collect the blood before the knife turned itself into a magical patch. All that could have been done from that moment onward was just to wait. Wait for what would happen next from both of the mares. Twilight hoped for the best, yet she prepared for the worst.

Chapter LXXIII

Both Twilight and Pinkie held their breath firm after the drops of blood had entered the mouth of Fluttershy. The lamia was still furious about the little fact that the unicorn had stabbed her. And naturally did she had all the right reasons for it. Twilight on the other end was also having her fair share of reasons to do the actions she did. She didn’t know if they were justified or not though.

A swallow or two could be heard from Fluttershy as they both then knew that the blood had been consumed. The moment of truth would be revealed to them at one point or the next. They had mentally prepared themselves for the worst as they silently prayed for the best.

Countless prayers went through the mind of Twilight. Prayers that were aimed at both the goddess of both the sun and the moon. She prayed to them more than ever. The mare wanted to have Fluttershy back. Perhaps not in the way that she always had been, but at least back as they came to know her. It was all a massive longshot but everything was worth a try.

Hopes had to be kept high in the moment. For their emotions and the will of the doctor would have been the most decisive features in the whole ordeal. The eyes of both the mares looked down at the pegasus as they noticed how the stoning seemed to have stopped. It was a major relief from their hearts. But they also knew that the possibility was there that it would just have gotten straight back up.

Twilight kept her eyes ready and her magic primed. For the last thing they needed was either the stone setting further in. Or worst case scenario: Fluttershy going on a rampage. Neither of the two dared to blink even once during the whole thing as they thought they would be missing it then.

Moans and groans continued to leave the doctor when she once more gasped for air. Though no words seemed to have been able to leave her mouth. It almost appeared as if her whole ability to speak had been taken right from her. Perhaps it was only better that she couldn’t say a word, or that she couldn’t scream out in agony.

Neither Twilight nor Pinkie could even imagine the sheer amounts of pain that were surging through the doctor’s body. Fluttershy was in a true pain, a pain that she never had in her life before that point. Despite her possible age, the ordeal that she was going through at the moment was the worst of all. There wasn’t anything in her life that could have gotten close to it.

Pain surrounded her and her body failed her literally inch by inch. It could have turned her in a monster. Yet if the blood of the lamia would actually be able to reverse the stoning, it all would have been so worth it in her eyes.

Speaking of her eyes, they were closed when she gave off yet another winch. Her whole body tried to fight the curse upon her. A thing that was without much success sadly enough.

Twilight was having perhaps the most difficulty to process the events. It had been her decision to go straight after Pinkie. If they would return to the others with the lamia but not with the pegasus, the rest of the company would have placed the blame straight upon her. There was no single doubt in that little fact.

It only made the unicorn even more determined in the fact that she would return to Canterlot –or at least a familiar place– with the six of them. And only the six of them. The burden had been heavy upon Twilight’s shoulders, but she had to push on just a little bit more. It was all that she could have done.

The wait was most terrible. The wait for something to happen was the thing that seemed to be ready to kill them both on the spot. The tedious seconds in which nothing happened went by like hours. One second slowly became a lifetime. Their heartbeats could be heard through the moans and groans of Fluttershy while the silence of mouths remained.

Silence had fallen upon all of them. Words couldn’t express the situation as it was while the eyes screamed. Their eyes screamed for all sorts of things. One for redemption, one for hope and the third for life.

Nothing in the carved room even made a whisper. It almost seemed as if Sombra himself had actually vanished from the face of the earth. A little fact for which the pair of them were truly happy. A happiness that went unspoken though.

A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of Twilight when she finally dared to close her eyes for a moment. Nothing had happened so far, so why would it do then? Perhaps a stupid way of thinking, but in the moment there was no right or wrong. It either had to happen or not.

From behind her eyelids did the debate continue with herself. The endless debate about what was the right thing that had been done. Everything was weighed down against everything. If Fluttershy would have died, it would have been a death that wasn’t necessary. Not in the eyes of Twilight at least, and especially not in the eyes of the rest of the company.

The wrath of the three other mares was the thing that terrified her the most. Thoughts of pure horror struck her before she shook her head once more. She couldn’t be thinking about those things. Not yet, not anymore. The deep exhale that was given off by the mare only helped so much afterwards.

The eyes remained closed while a tear left them and fell down on the stone below. Pinkie noticed the little glister happen and followed gently. Only to look back upon the body of the doctor and there she made one of the most horrifying discoveries to that date.

Nothing in her life had prepared her for what she saw right there. A deep gulp was given off by her throat before she nudged Twilight’s shoulder.

The mare was shocked out of her thoughts and she finally dared to be looking downwards. There she too saw the scene that had shocked Pinkie to almost death itself. The silence was abruptly broken as one word filled the room. One word filled the room with utter terror. One word that would be enough to describe the whole situation they were in.

“Impossible!” was the single word that Twilight exclaimed. She began to breathe deep to herself as everything she had thought about could have been thrown out of the window. The soothsayer almost trembled at the sight beneath her while Pinkie slithered back just a little bit.

Beneath them laid the slowly stoning Fluttershy. The only problem was that she had gone silent. The silence that came from her was the direct effect of one thing and one thing only. The curse had managed to pull through. The stone had risen once again and had covered her whole body.

The doctor with whom they had travelled for so long, was by then nothing more but a lump of stone. A beautiful carved out statue with a pose of utter terror. The horrified expression in the eyes was shared by the other two mares. The embodiment of utter terror laid directly beneath them.

There was nothing that they could do for Fluttershy anymore. Her soul had been trapped inside of the stone and could only be released in one manner. “P-Pinkie, we, we have to break her, otherwise she’ll never be free from the curse,” said Twilight with a massive chunk stuck in her throat. The tears almost seemed to be getting uncontrollable for the both of them.

In their eyes had the lamia-blood failed. Which meant that Pinkie was stabbed for nothing and Twilight had set up the second rescue for nothing. It pained both of their hearts to see Fluttershy like that. The lamia couldn’t say, let alone do, anything to help or harm the soothsayer.

Twilight couldn’t do it either. She couldn’t just break the newly formed statue just like that. They didn’t even had the chance to properly say goodbye to the doctor. The mare dropped down to her bum and scurried up a bit more with tucked up legs. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils before the words finally came.

Words that spoke of friendship and kindness. Two things that the doctor had always showed them, no matter what. The fingers of the soothsayer stroked the cheek of the statue as the tears flowed over her own. “I’m so, so sorry, Fluttershy. I shouldn’t have send you down here with me. It’s, it’s my fault and, I’m just so sorry for that. Words, can’t justify the acts and I’m not begging for your forgiveness. I only hope that, one day or another, you will understand it,” were the words that ended the speech of the heartbroken unicorn soothsayer.

She had wanted to see the pegasus remain walking upon the earth just so much, but the chance wasn’t given to her whatsoever. There wasn’t anything else that could be done outside of two things. Either they would wait for Sombra to claim his price, or they would shatter the statue and send the soul free. It was one tough decision after the other in a heartbreaking moment.

The body of Twilight leaned in a little bit closer while the hand was removed from the cheek. What followed was that the lips of the mare were placed upon the stone cold cheek and the unicorn gave the pegasus one last kiss. One last, well meant and friendly kiss upon the cheek as a reminder of the kindness in the world.

“May you always be remembered and find your place, next to them,” the unicorn spoke in a final whisper. The tears were wiped away to the best of her abilities when she stood back up. Then it was her who did a couple of steps back. A deep but stuttering exhale was released through her mouth. The terror that she had witnessed so far, all seemed to have become just a little bit for her.

The sadness would have then transformed in downright anger. Twilight felt herself becoming just angry at any and everything. But she still managed to channel all of her hatred to one particular being. A being who she from that moment wanted to just see dead. And that being was nopony else then Lord Sombra himself.

The anger that went through her body then transformed itself into almost raw arcane power. The horn coated itself in the magical aura as both of her hands coiled up into a first and gained the aura as well. Raw arcane power was being pumped out to the greatest of speed which was almost impossible for a unicorn to withstand.

Yet in the moment was Twilight everything but normal. She was so emotionally moved by the death of a close friend of hers, her mind had gone haywire. Without a warning beforehand did her voice then bellowed the words out, “lord Sombra! Coward that you are! Get back out here and face me! I shall give you the same treatment you gave her!”

Her words translated the anger she carried within her. Yet there was no reply from the mysterious gorgon lamia. Whether he had already merged with the physical world again was a fact that needed to be seen.

Of course there wasn’t any answer that came from the dreaded creature which had tormented them both for such a long time. No sound even came from it that indicated where it was. That fact only angered the unicorn even more as she wanted to punch something so badly.

Yet what she hadn’t realized was that there was an arcane vortex swirling right around her. She had become the literal eye of the storm as it only became more intense as time went on. Pinkie watched over all of it and realized that she had to do something. She shook her head a couple of times before the courage was gathered.

She could understand the sadness of Twilight, it even was right at its place. But it was not the right place to release that amount of anger. Pinkie then slithered forwards and stopped at the statue of Fluttershy. Hopefully it would have provided her with some sort of cover from the anger from the soothsayer. All she had to do next was just to talk against the soothsayer. Pinkie Pie was the one who had to talk some form of sense, right back into Twilight.

Everything was set on everything before the words began to leave the mouth of the lamia. “Twilight! This isn’t you! Don’t let your anger control you right now. I know you’re sad, and I know you want to get to him, so do I. But you have to realize this: Fluttershy didn’t die for nothing! She helped in saving the land, she helped to save me. You did everything you could, so now I command you, to regain your control again!”

The words were shouted in their most truest form. Pinkie spoke them directly from her own heart as she could only pray to the goddesses that Twilight would turn back to normal. That was it, suddenly there was another spark that could be witnessed right in her eyes. She had gotten a new idea. A crazy one, but one that might just be working out the way it was supposed to be.

Like a fool did the lamia slither back a bit and watched over Twilight. The angered expression that could be seen within the eyes of the unicorn didn’t soften up one bit. The rage was still too strong and the eyes only wanted to see blood. Pinkie nodded to herself one time before she played the ultimate wild card that she had.

“If you harm any being, what would your goddesses say?!” she exclaimed. The bomb had been set, timed and then she could only wait for the explosion. Either a big boom would happen or a major fizzle. Which one would happen, she didn’t knew. Even though Pinkie remained standing in a tough pose, she was worried deep within her very being. The thoughts of Twilight not only bursting out at her, but physically attacking her surged right through her. It was a genuine fear to be having for certain. Yet it was also a risk that she deemed worthy to take.

Seconds went by as the storm seemed to have gotten less and less. The arcane power that surged through Twilight seemed to be released in the air. But not as a massive blast. No, instead it was given back to nature. At least that was the way Pinkie seemed to be witnessing it.

The feelings of relief went through her as a massive exhale was released through her nostrils. She then closed her eyes and hoped even more that everything would have gotten alright. For as much as that was possible given their situation.

The storm had indeed gotten less and less up to the point where it didn’t exist any longer. Twilight managed to regain the control back over her emotions as both of her fists trembled. They didn’t tremble in anger though. Instead they did so in fear of her own abilities. She had gotten terrified of what she could have done if she wasn’t stopped.

But at least she was back. Back by her senses and nothing seemed to have been destroyed. A sigh of relief was also given off by her as the eyes were closed. The trembling of her fists didn’t seemed to have stopped but in the moment she could live with it.

Silence had once again taken over the room as Twilight was getting happy that Sombra hadn’t gotten out to her words. She remembered the specific ones that she had spoken. Luck by bad luck it could be called. A thing which was more than true in the moment.

When the silence kept dragging on, there was something else that began to catch the attention of both of the mares. For a massive white light was cast upon their eyes. The theory of the lamia blood working was never fully confirmed and that sparked a new ray of hope within them.

Why Twilight thought about it just in that moment, remained a mystery to even her. But she thought about it, suddenly there were thousands of other thoughts that rushed through her mind. All while the light continued to tease her and Pinkie’s eyes.

Both Twilight and Pinkie opened their eyes again. The white light had managed to grasp their attention and mesmerize them. They had to know just what it was that laid inside of it, what it was even. They once again went out from the possible worst, but hoped for the possible best.

In their eyes they caught an orb, an orb that was suspended in the air right where Fluttershy laid. Or better said: used to lay. The very statue of the doctor had vanished from the face of the earth just like that.

Twilight then quickly made the assumption that it must have been sucked right into the orb, or that the orb was in fact the soul of the doctor. But if it was the soul of the mare, how could it have been that big? The orb against which she looked was about half a time bigger than Twilight was tall. Questions asked and answers given through time.

That was the only explanation that could have been given to it all. Not a word was once more dared to be spoken by either party. The lamia nor the soothsayer wanted to say anything as it possibly would ruin the moment.

Anything could have hidden itself within that orb. But such a bright light could have meant only one thing for them though. Fluttershy had to be inside of it. There was no doubt in the mind of Twilight. It had to be, and otherwise were they in their deepest troubles yet.

~~~~

The light that was cast to them became more intense and the two mares had to cover their eyes with something. Something that came in the form of their arms and they continued to look inside of the orb. They had to see just what it was that was hidden inside of it.

But what they saw struck both of their minds. Within there she laid almost as if she was floating in water. The pegasus doctor with whom they had been wandering for so long. Her hair waved gentle while the arms laid upon the chest. The legs were placed close together and the wings were spread to their furthest.

Yet there the wonder turned horror. Twilight would have noticed what kind of wings they were. They weren’t the wings of a pegasus, but those of bat. They shared the same characteristics as those of the bat anthronies that roamed the castle at night. The race that Twilight was all too familiar with. She released a couple of quick in- and exhales while she processed the information.

It was a massive game changer of course. There they were, with a possible Fluttershy would be coming back to them. But she carried a few changes with her from the first few glances. Twilight perished the thoughts from her mind as the orb’s light intensified even more.

It would have been a matter of time before the bang happened and the truth was revealed to the pair of time. The clock could have been set to that fact.

The light became brighter and brighter before the cavern didn’t carry any shadow anymore. The light pierced right in every single corner and banished the darkness from it just like that. And then it happened. Twilight’s very predicament came true as the big bang happened. A bang that shattered the orb and blown both the soothsayer and the lamia backwards for a couple hooves.

The two of them were once again surrounded by candlelight as the light had faded instantly. They crawled back up in a sitting position and there they saw the third being just standing. It even blinked a couple of times as if it had no clue about what was going on.

“F-Fluttershy..?” Twilight asked towards the yellow skinned, pink haired being. The being gave a slow nod before it turned around to face Pinkie Pie. Who on her own turn was just as baffled as Twilight. Could it be that, that the lamia blood had worked without any of the nasty side effects?

The being turned itself back around to face Twilight once more, blinked once or twice before the words finally left the mouth. “I, I think, I cheated Death, again.” What followed was a smile that went across the lips. A smile that revealed the teeth of the pegasus in front of them, but not just the teeth.

The smile also included a pair of extended canines that were for just for true biting and ripping of flesh, at least in the eyes of Twilight. Yet when the pegasus turned around, the wings on her back were covered with natural feathers. It only added to the confusion of Twilight and she needed to have her answers there and then.

“Fluttershy, not to drop straight in the house with the door, well, actually I do, but don’t take it the wrong way… What the hell is going on here?!” Twilight exclaimed to the doctor. She wanted to tie the pegasus up just to be certain and safe. Though the expression that was given to her changed it all. It was the look that she was used to from Fluttershy. That kind and timid expression almost seemed to turn her completely around and off of everything.

Fluttershy knew that she owed an explanation to the mare. Which was for the best that she gave it there and then. Her strength had returned to her quicker than expected when she remained standing on her hooves. Then again, she hadn’t been cast in stone for that long either. A gentle nod was given off by the pegasus before she walked over to the nearest torch.

Pinkie slithered over to Twilight who then proceeded to walk with the mare. The time would have been given to her to make sure the tale wouldn’t be rushed out. Fluttershy then leaned against the wall and looked both of the mares deep in the eyes. The time that she would tell her side of the story, all of it. They had to know the facts about her as they were.

Twilight and Pinkie almost wanted to sit down, as if they were going to listen to an old campfire tale. But the tale they would hear was one all too true. Fluttershy nodded calm to the pair of them as she finally began to tell her tale of woe, with as little woe she could weave into it.

The anticipation was almost killing the other two, but finally would they get to know the secrets of the famed doctor. The voice had turned to almost monotone as she finally said what she had to tell.

“It all began, about a hundred and fifty years ago. Ages of war and genocide were commonplace. But amongst the war, were always the nurses. They were the ones who patched up every being without seeing real combat. I was one of them, I was one of those young nurses who patched everypony up. I had seen the most terrible wounds and learned how to treat them from the greater ones. Prayers upon the goddesses were made for every operation, but as a pegasus from Cloudsdale, I didn’t do it. I only relied on my skills. So it went on, for a couple of years,” she told them as a start.

Fluttershy showed the two of them that it was difficult to tell her story. All the pain and suffering she had witnessed back then was almost getting the upper hand of hers. Though she managed to bite through it. And continued to tell the tale.

“Years went by and I worked at different hospitals in times of peace. But I knew that my life wouldn’t last forever either. I wanted, to become immortal. To live an eternal life and help everypony in the need of it. A noble but stupid wish, you might say. But it turned out to be the biggest curse I had ever gotten.”

A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as the eyes were closed for a moment. “One night, I was captured by something I still do not know. Whether it was Nightmare Moon or a heretic soothsayer, I just don’t know. All I know, is what followed turned me into this. Whatever ritual had been performed, it turned me into a creature of the undead. But not the way it was intended to.”

Without a warning was there a sinister chuckle that came from the pegasus, after which she shook her head. “The idiot used a fruitbat instead of an actual vampire bat. Only figured it out afterwards as I lusted for apple juice instead of blood once I had awoken. But instead of killing me, I was just thrown back on the street. Long story short, I could live the life I always wanted. Being immortal and help those in need wherever I can.”

“But,” the soothsayer kindly interrupted, “with you being immortal, doesn’t that..?”

“Become hard?” Fluttershy finished before she crossed her arms over one another. The mare nodded to confirm the train of thoughts. To which Fluttershy nodded in return. “Incredibly difficult. I have to change my name every so many years to remain like a normal mare. I don’t want anypony to figure out what I am. My whole family thinks I died a long, long time ago. Those still alive think of me as a ghost of the past. Which I think, I kinda am, when you think about it.”

Another deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the pegasus before her tale was finally over. She didn’t wanted to speak more than was necessary to them. The pain that went through her in the moment was almost getting too much for her. The thoughts had to be perished for the moment in order to regain her full attention span again.

There was still one burning question in the mind of Twilight. One question that would have defined the character of Fluttershy to her. One question that was so simple to ask, yet in the moment felt as if she would be having to move the mountain they were in.

The soothsayer almost couldn’t ask it, but she felt as if she had to. So with a deep exhale from her mouth it happened. “Fluttershy, this may sound crazy but, are you thirsty, for blood?” she asked. The bomb had been dropped and they all could only await the reactions of the other beings.

Pinkie almost wanted to slap Twilight right in the face for even daring to ask such a thing that short after the touching tale. But Fluttershy only looked back to her with a raised eyebrow. Of course she could understand why it was asked. Especially with her own fear of being turned into a full-on vampthrony.

The question was thus rightfully asked in Fluttershy’s mind. But the answer would have been one that would surprise them all. The very answer that would be given was a direct answer upon the question itself. Fluttershy took a deep inhale before she shook her head. “No, I’m not thirsty for blood. The thirst for fruit juice still lingers in my throat, as it always had been doing. So, no. I’m still the being you came to know, with the added fruitvampire-ness, that is.”

It was another massive relief that went through the unicorn as she heard that the doctor wasn’t deemed too dangerous. Though it left them with one other massive problem. That happened to have been the way back to the surface.

The pegasus had removed herself from the wall and she looked over to both Twilight and Pinkie Pie. A nod was given to the pair of them as the question was asked. “Given what I told you and what you asked me, I have a question of my own. How on earth, do we get back topside?” she asked.

It was a legitimate good question as they had gotten there by following a heat signature. A heat signature that had of course perished as time went on. That question caused a bit of confusion to happen by the soothsayer as she hadn’t thought of that. But they were having Pinkie with them. And she would be getting along, no matter what.

Twilight turned her head back to the lamia and gave her a pat over the head. “Pinkie, what I’m going to ask you now is something you have to think carefully of. Because it might be the biggest change that ever happened to your life and I don’t want to ruin it.”

“What are you talking about?” the lamia answered to Twilight. Her expression had changed from happy, to almost worried. She didn’t knew what she had to expect from the words spoken by Twilight but could only hope that it were some good ones.

Twilight herself cracked a gently smile before she spoke the words that were on her mind. “Me and Fluttershy, are going back to the surface of course. We went after you for that same reason. After what happened in the sphere and your sudden introduction to the world above, I can understand why you fled. But I want to give you a second chance. A chance to see that world again, but at your own pace.”

“You’re asking me, to leave my home..?” Pinkie repeated as she thought that it meant that. Twilight nodded gentle in return. The thought of it being asked too much, crawled up inside of her. “After what happened to me, to us three…”

The lamia waited for just a little bit longer with the answer. She had to think real carefully about it as it meant that she would be one of the first, if not few, lamia’s that ever had gotten out of the mountains and their underground protection. Yet perhaps that was the thing that she needed.

A nod was given off by the creature and she agreed upon coming with them. She would even be leading them the way back to the hole they came through. Perhaps the heat signature was gone, but the scent of Sombra wouldn’t have been vanished that easily. Or that was what she hoped.

The three of them gave off a massive smile as they were genuinely happy that everything had fallen right in its place. “Come here, you two,” said Twilight before she entered a group hug with both Pinkie and Fluttershy.

In the moment it didn’t matter who or what they were. They had all gone through the stuff and it had bonded them together a whole lot more. The way to the exit was revealed to them shortly afterwards and finally they could leave the darkness of the mountains behind them.

Yet deep in their darkness were the words of hatred spoken up in the tongue of snakes. Sombra had returned to the physical realm but knew that attacking them then would have been stupid. If they would ever meet one another again, was a fact that remained to be seen. A question unanswered for the time being.

A future that had yet to be set.

Chapter LXXIV

On the outside of the mountain and back on the spot where they had left did the other three still remained. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity all stood still. They were just waiting for the events to come by as they would. But they hadn’t been standing completely still of course. They moved around and about as they anticipated the return of any of the three mares.

It didn’t really matter to them who would have returned, as long as one would have returned to the surface with news of some kind. The admiral had dropped herself upon a tree trunk and had closed her eyes. She was ready to take up some rest before anything else would happen.

The forest behind them was silent, the skies were white clouded, the wind in their favor. Peace seemed to have managed to be dropped down upon them and it comforted the earth anthrony more than she liked to admit. Yet it were the other unicorn and pegasus of the group that would be throwing in the soot in the dinner. They had a different set of plans in mind.

They wanted to just go and leave the place. They wanted to go back to their home or ship and continue on with their lives as it was before everything. They had been placed through so much already and when the scent of freedom literally lingered before them, they wanted to take it. The two of them were without a doubt on the same wavelength when it came to it.

Even though they were as different as anypony could have guessed, they still understood what it meant if the time was there to leave. But they had the force of Applejack to deal with before anything else.

Both the pirate and the major looked over to the admiral with a raised eyebrow because that one question had been asked numerous times already. The question of whether or not they just leave the place without Twilight, without Fluttershy and without Pinkie.

Though the answer had remained the same as always. And even that time there was a deep exhale that was released. One of her green rimmed eyes was revealed to the world and focused itself upon the other two. “Ya two never know when to quit, do ya? Ah have told ya about twenty times already: we ain’t going until we know something from ‘em,” she said again to them.

“But that can take days!” Rainbow exclaimed once again. The excuse had been used before and Applejack was highly aware of that little fact.

“And Ah’m ready to stay here for a couple of days. Y’all told her we were in it, together. Y’all promised her that, make that promise count for once,” said Applejack then to them. The admiral she did have a point. They had told Twilight that they were in it together. The argument hadn’t been used by the admiral before though. Yet in return it pissed the other two mares off only more.

Two deep grumbles were released from the throats of the mares. Only to then let the sighs take over. There wasn’t anything else that could have been said or done against the matter actually. The word of the admiral seemed to have turned into law and order.

The two anthronies left the admiral for what she was and laid the matter to rest. Just the sheer power of the tone she carried in her words made them frightened. Deep in the undertone of the admiral laid the commanding tone, the true tone of a sailor. The tone that spoke to the pair of them that they needed to stay, or pain would follow.

Whether Applejack was in fact aware that she could speak like that, was a fact that remained to be discovered by them. Though it also explained why she became an admiral in the navy. The stern look in her eyes and the commanding tone were two perfect traits for the job.

The thoughts of Rarity drifted off before she placed her hands behind her back. Only to then just wander around and about. She paced up and down on the spot as she thought about almost a thousand and one things. The mind of Twilight sometimes could have been a hurricane, the mind of Rarity was no different in that aspect. Unicorns were all alike was the argument often said to mock their race.

Rainbow Dash on the other end felt that something was off. Ever since she lowered her bum down on a tree stump she couldn’t help it. The feeling had crawled up in her soul every single time she looked over to the mountain. Her eyes peeked through the clouds in the hope that there was something that could be seen.

Or better said: in the hope there wasn’t. Fear for other beings preying upon them was a constant one. One that had to be battled almost all the time in her mind. Perhaps she was just crazy and imagined things again. She had gotten used to the confinement of the tunnels and the caverns of the mountain after all.

Rarity kept on wandering up and down with her eyes only half open. Applejack almost seemed to have been asleep, which meant that only Rainbow Dash was awake enough to notice anything. The pegasus major wanted to spread her wings and fly up. Yet if there was indeed somepony up there, the cover would have been blown and perhaps a massive attack would have bursted out.

No, Rainbow had to play it smarter than that. She was a pegasus after all. While a lot of them were known to only use their brawn, some of them did in fact contain a set of brains that could and should be used. The rainbow haired pegasus just so happened to be one of those very select few. She had to tackle the situation with caution in the hope of not engaging herself in another bloodbath.

With the other two mares almost out of the count, it was only her who could be doing anything. Who knew how long it would have taken either Applejack or Rarity to be pulled back in the there and then? Rainbow had to do it herself and safest way she knew how was by a very simple reconnaissance.

She reached in one of the pockets of her jacket and pulled out a tiny set of binoculars. One that was great to spot things over massive distances with the magic glasses and one tiny enough not to become too suspicious. The mare nodded to herself before she placed the thing before her eyes and looked up the side of the mountain.

Anything that could even be seen as a threat would have been stored in her mind. But for mere minutes she scanned the whole place, without seeing anything worthy of raising her suspicion. The sides of the mountain were just as empty of life as they always had been. Only the plants that grew between the rocks could be seen. Not a single intelligent form of life was witnessed through the glasses. Which naturally granted a massive relief to Rainbow.

There was a new worry also came straight to her when she realized the fact that there still was the cloud that covered summit of the very mountain. A little gulp was given off by her. Rainbow would have pointed her binoculars even further up.

The white ring of cloud stood in her way and she took the thing away from her face for a moment. The blinks were made by her eyes as they had to get used to the amount of light that fell in them. It had been a long, long time since she last had glanced into such a bright area that wasn’t under thousands and thousands of hooves of solid rock.

“Good morning me,” she exclaimed in a soft voice to herself. The eyes were widened a little bit. Then there was a shake of the head before she glanced back to the summit. “Something is hiding up there, I can feel it in my wings. That tingle of danger, but who are you and what are you doing there?” the mare said and questioned in a faint whisper. The eyes made a couple of blinks and she shook her head gentle.

A deep and slow exhale was released through her nostrils before she placed the binoculars back before her eyes. The fingers turned on a couple of cogs that stuck out on the side which triggered the magical mechanism. Which in return allowed her to switch to a pair of glasses that could look through the clouds.

They couldn’t disappear just like that, they would at least reveal the shadows of the things that were hidden inside of the place. The eyes were narrowed even further as the major continued to look. The cloud covered summit was the thing that she looked to and prayed silently to one thing only. To be nothing else but utterly empty.

Seconds went by and there were no shadows to be witnessed. Relief was already getting to the pegasus and Rainbow just felt safe in the matter. She felt safe that there was nothing truly lurking around and about. But just when she thought to give herself the all clear signal, there was a shadow that moved by. A shadow that moved itself past at a great speed.

“What the..?” Rainbow muttered to herself before she took her binoculars off. She had to get a grand view of the place at first before she placed the thing back before her eyes. Once again she scanned over the whole summit to find the thing she needed to find. That one black shadow managed to have changed everything for her.

The whole plan had been changed literally in the fraction of a second. Rainbow knew that there was something on top of the mountain and it wasn’t the everyday bird. It was too big to have been that in fact. So it must have been something else that had been preying upon them. But what it was, Rainbow was getting almost desperate to figure out.

The pegasus continued to look at the summit of the mountain until she finally had found it again. The search was in fact a whole lot easier than she would have expected and anypony would have made her believe. The only problem on the matter had to be the very little fact that what she saw through her binoculars, was a sight she had rather lost then was rich off.

With a slow motion were the glasses removed from before her eyes. Which in their own turn only left the eyes to glance at the clouded summit. There was no doubt in her mind about what she saw. There was only one thing in the entire world that could have cast the shadow that she saw. Rainbow lowered her gaze almost in defeat before she shook her head lightly.

“Impossible,” she whispered to herself, the mental image was recalled again. It must have been impossible, right? But the evidence was right there. She had actually seen the thing that she didn’t wanted to. The best thing that she could have done in the moment was to tell the news to both Rarity and Applejack. How they would be taking it, remained to be seen.

The binoculars were placed back in the pocket of the jacket just before Rainbow stood up from her stump. Her eyes looked over both the other mares and she called their names. Almost an instant later had they reacted to it and gave her a strange expression. It almost seemed as if they were baffled by the fact that they were called by the pegasus.

Eyebrows were raised up before the gaze turned into nothing else but questions. They had the little desire to know what Rainbow wanted to say to them. As well as curious to the fact of why she looked so pale all of the sudden.

The mares left their spot and gathered themselves around the pegasus. Who then turned to the summit once more. One last glance had to be given to it for whatever reason. Perhaps she wanted to make sure that they weren’t followed by anyone or anything. Or that the forces above would be making their descend. But with the clouds, that fact remained unknown.

Rainbow turned her head back over to the mares and nodded calm to them. “Whether you believe and like it or not, I’m having some bad news,” she said in a truly worried tone, “before you say it’s an excuse, it’s not. I wouldn’t joke about this matter. But up on the summit, hidden within the clouds they lurk. A pack of griffons are hidden among them.”

“Griffons?” Applejack asked. She couldn’t believe what she heard coming out of Rainbow’s very mouth. “How did them lot find us?”

The pegasus turned her head towards the admiral with a cynical raised eyebrow. “You really are wondering that, aren’t you? You see another group of anthronies around here? Or to be more specific, those whom you had in your clutches a few days ago?”

“Hmpf, when you say it like that,” returned Applejack before she stroked her chin in thought.

Then it was Rarity who reached for a flintlock of her own before the arm stopped moving. “It’s not going to be worth it now, is it? To attack them, that is. They have the advantage of the clouds and we only have one pegasus.” The facts had been weighed down in her mind and it wasn’t worth it to her. Not in the moment at least.

To confirm the thoughts even more, Rainbow did shook her head towards the captain. “Going up against them would be suicidal of the top shelf. No, we have to wait. And prepare ourselves for the battle that’s to come. For I’m positive that those griffons belong to Sharpbeak, that worries me the most,” she said to Rarity.

“Ah heard ya partner,” commented Applejack while Rarity just nodded in silence. All they could do in the moment was to just wait. Wait it out until the battle had fallen upon their place.

Seconds went by just like that when Rarity noticed a figure approaching their direction. Her attention immediately shifted over to the figure and she pointed gently towards it. Rainbow and Applejack then just followed the finger and looked at the being that came their way.

Relief would have then rushed through the three of them, they realized just who it was that came their way. They had finally seen Twilight Sparkle again on the surface. The mare of miracles had returned to the surface of Equestria with both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, much to their surprise.

Disgust filled the pirate captain as she still wasn’t too fond of the lamia. She was rather rid of her then rich, but she had to hide the fact as it was. All Rarity could do was to just suck it up and deal with it. Nonetheless did she had to admit the very fact that she was genuinely glad that they made it out of the place in one piece. Not many beings could have claimed that fact and prize as they did.

“Well, well, well, look who it is. Finally reemerged out of the depths, eh?” Applejack chuckled when she was finally able to give the soothsayer a well-earned pat on the back.

Twilight almost beamed from happiness when she was back in the camp that had been made up. It was a rather simple one as they didn’t had the access to the tent. For some reason was that thing locked inside of the void storage. But Twilight nodded to the admiral and she replied with words of her own. “Finally we’re back on the surface after a small adventure. And I’m having even better news. Pinkie Pie here, wishes to live on the surface with us.”

Those were a pair of words that not many of the mares could have believed on the spot. Applejack rose both of her eyebrows and Rainbow gained a shocked expression right in her eyes. Neither had expected the words to come, but they were happy for the lamia. It was a massive deal to have gone from the dark caverns to the light plains of the surface.

Only Rarity didn’t fully agree with the matter. But as long as the creature wouldn’t have gotten in her way, there wouldn’t be trouble. Only then she could agree on the fact that it was a good thing. Yet one thing remained answered for them, what had happened down in the caverns?

“It’s a long story, you wouldn’t be interested in it, really. Short version is that they found me after hours of looking,” the lamia said to them with a little mischievous smirk that went across her lips. One that told them there was more going on than that they originally had told them. But they weren’t the ones to complain about it too much actually.

The group was back together and complete, that was all that counted in their own eyes. “Say Pinkie, how do you like the sky? Ah mean, ya only saw it through a hole in the ice. Now are ya seeing it up close,” said Applejack. The mare was interested in the lamia’s transition from ground to surface.

Pinkie had a little glance upwards where she saw the thick white clouds gathered over the skies and released a small gulp. “S-Still getting u-used to it. Twilight told me, to just look straight ahead or down for the most time.”

The admiral nodded with her head before she gave the creature a warm smile. “She’s a smart one, so she’s most likely right on it. Just give it time, ya be getting used to it. But none of y’all wanna tell us what really happened down there?”

Then the attention was thrown back to the group as a whole. The three mares looked at one another and thought about the things that they had both seen and done. Quickly they then turned back to Applejack and quickly shook with their heads. “Nope, nothing else happened down there that is needed to you all to be knowing,” claimed Twilight in a rather clumsy way.

Of course there were matters that had to be shared, but not in that very moment. Time would be there when they would reveal the possible truth to them all, but not on that day and especially not on that time. “Fine then,” commented Applejack before she crossed her arms over each other.

Yet every question had to be answered with an equal and opposing question. For Twilight that meant that she could ask what had been going on in the camp they had made. Which was exactly the question she asked. Her glance went from left to right, passing Applejack and Rarity before it finally rested upon Rainbow.

The pegasus was having some difficulty to process the question as she scratched herself behind the head. A gulp was given by her before she exhaled deeply. It was enough to let Twilight know there was trouble ahead. “Something bad, isn’t it?” asked Twilight. She didn’t even think for a second about her words. Rainbow nodded quick and then she realized that it was her turn to speak up. But what words would she have used in order to say what was going on?

Hesitation struck Rainbow for the moment when she closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. One deep inhale was taken by the mare before she nodded to herself. “Okay,” she said before her eyes opened up again. The major looked at the three of them as the words were spoken up about what had happened.

“After some time of nothing and building up the camp we finally got around doing nothing. But I had the feeling we would have been watched near constantly. It crawled up beneath my skin and it worried me. So I had a look at the summit and noticed the greatest pain we could be having at us. Twilight…” The tone of the pegasus suddenly turned a whole lot darker as she didn’t wanted to speak the words that would have followed.

But she had to tell them. She had to tell them as they were for the safety of the whole company. One half of them knew it, the other half didn’t. Secrets were kept from both sides, but that one secret was one that had to be revealed no matter what.

“I am almost positive to say that, the griffons of Sharpbeak are lurking at us from the summit. They are hidden in the clouds and just waiting for us to make a mistake,” spoke Rainbow to them. Two gasps for air were given off as the lamia only tilted her head. She had never heard of a griffon before. Though as she judged the reactions of the mares, they meant a whole lot of trouble.

Twilight almost instantly turned herself around and glanced over to the summit of the mountain. Her eyes looked around and about, as if she tried to watch through the clouds. But with no success of course. The only other thing that could have been done was to come up with the plan of attack. So the unicorn turned back around as the group formed a circle.

The eyes of Twilight looked at every last one of them before she gave one powerful nod to herself. The situation could only have been resolved in one manner and it wasn’t going to be something that they would have enjoyed.

The words that Twilight spoke were said in a tone that made clear what they had to do. As commanding as Applejack could have been, that much could Twilight as well have been from time to time. “I don’t know what you three have been doing out here other than that, and quite frankly I don’t even want to know. But I pray to the goddesses that you haven’t done something stupid enough as to fire a shot at them,” said Twilight to them all.

Rarity and Applejack only shook their heads just before Rainbow interrupted the unicorn. “We haven’t done such a thing. We realized the facts as they were also about just before you arrived. Attacking them is not going to work. That plan sunk faster than a magical cannon could fire. They have the advantage of the clouds to begin with. Followed by many more.”

The mare nodded to the words in calm. “Secondly, if we would have fired even one shot, it can be seen as an attack on them,” added Twilight into the group. Her mind was turning as quick as it possibly could have been before a deep exhale of relief was given off. “I’m just glad you didn’t decided to attack them. If you did, they could be giving Equestria a declaration of war. To make matters worse, we too would be plunged again into something we don’t want to be.”

“Another war… Another war between the anthronies and the griffons. So what is your plan, Twilight?” Rainbow asked. She just wanted the whole ordeal to be over with.

Twilight had to think about the answer for a minute or two. The silence took them all in its dreaded hold. Only the soft breathing of the unicorn could be heard clear while the gears in her mind turned and twisted all the way.

Finally she looked back up to the group and shook her head lightly. “There’s nothing that we can do other than to keep on moving. It’s still a long, long way to Canterlot, or home if you like. But with the griffons right at us, I recommend packing up. They need to attack us first if we want to keep the excuse of it being self-defense. If we attack now, it’s going to be war. If we let them wait, stalk us crazy and then attack…we can call it defense for our lives and they would be the ones trailed or kicked out.”

“So, both are not the most ideal options?” Rarity asked after she rose her head a little bit. With her arms going cross over each other and her posture set to slight intimidation, she had been listening to the whole story in silence. Yet the conclusion she came to hit the nail right in the head. Sharp to the point as always.

“Neither of them are ideal, yes, but it really is weighing up against each other. Either two nations go back at war and thousands shall see their lives ended. Or just six go crazy and preserve those thousands of lives. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, I’m afraid,” said Twilight. Even she was having a true difficulty saying the words that were on her mind.

Yet she was used to placing pretty much everypony else before her. “The solution needs to work at long term, Rarity,” commented Fluttershy all the sudden. The doctor had been silent for almost all of the time but finally dared to say the thoughts she had. “Shooting them down only solves the troubles we’re having now and not the ones we’re gonna get. Us going crazy, is the long term solution.”

“But even with that, they would still be finding a way to work themselves around the fact that they are going to be the victims. I mean, if they stalk us crazy like you say, an accident hides in a small corner.” Rainbow spoke up as she did a step backwards.

The words of the major were true indeed. The matter could indeed have been twisted and then it meant that they would still be at war. Yet that was a worry for both later and not something Twilight wanted to really think about in the matter.

So the reply that was given off to the major was one that only Twilight could give. That dry tone in her voice compared to the almost casual glance in her eyes. “So, it’s simple then, don’t go crazy,” she said before her lips curled up into a little smile.

“Hmpf, easy for you to say,” whispered Rainbow almost inaudible to herself. She then shook her head a little bit before the whole company knew what needed to be done. They had to clean everything up and store it once again. The time had fallen upon them all to go to the place they had desired to have been for such a long time already.

Finally had the time fallen upon them to just go home. The trek home was knocking at their door and they knew somehow that it all wouldn’t be as easy as they would have liked. All of them sensed the trouble that the griffons would be giving them all. Yet that, wasn’t the worst compared to what spooked through the mind of Twilight Sparkle.

The little camp that the pegasus, earth anthrony and the unicorn had built up, was taken apart in just a matter of minutes. Everypony did their fair share in cleaning it up before they all nodded. Everything was back the way it was supposed to be and they were ready to leave.

They were finally ready to leave the place and begin the journey home. The journey that would probably take them through the most beautiful sights of Equestria once more. For they had one massive advantage with them that them.

They could be walking home in the straightest line possible. Nothing had to be gathered along the way back, nothing had to be collected. All that needed to be done was for them to separate at one vital point and for them all to have gone their own way.

If things were only that easily done and said for each of them.

Twilight stood up front of the company and used her staff as a walking cane. None of the arcane powers surged through it yet. Though she had the feeling that that could have changed rather soon. “Is everypony ready? I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, it’s true and you all know it. We’re going home, we’re actually and finally just going, home,” she said to each of them.

The feelings of comfort managed to nestle itself in all of the mares as they felt relieved. Their quest had been over and they could be living their lives as it was without the intervention of the unicorn. But would they be received as heroes in Canterlot? Or would their deeds have gone in history unnamed?

Rainbow Dash had one last look behind her as the group began to move. The mares of the company silently past her as she took out her binoculars once more. She had to be certain about something. She had to be certain of the fact whether or not those very griffons were standing under the command of Sharpbeak.

With a feeling of illness which turned her stomach inside out were the binoculars placed before her eyes. Once more she glanced over in the distance as she caught something in her ears. Something that made them twitch gently. “Rainbow, are you coming or what?” the voice of Twilight echoed within them.

The binoculars were taken away from the eyes when the pegasus turned into the direction of the sounds. There she stood, with the elongated staff in her hands and ready to drag her along if she had to. It caused a small chuckle to come from the mouth of Rainbow before she shook her head gently. “I’m coming, I just need a minute to be certain about something. I need to have that one last look through the skies and see what else is all up there. It’s a pegasus thing.”

Twilight nodded to the explanation given to her before she cracked a small smile of her own as well. “Alright then, Rainbow. Just, don’t fall behind too far. Even with your wings, you might not be able to find us.”

“Right, like I’m not going to find a group of anthronies and a lamia in the middle of the woods? You’re all brightly skinned, remember? Even with the darkness of the caves I could still see you. No need to worry about me, Twilight. I’ll be okay, go back to them, they need you more than I do,” said Rainbow before she gestured with her hand that the unicorn had to move.

The soothsayer nodded one last time before she turned back around and rejoined the company as before. They would be off to start a leg they had never expected to make.

Finally was Rainbow back alone and the binoculars were placed once more before her eyes. Once more she glanced at the summit and changed the zoom of the things. The zoom was then enhanced a couple dozen times up to the size where she almost get just one of the shapes right in her sights.

Only then was the shock of a lifetime made by the pegasus. A shock went through her and she didn’t even dare to take her binoculars off. One of the shades in the darkness reminded her of somepony she had a growing hatred towards. A deep huff was released through her nostrils while the blinks were made.

Rainbow couldn’t have believed the facts as they were. Yet they were presented bright as the sun to her. A deep exhale was then followed up before the binoculars were dropped. The name wasn’t even spoken. But as the binoculars were raised again could the mouth of the creature be seen moving rather quick.

Almost as if it gave orders of some kind. The major of the air force knew straight away what it was that was being said and realized the time had come. Time for her to return to the company and share the warning based on loose speculations. Yet perhaps it was better to do it that way then figuring it out in the harsh reality of the matter.

Speed was of the essence to catch up with the group. Something she happened to have plenty of. Perhaps even more than anypony else in the land of Equestria.

Chapter LXXV

The binoculars that Rainbow carried were removed from her eyes, the shock was clearly visible within the pair of them. Whomever she had seen up there, it must have been an old enemy of hers. One that she rather saw to the grave more than anypony else in the entire world.

The binoculars were placed back inside of her jacket before she shook her head a little bit. “Gilda,” whispered Rainbow in hatred to herself before the turn back was made. The eyes glanced around through the vegetation of the forest in the hope to catch at least a glimpse of the remaining mares.

Though much to her own bad luck, that didn’t seem to be the case. Which resulted in Rainbow releasing another deep exhale through her nostrils. She was tired of it all, she wanted to just get back to her home for a change without much trouble chasing her. The only problem was, that trouble laid right above the clouds.

“Just, great,” she muttered to herself. There was nothing that could be seen. What then followed was that her wings spread outwards and gave a flap of two. A gentle moan was released by Rainbow before she made the jump into the air.

Her cover had been blown and the griffons must have seen her taking off. Whatever plan they were having for the company of mares, it would have been accelerated by ten times instantly. The pegasus found herself flying through the air and over the treetops. It was as she said, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to find five brightly colored mares among the green leaves of the forest.

With her sharp eyes she glanced from right to left as she had to find the others. Doubt began to fill her though. She was doubting whether or not the griffons would already had set in the chase or not. Everything pointed out that they would be storming right after her. Yet the yells that usually went accompanied with them remained silent.

It was all just a little bit odd in the mind of the pegasus. What was the plan of Sharpbeak? What had his mentally insane mind came up with again for the lot of them? Or even worse, the land of Equestria?

All of those questions just surged through the sub consciousness of Rainbow. She didn’t thought about them, yet the feeling in her guts told her perhaps more than enough. Trouble laid ahead, as per usual. Or better said: behind her and lying in wait. Waiting for them to make a mistake.

Rainbow just couldn’t think about it too much, she had to find the company of mares no matter what. The pegasus thought that she wasn’t gone for that long, but it was a mistake quickly realized. She had forgotten that they all had the energy to go back home again. And that very energy had caused them to advance a whole lot more than the major had originally expected.

A grumble was released through her throat, she just couldn’t find the group that easily. The vegetation only became thicker and thicker. Which meant that she had to descend if there would have been any chance of them being found again.

So that was exactly what the rainbow haired pegasus did. She made the descend through the treetops and avoided a couple of branches that were in her way. Before she knew it did she stood back on the ground and released another exhale.

Her signature landing pose had been assumed before the head looked back upwards. The eyes went from right to left as she inspected everything. It was quiet in her nearby surroundings. Perhaps a little bit too quiet for her liking.

The silence that had been placed over the little forest was frightening. It meant to her that anything could have happened. Rainbow gently rose back up to her full height and tucked her wings behind her back. The eyes then looked behind her and the mare realized just how thick the vegetation was. Which caused a whole new problem to be emerged.

“Now this is going to be fun,” the mare chuckled to herself just before a cocky grin formed itself over her lips. She gently shook her head and just began to wander in a direction. To her it felt as if the company had been going that way. Whether she was right or not, remained to be seen.

Step by step did the feelings got stronger. She was making her way to something that remained hidden throughout the forest. Everything just looked the same in her eyes. But there the little bit of luck that she could see the sun from time to time and therefore adjust her heading. The pegasus had to be close to the company. She could hear whispers from ahead of her position.

The voices were unknown to her, the words were inaudible to her. It could have been anything and anypony that was walking ahead of her. Rainbow realized the little fact and made the decision to not just barge in. Instead she would approach the mysterious group in silence and stealth.

If it were the griffons, she could follow them for a little bit to figure out what their plan was. If it was the company she was looking for, all of her prayers would have been answered. The mare nodded calmly to herself before she hunched a little bit and increased her speed.

A couple of seconds later she hid herself behind a tree and looked to the other side, at both sides of the bark. One side revealed nothing to her except more sounds. The other revealed just nothing. Not even the sounds of the mysterious beings could be heard.

Not only was it a heading for Rainbow, she also knew in which direction the group was going. Once again she initiated her sneak mode and crawled further over the forest floor. She tried to make as little noise as possible as the silence of the forest got to her. Not even the usual birds were singing their songs.

The mare looked around her position before she glanced through the branches of a little bush in front of her. Her eyes went wide as she finally managed to get an eye on the group she had been following. Mixed feelings went through her and she couldn’t determine whether or not they were good or bad.

It was a relief that she had at least found the mysterious trekking group, but it wasn’t the group she had hoped for. Through the branches of the bush they could be seen. They were just walking around there as if there wasn’t anything going on. They were unaware of the dangers that lurked and whom was in fact spying on them.

“Twilight,” the major said before she slowly rose back up. Finally was she granted a full on view of the group before her and gave off a smile. Even though it wasn’t the group she had secretly hoped to have found, it was still equally as good. “Hey Twilight!” she spoke up in a louder tone.

The ears of Twilight Sparkle twitched when they caught her name. The unicorn soothsayer turned around to see where it could have possibly came from before she finally saw it. A smile then formed upon her face as she was relieved to see her again.

The pegasus walked out of the bushes and up to the company. A massive sigh of relief from both sides was given off was the mares. “I thought we had lost you, how did you find us?” asked Twilight before she spread her arms to give the major a hug.

It felt a little bit unusual to Rainbow to actually fall right into it. But for some unexplainable reason, she fell right into it and gave it just as firm back to Twilight. Perhaps it was the relief and the gladness of seeing the whole company once more. “The vegetation was thicker than I thought,” the pegasus explained before the hug was broken, “but something told me I had to head in your direction and then I heard voices. I thought it was something else, but turned out to be you lot.”

Twilight gave off a little chuckle before she shook her head. “Yeah, we had a little argument about what needed to be done next and what direction we should be taking,” the soothsayer explained. But she was just extremely happy that Rainbow had rejoined the company. The mares were complete once more and they could venture onwards. At least that was the plan.

“You’ve seen anything of interest up there, Rainbow?” was asked by Rarity. The pirate captain still remembered the little fact of why the pegasus left them.

Rainbow turned her attention over to the pirate with a near confused expression upon her face. One that quickly changed to one of worry as she nodded to them all. All of the mares suddenly focused their full attention upon the pegasus. Whatever she had seen, it could only be a trouble to them. “Go on then, don’t let us die of anticipation,” the ivory unicorn added to the pressure.

“Alright, alright, don’t push me!” Rainbow snarled in return before she regained her cool. A deep exhale was given off before she said the words that were on her mind. “Gilda is on top of the mountain, and I’m pretty sure they too have descended by now. I don’t know what Sharpbeak has planned for us, but it’s not going to be pretty. Anything involving him isn’t pretty.”

Just the name of the maddened griffon emperor caused the shivers to be traveling down the spine of every being with the exception of Pinkie. She didn’t knew who this ‘Sharpbeak’ was and wanted to ask the question that was on her mind. Though before she could have even spoken a single word was the answer given to her. “A being that gives us a lot of trouble if we aren’t careful enough,” said Rainbow to Pinkie with a serious look.

The lamia nodded in an understanding manner, she then didn’t ask anything else. But Twilight’s worries became only greater. She moved herself over to Fluttershy and charged her horn a little bit.

“W-What are you, p-planning?” the other pegasus eeped out. Fluttershy hadn’t expected such a thing to happen. Not in that very moment at least.

“Whatever it is, Twilight, just make it quick. I don’t want to end up as griffon chum anytime soon and you know it,” commented Rainbow before she began to look around her. Any sign that could be of notice of the griffon’s presence among them, would have been too close of an encounter already.

“I just need to examine her a little bit. If we’re going to run for our lives, I need to know whether or not she’s in great condition,” commented Twilight.

Those words alone caused an eyebrow to be risen by Applejack. She –as well as Rainbow and Rarity– knew of course that something had happened down in the depths of the mountains. But what it was still was unknown to them. The time was there for Twilight to come clean to them all. The time was there that she told what had happened.

"Twilight, just what happened down there?” the admiral asked. She glanced deep over Twilight’s own eyes. The piercing looks she gave were naturally annoying for the unicorn before she turned herself around to face her.

She wanted to speak the words that were on her mind and tell the mare what she had told a couple times before already. Yet before she could even say a word, she was cut off by Fluttershy who spoke up. “That’s none of your concern, Applejack,” said Fluttershy quick and simple, before Twilight returned to her examination.

The magical aura travelled all over the pegasus’ body while the unicorn stroked her cheek. Every single inch of the body was coated within the light at one point or the other. Seconds ticked by when haste was of the essence for them all. Rainbow deemed that they had wasted a little bit too much time with it all, but if it helped the pegasus, so it had to be.

Annoyance came up in the admiral before she just seemed to shrug it off. “Fine then. If y’all wanna play mystery games with me, fine,” she said before she turned away from the group. The feeling of mistrust naturally came up in her and she had all the right to feel it. But she also realized the fact that there was something down there. Something that was too dangerous to be spoken upon on the surface. The knife sliced once more at two sides but the admiral only felt one side of it. The other side could leave her slightly cold as she didn’t care.

Seconds later did the light of the horn disappear and Twilight closed her eyes. Silence had taken over everypony as she seemed to analyze readings that she had gotten. But why she didn’t just made an arcane paper out of them was a mystery to Rarity.

It almost seemed as if Twilight wanted to keep something hidden about Fluttershy. Something that only she and the pegasus herself seemed to know. The unicorn then didn’t gave it that much thought anymore, after which she walked over to Applejack. Only to stand next to her in silence.

The pair of them were sunken deep in their thoughts. They had been working together for such a long time, it almost seemed as if the chase of one another had been given up. Though deep in their hearts, they knew they were still too different from one another.

“Is it bad, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy while the soothsayer just remained silent to her. Not even the slightest bit of sound could have been heard out of her throat. Pinkie became a little worried when the seconds continued to tick by.

“Just hurry up, alright! I am not in the mood to fight the griffons again!” Rainbow exclaimed. All of them seemed to have gotten on edge of the events. But all for different reasons.

“Fine then,” the soothsayer muttered after she had opened her eyes again. The sudden voice of Rainbow had broken her concentration. A hand was placed upon the shoulder of Fluttershy while a gentle smile went across her lips. “You’re able to run and fly at high speeds, but you might be a little stiff if you try so. Because of the whole, you know what I mean.”

The doctor nodded towards the soothsayer before a sigh of relief was given off. Before Twilight even knew it had she emerged in the second hug in a short time. The arms of Fluttershy could be seen around her as the mare was just glad that everything was alright.

The soothsayer chuckled a little bit as she then returned the hug just as tightly. “It’s alright, it’s alright,” she said in a calm tone. The hug was broken shortly afterwards. The doctor then gave of a smile to her in a thankful manner.

Twilight smiled back with a nod before she turned around. “Is everypony ready? It’s about time we continue to go forwards. It’s time, to go home,” said Twilight. Those words were much to the relief of the other mares as they finally could trek on. Rainbow seemed to have been the most relieved of all as she finally had gotten her way.

Rarity and Applejack were taken out of their thought when they both caught the words in their ears. But instead of turning their heads away from each other, they turned towards one another. The mares glanced deep in the eyes of the other and for a second saw everything.

Just for a second could the two actually see the amount of trouble that the other had been going through. In the eyes of the others it would almost have seen as if they had fallen in love. For there even was a massive blush that went across both of their cheeks.

Pinkie just tilted her head whereas Rainbow brought the palm of her hand to her face. “…Ugh, that’s about the last thing we need!” she exclaimed to the pair of them. Instantly were the looks just utterly destroyed as their attention shifted over to Rainbow.

Perhaps it was just for the better that it was done, as the glances exchanged were truly awkward to look at. “Excuse me dear, but what is the last thing you need?”

“You really are thick, aren’t you?” were the last words that could have been spoken by Rainbow. After that was it Twilight that gave the go signal. They had wasted too much time there and they had to continue onward in silence.

~~~~

Which was then exactly the thing that they did. The talking was done in whispers as they had formed one massive line behind one another. The smaller they appeared to be, the smaller the chance was that the griffons would have been able to track them down. At least that was the plan made by Twilight.

Yet with the lamia’s thick body slithering around like it did, that proved to have been a little bit more difficult than expected. Still, the chances were taken upon the sets that they had. Anything was better than nothing in their eyes. Not to mention the fact that with Twilight ahead of them, followed by Fluttershy, Rainbow and Rarity, Pinkie followed suit. Which meant that her body would be wiping out the traces of them four.

It only left the fresh trail of Applejack’s hooves in the ground. The excuse could have been given that she was some kind of hunter that traced down a giant snake, or even a giant cockatrice perhaps. All kinds of things could have been made up if one looked at the trail.

Twilight continued to press on forwards while she charged her horn slight. The small amounts of arcane power were enough to summon up a map that she would use to navigate through the whole place. She could enhance the zoom upon it if she wanted and pinpoint exactly where they were. Though exactly pinpointing took a lot of time. And that time they didn’t had.

So the unicorn was resorted to just mare guesses as she then made the decision to plan a little bit ahead of them. For at one point or the other, they had to plot their way back to Canterlot. Whether the group liked it or not, they would be going to the soothsayer’s and capital of their land. The one place were two of them would be instantly in trouble.

The thoughts continued to rush through her mind. The unicorn had located the general area of just where they were. The unicorn nodded to herself while she plotted out a gentle course through the forest. One that would be taking them already to the south. The sooner they were out of that forest, the quicker the actual final leg of their journey could begin.

Though the options weren’t as great as Twilight had hoped for. The options that were given to her by the map, only caused her to worry even deeper and more. Shivers went down her spine when she thought about a previous encounter. She wasn’t in the mood to repeat any of it again.

“No, we can’t do that,” she spoke to herself in disbelief. The words were loud enough to be caught by the rest of the company who all rose their eyebrows. It would only have been a matter of time before the lingering question was asked.

Rarity moved a little bit upwards up to the point to where she stood right next to Twilight. “What can’t we do, if I may be so free to ask?” she asked of the soothsayer. The pirate captain had fired the shots and it was up to the soothsayer to take the hits.

Twilight turned her gaze over to Rarity as the answer was calmly spoken by her. “If we’re going home, we have to go through the woods of Everfree once more. But that means…”

“Meaning there’s a chance we meet that demoness again. I remember her very well. Never seen a more gruesome creature in my life. And given how it went last time, I don’t think she will be that forgiving,” said Rarity as she too remembered the sight of the demonic Sunset Shimmer before her. The memory was powerful enough to let a slight shiver travel up her spine.

Twilight nodded in response to the spoken words before she rubbed her neck. She still felt the talons of the demoness just taking a hold of her like it was nothing. Twilight had fought the Dark Witch before and she managed to survive it. But what about a second time? Luck ran out eventually and they didn’t knew how much they had left.

A deep exhale was given off by the soothsayer before her eyes were shut for a moment. “We can’t go through the Everfree, I refuse to go through the Everfree. But the forest is too large to travel around to in a reasonable time. No, there must be another way.” The thoughts were left behind for the moment. The eyes were opened up again and she glanced over the map.

The other mares had of course listened to the words said but made the decision to not tell anything in their behalf. Just the thought of Twilight fighting the demoness was a worry big enough. And with the images still pretty fresh in their minds, they all knew that travelling through the Everfree wasn’t going to be an option.

Twilight zoomed out upon the map to see what other possibilities there were. Going around the woods was considered as well. That meant that they would be gone for yet another week if the weather was against them. No, there had to be a quicker way to get from their location to Canterlot. One that was also considered a whole lot safer than anything they had done so far.

“Hmmm, there, that looks like a good spot in my eyes,” said Twilight while she pointed to a specific place on the map. Rarity’s eyes glanced over it and could have sworn that it was a place near the sea. Her attention then shifted over to Twilight once more with a questioning gaze in them. Almost as if she didn’t fully understood where the soothsayer was pointing to.

“We make for the nearest harbor and take a boat from there to Canterlot. Once there, we shall be safe and our quest shall finally have gotten to an end,” commented Twilight with a content tone to her voice. It almost seemed as if she was genuinely happy about the fact that they finally could have made an end to everything.

But the idea of going to the nearest port troubled nopony more than Rarity. She was a wanted mare of course and the company would stick out like a sore thumb. Perhaps the idea to go for the nearest port isn’t the smartest one to do. Especially when she thought deeper about it.

All kinds of different and horribly scenarios went through her head from just a simple capture by the town’s guards, up to a personal bounty hunter finally able to claim its prize. The horrors that rushed through her were unsettling to say the least. But that was Rarity in essence. She was both unsettling to begin with, as well as slightly paranoid whenever she was on land. Not to mention a master of deception.

The mare looked a little bit better to the place where they would be going to port and noticed how it was the settlement of Manehatten. That alone caused a deep exhale to be released through her nostrils. “I have to object against your decision to go for Manehatten, Twilight. There’s nothing there but villainy and scumbaggery.”

“Good, should make you feel right at home then,” the soothsayer grinned in return. She couldn’t resist herself to make the horrible joke. But Rarity couldn’t laugh about it and just rolled her eyes away from her. The unicorn pirate then dropped back to her original place in line and sunk a little bit in her thoughts. Perhaps one of the other members would be able to talk her right out of it.

The longer she waited, the more Rarity began to get the feeling that the mares all just wanted to go straight for the nearest port. None of them had the desire to walk either around and through the Everfree. And since there wasn’t any kind of air transportation over the forest, that was excluded from the planning as well.

Manehatten was the nearest port they could be going to and Rarity had lied about it. It was one of the places where she had made one of her greatest plunders right before the coast. A merchant ship filled with gold and treasure. The early morning went through her head as if it was the day before.

~~~~

The vessel had only just sailed out of port when her ship approached it. The weak but annoying morning sun she had behind her. The shadow that was cast only gave off a terrifying shade of darkness in front of them. With the unicorn at the helm, the crew had prepared everything. Months of planning were being placed in the sinking of the merchant’s ship.

Finally had the time been there as the cannons made their deafening noises. Timber flew all around as the screams of anthronies falling in the water was relived vividly. The battle was over quickly, but it still felt like a massive chore to the unicorn. With the ship sinking before hers, the gold was recovered and brought aboard her own ship.

One of the greatest raids before the coast of Manehatten and it was her who had done it. She was a wanted mare throughout the whole settlement and that worried her to no end. Applejack could only grin a little bit as she had heard about the raid and who had done it. The very fact that they would return to the scene of the crime only seemed to have actually amused her in some sickening manner.

~~~~

The admiral shook her head a little bit as she didn’t even spoke a word on the matter. But inside she was just laughing her flanks off. Yet Rarity wasn’t sitting down either. Once she had realized the little fact that nopony wanted to divert from the given course was there one thing she could have done. She had to take the matters in her own hands if she wanted to survive.

Manehatten was the place where they all would embark on one last sailing trip to Canterlot. Yet it also could have been the place where she would separate herself from the company. Plans were forged deep inside of her mind as she thought about the near needless possibilities. Possibilities to blend in with the folk of the settlement as well as getting on the ship that the company does before she finally would just leave.

Leave and once again be as free as a bird.

“So we all agree then? We go to Manehatten and take a ship from there?” Twilight asked them all while she had a look to them all. Nopony seemed to have been either in the mood or the place to argue against her. So it meant that they all agreed in unison. And with that had the decision been made. They would travel to the place, get a ship and sail to Canterlot. But one more thing could have been added to the list. The little thing that the griffons would be leaving them alone for the rest of the journey.

Whether they liked it or not, those creatures were still hunting them all for who knew what real reason. They were still just hunting them like small prey. But the location of just where they had taken their refuge was something that remained unknown.

Rainbow never ceased to remove her eyes from the skies. She had to know just where they were at any given time. Not even with her binoculars could she spot them clearly. But a feeling that laid ever so deep within her soul told her that they were there, somewhere. Lurking around, waiting about, waiting for a mistake to have been made on their behalf.

The feelings never seemed to have been too right in the matter, but it was just about the best that could have either been done and said. They had all to be cautious about it and from time to time, other members of the group looked up to the skies and the ground.

They weren’t out of the woods yet. Not by a longshot.

It seemed to have been just smooth sailing for the mares. Weren’t it for the exception of the fact that they were hunted down like prey. But the reality of the matter actually went a whole lot deeper than that. Literally, a whole lot deeper. For next to the griffons above them there was also a danger that lurked beneath them.

~~~~

It wasn’t anything in the range of some kind of wild beast that dwelled beneath the surface of the land. It wasn’t the Gorgon One either. No, Twilight Sparkle had managed to get the attention of the devil herself. The devil herself had set her very eyes and gaze of darkness upon Twilight. Ever since the settlement down in the deep had been covered with the symbols of both the goddesses of the sun and moon, she had been preying on revenge.

Upon her throne she sat, hidden among the fog it carried before a deep snarl was given off. The devil herself –the creator of the Dark Witches– held an orb in her hand. The elongated nails that looked like knifes held it while the set of eyes looked in the orb. There she saw them walking. Just walking through the forest as if there was nothing going on.

They were all unaware of the terror that was brooding beneath them and the lips of the devil curled up in a sickening smile. “You have given me so much trouble, little Sparkle. Hmhmha, but fear not dire child, for you shall soon be reunited with the one friend you ever had in your life. You shunned my arts for so long, but I shall show you, just what they can be doing.”

A sickening laughter was given off through the inner circle of Tartarus before the orb was just shattered as if it was nothing. Shards of crystal fell down to the ground just before the devil stood up from her throne. She made the descend down the stairs of her spiked throne before the eyes fell upon the near endless magma pits before her.

“You think you’re so strong with that mind of yours, but I shall reveal to you just how easily it is to have it broken. One more night, Twilight. One more night…and you shall forever be, different.” Another sickening laughter of pure dark enjoyment was then given off by the devil while she spread her arms.

Soon enough began all of the magma pits to erupt like they were geysers of some kind. The deafening sounds of the magma even managed to crawl over the laughter of Nightmare Moon. The devil herself had set her eyes upon Twilight Sparkle. Nopony would be safe anymore if the plan succeeded. Whatever it was in the first place.

Chapter LXXVI

A couple of days had gone by while the company travelled further down the path given to them. Twilight continued to lead them no matter where they went to. All of the mares had their confidence placed in the unicorn for good reason. The very fact that it was the soothsayer that would have brought them all to Manehatten, gave some sort of strange relief to the group.

But all for a lot of different reasons. Rarity never ceased her pondering on the matter of just how she would be departing the company. Whereas Rainbow Dash could only think about the fact that the griffons were still out there. They were somewhere hidden in plain sight. Hunting upon the group as they always had done. It terrified the major perhaps a whole lot more than it originally should have been. She was rather safe than sorry when it came down to them.

Because in the days that they had been walking, the company never seemed to have gotten in straight up contact with the creatures. Never did they even saw a shimmer from one of them. Yet it was felt by all of them as if they were being watched. That somewhere over the plains they were walking it lurked. Prying eyes that were constantly looking at them, eyes of a creature unknown.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t there to see their well-being okay. If anything, it would have loved to destroy their very well-being.

Time went on while the cursed woods of Everfree grew upon the horizon. At first it was just a little tiny dot. Though the closer they came, the bigger the woods seemed to have gotten. Not to forget the more trouble there would have been.

Questions arose in the mares like how long Twilight wanted to continue upon the path that headed to the dreaded woods. Perhaps an even more frightful question, was the one which asked how far the reach of Sunset Shimmer was. Death lurked in that forest and they all knew that fact. But how long the reach of certain death was, was the unknown factor of the matter.

After hours had Twilight then come to a standstill. She had come to the conclusion that they had walked more than enough while the sun was already setting again. The whole day had they walked once again just to get closer to their goal. They were finally at the part of Everfree where they would head back for the east coast of their land.

“That’s it for today. We set up our camp here and pray on the fact that nothing happens,” said Twilight just before she charged her horn. The mares all agreed on the matter. They all were too tired to bring in anything against the words of the unicorn.

The void storage was opened once more and the tent was brought out. With a couple of motions of Twilight’s hands was it set up like if it was nothing. Relief came to all of the mares when they finally could just crash in their beds and have the much needed sleep they required.

Applejack and Rainbow were the first two mares that got inside and mere seconds later were the sounds heard. The soothsayer couldn’t help herself but to give off a little chuckle. They must have been exhausted if they crashed down in their bunks like that.

But it also was the signal that her job wasn’t over yet. There were still one or two things that needed to be done by the unicorn. Twilight walked in the direction of the forest and glanced over it. The hands were placed behind her back as she just kept on standing there.

Twilight stood there in utter silence and without a motion. With her horn still tabbed in the arcane powers, neither Rarity nor Fluttershy knew what she was doing to be exact. Along the way to the campsite had they explained to Pinkie Pie just whom it was that resided inside of the forest and what the relation was with Twilight.

The lamia felt sorry for the unicorn as she felt the pain that the mare was going through. But she couldn’t compare it to any pain she had ever gotten in her life. It only added more in the respect that Twilight was a strong mare. A mare who kept on pushing even if all the light had faded away.

Pinkie had joined both Rarity and Fluttershy with a tilted head. The lamia wondered in silence what was going to happen or what was going on. Silence had taken over the grounds as they all kept on watching to Twilight. The silence had turned eerie for their feelings while the wind came from the woods themselves.

Every last bit of dark magic was carried with it like nothing. They felt as a massive shiver being sent down their spines. The mares couldn’t help themselves but to be mesmerized though. It almost seemed as if Twilight tried to conquer the very woods that she feared so much.

Yet what they didn’t knew was that the soothsayer made constant whispers through her mouth. She spoke of events long gone by in the tongue of the ancient unicorns. But she also performed a massive spell that hopefully would have been able to protect them all.

The longer they stood there, the more there seemed to be some kind of shield had come down around their camp. A shield that covered quite the large area from the campsite and went all the way around it. Rarity and Fluttershy watched it grow in amazement while Pinkie didn’t even dare to move a single muscle.

The silence that had taken them over was utterly unsettling. But with the shield being lowered even for a little bit, it did already felt like the very coldness of the forest decreased. Almost as if the very winds were blocked by the shield that was lowered down on them.

Twilight had to explain it at one point or the other though. But she still seemed to have been too busy with everything else. Naturally wouldn’t they have been the mares to disrupt her from doing so. So Rarity tapped Fluttershy on the shoulder and pointed to a small area under the dome.

The eyes of the pegasus followed the finger to the point and didn’t fully understood what the meaning of it was. “What do you mean with that little spot?” she asked in utter confusion.

Rarity could only give off a small chuckle before she shook her head. “I think that that is the most ideal place for a little fireplace, to keep those on the night watch warm,” the pirate captain replied. In an instant did the doctor knew what was meant with it and she nodded calmly.

Fluttershy was actually nodding to the idea and turned around to walk away from the scene. “Pinkie, you can do whatever you want. Just, just don’t disturb Twilight for the time being,” added Fluttershy to the lamia, before she and Rarity made their way over to the little place. Pinkie was left alone on the spot before she then silently slithered away.

She too had places to go and made her way inside of the tent. She would eventually just follow the example of both Rainbow and Applejack. Which was to crash down in the place that she called her bed.

Eventually did Twilight appeared to have been done with whatever she had been doing and the magical charge faded away from her horn. Her touch with the arcane powers were broken and she turned around with almost a sad expression upon her face. “She called it upon herself, and you know it, Twilight. That forest is now her home and she will kill you instantly…”

The soothsayer had to remind herself upon the fact that Sunset Shimmer had turned into a Dark Witch and that there just wasn’t anything left inside of her. Nothing that could turn her to the light again at least. A saddening fact with which Twilight had to live every waking minute since they were there. She feared for what horrid dreams the night would have brought to her.

The thought was quickly dispatched though. For she looked around and noticed how the night had fallen in. The moon was shining weakly as it had only just peeked around over the horizon. The night had fallen again in Equestria and Twilight felt like she had to hit the hay. Though not before she had given her attention to whatever Rarity and Fluttershy were doing.

For the two of them sat around a campfire and shared a couple of tales with one another. The mares erupted out in laughter ever so often before the stories continued. They seemed to be having a great time together and actually managed to get along. Which was a rare thing to see, especially since they meant it genuinely.

It was an unlikely friendship in the eyes of Twilight. But one she appreciated nonetheless.

The soothsayer joined the two in silence. She allowed them to continue with their stories. They welcomed Twilight to the campfire before they went on again. The stories of fortune and mischief all did their turn around and about. Even Twilight couldn’t keep her laughing inside of her from time to time.

Minutes had gone by and Twilight kept on listening to the mares. She felt that a genuine warmth that was given off by the two of them. Which in return warmed her own heart. Which in yet another return made her forget about the worries of the night. Ideas were dropped before she then began to share her own adventures of events that had happened in the castle.

Events that –much to her own surprise– caused the other two mares to chuckle in delight. They found the adventures that the mare had funny and rather fitting by her personality. Not to mention the fact they were given a rather rare inside look of the always so formal looking castle. Turned out that the place was actually inhabited by buffoons from the sounds of it.

They had lost the track of time, but they knew it was late in the evening. The soothsayer had shared her tales with the other two anthronies and deemed it was time to make her departure. She and Fluttershy stood up to make way for the tent as the question was asked to Rarity.

"You want to keep watch on the first turn? I think I’ll take the second one and then wake Rainbow for hers,” said Twilight to the pirate captain. Rarity nodded to the plan and remained sitting where she had been. “Actually, I’m going for one last walk and then catch some shut eye for an hour or two. See you tomorrow, Fluttershy.”

“Goodnight you two,” added Fluttershy before she disappeared in the tent, after which she made her way to her bed in silence. Rarity’s eyes followed how the soothsayer left the campsite and even wandered out of the protective shield. She must have had a reason for it, Rarity thought to herself before she then stood up herself.

The position in which she sat was comfortable, but she didn’t happen to have some kind of back seating. Which was the little problem that annoyed her a great deal. When she talked to the other mares it wasn’t that much of a problem. But when she was alone it became a whole different story as time crawled by.

Sometime later would Rarity have crashed down against a tree that stood a little bit outside of the shield, far away from the forest itself. Her eyes glanced over the night skies and counted the stars. More and more would her eyes have adjusted themselves to the darkness. The lights in the skies only seemed to have gotten brighter. All of it together caused a smile to form upon her face.

The unicorn couldn’t help herself but to find herself just content with her life as it was shown to be. Everything that had been done up to that point seemed to have been worth it. With the exception of one little thing. One little thing that still needed to be done. One thing that caused the smile to disappear from her face the more she thought about it.

“I should do it, sometime soon actually. Before it’s too late,” the mare whispered to herself, “you have only one shot at it and you know that.” The mind than once again travelled away into places unknown and far away. But her watchful eyes never ceased to keep over the plains. Any sign of trouble, any signs of the griffons and she would have awoken the mares in the tent.

An hour had passed by in a slow manner. Time seemed to have crawled down to a pace where a snail in reverse seemed faster. The eyes of the unicorn remained open and they kept on scanning the whole area for anything. But the most striking factor had to be the fact that she hadn’t heard a single thing of Twilight since she left the shield.

The soothsayer had neither spoken a word since she had left the shield, nor had Rarity heard anything of her return. For all she knew did Twilight still wandered around and about out there, without a true aim. Or possibly even worse. Yet those were thoughts where she couldn’t think about in the moment. She had to focus upon the task that was given to her and she would be doing so.

Though when time continued to pass by, there seemed to have been a greater worry in the eyes of the unicorn. She just didn’t feel comfortable with the fact that Twilight had just gone or vanished. Wherever the other unicorn went to, it just didn’t feel good in Rarity’s eyes.

So with a slow motion did she rose her body up and groaned a little bit. The bones in her leg were stiff and cracked with every motion that was given to them. From her thighs down to her hooves, everything made a sound.

“And this is why, you don’t sit, sit down for such a long time,” she muttered to herself. One of her eyes was closed while the other giving off a troubled expression. Once Rarity finally stood fully erect, the back was straightened up and the last couple of knacks could be heard over the plain, followed by a content moan from the unicorn.

The legs then set themselves in front of the other, Rarity had begun to walk around the camp. Rarity did her best not to get much closer to the forest then she needed to. With her eyes adjusted to the darkness had she trouble to look at the fire. For every single time that she looked into its direction, it just burned in her eyes.

The feelings became a little bit annoying and she said to herself to just not look in the general direction. She had to look for Twilight and for all she knew could that mare have been on the other side of the plains by then. It worried her to near death that the unicorn was lost. Some kind of word about where she had gone off to would have been a whole lot better in her eyes. Then again, it was Twilight after all.

Rarity kept on walking around and about with her eyes peeled open for every- and anything. The trees of Everfree looked even more frightening at night then they did during the day. It wouldn’t have surprised her too much actually if they would have gotten legs and crawled up towards them. Almost as if the forest was ever expanding upon itself.

Rarity’s thoughts continued to surge around while the eyes were never given any form of rest or relaxation. Even her ears were perked and twitched at every rustle they heard. The wind was strong that night, stronger than she had expected and every blow just gave off this stone cold chill.

Time and time again could Rarity only look at the forest with a horrid expression. She wasn’t one that truly believed in all the darker arts of magic to begin with. But ever since she had seen the demoness and then that they were back near her domain, she began to become a little bit more believing.

“Luna give me strength if she entered that,” whispered Rarity to herself. The very and dreaded thought of Twilight having going inside of the forest occurred to her. The question was then opened, the question that she didn’t wanted to have an answer upon. The question about whether or not she would have been bold enough to follow Twilight, into the heart of darkness?

Rarity shook her head a couple of times before she set her eyes straight again. Twilight wouldn’t have been that stupid to barge into it. At least not according to the mind of Rarity. So the mare turned back around and perked her ears. She continued to walk a little bit further away from the tent and the shield.

She was completely exposed to the elements and thought to saw a green flash in the corner of her eyes. “What the..?” she spoke to herself after she turned around. The eyes once again scanned the whole area for the source of the green light. But there wasn’t anything to be seen. “Am, am I going crazy again?”

It wouldn’t have been the first time that Rarity thought about such a thing and definitely not being the last. But the unicorn couldn’t help herself. She knew what she had seen and she knew that trouble could be lying ahead once more.

“Must have been your imagination, Rarity,” she said to herself before the eyes made a turn up to the skies. “Perhaps a flash from up there? Aurora can do strange things this time of year.” Of course it was just a weak excuse from herself to blame the light on something else.

But while she turned around, there was a sound that was caught in her ears. The sounds of a sniffing something. Almost as if it laid somewhere in her neighboring area, crying. Rarity’s curiosity was sparked as she treated with care. Her steps were light as she followed the sounds of the sniffs.

Inch by inch did she came closer to a series of bushes where she thought that the sounds originated from. Her horn had been charged ever so slightly. Rarity was aware that there was anything that could have popped up out of them. Anything and everything could have gotten right in her way to find the unicorn.

She bit her lips a little bit when her hand reached out for branches of the bush. The tension could literally be cut at any given moment and she could stand right in the eye of the storm. Thousands of things went through her head while her fingers coiled up around a branch.

Rarity was literally one swoop away from figuring out just what caused the sniffing sounds. But she if she didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that the sounds were heard before. Yet she couldn’t place them back home. Thoughts of Twilight resting there in tears shot through her.

The scene had happened before of course, so the chance was naturally there that it could have happened again. But she needed to have confirmation. So with all of her guts she just yanked the branches aside and prepared herself for the things to come.

Her eyes were forcefully shut because Rarity had expected some kind of magical blast to come. Anticipation for something came to her, anticipation for the troubles that would come.

There was nothing. Even after a couple of seconds there was actually nothing that happened. The pirate captain opened one of her eyes as the sniffing sounds continued. Nothing in her mind made sense anymore and all she could do was to glance at what laid behind it.

And there she saw it. There she saw the origin of the sniffs and couldn’t believe what she saw. The unicorn looked straight at the other mare and gulped a little bit. Once again the scene got repeated. Twilight Sparkle just laid there in tears for whatever reason.

Rarity felt her body almost turning to stone as none of her muscles could be moved. The unicorn tried, but she was just stuck. The only part of her body that could have been moved was the mouth, which she used to speak the words to Twilight.

“Twilight,” she started in a whisper that meant the words well, “I don’t know why you’re crying, but know that we all just stand behind you. We may have joined for our own reasons, but we all heeded the call you gave to us in one way or the other. Perhaps, I don’t know, I stopped making sense of life since you called me.”

The sniffing of Twilight went silent the further Rarity spoke her words. But those very same words didn’t came in the right place for the soothsayer. She began to disgust the words that were spoken against her. There was only one wish that filled her, and that was the wish that Rarity would have shut up for a little while.

“Quiet, and leave me. Just, leave me okay? This is none of your business as you won’t be able to understand to begin with,” managed Twilight to say through her sobs. The other unicorn only could give a set of wide eyes before she let go of the branch.

The bush fell back in its natural state and Rarity finally could stand back up again. It was perhaps for the first time during their journey that Twilight had spoken against her like that. And the best thing that she could have done was to just heed the call again.

So with one motion had Rarity nodded and turned back around. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as she found it was time to head to bed. She would be waking up the next mare for the watch as soon as she had gotten back to the camp. She didn’t had the desire to stay up any longer and with Twilight crying like a foal once more, it only added up to the tiredness she had.

Yet as she came back to the camp did her eyes caught something. Something that was deemed to have been utterly impossible to say the least. For her head turned into the general direction as to where the tree stood. Out of every other tree, she looked at the one against which she had leaned on earlier that night.

And there she saw the sight that confused the living night out of her. “But that can’t be,” she said to herself before she looked around her. “I’m not coated in some kind of arcane power, right?” The idea was far-fetched, but that what laid against the tree was even more far-fetched. “But if I may here, who is that..?”

Against the tree, with its hands behind the head it laid. Legs that went crosswise over each other and almost seemed to be just relaxing. Everything good and all, weren’t it for the fact that Rarity was staring at nopony else than Rarity.

The Rarity against the tree could only give off a smirk to the other one who did the same. It then eliminated the fact that she had gone back in time and saw herself. For the other version of her could actually see her. “Well, well, well,” the pirate captain said before she placed her hands in her sides. “What trick are we having here then?”

The mare against the tree kicked up with a rather swift motion and drew both of her swords with the grin unbroken. “Oh I think you know what’s going on, impostor,” she said to her other self. A stance of battle was assumed and Rarity was ready to enter the fight.

The other mare drew her own swords as well with a fluent motion and just held them idle for the moment. Something about the matter didn’t seemed to have been right and she wanted to solve it by herself. Because one imposter, one that even spoke and completely looked like her, could have been a great trouble for her. No, the matter had to be played a whole lot smarter and not that close to the campsite. “I propose something, my dear,” the standing Rarity said with a nasty grin.

“I’m listening, dear,” the Rarity who sat against the tree replied.

“In the tent over there, are four mares asleep. You think that us two battling it out in an honorable duel would wake them up? So I propose that we move a little bit backwards. To where we have the space to fight. What say you?” The pirate captain gave only a deeper grin towards her counterpart. She had hoped to gain some sort of advantage.

But the counterpart would have just nodded to the words spoken. “Yes, waking them up from their slumber while two ladies fight their duel, isn’t something we want to do with them. The stakes, you purpose?”

“A duel, to the death. Do you accept, or decline, darling?” Rarity spoke against her counterpart. Who nodded in silence towards her. The duel was a go and either she or the mysterious other Rarity would come out as the victor.

The two moved away from the tent in silence and didn’t even dare to play tricks upon one another. There was no need for such a thing to begin with, not yet at least. No, the time of trickery and treason would be there once the battle would have emerged. But whether or not they could keep everything to themselves remained to be seen. Sounds at night usually travelled a whole lot further than in light of day.

Once the two Rarity’s found that their distance was great enough did they began to circle around one another. One sword was continuously dragged over the ground while the other took a rest upon the shoulder. Both Rarity’s did the same, both had the same glance in their eyes. They had to win, but for a series of different reasons.

The steps made by each of the mares were powerful ones. They both had that desire to end the life of the other as that way the duel could be stopped. The Rarity across her did look exactly like her down to the last flintlock, but did the counterpart also possess the skill and agility that she had? That was the thing that Rarity still needed to figure out about her counterpart. Perhaps a little talk before all hell would break loose, could be allowed.

“Who are you and why are you here?” Rarity demanded to know from her counterpart. Who at her own turn could only chuckle deep before a shake with the head was given. The answer that was about to come would not just shock, but also devastate the pirate captain.

“Do I even need an introduction to you, impostor? I’m nopony else then Rarity Brittenburg. I’m on a quest under the leading of Twilight Sparkle. I can better ask, who and what you are,” the counterpart said moments before it pointed a sword to the actual Rarity.

The eyes of the mare were narrowed as she was having enough of the riddles. There wouldn’t have been anything that could have separated her from the other. Not only did the counterpart look exactly like her, she talked and acted exactly the same as well.

“If you’re the real Brittenburg, then what makes me? A filthy impostor who lost a track of time and place? No, no, no, my dear. You’re the one that’s imposing me. You just forgot it because of the amount of memories I have. You like them? All those screams of anthronies dying?”

“They are like music to my ears,” the counterpart replied with a wicked grin. Once again it was a blow against Rarity, she didn’t knew what needed to be done anymore. There was of course one thing that could be done but that was the thing she least wanted.

She had to engage in the battle with her mysterious counterpart in order to figure out who it was that managed to portray her. The second reason behind it was that she had to know what the motivation behind everything was. The time had come for both Rarity’s to show how well they could fight against nopony else than themselves.

The swords would have clashed against one another to either block or attack. Seconds ago had the battle between life and death erupted between the two Rarity’s. Whom was whom couldn’t be determined anymore, for the jumps that were made and the flips done only threw in more confusion in the mix. Their skill was the thing that would have determined just whom of the two would have gotten out as the victor.

Time for just bald moves wasn’t there, as both of the mares just had so much at stake. One fought because she was the real one, the other because she wanted to get rid of the real one and take her place. The reasons after that were unknown but Rarity could fill in the blanks pretty well, both Rarity’s could do that fairly well.

Sword clash after sword clash echoed over the plains as the words of hatred were spewed out. The words that said they wanted to see the other nowhere else than six hooves down. But the sounds travelled a whole lot further than the two would have liked originally.

Within the canvas tent had the mares woken up one by one from it. It all began as small little ticks as if a nail was being tapped against a steel rod. The sounds didn’t seemed to have originated out of the tent though and the anthronies all looked at one another.

They then realized that both Rarity and Twilight were missing from their beds and weren’t sitting by the fires either. “Oh no,” was the only thing that Applejack said. She thought about the worst possible thing that happened between the two. “No, no, no, no, this ain’t happening!”

As quick as she could had Applejack managed to drag herself out of bed and rushed out into the cold night. It didn’t matter to her how cold it was, she had to be certain of just one thing. The rest of the mares couldn’t do much else than to just follow her. All of them got an extra coat from Fluttershy as she then brought one for the admiral as well.

Confusion was there among them all of course. Though they couldn’t speak a single word. None of them knew what was happening or what Applejack thought was going on. They only had speculations and the worst possible thoughts in their lives.

Applejack rushed over the plains to where the sounds came from. Her eyes had quickly managed to adjust themselves to the darkness and noticed a figure just standing there. The admiral couldn’t believe her eyes as she noticed how Twilight just stood there. Though at the same time there was a massive relief that went through her. At least it wasn’t a battle between Rarity and Twilight.

“If ya are here, who’s fightin’?” she asked before she followed just the hand of Twilight. The admiral followed it and then looked over the two fighting Rarity’s. “Oh this ain’t good… This ain’t good at all.”

Out of everything that she could have witnessed, it was the scene she least expected that happened to be the reality of the matter. One by one did the rest of the mares gathered up and watched the horror in silence. Fluttershy was the last of the mares to have gotten to the place and placed the extra coat over Applejack’s shoulder, only to then see the horror.

The horror of the two fighting Rarity’s. One was the real one, one was an impostor. None of them could determine who happened to be who. But they also didn’t wanted to intervene at the duel just yet. Stronger even, there was some kind of magic prevented them from doing so.

“Why can’t we..?!” Applejack growled up as her eyes went both up and down.

Twilight gently turned her head over to the admiral before she spoke the words as only she could have said them. “They agreed to a duel to the death. We can only approach when one of them has died. I pray it is our Rarity that survives. But as it looks like, I can’t tell anything about who is who…”

Chapter LXXVII

The words of Twilight had echoed through the ears of all the company’s members. Which had caused each of them began to fear for their lives –as well as their Rarity’s. Hands were placed upon the magical shield that was supposed to be keeping them out from interfering.

Even though it wasn’t visible at all, they all felt that there was some kind of force that held them back. Which lead to shivers down the spine of Fluttershy. She couldn’t bear watching how the two Rarity’s were literally going at each other’s throat.

None of them could in fact be watching it. The very fight between the two of them was fierce. A lot fiercer than any of them had seen Rarity fighting before. The unicorn had good reasons to keep herself alive of course, not to mention that she had herself to duel against.

But for which one they had to cheer remained a question unanswered. There was no obvious difference in either the looks, weaponry and fighting style. It almost seemed as if someone had made a near exact copy of the unicorn and placed it against herself.

At least that was how it looked like in the eyes of Twilight. “But,” the doctor began as she managed to turn her head to the soothsayer. “If they are on a duel to the dead, and they are both equally powerful, how will it end?”

It was the question where nopony had thought about before. Yet the matter seemed to have been of a rather great importance. If it was indeed an exact copy of Rarity, the levels of stamina also would have been the same. The eyes of Twilight would have gone wide when she thought about the matter for a moment.

Horror was filled in Twilight’s mind before a deep gulp was given off. Nothing seemed to have been making sense to her in the moment. Yet Fluttershy had hammered the nail straight on the head. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils as she tore her attention away from the fight.

With a worried expression did she glance back in the eyes of the doctor. “Then I’m afraid,” she began in an equally worried tone, “I’m afraid that the both of them, shall be having their lives seen ended tonight.”

Those words went past everypony like a stone cold wind. The shivers went down all of their spines when they thought about the manners in which both Rarity’s could have ceased from existence. The thoughts weren’t pretty at all and they all knew that. Once again it would have been praying for the best and preparing for the worst.

The mares turned their attention back to the fighting mares just as one of them did a backflip. The fight was brutal to look at as both swords were used to aid them. Which meant that four swords in total were clashing against one another.

“Ah hate to tell this, but Ah hope she survives, our Rarity that is,” commented Applejack while she couldn’t believe her eyes. The thought was shared as they all silently made their answers on the matter. But whom would have gotten out of the battle as the victor?

It was either going to be Rarity, or Rarity.

Inside of the magical dome were the two mares still battling it out after a couple of minutes. The clouds of the night had moved away from the moon and revealed that it was a crescent one. For the first time in a long time did the weapons cease and they both stared to the giant rock in orbit.

A deep exhale was given off by the two of them before their eyes turned back to one another. “And here we are once again, so it seems,” one of the Rarity’s spoke with a chuckle in her tone. She seemed to have taken delight out of the entire scene for some reason.

“The crescent moon, our birthmarks. Shared by the princess of the night,” the other Rarity replied with a gentle grin. Even the pair of them were trying to figure out just whom was whom. Who knew, perhaps there had been a spell fired that caused them to forget who was the real one?

Either way, the peace between the two mares didn’t last all that long. Moments later were the swords readied again. Two yells then filled the plain before they charged at one another. For one of them there wouldn’t have been a tomorrow. Though the both them would have made sure it wouldn’t have been either of them.

The matter laid a little bit difficult though. Not knowing whom was whom again only added to the confusion that they were having as the sword clashed against one another. But then, there was silence. Just plain and utter silence between the two mares.

The mares at the edge of the shield couldn’t believe their eyes. The sights that they saw were just so unreal and surreal. For somehow and somewhere had both Rarity’s managed to end up in the exact same pose. It almost looked like as if the two were indeed exact copies of one another. But acted in a mirrored fashion.

“Could it be that, but that thing should have been shielded,” mumbled Twilight while she did her best to make sense of the whole situation. What happened next was that she shook vivid with her head. It couldn’t have been the thing that she thought about. For even that made actually too much sense of the matter.

“What are you thinking about, Twilight?” Rainbow asked after she had caught the mumbles in her ears. There wasn’t really any way out and the soothsayer felt as if she had to tell it. For if it was what she thought it was, the troubles that they were having wouldn’t have been over.

A deep exhale was released through the nostrils of the mare as she closed her eyes for a little moment. Only to speak her words behind closed eyelids. “There’s a legend, an ancient legend. That somewhere within the forest of Everfree a pool exists. A pool that is able to duplicate everything that touches its very waters.”

“Why am I having the feeling I know where this is going to..?” Rainbow then added in a whisper, just before she rose an eyebrow. She didn’t like the words one bit that the soothsayer said, but she had to take them for what they were.

“Because, the answer of what we’re searching for might actually be hidden within that pool,” answered Twilight just before she continued her explanation. “Perhaps Sunset managed to get a strand of hair from Rarity and discovered that said pool wasn’t as legendary as originally believed.”

“What the name of this pool of yars?” Applejack asked almost blunt.

“The Mirror Pond,” answered Twilight in an ominous tone.

Back within the shield stood both of the Rarity’s still while they had a mere minute to talk again. Two swords were clashed against one another in a defensive manner, while the other two could be found just resting right at their necks.

The two only glanced one another in the eyes with the sheer amount of hatred that could be viewed. “It seems we have reached an impasse, dear. You and me, both able to die at the moment. We can’t make that happen for them lot right?” one of the Rarity’s spoke just before she pointed upwards with her eyes.

The other Rarity followed the gestures and there she saw the rest of the company just standing there. During their entire fight they hadn’t noticed that the group stood there. Nopony could have truly blamed them for the fact though. For they only had eyes for each other in the worst possible way of the word.

“True, if we both happen to lose our lives, it would be a shame. But the cold steel in the neck, tingles the senses a little bit. Makes one, quicker, so to speak,” the other Rarity replied in a dead serious tone.

The real Rarity could only think about her own survival, she wanted to return to the group. At the other end she also wanted to know exactly where and how the impostor came to be. There were just so many questions that raced through her mind, but there was just so little time for answers.

A deep huff was released by the pair of them just before the blades managed to make a small slice in the necks. Not enough to cause massive bleeding, but at least a little bit. Which meant that the first blood of the night had been spilled. Blood was spilled by the both of them, to them both.

“Did you honestly thought, you could have made it to safety from them? They will hunt you, hurt you, and then come to what’s most precious to you. I won’t allow that to happen,” one of the Rarity’s said moments before she narrowed her eyes.

Neither of them wanted to winch in pain, it could have been shown as some sign of weakness. The unicorns never moved a step forwards or backwards as all of their energy went to their arms.

Yet the other Rarity had enough of the petty insults that were thrown to her. “Oh believe me, once I’m done with you, darling, there shall be nothing of you left to even identify you with. Every bit of your body shall be vanished and fed to the sharks.”

“Getting vulgar, I see? Hmhmhmh, show them your true colors.”

“Right after you.”

Despite the fact that it was just horrible to watch the mares fight, there still seemed to have been some kind of class that was exchanged between the two of them. They both managed to maintain their strange politeness as well as their fierce temper. Both long and deep exhales were given off by the two of them while they stared into each other’s eyes.

The necks were bleeding and they felt that their time was running out. The first blood of the night had been spilled and the stakes were placed even higher. Everything could have happened. Anything would have happened in that moment.

Nopony could tell who would be able to win the battle. They only hoped that their Rarity would have done it. Bit figuring out which one was theirs was a quest already given up by the mares at the sidelines.

“Why would they have even agreed upon a duel to the death?!” Rainbow exclaimed moments after she had taken it into the air. She just hovered a little bit behind the group and had a bird’s eye view on the whole matter.

“Because, Rainbow, in ye olden times it was a courtesy if two beings of regal had an issue, they would fight it out. The stakes usually were a lot lower. But they, they have both something to truly fight for. And the only way they can achieve it is with the death of the other,” explained Twilight to the best of her abilities and to her knowledge.

Whatever the two were fighting for, it went about control of the life of the other. The imposter wanted to take the life of Rarity as she had it, while Rarity herself wanted to preserve it. There wouldn’t have been a much bigger motive for either of them.

Which was exactly the thing that worried Twilight. That was the whole reason of just why they happened to be so fierce about it. Another exhale was released through her nostrils before she shook her head. “All we can do is wait. Wait and hope for the best.”

“As freaking usual,” the major of the air force commented. Only to receive a dangerous sounding huff from the admiral.

With the two unicorns still at the impasse and neither of them wanting to take either blade away, there was only one resort that could be taken by either of them. One of the Rarity’s looked up just a little bit before there was a grin that came to her face.

The other Rarity didn’t understood it at first until she did the same motion. Within a fraction did she got everything. Their impasse had to be broken by one thing or the other. And since neither wanted to move was there only one solution that could be trusted upon.

“No,” one of them spoke.

“Yes,” the other replied.

Within seconds had the blue aura covered the horn of the Rarity that originally glanced up. The other mare tried her best to keep up with the stored amount of energy but it was too later. There was nothing else that could have been done outside of taking the blow that came.

Then the charge was released as one massive blast of arcane energy that came directly against the body of the other mare. The arms were spread wide in a matter of milliseconds before the whole body seemed to have gotten off of the ground.

Before she knew it was Rarity flung through the air. She didn’t knew where the ride would end, only that it would have been painful to do. Which it was, for mere fractions of a second later did she crash straight into a tree.

The other Rarity discharged her horn and looked over to her counterpart with a devious grin. “What’s the matter, darling? Did they never told you not to challenge a pirate?” she spoke up as she prepared herself again to attack. The blades sliced through the air while they cut through it. The grin never seemed to fade away though.

The mares outside of the dome could have sworn that the one who blasted was the real Rarity. But that wasn’t the style in which she used to fight. The attention shifted over to Applejack for the answers they needed. The admiral was the one mare who had the most experience with the fighting style of the unicorn.

But not even the admiral could have believed that their Rarity would have done something along the lines of what she did. The mare shook her head before she spoke her words to them all. “Ah remember our fight as if it was yesterday, all of ‘em in fact. Skilled with the blade and always challenging in one-on-one duels. Near unbeatable from what Ah heard.”

The admiral had a closer look to the unicorn as she tried to make even more sense out of the matter. “It can’t be her. All her battles had been won fair and square at the training. Master fencer, she happens to be. Ah don’t think that even now, she would break her –or that– honor. Mah mind always told me she won by cheating, which caused me to grab the bottle. Not now, now Ah can think clear again and remember what happened. The one who fired the blast, has to be the impostor,” the earth anthrony spoke loud enough for the other mares to hear.

The words of the admiral were indeed sounding rather promising and actually believable. At least they did so in the ears of Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy. Only Twilight seemed to be having her doubts. Therefore it was only her who dared to question the theory. “But what if she thinks her honor isn’t worth as much as her life. Then it would mean that it is our Rarity who blasted that.”

Applejack began to stroke her chin as the soothsayer indeed had a point. The encounters that the earth anthrony had with the unicorn were also just pretty brief and perhaps memory did fail her more then she would have liked. Which resulted in only one reply being able to be spoken. “Then Ah told mah side of the story, y’all pick out which tale ya wanna believe.”

Both of the Rarity’s were still battling it out with one another. Even though one of them had crashed against a tree, there was still life that was coursing through the veins. The bleeding neck didn’t matter in the moment as it was only wiped away by the unicorn that had fired the blast. “Come on then, get up and fight me. Or did you have enough of this madness?” the mare spoke before the grin returned to her muzzle.

A deep moan and a groan then came from the other mare. She too wasn’t done with the battle at all, even though she laid in the soft grass. After the hit with the tree trunk had she fallen down into the grass that laid below it. Both of her fists were then placed into it as they still had a hold of the hilts of the swords.

With a gentle motion did the mare rose up again and glanced into the eyes of the other with an expression of complete and utter hatred. “Madness? My dearest, little, imbecile, you haven’t even touched upon madness. Madness, is knocking, at your door, right now,” the mare spoke up in a hateful tone before the eyes were narrowed even further.

The other mare erupted out in a laughter before she spoke her own words upon the matter. “Oh my dear, you’re getting more and more verbal, what’s the matter if I may ask for that? Are you having the feeling that you’re going to die soon? Do you feel the cold breath of the devil in your neck? You’re getting desperate to make that last ditch effort to save your life. But, you, just, can’t.”

Rarity had then risen up from her position and used one of the blades as some kind of strange walking cane. With the other hand she wiped her nose and then her neck. The blood came upon her blouse but she cared little about it in the moment. The eyes of both of the mares turned into the same expression as one of them still had to die.

“I’m only getting more verbal, because I think I figured it all out. You’re the impostor here. We both agreed upon a duel to the death, and you’re the one that’s using magic to win. You really want to win by cheating? You really want to take my life, by cheating? How, how daft, are you actually?” Rarity questioned before she rose her other sword. But she too had another plan right up her sleeve. One, that probably would have been able to end everything there and then. A plan of utter madness, but that fitted right in her alley.

The other mare released another chuckle of utter enjoyment before she rose her sword up. “No dear, I’m not going to take your life by cheating. I’m going to take it rightfully. It’s a duel to the death and one of us, has to die. I’m afraid that the cards are placed against your odds. Have one last look at them, before the life you led will cease to exist.”

Rarity removed her sword from the ground before she placed one hoof firm in front of the other. Her shoulders were cracked before her neck followed suit. Deep exhales were given off by her before she took pointed her sword to the counterpart. “Okay, if this is how we’re going to play it all, so it be. Give me, your worst then! You want to take my life, go right ahead.”

The mares at the other end of the shield gasped for air as they heard it. None of them could believe that either the real Rarity or the impostor had just plainly given up. Almost as if they realized that the fighting was just complete and utter madness. Which it was to begin with actually.

But Twilight knew that one of them had some sort of backup plan. A backup plan that would be initiated the moment trouble became too hot beneath their hooves. Though for the moment they could only watch. Just watch to the events as they would go down in recorded history.

“So it be, my dearest Rarity. Time for you, to step out of the equation!” the mare spoke just before she charged up her horn. A sickening laughter was sent out over the plain. Together with one massive mistake. One mistake that would turn the tide and everything in trouble.

"Gotcha,” the other mare spoke in a whisper before she released another chuckle. “Finally, gotcha.” The longer she stared at the horn of her counterpart, the more it could have been clearly seen. The normally always so bright, sapphire magical aura that the unicorn carried, appeared to have changed. The aura had actually and physically changed into a greenish one.

The other Rarity didn’t seemed to have noticed that little fact and she just continued along with the game that was still being played. A grin then formed itself across her lips while she wanted to release the massive charge that had built up. There wouldn’t have been any words spoken by her, just the massive charge that would have ended the life of Rarity.

Mere seconds later was the charge released and Rarity knew that she had to initiate her backup plan. Time slowed itself down as every heartbeat took a literal minute. The processes inside of her mind managed to slow down the one thing nopony had control over, time itself.

The horn of the unicorn then charged up in the sapphire blue aura. Before she knew it had she vanished from their realm of existence. In just one poof had Rarity gone as the green magical blast hit the spot where she used to stand.

The other Rarity laughed like a true maniac, she still didn’t seemed to have noticed the fact that Rarity had just vanished. No words came from her at all. All she could do was just express both her own insanity as well as the happiness she got from not just eliminating, but also eradicating the other Rarity from existence.

Seconds had gone by before the charge finally seemed to have become less and less. Up to the point to where nothing would have been left from it. The horn then just discharged itself before the mare had started to pant. Exhaustion had managed to set in as she fell down to the ground. One of the swords was dropped down to the ground and her eyes glanced over to the rest of the mares.

Five sets of eyes looked down upon Rarity as they didn’t knew what they had, or could be doing. The shield was still active but none dared to drum upon it. The magical charge alone was enough indication for them that their Rarity wasn’t the one visible. That green charge had never been seen by her and caused bells to ring.

Not to forget the little fact that a unicorn just wasn’t able to change their aura at their will. So all facts considered up, their Rarity was still out there. She had to be somewhere in the dome of magic. She had to be hidden somewhere, to have escaped the clutches of the other mare.

A mare who gently managed to crawl back upon her hooves and then looked to the rest of the group. A genuine smile of happiness was given off by her as she sheathed one of her blades. “I’ve done it. The impostor, has been, defeated,” the mare spoke before she closed her eyes.

The arms spread themselves and the chest was pumped forward in a prideful manner. Victory seemed to have been hers and she would enjoy it with everything that she could. But trouble still laid waiting for the mare. In the form of perhaps the actual Rarity.

Right the unicorn did the air began to shimmer faintly. Almost like an treacherous mirage that could be witnessed in the depths of the desert. The air shimmered and vibrated for a couple of seconds while it appeared that a figure rose up within it.

Then the revelation came to be. For the other Rarity reappeared behind the seemingly victorious Rarity. Before anypony could have said anything and the other Rarity could have replied were there two slices that could be heard through the night skies. Two slices that bounced of bone and carved through flesh, before the gasps could be caught in the ears of everypony present.

Rarity looked down to her chest and noticed how two tips of blades were sticking out of there. She began to gasp for air as she couldn’t believe what had happened. Quickly did her eyes then turn up. They noticed how Twilight still had her hand touched upon the shield.

The feelings of disbelief came through her as the gasps for air became only tougher. Blood had managed to travel right in her mouth as her attacker remained hidden from her. Only the words could be heard within the air as the head kept itself straight.

Words echoed in her ear from a whisper. Words that only that Rarity could have heard. Words spoken in a true dark tone of discomfort. “Never try to take my life.”

The mares outside of the dome couldn’t have believed that the events had happened as they did. All of them just gasped for air in their own manner when they saw it happening. But perhaps the worst feeling had to be that behind the Rarity that was impaled, another Rarity stood. The confusion of whom had managed to kill who continued to rise up.

They all thought that their Rarity had killed the impostor, but it could just as well be that it was their Rarity who stood there with two blades sticking out of her chest. None dared to say a word, all of them awaited the final words, curse or spell. Anything trembled beneath their hooves as they were all shaking.

Even Twilight was still shaking upon her legs. The soothsayer had never been subjected to that much intense violence during one night. Never had she seen actual blood dripping off of the edge of a blade. That night, that cursed night would have been a change for them all.

It would have been a literal change for the mare that tried to impose Rarity. For the horn of the unicorn began to charge up again. More and more arcane energy had collected upon it. Yet not spell of offence was given off. Instead it almost seemed as if something was venting something. The unicorn behind the unicorn did a couple of sniffs through the air before she yucked in disgust. “Dark magic. I smell that from miles away,” she whispered up.

Then it finally happened. The body of the impaled Rarity just erupted out in a massive ball of green flames. Flames that became so hot that the mare behind the fireball had to take a couple of steps back. Rarity would have released her swords in order to do so while a hand protected her eyes. Whatever was happening, they hoped it would have been the last for the night.

For a couple of seconds did the flames raged on like there was no tomorrow. Until they did died down again. As mysterious as they had come, so mysterious they disappeared again. But instead of the other Rarity, they did revealed something else that stood there. With the two sword still impaled through the armor and breasts even had an old enemy of the company returned like that.

There was a dark creature who stood there. A creature that they had seen in the Frozen North before. Twilight instantly recognized the being thanks to the unique jagged horn. Only one being in the land had such a thing, and she had the guts to speak the name of the devil. “Dark Witch Chrysalis,” she spoke before her eye narrowed in disgust. She thought it was about time as well that they would have encountered her again.

The Dark Witch began to yell in pain. She tried to reach for the swords and placed her hands on the actual blade part. Chrysalis could try all she wanted, but she never would have been able to get the hilts that stuck out her back. Insectoid screeches were released as she even tried to move one of the blades.

Green blood oozed out of the wound while even more came through her mouth. She was in true pain for the first time in a long time. All that she could do was to turn herself around and face her killer. Which was exactly what she did.

Rarity had charged up her horn to give herself some light as she looked deep in the eyes of Chrysalis. “You dirty bitch!” the Dark Witch growled while she spat out her green blood. “You just had, to do that, didn’t you?! Burn in Tartarus!”

“After you,” the pirate replied in a stone cold tone. She had heard enough words of the Dark Witch and didn’t even hesitate to pull out her biggest flintlock. With one swift motion was it cocked and aimed right at the head of Chrysalis. Silence had taken over the pair of them while the Witch could only curse the unicorn.

But doing so wouldn’t have helped her in any way or form. So all they did was one last look between them. Chrysalis her eyes were filled with a genuine hatred towards the unicorn, while Rarity’s were filled with something that could have been seen as regret. Why she carried that in her eyes would have been a mystery for all of them.

There it was, the last boom of the evening. A smoking flintlock before a body dropped to the ground. A pair of swords were shoved up even further into the wounds. The sapphire blue aura faded from existence after one last spell had been done. A spell that would have returned the blades to their rightful mistress.

The flintlock was stored in its original location before the mares felt that the shield faded away. Once again they could go back to Rarity and either smack or hug her. But as they looked over to Rarity, they all noticed that dark glance in her eyes. She had just killed Chrysalis in cold blood and the killer looks were still clearly visible within her eyes.

All of the mares gulped a little bit because they knew what it meant. They were all just terrified of her in the moment. Each step that she took was a powerful one. Almost as if she still carried enough hatred within her to do it again, but then to one of them.

The mare just walked past the rest of the company without even looking back. Where they feared the mare, Rarity wanted to forget everything. All the stress of the night had just crawled up to her. All of it ached her heart and she only had one command to speak. “Applejack, you’re next on watch,” were the only words that Rarity said.

Her tone was empty, lifeless and just didn’t match her eyes whatsoever. But the reason of why she spoke like that was easily given. Only a couple of hooves after she had said the words, Rarity crashed down. Rarity just crashed down into the grass and seemed to have fallen either asleep or unconscious.

Applejack couldn’t do anything else then to take up the order of the unicorn. Not even she had ever gotten a glance like that from her. None of them wanted to speak a word, they were all both amazed and utterly terrified of the events from that night.

It was a night that would be remembered by all, but for all the wrong reasons. And their biggest hope? That they never would be having to witness something like that ever again.

Chapter LXXVIII

How they all had fallen asleep after such a rough night, was a question that needed no answer on. None of the mares in the company wanted to even know how it had happened. They were just glad that they at least had managed to get some form of sleep that night. Inside of the tent did Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy wake up calmly.

The rays of the morning shone inside of the canvas tent. They all knew that dawn had broken upon them once again. The new day was there and that day was one that hopefully would have been a whole lot better than any of the other days they have had so far. For that day was rather special to all of them. Or at least to three out of the four in fact.

The bones of Applejack were all snapped back in their rightful places before she smacked her lips a few of times. It felt unusually good to see the sun again. To her it felt as if the terrors of the night before had just been vanquished away. Which perhaps was the thing that had happened.

The rays of the morning sun indeed vanquished the darkness and possibly all of the troubles that were done in it. The mare removed herself out of her bed and the daily struggle of her getting dressed played out once more.

It was a routine through which all of them had to go through. Pinkie Pie was actually done the fastest as she only had to change her shirt. Applejack had the most difficulty as she had to get her suit right. Or at least the pieces that she still wore of it. Not to mention that she had her steam powered leg to power up again.

The green rimmed eyes of the mare made their turn around the tent after a yawn had escaped her mouth. A small scratch on the bum gently followed up as her eyebrows rose up. “Any of you seen either Twilight or Rarity?” she asked in a worried tone. Applejack had seen that the beds of both of the unicorns were still empty, not to forget that she didn’t remember seeing either of them walking back to the tent during her watch.

The matter turned a little bit strange for her. It almost seemed as if the two unicorns were in fact a beacon of trouble to come. The thought wasn’t one that she could have been truly blamed for though, as both Twilight and Rarity did have a little nose for trouble. Especially during the journey that had been going through.

Rainbow looked around as she finally seemed to have noticed that the beds were empty. “Maybe they have gotten out early?” the pegasus said before she shrugged with her shoulders. Fluttershy nor Pinkie had any other words that could have been brought against the matter.

None of them knew just where the two unicorns could possibly have gone to. Well, they knew one in fact. It was the other that worried them a lot more. Applejack released a deep exhale through her nostrils before she gave a single nod. “‘Kay then, we’re gonna be like that. Unicorns, always been strangers with their customs,” she muttered. Applejack readied herself to leave the tent and everypony in it for what it was.

The admiral left and was then met with the warm rays of the sun and she used her hand to calmly block the rays from hitting her eyes directly. It was a beautiful sunrise, she had to admit that little fact. The earth anthrony just stood still to take in the scenery and the scents of the grass as well as the dew. For the moment it all seemed to be forgotten that right behind her, the deadliest forest of Equestria could be found.

In the moment did it all just looked so peaceful and calm. She took another deep inhale of fresh air and just realized why she loved the open seas again. She wasn’t the kind of mare that was able to sit down and settle in, no, Applejack was a rugged outdoorsmare who wanted nothing else. Except, perhaps, that one little thing.

A gentle tear managed to form itself within her eye before it ran down her cheek. The time had come to her, the time to finally return to where she always had belonged. Plans were quickly shooting through her head as then a smile followed up across her lips. One gentle nod was given off to herself before the eyes opened up again.

Without a word spoken by her mouth, did her eyes told everything that needed to be told. She would return, return to the place where she thought that she always should have been going. Though her attention was then captured again by the tent. For the rest of the mares finally managed to haul themselves out of it.

Breakfast was ready to be made.

~~~~

Somewhere over the plain she laid. With a deep groan had she awoken out of her slumber. The unicorn rose herself up from her position and blinked a couple of times with her eyes. The mulberry skinned eyelids hid the wonderfully colored eyes from the world every now and again as they had to get used to the sunlight.

Twilight Sparkle seemed to have awoken once more by the rising sun. She stretched her arms and released a deep yawn of her own. Though the location of where she laid was one that caught her by surprise. Not to mention the fact of the stuff that could be found across her cheeks. “What on earth..?” she mumbled to herself in confusion. A pair of fingers stroked over the cheek with calm.

If she wasn’t mistaken, it almost felt as if she touched upon a pair of dried up tear stains. Could it have been that she had cried through the night once more. “But that can’t be, I was vast asleep, here, somehow,” the mare mumbled aloud before she rose her body up to full height. She had to get an understanding of the area that she was in.

Twilight had to understand just where exactly she happened to be sleeping and where she had been spending the night after Rarity’s duel of fate.

The unicorn glanced around and only found the same thing. Just grass, grass, grass, bush and some trees. “Now this is just getting weird,” she spoke to herself before her body was turned around. And then her eyes went wide. Twilight saw the tent standing there, at a couple dozen hooves distance.

How she managed to miss it, was still a mystery to her. Then again, the night had been one that was strange to begin with. Nothing from that very night made any sense whatsoever. Questions arose to her as of how Chrysalis had managed to find them, and why she changed in Rarity instead of somepony else.

All of those questions were put to rest for the moment though. Answers for them would come through time while she made the little walk back to the tent. With her hands placed behind her back it almost seemed as if she had been vastly thinking. Which perhaps she was in fact doing, but didn’t seem to realize it.

“Morning to you all,” she spoke before she took place on the small table. One that Applejack had taken out of the tent. The mare took place on a small arcane crouch that she conjured up quickly. With a gentle moan she landed upon the seating and glanced over what could have been ready to be eaten.

But Applejack had in fact prevented the mare from doing so. There was a little thing that she had to know from the soothsayer. For not only was she wondering where on earth she had slept, she was also wondering just what the tear strains were. “Twi, yar face’s a little, dirty might not be the right word,” she said as she scratched her own cheek. “And where did ya sleep?” The question was quickly added to probably change the subject.

Twilight herself released a gentle chuckle as she then answered both of the questions in one reply of calmness. “As it turned out, I had fallen asleep a couple hooves away from here. And I know my face looks like a mess, hadn’t had the time to clean it. But I feel fine, honestly. I don’t know how it came there actually. Might be from earlier that night though. Anyway, just, don’t give it too much attention, okay?”

The admiral nodded to the words of Twilight. Though she still wondered in silence just where Rarity happened to be. She never spoke it aloud for rather obvious reasons that were her own.

After breakfast did all the mares wanted to know what the planning was for the day. One that was easily explained with the arcane map Twilight had summoned. Different colored lights represented different places that they had to go to. “We have to make to the port of Manehatten here, which is a good two days walking if we have good weather. Rainbow, I take that you will keep an eye out in the skies?”

“Naturally,” the pegasus replied while she sat in a leisurely manner. “Both for the griffons as well as any storm. Cloudsdale may have planned something, I’m not sure. I haven’t really been able to look at any weather schedules as of late. You know, been too busy exploring underground caverns.”

The mares couldn’t help themselves but to let out a little chuckle before they shook their heads. “Then that’s settled then. I think we are on our way then. All we need is to clear everything here and find Rarity. Knowing her, I might have an idea where she might be,” said Twilight.

“Care to share?” Fluttershy asked quick, she glanced to Twilight with a raised eyebrow. The unicorn released a little giggle to herself. Then she gestured with her hand that they would be seeing it later. The pegasus nodded to the soothsayer before the conversation with Pinkie was resumed.

Pinkie Pie appeared to have been adapting to the new climate a whole lot better than anypony could have anticipated. It almost seemed as if she wasn’t used to any other at first glance. That lamia was a rather special one in their eyes. Full of life, always in for a little joke or two and literally all over the place. But she also showed compassion and kindness when needed to everypony she held dear to her.

Finding a home for her would have been a difficult task though. One that became more and more pressuring on Twilight’s mind. If all else failed, there was one location where the lamia always could have been placed. Though whether or not there was agreed upon by all was another question.

Home was such a simple word, but it carried such a great meaning. A meaning that was different for each of the mares. They were still just so far away from home but yet at the same time they seemed to have been just so close to it.

Some time later was Rainbow looking at the clouds that were drifting by with her binoculars. The position of the glasses were set so that they could watch through the white sky fabrications and looked for any trouble. Her eyes were spotting the skies to see if she could find anything that indicated that there was something.

Mere seconds she peeked through the skies. She had to find them. She had to find the creatures that had been following them ever since they got back to the surface. “Gotcha,” she spoke to herself after her motions ceased to exist. A little grin came to her face as she saw the shadows once more.

They all seemed to be rather dormant up there, which was exactly the way that she liked it. The more silent the griffons were, the more she could relax for a bit. Of course were the troubles of a sudden attack always on her mind. Those worries would never have left her system. They were baked straight in her nerve system ever since the last war.

“What are you all up to?” she asked aloud to herself. The binoculars were removed from her eyes and she blinked only once. A deep exhale was given off by her as she turned around. Perhaps there was a little chance that she could see the actual ship of Sharpbeak hidden among the skies.

The binoculars were placed before her eyes again and she then glanced once more over the skies. The hopes were set that she saw nothing, but she was always prepared on the fact that it could have been right there.

Hidden among the clouds and actually right in plain sight for them all. The last thing that Rainbow wanted the know was if she had the whole ship right on top of her. The company wasn’t ready for such an encounter. Griffons were always tough creatures to be beaten. They had seen it upon the summit of the mountain for themselves. Luck was only on their side that day though. Luck carried them through and they knew that the second time they wouldn’t be that lucky. At least not in the eyes of Rainbow.

The pegasus had a growing hatred towards the griffon kind ever since the last war and the fact that her once-best-friend had wanted to kill her without remorse. It just didn’t fell in the right mindset either. “Come on, come on, where are you hidden, you nasty bugger?” the mare whispered while she looked through the clouds and as far as she was allowed.

But no matter how far she glanced over the skies, there wasn’t anything that came in her eyes. Many theories began to surround her mind before the binoculars were finally removed from her eyes. The thing was placed back in the pocket as she stretched her wings a little bit.

The bones didn’t crack for a change, which even came as a surprise to the pegasus. Rainbow would have risen an eyebrow to the matter of genuine confusion. “Heh, interesting,” she said to herself before they were tucked back behind her back and she made her way back to the campsite.

The other mares were all still breaking down the tent as the pegasus told them what she had seen. All of them understood the words she said and they nodded gently to the major. The danger of the griffon threat was still there and even though it didn’t felt good with them lurking around, there was another matter that rose up.

“Hey, if them griffons are still ‘round here, how big do ya see the chance that they saw the battle between Rarity and Chrysalis?” Applejack then spoke to them. The question was rightfully asked. And it did create a little wondering by the rest of the mares. They all sunk in their thoughts for a moment to come up with the answer.

But as per usual was it Twilight who actually had the one that made the most sense out of it. Not to mention the little fact that they still had to find Rarity somewhere over the plain. “I think that the chances of them having seen the battle between Rarity and Chrysalis is actually pretty high. Given the fact that it was in the middle of the night, managed to wake us up like that and so on.”

The mares nodded to the explanation given but Applejack had one more thing to comment upon the matter. “Then they know that they mustn’t try to toy with us, or they end up like her. Dead and bleedin’ on the ground,” she said in almost a monotone voice. Applejack didn’t seemed like she had given much emotion to her words. It felt like she was already giving off a warning to the griffons, given the way they were said.

Yet once again had Twilight a counter for the words that the admiral had. “Chrysalis, isn’t exactly dead. I’ll explain along the way. If we get this done, we go and find Rarity.”

With the words of Twilight continued to hammer themselves in the skulls of the mares, the mares also continued to clear their campsite almost like lighting. Twilight had sparked their interest and they wanted to know the finer details about everything there and then. Yet none had the courage to straight up ask her.

No, they all waited in patience until they were done. Done with the folding and storing of the tent and the other things. Only then would they have been able to search for Rarity. Mere minutes had gone by before they were all ready. All eyes were primed upon Twilight as she knew she had to tell them all what she knew.

Only then would have told them the story. While they were heading into the direction of the scene that hosted the battle between Rarity and Chrysalis. “As you all know,” the soothsayer began to tell her story. The mares had gathered themselves around Twilight as best as possible before the story continued. “Chrysalis, is a Dark Witch. A being who made a deal with the devil in Tartarus itself. If she is being killed by anything, actually killed, the spirit of the Witch continues to live on. We didn’t saw it the night before, but I’m pretty certain that the spirit of Chrysalis lived on and went back to its master.”

“Which is, Nightmare Moon,” the doctor added. Twilight then pointed to her with a nod. She silently said that the words were right.

“Exactly,” she then said before the tale was continued further. “The entity, the very essence of the Dark Witch has survived. Which means in return that the creature did too. Rarity didn’t kill anything last night, she just temporarily disabled Chrysalis. Think of it as a reset, the hard way.”

A shudder went down the spine of Pinkie when she thought back about the events of the night before. One that was in fact shared by Fluttershy as well. But Rainbow and Applejack both seemed to have been rather cool under the facts as they were. No more words were spoken as Twilight pointed to the top of the hill whose foot they stood at.

The eyes of the mares just followed the hand and tried to figure out where she was pointing to. She could have pointed to anything randomly but the shape they caught in their eyes was one they all knew. Perhaps a shape known a little bit too well.

It was at the top of the hill that she stood. With the hands in her sides and her body turned back to them. But those curly hairs could be picked out anytime of the day. Not to mention that bright purple color that they carried. Nopony else then Rarity could have stood there. She seemingly watched over the scene that had been her battlefield only a few hours ago.

The group of mares made their gentle way up the hill while the fear had been growing into them. The fear that Chrysalis perhaps was able to somehow come back and haunt them all once more. It was a natural fear that filled them all, but they all remained silent about it.

Once they had reached the top of the hill, the unicorn had finally turned herself around to see with her own eyes just what all the commotion was about. But as soon as she saw that it was the rest of the company, she turned back around to keep watching over the dreaded plain. Whatever had captured her attention from it, whatever she was looking it, it must have been of true sentimental value.

And why wouldn’t it be? She had almost lost her life in that place. Tricks had to be played in order to make certain that she would have been the one that came out as the victor of it all. It wasn’t to say that Chrysalis wasn’t cheating either. For her blast of magic was powerful enough to burn down anything that came in contact.

Yet the question of questions remained unanswered. One that was shortly after the arrival of the mares asked to the open mares. “Why did she changed into me, and why did she accepted the duel with me?” she wondered aloud, to everypony. Of course there were already many answers given by just herself.

But Rarity needed the input of the other mares for once. More specifically, she needed that of Twilight. She needed Twilight’s logical advice for a reason. But perhaps the biggest unasked question was: why was Chrysalis hunting them down to that point and not earlier?

Twilight did a step forward just before she then released a deep exhale through her nostrils. She felt the need to answer the questions that the unicorn had. And answering them she would be doing to the best of her own abilities. Whether Rarity would have liked the answers remained to be seen though. “I think, she became you, because you were the most well-armed of us all. I mean, it’s a little overkill what you carry. No offence.”

“None taken,” the pirate replied. There was some truth to the words through. For Rarity’s armaments were indeed a bit of case of ‘better take what can be carried’-mentality.

“As for why she accepted the duel, underestimation. Dark Witches are cocky, think that they can handle anything thrown in their path. The only problem was, that you had so much to live for. Usually one tends to tremble at their sight. But you, you value your freedom, friends and family, I think. At least one of those three, or something else entirely. I shall not ask what it is you hold so dear to you, but that just saved your life.”

Rarity actually understood the words of Twilight and saw the direction that she came from. The words did make a whole lot more sense than from the ideas that she originally came up with. Perhaps it was just a little trait of the unicorn, that she made from a mosquito an manticore. She was quite the little drama queen from time to time, according to her crew.

“Thanks Twilight, for your input on the matter. I, I needed that, matter of fact. I had to make some sense out of it all and that was the only way I knew how,” replied Rarity before a small smile formed itself below her nose. The soothsayer nodded in a gentle manner as if she silently said that the mare was always welcome.

Yet with their conversation over, there was yet another one that opened up. One that continued to worry about the fact that Chrysalis could be attacking them again. Fluttershy spoke up the words that were on her mind. And she was just utterly terrified to say them. “But what if Chrysalis is released again? If she makes another deal with Moon, who knows. She can be plotting one right behind us.”

“Hmhmhm, oh believe me, Fluttershy, Chrysalis is already plotting another attack on us,” said Twilight to her in return. That alone caused the eyes of the mares to go just straight up wide. Naturally were they all getting terrified of the words that were spoken as they never had anticipated them to come.

But Twilight knew how the Witches worked while the rest of the mares could only speculate. So perhaps Twilight had to tell them a little bit more about them. A history lesson was required for them all.

The mares didn’t came in a riot to Twilight because she gestured with her hands to remain calm. “Chrysalis is planning an attack on us, yes. But that doesn’t mean she can do it right now. No, after a Dark Witch has returned to the devil, it usually remains there for a good amount of time. Months, or even years depending on the deal that had been made with Moon. Yet in that time, she has to create a new body for herself. A new body to possess and use as a puppet.”

“But that means, Sunset Shimmer, the demoness of Everfree, is actually…” Rarity began while she tried her best to tie everything together.

“The spirit is hers, the body is also still hers too. But if the body comes to shatters, she would have to regenerate. Although you have to remember that Sunset is a special case among the Dark Witches. Chrysalis would take years to reform her body in the way she likes it. Meaning she has years the time to plan an attack on us. But we are having years to prepare.”

“But, you said something about possession,” the doctor said while she already felt herself uncomfortable. “Does that mean, a Dark Witch can, for example, enter your body like that and take control over it?”

The response that Twilight gave to her was a sad nod. Which in return confirmed the fear that the doctor had. It was about one of the last things that she actually wanted to know about it all. “Yes, a Dark Witch is able possess a body after its ‘host’ has been shattered. But it needs to find one almost directly next to it, and none of us were next to Chrysalis when the extraction happened.”

“And what ‘bout ya?” Applejack asked.

“Beg your pardon?” Twilight replied with a confused gaze.

“Can ya possess any being that ya like and make ‘em yar puppet?”

That question almost felt as if it was an insult to the soothsayer. But the question was one that was a rightful concern to begin with. For Twilight was a unicorn with incredible powers and abilities. There was only one answer that could have been given on the question. “I can if I want to, possess a being, yes,” she said in just her normal tone. All of the mares did a step back straight away. Almost as if Twilight had some kind of horrible disease.

“However, you scardy cats, I am not going to do such a thing. Sunset also taught me a couple of things of the darker arts, or the gray parts actually. Magic isn’t just light and dark as you are taught, there’s a whole part that’s gray in it as well. I do know a possession spell yes, but if I shall ever use it, I’m afraid I will end up down the same path as her. Which is the last thing that I want.”

The mares could understand the direction from which Twilight was coming and none of them wanted it either. So the only thing that could be done in that moment was that they would nod to her words. “Now then,” the soothsayer said, “how about we make it to the port of Manehatten? We have to go through the forest of White Tails to get there, but that one isn’t possessed by anything. Just covered in a lot of fog.”

None of the mares made a complaint about it. They then travelled back from the hill again. Even Rarity removed herself from the top because of the fact that she had her answers. But Twilight remained standing there for just a bit longer.

She kept on staring to the empty husk that was the body of Chrysalis. Questions naturally arose in her as the answers were given in silence. The cogs were set turning as she tried to make sense about everything. But that, remained far out. Nothing had made sense about the whole battle to begin with. Perhaps she knew less about the Dark Witches then she originally had thought she did? Who could tell? Who could know?

The unicorn shook her head a little bit before she turned back around. The carcass of the Dark Witch just laid there. Already was it rotting and being eaten by nature itself. But next to her could the boney blades be found. The boney blades that possibly were used as the substitute for Rarity’s blades during the duel.

So many questions just went unanswered for the unicorn. So many questions still had to be even asked. So many things she had to research in the library of Canterlot itself. A deep exhale was released through her mouth as she placed her hands behind her back. So many things yet so little time, was a thought to herself.

With the woods of White Tails lying in their crossing, they could only have hoped that Twilight was right about it. They all hoped that it wasn’t as dangerous as they thought it was going to be. Rumors had of course spread over the forest and its beauty. But each beauty always carried a deadly bite with it. That was the thing that most of the mares were afraid of.

Perhaps afraid wasn’t the right word for the matter. Worried, would have been a better word to describe the matter. Time would once again be the judge of everything and all. Just that one thing that they couldn’t outrun as long as they tried.

But so were the troubles. For not only had they the griffons that were probably still lurking right above their heads as vultures, but they had one more anger to worry about. The devil herself, had set her sights firmly on Twilight and the time was there.

~~~~

Deep within the realm of Tartarus, she wandered up and down. While her body was still completely covered in the deep purple fog, she did move around with grace. All that could be seen from the devil were her eyes, hands and hooves. The rest of the body was just completely covered up. But behind her she hovered, the spirit of Chrysalis was shackled in chains and attached to the walls.

“You failed me again, Chrysalis. I thought that you would have been able to take her place without causing too much of a commotion. Give me a reason, why I should keep that petty spirit of yours alive, and why I shouldn’t just devour it right now?” The devil turned herself back around to face the changeling with her deep, green eyes.

Chrysalis could only gulp when the words were shooting short. She had tried to remain out of the clutches of Moon for just so long, but finally the clutches had caught up with her. “What’s the matter? Too scared to speak to your master?!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed before she released a deep chuckle.

Her body then turned back around as the hands were placed on the back. “It doesn’t matter what you would be saying anyway. None of it would have worked. Fade away, out of my chamber and don’t let me see you here again anytime soon. I have bigger prey to fry.”

A deep huff was then released through the nostrils of the devil. One that actually caused Chrysalis to fade out of existence by brute force, or at least their realm. What followed was that the Nightmare summoned the orb again and watched in it. Her long fingernails scratched the surface and the scars could have been seen along the sides of it.

“Yes, little Sparkle. You shall help me, to get back what is rightfully mine. Your quest is of no concern, but that friend of yours on the other end. Imagine the damage I can do, with her. Hmhmha, oh I’m going to enjoy this,” said Nightmare Moon just before she allowed the orb to disappear again. “The time has come…”

Mere seconds later had the devil vanished from her throne room and entered the physical realm. The realm where the mares were wandering towards White Tails. Nightmare Moon had entered the physical realm in the form of a thick and purple mist. One that would be racing to get to Twilight before the next night.

Chapter LXXIX

The purple fog raced over the physical plane of existence that was Equestria, nothing could have been able to stop it. The goal that it had set in mind was one of utter destruction and annihilation. But the tool for the job still had to be acquired and finally had the time come to do just that. Nightmare Moon, the devil of the lands and creator of the Dark Witches had finally come out of her own hiding spot.

Never in recorded history had such a thing ever been done by the devil herself. Given the simple fact that she used to be a mare who always hid behind the protection of her own realm. She took of course a massive and major risk by revealing herself to the world like that. But it never bothered the entity in the slightest. All she had set her eyes upon, was soothsayer Twilight Sparkle.

The dark clouds raced over the lands as this fast moving shadow. It went through settlements and forests as if they were nothing. But everywhere it went were the feelings always the same. The uncomfortable feeling of something lurking behind every wall crawled up to the beings it crossed its path with. Feelings of malice and destruction soon followed up afterwards.

The anthronies didn’t had a single clue of what was going on, but all of the sudden were their minds filled with terror and horror. They had to shake their heads a couple of times in order to get everything straight once more. Perhaps it was just a little something that would fly over again?

None of them had an answer for the strange behavior and only thought it was them who were affected by it. Words weren’t spoken about it at all. But the settlements that laid closer to the woods all saw the same thing happening with their eyes.

When the dark fog turned around to race to the forests, the same scene always seemed to be playing out. Within the vegetation of the woods did all the birds suddenly came flying up while chirping or screeching in terror. Nopony had ever seen such a thing and the worst possible thoughts were already given off.

What if there was a massive hydra that managed to get in the woods, but was moving outwards from the center and straight towards them? Shudders went down the spines of the settlers as they hoped that they were just dead wrong upon their own predicaments.

Time would have been able to tell for them whether or not they were right.

~~~~

In the meantime had the company of mares made it to White Tails woods. When they arrived, they saw just why the forest was given that name. Six pairs of eyes looked to the natural wonder of the world as they couldn’t do anything else but smile. The feelings that were going through them at the moment made them forget every single problem they had.

The very forest had something unique to it, something interesting even. While they stared at the fog filled woods, there was a strange pattern that could be witnessed within it. The very wind that was blowing the mist in the northern direction it made it look as if it were tails that swayed within the wind. Much like their own tails were doing in the moment. Except the one of Pinkie for rather obvious reasons.

It was a truly beautiful sight that they saw and they wanted to keep on watching even more in fact. But the longer they would have been just gazing upon the place, the longer it would have been before they reached the port of Manehatten. Perhaps they were willing to spend one more night in the land of Equestria before they would sail to Canterlot.

Or perhaps not, Twilight had gestured that they had to continue on further. The mares caught the silent hints and then just did what was asked of them all. They all went onward to the forest. One by one they walked through the fog and disappeared within it.

The distance between one another had to be kept close for obvious reasons while Applejack and Rarity formed the front guard. The two mares of the sea both took out a compass to knew at least the general direction they had to walk into. The very last thing they wanted was that they would be getting lost in the woods of fog before them.

Perhaps that was the biggest fear of them all. The fact that they would be getting lost in the massive sea of white mist. That they would just wander around in circles and lose all sense of the world around them. Those fears were all too real in their eyes. So the only thing that could be done was to stick together and follow the seamares.

One by one had they disappeared within the fog of White Tails. One by one did the mares of the company seemed to have just disappeared from the face of the land. They were all swallowed up by the white darkness that was the fog. A fog that was thick enough to block any gap possible. The sunlight was allowed to enter through it because of nature’s rules. Though there never was a gap that showed them where the sun stood in the very skies.

They were speaking of luck that they had the compasses ready. But Nightmare Moon had so her own little thing that would have allowed her to travel through the woods. The devilish fog stood still at the entrance of the woods of White Tails and looked a little bit around.

If anything would have seen her standing there, it almost would have looked like there was a giant centipede that had raised the front of its body to get a more aerial view. The only exception being that the entire centipede was made out of the fog. The creepy similarities could have been drawn pretty easily though.

The eyes of the devil then appeared gentle inside of the fog and they could be seen from both front and back. The eyes themselves were narrowed when she then looked further and deeper into the woods. The devil had to find the trail of Twilight’s very magic. That unique scent that was given off by the unicorn’s very own arcane powers.

It was the way that Nightmare had already managed to find her, but the trail she followed happened to be straight. When they entered the forests had it become scattered all over the place. A deep growl of annoyance was given off by the devil. Of course she could have just lifted the fog for what it was and gone straight in for the kill. Though if she did so, the mares would have realized that something had gone wrong.

She had to keep the element of surprise to her side. Which meant that she could only head straight in. With one last growl she glanced over to her sides and released a deep exhale of utter annoyance. If the games were going to be played in the manner they were looking like, she best would play along.

What followed were a couple of deep sniffs that were given off to get the scent again. The scent of Twilight’s arcane magic. The ‘head’ of the centipede moved from left to head as the sniffs were continued to make.

Mere seconds had gone by before Nightmare Moon had finally felt the right trail again. Her nose was powerful and the magical trail was getting significantly weaker. But nothing would have been able to escape her clutches. Moon had set her eyes upon the fact that she would get back what was hers. And that was exactly what would have happened.

The devil herself then lowered her body back to the ground while she seemed to have gotten the right trail. And before anypony could have spoken a word had she disappeared in the fog as well. The deadly game of cat and mouse was initiated. Though the mouse didn’t even knew that the cat was home once more.

The element of surprise was heavily in favor of Nightmare Moon, who preferred to keep it that way. Which meant that all of the weak scented magic would have been followed. All the way up to the very point when she could have gotten an actual visual upon the mare.

Time came and went while the dark purple fog shot through the forest. The smell had been getting stronger and stronger with every single second. She was on the right trail because the unicorn had came by there not all too long ago. A dark delight began to fill the devil. She had gotten closer and closer to realizing and finalizing her plan.

Months of planning would finally have been able to be paying off for her. Finally could she just watch and enjoy the destruction through another set of eyes. Time was up for two certain anthronies. Their clocks had chimed a long time ago and then, then the devil herself was ready to claim again what was rightfully hers.

Silence was the sound of the forest and not even a single bird made a sound. It almost seemed to be as if they were all terrified of something that lurked around. But to Nightmare Moon it only meant that she was closer. Closer to the group then that she had anticipated. Who knew, perhaps the matter wasn’t one of minutes anymore, but of mere seconds?

And then, as she shot around a corner from a tree to a bush, could she see it. She could see the tail swaying in the wind and with every step that was taken. The three toned coloring in it made it unmistakable. There was no doubt in the mind of Nightmare Moon.

She had found the one mare she was looking for. She had found Twilight Sparkle.

The devil was literally right behind her but Twilight didn’t seemed to have noticed anything about it. She had literally turned her back to the most powerful magical being in their whole land and she didn’t even knew it was there. From the looks of it, she didn’t even sensed the dark magic that was carried by the devil herself.

The mare released a gentle exhale through her mouth while she then continued on with the journey. They were far from being home and Twilight just wanted to get out of the woods. For the winds that were blowing in her back gave her the chills. A feeling that was both unpleasant and uncomfortable to begin with.

Something had changed the atmosphere in a matter of seconds but Nightmare Moon didn’t attack. She didn’t initiated the final plan that she had for the soothsayer. No, there were still too many beings with her. They could have destroyed the vessel she would create for herself just like that. The plan had to be refined a little bit more.

Patience was a virtue were words that was always being said by the elder anthronies and the oldest soothsayers. Luckily did Nightmare Moon carry a lot of patience inside of her. Brute force could have been used for certain, but that to brought the sheer amount of danger with her. No, waiting for the right moment would have been the best option.

When Twilight Sparkle would have been alone or when they all slept, that would have been the time that she would make her massive strike.

The mares didn’t knew for how long they had been walking through the forest. All they knew it was for a long time. The fog had turned into a reddish coloring which indicated that the sun was setting over the land. Had they truly been walking for that long through it, or was their mind playing tricks upon them? None of them knew and none had the actual answer upon the matter. But none of them were in the mood to speak a single word.

It almost seemed as if they were too terrified to talk in the thick fog. Whatever the real reason happened to be behind their silence, it created just an overall creepy mood. Six mares that travelled in a single row and all were as silent as the night. If one didn’t know any better, it could almost be judged upon the fact that they were out for trouble.

The only problem happened to be that trouble always managed to find them.

With perhaps the last shards of light of the day did the mares came to a clearing in the forest. With the last shards of light they saw just what they had been looking for, for a long time. For right in the eyes of both Applejack and Rarity it laid. In return there was a smile which came to both their faces before they just pointed towards it.

The rest of the mares broke the formation and looked over to what they were pointing at. The four other set of eyes just went wide as they couldn’t believe it. Somehow had the two seamares managed to guide them directly to a little spring in the middle of the forest. One that seemed to be good enough for a fresh water supply as well.

Massive feelings of relief came up in the anthronies as they began to scatter themselves. Once again was the silence preserved nicely Though with the discovery of the spring did they all knew that that would be broken sooner or later.

Twilight then opened the void storage and took out just the sleeping bags and pillows for the company. There was neither time nor place to set up the massive tent they carried. Not to mention that they also had to fill the bottles with fresh water. Which was in fact a perfect job for both Fluttershy and Pinkie. The doctor and the lamia were put to work while Rarity and Applejack set up everything else. Rainbow couldn’t help herself but to take a glance at the skies above.

She still had the feeling that the griffons were lurking around and about. Though she never could have given any of them the full proof that they were there. Which was most likely for the better. The last thing they needed was a massive battle in the fog covered woods.

Twilight had closed her eyes just after the void storage was closed by her magic again. Her horn remained charged while she in silence she thought about a source of light for the night. It would have been blowing their cover almost instantly, but it was perhaps the best thing that she could have been doing. One simple nod was given to herself.

With that same nod did the powers of her horn increase. Small rings or arcane fire began to circle around it. Tedious seconds went by and the mares didn’t had the slightest of clues about what was going on.

But then the charge was just sent straight out in the wide, wide world. A charge that stopped right over the little spring and a massive, purple flame erupted just out of thin air. Gone was the subtlety that Twilight’s magic usually carried.

Just that one time she went all out with her magic and created one of the biggest fire that they had seen in a long time. The fire was so powerful that it managed to make the fog around it spin lightly before consuming it. Yet another thing was that it seemed to burn through the ceiling itself.

Their cover had been blown away as a whole. But with the knowledge to the griffons known that Rarity was able to stand herself it didn’t meant much. And not to forget that Twilight was being able to create such a fire, they would have thought twice about just straight up attacking the mares again.

The unicorn soothsayer nodded calm to herself before she turned herself back around. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie seemed to have been done with the new supply of fresh water. The unicorn nodded in silence towards the two of them.

They both nodded back before the mare opened the void storage once more. All of the bottles of fresh water were stored inside of it before the first words were spoken by the doctor. “Twilight, if, if it isn’t too much, the water in the spring is clean and the flow out seems to go to a little river. You mind if we, well, take a bath? We haven’t been able to do such a thing for the longest of time by now.”

Twilight listened carefully to the words of Fluttershy before she nodded once more. “Yeah, you all get some refreshments, you all deserved it,” the unicorn replied to them before a small smile grew upon her face.

The doctor and the lamia were mostly relieved that they could be taking a much needed bath. They left the soothsayer alone and began to undress themselves. Pinkie had it of course easy and before Fluttershy could react, she had entered the waters already. A little splash followed and a wave caught the attention of the seamares.

They both then looked over a naked Fluttershy who had dropped herself at the edge of the spring. The hooves and lower legs were already consumed by the waters. Moments later would the rest of the body have followed.

The two mares then looked at one another and shrugged a little bit. It perhaps wasn’t the most ideal place, but they too were ready for some refreshments. So once more did the act of stripping apply.

Both of the seamares then too dropped themselves in the spring. They allowed the filth that they had collected over time to be just washed off. Not to mention the little fact that it all felt unusually comfortable with the giant purple flame above them. Applejack never really went for a swim because the crowd had gotten too much.

But what she did do was just relaxing under the heat of it. Her arms had been placed upon the shore as she just laid in the water. The eyes closed upon themselves and for a moment she seemed to just be able to actually forget the troubles that she had.

She wasn’t alone in that regard though. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie all shared that moment of utter relaxation with her. Only Twilight and Rainbow were not in the waters, but they had so their own manners of why not. The major of the air force thought that she was still clear enough to take a bath. Yet Twilight was too busy with something else.

The unicorn soothsayer had dropped herself against a tree with a charged her horn in a gentle manner. Scrolls of the arcane and even a quill were summoned by her. Twilight then just began to both read and write things down. All the matters that she had discovered were written down in a personal file as well a letter being written to the head soothsayer of Canterlot Castle.

One that would explain what they had done and that they were coming back to the place where it all began. The letter was both vague and completely revealing at the same time. Matters that were best left undiscussed found their way into it, as well as almost everything else.

Though only once the letter was done was it ruffled up into a little ball and set ablaze. The matters that were written down in that very letter weren’t things that were in the need to be said to the head soothsayer. The matters were all a bit too personal in the eyes of mare. In the end she made the decision to drop the letter all together.

Canterlot would see the mares again when the mares were ready to walk back in.

~~~~

Time ticked away for the mares while they were all silently laying either in the water, against a tree or upon their sleeping bag. The moment that the mares were having for themselves caused them all to just be massively relieved of everything. Scrolls after scrolls were being gazed upon by Twilight as she felt comfort for the first time in a long time.

The unicorn released a deep exhale through her nostrils of relaxation before she rolled up another scroll. Everything just seemed to have been right in the way as they were supposed to be for her mind. Everything and everypony was at peace, so the stress just flowed straight out of her body without much of a second thought.

A new scroll was being conjured up and she looked over it with high eyes. It spoke of tales forgotten through most of times and told about events mostly unheard by most beings. But the deeper she got in the scroll, the more she had to think about a couple of other matters. Mostly those that involved the book that was deemed too controversial, but happened to be the actual truth.

“Interesting, highly interesting,” the mare spoke to herself while she blinked a bit with her eyes. Through the arcane scroll could she see how Rainbow just laid there on top of the sleeping bag and stared to the stars in the night sky. A gentle smile then came to her face before she gently shook her head.

Everything was just at peace by the looks of it. In the moment did everything seemed to just have been all worth it. All of the things that had happened, all of the setbacks that they had before. All of it just seemed to be worth it in her eyes. The unicorn was actually glad about the fact that she had taken part in the journey. They had seen sights which nopony would have believed even if they told them. They had both seen and done the impossible.

But to everything, there must have gotten some kind of end to. That much was all too true in the eyes of Twilight. So perhaps the only way she could end that day, was by taking refuge in her sleeping bag.

One last glance was given to the mares that went skinny dipping in order to clean themselves up. Her attention then just turned back to the arcane scroll with the thoughts that she could read longer for just a little bit.

Though that ‘little bit’ she thought, turned out to have been a couple of minutes. The anthronies were still laying in the comforts of the water before Twilight felt a shiver down her spine. In an instant had the mare realized that something was wrong.

Her body turned from left to right as the eyes wanted to know whether or not there was something behind her. Anything that could have indicated the fact that it was the ice cold wind would have been appreciated. There was only one little problem, there was no actual wind blowing that very night.

Twilight released a gulp before she turned and twisted upon the spot. She didn’t wanted to become the mare that cried manticore for no reason of course. But if there indeed was something that haunted them, they all could best be prepared upon the matter. Yet the soothsayer needed to have more concrete proof of something like that. She had to know exactly what it was that caused the chill before she would say anything.

Trouble could have been laying on her path once more and she realized that little fact. “And here I was, having such a great evening,” she mumbled to herself with a light growl. The arcane scrolls were folded and she had a look to the rest of the mares.

Rainbow was vast asleep upon her sleeping bag while the other four also seemed to be asleep. Though they still laid in the waters and were naked. “…Well that’s not going to be much of a help, is it?” Twilight replied to the matter before she stood up. Her legs then carried her around the tree a couple of times.

She was glancing through the fog to the best of her abilities. If it was a griffon that caused the chill, they were getting cheeky. That was just about the last thing that they could have used in the matter. So Twilight continued upon her investigation of the matter with a set of narrowed eyes.

The unicorn soothsayer had to be certain that she would have eliminated most of the facts that were thrown against her. The scrolls all hovered around her as if they gave her some kind of divine protection. It wasn’t true at all of course, but at least it felt good to have some kind of protection with her.

The scrolls could have been used in all kinds of manners that would be enabling Twilight to actually help her in her quest of probable madness and insanity. She had to discover exactly just what it was that caused the shiver down her spine.

Though as time went on, the more the realization came settling into her mind. The realization that whatever she was hunting for, wasn’t the thing that she originally was looking for. Instead was she hungering for something else. Nothing that she originally had come up with could have even tipped at the facts of what it actually was. Once more would the unbelievable be faced.

Twilight stood behind a tree with her back firm against the bark. She faced in the opposing way of all of the other mares. She stared straight into the darkness of the fog covered night and forest. Something told her that a force greater than her had finally been able to catch up. What followed was that a deep gulp was once more given off by her.

The soothsayer wasn’t usually that easily spooked about something, but the only option that remained was one that terrified her. “You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered up to herself as she couldn’t believe it. “It can’t be..!” Twilight then exclaimed just before her eyes went wide.

Hidden deep within the fog, it crawled by at an incredible speed. It came in her direction like a giant centipede straight out of a horror story. The unicorn wanted to scream the lungs out of her body as her initial response. Though she simply wasn’t allowed to be doing such a thing.

The fear and horror that began to fill her body contradicted everything that a sane anthrony would have done. She felt like her hooves had been turned to stone and merged with the bottom of the forest floor. She couldn’t go a single way as the dark purple fogged centipede came closer to her.

But the closer the thing came to her, the more it became apparent that it took an actual and physical shape. It merged even further with the physical world and Twilight still couldn’t do anything. She then felt a burning sensation in her chest. Almost as if all of her magic seemed to have gone haywire for some reason.

The arcane scrolls that she kept with her for some kind of protection failed to do their job while they were burned by purple flames. But whether those flames came through her own doing or that of the nightmarish centipede remained unknown to her. That very same centipede also seemed to have been the origin of a lot of dark magic.

Twilight felt it burning within her chest. Those massive amounts of dark magic stored in just one creature, only revealed more about whom it truly was that had preyed upon her. There was only one logical explanation for the unicorn and she just couldn’t believe it. Words wanted to leave her mouth but they were all silenced before they even left.

She was already under the effects of numerous spells that were spoken by the creature. A creature that then rose the front half of its body upwards and glanced brightly in her eyes. Twilight didn’t dare to look back at first though. Naturally she had all the rights to not do such a thing of course.

But as soon as she heard the saliva physically dripping down to the grass, the mare had to inspect what on earth was going on. She had to know what would happen to her, what was hunting her. Twilight’s eyes opened before they quickly turned in the direction of the centipede.

Sweat of pure fear began to travel down her neck and head. She had glanced straight into the giant maw of the beast. But above that were four eyes all primed directly at her. It must have been her, it could only have been her in fact. Twilight began to fear even more as she realized that it was nopony else then the devil herself that had seen it for her.

Twilight Sparkle was literally at the hands of the devil as she tried to escape the clutches of her. But with the burning sensation that went through her chest and the disability to call upon her magic, there was little hope. There was just so little hope that Twilight would have gotten out of the situation unharmed.

The centipede then went on with its attack. It would have placed two of its leg against the bark of the tree in silence before the mouth opened up to release some sort of steam. The same thick, purple fog that it used to travel within left the maw and headed straight for the soothsayer. The unicorn tried her best to not inhale it or allow it to enter her body.

Shakes were given off by her head while she made the same noises a foal would make when it denied the spoon. Every single exhale she took blew some of the fog away. But the battle was already lost for Twilight long before she even began on it. The fog always found a manner in which it could have entered the body.

Wasn’t it through the nose, it would have been through the mouth that opened and closed every so often. There was no escape and the spirit of Nightmare Moon entered the body of Twilight Sparkle herself. The two beings were gently merging with one another, all while the very soul of the soothsayer was forced in a stasis sphere.

Nightmare Moon would have taken full control over Twilight’s body near instantly. That was the sole reason of why she waited so long. She was fully aware of the fact that she happened to be one of the strongest soothsayers in the land. That was why she took her time and allowed the unicorn’s mind to crack the way it had done. To make the hostile takeover seem a little bit less hostile and that she had an easier time making the fix within it.

Nopony knew what had happened behind the tree as they were all still laying with their eyes closed. They didn’t knew that Twilight had changed for the worst and would have been used by Nightmare Moon as her own puppet of utter destruction. The eyes of Twilight went from left to right as the husk of the giant centipede still stood before her.

“Hello there, cutie,” the mixed voice of both Twilight and Nightmare spoke before the mixed entity let out a chuckle. Even her whole appearance had changed once it was over. When she walked back to the campsite of the mares, the changes were revealed within the purple light. She seemed to have shared more with Nightmare Moon than was hoped. Her mane seemed to be turning into a deep fog. Not to forget the little fact that her eyes turned more demonic.

But as those same eyes looked over the group of mares. They were all just small fish to fry. No, they wouldn’t have been worth it to fall beneath the power that Nightmare Moon had thanks to Twilight. Instead she turned her attention around again. Towards the direction of the forest of Everfree itself. There did the prize await. There did the true goal of the whole operation await them all. A deep and low sounding growl was given off by Twilight. One that was loud enough to awaken the other mares from their deep or light slumber.

Chapter LXXX

The possessed Twilight Sparkle kept on glancing towards the woods of Everfree while the rest of the mares couldn’t believe what they had heard. To them it seemed as if some kind of wild animal had gotten too close to the campsite. But when they saw Twilight standing there in the way she did, they didn’t minded it too much anymore. They thought that the unicorn had already scared it away. They were oblivious to the fact that it was in fact the unicorn who released the growl.

All of them returned back to their sleeping or closed eye modus. They didn’t really minded the fact what the unicorn would have been doing, as long as they were safe. What were they wrong upon the matters as they were. For Twilight began to charge up her horn. The charging sounds of the magical aura weren’t as calm and collected as they used to be. Instead they sounded both sharp and violent. Almost as if there this ancient hatred that finally got out.

Not to mention the fact that the very aura had transformed as well. If they would have looked at the mare, they would have sworn it was the matter with Chrysalis all over again. A little thing they didn’t wanted to do at all.

The charging sounds entered those of Rarity better than of all ears present. The other unicorn of the company listened with the greatest of care before her eyes went open. She knew where that sound came from, or better said: she knew what spell was being charged up. “Impossible, but that can’t be!” Rarity whispered to herself before she turned herself around. With one swift motion had she gotten out of the water and just stood there with nothing on her body.

She kept on looking over to Twilight with a confused gaze before Applejack did the same. The admiral of the navy got out of the water with a little bit more difficulty because of her leg and had to lean on Rarity for a moment. The leg had been taken off as it would have been more comfortable for her to swim that way.

Rarity quickly glanced around and noticed what was going on with the admiral. And almost out utter instinct she wrapped an arm over both of the shoulders of the earth anthrony. She actually wanted to support Applejack to the best of her abilities. A little fact that was greatly appreciated by the other mare.

“What’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked while she looked over to Rarity with a confused expression. The both of them were naked and dripping from the waters, meaning they couldn’t have done much. Rarity had to remove a strand of wet hair out of her eyes before she could answer.

To her it seemed Twilight was preparing something. A spell that she didn’t thought that the mare would be doing, not at that time actually. “I think, she’s preparing herself a long range teleport. The hums of the arcane indicate that at least. But that isn’t making any sense to me.”

Whether or not Twilight knew that both Rarity and Applejack were staring at her, it didn’t matter to her. The force that had taken over the body continued to just blindly charge the amounts of magic that it needed and that it was required to collect. But Rarity was right with her words. The ‘Nightmare Twilight’ –as the thing could be dubbed as– was indeed preparing a long range teleport.

The more Applejack glanced over the mare, the more she began to realize that nothing seemed to have been right with Twilight. “Her hair’s different, the aura’s different. Ya think..?” But much further she couldn’t say her words. The worry for something terrible that would be happening overtook her.

Neither of the mares had anything they could have been protecting themselves with which meant the last thing they needed was to get the attention of the incarnated devil. But Rarity only had one word to say. The word that was the answer upon the question asked. “Possession,” the pirate captain said. It was the only thing that made sense in any way, shape, or form during the matter.

The shiver managed to travel down the spine of Applejack as she quickly shook her head. The thought of warning the others was there of course. But it was quickly stored back again as she realized that Twilight was more powerful than the five of them combined. The only thing that they could have done was just to let the beast take off and pray for the best.

The mares then looked to the fog like hair that Twilight carried and Rarity tried to throw the puzzle pieces together for her own mind. A exhale was then released through her nostrils. One that managed to capture the eyes of Applejack with a worried expression. “It’s nothing, just, you know…like old times.” Rarity replied before she placed a hand upon the gems that were placed upon her body. The gems had the vital task of not letting the musket balls travel any further in her body, as they couldn’t be removed from it.

The admiral nodded gently before they once more glanced over Twilight.

Nightmare Twilight on the other end still didn’t gave them an eye. She was fully aware that the two of them were standing there of course. She was also aware on the fact that the two of them were incapable of doing anything. Perhaps that was the fact of the overconfidence that the Dark Witches carried. But in the case of Nightmare Twilight it happened to be true. If Rarity only once made the decision to flat out attack her would the consequences have been gruesome.

She felt that the pair of them wanted to do something. But that they were stopped just because of the sheer amount of awesome power that had been collected so far by the devil herself. She happened to have the advantage of the pair of them and would actually use it right over them.

For the more the horn charged itself up, the more it became apparent to the mares that the hair’s vibration became larger and larger. Almost as if the foggy hair resonated with the fact of the arcane tome. Whether it was right or not remained to be seen though. Yet it did cause the two of them to be terrified.

Then it would have happened. With a deep chuckle that was both in Twilight’s and Nightmare’s tone was the spell released into the world. The body of the soothsayer would have just disappeared straight in an arcane orb that was created by the vast amounts of dark magic.

What happened next, just happened in mere fractions of seconds. For the orb began to shirk fast, up to the point it couldn’t be seen anything. And only after that did the explosion of dark magic happen. Twilight had vanished from the face of the lands and possibly even their plane of existence. She was scattered across both time and space with the devil herself thrown in the mix.

Their heading was the dreaded woods of Everfree. A fact that was unknown to the group of mares. A group who was abruptly awoken from their light sleeps because of the massive explosion. They were all just left there, either asleep or figural dead in the water. Twilight was gone and they had to get her back one way or the other. No matter how impossible the quest seemed to have been. Or how ridiculous for that matter.

All five of the mares were just left there with no context to the situation. They all looked in both utter amazement and terror to the events as they had just happened. None of them could actually have believed what they saw and the doctor and the lamia quickly got out of the water. They had to dress themselves quickly in order to get on with the chase for their friend. They had to try their utmost best to get Twilight back where she belonged, among them.

The only question was just how they would be doing such a thing. Usually it was Twilight who was the brain behind the whole operation, then they had to do it themselves. Terror struck them again as they all released a deep exhale through their nostrils. The time had come for them that they would solve the matter on their own.

The four mares returned to the stacks of clothing and began to dress themselves again. Rarity had one last look to Applejack who nodded calmly. The pirate captain then let go of the admiral who began to skip her way over to her steam powered leg. The biggest inconvenience that she could ever have walked against was the fact that she would lose her leg.

Applejack could even move and work around the fact if the gears in her leg came to a standstill, but a complete removal left her with the greatest amounts of trouble that there was. Something that actually caused her to not wander around and about anymore. Therefore she just felt herself relieved when she strapped the thing back on.

A massive exhale of relief went through her nostrils as the eyes were closed for a moment. The valves were turned open and the leg gently came back in motion. “Thank the heavens,” whispered Applejack to herself. The eyes were then opened again and the rest of her clothing were put on.

It took them all maybe a minute or two before they were all dressed again and looked over to Rainbow Dash. The major of the air force seemed to have a difficult time when it came down to processing the things that had happened. It wasn’t just from that evening that bothered her, but the whole journey just wasn’t sitting right in her stomach.

The admiral approached her with a gentle pace in her hooves. Caution had to be given off by all of them if they didn’t wanted to spook Rainbow too much. Even though it seemed as if the pegasus was deep in thought, she still heard and saw everything that was happening. And she was just angry at everything and everypony.

Whether it was the effect of Nightmare Moon’s presence or not didn’t matter in the moment. For the arm of the admiral stretched itself out in the hope to calm the pegasus down. Though the time to actually place it upon the shoulder wasn’t given to her. For as soon as the hand came too close in the area of the mare did the pegasus spread her wings rapidly.

The surprise caused the admiral to take a step backwards and she assumed a confused stance. Rainbow was still armed and Applejack didn’t know whether or not she would be able to listen to reason. Most likely she wouldn’t have been, which meant that she could fire her weapons just like that. Only one trigger was needed before the whole company would have walked right into the biggest disaster they had ever seen.

“Rainbow, calmly talk to me. Talk to me what’s on yar mind,” said Applejack to her. She tried to reason with the pegasus to the best of her abilities. The glance in the eyes of Rainbow told a whole different story. They spoke about hatred, tiredness and utter exhaustion. That made the mare even more dangerous than anypony had expected.

Silence was kept by the three other mares as they just watched over the events as they went down. Whatever would have happened next, they all knew that it would be something terrible to say the least. Neither Rarity, Pinkie nor Fluttershy dared to step in between the two titans that were both Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Deep and loud exhales left the nostrils of Rainbow which expanded with each push of air. The eyes were never away from Applejack and the sights were set firm. Whatever would have caused her to take up arms, Applejack would have been the mare that would have been hit by the bullets. She was the most obvious target and the one closest to her.

“Talk to me, Dash!” the admiral then exclaimed louder. She needed to have some form of information about all that was spooking through the head of the mare. “Please, all Ah’m asking from ya, is to talk to me. Ya can still do that, right?”

But it felt as if she was speaking to ears that never wanted to listen. The eyes of Rainbow turned to red as the veins inside of them were widened. She wasn’t just angry or filled with hatred, but she seemed to be enraged about something. Something that must have been working upon her nails for so long.

All of the frustration would finally be given off at once. All of it, just straight up and in one go. Nopony would have been safe when that bomb would burst. And Applejack continued to taunt her. Which led to the point where she would speak her words. The words were spoken with spits of saliva through the air.

It must have been close to the point where the foam would be found on her lips, if one carefully looked to the pegasus. “I’m so, so, so done with it all!” the mare exclaimed in a growling tone. The cutting glares she gave with her eyes afterwards were the most unsettling set of eyes ever to come from her.

“Done with what?” Applejack asked through. Though her mind was having a sort of idea what was meant with the words. “Done with the journey? We’re on our way back!”

“No, you idiot! I’m done with everything that has to do something with this crap!” Rainbow continued to spew out. “Every, single, time we think we are having things going before the wind, there’s something that just pushes us right back against the wall! Isn’t it the weather, it’s some sort of witch. Isn’t it that, it’s a freaking devil! You see, you see, why I am going, around the way I do?!”

“Ah heard ya partner,” the admiral spoke just before she rose back up to her normal height. The stance of confusion was traded in for one of formality and the hands were placed behind her back. “But what do ya want us to do ‘bout it? We ain’t nearly as powerful as Twilight. We know nothing of the arcane arts, except Rarity a little bit, that is.”

The madness that made the gears turn in the head of Rainbow were still cracked up to eleven. The pegasus could only hear pieces of the words that were being said. The exhales were continued to be done in the way they had been doing for so long and she began to flap her wings a little bit. “Everything you say, doesn’t make sense. You all, can kiss my flanks for all I care! For this mare, is resigning now. Arrivederci!” the pegasus yelled before she jumped up and into the air.

One powerful flap of her wings was given and she was just gone. Rainbow Dash had then just vanished into the skies above them. She was out of reach of the purple flame. She had left the company of mares just like that. Not that she could have been truly blamed for the matter. The insanity that was going through the events caught up with them all.

Each of them felt just uncomfortable with the sights that they had to find out just where Twilight had gone off to. Applejack turned herself around to the mares as the question left her mouth. “Anypony having an idea as of where we be findin’ her?”

Meanwhile and high up above the fog was Rainbow just cruising through the night skies. Her eyes were tearing but she didn’t wanted to cry. Her emotions had turned her into a pinball that went all over the place. At one moment she felt sad about the fact that she left while in the next she was just relieved. Rainbow wasn’t even certain on how she should have felt herself.

Her mind had become a scattered mess and if bad luck really was with her, she would be encountering the griffons as well. Which was actually the last thing that she needed in the moment. Which resulted in her eyes scanning the skies for a cloud that was big enough to not just carry her, but also hide her away.

There it then was. The one cloud that was the closest to her. The course of the mare was altered right into that direction. Before Rainbow even realized it had she set her hooves down upon it and dropped her whole body down into the fluffy seating.

She just laid there before the other layer was pulled over her like a blanket. She had enclosed herself completely in the fluffiness of the cloud and could still watch to the outside world. But the outside world would be having a great difficulty spotting her though.

The thoughts that she had were just allowed free of going around and about. The pegasus had to set everything together if she wanted to know what exactly she needed to be doing. All of her anger, all of her confusion, all of her tiredness, it had been vented. Yet the aftermath of her burst still needed to be felt by everypony left.

For the time being there was there only one thing that could have been done by her. And that was to just get some sleep. She had to get those final hours of sleep in the darkness before she would even have been able to think about making her next move. So Rainbow rolled over to one side and closed her eyes.

To be carried away by the wind, to places both far away and of imagination. To be carried away, to the place of her dreams and to that one place where she held the full control over everything.

Back on the ground did Applejack shook her head. Nopony was having a clear idea as to where the newly formed ‘Nightmare Twilight’ could have been off to. Which angered the earth anthrony perhaps just a little bit more than it originally should have been doing. The mare shook her head calmly from side to side them.

She had to remain the calm force of nature that would have been able to help pretty much everypony out in the dire time of need. She had to be that force that was able to push them all through on the matter. She also couldn’t help but to notice another fact that became more and more apparent to her.

The little fact that everything that they had done was slowly crumbling below their hooves. All the adventures that they had together so far would have been able to make any bond become almost inseparable. But as she looked over to the mares, she couldn’t really see it anymore.

The mare released a gentle sigh through her mouth moments before she tore her eyes away from the group for just a moment. They had gone literally out of the frying pan and straight into the fires. Rainbow did have a point on the matter though. It almost seemed as if their luck always would be turned straight around when it came to things.

But then again, so far they had always been able to get over the troubles. Which in and of itself was actually a massive boost in her own morale. The admiral turned back around to face the mares. They all had to stick together and they needed to get Rainbow Dash back out of her hidey hole. Wherever among the skies that might have been.

The calm and collected eyes of the admiral only hid the sheer amounts of stress that were flowing through her body. She was terrified of everything and with good reasons. Their group seemed to be falling apart and to her it felt as if only she was able to stop it.

The admiral nodded once with her head before she took a gentle inhale of air. All of her available options were given when she then locked on Fluttershy. The doctor gulped a little bit as she saw the prying, green rimmed eyes to have fallen upon her. What would Applejack be doing with her?

Time would have told the matter as far as the doctor knew. Time would always have revealed the matters that were hidden among the darkness. A darkness that seemed to be darker than any time since their journey had begun so long ago.

The earth anthrony did a step forwards as she spoke up her words. “Partners, friends, we have been defeating near impossible odds ever since we began our journey. We have seen sights that are burned on our retina’s ‘cause of how beautiful they are. Now the time’s come, to get back what’s rightfully ours. First, we need to get Rainbow. Then, we need to find Twilight.”

The speech didn’t had the desired effect though. Where the admiral thought that she would be talking courage into the hearts of the mares, she actually just terrified them more. At least that happened to be the case with both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Applejack’s eyes had gone from right to left as she almost seemed to have been scanning for any kind of volunteers that she needed to do a couple of things.

Whether it was liked or not, the gaze always seemed to have returned to Fluttershy for whatever reason. “Why, why do you keep looking at me?” she asked with a nervous tremble in her voice. She was terrified of the glance in the eyes and just prayed that it would stop sometime soon, rather than later.

Yet Applejack didn’t know of any stopping. Instead she would have continued with the madness that she truly had planned ahead. The plan could have been witnessed as madness at least in their eyes. For the plan that she came up with was most likely just that.

Rarity crossed her arms over one another as she gave a shady look towards the admiral. Though she kept on listening to the words that were spoken. “Fluttershy,” the mare began as she clapped her hands together. “Given how, ya’re the only other pegasus we’re having here in the group, Ah have to tell ya that yar the most suited candidate to go up there.”

“A-And what, do I have to d-do then?” the mare squeaked up in fear. She wasn’t in the real mood to do anything that had been ordered by the admiral, yet at the other end of the spectrum had it to be done as well. Slowly but surely it came up in the mind of the pegasus just what she had to be doing, or was ought to be actually.

“Ah want, that ya be flying up there, find the cloud where Rainbow Dash has landed upon, and talk some sense right into her, she needs it more than any of us,” explained Applejack pretty much as bareboned as she ever would have gotten.

The emotions of Fluttershy went almost through the roof as she heard the demands. The admiral wanted that she went to talk with the angered pegasus? Just how mad did she happened to be in the first place? There was no way that Rainbow would ever had been able to talk to Fluttershy. Let alone that Fluttershy had the persuasion power to make Rainbow come down again.

It just wouldn’t happen and Rarity realized that little fact. She shook her head gentle from left to right before the hands were just placed in the sides of her body. The seeming nonchalant motions that were made by the pirate went unnoticed by the admiral.

Pinkie Pie on the other end shared the fear that Fluttershy was having. She had seen Rainbow in action and listened to the tales that were told about all of the mares. Fluttershy was in fact incapable of going up there and perform the task demanded of her. Which lead to a great worry inside of the pair of them.

Though Applejack seemed to have been persistent with her words. She really wanted that Fluttershy would fly up there and just talk to Rainbow. What she didn’t knew though was that the angered Rainbow happened to have been more than capable of delivering a couple of good punches and kicks. Not to mention that she had her flintlocks and still was trigger-happy.

The doctor was unarmed and had no way of defending herself. The worry of Fluttershy only grew greater as she thought about the things that could have happened. Anything was possible and she knew that little fact. A deep exhale was released through her nostrils before she shook her head. She couldn’t do it, she wouldn’t do it even.

“You, you really want me to go up there, don’t you?” she asked, just to be certain about the facts. The admiral nodded firm with her head. Fluttershy knew in that moment that there perhaps was nothing more that could have been said against the mare. She was determined to actually let the pegasus fly up there and do what needed to be done.

“Oh-kay, guess it’s for the greater good,” the doctor spoke in a weak and fragile tone. She really didn’t wanted to make the journey above the clouds and risk being kicked, punched or shot by Rainbow Dash. But she was the only remaining pegasus in the group, which meant that she was the only one that was able to actually fly through the skies.

The wings of the pegasus began to gently spread themselves out as both Rarity and Pinkie had to move aside just a little bit. The doctor took a deep breath just before she looked to the lamia. The creature did glance back in her eyes, but it didn’t have the slightest of ideas about what could be done.

So much comfort wasn’t to be found in the eyes of Pinkie.

Then she turned her attention over to Rarity. The pirate captain realized that she was being watched. In her ears she could almost hear the silent screams for help coming. The screams that were spoken by the eyes of the mare. She really didn’t wanted to do anything that she had been ordered to. Perhaps, just perhaps could Rarity bring in a word or two that could have prevented her from not going.

The pirate captain was fully aware of what wanted to be done. She too didn’t thought it was an actual good idea to make the pegasus go up there. But Applejack was blinded in one way or the other. She was blinded by the fact that she wanted to bring the group back together. Time was a pressuring matter as they had to get Twilight back. Only problem happened to be that they didn’t even knew where Twilight had been gone off to.

Fluttershy’s eyes continued to look over Rarity with a horrid expression. She wanted to see anything, or something that could have indicated on the fact that she didn’t had to move up to the skies. But just as she thought that there was something to happen, the unicorn turned her attention over to the skies themselves.

She had to take a deep glance first before something else would have been done. All kinds of matters played out in her head as she looked over the heavens high. All the stars just twinkled as the moon gently moved over the skies. The unicorn didn’t saw it fitting for Fluttershy to go.

When Rarity turned her head back towards Fluttershy, she gestured in silence that she didn’t had to go up. Relief came to the pegasus as the wings were tucked back against her back. “Thank you,” the doctor whispered in a gentle to the pirate. There was no amount of words nor deeds that could have proved just how thankful the pegasus was to the unicorn.

Applejack on the other end looked up a little bit strange. She carried her looks over to Rarity who already had her answers ready for her. “Rainbow said she was done with it right? And you planned on sending up Fluttershy? You don’t understand the context of done, do you? She needs time, Applejack. She needs time to recollect her mind to the best of her abilities. The last thing that she needs in this moment is even one of us, trying to get her back down and force her again through the hell she tried to escape.”

“But,” said Applejack just before she was silenced again by the pirate.

“No buts, just believe me on this one. We have bigger issues at hand, remember?” Rarity replied before she turned around to make it back to the sleeping bags. The time to sleep for any of them wouldn’t be there as they had an investigation to complete. The mares silently followed Rarity back and Applejack was the first one to divert of the course.

The admiral seemed to have been going to the place where Nightmare Twilight stood. It was just the nickname that the group had given to the changed unicorn. It might have sounded daft and perhaps a little bit clichéd, but that was how they saw the mare in the moment.

Fluttershy was still relieved that at least one other anthrony in fact seemed to be caring about her wellbeing. In silence she continued to just thank Rarity for the deeds that she had done before she dropped down on her bag.

Pinkie did pretty much the same while Rarity began to roll up those of Rainbow, Twilight and herself. The other two could be doing it themselves if they wanted to. In the moment she gave Applejack the time to figure out if there was any kind of trail that could be found. All while she charged up her horn to keep the fires going.

Whether they had noticed it or not, the fire that was initiated by Twilight seemed to have gotten weaker the more she was away from it. So it was up to Rarity to keep it burning for as long as it was needed. Though all sorts of manners was it done. But the most important one had to be the fact that it was to keep them warm and make the griffons think that nothing had changed.

Applejack was wandering around the spot where Nightmare Twilight had teleported away from and she noticed something unusual. She hunched down through her legs as one of her eyebrows rose up. The grass seemed to have been scorched by something powerful. At least at the places where the teleportation spell had hit the ground.

Yet no teleportation spell that she was aware off caused that kind of burning. She was a mare of Canterlot, she had seen countless unicorns perform the teleportation spell to hop from ship to ship. Yet never had she seen any kind of burn marks. Which could only be explained by the dark magic then.

Rarity had joined her in silence, after she had cleaned up the bags and lowered through her legs as well. “What do you think of it?” she asked while a hand went over the scorched grass.

“Dark magic, that’s all Ah know for certain. Other than that, Ah have no idea. Seems like not even Twilight was able to outmatch the thing that took her over. Perhaps, she’s turning in a Dark Witch herself? Ah mean, ya saw her hair right?” Applejack replied. But she only guessed about what it could have been. She was dead on ideas and only tried to make sense of what she knew.

Which led to Rarity nodding with her head. The direction she was looking for was good. Except for one little thing that didn’t really add up to anything. “I don’t think that Twilight turned on purpose in a Dark Witch. No, a force more powerful than her most have taken her over. And knowing her magical capabilities, not much can do that… Whatever it is, it looks like we’re in for a whole other adventure right on our tails.”

The pirate captain would have risen back up before she turned her body around. She remembered well enough the direction in which Nightmare Twilight stood and stared into the same air as she did. “What is there, in that direction? What are you looking for..?” she questioned aloud.

Chapter LXXXI

Both Rarity and Applejack stared into the direction of where the Nightmare Twilight had been watching too as well. The two of them could have only wondered just where the unicorn was looking towards and why. All kinds of questions ran through their heads. Among them perhaps the most obvious one. The one that asked whether or not there could have been any kind of tracing left by the force that took over their little soothsayer.

The pair of them turned their attention to one another and Rarity gave a gentle nod. One of them would have gotten out to investigate the stuff that would be going on. The traces and evidence of the matter must have been close by. It was unlikely that Twilight had turned into the path of the Dark Witches and Rarity knew that little fact. No, there was something else that must have taken a hold of the soothsayer. Rainbow had stated that a devil took her over, but was that the truth on the matter? Wasn’t she just rambling on because of her emotions? She didn’t had a real clue to that.

The unicorn broke the eye contact with the admiral before she placed her hands behind her back. In the light of the purple flame did she began her search. She began to search through the stuff that was displayed before her. Though there was nothing in the nearby area could have helped her to come up with something that could point her in the right direction.

That was at least the case until she turned her attention to a certain tree. For behind that tree, there seemed to have been something that caused the mare to raise an eyebrow. “Well now, what do we have here?” she asked to herself moments before she took a step closer.

“Ya found something, Rarity?” Applejack asked out of sheer curiosity. But the unicorn didn’t answer straight away. Instead she seemed to have taken her time with it all. She had to make certain that whatever it was that she saw, wouldn’t come to life and just flat out attack her.

That fright was one that continued to keep the mare on edge. After having witnessed a doppelganger who turned out to be a Dark Witch, the unicorn wouldn’t have been surprised if that thing turned out to be one either. The eyes of the unicorn arrowed themselves as she approached it with the greatest of care.

One hoof was placed in front of the other before she closed her eyes shut with firm force. If there would have been a massive overload of light, she would have come prepared. The breathing of the unicorn was quick and her adrenaline was pumping through her body. The anticipation of something happening right before her was almost getting too much for her heart.

But nothing did happen to her. Everything just remained standing still and Rarity dared to open up one of her eyes. The eye then turned over to the object behind the tree. There was however, a slight problem. The very eye with which she looked at it, didn’t even manage to get the thing in focus. Which meant that Rarity was staring at it in a blur.

The answer on the question of Applejack also still had to be given, which was the thing she did then. A gentle sigh was given off through her mouth before the words came. “I found something, yes. But what it is and whether it’s alive, remains to be seen. Don’t come any closer until I say so, alright? And Jackie…”

“Yes?” the admiral replied. She hadn’t expected the fact that there was something that came afterwards. Which made the matter perhaps all the more interesting to listen to.

“If something happens to me, run. Just run like the wind and try to get back to Canterlot. Don’t think about me or Twilight. You, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow hold a greater value in that moment,” added Rarity before she seemed to been stating her last will to them.

The admiral released a simple nod while she prepared every last muscle inside of her body to just get the hell away. For if anything would have happened, she had to get the rest of the group that was still with her. Thoughts of terror raced through her before she shook her head.

The unicorn crawled up closer and closer to the tree but didn’t dare to open up her other eye just yet. For some reason she still expected that it would have been coming back to life and that it still would have gotten right for her.

A primal fear that just would have continued to linger inside of her body. She had to be ready for everything without showing too much hostility. So one of her hands reached out for her biggest flintlock and cocked the hammer inside of the holster. If anything would have happened did she at least had a chance to defend herself.

Time was up though. All that she could have done from that moment onward was to turn around the tree and face the terrors that were lingering there. The unicorn did just that and she jumped in with a set of closed eyes. She then landed almost right next to the thing she caught in her eyes earlier and gently opened them again.

Whatever it was that she saw, it most likely was able to give them all a lot of answers. Or at least that was the thing that the unicorn hoped it would be doing. For a deep and slow inhale was given off by her.

In her eyes it then appeared, the husk of the giant centipede. The eyes of the unicorn just went as wide as they were allowed when she first saw it. A hand was brought to her mouth just before she began to shake her head. It couldn’t have been possible, right? Fear had made room for utter disbelief from her part as she began to feel herself truly uncomfortable.

Even in its lifeless state did the husk managed to give off a truly terrifying presence. She shook her head even more vividly as the hand was removed from her mouth. “This can’t be. This just, can’t be!” Rarity exclaimed in a soft tone to herself.

“What did ya find?” Applejack asked while she was still too scared to move a muscle. The unicorn then just gestured her over with a single hand. The admiral caught the signal the first time it was given but still tilted her head. Step by step did she came closer to the tree and went around it the other way. Though there was nothing which could have prepared her for the sight that would have been revealed to her.

Applejack’s eyes were looking over the husk and noticed that it was a truly enormous centipede. The admiral then had to place a great effort in not to scream in terror. Rarity wanted to keep it a secret to both Pinkie and Fluttershy, so the Applejack was forced to keep her mouth shut. The admiral placed both of her hands against her mouth in order to suppress the screams.

“Calm yourself, Jackie, just calm yourself for the moment. It’s dead or, dormant, actually,” replied Rarity in another a whisper. Her eyes then shifted over to the little camp and watched how both the doctor and the lamia were talking to one another under the light of the purple fire.

The hands were taken off of the admiral’s mouth as she couldn’t believe what she was staring at. “Is this, what Ah think it is? But how? How can she be here? And, oh mah goodness…”

“Exactly Jackie,” the pirate said before she turned her head back to the admiral. “The devil has paid us a visit and taken one of us with her. She’s real, she’s just as real as you and I.” The head of the mare was then dropped down to her chest before she shook it ever so gently. “Luna stand with us, for this truly is a dark moment in our time.”

“Ya think we might be able to, ya know, touch it?” Applejack asked while she never took her eyes away from the empty husk. It just utterly terrified her as she watched over the whole scene. She could have imagined the sheer amounts of fear that was going straight through Twilight as the maw was standing right before her.

“Don’t even think about that,” responded Rarity quick and in a snarl. “It’s the physical form of Nightmare Moon, touching it is like ringing her front door bell! She’ll come and get you, just like Twilight. You can’t defeat the devil herself!” The words of the pirate rang a great truth and Applejack realized that the more she thought about it. Perhaps it was indeed better to just let it be for what it was.

“Let’s not discuss this with the others. They don’t need to know what lies here. We’re going to make way for the port of Manehatten, now. Twilight, is lost. I’ll give Rainbow the signal in the form of a blast and hope she understands it. We can’t stay here, not with this here. We have to go, you understand?” Rarity spoke to Applejack. She was more than ready to get the hell away from the place. It was the only thing that they could have done actually.

The admiral nodded to the words of the pirate before she released a deep exhale in return. She wanted to just shatter the husk with every fiber of her body, but who knew with how many layers of dark magic it was protected by? It surprised Rarity that there wasn’t some kind of protective barrier around it when she approached it. But that didn’t want to say there wasn’t one hidden.

No, the mares had to play it careful. They had to set in low and pray on the fact that they would have gotten out unscratched. Normally Rarity wouldn’t back away from a fight that easily. But she knew who her enemy was. She knew that the powers of the devil couldn’t be matched by hers even if she tried. If anypony would have had a chance against the actual devil, Twilight would have been the right candidate.

It was true that the pirate believed in the goddesses as well, but she only prayed to the lunar one. Not to mention the little fact that Twilight had been studying them for as long as she could remember. She was just a simple pirate compared to a brilliant and religious scholar.

“Ah heard ya. Make for port, sail to Canterlot,” repeated Applejack. The plan was as bare boned as it could have been. Rarity nodded in return before she walked away. The admiral then just followed her as she gained the creeps from the terrifying looking centipede. A shudder went down her spine as she glanced over the rest of the company.

Both Fluttershy and Pinkie didn’t have the slightest of clues about what was going on though. The two had been exchanging cultural differences between each other when they noticed in the corners of their eyes that the mares came back. Of course they hoped that there was good news from them. Yet the expression that could be witnessed upon both of their faces told a whole different story.

The lamia and the doctor already felt the clouds of rain that would come, even without any of them having spoken a single word. Rarity took it upon herself to bring the news to them. She was a little bit more refined in doing such a thing. The unicorn was more able to bend words so that they didn’t sound as terrible as they would have seemed.

“We’re going to make way for the port of Manehatten, now. We can’t stay here any longer. Our safety will be in jeopardize if we do. I can hope that you understand the matter. Twilight, is off to do something else. I can only hope she is able to return to us once it is over. She… She…” That was the point where the lie had to be formed and it needed to be formed quickly.

Pinkie and Fluttershy would only have believed so much before they would have realized that Rarity was telling them a lie. Which meant that the pirate captain had to be utterly careful with her words to begin with. “She’s working on something, a debt that had to be settled a long time ago. She just vanished from the face of the world without a note, so I can only guess what she would have meant with it,” said Rarity to the other two members.

Then came the time to figure out whether or not Pinkie and Fluttershy actually would have been able to take the bait that was given by Rarity. The unicorn naturally hoped that the two of them would have walked right into it. If not, she had a whole lot of explaining to do on the matter.

The mare and the lamia both looked at each other for a little while before their heads turned back to both Applejack and Rarity. The tension was about to be cut in two and either the lie would have worked, or fallen flat on its face. In the end did both the lamia and the pegasus give off a nod. They had accepted the lie that was being told by the pirate captain. “Now if you please, we have a lot more work to do and a long trip to go.”

“But, mustn’t we find Rainbow as well?” Fluttershy asked just before she got back up on her legs. The matter was in fact already handled by Rarity who answered with a gentle nod. It was a relief from the heart of the pegasus as she began to pack her gear.

“I’ll fire a bolt in the air that will signal our departure from here. Rainbow is aware that we are having to go to Manehatten so either she’ll wait there on us, or join us on the quest to it,” replied Rarity to the doctor. The other pegasus gave off a small nod before she continued with packing up their stuff. It was the only thing that could have done before they would leave again.

Once again had the time gotten to them to make their departure from the place. Neither Fluttershy nor Pinkie had even the slightest idea about the terrible husk that stood right behind one of the trees near them. And it was most likely for the best left in that way. The last thing that Rarity would have wanted was that there was unneeded terror given off to all of them.

Yes, it was the husk of the devil as stated in many tales and legends. But said devil didn’t appear to have been home. Which gave them all a great opportunity to just make their getaway quicker than anything. They were running once more against time itself. The unicorn looked if they were all complete and slowly allowed the fire to be dimmed.

It dimmed all the way down to the point there was nothing left of it. The giant flame had vanished from the realm of existence just like that. And then it was Rarity who charged her own horn. The unicorn would have released the shot of sapphire blue aura into the air. The beam exploded in five different directions under the sounds of an explosion.

It almost seemed like some kind of firework had gone off in the middle of the woods. But the bang was in fact placed for a reason. The reason being that Rainbow could then have realized that they were going. That they would have started another leg of their journey.

Within one of the clouds that hovered over the forest, did the eyes of the pegasus glanced through a small opening in the cloud. The bright blue light reflected in her eyes as she watched the thing happening. “So they are going… What got them spooked in the middle of the night?” she whispered up to herself.

Anything could have happened with the mares and she was fully aware of that little fact. But she couldn’t care any less about it. Her own mind still needed healing and that was best done by just staying in the cloud.

She knew that the company had gone off to the distant place of Manehatten. That was the plan which got set up anyway. So that was the plan they would follow. Such a simple plan it was: go to shore and get a boat. That was it, but the difficulty was thrown at them for whatever reason.

The mare turned back around and away from the light as she let out a sigh. She was tired and needed her sleep again. She had gotten some of her required sleep but that was only before the blast happened to play out. That was the thing that managed to wake her up again.

Rarity would have discharged her horn before she gave a nod to herself. If the signal wasn’t clear to Rainbow, there was only one thing else that could have been done. And that was for the mare to go straight back to Cloudsdale and continue to live her life. At least that was the mindset that the unicorn had for her. One that she seemed to have been content with, for she didn’t had any plans to go to Canterlot either.

Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy, all began to walk in the general direction they had to go again. They moved around the spring where they had been bathing before and just followed that one direction. The compasses of both Applejack and Rarity were taken out to find their directions. The admiral walked up front and simply followed the direction she needed to.

While Rarity had formed the rearguard and only seemed to control whether or not they would divert too much from their original course. Which was possibly a good thing that they were doing it like that. It meant that the compasses couldn’t have been countering one another out and if something happened to one, they always had the other.

Silence remained while the group of four wandered through the woods in darkness. Not even Rarity’s light was shining down a path before them. All they had been going for them was that the darkness concealed them all. Any creatures that weren’t used to the darkness couldn’t be hunting upon them.

At another end could it have been seen as some kind of safety mechanism for them. Their eyes got adjusted to the darkness and they weren’t emitting off any light. Not to mention the fact that they tried to move in utter silence.

But one thought constantly remained in the minds of both Rarity and Applejack. The thought that they hoped that Twilight was able to defeat the devil that was blocking her way. They both hoped that the mare wouldn’t have been turned into a Dark Witch as well, just to do the devil’s bidding. No, that kind of fate they wouldn’t have wished for her.

Yet the unknown factors were those of where the mare had been gone off to. The soothsayer could have returned to the Frozen North for all they knew. There were just too many variables in the equation that would have been able to give some straight form of answers.

The only answers that could have been given off on the matter, where the many ‘if’-answers. The answers that all began with the little two lettered word of ‘if’. One of the smallest words in the dictionary, but one with perhaps the greatest meaning in all of their lives. That one little word dominated their entire lives on a daily base and they didn’t stood still upon that fact too often.

The remaining members of the company had left the spring behind them and were just wandering through the forest in utter darkness. Not even the stars were there to aid them in the quest. All they had were the two compasses from which they hoped that they were working properly. There was no real telling from anything that the dark influences of Nightmare Moon had affected the magnetic fields of the way pointers.

Good old fashioned luck was the thing that hopefully would have been able to keep the mares alive and kicking. But they had been taking a hand of Lady Luck numerous times already during their quest. At one point or the other would she have just stopped doing so.

They hoped that it would have been at a not all too crucial time for their little band of misfits.

It must have been hours since they had started to walk towards Manehatten. Their pace was naturally slow for rather obvious reasons. They tried their best to remain unseen and undetected by the nightly predators of the forest. The only way to do such a thing was to remain silent.

But that very same silence was broken by something. Not something that seemed to have gotten from the mares themselves though. Instead it seemed almost as if it came from their sides. Something wasn’t right and the ears of Fluttershy were the first ones to have noticed it. The pegasus turned her head both to her right and left before she came to a standstill.

Pinkie Pie just slithered passed her without a word, but Rarity stopped as well. A gentle whistle was sent to Applejack that she needed to stop. The admiral understood the message but she didn’t know why. The mare turned back around and walked back to Rarity. “What’s going on, why are we stopping?” the admiral asked as she wanted to know the finer details.

“You have to ask our good old doctor here,” the pirate replied before her attention shifted. “What’s going on Fluttershy?” The question was aimed directly at the doctor who glanced off into the distance. Something just didn’t seemed to be right in her eyes.

“Can’t you hear it? A gentle rumble. Almost as if thunder is heading this way,” said Fluttershy while she pointed to the land before her. “Listen carefully and look, I don’t know what it is, but it does feel like a tremor hitting us.”

“A tremor?” Applejack exclaimed quick. “But Ah thought we had stopped them.”

“Maybe an aftershock, nopony is certain what the interval is between one or two of them,” replied Rarity moments before she closed her eyes as well. The ears were perked into the direction that Fluttershy was pointing. Gentle twitches were given off by the ears as they tried to catch up with all the sounds in their nearby area. She simply had to be certain about everything.

For mere seconds did all of the anthronies just listen to the scenes and sounds while they came and went. The chirping of the birds that all of the sudden fell silent. The rustling of the leaves that went silent as well. There wasn’t any doubt about it. Whatever was heading their way, it didn’t seemed to be disturbing nature itself. Yet at the same time it seemed to be silencing all of it at once.

The eyes of the mares went open again before they just looked over what was going on. None of them had any kind of explanation for the events as they were. All that they knew was that there was something heading their way. Not one of them dared to even make a step forwards to continue the trek. All eyes and ears were locked in the direction from where the rumbles came from.

“There!” Fluttershy exclaimed out of nowhere. She pointed straight ahead of them all and three pairs of eyes followed the finger. Much to their own surprise did they actually saw the one thing that she was pointing at. And it didn’t appeared to have been anything good.

Once again were they looking at something that they held unbelievable. “That can’t be! That’s just impossible, no creature in the land holds that kind of power!” Rarity exclaimed before she shook her head violently from side to side.

“Yet, it is,” spoke Applejack while both Pinkie and Fluttershy remained silent with commentary. None of them were having any idea about what caused it, but they were looking straight up at the thing that silenced everything. To make the matter probably even worse, it was heading straight towards them. The speed at which it came from indicated that they couldn’t outrun it. To make it the worst possible thing was one thing left. There didn’t seemed to have been any kind of end to it. It just kept stretching and stretching from horizon to horizon.

The thing that was happening to the land of Equestria was something that had never been seen before. Not only were all the sounds just silenced but all the coloring was taken right out of it as well. Every last bit of color was just consumed by a massive blob of gray that reached all the way to the heavens high.

Nopony had even a clue about what it was, but they did knew that they would have been hit by it sooner or later. The last prayers were said by the mares before they all breached themselves for the impact that it would have carried. Whatever it was, whenever it would be over. Once again it almost seemed as if they were going hand in hand with Death himself.

More and more of the color from the world was just consumed by the grayness. But the matters only turned out to be more confusing. The fact very that it seemed to be bright, almost like the gray that a pencil would have given off. No words could have been spoken by the mares as they all remained standing on the spot.

Time was almost up for them all as they all would be consumed by the grayness. The fog began to turn gray at first and gave them all a near clear view on the trees that laid behind it. Brown and black trees were revealed to the four of them until the gray had consumed them too.

The trembling noises only seemed to have gotten louder with each passing second and they knew it was close. It could have happened at any given time. The mares were ready though. They had prepared themselves for whatever it was that would have gotten to them all. They all had braced themselves for the events to come.

They all were ready to meet their maker so to speak. Perhaps they thought a little bit too much in doom scenarios, but when it was thought about had they truly been going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

No wonder Rainbow was tired of it all. No wonder she had taken it for the skies again. Perhaps that little pegasus wasn’t as crazy as she seemed to be. Not that it mattered anyway. For ground and air were both hit by the massive amounts of grayness.

And then it finally happened. It finally happened and the mares were hit by the grayness. Their entire world had just turned into gray and they couldn’t move. They didn’t even feel like they couldn’t move anymore. Nothing moved, everything just seemed to have been frozen. But there was no ice, there was no coldness and there certainly wasn’t any kind of subzero temperatures going on. Nor did it seemed like there was a spell that fired up which could have frozen everything.

No, there was something else that managed to freeze the land and possibly the world in that kind of state. Everything that the grayness had touched, had turned into a frozen state. All of it had just turned straight up into a statue. Not a single thing moved inside of the grayness. There was only one possible solution for the question that could have been asked.

And the answer upon it perhaps wasn’t as far-fetched as one would have thought. For the statues were made out of everything. Whether it be trees, plants, flesh and bone. Only one word would have been able to justify the events as they were going down.

Time.

Time was the one word that could have been used to describe the situation. No kind of dark spell was being used to freeze the entire world they knew. But the one thing that nopony had ever managed to get some kind of control over, just seemed to have stopped like that.

Equestria was frozen, that much was certain. It was frozen in a single moment of time itself. Time had come to a standstill in the whole of the world. One thing was out of place and it caused everything to be thrown right out of the delicate balance that the very world had.

But would the mystery be ever solved by the mares that wanted to get to Manehatten?

~~~~

Even though the fact was there that time itself stood still, there still was life to be found among the madness. It was within the castle in the forest of Everfree that she just sat. She sat upon her throne and ticked her cheek with a talon. The place was lit by gray flames while the thinking creature released one growl after the other.

Something had gone terribly wrong, that much was certain to begin with. What was unknown though, was whether or not she had something to do with it. It was upon the throne in the castle sat nopony else then the demonic mistress herself: Sunset Shimmer. Her eyes looked from left to right before her legs went cross over each other.

Something wasn’t right. Why could she have moved as time itself stood still? She could only have gotten up with one possible answer for the matter. “Mommy’s coming home,” muttered Sunset against herself before she stood up. Every spell in her arsenal was polished, every tactic that she knew resurfaced from deep within her mind.

She was ready to battle it out against the creature she had turned her back too so long ago. The battle between life and death would most likely erupt between the two. And it was her who had the intention of winning.

Then it finally appeared before her eyes. The massive mixed aura orb emerged before her very eyes. Interest had already captured her as it wasn’t just the orb through which Nightmare Moon seemed to be traveling in. “Now things turn interesting,” the demoness told to herself moments before she spread her wings.

Her serpent tongue made the repeating motion, almost like she was smelling the air around her like an actual snake would do. She was curious to see what would have gotten out of the orb. Sunset crossed her arms over each other and assumed a pose of domination. It was her castle after all and everything inside of the walls would have listened to her and her alone.

Out of the orb she came. Out of the orb she had appeared before it was shattered again. The grayness wanted to get a hold of the being that got out. Though as soon as it travelled over the fingers and the hooves, it retreated again.

The creature that left the orb was also spared of becoming locked in time. Then did the eyes of Sunset looked over the being and she instantly recognized it. But it wasn’t the thing that she was hoping to see. Instead she got something else that pleased her eye.

Her lips curled up to form a deadly smirk. Even beneath the attire of a tyrant, the glance in the eyes still gave it away. “Twilight, Sparkle, I thought you have learned after you came here last time. What’s the matter? Didn’t learn from that spine chilling experience? You still think, that I can be saved from all of this? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you of all beings should have known better, right?”

What followed was a deep snicker that came from the demoness whereas Twilight just pointed her staff to her. The Nightmare Twilight had a change of attire and she looked like a tyrant. Perhaps Nightmare Moon had the need to have some kind of fashion change before she would have engaged Sunset in s fight.

But that very same Sunset was still oblivious to the fact that Twilight was actually in control by Nightmare Moon. Which gave Moon that one little edge that was needed. A grin then appeared on the mouth of Twilight, who would have erupted out in a laughter of her own. A laughter that was meant to reveal to Sunset with whom she was exactly dealing with.

Chapter LXXXII

The two entities just stared at one another before the staff was placed back on the ground. Silence came from both of the creatures. The grayness still tried to wrap itself around them both. But something inside of them caused them both to keep on moving. There must have been some sort of flame in both of their hearts that allowed them to live on. To live on while all of time seemed to have been standing still.

The hands were more often than not just tangled in the stuff before it retracted again. Neither of them could have explained the matter to them both, but they didn’t care. Both Sunset Shimmer and ‘Nightmare’ Twilight Sparkle only had a pair of eyes for the others. The demoness began to pace in calm both up and down on her spot. The hands were placed behind her back after the wings had been gently tucked away once more.

The eyes never seemed to have even been able to remove themselves from the darker version of the unicorn. Thoughts began to rush through her mind of just why her former friend happened to have been visiting her. Reasons enough, given the changes that she seemingly had been through in the couple of weeks since their last encounter. But what path had she been walking down in order to achieve it?

Dozens of questions continued to surge through the mind of the demoness before she came back to a standstill. The hands were placed in her sides as a deadly growl was given off. She was seemingly tired of the waiting game. She wanted action. She wanted to finally get the much desired revenge on Twilight Sparkle. “Riddle me this, riddle me that, Twilight. What is the reason of why you have come here today? And what is the grayness you brought with you?” she then spoke in an eerie tone.

Nightmare Twilight glanced deep in the eyes of the demoness from under her hood before a grin was formed. A grin that revealed the jagged teeth which she carried. Something had gone terribly wrong with Twilight and Sunset realized the fact quick. Though she never seemed to show her own concerns on the matter. The power of Twilight alone wasn’t something that needed to be joked about. But for some reason she seemed to have been a whole lot more powerful.

The nightmare version of the soothsayer began to chuckle gently to herself before the head just shook from left to right. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” were the first words –or sounds– that were spoken to the demoness. That was her first glimpse on the fact that Twilight spoke both in her own tone, as well as that of an entity she herself had thought to have lost through time.

The eyes of Sunset narrowed themselves as she didn’t fully believe the facts as they were presented to her. “That can’t be, right?” she whispered to herself without letting the sounds reach the changed Twilight.

“You ask why I’m here, while the reason for such a thing is quite obvious. Or did you forget what you owed me, so long ago?” said Nightmare Twilight before she erupted in another laughter. But perhaps weren’t the changes all too clear for Sunset yet. So the hood of the cloak was removed from the head. The demoness was then granted a view over the changed Twilight in her full glory. Every single and horrid detail was taken up by the demoness her eyes. Those very eyes would have gone from right to left while she kept a careful watch.

No words could have been spoken about the matter as Sunset didn’t know which ones she had to say on it. The demoness flapped with her wings to vent of some of the frustration that she carried. Only to have it followed up with a growl. A growl that came from the deepest part of her soul and just spoke of utter hatred.

But finally she seemed to have been able to form a worded reply to the changed mare. “I remember who you are, Sparkle. But what I do not know is what I owed you, so long ago. Unless of course, there’s something else in play here. But what, oh what, could it have been again?” Sunset replied to the unicorn.

Though before any reply could have been made, the demoness had jumped up in the air and just began to hover on her spot. The arms were spread with a gentle motions, just before a flame was created within each palm. “Fire burns away a lot. A lot more than one would have liked. Perhaps fire can also reveal just what you’re hiding under those precious eyes of yours,” answered Sunset then in a deadly tone. She had the desire to see the unicorn’s life ended for so long. Then she was just presented to her like that. All that was missing was the wrapping paper.

To Sunset it felt as if there was better time and place to end the life of the silent tormentor. Sharpbeak had called Twilight a cruel mistress for other reasons though. If Sunset knew he had said those words, she could only have agreed upon them. Twilight might have appeared as sweet and kind, but inside of her skull were the most devious plans created.

At least that were the corrupted thoughts that went through her head. Years and years of isolation had changed the demoness for the worst. Her personality became bitter against anything that even had just something to do with the castle of Canterlot. And since Twilight was her roommate and the one who discovered her changes, she was almost automatically the blame for everything that happened afterwards.

“It is indeed true that fire burns away lots of things. But do you truly wish to reveal what remains hidden within this body? You’re talking about forces not even you can defeat, or can run away from any longer,” countered Nightmare Twilight just before another grin formed itself across her lips. Sunset on the other end still didn’t seemed to have understood the facts as they were.

Or she had figured them all out, but she kept herself silent and foolish about them. She only acted stupid to eventually gain the advantage over the being that stood before her. Either way, the game had to be treated lightly. The eyes of Sunset narrowed themselves before she released another huff. “I’m not afraid of the power’s you’re capable off, Twilight. It was through luck that got you saved last time.”

“And now it seems that you, are out of it,” replied Nightmare Twilight in a sharp tone after which she stomped the staff into the ground. A shock of the arcane went through the ground as it resonated against everything. The floor, the stone walls, the frozen lights of the candles, nothing was spared by it.

Sunset had to admit that she became a little scared when there was a small distortion in the flames she carried in each palm. A distortion that the other being also noticed. Which then meant that the demoness was scared of something.

Nightmare Twilight had the demoness on the exact spot where she wanted it to be. It was both frightened and confused. Only a small amount of time was left before the endgame of the titans could begin. The endgame that would determine who was the greater form of evil.

“I’m afraid to tell you, that you have to leave. Your reign of fire and smoke is over. Can’t you hear it? The silence all around you? Everything has already deserted you. Everything is ready for a change. View me as your, liberator,” grinned Nightmare Twilight moments before she made a sarcastic bow before the demoness.

Sunset Shimmer herself didn’t understood a single thing of what was going on. And perhaps she didn’t even had the desire to get to know it. The thoughts that haunted her were too terrifying to be true. At that point in time she could only pray on the fact that she wasn’t right with her mind.

“Who, are, you?!” the demoness exclaimed before the little flames were released through her nostrils. She was becoming angry, angry at the Twilight before her as she wanted answers from it. Any form of answer would have been good enough. Not to mention that the orbs of fire in her hands erupted in hellfire.

The reflection that they cast in the eyes of Sunset were about the most accurate representation there could have been in the moment. For the demoness wanted to see the world burn in her flames. The anger that flowed through her veins almost caused her to set the world on fire. A devastating fire that would rage on as time stood still.

The eyes contact was never broken by the demoness as the nightmare rose back up. The pair of them got back in their eyes as they just remained standing. Another grin formed itself over the lips of Twilight. A grin that once more caused a distortion in the pattern of the flames.

Sunset was terrified. She was genuinely terrified for whatever Twilight seemed to have gotten the host for. Whatever dark entity had been taking her over had forced her to make the change she was going through. Twilight Sparkle would never have gotten out of herself into such a heavy transformation.

No, something else had brought it upon her. Something had forced her to live like that. The eyes of the demoness were narrowed once more as her patience was wearing thin. It was almost gone and she still didn’t have any of the answers that she needed. It was almost killing her actually. The demoness couldn’t help herself but to intensify the fires above her hands.

“My my, getting angry I see?” Nightmare Twilight asked her in a sarcastic tone. She then shook her head a little bit. “No need to become that hostile to me. But let me refresh your memory here for a moment. It seems that you have forgotten the things quite the bit.”

“Gladly,” replied Sunset in a cutting tone. She was prepared for anything to happen and fastened her hooves further against the ground. A ground that for her feeling could have disappeared at any given second. For just before she spoke her word, the creature had dropped itself back to the ground.

Why she made the perhaps foolish decision to give up her advantage, remained a fact unknown. Perhaps it was the dominating presence of Nightmare Twilight that caused her to do the thing. Not even Sunset could truly explain to herself why she did it.

The other mare erupted out in a deep laughter before the staff was coated with a magical aura. A magical aura that seemed to have gotten up out of nothing. But it wasn’t the aura that Sunset had expected to see. She thought to see the brilliant raspberry to coat the staff. Instead she got a mixture of both raspberry and the blackest black there existed with hints of a cobalt blue.

Sunset Shimmer couldn’t bring out a single word on the matter anymore, she could only watch to what would happen. She forced herself to watch the events as they were. At any given moment there could have been a blast sent her way to knock her out or kill her.

So one of the hands lost its flame and a shield was raised before her. A shield that seemed to have been attached right up to her arm. A shield that was completely made out of fire and still allowed her to move free as a bird. In the moment it seemed the best that she could have done.

But in the other hand of the mare did the other flame disappear as well. What was returned for it was a flaming sword. An actual sword that was made out of nothing but fire. And then she still had a third weapon ready, her very own horn that could have been charged up.

Sunset Shimmer was armed to the teeth and wouldn’t give up too easily if there would have been a fight. Which was exactly the thing that Nightmare Twilight had hoped for. Another smirk went across her face as she then spoke the words she had been waiting to say.

“Sunset Shimmer, you’ve made a deal with the devil so long ago. The time has to come for your share, with interest,” commented Nightmare Twilight in a demanding tone to the demoness.

Those words did manage to confuse the demoness like there was nothing else. Since when had Twilight become the personal bailiff from Nightmare Moon. Unless of course, there was something else going on in the moment. “Payback with interest, I see? Hmpf, and who are you to say that, Sparkle? You seriously think I’m falling for your tricks?!”

“Silence fool!” the voice of Nightmare Moon alone then thundered through the room. But no motions were made by the mouth of Twilight. In fact did the body of the unicorn just stood there with the grin still clearly visible. Which meant that she spoke through telepathy straight into the physical world. “You truly are thick in the head, aren’t you?!”

“Impossible!” Sunset replied in an instant. Her worst nightmare literally had turned to a cold reality before her. “I shunned myself away from you! You have no more rights over me. I defected and began my own!”

All of the words were just miserable excuses in the eyes of Nightmare Moon. There was no such thing as a being able to shun itself away from her. Once a deal with the devil herself had been made, there was no escaping it. Not until the price had been paid in full. And if back luck was on their side, with interest.

“Nonsense foal!” Nightmare Moon shouted moments before a growl filled the whole throne room. “You never defected from me and you never shall. You were just lucky that you gained so much power. But now, I have a pawn of my own able to defeat you. You fought her before, the question is if you are able to do it a second time.”

“If it means I’m rid of you, forever, I’ll gladly do it!” Sunset Shimmer replied before she released a deep roar through her throat. The demoness wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. She wouldn’t just give herself to Nightmare Moon like that. Not after she had walked away from her for such a long time.

Years had she lived her life in silence and always avoided the watchful eye of the hellish ruler. But that day, that moment in time where time stood still was something that would be a life changing decision moment. A released a snarl through the air and spread her wings to their maximum width.

“Come and take me,” was the only thing that she had to say against Nightmare Moon.

The nightmare herself looked back up to Sunset once more before she replied with just one word. “Certainly.” But that word was spoken in such a casual tone. Almost as if it was the most normal day of the week for the devil herself. Which to a certain degree it actually was.

One quick jump in the air was being made before the demoness hovered back over the throne. She held her shield high and her sword just hung almost loose in her hand. Defensive maneuvers were the first things that she thought about. She had to avoid any attack and spell from Moon no matter the cost.

But what she didn’t knew was how far their range happened to be. She wanted to ask so badly about the distortion in time, but the time wasn’t given to her. Which was in fact rather unusual to think about. She had all the time in the world, but yet the time still wasn’t given to her.

The demoness began to charge her horn again to prepare for anything. Even with the fire shield and sword, she still had to trust upon her very magic to get her through it. If she would have fought Nightmare Moon in Twilight’s body with just those two items, it would have been a lost cause.

The demoness was fully aware of the power that Twilight carried and she wouldn’t be fooled by it twice. Where most of the Dark Witches were overconfident in their abilities and powers, Sunset Shimmer shivered before the might of each being. Brute force was perhaps her most favored manner of striking, but she always would see if it was possible without gaining too much inflicted damage herself.

It was all or nothing for the demoness though. The only way she would have been able to get out of the fight was by dying. Doing so would have meant that she lost her body forever. Resulting in her being able to be captured by the devil herself. Which was about the last thing she wanted.

The eyes looked down towards the Nightmare Twilight with everything ready. Words wouldn’t have been able to be spoken before they both narrowed their eyes. They both were ready for the massive battle that was going to be fought out. The two beings would have fought each other in the same manner as both Rarity and Chrysalis did.

They both had something they desired so badly that they were ready to kill for it. Both had their different reasons of course, but that never took away they wouldn’t try and take it.

With one swoop was Sunset charging down the stairs of the throne and forced Nightmare Moon to jump backwards. Which allowed them to be fighting their battle in the middle of the room. The heat of the sword was felt by the nose of the unicorn. The devil realized she lacked one thing. The advantage of the air was taken from her, Twilight didn’t carry any wings. But what she did carry was her staff. Perhaps the thing could have been used for something else other than casting magic.

A grin formed itself across the lips of the unicorn before the devil watched back over the room. Sunset just hovered over her throne again. But she was ready for a new attack to come. Or better said: to be made.

The demoness would have flapped her wings even faster and stronger than ever before. Which resulted in her being launched straight into Nightmare’s direction. Only split seconds would have been there before the blade of the demoness would have pierced her. Which was something that the devil wouldn’t have allowed whatsoever.

So the thing that was being done was something rarely seen. The magic that had been gathering itself around the staff would go straight up to the top. There it would have been forming a massive ball of ice and water. The staff was then taken in just one hand and given a powerful slash.

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widened themselves when she rose her shield up. The impact couldn’t have been avoided though. She was in midair and went at full speed. There wouldn’t have been a way to actually avoid the ice covered staff whatsoever. The thing managed to hit her right in the shield and time went normal again for the two dark entities.

The demoness was flung out of her course and crashed full against the rock solid floor. A smack echoed through the throne room before both the flaming sword and shield seemed to disappear out of the reality.

Nightmare Moon watched over the quiet Sunset Shimmer and allowed the staff to be turned normal again. But there still was something she didn’t understood. The battle couldn’t have been over yet. That was simply impossible. It couldn’t have been that a creature had been brooding up so much power, only to be knocked out by one smack against the floor.

“Rise,” the devil spoke while she made a waving motion, “rise and fight me.” She commanded the demoness to keep on fighting her.

The ears of Sunset twitched every time the words had entered her ears. Every single time she felt them creating a burst of energy that was sent through her body. Almost as if they were pulses that gave her the power to destroy the world.

Her eyes were opened forcefully as the dust flew up. The dust of the throne room flew up before her nose was almost touching the floor itself. The hatred could be spotted once again deep within her eyes as she then only hungered for the destruction of Nightmare Moon.

That she also would have gotten the possible destruction of Twilight Sparkle with it was only a bonus in her eyes. One arm raised itself up before the fist was slammed into the floor. Gentle cracks emerged within the stone before the second arm did the same.

Then it were the wings which began to flap again. Powerful strokes moved enough air around to raise her up. Once again had the demoness gotten airborne and the devil just allowed it. Was she perhaps so confident in the fact that she knew that she would win either way? It would certainly have explained why the Dark Witches were so overconfident in their abilities and powers.

Everything had an origin hidden somewhere among the face of the land.

The two dark entities just looked at one another for a moment, just before Sunset Shimmer wanted to see the world burn. Or at least that see that she could burn the being that stood before her. Quickly she brought her hands together and charged up her horn. The aura had turned into what seemed to have been just plain fire.

But the fire just as quickly managed to find its way over to her hands. In between the hands it appeared. The orb of pure fire that expanded upon itself rapidly. It perhaps could have been taken about five seconds before the orb was bigger than that Sunset Shimmer was.

Which meant that Nightmare Moon was in a massive heap of trouble. Yet she only rose up one of the eyebrows to the events to come. She was actually interested in what the crazed mind of the demoness had come up with.

Mere seconds had gone by before it then finally happened. With just one massive blast was all of the energy released from the demoness. A deep yell of a strange satisfaction and pain was then bellowed through the throne room. All while Nightmare Moon seemed to have remained in utter silence. With Twilight’s eyes did the devil just watch over the incoming charge.

No cries for mercy, no cries for help, no nothing. But then again, if the power of the fire had been measured by anything it would have resulted in an unbelievable fact. The fires that Sunset had released against the devil herself were almost equal to the power of a thousand suns. The sheer amount of hatred that fueled her body, also happened to be fueling the flames that she spewed out.

There never was a moment in her life where Sunset was more dangerous than in that very moment of life and death. The fire just kept on coming to the body of Twilight while the bellows of pain would have turned slow into laughter of complete and utter sickness. The demoness had lost her mind. She just had lost it all to insanity itself.

But that same insanity also did something else. It made her worry about something. Something of which she hoped that wouldn’t have been true whatsoever. The last thing she needed was for Twilight’s body to have survived the blast. She didn’t know whether or not the body of the soothsayer was actually able to call upon the dark magic of the devil.

Dozens of thoughts like that filled the mind of the demoness before they were all suppressed again by those of a dark joy. Sunset Shimmer could only grin like the mad mare that she happened to be. And it felt just so good to her. It felt just so satisfyingly good to her that she could literally unleash the fury of a thousand suns.

But to every spell eventually had to come an end, whether it was liked or not. So even to the fury had to come an end. An end which caused the demoness to just abruptly stop the spellcasting. Near instantly did the fires fade from existence. Though the fires that were surrounding the body of Twilight remained. Even though they weren’t in the shape that she had hoped for.

Sunset had hoped for a smoldering pile of ashes of course. Though instead she discovered a massive sphere that seemed to have absorbed all of the fires. It was still doing it, in fact. The fires were consumed by the sphere that was coated around the unicorn. Much to the demoness her own anger and despise.

Within the shield did Nightmare Moon release a grin and a single chuckle. One swing with the staff made the shield vanish as if it never had been there. She didn’t even bare a mark that showed that her skin had been burned. It almost seemed as if the fires hadn’t even made a scratch upon her. “You forget, my desired prize, that I live in the depths of Tartarus. I’m accustomed to the fact that everything there burns like nothing else,” she said to the demoness.

The grin returned upon her lips for just a moment before she continued onwards with her words. “You’re just fighting fire with fire. And that has never lead to anything good in the history of this land. But surely that isn’t all you’re having, right? Your fiery temper shows great power. Show that to me, and I might reconsider.”

“You never reconsidered anything. You always just did as your heart desired. Or should I say: what your black hole desired?” Sunset Shimmer replied before she spread the talons that were at the tips of her fingers. If Nightmare Moon wanted a personal battle, she would have gotten it. The demoness was a being that was filled to the brim with surprises. And she wouldn’t hesitate to play upon all of them during a fight. Their eyes were narrowed once again as the demoness spread her wings. Nightmare Moon wanted to do the action as well, but once more forget the fact she didn’t have wings.

“Things would have played out a lot easier if she was an alicorn,” the devil muttered to herself before she glanced back to the prey before her. A prey that had gotten straight in the air as if it was nothing and had readied her talons. If burning didn’t work, slicing and dicing would have done the trick without a doubt. Or at least the mare hoped that it would have been doing. There were just too many factors in the moment. Yet all of them were actually worth a try.

Another yell filled the room when Sunset Shimmer came straight for the devil herself. The battle of life and death had erupted once again. The demoness wanted to remain in control of her life and did so in the only way she knew how. By taking it with force.

Nightmare Moon could have been as powerful as she would have liked. But there was nothing more dangerous than an anthrony that clinged to the one thing it still had left to live for. The mistake had been costly made upon her own behalf. Though perhaps Moon wanted that Sunset came at her like that. For the staff was readied again to deliver another smash instead of a blast.

That time it was coated in the fires that had been absorbed by the shield itself. Sunset came in closer as she saw the flames being spun around the orb on top of the staff. She released a gentle growl before her talons were spread even further. Their impact zone would have been massive if they managed to hit anything.

A swing was given off by Nightmare Moon and it managed to hit the demoness straight up in the stomach. Who was then send up high towards the ceiling of the place. Though as she was flung upwards and Sunset managed to regain control over herself. She then just adjusted her course to travel back down and take out the staff out of the devil’s hand. That staff was the one thing that threw just so much troubles in her plans.

With the staff gone, it hopefully would have caused the devil to become a little bit more vulnerable for her attacks. Naturally it was just wishful thinking, but where there was a will, there always was a way to be found.

Nightmare Moon prepared herself for another smash to be made. When she deemed that the time had been right would she have flung the staff forwards. All in the hope and the assuming that she would have hit the demoness right on her stomach again.

Yet that time there was something she hadn’t expected. For as the staff went for the skin of the demon, time for them seemed to have slowed down to a crawl. She clearly saw how a hand lowered itself and the fingers coiled up around the staff.

The expression of shock came in the eyes of Nightmare Moon before time pulled back up again. The next few seconds made a new reality come to life. All because Sunset Shimmer who just tore the staff out of the hand of the devil. Only to have it end up somewhere outside of the castle. The demoness had thrown the thing away so that it couldn’t be used again.

And as dumb as Nightmare Moon happened to be, she didn’t had the spell that would have enabled her to find it among the rubble outside. Her glance quickly turned back to the demoness as she saw her just flying overhead.

“You little bitch!” she snarled up to her.

“Better than being yours!” Sunset replied while she prepared herself for another dive to happen. The eyes of the demoness were primed on Nightmare Moon. The whole world just faded away around her as she only had her eyes set on the devil. Her freedom was worthy of the price that needed to be paid.

She would beat the living daylight out of the devil if she had to. Which she actually had planned to do already. “Come on then, try to hit me! You have claimed to be this dangerous demon, make your words come true and come at me once and for all!”

Nightmare Moon just taunted the demoness into the dive-bomb. The devil wasn’t crazy either though. She knew exactly what had been planned out by her opponent. So she naturally prepared herself to counter it by any means necessary.

But Sunset was fed up with the insults. Which meant that she did exactly what had been thought. The mare rushed down to make another dive-bomb attack. While she lowered her altitude at a great speed, the devil would have prepared herself for a roundhouse kick. The motions were spotted too late by the demoness and she received the third blow, once more straight in the stomach.

A blow that once again managed to alter her course. Yet that time it would have send her straight into a wall. At least that was the plan, for Sunset Shimmer got yet another brilliant but insane idea through her mind. A plan so mad, that it must have succeeded and saved her life.

Chapter LXXXIII

Sunset Shimmer was flying through the air when she came up with a plan that could be deemed as madness itself. A plan so crazy that it should have been able to succeed. A gentle grin grew upon her face while the wall came only closer to her. A wall that probably would have broken a couple dozen of her bones if she didn’t executed the plan she had, fast.

The demoness charged her horn quick and managed to conjure a portal for herself. One big enough to swallow her whole. One moment she could have been seen while the next she had just vanished from the face of the land. Just like that had she been swallowed by another realm that was far away from anything.

Nightmare Moon would have only watched over the events as they were happening and noticed how the portal closed. A deep growl was then released through her throat as she thought that her prey had been taken off.

She almost would have deemed Sunset Shimmer a coward when the demoness had just vanished out of reality. But the scents of the magic told a different story. They spoke of her having only gone momentarily. The eyes of the devil turned from left to right while she curled her fingers up on a hand. The hand was then raised and a black orb was formed.

Another spell was being prepared by the devil herself for her return. A devil who wanted to know where exactly the demoness had hidden herself. She wanted to know exactly where the creature had gone off to. Her eyes went from left to right once more, all while they kept on spying on everything. A growl was once more released by the throat as she did a step to the right.

Her hoofsteps were light, as if she didn’t wanted to disturb some kind of ancient creature that had laid vastly asleep beneath the floor. The dark orb in the palm of her hand only became bigger and only seemed to have been contained by the fingers of the unicorn.

“This wretched body too, she’s a powerful unicorn, but I need more volume to spread my wings. Literally,” whispered Nightmare Moon to herself before she turned around. Even with her tyrant attire on, the devil couldn’t have felt herself fully at home in the body that was Twilight’s. The lack of wings certainly had to be a major deal about the fact.

Not to mention the little fact that she couldn’t turn into her gaseous state of being. She could do that though, but that meant that the soothsayer would have regained her body and Nightmare Moon had to leave it. Whether or not Twilight would have allowed the devil to take her over a second time remained to be guessed.

Though she probably wouldn’t have as the soul of the unicorn was vast asleep inside of its cage. Even though it was inside of a little cage, it could still clean and rebuild the gaps that had been made inside of her skull. Which meant that the barrier through which Moon had entered would have been blocked off.

No, she had to accept the facts as they were and just live on to the best of her abilities for as long as was needed. The idea to create wings of darkness naturally followed suit. But those would only have been for show and not for actual flight.

The devil herself had seemingly gotten out of the frying pan and straight into the fires. The fires of the demoness she had not only taunted, but also created so very long ago. A deep huff of annoyance crawled out of her as she kept on looking around.

An attack was imminent, that much she knew. But when it would have gotten to her was a question that still needed answering. Nightmare Moon stuck out her other arm and coiled her fingers in such a manner that it would have been able to get a hold on something.

Among the grayness of the time distortion did she had to try and get the staff back. Whether she liked to admit it or not, the sheer amount of dragon smoke processed into it made it an excellent weapon of choice. The chance was naturally there that Sunset Shimmer had discovered that fact as well. Which could have been the reason of why it was thrown out of the battle.

“Come to me once more!” Nightmare Moon bellowed in her own tone mixed with Twilight’s. The devil wanted the staff back before Sunset Shimmer would have returned. But no matter how hard she called for the staff, it didn’t came to her. It just remained on its spot somewhere on the outside world.

Perhaps it too had gotten stuck within the time distortion? Nightmare Moon wouldn’t have been too surprised if it was though. Which in return led to another growl being given off by her. The eyes narrowed themselves while she glanced to the hand that wanted to call upon the staff. She just stared at the empty palm for a moment or two.

Then there was the natural realization that went through her like a massive boulder. She wasn’t truly Twilight Sparkle. “Hmpf, figures,” the devil muttered in a calm tone. She had the powers in the world ready at her disposal, but she couldn’t use them to their fullest potential. She was still blocked by the natural body of Twilight and therefore its limitations.

She had taken over the unicorn but didn’t became like her. Which meant that any of her possessions wouldn’t have answered to her. Nightmare Moon had worked herself in a small little trap that she didn’t noticed before. A groan was given off by the entity as she then just shook her head. “Forget it, we’ll do this the old fashioned way,” she then growled up to herself.

The eyes turned back to the wall through which Sunset had disappeared before they glanced once more through the room. It almost seemed as if she tried to catch the magical scent. The scent that was weakly given off in order to figure out just where the mare would reappear once more.

The devil herself was cautious because of the fact that the demoness had been gone for far too long. Which meant that the spell wasn’t some kind of teleportation one. No, the spell must have been a portal one and she was still wandering through one. The answer was a little bit obvious given the fact that Sunset vanished through a portal to begin with.

But the devil was of course ancient of age. She was almost as old as time itself. A myth that was often said about her by those who knew of her existence. Whether the fact actually happened to be true or not was not known by anyone alive. Yet with her age did came a certain degree of wisdom. A wisdom that allowed her to have collected a ton, and truly a ton of different kinds of manners to cast the same spell.

There must have been hundreds, probably thousands of manners through the same spell could have been cast. All just slightly different in order to compensate for the casting unicorn, or alicorn. The jagged teeth of the devil were revealed once more as she looked firmly to her right and left. Any moment could the demoness have returned to her. Any moment she could be facing some kind of grand secret army that had been built up.

Silence had taken over the throne room for almost five whole and agonizing minutes. Just five simple minutes had passed by for the feelings of Nightmare Moon. There was no way that she could have actually checked it given how everything just remained standing still. The nostrils of the unicorn went wide with every inhale she took.

She was sniffing. The devil sniffed the air for anything to have gotten her way. The eyes of the unicorn went constantly in different directions. An attack was close, she could smell the concentration of arcane getting bigger and bigger. If she could have only exactly pinpointed to where the attack would happen.

“Smart, very smart indeed,” the devil spoke before her left eye gave off a little twitch. She had to blink but didn’t allow it. There was a rather serious reason behind the fact of why she didn’t blink. As well as a simple one. A lot could have happened during one blink, an attack being one of those things.

One blink was all that it could have taken for Sunset to reappear and knock her out. Nightmare Moon had taken over a mortal body. And mortals could die or be broken just so easily. Once again it was a little problem that she to work her way around. But then again, she hadn’t expected that the job would have been that hard to begin with. She had expected that Twilight was powerful enough to bring down Sunset like that.

The truth of the matter happened to be a little bit different and a lot more complicated. For being the self-proclaimed devil of the lands of Equestria, she still overlooked quite the couple of rather obvious facts.

The scents of magic only seemed to have gotten stronger and stronger in her nose. All the way up to the point where she realized the facts. “Clever, indeed,” whispered Nightmare Moon moments before she glanced down to the floor. The answers upon her questions could have been found right there. And they were answers where she wasn’t looking forward to.

It was there that the two finally saw each other again. The two dark entities looked once again in each other’s eyes. There was however, one massive problem that made the devil charge her magic even further. She stood still in the physical realm while Sunset Shimmer arose from the ground. But she came forth out of a different realm. A realm where not many had treated before, under whom Nightmare Moon herself. Many answers were given straight away as she almost wanted to shout them up.

The demoness came forth from the stones themselves. The stones seemed to be acting like some kind of mirror that through which she rose up. Her hand was covered in flames as Moon just froze upon her spot. Despite her age had she rarely witnessed such a sight.

Though standing still there only worked to the devil’s own disadvantage. The stone beneath her hooves just shattered and the flaming first of Sunset managed to find a way to Twilight’s chin. The devil was knocked straight up into the air, followed by the demoness who still flew forwards.

The ceiling was the next location for the two of them. They tangled up with one another while punches and kicks were given. The massive amounts of dark magic that Nightmare Moon had collected in her hand acted as a giant boxing glove. Every punch that was dealt with that hand just filled the demoness with horrors.

Yet Sunset was too stubborn on seeing the destruction of the devil that she looked through the fears, if they even had an effect to begin with. The sheer amount of willpower that she had within her almost seemed to have surpassed the magical amounts of Nightmare Moon.

For the moment had the demoness who ran away from the devil, seemed to have been a bit more powerful than the actual devil of Equestria itself. A truly awesome moment for Sunset Shimmer and she quickly realized the fact for herself.

Kicks and punches were both given and received by the two mares. The talons of the demoness scratched over the body of Twilight, which had Nightmare screaming out in pain. The cuts ran deep and the bleeding became violent. Their motions almost went faster than light and they acted both on utter adrenaline and other substances that their brains made.

Good it couldn’t have been for either of them. Twilight’s body had a breaking point and so did Sunset’s. But they had to keep on fighting. Nightmare Moon wasn’t known for the battles that she had lost. She became feared because of the manners in which she had won many of them. There would have been any kind of difference from that, in the moment that they were in.

The two mares continued to rise towards the very ceiling. More and more did their both give and receive pain from the other. The levels that they were standing up to were just abnormal for any normal being. Naturally were they far from normal while they both lashed out to give another punch.

There was only a slight problem. The fists that were traveling through the air were the burning one from Sunset and the black magic filled one from Nightmare. So far during their battle hadn’t those two collided yet. The change in that fact was about to come quicker than they would have dared to hope.

With a massive collision had it happened. The two fists of the mares crashed against one another. Fire began to mix with dark magic as dark magic began to mix with fire. That was the way how their pact had been made all those years ago. It could have been seen as the breaking of the contract, but Nightmare Moon never did such a thing.

Instead of initiating the ritual did the mares just look at their fists and each other. The ceiling had gotten closer and closer to them. Something had to happen or they both would come to a horrible standstill just like that.

The fists began to tremble under the amounts of power that were exchanged between the two of them. One moment or the other would the trouble have really been hitting the fans. And perhaps the biggest explosion that the castle had ever seen would have happened.

Neither of the mares knew what it would have looked if something like a building was destroyed as time stood still. But they both thought about it for a split second. Even though they had a growing hatred to one another, they couldn’t have done that. It was their fight, nopony else needed to know what was going on between the pair of them.

The fight was theirs and theirs alone. The two beings looked one another in the eyes and nodded to the other. Only one solution had to be applied to the matter and Sunset knew exactly which one it was.

With their fists still ready to be blown up, she charged up her horn quickly and performed the spell that she was almost required to do. The ceiling creeped up to them both before they just vanished away. One moment they were almost crashing against the stone ceiling and risking to blow up the castle with their powers, the next they were just gone. Vanished out of the realm of existence.

But everything that once had gone must had to come back.

~~~~

A deep gasp for air was being released as the blankets were thrust upwards. The body of the mare dropped itself out of bed in a clumsy manner and the first thing it met was the rock solid and stone cold floor. A deep groan of pain was released through the throat before a mulberry skinned hand rubbed through the purple and pink toned hair.

The body then rose itself back up from the ground and just sat down upon the bed. Both of the hands were brought to the face and gave it a good rub. The mare had to make certain that there was nothing broken or possibly worse.

“Oh Twilight, what have you done to yourself?” the mare mumbled before the hands were removed. And there she just sat for the moment in time. In her pajamas, like she had woken up any day of the week. Twilight Sparkle just sat there as a sigh went through her nose. The unicorn shook her head a little bit from side to side in the hope to get everything straight away.

“W-What happened?” she mumbled to herself just before had a look around. From the things that she could see, it seemed like she had returned to the place where she belonged. Her very own room in the castle of Canterlot.

A couple of blinks were made by the unicorn as she tried to recollect her memory. Only to end up in a gentle laughter. “Oh that’s right, the students had done that of course. Hmhmhm, how could I have forgotten that?” she spoke to herself before she turned around.

Behind her stood the window with the curtains shut tight. Yet there were still shimmers of light that managed to make their way through them. So with a gentle charge of her horn did Twilight opened them up and allowed herself to be coated within the majestic light that entered her room. For perhaps the first time in a very, very long time could she properly enjoy the morning sun.

After the way she was woken up, Twilight did thought that she deserved it. So all the rights were naturally with her.

The unicorn had done her morning routine and changed her attire for something a little bit more fitting. The traditional soothsayer’s attire was worn by her as she left her bedroom. With a gentle pace she then walked into the direction of most likely the library. The hands were placed behind her back as she sunk deep into thoughts.

The unicorn passed countless of guards that were standing on their usual spots as they kept their duty. She didn’t spoke a word to a single one as there was a rather complex, magical matter going through her mind. Not that it mattered much as the guards were silent any way. It almost felt like they were statues.

Not the normal kind of statues that they were as they just stood still. But that day it felt as if all of them were replaced with actual statues. Statues that were made out of nothing but stone or wax. A shudder was given off by Twilight as she sunk back in her thoughts. The sooner she happened to be the library, the better it would have been for her. At least that was what she thought.

Twilight’s pace quickened just a little bit while she continued upon her way to the library of Canterlot Castle. The one place where she could have discovered the answers that she needed. The unicorn had sunk too deep into thought to notice anything along the way.

Which resulted in her almost like a machine to open up the doors of the gigantic library. Without a second thought she just entered it just like that. Though only once the doors had fallen shut was she brought back to the world as it was.

The eyes turned over to the desk where the clerk usually would have been sitting. But they saw nopony there. That fact alone caused her to raise an eyebrow. “Hmm, nopony here? Maybe he’s finally gotten sick. No, he would always show up long before anypony is awake,” mumbled Twilight to herself before she gave a little shrug.

Wherever the clerk had been gone off to, wasn’t much she could be concerned of. Her own matters were the troubles that needed to keep her busy. Her eyes looked around the library and she noticed that there weren’t any other anthronies inside of it. Twilight was the one and only being within the wall of the massive library.

Normally there always was folk walking around and about. But somehow, there just seemed to have been her. Both the excitement and the happiness of the unicorn were going out of control. Finally she had access to everything she needed at once. One of her life’s long dreams seemed to have been getting true at last.

Book after book after book was being collected about the arcane arts while the scrolls were conjured up as well. The unicorn levitated them all over to the table that stood the nearest by the doors. So if there was anypony coming in –or even the clerk– they knew that Twilight was present and could talk to her.

Not to mention the fact that she had the best light on that table. The mare dropped her body in the chair and had a look around. Perhaps somepony had entered while she was away? From right to left did they went, but they didn’t notice anything.

Twilight nodded gently to herself before she focused her attention upon the skeletons. It was a sight that still managed to amaze her. That those three skeletons were found in that perfect formation. A unicorn, a pegasus and what was dubbed as an ‘earth pony.’ Words had spoken of the fact that those creatures could have been their ancestors.

A theory that was shunned by the whole of the land for natural reasons, but Twilight was one of the few who actually noticed the similarities between the two species. She also knew the fact that every legends houses a core of truth. The stories surrounding three skeletons were almost too good to be true.

An old ponytale told to foals whenever they would go to bed. Yet that thought raised the question. Perhaps the question of questions. “Why is a mare, called a mare?” she mumbled moments before she looked at her own hand for a moment. Thoughts began to cross her mind before she shook her head. There were other matters that required her attention a little bit more.

So the mare opened one of the books and began to read through it. Her eyes went from left to right as certain words were written in a different manner. One of her eyebrows rose up as she tried to make sense out of them. Which was done in a way of pointing them out, and saying them aloud. “Darkness, surrounds, you. Nothing, is, real… run. Run!”

Twilight didn’t understood a single thing from the words that were written differently in the book. She blinked a couple of times with her eyes in the hope to get everything out of it. But once she opened her eyes again was all that she could see complete and utter darkness. The fires of the chandeliers had just gone out for no reason.

“What on earth are we having now?!” the mare exclaimed. The library didn’t carry any windows for reasons unknown though. But the darkness that began to surround her made the mare feel truly uncomfortable. “Run, just run Twilight. Run!” And as quick as lighting did the mare managed to get out of her chair. She rushed over to the door and opened it with great haste. The haunting feelings were crawling up her entire spine. She didn’t even look what laid behind the door.

As long as she was out of the darkened library would she have found everything alright. With three quick steps she managed to get through the opening and shut the door behind her. A surprisingly loud thud echoed in her ears as she looked around.

~~~~

A deep sounding poof filled the air as the two fighting entities reappeared into the plane of existence. Time still stood motionless when the two mares reappeared. But they were at least at a location where they could have been fighting to their hearts content.

The powers that were surging through their fists couldn’t be contained for much longer. Giving it up wasn’t really an option either. The two beings wanted the other dead. So the only thing that could have been done in order to break it. Which was to just take the impact of the coming explosion in full force.

Both of the dark beings braced themselves for the explosion of arcane which happened only mere seconds after they had reappeared in the realm of existence. A massive outburst of arcane energy was more than enough to separate the two of them.

Nightmare Twilight was flung to one way side of the battlefield, while Sunset Shimmer was hurled into the other. Neither of them had something that could have helped them to come to a standstill. Which meant that they had to take the full force of the floor as well. Neither of them really knew where they had landed, except that it was hard.

Their bodies skidded a little bit over the surface and the scrapes appeared all over their bodies. The burning sensation they felt couldn’t really be compared by anything other than just pain. The hands laid bare, the knees laid bare and the groans filled the silent air. Luckily were none of their vital organs harmed during it.

Even with the pain had the two mares continue their fight, but not without first looking to one another. Both Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer looked firmly to one another as they gritted their teeth.

Yet their attention was captured by something else. Something that was both equally as beautiful as well as terrifying. Something about it all didn’t make sense to begin with, but they were both terrified of it.

Right in the middle of their way was it levitated. A column that was made out of both dark magic and fire magic circling around one another. Neither mares knew how it was created and what purpose it served. Though they were having some ideas how it came in existence. They both rose back up on their hooves and watched over it.

“Unbelievable, both our magics seemed to be,” the devil spoke while she was mystified by it. Her eyes focused themselves a little bit more upon it before they shifted back to Sunset.

“Seemed to be in perfect sync,” the demoness added. It didn’t make sense to either of them. How could both of their magics have been equally powerful? Never had such a thing happened before in either of their lives.

“Could it be that..?” Nightmare Moon whispered to herself. She then coiled one of her hands up into a first. The eyes continued to glance over it as if it was some kind of magical artifact. Though those same pair of eyes sooner or later would have turned up to spot Sunset Shimmer. “Their magic is equally powerful?”

The statement was one that seemed to have been a little bit far-fetched, but one that could have been true nonetheless. Both Sunset and Twilight did have a massive history together. Which meant that anything could have been possible at that point.

Finally was the time given to the pair of them to see where exactly they had landed. The devil and the demoness looked both around on their spots and caught familiar looking landmarks. They weren’t too far from their original collection, thankfully. If Nightmare Moon didn’t know any better, they happened to be right on top of the ceiling they otherwise would have crashed into.

She had to hand it over to Sunset in silence, she knew how to perform a teleportation spell. But both of the mares were bruised, beaten up and almost at the end of their stamina. Yet the two of them would still be able to fight until their hearts content. They were on a safe spot where they could have been doing so. The time was there to finish what they started.

Not to mention the fact that the scenery almost seemed to have been too perfect for the two titans. With the time that stood still, the mares were granted one final touch upon it all. They literally watched a rainstorm had crawled over the castle and had dropped the first drops. Drops of rain just hung in the air, waiting in patience to make the journey further down.

Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer had a look around and they couldn’t really believe it. Time itself had come to a standstill through the whole of the land. Whatever force would have been powerful enough to do such a thing, they must have made it very, very angry.

The magic of time was a complex one that required years and years of study. And even after that one had to speak of luck that it could freeze just one room. Let alone the whole land and the world for that measure.

Behind the castle there was a flash of lightning that seemed to have been nearly hitting the ground. It’s long, tentacle like appendages travelled both far and wide. The flash was massive and probably still electric –even within the time distortion. The two of them both got the same idea of throwing the other right into it.

Their little moment of peace had been gone. They were back in the stances that told the other the war would have continued. Both Sunset Shimmer and Nightmare Moon were ready to once again call upon their powers and battle it out once and for all.

“Give it up!” Nightmare Moon spoke when the two mares began to circle around one another. They were both ready to fly literally at each other’s throat at any minute. The talons of Sunset where sharpened as the spells were prepared by Nightmare Moon. She still had to give some form of payback to the demoness for the trick played earlier.

“I will never give up what’s rightfully mine!” Sunset snarled back while she clacked two talons together. The way it seemed to be done was to indicate the seconds passing by as if they were nothing.

“Rightfully yours?! Oh please, don’t make me laugh! I own you, you belong to me and me alone! Your essence, the very thing that you are, only belongs to me. Everything you have, is because of a direct gift from me!” Nightmare Moon bellowed towards her. Though she was having more than enough of the games that were being played.

The devil wanted action and she wanted to see Sunset burn. The body of Twilight was capable of great arcane feats for sure, which was exactly the thing that was called upon. Within her hand it had appeared once more. A black orb that held firm in place by the fingers while one last grin was given. “So foolish, enjoy the eternal storage in the deepest pit of Tartarus! I hope you enjoyed the rays of sunlight you saw earlier this evening, for they be the last you’ll ever see.”

And then it erupted once again. The massive blast was released by Nightmare Moon and the dark magic was hurled towards the demoness. A demoness who flapped with her wings a couple of times and jumped up into the air. Whether it was intentional or not, she had just evaded the blast all together. Whatever the effect would have been to her if it had hit it remained unknown. But Sunset didn’t wanted to know it either.

All that she knew for certain was that the battle for her life had erupted once more. Nightmare Moon’s cause to get the essence of Sunset back and Sunset’s cause to hold said essence had been fired up again. Nothing would have stopped either two of them from finishing the other off. Perhaps the interval of a third party would have been able to give the decisive blow to the matters as they were?

Chapter LXXXIV

The two anthronies once again locked themselves in their deadly battle when they engaged with one another once more. For the whole time as time stood still they were literally at each other’s throat. Punches were dealt while kicks were given out. The two beings of darkness just continued their fight as if nothing had changed or happened.

The blows were both received and given by the other while the physical exhaustion became more and more apparent by the two of them. Their bodies were wearing thin, literally. It wouldn’t have been all too long before either one of them be shattered. Not that it was minded all too much by the other though.

Both Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer only were having a pair of eyes for the other. They wanted to see the eradication of the other being and they wanted to see it happen there and then. There was no other way how the battle could have been resolved. The only problem happened to be at the magical abilities of both Sunset and Twilight were just about the same.

Where Twilight Sparkle had trained her abilities into the lighter form of the arcane arts, Sunset Shimmer trained herself in the dark arts. Which in return meant that they were about equally powerful but had taken different paths to achieve that.

Huffs and growls were released by both of the mares after they had made a jump backwards. It was no use to keep on going in the way that they did. The mares looked one another firm in the eyes while the blood streamed down their bodies. Sunset’s talons had left their markings all over the body of the nightmare unicorn.

The pain was shared by Nightmare Moon though. She was the dominating entity within the body and thus had not only full control over it, but also felt everything what happened. The nerve system of the unicorn’s brain was linked directly to her very own essence.

A winch of pure pain was given off by the dark mistress of hell before a hand travelled past the lips. Blood was collected upon the skin, though she never even dared to take her eyes away from Sunset Shimmer. The demoness was the life that she wanted to take and if time allowed her, she would have reformed Twilight Sparkle to her own bidding

Though that matter was one that could still be thought about later. The first and possible only priory that the devil had was the demoness. Another growl therefore left through the throat as the eyes were narrowed once more.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself?! You failed to realize the truth you are forced to live in. You live in a fantasy world created by your own mind. You think you could have escaped me all those times before. But let me tell you just how wrong you happened to be on that part!” Nightmare Moon spoke through the winches of pain. Her voice was still unusually clear through.

That fact came as a massive surprise to Sunset. She had thought that the body of the unicorn couldn’t have endured that much to begin with. Yet as it turned out, Twilight happened to be a lot of a tougher nut to be cracked. Not that it mattered all too much to her though, she would still take a sickening enjoyment out of snapping her neck.

“I’m wrong for defying you?!” Sunset replied after she gasped for breath. The words of the devil must have been spoken in utter desperation. It couldn’t have been anything else. The demoness saw her chance clean to regain some of her much required energy as the once again had a stare down. “I like to go into the history books as the being that defied the devil herself!”

Those words made then Nightmare Moon chuckle up before she shook her head from left to right. “How foolish, how foalish even,” the devil replied to her with a nasty grin. “You think you’re just so powerful to defeat me in combat. But you forget that I’m at my full power when this body has been destroyed. Which you have planned to do for a very, very long time now. Could you live with yourself, if you did such a thing to perhaps your one true friend?”

The devil was just taunting the demoness from that point onward. The words spoken in the mixed tone caused some confusion to be struck by the demoness. But she had her sights set straight. There only was one way through which she would be able to liberate herself truly from the torments of the devil herself.

And that was by perhaps doing the unthinkable. But Sunset Shimmer had to kill the devil herself. The demoness of fire had to not just make a point to Nightmare Moon, she had to vanquish her from existence. …If such a thing was only possible. The eyes of the mare were closed for a fraction of a second in order to make a blink.

~~~~

The eyes were opened again when a deep breathing was given off. Hyperventilation almost seemed to be happening and a mulberry skinned hand reached for the chest. Behind her stood the two massive doors that would be leading her to the library. In front of her laid the equally massive hallway that seemed to be stretching out to infinity and far beyond.

Twilight Sparkle herself gasped for air as she had managed to escape the clutches of darkness. Her body was safe from harm in her own eyes. Sweat of fear gently went past the sides of her head before she shook it violently.

“That can’t be possible, right? Such a thing, just isn’t possible and you know it,” the mare said to herself before she walked away from the door. After only a couple of steps forward had she turned back around to face the gates of darkness again. “S-Something isn’t right. Something has been going wrong. Dead wrong. What kind of spell would have been cast over the castle or, or, o-or me?”

There was a light that turned on in the mind of Twilight when she made a shocking realization. “No, no, no, no, no, that couldn’t have been done, right? I mean, history is set in stone and I couldn’t have just been removed from it, like that.” All sorts of ideas went through her when she turned around with haste. Her eyes had to view everything there was to be seen.

Any sign could have helped her to determine where exactly in time she happened to be and what direction she had to look for the answers.

Clean, everything was just clean. “Meaning, we’re still in the present,” said Twilight to herself after her turning stopped. The unicorn moved over to one of the many windows and looked over to the world outside. There she could have only prayed on the fact that everything would have been alright.

Her eyes turned from left to right while she watched over the courtyard of castle. Her eyes were set on any kind of motion and once more continued their search. She had to find somepony else, anypony would have been good enough to her. From either the laziest student to the sternest guard. Anypony would have been just more than welcome in her eyes.

It were a couple of long and tedious seconds had she glanced over the courtyard. But never did she saw another being moving around or about. The normally always filled courtyard of the place had just been emptied. Something or somepony seemed to have taken all of the souls of the castle away, with the exception of hers.

It troubled Twilight perhaps a whole lot more than it originally needed to have. But she became terrified. She became terrified about just what was holding the sheer ability that could have done such a thing. Thousand and one things rushed through her mind as she took another set of steps back.

The realization kicked in her mind as she turned around to look down the hallway. A gentle tear formed itself in her eye before it made the journey down her cheek. “I can’t be… I can’t be, the only one left, can I?” she questioned to herself in a true tone of sadness.

Twilight Sparkle just stood there while she allowed the events to just wash over her. The lack of anthronies within the castle had made her feel uncomfortable beyond belief. Uncomfortable up to the point that she thought that she was alone in the massive castle. Which made the prideful building become a whole lot more spooky looking.

The normally always so filled hallways were empty, the dorms that used to carry the students off into the nights had no one to protect. The rooms for the other soothsayers had nopony to pray in. Life in the castle ceased to exist with one, measly exception. Twilight Sparkle continued to live on as if nothing had happened.

Naturally did it terrify the unicorn. Because for all she knew did she happen to be the cause of it all. There was no memory of the other day, she also had forgotten the magical matter that she wanted to look up. A hand was brought to her mouth and only three fingers touched her lips.

In her eyes could the terror be clearly read before she shook her head gently. It couldn’t have been her, right? It couldn’t have been her who had just removed every last being from the castle and sent them to the goddesses knew where. Fears crawled up in her body as there possibly was one location where she could have gone to.

The only place in the whole castle that probably would have allowed her to give some kind of answers upon the matters that were tormenting her mind. Though the route had to be walked. The dangerous route where everything could have happened upon. The soothsayer nodded firm to herself as she gathered her guts.

She had escaped the clutches of the darkened library already, something else along those lines could be fought a second time. As long as it wasn’t along the lines of an old friend she would encounter. A shudder travelled down the spine of the mare before she just continued onward.

The clacking of her heels against the stone floor echoed against every possible wall. To Twilight it constantly seemed to be as if she was followed by an entity that she couldn’t see at all. The unicorn was constantly on her guard as she held her hands ready. At any given moment in time could she have collected her magic and had to fire a blast against something.

Her eyes went from left to right and in every single sideway that she came across. The thoughts of a figure standing in each and every one of them crawled up in her eyes. The mind began to play tricks upon her as she noticed something in the corner of her eyes. Something in one of the hallways had captured her attention. And that wasn’t a good thing at all.

The unicorn quickly charged her magic before she turned towards the mysterious figure. But when the hallway came into her full view, there was nothing to be witnessed. An eyebrow rose up in a gentle manner as she couldn’t have believed the facts as they were. “Always hidden, at the spot you never dare to look. The corner, of your eye,” the soothsayer whispered to herself before shook her head vividly and frightened.

Twilight discharged her magic and turned back around to walk forwards. Her imagination had been toying around with her and played in with her most primal fears. The emptiness of the castle was already a thing that crawled to her and she didn’t require any more in the moment. Though the fear of seeing figures at places they weren’t be happened to be another one that tried to get a hold of her.

If she didn’t know any better, it would have seemed that something played with her fears. Almost as if some kind of dark magic had taken a grasp around her heart and mind. The only problem happened to be that she didn’t realize that little fact. For Twilight was everything that she saw a reality. A frightening one, but one nonetheless.

The mare quickened her pace and she kept on walking through the hallways. Mutters were released through her mouth, she complained about one fact over and over. The very fact of just why the office of the head soothsayer had to be placed in the one massive tower were nopony went to.

The office of the head soothsayer was the location where she wanted to go. There must have been some answers that she could have used to her own advantage at that place. At least that was the thing where she hoped for. A faint hope that became less and less with every step she took.

Anything was better than being left out in the figural dark that she was. Twilight would have lowered her pace to a standstill out of nowhere. There was another fact that crawled up in her body. “Where are you lot?” she mumbled to herself before had a look from right to left again.

Where she earlier had seen guards standing upon their required spots, now she didn’t saw anypony. Not even the statue like guards were there anymore. That little fact alone caused the unicorn to blink a little bit with her eyes. She didn't remember anything of them having gone off or anything. And she certainly didn’t hear them when they went off. “What’s going on here?!” she exclaimed in utter desperation.

"The office can wait, I need to find out something else first!” The panic that had filled Twilight caused her to run as fast as she could. The unicorn ran through the hallways of the castle as she seemed to be heading back.

Back to the rooms of the students and the rooms of the staff. The eyes didn’t look to either her right or left anymore. She had a clear heading that she needed to follow and she would follow it no matter what. Even if the levels of danger were arising literally right next to her, she had to find out the one thing she was required to find out.

The thoughts crossed her mind as she rushed over to the rooms of her fellow colleagues and just came to a standstill again. The hallway looked so peaceful at first glance. Though all of the doors were shut and no light seemed to have gotten out of the gaps beneath it. Which meant to her that they probably would have still been vastly asleep.

But that couldn’t be, right? The morning sun had been shining bright and it wasn’t a day where they could rest upon. “This is just getting too creepy for me,” said Twilight Sparkle herself while she walked to one of the doors.

Out of all the teachers in Canterlot Castle was there one that certainly would have answered to her calls. Perhaps not in the kindest of manners but those left the unicorn just cold in the moment. She had to know whether or not her mind was right on the matters that it came up with. So with a deep exhale she knocked upon the door.

A door that was of nopony else then the battlemage instructor herself: Beatrix Lulamoon. Possibly the biggest nemesis that Twilight had made in the castle and sure to answer her call. “Trixie, are you in there? We need to discuss a couple of things. This whole place, is acting… funny, for the lack of a better term,” said Twilight in a loud and clear tone. The waiting began.

Seconds went by. There was no way in the world that the battlemage couldn’t have heard it through it. The answer had to come one way or the other. Unless her thoughts had been confirmed. If that happened to be the case, she just had to wait a couple more seconds. A couple of seconds that seemed to have been worth nothing to any and all were required to figure out whether or not her worst thoughts had been true or not.

Seconds ticked by like hours in Twilight’s mind. The unicorn soothsayer became more terrified with every last one that went by. She began to fear that her thoughts had been confirmed and only one more thing could be done. A thing that she never had done to begin with and one she didn’t hoped to be doing anymore after it.

All that the unicorn could be doing was to just barge straight into the room. Would she barge straight into the room that belonged to her nemesis and probably get a load of magic over her? But it would have been worth the risks just so much. At least it would have been in her own eyes. The soothsayer simply nodded to herself. There was no other option left in her mind. She just had to do what was needed.

Her hand allowed itself to be coated within the magical aura as she reached out for the doorknob. Only a mere second after her hand and the object touched could the lock be heard opening up. Which meant to Twilight that it must have been locked from the inside. Time was there, the time had fallen upon her to figure out just what was going on in the castle.

With one swift motion was the door flung open and Twilight appeared in the opening with the hand still charged. A shield was being created because she had expected a massive burst of fire or ice to have been fired right in her direction.

Yet there was nothing. Nothing had gotten into her way as silence took over again. Only the loud crash of the door against the stone wall filled the room for a moment. But she then just looked over the room through the shield.

In her eyes she caught perhaps the worst possible thing. For the entire room of the battlemage instructor had been cleaned up. Everything had just been stacked in nice looking stacks of documents and documents. The various staffs that were carried by Trixie all hung prideful at the wall while the bed perhaps bared the biggest concern.

Everything on top of the bed was made up. The blankets and the pillow laid in a perfect formation as if they had been cleaned only moments ago. To any other anthrony Twilight would have said that it was a good job. But she knew Trixie through and through. The other unicorn wasn’t as clean as Twilight or the rest. Not by a long shot.

No, Trixie was both messy and unorganized. A brilliant fighter with the arcane for sure, but just a disaster when it came to cleaning things up. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she could always have found order among chaos.

“This isn’t right. This is everything but right,” said Twilight to herself moments after she lowered the shield. She took a step or two further into the room and looked around once more. Her eyes just couldn’t have believed what they saw.

Everything within the room of Trixie had just been tidied up for whatever reason. All the scrolls were placed nicely upon their shelves. All of the papers and books stored on top of the desk. The chair was even pushed against it. The shivers went down the spine of Twilight. The sights terrified her because they were just as unreal as anything could have been.

A small gasp for air was given off by the unicorn before she shook her head again. It was just impossible to do anything else. The mare had to leave, she had to head to the tower of the head soothsayer. Twilight needed to have answers upon the questions that were tormenting her mind.

The door of the room was closed again when Twilight had charged up her magic again. She wouldn’t be taking any chances anymore. With the disappearances of the guards in other parts of the castle could she better have over prepared than doing anything else. Prevention was better than healing, as the saying went.

A deep exhale was given off by her nostrils when she once more walked through the hallways of the giant castle. But the feelings weren’t getting more comfortable on the matter. No, Twilight was afraid of everything in the castle. She was truly afraid of the things that could have happened.

For all she knew, could she have encountered one of the biggest evils in the whole land. Or even worse, she would have to fight a much darker version of herself. The head was given a shake before she made a turn. A turn that was meant to become a little shortcut to the office of the head soothsayer. She hadn’t taken the route before as she wasn’t in the position to go down that road without having to backtrack her steps first.

She didn’t wanted to think back about the library as well. The door of it was perhaps covered in a dark substance that resonated only to black magic. The terrifying thoughts of Twilight rushed through her mind as the warning on the scroll always stood with her. There must have been some force that was looking out for her. At least that was the way it happened to be presented to her.

The unicorn turned around another corner and got the fright of her life. She took a couple of steps back and then she gasped for air. Her uncharged hand reached for her chest while her back was set against the wall. The eyes were closed for a moment as she thought there would have been a lash of some sort.

Yet once again there was nothing that seemed to be happening. The unicorn was getting only more and more confused as she dared to open one of her eyes. The only problem was that it happened to be her eye that couldn’t look into the distance. So all she saw was a shimmer that stood in the distance.

A shimmer that she had caught in her eyes before and had caused her to do what she did. The thing didn’t seemed to be getting any closer to her, which meant that it seemed to have been safe for her. So her other eye was opened as well. Which resulted in the mare regaining her focus and she just looked towards the thing in front of her.

And what she was something that she couldn’t truly have believed. For there stood a guard, in a sideways position with its head turned towards her. The eyes of the guard were directly looking at her. Yet there was no motion being made. Nothing came from the thing. The terror that rushed through Twilight made her gulp a little bit.

But then she removed herself from the wall. For she made a realization. The very fact that she carried her magic. And that very magic should have been more than enough to help her with any trouble that the guards would have been giving her. That was the plan at least. What seemed to be working in theory, never had to work in reality as well. And vice versa as well.

With a careful pace in her steps did Twilight approach the guard. Yet she never took her eyes away from him. But he neither took his eyes away from her either. The closer Twilight came, the more she began to fear something terrible would happen. She had seen such a thing before but couldn’t place where it was. A strange sense of familiarity struck her next to the fear.

The mare began to shake her head from right to left while she looked away from the guard. Something wasn’t right about him and she tried to deny the very fact as it was. The unicorn had one last look before she walked past him.

His skin was a pale as snow, the chest armor never seemed to have moved either up or down and his hooves were stuck to the floor. Twilight became only more terrified as she realized that the guard was a statue. An actual stone statue that had the haunting abilities of a real guard.

Another shudder travelled down her spine before she quickly managed to get past it and into the next hallway. She didn’t had the desire to see something along the lines of that ever again. At least not anytime soon. Twilight had to continue her journey through the castle to reach the office of the head soothsayer. To reach the office and finally get some of the much needed answers upon the matters as they were happening.

After minutes of having wandered through the castle and scaled the massive staircase that led up to the office, the unicorn had finally gotten where she needed to be. A pant was given off while she finally was at the room where she had to be. The door that was leading to the office of the head soothsayer stood before her.

With only having seen one stoned guard and the room of Trixie being cleaned up, the unicorn didn’t thought that there was much occupation within the room. So with her charged hand did she drew the symbol of the soothsayers themselves and took a hold on the door knob.

The resonation between the arcane powers she had and the magic within the door matched with one another perfectly. Which in return resulted in the fact that she could have just opened the door like that. Which was exactly the thing that she did.

The unicorn opened the door with a swift motion before she walked into the office. The door was then closed again while her magic ignited all of the flames from the candles. A sight that she had seen numerous times before returned in her eyes. But the odd thing was that everything just seemed to have been the same in that room.

It both terrified and satisfied the mare as it meant she could do what she needed to be doing. But not before she had cast a locking spell over the door. The glance of the stone guard still haunted her to her soul. So she didn’t had the desire that either him, or his possible friends would have entered the place. Once the spell had been completed could the mare given herself a deep breath of relaxation. Though the danger was far from over. She still could be ambushed right in the room of the head soothsayer by anything that was placed inside of it.

Yet in the moment she didn’t care about such things. Twilight had her own things to do and went searching through the room. There was something in that very room that could have allowed her to see what she needed to see and perhaps could have given the answers she needed. Somewhere in the room laid a crystal orb. A crystal orb that would have allowed her to just see everything that needed to be seen.

An orb that contained such a vast amount of magical powers that it was impossible to truly tame. “There you are!” Twilight spoke in happiness when she finally found it standing on one of the many shelves. With a pair of shaking hands did she managed to get a hold of it. The crystal ball was lowered from its pedestal and carried with Twilight to the desk of the head soothsayer.

There the mare just took place behind it and placed the ball on another pedestal. An exhale went through her nostrils as another hand was placed right upon it. The hand allowed itself to be coated within the magical aura and the two things were at a direct contact with one another. The words had to be spoken and the crystal orb would have revealed what needed to be revealed.

“What happened here? Why is everything the way it is now?” she asked directly to the orb before she closed her eyes. Anything could have been showed to her in the moment. Anything from the most terrible disaster to perhaps the most wonderful lie ever told.

Yet the things that she got to see where some of the most disturbing yet. The sounds of two being battling it out with one another were heard before she saw the sights as they truly were. Terror went through her, but she had to keep on watching and remain silent. There was no way other than to just witness what would come next.

~~~~

For the two beings were still going at one another’s throat. The nightmare version of Twilight Sparkle and the demoness named Sunset Shimmer were still going at one another. Their battle had been fierce and deadly. Fires must have burned for ages while the entire floor of was just charred black and cracked. Whatever the two had been doing in the meantime, they still hadn’t been able to end the life of the other. Not even after so many hours of battling.

The strangest part of it all? They still had enough energy left inside of them to continue with their madness. The two of them just stood there on top of the throne room roof while they had both assumed a stance of readiness. They wanted to once again go at one another, but Sunset had enough of it. Direct assault never seemed to have been working on the devil before her. So the only thing that could have been done was to surprise her like before.

The horn of the demoness was being charged up and before the devil could have reacted had she vanished again. But Nightmare Moon wasn’t stupid either. She awaited the events to come. She had learned from her previous mistakes and wanted to use them against Sunset for a change.

Which was done in a manner that couldn’t have been believed if it wasn’t seen. For when the demoness reappeared into the world, she wanted to once again uppercut the devil. Yet just before she would have hit the face of Twilight’s body, the devil herself teleported away from the scene. Which resulted in Sunset just hitting thin air before she landed back on her hooves.

The demoness turned around and around before she had exposed her back to Nightmare Moon. The devil reappeared back into existence and kicked the demoness right in her back. Which resulted in the other mare being forced down to the ground. With a swift motion had Nightmare Moon set Twilight’s hoof firm on the neck and taken a hold of the wings.

Screams and flaps were given off by the demoness while she thought that everything was over. But the worst pain still had to come to her though. With two swift motions of the hands was it done and could the cracks be heard. Those nasty, bone shattering cracks that went through literally marrow and bone.

Sunset Shimmer released another yell of utter pain as she realized what had been done. Nightmare Moon had broken off her wings. The joints that were used to have them fused to her body had been shattered by the devil’s hands.

With one last teleport had Moon removed herself from Shimmer’s body and shook her head. “I thought you would have been able to endure a bit more. Shame, you were always such a fine thing to watch over,” the devil spoke only moments before another grin came from her.

Sunset Shimmer on the other end was crying. She was crying in pain before she still forced her body to be risen. Though the wings were literally broken and thus rendered useless. “Y-You h-haven’t even s-seen, h-half of what, I can d-do,” she stuttered before another winch was given off.

The tides seemed to have changed for the worst in the eyes of the demoness as she was about to lose the thing she held close to her. But the worst had yet to come. Though beneath her hooves did the ground began to shake. Or better said, the floor began to shake. The eyes of both Moon and Shimmer went wide in confusion. Neither of them knew what would happen next. Yet the devil teleported herself out of the line of possible fire.

She would have left Sunset to just deal with the thing as it was. Whatever it was that came for her, or them, a third party seemed to have arrived. A third party to end their battle possibly once and for all. And most likely in a way neither of them had expected nor wanted.

Chapter LXXXV

Nightmare Moon had teleported out of the line of fire and appeared on a small looking platform at the other side of a giant gap in the middle of the ceiling. With a set of interested looking eyes did she glanced over to the demoness, awaiting and wanting to know just what would be happening next. Silence was maintained by her when she narrowed her eyes a little bit. But the magical abilities that she had were still carried firm.

The body charged itself up completely up to the point where all of her powers were surging through her veins. The unicorn had only one trigger required to release all of the magic at once. The unicorn had become a lot more dangerous as the massive amounts of dark magic were flowing freely through her. The corruption of the actual Twilight Sparkle had initiated without Moon even knowing. She was just preparing herself for the fight that would soon to be followed.

Sunset Shimmer on the other end just moved around on her spot while there seemed to be a rhythm in the tremors. Almost as if something massive was constantly bashing itself against the floor beneath her. She wanted to teleport away just so badly, but with her broken wings was the flow of magic broken as well.

The demoness was quite literally stuck on her spot and she had a look towards Nightmare Moon. Not a single word was shared between the two of them but they looked one another just so deep in the eyes. Deep exhales were given off by the pair of them as they wanted to just recollect themselves from the battle.

Yet the anticipation of the events to come made the demoness worry a lot. She could have expected anything and everything to have been hit her way. Though not even her wildest of dreams could ever have anticipated what would happen next. Nothing in her mind could have prepared her for the revelations that were about to be made as the floor beneath her hooves cracked.

More and more cracks appeared beneath them and every step that she took even caused more. Sunset became frightened and rightfully so. The demoness was literally losing her footing because of the little fact that she couldn’t fly anymore. Not to mention that she couldn’t just teleport away either. The glances shared between the devil and her were never broken. It almost made it seem as if Sunset wanted that Nightmare Moon would watch to the events to come.

Whatever events were to come to begin with, the demoness looked straight in the eyes of the devil and was countered by a set of ice cold eyes. Eyes that told her that whatever would have happened, Nightmare Moon didn’t care about one bit. But within the eyes of Sunset Shimmer there was a fire to be found. The internal flame that never seemed to have been able to be eradicated from her very soul.

It amazed Nightmare Moon actually just how much stamina and how much energy the demoness happened to be. Their battle had been going on for hours on end. Even within the time distortion going on, it still felt like hours had gone by for the both of them. Whether it actually were hours was unknown and best left untold for everypony’s sake.

But the cracks beneath the hooves of Sunset told the devil another thing. The very fact that there was another force that was able to move through the distortion in time. But what kind of force was able to do such a thing? It was a question that needed answering, and the answer for it came sooner than either of them would have liked. The time was there to discover what was crashing against the ceiling of the throne room and what remained hidden beneath the floor.

The ground underneath the hooves of Sunset Shimmer finally gave away. Her natural response was that she spread her wings and tried to flap them. Though the issue happened to be that everything went sore. The broken bones and tense muscles allowed for some movement, but by far not enough for her to get airborne.

The next thing that happened was a yell of pain that was released by the demoness when she disappeared in something. Something had shot up from the floor and literally consumed the dark being. Nightmare Moon could only watch in terror as even she did a step back.

The eyes of the devil herself went wide as she watched what came out of the hole. The floor crumbled even further as a massive, scaled, lizard like body rose up from the floor. “Im-Impossible!” the mare exclaimed quietly to herself.

The first time in a very, very long time did she remember how it felt to be scared of something. The very thing that crawled out of the hole was something that she hadn’t seen in millennia’s. Nightmare Moon was looking at a thing that was thought to have gone extinct for such a long time.

She was looking straight at a dragon that had a big enough maw to swallow an anthrony up whole. It’s two powerful legs carried the body up upon the floor whereas the arms were spread gently. The head turned over into the direction of Nightmare Moon and their eyes met up.

The devil herself couldn’t believe what she saw and didn’t even wanted to believe it. For she had always deemed the facts as unbelievable and unreal. Yet there it was, right before her before her very eyes. A gulp was given off when the smoke came through the nostrils of the beast.

“D-Dragon,” was the one word with which she could describe the being. The devil had to turn her glance away from the beast in order not to be captivated by it too much. But she could hear the sounds of spreading wings. The ground beneath the massive clawed feet of the scaled lizard gave away. The damage done to the floor was more than enough to make it shatter.

So the only thing that could have been done by the beast was to take for the skies. Once it had taken off could Nightmare Moon look again at the beast. She took every single detail of the beast to her as she wanted to see just what kind of dragon it was.

The last dragon was rumored to have been slain by a great warrior in times long gone by. Could it have been possible that they forgot one of the beasts which remained dormant through time itself? And why could it move through the time distortion to begin with? The purple scales and the green spikes as well as skin between the wings should have been a clear indication for the devil.

Though she had no memory of the beast.

The dragon held the demoness firm in its mouth whereas she tried to make an escape. Sunset tried everything in her might to escape the maw of the giant beast as being swallowed by it was about the last thing she wanted. Becoming dragon dinner wasn’t exactly at the top of her list. It was actually better that the cries of true sadness couldn’t be heard outside of the dragon’s mouth, because the demoness felt that she was about to truly die.

She was stuck in the maw of a beast that was supposed to have gone extinct millenniums ago. Nor did she have a way that she could make her escape to. Even if she managed to somehow get out of the maw, it meant that she had two enemies fighting over her and against her. The dragon would have been the new addition to the troubles that she was going through.

Fighting Nightmare Moon alone had almost drained her from every last bit of energy that she had. She couldn’t even have imagined if there was a dragon as well thrown into the mix. The fingers of the demoness coiled up around two of the razor sharp fangs that the dragon had in the hope so not to be swallowed of coiled up by the tongue.

It was a faint attempt at postponing the inevitable. Death would eventually come for all and her clock was chiming. The last hour of Sunset’s reign in freedom had initiated. “I’ll never forgive any of you!” the demoness shouted through her pouring tears.

Nightmare Moon on the other hand kept on looking over to the events as they were playing out. She had gotten a strange interest in seeing just what the massive being had planned out for the demoness. Perhaps it was the cutting edge that she needed in order to get the essence back. Finally there was an opportunity that she could have used with her, instead of it being used against her.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” the mare chuckled while she looked over to the dragon again. The creature made a troubling revelation to her though. The very scales that it carried gave away perhaps the one thing that she didn’t wanted to see in any dragon.

The eyes of Nightmare Twilight went wide before she gently shook her head. Nothing could have been said during the events to come. The vocal box of the devil was silenced by a force that was even greater than her. And that force was the sheer awesome presence of the dragon alone.

Just how the creature hovered in the air like that was already troubling enough to the devil, but she had to keep on watching. She had to see what would be happening to her enemy. She wanted to see what was going on actually, no matter how gruesome it would have become.

When the purple scales lifted up just a little bit, they all revealed the fiery color that could be clearly seen beneath them. Nightmare Moon instantly realized the facts as they were and she wasn’t all too happy about it. Fires would be released as fire would have been fought with fire once more.

Except there was one little change to the whole plan. Sunset possessed a magical fire, the dragon had his own heart. Rumors of old spoke about the best sources of fire happened to be the heart of a dragon itself. The fires that were created by such beasts was powerful enough to lay complete cities in complete ashes and still rage on for days without end.

The sheer amount of heat that those flames could have produced was enough to make solid rocks go liquid in a matter of seconds. Nightmare Moon had to do a couple of steps backwards to make sure she had some kind of quick getaway. With her hooves she constantly felt whether or not she was already at the edge of the roof before almost falling down.

Another gentle step was made forward as she realized that she had to stay put. Whatever would be happening next, she had a front row seat for it. Another gulp was given off by the devil as she continued to watch the events. The events that most likely would have been changing the course of not just their battle, but the entire course of history.

Just one single moment in time, just one second in time itself would have caused so much destruction, so much death and so many debts just settled. Rumors often spoke about things changing on the fly. They were literally experiencing the matter as it was.

Finally had the dragon been ready and he could do whatever needed to be done. The dragon took then a deep inhale through his nostrils before he rose his head up. Which allowed Sunset Shimmer to literally hang at two of the many teeth that the beast carried. She dared to look straight down the massive throat of the beast and noticed the orange light at the bottom of it.

She instantly realized what was going to happen and the only thing that she could have done was to remain silent. There was no way out of the place and she knew it. So only the peace with her essence could have been made. Whether the dragon worked for Nightmare Moon or was a force of its own was unknown to her.

Not that she cared too much about it to begin with either. Death had come to her and the last thing she saw was the orange flow filling the throat. Only to then send screams of true agony out into the world.

Screams of pain and agony that could even have been heard by Nightmare Moon herself. The devil watched over the scene as it happened in silence. There was no remorse visible upon her face but with an interested glance in her eyes. Something had triggered her attention though. The devil would have been able to snatch what she wanted for all that time, in just a matter of seconds.

The fires of the dragon kept on going while he curled up his lips. The beast allowed to the fires to escape through his teeth but let the demoness be stuck firm in-between them. There was no way out in any physical form for the Dark Witch. The one that dared to defy Nightmare Moon herself had been submitted down to her knees.

The fires inside of the mouth silenced the screams of the demoness. The body was consumed by the flames that were brought out and she died literally in the mouth of the dragon. But the fact remained that she still was a Dark Witch. And those beings never truly died. Their bodies could have been destroyed and shattered, but their essence continued to live on. Waiting in patience for a new body to be formed over time itself. That would have happened to Sunset as well. But only if Nightmare Moon wouldn’t intervene with it all.

Only once the flames died down from the scales did the coloring of the dragon returned to their more dominant purple. Soon enough did the maw turn normal as well and he lowered his head again. The eyes were granted a straight view upon the world as his serpent like neck made another ‘s’-shape. But the lips were still curled up.

The lips of the dragon were still curled up in order to reveal the massive fangs he carried. Yet that also gave way for the essence of the demoness to be floating away. Which was exactly the thing that it did. Naturally it tried to take over the dragon at first, but his own essence was ancient and unable to be conquered by any force of dark magic.

There wouldn’t have been a place big enough in the heart of the dragon that could have stored his soul. If anything, the essence of the demoness would have been the thing that would be stored somewhere inside of him.

No, it was better for Sunset Shimmer to leave the dragon be. She floated away from him as if it was nothing. The sheer amount of orange coloring that took over were a clear indication to Nightmare Moon that Sunset Shimmer had died. She had died in the mouth of the dragon.

A dragon that didn’t even look at the essence of the demoness when he spat out whatever remained of her. Only a series of bones were removed from his mouth and they clattered down to the ground. There they would just have shattered into thousands of little pieces and fine dust. Dust that would have been picked up by the wind as soon as time would tick again.

The demoness was history. Sunset Shimmer’s reign in the woods of Everfree had come to a fiery end after who knew how many years. Nightmare Moon noticed that fact as it was and realized what could be done. She could leave the body of Twilight and merge herself with Sunset’s essence to make another physical body for her.

It had to be done given the fact how her own centipede husk was still somewhere in the woods of White Tails and locked against a tree. It was the only thing that could have been done in order to get what she had been wanting for so long. The devil had to separate herself from the soothsayer. It was the only way in which it could happen.

The devil nodded one time firm with Twilight’s head before she released all of the systems that she operated. Just like that she released control over Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn soothsayer’s own soul had to crawl out of the cocoon it was stuffed in and regain control.

Though when the devil left the body of the unicorn, she did something that wasn’t intentional. The essence of Nightmare Moon gave a kick to the body of Twilight in order to set herself off into the skies. But that kick had one nasty side effect that was unforeseen. It managed to send the body of Twilight off the little platform and down the tower.

The body of Twilight was falling down the side of the tower while the unicorn’s soul was still stuffed away. The body had turned into an empty husk for anything to be taken just like that. Twilight’s very own fate could have been written in stone there and then, as she could have been the only casualty that the company of mares had to endure if the odds weren’t in her favor.

Yet the dragon was still there. He was watching over everything that happened and he had a strange but strong bond with the unicorn. His eyes followed the essence of Nightmare Moon going up to that of Sunset Shimmer, but he felt that something was wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong but he couldn’t see what it was, not yet at least.

The eyes of the dragon then glanced to the edge where Nightmare Twilight used to stand. Instantly he remembered the facts as they were and widened his eyes. “No,” the deep voice of the dragon spoke before he gave a couple of powerful flaps with his wings.

The quest to safe Twilight Sparkle –the real one– was initiated and he soared over to the edge and then down the sides of the tower. Luck was on his side when he caught her in his eyes. But she was dangerously close to the ground already. Fears took over the dragon moments before he could only have increased his own speed.

The hands of the beast reached out in order to grab her. His eyes were almost tearing up as he didn’t wanted to lose the mare. Under no circumstances would he have allowed him to make such a great mistake or offer. The unicorn had to live in his eyes one way or the other. Whatever would have taken it to get to her, he would have taken it.

The fingers of the dragon felt that they were coiling up around something as he closed his eyes. There was no escape from the ground that was laying beneath them. Either way would they have just crashed right into it. Yet that didn’t mean that the beast had to make her suffer.

The wings of the dragon were tucked against his body and he then rolled over. In the hope that it would have been his back that met the ground first. Both of the hands formed a protective shell around the unicorn while he braced himself for impact.

Any second could the massive smack against the ground have been send shocking through him. And any second was right there. With a deafening crash did the dragon crash against the ground while moving tons and tons of dirt with him. Twilight was his main concern though. She was thrown all over the place in his hands, but never enough for bones to be broken.

~~~~

With a massive shock was the connection between her and the crystal orb broken. Twilight leaned back in the chair while she began to breathe deep in fear. The sights that she was granted by the crystal orb had revealed a little bit more than that she would have liked originally. The unicorn panted for her breath while she looked around the place.

The light of the sun was finally cast within the windows again and warmed the place up. But there still was that feeling of emptiness going through her. Something wasn’t right and Twilight had figured out exactly what it was. “I, I can’t, I can’t believe it,” she spoke to herself through the gasps for air. She closed her eyes for a moment as the head was dropped even further backwards.

Words were mumbled by the unicorn and she just couldn’t believe what had happened to her. The frightened thoughts that she carried before all had changed to thoughts of anger. She wouldn’t have taken it lightly that Nightmare Moon had just taken over her body like that. Payback was the thing that needed to happen in one way or the other.

One way or the other would Twilight have discovered a way to just get back to the devil herself. Even if it meant that she had to go to the deepest circle of Tartarus herself in order to do it. She would have her revenge on the devil no matter what. But that wasn’t the only thing that was on her mind. She was still there.

Twilight was still in the office of the head soothsayer and left the chair for what it is. The unicorn just began to wander through the room with her hands behind her back. Countless thoughts were rushed through her mind while she crunched on each of them. There were just so many possibilities on everything in the moment.

She had seen all the way up to the point where Nightmare Moon had left her body. She didn’t knew where her body truly happened to be from that moment on. But the shock that woke her up must have been something that would indicate it. A deep huff went through her nostrils as she glanced quickly over the orb again.

What happened next was something that she didn’t had expected to do. There was a strange and little smile that came to her face. A genuine smile of actual happiness formed itself across her lips. A smile that was maintained for a little bit of time. “Oh that I may live to see this happening,” said Twilight to herself when the puzzle pieces all fell upon their rightful place.

Everything just became clear to her when she glanced out of the window. She glanced into what was thought to be the sun itself, but that never shone with the strength of light that came in the room. The unicorn continued to smile like the mad fool she was. “Everything comes to pieces now,” she said to herself, “the darkness, the guard, the emptiness.”

The unicorn shook her head a little bit from side to side. The place where she was, was her own body. Her very own soul had created the possible safest place for the unicorn to be. Which happened to be no other place then the castle of Canterlot. From there outwards had the soul tried to fight off the darkness that was invading her essence. “I wrote those words on the scrolls. Heh, oh that’s just clever indeed,” said Twilight to herself before she shook her head once again.

As wonderful as it all seemed to be sounding as equally mad it did too. The mare turned her attention back to the orb with a curious expression clearly visible upon her face. She was still there and not back on the tower in Everfree. Which meant that her soul hadn’t taken over the body yet. Which in return stood equal to the fact that any dark entity could just as easily had taken her over once more.

Another hostile takeover by some kind of dark force was just about the last thing where Twilight was hoping for. So all she could do was to figure out a way to regain said control over her body. Which meant that she kept on gazing over the orb. “Can it be, that easy?” she asked to herself.

The unicorn shook her head as a direct response. Nothing in her life had ever come that easily, so why would the taking back of her body be? But perhaps the goddesses would have been kind to the mare for a change and just give her the chance to do what was needed. Though Twilight didn’t actually believe in the facts as they were.

“It can’t be. It just, can’t,” she mumbled to herself. Her eyes were seemingly mesmerized by the crystal orb. If she didn’t know any better, it almost seemed as if it was calling her out. It spoke her name in faint whispers through the air. It was lurking her, taunting her, seducing her.

The eyes of Twilight had a difficult time to be torn away from the thing. Which resulted in the fact that she gave into it. The calling of the orb was too strong to be fought again in her eyes. And only one thing could actually have done in order to set her curiosity straight.

The unicorn once again approached the chair and took place within it. The chair was set firm against the desk before the eyes were closed for a moment. “Celestia and Luna, goddesses of the sun and moon, please give me the strength for this,” she whispered as a last little prayer. Nothing was certain about the events that would follow, as they were never done by her before.

The unicorn placed her hand once more upon the orb and held her eyes closed. She charged her hand in the raspberry magical aura and felt the tingles that were exchanged. The different kinds of arcane powers tingled through her fingers and she wanted to stop. But there was no way it could be stopped then.

Twilight Sparkle had to say the words she wanted in order to have the orb do what she wanted. The words had to be spoken, the words of that what she wanted most. The mare held her eyes shut while more magic collected itself between her hand and the orb.

Only three words would have been repeated inside of her mind. The soothsayer tried to make sense out of the whole situation. Three words would have been hammered against her skull, up to the point where she had to speak them in a bellow.

Lashes of arcane powers were given off by both her hand and the crystal orb while the mare winched in pain. The massive amounts of magic that were exchanged between her and the object almost seemed to have gotten unbearable for her. The words of her mind had to be spoken if she wanted to stand any chance.

Finally were the three words bellowed through the office. Three simple words that probably had the biggest meaning for the mare in the moment. “Assuming, direct, control!” she shouted before a yell of pain followed suit.

~~~~

The dragon opened his eyes again and felt the pain that was aching through his back. But Twilight seemed to have been safe from everything. That fact alone caused him to be massively relieved about everything. The massive beast then got back up in the time distortion while the mare regained her mulberry skin color.

The changes that had happened thanks to Nightmare Moon’s presence had reverted as the essence had faded away. Which meant that the normal Twilight Sparkle had returned, or at least that he hoped. For the unicorn was still out of the count. “Rest now, my old friend. Come back to knowledge, at your own pace,” the beast spoke in a low but well-meant tone towards her body.

His eyes then looked up towards the tower and knew there still was business that needed to be settled. The devil herself was still up there so he spread his wings once more. Three little orb of green fire appeared around his hand and the unicorn who laid in the palm. Protection would be given to her until she would have woken up again.

The dragon had one target in his eyes that still needed to be dealt with. Perhaps it was just plain old stupidity that allowed him to bring the unicorn up with him. But in the moment he didn’t care. All he cared for was her safety which was actually ensured. Next to that he wanted to see the devil burn or be retreated back to her home.

The creature soared back up the tower of the castle once more and appeared almost like a beast of ponytales above it. With his wings fully spread out and the serpents neck looking right at the essence of the two dark entities, it almost seemed as if he had a personal vendetta with and against them. Yet he knew he had to keep Nightmare Moon busy for the moment. If she had been able to merge with Sunset were the consequences not to be overseen.

The claws of his hand were opened and the three orbs guided the unconscious Twilight Sparkle down to the floor again. There she would just be brought and laid down on her back. It was perhaps the safest spot for her to be when the dragon watched over the devil. With his wings still flapping was he presented a sight that couldn’t be believed.

The worst nightmares of the dragon had come true. Yet the silence was maintained by the creature. Only a deep growl managed to near silently leave his throat while the dark entities had turned into one. Though what was worse of all was the fact that Nightmare Moon had been building a body for herself again.

With the essence of both herself and Sunset had she allowed to carve a new body that revealed how the devil actually looked. Another growl was released by the dragon as he sharpened his claws. The battle between the true form of the devil and the devil of old, was about to commence.

But Nightmare Moon just chuckled up towards the dragon. She almost deemed it that the beast was no match for her. And she happened to be right in a slight manner of the words. The true form of the devilish mare was revealed to him. Which included the attire and kind of being she actually happened to have been in all those thousands of years.

An alicorn anthrony levitated in the air that had a skin as black as charcoal. The wings flapped constant which ruffled up the foggy hair she carried. But the most striking factor had to be the fact that she wore pieces of armor. Thick armor that seemed to have been carved out of diamonds themselves and brought a lighter shade of blue to the color pallet.

That was the true Nightmare Moon right there. For she rose up one of her hands and held another orb of dark magic within her fingers, who carried nails that were about half the size of them. “Bring it,” she just taunted to the dragon.

The eyelids of the unicorn soothsayer began to tremble. In the moment she shocked up from the floor and looked around. The green shield that was supposed to protect her faded away and she had a look around. Blinks were made by her before she turned to the battle that was raging on.

She saw how Nightmare Moon almost stood triumphal over a near exhausted dragon. She couldn’t have won already, not from against such a beast of power. But then again it did happened to be the devil against a beast of old.

Twilight wouldn’t stand for it. Not after what had been done to her earlier. The unicorn began to charge up every bit of magic that she could have called upon. Her hands and horn were all coated within the aura as arguably one of the biggest orbs of magical fire were created. A massive orb that hovered before the soothsayer and seemed to have been aimed to Nightmare Moon.

The devil herself couldn’t speak a word as she caught the fires in her eyes. Only a couple of words managed to get out of her mouth. Words spoken in a tone of utter disbelief. “She’s back!”

The dragon then turned his head into the direction of Twilight and curled his lips up to form a smile. “Oh she is, and she doesn’t look happy.” He then focused his attention back to the devil herself. “The hours of your reign are over, Dark Witch…”

Chapter LXXXVII

There was a massive feeling of complete and utter relief that went through the three other anthronies. They knew that Twilight had returned to them and most likely was in one piece. Though none of them had known what really happened during the distortion of time. The soothsayer knew that the question was going to be asked, no exception. But not in that moment. In that moment they were all genuinely happy about the fact that their friend had returned to them.

For a couple of seconds they just remained standing there. The mares just stood divided into two little spots. The four beings at one end, and Twilight at the other. To the unicorn it just felt so good that she saw the members of the company once more. She could almost have erupted out in tears of happiness.

But the mares were happy as well, yet they didn’t knew what to do. The last time that they saw the unicorn was when she had been taken over by a force greater than anypony in their area. But Pinkie Pie didn’t care about all of it. She saw how the mare had returned and was the first one who made her way over to her.

It almost seemed to have been that their first meeting had been replayed. The lamia almost launched herself straight at the soothsayer once more, only to have her arms being wrapped around her body. A massive hug was given by the lamia. One which almost squeezed the mare for a second time. Yet in the moment, Twilight didn’t care too much about it.

The pain was something that could be lived with while the feelings of a warm return made her body glow. To them it must have been mere minutes that she had gone, mere minutes that had been passing by in the whole of the world. But she had been gone for hours and hours on end.

The time distortion had caused her mind to live further ahead than that it should have been. A thing of which she wasn’t happy about when the silent realization came through to her.

The arms of Twilight went around the back of the lamia and she couldn’t help herself but to release a deep chuckle. A deep chuckle that spoke of complete and utter happiness. To Pinkie it felt as if the unicorn had thought that she never would have seen them again.

Of course the other mares wanted to show their gladness as well, but just engaging in the hug was something that kept being pushed off. Whether or not they were afraid or something along the lines was unknown. The mares just remained standing there with smiles clearly visible. All of them, except for Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie, just stay silent for a moment. I know you all missed me,” the soothsayer said while she tried to shush the lamia. For who was already talking the ears off of the unicorn’s head. Words of fright and thought all left her mouth as she told the unicorn that they were all just utterly worried about her.

“Okay,” the lamia said before she placed her head upon the shoulder of the unicorn. And just like that had the silence returned within the forest of White Tails. Just like that had the peaceful moment returned to them all. The smiles gently disappeared from the faces and the eyes were closed for just a moment.

In that very moment it didn’t matter what the origin happened to be of a certain being for they all shared the same feelings inside. And those feelings were the sheer happiness that their Twilight had returned. But those feelings gently would have made way for another feeling, the feeling of confusion and answered that were needed.

In the end did the lamia let go of the unicorn before they together walked back to the company. Twilight already saw it in their eyes, but she would play it out in a manner that suited her. A question for a question, and an answer for an answer. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” the soothsayer asked as she shook the hands with the three other mares.

Only Fluttershy seemed to have had the very guts to embrace the mare in an equally as massive hug. The soothsayer couldn’t resist the offer and gladly took it. So the two of them plunged themselves in the hug and actually began to laugh for a little moment.

Mere seconds later was the hug broken by the two of them and Fluttershy couldn’t resist herself. She had to stroke the cheek of the unicorn for whatever reason. Almost as if she wanted to say that everything was alright once more. It might have seemed unusual in the eyes of the others, but they didn’t care too much.

Applejack did a step forward to begin the formation of the circle around the unicorn. Twilight noticed it and joined them all quick, taking her spot next to the doctor. “Yar question, is difficult to answer. But basically, she left us after ya teleported away. She said she was done with it all and we decided, it was better for her to take some rest,” explained the admiral in a sober tone.

Twilight nodded calm to the words, she could understand the sheer amount of frustration that had been going through the pegasus. She was thrust into an adventure that was the chance of a lifetime, but limited her to not doing what she could best. Not to mention all the sheer amount of misfortune that they had along the way.

“I, understand her decision and respect it. However, she knows you have moved on further to Manehatten right?” Twilight asked further. The soothsayer had to make certain that the pegasus hadn’t truly abandoned them all just like that.

To which Rarity would have been the only one able to answer. She nodded to the other unicorn as she spoke her words. “I shot a blast in the air which told that we moved on through the forest. She must have seen it and if she is wise, she flies straight to Manehatten and waits there for us. I don’t see Rainbow as the kind of mare that would just drops her team entirely.”

Twilight shook her head in response though. “I don’t see that happening either, so we might see her again,” she replied with a calm tone to her voice.

“But what about you?” Fluttershy asked while she looked over the soothsayer. The unicorn turned her eyes over to the doctor and knew what time it was. The time had come for her to tell her story.

Which was told exactly as she remembered it. Every last detail of her troubling adventure was shared with the lot of them. Everything that she knew, from the time that she tried to fight off Nightmare Moon in her centipede form, to the teleporting back to them all.

The horror was clear as crystal on the faces of the mares after the story was done. None of them could have believed just how much flank the unicorn managed to kick in that moment. She also had told them that the possible grayness they had seen, was due to a time distortion. Everything began to slowly make sense to the other mares of the company.

Slow but sure did everything became clear to them. Yet that never took away on the fact that they were still truly terrified of the facts as they were. “Ah still can’t believe ya managed to kick the devil’s flanks,” said Applejack while she scratched herself behind her head.

“It wasn’t willingly, Applejack. I didn’t realize what I had done until the evil had been done. Once the orb of fire had disappeared, I realized what happened,” commented Twilight while she placed her hands behind her back. The eyes were closed for a moment when she thought back about times that were happier for her.

“But, it doesn’t matter what happened, Twilight, remember that,” said Fluttershy just before she placed a hand upon her shoulder. The unicorn was taken out of her thoughts and looked over to the pegasus. “What has happened, happened. And now you’re back here, with all of us.”

Those words were indeed true, even Twilight had to admit the fact as it was. A weak smile came forth upon her lips before she gave a simple nod. Silence was maintained by her as she didn’t have any other words she could or wanted to speak.

Rarity and Applejack still couldn’t get over the fact that one simple unicorn had managed to drive the original Dark Witch down to her hole deep in the earth. Something about that mare was extraordinary. Something about her magical abilities, especially at her age alone, was truly amazing to see and listen too.

“The battle that Never was,” the pirate captain replied just before she crossed her arms over each other, “a war fought in a distortion of time between the two darkest entities in the land. Makes for a great tale for a book if you ask me.”

Twilight couldn’t help herself but she just had to release a chuckle as a response. Rarity was right, the words that she said and especially in the tone as it was seemed to make a truly whimsical tale. “Who knows, maybe one day I might write it all down and see where it goes from there. Perhaps I’ll become an author as well, next to being a soothsayer of course.”

“Music of the future partner, music of the future,” added Applejack while she gained a smile upon her face as well. “But what do y’all say? We gonna continue towards Manehatten, or what?”

The words of the admiral caught them all by surprise but she did have a point. Sunrise was only perhaps an hour or two away and they couldn’t sleep during the day at all. So the decision was perhaps wisest if they would continue along the path to the settlement at the sea.

“Before we go though, there’s one thing that needed to be done,” the unicorn soothsayer spoke before she charged her horn quick. The other mares could only have watched over the events as they would be going down in history.

Before any of them could have reacted, a blast of raspberry colored magic had been fired into the air. A massive blast that was actually meant for one being alone. And that very being was the pegasus major herself.

For high up in the skies and still drifting over the woods of White Tails she laid. She hadn’t noticed a single thing about the time distortion and still laid peaceful within the cloud she had claimed as her own. She almost seemed to have been actually asleep before a strange coloring caught her attention.

The eyes of the mare were opened up and a rub was given to them. What then followed was a massive yawn that caused her to turn around. She had to know what the mysterious light was and the only way she could have figured it out, was by looking straight at it. The griffons it couldn’t have been as those were hopefully still miles and miles away.

In her eyes she then caught the raspberry blast and the eyes went suddenly wide. “What in the name of..?” she whispered to herself. She had seen Twilight teleport away like that, but now she saw the magic of the unicorn just being fired into the air. It was in fact very similar to the blast that Rarity hurled into the air.

It just didn’t make sense to the pegasus in any form. For all she knew could the all clear signal be given and when she got there, her head could have been chopped off. But still was there something about that very aura that spoke of things that they could be trusted. That she had to come down and see for herself what was laying around and about.

Confusion and curiosity had both managed to strike the major of the air force and she sat up straight on the cloud. With her legs crossed and the hands resting upon the knees, she sat there. The top part of the cloud had curled back to its natural formation and she had just completely exposed herself to not only the elements, but to prying eyes as well.

To her there only seemed to have been one way through which she could see whether or not it was a trick or not. Quickly she reached inside of her jacket and took out the binoculars. If she was going to walk right into a trap, she might as well had taken a look first as to whom had it set up.

The company looked to one another before they nodded. Twilight had discharged her horn completely again and she glanced to each of the mares. They appeared to be ready to make the departure for the port. They signal had been given off to Rainbow Dash as she surely must have seen it, as well as the griffons.

That was the only downside of the whole plan. The fact that the griffons as well could have been just looking around and about. Certainly they must have seen the massive blast of arcane powers as well, right? “Shall we go then?” the soothsayer asked to them all. The mares couldn’t do anything else than to nod. The company wasn’t truly in the mood to just keep on waiting for the mare to show up at her own time.

Though as they were about to leave did Twilight charge up one of her hands in order to summon her staff. But the ground never shattered nor did the thing ever appear. “Now that’s strange, I am certain that’s the right tome to be spoken against it. So, why won’t it come, oh wait…”

“Something wrong, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked when Pinkie had taken the lead of the company. Though the lamia was quickly joined by Applejack and her compass for directions. For the time being it would have been both the lamia and the admiral that were walking up front.

Twilight looked over to the doctor with a surprised expression clearly visible beneath her muzzle. She had thought about the facts as they were and could only shake her head a little bit. “Yes, no it’s fine. Really, I had only forgotten one tiny fact. One moment,” the soothsayer replied before she rose her arm up in the air.

The magic within the hand became more and more with each passing tick of the clock. “I call upon thee, that what is rightfully mine!” the mare spoke in a demanding tone. And then the magic was just released into the world. All of the aura that had been gathered around her hand just vanished in an instant. The company turned around to face her once more as they didn’t really knew what would happen next. Though the answer would be given pretty soon.

It was right above the unicorn that there a portal that appeared out of nothing. A portal that dropped something straight in her hand. The fingers coiled up around it and the arm was lowered again. The portal closed back up and Twilight smiled towards the object in her hand.

Within her hand it rested. Within her hand it laid once more, the very extender of her magical abilities. The unicorn was just so glad that she once more could perform her magical deeds and acts to bigger degrees.

The staff that had been thrown out by Sunset Shimmer during the Battle that Never was, had returned to its rightful owner. Twilight set the bottom of it on the ground as the company finally seemed to have been able to move along again. Once more were they ready to hit for the port of Manehatten.

At least so they thought. For they weren’t even going around for a mere minute when words filled the air. “Twilight! Applejack!” were two of the names being called out. The mares all turned themselves around as they looked over the ground they had just covered. They didn’t realize that they were all looking at the wrong piece of land, for they should have stared into the skies.

Only then they realized the fact that there was a blue missile that seemed to have been heading their way. The eyes of the mares went wide until they were narrowed again a fraction of a second later. The company thought to realize just whom it was that they saw coming in. Though they couldn’t have been too certain about the facts.

Soaring through the skies she flew, with her wings making powerful flaps before a rather graceful and calm landing had been made. The pegasus of Cloudsdale itself had returned to the company of mares. The wings were tucked behind her back and she let out a rather embarrassed smile to the lot of them.

Of course there was an apologize required to be made. And Twilight glanced deep within the eyes of Rainbow. The soothsayer didn’t even knew that her glance was that deep, but she didn’t really care in the moment either. She wanted to hear whatever words the major had to say to her. The arms didn’t went cross over one another though instead were they just placed in her sides.

"Oh this is going to be hard to say for me,” the pegasus spoke before she straightened her back. She had the guts to just leave them for what they were, so she needed to have the spine to take the blows that followed as well. A deep exhale came through her nostrils just before the eyes closed off for a moment.

“Take your time, Rainbow, one mustn’t rush these things,” replied Twilight in an odd and kind tone towards her. The pegasus immediately thought about the fact that the mare knew what she had done and why she had deserted from the company. That fact alone made everything a whole lot easier to deal with.

“Okay, here goes. I’m sorry, I’m sorry for my own stupidity. I said words I shouldn’t have said and did things I shouldn’t have done,” spoke Rainbow with an unusual difficulty in her own voice. She meant her words through and through, that much was certain. She just happened to have a great difficulty with bringing them over and out of her mouth. A thing that was all too obvious.

It wasn’t something that Twilight could have gotten mad about. That was just how the pegasus was. That was whom the pegasus had become in the city of pride. Just admitting the fact that she was wrong with her thing could have been this massive victory for her.

If Twilight would have bashed the words there and then, it would have been a truly devastating blow to the self-esteem of the pegasus though. At worst could she have made the decision to just leave from the group there and then. Which was about one of the last thing that Twilight desired. She wanted to remain complete for as long as it was possible.

So the only thing that she could do was to give a gentle nod to the pegasus. A gentle nod and a warm smile. Only after that did the words follow from her mouth. Words that not even the major had expected to hear. “I forgive you, Rainbow, I can understand your frustration and you have all the right in the world to have them. I can’t be angry about that, a lot of things just work against us on this entire adventure.”

The pegasus mare had to look deep in the eyes of Twilight to see whether or not she actually meant the words that she said. There was that little hint of unbelievable-ness to them that just couldn’t be explained on the spot. Though that still didn’t took away that Rainbow just flung her arms around Twilight and engaged in a hug with the soothsayer.

The other mares of the company couldn’t help themselves but to either giggle in silence or shake their heads. The scene was one that wasn’t played out often before her eyes but it was still one that was heartwarming indeed. The company had been completed once more and there didn’t seemed to have been any old grudges held to the members. With the exception of perhaps the obvious one.

Seconds later was the hug between both Twilight and Rainbow broken and the two mares smiled to one another in silence. Neither of them had the right series of words that could be spoken on the matter. But the looks in their eyes perhaps could have told each other more than enough. One was just happy that she was accepted back and forgiven, while the other was glad that everything turned out for the best.

Out of every possible scenario that could have happened, had the one they managed to pull off been indeed one of the best. They had everypony, they were all in one piece and they were ready to once more head home.

Home was a simple word that had been said so many times already after they had left the mountain. Sooner or later would they all just have returned to the places they grew up in, or meet those with whom they grew up. Home was a warm welcome which was waiting for the mares. Or so they silently hoped.

Yet as Applejack had said, it was still music of the future. One false note and the perfect dream would have turned sour for all of them though. Trouble always had a nick of finding them as a group, there wasn’t any doubt in their minds that at least one more thing would have happened and thrown the whole thing away.

“So…” Rainbow Dash began when the company of mares continued to walk further again. “Did I miss anything important?” The question almost seemed to be hitting a massive sign on the heads of everypony. The mares didn’t knew what they could or should be doing in the matter. They didn’t knew what answer was best to be given to her.

They of course all knew the story of what happened to Twilight, but they all doubted whether or not the mare wanted to tell it again. The looks in the eyes of the soothsayer turned sour almost the second after the words were captured in her ears. The eyes were shut halfway so that she at least had something that looked at the road.

But she wasn’t all too happy about the thoughts that spooked through her mind. She wasn’t in the mood to tell anything in the moment and that was the way she actually liked it. Twilight allowed a gentle sigh to leave through her nostrils as she looked over to Rainbow Dash. “I think it’s best if we don’t discuss that matter here and now. We need to arrange a meeting after it all is over, so you can hear it for yourself.”

“That bad huh?” Rainbow asked of her. She could only imagine the worst of the worst happening to Twilight. Her eyes went over those of the soothsayer and couldn’t help herself but to feel sorry for the mare. The sheer weight that had been placed upon her shoulders became visible for just a fraction of a second.

“You wouldn’t even be able to grasp your head around it,” said Twilight moments before her attention turned back forward.

“Oh I think I can,” the major whispered to herself after which she shook her head. It was just impossible for her to realize the sheer amount of stress that the mare had been going through. Even matters that seemed to have been shut off for the longest of times were still there. As if she still took a massive responsibility for them.

Silence was maintained by the group of mares while they continued to navigate through the woods of White Tails. With Applejack and Pinkie Pie at the head and Rarity forming the rear guard, the group was certain that they would be walking into the right direction. The fog was thick and the moon and stars were only visible for so long.

It terrifying was when they walked without much light. Only Twilight and Rarity shone the light of their horns every so often. The reason for such a thing was to figure out if somepony possibly had managed to get off of the path.

The weak lights that were supposed to get them back to the rest of the group. Though luckily for them had nopony ever seemed to have gotten out of the alignment that was created. How long they had walked through the magical woods was unknown, how far they had covered remained a mystery. All they knew was that they had been going into the right place for Manehatten.

For sooner or later did the vegetation became less and less dense as the fog seemed to be lifting up. All of the mares were just glad that they managed to have gone through the woods of White Tails without much of a problem. Outside of the troubles that had happened so far actually.

~~~~

The company of mares stared at the massive open hillside that stretched before them to almost an eternity. The group released a sigh of content and turned their heads over into the eastern direction. The very direction in which they had to go as well. The sun had been rising itself in a gentle manner over the horizon and the orange glow it created on the skies was a welcome sight.

The mares couldn’t believe how much they had missed such a wonderful sight. The sheer sun that came up was a thing that was taken for granted by the whole of the land, but they had spent days –if not weeks– beneath the surface of the land. And in all that time hadn’t they felt any natural sunlight fallen upon their skins.

Then the chance was given to them all that they could actually have done such a thing. For the first time in weeks did the mares just stand still and closed their eyes. Pinkie didn’t fully realize what was about to happen and she just looked over it with a confused gaze. The lamia felt the warmth in the air again after a cold night though, perhaps it had something to do with it.

Finally was the time there that the sun would have presented itself to them all. It inched over the hill as the air become only more orange in coloring. The heat that was already given off by the massive orb fell upon all of their skins and to them it just felt good. All of the anthronies were bathing within the first lights of the morning sun.

All of their worries, all of their troubles and all of their disasters, were just forgotten for a little moment in time itself. Even Pinkie Pie had to admit on the fact that the light felt comfortable upon her scales. The warmth that was given to her felt good. A lot better than the cold stone of the caverns at least.

The lamia tried to look into the sun to the best of her abilities but couldn’t do it. Something about that orb of light always made her look straight away. Almost as if she wasn’t allowed to look into it. In the end did she became just plain old tired of it the game and closed her eyes as well.

The sun crawled up further and further on the skies which turned from orange back to their usual blue. With the morning sun having risen far enough did the mares open their eyes again. They all looked at one another with a smile. They all knew that that day was going to be great. Even though they hadn’t even seen Manehatten yet and were the griffons most likely still upon their tails.

Though the griffons were in fact set to a lower priority. The beasts had seen where they had departed from the woods. They had seen in which direction they would have walked. Between White Tails and Manehatten was nothing but hillside. The best that the griffons could have done was to make their own escape to the settlement as quick as possible to be one or two steps ahead of them.

The company then finally started to walk again. The lot of them walked up the first hill and were granted the sight of the true vastness of the hilly landscape. They had to conquered each and every one of them if they wanted to make their way.

Nods were given by all of the mares as there was only one thing that could have been done. And that was to just go for it. They all had to go for it if they wanted to have even a chance of getting to Manehatten. They could almost have smelled the seas. They were that close for their feelings.

Time went by as if it was nothing and for the first time in a very, very long time it all seemed to have been going smooth. There weren’t any setbacks for the mares when they walked through the hills. It was a feeling that in fact satisfied the group a whole lot more than they would have expected. Something about walking through the rolling hills as they did caused them all have a new conversation topic.

Fluttershy was the one who opened it up by asking two questions. Two innocent questions by the sounds of them, but their answers were different for all of them. “What will you do when you get back home, and who will be waiting for you?” she asked because she had just gotten curious and needed a conversation to kill the time with.

The mares all had to think a little bit about their response as they would be touching deep into their personal lives. Lives that were actually hidden from all of them for the longest of times. Yet Twilight seemed to have been the first one that was willing to answer.

"When I get back home, I’ll probably go straight back to my parents and, see how it goes from there. My parents and big brother would definitely be waiting for me. Curious about my tales, is another thing,” the soothsayer said to them with a smile.

Next it was Applejack who dared to say the words that were on her mind. “Ah probably be going back to the family farm for the first time in years. Ol’ Granny and mah little sis be hopefully waiting for me,” answered Applejack in a tone that seemed happy but told otherwise.

Next up was Rainbow that said the words of her mind. “I think I will just go to the barracks and hit the hay for a good amount of time. Family, let’s say that’s not much of your concern.” They all understood the words of the pegasus as she wanted to keep her image up for them. But they all had the same thoughts about what she actually would be doing.

Than it was Rarity’s turn to speak the words that were troubling her thoughts. “I think I first would head back to my ship and then return to a place I haven’t gone in a long, long time. Anthronies are still waiting for me, somewhere over the horizon,” she said before a gentle tear was wiped away from her eyes. Whether it was liked or not, the infamous pirate captain still was somepony’s very own daughter. And both of her parents were still alive somewhere in the world.

Fluttershy didn’t reply to the matter and Pinkie Pie didn’t have a home or beings that she could return to. She was an outcast of her own species to begin with. So the lamia remained silent as well. Twilight naturally noticed the facts as they were and began to walk next to her.

An arm was wrapped over both her shoulders before the words were said. “You have a brave new world to look forward to, as well as a new home. Trust me on that one.” Those words alone caused a massive excitement within the heart of the lamia, even though she didn’t knew what she had to expect.

Pinkie had something to look forward to, that alone was more than enough for her. That fact alone could have probably saved her skin in the vast world of the anthronies.

Chapter LXXXVIII

Time just went by and another night had to be spent under the starry night could the group finally have seen the settlement Manehatten just lying in the distance. As time went on, they could all even smell the salty scents of the sea itself. The last night that they would have spent outside in the skies had been lived through and the mares all began their morning routines.

That would have the one way where they all would try to catch a ship to sail them off to Canterlot itself. The mares all dressed themselves for the adventures to come and looked over to one another. Nods were given in silence as only Rarity seemed to have taken her sweet time. Naturally the mares thought about some sort of incident that had happened to her and the settlement. Yet none knew what had happened.

Only Applejack could have been guessing on the matter as well. Everything was possible in their eyes, but if the pirate captain would have taken that long to get dressed, there was only one excuse. She was up to something and that something could have ended both ways.

The rest of the mares began on their breakfast as the last things were all sorted out. The food that was given to them was once again prepared by Applejack, of whom they had decided in unison who happened to be the best cook of them all. A title that was actually worthy to her given the fact that she made the most delicious dishes for them all.

Even though the food given to her was simple, the earth anthrony did always manage to make something interesting out of it. That breakfast didn’t happen to be any different. A smile had grown upon the face of the admiral when she wore a little bit more civil clothing. They didn’t wanted their identities to be just thrown out of the window the moment they walked through the gates of the settlement.

Everypony had in fact followed that very example. Especially given the fact that they also had a lamia to carry around and about. The group tried to remain incognito until they were back in the massive city that was their land’s capital.

The mares began to eat their breakfast while the mumbles came out of the tent. Rarity seemed to have some difficulties to get everything the way she wanted to have it. Perhaps it was a good thing that she took so long, for she had pretty much a bulls eye painted right upon her forehead.

The rest of the mares always had kept a rather low profile in their lives when it came down to Manehatten, which they intended to be kept that way.

As time went on and the breakfast was long done before she finally did appear. The unicorn pirate captain had finally taken the time to get out of the tent and reveal herself in the bright daylight. All of the mares had to blink a couple of times as they never had believed that it was Rarity who stood there.

Everything about her appearance had changed via her magical abilities. The eyes were no longer sapphire blue but had turned to emerald green, the hair had lost its purple color to a more blonde shade. The only thing that remained the same was her skin color. But the sheer model in which her hair sat, made her almost unrecognizable for prying eyes.

Not to mention the black dress that she wore. A dress that seemed to have been fit for a high society anthrony, complete with a little parasol which she used to lean gently upon. What kind of trousers and shoes were worn –together with the question if her tail had changed any color– was unknown. The very fabric of the dress almost seemed to be sweeping over the floor itself. Overall she was a beauty to look at, with one major flaw to it.

“Riiight,” the major of the air force spoke to her at first. She couldn’t really believe the facts as they were and blinked heavily with her eyes. They tried to be incognito, not joining some kind of masquerade ball. Though they most likely were guaranteed to draw attention from the beings in Manehatten to begin with as they carried Pinkie Pie with them.

“Looking rather smashing, Rarity,” said Fluttershy before she gave the unicorn a smile.

The pirate made a small twirl on the spot before she released a giggle. She seemed to have been happy with the facts as they were. She seemed to love the outfit just as much as some others did. The changes that were made to her appearance must have been good enough to fool almost anypony she came across.

The plan inside of Manehatten was just as simple as it always had been. Find a ship and get away. They wouldn’t be walking much through the city according to their own ideas. Finding the port must have been easy peasy. At least they hoped that it would have been, they looked back to their luck and prayed it wasn’t all spend just yet.

Not much time after the introduction of Rarity’s new looks had the mares gathered themselves around one another to tell the plan one more time. They all agreed upon the fact that the vessel they needed had to be small but fast. Most likely would the griffons have prepared their own ship as well. The feeling struck them all right in the guts for some reason before they continued.

Plan went over to one another before they finally came together with what was thought to be the perfect plan. A plan that actually was a simple as the fact of them going to the city and get out. Though whether or not they would have had the luck of actually finding a ship suitable for their liking remained to be seen.

Either way, the company had agreed upon the plan as it was. They all nodded to one another and they were ready. The time had come for them all to make the last journey by hooves. The last journey that would have taken them to the port of the settlement before them. The name had fallen in their heads so many times by then that they were almost getting sick and tired of it.

But the reality of the matter actually happened to be there. They were almost there and that was about the last thing that needed to be done. The mares nodded to themselves as the tent was stored back in the void storage. Without a single word did the company of mares turn their attention over to the settlement of Manehatten, they were ready for it. Their desires to go home had been greater than anything so far.

~~~~

The day went by smooth when the group wandered through the settlement. Naturally was it Pinkie Pie who had gained a lot of strange eyes from all of the anthronies. But they just as quick forgot about her because she was accompanied by the rest of the mares.

There wasn’t really a sense of danger that came from the lamia as those who passed the group actually thought that it was their pet. They had all heard rumors of such a species living in their land but they never saw a real one. Not to mention the fact the anthronies in bigger cities always walked straight past the things that they didn’t know. Nor were they seemed to be mentioned anywhere else.

That alone was a massive relief for the company of mares. Their feelings of security went up higher whereas the levels of threats seemed to be lowered. There was still danger lurking around every single corner in Manehatten though. But they were with a group of six and still armed to the teeth. Chances would have been pretty big that Rarity managed to hide a whole blunderbuss under that dress of hers. A blunderbuss of which she knew how to use it properly if needed.

The mares all looked their eyes out in the city though. Buildings that were made of stone that rose up and up into the skies. They almost touched the clouds themselves if they didn’t know any better. Manehatten was a thriving settlement that got a port that actually competed against Canterlot’s in size. That alone caused hundreds of jobs to be available and the settlement therefore had a steady increase in size each year.

The once useless settlement had turned itself into a beginning metropolis. Who knew how long it would take until the settlement could be called a city? None of them knew while they were all taken by the high-scrapers of the place.

Both amazement and wonder came to the mares while they continued to look around, but also ahead. For ahead of them they saw it appear. The thing that made the settlement as famous as it was and caused Rarity to have a shiver down her spine.

Right before them and down the street it laid, the very port of Manehatten itself.

A port that was massive in size and had numerous wooden cranes that lifted up pallet after pallet that was filled with boxes and crates out of the ships that laid at the docks. Ships came and went while the wind filled their sails. But those were all massive merchant ships. Ships that they didn’t had anything to do with, or could have anything to do with.

No, they were in the wrong portion of the port. They had to find the place where the smaller vessels laid, the fishing vessels even. Anything small would have been great enough to make the crossing. The merchants ships never went to Canterlot to begin with. They always sailed in a straight line to the nearest horizon. They would travel to the lands beyond them in order to trade their goods with the anthronies of the Great Plains and even beyond that.

Those few captains daring enough were granted a route to the kingdom of the griffons were lucrative trades always seemed to be happening. The port of Manehatten was like any other, filled with working anthronies and high bosses in suits. Rarity shook her head a little bit after she had glanced over the endless seas.

So very soon would she have been able to wave them all goodbye. Yet only the manner in which she would be doing it remained unknown. That was the only factor of her plan that she couldn’t have discussed with anypony else and that couldn’t have been known to begin with.

Pinkie looked her eyes out before she rose up a little bit more. Her head stuck out higher than the largest anthrony by comparison. She just looked over the massive ships that came and went. All of it was new for her and she felt both excitement as well as a certain nervousness. There was no other way to reach the place Twilight had said over and over, and over.

The lamia nodded calm to herself before she lowered her body down again. She watched as the group of mares all walked further once more. That was the signal to her that she had to go along with them. The last thing that she needed was that she would have been left behind by the mares. Or even worse, that she would have gotten lost within the settlement or the port.

The actual last leg of the journey was about to begin and they all knew that fact. Time would be the ruler about the separation of the group. Whether it was liked or not, they all knew that their time was running out faster than ever. The company of misfits would sooner or later just crumble as if it had never existed. But they all knew that the bonds forged by the journey would never have been broken.

No matter what, they would always remember one another and call upon their help if it was absolutely required. That was the bond of friendship that got forged in the journey.

Beneath their hooves came the wooden boards of the harbor while the crashing waves were caught in their ears. The salty scents of the sea made both Applejack and Rarity feel right at home. Pinkie Pie on the other end just wanted to get the scent right out of her nose. She didn’t like it one bit and Twilight could only have given her right on the matter. The smell of the salt wasn’t something that was particularly liked by her either.

But they were there. The six of them all had lined themselves up while they glanced over everything. Anthronies walked behind, in front and to their sides, but they never seemed to notice the six beings just standing there. Almost like six phantoms of the past did they appeared before the serious looks in their eyes changed over into smiles of kindness.

They were ready, they were so ready to finally get on-board of any of the vessels and make the last leg. Gentle exhales were released through of their nostrils as they looked to one another for perhaps one last time.

“Milady’s, the time for us to split up and find what we need has fallen upon us. I bid thee all a good search and come back here if you have discovered a suitable vessel, and spoke to the captain or owner. I think my instructions are pretty clear. Good luck to you all,” the soothsayer spoke in an unusually posh tone from her voice. A tone which not many had expected from her.

The other mares just had to give her a last look of confusion before they just gave it up. Twilight had always been a little strange and they just rolled with it for what it was. The company of mares all nodded in the end before the split up happened. The search had begun.

All six of the mares spread themselves out in order to find the one ship that they needed. Only Pinkie Pie remained at Twilight’s side as the wandered through the port. Of course there were strange eyes given to the two of them but they didn’t care about them whatsoever. The two of them had their own quest to fulfill.

Pinkie stayed in the neighborhood of the unicorn for two major reasons. The first one was that she naturally trusted Twilight a whole lot more then the others, but the second was a little bit more for herself. She had the small desire to know what Twilight had meant with her words spoken earlier to her. Would she come to live in the same place as the unicorn did, or would there have been a house created just for her alone? The lamia didn’t knew but given how Twilight was looking over to the vessels that laid docked there. Perhaps it wasn’t the greatest of times to ask either.

Twilight’s eyes went from ship to ship as she glanced only over the sterns. More often than not they carried the name of it as well as were being able to give her a rather clear indication about what kind of ship it was. Was it a vessel that sailed the waters of Equestria? Or one that sailed further past the horizon itself?

All those little things had to be taken into a deep account and consideration. They were all prepared to pay a price for getting aboard of the vessel. But if the price would have been too high, they had to decline it. She could understand the reasoning behind certain captains though.

She had already asked a couple of them, but the prices were all too high and the deviation of the course was too much for her liking. All of the massive ships were vessels that went over the horizon in the east instead of going south. Defeat crawled up within the unicorn as she placed her hands behind her back.

Captured for anthrony smuggle, was often an excuse she heard from the captains. A danger that was all too real and too terrifying to witness. There were ports that allowed such kind of smuggling to happen, most likely the pirate port where they found Rarity was one of them. Twilight was slightly running out of ideas and her eyes betrayed that every so often.

Pinkie Pie just slithered next to her in the hope to give her some much needed moral support. The unicorn anthrony was glad that she at least had some form of company with her. Somepony to which she could talk to, which was the thing that happened between the pair of them.

The conversation was started about life under the ground and up on the very surface. What the differences happened to be and how Pinkie adapted to it all. The tones were calm, sometimes cheerful even. As neither party spoke about the dark stuff that happened on either side of the dirt.

Somewhere else along the port had Fluttershy been walking down with her hopes high. The pegasus waved her arms at the side of her body when she had found a dock that carried all kinds of smaller ships. From the looks of it, it all seemed to be fishing vessels. The seas were rich in food and they could eat all they wanted out of it.

It were shots that had to be fired if she wanted to have even the slightest bit of chance. Her eyes went from left to right while they inspected the ships in silence. Comments about how pretty she was were thrown down at her from the sailors that stood on the decks, but she just ignored them. A thing that was probably for the better.

Not even a blush came to her face from them. She had heard so many over the years as a doctor, that she didn’t replied to them anymore. Usually when a patient woke up, Fluttershy would have been the first being they saw. More often than not they asked her if she was an angel. Her response? Always the same as she said nothing else but no.

One vessel seemed to have been rather promising in her eyes. With confidence had she walked up the walkway. But she never actually dared to get up on the ship itself. Something almost magical seemed to have held her standing on the spot. The pegasus couldn’t define it though.

“Can I help you, fine lass?” the voice of an old sailor spoke to her. Fluttershy turned herself around to face the stern of the ship. At the helm he stood with a pipe in his mouth. A tiny bit of smoke left the thing before he approached her a bit more. “You look like you could use a little help.”

“P-Permission to come aboard, sir?” she asked. Rarity and Applejack had given them all a fast little learning of seamare behavior one-o-one. One of such rules was to never, ever get on a ship without having asked permission from the captain itself.

The old stallion nodded a little bit and she dared to get aboard. What happened from that moment on were the negotiations to get the mares to Canterlot. The two of them walked all over the deck as he didn’t seem to have a crew of any kind. Whatever was going on, Fluttershy had to try her best. The vessel was good enough and he was willing to make the journey to Canterlot. She literally would have hit two birds with one stone.

~~~~

Hours and hours had gone by and the late afternoon had been setting in. One by one had the mares return to the spot where they would be meeting up with one another. But all of them bore the same news. The news that there didn’t seem to be any ship sailing into their direction. Or worse, that the price they asked was too high to be given.

“So basically, we’re still stuck here?” Twilight said before it dropped everything into the waters below. The whole plan of just making a quick getaway was dropped in the vast ocean that stretched before them. “Just great.”

“Can’t help it, Twilight, the port here has gotten a lot, lot bigger in such a short time. Neither Applejack nor I knew it had grown that much,” the disguised pirate captain spoke to her in return. The words were true. When Rarity made her ambush all that time ago, the harbor was almost nothing. Not to mention that the routes the admiral had sailed rarely brought her directly to the port of Manehatten.

“Ugh, there must be something that we can be doing, right? I mean, hey, any of you seen Fluttershy?” the unicorn spoke when she noticed that the most silent mare was still missing.

“Now that you say it…” Rainbow added before she looked around her. With her sharp eyes she looked to every single being that could be seen. Among the crowds had the other pegasus been an easy find, she thought to herself.

Which it surprisingly was. Her yellow skin and pinkish hair stood out of everything as she came running into their direction. “There she is.”

Moments later had Fluttershy joined the group of mares and was panting almost for her life. They wanted to overwhelm her with the questions that they had but allowed her to catch up with her breath first. Seconds ticked by before she would have been able to tell her story to all of them. A story that was said in a tone of almost true happiness.

How she had managed to do it was unknown to them all, but she thought to have found the answer upon all of their questions. “I found a small, small fishing vessel that’s willing to take us, to Canterlot,” she said with a wide smile upon her face.

Relief already came to the mares as they thought that they would have been out of the troubles. “But what’s the price?” Twilight asked her.

“That’s the most, a-amazing part, it’s free!” Fluttershy added. All the eyes of the mares went wide as they couldn’t believe a single word from what was said. It couldn’t have been right, right? There must have been some sort of catch that lurked beneath the friendly expression. But it was their only shot in the moment. No other vessels would have brought them to Canterlot.

The company would have agreed upon at least going to the vessel and listen to the words of the captain. If the deal was too shady, they would have pulled out just like that. But if it was tempting enough, they would have jumped straight on top of it.

While the company walked down the docks with Fluttershy ahead of them, it was Pinkie Pie who stared at the massive body of water. Never in her life had she seen so much water being collected in one place before. She just couldn’t keep her eyes away from it and Twilight seemed to have been noticing the little fact.

Another gentle smile was formed by her lips just before she shook her head gentle. The mare couldn’t have helped herself but to make a comment about it. “Our world is a lot bigger than you originally would think, Pinkie. A lot wider as well. Even beyond the seas, to where those ships are going to, is also land. Hidden far behind the horizon. Places most beings could only have dreamed about visiting,” she spoke up in a gentle tone. Almost as if she was reading a story to a foal.

The comparison between Pinkie and a foal was easily drawn then. Given the fact that the lamia almost knew nothing about the world as it was. The words of Twilight captivated her, mesmerized her to the point where she wanted to know what exactly laid behind the horizon. But that meant that she had to cross the vastness of water. That fact alone terrified her to the core.

The lamia was only used to seeing underground rivers flowing and underground lakes, then she was presented with an entire ocean that laid above the ground. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through her as she wanted to know everything. But simply couldn’t.

So the head of the lamia then finally turned into the direction of Twilight as she wanted to know the words that were spoken. She didn’t fully seemed to be understanding them. She needed to have a little bit more explanation on the matter and desperately needed such a thing.

But the time to give her that wasn’t granted. The company of mares had arrived at the vessel that Fluttershy had told them about. It was a seaworthy vessel that seemed to have gone past its high days, but one that still was able to float. The dual masts were another indication that it was built for a little bit more speed and even appeared to have been able to sail against the wind.

That was the silent judgment of Rarity. But when all of the mares went aboard, they were all met the captain of the ship. An aged stallion that had a gray skin and even grayer hair. The pipe was removed from his mouth and pointed to the five other mares. “So these are your friends you told me about? They seem like nice folk to me, a bit rough around the edges. Especially given her…”

The old sailor pointed to the steam powered leg of Applejack in silence. The admiral released a gentle huff through her nostrils as she narrowed her eyes. “Don’t even think ‘bout it, ‘kay?” she said to him.

The old fool had to take a step or two back. He didn’t wanted to be caught right within her firing line. He understood the words that she said and the direction that she came from. He nodded with his head as he looked back to Fluttershy.

“I told her, that you all would be able to say on this vessel for free to Canterlot. There was however one condition,” the old sailor spoke moments before he placed the pipe back in his mouth.

“If it is anyone of us that you want, you can forget it,” said Twilight before she realized what she had said to him. The hands were then quickly brought over to her mouth as she shut herself up.

An eyebrow of the old stallion rose up in confusion. He didn’t seemed to be getting the words she said. “I don’t even want any of you to begin with! You really think all old sailors that offer free rides are automatically up to something?! Go and shame upon what you have said and thought.” He did happen to have a point as Twilight allowed her thoughts to speak before fact was given.

Fluttershy wanted to calm the situation down as she asked the question that was on all of their minds. “What’s the condition that you require from us?”

The old stallion turned his head back to the pegasus and gave her a gentle smile. “As you can see, this ship is at the end of her glory. I want to give her one last trip before she is taken out of the waters forever more. One last time she has to feel the waves crashing against her bow and feel the winds in her sails. But alas, I don’t have a crew. Not anymore since that trip to Pirate’s Port.”

“Here it comes,” the admiral spoke in a whisper before she crossed her arms.

“I give you free passage to Canterlot, if you become the crew of her last voyage. Sounds fair enough, I think so? Would the young mares do such a thing for an old sailor?” the old stallion said when the catch was finally known to the group.

It was a catch that didn’t seemed to have been too terrible actually. All that they had to do was do a little bit of work and they would be back home. Nothing that they couldn’t handle. So the agreement was quickly made with the old stallion.

They would work upon his vessel in trade for him bringing them all back to Canterlot harbor. The deal was fair enough in all of their eyes and there didn’t seemed to have been any catch for it either. Though Rarity would need a change of attire first. In the dress that she wore couldn’t she do any work upon the deck. If they had to work to get what they needed, she might as well change into something a little bit more comfortable like a trench coat or something along those lines.

~~~~

At the beginning of the evening was the vessel ready. The company had changed their attire were it was needed into something that allowed them to run around the deck like monkeys. Rarity appeared in a black trench coat and tried to avoid any form of contact with the captain of the vessel.

For one reason or the other she could have only thought about the matter of him being an old face she remembered. Was it one of the survivors that got out of her Manehatten raid from all that time ago? She didn’t knew, but he reminded her of it a little too much. Caution had to be applied from that moment onward.

The vessel managed to set itself loose from the side of the dock and maneuvered itself through the massive ships that formed of the –what they had dubbed– ‘Manehatten Fleet’. All of those massive merchant ships were a nightmare to sail through but the reward was just so worth it.

For once they were at the open seas, the true beauty of the land could finally be witnessed. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy even seemed to be understanding why the other two mares had fallen in love with the seas. There was this natural sense of mystery to it as well. Though they had only seen the calmer sides of it. There were naturally sides of the sea that were a whole lot different. But those moments were never touched upon.

The moon was standing high over the seas as the vessel with the mares was picking up some speed. Even though they all should have gone to bed some hours ago did they all still had the energy to keep on pushing. The old stallion actually admired to them the vast amount dedication that the mares had in getting to the port of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash was glancing through her binoculars while she hung high in the masts. One arm was coiled around it and she looked past the sails of the ship and straight behind them. Something hadn’t been sitting right in her guts ever since the moon came out. Thankfully that same moon seemed to have provided enough light to actually see clearly in the darkness of night.

Her eyes went from left to right with the binoculars as she looked over the almost calm waters. She thought that they were alone upon the stroke of water, but she was dead wrong upon it. For within the glasses of her binoculars she caught the sight she didn’t wanted to see. “All hell’s about to break loose,” she muttered to herself.

The pegasus jumped down from the mast and landed upon the deck thanks to her wings. Her eyes went directly over to the captain of the vessel. He was surprised to see her back. An eyebrow rose up when Rainbow gathered all the other mares. The duties that they were doing could be left for a moment. The news that the major had to tell them was something they didn’t wanted to hear.

“The griffons, had been planning ahead. The ship of Sharpbeak is literally right behind us at maybe two miles. If we cut any slack, they catch up to us,” said Rainbow to the mares. Their faces all turned to those of horror before the heads were shaken.

The captain on the other end didn’t knew what was going on and could only ask the question that was on his mind. “What in the name of everything did you lot do to get the attention of emperor Sharpbeak himself?” he asked to them all.

Rarity seemed to have been the only mare that was capable of actually answering the question. Her words were direct and less than classy. But it was said in a tone that he could have easily understood it. “We, kinda pissed him off. A great bit, matter of fact.”

Chapter LXXXIX

While Rarity’s words echoed through his mind, there was a single chuckle that was being released out of the mouth of the old stallion. While he stood at the helm of the vessel, he couldn’t truly believe that they had actually managed to not just anger, but actually managed to enrage the emperor of the griffons. He wasn’t even mad about the fact that they were chasing them.

If it was the imperial ship that was at their stern did they might have had a chance of survival. Any other vessel would have meant danger. But the old stallion himself wasn’t a stranger to Sharpbeak’s methods either. He knew the way through which the griffon would be fighting out his wars. “You must have stepped right on his little toeclaws in order to get him chasing you off like that. Tsk, tsk, tsk, and here I was think you lot were all good mares looking for passage,” he said to them.

“Just don’t ask what we have done, okay?” Rainbow added just before she placed her binoculars back in the pocket. The old stallion nodded and then he gave a blow through his pipe. The smoke drifted off into the night while Twilight walked as far back as she could on the vessel.

The soothsayer stood at the railing of the stern and watched over the seas as they were. Even in the dead of night could the moon have provided her with enough light to actually witness the ship sailing through it. Her eyes were captured by a light that shone from the distance. The mare couldn’t fully realize the facts as they were but there was indeed a vessel sailing behind them.

Twilight had a bit of a better look as some clouds moved themselves out of the moonlight. The entire ocean was just lit up instantly and the sheer size of the vessel was revealed to her. The eyes of the mare went as wide as they were allowed to go. “No. That can not be!” she exclaimed to herself. The unicorn shook her head a couple of times before she returned to the helm. She took her place next to him with the expression in her eyes as if she had seen a ghost.

“And, what did you see?” the old stallion asked from her when she came down the steps. A face of terror was given off by the mare. She shook her head from side to side. She didn’t wanted to believe that what she had seen, but it seemed as trouble once more had followed them.

The unicorn could only have shaken her head before she would tell them exactly what she saw sailing behind them. “It’s indeed a griffon ship. A vessel that looks like the imperial one from pictures seen. I think, that they are willing to just utterly destroy us.” The words of the mare were a concerning lot for certain.

“I told you that already,” the major huffed before she crossed her arms over her chest.

The captain of their vessel then stroked his chin a little bit before he shook his head. There was no way that his little boat would have even stood a chance against the ship of Sharpbeak. They didn’t had a single weapon on board outside of what the mares managed to smuggle with them. That alone wouldn’t have been enough to fend off the ship of the griffon emperor himself.

The mares appeared to have been out of ideas. There were some thoughts that went through the captain’s mind. “This little thing has great speed, excellent maneuverability so in theory we should be able to keep ahead of them,” the old stallion said to them. He then gave a small turn to the helm to adjust their heading. He had to just find the right wind in order to unlock the full potential of his aged and ancient vessel.

The mares could only have accepted whatever he would be doing. The griffons that were chasing them on the water was one of the things they didn’t wanted. Though if they managed to remain in Equestrian waters, there still was a possible chance. “As long as the winds are favorable for us, we might stand a chance on outrunning that lump of wood he calls his ‘crown jewel’,” the old stallion said to them in a serious tone. He seemed to have experience with the kind of vessels.

But whether or not they would have either found the right wind to remaining sailing ahead was another question that came to them all. It was truly going to be a one sided battle of the ship of Sharpbeak managed to give them a full broadside. One massive sweep and it would have been over for them all.

The soothsayer on the other end, still was thinking about the fact of staying in Equestrian waters. Thoughts crossed her mind time and time again as she growled in the end. A growl that managed to capture the attention of them all. The mares and the stallion all looked over to her. Something had been chipping away in her mind, that much they could see.

“Captain,” the soothsayer would have said in the end. She turned locked her eyes on his. “Whatever you do, stay in Equestrian waters. We’ve dealt with Sharpbeak before, not to mention his goons. We don’t lure out a fight to them, we should be safe.”

The words were likely to be taken for certain, if it wasn’t for the little fact that Sharpbeak himself most likely could be found upon the vessel. The old stallion shook his head before the pipe was taken out of his mouth again. “A likely story, lass, but I would dare to say that our survival is something that stands as a top priority now. If the emperor himself is indeed sitting on his throne, we can all just shake it.” His old tone burrowed itself deep into the ears of the mares.

He did happen to have a point though. Sharpbeak most likely wouldn’t keep himself to the rules of Equestria. He was mad, downright insane and couldn’t be helped anymore by anypony. He would do whatever it would have taken to get the thing that he thought belonged to him. In their case, their lives were on his mind and wouldn’t stop until he had their heads on a plate.

The company became split over the idea that they had to get to Canterlot as fast as they could. It was perhaps their only option in order to make it out alive. The ships of the navy would without a doubt be able to scare him off. Twilight calculated the odds with and against them, the mare shook her head in the end as everything seemed hopeless.

But if the captain of the vessel knew what he was doing, there was no place for her to actually argue. So there was only one line of words that could be said to him, “do what you have to do, captain.”

A grin came to the face of the old stallion before he turned the helm even more. Whether it was madness that guided him or years of experiences on the high seas was unknown. Most likely it was a mixture of the both of them as he sailed even further and further away from the from the shores. At open seas would the winds have been the most favorable for them all but it meant that they could travel to unclaimed waters. It was in those waters that the greatest of problems would happen.

All of the anthronies went back to their stations but only Rarity made an exception for herself. The unicorn pirate went over to the railing of the stern. There she would just look around if there was anypony watching over her. With her trench coat being a little bit darker of color did she blend right in with the dead of night. Her only worry would have been the moon so she had to be quick with whatever it was that she had planned out to do.

The unicorn watched over the waters beneath her and noticed how it all splashed against the bow of the ship. It made her hunger for something. Hunger for a something that she had to miss for such a long time. Yet the mare found that it was time to reclaim what was hers. A deep exhale was given off from her nostrils as she closed her eyes for a moment.

Just the rolling of the ship alone greatened the hunger, the hunger to sail upon her own ship again. ‘The Vengeful Belle’ would soon be needing to sail out of port again. It had been sitting idle in the waters of the pirate port for too long. There had to be a little bit of action and Rarity could exactly give them that. A strange and crazy idea had come to her. Crazy enough that it might work.

Her eyes were opened up again as she stared to the horizons ahead of them. The line where sky met water was naturally shrouded in darkness, Rarity couldn’t even see the end of it. The perfect place for an ambush, she thought to herself. Albeit it being an ambush that would never happen.

The great explorers of years ago had already mapped out the land as it was and with that the world. The eyes of the unicorn turned back over to see whatever the captain was doing before she looked back to the dark waters.

In her mind it was then or never. She had been planning to make her resignation from the company for such a long time already. The time had come to turn her thoughts into cold actions. There wouldn’t have been any turning back for her then. It was either do what she had promised to herself all those days ago, or continue to go to Canterlot and risk being trailed at the hands of Applejack.

Rarity was a mare who valued her freedom perhaps a lot more than anything else there was. The unicorn pirate was ready to do what needed to be done. She had to call upon them. She had to call upon them and tell them that they needed to get moving as soon as possible.

The unicorn thought about her on ship for a moment or two before she nodded. It was worth it, the plan that she had come up with was deemed as worth it. What the actual cause of it was going to be remained to be seen though.

Her horn quickly managed to coat itself in the sapphire blue aura before an arcane scroll was being conjured up. Everything was done quick and silent because she wanted to keep it all hidden from everypony. Especially Applejack may not have gotten any kind of scent from the plans that had been made up.

The unicorn wrote down the words upon the paper with haste. They were followed up with the coordinates that she could be found as well as the direction that they were heading. There was no doubt in her mind that the little letter would have been crystal clear to the anthronies it was being meant to.

Rarity then continued to look over it once or twice before it was dropped. The little arcane scroll was just dropped down to the waters where it would burst into flames. The horn of the unicorn discharged itself as she nodded once powerful. She seemed to have done what she needed to be doing and could return to her work. The deck still needed to have some scrubbing and most likely would it have been her that was placed on the job.

Yet when she turned herself around to do her job, the unthinkable did happen. For the green rimmed, disguised eyes of Rarity were looking straight into the genuine green rims of Applejack. How the unicorn didn’t hear the heavy hoofsteps of the admiral coming up behind her, was a mystery left unsolved.

“E-Evening Jackie,” tried Rarity to say a tone that sounded not surprised at all. But she couldn’t hide it from the admiral. The eyes of the earth anthrony scanned the whole body of Rarity as she tried to talk her way out of her dire situation. “What, what are you doing here, if I may ask?”

Applejack released a gentle huff through her nostrils as she narrowed her eyes. “Ah don’t know what yar up to, Brittenburg. But if ya even think ‘bout engaging the griffons, Ah highly reckon ya get the thought out of yar head. Ya ain’t doing something that stupid that it most likely will kill us all.”

The words of the admiral were harsh, cold blooded even. But the unicorn just decided to go on with the act. One hand was placed upon her chest before she gasped for air. It made it seem that whatever Applejack told her was one massive false accusation. “I don’t know what you’re telling me here, darling. I have seen the arsenal of ourselves and that of this little vessel. If we would be taking it up against the ship of Sharpbeak, we would lose it in less than half a minute.”

“Aye, that’s right. Keep on telling yarself that, Brittenburg,” said Applejack before she turned back around and just walked away. For perhaps the only time in her life, was Rarity granted an easy getaway by the admiral. She couldn’t help herself but to release a deep of relief.

Her note had gone unnoticed by the admiral and surely had gotten to the anthrony who needed to read it. From that moment was it just a matter of time before everything would have fallen in their places. Manehatten laid even higher than pirate port which meant that they had to cross one another at one point or the other.

A nasty grin came to her face while she felt that everything was just going like she had planned it. Everything would finally have fallen right on the spot for her. She then just walked away from the spot and began to help with the duties that needed to be done onboard of the vessel.

~~~~

In the meantime and literally in the dead of night, aboard perhaps the most infamous pirate ship that there was, laid its crew vast asleep. But by one of the hammocks appeared a sapphire blue piece of arcane scroll. It dropped down upon the nose of a wide faced stallion and managed to cover the nose and the mouth. So the next inhale that he took caused him to almost suffocate. What in and of itself resulted in him almost jumping right up in the hammock. “What for the devil’s..!” he growled up in a deep tone the piece of arcane could be found on the blanket.

The golden, yellowish rimmed eyes had a glance over the piece of arcane and rose an eyebrow to it. He took it in two of his fingers and began to read the words on it again and again. “Interesting, truly interesting. Hehehe, seems like we finally can get some action ‘round here,” he chuckled to himself.

With one swift motion did he jumped right out of the hammock and crushed the arcane scroll to just nothing. He pulled his trousers back up and locked them at the required height before the throat was scratched. What happened next were a series of words spoken in a low, but loud tone. “Alright you filthy maggots! Get out of your hammocks and prepare to sail out!”

Almost a dozen of other anthronies all of the sudden woke with tired heads as far as the eye could reach. The blinks that they made didn’t seemed to be helping them out too much either. They all had a faded expression upon their faces as they didn’t wanted to get out of their beds just yet.

“Let us sleep boatswain, we have been prepping until an hour ago!” one of the sailor grumbled up and dropped himself back in the hammock.

“Oh, yes, I’ll let you pretty ladies sleep. But who is going to tell the captain that we didn’t came to her aid when she needed it?! We’re going to pick up the captain, you morons!” the boatswain spoke to them in a growling tone. Instantly did the eyes of all of the antronies turn over to the stallion and the all didn’t knew how fast they had to move.

Everything was possible if they didn’t heeded the call of their own captain, the stallions gulped deeply as they began to fear the wrath of the mare. “Good, see you all at deck in five minutes,” the boatswain bellowed up before he left the spot and went topside.

So said, so done. Five minutes later were all of the anthronies there and they looked over to the boatswain who stood at the helm. What was surprising of the crew was that they were all bat anthronies. And only one captain in the entire world seemed to be having a crew that consisted out of them exclusively.

The boatswain himself was a stallion that was taller and broader than all then all of the other bat anthronies. Compared to him, they were just shrimps. Whatever his secret was had never been revealed by anypony. But they had been called for a reason. A reason they wanted to know as well.

“I just got a message from our captain, she’s sailing from Manehatten to Canterlot with a group. Our task is to pick her up and then we shall see further. So whatever you do, don’t engage on the ship the captain is on, have I made myself clear to you?!” The sheer volume of his voice went through the airs of all the other bat anthronies, they all knew what they had to be doing.

The other members of the crew released a deep and loud ‘yeah’ in unison to clarify that they knew what was asked of them. The boatswain nodded to the crew as they then got to work. He took the helm and looked off into the distance. They had to get out of the caverns first and then it was still half a day’s away before they would have reached the location where they could possibly meet up.

The stallion took the helm in his hands and shook his head lightly from side to side. A small exhale was released through his nostrils as he couldn’t believe where the captain of the ship had managed to work herself in. Or better said, into what massive troubles she had gotten herself again.

Half a day worth of sailing, before they would see their captain again. It almost seemed like both a nightmare and a dream at the same time. Naturally were they glad that they could see their captain again and have her in command once more. On the other side it would have meant that they had to face the rest of the things she had caused. That was the very thing that worried them. None of them knew whom or what the unicorn had startled.

They were sailing on the high seas and in the dead of night. It was literally the perfect time for a bat anthrony to be awake and the entire crew noticed that. With the moon standing high above them, it provided enough light for them to see everything around them. That also meant that they could be sailing through the darkness without any other kind of light required on deck. The element of stealth was given to the ship as it glided almost in silence through the waters.

The winds were in their favor and they blow both strong and powerful. The black sails of the ship caused it to become even more unrecognizable in the darkness of night as it gained speed. Far out of the neighborhood of the shore it would have continued to go upon the quest to get the captain back.

The boatswain constantly adjusted the heading of the ship while the crew continued to work. All of them shared the same characteristic which made it almost impossible for anypony to differentiate the bat anthronies. Only the boatswain himself had a different posture to him, perhaps that was the sole reason why he occupied the profession. Yet their captain seemed to have been able to tell them all apart from one another.

A feat that was truly amazing to begin with actually. The thoughts of the boatswain were both focused upon the seas ahead as well as the crew. He knew that they hadn’t had too much sleep before the note appeared and he would make certain that they wouldn’t be cutting any slack.

If luck was on his side, he would have been able to get the vessel to the captain even faster than that half a day worth of sailing. Only the wind needed to stay as strong as it did. To him it felt like they were riding on the outer edges of a massive oceanic storm that was brewing. In the dead of night he did saw how the clouds managed to swirl themselves around in a circular formation.

“The stuff of nightmares,” he mumbled to himself. Then he turned the helm about two clicks. The massive ship responded straight away and it transferred over from one current in the wind to the next. Time and speed were both of the essence and all of the sails were deployed.

All of the cannons were retracted and unloaded. Speed was the only thing that they needed in the moment. The entire crew worked as fast as they could to the constant required adjustments of the vessel’s needs. Moans and groans that came out of the very belly of the beast, terrified the bat anthronies. They were pushing the vessel to a unknown limit.

Only the boatswain knew that they were pushing the vessel further, faster and stronger than they ever had done before. One of his hands began to pat over the railing before the helm as if he was actually cherishing the entire ship. “It’s going to be alright, lass, it’s all going to be alright. Soon your real captain will be back and you will be sailed properly.”

The groaning of the ship almost seemed to go paired with the words of the stallion. If one wouldn’t have known any better, it would have seemed that the inanimate ship in fact talked back to him. One way or the other, it remained an unpleasant sight to behold.

The stallions of the crew were still busting their flanks off to get everything in the shape it needed to be as the rolling of the ship didn’t made things any easier. Luck happened to be on their side that they were actually bat anthronies. Which naturally meant that they had the ability to fly. So if the seas got a little bit too rough, they all would have taken straight for the air and still do their job.

Almost like a flock of seagulls that constantly went from one place to the other they would have appeared. In the darkness of the night they felt themselves the most comfortable but the light of the moon was fading quickly. The oceanic storm that was thought to be brewing, had actually come. And they were sailing right at the outer tip of it.

The best part of the whole thing had to be the fact that they carried it with them. It almost felt like the storm had chained the ship to itself and that the ship was pulling it forwards. One of the sailors rushed over to the poopdeck and looked over the stern statues. He had to see whether or not there was thunder heading their way as well.

Rain would come, that much was certain. Thunder and lightning on the other hand remained two questionable factors. The eyes of the bat anthrony continued to glance over the skies behind them until he saw what he was looking for.

“Oh hell,” he muttered to himself just before the rumbles could be heard in his ears. Thunder had been struck all over the place and it was literally going with them. At worst, they would be sailing right at the edge of a typhoon. A typhoon with the powers to just destroy their little wooden vessel as if it was nothing.

The stallion returned to the boatswain and assumed the pose only a commander in chief usually would assume next to him. What followed was perhaps the most dry sounding conversation to have ever been said upon the ship.

“Let me guess,” the boatswain said, “there’s a storm brewing right upon our tails?”

“Yep,” the bat anthrony said while they didn’t even look at one another.

“Massive amounts of thunder and rain as the clouds keep on moving over and ahead of us?”

“Most likely.”

The boatswain narrowed his eyes while he gained a grin across his face. Whether he had allowed himself to fall into the grasp of madness or he had just set everything on everything remained unknown. “Bring it on,” was all he had to add to the matter. The other bat anthrony finally dared to shift his eyes over to the larger stallion with a truly worried expression visible upon his eyes.

“What, are you afraid to get wet?” the boatswain asked before he erupted out in a massive chuckle. The other bat anthrony could only do a step or two aside before he shook his head from side to side. It was madness on that where they had begun. A deep exhale was given off by the sailor before he just spread his wings and took off.

It was perhaps just for the better part that they would have left the boatswain and relief-captain alone.

~~~~

The sun had begun to rise itself above the dark gray clouds and the light finally revealed everything that needed to be revealed. All of the mares that were aboard the smaller vessel looked to the griffin ship from the windows of the captain’s cabin. All of them were equally terrified about the sheer size that it had.

If they didn’t know any better, it was the airship that had just cut its balloons and was literally dumped straight into the water. The two vessels had an awful lot of similarities together. Of course it could just have been plays of lights in their eyes, but they were still worried about the facts as they were.

Rarity shook her head from left to right as she was the first one to leave. Her disguise was still maintained and she placed her arms behind her back. “Oh this isn’t going to be good if we get in a silent zone,” she said to herself, but loud enough for the others to hear.

“Silent zone?” Twilight repeated before she rose an eyebrow to the matter. She had heard a lot out of the pirate’s mouth, but that was a new word to even her.

Rarity nodded as she turned back to face the group of mares. The attention was gently taken away from the chasing ship and given to Rarity herself. The mares were all little bit curious what she had to say. Applejack was the only one who left the cabin of the old stallion in order to help on deck. She was an experienced sailor, she knew all the terms as if she had invented them.

“Silent zones are spots where no wind can be found. Spots at open ocean where the wind just drops down to nothing and you can be stranded there for days. This part of the ocean, is notorious for those kind of things, come to think of it,” explained Rarity to the mares.

Fears took them all gradually over before they shook their heads. They couldn’t believe the facts as they were. The unicorn could have been right though. They could have entered a silent zone any possible second from that moment outwards.

Then it was Rarity who turned herself back around and left the cabin in silence. The remaining four mares wanted to argue about the matter of course. But they all knew they lacked the knowledge of finding such parts in the vast ocean they were in.

The other four mares looked once again through the window while Twilight mumbled some words to herself. Even though they were meant for only her ears, the rest of the group could have heard them as well. Perhaps she silently was looking for help from the others. “Now have they been chasing us for so long,” she started as she removed a strand of hair from her face. “Yet in all that time, they never even made an attempt to board us. Would Sharpbeak have gone sane again and realized that if he charged, Equestria would declare war on him? Instead of the griffon nation?”

Rainbow and Fluttershy first looked at one another before their heads slowly managed to make the way over to Twilight’s direction. The unicorn soothsayer seemed to be talking in doom scenarios already and they didn’t like it for one bit.

The pair of them needed fresh air. The musky air in the cabin made them just feel sick. The two pegasi of the company left the room in silence as Pinkie followed quickly afterwards. As much as she liked Twilight, she couldn’t bare standing against the tales of horror that she spoke sometimes.

The lamia slithered all the way up to the bow of the ship where she coiled her tail around the railing and just watched over the skies in front of them. The dark clouds predicted something she had seen countless times in her own little hole. More often than not, when the clouds turned dark there would have been something falling out of them.

The old stallion at the helm had been accompanied by Applejack who just stood there in silence. Her eyes were fixated upon the storm they were sailing straight towards. If there would have been another way that they could have travelled, she gladly would have taken it.

The very storm was looking just nasty. Chill winds and spine shattering rain were going to be standing on the menu if they kept on going. A small exhale was released through her nostrils before the words came. “Trouble on the horizon. Always, there’s trouble on the horizon.”

“Sounds like you have had your fair share of it,” the old stallion replied. Applejack could only have nodded to the words he said. For she had indeed seen the fair share of it. Perhaps a little bit too much of it even.

The minutes went by as if they were nothing before Pinkie noticed something else happening. Her eyes were narrowed as she looked even further, or tried to. Much to her own surprise it was another ship that sailed the ocean. One that had seemingly gotten out of the storm and was heading their way. “Ship!” she yelled as loud as she could.

Rainbow’s attention was immediately taken by it and she took out her binoculars. The thing was placed before her eyes and she looked through it with a set of careful eyes. The eyes spied over the entire horizon before she indeed noticed the ship with the black sails. But she didn’t had any straight up memory of the vessel.

“Hey Applejack, catch!” she said before she threw her binoculars. The admiral caught them with a firm grip and looked to Rainbow. “Look to the horizon, look to the other ship. Can you tell which one it is?”

“Ah can try. But Ah don’t know all of ‘em by name!” Applejack yelled back to the major. The glasses were set before her eyes and she glanced over the horizon. In her eyes she then caught the ship she had been looking for.

Almost in an instant had she turned as pale as snow. It couldn’t have been the vessel she thought to have seen. Certainly must her mind have played some trick upon her. But no matter how many times she looked at it, it just remained to be that way. As impossible as it seemed to be, that impossible it actually was.

The eyes of the admiral turned over to Rarity who hung in the stays of the forward mast. A growl was given off by the mare before she had one last look over the ship that had been spotted. “The Vengeful Belle,” was then muttered by her. Just loud enough for the captain of the vessel to have catch it within his ears. Trouble had really come for all of them, no matter what.

Chapter XC

The captain of the vessel had heard the name of the ship that was coming to get them. The old stallion let the pipe just fall out of his mouth and his body felt that it was going numb. Out of everything that he could have expected to have gotten his way that day, it had to be that one vessel that he had the most terrors from.

A shudder went down his spine as he asked for the impossible. “Give me, give me those, binoculars, lass.” He had to see it with his own eyes that the ship that had doomed everything was sailing into their direction. With the storm lying behind it, it only seemed to have been truly appropriate that the devil of the seas had gotten for them all.

Applejack gave the binoculars to the captain and took over the helm for the moment. The old stallion did a step or two aside in order to watch the ship in its full and highly eerie glory. The things were set for his old eyes and gave a clear view on what was going on a couple dozen miles ahead of them. He got the ship in his eyes and couldn’t take it anymore. There was no doubt in his mind that that ship was the ship he never wanted to see again.

Just the entire looks of the vessel managed to have gotten the creeps up to him. The binoculars were dropped from his eyes as she shook his head from left to right. “It can’t be!” he muttered up before he leaned against the wooden railing. Oh how he wished that it all didn’t happen to be true yet the demons were still coming their way.

It had only been a sheer matter of time before the vessel would have caught up with them. The captain of their vessel couldn’t do anything in order to prevent an incoming attack. They were caught between two fires that literally were hell-bent upon taking the other out.

Though there was one little thing that didn’t make sense to Applejack. Why would Rarity have called upon her vessel during that time? Outside of escaping trial, there didn’t seemed to have been an actual reason in her eyes.

Unless she had planned something that was just so stupid, that it actually could have worked. Rarity was an outlaw, a pirate that managed to stay alive by raids and all those nice little things. Yet she wasn’t a true formal Equestrian citizen anymore. Which meant that if war would have been declared on her, it would have been declared only on her.

That revelation caused the eyes of the admiral to open up wide. “Oh you clever, but nasty mare,” she whispered to herself in the lowest volume possible. The whole time had Applejack been thinking about her wanting to make some sort of great escape. Though when she thought about it more , Rarity did in fact seemed to have been planning to sacrifice herself for the rest of the group.

A shock went through her before she had to shake her head for a moment. All of the newly gotten information was just a little bit too much for her to handle and she didn’t wanted to be doing anything with it actually. The matter was still a young one and everything could have happened with it. Of course Rarity could have sacrificed herself, but she could just as well take right for the other side and make a quick getaway.

The eyes of the admiral turned over to the old stallion who looked like he could hurl up the contents of his stomach at any given time. Though there never was something that came out of his mouth. That little fact alone caused them both to be happy. The eyes of the old stallion looked back to Applejack for a moment before he spoke the words that he knew about the vessel.

“The Vengeful Belle, the demon’s vessel,” he spoke to her before he once again shook his head. “A vessel so evil that it’s being captained by a mare with a skin as white as snow. No grain of mercy is shown to merchant ship that crosses its path. A crew of anthronies thought extinct, it’s danger itself.” Those were the words that he spoke up to her, in a low, growling tone. Almost as if he had survived one of the raids that the vessel had done all those years ago.

Applejack wanted to argue against the captain but made the decision not to. Who knew just what kind of troubles would have been erupting as she had told him that the captain of the vessel was literally with them, on the deck. It must have driven him over the edge of madness. She almost wanted to suggest that he would have retreated back to his own cabin.

Yet that meant that he constantly would have seen the griffon ship chasing them. Which one was better to be seen was unknown to the earth anthrony. So she made the decision to not speak a single word about the matter.

"So Ah’ve heard,” she then would have said. The seconds of silence just had been burned away. The earth anthrony shook her head while her entire world was literally being rocked. Only Rarity knew what was going to be the plan but the admiral had the decency not to accuse her of anything while she stood on the deck.

But she did felt her grip around the unicorn loosen up. The tight grip of being able to bring her to court and have her trailed to a jail sentence had become looser and looser. Almost as if the neck of Rarity had been smeared in with butter, or grease. “A captain as pale as snow, but with a heart as black as charcoal,” the admiral whispered in a soft tone. It was naturally one of the many rumors that were being spread about Rarity Brittenburg’s reputation on the high seas.

The old stallion nodded to the spoken words as he added a few more of his own words to the matter. “if that vessel has set its eyes on us, we’ll be going down to the locker itself. Or worse, we’ll be chum for the Kraken.”

The Kraken, Applejack had heard the rumors of the mysterious and legendary beast. A massive monster that roamed the seas and oceans of their world. It was often associated with death itself as the thing was a giant beast. Nopony had truly seen what it actually was or how it looked. But many spoke about it having enormous tentacles and a massive maw big enough to swallow pretty much anything it desired. “Then let’s pray on the fact that it isn’t aimed for us,” added Applejack as she tried to play along.

Whether the old sailor and the admiral had liked it or not, Rarity had heard every last word that they had spoken. Her ears were especially open on the facts that they would be starting about her and her crew. It was not much of a surprise to her actually, given the fact that she did have a rather sinister reputation to begin with. As well as her own ship coming their way.

Perhaps had the time come for her to make her grand revelation to the old stallion? Give him that one last heart attack and perhaps redeem her blackened soul a little bit before him. To show him, that she wasn’t as heartless as depicted. A grin came to the face of the unicorn as she leaned a little bit over the railing of the deck.

Her voice was turned a little louder so that they all could hear the words that she had to say. “Rumors have it, that the White Widow kills and plunders without mercy. She goes around and about wherever she pleases,” the unicorn spoke up before she charged up her horn. “But what if those rumors happened to be wrong and are just tales made by sailors, drunk as a skunk? Any of you thought about that in the past?”

The words reached both the captain of the vessel as well as Applejack. Both were naturally surprised to hear the words. Though they were surprised in their own reasons. Applejack could almost plant the palm of her hand in her face, while the old stallion only got more curiosity. “What are you saying there, lass?” he asked towards the disguised mare.

Rarity couldn’t help herself but to give off another chuckle before she gently shook her head. “All of you sailors are so likely to take upon the stories that are being picked up in bars. But remember that ever legendary being, has a core of truth hidden inside of it. Think deep, the White Widow is nearer than you think.”

It took the old stallion a couple of seconds while he reached out for his pipe and rose both of his eyebrows. It couldn’t have been true, right? It couldn’t have been true that she happened to be the mare wanted in pretty much every single port along the Equestrian coast. More and more confusion hit the stallion as he wanted to know the finer details of everything.

“Speak the words that are on your mind, lass, and speak the clearly!” he replied to her in a yell that caused his old tone to be pitched a little bit too high. Rarity flung her head a little bit backwards just before she removed herself from the railing. If he wanted that she told him to just speak in clear words, so would she have done.

“Careful what you wish for, old sir. You might actually get it,” she replied before the charge of her horn was released. The sapphire blue light was cast all over the ship and the unicorn would have just vanished within it.

The captain could only look in horror as to what would be coming next. Anything was possible when it came down to the unicorns and he was thrown into it once again. The admiral remained standing at the helm despite the fact that she just wanted to do something about Rarity. Yet none of the other mares knew what could be done while the captain himself seemed to have been turned into a statue.

It was literally impossible for the admiral to remove herself from the position. There wasn’t anything that could have been done to stop Rarity from whatever it was she was trying to accomplish. They would only have watched in horror and terror until it was done.

But every magical light had to fade away again at one point or the other. And so did it happen to the light that was created by Rarity. There were just stood a mare with blonde hair and green eyes, now stood a mare with purple, curly hair and eyes as blue as sapphires.

The infamous captain that made a name for herself under the alias of White Widow stood upon the deck of the old captain’s vessel. Bafflement and horror were the only two emotions that went through the stallion. He couldn’t believe that the terror of the oceans was literally standing his very deck.

Where he seemed to have been a statue before, he only became more of it as all the muscles in his body just turned into stiffs. “As you can see, good sir, I’m not a rampaging murderer who is going only around and about. It are the looks that cursed me, but believe me when I say I have no intent to bloodshed today. Not on this vessel at least.”

Those words caught the ears of Applejack and they were repeated in her head at a constant rate. Was Rarity Brittenburg really planning to make the sacrifice where the admiral had thought about before? From the sounds it seemed to have been that way, but she could just as well have meant a ship that was coming from over the horizon.

The captain still couldn’t believe the facts as they were presented to him. It just wouldn’t go into his old mind that the most notorious pirate captain had been standing right under his nose the whole time. It just didn’t wanted to enter through his skull.

After some dreaded seconds he turned his attention over to the admiral and spoke the words that were on his mind. The only words that were on his mind in fact. “Now I think I know, how you have felt. Travelling with her for who knows how long…”

“Don’t. Ah mean it, don’t,” replied Applejack. She didn’t wanted him to start about anything. The last thing that the mare needed was a guilt trip caused by the old stallion. She had endured the whole journey to the center of Equestria with the pirate captain, she had to make sure she would survive the coming hours as well.

Though the captain himself was caught on two fronts. At one end could he have taken the helm again and allowed Applejack to get her. But he didn’t knew anything about their treaty. Which was exactly the thing where Rarity made usage of. In the eyes of the admiral it seemed as if she had been planning everything since the day they had begun.

That fact wasn’t true of course, as all of the event just turned out to be rather lucky coincidences. Lucky for Rarity but rather unfortunate for Applejack actually. The admiral remained standing at the helm of the vessel as she closed her eyes for a moment.

It was the call of the captain and he was caught at two fronts. At one hand he had the griffons chasing him. A bloodthirsty folk that wouldn’t have stopped at anything to get to the mares. And at the other end of the line stood the pirate captain herself. The decision on what needed to be done was something that didn’t feel right in his mouth.

The head was given another shake as the words wanted to leave through his throat, but there were none that came out. The decision couldn’t have been made by him at all. He didn’t had any word of saying in the matter. Time itself would have been the judge of them all.

That same time came and went while the Vengeful Belle sailed closer and closer towards the much, much smaller vessel. Rarity hadn’t said their goodbyes to any of them, it just wasn’t her style. But they all knew what was going to happen soon enough. All of the mares felt that their group would have been falling apart within that very moment.

And just like that, when the two ships sailed past one another without a word, would Rarity have made the jump up the railing and readied her wrist mounted harpoon. The thing had saved her life numerous times already and there was another that could have been added to the list. For as the bow of the Vengeful Belle went past them had she aimed the tip of the harpoon to the main mast of her vessel.

Applejack knew that she wanted to bring Rarity to trial, she had to do something drastic. But instead of turning to starboard a couple dozen times, she just had to release the helm and ran as fast as she could. The stomping over the deck gave away what had been planned and Rarity realized it.

Her head turned itself around to face the incoming admiral and she gave something she hadn’t given Applejack much before. A smile. A warm, genuine, well-meant smile was given off to the admiral before the harpoon was fired. The confusion was so great in the body of the admiral that she came to a standstill. She didn’t knew a single thing of what the mare meant with her silent words, if they even were silent words.

But just like that had the unicorn vanished again. Just like that was she swinging over the railing towards her own vessel. All of the mares looked at her when she hung at the side of her own ship. She made a small salute to the group of mares as the last words could have been heard coming from her. “See this as my resignation of the company! See you in twenty-four hours, Jackie! Have a good sail y’all!” Those were the last words to be spoken by Rarity Brittenburg just before she left the company for better or for worse.

Just like that had she left the company that had travelled down to the very center of Equestria. The company that had faced facts always stacked against them but always managed to get out of there alive. The company that had even fought in the War that Never was. And many more things had happened, both big and small.

The anthronies of the company all returned to the deck again as they didn’t knew the words that they had to speak on the matter. Anything was possible for them in that moment. But the one thing that they knew was that they had lost a great asset to their team. The captain himself had taken matters in his own hands again and had taken control of the helm again.

Applejack turned herself around to face him as she couldn’t contain her anger whatsoever. She wanted to bring the unicorn back home to get her trailed, instead the whole thing could have started again. The hunts for the elusive White Widow could be happening again. The two mares of the sea were still in their treaty but that could go to Tartarus in Applejack’s mind.

“Turn the vessel ‘round!” she bellowed over the deck.

All of the mares and the stallion didn’t knew what they heard out of her mouth. Out of everything that could have been either said or done, those were the words that she spoke up. But was she mad? Had she actually lost her mind completely? They tried to get away from the griffon ship and not towards it.

Pinkie Pie was the only mare that still looked over the railing of the ship and saw how the Vengeful Belle made a turn around. Whether it would ending up directly next to them or tried to avoid the griffon ship as much as possible was unknown to her. All that she knew for certain was that Rarity had gone, possibly for good.

The old stallion stared down into the eyes of Applejack as he adjusted the course to sail straight through the storm. “I’m not going back around just because some admiral orders me. I love my life as it is and from the looks of it are we going straight into a storm! If we go now, we might have a slight chance of making it out alive!” the captain yelled back to her, defying her commands.

His words were true though. The mind of the admiral was only set on getting the thing that she wanted. And in the moment that didn’t seemed to have been for the common good. The admiral became furious. For weeks had she the mare right where she wanted to have her, but just like that had she lost her as well.

A true and great amount of effort had to be done by her in order to control the emotions that were going through her. The captain himself still recalled the words that she had said to him before. Perhaps there was indeed something about the pirate captain that made her not look like a monster. Perhaps he did believed too much of the tails that were said in the bars.

The words that she had spoken to him just before she left showed a great amount of respect to him. But whether they were meant or not, remained a fact to be discovered. The old stallion didn’t knew what to do, outside of honoring their made agreement. His eyes suddenly gained a look of determination within them.

For the moment he set all of the thoughts about the unicorn aside and began to trust the pirate for what it was worth it. She wouldn’t have done the things she did without a reason. That was enough reason for the stallion to take her words for what they were. As well as the fact that she didn’t wanted any bloodshed on his vessel.

“My mind is set, admiral,” the stallion eventually spoke to her, “we’re going to Canterlot as we had agreed upon and that’s that!”

Though the words weren’t taken too lightly by the admiral. All of the fury and the anger that she had stored within her must have gotten out in one deep exhale. But even then there was still enough left to make her choke another being. All of the anger still needed to be vented could only have been gotten out at one way.

The mare made a couple dozen steps before she stood back by the helm of the captain. One hand had taken a rest upon the railing as the other was placed upon the spot where her sword usually had been placed. But since they still were incognito, it couldn’t be there. How gladly she would have drawn her sword and set it upon the throat of the stallion as she spoke the words.

“Turn, this vessel, around, now,” said Applejack in a true and threatening tone towards the captain. Who in return only glanced his eyes over her for a moment. He didn’t seemed to have been all that impressed on the matter as she was unarmed.

But that never meant she couldn’t do any harm anymore. He had to be curious about her hands and hooves, for those could deliver a set of strong punches. Yet would the admiral actually going to be hitting an older stallion right in the face or anyplace else? He certain hoped that she would have been able to contain herself.

“Turn, this vessel, around!” the mare exclaimed to him once more. But that time she gained the full attention of the stallion who blinked only once or twice. He had at least heard the words that she said to him, which in and of itself was already a very good thing. Whether or not he would have listened to her remained a question to be answered.

“I am not going to turn this vessel around! Not because of some idiotic witch-hunt that began years ago!” the captain snarled back to the admiral. The other mares were still standing on the decks as they noticed how the sails only caught more and more wind. Whatever would be happening next didn’t really matter, for they were carried directly towards the massive storm.

The first drops of rain were already hitting the deck while the sun had been blocked for them. The sun had been blocked by the massive amounts of gray clouds. Something just spooked Rainbow Dash as she had a grand look around.

The whole storm that they were coming into didn’t seemed to have been made by the pegasi. Which made the revelation to her that it was created by something a whole lot more dangerous actually, nature itself. The eyes of the pegasus went wide as she realized that fact and had a great look around again.

She left the conversation scene and moved to the bow of the vessel. There she would have tangled her hand around one of the many ropes as she jumped up the railing herself. Only to have her body sticking out as far as it was allowed. She had to do some sights in the hope to shatter the things that she thought about.

Nopony had truly noticed that Rainbow had gone off because their eyes were only set to both Applejack and the captain. The conversation between the two of them had heated up to unbelievable levels. They were all actually and genuinely afraid that Applejack wouldn’t have been able to hit an elder stallion right in the face.

Both of the fists of Applejack were trembling like there was no tomorrow. The face turned gently into a shade of red that they had never seen from her. Years, if not decades of frustration were shown in her eyes as the stallion himself also began to fear.

But he realized that he had to keep his hooves firm on the ground. He couldn’t let the anger of the admiral win the war that was being waged between the two of them. The boiling point of the mare had almost been reached as she seemed to wanting to just punch the aged anthrony.

None of the mares dared to look and they couldn’t do anything to change the situation. Of course Twilight had it within her powers that she could have separated the admiral from the aged stallion. But that way she would have never learned the lesson that was to be learned in the moment. The seconds ticked away as nothing happened outside of frustration being build up.

If they didn’t know any better, they could have sworn to themselves that there was steam that came out of the ears of the admiral. What could have caused it and why it happened were two matters that none of the mares actually knew. They all just prayed deeply upon the fact that everything would have turned out alright.

Finally did the mouth of Applejack open up and she tried to speak in a calm and collected tone, which was actually a lot harder than anything else. Seconds upon seconds just came and went before she was able to speak up. “Okay, if that’s how we’re gonna play it, so it happens to be,” the mare spoke up in an accent-less tone. In fact, her entire tone had turned monotone when she spoke the words.

The captain himself was even surprised by the words that she spoke those very words. For after them she just left the helm and walked down the stairs to the deck itself. He couldn’t believe it, the stallion had literally dodged perhaps one of the biggest musket balls that he could have avoided. A massive sigh of relief was released through his nose while he continued to sail. The ship had entered the storm and the only question was how powerful it was all going to be.

Applejack had walked back on the deck and disappeared beneath it all. Fluttershy and Twilight looked to one another as if they silently asked to chase after her. But it was just like the matter of Rainbow Dash. The admiral just needed to have some time alone, she had to recollect her mind for what it was. It still didn’t took away from the fact that there was a powder keg ready to be exploding beneath the decks. A risk that they rather took than anything else.

The mares looked around in order to find Rainbow Dash and found her hanging in the ropes and the stern. Whatever she tried to do, they didn’t wanted to disturb her. Their attention was turned towards the storm that they were sailing into as they all realized that the battle between Rarity and Applejack would continue once more.

The journey hadn’t changed a thing about the feud that the two mares were having. At least not in Applejack's point of view. The hunt would continue soon enough as they kept on sailing away from the prey they had to leave behind.

~~~~

In the meantime and on the side of the Vengeful Belle hung Rarity. The mare lowered the arm with which she had waved them all out. Only to start her climbing on the wall of wood. Her desires to return once more to her beloved vessel had gotten true. Every step she took was one closer to landing upon the very deck that she knew so well.

Which happened after only a couple of seconds. The unicorn stood back upon the deck of her own vessel and looked around to the crew. The harpoon was removed from the point of impact and the rope retracted. The thing was hidden under the sleeve of her trench coat again before she placed the hands behind her back.

“So,” she started while she eyed all of the bat anthronies that were present. “What have you miserable sacks of good-for-nothing been up to while I was gone?” The boatswain turned the helm a couple dozen times to make sure they wouldn’t be an all too easy target for the griffon ship that chased the smaller vessel. “At least you managed to get my note and did what was ordered of you lot. Back to work!”

And just like that did the bat anthronies scatter all over the deck and back to their spots. They were terrified of the wrath that she could give as she ruled with an iron hoof aboard her own ship. The pirate captain then made her way over to the helm while the first drops of rain fell upon her nose.

The boatswain removed himself from the spot before she took over with just one hand. There were no words in the known universe that could have described the feelings that were going through the mare in that moment. That moment when she took back full command of her own ship after having spent weeks upon the face of the land, it just felt amazing and awesome for the lack of a better terming.

The boatswain himself had taken the liberty to get something of the mare that had belonged to her ever since she took command of the ship for the first time. The stallion presented it to the unicorn as if he was going to crown a king, or a queen in their matter.

Rarity’s eyes looked over to him and saw the object that laid in his hands. Her horn charged itself up as she then levitated it out of them. “Why thank you,” she spoke to the stallion who then rose back up.

“Anything for the captain,” the boatswain replied with a humble tone. The unicorn grinned like the little devil that she could be while the object was revealed to be her signature hat. The hat with the long head piece that would cover her eyes from both rain and sunlight. A maroon red color it bore as the charge became a little bit more intense.

What happened next was that the color of the trench coat went from black to a more natural, maroon-ish red color. The mare placed the hat upon her head and discharged her horn completely. She took a deep inhale of air before another grin came back to her. Everything was right where it was supposed to be. Everything had the right coloring while her blades were hidden beneath the coat. Ready to be taken if needed.

“What’s the plan, captain?” the boatswain asked her as he took out his whip. The eyes of the captain looked to him from under the hat. The sapphire blue irises almost seemed to have been glowing. The look was one with which the boatswain was all too familiar with. The unicorn had something cooked up in that brain of hers.

The mare released a sinister sounding chuckle as she looked over to the griffon’s ship and pointed towards it. “I’m thinking about to give them a full broadside. And most likely they think the same thing,” the unicorn spoke before she turned the helm again a few dozen times. The turn would have been made to intercept the ship of the griffons.

Finally there would have been the kind of action were Rarity seemed to live for. But she would have taken the attention away from the group of mares as well. Whether she realized what she was doing or not, remained to be seen. For her personality had changed without a doubt as she had returned upon her own ship.

Time would tell who would have gotten out as the victor from their planned war. The imperial ship of the griffons, or the well tested ship of Rarity Brittenburg? The round could begin whenever they were ready. All while the storm kept on brewing right above their heads and releasing the downpour of rain.

Chapter XCI

With Rarity Brittenburg back at the helm of the Vengeful Belle, all of the bat anthronies did realize what was going to happen. The ship that belonged to the griffon emperor of Sharpbeak Razorclaw the Second laid almost directly in front of their own vessel. Even though the two vessels were still miles apart from each other, they both began to turn away from one another. It almost seemed as if they both feared that a massive crash could happen between the two of them.

Rarity’s eyes never would have taken themselves away from the ship while she grinned like the devil once more. Only her mouth was truly seen beneath her hat yet the eyes still saw everything that needed to be seen. She was just so fed up with the griffons that the plan had become one that was simplicity itself.

The griffons had been chasing the company of mares ever since they had gotten off of the mountain. They managed to enter a massive fight with them when they got at the summit of it. The emperor himself had lost his mind before their very eyes. Only one thing could have been done in the eyes of the pirate captain to make the madness stop once and for all.

Her eyes glanced over the near endless ocean and Rarity took a deep inhale. Her decision had been made and the boatswain was aware of the things that would happen. The unicorn would engage herself in a battle with the imperial ship of the griffons. The very suspicion that Applejack had about Rarity willing to sacrifice herself, was perhaps more justified than that even she had thought.

Though the actions wouldn’t have been done just because of the mares on the other little vessel. No, they mostly would have been done to fill the bloodlust of Brittenburg herself. The unicorn wanted to see the water turn red with the blood of the griffons. The creatures had managed to get the blood from beneath her own nails for a couple of very good reasons.

She was just so tired of them all, that she wanted to see them all rather gone then coming. So she would be sending her kindest of regards in the only way that she knew how, by a salvo and rain of cannon fire.

Both the Vengeful Belle and the imperial ship of the griffons understood what the plan was going to be. The pirate ship didn’t just sail away to prevent a collision happening, but it seemed to be going in a full circle around the other vessel. The griffons became naturally scared because nopony had ever even dared to do such a thing to them nor their ship.

One of the griffons rushed over to the cabin of Sharpbeak and spoke the sights he had seen. The emperor himself sat upon the throne and took a deep inhale through his nostrils. “So,” he began when it became clear that his more sane side seemed in control. “The little witch decides to play, hm? Very well. We shall take the bait. How hard can it be to exterminate the vermin of the seas?”

The griffon that had brought him the news didn’t wanted to answer upon the question as he quietly left the cabin again. Sharpbeak himself stood up from his throne and walked down the steps in a gentle pace in his lion paws. If he was going to let the ship of the pirate captain sink, he would have been there himself when it happened. To see her drown in the vastness of the ocean.

No matter what would happen, he would remain standing on deck. Though just before he got out of his cabin was there a flash of lighting that was caught in his eyes. The emperor turned himself around to face the windows and could hear the rumbles entering his ears. “The storm has arrived,” he whispered to himself before he left the cabin.

Soon enough could the griffon emperor have found himself standing next to the helm of his vessel while the rain continued to just clatter down upon the wooden deck. More and more intense had it become when time went by. The entire crew had to look for shelter but the emperor remained standing still. Even in that same, regal looking position. His sharp eyes glanced over to the Vengeful Belle before they went over to the other little vessel.

The one that got away was the one he had set his eyes on the most. Yet he was fully aware of the Equestrian laws. But as long as he managed to get at least one of the mares in the company, he would have been just so happy.

“Tell the men to prepare the cannons on both star and port side. Circle around our lovely girlfriend until we’re in range,” said Sharpbeak in a calm tone, “then you know what to do.” He appeared to have been a little bit too certain about the fact that he would have been able to destroy her. It almost seemed as if he didn’t knew the reputation of the mare, or didn’t wanted to be reminded upon it.

Back on the Vengeful Belle had Rarity given the same command as Sharpbeak. Most of the sails that had been used for speed were hoisted again before more than half of the crew disappeared below the decks. The hatches were opened at both sides of the hull before the barrels of the cannons could be witnessed coming out. The unicorn wouldn’t be taking any chances with Sharpbeak when the two vessels entered a massive circle.

Almost like a duel that would happen between two knights did the vessels circled around, against and with the wind. The rain never ceased coming down and the thunder was caught in all of their ears. The storm had been hitting them and it only would have gotten worse unless the battle was fought quick.

The boatswain constantly looked through a sextant and informed the unicorn about their distance. “We’re still far out of range of their ship, but do you think it is going to be that easy?” he asked her in a concerned tone. Doubting the captain was always a bad idea to begin with, yet his worries were rightfully placed.

The unicorn turned her attention away from the sea for a moment and she focused upon the boatswain. “I have been on that ship before, back when it was floating in the air. I’m one hundred percent positive that it is the same vessel. And I took my time to look at the structure. From what I could have gather, it was only protected by just the wood. Unlike us,” told Rarity to him in a stern tone. She was serious about her words and he felt it when they cleaved through the tense air.

Though the boatswain could only shrug to the words because she was probably right with them anyway. He didn’t question her authority whatsoever, he just was curious to see whether or not they would stand a chance against it. “You know their armaments?” he continued to ask.

“Cannons, shaman’s, griffon soldiers, all that lovely stuff, my dear,” the mare replied before she turned her attention back to the ocean. “Which means we only get one shot. One good salvo against the side of their ship could create big enough holes. The storm, will do the rest of it all. Their fates have been sealed yet they don’t know it.”

The plan was cruel, but she happened to be a lawless mare. The boatswain nodded to the words as he placed his eye on the sextant again. The dices were cast and still rolling on the tables. Whatever the outcome of the battle would be, was written in the ever changing future.

With the distance between the two ships still too massive to have the engagement with one another, it had helped to make a decision for Rarity. One that possibly was either stupid or genius, but it was her signature move in every sense of the word. It was a little something that she always did no matter what kind of battle they would be entering.

The unicorn took a deep inhale just before her horn allowed itself to be coated within the sapphire blue aura. The boatswain removed his eye from the sextant and looked over his captain. He instantly knew what she was preparing and assumed an almost more regal posture. The time to salute their enemies and reveal themselves who they truly were was given off. There wouldn’t have been any stopping from that moment onward. The only way to make her stop, was if she was killed in action.

The words of Rarity left her mouth in a singing tone. One that was filled with an ominousness tone to it. Almost as if she tried to haunt the spines of her own men. “Ami, entends-tu le vol noir des corbeaux sur nos plains?” she sung loud enough so that her crew could be hearing it clear. The magic would only have acted like an amplifier for the words that would eventually be sung.

“Ami, etends-tu les cris sourd du pays qu’on enchaîne?” the boatswain than sung with her. The tones of the tunes echoed over the entire ship without much of a problem.

The bat anthronies on the deck realized what was happening and entered the song as well. “Ohé, partisans, ouvriers et paysans c’est l’alarme,” they sung before the beings beneath the deck also caught scent of it.

“Ce soir l’ennemi connaîtra le prix du sang te des larmes…”

For that moment on would the voice of Rarity alone be heard over the ocean itself. The sounds of her voice resonated over the waters like she was singing during a play of some kind. Though the rest of her crew continued to sing along as well.

With a powerful turn at the helm did she continued to sing the song of her heart further. “C’est nous qui brisons les barreaux des prisons pour nos frères! La haine à nos trousses et la fai qui nous pousse, la misère.”

The helm was adjusted once more and Rarity looked over to the ship of the griffons. Her song was concentrated just towards them and they seemed to realize the fact. “Il y a des pays où les gens au creux des lits font des rêves, ici, nous, vois-tu on marche et nous on tue, nous on crève… Oui, on crève…”

All of the sudden did her tone took a turn towards the darkness. It became even more haunting and ominous than before. Almost as if there was a ghost aboard the ship and it had taken a possession of Rarity herself. The crew of the Vengeful Belle didn’t look up too strange to the matter. The griffons on the other end, were terrified to the soul.

“Ici chacun sait ce qu’il fait quand il passe, ami, sit u tombes, un ami sort de l’ombre à te place. Demain du sang noir séchera au grand soleil sur les routes, chantez, compagnons, dan la nuit la liberté nous écoute.”

The eyes were narrowed just before she gained almost a sickening to her face. The unicorn had gathered all the courage that she needed in order to fight them. But the song, still wasn’t over. “Chantez… Allez, chantez… Chantez, compagnons!” she shouted over the ocean before the deadly silence returned.

All of the sounds returned to normal and the griffons were both spooked and terrified about it all. They had expected her to become a difficulty but they had never expected what they just received. “Are they, singing?!” Sharpbeak asked the crew of his ship during the song itself. He couldn’t believe it but the tone that echoed through his ears were those of a true lady.

Or better said: a femme fatale who wanted to shove a knife right up his back. Even though he didn’t understood a single word from what was being said, he still knew that it meant trouble for him. The crew of the imperial ship could only nod to the question. While the crew of the opposing ship was indeed singing.

"They are just mad,” replied Sharpbeak to them after he had walked over to the railing and placed both of his hands upon it. His eyes looked over to the Vengeful Belle and couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow towards him. “Haunting us forever more with the sweet tones of your voice, tsk, tsk, tsk, you have some guts, my dearest adversary.” His tone was calm on the surface, but beneath it all he had to admit that he was a little bit scared.

He didn’t knew what the other unicorn had planned for him and that just terrified the living daylight out of him. His eyes were narrowed to see what else there would have been coming from the ship. That was until he asked the question of questions. “How much closer, before we are in range of them?” he asked to the griffon at the helm.

"Not much, my emperor,” the griffon replied. Those words made the emperor only smirk more. But it also seemed to be changing him more and more. For the veins inside of his eyes only seemed to have gotten wider with each passing second. His mad side tried to reveal itself again. It tried to take him over once more and possibly help him straight into the dooming of his own life.

The emperor tried his best to not spread his wings and the talons buried themselves only deeper into the wood of the railing. Heavy breaths were released by the griffon before he closed his eyes for a second or two. He had to calm down, he had to keep his reign over of his mind. It was all, or nothing.

~~~~

The voice of Rarity didn’t just reached all the way over to the imperial ship of the griffons, it also could be heard aboard of the smaller ship that the other mares were on. They all listened to the song with a great care in their ears. But not even they could understand what was being sung. Even the master scholar Twilight Sparkle seemed to be having a rather great difficulty with identifying the language in what was sung. It wasn’t any kind of normal Equestrian, that much was certain. “An older tongue perhaps? But I have never heard such words before,” she said to herself. Though all of them had their eyes focused upon the circling ships.

The way they both broke through the waves created by the wind had something mesmerizing for them all. They were captivated by the sheer beauty of the elegance that both ships showed to them. One of them was clunky and massive but lacked some elegance. That was the best description of the imperial ship in Applejack’s eyes. The vessel of Rarity on the other end glided through the waters as if it was nothing.

It was clear to see who had the most experience upon the waters of the world. “That song shall forever haunt your minds,” the old stallion spoke before a deep exhale came from his nostrils. Even though he had promised them all to get them to Canterlot, he couldn’t let them await the fate of a friend by some newspaper report.

It must have been a tough enough decision to be made by him before he narrowed his eyes for a moment. The old stallion had to crack the gears in his mind a little bit more before the final word of the matter even could have been spoken. He couldn’t just leave the five of them hanging like that, he couldn’t let them just become lost to the fate of the unicorn pirate.

So with a gentle exhale that was released from his nostrils had the decision fallen. He closed his eyes for the moment as the words left his mouth. “Raise the sails, lower the anchor.”

Rainbow Dash was the first of them all to turn herself around with a confused gaze. She had thought that they would be sailing straight for Canterlot, but all of the sudden he wanted to stop just like that. “What? Why?! I thought we would go directly, through the storm, it’s not like it’s going to be any better if we wait!”

“And what if you never get to know the fate of your friend? Wouldn’t you wish that you were there, when it happened? So that you could say you saw it happening with your own eyes?” the old stallion countered to her. What followed next was a huff that came from the deepest part of his very soul. He was certain upon the fact of not venturing further anymore. Not with the danger that could be sensed between both of the vessels.

He wanted to show them all what would happen to the unicorn and her ship, as well as the griffons and their vessel. The major of the air force could only nod to the words. Even though she was highly against them, she still understood the direction from which the stallion came. The words did ache her heart though, for she just wanted to have gotten back to Cloudsdale as fast as possible.

All of the mares shared the same thought. They were in fact happy to be able to see what the battle at sea would have ended up. Most likely it would have ended up in a sight that all of them didn’t wanted to see, or hear for the matter. But they at least could be giving the matter of Rarity herself to rest. Whether or not she would survive the battle didn’t matter to them, they would have known her fate. And that gave all of them faith.

The commands of the stallion were done almost in the blink of an eye and the little vessel came to a standstill right in the middle of the ocean. The nearest shore was miles and miles away from them. Which meant that if something would have happened to them, they all would be in deep trouble and had to swim for hours.

Normally that wouldn’t have been much of a problem, except that that time the storm was creating a swell that couldn’t be swum in against. Not to forget the currents that laid almost directly beneath the water surface. The ocean was a dangerous place, filled with all kinds of danger and monsters. Monsters that could emerge from the depths themselves and swallow a ship whole.

Twilight had walked over to the old stallion as he leaned against the side railing, his eyes were focused upon the two vessels locked in their endless circling. “Sir, if, if I may ask you something?” she asked to him.

The attention of the captain was torn away from the scene and given to Twilight with a smile. “Outside of the question you just asked? Go right ahead. What’s troubling your mind?” he said to her after he had taken his pipe out of his mouth again.

The unicorn was relieved that she could have say something else to him. The burning question of her mind was released in almost a humble tone. “Do you happen to know the language in which she sung? It’s none that I am actually aware of so, I thought, you know…” Much further she didn’t care as she didn’t wanted to insult the stallion.

“So you wanted to know if I know what kind of spoken language she sung in, am I correct?” the captain said just before a small chuckle was released by his throat. Twilight could only have nodded to the words and that was a clear indication to him. “Alas, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that question, lass. It’s a language that even surpasses my age, sadly enough.”

It didn’t help the mind of the mare much, but at least she knew that there was still hope. Perhaps the library of Canterlot could be holding the answers that she was looking for? It was a slight chance, but it was better than being left out in the dark by an unknown language.

The mares aboard the smallest vessel couldn’t take their eyes away from the scene that was going on. Both the ship of the griffons as well as that of Rarity were still circling around one another. The hunter and the prey scene could be forgotten, for they had turned into two knights in full armor who were more than ready to literally at one another’s throat.

Nopony knew what would actually happen between them. Only speculations could have gone through them all as they kept their firm on the scene that played out maybe less than a nautical mile away from them. All of the anthronies had naturally set their hopes upon Rarity herself that she would have gotten out as the victor.

The disadvantage was that her ship was a lot smaller than that of the griffons and didn’t seemed to be having that much cannons either. What they didn’t knew was what size the cannons of Rarity happened to be. If they a much bigger caliber than those of the griffons, take that into account and she could be the one that dealt out the most damage.

All six of them aboard the vessel could only have guessed to what would happen next. They hoped for the best but in silence all prepared for the worst. As they had been doing since the beginning of their journey. Silence was maintained by them all as the only sounds that caught their ears were those of the waves crashing, the rain falling against the deck, the wind howling and the thunder rumbling.

It was a day that wouldn’t be forgotten by any of them. The levels of danger that were going through the weather only added up to the insanity. An insanity that was the actual fight between both Sharpbeak’s and Rarity’s ship.

~~~~

Closer and closer did the ships of the two enemies came to one another. Time and time again was the question asked whether or not they were in range already. But the answer always remained the same. In the down pouring rain did both Rarity and Sharpbeak look to one another. Their eyes were locked into those of the other as they didn’t knew what to do in the meantime.

Of course the griffons could have been sent out to attack her straight away, but that meant that she had all the reasons in the world to just blow the imperial ship sky high. Perhaps the mind of Sharpbeak thought smartly for a change? Perhaps there was a chance where he could reason with the unicorn? Even though the chances seemed to have been dangerously slim, it was worth a try.

Yet his insane side managed to take over for just a second or two and utterly crushed that thought. There wouldn’t have been any peace made between him and the pirate captain. It would all have ended up in a stone cold bloodbath. Either one of the ships would be resting at the bottom of the ocean by the end of the day. Sharpbeak hoped that it was him who survived, while Rarity almost seemed to be certain that it would have been her.

The griffon emperor was the first one to look away from the scene. Shortly afterwards he let go of the railing and placed his hands behind his back. The emperor himself walked past the griffon at the helm and went down the stairs to the deck. He had to discuss something with another griffon.

Gilda was called to him and the two of them entered a conversation which words couldn’t be heard by the being at the helm. But he could glance over the fact of what damage had been done to the railing. His eyes quickly glanced over the spot to where his emperor stood before. A gulp was given off as he saw the marks of the talons straight in the wood. “Oh this ain’t good,” he spoke to himself. The mood had already been dropped by him as he seemed to have been done with it all. He didn’t wanted to continue anymore. The thought lingered until he realized with whom he was sailing.

On board of the Vengeful Belle were Rarity and the boatswain been having a conversation about what happened during the trip. Of course there were a lot of details left out as her crew didn’t needed to know it. So didn’t they needed to know about the War that Never was, nor the dragon and the center of their world.

Lots of things were kept away from the crew. They were just stored away to only be seen in the mind of the unicorn. And that was just the way she wanted to have it. The less her crew knew about everything, the happier she would have seemed to be.

Time and time had passed while the boatswain kept staring through the sextant. The distance was crucial for the cannons to fire all at the target. Too soon and they wouldn’t have hit a thing. Too late and it could have been them that were brought to a sinking. Everything needed to be planned down to the millisecond. The very second that they were claimed to be into range of the imperial griffon ship, would Rarity have opened fire and gave everything that she got.

No mercy nor quarter would be given to the griffons because they never showed that either to their victims. Rarity had enough of the flying pests and wanted to see them brought down to the locker of the oceanic devil.

She took a couple of sniffs through her nose while the eyes looked around. She couldn’t believe that she was actually going to do it, right in the middle of a storm. The unicorn could only hope that the caliber of cannons aboard the griffon ship was smaller than hers. For she carried some of the biggest pounders that were around.

The ship that she had wasn’t even build for the knockback that they gave, that massive were they in size. But she had a couple of little adjustments made to her ship through the gears of time itself to handle them and everything else. Adjustments that certainly would have been able to give her the little edge that she needed in order to gain the upper hand at any given time of the day.

The tension was ready to but cut when the ships of both the griffons and Rarity fell in silence. They were getting closer and closer to one another, up to the point where they almost had been getting too close for comfort. But they still weren’t in range of one another. That very fact alone caused both the captain and the emperor to wonder.

Though they were still way ways away, they could see the other clearly standing upon the deck even with the down pouring rain. Huffs and exhales were given off by Rarity as she just wanted to blow the other vessel up. But the boatswain had never given the sign that she could be doing so. The circle had been broken and both of the vessels were hell-bent on making an end to the wait.

So the maneuver that was going to be done, was that they would be going full broadside to the vessel of the griffons. Which seemed to have gotten the same idea as well.

For a couple of minutes they tried to align themselves up from the events to come and they were facing one another bow to bow. Almost like to knights that were going jousting did the ships appear. Fear took over the mares on the smallest vessel as they couldn’t watch to anything that was about to happen. They were literally too scared for it.

It would only have been a matter of seconds before they would be going broadside with the vessel of the griffons and Rarity knew that she only had one shot at it all. The upcoming seconds were the seconds that would have either made her, or broke her from the pedestal she stood on.

Even her breath was kept in while the two ships inched closer. The bows went past one another before the hauls followed suit. The first cannons were ready to be fired and the griffons were finally given a true eyes on the massive pounders that Rarity had installed.

Yet the command of firing still hadn’t been given. In silence did the two ships cross one another, the rain just ticked against both the sails and the wood. Neither crew did dare to speak a single word as they were in full broadside. All the cannons of the Vengeful Belle were aimed at parts of the griffon ship, but it also meant that it was actually vice versa. Rarity turned her head over to the boatswain and gave one simple but powerful nod.

He nodded back to her before he turned his attention over to the deck. “Fire!” he shouted over it. The word was repeated by the bat anthronies at the deck to those that stood below. The torches lit the fuses of the cannons and the crew members that had manned them stepped away. The pounding of the griffon ship had begun.

~~~~

The sounds of heavy cannons firing could be caught within the ears of the mares that were aboard of the smallest vessel. They saw how the white plumes of smoke went up before they disappeared into the clouds. They also saw how the massive amounts of wood were sent flying through the air as if it was nothing. Some of the pieces even managed to land near them, which was a feat in and of itself.

The mares could only have been guessing who fired first and who did have the heaviest cannons. Not even Applejack dared to make some sort of a predicament about it all. She knew how Rarity fought at sea, but if she was able to actually destroy the imperial ship of the griffons remained a question to be seen.

The firing sounds continued for a little bit longer before both of the ships had lost the broadside ability. Finally could the mares see who had gotten the most damage to their ship. Rainbow had remained her binoculars and she looked over to the ship of Rarity.

The glasses were adjusted until she could see sharp again and looked over the vessel. The entire hull seemed to have been riddled with holes of cannon fire, but her cannons were still smoking. Not to mention that there was also something that she saw. Something that wasn’t supposed to be there but actually baffled her. “You have got to be kidding me!” Rainbow exclaimed just before she took the binoculars away from her eyes.

She wanted to tell the rest of the mares what she had seen, but they all pointed to the bow of the griffon ship. It laid lower in the water than the rest of it, that could have meant one thing and one thing alone.

Somehow had Rarity managed to bring the ship of Sharpbeak Razorclaw the Second to the bottom of the ocean. Whether the unicorn was aware of the fact already remained to be seen, but the five mares aboard the smallest vessel couldn’t have believed their eyes. They were just taken by utter amazement but they didn’t knew what to do.

Rainbow had one last look over the hull of Rarity’s ship and saw the secret it carried. It was beneath the wood that made up the hull itself, there were heavy metal plates to be seen. That must have been her secret of why she couldn’t be brought to sinking.

The ship of the griffons began to make more and more water and the old stallion turned away. He focused himself upon the mares with almost a stern expression upon his face. “And that, is why she’s called: White Widow. That right there, is how she earned that nickname.”

The mares could understand where the nickname got from. All of them felt that not many of the griffons would have been able to survive the battle. She certainly didn’t seemed to be kind enough to pick any of them up in the moment at least.

Yet with the battle between her and Sharpbeak over. There could have been a possible second battle that could have erupted though. Because the smallest vessel was literally a sitting duck in the water. The captain realized it and held the vessel of Rarity in a firm eye. The last thing he wanted was that she would turn her eyes to him.

Chapter XCII

Seeing the destruction that was brought upon the vessel of the griffons, the captain of the smallest vessel did glance over to the Vengeful Belle with a shocked expression. The words that Rainbow had whispered to herself were still unknown to the rest of them. They all feared the rage of the unicorn. They had seen the destruction that she could cause if she really would have set her mind to it.

The imperial ship of the griffons continued to sink further and further into the waters until there was one last and massive explosion. An explosion that went accompanied with a flash of lightning. Whether the powder chamber had exploded or that lightning had struck into it, was not known to the group. All that they knew was that the imperial griffon ship had been sent down to the bottom of the ocean with all hands on deck.

All of the mares were shocked while they stood on the deck of the little vessel. They just couldn’t believe what Rarity had done to it. During the whole trip she appeared almost like a true lady, yet in the moment had she turned into a downright monster. None of them wanted to either see or speak to her if they ever had the opportunity to encounter her again. Not at sea at least.

The admiral of the navy placed her hands behind her back while she kept on watching the sinking, imperial ship. Grumbles left through her mouth as if she wanted to say something about the pirate captain. Though there weren’t any words that came out of her mouth that were actually audible for the rest of them.

Twilight would have turned her attention over to the admiral and tried to read the motions of the lips that she was making. Though once again she didn’t have the greatest of luck with it. The admiral only rarely moved her lips in a manner that it was understood. Instead she only loosened her lips from time to time to mumble apparent gibberish.

Even though the soothsayer didn’t exactly knew what the admiral had said to herself, she thought that the words were actually pretty clear. Yet Twilight dropped the matter from her mind when she realized something. Something that caused her eyes to go wide before she froze upon the deck. True terror seemed to have struck her and the rest of them didn’t even realize that yet.

“Oh this isn’t going to be good,” she mumbled to herself when she turned her attention over to the vessel of Rarity. “For the love of the goddesses, don’t come into this direction.”

Even the old stallion realized the facts as they were and he gained the same thought as Twilight had. The last thing that he needed was to get the Vengeful Belle right upon his own flanks. He quickly removed himself from the railing and took over the helm again. The worried expression was clearly readable within his eyes.

He was scared. He was genuinely scared about something to happen sooner or later. “Weigh the anchor, lower the sails and by the devil’s hair, make haste!” he bellowed over the deck. The urge to get to Canterlotian waters was his number one priority in the moment. The last thing that he wanted was to get swallowed up by another salvo of cannon fire.

All of the other mares then would have realized what he was talking about, not to mention what he seemed to be afraid of. Yes, it was true that one of their friends was aboard of the other vessel. And yes, it also happened to be the most notorious pirate captain in the whole land. Just that combination alone wasn’t really one to look forward too, especially after they had seen what happened to the imperial griffon ship.

The mares gained their motion back and rushed all over the deck of the small vessel. Each of them did what was asked of them without a question. There was no time to question the orders. They had to sail out with the outer currents of the storm and hope to stay away from the eye of it.

All of those risks had to be taken to outrun the Vengeful Belle. The old stallion constantly glanced over his shoulders to see the demon’s ship getting to closer to them. Though every time he looked, it did almost seemed as if the other ship laid literally stationary in the waters.

Whether it was actually that way or not left him cold in the moment. He just wanted to get the hell out of the place and for good reason. So with the rain pounding against their faces had the mares done what was asked of them and they were gaining speed.

Luckily for them were the winds right in their favors. The outer currents of the storm were rotating in such a way that it would be blowing them away from it all. That fact alone was a massive relief off of everypony’s heart.

But if they could have sailed upon the wind, the other ship would have done been able to do such a thing as well. It worried Applejack when she laid various knots to the ropes to secure them. The admiral looked over the waves of the ocean at a constant rate to see those black sails coming right at them. She thought that Rarity wanted to take her revenge upon the admiral once and for all.

The problem just happened to be that the admiral didn’t really know the pirate. She had spoken about the fact that she didn’t wanted any bloodshed upon their ship. And Rarity intended to keep that very promise to the mares.

~~~~

Aboard of the Vengeful Belle had the boatswain taken over the helm for a moment while Rarity looked through a telescope. The vessel itself did in fact lay almost still in the water because it was placed crossways with the wind. The eye of the unicorn continued to gaze through the glasses and noticed how the other vessel was making a run for it.

“And so it came to be, that the great company of mares has made the decision to split itself up once more,” spoke Rarity in a loud enough tone to make herself clear to the boatswain. A stallion who glanced over his captain with an expression of both curiosity and unknown. He had no idea where she talked about but could only guess.

“So, what’s our heading then captain?” he asked to her while his hands were itching to turn the helm into one of the many possible direction.

The captain removed the telescope from her eye and fold it up again. She then turned around to face the boatswain and seemed to have returned to her more normal side of being and handling. She allowed herself a gentle exhale before she gave a powerful nod. “Let’s head for the island and rebuild the damage what has been done. There’s no further need of me interacting with the crew aboard that ship. Turn her around and set sails. That’s all.”

“Aye aye captain,” the boatswain replied before he gave her a gentle salute. The mare chuckled it off in silence before she then want down the stairs and disappeared within her cabin. The unicorn captain had removed herself completely from the deck which meant that the boatswain was in command once more.

Then he did exactly what was asked of him. He turned the helm a couple of times so that the vessel would sail away from the mares.

~~~~

Who at their own turn seemed to have been lucky. Out of everypony was it Fluttershy who noticed how Rarity’s ship didn’t went straight for them. Instead she saw how it sailed the other way around. She pointed it out to all of the mares who couldn’t actually believe it.

The infamous White Widow had left them alone to hunt for other prey that sailed the ocean. But with the attention from them gone, it meant another thing to them all. If they managed to stay on their course did they had a literal free shot at getting to the harbor of Canterlot. Nopony was really that foolish enough to sail through the size of the storm that they were in.

It meant a wet suit and a possible cold in the end, or flu at worst. But they would have been alive and kicking. That fact alone was a thing that seemed to make it all worthwhile in their eyes.

Twilight turned her attention over to the old stallion with a quick motion. In her eyes she just saw that he knew what he was doing. Whether it was the wisest thing to do, was another question in and of itself. The unicorn then just shook her head. She didn’t wanted to remind herself upon the ideas of what could happen.

Instead she wanted to focus herself upon what was happening in the moment. That seemed to have been the best thing that she possibly could have been doing in the moment. She had to take her thoughts of about going to home. Because home was still a long, long way away. Especially when another flash of thunder lit up the skies like a candle.

Getting through the storm without too much trouble, that was their first priority.

Yet there was relief among the other mares. Each and every last one of them were actually glad that Rarity hadn’t returned to them with her ship. They all feared the threat that she could have come to them. Given the fact that the unicorn was in that moment the stronger force of being. Though at the other end there also was disappointment that went through all of them.

There happened to be a fact that none of them wanted to admit to themselves. A fact that was perhaps too stupid to talk about. At the other end of the spectrum it seemed to be the most normal thing to do in fact. The mares all released a deep exhale before they continued on doing what was asked of them for the moment.

The time to talk about the matter would have gotten to them at another point in time. Though only after they would have been send below decks. For the storm would still be needing to hit its highest point of all. That was the time when it wouldn’t have been safe anymore to sail. That was the time they would have been forced to take shelter below the decks.

The waves were raging, the winds were howling and the rain shattered upon the wooden deck like hail. The height of the storm had fallen upon them. It was the worst possible moment for them all to be in as the wooden vessel was in fact just toyed around with by the waves.

They could be speaking of luck that the anchor managed to keep them in place. But they had no idea where they would have woken up by the following day. At one end of the spectrum that didn’t seemed to be mattering too much for them all, that was a simple navigational task. No, there was another matter that played with all of them when they all had sheltered down in a hammock.

The captain of their vessel had sheltered down in his own cabin and had even offered the mares to stay there. But they made the decision to remained where they were. The mares all laid with their faces upwards as Pinkie had actually fallen asleep.

The lamia was just exhausted of everything and had to pick up the rest that she needed. Nopony could have blamed her for it though. She had been slithering around the deck as if there was no tomorrow in the past hours alone. One moment she was there, the next she was someplace else. Everywhere where the mares looked, they always would have seen Pinkie Pie in the corner of their eyes. It was a feat that not many could copy and one that they were all afraid of.

It was the emotion of silence that dominated the place they were in. The silence in which the mares sat was an eerie one. One filled with thoughts of what could have been’s. Thoughts that most likely were best to have been unspoken by all of them. That was with the exception of probably one. Fluttershy’s mind had been tormenting itself with the matter ever since it had occurred and she wasn’t truly happy about it.

Everything about the thought seemed to have been too sudden in her eyes. All of it was over right in a single flash. One moment it was that way, the next it was a whole different situation. It had not only confused the doctor but also it had troubled her. She shook her head a couple of times before a deep exhale came from her nostrils.

She didn’t had the real desire to figure out about it anymore. Though whether she knew it or not, the words were spoken through her most. “I feel bad, for not having been able to say a proper goodbye to Rarity.”

Those words, spoken in that seemingly sad tone of hers made the mares think about it for a moment. The heads were gently raised from the hammocks and they all glanced over to the doctor’s. She did happen to have a point though. More of them felt bad about that very thing. Even though there wasn’t really anything that they could have done in order to prevent it from happening.

Rarity was, and always would have been, a pirate until the day she would pass away. Their destination was Canterlot and if she only had set a hoof in the port, there would have been agents all over her. Disguise or not, she would have been picked out just like that. That was actually the fate that she tried to run from, to remain the free unicorn that she was and hoped to remain for a long, long time to come.

“I understand what you’re saying, Fluttershy,” replied Twilight in a soft and well-meant tone towards the doctor. The pegasus turned her head gently into the soothsayer’s direction and just nodded as a silent thanks. “But would we really have been able to say goodbye to her in the moment as it was?”

“Probably not,” the major of the air force replied almost in a tone that was as cold as ice. “The griffons were hunting us like crazy, the last thing we needed was a long and intimate goodbye with her. We would have been chum for them, by the time it was over.”

Twilight had listened with some care to the words and they did ring a form of truth. But whether the rest of the mares knew it or not, was that there was a more hidden layer within her words. She seemed to have been saddened by the single fact that she was unable to say anything to Rarity. What had caused that thought to surface in the mind of Rainbow, was another question.

Perhaps the two had managed to find some common ground to build a friendship upon? It was yet another matter where Twilight could have focused herself upon. Which helped her in the risk to not start thinking too much about home.

Danger lurked everywhere on the seas and with the thunder just rumbling down upon them like it did, they all were terrified and left over at the mercy of the sea. Applejack seemed to have been the only one that was able to withstand it all. But that didn’t came as a surprise to many of them.

“It’s the way of the sailor,” she spoke just before she had laid her head back on the pillow. What then followed was a gentle exhale that came through her nostrils. “A sailor comes and goes out of the lives of others, appearing and disappearing whenever duty calls or lets him go. Rarity’s just another example of that principle, same as Ah’m.”

The words were certainly harsh, perhaps a little bit cold even for the admiral. But they were all true words. The very fact that they were true scared Fluttershy a whole lot more. The pegasus shook her head inside of her hammock and tried not to think too much about it.

The last thing that she needed was to be spooked too much by somepony who had left them as a group. The entire group had already started to split up. It only would have gotten worse the closer they had gotten to the capital of their land. The end was closing in and they all felt it.

Once again were the thoughts of terror taking her over. Once again did she thought about things that didn’t require much thought to begin with. She just had to take her mind off of it all like Twilight did. Everypony needed their sleep actually. The storm would continue to rage on for hours anyway.

Time came and went before the captain of their vessel finally made his way down to their resting place. His old eyes glanced over each of the mares and he noticed how most of them were still actually awake. Awake enough to hear him talk at least. “I’m afraid that we have to sit the storm out, lasses,” he said to them when the ship’s swell had become truly worrisome.

All of them knew what that meant but it also meant that they could sleep for a little while longer. The stallion bit his lips because he didn’t wanted to leave them hanging with just bad news. He wanted to give them that little spark that they needed, for there was literally no reaction upon his words whatsoever.

“Which means that, over a day and a half we will be sailing into the port of Canterlot,” he added to the words. Even though the words and the news should have been great for all of them, there still wasn’t the much desired reaction that he had hoped for. It almost seemed to him as if the mares didn’t really wanted to go home or something along those lines.

He wouldn’t have been truly mistaken on the matter. The mares had been spending so much time together and out of their normal lives that getting back to them would just seemed strange. Yet the company of mares couldn’t exist forever either. No, everything had to come to an end and they were pretty close to it.

Inside of the hammocks had everypony heard the words of the old stallion. Some were happy, but all were sad deep inside of their consciousness. Whether the sad thoughts were suppressed by everything happy or just given the free walk was up to them. Twilight at least was having a truly difficult time on the matter. She had been gathering the mares and led them to the best of her abilities.

Within the snap of a finger in the gears of time, would it all have been over. It caused a little tear to be travelling down her cheek as she didn’t wanted it to end. Not yet and not in the way that it most likely would have done. She wanted to keep them all together, somehow. Perhaps she could make a drawing of them all as a group which would serve as a reminder.

That idea still excluded Rarity’s very presence, which meant that it was still incomplete. Another sigh was released through her nostrils before she heard the hooves of the old stallion go up to the deck again. Most likely he would have gone back to his own cabin to think things over. Something that Twilight had been doing for far too long in her own mind.

The unicorn soothsayer just didn’t seemed to be able to get to sleep. She constantly had to think about things that weren’t for the right reasons. Thoughts about the company, herself and their completed task all just surged through her like that.

Though out of everything was there one set of words that kept on lingering deep within her mind. Words that were spoken by the ancient dragon that was simply known as the Eternal One. His last said words to the unicorn continued to be hammered against her. The fact that she carried the fire of an alicorn inside of her kept on being smashed against and within her.

Whatever he truly had meant with his words she didn’t know. She didn’t really wanted to know either. While it was true that she knew one alicorn, the chance couldn’t have been there that she also had the potential of becoming one, right? Twilight didn’t saw it happening to herself, not anytime soon at least. The sudden ability to fly and have the power of all three races at her possession, it just didn’t seemed to be suiting her one bit.

She was just a simple soothsayer that listened to the will of the goddesses and did what was asked of her. All while bringing the way or the soothsayers over to the students that she taught to. She couldn’t have been worthy of becoming an alicorn, let alone having their fire within her. It just didn’t seemed to have been right in her own eyes.

Thoughts like that caused her to stay awake for almost all of the night. All the way up to the point where she just removed herself out of the hammock. She had to get some fresh air whether it was still storming or not. The unicorn walked up the stairs that were leading to the top deck as she noticed something.

Or better worded: she noticed that something was actually missing. There was no heavy swell and no heavy sounds of waves crashing against the wood. All that she heard was the fine rain ticking against the wood of the top deck.

The chance was there that the storm had already passed them by and that they were just having the last little pieces from it. At least that was the thing that she hoped for. Whether it was that way or not could only have been discovered by going one way. She had to go straight up the deck and see for herself.

Twilight took a deep inhale through her mouth before the eyes were closed a second or two. She then gave a gentle nod to herself and spoke a singular word. “Okay.” And then she was off. Off to the deck that laid above her.

The rain splattered against her face like a fine haze. It wasn’t the massive drops anymore but the much finer variant of it. The drizzle was actually a lot more annoying than the actual rain though the soothsayer could be living with it. When her eyes opened, she did notice the old stallion with a lantern at the deck of the ship. Of course there was the natural curiosity raised within Twilight, until she thought of the fact that he could have prepared everything for the trip the following sunrise.

Though it wouldn’t have taken too long before the two anthronies noticed one another. The light of the lantern was actually right enough to light up half of the deck. Once he caught the unicorn in his eyes, the stallion could only give her a gentle chuckle before his words spoke up. “What’s the matter, lass? Unable to sleep now even that the sea is calm? What’s troubling that mind of yours, if this old sailor may ask you?” he spoke to her while he moved in upon her location with calm hooves.

The soothsayer herself was unable to answer the question that was asked to her with words of her own. She knew that any answer given to him could have been one that perhaps was going the other way, or perhaps the right way. Stutters of inaudible words were made by her as she shook her head a little bit.

They both remained standing in the drizzle while the light was hung back upon the mast. The mare remained standing in the opening to the deck below as the old stallion leaned against the main mast of the ship. His eyes never seemed to have been able to take themselves away from Twilight Sparkle.

There happened to be a rather mysterious yet interesting glance to her that pulled him back to her. He couldn’t have explained what it was or why it happened, yet he couldn’t complain too much about it either.

Twilight still struggled to herself about whether or not she would have told him the matter that was upon her mind. The longer she stared at his face, the more she opened up to him. Almost as if his old expression actually was an invitation of security. To her it felt as if she could just vent everything that was upon her mind and not get into too much trouble for it.

It was a downright crazy thought for certain. Even Twilight had to admit the fact as it was. Yet she couldn’t leave the stallion with an unanswered question. So the only thing that the mare could have done was to answer to the best of her abilities. With a gentle exhale she removed herself from the doorway and leaned against the wooden railing of it. The arms went crossways against her chest as she looked him in the eyes.

The expression never changed within his and she felt as if he was inviting her to actually tell the troubles that had been placed upon her mind. There was no actual way around it all. The unicorn had to tell what was on her mind, she had to tell him everything in order to make her mind become clear of matters again. The expression that then followed was an awkward little giggle that came from her, followed by a little shake of the head.

“Don’t be like that, I won’t spill your secrets to anypony. You have a coltfriend waiting for you in Canterlot?” he asked to her. Whether she liked it or not, but he had begun to actually fish for whatever thing Twilight couldn’t sleep because.

"What?!” the soothsayer exclaimed to him. She was genuinely surprised with his words. Out of all the words that could have been said to her, he had to come with a series of the most unpredictable ever. The mare was caught off guard and shook her head once more. Though that time it was done in just complete and utter confusion.

“N-No, there’s no coltfriend waiting for me,” added Twilight quickly.

“Then what is troubling you, lass?” the old stallion asked her as he rose an eyebrow.

Twilight couldn’t walk around it anymore even if she tried. The unicorn had to tell him everything that was upon her mind. “Okay,” she said with a deep exhale. “It’s, about the trip that we made as a group. Just, promise me that you take everything as I say and don’t spill it through to anypony else.”

The old stallion could see in his eyes and hear with his ears that the unicorn meant her words. Whatever words would have been shared between the two of them, it would remain confidential. He only gave her a gentle nod to confirm that everything would remain between them. The time to tell the tale had come for her.

The soothsayer took a gentle inhale as she then realized that there really wasn’t any way back for her anymore. She either had to lie everything together in the hope that he would take it, or tell him the truth as it was. Though in her eyes there was only one way through which everything could have been solved.

What followed next were the words of Twilight being spoken in truth. She told him everything that had happened to her, everything that the company had been going through before they met him.

The stallion was visually impressed with the tales that the mare told him and gently stroked over his chin. “That’s quite the tale that you’re having there, lass, no argument there. But you’re wondering, why it all happened, aren’t you?” he spoke to her.

Twilight nodded to him before she added one other little thing. “That, and I’m just wondering what the dragon meant with his words. That I carry the fire of an alicorn. It’s all just, how do I put it nicely? Confusing, might be the word I’m looking for here.”

The old stallion nodded once again to the soothsayer before he made his own reply on the matter. “Life is a curious thing, as you may have seen countless times yourself, lass. Some things are more easily explained than others. And then there are some, that can’t be explained by anything.”

His words didn’t really give a clear answer upon the troubling thoughts of Twilight. If anything, they only made it actually as clear as mud to her. Everything that he had told her, she already knew. Yet she never spoke any of it out of respect for the aged stallion.

Seconds went by in silence while the drizzle continued to pour down upon the two of them. One of her words seemed to have sparked a rather great interest in the old stallion, he had sunk deep in very own thoughts. Whether it was up to Twilight to disturb him from aid thoughts remained to be seen. She thought about it perhaps more times than ever as he did seem dangerously close to slipping into a state of unconsciousness.

But then he shocked back up and looked around the place for a little while. The gentle swell of the vessel was actually more than enough to get him back in the there and then again. He once more stroked his chin before the words left his mouth. “The ancient race of alicorns, not seen in years upon the face of the land, but you have me believe that there’s one up in the Frozen North,” he spoke to her then. Finally there came a new set of words out of his very mouth.

A deep exhale followed through his nostrils while he didn’t seemed to be really believing the words that she said. Yet at the other end he didn’t judge her either. He hadn’t seen an alicorn in years but that didn’t stood equal to the fact that they weren’t there anymore. Though it did open a door inside of his mind that seemed to have been closed for an awfully long time.

There was another shock that went through the stallion before he closed his eyes almost to the halfway point. What followed next were the words spoken in a calm, but also near quiet tone. Almost as if he didn’t wanted that the other mares knew what he would be saying. “Legends has it that the goddesses were once alicorns in ancient times. Back in the time when things were a little bit more, primitive, shall we say.”

The eyes of Twilight went wide as she hadn’t told him anything about the fact that they had seen a stone statue in the shape of a pony Celestia. The matter only struck Twilight was both interesting and curious as she couldn’t believe it at all. “How do you know all of this, if I may ask? You’re an earth anthrony, so the usage of magic is something out of the question. No offence, just setting the facts straight.”

The old stallion couldn’t help himself but to release a chuckle towards the unicorn. She was caught off guard on a subject she thought to have known everything. “Questions are there to be answered, lass, that much is certain. However, some questions are best left unanswered. So allow me to answer your question with another question.”

“G-Go right ahead,” the soothsayer spoke. She removed a strand of wet hair out of her eye.

The stallion pulled a gentle grin across his lips before he said the words he wanted to say. The tone he said them in was curious, interesting perhaps, almost a little mischief was to be found as well. “Legends always have a core of truth. The strongest unicorn in the land all that time ago had claimed to have the power of reincarnation. So what say you, do you believe in reincarnation?”

Chapter XCIII

The question that was being asked to the unicorn wasn’t one where she particular had thought about often in the gears of time. For it literally came out of nowhere and she initially didn’t knew how to actually reply upon it. Sure she could have just shunned it off and pretended that it never had happened. Yet the more she looked into his eyes, the more there was this mysterious pull towards them. The mare almost had gotten lost within his eyes as she shook her head a couple of times.

Once more were the beliefs questioned and she had to pick a side. Things never could have done easy and that happened to be once more proof upon the fact. A deep sigh was given off by the unicorn before she shook her head. Her wet strands of hair moved in thick clusters from side to side as she began to just wander over the deck in silence.

“I understand it isn’t a question that you get every single day, so I give you the time to think about it, lass,” the old stallion spoke before his attention was turned to the skies. Something high up there had captured his attention as he seemed to actually be missing something. One of his eyebrows rose up before the lips curled up into a smile. “Here it comes.”

Twilight turned her attention back to him with another gaze of utter confusion. “W-What? Here comes, what? You mean my answer upon your question?” she questioned to him with a face that spoke of utter confusion. Not much seemed to continue to make sense within the mind of the unicorn. It almost seemed as if everything came just crashing down upon her like that.

As much as she wanted to argue with the stallion of old, there really wasn’t the place nor the time to do such a thing. She held a great respect for the old sailor who they basically granted his final voyage upon the ocean. That little fact alone was one that captured her attention more than any.

Yet Twilight shook it off as she realized the same thing. Among the silence she too noticed that something had gone missing. She had lost the track of time itself and that was perhaps for the better as the drizzle had stopped falling down. The fine rain that had plagued them during the first couple of minutes –or possible hours– of their conversation had moved along with the rest of the storm.

Though Twilight still didn’t knew what else could have been coming. So many ideas went through her mind, but she remained silent as the ocean. Perhaps the stallion was just suffering from sleep deprivation? After all that had happened, it was a possible candidate for it. Though at the other end he seemed to have been perfectly capable in doing his things again.

Her eyes watched over the clouds that covered the night skies while she remained standing upon her spot. It were the eyes that were granted all the time in the world to witness whatever would be coming. Unless it indeed was the answer upon the question that came.

The matter was just so confusing to her for the moment. She didn’t had a single clue about where she had to look or what she had to do. The old sailor chuckled up softly before he gently shook his head. “You have much to learn, young soothsayer. The beauties of the world are out there, for those that have the patience to witness them,” he said to her with a calm smile.

Once again seemed Twilight to have been struck by something that couldn’t have been truly explained. She wanted to reply to his words, but didn’t found the appropriate words for the matter. She opened her mouth for just a little moment in order to say something, but all that got out of it was just a small gasp for air.

The mouth was then just closed again like that, then she shook her head. She didn’t had the mental strength to argue with the stallion at that hour in the night. She felt that she had become tired. Tired enough to fall asleep at any given moment. But the old sailor had perhaps one or two more surprises for her in store.

One of his arms pointed upwards to the skies and just stayed there. The unicorn followed the arm and watched to whatever could be seen. Her eyes went wide and she felt as if she could hit herself right in the head in the moment. How could she have missed something that was from the scale that she saw?

It was high above her that the clouds were breaking. Just breaking into tiny little plucks as the storm continued to travel along. Though behind those very clouds it could be seen. The massive object that was often associated with the tides of the ocean and somepony perhaps a little bit special to Twilight herself.

And behind the clouds it became visible again for them all to see. The massive rock high in the skies revealed itself once more to the unicorn. The moon itself became visible and provided enough light for the two of them. It even managed to cast a shadow upon the deck.

Two shadows that belonged to their living masters, locked in both time and space until they were allowed to move. But they could only move as their masters allowed so. Locked in a life of mimicking, shadows could only do as their master commanded them to do.

Just the sheer sight of the massive moon over the water from the ocean were a beautiful sight given to Twilight and the old sailor. Perhaps that was the reason of why he wanted to sail out one more time? The sheer size of the moon was unique for the time of year and only witnessed by very few actually.

Somehow did most of the ships always seemed to be missing the giant moon in the skies at certain times of year. Most likely they wouldn’t have noticed it because of the fact that they were sailing under clouded skies.

That storm that tormented them would have been the direct reaction of the world upon the moon’s massive size. Nature and magic worked hand in hand, but the anthronies didn’t have any control over it at all. A thought that was both fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

Yet the matter still was unresolved. Twilight still hadn’t answered the question that was asked by the old stallion. And she wasn’t a hair wiser about his words. It was a lose-lose.

The unicorn turned her attention back from the moon and closed her eyes for a moment. She wanted to bathe within the light of the massive rock in the orbit of space for just a moment longer. A deep exhale was then released through her nostrils as the eyes opened up again.

Once more was she allowed the wonderful sight of the moon but gently turned her attention over to the old sailor. He still stood against the mast but quickly removed himself off of it. The shadow that he carried danced along with him as he looked once again to the unicorn. The mare smiled back to him for the moment.

Until her eyes were caught by something. Something that moved behind the stallion. Something that was behind the stallion moved and it wasn’t his, hers or any other being’s doing. None of the other mares were awake in the hour that they were and that only left Twilight and the old stallion. The unicorn turned as pale as snow for a couple of seconds before she just shook her head vividly. She must have seen it wrong, right?

But she couldn’t have seen it wrong. She knew what she saw in the moment and her eyes scanned off the entire deck. There was something within the corner of her eye that moved. Something that she could have best described as a black shadow. A black shadow that darted over the deck of the vessel in the light of the moon.

“Black shadow, black shadow,” the soothsayer repeated to herself a couple of times.

Even though her tones were low, the old stallion could still hear the very words that she spoke to herself. An eyebrow was raised up by him once more as he gained the curiosity to know the finer details about it all. Yet the guts to just plainly ask her what she saw wasn’t there. That, or he didn’t wanted to know what she saw.

“Black shadow, black shadow,” the unicorn continued to repeat just before she snipped her fingers a couple of times. But her attention always laid focused too high. The unicorn looked to things that were at her eye level. She had to look down, down towards the wooden floor that was the deck. A mysterious voice inside of her head actually whispered that to her.

She didn’t even knew that the voice was there and thought to have automatically glanced downwards. Only to see something that she had never expected. For the shadow of the old stallion had literally changed. It had changed into that of a being that was thought to have been long dead. A being that once claimed to be power, but didn't succeed in beating the gears of time.

The worst of it all? Twilight knew the name of the being that she saw within the shadows.

“Starswirl the Bearded?” she asked almost with a terrifying whisper in her voice. If the old sailor happened to be Starswirl, everything that they knew could be changed forever. The most powerful unicorn in the time of the equine Equestrians had survived the gears of time and had forged a new body for himself. That was the way it seemed at least.

The eyes of the unicorn shifted back over to the earth anthrony body of the sailor who calmly removed himself from the railing. “I don’t think that the answer upon my question shall be given today, lass, seeing how you’re so shocked right now,” he said to her with a gentle smile. Without a further word he placed his hands behind his back and nodded gently to her. Only to then proceed upon the route towards his cabin.

The old stallion had managed to baffle the unicorn more than she had been during the whole of the trip. Words tried to make their way out of the mouth she had, but there wasn’t anything useful that came out.

Only once he had opened the door of his cabin did the mare realize how small her window of time had become. “Wait!” she almost yelled towards him. Yet halfway through the word she realized that the rest of the mares were still asleep.

“Hm?” was released by the old sailor as he turned back around. “You’re able to my question, lass?” he asked to her with a curious expression within his eyes. He perked his ears when he became curious to what she had to tell him.

“You’re, you’re Starswirl the Bearded, aren’t you? Ancient old unicorn thought to have been just fiction, right? Y-Your shadow showed me, a, a unicorn with a beard,” she spilled to him.

“Lots of anthronies have a beard and a horn, that doesn’t make me him in any way,” the stallion replied almost coldly. If Twilight didn’t know any better, it would have seemed to her that he tried to avoid the subject matter.

So there most likely would have been only one shot at trying to get him to cooperate with her. And that was to answer the question that he had asked her. “To, answer your question, I do believe in reincarnation, yes. Some friendships and bonds exceed death and always seem to return in one form or the other. Perhaps our view on the subject of reincarnation are different, but I do believe in my version of it. So answer me, are you Starswirl the Bearded?”

The words of the unicorn were demanding. She needed the answers upon the matter more than anything in the moment. That was perhaps the greatest strength that the unicorn carried within her. The ability of wanting to know the answers upon the questions she had by almost any means possible.

The old stallion released a gentle sigh through his nostrils before he closed the door again. The unicorn was glad that he hadn’t stepped through it. For it meant to her that they could be talking to one another for a little bit longer. “Our views upon reincarnation are indeed different, but they do come down upon the same fact, I give you that lass,” he spoke to Twilight in a calm tone. His eyes were focused once more upon Twilight as he gave her a gentle smile.

"The answer upon your question though,” he started before he pointed to the mare. It almost felt as if he wanted to make sure that she would have understood what followed next. “Is something that may have to be hidden from the world. Time stops for nopony and always ticks. Who knows, perhaps I indeed am Starswirl the Bearded, but who isn’t to say that you’re his daughter, reincarnated?”

In essence was the answer upon the question asked by Twilight was just a massive ‘maybe’ on the whole matter. There wasn’t any clear indication about what it was and what it wasn’t. Twilight wanted to continue asking what it was, but she didn’t had the right questions anymore. She had asked the most direct question that there was in her books and he just answered it with a maybe.

The only thing that the mare could have done in the moment was to throw the towel in the ring. She had to give up on the matter and accept her defeat. She had lost the battle of knowledge but she hadn’t lost the war. “Then,” she began with some difficulty within her voice, “I bid you a good night, good sir.”

“The same can be said for you, lass. Have some good night rest and think about home, for you’ll be seeing that soon enough again,” the old stallion said to her before he opened the door to his cabin again. He then just walked through it and closed the door again, allowing Twilight to remain standing there for a moment longer.

“Yeah, home,” she whispered to herself before she turned her attention away from the door. Her eyes rolled over to the doorway that would have brought her below decks and made the decision to get some much needed sleep in her hammock. Who knew, perhaps it was her who was suffering from the effects of sleep deprivation?

The mare walked down the stairs with a quiet set of hooves before she stood again upon the floor. Once more there were quiet steps made as she didn’t wanted to wake anypony up. Though the heavy hooves upon the wood always seemed to be having a massive problem.

But by luck or skill had Twilight managed to walk her way over to her own hammock and hoisted herself into it. The mare closed her eyes while her hands were placed down upon her chest. The legs were crossed over each other and she began to breath calmly. Naturally there were all sorts of thoughts going through her mind. Thoughts that she even thought about for some time.

In the end of everything had the unicorn enough of everything and she would have fallen asleep. How long she would have been travelling away was a fact that couldn’t be said beforehand. She could have slept for about an hour, but also for half a day, she didn’t even wanted to know it.

A massive yawn was released by the unicorn before she finally felt to drift away. The thoughts became less and less as the mare sunk deeper into the realm of dreams. There would give herself the time to remember the words of the stallion properly. As well as trying to identify exactly who he possibly happened to be.

The eyelids of the unicorn began to tremble gently as the golden reddish rays of the sunlight once more made contact with her skin. A deep groan was given off by the mare as she turned around in her hammock. There was one little problem, she slept in a hammock. And with the amounts of turning and twisting that she did, it would have been a matter of time before she forcefully removed herself out of it.

And she woke herself by giving a knock to the floor. Another groan was given off by the unicorn as she had met the hard, wooden floor of the deck. The unicorn hoisted herself up after all of the thoughts and all the dreams had just vanished. Most likely they would have been stored somewhere within her mind, but not on a place where she could have easily reached it.

The hands rubbed all over the face while she noticed that her clothing was in fact dry, which meant she had been asleep for quite the couple of hours. Though how many hours she didn’t know in the moment. The body of the mare rose itself up as one hand continued to rub over it. The eyes were closed numerous times as the rheum was taken ever so carefully out of them.

There was a sheer collection of that that usually didn’t happen to be there in any normal circumstances. Then again, what had been normal about everything to begin with? The mare made some rather uncomfortable sounding noises as she tried to clean herself up to the best of her abilities in the hope that it all could have been forgiven by herself.

The longer she seemed to be working on her own appearance, the more she realized the fact that the remaining four hammocks were emptied as well. “What time is it?” the unicorn asked to herself as she walked over to the stairs leading to the top deck. Though she did happen to make the deadly mistake of looking straight into the outside world.

Her eyes were still used to the darkness of the space she was in and the overload of light was something that caused both of her eyes to be shut straight away. Not to mention the instant headache that she gained from it as well. Another grumble of anger was released by her as she shook her head from side to side.

Everything wouldn’t really be working together from the moment she woke up. It was just going to be one of those days again. The unicorn rubbed through her eyes once more as she heard the voices of the other mares upon the deck.

The calming winds indicated that they were sailing again at a moderate rate, she needed information though. Information about everything and only the mares could have provided that, or the old stallion. In the matter she trusted the mares with whom she had travelled just a little bit more than the old sailor.

The unicorn sat down upon the stairs for a little minute while she every so often stared to the skies above. To her knowledge must it have been somewhere along the lines of noon. The sun shone its light almost straight on the ship. There also wasn’t a cloud to be seen upon the skies and that pleased the soothsayer. For it meant that they had left the storm far behind them and it would have been a literal smooth sailing.

The unicorn thought that she had sat down long enough for the headache to have vanished from her head. So the only thing that she could have done was to just make her appearance upon the deck of the vessel. It was her time to tell the world that she was still there as well.

The mare wandered up to the stairs once more and appeared on the top deck with a little bit less than actual fresh expression upon her face. The lack of a good splash of water in her face had done a terrible job to her actually. Nonetheless could she still see everything fine and she felt awake.

“Ah, look who we have there!” the voice of the old stallion spoke. Twilight’s attention turned over to him with a gentle smile before she made a gentle nod with her head. The nod was returned by the captain as he adjusted the helm once more.

“About time I got out of the hammock, didn’t I? Tell me, how long have I been sleeping, if I may ask?” she asked to him as straight as she could. As much as Twilight wanted to ask any of the other mares, he seemed to have been her best choice in the moment. For even though she heard the other mares, she couldn’t actually see them.

Her question was something that caused the stallion to actually frown a little bit upon. He had to think about the fact of how long she had slept. That alone couldn’t have been a good thing at all. The unicorn already began to fear for her dear life as she hoped that he would say half a day.

But the reply that she would have gotten out of him blasted everything straight out of the window. “I would say about a day and a half, lass. But don’t you worry about it. Your friends need you more then you need me in the moment. Over at the bow, we’re close enough to see it,” he said to her before he pointed to the bow of the vessel.

The unicorn made a gentle bow to him before she turned around to go over to the bow of the vessel. Twilight had a thousand and one thoughts going through her head as she finally saw the remaining four members of the company standing there.

All of them –including Pinkie Pie– were looking at something. Something that was blocked by one of the sails for Twilight’s very own. So in silence she continued on with her path and walked underneath the sail. Then it became known to her just to what they were all looking. The feelings of Twilight rushed through her like mad as she couldn’t believe the sights that she saw.

Within the cloudless skies it could clearly be seen. Still a little bit away in the distance, but it was there. The soothsayer couldn’t believe it herself though. She brought a hand to her mouth as only the tips of her ring, middle, and index finger were placed upon her lips.

Yet that sudden gasp for air that was given behind them caused the rest of the mares to turn themselves around to face Twilight. All of them were of course happy that she still could be found within the realm of the living. Though the time to give her a warm welcome wasn’t really there. They all had something else to look forward to.

Far off in the distance it could be seen, the home of the soothsayers and perhaps one of the most amazing looking buildings in the whole of the land. The castle of Canterlot stood there with unlimited pride and majestic upon the top of the mountain, as it had been standing upon for so long already. Twilight couldn’t help herself as she wiped away a small little tear.

The unicorn had left the place so long ago but then she could almost smell it again. The unicorn soothsayer was almost back home again. She could almost say that she had done what needed to be done. That was a massive relief that came off of her shoulders. She was close to just dropping by at her home that the emotions were literally going through the roof.

And everypony else almost appeared to share that same thought. They were almost ready to make their own departures from the company and leave the adventure behind them for what it was. To let it wait for it to become a great tale that they could tell at an age of old. At least that was the plan for Twilight, though said plan was doomed to fail from the get go. For both of her parents as well as her brother naturally wanted to know the finer details.

Though it didn’t matter to her in the moment. In the moment had she only eyes for the castle on top of the mountain. The unicorn was almost back, almost back to what could have been considered her comfort zone. One of the few places within the realm of existence where she felt that she actually belonged. To her, there was no better place.

The little vessel maneuvered its way through the massive vessels of both merchant and the very navy itself. Even though there was no scheduled arriving date for the little ship, there wasn’t anything from the navy itself that came to investigate. Just the sheer size of the vessel also helped out with that. Or lack thereof.

Not to mention the fact that if it wanted to do harm, it wouldn’t have been sailing that casually into the port of Canterlot. So everything seemed to have been normal for it to pass through the first security checks. That didn’t mean that whenever it would do something harmful, there wouldn’t have been severe consequences for the crew.

All of the sailors were still oblivious to the fact that admiral Applejack herself was actually sailing aboard the vessel. But the admiral didn’t minded it too much actually. She loved to just sail in for once without being recognized by any and all. The rest of the mares were just happy about the fact that they could be sailing in without too much of a problem heading their way.

~~~~

Eventually had the little ship found a place where it could dock and did so with both great precision and accuracy. Twilight used her magic to tie the ropes that would secure the vessel to the dock and Applejack was then the one who lowered the boarding ramp. With her being the first one to walk down from it as well.

The earth anthrony gestured to them all to remain onboard as they had entered the port illegally and unannounced. Which meant that the mare had to set a couple of things straight with the customs. Another interesting fact could have been that she never actually took off from the boarding ramp. Instead she just remained standing upon it with her hands behind her back.

All of her weapons had been taken off and they were safely stored in the void storage for the moment. Though there was no mistake that it was the actual admiral Applejack. Not too many anthronies carried a leg like she did. It wasn’t all that much later that two officers and a rather stern looking anthrony all came into their direction. The glasses on the official looking anthrony were set right as the questioning could begin. Everything went with the normal procedures to make sure they would legally be able to set a hoof in Canterlot harbor.

But the waiting was the part that killed it for most of them, especially for Pinkie Pie. The lamia needed to move, slither around like the creature that she was. Only problem happened to be that she couldn’t. To the customs clerk was she an animal that they were trying to bring into port. To which Applejack would rectify that costly mistake from his department.

In order to take the attention away from the fighting anthronies did Twilight point to the castle at the top of the mountain. “There Pinkie, that’s where you’re going to live as well, together with me and a couple dozen other anthronies that you might like.”

Pinkie’s attention was indeed then turned away from both the admiral and the clerk. But when she turned into the direction of the castle, there was a new feeling that came to her. A feeling that made it seem as if she couldn’t believe the words that were said by Twilight. Of course had she seen the castle already at sea, but that time she looked at it from the harbor’s point of view and it only made it look even more interesting, as well as intimidating.

For the lamia almost turned into actual stone as she looked upon her new ‘home.’ She couldn’t have believed it that that was going to be the place where she would continue to live her life in. There was a natural enjoyment that came from deep within the soul of the lamia, as well as another question. A question that she wanted to have answered before anything else would have happened.

“W-Why Twilight? Why do you, take me into your home?” Pinkie asked, baffled as she was.

The question had been asked a couple of dozen times before during the trip already and the answer would always have been the same. Except that that time Twilight gave a little bit more context to her words. The time had fallen upon her that she finally would have revealed the possible true reasons of why she would take Pinkie Pie in with her.

Yet the words wouldn’t have been too easy for her to say. “It’s, how do I put it simple,” the soothsayer mumbled to herself before she placed her focus upon Pinkie Pie. “It’s that, well, since you can’t go back into the surface of the earth anymore and also have gotten used to our world, I think it would actually be for the better.”

Pinkie wanted to interrupt the soothsayer who then silently shushed her. The story and the reasoning behind everything still wasn’t done. “I’m not going to keep you as some kind of pet or experiment, I’m not that cruel. No, you shall live your life as you see fit and, if you like and want to, may actually choose a location of your own to stay once the time is there. Once anthronies won’t think too differently from lamia’s anymore and accepted their existence.”

“So…” Pinkie started while tried to fit all of the puzzle pieces together as they were. “You’re going to, protect me?”

The similarities were of course naturally drawn from the experiences that they had within the caverns. And Twilight could only have nodded a massive yes to those words. “After how you have protected all of us in the caverns, it is the least I can do back for you. But if you want to go back underground, don’t you ever hesitate to say so. I’m not going to keep you against your will.”

“And risk becoming chum again? Uhh, no thanks, Twilight,” added Pinkie quick.

The soothsayer understood the direction that the lamia came from and wanted to speak up again, but she was cut off. The metalized thumping upon the wood of Applejack’s iron hoof caught all of their attention. They could only have hoped that the admiral had some good news for them all. They were so close to getting to shore and just wanted to take it with both hands in order to get on the mainland again.

The hopes were set high while the preparations for disappointment were made by each of them in silence. Nothing had come easy to them so far, why would it change within that moment?

Chapter XCIV

“Well, everything’s taken into account for and we’re officially allowed to enter the harbor of Canterlot,” said Applejack to each of them after she had returned upon the deck of the little vessel. Naturally there was the feeling of relief that went through all of the mares. For they were allowed to leave the small vessel and return to their lives as they normally would have been doing and gone about. At least that would have been the plan for three of them.

Sighs and exhales of utter relief were given off by the anthronies before the admiral placed her hands in her side. Though Rainbow was having a little question for her. One that was actually boggling in the minds of all of them in the moment. “What did you say to him, actually?” she asked to the admiral with a slight curiosity found within her tone.

The earth anthrony released a gentle chuckle before she shook her head lightly from side to side. “Rainbow, if Ah told ya what I had told him, yar mind would spin ‘round like mad. A lot of customs had to be done and things by the books,” replied Applejack to Rainbow before a gentle smirk went across her lips. It almost seemed as if the admiral had taken some kind of strange delight in the fact that she could confuse the major of the air force.

Still, it didn’t took away from the very fact that they were allowed to leave the vessel as it was. The unicorn soothsayer felt the relief crawling up from the deepest part of her soul and was actually relieved that everything was over. Their entire journey had just been ended by those words. The company of mares had feared that the time would have come but finally was it there.

Yet when the mares were willing to unload themselves from the vessel, the eyes of the soothsayer shot over to the helm of the ship. Something had been missing from there for quite some time already and she only just noticed that. “Girls, wait here for a moment,” she spoke before her legs rushed her over to the stairs. The rest of the mares had a confused gaze within their eyes. They all tried to understand what she meant with her words.

While the mare rushed up the steps, she ended at the place where it all had begun for her. She stood at the raised hind deck and looked over it with a set of strange eyes. She was searching for something. Something that she swore had been there before she walked over to the bow of the vessel. “Where are you?” she whispered to herself.

In her eyes she wanted to have found the old sailor himself. The old stallion with whom she had conversed for such a long time before. Yet he didn’t appear to be on the ship itself anymore. That fact alone caused the mare to raise an eyebrow or two. She didn’t understood the reasoning that he could have had behind him if he just left.

Twilight would have gone over to the stairs again and scratched herself behind the head for a moment. There must have been a place where he had hidden himself, right? “Girls, I’ll take a look in the captain’s cabin. I’m afraid that we miss somepony,” she said louder to all of them.

Fluttershy then rose an eyebrow up. The doctor didn’t seemed to be truly understanding what was meant with the words. “Who do we miss then? Outside of Rarity.” Her words were filled with an unusual curiosity but also with a gentle fear for the words that were about to come.

“I think, I’m pretty sure that we miss the old stallion, matter of fact. I, haven’t seen him ever since I came back on deck again,” returned Twilight just before she made the turn to the cabin.

The four other mares couldn’t help themselves but to raise an eyebrow to the words of Twilight. Though she was right on the matter. None of them had seen the aged stallion anymore after they had docked at the port. Thoughts of literal idiocy went through each of them as they didn’t really believe that he could have just left them like that.

On the other end of the spectrum, he could have just done it. The matter was something that confused a lot of the mares perhaps a little bit too much for their liking. But they still had to wait for Twilight. The unicorn had placed her hand upon the doorknob that led her to the captain’s cabin.

Hesitation then struck her. She didn’t wanted to disturb the old stallion from his possible sleep. Yet she had to know whether or not he was still there. She had to make certain that everything was still okay with him. It was the least that she could have done for the work that he had done for the group of mares. Her hand actually began to tremble just a little bit before she turned the knob.

The sounds all echoed within the ears of the mares while as they awaited in calm whatever it was that Twilight wanted to do. The mare had opened the door and wanted to push it open. But the second that she wanted to make said push, there was nothing that even bunged. The wooden door seemed to have been stuck right inside of the hinges.

It almost seemed like that the door was locked from the inside. That fact alone confused the unicorn a whole lot more than it should have been doing. Yet she scratched herself behind the head once more. Mystery upon mystery had been given to them time and time again. Though that matter was perhaps one of the most curious ones so far.

“Won’t budge?” Applejack asked to her. Sadly enough was the admiral only asking to the road that was already known to them all. Twilight just nodded after she had turned herself around to face the admiral. That nod was enough for her to realize that they were having yet another trouble upon their flanks. Though she wasn’t in the mood to actually start upon another wild goose chase.

There must have been a good reason of why the stallion had locked himself within the cabin, right? But Twilight wasn’t too convinced about that thought, because it also crossed her mind. So the only thing that she could have done in the moment was to just charge up her horn and do some tests that hopefully would have been able to reveal something.

“You just go ahead, I will finish this off and join you on the dock again,” the soothsayer said after she glanced in the eyes of a couple mares that stood there. They all wanted to just leave the vessel and back to the shore. They were tired of being dragged all over the place and the finish was literally right within their sights. The finish line was right there, ready to be crossed if they so desired and Twilight gave them that opportunity.

So with all of the mares making their departure from the vessel, the unicorn herself had the time to investigate if there were any magical traces to be found. The horn acted as some sort of receiver for the arcane powers while she began to scan the door as a whole.

Almost in an instant had she noticed how there was something that crawled up to her. There was indeed a secondary source of magic aboard that very ship. But outside of her, there didn’t appear to have been any actual forced or living things present. The mare rose an eyebrow to the matter as she only had one thought that seemed to have been able to fit in the matter.

“He must have teleported away, just before we docked or something. But he’s an earth anthrony, how could such a thing have been possible for him?” Twilight closed her eyes for a moment. Behind the closed lids she began to remember the shadow that he carried.

Something about that very shadow would have held the answers that she was looking for. For the very shadow of a bearded unicorn in pony form wasn’t something that would have been forgotten that easily by any being. What followed afterwards was that the mare opened her eyes again and released the magic from her horn. She gave a gentle nod to herself as she remembered just what the matter must have been.

“Clever stallion,” she whispered to herself, “you are him, aren’t you?” The mare was certain of it all by that point in time. She had met with the legendary stallion from ancient times, Starswirl the Bearded. It was in fact something that caused her to chuckle as she didn’t believed it herself. Another shake of her head was given off as she left the door of the cabin and made her way over to the boarding ramp.

~~~~

Once Twilight had again solid ground under her hooves, it was a little strange at first. She was naturally used to the swell of the little vessel and her mind still tried to adjust itself to that little fact. Which resulted in her going over from time to time. She tried to correct herself with her balance, but that wasn’t something necessary.

In the distance she heard the chuckles of Applejack coming in her ears and her eyes looked into the direction of the admiral. “Keep on laughing you, come the arcane arts and it be me that chuckles last,” countered Twilight to her with a cutting glare in her eyes.

The admiral instantly held her mouth before she shook her head from side to side. Perhaps the words of Twilight were on the right place. But most likely she was just trying to save herself an embarrassing moment. “Whatever floats yar boat, Twilight,” said Applejack before she gave a gentle shrug to the unicorn.

In the end had the soothsayer managed to walk her way over to the group of mares and released a gentle nod to each of them. Her eyes looked over to Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, in that exact order. All of them were so vastly different and they all had agreed upon joining the company for a different set of circumstances and reasons unknown. But in the end had they all worked together to get the goal that they needed done.

They all had managed to stop the tremors that were crushing the land of Equestria to make the beings bow to their will. That feelings alone, that certainty of having done such a thing was much more rewarding to Twilight then any amount of arcane scrolls ever could have done.

Whether it was known to the land or not, but that little group of anthronies had made certain that they could be living their lives in peace. And not having to worry about the fact that there would have been a giant lava lake instead of a massive ocean any time soon.

All of the anthronies looked at one another with great smiles that were clear as crystal upon their faces. They knew that it was over. They knew that everything had been completed and their given task had ended. All of them were just glad that it was over as well. They had literally conquered mountains and defeated beasts that could only be left to the imaginative.

“And so it came to be, that we end at the place it all started, Canterlot harbor,” said Applejack to herself, but loud enough so that the rest could have heard it. She was right, the whole journey had started within the borders of Canterlot harbor. While it was true that Canterlot Castle might have been the source for Twilight, the harbor was where Applejack joined her in the madness.

Twilight nodded to the words that were said before she felt a sudden sadness rising within her. “Which means that we all have to go back to where we truly belong. Return to the places where everything matters for us personally. The company we built up over the past month, weeks, shall be separated once more,” said Twilight in a somber tone.

“But the bonds that were created in that time, shall always win from the tests of time,” answered Fluttershy with a soft tone. There was a little bit of difficulty to hear her very words. But those who understood the words had to admit that she was right with them. They had grown to each other as friends and the friendships forged in the ice of the Frozen North and the fires of the center, would never cease to exist.

Twilight was the first one that spread her arms open. All of them managed to get the idea of what she tried to do and they all nodded to them. There only was one way that could have ended the company for real. And that was to go out with a giant hug given from each and every one of them.

Which was exactly what happened. Even though Rainbow wasn’t that much of a hugger, she still joined the hug and placed her arms over the shoulders of two other mares. The heads were brought closer and closer to each other until they had formed a tight circle with each other.

A circle of friends that wouldn’t be broken for a long time to come –if not eternity. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, there was a massive relief that went through all of them. They were just so glad that it all seemed to have been over. As thrilling as the adventure was that they had been going through together, just as dangerous it also happened to be.

Laughter and chuckles were exchanged by all five of them. Even Pinkie just seemed to play along with the matter. They were all just so happy about the facts as they were for them. The mares had done the thing that was thought to be impossible by so many and saw a truth hidden for all. The journey that they had undertaken, must have been one of the most breathtaking adventure tales from their time.

Words were exchanged between all of them. Words of cherished thoughts for each of them. Words of bravery and cunningness. Words of both fears and frights. Words of amazing sights that they never held imaginable. Their entire trip was recalled in just a matter of minutes. Even the Dark Witches that they had encountered and fought were brought back to the light of day.

In the moment was there no time to grieve for Twilight. In the moment she only could have been happy. Actually happy about the fact that all of it could be written down. They were all alive and kicking as they should have been doing. She had succeeded upon the quest that was given to her by the highest powers in their lands. She had completed the quest that was given by the goddesses themselves. The words had to be rephrased though. For they had succeeded.

But why had she been sent out to begin with? Why did she had to collect five other beings in order for it all to work. Though perhaps the most important question of all was why did the tremors begin in the first place?

Those were just a fraction of the thoughts that were going through the mind of Twilight. Whether she realized the fact that she thought about them or not remained to be seen, the smile continued to stand upon her face in that genuine and very happy expression. Nothing in the world could have been adding up to the sheer amount of luck that she felt in the moment.

For a couple of minutes they all kept on standing there when the laughter finally seemed to just die down. It went out almost like a fizzle as the last big bang had happened with the sinking of the imperial griffon ship. Fluttershy was the first one to speak the words that were troubling her mind. “Say Twilight…”

“Yes?” the soothsayer replied after she focused her attention upon the doctor. “What’s on your mind?”

Fluttershy released a gentle exhale through her nostrils as she wanted to speak them, but seemed to have a bit of difficulty finding the right words for the matter. Seconds went by at a slow pace before she finally seemed to have been able. “We’ve seen some, unbelievable sights of course, our tale is one for the history books. But, there’s nopony here to greet us. You think, we will be remembered?”

Twilight nodded in calm with her head to the words. She was certain of the words that she would reply with. Because those were perhaps the best ones to be spoken in the moment. “I’m pretty certain we will be remembered, by those that want to. But as I said in the tunnels, we can’t make the world just change believes from one moment or the other. So that is perhaps best left in silence. Our tale however, tell what you think is right to tell. I’m not the one that is going to silence you for it.”

“Because, all of our experiences need to be shared?” Rainbow interrupted then. She hoped that those were the words that Twilight would have said as well.

“Exactly,” the soothsayer replied with a gentle tone. The words were a good enough choice for the doctor as she nodded once more. She was actually glad that there weren’t really any restrictions about what could and shouldn’t have been told to the possible media.

It was in that moment that the time had then come for them all. The time had come to break the oath that they had given to Twilight and continued to live their own little lives once more. Tears were shed by all of them and they all knew that the moment couldn’t have been postponed any longer. The hug was broken and the mares all did one step backwards. Almost out of instinct they glanced over the remaining members one last time.

“Any personal belongings from you all, can be taken out of the void storage right now,” the unicorn whispered just loud enough for them all to hear. Her horn charged itself and in the middle of the group it would have appeared. The portal that would have been leading them straight into the storage was opened by the horn of the unicorn. But none of them dared to walk up to it just yet.

Even though there was countless personal belonging for every last member of them group, they didn’t feel right about just taking the things that belonged to them like that. The anthronies were standing at an invisible impasse and they all knew just what it felt like. The mares looked at one another for perhaps one last time, until it was Rainbow Dash who made her decision. As wonderful as it was to remain together for as long as they could, it was impossible for her to stand still for such a long time. She had to move around, she had to fly again, she was a pegasus after all.

And the pegasi race wasn’t really known for their patience to begin with.

After Rainbow it would have been Applejack, followed by Fluttershy who all took out their personal belongings from the storage. Though when Twilight looked into it, she noticed how even Rarity’s belongings had just disappeared. Her eyes went over the stuff that was gathered by the other mares and she saw that none had anything from the pirate captain.

Which brought her to the result of Rarity in fact had taken her stuff prior before she left the vessel. A chuckle was released by the soothsayer in silence before she closed her eyes for a moment. With the void storage closing in again had the time to say goodbye fallen upon them all. There was no way around the facts as they were, all that could be done to the matter was to just say their goodbyes and give the others the best wishes in the entire world.

The journey of the company, the end of the company, would have gotten out with a fizzle, instead of the much wanted bang or explosion. “I guess, this is going to be our goodbye then,” the doctor spoke before she placed her backpack over one of her shoulders. Twilight could only have nodded to the words. They would have lied if they said they didn’t felt that the end was there.

There wouldn’t have been some sort of massive party to celebrate that it was over, there wouldn’t have been even a single handshake that would express the gratitude of the other mares. There wouldn’t have been nothing with the exception of a couple of words and motions made by the individual mares to say their goodbyes to all of them.

Applejack seemed to have hesitated for a little while but eventually just saluted to the whole of the company. That was her way of saying goodbye in silence and expressing the gratitude that she had for all of them. Of course it was a little bit strange but Rainbow Dash followed her with the sign that was given off by the air force.

Twilight and Pinkie had pretty much nothing to compete with. So all they did was just wave to the mares. It was only seconds after the fact that Applejack and Rainbow made their solution that the doctor would have turned herself around.

There she went then, off into the sunset to who knew where. Most likely would she have returned to her hospital and live her daily life once more. Or perhaps she would have gotten to something that she couldn’t explain to them all. Whatever it was, Fluttershy had left the company.

The wings of Rainbow Dash spread themselves out before she made a jump into the air. Immediately she got airborne and looked to the anthronies on the ground. A small wave was given by her and just like that she rocketed off and away. Just like that had the rainbow haired major left the company for what it was. The journey was over for her. All she had to do was to fly back to Cloudsdale and report that she was back.

That only left Applejack, Twilight and Pinkie at the dock. The lamia would have gotten home with the unicorn while the earth anthrony would have returned to her ship. But not without she had spoken a last set of words to the soothsayer.

“Ah,” she started before she scratched behind her head, “had mah doubt when Ah first saw ya. Ah thought ya couldn’t help yarself in the time of need. But, Ah had made a great mistake just judging a book by its cover. Thanks Twilight, for everything that has happened and has been done.”

Twilight wanted to speak the words that were on her mind just so bad, but somehow she couldn’t have brought them over her lips. Applejack noticed the fact when only small gasps for air were released by the soothsayer. Though that didn’t matter as she stuck out her hand. The soothsayer realized what the plan was and took the hand just like that.

A firm shake was given off between the two of them and Pinkie gave one last hug to Applejack. Only after that would the admiral have departed from the group. They just watched her go, walking with her steam powered leg over the dock of Canterlot.

Twilight’s eyes were then filled with tears. She wanted to cry just so badly about the fact that everything was just over. Yet at the other end of the spectrum, she couldn’t let herself. Twilight couldn’t have allowed herself to shed a single tear, not in that moment at least. It was supposed to be a happy moment for them all.

For after having been sitting on each other’s lips for so long, they finally could say that they were done with it all. That they had done what needed to be done. On one matter the unicorn was more sure than anything else, the very matter that it all would have been remembered by each of them. Whether it have been for better or worse, she didn’t care in the moment.

The memories of the journey that they had been going through would always have been stuck to them no matter what. There was a natural moment of silence that came from Twilight. She wanted to take the moment to herself and just realize to herself that everything was over and done with.

Yet on the other end there happened to be Pinkie Pie. With everypony gone, she did became a little bit more frightened about the fact that they were just standing there. The lamia wanted to go to the castle as soon as they could and actually pushed the unicorn a couple of times.

Though the soothsayer remained standing where she had been standing for a couple more minutes. Pinkie didn’t wanted to disturb the mare more than that she needed to as she felt like it only would have gotten more and more troublesome. She would have to wait to a time when Twilight would have been ready to make the climb up the rocky face of the mountain.

The thoughts of the unicorn continued to just surge around and about her mind while the eyes had been closed for a good set of minutes. Of course there were countless anthronies that wondered to themselves whether or not she happened to be alright. But there never would have been any kind of response from either Twilight or Pinkie herself. The lamia was alert though, her eyes went from left to right as she watched over everypony. No harm would have come to Twilight.

It was the last thing that she needed in the moment. Pinkie wasn’t in the mood that somepony came over to the unicorn and made the decision to do something terrible to her. The watchful eyes of the lamia not only scared a lot of anthronies, but also fascinated an equal amount of them. Though they never dared to take a single step closer out of fear of what she could have done.

All while Twilight continued to think about the matters where she had been pushing herself through. None of it seemed to have been making all too much sense to her in the moment, especially with the sudden disappearance of the mysterious old aged stallion of a captain. All of those matters had to be classified within her mind, all that she could do was to think about other things to stop the tears from falling.

That was the biggest battle in the moment.

Eventually did she open her eyes again and rubbed through them with a gentle motion. The lamia was more than glad that Twilight had returned to her and nudged her gently on the shoulders. Though the soothsayer herself just waved her for a moment before she turned back around. “Sorry Pinkie, this whole departing thing is, it’s heavy on my mind. I hope you understand,” she said to the lamia who luckily seemed to have understood the words.

So in silence she pointed to the castle of Canterlot itself and the mare released a deep sigh through her nostrils. That was the place that they would have been heading, that was the place where they needed to be going. Only problem happened to be that the stairs would be the death of the two of them if they had some bad luck.

A little grumble was given off by the soothsayer before she set the first step away from the harbor. Their journey had officially gotten to an end with everypony still alive. The next big issue was waiting for Twilight though. That very issue happened to be nothing else than the home front.

~~~~

With the terrible stairs having conquered had Twilight and Pinkie made their way over to the top of the mountain side. The two of them were exhausted while they glanced over the view that was given to them. A view that still was as beautiful as it always had been. Twilight was just mesmerized by the sights whereas Pinkie seemed to have been upside down from them.

Every last little bit that she saw almost seemed to be pieces that came directly out of a dream of some kind. Pinkie was aware that the world on the topside was large, but she couldn’t have ever imagined that it would have been that large. Just the sheer amount of the ocean that stretched before them was literally breathtaking.

Pinkie had to keep reminding herself upon the fact that behind said ocean there were still beings too. Lands that were unexplored by most of them and they just rested there. Almost as if there was nothing better to do.

But as with all things, even the view had to come to an end and a couple of minutes later were they both wandering through the halls of the castle. Halls that were eerily empty if Twilight had to be the judge on them. Almost like they were in her dream when the devil had possessed her. Except there were traces of being beings home.

Curiosity struck the unicorn because she wanted to know the finer details, but instead was halted by a senior guard. Neither of them had seen him and his eyes carried a stern expression within them. “Halt there, that creature you have with you doesn’t belong here,” he said in a deep tone. Though he didn’t reach out for his sword.

Twilight was still a highly respected soothsayer of course, and not one that would have been able to be tempted by the darker things of the arcane. Which was actually working right into his own advantages when it came to the matter. Yet the soothsayer herself had a different set of words for the matter. She narrowed her eyes as she spoke her much desired words. “With all due respect, senior guard, this creature here happens to be a friend of mine and shall be asked for asylum by your commander in chief. Which to my knowledge still happens to be Shining Armor.”

There she had the guard straight where she wanted him. The aged stallion did a step aside before he nodded to her words. She was completely right with them and there wouldn’t have been anything that could have changed the mind of the unicorn soothsayer. “If you say so, milady Sparkle. On a lighter note, I wish you a warm welcome back to the castle.”

“And, you couldn’t have said it before?” Twilight asked before she let out a little giggle on the matter. The guard began to blush a little bit while he allowed the two of them to pass through.

Twilight and Pinkie would have made way for the room that belonged to the unicorn before she would be searching out her brother and tell him everything that he needed to know about all of the matters that were brought to light. The time was there to finalize every last little bit of what needed to be done.

Chapter XCV

Pinkie was guided over to the room of Twilight herself. Once she opened the door, the lamia just shot straight into it for whatever reason. It was a rather curious matter that they hadn’t seen a single other being as they walked through the castle. Perhaps they were all busy with other things? The thought stayed until Twilight realized just what time it happened to be. Then it hit her like a wall.

When she walked into her room, she had brought a hand to her forehead and placed it gentle upon her scalp. She realized the time that it was and could literally have been hitting herself in the head with it all. The lessons were still ongoing and the trainings were still happening. They had arrived at perhaps the loneliest hour that the castle ever would have ever been.

The door had been closed behind the unicorn, who let out a sigh of recognition. Twilight then pointed that Pinkie could lay down on the bed if she wanted to. Twilight herself pulled the chair of her desk backwards and took place into it. Another deep exhale was released through her nostrils while Pinkie curled up on herself on the bed. The two of them never seemed to lose one another out of their sights as Twilight just sunk once again in her thoughts.

The lamia wanted to make a comment about it all, but made the decision to not say a word. The last thing that she wanted was for Twilight to have gotten angry at her. Though with Pinkie’s lack of knowledge upon the world above, there was actually one question that stood out to her. One question that caused her to think about something else. The question of just who this mysterious commander in chief happened to be. The question of just whom Shining Armor happened to be.

It was a natural rightful question but she still didn’t wanted to bother the unicorn with it too much. The lamia closed her eyes for a moment as she wanted to get some shut eye for the day. She was used to the darkness of the caverns below and not the lights of the bigger world. Twilight noticed that fact clearly and she charged up her horn a little bit in order to close the curtains that allowed the light to fall in.

Mere seconds afterwards did she caught the peaceful sounds of the lamia asleep within her ears. It caused a gentle smile to have been formed upon her face. Then Twilight would have shaken her head from side to side with a couple of light motions. The unicorn left the chair for what it was and summoned a small arcane scroll. Upon it she wrote that she would be gone for a little while but that Pinkie didn’t had to worry about anything.

The soothsayer only hoped that she would have taken the advice to do such a thing as she discharged her horn completely. The arcane scroll was placed upon a spot where it easily could have been seen by the lamia before she left the room again.

Twilight had to find her own flesh and blood to set everything straight when it came down to the matter of Pinkie Pie. She wanted that the lamia became a full Equestrian citizen with all the rights that naturally came with it. Though such a thing was perhaps a lot easier said than in fact executed. Not to mention the fact that she had to tell her brother pretty much everything from what happened during her journey.

At one end it felt good to her that she finally would have been able to see her brother again, at the other it felt like a massive chore that she needed to fix up. The mare released a gentle exhale through her nostrils as she remained standing before the closed door of her room. The strength that was required to take another step forward just wasn’t there in the moment. The unicorn tried her utmost best to move forwards but she just wasn’t allowed for whatever reason.

For almost a full but ever so slow passing minute did she just remained standing there. The unicorn closed her eyes on multiple occasions when hundreds of thoughts would have crushed upon her mind. All sorts of things were thought about. Not only matters that went together with the travels of the company though.

No, the unicorn was also thinking about how she would continue her life after all of it. How she would have been able to continue teaching the arts of making the ascend to the plains of the goddesses like that. Though all of those worries would have been there for later. She had to focus upon one task at a time. The task that she had to do in that very moment was to find her brother.

So the strength was gathered by the soothsayer to make that first step. To make that first step in order to not just find her brother, but also tell him exactly what he needed to know on the matter. Her eyelids were opened again to reveal a set of eyes that showed a great amount of determination for pretty much everything. She wanted to continue upon the quest she had given to herself. The one little quest before she would fall back into her normal life.

The unicorn had to find her brother, no matter what. The second step had been placed and then followed the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one and so forth. She was on her way to make it to the office of her brother. There wouldn’t have been any turning back, by dinner would the entire castle have known that the mare had returned to them. That fact alone was actually more frightening than having to confront her brother.

The mare came closer to one of the many corners she had to take in order to reach the office of Shining Armor. Though she had sunken too deep into her thoughts to notice the other set of hooves that came from the other side. She stroked her chin a little bit whereas the eyes were only aimed at the floor. The unicorn soothsayer had been stuck in her mind ever since she began.

Closer and closer she came to the corner, up to the point to where Twilight would have literally crashed right into the other being. The eyes were closed by them both when they felt the force of impact and were sent backwards. Whatever had caused them to fall behind like that, it wasn’t something that either of the anthronies seemed to have been liking.

“What for the devil… Look where you’re going next time!” the voice of a stallion filled the air. A voice that was angry about the fact that some other being had straight up crashed into him.

“Ow, my head,” mumbled Twilight to herself before she caught the words in her ears. “I should watch out?! How about yourself?!” Her words were spoken in a mutter that sounded everything but happy or glad about anything. The unicorn rubbed her head a couple more times before she tried her best to stand back up. Out of everything, that event had to happen?

Her eyes opened once more and they looked with a double in their views. She saw everything double but could easily had made out some blue hair and white skin. The stallion on the other end seemed to remain just utterly silent for whatever reason. He too had gotten back up and couldn’t believe what he must have seen.

“What’s the matter? Never seen a soothsayer look like she’s going to travel the land or something?” Her harsh comment was thanks to the fact that everything was still pounding inside of her head and turning around. Twilight needed to have a little bit of time before her vision would have been returned to normal.

“Not one that looked an awful lot like my own sister,” the voice of the stallion spoke in return to her some seconds after she had made her comment.

The voice became clear to the unicorn mare in the moment. She couldn’t have thought about it even if she wanted but that voice just seemed to belong to nopony else then Shining Armor. How big would the odds have been that he crashed right into his little sister? The soothsayer shook her head from side to side and closed her eyes firmly.

She needed to have the focus back in her eyes and that was perhaps the only way that she knew how. The unicorn came back to a standstill and slowly opened up her eyes again. She had to be certain that what she saw was actually there.

First there was a set of hooves covered in armor, two legs covered in armor, a chest covered in armor, but the head was free of it all. And that head was exactly the one she was looking for. The unicorn mare blinked a couple of times to herself as she slowly began to realize that her own brother was standing right in front of her.

Tears of joy sprung in both of their eyes fractions before they opened their arms. Shining remained standing on his spot as the little sister just ran straight for him. Before he knew it had her hands been wrapped around him and he did the same. A massive hug between a brother and a sister was given off as the stallion couldn’t believe what he saw.

"Oh how I’ve missed you, sis!” Shining Armor spoke to her. He couldn’t express the amount of happiness that was going through his body in the moment. Everything seemed to have fallen right upon the places that they needed to be. he had his sister back. Not to mention that she most likely carried some good news with her as well.

Everything was just perfect in his eyes. He stroked a little bit through her hair before the words were whispered in her ear. “Shall we go to my office, to catch up on your tale?” he asked to her in a gentle tone. The last thing he wanted to do in the moment was to just destroy the hug. To him it felt just so good that he finally was able to hold his sister again.

The eyes of the stallion remained closed for the time being while the feelings of relief that surged through him could all have been released just like that. He had been worrying about the unicorn ever since she had left, but then she was finally back again. From the glances that he had made she seemed to have been alright and that caused all of the feelings to just melt away.

Even with everything going on, there still was something that caused him to be truly worried. He felt that there was something lurking within the shadows of the walls. Something that he had never seen before in his life nor had even heard the rumors from. Something was spying on them from deep within the shadows and it wasn’t a good feeling at all.

The peaceful moment that the brother and sister had with one another could have been broken just like that. But the captain of the royal guard wouldn’t have done anything without reason. As much as he hated it, he broke the hug with Twilight who reacted a little bit baffled. She didn’t understood why he did it and before she knew it, she was found behind him.

Confusion struck her even more as the stallion drew his sword. His eyes went from right to left as he watched over the shadows. “Come out, and I promise you that no harm shall be done,” he spoke in a loud and clear tone. Whatever was lurking to them, it better came out.

The eyes of Twilight shrunk even deeper before she seemed to have turned as pale as snow. There was something that didn’t felt right to her in the matter. It was impossible for any of the Dark Witches to have found her already, right? But even if they had discovered her, she would have been able to detect their black magic, right? Nothing seemed to have been certain in the matter as it was and that just terrified Twilight. She was home again, survived everything that was thrown at her, she didn’t dare dreaming that something would have gone wrong there. Though it appeared to be so.

The eyes of the soothsayer went from left to right as well and she charged a spell of her own. If it was indeed a Dark Witch that was spying upon them, Shining’s sword wouldn’t have stood a chance of surviving it all. No, black magic had to be fought with either white or black magic to counter it. Metal would just have become chum for it.

In their ears they heard something crawling, slithering almost. A heavy body seemed to have dropped itself upon the floor and made its way into the light. What was revealed to them was something that caused a true expression of horror upon the face of Shining Armor. Out of everything that he could have expected, he hadn’t prepared for that.

Out of the shadows came a being with whom Twilight was actually fairly well-known with. The unicorn’s eyes went wide as she discharged her spell and quickly made way from behind Shining’s back. Though where her brother had hoped on the fact that she would have just gotten out of the way, the mare stood right in front of him.

“I know what you think, I know what your instincts say, but please listen to me!” Twilight exclaimed before anything stupid would have happened. “I know this creature!” Those words alone were some of the most unexpected ones to have ever been caught in the ears of Shining Armor.

Yet the stallion placed his sword against the ground and allowed her to continue her words. “That’s, that’s Pinkie Pie. A friend of mine who we managed to pick up during our time in the caverns below the land.”

The stallion looked over the eyes of his sister and towards the lamia that just sat there, curled up upon her body and not posing any threat of any kind. At least in the moment. “You, picked her up?” he asked her just to be certain about everything. Twilight nodded and in that moment he knew that there was no chance of change to happen. So he just sheathed his sword again but still demanded some explanation from his sister. He had accepted the fact that she would have to undergo the journey without a question, yet the lamia was something else entirely.

“Long story short, I’m offering her a home as she is being hunted back in the caverns she lived. I’ll tell you everything at your office, it’s a delicate manner,” said Twilight in a quiet tone to her brother. The mare didn’t had the desire to tell him everything in the moment they were in. There simply wasn’t any time to do such a thing for them all. Not in the hallways of the castle at least.

Shining Armor rose one of his eyebrows in response to the words that his sister spoke. To him it seemed to have been complete and utter madness what she said, but he couldn’t talk her way out of it. Only one question remained and Twilight could see it right in his eyes. The question wasn’t even asked before the answer was already given to him. “Yes, she happens to be civilized. Or at least, in her own manner. She isn’t going on a murder spree or anything, anytime soon,” added Twilight in the hope to reassure her brother.

Even though there were some doubts visible within the eyes of the captain of the guard, he still had to take the words of his sister for what they were. He could only have placed his trust in her if she wanted to keep on trusting him. The silence was maintained by the captain before he nodded.

With just that simple gesture of silence was Pinkie invited to walk too, or slither along to the office of the captain of the guards. That of course caused a massive feeling of relief within the lamia, but she knew that she still had to answer to the questions that the two of them were probably having for her.

The three of them wandered through the castle almost at a near leisurely pace. The words were exchanged between both Shining Armor and Twilight herself. They were brother and sister after all and they had the right to know the things that had happened in the meantime. Though the questions seemed to mostly have gotten from the unicorn then from the stallion.

The answer that Twilight would have given him was constantly the fact that he would hear it once they were in his office. The matters that she had to talk about were perhaps a little bit too much on the shocking side of everything and he really had to sit down before she would speak anything about her journey.

Which was something that he could have understood. But he had to tell her everything that had happened within the walls of the castle. Which resulted in him telling basically the brief version. Everything had turned out for good as there were only some slight complications. Outside of those though, there really wasn’t anything else that he could have said to her.

There was of course the fact that the students asked when Twilight have returned to give them a teaching again but that question was one rightfully asked. It caused the unicorn to chuckle softly to herself before she shook her head. Perhaps the suddenness of the journey that she had made wasn’t the smartest of ideas.

Then again, she never would have realized when she would have returned to the castle. If she would have returned at all to begin with. Yet those last couple of words were never spoken by the unicorn. Instead she only thought about them for a little second or two.

Pinkie Pie just slithered behind the two of them in silence. She didn’t had the desire to call any more attention upon herself then she already had done. With her hands behind her back it also seemed like she hadn’t anything planned that could have been seen as some kind of threat for them all. Which meant that the other guards they passed wouldn’t have pried their eyes too much upon the lamia.

Once they were finally in the office of the captain of the guard would Pinkie have closed the door behind her and curled up to form her own seating once more. Twilight and Shining both took place in a pair of chairs as the question was being asked. “I have told you everything that you need to know about the castle. Everything that has happened within its walls have been shared to you. So I ask you, little sister, tell me everything about your journey. Leave no detail out,” he said to her. If he only knew the journey down to every details as they were in reality.

Twilight nodded calmly as she took a deep inhale. It was the time of no return. She could have said all that she wanted in the hope that he would release her from the words, but the stallion was persistent. She knew her brother perhaps better than anypony else outside of her own parents. He wouldn’t have just given up on the matter. He would have known all of the facts about the journey.

So the only thing that Twilight could have done was to tell him exactly what had happened to them as a group. The words were released from the lips of the unicorn as the stallion hung upon them. Silence had taken him over as he placed his arms crossways over the desk while his body leaned in further.

He had perked both of his ears towards her, in order to hear what exactly the unicorn had to tell him. Tales of bravery, cowardness and the unimaginable all left the mouth of the soothsayer. Twilight indeed didn’t leave a single detail out. Even her dreaded possession was not left out of the equation for obvious reasons.

The stallion had just dropped himself back in his chair in the end of it all. He leaned further and further backwards. The eyes were standing in a literally baffled expression as he couldn’t believe everything where his sister had been going through. The stallion even had to make a couple of blinks to make sure he had heard everything correctly.

“And now, because she’s hunted down beneath the earth, you meant to tell me you want to protect her?” Shining Armor asked of his sister. He still didn’t seemed to fully understand of just why Twilight wanted to have taken up the right for the lamia. If his sister was determined about it, it perhaps would have been for the better to have expected it. Perhaps there were still things that she hadn’t told him yet.

Mystery had always followed the soothsayers wherever they went, so that chance was still highly likely to be there. Perhaps there was something so gruesome that it just couldn’t be shared with anypony else. Or there would have been a revelation greater than life itself. Either way, Twilight nodded with her head as she seemed to be really determined about her words. “There’s no way that you can change my mind, Shining Armor. She’ll probably have to live in my room for the time being, but I gladly have her as a roommate,” said Twilight to her brother.

“Well, it’s your party. I can’t change your mind and you seem to be hell-bent over it, so I guess I better start to inform the guards that we have a new resident in the form of a lamia going around and about,” commented Shining Armor, therefore basically giving permission.

“Thanks Shining,” the soothsayer spoke to him in a truly humble sounding tone. She was genuinely glad that the stallion wasn’t making too much of an actual fuss about it all. She knew that he had a good heart, but it was usually just overridden by the deeds that he had as a captain of the guard. Any kind of threat had to be examined for everything.

Though the stallion still happened to have another fact that seemed to be haunting his mind. There was something about the tales that she told him that just creeped the living daylight out of him. Something about her words, showed a massive growth to Twilight as a being. Something that he had never actually expected to happen to her.

For as he had listened to her words, there was the massive amount of danger that they had encountered in such a short amount of time. The weeks in which they had been gone would have been nothing for the anthronies that lived their normal lives. Yet in those very few and precious weeks had the mare encountered things that ranged from a simple flintlock pointed at her to being possessed of the actual devil herself.

Shining Armor was baffled once more and just didn’t even wanted to believe the words anymore. He wanted to believe that they were just some kind of fairy tale that could be told to fillies and colts before they would have gotten to sleep. But no, the words that his own flesh and blood told him were actually the truth.

Everything that she had told that had happened had in fact happened. The look within her eyes gave it all away. There was that glance within them that he had never seen before in her eyes. The glance that only could be given by an anthrony that had been going through so much that it in fact changed the soul in one way or the other. He could have only hoped that in Twilight’s case everything had gone right.

Even though the devil herself had released herself out of Twilight’s body, there most likely would have been little traces left of the being. Little traces that could eventually be taking a hold of the soothsayer. Though that worry would have been one he rather didn’t think about. There were countless more matters that he had to think about. All in order to lighten up the mood in one way or the other.

None of them knew just how much time had been going by. All of them knew however that there had been an awful lot of time that had gone by for the moon stood high in the skies. The glasses that had been shared between both the captain of the guard and the soothsayer were exactly right before they both stood up. Shining Armor had seen that his sister was tired and that her mind had been worn out by everything.

He would have done her more wrong than good to have kept her in his office. So the stallion let them out and they would be on their way again. Though the stallion actually joined himself with the two of them. Even though she was more than safe within the walls of the castle did the stallion still felt as if he was her responsibility. At least until she laid back in bed that was.

Silence was maintained between the three beings as they wandered to the room of the soothsayer. A room that had to be at the other end of the castle. Not a fact that was particularly liked by Shining Armor, as he had to wander all the way back again as well.

~~~~

Though to every trip, there had to be an end, and so to the trek to Twilight’s room. The soothsayer released a deep yawn that came forth straight out of her soul. She was both mentally and physically tried about it all. The stallion had spoken about the fact that he would have gone with them to make up a bed for Pinkie. Given with how tired Twilight seemed to have been, the captain of the guard was perhaps a little bit better with magic in that moment.

Pinkie just appreciated the thoughts that were given to her. The lamia just followed the two of them again. She was new to the castle so slithering in front of the two of them, perhaps wasn’t the smartest thing that she could have done. The lamia did remain silent once more though. Why she kept herself so to herself was another mystery, but one that could have easily been explained.

The longer the lamia stared towards the walls and everything, the better her memory of it all would have become. She would remember which corridors she had to take and what would have been the fastest route to get to some place.

The hand of Twilight laid itself down upon the doorknob and she turned it to open the door of her room. Once again hadn’t they encountered too many beings which was actually a relief. Even though there was curiosity about the return of Twilight Sparkle, they all realized the fact that she needed her sleep as well. Which meant that they would be getting some form of information out of her at a later given date.

Nothing to complain about in their eyes actually. The unicorn soothsayer released another yawn before the door crashed against one of the many bookshelves that had been filling up her room. A shock went through the three of them before the soothsayer just walked further. She knew where it was from and didn’t gave it too much thought.

Twilight, Pinkie and Shining Armor all three walked through the doorway before the stallion charged own his horn a little. Yes, he was tired too, but his magic would have been a little bit more controllable than his sister’s. So within the blink of an eye did he summon a mattress and a blanket for Pinkie to sleep upon.

Who in return gladly made use of the service. She was naturally only used to the cold rocks and the comfort of the moss, so it must have felt great for her to sleep on something that was properly soft. And if she didn’t like it, she could have just as easily laid down on the ground or just the blanket.

Twilight herself had crashed down into her own bed and already seemed to have been vast asleep. The stallion chuckled a little bit to himself before he stroked a bit through his sister’s hair. There was no amount of words in the words that would have been able to justify the feelings of pride that he had in the moment. His little sister had done so much for the land of Equestria, it caused him to only smile like a big brother should have been doing.

The stallion continued his stroking for a couple of seconds before he planted a gentle kiss upon her forehead. “Sleep tight, Twily, you need it from the looks of it. Sleep tight and place your worries behind you, for the journey you ventured upon is over,” he whispered to her before making his departure from the room.

The door then fell back within its lock and Pinkie’s eyes lit up for a moment in the darkness. But in the end had even the eyes of the lamia faded away into the darkness while she curled up upon herself. The lamia closed her eyes again in order to get the much needed sleep she too required. Shining Armor seemed to have been an alright stallion, that alone caused her to have been a lot more comfortable.

Shining Armor himself never went straight over to his office again. Instead he spend some time just wandering through the halls of the castle in silence and without aim. With his armor still on, he had placed his hands behind his back and the eyes were about halfway closed. There were once again no words for the feelings that were going strength through his heart.

He had to take the time to just lay it all off for a little moment and to shed a much needed tear. The stallion came to a standstill and glanced out to the world outside before a single tear managed to make its way down his cheek. The captain of the guard finally released a much softer side of him to the world.

The tear was followed by another one and together they made their way down to his chin before they would have fallen to the ground. The stallion couldn’t help himself but to cry of happiness. Day by day had he prayed to the goddesses that they would have brought Twilight back to safety. And that had actually happened. “Thank you,” he whispered to the window. Or better said, through the window and to the world outside.

He couldn’t believe that his little sister had managed to return in one piece and only more tears left his eyes. Naturally there were guards that asked him how he was doing. They had never even seen the stallion crying like he did. But they never would have gotten any kind of answer out of him. They all got the same silent treatment for him outside of a couple of sniffs.

They didn’t understood what had happened, but the tears didn’t seemed to have been from sadness. What had managed to make the rough and tough stallion cry like a foal was a question that they all had for him. Yet the answer they most likely would never know if it laid to him.

Chapter XCVI

The eyelids of the unicorn soothsayer began to twitch ever so gentle while time went on. There was a strange and rather mysterious light that fell upon her eyelids. It wasn’t the light of the sun, nor was it that of the moon. It neither was the light of a candle and it certainly wasn’t the light of an magical aura. Something strange seemed to have happened already and the unicorn didn’t knew what it was.

To make matter possibly even worse, she realized to herself that the mattress upon which she laid had also changed. For instead of the usual fluffiness that was her own mattress, it seemed to have changed into something that laid even more comfortable. Normally she wouldn’t have really complained about the facts as they were given to her, but that time it all seemed to have been a little bit too well placed.

Almost as if something knew that she was dead tired outside of the beings in the castle. Perhaps a gift from the other soothsayers as a welcome back present? Or perhaps one of her students had changed the room that she slept into something completely different? The unicorn couldn’t tell with her eyes closed but the material beneath her just laid so comfortable.

There was no way of telling whether or not it was a trap or anything the like. The unicorn was literally touching within the darkness of her own mind while she tried to figure out everything. Without much luck though. Perhaps the time was there to just open her eyes and see what would have happened.

Another twitch was given off to the eyelids of the mare, then she finally managed to open them. Her eyes were fully opened in a slow and gentle manner. Twilight wanted to figure out what was going on with her without destroying her eyes in the process. Having her eyes destroyed was about one of the last things that she wanted to do actually.

So the mare opened her eyes with both calm and care, only to be greeted by a massive blue sky that stretched for eternity. That fact alone caused her to have gained a much higher sense of suspicion. She wasn’t back in her room anymore, that much was certain. But with her sight having returned did the mare began to scrub her back against the stuff beneath her.

She had to know what it was made of before she would be standing up and done something else. The unicorn shifted her body from both left to right before she blinked a couple of times. It couldn’t have been true what she felt, right? Clearly there must have been some kind of mistake that crawled out of her.

“G-Grass?” the mare whispered up to herself just before she rose an eyebrow. Something about the whole thing didn’t made sense for a moment to her as she growled deeply to herself. The unicorn removed her hands from her chest and laid them upon the ground. What followed next was the gentle act of her hoisting herself up from the ground to finally get some sort of an idea of where she happened to be.

The body of the unicorn soothsayer rose up further and further until she finally saw it all. She noticed the very spot where she was and she couldn’t believe the facts that were given to her. She blinked a couple of times out of sheer curiosity before she shook her head from side to side. “No, no, no, nope, can’t do this!” Twilight exclaimed before her body was dropped back to the ground.

The eyes were closed once again and the unicorn remembered the image that she saw only moment before. A massive field of grass, filled with trees that had their leaves rustling within the wind, while in the middle of to all laid a pond. A pond that she didn’t seemed to be remembering within her life, but it certainly had some massive degrees of magical powers.

“You won’t grant me a single day of rest, now would you?” Twilight muttered to the air that stretched above her. The words were meant for whatever force had pulled her into the realm. A little fact that she wasn’t all too happy about. Another growl soon enough followed through her mouth while the eyes were opened again to inspect the world around her.

Her hand was raised and one of her fingers were charged within the magical aura. Whatever had caused the mare to have landed there once more, it could have been the work of only two beings in the whole of existence. Two beings with whom Twilight had an interesting love and hate relationship in that very moment of time itself. A grumble was released through her nostrils before there was a shot of raspberry lightning fired into the skies.

Just one weak looking bolt of raspberry lightning was sent into the skies. She never had the intention to either harm or maim anypony in the process. She just needed to vent out her frustrations. In the moment of time did the way she did it, the best one.

Which was exactly what happened. The unicorn released another exhale of relief moments before the finger lost its magical aura. The anger had just been flowing straight out of her body as she rose her body up once more. The unicorn soothsayer glanced over the field of grass and noticed the massive amounts of flowers.

“What in the name of..?” she added to her arsenal of words after she rose another eyebrow. Never in her life had Twilight seen so many different kinds of flowers together just like that. Something told to her that it wasn’t a normal pond that she had ended up. But perhaps she had gotten to the one pond that could be changing everything that she knew.

Something about it all just seemed a little bit too obvious. Yet sometimes the obvious was in reality the part that needed to be seen in Twilight’s eyes. The unicorn soothsayer got back up on her hooves at a slow pace. All while she kept her eyes away from the pond. There was a feeling that there lurked a being beneath the waters that mustn’t be seen by any being.

Twilight’s eyes scanned the remaining bits and pieces of the area before she shook her head. It couldn’t have been right, right? She couldn’t have been on the place where she thought to have been. There was only one place that could have given her some kind of indication about where she happened to be, but she already knew where she was.

A little voice inside of her mind just constantly screamed it out to her. A little voice inside of her head constantly hammered the words against her. The mare brought a hand up to her forehead as she dared to take one last look around. She had to accept the place of just where she was or live with the constant nagging inside of her head.

“The garden of the goddesses, the inner sanctum,” the soothsayer mumbled to herself before she released a small gasp for air. The unicorn couldn’t believe what she had seen nor what she could have seen. Two of her fingers were cast within the raspberry aura and they both drew the symbols of both the sun and the moon within the skies.

The unicorn made a gentle bow before the symbols before she walked further into the mysterious, wonderful garden. The pond that laid before her was filled with water and something else. Twilight came closer and closer to the edge of the little pond and dared to look into it with her eyes. Though the two of them were squinted down to near nothing. The last thing that she needed was seeing something that she wasn’t allowed to.

But the very waters remained calm within the pond. Even though it felt as if there lived a thing that shouldn’t have been doing. The unicorn released a deep exhale through her nostrils as she seemed to have been genuinely happy that nothing jumped out of the waters.

Though it didn’t answer many of her questions. The water within, was just water. So the eyes were opened as a whole again and she did take a step or two backwards. She had absolutely no desire in becoming the meal for something that lived within those very waters. Twilight’s eyes looked from left to right in the hope to find the things that she needed to find.

She had to find the middle of it all. She had to find the middle of the garden of the goddesses in order to hopefully get the answers upon her questions. The unicorn couldn’t help herself but she just had to have them. Her eyes gazed from left to right before they finally managed to have found a path. With a great quickness in her hooves did she went over to the path and followed it in silence.

Trees, bushes and gravel. That was all that she saw in the meantime. The trees arched over her to make a beautiful and natural walkway whereas the bushes went as high as the stems of the trees. There wouldn’t have been any allowance to watch through the vegetation that was standing sideways. Yet Twilight was allowed to look up through the roof of leaves.

The gravel that made its own distinct sound beneath her hooves seemed to have been calming her mind upon all sorts of matters. The longer she travelled over it, the more she seemed to just lose herself within the grasps of the nature of the place. Forgetting her worldly troubles.

It was known to Twilight that such a thing happened, but she didn’t really seemed to be caring too much about it at all. If anything, it was good to have an empty head for a change. All of her usual thoughts, fears and troubles had been replaced with just a vast emptiness. Her mind had become a barren wasteland that was once occupied with everything.

Just the sheer amount of vastness that was given by it caused the unicorn to chuckle a bit to herself. The mare couldn’t help herself to shake her head from side to side. Her hair waved within the calm breeze of wind that were blowing in her face. But once again, she didn’t seemed to be truly minding it. To her it seemed that everything had to have been really peaceful and actually calm.

Though the pathway upon which she walked had to eventually give way to something else. Ahead of her there was a clearing to be found, one that became bigger with every step. A massive one while the trees seemed to be separating themselves and the path widened. Whatever laid behind the opening, it must have been the one place where she had been looking for.

The unicorn actually became a little bit existed as she also realized the words of the elder soothsayers. Words spoken in great caution as if they could have saved her life at one point or another. “Looking into the pond is forbidden, glancing over it is acceptable. Whatever you do, don’t force yourself to look into those dark waters. Once you do, you lose yourself to,” whispered Twilight to herself as if it was a command. Yet somehow they came to an abrupt stop. Almost as if she didn’t wanted to say to what she would lose herself if she did watch into the dark waters.

The words were remembered with vivid and that was about the only thought that was surging through her mind. The unicorn allowed herself a deep exhale before she nodded with her head. There was only one thing that needed to be done and that was to continue forwards. Twilight would have walked straight into the clearing and the revelations would have gotten to her through the gears of time.

When she did dare to walk into the clearing, the design turned out to be the same as the one where she woken in. The massive beds of all kinds of flowers combined with the trees and the bushes could be seen. Everything eyed just so calm and peaceful. In the middle of it all could it be found once more. A little pond that was perhaps two times bigger than Twilight was long.

The unicorn glanced over the waters and took in as much as she could from just that single little glance. It must have been the place where all the soothsayers had been warning her for. The only place within the entire realm of the goddesses where nopony else outside of them was allowed to look. Not even the highest ranking soothsayer was allowed to look into the waters of the pond that laid before Twilight.

“The pond of creation,” she whispered to herself. Twilight had realized what was stretching before her. The pond of creation was the most powerful thing within the entire realm of both the goddesses, as well as the physical. Everything that ever was, was being and should have been could be, was found there. There were reasons of why they weren’t allowed to witness within the waters. Even a single drop of it could spell disaster for the world as it was. Past and future changed to horrid extends, for just one example of the doomsday-scenario.

Perhaps the factories that were building up, the industrial revolution that their land was gently turning towards was in fact the direct result of somepony glancing into it? Speculations could only have been made about that matter actually.

But the longer Twilight stood there, the more she had the feeling that she wasn’t there for just a pretty show. If the goddesses didn’t wanted to come to her, she would be summoning them with the demand for answers upon her questions. Of course was a thing like that already pretty stupid enough to do, but perhaps it could have been working that time.

After all had Twilight served as some kind of messenger for one of them and she had seen what form the goddess of the sun used to carry. Perhaps it would have been for the better that she didn’t say anything. Perhaps it was for the best if she tried to summon them. In her eyes was there no right or wrong in the matter. Only the knowledge that she could have gained from trying to communicate with the pair of them.

Perhaps they would have listened to her simple request for information, or perhaps she would have been thrown into a whole different pile of rubble and mess. Nopony knew the answers and Twilight was desperate to find out for herself.

The unicorn moved herself over to almost the edge of the pond and lowered her body down next to it. She made certain that she wouldn’t have been touching the waters while she crossed her legs over one another. What then followed was that she assumed a pose of meditation. She sat right at the edge of the pond of creation, surely the two goddesses must have been wandering around within its very depths.

Nopony knew just how deep the pond was, or the other ponds in fact. Perhaps they were just shallow pools that wouldn’t have done much harm to anypony? Twilight didn’t knew and she certainly wouldn’t have been the first one to figure it out. After all –as the old stallion said to her before they docked– some questions were best left unanswered to keep the mystery within it.

Twilight was one of the few beings in the land that had seen the goddess of the sun her body in a form nopony had ever seen it before to begin with. That much mystery revealed about the two most powerful forces in their lands was actually enough for her.

Her eyes were closed when she charged her magic just faintly enough to let her horn be coated within the aura. She then continued with the words that were on her mind. The words that she would be speaking in order to get the two goddesses out of their hiding. She had a direct contact with the realm of the two, so she hoped that they would reply to her. “I command thy, goddesses of the sun and moon, to heed my call and appear before me.” Twilight spoke up in a tone that was both demanding as well as respectful.

Even though Twilight wanted to know the answers upon her questions, she didn’t had to forget the fact that she was still within the realm of the goddesses. Her powers and abilities wouldn’t have meant anything to the two beings that ruled as day and night. If the tone of Twilight alone wasn’t suiting them, she could have been sent back on the spot.

There were stories of soothsayers who had gone rogue and had tried to gain a command over the goddesses themselves though. The problem just happened to be that those rogue soothsayer tried to take command directly. That the beings of wisdom and creation would give them a fair share of their powers in return. The quiet goddesses would show their claws in those moments.

Twilight just wanted them to appear before her though. In her mind was there a difference between both of those commands. She only hoped that the goddesses themselves also noticed that little fact. Seconds had ticked by her. Seconds had gone by without a word from either the solar or the lunar goddess.

The unicorn was about to give it all in actually. She wanted to just give it all up before she felt something. Something that didn’t shook the land she was sitting upon, but rather shaking the soul that she carried deep inside of her.

The trembling of the soul could have been a rather clear indication that something had gone wrong. But the unicorn remained steady as she heard the waves of the waters increase. The waters used to be standing just still, but the more she waited for a reply, the more she heard the waves crashing against the sides of it.

Time had come for the two goddesses to reveal themselves before the unicorn. Whether it was liked by the pair or not, they had to heed the call. Which was actually the thing that they did. Out of the water there were two splashes to be heard and Twilight feared that she would be covered in the water.

Though she remained dry when the resonations of two new sources of magic began to fill the air. Two resonations that were truly powerful and perhaps a whole lot more powerful than anything that have ever lived upon the face of their lands. The unicorn then decided to discharge her own magic out of fear for an sudden overload. She remained sitting within the meditation pose before she felt the two mysterious entities soaring through the skies. Bits and pieces of them were given off to Twilight Sparkle as the unicorn soothsayer just tried to remain calm.

Gentle in- and exhales were released by the mare. Though every single time there was one of the magical resonations going past her, she felt a massive boost in her powers. Even with her own magic discharged, she still felt it happening. What the two had planned for her was something that she didn’t know. It was most likely a fact that she didn’t wanted to know either actually.

Within her ears did the questions echoed though. The gusts of wind that travelled around her asked her the questions first. Questions that needed a natural form of answering upon. She couldn’t and wouldn’t have let the goddesses just hang like that.

With a gulp before her words she spoke as honest as she could. “The reason why I called upon the two of you is a rather simple one, goddesses of the sun and the moon. There are questions upon my mind that need answering and I’m afraid that if I waited, I wouldn’t have been able to get the answers upon them,” spoke Twilight to the both of them in a humble tone.

Then came the moment of judgment. The goddesses had been kind to the unicorn before on numerous occasions because she was busy with the quest given to them. Yet said quest was over by the time that she showed herself into their realm. Which meant that the pair of them had to make the decision about whether or not they would have helped her with her issue or not.

The odds and ends were weighed down against one another while there was nothing but complete and utter silence for a moment. Just for a moment or two had every single sound in the place just been dimmed to sheer nothing. Not even the unicorn dared to be making a single sound as she was terrified for what would be happening to her.

Seconds ticked by like they were nothing. Seconds that just went by in complete and utter silence while the levels of fear were only rising within the mind of Twilight. Whatever would have been happening to her, she wasn’t ready for it at all. The unicorn hoped of course that the words of the goddesses would have been standing in her favor. Yet how big would such a chance have been?

Perhaps it would have been better to have made the travel down to the library, instead of the pond of creation itself.

Then the goddesses themselves came back into motion. The sounds returned to the area and Twilight perked her ears to whatever it was that they had to say against her. The unicorn listened with a great intensity towards what the whispers were saying to her. Relief came to her face the moment she realized that the words were in fact meaning something good for her.

“I thank you kindly, goddesses. Also, my most humble of apologies for commanding you to appear before me. I just, didn’t knew what other way would have been the best thing to do,” the soothsayer spoke to them in a grateful tone. She was just glad that they would actually answer the questions that were upon her mind. Questions of which she made to time go to waste to ask.

“Why, why am I here? Why am I here, specifically? As in, the pond of creation itself, what is so important about the place, or me, that you would have brought me here?” she asked to them both. It was only one of the many questions that she had upon her mind, but it was all better than nothing at all.

The swirling sounds of the goddesses were caught in her ears again and she tried to make words out of them to the best of her abilities. Yet the words that she got out of them were even more surprising than that she had actually commanded the two goddesses to come to her. “W-Wait, you can’t be, you can’t be serious here, right?” Twilight asked. The soothsayer didn’t seemed to believe the words that were spoken.

The words that were said to her couldn’t have been the ones that she had heard. It simply couldn’t have been. “O-Okay,” the mare started just before she would repeat the words of the two goddesses. “So, if I have this straight here… You want me, to gather three of the four company members again, f-for what?! We did what you asked of us, we stopped the tremors!”

The magical resonations and the whispers inside of Twilight’s ears became a whole lot more calming to her. Almost as if they tried their very best to calm the mind of the unicorn more than anything else. Which seemed to be working a whole lot easier than originally anticipated. The lack of too many thoughts in the mind of the mare made it easier to have her calmed down from everything.

Which in return gave the goddesses the time to speak the words that were needed towards the unicorn. Who still didn’t really seemed to be understanding anything of what was going around and about. Confusion only seemed to have been hitting her more and more the further the goddesses spoke up their words.

The confusion was readable upon the face of the unicorn as she held her eyes closed. Just everything that was being translated in her mind didn’t made a lick of sense. It almost would have been better if the goddesses had just told her some kind of cryptic riddle that not even she seemed to have understanding.

With a deep exhale that was released through her nostrils did the unicorn thought about the words once more. She must have made a mistake in translating them somewhere, right? The mare shook her head from right to left before she repeated the spoken words. “Basically and bare boned, you want me to gather the others again, go to the throne room, which is locked by the way. And there we shall receive the final gift?”

Even Twilight listened to the words as she spoke up them aloud and had to admit the very fact that they were just as stupid sounding as they did inside of her head. The mare once more shook her head as she released a deep grumble through her throat.

There wouldn’t have been an anthrony sane enough to let them into the throne room of Canterlot Castle to begin with. Let alone that the mares would have been stupid enough to heed another call that she made. They had one adventure, they really weren’t ready already for yet another one. Not that soon at least.

Twilight could only listen to the words that were spoken by the goddesses and translating them to the best of her own abilities. Yet the words that she had spoken to them were indeed the words that they had said to her. That fact alone was utterly terrifying.

The soothsayer released a gulp to herself as the words of the dragon were also thrown right into the mixture of it all. All of it became more of a cluster of mud then the bright light that she had hoped to be seeing. “Oh believe me,” the mare said after another sentence had been translated. “I’m still full of questions! Hundreds, thousands even that all need answering upon.”

Deep exhales were released through the nostrils of the unicorn. Twilight really wasn’t in the mood anymore to play some of the games that the goddess were playing with her in the moment. Once again was everything pretty much as clear as thick mud. Not to mention that the soothsayer realized that she couldn’t have won an argument with the goddesses that were standing before her. “I, I have enough answers, actually. More would just melt my mind into ways I don’t even want to think about,” said Twilight to them in a defeated tone.

The goddesses their resonation came to a standstill, they understood the direction from which the mare came from. They didn’t wanted to saddle her up with more than she could chew. So the only thing that could have been done for them was to return to the waters of the little pond and remain there.

Two splashes of water could be heard within the ears of Twilight and she flung her head backwards. Only then were the eyes opened up again and was she met with all of the colors that the realm of the goddesses had to offer. Another deep exhale was released through her mouth as she didn’t had the desire to get up. Yet she had to get out of the place. She had to stand up in order to return to her still sleeping body. Whether the unicorn liked it or not.

So with a couple of rather ungraceful motions had she managed to stand up again and had turned her back to the pond of creation. Even though she wanted to glance so badly into it view what the future might have held in stock for her, it was possibly better that it remained hidden from everything.

The soothsayer began to walk away from the place as the thoughts returned to her. Not even the silencing gravel would have been able to keep her mind quiet anymore. Thought about everything began to race through her. Thoughts about the events and the words of the dragon, as well as the commands given by the two goddesses.

Twilight had to gather Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash once more for something that couldn’t have been explained by any of them. The eyes of the mare almost fell shut again when she felt her connection becoming less and less. Something about the realm of the goddesses seemed to be fading away as breathing became harder and harder for her.

Whatever had happened, whatever would be happening to her, Twilight would discover everything soon enough. Perhaps sooner than she would have liked to begin with. Yet at the other end she had peace with it all. First things first though, what caused her to be breathing with such a great difficulty?

~~~~

The soothsayer was shot back into her own body whose eyes just forcefully were opened up. The mare gasped for air countless times as her arms were raised. Something had been crushing on her chest and she had to get it off of her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t really doing her a whole lot of favors to begin with.

The head rose itself up a little bit to view whatever it was that laid on top of her. The eyes went wide when she noticed how the pink scales were revealed to her. That alone told her enough and she wasn’t really too happy about it actually. Her mouth made a couple of smacking motions before the words finally could be said. “Pinkie!” was exclaimed in one short breath from her.

The lamia herself heard the word that was yelled up against her and she turned her attention over to the face of the unicorn. Just the sheer innocent look that she carried upon her face was one that spoke of having not a single clue about what she did wrong. Though when she got the even more purple than normal coloring of Twilight’s face in her eyes, she knew almost instantly what was happening.

Pinkie released a small gasp for air before she quickly dropped herself upon the floor again and giggled awkwardly. “S-Sorry, I, I was cold. The mattress a-and the blanket are helpful, b-but they weren’t enough for me.”

Twilight stroked over her chest a couple dozen times while she listened to the words of the lamia. There were deep inhales that could be taken again by her. Finally she seemed to have been able to breath normally again which was a blessing from the heavens in her eyes in the moment.

“Which, which is why you crawled up a-against me,” she brought out to the best of her abilities. Pinkie nodded to the words after which Twilight just dropped back in her bed. “Ugh, just great. Remind me that next night I place a small flame by you, because you nearly crushed me there.”

“S-Sorry,” the lamia whimpered to Twilight. Of course she didn’t do it on purpose or anything, not at all. Even Twilight realized that little fact and she couldn’t have stayed angry at the lamia for long. With just one quick gesture of her hand was the lamia given the freedom of roaming through the castle. Which was exactly the thing that the lamia decided to do. She let out a strange sounding squee before she was just gone.

Twilight released a deep exhale through her mouth as the thoughts rushed back to her. “Gather the three of them, go to the throne room, the final reward awaits there. Sounds like a trap, doesn’t it? Yet at the other end, everything can be seen that way.” A sigh was released by the unicorn before she sat up straight in her bed and blinked a couple of times. “Am I going to defy the will of the goddesses? Of course not. But they wouldn’t have something terrible planned, right? It’s the goddesses after all. It can go either way with those two.”

All the more reason to remain cautious about everything that was going on. Perhaps a cup of tea would have helped the unicorn to set her thoughts straight on the matter?

Chapter XCVII

The unicorn soothsayer had managed to hoist herself out of bed. She had allowed herself to change into an attire that was actually a whole lot more fitting for her. It was her normal teaching attire that had wrapped itself around her body before she dropped down in the chair of her desk. The chair had been turned around though. The unicorn was facing the wall with the bookshelves on the opposing side of her room.

Her horn had charged itself lightly in order to summon a freshly made cup of steaming tea. The mare held the cup up within her magic and took a gentle sip from it. Her mind still couldn’t have wrapped itself around the fact that everything was over. It still didn’t wanted to believe that it all was over actually.

Yet at the other end she seemed to have been rather content with the fact that it all was over. For it meant that she could return to her normal life. For as normal as it actually was to begin with. Another yawn managed to escape her mouth before she closed her eyes for just a singular moment in time.

A singular moment that actually became minutes on end. Her mind travelled to places that laid far and wide apart from each other. Which resulted within the facts of her being mentally absent and having not a clue of what was going on around her. The words that the goddesses had spoken to her by the pond of creation still lingered deep within her mind.

Yet at the same time there wasn’t a lick of sense that could have been made out of them. Which in return actually managed to anger the unicorn. The words were just so vague to begin with, but once again she couldn’t refuse a request from the goddesses themselves.

The unicorn was brought back to the real world via something that she hadn’t expected to happen that day. There was a sudden knock upon her door. A knock that brought her back out of her trance just before the eyes blinked.

Twilight turned her attention over to the door and spoke her words in a calm tone. “Come in,” she said before a sip was taken. The door was opened with a gentle motion. It almost appeared as if her visitor couldn’t have believed that the unicorn had returned.

Once the door was opened completely and the mysterious visitor stood in the opening was Twilight looking at one of the guards. To be a little bit more specific, she was staring at a guard with whom she had spoken perhaps numerous times before. “What can I do for you today?” Twilight asked him just before she took another sip of her tea.

“G-Good morning, miss Sparkle. It’s, it’s great to see you again, a-and still alive,” the guard spoke to her in a tone of disbelief. The massive amounts of disbelief that were racing through his eyes told her everything. But there was also the feeling of relief that went through him. “In your absence, I have been keeping track of the tremors that plagued the land, up to the point when they stopped. If you want to have a look at them, that is.”

The soothsayer had to think a little bit about the offer that was being made to her. Naturally she wanted to know what and where else the tremors had been hitting in the time that they were upon their quest. At the other end she didn’t wanted to know it at all. She was terrified of the things that she could have found.

Just for a couple of seconds did the two of them remain in silence to one another. The unicorn took a gentle sip from her tea again as she then nodded with her head. “You have my curiosity and attention, please give me the reports that you have gathered over time,” said Twilight to him before she charged her horn a little bit further.

The guard nodded and revealed the vast amount of documents that he had gathered during her absence. The raspberry colored magical aura of the unicorn wrapped itself around the stack of papers and they were brought before her. The guard remained standing in the door opening when it happened and he could see how everything was just dropped upon her desk.

He then made a gentle bow before her. Only to then leave the room of the soothsayer again in silence. What managed to surprise Twilight though was the fact that he didn’t ask for how her journey was. She could understand why he hadn’t asked about it though. Yet it was strange in perhaps more than one manner.

Another sip had been taken by her before she shook her head with calm from side to side. There was no haste in thinking too much about it. She still had to process a ton of information herself in fact. Facts and figures as they were, all had to be collected within her mind and gently processed before they all would be placed into their right places.

Though out of everything there seemed to have been one matter that would have kept hammering itself upon her mind. A matter that she actually had to do in order to complete everything. The horn was charged up even further once more as before her some arcane scrolls appeared before her.

The eyes of Twilight glanced from left to right while she wrote the words upon her. Via telepathy she spoke against the scrolls who then made the words appear. The message was the same upon every single one though. It was a request that came from Twilight herself. A request that needed to be send to four mares all over the land of Equestria.

Whatever would have happened to Twilight, whatever would have happened to them all when the time was there remained a mystery. All that was known to the mare in the moment was that she had to drum them all up again. She had to drum up the company yet again so quickly after they had separated from themselves.

A deep sigh went through her nostrils before she wiped away a gentle tear from her eyes. The unicorn had then one last glance over the arcane scrolls. She nodded to the text that had appeared upon it and they were rolled up. Her eyes went shut for a short while as the scrolls seemed to just vanish into thin air.

The sounds of a fire were caught within her ears for a moment or two before it all ceased to exist. Twilight then opened her eyes again and saw how none of the scrolls kept on floating in front of her. They had been sent away just like that. Sent away to those that needed to know the content upon them.

From there on outwards, it only would have been another matter of time. Another matter of time that would have decided how the fate of the six mares would have been going. Twilight leaned a little bit further back in her chair before she began to shake her head again. Something about it all just wasn’t feeling right to her. Yet she couldn’t place her finger on exactly what it was that plagued her mind.

The eyes of the unicorn began to glance over the wall that had almost countless pieces of paper stuck to it. Upon the entire face of the wall was all of the available information about the tremors placed with lines, charts and who knew what else. The unicorn had become obsessed with the tremors that managed to haunt over their land as time went on.

Though the longer she looked at it, the more she realized that everything had gotten to an end and that she could make a report about it, if she wanted to. Twilight shook her head quick while she tried to get the thought out of her mind. She didn’t wanted to think about the thing that she thought about.

She glanced over to the paper covered wall time and time again, there was another thought that managed to make its way into her mind. One that actually happened to be a whole lot darker than anything she had ever thought about before. A thought that was being banished from her mind to the best of her abilities.

Twilight’s natural fears had managed to have been let it enter once more. The unicorn could only have blamed Nightmare Moon herself for the thought recurring inside of her mind. But the shudder of coldness that went over her spine was a cold kick back to reality itself. A kick that she had tried to avoid for the longest of times actually.

The very thought that entered the mind of the mare was one that could have been seen as pure and utter horror. A thought that was so black that it could have consumed her if her lights weren’t that brought. A thought that could have drove her over the edge of craziness. Just like the snap of a finger. Madness –like gravity– only needs a little push.

“No, no, no, no!” Twilight muttered to herself while she tightened the magical grip around the cup even more. She wasn’t in the mood for anything along the lines of what her mind was being filled with. But there was no escaping from it anymore. Somehow had her mental floodgates been opened and every last thing poured just right back into her.

Twilight rubbed one side of her head under the sounds of a groan while she tried her utmost best to just keep everything out of her. It wasn’t of any worth though. The battle had been decided a long time ago and she happened to be standing at the receiving end of the blow. The dark magic that must have been left within her body had broken her up like an egg, or at least managed to crack the shell.

The thoughts that were flowing through the mind of Twilight were those of the numerous times that she could have actually died during their trip. All of the times where she could have left life behind her flashed before her eyes. Though to make things possibly even worse, the unicorn saw everything from the perspective of a third being. And as cherry on top of the cake, she saw an alternative universe where she did die.

All of those thoughts only added to the insanity that was already brewing inside of Twilight’s very mind. All of the madness that she had collected over the years of being a soothsayer just got a massive new upgrade to torture her with. Of course wasn’t the unicorn glad with it and she wanted to block the thoughts once more from her mind.

But the sheer amount of times that she could have died caused her mind to go haywire. There wouldn’t have been any stopping about what would be happening to her. She had lost all control of her own mind yet remaining sitting within the chair. She just sat there, like a zombie that didn’t had anything better to do.

Her body looked calm, collected perhaps, yet deep inside of it was another war going on. A war that was fought at perhaps the smallest level as possible in their realm of existence.

Tears had begun to collect themselves within the eyes of the mare before she closed them forcefully. She didn’t wanted to cry them, she had to be tough. Not just for those around her, but mostly for herself. The last thing that the mare needed was to be called a wuss for whatever reason.

She shook her head once more from side to side as the magical grip was tightened even more about the cup. All of the thoughts that flooded her mind continued to just torment her though. There was no amount of magic that could be used to rebuild the mental wall, it wouldn’t have been enough. The gaps in her mental barrier were beyond repair by her alone.

With only the help of outside sources would she have been able to restore that what once was so precious to her. Though the revelations made to her also had an interesting yet creepy side effect. The mare thought about alternative universes where she had died and thought about how it would have been if others continued their lives.

Basically had she thought about what kinds of different fates could have been brought over upon Equestria itself. A true thought of horror and terror but also one that spooked Twilight to near death itself.

The magical grip around her cup became even tighter while she set her fingers firm in the wooden arms of her chair. She fought so hard to just keep some form of control over her body. The last thing that the unicorn needed was that she erupted out in a massive flood of tears. Though perhaps that happened to be the thing that she needed.

All of the sudden there was a loud crack that echoed through the room. But the mare didn’t gave it any attention. Though she did feel some warm liquids running past her right hand, which was followed by her right hoof. There was only one thing that could have caused it. The magical grip around the cup of tea must have been so tight, that it managed to actually break the cup like that.

It was the only explanation where the unicorn could have gotten upon in the moment. Which was in fact perhaps for the better as she had more pressing matters to attend to. The magical aura vanished from the plane of existence and the remaining shards of the cup also fell down. They crashed against the floor where they shattered once again in dozens of other pieces.

Though once again didn’t the mare gave them any attention. She had more than enough troubles as they were upon her head. She held her eyes still firmly closed as the lips made motions. Words were being said in languages that were unknown to most ears as she appeared to be pleading for help.

Watery lines had appeared beneath her eyes when she couldn’t help it anymore. All of the thoughts that were just surging through her mind caused her to become scared and terrified. Which in return caused the tears to be formed as they really were.

Of course she happened to be scared, of course it was alright to have been that within the moment. Nopony would have been able to keep itself standing when such horrible thoughts just came to them. But Twilight still tried to fight it all.

She still desperately tried to keep herself out of harm’s way for as much as possible. Yet Twilight didn’t realize the fact that that caused more damage to her then healing. There wouldn’t have been anything in the word capable to help her, outside of words of comfort. Words of comfort that had to be spoken by beings that she knew and loved more than anything else.

She just didn’t realize the facts as they were. Her vision had been clouded, her judgment for everything had been clouded and shrouded as well. Even her powers had been clouded. In the moment she couldn’t even determine what was right and what was wrong. Or even better said: she forgot the boundaries of reality itself.

The unicorn forgot what had actually happened to be the real reality and what were creations of her mind. For all she knew did she would have actually died but allowed to live on in some kind of alternative universe by the goddesses. They had the power over everything and all, not to mention of everything. So the chance was there.

But if she really would have gotten into a different reality, would she have been able to sense it? Once again were there also questions filling up her mind. Questions that of course needed answering in one way or the other.

All of it together just caused for a massive overload within the brain of the unicorn. There was nothing that could be done by her to save her. The magical aura disappeared from her horn just before the tears began to stream down her cheeks. Silent cries were being made by the unicorn before she gasped for air.

Silent cries were released by her as she had done so many years ago. Silent cries were released by her as if she was begging for help of an outside source. The tears began to stream down like rivers over her cheeks before they met upon her chin and travelled down to her robe.

Motionless and emotionless she just sat there when it all happened. While the fingers were placed tight upon the wooden arms of the chair. The nails barely set themselves within the wood as she was in pain. She was in a true torture of mental pain.

Something had to happen quick or the unicorn as they came to know and love her, would have entered a state of shock from which she possibly wouldn’t have been able to recover. The clock was ticking once again for her. The clock of saving had been set once more, but that time it wasn’t for the land, it wasn’t for their entire civilization. No, that time it was for somepony loved by many.

The door of the room was opened up again and Pinkie Pie slithered in with a bright smile upon her face. Her investigation through the castle seemed to have been a rather great success as she didn’t appeared to be hurt or chased. Many more routes and hallways had been discovered by her and she wanted to share them with Twilight.

But when she entered the room, she did of course notice the silent sniffs that were made by Twilight. As much as she wanted to hide the fact that she was crying, Pinkie noticed it straight away. So one of her eyes opened up before the other followed suit. Then they went wide as they saw the horrifying position in which the mare sat.

A gulp was the only thing that could have been released by the lamia before she shook her head. It wasn’t a good sight at all that she saw. She had seen many sides of the unicorn in her time with the company, but that was the very first time that she saw her mentally truly devastated and crying relentlessly.

Pinkie had never pictured herself being able to witness the sights as they were presented before her. She had prayed in silence to everything holy that she wouldn’t have been able to view the horrors as they were. She didn’t wanted to believe it at first as she turned to seemingly stone.

Frozen like a statue did Pinkie just stood there. No amount of words would have been able to talk her out of it. The lamia was almost frozen in time itself. She had not a clue of what she could be doing in order to help her friend.

Of course did Pinkie wanted to help Twilight to the best of her abilities. But what could have been done in the moment? It wasn’t like before where one hug perhaps would have been able to fix almost everything. No, Twilight’s life seemed to be standing upon the lines there. The eyes of the lamia were the only things that moved around and they shot from left to right.

What could she have done? Would she have went straight for the unicorn and hugged the living daylight out of her? It was a viable option for certain but perhaps not the one that she was looking for. The lamia managed to unfreeze herself before she released a stuttering exhale. Words wanted to be brought out into the world but they were swallowed back.

Only one anthrony in the entire castle would have been able to help her. Only one being in the entire land could have perhaps saved Twilight’s mind for utter destruction. The lamia turned herself around faster than the blink of an eye and shot out of the room. The door was left open for whatever reason while she slithered through the hallways of the castle.

She had to find that one being that slept somewhere else within the borders of the castle. It most likely would have been the only hope that the mare would have had upon saving Twilight. The lamia’s eyes constantly shifted from right to left as she had set her sights upon one being.

~~~~

For dozens of long and agonizing seconds had she continued to just slither through the hallways of the castle. She went straight to the place where she needed to be as it was her literal only hope. It was that, or it would have been nothing. The lamia had entered the barracks of the castle and increased her speed even more. The eyes were narrowed just a little bit in order to read the name tags upon the doors.

Speed was of the essence and luckily for her she could and move fast, and read everything correctly. Perhaps the hyperactivity of the lamia finally could be paying off. For perhaps the first time her hyperness was something that came to her aid, instead of having gotten her into trouble.

“Ha! Here it is!” she exclaimed before the whole body came to a standstill. One of her hands knocked upon the door and she then waited for a reply to have gotten from the other side. Only problem was that two seconds afterwards, there still was nothing.

Patience had never been a real thing for the lamia so she did the only thing that she seemed to have been capable of. Without a secondary thought in her mind did she just rushed through the door after opening it. She just barged straight into the room without any feeling for privacy for the being that slept inside of it.

The eyes of a blue haired, white skinned stallion sprung open from the extra dose of light that fell upon them. “What for the devils flanks!?” he exclaimed in an angry tone before he got up from his chair. “You better be having a very good reason for just barging into my room like this!” His eyes were still half shut, but he could make out the shape of a being standing within the light.

“It’s your sister, she’s having a mental meltdown!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You have to come, Shining!” Without any further waiting had the lamia turned around and left the room just like that. The stallion was actually baffled about the fact how everything went.

“Did she say..?” the stallion asked himself before his eyes went wide. She had indeed said the words that he had on his mind. The stallion shook his head a couple of times and picked up some casual looking clothes. There was no time to think about anything. All that could have been done in the matter was just action. Action upon action upon action.

If Twilight indeed had another one of her mental meltdowns, he was going to need much bigger guns as well. Alone he never would have been able to solve whatever was haunting through his sister’s body.

The stallion left his room and locked the door behind him tight. With one yawn having left from his mouth, he set his pace into a gentle running one. There was one location where he needed to get to before he would be visiting his sister. He had to go to the place where his secret weapon could have been picked up.

There happened to have been only one little problem about it all. The location of said secret weapon happened to be at the outskirts of the castle. Something that he wasn’t really happy about, but it needed to be done. It was the only possible way that the mind of his little sister could have been calmed and saved from the madness within her mind.

Shining Armor had ran as fast as he could to a house that stood just outside of the castle. A house where he knocked upon the door and awaited the reply from inside. Mere seconds later was the door opened and the face of an elderly mare was revealed to him. Though before she could have spoken even one single word, the stallion spoke his to the mare, “Twilight, mental breakdown, you and dad, her room in the castle. As soon as you can!”

And then he was off again. Just like that had the stallion disappeared again from the door of the house. The mare in the opening blinked a couple of times as she tried to process the received information. Only to have her eyes shot up in fear. “Hun! We gotta go to Twilight, now!” she spoke to another being inside of the house.

Shining Armor on the other end had managed to make his way over to his little sister’s room and stood in the door opening. He focused his eyes upon the mentally troubled unicorn and he just couldn’t believe what he saw before him. His own flesh and blood had seen a lot of meltdowns in her earlier age, but the one where she was going through at the moment just managed to hit everything straight out of the park.

He had to bring a hand to his mouth in order to just gasp for air like that. But he had to release a loud gulp at the sights that were presented. The tears were still streaming out of her eyes as if there was no tomorrow. The unicorn was everything except her true self and that scared Shining Armor the most. But he also knew that there was only one way how it all could have been brought to a closure.

He only hoped that it would have worked in the moment of being.

He took a couple of steps closer towards the unicorn until he stood right in front of her. “T-Twilight?” he spoke with a slight tremble within his tone. Of course he wanted to know whether or not she was alright, but he could have clearly seen that she wasn’t alright. There was no talking to the mare though.

She wouldn’t have replied to anything that he said to her and that only confirmed the thoughts that he had on the matter. Wherever she had managed to work herself into, words wouldn’t have brought her back. So the stallion resorted to perhaps the only thing from which he was certain that would work.

Both of the arms managed to find their way over the back of his little sister and he just hoisted her out of the chair with one gentle motion. Almost like a father he then hugged his little sister. The arms of the soothsayer managed to slowly travel up to his back. That little fact alone was a massive relief for him. At least she had control over her body. “Shh, shh, everything is going to be alright, Twilight, everything is going to be alright,” he spoke up to her.

In the corner of the room laid Pinkie curled up upon herself. She was just terrified to see what would have happened next. For all she knew there would have been a massive magical discharge from the soothsayer. Fear still played a massive part within the being of Pinkie Pie and nopony could have truly blamed her for the facts as they were.

Sometime later though they had appeared as well. While still wearing their morning attire, both the mother and father of Twilight and Shining had walked into the room. They didn’t even greet their son as they knew instantly what was happening to their only daughter. Even they were a little shocked about the facts as they were.

“This is far from good,” the mare spoke before she made her way over to the group. The stallion just adjusted his little glasses and silently went with her. There weren’t any words that he could have spoken in the matter to have made it any lighter for any of them.

The two of them then just joined the hug that had been initiated by Shining Armor and it suddenly became a massive family hug. The one thing that had managed to calm the unicorn down whenever she happened to have a mental meltdown.

A hug given by the beings that she loved most, her own parents and brother were those very beings. There wasn’t anything in the land that she loved more. Not even her job or the goddesses came before her very own family.

The warmth that was given off by the hug did already seemed to be having some sort of effect upon the mare. Twilight seemed to be calming down already. Perhaps not enough to talk yet, but the family could tell that the cries were getting less.

Pinkie Pie wanted to do something for the soothsayer as well. She felt just so helpless and powerless in the moment as the family seemed to be doing all of the work. She wanted to take some of the burden that was given to them, away from them. Twilight had showed a great care within the lamia already, she found that it was time to return some of that care.

The lamia uncurled herself and slithered to the family members before she just joined the hug for what it was. Without asking any kind of permission she just joined the hug that was given to the unicorn soothsayer. Not even the parents seemed to be looking up strange from the fact that she even existed.

There would have been time for introductions and everything later, first things had to be done first in their eyes. Excluding Pinkie Pie from the help she wanted to give wasn’t actually the wisest of things to do, so the parents didn’t spoke a word over it. If anything, they were actually glad that the lamia decided to help their daughter.

Seconds went by when the hug only became warmer with each passing one. And each passing second managed to calm the mind of the unicorn even more. She had her eyes still firmly closed and the tears still travelled like rivers, but she was at least breathing normally again.

Through the sniffles that she made could the words be made out. Faint words were spoken as if they were her last ones. Everypony had to perk their ears greatly if they wanted to hear them. “I, I could have d-died, s-so many times, during the j-journey,” were the words that they managed to hear.

“Hun, this is your territory,” the other stallion whispered to the other mare. The elderly mare nodded with her head as she began to stroke the cheek of her daughter. It was indeed her field of expertise to calm down the soothsayer. As a filly wasn’t Twilight much different than her more adult self. She still remained the same from the core. Which was the exact thing that her mother knew.

Her mother continued to stroke upon her cheek while she shushed her daughter’s voice away. Only to then speak the words that she wanted to say herself, “you are still here, still among us, Twily. Times change every single second but you remember that the past is set in stone right? You must have been constantly upon the right place, at the right time. Don’t you worry about it my daughter. You have nothing to cry for, release the thoughts from your mind, and become the happy filly that I remember.”

The words were certainly powerful to listen to. They were spoken in only the tone that a mother could have done. From that moment onward would it have been another matter of time. Another matter of time that would reveal to them all just what would have happened to the unicorn soothsayer.

Chapter XCVIII

The four beings managed to hold the hug around Twilight for as long as it was needed. None of them would have even dared to let go of her until she had calmed down again. The love and warmth that the soothsayer was receiving from her family and her friend must certainly have done the trick in order to keep everything intact inside of her mind.

At least that happened to the be one thing that they were all waiting and hoping for. Nopony was certain just how much time it would have taken to get to that level, but not none of them actually cared about it. All that they wanted within that very moment was for Twilight to just return to her normal state of being. For her to return to the mare that they knew her as.

And Twilight did return the hug to them all. She hugged her brother just so tight. There wouldn’t have been any words within the realm of the universe that could have explained how she felt within the moment. The soothsayer couldn’t speak her words anymore. She was just at a genuine loss for them all but that never stopped her.

They all felt that the feelings were appreciated and that was more than enough for all of the members within the hug. Just the fact that the mind of the mare was calming down was enough for them all to know that she was changing.

Changes could always have gone two ways of course. They either would have been for the worse or for the better. In the case of Twilight it happened to be the latter one. She seemed to be truly calming down with her rampaging mind. The soothsayer didn’t spoke words while the tears appeared to be getting less within her very eyes.

The beings around her just maintained in silence as well. Yet even among the silence could the calm talking be caught within careful ears. Their very heartbeats were speaking. All of their heartbeats were talking to Twilight in one way or the other. They all whispered words of great power and courage that the mare had shown, even if they didn’t knew what she had done yet.

That would have been a tale that she needed to explain to her parents soon afterwards though. For even though they didn’t really show it, they were genuinely curious about the travels of their daughter. All of them had their eyes closed and allowed the events to happen as however they were planned to happen.

None of them knew how much time had passed by that point, but they knew that it was time well spent. The sun has been travelling over the skies even further when the unicorn finally gave them the all-clear signal. Four deep sighs of relief were released before the hug was broken with some great care in it. Twilight was still fragile and shaking on her legs.

Once again it seemed as if there had to be said goodbye to the beings that broke the hug. It didn’t felt good in the mind of Twilight but she didn’t try to show it. The unicorn wiped the tears away from her eyes before she shook her head a little bit.

Her father knew what to do and he charged up his own horn. What was conjured up into existence was a glass of water for his daughter to drink out. Pinkie took a little bit of distance from the family and just looked over to the four of them with two careful eyes.

One happy, little family stood before her. A family that would have supported one another through the thickest of times and the greatest of difficulties. Not to mention the little fact that they all happened to be unicorns. The fact struck Pinkie actually as curious. She hadn’t expected to see such a thing but couldn’t help but to giggle lightly at it.

Twilight took the glass out of her father’s magical aura and brought it over to her lips with trembling hands. The mare tried to take a sip or two as her red eyes first looked to Shining Armor. He gave her a calm nod before he nudged his head behind her. The mulberry skinned unicorn nodded with her own head in response.

She had to face perhaps the hardest sight of them all. The sight of her parents, right after she had returned from her journey.

The liquids in her mouth were swallowed whole before she allowed her own horn to be coated within the raspberry aura. The glass was picked up and brought out of her hand and levitated over to the desk on the side. There it just would have been placed before the aura around it had disappeared again. A gentle exhale went through her nostrils in silence as time seemed there.

Shining Armor saw the sheer amount of difficulty that was going through the unicorn her eyes. There was that feeling of utter discomfort that surged through her entire being. He sensed that she couldn’t have just turned herself around to face her parents. To him it almost looked like that if she turned around, she would see two faces she never wanted to see within her life. Though the very thing where she happened to be afraid of remained a mystery.

Even though he knew his own sister just so well, there still would have been times where even he would be wrapped up in mystery around her. The stallion allowed a bit of a louder exhale to be leaving his own nostrils before he nudged his head again. The time was up for the unicorn. She had to turn around and face the unbelievable sight behind her.

Twilight knew that fact very well. She knew that fact perhaps better than anypony else in the moment. There wouldn’t have been any walking away from anything in that moment. One turn would have been enough to settle everything that needed to be done. One turn would have been enough for her. One turn to either make it the best day of her life, or the worst.

The unicorn allowed the lids of her eyes to be closed. She couldn’t do it, yet at the same time she felt like she could carry the world. There was a massive mix of emotions going through her while the only thing possible was done. Whether Twilight realized it or not, her body was gently turning.

She turned further and further until the closed eyes were aimed at both of her parents. The two elderly anthronies both looked to their daughter while her eyes opened up in a calm manner. Those of the soothsayer glanced at both of her parents with an expression unknown in the moment. While those of her parents glanced at the soothsayer with one of hope and a sense of pride. Words couldn’t have been appropriate within the matter. So the only words released by the youngest unicorn were three very simple ones.

“Hai mom, dad,” she spoke to the two of them. Of course they were among a series of the worst possible words that she possibly could have chosen within the moment. But they were at least better than nothing. Shining Armor seemed to have a great trouble to keep his cool as he tried his utmost best not to let a chuckle leave him.

The elderly mare was the first one to take a step forward and she placed a hand upon her daughter’s shoulder. A gentle smile formed itself over her lips before the words followed. “I think, you have a tale to tell against me and your father,” she spoke in a genuine and curious tone. There wasn’t any hint of anger within it to be found. There only was relief to be caught in her ears. Relief for the facts that Twilight was still alive and dared to turn around to face them.

Once again she couldn’t have escaped it, even if she would have liked it so much. Twilight was trapped inside of her very own room. She had to tell the adventure again in front of her parents that time. That always proved to have been a little bit more difficult than it was against her brother. He seemed to have been a little bit more okay with the things that she did around and in the castle.

Yet in the end did Twilight realize there was no escape left for her to use. She pointed the pair of them to her bed and took a seat. The soothsayer herself took place within the chair of her desk while Shining would have just leaned against it. The stallion crossed his arms over one another and allowed his eyes to fall shut. He was aware of the adventures that his younger sister had gone through, he only hoped that his parents could have accepted everything.

And there she went. Twilight’s lips began to tell the tale as she remembered it happening before her eyes. Everything was told against her parents, no detail was left out. There was one exception though, she did leave out certain details about the meetings that she had. Especially the parts where the flintlocks were placed before her.

Pinkie Pie on the other end had curled herself up on the mattress and actually appeared to have fallen asleep. The only time that she would have seen in motion again was if her name would have been called out. Only that was enough to get her attention out of the land of the dreams.

All while the sun continued to travel over the Equestrian skies did both of the parents understood the reasoning behind Twilight’s most recent breakdown. Neither of them had expected that she would have been set through so much in such little amount of time. It had managed to surprise them that Twilight took the chance to begin with. Neither of the parents knew if it was a smart decision, but they seemed to have succeeded upon the task that was given to them.

It was still a literal tough pill to swallow for the pair of them though. Neither of them even had the slightest of ideas about what Twilight had been doing during her trip all together. They knew it was something important, but they had never dared to think it would have been that important. They also understood the reason of why she was so silent about it all. All of the puzzle pieces that they had literally came together for her parents.

All of the blanks that they were having were filled in as the story continued even further. The unicorn soothsayer wouldn’t have been done by a long time. For the entire story that she had to tell, almost seemed to have been a novel written by a great author of their time. A tale of adventure and magical powers of long forgotten.

Eventually had Twilight closed her eyes before she spoke the final words that could be found in her mouth. “And that, is the whole tale of the adventure that we have been going through. It, it’s hard to say goodbye to them. A-And the way we did, didn’t seemed like a good one,” she spoke to them all moments before she shook her head. Twilight still couldn’t believe it that they left like that.

Her parents were still baffled about it all and couldn’t speak a single word. They had to think for a long and hard time to come before they would be able to reply with a series of words. So it was Shining Armor who placed both of his hands against the desk and opened his mouth. “You may find it a bad manner in which you have separated,” he spoke to his sister in a calm tone, “problem happens to be that nopony knows how to properly say goodbye in such a fashion, especially after such an adventure. You’ve been spending weeks together. Thrown together like that, separated like that. There’s nothing that can be said or done with that sis.”

Twilight nodded to his words. All of them did ring a major form of truth, but she still wasn’t comfortable with them. She had to get an actual closure upon the fact that they travelled together. Perhaps that was the thing that the mysterious final gift could have been. A little fact that she actually held as a secret from her parents and brother.

As she came to think of it, she didn’t even knew if Pinkie was aware of her words. Either way, there would have been a time and place for everything. Even for the mysterious final gift.

“I, I see what you mean, Shining, but it still just, hurts so much in my heart and soul,” returned Twilight to him before she turned her head into his direction. Their eyes met with one another just after the stallion had given off a nod. He could understand her words clearly of course.

“Perhaps you can throw a reunion of the company?” he suggested as just one of the many ideas of things that could have happened. It was a longshot perhaps, but one of the more reasonable things that could have been done in the matter.

The gears behind the mare’s eyes began to turn and twist as she actually thought about the words that he spoke. A reunion? There was something along the lines of what she could be doing. Perhaps she even would have been doing it. After all, they all would have many more tales to tell to one another.

“Twilight,” the voice of her father spoke after he rose up from the bed.

Twilight’s attention immediately shifted over to him as she replied quickly. “Yes, dad?”

What happened next couldn’t have been described with words. Instead would the aged stallion have left the bed for what it was and made his way over to his daughter. Only to take her in his arms and hold her close to him. Between the two of them there was a hug that happened while the unicorn hadn’t even asked for. But it was nice to say the least. It was nice to know that her father cared just as much about her as Shining Armor and her mother.

Twilight could feel the tears landing upon her shoulder the longer the hug was kept. None of the other anthronies in the room even dared to interrupt the peaceful and perhaps priceless moment. Not even Pinkie dared to make a single form of noise. One of her eyes was open to see what was going on but she didn’t move a single scale on her body.

Then there would have been the words spoken by the stallion. Words that came straight from his heart and should been more than enough to show Twilight a thing she never thought she would have seen from him. “I, I’m so proud on you, my daughter. I’m just, so, so, so proud on you,” he spoke to her in an honest and genuine glad tone.

Those little words alone were more than enough for the unicorn to tear up again. But that time it was in a good way. For years she had thought that her father had never accepted her for the way that she was. Yet there he was, crying upon her shoulder while they both held the hug firm. He had admitted there and then that he was proud on the things that she had done.

The unicorn almost seemed to have gotten in some sort of trance before the eyes felt shut again. Words nor deeds would have been spoken or done. The two of them just remained in the position that they were, holding the hug firmly. Both Shining Armor and her mother looked over the two of them with a warm smile going over their lips.

They both knew it was a massive moment in both of their lives and they didn’t wanted to have been the party crashers. No, the moment had to be broken by either Twilight or her father when the time was there. Though nopony knew when that would have been. Seconds, minutes, or possibly an hour? Everything was possible between the two of them. Yet none of them seemed to care about the matter of time.

“Dad,” the youngest unicorn spoke in a whisper, “I love you.”

More tears left the eyes of the aged stallion and travelled along the cheeks. He wanted to reply with words of his own but couldn’t find any. There must have been some he could have spoken though. “I, I love you too,” he managed to say. It wasn’t a difficulty in his voice of it being an actual difficulty to say. It was more along the ways that he couldn’t find the right words for it to say.

Both her mother and older brother knew that he meant his words well, that he even tried to find better words to use. In the moment those would have been the best ones to have used by him.

~~~~

In the late afternoon had everything managed to calm back down. All of it just returned back to normal as both her parents and older brother had to go back to their daily lives. It actually saddened Twilight to see them go again, but they all had shed too many tears as it were.

When they walked through the hallway kept the unicorn soothsayer staring at the three of them. One last wave was given to them all before they turned around the corner. There they had gone again, departed from her life just like that. Just like that was it only her and the lamia that remained within the room.

A gentle exhale was given off by the mare before she closed the door. It licked back in its lock and she looked over the things that laid upon her desk and through her room. She had returned back home, but at what cost?

Pinkie Pie rose gently up from her position and saw how Twilight had sunken into a deep state of thought. “Don’t you dare to break before me again,” the lamia spoke to the unicorn in a stern voice. The last thing that the lamia wanted was that she had to act as a whistleblower again.

A smile formed itself over the lips of the soothsayer before she shook her head. With one hand she wiped all of the tear strains and tears out of her eyes. “No Pinkie, I won’t break again. Not after all of this. All of this has been, mind-blowing, actually. In the good way of the word, mind you.”

“Okay,” the lamia replied before she curled back around herself. Their conversation had been silences as the unicorn walked forth. She still had to add the remaining pieces of information to her wall of earthquakes.

Minutes had passed while the sun was already setting itself behind the horizon. Twilight had managed to finish with adding all of the latest information about the tremors that had hit Equestria while they were gone. She looked at the map and still couldn’t find any decent pattern within it.

Just for one of the few times in her life did she just looked at it and couldn’t make a single thing out of it. It would have angered her a little bit more than it should have been doing. That was until she realized that everything that could have been done about it had been done. That little fact seemed to be calming her down again.

Her eyes went through the room and there she saw Pinkie laying vast asleep already. It surprised her just how much the lamia could have been sleeping in a day. But more thought she didn’t gave to the matter. Her mind needed to have some form of rest and the only way that could have been given to her was either through light sleep or a walk through the castle.

Given the fact that she didn’t happen to be tired yet, the decision had been easily made by her. The unicorn would have been off on a stroll through the castle. She gave a gentle nod to herself only to then make her way over to the door. No notes were given off by her to the lamia that time. For the creature would see it whenever she would have gotten back to the room.

~~~~

Twilight wandered through the reddish and orange-ish light lit hallways of the castle while the sun was still setting itself, making way for the night. She glanced through the windows from time to time and would have glanced up, to the red skies above. Everything combined did manage to calm her mind while the clouds were sailing almost harmonious through the skies like airships.

How much did she had missed such sights from the castle. Underneath the ground there was nothing but darkness to be seen of course. That just happened to be the thing where she wasn’t used to. Twilight was a surface dweller, she was naturally used to having high spaces to move in and do her business. Seeing the clouds again rolling through the air behind the glass actually made her happy that she was back up again.

Perhaps she didn’t felt lucky about the fact but she still saw them through glass. Yet that also meant that she was safe. She was safe within the walls of the castle. No amount of evil would have been able to get to her that way. Or so she silently hoped. Even though it all looked watertight, there still could have been gaps within the security system.

The head was given a quick shake before her eyes were set upon the hallway. Her attention needed to be focused on something else. And in the distance she noticed the three of them. One of her eyebrows rose up as the three beings remained standing there. They almost appeared to have been frozen solid on the fact that they saw the soothsayer again.

Thought the unicorn herself placed her hands behind her back and calmly made the way up to the three of them. They still didn’t move a single muscle within their bodies as the sheer bafflement was clearly readable upon their faces. The soothsayer had to force herself to give them all three a gentle smile before she stopped. The chance existed that they could have been able to help her. That they were able to get her mind away from so many things in the moment.

A chance was given to her and she took it with both of her hands. “Well, well, well, looks like milady Star, master Dolicho and master Sky, if I’m not mistaken. What a pleasant surprise to walk against the three of you here,” the mare said to them in a calm tone.

Wishful Star, Dolicho the zebra and Sky Comet all three looked like they had seen a ghost of yesterday. Their skin turned pale as snow for a couple of seconds when they saw Twilight Sparkle. None of them even wanted to speak a word against her, let alone knew the right ones. Just the sheer amount of surprise that they had gotten from seeing nopony else then Twilight again, shattered them and managed to shut them all up for the moment.

The mare of the group tried to crawl back to consciousness though. She began to stutter before her muscles began to move once more. She wanted to speak a couple of words but constantly kept falling over them. To which Twilight would gesture that she had to take her time with it all.

In the end there would have been the words that came out of the mouth of the mare. “We, we hadn’t, expected you to, be back here again. N-Not that that’s a bad thing of course, far from it actually,” said Wishful Star while at the same time she also pleaded herself free for some reason.

“Do I sense a tone of doubt, miss Star?” Twilight added. The soothsayer only wanted to make the situation even more difficult. Though just seeing the three students of her like that, caused something she hadn’t seen in a long time. There was a genuine smile that then came upon her face. Just the sheer reaction that they gave to her caused her to return fully back to her old self.

Or at least that was the way it appeared to be. Naturally didn’t the three of them had a clue about the things that had happened to the older unicorn. Which she gladly wanted to keep that way for the time being. She had told her story twice in two days, she had no real intention in making that a third time in two.

Dolicho and Sky Comet managed to regain their own muscles back as well and they both had to shake their head to the situation. They thought that they were dreaming, that the unicorn couldn’t have had returned yet from her journey. But she stood there, plain and simply. They were wide awake and not affected by any kind of spell to their knowledge.

“Impossible,” the zebra spoke up just before he made a bow to the soothsayer.

“Nothing is impossible, my dear Dolicho. Only highly unlikely,” the mare returned to him before she made a bow in return. The signs of respect to one another were given as they came back up at the same time. ”Now tell me though, where have the three of you been up to. And what have you been doing? I remember leaving this place with just the two of you, being the troublemakers.” Twilight’s finger pointed to both Wishful Star and Sky Comet who both gained a red blush.

“It’s a long story, miss,” replied Sky Comet to the best of his abilities. He still couldn’t fully grasp himself around the fact that their teacher had returned just like that. “But basically, we became friends with Dolicho and, have been inseparable ever since.”

Twilight nodded with her head as it carried her mind off of the things about her tale. Not to mention it also brought her mind back into the state of school. That always had been a great diversion for her to think about. She hadn’t thought about it on earlier occasion simply because there wouldn’t have been anything to remind her to.

“I see, I see. I just hope that Dolicho enjoys being your friend as well as you do. I also trust he showed you some of his own rituals and that you respect them?” Twilight asked further.

Those words wanted to make Wishful Star just jump up and argue against her. But it was the zebra who placed a hand upon her shoulder. “Naturally miss. They were even eager to learn about the Great Plains of the lands beyond the seas. Great respect given, is great respect received,” answered Dolicho in his regular, humble tone.

Twilight released another nod. The mare was pleased to hear that the zebra wasn’t alone in the class anymore. His loneliness made him a vulnerable target to bullies of course, or anypony that wanted to do him harm in general. “That certainly happens to be the truth, yes. Anything else that I need to be aware of? Any mischief you three have done while I was gone?”

There was no hiding it from Twilight. She could smell such things from a mile away and they all three just reeked of it. So the only thing that could be done was to just confess to her. All three of them admitted the fact that they had been guilty of some mischief. Just small little things that didn’t hurt anypony physically. Mentally on the other end, that was still another debatable all together.

Twilight released yet another nod with her head after they told her everything. They just didn’t leave a stone unturned about everything that had happened. Even about the substitute teacher they had gotten in her absence. Not to mention the progression within the arts. All three of them had learned new things and each went to the planes of the goddesses at least once in her absence.

“Seems to me like you all have been growing quite the bit. Heh, how long before you will be just spreading your wings and take off with all the knowledge passed unto you?” the soothsayer spoke to them before she gave a gentle shake with her head. It was just beautiful to see such a thing happening before her.

“Perhaps one day, perhaps never,” replied Dolicho in a gentle whisper to the soothsayer. The three anthronies couldn’t do anything else then to give him his right. For a soothsayer had always something new to learn no matter what. There was always something of interest that could be done. Always more knowledge to be gathered.

“Miss Sparkle, can, can I ask you something?” Wishful Star already asked. She knew what the first answer would have been and didn’t really care about that one. She wanted to know the second answer that would have gotten out of the unicorn.

“Outside of the question that you just asked?” Twilight replied before she gave her a calm smile. “Go right ahead.” It wasn’t the answer that even the soothsayer herself expected to give though. Perhaps some bits of the old captain’s manners had rubbed off on her?

Though the all clear was given to her, which meant that she could ask just about the second most important question that there was to her. She didn’t ask how the trip was, it wasn’t her place to ask such a thing. That one would have been revealed to her in time. Instead she asked something that was a lot more closer to her studies. “When, when do you think you’ll be able to return to class again? And teach us once more?”

That was a question that the unicorn hadn’t gotten before and it caught her by a genuine surprise. Of course had Twilight wanted to return back to the classes as quick as she could, but would such a thing have been possible? The desires to give a straight answer in a set number of days was jumping up and down her tongue.

But she just had to go with an answer that was a little bit more on the vague side. “As soon as I’m ready again I’ll be back before class. I can’t say when exactly that will be though. But I can say that it will be soon enough,” she then answered to them. Those words brightened the faces of the three students straight away.

The four of them had to say their goodbyes though. The hour had turned late and Twilight was having a string of appointments for the next day. Appointments of which she could have only hoped that those meant for would have come. So the four of them separated their ways once more. Twilight went further along her way as the three students just wandered off to who knew where.

~~~~

The following day were the skies a little bit more clouded. The clouds themselves even seemed to have turned to gray as a rainstorm could erupt at any given moment. Though the forecast wouldn’t have been rain of any kind. So the unicorn soothsayer sat in the courtyard of the castle. She had positioned herself upon a small bench and looked over everything that could be seen. Her eyes went calmly from left to right as she sat there like a true lady.

The invitations had been sent out to the mares and that was the day that they needed to be heeded. Everything was given within the little notes, everything that ranged from just the simplest of explanation though. Nothing was made clear to any of them.

In her ears did Twilight caught the metallic thumping already coming from the distance. Only one mare in the entire land had such a thing and the eyes looked into the general direction of it. Within them they caught an Applejack that was dressed in a rather formal, admiral’s gown. All of her naval attire was on while she closed in the distance between her and Twilight.

Only once she was close enough would she had spoken up her words. “Ah got yar note just in time, almost wanted to sail out with mah ship again. So tell me, what do ya need me for now?” Applejack asked moments before she placed her hands in her sides.

“You’ll see, you’ll see,” spoke Twilight to her in return. To the admiral it looked like that she knew more about the matter. In reality did they knew just as much about it all.

Chapter XCIX

Applejack crossed her arms over one another in front of her chest as she rose an eyebrow to the unicorn soothsayer. There hung the strange scent of mystery within the air and she smelled it from even a mile away. Whatever had been planned by Twilight –or anypony else for that matter– would remain a mystery for the time being. Though she knew that the calling of her wasn’t just for a friendly chitchat. Not that soon after they had been separated again.

Of course there were about a thousand and one thoughts that rushed through the admiral in that moment. But the soothsayer couldn’t answer a single one of them just yet. Perhaps she never would have been able to begin with. It all had to be seen through the gears of time itself. So the only thing that Applejack could be doing was to wait for whatever came next.

Twilight still didn’t have an idea that the rest of the mares also had been drummed up to come, which only added to the mystery. The admiral lowered the arms down to her sides as she just stood there for a little moment. The doubt was visible within her eyes though. She was doubting whether or not she would have been sitting down.

Seconds ticked away like they were nothing before Applejack had made a cut through the knot in her mind. The body of the earth anthrony moved itself over to the bench and she dropped herself into it. She would have been ready for pretty much everything else that would have been hitting her. Though she couldn’t help herself but to ask about what the matter was, once again. “Ya really can’t tell me what’s going to happen?”

Twilight shook her head from side to side before her attention remained stuck upon the admiral. “Applejack, even if I wished to tell you what would happen, I couldn’t do it. You aren’t the only mare I’m waiting upon in the moment,” the soothsayer spoke to her in a serious tone.

The words were enough for the admiral to realize that the rest of the company would have been gathered as well. Though the chances of such a thing actually happening would have been rather slim. There wouldn’t have been a way in the world that allowed the other mares to have come back to the castle that quick.

The biggest issue that they faced in the moment? Getting Rarity past the security of Canterlot. Not to mention that the treaty between the two mares of the sea had been retired all together as well. So any second that the pirate captain would have revealed herself to anypony in Canterlot, she would have been Applejack’s prisoner in a near instant.

Behind the two mares there was another sound that could be heard. Applejack recognized it out of thousands and she quickly turned herself around. In her eyes she then caught the brightly pink scaled lamia with the same shirt covering her upper body. “Heh, so ya really kept her. She’s coming along nicely?”

“You mean Pinkie? Yeah, she’s doing just fine actually. Still needs to get used to a couple of things thought. But outside of it, she’s actually acclimatizing nicely,” replied Twilight to the admiral with a certain cool in her voice.

“Acclima-whatta now?” the other mare spoke up with a raised eyebrow. Once again had they stuck upon a word that actually was unknown to a member of the group.

Twilight released a deep sigh through her nostrils as the eyes were shut for just a moment. “It means that is getting used to it, it’s a fancy word for it. Don’t give me that look though, I don’t know anything of a ship either.” To that could Applejack only release a chuckle. She shook her own head from right to left while Pinkie slithered up to the two of them.

The lamia didn’t seemed to have been out of breath or anything. Instead she seemed to have been really excited about the facts as they were. Whatever would have been happening that day, she was actually looking forward to it. “Hey Pinkie,” the admiral said before she tipped her hat a little bit.

“Hey Applejack!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. The lamia was genuinely happy about it all. She didn’t knew for what though. But a feeling within her very guts just told her that everything would have become great that day. If it actually was a feeling placed right remained to be seen though.

The lamia and the admiral got into a conversation with one another while Twilight began to look over the skies. Surely the fourth member of their company would have been there by then, right? The skies were thick though. The clouds blocked her view and she couldn’t glance as high as she would have liked. It was a minor inconvenience for the unicorn but there were many ways that Canterlot could have been visited.

So she turned her attention over to the conversation that happened between the earth anthrony and the lamia. She tried her best to pick up some of the words that were spoken but the thoughts of her mind caused it all to be lost straight away. Twilight even shook her head to get any bit of sleep that dwelled there to be thrown out of it.

Out of nothing it happened and it caught all of the mares by surprise. All of the other beings that wandered through the courtyard for that matter, were caught off guard. There was a sudden rainbow trail within the skies and it had landed right within their very courtyard. Twilight reached for her heart in a manner like she wanted to calm it. Her eyes had shot upwards and followed the trail down in silence. Words couldn’t have been spoken by her.

Yet Applejack on the other end stood ready with one hand at the hilt of her sword. It wouldn’t have been long before she had actually drawn it. But then she saw just whom it was that had crashed down in the courtyard. Only one mare in the entire land would have landed in such a way and left a trail of a rainbow behind her wherever she flew.

“Hmpf, Rainbow Dash, ya couldn’t think of any other way when it came to coming in?” Applejack growled to her. The sword was released again before the admiral walked up to the pegasus to give her a firm hand. The pegasus major had landed in her signature pose yet seemed to be needing a little bit of help getting out of it.

Twilight’s eyes looked to the first upon the ground and the hooves. The eyes went wide as she noticed that there actually was a small crater beneath it all. It appeared that the gardener would have some work cut out for him. Her eyes then shifted back up to the mares with an expression of happiness within them. They had gathered yet another member of their team.

Rainbow placed a hand in Applejack’s before she was hoisted back up to her original height. The major of the air force looked into the eyes of the admiral with a cocky grin before she wrapped an arm over both of her shoulders. “I had to make an entrance right? First time I’ve been to Canterlot Castle, might as well leave an impression that will be remembered.”

“And a fine for property damage to add to it,” said Twilight a little bit too loud.

“What was that, Twilight?” Rainbow asked before she turned her head over to the soothsayer. Something was spoken in her direction, but she hadn’t caught it. She wanted to know.

Twilight’s eyes went wide a second time before she tried her utmost best to cover up the mistake that she had made. “Oh, n-nothing. Just, just a thought that escaped me. Great landing though. Sure to leave an impression.”

“Hehe, just as I thought,” the pegasus replied. Then she asked the all-important question to Twilight. “So, what did you need me back here for? Seeing how almost the old club is together, I have so my thoughts.”

“Whatever they may be, I think that you’re actually wrong with all of them,” the soothsayer replied to her. “As I have told Applejack and Pinkie already, you’ll see. We still need to have two members that need to come and then you’ll see why I have called you here today.”

Those words caused Applejack to raise an eyebrow. How did Twilight ever even think about getting Rarity past the security of Canterlot to begin with? The case was beginning to smell a little bit fishy in her nose and she wanted to know the finer details about it all. The problem happened to be that she couldn’t be getting any of those anytime soon.

So the admiral was forced to just wait in the courtyard just like everypony else. Whatever had been planned, only Twilight seemed to be knowing it. And to make matters even worse, she had bet her bits on something impossible as well.

Silence had been given off by all of the mares as they patiently awaited the arrival of the next anthrony. Which happened to be nopony else then Fluttershy. The other pegasus walked down the same hallway as the admiral had done before. Though she seemed to have been a little bit more shyer than usual. Something had caused her to not be the most usual self. Twilight thought that she knew the reasoning of why she acted like that. A reason that she never shared it with anypony else. There was no need of them to know the conditions where the doctor was in.

There was just no need for them to know what she knew. Rainbow Dash gained a smile upon her face though. She was glad to see the other pegasus once more. The major of the air force had spent just one night up in Cloudsdale before she had to turn back over to Canterlot. So any friendly face from the same race was a welcome one in her eyes.

“Welcome back, Fluttershy,” the soothsayer spoke while she approached the doctor. The two of them gave one another a hug and a smile. It wasn’t something done by the rest of them but they most likely would have declined it anyway.

“Thanks Twilight,” the doctor replied to her just before the smile faded away from her face. She then looked over to the rest of the mares and gave them all a gentle nod with her head. She was actually looking a little bit frightened to see them all again for some reason.

Which made her turn over to the unicorn once again. The unicorn remained calm as she looked at the group as well. A small smile was then formed across her lips before she nodded calmly to herself. It must have been enough right? There was no way that Rarity physically would have showed herself in the castle.

Though there were other ways to get the pirate captain in the same place that they happened to be.

The anthronies and the lamia just stood there in silence or a moment or two while they anticipated the arrival of said pirate captain. But there was nothing that came their way. Not even a breeze that came from the direction of the seas that could have changed everything was felt. There simply was, nothing.

Only then did the volume of Fluttershy raise itself. The pegasus was genuinely curious about the facts as they were and wanted to know the finer details. “Twilight, you probably have gotten this question a dozen time already but…”

“What’s the reason I called you all here?” the soothsayer almost bluntly interrupted her. She didn’t mean for her words to be taken that bluntly though. But Twilight was tired of hearing the same question over and over again. The answer would have been the same anyway until the time was there. And said time, didn’t happen to be there just yet. After all, they did still miss nopony else then Rarity Brittenburg.

“Y-Yes, that’s what I meant to ask.” Fluttershy brought out before she released a small gulp. In her eyes it almost seemed like she had upset Twilight in one way or the other. The rest of them just thought that she hadn’t take things so seriously.

“As I told the rest, you’ll all see when the time is there,” replied Twilight to her in calm.

“And when’s that? When Ah grow a beard or som’thing?” Applejack growled towards her. To which the soothsayer could only chuckle and shake her head.

“I certainly hope not, Applejack, that’s about the last thing I want to see upon your face. If I may say so,” added Twilight after she let out a little chuckle. The comment of the admiral was just a little bit too funny in her eyes to not make a reply on.

Rainbow Dash had a series of different plans about it all. Her mind had come up with things that made far less sense to every- and anypony. But then again, it was a pegasus who said them to begin with. Of course could the words have been viewed as spoken by a hothead. Or at least a being that always walked with a head in the clouds.

“You know what I think about it all?” she spoke before her arms were crossed over one another. Her eyes went over each of the company’s members with a gentle grin across her lips. She seemed to have been just so certain of everything. She appeared to knowing exactly what was happening or needed to be done. The problem just happened to be that she was just about dead wrong with it all.

Twilight turned her attention over to the pegasus and rose an eyebrow to her. Even though she knew that Rainbow would not have been able to figure out what would be happening, she was still curious to the fact of which she came with. “Go ahead, tell us all what you think is following up soon enough,” she said as she even made a gentle gesture for her to begin with her words.

The soothsayer had given the major a massive boost in confidence when she had given her the very room to speak her words of probable madness. It was all that the pegasus could have spewed out actually. Fluttershy on the other end was a whole lot closer to the ground because of her life upon the solid surface. Rainbow lived in Cloudsdale itself and for many that spoke enough.

“Alright then, but you asked for it,” said Rainbow just before she cracked her fingers. Why such a thing needed to be done in order to tell a story was a mystery to Applejack and the rest. But it was an annoying thing to say the least. They wanted to know what she had upon her mind.

They all were a little bit curious to the facts as they happened to be in her mind. Each of them turned their attention over to the major who only stood there with a fool’s grin. She was just so certain of her entire business that she almost dared to wage everything upon it. “Okay, what I’m thinking is this,” she began before the story erupted. “You all know how Twilight is a soothsayer right? Maybe she’s gotten visions of another catastrophe that lays in wait. Perhaps the goddesses have been wanting to assemble us again, in order to stop a new threat.”

Once again were the words just madness itself and everypony had to agree upon that little fact. It were the only words that she could spew out on the matter though. Not to mention that they did ring a form of truth. There must have been some reason of why they were called back, but that that happened to be the reason was one possibly far off.

Applejack released a deep huff through her nostrils as she shook her head. Her arms went cross over her body as the eyes were closed. “Come on now, Rainbow, that’s just utter madness ya be talking there,” she spoke just before her focus was placed once more upon the pegasus.

“If you have a better idea, I gladly hear that,” returned Rainbow to the admiral with a smirk. Perhaps were the words enough to corner the other mare, but that didn’t bother her. For the subject needed to be changed in her eyes, and fast.

Applejack wasn’t in the mood to argue with the pegasus about what was the reason why they were there. Nopony else spilled a word over it as they already realized the fact that it was just impossible to do. But the attention of the admiral turned over to the soothsayer who just stood there. The chance was given to her to change the subject. “Ya really think a mare like Brittenburg is coming? Ah don’t think so mahself if Ah may say so. Security’s too tight ‘round here and ya know it.”

Twilight released a gentle nod to the words of the mare. They were right in all the ways. Everything just seemed to be working against Rarity if she wanted to even try to get to Canterlot harbor. But the soothsayer always had a little trick or two upon her sleeve. “Don’t you worry about it, Applejack. I’m certain that she’ll find a way around everything to get to us. Though what that way is, I don’t even know,” the soothsayer spoke in response.

Applejack had listened with great care to the spoken words and released a calm nod with her head. Perhaps Twilight was right with them and she just worried too much about it? At the other hand laid that years long desire of finally bringing the pirate captain to the trail that she needed. Their treaty was over and everything between the two could have been done.

Though then there happened to be a third hand that was thrown in the mix. A third hand that showed her the betrayal that she would give the unicorn pirate. For the whole of the journey they hadn’t been flying at each other’s throat and in the aftermath they would? That would have been a hefty price to pay for them all in fact.

The admiral gulped light before she closed her eyes for a moment or two. There was the feeling of a possible guilt that rose up within her. Even though she wanted to capture the pirate through a your long desire, another piece of her told her that she just couldn’t do such a thing.

The eyes of Twilight glanced over all of them, they looked from the lamia over to the major of the air force, to the admiral of the navy before they rested upon the doctor. Almost everypony was there with the exception of a possible key player. The message had been sent out, whether there would have been any kind of response remained to be seen. But Twilight judged to herself that it was time.

The time had fallen upon them all to know a little something that would have brought them closer to figuring out what was going on. And above all, what was going to happen. Twilight had one last glance over all of them before she spoke the words. “It is time to reveal, a little bit. If you all want to follow me, please.”

“Follow you to, where exactly?” Fluttershy dared to ask. Naturally it gained the curiosity of all the other mares around them. Eyebrows were raised while glances were given to everypony. All of them wanted to know exactly what would be happening from that moment on. Not to mention who happened to be right with their words.

“There’s one place in the entire castle, where nopony is allowed to enter. But the goddesses had spoken to me that something lies waiting within that room. So after a hefty conversation with the head soothsayer, have I managed to gain access to said room,” revealed Twilight to them in a little bit of a mysterious tone. Though most of it was just plain old casual.

Once more were all of the mares actually captivated by the facts as they were revealed to them. Nopony knew about which room she spoke up as their knowledge of the soothsayers were too low for such a thing. But they all realized that whatever laid there, it must have been important of some degree.

The company of five began to make their way through the hallways of the castle as the soothsayer continued upon her words. “The room that we’re going to visit is one sealed off many years ago. Longer than time can possible remember actually. All of you are aware that this castle stands here for longer than our lands have existed right?”

Twilight had gently turned her attention around to face the mares. All of them were known a little bit to the history and only the anthronies nodded to the words. Of course Pinkie’s head remained stationary as she didn’t knew anything about it. Something Twilight had been knowing for a little while actually.

“The room we’re going to visit carries perhaps the greatest importance for us all. As that very room happens to be no place else then the throne room of the goddesses,” said Twilight in almost an ominous tone. Nopony knew what to think of it though. Would it have been a good or bad thing? And what would have been waiting there for them? All the questions that arose with the answers, only made things just as clear as mud itself.

~~~~

“So this is the doorway leading to the throne room?” Rainbow said while they all looked to a golden plated door. There didn’t seemed to have been too much mystery to it, but Twilight knew that behind that very door perhaps the greatest achievement of them all laid. The door itself was wonderfully cared though. Arches and lines that formed the most beautiful shapes could be witnessed by all of them.

It was a true work of beauty, that fact had to be admitted by everypony that was present. The mares couldn’t actually believe the sights that they saw. Twilight allowed herself a deep exhale as she then closed her eyes. “This is indeed the door, Rainbow. The door that always must have remained shut to preserve it. I don’t know what we will find inside of it.” Twilight spoke up before her horn calmly charged up.

Applejack understood what would be happening next and she placed a hand upon Twilight’s shoulder. “Nice and easy there, partner, there’s no need to rush a thing like this. Savor the moment, for yaself.” Those words seemed to have some sort of effect upon the unicorn as she did calm down a little bit. It was a great moment and all that she had to do was to open the doors. She needed to take her time with it and did so.

Seconds had gone by in utter silence while Twilight just stood before the door. With her magic charged did she allow the flow to go over to her hands as well. Slow but sure had they then rose up and each of them was placed upon one door.

Deep exhales were given off by the mare before she closed her eyes. Everypony was waiting in anticipation of what would be happening next. Whether it would have been something good or bad, they would be standing behind her. Literally, that time.

Nopony dared to speak a word when they realized the importance of the place. Not to mention the fact that nopony seemed to have opened the door in possible years. Time happened to be there then. The time was there for Twilight to just open the door and for them to go all inside.

With a powerful push of her magic had the soothsayer managed to open the doors. They went with such great easy, almost like they didn’t weigh anything. Though the screeching sounds of the hinges could be heard far and wide. Behind the door laid darkness as far as the eye could see. A darkness that they were all too familiar with.

No light seemed to have been able to enter the room for whatever reason. But they all walked inside of it on Twilight’s command. Who on her own turn closed the doors again. Whatever would be happening next to all of them, they weren’t in the need of others trying to get a peek of it.

Twilight’s magic was about the only thing that could be seen after the doors had been closed again. Yet that soon changed as the first torch was being lit. Which was followed up by the second, the third and so forth.

All the way up to when all of the torches had been lit up. It caused the unicorn to lose her magical aura when they all stared at something they never held possible. They were within the forbidden throne room and next to the throne that stood before them could it be seen.

Two massive statues had been erected to visualize what the goddesses of both the sun and the moon looked like. But the statues had taken on the shape of the view that was always granted in the planes of the goddesses. Which meant that they were just two swirling things cast in both respectable gold and silver.

Nopony was having a word for the sights that they saw while Twilight walked closer to it. She walked closer and closer to the steps of the throne until she came to a standstill. The rest of the mares followed her but stopped to form a v-like shape behind her. Twilight stood at the tip, followed by Applejack and Pinkie behind her, while Rainbow and Fluttershy just ended the formation.

“It shall be here, that we receive the final gift,” said Twilight loud enough for them all to hear. Naturally had the curiosity been raised within each of the mares. To them it seemed like she was talking just about the greatest madness that ever could have been spoken. But they didn’t spoke a single word yet again.

Twilight was the anthrony with whom they had to speak with if there was anything that needed to be happening. Which resulted in none of them actually daring to argue against her, or talk against her. Perhaps it was for the better, perhaps it was for the worse. The soothsayer didn’t knew it in the moment.

The unicorn had another look at both of the shrines to the goddesses and began to talk almost directly towards them. “I certainly hope that you know what you’re doing. The last thing we need, is being dragged out here for nothing.”

Being called by the goddesses themselves and then getting there for nothing usually wasn’t a thing that was done by them. But it still felt to the unicorn that such a thing could be happening. Of course there was the natural doubt that she had. They had been so vague to her before, but the only way to get any answers was to just proceed upon doing what they had to be doing.

Time to admire the scenery had been destroyed as the unicorn charged up her horn and her hands. “Pray that this works.” Twilight whispered to herself. The charges became even more intense as she reached out for the hands of both Applejack and Pinkie.

They both noticed what needed to be done and took the hand of the soothsayer, while in return were they reaching out for a hand of one of the pegasi. They had a little bit of difficulty to understand the facts as they were, but they went with it nonetheless. Which meant that all of the beings within the group were holding one another’s hand.

Twilight charged her magic even further and once more they would have been acted as massive conducts for her. The powers that were surging through her hands sprung over to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Only to then make the jump over to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy as well. All of them felt the tingles of the magical abilities that the unicorn carried going through their bodies.

All of them were genuinely terrified for the things that would happen next. Even if they wanted to release the hands from one another, they still couldn’t. The mares seemed to have been glued together by said magical ability. Not that they truly seemed to be minding it though as they would be helping out a friend.

The powers that surged and rushed through the soothsayer became five times as powerful as that they normally would have been. She had five conducts standing right behind her that were in her aid. The unicorn’s eyes had turned to just pure white when a column of her aura was shot upwards. The groans of the unicorn had them all worried, before they looked to the rest of them.

They all saw that the other members also had their own column of light going up. Applejack had an orange one, Pinkie’s happened to be pink, as Rainbow’s was blue and Fluttershy’s was yellow. The columns of color all shot upwards and into the skies before it hit the ceiling. There they would have splashed out like water in a lake. Only to be met with one another to make one of the most interesting color combinations ever they had ever seen.

There happened to be one color that appeared to be missing. And that was the white one of Rarity herself. All of them noticed how that one was just missing yet their attention was then quickly grasped by something else.

For Twilight had started to levitate before them. She had let go of the hands of both Pinkie and Applejack in order to proceed. None of them dared to believe what they saw but didn’t dare to take a step away. For they were still charged with tons and tons of magical energy.

Out of nowhere was there a strange, white light that appeared. Out of nowhere there was a massive, bright and white light that appeared to their very aid. A light that consumed Twilight Sparkle’s body whole just before two whispers could be heard resonating within the air. All of the mares became even more terrified upon the matter as they didn’t believe what they heard.

Gulps were given off by them all as the eyes turned from left to right. But the thing that they heard was the song of the goddesses. The goddesses themselves appeared to be singing to them all from the palate of color that laid on the ceiling.

It must have been a doorway that was leading over to the planes of the goddesses, that was the only explanation that Applejack had for it. Their harmonious song was truly one of the most beautiful that she had ever heard within her life.

But inside of the massive light, there was a shadow to be seen. A shadow of which they all thought to be Twilight’s. There only happened to be one little change to her. The longer they stared at it, the more they could have sworn the fact that they saw wings spreading from her back.

That fact alone left them all speechless when they finally could release the hands from one another. Nopony knew what they had to think about it. Which meant that the silence had been remained by all of them. Silence not out of fear for what would be happening next, but out of utter respect for what had happened to Twilight.

Chapter C

Every single light had to fade away in the end once more. The light that had engulfed the unicorn of the company was no exception of that rule. Slow but sure did the intensity of the light became less and less, up to the point where it had completely faded out of existence. The unicorn lowered back down to the ground. But they all could see a strange addition that was being made to Twilight’s very body. Something about it all caused them all to take a step back.

Twilight landed back on her hooves before she sank deeper, down through her knees. Both of her hands were placed upon the ground before her while a groan of pain was released by her. The eyes were closed with force and she didn’t seemed to be wanted to reminded about what happened. Yet on her back could everypony see what had ripped through her soothsayer’s attire just like that. All of them were just genuine baffled about the facts presented to them.

Hands were brought over to mouths while they feared for the worst possible thing. Though only Applejack seemed to recognize exactly what they were. True that they looked like feathered wings tucked upon a back but Twilight was a unicorn to begin with. Something must have gotten lost in translation of that, right?

There was only one being within the realm of the land that seemed to have been actually capable on the facts shown to them. Nopony else knew what such a being was, but Applejack could only speak the words that were upon her mind. “She’s turned into an alicorn,” the admiral whispered to herself before she dared to take a step forward. Applejack just couldn’t believe it.

All of the light had faded by that point in time, even the columns of light that were shot up by the other members of the company. Naturally did they all wanted to figure out what on earth had happened to Twilight but they couldn’t just rush straight at her. No, they had to make time for the unicorn changed alicorn to raise up once more.

Applejack’s steps came to a standstill before she rose a calm eyebrow. The mare couldn’t believe what she saw when Twilight released another grown. The wings upon her back spread themselves out wide and gave the earth anthrony the time to inspect them with great care.

They were just a perfect match to her. The mulberry feathers that they carried matched the unicorn in a perfect sense. It was still a pretty strange sight to behold though. A fact where all of them had to agree upon. They all had seen a lot in their lives, but seeing the transformation of a unicorn to an alicorn was one they never dared to hope for.

Bafflement was still surging greatly through all of the other mares as they shook their head lightly. The entire formation was just broken by them all and they moved over to the soothsayer. They didn’t had the right words to say nor did they knew just what they needed to think about it. Never had they seen something like that within their lives.

On that point where they lying though. They all had seen something like it before but never wanted to admit it. For way up in the fridge of the world, the Frozen North, had they seen it before. Soothsayer Cadence also happened to be an alicorn and former mentor of Twilight. Perhaps it was only natural that the student followed the master?

None of them thought too much about the facts as they were though. They all had a much more pressing matter within their minds. They needed to know whether or not the soothsayer was actually alright.

Another groan and gentle hiss of agony were released by Twilight in the moment. Her fist then slammed its way into the ground while she tried to stand back on her hooves again. Her wings were tucked behind her back once again while she rose up.

Somehow and on her own strength had she managed to get back up again. Though she still had her back turned over to the mares. She wanted to turn herself around and face the mares of the company with her whole heart. But there was one reason why she couldn’t have done such a thing. There was just one thing that caused her to remain standing before the actual throne of the goddesses.

Nopony knew where she was waiting on. All that they knew was that she took her sweet time. But they too had heard it, they too had heard the sounds of the goddesses the flowed through the room. They were all highly aware on the fact that the beings actually existed and any doubt about the soothsayer’s work would have been thrown right out of the non-existent window.

In the end would Twilight just have dropped back down to one of her knees and made just about the greatest bow of respect that could have been given. Instinctively did the rest of the mares the same. They had witnessed something they never had even dared to witness, who were they to defy the fact that the goddesses existed?

They all had participated within the ritual to make the unicorn turn into an alicorn. They all were needed to get such a thing done in the first place. So the only thing that they could do was to show their gratitude to the most powerful beings within the land.

All of them made a bow as it meant the most respectful to them. Of course they could have followed the example of Twilight blind. Though such a bow had different meanings in both the navy and the air force. All of them were just baffled by the facts as they were revealed, they still were actually. None of them believed the sights instantly.

Just like with the whole of the trip there needed to be some time going over it before they would have been able to take everything for what it was. None of them had even dared to dream that the soothsayer would have turned an alicorn, but in fact was that only the tip of the iceberg. None of them had ever even expected in their lives that they would have been called for a journey like they had made.

So in a way it wasn’t just a bow to show respect to both the goddesses and Twilight. It also was a bow of gratitude. That they were all thankful for the things that they been going through. Even though the darkness could have taken them over so many times, they still were glad they had say yes, while they so easily could have said no.

For countless seconds had the company been standing in their bowed position, they also tried to wrap their heads around everything that had been done and seen. But finally did Twilight dare to speak the words she wanted. She spoke the words that were on her mind in an ancient tongue that none of the mares could understand. Whatever she said, it must have meant that she too was thankful for the deed done and opportunities given.

At least that happened to be what the rest of the mares thought she said. Whether it was true or not, didn’t matter to them. For a little while after the silence had returned, the soothsayer stood back up and closed her eyes a little bit. The wings struggled to have stayed behind her back though. That was the thing that Rainbow saw just after she came up from her bow.

Twilight really seemed to be having a great amount of difficulty when it came on to the fact that she actually had a pair of wings. It was instantly revealed to the major that she didn’t have any experience with them whatsoever. Yet that would have gotten there through time itself. Time was after all the greatest teacher that anypony could be having and should be having.

The alicorn then turned herself around and faced the group completely. Her eyes went over those of everypony else while a deep smile was given to them all. Though it also seemed to have been that the rest of the mares hadn’t received a gift of some kind.

“I, I don’t know what to say,” said Twilight before she noticed how the rest of her friends hadn’t turned into alicorns. She was just so certain of the fact that they all would have changed into such beings for some reason. It only seemed to have been fair that the rest of the mares would have become that as well.

At least it would have been in her mind. But the goddesses she worshiped had always been working in manners unknown. That was just another thing that she couldn’t explain from them both. A saddening fact it certainly was. Yet she couldn’t show her sadness to any of them.

Applejack stood the closest to the alicorn and she couldn’t help herself but to place a hand upon Twilight’s shoulder. She gave a silent nod at first before the words left through her mouth. “Then don’t say a word,” she just said before a gentle smile formed over her lips.

Twilight nodded to the words as she glanced once more over the company. One being stood out of them all. One being with whom they hadn’t actually entered with. A being that caused perhaps the greatest smile so far to be witnessed upon the lips of Twilight. “Thanks Rarity, for still coming to this meeting.”

“Wait, Rarity? As in, Rarity Brittenburg?!” Applejack exclaimed with a soft tone. She still had her head turned over into the direction of the throne itself, so she had no idea what was standing behind her. But all of her feelings went haywire in that very moment of time.

Just the mere mentioning of the name caused her to get secondary ideas about everything. She wanted to reach out for her sword and just slice the neck of the pirate captain. Yet at the other end she was still needed for her trail. Applejack’s eyes went shut for a moment to hide all of the possible rage that surged through them.

“Yes Applejack, I do mean Brittenburg,” said Twilight with an unusual calm voice. Fractions of a second later she felt the grasp of the admiral’s hand tighten around her shoulder. She could have spoken of luck that the nails she carried were trimmed. Otherwise she would have gotten a bleeding shoulder just like that. “Hey, hey, calm down would you? Just, just face your demons!” Twilight whispered to the admiral, hoping it would work.

“Easy for ya to say,” the earth anthrony spoke just before she loosened the grip on the alicorn’s shoulder. It was indeed easily said, but the matter wasn’t one that was actually easily done. To Applejack it stood equivalent to something like she would be standing face to face with the devil herself. She couldn’t do it even if she wanted to do it so much.

Yet it had to be done. Not for her own sake, but for the rest of the company’s. Though the other questions still rose up in her mind. Most importantly had to be the question of how the mare managed to just barge in like that, and not have made a sound.

“Brittenburg,” the admiral spoke a bit louder. Only after that would she have turned her head around. Though the rest of her body followed then soon enough. Almost as if there was some sort of mysterious force that combined the two of them they were attracted to one another.

Almost like magnets with the opposing poles to one another. The two mares of the sea were inseparable by the looks of it. One couldn’t live without the other, said Rarity on some occasions to the company, as well as the admiral. But it still didn’t change the fact that Applejack was furious about her. The admiral of the navy wanted to much to set a cutlass upon that white neck of hers.

“You have some guts to come here like that, especially now that our treaty has been broken. You ready to go to jail, finally?” the admiral spoke when as she had finally turned herself around. Her eyes would only then have opened once more. They glanced past Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow. Her eyes became locked upon Rarity who still had one little surprise in store for the admiral.

“Well, I certainly am ready to go to jail. Problem just happens to be that you still haven’t caught me yet, remember?” said Rarity in a calm tone to the admiral. Finally were the things revealed to Applejack as they were. Finally she could actually understand what had been doing on with the other unicorn of the company.

A deep exhale was released by her before she shook her head. “Ah should’ve known,” she muttered to herself. For before her eyes she caught a Rarity indeed. But that Rarity was just a magical hallucination of the mare. The actual Rarity Brittenburg was projecting herself in real time into the throne room, while she stood within the safety of her cabin aboard the Vengeful Belle.

“Sorry Jackie, but today’s not going to be your day. Perhaps there would be a time where we will be able to go together through one door. Perhaps the day would eventually be there, where you realize that it all would have been for nothing,” the pirate said to the admiral with a grin.

Applejack didn’t wanted to listen to the words of the unicorn at all. She just wanted her to keep her mouth shut about it all and she shook her head once more. Just to get the words out of her ears. There wouldn’t have been any apologize big enough for the admiral to ever forgive the pirate.

Twilight stepped into the matter just before there would have been a massive argument between the two of them and managed to calm them both down with words. “Neither of you is going to argue in this place. This is neither the place nor the time for it. You all just paid your respects to the goddesses, at least have the decency to maintain that,” she spoke to them both. Then her wings poofed out once more.

That was a little something that caused the alicorn’s eyes to fall halfway shut and an inaudible grumble to leave her mouth. She truly had to practice with her wings. But that would have been done through time. She first needed to be certain that the other two mares actually were calm enough. They both nodded to the soothsayer that they would remain silent for the time being against one another. That was another victory that she write down in her books. Even if it meant that it only would have been a terribly small one.

A sigh of relief went through the alicorn when she felt the calm returning between the two of them. She actually and genuinely felt that the both Rarity and Applejack were calming down from their anger against one another. It only soothed the wounds that were invisible to the others, but the fires would kept on burning in both Applejack and Rarity their hearts.

Their history was long and just one moment in time simply wouldn’t have been enough to make them both forgive nearly two decades of events happening. Yet Twilight turned her attention over to the unicorn and smiled warmly towards her. “I’m glad that you could have come, Rarity. Without you it would have been impossible for all of this to happen,” said Twilight to her in a true and thankful voice.

Meanwhile on the Vengeful Belle couldn’t Rarity help herself but to let out a gentle chuckle. Twilight did happen to be right upon her words and the sapphire blue eyes stared through the portal that had opened before her. Through that portal she glanced over the eyes of every other mare before resting upon Twilight’s.

“You simply asked for my aid and I gave it into the best way it seemed possible for me. It should be me, thanking you for the chances you have given to me. The opportunities shared with all of us. Those are the things, we all should be thanking you for,” said Rarity in return to Twilight. The ivory unicorn then nodded with her head and tipped her hat a little bit.

It didn’t meant to say that the rest of the mares weren’t thankful for everything, not at all in fact. In fact they were just about as thankful as they could have been in the matter. None of them had any regret about having made the journey to the center of Equestria and back with the alicorn.

Twilight only gave a nod to the words of Rarity, she couldn’t have spoken them better. What happened next was a little something where she hadn’t thought about before. The group of mares almost out of themselves walked over to the alicorn. They all had shared the feeling that they hadn’t left on a good note, and that would have been set straight there and then with the alicorn.

Before Twilight realized what had happened, was she engulfed by the four other mares and the magical appearance of Rarity. A massive hug was given off by the five of them and Twilight felt the genuine warmth of them going through her heart. It lit her horn even up and cast a calm spell into the air.

Squirts of magic were released into the air while all of them smiled a happy smile. They knew it would have been a long, long time before they would have been seeing one another again so they would have set everything on everything to make it all count. The mares held the hug firm and tight but never squeezed too hard against the other.

There was the natural difficulty of course to hold the tears back. But in the light of the flames that were given off by the countless torches, it could have been seen. All six of them were shedding their tears. All six of them just wanted that the moment to have never ended at any way or form. So they didn’t.

They didn’t allow the moment to be ended until they figured it was time for them all to release it. Whether it would have been short or long, it didn’t matter to the mares. The silence that was given off by the six of them allowed their hearts to speak the words that were needed. Each of them just told stories all over the place about how much they would have missed one another.

In the moment that seemed to have been the best thing that they could have done. The company that had travelled down to the very center of Equestria was giving one another and all of them one last, long lasting hug of friendship. The journey had transformed them from complete stranger into close friends of one another. A friendship of which Twilight hoped it would never be broken. A thought that was shared by the rest of the mares.

~~~~

The piece of chalk was flowing fluently over the board while Twilight Sparkle had aimed her back at the entire class. All of the students were of course surprised to have seen the wings resting upon their teacher’s back. Especially since it was the first day that she would have been teaching them again. Whatever had happened with her during the trip, Wishful Star, Sky Comet and Dolicho could all three confirm that it didn’t happen during the travels.

They had been the only three students with whom Twilight had spoken after she came back. When they spoke, they hadn’t noticed the wings upon her back. But the very fact alone that their teacher would have become an alicorn for whatever reason was something they too had never dared to see. Whatever she had done in order to her wings, it must have been truly a massive task.

Whispers went through the class as a raging fire. Whispers that spoke about things that couldn’t have been believed and were the greatest pieces of nonsense that ever could have been listened to. Everypony had so their own views on what had happened to their teacher. But most of them were dead wrong about it all.

Their own imagination had managed to captivate them in order to have the most wonderful story. But in the ears of Twilight, she could only have chuckled lightly to them. Of course had the alicorn heard every single word spoken.

They might have been just plain whispers that echoed through the air, but Twilight could still pick out every last one of them rather clear. The alicorn soothsayer removed the piece of chalk from the board after she had written something on the board that they hadn’t expected. The piece was dropped down on the small gully that laid beneath the board. She turned around to face the group.

Her magical aura disappeared from her horn while she kept a great eye to every last anthrony that was present within her classroom. Her eyes were calm, steady even. It had taken the alicorn almost no effort to have returned into the mental state of her teachings.

A couple of days had in fact passed by since the company had separated once more. A couple of days had gone by and the alicorn was back in the place where she always had loved to be. She was back behind her desk as a teacher of the soothsaying arts. The alicorn nodded in calm once with her head to say as if questions were allowed to be asked.

The eyes that glanced over to the board behind the mare, it seemed to have been that way that they wouldn’t have been treated upon the tales of their teacher. The very subject that they would talk upon that day was something that only soothsayers would be going through.

It actually managed to get some groans from the students because they wanted to know everything about the teacher’s adventures. Perhaps the chance would have been there to just plainly ask her about it. After all wasn’t Twilight the most difficult teacher to be working with. She was the kind of teacher that was open for any sort of question that could be asked.

The eyes of the alicorn went would have gone from right to left and back when they caught a hand going into the air. Somepony was having a question and the soothsayer thought about the fact that she would have known just what kind of question it would have been. There only was one question in the entire universe that could have been asked in that moment.

The day was still young and the morning sun shone through the windows. She figured that the time to tell was there. It was the first time that she had seen all of her students together once more. The alicorn knew which question would have been released out of the mouth of the student if she allowed it to be asked.

Her own hand rose up gently and she gestured to the student that the question could be asked. She was ready for it. Twilight was ready to answer whatever question would have been given off to her. The alicorn spread her wings gently to give herself a rather imposing posture, but the kind look within her eyes still told them all that it was their own beloved teacher.

“Miss Sparkle, could, could you tell us about your travels? And how you have gotten, those?” the student asked of her before a finger pointed to the wings found on her back. That was the question where the alicorn had been waiting for in both secret and silence.

Much to their own surprise did Twilight released a nod to them all. She was willing to tell them all the tale as she remembered how it happened. “I was wondering when somepony would have asked me that very question. So congratulations about being the first one I would say, but listen carefully to my words. For the tale I’m about to tell might not be for all of you faint of heart.”

The warning was given off by Twilight just in case. Everything that she had gone through upon her travels was something that could have given them all a massively different look about the teacher. Perhaps they would have encountered sides that they never had even expected from the alicorn before.

But time to hide wasn’t there. For the soothsayer began to speak the words that she wanted to say. The entire journey would have been retold once more. Retold on the manner that she remembered it from beginning to end. And all of her students would have been hanging upon her lips with every line she said.

~~~~

Hours must have gone by when the alicorn was finally finished with her words. Nopony had even dared to leave the classroom either. The way in which she told the story, with all of the little images and arcane conjurations added to the play, was just wonderful to listen to. To the most of them it felt like she was reading an adventure novel to them all. Not many would have denied it. They never had expected that a dorky teacher like Twilight was able to get on such adventures.

But for three of them it wasn’t just a story. They knew that it all was true. Wishful Star, Dolicho and Sky Comet knew that everything that she spoke up happened to have been the truth about everything. All of them were still listen when she came to the end. The very fact that spoke of how she had gotten her wings and what she would be doing with them.

In the end had the tale come to an end. Finally had the anthronies in her class endured the majestic tale of the company of misfits that went out to stop the tremors tormenting their lands. Yet out of everything there happened to be one question that remained unanswered for the students. One question that sprung up in the mind of nopony else than Wishful Star herself.

She rose her hand gently and Twilight caught it in her eyes. Of course there was a natural curiosity about just what the mare would have had to say against her. The only thing that she could do to still that, was to give the mare the word. “Go ahead, miss Star. Ask me what’s on your mind.”

Wishful Star nodded to her teacher just before she spoke the words of her mind. It was a series of words that not even Twilight could have believed that was asked to her. The alicorn would have expected that there would have been some sort of question about the actions done during the trip. Instead she got something that was a little bit different. “After, after you had woken up at the side of the mountain again, why didn’t you just teleport back to Canterlot castle? No offense, but your magical abilities would certainly have allowed such a thing,” was the question that Star asked.

The question was one that managed to dumbstruck the alicorn, she even made a couple of blinks in response of it. The question had been enough to make the mare go silent for a moment or two. But she then came back with a series of words that possibly would have been the best ones she could have said in the matter.

“While it certainly is true that my magical abilities allowed me to do such a thing. I think that this was actually a lot more about the journey then the destination that we were heading forth. It brought a complete group of strangers together who had to endure something thought to be impossible,” was the answer that she gave to Star.

The words of the alicorn were spoken in a calm tone. A tone that showed to them all that she was in fact thinking about the words while she said them. The question of Wishful Star had been answered whole. Perhaps not in the way that she would have liked, but it was at least some form of an answer that she could have used.

Next was the hand of Sky Comet that went up and he was given the word in silence. “If you could, would you do it again?” he asked her in a rather serious tone.

“Most certainly not!” Twilight brought out quick. She then moved a hand through her hair and cleared her throat a bit. She was a little bit rash and quick with the answer she had given and thought there needed to have been a little bit more context to it. “At least, not as sudden as we did everything. I certainly would be going on another journey with those I have travelled with, only when it is being asked of me a bit more in advance.”

Sky Comet released a calm nod to his teacher because it did answer the question that he had. Twilight’s eyes then focused upon the zebra who had been quiet for the whole time. She knew that if the other two had a question for her, the other student would have had one as well. “Anything you wish to ask me, Dolicho?” the soothsayer asked him first.

Silence remained within the class as the zebra gave a nod to her. There was indeed a question that rushed through his mind. One that he would have loved to ask her. “There’s one particular question that has been troubling inside of my mind, miss Sparkle. The question is this: do you think that you will be able to see all five of them again, without two going straight for one another’s throat?”

The alicorn straight away knew about whom he was talking and she gave a gentle nod to him. “I do believe, that one day far in the future we will be able to meet up with the five of us again, without two flying at one another’s throat. We have been through so much together, that some of them have changed for the better. Other remained the same and some, well some just found a new home,” she replied to him. Really hoping that her words would come true, perhaps one day.

Those were the last words that Twilight would have shared upon the matter. Those were the last two words that she could have shared on the matter. Her eyes went shut for a little moment when she wiped out a tear from her eye. Her head then turned over to one of the windows in her classroom and she began to stare.

She just began to stare into the void that was the world outside. She thought about them four, the other anthronies with whom she had been travelling with for such a long time, and how they were doing. Whether or not they had done the personal things that they had said they would have been doing when they got back home.

~~~~

Somewhere in Equestria, on a lonely country road that seemed to be leading to the middle of nowhere walked both Applejack and her older brother, Big Mac. The two of them had been promising themselves a thing or two that they would be doing once she got back home. Over the horizon it came into their views.

The massive apple farm that had been in their family for generations unknown and many. Silence was remained by the two of them as each steps seemed to have gotten more difficult. The two anthronies kept on going though. There was no return for either of them and they knew it.

Once they had reached the fence and were walking upon the road towards the farmhouse, they both caught a younger mare with bright red hair. Applejack couldn’t help herself but to release a sigh. The two of them met up with the younger mare and the eyes were all just saying the same. “Hello Apple Bloom,” were the only words spoken up before a truly old earth anthrony came out of the farm house. Her green skin and paled eyes spoke more than enough.

“Granny Smith,” the big stallion spoke to the elder mare. Granny thought that her eyes were playing tricks upon her at first glance. But all of the family members of the Apple family had returned to the farm. Applejack’s promise to stay sober had led to the decision of them visiting the family farm again and possibly help where it was needed.

~~~~

All the way over in Cloudsdale had nothing really changed. For Rainbow Dash didn’t have family that she wanted to visit or that she could have visited to begin with. So the major just laid within her bunk and stared at the ceiling in silence. Hundreds, if not thousands of thoughts went through her mind.

She hadn’t been seen on the fields since she had returned to the base and Spitfire almost constantly was nagging right at her ears. Naturally had the pegasus more than enough of it all and had explained everything in fine detail to her commander.

Who in return wasn’t truly happy about the facts of how she was treated. But Rainbow lived a solitary life. She was a loner who always aimed to have been the best of the best. Perhaps it was the greatest curse to have fallen upon her. The fact that she never had anypony waiting for her with a warm heart whenever she was gone.

The greatest gift was also could have been her greatest curse. The pegasus closed her eyes before a gentle tear rolled out of her eyes. Life wasn’t always pretty and the major was a prime example about that fact. She was one of the beings that just didn’t had the luxury of having a family waiting for her somewhere in the Equestrian borders.

~~~~

Something that seemed much like another pegasus that lived elsewhere in the land. Fluttershy the doctor had made her way to a cemetery somewhere within the land. In her hand she carried a bouquet of flowers and she wandered in silence over the roads of it. She had to visit their graves again. After all she had said and done was it the least that she could have done for them.

There she just stood in the twilight of the day. The darkened skies had made certain that she had the entire place for herself. She wasn’t wanting to have anypony else in her neighborhood as she silently spoke the prayers of her mind.

The bouquet of flowers was laid down on the names that stood on the stone placed in the ground. Naturally there was a tombstone as well, but that only spoke the prayer that the pegasus was speaking in the moment. The names of those who laid there stood on the other stone. And those names were hidden by the vast amount of flowers.

Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment as she was both sad and happy. She was sad for her family, those who have passed away were put to rest there. Yet at the other end she was glad that she could continue to live on. That she could continue to help those that required her aid. That she could help those who required her knowledge.

Cursed to live on the juice of fruit yet she had turned that curse into possibly one of the greatest gifts anypony could have gotten. But only against a heavy price that had been pain.

~~~~

At an undisclosed location somewhere in Equestria walked Rarity up a hill. The unicorn pirate captain was on her way to a house that stood on top of said hill. It was the only house in the wide, wide surrounding so it wouldn’t have been that hard to miss.

Her eyes glanced at it with a great set of difficulties as she had tied her trench coat together and taken off her hat. She would be going to a place where she hadn’t been in literally years. One place that would have been something of a trip down memory lane for her. A deep exhale was given off by her as she stood on top of the hill.

The gravel path that was leading to the house would have been her guide. She followed it to the door and only there she would have hesitated. She hesitated about the fact whether she would have to knock or not. Her mind literally screamed to her that she should be doing it. But her soul screamed something else.

Her eyes went shut once again while she dared to make the knock. The feelings of everything that she would see soon enough were stronger than not seeing them. After the knock did she simply waited for the things to come her. Whether they would have been good or bad.

“For the ten thousandth time, I do not know where my daughter is!” was shouted from inside the house by a stallion’s voice. Soon afterwards could the hoofsteps be heard and the door was being opened. The eyes of the stallion that looked to Rarity changed instantly from angry to bafflement Mere moments before the tears could be seen beneath them.

“I’m having a rather good idea, that you know where your daughter is,” the unicorn spoke before she began to tear up as well. Before they knew it had the two beings hugged one another tightly and allowed the tears to be flowing free. “Hey dad,” were the last words to be spoken by Rarity Brittenburg before she vanished inside.

~~~~

The alicorn allowed herself a deep sigh to be leaving her through the mouth. Only after that would she have turned her attention back over to the anthronies in her class with a normal expression upon her face. Of course did they wanted to ask what she thought about. But they all had the same thoughts going through their minds.

“This whole journey has been one, that can’t be described in words to its fullest. Everything that we have done, it’s just...” Twilight couldn’t finish the words that she had upon her mind. There just was no other word allowed to leave her mouth for it. The head then hung itself low for a couple of seconds.

Only to be raised up again with one line for all of them. “Class dismissed,” she just said to her class. Who all nodded to her in return and began to pack their bags. Soon enough would it only have been her that remained in the classroom.

Once that time had come did the mare leaned against the desk and crossed her arms. the eyelids were lowered before a gentle smile grew beneath her muzzle. “Time will tell, when we’ll meet one another again. Perhaps soon, perhaps later.” Her head rose itself up while just one single tear was wiped away from her cheek.

Twilight would have just stared out of a window and watched that the time of day had already turned to twilight. In the moment was there just one thing that she could have said to not just herself, but the other mares as well. Twilight took a deep inhale while her eyes continued to glance to the outside world. Only then would the words have rolled off of her tongue and released in the air, hoping the ears would hear it.

“Thank you, all of you, for this unforgettable adventure.”

Chapter I

With a careful twitch to them, they moved ever so gentle. That was before finally revealing the moderate violet rims they had been hiding from the world for so long. With a small and graceful motion did the eyelids move themselves out of the way for the actual pupils to be revealed once more. To witness the beauty of the place the being happened to be living in. A deep but content sounding sigh was slowly released through the mouth before the eyes looked around the place.

A place that was somewhere within the insides of a castle that the being had been calling home for as long as it could have remembered. The lips gently curled themselves up into a faint smile before the hands were taken out of their signature meditation pose. They were both placed upon the back which was then curled backwards in order to crack it at certain places.

Each crack of the bones resulted in a deep moan to be released. Yet the eyes were closed again. The being felt itself good but ever so tired. For the being that sat there, happened to be one of the infamous soothsayers. The hands were removed from the back and placed upon the ground while the body leaned backwards.

Another deep inhale was being taken before the eyes stared at the ceiling and looked upon the reflection in the glass. What it saw was a being with a mulberry skin, two toned violet hair and some lighter pinkish streaks going through it. A smile came to the face before the being calmly stood up from the spot and revealed who it really was.

For the soothsayer was a mare that lived under the name of Twilight Sparkle, a brilliant one at that to begin with. Her knowledge of the world surpassed most of the others without a single doubt. However, those very same she called her brothers and sisters had called her insane on numerous occasions.

Her theories –while wonderful– were just madness itself. For she claimed that their race came forth out of the four legged race of old called ‘ponies’. She had plenty of evidence to prove that their race, the race of the anthronies had come forth out of them but none believed her.

It never stopped her from pursuing the one dream she always had, to prove her right and their wrong. On top of her head and with a base shrouded in the hair could her horn be found. A horn that calmly coated itself within the raspberry colored magical aura before the candles in the room were ignited. The night was about to come and darkness was their greatest enemy.

One by one were the candles ignited before the magical charge disappeared from the horn. The unicorn turned around to make her departure from the room as it was. With every step she took, the heels of her shoes could be clearly heard echoing before the screeching sounds of the hinges dominated all.

The door was ancient, older than any of them could have ever imagined it to be and an exact date was never confirmed. Rumors spoke about thousands if not tens of thousands of years yet they never dared to even remove it from its hinges. There was something magical about it and they all felt it when they touched upon it.

The eyes of the unicorn looked upon the carving made unto it, though it had faded through the gears of time. It didn’t matter how many times she placed her hands upon the material, it always made her feel a tad bit closer to the goddesses of both the sun and the moon. The very two goddesses she tried to communicate throughout the day.

That was the job of the soothsayers, to try and communicate with the two goddesses. Those that ruled over their entire land while never revealing themselves. The divine powers that make everything the way they are supposed to be for all of time. Two entities that controlled all of them, whether it was liked to be admitted or not.

A little surge of arcane energy shot through the unicorn which caused her fingers to tingle a little bit. Her blue colored robes more looked like something a mage of war would wear, though she just loved the way it looked. The only problem was that most didn’t approve of her choice of wardrobe either.

Yet those had never seen the soothsayer at her full power. Despite looking like she was just a humble servant of the goddesses, the unicorn was incredibly skilled and powerful in the arcane arts. Many had to see her in actual action before they would have been able to believe that such a fragile looking body could call upon so much power.

The unicorn stepped through the doorway. Then she allowed it to be shut once again under their own power. With the thick thud behind her, she continued her way through the halls.

Life was good in her eyes, yet recently there had been a matter that came to her attention. A matter that seemed to have been affecting the whole of the land. Yet the unicorn tried to shake it off of her. She had been trying to get a grip of the goddesses their planes for the whole day and she wanted to ask them about it.

But she never could get a solid footing in the magical realms and was only treated by whispers of wise words from days gone by. That was something that they always did, sharing their wisdom with those who paid their respects to them. Yet they never were straight to the point with them. Whether they saw fun in doing so or didn’t knew how to change the words into something else remained a mystery.

A mystery perhaps left unsolved for the gears of time that still had to come.

The unicorn placed both of her hands behind her back. The blue robe swayed behind her in the wind while she walked. Her heels clacked against the stone floor like water that dripped out of an almost closet faucet. Eerie, uncomfortable and almost haunting. Yet by one of the windows, she made a stop and looked over the sights to be seen.

The wonderful land that laid stretched out before her was their world. The world where the anthronies lived in together with both peace and prosperity. The few factories that could be seen spat out their plumes of white smoke before ceasing. Time had come a long way and their industrial revolution was standing in the young shoes. One day, it would bloom. A fact the soothsayer herself knew all too well.

~~~~

For minutes she kept on staring towards the scenes to be watched. Then she continued upon her path. One last glare was given to the outside world, an outside world that was named nothing else than the land of Equestria. Home of the countless species and races, but also one that had many greater secrets to it. Secrets which perhaps were left untold while others tried to find them. One were sure of what was best, but it never stopped them from trying.

The soothsayer herself made a turn into another hallway. There she noticed a couple of guards that stood on duty. It was one of the few times a day that both kind of guards could be seen together. Upon further notice, even the soothsayer noticed that and saw both the pegasus sun guardian as well as the bat-like lunar one. A rather unique sight they both were to behold.

One with a striking white skin and dressed in golden armor while the powerful wings were tucked nicely behind its back. Yet the other was dark blue skinned, dressed in even darker armor and wings that were sharp, rough and made out of actual skin. The differences between the two types of guardians couldn’t be bigger yet they always seemed to be getting along just fine.

The soothsayer closed in on their position before she gave the both of them a calm nod and a smile. The two guardians made a salute to her before the pegasus spoke up in a low toned voice. “And how may we serve you today, soothsayer Sparkle?” he asked to her. The urges to bow could be seen within the striking blue eyes.

The unicorn herself released a gentle chuckle before she shook her head calmly. “Just call me Twilight, I have said that time and time again, remember?” replied Twilight to him when a smile formed itself. Then she looked over to the bat anthrony with a more serious face. “Could you tell me, whether or not something of interest has happened during my time in meditation?” Her voice was both calm and kind, as if she was the serenity itself that all of the creatures needed.

The bat anthrony looked her in the eyes before a small inhale was released. Just before her own voice filled the hall. “Outside of the fact that they have continued, there isn’t much that actually has happened, milady. A map has been brought to your room with the locations of the last few. But, if I may speak so freely, they are becoming a real menace. Getting out of hand, shall we say.”

“That’s enough, guard,” the other one replied before a huff was being released, “she shall be looking into it and come with a solution as the soothsayers do for everything.”

Even though the outburst was enough to silence the bat anthrony, it was Twilight’s very own curiosity that was sparked by him. Her body turned back over to the pegasus, who let out a gulp the second he saw the glare in her eyes. “I’m pretty certain that it is a matter that concerns all of us, guardian. If we don’t find the source of these things soon, our homes might be the next thing that will be grounded.”

“Yes ma’am, I’m sorry ma’am,” the pegasus spoke while he tried to make an excuse for himself. One which was easier thought of then said towards her.

But Twilight wouldn’t be having any of it at all. “And what if the soothsayers can’t find a solution to this problem, are you the one who’s going to tell all those devastated families that they have our condolences?! Anthronies are dying out there, guardian. Maybe not next to us or known to us, but they are. The ground swallows them whole as the cemeteries get only more crowded. Have you ever been, to one of the mass funerals?”

It silenced the pegasus while the bat anthrony looked up with a bit of a curious expression across her face. She didn’t wanted to speak another word against the soothsayer but before she knew it there was an answer. “I, I have.” In response did Twilight turn her attention back to the other being and allowed her to speak further. “It, it was horrible. The death of seven of my friends just like that. No warning, no nothing. It just came, so sudden,” she spoke up before wiping away a tear or two.

Twilight placed her gentle hand upon the cheek of the bat anthrony before she gave an understanding and calming nod. “It’s alright, it’s alright. Mourn about them for now, but never forget them,” she said in comforting tone. The guard released a deep sniffle in response, the pain was still fresh and sharp as a knife. She gave a nod to her that everything was better again and Twilight slowly removed her hand again.

The soothsayer’s attention was then turned back to the pegasus whom she only gave a deep huff at first. “This matter isn’t something we have full control over and not one we can solve that easily. Add into the mix that the goddesses have become rather tricky to let any of us stand upon their ground and you have a crisis that only will be getting worse. So having guards like yourself making such comments, is the last thing we need. Am I clear?”

The tone was threatening, dead serious even. Twilight had meant each and every one of the words that she spoke. It frightened the pegasus guard of what she would be doing next. Of course he could have reached out for his sword, but that would only have made the matter even worse. “Good stallion,” Twilight simple commented before she proceeded with her own journey. “Good evening to the both of you.”

Among the silence of the hall did that eerie sound return, the heels of her shoes that clacked against the stone of the floor. In seconds she was just gone, but the two anthronies looked at one another with an expression of disbelief.

~~~~

The route of the soothsayer brought her to the courtyard of the castle that was their home. The castle of Canterlot was claimed as their home for a simple reason: energy of the goddesses was the most apparent there. Nopony could be truly telling any of them why it was that way. Yet they didn’t took it for granted.

While her eyes looked over the massive garden while her body leaned against one of the columns. The arms were crossed over one another while a inhale followed. Yet her ears twitched gently from the steps of another being that was heading her way. “Beatrix, Lulamoon,” brought Twilight forth. Moments later had she turned her head to the approaching being.

It was indeed the one she had called and Beatrix stood there in her ceremonial robes and her blue skin with cornflower blue hair visible. A growl was released by her as she had always hated the name given to her by her parents. “I told this before, Sparkle, that my name is Trixie,” she replied to her. Then the horn on top of her head coated itself within an aura. In a second there was a staff being summoned in her hand and pointed towards Twilight.

The soothsayer simple rolled her eyes backwards before a sigh was released. “Why are you still this hostile towards me, hm? Has it something to do with you being kicked out of the navy or something? Why and what?”

"I don’t have to explain anything to you, for you know darn well what you did to me all those years ago. You ruined me on my entry day and my reputation has never been going up because of it,” answered Trixie. The staff was placed against the ground and the grip of the mare’s hand only became more firm. If Twilight didn’t know any better, was Trixie preparing an assault on her.

“You, idiotic, little, mare, that you are. I didn’t ruin you, you ruined yourself all that time ago. I wasn’t the one calling out I happened to be the greatest mage in the castle. You were foolish enough to choose me as your opponent. I beat you that day in a duel both fair and square,” she said.

“Why you little..!” Trixie exclaimed before the arcane powers not only surged through her horn, but also both of her hands and the staff. What followed was a massive discharge of energy. One that was sent towards Twilight in an explosion of rage.

The explosion of magical energy created a shield of smoke. Trixie was panting in an attempt to recover herself. The eyes glared over the place where Twilight stood and she wanted to see her nothing else but dead on the ground. The only problem happened to have been that Twilight had made a shield for herself a mere second before it would hit her.

Her hands and horn coated within the raspberry aura while she stood there behind the arcane shield with a dead serious expression within her eyes. “Never, do such a thing again or I will have you kicked out of here, for good,” she spoke to in a stone cold and serious voice towards Trixie.

The other unicorn lowered her staff before it disappeared into thin air. “Always the faithful one, aren’t you?” Trixie taunted her before she turned away. “Mistakes shall be made and I will show the world, what I’m capable of. And they will realize, they will realize just how wrong they were.” Only after those words were spoken was she finally leaving Twilight alone.

A Twilight that was mentally almost drained and still had the power to soak up the empty threats of the mare. A deep sigh was being released through her nostrils as the shield was gently lowered. She needed to return to her room and get some much needed sleep. It was perhaps the only thing that she could be doing at that point in time.

Nothing else was there in the castle that could possibly help her. Perhaps a relief, perhaps a burden. Twilight didn’t know and she perhaps wouldn’t be knowing it for time to come. Either way, she left the courtyard of the castle in order to travel to her own little home.

~~~~

The door fell shut behind her and the scents of her own room fell within her nose. Scents that caused a massive smile to form itself across her face. She was finally in the one place where she could truly be herself. Yet the words of the bat anthrony weren’t forgotten at all.

In a clean swoop were the eyes pointed to her desk. The magical aura appeared around both her horn and the chair before it was pulled back. The mare took place upon it like a lady before she took the envelope in her hands. The hesitation was clearly visible within her eyes. For inside that very envelope stood the very locations that were hit during the day.

A menace had struck them unlike anything before and the answers all seemed to have been so far away. Yet with a deep sigh she opened the thing and took out the paper inside. It was unfolded and brought up to her eyes which then went from left to right. Each letter she read was a massive shock to her as her mind tried to connect the patterns together, if there were any.

“This is just impossible Twilight and you know it. Nothing in the world can cause such things,” she mumbled to herself before remembering the entire map of Equestria. “It can’t be them, as their power isn’t that powerful to level entire towns like that. The factories are a possibility, but those are never build there. Could it be..?”

The revelation and realization that went through the mare was something she never could have expected. Twilight was gifted with her mind, that much was certain and proved time and time again. She could see patterns where others just noticed nothing. Yet for the very first time in her life she couldn’t see any kind of pattern in the destruction that was causing havoc through their land. “It can’t be at complete random, right?”

Yet she knew she was tired. The letter was placed back upon her desk and Twilight removed herself out of the chair. “A, a good night of sleep, that is what I need,” she said to herself. Her eyes looked and gazed out of the window. Something out there managed to capture her attention again. She even walked with a calm pace in her feet to the sill.

Both of her hands were placed upon the sill as she leaned forwards. Her nose almost touched the glass as she was breathing through her mouth. One little realization came to mind that may or may not have given the breakthrough for her. Something that not even she had thought about earlier for whatever reason.

Something that was perhaps the only thing that could actually have helped them all in discovering what was actually going on. “The fault lines,” whispered Twilight to herself. She felt like she could hit herself. It wasn’t a matter that was solved on the surface, but one that would be doing deeply below it.

“Oh how could I have ever been so stupid that I didn’t realize it before?!” she exclaimed before she turned around. Her bum then rested against the sill of the window as the arms crossed. Her head was lowered as the thoughts continued to grind themselves through her mind. Almost every possible thing made its way past her eyes before a deep yawn was actually released through her mouth.

A yawn that caused her to lose the entire train of thought.

With a grumble she called once more upon her magic and levitated both a quill and a piece of paper towards her. With a couple of quick scrabbles she wrote down everything that her mind had come up with as a subtle reminder for herself. Once she was happy with the information written down, Twilight laid the paper next to the letter and dropped the quill upon her desk.

“That should keep me busy tomorrow, now just hope that the library has something about those things otherwise we are in even deeper trouble,” she mumbled to herself. Afterwards had she walked to the middle of the room. There did her hands made a couple of motions before they coated themselves within the magical aura for the last time.

What happened next was that all of Twilight’s clothing began to melt from her body. Slowly but surely did the outfit she wore dissolve into nothing. Her entire body was revealed and the lines of both a fragile and powerful body were revealed to her. A soft moan was being released by the unicorn. It simply felt great to finally have gotten rid of her attire and she wanted to change into something else. Something a bit more comfortable for her taste.

So with a burst of blue fire she disappeared within a column of it. That very fire actually used to have been her previous outfit before it died down just as quick and mysterious as it came. For as the column of fire dropped itself, Twilight had changed her attire and not even a scratch if the fires could be seen.

She had changed herself into a classy looking nightie and the aura disappeared from her hands. The expression that was visible within her eyes was absent, almost as if she was actually asleep already. Another yawn managed to get passed her mouth before she took place in her bed.

Twilight was dead tired, whether she wanted to admit the fact or not. There wasn’t anything that could have been done to keep her awake outside of the rattling of her own mind. “Tomorrow, tomorrow I shall crack pieces of the mystery,” she whispered to herself. The curtains fell before the windows.

She was surrounded in total darkness before the blankets were brought around and over her body. She snuggled up against them with a smile clearly visible upon her face before one last yawn was the final sign that Twilight was awake. After it had she departed into the realm of the sleepers and began to dream her dreams.

Dreams about her family and how much they loved each other, dreams about the sheer power she possessed and the uses it had. Yet the most important dream she had was perhaps the different outcomes that her research could be having. Music of the future it indeed was, but she saw every possible outcome right before her eyes.

The good, the bad and the unknown. All of it was just possible right there and then, but there was nothing in the wide world of Equestria that could actually have prepared her for the events that had been set in motion. For nothing could have ever prepared her, for the journey that she was about to make.

Not to mention the trouble that five other beings would be giving her along the way. Five beings that would be supporting her through the thickest of battles without a hitch. Yet the group of misfits would be one that was unique to the world. A group unlike anything ever seen before.

And the best part was that none of them knew what the morning would bring. All five of them lived different lives but would be brought together by the interferences of the goddesses. Whatever laid ahead in their lives, the dices had been cast a long time ago. Nothing, could stop the game of the goddesses themselves.

~~~~

Back in Canterlot, hidden deeply away within her own room, had Trixie been cooking up a plan that seemed to have been madness itself. She was both giggling and chuckling in the insanity that she had fallen in. Years had she looked up against Twilight as the major defeater of her title. She didn’t wanted to admit that it was actually all her own fault that she had been brought down.

The feelings of pride were a lot stronger than her shame and that was basically all that she had left in the world. Her own pride was more important than anything else to her. A fact that she showed on more than one occasion. Yet just when Trixie prepared herself to go to bed, somepony else was knocking at her door. Loud knocks were sent through the entire room time and time again, Just when Trixie got out of bed was the door bashed in.

“What on earth is the meaning of this?!” Trixie exclaimed when the guards rushed into the room. They were followed by a captain who had his hands behind his back. The unicorn herself looked at the stallion with a frightened expression as she knew the time. “No. This can’t be, she said she would give me another chance!”

The captain himself shook his head towards her before his low pitched voice filled the room. “Get a hold of her, I want to talk to her,” he said and two guards immediately managed to get a hold of the mare. Fighting against the power of two celestial pegasi was madness to begin with and therefore Trixie just surrendered herself. And just waited for what would come.

Step by step he came closer to her. He took both of her cheeks in three of his fingers when the chance was there and forced her to look straight in his eyes. “Sparkle might have given you another chance, but some of my guards don’t. They told me you were dangerous and after the story of you nearly blowing her up, I start to believe that fact well enough for myself. You’re a great battlemage, Beatrix, but you lack something my boys here have. Discipline,” the stallion spoke to her. He released her mouth again so that she could speak for herself, defend herself if needed.

“Oh just be silent you, you have no authority to dump me off of Canterlotian ground and you know it,” replied Trixie after she spat on the ground a couple of times, “I have done nothing wrong to her as she came out unscratched.”

“An assault on a soothsayer, is still an assault even if said soothsayer happens to be one of the most powerful arcane users we have ever seen in our time. I’m sorry, Beatrix, but I’m afraid you can no longer teach your students in these conditions. However, I give you a week to either prove yourself you can contain yourself about your past, or I will make personally sure you get kicked off of this ground,” the captain said to her.

The words of the captain were true, but that didn’t mean they stung Trixie like a knife through her heart. A deep huff was released by the unicorn as she wanted to call upon her magical powers. Yet something told her to let him go. To not give him the pleasure of kicking her out already. “Fine then, I shall learn to behave. Now please go away and grant me my sleep, captain.”

~~~~

Back in her room had Twilight woken up from sounds that came from an unknown origin. She had sat down on the side of her bed. The thoughts just couldn’t leave her alone whatsoever. Even though she had written them down and she knew what she needed to do and look for, there was that feeling she missed something. Something that was so obvious that it almost hit her right in the face yet she couldn’t figure it out.

It drove her insane to say the least and with the three arcane orbs flowing calmly around her, they didn’t only provide a source of light. For they were meant to calm her rampaging mind, which didn’t actually work.

“Oh for the love of, that’s right!” she muttered to herself before her body dropped back on the bed. “I need to teach them tomorrow as well, meaning I can’t go to the library until after class.” She wanted to figure the clues out so much, but her classes were just about the most important thing next to it. She couldn’t drop them just for the sake that she might have discovered the reason there is turmoil in their land.

It just couldn’t be done whatsoever. It managed to actually split the mind of the mare into two separate states. One said she should drop her classes while the other stated she shouldn’t. Nuts it drove her. The hours of the night didn’t help that much either.

Insanity at its finest, that was the state in which Twilight’s mind was in. The three orbs of arcane energy continued to swirl in a near perfect circle around one another as the violet rimmed eyes of Twilight looked upon them. “Why does everything always need to be so though?” she questioned to herself as the eyes gently closed upon themselves.

Answers were the things she needed but also the things she had the least of. Whether or not she would be having one for every one of her questions remained a question in and of itself. Yet as the eyes were closed, the light of the orbs could still be seen clearly through the lids. A light that actually began to toy and play with the brain of Twilight.

It managed to exhaust it even more. Every department that it had had slowly began to shut itself down again. Closer and closer she came to falling asleep without the usage of any magical spell or time lock. In the end did the three little orbs dissolve themselves into just shimmers before disappearing from the plane of reality.

Twilight had finally fallen into a good and deep sleep as the dreams she had contained everything but the things she was worrying about. Gentle snores and rather cute sounding noises all came from behind the door as two bat anthronies walked by.

They couldn’t help themselves but to give a gentle chuckle towards it before continuing upon their patrol. The next morning would be the start of everything, the start of the journey perhaps not asked for. The journey that would change not just one life forever, but the lives of many. But that was all just future music for the time being.

Chapter II

The morning slowly managed to crawl over the Equestrian skies. Its gentle rays of light penetrated through the curtains of Twilight’s very room. Before the mare even knew what was going on, were they all tickling her face. She hadn’t moved a single inch from the position that she laid in the night before and thus the shock of waking up actually came more as a surprise to her than anything else.

With a shock of her body was she rushed back into the realm of the waking world and her body rose itself upwards. Both of her hands were brought over to her face where they began to rub it under the sounds of a massively annoyed groan. Twilight was a lot, but she wasn’t a morning mare in the slightest.

“For the love of everything, why does it always has to be this early?” she muttered to herself. Twilight then leaned a bit more on the bed. The hands were calmly placed upon the mattress before her head was flung backward. Which allowed her hair to hang free while her thoughts were brought to nothing more but a calm breeze. Her mind needs to be cleared for the lessons given that day.

Even though the time was early, there still was plenty of time to actually dress up and do everything she needed to do. So Twilight stood up from her bed and walked past her desk without giving it too much attention. For the demons of her mind actually laid upon that very desk. She had forgotten about most of the matters that came to her the evening before and didn’t wanted to be reminded upon them until she was ready.

With a gentle pace in her legs did the unicorn make her way over to the bathroom where she locked herself in. The waters of the shower could be heard some time later, together with the humming voice of the mare that filled the room with the most elegant sounds and feelings. Twilight seemed to have actually transported herself over into a world of pleasure as a warm shower in the early morning meant more than the world to her.

It certainly drove away the cranky mood that she always happened to be in. The hums of songs from days gone by passed the room yet nopony else was able to actually hear the tunes she brought forth. Every last one of them remained within the borders of her room and even when the guards passed it they didn’t even look up.

From time to time there was the occasional mumble of words that were spoken to nopony else but herself which then resulted in her actually getting a bit of a tongue twister. The sheer speed in which she spoke her words was the cause of it and it always ended in her making some ‘blegh’ and other strange sounding noises.

Time came and went before the waters of the shower finally ceased and the mulberry skinned unicorn began to dry herself off. Yet while she did that, she also did her hair and tail in the right fashion. A fashion that some could have called lazy or casual as they both weren’t really brought in any kind of model, but Twilight couldn’t care less about their opinion. It was functional for her and that was all that mattered most.

~~~~

Eventually was the door of the bathroom flung open again. Twilight looked upon her room within the castle of literal dreams. A deep and content sigh was released through her nostrils as the expression in her eyes seemed to have been nothing but joyful. The only problem happened to be the fact that she still wore the towel around her body. Not that she minded it in the moment.

Calmly she walked out of the door and dropped the towel. Then the horn and hands charged themselves up within the magical aura. It was within seconds that her attire came out of the clothing cabinet and had begun to shroud her body in them. Within an explosion of nothing but pure white were the clothes put on. When it faded away, she simply stood there with the same attire as before.

The striking blue against the morning sun was undoubtedly her kind of color. It was strange, like she was. Unusual, like she was. Pretty, like others claimed she was. The tail of the robe swayed a bit as she made a little pirouette upon her spot and giggled a little. “This will do just nicely,” said Twilight to herself. Her body turned over to a massive shelf filled with books. A shelf of books that she had written herself and all had to do something with her profession or magic in general.

All of her discoveries were written down in those very books and all manners of trying to communicate with the goddesses was written in there as well. Once more a fact that many actually despised, but they didn’t had to teach it to students.

One could have said that Twilight’s role within the walls of the castle was diverse. Walls of a castle she almost never left unless absolutely necessary. She didn’t like the changing world around her. Especially the march of the factories and the war-torn history the land had. She felt safe within those walls. As if nothing and nopony could ever touch her within.

Perhaps it was for the better. Even if it was just to save her mind the troubles of that what laid on the outside.

A couple of the books were levitated from the shelves. Twilight glared over the titles before nodding. They were then placed upon the desk for storage as she continued to glare over the rest of them. Every so often she got another book that could have been of her aid, only to lay it either back on the shelf or add it to the stack.

Time was running short and she knew that precious fact. The unicorn had to leave that instant or she would be risking getting too late in her class. “If I have missed something, so it be. I have to go now,” she muttered to herself in haste. The books on the shelves lost their aura. The stack of books that was placed on the desk was picked up and carried along with her.

The door of her room was opened and closed again before she stood in the hallway and looked upon those who passed her by. Many of the guards greeted the soothsayer while others just didn’t say a word. It was a bit funny to Twilight to see others busy like that. Though it made her forget the thing that she needed to be doing.

The thoughts slowly rendered themselves back to the there and then. She realized again where she was needed the most. Without much hesitation did the soothsayer step towards the classroom. A classroom that was actually located right on the other end of the castle.

Twilight knew she was late already and that they would be getting impatient. So there was only one way she could actually enter the place and make them all focus their attention upon her in an instant. Some may not have liked it but she didn’t saw another option into it. It had to be done, and that was that.

The horn of the unicorn charged itself up even further before she just poofed out of the plane of existence. Twilight had literally vanished into nothing but thin air. Only to reappear on the place she was required to.

~~~~

“Oi! Keep quiet will you, the teacher can be here any moment. You want to ruin the big day of us all?” a blue skinned unicorn student questioned towards another. She had more than enough of the bluff talking. “You might be a big stallion, but deep inside you don’t have the heart to be a soothsayer. I bet that when you encounter her, you’ll beg on your knees to deal with her. To become her servant.”

Another student –who had sprung in between the two– didn’t wanted to take a side, but felt like she did have a point. “Wishful Star, don’t taunt him. You know it is going to end bad for us all. Besides, teacher Sparkle is a smart one. She knows exactly who is always lurking out a fight,” the gray skinned unicorn said to her. He had placed both of his hands upon the shoulders of Wishful Star.

The mare released a deep growl of utter anger. A deep sigh was being released. “You’re right, Sky,” said Star when she looked over to the bully with one last glare of utter discomfort. “I swear to you that he has only gotten in here because his parents paid the grand master, there’s no other way.”

Sky Comet couldn’t help himself but to release a chuckle. He shook his head. “I wish it was that way, but from what I’ve heard, he actually passed the exams required to get into here. So the best we can do is to suck it up,” he said to her. It was a hard story to swallow though.

Yet Star wasn’t prepared to actually suck up the words of Burning Spring. The bully with the fiery skin and the stallion that had made both of their lives pretty miserable. They didn’t like it when he shared their classes, none of them actually did. Though most didn’t wanted to admit that little fact.

“Can’t be true, now can it? That he actually got allowed to enter just like that? I mean, him passing his tests? Look at him, he can’t do anything,” continued Wishful Star to mutter. Then she realized that it was just pointless. If it wasn’t for the comment that Burning Spring was about to make.

“I shall become nopony’s servant!” he yelled up to her. He stood up behind his desk and punched it. “I shall teach her a lesson she won’t forget! I shall conquer where the others have failed and banish her to the deepest parts of Tartarus!”

Those very words caused the whole class to gasp before Wishful Star turned herself around. “Don’t do it Star, he’s not worth it. You’re smarter than him and y- Oh who am I kidding,” said Sky Comet. Moments later had he just given it all up. He threw his hands into the air before crossing his arms over his desk which acted as a landing cushion for his head as it fell down. “Just don’t blame me for anything. I tried to stop you, but you were foolish enough to continue.”

“I won’t,” replied Star before she left her seating. The mare walked up to Burning Spring. The stallion gulped already. She placed her hands upon his desk and lowered her head so it could meet his. The two had a bit of a stare-down before Spring was the first one to look away. That action actually caused a grin to form itself upon the lips of the mare before she released a deep exhale.

“You really think you can take on the queen of darkness, when you can’t even look an actual girl in her eyes? What kind of hero do you want to be anyway? You only make it more obvious that you don’t belong here. Am I right, or am I wrong? Tell me,” questioned Wishful Star with venom. She had gotten the attention of pretty much the whole class right there. All of them were just wondering what could be happening next.

Yet Burning Spring managed to gather his guts and look her straight back in the eyes. “I plan on crushing her, once and for all. You’re wrong! I came here because I have the power of a soothsayer!”

“Yet the mouth of a battlemage! I start to think you came to the wrong class. Isn’t Beatrix looking for a missing student right now?” Star continued to taunt him before she chuckled to herself. It felt so good to her that she could finally overpower him with his own little game of trouble. Of course she knew he was trying to act tough in front of her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy the fact he was at a loss of word from time to time.

And to make matters even worse, she made one last remark. “Sit down boy, you’re not worthy of being a soothsayer and the moment you meet her, she will kill your conscience and take your body as a puppet. Heard of the term, ‘a fate worse than death’? Well that’s that. You aren’t going to make it against her. So drop the act and admit it!” Wishful Star growled to him. She slammed her fist upon the desk.

The actions altogether caused the stallion to gulp again. He lowered his body back down into his seat. “That’s enough for me,” replied Wishful Star. She had a nasty looking grin before she left him and returned to her own seating. The only problem was that in the moment she slammed her fist upon his desk, Twilight herself had teleported into the room and stood behind the teacher’s desk.

The whole class gasped for air. None of them had even seen the magical burst of energy when she came in. “Is there something I should know about you and mister Spring over there, miss Star?” asked Twilight to them. Her expression had turned into a stern glare. A glare that was directly aimed towards Wishful Star, who shook her head. “Good, then sit down and keep quiet. That goes for all of you.”

Star did what was asked of her and quickly regained her seat next to Sky Comet. Whose eyes only made a glare to her before she hissed her reply to him. “Not, a, word.” Only then all of their focus went to the front of the class, where Twilight was making some drawings on the chalkboard.

~~~~

“Right then,” said the blue robed unicorn after she had finished with her drawings. Twilight would have looked each of her students deep into the eyes. Some of them got an eerie feeling through their body as they couldn’t believe that a teacher so kind could look so cold. But behind her, on the chalkboard itself could the massive drawings and explanation be found. One thing was certain, she took her job dead serious. “I think I need to remind you all just what it is to be a soothsayer.”

Immediately did some hands go up as if they wanted to ask a question or explain the situation before she entered. Yet Twilight shushed them all with one little sound before she continued to talk. “I don’t care who started it, or how it happened. All that I care about is that neither of you two acted like a soothsayer should. You all have been under my teachings for more than a year, you should know better. No questions, no excuses. Just listen.”

The teacher moved to the front of her desk. She rested her bum against the edge and used both of her hands as support for her body. It had only taken her a couple of centimeters or she would have been sitting upon the desk. “We soothsayers are a pride among the unicorns, we have the gift to communicate with the divine entities of both the sun and the moon, the two goddesses whom we love and praise every day,” she explained to them. At the same time had she been using her hand to make some interesting motions. No longer where they used as support. Twilight had made the transition from leaning against the desk, to sitting on top of it.

“Nopony is actually certain as to how our order came to existence, but all we can do is confirm that it at least is over seven thousand years old. Any records before it, simply don’t exist. But what is a soothsayer actually? Not a bragger about their power, that is one thing. Not some kind of eliminator of all evil, that’s another.” Twilight calmly shook her head before the violet rimmed eyes looked through the class a second time.

“No, a soothsayer is a servant of the goddesses. For they guide us, and talk to us. Faint whispers of their voices echo within our ears whenever we go to their very plane of existence. Knowledge given to us and to use for the greater good. Something that perhaps more should realize before going on to a pointless war with the imaginary zebra and griffin alliance. No offence.”

The last words were spoken directly towards the only zebra within the class. A stallion who always kept his hood on his head and never spoke a word unless asked. “None taken,” he replied in calm towards the teacher, who gave him a faint little smile.

“Being a soothsayer is a huge responsibility and is more build on failures than successes. For those who succeed, are also often the ones we never hear from again. One can try to enter their realm without respect, but they are the divine beings. They hold every right,” continued Twilight while the concern became readable within her voice. “Many have fallen victim to other forces like corruption. It is a force that is easily mistaken for hope when said in the right tones. Don’t get me wrong, being a soothsayer is dangerous work for both your body and your mind.”

The lecture continued onwards for about half an hour before Twilight finally started to summarize the facts of what it was to be an actual soothsayer. “Don’t look for fame, for it shall only destroy yourself. Don’t boast about your abilities for they shall only make you a victim. Respect, care and kindness are the three virtues in which you have to treat everypony else. They gave us all the ability to communicate with them for a reason. Who are we to throw that ability away like it is a common something? Magic is powerful, unicorns are powerful yes. But the other races are still our friends and allies deep down within them.”

Twilight removed herself from the desk. She wanted to just walk a bit around the classroom and through the rows of desks that were placed before her. Her blue robe swayed with grace when she walked by. Next to that, it also managed to hide her tail pretty well. Almost as if it wasn’t there anymore. Many of the students had actually released a gentle gulp. They were a bit and genuinely afraid of whatever she would be doing next.

But outside of just the walking, there wasn’t all too much that she did. Until she came to the back of the room. She turned her body back around and looked at each of them from the back before a deep sigh was being released. A sigh that was soon enough followed up with words of concern and warning. “However, being a soothsayer doesn’t always mean it’s about roses and moonshine. For can anyone tell me exactly what the greatest danger is, that a soothsayer can face in its life? Or better said: what is the lesson that is taught throughout history about the work of a soothsayer? Anyone?”

She didn’t took pride in asking the question of questions, but she needed to be sure that each of them knew exactly what they were talking about. Not to mention where they have gotten themselves into before they would continue and do anything else. “Well, I’m waiting. Perhaps you can tell me, mister Spring,” said Twilight while she moved back to the front of the class. “Or perhaps you, mister Comet. Or what about the lovely miss Star? Can either of you three tell me the answer to my question? No? Anyone else want to take a guess?”

Silence remained the dominant force within the room. Nopony even wanted to dare and tell her the answer upon the question. Yet in their mind they had all agreed upon the one fact that made it what it was. They knew the answer, but were either too afraid or too embarrassed to actually tell her. That was all except for one single soul one.

Out of nowhere did the zebra stallion flung his hood backwards. He looked up to Twilight with his gray and black striped skin. All of the students were horrified to see him uncovered but they also had to admit the fact that he carried a certain charm of mystery to himself. Something that they never would have dared to speak out in the open. The stallion himself stood up and bowed towards the teacher as a sign of respect. “Forgive my interrupting, miss Sparkle,” he spoke to her before he continued, “the answer to your question is that most of the anthronies in the land don’t believe our abilities. Their desire to stick with the fact of what they think is right often places them upon the wrong path.”

Twilight was actually pleased to hear it from a student who wasn’t even a unicorn at all. “That is indeed correct, yes. Your words speak the truth and you don’t have to be sorry about it, for you answered the question exactly as I liked it,” answered Twilight to him with a faint smile. Then she made a bow in return. A bow which was actually the sign for him to sit back down on his place and cover his face with his hood.

The reason behind it was just that he was different than the other unicorns. He was more or less a witch doctor. The zebra worked with potions instead of actual magic. Yet the effects always were the same –if not better from time to time. “Anthronies are creatures of habit, they don’t really like it when you start to tell them what they need to be doing. Their minds think that they have it always at the right end. Make a change in their routine and things will be ending up rather differently and difficult for them. Often ending in perhaps something you don’t want them to do or that they do something you don’t expect. As you all know, it takes only a spark to set a place ablaze.”

Those words made all of the students nod as they couldn’t get them out of their heads. None dared to say even a single word against her as Twilight placed her hands behind her back. The posture she assumed was that of a soldier who was ready to be inspected. But in fact it was her who could be seen as the general. “Now that you all know again what it is to be a soothsayer, I think that the time has come to show you what is required to commune with the plane of the goddesses. So far we have only talked about it, guiding your energy to the mind to ascend into their realm of existence. Today, each of you is going to try it. Don’t worry if you fail, it never works the first time around,” said Twilight to them. All of them removed themselves from their desks and set them aside with the help of some spells.

~~~~

Twilight looked over the cleaned up classroom before she sat down in front of her own desk. All of the students did what she did and assumed a sitting position with their legs crossed. From there on out could they only watch as to what would be happening next. Twilight released a deep exhale through her nostrils before she took a deep inhale through her mouth.

That routine would have been repeated a countless times before she placed both of her hands against one another in front of her. The index fingers were pointed upwards and touched each other at the top as the thumbs did the same but pointed down. That was the starting pose for the meditation to commune with them.

Calmly and slowly did the raspberry colored aura collect itself around her horn before it spread over to her hands. The eyes slowly shut themselves as she managed to speak her words. “The power of your magic, guided by your mind must be brought over to your heart before you let go of your body. But never let go as a whole as it is your only anchor point in the physical world. Only then, when your mind and heart are both at peace you shall be able to make the ascend to them. There, you pay your respects to the both of them and see if they grant you an audience. Don’t hope they do. They can sense that.”

Then the silence of Twilight took place as both her mind and heart were at peace. Her body had become the anchor point and for the sake of her students she forced her eyes back open. Each of the students looked right into the white orbs of pure light as they thought they saw Twilight actually entering the mythical realm. But in fact they saw just nothing.

For more than five minutes had she remained in the same position. Her spirit descended again towards her body. The eyes were closed again before the head lowered itself. The lights faded as the magic disappeared from her horn and hands. Which resulted in her getting fully back to earth.

The unicorn leaned a bit backwards before she shook her head. “Always tougher when you have to show it, usually I do it without this much strain. Either way, the descend back is more important than your ascend. One wrong motion during it and you can end up missing your body. Making it a soulless husk for any kind of creature or being to invade it.”

Slowly but surely did Twilight got up from her position. She pointed to the first anthrony to make the test. “Don’t be afraid, I will be right here with you and know it when something goes wrong,” she spoke in a reassuring voice.

The student wasn’t all too satisfied with the answer given but knew Twilight had to be trusted. For the life was quite literally on the line. With a deep exhale did he sat down and made the same preparations as Twilight did before. Before finally ascending up into the plane of the goddesses.

None of the students could believe it that with the first anthrony to try it, it also actually succeeded. Yet Twilight knew that many of them wouldn’t be able to make it to the plane to begin with. She was actually more afraid of them not returning to their bodies and thus leaving them in a husk. It was a constant fear for her that she needed to master one way or the other. Sooner or later, she knew something would be going wrong.

Twilight just couldn’t place her feelings right, but it was just there. Then had the descend of the first student begun. Twilight monitored every last vital sign. If even one thing would go wrong, she would notice it straight away. The entire classroom was just silent while the tension was about to be cut. Seconds seemed like it had been hours before finally the mouth started to twitch and the eyes gently were opened.

“Welcome back,” were the words that Twilight spoke to the student. A student who looked around to see where he had actually ended up. “It’s okay, it’s okay. You’re back with all of us. Take it easy and tell me what you saw.”

The student took a couple of deep breaths before a swallow was released. Only then did the words finally leave through his mouth. “I saw, nothing at first really. Just darkness before I suddenly stood before this, this forest of moonshine. Leaves all in the same coloring as the moon. A-And whispers. Whispers I couldn’t understand but they were so sweet and calm. Then, I woke up here again.”

Twilight placed her hand upon the stallion’s shoulder and gave him a warm smile. “You did good, you did amazing. Want to know what you saw and heard?” The student only nodded and the teacher returned one to him.

“Alright, what you saw was the forest of the moon. It’s a place not many soothsayers come out of their free will. Simply because of the fact that, those recently passed away make their journey through it. The whispers you heard are for those spirits to safely make the journey to the other side. Nopony knows what is on the other side and it’s a mystery that has tempted many. But none ever dared to set a foot inside.”

The stallion had listened to her words with care before he tried to crawl back up again. He had seen one of the greatest mysteries in life but the desire to figure out what laid beyond the forest border wasn’t there. Once he stood back up on both of his legs did the stallion walk back to the rest of the group. There some hugged him and congratulated him for the deed he had done. First time and a straight success, not many would have done that.

It was a little fact that they all knew. Both Sky Comet and Wishful Star wanted to go next, but before they could be making it forward had Burning Spring cut them off. He insisted on going before everypony else. He wanted to show them all how it was supposed to be done. But Twilight wasn’t a fan of him either. “Master Spring, this is serious business and I don’t want you talking around and about like that. You are not better than anyone else in this room. All are equal here. Though, proceed when you think you’re ready.”

Burning Spring sat down on the spot with his legs crossed and fists and fingers together. Both of his mind and heart were made empty before he made the ascend upwards. There was only one little problem. During the ascend he was supposed to be going up. Yet in his ears he could hear strange whispers that managed to capture his interests. Whispers that deluded him of power and might. Whispers that actually caused him to stop in the middle of the ascend and fall down.

Falling down, down, down, all the way down until he was surrounded by nothing but utter darkness. Burning Spring was starting to become afraid as he actually managed up in the place he really didn’t wanted to end up. Yet it was also the one place where he could be fighting the one he spoke about earlier.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” was then whispered in an utterly eerie and disembodied feminine sounding voice. The levels of terror rose up in his body. All that he wanted was to get out as soon as possible. Though there was literally no way that he could see. He was trapped inside of the worst place imaginable and Burning Spring didn’t like it one bit.

“I, I’ll beat you! I’ll end you and your existence if I have to!” he said in a brave voice. The stallion kept on charging the magic around his horn. He wanted to create some form of light. Yet there was nothing but more darkness that was being revealed before his very eyes. “Reveal yourself!” he shouted out towards the darkness itself. All in the faint hope to witness his worst fears.

“Hmhmha, what fun is there in doing that? I like my preys unaware of the looks I carry. A bit chubby, but it should work,” the voice returned to him. It became more and more distant. Burning Spring didn’t have the slightest of clues what was going on, but he did felt himself becoming more light in the head. Before he knew it, he had passed out as the laughter of the being became only more distant.

Whatever had happened to him, however it was caused, one thing was certain among the chaos. It must have been Twilight who had gotten a scent of the situation and was bringing him back to his body. That was the last hoping thought that went through his mind before he just lost every grasps of either plane of reality.

He had no idea what would happen next, he could only pray upon the fact that it would be something better than dying. Though it could have been seen as just wishful thinking. Time was short and he was out for the count. Anything could happen if a force wanted it. Whether it be good or bad, anything could happen and it most likely would.

Chapter XXIII

The sun was rising itself up from the horizon once again. The moon traveled down and behind the hills to make place for the warm and pleasant day that laid ahead. Yet somewhere in the castle of Canterlot was one soothsayer still working vividly. A soothsayer who almost hadn’t had any sleep in that particular night.

That soothsayer was nopony else then Twilight Sparkle. In her absence had she gotten a lot more information about the tremors and where they hit the land. Each fact was placed on her map and in her mind, resulting in a terrible conclusion. “It’s random, every place it hits is just, random,” said Twilight to herself while she stood bend over the map.

Her eyes peeked from left to right, top and bottom. She tried to make sense on the matter. While it was true that most of the earthquakes followed the fault lines –a theory she came up a long time before– yet none of them actually followed up one another. The matter was confusing Twilight a whole lot more than she originally had thought.

Not to forget the sphere of magma or the slowly going supernova star that was hidden somewhere deep in the very soils of Equestria itself. All the information became a little too much for the mare. Her body moved over to a chair and dropped itself within it. All of the thoughts that were racing through her couldn’t be stopped. Not until she had gotten any kind of actual confirmation, which also meant she wouldn’t be getting any sleep.

The sun travelled further over the skies and ringed in the morning for all the anthronies in the land. Its light managed to pierce through the windows of Twilight’s room and teased her once again. As much as the unicorn wanted to close her the curtains, she couldn’t. She wasn’t allowing herself to.

“I wasted too much time that I could have been sleeping, doing all of this catching up,” she muttered to herself in an annoyed tone. With one graceful motion had she left the chair again. Most of her bones were snapped back in their respectable places while a sigh came from her nostrils. The time was there to look for the one stallion she always looked forward to meet, her very own brother.

Although that time could things have been a little bit more sketchy as it would be their last meeting. Until she had either returned, or fallen. The thought laid of course heavily on her mind as well. Though she didn’t have the time to think much about it. It loomed though. It loomed to her in the back of her head, hidden in plain sight.

Twilight shook her head a couple of times as she regulated her breath. One of her hands coated itself in the raspberry clue aura before a gentle exchange of magic was given off. A small spark of magic just left her body. Almost as if it was venting itself for something. Afterwards there was actually a gentle sigh of relief that was released by the mare.

Shortly thereafter she prepared herself for the day. Her attire was pretty much the same as when she left, minus the coat around her body. Then she finally left everything as it was. Twilight finally left her room in order to find her older brother. She needed to tell him a couple of things and share the stories of the past few days before they would be separated again.

Separated for a time longer than either of them could remember.

The soothsayer walked with a calm pace through the halls of the castle with her head almost seemingly into the clouds. Thoughts raced up and down as her hands were placed behind her back. She looked like calm itself, but in fact she was the very eye of the storm. Even though her pacing seemed relaxed, everyone who looked her in the eyes could see the sheer amount of stress and responsibility she had.

Even the three students noticed that little fact. Twilight passed Wishful Star, Sky Comet and Dolicho on her way. All three of them saw the stress in her eyes. They only had one thing upon their minds. Yet it was the mare who opened her mouth as she set in the chase. “Miss Sparkle, miss Sparkle wait up, please!” Wishful Star almost yelled out to the soothsayer.

For the first time since she had left her room, had the unicorn returned to earth. She slowed her pacing down and turned herself around to watch over the mare and stallions coming towards her. One of her eyebrows rose itself up in a curious manner as she thought just what they wanted from her.

“Milady Star, master Comet and master Dolicho, how can I be of service for you today?” Twilight then asked them with a polite tone. The three students managed to catch up with her and together they began to wander through the castle.

Star was once again the first to open her mouth against the teacher. Though the words that she spoke were coming out in a rather concerned tone. “Have you, been feeling yourself lately? You have been absent for days and the guards wouldn’t tell any of us where you had gone to.”

The unicorn herself allowed a gentle chuckle to be released as she shook her head lightly. “I have been traveling actually. A series of urgent matters have come to my attention, I’m afraid. Though I’m also afraid I will be leaving soon enough once again. Hopefully for the last time.” All three of the students looked at one another with a confused gaze before the zebra stepped up his pace.

“If I may be so rude, what kind of travel have you been undertaken?” Dolicho asked in a polite tone that was just filled with nothing else but curiosity. Something which Twilight could respect yet in the moment also found a little bit annoying.

"Travels that are perhaps best left untold for ears that have nothing to do with them, master Dolicho. And before you start, Sky, yes I’m still feeling fine. It’s just, I have to do this with a couple of others. Don’t you worry about me and listen well to your substitute teacher. Might learn a thing or two from him or her,” returned Twilight to them before she made her excuses to them. Then she was just gone. Gone like the wind out of their views, to look once again for her brother.

Sky Comet looked over to the other two before he shook his head from side to side. “She’s getting stranger by the day, none of you noticed that?” he then spoke up. While it was true that the other two had to agree with him, they never openly said that.

“Come on,” the mare said as she gained a smile. “We still have work to do ourselves.”

“Our project?” Dolicho then added into the mix as a strange grin formed itself on his lips.

“Our project.”

“…Not again,” added Sky quickly afterwards.

~~~~

In the meantime had Twilight taken a shortcut down to the courtyard of the castle. With the fact known to her that Shining Armor wasn’t in his office, there was only one other possible place where he would be. She knew her brother too well to look anywhere else as her ears caught the huffs and puffs on the fields.

Almost like a foal did she allow herself to slide down the railing of the last stairs before hitting ground level. With one quick jump had she landed almost perfectly back on her hooves and she continued on her path like nothing happened. There was a silly smile formed by her lips when she left the stone structure of the castle and wandered into the light of day from the courtyard.

There she saw it all happening, the intense training that was given off by nopony else then her brother. The students were in for a massive grind but that was his way training. He would drive them to near physical and mental exhaustion before remolding them into actual guards. The times of war were perhaps over, yet they would still be trained as if they were in their high days. It was better to be overly prepared than under, in the eyes of the guards.

“Shining!” Twilight yelled up to him. The armored stallion almost immediately turned himself around. In his eyes he caught the mulberry unicorn anthrony that was his own little sister. A smile that went from almost ear to ear came to his face. All of his students were waved off for the moment so that he could focus himself upon her.

“Twily!” he spoke to her, knowing were alone. The mare ran further up to him before she gave him a big and tight hug. A hug that was actually returned by him before he ruffled through her hair. “Oh Twily, words can’t express how happy I am to see you safe. I assume you got done what needed to be done?”

Despite being pushed against his chest could the unicorn mare still give a nod to confirm the words. “Yeah, it, it wasn’t something that seemed to be easy, but both me and Applejack managed to do it. Hey, you mind just walking around a little bit?”

“Hmhmhm, no problem sis,” he replied before gently breaking the hug.

A short period of time later could the two of them be found wandering through the city of Canterlot itself. The sheer amount of amazing looking buildings was enough to mesmerize them, yet it were the words of Twilight that caught him even more by surprise. She told pretty much the whole story between her, Applejack and Rarity.

Only once she was done did Shining have the words to reply against it. “I have heard of her, both before she became a pirate and after. She’s a tough nut to crack and utterly unpredictable. Yet you managed to get her to join your quest?”

“Not me, Applejack managed to do it that time,” the soothsayer corrected him. She then smiled faintly. Of course she hadn’t mentioned the little fact that she was held as a hostage or that the two had come to a terrible truce. Certain bits were indeed just best left unknown for the stallion. Which was actually the way Twilight liked it.

“Goodness great, that’s something indeed. Heh, well, at least everything came down the way it was supposed to be, right?” Shining then asked with a chuckle of his own. To which Twilight could only nod in response.

They continued to walk through the ancient capital city as they saw marvelous building after building. Sometimes they even forgot just how beautiful the world literally next doors could have been due to the castle’s nature. Yet they both had fallen silent as they knew what would be coming next. It was something that neither of them actually wanted to admit, but time wasn’t truly all too kind to them in that case.

Silence took over for a bit of time as they both just wandered around the streets of the city, both sunken deeply in thought about things and events to come. Yet one matter, still kept on struggling inside of the unicorn’s very mind.

"Hey Shining, can I ask you something?” Twilight asked out of the blue. The question was something that broke her brother out of his own thoughts. He blinked a couple of times with his eyes before they were focused on her.

“You can ask me anything you need,” he replied to her in almost a monotone voice. A voice that caused the shivers to go down her spine yet she knew he didn’t mean it that way.

“The caverns of Equestria run deep right? The deepest systems must have an entrance somewhere, right?” Twilight asked him with a set of curious looking eyes. Shining looked back into those violet rims. He felt the need to answer those very questions. The only problem actually happened to be that not even he knew just where the entrances laid.

Despite her brother being a captain of the guards themselves, he wasn’t that much of a geological wonder. Not many of the soldiers could claim were though. So the questions made him groan a little bit as he dug through his mind.

To add even more pressure to the events had Twilight spoken words that would only make the matter more difficult for him. “I know that there are beings down there, or have been there, in the deepest and darkest parts of Equestria. Beings unspoken off outside of legends, so there must a way in or out. The question is where?”

“Heh, that’s indeed the question, where?” Shining Armor replied to her as he rubbed his forehead. As much as he wanted to actually give his sister an answer, he couldn’t. He didn’t know where the entrance of such a place could have been, or where it possibly could have been placed. “There’s a reason why the creatures of legends want to be unfound Twilight, that’s why they don’t make it obvious to outsiders. Don’t meddle yourself in things you have no knowledge from.”

The answer that she got wasn’t something the unicorn liked, in fact she hated it. “Well excuse me mister, but I have been meddling in that kind of business ever since I became a soothsayer,” she returned in a raised voice. One that almost spoke of anger as it was followed up with a growl that almost seemed to have come out of her soul.

“Let’s not fight, not today please,” begged Shining then. It was the last thing they needed and he wrapped an arm over his sister’s shoulders. The mare was brought closer to him and eventually she took refuge against his chest.

“Fine,” she whispered up softly. “But, you have any idea as of where?” The question had returned once again, much to Shining’s despise. He didn’t wanted his sister to go to such places as it meant he couldn’t protect her. Then again, with the company that she had with her. The unicorn seemed to be in good hands. Not to mention the fact that she could adapt herself quickly to the situation if it was needed.

The mind of Shining Armor continued to pound itself even further with the questioning of where the entrances of the caverns could be found. Yet in his mind there was nothing that could possibly have even guided his sister into the right direction. All, but one lead.

“Well,” he started as Twilight’s eyes looked up to him with the hope clearly visible within them.

The stallion gathered all of his courage together as he couldn’t even believe the words that he would say to her. A deep exhale was released by him as he pulled the mare a little bit closer against him. He then began to stroke over the shoulder of the mare as he said his thoughts. “I think I may know somepony who actually knows where to find the entrances of the places you are looking for. But the only problem is that she’s a long way away from here.”

“She?” Twilight repeated to him with a confused tone and gaze. “Who do you mean, Shining?” Yet when the mare looked up to her brother’s eyes, she could see the faint red blush that was going across his cheeks. That alone was perhaps more than enough for the soothsayer to know exactly who he meant. She wouldn’t take the glory of saying though. She wanted to hear it coming right out of his own mouth.

Shining Armor couldn’t help himself but to release an awkward chuckle as he said the conformation to Twilight’s train of thoughts. “Mi Amore Cadenza, soothsayer Cadence might be knowing exactly where you need to be looking.”

There wasn’t even a shimmer of surprise on Twilight’s face as she knew exactly who Cadence happened to be. For she was the one anthrony on which her brother always had an eye on also happened to be her foalsitter and eventually moved to the icy regions of the Frozen North for some reason. The three of them never had been able to say their goodbyes to each other and never actually found or made contact again. Something that was about to change pretty soon.

“Great, so I can sniff her out again. At least it’s going to be a warm return, before you ask, yes. I shall send her your regards and question of visiting,” said Twilight said to her brother. The snuggles against his chest became a bit more intense.

The stallion chuckled up softly before he shook his head calmly from side to side. “You know me too well, now don’t you, Twily?”

“After all these years? Would be a crime if I didn’t and you know that little fact.”

Shining released another chuckle before he finally let his sister go from his hold. “Hey, I know this is going to be our last goodbye for a long time to come, but can you do me one more favor?”

The words confused Twilight a little bit as she didn’t have a clue what he could have actually meant with it. There were so many favors in the world that he could be asking from her at that point. Yet it would become one she really wasn’t looking forward too. One that needed to be done though, not for her nor her brother’s sake though. But for two of the most important anthronies in her life.

“Visit mom and dad before you go, they might be worrying themselves to death right now,” said Shining with a concerned tone. He meant his words well for sure but Twilight wasn’t certain if she could keep them. The relation between her and her parents wasn’t truly something too stable to say the least.

“I, I’m not going to make promises on that one, Shining, but I shall try my best,” replied Twilight before she began to get worried. Ever since they began talking again, she hadn’t really been paying attention to the road that they wandered. A little something that paid itself back almost tenfold. For the way they had been wandering was the one that was leading right down to the house of her parents.

Shining Armor was sneaky in that regard. He could just do such things and get away with them as if they hadn’t happened. Not that Twilight could blame for it though. Her parents were still oblivious to the fact that she would be making the journey ahead. A gulp was released by the mare as she then nodded calmly. “I see where this is going, well, might as well just knock right now. Can’t outrun my own demons forever.”

“I still can’t understand why you can’t find it so well with mom and dad anymore,” her brother returned with a genuine curiosity to his voice. Even though it was a terrible touchy subject, he wanted to know how the ropes were laid out.

Twilight allowed a deep sigh to be released from her nostrils as she came to a standstill. Her brother then followed suit and looked over her. “It’s, it’s just, well, you became the captain of the guards like that, I’m just a teacher when you think about it. A powerful one at that, but I don’t have much of a title to speak of. I think, that’s why they are almost disappointed in me for whatever reason. I might just be crazy here, but that’s what I feel every single time I look either of them in the eyes.”

The words were a hard thing for Shining to hear, let alone understand as a whole. Yet he did get the direction that she came from. The guards and the army were things that were always praised highly throughout Equestria and their family was no exception of it. “You aren’t disappointing them in any way, Twily, you just haven’t found your comfort zone yet when it comes to soothsaying.”

“Don’t you say that to me!” the mare suddenly snarled up to him. A step or two closer to him were made by her. The fires within her eyes were clearly visible as the stallion almost wanted to back her off. With both his hands raised and the magic swirling around his horn, he was ready for anything that she could be throwing at him.

“Don’t you ever say that I haven’t found my comfort zone! If I hadn’t, why would they have given me this quest then?! I don’t think they want me to go out of my comfort zone, just to find my actual one, Shining!” continued Twilight to snarl up to her brother. Only to turn herself around shortly afterwards and a soft sob was given off.

He had done it. He had managed to make his own sister cry there and then. At one end he could just smash his head against a wall whereas the other wanted to help her. Luckily were the urges to help her bigger than the ones to bash his brains out. The magic around his horn discharged itself and his hand was placed upon her shoulder.

With a deep sigh that left through his nostrils he spoke the words that were on his mind. “Okay, maybe I was wrong saying that and, I feel sorry for that Twilight. It’s just, I can’t place myself in your shoes as, well, how do I say this..?”

“We’re completely different, like the day and night?” the unicorn mare mumbled. The tears were wiped away from her cheeks. Her voice was weak and trembling a bit, though she never turned herself around. Shining Armor could only give a nod towards the answer he got from her. He wanted to speak more words on the matter yet his thoughts left him in the dark when it came down to it.

“We,” he then started softly, “we are indeed day and night. We differ so much, yet have so much in common as well. Basically, what I’m trying to say is, stay safe out there, Twily.”

Finally was the high word out of his mouth and the stallion thought he could finally be breathing normally again. The only little problem was that Twilight didn’t took the matter all too lightly to herself. In her eyes she still was the disappointment of the family. Yet she did turn herself around to give her brother one last and massive hug.

Shining Armor almost instantly returned the hug to his younger sister and held her perhaps even closer to himself instead of the other way around. One last sniffle was being released by the mare before her eyes were closed upon themselves.

“Alright, I’ll go and pay them a visit,” she then almost whispered up to him. Whether he would have liked it or not, Shining Armor had actually managed to get his sister crazy enough to fight against perhaps the greatest demons that she had. The demons that were their own parents.

~~~~

After a little while was Twilight sitting in the house of her parents. With both her mother and father present, the initial meeting wasn’t something that she could truly reflect back upon. Everything almost happened in an actual instant. She remembered that her mother greeted her happily before she was being dragged in, her father on the other end hadn’t even moved an inch from his chair.

It was that little fact that was nerve wrecking for her. The fact that her father hadn’t moved an inch since she arrived. That was the whole origin of her thinking that she wasn’t appreciated that much by her own family. That was the very origin of where her demons came from.

Yet it was the stallion who then looked his daughter deep in the eyes and couldn’t help but to smile. “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight,” he started to her. The smile remained standing where it was. “How long has it been since you have last been here, my daughter?”

“A-About two, two and a half, y-years?” Twilight hesitantly returned to him. She allowed a gulp to leave her throat. She was terrified for some reason, terrified for her own father. Though the saving grace was her mother who came in with three mugs of steaming tea. Each of them got a mug before the mare herself then settled in next to Twilight.

Once again was there an arm that went over her shoulders and Twilight was pulled in just a little bit closer. It felt comfortable for her to say the least. Yet her heart still managed to travel faster and faster. None of them wanted to speak a word as they were afraid it would be the wrong ones, at least that was the explanation that Twilight gave herself.

Though the silence didn’t stay that way for long. It was her father who opened his mouth about the matter that laid ahead. “Two and a half years, and here comes Shining barging in, telling us you’re leaving on some sort of grand adventure. That what you have been cooking up?” His tone was calm and normal but Twilight took it up as threatening.

There wasn’t any escape either. She just had to confess her journey to her parents. The thing that she had planned needed to be told to the both of them. Not a single instance had to be left out of the equation for them though. Where Shining only got bits and pieces, her parents needed to get to know everything.

Which was exactly what she told them. Words of her quest were told in every possible way as her parents remained silent. They just listened to the tales that their daughter had to tell them. Neither of them wanted to even interrupt her as the stories were that beautiful. How time can change one unicorn so much in such a short period of time, was perhaps the highlight of it all.

Though the location of where she needed to be going was something that worried them both greatly. Yet the more Twilight told them about her journey, the more she felt relieved. For they never judged anything, instead they accepted it. To her it felt like they actually accepted her once again.

~~~~

Hours had gone by before the mulberry unicorn was wandering through Canterlot again. The sun had made room for the moon. She went over the conversations she and her parents had. For two and a half years had she been evading them for whatever reason. A reason that wasn’t even there in first place when it came down to the core.

Something for which Twilight was actually a lot more thankful than anything else in the moment. As she was wandering through the city had her mind collected everything that she needed to know and be doing. Resulting in her coming to the conclusion that she finally had an actual heading to go to.

She had a heading without even having told any other member of the company. They knew exactly where they had to be going as soon as possible. Though the location was perhaps something they never would have guessed. For it were the freezing tops of the Frozen North itself. To others was it simply known as: the fridge of the world.

Truth had to be told, not even Twilight was actually looking forward to going up there. But she was forced to do so if she wanted to see Cadence once more. It had been years since the two of them had even laid the foundations of contact with one another. Their deeds were sadly the things that prevented them from talking more often and as time passed, contact vanished.

“How tough is it going to be to find her in the snow and ice of those plains?” the mare questioned to herself as she was wandering into the direction of a luxurious hotel. Thoughts raced and pounded her mind as she came closer and closer to her destination. It was a great question though. One that was a bit more important than anything else in the moment.

“Last time I spoke her, she said something about the Ever Freezing Canyon, but that’s almost near the foot of the Chilly Mountains. No way she could have stayed there for so long. No, my best guess would be the Icy Plains themselves. Miles of stretching and barren wasteland,” the unicorn mumbled to herself. She pictured the scenes already in her head.

Twilight was so sunken in her thoughts and mumbling to herself that she almost waltzed right against the glass door of the hotel. With the lights of the reception entering her eyes like rays of sunlight was the mare brought back to earth. Just mere inches was her nose away from the glass as she pushed the door open before she entered the hotel.

In her eyes she got to see a marvelous looking hallway that eventually led her to a grand auditorium where the restaurant was and a band played classical tunes for the few remaining guests. The unicorn gently walked over towards the restaurant and gave her eyes the time to see whether or not she saw anypony that she might be knowing.

Twilight always hated it if she came across familiar faces on grounds that were shared like restaurants. It was something that she just found uncomfortable and unpleasant. One could have said that Twilight was the type of anthrony who best worked on her own and one would be right on the matter.

Her eyes didn’t saw anyone that she knew, which also gave her a great worry. For that very hotel was actually the rendezvous point for all the other company members to get together. “Oh don’t tell me they actually started a witch hunt, right?” Twilight muttered to herself before she quickly hurried back to the reception.

“Can I help you miss?” the clerk behind it asked her with a small smile. Twilight could tell that the smile was fake and just set up to comfort her as she stood panting before the desk.

“Four anthronies should have checked in under the same name, Sparkle. You know if they did and if so, where they are now?” Twilight said to the clerk who immediately got to work.

Seconds went by as the frustration of the soothsayer became only greater. Until finally she had gotten the answer out of the clerk. They were all present and sitting in the lounge behind the bar. One of the few places that the unicorn hadn’t inspected yet. Twilight thanked the clerk for the work before she rushed over to the place like a lightning bolt.

One turn to the right and one to the left later she finally stood in the door opening of the private lounge. Within her eyes she caught a sight that perhaps wasn’t something that would happen for years to come. For all across the room they sat, four anthronies sharing drinks together.

Or at least three of them. For Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were all sitting on one side of the place. Whereas a masked figure had assumed a rather lady like pose upon one of the chairs and was levitating a glass in a blue aura.

A massive sigh of relief was released by Twilight as a weight fell off of her shoulders. What followed was that Applejack finally noticed her and gestured her to come in further. “We’ve been waiting on ya.”

Chapter XLII

All three of the anthronies had their eyes peeled upon the one griffon that had stepped forwards. The one was looking a whole lot less bulky than the other soldiers and their initial thought was that it actually was a female griffon who happened to be the commander of the group. Perhaps a little bit farfetched, but it was a possible thing.

Worry was the emotion that filled the anthronies. Applejack’s eyes went from left to right. She wanted to charge back in just so much, to settle the debt between her and the griffons that in the long run had cost her her very leg. In one way of the word, the griffons were responsible for the events as they had been going down within her personal history.

Furious she also happened to be, her eyes fell back upon the griffon with a glare of pure thunder and hatred. Calm in- and exhales were released through her nostrils while those were the only things that prevented her from losing her mind. That, and the glares within the eyes of Twilight also would be having something to do with them.

The eyes of the unicorn soothsayer had many different emotions at once. She was sad that they had lost both a friend and the battle. She was furious to see the griffons upon the top of the mountain as well. Yet there also was a shimmer of hope that could be found within them. A shimmer of hope that spoke of the fact that Fluttershy hadn’t been found yet and Rainbow could still be alive.

But Rarity was having the most problems. With her blouse only becoming redder from the blood underneath it. She kept on wincing in shocks of pain while she pressed her other hand upon the wounds. Hopes were spoken through her mind that it would eventually stop, even though she knew she was flat out lying to herself.

Silence, nothing else but complete and utter silence was the thing that came from the platform of the mountain. Only the gusts of wind that travelled past their ears caused something to happen within their very souls. The tension on which the threads hang were almost cut. Time was running out, but for which party?

Seconds did the griffon just stand there. As if it intended to spread even more fear within the hearts of the anthronies. Fluttershy was still hidden behind some rocks though. The good doctor watched all of it happen from her position. She was terrified to say the least, yet knew she had to keep as quiet as possible. Silence was her greatest ally in the moment. The question just remained for how long it would have been.

Eventually did the griffon remove its helmet from its face and another shock was given off to each of the mares. Their thoughts were more than right. Beneath the helmet laid a face that was a lot sleeker looking and a lot more feminine in their eyes.

Its sharp, amber colored irises glanced over each of the anthronies. All they could do in response was to give off a gulp. None could tell whether or not the light purplish gray around the eyes was actually some kind of war paint or actual colored feathers that could be found all around the white head.

There wasn’t any doubt within their minds anymore. For they were in some deep trouble that was being led by the female griffon commander. There wasn’t any way in Equestria that a griffon with those kind of looks actually would have been of the other sex. Pray and hope were the only two things that could be done for the company in the moment.

Her beak curled up to give them all a sick smile before the mouth got opened. Yet instead of words there simply was a near deafening screech of pure power. The wings even began to spread themselves to strike an even more imposing figure and sent more fear into their hearts.

It was a tactic used by the griffons all over the world. Done to invoke fear in the hearts of their enemies so that they would become a lot less noisy during capture times or transport.

Though the roar was having one little side effect. The doctor of the company released a loud yelp from behind her rock. The sounds were caught within the ears of the commander. Both of her wings were tucked behind her back once again. Without a word said she turned around and peeled her eyes over the place.

What followed was that one of the hands pointed to the rocks where the mare was behind. Just huffs were released through the nostrils of the beast as another soldier nodded. He then marched over to the rocks and before anypony could be doing anything, it had happened.

The griffon had picked up Fluttershy by her hair and hoisted her up with a quick motion. No action was done to her outside of being brought in front of the commander. There she was let go of again as the amber eyes glazed deep upon her.

The doctor looked back into those very same eyes before she quickly scurried back to the rest of the team. She needed the protection of the others whether she wanted it or not. Fluttershy was the most terrified out of all of them. Her heart was racing in her throat, while the glance of the griffon had been burned on her retina. It almost seemed as if all hope had been abandoned by her.

A hope which the other beings still carried inside of them. Yet they were waiting, waiting for the right moment to either strike or talk.

Finally had the commander shifted her attention back to the group of mares in general and once again did the smile return to her beak. “Well, well, well, it looks like our catch of the day is something worthy for the emperor, don’t you agree boys?” the commander spoke towards them in an enjoyed tone. She was glad that so many prisoners were taken at once.

The rest of the griffons released a simple but loud ‘yeah’ from their throats. Then the silence returned for a moment. The eyes of the griffon looked at both Rarity and Applejack, who on their own turn looked back. A moment of familiarity flowed through the three of them. Almost as if they had stood against one another in times gone by. Yet that, was something impossible.

“Whatever the emperor has planned for you, I don’t know nor do I care. But I do remember two of the four faces of you dweebs,” the commander said while she stepped more forward. She came closer to both Applejack and Rarity. Her attention constantly shifted between the two mares. “I remember you the both of you, not fondly mind you. But I do, remember.”

“The memory slips me for the moment, I’m afraid,” commented the pirate captain almost right away in return. Just before she gave off another winch in pain. Though before she could react there was a massive slap in the face from the griffon’s talons and she was smacked down to the ground. The others gasped for air as Rarity remained motionless.

“You killed her!” Twilight spoke up in a raised voice before she was almost at her boiling point. “You just murdered an innocent being!”

“Quiet you!” the commander snarled in return. The griffon snapped her beak loudly at the end, revealing it were no idle threats. “Or you’re next.”

A loud groan of pain came from the body of Rarity. A body that was raised up with one arm. “Oh… Stronger, stronger than I remember…” she muttered to herself inaudible to the rest of them. The doctor hurried herself over to the mare where she would be looking at both of the wounds.

“Killed her? Hmpf, there wasn’t any sport in killing her. No, physician that you are. Patch her up again,” the griffon commanded towards Fluttershy. Then she was thrown a bag with both medical instruments and bandages.

Somehow did the pegasus manage to catch it as it was in flight and she began to do her work in silence. She was literally ordered to patch Rarity up to the best of her ability. Which was a relief for the pirate herself. But Applejack still wasn’t done with the commander by a long shot.

“Ah thought we had defeated y’all during the conflict. Yet here y’all happen to be, at the top of a celestial forsaken mountain. And did ya say, we would be gifts for yar emperor. Hmpf, hopes he likes his anthronies with extra spice,” commented Applejack with a sober tone.

The beak of the griffon once again curled up into a smile as she nodded with her head. “Oh believe me, he does love his spice upon them. So you, should be right at home with him. You may have won that battle, dweebs, but the war was never won,” the commander explained before perhaps the worst possible question was being returned, “our purpose on this mountain is a known for you. But what are you four doing here?”

The things only seemed to have become worse and worse for the mares. Not only would they have become dinner for the emperor of the griffons, but they also had to tell the commander exactly why they were there to begin with.

Things weren’t easy for the group of mares and Twilight was actually speaking of luck that she still didn’t have the talons of the griffon stuck around her throat. Fluttershy was too busy bandaging the shoulder of Rarity to comment on it and Applejack didn’t even wanted to speak to the griffon anymore.

Of course there still was the matter of Rainbow Dash surging through their minds. A matter of which they all just hoped she wouldn’t be getting back on. For none of them had an idea where she could be. But the time to spill the words was there. Even if they had to reshape the truth a little.

Twilight released a deep sigh through her nostrils as her eyes were closed a little bit. “The reason why we’re here, is quite simple actually,” she began. In an instant was the attention shifted from Applejack to Twilight. The talons were tapping against one another. Almost as if they were hesitant to fly to her throat.

That very hesitation was noticed by the unicorn as she opened her eyes again. “Please don’t set your talons in my neck. I have been grabbed there, a lot more than I would have liked these past could of weeks alone.”

“And if I do, end up grabbing your throat?” the commander asked. She was testing how far Twilight could remain civil against them, against her. Her hand had already raised itself up and only had to just wrap its sharp claws around the soft neck of the unicorn to cause the damage.

“I hope that you have a good undertaker. For I’m not going to be happy if it happen once again,” the soothsayer replied to her with a dead serious tone. One which caused the hand to actually be lowered as the griffon took a step forward.

“I hope the same, for you,” the commander then returned before a growl was released by her throat. She then retracted herself a little bit while the hands were placed upon her back. “But you still haven’t told me, why exactly you happen to be here.”

“I was coming to that part, if you just allow me to explain,” added Twilight just before she took a deep inhale. The time was there to start lying about the fact why they were for all of them. A lie that just had to be sold as the truth, or they would all be dinner for something unpleasant.

Applejack looked over the griffons that were standing behind the commander when her steam powered leg released a gentle puff of smoke. It readied itself for a battle to come or to hold her very ground if needed.

Fluttershy was done with the bandages around Rarity’s shoulder and she stood back up. Yet the pirate remained sitting on the ground, almost as if she wanted to make a griffon bow before her. Which could have been seen as nothing else but a pure mockery for the commander and her troops.

That also happened to be the little reason of just why they didn’t pay much attention towards the pirate. But there were always watchful eyes looking at the mares, eyes in the back of the group. Eyes that didn’t have to bow before them.

“Our reason for being on top of this mountain is to investigate the anomaly that has been detected. The magic that makes the top just disappear like that, it has gotten a word within the walls of Canterlot. From which they sent this group to find out what it was.”

The griffon’s eyes narrowed themselves as she watched over just how Twilight was saying her words. She was watching for any trace that could be leading her down to the flat out lie that was being told. “It explains the doctor and the admiral. But why the pirate?”

Suddenly did all of their faces just turn as pale as snow. Almost as if they had seen ghosts of their past. Even Rarity looked up shocked. She knew her reputation was running far and wide, but that it even had reached the Griffon Empire? That was a new one for her as well.

Only one word could be followed up by the events as they had happened so far. And that very word was being spoken by the commander in a low tone. “Lair.”

“Get a hold of each of them and carry them away! Bring their weapons with you and return to the ship! We’re going to make the emperor happy,” the griffon spoke to the rest of the troops. All of the beasts jumped in the air and got airborne by flapping their wings. Then the task would be done by them.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight couldn’t be doing anything anymore. If they would have resisted their arrest they could have been killed. Or possibly even worse. Yet the beasts took their time with the capturing of the mares. Which gave them –as well as the commander– the time to feel the heat under their hooves and paws.

For right underneath them did the face of the mountain began to shake. Not all too violent, but more than enough to be noticed by all of them. Rarity’s eyes went from left to right as she hoped that the vibrations within the rocks wouldn’t erupt into something that was downright terrible. Or worse, making the mountain collapse upon itself.

“This again?” the commander muttered just loud enough for Twilight to hear it.

“So it’s not the first time it happened here?” the unicorn mumbled up with her lips. Straight away were the gears inside of her mind set to think again. Though the time to think wasn’t given to her. The griffons managed to get a hold of her. Before Twilight could struggle against it, was she once again in the air and carried around by two of the beasts.

Each of the anthronies was carried in that way as their weapons were separated over two other griffons. The commander was the only griffon who still stood on the platform as her paws were touching the soils in a manner previously unseen. It almost seemed like she wanted to test whether or not the shaking of earth would be getting more and more uncomfortable.

After a couple of seconds was the signal given to the other griffons that they had to return to their base. They all turned themselves around like that and began to fly away. Only to be followed by the commander who soared past them.

The winds caused by the commander made the mulberry skinned unicorn look away for a moment. Her eyes caught the mountain in its full glory as she noticed to be seeing something. Something she hadn’t seen before. Nor was it reported by either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash.

Her eyes were looking at an ancient doorway. One that was engraved with the symbols of old languages. Languages that were both ancient and long since dead. They had found it, they had found the entranceway towards the deepest cavern system of Equestria. The only problem was the fact that they were carried up, instead of being dragged down.

If the griffons would have been there as long as Twilight had assumed, why hadn’t they discovered the entrance either? Or perhaps they did discover it, but couldn’t enter it and just left it. Griffons were a race of war thirsty creatures, not the kind that would be raiding any kind of tomb. In the mind of Twilight was that just about the biggest bonus that she would be having from it all.

But the entrance way wasn’t the only the only thing she saw. She also noticed how the whole of the mountain was shaking on its foundation. She gestured to the rest of the mares to look at the hunk of compressed rock and they all saw just what was going on with it.

Terror was striking the remaining mares once again. Who could be telling them what would have happened if they were inside, while the quake was happening? Perhaps it was just one quake? But that was impossible as the commander had spilled it wasn’t the first one. So perhaps it was a hotspot or the place or origin?

Twilight couldn’t tell herself just what happened to be the truth and what was a lie. She was certain of only two things in the moment. The first was the fact she had discovered the entranceway they were looking for so long. The second was that they had to get out of the hold of the creatures.

The latter one was something a whole lot easier said than done. Which resulted in a sigh being released through her nostrils. They were just so close, yet so far away. Her eyes looked over to Rarity, Applejack and finally to Fluttershy. All three of them had the same glance in their eyes. That gaze of losing hope and thinking that everything was lost.

After that went her eyes over to the pair of griffons that were carrying their very weapons. Her eyes landed by her staff and the feeling of empowerment surged through her body for a little moment. She could of course just take it and whack the creatures out of the sky, which in and of itself brought a whole lot more trouble with them.

The mare turned her head away from the mountain and closed her eyes in the hope to catch glimpses of the conversations that were going on between all of the griffons. Conversations which hopefully would have been getting her somewhere useful. She had, or wanted, to know things about the previous quakes and not how they could best be preparing an anthrony for dinner.

Both of the mare her ears were perked as the commander was flying next to another griffon. They both formed the fore guard after which Twilight was the first captive to be held. “Come on, come on, speak the words,” she whispered almost without sound to herself. With the ears perked would it only have a matter of time itself before the right ones were spoken.

Which happened almost right after she had set them open. Her wish was granted as the conversation was caught between the commander and the soldier. “Another tremor has hit the mountain today, I have not a single clue what causes them but it will jeopardize the entire project of the emperor. He just picked the wrong mountain for the plans he has. Nothing, and I mean nothing will be left standing of the magnitude of those quakes will increase. Which they are doing.”

The soldier on the other end just kept his eyes straight in front of him before the reply was given to her. “Perhaps you should chart the matter to the emperor, commander. He’s a reasonable one when he’s in the right mood. You know that just as well as we all do.”

The female griffon then gave a nod towards the soldier before her arms crossed over each other. “No argument there, but it worries me I have him at the wrong moment. And I don’t want to end like the previous one of this squadron.”

“Ha, tell me about that. It was a good hunt though, served the traitor right in my eyes. If may have been so free to say it,” the soldier replied. Then he finally turned his head towards the other griffon and opened the lid that was on his helmet. The two of them were granted actual eye to eye contact for a change.

The commander released a deep sigh through her nostrils as she looked into his eyes for a couple of seconds. After that was the stare just broken and the female griffon turned her attention forward with a couple of last words. “We’ll see dweeb, we’ll see whether or not you were so free to speak about it, and when I shall tell the emperor. First, this lot.”

“Aye.”

~~~~

Silence then returned once more towards the group as they were carried high over Equestria. Of course they wanted to plan their escape and just be free mares once again, weren’t it for the fact that they would actually fall to their very deaths if they managed to get out of the griffon’s talons. Even Twilight had set her eyes on finding a manner of escaping after the conversation had died by the griffons in front of her.

Teleportation was the only spell that came to her mind which could be used to a quick and easy way out. Though they were still ascending into the very skies and her teleport required precision. Especially with three other mares that were all on different locations. The danger and risk it carried with it was something perhaps a little bit too much.

Rarity would have probably tried it as she was a lot less reckless with her arcane powers. But Twilight doubted if the mare had any possession of the teleportation spell. The pirate captain was more a mare to fight it out with blade and flintlock. So not much use could be found within the other unicorn of the group.

The soothsayer released a deep sigh through her nostrils as waiting seemed like it was the only thing that they could be doing. If they would undertake any form of action, the griffons would be tearing them apart as if they were nothing. It was truly an easy pea for Twilight to just summon her staff and create an arcane platform big enough to hold all of them and descend down. It was the fight that would be coming next, that worried her the most.

They had difficulty fighting off two griffons, let alone an entire squadron of a dozen something of bloodthirsty of those creatures. “No Twilight, you have to sit this one out. No amount of fighting can be used to lighten the mood. Besides, Rarity is still recovering from her injuries and so are you,” she mumbled to herself in a low tone.

Her head then turned over to Rarity and gazed upon the bandages that were placed around her shoulder. The blouse was torn apart by Fluttershy for easy access and missed even one of its sleeve. Even though it did have a savage look to it, that was the only thing it had. But the eyes of Rarity looked back into those of Twilight with the wonder they all had.

Rarity nodded with calm to Twilight. Like she wanted to say that everything was going to be alright for her. Or that everything already was alright with her. “No need to worry about old me, I’ve had worse,” said the pirate with the motions of her lips, before a small smile came to them.

It could be seen as a relief within the mind of Twilight that everything seemed to be good. Though it never took away that she was still worrying herself sick to everything. Nothing was certain within her eyes as she took her head away from the other unicorn. Everything just was one massive blur inside of her skull. A blur that was caused by a fog that perhaps not even the goddesses themselves were able to lift.

They had to sit it out, they had to wait until they were dropped before the paws of the emperor before they could be doing anything else on the matter. The clock was still ticking dangerously and they were all captured. They were losing ground as zero only came closer. Things had to change, that much was certain and just about the only certainty they had.

They all were carried through clouds that had appeared before them as they could only wonder what laid behind those dark clouds of thunder. Their initial thought was of course that there was actual thunder behind it. Yet that didn’t happen to be the case as they came closer. For the silence and the lack of static electricity gave that little fact away.

It still did a massively good job at making sure not a single pegasus wanted to actually enter the clouds to investigate with laid behind them. Death by lightning was one of the biggest causes for pegasi to fall to their doom anywhere in Equestria. Fluttershy even began to fear for her dear life as soon as she noticed how black or deep gray the things actually were. But nothing could have prepared them for that what laid behind the clouds. The thing that laid right in the middle of it all.

Twilight kept her eyes peeled forward to see where they would be brought as the flight had taken them a couple of minutes already. For a couple of minutes were they suspended high above the ground of Equestria. Their altitude might have been a lot higher than the actual top of the mountain they had scaled already.

Yet the unicorn couldn’t calculate anything. The lack of oxygen that was in the air to fuel her body was simply becoming too much. She could move any part of her body if she liked, but thinking would have become far too much for her.

Then it finally dawned before them all. The very thing that the clouds were hiding from the rest of Equestria. Twilight’s eyes rose themselves up to see it just laid there in all of its wonders. It just hovered there in all of its calm. Almost as if it waited for the wind to toy with.

Within all of their eyes there was a massive airship that was hidden within the clouds. A massive airship that both Rarity and Applejack classified as a war frigate. But the frigate they had in their eyes was a lot bigger than the ones they had seen in the war itself. Only one explanation could be given to solve that mystery.

That very airship must have been of Imperial class. The theory was in fact backed up by the golden, or gold plated griffon head that acted as the bow figurine. To each side of the head were two arms that stuck out and reached almost to the distance as the head. Meaning that the bow of the ship could be used as some kind of battering ram when needed. No doubt that the beak could also be opened up to spread the hellish fire the griffons loved so much.

Applejack and Rarity already knew more than enough, though Twilight continued to gaze over the vessel. She hadn’t had the opportunity to see an actual airship in her life and to start with such a massive one was just a downright treat for her.

Until she realized herself just why they possible would be placed there again. Suddenly did the gleamed expression fade away from her face as her eyes watched over the massive amount of cannon hatches.

One could be waging a war against that vessel alone and still lose. It must have been the pride of the griffon army and they, they were heading right towards it.

Twilight still couldn’t come to terms with the fact of why the griffons had chosen that very mountain to settle themselves within the borders of Equestria. She just couldn’t come to a reasonable conclusion that gave herself some peace on the matter. Whether it was the lack of oxygen or the sheer fact that it was a literal mountain among thousands remained undecided.

The next thing Twilight knew was that she and the rest of the company were just dumped on the deck of the massive ship. Next were their weapons dropped somewhere else. None of them could be doing anything as another series of griffons managed to get a hold of them.

With force were they all commanded in silence to stand up again and to follow the one at front. For a change did Twilight form the rearguard while Fluttershy was walking up front. The unicorn could only take a guess of where they would be bringing the lot of them, but she was having two possible outcomes.

They marched to the deck beneath and each of them felt like they were walking through a shield of some kind. Whatever it was, it caused them to be breathing normally. All the extra oxygen within their blood caused the anthronies to function normally once again as the mulberry skinned unicorn shook her head a couple of times.

Yet while she shook her head, she caught some faint and strange lights within the corner of her eyes. Her attention quickly shifted over to the lights as they continued to march. They saw the many wonders that the world was still rich of.

Within her eyes she noticed how two griffon shamans were performing rituals in the fashion that the zebra’s did. One group must have taken it over from the other during the conflict. But who looked at who for it, that was another question which would be answered by time.

A faint smile came on the face of the unicorn before they were brought yet another deck lower. A deck that only housed the massive cannons and near countless hammocks for the soldiers and the crew.

It became pretty apparent for Twilight that the first thought she was having wasn’t the right one. They wouldn’t be treated on an audience with the emperor just yet. So there was only one other possible place where the group of mares could have been dropped down. And that place was no other than…

“The brig, Ah should’ve known it. Bastards will drive us crazy before dining from us!” Applejack growled when she sat down in her cell. Deep within the belly of the ship, there where the difference between wood and air was at its thinnest, laid the brigs of the massive ship. The one place where each of the mares could be held captive and not cause too much commotion.

The eyes of the admiral turned over to the other three cells were the other three mares were dropped in and released a deep exhale. “Ya can kinda see why we’re hatin’ the griffon kind, don’t ya, Twilight?” she then asked as if she wanted to kill time itself with some small talk.

But the soothsayer made perhaps the smartest decision to not say a word against the admiral. Instead she leaned against the back wall of her cell. Ideas were flowing through her about how to break out, but breaking out meant she wouldn’t be having any kind of information.

“Oh be quiet for a change, Jackie!” snarled Rarity in return towards the admiral before her tone changed. “Twilight, can’t you call upon your magic to blast a hole through these doors?”

Then it was the soothsayer who was having enough of the near constant bickering of the other two. She walked to the door of the brig and laid both of her arms through the gaps and just leaned against it. Her head then shook itself from side to side as she denied Rarity’s words.

“No Rarity, I am not going to call upon my magic. We’re in the unique position to talk with the griffon emperor. And from the sounds I have heard, he might be in just as much trouble as we happen to be. So I suggest we wait, wait for an audience with the creature the both of you despise to the bone,” said Twilight in a calm and collected tone while she stared out in front of her.

Those words were enough to make both Applejack and Rarity shut their mouths firm. Only to let them boil within their own anger for the moment.

Chapter LXIV

Everypony looked over the sights that they were presented with. None of them could believe that there was actually a physical place somewhere within their very world that would be giving Tartarus a run for its money. None of the company’s members had even prepared themselves for the troubles that would arise. All of them knew from the start that the trek would have been loaded with trouble.

But the amount of trouble that they saw before their eyes was something none had taken into account. The words of the admiral still rung within their ears as their eyes moved over from one scene to the next.

The words had been aimed directly to Twilight even though her name was never mentioned. Though he soothsayer knew exactly what was being asked of her. The answer that the company would receive upon it was one just as discouraging as the question whether or not they wanted to tag along.

The soothsayer then made a couple of steps forward and found herself standing at the edge of the cliff. The sheer heat of the magma that was brought up, made the shards of ice work harder and harder. All of them felt the coating of ice becoming more and more apparent.

No longer was it just a little something that was around their hearts. No, it had transformed those very hearts in massive hunks of beating ice. All done in the protection of overheating themselves from the magma.

A deep sigh was released through the nostrils of the unicorn as her eyes were closed off from the world by just a minute or two. Every other mare wondered about the facts as they were and what they could be doing to overcome them.

Obviously the way they had to travel laid forward and going back didn’t seemed to have been much of an option. So all they could be doing was to wait, wait for the answer that would be given off by Twilight. The answer upon the question, of what they needed to do next.

Only once the eyes of the mare went open again, they looked over the scenery as it was presented. No tricks were played, no morphing's happened in them. Twilight saw the place as it truly was. A hellish wasteland that they had to cross no matter what in order to reach their goal.

With another deep exhale she turned around to face the group and placed her hands behind her back. The unicorn then took a couple of steps forward away from the cliff and glanced each mare deep in the eyes for a moment.

Then the words came, just after another geyser of magma had sprouted upwards. “I’m afraid, that in order to reach our goal, we have to cross the plains stretching out before us. Where exactly we need to travel is unknown to me. But my best guess is the middle of it all.”

Her words were devastating and a downright smack in the face of each of the mares. Nopony was in the mood to cross the hellish plain and they showed that to Twilight with a lack of respect. All four of the other anthronies just dropped themselves down to the ground in one way or the other. They were done with it all. They had seen it all, but the most impossible had come right there.

After Twilight already having her mind broken more than once, had the spirit of the group finally given in. No longer could they say they were almost there, no longer could they say that they were almost done. Slow but sure did the realization kick in to all of them. The realization that none had wanted to know, or even dared to believe.

The realization that it was in fact, going to be a one way trip for them all.

Sighs were released into the air as Twilight’s eyes were filled up with worry. She didn’t know what was the best thing for them all to have done. She had to get them all back up on their hooves in one way or the other. If they remained there, who knew what would have happened.

Yet on the other hand of the matter was Twilight not a mare who was completely heartless. She could understand the discouraging thoughts that the mares had and even lived with them. Even the soothsayer herself was having some difficulty to accept that they had to cross the place like that.

There was no denying the facts as they were though. All of them had just plainly given up on their quest. It was read in both their body language and their eyes. What else could have been thrown at them, with the exception of death itself?

Twilight shifted with her eyes almost constant from the group back to the hellish plain. There must have been some sort of way through it, right? Thoughts like that crossed her mind while she wanted to continue on with everything.

They had come that far already, only to give it all up in the literal last leg of their journey. They had not only fought against demons in Everfree and witches in the Frozen North, but they had also fought against themselves and each other in ways unparalleled. Each of them had overcome obstacles that were thought to have been impossible to do.

They had done feats that were thought to have been impossible so far, so why couldn’t Lady Luck just turn it in their favor for one last time? Why couldn’t they have been granted that little bit of fortune for one more time and after that they would see. They would see what would happen next.

The admiral of the navy calmly shook her head as she noticed the gears in Twilight’s eyes turning like mad. “Ain’t no crossing that, partner. After everything we’ve done so far, ya must be utterly mad to even consider it,” she spoke in both a mocking and respectful tone to Twilight.

A tone that wasn’t all too well accepted by Twilight. Without a second thought in her mind did her head turn back to Applejack and gave the earth anthrony a cutting glare. “Don’t, tempt, me,” she hissed through her teeth.

The admiral released a gulp, the fires in the same eyes she saw the cogs turning just a moment ago, were burning with a purple arcane fire. The soothsayer had something up her sleeves, that much was certain. At the same time, that was all that was certain which in return frightened her.

“Oh dear please, there’s always a way. Whether it leads forward or backwards. Something that you probably don’t understand as you only receive your orders from higher up,” added Rarity into the mix before she took a bit more of a pose of leisure upon the rock. She might as well have made the best out of their dire situation, which was the thing she did.

Without a second to spare did the head of Applejack turn over to Rarity and she released just a deep huff through it. Just one huff and that was it. The words were of course ready at the tip of her tongue, but the admiral was far from the mood to actually speak them to Rarity.

If she had the chance and if there nopony else around, she would have still honored the treaty and just spilled the most foul words towards the unicorn that there were. She would curse the pirate like a true sailor with pretty much every disease that was known to them.

But alas, they were six beings strong.

Once again had the bickering between the two mares of the sea erupted and everypony was wanting to seek cover as they thought it would have become a full on battle. But said battle never took place as the earth anthrony just turned her head back.

Thoughts went around the fact that she knew what she needed to be doing in order to keep the peace, whereas Rarity just spoke up what was on her mind. Whether it would hurt anypony or not didn’t matter to her. The two mares just turned their heads away from each other and sunk in their own thoughts. Perhaps the best place for the both of them to have ended up.

Yet the question was still standing. The question that always had come after the other. And it was up to Rainbow Dash to ask it. She too had seen the fire within Twilight’s eyes and knew that the mare was up to something. Whether she would have liked that something was a thing that remained to have been seen.

“So Twilight,” the major spoke while she fluttered with her wings a little bit, “what are you thinking about? Giving it up as you realize it’s impossible?”

“Major, Rainbow, Dash,” the soothsayer said with deliberate pauses between each word. “Nothing is impossible when you’re a unicorn and know a bit or two from the arcane magic.”

“Hmpf, then I must be knowing only one bit,” the pirate added in a faint whisper. Nopony gave it either an eye or an ear. Their attention was pinned to Twilight. Both Fluttershy and Pinkie were silent as the night as they weren’t having a single clue on what was right and who was wrong.

“So, what do you have in mind then?” Rainbow returned then. She almost seemed to have been taunting the soothsayer for whatever reason. Where she was going with her words was a road less travelled by anyone. Nopony knew for certain what would happen in the minutes to come.

“So, with your magic, what do you want to do then? Create a massive ice bridge or something?” Rainbow continued while she began to flutter even more with her wings. In the end of it all, she managed to get airborne and just hovered on her spot. She had levitated herself off of the ground and Twilight changed up her horn.

What then happened even managed to surprise the major herself. The spell wasn’t cast at any other pony. Instead it was done upon nopony other than the mare herself. Soon after her body had engulfed itself within the raspberry aura, Twilight began to levitate. To make matters even worse, she went directly over to Rainbow Dash.

Their noses almost touched one another as the unicorn’s determination could be clearly seen. Rainbow had struck the wrong bell and only just realized that. From that moment onwards did she had to live with the consequences of the events to come.

“Just because you have wings, doesn’t make you any more special, Rainbow. So how about you drop that tone of yours down and just let me think for a change?!” the unicorn soothsayer exclaimed in a shout towards the pegasus. The anger was clearly visible upon her face. She was having enough of everypony’s near constant talking against her and her thoughts.

“Okay, okay, I remain silent, gosh,” said Rainbow while she tried to push the unicorn away from her. Which worked as she hovered out of her personal space and dropped back to the ground.

The eyes of Twilight looked once more over the hellish plain with an expression that was mixed of all kinds of emotions. One part of her wanted to do one thing, another wanted to do another. Yet there had to be a way she could compromise.

For their very goal laid somewhere there. They were just that close to finding the source of the tremors that had been plaguing the land for months already. They were just that close to making an end to it all and therefore save every living being that dwelled above. Nothing would stand in her way to achieve that. Nothing.

Every obstacle that was thrown at them, they managed to work around and there wouldn’t have been any difference that time. All that she needed to do was to remain calm and allow her mind to think straight. Which was actually a lot harder with her heart almost completely covered in nothing else but pure ice.

Perhaps that was the reason why all of them were so cold hearted? A nasty side effect when the spell had been set through that amount of heat. Who knew, but Twilight didn’t care in the moment. She didn’t care for anything else other than finding a possible escape route.

Her eyes gazed from left to right as she finally caught the staircase again. The staircase that would be leading her down to the bottom of the chasm and one more step closer towards the very center of her beloved Equestria.

“Who desires to come with me, I suggest you come along, now,” spoke Twilight after she looked back to the other mares. Her eyes were firm and they all realized that she wasn’t joking around. Not anymore. “I’m going to keep walking down the stairs. If you remain here, I wish you good luck with finding the way back.”

Without waiting for anypony to join her had Twilight simply left them. She had turned herself around in a mere second after she had finished her words and was already heading towards the stone stairs. She had given the mares a clear choice, to either join or to stay back. The choice was theirs to take and see.

~~~~

Step by step had Twilight descended from the staircase and had left the rest of the company on the platform just like that. All of them were looking at each other as the gears in their heads turned and twisted into pretty much every possible direction. What did they needed to do? That question was one that haunted them ever since the unicorn had left them.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had made up their minds in fact pretty quick and before the rest even realized it had they been gone. They had been gone to chase after Twilight and join her. Not because they wanted to actually save their land, but more because they knew Twilight better than any of the other company’s members.

Which only left Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow debating with one another. But it was the admiral who was having the biggest fish to fry. For she had made a promise to the unicorn and she would deliver upon it. Even if it meant that whatever else needed to happen would have been just utter insanity, as per usual.

Rarity and Rainbow remained while Applejack stood back up and made the walk over to the staircase. One way or another, those who wanted to return to the surface became smaller and smaller. The remaining two mares looked over to one another with a worried expression.

They had been picked out by powers that were unknown to them to make the journey that laid ahead. Twilight had placed her faith in the pair of them and they would repay her by bailing out in the last possible moment? Unacceptable.

With grumbles in their mouths did Rarity stood up and Rainbow land upon the ground. They too would have joined the company again for perhaps one last time. They were so close, yet so far away at the same time.

All along the staircase were they scattered like insects. They all made the descend down in their own pace and that was just good enough for all of them. They just had to take the time to do that kind of stuff. The very steps themselves were tricky enough to wander over. With both their hands and hooves did the company of six mares make the descend down, down to the plains of fire.

Twilight was the lowest of them all whereas Pinkie and Fluttershy remained a little bit behind her. Then there was a giant gap before Applejack could have been seen and finally there were both Rainbow and Rarity making the descend.

Everypony kept on tagging along for the ride. One which was hopefully going to end soon enough for them all. But the unicorn never seemed to turn her head around. She wasn’t really interested in whether or not the rest came. She was more interested in the facts that were playing out in her mind. All the hundreds of thoughts that rushed through her made her worry a little bit.

What kind of creatures would they encounter within the center of their land? Golems made out of fire? An ancient creature that doesn’t know anymore what it is doing? A star that’s about to go supernova? All of those kind of things went through her mind.

Not to mention the fact that there was possible still a dragon roaming around the place. A dragon that perhaps was older than their entire civilization as anthronies. Mutters, grumbles and whispers were all released by Twilight as she kept on walking down.

“So close, yet so far away,” she spoke to herself while she held one hand constant along the side of the rocks for some grip. If she would have slipped, she would be having something that could possibly stop her fall.

Every step taking downwards caused the spread company to see less and less of the hellish plain. But they could still hear the geysers spouting out their magma. The boiling steam could be heard hissing within their ears as the terror of falling rocks never left their minds.

But next to that did they all had expected the rocks they were traveling on to be boiling hot as well. Yet for some reason they felt cool. Almost as if they were walking on them on a summer day in comparison with the rest. Perhaps another effect of the spell? Or the heat of the magma just wouldn’t have been given off into them.

There probably was some kind of scientific reason that Twilight would be knowing right out of her head. The thought came and went for the mares as it was being used to keep themselves a little bit so it wouldn’t annoy any other being.

The sights became less and less until there was nothing else but rock. Rocks began to dominate the scenery as Twilight realized what was happening to it all. She gave herself a little nod before the exhale followed through her mouth. She had to push on, not for herself though. But for every last living being that didn’t even knew they were making the journey.

After minutes of descending had the unicorn soothsayer managed to do it. Finally had she managed to scale the massive staircase and found herself standing upon the bottom floor. At least she hoped that it was the bottom floor and gave her eyes the time to look around.

Twilight gazed over the spot where she stood and saw it was just one large tunnel. Whether or not there was a stream of magma going right over her head she didn’t know. All that she knew was that she had to be even more careful when it came down to walking through.

With both of her hands against the wall she gently walked through it. Nothing but utter silence surrounded her as her ears were perked. Every last sound that wasn’t supposed to be there needed to be caught up in her ears. She had to be prepared for anything, as anything was possible.

Because for all she knew could she walking next to a stone golem of ancient times. Legends had spoken of the powerful beings made out of stone, much like those she already had encountered out of ice. It almost seemed as if for every extreme element there would have been a golem for. Her hopes were naturally set high on the fact she wouldn’t encounter one.

Uneventful could the travel through the tunnel be called. The unicorn was in fact relieved that nothing had happened in the meantime and another weight had fallen off of her shoulder. Though she was straight away faced with the next problem, or to make matters worse: two.

Her eyes looked from left to right as they only saw the hellish plain they had seen from atop of the platform. She had to find the way to get across it, or at least to get to the middle of it. A thing of which she knew which was being said a whole lot easier than was being done.

Her eyes would have shifted from left to right to find anything that could have been of probably use to her. All while her mind was wandering off to other things. Other events that required her attention just that little bit more.

In the end of her search, it could have been stated that there was actually nothing that could have been found and Twilight just dropped her body on a rock. She needed the time to think about something else that had been chewing on her mind. Something that perhaps was in more need to be thought about than anything else.

While she sat on the rock, there was one hand placed as a fist below her chin while the elbow took a rest upon her leg. All while the other leg went cross over it. A thinking lady would have been the best description of the scene. A thinking lady in the deepest place of Tartarus, among all of the magma and the geysers.

One little thing just didn’t add up no matter how she was looking at the situation. One little thing just managed to blow her mind straight out of the water unlike anything else. She remembered from her vision that there was either this giant ball of magma or a star ready to go supernova. That was the place where she needed to be going no matter what. That was the one place that could stop the turmoil in which the land had been thrown in.

The only problem happened to be the little fact that she hadn’t seen either from her gazing over the plain. No ball of magma, no star or anything that could resemble it. There was nothing, just complete and utter nothing. Which in return pained her heart and mind a whole lot more than it perhaps would have needed.

Twilight slowly began to remember the scene that she always saw whenever the sphere was revealed to her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it was the only thing in the area. It was a sphere that laid in the center of Equestria, but even there it laid secluded.

“Which means, that the thing lays somewhere even deeper than where I am now,” said Twilight to herself. After which a deep sigh was released through her nostrils. “Perhaps that massive ice bridge wouldn’t have been a crazy idea after all, Rainbow.”

The thoughts were making her head spin more like anything had done so far as she wanted to know the possible location of the secluded sphere. It must have been having an entrance to it from that very room.

The images that she had stored in her mind were all returned to her. Twilight tried her best to make some sense out of everything that had been witnessed. She tried to figure out where the paths were walking down upon the plain and what the possible hiding place could have been.

She wanted so badly to communicate with the goddesses of the sun and the moon in the hope that they would have been able to help her even in the slightest of bits. However, there was a nasty catch. The mare tried to make the ascend up to their planes for numerous amounts of times but she always would have been kicked straight back into her own body.

The eyes of the unicorn opened themselves after the seventh time and the defeated look within them told just about everything. “Impossible,” the mare whispered to herself. Twilight just couldn’t believe the facts as they had been presented to her.

She was just unable to make the ascend up to the planes of the goddesses. Either the depth that she was in caused too much trouble or the cause laid somewhere else. Twilight broke her sitting pose and just assumed a more natural pose on the rock. She summoned her staff in one of her hands for no other reason than to just hold on to it.

The violet rims in her eyes glanced over the thing before they would have been looking up to notice the massive black clouds that were the ceiling. “Can it be that, dragon’s smoke blocks any kind of communication?” she mumbled to herself before the staff was set on the ground. She began to wonder even more as the horn charged up gently. Her eyes were never torn away from the scene as she kept on thinking to herself.

All kinds of thought raced through her but the facts remained as they were. There was no way in which she could rise up to the planes of the goddesses without having to face trouble first. Which meant only one little thing for the unicorn. A little something she wasn’t too happy about.

The very fact that she needed to trust upon her own intuition. And that thing hadn’t happened in a very, very long time. She had to trust upon her own knowledge and know-how to make her way through it all, without the help of those she considered her own friends.

The darkest hour seemed to have hit Twilight. She couldn’t think of anything else to do. Everything had been gone and done. All the thoughts that were rushing through her had caused a massive dilemma to be thrown right at her. With a deep exhale that was being released through her nostrils did the eyes close upon themselves once more as she needed the time to think.

She needed the time to think deep about the matters that she was presented with. The mare had figure out any possible action that could be done with or against it. She had to figure out just what she could do in order to cross the massive lake of magma or the possible maze.

The more she thought about the matter, the more she found herself descending into a deep sleep. The sleep that brought her to places previously thought to have been unknown for any being, whether it be alive or deceased.

The mind of the unicorn was a dangerous place to travel alone, as Twilight would discover with the help of her a couple of nightmares that would haunt her. Yet that one image of the entire place being locked off and the geology of the core as she knew it would be haunting her as if there was no tomorrow.

“Twilight?” a mysterious voice called out to her from the darkness. “Twilight,” it repeated in the almost demonic tone. The unicorn didn’t knew what to do, what if Nightmare Moon had managed to capture her at her weakest point?

The unicorn could only have hoped to be woken up from her own created nightmares. Anything she would be doing to escape the clutches of the devil herself. She wouldn’t end like Sunset Shimmer, not in a thousand years.

“Twilight?” another voice spoke while the unicorn was already trying to wake her body up from the events. Shocks went through it before the eyes finally shot open. Her body shocked up in a straight position as the widened eyes looked all over the place.

Hesitant motions were made before she finally dared to give her eyes the time to look straight ahead. Everything seemed to have been normal and in the manner as she had left it before she had fallen asleep.

But what she saw in front of her was something that frightened her. Something that caused her to gasp for air and reach out for her own heart. The scene she was presented with was a lot more than unbelievable. It was considered to have been just impossible. For the things that she saw before her, shouldn’t have been there.

The eyes of the mare blinked and blinked as she still thought to have been dreaming. Luckily didn’t her horn or staff charge up with the magic she carried but the words that she spoke were harmful. “How do you dare to impose as them! Are you trying to make me crumble even more?! Reveal your true form to me, Nightmare Moon!”

The reason why Twilight acted the way she did, was because she was deluded. She was deluded from her own thoughts and her dreams, for right in front of her stood the five mares that had left her. The five mares who she had left upon the platform quite some time ago. “Don’t make me destroy you!” the unicorn added while she tried to place a tough act before the devil she thought to be facing.

Though there was one little problem, it were the actual mares that stood there. The actual mares had been gathering themselves around the unicorn and brought her out of the sleep. The small smile of Fluttershy was genuine even though she seemed frightened of the unicorn.

That small smile caught the attention of Twilight and her eyes turned into the yellow skinned pegasi her direction. The expression in the eyes of the soothsayer changed almost instantly from bitter to unbelievable. “W-Why..? Why are..?”

“Why are we here?” Pinkie Pie finished off before she released a little giggle. She laid curled up like a sleeping snake as the top part of her body matched the height of pretty much all the other anthronies.

Twilight just nodded in response to the words as she had to know the finer details behind the reasons of the mares. They just seemed to have been so determined about staying where they were a moment ago. Or what seemed to have been a moment ago in Twilight’s eyes.

"Basically…” Applejack began while she scratched herself behind her head, “Ah’m still having mah promise to ya, remember? Ah would be protecting yah no matter what, or try mah best. That’s mah reason for being here.” Twilight released a gentle nod towards the words of the admiral as she did indeed remember the promise that was made. A promise she had dared to question perhaps a time too many along their journey.

“Me and Pinkie, well, we thought, you could use some good company,” lied Fluttershy to the best of her abilities. But with her being the doctor who needed to speak truth almost all of the time, lying wasn’t her strongest point.

“You two were just too afraid to remain there, weren’t you?” Twilight asked them. Instantly she received two nods from the pair of them. Not that she minded their reasoning, she could completely understand the direction that they came from.

“If I left, I would have left with no pride in the matter. Just about the worst thing a pegasus can do to itself,” replied Rainbow as she only thought about herself.

“And I could hardly remain there if everypony else had gone, right?” Rarity added to the mix.

“Nopony just followed me just because they missed me or because we’re actually that close getting done what we have set out to do?” Twilight asked to the group and watched the reactions afterwards.

No hands went up in the first few seconds. But then there were the hands of both Pinkie and Fluttershy that went up, before eventually they all rose their hands.

“We’re in this together,” started Rarity.

“And we’re gonna finish it, together,” finished Applejack with a genuine smile upon her face.

Chapter LXXI

The anthronies had become genuinely scared of the other lamia after he had spoken his actual name. Lord Sombra, that was the name behind the creature that was dubbed ‘the Gorgon One’ through time. But still hadn’t the mares seen how he actually looked like. It could have been anything in their eyes actually. It could have been a big slug like Rarity described the king as, or he could have been another monster all together. The two of them didn’t know the answers yet.

The clouds lowered down back to the ground and more was revealed of the creature that laid within it. Though it wouldn’t have stopped either of the anthronies from what they had set out to do. “Lord Sombra, we command you to stop with whatever you’re doing and give us back that lamia,” commanded Twilight towards him in a confident tone, after which she took another step forwards.

But the lord wasn’t in the mood to be commanded by anyone. He had been telling his own rule for the longest of time already. He would have been the one who made the rules in fact. They had to listen to him and not the other way around. Yet the creature in the dust only shook his head in response. They were anthronies, beings that dwelled upon the surface. The rules were a lot different up there then down by them.

It didn’t mean that he wouldn’t place them in their right spots thought. For the creature was just furious that he was being commanded at. “Your world may work differently, but down here I am lord and master. All of the lamia are scared to death of me as they should!” Sombra explained quick. The dust finally had dropped down to the ground, revealing just how he looked like.

Finally were they all given the rightful view of the one that was called the Gorgon One. Finally could everypony present see just how he looked and what he actually was. Finally they could shudder in horror, because of the looks that were revealed to them all. When the dust had finally fallen down upon the ground. In front of them there was another lamia that appeared.

One that seemed even thicker and longer than Pinkie Pie was. But he couldn’t be deemed as fat. No, all of the thickness came from the sheer amounts of muscles that were found in his body. To make matters worse were the green and red eyes, smoking from the dark magic.

Twilight had a careful look over the creature and couldn’t believe what she saw. The constant venting of dark magic through the smoking eyes was one thing, but the horn on top of the head was another. The soothsayer couldn’t trust upon her eyes as she looked once again.

It was there, it was actually there and sitting right upon his very head. A brilliant black horn with a bright red tip and a translation between the two that almost seemed to be flaming. “This can’t be, true,” she spoke up before her head made a violent shaking motion.

Sombra noticed the motions but never replied to the words in a verbal manner. Instead he just gave them both a deep grin of utter discomfort. One that would send the shivers down their spines as they looked at the fangs he carried. It was a true nightmare that they had walked into.

Fluttershy trembled whereas Twilight was still setting her sights upon reality. And Pinkie just laid down upon the table. She couldn’t be going anywhere because of the dark magic that held her in place. The very energy that was constantly leaking out of Sombra. He was constantly depleting his own energy reserves, whether he knew it or not.

The doctor was perhaps the only one of the two who dared to speak against the giant lamia. She took a step forwards after she had gathered all of her courage and looked him straight in the eyes. What followed was a series of words that was spoken almost directly out of her heart. “Then we beg of you, powerful lord, that you allow our friend to go and leave this place in peace. There’s no need to made a big deal out of all of this.”

The lamia caught to her words with a set of listening ears. He was hearing them loud and clear. He even appeared to be taking them into consideration. The feeling of relief went through Twilight, she thought that he at least seemed to have been reasonable.

But she couldn’t have been more wrong. A fact that she should had seen about the fact that he used dark magic and was actually venting it all the time. The will of the good in everypony had taken its hold in Twilight sadly enough. She still thought that every last being with a conscious mind had some kind of good inside of them.

Reality would wake her up, hard. For the Gorgon One narrowed his eyes all of the sudden. The creature had glances over the anthronies before his horn coated itself in a magical aura that was a mixture of both black and purple. It bode bad ill for the mares as they took a stance of fighting just as quick.

Fluttershy would have used her fists if she had to, whereas Twilight had already charged up her magic. Then it were the mares who narrowed their eyes and silently awaited the attacks of Lord Sombra.

Seconds ticked by while if they were hours in both of their minds, then the magic of the lord was finally released. Where they had expected a massive beam of dark magic to be cast their way, there was something else that happened.

The beam didn’t happen but the aura intensified around his horn. When they both had a closer look, they could see that it was his hair that was undergoing some kind of transformation. The strands of hair at the back of his hair all slithered up and even seemed to have gotten scales.

Once again there was both terror and fright that took both of the anthronies over. Pinkie had closed her eyes on the table and thus didn’t capture any of the things that were going on. A few dozen strands of hair had morphed upon the head of the dreaded lord. They revealed something that was just frightful to look at. Almost as it came straight out of a nightmare.

The very strands of hair had become snakes. Living, breathing, scaled, fang loaded snakes. He had revealed his true form to the mares and chuckled like the devil he was in reality. His eyes glanced over to the mares and a grin formed over his lips.

“What’s the matter?” he then asked them while a hand went through the snakes. “Does my new look, frighten you? Hmhmhm, I hope it does.” He was just plainly taunting them from that moment onwards. If they still had the guts to command him that he had to let the other lamia go, all hell would be literally have broken loose.

Twilight and Fluttershy tried to remain their cool as best as possible. They looked one another in the eyes for just a moment. The thoughts were at one line and they both knew exactly what needed to be done. Whatever it would have taken, they would have done it. The two gave a powerful nod to one another.

Then they looked back to Sombra and Twilight took over the word. “We ask you one more time. Let, our friend, go,” she spoke to him in a demanding tone. With the magic still primed, it should have been a clear threat to him. But Sombra wouldn’t answer to it, outside of a deep growl.

That was going to be the way that they would be playing the games? It was fine with him, but they would be paying the price for the events to come. Everything that would happen afterwards, would be placed upon them as blame.

The massive lamia gained once again a grin across his lips before he finally spoke the words he had been dying to say since their conversation began. “Nopony commands me, especially not two idiots! She, is mine. She, was kicked out of the city as a sacrifice to me. I, let her run around for as long as she wanted. Time’s up,” he growled up to the both of them. He would make his move.

With one massive jump he managed to land upon the table and released a deep hiss straight in the face of Pinkie. The snakes on top of his head all released hisses of their own while both Twilight and Fluttershy watched in horror. The only thing they could have done in the moment.

“I hunger for fresh lamia flesh, and after the troubles she went through most recently… I would say that she would suffice well enough. She’s tender, light and extremely easily to bite through.” His very tone had turned to an even darker one. One that spoke of pure evil and ominousness at the same time. He turned his head over to the mares as he spoke the last words of taunting. “Just how I like them.

Fluttershy nor Twilight couldn’t witnesses the scene anymore. Something had to happen and it had to happen in an instance. The unicorn wanted to release the magic that she carried but noticed how the pegasus was already making her way to him. With her legs running and the wings used to gain even a greater speed, she almost appeared like a lightning flash.

“What?!” Sombra exclaimed. Not even he had the faintest of ideas about what was happening. So before he knew it, he was tackled by Fluttershy who climbed on his back. Anything would have been done by the pegasus to get him off of Pinkie Pie. Who at her own turn was almost crushed by the sheer weight on top of certain parts of her body.

“Get off of me, you vermin!” Sombra shouted to her while his horn charged once again. Blasts of magic would soon enough be released into the air as Twilight just stood there for a few seconds. The soothsayer only had one thing that she could be doing.

All of the magic that was primed in her horn was released in the form of a massive beam without a single word being spoken. The beam travelled out of the hand and straight towards the lord himself. Fluttershy noticed the beam heading their way and quickly jumped off of the beast. Sombra on the other end looked straight at it and before he could do anything it had hit him.

The pegasus landed back upon her hooves as the beast was flung off of Pinkie and disappeared in the darkness. The fight wasn’t over, far from it even. He would have gotten back to the both of them whether they liked it or not.

And they were right on the matter. The pegasus had rejoined herself by the unicorn. They both looked at the table and the area behind it from their position. Their eyes would have gone over everything as they were looking for him.

Moan and groan fell eventually in their ears before the words of the dark lord were finally spoken. His eyes appeared in the shadows behind them and were located quite the bit higher. “You two, have given me enough trouble!” he roared up to the pair of them. His horn charged again. “You wanted to leave this place in peace?! Here’s a lesson for you both… It’s not going to happen!”

He would have flung himself forwards and was revealed once more out of the shadows. With a roar of power he lashed out to Twilight while the magic kept on charging. The unicorn soothsayer would dodge the claws at his hands with unseen skill before Fluttershy took for the skies.

The battle they had hoped to not engage into, had erupted. The worst part was that they were sucked straight into it. The soothsayer and the doctor weren’t just fighting for the life of a friend of theirs, but also their own. They knew the kinds of damage that dark lord could give and they didn’t had the desire to end up in the same manner.

Even though all parts of his body were dangerous, it were the eyes that the mare were the most terrified of. Whether they knew it or not, they had the feeling that if they looked in the eyes, there would have been something terrible happen to them. It was just a gut feeling that told them that. Yet the feeling was strong enough to make it a dominant one. Which naturally resulted in the two of them believing the feeling.

“Fluttershy, do whatever you have to do!” shouted Twilight to the doctor after she had evaded another slash of Sombra. Both of their horns were primed and ready to fire anything if needed. They were ready to end one another there and then. There was a fire that could be witnessed in both of their eyes.

Fires that raged for two vast and different reasons. All while Pinkie Pie almost laid whimpering upon the stone table. She didn’t want that her friends would be fighting against the god of her own existence. But there wasn’t anything that she could be doing. All that Pinkie could do was to keep her eyes firmly shut and hope for the best.

The pegasus on the other end nodded before she dive-bombed down towards Sombra and give him a couple of punches straight in the back. The snakes all coiled around her before she realized that the scales at his back were as tough as rock.

Every punch she delivered almost felt like she was breaking her own hand. There had to come a new strategy if they wanted to win the battle from him. Perhaps the underside was a lot softer. It was a natural thought for Fluttershy to have as she had experience with animals. And since the lamia were basically snakes, the truth of the matter might have been found already.

With haste did the pegasus shook the snakes off and landed back on the ground. Only to then circle around the slashing Sombra. Perhaps it was stupid to have rejoined her by Twilight, but it was the safest place to be. Especially with the fact that the unicorn was about to release a massive blast of magic to him.

The horn had coated itself in the raspberry aura, before Fluttershy could have said a word would it have happened. Once more had the blast been released. But Sombra quickly turned his back to the beam. Where Twilight thought that he would have been sent off in the air, the spell almost had no effect on him.

All that it left was just a little mark of burn. Other than that, there was nothing. “That’s, what I wanted to say,” replied Fluttershy just before she gulped afterwards, “his scales are…”

“Are thick, I figured that out as well by now. Means we have to adjust our strategies. Distract him for as long as you can. Whatever you do, don’t look in his eyes!” Twilight said quickly before she ran away.

“W-What?!” exclaimed Fluttershy to Twilight. She was left all alone with the lord. Another gulp went through her before she just ran. She ran and ran as fast as she could. She wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible. But whether or not Twilight would hurry up with whatever it was she was working on remained to be seen.

In the moment did it all just seemed like a massive nightmare for the three of them. Yet the strains of sweat and the charges of magic were a constant reminded for all of them that that was reality. Reality had set in by them all and each of them realized they were playing with their lives. Which made them come to the realization that they were doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous. Not that that was anything new to them though.

“Hey, snake-face!” Twilight yelled aloud all of the sudden. Sombra turned himself around to face the soothsayer and hissed towards her. For then he saw her standing with the staff right in her hands. The thing was aimed to him and she grinned almost like a maniac. “Think fast,” she added before another massive beam of magic was released.

The body of Sombra placed himself firmly against the ground as the grooves alongside the bottom of his body clamped against the surface. “Foolish mare,” he replied to his before his own magic was called upon.

Two beams of magic collided in midair. Though the beam of Sombra was shorter than he would have liked. But at least he was countering the attack that Twilight was giving to him. He let out an annoyed growl towards her before he intensified the charge.

More and more smoke left his eyes while his beam did gain a bit of ground. Twilight’s eyes went wide when she realized the fact and intensified her own magic as well. Fluttershy could only watch while the two titans of magic were battling it out. In the moment she regretted it that she didn’t carry anything like a dagger, or had asked Rarity for one of he swords.

She could have ended the life of the dark lord there and then. But the question remained that if she did have the dagger, would had the courage to thrust it inside his body? A question that was almost constantly haunting her mind.

Though she couldn’t be thinking too much about it. Too much stuff was all happening at the same time and she needed to keep her eyes out for all of it. One wrong step and she could have been next in the line of fire.

The magic duel between Twilight and Sombra lasted for almost a minute before both parties released their beams in different directions. Yet both beams somehow managed to find perhaps the most unlikely place to ended up. They both ended up right inside of a statue.

The powerful beams didn’t just crumble the stone, it shattered everything. Therefore they both ended the lives of two other lamia’s that were caught. But over the course of the fight had numerous lamia already seen the end of their lives by the claws of Sombra.

His nails were as strong as granite and could crush every other material right under them. The moment he noticed the chance, the gorgon lamia launched himself forward again. He wanted to see Twilight’s blood flow right out of her body, no matter what.

Yet the sharp eyes of the unicorn noticed the incoming attack. And just like that she took a step or two aside. An annoyed growl came from the gorgon lamia when he then crashed in yet another statue. Once again it was shattered to dust and he had one sentry less.

Out of the rubble he emerged unscratched though. The snakes shook off the last little bits of dust before the voice of the creature filled the room again. “I’m having so enough of the games that you are playing. You wouldn’t just let me enjoy my dinner in peace would you?!” he exclaimed to the both of them.

His words were right though, they did crash the dinner he had. Then again, he would be eating one of their friends. They were both right in their own right.

~~~~

Twilight and Fluttershy regrouped with one another. They made certain that he wouldn’t just launch himself to Pinkie and fulfill his own promise. The two anthronies kept their eyes, horn and fists ready for anything.

“You should have picked out a different target to consume, lord,” commented Twilight to him almost in a mocking tone. The raspberry aura coated the whole staff by that point. She was angry and ready to give him yet another blast. “Pick your friends wisely, but one must pick his enemies even wiser. And you just made that mistake.”

The Gorgon One just erupted out in a deep chuckle while he shook his head. The magic around his horn had returned as he too was priming it for something. Twilight narrowed her eyes as she thought he would extinguish all the light in the room. That would have been the most logical step in her eyes.

Instead did Sombra something different. He made a use of the opportunity to talk to the mares, even if it would have been brief. The lamia would use the time off to catch up with his breath before the last blow would be dealt.

“Oh but I do pick my enemies wise. Two anthronies like you I can easily take. You just happen to be knowing the one place you aren’t supposed to be looking. Doesn’t matter much really. Why would anypony voluntarily want to look in my eyes, when I can also force them to?” commented Sombra in a dark tone. His voice reeked of a trap being set up as the mares prepared for anything.

Though anything wouldn’t have been enough in the matter.

“I’m just, so hungry!” cried Sombra out while he slithered away from his place and seemed to have gone into the direction of Pinkie. “I just want, to finish my dinner and be on my way again. But no, you just had to come in and crash my little party. We have fought already, you destroyed dozens of my statues… What more do you want me to do?!”

“That you release our friend!” Fluttershy exclaimed before she realized it. Instantly were the hands brought over to her mouth as she prayed upon the fact he wouldn’t go in against them.

Yet the giant lamia wouldn’t let the opportunity slip by. Not like that at least. His entire face just dropped itself before he shook his head a couple of times. “Oh, there was that,” he muttered in a fashion as if he had forgotten about it. “Anything besides, that?!”

Whether he had turned to madness or was just plainly playing with them couldn’t have been made out of the words. For Twilight it seemed as if he was doing it both at the same time. Sometimes it was one, other times it was the other. He had gotten unpredictable as the magic continued to charge up.

“Can it be that, the longer he charges, the more he consumes, the madder he becomes..?” she said to herself in a low volume. The last thing she wanted as for him to hear any of her thoughts. The soothsayer was having theories aplenty as her own magic continued to be charged.

Hunger was getting more and more to Sombra while his stomach even rumbled. Not out loud of course, but he could be hearing it clear to himself. He had to have his dinner and he needed it quickly. If he wouldn’t eat, who knew what would have happened to him. The chance existed of course that the constant venting of dark magic could have been placed to blame.

That that was the blame for the near constant hunger that he had. The chance existed that the city would provide him with ‘sacrifices’ to keep him happy. The last thing that the city wanted was a visit from the creature once more. They all had their reasons for the things that they were doing there. Reasons that may not have been liked by many.

Yet at possibly the worst possible timing began Pinkie Pie to yell. With her eyes still closed firm had she spoken the words that were on her mind. “Leave them alone, they have done nothing to you! Let them go and finish me as it was supposed to be long ago!” she yelled before she finally tried to escape out of her hold.

Fluttershy and Twilight almost wanted to scream to her that she should have held her mouth against him. But if they would have done that, who knew what else he could have done to the three of them. Clearly he had gone mad in one way or the other. The glance in his eyes confirmed that very fact even more.

The two anthronies were staring down the eyes of a creature that clearly had lost all sense of reason. Instead it only wanted to accomplish the goal where it had set out for. A goal that was horrible to say the least yet understandable at the same time.

The eyes of Sombra looked back at the pair of thing just before the tongue went over his lips. “They are made of flesh as well, sentries have been destroyed… Yes, yes, yes, that’s how it’s going to be played,” the gorgon lamia spoke before he finally had figured out just what he had to do. In order to get them both down, one of them needed to be terminated.

The grin returned once more to his face. Though before the anthronies could have reacted had he vanished into thin air. The eyes of both Twilight and Fluttershy went wide when they realized he had performed a teleportation spell of some sort.

The two stuck close together. They both feared that he could reappear at any given time and any given place. They were in the major disadvantage and were in the need to turn the tables back in their favor once more. Though that was a thing that was a whole lot easier said than done.

Their eyes looked all over the place as they prayed silently to themselves. The silence in the room had become dread as the tension was about to be cut. Any second could the Gorgon One have poofed back into the realm with anything.

A poof was heard in Twilight’s ears, which was followed by a muffled scream behind her. Then there was another poof that happened right after it. With haste had she turned herself around, only to realize that Fluttershy had vanished. The eyes went wide again as she gave a gasp for air. She couldn’t believe it that the doctor had been gone.

She had been taken. Taken to a place that was unknown to her. The soothsayer turned herself almost constantly around as she wanted to see where the mare and the lamia had gone to. But the room was empty for the rest, at least for the time being.

Twilight knew that everything that had once left eventually had to come back to the rightful owners. That also included beings who had used a teleport to their advantage. She could sense with her own staff all that she wanted, but there was just too much influences given off the statues.

All of them had been transformed with dark magic, magic that the staff kept picking up straight away. All of it combined just rendered the attempt useless. All that she could do was to wait for them to return. To keep her eyes open and act immediately when the time was there.

Another poof came into existence and Twilight turned herself around. The soothsayer the looked straight at a scene she didn’t wanted to see. Everything that happened next just horrified her. For perhaps the worst nightmare had come true. “No..!” she exclaimed softly to herself.

It was at the other end of the room that it happened. Sombra and Fluttershy had teleported back into the room. The lamia held the pegasus off of the ground with one hand firm around her neck. He didn’t seemed to be squeezing it, but was doing something considerable worse.

He made Fluttershy watch straight in his eyes. He forcefully made the doctor watch straight in his eyes. Right inside of his gorgon eyes. Fluttershy released a massive eep of terror as she tried to close her eyes or look away.

But no matter what she tried, the dark magic of the giant lamia had taken a hold of her eyes. The eyelids were pulled back as far as they were allowed as the eyes themselves were kept in place. The doctor was staring fully in the eyes of the Gorgon One.

Finally there would have been the time where he would have honored his nickname and would give Twilight the show of her life. “As I said, foolish mares,” commented Sombra in a dead serious tone. All of the madness of previous had vanished like that and his much more serious side had returned. For all the right reasons in his eyes and all the wrong in theirs.

A deep hiss was given off by the lamia, the snakes followed up in bit higher tone. “You shall become, the centerpiece of my, collection.” What followed was just a sick chuckle released by him.

Fluttershy could feel it starting to crawl up from her hooves and her fingers, the coldness that only stone could give to anypony. Her hands and hooves were already turning slow into the thickest stone there was imaginable and Twilight thought to make use of that.

Everything considered would it have been a mad, mad, mad attempt in the first place. But it possibly could be working. The magic that she had charged up was released as one massive blast. Sombra caught the casting in his eyes but never took his eyes away from Fluttershy.

One poof later though, and he was just holding thin air. “What?!” he exclaimed to himself before he looked around. Then he noticed the two of them standing next to one another. Another growl was released through his mouth as Fluttershy managed to ball her hand into a fist.

“She’s mine!” Sombra yelled to the pair of them.

“Come and get her!” Twilight replied before she vanished with a poof. Sombra on the other end wasn’t paying too much attention to the whole thing and wanted to rush over to the pegasus. But there was another poof right behind him and before he knew it, he was flung forwards. Behind him levitated Twilight with the staff resting upon her shoulder.

She had in fact used the very same staff as some kind of bat to whack the lamia forwards. Sombra was them met by the stone fist of Fluttershy right in his stomach. The underside of the body was indeed just what they had expected. It was softer than the scales upon his back and therefore a lot easier to deal damage with.

The creature fell down to the ground and realized that he wouldn’t be having any dinner, anytime soon. But it didn’t matter too much to him. He had enough of the fight between him and the mares. He wanted to just go away from them and did so by a quick teleport of himself. One last grin was given off to the pair of them, before he vanished into thin air.

Was it was the last they had seen of the creature? Who knew. They hoped they had though. There would have been a whole new problem that they had to be dealing with.

Twilight rushed back over to Fluttershy who had dropped herself to the ground. The process of her being turned into stone had progressed even further. Slowly but surely was she becoming more and more statue instead of a living, breathing being. “Time consumes us all, but in the end there’s only one devourer left… Stone, never fades away, yet takes all.”

That were the last words spoken in the voice of Sombra before he was truly gone. Gone from the scene to just wait. Wait until the time was right to return once again. Twilight could only have hoped that she had something with her. Anything in her arsenal of magic that could have been of aid for the doctor.

For neither of them had ever dealt with something like that before, in their entire lives.

Chapter LXXXVI

Where Twilight had been able to collect such amounts of magic, was a fact unknown to both the dragon and the devil though. But somehow had the soothsayer managed to call on the very fury of the sun itself. That bright was the object that hovered before the mare. A giant, raspberry colored sphere that could only have been the sun was seen just standing there.

The devil and the dragon got speechless when they noticed that it was still growing and thus charging. The wings of the exhausted dragon began to spread out again in a calm manner. His head was then turned over to the devil with a toothy grin. “I think, that that package has your name upon it. Enjoy it while you can,” he replied to the devil before a chuckle was given off.

With perhaps the last strength in his body did he fly away and circled around the tower. Only to land straight behind Twilight and his wings were tucked against his back once more. The beast could have spoken of luck that he had landed on a spot where there was a wall right beneath him. That way he wouldn’t have just crushed the floor they stood on even more.

Strains of sweat were running down the sides of Twilight’s face. The sheer amount of power that was surging through her had almost caused her to have gone both in a haywire and an overload. But she had a task to perform. Twilight had to do the thing that she had wanted to do for only a few seconds by then.

She wanted to see the burning of the devil herself, in front of her.

There where Sunset Shimmer seemed to have failed, Twilight wanted to succeed. All sense of moral was nowhere to be found in her entire well-being. All that she had eye for was destruction and death, the path of a Dark Witch itself. Who knew, perhaps a little bit of Nightmare Moon’s essence had managed to nestle itself inside of the mare? There was one single thing that could have been deemed worse. The very fact that she was perfectly reasonable but still continued the act.

Either way –whether Twilight was reasonable or just utterly insane– Nightmare Moon realized that she didn’t stood too much of a chance against her. The devil herself finally seemed to have found her mortal match. The alicorn had gone once again out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. She had to take it up against Twilight herself. Not to mention the fact that she was angry.

Escape was the first thought that rushed through the alicorn of course. She didn’t had the desire to be burned alive any time soon. She had only just managed to get her physical form back and there wouldn’t have been a way in the world that she would release it again.

The eyes of the devil were narrowed as the orb of black magic seemed to have gotten more powerful. There was always a way through which she could fight out. She had to endure whatever it was that Twilight had prepared for her. She just had to grit her teeth and push on if she wanted to make sure that she would come out as the victor.

But on the other side of the battlefield had Twilight the exact same thought. All of the powers were collected within the massive orb as it continued to expand upon itself. Deep ex- and inhales were given off by the unicorn. And every single exhale caused the orb to expand even further upon itself.

Almost had Twilight used all of her stored magic into it. Almost was she ready to just fire the thing at lightning speed towards the devil. Almost was she ready, to give the payback that she wanted. The breathing continued in a heavy manner as the eyes were closed under force. The vast amount of light that was cast into the gray world.

The vast amounts of raspberry light almost would have acted like the actual sun before the time was there. The time had fallen upon the unicorn to finally release it. It still wasn’t as powerful enough as she would have liked. Yet at least she could do some massive damage with it. That alone was something good enough for her.

One last yell was given by the unicorn within the distortion of time. One last yell that spoke a thousand and one emotions at the same time was given off. Then was it finally released. Then it was finally fired at the direction of Nightmare Moon. Twilight kept a careful eye to the events because they would end, when they opened up again. Yet not a single word was spoken by either of them.

The devil herself watched over the orb that headed into her direction. Disbelief and fear took her over as she realized it couldn’t have been escaped anymore. A teleportation spell could have worked but there was too little time to cast it. So there was only one thing that could have done by her. Which was to raise yet another shield to shelter behind.

With the dark magic that had collected in her hand, Moon summoned a shield that began to surround her just before the fiery orb hit her. The mare soon enough felt the incredible heat even through her own shield as it tried to keep everything out. Yet the fires of the orb were powerful, too powerful for her maybe. For they began to consume the shield in which the devil had hidden.

The vast amounts of anger were poured into the thing as well and Moon felt it clearly. All of the anger that the unicorn had placed into it began to chew at her. It did the opposite of what it normally did to her. Instead of feeding her, it almost seemed to have been weakening her. Usually would the anger she had gotten from beings was meant to another, but that anger was aimed directly at her.

The anger of the soothsayer originated out of one being and that being happened to be the devil herself. Which in return spoke of the fact that it couldn’t have been used. More and more heat began to penetrate through the shield of Moon. The eyes turned from left to right as she couldn’t believe what was happening.

Years had she been planning the plan she originally came up with. She thought to have taken all of the factors in account and had thought about all the possible variables. Turned out that there were still a whole lot more variables left that were never given any consideration.

Twilight and the dragon continued to just look at the massive orb of flames that were trying to consume the original Dark Witch. Twilight hoped with all of her heart that she would have been able to release herself from the curse placed upon her. She wanted to get the revenge for the destruction of her own mind. Nopony would go unpunished for such a horrid deed.

Nightmare Moon had to pay for her crimes and that was exactly the thing that was going on. The dragon thought that she had gone too far, but given how it was the original devil that they spoke about did he quickly change his statement. He simply watched over the soothsayer with a worried glance in his eyes.

A glance of worry that spoke of the future. Would Twilight be able to regain her more collected side after the devil had been vanquished, or would the trouble arise again? Those kinds of thoughts horrified the dragon before he shook his head. It was Twilight after all, there always would have been things that didn’t seemed to be making too much sense about her.

Or that could have been stopped from her. The dragon could have only prayed in silence in the moment. All before his head turned back up to watch the massive orb of flames. He wanted to see how everything would have gotten to an end. He was curious as to how powerful, Twilight was.

Nightmare Moon felt the heat crawling more and more towards her. Though she seemed to have gotten enough of it all. The devil roared in pain when she realized the shield just wasn’t powerful enough. The devil was a mare that more so would have been fighting around and about with brute force or mind power. It was not one whom was likely to go into the defensive sides of battle with either haste or ease.

Though in that moment was she forced to do such a thing, or even better: just go away. It dented the pride of the devil a whole lot more than she originally had planned of course. But it seemed to have been for the better if she just went away. It would have been a whole lot better for her if she just went away from the scene and gave the battle to Twilight.

That didn’t mean that the war was won by them though. Far from it, in fact. The devil would return at one point or the other in their lives. But for the moment did she had to make her great escape. The dark magic that she carried was charged up even further.

And with one deep sounding poof it happened. The shield that tried to keep the magical flames out of their way just vanished as the body of Nightmare Moon did so as well. The orb of flames was shot a little but further forwards before it began to lose power quickly.

It didn’t have anything to crash in against or to do, so the only thing that it could do was to loosen up power and give it back where it belonged. It went straight in the magical reserves of Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn felt the increase in her magical abilities when she allowed a gentle inhale to be taken. The dragon watched over the skies after he noticed that the devil had just vanished. She had just vanished into thin air like the coward that she turned into.

“We’ll meet again, devil. We’ll meet again at one point or another,” the dragon mumbled to himself. Then a deep exhale was given off. Twilight on the other end fell down to her bum moments before she tucked her legs up and rested her head upon the knees. The soothsayer was in the need of having some time alone. Some time alone to get everything straight again in her mind.

The scattered mess that her mind, happened to be was the perfect bait for anything that wanted to do harm to her.

~~~~

In the meantime had both Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer returned to the inner circle of Tartarus. The devil herself appeared as the clouded figure while only the eyes and the hands were visible. Sunset just appeared as the essence she had been since the dragon roasted her. The devil wasn't happy about her defeat at all. But didn’t saw reason to punish Sunset for that little fact.

The devil lacked the raw and primal power that Twilight was having in that moment. But she still had managed to get the thing that she always had been wanting to get. The essence of Sunset was chained and the devil smirked like the cruel being she was. “Finally have you returned to the lair that you always were supposed to be at. No need to answer, Shimmer. I have a trophy spot ready, just for you.”

A deep grin was formed within the fog that was the essence of the devil before she allowed the magic to once again travel through her hand. “I’m sure that you will find company in the being that rests next to you. You remember our little Chrysalis right? The mistress of changes? She’s here as well. Both defeated by that wretched company of anthronies.”

The ‘eyes’ of Sunset went wide when those words were spoken. She never had expected that a Dark Witch like Chrysalis could have ever been defeated by the company of mares. Whatever had happened, was a thing that she would soon enough figure out. Because beneath her there was a portal that opened up.

A portal that certainly would have dragged her down into the very pits of Tartarus. The one place where the fires burned for eternity and she could rebuild a body for herself. Only to start the cycle all over again in her eyes. Even though she was once more in the hands of the devil, the spirit never died inside of her. Or better said: what was left of her.

~~~~

“W-What h-happened?” the voice of a terrified Twilight Sparkle asked to the faint air that was around her. The dragon caught the words in his ears and lowered his body down a bit. He curled up around her in order to distribute the massive weight that he carried evenly. His body was placed on such a manner that it always would have been covered by walls beneath so that the floor wouldn’t crack. Only then did his head turned over to her and looked her in the eyes.

The unicorn never seemed to have moved from her position. Twilight just seemed to have been utterly terrified. The unicorn wanted to cry so badly as well, but the tears just weren’t allowed to come from her eyes. Whatever had caused it, it had changed facts whole. Not to mention the fact that she seemed to have been almost completely unaware of everything else that had happened.

There was just too much stuff going on around her. Or better said: not going on. Time was still standing still and the mare wanted to know the finer details of the things. Why could she and the dragon move? Why didn’t the grayness even attempt to get a hold of her. She was sitting right there, ready to be taken away by the forces of time itself.

Yet nothing happened. Nothing happened to the pair of them in fact. Answers were the things the mare needed. And the only creature that was able to give her those, was sitting right in front of her. So with the thoughts known to her did she rose her head up and glanced over to the beast. Who just sat there in a relaxed position.

Nothing regal was seen about him when he just did what was ought to be right. There wasn’t any need to take any regal poses either. For in the moment was it just him and Twilight Sparkle that would have their conversation.

“What, happened? Tell me, tell me everything you know,” spoke Twilight when she began to dig through her own memories as well. Memories that were in fact painful to go through, for she remembered the point where the giant centipede came for her. A shiver went down spine while she thought back about it and tore her glance away from the dragon for a moment or two.

The dragon nodded in calm towards the mare before he began to tell his side of the story, for the shiver had told him more than enough. Twilight realized when the moment was that she was taken over by the devil herself. What he didn’t knew though, was that she had seen half of the battle the two entities were having with one another.

“There was a distortion in the magical balance. How I sensed it, I still do not know. One could call it a gut feeling. But I sensed that something was wrong. You were in great danger and for the first time in millennia I left my sphere,” the dragon told her. His head then looked up to the grayness that surrounded them all.

“After I left my rightful place, time in the world ceased to continue. The distortion you experience right now is my doing. When I’m not in my sphere, time may not move onward. I’m the engine of your world, if you remember. But I’m so much more than just that. Time ticks, because of me.”

Twilight was having a fair share of difficulty to actually believe the words of the dragon for what they were, but it was better than nothing. The unicorn blinked a couple of times before she wiped her eyes clean from the tears. A gentle sniffle was then released by her and she continued to listen. There was no need to interfere with the words he spoke so far. She wanted to know everything that he had to tell her. She had to know what had happened before she came back.

“So I rushed over to the spot where you were possessed and saw the husk of the centipede. The evil had come to your physical realm, the realm she wasn’t allowed to enter any more on command of the goddesses themselves. But when I arrived here, I saw them both fighting like they did. As well as your body being used for the matter. The rest, you can probably fill in yourself,” the dragon spoke. While he spoke, he never took his eyes off of Twilight.

The unicorn nodded in a gentle fashion to the words that he spoke to her. She understood them all and realized the very direction from where he was coming. They didn’t make the matter feel any lighter to her though. She still feared the vast amount of power that was stored inside of her. Anything could have happened and she knew that fact. Anything could have caused her just so much troubles that she had to eventually lay down her profession as soothsayer.

“What, will happen, now?” the mare asked him in a truly worried tone. Time had stopped and she had no real clue of any kind of a possible aftermath.

The dragon could understand the worry in her voice, for not even he could have been thinking too much about it. So the first words that came to his mind were said to him. Words that hopefully fell in the right mood for the soothsayer. The last thing he wanted was to discourage her even further. “What happens now? What always had been happening. The devil has returned to her fiery realm in the depths of Tartarus. Sunset Shimmer, sadly, is forced to live there as well for as long as it is needed. But you, you have a bright future ahead of yourself.”

The eyes of the unicorn didn’t seemed to follow him completely, because she rose one of her eyebrows. Confusion had managed to set in before she quickly shook her head a couple of times. The dragon realized what he had said to her and almost wanted to just hit himself right in the face because of them. “Allow me, to rephrase that,” he said to her before a gentle cough was made.

“I meant of course, that you would continue onward with your journey. You shall be reunited with your friends and together make the way to where you were supposed to be heading,” the dragon spoke while he secretly seemed to have given her the plan. A plan that told her on how she actually should have continued.

Twilight finally seemed to have been able to understand the words that were being said to her. She realized the fact that the journey had to be continued as well. The port of Manehatten was within their reach, the time to sail to Canterlot had almost fallen upon her.

“And what of, the events that happened here? The battle between, them and, well, our talk?” the mare then asked of him. It was another legitimate question that was asked by her. And one where the dragon could have gotten by with. Though that didn’t mean that he didn’t had the answer upon it. No, the dragon had an answer for everything and all to come. Even on the matter that was displayed to him by her.

A deep inhale was taken by the beast before he continued with his own words once more. “This event, shall become known as ‘The battle that Never was,’ for it never took actually place. We’re the only two creatures upon the surface of the world that know what happened here, how the events had truly been going. No other being, knows this.”

Twilight nodded to the words while another question arose within her. One that perhaps could have changed the course of history about the dragon and herself. Even though the question felt like it shouldn’t have been asked, the answers that she needed were too great of a temptation. “Tell me, one more thing. If you control the time in our world, how can it be that we’re allowed to move through the distortion?”

The massive creature released a deep chuckle as his initial response to her. The unicorn was indeed a very sharp one when it came about the matter. He had to admit that fact to her. But the answer was perhaps one that she wouldn’t have expected from him. “It’s indeed true that I control time in your world, but only a select view possess the ability to walk through such a distortion.”

“You mean like, divinely blessed?” Twilight asked of him. She tried to make something understandable out of his words. A thing that seemed harder than she had anticipated.

“No, I’m afraid that divinity has nothing to do, with sheer will power. The power of the will is what hauls you through a distortion. The will to keep on living and to do things. But not many creatures hold such a strong will to live on through something like this. Perhaps you only did, because of something else you carry inside of you. I can not tell nor can you find it.”

The soothsayer reached out for her own chest before she gave it a gentle stroke or two. She wanted to feel if there was something perhaps hidden inside of her heart that could have given her any kind of information about it. Yet she then quickly turned her attention back to the dragon. The unicorn lowered the hand again before it was wrapped around her knee again. “You mean to say, that certain elements of life hold a greater value if they are kept a mystery, don’t you?” she then asked to him.

The dragon could only have given a nod to the mare. “The past is set in stone, the present is the second you live in and the future is a worry none should trouble about. Time’s an interesting thing, Twilight Sparkle. It tends to make others forget, and others remember. Time, allows all the answers to fall in their place.”

“I don’t doubt those words actually, Eternal One,” the mare replied just before she gained a gentle smile across her face. For the first time since everything had happened was Twilight Sparkle able to smile again in her own body.

That very smile was perhaps the starter for the next words of the dragon. He rose his head up just before his body followed suit for as much as it was allowed. The unicorn turned around and slowly managed to get up on her hooves again as well.

Mere seconds later was she looking at a dragon that made a bowing motion to her. Why he did it was unknown, nor did his words make too much sense to her. “Twilight Sparkle, the fires of an alicorn burn great inside of you. Not many creatures are able to say such a thing about themselves and even less manage to ascend to live up to it,” he said to her in a full respectful tone. Twilight was a little bit baffled by everything that was going on. Which resulted in her just bowing back to him. Almost as if she wanted to give him a silent ‘thank you’.

But when the creature returned back up from his own bow, he looked around woods of Everfree and finally noticed how the storm had erupted above the place. Another gentle nod was given off by him as the attention then turned back. “This is where we part our ways again, I’m afraid. Time needs to start ticking again. It was both my pleasure, and privilege.”

“No, they were mine,” the soothsayer spoke up quick before the dragon took off again. She would have simply watched him fly over the land while a great roar of sheer power was given off. The dragon was truly one of eternity and without a doubt a creature that shouldn’t be made angry. The fact that he spoke the words in the way he did, made her bow just once more before his might.

But when Twilight turned around to leave the tower of Everfree, there was a sight that she didn’t wanted to see. A black hump of shattered dust just laid there. A hand was placed before her mouth as the joy of just yet turned straight down to sadness. A tear sprung in her eye as she shook her head again.

Not a single word could have been released from her throat. The mare just knew from whom that was. Those were the remains of the mare she once dared to call a friend of hers. Those were the remains of Sunset Shimmer herself. They made Twilight just feel sick, she wanted to vomit over the floor. But no matter how many times she hurled up, there was nothing that came from her stomach.

She had to get away from the place as quick as possible and never return. The woods of Everfree had gained another motive of just why Twilight never wanted to see them again. And more important, why she never wanted to go back to them again.

With unseen haste had she turned her attention away from the scene and closed her eyes for just a moment. Just a fraction of a moment before she felt the first drops of rain falling on her skin. Surprise had taken her over before the eyes shot back open.

Her eyes began to just stare down to the skies above her and heard the rumbles of the thunder as the lightning flash vanished from the corner of her eye. Time had started to move again and she was wasting valuable seconds of it. For as the wind picked up, the also carried the dust that were the bones of the passed on demoness.

The eyes of the unicorn were closed once more before she spoke the last set of words that she could be saying on the matter. “There’s nothing left for me here,” she mumbled before her head rose itself up again. The time had come to her that she finally would have just gone back to the company again.

A company of which she hoped to have been able to find through the darkness of the night.

Time was ticking again and every single second that she just stood there, the company was most likely getting away from her. So the only thing that could be done by her was that she charged up her horn once more. “I’ll never forget the mare you were before the demoness, Sunset,” the mare said in a quiet tone before she wiped another tear away. “Friendly, kind, eager, a true, true friend.”

What happened then was that she made a gentle step forward. A step forward through a portal that would have acted as a giant teleportation spell for her. She would teleport herself over the massive distance that was from the tower in the woods of Everfree, to the small spring in the woods of White Tails.

To the mare it only seemed to have been one gentle step before she walked out of the portal in the woods of White Tails. The winds were caught in her ears and the leaves made their gentle rustling. Peace and serenity had come back to the forest when she noticed how the birds were singing their nocturnal songs.

Everything was back by the way it was supposed to be. With the exception of one or two things though. When Twilight looked over the little spring, she noticed something. There wasn’t any other being that could be witnessed. That fact alone gave enough information to Twilight that the mares had gone off to someplace else. And the only place where she could have thought about happened to be nowhere else then into the direction of the port of Manehatten.

But Twilight had one other thing that she needed to be doing. Something that she had wanted to do for a very, very long time already.

The magic was charged in both of her hands once more and she walked over to the tree that she cursed with every atom of her being. The mare growled deeply to herself as she walked plainly past it and allowed her eyes to fall upon the massive centipede that stood behind it. “No more,” she spoke up to herself as she charged up her magical abilities even further.

It was the husk of nopony else then Nightmare Moon herself. Any time she would have liked could the devil have returned to the physical plane of existence and caused her reign of terror again. No, where Applejack and Rarity said they had to leave it alone, Twilight wanted to just destroy it.

Which was the thing that she did in anger. For blast after blast was released by her hands as the husk fell before her powers. It shattered into thousand, if not millions of pieces while she just stood there. Her breathing had turned heavy as she knew that it would have placed her on top of the hit list that the devil had.

But said devil was welcome to try and get her again at any given time. The magical powers were then just discharged afterwards and the hands turned back to normal. One last sniff was given off by the unicorn before she turned back around. The general direction through which she had to travel was known to her. She could only have hoped that she would encounter the mares she had separated from.

~~~~

Speaking of the other mares, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, all four just stood in utter confusion. They hadn’t noticed a single thing of the time distortion and were all three genuinely surprised on the fact that color had returned to their world.

“Wasn’t there, grayness coming at us, a moment ago?” Rarity asked while she pointed to the bright colored stars with a finger. The sounds of the wind moving entered her ears and it carried the songs of the birds and the forest itself.

“It was, yes,” said Fluttershy. The doctor couldn’t make anything from it. Though whatever had happened, it didn’t matter. They all three seemed to have been okay and that was the main thing that needed to be done.

Applejack looked a little bit around their location and noticed that everything still was the same. With the exception of one little thing. In the distance she thought to saw a flickering light, a purple or pinkish light seemed to travel through the woods. “Ah’ll be growing a beard, ain’t that light from..?”

A name couldn’t be spoken by the mare as she pointed towards it. The eyes of the three other mares turned around and noticed how it came their way. All of them had so their suspicion of course they had seen Twilight just teleport away like that. Not to mention the fact she was possessed the last time they saw her.

“Twilight!” the lamia yelled in happiness when the unicorn stepped out of the fog. There was just this massive and genuine smile that came over the face of the soothsayer. A smile that told the rest of them something. A thing that told them all that the mare couldn’t have been taken over the devil anymore. Somehow, something had happened that turned everything around.

Answers were needed, and time would give those to them all. All they had to be was just a little patience and greet their friend again.