War of Harmony IV, a Novelization.

Sorry to keep you waiting.
Yes, Trixie can handle it.
You will have her payment, correct?
...Excellent, Trixie has been needing funds for a while.
It should be no problem, Trixie is well traveled.
Trixie is curious about your request, however, why do you need these borders re-checked?
...It has really been that long? hmph, Trixie will keep shut then, she expects her payment, Trixie knows your type.
The list… let’s see.

First stop… Trottingham.

Stepping out and trekking down the stairs had already lost its luster, but it seemed like somepony blessed us today. A short ranged teleportation sigil glowed brightly in the dimness of the outside. Our party approached, and while I didn’t have a clue, Trixie’s magical training came to use and we were able to configure it. Her horn glowed, and we were at the bottom of the stairs, a little less weary for wear.

The path back to the statue hadn’t changed a bit, skimming over it, the statue remained as gray and dreary as it was before.

“Why is it that we always get the weird stuff Rarity?” Pinkie asked, although she really had no room to talk. I gave her a questioning look and she smiled innocently, I kept my snide remark to myself as I responded.

“Very bad luck, Pinkie”

“Ya think it’ll get better one of these days?” She asked with a hint of curiosity.

“Probably not, no, we just have to make the best of it.” I responded not so optimistically, life just loves to throw you a hoofball.

“Given up hope on things getting better, Rarity?” Trixie asked, digging for answers and furrowing her brow.

“I’ve done my best to bury the past so I can focus on the future… It doesn’t work that well,” I said with a smirk as the statue asked if I wished to summon an essence via my mind again.

“Why? What happened?” Pinkie asked. Was it right to be mad at her? At anypony who wasn’t there to help?

“You weren’t there for it, so don’t worry about it.” I said dismissively, Pinkie frowned but kept her tongue silent for once.

“Trixie, the Second Essence, where is it?” To the point and on task was I, Trixie responded in kind.

“East, back where the elements of harmony first were.” She nodded and tightened her lips as we walked on the thin paths of ground that snaked its way back to the room in question. Stepping into the aged and dusty room.

With caution, we entered, the room was bare except for the statue.

“Empty?” Pinkie asked confused, the creature should’ve been here, should it not?

“...Trixie, where is it?” Pinkie looked at me, a bit worried by the harsh whisper in my voice.

“It should be here-Ah!” Trixie was yanked down and interrupted, courtesy of myself.

“Eep!” The feminine sound escaped my lips as Pinkie was behind the both of us, rushing and pushing us. A blast soared over us and scorched bits of Trixie’s mane. It scattered debris with a magical explosion and left a big hole in the wall, similar to the one we entered from.

“Damn, and here I was hoping you would have died!” The Lesser Nightmare Essence, a very light blue in color and grimacing at us. It darted behind the statue of the elements and we took pursuit, Pinkie and trixie on one side, myself to the other.

“She’s not here!?” Pinkie asked almost panicking, but I narrowed my eyes in doubt.

“Trixie! She’s invisible, look for her!” I barked out, the mare turned in the direction and barely formed a shield spell in time to block the next attack flung her way.

“Pinkie! We need your purge!” A bright light surrounded pinkie as the purge spell went through the room and revealed the invisible essence. She took to the skies and dived at us, time seemed to slow, memories going through my mind. Vital areas, nerve tissue, pressure points, the quick and efficient ways to kill a pony. Marshall Edge in muzzle, as quickly as the essence came by, she had her left wing cut straight clean off. It only took one clean precise strike, a fairly simple one too. The blood from the missing limb gushed out, getting a bit on me but not much.

CRASH

The essence knocked a few of the stone orbs from the statue down as her one wing flapped fruitlessly. She seemed almost in shock at the missing appendage, but not for long as her horn glowed and sewed up the wound.

“Eternal Princesses, Rarity, how did you do that?” Pinkie asked almost breathlessly by my side, sickened by the blood coating me. Whether it was a general distaste or something further I would not figure out until later.

“Less talking, more ridding the world of this monster.” I launched myself at the nightmare, Pinkie following and covering any weak points I left. Trixie showered her with offensive ice magic, the essence was cornered.

“I cannot die here… No!” The nightmare lashed out at us, Pinkie and I covered her well, but as we were wearing her down with blow after blow…

In a panic, the nightmare let out a large shockwave that pushed us back. Our hooves were firmly rooted to the ground as it dragged us backwards, slowly skidding with our backs against the wall. She turned to Trixie and teleported in front of her, the poor unicorn held up her defense gem. The green shield that surrounded her shattered easily under the nightmare’s assault. The nightmare grinned triumphantly, ready to tear her limb from limb… Unfortunately for her she was body slammed by Pinkie and I.

In a compromising position like that, she was taken care of quickly, and I’ll spare the details. I helped Trixie to her hooves, although she was visibly disgusted by the blood coating my hoof and coat.

“Ugh… Should we take a break to wash you off?” Pinkie chimed in from the side, her smile faltering.

“We’ve wasted enough time on resting as it is Pinkie, come on.” My thoughts went back to that essence, how cowardly it fought, acted. Running, hiding, attacking while we were weak, it weighed deeply on my mind. A chord in my heart, was it a reminder? The answers would wait.

The walk back to the statue was uneventful, but something very peculiar upon arrival.

“Wowsers! Glowey eyes!” Pinkie darted up to the statue and stuck her hoof into the glow. Trixie’s protests rang aloud with her intrusions on its personal space.

“Pinkie, please, step away from the statue that is oozing magic please…” Trixie asked with a surprising amount of patience and hope. Pinkie bounced on back besides her as I myself advanced up to the statue. The others were not far behind as the voice popped into mind again.

The Death of Three will Light the way

Summon an essence?

With a short reply in the affirmative, the essence appeared right where the hasty teleport took place. This one was gray in coloration, and as it turned to face us, Trixie chimed in.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you where this one is~!” She said with a grin, a strange cheer in her voice. With a raised eyebrow, and a doubt for her sanity, there was a reply.

“Go ahead… amuse me.” with an air of satisfaction, she continued with her spill as the Essence looked visibly annoyed. Trixie pointed straight at it and continued.

“Right there! See?” There was silence, a pause, and the thickness of it all could be cut with a butter knife. Pinkie looked between the two of us, and the essence was relatively unsure of whether or not it should attack.

“Why! Thank you so~~ Much!” Trixie took a step back and smiled innocently, although I was not amused if that was to go by my words. The Essence was far beyond having lost its patience as it started lowly.

“Are you… Are you done?” The Essence’s eye twitched and it stomped its hoof impatiently.

“You’re supposed to be paying attention to me! Fighting me! Stop worrying about where I am because I’m right here!” There was a bit of awkward silence at the essence’s words. Then she launched herself at us, and the battle began. The Essence glowed visibly as it struck fast and quickly. Being close to it struck me with a feeling of something so so wrong! Even as Trixie hurled ice, Pinkie breathed fire, she kept going after me. There wasn’t much space to maneuver around, and falling down the huge holes would probably kill me. Factoring in the fact that there was an evil alicorn in our hooves, and mine specifically, the others would be carrying most of the weight.

Reflecting on how I clashed with the last essence mid-fight, I pondered. The blood loss may have weakened her to even make such a clash possible. But in the present moment, it would be better to avoid such an event again. Ducking a decapitation and sliding below her telegraphed magic attack deemed me with her words.

“Why do you even bother fighting? Eventually you’re going to die fighting and I want to be the one to do it.” The Essence grinned with fangs as she continued her strikes. Her tone struck a nerve, and there would be no response given, just the sounds of battle. Death was something that rarely fazed me, as many adventures had slowly driven that fear away. In its place, grim determination stood, after all, some ponies avoided their deaths. Some did not, others found a way to circumvent it, or ponies died only to come back.

I’ll spare the rest of the details of the fight since it progressed in quite the same manner as the other two. In fact, it was almost gimmicky how they were alike bar one difference. I suppose it wouldn’t be a trial if I didn’t have to do the same thing more than once.

“Do you think we should go back to the throne room?” Pinkie asked, idly wrinkling her nose at the blood coating her hooves.

“The death of three will light the path, and I think we killed the three.” I responded, although it was possible the puzzle left something out.

“A fair point, but as I recall from our last visit to the throne room, it only seemed to light the torches.” Pinkie and I turned to her, and she took that as her ability to continue.

“If we interpret it literally, then it’s only going to light the way we have to go rather than open it.” It was a very good observation, but if it was true, what were we supposed to do next?

“We could put these shards back in the fake orbs of harmony!” Pinkie chimed in, pulling some gray and dulled shards out of her… hammer space.

“And that’ll solve the puzzle?” I asked with genuine curiosity, a raised eyebrow, and a skeptical closed line mouth.

“Beats me, maybe you should go communicate with that weird statue again.” The weird statue in question had not changed since the last interaction, but I felt hesitant to approach it.

“Perhaps if it is our only option, let’s go place those shards.” I took a swig from one of the potions procured from the shop gem. My wounds ached less, and even magically healed faster, although the pain was still as sharp as ever. We put the shards in, but we didn’t have enough at the moment to fill every orb with a shard, so that meant-

“Statue time Rarity! Come on!” She smiled and hopped back the way we came. Her enthusiasm for a statue that sent deadly beings at us was disturbing, but who knew how much Pinkie had changed during my time away?

Regardless, we arrived at the statue, and with a short approach, the voice spoke to me again.

You are not prepared!

And the statue shattered, our defense gems sprung to life as shards from said statue battered us. In the place of the statue, stood… Nightmare Moon?

“Oh come on! How many of these things do we have to fight!?” I said impatiently, and so began an even more difficult fight where close encounters with death were abundant. But I must know by now documenting these similar fights must be quite taxing on your eyes, so I’ll spare you the displeasure of viewing it.

The fights had gradually been increasing in difficulty to this fight, but it wasn’t very different, if at all, from the others. I’d say it was a combination of all three with a love for killing and death. The kicker being that it survived mortal wounds and generally made for a frustrating fight.

“So the essences culminated together to form one super essence…” Trixie remarked with interest afterwards.

“The aura was distinct though, just like the others.” Said I with eyes furrowed and posture relaxed. This one reminded me of death, as cliche as it was, but something really made that idea stick.

“Got two more shards, which is all we needed!” Pinkie grins as she pockets the shards, and bits the being had left behind. All on all, the castle had been one annoying obstacle in our path. One of many I’ve had to pass through to get what I needed.

“How much have you had to go through, Rarity?” Trixie startled me out of my thoughts, and I slowly turned with a raised brow.

“Didn’t figure you for the one to try and talk to me about it, Trixie.” The mare in question let out a breath, seemingly pleased that I wasn’t berating her for asking.

“It’s just that you don’t seem affected by the weird occurrences, the bits, the essences, etcetera.” I smiled in response to that, and I opened my mouth to respond.

“You’ll be around to get used to it, Trixie, probably.” The mare seemed annoyed, she seemed to think I had a death wish out for her. Maybe she wasn’t wrong.

“Very helpful, so you’re not going to answer me are you?” Trixie said curtly and with as much refinement as she could muster. I smiled sweetly and let the silence of the night be the answer. Pinkie of course was worried about our choice of words, but I could tell she was happy we weren’t outright insulting each other this time.

“Andddddd here we are! Oooh, secret stairs.” The throne that covered the air had moved over to the side and revealed said stairs. Pinkie smiled and peeked her head to look into the lightly lit stairway to who knows where. It was a tight fit for all of us to enter, but we made it work.

“So, I suppose this all came together rather nicely.” I said with a smile, and a bit of relief to my voice. After all that, surely the object of our search was at the end of these stairs? To briefly describe, the stairs were ancient looking and somewhat decayed. There were cracks, but overall it stood together and the walls were very spaced out. The light of the torches did illuminate the stairwell now, a pale blue light lit the path as we headed downwards. Then, Trixie stopped and we did as well.

“A long range teleportation glyph…” Trixie murmured and ran her hoof along the glyph placed at the top of the stairs. It was blood red in contrast to its blue counterpart.

“Can we use it? Ignoring the fact that we have no idea where it goes that is... “ I was already factoring it in as a possible escape route in case things get hairy.

“Well, not really.” And that all screeched to a stop in my head and face planted into a wall.

“Explain.” Trixie recomposed herself and breathed in deep, eyes furrowing as she sent out her explanation.

“We have to find the other end, activate it, and then it’s usable.” Well that brought up questions, who could’ve left this glyph? Why wasn’t it activated either? Trixie activated the glyph and we continued down, but my questions remained on my mind-

“SPIDER WEBS!!! SPIDER WEBS IN MY MANE!!!” I pawed and eeped at the sticky substances. The abandonment of the castle and my lost thoughts led to me stumbling right into a large patch of them. There looked to be no way past them either, if we wanted down, my mane would have to suffer..

“Oh no! They’re all in your hair!” Pinkie giggled at the obvious, Trixie getting a smile as well.

“Help me get them out!” Blood may not faze me, wounds may hurt me, but I will never tolerate anything harming my beautiful mane!

“No chance of that now.” Trixie giggled and her horn glowed as she turned to Pinkie.

“We’re going to need to burn it all off, won’t we, Pinkie?” The eager mare besides her nodded and began inhaling before I wailed in response.

“NOOOO, Not my mane!” And Pinkie stopped, giggling with Trixie. I stopped and looked at them, my wails dissipating and a look of confusion replacing it as I brushed over my mane.

“Just kidding Rarity, you got it all out already.” I of course was highly embarrassed, and vowed the girls would regret this later.

“Finally, something to pick on her about.” Trixie whispered to Pinkie, she probably thought I couldn’t hear her. They shared a moment of celebration and high hoofed, all sorts of fan fare. Though I was was more worried about the huge spiders that were on the webs above and around us.

“Worried about the spiders too Rarity?” Pinkie giggled, and I frowned, head lowering in partial embarrassment. They were about to comment further when-

Po-Nies…

“Ohhhh nevermind, these spiders are creepy.” Pinkie laughed this out and I was gritting my teeth, very uncomfortable. The two glowing red eyes spiders relaxed on their webs as many others crawled by. Their voices were booming in volume, but they remained silent afterwards. Only watching and waiting, seeing what we were doing.

“I don’t like spiders in general, but of course they had to talk this time.” I shook my head and pressed on. I could only hope this was bad as it was going to get.

“Especially spiders that spaz and climb along the walls like ninja ponies, right Rarity?” I grimaced at the imagery, I was trying not to look at this point.

“Or with eyes glowing so red, all you can see in the dark is them before they leap out and grab you!” Trixie commented alongside Pinkie and grinned. A tick was growing on my head as they talked, but I wasn’t going to give them satisfaction and kept walking.

It wasn’t far before we entered a large chamber like room. The walls had small unlit candles in openings in the walls. Cracks littered the floors and walls, same as before, and dust was practically everywhere. I had tweaked our defense gems to repel dust for our comfort and our looks.

In the center of the room a big symbol or insignia in particular stood out, but was rather covered up and rubbed away. Although I could make out a star, a pattern of sorts. I turned to backtrack, perhaps we had missed something for the room?

“Why are we leaving?” Pinkie stood rooted in her tracks as I turned, stepping away from the doorway.

“There’s nothing here as far as I can see, at least, at the moment.” But Pinkie seemed to have something in mind, and so I stayed and listened.

“There seems to be something here, Rarity, haven’t you noticed the pattern?” Trixie asked, and I tilted my head.

“Of course, but what does that have to-” Pinkie put a hoof to my lips and I furrowed my eyes.

“Trust us, we got this!” She winked at me and the two went about their uncovering of the room’s secrets.

“What’re you doing, Trixie?” I asked her first. She turned and gave me a fake smile as one can differentiate a real and a fake one by the eyes.

“I’m interested in the symbol in the middle of this room.” Her horn glowed and she turned away from me to continue undusting, uncovering.

“Pinkie, you are-” I started before being interrupted.

Just looking and brushing off these carvings!” I frowned as she brushed her tail along the wall, spitting dust in the air.

“I suppose I’ll just sit in the corner and sew a dress then.” I threw up my hooves exasperated. The two dug into their mini excavation of ancient relics before turning their heads to address my comment.

“With no equipment? Wow you’re good!” Pinkie said not so sarcastically with a giggle, although I know she was pulling my tail.

“That would be impressive, we should watch that instead Pinkie.” Oh my they were really going to drag this along wouldn’t they?

“Just pass me the popcorn, Trixie.” They had no popcorn, but it still annoyed me to hear them pratter on.

“I hate both of you…” I seethed, their stupidity was unrelenting it seemed. They stopped harassing me shortly and went about their going-ons. I would give them a minute to do their business, and then check their results. In the meantime, I sat against the wall and tried not to think about the spiders outside. Strangely enough, some kind of… Unsuspecting music played. I had no idea where it was coming from. It did remind me of the colt that Sweetie Belle used to bring over, and his joy-boy. I could visualize the bright light and somewhat catchy music it gave off. The quick reminder of it sent me on a nice memory streak, an enjoyable one.

“Rarity? Rarity~!” Pinkie shook me and stirred me out of my thoughts. She received an irritated look and smiled sheepishly before continuing.

“I looked at the carvings, and there’s a bearded pony on it, so~...” I did know who she was referring to, but could it really be?

“Starswirl-” I started, “The Bearded?” Trixie finished for me, and she proudly continued.

“Now that I know who was here, I think I know what THIS is here for.” Trixie pointed to the uncovered and dusted of symbol in the middle of the room.

“Pinkie and I have uncovered a teleporter, Rarity.” She looks extremely excited at this discovery. But, it was curious how different it looked from the predecessor teleporters. Trixie was happy to explain that away quickly with her next sentence though.

“It takes at least two ponies to use it correctly, but it should fit three just fine.” She pointed her hoof to the position all of us would have to take. Still, I was interested to ask what she knew about this place.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a good guess about this place, would you?” I lowered my head and asked lowly, still not trusting the spiders outside.

“A good guess? No. A simple guess? Yes! Because this is the entrance to Starswirl the Bearded’s Archives!” She looked extremely excited at the concept, and I found this humorous.

“The place where he stored all of his books and spells for every spell he ever chronicled.” And that enthusiasm was understandable, I found myself getting excited at the prospect. It wasn’t in my profession to use magic much, but maybe I could find something nice in these archives.

“But then again, this room could just all be a lethal trap. It could simply kill us because we are messing with magic that we shouldn’t be.” I was silent at the response, what kind of thing is that to say to somepony? Especially when we were going to use this in a few moments judging by Pinkie’s excitement.

“How exactly do you know this is a teleporter again?” Trixie smiled and tapped her horn and her eyes brightened.

“I can sense magic, especially the arcane, and I felt it when we walked in here.” Interesting, I mentally stored that fact as it could no doubt be useful. Still, one thing that perked my interest came to mind.

“Why couldn’t I feel the magic?” Trixie looked inquisitively and her smile died down in response.

“You haven’t been trained at a magic school or institute of any kind, have you?” Of course she was right, but I was still out of the loop.

“Indeed, but what does that have to do with it?” The specifics were important, and I was very curious.

“You don’t use that magical ability of yours much, but those who have actually developed it can naturally sense these things.” Trixie was talking down to me, and that gave me a wicked smile.

“These magic spells are not for the fragile, after all.” It almost made me giggle, I’ve saved this mare’s life from harm and taking far worse injury. Yet she had the gall to call me fragile for not harnessing some magic?

“Why don’t you come get a piece of “Fragile” then?” I raised my voice and goaded her, a menacing smile on my lips. She frowned and stared at me in response.

“After this is all over, I might just take you up on that.” She was calmly stating this, but I wasn’t content to just cut it off there.

“How about NOW? Right now, or are you just an ignorant BITCH just like I used to remember?” That hit a nerve, and she flinched visibly, Pinkie had definitely noticed us by now.

“I’ve just about had it with you!” Trixie was definitely angry now, and I was happy at that, but I didn’t let it show.

“Rarity stop!” Pinkie was quick to try and intercept, but I didn’t listen, even as she was at my side and holding onto me.

“Trixie stop!” She was quick to latch onto Trixie next, if one of us had calmed down then her job was done. But, I could see it in her eyes, Trixie wasn’t ready to back down yet.

“I think it goes without saying you should be thanking Luna Pinkie is here, Trixie.” Trixie kept up her bravado at that, but something in my smile gave her a slight tremble. Was it the predatory smile, the fierce eyes? Or maybe the fact that there was no hesitation on my part to say it.

“You won’t have the chance you st-” It seemed she played right into my hooves, and I was on her in an instant. She gasped as my blade met her throat, only threateningly of course, I don’t needlessly kill. Our noses were touching as I looked in her eyes.

“Come on…” My smile was disarming, but the intent to kill was there all the same.

“Give me a reason.” A smile broke onto my face, and I wouldn’t blame you if you thought I might be crazy. It was best to address that annoying me wasn't the wisest thing a pony could do. A few tears welled in Trixie’s eyes, and it seemed that this had the effect that I wanted on her.

“You wouldn’t be the first.” My smile left and I just stared still, my grip on the blade not loosening.

“And I assure you…” My mouth brushed her ear and I whispered lowly into her ear. The mare stiffening from the proximity of my blade and Pinkie could only watch in horror at this display.

”Not the last.”