Tales of Valor - Part 2: Web of Deception

Chapters

1 - Studies and Stories
2 - Fluttershy's Request
3 - Turn by Turn
4 - Zecora's Prophecy
5 - A Light in the Dark
6 - The Abyss Queen
7 - Departure

1 - Studies and Stories

Author's Note

This Chapter is my tribute to the band Poets of the Fall in general and their song 'The Poet and the Muse' in particular.
As my OC was born (as part of a P&P roleplay actually) and long before he was turned into a pony by a mean writer (me :pinkiecrazy: ) this song and the story it told was part of his origin story. A very emotional part ... Maybe Valor will tell the full story one day. Ponyfied, of course...

PS.: I know the song's borrowed from the game Alan Wake, the adventure took a different turn however...

1 - Studies and Stories

Web of Deception

1st: Studies and Stories

It lieth far beyond the stars in the night sky, unbeknownst to most pony-kind. It is nothing but emptiness, the death of all that liveth, a Void in between that separateth this plane from any other. But sometimes the walls of reality crackle and rifts appear that let the voice leak into our cosmos. And if the void is opened, hell followeth with…

Twilight used to admire the great medieval sorcerer known as Starswirl the Bearded. There was a whole wing of the royal library in Canterlot dedicated to him and filled with the spellbooks and researches he had written. And after all he was the first (and last) unicorn to do some real serious investigation on temporal magic. By now, Twilight had been desperately trying to gather some valuable information about temporal magic since she had met Valor Edge and therefor travelled to Canterlot to do her researches.
But this book Twilight Sparkle was currently trying to cope with was far too much. Said book’s title was ‘About Time, Space and Creation’ and it was Starswirl’s very own theoretical essay about how the universe was built up and working. If it was accurate to call a book encompassing over three thousand pages an essay…
The whole thing was way over the top cryptic and the fact that Starswirl had written it almost two millennia ago didn’t exactly help either.

“I don’t get it”, Twilight muttered in utter frustration. “I can’t prove any of his words wrong. And I can’t prove either that they’re NOT complete rubbish. It’s. All. So. VAGUE!”

If there had been other ponies in the same wing of the library, Twilight would have received a sullen ‘Ssssht!’ for her yelling. Instead she heard the hoof beats of another pony behind her.

A night-blue earth-pony stallion with blond mane, a collar and a bow-tie approached her. Twilight recognized him as one of the ponies she had met at the Grand Galloping Gala the year before. Though she didn’t quite remember his name.

“Evening, Miss Sparkle!” the stallion greeted, smiling. He opened the hatch of his saddlebags and fetched a book. “The librarian told me you were doing some research on temporal magic. May I then recommend this book?”

Twilight wound up her brows and looked at the title of the book as the stallion dropped it in front of her. 'The Silver Knight of Eternity', she read. “How exactly is this going to help?”

Then she looked at the subtitle. 'A Reference Guide to Temporal Phenomena and Legends by Clover the Clever'.

“Oh, I see… Well then, thank you…”

“You’re welcome”, the earth-pony smiled. “The great advantage with Clover is that she’s actually trying to explain things. Unlike ol’ Starswirl who was most likely making up words just to confuse his readers. Make sure to read the actual legend of the Silver Knight first, will you? It’s pretty good.” And with that he wished Twilight a good evening and left her with her studies.

Twilight rolled her eyes then looked at the index. The legend she was suggested to read was in the first part of the book. Alright then, she thought. Let’s see…
The pages got turned by her magic as she quickly skimmed through them to get to the legend’s part. And her eyes met a note stuck between the pages. Strangely the paper had been inserted at the very beginning of the Silver Knight’s legend.

Reverse the polarity! That was what words on the note read.

“What?” Twilight stammered.

<0>

In the meantime, in Ponyville things went as usual. The ponies had very well accepted their new neighbor, Valor Edge and his funny outdated way to speak. He was doing his best to lend a hoof to those who needed one. Which meant he mainly was helping the Apple family with their day work. Valor had already done a good job at rebuilding the barn he had burnt down and on a farm there was always something that had to be done. So Valor was welcome to help as apple bucking season was upcoming.

Big McIntosh, sturdy built farm pony and Applejack’s brother, even held the opinion Valor would have made a great farmer himself if ‘he hadn’t ended up with some wrong Cutie Mark’. Valor had smiled about that strange compliment. To imagine him with a Mark showing an apple instead of sword and star! He somewhat liked the thought how everything could have been different.

In any case he wouldn’t have so many stories to tell (excluding stories about Apples which telling Applejack never grew tired of). But his stories were what made Valor Edge really unique to Ponyville. On the road of life he had seen countless wonders and dreads and heard more stories than a small-town pony could imagine.
Once he had been telling Spike a story about the Great Dragon Wars that had happened back in his homeland eons ago. By the time his story had reached its climax with Pyracor, the dragon-king, claiming to be the ruler of all elements, a dozen ponies had gathered around him and were listening as well.
He told the kind of stories they all liked to hear: Full of adventures and full of heart. Piteous stories of tragic love for the romantic. Tales about dangerous adventures and fabled treasures for the adventure-loving. And stories, dark and eerie that gave one the goosebumps. Many ponies, especially the youngsters appreciated a good spine-chiller while sitting at a campfire at summer- or the chimney at wintertime.
By and by ponies would ‘occasionally’ visit or invite him to hear his stories. And he would happily tell one or two.
Now AJ’s sister Apple Bloom, who was as keen on Valor’s tales as any filly, had one key advantage: Valor Edge was practically living under the same roof. As long as it took him to find some place of his own, her grandma Granny Smith had insisted that Valor stayed and used one of the spare rooms in their house. The Apple-family was big so they had quite some unused rooms for their family reunions…

And because it was summer the Apples and Valor often gathered around the bonfire after a good day’s work had been done. That was when Valor Edge told most of his stories. Almost naturally, like it was an old habit of him.

This evening as well they all sat at the fire. Apple Bloom had brought along two of her friends for a sleepover. Sweetie Belle was Rarity’s sister, Valor had met her occasionally at Carousel Boutique. The other one was an orange pegasus-filly dubbed Scootaloo. The three of them were planning to sleep in a tent they had set up in the yard. But first they all wanted to hear his stories. He could see it in Granny’s and Big Mac’s faces as well as in AJ’s and the fillies’. Even the elder ponies had grown fond his stories. They reminded them of the ‘good old times’. So Valor sat down and briefly took a look into an old, worn out journal that was even more precious to him than his blade. Alright, I will give them a chilling story for a warm evening.
Then he began:

“So I take you all know about places bound with magic. In fact you live at the very fringe of one. The Everfree Forest constantly reminds us that there is something beyond our grasp even if pegasi control the weather and unicorns schedule the four seasons. Suchlike places you fear, do you not? And it may be you are right to.

There once was a small town not unlike Ponyville. In this town there lived a poet, admired by all ponies around. And the pony himself admired one mare. All he wrote and rhymed, he did for her, the mare as beautiful as morning and night with the stars in her eyes, upright and noble.

Now, close by the town was a lake, spring fed from the surrounding mountains. And beneath its cold, dark waters lay something, different and not of this world. It was something that answered to the poet’s tales as he told them. Something that made the words arise as shining images from the bottom of the gloomy depths. And on an island upon these enchanted waters, the writer built a cottage for his muse so he could not only tell her about the wonders his mind created, but show her as well.
Oh, how she adored his soothing words. She had fallen for him the very first time they had met. If only the poet would by then have noticed he not needed to impress the star-eyed mare! But now he gave her something she did adore even more: The beautiful juggleries the unearthly lake shaped from his staves. More and more obsessed she became until she tried to summon the images herself, like he had done it a hundred times before. Hence she went down to the shore, right at the break of dawn when the fog still lay upon the lands. But she returned not.
The poet himself, driven by dark apprehension, went to the lake. The only sign he found of his love was the silver scarf of her. He called for her, cried out as loud as he could… He got no answer to but his own echo. As the night fell, the poet had to realize that his love was gone. That she never would come back to him.
He had to realize but he was not able to accept it. In his grief and his pain he would never accept that she was gone. ‘I used the power of the lake before’, he told himself. ‘I used it many a time. And I will use it again to bring my love back to me.’
So he wrote and wrote like he was to die if he put down the quill for even one minute. The story he wrote was about his love lost. It was the most beautiful story he had ever written. Also the saddest and the most terrifying for in each and every word a pony would have read his grave and infinite sorrow.
Eventually, one more time the lake responded: Grief, anger, pain and loneliness oozed from the poets words down to the black heart of it. Deep down where no light had ever shone, a nightmare started to shift.
In the dead of night the poet who had fallen asleep over his feverish writing, heard a sudden knock on his door. Right in front of him stood his muse as beautiful as ever. But she looked tired and weak. So he rushed to comfort her, to sustain her and lay her down on their bedside. But as he did, his look occasionally met her eyes. Oh, how wrong he had been: In the eyes of the pony that resembled his beloved one no longer was the light of the stars. Only blackness. It was the heart of darkness itself. In his inability to let his love rest in peace he had trailed it a path to his world: A Being of pure sorrow, hatred and loneliness.
Not to think if that horror was unleashed on the world. The poet finally saw his grave mistake and cried again. This time because he knew he had failed his love. Never would she have wanted him to do such a terrible thing. But he was not powerless either. His own words had formed the horror that was now staring at him with black eyes. And his words would lay it to rest!
Still his story was not complete. So for one last time he picked up the quill and wrote. A few words just, but each one carefully set. As he wrote his last sentence, the whole island shook. The waters of the lake boiled and seethed and then devoured the island.
The poet had vowed himself to the silence deep down in the lake and had taken the dark with him. His cottage and his island had vanished completely from the surface. Soon ponies began to wonder if the poet had ever really lived in their town and eventually the whole story was said to have been just a dream.
But mistake not. For some say they still are to wander around the shores, in nights when no moon shines.”

Six pairs of large eyes were looking at Valor as he had finished his story. This one had been a little different. Most of his tales were established in faraway and foreign lands but this story somewhat was unsettling familiar. There had been an incident with a magical pond a few weeks ago. What if something more dreadful and sinister than a bunch of too many Pinkie Pies had come out of it?
“That was quite a story… But it’s… It’s just a story, right?” Granny Smith stated but more than a little uncertain, still looking at Valor. The narrator very well took the hint.
“Of course, it is”, he smilingly confirmed and nodded. “Just an over three centuries old ponytale. Worry not!”
They all returned his smile. But from the look in his eye one could have read that he wasn’t telling everything.
“Oh, well. I got you good with this little one” he laughed though his look didn’t completely match what he was saying. “Now, after the spine-chiller for startup, how about a more adventurous story?
Shall I tell you about the adventures of great Norse-pony pirate and explorer Grey Wolf?”

“YAAAY!” the fillies screamed. And again Valor had captured them as he started with his new story. It was about how Grey Wolf had set sails for his most dangerous journey. He had been challenged to sail around the whole world and complete difficult tasks to prove that he was indeed the greatest and boldest adventurer. The new tale was a brighter one. Valor displayed Grey Wolf as kind of a rascal, often taking on dangers with a smile and a joke on his lips.

Eventually the bonfire was burning down and the Apple Bloom and her friends went to their tent. And as the rest of the Apple-family went to bed as well Valor stood back at the dying fire, lost in his own thoughts.

He had for no particular reason chosen the story of the Lake of Darkness. But come to think of it: It was by far not a mere ponytale but in fact a prequel to a series of grave events in his past. And his daughter’s… In an eerie way that old story wouldn’t let his family go completely.
By the time he had been dragged into, he didn’t know he had to deal with a rift in the fabric of reality. Now he did. Valor didn’t exactly understand the nature of these rifts but he knew they could be dangerous. Behind these cracks in the universe lay the Void, the great emptiness found between all universes, different dimensions and other realities.

Funny, Valor thought. Here I am, against all odds, incredible far away from home. But maybe I am not really separated from my past.

Funny, but also a little creepy. Valor couldn’t foresee what pieces of the past might leak through…

<0>

2 - Fluttershy's Request

2nd: Fluttershy’s Request

When Princess Celestia raised the sun that was time for most ponies to get up. Afterwards it took about an hour or two until the streets of Ponyville came back to life when first ponies went to their work and the shops were to open soon.
For Fluttershy however, the day began a little different. She got up before the first rays of daylight. She wasn’t an early bird, in fact she was awake when most of the Ponyville’s early birds where still asleep. Her daily routine started with waking up the nightingales in the trees outside her cottage so they could ring in the end of the night. When the sun finally rose Fluttershy had to wake her rooster so he could welcome the new day as well.
Her work was important though it was derided by some ponies and not even noticed by most of the townsfolk. But Fluttershy didn’t mind being smiled at for what she did, she was glad she could help. As far as she knew she was the only one who understood how important an accurate procedure for the tamed nature of Ponyville was. She woke her birds and her birds in turn could wake the other birds in town.

So Fluttershy performed her routine, day by day, without ever wanting any credit and she was happy with her very special talent. But when Fluttershy woke this morning, she knew at once something was different: The animals she hospitalized in her cottage were well up and awake. That fact on its own was uncommon enough for Fluttershy was usually the first one to get up.

“What’s wrong? Please tell me.” she asked her pet, the white rabbit she called ‘Angel’. The rabbit sat in front of the window and was constantly staring outside. Angel turned his head, he was nibbling nervously. Of course he couldn’t tell her what was wrong, so he rolled his eyes as if he wanted to say ‘C’mon, I can’t talk.’

“Oh, you don’t know either?” Fluttershy asked. The bunny shook his head and his ears flapped. Then Angel pointed with his small paw to the window. Something’s out there, was what the gesture was supposed to mean.

If her animals were worried then Fluttershy was, too. She opened the window and bowed outside.
Silence. It was the first thing she noticed. Her cottage was located on the brink of the Everfree Forest. At any time of day or night a pony who would listen carefully could hear the voice of nature: Birds and other animals, the wind blowing through the branches and leaves. Ever since Fluttershy had lived in the cottage it had always been there.
But not today. There was no sign of any animal at all. The yellow pegasus gulped. Everfree-animals needed no one to take care of them, they were wild. So there was no reason for them to stay silent. Unless something really, really bad was happening. Fluttershy wasn’t brave but taking care of animals was her calling. And because of that she simply had to go and check out, what was going on. And then make it go off again! …Or at least ask politely if anypony else could help her make it go off.

At her door, Fluttershy hesitated. She didn’t knew what was out there, did she? It could be anything. Anything extremely dangerous and frightening. There was simply no way she could open the door and step out!
Or could she? Together with her friends she had faced the most dangerous threats, Nightmare Moon, Discord and the changelings. And this time she only had to open her front door and go outside. Her hoof rose for the doorknob. Angel at her side rolled his eyes again.

‘Don’t be a scaredy-cat!’

The rabbit hopped and clung to the knob. Slowly the door opened and Fluttershy finally went through.

Outside the air was chilly and it was dark. Fluttershy noticed she had woken up way too early. The moon still stood in the sky and the sun wasn’t to rise within the next hour or two. But even then, Fluttershy thought. It shouldn’t be that quiet out here. Not even the slightest wisp of wind, no animals at all, it was almost as if the whole forest was holding its breath…
Nervously she took a few steps. An overwhelming feeling of being watched troubled the animal caretaker. Though nearby everything seemed just fine.

Then Fluttershy looked to the forest. Her eyes went wide with horror for what was lurking, just vaguely perceptible in the blackness under the old trees of the Everfree.

For a single moment that felt like eternity she just stared at the thing. Then, with a faint scream, Fluttershy rushed back to her cottage, shoved Angel back in, then jumped through the door herself. Fluttershy slammed the door behind her and shut it up. Then shut a second lock and a third. Finally she blocked the door with any furniture she could move in front of it and pressed her back against the improvised barricade.

That day, Fluttershy didn’t wake the nightingales so they could sing the night to sleep and she didn’t wake the roosters so they could welcome the new day. That day all birds were worried when they finally awoke after Princess Celestia had risen the sun. The ponies didn’t take notice.

Except for one…

<0>

It was close to noon, when Valor set off for Fluttershy’s cottage with the uncertain feeling that there was something he should be concerned of, although he couldn’t quite put his hoof on it. He knew little about Ponyville (and to be honest about Equestria as a whole) but a small yet nagging voice in his head told him something was wrong. With the animals, maybe the nature as a whole.
He needed an expert for nature around town. And that was why he was on his way to the meadow cottage, to ask if Fluttershy had noticed anything strange or uncommon. The trees alongside the path to her place were hung with bird tables and nesting boxes and their inhabitants watched Valor with interest as he went by. He himself was more a fan of the untamed nature, the wilderness, the forests and the mountains but Valor Edge had to admit that Fluttershy kept her garden flawless and appealing.

Yet some cobwebs were flying over the small creek flowing in front of her cottage, blown by a gentle summer breeze and glimmering in the sunlight. The spiders’ threads made the whole scene mystical in some way… Gossamer sure was early this year.

As Valor crossed the wooden bridge that lead to Fluttershy’s door he noticed that the animal caretaker had completely rammed up her house. All shutters were closed, as was the door. The bowls Fluttershy had set up for her animals were empty. And judging by the rabbits, ferrets and birds waiting impatiently in front of them, she hadn’t fed them yet.

Seriously now, something is wrong, Valor Edge thought. Fluttershy would never neglect her furry and feathered little friends. I shall check on her!

He quickened his pace to reach the door. The animals took a critical look at him as he arrived but Valor took little notice of them. He knocked at the door.

“Fluttershy?” he called. “Is everything alright?”

No answer. Valor Edge leaned his head against the door and pressed his ear against the wood. He could be mistaking but he thought he could hear somepony breathing heavily behind the door.

“Fluttershy?” Valor repeated then grabbed the doorknob with his teeth. But the door didn’t budge. Oh, come on, Fluttershy, he thought. Say something… I want not to kick in the door.

But as he was about to try and break the door, to his great relief he heard a faint voice from inside.

“Is… Is it gone?”

Valor wound up his brow and wondered what exactly all that was about. Anyway, he answered: “Everything is fine out here, Fluttershy. Come, see thyself!”

Valor Edge heard a rumbling behind the door, like if heavy pieces of furniture were shunt aside, then a metallic clattering and the finally the upper half of the door was opened a crack.

“It’s… It’s daytime, already?” Fluttershy asked.

“Daytime? Dear Fluttershy, it is already past noon!” Valor laughed though keeping a skeptical eye on the pegasus. She seemed startled, but eventually stepped outside.

“Fluttershy”, the stallion decently gave vent to his concern. “Is everything alright? Thou look like having seen a ghost, my friend.”

“I don’t know… I think….”

Fluttershy stopped, a shadow came over her face and she closed her eyes. “Of course, I remember!” she whispered. “It was cold and dark and… and I was… I was…”

“It was not real, Fluttershy. Nothing but a bad dream”, Valor quickly gave comfort. “So now shake off the darkness!”

Contrary to his bright words he now was really concerned.

Fluttershy opened her eyes again and the shadow on her face vanished.
“Nothing but a bad dream…” She paused as again something came to her and her confused expression also changed into a concerned one. “No, that’s not true. Please don’t lie to me, Valor! Something was wrong with me, wasn’t it?”

He didn’t answer.

“Something was out there”, Fluttershy remembered. Now that the shock was over she felt surprisingly calm. But after all, only few nightmares lasted during daylight.

“I know not”, Valor replied. “But what thou said earlier sounded somewhat familiar.”

Fluttershy shook her head as Valor didn’t get that she wasn’t just thinking out loud. “No, Valor, you don’t understand. There was something out there”, she stressed. “It was dark outside, but I saw it. I thought I was going to die and then I remember nothing. That is until you knocked on my door.

A brief smile flitted over Valor’s face, before he became absolutely stern again. “Thou actually did, did thou not? That makes sense. So what if somepony, or more likely something not wanted to get interrupted… Did it cast a curse on thee? Oh, I like not the way this affair is headed…”

Fluttershy rose her hoof like a school-filly to get Valor’s attention. There was something she had thought of and she needed to tell Valor before he got completely lost:
“Valor, that isn’t important right now.”

Valor Edge turned his towards Fluttershy a bemused expression on his face.
“Pardon me?” he asked.

The yellow Pegasus who hadn’t really expected Valor would actually listen to her was a little intimidated at once and blushed. But then she pulled herself together. What she wanted was too important for her usual shyness.
“Whatever is out there, it frightened all the animals, even in the Everfree Forest. I take care of all the animals here so this ‘whatever’ is my concern. But I can’t do it on my own: I know my animals but I’m no expert for monsters.”

“Which I am?” Valor gave her a half smile. “Well I guess the whole affair with the Filly in the Mirror must have left that impression…” He sighed. “Alright, I guess thou now want me to help thee since Twilight is not around?”

“If it isn’t too much trouble… But I’d understand if you don’t want to…”

“No, not at all”, Valor replied happily. “Always glad to help! I wanted to ask thee for help myself, but it works the other way round as well.”

He paused for a moment. “Oh, but first things first”, he then said. “I think we need to feed thy animals. They are already getting nervous.”

<0>

So this was the first time Valor Edge really entered the Everfree Forest. He wasn’t actually afraid of the dark and enchanted woods but had a fair portion of respect for them. There was something in the air that told him right away this forest was far different from an ordinary forest. Maybe it was because the Everfree was the only piece of untamed nature around Ponyville, maybe in the whole country of Equestria even, that it was so queer. Everything in here was much more alive, more aware of what was going on, so to speak, than in Ponyville. At night Valor thought to hear the trees whisper to each other.
There were paths that led through the Everfree Forest but Valor didn’t doubt that this was only because the forest allowed them to be there…
Even now, in the afternoon, Valor could feel the will of the wood turning towards them, watching and waiting.

“So here it is, where thou saw the shadow lurking?” Valor asked. Fluttershy who carefully had eyed at the trees and bushes around. She answered half-heartedly.

“I’m not sure. Likely…”

An eye-witnesses testimony, Valor thought. Vague as usual. But that didn’t really bother him:

“It was big, thou said” he turned to his friend again. “Something big cannot move around through all those bushes and underwood, without leaving traces. So if we enter the forest here, we are bound to find something. By the way, is there something else thou remember? It might help me to figure out what exactly I am looking for.”

And with that he tried to make his way through the underwood, as careful as possible. Fluttershy stood a little behind for she was afraid to disturb his circles or destroy a clue if she stuck to close to him.

“It was huge… pitch-black…” Fluttershy slowly answered. Even now, it was scary to remember what she had seen. “I couldn’t see it clearly, at first… But… But I’m sure it was some kind of dragon.”

Valor’s head appeared behind some brambles. “Could not see it clearly, huh? How is that?” he asked with his brow wound up. Fluttershy thought about that for a moment.

“Well, it was quite dark but something moved in the darkness”, she said. “I couldn’t figure out what it was… Then I saw the head of a dragon winding out beneath the trees. And that’s all I can recall. I think I may have passed out.”

Valor’s expression was hard to read as he looked at Fluttershy. Then he impetuously asked her: “And do thou fear them? Dragons, I mean?”

From Fluttershys unhappy nodding he was absolute sure that he wasn’t mistaking. More than fear…

Valor turned back to the forest and searched for any trace Fluttershy’s attacker may have left behind.

“At least we know one thing for sure”, he called over his shoulder.

“And that is?” she asked back.

“It was most definitely not a dragon!”

A few moments of silence were the result of Valor’s odd statement, then a rustle in the bushes behind told him, Fluttershy was eventually closing up to him. She carefully tried to avoid the brambles, though.

“You don’t believe me?” Fluttershy murmured. Her face turned sad which made Valor at once correct himself.

“Oh no, Fluttershy. That is not what I meant”, he quickly explained. “I do believe thee, every word thou said. But that is exactly the point… Look around and tell me what thou can see!”

Fluttershy did as Valor had requested, now wondering what Valor’s point was. She really carefully looked around. Just few steps into the woods and the air had turned hot and stuffy and Fluttershy had the feeling the trees bowed a little towards them to better hear what the two ponies spoke. It was hard to focus when even the presence of trees themselves was menacing but Fluttershy did her best. But she couldn’t find anything that caught her eye.

“Exactly”, Valor confirmed, without her even saying a single word. “I take from thy confused expression that thou have noticed. There is no possible way a dragon could disappear without leaving any traces. Nor do they even try, for that matter. But there are little evidences something was here at all. Howbeit, I can see some snapped off branches and twigs over there.”

He pointed his hoof at some trees and bushes in close proximity.
“But that is all. No footprints which alas is common if we consider that the ground is dry as a bone and covered in leaf litter. But a dragon should have at least left some claw marks… Now that is a riddle…”

He went to look closer at the broken branches. Valor corrected his assessment from little to almost no evidences. Any big animal could have broken the twigs… He struggled to get through some thick and tough bushes beneath the trees.

Fluttershy watched as Valor literally dug into the greenery. He sure seemed to do nothing half way. And again Valor vanished behind the leaves. Still, he kept calling over to Fluttershy.

“Whatever we are after is most definitely not a dragon. It half scared thee to death, and that can be taken literally. As far as I know, there was only one dragon that was able to strike sheer terror and he was slain centuries ago (and in another world, come to think of it).”

He had added the last part in a very low toned voice as if he had been talking to himself lately and this wasn’t for anyone else to hear.

“I think it was something else, disguising himself as a dragon because thou are afraid of dragons. Some very serious black magic”, Valor now spoke louder again. “That is what it casted on thee. Crude, yes, but very serious. Bless the heavens I came by!”

“You think. it could have gotten worse?” Fluttershy called back.

“Yes…” Valor sounded not very happy about Fluttershy bringing that topic up again but he answered eventually. “Those spells inflict fear. At least that is what I suppose. It drowns one in his own fears, veils him in dark thoughts until there is nothing left but despair. In the end one even loses the will to live. We used to call it the Black-Scare-Curse, cruel and evil, without any doubt. Luckily, it only takes…IIIAAAH!”

Valor Edge interrupted himself with a sudden scream.

“Valor, are you alright?” Fluttershy worried.

The reply came immediately. Too immediately even and it sounded a little sheepish.

“I am fine, I am fine. Just ran into a cobweb. The mother of cobwebs actually… Oh, fie! I hate spiders… But never mind, I just need to pull myself together and the cobwebs out of my mane…”

Fluttershy couldn’t help to chuckle a bit. Funny, it almost sounded like Valor was afraid of spiders. But at the very moment she had thought that a vehement rustling of leaves announced the swordstallion’s return.

“Just for the record”, Valor said sternly as he stuck his head out in the open again. “I am not afraid of spiders. I just not like them. But know what, I may have stumbled upon an actual clue. Now what would thou take this for?”

Valor held up his left forehoof and presented to Fluttershy the thing he had found. It was black and not unlike a hair, about twelve inches long.

“That’s not from any animal I know”, Fluttershy stated. “It’s too thick, don’t you think Valor?”

The stallion nodded. “Way too thick, diameter almost an inch. And also too stiff for a hair and kind of spikey at the tip. In the name of everything sacred, I could use this as a sewing needle! So now the major question is what kind of creatures has fur it could poke somepony’s eye out with and is able to cause sheer terror on sight?”

“I… I don’t know”, Fluttershy stuttered who now could almost feel again the dark power’s grip that had laid upon her. And what was worse was that for the first time since they had come here, Valor seemed uneasy. Not curious or agitated, no, actual uneasy.

“Neither do I”, Valor muttered. “But I not like it. Not one single bit. This hair, or whatever it is. It is somehow familiar… I know not how, though. Fluttershy, I have the off feeling that there is something I am missing… ” For one heartbeat, even a glimmer of fear flickered in Valor’s right eye. “Am I missing something, Fluttershy?”

The yellow pegasus shook her head, partly to ease Valor’s bewilderment and partly because she really didn’t know what Valor could be possibly missing…

His stern expression only lasted for so long before his face brightened up again.
“Now, now, no need to let that bother us right now. If we not get any further here, there is only one thing we can do anyway… And do thou know what said thing is, Fluttershy?”

“Egghead-stuff?” Fluttershy guessed and used Rainbow Dash’s favorite phrase for studying and research.

A smile whizzed over Valor’s lips. “Exactly”, he replied.

And with that they both turned and headed back towards town. Valor however ever now and then looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t get rid of the feeling that unfriendly eyes kept watching him, biding for the right time to strike.

<0>

3 - Turn by Turn

3rd: Turn by Turn

On half way back to Ponyville, Fluttershy unexpectedly tipped Valor at the shoulder and said: “You’re not the only one who’s afraid of spiders.”

Valor sighed. “One more time, I am NOT afraid of spiders…” He paused as he realized what the pegasus was up to:

Towards them walked Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, wearing their usual red Cutie-Mark-Crusader-Capes. Actually, Sweetie Belle was less walking than jumping around in circles screaming “Get it off of me! Get it off of me!” while apparently trying to free herself from a spider’s web that was stuck in her mane. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo did their best to help her; what was all but easy with Sweetie bucking around like mad.

“See?” Fluttershy smiled at Valor. “There sure are a lot of spiders around today…”

The stallion grimaced and trotted over to the three fillies. “Hold still, please!” he advised Sweetie Belle and then skillfully removed the sticky threads from her mane.

“Hi Valor! Hi Fluttershy” Apple Bloom greeted, followed by another “Hi” from Scootaloo and then Sweetie Belle.

“What’s up?” Scootaloo asked, beaming at Valor. “Anything exiting?”

He knew at once, what the filly was up to. Since he had begun to tell his stories, the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried to persuade him over and over again to help them getting a ‘hero-related’ Cutie Mark. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

And although Valor was glad to share his knowledge with anypony who would listen, this time he was certain to keep the fillies out of it. For their own safety.

“Basically”, he evasively answered. “Fluttershy and I are doing some research about animals. I think you might find the studying a little boring, but you may come along if you want.”

At once the filies’ expectant expressions slipped. Studying wasn’t at all how they imagined their weekend.

“Yeah, I guess we’re drawing a blank on that one”, Scootaloo slowly said. “Right, girls?”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell frenetically nodded in confirmation.

“Alright then. See you later, fillies”, Valor replied. He airily saluted to the Cutie Mark Crusader who returned that greeting. Then he and Fluttershy went off.

“That was a bummer”, Scootaloo stated.

“Do ya know, why he’s so into studies all of a sudden?” Applebloom tilted her head into Valor’s direction.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shrugged their shoulders. “Anyway, what do we do now?” Sweetie wanted to know.

Apple Bloom thought about that problem. Apparently there was no Hero Cutie Mark to get today, so what should they do?

All of a sudden, she felt a tiny sting in her neck. “Yuck… Damn mosquitos”, she muttered and scratched the itchy spot.

And then, Apple Bloom knew it: “Hey, let’s go to Zecora’s place”, she offered.

Her friend was sounding a little off, Sweetie Belle thought. But she could be mistaken. Sweetie Belle’s imagination often got the best of her…

“Maybe Zecora can teach us how to brew healing potions.” Apple Bloom continued. “Every hero needs healing potions, ya know?”

That seemed somewhat logical, although Sweetie Belle was wondering how Apple Bloom was expert on hero business all of a sudden.

“No objections!” Scootaloo said. Then she jerked and slapped her shoulder with her hoof. “Anyway, let’s go, girls! AB’s right, these midges gonna eat us alive…”

Now Sweetie Belle felt a sting, too. “Ieek! Yes, let’s go!”

Had the three fillies more carefully listened to Valor as he talked about the less-fun parts of being a ranger, they had probably kept a more thoughtful eye on their surroundings. Then they maybe had noticed there weren’t any mosquitos around at all…

<0>

Twilight impatiently tapped her hoof on the sill. Had the train to Ponyville always been that dead slow? Time didn’t seem to pass at all on the last part of the track. Just when she had no time to lose! This blue pony and his book had startled her. She had tried to find the answer to the question on the mysterious note. But neither Clover the Clever nor Starswirl himself gave one in their books. In the whole library not. So Twilight had asked the librarian about the strange stallion.

The stallion’s name was Perfect Pace, at least the librarian had told her that. He was the timekeeper of Canterlot. That must’ve been the reason he was on familiar ground with temporal magic. But according to the confused librarian he hadn’t seen Mister Pace for at least three weeks. And The Silver Knight of Eternity wasn’t in the stock list either and the librarian had never heard about that, too,

So that was the situation: Twilight had received a book that didn’t exist from a pony that had never been there. And with the book she had gotten a note with instruction she couldn’t figure out what to do with and didn’t even know if it was meant for her.
Confusing? Yes sir, Twilight was very confused. And after three pointless hours trying to find Perfect Pace she had decided to take another option.

If Pace was untraceable there was only one pony who she could possibly ask if the instruction meant something to him. A certain stallion with a certain golden Vortex-manipulating lighter. Unfortunately that pony was in Ponyville at the moment.

Of course, she could have send Valor a letter via Spike and he would have gotten it almost immediately. But Valor would have to send an answer by regular mail because Spike was with her and precisely not in Ponyville… And because there was simply no way she could wait until the mail ponies arrived (Ponyville’s mail ponies weren’t exactly the most reliable ones), Twilight took a different decision and the first train in the morning back to Ponyville.

“Once again, Twilight”, Spike drew her attention. “You’re really creep me out. You’ve been mumbling like that to yourself since we left Canterlot.”

Twilight snapped out of her thoughts. “Sorry, what did you say Spike?”

“Never mind.” The purple dragon rolled his eyes. I just hope this train arrives in Ponyville soon and that Twilight can get some answers. Or that Valor can calm her down a bit, at least…

“Strange stallions that haven’t been there, and strange books about temporal magic that don’t even exist”, he heard Twilight beginning to mutter again. “And the Void… What’s about the Void? Does it really exist or is it metaphorical? Oh, why didn’t Starswirl mention only once that dealing with temporal magic was so… so…”

She searched for the right words. Spike eyed at his claws and then supplied: “Wobbly?”

Twilight Sparkle hesitated for a moment and looked at Spike in amazement.

“That may be not very scientific, Spike”, she said, shaking her head. “But it’s… It’s a shockingly good way to put it.”

“Science is not everything Twi, you know?”

Just as Twilight was about to answer, a sudden whistling of a train interrupted her. Ponyville, finally. It had costed her all day to get back here. Finally, Twilight was going to get some answers. She didn’t for even one second doubt that Valor could help her. At least he could most likely decrypt some of the phenomena Clover the Clever had described in her book.

“And you’re sure, Valor Edge knows the answers?” Spike asked. “I mean, why would he know about reversing poles or whatsit?” Though Twilight hadn’t directly told him about her plans she had been grumbling about them all the ride back to Ponyville.

“Two words, Spike”, Twilight answered. “Vortex. Manipulator. Or ‘time machine’ for the simpler mind. His golden lighter, do you remember? He called it that. Starswirl used the phrase Vortex-manipulating, too. It’s in the very book the time-travelling spell I once used was in. I already talked to the girls about that and we all agreed that it couldn’t be just coincidence he uses the same words as the only expert on that topic. And I bet that instructions is somehow time related.”

Sure, Valor Edge was a bit strange and could tell stories of olden times like he had been there, but a time-traveler? Spike got the feeling he must have missed the memo on that one, but that would explain Twilights renascent interest in time-magic. Spike just hoped it wouldn’t lead to another meltdown, like the last time…

The librarian and her assistant eventually got off of the train. Now, in the early evening, Twilight came to notice, kind of an odd atmosphere prevailed in town. It was almost as if autumn had decided to begin. (Which was strange, considering that it was only few weeks after Summer Sun Celebration.) Anyway, she didn’t waste any time and started to look out if Valor Edge was somewhere nearby right away.
Spike on the other hand wouldn’t have minded to get something to eat first, but obviously his opinion didn’t count.

<0>

Luckily for Spike’s rumbling stomach, Twilight hadn’t to seek long for the grey stallion. She ran across him right away at the library.

Valor was standing in front of the Golden Oak’s door. Together with Fluttershy he was to face an unexpected problem: As the library was also Twilight’s home she had, of course, locked it up when leaving for Canterlot.

“What is the purpose of a library, when it is locked?” Valor Edge complained.

“It kind of makes sense”, Fluttershy replied. “If you think about it. It’s her home after all. I mean, I wouldn’t leave my house unlocked if I’m out.”

Valor made gestured helplessly. “But… But…” he stammered. “But the library still is public, is it not?” He tried to object.

“We don’t often lend books, though.”

The stallion let out a deep sigh. “I admit defeat. Now what shall I do? Get my lock picks?”

“Or you could just ask me for the key, before you break in”, Twilight dryly stated and stepped next to Valor. “But interesting to hear you got burglar’s tools.”

“Oh, Twilight, good to see you!” Fluttershy greeted her.

“Good to see thee”, Valor Edge added, definitely trying to distract from his suggestion to break into Twilight's home.

Twilight put her key into the lock and opened the door. “Valor, there’s something I wanted to ask you. Something I need your help with”, she said.

Valor Edge made a deep bow in front of Twilight. “Always at thy service.” And as they went inside, he added: “What can I help thee with?”

Twilight told him, what her problem was. Time-travel, the Void and most of all, that strange instruction she had gotten. Valor nodded seriously and then said:

“I will answer thy questions as honestly as possible. But I fear I know little about the mechanics of time-travel or the Void. The old magician - Starswirl, was it? - may be right. It is a place that should not exist. It is absolute horror. And whenever a bridge forms between our reality and the Void, terrible things happen. Indescribable, evil things. I cannot forbid thee to study but I plead thee, whatever thou do, never ever try to break the bonds of reality!”

He looked like somepony who had experienced these terrible things first hand, Twilight thought and chose to not stress this point any further. At least at the moment.

“And about that message”, she instead asked. “Does that mean anything to you?”

Valor was already trying to grab a book high from the zoological shelve and therefor dangerously balancing on a stepladder.

“I can imagine quite some things where polarity could be reversed to obtain a certain effect. Reversing the polarity of a power source would make it discharge at once, violently perhaps. And it reminds me of an old acquaintance of me. He used to often say that he would reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. But that is just nonsensical gibberish, meant to sound scientific…” He almost slipped a step and fell as he was trying to balance four books at the same time on his head. He zestfully slammed the books on the bookrack, then Valor thoughtfully continued:

“I need to rethink that matter later… Right now we have more urgent things to discuss. But worry not, Twilight Sparkle. If this message is important, it will make sense when it needs to. It always does.” He turned to Fluttershy and said. “Can thou please fill Twilight in, while I start to look up our mysterious creature?”

With growing bewilderment and worry Twilight listened to Fluttershy’s report of what had happened and what she and Valor had found out. That was really serious matter. A dangerous creature roaming around Ponyville could start a mass panic or even worse…
Twilight had to cast her curiousness aside and help with the research. After all, she was the librarian in charge, wasn’t she?

Together, the three ponies read through book after book, trying to find anything useful.
But an hour went by and Valor was growing utterly frustrated. The mysterious black hair was the only point of reference he had for his research. A sketchy point at best, for even in the first book about mythological creatures half a dozen tremendously dangerous beasts that possessed black hair or fur of some sort. None of them seemed to fit, though he still had the sensation he was missing something. In some way that hair seemed familiar, like he had seen it before. But he couldn’t quite recall where or when…

“It is of no use”, Valor sighed. “I just cannot figure out what we have to deal with. If I could only figure out what this stingy hair reminds me of. Knowing my luck it is from a Fenris-Wolf or something like that and I am just too dumb to recognize it.”

“I think it’s not a mammal’s hair at all, you know?” Fluttershy stated. “Though I like your idea with the Fenris.”

“I thank thee, but that was not even a real suggestion, Fluttershy.” Valor groaned.

“A Fenris has neither the right size nor can it change its shape. Of course, its howling is inducing fear though…” Twilight added.

Valor shook his head but then reconsidered what Fluttershy had just said:
“Not a mammal’s hair, you say? Hm… If we have eliminated all the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“Hey, I know that one”, Fluttershy exclaimed. “Sherlock Hooves, right?”

Valor laughed despite being tired and tense. “Very good, Fluttershy! Of course. The great Sherlok Ho… Wait, did thou say ‘Hooves’?”

He loudly cleared his throat and quickly got back to the trail: “Again, never mind… Alright, not a mammal’s hair. Then, what other animals have hair?”

“Are… Are you asking me?” Fluttershy’s doubtfully asked.

Valor closed his eye. “No, I am asking the pot plant over there… Of course I am asking thee, Fluttershy! I am a good hunter and Twilight is very smart, but the unchallenged expert for creatures of all sorts is thou!”

His cynism earned Valor a scolding look from Twilight but Fluttershy indeed felt a little bland that he saw her that way. She tried to think very hard about the problem.

“Well, um… Lizards and amphibians don’t have fur… Of course eastern dragons have fur and whiskers but if we definitely can cross out a dragon…”

“Definitely, yes”, Valor stressed.

“Right, right.” She nodded.

“Then we don’t have any vertebrates left?” Twilight wanted to know, which Fluttershy confirmed.

“At least as far as I know… Oh, Valor, did you know that butterflies are furry, too?”

Valor found the thought of a giant, venomous moth attacking Ponyville as unlikely as disturbing. “Somepony would have noticed if a large, murderous butterfly was around.” He replied dryly.
Then he heard a something:

Valor’s ears twitched as a babel of voices sunk in from outside. Before he could say anything, Applejack and Rarity entered, no almost rushed into the library, followed by Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

“Valor, glad yer here”, Applejack addressed him instantly. That she didn’t even bother to greet Fluttershy or Twilight (who she hadn’t seen for the last three days) told Valor that there was something wrong.

“Is there something wrong?” he nevertheless asked to be on the safe side.

“Have yer seen the fillies? Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, I mean? They’re late for picnic and we can’t find them anywhere.”

Valor Edge deeply sighed within. Am I doomed to never solve this riddle? But, of course, missing family members, especially foals always had priority.

“Alright”, he said. His calm tone was meant to calm down Applejack, Rarity and the others as well. “Please start from the beginning! What has happened and what have you done so far to find the fillies?”

Valor Edge now came to know that Applejack, shortly afterwards accompanied by Rarity and Rainbow Dash had asked all around town if anypony had seen the three fillies. It turned out that indeed Valor and Fluttershy were the last if not the only one to have spoken with them today. After that, they had wandered off and not returned when it was time for the picnic AJ had arranged for them. Right now, they were missing for somewhat over two hours. Nopony had seen neither Applebloom, nor Sweetie Belle, nor Scootaloo.

Now, with the Everfree Forest so close by, everypony was, of course, worried, afraid even.

Which was understandable in Valor’s opinion. It was true, the three were quite independent for their age. But maybe a little more independent than was good for them. And the fact they had practically vanished right in front of Valor’s eye left a negative connotation.

If something had happened it would be the second thing today Valor had failed to see. Alongside with why he failed to see how that black hair was so familiar to him.

Either I am getting old, or there is some kind of evil will turned against us.

Valor very well knew that he could get a little paranoid at times. But what really bothered him wasn’t as much the disappearing of the fillies itself but more the fact he couldn’t even recall which direction Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had went. Did they go back to town or the other way?

And neither could Fluttershy which made the affair even more suspicious. Truth to be told, if Applejack hadn’t told them, none of both would have given the Cutie Mark Crusaders any single thought.

“Do you know the feeling”, Fluttershy asked. She sounded flustered. “That there’s something in the corner of your eye but you fail to see it? Same with what happened today…”

“Me too”, Valor Edge confirmed. “Anypony else?”

“Dunno. Ah got an awkward feelin’ that somethin’ was wrong and suddenly Ah remembered that Ah had wanted to prepare a picnic with the fillies. And that they hadn’t come”, Applejack slowly said.

Twilight had closed her eyes like she was trying to memorize something. “It felt like autumn”, she murmured.

“Oh, this is bad”, Valor muttered. “This might well be the first turn of our opponent.”

“Turn?” Fluttershy wondered. “Valor, what’s going on?”

The grey stallion rubbed his temples. He was trying so hard to think that he was getting a headache. Eventually Valor tried to put the pieces together:

“What we know so far is that a mysterious creature haunts the Everfree Forest. It is somehow able to cause fear which we know because Fluttershy was attacked that way.
Three fillies not come home. Coincidence? It may be but somehow I doubt that.
And last but not least: The indistinct feeling that something is not as it should be. At least four of us have experienced it throughout the day. Hence, I gather something IS not as it should be.
Something is going on, right in front of us, yet we are unable to see it…”

Everypony was quiet. Valor now sounded a afraid himself and that was enough to keep them silent.

“What are we facing? What is it up to?” he muttered. “Oh, I know the answer, I know, I know, but I cannot put my hoof on it. Right there yet hidden… ‘In the corner of your eye’…
Sounds like… Sounds like… Now, what was the word…?”

Suddenly, he jumped to his hooves.

“Perception Filter! Yes, that was the word. Ever so slightly shifts ones perception that the mind refuses to see what is obviously there!”
His eye darted all over the place. If it really was a Perception Filter – be it magical or technical- maybe knowing about it would enable him to say what it was supposed to veil.
But there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary in the library despite the fact that it could need a little cleanup. Twilight had been gone for only three days and the cobwebs were already hanging between the shelves.

Cobwebs!
And Valor saw daylight.

Spider threads blowing with the wind at Fluttershy’s cottage.
The cobweb he had stumbled into; a black hair next to it on the ground.
Sweetie Belle screaming “Get it off of me! Get it off of me”, a spider’s web in her mane.
“It felt like autumn.”

It all made perfectly sense. And now Valor was downright furious: “I am an idiot! No, a thirty-six-time moron! It was there all the time!”

“Excuse me, Valor”, Twilight impatiently interrupted his ranting. “But would you please let us participate in your insights?”

“Why did thou think it felt like autumn?” the stallion shot back at her.

“I don’t know… Maybe because of all the… Oh!” And there was the daylight again.

Valor Edge nodded glumly. “It is a spider”, he said. “That wiry hair is from a giant spider. That was why it was so alien and yet familiar. I know spiders are hairy (which is actually part of why I not like them). But I have never seen a spider that big and thus I not recognized it.”

“But somepony would have notice if a giant spider was running around Ponyville”, Twilight expressed her last doubts. Valor Edge pointed at her with his hoof and exclaimed:

“Good objection, Twilight. Apart from Fluttershy, nopony has noticed anything. A whole town and not one single witness!
I dare to claim the giant spider has never left the forest until now. But how was it able to make all of us oblivious, if it has not even seen us yet?”

That was a good question. Valor had a certain suspicion on that point: All the cobwebs that were around, they hadn’t been there when Twilight had left for Canterlot ago. She had noticed them and, just like Valor, connected them with the beginning of fall.
And even Fluttershy had mentioned there were unusual many spiders in Ponyville. So during the last three days, as much as an army of spiders had spread all over town.

What if something was able to lead or even control them? Some kind of wicked spider-queen, for example. All over Equestria, cobwebs where common sight, nopony would ever become suspicious.
But spiders could easily creep in each and every house and spy on each and every pony. And most ponies would flat-out ignore them. An agent in every house, eyes all over Ponyville, like a virtual, giant spider web.
Their enemy could be considered the perfect spider. It sat motionless at the center of a web with a thousand radiations and did little itself but plotting. But that web was swarmed by thousands of minions, unseen by all others. Through their eyes it saw and through their ears it heard everything and could react on any threat. Put a Perception Filter over a whole town. Dull the ponies’ senses, make them be oblivious of important things. Or induce fear. Maybe even lure prey into the creature’s fangs.
In any case, assure that nopony interfered in its hunt.

“Oh, I fear for the fillies”, he sadly concluded. “They might be in grave danger. We need to find them as soon as possible!”

“We looked for them everywhere!” Applejack desperately exclaimed.
But that wasn’t true. There was still one place left, they hadn’t searched: The Everfree Forest.

Valor nodded, his expression deadly serious. Then he rose his head and turned towards his friends.
“I let myself get under the influence of a cheap trick. I allowed my senses to be numbed while my inner voice was screaming to get my attention. I even withheld the truth about my concerns when I should have told them right away and make sure they were safe.
I may be wrong – Oh, I never have hoped so much that I am wrong! - But I think creature already was after them when Fluttershy and I met the earlier.
Heavens, if anything happens to the fillies I could never forgive myself! But if our opponent really is a spider of some sort then there might be time left…

Hence, you all be my testimonies: I will neither rest nor bait until I bring the fillies back save and sound. I promise -no I swear- in the name of everything sacred! And woe betide anything that dares trying to stop me!

Now, Spike: Please get my sword from Sweet Apple Acres! The hunt is on!”

<0>

4 - Zecora's Prophecy

4th: Zecora’s prophecy

“Admit it, Apple Bloom”, Scootaloo claimed for about the tenth time. “We’re lost.”

Apple Bloom turned around, slightly hacked off. “There’s only one way to go. How can we be lost?”

The three fillies were still on the way to Zecora’s tree-hut. And Apple Bloom was right. There was only one path they could follow to get there. No forks no crossroads, just one straight way from the fringe of the forest to the home of Apple Bloom’s zebra friend unmistakable past the blue leafs of the Poison Joke. And yet…

“We’ve been walking for hours, Apple Bloom”, Sweetie Belle bore Scootaloo out. “It’s getting dark already.”

The longer the three fillies followed the path the more powerful grew Sweetie Belle’s feeling that something was off with Apple Bloom. At first it seemed that Sweetie’s friend hadn’t even noticed that their trip was taking forever.

And even after Scootaloo started to nag, Apple Bloom stayed more than reluctant to admit that something was wrong.

“Ah know the way. Stop buggin’ me!” she argued, making Sccotallo at once to broach the subject again.

“No, apparently, you don’t”, she mocked. And the two fillies started to quarrel.

Unlike any other day, Sweetie Belle did not participate in their argument. Today, she simply got no nerve for that.

She was more than troubled. Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom vehemently held their opinion against each other. And both of them were kind of right: It was impossible to get lost on while staying on the trail. And yet it was also impossible that they were still on the right track, wasn’t it?

It didn’t take Sweetie Belle long to figure out that something had to be very wrong, actually, the filly had suspected that before. She looked around and tried to find a clue.
Rumor had it that something laid mysterious trails through the Everfree Forest. Pathways that lead nowhere at all, endless roads. And if any pony was unlucky enough to stumble upon on of them, he or she would just disappear and never be seen again!

They all had heard that kind of stories for countless times. Just silly stories to scare little fillies and colt so they didn’t stray off. At least that was what the Cutie Mark Crusaders had thought.

Right now, Sweetie Belle wasn’t that sure. Of course a road couldn’t go on and on forever. But what if they had been put under a mean spell that had trapped them on this pathway for eternity?
The unicorn-filly hastily checked the surrounding. She didn’t want to be lost forever!

The forest seemed downright hostile. The golden gloaming –usually Sweetie would have called it enchanted- had nothing appealing anymore. It was dazzling, made her head swim. The three fillies were surrounded by a buzzing and chirping like from hundreds of angry crickets. Sweetie couldn’t see ten yards far as the sight was blurred by the strange, glimmering atmosphere of the Everfree Forest. She wasn’t an expert but she doubted that this was normal, even by the forest’s standards.
And there was another noise. It was strange, like from insect jaws clicking. Sweetie got more and more nervous. The mosquito bite from earlier started to itch again but in an odd way: Not a normal itchiness, more a tickling, like if something…

Sweetie froze on the spot, her fur stood on end. Like if something was crawling over her back!
She squealed and slammed her back against a tree. A disgusting, mushy sound resonated and a fluid, icky and slimy ran down Sweetie’s back. She turned around and saw the remains of a wicked, pale spider, smashed against the tree.
Everything changed. The unnatural lighting died off leaving a more somber and oppressing atmosphere. The sun had almost set. And their trail was gone.

They were right in the middle of nowhere, in the deepest forest, not on the way to Zecora’s hut. On no way at all but surrounded by crippled old trees and tough, leathery shrubs! To face the truth, they were utterly and completely lost. And Apple Bloom and Scootaloo didn’t seem to even notice it one bit. They kept arguing just as if Sweetie Belle was the only one to see the sudden change.

And suddenly the unicorn filly saw why:
On her friends’ backs, just at the same spot where Sweetie had felt the tickling, sat two more spiders clung into their coats.
Sweetie screamed, picked a stick and wiped of the spiders from the other fillies’ backs. They flew through the air and smacked against the trees. With and angry hissing, the arachnoids vanished in the undergrowth. The fillies now sat in complete silence. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom blinked unbelievingly, like they were awaking from a deep slumber. Did I look like that, too? Sweetie Belle asked herself.

“What in tarnation…?” Apple Bloom muttered, her eyes darting about. Within a second, an already strange situation had turned absolute creepy.

“Where’s the path?” Scootaloo wanted to know, her voice faint.

Sweetie Belle shook her head as she tried to explain, what she didn’t understand herself: “Look, there were those spiders on you. One was on me, too. I think… I think, they casted some kind of spell on us… I don’t know… They somehow trapped us, I think.”

"O.K. Ah admit it…” Apple Bloom pitifully muttered. “We ARE lost.”

But neither Sweetie Belle nor Scootaloo wanted to go into that at the moment. They heard something.

“We need to get out of the forest” Sweetie stressed. “Does anypony know, where we are?”
All three fillies looked around. As far as they could see, the forest seemed to go on and on. No sign of a living creature in sight at all except for the cobwebs over their heads.

“Oh, holy hay”, Sweetie Belle continued to whisper. “What do we do? What do we do?”

“C’mon, Sweetie Belle”, Scootaloo tried to reassure her. “We’ve been in worse situations, haven’t we?” She did a horrible job at that. Her voice trembled too much. The only similar situation they had been in had been the incident with the Cockatrice and if hadn’t been for Fluttershy to rescue them, who knew what could have happened?
Scootaloo however tried to push these thoughts aside. After all, they had listened to at more of Valor’s adventure stories than any other pony! And though his stories were not an exact survival guide, they had to become useful in the end…

“Remember, girls”, Scootaloo turned to them. “What has Valor told us? How do you survive in a forest?”

“Try to get out of it…?” Sweetie Belle suggested but Apple Bloom was more thinking ahead.

“We need to get on high ground”, she recalled from one of Valor Edge’s earlier stories. “To look out for any landmarks. And Ah’d say, we basically need to…”

A blackish, oil-like drop of fluid suddenly oozed on AB’s head. Apple Bloom started to shiver, as the three fillies slowly rose their heads to look above their heads where an enormous, black figure was lurking.

“RUN!” Apple Bloom screamed as the creature was letting itself down on them.

<0>

In olden days Valor Edge would have faced a threat like the current one with a contingent of his own guard, experienced in the fight against the dark forces. In not so olden days he would have brought at least a squad of soldiers to back him up. And today he was trying to hunt down a demonic being of some sort with only six ponies as company. He truly missed the olden days!
Of course the Elements of Harmony were a force that hadn’t to be underestimated they still lacked a proper plan. Find the missing fillies, easier said than done.

“How do we start?” Twilight Sparkle wanted to know.

She had a very good point. Knowing their foe didn’t mean they could track him down easily. Not to talk about running it down. No, Valor, keep thy priorities straight, he scolded himself. Thou are not a soldier. Killing the monster is not our primary objective. First we need to bring back Apple Bloom and her friends save and sound.

Rule number one for finding missing ponies: Search the places they would most likely head to.

“If the fillies are clever, they will be trying to find a path or try to get to a place they know”, he supposed. “If they still are able to, that is…” His expression slipped. Almost instinctively, and though he vehemently pushed the thought aside, he had calculated their chances. And right now, he would think twice before placing a bet on either his fellowship or the fillies…

“C’mon, Pointy”, Pinkie Pie tried to cheer his grave mood up, like it was her habit. “Why the long face?”

“That is because I am pony”, he retorted dryly before turning away from her. He then asked: “Is there any place you ponies know in the Everfree Forest? A safe place you could go to if you are in peril?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Pinkie exclaimed, happy she could provide help. “We could go to the Mirror Pond!”

“The Mirror Pond isn’t safe, Pinkie”, Twilight cut her short. “And beside you, only Big McIntosh and I know the way to the cavern. They can’t be going there.”

“What ‘bout Zecora”, Applejack supplied. “She’s friends with Apple Bloom. Her hut’s the only safe place in the Everfree Ah could imagine. Could Applebloom try to get to Zecora?”

“Oh, Applejack!” Valor eventually began to smile. “Apple Bloom actually has a friend in this ghastly forest? That is fantastic! Until now I would not have bet a single bit on our rescue mission. But that improves our chances greatly.”

“Excuse me?” Applejack wound up her brow. Valor realized his tactlessness, a downright faux pas. So much for his diplomatic skills… Maybe he was getting old…

“Ehehe”, He laughed sheepishly. “Listen not to me! Dumb old Valor, always saying dumb things… Now, where do… We…”

He trailed off and fell silent. Getting old maybe but after being dulled the whole day, his instincts now were on the alert. And right now these instincts had begun to ring like a fire bell.

“We are being watched”, he hissed. The stallion carefully lowered his head so he could grip the hilt of his sword with his teeth, careful not to make any sudden movements.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t that cautious.

“Alright, come out at once and show yourself!” she called out and made the others jump. She’d made a great officer, Valor thought, but could need some lessons in tactics and when to chasten her temper. Anyway, it worked. Indeed something started to rustle in the undergrowth, Valor Edge drew his sword with a high, singing tone; its usual cold shimmer was a little warmer in the light of the dying day.

Then out of the covert and on the path stepped…

… A pony. She was a lean mare draped with golden tribal jewelry. But she had black and white stripes. It took some time until the word ‘zebra’ came to Valor’s mind. “And who may ye be?” he asked.

The zebra gave him a long, serious look before she answered. Her blue eyes told Valor she was older than it seemed. A little like himself, though he guessed he was still a lot older than her.

“My name you must have heard about, you just talked about me, no doubt.”

“Zecora”, Applejack addressed the zebra. “Have ya seen Apple Bloom? Is she with ya? Please, tell me she is!”

Zecora’s eyes turned wide with horror. “She’s out there, don’t tell me that! Then there’s no time left to chat! Follow me, don’t hesitate, and come now before it’s too late!”

Valor Edge didn’t try to stop Zecora as she now took the lead. If he wasn’t mistaking the zebra was exactly the pony he needed to talk to if he wanted to know what was going on in the forest: A pony whose senses weren’t blunt to the voice of nature.
“As I take it, zebras live in close communion with nature?” He addressed Zecora as he was following her to her home in a great, old and hollow tree. “Oh, and excuse my overzeal: Ye can call me Valor Edge…”

“So that is what you’ve heard, I see”, Zecora answered; she sounded a little leery. “But what do you really think of me?”

“I’ve met many folks, though never a zebra.” This time Valor wanted to choose his words more carefully than before with AJ. “But I have learned to never judge anything or anypony by the first look. So I try to look more carefully.”

Zecora seemed to be satisfied by his answer. Despite the situation, she smiled and trotted over to her door and opened to let Twilight and her friends in. But as Valor made the move to join them, the zebra leaned close to him and said in a low voice:

“I’m keen to know: What do you see, when you carefully look at me?”

“Ye look only a few years older than my friends here, but your eyes tell me that ye are that ye must have seen a lot. Bright and dark days. Ye are a kind pony, caring and wise. A little sad, perhaps…?”

“The same I could say about you”, Zecora smiled knowingly. “Now come on, there is work to do!”

They both went in and Zecora shut the door behind them. The interior of the hut was shady, the walls were stuffed with ancient masks, totems and bookshelves. The smell of exotic herbs and spices filled the air.

“Valor, you are wise and strong”, Zecora said while lighting the candles. “It’s very good you’ve come along.”

Valor Edge shook his head. “I not just came long, Zecora. Once I made a vow to protect and I will not break it. Even if they weren’t my friends’ sisters, I would never allow an innocent life to be endangered.”

The zebra nodded approvingly. “I take that in this hour of gloom, you’ll do all in your power to safe Apple Bloom. So, friends come closer and you will see, what’s going on in the Everfree.”

“So you actually know something about that creature?” Twilight exclaimed but fell silent again as Zecora cleared her throat. Her face was dramatically highlighted by the burning candles.

“There’s an old prophecy, passed from my ancestors and down to me. It’s about an evil of old, so take heed of the words I have been told:
In somber woods well hidden
Waiting but yet all set
At a place that is forbidden
Dwells a hideous threat

In the dark of the night
When mysterious mists arise
And the full moon’s light is bright
To stay away is wise

For then it hunts in darkest wood
Shrouded in a web of scare
Fillies and colts will be gone for good
If no one is aware

It always seeks for three
That’s what is its aim
The foals will never be set free
If nopony ends his game

From sun to moon to sun again
The young ones lives will fade
If they are not saved from the den
They soon will all be dead

Far beyond the brambles thick
And the most twisted vines
It is this path you have to pick
The unnatural pond to find

Seek it where its lair is built
At this cavern’s lake indeed
Where meaninglessly lives are spilled
To satisfy its greed

So goes the prophecy my ancestors knew. May I now ask what you’re going to do?”

“See?” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, happy as usual. “I was right! I told you we should go to the Mirror Pond! The prophecy says it, too.”

Valor didn’t say anything. Again he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to know where Pinkie now had gotten that from.

Twilight meanwhile rubbed her chin. “That’d mean a great advance in the accuracy of the Pinkie-Sense. But you’re right Pinkie. ‘Between the most twisted vines’ that rings a bell. It indeed sounds like that rhyme about the Mirror Pond.”

“So, what the hay are we waitin' for? We need to go for the pond!” Applejack clung to Twilight and shook her thoroughly. Common consent among Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy as usual was a little reserved.

Anyway, Valor thought further:

“If that is not curious”, he said, his eye pinned at Zecora. “Your ancestors hail from a land far away, and yet they know rhymes about the Everfree Forest. Further, the prophecy tells us the way the beast hunts even exactly where to find it. But nothing about how to defeat it…”

Zecora couldn’t stand Valor’s questioning glare and looked away. So there actually is more to it. But Valor decided not to address that point. Sometimes it was better not to know everything.

“Howbeit”, he thus turned back to his friends. “We indeed have no time to waste. Although I know not how Pinkie does what she does, who am I to question the results. We have no time to lose; if the Zecora’s prophecy is right, we must find the fillies before the next dawn or else…” He didn’t finish his sentence and that wasn’t necessary either.

The mere fact that night had already fallen put them on alert. Zecora hooved over four potions which she instructed them to handle very carefully. They were made to freshen body and mind and would feed up weary spirits. Then the seven ponies prepared to leave.

“I’ll hope you’ll find the fillies soon”, she said on their departure. “And rescue them from their certain doom.”

Valor was the last to leave the hut. But as he wanted to do so, Zecora put her hoof on his foreleg and held him back.
“Wait a second before you go! There’s something I think you need to know.”

“And that would be?”

“First tell me, would anything that I could say ever make you go astray?”

Valor Edge’s expression virtually turned to stone as he had figured out she wanted to know if he would forsake his friends. “Never”, he answered.

“Is your heart really that strong? Oh, please don’t get me wrong!”

Valor shook his head; his expression didn’t lighten up. “I will not, I promise. I cannot prove the strength of my heart, but in the name of everything sacred I vow not to trait my friends. Rather I would die!”

His last words, though spoken absolutely calm, seemed to finally have convinced Zecora. She quickly checked if anypony could overhear them and took a deep breath. Then she spoke, low-voiced and quickly:

“There are further rhymes you need to know; I doubt that you will like them, though."

Not steel and not stone
No stake and no bone
Not magic and not alchemy
Will be a key to victory

But hope you mustn’t let go
The creature will meet its bane
With the sacrifice of a hero
Who hails not of this plane

Valor had squinted his eyes. For an endless second he stood silent, then slowly opened his right eye again. Sadness lay in his look, now clearly to see.

“I thank ye, Zecora.” His voice sounded a little rough. “Now I know there actually is hope. Maybe not for me, but for anypony else. The chance of death frightens me not. If I had died each time some ol’ prophecy told so, I would be a medical wonder. Or a prime zombie.
But one last thing: How did ye know?”

Zecora looked him deep in the eye and then answered: "It's in their eyes I have been told" She than added: "And I've never seen an eye that old."

Valor nodded; Zecora really was a wise mare.

“I really hope the prophecy’s wrong, anyway be strong! Now we must part, waste no time! And go with best wishes of mine!” the zebra did her best to show and encouraging smile.

Valor Edge straightened his back and returned her smile, brave yet sad. Then he stepped outside and closed up to the other ponies.

“Alright, folks! What are we waiting for? Let us be off!”

Valor Edge really managed to keep a stiff upper lip, Zecora noticed. He was so fully in control of his emotions that it was worth admiring.

“Hero of another plane, farewell…” she muttered. “Your story they shall forever tell.”

<0>

Author's Note

Just a minor fix: Needed to adjust the potions for the further story. They have to be healing rather than explosive...

5 - A Light in the Dark

5th: A Light in the Dark

Valor kept up his determined persona as they went on. And determined he was. All that now counted was that there was still time to save Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Even at the cost of his own life if that meant he’d bring all the others home safe and sound. Their rescue party was now led by Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie who already had been to the Mirror Pond before.

Well, actually Pinkie Pie was more busy with acting as if she was a real ninja. Including a creeping and jumping and hiding behind bushes and her friends.
However, Twilight seemed to keep her eyes on the track and focused. She had casted an illumination spell and now her horn emitted a gentle magical light; since night had fallen it was pitch-black around them.

“This is no ordinary darkness”, Twilight suspected. “What do you think, Valor?”

The stallion looked around, speaking in military terms, he checked the perimeter. The magical light made him look tired as it casted deep shadows beneath his eyes.

“I know little about magic. And even less about this forest”, he punted, so Pinkie Pie made her own suggestion:

“I know, I know: This is advanced darkness! Woo-hoo-hoo!” And she made a ghostlike howling.

“Please be serious, Pinkie!” Twilight requested but Valor considered Pinkie’s words. His look wandered over the overgrown path.

“No, I think thou are right, Pinkie Pie”, he said. “Look at all those spider webs!”

Indeed, all the brambles, all the shrubs around them, even the branches and twigs of the crippled, old trees over their heads were laden all over with cobwebs. The threads were woven on over another, so thick they seemed not only to block out the moonlight but to somehow advance the darkness even further. And once Valor had drawn the ponies’ attention to the spiders they could all virtually feel hundreds of unfriendly eyes watching them. The ponies now made their way even more carefully. Valor Edge’s eye darted from one side to the other, he was expecting a trap. His thoughts trailed around Zecora’s prophecy.

For then it hunts, in darkest wood, shrouded in a web of scare… He began to know the meaning of these lines; he was to experience it first hand: The darkness oozed from the threads of the spider webs like a toxic mist. It made the air damp, crept into their minds and weakened their hearts. Everything in Valor called, no, screamed to turn around and run for his life. But he did his best to cast aside his fears. He was sure, his friends could feel it, too. In Twilight’s magic light they all looked as sick as Valor felt himself.
On their own, any of them certainly would have given in to the impulse to flee. But none of them was alone. Valor’s staunch determination gave them strength, so even Fluttershy was able to carry on. And in their faith in him Valor in turn found the strength to carry on himself. Together they were stronger than the creeping fear.

Then came the voices. At first they weren’t any clearer than wind in the treetops. Valor, still checking the way for traps, strained his ears but wasn’t able to sort out, what exactly he was hearing.
Not until suddenly, Applejack cried out: “Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom? That was her, Ah heard her voice!”

Valor spun around on his hooves his expression changed to utmost concern. All eyes turned to Applejack.

“I didn’t hear anything”, Twilight objected. “Are you sure, you’ve heard her voice?”

“Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom?” the farm pony kept calling for her sister, ignoring Twilight’s question and also Valor who pleaded her:

“Please, Applejack. Listen not to the voices. It is not thy sister, hear me?”

But as he was trying to reason Applejack, Rarity began to call out for her sister as well.

“Oh no! No, no, no!” Valor exclaimed in frustration. Then his voice fainted; he had heard somepony calling his name. Not ‘Valor Edge’; no he had heard his first name he had been given at his birth, which nopony in this world should know.

“Oh no”, he repeated but this time his voice was raw with shock. “By the bones of the Black Dragon, no…”

He had thought to have expected any kind of trap and spell, but hadn’t considered this one. The webs were magical, of course and they DID inflict fright. Apple Bloom for Applejack. Sweetie Belle for Rarity... But the spell wasn’t meant to shroud the creature’s lair or to scare off intruders. It was to catch new victims, to ensnare them in their own personal nightmare until their will was broken…
Valor realized the true nature of the curse, the moment it really started to affect him. But to know, what would run him down, didn’t help one bit. He was about to face his own, darkest fears. Contrary to most other ponies he had a pretty good idea what he was about to come; but that made things even worse.

<0>

Pinkie Pie knew that they were in trouble as Applejack started to call her sister. And then Rarity joined in, yelling for Sweetie Belle as well. She could only stand and watch in horror as her friends one after another suffered a breakdown.

Much like Valor, Pinkie Pie knew about her fears. A deep fright of losing her friends, of being utterly and completely alone. She had faced that nightmare before, back then when she had thought her friends wouldn’t like her anymore. And that was exactly what Pinkie now saw herself confronted with: To be alone in the darkness, with no warmth, no laughter; doomed to an empty existence without any meaning or purpose. She could feel tears shooting into her eyes.

“Think again, Pinkie”, a thoughtful voice told her. It wasn’t any similar to the evil voices surrounding her.

Apparently, the gentle voice came from a green baby alligator right in front of her. A glowing, slightly transparent baby alligator. An alligator she knew.

“Gabby?” Pinkie was wondering. “How did you get here?”

“I’m not Gabby, silly”, the gator replied. “I’m your subconsciousness trying to tell you something elementary in a moment of peril by taking a familiar, beloved shape.”

“So my subconsciousness is a genius, now?”

“Nope.” Subconsciousness-Gabby shook his head. “But you do often talk to Twilight. All these scientific terms have to stay somewhere, you know?”

The alligator cleared his throat (which was actually a bit weird because it wasn’t moving his lips when talking) and continued.

“Anyway, back to the basics: Remember what happened when you thought your friends had abandoned you?”

That was right. In the end she had overcome her fear. The moment she had realized her friends were just planning a party surprise for her birthday she also had realized that her fears of loss were just silly!

Imaginary Gabby showed Pinkie Pie a heartfelt yet toothless smile that revealed his rosy gums. “Now you got it” he said and then disappeared.

Her friends would never fail her, just as she would never fail her friends. To be afraid of losing them was about as silly as being afraid of ghosts! And what did Pinkie Pie do with ghosts?

She giggled at them, right as she now was giggling at the dark. She still heard all the mean voices telling her terrible things and saw all the painful images that appeared in the blackness, trying to break her.

But Pinkie didn’t break. Oh, shut up you meanies! You’re no fun at all. And you’re lying: My friends wouldn’t let me down. And I won’t either, that’s a Pinkie-Promise! Done and dusted! And she flat-out silenced the voices as they grew too pushing.

Alongside with the whispers, the unnatural darkness was gone, or more precisely, it had never been there. The black mist had just been an illusion, created to trick their minds, to wear them out for the curse to hit them even harder. Princess Luna’s full moon shone brightly upon Pinkie Pie and her friends. And upon hundreds and hundreds of ashen-pale spiders with glowing red eyes that were slowly roping down on them.

The other ponies were in a bad condition.
Fluttershy had broken down right on the spot, her eyes sealed shut and wasn’t moving at all. Rainbow Dash had covered her ears with her hooves and was rocking back and forth like a madpony, tears streaming from her closed eyes. Twilight Sparkle sat in the middle of the road, sobbing silently while Applejack and Rarity had even managed to entangle themselves in the thick webs aside the path. They were crying in competition for their sisters. From their grief, Pinkie guessed they were seeing them dead. The spiders were already trying to spin a silky cocoon around the two ponies.

“Ew, ew, ew, gross!” Pinkie exclaimed as she realized that the arachnids already were crawling over her, too. She fuzzed with crewing them out of her mane and fur. Then her eyes fell on Valor Edge and she called his name. Right now he was probably the only pony that was able to help.

The stallion was in no good state either. He was fighting to stay on his hooves but stumbled around and seemed to be about to fall, tilting his head like he couldn’t see clear. Pain and sorrow was in his wide open, right eye and Pinkie could see a trail of tears on his cheeks. And yet he hadn’t given up the fight.

“Pinkie Pie?” His voice sounded hoarse and somewhat distant. He tried to make his way to the pink pony but tripped like a sleepwalker.

“Pinkie… Pinkie… Pinkie…” he muttered but his wandering eye didn't meet her look.

“Yes, Pointy, Pointy, Pointy?” Pinkie replied, a bit worried he was about to lose it, too.

Valor Edge reached out with a hoof like a blind pony and touched her.
“It is hard for me to see through the shadows, Pinkie. It is good to hear thy voice…The only friendly voice…”

He grimaced and pressed his hoof against his temple as if he was suffering from the worst headache ever.
“I am trying to blank out the voices, but… But I have issues to focus”, Valor drawled between his clenched teeth.

“We must do something” Pinkie tried to stress the urgency of the situation. “It got them!”

Valor nodded. His voice gained back a bit of strength.
“Right… Right... Just let me think of something… What can we do…? What can we do..?”

“Use your Vortex-thingy” Pinkie Pie provided. “Or your super-special hero-talent!”

“Pinkie Pie…” Valor moaned. “There is no such thing like a ‘super-special hero-talent’. Forbye it is difficult enough for me to focus without… Wait a minute!”

He squinted his eyes. To concentrate, to lock out the voices the curse casted in his mind.
“Did thou just say ‘Vortex-thingy’? Oh, Pinkie Pie thou brilliant girl… That could actually work. Maybe I am able to… SHUT UP!” He suddenly roared, tilting his head back. Apparently he was trying to silence the evil voices or perhaps at the evil figures of the curse, thought Pinkie Pie, because she hadn't said anything. After that sudden outburst, Valor’s look had turned absolutely clear again. He took a deep breath and then continued:
“Now I am better. So where was I? Oh, right. I am not experienced in magic but maybe I figured out a way to destroy the spell! But I will need thy help, Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie beamed at Valor. “What do I do?”

Valor Edge fetched his golden lighter from his saddlebag. He held it up in front of him and a well-known dangerous smile appeared on his face.

“The spiders bring darkness and despair. The curse drowns our friends in their own, worst fears until they will ultimately lose their will to live. But we are about to bring the very one thing that tears each despair apart: Hope. Thou are the most cheerful pony I know, the Element of Laughter in fact, and that is exactly what we need. Thou must think Pinkie Pie! Remember a bright moment in thy life!”

“Okie dokie lokie, Pointy”, Pinkie confirmed happily.

“But not just any bright moment”, Valor Edge adjured her. “Recall the brightest memory you have. Recall the happiness, the warmth and the glee thou have felt that day, and then cling to it!”

“Oh, I’ve got one” Pinkie exclaimed. “Do you think the Sonic Rainboom will do?”

Valor screw up his brow. “I know not. Is it a bright memory?”

“Sure as a smile!”

Valor zipped open the lighter’s lid. “Alright, then let us give them a piece of our mind! Literally!” He hold the golden lighter out for Pinkie and she touched it with her hoof.

"Got the memory?", Valor asked and Pinkie nodded. “Now look into my eyes!”

Pinkie Pie caught Valor’s gaze and the stallion slowly opened his left eye. And it was like the sun was rising in the middle of the night. A star seemed to burn right in Valor’s eye, shining with a gentle, golden light. It was hard to return this gaze, the light seemed to reach into Pinkie’s very soul, but she couldn’t look away either.

Pictures from Pinkie’s past appeared in front of her mind’s eye and shortly afterwards she began to see also pictures she couldn't sort in. Amazing pictures and strange pictures, maybe from Valor's past... Or his future?

“Focus on the Rainboom! Trail not off!” she heard Valor’s voice.
It was tempting to dig a little deeper into her own and also Valor's timeline, but Pinkie Pie clung to the day of Rainbow Dash’s first Sonic Rainboom. The memory now began to shine in the golden light, as clear is it was back then. All the emotions came back, all the joy and amazement, Pinkie had felt that day.
Simultaneously, a second golden star awoke above the lighter in their hooves.

“Let there be light!” Valor exclaimed.

And the golden star burst. It exploded in a blinding flash of rainbow-colored light as a full-fletched Sonic Rainboom detonated in the middle of the Everfree Forest. The shockwave shook the tree’s like a storm, let them creak and crackle, tore apart the cobwebs all around and, like nothing, wiped away the pale spiders.
An eerie, distant screech echoed through the forest, then there was silence.

The golden light wore off, leaving only the full moon to shine. Yet there was still a little of the warm shimmer in Valor’s left eye, as he shut it again. He pressed a hoof at the eyelid and looked around. It seemed his friends were about to awake from their nightmares. At least they had stopped crying and their eyelids started to flitter.

But now Pinkie Pie was letting out a strange sound, a whistle like a pressure cooker boiling.
“Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!” The pink mare started to rapidly bounce up and down. Then she rattled on in excitement: “We did it! That was amazing! I mean your eye was all shiny and glowy and I was so whaaaaat and then it all went whooooosh and we made an actual Sonic Rainboom! And I’m going crazy, how can I get an eye like that ?”
Valor still had his hoof put on his left eye. And again he was a little swamped by Pinkie’s enthusiasm.

“Long story” he answered evasively, hiding behind hasty activity, trying to give Rainbow Dash a leg-up. “Kind of boring. I will explain later.
Everything alright, Rainbow?” he then addressed the cyan pegasus. She bit her lower lip and nodded.

“Yeah…Just… Just let’s never ever talk about that again…” She weary stated but trying a brave smile. Valor Edge was glad Rainbow Dash was recovering quite quickly.

“Be strong, Rainbow”, Valor gently said. “The shadow will not persist. Now come on, we need to get the others up. It must be close to midnight. Think thou can help them?”

Happily, the mare who resembled the Element of Loyalty accepted the task that kept her from thinking too much about what just had happened to her. And Valor Edge, who feared they all could run out of time eventually, went to comfort Twilight. To get her up on her hooves again. Then he gave her the same task as Rainbow Dash and turned back at their trail again.

Then he heard the voices of three fillies. This time for real.

“Help…! Help…! HELP…!”

Their cries for help came from the left from just where the scream from earlier had come from.

Casting all precaution aside Valor at once rushed into the bushes, drawing his sword. Perhaps not the cleverest thing to do, but ‘action’ was the word of the hour. Not far from the pathway was a clearing, lighted by the full moon, a bold cliff rising at the opposite end.
But in the middle of the clearing was a pitch black cloud, like black cloud, like a spot of midnight without moon or stars. And three fillies cuddled up in fear of death, screaming out for help.

Valor jumped over the fillies and right into the darkness he dove. His sword seemingly brought a slice of moonlight with him into the black, the blade sung as it cut through the air.

With force, the sword met with a resistence. The cold-silvery blade was incredibly sharp, rumor had it was able it could cut through almost each and every material in the universe. But not this time. The impact was so strong, it almost broke Valor’s teeth out as the sword suddenly stopped dead.
The stallion wasn’t able keep the grip and had to let the hilt slip. The sword fell to the ground. His teeth ached. His had seem to shake rapidly. And, still unharmed, whatever the dark cloud was veiling was now right in front of him.

Not steel and not stone, dammit!
Valor instantly backed down again and braced himself for the inevitable counterattack. But it didn’t come. Instead the darkness shrunk, backed down itself and then disappeared.

Behind Valor’s back, Applejack and the others came to Valor’s aid but then soon rushed to the fillies lying on the ground, now unconscious. Applejack and Rarity cuddled their sisters, crying again and begging them to wake up while Fluttershy was trying to nurse the fillies with Zecora’s potions.
Valor Edge quickly checked the heart rate of Scootaloo, who currently had Rainbow Dash at her side. Weak, but constant. She will make it. The three fillies looked more than little green around the gills but seemed fairly unharmed.

“We have made it just in time”, Valor expressed his relief. “Nopony died. This could have gotten a lot worse…”

He got up again and paced over to his sword. He shoved it back into its sheath. It wouldn’t be of any use here. Valor knew there was only one way to defeat his enemy. However he would carry it out…
Now that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were safe, Valor Edge briefly considered to just head back to Ponyville with them. He probably had if he had been a mere mercenary. Mission accomplished, let the creature get away with that lesion to never ever mess with ponies again.

But monsters never learned their lessons. It would return another day and hunt fillies and colts again. Valor wasn’t the stallion to leave a bill unpaid or a business unfinished. Even at the risk of his own life, he would go all the way through and make sure this creature would never pose a threat again to the ponies.

“Applejack? Rarity? Fluttershy?” he requested. “Please stay with the fillies. Make sure no harm happens to them, will you?”
The three mares confirmed. Valor turned back to where the darkness had disappeared. Previously unseen, in front of Valor, at the end of the clearing was a crack-like entrance to a cavern. From inside came an unearthly blue-green glowing, like from a lake illuminated from underwater that painted waves of light on the rock surfaces.

“This play has been going on long enough”, he said, fire in his eye but his voice perfectly calm. “No more illusions. No more fooling around. This will end. Right now!”

Valor looked from side to side, seeing Pinkie Pie lining up with him. Then Twilight, then Rainbow Dash. The three ponies slowly nodded as they returned the sworstallion’s look. Then they entered the cavern.

<0>

6 - The Abyss Queen

6th: The Abyss Queen

They went down to the shore of the strange, luminescent pond in tense silence, only accompanied by the sound of dripping water. There were cobwebs all over the place, between the dripstones and on the walls. The ashen spiders were there too, now keeping an almost respectful distance to the ponies. And in the back of the cavern close to the rocky and mossy floor was the most gigantic Spider web.

Each of the ponies now was fraught; Valor had again taken the lead; and yet now it was hard for him to keep up his determined façade. It felt like walking to his own execution, which he pretty was doing if the prophecy was right. He hadn’t told them; of course not. The knowledge about his possible hour of death was his burden. He didn't want to encumber his friends with it.

Focusing on the task ahead helped, however.
Did Valor have a plan, one could ask. If things went ugly there was maybe only time to make one turn so he better made it a killing blow.
Did he have a plan?
Well, actually…

“Let me see…!”

Valor pulled out his lighter again and flipped it open. With a click, its common blue flame lightened on top of it. But as Valor held it up in the humid air, the fire suddenly flickered as if a tiny moth had flown into it. Then it turned to an eerie, impossible blueish, radiant black. From the lighter, particles in the same pattern seemed to spread all around them silently swirling about.

“What the hay?” Rainbow Dash gasped.

“Void Particles”, Valor Edge answered as if that would explain everything. Looking at him, his friends noticed that he -as the only of them- had also that kind of black fuzz sticking to his coat and whizzing around him as he moved.

“Harmless, a kind of background radiation”, he quickly and low-voiced added. “But they stick to whatever crosses the void. They slowly drip out of the Void through these rifts. So there actually is one in this magical pond. Interesting… And judging by the lot of particles, this rift must have been open for centuries…”

As the lighter’s lid snapped shut again, the black stuff vanished at once, or at least became invisible again.

“But what does that mean?” Twilight tried to put that in a line with what she had read about the Void earlier. Valor Edge kept silent for a moment, taking one, two, three deeps breaths.

“It means, my smart Twilight, that I now have a plan”, he eventually said. He turned to the others. They were staring at him with eyes wide, wondering, why he suddenly sounded so sad. He then spoke, still low-voiced, but with renascent determination: “When I tell you to run, do so! Run for your lives!”

Valor Edge then frankly walked to the waterline of the pond, his back straightened and his head upright. The other ponies could very well imagine him wearing a knight’s armor, or perhaps a general’s shoulder pouches.

“Alright, no time for hesitation”, he said firmly and then claimed with as much authority as he cut put in his voice: “Stop hiding, we know thou are out there in the dark and we definitely will not fall for any more trap! I am Valor Edge and I demand parlay according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation!”

His voice echoed through the cavern and eventually faded off. Something started to move in the darkness beyond the reach of the lake’s unnatural light. And out of the shades stepped a slender, black coated alicorn-mare. Her mane seemed to consist of darkness and stars and she bore very unpony sharp fangs. Her eyes had slit pupils.

From behind his back, Valor Edge heard the unbelieving and afraid whisper. “Nightmare Moon?”

“No!” Valor angrily pointed at the alicorn. “No more mind-tricks and perception-filters. We know thou are not Nightmare Moon. So cut it out!”

With the last four words, which he made especially feature of, the black alicorn’s image faded, got wiped away like smoke in a squall. If he had only allowed Nightmare Moon's image to persist! The creature’s true features were actually worse.

At least thirty-five hooves high (which was eight foot in another world). A spider in appearance; the body armored in black, poisonous green and orange patterned chitin plates and covered with black wiry hair. From its abdomen rose five curved, bent-forward spikes, red as spilled blood.
But worst was the creature’s head: No eyes but irregular, cultrate looking scales. Dozens and dozens of long, winding squid-like tentacles, where its jaws should have been, drooling with an inky liquid.

The mares screamed with horror as the abomination rammed its legs like stakes into the water and strode through the pond.

“Me and my big snout”, Valor mumbled as the creature bent down and stretched out his tentacles for him. But he didn’t flinch one bit. This wasn’t the dark presence from the Void he had encountered before. It was similar, yes, but yet it was not. And despite similar abilities, this creature seemed to be far less interested in plotting and controlling. It used its mind-tricks for hunt. And different from the last Void-demon, this thing was unbound and fully in control of its powers.

“Your precious Shadow Proclamation means nothing to me”, the creature’s voice hissed, like glass shards in an ice bucket.

“But I got thine attention, did I not?” Valor replied and put on his most gaining smile.

An angry hiss. Silence. And then:

“What do you want?”

“Thou will return through the rift to wherever you hail from”, Valor demanded. “And never come back again, are we clear?”

This time, the creature let out a different sizzle. It almost sounded like laughter.

“You dare having claims against me? The Abyss Queen has fed on the life-energy of countless beings of countless worlds and I shall feed on yours, too.”

“Thou would probably choke on me and thou know that” Valor returned cynically but fell serious again. “Feeding on life-energy, so? Then tell me one thing: Why has it to be foals? We could find another way for thee to feed. Nopony would have to die anymore!”

Again the Abyss Queen let out its hissing, evil laughter, before it answered:

“The young taste best!”

Now that was the wrong thing to say. Valor grinded his teeth. He had held out his hoof and the demon had spat on it. He had tried to solve this problem without bloodshed, tried to give the creature a second chance. Right at that moment, he decided he would destroy this monster at all cost, even if he was to bite the dust in the process.

But while he remained perfectly calm on the surface, another pony wasn’t.

“Alright, that’s it”, Rainbow Dash shouted. “Negotiation’s over. I’ll buck your ugly spider-butt!” And she launched herself at the Abyss Queen.

“No! Cease it!” Valor screamed, but too late. The demon simply wiped Rainbow of the air with one of its giant legs. The Abyss Queen had no eyes, but apparently its hearing was top-notch. The cyan pegasus smashed against a cavern-wall and tumbled to the ground, while the creature turned towards her.

The situation slipped out of Valor’s control. Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie were about to launch a death-or-glory-attack at the demon. (Pinkie had even somehow managed to pull a cannon out of nowhere, which Valor noticed with bewilderment.) They didn’t know the last part of the prophecy and thus were unaware not even the magic of friendship (or whatever it was Pinkie had) could harm it.
And while Valor knew this already, Twilight did just begin to suspect they had missed a very important point as her strongest magic blast just dripped of their enemy’s shell like the droplets of a shower. Everything was about to take a turn for the worse. Valor Edge had to get the situation under control again immediately.

Thus, Valor made as much noise, as he could. “I am thy opponent. Not them!” he yelled at the Abyss Queen but was flat-out ignored. The ponies’ attacks weren’t anything more than mosquito bites to the demon. All they achieved was making it angry. And things started to more and more like death and not glory…

Valor had to do something, and fast. He hated to, though, but there was no other option. He had to give a show of force.

“CEASE IT!”

His shout resounded through the cavern like thunder. His friends were literally stunned and the demon staggered on the spot, indecisive what now to do. The Abyss Queen had no eyes but it had very well felt the power behind the voice.

Valor cleared his throat and spoke.

“Do I have thine attention again? Good. Enough ponies have been hurt until now, both physical and emotional, thou hear me? I am ending this. Here and now!”

It was hard to tell any emotion from the voice of a spider demon with tentacles instead of a face, but its mocking answer sounded less confident and disdainful than before, even if only a little.

“Be it you or your puny, little friends, you cannot defeat me.”

“Let that be my concern”, Valor returned leading the demon to give him another threatening hiss. Still it couldn’t decide whether it could risk to turn his back on Valor or not.

“Not steel and not stone, no stake and no bone, no magic and no alchemy shall ever pierce the shell of me!”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” The stallion nodded three times. “Incredible. So thine hide is invulnerable. Me teeth still hurt from finding that out first-hand.”

He flicked open the lighter, flashed a dark smile then continued.

“And maybe I also know the reason: It is because of THAT!”

Valor ignited the lighter and like before, the black swirling particles became visible, spreading from a black flame. They were all over the place. And while only few of them whizzed around Valor, the Queen was literally covered in them. Void Particles stuck to every inch of its shell; it almost looked like it was bleeding darkness, like a drop of black ink, spreading in a glass of water.

That sight right from hell made the mares yelp and even Valor unwittingly took one step back. Bones of the Black Dragon!

“All the times thou crossed the Void”, he said, his voice as firm as possible. It flickered a bit, though. “Hundreds and hundreds of times. And each time thou brought some of it back with thee. The Void changed thee. Its particles can absorb an incredibly amount of energy and now these particles are melded with thy shell. ”

The Abyss Queen drooled, spat and hissed, and finally it turned towards Valor Edge.

“What have you done?” it screamed. “What’s happening?”

“Scared? Actually, I have just shifted the Void Particles into a visible spectrum.”

Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The ease, with which Valor (a pony that used kind of medieval terms of speech, for Celestia’s sake) switched to scientific language was quite impressive. She often underestimated Valor’s mind. In her own mind, on the other hand, the gear wheels were turning, too. What was Valor’s plan? What was this mad stallion trying to accomplish with that Void Particles?

“It is easier to enter another world from the Void rather to go back through the rifts, is it not? Ever wondered why?”

“Explain!” the Abyss Queen commanded. It had no scientific knowledge but an evil slyness. And it simply had to find out about anything that could pose a threat to its invincibility. That kept its attention drawn to Valor. The Queen really counted on outsmarting him…

Twilight however, had already figured out the answer to Valor’s last question. He had mentioned these so-called rifts constantly were emitting Void Particles in a small amount. Of course it was easier to swim with the stream than against it. Or to exit the Void with the particle-current rather than to enter it against said current. But how was that supposed to…

The realization hit Twilight Sparkle like a lightning bolt. Reverse the polarity!
Just like Valor had said: All things would make sense, when they needed to. And now, they did. If Valor Edge could somehow reverse the polarity of the rift, it would no longer emit, but suck those particles in! The evil spider-demon was so covered in them, there was possibly no way it’d be able to escape the resulting vortex.

But the Void Particles also stuck to Valor’s own coat. What would happen to HIM if he was successful? Was he even aware of the risk?

“Valor, no!” Twilight cried out. However, that didn’t to stop him. The very same moment, he flashed the creature a smile that would have made even a dragon cringe.

“Time to tip the scales!” he said.

<0>

Author's Note

So finally, the demon reveals itself and the last part of the play approaches. Hope you like the Void Queen. I imagined the evil demon lurking in the dark woods this time had to be something different from old Slendy...

What else is there to say...?

Oh, yes, about the Valor's last line in the chapter. I know this catchphrase is quite famous because of Fire Emblem: Awakening.
Actually, Valor Edge is four years older than Tactitian Robin and 'tipping the scales' had always been his kind of thing for it often was his task to do the impossible and safe his comrads (aka my fellow-players's chars) from hopeless situations. (Mainly because of my luck with the dices. :derpytongue2: )
And because Valor's now speaking English, this phrase seemed to as a translation for my muttering while playing my RPG-char...

7 - Departure

7th: Departure

Just one, little Click and hell broke loose: A jolt went through the cavern. Within a blink, the black stuff in the air was gone, sucked down beneath the surface of the pond. The water started to boil; a vortex, even more, an actual maelstrom formed as the underwater rift was forcefully opened. Dripstones, rocks, moss, everything that had been exposed to the rift long enough to take in radiation from the Void, started to tremble.

The Abyss Queen jolted like being hit by an invisible impact. It broke down and slowly was dragged into the water by the pull. The Particles on its shell formed a spiraling stream into the eye of the vortex.

“RUN”, Valor roared to drown out the maelstrom’s deafening rumbling. He was trying hard, with all strength he could afford, to withstand the undertow of the rift.

But as he turned around, he saw that his friends hadn’t moved at all; of course. The magic of friendship… He should have known they wouldn’t follow order. His friends wouldn’t leave without him, those kind souls… Even if it was only for them, Valor had to try and challenge fate one more time. He started to crawl.

“Pinkie, Rainbow”, Twilight tried to call for the two mares but she wasn’t sure if they could even understand her yelling. She waved her hoof at Valor who also was trying to head for the entrance. “We need to help him! It’s drawing him in!”

At least Pinkie seemed to have gotten Twilight right. The two mares tried to reach out for their friend as the grey stallion was dragging himself forward like against the blow of a strong wind. Still menacing close behind him was the battered figure of the Abyss Queen, its legs scratching over the shore, trying to get a grip.

From behind, Twilight heard Rainbow Dash screamed something that sounded like “It’s coming! It’s coming!” And she was right. With incredible persistence the demon fought forward step by step, while large rocks and dripstones came crashing down on its back.

Valor Edge turned his head backwards. The demon was so close he could smell its stench; it reeked of ammoniac. He saw his worst fears confirmed: The pull wasn’t strong enough. And the rift could collapse any minute now. If by that time, the monster wasn’t yet drawn into the Void, it would get away and kill them all.

The sacrifice of a hero, the stallion thought in resignation. Well, I knew it had to end like that, did I not? I guess I cannot duck out of every prophecy…

His friends were trying to get to his aid, where trying to save his life. But behind him was a behemoth from another dimension, boiling mad and murderous, with a vile appetite for foals’ life-energy. If it escaped it’d probably kill every single pony in Ponyville. That made the decision very easy.

Some call it ‘Hell', Valor bitterly remembered. Guess it is time to atone for my sins.

He had crossed the Void twice; the amount of Particles in his fur was low. Nevertheless the resulting force if he hit the demon should have been enough to send the creature back through the rift.

Twilight’s sharp mind came to a similar conclusion, just as Valor turned his head to face her. Never had she seen a deeper sadness in a ponies’ eye.

Valor’s lips formed four words: ‘I am so sorry’.
I wish your efforts were not in vain. I really wish, the stallion thought. Then he let got.

Twilight let out a high pitched scream and jumped forward to adhere her friend. Too late!

The stallion had given in to the undertow, got tore away and slammed against the body of the Abyss Queen, hooves first. For a heartbeat, the demon struggled before it finally lost its grip. Together with the much smaller pony, the monstrous squid-spider got drawn right into the maelstrom and disappeared in the boiling vortex of luminescent water. Now parts of the whole ceiling came crashing down into the pond and large cracks appeared throughout the rocks.

That was when Twilight was grabbed from behind by Dash and Pinkie and dragged out of the cavern.

<0>

The air outside was by far not as stuffy as before, almost as if the forest was trying to thank them for getting rid of the intruder. Dew was glittering in the moonlight. The mysterious and scary Everfree Forest for once seemed peaceful. In the fresh air, the three fillies finally were safe.

As a deep, thundering rumble came from inside the cave, Applejack reached out and tightly hugged her little sister. “Ah’m here Apple Bloom. It’s alright, Ah’m here…” She kept repeating.

The filly started to toss and turn like she was awakening from a bad nightmare.

“What happened…?” Aple Bloom muttered as she opened her eyes. “Ouch, ma head hurts… Applejack, what’s goin’ on, why are ya cryin’? Did Ah do somethin’ wrong?”

Her sister shook her head and tried her best to stifle her tears. But before she could answer anything, Sweetie Belle bolted up and screamed:

“The spiders! The spiders! We need to warn…” She calmed down a little bit as she was comforted by her sister. But now, the three fillies were up on their hooves.

“No worries”, Applejack finally managed to say. “No more spiders. It’s over.”

They all looked over to the cavern where Twilight was just stumbling out, propped by Rainbow and Pinkie. The final, deep grumbling of the crashing rocks told them that the whole structure of the cavern had just collapsed. A dust cloud swirled through the entrance, now blocked by large rubble. Yes, it was over.

But still something was wrong.

Rainbow Dahs didn’t show her usual more-than-cool attitude. Instead she immediately shot back to the rocks.

“No. Nonono!” Rainbow yelled. Her eyes turned wet, as this time her tough facade crumbled. “This can't be happening! It’s one of Valor's tricks, right? Just like the last time... It must be a trick… Please… Please…” She turned now downright pleadingly to her friends.

Twilight just closed her eyes and shook her head. None of them gave Rainbow the relief of telling her so. Valor was gone, irrevocably gone. Amid tears Twilight told Rarity, Fluttershy and AJ, and the fillies how he had sacrificed himself.

“Valor jumped right at the spider demon… And… And they both got dragged into the rift…” Then her voice failed.

<0>

It has to be a nightmare. Apple Bloom would have never imagined that magic of friendship could take such a grim toll; that one could ever have to sacrifice himself so his friends could live…!

Wasn’t that one of the awful things the Elements of Harmony had been made to stop?

The nine ponies stood motionless and doubtful in front of the collapsed cave. Nopony spoke and Applejack’s sister barely even dared to breath. It was always a surreal situation: To imagine somepony there one moment and gone the next. It was like if they could still feel Valor’s presence, like if he was standing right next to them. But as Rainbow Dash had pointed, he indeed had pulled off a similar trick when Applejack’s barn had collapsed. At least the fillies had been told that. Maybe, there still was hope?

Apple Bloom prayed to the stars and also to whatever gods Valor Edge had believed in. She knew her friends and all the others were praying, too: To bring the swordstallion back to them; that he had found a way to escape this time as well.

And they waited.

Time passed by, the moon started to sink.

Nothing happened at all.

Doubtfulness turned to anxiety and eventually anxiety turned to painful knowledge: Valor wouldn’t return.

That was when the tears started to flow.

Being already haunted by ambivalent and gloomy feelings, Apple Bloom hit the rock bottom. There was a terrible feeling in her stomach, like somepony had filled her intestines with some gallons of cement. That wasn’t at all how she had imagined a real adventure. In Valor’s stories, none of the heroes had ever died.

It’s all ma fault. The insight almost made Apple Blooms little heart burst. If Ah hadn’t suggested to go into the forest…” She buried her face in her big sister’s fur.

To Applejack however, grief wasn’t that new and yet it hurt terrible. She by now knew it always would. A filly could cry and a mare could, too. But if you were Applejack, you also had to be strong for her family, like she and she had always been strong.

So why, why was she unable to stop crying?

“It wasn't your fault", she tried to comfort her little sister for she knew Apple Bloom was feeling guilty for what had happened.

"It's alright", she then wanted to say, but these words stuck in her throat. It would have been a lie.

It hadn't been Apple Blooms fault, she had been under a spell. But yet:

Nothing was alright.

Valor Edge had been odd at good and enigmatic at worse times, but his heart had been in the right spot. Now he was gone forever. Fallen right through the gates of hell, buried beneath the debris of dripstones and rocks with a few hundred tons of rock more as a headstone.

Nothing was alright.
Valor Edge hadn’t only run down a creature dangerous and cruel beyond imagination, he had also risked his life for three fillies that weren’t his own. He had done much more for AJ and her friends than one could ever ask of him. And if that was the way the universe thanked for selflessness, then the universe as a whole was nothing but a cruel joke!

Of course, Valor Edge would’ve disagreed. He had been more the ‘nothing happens without a reason’ kind of pony. Maybe because this way of seeing things made it easier to bear sorrow.
Applejack could virtually see Valor’s caring face in front of her. They had talked about sorrow at his first day in Ponyville. He had said certain words to cheer her up. And it had worked… For some reason, these words now echoed in her mind.

“Ya know, sugar cube”, Applejack sniffed. “There was somethin’ he told me… Each night will eventually see its dawn. And the sun will shine even brighter at this new day.”

“What’s that s’posed to mean?” Apple Bloom sobbed. She looked up to her sister, her eyes wet and wide.

Rainbow Dash sniffled and tried to dry her tears with the fur on her foreleg. She silently answered instead of AJ.

“I think I know: It means ‘hang on’.”

Then Rainbow Dash straightened her back. She even gave her voice some strength and confidence: “We need to hang on girls. C’mon, get yourselves together!”

This wasn’t about acting brave or cool. This was about trying to be strong. For her friends. For Valor Edge.

Applejack bore her out: “Yer right. We need to hang on. Y’all know Valor would’ve wanted it that way…”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders silently made a vow in that dark hour. For herself, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo promised -though they had no idea how to do it- they’d be extra strong. They’d learn and try even harder to achieve their Cutie Marks. So wherever he now was, Valor could be proud of them. That promise gave them the strength they now needed.

They all put one hoof against the large rocks debris and looked up to the night sky. If Valor Edge was dead he would without any doubt have wanted them to be strong and overcome their sadness. And if he wasn’t (even if chances were low to zero) they a fortiori needed to be strong. What would Valor otherwise think of them?

Rainbow Dash, her eyes still wet, eventually told the others: “You all should now head back to Ponyville. Get the fillies out of the Everfree Forest, you know?”

“And what about you, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo wanted to know. Dash managed to put on a smile; even if it was bit weary and shaky. She replied: “I’ll follow later, Squirt. I want to stay for some time longer…”

Rainbow then noticed the other’s expressions –in the moonlight they probably looked even more worried than they actually were- and added a bit reluctantly:

“Now c’mon. It’s not like I was thinking about doing something dumb! And I’ll catch up with you slowpokes anyway. A few minutes, okay? I just refuse to give up on Valor that easy, that's all...”

Eventually, and with worrying looks back at Rainbow Dash, the others left. First were Applejack and Rarity who took the fillies back home. Then followed Fluttershy who almost sustained Twilight along the way. The unicorn looked pale under her lavender coat.

Behind stood only Pinkie Pie. She put her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“I really think you should come too, Rainbow. It won’t help if you stay here and wait until the ivy overruns you.”
This hadn’t been a joke. Never before had the cyan pegasus seen her friend so serious. And yet, her look was more caring than grievous.

“Know what? I think we could all need a good cup of hot chocolate”, Pinkie offered. “You’d be surprised how many problems can be solved by hot chocolate!”

Rainbow Dash first held back. She didn’t want to leave the site just like that. But in the end, she gave in to Pinkie’s offer and took off to catch up to the others.

For a moment, Pinkie fell behind and watched Rainbow Dash fly away. She turned back to the ruined cave. A heartfelt and knowing smile appeared on her face as she rose her hoof to salute. “Don’t worry, Pointy! I’ll take care of Rainbow, I’ll take care of all of them! Pinkie-Promise!”

<0>

Epilogue

Back in her library, Twilight sat in silence for a long time. She hadn’t woken up Spike, who had fallen asleep while bravely trying to wait for her return. Twilight didn’t want to talk. The gloomy, dark atmosphere in the room reflected her own glumness. She was tired, close to burnout. But she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t even close her eyes. Valor was gone, likely dead, and she had seen him falling into the Void, falling straight into hell!

Twilight had read it in his look: He had somehow known it would end that way, and he had known they’d be powerless. That must have been why he had been so sad in his last moments.

Now the image of the stallion’s sad look haunted her. Twilight feared to see it over and over again if she fell asleep. And so she sat in a corner and just stared into the darkness until the break of day.

She wanted to be strong like Rainbow had asked them to be, yes, but her own powerlessness back there made her just feel sick.

The first, golden rays of the rising sun lighted up the library and shone upon her reading-rack. Something white caught her eye. It was an envelope, laid upright against an ink jar that stood on the rack.

It was strange, but somehow that ordinary thing made her heart beat faster. Despite her grief it caught her curiosity, because she was almost certain the envelope hadn’t been there when they had left for their fateful mission.

She used her magic to pull it over and looked at it one more time.
The mailer was sealed with a drop of red wax, but she didn’t recognize the imprinted symbol. A circle with geometrical lines within that seemingly resembled some kind of abstract seal. ‘For Twilight Sparkle’ stood written on the mailer’s front.

Now Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t seen it often, but if she wasn’t mistaking, this was Valor Edge’s writing. Always both kind of old-fashioned and yet snappy.

Twilight pulled over a paper knife and broke the seal. Inside the envelope was a single piece of paper with a few characters scribbled in blue ink:

Fictional L, 4th left, row 3,
p86, l. 23-24

The ‘V’ at the end, could it stand for ‘Valor’? Had he known death would await him in the forest that night? Was this a final message to her from her late friend? But then why was his message so rather cryptic? If this message was from Valor Edge, why hadn’t he written clearly what he wanted to tell her?

Twilight reconsidered. It was a puzzle, wasn’t it? Valor had often said Twilight was the smartest pony he ever knew but that her curiosity could only be ever satisfied by explaining the whole universe to her. It kind of made sense to leave her a message wrapped in a riddle. And it would exactly have been his sense of humor.

“Fictional L…” That sounded very familiar and it didn’t take Twilight long to realize: It was the way she had organized her books: Sorted both by topics and in alphabetical order.

The message was an instruction: Go to the shelves with the fictional books and look for the letter L! Then take the fourth book from the third row!

The librarian paced to the said bookshelf and searched for that ominous book.

It was a small novel titled ‘The Little Alicorn’. A quite known story, written by Evenstar, author and former member of the Wonderbolts, over a century ago.

Twilight opened the book and skipped the pages foreward to page sixty-eight. With her hoof on the paper, she counted down to line twenty three.

What she read there, almost at the bottom of the page made the tears shoot into her eyes again. But this time Twilight Sparkle cried and smiled at the same time.

“It shall look as if I were dead; and that will not be true…”

<0>

Tales of Valor

Web of Deception

Starring
Valor Edge --- Matthew Broderick
Twilight Sparkle --- Tara Strong
Applejack --- Ashleigh Ball
Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy --- Andrea Libman
Zecora --- Brenda Crichlow
And
Alice Krige as Abyss Queen

Also Starring

Apple Bloom --- Michelle Creber
Sweetie Belle --- Claire Corlett
Scootaloo --- Madeline Peters
Rainbow Dash --- Ashleigh Ball
Rarity --- Tabitha St.Germain
Spike --- Kira Buckland

And
John Simm as Perfect Pace