Dungeon Keeperby Blackwater wolfChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 1(I don’t own the rights to my little pony or dungeon keeper they are owned by Hasbro and EA respectively) I tapped my feet uncertainly on the damp cold earth, the rhythmic sound of digging echoing along the wet tunnel as my Imps continued digging into the unknown. Blinking I looked to my right and saw a Warlock in dark blue robes that was reading a worn looking spellbook whilst gently rubbing his thin black moustache. It was my long time enemy Anamid the blue, my own spellbook, a lovingly crafted flesh red hand book held only the basic spells required to keep a dungeon in check far less than Anamid’s vast array of devastating spells from his many years of research into every school of magic including, I suppressed a shudder, White magic. Even so such a tantalising treasure as Anamid’s spellbook before me was enough to get me tapping the hilt of my blade excitedly, I had after all spent years tearing Anamid’s territory apart looking for that exact book except now much to my dismay, we have an alliance. Two weeks earlier The tunnel I walked along was dark the unyielding stone and caused my plated footfall to echo along the unclaimed land. In the distance I saw the faint glow of a torch singling the entrance to the battered hall were most dungeons and towns met, well the big ones anyway. There were always small keepers who hid in the darkness, weak keepers, very different to the five before me. The six of us were the underworlds superpowers, the strongest keepers who would like nothing more than to slay those around them. A smile crossed my face, perfect company. “And so the mighty Heras blesses us with his presence oh dark days” a gray blue robed wizard mocked, Anamid a bigger asshole than I am. “Hmm yesss well it did take awhile for you to arrive, having trouble with the Impsss ssslaking off now are we?” The pale skinned vampire Canial Venomfear added, he was an asshole too. “SILENCE! I did not attend this meeting to listen to your pathetic comments Heras! Speak quickly I have little patience.” the biggest horned reaper in the underworld barked. Standing just over eight feet tall and built like a red brick shit house, Nakot was an intimidating figure on that alone when coupled with the massive honeycomb of dungeons, he controls made for one reaper you did not want to mess with. Not that messing with any reaper is smart or safe. “As you are all undoubtedly aware the underworld is shrinking an-” “WHAT nonsense is this? No magic can make the underworld shrink. YOU DRAG ME ALL TH-“ deciding that Nakot was officially an idiot I cut him off. Just like he did to me. “It was a metaphor Nakot I’m saying that there is less room than there used to be and our realms need expansion.” there was a slight pause as the assembled superpowers looked at each other nervously. Bar Nakot who looked like he wanted my head on a platter was fixing his eyes on me in a death glare. “Running low on gold Heras?” a playful voice asked drawing my eyes to the scantily clad succubus as she flicked her coiled whip and making a sharp crack, a sound that many Imps fear. And some of the stranger residence of the underworld long for. This was Zahvina, the mistress of the damp caverns and the deeper dungeons (she made the names). “I control the gem mines, anyway the entire underworld is running out of gold, land, and even blood to spill.” There silence was all the confirmation I needed “In order to ensure the longevity of our dungeons I propose a truce.” “Oh is this truce going to be as fun as our last one Heras?” suppressing the unwelcome memories of my last truce with Zahvina (NEVER EVER EVER let her talk you into Experimenting) I wisely ignored the comment. “In this truce we shall all support an expansion to one of the smaller overworlds. One that we have not visited before, corrupt the locals, take the land and get straight back to fighting each other.” there was a general murmur of agreement from the assembled keepers. "Good, then prepare your forces, I estimate that in just a few weeks we will break through to the overworld". Today Nakot walked along the hastily dug tunnel that was just slightly too small for him to avoid hitting his long ivory horns on the roof. His dark red hooves dug into the soft earth kicking up dirt between his heavy and muscular legs, marring the tough skin. He was flanked on both sides by two gold clad female reapers. Their small curved alluring horns were gracefully linked by gold chain that clashed with their blood red well-defined bodies. The very thought of the concubines walking along behind him made Nakot’s mouth water. His feeling of bliss soon soured and turned to anger at the sight of the two biggest assholes of Nakot’s life came into view- Heras and Anamid. Seeing them together was worse than seeing them alone. AND he could not even kill them. Shaking from anger and willing himself not to smash there dumbshit faces into the wall he spoke up, His deep voice echoed along the tunnel. “Have the Imps not finished this tunnel? We should be through by now!” Heras glanced over, his piercing red eyes looking at Nakot’s dirtied horns scraping along the 9ft tall tunnel. He displayed no interest in answering Nakot’s question so of course the slimy nasal slobbering HUMAN voice of Anamid filled the void . 'wonderful' “The Imps are working at an acceptable pace and will be done by the time our dungeon hearts are all ready to be moved. So I advise patience instead of fuming madly like a selfish little Imp.” His eyes starting to glow Nakot took a step forward arms clenched into fists, Long sharp Knife-like teeth glistened in the light of a flame torch burning on the wall. “Say that just one more time you little shit and I will kill you AND PAINT MY TRESURE ROOM WITH YOUR BLOOD!” The loud shout was enough to invoke a reaction out of Heras who looked at the two keepers arguing as one might find pair of squabbling children... or shit you find on your shoe. “We are but a few moments away and I was intending to move further along, soon my Imps will break the surface first while Anamid’s Imps will break though later on in about a day or so.” Anamid turned towards Heras giving a look of confusion that satisfied Nakot if only slightly. “Weren’t we all going out at the same time?” “No it would be too easy to lay siege to us if we concentrated in one area. It would be wiser to use multiple exists to spread ourselves further over the land making it difficult to field a large force against us.” looking at the blank stares he was receiving, Heras sighed and continued “I will be moving with a small force while you will all be setting up a dungeon at key points ready for an attack, now I’ll be back in a while. You two will guard the entrance, so as to prevent any heroes from coming in and spoiling our day.” Without waiting for a response the dark armoured clad knight walked down the tunnel that Nakot had just came from. A single thought bounced around the horned reaper’s head, 'Asshole' Princess Celesta smiled at the large number of recruits before her. She was currently in the royal throne room with her sister sitting at her right despite her growing sense of unrest. She sat patiently as the newest batch of earth legion recruits stumbled through the oath of service before they would be shipped out for training. Some of the recruits had even opted for the night oath much to Luna’s surprise allowing her to begin rebuilding the night legion after a thousand years. "...And we will never falter when upholding our oath in whatever actions we undertake" the assembled recruits said in unison finishing their oath. Moving forward from her seat next to her sister, Luna. she looked at her ponies with a loving smile. They were all filled with such potential. Celestia giggled inwardly. They all looked a bit silly using the unfitted ceremonial armor provided for their oath. It made them look a bit like little colts wearing their first horseshoes... well they WERE little colts to Celestia but that was besides the point. Celesta's musing was interpreted by a gentle nudging from her luminescent sister. "Thank you all. We can see great things in the future ahead, for all of you, now go and make equestria, your families, and friends proud." Celestia quickly turned and left the hall. Her sense of unease grew while walking along an otherwise identical series of corridors. Which lead to the Palace Sky-dock, she was looking for the transport that would take the recruits to the Staliangrad military zone. Flagging down the captain she quickly changed the destination to Ponyville. The thirty new Legionnaires would provide extra protection without raising suspicion that anything was amiss. Why would she send a force to Ponyville? Well nothing ever happens anywhere else unless Twilight and her friends are travelling so it seemed like the logical choice knowing Twilight. Giving her access to a militia was probably overkill. But it would do wonders for her confidence. Chapter 2“SPIKE!!!!” “I’m coming, I’m coming.” a haggard looking baby dragon called back to his surrogate sister as he stumbled down a set of warn looking wooden steps “Keep your hooves on.” “Spike it’s way past mid-afternoon, why are you still in bed?” came a voice from an adjacent room. “You never woke me and you know how dragons are, sleep and dragons go together like ice cream and Pinkie Pie” “Did somepony say ice cream?” a pink blob asked from atop a bookcase, one of many that circled the library’s main room. Pinkies sudden appearance did little to faze the Spike who smiled at his friend. “Nope just some dragon” “What about all of the serious faced ponies behind you Spiky?” “Wha-? Aghh TWILIGHT! Why is there an army of ponies in the living room!?. And how did I not see them earlier, are they ninjas?” the purple pony in question trotted into the library’s main room with a scroll floating in a purple haze next to her. “No they are not ninja’s spike, hello Pinkie, they are a light scout troop that Celestia has given me control over for the next few weeks.” the Unicorn passed the scroll to one of the Unicorns in formation. A dusty gray colt in the dark brown steel armour of the equestrian scout force the pegasi in the formation had a lighter set on that allowed for more movement, whereas the earth ponies present had a ‘heavy’ variant. “Why would the princess give you your own little army? That sounds more like Luna than Celestia” Spike tapped his scaled chin deep in thought before letting out a gasp, he looked at twilight “Have the griffins invaded?” “No I-“ “Have the zebra nations attacked?” “No Sp-“ “Are there zombie ponies in the streets ready to devour us all leaving us to survive in small pockets of safety always afraid of what the next dawn will bring IF there even is a dawn in the post-“ “No spike none of that, the princess just has a bad feeling and is making sure we are all prepared in the event that something does happen. Applejack has been kind enough to let us turn one of her barns into a barracks, so I will be going over there. Now I woke you up so you can look after the library while I’m out.” “Oh okay, no problem, I am after all your number one assistant.” Spike flexed his nonexistent muscles causing many of the scout troop to smile and one small Pegasus mare to stifle a giggle . “Hey where did Pinkie go?” the purple mares question caused the assembled ponies and dragon to look around warily for the evasive pink party pony. “Commander Sparkle.” A silky green earth pony ventured. “Oh yeah, we will see her later anyway. Troops, to your duties. Fall-out.” Twilight commanded with ease of only somepony who had been around the military or had been in it could. The 30 pony troop filed out of the tree/library/home followed by a grinning Twilight whose thoughts turned to her brother and what he would say to his sister in this instance, being the captain of the Royal Guard and unofficial commander of equestria’s military. “Bye Spike, don’t eat any junk while I’m gone! have fun.” The young dragon waved in response as he gently closed the door so as to avoid slamming it. “Now where is that ice cream?” He asked to nopony in particular as he opened the kitchen's magic refrigerator only to be greeted by a pink slip of paper with a crude smiley face drawn on one side. “PINKIE!!!” Spike wept for all that was wrong in the world, for all of two minutes, before walking off in search of a gem to suck on muttering dark things for Pinkie involving buckets and doors, oh so many doors. I could not help but smile as my foot came into contact with my own claimed territory. Mana instantly filling me with warmth and power, the gentle thump of my many dungeon Hearts suddenly amplified. They filled my head with their blissful beat drowning out all noise as I strode through my outer bulwark an iron door opening magically at my presence. Some trolls were playing cards on the table pausing there game to not respectfully at me as I walked past, as predicted all of them were cheating. “Master you have returned!” the high pitched voice come from an older Imp doing his best to finish his cigarette quickly “Have you any orders master?” “Yes, alert one of the larger Goblin tribes that I will be moving them, tell them to meet in the guard room.” I waved the loyal Imp away and he scampered off. I ran my steel encased fingers along the reinforced wall leading to my outermost Heart feeling energy leave my gloved hand like a static charge leaving a slight crackle and the smell of ozone in the stale underground air which I breathed from deeply. Finally arriving at my dungeon Heart I steeled myself for what was to happen, walking over one of the three stone walkways just over the fleshy beating Heart, each beat expelling a green blast of excess Mana that electrified the air, reaching out with my right arm my hand closed around a clear gem floating in the air as my fist closed around the flawless glowing tear shaped diamond. A blinding red light filled the room and though the steel, cloth, and flesh I could see the bones of my hand as I pulled the gem from its magical pedestal. The fleshy Heart beneath me turned slowly to stone and the arch that ran over the epicentre of this dungeon folded back into the ground leaving only a stone circle and a horned reapers head engraved in it as all that remained of my heart. I stood there for a little while looking at the blood red stone in my palm before turning on my heel and walking away to head for the guard room, the smile and spring in my step lost. The scout troops marched through the town in file despite being dismissed by Twilight earlier. The troop marched in a column, four rows of eight, earth ponies leading the way as young foals jumped up on their armoured backs playfully and inspected the dull brown plates the big ponies were wearing. The pegasi in the troop were next, hoof-falls in time with their earth pony counterparts, wings held high and straight so they could fly off if they needed, they too were accompanied by young local foals mostly pegasi who stick their wings out and sloppily copied the synchronised march looking up at the troop in adoration. Finally flanking the force came the unicorns who were levitating a small number of foals around the street electing playful squeals from the floating foals. Local ponyville farmers and artisans tucked sweet tasting flowers into the passing troops armour passed apples and sweets into their saddlebags everypony was happy to greet Equstria’s defenders on their impromptu parade. As the troop left the outskirts of the town there was not a grim face amongst them. Most of the colts were dopy grins from the odd mare who kissed them in passing, the mares too wore smiles from the kind words of admiration they had received from the local colts and even a few mares. Twilight herself was not spared from the towns sudden celebration, receiving just as much affection as the troops she lead leaving her with a happy grin and a confident stride. “Hay Applebloom. Pass the apple pie over here.” “Aright Applejack, it’s still mighty hot though.” the young filly Applebloom winced as she nearly burnt her lips on the hot plate the delicious looking apple pie rested on, Applejack moved the plate into the middle of the long table where it met an impressive array of apple based food. Granny Apple and Big Macintosh were also helping set the table for the 30 or so guests they were about to receive. “I haven’t seen cousin AppleSlice in years. Who’d thought that the trainin them military folks do would take so long.” the large red stallion said excitement clear in his simple tones. “You can say that again Big Mac. Well I bet aint none of em have had any good home cookin in a long time.” the present apple clan nodded in affirmative as the rhythmic clop of the troop signalled their imminent arrival. “Hello Applejack. Thank you for doing all this on such short notice, I had no idea how I was going to feed them until you volunteered.” “Well it’s all right Twi but I got to ask what’s with the flowers... and lipstick?” the orange mare pointed a hoof to twilights cheek which had a lopsided kiss mark were an adventurous mare had sloppily kissed Twilight during the parade through town, Twilight also sported a crown made from flowers. At their mention Twilight attacked her face with a hoof trying desperately to remove the suggestive mark on her cheek. “I um it-I” “Hay AJ Twilight was just all over that mare her little army had to forcibly separate them I saw the whole thing.” a rainbow coloured cloud mocked parting to reveal a lean, rainbow maned Pegasus mare who landed between her friends with a back flip. “Hay rainbow why are YOU of all ponies wearing lipstick?” Applejack inquired. “I-I No! I just ate a glazed donut pffft me? Wearing lipstick? Ridiculous, hay is that pie?” the cyan speedster joined the scouts before any more awkward questions could be asked just as they began to dig into the available food thanking their hosts as they went. Applejack watched the ponies dig into their food with gusto and after roughly half an hour Applejack looked at her cousin. “Hay AppleSlice, c’mere” Applejack waved over her cousin who quickly excused himself from the table. “Hay Applejack, what’s up?” AppleSlice asked embracing his cousin. “Well look at you part of the equestrian army, got some fancy armour too.” “It’s a big honour to serve equestria.” AppleSlice said proudly standing up straighter. “It’s good to see you AppleSlice now we got to get all of you into the barn for a good night’s rest.” both Apples turned to see the happy fed troop with Applejacks friends who were all sleepily joking and it looked like a few of them were asleep already, nopony wore a sour face but instead all had content smiles. The sound of digging through rock was rhythmic and one that I had grown accustomed to, so when the sound was broken to a hollow scraping sound there was little doubt that we had reached our destination. With a steady scrape than a sudden crash my Imps broke through the stone brick wall kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured the end of the tunnel. Without missing a beat I walked into the dust cloud flanked by four skeletons holding rusted broken swords and shields, behind the skeletons were six Dark Elves scanning the darkness crossbows held out in front of them, at the Elves heels was my main force, forty Goblins all using short swords, a few of them even had helmets. Around us was a dark, stale, unused basement. Rotten empty crates and barrels littered the floor and my invasion force occasionally disturbed a rusted piece of nail or scrap with their footfalls. Out ahead of me my Imps were lighting wooden torches on the walls that had stood unused for an uncertain amount of time yet lit the subterranean room with an even warm glow. "Master, a staircase." my faithful Imp pointed out the passage blocked by a simple heavy wooden door that hung on its last hinge. After walking up the small staircase I found myself in a long hall perhaps a Throne room yet the Throne was long gone, were it should be was instead a semicircle of shattered rock lit by a thick beam of moonlight, something that enthralled my minions. Seeing a slight glow in the distance I moved closer to one of the shattered stain-glass windows and peered out into the darkness. There past a thick forest was the unmistakable glow of an inhabited town nothing a force of thirty seven Goblins couldn't fix. I felt the smile that had been lost to me since I closed down one of my many dungeon Hearts returning. With a delightfully evil grin I spun on my heel and gave the order for the Goblins to march on the settlement. The Skeletons and Dark Elves set up defensive positions around the abandoned ruin in case of counter-attack. Taking the blood red Heart stone from my plate sleeve, I flicked it into the air where it remained, feeding me Mana witch I used to summon a golden throne that Reapers were so fond of. "It’s good to be bad." Chapter 3Twilight Sparkle looked around her observing the high walls inlaid with stained glass, the white marble gave way to a long red carpet that split the large hall in two, turning towards the throne she saw her mentor, the calm mare sat addressing a small group of ponies with a slight smile on her face. “You are shirking your responsibility Twilight.” Nightmare moon stood beside her the dark, the mare’s very presence darkening the hall. “How so?” the purple unicorn asked deciding to humour her defeated foe. This was obviously a dream after all something her subconscious put here to whittle the hours away until she awoke once more. “You look but fail to see, is it not your duty to protect Ponyville?” the Alicorn’s voice was calm “Stop this nonsense and LOOK!” at the final word nightmares voice became a scream in contrast to the unusual softness her voice had prior, the sudden loudness of nightmare moon's voice caused Twilight to jump. “What do you mean?” the dark alicorn did not answer but the scene before twilight changed, the pale marble walls became a dull gray stone as the stained glass cracked and shattered, celestia’s ornate throne became smaller, sharper instead of loyal Pegasi and Unicorn guards, pale hairless monsters stood fiddling with crossbows. Glancing around the hall Twilight recognised it as the one hall she and her friends had defeated nightmare moon in, her musings were cut short when the black chitin covered figure that sat atop the throne locked eyes with her. “Who are you?” the question startled Twilight especially because it was her who asked it. The creature did not respond, its glowing red eyes boring into Twilight making her want to run and hide. Dark spots entered Twilights vision but she dared not move nor even blink as her world turned black. “Ah can’t tell you how proud of you ah am.” Applejack said as she inspected her Apple Slice’s fine dull brown helmet. The enchanted steel made her coat stand on end but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, just one of warmth as if Celestia herself were standing beside you. “The whole family is going to be here tomorrow, all the apples from Appleoosa to Stalliongrad.” the mare gently put down the helmet “Not just the apples, we got the carrots, cabbages, pines, pies most are here already but golden harvest is looking after them. Eyup, tomorrow’s gonna be one heck of a party all right.” “Is that smoke?” Apple Slice squinted into the twilight, a long pillar of black smoke rose up from the sleepy town. “Now why in the hay would there be a fire in ponyville? All the shops are closed.” the orange mare looked over Apple Slices shoulder “What the hay is going on?” “Do we need more orange juice Tavi?” the gray mare in question looked over at her housemate Vinyl Scratch who was orbiting eight cartons of the orange beverage around her. “It’s not on the list Vinyl.” the earth pony held a list up to emphasise her point “We need to cut costs after you set the house on fire. How you managed that with lemons, I have no idea.” Vinyl chuckled at the mention of her most recent shenanigans involving a paperclip, some tape, two lemons, and a spanner that had ended in a combustible lemon war with the local mailmare destroying the entire house yet leaving the rest of the town unharmed. Octavia remembered Vinyl refusing Ditzy's offer to pay for the damages, the words “Na man, it’s cool.” echoed in her nightmares still. “So no OJ? Ah, that bites. What am I supposed to drink then? WATER? Hmpf, not likely.” “We just need the essentials” just as Octavia finished her sentence a shrill cry could be heard from outside the corner shop, the few ponies who were inside the well lit building froze unsure of how to act, all except for a white unicorn who burst from the shop to help whoever was in trouble. Her movement spared Octavia into motion, upon leaving the shop the two ponies were horrified to find a battered Cheerilee, her front right foreleg ending in a bloody mess, over her stood a squat green monster, something Octavia recognised instantly as a Goblin from Folklore. “Pony taste nice.” the green biped grinned, the faint light from the shop illuminating the crimson that covered its lower face. For the first time in her life Vinyl had no idea what to do, her coat felt cold making her shiver as she stood looking at the faintly sobbing earth pony. Vinyl felt her stomach clench, her heart felt like it would explode any second, when the Unicorn mare looked up she saw the crushed corpse of the green monster and her roommate standing over Cheerilee and whispering calming things to the crippled mare. “-VINYL SNAP OUT OF IT!” the commanding voice of Octavia broke though Vinyl’s mental collapse. “Oh Celestia what do we do?” Vinyl’s voice came out as barely a whisper a contrast to the usually loud mare. “Go to Applejacks farm and get Twilight! Go NOW!” Vinyl spun around and looked out across town, more of the green things were setting things alight and ponies were being attacked in their own homes, some even lay on the ground unmoving. Vinyl disappeared in a flash alerting a small horde of Goblins to Octavia who gave Cheerilee one last hug before standing to her hooves and bracing herself. Twilight turned to Applejack, new understanding sparkling in her eyes, she knew what she had to do now. “Applejack, get the others and bring them here, I think I know what’s going on.” on her final word she once more disappeared from sight. The town was in chaos, but then that was to be expected. I walked along one of the streets as my Goblins burned and smashed and bashed and ate the town. This was probably the worst thing to happen to this realm in years, he got a smile out of that. “MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!” I was interrupted by a loud cry from the end of the street, it looked like a force of the local... ponies? They weren't horses that was certain, and the fact that they had an armed force made them better then the fairies in my eyes. I looked to my right to the disturbance, I felt before the one that made me walk all the way into this little town, it was a pile of crushed Goblin bodies with a little gray mare that stood in the middle, I decided I liked her. “You killed my minions...” my deep booming voice echoed throughout the town as I waited for her response which never came as a sudden blast of powerful magical energy hit me in the back melting my armour in some places. Turning slowly I looked at the little purple Unicorn who dared to strike me. “This ends here monster.” Twilight's voice was calm as she circled the beast that stood a head higher than even Celestia “I won't let you hurt anypony else.” that made the creature pause before the red dots that made up its eyes locked with hers. “I will be back with more little pony. More little Goblins and darker monsters still, but just know that if you stand strong there will be a place for you at my side.” with that he let out a deep booming laugh before melting into a black ichor. Twilight let out a furious cry. How dare the monster even THINK that she would join his dark cause! In her fury she called her magic to her and teleported to where she knew the armored creature went. Chapter 4Welcome Back Keepers Welcome keepers, it has been a while. I lost the will to write this for a long time... well now i intend to start it up with the chapter that i have been sitting on for so long (because i think its quite a weak chapter) thankfully despite this being a weak chapter the ones after will let me get into the swing of things, but before that i want to ask you for something, firstly do you want longer chapters or for me to keep to the shortish chapters i have now? secondly if you have idea's for a keeper i can use in the story i will do my best to add them in, if you have a keeper idea PM me the details. I want Name: gender: Race: human, elf, dark elf, goblin, horned reaper Keeper style: ie magic, ghosts, vampires, traps Skirmish style: rush, turtle that kind of thing Bio: just a bit on what the keeper is like Power: has a single realm and some creatures, a large fortress with some outlying realms, has a dark army of goblins who run a taverns across the world anything you can think of (note, weaker keepers will be in the story faster) Thank you for putting up with my lack of updates i will do more in future. Chapter 5Chapter 4 Teleportation to those witnessing it is a flash of light and a sudden depressurization effect, nothing too spectacular but a good trick that can save your life. To the person or pony traveling this way, it’s an explosion of light that your eyelids can't hold back and a sudden painful pop as your body tries to compensate for the sudden change in pressure. however for a pony like Twilight teleportation is step one. Twilight herself has developed and perfected the casting of five spells that negate all of the negative effects, something even very strong and old Keepers have trouble mastering, so you can imagine the surprise Heras felt as the little Unicorn appeared before him in full battle stance ready to fight. “STOP!!” the Unicorn cried out, her rage bubbling off of her like a wave of delightful dark energy causing the black knight to grin and bask in the unintended glow. “Ah, you have come, and filled with rage enough to boil the blood of a lesser being.” Heras let out a booming laugh, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. Without responding Twilight took in her surroundings while casting a small shield spell spotting the slim pale figures holding knives and crossbows, but the dark elves were quickly wiped from her mind as she looked up at the end of the room. The gem floating by itself captivated the Unicorn, its pulsing red light seeming to match her own heartbeat as she gazed up in longing. “Beautiful is it not?” Twilight jumped forward sending a magic missile at the black knight who just snuck up on her and was inches away from her shield, the blast struck the steel helmet of Heras giving Twilight a view of the cracked and blackened skin underneath before the steel repaired itself with a orange glow. “What do you want?” the Unicorns voice was low as she moved closer to the gem. “What, do, I, want?” the dark human taped his boot on the floor and looked up slightly as if deep in thought. “To free you would be my best response, you see... I have a vision of the future.” he paused to look at the Dark Elves who had encircled the gem protecting the heart catalyst. “A Vision!” his voice caused Twilight to snap her head down and stare at the figure. “Of a world without conflict.” Twilight could not see his face, she knew that his next words were uttered with the darkest of grins “Under me.” Twilights face hardened and she found the next words the easiest she have ever uttered. “That's not going to happen!” the Unicorn was in the center of the hall now with her shield up and enemies the likes of which she have never faced before, alone. Only now in retrospect did she see how stupid her choice to chase the knight was. “-Here or closeby, she must be!” the voice was calm, dark and was the voice of a pony Twilight did not want here. “Oh? Looks like we have guests!” with a wave of his hands the pale bipeds vanished leaving only Twilight and the knight left in the hall. “You never told me your name Unicorn.” Heras nodded sliding a long, black blade from its sheath. “I know.” Twilight sent a few more blasts at Heras who nodded, his armor rebuilding itself as he looked back to the entrance to the hall and then to Twilight. “My name is Heras, learn it well Unicorn for you will serve me soon.” He nodded looking back as the door opened “Now watch as I break you.” The door opened to a pink maned mare with a matching straight mane who stood in the doorway, the figure of Heras was a blur as he rushed to the Pink Party Pony only for his blade to miss its mark. In an instant Pinkie was no longer where she was but the Dark Keeper’s swing was not wasted as his blade met flesh and severed head from body. The room went quiet as the decapitated head of AppleSlice rolled across the floor, his bronze helmet making a loud clang as it bounced to Pinkies hooves. The pink pony looked down at the head, her face without emotion of any kind as she looked back up to the keeper recovering from his overshot swing. “You moved quickly... but can you keep it up?” in a flash he was upon her slicing this way and that his blade seaming to miss Pinkie by fractions and hair with's as the pair engaged in an odd dance of death, Pinkie's face showing equal amounts fear and anger doing her best to keep alive. It took three seconds for Twilight to respond, she closed her eyes and charged her horn throwing her body into a teleport that sent her flying at the floating crystal that seemed to glow brighter as she came closer, it flashed brightly as Twilight’s hoof came into contact with it causing the black knight to cry out and clutch at his chest in agony. “Smart, but it is a waste a- SMACK!” the Dark Lord was sent across the room with twin dents in his chest plate as Applejack recovered from her attack. “Y'all need to pay attention!” the farm pony cried out tears streaking down her face as she turned on the recovering keeper “Cuss I'm about to make you regret everythin’ you just did.” Beside the pony stood a disheveled looking pale Unicorn with a stern gaze. Next to her was a furious looking Pegasus with a rainbow mane, a smaller looking pony with a butter yellow coat and flared wings who stood back slightly but had a face no less furious than the pink party pony beside her, the pink mares mane looked slightly shorter after Heras attacked. Around their necks sat five Amulets with a Tiara floating in the air next to Rarity. “Is this it? None of you have the power of the purple one, none of you would be worth my time alone.” the agitated dark knight got to his feet rolling his shoulders as he held a hand up, black flame dancing along his hand dripping molten flesh and dark steel to the floor as he charged a spell “So just stay still this will be quick and painless.” “TWILIGHT! CATCH!” Rarity cried as she tossed the Element of Magic to her friend who caught it quickly with her magic and placed it on her head turning to the gem and digging her hooves into the floor. “Over here girls, use the elements on the gem.” Time seemed to slow as the keeper tossed the ball of fire at the group. As they formed up their magic rainbows circled them and Twilight began to rise, her eyes glowing white. The Dark Lord recognized the danger jumping into an impossibly fast sprint only to get blasted back from the pulsing power of the Elements. Suddenly a beam shot forward to the floating gem hitting it to the sound of a terrified and agonized scream. Heras fell to his hands as his armor as torn apart from within his body turning to ash. It was over in seconds, the six ponies falling to the ground with a collection of moans, Twilight falling before the now dark gem, her eyes closing quickly as her body gave out sending her to the world of dreams. Chapter 6Chapter 5 I woke up in a library, not one of the dark musky ones like the empire, but a clean, bright and happy looking one. I took a dislike to this place at once, looking around the library I took in the wooden walls, floor and ceiling without much interest, the place reminded me of a Pixie town I once attacked using only Imps, good times. “YOU!” a loud voice filled the room and I turned to face the Unicorn who made it, she looked bigger than before but that was before I died... wait. “I should be dead.” I mused placing a hand to my chin, it remained scarred and blistered from my experiments with dark magic, there are some things that never heal, dark things that eat at your soul in exchange for power. “What are you doing in my library?” the Unicorn asked tapping one of her hooves on the floor, for what had just transpired she seemed rather placid. “I am not, well I am but not here.” I grunted, the obvious implications of being in this Unicorns Library darkened my mood. “What is that supposed to mean?” she cocked her head looking at me from the side like that would help her understand how a burnt and scarred Human in what I quickly identified as my old clothes back from when I was a pickpocket was now standing in what I assumed was her home. “You are asleep, and have claimed my spirit by severing my connection to my other dungeon hearts.” I grinned and pulled a book from a shelf, it held pictures of a picnic with detailed writing of the event, I skimmed through it taking notes of ponies that this mare found important. “Dungeon Hearts?” I looked up at her holding her gaze for a while as I slowly clicked my neck. “For a mental prison this place is rather comfortable, with easy access to your memory...” I pulled another book from the shelf disposing of the ones I just looked through on the floor and in a flash the books vanished. “You are in my head?!” she asked her rather large eyes going wide as her pupil became small as a pinprick. “Yes, with nowhere else to go I latched onto the closest thing I could to survive, now when most keepers do this they kill their new host, so what makes you so special that I...” no reason to tell her I can't kill her “Can be here without you dying?” she blinked and taped her hooves on the floor some more aggravating me. “So you are stuck in my head.” she ignored my question and looked around at the now bare library, she had worked out how to protect her memories in a few seconds, this was going to be hard. “Yes, until I find a way out or decide to take this body as my own.” why her will was stronger than mine I had no idea, I should be murdering her friends right now in the body of a purple pony! “Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you? What was that gem?” the world I found myself in started to shrink and become darker as the Unicorn moved closer to me, showing that while she was grasping her new ability to look inside her own mind quickly but not fast enough to have it change on a whim, something all good keepers learned fast so as not to become trapped in there own minds. “Heras, The Underworld, a Human and that Gem was a focal point to a Dungeon Heart, something that allowed me to create new realms for me to rule.” I turned a slight smile crossing my face as I thought of a plan, the fact that the Unicorn had attacked me alone was interesting, a glimpse into her mind that told of only useful things. “So with you stuck here, Equestria is safe!” a smile played across her lips as my plan suddenly became clear. “You think I am the only keeper who know’s of this place? With me gone they will forget about this place for a few months, a year at best.” I looked her over “But they will come, and they will come with a much stronger force than I.” I watched her as she mulled over this new threat to her life. “If you know a way to stop them.” she glared at me and I let out a chuckle. “I know a few, you could wait for them and use the magic artifacts you used on me on them, but that relies on them bringing a dungeon heart, and more, ponies?” she nodded “Ponies will get hurt that way, no the best way would be to shatter their empire and make them harmless, a huge undertaking, one that you will surely fail with your limited power.” “But you think its viable, and you don't seem prone to mixing words, well besides the lies.” she turned and looked at me “You think there is a chance of me being able to defeat the ‘Keepers’? Tell me why.” the conversation was going well but this was the hard part, she would be hard to convince. “You could take control of some dungeons yourself, use the added power to fight the other keepers and render the underworld harmless.” she looked me over an eyebrow raised. “And the catch?” this was the hard part “It will take a lot out of you, you will do and see things that you never thought possible, you will find new things that don't have names and fight things that should not exist, when you have finished and this ‘Equestria’ is safe, you will not return the same mare.” I caught myself holding my breath, something I had no reason to do here. “There must be other ways.” she finished and I shrugged in response. “There are not but I understand, also if you could give me something to read or do I would be grateful, I will be residing in here for a while and boredom is not something I am happy with.” she glared at me and shook her head before vanishing, no doubt waking up. I sat at the table in the corner of the room and as I expected her senses were linked here, giving me at least some idea of what was going on. Twilight groggily opened her eyes as a pink friend of hers bandaged her leg, Pinkie has various cuts and shallow gashes across her body using her natural earth pony magic to limit the bleeding, it turns out the “Keeper” came much closer to hitting her then it seemed. “TWILIGHT!” the pink mare beamed “you're awake! You were out for a little while there, just after the Elements dropped us onto the floor.” there was a shuffling behind her as she turned to find Applejack putting her hat over her cousin's head with a solemn look upon her face. “T’aint right... what kinda monster does this!” she slammed a hood down as Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her back saying nothing. “This gem... he must have been using it as a focal point for whatever magic he was casting... but its not a gem.” Twilight turned to her Unicorn friend who was looking over the now dark orb, now that she could get a closer look she saw it was more of a rock than anything. “Dumb rock.” the Fashionista dropped it and moved to see her friends. Twilight did not, she got to her hooves and picked up the stone looking at it closely before a faint voice resonated in her head. “A Keepers most important tool, the Heart stone used by Keepers to channel magic from Dungeon Hearts.” Twilight blinked. “So there is no getting rid of you then?” she thought back frowning. “No, so what do you intend to do?” Twilight shook her head and did not respond moving back to her friends who where looking at her intently, besides Fluttershy who was fussing over Pinkie. “Lets get back to town... Applejack need any hel-” “No. its fine.” she sighed pulling the body onto her back before Rainbow stopped her and picked up the head, helmet still attached nodding to Applejack with a solemn gaze. “Well ah guess a little help won't hurt none.” she nods to Twilight and the six start making there way back to town, the forest surprisingly quiet with Twilight taking up the front of the group with the stone circling her head, she wanted to know a bit more about it before she made her judgment. “What's on yer mind sugarcube?” Applejack turned to Twilight looking to take her mind off of the body draped over her back. “He was not working alone, whatever he was... there are more of them.” there was a groan from behind Twilight as Pinke stuck her tongue out and kept walking. “Great more evil mean bad guys from... where are they from?” she looks to Twilight “Mostly from the realm of Zahalla, some of the Keepers have land in the outplane, a place between your world and Zahalla but they are rare, Keepers are centralized.” Twilight nearly stopped but that might make her friends suspicious, who knew what they might think if they found out about the person in her head, it was odd that he was so open with information like this, did he honestly want to help her? “I don’t know... but, we have to find a way of stopping them.” she looks out over the town of ponyville, some of the houses burned and broken as the Purple unicorn sighs “Whatever the cost.” Chapter 7Chapter 6 Twilight pushed the door to her library open, letting it bang loudly into the tree wall, as she slumped into her home. She scanned the book shelves, picking up the most relevant books she would need, things on subterranean survival, defensive magic, and a few other subjects that might prove useful. Heras was tricking her, she knew that but there was a chance that their interests aligned, and it would help her protect Equestria. “You might want a cape or some armor, and a knife, or blade might be helpful too.” His voice echoed in her mind. “Why are you being so helpful?” She frowned as she picked up a tight fitting linen vest, which she acquired in the crystal kingdom. It covered her body just shy of her cutie mark and left her legs and neck exposed, before she put on a dark purple cape over that. Rarity might faint at her sense of fashion, but the clothes would be more than useful. “Because our fates are linked for a time, and it is in my intrest to keep you safe.” The answer appeased her, so long as he was looking out for his own skin she could accept his help. Packing food, and some items that might prove useful, like rope in her bag, slung it over her back, and fastened it with her magic. Glad that her draconic assistant was not home, Twilight wrote a letter to him, explaining it. Doing so in person would be hard. When the letter was done, she quickly left for the Everfree; there was no time to say goodbye. Twilight had found the tunnel with ease, it had been left open and abandoned much to the Keeper’s annoyance. The dark damp tunnel, enlightened with only her horn’s glow, was far longer and harder to navigate than the forest. Walking alone in the darkness was... unpleasant, she was almost glad she had someone to talk to. “Are you sure this is the right place?” She asked out loud, the silence around her was oppressive. “Positive, this place will help you transfer your bearings, and ‘that dumb rock’ is more valuable than a mountain of gold.” “But if its a pocket realm, how do I get in?” She sighed turning along the twisting path, her adventure had turned out to be not only dull but monotonous “Also how do you get the walls so...” she looked around, the walls were imperfect but straight, turns whereas close to ninety degrees as can be expected underground. “Most keepers... I say ‘most’, but I have yet to find one who does not, anyway... Most keepers use a minion called an ‘Imp’ to carve out tunnels and dungeons down here, living creatures from an offering of gold. A waste, in my opinion. My Imps were magical constructs.” Twilight could hear a faint tapping noise. “Are they... dangerous?” She tried to turn her ears to make out where the sound came from. “No. Well, they can be if you corner them, but what isn't?” As Twilight turned to face whatever seemed to be following her, something tackled her, pressing her face into the dirt, and pinning her to the ground. In shock her light spell faded. “Well, well, well, you must be from the new overworld. What would a goodly little creature like you be doing down here in the dark?” a female voice met the Unicorns ears and she could just about pick up a pale smile in the dark. “Dark Elves, matriarchal creatures, they respect female cruelty... no idea why they just don't like men, odd.” Twilight looked up at the ‘Dark Elf’ and shook her head. “Just looking around, why did you attack me?” she decided to keep things polite for now. “Well just incase you are a hero, you are not a hero are you?” a blade found itself at twilights neck “No, just a Unicorn looking for something.” the blade left her neck and Twilight bucked her hooves back into whatever was on her back causing a scream of pain to fill the dark tunnel, followed by mirthful laughter. “A worm is he not? Stupid man let the knife slack.” Twilight slowly used her light spell letting it dimly light the tunnel and showing the tall, thin Dark Elf before her nodding to the slightly more stocky male holding his hands to his crotch. “I like you.” the Dark Elf smiled causing Twilight to turn back to look at her “Not many ‘goodly’ creatures can show a man his place so easily.” “I am looking for the crossing point.” Twilight pushed her disgust at getting praise for hurting someone to the back of her mind, things worked different down here. “Looking to join a keeper? I am sure many of them would like a creature as unique as you in their ranks, my name is Elliv Huntseeker.” she nodded to Twilight “Twilight.” the unicorn answered simply causing the Elf to nod. “A good name, I am going to the Crossing point too, would you like to travel together?” Twilight nodded not sure how much she could trust her new ‘companions’ “So, not many Unicorns down here?” the Dark Elf shook her head “No, hell I have never seen a Equine so small.” she looked Twilight over and shrugged “My last keeper just died so I need a new one.” looking over Twilight she grinned “This your first one right?” “Well, yes.” she looked up at the Dark Elf walking at a pace that seemed to make her male companion uncomfortable “But I am optimistic.” “Well here is the portal, it leads to one of the smaller crossroads, more of an outpost then a town.” the Dark Elf pointed to a stone circle with a dark pit at its base “You know how to use a portal right?” the Unicorn sheepishly shook her head and the elf nodded. “Right, well just jump into the portal and keep yourself together until you reach the crossroads, it’s a direct link, you will like it there.” she winks and dives into the portal quickly followed by her companion leaving Twilight alone. “Well you heard the elf, jump.” Heras urges as Twilight looks into the inky darkness tapping her hoof to the floor uncomfortably. “This can’t be safe.” the Unicorn muttered quietly before leaping into the portal closing her eyes with a squeak, there was a sudden change in temperature, from a damp cold close to freezing ambience to a dry warm one that hit her first, then it was the voices, opening her eyes Twilight looked around at the small yet busy subtrainen town, lava bordered the wide open cavern with houses leading up the walls with walkways between them hundreds of creatures mulled around. Dragons, most of them young and powerful strutted around looking like they had something to prove, Goblins kept in small tribes holding knives and clubs glaring at anything that came to close, Acolytes and Warlocks, mostly humanoid hurried from place to place in colorful robes often with their noses in books. Taverns made up most of the innermost plaza of the town, with shops selling almost everything a mercenary monster would need, occasionally there was a well dressed figure, Humanoid most of the time, who she identified as a keeper, not a keeper like Heras, who was strong and powerful without the need of opulence that most of the lesser keepers showed, fat lumps of meat that would make Bile Demons blush carried on wide beds with gold and gems lining everything to bring a sense of importance. That was not what got her attention however, it was the creatures that were looking her over. “A Unicorn? Hmm wonder how much pay you get.” a female Orc smiled and nodded, rather friendly despite the blood spattered club slung over her shoulder or the rusted plate armor that concealed nothing. “Must have come in from a new realm, not much of a fighter, a magic user of some kind?” a skinny looking Dark Elf male in robes looked her over as Twilight looked around for where Heras said to go spotting the side alley quickly before a large round blob blocked her path. “Little pony cute!” the blob announced shaking its skinny arms as it pointed more and more creatures coming closer to look at the newcomer. “Twilight, this is bad, news of a new creature will spread fast, it would be best to teleport away from this crowd and move on to the pocket realm, you will find the gate in that alley.” the voice caused the others to fade out as Twilight nodded, she did not want to be the center of attention to a bunch of monsters. In a flash Twilight was behind the crowd and slipped into the alley quickly finding a brick in one of the walls with a small engraving on it, she drew her hoof back and smashed it, then she was gone. Twilight opened her eyes, something had been dripping onto her face as she lay on the floor, a stalactite hung from the high ceiling over her, the stone had created an unstable portal that had taken her here in a rather uncomfortable manner, wherever ‘here’ was. The voice in her head was quiet, and for the first time underground she felt alone, looking around she was in a wide open room about fourteen meters across with a circular stone slab on the floor with the image of what looked like a face with large horns sticking out of the forehead. why did this place feel so... RIGHT?! Twilight wanted to scream or sing or dance, it was in the air, what she was, pure magic untamed and wild was in the very air. A heartbeat, Twilight turned to look at her saddlebags, still in place as she saw the dark red glow. She pulled the glowing rock from its place between two books in a blanket and looked into its pulsing depth, it felt like a heartbeat, her heartbeat, twisting the rock before her eyes she felt the magic start to sturr around her, her eyes catching dancing lines across the rock as she shivered in delight at the feeling of so much powerfull magic around her. Drip-drip-drip, she put a hoof to her face and noted she was bleeding, her blood had pooled onto the ground and was lighting up the stone at her hooves, how wonderful! She wished she could share this with her friends or Celestia, it was the best feeling ever! Then she groaned, the stone falling to the ground and passing into the round slab across the floor without a sound, her heart, her real heart hurt like fire. She fell to her hocks and pressed her bleeding face into the floor as she cried out, it hurt but she did not wish it to stop, slowly cracks formed on the slab, wide gashes in the stone that slowly widened as the stone broke away, suddenly Twilight fell. Thump-thump Twilight opened her eyes Thump-thump She could feel it, all around her, it was power and magic and blood and life. Thump-thump It was the best thing ever! Thump-thump She looked around her, mind clearing from the rush she had just experienced a soft flesh under her that felt so soft, she smiled and looked down at her own heart, it was odd, she knew it was her, she could feel it, her heart spread out to contain the magic of this realm, it was beautiful. Sadly her rest would not last. “Wakey wakey keeper, time to smell the ashes.” the voice echoed around Twilight's head causing her to groan as she teleported out onto the stone around her heart. it was easy, she didn't even FEEL the drain! “What happened?” she glanced around at the square room, it had no doors leading out, just her heart in the middle and a path around that. “You embraced the power offered to you, I have never seen a new keeper react so well to the role, most can't handle all the power and spend a long time to recover.” nodding she looked at her hoof, she felt relaxed, her power was steadily building with no end in sight, she was already leagues beyond what she was. “So, what now, with power like this I can crush any who dare to Threaten Equestria.” a wide grin crossed her face, Celestia would be so proud. “Not quite Keeper.” Heras spoke in her head “This is the first of many hearts, you will need to build your power, not only in magic but over the land, become a true keeper and destroy the ones who would hurt the innocent.” The Unicorn slowly stretched out her legs, feeling just a bit taller than she was, she looked around. “Where do we start?” There was a slight chuckle from her mental passenger. “Imps.” Chapter 8Chapter 7 Imp’s where useful, Twilight sat upon a pile of gold, refined by some simple magic Heras had shown her, she had never been so powerful. So capable. So ALIVE! “So, I will need to remove them from power by destroying the dungeon hearts they posses, then taking their land so I am the new superpower...” It was crazy, even the princesses would never try a plan so bold, not if they knew the extent of the keepers powers. But Twilight was logical. First, her power would grow as her holdings grew, from a few dirty rooms and a hoof full of Imps to a large empire under the earth. Second, as her power grew the power that other evil keepers had would diminish. Then she could protect the ones she cared for, it was a simple plan, but the best ones always where. “Yes, you should start with small time keepers, gain followers and allies. Then lead them” Twilight nodded, sitting next to him in her mind, it was something else he showed her, now that she had a connection to the land around her she could ‘see’ the land in her mind and plan things out, like a birds eye view of her liberty, she was spending more time in her mind then out of it. She was using a simple spell to turn gold into useful things, like a bedroom for herself, a large library, and something called a ‘lare’ her Imps digging out the area she desired, however something had caught her eye. When she had first came here the land was rather large, around a mile across and surrounded by rock far too hard to break, now however the land was much smaller... was it closing in? or was Twilight overreacting. “When you leave this place getting some creatures around should be your first priority, a good idea is to find a few acolytes and a tribe of goblins and work with that as you get settled into the land” “Hmm, Heras why is the area around us getting smaller?” she felt the hard rock closing around the softer magic of this realm, should it close around her... she would be trapped. “Oh that? well as this is a realm created by ME alone and has no magic in itself, my power will leave it and eventually this place will be reclaimed by the rock.” “What about us?” “Well, when the land gets close to your dungeon we will need to break out of this realm, when that happens we will be drawn to a realm close by with this dungeon intact, however while this area is not owned by a strong keeper, lots of small time keepers stalk around out here, no doubt they will challenge you, I also think we are under the human lands at the moment” “Human lands?” she turned to look at him, he was looking better than she first saw him in her head, most of his cracked skin had healed, and his pale face had a bit more color... she however failed to notice her own mind had become a darker more shadowed place, where once happy memories lined the walls they were now pushed to the side to make way for books of magical knowledge. “well, there are Three known Worlds, Eros, Khalis and Katch’goln, Your Equestria would be the fourth, Eros is home to the Empire and the order of Rite, Khalis is... well WAS the Avitar Kingdom, the place where keepers originate from, Katch’goln is a more segmented world, lots of lands and a brand new place for keepers, that is where we are now, close to a Human town, I forget its name.” Twilight huffed at that. “So you can only get to the other worlds from natural paths through the underworld rock, and you found one that links to Equestria?” “Yes, its not the only one, I think... but it is the only KNOWN one, rather close to where we are so you can work on fortifying it soon, firstly we need a bit more land, gold, and power.” Twilight smiled, you could never have enough power. Applejack Kicked open the Barn door that held her cousin's body, tears streaked her face, in shock Big mac and Pinkie Pie, the two ponies who were seeing to the body jumped back, the sight of Applejack crying was not a common one, she moved close to the body undoing the straps “I'm sorry Slice, y'all know I would only do this, but I am gonna need all the help I can get for this... I know you understand.” she pulled the Brown Steel armor from the headless corpse and tossed it over her back working on the straps and quickly fixing it to herself. “APPLEJACK!?” Big Mac looked at her in horror and no small amount of anger, the large colt had never risen his voice at her before, but she needed to do this. “Pinkie get the Princess, tell her about the Castle.” she rolled her shoulders and dropped her pre-packed saddlebags over her now armored back “I will be there... if not then... she will know what to do.” she nodded and turned away from her brother and her friend before they could take in what just happened, the helmet her cousin had left on his head. The armor was slightly too big in places and far too small in others, she found her gate odd at first but quickly got used to it. Now to find Twilight, that stupid filly had rushed off to ‘Protect Equestria’ alone, she would need her help. With a sigh Applejack found herself at the castle, the walk taking far less time than she thought it would, she must have been deep in thought, with a roll of her neck that showed her fine muscle along her body she started into the Castle looking down into the lowest room before she found it, the hole in the underground wall, she was lucky that her barding had a faint light spell on it, to give her enough to see with but not enough to be easily seen at night, with a steeled gaze Applejack stepped into the dark after Twilight. Twilight screamed as she cut her hearts connection to the realm feeling the area shift with the force of a small sun before, in an instant, it stopped. She could feel it, around her was a large place with magic and... something else? “Dam, another keeper has started to claim this realm, lucky there are more than a few portals, we can start working on your army.” Twilight Groggily nodded and focused her mind to ‘see’ the area around her, lots of gold to the ‘South’ with a portal to the east and whoever the other keeper was to the north, time to get to work. Her Dungeon at the moment had her heart in the middle with three rooms branching off, her bedroom to the west attached to her own library, both small rooms around twenty meters squared each, a library to the north, no books yet in her own or the public library but Heras had said that they will come soon, to the south was a treasure room with the lair to the east of that, she made her Imps dig to the closest portal. “You will need a Hatchery, to feed any creature you hire.” Heras Chimed in, Twilight was used to Carnivores, mostly Griffins, but did not like to think about the eating habits of flesh eaters. That was a bit harsh, Twilight sighed rolling her eyes, she needed to get some creatures or hirelings and the best way to do that was to step into the portal and start looking, she had gold, and power now to use it. Applejack stalked through the empty passage, hoofprints before her showing Twilight's passing allowing The Earth Pony mare to just keep trotting after her. “SHOW YOURSELF YA’ DARK ELF SHITBAGS!” the Voice echoed through the tunnel but sounded close moving slightly quicker but careful not to make much sound she peered down a side passage, a more natural looking cave that Twilight’s hoofsteps never went close to. “Here we are you pitiful Dwarf, time to die!” the voice was husky and harsh making Applejack shudder at the malice this creature had, she looked to the group of armored bipeds, a robed one with long hair and a large book on its hands was shaking visibly but was casting spells at its companions, around it where some rather short bipeds in chain armor with another shot one in a gold plate with some kind of crown over its head, around them where some taller bipeds with what looked like cut down crossbows with them pulling down on the string themselves as they all turned to the now visible ‘Dark Elf’. Then they charged, the gold plated short one swinging twin axes at the shadows somehow hitting more than a few of the hidden Elves that seemed to merge with the darkness before shouting loudly as its plate lit up, illuminating the room before a nasty looking bolt tore into its leg, with a shout of anger it fell and started swinging its axe around as a group of Elves moved closer to end its life, the others shouting in anger and hopelessness, unable to reach the plated one, as an Elf drew back its Cut down Crossbow. Applejack charged with a shout causing the battle to grind to a halt as both parties looked at her in shock, with an ease that was known only to her she spun around so her hind hooves were facing the Elf and bucked hard sending the Elf back into the wall with a crunch. “TO ARMS MEN! THE GODS FAVOR US TODAY!” the rest of the group Applejack had found herself defending roared together as they charged, even the skinny taller one with the book shouting as it shot out spell after spell from its book as Applejack offered her hoof to the fallen Short Biped, most of the Elves dead or gone now. “Names Applejack, nice to see a friendly face down here.” she glanced at the wall, the one with the splattered Elf on it and snorted, they weren't worth mercy. “Aye, Well Applejack, I am King Dalmin Goldheart of Gordrugilmudukr and I thank ye’ for what ya did.” with that he bowed, it was definitely a he now Applejack looked him over. Looking up at her with a warm smile he held up a hand taking Applejacks hoof and leaning on her as he got to his foot, the other he held over the ground. “You heading back to, Grod..glmukr?” Applejack twisted her tongue to match the sounds made by the Biped made, he was slightly smaller than Applejack and looked to the large robed Biped “Come now mage, what do I pay you for!” before turning back to Applejack. “Tis a name, only a Dwarf can pronounce, But what of you, this area is new to us, where do you come from?” “Ponyville, Equestria.” she looked over at the Dwarf Kings party as they licked their wounds “Never saw one of you Dwarfs before, why are some of you big?” The King let out a roar of laughter clasping his hand around Applejacks own plate in an effort to keep balanced. “Nay, They are Humans who are working for my clan.” The Dwarf King grinned and nodded to the tall robed figure “That is a Human Magi who calls herself Sunny, no idea why.” He looks down at the Dwarf treating him and sighs “I knew that the Keepers were up to something down here, if you take me to the entrance to your world I can help to defend it.” he looked into Applejacks eyes nothing but honesty radiating off of him. “How can you help?” The orange mare cocked her head pawing at the floor. “Well, my son wishes to create his own Fortress, I can't think of a better place then the border to your world, it will also be good for us to trade with you, years of war has left us in dire need of trade.” It was a good deal, not only would Applejack protect the people she cared about but new allies who knew this area well would help them understand it, and help Applejack find Twilight. “One condition.” Applejack looked up at the Dwarf “You help me find my friend, she ran down here to stop the keepers who know of my world.” He nodded to that. “You care for your kin, I respect that, I will do everything within my power to help you in this task Applejack.” he looked back at his party and let out a sly grin “But I have a favor to ask, as friends.” he clasped his hand to his neck and scratched it “It seems that I am unable to walk, and you look strong enough...” with a sigh the Orange mare turned. “Fine, get on, its not that far.” with the dwarf now seated on her back the mare led them back to the castle, both the princesses should be there by now anyway.
Chapter 1(I don’t own the rights to my little pony or dungeon keeper they are owned by Hasbro and EA respectively) I tapped my feet uncertainly on the damp cold earth, the rhythmic sound of digging echoing along the wet tunnel as my Imps continued digging into the unknown. Blinking I looked to my right and saw a Warlock in dark blue robes that was reading a worn looking spellbook whilst gently rubbing his thin black moustache. It was my long time enemy Anamid the blue, my own spellbook, a lovingly crafted flesh red hand book held only the basic spells required to keep a dungeon in check far less than Anamid’s vast array of devastating spells from his many years of research into every school of magic including, I suppressed a shudder, White magic. Even so such a tantalising treasure as Anamid’s spellbook before me was enough to get me tapping the hilt of my blade excitedly, I had after all spent years tearing Anamid’s territory apart looking for that exact book except now much to my dismay, we have an alliance. Two weeks earlier The tunnel I walked along was dark the unyielding stone and caused my plated footfall to echo along the unclaimed land. In the distance I saw the faint glow of a torch singling the entrance to the battered hall were most dungeons and towns met, well the big ones anyway. There were always small keepers who hid in the darkness, weak keepers, very different to the five before me. The six of us were the underworlds superpowers, the strongest keepers who would like nothing more than to slay those around them. A smile crossed my face, perfect company. “And so the mighty Heras blesses us with his presence oh dark days” a gray blue robed wizard mocked, Anamid a bigger asshole than I am. “Hmm yesss well it did take awhile for you to arrive, having trouble with the Impsss ssslaking off now are we?” The pale skinned vampire Canial Venomfear added, he was an asshole too. “SILENCE! I did not attend this meeting to listen to your pathetic comments Heras! Speak quickly I have little patience.” the biggest horned reaper in the underworld barked. Standing just over eight feet tall and built like a red brick shit house, Nakot was an intimidating figure on that alone when coupled with the massive honeycomb of dungeons, he controls made for one reaper you did not want to mess with. Not that messing with any reaper is smart or safe. “As you are all undoubtedly aware the underworld is shrinking an-” “WHAT nonsense is this? No magic can make the underworld shrink. YOU DRAG ME ALL TH-“ deciding that Nakot was officially an idiot I cut him off. Just like he did to me. “It was a metaphor Nakot I’m saying that there is less room than there used to be and our realms need expansion.” there was a slight pause as the assembled superpowers looked at each other nervously. Bar Nakot who looked like he wanted my head on a platter was fixing his eyes on me in a death glare. “Running low on gold Heras?” a playful voice asked drawing my eyes to the scantily clad succubus as she flicked her coiled whip and making a sharp crack, a sound that many Imps fear. And some of the stranger residence of the underworld long for. This was Zahvina, the mistress of the damp caverns and the deeper dungeons (she made the names). “I control the gem mines, anyway the entire underworld is running out of gold, land, and even blood to spill.” There silence was all the confirmation I needed “In order to ensure the longevity of our dungeons I propose a truce.” “Oh is this truce going to be as fun as our last one Heras?” suppressing the unwelcome memories of my last truce with Zahvina (NEVER EVER EVER let her talk you into Experimenting) I wisely ignored the comment. “In this truce we shall all support an expansion to one of the smaller overworlds. One that we have not visited before, corrupt the locals, take the land and get straight back to fighting each other.” there was a general murmur of agreement from the assembled keepers. "Good, then prepare your forces, I estimate that in just a few weeks we will break through to the overworld". Today Nakot walked along the hastily dug tunnel that was just slightly too small for him to avoid hitting his long ivory horns on the roof. His dark red hooves dug into the soft earth kicking up dirt between his heavy and muscular legs, marring the tough skin. He was flanked on both sides by two gold clad female reapers. Their small curved alluring horns were gracefully linked by gold chain that clashed with their blood red well-defined bodies. The very thought of the concubines walking along behind him made Nakot’s mouth water. His feeling of bliss soon soured and turned to anger at the sight of the two biggest assholes of Nakot’s life came into view- Heras and Anamid. Seeing them together was worse than seeing them alone. AND he could not even kill them. Shaking from anger and willing himself not to smash there dumbshit faces into the wall he spoke up, His deep voice echoed along the tunnel. “Have the Imps not finished this tunnel? We should be through by now!” Heras glanced over, his piercing red eyes looking at Nakot’s dirtied horns scraping along the 9ft tall tunnel. He displayed no interest in answering Nakot’s question so of course the slimy nasal slobbering HUMAN voice of Anamid filled the void . 'wonderful' “The Imps are working at an acceptable pace and will be done by the time our dungeon hearts are all ready to be moved. So I advise patience instead of fuming madly like a selfish little Imp.” His eyes starting to glow Nakot took a step forward arms clenched into fists, Long sharp Knife-like teeth glistened in the light of a flame torch burning on the wall. “Say that just one more time you little shit and I will kill you AND PAINT MY TRESURE ROOM WITH YOUR BLOOD!” The loud shout was enough to invoke a reaction out of Heras who looked at the two keepers arguing as one might find pair of squabbling children... or shit you find on your shoe. “We are but a few moments away and I was intending to move further along, soon my Imps will break the surface first while Anamid’s Imps will break though later on in about a day or so.” Anamid turned towards Heras giving a look of confusion that satisfied Nakot if only slightly. “Weren’t we all going out at the same time?” “No it would be too easy to lay siege to us if we concentrated in one area. It would be wiser to use multiple exists to spread ourselves further over the land making it difficult to field a large force against us.” looking at the blank stares he was receiving, Heras sighed and continued “I will be moving with a small force while you will all be setting up a dungeon at key points ready for an attack, now I’ll be back in a while. You two will guard the entrance, so as to prevent any heroes from coming in and spoiling our day.” Without waiting for a response the dark armoured clad knight walked down the tunnel that Nakot had just came from. A single thought bounced around the horned reaper’s head, 'Asshole' Princess Celesta smiled at the large number of recruits before her. She was currently in the royal throne room with her sister sitting at her right despite her growing sense of unrest. She sat patiently as the newest batch of earth legion recruits stumbled through the oath of service before they would be shipped out for training. Some of the recruits had even opted for the night oath much to Luna’s surprise allowing her to begin rebuilding the night legion after a thousand years. "...And we will never falter when upholding our oath in whatever actions we undertake" the assembled recruits said in unison finishing their oath. Moving forward from her seat next to her sister, Luna. she looked at her ponies with a loving smile. They were all filled with such potential. Celestia giggled inwardly. They all looked a bit silly using the unfitted ceremonial armor provided for their oath. It made them look a bit like little colts wearing their first horseshoes... well they WERE little colts to Celestia but that was besides the point. Celesta's musing was interpreted by a gentle nudging from her luminescent sister. "Thank you all. We can see great things in the future ahead, for all of you, now go and make equestria, your families, and friends proud." Celestia quickly turned and left the hall. Her sense of unease grew while walking along an otherwise identical series of corridors. Which lead to the Palace Sky-dock, she was looking for the transport that would take the recruits to the Staliangrad military zone. Flagging down the captain she quickly changed the destination to Ponyville. The thirty new Legionnaires would provide extra protection without raising suspicion that anything was amiss. Why would she send a force to Ponyville? Well nothing ever happens anywhere else unless Twilight and her friends are travelling so it seemed like the logical choice knowing Twilight. Giving her access to a militia was probably overkill. But it would do wonders for her confidence.
Chapter 2“SPIKE!!!!” “I’m coming, I’m coming.” a haggard looking baby dragon called back to his surrogate sister as he stumbled down a set of warn looking wooden steps “Keep your hooves on.” “Spike it’s way past mid-afternoon, why are you still in bed?” came a voice from an adjacent room. “You never woke me and you know how dragons are, sleep and dragons go together like ice cream and Pinkie Pie” “Did somepony say ice cream?” a pink blob asked from atop a bookcase, one of many that circled the library’s main room. Pinkies sudden appearance did little to faze the Spike who smiled at his friend. “Nope just some dragon” “What about all of the serious faced ponies behind you Spiky?” “Wha-? Aghh TWILIGHT! Why is there an army of ponies in the living room!?. And how did I not see them earlier, are they ninjas?” the purple pony in question trotted into the library’s main room with a scroll floating in a purple haze next to her. “No they are not ninja’s spike, hello Pinkie, they are a light scout troop that Celestia has given me control over for the next few weeks.” the Unicorn passed the scroll to one of the Unicorns in formation. A dusty gray colt in the dark brown steel armour of the equestrian scout force the pegasi in the formation had a lighter set on that allowed for more movement, whereas the earth ponies present had a ‘heavy’ variant. “Why would the princess give you your own little army? That sounds more like Luna than Celestia” Spike tapped his scaled chin deep in thought before letting out a gasp, he looked at twilight “Have the griffins invaded?” “No I-“ “Have the zebra nations attacked?” “No Sp-“ “Are there zombie ponies in the streets ready to devour us all leaving us to survive in small pockets of safety always afraid of what the next dawn will bring IF there even is a dawn in the post-“ “No spike none of that, the princess just has a bad feeling and is making sure we are all prepared in the event that something does happen. Applejack has been kind enough to let us turn one of her barns into a barracks, so I will be going over there. Now I woke you up so you can look after the library while I’m out.” “Oh okay, no problem, I am after all your number one assistant.” Spike flexed his nonexistent muscles causing many of the scout troop to smile and one small Pegasus mare to stifle a giggle . “Hey where did Pinkie go?” the purple mares question caused the assembled ponies and dragon to look around warily for the evasive pink party pony. “Commander Sparkle.” A silky green earth pony ventured. “Oh yeah, we will see her later anyway. Troops, to your duties. Fall-out.” Twilight commanded with ease of only somepony who had been around the military or had been in it could. The 30 pony troop filed out of the tree/library/home followed by a grinning Twilight whose thoughts turned to her brother and what he would say to his sister in this instance, being the captain of the Royal Guard and unofficial commander of equestria’s military. “Bye Spike, don’t eat any junk while I’m gone! have fun.” The young dragon waved in response as he gently closed the door so as to avoid slamming it. “Now where is that ice cream?” He asked to nopony in particular as he opened the kitchen's magic refrigerator only to be greeted by a pink slip of paper with a crude smiley face drawn on one side. “PINKIE!!!” Spike wept for all that was wrong in the world, for all of two minutes, before walking off in search of a gem to suck on muttering dark things for Pinkie involving buckets and doors, oh so many doors. I could not help but smile as my foot came into contact with my own claimed territory. Mana instantly filling me with warmth and power, the gentle thump of my many dungeon Hearts suddenly amplified. They filled my head with their blissful beat drowning out all noise as I strode through my outer bulwark an iron door opening magically at my presence. Some trolls were playing cards on the table pausing there game to not respectfully at me as I walked past, as predicted all of them were cheating. “Master you have returned!” the high pitched voice come from an older Imp doing his best to finish his cigarette quickly “Have you any orders master?” “Yes, alert one of the larger Goblin tribes that I will be moving them, tell them to meet in the guard room.” I waved the loyal Imp away and he scampered off. I ran my steel encased fingers along the reinforced wall leading to my outermost Heart feeling energy leave my gloved hand like a static charge leaving a slight crackle and the smell of ozone in the stale underground air which I breathed from deeply. Finally arriving at my dungeon Heart I steeled myself for what was to happen, walking over one of the three stone walkways just over the fleshy beating Heart, each beat expelling a green blast of excess Mana that electrified the air, reaching out with my right arm my hand closed around a clear gem floating in the air as my fist closed around the flawless glowing tear shaped diamond. A blinding red light filled the room and though the steel, cloth, and flesh I could see the bones of my hand as I pulled the gem from its magical pedestal. The fleshy Heart beneath me turned slowly to stone and the arch that ran over the epicentre of this dungeon folded back into the ground leaving only a stone circle and a horned reapers head engraved in it as all that remained of my heart. I stood there for a little while looking at the blood red stone in my palm before turning on my heel and walking away to head for the guard room, the smile and spring in my step lost. The scout troops marched through the town in file despite being dismissed by Twilight earlier. The troop marched in a column, four rows of eight, earth ponies leading the way as young foals jumped up on their armoured backs playfully and inspected the dull brown plates the big ponies were wearing. The pegasi in the troop were next, hoof-falls in time with their earth pony counterparts, wings held high and straight so they could fly off if they needed, they too were accompanied by young local foals mostly pegasi who stick their wings out and sloppily copied the synchronised march looking up at the troop in adoration. Finally flanking the force came the unicorns who were levitating a small number of foals around the street electing playful squeals from the floating foals. Local ponyville farmers and artisans tucked sweet tasting flowers into the passing troops armour passed apples and sweets into their saddlebags everypony was happy to greet Equstria’s defenders on their impromptu parade. As the troop left the outskirts of the town there was not a grim face amongst them. Most of the colts were dopy grins from the odd mare who kissed them in passing, the mares too wore smiles from the kind words of admiration they had received from the local colts and even a few mares. Twilight herself was not spared from the towns sudden celebration, receiving just as much affection as the troops she lead leaving her with a happy grin and a confident stride. “Hay Applebloom. Pass the apple pie over here.” “Aright Applejack, it’s still mighty hot though.” the young filly Applebloom winced as she nearly burnt her lips on the hot plate the delicious looking apple pie rested on, Applejack moved the plate into the middle of the long table where it met an impressive array of apple based food. Granny Apple and Big Macintosh were also helping set the table for the 30 or so guests they were about to receive. “I haven’t seen cousin AppleSlice in years. Who’d thought that the trainin them military folks do would take so long.” the large red stallion said excitement clear in his simple tones. “You can say that again Big Mac. Well I bet aint none of em have had any good home cookin in a long time.” the present apple clan nodded in affirmative as the rhythmic clop of the troop signalled their imminent arrival. “Hello Applejack. Thank you for doing all this on such short notice, I had no idea how I was going to feed them until you volunteered.” “Well it’s all right Twi but I got to ask what’s with the flowers... and lipstick?” the orange mare pointed a hoof to twilights cheek which had a lopsided kiss mark were an adventurous mare had sloppily kissed Twilight during the parade through town, Twilight also sported a crown made from flowers. At their mention Twilight attacked her face with a hoof trying desperately to remove the suggestive mark on her cheek. “I um it-I” “Hay AJ Twilight was just all over that mare her little army had to forcibly separate them I saw the whole thing.” a rainbow coloured cloud mocked parting to reveal a lean, rainbow maned Pegasus mare who landed between her friends with a back flip. “Hay rainbow why are YOU of all ponies wearing lipstick?” Applejack inquired. “I-I No! I just ate a glazed donut pffft me? Wearing lipstick? Ridiculous, hay is that pie?” the cyan speedster joined the scouts before any more awkward questions could be asked just as they began to dig into the available food thanking their hosts as they went. Applejack watched the ponies dig into their food with gusto and after roughly half an hour Applejack looked at her cousin. “Hay AppleSlice, c’mere” Applejack waved over her cousin who quickly excused himself from the table. “Hay Applejack, what’s up?” AppleSlice asked embracing his cousin. “Well look at you part of the equestrian army, got some fancy armour too.” “It’s a big honour to serve equestria.” AppleSlice said proudly standing up straighter. “It’s good to see you AppleSlice now we got to get all of you into the barn for a good night’s rest.” both Apples turned to see the happy fed troop with Applejacks friends who were all sleepily joking and it looked like a few of them were asleep already, nopony wore a sour face but instead all had content smiles. The sound of digging through rock was rhythmic and one that I had grown accustomed to, so when the sound was broken to a hollow scraping sound there was little doubt that we had reached our destination. With a steady scrape than a sudden crash my Imps broke through the stone brick wall kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured the end of the tunnel. Without missing a beat I walked into the dust cloud flanked by four skeletons holding rusted broken swords and shields, behind the skeletons were six Dark Elves scanning the darkness crossbows held out in front of them, at the Elves heels was my main force, forty Goblins all using short swords, a few of them even had helmets. Around us was a dark, stale, unused basement. Rotten empty crates and barrels littered the floor and my invasion force occasionally disturbed a rusted piece of nail or scrap with their footfalls. Out ahead of me my Imps were lighting wooden torches on the walls that had stood unused for an uncertain amount of time yet lit the subterranean room with an even warm glow. "Master, a staircase." my faithful Imp pointed out the passage blocked by a simple heavy wooden door that hung on its last hinge. After walking up the small staircase I found myself in a long hall perhaps a Throne room yet the Throne was long gone, were it should be was instead a semicircle of shattered rock lit by a thick beam of moonlight, something that enthralled my minions. Seeing a slight glow in the distance I moved closer to one of the shattered stain-glass windows and peered out into the darkness. There past a thick forest was the unmistakable glow of an inhabited town nothing a force of thirty seven Goblins couldn't fix. I felt the smile that had been lost to me since I closed down one of my many dungeon Hearts returning. With a delightfully evil grin I spun on my heel and gave the order for the Goblins to march on the settlement. The Skeletons and Dark Elves set up defensive positions around the abandoned ruin in case of counter-attack. Taking the blood red Heart stone from my plate sleeve, I flicked it into the air where it remained, feeding me Mana witch I used to summon a golden throne that Reapers were so fond of. "It’s good to be bad."
Chapter 3Twilight Sparkle looked around her observing the high walls inlaid with stained glass, the white marble gave way to a long red carpet that split the large hall in two, turning towards the throne she saw her mentor, the calm mare sat addressing a small group of ponies with a slight smile on her face. “You are shirking your responsibility Twilight.” Nightmare moon stood beside her the dark, the mare’s very presence darkening the hall. “How so?” the purple unicorn asked deciding to humour her defeated foe. This was obviously a dream after all something her subconscious put here to whittle the hours away until she awoke once more. “You look but fail to see, is it not your duty to protect Ponyville?” the Alicorn’s voice was calm “Stop this nonsense and LOOK!” at the final word nightmares voice became a scream in contrast to the unusual softness her voice had prior, the sudden loudness of nightmare moon's voice caused Twilight to jump. “What do you mean?” the dark alicorn did not answer but the scene before twilight changed, the pale marble walls became a dull gray stone as the stained glass cracked and shattered, celestia’s ornate throne became smaller, sharper instead of loyal Pegasi and Unicorn guards, pale hairless monsters stood fiddling with crossbows. Glancing around the hall Twilight recognised it as the one hall she and her friends had defeated nightmare moon in, her musings were cut short when the black chitin covered figure that sat atop the throne locked eyes with her. “Who are you?” the question startled Twilight especially because it was her who asked it. The creature did not respond, its glowing red eyes boring into Twilight making her want to run and hide. Dark spots entered Twilights vision but she dared not move nor even blink as her world turned black. “Ah can’t tell you how proud of you ah am.” Applejack said as she inspected her Apple Slice’s fine dull brown helmet. The enchanted steel made her coat stand on end but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, just one of warmth as if Celestia herself were standing beside you. “The whole family is going to be here tomorrow, all the apples from Appleoosa to Stalliongrad.” the mare gently put down the helmet “Not just the apples, we got the carrots, cabbages, pines, pies most are here already but golden harvest is looking after them. Eyup, tomorrow’s gonna be one heck of a party all right.” “Is that smoke?” Apple Slice squinted into the twilight, a long pillar of black smoke rose up from the sleepy town. “Now why in the hay would there be a fire in ponyville? All the shops are closed.” the orange mare looked over Apple Slices shoulder “What the hay is going on?” “Do we need more orange juice Tavi?” the gray mare in question looked over at her housemate Vinyl Scratch who was orbiting eight cartons of the orange beverage around her. “It’s not on the list Vinyl.” the earth pony held a list up to emphasise her point “We need to cut costs after you set the house on fire. How you managed that with lemons, I have no idea.” Vinyl chuckled at the mention of her most recent shenanigans involving a paperclip, some tape, two lemons, and a spanner that had ended in a combustible lemon war with the local mailmare destroying the entire house yet leaving the rest of the town unharmed. Octavia remembered Vinyl refusing Ditzy's offer to pay for the damages, the words “Na man, it’s cool.” echoed in her nightmares still. “So no OJ? Ah, that bites. What am I supposed to drink then? WATER? Hmpf, not likely.” “We just need the essentials” just as Octavia finished her sentence a shrill cry could be heard from outside the corner shop, the few ponies who were inside the well lit building froze unsure of how to act, all except for a white unicorn who burst from the shop to help whoever was in trouble. Her movement spared Octavia into motion, upon leaving the shop the two ponies were horrified to find a battered Cheerilee, her front right foreleg ending in a bloody mess, over her stood a squat green monster, something Octavia recognised instantly as a Goblin from Folklore. “Pony taste nice.” the green biped grinned, the faint light from the shop illuminating the crimson that covered its lower face. For the first time in her life Vinyl had no idea what to do, her coat felt cold making her shiver as she stood looking at the faintly sobbing earth pony. Vinyl felt her stomach clench, her heart felt like it would explode any second, when the Unicorn mare looked up she saw the crushed corpse of the green monster and her roommate standing over Cheerilee and whispering calming things to the crippled mare. “-VINYL SNAP OUT OF IT!” the commanding voice of Octavia broke though Vinyl’s mental collapse. “Oh Celestia what do we do?” Vinyl’s voice came out as barely a whisper a contrast to the usually loud mare. “Go to Applejacks farm and get Twilight! Go NOW!” Vinyl spun around and looked out across town, more of the green things were setting things alight and ponies were being attacked in their own homes, some even lay on the ground unmoving. Vinyl disappeared in a flash alerting a small horde of Goblins to Octavia who gave Cheerilee one last hug before standing to her hooves and bracing herself. Twilight turned to Applejack, new understanding sparkling in her eyes, she knew what she had to do now. “Applejack, get the others and bring them here, I think I know what’s going on.” on her final word she once more disappeared from sight. The town was in chaos, but then that was to be expected. I walked along one of the streets as my Goblins burned and smashed and bashed and ate the town. This was probably the worst thing to happen to this realm in years, he got a smile out of that. “MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!” I was interrupted by a loud cry from the end of the street, it looked like a force of the local... ponies? They weren't horses that was certain, and the fact that they had an armed force made them better then the fairies in my eyes. I looked to my right to the disturbance, I felt before the one that made me walk all the way into this little town, it was a pile of crushed Goblin bodies with a little gray mare that stood in the middle, I decided I liked her. “You killed my minions...” my deep booming voice echoed throughout the town as I waited for her response which never came as a sudden blast of powerful magical energy hit me in the back melting my armour in some places. Turning slowly I looked at the little purple Unicorn who dared to strike me. “This ends here monster.” Twilight's voice was calm as she circled the beast that stood a head higher than even Celestia “I won't let you hurt anypony else.” that made the creature pause before the red dots that made up its eyes locked with hers. “I will be back with more little pony. More little Goblins and darker monsters still, but just know that if you stand strong there will be a place for you at my side.” with that he let out a deep booming laugh before melting into a black ichor. Twilight let out a furious cry. How dare the monster even THINK that she would join his dark cause! In her fury she called her magic to her and teleported to where she knew the armored creature went.
Chapter 4Welcome Back Keepers Welcome keepers, it has been a while. I lost the will to write this for a long time... well now i intend to start it up with the chapter that i have been sitting on for so long (because i think its quite a weak chapter) thankfully despite this being a weak chapter the ones after will let me get into the swing of things, but before that i want to ask you for something, firstly do you want longer chapters or for me to keep to the shortish chapters i have now? secondly if you have idea's for a keeper i can use in the story i will do my best to add them in, if you have a keeper idea PM me the details. I want Name: gender: Race: human, elf, dark elf, goblin, horned reaper Keeper style: ie magic, ghosts, vampires, traps Skirmish style: rush, turtle that kind of thing Bio: just a bit on what the keeper is like Power: has a single realm and some creatures, a large fortress with some outlying realms, has a dark army of goblins who run a taverns across the world anything you can think of (note, weaker keepers will be in the story faster) Thank you for putting up with my lack of updates i will do more in future.
Chapter 5Chapter 4 Teleportation to those witnessing it is a flash of light and a sudden depressurization effect, nothing too spectacular but a good trick that can save your life. To the person or pony traveling this way, it’s an explosion of light that your eyelids can't hold back and a sudden painful pop as your body tries to compensate for the sudden change in pressure. however for a pony like Twilight teleportation is step one. Twilight herself has developed and perfected the casting of five spells that negate all of the negative effects, something even very strong and old Keepers have trouble mastering, so you can imagine the surprise Heras felt as the little Unicorn appeared before him in full battle stance ready to fight. “STOP!!” the Unicorn cried out, her rage bubbling off of her like a wave of delightful dark energy causing the black knight to grin and bask in the unintended glow. “Ah, you have come, and filled with rage enough to boil the blood of a lesser being.” Heras let out a booming laugh, his voice seeming to come from everywhere at once. Without responding Twilight took in her surroundings while casting a small shield spell spotting the slim pale figures holding knives and crossbows, but the dark elves were quickly wiped from her mind as she looked up at the end of the room. The gem floating by itself captivated the Unicorn, its pulsing red light seeming to match her own heartbeat as she gazed up in longing. “Beautiful is it not?” Twilight jumped forward sending a magic missile at the black knight who just snuck up on her and was inches away from her shield, the blast struck the steel helmet of Heras giving Twilight a view of the cracked and blackened skin underneath before the steel repaired itself with a orange glow. “What do you want?” the Unicorns voice was low as she moved closer to the gem. “What, do, I, want?” the dark human taped his boot on the floor and looked up slightly as if deep in thought. “To free you would be my best response, you see... I have a vision of the future.” he paused to look at the Dark Elves who had encircled the gem protecting the heart catalyst. “A Vision!” his voice caused Twilight to snap her head down and stare at the figure. “Of a world without conflict.” Twilight could not see his face, she knew that his next words were uttered with the darkest of grins “Under me.” Twilights face hardened and she found the next words the easiest she have ever uttered. “That's not going to happen!” the Unicorn was in the center of the hall now with her shield up and enemies the likes of which she have never faced before, alone. Only now in retrospect did she see how stupid her choice to chase the knight was. “-Here or closeby, she must be!” the voice was calm, dark and was the voice of a pony Twilight did not want here. “Oh? Looks like we have guests!” with a wave of his hands the pale bipeds vanished leaving only Twilight and the knight left in the hall. “You never told me your name Unicorn.” Heras nodded sliding a long, black blade from its sheath. “I know.” Twilight sent a few more blasts at Heras who nodded, his armor rebuilding itself as he looked back to the entrance to the hall and then to Twilight. “My name is Heras, learn it well Unicorn for you will serve me soon.” He nodded looking back as the door opened “Now watch as I break you.” The door opened to a pink maned mare with a matching straight mane who stood in the doorway, the figure of Heras was a blur as he rushed to the Pink Party Pony only for his blade to miss its mark. In an instant Pinkie was no longer where she was but the Dark Keeper’s swing was not wasted as his blade met flesh and severed head from body. The room went quiet as the decapitated head of AppleSlice rolled across the floor, his bronze helmet making a loud clang as it bounced to Pinkies hooves. The pink pony looked down at the head, her face without emotion of any kind as she looked back up to the keeper recovering from his overshot swing. “You moved quickly... but can you keep it up?” in a flash he was upon her slicing this way and that his blade seaming to miss Pinkie by fractions and hair with's as the pair engaged in an odd dance of death, Pinkie's face showing equal amounts fear and anger doing her best to keep alive. It took three seconds for Twilight to respond, she closed her eyes and charged her horn throwing her body into a teleport that sent her flying at the floating crystal that seemed to glow brighter as she came closer, it flashed brightly as Twilight’s hoof came into contact with it causing the black knight to cry out and clutch at his chest in agony. “Smart, but it is a waste a- SMACK!” the Dark Lord was sent across the room with twin dents in his chest plate as Applejack recovered from her attack. “Y'all need to pay attention!” the farm pony cried out tears streaking down her face as she turned on the recovering keeper “Cuss I'm about to make you regret everythin’ you just did.” Beside the pony stood a disheveled looking pale Unicorn with a stern gaze. Next to her was a furious looking Pegasus with a rainbow mane, a smaller looking pony with a butter yellow coat and flared wings who stood back slightly but had a face no less furious than the pink party pony beside her, the pink mares mane looked slightly shorter after Heras attacked. Around their necks sat five Amulets with a Tiara floating in the air next to Rarity. “Is this it? None of you have the power of the purple one, none of you would be worth my time alone.” the agitated dark knight got to his feet rolling his shoulders as he held a hand up, black flame dancing along his hand dripping molten flesh and dark steel to the floor as he charged a spell “So just stay still this will be quick and painless.” “TWILIGHT! CATCH!” Rarity cried as she tossed the Element of Magic to her friend who caught it quickly with her magic and placed it on her head turning to the gem and digging her hooves into the floor. “Over here girls, use the elements on the gem.” Time seemed to slow as the keeper tossed the ball of fire at the group. As they formed up their magic rainbows circled them and Twilight began to rise, her eyes glowing white. The Dark Lord recognized the danger jumping into an impossibly fast sprint only to get blasted back from the pulsing power of the Elements. Suddenly a beam shot forward to the floating gem hitting it to the sound of a terrified and agonized scream. Heras fell to his hands as his armor as torn apart from within his body turning to ash. It was over in seconds, the six ponies falling to the ground with a collection of moans, Twilight falling before the now dark gem, her eyes closing quickly as her body gave out sending her to the world of dreams.
Chapter 6Chapter 5 I woke up in a library, not one of the dark musky ones like the empire, but a clean, bright and happy looking one. I took a dislike to this place at once, looking around the library I took in the wooden walls, floor and ceiling without much interest, the place reminded me of a Pixie town I once attacked using only Imps, good times. “YOU!” a loud voice filled the room and I turned to face the Unicorn who made it, she looked bigger than before but that was before I died... wait. “I should be dead.” I mused placing a hand to my chin, it remained scarred and blistered from my experiments with dark magic, there are some things that never heal, dark things that eat at your soul in exchange for power. “What are you doing in my library?” the Unicorn asked tapping one of her hooves on the floor, for what had just transpired she seemed rather placid. “I am not, well I am but not here.” I grunted, the obvious implications of being in this Unicorns Library darkened my mood. “What is that supposed to mean?” she cocked her head looking at me from the side like that would help her understand how a burnt and scarred Human in what I quickly identified as my old clothes back from when I was a pickpocket was now standing in what I assumed was her home. “You are asleep, and have claimed my spirit by severing my connection to my other dungeon hearts.” I grinned and pulled a book from a shelf, it held pictures of a picnic with detailed writing of the event, I skimmed through it taking notes of ponies that this mare found important. “Dungeon Hearts?” I looked up at her holding her gaze for a while as I slowly clicked my neck. “For a mental prison this place is rather comfortable, with easy access to your memory...” I pulled another book from the shelf disposing of the ones I just looked through on the floor and in a flash the books vanished. “You are in my head?!” she asked her rather large eyes going wide as her pupil became small as a pinprick. “Yes, with nowhere else to go I latched onto the closest thing I could to survive, now when most keepers do this they kill their new host, so what makes you so special that I...” no reason to tell her I can't kill her “Can be here without you dying?” she blinked and taped her hooves on the floor some more aggravating me. “So you are stuck in my head.” she ignored my question and looked around at the now bare library, she had worked out how to protect her memories in a few seconds, this was going to be hard. “Yes, until I find a way out or decide to take this body as my own.” why her will was stronger than mine I had no idea, I should be murdering her friends right now in the body of a purple pony! “Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you? What was that gem?” the world I found myself in started to shrink and become darker as the Unicorn moved closer to me, showing that while she was grasping her new ability to look inside her own mind quickly but not fast enough to have it change on a whim, something all good keepers learned fast so as not to become trapped in there own minds. “Heras, The Underworld, a Human and that Gem was a focal point to a Dungeon Heart, something that allowed me to create new realms for me to rule.” I turned a slight smile crossing my face as I thought of a plan, the fact that the Unicorn had attacked me alone was interesting, a glimpse into her mind that told of only useful things. “So with you stuck here, Equestria is safe!” a smile played across her lips as my plan suddenly became clear. “You think I am the only keeper who know’s of this place? With me gone they will forget about this place for a few months, a year at best.” I looked her over “But they will come, and they will come with a much stronger force than I.” I watched her as she mulled over this new threat to her life. “If you know a way to stop them.” she glared at me and I let out a chuckle. “I know a few, you could wait for them and use the magic artifacts you used on me on them, but that relies on them bringing a dungeon heart, and more, ponies?” she nodded “Ponies will get hurt that way, no the best way would be to shatter their empire and make them harmless, a huge undertaking, one that you will surely fail with your limited power.” “But you think its viable, and you don't seem prone to mixing words, well besides the lies.” she turned and looked at me “You think there is a chance of me being able to defeat the ‘Keepers’? Tell me why.” the conversation was going well but this was the hard part, she would be hard to convince. “You could take control of some dungeons yourself, use the added power to fight the other keepers and render the underworld harmless.” she looked me over an eyebrow raised. “And the catch?” this was the hard part “It will take a lot out of you, you will do and see things that you never thought possible, you will find new things that don't have names and fight things that should not exist, when you have finished and this ‘Equestria’ is safe, you will not return the same mare.” I caught myself holding my breath, something I had no reason to do here. “There must be other ways.” she finished and I shrugged in response. “There are not but I understand, also if you could give me something to read or do I would be grateful, I will be residing in here for a while and boredom is not something I am happy with.” she glared at me and shook her head before vanishing, no doubt waking up. I sat at the table in the corner of the room and as I expected her senses were linked here, giving me at least some idea of what was going on. Twilight groggily opened her eyes as a pink friend of hers bandaged her leg, Pinkie has various cuts and shallow gashes across her body using her natural earth pony magic to limit the bleeding, it turns out the “Keeper” came much closer to hitting her then it seemed. “TWILIGHT!” the pink mare beamed “you're awake! You were out for a little while there, just after the Elements dropped us onto the floor.” there was a shuffling behind her as she turned to find Applejack putting her hat over her cousin's head with a solemn look upon her face. “T’aint right... what kinda monster does this!” she slammed a hood down as Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her back saying nothing. “This gem... he must have been using it as a focal point for whatever magic he was casting... but its not a gem.” Twilight turned to her Unicorn friend who was looking over the now dark orb, now that she could get a closer look she saw it was more of a rock than anything. “Dumb rock.” the Fashionista dropped it and moved to see her friends. Twilight did not, she got to her hooves and picked up the stone looking at it closely before a faint voice resonated in her head. “A Keepers most important tool, the Heart stone used by Keepers to channel magic from Dungeon Hearts.” Twilight blinked. “So there is no getting rid of you then?” she thought back frowning. “No, so what do you intend to do?” Twilight shook her head and did not respond moving back to her friends who where looking at her intently, besides Fluttershy who was fussing over Pinkie. “Lets get back to town... Applejack need any hel-” “No. its fine.” she sighed pulling the body onto her back before Rainbow stopped her and picked up the head, helmet still attached nodding to Applejack with a solemn gaze. “Well ah guess a little help won't hurt none.” she nods to Twilight and the six start making there way back to town, the forest surprisingly quiet with Twilight taking up the front of the group with the stone circling her head, she wanted to know a bit more about it before she made her judgment. “What's on yer mind sugarcube?” Applejack turned to Twilight looking to take her mind off of the body draped over her back. “He was not working alone, whatever he was... there are more of them.” there was a groan from behind Twilight as Pinke stuck her tongue out and kept walking. “Great more evil mean bad guys from... where are they from?” she looks to Twilight “Mostly from the realm of Zahalla, some of the Keepers have land in the outplane, a place between your world and Zahalla but they are rare, Keepers are centralized.” Twilight nearly stopped but that might make her friends suspicious, who knew what they might think if they found out about the person in her head, it was odd that he was so open with information like this, did he honestly want to help her? “I don’t know... but, we have to find a way of stopping them.” she looks out over the town of ponyville, some of the houses burned and broken as the Purple unicorn sighs “Whatever the cost.”
Chapter 7Chapter 6 Twilight pushed the door to her library open, letting it bang loudly into the tree wall, as she slumped into her home. She scanned the book shelves, picking up the most relevant books she would need, things on subterranean survival, defensive magic, and a few other subjects that might prove useful. Heras was tricking her, she knew that but there was a chance that their interests aligned, and it would help her protect Equestria. “You might want a cape or some armor, and a knife, or blade might be helpful too.” His voice echoed in her mind. “Why are you being so helpful?” She frowned as she picked up a tight fitting linen vest, which she acquired in the crystal kingdom. It covered her body just shy of her cutie mark and left her legs and neck exposed, before she put on a dark purple cape over that. Rarity might faint at her sense of fashion, but the clothes would be more than useful. “Because our fates are linked for a time, and it is in my intrest to keep you safe.” The answer appeased her, so long as he was looking out for his own skin she could accept his help. Packing food, and some items that might prove useful, like rope in her bag, slung it over her back, and fastened it with her magic. Glad that her draconic assistant was not home, Twilight wrote a letter to him, explaining it. Doing so in person would be hard. When the letter was done, she quickly left for the Everfree; there was no time to say goodbye. Twilight had found the tunnel with ease, it had been left open and abandoned much to the Keeper’s annoyance. The dark damp tunnel, enlightened with only her horn’s glow, was far longer and harder to navigate than the forest. Walking alone in the darkness was... unpleasant, she was almost glad she had someone to talk to. “Are you sure this is the right place?” She asked out loud, the silence around her was oppressive. “Positive, this place will help you transfer your bearings, and ‘that dumb rock’ is more valuable than a mountain of gold.” “But if its a pocket realm, how do I get in?” She sighed turning along the twisting path, her adventure had turned out to be not only dull but monotonous “Also how do you get the walls so...” she looked around, the walls were imperfect but straight, turns whereas close to ninety degrees as can be expected underground. “Most keepers... I say ‘most’, but I have yet to find one who does not, anyway... Most keepers use a minion called an ‘Imp’ to carve out tunnels and dungeons down here, living creatures from an offering of gold. A waste, in my opinion. My Imps were magical constructs.” Twilight could hear a faint tapping noise. “Are they... dangerous?” She tried to turn her ears to make out where the sound came from. “No. Well, they can be if you corner them, but what isn't?” As Twilight turned to face whatever seemed to be following her, something tackled her, pressing her face into the dirt, and pinning her to the ground. In shock her light spell faded. “Well, well, well, you must be from the new overworld. What would a goodly little creature like you be doing down here in the dark?” a female voice met the Unicorns ears and she could just about pick up a pale smile in the dark. “Dark Elves, matriarchal creatures, they respect female cruelty... no idea why they just don't like men, odd.” Twilight looked up at the ‘Dark Elf’ and shook her head. “Just looking around, why did you attack me?” she decided to keep things polite for now. “Well just incase you are a hero, you are not a hero are you?” a blade found itself at twilights neck “No, just a Unicorn looking for something.” the blade left her neck and Twilight bucked her hooves back into whatever was on her back causing a scream of pain to fill the dark tunnel, followed by mirthful laughter. “A worm is he not? Stupid man let the knife slack.” Twilight slowly used her light spell letting it dimly light the tunnel and showing the tall, thin Dark Elf before her nodding to the slightly more stocky male holding his hands to his crotch. “I like you.” the Dark Elf smiled causing Twilight to turn back to look at her “Not many ‘goodly’ creatures can show a man his place so easily.” “I am looking for the crossing point.” Twilight pushed her disgust at getting praise for hurting someone to the back of her mind, things worked different down here. “Looking to join a keeper? I am sure many of them would like a creature as unique as you in their ranks, my name is Elliv Huntseeker.” she nodded to Twilight “Twilight.” the unicorn answered simply causing the Elf to nod. “A good name, I am going to the Crossing point too, would you like to travel together?” Twilight nodded not sure how much she could trust her new ‘companions’ “So, not many Unicorns down here?” the Dark Elf shook her head “No, hell I have never seen a Equine so small.” she looked Twilight over and shrugged “My last keeper just died so I need a new one.” looking over Twilight she grinned “This your first one right?” “Well, yes.” she looked up at the Dark Elf walking at a pace that seemed to make her male companion uncomfortable “But I am optimistic.” “Well here is the portal, it leads to one of the smaller crossroads, more of an outpost then a town.” the Dark Elf pointed to a stone circle with a dark pit at its base “You know how to use a portal right?” the Unicorn sheepishly shook her head and the elf nodded. “Right, well just jump into the portal and keep yourself together until you reach the crossroads, it’s a direct link, you will like it there.” she winks and dives into the portal quickly followed by her companion leaving Twilight alone. “Well you heard the elf, jump.” Heras urges as Twilight looks into the inky darkness tapping her hoof to the floor uncomfortably. “This can’t be safe.” the Unicorn muttered quietly before leaping into the portal closing her eyes with a squeak, there was a sudden change in temperature, from a damp cold close to freezing ambience to a dry warm one that hit her first, then it was the voices, opening her eyes Twilight looked around at the small yet busy subtrainen town, lava bordered the wide open cavern with houses leading up the walls with walkways between them hundreds of creatures mulled around. Dragons, most of them young and powerful strutted around looking like they had something to prove, Goblins kept in small tribes holding knives and clubs glaring at anything that came to close, Acolytes and Warlocks, mostly humanoid hurried from place to place in colorful robes often with their noses in books. Taverns made up most of the innermost plaza of the town, with shops selling almost everything a mercenary monster would need, occasionally there was a well dressed figure, Humanoid most of the time, who she identified as a keeper, not a keeper like Heras, who was strong and powerful without the need of opulence that most of the lesser keepers showed, fat lumps of meat that would make Bile Demons blush carried on wide beds with gold and gems lining everything to bring a sense of importance. That was not what got her attention however, it was the creatures that were looking her over. “A Unicorn? Hmm wonder how much pay you get.” a female Orc smiled and nodded, rather friendly despite the blood spattered club slung over her shoulder or the rusted plate armor that concealed nothing. “Must have come in from a new realm, not much of a fighter, a magic user of some kind?” a skinny looking Dark Elf male in robes looked her over as Twilight looked around for where Heras said to go spotting the side alley quickly before a large round blob blocked her path. “Little pony cute!” the blob announced shaking its skinny arms as it pointed more and more creatures coming closer to look at the newcomer. “Twilight, this is bad, news of a new creature will spread fast, it would be best to teleport away from this crowd and move on to the pocket realm, you will find the gate in that alley.” the voice caused the others to fade out as Twilight nodded, she did not want to be the center of attention to a bunch of monsters. In a flash Twilight was behind the crowd and slipped into the alley quickly finding a brick in one of the walls with a small engraving on it, she drew her hoof back and smashed it, then she was gone. Twilight opened her eyes, something had been dripping onto her face as she lay on the floor, a stalactite hung from the high ceiling over her, the stone had created an unstable portal that had taken her here in a rather uncomfortable manner, wherever ‘here’ was. The voice in her head was quiet, and for the first time underground she felt alone, looking around she was in a wide open room about fourteen meters across with a circular stone slab on the floor with the image of what looked like a face with large horns sticking out of the forehead. why did this place feel so... RIGHT?! Twilight wanted to scream or sing or dance, it was in the air, what she was, pure magic untamed and wild was in the very air. A heartbeat, Twilight turned to look at her saddlebags, still in place as she saw the dark red glow. She pulled the glowing rock from its place between two books in a blanket and looked into its pulsing depth, it felt like a heartbeat, her heartbeat, twisting the rock before her eyes she felt the magic start to sturr around her, her eyes catching dancing lines across the rock as she shivered in delight at the feeling of so much powerfull magic around her. Drip-drip-drip, she put a hoof to her face and noted she was bleeding, her blood had pooled onto the ground and was lighting up the stone at her hooves, how wonderful! She wished she could share this with her friends or Celestia, it was the best feeling ever! Then she groaned, the stone falling to the ground and passing into the round slab across the floor without a sound, her heart, her real heart hurt like fire. She fell to her hocks and pressed her bleeding face into the floor as she cried out, it hurt but she did not wish it to stop, slowly cracks formed on the slab, wide gashes in the stone that slowly widened as the stone broke away, suddenly Twilight fell. Thump-thump Twilight opened her eyes Thump-thump She could feel it, all around her, it was power and magic and blood and life. Thump-thump It was the best thing ever! Thump-thump She looked around her, mind clearing from the rush she had just experienced a soft flesh under her that felt so soft, she smiled and looked down at her own heart, it was odd, she knew it was her, she could feel it, her heart spread out to contain the magic of this realm, it was beautiful. Sadly her rest would not last. “Wakey wakey keeper, time to smell the ashes.” the voice echoed around Twilight's head causing her to groan as she teleported out onto the stone around her heart. it was easy, she didn't even FEEL the drain! “What happened?” she glanced around at the square room, it had no doors leading out, just her heart in the middle and a path around that. “You embraced the power offered to you, I have never seen a new keeper react so well to the role, most can't handle all the power and spend a long time to recover.” nodding she looked at her hoof, she felt relaxed, her power was steadily building with no end in sight, she was already leagues beyond what she was. “So, what now, with power like this I can crush any who dare to Threaten Equestria.” a wide grin crossed her face, Celestia would be so proud. “Not quite Keeper.” Heras spoke in her head “This is the first of many hearts, you will need to build your power, not only in magic but over the land, become a true keeper and destroy the ones who would hurt the innocent.” The Unicorn slowly stretched out her legs, feeling just a bit taller than she was, she looked around. “Where do we start?” There was a slight chuckle from her mental passenger. “Imps.”
Chapter 8Chapter 7 Imp’s where useful, Twilight sat upon a pile of gold, refined by some simple magic Heras had shown her, she had never been so powerful. So capable. So ALIVE! “So, I will need to remove them from power by destroying the dungeon hearts they posses, then taking their land so I am the new superpower...” It was crazy, even the princesses would never try a plan so bold, not if they knew the extent of the keepers powers. But Twilight was logical. First, her power would grow as her holdings grew, from a few dirty rooms and a hoof full of Imps to a large empire under the earth. Second, as her power grew the power that other evil keepers had would diminish. Then she could protect the ones she cared for, it was a simple plan, but the best ones always where. “Yes, you should start with small time keepers, gain followers and allies. Then lead them” Twilight nodded, sitting next to him in her mind, it was something else he showed her, now that she had a connection to the land around her she could ‘see’ the land in her mind and plan things out, like a birds eye view of her liberty, she was spending more time in her mind then out of it. She was using a simple spell to turn gold into useful things, like a bedroom for herself, a large library, and something called a ‘lare’ her Imps digging out the area she desired, however something had caught her eye. When she had first came here the land was rather large, around a mile across and surrounded by rock far too hard to break, now however the land was much smaller... was it closing in? or was Twilight overreacting. “When you leave this place getting some creatures around should be your first priority, a good idea is to find a few acolytes and a tribe of goblins and work with that as you get settled into the land” “Hmm, Heras why is the area around us getting smaller?” she felt the hard rock closing around the softer magic of this realm, should it close around her... she would be trapped. “Oh that? well as this is a realm created by ME alone and has no magic in itself, my power will leave it and eventually this place will be reclaimed by the rock.” “What about us?” “Well, when the land gets close to your dungeon we will need to break out of this realm, when that happens we will be drawn to a realm close by with this dungeon intact, however while this area is not owned by a strong keeper, lots of small time keepers stalk around out here, no doubt they will challenge you, I also think we are under the human lands at the moment” “Human lands?” she turned to look at him, he was looking better than she first saw him in her head, most of his cracked skin had healed, and his pale face had a bit more color... she however failed to notice her own mind had become a darker more shadowed place, where once happy memories lined the walls they were now pushed to the side to make way for books of magical knowledge. “well, there are Three known Worlds, Eros, Khalis and Katch’goln, Your Equestria would be the fourth, Eros is home to the Empire and the order of Rite, Khalis is... well WAS the Avitar Kingdom, the place where keepers originate from, Katch’goln is a more segmented world, lots of lands and a brand new place for keepers, that is where we are now, close to a Human town, I forget its name.” Twilight huffed at that. “So you can only get to the other worlds from natural paths through the underworld rock, and you found one that links to Equestria?” “Yes, its not the only one, I think... but it is the only KNOWN one, rather close to where we are so you can work on fortifying it soon, firstly we need a bit more land, gold, and power.” Twilight smiled, you could never have enough power. Applejack Kicked open the Barn door that held her cousin's body, tears streaked her face, in shock Big mac and Pinkie Pie, the two ponies who were seeing to the body jumped back, the sight of Applejack crying was not a common one, she moved close to the body undoing the straps “I'm sorry Slice, y'all know I would only do this, but I am gonna need all the help I can get for this... I know you understand.” she pulled the Brown Steel armor from the headless corpse and tossed it over her back working on the straps and quickly fixing it to herself. “APPLEJACK!?” Big Mac looked at her in horror and no small amount of anger, the large colt had never risen his voice at her before, but she needed to do this. “Pinkie get the Princess, tell her about the Castle.” she rolled her shoulders and dropped her pre-packed saddlebags over her now armored back “I will be there... if not then... she will know what to do.” she nodded and turned away from her brother and her friend before they could take in what just happened, the helmet her cousin had left on his head. The armor was slightly too big in places and far too small in others, she found her gate odd at first but quickly got used to it. Now to find Twilight, that stupid filly had rushed off to ‘Protect Equestria’ alone, she would need her help. With a sigh Applejack found herself at the castle, the walk taking far less time than she thought it would, she must have been deep in thought, with a roll of her neck that showed her fine muscle along her body she started into the Castle looking down into the lowest room before she found it, the hole in the underground wall, she was lucky that her barding had a faint light spell on it, to give her enough to see with but not enough to be easily seen at night, with a steeled gaze Applejack stepped into the dark after Twilight. Twilight screamed as she cut her hearts connection to the realm feeling the area shift with the force of a small sun before, in an instant, it stopped. She could feel it, around her was a large place with magic and... something else? “Dam, another keeper has started to claim this realm, lucky there are more than a few portals, we can start working on your army.” Twilight Groggily nodded and focused her mind to ‘see’ the area around her, lots of gold to the ‘South’ with a portal to the east and whoever the other keeper was to the north, time to get to work. Her Dungeon at the moment had her heart in the middle with three rooms branching off, her bedroom to the west attached to her own library, both small rooms around twenty meters squared each, a library to the north, no books yet in her own or the public library but Heras had said that they will come soon, to the south was a treasure room with the lair to the east of that, she made her Imps dig to the closest portal. “You will need a Hatchery, to feed any creature you hire.” Heras Chimed in, Twilight was used to Carnivores, mostly Griffins, but did not like to think about the eating habits of flesh eaters. That was a bit harsh, Twilight sighed rolling her eyes, she needed to get some creatures or hirelings and the best way to do that was to step into the portal and start looking, she had gold, and power now to use it. Applejack stalked through the empty passage, hoofprints before her showing Twilight's passing allowing The Earth Pony mare to just keep trotting after her. “SHOW YOURSELF YA’ DARK ELF SHITBAGS!” the Voice echoed through the tunnel but sounded close moving slightly quicker but careful not to make much sound she peered down a side passage, a more natural looking cave that Twilight’s hoofsteps never went close to. “Here we are you pitiful Dwarf, time to die!” the voice was husky and harsh making Applejack shudder at the malice this creature had, she looked to the group of armored bipeds, a robed one with long hair and a large book on its hands was shaking visibly but was casting spells at its companions, around it where some rather short bipeds in chain armor with another shot one in a gold plate with some kind of crown over its head, around them where some taller bipeds with what looked like cut down crossbows with them pulling down on the string themselves as they all turned to the now visible ‘Dark Elf’. Then they charged, the gold plated short one swinging twin axes at the shadows somehow hitting more than a few of the hidden Elves that seemed to merge with the darkness before shouting loudly as its plate lit up, illuminating the room before a nasty looking bolt tore into its leg, with a shout of anger it fell and started swinging its axe around as a group of Elves moved closer to end its life, the others shouting in anger and hopelessness, unable to reach the plated one, as an Elf drew back its Cut down Crossbow. Applejack charged with a shout causing the battle to grind to a halt as both parties looked at her in shock, with an ease that was known only to her she spun around so her hind hooves were facing the Elf and bucked hard sending the Elf back into the wall with a crunch. “TO ARMS MEN! THE GODS FAVOR US TODAY!” the rest of the group Applejack had found herself defending roared together as they charged, even the skinny taller one with the book shouting as it shot out spell after spell from its book as Applejack offered her hoof to the fallen Short Biped, most of the Elves dead or gone now. “Names Applejack, nice to see a friendly face down here.” she glanced at the wall, the one with the splattered Elf on it and snorted, they weren't worth mercy. “Aye, Well Applejack, I am King Dalmin Goldheart of Gordrugilmudukr and I thank ye’ for what ya did.” with that he bowed, it was definitely a he now Applejack looked him over. Looking up at her with a warm smile he held up a hand taking Applejacks hoof and leaning on her as he got to his foot, the other he held over the ground. “You heading back to, Grod..glmukr?” Applejack twisted her tongue to match the sounds made by the Biped made, he was slightly smaller than Applejack and looked to the large robed Biped “Come now mage, what do I pay you for!” before turning back to Applejack. “Tis a name, only a Dwarf can pronounce, But what of you, this area is new to us, where do you come from?” “Ponyville, Equestria.” she looked over at the Dwarf Kings party as they licked their wounds “Never saw one of you Dwarfs before, why are some of you big?” The King let out a roar of laughter clasping his hand around Applejacks own plate in an effort to keep balanced. “Nay, They are Humans who are working for my clan.” The Dwarf King grinned and nodded to the tall robed figure “That is a Human Magi who calls herself Sunny, no idea why.” He looks down at the Dwarf treating him and sighs “I knew that the Keepers were up to something down here, if you take me to the entrance to your world I can help to defend it.” he looked into Applejacks eyes nothing but honesty radiating off of him. “How can you help?” The orange mare cocked her head pawing at the floor. “Well, my son wishes to create his own Fortress, I can't think of a better place then the border to your world, it will also be good for us to trade with you, years of war has left us in dire need of trade.” It was a good deal, not only would Applejack protect the people she cared about but new allies who knew this area well would help them understand it, and help Applejack find Twilight. “One condition.” Applejack looked up at the Dwarf “You help me find my friend, she ran down here to stop the keepers who know of my world.” He nodded to that. “You care for your kin, I respect that, I will do everything within my power to help you in this task Applejack.” he looked back at his party and let out a sly grin “But I have a favor to ask, as friends.” he clasped his hand to his neck and scratched it “It seems that I am unable to walk, and you look strong enough...” with a sigh the Orange mare turned. “Fine, get on, its not that far.” with the dwarf now seated on her back the mare led them back to the castle, both the princesses should be there by now anyway.
