Chapter 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.