The Lost Legacy

*Flap, flap, flap*

Swift was moving quickly. Every hall passed his vision by in seconds, his lens the only thing able to keep up with him. He stopped, rushing into the nearest door. Commencing Scan His vision darted around the room, trying to find-Scan Complete. No magic sources found. Swift darted from the room, to the door across. Commencing Scan He took a look, this room was like the last, some kind of meeting room, maybe? Scan Complete. No magic sources found.

He left the room, quickly finding a pair of matching rooms, and another, and-this part of the castle had nothing. He took a quick glance at his lens again, taking a quick look at his route-he was off again.

Swift was moving quickly. He was always moving quickly...

Swift rushed through the air, darkness in the distance behind him. Autumn was ahead of him, his thoughts briefly turned to their parents, where were they? He hoped they weren't behind, among the voices screaming in-

Silence.

With a burst of speed, Swift moved forward faster. The crowd of Pegasi was becoming denser before him. He dove down, into an empty street, the sights at his sides passing him by in a few seconds; tables, balloons and windows filled with various trinkets and appliances. He shot back up, finding himself beside his sister. Their wings beat harder, pushing forward faster and faster-

Wait, what was that?

From out of the sky, a gigantic mass of metal fell, it's base suddenly flaring brightly, preventing it from hitting the ground. Swift got closer, discovering it was a gigantic floating platform, armed with several large weapons. A pair of Unicorns, one orange, one white, standing atop it, facing them.

Facing it.

Swift approached, being sure to keep on the non-offensive side of the instruments of destruction. The white Unicorn took a step forward. “Pearl, status!”

A white Earth Pony with pink/white was operating something with a screen, what it was Swift could only guess. “Weapons ready! Scans clear! No life forms!”

Swift briefly permitted himself to look back, they were right, no ponies in sight.

“Targeting!” The weapons started to move as the white Unicorn focused on the target. The weapons took aim, though not just at the monster itself. “OPEN FIRE!”

The weapons blasted, lights of several colors, and force Swift could feel pushing on his wings. The blasts of night struck at the darkness, destroying the ground at its feet.

It fell in, the force of gravity affecting it, and taking it down. “BURY IT!” The blasting continued, growing more fierce, as the destructive blasts increased both damage and radius.

“Give me a read!” yelled the white unicorn.

“Ten feet!” was the white Earth Pony's response, as the weapons continued to fire. “Twenty Feet!” The weapons increased their tempo, the sounds of destruction all but drowning out her voice. “Thirty Feet!” There was a deep, rumbling sound, as if something below the ground was giving way, the ground above cracking deeply. “Seventy feet!”

“Ceasefire!”

The blasting stopped, and if Swift had to guess, a city block had just been levelled atop the monster. In most cases, that'd be the end of it. In most cases. “That'll buy us a few minutes at best,” spoke the orange Unicorn, who proceeded to speak into the communicator placed over his eye. “Sharp! You better have the evacuation procedures ready!”

“Copy. Beginning extraction in three, two, one.”

Swift's eyes turned away from the darkness, seeing that in the distance, ponies were vanishing in flashes of white light. He and Autumn briefly turned to one another, knowing that soon they'd be free from this nightmare.

Maybe. There was a rumbling, and they turned to face the shifting rubble.

It was coming back up!

“Speed it up, Sharp!” yelled the orange Unicorn. “Target is emerging! Pearl, set the platform to return to the ship!”

“Pearl” pressed her screen a few more times. “Done!”

Everything faded to white, before Swift found himself, and the rest of the ponies somewhere he did not know.

“Extraction complete. Retreat in progress.”

“Situation normal then.” The orange Unicorn removed his communicator with an annoyed grunt.

“We found a way to slow it down at least,” Pearl offered as consolation.

“Not for any helpful length of time,” injected the white Unicorn.

“She was trying to help, Blue, don't be a plot.”

“Here's a better idea, you come up with something that works!”

“Coming from you that's pretty rich!”

Horn flared, tempers with them, and Swift rushed forth, slamming all four hooves on the floor and seizing the trio's attention at long last.

“Name's Swift Gale, and when you're done bickering I got a question. What was that thing?”

Swift turned another corner, his wings beating faster, his mind focused on his goal, of finding that weapon. A weapon they had no idea how to- “Daybreak, got anything on how the Elements work, exactly?”

“Not much I didn't know before,” came Daybreak's helpful answer, “the attributes tend to be pretty specific though, they're always something that makes up the core of the bearer.”

“So, it's kinda like the pony has to be worthy of the element?”

There was a brief moment of silence before “Something like that I think. Also, in order to work at all, one of the present bearers must be the bearer of the Element of Magic. That's my Element. We just gotta hope you guys qualify.”

“Is there a list of Elements?”

“Helpfulness is not this book's strong point.”

“Anything useful in the Chronicle yet?” questioned Storm. “Like say, I dunno, where the Elements are?”

No. It's odd too. There are mentions of them being orbs, and even jewels at some point, but after that references to a physical form just...stop.” The familiar sound of a page turning was heard. “There's a lot more to go through, even at my speed, give me more time.”

Storm's tone hardened. “We're on the clock, Daybreak.”

“All the more reason for you to shut up and leave me be.”

“Plothole.”

“This book has a few-, oh...nevermind.”

Swift grinned. “Got there in the end.”

“Hm.”

Daybreak flipped another page.

Quiet reigned again, making Swift frown. He had a function to fulfil, he had to keep the quiet away. He had to keep them from their own thoughts, or they'd realize the truth. Every quip he made, every joke that hit or miss, served to distract them from the overarching truth...

They were utterly screwed. These were the worst times, and perhaps the worst ponies to face the current entity looking to do who-knows-what to the world. It was different, in the old times. Back then, there was at least something left to defend, and a plan or two in reserve, and the would-be bearers were always prepared, always fighting as a group. Always united, always-oh...“Hey, guys? Something just occurred to me.”

Blueblood saw fit to try nipping this one. “Given the history of things that have 'occurred' to you, I'm gonna suggest you don't share it.”

“No, seriously, guys, this is important. Terra can buck me in the privates if it's not.”

“DEAL!”

Swift flinched. “...not a good sign.”

“Come on, Swift,” spoke Daybreak, “out with it.”

“From what you said about the previous bearers, and what we saw in the windows, seems they were all friends. Each group weren't just comrades in arms, they were real friends, had get-togethers, parties, hung out, blah blah, blah blah.” Not getting any interruptions, he pressed on. “Maybe that's part of it, the Elements need the group to be friends to work.”

There was a few seconds of silence before, “Makes sense. Your point?”

“Are we friends?” That question smashed through the atmosphere like a brick to a window, but it had to be said eventually. “Think about it, what connects us, really? If it weren't for all this, we'd probably never even met. And if we do somehow make it through all this, what then? It's not like we really get along too well, Terra just jumped for the chance to buck my male parts.”

“To be fair, you can be annoying.”

Swift decided to ignore that one. “And Blueblood doesn't like any of us.”

“That is true.”

Yet again Blueblood and Daybreak agreed on something. These really were the end times. Daybreak spoke on, “Get to your real point.”

“Maybe we're the wrong group for this. Maybe we find the Elements, and they won't work, because well, we don't.” Okay. Now this was the part when Daybreak whipped out some passage in the Chronicle that proved him wrong. This was the part when that canyon-sized organ known as Daybreak's brain addressed all his concerns. This was the part when all his pretending was validated. This was the part, this was the part.

“Sorry, Terra, you can't buck him.”

“Aw nuts.”

Like he concluded before; they were screwed. “Mine are spared.” Gotta look on the bright side, or the less dark side at least. That least dark stood out now, every other dark had become considerably more black.

Time to start cracking more jokes.

“Hey, look at it this way. There was one sure benefit to coming here. If we'd stayed, we could have been forced to eat Autumn's Carrot Soup for a last meal.” He felt a collective shudder pass through the group. “You know, I do know the recipe...”

Blueblood was anything but thrilled at that. “If you start cooking I'm going outside!”

“See? That's the spirit, make a joke!”

“Who's joking?” Daybreaks's tone wasn't that was for sure. “I'm going with him.”

Swift grinned. “Hey! I got it! I'll make the soup and we can use it as weapon!”

“...that might actually work. Where can we get some carrots?”

“Hey,” began Terra, “I found the pantry. It's empty.”

Daybreak sighed. “So much for that idea.”

Another failed idea.

That list was getting a wee bit too long.

“Swift,” began daybreak, “do you have any other outlet for your...let's just call them, thoughts?”

“I did,” Swift sighed, “I miss Chirper.”

Blueblood sudden snickered. “The one good thing in all this, Chirper is no more.”

“How many followers did you have?”

“...five.”

“No wonder you hated it.” Swift couldn't help puff out his chest. “I on the other hoof had thousands of followers, hanging on my every chirp.”

“Let me guess, lots of cat videos.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing. My cats were awesome.” Oh did he miss those fleabags.... “All I had to do was-”

Swift froze.

“Swift, you suddenly shut up.” Daybreak couldn't quite keep the joy out of his tone. “Swift? Swift? Okay, who do I owe money to?”

“Wraith.”

That one word changed everything, Daybreak's tone the least among them. “Swift! Get out of there! NOW!” Swift held still, not so much as a hair moving. “Use your rune! COME ON!” He held still, and the Wraith did too, something forming in Swift's mind...“DAMN IT ALL!”

With a flash, Daybreak appeared, grabbing onto Swift “I got him! I-” His gaze turned in the direction Swift was gazing at, his horn glowing. The glow suddenly faltered. “Wait. Hang on...”

At the end of the hallway, beyond a windowless oriel, both could see it.

There it stood, before them in mid-air. They could only assume it was looking at them. It had no face.

Like the countless ponies it had hunted down, this creature was quad-pedal, but beyond that, it was hard to make out much in the way of details, it always had been. It stood tall, taller than any pony Daybreak or Swift could name. It made no sound, it never had. The sound of silence was all it brought, and left behind.

The creature itself seemed made of darkness. Seemed, it was hard to really get a look at it, light itself seemed to dim when it got too close. What could be made out was a body structure that seemed similar to a pony, though even that was unclear. Around the being were wisps of what wasn't quite smoke. This being was something there, but not quite there. Like something somewhere between existence and not. Looking at this being was difficult. Not for it being gruesome, or unsightly, because such a thing seemed foreign to something deep in the mind, as if the subconscious could grasp that this was something that should not have been, could not have been, yet somehow, it was.

This was the Wraith.

The Wraith remained still for a moment, not moving so much as an inch, the wisps around it shifting in an absent breeze. Daybreak took a step forward. “What's it waiting for?”

As if in response, the darkness moved. Black spread out from the Wraith, rushing forward like a river of black.

It rushed forward, and met something.

Daybreak had not seen this before, some kind of forcefield, but unlike any Daybreak had ever seen; none had ever actually halted the Wraith's advancement before now. The shield was bright white, the brightest contrast against the invasive dark.

The darkness retreated, showing the Wraith was still standing there. It made no move, nor gave any sign it was affected by what had just transpired. After what felt like a moment, and forever at the same time, the Wraith turned from them, gliding away. To where, only it knew.

Daybreak released a breath he'd forgotten he was holding. “False alarm, everypony. It can't get in. Storm called it. Terra, walkway's fine, speed up the search, everypony.” With a flash of gold, Daybreak was gone, undoubtedly back to where he'd come from, his unspoken message loud and clear.

We're running out of time.