Author's Note

Oh my gosh an update!?!? I know it's been too long my readers! Don't worry I haven't given up writting I'm just working on other projects and now have time because of this corona virus/covid-19 or whatever it's called.

Also, the end is near! So, stay tuned to the upcoming epic battle between pones, hoomans, and dark scalies!

Catacombs: Final Turn

There was a tense silence in the Catacombs of Carthus.

Loreane stood between the ponies and Diana who was about half way down the stone stairs where Maud lay behind not far. The mare was unconscious as far as everyone could tell, but she seemed unharmed. That didn’t stop Lorenae from being cautious of the woman before her. She stabbed her in the back, quite literally and figuratively, killing her in the process and she wasn’t about to let her harm any ponies. Without letting Diana get a word in Loreane lobed a fireball at her with expert precision. With ease Diana rolled forward underneath the fireball, which erupted violently behind her.

Diana sheathed her sword on her back as the intense heat wave that followed made her cape flow as she held up her hands in a nonthreatening manner. She even went so far as to release Maud from under her boot, and the dull grey pony rejoined her part. Albeit very slowly at a casual pace.

While Loreane was seemingly hellbent on destroying Diana, Trixie held her hoof up and stopped her from attacking her fellow human. “Stop, Loreane! She’s not attacking us!”

“Are you kidding me, Trixie? She could have easily dodged that,” Loreane said bitterly.

The older woman made no move against the group. Diana simply crossed her arms over her chest and stood there, waiting for them to finish so she could get a word in. Trixie stood between the two humans, and Diana looked at Trixie noting her attire was almost identical to her own Abyss Watchers armor even with a sword and dagger.

“Loreane, she helped Maud, we should at least hear what she has to say,” Trixie turned to face Diana, who remained unmoving. “That being said, I understand Loreane’s distrust of you. If you do anything to hurt anyone of us there will be dire consequences.”

Diana simply smirked as the ponies gathered around Loreane in a series of defensive poses. Diana held her hands up making sure to look as least threatening as possible. Emotions were running high in everyone. Silver was hiding behind Babs, who was at the front of the group with Trixie and Maud crammed at her side, and Loreane taking up the rear, but still towering over the ponies. Diana seemed unfazed by the attack and remained eerily calm.

Not bothering to lower her arms, Diana stepped back one step to take a step down the stairs. Everyone became tense and raised their guard like they were expecting you to attack. She chuckled, almost laughing at the absurd response she got as she spoke.

“You guys need to calm down. It’s a long way down if you fall,” She pointed down into the dark abyss below.

“I’d gladly throw you in if you’d like,” Loreane said with pure hate in her tone.

Diana chuckled again this time lowering her arms slowly. The group lowered their guard as well, except Babs who kept an aggressive stance.

“I’m sure you would, Loreane,” Diana said, her expression turning serious. “I need your help. If you’re heading to the Crystal Empire it’s been taken over by Sombra and my forces. But that bastard betrayed me and intends to release the umbrum.”

The ponies seemed confused; they never heard of the umbrum, which didn’t surprise Diana in the least. Unfortunately Lorene seemed equally unaware of the umbrum. Then it clicked to Diana that her fellow human might remember them by their old name and decided to try that and see if the former firekeeper remembered.

“The dredge of the Abyss?” Diana hinted towards Loreane.

That seemed to catch her attention. For the woman gasped, placing a hand over her mouth. Instantly her demeanor changed to one of fear, a stark contrast to her unusual hyper aggression she was showing moments ago. Diana took the silence as her que to continue talking.

“The Crystal Empire has fallen, your friends are all captured, even your Princesses. Sombra and my forces are clashing, holding him back from releasing the Umbrum. I need your help to stop him,” Diana said factually to the group.

“And we need to work together to prevent the umbrum from being freed?” Loreane finished looking rather solemn.

“Exactly. We don’t have to be friends, but we must combine forces to defeat our common enemy. Besides, if we work together we all get what we want,” Diana said, turning to walk down the steep stone steps. “Watch your step. If you fall you'll never come back.”

“I bet you’d enjoy that,” Loreane hissed under her breath.

In a rare instance of leadership Loreane took the lead of the group. She followed right behind Diana making sure to keep her a good distance, but close enough to keep an eye on her constantly. The ponies looked at one another with worried glances. Their enemy just came to ask for help, and clearly the threat of the umbrum was enough to entice Loreane to action with Diana. This meant the threat was really serious if their blonde human friend was willing to work with her hated enemy to stop Sombra and the umbrum.

The ponies followed behind Loreane while Diana led them deeper into the catacombs. Everywhere the skeletal remains of the fallen littered their path. While Loreane and her pony companions were extremely cautious around the remains, out of fear they’d come to life and strike them down, Diana remained very calm and casually walked past pile after pile of bones without hesitation. Everyone thought it odd except Loreane who simply thought it was Diana being brash and brave as she usually did. As angry as she was with Diana she did find that trait about her very attractive. Diana was always the kind of person to dive head first into the fray, and though it seems she does so without much thought she always had a plan. Like Trixie, who was also brave, but always thought about the outcome before going into anything. Even though she had to admit Diana had a much higher success rate than Trixie did.

Nevertheless they were still in for a long march. Diana never pulled her punches when fighting and if she needed help then Sombra was indeed very strong. Loreane shuddered at the very thought of what power he must possess. On that note she couldn’t help but notice that there was absolute silence as the group walked aside from the occasional shifting bones and hoofsteps they made. It was unsettling.

“Why is there no opposition, Diana?” Loreane asked, looking at the mounds of skeletal remains as they rounded a shaft at the end of the stairs.

Diana led the group down a long tunnel that immediately turned right leading into a large multilayered chamber. The path led down a narrow walkway that was covered in the remains of rats freshly killed recently. Diana led them down the path walking around the rat corpses and passed by a large open area to her right without bothering to look.

“I cleaned the place out of any opposition we may have otherwise encountered.” She said with a grin. “If I hadn’t it would have taken too long to get back and time is not on our side.”

She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Lorenae. “That and I didn’t want you and your friends to get hurt. I need all of you in peak condition for the fight ahead.”

Loreane scoffed with indignity.

“I can’t believe you. I actually wanted to believe you had some decency but all you care about is keeping us as canon fodder,” She hissed.

Diana gasped either from shock or the fact that Loreane back talked to her aggressively. Trixie wasn’t sure, but she suspected it was more out of shock than anything else. Trixie watched as Diana quickly backpedaled on her statement.

“That’s not what I meant! I meant I need the help and I really didn’t want you to get hurt! I-”

“Can it. I don’t care what you have to say anymore. I trusted you once and I won’t do so again,” Loreane brushed past walking down the hall to the end and turning right.

Diana gasped running after her with the ponies right behind her. Loreane entered a massive chamber that was long lined with pillars on either side of the room all the way back to a small altar and a flight of stairs that led to an old worn pair of massive wooden doors. The doors were completely open and a cold breeze filled the chamber as everyone piled in. An old red and worn rug covered the stone path leading to the altar, and even with the breeze there was a distinct smell of bone and ash in the air that overpowered the stench of death. Babs walked up sniffing the air and her eyes fell upon an old tarnished skull faced goblet with a tarnished jeweled crown on the stone altar which was covered with lit candles. The skull chalice had a massive crack down the center almost splitting it in two, barely held together by the flute base.

Loreane walked over inspecting it closely. She could feel the dark presence of something sinister that remained tainting the goblet. A powerful hatred and vile feelings and she felt compelled to touch it, as if her curiosity overpowered her common sense. Her mind went numb and the world around her became muffled and dim as she reached out to touch the goblet. Inch by inch her hand closed the distance towards the dark essence in the goblet when a strong hand gripped her wrist, and thus snapped her back to reality. She was twisted and pulled away from the goblet and pulled into someones strong arms that held her comfortingly and protectively.

Slowly her mind caught up with her and she realized Diana had grabbed her and pulled her from the darkness and was now softly embracing her. She looked at Diana who had a spiteful look about her. The woman grabbed her sword pulling it overhead from her back cutting down on the infested goblet cutting it in two. As soon as the sword cut through Diana used her cape to cover Loreane as dark energy burst out of the two parts of the goblet like a spewing fountain of evil. Trixie erected a magical barrier with her horn and Babs cast a powerful chant to help bless the magic barrier as the darkness tried to consume everything.

Several seconds passed before the darkness died down to nothing. With the danger passed Lorenae felt a familiar sensation overcome her. She remembered times back when she felt protected, but that feeling was quickly dismissed by the stinging feeling of betrayal. She quickly pushed herself away from Diana and quickly retreated to check on the others.

“Don’t touch me,” She hissed at Diana, while walking to Trixie.

Kneeling down by the ponies side she checked over everyone to make sure there was no lasting dark magic on them. Maud was okay, Babs and Silver Spoon were almost unaffected, and Trixie was unharmed as well.

“Glad to see you’re all alright,” Diana said hugging the ponies, except Maud.

“It was nothing,” Diana said looking over at the altar.

Everyone watched as the woman approached, reaching down with one hand to take half of the goblet. She inspected it looking it over like a highly trained curator would a piece of jewelry or fine art. After a few seconds she scoffed, throwing it over her shoulder and shattering the remains and stomping the other half to pieces under her boot.

“Nothing but the remains of a dead king. A shadow that has no more power than the sand and rocks under us,” She said walking to the group. “We were never in any real danger since-”

“Since you defeated the king. Yeah, we know.”

Everyone looked at Loreane as she spat out the words like one would a distasteful bite of food.

“I’m sensing some history here.” Silver Spoon said under her breath to Trixie.

Diana rolled her eyes walking away towards the stairs. “We’re wasting time here. We need to focus on stopping Sombra from freeing the umbrum. If he does then all we fought for will be for nothing, Loreane. Is that what you want?”

Both humans furrowed their brows glaring at each other. Both showed signs of fatigue and stress. Diana more so. Being an immortal undead she looked very good, but even Loreane could tell she looked older, and not in a good way. Apparently stress could affect the undead as much as it could any mortal. She almost felt sorry for the woman.

Lorenae stood up and walked up to Diana glaring at her and shoving her finger into her chest tapping the leather armor she wore. “You better remember this, Diana. If you hurt me or my friends I’ll make short work of you. I’m not that naive little girl who blindly fell in love with you all those centuries ago.”

“Hey, I don’t want to hurt any of you. We need each other to survive this, and-”

The firekeeper shoved her finger accusingly into Diana’s face with a huff. Her face red with rage as she unknowingly began conjuring flames around her. The heat and raw energy blasted like the wind and blew her hair back along with Diana’s hair and cape.

While the ponies seemed concerned about the light show their friend was making, Diana remained unfazed by the outburst. She even seemed a bit amused, with a grin on her lips.

“You really have changed haven’t you?” She chuckled, but when Loreane practically growled in frustration she quickly amended with clenched fists. “Not that it’s a bad thing! I’m just saying you changed. And for the better I think.”

“Don’t talk like we’re friends. We aren’t. Not anymore,” she said pushing past.

The ponies walked by each giving her a glance as they passed. Diana and Trixie exchanged glares the little unicorn passed. Diana followed by her side up the stairs. As they passed the doors another powerful cold breeze blew through sending shivers down the ponies. Diana being undead and Loreane a firekeeper they were unaffected by the cold.

They walked through a very narrow stone passage which narrowed more and more until they had to go single file through the passage. At the end of the rocky passage they came to a clearing that was barely big enough to contain all of them on a ledge. At its center there was an old abandoned remains of a bonfire. All around them was a powerful storm that blanketed the landscape with a wall of snow all around them.

Everyone gathered around the bonfire pit and Diana pointed out in the wintery whote beyond.

“Everyone, welcome to the everfrost!” She had to yell over the raging storm around them. “Follow me, and stay close and keep your eyes peeled, and weapons ready!”

She drew her sword and shield leading the group down a narrow barely visible path. The ground they walked was narrow and slippery, and Diana had to warn them every few steps about potentially hazardous steps to avoid, less they fall to their untimely demise.

“Where are we?! Why is there a blizzard here?!” Loreane cried out trying to see.

“It’s the everfrost! It's a storm that never ends that surrounds the Crystal Empire and is protected by the Crystal Heart!” Trixie yelled back.

“That’s true, and right now Sombra has the Crystal Heart, and with it he can open a portal to the umbrum and release them into this world!” Diana wiped some snow buildup.

The group by now had reached the bottom of the path that was now a well worn stone path that led to a dead end, and continued in the opposite direction. A loud howling echoed around them easily being heard over the storm, which for all but one was unsettling. Diana laughed walking forward without fear, but the rest remained hesitant after hearing the blood curdling howl.

Diana laughed telling them not to worry about the howling. According to her it was a “friend” that was waiting for them further ahead. The ponies gathered around Loreane huddling together to conserve their body heat, while Trixie and Loreane worked together to erect a barrier and use fire magic to keep them all warm. Diana remained outside the barrier and continued leading them, when Silver Spoon chimed in. “Should we let her in the barrier? Won't she freeze out there?”

At first Loreane wanted to remain silent and say nothing. When nobody answered the filly’s query she looked up to her human companion for an answer. She and everyone here already knew of Loreane’s history with Diana to varying degrees. What they all agreed on was she didn’t like the blakc haired beauty, and showed extreme hostility against her. And her answer only served to solidify that view.

“She’s an undead heartless monster. Cold and uncaring except for ending the abyssal hold on the world. The cold won’t kill her nor harm her.”

The words came out so cold and hateful the ponies were sure they didn’t see any steamy breath evaporate from Loreane’s lips when she spoke. Indeed the cold air was nothing compared to the coldblooded feeling emanating from their human friend. Trixie herself thought that it was ironic that a firekeeper could have such dark and cold feelings for anyone. It was unsettling for her and she didn’t like how Loreane was treating Diana who helped them not once, but twice. She wished Loreane would go back to being the sweet kind woman she once was.

The unicorn stepped closer to Loreane nuzzling her hand with her nose. She then pressed her head into her thigh, making sure not to poke her leg with her horn. Loreane jumped from the sudden contact, her heart raced and she nearly cast a fire spell in the bubble, but managed to stop herself just in time. When she noticed the warm smile from Trixie and the ponies around her she calmed down and pet the azure unicorn on the head.

“I’m sorry, Trixie. I just can’t get over what she did to me all those years ago. I feel-”

“Betrayed, I get it. WHile Trixie doesn’t have a similar experience to compare to, she does know what holding onto a grudge can do. I’ve been down the road. Just, please be careful to to walk down it too far because once you get to a certain point it’s nearly impossible to come back from.”

“I see. I’ll… I’ll be carefull Trixie. Thank you.”

She leaned down and quickly gave the unicorn a kiss on her side of her lip. The quick contact made her blush and the fillies make kissy face noises at her mockingly. “Oh, shut up you two!” They laughed again, but Maud remained silently neutral as always.

Just then the group stopped when Diana held her hand up and stopped on the stone path. She looked down at the ground further into the snow storm as if she could see something the others couldn’t. Then she pointed at the ground and turned to face the group with a very annoyed look on her face.

“Watch the skies everyone! We made it to the Empire Stay on your guard! She’s here.”

The ponies looked around them trying to see anything around them but the wall of snow continued to block their view.

“What are you getting at, Diana?! Who’s here!?” Loreane screamed accusingly at her former partner.

Diana turned to face them. He long black hair flowing with the violent winds to her right along with her cape as a large dark figure appeared form the white abyss. A large powerful figure of raw muscle and four powerful wings. Diana prepared herself holding her shield slightly behind her while she looked at her associates with a serious glance.

“The Corrupt One, Dragon Lord Ember.”