Where You're Needed Most

by Opalescent Ampersand

Rating: teen
Tags: Zecora, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure, Random
Length: 13702

Rapid Waters drags her friends on an adventure of a lifetime.

When Rapid Waters, a ditzy pegasus with a knack for getting into (and back out of) trouble, guilt-trips a friend into casting a spell that sends her and her friends "to where they're needed most", they're sent on an adventure that at first seems like a day-trip, but in the long run might actually just save not just Ponyville, but the rest of the world as well.

Meanwhile, while they're off saving the world, Twilight, Zecora and Applejack are working to reverse the spell... which (of course) is causing all kinds of other problems... with events already set into motion by Rapid Waters' spell, bringing them BACK from trouble may be worse than letting them complete their adventure!

On hiatus until I can get the characters and my muse to behave. I have absolutely no idea where the story is going at this point.

Published 2012-07-01 04:24:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-10 14:06:35 UTC

Prologue: Setting the Stage

This little story is just an exercise to keep my mental juices flowing for a different story I am writing elsewhere.

Story updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I have not seen a single episode of the show, nor am I interested in watching youtubes of it. That's why it's labeled Alternate Universe... so if I get something terribly wrong... heh. :)

Enjoy the show!

**********************

"You guys! You guys!"

"Oh, hi, Rapid." Sunny Rose looked up from her gardening, the dirt staining her coat from beige to almost solid brown and concealing her cutie mark of a rose growing in sunlight. She pulled a twig out of her black mane as the pegasus sped toward them at high speed.

"Incoming in three, two..." Weighted Words smirked, the dark cyan unicorn being as cynical as ever and twisting a few strands of his long light gray wild mane around his hoof.

Rapid Waters, a light azure pegasus whose cutie mark was a raindrop surrounded by a ring of water, barreled into Sunny Rose in a big hug. "You won't guess what I found! It's amazing! It's unbelievable! It's..."

"Obnoxious?" Weighted Words asked.

Rapid Waters rolled her eyes as Sunny Rose struggled to get her face out of Rapid Waters' lion-esque dark orange mane. Her hair was everywhere and got into everything. "No, it's..."

"Boring?" Weighted Words grinned. His ability was sarcasm, the 'ability to pour a little proverbial salt in the wound' while lighting a fire under those he 'named and shamed' so that they would better themselves. He never meant any real harm though, and most tended to just ignore or write off his childish insults. His cutie mark was a pair of salt licks.

Rapid Waters bounced up and down. "No, silly! It's..."

"Something you shouldn't meddle with." Triple Blaze said, coming up behind her. He was a huge earth pony, coat a deep gold with a curly mane, the color of chocolate. His cutie mark was three flames on top of one another; his talent was getting things done so fast he tended to leave a cartoonish trail of fire in his wake.

"Aw, you already know?" Rapid Waters looked down.

"And you undoubtedly got the translation wrong, too, whatever it was." Triple Blaze had no taste for adventures or "stupid stuff"; he was a simple pony with simple tastes and didn't like to get into deeper mysteries. He had a knack for languages, and had even helped Twilight Sparkle translate several of the books in the library. Having known Rapid Waters couldn't pull herself away from there, he figured that it was likely she'd found a spell she wanted Weighted Words to try to cast. Even more likely, since she often never thought through her actions, whatever spell she had pulled out of the books... she'd probably translated it wrong. She always went for the largest storybooks and "spellbooks", books which Triple Blaze steered clear of. He liked the smaller, simpler things.

"No, I didn't! No, I didn't!" Rapid protested, holding up the book. "It's a fate spell! It binds people together for a great adventure, and I want to go on a great adventure!"

Both Triple Blaze and Weighted Words looked each other and facehoofed at the same time while Sunny Rose looked amused.

"Lemme see that." Weighted Words said, nudging the book open with his horn and looking at the runes inscribed therein. "Rapid, this is... wait a minute." He concentrated, his horn lighting up a little bit. "This is beyond my... no, wait, I think I can..." He concentrated further, his brow furrowing and his horn's glow turning from a clear gold to a darker orange. "Yeah, I can cast this, but... Rapid, where did you get this? Certainly something this potent wouldn't be in Twilight's library..."

"I know! It was in a box marked 'Destination: Canterlot'! I think it was destined for the archives for the library there! Twilight said I could read any book I wanted if I just watched the library while she stepped out on some errands with Spike!" Rapid Waters was getting more excitable by the minute. "And I want to go on an adventure! With you guys! You're my best friends!"

"We're you're only friends." Weighted Words said. Rapid ignored this.

"Now hold on." Sunny Rose said, putting down a gardening tool. "Something this powerful is not meant for us, Rapid, and you know it."

"But... but... please?" Rapid Waters gave Sunny Rose puppy eyes. "There's even a way to break out of the spell! I read it myself, but I can't cast it! I'm only good with the rain."

Triple Blaze looked unappreciative. "If it gets cast and you get hurt you only have yourself to blame."

"But... but..." More puppy eyes.

Weighted Words facehoofed again. "All right, all right, enough with the puppy eyes. Lemme see the book again." He skimmed it for a few minutes while the rest of them waited quietly, then he shut the book with a snap. "All right, there's a way out of it if we don't like the location we end up at. The spell seemingly binds ponies' fates together and teleports them to 'where they need to be the most.' This could be anywhere."

"And since you're my best friends, I want to do this with you!" Rapid Waters smiled.

"This is stupid." Triple Blaze snorted. "What if it drops us on top of an active volcano and we have to save somepony inside it?"

Weighted Words shook his head. "It won't do that. The spell's designed to drop the targets within five miles of a 'target location' which they have to proceed to and accomplish something."

"Five miles isn't that far..." Sunny Rose said. "Okay, I guess I can do this, it's a nice little break from my gardening."

Rapid Waters grinned. "I know! We'll finish it and be done in time for dinner!"

"Or BE dinner for something..." Weighted Words grumbled. It was obvious that the only way to shut up Rapid Waters was to cast the spell, do whatever happened, and then the "return magic" would kick in and send them back to where they started. "All right, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this right. Everypony stay close."

Rapid Waters bounced over next to Weighted Words. "Coming, Triple?"

The huge equine grunted. "Somepony's got to watch over you." He replied as Sunny Rose walked next to Weighted Words.

Ignoring the big guy for the time being, Weighted Words concentrated. "Here we go. And if we're not back in time for dinner, Rapid, you're buying me dinner. I hope you have bits saved up, because I eat a lot."

"Working that big mouth of yours takes an awful lot of energy, yes." Triple Blaze said as Rapid Waters bounced up and down and Weighted Words began to focus on the spell.

"Gentlemen, please." Sunny Rose said, looking back and forth between the two.

"Boys will be boys!" Rapid Waters said cheerfully as sweat began to form around Weighted Words's horn.

"And... pant... away we... go..." Weighted Words finished as the spell took hold, surrounding them all with a yellow-green ribbon of bright light that spun into a twisty spiral, covering them so that only their outlines were seen. When the spiral spun itself out, they were gone, leaving Sunny Rose's gardening tools and the book itself laying on the ground.

-- Later... --

"We found this next to the garden. They've been missing for a while now." Spike handed the book to Twilight, who flipped through it. "What's that do?"

Twilight winced. "It's a... teleport spell. Kind of. It has some... additions."

Spike tilted his head as he accepted the book back and slipped it into the box labeled "Canterlot", then began filling another box with books destined for Cloudsdale. "You make it seem like that's a bad thing, Twilight."

Twilight sighed. "Anypony who recognized the author of the original spell and remembered their history would realize the spell is one-way. The author of the spell, one Silent Eagle, liked to teleport and then WALK back home."

"That kinda defeats the purpose of a teleport spell, doesn't it?" Spike asked.

Twilight shrugged. "He liked to see the world, and liked others to see the world as well, whether they wanted to or not. Those who knew him could activate the spell with its intended distance and duration. Friends of his, such as they were, got special treatment. There's a fail-safe to return them home, but the fail-safe can't be cast by the same one casting the original spell and the material components aren't all in the same location, so it will take time to prepare it to get them back."

"Sounds to me he was a bit of a jerk." Spike turned around, filling the box and closing it up.

"That is an understatement." Twilight nodded. "He was full of himself and liked to impose his rules on everypony, which is why most of his long-distance spells linked those travelling in groups together."

Spike began filling another box by pulling books from the bookcase with his tail. "Linked?"

Twilight nodded. "A psychic link, usually linking emotions. Stronger cases could link people's senses to one another, and for those he truly disliked, he linked their thoughts. Silent Eagle got a kick out of seeing people experience the world 'differently' or at least unusually. On the plus side, such groups never got their members separated from one another. On the minus side, seeing yourself from the point of someone else's eyes is..." She let the statement hang in the air, unfinished.

Spike gave her a "You're crazy." look.

"He got what was coming to him in the end." Twilight finished. "Somepony tricked him with this version of the spell and mislabeled it. Nopony ever heard from him again."

Spike's tail curled. "So what happened to whomever cast this version of it?"

"It's a banishment spell, not a full teleport spell. Anypony under its influence has to accomplish something 'unique and amazing' and word needs to reach the original caster in order for them to return." Twilight replied, using a minor spell to levitate a box of books off the top shelf and set it on the ground in front of Spike for organization. "It looks like this particular spell binds their fates instead of their emotions or senses, but only in the sense that all targets of the spell must be present when the 'unique and amazing' feat is performed."

Spike set the box with the others and labeled it for Cloudsdale. "Rapid Waters isn't exactly the smartest pegasus in Cloudsdale..."

Twilight didn't seem terribly worried as she spotted Applejack through a window, bringing with her a large cart full of supplies. The books they were organizing, along with Applejack's supplies were going to the mail office to be sent out to Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan. Once they were finished organizing, their next stop was off to meet Zecora in the middle of town to pick up yet some more supplies of an alchemical nature, to be sent along with the books. "She was seen in the company of her friends, a gardener named Sunny Rose, a big guy named Triple Blaze and that rude little brat Weighted Words. They should be fine if they're looking after her, and since Weighted Words is the only pony in their group who is a unicorn and could cast the spell in the first place, if she does and he's with her, the return to their starting point will... or at least should, be nearly instant."

"What could possibly go wrong, right?" Spike asked, then quickly turned his back to her with a grin to avoid Twilight's dirty look. "Don't answer that."

Chapter 1: Just Another Day in Ponyville

Twilight exited the library with Spike right behind her, carrying several boxes of books and having to weave back and forth to avoid dropping them all. She was met by a very tired looking Applejack, who had brought with her a large cart filled with bushels of apples, several bales of hay, and quite a lot of farm tools destined to be sent out to the neighboring farms after she helped Twilight deliver the boxes of books to the mail post.

"Applejack, you look exhausted." Twilight said, tilting her head a little. It looked as if the cowpony hadn't gotten sleep in a couple of days.

"It's been a long few days, Twi." Applejack said, exhaustion in her voice. "Ah'm takin' the weekend off after this. The farm can wait a coupla' days."

Twilight nodded as Spike loaded the boxes into the cart. "What happened?"

Applejack rolled her eyes. "More like what didn't happen or what couldn't go wrong. First we found a nasty fungus drawin' the strength out of several of the trees in th' orchard. It made them brittle to the point where I bucked them, they and the apples went clear sailin' over to the other side of th' farm. Ah almost hit Apple Bloom by mistake with one of 'em. We're tryin' to track down where the fungus came from, but it's not provin' easy. It seems to mimic other beneficial fungi to better hide itself."

"I can help with that." Twilight replied as Spike jumped into the cart and grabbed the reins, snapping them with a "Giddyup!" directed at Applejack. She ignored him.

"Thanks all the same, sugarcube, but we got this." Applejack said. "After we found the fungus, there was a fire in th' barn. Remember how hot it was yesterday? Some of the hay couldn't take it and started to burn under what we assume was sunlight focused through th' windows. Big Mac managed to put the fire out before it got really bad, though." The group began to head into Ponyville to meet up with Zecora, who was in town to give them potions and herbs and all manner of alchemical things for display and trade in the other cities.

"Let me guess." Twilight said. "Big Macintosh got himself injured again because of it?"

"Got it in one." Applejack nodded. "He knocked over a hay bale and it took down three or four others somehow and the whole thing came down and damaged one of the barn's rafters, which broke and came down on his head. Ah was up all night with worry because he'd knocked himself cold. Those things ain't lightweight and it takes a lot of effort to pile 'em back up."

"Big Mac can handle it, he's shrugged off worse, right?" Twilight asked.

"That doesn't mean ah don't still worry for 'im though." Applejack yawned as Spike snapped the reins again. "Then Granny Smith needed all sorts of help. She's slowing down, Twi. More than is normal for her. Ah worry."

The group headed into Ponyville, enjoying the sunlight. Rainbow Dash had said that the rest of the week was going to be clear sailing, and that the heat wave that had occurred when somepony hadn't been paying attention up in the weather factory would be broken by a thunderstorm by the time the new week began. She'd promised Twilight an "interesting light show", which probably meant lightning being formed into fancy shapes for the ponies on the ground to watch and be amazed by.

Their first stop was by the Carousel Boutique, as Twilight had to pick up a couple of dresses for a friend back in Canterlot. The door was open, and just as they were about to enter, they were almost knocked down by a couple of fleeing ponies carrying between them some sort of strange contraption.

"Out, out!" Rarity could be heard calling to the fleeing ponies. "I don't want your 'Super-Duper Cloth-Colorizer 6650!' I can get by just fine!"

Applejack snorted, watching the Flim-Flam Brothers run from Rarity, who was inside waving several dressmaking tools at them. "And if you come back I'll make dresses... for you!" Then she dropped the anger act and nodded to Twilight, who'd stepped in. "Twilight, darling, you're early."

Twilight nodded, looking around and then back out at the still-retreating Flim-Flam Brothers, whom Applejack was giving a rather nasty stare to. "Um... is there something I should know?"

Rarity put down her dressmaking tools. "They were trying to sell me on some strange invention that could color cloth to anything anypony would want, including colors so gaudy it hurt my eyes to look at them." Her horn lit up as a white square of cut cloth levitated of its own accord and then changed color to a rich, bright red. "And I have my own magic for color change and coordination. I decided not to give them any more of my attention."

"If you ask me, they'd look good in a dress." Applejack said, stepping inside.

"Applejack! You look terrible!" Rarity said. "Your hair... your hooves, even your hat is off-center!"

Applejack shrugged. "It's been a long week. Stuff on th' farm, y'know? Nothin' a good day or two of rest won't fix right up."

"Nonsense, darling. Let me fix you up." Rarity replied, concentrating. Her horn lit up with magic and Applejack's mane smoothed out, then the dust and dirt that had been covering her hooves fell off and clumped itself into little balls which rolled out of the boutique. "There, all better. You look more presentable now. Can't have a good cowpony look like she's been wrestled to the ground by ruffians, right?"

"Something tells me if she can take on farm duties, she can take on 'ruffians'." Twilight said as Spike poked his head in, eyes trained on Rarity.

"It's nothin', really." Applejack looked slightly embarassed.

"Do you have the dresses ready?" Twilight asked. "My friend in Canterlot really wants to see some of your designs."

Rarity smiled and nodded as six beautiful white dresses with various colors of trim and attached baubles floated out of a closet, one by one. "I finished the last one yesterday." The dresses levitated over to Spike, who stepped in and caught them as they fell on him, and he stuck his hand out of the pile of dresses with a thumbs-up sign. "Spike, be a dear and carry those to the cart, will you?"

"Right away, miss Rarity." Spike quickly picked himself up out of the pile of clothes and quickly carried them out one by one so as not to damage them.

"Did you hear about the missing ponies?" Rarity asked as she turned back to her tools and began to organize them a little bit; the table in front of her was absolutely covered in cloth, string, fancy ornamental gemstones, and various colors of ribbon.

"Yeah, they used a banishment spell written by that old man, Silent Eagle." Twilight said. "I'm going to talk to Zecora about it later today and see if there's anything she can do, like a scrying potion or something to see if they're safe. If they're in trouble I'll have Spike send word to Princess Celestia."

Rarity wrinkled her nose. "Silent Eagle? He was an eccentric one, all right..."

Twilight shrugged "Yeah. Apparently Rapid Waters found one of his spellbooks in one of the boxes I was organizing for sending on to Canterlot; I didn't even know I had the thing in the library in the first place. She got herself and her friends banished to someplace labeled as 'where they're needed most'."

"Aren't they needed most here in Ponyville?" Applejack asked.

"The spell was labeled as such, but anypony who knows Silent Eagle's history is that things aren't always what they seem." Twilight replied as Spike returned.

"Thank you, Spike. Have a small gem as a token of my appreciation." Rarity said, and a small emerald floated over to the little dragon, depositing itself in his hand. He hugged it with a big smile on his face as Rarity turned back to Twilight. "Not always what they seem? More like NEVER what they seem." She looked disgusted. "He never had any appreciation for my designs and kept going 'you need to do this, and that, and that, and that.'" She turned up her nose, mocking him. "He had no true eye for fashion. As bad as it sounds I am glad he was tricked into going away. I think the whole of Ponyville was getting tired of his insults."

"Well, in either case, Zecora mentioned to me that she knew him as a frequent visitor to the area around her hut, so if there's anypony who has a way to get our friends back from this spell unharmed, she'd know at least where to start looking. I'd rather not get Princess Celestia involved; she has enough to do as it is." Twilight said.

Rarity nodded. "I saw Zecora out by Sugarcube Corner, watching ponies walk by and enjoying the day. I think Pinkie Pie was going to ask her to try some new recipes of hers."

Applejack and Twilight looked at each other and then bolted out of the boutique, with Twilight grabbing Spike on her way out. With a quick "Thanks for the dresses!" they quickly headed off to Sugarcube Corner.

*****************

"What do you mean, you lost the book?" Weighted Words said, looking around at the cave that the group had materialized in.

"I don't know." Rapid Waters looked clueless. "It was right there when you cast the spell."

Triple Blaze was walking toward the beams of sunlight coming in through the ceiling of the large cave they had appeared in. The cave showed signs of habitation or occupation, as there were signs that it had been extensively mined. Broken pickaxes, a large iron shovel, two buckets of water and several chunks of iron ore lay in a corner next to a very large chunk of a spiky, reddish stone.

"Well, we're here." Sunny Rose said. "Now what do we do?"

"But where's here?" Weighted Words replied.

"We do what we need to do, of course!" Rapid Waters flew towards the sunlight. "Somewhere within five miles of here, something needs to be done and we're going to do it."

"Now hold on, let's get ourselves situated before we go running off here." Triple Blaze said, looking at the large pile of wooden planks and boards that had once been scaffolding to the top of the cave. "Let's at least look at where we are first, then we can start exploring. We don't even have food or water, so we can't waste time."

Rapid Waters flew up to the hole in the ceiling where the sunlight brightly streamed in. "There's a rope ladder here, let me..." For a moment she stopped talking and then a rope ladder unrolled from the wall of the cave, leading up and out. "And there we go! Come on up and let's see where we are!"

"I can tell you where you are." Weighted Words said. "Six miles east of crazy." It was clear he was already regretting casting the spell. "We don't even have the book to use to get back, Rapid. Even if we accomplish whatever-it-is, how are we supposed to get back?"

"Oh, you know how these adventures always end." Rapid said with a smile as Sunny Rose and Triple Blaze climbed the ladder. "They always get sent back where they started the adventure, like in all those video games you like to play."

"This isn't a game, Rapid." Weighted Words grumbled, being helped out of the cave by Sunny Rose.

The group emerged on a large plateau made of a reddish-orange rock, dusty under their hooves. All around them was mountainous jungle, with strange trees and plants everywhere one looked. They were on a large cliff plateau, and far below they could see a lake and a waterfall. Across from them was another cliff face where there was a worked series of stone steps leading further up the mountains; further ahead they could see a a large walled-off structure.

"Well, that's as good a direction to go as any..." Sunny Rose said, looking down at all the trees and plants. "I wish I brought some of my tools with me, I'd love to take some samples ba--"

Behind her, Triple Blaze rushed back down the rope ladder and one could hear him breaking some of the planks. Before long he'd bolted back up at full speed, holding in one hoof a small box attached to a small makeshift wooden "saddle" (such as it was) so it would be easy to carry.

"You rang?" Weighted Words joked.

"Rapid, fly on ahead and see what that big structure is." Triple Blaze said. "We'll wait."

"You got it, I'm on my way! I'll be back before you know it!" Rapid Waters replied with a smile, bolting off into the distance so fast she was a blur, her wings beating a mile a minute to carry her to her destination.

*****************

Twilight and Applejack reached Sugarcube Corner to the sounds of a song; Pinkie was singing some kind of show-tune kind of song and the assembled ponies around her were nodding their heads to the beat and generally enjoying themselves.

"So far, so good?" Spike weakly joked.

Twilight scanned the crowd while briefly tuning out Pinkie Pie, then she spotted Zecora off sitting under a tree with a basket of potions and bundles of herbs next to her. She was turning a cupcake over in her hooves, looking at it quizzically with a "this is edible?" expression on her face.

"Hey, Zecora. Enjoying the day?" Twilight asked as they came up to her.

"Twilight, my friend! How have you been?" Zecora replied, standing up and giving the unicorn a hug. "Applejack, a friend so true, it's wonderful to be seeing you."

"Still rhymin' as always?" Applejack couldn't help but smile.

"We're on our way to the mail post with all this other stuff," Twilight said, turning to look at the cart. Spike had taken his position at the reins again. "We can talk while we head there. Do you have the potions and things I asked for in my letter?"

"The goods I turn loose, to be put to good use." Zecora said, patting the basket next to her. "Normally I would not dare, for some of these are quite, quite rare."

Twilight smiled as they set off down the road, leaving Pinkie Pie continuing her singing oblivious to them. The ponies around her were completely enthralled; leave it to Pinkie Pie to make everypony feel good on top of a good day. "Well, thanks. There's what I understand to be a 'herbalist workshop' in Manehattan in a couple of months, and as I understand it, some of these herbs need that long to prepare properly."

"Preparation is always key, to get the right results, you see." Zecora said. "I hear that you have found a book, that was not what it seemed when others first looked?"

Applejack nodded. "Some Silent Eagle guy's spellbook, Ah think."

Zecora gave Applejack and then Twilight a hard look. "Why would you ever bother to work with that classless twit and insufferable jerk?"

"Ah take it you know 'im?" Applejack asked.

Zecora shook her head, looking exasperated as they continued down the road. "Knew him I did, and glad to be rid. He was revolting, crude, and insulting."

"Is there ANYPONY that liked him?" Twilight asked.

Applejack snorted, adjusting her hat. "Doesn't sound like it."

Zecora shook her head. "One thinks he enjoyed being so low. It is good to see that he reaped what he sowed."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah, I heard about that. The spell that was cast that banished the others was the same one he'd been fooled with."

Zecora turned back to her. "Then they are in range of his vile, evil ways. We must now make sure that such spells do not pay."

"Ah get it." Applejack said. "They got sent to wherever this Silent Eagle guy was sent to, right?"

Zecora nodded quietly as they made their way to the mail post and set up the deliveries. "Meaner he grew as his magic turned fancy. He aimed to bring back foul necromancy."

Twilight stopped short. "He what?"

Zecora quickened her pace as the mailmares took in the wagon and Spike assisted. "He wanted to bring back that forbidden art. I didn't ask, for I wanted no part."

"Necro-whut?" Applejack asked, tilting her head.

Now Zecora was running and Twilight and Applejack had to run to catch up. "For this potion many things I will need, so you take this list and please follow my lead."

"Potion for what?" Twilight asked, as Zecora thrust a slip of paper into her face.

Zecora didn't reply as she tore off down the road, looking far, far more worried than either of them had seen. Were the "banished" ponies in far more danger than Twilight knew?

*****************

Next: We return to Sunny Rose and company for a couple of chapters, since they're (supposed to be) the "heroes" of the story. :) I apologize in advance if I butchered Zecora's lines; writing for her was harder than I thought.

Chapter 2: Into a Canyon, Into Danger

Night had fallen, and there was no sign of Rapid Waters.

"Ok, we've waited long enough. We've been standing about and looking around for what, hours?" Weighted Words asked.

"I'm not moving until we get a signal from Rapid." Triple Blaze said. "She knows better than to get herself in real trouble."

Weighted Words smirked. "Saying Rapid can keep herself out of trouble is like saying Rarity can make a decent dress."

"Be nice." Sunny Rose said, playing around with several samples of plants she had picked up. The plants and trees here were unusually hardy, with even the stiffest stems bending enough so that they would not break. She'd spent a lot of time mixing various flower pollens in varying amounts, and had been rewarded with a sleep-dust concoction she put in her saddle for later. Several of the plants were meat-eating, and she'd witnessed one catch a particularly long-tailed rodent of unusual size and nearly swallow it whole.

Triple Blaze looked up at the sky, where the moon was beginning to rise. "That doesn't mean I'm not getting a little worried, but I'm not going anywhere without her. She knows enough to at least cause a small storm as a sign when she's in trouble."

Sunny Rose nodded as she collected some makeshift tools she'd hoof-carved from the local varieties of wood.

Rapid Waters was very, very well known for her skill in water magic, and she was an expert in creating downpours, storms, and gale-force winds to go along with it. Oddly enough, she hated deserts, where her considerable skill would be able to bring so much life to the dusty, barren landscape. She'd always thought that deserts were too depressing places before the "finished product" was put into place.

She was also good at lightning-sculpting, and on a good night's storm, she could create flashes of "works of art" using lightning. The flash of light from such an effect would linger for longer than mere moments after the lightning went off, making for amazing memories.

"Well, we can't wait here forever. I'm getting hungry." Weighted Words said.

Sunny Rose motioned to some of the plants growing on a rather thick, strong tree nearby. "The land is in abundance; help yourself. Some of those leaves are quite delicious."

"Is that wise, just eating whatever you find without..." Triple Blaze turned his head to look at her.

"No, but I have tests I can do even bare-hoofed to determine if something is edible or not. And if you'll look further, some of these leaves are big and strong enough to be folded over and if we take some other leaves like these over here..." Sunny Rose said, going on a roll with her education of the other two. "... we can fold them up and 'stitch' them together, forming a backpack of sorts."

"I'd like to stitch Rapid Waters' mouth shut. It's the only way to shut her up sometimes." Weighted Words said, as he picked up one of the leaves Sunny Rose had motioned was edible. It was a long, spiky-looking thing, with a twisty little pink fruit by the end of the stem and a sharp tip on the other end, but it also looked like it retained water or sap or something, making it plump. He cautiously took a bite and then another. "Hey, these are actually good."

Within a few minutes Triple Blaze had crafted packs for all of them, and filled his with the edible leaves. Afterwards he went back and looked out over the cliff. Far below was a lake and a waterfall, and the ground on the other side rose in a series of giant "steps" each of which was well over forty or fifty feet tall. Nearby there was a trail leading down into the canyon between them and the other side, where even in the twilight they could still see the large structure that Rapid had flown off to. It looked like some kind of small castle nestled directly into the rock carved of a dark, "swirly" stone.

"All right, I'm not waiting any longer." Weighted Words said. "Let's go. We can leave a trail for Rapid to follow if she gets back. I want to at least go to that castle or whatever it is and maybe we can get out of here."

Sunny Rose nodded. "For once, I agree; we've been here too long. It should have been a day trip."

Triple Blaze looked up at the sky. "All right, let's go." He didn't seem happy about it; waiting for their friend was easier than going down into the canyon and getting lost. He scratched a series of marks indicating their direction of travel in case Rapid returned, and then they began to slowly make their way down the trail. The rock turned from reddish orange to darker brown; it was as if huge chunks of brown stone had been carefully piled along the cliff wall so as to make a "trail" (such as it was) leading down to where they could see a lake, and a river flowing away from it.

One of the first things they came to on the trail was a gravesite. The site was very well-kept, with signs it was taken care of regularly.

"What's this?" Sunny Rose asked, pointing to the gravestone.

Triple Blaze read the words on the stone. "Here lies Silent Eagle, wizard and magician."

Weighted Words squinted. "Something's not right here."

"What do you mean?" Sunny Rose asked.

"I mean, it... it's..." Weighted Words' horn lit up and the gravesite shimmered. "It's a false grave. There's nothing in there." Sure enough, when he tapped on the mound of dirt in front of the stone, it collapsed, revealing an empty grave. "... But there's something else here, a trace of magic." He squinted again, trying to make heads or tails of it.

Triple Blaze made a face. "I've heard of this guy. Some in Ponyville say he was insane."

"I've never heard of him." Sunny Rose said.

"He was a unicorn with the power of chaos. Well, that's the wrong word." Triple Blaze replied. "His magic was unfocused, he was born with a defect that didn't allow him to focus his intent when he was casting spells. Things... went strange around him, and he ended up warping his perception of reality extremely badly, on more than one occasion."

"Aren't there horn covers to offset that? I know somepony with an unconscious lack of control..." Sunny Rose said.

Triple Blaze shook his head. "I read in history books that he had to be 'cured' on more than one occasion by Princess Celestia herself. Eventually he was found to be casting 'forbidden' spells and banished to the Everfree, not to come back to Ponyville or Canterlot."

"Well, that settles this." Weighted Words snorted, his horn going dark. "Not only is this a false grave, but it's got some warding spells and location spells on it. Whatever owns this marker probably knows we're here. There's also a connection between this and the big structure we sent Rapid toward; you can't see it since you're just earth ponies but I can see a shimmering aura around this stone. It matches what I'm seeing far in the distance toward the castle thing on the other side of this canyon."

Sunny Rose tilted her head. "Silent Eagle faked his own death? Where there were no ponies to see it or mourn him? Why?"

"I wouldn't say one 'mourned' somepony like him." Triple Blaze said.

"I think there are more of these scattered around the island. Sort of like watch points so that whomever cast this spell could keep an eye on the island in various locations." Weighted Words said, pawing at the stone. "It's like the stone is a magical 'lens' that one can remotely view through, like a one way mirror. We're on the wrong end." Weighted Words looked directly at the stone. "Give us back Rapid Waters!" He said, as if talking to the unseen watcher.

He was half-joking, not expecting a response and figuring Rapid hadn't gotten into trouble yet, but when he turned his head to look back at the castle, two flashes of explosive reddish pink light flew into the sky from the opposite end of the canyon. They exploded over the castle, with the letters "N" and "O" suspended in midair for a few moments, and the light that illuminated the structure made it clear that it indeed was a castle of some sort, and it was not unimpressive even from this distance.

Sunny Rose gasped and Triple Blaze's jaw dropped.

Weighted Words looked up at the letters before they faded out. "Didn't think I'd get backtalk, much less a response. Okay then, since she's actually captured... we're coming for her." He turned to the stone, his horn lighting up. Sparks jumped from his horn to the stone, which lit up with a reddish-pink aura as it tried to resist.

Weighted Words finished building up his spell, then released it in a bright blue-gray flash of light at the center of the stone. The "grave" stone shuddered twice and then fell inward on itself, reduced to gravel. "... Now you see us, now you don't."

Sunny Rose picked up her pace. "Let's go! She's in trouble!"

"Called it... so called it." Triple Blaze sighed.

Sunny Rose jumped down from stone ridge to stone ridge. "If this Silent Eagle is still alive, it's obvious that he--" She took a misstep and skidded to the edge of one of the stone ridges making up part of the trail. "Yikes!" Triple Blaze zoomed down and grabbed her hoof in his teeth lightly, pulling her up and away from the ridge. "Oops?"

Weighted Words smirked. "That's one way to get down to the bottom of this canyon."

"Weighted..." Triple Blaze began to say, but he was already on his way down, jumping down one ridge and then another, using his magic to shield his fall. "Let's go. I want to at least see what kind of trouble she got herself into this time."

"I didn't know you cared." Triple Blaze replied, cynical.

"I don't. I just want to laugh at her." Weighted Words shot back. "This is the last time I let her guilt trip me into something. I can find the rest of these stones and we can make our way to the castle."

**************************

Rapid Waters awoke, suspended from chains. Her head swam and she yawned, bleary-eyed. She'd flown full speed toward the castle and away from her friends, and as she turned to look back at them roughly halfway there, she'd felt herself slam into... something? It felt like a ton of bricks and she didn't remember much else other than a flash of reddish-pink light. Now she was hanging from chains in what looked to be a dungeon of some kind. A humid dungeon, at that.

On the far wall there was a table filled with various chemical compounds, with beakers, flasks, open flames, and what appeared to be a ball of thick, silver liquid moving about on the table under its own power and leaving a slimy trail of greenish goo under it as it moved. The ground beneath her hooves was made of a white stone, with mossy dark gray tendrils reaching up every so often a few inches above the ground. The walls were thick stone, tinted a deep green and black; it felt to her like she was in somepony's basement.

"Bleah. Where am I?" Rapid Waters asked herself. "Other than in trouble..."

Only one door led out of the room, and this appeared to be barred from both the inside and outside. She could see out into the hallway through a tiny hole in the door, and could see a large form on the other side, obviously a sleeping guard of some sort. Not wanting to attract attention, Rapid Waters looked around for other ways out. There was a hole in the corner, but the smell coming out of the hole made her recoil.

She struggled against her chains a little bit; these things were secure and seemed to have been made specifically for somepony of her size. She was suspended four feet up against the wall, her legs and arms stretched out. Fortunately, while she was ditzy, she wasn't altogether stupid, and focused inward.

The area between her hooves and the chains began to frost over as the water in the air began to freeze and expand. She was awarded with an audible series of cracklings and metal slowly being forced out of its intended shape; with heavy breaths she maintained the spell long enough to slip out of her chains without falling to the ground. Fluttering quietly, she flew to the potion table, giving it a good once over before landing and giving her wings a good stretch.

"I love being a rainpony." She said to herself with a smile.

The table was cluttered beyond belief. Minerals labeled "Flizzium" and "Blorkite" shared the table with such chemicals as "Polybendite Compoundium" and "Floobis Juice" and "Fizzy Humming Elixir". The ball of thick silver liquid seemed to take an interest in her as she pushed potions and rocks to either side of her, and she picked up some papers to read their equations. She quickly put down the papers; the equations made her head hurt from a mere glance.

"What IS this stuff?" Rapid Waters asked herself as she heard a series of hoofsteps coming toward the door from the other side. She reached out toward the ball of liquid, which reached toward her in turn, and where hoof contacted liquid there was a flash of light, a sizzling sound, and Rapid Waters screeched in pain, falling backward. Her hoof had been badly burned... not by an acid, but by some kind of powerful magic that left black streaks crawling up her hoof. Her hoof went numb as she heard the sounds of the bars on the other side of the door being lifted.

"Well, well, well. Look what the dragon dragged in." Came a hollow, evil-sounding voice as the door opened.

Rapid Waters turned to the speaker and squeaked in surprised. Standing there was a pony in a hooded deep crimson robe, a staff levitating next to him. He was completely skeletal, with one eye socket glowing with a pale ice blue light, and the other glowing with a deep emerald green light. His hooves were adorned with iron shoes studded with spikes and etched with a pony skull motif, and his own scorched, blackened skull was adorned with symbols, sigils and other runes that made Rapid Waters turn away.

"Who... who are you?" Rapid Waters managed to squeak out, the numbness on her hoof disappearing. The black streaks were gone too, but they left painful welts on her skin where they had crisscrossed.

The bony pony lifted his head, that frozen grin unnerving her and his horn beginning to glow with a pale reddish-pink light. His horn had been chipped in places, and it had seen at least one clean break at some point. The "scar" where it had been reattached was midway along the horn, completely circling it. "That... is unimportant. What is important is that your arrival is most beneficial to me."

"I... I have friends, you know." Rapid Waters backed up a little bit.

"I know. They are of no concern to me, and I am going to be sending one of my... shall we say, pets... out to deal with them before they reach here." The bony pony pointed his staff at the door and it slammed shut, that same reddish-pink aura flowing between the floor and the door, sealing it. "Even if they got to the castle, I'd just phase it out so they couldn't get in unless that brat that's with you knows how."

"You're Silent Eagle, right? You have to be..." Rapid Waters edged closer to the table of potions and chemicals.

The pony nodded. "I must admit, I am surprised my spellbooks weren't burned with the rest of my belongings when I was so unceremoniously thrown out of Ponyville. And don't you dare try to make a mess of my alchemical table in an escape attempt; I will suck the life from you, cutie mark first."

"What do you want?" Rapid Waters asked.

"Your soul."

"What?" Rapid Waters backed up against the wall, eyes wide.

The skeletal pony seemed to be grinning even more. "Give it freely and I'll make your death... and eventual undeath... quick and painless."

"Fat chance, bone-icorn." Rapid Waters launched herself into the air and flew over the skeletal pony's head. The skeletal pony turned his staff on her, and a bolt of solid red lightning sped from the staff's spiky reddish crystal tip to blast her in the flank, knocking her off course and against the walls and ceilings like a pinball for several feet. A second bolt blasted her through the door and out into a corridor; Rapid Waters skidded to a halt dazed and stunned at the corridor's end. The last thing she saw before blacking out from a third and final bolt was the front talon, sheathed in black iron and longer than she was, of an absolutely gigantic creature still concealed in the shadows.

"You'll give it to me eventually..." Silent Eagle said, the symbols on his skull flashing in sequence. His eyes lit up with a purple haze. "I can't take it by force, but I have... other ways..."

Silent Eagle's hollow laughter echoed through the castle.

**************************

Sunny Rose, Triple Blaze and Weighted Words reached the bottom of the canyon only to be separated from the other side by a swift river. The river went over a second series of falls further downstream; if the group fell into it they'd be swept away and over the falls another forty or fifty feet straight down to sharp rocks. Triple Blaze managed to find a series of stones jutting up out of the water, and after quickly jumping from one to the next to make sure it was safe, helped Sunny Rose across.

"You could have asked me, y'know." Weighted Words said, levitating himself over the river and landing next to them. "I can carry both Sunny Rose and your tubby flank."

Triple Blaze ignored him as they looked for a way to scale the other side of the canyon. "You said you could track or find the rest of these stones?"

"Sure I can." Weighted Words concentrated again and his horn lit up. "They're all tied in to the same spell and give off the same aura that I can see using my magic. Destroying one makes the rest of them stronger and have a longer "radius" of sight to compensate, though."

"We don't need to destroy them." Sunny Rose said, pointing with her hoof up a trail.

Weighted Words shrugged. "It still feels good. Whomever has Rapid Waters is going to pay for taking her."

"So where's the next one?" Triple Blaze asked.

Weighted Words squinted, looking up. "Higher up on the cliff side. Let's move upstream to the lake and go from there."

The group walked in silence after that finally reaching a large lake at the bottom of the canyon. Upstream, the water flowed out of the cliff wall from some unseen source, to flow down the cliff side and into the beginnings of the river. The water flowed into the lake, effectively a reservoir for the owner of the castle. The entire area was eerie and quiet; it was as if no life at all was stirring.

"There should at least be life in the area." Sunny Rose said. "Insects, fish, something."

Weighted Words shuddered. "Something's not right here."

Triple Blaze stepped forward. "Then I'll stay in the lead. It'll have to go through me to get to you, Sunny."

"Hey, cool, a pony shield." Weighted Words grinned. "Nice to see we have somepony to absorb the punishment of any trouble that finds us."

"I assure you, I'm not playing the role of shield because of anything I like about you, Weighted." Triple Blaze said, cautiously stepping forward and sniffing the air. "Something smells off, too. Dead. Do you smell that?" The stink of a dead body was faint on the wind.

Sunny Rose nodded quietly while Weighted Words concentrated, throwing up a circle of light that lit the area around them. As they continued to the lake, they saw that while the surrounding brush looked alive at first glance (especially at night), it was all dead, or mostly dead. The reeds were dead and brittle, the grass gray and brown, breaking off into dust at the touch of a hoof. The water, while clean out in the middle of the lake, seemed to befoul itself if it touched the shore.

They found the source of the smell a few minutes later where they found the dried up corpse of a pony. Weighted Words' eyes had grown wide and said he'd seen it in a textbook once; the unfortunate soul had been mummified on the spot by a powerful necromantic spell of some kind. Such a spell would cause the caster to be banished from civilized lands, at the very least."

Triple Blaze stopped. "Poison Joke ahead." He motioned with a hoof towards the left of the lake, where a HUGE meadow was covered with the stuff. While Weighted Words threw up more circles of light around them to illuminate the area, Sunny Rose edged close to the meadow with a look of interest.

"Careful, Sunny." Triple Blaze said.

"I know what I'm doing." Sunny Rose said, taking a step back and respecting the flowers. "I had an unfortunate encounter with this stuff twice before."

"Couldn't have made you any worse than you already are." Weighted Words said. "I mean, it's easy to laugh at you." His tone suggested pure sarcasm; he respected the Poison Joke just as much as she did. Triple Blaze figured he'd been on the receiving end more than once by it.

Sunny Rose ignored him. "There's something strange about these flowers though. They look more like hybrids."

"How so?" Triple Blaze asked. "I don't know a hybrid from an orchid."

"Nor your head from your flank." Weighted Words snarked.

"Most Poison Joke has five or six petals. These have nine, and the flower looks wrong, it has one too many stamen... and the flowers are curling up like it's biting something." Sunny Rose said, pointing with a hoof. "It looks like somepony is hybridizing Poison Joke, but I can't imagine why." She cautiously pulled one plant out at its stem and plopped it into her leaf pack without touching the more dangerous parts. "I'd hate to think what else we're going to find around here."

Weighted Words' ears perked up. "Hey, there's movement in the meadow." He pointed with a hoof, where they did see some movement, like a large turtle trying to hide in the meadow. Were it not for the circles of light that Weighted Words was putting up, the creature or whatever-it-was would have gone completely unnoticed. All three of them took several steps back from the meadow.

"I don't know -anything- that's immune to Poison Joke." Triple Blaze said.

"I don't know if we want to stick around." Weighted Words replied, pouring on the magic and brightening the circles of light into what basically amounted to spotlights. Whatever was in the meadow moved away from them, trying to avoid the light. "I can't hold this forever, we'd better keep moving."

The group backed away from the meadow and continued up the side of the lake, where they found the first of many "giant steps" leading up the canyon wall. Each one a mini-cliff in its own right, the group started to slowly and cautiously climb from step to step using what hoof-holds they could. Weighted Words levitated the group for the first couple of steps, but afterward his magic was spent; they camped for the night on one of the steps overlooking the lake. They could see the meadow far below and several things moving about in it.

"I hope Rapid Waters is ok..." Sunny Rose said, sounding worried as Weighted Words settled down to sleep and Triple Blaze took the watch.

"She'd better be." By now Triple Blaze was annoyed, in equal parts at Rapid Waters for getting them into this and at Weighted Words for being guilted into casting the spell. Still, something else was nagging at him. If this Silent Eagle pony was still alive, why did he take care to fake his own death in the middle of nowhere with all these markers? It was clear he watched and controlled the majority of the area... the question was why. The entire place was too elaborate to be a summer home of some sort... there was something far more sinister going on here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

******************

Next: The heroes enter a Very Dangerous Place, get stuck in a situation that's truly for the birds, and meet an unlikely ally... or is she an enemy?

Chapter 3: Chalcedony

Slowly, night turned to day, and even more slowly the ponies got to their feet and prepared to climb up the series of giant steps that lay before them. Sunny Rose was the first to rise, checking her pack to make sure nothing had been taken or damaged from it, and when she saw the tracks surrounding the camp, went to immediately awaken Weighted Words and Triple Blaze. "Guys, we're not alone."

"I could have told you that." Weighted Words replied, somewhat groggy.

"If we're not alone, we'd better get to someplace with cover." Triple Blaze said, pawing at the tracks with a hoof. The tracks were lizard-like in origin, four toes studded in tiny spikes or spines that dug right into the solid stone. Triple Blaze hated to think what could have made such a track. "I think there's a cave further up these steps; Weighted Words, can you..."

"One step ahead of you, as always." Weighted Words said. "But I can't levitate us all the way up. I'm still tired from using my magic yesterday, so let's find a more normal route up instead."

"Do you see where the next gravestone is?" Sunny Rose asked.

Weighted Words squinted, the telltale reddish-pink glow tough to see in the brightening daylight. "Far, far above us. If we pick and choose our path, I bet we can make it before lunchtime, though. There are piles of stones and rough paths leading from one of these steps to the next in some areas."

The three ponies headed out, and slowly began their climb up the many giant steps on the other side of the canyon that led closer and closer to the castle. It was not easy travel at all; twice the rocks grew unstable under their hooves and Weighted Words had to stop the makings of a possible avalanche, the further they climbed up the steps the more windy it got (and nearly blew Sunny Rose over on more than one occasion), and twice boulders were knocked loose by the wind from above and all of them had to dodge them as they fell.

"You need to improve your reaction time, slowpoke." Weighted Words said, using his magic to stop a boulder from coming down right on top of Triple Blaze. The big pony had leapt to the side to avoid one and had nearly jumped into the path of another.

"I don't have eyes in the back of my head." Triple Blaze said, looking at the boulder that Weighted Words froze in mid-air, then threw against the canyon wall as hard as he could before watching it fall down to the bottom of the canyon. There was an explosion of dirt and stone where he slammed it against the wall, and it collapsed, revealing a cave.

Weighted Words grinned. "But I do. It's how I knew that was there."

Triple Blaze and Sunny Rose looked at each other, and Sunny Rose just rolled her eyes with a smirk. They now had two ways to go, either up the steps, or into the cave. "Which way?"

"We should stay under cover. I didn't like the look of those tracks. There were too many of them. I say the cave Weighted Words smashed his way into." Triple Blaze said.

They were rewarded with Weighted Words levitating them across the canyon to where he'd smashed in the wall, the unicorn pretending to drop them before they landed at the cave "entrance". The cave ahead of them did not look natural, as it had bits and chunks cut out of it like somepony had been looking for something. A series of primitive lanterns had been hung from iron spikes set into the wall, lighting the path leading up and around. They had been there for a long long time, as the spikes were rusty and the glowing tree sap that was used for a light source was all but burnt out.

Weighted Words created another circle of light around them, and they began to go uphill through the cave. Along the way they passed by stalagmites populated by strange blue earthworms, a moss-covered room that seemed to be a breeding ground for sightless bugs, and an underground stream that flowed from the floor abruptly into the ceiling via a small field of reversed gravity (or so said Weighted Words). Sunny Rose had hollowed out several wooden tubes to store water in, and as she refilled them at the stream, heard something approaching.

"Do you hear that?" She asked, her ears perking forward and up.

Triple Blaze sniffed the air. "I hear them." It sounded like a group of creatures were headed down to the stream, and were making no effort to conceal their movements. "We should hide."

"Both of you, next to me." Weighted Words said, horn beginning to glow a pale yellow.

"What are you going to-- eep!" Sunny Rose said, before being grabbed by Weighted Words' telekinesis and pulled to his side.

The circle of light that Weighted Words had created to light their way visibly flowed up and around them, and then faded out taking them with it and rendering them effectively invisible. "Don't move. This spell is self-only and I had to tweak it to expand it so that it'd catch the two of you. It won't last long either, so let's hope whatever these things are don't stick around."

Not long thereafter, four large creatures came into view from further up the path and Sunny Rose had to hold her breath to avoid gasping. The creatures were ponies, but horribly deformed ponies; in place of hooves were claws each covered in tiny spikes that allowed them to climb on the walls and ceilings, strange moss green growths emerged from their flanks like long plantlike tentacles to slap either side of them, and in place of eyes were multiple tiny red orbs that shifted and moved as if suspended in some sort of jelly.

The ponies' bodies' were desiccated and rotting off of their frames; in some places the bones were clearly exposed and all three of them could see that in every instance, the femur bone was glowing with a reddish-pink radiance. Whatever these ponies were doing was a mockery of what they did in life; it took them several attempts to properly fill three stone buckets with water from the stream. They made no sound throughout the entire encounter.

Just as the last of the undead ponies disappeared down the hallway ahead of them, Weighted Words dropped the invisibility. "What the heck were those things?"

“Undead ponies.” Triple Blaze snorted.

“Thank you, captain obvious.” Weighted Words replied, re-establishing the circle of light.

The three of them continued, slower this time, along the cavern corridor. The further they made progress, the more they felt like something else was sharing the caverns. Twice Weighted Words brought the invisibility back up as some of the undead ponies were patrolling the tunnel, and after a couple of hours of slowly moving uphill and ducking into side tunnels to avoid the undead ponies, they emerged into a huge underground room lit by more of the primitive torches.

They were standing on a bridge that crossed the cavern close to its ceiling. Twenty feet below they could see that the room was covered wall to wall in undead ponies, all of which seemed to be standing at attention or as if waiting for something. Nothing made a sound, not even a muffled zombie growl or scraping of hoof against the stone floor of the cavern.

The only ponies doing anything were those they had seen earlier; they had dumped the water into a strange glowing stone carving. This carving was spraying mist all over the room, and where the droplets hit the ponies, the same reddish-pink glow blinked for a second or two. Once they had finished, they took up positions in the middle of the group, standing stock-still like the rest of them as the mist splashed them.

Across the bridge, Sunny Rose could see another cave opening, this one leading to a ladder made of wrought iron and just as rusty as the iron spikes they had encountered earlier on. “There... it looks like the way out.” She whispered.

Triple Blaze raised a hoof in a gesture to be quiet as he pointed down at the massive amount of undead ponies. “Look, down there and to the right. Is that...?” To the right and up against the cavern wall, six small raised stone steps led to what appeared to be seven gravestones, each with a pony chained to them. These ponies were not undead, from what Triple Blaze could see.

“The undead ponies are ignoring them. I wonder why?” Weighted Words said.

“We can't just leave them here, look at them! They're suffering!” Sunny Rose said.

Weighted Words shook his head. “I don't know.” His horn lit up gently. “Something's not right here.”

“Something hasn't been right the moment we arrived here, Weighted.” Triple Blaze said.

Weighted Words looked toward the ladder and then back down at the chained ponies. “All right, smart guy, what do you suggest we do? Jump into the fray? Those things will slaughter us!”

“They appear to be just waiting for something.” Sunny Rose said, then she perked up as an idea began to take hold. “Weighted, can you widen the stream we passed by a couple hours ago?”

“What are you planning to do, drown them?” Weighted Words replied, regarding her with a quizzical look. “They can't breathe, they're already dead.”

Sunny Rose pointed with a hoof down at the carving. “Yes, but look at the way the water splashes them after it goes through that carving. I'm thinking regular water might not have the same effect, whatever it is.”

“What are you planning to do?” Triple Blaze asked.

“Have Weighted Words widen the stream and lure some of them into it to see what happens.” Sunny Rose said. “If nothing happens, we can run back down and back out onto the steps and just start climbing again. I doubt they can fly and Weighted Words can levitate us back over.”

“Water's easier to levitate than you two.” Weighted Words said. “I can grab a few giant 'bubbles' of water and dump them down into the room, then in the chaos Triple Blaze can run down and break those chains. He's stronger than either of us and I doubt I could do it.”

“I'll go explore ahead, then.” Sunny Rose said. “I'll climb to the top of the ladder and have a look around to make sure it is safe.”

“Just be careful, Sunny.” Triple Blaze said.

“I will.” She trotted on ahead, slowly, looking down at the room below, then stopped abruptly in the middle of the bridge as it gave way beneath her hooves. She backed up to avoid falling down into the room, and where the chunks of the bridge hit the undead ponies, nothing happened. Some of the undead ponies had their bones snapped or heads caved in, but that didn't stop them from getting right back up and repositioning themselves in their original spots.

Triple Blaze pointed to the broken bits of the bridge on either side of them. “That's not natural. Look at the way the rock has fallen. It was set to go off like that.”

“So what do we do now?” Sunny Rose asked, looking back down at the ponies chained to the gravestones. One of them looked up and saw them, looking pained and about to cry. Sunny could see her pleading with her eyes to be rescued.

“All right, let's do this right.” Weighted Words said, turning to return to the stream, but Sunny Rose stopped him. The pony below that had seen them had mouthed the words “Don't go.” as the unicorn turned his back.

“Hey, can you hear us?” Triple Blaze called down, as quietly as he could without attracting attention from the undead masses below.

The other pony nodded. “These things won't harm you if you don't bother them first. You can come down from over there.” The other pony pointed toward a spiral stone staircase to the left of where Triple Blaze was standing. “The sixth and fourteenth steps are traps. Step over them.”

Before long the group had clambered down the staircase and moved on the outside wall of the room in order to reach the gravestones and chained up ponies. Sunny Rose read the inscriptions of the gravestones to herself while Triple Blaze looked back at the horde of undead and Weighted Words went to work breaking the chains with his horn.

“What is going on here?” asked Sunny Rose, looking back at the undead.

The pony who had seen them, a young mare with a smooth orange-beige coat and dim violet eyes, sighed a bit. “The master is establishing an army. We were to power the mindless horde here. The water strengthens the spell used to hold them in place until he gathers enough innocent souls to form a giant undead beast.”

“The master?” Triple Blaze asked.

“Let me guess, Silent Eagle.” Weighted Words snorted.

The other pony looked away, embarrassed.

Sunny Rose glanced at Weighted Words for a moment, then looked at the other ponies that were chained up. “Who are you and your friends?”

“We're the original six who banished him.” The other pony replied. “Don't bother freeing them, their wills are gone and they are slaves to the master. I don't give up, for anything, so I still have my mind. Unfortunately my friends Three Strikes, High Jump, Mint Lime, Golden Sky and Rumble Brawn here are all...”

“That's terrible!” Sunny Rose stepped forward to give the other mare a hug, but she phased right through her as if she were a ghost.

“He took my body. You can see it in the mass of undead there.” The pony pointed with a hoof, where they could see what was left of her body standing stock still in position. In life, whomever she was had been very attractive, but in undeath it was horrible. Most of her ribs were exposed, both eyes were gone (but not replaced with the jelly-like orbs), her tail had been ripped clean off and half of her backbone was covered in bony spikes sheathed in iron. “I am just a spirit, a mental echo. I can see you from both over there, and here. I can't move from that spot under my own power.”

“What about wrecking the carving?” Triple Blaze asked.

Weighted Words shook his head. “Near as I can tell, that's what's holding them in place.”

“Correct, so you'll have a horde of angry undead lashing out at you in no time at all.” The spirit pony looked down at her hooves, ashamed of herself. “We banished Silent Eagle as a joke, but never imagined he'd get back at us for doing so.”

“What did he do?” Weighted Words asked, getting annoyed. His obnoxious sarcasm was one thing, but deliberately hurting ponies was something he wouldn't normally dream of doing.

“He projected an image of himself back to us, which we thought was the real thing.” The spirit pony replied. “He got us to chase him into the Everfree where he had an ambush waiting, then he banished -us- to where we had sent -him- and he began to drain our willpower and spirit. We were each promised freedom if we completed a specific task, but none of us managed to do it.”

“Somehow I don't think he would have kept his end of the bargain.” Triple Blaze snorted, slamming his hoof down on some of the chains. He managed to free each pony one at a time, but the only one who stirred or moved from their spot was the spirit pony they were speaking with.

“Do you know how to get out of here?” Sunny Rose asked. “We came in through a hole Weighted Words punched into the rock.”

The spirit pony looked up at the broken bridge. “Across the bridge leads to a large chamber sealed from above. It contains a giant animated stone sphinx that requires its riddles be answered before passage can be obtained. If you go back out the way you came in, you might be ambushed by more of these ponies roaming the area; this isn't the only room with a large horde that the master has.”

“How cliché.” Weighted Words said. “What's after that?”

“Anypony that managed to break the hold the master has on us (rare, but I've seen it happen) could not pass the sphinx because one needs a mind to think of answers and our minds are all but gone. Above that room is just another ladder leading straight to Fluffikins' nest in a forest at the top of the canyon after you pass a few more chambers holding more hordes like this one.”

Everypony stopped and looked at each other and said the same thing at the same time. “Fluffikins?”

The spirit pony looked down again. “The remains of the souls of my friends here mostly went into that abominable creation. It's a giant undead gryphon about ten ponies tall, sheathed in iron, bristling with necromantic magic and can spit wicked green and black flames.”

“How did he get so many ponies?” Sunny Rose turned to look at what had been the spirit pony's body in life.

“He fragmented our souls. Each tiny fragment went into a twisted 'copy' of our bodies, with no two bodies being the same.” The spirit pony replied. “I resisted, because that's what just what I do. Nopony can make me do anything.” She motioned to her flank where her cutie mark, a bright blue square metal shield surrounded by crisscrossing swords, was faintly glowing against her skin. “My name's Chalcedony Chalice.”

“I'm Sunny Rose, and these are my friends Triple Blaze and Weighted Words. Is there any way we can release you?” Sunny Rose asked.

“Besides destroying the master? No.” Chalcedony looked down at her hooves.

“What was your task?” Weighted Words asked.

Chalcedony sighed. “I simply had to open a door, but the door had a magical lock on it. I'm just an earth pony, I have no talent in magic.”

“Enough grilling her.” Triple Blaze snorted. “Let's get out of here. Can you come with us, Chalcedony?”

“I can, but I can't really help you.” Chalcedony replied. “Well... maybe I can. I have a photographic memory; I know the easiest route to the master's castle. He keeps a number of wards on it that I memorized him casting. He's not expecting anypony to directly challenge him; If you brazenly break down his front door, it might give him pause enough for you to get the drop on him.”

The ponies left the area with Chalcedony in tow, the spirit pony explaining a lot of things about the island. When he had first arrived, Silent Eagle had mined out several large holes or caves and chambers for undead storage. Originally he was going to use them to hold his 'experiments' but when he found a way to raise an undead army from a limited amount of souls, he decided to get his revenge on Ponyville.

“All this? In just over what, a decade or two?” Weighted Words had asked; Silent Eagle was still in the minds of some ponies, but he had rapidly faded out of public conversation since his banishment to the Everfree. It was not that long ago at all that the event occurred.

Chalcedony explained that Silent Eagle had used his evil magic to contact something evil known only as “The Corona”. Whatever this thing was had lent him a considerable portion of its power, and now he was using that power to empower himself enough to get back at Ponyville and all of the other cities of Equestria. Chalcedony didn't know whether his true goal was sacrifice everything to The Corona, destroy everything just because he could out of spite, or something more sinister than that. They had emerged back at the hole Weighted Words had made, and as Weighted Words levitated them back to the giant steps, Chalcedony simply walked on air as if it were solid ground.

“Show off.” Weighted Words smirked. For the first time since they'd met, Sunny Rose saw Chalcedony smile.

“Where to?” Triple Blaze asked.

“Go straight up the steps and we will come to three paths. If we're to take the most direct path, we'll want the middle one.” Chalcedony said. “I'll float up and scout ahead, please be careful down here while you're climbing. There are roving bands of undead ponies wandering the cliffs here that have orders to kill all living beings.”

The group nodded and continued their long and difficult climb, Weighted Words rolling boulders out of the way as they made their way up. At one point they came to another false grave, and Weighted Words yelled considerably at it for a good ten minutes before causing the stone to shatter. They could almost sense true malevolence coming from the stone before it broke.

“Next time, I'm bringing holy water, stakes, salt, and about twenty other anti-evil tokens.” Weighted Words remarked, kicking sand on the remains of the stone.

At the top of the giant steps, the group stopped to catch their breath. Chalcedony had been correct in that there were three paths leading on ahead; the left one went into a larger cave, while the right one curled back down and around to another series of cliffs leading back down into the canyon. The path straight ahead of them led into a dark overgrown forest that reminded Sunny Rose of the Everfree, only this forest was an even darker, twisted mockery.

Chalcedony pointed at some of the trees. “Be careful here, we'll have to pass Fluffikins' nest; the cavern tunnels lead straight up into the forest here.” Chalcedony said. “If we're seen or have to deal with the gryphon, keep it guessing and trying to focus on one target; it can't hit us if it can't track us. You'll know when we're getting close to the nest.”

“The trees become more twisted?” Triple Blaze asked.

“No,” Chalcedony replied. “You'll see the corpses.”

Sunny Rose and Weighted Words looked at one another before following Chalcedony into the forest.

“You keep calling Silent Eagle the 'master'. That implies he can control you.” Triple Blaze said.

Chalcedony shook her head. “My talent is to resist; he would be unsuccessful. He kept me chained down there with my friends hoping I'd lose my mind by my own decision in sorrow, but I am not going to ever give up.” She adopted a stronger-looking stance, looking fierce. “If we can break his staff, we can free my friends and they can come running. He won't survive against all of us.”

Triple Blaze didn't sound convinced. “If you can resist everything he throws at you, why didn't you break out of his chain down there and go up yourself?”

Chalcedony shuddered. “He keeps things in the castle that eat souls. I'm resistant, not stupid.”

Sunny Rose turned back to look behind her; the trip up the steps had consumed most of the day and the sun was beginning to go down. “We should camp before going through the forest. Any bright light we put up to see by will only attract things we don't want to attract.”

“We need to keep moving. The sooner we get there the sooner we can smack him around.” Chalcedony said, a slight growl entering her voice.

“Unlike you, we get tired.” Weighted Words said. “I also need to relax and recharge my magic again.”

Chalcedony shuddered slightly. “I haven't been able to rest since he caught us.”

Triple Blaze winced. “Good point, spirits locked to the material world can't usually rest...”

“Don't lose your mind over this.” Weighted Words said.

Chalcedony shook her head from side to side and re-centered herself. “Sorry about that, I kind of felt a little bit of anger building up.” She floated upward to get a look over the treetops, then flew down to land next to Sunny Rose. Even as a ghost, she was leaving hoof prints in the dirt.

“Those leaves don't look edible.” Sunny Rose observed. “If they're anything like what I saw down below, this is going to be a difficult trip. I'm running out of edible leaves and such I brought with me from before the canyon.” She was going to say more, but as she turned to look back over the canyon below, a large shadow loomed over them; something very large was trying to use the setting sun as blinding cover for a diving attack.

Chalcedony's eyes widened. “It's Fluffikins! Run! Into the forest!”

As the giant creature dove toward them, it stalled in the air for a minute while Chalcedony and Sunny Rose bolted into the forest with Triple Blaze hot in pursuit. Weighted Words was frozen with surprise for a few seconds, looking at the giant creature. It was indeed a gryphon, but it had been built from the bones and skins of countless ponies.

He could make out the remains of fifteen or sixteen different individual cutie marks, nearly rotted off. Its beak was composed of several spines, fashioned and intertwined into a hooked shape like that of an eagle's beak. Its wings were rotten webs of skin, with several holes and tears that made him wonder how it could stay airborne. Its tail was alight with greenish black flames, and its skull had been built out of interlocking pony skulls with its eye sockets wreathed in reddish-pink flame.

“Weighted! Run for it!” Sunny Rose called.

Weighted Words was still paralyzed in place, looking up into the body of the gryphon as it dived closer and closer. Its ribs clicked open and closed like a separate mouth, and one could see multiple ponies in the same condition as Chalcedony being held within. He mused that they were the remains of her friends as well as search parties; there were way too many ponies in its ribcage.

Fluffikins stalled in midair in front of Weighted Words and opened its beak, spitting out a blast of green and black flames that seemed to scorch the very air around them, leaving fine soot in its wake. Triple Blaze bolted out at top speed and grabbed Weighted Words a split second before the ball of fire hit the ground, its impact throwing them both ahead into the forest next to Sunny Rose. The gryphon landed and pawed the ground, with its bony, iron-sheathed talons leaving deep gashes in the rock.

“Follow me! We run to its nest!” Chalcedony said. “I have a way to beat it, but we need to get to its nest!”

“I hate showing up for dinner unannounced.” Weighted Words grumbled, shaking off the surprise he'd had from watching the giant bird. “Especially when that dinner might be me.”

Triple Blaze looked up at Chalcedony, who was motioning for them to follow her. “You want us to what? Last I checked, we want to go as far away as possible from this thing... not to its very home!”

“Do the undead even have homes?” Weighted Words asked.

“Just trust me! Now RUN!” Chalcedony called.

************************

Next: I'm not entirely sure, since this chapter deviated from my plot so extremely. The characters absolutely fought hoof and horn against my original plot (which is why I'm not satisfied at all with this chapter), so we'll have to see. :)