Darksiders: Equestria's Tree of Life.

by Dragonfire2lm

Rating: mature
Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Timberwolves
Length: 17129

Death from Darksiders 2 is sent to Equestria by an alicorn, upon his arrival he teams up with Silvia, an alicorn who is determined to stop the spread of Corruption to allow Death to leave Equestria and to confront the pony who sent him there.

Darksiders 2/MLP crossover.

For centuries a creature known to ponydom as an Alicorn has stood chained to the Tree of Life, the portal between worlds in a desperate attempt to prevent Corruption from destroying the realm.

Enter the Horseman of the apocalypse, Death, who has fallen through the realms between realms and arrives at the base of Equestria's Tree of Life.

With Corruption spreading and preventing the nephilim from leaving the two team up to bring balance to Equestria and the world as a whole.

As usual with my crossovers no knowledge of the Darksiders series is needed as everything will explained in universe.

Rated Mature for gore and adult themes.

Published 2017-05-31 18:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-07-14 07:31:12 UTC

Chapter 1

Author's Note

This is, first and foremost, an idea i wanted to get out there. if anyone is unfamiliar with the Darksiders series don't worry, it might a bit but I will explain things.

For those of you who have played darksiders 2 this story takes place just after completing the quest line for the Kingdom of the Dead.

If things get too confusing or something, let me know and I'll try to adjust the story to make things more clear.

I've done my best to look for typos, hopefully I didn't miss any.

Chapter 1

On an island far beyond the peaceful lands of Equestria, in the center of a deep, thick forest filled with twisted creatures and large crystal like growths that glowed a sickly green stood a tree. It towered over all things like a mountain as it branches stretched beyond the clouds and out of sight and its roots sunk so deep it may as well have existed long before the earth itself and in a way, it did.

The Tree of Life lay dormant, the strange circular depressions in the tangled wood of its roots once gave way to portals to other worlds and realms, now they were nothing more a oddity on the giant tree and even the steps that led up to the long dead portals had been worn way by the eons and only vaguely showed a path that many races once tread.

Peculiar growths that bore more than a passing resemblance to chains extended out from the base of the trunk and slowly morphed into marble white links of solid magic that trailed on and ended attached to a creature that stood not far from the tree. It was a thin equine creature with a single spiraled horn growing out its forehead that had clearly seen better days, beneath the shackles and chains it's fur was mattered and the feathers on a pair of folded wings were either broken or loose. It's white mane and tail was long and trailed to the ground where it was tangle and knotted with dirt and branches alike.

The chains clinked and the winged unicorn winced as it tried to shuffle and move it's form on overgrown and chipped hooves and with no sign of success it silently rolled it's eyes and resumed staring blankly out into the shadows of the surrounding forest.

A leaf floated down from a nearby tree and landed in a small mirror like pool of water at the creature's hooves, it looked down at it and let out a rasping, hollow chuckle when it caught sight of its reflection. tired, golden eyes with a faint glow stared back on an incredibly gaunt face that matched it's malnourished form.

"Just skin and bones, nothing new there." it whispered in a feminine voice that could barely be heard even in the almost tranquil quiet of the forest.

There was a sound of flowing water coming from behind, her ears twitched at the sound as she waited patiently for what she knew was to come next. The sound of heavy footfalls soon overtook the earlier silence as something new moved to stand before her.

A bipedal being with grey skin and long black hair with mismatched pieces of armor on his feet hands with chest left bare, a featureless mask of bone concealing his face and a purple jeweled talisman clipped to his pants. Though the figure had glass shards embedded in the right side of his chest, she could sense the presence of both powerful magic and enchanted weapons on his person, there was no mistaking who this was.

"Greetings Death," the winged unicorn rasped. "Welcome to the Sealed Realm. I would offer you a tour but I'm a tad tied up at the moment."

"The Sealed Realm..." Death repeated. "Tell me, All-Sworn is there a way to leave this place?"

"Had you arrived a thousand or so years earlier, I would have gladly pointed you in the right direction, but I'm afraid my usual method of dealing with this is no longer an option but alas, despite my efforts Corruption has only strengthened its hold upon my realm and leaving now is impossible..." the chained up creature replied though she paused for a moment. "I am confused though Rider, I had thought knowledge of my kind was lost, only known to the Makers, how do you know of the All-Sworn?"

"I met one," Death growled. "She was more than happy to toy with me before sending me here."

"Then it falls to me to clean up her mess, Apologies for not properly introducing myself but I am Silvia, one of the last of the All-Sworn." The winged unicorn replied.

"So then Silvia, just how exactly do I leave this realm?" Death asked and as an afterthought added "And why are you chained to the Tree of Life?"

"How familiar are you with the history of this realm?" Silvia replied.

"Admittedly I know little, a few legends here and there. It is said that before the existence of the Charred Council your people declared your realm a neutral territory during the ongoing war between the armies of Heaven and Hell. That you opened your city gates to Angels and Demons alike, which soon drove a wedge between your people and resulted in civil war." Death explained.

"I'm afraid that was the case, with our city in chaos and our realm in danger, six individuals were chosen to try and bring peace to the conflict..." Silvia began. "It was out of desperation that we six ultimately imprisoned those who would not see reason and sealed off our realm from all others that weren't a mirror of this one."

"So you were a part of it?"

"I was, yes," Silvia replied. "By the time the barrier was in place, my brother, our friends and I saw that Corruption had begun seeping into the realm from the Tree, so we created a weapon to purify our home and I bound myself to tree to strengthen the barrier and to purify any Corruption that tried to seep in and prevent such a destructive force from further poisoning the realm."

"That weapon doesn't appear to have worked very well from the looks of things." Death commented dryly and gestured the corruption filled crystal like growths that could be seen in the forest in front of them.

"Oh yes give me a moment, let me untangle myself from eons of being chained up to fix it." Silvia snarked back before her calm demeanor returned. "You're not the first to end up here, horseman but I might be able to send you to someone who may be able to help you."

"Go on.." Death prompted.

"Head through the forest, you will soon find a clearing where one of the world's few naturally formed portals resides, ask it to take you to Canterlot and seek an audience with Princess Celestia, she'll be able to guide you to areas where the Corruption is at it's strongest, once those areas are cleared the balance of this world will be restored and she should be able to send you past the barrier." Silvia explained.

"And what will happen to you?" Death asked. "You send me on my way while your still bound to the Tree?"

"I sacrificed my magic to save this world, now my happiness is all I have left to give," Silvia replied calmly. "The Tree keeps me... conscious and I have learned to live with the pain, I wouldn't trouble you further by asking you to take me with you."

"You seem quite knowledgeable about this realm despite being out of touch from it for so long and if the tales about your people are true, you prove most useful to me on my journey." Death countered.

Silvia snorted and her next words were thick with sarcasm. "Oh of course Death, I would love to be set free and rendered helpless. It would be such a joy to be a burden on one who has arrived here unintentionally."

She paused as Death appeared to think about something and walked past her back towards the Tree, twin scythes in hand.

"Wait, what are you-?" She began.

A pair of Phantom, skeletal arms materialized above Death and held a section of the chain in place. Death raised a scythe and a sharp ring and clang of metal hitting magic echoed in the quite clearing followed by a thud as Silvia's limited strength left her, forced her to the ground and into unconsciousness.

When she awoke, Silvia noticed the back of her head and neck felt much lighter, as did her tail. The second thing that struck her was that she was clean. She rolled onto her stomach and took stock of her surroundings. She was still in the forest, that much was certain. round her she noticed areas of the ground were charred black as if stained by corruption but there were no signs of the jagged crystals that accompanied its presence.

She looked down at her hooves to find them perfectly normal, a feat she hadn't considered possible since she chained herself to the Tree of Life. Her body ached slightly but it was something that she considered normal by now as she shakily stood up, she wobbled and stumbled like a newborn foal but eventually she found her footing and a small confidence boost to boot. She walked forward slowly with an exaggerated gait to test her full range of movement and satisfied with her findings, continued at a more regular pace as she scanned the forest for any sign of Death.

Further on a sound caught her attention and as she followed it, Silvia recognized the sound of battle in the distance. the snarls of some sort of beast and the thwack of metal upon wood met her ears. Silvia watched as a creature made of wood in the crude shape of wolf did battle with the Horseman of the Apocalypse. Death's twin scythes swung in a rapid flurry of combos which sent bits of wood and green sap flying in all directions. The wolf paid its wounds no mind as it darted back from the blows, the nearby forest liter rolling towards it and repairing the cracks in its cursed form.

The wooden wolf lunged forward but missed as Death swiftly moved out of the way. Before it could attack again the reaper darted forward, the ends of scythes snapping together to form a large one handed weapon s he threw it towards the best. the weapon spun in a circle, the rapidly spinning blades tore into the back of the corrupted beast and dazed it long enough for Death to charge forward with a large axe in hand and brought the weapon down onto the creatures head, finally sealing the monster's end.

Silvia saw another of the wooden beasts attempting to slink out of the undergrowth in an ambush, She acted quickly and darted over to the wolf, her hooves and horn alight with white flames as she bought a fore hoof down and crushed its skull. The attack left her light headed and a headache quickly formed as Death noticed her handiwork and approached.

"I could've handled that." he stated as the last of the white flames disappeared from her body.

"You freed me rider, I thought I might prove my worth." Silvia replied.

Death grunted and turned to head further into the forest.

"Try and keep up!" he called over his shoulder.

Silvia rolled her eyes and trotted after him as silence reigned once more.

"What were those creatures?" Death asked as they walked.

"They were Timber Wolves, originally they were constructs made to counter corruption but ultimately fell prey to it," Silvia replied. "They stick to forests like this but have managed to spread across the entire world leaving fear and corpses in their wake."

"I take it they aren't the only things in this forest?"

"No but most creatures know by now to avoid me." Silvia replied.

"You can't be that powerful in your condition." Death said.

"True but I can't be killed so I don't exactly make ideal prey." She replied.

"Everything dies in the end, what makes you so different?" Death asked curiously.

"The All-Sworn, or Alicorns as the mortals of this realm call us have such powerful souls that should we suffer fatal wounds, our bodies morph into raw energy that is absorbed by the core that houses our souls and by absorbing energy or magic from the environment we can revive ourselves in a new body with all our memories and experiences intact, though many have chosen to simply sleep away the centuries than return to the world," Silvia explained. "With everything that happened, i don't blame them."

"There are some out there that would call you lucky." Death commented.

"Oh spare me, Immortality is above all else, boring," Silvia replied flatly. "Mortals have holidays, festivals and celebrations of birth! I spend my time hoping the world doesn't implode on itself."

Death gave a short chuckle of amusement before something caught his eye. Silvia followed his gaze to find a rather large crow with a faint, purple glow headed towards them. With a caw the bird landed on Death's shoulder.

"It's about time you got here Dust, where have you been?" he asked and the bird just clucked and flew off.

"If you're done sight seeing, mind showing us the way?" Death called out to the crow, which began to glow bright purple and headed straight down the forest path.

"Friend of yours?" Silvia asked as the pair followed the bird.

"His name is Dust, a reliable navigator, when he wants to be." Death replied dryly.

"I can confirm we're going in the right way at least." Silvia replied humorously.

"Good to know."

The duo cut their conversation short s entered a clearing. Sunlight struggled its way through the thick overgrown canopy and it just barely illuminated the ruins of some sort of stone building that was in the center. The shadows seemed to move and many green eyes peered at them from beyond the treeline.

Death stepped through first with his weapons drawn as Silvia trailed behind wary and ready to fight. As if on some unseen cue, several Timber Wolves rushed out from the darkness and swarmed them both. Death had learned from his previous fight and aimed to destroy or sever the head of the beasts while Silvia backed herself into a corner to force the creatures into the range of carefully timed kicks and strikes of her hooves.

The wolves proved smart and grew wise to their tricks as the fight wore on. Silvia was quickly losing her patience as more of the beasts charged her only to jump back from her blows and snap at her hooves as soon as they had the chance. She heard Death snarl in frustration as they employed a similar tactic against him. Silvia frowned and snapped her wings open, a stray beam of sunlight glinting off the metallic sheen of her feathers as she swept her wing over her attackers, feathers slicing through wood to tear the creatures apart.

Several gunshots rang through the air and the alicorn looked to see Death had pulled out a pistol and was firing at the heads of the attacking timber wolves which felled them instantly. She flicked sap off her wing as the wolves retreated, growling at them both.

"That was fun." Death sarcastically stated.

Silvia nickered in amusement and with a wing, she pointed at the ruins. "There lies the portal, from there we head to Canterlot."

"What kind of building is this? It didn't look this big from outside." Death asked, perplexed.

Silvia afforded herself a small smile as she explained. "Before the civil war I was gifted in spell craft and enchanted everything from tools to trinkets, One of my greatest achievements was designing a spell matrix to make a structure bigger on the inside. This particular building was one we used to record the fall of our people for those who, like you, would unintentionally find themselves here."

A large stone tablet covered in writing greeted the pair near a shimmering round pool of inky black water.

"We would have gone with painted murals, but none of us had the skill for it." Silvia stated.

With pacts between Angel and Demon forged the Royal Family feared the uneasy peace would one day be broken and planned ahead. Six nobles of pure blood gave themselves as mates to Angel or Demon and from that union came All-Sworn of mixed blood that would serve as symbols of peace between the races.

We six write that the plan failed and be it through loyalty to Angels or trickery by Demons our city fell and we fled with those who wished for peace. A new kingdom was forged underground with us at the its helm and the armies of heaven and hell at our door. Once more fled but this time not without striking back.

For those who could not be saved nor swayed we entombed in the very kingdom we had built, forever trapped beneath the earth be they angel, demon or all-sworn.

Our kind are driven by blood to protect and serve and this has destroyed us. with the survivors scared and scarred by the events we let them sleep and their souls became the foundation of the barrier that seals this world from all others and the stars of the sky.

To bring stability to the world and fight a darkness that has risen from the conflict we gave our magic to form the moon, sun and the weapon of hope and leave them in the care of the last of our children as we six scatter to the winds to maintain watch over the new world we have forged. The tablet read with six symbols acting as signatures at the very bottom.

"Do the symbols mean anything?" Death asked. "I'm sure I've seen one of them before..."

"Our magic expresses itself as a symbol on our flanks once it has attuned to whatever subject we specialize in," Silvia replied. "Mine is the first one, the butterfly and I'm guessing the snake biting its tail is the one you recognize?"

"Yes that witch that sent me here, she wore that symbol on her robe."

"That was Lillia, a half demon that wasn't content with her place in the world after she gave up her magic. She tampered with time and escaped past the barrier to attain power, I haven't heard from her since," Silvia stated and stepped up onto the pool of water. "This is the portal, there's a small town near Canterlot we can go to for supplies and once I get a decent meal I'll acquire transport to the capital and ask Celestia for help."

"And how exactly are you going to pay for those supplies?" Death asked as he stepped up to the portal.

"While I might be able to acquire a map and some tools to pinpoint concentrations of corruption in town, I also don't plan on going against it unarmed. Have you heard of a merchant called Vulgrim?" She replied.

Chapter 2

The journey so far...

A winged unicorn, the last of the powerful All-Sworn race appeared before Death as he rode towards the Tree of Life.

"Oh my dear horseman," she cooed. "You're about to go on quite the wild ride."

Through a portal he was sent, only to find another of the mad mare's kind wasting away chained to the Tree. In her words he saw both her pain and usefulness and set her free from her chains to journey with him on his quest to save yet another realm from corruption.

Quest- Purify the Sealed Realm

They stepped out of the portal to find themselves under the cover of night near a small run down shrine with glowing runes sealing a round black platform that barely rose out of the ground inscribed with a large blue rune. Silvia approached the platform and with a touch of her horn, the seals shattered and the alicorn stepped back as a figure rose up from beneath it.

Blue and white mist curled up from an unseen place as a demon with large horns and skull like face hovered before them, the look of surprise on his face quickly vanished into one of polite calmness.

"Silvia, my my it has been quite a while hasn't it?" the demon said. "And in such interesting company too..."

"Greetings Vulgrim," Silvia replied respectfully. "I would like to indulge your curiosity but I'm afraid we're on a time limit."

She hesitated and took a deep breath to regain her composure as she turned her attention to Death. "In a matter of hours a demon possessed All-Sworn will descend from her prison on the moon in an attempt to destroy this world, Though we are near the weapon I crafted long ago, the forest is ripe with corruption and will hinder its power if we don't do something about it."

Vulgrim chuckled darkly. "There's more to the story than that, your majesty"

"I don't have the time to be the alicorn of exposition, merchant. I need weapons and armor, anything you can spare." Silvia stated curtly.

"Calm yourself friend, I have what you need. Though do you have the coin?" Vulgrim asked. "Surely five thousand years is not enough time to leave you senile just yet."

"I'll pay for what she buys, demon. Just hurry it up." Death spoke up.

"How generous of you," Vulgrim replied and returned his attention to the alicorn. "It seems you're in luck Silvia, I just so happened to recover some of your old belongings. I'll be more than happy to return them to you for a...modest fee."

"Still doing business with Lillia I take it?" Silvia asked as she dug through a bag of her things while Death handed over the gold. "It's the only way you could have gotten your claws on my things since she took them with her."

"I afraid that would break my customer confidentiality clause, but feel free to speculate," the merchant replied with a sly grin. "Until next time, your majesty."

New Objective
-Purify the Everfree Forest
-Defeat Nightmare Moon

The alicorn rolled her eyes as the demon disappeared back into the ether. She reached a wing into the bag and pulled out a marble white torc decorated with golden glowing runes and after some digging found a matching set of four boots to go with it. With practiced ease she slipped them on and checked the bag once more to find a pair of saddlebags covered in enchantments and a set of golden, glowing blades.

"What is it with angels and making everything glow?" Death muttered as Silvia's armor and weapons provided a new source of light.

"Most of them just think it looks pretty," Silvia replied. "In reality the 'glow' is needed to aid in conducting holy magic to make casting easier even for those that are masters of the craft, though most angels concern themselves with 'form over function' to the point of looking ridiculous"

"You are half angel, what does that say about you?" Death quipped.

Silvia snorted as she hefted the saddle bag onto her back and tucked the two swords under her wings. They lapsed into silence as they left the abandoned shrine with Silvia leading the way down a barely visible path. The forest was more of a jungle with thick vines strangling the life out of trees and the dense foliage blanketing the forest floor in shadow. As they walked Silvia flicked out a wing and the blade concealed beneath her feathers followed her movements to cut way the overgrown plant life that covered most of the path.

She continued her task in silence as Death followed behind her. When a cliff halted their progress she glided down and watched as Death simply jumped off and landed in front of her on his feet with a loud, crater creating boom. A series of howls pierced the silence of night as green glowing eyes blinked to life within the shadows. A pack of timber wolves descended upon them, growling and snarling.

Death was the first to act and pulled out his gun. his aim moved from one beast to the next s a single bullet between the eyes felled each and every beast. The gun ended its slaughter with the click of an empty chamber as the corruption driven beast rushed him in rage. Silvia watched as he swapped his gun for his scythes and charged into the fray, his movements to fast for the wolves to follow as he switched his focus from enemy to the next as they crumbled with only a few blows. A thunderous roar broke the flow of battle and the remaining wolves retreated as something rumbled in the distance.

"That would be the Alpha Timber Wolf," Silvia calmly noted. "She hasn't found us yet so hopefully we can reach our destination before she finds us."

"What if she does find us?" Death asked.

"We kill it, obviously." Silvia replied and continued down the path.

"So where exactly are we going?" Death asked as they paid no mind to the trees with twisted faces that lined the forest path. "You've been awfully tight lipped since we spoke to Vulgrim."

Silvia sighed tiredly. "We are headed towards the remains of this country's original capital, where an artifact that once housed the weapon needed to purify the demon possessed All-Sworn lies. I can tap into its power to purify the forest and create a safe path for those that seek the weapon."

"Why not use the weapon yourself?" Death asked.

"It wasn't designed to be used with just one person," she replied. "The weapon, known as the Elements of Harmony was crafted to utilize the energy present in the emotional bonds within its wielders to produce power that mimics that of an Oath Bound All-Sworn."

"Oath Bound?" Death asked. "So the stories of your people having the power to shape reality were true?"

"The simplest way to explain it is that my kind were aware of the power we could have at our disposal and became a society that exercised restraint and control to preserve both our sanity and the life we cherished as a species," Silvia calmly explained. "To that end, should one make an oath, vow or promise with the honest and sincere intent of fulfilling it, our very blood drives us to keep it and the power of our souls warps the world in subtle ways to make it happen."

"To break a vow is deny what it means to be an all-sworn," she continued sadly. "For my brother and friends, they regained their magic over centuries spent attending to this world and I... wasn't so lucky. Two vows I have broken to defend this world with such a crime my magic was taken and my soul forever scarred as penance."

"And now I must face the full weight of my sins..." Silvia said softly and turned her gaze to the moon. "The all-sworn we will soon face is one of my daughters, twisted by a demonic presence that will seek to destroy me and drown this world in endless darkness and bitter cold."

"We'd best keep moving..." Silvia stated.

Another obstacle soon blocked their path as a wide, raging river stretched before them. Death idly kicked astray branch into the rapids and the two of them watched as it was quickly swept into the fast moving current.

"The river might be calmer further down..." Silvia suggested. "I would carry you over but I'm not as strong as I once was."

She emphasized her statement with a wing to gesture at her starved form. Death seemed to ponder the problem s he walked towards the riverbank and observed his surroundings as if he was looking for something. He scoffed and walked back in search of a solution on the path behind them. With no success on either front he turned his attention back to Silvia and his glowing orange eyes widened slightly as he got an idea.

"Can you fly?" he asked.

"Yes but may I ask why?"

"Stand on the other side of the river," Death stated. " I'll join you shortly."

Silvia was thoroughly confused but she did as he asked and when her hooves touched the ground she turned back to face her travelling companion. Just as she was about to ask more questions Death bolted forward and jumped. In one fluid motion he stretched out his right arm and a purple glowing hand attached to his gauntlet shot out and held onto Silvia's horn which the horseman then used to yank himself over to the other side of the river.

"Problem solved." Death remarked smugly as Silvia stared at him in bewilderment.

"Never do that again without informing me first." The All-Sworn stated flatly.

Their conversation was cut short as they emerged out of the forest and onto a cliff that overlooked a ravine with a wooden bridge held up by ropes allowing passage to the ancient stone castle that stood on the other side. Another roar tore the night as a massive wooden wolfs head rose from the depths of the ravine, it ignored the bridge as it's sheer size forced the wooden planks up and snapped the rope connecting it to the cliff edge to leave it dangling against the rock on the other side.

Large green eyes narrowed in rage as the giant beast caught sight of Death. A paw as large as the horseman himself came crashing down, pinned him and dragged him into the ravine. Silvia stared down into the darkness as the creature retreated with its prize before glancing up just in time to see the Mare in the Moon disappear from the lunar surface.

Without a thought nor care of the consequences, she jumped down after him.

Death crashed down onto the stone hard ground with a grunt and pulled himself to his feet. The alpha wolf roared its challenge as he took hold of his scythes and kept his gaze trained on the building sized beast. The two circled one another, watching and waiting for an opening. The wolf lost its patience and charged towards the rider and raised a fore paw to swipe, only to miss as Death dashed forward and began to hack away at its hind leg.

In the middle of a swing, Death was knocked off his feet and sent flying as the wolf sprung around and lashed at him with its tail. He barely time to make a move when the beast rushed forward in a quick volley of sharp claws and snapping jaws. He took the first few blows with ease and flipped backwards out of harms way and smirked under his mask as an after image of his reaper form countered the creature's failed attack. The beast staggered from the blow and Death noticed a large crack in the paw it had tried to hit him with. When the wolf tried to regain its footing the damaged foot couldn't bear the weight and snapped into pieces which sent the alpha tumbling to the ground.

Death knew an opportunity when he saw one and put all his effort into striking at the wolf's head. After a few moments the pain snapped the beast to its senses, the wood of its broken paw was encased in the green glow of corruption and moved to rejoin with its owner. The wolf roared in fury and its body began to writhe and pulse as smaller timber wolves dropped from it form to target the reaper.

Death ignored the weaker foes and moved in to attack the alpha. he rolled forward to stand under the wolf just as the giant beast exhaled a cloud of poisonous green gas and he paid it no mind as he attacked the same hind leg he had targeted before. The smaller wolves proved only be a minor annoyance as he hacked away at the limb, the stupidity of the creatures was turned to his favor as they were caught in his strikes against the larger foe as they moved to attack him. This went on to benefit Death as with each strike of his weapon, regardless of what it hit would heal the admittedly insignificant wounds the mindless minions created at a faster rate than they could harm him.

With the strength of his enemies discovered, Death ignored any need to dodge or avoid attacks and focused only on dealing as much damage to the alpha as possible. the hind leg he was attacking shattered and once more the large wooden wolf crashed to become an easy target.

When the beast rose to its feet a second time it clearly last legs as it lunged towards Death. The horseman seized his chance and transformed to the purple robed, skeletal giant that was his reaper form and swung his massive scythe down onto the alphas head. with the blade firmly wedged into the creatures head Death pulled on the handle with enough force to rip the creatures head from its body. As the monster disintegrated alongside its spawn, Death returned to his normal form to find Silvia gliding down to meet him.

The alicorn looked around in mild amusement.

"Is it just me or do you seem far too used to this?" she asked.

"It's all part of the job." Death replied as a portal opened to return them to the surface.

They emerged standing before the entrance of the stone castle. Silvia pointed to path that led down to an area below the stone structure.

"We're almost there, once we reach the artifact I can activate it and ensure this place is free of corruption." Silvia explained and as she began to walk down the path, a bolt of blue magic blasted into her side and sent her skidding into some bushes and a black figure dove after her. Death made to follow but a shimmering blue barrier inscribed with demonic runes barred his way.

"Damn it." he cursed.

On the other side of the barrier Silvia winced as she poked her damaged side with a wing, she couldn't feel t lest a few cracked or broken ribs. Mad cackling forced her to look up and she flinched at what she saw. An alicorn as dark as night with a mane tail of stardust that moved under its own power. Sharp fangs glinted in the moonlight as the mad mare laughed madly and the dim light of the moon bounced off of the armor that covered her head, chest and hooves to the point where the light blue metal glittered like stars.

"Oh it has been so long mother," Silvia's attacker snarled. "In the one thousand years i have been imprisoned i have only gotten stronger, where as you are crippled, weak and once I have defeated you none shall stand against my rule!"

"Luna...?" Silvia asked in shocked horror.

"Luna?" The dark alicorn echoed. "i am Nightmare moon you old nag! and tonight you will breathe your last!"

Silvia couldn't move, her mind was paralyzed and not even the pain of another of Nightmare's attack hitting her square in the chest could shake her out of it. Deep down she knew what had become of Luna but it was thing to watch from afar and another to face her directly.

"I'm sorry" she choked out but it fell on deaf ears as twisted alicorn of the night rushed forward and tackled the elder mare to the ground and began to charge a powerful spell. Silvia had just enough presence of mind to lift a wing over her face to shield herself from the point blank blast. Pain ran rampart in her wing as the spell shattered feather, tore through skin and muscle and blasted through bone to strike her chest with deadly intent.

Silvia screwed her eyes shut as the hole in both her wing and her chest screamed with pain and Nightmare Moon laughed in victory. In the back of her mind the older alicorn knew something had to be done, that despite her injures Luna had to be saved. She reached deep within her soul, past the pain and the eternal scar of her failure to find the flames of her life forces, her will to live and pulled.

Her mind went white with pain as her body blazed with white flames. A primal scream tore its way out of her throat as she clung to consciousness with a single minded, determined goal of finding and destroying corruption. Nightmare Moon's surprised shriek and subsequent retreat barely registered as Silvia's mind followed the trail of her flames as they danced through the forest only burning away at green crystal growths and mutated beasts and nothing else. Six splotches of colour and life registered in mind for a brief moment but even that was swept aside by the task at hoof.

Someone was shouting at her to stop, but she couldn't, she wouldn't, not until the job was done. She could sense sources of corruption beyond her reach as she cleansed the forest and after what felt like centuries, Silvia let the flames die down and she blacked out.

Chapter 3

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 5

The rest of their journey through the workshop was done in silence as yet more puzzles barred entry into other rooms as golems pried themselves from the walls and floor to attack them. Silvia found that her normal fighting style wasn't feasible against large numbers without magic as another group of hate driven foes rushed her. While her wings gave her an advantage by allowing her to flit past and around the swarm of golems, she knew she was nothing more than a distraction as Death tirelessly worked to thin their numbers.

This is getting us nowhere and even though I don't have the right equipment I may as well try to put more effort into defending myself than continue an eternal game of dodge ball. She thought and backed herself into a corner.

Her foes had little in the way of intelligence but appeared to have enough to spot a perceived advantage and stormed after her, ready to swing their bulky arms down on her in an instant. As one prepared to strike, Silvia rose up onto her hind legs, new muscles and joints clicking and shifting into place to handle her new stance as she jabbed and punched the golem in rapid succession that left it as a pile of rubble in mere seconds. her movements were just as graceful as they were when she stood on all fours as she sidestepped attacks and used her wings to block the hits she couldn't dodge as she decimated her enemies.

The armor on her fore hooves quickly became dented as they weren't designed to full force of her boxing style and she quickly discarded them. Soon only one golem was left, it was pinned in place by Death as he shoved the blade of his scythe through its chest while Silvia brought both fore hooves down in a crushing blow upon its head. With the threat gone the door to another room unlocked as the alicorn returned to standing on four legs and retrieved her battered shoes.

"Hopefully I can get these repaired once we're done here, this entire set was a graduation present." she said.

"You fight well, for a horse." Death commented.

"I'm no fighter, those things were mindless drones at best," she replied. "If I were pitted against a skilled fighter like yourself, I wouldn't stand a chance."

The room they were in had two exits, while Dust perched himself above the door in front of them to point them in the right direction, Silvia was drawn to the door on her right as her horn hummed with a familiar energy.

"There's an all-sworn core in there." she breathed and broke out into a gallop towards the door as the humming got louder.

The doors flew open at her approach as if in haste to get out of her way and she skidded to a stop once inside the room. It was one of the few in the entire facility that was fully renovated and furnished, the walls were made of stone bricks that were absolutely covered in enchantments, as was the floor. A gold pillar stood in each corner of the room, connected to the mass of golden metal that served as the rooms ceiling with the runes and wires embedded within them glowed with a warm , orange light that gave the place a comforting feel despite being deeply underground.

The furniture in the room resembled simple living quarters with a desk and a series of shelves in one corner of the room and a simple metal pot over a fire pit in another corner was in place of a kitchen. What stood out the most was a shrine carved out of wood and heavily enchanted to resist natural wear and tear that stood in the back of the room.

What few shreds of cloth that seemed to find their way this far underground had been draped over the shrine to act as bedding for the round, crystal like orb that was the centerpiece for the shrine. the orb itself glowed with a soft, calming green light that pulsed to rhythm of an unseen heartbeat as the blue and green mist within the orb formed the shapes of various animals that vanished as quickly as they appeared.

On the floor around the shrine, several crude stone statues of various animals stood in a silent watch over the shrine as Silvia approached. There was no sign of corruption at all in the room, there was a sense of peace in the air and even Dust fell silent as he flew in to see what was going on.

"This is the core of Sunny Stone, Thunder's little sister," Silvia whispered quietly. "He kept it even after all this time?"

Death tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at another sheet of metal attached to wall and covered in Angelic script.

I'm so happy I got this room finished and I'm sure Sunny will be happy too once she wakes up.

I don't sleep much anymore, most of us don't after what happened to the Stardust City, our homes and our families. Lillia said she found a way past the barrier and she's promised to try and get to the Forge Lands to ask The Makers for help. If I can just replicate the method they use for their wardens then I'll have my sister back...

Besides Lillia seemed insistent on helping me with this, kind of odd behavior for her but I guess she just wants to feel useful or something, she probably feels bad after Silvia sacrificed her freedom to keep that Abyssal Beast from attacking the realm.

We all want to do our part to bring back our kind, after all.

Silvia could see the curiosity in Death eye's as he glanced at her and she shivered at the memories the writing brought forth.

"A story for another time, rider," She stated mechanically. "I think we should move on, we still need to find Thunder."

Three pressure plates, arranged to form a triangle and with an image inscribed on each barred their way. Both the alicorn and the rider looked around the area for any extra components to the puzzle and after finding none, activated the plates.

Nothing happened. Silvia looked confused as Death repeatedly activated the plates with no solution in sight. She frowned and motioned for him to move aside as she inspected the plates. Each featured a pony and noticed a pattern in the positions of each carving in relation to the others. The plate on the top left showed a pegasus flying to the right with a hoof outstretched. Silvia's ears perked up as she followed a hunch and checked the plate the pegasus was facing. It depicted a unicorn bowing to some unseen figure and Silvia noticed it's horn pointed the plate below the other two.

With an idea in mind she stood on the pegasus plate, activated soul splitter and sent a clone to the unicorn plate before she directed the other to the earth pony- and final, plate.

A satisfying clunk was heard as the door unlocked. Silvia stepped back and fluffed up her wings in a brief moment of silent boasting.

"You might want to stay outside," Death called back to her as he walked into the room. "There are more undead here."

Part of her wanted to heed his warning but her horn hummed once more, signalling the presence of another of her kind. She had a duty to find her friend, a thought she clung onto as she forced herself into the room. The room was more of a large cave with the only signs of infrastructure being the doors at either end and the mass of pipes and wires attached to the walls and ceiling. The corpses of ponies shuffled about as they hollowly mimicked the actions of miners and did their best to pry the corrupted crystals from the walls and move them to the mine carts scattered about the room.

"Thunder? Are you there?" She called out.

A short trickle of debris from the ceiling was her only warning as a metal plate fell from above and landed in front of her with a loud bang. Startled, Silvia looked down to find the plate had yet more writing like the others and pushed her confusion and burst of fear aside to read it.

Sunny always liked animals, so I designed the wooden prototypes on her favourite animal the wolf and I've named them Timber Wolves. So far the Timber Wolves have done their job well inside the workshop, the marionette array I've set up using the pipes as conduits to control their actions, it's allowed them to function properly and process the corruption that's slowly making its way into the mountain.

I tried to see how they acted outside the array but they just can't resist corruption without my magic shielding them from it. Still, I won't give up, Lillia said she's got some plans for a large controller golem that'll manage the Timber Wolves remotely. I think if we base it of one of our own, maybe the shape of an All-Sworn will be enough to resist corruption.

I've got to get this done.

"Death, wait a moment." Silvia called out as the horseman was about to slay another undead pony.

If there's a rune array running throughout this entire facility, then maybe... She thought and flew up to observe the pipes near the ceiling and activated her magic sight. This is definitely Thunder's rune work but some of it has been overwritten and looks off, like a copy and these mistakes they almost look....deliberate.

Is someone forcing Thunder to do all this?

"What did you find?" Death called out.

"Someone has hijacked control over Thunder's network of runes to control these corpses and may be forcing Thunder himself to add onto the array," Silvia explained as she glided back down. "It seems the signal grows weaker the further away from the main control array, which would explain the behaviour of the dead we came across earlier, they weren't following the commands properly and simply wandered about."

"If we can find and destroy the main array that's powering all of this, those poor ponies can finally get their well deserved final rest," She stated. "We're not too far from it either."

The duo entered a large circular room that had crystallized corruption growing from the ground and pipes hanging off of every inch of space the stone walls and ceilings could provide as if it was a web of metal and magic. The largest of these metal tubes went from floor to ceiling in the center of the room and was connected to a large circular platform made of silver upon which a massive, building sized stone golem in the shape of an alicorn sat, watching and waiting as Silvia and Death cautiously approached.

The golem bore some resemblance to the wardens and constructs of the Makers but it looked more akin to a blatant and poor attempt to copy the world builder's craft. The stone that made up its body was roughly cut and while it bore the shape of an alicorn, the wings were nothing more than decoration and it appeared that construct itself, despite the pieces of crystal that rested in it's shoulders in place of a heart stone, was incapable of movement. The runes that had carved into its form were sloppy and lacked the skill and craftsmanship of an expert, though every single rune of the stone goliath glowed yellow as it drew power from the glass orb in the statues chest.

A faint flicker of light from the golden mist that swirled within the orb was the only sign of life Silvia got as her horn hummed at the orbs presence. She motioned for Death to follow her as she walked around the edges of the room and activated her magic sight. She frowned as she saw the crystals on the golems shoulders were soaked in Corruption, as was the pipe that was behind it. The runes etched into the room and it's sole occupant were a tangled and incomprehensible mess.

Just looking at this is giving me a migraine she thought. However if I can reach the platform in the center.

"I'm going to try and shut off the main source of power, think you can keep that golem distracted?"She asked.

"I can, any advice?"Death replied.

"Try to pull out the orb in it's chest, I'm going to need it."She stated.

With a nod, Death rushed forward, in response, the golem glowed a sickly green and dozens of smaller crystal golems seeped in corruption sprung to life to defend it. With it's attention focused on the horseman, Silvia flew overhead and landed behind the stone creature and examined the platform. The runes etched into it showed far more care and precision than others before it. The runes themselves were layered and structured around several rings on the platform itself and the more Silvia examined the multilayered rune circle, the difficult the task appeared to be.

"Demonic runes meant to draw power from souls...This is going to take a while to ..." She trailed off as the sound of several portals opening behind her caught her attention.

Each portal glowed a familiar shade of orange and red as a variety of demons clambered out of them and set their sights on her. They were bipedal creatures with horns and wings and several roared a challenge at her in the demonic tongue.

"For the glory of Princess Lillia" One of the larger demons bellowed as the group rushed to attack her.

Silvia filed the meaning of this new intrusion away for later and reared up on her hind legs. Many of the group swiped at her with claws or blades, She took the hit before she nailed each and every attacking demon in the head with a series of quick, yet devastating jabs. She moved a wing to block an incoming attack from the side and pivoted around to kick the aggressor in the face, the force of her attack sent the creature flying across the room and into the path of Death's blades.

"So, she sent weaklings to test me?"Silvia mused as she spun around to slam a wing into another opponent and used her momentum to deliver a swift punch to another. "Or is this all her dear old dad could spare to give her?"

Her comment enraged the last few demons left standing as they threw caution to the wind and rushed her, only to met with a vortex of swiftly striking hooves and wings as Silvia moved with grace and speed to end their assault. The all-sworn paid close attention to any that got close as her eyes darted from foe to foe and read their movements. She heard the shuffling of one attempting to attack from behind and she flipped back onto all fours to buck the demon in the face with her rear hooves and used her wings to strike the two in front of her. With the one behind her knocked out and the other two dazed, she returned to her boxing stance and tossed the two oblivious demons over her shoulder with her wings where they landed on top of a golem that was about to strike Death.

The horseman was surprised but quickly took advantage of the situation by destroying both demon and golem in a single strike. With more foes yet approaching, the rider and the alicorn both quickly searched for a way to end the conflict quickly. Death swapped out his scythes for a trident with red jewels encrusted in the massive black fork of the weapon. In a series of slow, yet powerful swings, Death sent his foes flying as the weapon renewed both his magic and vitality. There was an explosion from behind and he turned to see Silvia had flown up and broken some of the pipes on the ceiling which had caused a chain reaction in the runes nearby and sent a wave of volatile magic at her foes.

The Alicorn Golem was not pleased by this development and bellowed in rage as it tried to move. It seemed to struggle against something and in it's frustration summoned dozens of snarling, snapping Timber Wolves.

"This is getting us nowhere..." Death muttered and with a final swing at a lunging timber wolf, he rushed forward towards the giant stone construct.

As he ran he knocked aside the mass of wooden jaws and claws attempting to devour him and leapt up onto the large golem. the rough uneven nature of the creature made it difficult to scale but it also played in Death's favor as the shoddy work of carving the statue left several hand holds and platform for the horseman to use as he clambered around to it's chest. he could feel the golem trying to shake him off but it barely moved an inch before it ceased it attempts.

Death hung off a ledge, scaled around and quickly jumped off to land on a platform as corrupted crystals began to grow from the statue to try and impede his progress. There was a flash of white and he watched as Silvia flew and smashed the newly growing formations as quickly as they appeared.

With a nod, the rider continued moving and jumped from platform to platform as Silvia cleared the way. Even the golems and wolves the colossal statue summoned in their way met the same fate as the crystal growths it tried to spawn, crushed beneath her hooves as she darted from one obstacle to the next. Finally, Death landed on the platform in front of the glass orb that gave the golem power, the orb itself was small enough to fit into his hand and it even slipped out of its slot in the golem as if it wanted nothing more than to be free of the abomination it powered.

The runes on the Alicorn Construct changed from yellow to the sickly green of corruption as new power and a new green crystal filled the now empty slot and with a roar of triumph, the golem began to move. Death jumped off the creature as it shuddered and rose to it's hooves. The horseman watched as Silvia attempted to dive bomb it, only to for the golem to knock her out of the air with a flick of its now fully functioning wing.

Death looked down at the glass orb in his hand and back over to the dazed flesh and blood alicorn that was slumped against the far wall the her stone enemy moved in for the final blow. He stored the orb away, rushed towards his fallen ally and diverted the golems attention to him by rapidly attacking it's leg with his scythes.

His distraction worked and Death darted back in time to avoid the stone hoof that attempted to crush him where he stood. With practiced ease he dashed forward and began a relentless assault on the golem. One of the stone monstrosity's wings smacked into his side and he was sent sliding across the room but it wasn't long before Death was back on his feet. The second wing followed the first and Death swerved to the side to avoid the blow and quickly used the missed attack as an opening for his own.

His twin scythes sliced and carved their way through stone and shattered the runes on one of the golem's legs and it cried out in anger as the limb crumbled away and sent the construct tumbling to the ground. With the crystals on its body in reach, Death used his death grip to latch onto one of the crystals in the golem's shoulder, pulled himself towards it and began to hack into it with his scythe.

The crystal, like the rest of the construct was but a pale imitation of the Maker's craft and broke in only a few hits. The Golem roared once more and attempted to climb to it's hooves and it stumbled around on three legs until it crashed into a wall and broke the pipes that were attached to the stone surface.

Death was thrown off the creature as a series of explosions made their way around the room. Pipes fell from the ceiling and bits of stone crashed to the ground as the horseman and alicorn made their escape from the collapsing room. The two of them stood by the doorway as they watched the room's destruction for as long as they could, at least until a large pile of rubble fell from the ceiling and blocked the entrance to the large room with a loud boom.

"Well, that happened.." Silvia said in a daze. "Did you get the orb?"

"I have it here," Death replied and handed her the orb. "What do we do now?"

"We backtrack I'm afraid. This orb is Thunder's core but we need to reunite it with his body if we're going to get any answers." Silvia explained.

Author's Note

Originally this chapter was going to cover our heroes meeting Thunder as well as some more backstory on Silvia, however due to the serious tone I'm going to need to try and convey with those events I'll be saving that for next chapter so i can have more than just an exposition filled conversation or two.

Plus I wanted to get something out asap.

Also I'd like you guys to turn your attention to This Blog Post as I do want your opinion on something I'm not quite sure about when it comes to the future of this story.

Chapter 6

"There should be something in here." Silvia said as she led Death back into the room with the shrine, Thunder's core cradled in one wing.

The core began to glow and a portion of one wall slid way to reveal a secret passage lit by several torches. Silently they moved down the passageway and like the room it was connected to there was no sign of corruption.

"Did you know this was here?" Death asked as they approached a dead end.

"That room was one of the few fully renovated, corruption proof places in this entire facility and had something extremely valuable within that had yet to be stolen by previous adventures," Silvia stated as Thunder's core glowed again to reveal another hidden door. "I've played enough table top RPG's and video games to recognize a safe zone when I see one."

They passed through the doorway and found themselves in a cluttered room with a variety of books, scrolls and large pieces of equipment stacked against the walls. In the epicenter of the mess, slumped over a writing desk covered in parchment was a white maned, yellow furred alicorn colt with an electric blue lightning bolt striking open a geode for a cutie mark.

He was smaller than Silvia with long legs and the beginnings of a more muscular stature that showed he was still in his teenage years. His wings were a mess of feathers and on the end of each wing was a wrist joint connected to five thin, bony 'fingers' that formed the skeletal structure of a hand or claw with a quill held in one and an ink pot in the other.

"Apathy Syndrome," Silvia muttered as she held Thunder's core over his body. "He was disconnected from his soul for too long and fell into a coma, still I suppose that's better than the alternative of a psychotic break..."

The core floated up out of her grasp and with a brief flash of light, vanished into Thunder's body.

"Now we wait for him to awaken and hope his time in that construct hasn't damaged his mind somehow." Silvia said.

A considerable amount of time had passed by the time Thunder started to stir. Death idly watched on as Silvia rushed to the colt's side and helped him to his hooves.

"Wait, Silvia...? How did you...?" The yellow furred colt asked in hazy confusion. "What happened?"

"You've been separated from your core for quite some time, give yourself a few moments to adjust." Silvia said gently.

"How long was I- Lillia was supposed to deactivate the construct, why did she leave me like this?" Thunder asked as he became more alert.

"We can discuss that soon friend but I need to be sure you're alright," Silvia replied calmly. "Can you move?"

The younger alicorn carefully walked around the cramp room but as he unfurled his wings, he winced.

"My claw's are stiff, could you uh...?" he asked and stretched his wings out towards her.

The thin hand like claws on the end of his wings twitched but wouldn't budge. Silvia used the feathery claws on the end of her own wings to prod and poke at the joints and upon finding nothing wrong physically, activated her magic sight. The flow of magic in Thunder's body wasn't the series of vein like rivers of magical energy Silvia knew she should be seeing as it was more akin to trickles of power that was steadily rising to what it once was.

"The arcane pathways in your body haven't quite readjusted," she said. "You'll be sore for a while as you heal up, trust me I know how that feels but with some food and rest you should be right as rain in a couple of weeks."

"With that said, I'll need to ask you some questions in case your memory was damaged," she continued. "They may sound odd but please, humour me?"

"I know the drill, gotta make sure I don't relapse or have a psychotic break right? Ask away." Thunder casually replied.

"Where were you on the day Tartarus came into being?" Silvia asked.

"That was the last day of the war, I was with Drake and Rose at the base in Shadowfern Forest. We were getting everything ready for Animus so he could lead the civilians from the underground city." he replied.

"And everyone else?" Silvia prompted.

"Lillia was scouting the area so we didn't get ambushed or flanked, Animus was evacuating the underground city while you stalled for time by confronting the enemy directly."

"Then what happened? How did the war end?"

"There was a huge earthquake, a loud boom and the air was thick with excess magic, afterwards everyone showed up at camp and you, despite being dead on your hooves, told us that it was all over." the yellow alicorn said.

"Is that all?" Silvia asked seriously. "Is that all you can recall?"

"No...I wasn't satisfied with the answers you gave us, I could tell you were trying to protect us from something but I- we needed to know," Thunder replied sadly. "I convinced the others to join me and we snuck into the city...I'm still sorry about doing that..."

"I know." she said, the nudge to continue left unsaid.

"We found the entire underground city and every single combatant turned to stone. We tracked the residual magic to the epicenter and found the largest and most complicated series of rune circles we'd ever seen...Rune circles that bore your craftsmareship."

"We didn't take it well," Thunder stated. "But I still think we shouldn't have gone off at you like that, I mean if Lillia hadn't gone looking for you the next day to apologize..."

"I wouldn't be here," Silvia said softly before she schooled her expression into a kind yet firm look for her next words. "You wish to find out what has transpired here do you not?"

Taken aback by her shift in tone, Thunder nodded.

"Just as I tried to spare you further grief and strife in the past, I will try to do so now but the choice is up to you," she explained. "Either I knock you out, erase your memory of this conversation, take you to the Equestrian capital and lie to your face or I let you leave here under your own power after you have sworn to live with your actions be they unintentional or not."

"That bad huh?" he asked weakly.

"Regardless of which choice you make I will help you in any way I can." Silvia replied softly.

"I want to know, If Lillia betrayed us then... Then I need to know just what in the Ancestors name she was getting me to do." Thunder said.

"Do you swear to push past the tragedy that awaits and live to fight another day?" Silvia asked.

"For my clan, for my people and for my friends I will not only survive but flourish." Thunder stated wholeheartedly.

A faint glow illuminated the room briefly and the younger alicorn blinked in surprise.

"So that's what making an oath feels like..." he muttered in awe.

"Come on, I'll follow your lead and explain things as best I can." Silvia said.

Upon entering the shrine room, Thunder paused as he noticed the metal plaque on the wall.

"I didn't put this here and wait, these are my notes...Someone's copied them." he said.

Death followed from behind as he watched the snow white all-sworn gently explain things to her friend while Dust had decided to perch on her back and run his beak through her mane. He found it odd that his bird was acting in such a way but given Dust's cry of "I'll help!" as he landed on Silvia's back he supposed the crow's actions were harmless enough.

The rider did ponder the fact that Silvia herself giggled at the black bird as he landed and jokingly praised him for his assistance, did she speak crow? Still, it was a curiosity Death put aside for the moment as he kept an eye out for any lingering remnants of corruption.

He suppressed a snort of annoyance as Thunder once again stopped to stare in horror at the corpses and had half a mind to simply leave them behind and wait for them back in Canterlot but his keen gaze noticed the limp in one of Silvia's forelegs and the way she kept one wing slung limply over Thunder's back in a gesture of comfort and the other closed tightly at her side as they walked.

He couldn't help but be impressed at the fact she carried herself as if she was completely fine despite her injuries and exhaustion. He understood that Thunder himself was in pain from his body being starved of magic for several centuries and Death could only guess how his travelling companion was fairing from having no magic flow through her arcane pathways at all.

From what he remembered about angels, most of their magical energies flowed through their wings and arms. Beneath his mask Death frowned.

He decided it wouldn't do either of them any good if she was constantly forcing herself to fight. He wondered how she managed to stay airborne, even he knew most flying creatures could be brought to the ground by attacking the wings, the shock of pain often caused them seize up.

Death watched as Silvia gently herded the shell shocked Thunder back to the shrine room with a warm smile and a certain grace in her movements that gave the rider pause.

Perhaps she was stronger than he realized. Either way he decided he should keep an eye out for anything that might help heal her and he made a note to visit Vulgrim later.

"All those corpses, are you sure the construct was using their souls for something?" Thunder asked urgently. "I need to do something about this, their families-"

"Will be notified in due time friend, calm down," Silvia interrupted. "Remember that you are a victim as much as they are and this is not your fault."

"But-" he tried to protest and Silvia silenced him with a claw over his muzzle.

"You need to heal before you can help, I'll inform my daughters of what happened here and they can distribute the news as they see fit," she said. "Besides if you are to help anyone then you'll to do something important."

"What is it? I'll do whatever it takes!" Thunder stated.

Silvia smiled and pulled the younger alicorn into a hug that consisted of both hooves and wings as she replied to his eagerness.

"I need you to learn Thunder, civilization has only advanced in the time we've been gone and if our people are to one day return to protecting this realm then we need to see what advancements have been made in our absence. Just imagine it! New magic, architecture, technology and science! things we could use to improve the lives of the creatures of this world long after we have dealt with the threat of corruption."

Thunder looked up at her, skepticism written all over his face.

"So I have to go back to school?" He replied flatly.

"I thought you liked learning about those kinds of things?" Silvia asked.

"I do, I just...thought I'd have to do something important that's all... not what I've always been doing." he admitted.

"I need you to do what you do best and right now that's learning as much as you can and apply that knowledge for the betterment of the realm." she said and nuzzled him affectionately.

"Ok, I'll pack up my stuff, Oh! i think I have some your things here too from when you uh...You know..." Thunder trailed off uncertain on what to say.

"Back when I was, shall we say seeing Celestia and Luna's father," she stated before she looked over at Death. "I'll tell you that story in due time I just...it might take a while for me to gather my courage to actually tell it..."

"I take it he wasn't the friendly sort?" Death asked.

"Something like that, yes." she replied as Thunder rounded a corner to gather his belongings.

"Uh, there's something you need to see." Thunder called out.

Both the rider and the older alicorn shared a look of confusion and headed around the corner to an area stacked with crates. They found Thunder standing in front of an ornate chest with another metal plaque bolted to the wall above it.

Dear Thunder,

My mom failed to kill me, yay! I teleported into The Vault of the Ancestors juuust in time and I finally got to meet grandpa, he is so cool!

Anyway I left the realm to try and help the other races n' stuff but I got captured by demons, they were dumb though and couldn't do anything to me.

I got rescued by a guy with a huge awesome looking sword, I can't wait for everyone to meet him, he's quiet but he seems nice so I'm helping him stop some evil jerk called the Destroyer. Woo! Adventure!

I met Lillia's dad too, he was kinda weird but he taught me some new spells.

I left some stuff for Silvia, could you give it to her when you see her next?

Sorry about copying your notes and you know, not stopping Lillia directly but a filly can only do so much.

Love you guys,

Faith Weaver.

"Holy shit, she's alive." Thunder and Silvia said at the same time.

"A friend of yours?" Death asked in amusement.

"The Weaver clan was another noble house that took part in the pact, Faith was the daughter of the clan head and a powerful demoness," Silvia explained shakily. "She was born deformed, I only knew her as a young filly, we...she was one of my best friends before her mother..."

"Her mom wasn't happy that her child was the way she was and tossed her into a portal that led to the abyss," Thunder stated and turned to Silvia. "Man, your dad was furious I've never seen an archangel so angry before, heck it was the first time angels and demons were of like mind since the pact was formed."

Silvia cracked a smile and said "Indeed, it was quite a show to see the most powerful members of heaven and hell band together to cast Faith's mother out of the realm, it seems even demons don't like anyone bringing harm to their own young."

"I'm glad to hear she's safe," she added. "The Weaver clan were known for their genetic memory and the mysterious capacity to see into and manipulate time to a certain degree, perhaps we'll see her in the future."

"At least we know she's on our side," Thunder stated. "She left something for you right? I wonder what it is?"

Death wordlessly walked over and opened the chest and the skeletal arms of his reaper form lifted out four golden boots clearly meant for the white alicorn.

"I suppose I do need new shoes," Silvia commented as she inspected the gift. "Completely void of enchantments too, If I had my tools..."

"I have your crafting tools around here somewhere." Thunder said.

"Good to know, I'll return to Canterlot and inform Celestia and Luna of the situation." Silvia explained and left the two males to sort out the packing.

Silvia found her daughters in the middle of a conversation as they walked down one of the halls in Canterlot castle. She gave them a quick summary of events and with a nod, Celestia left with a few guards to oversee Thunder's move into the palace.

Luna, however had other ideas.

"Mother, thou art wounded!" the blue alicorn exclaimed. "Come! We must see to this at once!"

"Luna, I'm fine, really." Silvia protested and her eyes widened as her child lifted her clean off the ground with her magic.

"No if ands or buts Mother, we will see to your treatment posthaste," Luna stated she walked down the all with Silvia floating behind her like a giant balloon. "I'm sure nopony will mind if we borrow the royal baths and I'll have a guard fetch the potions necessary to aid in thine recovery."

"I don't know whether to feel proud that you've recovering so quickly or annoyed that you're disregarding my authority as your mother," Silvia grumbled. "At least make sure to inform your sister of our whereabouts, I want to hold a meeting to discuss what has transpired recently after you've sigh patched me up..."

"But of course." Luna replied.

Death watched in amusement as Silvia's youngest daughter practically dragged her away while a maid happily chattered at Thunder as she led him to the medical bay to be examined by Equestria's finest doctors. Princess Celestia stood beside him and smiled at the proceedings as the two other alicorns were taken to other parts of the castle.

"Since it seems everyone is busy, perhaps I could take a moment of your time?" the princess of the sun asked. "There are a few things I would like to discuss with you."

"Well it appears I have some free time." Death replied.

"As one of Equestria's rulers and as one of The Sealed Realm's protectors I'm afraid I'm going to ask about your plans once you leave," Princess Celestia asked as she lead the horseman down the hallway. "While we have kept many establishments such as the currency and various schools of magic the many worlds from beyond the barrier are familiar with, this place is a world divided and ruled by many races and yet does suffer the level of conflict and destruction you might find elsewhere."

"You wish to know if I plan to spread word of your realm's existence to The Charred Council." Death summarized.

"Yes and while I understand the role and influence they have, this world has existed since before their rise to power and there are many, my mother included that would like this place to be left alone if a peaceful negotiation cannot be reached."" the princess explained and waked into a well decorated office.

Death sat down on one of the chairs situated near a coffee table while the sun princess sat opposite him on a large red cushion.

"Before we continue, would like refreshments?" Celestia asked as she summoned a tea set and poured herself a cup.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not, princess." the rider replied.

"Very well, so I have explained my reasoning for wishing to speak with you and while there is more I'd like to inform you of, I do have subjects to protect and while you appear to be cooperating for the most part-"

"Cooperation?" Death scoffed. "Were it not for your mother's willingness and courage to work with me there would be nothing in this realm that would keep me from doing whatever it takes to leave this place. I assure you sooner I leave the safer your world will be."

"A bold statement, yet a false one if I'm not mistaken," Celestia commented. "Your threats and mask of indifference will not fool me, nor will they fool anyone who knows my mother."

"Do you know something I don't? Please Princess enlighten me." Death sneered.

Celestia smiled warmly even as she spoke. "The power that bound Mother to the Tree of Life was a curse she placed upon herself, one which can only be broken gradually through the respect and kindness of another. Even if such things were almost unnoticeable, as long they exist in some form then the chains would break."

"You are the one who freed her are you not?" Princess Celestia asked with a grin.

Death muttered darkly under his breath.

"What would you have me do?" the horseman finally asked. "I have my own reasons for clearing the corruption from your realm as does your mother, there may come a time where we can no longer work together."

"Mother's curse is not yet fully broken though I suspect that it may continue to weaken as she does more to assist you on your journey," Celestia explained. "Please just humor her Death, she will seek the joys and comforts of small things as she travels, perhaps you might come to enjoy them as much as she does?"

"As long as it won't prove to be an inconvenience, then I suppose I could...play along, perhaps with a little incentive," Death countered. "I wouldn't be opposed to acting on your behalf, properly paid of course."

The princess mulled it over as she sipped her tea.

"I admit things may go more smoothly for the both of you if you had the crown supporting you, however I shall decide on the matter once everyone arrives to discuss things openly." she stated.

Their conversation was cut short as the door swung open and a rather irritated Silvia walked in, her mane and tail slightly damp. She took a deep breath and sat down between the rider and the princess of the sun.

"Luna is grounded." she said flatly.

"Oh dear, what did she do?" Celestia asked.

"She was too aggressive in her attempts to help me, you do not try to summon another all-sworn's core out just to check how damaged it is," Silvia grumbled. "She could have put both of us in danger since she didn't know what was she was doing."

"I assume something would have happened?"Death asked.

"At best, we would've been pulled into the Preservation of Vitality Environment or PVE for short and forced to resolve the conflict between us in a an enclosed pocket dimension," Silvia explained. "At worse she could have damaged both of our cores from the stress of the situation."

Luna looked away and mumbled an apology.

Silvia sighed "But that is something for another time, there is much to discuss. Firstly we were able to rescue Thunder however he needs time to heal, perhaps if he were to spend time learning of the modern world?"

"I have cleared some of duties to spend time teaching Luna, Thunder would be more than welcome to join her in her studies." Celestia replied.

"Good, I'll leave it you to inform him as I'm afraid we don't have the time to relax, Lillia is planning something sop it would be best to gather supplies and head to Griffinstone as soon as possible," Silvia explained. "Food, camping equipment and a reliable source of meat would be appreciated, Ponies may be herbivores but we are not."

"In that case you will need to speak to Mayor Mare in Ponyville about requesting the services of the local Ranger, She'll be able to supply you with a hunting permit." Princess Celestia replied

Author's Note

Final Edit Notes- Ok, since this thing has been sitting around for months, I polished it off as best I could with a broken keyboard.

Let me know if there are any typos.

A message from Faith Weaver
"What's the point of having phenomenal cosmic power when you can't have fun with it?"

Chapter 4

The Journey So Far...

A demon wearing the face of a princess and a forest burning with flames of life. With the Everfree cleansed Death and Silvia make haste to Canterlot.

The trip to Canterlot was an uneventful train ride, mostly due to Death and Silvia not giving the stares of the other passengers much thought and after rolling their eyes at the whispers and murmurs of the public, they walked around the city and soon found a tunnel leading down into the depths of the mountain that Canterlot was built upon.

Silvia's magic sight was in full effect as she walked ahead with Dust perched on her back, though the tunnel was dark the glow of magic present in the earth provided a trail for the all-sworn to follow as she tracked small traces of corruption further and further down. As she rounded a corner, a continuous, bright light shone from the tunnel ahead with enough intensity to cause her to yelp in pain as she was blinded and forced to return her vision to normal to recover..

"What is it?" Death asked.

"If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that I blinded myself by walking into very large concentration of crystallized magic," Silvia replied as she peered at the tunnel ahead that was made entirely out the aforementioned crystal. "On the bright side if we follow it we'll come across the source of corruption in this area."

"Very well," Death replied at motioned at the large crow still perched on the alicorn's back. "Dust, show us the way."

With a cry the bird took off and began to glow bright purple as he guided them through the caves. The tunnels twisted in almost every direction yet eventually, the adventurers were led into a clearing where the walls were covered in as much corruption as there was crystal. Two decorative stone pillars marked the entrance to something deeper in and above them a message was carved into the crystal.

"Can you read this?" The rider asked as Silvia flew up to inspect it.

"The writing looks as though it was carved in a panic or fear, enough emotion to make whoever wrote it unsteady with a blade for sure but yes I can read it," she analyzed. "It says Forgive me Ancestors, for I have sinned."

"Well isn't that charming," Death quipped and continued on. "Where to now?"

Dust landed on a crystal sticking out of the wall and cawed sadly. Death cursed under his breath and muttered something Silvia could barely hear as the reaper started taking a careful look at the tunnels that branched off in front of them.

I wonder what the Soul Arbiter's Maze is? She wondered and followed Death as he picked a direction to walk down.

"Damn this maze!" Death cursed in frustration. "This place makes no sense!"

Silvia sighed and moved past her annoyed travel companion to try and solve the issue. They had, for the fifth time, looped back to the entrance and with the crystals blocking her magic sight and Dust unable to guide them they were forced to make their way through trial and error unless they could figure out the logic behind the puzzle. As she looked around she found a carving on the walls of each tunnel and another by the entrance. A glance at the one by the entrance and a quick look at the ones on the tunnels led Silvia to a possible solution.

"Perhaps you can't figure it out due it requiring knowledge that you don't have?" she suggested. "It looks to me that this maze has a number of trails that are guided by symbols representing the different types of elemental magics that are commonplace in this realm."

"The carvings by the entrance act as a cipher for which series of tunnels go where, several lead to treasure or keys of some kind and one ends with a door, our way out," Silvia explained. "Follow me, I'll explain as we go."

"The elements, at least the ones that occur naturally are Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning, Time, Space, Light and Darkness. All have their strengths, weaknesses and uses with our way out at the end of the Path of the Fool, a sequence of elements that correspond to the creation of life. These elements in order are light, fire, earth and time. if that we follow that pattern we'll have our exit."

"Why is it called the Path of the Fool?" Death asked.

"It's derived from the old way all-sworn cast spells, they gather the correct sequence of elements, enforce their will on it to get it to do what they want and then fuel it with enough raw magic to get it to work. Each Path is a specific school of magic, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and uses," Silvia replied. "Ever since the Runic Model was introduced very few even remembered the old way, only one noble house kept the tradition of learning the..."

"By the Ancestors, I'm an idiot," Silvia said. "Only one noble house knows those calculations inside and out and hopefully the clan head still lives. For if we can find him, his skill with machines could give us an advantage over Lillia."

"And who is this clan head?" Death asked.

"Thunder Stone is one of the youngest of us but he has great skill in inventing gadgets that run on pure elemental energy, he was inspired by The Makers and often tried to replicate their craft." Silvia replied. "I hope he's alright..."

As they walked, the presence of corruption grew more prominent and Silvia grew increasingly more worried. It was a struggle to keep her composure when she wanted nothing more to tear through the place in search of her friend. In an effort to remain calm she directed her attention inward and focused on the sensation to analyze it. The why was obvious, Thunder was her friend and it had been five thousand years since she last spoke to any of her friends or her brother but she knew that spiraling into a frenzy wouldn't do any good, not when corruption was involved.

Though her logic was sound, her emotions still ran wild with two conflicting even more despite the fact that she knew rushing in would only endanger her. She switched her focus back to her surroundings as another fork in the road appeared and concentration her efforts on navigation as a distraction.

I need to stay focused on the task at hoof she thought. Stay focused and I'll stay determined.

At the end of the maze was a large metal door locked by a series of six pressure plates at the end of a tunnel. The plates themselves each had an indentation to fit something in them.

"We might need to go back and find the keys, unless you have another idea?" Silvia asked.

Death hummed in confirmation as he looked over the plates and stepped on one, it went down and a satisfying click was heard and rune lit up on the door. Much to Silvia's surprise, he suddenly turned into a stone statue of a large figure obscured by a hooded robe with skeletal arms, wings and wielding scythe as large as it was and two clones of Death, one green and one purple, appeared beside his petrified form.

"This technique doesn't use magic," The purple death clone explained. "Is it possible for you to try and copy it?"

"...I'll have to use my magic sight to do so..." Silvia replied once she found her voice and cleared her throat. "My magic sight allows me to see how magic flows in a world as well as view a person's soul, my eyes will glow blue to signify it's use and you will feel slightly uncomfortable but it is completely harmless."

"Do what you must, if you can use Soul Splitter then we have a way to progress without finding those keys." Death replied.

Silvia activated her magic and looked on in fascination as a complicated stream of Soul energy linked the clones back to Death's stone form. She could instantly see how the technique worked and began to vocalize her findings.

"This is incredible, by petrifying your physical form the energy you would naturally generate to simply exist is instead directed at your soul to form to fully functioning copies of you and everything you perceive as being needed on your person at any given time. Furthermore these copies have the strength to exist on the physical or 'living' plane instead of appearing in a spiritual plane that overlaps with this one. Finally you can send your consciousness between the two clones due to your physical form acting as the anchor for the technique, however that does give you limited range." She explained brightly.

"Are you done?" Death asked flatly. "It feels as if someone is walking on my grave."

"In a minute, I need to be sure I don't end up damaging anything when I perform the split." Silvia replied

"Fine, then look at the clone I'm not using!" he insisted.

True to her word, a minute passed and Silvia deactivated her magic and Death sighed in relief. As the horseman maneuvered his clones onto the pressure plates as his physical form rested on a third, the alicorn moved to stand on a plate and put her own effort into the technique. Everything blurred in a sea of colours and she heard the loud crack of stone as her body hardened. Her first instinct was to blink in confusion as she found herself staring down at her original body and two soul clones, one of which was a silver alicorn and the other, much to her surprise and Death's if his expression was anything to go by, was a gold, humanoid, honest-to-goodness Angel.

The angel had long hair tied back in a loose ponytail and instead of the long robes or golden armor that the winged inhabitants of The White City usually wore, this one was dressed in a simple long sleeved top and leather gloves, long pants with the end of the pant legs tucked into the pair of combat boots on her feet as well as having a belt with several pouches attached to it alongside the sheaths for her two swords.

Silvia also noticed that both clones had a long black scar that oozed black mist on their chests. With a thought she found herself in full control of the alicorn clone as if she was back in her real body.

"Well that was unexpected," She mused. "I've always wondered what I'd look like as an Angel."

"It's certainly different," Death agreed. "But can we get a move on?"

"If you insist," She replied. "Just don't laugh if I fall over when I move to my other copy."

"I think that lock was designed to keep out the local ponies as opposed to you or I," Silvia commented as the duo returned to their real bodies and walked through the unlocked door. "We're larger and heavier than ponies, so it would stand to reason that any other traps or puzzles we encounter wouldn't intentionally be there to impede our progress."

The alicorn and the horseman had walked into an underground building with pillars, pipes and important pylons for structural integrity made out some sort of golden metal with rune stones fitted into all of them and connected by glowing blue wires. The gold metal contrasted with the natural crystal the building was carved out of. The areas of the floor not covered in corruption were paved with stone and the entire interior of the place appeared half done with the different materials it was comprised of.

As Silvia looked around she noticed a slab of metal hung up a wall like a plaque, with something written on it.

"Yet more evidence this place was defended against ponies," she said and walked over to it. "It's written in Angelic."

You would think the several centuries our ancestors spent guiding the three pony tribes would amount to something. As of writing the world is frozen over and I'm certain that if anypony were to find me, they would sooner use anything I could teach them to destroy each other.

My research has been delayed due needing to renovate my workshop, a simple series of puzzles that require the three tribes to work together should keep them out, for it is my goal to create a tool immune to corruption in the hopes of saving those we've lost.

Ancestors willing, I'll see my sister again..

"Thunder was hit hard when a group of angels herded the foals at his sister's school to one of their camps and by the time we found them, every single one had been killed to expose their cores so the Hellguard could use them as batteries," Silvia explained sadly. "We recovered the cores but we could never get the children to wake up..."

They fell silent as they moved on. The path was fairly straight forward with doors locked by a combination of pressure plates, wind turbines and torches. While the plates and turbines were easily solved, the presence of torches resulted in quite the conundrum.

"I can light them." Silvia suggested.

"With your own life force?" Death replied. "No, we'll find another way."

"I thought you would appreciate getting this done quickly but if you wish to take the long way around...." Silvia said slyly.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"What magic isn't corrupted or sealed in crystal flows in the pipes throughout this area, said pipes are also heavily warded to prevent unicorns from tapping into them to boost their own power," Silvia explained. "I however am no unicorn, given enough time I should be able to hijack the mana flow and use it for whatever we need as long as we're down here."

"How long will it take?" Death asked.

"A few minutes if I focus, however that will leave me vulnerable to attack and once I begin the workshops defenses will surely activate to stop me...." she replied. "You'll have to do what you can to protect me as I'll only be aware of threats that have managed to get close."

"Fair enough." Death replied.

Silvia walked over to a nearby pipe and activated her magic sight, the flow of magic and the runes guarding it flared into view. She sat down and focused, she pushed her sense out around her and felt a rush as sight, sound, touch and magic sense expanded past the limits of her physical form. With her sensory field acting as a defense she concentrated on the runes before her.

"Starting now." she said and enforced her will upon the runes.

Alarms were triggered as the alicorn began her work. The structure of the rune circle expanded into a block of symbols that she looked over with a critical eye, the metaphorical gears in her brain moving at a fast pace to figure the logic behind the ward. a crystal golem had slipped past Death and entered her sensory field and was quick destroyed as her wing flicked out and her sword was driven through its head by sheer strength alone.

The short distraction of a threat compelled her to work at a faster rate and she grew excited as she cracked the logic behind the ward, a simple game of matching pairs of runes. Silvia felt the familiar rush of a new challenge to sink her mind into and started solving the puzzle of the ward as fast as she could manage. She moved at a steady rhythm and used the sounds of combat as her beat while she worked, her progress paused every now and then to stab a stray enemy that got too close.

She found herself feeling satisfied and yet wanting more as she finished breaking the ward and tapped into the flow of magic. With magic back in her system she felt lighter, more alert and more capable than ever. A few corruption fueled golems still roamed the area as Death moved from one to the next to cut them down. Silvia grinned impishly, she had magic and she might as well use it.

A simple spell came to mind and she cast it with a single thought. Orbs of golden light appeared around her as her horn glowed in a silver aura. With a mental command the orbs flew towards the remaining enemies and destroyed them with bright bursts of magical energy while the torch that barred their way was lit and the door unlocked.

With the danger passed the all-sworn and the horseman headed into the next room. The place had broken pipes and snapped wires on the ground with shapes marked out on the floor and walls by an absence of dust to show that something had once stood in the room connected to the equipment. Light streamed down from holes in ceiling, bent at strange angles as it reflected off the crystals above it.

Silvia stood frozen in horror at the rooms occupants. The corpses of ponies with leathery skin pulled tight over bones faded patches of fur and strands of hair in lieu of a mane or tail shambled around the room with blank stares. The majority were unicorns of the upper classes of society based on the tattered rags some still had clinging to their frame but some pegasi, still garbed in royal guard armor that long since rusted shuffled around as well, their wings hanging limp at their sides.

Silvia tried to form words but none would come, she felt a strong need to help the walking dead, to find a cause and give them their last rites but even those instincts were pushed aside by what she was seeing and the memories that came with it. In a bid to keep her sanity, Silvia forced herself to back into the previous room and stared at a wall as she tried to put her gradually panicking mind back into a state of calm.

"Are you alright?" Death asked. "We need to keep moving."

"I know, Death just give me a moment," Silvia replied and found herself explaining her situation. "Every all-sworn is driven to protect and preserve life no matter where we find it. It's simply what we do, we find a world and guide it's inhabitants to a better, brighter future..."

"Though we are Immortal the permanent death of one of our kind can still happen," she continued. "For instance foals of a certain age don't have fully developed cores and not only does it mean they are incapable of reincarnation but those cores can be broken. Should a fully grown all-sworn suffer enough emotional trauma that will impact their core and damage it to the point where they are left crippled, such as myself."

"Those corpses, it's wrong," she stated. "They shouldn't be like that and my very soul is screaming at me to fix it, to help them but I can't. There's only so much magic I can tap into before we trigger another alarm and eventually there will be a point where I can't draw anymore from it without damaging something and bringing the place down on our heads...."

"Then the most we can do is give a swift end." Death stated.

"I'll let you handle that horseman, I'll follow on once the room has been cleared." Silvia stated.

Author's Note

That's the first part of this dungeon done, the journey will resume next chapter!

Originally the entire dungeon and dungeon boss was going to be one chapter, but after i worked out what I wanted to show and do for this part of the story I realized it might be best to tackle it one portion at a time.

Let me know if you spot any typos!