Fear the Blood

by FoughtDragon01

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 10636

The will to survive is put to the test when a small band of explorers is thrust into a breakneck fight for their lives as unthinkable nightmares plague the utopian nation of Equestria.

Equestria had reached a golden age. One granted to them by the Divines that have long since ascended from their mortal plane of existence.

Seemingly overnight, the impossible became mere second nature. Pegasi capable of advanced magic. Earth ponies and unicorns granted flight. Ponies with the strength to lift unfeasible weights with ease. It all came together to usher in a new era of advancement that even Equestria's most enlightened of scholars could have only dreamed of.

None knew where it all came from nor why they were given such a blessing, and before long, not many cared.

For decades, all seemed right in the world. But then something changed.

Ponies began to disappear. Blood-curdling screams sounded in the night. Most thought nothing of it. Most ignored the signs. Most would never predict the approaching cataclysm destined to ravage their home. They would soon learn that the very thing that empowered them would be the thing that undoes them.

For a small group of ponies, this becomes all too true when a simple expedition turns into a desperate fight for survival as their homeland devolves into chaos. For them, and many others, it becomes not a matter of escaping their fate, but of how long they can run from it.

For no matter the era, no matter the nation, the timeless adage shall always hold true.

Fear the old blood.

Author's Note: Tagged as a [Crossover] for simplicity's sake. While the story does borrow heavily from Bloodborne, it's less of a typical crossover and more my personal interpretation of what Equestria would've been like had they found something similar to the Old Blood, and what it was like just before things went to hell. Knowledge of the game is completely unnecessary.

Published 2017-08-18 22:40:05 UTC
Last updated 2017-08-18 22:40:05 UTC

Chapter 01: Another Day

“I spy something... brown!”

Having stated her challenge, the cream-colored filly beamed eagerly at the mare sitting opposite her in the carriage, the older pony lazily resting her head on one of her forehooves. Her bleary blinking just slightly out of sync, the mare’s response—or rather, the most that her tired mind could muster—was something caught between a sigh and a yawn. The action did little to dim the filly’s bright smile.

Humoring the young pony, the mare turned her gaze to the forest green beyond the carriage window. “Hmm... Let’s see...” she muttered, words slightly slurred by the fatigue. Her lips pulled up into a slight smile as she absorbed the lush forest flora, letting herself grow lost in both the greenery as well as the tauntingly rhythmic rocking of the carriage that carried them.

She sighed in bliss as the world before her grew blurry, the edges of her sight growing dark, her mind’s eye replacing those slightly greyed, overcast trees with far more vivid plantation. Perhaps if she indulged herself for just a few moments...

“Axle!”

Reawakening with a sharp yelp, the mare nearly smacked her head against the window frame, so forcefully was she yanked from her dreams. Shaking the sense back into her mind, Axle turned her attention back towards the source of that shrill cry.

“C’mooooon,” the filly whined, her lips puffed up in a pout. “You said you’d stay up with me.”

Sheepishly, Axle chuckled, scratching the back of her head. At the very least, the sudden jolt of adrenaline did wonders to wake her up. She had to be honest, though: between their early morning start, pre-travel preparations, and the traveling itself, how that furry ball of energy managed to last so long with no sleep, she’d never know.

“Yes, I suppose I did,” she finally yielded. Clearing her throat, she regarded the young filly with a warm smile. “Now, what was the color again? Er, blue?”

“Brown.”

“Ah, yes, yes, I said that.” Axle turned a clearer mind towards the world outside. “The… dirt?”

Immediately, the filly shook her head. “Nope!”

A huff of air escaped Axle’s nostrils. “The tree bark?”

Again, the filly shook her head.

“Oh, Powers Above…” she muttered. Turning her attention away from the outside, she focused instead on the oaken walls of the carriage. More of an orange-brown, true, but close enough in Axle’s mind. “The carriage, then!” she answered, perhaps a bit louder than she intended.

Still, the filly didn’t falter as she shook her head for the third and final time. “Nope!”

Axle was not very good at ‘I Spy’, evidently.

“Then I give up,” she blurted, tossing her hooves in the air, basically tossing away her pride with it. She leaned back in her seat, crossing her forelegs in a defeated huff. “What is it?”

Somehow, the filly‘s grin only grew wider, fueled by the invigorating sense of triumph, as she revealed the answer. “Your coat!” She punctuated herself with a light prod against Axle’s chest. “I thought that’d be an easy one for you.”

Axle, for the life of her, could never hope to explain why the answer shocked her as much as it did, but it did, enough for the revelation to make her eyes go wide in dumbfounded surprise.

“Wha—? Wait, excuse me?” she sputtered, turning a confused gaze down at her furry figure. “Cart Wheel, this isn’t brown. It’s beige! Those are two completely different colors!”’

Cart Wheel brought a hoof to her chin, humming as she pondered on Axle’s argument. For a single fleeting moment, Axle honestly thought that she was considering it. How silly of her. “Well... beige is just a shade of brown,” the filly countered. “So it still counts!”

“But that’s—! Y-you can’t—! Th-they’re not even—!”

Now, in Axle’s defense, it had been a fairly lengthy carriage ride, fatigue had long since clouded her senses, and the sheer smugness behind Cart Wheel’s tone—a tone she may or may not have picked up from Axle herself—made her want to throttle the filly. With love, of course.

She had a number of reasons for why she was outsmarted by a pony less than half her age. Those reasons did little to keep her from tossing her head back into her seat, an aggravated sigh exploding from her muzzle. And, as was the case with family, her woes left Cart Wheel in a giggling fit.

Let it never be said that Axle wasn’t a patient sister.

“You gotta admit, Ax. She had a point there.”

Axle’s ears twitched as they picked up the mare’s voice, her face twisting into an annoyed scowl. Picking herself up in her seat, she turned towards a small window cut into the front of the carriage. She peered through it, eyes burning into the back of the skull of the lone red pegasus pulling the carriage down the forest path. “Unless you’re going to side with me, Ruby, I don’t want to hear it. Do I look even remotely brown to you?”

Ruby never glanced back, though she did shrug her indifference. Then again, Axle didn‘t need to see her face to feel the smirk plastered across it. The pegasus chuckled lightly. “Well, if you’re beige... then yeah, you do. But if you wanna argue semantics, be my guest.”

Axle’s mouth opened of its own accord, a colorful retort at the tip of her tongue. The growing ache in her skull, however, wisely suggested that she just abandon the topic before it grew worse. “How much farther before we reach the temple?" she asked, changing the subject for her own sake.

Ruby turned a sidelong smile towards Axle. ”Aw, what? Getting sick of me already?” Chuckling, and conveniently avoiding the mare’s glare, Ruby refocused on the road ahead. “Should be getting there in a few more minutes. Five, tops. Just be sure to—”

“Thank you," Axle said, curt. Turning away from the pegasus, she slid back down into her seat as she refocused on the young filly still absentmindedly bouncing atop her own.

It’d be nothing short of a lie if Axle said that the sight didn’t fill her with a much-needed sense of relief. After all of the convincing it took for their parents to let the filly come along on one of her assignments, lingering thoughts that Cart Wheel wouldn’t care for such a trip never stopped scratching at the back of the mare’s mind.

However, in all of her worry, Axle had forgotten that it had been a fair number of years since she was Cart Wheel’s age. As a result, she made the age-old mistake of underestimating the energy that foalhood youth provided. That, combined with the natural excitement that came with finally leaving the cramped safety of her parents’ gaze meant Axle could only speculate on what must’ve been coursing through the filly’s veins.

“Getting excited, aren’t you, Wheely?”

Cart Wheel nodded eagerly, her smile wider than Axle’s.

Chuckling, Axle leaned back comfortably in her seat, not-so-subtly letting her sister’s eagerness sink into her ego. “Well, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. This is no walk through Canterlot Park. We still have ground rules to cover.”

And just like that, all of the joy vanished from her young sister’s face as though someone pulled a drain plug. “What? But we’ve already gone over the ground rules a thousand times!”

Axle only snorted. Her own smile hardly budged. “Honestly, Wheely, you’re exaggerating. We only just broke five-hundred the other night.” Axle capped herself off with a smile dripping with saccharine sweet innocence.

The obligatory moment of silence ticked by. Axle, quite frankly, thought that the joke was quite clever. Unfortunately, Cart Wheel did not share the same sentiments, her flat expression managing to put planks of wood to shame. “That wasn’t funny.”

With a roll of the eyes, Axle’s light-hearted expression faded, her face tightening into a stern gaze. Cart Wheel, even with all of her jubilant energy mere moments ago, couldn’t help but shrink under her older sibling’s glare.

“In all seriousness,” Axle began, “it took Mother and Father no small amount of convincing before they allowed me to bring you along this time. I’d rather not prove their worries right due to carelessness.” Her gaze sharpened even further. “You know how I feel about carelessness.”

Cart Wheel scraped nervously at her seat. “You hate it.”

“Despise it,” Axle affirmed. “Especially during an expedition. Granted, these particular ruins may not hide as many dangers as others that Ruby and I’ve explored, but they are still dangerous.”

Cart Wheel snorted, defiance clear in the action. “Dangerous?” she parroted. “What’s so dangerous about some old ruins?”

Axle shook her head, a pitying glint flashing across her gaze. Youths were just as eager to approach danger as they were ignorant of it. “See, that very same question is what many young explorers ask before they... disappear.” For emphasis, she waved her hooves about in a vaguely mysterious manner. Not terribly effective, true, but enough to make Cart Wheel nervously fidget in her seat.

“Dis… Disappear? What gets them, do you think?” the filly asked, no small amount of fear in her eyes.

“Oh, it’d be simpler to ask what doesn’t get them. You have bacteria, choking dust, pitch black darkness at times, unstable architecture, potentially dangerous creatures residing inside, rogue ponies, and, most dangerous of all... skeletons.”

Though Cart Wheel showed increasing worry at the numerous things Axle listed off, that last item only left her arching a confused eyebrow. “Skeletons? They’re dangerous?”

Axle nodded. “If they come to life? Very.”

Another moment of silence passed by. Through the stone-still facade that was Cart Wheel’s face, Axle was certain that she saw the poor filly trying to make sense of what she’d just heard. The effort manifested itself on her face as two quick blinks. “Okay, now I know you’re messing with me.”

Perhaps what Axle did next was unbecoming of her. She was, after all, the elder sibling; it was her duty to set a decent example for her sister to follow. However, Cart Wheel’s accusation made any form of logical restraint impossible.

The filly jumped back as Axle exploded with laughter, the older mare falling off to the side, hooves clutching at her stomach as she gasped for breaths in between each bellowing guffaw. “Oh, my goodness,” she breathed out, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Ru-Ruby! Wheely thinks that I’m joking about the skeletons!”

A slight delay followed, as though a second had to be taken in order to process the statement, before another wave of laughter erupted from the outside. “Really?! Hah, she’s so innocent! We gotta tell her about that one of these days!”

Calming down, Axle picked herself back up, a single hoof wiping the tears away as a few more chuckles passed through her lips. “Oh, goodness me...” But before Cart Wheel could voice any more of her hopeless confusion, the words came to a dead halt in her throat when Axle, in the literal blink of an eye, beared down upon her with a chillingly hard gaze. The sheer weight of it alone froze the filly in place. “But seriously,” Axle began, voice low and foreboding, “don’t ever let me catch you so much as reading about necromancy.”

Perhaps Cart should’ve felt more of something: fear, intimidation, obedience, something of that sort. But somehow, her sister’s overly serious expression only brought a slight smile to her face. A sly one, at that. “Okay,” she began, “I won’t let you catch me reading about it. Or taking notes. Or practicing it in the basement with a rabbit I found on the side of the road.”

For a moment, Axle’s expression only hardened further, bearing down on Cart Wheel with a solemn, scrutinizing gaze. However, her own amused smile soon shattered that facade. Without warning, a beige hoof shot out, poking her sister in her very pokable belly.

As the two sisters shared in their laughter, the carriage finally slowed to a stop. “Okay, everypony!” Ruby called. “We have arrived at our destination! Welcome to Abandoned Ruins Number Three Hundred and Seventy-Six! Hop on out!”

The carriage door creaked open, and Axle stepped out shortly after, saddlebags strapped to her back. Perhaps it was just natural, her being an earth pony, but touching down on the cool, damp soil after spending hours in that cramped, wooden carriage sent waves of warmth flowing throughout her body. A welcome sensation, given the chilling winds brushing past her form. Taking a moment to stretch out her taut muscles, Axle took in a deep breath, relishing in the fresh outdoor air that rushed into her nostrils.

As she turned a cursory glance towards the ruins lying not far from the trio, she smiled slightly. Ruby always did have a knack for picking... interesting locales.

‘Interesting’ certainly was one way of describing it. Most in Axle’s position would've found themselves at the mouths of dank caves or at the entrances of small, run-down towns. Pairing up with Ruby, however, led her to more... cultured locations, for lack of a better term.

Though obviously far past its prime, the crumbling remains of the temple before her still retained remnants of its hallowed purposes. The once mighty columns that lined up before the structure, like unyielding sentries, lay off to the side in piles of stony debris, only a select few stubs still left standing.

Not even the high and mighty statues of alicorns, no doubt the idols of worship, were left unsullied. Wings and limbs were rent from their respective owners, bits of them still littering the ground. Some were missing their top halves entirely, only their hind legs serving as testament to their once tall and proud stature.

The temple itself seemed to be in the least state of disrepair, though that said little. It was just the only thing there that didn’t decorate the surrounding land with bits of its shattered corpse.

Once pristine, white stone fell victim to the trials of time, decades of erosion stripping away its luster, leaving only withered, gray walls behind. Slithering vines and other such underbrush scaled those same broken walls, some creeping in through holes punched into the stone. It almost seemed as though nature itself was claiming the temple as its own.

Despite the bits and pieces of debris and vegetation in their path, the stairs leading up to the structure were still climbable, so there was that at the very least. The doors had long since been gone, though, and part of the roof was caved in. Again, perhaps not in the best state of repair.

To most ponies, the sight would’ve been disheartening—harrowing, for some—due to the blatant desecration on display, pony-made or not. For Axle, however, the frown on her face came from the thought that time may very well have taken away her chance of finding anything of architectural value within that empty shell. Such temples, so common in the past, were a rarity to come across in her time; it’d be a shame to let their existence be forgotten by history, to let ponies forget how simple things were in the yesteryears.

So lost in her own worries she was, Axle nearly failed to notice the small bundle of fur and energy brushing right past her.

As was typical with the younger and more energetic, where Axle merely stepped out of the carriage, Cart Wheel bounced out, a wide smile plastered onto her face. “We’re here! We’re here! We’re here!” she said in between each hop.

Each hop, conveniently enough, carried her closer and closer towards the temple, the young filly eager to explore its depths. She didn’t get far, though, before a firm hoof planted itself on her back, keeping her hooves on the ground both figuratively and literally.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Cart Wheel whinnied, glaring up at the source of her containment. That glare, however, quickly withered under the disapproving gaze of her sister.

Axle said nothing initially, though the stern gleam in her eyes certainly hinted at some choice words. Instead, she just shook her head, the textbook gesture of the slightly annoyed older sibling. “Do you see now? This is precisely why I wanted us to go over the rules again.” She took her hoof off of Cart’s back, her glare doing a more than efficient job of holding the filly in place. “Now, tell me. What’s rule number one?”

Cart Wheel pouted, the most defiant act she felt she could risk while under her sister’s gaze. Hardly a second or two ticked by before she set her sights on the ground, a hoof pawing at the dirt. “‘Stay close to your big sister’,” she answered begrudgingly.

Smiling, Axle nooded, resting a gentle, reassuring hoof on Cart Wheel’s shoulder. “That’s my girl.”

“Okay, you two ready?” The pair of ponies turned their gazes towards Ruby as the pegasus trotted up to them.

Axle turned a quick glance towards the sizeable wagon attached to the back of the carriage, a single brow arched in skepticism. “And our transportation will survive the journey back this time, yes?”

At the question, Ruby turned a confused gaze towards the mare. “Why’re you asking me? What, you losing confidence in your own work or something?”

“Not so much losing confidence as I am gaining justifiable worry. I’ve already put enough effort into this little carriage-wagon combo. I’d rather not lose it because it fell down another cliff...”

Slightly amused by her friend’s paranoia, Ruby chuckled. “Come on, Ax. That’s not— ”

“...or was set ablaze...” Axle continued.

Amusement faltering slightly, Ruby managed another, more sheepish laugh. “H-hey, I told you I’m not good at handling lanterns.”

Axle’s gaze only sharpened. “...or because it was submerged in a damn lake.”

And then the amusement vanished. “Hey!" Ruby quickly pointed a defensive hoof towards Axle. “Now that could’ve happened to anypony!”

“Oh!” Cart Wheel chirped. “What about the one you lost in a poker game with diamond dogs?” She giggled playfully. “That was funny!”

“Yes, Ruby,” Axle said, gaze still flat. “What about that one?”

A long series of seconds ticked by as Ruby stood in stunned silence, wide eyes set right on the beaming filly. “I— Y-you...” Finally, she just sighed. “Thanks for the back-up, kid,” she said, sarcasm practically dripping from her chin. “Can always count on you.”

“You’re welcome!” Cart Wheel’s enthusiasm only earned her another sigh from Ruby.

Rubbing a hoof on her forehead, the pegasus turned her attention back towards Axle. “Look, how about we focus on what we came here for first, then worry about getting everything back in one piece, ‘kay?”

Axle only shrugged, still woefully unconvinced. “Well, that’s just another worry to add to the laundry list, then.” She turned her gaze skyward, squinting in slight pain as her eyes adjusted to the bright grey overcast above. It was difficult to accurately determine the time without the sun’s presence, but given that their journey began in the early morning, it only made logical sense that it was a ways into the afternoon. It wouldn‘t be long before evening fell. Then night.

“We will have to do this quickly,” Axle said, looking back down at Ruby. “Before night falls.”

Ruby nodded. “And we will. Like we always do... sometimes.” The glare she received from Axle provided more than enough motivation to continue. “Relax. Push comes to shove, we just stick to the main roads. Still, not gonna get much done making angry faces at me, will we? Now...” Ruby reached a hoof into her saddlebags. After a few seconds of rummaging about its contents, she came out with a vial of dark, viscous liquid in hoof. “...stop fussing, be a good girl, and take your medicine.”

Seeing the vial, the faintest glint of fear flashed in Axle’s eyes, but she accepted it all the same. After a moment of hesitation, looking the vial over, watching the odd liquid slush about within its container, she brought the vial to her lips. An uneasy feeling in her gut had already formed from just looking at the concoction, and that feeling only worsened as she felt the thick liquid slither its way past her lips.

The moment it touched her tongue, however, it took every ounce of willpower to not spit it back out. No, it didn’t matter how many times she took that blasted potion in the past, the rancid taste was something that nopony should’ve ever had to subject themselves too. Even after forcing the vile liquid down her throat, the taste lingered on her tongue, as though she just licked the backside of a cow.

Needless to say, her little display left Cart Wheel looking less than eager, her eyes nervously eyeing the vial as Axle’s attention fell upon her. The dry heaving did little to calm her down. “Okay...” Axle began, fur already tinted a sickly green. “Ugh... Your turn.”

Of its own volition, Cart Wheel’s body took a single step back. “Wh-what is it?”

“Keeps you from catching anything in the temple. Stuff in the air, and all that,” Ruby answered. “Tastes like crap, but it beats having something the size of a parasprite’s testicle eating you from the inside-out.”

“Parasprites don’t have testicles,” Axle groaned just before another dry heave assaulted her. Still, the green tinge across her fur was quick to fade, so she already appeared to be recovering. “No arguing, Wheely. You aren’t—ugh, Gods above—You aren’t going in there with me unless you drink this first. You just need to take one small sip and that will be it.”

Axle held the vial up to the apprehensive filly. The hesitation was clear on Cart Wheel’s face, but so was the unwavering sternness on Axle’s. There was no getting around it.

Slowly, Cart Wheel took the vial, holding it at leg’s length as though it were a poisonous snake. Quickly, her eyes darted back up to Axle, desperately searching for any signs of compassion. She found none.

Gulping, the young filly, slowly, with trembling hooves, brought the vial to her lips. Perhaps one sip wouldn’t be that bad...

“Man, I didn’t think weak stomachs’d be a thing in your family. Oh, how wrong was I.” The smirk on Ruby’s face was nothing short of insufferable as she chugged down the last of that rancid liquid, her face not so much as flinching as she swallowed it down.

Following Ruby up the temple steps, Axle could’ve set fire to the surrounding forest with the glare that she had set on the back of her head. Unfortunately, the impenetrable shield that was Ruby’s ego left her very much unscathed. “I’d sooner give my sister Equestria’s strongest liquor before giving her another swig of that hideous concoction you call a potion.”

A pained groan brought Axle’s attention to her back, where an utterly green Cart Wheel lay, eyes still knocked silly from the sheer shock that the potion left on her senses. “I wanna get off this ride, Mommy,” she moaned, delirious.

As they reached the top of the stairs, and as a result, the temple’s entryway, Ruby merely shrugged. “Hey, if it works, it works. Have any complaints? Take it up with the zebras. Maybe they can put some honey in it next time.”

Another retort clawed its way up Axle’s throat, but she wisely held it in, refocusing her attention on what truly mattered. “Let’s just make this quick,” she muttered, starting past Ruby and towards the temple proper.

As she approached the dark void that was the entrance, unable to see anything past the swirling wall of dust, Axle felt an all too familiar sensation bubble up in her stomach. It didn’t matter how many abandoned mines or ruins she’d visited in the past, that initial sense of not knowing what to expect in the darkness, whether it be an ancient artifact or another creature of the night waiting to lash out, filled her with an intoxicating sense of fear and excitement. Similar to what an adrenaline-junkie must’ve felt before performing a dangerous stunt. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t completely rid herself of that slight smile, no matter how hard she tried.

Ruby stepped up to the doorway alongside Axle. They both peered into the dusty darkness beyond, not necessarily trying to see, but getting lost in the black void as all focus shifted towards their ears. “Hear anything?” Ruby asked.

Axle’s eyes narrowed, her ears straining in tandem as she stood there, only the distant cries of birds and other wildlife breaking the silence. From within the temple’s depths, however, she heard very little. Small rocks blowing across the floor. Pieces of debris crumbling from their foundations. The gentle breeze of the wind through her ears. No breathing. No snoring. No eager growling.

Finally, Axle shook her head. “Nothing immediately life-threatening. What about you?”

“Same. So at least my sources were right on that one. Nothing too dangerous this time. Still, best we stay careful.” Stepping back from the doorway, Ruby, with an overly dramatic gesture, motioned for Axle to enter. “By all means, after you.”

Huffing, Axle regarded the pegasus with a slight glare before refocusing on the temple.

Stepping across the threshold, she felt the dust in the doorway shift and wrap around her form, breaking apart and granting her entry. Even with the streaks of gray light shining through the ruined ceiling, it only served to illuminate a small circle not far from the entrance, nothing but inky black darkness awaiting beyond. Though her face remained hard, Axle swallowed a lump in her throat, her heart thumping in her ears as she stepped outside the safety and visibility of the light.

For too many agonizingly long seconds, she was swallowed by the dark void. Anything could’ve been mere inches in front of her, something that she failed to notice before, and she would’ve been none the wiser until it was too late. Only when her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness could she see the temple’s interior properly.

She breathed a soft, relieved sigh when she spotted no immediate threat, her mind at last able to properly absorb her surroundings.

As expected, the temple was just as ruined and decrepit inside as it was out. Though its interior offered very little in terms of decor, it being essentially a single box, what it did have to show lay in ruin. Framed paintings that once adorned the walls found their places on the ground, the frames cracked and broken while the paintings themselves were torn and faded beyond recognition.

At her hooves rested what was once a soft, majestic carpet that continued all the way to the other side of the room. Likely a much appreciated splash of color in the otherwise drab environment. Decades of neglect, however, were not kind, leaving it dried and jagged, its deep red pigment washed away to a pale tint. Looking even more closely, she could even make out the untwined remnants of dulled gold trimming sticking out from the shell of a carpet.

Axle’s lips fell into a soft frown. Such beauty, forever lost to the sands of time.

Her gaze followed the carpet all the way to the other end of the temple, quickly noting the rows of rotting, dust-covered pews flanking either side of it. Her eyes finally fell upon the focal point of the room: a small shrine resting in front of a pedestal, no doubt where a preacher of some description used to sing praise to the powers beyond their plane of existence.

There was little more to it, Axle had to admit. Even after approaching it and looking it over, any traces of worship were gone, save for a small bundle of long dead flowers placed at the base. However, if the large sun etched into the wall behind the shrine gave any reliable indication, it wasn’t terribly difficult to determine the target of that particular temple’s worship.

"Oh, hey!" Axle gave a quick cry of protest as she felt two tiny hooves plant themselves on top of her head. Well, she certainly recovered more quickly than Axle expected. Peering over her sister, Cart Wheel's curious eyes locked onto the sun emblem etched into the wall. “I didn't know we were going to a Celestial temple! Oh, I've never been in one before! This is so exciting!" But to Axle's immense relief, before Cart Wheel could get lost in another bouncing fit, her face fell into a frown as she looked over the rest of that grey shell of a temple. "Wait. Why is it so... bleh in here?"

Axle only just barely suppressed a chuckle. 'Bleh'. A surprisingly apt choice of words. "Well, this place is considered abandoned for a reason."

That did little to sate the filly's curiosity. She sat back down on Axle's back, confused eyes meeting Axle's own. "But why? I thought ponies really liked these temples."

"Well... they do. Temples that were created and maintained by the Cosmic Circle." Axle made a wide, waving gesture at the rest of the decrepit interior. "Ones of this nature, while quite common ages ago, were simple structures built by simple ponies wishing to show worship and admiration to those responsible for creating the Equestria that we know today. Unfortunately, they became obsolete once the Circle grew in power." Her lips curled into an absentminded frown as she bounced that name around in her head.

The Cosmic Circle. Such an odd story of growth if Axle had ever heard one. She liked to consider herself as something of a historian-in-training, exciting as that sounded. From what few books she could get her hooves on, she gained a basic understanding of the origins concerning Equestria's numerous kings and queens.

True, not many of them were tales of some orphan who grew to fame through luck and dedication. No, they were, for the most part, mere heirs. Nothing terribly extraordinary. But still, she knew of them, and where they came from. She could not say the same for the Cosmic Circle, or the Sects that they created.

Granted, there was documentation on the more subtle changes. Slowly changing attire, ponies proclaiming their faith to the Powers Above far more frequently, small things like that. Only when massive temples were erected throughout Equestria did others finally take notice of the Circle’s presence. Not that many were against them. As far as concerns went, most didn't seem to notice or care about where the Cosmic Circle came from, only that they sought to further preach the names of the Powers Above, and that was apparently enough.

With the power that they held over the nation, it wasn't as though they appeared from nowhere, gaining rule overnight. Yet that was exactly what it felt like. No matter how far back in history Axle searched, she couldn’t find anything so much as hinting at where the Circle came from. She couldn’t even find anything on its various members, founders and all. It just made no sense. How such a massive power could have next to nothing on their origins, she’d never know. She likely never would, either.

Axle let out a brief chuckle as she refocused on the then and there. “I suppose you wouldn’t mind a short history lesson, Wheely?” Of course she wasn’t expecting a positive response, the question more an attempt at familial small talk, but she also couldn’t say that she expected no response at all. “Wheely?” she called, lips falling back into a concerned frown.

“Axle, you’re not hurt, are you?”

Axle only arched a confused brow at the question. She looked back to find Cart Wheel scanning the mare’s body with a disturbingly scrutinous gaze, enough to make Axle fidget just slightly in awkward discomfort. “Wheely… What are you talking about?”

Evidently finding nothing unusual, Cart Wheel’s own confusion appeared on her face as she looked back up at Axle. “Wait. You didn’t cut yourself?”

“No,” Axle said as though it were obvious, which, frankly, it was. “On what, even?”

“On that.” Cart Wheel pointed towards something off to the side.

Axle followed the filly's hoof to one of the nearby pews. It took her a moment of squinting, the mare nearly dismissing Cart Wheel's worries as just another case of foalish paranoia, but her eyes soon locked onto a single rusty nail jutting out from the decayed wood.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she spotted the source of her sister’s anxiety. It was faint in the dim light, easy to miss, but that slight glisten covering the nail was still there. Still red.

"Still fresh..." Axle muttered. Fresh, wet blood coated the nail in a slick veil. Blood that certainly didn’t belong to any of the mares present.

A pang of adrenaline swelled in her chest, the mare tensing up as her cautious eyes, sharper than before, scanned her surroundings yet again.

Nothing. Just like her initial search, she found nothing, yet the increasing panic in her breathing refused to cease. Blood that fresh—still wet and glistening—was not something to be so quickly dismissed. Somepony was either just there, or still was.

Her attention turned back towards Ruby. She found the pegasus studying a large pile of rubble with a sharp, scrutinizing gaze, seemingly unaware of Axle's discovery.

"Ruby?" Axle called, trying and failing to mask the worry in her voice. "Do you have a moment?”

Her voice tore the pegasus from her concentration. "Huh? Oh, uh, y-yeah, what’s up?"

Axle's face only further creased with worry. She didn't like the uncertainty in Ruby's voice. No, not in a place like that; uncertainty was the very last thing that they needed. "Would you mind explaining why there is blood here? Fresh blood? Someone accidentally cut themselves on a nail. Recently, at that."

Concentration fixed itself on Ruby's face as she brought her gaze over to her companion. "Yeah, I noticed. Can't be more than an hour old."

For the briefest of moments, Axle flinched back in surprise. "You... knew?" Just as quickly as it appeared, Axle’s surprise gave way to annoyance. "And you didn't tell me?" she hissed. She wanted to yell. Goodness, did she want to yell, but the possible presence of an unknown threat amongst those ruins was just enough to keep her voice under control.

"I mean, I was going to, but then I noticed... this." Ruby motioned towards the rubble. Axle arched a brow, more than enough to prompt her to continue. She gently planted a hoof on the pile. "These rocks... Something’s off about ‘em.”

Axle’s face creased in skepticism as she turned her attention towards the rubble. “What about them? I mean, yes, it is quite a large amount of debris,” she admitted, walking towards the pile, “but it’s likely just from when the roof collapsed. What’s so unusual about that?”

“Well, yeah, this is from the collapsed roof.” Ruby pointed towards a point on the ceiling a fair ways away. “But look at where the hole is.”

While Ruby’s guidance was appreciated, Axle didn’t need much help in spotting the gaping hole in the ceiling. The gaping hole that was a significant distance away from the rubble that it left behind. The anxiety in Axle’s gut only worsened as she understood Ruby’s concerns; no matter what caused the collapse, there was no way that the pile of debris would’ve ended up where it was.

Further confusion painted Axle’s features as she viewed the rubble in a new light. “Wait. Are you saying that somepony moved all of this?”

Ruby’s face remained hard as she nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

"Maybe they were trying to hide something," Cart Wheel said, finally speaking up.

"Maybe," Ruby muttered. “There’s supposed to be a door leading into the cellar somewhere in here. Haven’t actually found the door yet, so…” She rapped a hoof against the pile of rocks. “Guess where it might be.”

The confusion had yet to leave Axle’s face. “And you think somepony, or at least something, is hiding down there?”

Ruby only shrugged. “Look, it’s possible. Point is, we're here to find... something, and there's only one place left to look. That 'something' might be down there, or it might not. We won't find out standing here.” With an overly dramatic crack of the neck, Ruby walked up and planted her two forelegs firmly on the rubble. She pressed against it slightly, testing the waters, it seemed. Given the smile that cracked across her face, she liked what she saw.

She pushed on the rubble again, teeth gritted in exertion as she pressed harder against it. Not even a few seconds later, the telltale sound of stone scraping against stone broke the temple’s heavy silence as Ruby shoved the first of many weighty stone slabs out of the way.

Hardly small rocks, they were, the vast majority of the debris blocking their way undoubtedly heavier than the three ponies combined five times over. Yet piece by piece, rock by rock, Ruby picked the pile apart, each discarded chunk of stone slamming against the floor with a tremorous thud.

Axle wisely gave the pegasus space to work while her young sibling merely stared, unable to form coherent words as she stared at the extraordinary sight. “Wha...? H-how is she even…?”

Axle chuckled, hardly able to blame her. When she first witnessed such feats of strength, she was just a filly, her greatest accomplishment at the time being finally able to lift one of her father’s swords an inch off of the ground. As a result, it was fairly simply to imagine the sheer dumbfounded wonder filling her brain when one day, she saw a tiny stick of stallion hauling a cart filled to the brim with iron and gold ore as though it were a pillow filled with slightly heavier pillows.

So casually he had trotted by, even turning a quick smile her way, not having broken so much as a sweat. A simple enough gesture, but it had just left her wondering if what she saw was even real or just some extremely elaborate trick of the eyes. Even at her young age, she had known that no amount of milk and vegetables would ever make her that strong.

And that was only one instance. One type of instance at that.

Following that particular incident, she’d witnessed other sights that simply should’ve been impossible. Earth ponies flying on ethereal wings. Pegasi casting spells with a mere thought. Fillies hardly up to their fathers’ chins able to carry things on their own that even the burliest of stallions would struggle with.

But, of course, in her youthful ignorance, she remained oblivious to the things that were obvious to everypony else. When she had finally begun asking questions, it didn’t take long before she had found the connection between each and every one of those odd sightings.

Biothaumaturgy. Or, to put it more bluntly, blood magic.

A curious art introduced into Equestria by the Cosmic Circle, and just like the Circle, she knew little of its origins; even less about how such an art functioned. It seemed self-explanatory enough. At least, the textbook definition did. Through the magical energy residing within their blood, a pony—any creature, really—was capable of performing spells on par with those of highly trained unicorns. A dangerous art for both the wielder and those around them, and forbidden by nearly all of Equestria in its base form.

This new form however, this biothaumaturgy, was a different beast. It did more than simply allow a griffon to throw some magical bolts from bleeding claws. It granted innate strength to the weak, everlasting wings to the flightless, essentially made the impossible very much possible. And unlike base blood magic, it didn’t take decades of intense studying and a small village’s worth of sacrifices to obtain; anyone—young, old, weak, or strong—could wield it.

What the process of receiving it involved, Axle didn’t know. The Circle, unsurprisingly, kept its secrets very close to the chest. She only knew with absolute certainty that it all began with a transfusion of some description. Past that, she could only speculate, and that only led to more questions.

While true that all of Equestria’s inhabitants possessed at least some magic within them—the same that allowed pegasi and griffons to walk on clouds or earth ponies to interact with the surrounding flora and fauna with ease—not even blood drawn from the most powerful unicorns in the nation could allow such feats through a mere transfusion. There was more to it, there had to be, but either nopony knew, or nopony was telling her.

Obviously, Ruby herself went through this ‘transfusion’, though not even she knew what it involved; she received it as a newborn, and her parents had been very tight-lipped about it. Though her new abilities left some feeling apprehensive around her, it made her a pony worth travelling with—despite the frequent headaches—even if more than a few didn’t agree with their partnership. Axle preferred to ignore those types.

A final, particularly loud bang ripped Axle back into the present. She refocused on Ruby, eyes widening in slight surprise as they glanced about at the numerous pieces of stone littering the floor around them.

“Yeah... Definitely getting somewhere,” Ruby breathed, wiping her hooves together to brush off the dirt and pebbles clinging to her fur.

At her words, Axle turned her gaze downward, settling on the small stairwell leading down into the dark depths below the temple. Those same eyes skimmed across the shattered pieces of wood littered about the hole, with more splinters resting on the the first few steps leading below. Remnants of the cellar door, it seemed.

For a fair number of seconds that still felt far too long, Axle and Ruby stood at the top of those stairs, staring down into the black expanse that awaited them. Axle glanced back briefly as she felt Cart Wheel wrap her forelegs around her neck, the filly pulling herself further into her sister's coat.

"Do you honestly believe that anypony's still down there? Ruby?" Axle glanced up at the pegasus. She may as well have said nothing, Ruby not glancing away from the stairway for so much as a second. The usual playfulness and bravado had vanished, not a trace left, replaced by a somber nature that never, ever left Axle with a pleasant feeling in her gut.

"Okay, change of plans." Ruby turned a hard gaze towards Axle, freezing the mare in place. "What we came for’s down there, but I’m sensing a lot more energy than I expected. Take the kid back to the carriage, then get back here to back me up." The command was simple and to the point. The steel behind her tone left little room for argument, not that it stopped Axle from trying.

"Wait, you want me to leave my sister out by her—?"

"Yes." Axle flinched back from the force behind that single word, Ruby's unflinching eyes boring holes into the mare. "Ax, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you."

Ruby's voice hadn't raised by so much as a decibel, yet it still succeeded in striking intimidation into Axle's heart. Try as she might to keep her glare, Axle couldn't keep it from faltering, then falling into a worried frown. Any defiance quickly drained away as she took a step back, ears flattened against her head, still under the full heat of Ruby's unmoving gaze.

Axle tried again to meet the pegasus' glare, only for it to practically shove her gaze back to the floor. The transition had been subtle, practically unnoticeable, but the subdued fire smoldering behind Ruby’s eyes said all that needed to be said. The time for levity had long since come to an end.

Finally, she sighed, nodding her head. "Yes, Mistress." Her ears twitched at a frustrated pout from behind her.

"But we just got here!" Cart Wheel whined.

Axle turned a silencing glare towards the filly. "Cart Wheel, hush." As Cart Wheel shrunk back, Axle started turning her attention back towards Ruby. "But for goodness' sake, please wait for—" But she turned to find nothing; the pegasus had disappeared.

Axle hurriedly trotted back to the top of the stairs, peering into the depths below. No hoofsteps, no faint silhouette, no sign of anypony who had just entered the stairway literal seconds ago. The most that Axle saw, as hard as her eyes tried to focus on it, was a slim shadow, somehow blacker than the surrounding darkness, slithering along the wall as it ventured further into the void.

Hardly the type to wait, Ruby was.

Huffing in frustration, Axle kicked at the ground. "Powers Above, I hate it when she does that..."

Stowing Cart Wheel away in the carriage hardly proved a fuss. Yes, the filly was not hesitant in voicing her frustrations, but the stern word here and the firm glare there resolved that issue well enough. The carriage itself was a hardy piece of construction, enchanted to withstand both physical and elemental hardship. And, of course, it was locked. So long as Cart Wheel stayed inside, there wasn't a safer place for miles.

With one concern safely dealt with, that only left the other, more pressing matter at hoof. Why Ruby couldn't have just waited the literal minute or so for her to return, Axle didn't know. Well, not entirely true. Arrogance, hard-headedness, and other such tomfoolery were the most likely answers, though they wouldn't have made for very flattering details to put in the obituaries.

What the blasted papers would say. Axle made an admirable effort in trying to make that the source of her worries.

In a few galloping steps, she returned to the staircase. Like Ruby, she had little issue in believing that something unsavory lurked in those dark depths. Unlike Ruby, she had as much a chance of seeing a single thing in those dark depths as the sun did of freezing over. Just another obstacle in her path. Thankfully, she already had an easy solution prepared.

Reaching into her saddlebags, Axle fished out a necklace, a black piece of twine strung through a small sapphire, courtesy of the Lunar Sect. A seemingly simple item, but one of the few things from them that she actually bothered holding on to. Even in the dim light of the temple, its reaction to the slight darkness produced a faint, magical glow from within the gem, creating a soft, blue circle of light around her.

Setting her attention back on the stairs, Axle placed the gem around her neck. Already closer to the darkness, the sapphire responded with an even stronger light, illuminating the first few stairs below.

She lingered a moment longer, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, before taking the first of many steps down into the black void.

Not even a dozen steps in, and the already cold air lingering in the temple above only grew more so, Axle shivering as the occasional draft blew against her form. The natural light from above had all but vanished, leaving her gem in an intense battle with the encroaching dark, shining to near blinding levels. At the very least, she could see where she was going.

Just a brief side-to-side glance made clear that she and Ruby wouldn’t be walking side by side on those stairs, the moss-coated walls leaving just barely enough space for Axle alone. Even Cart Wheel likely wouldn’t have had enough space to walk next to her. Not much space to maneuver if something were to attack her.

No, Axle! Get a hold of yourself, she mentally hissed. Still, no harm in the careful approach. As she continued her slow descent, she kept a sharp ear out for the slightest discrepancy.

The crunching of pebbles beneath her hooves, the gentle drafts of chilling air brushing past her ears, her own quiet breaths, they were all that Axle could detect. Even straining her ears, she heard no movement, neither Ruby's nor that of the supposed threat. Just her breathing, the crunching underhoof, and the faint thumping of her heartbeat inside her ears. All around, a distinct lack of noise weighed heavily on her. She had yet to decide if that was a calming factor or not.

She forcefully shook her head and tried to steel her nerves. But try as she might, she couldn't ignore the shakiness of her steps, the trepidation in her movements, or the growing shallowness of her breathing.

She could never hope to explain why, but Axle risked a brief glance back up the stairs, if only to see her progress. Her legs nearly gave out right then and there.

So far she’d traveled, or so thick the dark, she couldn’t even see the entrance into the stairway anymore, not a single ray of light reaching her eyes. Darkness lay behind her. Darkness lay in front of her. Darkness surrounded her, threatened to close in on her. Threatened to smother her.

Axle only just managed to regain control of her breathing before it could grow even more panicked, shaking the senses back into her skull.

Her mouth cracked into the slightest hints of a scowl. Somewhere in that bubbling pit of anxiety, frustration made its presence known, mocking her for feeling such fear towards something as intangible as mere darkness. Not the possibility of creatures lurking within said darkness, but the dark itself.

She'd explored darker locales in the past with Ruby. Goodness, on more than a few occasions, they had explored well into the night, only leaving things darker. During all of those expeditions, Axle had been fine, save for a few stubbed hooves, but that just came with the territory.

Yet as she descended that empty stairway, gritting her teeth, trying to control her shallow breaths, Axle, try as she might, couldn't figure out what ate away at her so persistently, nor could she ignore the growing frustration she felt with herself. Such a foalish fear; perhaps it was best that she left Cart Wheel in the carriage, if only so that she could preserve her pride.

Only when the light from her gem finally spilled out into a larger chamber did a wave of otherwordly relief rush through Axle’s body. So rejuvenating it was, it almost brought her to a smile. Almost.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs at last, Axle stepped into the chamber and slowed to a stop. She took a few deep breaths to regain her composure before taking in her new surroundings.

Even with the gemstone shining at its full intensity, the light fell across nothing but barren floor. There wasn’t even a wall in visible sight, not that Axle could see very far; the thick clouds of dust that accumulated over the decades swirled about her vision, reducing her sight even further. Still, she peered as deeply as she could into the void in front of her, orange eyes swiveling to and fro, on the lookout for the slightest hint of a wing or the faintest flash of red fur in that unyielding darkness.

Axle's face creased with worry as she took a step further into the chamber. "Ruby?" she whispered, tone not unlike a foal searching for her mother. "Where are you?"

Still, in the stone-dead silence, not a peep was to be heard. Surely, by then, Axle would've picked up the the scraping of hooves or claws against the stone floor, or at the very least, faint moaning or growling.

Instead, the silence left little to the imagination, so much so that Axle had to wonder if anything was down there at all. But thinking back to Ruby’s cautious approach, it couldn't have been a mere misunderstanding. Something was down there, Axle just didn't see it yet. Quite an unnerving predicament, if she had to be honest.

After another fruitless attempt to detect the faintest sign of movement, Axle moved to step further into the chamber. Her hoof hadn't even returned to the ground before a chilling breeze made her go stock still. It was nothing like the brief drafts from before. No, it felt as though winter's icy fingers dragged themselves along her skin.

For a fleeting moment, Axle tried to ignore it, tried to brush it off as her paranoid mind playing tricks on her. Unfortunately, she found her body's incessant shivering rather difficult to ignore. The slight puffs of misty white air leaving her nostrils with each shaky breath only further confirmed the reality.

She jerked her head all about, yet only more darkness awaited to greet her. Even with her gem’s light, she couldn’t see a thing past those thick, choking walls of black.

Axle’s heartbeat rocketed to near deafening levels, any attempts at controlled breathing fruitless. Cold sweat trickled down her forehead, her eyes wide with terror-stricken panic. If something truly was down there, if something truly was that close...

"Ax, calm down. It's just me."

The shocked yelp that so badly wanted to escape Axle's lips instead manifested itself as a sharp pain in her chest.

Ruby's voice. Practically a whisper yet it sounded as though the pegasus was right at Axle's side. Yet when Axle snapped her head towards the source, she only found more darkness resting outside her little pocket of light.

A jolt of shock shot through Axle’s chest as another swift breeze brought her attention to her opposite flank. Peering beyond the reach of her gemlight, her eyes tried and failed to focus on a pony's form as it seemingly faded into existence where none had been before. Only when Ruby stepped into the illuminated circle did Axle finally release the breath that she didn't even know she was holding.

"Oh, thank goodness," she breathed. "Ruby, you need to warn me if you're going to—"

"Shh."

And with that, the initial wave of relief rushing through Axle's system came crashing down as worry repainted her features. Though back in the light, Ruby's attention still fixed itself on something beyond, something waiting in the darkness. She wasn't simply staring at the darkness itself; no, her eyes glared daggers pointedly at whatever awaited them within those concealing shadows.

Axle followed her gaze, giving something of an annoyed frown when she found little beyond the impenetrable wall of black. She honestly didn't know what else to expect.

Quietly sighing, Axle turned back towards Ruby. "Do you at least know what's—?"

It lasted for only a second—less than that, probably—but the look that Ruby shot her way was more than enough to send the rest of Axle's question jumping back down her throat.

With a slight jerk of the head, Ruby gestured for her to follow behind before venturing further into the chamber. Axle wordlessly fell in behind her, her cautious, calculated gait a stark contrast to Ruby's own determined step, each step further into the dark another assault on her nerves.

Perhaps, then, it was best for Axle's sake that it just took a few of those nerve-wracking steps before she found the mystery 'threat'.

Her body forced itself to a halt, a breath catching in her throat as her gemlight fell across the prone form of a stallion, a sudden queasy sensation swelling up in her gut. A hoof found its way up to her mouth as she fought back against the nausea. Yet her eyes, widened in shock and disgust, simply couldn't tear themselves away from the sight.

"Powers Above..." she whispered.

Even Ruby's stone-faced visage couldn't keep from giving in to disgust, the mare shrinking back just slightly. "Ugh. Nasty..."

An understatement for the years to come.

The stallion remained motionless on the ground, his lower half resting in the still-sizzling scorch mark that blackened the stone. Dark blue fur abruptly gave way to a sickening swirl of bare, raw red skin and blackened, charred flakes that used to be his flesh. Both mares were almost certain that they could even see bits of bone poking out from the melted mess of meat.

The remnants of his robes, once flowing, shimmering purple garments, only dangled pathetically from his barrel, the rest reduced to ashes long since blown away. The jagged, black edges lining the bottom of the fabric were the only signs of what once was.

So severe the burns were, the various other cuts and bruises marring his form seemed benign in comparison. Axle could only breathe in quiet relief that she didn’t bring Cart Wheel down there; the filly had seen her share of roadkill along the outskirts of their home, but she had no business witnessing something as stomach-churning as that.

"Looks like he lost a fight with a Celestial Blessed," Ruby said. "Badly, too. The fight must’ve given off a ton of energy. Got the Circle’s attention."

Ruby’s words bounced off of Axle’s ears, the mare far too stunned by the charred body to process anything else. Yet despite the sight, the sick feeling in her stomach subsided far more quickly than she anticipated. Confusion quickly marked her features before a few whiffs of the air granted her an answer.

She had expected the horrendous smell to be what threw her over the edge, but that was just it: she smelled nothing. Not the metallic odor of blood nor the sickening stench of burnt flesh. Even the scorch marks surrounding the stallion didn’t seem to give off any sort of scent, yet smoke still rose from the blackened pits.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Axle muttered to herself. Turning towards Ruby, she saw the pegasus carefully inching her way towards the fallen stallion. "A body this severely burnt... We would've smelled it long before we saw it."

"Yeah, you're not wrong," Ruby agreed. "Except..." Her nose scrunched up in lingering disgust as she looked over the stallion's body more closely. Still sizzling, his skin was, yet even with her nose right above it, her nose picked up nothing but dust. "Hmm... Masking potion, it looks like. Covers up any scents or odors from his body, burnt to a crisp or not."

"Masking potion..." Axle repeated, dwelling on the words, connecting the pieces. Slowly, she nodded. "Yes, I had my suspicions after seeing his robes. Well…” She awkwardly coughed into a hoof. “What’s left of them, at least. He's from the Lunar Sect as well, then?"

A soft, humorless chuckle passed through Ruby's lips. "Yep. Fellow Brother in arms. Must've been sent out here to hunt an Unworthy. Never came back, and the Celestial’s long gone. I'm just here to pick this guy up." She snorted. "Figures they still have me doing clean-up duty."

Worry crept into Axle’s eyes as she looked back at the stallion. Specifically, his injuries. "Bring him back, you said? For what, medical attention or a funeral?"

Another more amused laugh left Ruby's lips as she reached a hoof out towards the fallen pony. "Cracking jokes at a time like this? Thought that was my thing."

"That's because I'm not joking."

Ruby said nothing in response. She only shrugged as she rested her hoof atop a point on the stallion's neck. She held it there for a long series of seconds, slightly sliding it along the skin every so often, neither her nor Axle making so much as a murmur. Finally, Ruby sighed, a bittersweet smile cracking onto her face. "Yeah, he's still got a pulse. Barely. Guy's tough, I'll give him that much. Can probably tell us what the heck happened down here."

The worry had yet to leave Axle's face. "Okay, he's alive, but will he last for much longer? You can't very well interrogate a corpse."

"Well..." Ruby began, "You could. I mean, you wouldn't get any answers out of it, but still..."

Just barely containing a frustrated yell, Axle stamped a hoof on the stone, the sharp clack echoing in the chamber. "Ruby, please!"

Ruby waved a dismissive hoof in Axle's direction. "Well, I’ll be frank" she said cooly, standing up from the stallion's form. "Don’t know what his odds are, but he’s got a better chance of surviving than you might think."

A battle between frustration and confusion raged on Axle's face as she repeatedly switched between Ruby and the stallion. Her face finally settled on frustrated confusion. "Wha—? But how can you even tell?"

"Check it out." Reaching a hoof down somewhere next to the stallion, Ruby slid a small syringe out into plain sight, its contents emptied, save for traces of a deep red liquid clinging to the tip of the needle.

Axle's eyes widened as they locked on the syringe, her expression settling into realization. "Healing serum..."

"Must've barely had enough time to inject himself before he passed out," Ruby said. "Good thing, too." She took one more glance at the stallion's injuries. "But he’s beaten to Tartarus and back then back again. He’ll last a bit longer, but I don’t think he’ll make it without having somepony look at him."

Relief struggled to break through the thick clouds of apprehension storming in Axle's mind. "Okay, at least that’s something. Then I suppose it would be best if we didn't waste any more time poking his almost-corpse with a stick. I've studied the surrounding area before we left, and there's a village not far from here. Whitetail, it's called. They likely have a priest that can tend to him. The sooner we arrive there, the better his odds of survival."

Standing back over the stallion, Ruby nodded her head. "Alright, perfect! Okay, big guy. Let's see what we can do for ya." Wrapping her hooves around the stallion's barrel, Ruby hoisted him onto her back in a way that left him flailing and Axle wincing as she heard more than a few bones pop.

"Ruby, I'm... not entirely certain that's proper—"

"Look," Ruby cut in, stallion draped limply across her back, "if this guy survived whatever inferno tore through here, I don't think a bit of rough shipping and handling's gonna do him in."

"Your medical logic is..." Needless to say, Ruby's rebuttal left Axle less than convinced. "Just remind me to never let you anywhere near me if I'm ever gravely wounded."

Ruby glanced off to the side in thought. "Well, if you're hurt that bad, what'd be stopping me?"

A short pause. "Basic respect for my wishes?" Axle deadpanned, starting back towards the stairs.

Her glare only sharpened when a barely restrained chortle burst from Ruby's lips. "Oh, that's a good one," she chuckled, following behind, eyes smugly shut. "But seriously, all we have to do is toss the guy in the wagon, haul him to this Whitetail place, and then let the priest handle it from there. I mean, come on. What's the worst that could happen?"

Ruby’s eyes snapped back open in shock when she suddenly bumped into her servant's backside. Surprise overtook her face when she came muzzle to muzzle with an absolutely seething mare.

"Did you really...?" Venom filled Axle's voice to the near brim."Did you honestly...?"

Frozen still under the mare's heated glare, Ruby quickly glanced to the left. Then quickly glanced to the right. Her eyes finally met back with Axle's, the confusion staying as strong as ever. "...What?"

Gem of Illumination

A roughly cut gem radiant with magic. Granted to Servants of the Lunar Sect.
Enchanted to glow in the presence of darkness.

An unexpected item to be utilized by the followers of the night, as it dispels all natural darkness.
However, when one's master draws strength from more unnatural shadows, perhaps a balance of light and dark is beneficial...