Spiritus Malum

Twilight lifted her head groggily from the cold metal floor, her mind fuzzy as a rabbit. Had she been of a clearer mind she would have realized something: Ponyville’s library had no metal floors.

However, something far more colorful snatched away her attention before she could reach this conclusion.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight mumbled, confusedly staring at the blur of blue and rainbow a yard or so in front of her. Twilight rubbed her eyes, taking note that there was a metallic yoke around her neck, “What the...what’s going on here? This isn’t the library!” Twilight suddenly realized, panic setting in.

Her mind unfogged near-instantaneously and she looked around, taking everything in. The room that she was in was featureless and made of dull metal, in the wall in front of her was a closed door. Besides her, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack were all present, there was no sign of Fluttershy.

As this string of thoughts came to existence in her mind, the rest of her friends groggily awoke as well.

“Ow, my head,” Rainbow Dash muttered, rubbing her noggin.

“Rainbow? Where...what in the hay?!” Applejack exclaimed, getting to her hooves. She rested a hoof against her head and quickly realized something, “My hat! Where is it?!”

As Applejack began a frantic look-around for her hat, Rarity got to her hooves as well, “Girls? Where are we?” She looked down, “And what in Equestria is this dreadful monstrosity around my neck!?”

“Ooh, is this some sort of super-duper surprise party? Cause I’m really, really, really, really, really, really surprised!” The pink party pony smiled, a smile that seemed more forced than it should have, “Wait, where’s Fluttershy? She’s missing the party!”

As the panic from four of the five ponies reached a crescendo, Pinkie smashed it when she noticed a small note hanging by a thread from the ceiling.

“Ooh, is that the pinata?” She wondered aloud, though only with half her usual vigor. Balancing on her hind legs to grab hold of the small card and pulling it from its hanging spot, “Looks a little small to me,” she commented upon further investigation, “Oh wait, maybe it’s the list for a scavenger hunt!”

“What does it say?” Twilight asked, moving closer to Pinkie and the note.

“‘You are all going to play a game...’,” Pinkie read, “Ooh, I wonder what kind of...”

“Pinkie!”

“Oh, right,” she cleared her throat before continuing, “‘...that will test your bonds to the elements of harmony. By now you will have noticed the metal braces around your necks...”

“Pff, no duh,” Dash commented.

“...these braces are filled with explosives that will detonate under a few conditions...”

The ponies paled and Pinkie’s voice began to grow less cheery as the weight of the situation started to dawn on her.

“...If Twilight uses her magic, it will detonate all the braces besides her’s and Rarity’s. If Rarity uses her magic, it will detonate all of the braces...”

“What!?” Both unicorns exclaimed.

“...Finally, don’t think that you can just wait this out. The braces all have timers on them, remain in one room for too long and they will detonate. The clock is ticking, so get to it.’”

Silence fell upon the room.

“Well that doesn’t sound like a fun scavenger hunt.”

“Is...is that all it says?” Twilight asked, taking the note in her hoof, being careful not to use her magic.

“But...who...” Pinkie wondered.

“Discord!” Dash exclaimed, hovering above the others, “It’s gotta be him!”

“I reckon that’d make sense,” Applejack reasoned, brushing a hoof through her mane before realizing again that her hat was missing, “But where’s Fluttershy? I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that she’s missin'.”

Twilight, who had finished re-reading the note, looked up and locked her eyes on the lone door.

“I don’t know what’s in store for us or...whoever it is plans to test us, but so long as we stick to our elements, I’m sure that we’ll make it through this. If it is Discord, and he’s somehow escaped, we’ll need to get out of here quick and stop him again.”

“Right!” Dash declared as she shot towards the door, “Let’s go!”

“Rainbow Dash, wait,” Twilight said, halting the speedster in her tracks, “We need to stick together, together I know we can accomplish anything,” she turned to the others, “Ready?”

A series of nods gave her an answer.

“Then let’s go,” Twilight said, she and her friends moving towards the door.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy was tense with fear. Every few seconds she threw a look around her, fearfully eyeing the shadows in the corners of the small room. Every time that her gaze was taken by the shadows, it always quickly turned back to the wall in front of her.

On this wall was a lone image being displayed by a magical crystal. It was an image of a room, a room that was inhabited by her friends.

Fluttershy threw another glance back at the shadows, afraid that they were watching her.

When she looked back, her friends were on the move through a door in the room, and the image changed to another room. The elements of harmony were facing their first challenge.
______________________________________________________________________________

The room that the group of five moved into was much taller than the one that they had previously inhabited. Some sick looking contraption was attached to the ceiling and sunlight spilled through a pony-sized hole in the ceiling.

“A way out!” Dash exclaimed, shooting towards the ceiling.

“Wait!” Twilight called, “Rainbow Dash!”

Dash came to a screeching halt in the air, hovering a duet of yards from the opening, “What?” She called down to Twilight, “I can go get help!”

“That hole is there for a reason,” Twilight replied, “That first note said that we would have the elements tested and...” Twilight’s eyes locked on a second small slip of paper, “...that might be a part of the test.”

Making her way to the second note, Twilight grabbed it in a hoof before unfolding it and reading.

“‘This is your first test. Loyalty will be tested in this chamber,’” Twilight read, “‘Rainbow Dash, element of loyalty, you will have noticed the hole in the ceiling by now. That leads to your freedom. However, exiting through that hole will cause the braces that your friends are wearing to explode, killing all of them...’”

Rainbow Dash paled, throwing a glance at the hole in the ceiling before moving away from it, fearing that even being near it would spell her friends’ doom.

“‘...Your second choice is simple. You must...’” Twilight’s eyes grew wide and quickly scanned over the rest of the note.

“Must what?” Dash asked, not entirely sure that she wanted to know.

Twilight didn’t reply, reading the note over and over as if to find that she was reading what it said wrong.

“What does it say?”

“What is it, Twi?” Applejack asked, trotting up to her friend, “What does it say?”

Fed up with the lack of answers, Dash flew in and snatched the note from her friend. Twilight hardly reacted as the note left her grasp.

With the pilfered letter in hoof, Dash landed and read over it herself, mumbling it to herself as she read.

“‘You must...’” she mumbled, getting to the part that had caused Twilight to freeze up, her reaction was similar, but she didn’t stop her quiet oration, “...sacrifice your wings...f-for the lives of your friends...’”

Gasps were had around the room.

“‘...Fly up to the device at the top of the c-ceiling and slip your wings through the holes. Two blades will c-cut off your...’” she gulped with trepidation, “‘...wings and this in turn will open the d-door to the next chamber. We shall see how loyal you really are...’” Dash’s voice trailed off, cracking at the end.

Silence bathed the room.

Rainbow Dash flinched when Pinkie placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

“I...I...” Dash began, staring at her hooves as if they held the answer. After a moment’s pause, she looked up, “I can’t let my friends down...n-no matter what.”

Not hesitating, Dash shot up towards the device.

“Rainbow Dash! Wait!” Twilight called after her.

“I won’t let you girls down! I can’t!” Dash replied, though she did pause in the air.

“There has to be another way,” Twilight said, unwilling to let her friend harm herself without looking for other options.

“There isn’t!” Dash retorted, both in anger and anguish, on the verge of tears at what was to come, “What could we do? Huh?” she gestured around the room, “There’s nothing we can do, Twilight! I ha...I have to do this.”

“But Rainbow...”

“Damnit, Twilgiht! You’re making this harder than it already is,” Dash cut in, “I cannot and will not let you girls down!”

Without further ado, Rainbow Dash closed the distance with the contraption on the ceiling. She paused before it, fear crossing her face and making her hesitate. She looked down at her friends, all of whom were looking up at her with mixed degrees of fear and sorrow.

She set her eyes back on the machine, looking to see how it would work and doubts began to form in her mind.

‘Nopony would know...nopony would or could blame you if you left them, Dash,’ a dark voice in the back of her head hissed quietly, ‘Lose your wings...FOREVER? NEVER become a Wonderbolt? NEVER fly again? NEVER ever?’ the voice continued, ‘I say that you ditch your friends, nopony will ever know. You even have the note.’

Dash glanced down to her hoof where the note with the writing was still in her grasp.

‘You could hide it...burn it...tell them that you didn’t know...you flew out without thinking and the explosives detonated...nopony would ever have to know and you could FLY free...forever.’

Rainbow Dash threw a look down towards her friends.

‘Could you really just let this thing cut off your wings and never fly again, Dash? Could you sacrifice your entire life and career?’

Dash looked over to the hole in the ceiling, then to the contraption again. She hung her head and closed her eyes.

Indecision and doubt began to grow in her guts, twisting within as if they were a blade. On one hoof she could escape, fly free...but her friends...

Not letting any further doubt cloud her mind, Rainbow Dash shot forwards...and slipped her wings into the device. The effect was instant, something grabbed hold of her wings, holding them in place and making it so that all her weight was held by them alone.

A fraction of a second later, searing pain coursed through her wings and back as two razor sharp blades came down, easily cutting through feather and flesh.

Dash screamed in pain, spasming as her wings were assaulted by the blades. Warm blood spilled across her back, darkening her blue hide and dripping to the floor below.

Down below, a door opened and the terrified faces of her friends looked towards their escape before returning to their friend.

“Go!” Dash yelled through the pain. She could feel the blades pressing into the bones of her wings, pushing with enough force to slowly make their way through, “GO!” Dash yelled again.

The four ponies below rushed through the open door before looking back up at their friend from the safety of the next room.

The damage from the blades paired with the weight of her own body eventually caused the bones of her wings to snap. Without anything else holding her up, Dash plummeted to the ground.

She tried to flap her wings through the pain, but her wings were no longer there and she hit the ground hard.

Cursing, Applejack rushed from the room towards the downed Dash. Behind her, the door began to close.

“Ya’ll stay back!” Applejack called back, dissuading any of the others from coming, “I’ve got her.”

Normally, Dash would have landed softly with the help of her wings. Without them and with the hard nature of the metal floor, she took far more damage than she usually would have upon impact. Stars swam around her head and she couldn’t bring herself to get up.

Her entire body now throbbed in pain as Applejack came to a halt in front of her. Applejack bit down on the metal brace around her friend’s neck and began to backtrack as fast as her legs could carry her, dragging her friend along with all due haste.

Inch by inch, the large door to their escape was closing but Applejack was sure that they would make it.

But it was not meant to be.

Applejack passed through the doorway, but right as Rainbow Dash’s head came through, the door’s closing speed was taken up a notch.

To the horror of everypony watching, the door came down right behind Dash’s withers. With a sick crunch, the pegasus was cut in half. Had she been more than half conscious, Dash would have screamed. As it was, she was only able to let out a moan before her blood pressure dropped far beyond the healthy level and her life ended.

Applejack stared, dumbstruck with horror.

At the sight of the blood that began flowing from Dash’s body, Rarity vomited.

Twilight paled at the sight before her, but was somehow able to keep her lunch.

Pinkie’s mind had trouble registering what had just happened, “But...this can’t...D-Dash...but...Dashie...” She mumbled, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Nothing moved save for the blood running from Dash’s body and Rarity, who was wiping spit from her mouth. Pooling, it grew slowly in size, grasping Applejack’s hooves and cutting her from her stupor.

“We...” she said in a hoarse whisper, hearing her voice, she stopped and tried again, “We...we need to keep movin'.”

Despite her words, Applejack didn’t move. It was as if she was transfixed to the body before her, as if she expected that at any moment life would refill her friend’s cold, dead eyes and she would get up. Yet it was not to be.

Rarity, who was finally done emptying her stomach, was the next to speak.

“A-Applejack is right...we need to keep moving. Once we’re out of this we can come back...for Rainbow Dash.”
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy, who was staining the ground with tears of sorrow, didn’t see as her remaining friends eventually began making their way down the metal hallway towards whatever the next test would be.
______________________________________________________________________________

A trail of tears followed the quartet of ponies making their way down the hallway, some of the ponies contributing more than others.

The weight of the situation sinking in had forced Pinkie into a sobbing fit while she leaned against a comforting Twilight for support. Twilight felt herself crying openly, though quietly while Rarity held down her sorrowful sobs. Applejack, still partially in shock trailed behind the other three, a tear dropping from her eyes every few seconds.

There was a loud clang in front of her and Applejack jumped in fright, startled beyond belief. She looked up as her heart settled to find her way blocked by a massive door. She frantically began banging her hoof against the metal calling out for the others.

She heard no voices reply, but from the sound of it, the others were pounding on the door as well.

Applejack looked over her surroundings, trying to find a way out.

A door had opened to her right, leading into a smaller parallel hallway. She immediately figured that it was either a trap or part of the next challenge, maybe both. However, she had no other option besides going back, which led to nothing.

“Tarnation!” She cursed quietly, stamping a hoof on the ground before trotting through the door.

She gave a few pounds on the metal of the wall of the new hallway, trying to let her friends know that she had found a way.

Pounding replied and she gave a sigh of relief before continuing forwards.

She kept her wits about her, ears pointed forwards in an attempt to detect even the slightest noise. She kept pounding on the door as she went, letting her friends know that she was progressing as they were.

Soon enough, the hallway ended with a room with a closed door. Other than that, the wall separating the two hallways had been replaced with glass. Applejack looked through to see her worried friends make their way to their own door.

“Applejack! Are you okay?” She could barely hear Twilight ask.

“I’m fine,” Applejack replied, looking around. Her heart became filled with dread as she spied a note on the ground.

Uncertainty assailing her, she picked up the note and began reading.

“‘Applejack, now it’s your turn. You have two choices, one will lead to your death, the other to your friends’. Either choice will give the surviving party their freedom,’” She read quietly to herself, “‘They will ask for the password for their door. That password is: Honesty. Tell them this and you will die. Lie to them and you will survive. Stay true or lie, we shall see how honest you truly are when it comes to life and death...’”

“It says you have the password.”

“What?” Applejack asked, looking from the note to the glass.

“This note we have says that you have the password,” Twilight repeated, unease ruling her face.

Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but promptly closed it with indecision.

‘Tell the truth and die...or tell a lie and live...’ she thought.

As she thought that, thoughts began to churn inside her head. She would never see her family again. She’d never get to see Apple Bloom finally get her Cutie Mark, or buck her first apple tree, or grow up. Big Mac would have to do double the work for their family to survive as they did...thoughts like these and so many more were a hot topic in the head of the farmer pony. But quick thoughts cut these off.

Her friends also had families that needed and cared for them. Who was she to take them away? Who was she to...

“Applejack?”

She snapped out of her train of thought. Her friends, all wearing worried looks, were staring at her from their hallway.

“The...the password’s ‘Honesty,’” She said, hanging her head as she waited for the end. She looked up into the eyes of her friends, “I want y’all to promise me. Take care of Apple Bloom fer me, I won’t be there so ah want you girls to help my family while I’m...gone.”

The others looked confused, but nodded at her request. Twilight moved over to her door and spoke the password. The door opened and Applejack heard a series of loud, harsh clicks around her room.

She looked around fearfully before yelling, “Go!” to her friends. With horrified expressions, they quickly pushed through the door.

Applejack turned around, glaring around the room to see what doom awaited her. If she was dying today, she wasn’t going to do it laying down.

There was a hiss from above and Applejack looked up to see a thin mist slowly descending upon her. She threw a kick at the glass separating her from the other hallway, but it didn’t give. She tried again, bucking with all her strength. It was no use.

The mist was descending upon the small room, Applejack rushed to the door, but it was metallic and had no handle like the rest of the doors before. Applejack looked up to see the mist right above her. She dropped down to her stomach and an idea struck her. She began twirling her tail as if she were using a lasso, trying to fan whatever the mist was away from her.

Again, it was no use. What she was able to fan away was only gone a short while before more replaced it. She was only delaying the inevitable.

Some of the mist reached one of her outstretched legs and she cried out as she realized what it was. She had thought that the mist was some form of poison, but it was much worse. The mist was highly acidic.

Applejack gritted her teeth, tears of pain flowing from her eyes as the acid burned into her foreleg, eating away the skin.

She inhaled sharply as the pain reached it’s peak and immediately regretted it as she got a lungful of the acid.

Applejack began to cough and hack as the acid settled into her lungs. She could feel it burning from inside as she continued to cough and hack, blood splattering the ground in front of her. She frantically got to her hooves, the pain clouding her judgement, as even more settled upon her body, eating away at her skin, peeling it away like some form of sick, twisted rain.

She rushed around in a blind panic, eyes squeezed shut as she tried to find somewhere to get away from all the pain. In her blind rush, she ran into a wall and cried out. The pain was overwhelming and she opened her eyes, another thing she came to regret as the acid turned her eyes into soup, blinding her.

She finally just collapsed as the pain overrode her receptors and caused her to black out. The acid had already made decent work on her lungs and her brain quickly shut off as it was deprived of oxygen that was needed to keep it working.
______________________________________________________________________________

‘Fluttershy,’ a hauntingly familiar voice hissed into her ear.

Fluttershy let out an ‘eep!’ hopping away from the voice and ending up in the light of the crystal projector. She squinted against the light as it reflected off the streaks of tears across her face.

“Wh-who’s th-there?” She stuttered, both from the continuous sobs and the fear.

‘Do you see that button on the wall there?’ The voice replied.

Shaking, Fluttershy looked and saw a small button poking from the wall.

‘If the pain ever becomes too much, you can always press that button. That button will end all of you and your friend’s suffering and you will be free...’

Fluttershy looked around the room again, still quaking in fear, before settling back on the button.

“F-f-f-free?” She inquired.

‘Dead,’ the voice corrected in a much harsher tone, startling Fluttershy into hopping from the projector light and into a darker corner.

Her friends were entering a new room, but Fluttershy didn’t notice, she was too busy searching the room for the source of the voice...the familiar voice...her voice...
______________________________________________________________________________

For the hundredth time, Twilight glanced back over her shoulder. She wanted to go back and find Applejack, find a way to get her out of that room separated by the glass, but dread of what she might find kept her back. She hated herself for not having the courage to go back, but alas it was all she could do.

“There-there’s the next room,” Rarity pointed out, drawing Twilight’s attention forwards again.

The dwindling trio halted.

“I don’t think that we should go, there has to be some way to...to get out of this some other way!” Rarity exclaimed, frightened.

“As much as we want not to, there’s no other way, Rarity!” Twilight replied, “look around us! There’s nothing we can use! We can’t use our magic and we can’t stay put or these things will...” Twilight trailed off with a hoof aimed at the brace around her neck, “If...if one of us can pull through, she can get the princesses. I don’t know, maybe she can...do something, find out who did this and find a way to bring the others back!”

“But even I know that necro-magics are illegal! You can’t bring a life back! It’s one of the few impossible magics!” Rarity retorted, hating herself for saying it despite the fact that it was truth.

“But...but she’s the Princess! She has to be able to do...something!” Twilight exclaimed back, on the verge of losing it like Rarity.

“Girls,” Pinkie deadpanned, an act that instantly won the silent attention of her two friends. Without looking back, Pinkie continued, “We need to keep going.” And with that, she trotted into the next room.

After exchanging a glance, the two unicorns followed.

The room wasn’t very large, on the opposite side was a closed door. As was expected by now, a note hung from a string that was attached to the ceiling.

“‘There is a device on the floor with two holes in it. One of you must generously place your front hooves in this device to activate it and open the door to the next challenge. You will lose your hooves in the process, but your friends will be able to pass,’” Pinkie read sullenly.

Silence fell on the room for a minute or so before anypony dared speak again.

“I...I’ll have to do it,” Rarity said, she trotted over to the device, “For...for you girls, I must.”

“Wait,” Twilight mumbled, “If...if all it’s doing is cutting...” Twilight sickened at the thought, “Well, it won’t k-ki...Pinkie and I can carry you with us,” she finished. Twilight felt her stomach rise as she thought back to what had happened to Rainbow Dash, “We’ll need to be quick, though.”

Pinkie nodded.

Rarity stood before the device, two hoof-sized holes in the floor marking it.

“I...I suppose that,” she grimaced in what was supposed to be a smile, “this can’t be good for my new hooficure.”

In almost any situation, the remark would have been funny, but it only made the group of three more uneasy and sick in the gut.

Rarity lifted a hoof, staring down with dread at the hole she was about to place it in. She couldn’t bear to watch as her hoof slowly descended into the hole and she flinched when she felt it touch the bottom.

Rarity went tense as she expected something to come and slice her hoof off, but nothing happened.

She cracked open an eye, seeing that one hoof was inside the device, but the other wasn’t. Perhaps she needed to put both hooves in before the device...worked?

She lifted her other hoof, hovering it over the second hole. She then proceeded to set it in, but as the knowledge of what would happen when she did came into her mind, self-preservation halted her progress.

“No,” she said quietly to her reluctant hoof, “For the sake of my friends, I must do this!”

And with that, she stomped her hoof into the hole.

Blades would have been nicer, which was exactly why they weren’t used. Instead of any form of sharp cutting tool, two miniature hydraulic presses, each with tons of pounds of force behind them, came together on Rarity’s front hooves, turning the flesh to pulp and the bones to powder with a sickening crunch.

Rarity cried out in pain, wetting herself as the pain overrode her senses and plunged her into darkness. Her unconscious body collapsed forwards as her two front hooves could no longer support her. Warm blood began to pool around the ground at the white unicorn’s hooves.

“Quickly!” Twilight exclaimed, at her friend’s side in a flash, “Grab her hind legs!”

Without a word, Pinkie grabbed Rarity’s back legs while Twilight, trying to avoid all the blood, supported her front. Twilight was a thought away from using a spell before she remembered the consequences of doing such a thing.

“Turn her over,” Twilight said, hoping that with the wounds both above the heart and body, the blood loss would drop. She looked back over her shoulder to see the door open, “Lets carry her through the door, hurry!”

Rarity, already paler than she should have been snapped awake long enough to give a whimper as she was rushed through the door, which promptly shut behind them.

Twilight herself grew pale as she stared down at Rarity, her coat stained with more blood than she had expected from the wounds. The purple pony also realized that she had nothing to stop the blood flow, she knew that she might be able to with her magic, but doing so would...

“‘You have reached the second to last challenge, my little ponies...’” Pinkie read the next note, looking nothing like the Pinkie that Twilight had come to know.

The pink mare’s hair had deflated, laying across her head in a curtain while her face beheld no emotion. Her eyes slowly crossed out the words as she read down the note, mechanically, and without any feeling.

Seeing the usually resolute Pinkie broken as she was turned the seed of lost hope in Twilight’s heart into a full-grown tree, bearing plentiful ripe fruit of sorrow. Had she not been supporting the injured form of Rarity, she would have collapsed to the floor as she finally gave up.

“‘...here you come to a crossroads, with two choices leading to the next challenge. Your first choice, Twilight, cast a spell and kill Pinkie. Or Pinkie, press the button next to the door, detonating Twilight’s brace and killing her. Both of these will open the door, so hop to it.’”

Pinkie looked to Twilight, then the door, spying a red button next to it.

Without a second glance, Pinkie dropped the note and headed forwards, determination in her eyes.

“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked, watching her friend.

Pinkie trotted on without a word and halted at her destination, locking eyes with Twilight before reaching forwards...and placing a hoof under her friend’s chin, bringing Twilight’s teary eyes to her face.

“Twilight,” Pinkie said, a sad smile crossing her face as a bit of emotion returned to her face, “You have to cast a spell, then you and Rarity can escape.”

“Bu-but...”

“Shh,” Pinkie hushed soothingly, talking in a clear, calm voice, “Listen, Twilight, you have to do this. That first note said that we were being tested and now it’s my turn. If I push that button and kill you, how in Equestria am I supposed to make other ponies laugh, knowing that I made one never able to do so again?”

Twilight’s lip trembled, but she was unable to say anything.

“You can beat the last test, I know you can, Twilight. And when you do, I know that you’ll smile and I’ll know that I helped make that smile come true. You can keep on smiling, laughing as the years go by...but me? I can’t do that, Twilight. If I push that button, I fail my test and I fail everypony. I won’t be able to just giggle at the ghosties of my friends, I can’t.

“But you know what? I know that I can make sure that my two friends here can make it through this and I know that they can smile and laugh. Maybe not for a long, long, long, long, long time, but in the end, you will be able to. And you know what?”

Twilight couldn’t answer.

“When you do, I know that I’ll have passed my test,” Pinkie’s smile returned in full force. Her hair remained the same, but that genuine smile crossed her features, “I’ve come to the end of the line, Twilight. The author might want to go out with a bang, but I want to go out with a smile.”

Twilight looked into the blue eyes of her friend, stared at the smile on her face, heard the words issued by her mouth, and nodded.

Pinkie nodded back and turned around, trotting away.

“Any time you’re ready,” Pinkie said.

Twilight watched her friend trot away, opening her mouth to say something...but found that she could say nothing.

Twilight looked down at Rarity, who was unconscious again, then briefly back to Pinkie, and finally to the door.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as Twilight began to conjure up a spell. Microseconds spanned into what felt like forever in...time.

Time...

Time!

The spell died on Twilight’s horn as an idea appeared in her head.

“I think I know a way to beat the test!” Twilight exclaimed.

“What?” Pinkie asked, turning.

“Remember that time spell you found in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot archives?” Twilight asked, mind running a mile a minute, “That one time I went back in time to warn myself not to worry!”

“Oh yeah, future Spike got a big tummy ache!” Pinkie replied, remembering as well.

“What if I used that spell to send you back in time? The spell would hopefully unlock the door, but you wouldn’t be in this time frame, meaning that it wouldn’t set off your...” Twilight trailed off, shaking her head to clear it, “I’m going to try it, I should be able to alter it so that it can send another pony back in time instead of the caster.”

“So where are you going to send me?” Pinkie asked cheerfully.

“Just a few hours back, I wish I could send you to Princess Celestia, but I’d need to combine it with a teleport spell like I did the first time I used it. But I’m already messing around with the spell and throwing in a combination of a teleport spell might throw a wrench into the whole equation...so to say. That and my memory isn’t perfect so I can’t be a hundred percent sure that the spell will work,” the egghead ranted on, “But either way, here goes!”

Twilight squinted to focus and cast the spell. Pinkie immediately flashed in and out of existence, reappearing without her metallic brace, which clattered to the floor at her feet, causing a small explosion.

“It worked!” Twilight cried, elatedly clapping her hooves together.

“And it opened the door!” Pinkie pointed, moving back towards her friends and seemingly unharmed from the explosion.

“Wait, how’d you get your brace thingy off?” Twilight inquired, pointing.

Pinkie shrugged, “I didn’t, it just poofed away when I went back in time,” Pinkie frowned, “And I was standing in a cave for some reason, not this place.”

Twilight tuned to Rarity, casting a spell that stopped the blood from flowing from her wounds. Thankfully the white unicorn was still alive, though she’d need a blood transfusion fast.

“I did do a bit of reading up on time spells and one thing that I read was that conjured items that were made before the time that they were sent back to stayed in the time period that they were in, being unable to travel back...but that makes no sense, someone conjured these devices up?” Twilight lifted a hoof to her own, “And if you were in a cave, but I sent you back a few hours ago, all of this was created in a matter of hours? How? Unless it really was Discord, but if he’s back...” Twilight trailed off, freezing in thought, “Oh sweet Celestia! We need to pass the final test and get out of here!”

Lifting Rarity with magic, Twilight rushed from the room with Pinkie in hot pursuit.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy had started crying as she saw Rarity’s pain, unable to bear the thought of one of her friends being hurt.

Not having sound, she couldn’t be entirely sure what had happened in the next test, but a certain something else that took the form of the shadows knew, and it was not pleased.

‘Damn, that unicorn is rather resourceful, but I still think we should have kept the door closed to them as punishment for cheating,’ Stirrups said.

‘Hush, they only used the resources given to them, the unicorn may have foiled our plans, but she cannot be called a cheater...besides, there’s still our final test,’ Malum’s mental form smirked cruelly.

‘But the elements have passed all their tests!’ Stirrups retorted, ‘If what you say is right, they could potentially be brought back!’

‘Which is exactly why we are doing what we are to this one,’ Malum gestured towards Fluttershy, ‘Now be quiet while I watch the final challenge.’
______________________________________________________________________________

“‘This is the final test. There are three doors and behind one is freedom while the others hold death. You must choose the correct one to survive. The only hint as to the correct door is that if freedom is what you seek, then find the door that is not weak,’” Pinkie read.

“The door that isn’t weak,” Twilight repeated to herself, rushing around the room to examine each of the doors.

As she made her rounds, Twilight examined each of the three doors. One appeared to be made of wood while the other two were metallic.

“This should be fairly easy...I think,” Twilight commented, “Weak is a relatively subjective term. I’d assume that in this case, weak would mean the weakest compared to the others. Hmm,” The unicorn experimentally tapped on one of the metal doors, getting a clang as her hoof connected.

She moved to the next metal door and tapped it as well, getting a similar result.

“Damnit, how am I supposed to tell which one it is?” Twilight asked herself, “I don’t know any spell designed to detect the type of metal that something is...maybe I could...” She trailed off in her thoughts.

“Maybe you could see which one is the strongest by testing the doors,” Pinkie offered.

Twilight brightened at this, gasping, “You’re right, if I exert force on each door and see which one falls first, I should be able to single that one and the next one out,” Twilight firmly planted her hooves on the ground, “Get behind me, I’m not sure what this might do and I’d rather not take any chances...”

With that, Twilight squinted and her horn lit up with magical light, each of the doors getting a small ball of magenta light in their centers.

Focusing, Twilight made the balls of light grow stronger and larger, exerting more force on each door. To her surprise, one of the metal ones gave rather easily, bending. She stopped putting force on that one, focusing on the other metal and the wooden one.

The twin balls of energy grew larger and brighter until, suddenly, the metal door bent inwards. Twilight stopped her magic, surprised that the one she had singled out was the one that had stood up against the most force.

“I think it’s that one, then. Let’s go,” Twilight said.

But Pinkie stopped her, “But it said to choose the one that wasn’t weak, doesn’t that just mean that the first door is singled out?”

Twilight paused in mid step, surprised that she hadn’t thought of such an implication. If they were facing Discord again, did that mean that it was the second strongest door or the strongest one?

They hadn’t taken up too much time, so Twilight took a seat and thought for a moment. Discord was the spirit of chaos, so what did that mean? What was more chaotic? Or would the more chaotic choice be the wrong one as logically it would be the right one? Or was that logic flawed, being as the logical choice was chaotic and therefore in a chaotic...

Twilight stopped the train of thought before it went into a never-ending loop of one door versus the other.

Twilight got up and trotted forwards, towards the wooden door. She placed a hoof on it and had just started to pull when Pinkie cried out, “Pinchy knee!”

Twilight released the door handle as if it were a snake, hopping back.

If that one meant something scary was going to happen, surely that meant that the door was the wrong one.

But why hadn’t Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense foretold of the other scary events that had happened that day? What if Discord had caused something scary to jump out at them from the correct door in an effort to throw them off by activating the Pinkie Sense?

Or...

Twilight shook her head, she had to make a choice and she had to make it quick. She knew she had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right and that was relatively good odds.

“Pinkie, which door do you think it is?”

“Well...I had an itchy back earlier, meaning it would be my lucky day so...” Pinkie sized up both doors before pointing to the metallic one, “That one.”

“Okay then, here goes.”

Twilight levitated Rarity behind her, Pinkie following to the metal door. With a simple push it opened, nothing happened.

The trio rushed into the dark room and still nothing happened. A bright square of light appeared ahead and the ponies rushed forwards as fifty pounds of high explosive detonated under their feet, killing all three before their minds could comprehend what was happening.
______________________________________________________________________________

Fluttershy stared teary-eyed at the now blank wall, the crystal projector having turned off. She had seen her friends move into another room when the projection grew bright before disappearing altogether. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, and her worry for her friends kept her eyes posted on the wall.

‘I suppose it was her lucky day then, she chose the door with the least painful death,’ Stirrups said.

‘A pity, we’d have gotten more essence if they had more prolonged deaths both from them and their friend,’ Malum commented, ‘We’d best escape here before anypony arrives.’

‘Right, with the elements gone, we’d best begin to prepare for our takeover...shall we kill the last one before we leave? I think that a strangling...’

‘No,’ Malum cut in, ‘The elements acted as they should have, disappointingly, this one must continue to live if we intend to keep the elements dead.’

‘But...’

‘Hush,’ Malum interrupted again, ‘Let us leave this place, we must prepare at once.’