A Distant Light, A Close Calling

Twilight was lying on the sofa in the living room, reading a book called: “The Elements of Harmony.” Sunspeed made her way downstairs, looking at Twilight.

            “Wow, you’re up early, aren’t you?” She whispered.

            Twilight jumped at the sudden yet quiet outburst, a bit surprised, she managed to say:

            “Sunspeed, you startled me!”

            “Yeah, sorry about that.” Sunspeed replied, rubbing her neck.

            “So, what are you reading about? Sunspeed added, hesitating slightly.

            “I am just reading about the Elements of Harmony, I’m trying to figure out more about them, if there is anything else about the topic.”

            “Where is Starstride?” Sunspeed asked.

            “She went for a walk in the woods.” Twilight said, still gazing her eyes on her book.

            Suddenly, the door burst open, and Starstride appeared, breathless and gasping for air.

            “I-I found...something that you…may want to know-“Starstride struggled to say.

            “Whoa, hold on there, take it easy and catch your breath, then tell us about what you found.” Sunspeed responded.

            After a few moments of catching her breath, Starstride finally calmed down and continued.

            “I may have found a place for you and your friends to get more information on the 7th Element and the SDEH. Quite some time ago, there used to be a library two miles from here, but generations ago, the SDEH destroyed it. There is an ancient tome, which has the whole history of the 7th Element, and about the SDEH.”

            “What? We need to find and retrieve this information!” Twilight exclaimed.

            “Yes, we must. I wandered across the same library when I was in the woods moments ago. There should be an entrance to the labyrinth, it holds the tome. I would ask of you and your friends to retrieve it. In order to get there, there is a trail leading to the South in the woods, follow that and you will find it.” Starstride explained.

             Twilight looked at Sunspeed for a second, then glanced back at Starstride, then opened her mouth to say something, but couldn’t find the words. The three sat in silence for some time, and then Twilight perked up and said:

            “We will leave around early morning; I will wake the others shortly.”

            Starstride nodded, stood up, and walked out of the room.

            “I will gather some supplies we may need for the trip.” Sunspeed said briefly.

*

            The mane seven gathered in the living room, all packed and ready to go. Starstride nodded to them, acknowledging them. Twilight returned the nod, and fixed her eyes on the others. They all nodded or smiled as well. Twilight opened the door, and they all started off, walking down the trail that Starstride mentioned of earlier.

            As they got to the entrance of the woods, Rarity looked over her shoulder and mentioned:

            “Ugh, Celestia’s sun isn’t up that high yet, why did we have to leave this early Twilight?” She complained.

            “Rarity, once we get this book, and get back home, you can sleep all you want.” Twilight retorted.

            Adding a sigh, Rarity kept to herself and looked around the woods. The birds were starting to go about doing their daily business, the squirrels were frolicking through the tree lines, and bees were flying about, trying to scavenge and spread any pollen they could find.

            After about an hour of walking, a loud but obnoxious noise came from Rainbow Dash.

            “Ugh, can’t I just fly you all there? How long is it going to take us?” Dash blurted out, easily annoyed.

            “Dash, we will get there when we get there, ah don’t think ya’ll need to be so impatient!” Applejack raised her voice.

            Okay, maybe I was being a bit too inpatient, I just don’t see why I can’t fly you all there. Sorry AJ, you know I didn’t mean it.” Dash apologized.

            “It’s okay Rainbow, you weren’t being that impatient, sometimes, you just need to keep things to yourself.” Fluttershy jumped in, smiling afterwards.

            “Yeah, I guess your right ‘Shy.” Dash implied.

            “A chocolate cake from the Cake family sounds good right now.” Pinkie said.

             They all agreed and decided to continue walking in silence. After walking for some time, they noticed a building in the distance. As they came closer, it turned out to be an old warehouse. The area around the warehouse was an open field, no trees or brush was around. The warehouse was painted red, which by now was faded and chipped away.

            As they approached the double doors, Applejack stood up next to the door, turned around and faced her friends, and bucked the doors. The doors busted open, fragments of wood flew everywhere, and the doors fell onto the floorboards.

            They entered the warehouse, shattered tables, and broken bookcases littered the floor. They were covered in dust, and mold. As they searched around the room, Rarity let out a yelp. The others turned around almost instantaneously, curious to see what happened. There was a hole in the floor where Rarity was standing. The others gazed down the hole, and saw a slanted surface. After examining it, they identified them as stairs.

            “Rarity, are you down there?” Fluttershy called.

            They heard a cough in the distance, and a faint reply:

            “Yes, I am down here.”

            They knocked down the remaining parts of wood that was blocking the stairs, and started to descend. The stairs were covered in vines and cracks, small chips of rock were falling off of the staircase. When they finally reached Rarity, they locked their eyes upon an astonishing sight. In front of them, they saw a large labyrinth. There was murky water a distance ahead of them, and pillars were lined on opposite sides of the water, which was covered in vines and cracks too.

            In the middle of the water, was a bridge, the pillars looming over it from both sides. On the left of them, there was a corridor. On the right, was an aged stone door. As they awed in the sight, Twilight took a step ahead of them all, and turned to face her friends.

            “Okay everypony, I think the tome would lie just beyond this bridge, I’m not certain, but I have a feeling.”

            “Oh, how could anypony deal with a horrid place like this? This dust and dirt is making my mane and coat all icky, I think I will just wait outside.” Rarity said irritably.

            “Oh, come on Rarity, I think you are overreacting. You can go one time with a dirty mane.” Sunspeed enlightened.

            “Yeah Rarity, I think this place would be fun, especially for a party! Although it needs some sprucing up a bit, maybe some streamers, balloons, and…” Pinkie Pie rambled on.

            “Umm, sorry to intrude, but...don’t you think we should keep moving?” Fluttershy interrupted.

            “Yeah, ‘Shy is right, we have ta’ keep moving.” Applejack agreed.

            They all agreed on it, and they decided to walk to the other side of the bridge. After walking about halfway through the bridge, they heard a crumbling sound behind them. They turned slowly and saw the bridge collapsing behind them. The seven stood in complete shock for a moment, everything around them seemed to slow down, as their eyes locked on the collapsing walkway.

            “RUN!!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs.

            They all turned and galloped as fast as they could. Pinkie Pie almost tripped over a rock that was in her path, and she lost her balance. Struggling to keep up, Pinkie gritted her teeth and pressed on, trying to escape the collapsing doom that was before her hind legs. She jumped at the last part of the bridge; she barely managed to get to the other side. She landed with a loud thud, followed by a groan.

            The seven lie on the ground for some time, trying hard to catch their breath.

            “Is-is everypony…o-okay?” Dash panted.

            They all gave out a groan of approval. They sat there for about five minutes and rested. Afterwards, they continued their journey.

            They trotted down a long hallway that was in front of them, and soon after, they were staring at a large, aged cobblestone room. In the very back of it was a pedestal, light was shining down on it. A once blue carpet was on the floor. Pillars were lined up on both sides of the carpet. On the pedestal, was a tome. They all looked at each other for a second, then their eyes darted back to the pedestal with the tome resting on it.

            “There it is!” They all exclaimed.

            They slowly approached the pedestal, and as they were about forty feet away from it, they heard a loud growl. They looked around in horror, and they saw, in the corner of the room, was a Manticore. They all gasped, as the Manticore made its way towards the seven ponies. The Manticore crushed one of the pillars, which fell onto the other pillar across from it, making a loud booming noise.

            The noise echoed off the walls and hall, making the sound uncomfortable to bear. The Manticore got next to Twilight, and roared directly into her face. She stepped back quickly and cautiously, and motioned RD and AJ towards the Manticore. AJ ran up to the Manticore and bucked it across the face, Rainbow was spinning around him, making him dazed and confused.

            Twilight looked down and closed her eyes; she poured all of her concentration into her horn, purple sparks and a resonating essence gleaming out of it. Then with a quick flash of light, a bolt of energy hit the Manticore. The Manticore flew backwards, and hit the wall; it slid down to the floor, and lay there, unconscious.

            The seven turned and approached the pedestal. Twilight was standing directly next to the tome, and slowly, she picked it up. When she picked it up, it suddenly dissolved and crumbled to dust, leaving nothing but a trail of ash and dust with it.

            “What? No! That was our chance of-" Twilight trembled.

            “We came down here for nothing!” Sunspeed said angrily.

"Well, it was an OLD tome, wasn't it?" Dash said, putting too much emphasis on "Old."

"Well, I don't think the SDEH had anything to do with it. Starstride said that the SDEH destroyed the library long ago. The tome was probably just sitting here getting dusty for quite some time, since nopony took care of it." Rarity mentioned.

            Turning to the others, Twilight’s head sunk down a bit, her eyes drooped slightly, giving off a saddened expression. She said softly:

            “Girls, let’s go home.”

*

            It was raining outside, and a hooded figure was watching it pour outside out of the window. A light shone behind him, the banner of SDEH was clearly visible. The door came crashing open, and a Pegasus came running in, panting.

            “S-Sire, I have important…news!” The Pegasus gasped for air.

            “What?” The hooded figure said bluntly.

            “We found them; we know where the Elements are.”

            The hooded figure smirked and chuckled, making a sly reply, he said:

            “Excellent.”