How worlds live and die

Chapters

Chapter 1: There WERE ten of us
Chapter 2: Storytime
Chapter 3: First Obstacles
Chapter 4: Part from the Past
Chapter 5: Vanishing

Chapter 1: There WERE ten of us

“Wow, you look messy. Has something happened to you?”

“Couldn't sleep,” the young catlike creature replied while it was slowly moving towards the table. “The young cerberi were barking all night. Don't tell me you didn't hear them.”

“Slept like the dead”, answered the doglike skeleton with a grin, before taking another sip of his coffee.

“Very funny,” said the young one in a bored tone as he sat down at the wooden table. The dining room of the two was simple, with only a long wooden table on which two chairs were set up. The room had no windows, the only light source was a candle that stood on the table, and covered the dining room in a flickering red-orange light. The dark wooden table, unlike the room, was covered with plenty of breads, spread and drinks

"But it's not normal for them to be that loud around this time of the year. Would you mind passing me the bread?”

“Here.” With a energetic movement, the skeleton pushed a small box towards the other end of the table, “and don't worry about the cerberi. It was probably just a Windigo that came to close to our castle. It won't kill us.” The skeleton ended his sentence with a loud laugh.

“Again, very funny.”

The rising sun shown soft through the windows into the princess’ face, as she drank from her coffee. There's nothing as awakening as a beautiful sunrise and a cup of coffee. At the other end of the table sat her little sister, who would soon go to bed, drowsily looking at her sandwich. Even though she was always tired in the morning, Luna had lately been sleepier than usual.

“We haven't done much together recently,” said Celestia, with a warm smile.

Luna was still eying the untouched sandwich, her head resting on her right hoof. ”Yeah.”

“Maybe we should create an eclipse sometime soon, so we could get some more sister time, besides breakfast and dinner.”

“That would be”, she yawned, “great.” A moment of silence followed, in which Luna finally took a bite of of her sandwich. After she finished chewing, the princess of the night broke the silence again. “How’s your migraine doing?”

“Still unchanged.” For the last week, Celestia had been suffering from a horrible headache, that would not go away despite everything she tried. Because of this, Luna had taken over some of her sister’s responsibilities.

“I'm worried, you know. That doesn't sound good. Maybe he knows something?” The princess of the night raised her head as she spoke.

“How am I supposed to reach him? Besides, his travel would take time, and By the time he got here, the headache would already be gone. You shouldn't worry that much. It won't kill me.” Celestia smiled.

“I hope you’re right.” Luna took another bite of her sandwich.

At that moment, a cloud of smoke and green fire appeared before them and formed into a letter. Caught by surprise, Celestia almost dropped her coffee. Carefully she put down her cup and grabbed the letter with her magic. Unlike most letters she recieved, this one was not rolled, but folded. Once she was done reading, the princess began laughing. “Speaking of whom.”

The bipedal creature stood there for a moment, silently, with his hands in the pockets of his short pants, looking around the library, before speaking again: “Could I use your bathroom?”

“Uh, yes. It's right down the corridor,” Twilight replied.

“Thanks.”

Once he was out if hearing range, Spike raised his voice: “Well that was strange, wasn't it?”

“Not much stranger than what happens here usually,” answered the purple unicorn .

“Really, you think so?”

“Spike. He just wanted to send a letter to Princess Celestia, and to use our bathroom. There's nothing strange about that.” While talking, Twilight went back to her desk, where she was working before her visitor showed up, and began rearranging her quills. What a mess her working place was. Besides two open books several scrolls and stacks of loose paper sheets were lying around. That a stranger saw her desk in such a state made Twilight feel a little bit embarrassed. Lucky the rest of the library was tidy since Twilight had cleaned it just yesterday.

“The only thing that makes me wonder is his appearance. I have never before seen a species that looks like that, neither have I ever seen such casual clothes. There schould be a catalogue of species somwhere. Maybe I find somthing about him in there.”

“I know exactly which one you mean. But you don't find him suspicious?” The dragon climbed up a ladder to get the requested book from the shelf and brought it over to Twilight.

“We already learned that lesson Spike, remember?” Now she was laughing, “and my horn is still normal. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Yes, but”, before Spike could finish his sentence, he exhaled a green flame.

Twilight grabbed the letter that had appeared with her magic and unfolded it: “The princess sure is quick at writing. I wonder if she has some sort of secret technique. Now, let's see, what we have got here:

My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,

I would like you to join your visitor on his way to Canterlot in order to meet me. It will probably be interesting for you to get to know him. Although he will might act a little bit strange, trusting him shouldn't be a problem.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

Well, this is interesting, but still not strange,” she said after reading the letter to spike. “I better clean this mess before we go.”

“No time for that” The visitor returned to the room, "Our train leaves in excactly twelf Minutes." As he spoke the bided moved towards Spike and eyed him, as if he was waiting for something to happen, which made the young dragon visibly nervous.

“What are you looking at? Is there something in my fa-,” there was another green flame and two tickets appeared. The stranger grabbed one out of the air and headed for the door, where he had placed his bag after he had entered the library several minutes ago and picked it up, leaving behind a confused dragon and unicorn.

“Don't tell me that wasn't strange.”

Spike was right, this isstrange, Twilight thought to herself while following the bipedal creature toward Canterlot Castle. She had already given up on trying to get answers. “I don't want to spoil the surprise,” was the only thing he would tell her. So now the unicorn tried to figure out what species he belonged to. His appearance resembled a primate, though his arms were shorter and he was walking more upright, like Spike or minotaurs did. He was also a bit taller than the primates Twilight knew from the Canterlot Gardens, and about a head taller than herself. What made the purple mare wonder the most however, was the fact that he didn't have any fur, except for his short brown mane. Never before had Twilight heard of a species like that. And this couldn't be his first visit here. He knew his way around Canterlot way too well, and this place did not appear to astonish him. Hay, even Twilight was astonished by the town every time she visited, and she had lived here for years before moving to Ponyville. How could that person’s earlier visits go unnoticed. Literally everyone was looking at him right now. Also, why was this stranger in such a hurry? Their train had arrived at Canterlot not just in time, but even earlier than expected. They couldn't be late for the meeting with the princess. Well, the stranger at least appeared to be in a hurry, he wasn't exactly fast and it was no problem for Twilight to keep up with him, so she could be wrong about that.

As if the visitor had been able to hear her thoughts, he turned around, not slowing down, and smiled at the unicorn: “How about a little race?”

“A race?”

“A race!”

Without waiting for further answers, the biped turned around again and started running.

Twilight couldn’t afford to lose him, so she also sped up. “Why are you running?”

“Because this is a race, silly.”

“But, why the race?”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one, you are rather slow. You cannot be thinking about winning it.”

“You for one should know that it's not always speed that wins. Though you just came in fifth.”

The only race Twilight ever participated in was a Running of the Leaves in Ponyville, where she in fact did come in fifth, but how could he know that? There was that smile again. Strange wasn't even close to describing this. Though the scene, a unicorn and a whatever he was, running through Canterlot, must have looked strange to bystanders.

Guarding the entrance of the palace was probably the worst of all tasks a member of the Royal Guard could be charged with. Just standing there all day, in the hot sunlight, wearing the heavy armor, without anything happening. On top of it all, you can't even moan about how boring your task is, because you have to stay still all the time to concentrate on what was happening, which happened to be nothing most of the time. All you could do was hope for the time to pass, or wish for something to actually happen. Apparently, this guard’s wish became truth, as he could see two figures in the distance, closing in at a moderate speed. One of them seemed to be some sort of biped, while the other one was a unicorn mare, but not just anypony, this must have been the Captain’s little sister. He was told that Twilight, if the guard recalled the name correctly, would be coming for a visit, and that she would bring a guest with her. The princesses were already awaiting the two of them.

On the last few meters, the biped sped up, and came to a sudden stop shortly before the guard, who managed to keep a straight face thanks to all his training, even though the sudden burst surprised him.

“I won.” The stranger was breathing heavily. He put down his bag and took a large bottle of water out of it.

The mare followed him with a nervous grin: “Hi. I'm Twilight Sparkle and...”

“I was already informed about your visit Miss Sparkle.” the guard interrupted her. “Please follow me. The princesses are waiting.”

The cool and gloomy inside of the palace's summer wing was a welcome change from the unusually hot summer day outside. The race had caused Twilight to overheat, to the point where she had to stop running, so whe wouldn't faint. The biped however seemed to have less problems with the heat. He was pretty thirsty though. That was already about half a liter, and he still continued drinking. Maybe the stranger belonged to some marine race? No. Sea creatures looked different. They had webs and gills and so on. He didn't share any of these traits.
The suspicious eyes of the royal guards followed the two of them as they moved on to the throne room to meet both princesses. This guest must be pretty important, if Princess Luna sacrifices her sleep so she could meet him, Twilight thought.

“Please, wait here while I announce you.” Ordered the guard who guided them before leaving the hallway through a massive door.

“Princesses, Miss Sparkle and her companion have arrived.”

“Wonderful.” Celestia's voice could be heard in the hallway. “Let them enter, and you can return to your usual routine. Thanks.”

The biped didn't even wait for the guard to return and had already begun moving as soon as Princess Celestia's voice died, and Twilight followed him into the meeting room. Through the stained glass the sun was shining, making this room brighter and warmer than the hallway they came from. On the far end of the room, behind a large table, the regal sisters stood, awaiting their visitors. Luna's face almost burst with joy upon seeing the biped.

“Homer!” she said excited, “How long has it been?”

“Far too long, my dear Luna,” this 'Homer' answered, not bothering with any formality. “You have grown quite a bit. Last time we met, you had just outgrown that rebellious teen phase. I am happy to see that you are still awake just for me.”

“How could we miss the visit of one of our oldest friends.”

“'One of your oldest friends'? Just 'one' of your 'oldest friends'? It hurts to hear how little you care about me.” The way he overdramatized his sentence somewhat reminded Twilight of Rarity. Caring little? There was barely anything Princess Luna valued higher than her sleep. She even slept through Cadence' and Shining Armour's wedding, including the Changeling attack. The visitor also didn't really look old either, but the unicorn had no real comparison, so she could be wrong on that, too.

“You know how we think about you,” said the Princess of the Night with a light giggle, while Princess Celestia rolled her eyes.

“Of course I do, but it's always nice to hear it. You have become bigger as well, Celestia. Maybe you should cut down on the cake.” The biped let out a short laugh.

How could he treat the princesses so disrespectfully, and why didn't they seem to be bothered about that? This whole scene didn’t make any sense to Twilight

“You haven't changed a bit, and I'm not sure if I'm glad about that.” The Sun Princess' reply was rather serious, but with a friendly sub tone.

“An old dog doesn't learn new tricks.”

“I am older than you.”

“Just somehow.”

“Could someone PLEASE explain me what is going on here?” Twilight didn't mean to be that rude, but all this confusion caused her patience to burst.

“Of course Twilight Sparkle,” the white alicorn spoke with her usual calm and warm voice. “This human before you is the spirit of knowledge.”

That didn't explain anything, so without further thinking, the Unicorn said: “This what is what?” Immediately afterward she realized how disrespectful her question had been. What luck that Celestia was very patient with a lack of formality. Most other royals would have probably thrown her out already.

“We humans,” Homer started to explain, “are a species of highly intelligent primates, so your first guess was mostly accurate. The 'sea-creature' guess however was completely wrong.”

The unicorn took a step back. “How are you doing this?” she asked.

“The role of the spirit of knowledge,” the human answered, “comes with all existing knowledge. Which doesn't mean I know everything. It's more like reading everyone's mind at the same time. For example, even I don't know how Pinkie's keen sense works, but the moment someone finds it out, I will know it.

For the question 'What is a spirit anyway?' the answer is: We spirits are immortal beings who represent what keeps this world alive. Like Celestia represents the sun, and Luna represents the night, I represent knowledge.”

“So, you are responsible for this world?” noted the mare.

This time it was Celestia who answered: “We three aren't the only spirits. In total, there are ten of us.”

“There WERE ten of us,” corrected Homer, which left an expression of confusion and fear on the princesses face.

“What do you mean 'were'?” asked Luna.

“Funny story. Morus and Vito died about a week ago.” The confusion left their expressions, and made room for panic.

“Died? How can this be possible?”

“That's the funny part,” said the human, while pointing towards Luna with one finger of his left hand. “I don't know!”

Just when Twilight thought she had understood, the whole conversation turned out even more confusing than before: “Didn't you just say that spirits are immortal?”

“I most certainly did.” The human moved his finger towards Twilight while speaking, “At least there haven't been any reported cases of dying spirits before.”

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT SOMETHING THIS SERIOUS?!”

This was the first time the unicorn heard Princess Celestia scream. She had never lost her temper before, not when Twilight's friends caused turmoil at the Grand Galloping Gala, nor when Discord broke free. While Celestia's face showed anger towards the human, her eyes showed nothing but panic.

It took Homer, who apparently also got caught by surprise, a moment to reply. “I thought it would be a better way to bring the news to you, instead of just bursting in, screaming 'LUNA, TIA, ALL OF EXISTENCE MIGHT BE ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION!'”

He went silent again for a second, then he continued in a more serious voice, “That aside, panic won't get us anywhere now, so calm down. I already have some sort of a plan.”

Celestia was visibly relieved by the human's words, but the panic hadn't left her eyes.

Nervously Luna stepped forth, “So, what is your plan?”

The human took a deep breath and then answered: “Well,” he paused again for a second, “I can only think of one, who could be able to cause something like this, and I am going to visit her.

Even though I cannot think of a reason why she should have killed Morus and Vito, in case it was really her fault, I would like to take the Elements of Harmony with me. In the meantime, you two try to gather the other spirits here. It will probably be the safest for us if we stick together, and aren't scattered around the whole planet. I know it's not much, but it is the best thing we can do at the moment.”

The sisters exchanged a short gaze. None of them seemed very fond of the humans plan, but they couldn’t think of something better, since he had a week time to make this plan and if the spirit of knowledge didn't came up with a better plan within that time, there was no way the two of them could within a few minutes.

“Very well,” Celestia stepped forth, “I'll bring you to the treasury.”

Chapter 2: Storytime

The six mares followed the biped through the Everfree Forest, though none of them really knew why. The explanation they got was rather weak.

“The world is in danger, and we are going to visit the one possibly responsible for this.”

Twilight had tried to explain more, but the words Homer, human, and spirit were pretty much everything else she knew.

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Rainbow Dash was hovering above the purple unicorn.

“The princesses trust him, and I see no reason why we shouldn't trust them.”

“That doesn't really convince me.”

“Indeed.” Rarity walked up next to them, “Just look at his clothes. That's a crime against fashion.”

“Uhg.” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“You know, that's not really a reason to distrust someone.” said Twilight.

“Not a reason?” The white unicorn was shocked, “Darling, the sense of fashion shows the true character of every living being.”

Rainbow moaned again, “Rarity, you are the only one of us with a sense of fashion.”

In that moment Pinkie Pie popped up between the two unicorns: “Yeah, just think about the dresses we designed for the Grand Galloping Gala I mean they were ugh, so we all would be evil but we're not evil we're the good ones I mean we're fighting the evil ones. Or are we fighting the good ones but think they are the evil ones because we are tricked by the true evil ones, like him, but then the princesses would be evil as well. They are surely not evil, they're good, I mean they're always so friendly and they care for everypony. Or are they tricked as well, but then he would be a really good evil one it's probably not easy to trick them, but” at that point no one was listening to the pink pony anymore, which didn't stop her from continuing.

Cadence and Shining Armour had been visiting the Neighagra Falls when Celestia's letter reached them, and asked them to immediately return to Canterlot. What luck, that the trains between there and Canterlot were quite quick, the letter sounded pretty urgent, and the whole palace was in a hurry, so something must be going on. Last time the royal guards had been this active was when the changelings threatened Canterlot, but they couldn't possibly be trying an attack again already, could they? Shining already walked off to coordinate the guards, while the pink alicorn went towards the throne-room to meet Celestia and Luna. Both, so something serious must be going on.

Cadence coat was still moist from the Falls. She appreciated the additional cooling, while being outside during this hot summer day, but here, in the chilly palace, the princess started to freeze, and a cold shiver ran down her spine. “Let's hope that I don't catch a cold. That's the last thing I need right now.” said the princess to herself.

“The others are starting to get uneasy. It would probably help, if you tell us, where exactly we are heading.” suggested Twilight towards Homer.

The human pointed forwards with his right hand, “There.”

Trying to spot where he was pointing, the Unicorn stretched out her neck. It wasn't easy, but through the trees and bushes she could make out some structures. Familiar structures.

“Are those the old castle's ruins? What are we supposed to find there?”

“Nothing. We're just stopping for a short break.”

Rainbow dashed before him: “Weren't we supposed to save the world? I don't think we got the time for a break. Unless you’re lying!”

“What we don't have time for,” said Homer in a strong and serious voice, “is one of you collapsing from the heat.”

“No one is collapsing.”

“Why don't you discuss that with Fluttershy.” Without further words, the human continued.

Fluttershy smiled at the other five mares, who were all eying her now.

“She doesn't look tired. We can easily continue.”

“Actually, I would love to take a break, uhm, if that would be okay for you.”

“How in tarnation did he do that? He never looked at her.” asked Applejack

Twilight laughed, lightly nervously: “Maybe I should have mentioned that he can read minds.”

“Maybe,” echoed Homer's voice through the forest.

Cadence entered the throne room: “Celestia, Luna, I'm here. What is....” in that moment, she saw the black and holey 'mare' who stood with them, “What is she doing here?”

“Don't tell me, this little Princess is one as well. Hah. That would explain how she was able to defeat me.”

Celestia interrupted before the situation had a chance to escalate: “Calm down Cadence, Queen Chrysalis is not here as an enemy, we invited her here.”

“Why would you do that? She tried to ruin my wedding, and take over Equestria.” Cadence was confused.

“Right now we are facing an enemy, who is even more dangerous than her, and not only threatens ponykind, but all of existence. That includes Chrysalis.”

Cadence looked around the room, awaiting to see other royals. She was even more confused when she couldn't spot any: “Why aren't there any other representatives here? The other races must care about this as well.”

This time it was Chrysalis who was confused. The changeling's queen eyed the young Princess with a questioning look: “Don't tell me...” she began to laugh loudly. “This little foal doesn't even know who she is, does she?”

“What are you talking about?”

Celestia stepped forth, “It's time that we tell you a little bit more about yourself. What do you know about the spirits?”

“The spirits?”

“We are the ones responsible for this world. Every one of us represents something that makes it possible for this world to live.

We were born from the Idea, a being much older and more powerful than all the spirits together, who created this world out of an empty void of nothing, but the world was just a blur. It lacked a shape, and so, the spirit of shape, Chrysalis, was born.

The next problem was, that the world was too dark. All those shapes couldn't be seen. So the Idea created the Sun, the light and me, the spirit of light.

Now, that there was something to be seen, and the light to see it, the world missed someone to see it, for all it's inhabitants were mindless. So the spirit of knowledge came into existence.”

“And that would be me.” Homer held both his thumbs up beneath his face and smiled at the six mares who sat before him, in the shadows of the old ruins.

“But this world was far away from perfection. Knowledge doesn't work on it's own, it needs a base to work on and a goal to work for. A past and a future, and the corresponding spirits, Chron and Tempa. They are the ones we are visiting. Tempa, the spirit of past, is the only one I can think of, who would be able to do something without me getting to know.”

“How?” Twilight interrupted, “I thought you can read everyone’s mind?”

“I said it's like reading everyone’s mind, and that I have all knowledge in existence, but Chron and Tempa don't exist at the same time as I do. I am older than time itself, which sounds way cooler than it actually is, so I only exist in the present. Tempa only exists in the past, while Chron, as the spirit of future, only exists in the Future. So they have knowledge that I either missed, or can't have yet, but there is a way for us to communicate, thanks to an old artifact the Idea left for us.”

“So that's what you need the Elements of Harmony for.” Twilight claimed.

“No. I created the Elements as a weapon for you mortals, that you can use against the spirits, if necessary, and that's what we need them for.”

“You created the Elements of Harmony?” The purple mare was astonished, as well as all the others.

“Yeah. It took me several years, and a small failure, that made the changelings all holey, though, but that's a different story.

Past and future now might existed,” the human just continued with his story, not caring that the way he changed the subject was quite rough, “but they were no different from the present, because everything was in a perfect order. What the world needed was a spirit of chaos.

Discord.

Everything worked quite fine now, except that the constant change exhausted the living beings. They needed a possibility to rest, to recover. Therefore the Idea created Luna, the spirit of night, as a counterpart to Celestia's light. If you might recall, change already existed at that point, so it affected Luna, and she was born as a filly. Celestia was too powerful for Littleluna,” Homer smiled upon using that Nickname for the princess of the night, “And had to be weakened and youthed, which left me with the task to keep an eye on them.”

Nostalgic and quiet he looked around the ruins, before continuing with a sigh: “The world seemed perfect, but it's inhabitants grew old over the time and needed to be replaced. The old ones had to die, and new young ones had to be born. Following this, Vito, the spirit of birth, and Morus, the spirit of death, appeared.

About a week ago, they died, which is on the one hand rather strange for immortal beings, on the other hand bad for this world, because with them death and birth vanished as well, leaving you unable to die, and new children unable to be born.”

“The thing with the children is sad, but being immortal isn't that bad, is it?” mentioned Rainbow Dash, “Now I can try all those tricks that have been too dangerous before.”

“You're not immortal, you just can't die. Yes there is a difference. Imagine an old and sick pony, lying in hospital, with just one wish left: For the end to come. A wish that will never become truth. Imagine a cute little bunny that got attacked by a fox. Left lying on the ground, hurt but still alive.”

Rainbow swallowed. That last example had been a complete mood killer. The ponies awkwardly looked at the ground, almost paralyzed by not knowing how to reply. Except for Fluttershy.

“What are we waiting for?” The yellow Pegasus charged towards Homer, “We need to find that Tempa spirit.”

“Alright, if you're rested enough," The Human took another sip from his water bottle before he stood up agaon. "Let's go."

"So, who's the last Spirit?"

“Death worked perfectly fine, but birth didn't happen, the worlds inhabitants had no reason for it. So the Idea created love, and the spirit of love. You, Cadence.”

“Me?” the pink alicorn took a few steps back, “But I'm nothing special. There's no way I can be this spirit of love.”

“You are an alicorn, you can easily perform powerful love spells and you were able to defeat another spirit. There is no doubt.”

“It was Shining who performed the defense spell and I am not immortal like you.”

Celestia smiled down at her: “The spirit of love is not immortal. The Idea thought it wouldn't be fair to let you witness the deaths of everyone you ever loved. It gave you the ability to die and be reborn, so you could forget everything and start a new love.”

“Cadence is an immortal spirit?” asked Twilight.

“She's a special case.” replied Homer, “As the only one of us younger than death and birth, the spirit of love was affected by them and the Idea had to think of some different way, to make it immortal. So the spirit of love stayed mortal, but is randomly reborn into any race, without any memory of it's previous life. Most spirits of love didn't even knew what they were.” He laughed at that.

“Anyway, you have more questions.”

“Why haven't I heard of humans before?”

“We moved to the north long ago, after the fifth Discord event.”

“Fifth? How often has Discord broke free?”

“Just once, but he has been trapped in stone only two times up to today. Once by the princesses, once by you girls. However, if you want to know how often he caused massive turmoil, the answer is six times.”

“So often?”

“That number is actually rather low, if you keep in mind how long we already live.”

“Oh, okay, but it still doesn't really explain why there haven't been any mentions in my books.”

“It's REALLY long ago that that happened. There are barely any books left from then, and we didn't just moved north. We moved FAR north, way farther than where you ponies original come from, into the Crystal Mountains, literally. On top of that, we stopped every contact with other species.”

“Why have you done that?”

“Humans are a bit more aggressive than ponies, and turned out to be rather dangerous under the wrong influence of Discord. So, it was just for the safety of everyone.
You know, we've got some time till we reach our destination, why don't you let me tell a bit about Equestria's history?”

“Uh okay.”

“Careful, branch.”

“What?” Twilight moved her head forward, and barely came to a halt, before running into a branch, that hung down from a tree, “Thanks for the warning.”

“No problem.” The human walked backwards, while facing Twilight. Without looking, he ducked under another branch.

Twilight only needed a few small hops to catch up with Homer again. He still did walked rather slow. They would have been much faster without him.

“But you don't know the way.”

It took the mare a few seconds of confusion to remember his special ability.

“Yes,” she awkwardly smiled at the human, who just smiled back. Hoping to change the subject the unicorn then continued: “You wanted to tell me something about Equestria's history.”

“Think back to the first Hearth's Warming Eve.” Homer began as if nothing had happened, “At about the same time as the ponies left their homeland in the north due to the Windigoes, the humans left their original homeland in the south due to a massive heat wave. This is more than just a funny coincidence, these two events are actually linked to each other.”

“How?” It wasn't quite easy to follow the spirit's story, and the spirit himself through the forest, but Twilight's curiosity kept her going, as always. The other mares weren't as interested as the Unicorn, so they just followed the two of them in silence, except for Rarity who would moan about the dirt every now and then.

“Windigoes don't destroy warmth. They just relocate it to somewhere else, and that somewhere happened to be the human's homeland. So, the colder the north became, the hotter it got in the south.

Oh, humans and ponies worked so well together. The ponies profited by the human's advanced technology, while the humans got help from the ponies magic, and their additional strength. So both species settled down here, in the Land they named Equestria. The homeland of us spirits. Of course at that point none of them had any idea about us, and it stayed like that for several more years, because we had silently agreed to stay out of the mortal's business.”

“What changed?” asked Twilight, “I mean, Celestia and Luna being princesses isn't actually staying out of mortal's business.”

“Discord, what else.” Homer took a big step over a tree, that had fallen to the ground, “One day, it wasn't enough for him to make his little jokes with the wild animals from the Everfree Forest, and he started to play with the ponies and humans. Celestia and Luna couldn't stay still and watch, so they took action as well.”

“What about you? Haven't you done anything?”

“Humans aren't really strong, and can't use magic. There wasn't much I could have done, besides giving advice.

Anyway, Discord was still modest at that time and didn’t use his full powers, so Celestia's and Luna's natural abilities were enough to fend him of. However that draconequus is quite persistent and tried to cause chaos several times, most of them were minor incidents, but he also made larger attempts. That's what I referred to as Discord Events earlier.

After the third of these events, Celestia and Luna had gained so much trust from Equestria's inhabitants, that humans and ponies decided to crown the sisters. So they got their royal titles, with all the responsibilities, including raising the sun and the moon.”

“Ehm.” Rarity cleared her throat to gain the human's attention, “Excuse me, but I was wondering, why have you given them the titles of Princesses, and not Queens?”

“Two Queens for one country? That's rather unusual, isn't it. Besides, their physical appearance was still quite young at that time, and even though most people and ponies trusted them, they wouldn't have accepted such young Queens.

It was about the time around their crowning ceremony that I started to work on the Elements of Harmony. With all the new tasks and the population spreading further across Equestria, I assumed Celestia and Luna wouldn't be able to defend everyone anymore, and that humans and ponies needed a way to defend themselves.

Fortunately, Discord left us our peace for quite some time then, so he could visit Chrysalis, who on my advice had moved across the sea to the next continent in the east.”

“Your advice?”, asked Twilight.

“I lived among humans, Celestia and Luna lived among ponies, so I thought it would only be fair if Discord and Chrysalis could live among their kind as well and told them where they lived. Chrysalis followed my advice, Discord didn't, and that continent in the east happened to be the homeland of the Changelings.”

Celestia watched the lively work of the royal guards from a window in the throne room. They probably wouldn't stand a chance, so the spirit of light hoped for the evacuation of Canterlot to be finished before who- or whatever killed Morus and Vito showed up.

Behind her, on the other side of the room, Queen Chrysalis stood, bored with nothing to do and the ongoing evacuation made it impossible even for her to get some love.

Luna lay in a corner, sleeping. Staying up all night and day had exhausted her so much, that even the cold stone floor felt comfortable.

Thinking about what she just learned, Cadence sat near the throne room’s entrance. She had already accepted the fact that she seemed to be this 'spirit of love', and now her curiosity kicked in. It was a thread she shared with Twilight, and probably the reason, why the young princess loved to foal-sit the unicorn so much.

“There is one thing I don't understand.”

Celestia moved away from the window and faced the pink alicorn: “Yes?”

“How come Changelings feed from love, if I am the youngest of all spirits?”

“We have to thank these two Princesses and their precious Elements of Harmony for that.”

“If you wouldn't have tried to take over Equestria, there would have been no reason for us to use them.”

“I think I'm missing some crucial knowledge here.” interrupted Cadence before the two attacked each other.

“Originally the Changelings were normal carnivore, from a continent across the ocean in the east. Luna and I had no actual idea about their existence, until they attacked Equestria several years after we became the princesses. We were still young back then, it was impossible for us to fend off a whole army and Equestria had no army of it's own. After all, we are a peaceful nation, back then as well as today. Fortunately for us, the spirit of knowledge was on our side and gave us the Elements of Harmony. Unfortunately for the changelings, they had never been used before, so no one knew how to use them properly, and there was no time to try it out. So, when my sister and I used them against Chrysalis and her Changelings, it didn't show the expected effect, but turned them into the love eating beings they are now.”

“After what happened to the Changelings, I immediately took back the Elements and worked out everything that wasn't as it should be, for example that they also worked on non spirits, but the changelings weren't the only one who changed. Some humans began to build weapons, in case they had to fight against an army again. I didn't interfere at that point, because every one of them hoped there would never be a reason for that again. Maybe they would have been right, if it weren't for Discord. Somehow he got wind of the weapon's existence, and thought it would be a perfect opportunity for him to spread chaos, without any other spirit getting in his way. As I mentioned earlier, humans tend to be more aggressive than ponies, so it was a piece of cake for him to manipulate them, and indeed, when they started to use the weapons, the chaos that occurred made him too powerful for Celestia and Luna. Hesitant, I allowed them to wield the Elements of Harmony once again. This time, they worked perfectly fine and Discord got imprisoned in stone. Ponykind would have forgiven the humans, but they lost the trust in themselves, and we decided that leaving Equestria would be the best thing for everyone. That's it for my story.”

Homer stopped before several giant boulders and took another gulp from his bottle.

“We're there.”

Chapter 3: First Obstacles

“Wow, you look messy. Has something happened to you?”

“Couldn't sleep,” the young creature replied while it was slowly moving towards the table. “The young cerberi were barking all night. Don't tell me you didn't hear them.”

The cerberi? Maybe that was a helpful hint. If she couldn't change what happened here, she could at least try to find it out.

“Slept like a dead”, answered the skeleton with a grin before taking another sip of his coffee.

“Very funny,” said the young one in a bored tone as he sat down at the table. “But it's not normal for them to be that loud around this time of the year. Would you mind passing me the bread?”

“Here.” With a gentle movement the skeleton pushed a box towards the other end of the table. “And don't worry about the cerberi. It was probably just a Windigo that has been a bit too early. It won't kill us.” The skeleton laughed.

“Yes it will!”

“Again, very funny.”

“You two should get out of here.” Again, no reaction.

And then everything crumbled.

“These rocks are supposed to be an ancient relict?” asked Rarity unconvinced.

Homer went up towards the structure: “Of course not. The relict is hidden inside them. Let's hope they fixed this.” He reached into a hole between two of the boulders, “I don't want my arm to AAAAAAHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

The six mares shrunk back from the humans sudden scream. Has Tempa already gotten him? That would definitely not be good.

“Oh, you totally fell for it.”

Right next to Homer, one of the smaller rocks started to move aside and revealed a dark cave behind it. The spirit of knowledge was still crying in pain. Humans sure had a strange way of crying, it sounded like he was laughing.

“You should see your faces.” The human took his arm out of the hole again, which, to the confusion the ponies, was unharmed. Now Pinkie began laughing as well and Fluttershy left out a relieved sigh.

“O Darling,” moaned Rarity “Please warn us next time you want to scare us. This excitement isn't good for my fur.”

“Do ya' think this is the right time for jokes?” asked Applejack.

The rock came to a stop, so that the cave now lay open. Homer shrugged while stepping in front of the entrance.

“It didn't throw us back.”

He enter the cave, but stopped again, as a metallic clicking sounded, followed by a slight rumble. With a thud, the spirit was thrown on his back and landed on the ground before the mares.

“That however did.”

In the entrance, there was a log, hanging from the roof with thick strings.

“Is that supposed to be another joke?” The purple Unicorn was looking down at the human, who examined his nose with his fingers. He then hold up his thumb before Twilight's face.

“I'm all right, nothing is broken. Thanks for being so concerned about me.”

Slowly Homer sat up again. Scratching his chin he examined the log. “We might have a problem here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I cannot remember that trap. Tempa must have build it after someone was here for the last time. Therefore I don't know what will await us from now on.”

He stood up.

“But we haven't got much of a choice, do we?” With that, the human entered the cave again.

Why are the nights in Tartarus always so dark? Even the most dangerous creatures inEquestria shouldn't be forced to live like that, but that wasn't what she was here for. Or what she was now for.

Slowly her eyes got used to the lack of light and she could make out a cerberus, sleeping several meters before her. The right place at the first try. Perfect. Maybe a little bit closer to get a better look at them. Carefully. Carefully.

*Crack*

An old bone crumbled under her foot. It wasn't very loud, but enough to wake up the cerberus. His yellowish eyes glowed in the dark. Snarling, the three headed dog rose.

Don't move! Maybe he won't see you then.

Next to the cerberus a pair of red eyes appeared. Angry about his interrupted sleep, the regarding head began barking, waking up his twins and another dozen eyes. Also angry, they began to bark as well, distracting the first one.

That's my chance. Maybe I can get away unnoticed.

*CRACK*

Another bone. This one loud enough to get the attention of all four cerberi.

The inside of the cave was filled with the noise of metal scratching against metal. Its source was a field of golden spikes, rapidly shooting out of holes in the ground, and being retracted again. On the other side of the field, there was a giant lever.

“How are we gonna make it past that?” asked Applejack.

“Well, I could just,” began Twilight, but got interrupted by Homer: “Let me handle this.”

The human put down his backpack and began running towards the field. The six mares exchanged concerned looks, but the spirit easily tiptoed around the spikes. As if it was the most natural thing for him to do, he twisted and turned to avoid every attack at a speed, that even amazed Rainbow Dash. Like that, it took him only a few seconds to get to the lever, which Homer moved using the remaining speed from his little 'dance'.

The six mares walked through the now silent trap towards the Human, who sat on the ground, his eyes still spinning.

“That was awesome!” cheered Rainbow “How have you done that?”

“Spirit's immortality. It forces us to avoid damage, even beyond our own physical possibility.”

“Yet you weren’t able to dodge that log.” mentioned Applejack sarcastically.

“It didn't damage me, did it?” Carefully Homer stood up again.

“You know that I could have just used my magic to move the lever?” said Twilight.

“Yeah, but my way was more fun. Now let's go!” Full of elan the Spirit turned around, and almost fell over again.

“Can someone please keep the room from spinning?”

This immortality is pretty helpful, she thought to herself while running away from the cerberi faster than her short legs should enable her to. The twelve heads that were chasing her barked wildly. No wonder Vito can't sleep like this.

Another bone made her trip and she fell on the ground. The cerberi's inertia caused them to run past her, so that they came to a stop in front of her. Keeping eye contact with the largest of the four, she slowly stood up. For half a minute the five of them stayed silent, looking at each other, knowing, whoever looked away first would lose. Time was running away, so she had to think of something. Without a warning she spit out a small flame towards the cerberi and used the created moment of confusion to run away, back into the direction they came from.

Was that door already open before?

The trap in the next room consisted of giant pillars, crashing into the ground, which resembled a chessboard. Homer was looking around curiously.

“That's interesting”

“What do you mean?”

The Spirit turned towards Twilight: “Well, that artifact I was talking about earlier is a room that suppresses the powers of us spirits and, by that, enables Chron and Tempa to appear in the present. That room used to be about here, but it isn't anymore. Tempa must have relocated it somehow. Nevertheless, some of the rooms power seems to be left here, causing my knowledge to be somewhat blurred.”

Twilight wanted to make a funny comment about the Humans action in the last room, something like 'Are you sure that is no consequence of your show?' but Applejack was faster on saying something.

“Be careful sugarcube, that looks pretty dangerous.”

“We can't die silly, you remember.”

Homer and Twilight turned their heads to see what they were talking about, and bursted out in unison: “PINKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“You were right, this is fun.” answered the pony happily, while hopping around between the pillars.

“She never ceases to surprise me.” The human shook his head. “I hate being a drag, but could you please check if there is a lever or something like that on the other side, that could stop this trap.”

“Oky doky loky.” Pinkie saluted, and stopped for a moment to do so. Just then one of the pillars began falling onto the spot where she stood.

*Thump*

She locked the door behind herself and could feel the force of the cerberi rushing into the wall, leaving cracks behind.

That clue was a dead end, so she had to think of something different, but of what, and where could she find other clues? They wouldn't just drop from the sky.

....

Nope, nothing's dropping. Too bad, in a comedy that would have worked, and only in a comedy would this be the appropriate time for jokes.

Maybe....It shouldn't be too late, she could still do something.

The six of them were standing there, motionless and shocked.

“Woah, that was close.” said Pinkie, while she was looking at the bottom of the pillar, which had stopped just a few centimeters above her head.

“She never ceases to surprise me.” repeated Homer to himself.

“How. But. What has just happened?” asked Twilight.

The human silently examined the scene for a moment, and then pointed towards the pink pony: “It seems like she got on a pressure plate, which then stopped the trap.”

Indeed, the plate Pinkie stood on was lowered a bit, compared to the surrounding ones.

“Wow, what luck.” The pink pony began laughing.

“Yeah, luck.” Homer said skeptical.

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow.

The spirit shook his head: “Nothing,” he then began moving towards the door at the other end of the room, “Let's go. There can't be much more room for traps.”

Carefully he stepped from one plate to the next, continuously watching the roof for potentially dropping pillars. Pinkie hummed a joyful tune, while she was hopping towards the door as well. It was her who reached it first. With a gentle push the earth pony opened the entrance, and a cold draft went through the room.

“Wow. That's big.”

Homer sped up to see what astonished Pinkie like that.

“Seems like I was wrong.” He stated after entering the following room, which was enormous. So big, that it normally shouldn't fit into the hill.

“How could Tempa build this?”, asked Homer himself, while looking around.

For the most part, the hall consisted of a vast canyon, so deep that it's bottom couldn't be seen. On the other end a stonebridge rose to the ceiling.

Now the other five ponies followed.

“This is amazing. I wonder what spell they used to make this possible.” Twilight continued walking while looking around the hall. It was big enough to store several of Canterlot's aircraft, whereas the hill outside was hardly larger than one of them. The unicorns thoughts were abruptly disrupted when Applejack grabbed her tail and stopped Twilight’s little stroll.

“You might wanna watch where you go.” mumbled the earth pony. Twilight took a look down into the abyss below her feet and gulped.

“Thanks AJ.”

Rainbow Dash flew in front of her.

“I'll take a quick look at the other side, to see if there's a way to lower that bridge.” Not awaiting any response the pegasus flew away. It didn't took her long to get an answer.

“There is the statue of a human who want's to hear the 'magic word that makes everything happen'.” she called.

“Magic is your specialty Twilight.”

“Yes, but unicorn magic doesn't use words, and there is no one spell for everything. Rainbow said it's the statue of a human. Does human magic has such a word?”

“Humans don't have magic, but there might be something that fits the description, though it is more of a children's rhyme. TRY ALACAZAM!”

There was a short moment of silence, before Rainbow Dash answered: “It's not working, and the statue says I have only two tries left.”

Homer was scratching his head. “Let's see. Who else uses magic?”

“Uhm.”

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“If you got an idea, you can tell us.”

“It's probably wrong.”

“We can't know if we don't try, sugarcube.” Applejack tapped the pegasus' back to comfort her.

“But what if we miss the last two tries?”

“Then Twilight uses her magic to teleport us to the other side. You see, there is nothing to be afraid of. Just spit it out.”

“How about 'please'?”

“Please?”

“You can make almost anybody do anything by being kind.”

“What did she say? I can't hear her.” called Rainbow Dash from across the canyon.

“TRY SAYING PLEASE.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“YOU GOT A BETTER IDEA?”

The echo of Homers voice clang through the room and left behind silence again. But that didn't last for very long, before it got broken by a loud rumbling noise, as the bridge began to fall down. The only sound louder than that, was the shriek Fluttershy left out shortly before running back. Following her example, the other ponies also backed away from the abyss. Homer on the other hand stood still, watching the bridge falling.

“Get away!” yelled Twilight, but the Human didn't move a muscle. She wanted to pull him away with her magic, but the bridge was faster and crashed into the ground, raising a giant cloud of dust.

As fast as she was gone, Rainbow now came back to check on her friends.

“Are you alright?”, asked Rainbow Dash while dissolving the dust with her wings.

“Yeah, it seems so.” answered Twilight, who just stood up again, after the shockwave of the landing bridge had thrown them all back. “What about Homer?”

The human still stood in the exact same spot as before, dusting of his shoulders. The bridge apparently came down directly in front of him and fitted perfectly into the gap.

“I didn't expect that to work.” he said. “Anyway, let's go.”

“Wait!” Rainbow landed in front of him. “I had to promise that stone-guy that we would only cross the bridge one at a time.”

Homer scratched his chin. “Did you promise him that we actually cross the bridge as well?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we don't really have the time to cross the bridge one at a time, so I suggest we save some time by letting Twilight teleport us all over there anyway.”

“Isn't that like cheating?”

“I would rather call it a free interpretation.”

“I'm with Homer on this one.” intervened Twilight. “The whole world’s fate is at hoof. We have no time to waste.”

“Yeah. Teleportations are fun.” Pinkie was happily hopping around the group.

“What fun is there in something that bad for your skin?” asked Rarity, while following the pink pony with her eyes.

Still hiding behind her mane, Fluttershy also rose her voice: “I don't think it is a good idea to anger a giant statue.”

“I guess it's worth a try.” mentioned Applejack last.

“Four against three, I won!” The human rubbed his hands against each other. “Let's do this. Twilight?”

The purple unicorn closed her eyes and lit her horn. In her mind Twilight pictured Homer standing on the other side of the bridge. Once the image was clear, she released all the magic in her horn. With a pink flash the spirit of knowledge vanished, and reappeared in the same way right next to the statue. It really showed a human, though it was twice as high as Homer and much more chunky.

The spirit waited for a short while, to see if the statue would react to him, but it didn't move a muscle. Or rock.

“Hi there stone-giant. Is it okay for you if we teleport over here instead of crossing the bridge?”

No reaction.

“I'll take that as a yes. YOU CAN CONTINUE.”

The next one to be send over was Applejack, shortly followed by Pinkie Pie.

“Hahahahahaha. This tickles.”

“Please be gentle Twilight. Last time you teleported me I got a terrible itch” begged Rarity who was the next in the row.

“I'll do my best”, was the last thing she could hear before the pink flash blinded her and the ground vanished. Then the worst part began. A light prickling, which quickly grew to a nasty electric feeling, and disappeared just as fast.

“Honestly Pinkie, I simply cannot understand how can you enjoy something like this.”

“Don't move.”

“What?” as Rarity opened her eyes she was looking into several afraid faces.

“What's wrong? Ah, is it my mane?”

The unicorn looked up, but couldn't see anything strange about her hair. Instead she could see something moving in the corner of her eye. The ground was shaking, as the statue got on his knees right next to Rarity.

“Don't move”, whispered Pinkie again. “Maybe he can't see you then.”

Rarity followed that advice, after all she couldn't move anyway out of fear. However, that didn't seem to irritate the stone giant, who now slowly reached out for the Unicorn.

“Hey!” Homer called out while beginning to jump around and waving with his arms. “Fight someone of your size, stupid boulder!”

Only a short distance away from Rarity, the statue's hand came to a stop, but apparently not as a reaction to Homer's offense. The mare quickly took a few steps back. For a second everything was quiet, then Rarity's eyes widened.

“Is that for me?”

“Take good care of him.” The statues voice was rough, like rocks grinding against each other.

The white unicorn lit her horn and a light blue shimmer appeared between the stone giants fingers. Magically she brought forth an orange gem.

“Oh thank you. It's so beautiful.”

“Rarity are you alright?” called Rainbow Dash while quickly flying towards them, followed by Fluttershy.

“Of course I am. I'm better than alright.”

As the pegasi landed, Twilight finally teleported herself as well.

“Is anypony hurt?”

Applejack left out a relieved sigh. “Thankfully not. Let's just hope it stays like that.”

After saying so the orange farmer turned around and continued towards the door to the next room. She would never reach it though.

Hard to believe, but the cellar was even darker than the outside of Tartarus. She couldn't see anything. Not that there was much to see. Despite their pompous castle, Morus and Vito didn't spend much on furniture or equipment. Not that they could spend much on many down here. Though they could spend a little bit for heating the castle, at least during Summer. She crossed her arms, trying to keep the warmth to her body. With only little succes.

“Applejack? Can you hear me? Applejack?”called Twilight down the hole which had suddenly opened up beneath the earth pony. Homer in the meantime examined the door.

“Applejack?”

“I'm fine. There's a haystack down here that I landed on.”

“This is just paint.”

“What?” asked Twilight, too distracted by her worry about Applejack to perceive the human's words.

“That door is just painted.” The spirit of knowledge walked backwards towards the pit, while pointing at the door.

“What?” confused, the purple unicorn raised her head, to see the human turning around and kneeling before the pit.

“Applejack, is something else down there, besides the haystack?

“Uhm, yes. There's another room. This one with a dragon statue.”

“Sounds promising,” and without further words Homer jumped down, immediately followed by Pinkie screaming “CANNONBALL!”

With a groan Twilight covered herself in a magical field and carried herself downwards.

Fluttershy took a quick look down the pit, then backed away and buried her face beneath her hooves.

“I.. I don't think I can jump down there. It.. It's too deep and scary.”

“For Cloudsdale’s sake.” moaned Rainbow Dash in exasperation, “You're a pegasus. You can simply fly down there.”

“You're right.” Fluttershy jumped into the air and began to hover, “I completely forgot that. Thanks. You're a really good friend.”

Slowly the yellow pegasus descended.

“I guess for such a good friend it's no problem to slowly carry another friend, is it?” Rarity smiled at the blue pegasus.

“Is that really necessary?

“No.” The white mare shook her head, “I can fully understand if you lack the skill for a gentle fly...”

“HEY! I'm the most skilled pegasus in Ponyville!”

“That would explain the rough weather.”

“I'll show you how gentle I can be.”

She grabbed the unicorn and followed Fluttershy at about the same speed.

“Wait a second. You tricked me!”

“Rainbow, please. Can we discuss this once we're on the ground again?”

“I can't believe I fell for that.” Without thinking about it Rainbow let go of Rarity to smack herself on the forehead.

“WHAAAAAA”, the unicorns fall wasn't very long, so quickly her scream got drowned by the hay as she struggled, just like a filly which can't swim when thrown into the water. Once Rarity breached the surface again she saw Rainbow Dash flying before her, rubbing the back of her head and looking at the ground.

“Hehe. I'm sorry.” The pegasus put on an uneasy smile.

Rarity spit out a few seeds and then answered, wearing a friendly smile: “It's okay dear. That's karma.”

Behind her friends the mare could see the room that Applejack had mentioned. It was pretty small and round, but the strangest thing about it was the statue. While the human in the previous room was gigantic and strong, this dragon was scraggy and looked like he was in pain.

“Any ideas anyone?” asked the spirit of knowledge.

“He's hungry.” was Twilight's immediate answer.

“Are you sure about that.”

“I have seen that expression often enough on Spike. I would recognize it with closed eyes.”

“How can you see something with your eyes closed?

“I can't, Pinkie. It's just a phrase.”

“So, when will it end?”

“A PHRASE. Not a PHASE. It's something you say, but don't literally mean.”

“Oh, now that makes way more sense.”

“Could we please focus on this one?” intervened Homer, “We are pretty close to Tempa.”

“What makes you think so?

“Well, we had a spike field that could be stopped by magic, stomping pillars which were stopped by playful laughter, a bridge that was lowered by kindness, a statue that demanded our loyalty and a hole where we had to trust the honest one.” While mentioning each virtue of the Elements the human used his fingers to count them, “Which only leaves generosity, and here we are with a hungry dragon and a gem.” He pointed towards Rarity.

“Wait, you want me to sacrifice this beauty for some stone dragon?”

The unicorn took the orange gem out of of her saddlebag and pressed it to her body.

“But I promised to take care of it.”

“If I recall correctly,” corrected the Human, “you promised to take good care of 'him'. Now, who's more of a him, this dragon or that gem?”

Rarity switched between looking into her friends begging faces and looking at the gem.

“Okay, I'll do it.”

Slowly she walked towards the statue, the gem kept close to her body. Hesitating, Rarity lifted the gem.

“We didn't spend much time together, but I enjoyed every second. I'll miss you.”

As the unicorn proceeded to lay the gem into the statues mouth, Pinkies teeth began to chatter.

“What's wrong? Are you freezing?” asked Twilight.

“No, that's my Pinkie sense. Chattering teeth usually mean fire.”

“Fire?”

Fire! The cellar underneath Morus' and Vito's dining room was burning. She was too late. The black flames were crawling up the pillars, melting their stone. Under her scales the skin hurt from the immense cold. How could this be possible? How was she supposed able to stop this? None of this made sense. There was nothing she could do.

For a second,that felt like an eternity, the flames went silent and cleared the sight at the endless darkness of their source.

“Oh no.”

Chapter 4: Part from the Past

“Ms. Twilight, are you still with us?”

The Unicorn opened her eyes. She was in one of Canterlot's lecture halls. In the last row three other unicorns sat, levitating clipboards before them. To Twilight's left was a cart with a purple egg, to her right she could see her parents, wearing nervous smiles. This was her test for the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns, but how did she get here? Wasn't she just in some dungeon with her friends and Homer? They were looking for the Spirit of the past, maybe they were sent back in time by the last trap, but why did she still have her memory. Was that a malfunction of the trap? Or maybe they are supposed to improve themselves by that. She could avoid several mistakes now.

“Ms. Twilight?” repeated the examiner.

“Oh, I'm sorry.”

“We aren't here to find out how sorry you are. We are here to find out how talented you are.”

Twilight nodded and then turned towards Spike's egg. She never thought about this before, but hatching a dragon is a pretty tough test for a young filly. Not even the adult Twilight knew such a spell. This shouldn't be too much of a problem though. She just had to wait a bit for Rainbow Dash to perform the Sonic Rainboom and awaken her magic. With a victorious smile the unicorn pointed her horn at the egg and emerged a few sparks. This was more difficult than thought, which made sense. After all her young body wasn't used to the use of magic.

Anytime now Rainbow Dash. Perform your Sonic Rainboom.

New thoughts were formed in Twilight’s head. What if we weren't send back in time? What if Tempa changed the past, and now we experience the consequences? What if she stopped the Rainboom? My friends might not find their special talents. I might not pass this test. Or see my friends again. What about the Elements? Who will bear them? Who will stop Nightmare Moon? This is no good.

“What's wrong Ms. Twilight.”

The examiners exchanged worried looks. Maybe they were a bit too harsh towards the filly.

“Every....thing”, the young unicorn was hyperventilating and could barely speak.

“There is nothing to worry about. It's okay if you cannot hatch the egg.”

They didn't even expect her to. No one could do that. This test was just about getting to know her limits.

“But my friends?” Now she began crying as well. Never before they had to deal with such a breakdown during this test. Uncertain about what to do, the examiners looked at the filly's parents, who were clueless as well.

“Twilight, calm down!” ordered a voice in the unicorns head. But it wasn't her own. That was

“Homer?” she looked around to find the human. Without success.

“Listen to me,” continued the Spirit's voice, “none of this is real. You are just dreaming. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“Dreaming?”

Twilight's parents, as well as the examiners, were worried. Who was she talking to?

“Maybe it will be the best to stop now.” Mr. Sparkle walked up to his daughter.

“Come on Twilight. Maybe next year.”

“No!”

“What?”

“My friends need me!” the filly's voice was strong and her eyes showed that she was dead serious. Quickly Twilight turned to the egg and closed her eyes.

“This is just a dream. Everything is possible.”

With these words the unicorn fired a beam of magic at the unborn Spike. It's noise drowned everything else and made it impossible for Twilight to get what happened around her.

As she opened her eyes again, to see if the spell had worked, the unicorn saw Homer sitting in front of her, surrounded by a purple glow.

“I'm glad that hatching spells don't work on mammals.” he commented with a smile.

Twilight was back in the room with the dragon-statue, which had smoke coming from its mouth. Behind it, part of the wall was molten and allowed the look at another empty room. The other ponies were lying around, sleeping but apparently unhurt.

“What happened?”

“Rarity's gem triggered a flame, which opened the path,” Homer pointed towards the hole, “but locked you and your friends in some dreams.”

“Okay, but why aren't you asleep?”

“As far as it seems, the dreams let you re-experience things from your past, just slightly changed. I however have no past to re-experience. Anyway, the others probably won't wake up on their own, so I am going to teach you a little trick that lets you enter their dreams.”

“Why do I have to wait in my room til the presents are there?”

Asked herself the young and white mare.

She knew that all the stories were phony.

Her parents got the gifts, not some red coated pony.

Yet every year it was just the same.

She, Rarity, which was her name,

had to wait all the time

until the clock showed quarter past nine.

This year the waiting was especially bad,

because of one special wish she had.

Why does time has to move so slow?

Ten minutes were still left to go.

Their number now reduced to nine,

The hands of the clock moved into the finish line.

The countdown went on, remaining on eight.

What....if they were running late?

With Sweetie Bell born they had much to do,

and no longer all that time for you.

Thoughts went through the young pony's mind,

And not the ones of the pleasant kind.

She even almost overheard the bell,

that signaled the end of her waiting hell.

***

It was a white day this Hearth's Warming Eve.

Everyone was happy, no matter if equine, rabbit or beef.

A purple unicorn stepped through the snow,

even if she didn't knew where to go.

This was Rarity's dream, her house might be a good start.

And finding it should not be too hard.

On her way she came past a house with bright shining light.

It was the only such, so Twilight took a look inside.

There was a filly with her parents and a foal just born.

No doubt, it was Rarity who unwrapped her gift with her magic and horn.

Under the paper a sewing machine came into view.

The perfect gift for the Rarity Twilight knew.

But she didn't appear to be glad.

No. Instead she turned quite mad.

The Filly shouted at her parents, then ran away shedding a tear.

Her crying was the only thing that now Twilight could hear.

While following the trail Rarity had left behind,

the mare wondered what was going through her friends mind.

Soon she found her sitting at the Ponyville Lake.

This was the chance to get her awake.

“Hey little pony what's up with that frown?”

“My parents. They just let me down.”

“What could they have done to make you so sad?”

“They didn't get me the one wish that I had.”

“What have they got you? What was your wish?”

“I want to dance ballet, but they got me some sewing rubbish.

Thought I would like it. Why would I want one of those?”

“Why ballet?” “Because of their clothes!”

“So tell me, young filly, which is the greater success?

You dancing on stage, or them wearing your dress?”

Rarity looked at her friend, making big eyes.

“I guess the second one is more nice.”

“Parents often know us better than we know ourselves.

That's the first lesson to learn for us Hearth’s Warming Elves.”

The filly jumped around the unicorns neck,

said thanks and received a pat on her back.

Quickly she stopped her happy embrace,

and hurried back home, with a smile on her face.

What a weird dream, thought Rarity as she stood up. She must have passed out on the ground, but why?

“Uhg. My head.” Twilight, who sat on the ground before the white unicorn, was massaging her temples with her hooves.

“Twilight, what happened?”

With a few short sentences, the mare repeated what Homer had told her.

“I see.” Rarity looked around and saw the human, sitting next to a sleeping Pinkie Pie.

“So, he is inside Pinkie's head now?”

“Yes. He asked me to send him there, before visiting your dream.”

It was rare to see the pink pony so quiet.

“I wonder what she is dreaming about.”

Music began playing as Homer materialized inside Pinkie's dream. It was a festive music. His vision was the next sense to return, but what he saw wasn't exactly what he had expected. This was the ballroom from Canterlot Castle. All around the place there was Equestria's royalty.

So Pinkie was dreaming about the Grand Galloping Gala. It's boringness was probably quite traumatizing for an active pony like Pinkie, so it made sense.

“Homer! What brings you here?”

“I was looking for you, Pinkie.”

The dream Applejack had was different from the others. It didn't show a scene or something, it was just a bright and white nothing. Twilight looked around and spotted a small green dot in the distance. As it was the only clue where to find Applejack in here, the unicorn began to approach it. As the dot was closing in, and it did so with an surprising speed thanks to dream physics, she saw that the green came from an apple tree and a small circle of grass around it. Underneath the tree sat Applejack, silent and still, her face covered by her hat. In front of the earthpony there were two tombstones. Rather small ones, though. Twilight didn't saw them until she stood next to her friend, who didn't seem to notice the unicorn. Engraved into the stones were the names “Sweet Cider” and “Ebbelwoi”.

“Hey Applejack.”

The farmer winced, but remained silent.

“Whose graves are those?” asked Twilight, hoping to break the silence.

“My...parents'” there was a quiet sob between the two words, that Applejack couldn't suppress.

“Oh.” Twilight never thought about that before. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Applejack raised her hat. The fur underneath her eyes was soaked with tears. She didn't answer. Instead, the white around them began to fade and was replaced by Sweet Apple Acres. They were in the kitchen now, together with Granny Smith, who wore a green helmet and was screaming at a bunch of jars, which were lined up on the table before the old pony. Strangely Twilight couldn't hear a word of what the old Pony was saying.

Outside the window Twilight could see hundreds of apple trees with dark leaves and blue blossoms.

“This was my very first zap apple harvest.”

The orange earthpony was staring into the distance with lifeless eyes. Right next to Applejack sat a filly version of her, watching Granny Smith with an joyful expression, that could not be more different from the adult pony's.

“Everything seemed to be perfect.”

Granny Smith sat her helmet on the filly's head and helped her climbing onto the table, where she mimicked her grandmother. Still without sound.

The old pony left Applejack alone and went towards the door, where Big Macintosh had entered, carrying a can of water in his mouth and a newborn Apple Bloom in a saddlebag on his back. He laid down the can and began to talk to Granny Smith. Still without sound.

“AOWOOOOOOOOHHHHHH”

The sudden and loud howling startled Twilight as well as everyone else in the room. Then a mare's scream followed. Granny Smith and Big Macintosh, who were both close to the door, were gone so fast Twilight couldn't even see them leave. Applejack jumped down from the table, knocking down several jars. Upon the landing, the filly tripped and fell over, losing the helmet she was still wearing. As the young pony stood up again and ran outside as well, the dream faded to white again, and the appletree appeared again, along with the tombstones. Just now Twilight noticed the drawings of Timberwolves beneath the engraved names. Applejack took off her hat and looked at it.

“This is the only memory of them I have left.”

Tears were running down the earth pony's cheek as she put the hat back on.

Twilight didn't know what to say: “I'm so sorry. I had no idea...” she began, but was stopped by the embrace of a crying pony.

“I barely remember what they looked like, yet I still miss them so much.”

The purple Mare patted her friend on the back, since this was the only possibly helping gesture she could think of right now. There wasn't anything about situations like this in any of her books.

“I fear the day when Apple Bloom wants to know what happened to them. What shall I tell her?”

“You will know when that day comes, and no matter what, you will always have your friends who you can talk to. We will do everything we can to help you.”

“Thanks Twilight.”

“Had a nice dream?” asked Rarity the two ponies who had just woken up.

“Not really.” answered Applejack, “Brought back some old memories.”

Twilight massaged her forehead with a hoof. This dreamwalking was exhausting.

“Remember, we will always be there to help you.”

“I know. Thanks again, Twilight.”

The earth pony looked around the room and saw the human sitting next to a sleeping Pinkie Pie.

“So, Homer is inside Pinkie's dream?”

“Yes.” answered Rarity.

Applejack eyed them curiously: “I wonder what she is dreaming about.”

“More punch?”

“Uhm, okay.” Homer took the cup from Pinkie, who smiled at him. “Do you enjoy the party?”

“Not really?”

“Why?”

“You see, this is not real. It's a dream.”

“How can something this good be a dream?”

“You know that the expression goes ‘too good to be true'.”

“But it's good if something good is true, so why would you want something good to not be true, which would truly not be good.”

“Well, you have a point, but you can trust me as the spirit of knowledge when I tell you that this is a dream, and we need to get you out of here.”

“So, how do you want to get me out of here.”

“I don't know yet.”

“What if you don't know it, because you can't know it, because this isn't a dream.”

“Damn it Pinkie, now you've got me questioning myself.”

The pony smiled before turning around to join the party again with a leap forward. Homer followed her with his eyes, while emptying his punch. The liquid tasted like strawberry. This had to be a dream. The voices in Homer's head would be much clearer otherwise. Or was he getting crazy and beginning to hallucinate.

Without thinking about it, Homer took another sip from his cup.

“Chocolate Milk?”

He looked around to find the source for the sudden change of his drink and saw a small pink cloud quickly flying away, with a deep and unmistakable laughter. In the same moment, the large door at the other end of the hall swung open and let in a flood of popcorn.

“Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of cuisine”

Strangely none of ponies seemed to care about the draconequus appearance, except for Pinkie. Shouting “The catering's here.” she dived into the popcorn.

“So Discord is responsible for the food. This is a dream.”

Rainbow Dash was quickly flying through the racing parkour. Only one other pegasus flew between her and the first place and she quickly drew close to him. Passing him should be easy, but the finish line was already in sight, so she still had to hurry. The young filly stretched herself and put her legs closer together. The teachers said that would lower the air pressure or something like that. Whatever it was, it made her faster and that was what mattered. With a few strong flaps she came head to head with the green colt. the two of them exchanged a quick stare, both wearing victorious smiles. The colt sped up, thinking he would leave Rainbow Dash behind. That he was wrong came to his mind as a blue blur followed by a rainbow coloured trail flew past him and across the finish line.

“I won.” greeted Rainbow Dash her competitor after he reached the goal as well.

“Nice try Rainbow Crash.” A pegasus, about the age of Rainbow Dash, with a brown coat landed next to the green one. “Obviously Thunder Lime here was first.”

The two were joined by a beige and grey pegasus.

“Exactly Rainbow Crash. Like you could defeat him.” said the beige one.

“What? No! I crossed the line first.” Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof on the cloud.

“Keep believing that. Maybe one day it will become true.” The four colts began laughing. Now the other participants of the race reached them, but instead of asking what was going on, they just joined the laughing and surrounded Rainbow Dash.

“Hey! Stop it!”

***

“Uhm excuse me, would you mind letting me pass, if that wouldn’t trouble you?” Fluttershy tried to find a way through the crowd that had suddenly formed on the cloud before her, blocking her way.

“Excuse me, I really need to get to my class.” Who was she trying to convince about that? The teacher wouldn’t even notice if she were missing. No one would. As well as no one ever notices her when she’s there.

“How about I beat you guys outside a race? With my bare hooves!”

Why are they fighting? And why are they so violent? The cheering and howling of the other pegasi scared Fluttershy. Trying to avoid them, she cowered down and made herself as small as possible.

“Hey, what are you doing?” A white pegasus stallion, wearing a whistle, landed near the crowd. “Your classes already started. Make sure you get there, or I have to report you.”

“You’re lucky, Rainbow Crash.” said Thunder Lime before flying away. The other pegasi in the crowd just flew away without any more words, leaving the blue filly behind. She bristled with anger.

“That also counts for you.” The teacher said before leaving as well.

“Stupid school. Stupid teachers. Stupid boys.” Rainbow Dash muttered as she turned around. She wanted to take off, but something made her trip. At first the pegasus couldn’t see what caused this, it took her a second look to see the yellow filly with the pink mane, hiding on the cloud.

“What do you think you are doing?!” She shouted.

“S...sorry.” mumbled the yellow filly.

“You better are! Geez, why does everyone has to make my life difficult? Can’t you just leave me alone?”

“At least they notice you!” The yellow pegasus raised her head and looked at Rainbow Dash angrily. The later one could see trails of tears below the filly’s eyes, which widened as she realized what she just did. Fluttershy hid her head under her hooves again.

“S...sorry.”

Her whole body was shivering. That filly seemed to be really scared, so Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“It’s okay. I didn’t meant it like that.” She walked up to the other filly. “Come on, stand up. I’m not going to bite you.” Rainbow Dash laughed friendly about her own joke.

Slowly Fluttershy stood up and gave the blue filly in front of her an uneasy smile.

“I’m Rainbow Dash. What’s your name?”

“F...Fluttershy.” she looked at the ground again.

“Fluttershy huh. Nice to meet you.” Rainbow Dash held out a hoof for a hoof-bump,which seemed to scare Fluttershy at first, and made her step back. With an awkward smile Rainbow Dash put her hoof back in the ground.

“Are you new at flight school?”

“N..no. This is my second year.”

“Oh. I thought you were new because I never saw you before.”

“Of course you didn’t. No one ever does.”

“Okay. We should hurry to our classes, or we’ll get in massive trouble.” Rainbow Dash took flight, thinking that Fluttershy would follow her. As she noticed that wasn’t the case, the pegasus turned around again to see the filly walking.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you gonna fly?”

“I’m not really good at flying, so I prefer the safe clouds..”

Rainbow Dash flew back to her again. “How about me giving you some flight lessons?”

“Why would you do that?”

“Well, I feel a bit guilty for shouting at you before, even though you hadn’t really done anything. How about this? You stay kind to me, therefore I will be loyal to you? Deal?” Normally Rainbow Dash would have sealed such a deal with another hoof bump, but she didn’t want to scare her newfound ‘friend’ again, so she kept her hooves by herself.

Fluttershy eyed the blue pegasus that hovered before her. She didn’t seemed like a bad pony. “Deal.” This time, Fluttershy held out her hoof.

“Hey you managed to get out of your dreams on your own.” Twilight stated as she saw that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had woken up.

“That's great. I don't think I could have performed that dreamwalking spell once more.”

“What happened?” asked Fluttershy while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Twilight briefly summarized what Homer had told her.

“I see.” commented Rainbow Dash, “So he is in Pinkie's dream right now?” She pointed a hoof at the human.

“Yes.”

“I wonder what she is dreaming about.”

“How could I have been so blind?” Homer slammed his hand into his forehead.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie’s sudden appearance right next to him startled the spirit, so that he spilled his drink. “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay. Good thing you're here. I just found out how to wake you up.”

“Oh.” The pony didn't seemed happy. Understandable, since Homer just told her that the best party ever is about to end. “So, what is your plan?”

“You see, these dreams don't just trap you in a memory, but in an emotion that you have to overcome as well. I expected those to be negative emotions, like panic, in which Twillight was trapped. You however are trapped within happiness. So I just have to make you sad.” Homer smiled at the pony.

Pinkie began to laugh loud. “Good luck.”

“What do you mean?”

Pinkie only giggled as an answer. Suddenly the music got much louder.

“Look around and you'll see,” began Pinkie to sing, “that everypony enjoys

everything at this party, that you want to destroy.

Everypony dances around, to this musical sound.

Everypony's good mood, thanks to this tasty food.”, After that last word the pony dunked her head in a bowl of chocolate pudding. In the same moment Discord appeared behind Homer to continue the song.

“Take some chocolate rain, and a candy cane, we've got more food than you could ever eaaaaaaaaaaat.”

Pinkie raised her head again and licked the pudding from her face.

“What else could this party need?”

“Well, uhm.” Was everything he could say, before Discord interrupted him by turning him around.

“Look around and you'll see, everything is just fine.

everypony wants to be,” the spirit of chaos turned Homer around again, where Pinkie now sat on a golden throne, wearing a crown made of paper, “near our party divine.”

The music paused and Pinkie raised her hoof: “I order there shall be more punch.” Giggling she jumped down from her throne.

“This Party will last day and night. In here it will always be bright.

I don't know what's wrong with you, to wish this would not be true.

Come and take your chance, get that body to dance.” the pony shoved Homer into the crowd of dancing ponies.

“Such a party that never eeeeeeeeeeeeends.”

“Is worth what without friends.” The music ended, and all eyes were centered on the spirit of knowledge.

“What do you mean?”

Homer slowly began walking towards Pinkie again, and as he did, the music began playing again as well.

“Look around and you'll see, there's one thing that is not right.” as he proceeded he did a pirouette and stopped right next to Pinkie.

“Look around then tell me, is one of your friends in sight?”

“Of course, they're right.....” She paused as she couldn't spot them.

“Can you party alone? Or feel joy on your own?”

“They have to be somewhere!” Pinkie was turning on the spot. Homer kneeled down before the pony and made her stop.

While looking into her eyes, the spirit continued: “Those five are waiting for yee, for their good friend Pinkie.

Even though I feel bad, you have to get sad.

So you can follow meeeeeeeeee.” as he stretched the last word, Homer stood up again with a pirouette and pointed toward the large door, where Discord had entered earlier: “Back to reality.”

Pinkie rolled on her back and stretched herself, then she opened her eyes. To her right she saw Homer, his back bent backwards and supported by his arms.

“Well, that was...interesting.” he said since he couldn’t think of a more fitting description for Pinkie’s dream, “Seems like everyone is awake again.”

“Yes.” Answered Twilight who stood before him, “What took you so long?”

“Have you ever tried to end one of Discord’s parties.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” The human stood up and dusted off his pants, “We still have a mission to complete.”

The room which they could see through the hole in the wall seemed to be empty and even after entering it, they couldn’t see any other being. By laying a finger on his lips, the spirit of knowledge signaled the ponies to be quiet, while he proceeded further into the room.

“Homer. It must have a been a long time for you since we last met.” said a dark and loud voice, that appeared to come from every direction at the same time.

“I’m happy you’re already here, Chron.”

“Where else should I be, when the future is lost?” At the other end of the room a dragon appeared. He had a white body with silverish, almost mirror like, scales running down his back. His face was wrinkled and dark rings underlined his eyes.

“Tell me, Homer” he paused his sentence to cough several times. Whenever Spike cough like that there was smoke coming from his mouth. It wasn’t like that with this dragon. His voice wasn’t like what Twilight had heard from other adult dragons so far. It was much clearer.

“Tell me, Homer, do you think my sister did this?”

“No. Tempa’s trap would have killed me then.”

“What a relief.” Chron closed his eyes and laid his head on the ground, showing them a happy smile, “Sadly, I can’t tell you who else could have killed Morus and Vito.”

“A Shadow.”

The ponies turned to the left, where a new voice came from. There, near the wall, another dragon stood, a very young one, with an orange body and her scales alternating between red and yellow.

“A Shadow?” repeated Rainbow Dash, “What is that supposed to be?”

“A being of pure destruction, which roams the void between the worlds, seeking to destroy every bit of existence.”

“And just an old Changeling tale.” added Homer to the description. His expression was different from what he had shown so far. He was way more serious, and the little smile, which had decorated him before, was completely gone.

“I know what I have seen!”

“And I still vividly remember the nights Chrysalis stayed awake to write those stories.”

“Whatever it is, it fits every description of a Shadow and it somehow makes it impossible for me to change the past and save Morus and Vito.“

The spirit of knowledge stood still, thinking about what Tempa just told them. A fictional character, that acted outside Homer’s range of knowledge and made it impossible for the spirit of the past to alter just that. It seemed somewhat unlikely to the human.Just as unlikely as Tempa killing Morus and Vito and telling lies about it.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” It was Applejack who spoke out Homer’s thoughts.

“Are you calling me a liar?” The little dragon clenched her fist.

“No. I just wanted to say....”

“What? What did you want to say?” Tempa walked up to Applejack. It was almost cute how the dragonbaby tried to fight an adult pony.

“Stop it! Now!” ordered Homer, “Twilight, can you teleport us back to Canterlot?”

“So you believe me? What a relief.” She sighed, “I feared you would use the Elements on me.”

“I at least believe you didn’t kill Morus and Vito and If we’re really dealing with a Shadow, then we have to inform the others as quick as possible. So,Twilight, can you do it?”

“I don’t think I can teleport a fully grown dragon.” said the unicorn while eying Chron, who watched the scene with one half opened eye.

“That won’t be necessary.” The elder dragon coughed again, “I wouldn’t be much of a help out there. Neither would Tempa.”

“Still, teleporting seven ponies over such a distance is very difficult.”

“What luck that you only have to teleport six ponies and a human.” There was Homer’s smile again. It was an innocent and childish one, that kind of smile that made it hard to say no, since you don’t want to make a filly frown.

“I can try it, but I need some time to prepare myself.”

“That’s okay. It would still be faster than walking. In the meantime, Tempa, can you explain to me how those traps work? Especially that giant room.”

“Well, it’s actually quite easy, if you know that” There was a purple flash and the ponies were gone, together with Homer.

Author's Note

About Discord: I know, since the events from “Keep Calm and Flutter on”, Discord doing the catering isn't actually unthinkable, but i had already created the scene in my mind before that episode aired, and I was too lazy to think of something else.

About Rainbow Dash’s “reducing the air pressure”: I know it's the air resistance that should be reduced (which would also happen if the air pressure is reduced, but that's a different story), but I think a young Rainbow Dash does not really care about that difference. So the mistake is (sort of) on purpose.

Also, this chapter was somewhat an experiment for me, to see what I could do and how far I could go. I hope it is still acceptable though.

Chapter 5: Vanishing

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