Descending Darkness

Chapters

The chase (Prologue)
An unexpected visitor
Revelation
A new quest
The first encounter
Of trust and mistrust
Escape and betrayal
Nightfall
Into the maze
The maze
Descending Darkness
Finally over ... or not?

The chase (Prologue)

He heard the sound of his hooves hitting the ground echoing in the forest as he ran through it. The cracking of branches behind him was telling him that his pursuer wasn’t far behind him. The stallion ignored the branches and twigs that were hitting him in the face. His heart was pounding as he dashed as fast as he could through the forest, in the hope to reach open field soon. He had no idea where he was, it was too dark to see more than a few steps ahead and the pale moonlight, which shone occasionally through the leaves of the trees, didn’t help much. He could feel the fabric of his saddle bags chafing on his skin. He was ordered to bring the content of those bags to Canterlot, and he will not fail on his mission. He stumbled over a root on the ground and fell down. He ignored the pain the fall caused to him and stood up again to run again. He could hear his pursuer growling behind him, in hunger for his prey. But the prey wouldn’t be that easy to catch.

He did his best to escape his pursuer, but he couldn’t shake him off. But now he could see the borderline of the trees already and just a moment later, he left the trees behind him, now galloping with full speed over the fields. Throwing a short look over his shoulder revealed to him that the distance between him and his pursuer didn’t become longer – the opposite was the fact: He came closer to him. The stallion felt exhausted from the hunt, but he forced himself to keep on galloping. Nothing would stand between him and his duty. He would fulfill the duty he was obliged with. He would reach Canterlot, no matter what would happen. With those saddlebags, even if he didn’t know what was stored in them. His bosses forbid him to take a look inside and sealed the bags then with magic. But their orders were clear: Reach Canterlot – with the bags. Deliver what is inside and return.

And this is what he would do. He just had to reach the next town on his way – a town called Ponyville. He could hear his pursuer growling close behind him and threw a look over his shoulder again. The pale moonlight revealed not much but hands with long claws and a pair of red glowing eyes in the darkness – and that, whatever this creature was, was closer than he hoped it would be. Alone this look let him even run faster than he thought he could. He felt the pain in his muscles and the cool air of the night rushing through his mane, blowing away the sweat on his forehead. His only hope was that he was still on the right way to the town and that he didn’t get lost in the wilderness.

There, far in the distance, he could finally see some lights, hopefully of the town he was heading to before this creature started to hunt him down. He could hear that the creature was breathing as hard as he had to. The pale moonlight illuminated a path in front of him and he was directly heading onto it, changing his direction one more time and now he was heading directly towards the town. He felt hope rising up within him. The creature wouldn’t follow him into the town. In the next second he could feel how a clawed hand grabbed him by the hind legs. He fell over and landed head first on the ground. He was dizzy for a moment, but he could feel how he was dragged over the ground by one hind leg, away from the path and the town. He tried to kick the creature where he thought would be the head with his free hind leg, which just ended with the creature growling and also holding his other leg, so he couldn’t do much more than let it drag him between a group of trees.

The creature then let him fall down on his side all of a sudden, but not for long. He could feel how it tried to remove the saddle bags from him, but since he was lying on one half of them, it couldn’t figure out how to remove them – he guessed it was very simple minded – it just tore the fabric and the flesh underneath it with its claws, leaving a heavily bleeding flesh wound on him. He screamed in pain as the claw went through his skin, muscles and flesh and he tried to wind out of the grip of the creature, but it just pressed him down even harder. He could feel blood running down his flank, as the creature checked the inside of the saddle bag and let out an unsatisfied growl.

It then turned him to the other side and just did the same again, inflicting almost unbearable pain to him. It didn’t even try to just lift the other half of the saddlebag, since it cut it already in half. He could hear how it was growled, satisfied with his findings within the bag. He could feel the hungry look of the creature on him for a second, but it then just turned away and left him alone out in the dark with his open wounds. He tried to stand up, and he managed to get on his hooves again, thought it hurt like hell, let alone the walking. But he knew that he had to reach this town to get help. The people there could probably also help him to get the content of the bags back. He was still convinced that he would fulfill his duty and that he would get the object back – whatever it was. He closed his eyes as he could feel how his warm blood was running down his flanks and legs. He just needed to reach the town as fast as possible.

He left the trees behind and could see that the dawn was already breaking and that the silhouettes in the distance were indeed a town. He just hoped that someone there could help him and that they would have an excellent doctor there who could patch him up again. As he reached the first houses he couldn’t bear it anymore, his vision blurred. He lost too much blood on the way here. His last thoughts were that he weren’t allowed to fail, the last thing he saw was a pony running to him, a shocked look on her face. Then he blacked out as he fell down on the street.

An unexpected visitor

Twilight Sparkle was reading on a bench in the park since it was a nice day, she thought she could read the book about old pony tales outside of the library. It wasn’t good to be inside all the time anyways. But she was so focused on her lecture that she didn’t notice her surroundings, which lead to a massive shock as somepony spoke to her. “Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash was hovering just in front of the bench Twilight picked to read and looked down on the unicorn. “Did you already hear it? They found an injured stallion at the border of the town.” Twilight just needed to recover from the previous shock to fully comprehend what her friend just told her, but she didn’t get a chance to answer. “Nopony has seen him before. He just came from nowhere with some serious wounds on his flanks. Hey, if you want to check it out, you should go to the hospital, they brought him there.” Twilight was about to answer her friend, but got cut off again before she could say a single word. “I just thought you wanted to know. Well, gotta go now again, clearin’ the clouds and stuff.” The athletic pegasus turned around and flew away, leaving Twilight behind with an open mouth.

Twilight shook her head as she looked after her winged friend. But she should pay a visit to the hospital, though. She packed her book and went in the direction of the hospital. The closer she came to it, the more ponies crossed her way. It looked like everypony was going to the hospital to see what was going on there. Soon, Twilight thought that almost entire Ponyville must have come to the hospital. Soon, she couldn’t get any closer to the hospitals entrance, so she decided to use her magic to teleport there. Just a blink and she was standing behind the front doors of the hospital, where one of the local doctors tried to keep the door closed under all circumstances. “Hey you! How did you get in here?” He was asking right in the moment he noticed Twilight in the hospital. “Magic!” She yelled over her shoulder and went to the reception. She put her fore hooves on the counter as she saw Twilight coming in, and the glasses she wore on her nose. “How did you …” Twilight didn’t let her finish her sentence. “Magic! Can you tell me where this stallion is who was found at the borders of the town?” She asked the nurse, a friendly smile on her face.

The nurse just looked at her and pointed then down a hallway. “He’s in room 10.” The nurse answered and went on with her previous work, ignoring Twilight now. The unicorn just shrugged and walked down the hallway till she reached room 10. She opened the door and stopped for a moment, as the smell of sickness rose up into her nostrils. She suddenly remembered why she didn’t like hospitals. They always smelled so awfully of disease and sickness. She pulled herself together and entered the room. It seemed so sterile with its white walls. In the room were only a few beds lined up, with white blankets and pillows on them. Only one of the beds was occupied – by a stallion with brown fur and mane and a helmet as his cutie mark, who was lying with the back to her. Some blood drenched bandages were wrapped around his chest, and Twilight could hear him breathing. The unicorn stepped closer onto the wounded stallion.

“What happened to you?” She whispered, standing now very close at the bed. She could clearly see that the bandages didn’t get changed for quite some time now, probably because of the masses of ponies who wanted to catch a look of who they found. She remembered that she still carried her book and dropped it on the next free table top she saw. Somepony knocked at the only window of the room, which was covered by curtains. A nurse must have closed the window and the curtains because of the pegasi. Anyway, Twilight already guesses who knocked on the window. She opened the curtains just to see a well-known face of a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. Twilight also opened the window now to let Rainbow Dash in.

The athletic pegasus flew in too fast and almost crashed into the bed at the opposite wall. She just sopped in time and was standing next to Twilight now. “So you’ve cleared the sky already, mh?” Rainbow was just looking at her friend. “Hey, I proved it already that I can clear the entire sky in ten seconds flat!” Twilight had to smile as she remembered the moment when she met Rainbow for the first time. The pegasus stepped onto the bed in which the stallion was lying. “So … this is this stallion they found at the city’s borders, huh?” She asked the lavender unicorn, who stood by her side. “Yes. This is the one.” They looked at him for a while, until Rainbow broke the silence. “Well, is he gonna make it through?” Twilight just shrugged as answer. “I don’t know; it is not like I’m not a medic or a doctor.”

A soft whispering from the bed let the two ponies fall silent immediately. “Did you hear that?” Twilight asked her friend. “I think he said something.” They moved even closer to him, a curious look on their faces. The stallion slowly opened his eyes and tried to say something, but nothing else than a whispering could be heard. “Did you understand what he said, Twi?” The pegasus didn’t looked at her friend as she asked her. He eyes were locked on the stallion who was slowly waking up from the coma he was in. “Stay quiet, Rainbow, I think he’s trying to say something.”

It was just another whisper, but this time they both tried to listen. “I think he asks where he is.” Twilight was stating, while Rainbow was answering to the wounded stallion. “You’re in the hospital of Ponyville.” They looked up as somepony coughed at the door. It was the local doctor, Redcross. “You should leave now, girls. This stallion got severe wounds and needs rest. You shouldn’t be in here at all. How did you get past the front gates anyway?” The two friends looked at each other and smiled. “Wings.” Rainbow replied and stretched her wings, while Twilight tipped at her horn. “Magic.” Before the doctor could say something else, Twilight teleported away and Rainbow flew out of the window again. The pegasus could see how Redcross muttered something as he closed the window and curtains again. Twilight had just left them open earlier.

A while after their visit in the hospital, Twilight and Rainbow met up again at the park bench Twilight was reading before her friend told her about the injured stallion in the hospital. “This guy surely is pissed right now!” Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh about it, while Twilight kept serious. “What do you think where this guy comes from?” She asked her friend, who was rolling on the floor in laugher. Rainbow suddenly stopped and looked up to her friend. “Do you really think I would know that? You’re the egghead here. For me, I couldn’t see anything that could tell us where he came from.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?” The unicorn shook her head. “Probably, I don’t know. It would be really helpful to know where he comes from, or at least his name.” The pegasus thought about it for a moment. “Do you think this would be important?”

Now it was the unicorns turn to shrug. “I don’t know, it could probably be important, though.” Rainbow just looked at her friend in disbelief. “Are you serious? Have you seen this bandage? I am more worried about what could cause such wounds than where he comes from or what his name was. If whatever did this is still around, it is possibly dangerous! Did you think about that yet?” The unicorn blushed as her friend reminded her of the wounds. She should have had this idea herself. “Well, I guess we can’t do much but wait till he gets well again, do we?” The athletic pegasus rolled on her back and looked up to the purple mare. “I don’t think that Redcross would be happy to see us again in the hospital, talking to that stallion.” They kept quiet for a while, until Twilight broke the silence. “Do you think we should tell the princesses about what happened here?”

Rainbow looked up to her and got on her hooves again. “If it was important, somepony would have done it right now. And if princess Celestia would consider it important, she would be here already and take care of that stuff.” Twilight nodded, after she thought a bit about it. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, Rainbow.” The pegasus, who was satisfied with this answer, almost forgot about the stranger almost immediately. “So … are we gonna sit here the entire day or are we gonna do something?” Her friend looked around quickly, checking the surroundings for her book she brought here earlier. “I think I’ve left my book in the hospital. Do you mind getting it back for me?” She smiled at the pegasus, who just shook her head. “You’ll have to get it yourself, the doctor closed the window after I was out. You know that you can’t open them from the outside without magic.” She looked into the unicorn’s purple eyes. “Fine, you open up the window and I’ll check for your book …”

A few moments later they were standing on the roof of the hospital again. Rainbow was lying with her hooves hanging down the edge and looked downwards. “You sure that this is the right window?” She asked her friend, without looking up. “This entire thing looks all the same everywhere.” Twilight stepped next to her friend and looked also down. “Yes, I’m sure, this is the right window.” She closed her eyes to concentrate better and her horn was glowing up for a moment, then Rainbow could hear a soft clicking noise from below as the window unlocked. “Just one question, though, Twi. Why don’t you just teleport down there and get the book yourself? You don’t really need me to do it.” The lavender mare opened her eyes again and looked with her purple colored eyes at her friend. “I didn’t think about that. Besides of that I dislike hospitals.”

The pegasus didn’t seem to be very amused about that. “Because I like them so much better. Let’s get this over with already.” She took off of the roof and flew down to the window. It was quite easy to open it from the outside once it was unlocked. She flew in and looked around. Everything was like it was when they got thrown out by the doctor. She flew and quickly found Twilights book. She must have put it on a table top as she let Rainbow inside the hospital. The pegasus grabbed the book, as the wounded stallion said something, now with a louder voice. It seems he recovered enough to speak now. “I got a duty to fulfill.” He said, and Rainbow was startled by his words, as she didn’t expect them. She moved a bit closer to the bed, only to see that he was sleep talking. Steps on the floor caused her to fly out of the hospital again, but not without closing the window carefully behind her.

She had to tell Twilight about this. If this guy had a mission in Canterlot, the unicorn was probably right about it being probably important. But before they could do anything, they would have to wait till the stallion got better and could go out of the hospital again. And this would take a while with those injuries on his flank.

Revelation

“So, you say this guy in the hospital isn’t just a wanderer who passed through Ponyville?” Twilight asked the pegasus as they were walking back to the library. “Hey, I just heard him sleep talking. Could be that it just means nothing.” The lavender unicorn ignored her. “This means that this could really be important …” Rainbow was just hovering beneath her and let her head hanging. “Not this again … Twi, really, you should just wait until this guy gets well again.” She pointed back to the hospital. “You can even camp in front of the hospital and ask him about every single detail as soon as he gets out.” Twilight didn’t look really convinced. “But what if it is really important …” She tried to contradict her friend, who just was fed up with this talk about this guy being important.

The pegasus just sighed and gave up. “Fine, write your letter to the princess … not that I would stop you from doing it.” Twilight was just looking at her friend as if she said something silly. “What? Do you want to tell me you don’t want to write the letter to the princess anymore and solve this on your own?” The grin on Twilights face told the pegasus that she was right, but the unicorn told her otherwise. “No, I won’t do it on my own. WE will do it on OUR own.” The pegasus stopped walking and just looked at her friend in completely disbelief. “You don’t mean this serious … do you?” She just put her hoof at her forehead as the unicorn nodded in a convinced manner. “You were there, in the hospital. You’ve seen the bandages soaked with blood. Why in Equestria would you want to do this on your own?”

“You were the one who complained about it that this probably isn’t important enough to bother the princess with … And now you suddenly want to tell the princess?” The pegasus now gave ultimately up. She didn’t want to discuss with Twilight. “See, Twi … I’ll come with you.” A third pony came suddenly out of nowhere. “Coming with you to where?” Pinkie just hugged them both as greeting and didn’t wait for any of them to respond. “I’ll come with you, of course! Where do we go?” Rainbow, who was the first who winded out of Pinkie’s hug, was also the first replying to the pink pony. “Pinkie, well … We don’t have an idea.” Pinkie released Twilight out of her hug, who was instantly trying to specify what her winged friend just said. “Did you hear about the stallion they found at the city’s borders?” The pink pony placed a hoof on her chin and thought about it. “Why, yes, I have heard about that. But I didn’t pay much attention to it, I was preparing a party!”

Pinkie Pie was jumping around her friends, but Twilight hold her down to the ground for a while. “Rainbow here said that she heard how he was sleep talking of some duty when she got my book out there. So it is probably important and we’ll investigate this now … If you want you can come with us, of course.” She raised a hoof with the book. “Let me bring this back to the library and think about it. We’ll meet up tomorrow afternoon at the hospital then!” The unicorn was waving her hoof as she went into the direction of the library, and Pinkie turned over to Rainbow. “Hey Rainbow! You wanna make some muffins with me?” The pegasus just shrugged. “I got nothing to do anyway, so I guess anything goes …” They went off together to Sugarcube Corner.

As Twilight went to the hospital the next day, she could just see Pinkie waiting for her with a basket full of muffins. The pink pony was more than excited as she saw the lavender mare trotting towards her. “Hey Pinkie. Have you seen Rainbow around today?” Her friend shook her head. “Not today, no. Last time I saw her was when she left Sugarcube Corner. Want a muffin?” She hold one of the muffins almost directly under Twilights nose. “No, thank you, Pinkie. I would rather know where Rainbow is …?” Her question got answered as a certain pegasus almost crashed down in front of her, but could catch the dive just in time before hitting the ground headfirst. “Sorry for being late guys, I forgot the time!” Rainbow said after she landed.

“Well, then let’s go then.” Twilight was the first one to walk towards the front entrance of the hospital. Unlike yesterday, nopony was here. Not a single one. Twilight just guessed that they were tired of standing around. As they entered the hospital, they were a bit surprised by how busy it was in here. Twilights guess was wrong: They weren’t tired of standing, they weren’t tired of standing – they just moved from the outside to the inside. The three friends pushed the one or other pony out of their way as they moved through the masses. In a spare moment, Rainbow turned tapped the unicorn in front of her on the shoulder. “Twi, why don’t you just teleport past all those ponies?” The answer the lavender mare gave her friend was quite simple: “Because we don’t know if they moved him or not.”

Rainbow kept quiet, thinking about what her friend just told her. They finally reached the reception, but as Twilight asked about the stallion, the nurse behind the counter couldn’t understand her because of the noise all those ponies in the room caused. Twilight had to yell so she could be heard. “In which room is the stranger?” She yelled over the noise. The nurse just pointed down the same hallway again and said something that sounded like ten. Same room, then. Twilight tried to concentrate enough to cast the teleport spell on herself and her friends, but it wasn’t very easy with the noise around the reception, but she managed to do it. A blink of an eye later, they were already standing in the room, where one of the doctors tried to keep the door closed.

He noticed them just a few moments later, but when he did, he asked them for help. “Hey, you there! I don’t know how you came in, but help me to get this door closed!” While Rainbow went over to the door and did her best to close it while the doctor locked it. He then swiped off the sweat of his forehead as he turned to the three ponies. “Well … thanks. You know, this is the first patient with severe wounds we have here since ages. No wonder that everypony wants to look.” He shrugged. “We wouldn’t care about it, if they wouldn’t come all at once. The entire hospital is a mess.” He pointed over to a stallion lying on a bed in the corner. “He is awake; you girls can speak to him if you want to.” The doctor turned his back to them and then just minded his own business.

While Twilight and Rainbow already knew how he looked, Pinkie’s eyes went all big as she stared on the bandages. The personnel of the hospital had changed them and only a few stains of blood were on the new ones. The stallion looked at them as they stepped towards him. “I know you. You were here before.” He said, as they stood in front of him. “You may not know me or even trust me, but you need to help me. I have to get out of this hospital.” Before Twilight could react, Rainbow moved her head close to his. “Why are you in such a hurry to get outta here when you’re still wounded?” She couldn’t tell why, but he had a convinced and stoic look in his eyes.

“My name is Dust, I’ve been sent from a town far in the east to deliver a package to Canterlot Castle. I’ve been charged with that duty and I will fulfill it … even if I have to die for it.” The pegasus moved her head back and looked at her friends. “Do you think we can trust him?” Pinkie smiled and nodded. “Sure we can!” She said in her usual euphoric manner. Twilight, however, wasn’t quite sure about it. “When you were sent to deliver a package … Why didn’t you carry it when you were found at the towns borders?” She asked Dust with an undertone of suspiciousness, and the stallion looked on the ground as the talk came on the package he told of earlier.

“I’ve ran into a waylay, something attacked me in the night shortly before I reached this town. Whatever it was, it didn’t just almost kill me – it also stole my saddlebags and the object within them. I …” He was cut off by Twilight, who raised a hoof. “Wait, wait … You want to tell me you didn’t even know what you were carrying?” Dust just shook his head. “No, they didn’t tell me. And the side of the saddlebag with the object is sealed with magic, so I couldn’t even take a look on it. But I guess whatever attacked me was after what was in those bags.

“Hey, we’ll help you to get your stuff back, of course!” Pinkie said before any of her friends could prevent her from it. Rainbow turned her head over to Twilight. “Well, Twi … It sounds pretty made-up to me. What do you think ‘bout this?” Twilight put one of her hooves on her forehead. “I don’t know … It could be made-up, thought it could be true …” She removed her hoof from her head and looked at the injured stallion in front of her. “Tell us, where did you get attacked by this thing?” she asked him, but he just shrugged. “I should’ve reached this town from the east, but I’m not sure. If you want to look for the place where it stole my saddlebags, you should look for a small group of trees somewhere around this town.”

The lavender unicorn looked disappointed. “I hoped for more than this, but we’ll go and look for it.” He nodded and closed his eyes. “Please hurry.” Those were the last words they heard from him, as they went out again. “Do you believe him, Twi?” Rainbow still didn’t trust the stranger. “I don’t know, but we definitely should check for the spot he said he got attacked. Pinkie and I will check the south and west, and you will check north and east since you’re the fastest of us.” Twilight spoke the last words when they left the hospital again. “Remember, he said he got dragged into a small group of trees … so keep an eye out for them. If you find something, come to me. If not, we meet up at the library then.” The pegasus saluted and flew off to do what Twilight told her.

Twilight looked around the tree, but could see nothing. She checked now every tree and every group of trees very carefully without success. She couldn’t find any trace of where the stranger said he got attacked. She looked up, letting the afternoon sun shining into her face. “Hey Twi! I think I found something!” Pinkie came walking along with a piece of fabric on her back. “Look at this!” She threw the fabric over to Twilight, who caught it with her hooves. “Pinkie, where did you find this?” The pink pony scratched her head. “Uhhh … between some bushes … and trees … and … some weird, red grass, I think.”

Twilight hold the piece of fabric in her hooves and looked at it. It had some dried blood on it. “I think this ‘weird red grass’ was just normal grass, Pinkie.” She looked at the pink pony, who had a questioning look upon her face. “Normal grass – covered in blood. It looks like Dust’s story is true. Show me where you found this, now. Probably we’ll find something else there.” She followed as the pink pony led her to a place nearby. Twilight had the smell of dried blood in her nostrils before she could see it. “Yes, his story is true.”

She looked upon a small spot between some bushes and trees which was covered in blood. It was dried and hard now. They looked around this place carefully, but couldn’t find much more than some cracked branches. “Let’s go back to the library and wait for Rainbow.” She said to Pinkie Pie, who nodded. The pink pony was just happy to get away from this place.

A new quest

A few days after Twilight and her friends started to believe Dusts tale about the attack and how he ended up here, they decided to help him. He told them a lot from where he was sent to Canterlot. Dust came from a distant kingdom, far away in the east. They sent him to Equestria in the hope of finding allies in a seemingly lost war, after they found ancient documents telling them about Equestria – but not where it was. Those documents just told them that this land called Equestria was located in the west, so they sent out some scouts to find it – each one with magically sealed saddlebags. They didn’t tell the scouts what was in those bags, though, and just sent them into the wilderness.

Dust was allowed to leave the hospital now, and he started immediately preparing supplies to chase whatever attacked him. He had a vague idea where it would go if it really just was after his saddlebags. The townsfolk were a bit scared of him, but it didn’t stop them from helping him with rations and other items he would need for chasing the creature who stole his saddlebag. He would fulfill his duty. It might have a few days lead from him, but he wouldn’t just give up. He was trained to succeed and not to give up. And besides, now he had some allies: The three mares agreed on helping him on his quest. While he prepared the chase, they said goodbye to their friends and families. They wouldn’t see them for a long time.

He was already standing at the town square, as the three friends arrived there, each of them with her own saddlebags. “Well, everypony’s ready now? We have to hurry up.” He wouldn’t waste any more time. The distance between them and the creature was long enough, and was growing by the minute. The lavender unicorn nodded. “We’re ready.” He then took the lead of the little group and they left the city. This time, he was the predator, not the prey. He would get the object back, no matter was it is and would fulfill his duty. He was trained to succeed, not to fail. He hadn’t spent years in the military training camps for nothing. He looked at the three mares walking behind him. A pegasus would be useful for scouting the area ahead of them, while the magic of a unicorn could be helpful in some situations.

But why in the name of everything that was holy did they need to bring a simple earth pony with them? He looked at the pink pony with the springy walk. She seemed to never run out of happiness and energy. She would probably help to keep the morale up, if they knew something like that. Back at home they didn’t allow girls to join the military, but he just guessed they didn’t have any military at all here, so this was the best he could get. The town disappeared behind them as they walked on the road leading to the east.

Twilight looked on the stallion walking in front of her and her friends. While Rainbow still didn’t trust him and wouldn’t leave Twilights side when she said she would go with him on his quest, Pinkie Pie didn’t worry at all about what dangers this venture could bring. Twilight herself believed Dust with his tale since they found the bloodstained fabric outside of Ponyville, but his personality was still a mystery to her. She had never seen anypony like him; he was even more stoical than Applejack when she tried to harvest all the apples during the applebuck season on herself. And she certainly didn’t like the way he looked back at them right now, as if he were something better than them.

She could imagine that his behavior would just increase the mistrust of Rainbow against him. The day went on as they kept walking. Occasionally Rainbow took off to fly around a bit, but she always kept in sight to them. Twilight knew exactly that the Pegasus lived for flying and would rather fly above them than to walk beside them. Twilight could see that Dust also mistrusted the pegasus as she soared high into the sky and dove down to earth again, flew loops and performed other tricks while she was in the air. The unicorn knew that her friend felt truly free when she could fly freely through the sky, leaving a rainbow behind her.

“Tell her to stop this.” Dust didn’t turn around to her as he said this. “Somepony could see it. If our target can see this, it would be warned that something is coming.” He turned around again and continued walking. He probably was right, but Twilight still didn’t enjoy the thought to tell Rainbow that she shouldn’t fly up that high anymore. It was like if somepony took Twilights books from her and prohibited her to read.

When Rainbow returned from her latest trip into the sky and heard about what Dust ordered, she wasn’t very happy about it. “I won’t stop flying, not even on this journey!” She complained to Twilight. “You don’t have to stop flying, but could you just keep below the tree tops? You know that he’s right.” The pegasus looked down on the ground and nodded. “I know, I know. Yeah, I’ll stay below the tree tops.” Twilight felt sorry for her friend, but she couldn’t do anything about it. The stallion was right; they shouldn’t draw any unwanted attention to themselves.

As the dusk came, she already questioned herself if it was a good idea to join Dust on his quest … but they couldn’t let him go alone. They were walking from noon till dusk now, and it didn’t look like Dust planned on putting up a camp soon. Twilight looked at her friends. Rainbow was flying next to them on a low altitude since Dust ordered that she shouldn’t fly over the tree tops anymore and Twilight thought she could see hate in her eyes. Pinkie Pie was still walking uncaringly next to her. While she was watching her friends reactions to their self-named leader, she didn’t watch were she was walked and promptly bumped into Dust. “We will stop here. Go and collect firewood for a campfire, we’re staying here for the night.” While Rainbow just hovered in place, Pinkie looked at Twilight with a questioning look on her face. The lavender unicorn just shrugged. “Let’s collect some firewood. It is almost dark now.”

When they returned with a pile of firewood, it was already dark and some stars were sparkling in the sky. However, the pale light of the moon provided enough light for them to see that Dust was still waiting for them. Twilight wondered if he ever did something by himself or just let others do the work for him. At least he lightened up the fire. Dust watched the fire crackling for a while, then he turned around and rolled up to sleep, his back towards the others. Twilight was lying on her side next to the fire and pulled out the journal she had packed before they left Ponyville, as well as some quills and an inkpot. She quickly looked through the white pages and began to fill them with what had happened during the first days on their new quest.

Rainbow was just staring into the night sky and gazed at the stars so far above her. She was wishing she would have been allowed to fly. She sighed and looked over to Twilight, who was still concentrated on writing down what had happened till now. “Hey Twi, what are you writing there?” The pegasus asked, but the lavender mare didn’t answer as she was focused on her writings. Rainbow was sighing and crossed her fore hooves to rest her head on it and tried to sleep. She just was hoping they would get this done soon so they could return to Ponyville and get rid of this guy. She didn’t like him and wouldn’t hide it. She threw a last look over to Pinkie Pie, who was munching on a cupcake she brought with her before the pegasus closed her eyes.

Twilight was still writing as Pinkie also rolled up and slept. The unicorn felt a bit bothered by the snoring of the stallion on the other side of the fire, but she did her best to ignore it. Occasionally she threw some of the firewood in the fire, which was greedily devouring the wood. When she heard a noise out of the darkness around them, she stared to where she heard the sound from, but it was outside of the range their small campfire lightened up. As she didn’t hear anything else, she guessed that it was just an animal and didn’t pose a threat to them. The unicorn went back to her writings. As she finished the first entry of her journal, she also was trying to catch some sleep before the night was over.

But since she couldn’t sleep because of the noise she heard earlier, she stood up and went looking around their camp, levitating a burning branch next to her. She found nothing suspicious around, so she returned to the others and hoped that she could find some sleep now that she reassured herself that it was safe around. She looked over to the snoring brown stallion a last time till she was sure that he was also asleep.

It was almost morning as Rainbow Dash got woken up by a cracking branch. The sun didn’t rise now, but she could see enough that a quick look around revealed to her that Dust was missing. “I always knew that we couldn’t trust him.” She was muttering to herself as she stood up. She looked at her friends, who were still asleep and decided to let them sleep a little longer. She hovered slightly above the ground, careful to not make any sound as she was flying around the camp to look for Dust.

She found him as he was on his way back to their camp. “Where did you go?” The pegasus asked. “I was checking the area around.” He then ignored her and went back to the camp, followed by her. As they were back at the camp, his look fell on Twilights journal she left outside of her saddle bags beneath her as she slept in. He went to pick it up, but Rainbow put her hoof on it and kept it lying on the ground. “No. You’ll touch this book only when Twilight allows you to.” She earned a hateful look from the stallion, but he left the book alone. She wouldn’t let him do whatever he wants to. They’re here on their own will and not because they were ordered to.

Dust already felt hate rising up within him, but he suppressed it. He wouldn’t let that pegasus hinder his mission. Winged or not, this mare wasn’t worth it to endure her behavior. But he will remain silent in this case … till he fulfilled his mission. He would be very happy if he could go back into the east again and getting rid of those annoying mares, but he would have to endure them until the end. He was sighing as he thought that this was probably still far in the future. He’ll see what the future will bring. He woke up the unicorn and the other pony, as the sun dawned. “It’s time to move on. Pack your stuff, we’re still behind.” He said, watching closely in which saddlebag the unicorn put her book. He would read it anyway, if the pegasus cared about it or not. He wanted to know what she wrote down in it. He could feel the look of the pegasus resting on him as they moved on. She was the only one of them who really mistrusted him. Which lead to that he also mistrusted her. But for now, it was time to go on.

The first encounter

They were marching like they were the day before. Dust took the lead as soon as they went on with their quest, and the other three were following as a group a bit behind, until Twilight left that group and closed up to the stallion who led them into the east. “Do you even know where we’re headed?” She asked him, receiving a simple nod as answer, nothing more. “Don’t you want to tell us what our destination actually is?” The stallion still didn’t say anything, he just shook his head. But Twilight didn’t give up that easily. “Come on, tell me where we’re going to!” Dust just sighed and gave up the strategy to keep silent until the unicorn would stop nagging on him.

“No.” Twilight just looked at him in a confused manner and stopped walking for a moment, before she shook her head and waited for her friends. Rainbow was hovering next to her. “Why do you even try to talk to this guy?” The athletic pegasus just shook her head as she was saying this. “Well, Rainbow, I think that if we all could get along, this entire journey could be so much more fun.” As Twilight said those words, Pinkie interrupted her. “Just walking is boring. Can we sing a song?” The answer came from Dust. “No songs.” He said over his shoulder, which caused Pinkie to let her head hanging down, as she muttered something to herself, which Twilight couldn’t understand.

Around noon they reached an old rope bridge across a deep gorge. The only problem was that the ropes on the other side were cut. They couldn’t see another place where they could cross that gorge without losing too much time. “Any chance that pegasus could get down there and fetch the cut-off ropes, fly over to the other side and fix the bridge?” Rainbow stopped hovering next to Twilight and landed. She closed her wings and looked at the stallion in front of her. “You could at least call us by our names.” She said to him, but was looking at Twilight as she said that. Only as her friend nodded, she took off into the air again and fetched the loose ends of the bridge. She flew over to the other side with the ropes between her hooves and tied them to the poles on the other side. The bridge was still a bit unsteady, but it would do.

Dust still didn’t trust the mare, who was waving her hoof on the other side as sign for them to cross the bridge. He pointed to the pink pony behind him. “You”, he said, “You go first.” She just shrugged and then walked over the bridge with a smile on her face, even as the bridge was heavily shaking. As she reached the other side she just hugged her winged friend. Everything seemed fine, so he stepped on the bridge carefully. Step by step he crossed it, but he broke through one of the wooden planks in the mid. He pulled his hoof out of the hole in the plank, which left some splinters stuck in his leg. He didn’t care much about it, but he was now even more careful till he reached the other side. Now, only Twilight was left to cross, and she just walked over the bridge, avoiding the hole Dust had left in the plank. She just trusted Rainbow to catch her if she would fall. Even if she wouldn’t catch her, she still had her magic.

But neither did she need to use her magic nor did Rainbow need to save her from the fall. When she reached the other side, she was promptly hugged by Pinkie, but she saw a concerned look on Dusts face. She pushed Pinkie away and went over to him. “What’s the matter?” She asked, and for once he answered in a friendlier manner than usual. “The bridge. The ropes didn’t cut themselves. Someone knew that we’re coming.” He said, looking down on Twilight. “This means, our target is warned. Probably thanks to that flying trips of this pegasus.” He fell into his usual tone again, as he pointed on Rainbow. “We’re moving on.” Twilight just looked after him for a while, then she turned over to her friends. “Well, you’ve heard him. Let’s go then.”

“Why do we even follow him?” Rainbow asked after a while. “Simple question, simple answer: I’m the only one who knows where we’re going.” Dust answered without even looking back to who he spoke to. “Hey! Could you stop that?” The cyan colored pegasus got angry about him always butting in when she talked to her friends. “No.” His answer left Rainbow speechless for a moment, and as she wanted to answer him in an appropriate manner, she decided that he isn’t worth it. She just shook her head as they went on. While Dust didn’t care about what she accomplished back at the bridge, it didn’t change his opinion about her at all.

I was in the evening when they reached a thick forest where only one path led through. Dust found himself relying on the pegasus once more as he told her to fly up high enough to check the size of the forest and if there is any way around. He didn’t want to go through a forest where someone could lay in wait for them. As she returned from her scouting, for which she only took off after the unicorn gave her a sign that it would be okay, she brought bad news for Dust. “There isn’t any other way, and I guess if we go around it, we will lose around one or two days.” She just shrugged when she reported what she had seen.

Dust looked at the setting sun, but he couldn’t find an alternative. The forest didn’t seem to inviting, but they wouldn’t have any choice left. So their little group moved on into the forest. They soon felt like they were watched by something, but none of them could see something between the surrounding trees. They just guessed that the feeling came from the usual wildlife in such a forest. The rest of the sunlight vanished as they entered the forest, blocked off by the trees standing one by one, which also led to the fact that none of them had any idea if it was still evening or already night.

The silence was only interrupted by the twittering of some birds and a few other animals which were still awake. But Twilight also felt a menacing presence, and a look to her friends revealed that her friends also felt that presence. Only Dust didn’t seem to have that feeling, or he didn’t show it. He just kept on walking through the dark forest without noticing this presence. As they made it halfway through the forest, they found a very small glade, rather a small spot lightened up by moonlight. Twilight had a strange feeling, as if something was waiting there … but she couldn’t see anything in the pale light.

She could see the same feeling in the eyes of her friends, but Dust ignored them again and just followed the path, straight towards the other side and leaving them behind. But Twilight saw something moving between the trees. Her friends were left with a surprised look on their faces as the unicorn dashed towards the stallion. “Dust!” She yelled “There is something between the trees!” But everything she achieved was that the stallion turned around and looked at her instead of checking what was happening around him. The shade Twilight saw between the trees came out of the shadows and stormed towards the stallion.

Twilight could see the wind rushing through the short, grey colored fur of the creature and drool dropping out between its long, sharp teeth as it was spurting on all fours forward, and she could hear a short scream behind her, probably from Pinkie. As Twilight almost reached Dust, he also realized what was happening and ducked, in the hope to avoid the creature’s razor-sharp claws. He could feel the air draft rushing over his back, and then the creature crashed into him, trying to bite into his flank. Pictures from the first chase were rising up in his mind, but he didn’t let them get through to him, he reacted by hammering his hoof on the creatures body and a loud snap sounded as the creature howled in pain.

But it didn’t let the pain stop it from grabbing him with one of its paws and raised the other above him, ready to end the life of the stallion below it- if it wasn’t for Twilight, who just reached the scenery and rammed the creature off Dust, but I didn’t seem to care much about it. It just registered a new foe and let out a deep growl. It didn’t waste time as it charged back to Dust, who just were standing up again and stepping back as he saw the creature coming towards him, letting the claws running through the air without harming him. As he looked back, he searched for what he was supposed to deliver to Canterlot, but it seemed like the creature hadn’t had the object with it. This meant that the lair of the creature was around here somewhere, or that it weren’t alone.

As soon as this thought came to his mind, a second creature charged out of the shadows and towards them, but it didn’t reach them, as it was intercepted by the pegasus. Rainbow didn’t care about the stallion, but she wouldn’t leave Twilight alone there, so she took off and kicked the second creature with her hind hoof and all her power in the face. A hollow snap could be heard as it went down on its knees and fell over. As she looked back, she couldn’t see it moving anymore, and then she looked over to the one who was chasing her friend.

While Rainbow got rid of the second of the creatures, Twilight could almost feel the breath of the first one on her back. She tripped and fell down and as she turned around she could see the fangs of the creature already over her – filled by a cupcake. Twilight looked up to Pinkie, who was throwing cupcakes at the creature. It might not be effective as a fighting method, but it confused it and gave Twilight enough time to get on her hooves again and to run to her friend. She looked back at the creature, who got hit by another cupcake in the face. As it wiped the remains of the cupcakes from its face, it just stood there and growled, but made no attempts to come closer to the group of ponies. It then looked at the other one, back to the ponies and let out one last growl before it ran back between the trees, leaving its companion behind.

“Somepony can explain what just had happened?” Twilight asked as Rainbow finally returned to them. She just shrugged. “It just realized how awesome we are!” She said as answer to the question of her friend. Dust just shook his head. “They know we’re after them. We’ll have to hurry up and somepony of us got to keep the night watch.” He said while he stared into the darkness, where the creature disappeared. “What are those things anyway? I’ve never seen them before.” Twilight asked their leader. “I have no idea, but they’re dangerous.” The stallion shrugged as he answered. “Well, that’s really helpful.” Rainbow said. “Are we gonna stand around and discuss the rest of the night or will we move on already?” None of them said anything, as Dust started to walk ahead again.

For once, the pegasus was right. And he was a bit impressed how she got rid of the second creature in a single move. But only a bit, he thought as he lead the small group onward, to a place only he knew where it was.

Of trust and mistrust

The following days they thought about what happened back in the forest, but they didn’t encounter the creature again. Rainbow was hovering next to Twilight, as she questioned herself if Dust actually knew where they were going or if he just led them somewhere where they wouldn’t return from. They stocked up their supplies when they came across a settlement or a village, but never stayed for a longer time. Each time they did that, Twilight asked the people if they had seen a creature like the encountered before, but she didn’t have any success with it. All she could got to hear were some old tales about dark creature from the east who terrorized the people in this region for ages, but then a hero turned up and sent them back to where they came from. Neither the hero nor the creatures were heard from ever again – according to the tale.

In each settlement she asked about the creatures, she got a different story about them, and each other sounded even more made-up than the tale she heard before. But she wrote them down anyway, ending up with a collection of different stories about those creatures. But one thing was the same in each story: Those creatures were dangerous monsters. And none of the stories gave them a name, nor did any of them tell where they came from. It seemed like they just appeared and disappeared, despite that the description of them was quite accurate: Short and grey fur, long snouts, sharp teeth and fangs. From what Twilight could recall from the night in the forest, they had some similarities with dogs, like their paw-like hands and feet.

However, the stories made it clear that they were around here before. Sometimes, when they put up a camp, she noticed how Dust stared at her book, which she used as a diary and contained everything that happened till now. Always one of them was keeping vigil in case that the creatures returned in the dead of night, but nothing ever happened. Twilight once woke up just to catch Dust how he tried to read through her journal. She took it away from him and gave him a mean look as she put it back into her saddlebags again. “Never do that again.” Twilight told him, but he didn’t even react to it. From that point on, she always kept an eye on her journal. She didn’t like the thought that this guy was going through her stuff, especially without asking, and could understand Rainbows mistrust against Dust.

But still, he didn’t tell anypony where they were going to. While they travelled the land, Twilight not only noticed the change of the landscape, but also a change of the people they met- When they left Ponyville, the people were welcoming them and gave them everything they needed. But lately, the people mistrusted them, and it got harder to convince them to help them out with their supplies. They passed the borders of the area the tree mares knew long ago, none of them has been that far away from home till now. The only one who seemed to know this region at least a little bit was Dust, but he didn’t want to tell them the others from where he knew it. Twilight just guessed he passed through here on his way to Canterlot and still remembered the route he took.

They were putting up a camp for the night, as Dust left the group without saying any word. He just disappeared into the darkness. While Pinkie didn’t care at all, Rainbow and Twilight looked after him. While Rainbow still, after all the time they were traveling together, didn’t trust him, Twilight was worried about him leaving without a single word. He never did that till now. Rainbow just shook her head and looked into the fire, before she placed her head on her fore hooves to sleep, and Pinkie slept already, so Twilight threw a last look into the darkness, where Dust disappeared, and took out her journal. Her last entries were short since they didn’t really have any problems, but she found always something to write down. Especially Dusts disappearance will find its way into her journal.

When Twilight woke up in the morning, Dust was still missing. She tried to wake up Rainbow, but without success. “Just five more minutes, Twi …” She muttered and rolled on her side. Twilight just sighed and let her sleep. She woke up Pinkie, who almost jumped with a scream, which woke up Rainbow, who just jumped up and took off into the air, looking around in a confused manner, trying to realize what just had happened. “You shouldn’t cause so much noise.” None of them noticed how Dust came back from wherever he went to. “Where have you been?” Twilight asked, and earned a grim look from the stallion. “There is a village ahead and I’ll go to get some supplies … and I would rather go there alone.”

While Twilight just shrugged, Rainbow contradicted him. “You won’t go there alone; at least one of us is coming with you!” She insisted on it, moving her face close enough to Dusts that she could feel his breath on her nose. Twilight expected a discussion to come up and looked over to Pinkie, who sat down and munched on one of her remaining cupcakes. But there wasn’t a discussion coming up. Dust just suddenly turned his head to the side and looked away. “I would really rather go alone … but if you insist on it …”

A little later, they left their camp in silence and walking side by side. “You know, I would rather go alone … the people here aren’t used to … your kind.” The pegasus stopped walking and looked puzzled about what Dust just said. “How do you mean that?” She then asked. “I know I should have told you before, but where I come from; there are no pegasi or unicorns.” He looked to the ground, a sad look on his face. “I just knew about your kind since I’ve been reading books about the early history of Lapidem.” They went on, as he talked.

“Lapidem? Is this where you come from?” He nodded and looked at the pegasus next to him. “It seemed that pegasi and unicorns disappeared in the early history …” She cut him off as he wanted to explain it further to her. “You can tell Twilight about that, but for now, just let us finish our job, get some supplies and then head back to the others.” He nodded and just hoped that his companion wouldn’t draw too much unwanted attention to them as he looked upon the wall around the town. He really missed this feeling of protection of those walls.

As they reached the main gate of the city, the guards looked suspiciously at the pegasus at his side, but they didn’t ask any questions. But that was all. Nopony else looked twice at the uneven pair, as they walked through the towns streets. Dusts memory told him otherwise, that pegasi and unicorns were either rare or just mythical creatures, or that everypony who got to see one of them would never forget that he had seen one. But the townsfolk didn’t even care about the pegasus at his side, they seemed to ignore her completely. As if they would have seen somepony like her every day since he was sent on the journey into the west.

However, the less attention the pegasus draw to them, the less problems they would have to get the supplies. Now, that they were in the kingdom he came from, he pay with the bits he got sent with. It was not like he had much money left, but it was enough to buy some food from the local stores. When they left the last store they visited, he firstly noticed how Rainbow looked around with a puzzled look on her face. “What is it?” He asked, as he couldn’t figure out what was puzzling her like that. “It’s just this town … it is so different from home … You know, those walls and guards everywhere.” She looked him in the eyes, and he could see that all those guards and security made her feel uncomfortable. “Let us get back to the others. I don’t want to stay here longer than necessary.”

Just as they were about to leave the town through the main gate, some guards stepped into their way and prevented them from leaving the town. “Halt right there! We will investigate your luggage for illegal goods now. Please be patient for a moment.” One of them said. It was the first time that Rainbow took a closer look on the armor of the guards. They were wearing body armor and helmets and some were carrying spears, just like Celestias guards back home in Equestria. It seemed like a routine check until two guards pointed their spears at Rainbow. “You’ll come with us. The other one can leave.” Rainbow gulped and looked to Dust, who tried to discuss with the guards. “But we’re here in the name …” The guard didn’t let him finish his sentence. “I don’t care in whoever’s name you’re here, but this pegasus will come with us. Now get out of my view!”

He gave another guard a sign to throw Dust out of the city, but before the guard could do something, Dust walked away. It was of no use if he would get also arrested. He just hoped the best for Rainbow, even if he didn’t like her that much. He would tell the other two about what had happened and why her friend didn’t come back with him. He knew this city and the prisons they had. At least it was his hometown and he worked a while as guard in the prison. Long enough to still remember how to get in and out unseen. That mare came with him for no reason, and he wouldn’t leave her in a dirty prison for no reason. It was his duty to get her out there, even if he had to do it alone. He threw one last look on the guards at the door who escorted the cyan pegasus through a door into the prison under the city.

“Hey Twi, where do you think Rainbow and Dust are right now?” Pinkie watched her friend as she tried to write into her journal. It was almost filled now, and she thought that she should have asked the two ponies to get her another journal from the town. “I don’t know, Pinkie.” Twilight closed her journal and put it back into her saddlebags. “They probably have some problems to get the supplies.” The pink pony looked down the road on which their friends left the camp. “Oh hey! Dust is coming back!” After a while of staring down the road, she looked puzzled, which caused Twilight to look herself. “But where is Rainbow?” She then asked herself, as she could only see the stallion coming back from the town.

As he arrived at the camp, he was welcomed by skeptical ponies. “Where is Rainbow?” The lavender unicorn was the first one to ask, and he just looked down to the ground as he answered. “She got arrested as we were about to leave the town again.” He could catch a glimpse of a shocked look on the faces of the two mares. “Rainbow? Arrested? Why did this happen?” It was Twilight who asked the question. “I don’t know, she stopped us at the main gate, arrested her and threw me out of the town.” He looked up into the unicorns eyes. “We have to get her out there; I won’t leave her behind for nothing.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Her question let Dust smile. “This is my hometown. I worked as guard in the prison long enough to recall where they keep the keys and the cells.” He could see the mistrust on their faces. “If you want to rescue your friend you’ll have to trust me. Else I’ll try it on my own.” Slowly, first Twilight and then Pinkie nodded. “So, what is your plan?” Twilight asked Dust, who just gave them a sign to come closer together and lowered his voice to a whisper. “We will do it like this …”

Escape and betrayal

Rainbow could only catch a glimpse of Dust as he left the town. For a moment she did really think that she could trust him, but it ended up otherwise. He just left her with the guards, who escorted her through a door and down a long staircase. The air became more and more unventilated as they led her deeper underground. The only sources of light were some torches that were attached to the walls. The guards led her into a long hallway, which sent a cold shiver down her back as she saw the wooden doors at the sides. Another pony approached them. “What do we have here …?” He asked with a look on Rainbow.

“Just another one of them. Lock it up, warden.” The guards then turned around and Rainbow could hear their hooves hitting the stairs as they went up again. The warden looked at the pegasus, and Rainbow thought she could see disgust sparking up for a second, but it was gone too fast as that she could be sure of it. “A pretty good looking exemplar, are we? Well, nothing that some weeks in those cell couldn’t change.” The warden then pushed her into one of the cells and closed the door behind her. She could her how the key turned in the lock. She looked around in the small cell, but there wasn’t much more than a small, uncomfortable looking bed.

There wasn’t any source of light in the small cell, and it smelled like something died and was rotting in there. Without much hope, she just went over to the bed and tried to suppress her tears, as she was lying alone in the dark. Occasionally the warden showed up with a torch, she could see it through a small window in the door. She sighed as she only could wait for something to happen, hopefully something to get her out of this mess.

While Rainbow was lying in the dark cell, Twilight, Pinkie and Dust stood in the dark at the wall of the town, in front of a sewer canal which led into the regions below the town – and into the prison. Dust hammered his hind hoof once against the lock of the canal and it swung open. The smell of the pipe was simply disgusting, but nopony of them complained as they entered the sewers. Luckily the pipe was large enough for them to stand upright, only Dust had to lower his head since he would have hit the ceiling. The torch they brought down there spent enough light to see where they stepped. Twilight tried to keep out of the small water flow on the bottom of the pipe. The stink got stronger the deeper they went into the sewers of the town, but they had to go through it.

They soon came to a large hall. The ground was covered with disgusting waste water, which exuded a disgusting stink. Dust ignored it, while it gave Twilight and Pinkie nausea. The stallion walked over to a door and looked at the large and rusty padlock on it. He kicked against it and it turned into dust. “They should look after their locks a bit more often …” He muttered as the door swung open. Behind of it was nothing than a long hallway. “Be careful, there are old traps down here which still could work.” He warned the others, as he went on.

Nothing was heard than how their hooves hit on the ground and the distant running of water. Sometimes they could hear some rats nearby, but they were gone as fast as they appeared. Dust sometimes made pauses to reassure himself that he led them the right way. And soon, the stink of the sewer became endurable. He turned around to the two mares following him. “Silence now, we’re close to the part below the prison.” He walked to the next corner and carefully looked around it to be sure that there wasn’t a guard. There was just an old, wooden door with another padlock on it, but this time it was a rather new one.

But the wood the door itself was made of was rotten since a long time. He kicked against the wood, which broke under the slightest pressure. This prison was sure in a bad state. He just realized how bad as the door didn’t just break under his kick, but fell out of its angles and fell on the ground where it splintered up into a thousand pieces, but the impact echoed from the walls. There was no way they would remain undetected for very long, which meant they had to hurry.

He ignored it and ran down the hallway behind the door he kicked open to a desk in front of it. He knew that this was the only cells they had here, and that they kept the keys to the doors on the desk. He just needed to find them before they came to look what happened. He could already hear hooves on the ground, as he finally found the key ring, and luckily the keys were numbered according to the door they belonged to. He took some of the keys from it and threw them over to Twilight and Pinkie. “Look into those cells, I’ll take the rest.”

He managed to get the key into the keyhole and turned it until he could hear a quiet clicking noise and opened the cell. It was empty. The steps he heard from before came closer. They wouldn’t have time to check all of those cells in time; they just had to hope to find the pegasus before the guards arrived. He prayed to everything that was holy for anypony on earth that the next key would be the one they were looking for.

Rainbow was lying in the darkness and thinking about what was going to happen now. What would those ponies do to her, now that she was here, all alone? She didn’t like to think about it, but there was nothing else that she could do right now. That was, until a loud, crashing noise sounded just outside of the cells. She stood up and tried to look out of the small window in the door, but she couldn’t see much, just a brown shadow charging through the hallway. Then she heard Dusts voice speaking, but she couldn’t understand what he said at all.

She felt anxious of what would happen as the key turned around in the keyhole and the clicking as the lock opened and the door swung open. She couldn’t see at first as the light of the torch blinded her eyes, but as she could only feel a great relief as she recognized Dust. “I found her, now let’s get outta here!” He yelled over his shoulder, and just a moment later Rainbow could see her friends looking into the cell. She just stood up, she wasn’t in the cell long enough to suffer from any damage the imprisonment could have done.

Dust didn’t wait as he ran back to the door, but stopped immediately as one of the creatures from their first encounter came lurking through the door. “I thought you were smarter than that, servant.” He turned around only to see a pony with a fur and mane in the color of the night sky, dressed in a black robe. “I thought you would understand the wink we gave you and the others as we sent you far away.” Dust lowered his eyes to the ground as he could feel tears in them. “I gave you the present to spare yourself from this, but what did you do? You just came back.” Dust pulled himself together. “I had my orders to fulfill, and I won’t fail, Chancellor.”

The other stallion just laughed. “Chancellor … Yes, once I was a chancellor … but now I am the King I deserve to be! I’ve ruled this kingdom behind the king’s back and now I’ll take what belongs to me anyway!” Some guards with spears appeared behind the Chancellor. “You served me so well … But your conscientiousness was and is still a problem, now that you’ve returned.” He pointed to the creature behind them, which was now lurking over the crushed door. “I’m sure you’ve met my servants already. They’re just like dogs, they do everything I tell them to do. And now …” He turned away from the group and walked away. “Get rid of them.” Those were his last words, and then he disappeared through the door on the other side of the room.

The creature behind them didn’t waste any time, as it instantly charged towards them as soon as the door fell closed behind the Chancellor. It tried to hit Dust with its razor-sharp claws, but it couldn’t strike out with its full power in the hallway; it didn’t have enough space. But also Dust didn’t have that much space to avoid the strike and it hit his flank with one of the claws, leaving a light flesh wound behind. It hurt; but he didn’t let it stop him. He was furious about the betrayal of the chancellor and he would stop him from whatever plans he had with the kingdom.

He kicked with all of his remaining strength, aiming for the torso of the creature in front of him, but it avoided his attempt to bring it down and instead grabbed his leg and threw him on the splintered remains of the door. He could feel how some of the splinters piercing into his skin, but he was on his hooves again in no time. While he tried to bring the creature down, the two guards pointed their spears on Pinkie and Twilight; they seemingly thought that none of them was a serious threat. It was a mistake they would soon regret, as Twilight lifted some splinters from the door with her magic and threw them at the guards.

At least in this point, Dust was right: They didn’t know much about unicorns, they drew back, even if the splinters weren’t even dangerous for them. But they fulfilled the task Twilight had in mind: They filled the minds of the guards with fear of what the unicorn was capable of. It was a threat they weren’t trained to handle. While the guards drew back to the door, Pinkie somehow managed to get some cupcakes out of her saddlebags. “Pinkie, this is not the time to eat cupcakes!” Twilight said to her friend. “Oh, I’m not eating cupcakes.” The pink pony smiled at her friend as she threw one of the cupcakes at the creature and hit it in the face.

“Well, this isn’t very effective.” Twilight said, but was convinced otherwise as the creature needed some moments to wipe the cupcake’s icing off its eyes and was blind for a few moments - few moments enough for Dust to land an aimed kick on its torso, which brought it to fall down. “Now!” He screamed, dashing over the creature on the ground, followed by Pinkie and Twilight. Rainbow almost made it, but the creature could see again already and reached out for her hind leg as she was jumping over it. It tried to pull her back, but the athletic pegasus spread her wings and started to flap to gain more force, while she kicked the creature with her free leg in its face, causing it to howl in pain and to release the grip around her leg.

Rainbow, who suddenly got no force to pull her back, dashed off through the door into the hallway behind the door and almost crashed down immediately. This corridor simply wasn’t made for pegasi to fly. But she was on her hooves just a second after, following her friends as she ran down the corridor, away from the creature who was on its feet again, now furiously growling. She didn’t care about the creature as she fell into a gallop, but she still heard the slight click and could feel some air drafts around her.

She heard the creature howling up in pain once again, before the howl abruptly fell silent. She orientated herself at the sound of hooves of her friends hitting on the ground and could soon see a light in the distance. She ignored the stink of the wastewater in the sewers and dashed into the fresh air, where her friends already waited for her. She let herself fall into the next spot of grass she could find and found herself under her two friends who were hugging her as soon as she touched the ground.

Only Dust didn’t seem to be happy about their successful operation. He looked like he had something else in his mind. “Hey Dust … What’s the matter? Is it this guy who showed up down there?” The stallion just nodded. “The Chancellor was the one who sent me into the west … to Canterlot. I thought I was on an important mission, and then it turned out that he just wanted to pull off a coup to become king …” Even Pinkies laughter faded. “Well”, Rainbow said, “You got me out of that prison, so we’re gonna help you with your Chancellor!”

The stallion down on the pegasus, who was still lying on her back in the grass. “Sure we will. Isn’t it so, Twi? Pinkie?” she said as she sat up into the grass, looking at her friends, who both nodded. “Sure, we will, silly!” Pinkie was euphoric like usual. “Of course, you helped us to get Rainbow out there, so we will help you to rescue your kingdom!” Dust couldn’t feel anything else than feeling warmth deep in his heart. He didn’t really know those mares for a very long time, but they already agreed to help him stopping the traitorous Chancellor of a kingdom they don’t even know. “Well then …” he looked up the walls of the town. “Let us stop the Chancellor then.”

He was still looking up the walls, as a loud bang shocked him. He looked up into the sky – it was evening again already, almost night – on which a single firework filled the sky with sparkles. A second one followed, and then a third one. It was the New Year’s Eve, and the ponies here celebrated it with a huge firework. They sat down on the grass and looked up to the sky, in a moment of unity, before they would make their plan to bring the Chancellor down.

Nightfall

They looked at the town in front of them and Dust pointed to the largest building in there. “This is the ‘palace’. Even though it isn’t a real palace, they keep calling it like this. This is where the Chancellor and his servants reside. Are you sure you want to do this? You can still go back to your home. Once this began, there will no way back.” Pinkie was the first one, who hopped over to him and looked into his eyes. “You’re silly”, she said, “Why would we say we’ll do this with you and then go away?” She didn’t even wait for an answers, she just started to bounce around randomly. Dust looked a while on the bouncing pink pony, as he dedicated his attention to the town again.

“We will have to get into that building, I bet the Chancellor wrote down his plans and is keeping them in his workroom.” Rainbow looked at the large building in the distance. “Get in, steal the plans and get out again. Got it.” Twilight, however, contradicted. “How are we supposed to get in there? There are surely more guards in there than in the rest of the town. We need some kind of distraction so we can sneak in.” She looked over to Pinkie, who still bouncing around in their camp. “Hey Pinkie, you’ve surely took a loud and noisy instrument with you, am I right?”

Pinkie stopped bouncing and looked at Twilight as if she made a joke. “Of course not, silly. How would something like that in those saddlebags?” She then started bouncing again, as Twilight placed her hoof on her forehead. “Somepony got another idea?” She asked. It was Rainbow, who had an idea. “Just leave that to me!” She said, spreading her wings. The others understood her sign. The wings would allow her to escape the guards once the others were inside, and she would get easily into the building through a window, even if she would have to break through the glass.

Dust nodded, but had to mention another fine detail of their plan. “But you’ll have to lift her” - he pointed on Twilight – “over the walls of the town. They won’t let you two in the town again after what had happened down there in the prison.” Twilight just shrugged. “I could also use my magic to teleport in.” But the stallion shook his head. “No, as far as I know, this would cause a flash of light around you and would probably draw unwanted attention to you.” The lavender unicorn had to admit that the stallion was right and that it would certainly cause problems if she got caught behind the town’s walls. And she knew that they shouldn’t take too many risks.

“And what about the guards at the main gate, Dust? Wouldn’t they stop you since they have seen you with me?” Rainbow threw the question in, and Dust had to admit that it was a pretty good one. “I guess they don’t remember everything. I could just be anypony, while a pegasus or a unicorn would rather cause a sensation after the incident in the prison. I don’t think that they would stop me or your pink friend here.” He smiled. “Let’s say, we two are much less suspicious than you two.” He looked then up into the evening sky. “We should better be going already; they won’t let us in after nightfall.”

Twilight looked after them as the others left her camp. “Well, that leaves us two to wait here till it’s dark enough to get unseen behind the walls …” Rainbow just shrugged. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” But she could see that her friend was not convinced at all. She still thought that there had to be another way into the town that was safer than to let Rainbow fly her over the wall and then meet up with the others. But since Pinkie and Dust were already on their way into the town, she couldn’t change it anymore. Without anything to do they just waited until the night finally came.

The sky was completely dark, not even the moon was visible up in the night sky, but Twilight could still see the dark shape of the towns’ wall in front of her. She still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but she didn’t see another way to get into the town for Rainbow and herself. So she just let her friend carry her over the wall. As soon as her hooves touched the ground again, she went to the meeting point they agreed on. They didn’t run there, it would have caused too much attention if they ran through the dark streets. Also, the sound of their hooves on the ground would probably have led some guards to them. This in mind, both of them walked as silently as possible.

Soon, they’ve reached the point they’re headed for – The shop in which Rainbow and Dust bought some provisions. They couldn’t see anypony around as they reached, but Twilight was confident that their friends would make it in time. And she was right – just a few seconds after them, Dust and Pinkie arrived. While Pinkie was happy to see her friends again – even if they were separated for only a short time – and hugged them, Dust didn’t lose time and gave them a sign to follow him.

He led the group through the dark alleyways of the nightly town, sometimes he stopped to let a patrol pass past them and once one of them almost caught them, but it seemed like they weren’t too eager to follow them further than two street corners. As soon as they shook them off, Dust led them towards the palace again. Even it was dark night, the silhouette was still visible and the night gave it a somehow menacing look. Twilight became nervous as she thought what may lay in wait for them in there.

Two guards were standing at the gate; it was obvious that they were bored and it was even more obvious that they didn’t think that anypony would want inside at this time. It was only a short time after they arrived at the gate that one of the guards went away, and the other one looked as sleepy as he would fall asleep any moment – which was the case just a moment after the other guard left, he was leaning against the wall next to him and snored. Dust knew that they couldn’t hope for a better chance, one guard gone and the other sleeping.

He just waved his hoof as a sign for the others to follow him, as he sneaked towards the door as silently as possible. He pressed his hoof against the wooden door and pushed it open. It wasn’t even locked, but it let out a slight creak. The sleeping guard was still asleep and didn’t wake up. He slipped inside of the palace, shortly followed by the others. Now it was to find the chancellor and somehow stop him. He didn’t quite know how he would stop him, but he guessed that he could think about that when they found him.

“Quiet now, we don’t know if there are any other guards around.” He told the others as they sneaked deeper into the building. He had been in here before; at long last this was his hometown. But he was never above the ground floor. When he was the last time in this building, they didn’t let anyone on the stairs without a special permission.

But it was in the dead of the night; it is not that likely that somepony would show up at this time in the palace, especially without a guard watching his or her steps, so nopony tried to stop them while they went upstairs, into the highest chambers of the building. Somehow it seemed like nopony except them where wandering through the dark corridors, they never stumbled upon another pony or even a single guard past the entrance.

It wasn’t hard for them to find the office of the chancellor – it was obvious that the pompously decorated door must lead to the chancellor’s office. A short inspect showed that the door wasn’t even locked, and Dust grew skeptical of what the chancellor thought when he left his office completely unlocked. Either he was a moron, or he didn’t keep any important documents for his plan in there … or he planned all this on long term.

However, the dark office wasn’t lightened like the corridors and halls in the rest of the building. He just took a lantern from the wall and placed it with caution on the desk. Then it was the time to go through the chancellor’s belongings to see if they could find something that Dust could use to accuse him at court, or even show the king himself to put an end to this.

He ordered Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to search through the left side of the office, which was full of cupboards and drawers, eventually full of documents. He himself and Twilight searched through the other half of the office, which was mainly covered by bookshelves. He didn’t think that they would find anything in those books, but was convinced otherwise as when he tried to pull out one of the books, a barely hearable clicking noise sounded, followed by the rumbling as one of the bookshelves moved backwards and aside, revealing another corridor behind it, which lead down in a spiral staircase.

They looked a while into the corridor behind the shelf, before Dust took the lead and moved on without saying a single word or an idea what will wait for them at the end of that corridor …

Into the maze

The corridor led to a winded staircase downwards. The air was moldy at best; there was almost no ventilation in the hidden corridor. It echoed from the walls when their hooves hit on the floor. There was not even a single grain of dust was on the ground. Dust just guessed that this corridor and staircase was used on a regularly basis by somepony or … something.

The steps were sometimes interrupted by some doors in the wall, all of them unlocked. There were some small, empty rooms behind those doors, which probably were used as storage rooms a long time ago, but judging from the thick layer of dust in those rooms, they weren’t used since the creators of this place left and the corridor, stairs and rooms behind the shelf were abandoned and forgotten.

They didn’t speak a word when they went down into the dark unknown, but all of them could feel the stress of the others around them. The darkness around them was making them nervous, and Dust felt somehow watched, despite that the staircase was too small that anyone could have watched them, even if something was lurking around them in the dark.

It seemed like an eternity to them, but they finally made it to the end of the stairs. Another corridor led straight ahead of them into the darkness. But none of them could have expected what they found deep underground, at the end of the corridor. It was a large, metal portal standing open. Behind the portal was a large hall – at least they thought that it was a hall, since they couldn’t see a wall in the radius of Dusts torch.

As they arrived in the middle of the room, a loud, screeching noise sounded behind them, as the portal closed behind them. They made a run to get out of the hall again, but their try just ended with Rainbow crashing into the metal, as the portal closed just before their noses. A second later, a sudden wind gust blew out Dusts torch. They were standing in complete darkness now; none of them said anything – except for Rainbow, who was muttering curses at the portal as her nose was hurting from the crash.

Suddenly, torches on the walls of the hall lightened up, emitting a warm light which made them feel almost comfortable. And they could now see that the metal portal, which just closed, was the only entrance and exit in this place. They couldn’t see anypony around, as a deep and dark voice echoed back from the walls.

“Welcome.” It said. “So you finally came down here into my realm … welcome …” After those words, a maniacally laughter sounded, and then silence fell over the underground hall again, leaving four scared and confused ponies who had no idea what to do now. Dust was the first one who recovered from the event and stepped towards the middle of the room again.

He noticed a muster of rings built into the ground. They centered in a circle in the middle, and as Dust put a hoof on it, the ground started to shake and almost knocked them all off their hooves, as another exit appeared on the opposite side of the hall. At first it was just an arch made of stone, but then some weird kind of dark light began to float in between the stones of the arch.

When the ‘light’ appeared, it was just a small orb, but it quickly widened to the outside of the arch. After it reached this state, the light just kept billowing around, until it became clear and showed another corridor. Where the light touched the stones of the arch, it flickered and created sparks of purple light.

Dust slowly approached the newly appeared corridor and just turned his head back to the others once to check if they were following him. The three mares closed up to him soon, and just before Twilight could say something, the voice spoke again.

“This is your exit; your one and only chance to get away from here … Don’t waste it.” As the echo of the voice fell silent once again, Dust just exchanged a look with the other from the group, and walked towards the strange kind of portal. He gulped, as he neither trusted the voice nor the energies which formed that portal.

But the voice was right; it was the only exit for them, as the door closed shut behind them. And there was no way that anyone of them could open the door again, not even Twilight with her magic. So he just took a step ahead and went through the portal. As Dust came out on the other side he looked back, but there was nothing more than a stonewall. “Well … Dammit.” Was his only comment as he realized that this would be an one-way ticket.

For the others, Dust just appeared on the other side of the portal. “Well, it looks like it is safe. Let’s do this.” Rainbow was the first of the three mares who went through the portal. She appeared on the other side, next to Dust. And shortly after, Twilight and Pinkie followed their friends.

But the reality looked different from the vision of the portal. As Twilight stepped through the portal, neither Dust nor Rainbow was waiting for her. Not even Pinkie followed her, and as she looked around for her friends, the voice laughed again. And then, Twilight knew what had happened.

She went ahead and came soon to an edge. As she looked down, she just saw a giant maze waiting for her and there - and in the middle of the maze, were the stairs to the surface again. She looked around if she could find any other indications on which she could check where she was in the maze, but there were three other openings in the wall like the one she ended up on. The entire construction was lightened by crystals embedded in the walls and the ceiling.

“Good luck with finding through that maze before you starve, little ponies.” The voice laughed and silence fell over the maze. Somewhere in the distance she could see a cyan and rainbow-colored shape flying above the maze, seemingly without any aim.

Twilight was scared to death for a second as the ground under her hooves shook once more and lowered itself to the entrance of the maze. “Well, that’s just great.” The lavender unicorn said to herself as she began her journey through the maze in the hope that she would stumble upon her friends.

And that nothing dangerous was in this maze.

The maze

Dust stood at the entrance of the maze. There was no way back now, but he was sure that he would find a way out. The only thing that really worried him was this dark voice earlier. He didn’t know who or what it was, but it certainly didn’t seem very friendly or too welcoming. But the real cause of his worries was the fact that he couldn’t see it. With the lack of unicorns in the kingdom he never experienced magic.

Anyway, he knew that his only chance to eventually find an exit was to make it through this maze. He entered the maze of walls waiting ahead of him with the best hope he would make it through – and that he would find the others on his way out.

While Dust just walked into the maze, Twilight thought about how she could leave a track so she could always find back to her starting point. She tried to figure out a solution, but had no other choice as to go into the maze without leaving any trail for herself or anypony who would cross her path afterwards. She wasn’t sure about if it was such a good idea to enter the maze like this. But she had no other choice.

While Dust and Twilight went into the maze, Pinkie didn’t think much about getting out or leaving a trail behind her, she just walked ahead with her bouncy walk, straight into the system of dead ends and intertwined ways of the maze. The pink pony was quite confident that everything would work out fine as always.

Meanwhile, Rainbow flew high above the maze. It was an endless puzzle of different ways below her. It would have been easy for her to get to the exit. It was a real gift to have wings, but she could not just abandon her friends like this. But the problem was to find them first. In which direction she looked, she could only see more walls and ways, twisting and intertwine, suddenly stopping in dead ends. If she just could get a sign where she should look … this maze was even larger than she expected on the first view.

The cyan-colored pegasus knew that she had to find her friends and lead them to the exit, the spiral staircase in the center of the maze, since she could overlook a large part of the maze just by flying up high. But to lead anyone, she had to find them first. It was too bad that they ended up at different starting points in the maze. Even though she didn’t knew where the others were, she kept looking for them.

Rainbow thought that it would be the best if she kept an eye out for Pinkie at first, since the color of her fur would stand out from the grey and black of the maze. But instead of spotting the pink pony, she spotted a purple shape first. She didn’t think twice as she was diving down to the ground, into the direction of her friend.

While Rainbow dove down from above, Twilight was focused on not to get lost in the maze and didn’t look up to the sky, which lead to that she didn’t notice her winged friend diving down to her. And because of this, Twilight screamed up and jumped backwards as the cyan pegasus suddenly appeared in front of her without any warning. “Hey Twi, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Rainbow said as she landed next to her friend, who was still recovering from the shock she suffered.

“Rainbow! Don’t scare me like that! How did you find me in here anyway?” Before the pegasus answered, she stretched her wings. “You know, Twi, a lot of things are easier when you can fly. I can tell you that you got a good view if you can look at things from high above.” She bopped her friend on the shoulder and winked. “You should really try it. It’s awesome.”

Twilight just sighed as an answer. “Well … did you see Dust or Pinkie Pie?” The cyan colored mare just shook her head. “Nope. I guessed I would find Pinkie first, because of the bright color of her fur.” The lavender unicorn nodded, as it made sense to her. “Could you fly up again and look for the others?” She asked her friend, but she could tell by the look in her eyes that Rainbow wasn’t convinced that this was a good idea. “If I fly up again, I might lose you again. And I think nopony of us wants that. I don’t think that this is a good idea.”

Twilight thought a while about it, but she came to the same conclusion that her friend. “Still, we have to find Pinkie and Dust somehow … and then we still have to get out of this maze.” She said while she was starting to walk around the next corner. Rainbow was following her by hovering next to the unicorn. “How do you plan on finding them? This place is enormous! They could be anywhere around here!” Twilight just turned her head over to her friend. “Well, then we better start looking for them.” She said and kept on walking.

At the same time, on the other side of the maze, Dust was wandering alone through the corridors. He didn’t know how often he ended up in a dead end, but he didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was getting out of this place. He was thinking about jumping over the walls, but he quickly decided that they were too high to jump over them, as he heard a noise near him.

He didn’t move a single muscle and listened, if there are any other noises. He only could hear the sound of someponies hooves on the floor, but in an uncommon rhythm. It sounded more like jumping instead of walking. And he only knew this manner from one pony in the world: Pinkie Pie. And it sounded like she was coming towards him. He shrugged. He just wanted to get out here, so he moved on.

Just as Dust turned around a corner, he bumped into a certain pink pony and they ended up piled up on the ground. It wasn’t long before Pinkie jumped in circles around him. “I found you!” She continuously shouted, with such a happy look on her face that Dust had to think that it must hurt to smile like this. He tried to ignore the fact as he got on his hooves again. “I just want to get out of here.”

The pink pony stopped and looked at him in a silly manner. “You can’t be serious. What about Twilight and Rainbow? We have to find them!” Dust sighed. He could tell by the look of her face that she wouldn’t leave without her friends. “See, they could be anywhere in here. We have to get out of here. We need to find the exit first.” He tried to convince her, but she didn’t listen to him and his reasoning.

“You should remember what they did for you, and then it is too much just to go looking for them?” She shot an evil look at him. He suddenly felt bad about his plans to leave them in the maze. “Well … I guess it couldn’t be wrong to keep an eye out for them.” He tried to calm down the pink pony, and she actually seemed a little less mad at him. It would do for now, he thought.

He looked after her as she was walking ahead of him, deeper into the maze. Dust sighed and followed her. Maybe she would have more luck as he had and would actually find the correct way to the exit. For now, it was the only thing he could do – to follow the pink mare in the hope that she would lead him to the exit.

A little while later, Pinkie was smiling and walked with her bouncy walk again and even started singing. Dust tried his best to ignore the fact that it might lure everything that was lurking in this maze to them. But he had to admit that there was probably nothing around here than him and the three mares – wherever the other two were.

It turned out that Pinkies singing was heard. But not by something dangerous, no, Twilight was the one who heard her friend singing. “Wait. Do you hear this?” She said to Rainbow, who immediately perked her ears. “No, I can’t hear …” The pegasus began to say, but then she heard it too. “That’s Pinkie. I’m sure.” She said to the lavender unicorn. “Yes, that must be Pinkie. But it sounds so distant. How far do you think is she away from us?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I have no idea.” They walked towards they thought Pinkies singing came from. “I think we’re close to her now.” Twilight said after a while, as they could hear the song better with each step they made until it was obvious that their friends must be close to them. Rainbow hovered in front of Twilight to prevent her from moving forward any further. “Wait here for a second.”

She then flew up to the top of the wall to look over it. The singing was loud enough now that Pinkie could stand at the other side of the wall. As Rainbow looked over the top, she almost flew a few meters back, as a pink pony jumped almost into her face. “Hey Rainbow! I found you!” The pegasus was too confused to answer right away, but she quickly gathered herself again. “Hi Pinkie. I see you found Dust.”

Pinkie stopped jumping and stood still on the ground, looking back at the stallion who was following her since they met. He just looked up now; he didn’t really listen to what Pinkie said, as he was trying to ignore her singing. But the lack of melody in her words made him looking up now. “Can you believe that …” The pink pony began to say, but was cut off by Rainbow. “Not now, Pinkie. Wait a moment.”

Twilight was still standing down on the ground, looking up to her friend who was talking with pinkie, until she hovered down to her again. “Hey Twi, it’s time for a lift to the other side!” The athletic pegasus grabbed her friend at her mid-section and with some effort, she lifted the unicorn up and over the wall, to their friends.

As soon as her hooves touched the ground, Pinkie was jumping on her and hugging her. “Twi! We found you too!” Twilight, who was winding out of the hug of the pink pony, looked up to Rainbow, who was still hovering above their heads. “Rainbow, do you think you could find us a way out of this maze? It shouldn’t be hard if you fly high enough.” The cyan mare put a hoof on her chin. “I guess I could try. I just need to watch out that I won’t lose you again. I would hate to fly over this place and look for you.”

With those words, she began to fly up higher until she could overlook a good part of the maze. From the corridor on which her friends were lead an almost straight way to the exit. The sudden realization hit her hard and she felt dizzy for a moment. Actually, all those ways were leading to the exit. No matter how they walked, every single way ended up in the mid. There were four straight ways to the mid, only interrupted once by the sidewalls of the maze. And every single path lead to them in some way.

This entire thing was just a trick to let everypony who ended up in here think that he or she was lost. But they just had to walk long enough to reach the end. From up there, she navigated her friends towards the next straight way to the mid. It wasn’t as hard as Rainbow thought at the beginning, even as she had to fly down some times to tell them where Twilight and the others had to take a turn or to go straight ahead.

They finally reached the way to the mid, to the winded staircase towards the surface. Pinkie was jumping ahead of them and Twilight felt a relief that they would be out of this maze soon. Only Dust didn’t feel quite sure about this exit. What if it was just another trick …? Would this voice from earlier sent them here when the maze was that easy with a pegasus in the group?

He kept quiet about it and followed the others up the stairs, while Rainbow just hovered next to them as they climbed upwards. As they reached the top, Rainbow had to join them on the stairs since the stairs lead into the solid rock of the ceiling. But it didn’t lead to the surface like Twilight hoped. It lead to another room with a large gate in front of them.

The room was lightened up by some of the crystals from below which were embedded in the walls. But unlike before, their attention was drawn to something on the ground, and not even Dust, who was coming up the stairs as the last one and bumped into the mares in front of him, could distract them. And as soon as he could a glimpse at what they were staring, he understood why they stopped. In front of the gate was a body in a puddle of blood. But even now, that the robe was soaked in blood, he could still recognize the robe of the chancellor.

Descending Darkness

While the three mares kept standing at the staircase, Dust went over to the lifeless body of the chancellor and examined it. He rolled it over and suppressed the instinct of jumping backwards as he saw the large wound at the chancellor’s flank. Something long and sharp must have been ripping through the cloth of the robe, flesh and muscles. It was not a too nice view, but on closer look, Dust could see a strange object lying next to the corpse. It looked like it was some sort of gem, but it had strange markings on it. Somehow it seemed to Dust that this was a key of some kind.

The stallion didn’t care about what the mares could think about him as he took the gem between his hooves. He got a certain feeling to know where this belonged to. He trotted over to the gate, and in the exact middle was small hole. The gem fit exactly as Dust pressed it into the hole. A hollow clicking noise sounded and echoed through the hall for a while. The mares closed up to him as they heard the clicking.

“What was that sound?” Twilight was the first one to ask, and Dust was just about to give her a shrug, as the ground started to tremble and to shake, almost knocking them all off their hooves. A small gap begun to part the gate as the gate slowly slid open. The ironwork on the edges of the gate screeched over the rock of the ground and filled the hall with an unbearable noise. It was almost too much for them to bear, they out their hooves on their ears.

It seemed like an eternity until the noise ended and the gate was completely opened up. The gem, which acted as a key to the gate, was split in the mid, on each side of the now opened gate was one side of the gem. While Dust looked at the prim surface of the gem halves, Twilight looked into the darkness beyond the gate. “So … I guess this is our only choice now.” She said, looking at her friends. She could feel that they felt as uncomfortable as she did, but she knew that they would follow her into the dark – and they would do this not because it is the only way that probably led out of this place.

The only one, who didn’t pay attention, was Dust. He was still gazing on the surface of the gem. “Dust!” The unicorn yelled at him. He turned around and out on a surprised look. “We should see if there is a way out of this place.” The lavender mare said and pointed with her hoof into the darkness. “Let’s go.” Dust looked for a while into the dark before he moved towards Twilight. “Come on, you don’t want to go in there without any source of light, do you?” He shook his head. “We would be lost before we even know it.”

Twilight didn’t get the chance to answer before Rainbow did. “Well, if you want to stay here and starve for yourself, then do it! I’m going with Twi!” The pegasus yelled at the stallion and positioned herself behind Twilight, quickly joined by Pinkie Pie, who didn’t even said something about it. It was obvious that she would not leave two of her best friends alone, only to stay with somepony who still was a stranger to her, even if she travelled such a long time with him now.

The stallion looked on the ground for a moment and chewed on his lip. “Fine, I’ll come with you.” He said and looked to the said, who lead that Pinkie, despite of being a stranger to her, jumped up in a cheeringly manner. Twilight ignored her friend jumping around as she turned her attention to whatever might lay in wait for them past the gate.

“Let’s go already; I want to get out of here!” Rainbow didn’t intend to stay underground longer as necessary. “Alright, let’s go then.” Twilight answered and took the lead, shortly followed by Pinkie, Rainbow, and Dust, who followed as the last one of them. He didn’t have a good feeling about this. They should have looked for a source of light before they went into the darkness. But in the end, they were right. They had to get out of here and he knew it. So he followed the bright colors of Rainbow’s mane.

As they advanced into the darkness, Twilight felt uncomfortable and like the area around them was somehow changing – even if she couldn’t see anything in the dark. But soon, she could recognize the pattern of a path under her hooves. It seemed like they were walking on shadows … But that would not be possible, if somepony or something did not change the physical rules of the world. The unicorn started to let her thoughts to drift away from where she was walking.

And it almost ended badly. Since she didn’t look where she went, she left the path below her hooves. Suddenly, she stepped into thin air – she believed it was air afterwards – and almost fell down, if Pinkie and Rainbow hadn’t caught her tail in the very last moment before she fell over and into whatever lies below.

“Twi, you should really watch your steps …” Rainbow was the only one who commented on that, but Twilight thought she could see the silhouette of Dust performing a facehoof. She left the lead to Rainbow. It was the better idea to let the pony who got wings lead the group. If she would fall down, she could catch her drop and fly up. Anypony else in the group would fall down and either die or end up in some strange place.

The unicorn found herself not even wanting to know what lies below them. But since she walked now behind Rainbow, she could continue to think how it is possible that they’re walking on shadow. Little did she know that the answer was closer than she thought. After a while walking through this strange place, Twilight noticed a change.

The darkness around them was not a simple black anymore, like it would be in a cave or something. It changed to some kind of twirling shades and silhouettes, it seemed like the black was moving before her eyes. Twilight blinked, but it still was the same afterwards. “Hey, can you see this?” She asked. “Can we see what?” The answer came from Dust. “You mean something besides of black or your silhouette in front of me?”

The unicorn turned her head around. “It looks like the shadows are moving around.” She thought that she could see Dust shrugging. “Even if the shadows would move, as long as they don’t do anything else it is fine with me.” Twilight could not believe how ignorant he was, but she kept quiet. The last they needed now was a quarrel. It would do no good.

But despite she didn’t answer the ignorant stallion, she kept thinking about it. This strange place must have a reason, it must have a purpose … else it would not exist. She was so concentrated on figuring out the meaning of this place that she didn’t notice how the surrounding area changed again. They found themselves in the room where they started. The gate, the chancellor’s corpse, everything was there.

But this time, they weren’t alone. Some creature stood in the middle of the room, around 2 meters tall and dressed in a black, tattered robe. Its face was covered by the hood of the robe, but none of them would have noticed its face anyway. Not with the giant scythe in its hand. It wandered around in the room, as if they weren’t there. From time to time it poked the corpse, but didn’t do much else.

That was until it looked at them directly. “So, don’t you have any wish you want to ask me to fulfill?” It was the voice that greeted them before they entered the labyrinth. As it became no answer, the creature sighed. “See … You mastered the maze and the path through the darkness. So, the rules are set that I am supposed to grant each one of you one wish.” It let out something that sound like laughing. “That means, I am supposed to grant it in the one or other way.” It still stood next to the corpse and poked it with the shaft of its scythe.

“This poor fool wished for the death of his king.” It shrugged. “The king will die of old age anyway, so I just did nothing. He was pissed about it, and there you see the result and …” Twilight interrupted the monologue of the creature. “Wait, wait … who or what are you in the first place?” She asked, and earned a moment of silence as it seemed to be surprised.

“In all the years I’m down here you’re the first to ask that. You shall receive an answer … Fact is, I don’t have a name at all and not even I know what I am supposed to be. You know, I actually care less for my person than to get out of this prison. Being locked up for ages without any visitors make you feel very lonely.” The creature shrugged and started to wander around again.

As nopony asked or wished for anything, it seemingly became annoyed. “Come on, wish for something. I can grant you your deepest desires … you just have to say the word …” It lifted the hood of its robe, and blank bone appeared. Its face was nothing more than a blank skull of some kind of creature none of them had ever seen.

“Come on, say the word …” It didn’t stop trying to get them to wish for something, but they all knew clearly that this would be a trap. If it wouldn’t be a trap, it wouldn’t insist on fulfilling their wished. Dust was finally the one who stepped towards the creature, who almost had the half of the initial distance between them behind it. “Ah, would you want to tell me what you want?” If it had a face, Twilight was sure that it would show a diabolic grin.

The stallion looked back at the three mares before he spoke in a loud and clear manner. “Yes. And I wish that you bring those three mares back to the surface of Equestria!” For a moment, the creature looked at him with probably a silly look – at least it tried it. “How boring. But fine … if this is what you want …” It pointed with a finger on the wall behind Twilight, where a swirl of darkness appeared.

After a short moment, it created another portal. They could see the town through it, on a nice day, the sun was shining, and they could even hear the birds twittering. Twilight realized that this was probably their only chance, and so she was the first one who headed towards the portal. Rainbow and Pinkie followed, but as Dust also wanted to leave, the creature stood suddenly in his way. “Everything has its price, little pony …” It said.

The realization of what those words meant hit Dust like a sledgehammer, but he still insisted that the mares would be brought back to Equestria safely. As Twilight and the others didn’t want to leave without him, the creature vanished and reappeared in front of them. “Oh, look at the clock, it is already time to go!” It said, as it pushed them through the portal, which disappeared just in the second the last one of them was through.

“And now … for my payment …” Its voice was almost a whisper, but Dust knew what was about to come. He remembered that he was indoctrinated that he should die in the service for the kingdom, but he never imagined that it would happen at all. He took a deep breath, as he heard the steps of the creature coming nearer, as it raised its scythe. At least it would be fast.

Finally over ... or not?

Birds were twittering on tree on a hill not far away from the town, but they suddenly stopped as a cloud of darkness emerged from the ground and threw three ponies on the ground. Twilight was still dizzy as she pulled herself out of the pile of ponies and onto her hooves again. She wasn’t really sure of what just had happened, but she was sure that it wouldn’t end up nicely.

At least they were out of this strange place, but without Dust. She tried to not think of what this creature hat in stock for him, now, that he was alone with it down there. She inhaled the warm air, filled with the scent of flowers growing around them. It seemed so peaceful for a moment, and her friends came on their hooves again.

This moment faded away as a strange noise from behind them caused them to turn around. The creature from before was leaning against the trunk of a tree, but this time, it didn’t bring its scythe with it. However, the view wasn’t frightening any less, since the sole presence of the creature let the plants around it die, and where it touched the tree, the bark turned grey and ill-looking.

“I almost forgot what it looks like up here.” The creature started to talk in a chatting manner. “I thought it would be nice to thank you girls for releasing me.” It started to wander around again, leaving dead grass and flowers where it stepped. “Being locked away for ages lets you grow lonely. I think, I’ll stay a while …” Twilight wasn’t sure about it, but it seemingly turned its attention to the town.

“And hey, even a Town … I guess this will be the capital of my new empire.” It turned around to the three mares again. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Forgive me, please.” The creature pushed out is chest as it continued to speak in an overplayed, probably supposed to sound royally voice. “My name is … John.” It threw its pose away. “I know, not really an appropriate name, but it is my name … I think.”

“You think that your name is … John?” Twilight repeated unbelievingly, and the creature just shrugged. “You try to remember your name after having no company in ages.” Rainbow leaned over to Twilight and whispered in her ear. “I suppose that being alone for a very long time also damages your brain.” Twilight slightly nodded, but the creature saw the movement.

“Hey, it isn’t nice to whisper behind people’s backs!” It yelled at them, but calmed down very quickly. “Oh well. I just wanted to go anyways.” It pointed on the palace in the town. “That will make a nice suite, don’t you think?” It didn’t wait for an answer and just dissolved into a cloud of darkness which quickly disappeared into the surrounding area.

Twilight turned her head over to the city and looked at the palace. “Just … WHAT is this thing and why is it here …?” Pinkie jumped into Twilight view. “Oh, I know!” She yelled. “It was just lonely and wants some friends. Let’s throw him a party!” Twilight ignored the pink pony, who was still euphoric about the thought of throwing a party and already made plans how to pull it off.

But at least Rainbow was serious. “This guy … thing … whatever it is, it is crazy enough for sure!” Unwittingly, the pegasus remembered her friend of the experiences they made with craziness – and the conclusions. “Well … whatever it wants or even whatever it is … we must stop it!” She said, and both of her friends agreed on it. Since they couldn’t pass through the front gates anymore, they had to wait until the dusk again.

As they were sneaking back into the city on the same way again, it was too silent – even for the nighttime. Not even the guards at the back entrance were on their post and the gate was wide open. Twilight didn’t feel comfortable as they passed through the gates. The hallways were also completely empty. They guessed that at least somepony would be looking for the chancellor right now.

But there was nopony around. However, instead of the door to the chancellor’s office, there was just a wall of shadows. Twilight didn’t let it stop her and just walked through the barrier with her eyes closed. She didn’t notice that she left Rainbow and Pinkie behind, and entered an empty, dark room. The only thing in this room was a podium with a dark orb on it – and the creature crooked over it.

While it didn’t notice the unicorn who entered the room, Twilight tried to sneak upon it. This weird dimension had one advantage – Twilights hooves didn’t make any sound as she stepped onwards. As she came closer to the dark figure, she heard it chanting in a language she never heard before. Suddenly the chanting stopped and it turned around.

“How did you get here?” Was the first thing it asked Twilight, who was not answering it, but she ran towards it to ram it – she somehow knew that this was not the time for spells – this was the time for actions. The creature jumped to the side and Twilight ran against the podium. She fell on her backside and her head was hurting, but the podium was swinging a little bit.

It was swinging enough to set the orb on it in motion. The creature turned its look from Twilight to the podium and the unicorn could almost hear a scream of terror as the orb fell down and shattered into a million pieces, revealing one, and large shard of a different material within it and in the next second, the shard emitted a blinding light.

The next thing Twilight knew was that she was outside of the town again, together with Rainbow and Pinkie. “Hey, she’s finally awake!” Rainbow yelled over to Pinkie, and her following question was directed to Twilight. “So … do you want to tell us what in the hay just happened a few hours ago?” As Twilight just shrugged, she could see that this did not satisfy her friend at all.

“What do you want to hear? That I don’t know either? Let’s just hope that this weird stuff is over …” She threw a look back at the town. Something seemed to go on there. “Let’s just head back home as fast as we could.” She was the first one, who walked on the path back to Equestria, back to Ponyville and … back to their friends.

She knew already that Pinkie would forge plans for a return party during the journey, and she knew that everything would be normal again. What she didn’t know was, if it was really over. And this matter worried her, but she tried to convince herself that it was over. They left that weird kingdom side by side, leaving behind a startled town with a missing chancellor.

And some pieced of an orb and a large shard with some swirling shadows in it. Shadows, that longed for freedom …