Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Sparkplug groaned softly as she drifted back into consciousness. Her vision consisted of a blur of colors, predominantly orange and yellow.

“Sparkplug!”

A faint voice called to her. She could feel herself being jostled, bringing her scattered senses to focus. As the image above her clarified, she saw the familiar forms of her two friends standing over her wearing worried frowns.

“Ngh… Applejack? Fluttershy?” Sparkplug muttered as she sat up.

Applejack let her shoulders deflate and produced a relaxed exhale. “Thank Celestia you’re ok. We thought you might’a bought the farm for a minute there.”

Meanwhile, Fluttershy looked like she was about to cry. She looked to the gray mare with a mixture of sadness and relief in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sparkplug. I… I tried to catch you, but I wasn't fast enough to reach both of you.”

“It’s ok. The important thing is we’re not hurt… for the most part.” Sparkplug rubbed the back of her head, where a bruise was surely forming, and looked up.

Strangely, there was no hole in the ceiling as she expected. There was just a blank stone face to match the unfurnished corridor around her, being illuminated only by the beam from Applejack’s vest-mounted flashlight.

“What happened? I thought we fell.” She squinted, unsure if she hit her head harder than she thought.

“We did. The hole just closed up behind us.” Applejack said. She stared at the ceiling, her ears drooping as she shifted her troubled thoughts to the others. “I sure hope everyone else made it through ok.”

Fluttershy perked up suddenly. “Ooh! See if you can reach them with the spell!”

“Right…” Sparkplug said, a bit surprised that she didn’t think of that herself. Then again, she was possibly concussed.

The pair watched as the gray mare lifted a hoof to her ear. A comforting blue aura appeared, at least indicating that the spell had some effect. They were honestly expecting some sort of magic to cancel it out entirely with how their luck was going.

“This is Sparkplug… Can anyone hear me?” Sparkplug asked.

Almost immediately, there was a slew of voices in her head that nearly made her flinch.

“Sparkplug!” Pinkie’s voice exclaimed eagerly.

A relieved sigh that sounded like it came from Twilight followed shortly after. “Thank goodness. Are you guys ok?”

“Yeah… We’re all good down here… wherever here is.” Sparkplug trailed off nervously as she shifted her eyes down a dark corridor in front of them. They were butted up against a wall, with nowhere else to go.

“What do you see?” Glimmer Shine asked.

“Uh, other than a creepy dark hallway, not much.” Sparkplug replied.

“Yeah… I’m starting to think creepy dark hallways are a theme with this place.” Shining Armor added.

After a moment, Luna spoke. “It is good to know that you are unharmed, Sparkplug. We’ve all been separated it seems. I’m afraid the only thing you can do right now is press onward wherever you are and try to meet up with us later.”

“Oh, and stay in touch! You’re the only one over there hooked up to the spell, so be sure and let us know if you’re in trouble!” Sunspot added, a bit concerned. This in turn made Sparkplug very concerned.

“Yeah… thanks, guys. No pressure or anything.” Sparkplug said before dropping her hoof and sighing. She looked to her two companions, who were eager to know how their friends were doing and what to do next.

“Well?” Applejack goaded.

“Everyone’s fine… at least as far as I could tell.” Sparkplug said.

“So… w-what do we do now?” Fluttershy asked, turning and shrinking back a bit as she shifted focus to the hallway ahead.

Sparkplug stood up and flicked on her own flashlight, providing them two beams of light to work with. “Well… the general consensus seemed to be keep calm and carry on, so let’s try that.”

Applejack nodded with a nervous smile. “Right… keep calm. Sounds easy enough.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll be dropping that part soon.” Sparkplug swallowed and psyched herself up as she pulled out her dagger and faced ahead. “For now, let’s just carry on.”

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment as her friends started walking away. She contemplated staying where she was, but then quickly realized that she would be left in total darkness, so she followed along.

As they walked, their echoing hoofsteps the only sound to be heard in the all-encompassing darkness, they passed by and through various rooms and intersections.

The general aesthetic of the place resembled what they remembered walking through the last time they were in the castle underbelly. Mostly spacious corridors, with a few intermittent stone arches for structural integrity, and a seemingly random mixture of doors versus open doorways.

However, the condition of the building seemed far newer than before. They could actually make out the smooth masonwork of the floor, rather than the rough and dirty mess they expected. It was almost like they were walking through the castle halls around the time they were first built.

Something also felt off about the space. There was a subtle tickle at the back of their necks, a barely noticeable feeling in their guts that told them that they weren’t alone, despite how empty every room seemed. Fluttershy found herself checking behind herself often, which she usually would have felt bad for, except that her two friends were doing it too.

Eventually, the route they had been following for a few minutes came out into a larger room of sorts. The ceiling was concave all the way down its length. There were a few wood and iron devices scattered around, with grates in the floor next to them with dried blood staining all around their surface.

“Ulgh… I thought I smelled something.” Sparkplug covered her face with a foreleg as they walked by.

Fluttershy stared at one of the wooden tables. Judging from the smaller iron shackles bolted off to the sides of the main section, it seemed to be meant for a creature with wings. As she pictured herself being strapped into the horrid device, her mind flashed back to a similar experience from her past. One that she had hoped to forget.

Seeing a distant stare in the timid pegasus’ trembling eyes, Applejack set a hoof on her back and led her away. “Try not to think about it, sugarcube.”

“This place is horrible,” Fluttershy said, lingering on her troubled thoughts for a moment before pushing them aside.

Sparkplug started to say something to offer her friend some comfort when she paused abruptly. The faint smell of copper had intensified, but it seemed to have other elements to it as well, like rotten eggs.

Along with this surge of sickening smells, she rotated her ears to catch a faint wet sound. It was hard to make out, but it almost sounded like the sloshing of liquid. A cold chill went down her neck, and she spun around.

The beam from her flashlight revealed nothing but the door they just came from, and another grate on the floor with more blood draining into it.

“Somethin’ wrong?” Applejack’s voice brought the gray mare out of her paranoid stare. She turned to see her two friends looking at her warily.

Sparkplug checked the area one last time. Perhaps it was only her imagination. “No… it’s nothing.” She said, though her stare lingered despite her words. Finally, she let out a tense exhale and turned to walk ahead. “Let’s keep moving. This place is giving me the creeps.”

“I hear ya there.” Applejack said, suppressing the shiver that came as she gave some thought to their dark surroundings. Both she and Fluttershy quickly joined their friend in moving along. The sooner they found the others, the sooner they could get out of the eerie halls.

Upstairs, or rather, on the main floor, Twilight and her group were attempting to find their way in their new surroundings.

Whatever changes had been made to the castle, it didn’t entirely seem like a completely new space. Every once in a while, they would find a familiar landmark in the form of a room they remembered passing last time, or a fixed version of a particularly unique decoration. It seemed as though the old castle was still here, there were just new sections grafted in between the real rooms.

An observation that was all but confirmed as they suddenly found the courtyard.

The familiar openings out into the snowy space, along with the exterior of the castle and the night sky above, seemed relatively normal. Some of the hallways around them were longer and led to different places, but they could see where the unfamiliar ended and the similar began.

“This place again?” Rarity noted curiously. She looked off to the left, where she could see through the arched openings from the courtyard into more hallways. “Does that mean the stairs are that way?”

“Maybe,” Twilight said before sighing, “but there’s no telling now. Even if it is in the same general direction, there could be any number of new areas between here and there.”

“Well, we aren’t going to find out by just standing here,” Glitterball said. Nobody could find any objections to that, so they started moving again.

Around the outside of the courtyard, skirting familiar territory as much as they could, they followed what used to be the closest way to the stairs.

A few minutes later, they quickly realized that their wishful thinking wasn't going to pay off just yet. They had turned down the hallway to the left like they were supposed to, but instead of finding the stairs, they just found a longer path.

Now it was anyone’s guess as to where they were meant to go, but they tried to stick to the direction that would presumably lead them to the corner of the building.

As they made another turn and walked past an intersection, Rarity suddenly froze as she heard a sharp click and felt something sink beneath her hoof. Trailing her eyes down, her heart sank as well as she noticed some faint red light and a menacing hum coming from under a few stones directly in front of her.

“Umm…” She swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry and her mouth trembling as she tried to vocalize. “You guys?”

Twilight, Shining, and Glitterball stopped and turned to see the white mare just standing at the mouth of the intersection. However, the genuine fear in her eyes and her stiff form was enough to communicate that something was amiss.

“What’s wrong, Rarity?” Twilight stepped forward until Rarity held her other hoof out to stop her.

“Stay back.” Rarity said gravely before looking back down to the faint glow. “I… I-I seem to have stepped on something.”

Around this time, the others looked down and noticed the faint glow, as well as the low hum. They could also see that the piece of stone the unicorn was stepping on had sunk into the floor a good couple of inches.

“Oh no…” Twilight darted her eyes between the light on the floor and her friend. She started to approach more cautiously when Glitterball held a hoof out to stop her.

Glitter looked to the two siblings, her eyes holding a serious air behind her concern. “Twilight, Shining, get back.” She instructed before looking ahead at Rarity and putting on as much of a reassuring expression as she could. “Don’t move, Rarity. I’m going to help you.”

Rarity chuckled nervously, “I hadn’t planned on it, darling.”

“Glitter… are you sure about this?” Shining asked hesitantly. From the look of it, Rarity had just walked into a trap, and as much as he didn’t want her to get hurt, he didn’t want Glitter to trigger it when she was close either.

“I’m sure we don’t need three ponies treading around this thing,” Glitterball replied without even turning around. Instead, she slowly and cautiously approached the pinned unicorn, keeping her eyes focused on the floor in front of her in between looking up to Rarity.

As the vested mare approached, Rarity felt her muscles tense slightly as she anticipated getting killed instantly, burned alive, or whatever effect this trap had in store. Thankfully, Glitter was incredibly tactful as she stopped just before the stones where the light was coming from and crouched down.

Lighting up her horn, Glitter gently tugged at one of the stones on top of the light. As she expected from appearances, the loose stone lifted up and away, revealing the last thing she wanted to see so close to a friend. A glowing magical symbol.

This one was smaller than the one they found in the entry hall, and there was a small glowing line connecting the outer edge to the stone Rarity was stepping on.

“Is that as bad as it looks?” Rarity asked. “Because… it looks pretty bad.”

“Talk to us, Glitter. What is it?” Twilight leaned forward, but she couldn’t get a good view of whatever was going on.

Glitterball exhaled slowly and bit her lip as she stared at the symbol. What Raincloud said earlier was true. Most of the glyphs that made up the symbol were unrecognizable to her or anyone else not familiar with blood magic. However, there was one very prominent glyph in the center that she knew.

It simply translated as ‘fire’.

“It’s another symbol… I think it’s hooked up like a tripwire. If she lifts her hoof, it triggers.” Glitter explained, unable to hide the tenseness in her voice.

“Triggers what?” Shining asked, though part of him didn’t want to find out.

Glitter didn’t answer for a few moments. Rarity could see her eyes darting back and forth in rapid thought.

“Let’s not worry about that right now.” Glitter said while slowly but diligently lifting a hoof and digging into a pocket on her vest. Looking up to the unicorn in front of her, she flashed a smile that didn’t reach her eyes before producing a small vial, not too dissimilar from the rest of the charms her team used. “Rarity… I need you to hold very still. I’m going to try to disarm this thing.”

Rarity started to nod but decided against it. “R-right… still. I can do that.” She said, making every effort not to move a muscle. She wasn't even looking down at Glitter or the veritable bomb she was stepping on.

Twilight and Shining watched as Glitterball carefully took the vial in her hoof and lifted it into her corona. Twilight vaguely remembered seeing the charm before. It had a rod going through the center of its glass casing, surrounded by a slimy green liquid and connected to a hollow-tipped spike at the cap.

“What is that?” Twilight asked.

“It’s our spell breaker.” Glitter explained. “It should hopefully cancel out whatever magical energies are fueling this symbol.”

Twilight nodded in remembrance. “Oh… that’s right. I forgot you guys had those.”

“Just be careful.” Shining cautioned, a worried cringe on his face.

“I haven’t gotten this far by being reckless.” Glitter remarked, though as she started to move, she paused and processed a wave of fear and dread before shaking her head and sighing. Then, she got to work.

Rarity chanced looking down, taking pains to be slow and gentle so as to not disturb her hoof or the pressure plate it was standing on. She saw Glitterball in a deep focus, gently lowering the tip of the vial toward the symbol.

Glitter trailed the small charm in the air just above the symbol, seemingly trying to figure out the best place to actually press it down without triggering whatever spell was attached to the symbol. Finally, after finding a spot that seemed better than the rest, she inhaled sharply and held her breath before lowering the tip of the vial.

Rarity flinched her eyes shut and looked away as the spiked tip of the charm made contact with the stone floor within the symbol. Meanwhile, Twilight and Shining watched with feverish focus.

After applying sufficient pressure, the green liquid inside the vial started glowing. Soon after, a small shockwave of air and a magical chime exploded out in a circle, washing over the surface of the symbol.

Much to Glitter’s relief, the ominous red glow of the symbol blinked out as the shockwave dissipated. However, her expression fell back into dismay as she watched the glow return in mere moments.

“Dang it…” She cursed under her breath.

“What is it?” Rarity asked, still clenching her eyes shut nervously. “Did it work?”

Glitter stood up and put the useless vial back into the pocket she got it from. “No, it didn’t.” She huffed, rubbing a hoof along her forehead and tensing up with reluctant fear. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but I think I’m going to have to disable it with my magic.”

“You can do that?” Shining Armor lifted his brows in surprise.

“If it’s anything like the symbols Raven Feather used, a unicorn can interact with the flow of magic within it.” Twilight explained before looking ahead with soft eyes. “But if she makes one change in the wrong place, it could trigger it… or make it worse.”

A slight whine drew their attention up to Rarity, who was not having a good time. “I know I just said dying isn’t so bad, but I really don’t want to die here!”

“You’re not going to die, Rarity. Not any time soon.” Shining said, though his words didn’t seem to have much effect. “Hey, look at us. You’re going to be fine.”

Rarity took a steady breath as she looked at her friends. However, she couldn’t suppress all of the fear she felt. “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one standing on a death trap.”

Suddenly, Twilight steeled her expression and started to move forward. “I’ll help. Maybe we can-”

“No!” Glitterball insisted, holding a hoof out to the purple mare.

Twilight paused mid-step as she saw Glitter’s face. There was fear behind her eyes, but there was also determination. “But, Glitter!”

“I can do this.” Glitter said, taking a few calming breaths of her own. “You two need to keep your distance. If this thing does go off, there’s no need for all of us to die.”

“She’s right, Twilight.” Rarity said. Twilight was surprised to look up and see her friend wearing a somewhat calm expression. “If you were in my position, would you want us to risk ourselves for you?”

Twilight exhaled tensely, her eyes starting to shimmer. “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

“And who am I? The element of fairness?” Rarity jested, flashing her friends a genuine smile before turning to Glitterball. “Do whatever you need to do, darling. I trust you.”

Somehow, that didn’t make Glitter feel any better.

With the immense weight of both her and Rarity’s lives on her shoulders, Glitterball steadied herself before lighting her horn and casting her influence into the symbol.

Almost immediately, she could feel the web of magical energies that formed the inner workings of the spell behind the symbol. She could also feel how elegantly crafted it was, and that was immediately terrifying to her. Dusk knew his way around the art of transcribing magic through physical mediums.

The tensest minutes of their lives went by as they watched Glitterball trying to work herself toward understanding every minute thread of energy and what it did. They understood why she wanted to take things slow. One false move and the symbol wouldn’t be the only source of blood stained onto the floor.

Then, she brightened her expression ever so slightly. “Hold on… I think I’ve got it.”

“You do?” Rarity asked.

The vested mare nodded without looking up from her work. Her horn’s glow intensified briefly, and a spot on the symbol lit up blue as her aura interacted with it. “Yeah… yeah… just let me-”

Then, there was a disconcerting sound as Glitter broke something within the symbol. However, instead of the reaction she was expecting, the symbol glowed brighter and brighter, painting both their snow-white forms in red.

Everything slowed to a crawl as both mares realized in an instant what was about to happen. They were powerless to stop it. Glitter’s jaw dropped open and her pupils shrank, while Rarity started to flinch.

Then, they both felt something crash into them as both Twilight and Shining Armor jumped forward, knocking them to the floor. No sooner did they hit the stone than a near-deafening explosion rang out as fire consumed the area.

Glitter held her hooves tightly over her ears and tensed up. Strangely, however, no pain came. And as she looked up, she realized why.

While Shining Armor was trying to shield both her and Rarity with his body, Twilight had her horn lit up and was projecting a forcefield around them. The outside of the magenta bubble was awash with thick smoke.

Twilight panted slightly, either from adrenaline or the strain of holding a barrier against such fiery fury. She looked over to the crumpled heap the other three were in behind her with worried eyes. “Is everyone ok?”

Shining Armor picked himself up off of Rarity, trying not to hurt her any more than he already may have. “Are you ok?”

“Yes…” Rarity blinked, still a bit stunned that she had survived.

Shining then turned to Glitterball. “You ok, Glitter?”

She didn’t answer for the longest time but eventually gave a shaky nod as she was still staring ahead at the fading smoke and scorch marks.

Seeing how all her friends were safe and the danger had passed, Twilight deflated slightly and let her shield drop. “Phew…”

Then, everyone but Rarity heard the familiar voice of Celestia in their ears.

“We just heard an explosion. Is everyone alright?” She asked, voice laced with concern.

Shining chuckled a bit, perhaps feeling a little hysterical, and lifted a hoof to his ear. “Yeah… we’re good. As a side note, everyone watch where you’re stepping and be on the lookout for traps.”

“Holy cow…” Sparkplug chimed in.

“Great. As if this place couldn’t get worse.” Sunspot added.

After a few more moments with no further words from any of their friends, Shining dropped his hoof and got back to all fours before helping Rarity up.

“Thank you for saving us, Twilight. I thought for sure that was it.” Rarity said.

Twilight returned her friend’s smile. “You might not be the element of fairness, but I’m the element of… not letting my friends get blown up.” She tittered awkwardly. “That sounded better in my head.”

Meanwhile, while everyone seemed to be in high spirits, Glitterball was anything but. She turned to the white mare, a stunned look in her eyes and mouth agape. “Rarity… I’m so sorry. I… I-”

Rarity suddenly reached forward and hugged the vested mare, cutting her off. “Thank you so much.” She smiled warmly as she pulled back.

Glitterball was dumbfounded as she saw such a reaction from the unicorn. Rarity wasn't even upset. “But… I-I don’t understand. I almost got you killed.”

“You did your best… and if you didn’t try, I very well could have gotten killed.” Rarity stated. Seeing her friend still wearing a bit of a frown, she placed a hoof on one of Glitter’s forelegs. “Try not to dwell on what went wrong, darling. It can stop you from doing something right.”

Glitterball seemed hesitant to accept the white mare’s words, but eventually, she softened her features. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Soon after, the group of unicorns dusted themselves off and pressed forward. This time, however, all of them were being mindful of where they stepped.

Another few minutes of walking later, Shining slowed to a halt as they rounded a corner. Gradually, Twilight and the others stopped as well. They briefly wondered what had caught the stallion’s attention, when they suddenly noticed what he had already spotted.

Twilight gasped eagerly, “The stairs!”

Sure enough, there they were. The familiar cramped staircase that looped back on itself stood before them, offering them a path up or down.

“It’s about time.” Glitterball sighed with relief. “I was starting to wonder if we would ever find them.”

“Ye of little faith.” Rarity said.

Shining walked up to the mouth of the stairs and paused. He eyed between the two paths available to them with a sense of doubt in his eyes. “Is there any way we can narrow down which way to go? I don’t want to waste any time.”

“Well… I could try my locator,” Glitter suggested, already reaching for the vial in question, “but there’s no telling if it will even work.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Twilight said.

The others watched as Glitterball separated herself from them a short ways. She then clicked the bottom of the vial, causing the sand inside to flash red a few times like a shifting light display before returning to a neutral state.

Glitter slowly waved the vial around, and much to her surprise, the sand toward the tip lit up in a few places. “Well, I’ll be.”

“That’s good, right?” Rarity asked. Generally, the light coming on usually meant that it was working.

Glitter still seemed a bit discouraged. “Technically, yes. It’s working, but I’m getting too many readings here. It’s probably from the princesses and everyone else.” She explained. Practically everywhere she pointed at eye level and at the floor yielded some sort of reading. There were so many in close proximity that sometimes the whole vial would light up from the overlapping signals.

Then, as she pointed it up, the light shrank back to the tip and she paused.

“Hello…” She said, a smile slowly building on her face as she lifted her other hoof to her ear and triggered the communication spell. “Princess, have you or anyone else made it upstairs yet?” She asked.

After a moment, a response came.

“No. We’re still on the ground floor. And unless anything has changed, I believe everyone else is still downstairs. Am I right?” Celestia asked to clarify.

“Yep! Still down here.” Pinkie reported. At least she was still chipper wherever she and the two pegasi were.

“As much as I want to say otherwise, we’re still in the basement.” Sparkplug said, sounding very much tired of being in her current surroundings.

“Believe me, you’ll hear me jumping for joy when we make it out of this dump,” Sunspot added.

Despite her sympathetic feelings for her friends, Glitter pumped her foreleg excitedly. “Yes!” She mouthed, not wanting anyone to hear her.

“Have you found something, Glitterball?” Luna asked, perhaps sensing the raw enthusiasm radiating off the unicorn.

Glitter settled her excess excitement, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she responded. “I think we just found where Cadence and the girls are.”

“What?!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock, “That’s great, Glitter!”

“Well done,” Celestia added, more than a touch of happiness bleeding through her usual refinement.

“Uh… thanks. We’ll update you once we find them.” Glitter explained before dropping her hoof and turning to her friends. Understandably, they were excited as well.

“Do you really think that’s them?” Shining asked, looking to the glowing sand in the white mare’s vial and then back at the stairs eagerly.

“Everyone else is downstairs, and Dusk and the other vampires don’t give off heat or life signs. They’re the only ones it could be.” Glitterball said.

Twilight took the first couple of steps up before pausing and gesturing for the others to follow. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get up there!” She said before making her way up the stairs.

Not wanting the purple mare to be alone, Glitterball and Rarity hurried up after her.

Shining Armor lingered for just a moment. He stared up at the ceiling, toward where the reading was coming from, and steeled his expression.

“Hold on, girls. We’re coming.”

And with that, he rushed up after the three mares.