Turmoil Rising

by JFT

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, My Little Pony Comic, Grogar, Tirek, Mystery, Queen Chrysalis, My Little Pony: The Movie, Adventure, Zecora, Main 6
Length: 496364

Princess Twilight Sparkle, the new ruler of Equestria, and her friends embark on a grand adventure, discovering unsettling truth about their world, while familiar evil faces are recruited by an ancient darkness.

Twilight Sparkle rules Equestria as the new sole monarch.
Three years have passed since her coronation and the kingdom had enjoyed a time of relative peace under her watchful eye, while she and the rest of her friends went on to live their own separate lives without losing contact or forgetting their friendship.

But even with everything running smoothly, in the world of light there will always be a shadow that lurks beneath. The ancient darkness of Equestria, which was believed to be a little more than a fairy tale and known only by those whose lifetime transcends the Two Sisters, is about to re-emerge and has found itself agents through whom to execute its will.

Will the power of friendship be enough to stop the darkness, when there is no light to take its place?

Art cover done by Sky.

Published 2021-03-04 12:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2025-02-08 22:43:22 UTC

Chapter 2: A Restless Day

The mess had to be cleaned up. The invasion of rock elementals had been thwarted, but what was left of them littered the streets, and collateral damage was inflicted upon the infrastructure. The workers came out and did their job, while the royal guards who were injured marched to the infirmary.

Spike walked down the street, his wing compressed with an ice bag as he had just come back to find the guard captain reporting to the princess. He saluted her, then walked away as he joined his men, while the dragon took his place at her side.

“I escorted Flash to the medic and he said he’s gonna be fine. For somepony, who’s not an alicorn princess he sure is holding himself together well after a few hundred years.” He smiled.

But he realized his words have fallen on deaf ears, as Twilight’s sight has simply trailed away as if something else was on her mind.

“Are you still thinking about what happened in the garden?”

“Still?!” She was roused with those words. “Spike, my actions just ended somepony! Any chance of possible future they had is gone now!”

“Wait… what do you mean by “possible future”?”

“Spike, don’t you get it? Discord spent hundreds of years trapped in stone after Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony on him. Sure, things he did even after he managed to escape were horrible, but he eventually changed. He CHOSE to change because he was given a second chance. I was hoping…!” She finally stopped herself, took a deep breath, and exhaled before continuing. “I was hoping that over time, once they had a period to cool off, that maybe even they would be able to turn around as well.”

“No offense, Twilight. I mean, I could understand if you were just talking about Cozy Glow and Tirek, but Queen Chrysalis? I told you, she was a monster. She was offered a better, easier way and she refused it for the sake of revenge.”

“But why Spike? Other changelings were so eagerly willing to change their ways, why couldn’t the one who was leading them from the beginning too?”

The little dragon could hear the desperation in the tone of her voice, yet he knew he couldn’t give her a satisfying answer. “I... I don’t know Twilight. I guess someponies just don't want to change.”

Sense of dejection fell over them. The damage was done and there was no coming back from it.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle!” a sophisticated voice broke the sense of depression in the air.

From the passing crowd, a white unicorn emerged; his blue mane finely combed, tiny mustache resting above his lips, a monocle in one eye, wearing a finely tailored suit and his cutie mark presenting three crowns.

“Fancy Pants!”

“Good morning, young mister dragon,” he said, before facing the Princess and nodding. “Your Majesty.”

“Fancy Pants, I wish we could’ve met under better circumstances,” Twilight somberly said.

“Yes, a very dreadful business that was.” He pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned his monocle. “Can’t say I fancy the repair cost that’s going to take to fix all of the damaged infrastructures. But anyway, regarding the noble’s meeting today-”

“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll join at the designated time… despite the current setbacks on the rest of the schedule.”

“Yes, about that… I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone it.”

“Postpone? Why?” Twilight questioned.

The white unicorn pointed to the side of the street. The structure where Twilight had previous meetings with the rest of the nobles had the front caved in, and in her distress, Twilight hasn’t even noticed it, even after the captain of the guard reported it to her.

“I… I’m sorry, Fancy Pants.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Your Highness. This matter was clearly out of our hooves.”

“I’ve been hearing that all day,” she muttered under her breath.

“In any case, considering the current situation we’ll have to postpone the meeting until tomorrow so we can find an alternate location.”

“Wait, are you saying our meeting today is canceled?” She looked at him in surprise.

“To put it bluntly: yes. Now, if you excuse me, I must depart. I’ve another meeting at this very moment and I’m going to be late myself. You’ll receive further communications from me tomorrow. Good day, Your Majesty.” He nodded and trotted past the two.

“Well… that just threw our schedule out the window, ” Spike grumbled.

Twilight thought for a moment. “Wait a minute, Spike. If the meeting with Fancy is canceled for today, that means we’ve just shaved at least 2 hours off of our schedule.”

“Yeah, and it’ll be replaced sometime tomorrow, which means I’ll have to rewrite the whole thing to keep track of it,” he complained.

“Spike, that’s not the point.”

“So, what is then?”

“If we got time to spare today, it means I can still go and visit Zecora for medical advice!” A grin appeared on her face.

Finally, something was going her way today.

“Well, that’s nice and all, but there’s just one problem,” the dragon intervened, “with all that’s happened just now... we’ve fallen almost two hours behind schedule.”

Twilight looked at her companion with a grimace and wide-open eyes. Spike suddenly felt the loss of gravity under his feet as Twilight lifted him off the ground and ran off back to the castle in haste.

Hours have passed in the dark tunnel. Chrysalis didn’t care. Her eyes were used to seeing in the dark, but the end was nowhere in sight. That thought was soon replaced with another, however, one that’s been eating away at her for some time: once she finally comes out, what will she do? Where will she go?

Her hive, her own swarm, turned against their own nature, against HER, the queen of their kind.
A deep-rooted hatred grew in place to fill the emptiness, hatred for a group of ponies from one insignificant village. But after what happened, after she and the other two were empowered by Grogar’s Bewitching Bell, how easily they were still defeated and immobilized despite all that power, now that she’s all alone again… what can she do?

Suddenly she heard a sound. It was something small. Numerous. It almost sounded like delicate wings grinding against the cortex of a-

Her attention was grabbed. She recognized that sound all too well. It was the sound she usually heard within her own hive, when juvenile hatchings were running through, chasing one another. She hastened her steps. It may have been a miracle, but some of her changelings may have been away from the hive when it was corrupted and have managed to survive without being influenced. Finally, no more talking to oneself or trying to make convincing wooden statues to compensate for lack of company.

She finally saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel. There were shadows on the side at the exit, strange bristling shapes reflected on it. The sound grew louder. She was finally there. She could finally salvage a small semblance of sanity that was left in her.

And just as it came, the sound disappeared. Chrysalis’ hopes were dashed. Whatever was making the sound was not there, and it turned out that the shadow imagery on the wall was simply leaves rustling in the wind. What she arrived into was a dark cavern, with a single crack of light coming from the ceiling. She was soon taken aback however as she recognized this place. There was a pool from which the strange magical substance was flowing into the chasm from whence she came. Her wings finally took flight and carried her over. Sitting in the middle of this small lake was a tree, now long since decayed and withered over countless eons. She landed on its roots and ran her hoof near the giant gaping hole in its trunk.

There was no denying it. Centuries may have passed, but she still remembered. This was the birthplace of the changelings, a place where she and her kind emerge into the world so long ago.

She was overcome by a sense of melancholy, as the irony was not alien to her. The first of the changelings returned to her place of origin as the last of her kind. All she had left now was a decrepit wooden husk to remind her how far her kind had fallen. Drained and exhausted she leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes, listening to the hollow tree for stories of ages past, of the glories achieved and forgotten, even if it would only temporarily take her mind out of the pit of misery.

Chrysalis.

Her ears perked. It might have been the wind.

Chrysalis.

Her eyes shot open. That was undoubtedly a whisper, but she couldn’t point to where it came from.

Chrysalis.

She finally caught it. The whisper came from the gaping hole. But how? Trees don’t talk. And even if they did, this one was already dead. What could it possibly tell her? She gazed into the hole in the tree trunk, trying to peer deep into the darkness. Suddenly, a gust shot out of the hole and into her face, her vision blurred and everything became dark.

She saw a blood-red gemstone, encased in an amulet, shaped like an alicorn.

The scene shifted, in its place is now a small wooden chest.

It shifted again, and she saw a hovel carved into the trunk of a tree.

Once more, and she now saw the landscape. A vast forest, a small village on the far edge of it and in the far distance, built into the mountainside, a city.

Chrysalis snapped out of her trance. She fell asleep by the side of the tree trunk and how long has passed it became obvious as the light from above the crack in the cavern was already gone. It took her a moment to collect herself. Either her sanity has finally been brought over the edge of madness or there was a meaning behind all of it. She still didn’t understand what it’s supposed to mean, but she did recognize the location. The city carved into the mountainside was Canterlot and the small village Ponyville, but they were obviously not the targets.

The Everfree Forest. Whatever that vision was, it wanted her to find the strange medallion, but for what purpose? What’s a piece of jewelry going to do for the Queen of Changelings? But that’s an answer she would not get… at least not unless she acted upon it. It’s not like she had any other goals at this point, at the very least it would sate her curiosity.

“Twilight, slow down!” Spike flailed as he got dragged along.

The rest of the day has been absolutely hectic. In her attempt to fill the gap as quickly as possible to make up for a loss of time, Twilight has been dashing back and forth between tasks and poor Spike kept getting picked up without prior notice at every turn. By the time the afternoon hit, the little dragon was in a state of vertigo. If he had any breakfast, he was pretty sure he’d fail to hold it down.

“Done!” the alicorn princess announced as she signed the last document. “That’s all for the early afternoon checklist, right Spike?”

The dragon’s claw rose from a pile of paper that’s been tipped off the table. “… check.”

“Alright, so how much time have we salvaged?” she asked him impatiently.

“Well,” he climbed out of the pile, “we managed to shave off at least ten minutes off each task, adding on top of that all the messes we left behind, re-writes of botched documents, hastily solved disputes, sped up public appearances, etc. Which means we’ve saved about… twenty minutes.”

“PERFECT!” she said in a hectic tone. “That’s more than enough time left to get to Zecora and back for the late afternoon schedule.”

As she trotted across the room, Spike stopped her. “Wait Twilight. Shouldn’t we instead use that time to have lunch instead? Neither of us had any breakfast and we skipped it on our original schedule to work overtime as well.”

“You don’t have to tag along, Spike. Feel free to help yourself while I’m away. Toddles!” and with that, she teleported away without delay.

The little dragon was left all alone.

“I’m really worried about you, Twilight…” he told himself and just as he did, his stomach rumbled.

She may be able to subject herself to lack of food, but that didn’t mean he had to in her absence. So, without delay, he walked off to the castle’s kitchen. He felt cravings for some rubies.

In a flash of purple, Twilight found herself on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. She would have to go the rest of the way on foot; trying to teleport directly to the zebra’s hovel would’ve been unwise as there was no telling where she would end up if she tried to, or what monster she would enrage with her sudden appearance.

She galloped off. Time was growing short so she couldn’t get distracted by anything. Her sight went into tunnel vision as she stuck directly to the trail, ignoring her surroundings completely. Yet even when she deafened out all the noise and limited the vision around her, she could still feel a distinct sense of dread of this place; the creeping darkness, the evil eyes looking at every turn, the sensation of sinister forces lurking in the forgotten shadows. No, she had to ignore them, she didn’t have time to be scared even for a moment and besides, by now she should’ve already reached-

BAM!

Dull pain echoed in her head. Her vision became so skewed from being focused on the trail that she had lost her senses and forgot that she was already here, bashing her head against the zebra’s treehouse. She shrugged it off and went to knock on the door.

A few moments passed, and there was no response. She started tapping against the door furiously in hopes that somebody would open it, but it didn’t help and she was running out of time.

“ZECORA!” she yelled. “It’s Twilight Sparkle! I NEED YOUR HELP!”

“Had you been a stranger at my door, I would have caused an uproar.”

The princess stopped and turned her head to face the voice’s owner. Zecora stood behind her with a bag of herbs, her face not showing an ounce of amusement.

Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry.”

The healer opened the door of her hovel and a strong smell burst out. While she walked in, the princess followed soon, trying to not be intrusive after the display she just put on, but she lost her train of thought as the fragrance hung in the air; it was pleasing and inviting, coming from the cauldron that stood in the middle of her home.

“That smells so nice… Is that another of your healing brews, Zecora?”

“A brew, yes it's true. I trotted off in haste so I might add to taste...” She pulled out an herb from her bag and tossed it into the cauldron, before grabbing a ladle and beginning to stir. “Goldenseal for bitterness, without it there's no happiness, which does away with tiredness. This is not a remedy brew, but it is actually a stew.”

That was an edge pushed too far. The feedback from the lack of nourishment finally got to her as the added herb to the cauldron did the trick and the aroma of the soup became incredibly enticing; her nostrils flared, her iris expanded and she was holding back her mouth to be agape as she began to drool slightly.

“Now, tell me what exactly has given you the crunch...“ She took a quick sip to check if it was just right, only to finally notice her guest drooling all over. “... unless you’d be willing to stay for lunch?”

Twilight shook her head, snapping out of the trance.

“What? Me? Pfff. Nah. I’m not that hungry. Besides, this is more important than-“ her words were interrupted and betrayed by a sudden rumbling sound coming from her belly; the charade was over. “Oh, who am I kidding. I’m starving.”

The zebra giggled in response.

Twilight took a sip. The warm broth from the cauldron went down with ease as the stomach rumble was finally silenced, its unease replaced by a sense of fulfillment and restored vigor. She needed that.

She exhaled in satisfaction. “Thank you, Zecora.”

“Fret not, princess, a visitor is welcome here, after far they have trot.” She put her herb bag away after emptying it. “Though I believe you're heavy with displeasure. Might I help you in any possible measure?”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I haven’t been sleeping too well lately, Zecora. For the last two weeks, I’ve been having nightmares… Or rather the same nightmare. I went to all the doctors in Canterlot, they gave me the same diagnosis and prescription, but none of them worked. You’re the last one I could think of that could help me.”

“Then we best start from square one and we’ll see what can be done. This nightmare that gives you the fright, why don’t you describe it to me, so we can make it right,” the zebra asked as she rummaged through a potion pantry.

“Well… It starts with me raising the sun. Then suddenly darkness raises from the earth and I’m not able to defeat it on my own. And then my friends come and we managed to push it back. But…” she paused for a moment, “then there’s this voice.”

“A voice?” The healer’s attention was piqued.

“A sinister angry voice coming from the darkness,” she continued. “The magic of friendship is not stopping it any longer and then THEY appear. Five faces: one has the look of spite on it, the second is very angry, the third is intimidating, the fourth is crying and the fifth one… well, to be honest, I don’t know, it’s like a shadow hiding among others. The darkness then tears my friends away from me and I become surrounded by it, their voices taunting me. The fifth face then faces me directly and asks "what makes me think I’m better" and out of nowhere a sixth face appears; it’s bigger than the rest, it absorbs them all into itself and then leaps at me… And that’s when I normally wake up… Zecora?”

Twilight noticed then that the zebra has been standing by the pantry for a long time and hasn’t moved at all. Did something she said jog her memory?

“Zecora?” she tried to get her attention.

The healer finally turned to face her. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I’m afraid there’s not much I can do…”

“I see…” She felt despondent by her blunt response. “You were the last one who could help me- “

“Let me finish what I have to say,” the zebra interrupted her. “There’s not much I can do right away, but I can perform a diagnosis. Yet to do that it is specific ingredients I require, some of which on my own will be difficult to acquire.”

“Are you asking me to help you… to help me?”

Zecora nodded. “Five ingredients I need for this task, and four of them I can deal without you to ask, but the fifth one will be tricky and folly to try, without the help of pegasi.”

“Pegasi? What kind of ingredient do you need that would require help from a pegasus?” Twilight asked.

As she did, Zecora picked a piece of charcoal and scribbled something on a piece of paper, before she handed it over to the princess. One simple thing was drawn on it.

“You want me to get you… a storm cloud?”

“If the bolts aren't willing, one caught in a bottle is also appealing.”

She was confused for a moment, but she was sure the zebra knew what she was doing.

“I’ll try to get it first thing in the morning, Zecora. Thank you,” Twilight told her.

The zebra smiled. “For now, our business is done, so shouldn't you be gone? Others to meet, Princess, hurry and greet.”

Then panic came over Twilight again. In the process of calming down, she’s forgotten the time and she was going to be late for the other tasks back at the castle.

“ThanksZecoragottago!” she yelped in one breath and in the flash of magic she teleported away, while the zebra’s nostrils flared in frustration when she realized Twilight took her soup bowl with her.

Silence fell over the healer’s hovel, one that was disturbed only by the fire in the pit below the cauldron. Now that her patient was gone thoughts raced through her mind. The nightmare she described to her… Zecora bore witness to something similar, but not here, not now. Her memory took her to a different time and place.

A lone little zebra stood within a white magical circle and outside of it, a dark force was pressing forth. And as the circle weakened, a sinister voice began to bear down on her.

ACCEPT US… ONLY THEN CAN WE HELP YOU. REFUSE… AND YOU WILL BE ALL ALONE IN THE END.

She cried. She cried for somebody to save her from the encroaching darkness of despair.

And then there was a light that engulfed everything.

She returned back to the present with her thoughts. It’s unlikely those things were related in any way. The darkness she witnessed was far, far away from her new home. But still, she had to be sure there was no correlation between the two. She took her bag out again. Those ingredients won’t gather themselves.

Spike walked up and down outside the castle’s meeting room, waiting for his companion to return, concerns flowing through his mind; she didn’t eat anything, she’s probably mentally exhausted and who knows if something happened to her on the way through the Everfree Forest.

POOF!

In a flash of purple light, the princess teleported herself right in front of the dragon, startling him.

“Twilight, where have you been?! The delegates from Baltimere are already waiting inside and… what’s that?”

Twilight looked at him in confusion and then blushed in embarrassment after she realized that she still held the zebra’s soup bowl. “Emmm… Zecora had me for lunch while I was at her place and I… might have accidentally taken it with me in panic.”

“So, you basically just went to her for lunch then…?”

“No, Spike! Zecora said she can perform a diagnosis for my condition, but first I need to bring her something she can’t acquire on her own. Here.”

She handed her companion the scribbled note. “A… cloud?”

“A lighting in a bottle to be precise.” She trotted over to the door. “We can plan it all later.”

“Well, you’re about five minutes late right now… And are you just gonna take that lunch into the meeting?”

Twilight looked at the bowl and took a mouthful sip, before rushing through the door, leaving Spike to catch it before it would hit the ground and break. He sighed in relief, then the soup’s alluring aroma finally got into his nose and temptation got him to taste it.

“Hmmm… could use a handful of agates.”

The day was slowly approaching its end, as the sun was beginning to reach the twilight hour. The princess on the other hand was not in a good state. After the thwarted invasion in the early morning, hectic middle to save up time to get a possible better opinion from another medical expert and then returning to the normal daily tempo, by the time she finally got to her room she dropped face first on her bed, with only one fitting response.

“What a day…”

“Hey, all things considered, we actually came through just fine.” Spike walked through the door.

“Well, I just hope that tomorrow’s not gonna be anything alike,” she groaned. “Although if those same dreams come up again tonight, then I’m not about to keep my hopes up.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you some fresh lavender and we will see if things get better.”

“Yeah, that will help,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Anyway, we need to rewrite the schedule for tomorrow,” the dragon said as he pulled out a parchment and a quill. “Now considering Fancy Pants’ routine, he normally makes announcements to the castle sometime in the late afternoon. This means we can make some room between visiting the graduation party for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and meeting the delegation from Crystal Empire. Problem solved.”

“Not quite, Spike.”

“Excuse me?”

“We still need to acquire that lightning in a bottle from Cloudsdale,” she explained.

“Oh… no biggie. I’ll just... ermmm… squeeze it in the late morning between judging the best bakery in Canterlot and appearance at the opening of the new bookstore. Shouldn’t take long... right?”

“Oh, and also I’ll need some room to deliver that bottle…” she stopped herself, remembering there was another thing she forgot, ”and bowl to Zecora, so she can give me a proper examination.”

“Wait. Tomorrow already? But that’s not possible. I don’t think I can stretch out the list any further.”

“Please Spike, can’t you just find a teeny tiny wincey little spot? Please?” she desperately tried to convince him.

He sighed. “Fine… I guess I can try and put it between-“

“Oh, I almost forgot!”

“OH, COME ON!” He tossed the list at the wall in frustration. “What else did you come up with now that I have to find a way to force in?!”

The princess winced at his outburst. “Spike, no, it’s nothing like that. Look at the calendar.”

They looked at the calendar that sat on the table. There were fourteen days crossed out on the month and two spaces onward one was colored in a big red marker, with written initials reading C.O.F.

“With all that’s happened in the last two weeks, I forgot that the Council of Friendship is to take place in two days. I’m really looking forward to seeing everypony again.”

“Yeah… I actually forgot as well… I’m looking forward to seeing them… especially Rarity.”

She rolled her eyes with a smile.

“And that’s all the more reason I’d prefer to have Zecora have a look BEFORE that. The last thing I want is to have my friends worry about the state of my mental health. So please, Spike… can you do anything?”

He sighed. “Okay, Twilight. I’ll figure something out.”

She gave him a hug and he repaid it in turn. After the moment had passed, she traipsed over to the drawer and pulled out the amulet once more, walked out onto the balcony, and activated it.

The sun sank over the horizon and with its departure, the moon rose.

“One more day,” she whispered.

Zecora took a moment to recuperate. Galloping back to her house before the hour of twilight ended was something she did not favor, but risking the stay outside after the night fell on the forest was even less appealing. All manner of creatures prowled the nighttime and encountering any of them would be detrimental to one’s health. But there was something else as well: she felt an unusual vibe in the air, as if the forest had gotten livelier… but also sinister, the surroundings pressing down on her as if the woods themselves were trying to get a hold of her.

Just a bit more and I’ll be safe I bet, from this invasive threat.

Home free! As soon as the zebra reached the proximity of her hovel the pressure surrounding her dropped. She sighed in relief. The threat had passed for now, but the question still prodded her mind as to why this is happening. She would have to look into this, for now however she needed a break, and the ingredients she had gathered needed taking care of. She reached out to open the door only to discover they were wide open already. A quick look inside left her shocked as it was left turned upside down.

Somebody was here and ransacked the whole place! But why? Only one with intimate knowledge on potion making would know their value and even then, only she knew which concoction did what. Nobody she knows would’ve wanted to steal fruits of her labor. So what else was there that she possessed that somebody would want from her?

A thought shot through her head.

The Alicorn Amulet!

It has been so many years since that one day when Twilight Sparkle came to her doorstep, besieging her for help against Great and Powerful Trixie, who had somehow got hold of a sinister amulet, which granted a wielder great power but also corrupted them with hatred. Since the day it was finally removed, Zecora kept it in her hovel, hoping that as few beings as possible knew about its whereabouts and against those who did, the Everfree Forest would offer enough protection to deter possible power-hungry burglars. This may have just come to an end, but she had to make sure.

She walked over to the middle of the room where her cauldron was tipped over, her brew spilled. She brushed away what little scorched kindling was left in the messed-up firepit. Solid stone was keeping the fire isolated from the floor to prevent it from being scorched, but one with a keen eye would notice that there was actually a handle on the carved-out stone. She grabbed a handle with her teeth and pulled it, opening a small trap door. Her tail reached into the opening and pulled out a small wooden chest.

The moment of truth was here. Anticipating the worst, she opened it. A red light glowed. Radiant red gem pulsed, adorned with a metal shaped to resemble a horned equine with wings.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, I was wrong. I truly feared that the amulet was- “

“- GONE?”

The zebra’s blood froze and a chill went down her spine. That ghastly voice came within her ears reach, as in right next to her. She slowly turned her head. A figure was right next to her face, hanging upside down from the ceiling, a pair of glowing green eyes staring directly at her. Then knife-like fangs curled into a smile and launched at her.

“This is it? The legendary Alicorn Amulet?”

Chrysalis walked out of Zecora’s hovel, carrying the prize she saw in the vision. She felt a bit disappointed. This was supposed to lead to some grand revelation? She was once infused with the power of Grogar’s Bewitching Bell and this amulet should by no chance be more powerful than it. Perhaps there was a clue on the amulet itself, an inscription, or some sort of a message, yet no matter how many times she turned it over there was nothing, nothing seemed out of place.

She slumped to the side of a tree root of the zebra’s house. No amount of power this amulet could provide would be of service to her, no closer to achieving revenge or lifting depression off of her. She simply let her gaze trail over the amulet until her eyes eventually locked onto the gemstone itself.

She felt a compulsion. As if some unseen force was trying to tell her, to convince her to put the amulet on. A strange sinister whisper suddenly entered her mind. She recognized the tone, it was the same as the one back at her birthplace, but now it was slightly louder, more pronounced.

Let us be heard.

She was swayed. She brought the amulet to her chest and wrapped it around her neck.

CLICK.

And as the neckless locked together it felt as if a shockwave pulsed out of the amulet and around her. And then there was silence.

“Well?” The Queen of Changelings waited for a response. “What am I supposed to do with this now?”

“Chrysalis.”

She jumped. That whispering voice was no longer a mere whisper. It was clear and very close to her.

“Who said that?!” She tried to recover from the shock.

“So… you can finally hear us clearly... or at least me anyway.”

“Where are you?!” She turned around looking in all directions, but she couldn’t pinpoint the source of the voice. “Who are you?!”

“I am nowhere… I am everywhere… I am the watcher – unseen.”

And as those words were said, vapor tendrils crept past Chrysalis’ eyesight and begun to conjugate in front of her face until the vapor finally took form. A small, slender, weaselly-like shape manifested before her, the frontal side of it spiked out into a pair of ears, and finally, a pair of small slit green eyes popped open.

As her first reaction, Chrysalis swung her horn at the vapor, cutting straight through it like it was nothing. And while the horn did fracture the vapor being, the rest of its body remained unmoved, floating in the air.

“If I were corporeal that would’ve hurt right now. Luckily for you, that’s not the case,” the vapor said as its fractured form came back together.

“So, what are you then?” she asked suspiciously.

“I am Doubt.”

“Doubt?” she frowned.

“Yes. You know that voice in your head, that’s telling you to second-guess yourself? What makes you think that you’re incapable of doing something even when that may not be the case? One who tells you that it can only get worse from here on out? That Doubt.”

“Wait… you’re an emotion?”

“Not quite. Every living creature possesses emotions. I am but its physical manifestation. If I were to disappear, doubt itself would not. As I said: I am nowhere, yet I am everywhere.”

She frowned. What did this spirit want from her? Surely it didn’t go through all that just so it could chitchat with somebody.

“So why did you call for me?”

“Because you’re the only one who could hear us, because of your very nature, broodmother.”

That last word stung. It made her think of something that she didn’t need right now.

“What you wear is a key to something great," it explained. "A piece to the puzzle, a web of events that were set in motions hundreds of years ago… or to be more precise, delayed.”

“Then say what you want already. If you’re asking me to participate in some grand master plan for the domination of Equestria, I’ve just been through that.” She turned to leave. “The last thing I need is being fed some vain hope that it will help me in any way. In which case, you can just go and find some other sheep to follow you.”

“Do you not seek to fill the void in your spirit?” the vapor asked.

She stopped, then slowly glared at the creature. How could this thing have known what she desires?

“And yes, we know what you desire,” the vapor said, its green eyes squint as if it was trying to smile. “To us, what you hide within your shell, cannot be hidden.”

The Changeling Queen composed herself as if trying to put up a barrier to block the internal spy.

“And how can I be of any help? And who are WE?”

The vapor spun aground itself then slithered through the air into the direction of nearby trees.

“I can arrange the meeting… with one of the others at least. All I ask is for you to follow me. After all, what other options do you have?”

Queen Chrysalis didn’t like this. A sinister incorporeal being that can read one’s emotions? Who can whisper dark lies into creatures’ ears to doubt themselves? She could just as easily refuse and walk away. But what would she get in turn? There was nothing in this world right now that could help her with what burdens her… except for it. What it said was true: what other options does she have?

“Lead the way then.”

Chapter 3: What They Know

A cave. How typical. Doubt led Queen Chrysalis through the Everfree Forest. The place wasn’t unfamiliar to her as she took refuge there for a time, but the vapor took her through unexplored territory. At some point, they arrived at their destination and descended into darkness. A maze of tunnels stretched deep into the underground. She could’ve been lost for a long time, yet the manifestation of Doubt seemed to have known the way. Finally, there was dim, green light alit at the end of their journey.

“So, tell me… Doubt, who exactly are these co-conspirators of yours that you refer to as “we”?” she questioned it.

“Do not worry. You’ll find out very soon, broodmother- “

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” she yelled at a puff of smoke.

“Oh? Struck a nerve, have I? Why exactly is it that such a minute thing causes you such distress?” the vapor asked.

“It doesn’t concern you,” she dismissed it.

“Well, it matters not right now anyway. Just try to keep calm. The following sight may seem familiar in some way.”

The changeling queen pondered what it was referring to, but it didn’t take long before she finally got the gist.

A vast underground cavern opened before her. The dim illuminating light came from a giant pool of all-too-familiar magical substance. And in the middle of it stood a sight that was not just familiar, but also foreboding. A giant tree towered in the middle of the lake, its roots boring into the liquid below, its trunk, though bent, grew tall, the branches reaching up to the very ceiling, sinister light pulsed from several crevices, a giant scar ran down the middle of the trunk to its roots, turned to be shaped like a mouth, and finally two giant branches bent and twisted like hands, with dark, prickly nuts hanging from them.

Chrysalis was overcome with a sense of dread. This place… there’s genuine horror radiating from it. She couldn’t quite put a hoof on it, but all possible negative states of her mind were beginning to bubble up on the surface.

“Breathtaking, isn’t it?” Doubt prodded her.

“What is this?”

“This is the source of all the "natural" forces of this world. Its lifeblood flows through the cavernous deeps beyond the borders of Equestria. Forces that PONIES are unable to control… so they chose to suppress them.”

“The tree is a source? Sounds like another magical tree I know. One that’s now gone anyway.”

“The Tree of Harmony, yes. We felt its power wither away. For the longest time, its energy suppressed the forest, to prevent it from claiming what rightfully belongs to it. Not long ago it was finally freed to fulfill its purpose… until it was subdued again. But that matters little. With the suppression permanently gone now, we can focus on continuing what we began.”

“There you go again with the WE. Where are these others you claim can help me? Or rather need my help?”

Doubt flew over to the tree and coiled around it playfully. “They’re all right here. But their voice is dim, silenced because their essences were removed from the body. To revive them, the essence that was taken from this vessel must be returned to the source.”

“So… how exactly does this concern me?”

Doubt slithered over to Chrysalis, coiling around her neck. “Isn’t it obvious? Where do you think this amulet draws power from? Why do you think it fuels its user with Hatred?”

The queen looked at the Alicorn Amulet, focusing on it. She felt it then. The sensation of hatred flowing outwards and yet she also felt as if there’s a weak invisible force that’s trying to pull itself away from her.

“The Alicorn Amulet… it contains one of the essences?”

Doubt nodded eagerly. “This one was elusive for a long time. Throughout history it changed hands many times, always dooming its wearer to unbridled hatred. It would never have found its way back home since, despite corruption, the wearer would remain self-serving. But you... by bringing it here, you’ve achieved what we could never have done on our own. And for that, we’re indebted to you.”

This was an unusual feeling. By all accounts Chrysalis should’ve been skeptical; this was Doubt she was talking to, she should’ve expected deceit from it, as it was in its very nature to do so. And yet the tone of its voice just now sounded… sincere.

“What do you want me to do with this then?” she asked.

“Remove the gemstone from the amulet. It acts as a focal point but also suppresses the true power it holds. Do that, and all will be done.”

Queen of Changelings removed the amulet from around her neck and focused the power of her horn on the casing, trying to remove it. She struggled. It may have been just a piece of enchanted metal, but with her own power, she should’ve been able to break it open. Yet it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard she strained herself, the amulet’s casing remained intact.

A cold sensation began to rise in her. The green sickly aura of her magic was suddenly replaced by a red glow, a symbol that negative emotion is starting to intertwine with magic itself. But it was still not enough.

“How… disappointing. I thought the Queen of Changelings would be more powerful than that, and yet you’re not even capable of removing one little gem from a neckless? Such humiliation,” Doubt taunted her.

She hated this. She hated being prod for her inability to do what should be a menial task. She hated that no matter how hard she struggles the peace of mind would be out of her reach. A cruel torment brought upon her by a cruel world.

She roared. Her eyes suddenly turned bright as well as her magic. Hatred made itself manifest in its purest form and drove her to push forward, as her newfound strength was beginning to rip the amulet’s frame away like a cold storm through the field. First came off the wings, then the head, and finally the casing surrounding the gemstone broke open. The scrap of metal that once resembled an amulet dropped to the ground, while the blood-red gem floated before her. Filled with adrenaline, she gazed at it and finally beheld its true beauty. The unrelenting force of pure cold hatred was pulsing from it. It was… mesmerizing.

“Well done, Queen of Changelings.” Doubt grinned. “You have passed your first test with flying colors. Now… release it into the pool and meet your new benefactor.”

She enjoyed the moment, that just sense of righteous hate was exhilarating, she didn’t want it to end. But the force that was pulling the amulet earlier, with gemstone released now became increasingly stronger. She had no choice. With the release, the stone dropped from her grasp and splashed into the magical pool below her. The moment passed and Chrysalis’ head cooled down, the strength in her hooves giving out under the sudden weight of her own body. It would seem that harnessing too much inner wrath caused her to overexert, on top of not feeding in a while.

Silence fell over the place for a moment. Then the bubbling sound came. Dark, vapor-like substance begun to emerge from the lake from the place where the gemstone fell in, rising above the ground level, over the tree’s height until it almost reached the ceiling of the cavern. A sudden brunt force pressed down on Chrysalis out of nowhere. It felt like the weight of the world was trying to crush her, and in her weakened state, everything went black.

Blackness.

The Changeling Queen was clearly awake, but everything around her was black. She couldn’t even see through it. She ran in all directions possible, yet it felt like she didn’t move from the spot.

“What twisted joke is this?! Let me out of this darkness!”

“But it’s your old friend. So why not talk to it again?” Doubt’s whisper came from behind her.

She glared at it. “I’m through playing games with you, Doubt! Let go of me! NOW!”

“I’m afraid this is out of my hands, broodmother. It’s all up to... the other one.”

Chrysalis was ready to snap. Then… cold came over her. This wasn’t normal, she was able to endure low climate temperatures before. No. This came from a different place. From within. She bore witness to it then as behind Doubt’s form, a pair of giant teal eyes opened, looking down on her with a penetrating gaze.

“I’ll let you have a "heart-to-heart",” Doubt said, as it bore into the background of the darkness and disappeared, leaving Chrysalis alone.

And then, a harrowing voice echoed all around her. “Broodmother. You have our eternal gratitude. By embracing us and releasing us back into the world you have taken your first step towards redemption and – “

“ENOUGH!” She would not stand for it any longer, even if the cold was unbearable, she has had it with the cryptic talk; first, it used that word, and now it’s talking about redemption. “I’ve been putting up with these shenanigans long enough. I just woke up after who knows how many years I’ve been turned to stone, I dragged myself across half of Equestria, barely resting and starving, putting myself in situations where I could get spotted and inevitably caught. I’ve been led on by words, toying with what’s left of my sanity with promises of something that would be of value to me and then you come spewing words like “redemption” like it’s supposed to mean something to me. That hatred that gave me the strength to free you was out of frustration knowing it’s all empty promises that will never help me in any way!”

She tried to catch up on her breath. A deathly silence fell across the surroundings, the pair of teal eyes were still piercing into her, unmoving. She could still feel cold running through her, getting worse. If this thing were to end her now for speaking out of term, it would’ve been merciful.

“… you lie.”

The voice took her aback. This wasn’t a response she was expecting.

“You may try using words to cover what you feel inside, but before us, your emotions are laid bare. We see your beginning and every moment of your waking life because we are a part of you. And if you still doubt us…”

The darkness disappeared. It was dim, but this time Chrysalis could clearly see her surroundings. She saw the old tree from which she and her swarm emerged into the world.

The scene shifted. She stood in a great blooming field on a clear sunny day. The sunlight dimmed and she saw the great swarm darken the skies in numbers beyond counting. Villages devastated, its inhabitants left drained in the swarm’s feeding frenzy. It changed again, this time to the sky city of Timbucktu, seeing herself usurp king Orion and declaring herself queen. And it happened again, this time to the siege of Trot, where the changelings infiltrated the city and devoured its inhabitants from within.

Chrysalis saw her glorious life flash before her eyes and as she did, something familiar stirred within.

“Magnificent, isn’t it?” the harrowed voice asked.

“I’ve… almost forgotten what it felt like, to have the whole world laid down before you. It felt exhilarating,” she said, and as she did, a smile appeared on her face, not out of malice or spite; it felt like… pride.

“Yes… PRIDE always comes… before the fall.”

And as those words were said, the sky above Trot was lit ablaze. She soon realized what was coming as soldiers of Canterlot swept down to coral the invading changelings into a single cluster. And then SHE appeared. Princess Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria, flew down from the skies at the enemy army. Armored Queen Chrysalis lunged at her, willing to fight the alicorn princess head-on. With the power of the sun at her command, Celestia unleashed devastating fire upon the invaders.

Chrysalis watched, seeing her past self as the armor was melted clean off her and the sun’s fire tearing through her body while burning most of her army to a crisp.

“This… is where it all began,” the voice echoed. “A single defeat is something you could’ve lived with… had SHE not wounded you so.”

The scene switched to the heart of a volcano, where she and the survivors of her swarm were locked away in a boiling pit of fire inside a volcano to keep them pacified before a dragon unknowingly released them all.

“You are the broodmother. Through you, the swarm would eventually be regrown, bigger than before. But that devastating defeat has taught you something: you were vulnerable, you were fragile. If you were to face Celestia again or anyone else of equal or greater power, if you had lost more than just bits and pieces of your appendages, without the ability to fill the brood’s vacant ranks, every soldier would become too valuable to waste. And as you experienced firsthand, not everything in life goes according to plan. Even if you lived for thousands of years more, all of your soldiers would eventually be gone. You... would be the last of your kind.”

It felt like a heavy rock weighing down on her. Everything it said was true. It knows every detail… which meant it also knew what she did next.

The scene switched. In a barren wasteland that the changelings made their kingdom, deep within the tall spire they called hive, Queen Chrysalis stood within a great empty room with a stalactite hanging in the center. Her punctured horn lit up in sickly green. Her whole body began to glow and it looked like she was under great pain, as it slowly all trailed from across her being and centralized back to her horn. She bent forward and touched the stalactite with it. It exploded, sending her flying back. As the changeling queen finally regained her consciousness, she looked upon the ceiling. It was completely bloated and deformed with holes coming out of it. All of a sudden, small eggs begun to pop out in mass, slowly piling up in clusters.

“That day, you sacrificed your own ability to replenish the swarm and imbued it into the hive itself, so that no matter how wounded you were, the brood would continue to endure and take care of its queen.”

A great sense of loss came over her. Especially because she knew what would follow.

“Hindsight is taxing, is it not?” the voice said.

It almost sounded like it was taunting her, toying with her. It already knows what comes next. SHE knows what happens next. She doesn’t have to see it again. She DOESN'T WANT to see it again. But her pleas were hollow, ignored.

Plans to conquest Canterlot at a royal wedding, ruined. Her temporary holding, beaten. Every single time those six ponies, with Princess Twilight Sparkle at the head would ruin EVERYTHING. So, this time she would plan, she would slowly replace every single important pony in Equestria with her soldiers right under their noses until even they would fall victim to her deception and be replaced by doppelgangers. Everything worked perfectly… UNTIL SHE CAME.

Queen Chrysalis was visibly trembling as she watched Starlight Glimmer, stripped of power in her own kingdom, at the seat of her power and her mercy, use mere words to corrupt her own soldiers, HER OWN CHILDREN. Their nature perverted into something they were never supposed to be. Their TRUE purpose was denied. As the changelings willingly shared and embraced love they would previously only drain, the throne room protecting the hive from outside magic exploded and the hive collapsed on itself.

Then came the moment of truth; when the one who befouled her kind offered a hoof of mercy, to show her there’s a different way, a “better way”. She felt it; the anger, the disgust, every fiber of her body screaming in defiance, that this was wrong, no TRUE changeling would willingly forsake its own nature with which it was born into the world.

In a sound of hatred and fury, she brushed it away. "There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come close to what I will exact upon you one day, Starlight Glimmer!"

And she ran away.

Complete darkness fell around her once again and the pair of piercing teal eyes returned, followed by the harrowing voice. “We sympathize with you, broodmother.”

She turned to face it, the expression on her face showing a mix of depression, frustration, but also surprise.

“Much like your own subjects were denied the purpose with which they were born, so was OUR purpose denied when we were already awake.”

“Is that it?” she scoffed. “You think that just because we share the same problem I would warm up to you? I’ve already worked with other creatures and it didn’t help me in the end. No creature could EVER understand me! I am the Queen of the Changelings- !“

“Without a brood.”

THERE. That was a stab in the heart. She just re-watched her whole life play out before her; the glorious heights, to where she was now, the lowest possible point. And now this presence is putting her on the spot, tormenting her by dragging every single grievance out of her on display to look at, to toy with her already unstable mind. And that piercing look from the eyes was making things worse. It knows every single thing she can imagine, it can see right through her and no amount of lies could cover it up. She bent forward, putting her hooves over her head, her mossy hair covering her face in vain hopes it would stop.

“You are the Queen of Changelings; it is in your nature to not want to share love, you are compelled to devour it to survive. And yet… you desire it, more than you’re willing to admit. You care not much for your own soldiers, as long as they’re useful… and yet you cannot imagine living a life without them. This is what claws at the corners of your mind. You are living the darkest moment you feared would happen all those years back. And that is what you HATE the most, Chrysalis: not Celestia, not Twilight Sparkle and her friends, or the swarm that turned its back on you… but the knowledge that you are the last TRUE changeling… that you are truly… ALONE.”

“AM I THAT OBVIOUS TO YOU?!” the ear-numbing cry of the changeling queen echoed, causing the world around to shake and tremor, the surrounding darkness crumbled on itself.

“So, you’ve finally accepted it then?” the green-eyed vapor questioned.

They were back in the cavern with the tree, the towering darkened form still loomed over Chrysalis. Doubt slithered by her face, an expression of surprise, yet predictable knowledge forming on its limited facial feature.

Tears?

Who would’ve thought that a changeling could shed tears, let alone that it would be their queen?

Chrysalis had been utterly broken by the experience. She had finally accepted that she has lost everything. She had no place or kin to return to and there was nothing that could replace it. Pride was the only thing that kept driving her, even if it was to her own detriment.

“Would you like to reverse what was done?” Doubt whispered. “Would you like to NOT be the last of your kind anymore? To enjoy the reverence of your minions once again?”

Being in a state of shock, it took some time before its voice finally reached her ears to react upon, her head slowly turning to the side to glance at the little vapor, her eyes still glistening from tears. “How…”

The towering darkness sunk back into the pool from which it spawned. Then the rumbling within started once more and what rose from it was a giant pod, almost shaped as the ones that changelings would use to store their victims in for future consumption.

“Come, Queen of Changelings,” the harrowing voice echoed through the cavern, beckoning her.

She walked forward. There was nothing else left for her. Anything else but this would leave her empty and unfulfilled forever. THIS was the only way.

Without hesitation, she stepped into the pod and as it closed around her, the harrowing voice rang into her. “You will be a broodmother again, Chrysalis. You will be the Pillar upon which our restoration begins. Through you and those who will follow in time, will ensure that our will is executed onto the world. Embrace us… and be reborn…”

All of Canterlot castle was asleep, only a lone guard patrolled the hallway, but inside the rooms, not a peep could be heard. Spike laid in his bed, fast asleep. Being a royal advisor was as tiring a job as it was being the actual ruler; getting up at the same time if not early than the princess, trailing her at every turn, and taking notes while making sure she was always on time with the schedules, and at the end of the day, after Twilight had long since gone to sleep, he would be the last to do so. And after a day like this, all he desired was a delectable dream involving his favorite fashionista.

However…

“NOOOOO!” a scream came bursting through the wall, instantly waking the little dragon up.

“Ugh. Just like clockwork…” he mumbled half asleep, realizing the dream would not come tonight.

He slinked out of bed, grabbed the morning schedule and his quill, and walked out of the room. The door slamming behind him with a loud thud.

The duo walked down the corridor. The day started pretty much the same, the only thing being different was Twilight not having a “morning episode” like yesterday. And if Spike was correct, the one thing that would follow soon was…

“Fudgesicles!”

“There it is,” he said, as the loud yell came from a predictable direction, right on queue.

They came around the corner, and as expected, Moppin was there at the gates to the repository for magical artifacts, failing to find the right key again.

“Come on! Are you kidding me?!” he fumed as he switched the key one after another. ”You have to be the right one!”

“You know, maybe we should just set you up for the morning alarm. Would save all of us some trouble,” the dragon quipped.

The unicorn cleaner went silent and turned his gaze to the side seeing the dragon and princess next to him.

“Again, Moppin? Really?” Twilight questioned him.

The stallion had a hard time trying to hold a straight face from the embarrassment on display. “Y-your majesty, I s-swear I was extra careful, but these keys all look the same.”

She sighed. “Look, let’s not get into a debate about this. Here.”

She used her magic on the lock of the repository, the mechanism turned and with a click, the gates opened. The cleaner smiled awkwardly before pushing his wagon inside.

Twilight and Spike didn’t get five feet away before Moppin popped his head out the door. “Thank you,” before zapping back in.

Spike rolled his eyes. “I’d say third time’s the charm, but this was the fifth now.”

“Don’t worry. He’ll get the hang of it… eventually.”

The morning routine passed, this time not as eventfully as yesterday. And as it was coming to an end, Twilight sat behind a table, signing documents and having a drink on the side.

“We got today’s news,” Spike said as he walked into the room and put a newspaper on the table.

She picked it up and while she kept signing, and sipping she quickly skimmed over the articles. Then there was a moment where she almost gagged, as the drink went down the wrong end, and nearly ended up choking.

“Twilight, what is it?” the dragon said as he patted her back.

“Look, Spike! This article!” she said in a hyped tone as she finally recovered.

Her companion picked up the newspaper and looked through it. On one of the pages it read as follows:

A STAR ABOVE DRAGONS
According to a report from the local dragon population, a meteor fell from the sky above the Dragon Lands and crashed nearby. Due to improved relations with Equestria, Dragon Lord Ember has allowed, at the request of Equestrian Astronomy Institute, an investigation of this object that fell from the sky. Initial reports are saying that the object, even after 24 hours, retained the initial heath level.
Further investigation and tests will be conducted on-site in the following days.

“A… meteor crash?” he asked before the paper was pulled out of his claws.

Twilight looked starry-eyed. “I wish I could’ve seen it myself. Back in the day, it was such a delight watching the night sky, observing through the telescope far, distant moons, stars, and all sorts of other cosmic phenomena, always wondering what lies beyond the moon we know. It’s moments like this I wish things were a lot simpler; that I could go out into the world, to experience discoveries and acquire new knowledge and wisdom.”

She sighed, her mind wandering off.

“Ermm, Twilight? You’re scribbling,” the dragon poked her.

The princess first looked at him, before her sight trailed to the table and she grimaced after realizing that in her daydream she started to scribble all over the permit to start building a Griffonstone embassy in Canterlot.

Spike picked up a fresh parchment and started rewriting the whole thing from the start. Just then, the loud thudding sound came knocking on the door, causing the little dragon to twitch and messed up the document again. He jumped off the chair, waddled over to the door, and opened it in an angry force.

A unicorn royal guard stood at the door, levitating a small crate before him. “A delivery for the Princess sent directly from the Cloudsdale weather factory.”

Spike thanked the guard, grabbed the crate, and shut the door behind, before taking it over to the table. “Here it is.”

Twilight opened the crate and it was stuffed to the brim with hay. She frowned and begun to rummage through it to find whatever was ordered. Finally, she pulled it out: a small bottle containing a continually swirling mass of a vapor-like substance.

“Odd,” Spike said. “I’d have expected that vessel that contained lightning in a bottle would be… you know, flashier.”

“That’s probably just the storm cloud, Spike, “ she reassured him. “You probably just need to trigger it in some way.”

“Well, let's hope it’s not so volatile that it would get triggered by just shaking.”

After that remark, Twilight became increasingly concerned; she didn’t even think about that possibility, so in collective calm she put it back into the hay-filled crate and moved it away, sighing in relief at the end.

“We can worry about that later. Spike, please rewrite the embassy permit while I finish the rest of the documents. It’s gonna be a tight run with the new schedule you’ve made, but with a little luck we just might make it.”

Her companion nodded with determination in his eyes, grabbing a new parchment, and began to write again. No more distraction. They’re going to pull through.

The clock tower rang at the fourteenth hour. The princess and her advisor just had lunch, as they managed to pull through in time, sticking to the schedule. Now it was necessary to deal with the matters of health. Twilight reopened the crate and picked up the vessel containing the swirly black substance.

“Okay, you’ve got forty-five minutes. I’ll be waiting for you over at the book store,” the dragon told her.

“Wish me luck.” She nodded to her companion, as she began to concentrate, fixating herself on the outskirts of Everfree Forest.

“Twilight, wait!”

She stopped. “What is it, Spike?”

The dragon pointed on the table; sitting on it was a brown bowl made from non-ceramic material. “You almost forgot that.”

“Oh…” She felt embarrassed. “If I turned up at Zecora’s house without this… that would’ve been awkward.”

She picked the soup bowl up and brought it over. “See you over at the bookstore, Spike.”

And with a blast of magic, she was gone.

Spike was left all alone in the room. Now he had at least thirty minutes to spare and had no idea what to do with it. A little nap would be nice, but it would just be too risky. He walked out onto the balcony and leaned on the rails. He had the overlook of entire Canterlot; he saw the bookstore that was to be opened, Celestia’s school, where the graduation was to take place, the train station in which the next train had just arrived, he saw Flash Magnus marching down the street with a group of royal guards, and over nearby Canterlot Carousel, seeing Sassy Saddled just exiting through the door-

He stopped.

That wasn’t Sassy Saddles! That bright fur, the perfectly styled, purple, flowing mane. He’d recognize it anywhere.
Rarity had just exited from her boutique, carrying several bags, and was slowly making her way towards the train station. This was his chance! He could meet her on the way and make it look like they’re meeting by chance so he wouldn’t look desperate and have some quality time with her while he waited for Twilight to come back.

He felt something hit his head. It was a gentle tap, but it was still weird, so he reached with his claw for a rub.

Moisture?

He looked up, but there was not a cloud in the sky, and he doesn’t recall there being rain scheduled from Cloudsdale. This was very odd.

“What’s eating your scales?” the familiar voice roused Spike.

“Rainbow Dash?!” he yelped in shock, seeing the rainbow-maned blue pegasus flying on the edge of the balcony. “What are you doing here? The meeting isn’t until tomorrow. And I thought you’d be back at the Wonderbolt Academy dealing with newbies.”

“Yeah, I should’ve. But Spitfire invited me to a reunion with a couple of her old friends over at the Weather Factory.”

“So… why are you here then?” he questioned.

She landed on the balcony and reached into her saddlebag with her mouth, pulling out a small vial. Inside it was a flashing light, flickering now and then.

“What is that?” he asked as she handed it to him.

“While visiting the factory, I overheard the bosses chewing out one of the workers for mismanaging the packaging process. Apparently, the emergency package for the princess was supposed to contain lightning in a bottle… Sooooo, I guess I kinda used that as an excuse to have a preemptive meeting.”

“B…but wait,” the dragon was visibly confused, “if this is the real lightning in a bottle… then what did she get?”

“Eh, very likely just an ordinary rain cloud,” she responded nonchalantly.

“Oh no!” He panicked. “She just went to Zecora with the wrong ingredient!”

“Wait… Zecora? Ingredient? Spike, what’s going on?”

He hesitated for a moment. “Well… It’s just that… she wanted this to be dealt with before tomorrow’s meeting so she would worry any of you guys- “

“Worry us about what?” The pegasus looked at him suspiciously.

He sighed. “It’s a long story. You see two weeks ago- “

He felt the tap again, and he saw by Rainbow’s surprised look that she noticed it as well.

“Dash, is the Cloudsdale Weather Factory leaking by any chance?” he asked.

“Spike, the factory DOES NOT leak. And there shouldn’t be any rain today.” She looked in the direction of the sky city. “Still, it’s best I go check. Back in a snap, but when I do, you better start explaining.”

“WAIT!” she stopped as the dragon yelled when she was about to go off. “Please carry me to the ground first.”

Twilight trotted through the forest, carrying the soup bowl and the vial, trying her best to move at a quick pace so as to not cause a possible chain reaction in the latter while cutting down the travel time. It was not an easy task; just like yesterday she felt the dark force of the forest pressing down on her and this time it got even more sinister for some reason, hearing whispers on the blowing wind.

She finally made it to the healer’s tree hut and exhaled in relief, but after traipsing over to the entrance she noticed the door being wide open.

“Zecora?” she called out and walked into the darkened home.

After putting the items she carried to the side, unable to see anything, she illuminated it with her magic. The place was completely turned over, but there was no sign of the resident. She made a few steps further into the room.

SPLASH.

She stepped into something. It was a strange green, glistening gooey substance; it was at the only place to be found around the house, but where did it come from?

Suddenly she felt a gentle tap on her head. Reaching out with her hoof she realized it was the same green substance. Finally, she looked up, illuminating the room further with her magic.

Hanging from the ceiling was a green changeling cocoon, and trapped in it lay a zebra.

“ZECORA?!”

HEARTBEAT.

Hours have passed. The silence within the cavern was only broken by the occasional fall of the seeds growing on the branches of the sinister tree into the magical pool below.

HEARTBEAT.

Yet clearly the silence was disturbed by another sound. One that Doubt soon became aware of.

HEARTBEAT.

“Oh? She’s done already?” the weaselly, green-eyed vapor responded to the heart-thumping coming from the pulsing green mass.

HEARTBEAT.

The pod in which Queen Chrysalis entered some time ago meanwhile turned into a literal chrysalis. And while it remained still during most of the time, it was now emanating a green glow, projecting a silhouette of a shape moving inside.

As its heartbeat quickened, the harrowed voice finally spoke again. “It is time. Awaken… BROODMOTHER.”

The side of the chrysalis begun to wobble rapidly, until a hole was finally punctured from the inside out, green substance started oozing everywhere, followed by a cry and coughing as a shape tried to crawl out until it eventually dropped on the floor.

The Queen of Changelings thrashed around. She knew she was conscious, yet all she could hear is white noise and even though her eyes were wide open, she saw nothing. She tried to fly, but her wings wouldn’t even budge, and when she tried to get back on her hooves, they were so soft they bent under the slightest pressure, causing her to topple down again.

“Wh… what have you done to me?!” she cried out.

“Calm yourself, broodmother,” Doubt’s whisper echoed in her head, overpowering the white noise. “You’ve just gone through your rebirth. Your whole body needs time to harden out in the air. If you do not keep still, it will only damage you in the process.”

She shut her eyes, grit her teeth, and tried to lay forward, Doubt’s whispering making the noise at least slightly bearable.

Time passed and slowly but surely Chrysalis regained her sight as the whiteness diminished and the noise faded away. She banged her hooves together with a loud clacking sound, realizing they’ve finally hardened enough to stand up. What she didn’t anticipate however was her hooves feeling weightier than usual. It was upon her direct inspection that she discovered, that the holes in her body left by Celestia have disappeared. She fluttered her wings and heard a more pronounced buzzing sound; no air was escaping through minute holes in them anymore.

“So, how do you feel now, broodmother?” Doubt prodded.

She still despised it using that word but chose to humor it anyway. “I feel… sturdy… hardened... elegant?”

“Do you feel…” The weaselly vapor slithered over to her cheeks. “… life?”

Chrysalis looked at Doubt with suspicion. What did it mean by tha-

A heartbeat. No, not her own, there was another, it was incredibly small, barely noticeable, and weak, but it was there. Not just one, many more followed it. Something stirred within her. She recognized that feeling. Even though it has been centuries since she gave it up she never forgot what it felt like. A new life was growing within her.

“Yes,” she said in a gleeful tone.

There was undeniable joy visible in her expression. She felt truly WHOLE again.

“Good.” Doubt slithered around her. “Because with the recent events you’ve put in motion, somebody’s likely going to come snooping around.”

The green-eyed vapor made a good point. The Changeling Queen left Zecora in the pod back in her hovel after she had taken the Alicorn Amulet from her, and it’s likely somebody will inevitably discover her and kick up a storm.

“You will have to build yourself a new hive here and protect the tree.”

“Hold on!” Chrysalis protested. “I understand the urgency, but it will take days before the first younglings hatch and even more days before they’re fully grown to be of any use.”

The harrowed voice belonging to the dark force she had awakened sounded out. “Spawn your future clutch into the pool below. Its magical energies will accelerate its growth. And once they awaken, they will be changed beyond their former kin.”

Chapter 4: The First Pillar

A little zebra ran through the savanna region, a single ring around her neck reflecting the scorching sunlight. She eventually left the tall grasses and entered the overgrowth, beginning to prowl as to not alert predators… or was it not to alert her prey? It wouldn’t take long before she would stop, listening to a voice, one speaking words that couldn’t be made out. But she knew them, it was her quarry. She continued to advance, slowly but steadily moving as to not garner its attention. She finally poked her head out and met her target.

Sitting on the edge of the cliff was another zebra, much older; his mohawk reaching a great length, green mask with yellow features covering most of the upper face, around the neck he wore a neckless made from beads and fangs belonging to beasts, his frontal legs adorned in trappings made of red feathers, carrying a large pouch on his back, and on his flank, the image of a tree was imprinted. And nestled on his shoulders was a curved staff.

The little zebra prowled closer since she’s never seen him like this. He sat in the middle of a circle drawn with white chalk, several of them centered around where he sat, but five of them were spread evenly on the outside… with something inside them. One of the circles contained some burnt kindling, another a bowl of water, and the third… strange white stuff she’s never seen before. She approached it to inspect it up close, and it was cold to the touch. She looked to the rest and the other two circles didn’t have anything inside them. What was he doing with all this?

She then saw it: as the time moved and the sun traveled above, the shadow from one of the nearby rocks slowly entered one of the empty circles. The elder zebra’s chanting became louder, and then hit the bottom of his staff against the ground. Out of the blue, a thunderbolt struck the second empty circle and she shrieked in fright.

But the other zebra didn’t move. Instead, the surrounding circles lit up, their energy slowly merging at the very center until he himself was completely enveloped by it. His eyes shot open in blue light, and a magical radiance burst out in a wave, spreading across his surroundings and the lands below the cliff.

Finally, the silence fell on the scene and his eyes stopped glowing.

“Zecora, young steed,” he spoke, “why did you not take heed?”

The little zebra shivered. “Fada, I… I swear I was just looking.”

“Be grateful I felt you about, careless moves would have left you fried like a trout.” He stood up and started packing the reagents back into his saddlebag.

“Fada, what was that?“ she questioned. “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but lightning rained anyway.”

“One who communes with the element will in time receive their testament.”

“If you’re so strong that you can command lightning to rain, why are you not one of The Three Kings of Farasi, fada?” she questioned.

The elder zebra smiled. “Power and control are not the same: Abraxas may keep the lightning tame, while Amun of abadas can hear the wind’s name, and Watami of kelpie fame can usher the rivers to a flame. Hence, the kingdoms were theirs to claim. Power however is not in my making, nor do I see it for the taking; I borrow, no more than needed, and labor with it until the morrow.”

“But what for, fada?” the curious child asked.

The older zebra pointed in a direction over the cliff. In the far distance, a lush valley opened, flowing rivers and greenery, nothing like the savanna grasslands. And in the middle of it all, a great baobab tree stood, and while everything aground was blooming, the tree was old and shriveled; it didn’t look at all like it was alive.

“Fada, this place is beautiful. Why does our tribe stand so far away?” the child questioned.

“Whatever beauty is shown does not reflect the truth known,” he warned. “Even when the sun shines above, making a pretty sight, it will always mask shadows on the inside. A dark and foul essence stands beneath our presence. Those before our time knew well this rhyme. And because of our abilities, we have responsibilities, to keep the shadows at bay, while we let others play.”

He stuck the staff on his saddlebag. “Do not approach this place, unless my burden you’re ready to embrace.”

She pondered for a moment. “Will I have to learn to speak in rhyme like you… something, something… morning dew?”

The older zebra laughed, and as they walked off he finished. “Enchantment and rhyme are connected. Over the years, I trust you’ll have perfected.”

“Zecora!” a voice called out to her. “ZECORA!”

Twilight sat next to the zebra she just freed from the changeling cocoon, and she finally started to regain consciousness.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank Celestia you’re alright, Zecora.”

She finally got up, rubbing her head. “I wish by my name, I could say the same.”

“Zecora, what happened? Did a renegade changeling do this to you?”

“A changeling or two I could have dispatched, but against their queen, I was grossly outmatched.”

“Their que- WAIT! QUEEN CHRYSALIS DID THIS?!” Twilight exploded. “B-b-but that’s impossible! Chrysalis is gone! Yesterday when Canterlot got invaded by rock elementals, one of them fell on top of her statue and crushed her to bits!”

“Our situation at present is most dire, for whatever came to transpire, the queen who seeks the Alicorn Amulet has caused a great quagmire.”

Twilight thought for a moment before finally facing her again. “I completely forgot about that… After the battle with Trixie, I’ve never given it much of a thought and just figured the case was closed.”

“Only I knew the amulet lay, somepony must have shown her the way.”

“She was told about the amulet and where it was? But… why would she need it? I mean, the Alicorn Amulet is powerful, but even Chrysalis is probably aware its power can’t compare to anything close to what she once wielded. So why would she desire it?”

“I’m uncertain what fate holds in store, but the amulet’s holder could cause trouble… and more."

Twilight reached for the tipped-over empty chest and examined it. Her horn flashed and a strange purple vapor cloud appeared inside. “The Alicorn Amulet had a specific magical residue about. With a right spell, I can make the residue visible to the naked eye, so I can track it down.”

She traipsed over to the door and spotted the magical residue floating in the air, into the woods. A rummaging sound came from back inside and Twilight spotted Zecora digging through turned-over shelves and pantries, picking whatever potions and reagents weren’t destroyed.

“Zecora, what are you doing? You should wait here and recuperate.” She tried to convince her to stay.

“My house, my work, all of it was trashed, whoever did this deserves to get bashed,” she said as she put on the saddlebag and stuck her staff on it. “I was caught off guard but not again, so do not expect me to abstain.”

There would be no point in arguing; the zebra was determined to have justice for what was done, yet at the same time Twilight feared nothing good would come of her trying to face a creature as powerful as Chrysalis, her life would be in peril and she couldn’t have her take that risk, but words would clearly not deter her. Something would need to be done. Twilight simply nodded and they ran after the residue trail.

“Come on, everypony! Move those flanks!” a familiar high-pitched voice rang through the street where the bakery contest was supposed to take place. “We got less than an hour to get everything ready before the princess arrives!”

Pinkie Pie held a list, making sure that everything was up to the highest quality entertainment standards. And for her, it and baking went together hand-in-hand. She was perfect for the job. And while she did accept the job as the event organizer because she loved doing it, she also had an ulterior motive in this.

She thought to herself. “Twilight has no idea who the main organizer for the occasion is. Won’t she be surprised when she arrives and discovers that the one who did it was me the whole time!”

She squealed on the inside from the excitement; she absolutely loved to see everybody’s reaction of joy from surprises. Returning to surroundings around her, she noticed some things were still lacking, and ordered more balloons in the stalls. As she dug her face back in the list and traipsed across the street, a sudden force swiped her front legs, causing her to fall on her face.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” she yelled.

“Ow… sorry.”

She froze, recognizing that voice. Looking behind, she saw a small ball of purple scales and green spines sitting on the ground.

“SPIKE!?” She shut her mouth immediately, unfurling the whole event managerial list, and used it as a cover to conceal her appearance.

“Wait… Pinkie?” The little dragon turned, knowing fully well to whom that voice belonged.

“Pinkie who?” she desperately tried to make a denial. “I’m… errr… Listhoof Mcscribbles, YEAH! I’m just… checking the checklist for the event I’m organizing.”

He frowned. “Pinkie, you’re not fooling anyone.”

Rustling through the pile of wrapped paper, a single eye finally popped out. “Awww… was I that obvious?”

“Well, that. And the fact that I can see your party wagon from here.” He pointed to a big wagon standing by the side with Pinkie’s name on the side.

“Spike, can you please not spill the beans to Twilight?” she pleaded to him. “I was hoping to make it a surprise.”

“Sure, but I need to get to her first. You see, she-“ he tried to explain, but the pink pony put a hoof in his mouth.

“No no no, wait, let me guess.” She inhaled. “Twilight’s been running a busy schedule all day, but she has a sleeping problem that no doctor in Canterlot can cure, so she got Zecora to help her, but she needed something for the cure, so she ordered a bottle of weather from Cloudsdale, but the wrong package was delivered, so somepony just brought it to you while she already went away and now you’re trying to catch up to her so she can get back before the bakery contest starts.”

There’s was a moment of Spike agape at the mouth trying to register the specific details that he just heard coming from Pinkie Pie. “Okay… I don’t know how you do this but… YES! That’s precisely what’s happened!”

Raindrops fell again, this time hitting both the dragon and the pink pony.

“Emmm… Spike, is the Weather Factory leaking?” she questioned.

“I’ve been wondering that myself. Rainbow Dash said she’d check on it,” he said, then redirected back to the original point. “Anyway, I’d catch up to Twilight but… my wing is still in a bad shape from yesterday, and I can’t manage it on my own.”

A smile appeared on Pinkie’s face. “Well, somepony could use some help then.”

“Next stop, Canterlot!” the conductor yelled.

The train had just stopped at the city’s station, arriving from Manehatten. That railway had been one of the busiest in the land as it connected two of the most influential cities in the kingdom, transporting important people, from dignitaries to business owners traveling back and forth, and of course, that also included those responsible for agriculture. So, it wasn’t a surprise that a certain country pony from a little town also took part in the business travels.

“Alright, got 'bout fifteen minutes before the train departs. Best Ah go and stretch my legs from that hours-long ride,” Applejack said as she traipsed off the train for Ponyville.

She trotted across the platform and just as she was about the go around the corner, Rarity was approaching, carrying a load of bags from her boutique.

“PINKIE!!!” Spike yelled.

The pink pony saddled the dragon on her back and galloped off towards the entrance of the city. Unfortunately, in her haste she was still partly wrapped in her lengthly checklist scroll, covering most of her face.

“Pinkie! Stop! At least untangle yourself before you crash into something!”

“Relax, Spike!” she calmed him. “I know the streets of Canterlot like the back of my right hoof. I could navigate it blindfolded.”

As she said that, they were fast approaching the train station with Rarity in-sight, when one of the scrolls tangled itself in Pinkie’s front legs and both her and Spike tumbled forward like a yarn ball at a great speed, causing a chain reaction where they crashed into Rarity, who got pushed forward along with all her baggage, crashing into Applejack just as she got around the corner.

As the dust settled, Spike finally climbed out of the mess, shaking his head. “Well, blindfolded yes, but not with both hooves tied behind your back apparently.”

Finally, the white and orange pony rose from baggage and yelled in unison on top of their voices. “HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GO-!” then stopped when they saw one another.

“Rarity…?”

“Applejack…?

“PINKIE PIE!” the pink pony yelled as she popped up from the pile.

All of them looked at her before she finally replied. “Oh, hey girls! What are you both doing here?”

“Well, Ah just wanted to stretch a bit before the train sets home after I spent the whole day in Manehatten helping the Oranges in building a conglomerate,” the orange pony said as she dusted off her hat.

“And I was just going back to Ponyville after checking up on my boutique. Now, do you mind explaining what’s gotten into you?” Rarity picked up her baggage.

“Well, we were trying to catch up to Twilight but we got… tangled up.” Pinkie snorted.

“Wait, Twilight’s out here?” the country pony asked.

“Look, there’s no time to explain. I need to get this bottle to Zecora before Twilight…” Spike’s words trailed away as he felt something cold landing on his head.

A single snowdrop landed on him that soon melted away. Then another. And another. The whole gang suddenly turned to the sky and noticed that there was a very light snowfall.

“What in tarnation…? It’s spring, what's with the snow?” Applejack said as she shifted her head about.

It didn't take long before the unicorn jumped in. “You’d think something was wrong over at Cloudsdale...”

“I told you it was leaking!” reiterated Pinkie.

A cracking sound echoed in the air as they all saw a rainbow trail racing across the sky in their direction at high speed, looking as if it’s going to crash right into them, then making a precise stop a few feet from the group, causing them to cover for a moment.

“Listen, I don’t want to hear a single one of you say that Weather Factory is leaking, got that?” the blue pegasus fumed.

They all looked at each other with an awkward smile and she frowned after noticing it. “You just did, didn’t you?”

“Rainbow, what’s going on then? If this snow isn’t coming from Cloudsdale, where is it coming from?” Spike asked.

The expression on her face changed from frustration to worry all of a sudden. “That’s the thing… It’s enchanted wind. A few minutes ago, it was still at Cloudsdale and it already passed by now, but it seems it’s making its way here.”

There was a sense of unease in the air. In a not too distant past, something alike already happened once, but the circumstances were far different. Just as in old tales, when hatred spread amongst ponykind, it would draw in those who would feed on it: ancient magical spirits that brought cold and ice with them, and the more they gorged themselves on hate, the worse the storm became.

“You… you don’t think it’s… windigos?” Rarity asked.

“But… but that don’ make a lick a sense. Everypony’s been living in peace and harmony for years now. What possible reason would there be for them to appear now?”

“Maybe…” the whole group looked at the dragon as he spoke. “Maybe Twilight might know something about this. And even if not, we have to warn her immediately about what’s happening.”

“Well, what are we just standing around for then?!” the pink pony yelled as she zoomed off.

Applejack picked up Spike and the rest of the group galloped off, Rarity falling behind as she still carried all her baggage.

“Rarity, just leave it!” Rainbow Dash scolded her as she zoomed back for a moment and with great reluctance, she tossed them to the side. She was right, this was too important than some clothes.

Through the dark dank forest, they trotted. Twilight and her zebra companion followed the visible line left behind by the magical residue of the Alicorn Amulet for a while now. And the closer they seemed to have gotten, the darker their surroundings became, the dread permeated the air.

They finally arrived at their destination. The trail lead into a cavern and just peering into it made it obvious that they were about to descend into darkness. The alicorn princess walked through the entrance first, then quickened her pace. The zebra followed her soon, yet when she was about to pass the threshold of the entrance, she hit her face against a purple energy shield. Twilight erected a barrier to block her from entering.

“Twilight Sparkle, cease your spell! It’s clear you’re not well!”

“I’m sorry Zecora, but I can’t let you go through this. I know you want to help, but Chrysalis is too strong. I’m the only one who can stop her,” she said.

“Fool! Towards peril you walk alone, you can’t overcome this on your own!”

“You’ve every right to be angry, Zecora, but as the princess, this duty falls solely on my shoulder.” She traipsed away, following the residue trail. “I just hope you can forgive me one day for being selfish.”

Zecora bucked the force field in anger. No matter the difference in strength, what Twilight did just now was the level of absolute foolishness, allowing her pride to get ahead of her. She would not allow that to stop her, however, even if she would have to dig out a side entrance.

Twilight walked through the dark labyrinth, the magic trail from the amulet leading the way, there was no way she could’ve been able to find the way through the twisting corridors on her own. She finally saw a dim green light at the end of the tunnel and braced herself for whatever came next.

As she entered the cavern, her breath was taken away after seeing a great ghastly tree growing in the middle of a green lake. She slowly approached, trying to not cause too much noise; whoever was here likely hasn’t noticed her yet, so she continued to follow the trail. However, she realized something: the essence trail just ended. This didn’t make sense; by all accounts, the Alicorn Amulet should’ve been at the end of the trail, so where was it?

She banged her hoof against something; something metal. She picked it up and after finally seeing through the dim, let out a loud gasp of shock. The trail DID bring her to the Alicorn Amulet… or at least what was left of it. Twilight held aloft the remnants of the broken frame that used to resemble a winged horned equine. Who did this? How?

Sinister laughter echoed through the cavern and the princess looked around to spot its location.

“Well, well, well,” the voice finally followed, “Princess Twilight Sparkle graces my humble home with her presence.”

“Chrysalis? Is that you? I thought you were crushed to bits.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, princess. I managed to survive without as much as a scratch. Same as the other two did.”

She sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. I was really afraid my decisions have ended up… ending all of you.”

“Excuse me? Is the princess of Equestria saying she was worried about MY safety? I do not need your pity!” the voice quickly changed its tune.

“Chrysalis we don’t have to fight. Just come out peacefully. I won’t be afraid to use force otherwise, and I’ve grown stronger than I was three years ago,” Twilight tried to reason with her.

“Three years… Oh my, such a long time that I’ve absent from the world… seems I have a lot of catching up to do then.”

And before the princess could say anything, a silhouette of a head popped up from behind the ghastly tree and a shot of green magic was fired at her. She dodged.

“Fine! You brought this on yourself, Chrysalis!” Twilight said as she took flight.

She flew around the tree, her horn charging up to shoot at the location where the changeling was hiding. For a split second she saw a shadow leap across the magical pool, she took an immediate shot at her. She missed. Spotting the changeling queen in the cavern turned out to be a difficult task, as the dim light helped her meld into the background, but if she’s hiding it must mean she’s weak. Using her magic, she created a temporary flare to illuminate the cavern and then scanned for movement. She saw something moving in the distance and instinctively shot a blast in its direction.

A green bolt shot out from the moving location, colliding with the purple blast, creating a shockwave that pushed the princess off her balance for a moment. Then came loud buzzing, fast approaching her, so she created an energy shield in front of her at the last minute; the puncturing sound echoed throughout the cavern as a black horn covered in green spots put a hole into the shield and a pair of green teal eyes opened. A sudden sense of dread washed over Twilight, and in the moment of it, the black horn pulled itself out and a bucking force sent the princess flying along with her shield to the ground.

She reeled and coughed, trying to put herself together; this wasn’t right. That couldn’t be Chrysalis. She was never THIS strong. The loud buzzing sound came around, coming from the direction of the giant tree, stopping, and then replaced by the sound of hooves traipsing over the wood and an evil cackle.

“You’ve greatly underestimated me, Princess Twilight,” she heard as she saw a shadowy figure saunter over to the front of the tree. “You see, I had gone through a growth spurt myself.”

As Queen Chrysalis stepped to the edge of the growth, the glowing radiance of the magical pool illuminated her features, and Twilight Sparkle in full confusion finally beheld the changeling queen, in a form that was alien to her: the protrusions on her body were no longer visible, green spots now covering their place, her mane and tail that previously resembled roughed up moss was now more elegant and flowing, her crown, previously a stem with the color of her black body with bulbs at the end of it, was now in full bloom, dark green blossoms decorating it. And finally, her eyes; while pupils retained the sickly green color, sclera had a more pronounced teal color.

One look at the princess and she already knew what thoughts were going through her head, a smug wicked smile curled up on her face, exposing her sharp teeth. “What’s the matter, Princess Twilight? Has my new elegance dazzled you so much?”

“Chrysalis… what have you done to yourself?”

“Me? Oh no, you’re greatly mistaken, princess of Equestria. You see, my current state is all thanks to my benefactor, to whom I’ve delivered a much-coveted possession it would not have been able to obtain otherwise.”

Twilight looked to the side, remembering the empty frame. “But if you took the Alicorn Amulet, why destroy it?”

“Oh, power can be so fickle when it has to go through a filter, so I decided to do a little “liberating”. And as thanks for my hard work I’ve not felt this complete since YOUR STUDENT CORRUPTED MY SWARM AND HIVE!” changeling queen’s shrilling cry echoed through the cavern, before finally falling silent and her angry demeanor instantly changed back to mellow. “So now, I’m building myself a new hive to replace the one that betrayed me.”

The princess was unsure what she’s getting at. She can’t just make a hive with herself…

And then she noticed it: resting on the borders of the bank of the lake was a giant cluster of changeling eggs; big, thanks to the infusion of magical energy from the pool and slowly pulsating. The loud buzzing sound began again as the Queen of Changelings flew from the tree and over them.

“My precious brood will soon emerge and they will require nourishment to become big and strong for what the future brings.” She gently caressed the unhatched eggs, her sight slowly peering into Twilight. “And after I’m through with you, whatever remains will provide more than enough sustenance for them.”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped as she saw the devastation from outside of Zecora’s hovel.

The shy yellow pegasus had just gone to Everfree Forest on another errand for her animal sanctuary, needing help from the zebra to gather some local flora for environmental improvement. That didn’t go as planned, as she arrived at her home only to find it trashed and there was a strange magical trail hanging in the air. She didn’t know what to do; either go and follow the trail in hopes of finding the house’s owner but risking getting herself in trouble, or go find somebody for assistance, but by that time something horrible might happen to Zecora.

Suddenly she felt the ground tremors; they kept growing stronger, while accompanied by the sound of a mass of stampeding hooves drawing ever closer. She turned in the direction it was coming from and braced herself for the worst.

“STOOOOOOP!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, as a herd of ponies emerged from the forest running at high speed, and soon after noticing the yellow pegasus, they all grind through the dirt as they tried to stop on the spot, the little dragon flying off his steed and landing straight into her face, knocking her down.

Her vision finally returned after blurring for a moment, the sight of the other four ponies gathered around her.

“Fluttershy, darling, are you alright?” the fashionista asked.

“I… I think so.” She tried to get up but felt a weight pulling down on her pink mane, only to discover that Spike got himself tangled in it. “A little help, please?”

Rarity pulled her mane apart to untangle the dragon.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing out here at Zecora’s?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“I was just going to ask her to help me gather some natural material for my animal sanctuary, but by the time I got here… it was left like this.”

Pinkie Pie popped her head into the hovel. “Did Zecora invite the yaks over? Because if she did something that wasn’t perfect for them, it would explain why her place got trashed.”

“But what about Twilight? Where is she?” Applejack looked about.

“Wait, Twilight?” Fluttershy looked confused. “She’s supposed to be here?”

Rainbow Dash quickly caught her up to speed. “Long story short, Fluttershy: she’s having sleeping problems, so she needed an alternative help, so we came because there was a slight mistake on the delivery for something she asked for her… that, and something strange is happening back at Canterlot.”

“Maybe she hasn’t arrived here yet?” Rarity wondered.

“No,” the dragon said as he stood by the door and looking at the empty soup bowl and the bottle filled with a rain cloud. “These were the items she took when she departed, so she must’ve left them here before she took off again.”

Orange pony still pondered. “Ye, but where did she go?”

“Emm… maybe we should follow this magic trail?” The shy pegasus pointed to the magical trail in the air.

The rest of the gang gathered around, seeing the magical essence floating off into the distant woods, and looked at one another before Applejack opened her mouth. “Ya think she left it?”

“Well, we got nothing else to go on,” Spike responded.

“Then let’s go, everypony! Follow the purple cloud trail!” Pinkie yelled and she hopped off, the rest of the gang galloping after her.

Unpassable. Zecora struggled to try and dig a side passage to bypass Twilight Sparkle’s magical shield blocking the entrance into the underground tunnel, but the nearest proximity where she’d be able to squeeze through was surrounded by bedrock, and trying to go further would just take too much time; who knows what’s happened to the princess of Equestria in the meantime. Should she instead use one of her potions to nullify the barrier? It’s unsure which one would work against alicorn magic. A rumble with rustling in the bushes followed. A beast possibly? No; not just one, numerous. Zecora pulled out her staff and prepared to defend herself. Needless to say, her worries were for naught, as a familiar group of ponies just burst through.

“ZECORA!” they all yelled in unison as they saw her.

She sighed in relief. “Ponies, you gave me a fright. I was all ready for a fight.”

Spike jumped off Applejack and approached her. “Zecora, where’s Twilight? We got to your hut and it was devastated so we followed the trail here, to bring you this.”

He offered the zebra a bolt of lightning in a bottle. She observed it for a moment before taking it off the dragon’s hands and put it in her pouch.

“You desire help, I appreciate, but that will all have to wait. Since asked about your princess, all I can say, when I tried to help, she blocked me away.”

She pointed to the purple barrier blocking the cave entrance, Rarity approached it, tapping it with her hooves. “She just blocked you out? Why? What could it possibly drove her to do that?”

“Her sentiment I can comprehend, but without any of us it will badly end, because even if she may think herself supreme, she may still have a hard time with the Changeling Queen.”

“Changeling Queen? What a dang minute! Are you saying Chrysalis escaped from her stone prison?!” the orange pony put it all together.

“If you’ve seen the state of my home, you can blame her alone,” Zecora confirmed.

“What about the rest?” Fluttershy asked.

At that moment, the pink pony interjected. “Yeah, Cozy Glow and Tirek; what about them?”

“I do not know the whole tale, but you must go and help her prevail; but as long as this barrier holds, however, I’m not sure we can…” her rhyme came to a stop.

Before their eyes, the purple barrier began to flicker until it suddenly disappeared. They all peered into the dark tunnel.

“Yes! Problem solved itself,” the blue pegasus cheered.

Rarity on the other hand was of a different opinion. “Rainbow Dash… I don’t think this spells anything good.”

“Rarity, it’s true, I am concerned too. If the shield was tied to her magic, then what may have just happened to her could be tragic. “

The gang looked at one another and grimaced.

“Well let’s not wait then!” Applejack announced. “Everypony, follow that trail, quick!”

Just before the ponies descended into the darkness, Zecora gave them one final push. “Go ponies, you’ve got your princess to meet, while I prepare to cover our retreat.”

They all dashed inside, while the zebra remained behind, took off her saddlebag, and started rummaging through the potions. Just as she was about to open one of them, she felt something land on her nose; it was cold to the touch but it melted away quickly. She then looked to the sky and noticed snowdrops lightly falling, followed by foreboding neigh sounds echoing above.

What in the world was happening?

Meanwhile, inside the cave, a clash took place between the Princess of Equestria and the Queen of Changelings. As they flew throughout the cavern, bolts of magic were being shot left and right, tearing holes into the walls, emanating a shockwave whenever the two forces collided. Yet despite being visually at an impasse, they were both aware in whose favor the battle was progressing. Twilight Sparkle, despite her power growing much in the last few years, was slowly but surely starting to tire from both physical and magical exertion; Chrysalis on the other hand has not only somehow grown stronger, but the more the battle was prolonged, her power only grew in turn.

“What’s the matter, Princess Twilight? You still think yourself strong enough to face me alone?”

Of course not; she was no fool to think otherwise. The only way to turn the tide of battle now was to prolong it for as long as possible and hopefully, somebody would start questioning where the princess disappeared and Spike would lead them to the logical conclusion. But as it was, this also turned into a double-edged sword while going against somebody who only grew stronger as time passed, she needed to conserve her strength. She landed on the ground, without a moment to rest as another blast came right at her and as it hit, it kicked up a dust cloud. The Changeling Queen landed, but as the air cleared, her quarry was gone. Twilight teleported and hid behind the sinister tree, but it wouldn’t take long before she was found; she needed a distraction to keep the monster from her location. Her horn lit up and enchantments were placed on the far walls of the cavern.

Her voice resonated. “Queen Chrysalis, please stop! You said you’re finally feeling fulfilled. There’s no point in holding on to revenge for something that’s in the past!”

A cackle echoed through the cavern. “Oh Princess, you got it all wrong. All those times you defeated me, the loss of my hive… I’m not mad about that anymore.”

“Y… you’re not?” she was confused by what she was hearing.

“No,” changeling’s voice continued. “Do you know what really drives me? The experience. I remember what it felt like; the emptiness… the loneliness… the feeling of futility, that there is an all-consuming gaping hole inside that can never be blocked off. I remember it all; and for all that I have endured, all the pain and misery, I’m going to have you experience it ten-fold for making me feel this way in the first place!”

“But that’s just revenge for the sake of revenge alone, Chrysalis! There is nothing to gain from it!” Twilight pleaded.

“That’s what hatred is, Princess Twilight; it is cold, cruel, and merciless… blinding, absolutely… but it feels oh, so righteous… And now it’s coursing through my veins, giving me power greater than I could’ve ever imagined!”

Twilight shivered as she felt the conviction in the tone of her voice; she was so sure in her words. Before she could conjure a response however she felt a tap on her head, and a green substance oozed down her face.

“I have become…” the voice rang as Twilight looked up and noticed a pair of green-teal eyes light up above her, slithering down the tree, “The Pillar of Hatred!”

The princess reacted, bouncing off the tree trunk to face Chrysalis and opening a shot at her, but the Changeling Queen grabbed her with her magic and tossed her upward, into the air, having her hit the tree’s branches in the process until she hit the ceiling. She recovered, but at the moment the Changeling Queen dashed up to her with full speed, she raised a shield; yet just like the first time Chrysalis’ horn penetrated it, further than before and it hit Twilight in the chest, her chest crest being the only thing that protected her. She backed off, but only had time to put up a barrier again as Chrysalis started channeling a magical beam at her. As it kept going, doubt begun to settle in; she just saw how strong the Queen of Changelings is and just keeps getting more powerful, so by the end what if Spike may not be able to get to her in time? What if even his, or anybody else’s help won’t be enough to stop her? What will happen to Equestria if she alone is not able to stop her now?

Queen Chrysalis grinned gleefully, her sight saw what her opponent couldn’t. Hatred was making her stronger, yes, but her adversary was also getting weaker thanks to the whispers of a little weaselly form that hung around her head. Now the princess’ fate was sealed. She stopped channeling the beam and shot a bolt at her feet, the ground heaved and Twilight was sent flying against the wall. Princess slid down the wall, hurt and mentally exhausted, her shield finally faded away, but wouldn’t receive a moment of reprieve as the Pillar of Hatred used magic to drag her over to her side and lifted her to eye-level.

“How pathetic,” she smugly said. “You’re supposed to embody the power that surpasses even Princesses Celestia and Luna. The most powerful magic in the world! So where is it? Where is your magic of friendship now?”

The queen swiped her hoof over her head, knocking Twilight’s crown off, having it fall in the dirt. “Hatred has made me stronger than your friendship has ever done for you. Now, you’re going to meet your end very slowly, and after my children have had their fill, my swarm will darken the skies of Equestria again! The Queen of Changelings will rule supe- !”

In a moment of pride, Chrysalis didn’t notice that one of the rocks started to move, launched itself, and hitting her in the face, causing her to recoil and drop Twilight to the ground. She looked around to see where it came from, then out of the tunnel a giant burst of flame erupted and she immediately flew away to not get burnt. She saw them then: five ponies and a dragon charged out into the cavern, to their princess’ side.

Doubt’s whispers deafened and blinded Twilight to the world around her. But soon she could hear mumbling sound slowly overpowering it, and as the sound slowly became clear, she could recognize these familiar voices; but it shouldn’t be possible, they couldn’t be here, not all of them at once. The mist cleared from her eyes and she beheld the full picture; seeing her best friends and her most loyal companion together at her side. The mist might have cleared from her eyes, but they were soon replaced by tears of pure joy, as she brought them together in an embrace.

“Twilight, you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We’re so sorry we couldn’t get here sooner,” Fluttershy apologized.

“Don’t be…” Twilight sniffed. “For a moment I started doubting myself… To believe I’d never see you guys again…”

“We’re here for you now, Twi,” Applejack reassured her.

Rarity snuggled up to her. “How could we call ourselves the Council of Friendship if we were unable to protect the one who brought us together in the first place, dear?

“Without us you wouldn’t be able to laugh in the face of danger, silly,” Pinkie Pie giggled.

Finally, Spike hugged Twilight, not saying a word; none were needed.

Queen Chrysalis still flew above them, expression of disgust forming on her face, but also a disappointment, as she saw Doubt slither away from the group; it would appear that it wasn’t as powerful as it appeared to be. Not that it mattered.

She landed, her horn charging up. “A minor inconvenience; in the end, you will all serve as nourishment for my brood!”

She fired a bolt at them and before she could score a hit, an energy shield appeared, blocking the attack. Gritting her teeth, she charged up and started channeling a beam at them. It hit the barrier and slowly pushed it back… until Twilight finally stood back up. The barrier began to push in the opposite direction, as she slowly marched forward, her friends standing at her side, accompanying her. Desperation began to set into Chrysalis; no matter how hard she pushed herself, no matter how much effort she put into channeling her beam, her opponent could not be deterred.

“You’ve made a grave mistake, Chrysalis,” Twilight proclaimed as she continued to approach the changeling queen. “You were so sure, so confident in believing that your own spite was enough to stand against the magic of friendship, but look now where you stand; you wield all that power, all alone, while I and my friends are sharing it. That’s what makes me truly strong, that’s what makes ALL OF US strong. Even if you knock one of us down, by leaning on one another we will keep rising over and over again.”

“NOOOOOOO!” the Queen of Changelings screamed in defiance. “I won’t let you take everything from me! Not again!”

“Face it, Chrysalis. Our magic of friendship is, and always will be stronger than hate.”

Their opponent was pushed all the way back to the edge of the magical lake, all her effort no longer amounted to anything. But just as it seemed that the changeling’s defeat was certain, it came…

“Broodmother…” the harrowed voice echoed throughout the cavern.

Twilight and the gang stopped in their tracks. That voice; every single one of them heard it, not just Queen Chrysalis, who stopped channeling her beam and turned towards the tree.

“We want to meet them face to face…”

“But... in your current state you’re- “ her voice was soon overshadowed.

“The storms of hatred come…” the voice said with finality.

They all heard it. A sinister neighing cry echoed from the tunnel behind them; the gang turned and tried to peer into the blackness, but their expressions were soon changed to terror, for with a burst of cold wind, the equine specters of ice and snow emerged, beginning to circle above the tree in the middle of the lake, their bestial voice echoing all around.

“Y… y’all seeing what I’m seeing right now, right?” country pony asked.

“Windigos… b-but how?!” Twilight questioned, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. “Windigos only appear when a great concentration of hatred and lack of love is being amassed, so why are they…”

Twilight’s voice trailed off as she looked forward and saw the look on Changeling Queen change; the desperation in her expression was gone, replaced with brimming confidence. Something was not right.

“You’ve issued a challenge, Princess Twilight,” she bragged. “Now we’ll see how much weight your words hold when you meet my benefactor in person!”

The windigos neighed as they circled the tree one more time and then nosedived into the magical pool below.
Silence fell, followed by the bubbling sound coming from the pool. Black shadowy mass began to rise from the bubbling area; dark substance twisting and turning as it grew in size, accompanied by the sound of windigos within it, a pair of giant scrawny arms sprouted from the ever-shifting form, as the giant towering creature’s body begun to solidify.

“Behold, Princess Twilight Sparkle!” Queen Chrysalis announced in a boisterous tone. “The physical manifestation of Hatred itself!!!”

And with those final words, a pair of giant teal eyes opened on the black mass; they peered into the group of ponies below, and its gaping maw opened, letting out a shrilling cry accompanied by icy cold spray.

Chapter 6: From Within

Sunburst just walked out of his office, exhaling. What an exhausting day. That’s pretty much been the tempo for the last few months. With Twilight Sparkle leaving the School of Friendship in Starlight Glimmer’s hands as the new headmare, it was up to him, her, and Trixie to run it. Yet as things go, the rest of Twilight’s friends who served as teachers inevitably got caught up by the weight of their lives outside the school; so, one by one, over the course of three years, they dropped out as teachers. With him, Starlight, and Trixie being the only permanent members of the staff, they needed some fresh blood, somebody more permanent; having temporary substitutes would not get them far. This is why it surprised him that the answer to their troubles arrived today. Three applicants signed up, but the situation was… weird. This was outside of his jurisdiction as the vice headstalion; the headmare will have to sort this out. He arrived at her office and knocked.

“Come in!” the voice said.

He walked in and saw a pink, purple-maned mare sitting behind her desk, deep in paperwork.

“Oh hey, Sunburst,” Starlight Glimmer welcomed him. “Students all gone already?”

He closed the door behind him. “Yeah, left some time ago. You know, lately, they’ve been spending a lot of their time over in the Everfree Forest by their Tree of Harmony house. I’m kinda worried about them, Starlight.”

She smiled after taking a sip from her mug. “Sunburst, I think out of all ponies here, the two of us should know the best what’s eating them. Their fourth year here is about to end. They’ll have to leave the school so they’re likely frustrated and confused on what they’re supposed to do now that they’re at the end of the line.”

“Well, when you put it like that, I really can’t blame them.” He fixed his glasses. “I remember how it ended for me when I couldn’t keep up at magic school. You think they might need some assistance?”

“That’s what Trixie’s here for, Sunburst, if they wanted to talk she would’ve known and told us already. Speaking of which, where is she?”

“Oh, she left a few minutes ago. Said she’ll prepare for tonight’s entertainment.”

She sighed. “Of course she did. With moments like this, I don’t even dare thinking about putting her in the position of a teacher, not after what happened last time. We really need to get more permanent staff at the school, Sunburst. When the students get home and the leaders are delighted with how they progressed, they’ll send even more students our way, so we need to fill up our ranks asap.” She stopped herself, thinking for a moment before speaking again. “Say… you don’t think we could try to convince THEM to stay behind and help out?”

Sunburst chuckled. “I honestly wouldn’t say no to that, but I’m sure if they wanted, Trixie would’ve informed us by now.” Then he remembered. “Oh, speaking of which, I got these application forms you may wanna look at.”

He handed the documents over to Starlight, and after looking through the three of them as a star of delight lit in her eyes. “Oh my… Sunburst I think our worries may be over!”

“Yeah, about that…” He scratched his head trying to find proper wording. “You know I normally wouldn’t say to look a gift horse in a mouth, but are you sure these three are a viable option? I mean they just graduated from the local school.”

She paused for a moment. “Now Sunburst, I completely understand. I wouldn’t want to put just anypony for a job as a teacher either, especially somepony as young as this. But these three fillies were born for this kind of job; at their age, they created an organization that helps other ponies who have problems finding their way in the world. Not to mention they technically did graduate from the School of Friendship long before any other student here. So, they basically got references to show they’re competent.”

“I mean, I guess, but still… this young? They might as well pass off as new students attending this school.”

“Trust me Sunburst, these girls are perfect for the job.” She took one last sip from the mug, before putting the applications on the table.

She knew these three fillies all too well. An orange purple-maned pegasus with flight impairment, a yellow red-maned earth pony, and a white unicorn with a curly mane. She recalled how desperately they once tried to get into the school merely as students. While Sunburst’s concerns were valid, she was sure this was the right course of action. Desperation was high enough to make Starlight more malleable.

She finished signing the last document, finally finishing her duties for the day. “Finally, a weekend of relaxation at last. Pity that Maud and Mudbriar are away on a trip to Crystal Empire. Guess it’ll just be the three of us then.”

She traipsed over to the stallion. “Ready to go?”

Sunburst nodded, and with a flash of magic, they disappeared.

POOF!

In a moment, both Starlight and Sunburst appeared in their home, high ceilings of the castle’s entry hall opened before them. This place once housed the Princess of Friendship and the rest of Equestria’s embodiments of Harmony. From here Starlight began her reformation under the watchful eye of her new friends; it was the closest thing that she could call home. And the School of Friendship was situated just outside of it. But as of late, the place has felt rather empty and lonely; her, Sunburst, and Trixie were the only ones now inhabiting the castle, and there were times when she missed having those who helped her get back on the path be close to her.

“So,” Starlight asked her friend, “what do you think will be on today’s menu from our “Great and Powerful School Counselor”?"

“Well, if I had to take a stab in the dark- “

“STARLIGHT!” a shriek echoed through the near-empty castle, silencing the stallion before he could answer.

That was Trixie’s voice. What could’ve possibly happened? They dropped everything and dashed down the hallway and ran into the main room, where the seats of the Elements of Harmony stood along with the map.

“Trixie what’s wrong?!” she yelled as she burst through the door.

The blue unicorn stood by the Cutie Map, slowly turning her head and then screaming from excitement. “The Map! It’s been activated!”

“Wait, seriously?” Sunburst asked, confused, Starlight joining him. “But… since the Tree of Harmony was destroyed the map remained dormant.”

“Dunno, but look! It’s already showing something!”

Their curiosity was piqued and she joined to her friend’s side, only to be met with general confusion. The Map was activated once again, all of the landmasses, the furthers known borders of Equestria could be seen on it, including territories of their neighbors. But there was one distinct difference: no cutie marks were levitating above any specific area. Instead, a dark cloud loomed over the location representing the Everfree Forest.

“Oooooh, this is so exciting. I’ve never been on one of those friendship quests you’ve told me so much about,” Trixie excitedly exclaimed

“Trixie,” the stallion pointed out, “I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t normal.”

Starlight agreed. “The more serious question should be, what in the world’s happening over there?”

Within confines of the remains of the castles of Two Sisters, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and her friends finally found refuge and unexpectedly encountering the foreign students. They didn’t have much time left however, Rainbow Dash needed some serious help. She was still shivering uncontrollably; she had just gone through a harrowing experience and while she managed to survive, the fate of her frozen wings was still undecided and they had to act quickly before they would succumb to frostbite. Twilight and Rarity levitated several gallons of water and used it to envelop the blue pegasus’ wings and having it circulate, while Spike and Smolder gently breathed fire near it to keep it warm at the steady temperature, to ensure the ice melted without damaging her wings. Yona took her back drape and wrapped it around the pegasus’ front to keep the rest of her body warm, with Fluttershy sitting by her side to try and comfort her, while Silverstream brought some warm tea and helped her drink it as she couldn’t even hold the mug properly without spilling it.

“Wait… are you serious?” Sandbar asked, trying to comprehend what Applejack had just explained to them.

Ocellus felt uneasy. “Chrysalis summoned a… creature made of pure Hatred?”

“At least that’s what she called it,” confirmed the country pony.

“And it totally whooped all of your flanks?!” Sandbar freaked out.

“Considering Rainbow Dash’s state,” she glanced at the blue pegasus, “that would be putting it mildly.” Applejack then glanced upwards. “Hey Pinkie! Anything in sight yet?”

The pink pony was situated on top of the wall of the castle ruins, acting as a lookout, trying to spot if anything is approaching. “Nothing!”

“Ponies very lucky you got away,” the yak said.

“Luck ain’t got nothin’ to do with it, Yona,” Applejack retorted. “If it weren’t for Zecora’s magic we’d likely be changeling food by now.”

“So… what exactly is she doing now?” Gallus asked, pointing her way.

They turned to her. The zebra was traipsing about with chalk in her mouth, drawing strange circles into the stone ground.

Silverstream flew by, then stopped and backtracked, after seeing the scene. “You know, I’m all for expressive art, but I don’t think this is exactly the time and place for it,” she went closer to country pony and whispered in her ear. “I think she may have problems if she goes around and never washing the paint off.”

“Err, Silverstream,” she explained to her, “those stripes on her are all-natural. She’s a zebra.”

“A… zebra?!” she gasped. “I’ve never seen a zebra before!”

“Yeah well, it’s only one you’ll likely see in Equestria. I’m surprised of you though; you kids are here often, she lives in the Everfree Forest and you’ve never seen her, or interacted with her before?”

The four students looked at one another for a moment. “Well…” Ocellus finally spoke, “I’ve seen her pass the trees outside the ruins, but I’ve never really given it much thought.”

“So where did she come from anyway?” Gallus asked.

Applejack shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. Twilight only said zebras are from a faraway land and Zecora never really talked about it.”

The sound of chalk dropping to the ground reached their ears, followed by the voice. “Please don't speak as if I'm not here, only because I’m turned on my rear.”

Gallus scowled. “Does she always speak this weird?” before he had a hoof shoved on his beak. “Kid, don’t push it.”

The zebra walked over to Rainbow Dash’s side and checked her over.

“We’re doing as best as we can, Zecora,” Twilight turned to her, “but the process is going too slow.”

“Yeah…” Spike said, gasping for air while it was Smolder’s turn to keep the fire alight, “and it’s a bit difficult trying to keep the temperature steady to not get too hot.”

“Don’t you have anything that could help speed up the process?” Fluttershy asked her while she was still by blue pegasus’ side, trying to comfort her.

The zebra thought for a moment, then opened her saddlebag and pulled out a bottle filled with orange glowing liquid. “A spoonful to cure shivers is plenty, though saving her wings will leave us on empty. A drop too much might also be dangerous to touch.”

Through the sound of clattering teeth, words came out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth. “I… d-d-don’t care. If I c-c-can never use me wings again t-t-t-then I’m done for… J-j-j-just do it…”

The zebra pulled the cork on the bottle. “Drink it all, slow and swallow, be warned a sting is sure to follow.”

The pegasus nodded as she chugged down the whole concoction. She let out a loud burp before the chattering of her teeth continued… But then it slowly started to fade away. It seemed to be working; she was no longer feeling the shivers all over the body! She was about to say something when she all of a sudden grimaced; she turned bug-eyed, tearing up, her coat and mane turned fiery red, and when she finally opened her mouth, with a cry, a flame followed. In her frantic flailing about, she tossed her cover into Rarity, causing her to fall backward and ceasing the water circulation, leaving Twilight to only hold it up. She heard a hissing sound coming from inside and watched as the frozen wings heated up, causing the ice to just go puff, the vapors bubbling onto the surface. She smiled, realizing that Zecora’s medicine worked. Then a splash followed; Rainbow Dash bent backward, plunging her head into the water behind her and begun to drink it up to douse the fire inside, and with the face she was pulling it frightened the princess so much that she let go of the spell holding up the body of water, causing the whole thing to splash to the ground, getting everybody around it drenched.

The red color slowly started to fade away from the pegasus, returning to her natural blue, but as she finally managed to breathe in, her eyes pointed like daggers at the zebra. “ZECORA, YOU SAID IT WAS GOING TO STING, NOT BURN!”

Fluttershy parted her mane, covering her eyes. “Rainbow Dash, do you feel better?”

“Well, yeah, but it still hurt.”

She went behind her back to check on the possible injuries. “Your wings seem fine.”

“There’s only one way to find out for sure,” the blue Pegasus said, positioning herself to leap into the air.

She jumped, she felt the wind brush through her wings, she was delighted to know it hasn’t left her… and after a few seconds she fell flat on her face.

“Dash, you alright?” Applejack rushed to her side.

She slowly rose back up, with a distraught expression on her face. “My…. My wings won’t move… WHY WON’T MY WINGS MOVE?!”

The water flattened the healer’s mohawk mane, she shook in an attempt to shake off the moisture, then traipsed over to her side, examined her wings, and said with a smile. “Don't worry, friend of mine, your wings are fine. Out in the cold, they tend to strain; some days of rest will make them right as rain.”

“A few days? Hah, I can live with that,” she boasted, while Applejack and Fluttershy, smiled realizing that she’s in no serious mental distress, while Rarity in the meantime finally managed to get up from under the yak drape that’s become heavy because of water. “I mean, I’m a Wonderbolt. I can deal with something small like not flying for a while. I’m sure somepony else can in meantime take over teaching the newbies… or going on maneuvers… or doing the performance… and feel their mane flowing in the wind…” the realization slowly washed over her and she cracked. “I can’t… not fly for a whole week! My career is over!” she sobbed loudly.

The earth pony and the other pegasus went to her side to reassure her it will be alright in the end, meanwhile, the unicorn groaned and thought to herself: What a drama queen. She struggled to lift the heavy fabric, then her eyes stopped for a moment after she noticed the beautiful pattern design.

“Yona,” she asked the yak, “did you make this?”

The big student nodded. “Mama taught Yona the traditional Yakyakistan pattern and Yona want to make it even better.”

“Oh my, you do have a way with a needle young lady; you’ve quite a talent,” the fashionista responded. “Have you ever considered dipping your hooves in a fashion industry?”

“Yona dipped hooves in water right now, but Yona never tried to dip in fashion yet. Needles hurt,” the yak bit on the wet fabric and sling it over her back, making a splashing sound as it contacted an already drenched yak fur.

“Erm… that was just an expression, dear.”

“Yona know,” she grinned. “Yona made a joke.”

Rarity couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. Then she remembered something’s been poking her since the escape and brought out a finely crafted piece of golden metal.

“Twilight, darling,” she got the princess’ attention, “I believe this is yours,” she handed the crown back to her. “I found it in the dirt back at the cave. Good thing I have a keen eye, otherwise you’d need to get yourself a new one.”

Twilight held the crown aloft, observing her own reflection in the gold. She was roughed up and tired, strands of her mane standing all over the place. But she felt…

The crown’s clanging sound echoed all around as it fell on the stone ground, getting everybody’s attention, silencing even Rainbow Dash’s crying.

“Twilight, careful! Both Princesses Celestia and Luna gave up their crowns to make that one, you can’t risk getting it damaged!” Rarity grimaced.

“Really…?” a single eye glared at her. “That’s what you’re worried about right now?!”

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike asked.

There was frustration growing inside her. “Spike, have you missed what happened not long ago?! We got more serious problems right now! We failed! We’ve done our best and it wasn’t enough to stop that… THING that Chrysalis brought.”

“Now Twilight, calm down,” Applejack intervened. “No need to get aggressive on us. So maybe we had bad luck. We just need to hit it with something stronger.”

Sandbar jumped in. “Yeah! Remember how all those years ago we defeated Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow? You just need the rest of us,” he extended his hooved at his fellow students, “as well as the Pillars. Then we can-“

“Sandbar, that’s the problem!” she interrupted him. “When I faced Chrysalis alone, she was different than last time. She wasn’t empowered by an ancient artifact, something that could be dispelled; it was as if she had been completely changed, molded to the point where her own hatred fuels her. She proclaimed herself to be a paragon of her own inner turmoil, “The Pillar of Hatred”, much like the Pillars of Old Equestria.”

“But are you sure that it wasn’t just a fluke? I mean maybe you did something that didn’t make it work,” Smolder added.

“Smolder, we gave it all,” the princess told her. “We were true to ourselves as we’ve always been. But that creature, this… “manifestation of Hatred” as Chrysalis dubbed it, it’s beaten us all like it was nothing, as it’s evidence with what happened to Rainbow Dash.” She glanced at her. “We barely managed to get away with our lives… at the last moment,” she wiggled her hind leg which still had a severed shadow tendril wrapped around it.

“Twilight…” Rainbow Dash finally spoke. “It feels like there’s something more you’re not telling us if you’re Twilighting this much.”

Everybody around the blue pegasus looked at her and then at the princess. It has been a long time since Twilight Sparkle had one of her typical freak-outs, which they had dubbed fittingly. She looked like she was about to burst from the anger of using that sentence at the most inappropriate time… but she inhaled and exhaled; Rainbow Dash had a point.

“There is… something else, but I don’t want you all to fall into possible despair.”

“Twilight, I ain’t gonna be hearin’ none of that!” the element of Honesty predictably intervened. “The fact that you’re even questioning to trust us must mean that it’s serious.”

“But… the students…” She looked at them and they simply sat there with their arms crossed; they were on Applejack’s side of this.

The princess sighed in defeat. “Okay. After our initial failure, I tried to discern what exactly that abomination was, so I looked at it through the sight that perceives magic and… I best show you to understand…”

She closed her eyes. Her horn begun to glow, followed by her whole body, beginning to levitate. She opened them and a bright light flashed out of them, blinding everybody.

They finally managed to see past the light. Twilight was still standing before them, in her state of trance, but what stood behind her… was not something they expected. They saw windigos, the spirits of cold and ice harnessed in dark chains, which were extending way up into a giant mass of darkness above them; no matter how far and wide they looked it didn’t have an end, like looking at the endless blue sky. Genuine fear began to settle in when the realization came over them: this was darkness the size of the world. The light engulfed them again.

They were all back in the castle ruins. There couldn’t possibly be any words worth passing that could describe the terror. Considerable time passed before a word was finally uttered.

“You…” Ocellus started. “You don’t think that’s what the spirit of the Tree of Harmony warned us about?”

“Based on what we just saw?” Gallus responded. “I’d say that’s a hundred percent yes.”

Their words got the princess’ attention. “Wait, the tree’s spirit called to you?”

The students nodded. “It happened not a moment before you all arrived; warning us about "great shadow and to not let it come to this place",” Sandbar answered.

“Wait… does that mean that dark thing can come here at any moment?” Silverstream panicked.

Applejack turned back to the wall and called out in concern. “Pinkie! Anything in sight yet?!”

“Nada!” the reply came from the pink pony.

“But if what you’re telling is true,” Twilight responded to the students, “if the spirit of the tree did warn you then it really is the worst-case scenario! I’ve been seeing it in my dreams for the last two weeks. This dark creature, which breathed ice and snow, resembled one of those faces that haunted me, and there were five others with it. Their darkness consumed all of Equestria and all of my friends… and now it made itself manifest. Ever since that moment, I began to wonder: What if my dreams weren’t just that, but a premonition? What if what I saw was a warning that what will happen is inevitable? That nothing we do can stop this?”

A hoof tapped her shoulder, the zebra trying to get her attention. “Princess, I understand your distress, but if what you’re describing is true, then we can no longer second-guess.” She walked over to Spike with a wooden stick. “Spike, if I may ask, for you to provide a light for this task?”

The dragon looked at her, then shrugged and blew a green flame to set the stick on fire. Then she traipsed over to the circles on the ground and started adding other reagents from her bag: she poured flakes of ice from a small gourd, a saucer filled with water, and the bottled lightning. She put the burning stick on the edge of one of the circles and pushed a rock in its path to cast a shadow. And lastly, she stacked up some kindling inside one of them, then rummaged through her saddlebag to bring out the fire-lizard, who promptly huffed into it, setting the pile ablaze.

“Zecora, what are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Doing what you asked of me: to help with your stress,” she replied. “No better timing, since we’re under duress.”

“You want to diagnose me RIGHT NOW? No offense, Zecora, but this isn’t the time to- “

“Twilight Sparkle, be still,” she said in a serious tone, as she pulled out her staff, “lest I make somepony ill! My incantation is tricky, we don’t need the spell to come out icky. If done right the problem’s root will appear in sight.”

She walked to the center of the circle and sat down, closing her eyes. The zebra was nervous herself. She had not done this ritual in years and the first time she used it, it did not end well. She needed to concentrate and focus. Ice, fire, lightning, water, and shadow; the five elements surrounded her but it was herself that was the grounding force for them all; it required her to empty herself of all thoughts and feelings. She tapped the bottom of the staff against the floor. It echoed. And then it happened: the surrounding circles lit up, their energy slowly merging at the very center until she herself was completely enveloped by it. Everybody else stared in amazement; they’ve not seen anything like this before. Then her eyes shot open in blue light and a magical radiance burst out in a wave, spreading through the ruins and across the Everfree Forest. Silence fell on the scene and her eyes stopped glowing, but it was soon broken by a familiar voice.

“Weirdness spotted at four o’clock!” Pinkie Pie yelled.

Applejack immediately took note of it, rushed to the walls of the ruins, and looked through the window.

“Whoa, nelly. Y’all may wanna see this,” she said in a tone of unease.

The rest of the ponies and the students joined her and realized the problem. In the distance, they could see a dark, sinister aura rising over the treetops. It was like a massive cloud forming, covering the sky in perpetual darkness.

“Is that what zebra magic reveals?” Yona asked. “Because this dark even worse than Yakyakistan on the worst day.”

“Zecora, what is that?” Fluttershy asked in a frightened tone.

“This magic gives turmoil a physical, visible form. And though I see it far away… even here, we’re not safe from its storm,” she said in a very concerned voice, looking at the Princess of Friendship.

“Not safe here? Zecora, what are you talking about…” Twilight’s voice trailed off when she realized that everybody was starting to stare at her with a freaked-out expression. “What? What are you all looking at me like that for?”

“Princess Twilight, are you feeling alright?” Smolder asked. “Because you look kinda… smokey?”

Rarity pulled out a hand mirror and slowly levitated it towards the princess. “What she’s trying to say Twilight, is that you look… to put it mildly… unwell.”

The princess gazed into the mirror and got a most unpleasant answer. Looking at her face she saw grey smoke venting out of her eyes.

“What… Zecora, what is this?! What’s happening to me?!” she panicked.

“‘I thought it then, but now it’s certain!” the shaman spoke. “The shadow of Doubt is upon your person!”

“Zecora this isn’t the time for rhyming riddles, be direct!”

“I’ve been perfectly clear with what I said! Your own doubt is bubbling up to the surface, making itself manifest.”

Doubt. That was the root of the problem. Ever since she started having those nightmares two weeks ago, she felt unease weighing her down. It felt like nothing at first, but as time passed the burden kept growing and nobody else could assist her in any way. Twilight may have known what’s wrong with her, but there was no cure for it and to make matter worse, her recent experience compiled the issue, making her doubt grow more and more. She suddenly felt a strange chill coming up her leg. The tendril remains that were wrapped around her hind leg liquified and started to spawn small tendrils, slowly crawling up her. On first instinct, she used magic on it to detach it off her… but there was no effect. She panicked, trying to brush it off with her front hooves but all it did was cause the mass to attach to them and it started to crawl up her closer. The rest of the ponies immediately rushed to her side to try and help take the black mass off her, yet it kept slipping through everybody’s hooves. She tried to cry out for help, but her voice was muffled as the mass crawled up to her face and beginning to absorb the vapor being exhumed from her eyes.

“Ponies, go away!” the zebra yelled. “There’s only one way to stop her from falling under its sway!”

Zecora clenched her staff between her teeth and charged at the group, everybody else moving out of her way. She swung it, the gourds on the staff’s shaft coming in contact with the back to Twilight’s head, and the black mass attached to her face was flung off her and splattering on the ground. The vapors from the princess’ eyes had dissipated and she collapsed out cold.

“Twilight!” they called in unison quickly joining to her unconscious body, with the students running to her side.

“The princess! Is she…?” Silverstream asked before she got his question answered by the shaman.

“She will be fine, we intervened in the nick of time,” the zebra reassured them.

They sighed in relief. The threat had passed… or so they thought. While her friends were around Twilight, they weren’t paying attention to the splatter on the ground. The black mass began to slowly reassemble, conglomerating into a single blob, beginning to stir until a mouth formed and releasing a shrill at the end. It got everybody’s attention.

“What is that?” Rarity asked in a grossed-out tone.

The blob shifted around, looking in all directions. Was it… confused?

“Maybe…” Fluttershy wondered, “it’s not as harmful as it seems.”

The pegasus slowly approached the mass of goo, despite the protest of the rest of the group. As she got in hoof’s reach of it, the amalgamation’s attention finally turned to her.

“Hello there, little thing. There’s no need for you to be scared of me,“ she coddled it, slowly extending her hoof in its direction. “Come on. There’s no need to fear, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Her hoof stopped a few inches away. The blob slowly extended its face in her direction. Suddenly, tentacles sprouted out of its body, its maw opened and it released a shrilling cry as it extended at her.

Applejack immediately leaped and pulled the yellow pegasus back at the last moment. “I don’ think it got friendly, Fluttershy!”

“Get it!” Pinkie Pie screamed on top of her lungs and jumped on top of it, squishing it.

That didn’t stop the blob, as it crawled out from under her and made a getaway towards the treehouse.

“SMASH BLACK BLOB!” the yak yelled and charged after it.

“Yona wait!” Sandbar called out and ran after her, followed by the rest of the students.

“Stop! It’s too dangerous!” Rarity called out, but her warning fell on deaf ears as the students already went inside the house.

“We need to go with them, y’all!” Applejack urged as she got up. “They could get hurt by that thing!”

“I’m staying with Twilight,” Spike responded, “if that thing happens to come back I’m not gonna let it get to her again.”

“Same here,” the fashionista responded, the dragon giving her a glance of surprise.

“We got this!” Rainbow Dash yelled and leaped into the air, only to land belly first and sliding on the ground. “Right… forgot; no wings.”

“Rainbow Dash, you should stay behind, you’re not well yet,“ Fluttershy tried to tell her, only to be immediately cut off.

“The hay I will! My legs are still working. You’ll just have to handle the flying bit instead of me,” she told her.

She got back on her feet, and they, along with Applejack and Pinkie Pie dashed into the treehouse after the kids.

The black blob squeezed through the narrow cracks in the tree until it reached the bottom, a large empty room with no noticeable exits. It shifted about, trying to determine its surroundings, unable to perceive anyone. It let out a whimpering growl.

A light turned on, the source coming from the corner of the room; the tree itself. The substance twisted, becoming agitated; it spited the light. Then the source made itself manifest, a shape made of light, resembling the Princess of Friendship, stood before the creature made of black mass, towering over it. Its behavior changed suddenly; it had gone quiet, facing directly at the Spirit of the Tree of Harmony, intently focusing on it.

The Spirit spoke in a calm tone. ”Fragment, the remnant of the shadow that once emerged from the world. That which should not be. I… do not have the power to stop you. With the Tree gone, you can no longer be suppressed by it, but in turn, others have now risen to the occasion. Those who live in this world now will rise against you… even without me. Their light will triumph over your darkness in the end.”

The black blob stared at the spirit, unmoving. Then it began to bubble up as its form twisted and its maw opened, letting out a gurgling cry, but only two comprehensible words came out:

"DOUBT… STRONG…!"

The students accompanied by one adult each were going about the house looking for the black mass: Gallus and Silverstream with Fluttershy checked the area near the branches, Ocellus and Smolder with Rainbow Dash checked the upper levels, while Yona and Sandbar with Applejack checked the ground levels; only Pinkie Seems to have vanished out of sight. By the end, they all finally met back at the ground floor at the front door, but they were all empty-handed.

“Tarnation!” cursed Applejack. “Finding that varmint is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

“More like a pebble amongst boulders,” Gallus quipped.

“That creature can squeeze through any crack,“ Ocellus showed concern. “It could be hidden anywhere.”

“Let’s not lose hope just yet,” Fluttershy answered. “Pinkie Pie’s yet to come back, maybe she’s found something.”

A sound followed, echoing from one of the rooms. It sounded like a glass touching the hard rock ground, yet they could also hear the sound of traipsing hooves. The pink pony appeared, one of her front hooves stuck in a giant jar.

“Sorry guys, no luck on this end,” the party pony said, acting as if she’s not aware of her current position.

Smolder eyed her for a moment. “Why is your hoof in a-” she stopped herself, re-examining the jar, then pulling a sour face. “Wait a minute… that’s my rock candy jar!”

“Oh. So it is,” she answered with a smile. “I found it open when I was inspecting the pantries and thought to myself: "What if the black blob hid inside?" So, I decided, at the risk of my own life to remove every piece from the jar to find this invasive alien creature. But it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for my friends…”

She posed dramatically, but the rest of the group were not impressed, especially Smolder who was still pulling a sour face.

“You just had cravings for rock candy, didn’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked in a nearly Maud-like neutral tone.

“Relax, I have every intention of giving it back.” She tried to soften the situation and then started flailing her hoof about. “Although I’m afraid I got stuck when trying to reach that last piece that somehow got stuck at the bottom. Can somepony please get it off me?”

Smolder glared at her, before approaching her and grabbing the jar. “You’re paying me back EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. I had them counted.”

“Erm… guys? I have a question,” Silverstream asked, standing outside, looking upwards, her voice being let known before the dragon could pull the jar off. “Is it normal for leaves to fall from trees?”

“Well ‘course it is, Silverstream,” Applejack answered. “Every year in autumn when the leaves grow old, we hold the annual Running of the Leaves to help them fall off.”

“I already know about the leaves falling from normal trees, but do they normally also fall from crystal trees?” she asked, still looking up and as she finished that sentence a crystallized leaf fell on the ground before her.

The group looked at one another and ran outside to see what she was talking about. Unease struck them; they saw the crystal leaves from high branches beginning to lose their luster and falling off. This wasn’t normal, especially not from this tree, which never lost its leaves until now. It started to sound like hail falling as the crystals fell on the house roof and around them, shattering as they hit.

“No, that definitely NOT normal,” the yak said.

But it still didn’t stop. Little by little the bright luster of the tree’s branches began to dim, progressing further downwards to the trunk and the rest of the house.

“What’s happening to the tree?!” Ocellus panicked.

“That creature…” Fluttershy pointed out. “Maybe it’s responsible for this?”

“Ye, but where is it?!” Gallus' voice rose in panic. “We searched every place, except for nooks and crannies that we can’t get into. It could be anywhere!”

“We checked every corner! Are you kids sure there’s no other room here?!” blue pegasus questioned them.

“Hey, I have a question!” the party planner called them from inside. “Do you have a light-show room for parties below?”

Sandbar ran in, questioning what she meant, but all she did was point to the crack in the floor below a bookshelf. There was a bright flash coming from below. Was there perhaps another room below the house they didn’t even know about?
Everybody got called in and as they moved the bookshelf away, they all saw the phenomenon, all the while the tree continued to lose its luster; it was now on the ground level.

“We need to hurry and find out what it is! Otherwise, the tree won’t last much longer!” Ocellus stressed out.

“How are we supposed to break through that? We don’t even have any tools-” Applejack told them, but before she finished the sentence, the yak let out a war cry, jumped up and crushed on to the crack in the floor, the crystals giving out under her weight and force, revealing a stairway leading downwards. “Or… that works too.”

“Hey guys, wait! You forgot the…” Pinkie tried to get their attention as they all rushed down the recently revealed path, while she still had her hoof stuck in the jar and she slowly limped after them.

The trip was short, no more than a single circle as they reached the bottom, yet during the whole time they traveled, the light kept flashing. As they arrived at the bottom, a doorway was open not far away, exposing the light show. They tried to close in on the opening quietly, but they were disturbed by the very pronounced sound of glass being pressed against the rock.

“Guys… a little help here, please?” she pleaded.

Finally, Silverstream grabbed the jar and pulled it off Pinkie’s hoof. Finally free from her predicament, she flailed about with excitement… then stopped, and pointed to the ceiling. The luster disappeared from it and it continued down the wall at a rapid pace. The group finally rushed forward to look in the room. What they saw left half of them shocked and confused, while the rest were terrified by the sight.

Chapter 7: In search of Answers

Twilight…

It was dark. Nobody was around. She wasn’t even aware of her own presence.

Twilight.

Yet she could hear it. A familiar voice, calling out to her, accompanied by a gentle breeze that caressed her.

Twilight!

She finally felt the grasp on reality returning to her, the blurry vision slowly depicting a purple dragon.

Her companion loomed over her, waiting by her side as she finally started to open her eyes.

“Spike?” she whispered.

At the drop of the word, her little brother embraced her. Rarity sat by her side, holding a fan over her head.

“Darling, I’m so glad you’re alright,” she sighed in relief.

“Where… where’s everypony else?”

The dragon parted from her. “After that black blob got knocked off you, it came to life and crawled off into the treehouse, they all went after it. Although I’m not sure what’s happening in there.”

“Black… blob?” she asked, confused.

“Oh, well, you probably missed it considering what happened. Were it not for Zecora, I shudder to think what could’ve happened,” the white unicorn explained.

The princess turned her head to the side. The zebra sat with her staff over her shoulder, looking far into the distance with a concerned look, observing the darkness rising from the distance, while her fire-lizard rested on top of her saddlebag next to her.

“Thanks for curing me, Zecora,” she said with a smile.

“Cure?” the zebra’s ears twitched. “That has not happened, princess, I can tell for sure.”

“What?” she asked, perplexed by the shaman’s response. “But… but I feel great. I’ve not felt this good in a- AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

As she tried to rise into a sitting position she immediately jumped up in a scream, then fell forward, letting out a noise of pain; something had just given her a sharp prick in the rear. While she whined, Spike looked at her perked-up posterior and noticed something stuck in her tail hair. He managed to pull it out from the tangled mess, but even then, he couldn’t understand what it was; all he saw was an incredibly prickly dark nut.

“I dunno how anypony missed that earlier,” he wondered.

She finally managed to sit back normally, wincing at the phantom pain.

“Twilight,” Rarity asked, “what is this thing?”

It took her a moment to recollect, but she recognized the nut. “I… I remember these things. They grew on the tree inside that cavern. Seems they got stuck during my battle with Queen Chrysalis when I was sent flying through the branches.”

Zecora eyed it for a moment. “I will take charge if it’s alright with you. Despite their dark nature, they’ll work for us too.” She extended her hoof in Spike’s direction.

The dragon handed her the prickly nut and she immediately scooped it into her saddlebag.

“Zecora, what did you mean earlier, when you said that I wasn’t cured?” Twilight inquired.

“That creature of darkness drained your surplus Doubt away and took on the form you saw today. It will not fade, and Doubt will again be made if you ask for its aid,” the shaman exposited.

“But... isn’t there a permanent solution to this?” she hoped for a positive response.

“Removing your doubt? What a rarity! How would you expect then to have clarity?” the zebra asked. “One cannot stay if you remove the other. It’s how life works, it’s truly a bother.”

Zecora’s words reminded Twilight of something. She recalled years ago when the Cutie Map requested help for Peaks of Peril; Applejack told the story how the kirin living there became so afraid of being consumed by their own anger and turning themselves into nirik, twisted burning reflections of themselves, that they cut themselves off from emotions altogether and it took her and Fluttershy to convince them to stop being afraid of their own nature. Was this situation the same? Because it sure felt like it.

“Best advice for me to say, is live in now and today, to keep all your worries away,” the shaman finished.

Easier said than done. After what she had been through she couldn’t help but think of what comes next. But at the very least she had to try. She inhaled and exhaled then looked about to see what had occurred in her absence of mind, and it didn’t take long to notice something out of the ordinary.

“Why does the treehouse look so… dull?”

POOF!

She would not get an answer as a flash of magic happened not a few feet away from her, materializing three very familiar unicorns before her; a bright blue mare, wearing a magician’s hat and cloak, a yellow stallion with long and unkempt mane and beard, and lastly her student.

“Starlight?” Twilight gasped in surprise.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?” she asked.

“It’s… too complicated and long to explain. What are you doing here?”

“Emmm… not sure this is the right time to ask,” Sunburst interjected, “but what’s that giant veil of perpetual darkness over in the distant part of the forest?”

“Is it me, or does the Tree of Harmony house look less… shiny?” Trixie pointed out.

Starlight looked about the two scenes several times, trying to process everything.

“Uh oh… seems like the map was being serious,” she responded.

“The map? As in the Cutie Map?” the princess questioned.

Starlight nodded. “Just a few moments ago it suddenly turned on.”

“And it was signaling a friendship problem? To here?”

“No, no friendship problem,” clarified Sunburst. “There weren’t any cutie marks signaling. It only showed… THAT in the distance,” he pointed at the darkness far away.

“But…” the princess was confused. “That doesn’t make sense. How could the map activate when the Tree of Harmony was destroyed?”

“Your guess is as good as ours, Princess Twilight,” the illusionist said. “Maybe your friends can enlighten us.”

She heard a distinct sound of hooves coming out from the treehouse. Out of the front door, the team in charge of pursuit wandered out.

“You guys!” Twilight rushed to their side and their friend’s expressions lightened up after hearing her voice.

“Twilight!” Applejack hugged her. “You feelin' better?”

“Thanks to Zecora. I’m not sure what we’d do without her.”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “I can vouch for that.”

“Did Zecora manage to cure you?” Fluttershy asked.

She curled up an awkward smile, trying to not make the situation depressing again. “Well… she said the best thing to do right now is to keep thinking positively. What about the rest of you? Rarity and Spike told me what happened after I passed out. Did you manage to capture the manifestation?”

The atmosphere immediately changed with those words, their smiles dissipating and they all looked at one another with a worried expression.

“Well, yeah but…” the yellow pegasus tried to speak, but went silent as she heard the sound of slow heavy footsteps coming up behind them.

The six students came out of the house, wearing heavily somber expressions as if something had just drained the light out of them.

“Students!” the unicorn trio called out as they rushed to them, filled with concerns.

“Sandbar, Smolder, Yona, Silverstream, Gallus, Ocellus,” Trixie counted through them, then sighing in relief. “Okay, you’re all here.”

“Thank Celestia! Something happened back at the castle and we were worried for a moment that it happened to- “ Sunburst tried to explain, but Starlight stopped him.

She walked closer to the students. She knew something was not right, she could see it on their faces and the way they postured in depression.

“Students, what went wrong? Tell me what happened,” she asked.

They didn’t say anything. Not one of them dared to open their mouth.

Silverstream finally spoke, trying not to choke up. “The tree’s spirit… it’s…”

Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, along with the six students got through the door of the room at the bottom of the treehouse and watched in terror at the events taking place. An image of princess Twilight Sparkle, covered in bright luster stood in the room, yet so was the blob of shadowy mass; its maw wide open, draining the light from it. The spirit remained motionless, yet as the creature continued to drain it, the luster from the tree's remains was being depleted in the process. The luster remnants were now only left on the ground and it didn’t take more than a few seconds for that to be drained as well, leaving only the spirit intact. Finally, it contorted in pain as the shadow proceeded to absorb it. The students rushed out, trampling the adults under them before they could be stopped, as they tried to intercept the mass of darkness from completely consuming it.

The spirit only looked at them, letting out only a few final words. “I’m sorry… I have failed… again…”

And with those parting words, its form collapsed and disappeared into the dark blob, forming a single speck of light within its body. The group stopped dead in their tracks. Their emotional progress was slow, trying to process what they just witnessed. The dark creature meanwhile turned to face them, letting out a shrilling cry, flailing about with its tentacle.

BAM!

As a response, Yona, without hesitation charged and bashed the blob with her head, causing it to fly across the room and splatter against the wall.

“EVIL BLOB ATE TREE SPIRIT! SMASH IT!” the yak cried out in anger and she charged at it again.

The shadowy mass reformed in the meantime, just as Yona stomped on it. It begun to wriggle through her hooves and then quickly crawled off in the direction of the only exit. The rest of the students noticed and jumped in, they weren’t about to let this THING slink away after it just devoured one of their mentors. Hooves and claws began to swing about in desperate effort, but no matter how hard they tried it simply kept squeezing through their grip. The adults finally got up and also joined in the attempt, but the result was no different; the shadowy blob simply couldn’t be deterred. Nothing worked! And once the blob gets out of the room it can just squeeze through any crack and disappear for good. The creature was about to crawl through the doorway and nothing could stop it! They had failed…

PLANK!

Just as the dark blob passed the threshold, a giant glass jar got put over it, stopping it on the spot, scooping it up, and shutting the lid close. It struggled, trying to break through, but it was no use; the glass was simply too thick, and it was so weak in comparison.

Then Pinkie Pie revealed herself from around the corner she was awaiting, looming over the now pathetic-looking creature, with an angry smug on her face. “You got caught with mitts in the cookie jar, mister.”

The other mares sighed in relief and traipsed over to her.

“Quick thinking, Pinkie!” Fluttershy said, joined by the blue pegasus. “Yeah! Even I didn’t see that one coming!”

She got face to face with the amalgamation trapped in the jar, taunting it. “Whatcha gonna do now, you slimy little thing? No cracks about through which you can weasel out now-!”

The country pony put her hoof over her muzzle to shut her up, getting her attention, before pointing out this really wasn’t a moment to celebrate and taunt the opposition.

The students sat in a depressed pile. They all just lost one of their life guides, one who helped them face their own fears and brought them closer together as friends, despite their boundaries. They were already depressed once when they discovered that the Tree was destroyed, but that was different; they had no control over it, and even then, in the end, they managed to save the tree’s spirit from its demise. This time they watched it happen; they were there and couldn’t save it in time. The four ponies watched outside the room, unsure if there were even words to console them in this situation.

“I say we give them some time,” Applejack told them.

And they waited. Not sure how long it was, but unease hung in the air, more specifically with what was outside. The darkness that spawned here may have been caught, but who knows how long it will take before the evil they sighted in the distance finds its way here.

After some time passed, Rainbow Dash finally spoke up. “Kids, we have to go. I know this may be a bad time, but we may not want to stay here if the giant-size version of this nasty little thing finds its way here.”

It took some time, but eventually, the students picked themselves up and slowly marched out of the room, with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy leading them in front, while Pinkie followed behind, pulling faces at the animated mass inside the jar, around which she had her hair wrapped like a rope as she carried it up.

“We failed it,” Ocellus said in a mournful tone. “It warned us all just before it happened and we still couldn’t protect it.”

“Hold on… the tree warned you that this would happen?” Trixie asked suspiciously.

“Well, we didn’t get it at first,” Smolder added. “It just told us that the darkness was coming, a few moments before Princess Twilight and her friends arrived. It wasn’t until sometime later that darkness made itself manifest and crawled into the house.”

“But… you caught it, right?” Sunburst wondered.

“Sure did!” a loud hyper tone came out of the house as Pinkie skipped, carrying the sealed jar.

He closed in, to examined this strange creature made of dark mass. He’s never seen anything of the like. While Trixie tried to comfort the students and Starlight questioned the other mares, Twilight simply watched from the distance, listening to events that transpired. She was mortified. She was the one who caused this to happen; had she not sought shelter here in the first place, none of this would have happened. Then the familiar feeling started to creep up on her again and remembered what Zecora just told her. Getting worked up about it would just bring out the worst in her. She closed her eyes, trying to clear out her thoughts, inhaling and exhaling. Finally, regaining some measure of clarity, she walked over to the headmare.

“Starlight, we have things to discuss. Just… not here. We need to get the students back as well.”

She nodded, then faced the young ones. “Okay, everycreature! Gather around!”

The students came closer, as well as the mares and Zecora. Then the princess and her former student looked at one another, nodded, and with a flash of magic, everybody disappeared. The silence was all that was left on the grounds now. The treehouse was left without any signs of life, while in the distance, the looming darkness was left visible to everybody’s sight.

They assembled at Twilight’s old castle. The princess soon realized that what Starlight said about the Cutie Map activating after all these years was true, and saw the dark shadow looming over the Everfree Forest, resembling the darkness that Zecora revealed through her ritual. Yet it still didn’t make sense why the map activated all of a sudden. The Tree of Harmony couldn’t have done it. Was there perhaps another force at work? Those speculations would have to wait, as the focus was set on bringing the school faculty members up to speed with everything.

Starlight Glimmer sat down and rubbed her head. “So let me get this whole picture: Canterlot got invaded by earth elementals, Chrysalis somehow managed to escape, found a powerful artifact that nopony else but Zecora knew where it was, got empowered after she summoned some ancient evil which Twilight had been seeing in her dreams, which then summoned Windigos and ate them, you all got your rears whooped by it, and to top it all off, a piece of that evil ate the spirit of the Tree of Harmony.”

Trixie handed her a mug of tea, which she promptly drank, before finishing. “Have I missed anything that could make this even worse?”

The sound of glass hitting the stone table rang out as Pinkie Pie put up the sealed jar full of dark living matter. “This little bugger is the culprit responsible for it. And it’s been pulling mean faces all the time since we got here. It’s such a giant mean grump I’ve decided to name it Grumpy.”

“If Queen Chrysalis is back,” Ocellus spoke, “then Thorax needs to be warned. If she’s somehow managed to regain the ability to reproduce the swarm, our hive will be under possible threat.”

Starlight sighed loudly. And while the party pony was making faces at the jar, taunting the blob inside it, she pulled the jar over to her side and examined it up close.

“There’s a distinctly noticeable spark floating inside it. There may be a small chance that the spirit hasn’t been lost yet.”

“Really?!” those words piqued the student’s attention, pulling them out of their state of depression, Gallus being the first to hear it. “You mean there’s still a chance to restore her?”

“That’s the main problem,” Twilight spoke. “It’s immune to magic. I tried to use it against it, but it did not affect it. And I’m not sure how you could extract it directly… Heck, we don’t even know what this thing is supposed to be.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash yelled, still unable to use her wings. “And if we’re to ever face it again, the last thing I want is to go through this... again.”

“I’ve read all the books in the castle after all the time I’ve spent here, so I would’ve likely remembered anything that you’ve just described,” Sunburst said. “Now, seeing as that’s not the case, I’d say the only viable course now would be to search the Canterlot library.“

Twilight shook her head. “Sunburst, there’s really no need for any of you to strain yourself with it. I can requisition the book from the library and-”

Pinkie Pie suddenly let out a loud yell, as if she had just realized something. “I just remembered, I left the organization for the bakery contest back at Canterlot unattended!”

“And… we’re supposed to be back as well for the bookstore opening!” Spike prodded the princess. “And that was like an hour ago!”

“I…” Fluttershy leaned in. “I guess we were all so caught up in what just happened that we just left everything unattended. I’ve got a lot of animals to handle back at the sanctuary.”

The rest of the gang also remembered they’re left things unsettled: Rarity left her bags back at the Canterlot train station, Rainbow Dash dodged out of a party, thinking she’d manage to get back in time.

Then everybody looked at Applejack, who hasn’t said anything. “Well, I got nothin’. I just cut time getting back home.”

“Then our course of action is clear!” the blue unicorn boisterously announced. “Starlight, Sunburst, and I, the Great and Powerful Counselor Trixie will take up this arduous task, in identifying the source of the Everfree Forests’ evil! The three of us combined, we shall succeed.”

“Make that four,” the zebra, who was quiet this whole time finally answered. “Then your chances will increase for sure.”

Trixie looked at her funny. “You? You can’t join, you’ll ruin our team’s power dynamic! I’m the sneaky one, Sunburst’s the clever one and Starlight’s-”

“TRIXIE! Not the right time!” the purple-maned unicorn called her out.

She playfully shoved her. “Relax, Starlight. Did you really think I was being serious about that even for a moment?”

An awkward silence fell all around the illusionist. Knowing her ego, nobody would put it past her that she wasn’t joking.

Twilight sighed. “Okay, this is how we’ll do then: everypony else go about their business, while you four go to Canterlot library and search for answers. By the end of the day report to me if you’ve found anything and we’ll decide what course of action to take next. And in the meantime, I’ll send a warning letter to Thorax’s hive about Queen Chrysalis’ return. But whatever happens, nopony must tell anyone of what happened today.”

“Hold on there, Twilight,” the country pony stepped in. “Don’t ya think that’s really unwise? It’s best to tell everypony the truth. So in case something comes up, we’ll be prepared for the worst.”

“Not just yet, Applejack. I completely understand what you mean, but until we get further information on the threat we face, we don’t need to put all of Equestria in a worry mode.”

“After what happened today, I’d say we’ve every reason to be worried,” she bristled.

“Just give it until tomorrow, okay?”

Starlight then faced the students. “The rest of you, return to your dorm. And from now on I don’t want anycreature to approach the Everfree Forest. Do you understand?”

“Yes, principle Starlight,” all of them said in unison, before the yak added. “After what Yona saw, Yona don’t want to remember the bad stuff that happened.”

“Wait! If we’re away, then who’s going to look after Grumpy?” Pinkie Pie voiced concern, as she watched the angry blob pressed his open maw against the glass, trying and failing to break it.

The jar levitated off the table and to Sunburst's side. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep an eye on it.”

Applejack went to Fluttershy’s and Rainbow Dash’s side. “The three of us will escort the students back.”

Twilight nodded. “We’ll see each other tomorrow again for the meeting to discuss things further. Everypony else, we’re good to go then.”

Everybody else gathered. The princess and the headmare used their magic and disappeared with a flash.

“What am I supposed to do?” the rainbow-maned pegasus asked. “I gotta report to the academy that I’m out and I can’t fly over there.”

“I’ll go and deliver the message for you, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said. “You better rest your wings at my place in the meantime.”

She sighed. “It’s gonna be a long week.”

FLASH!

The princess, her former pupil, and their respective teams popped up at the bottom of the stairs in front of the Canterlot library, and at the drop of the hat, both Rarity and Pinkie Pie ran away to handle their own respective problems, and not a moment later, so did Spike.

“I’ll go over to the bookstore and tell them there’s going to be a slight delay on your appearance.”

“You do that,” Twilight said to the little dragon, as he ran off. “The rest of you, let’s go in.”

The door clanked open. A familiar scent washed over her; the very distinct smell of books, one she didn’t have a chance to enjoy in a while. The glass roof dome illuminated the central hall where most of the visitors gathered. The group walked over to the counter where the librarian was minding her own business, handling the documents on the new book orders, unaware of their presence, until the princess finally made herself known.

“Oh my! Princess Twilight! It’s an honor!” the teal unicorn said. “To what do we owe the pleasure? We’ve got a lot of books at disposal if you’re interested.”

The urge was difficult to fight. She was already late and couldn’t waste too much time as it was, but the temptation… No, she had to be strong.

“As tempted as I am, I’ll have to pass on it this time around since I’m already late. But I would ask for a favor: my friends here are doing research and I’d like you to give them access to any book section in the library, that includes the heavily restricted area.”

“Oh my,” the librarian said. “Must be serious if you’re willing to go that far.”

Twilight stopped herself for a moment when she realized she may be giving out the idea that something was wrong. “Oh no no no, it’s not serious. I mean at least not yet anyway. That’s why we want to look into it in case it does get…” She shoved her own hoof in the mouth to stop herself since she clearly wasn’t helping.

“Of course, miss,” she said. “But I must ask something of your friends first. One: no pets allowed.”

She was looking at the jar which Sunburst was still carrying, the black mass wiggling on the inside.

“I’m sorry, but this is…” he stopped himself for a moment, trying to figure out what to call it. “Well, whatever it is it’s not a pet, I can assure you. And it doesn’t leave our sight no matter what.”

“Right…” the librarian responded. “And second: I need you to leave the umbrella at the desk.”

Umbrella? What was she talking about? Twilight looked behind at her companions and all of them looked at each other. Finally, all of their eyes locked onto the zebra; she was the only one who carried with her what would be considered “an umbrella” from the librarian’s point of view. Her nostrils flared as she walked to the counter and dropped off her staff, the wooden shaft echoing throughout the library as it made contact, grabbing everybody’s attention.

The librarian blinked when she realized what she actually received and awkwardly smiled. “Don’t worry, miss. You’ll get your… stick back when you leave.”

“Should damage fall upon my family heirloom, I assure you, it will spell your DOOM.”

“Please wait a moment so I can get the keys,” the teal unicorn said in a jittery tone as she hurried into the back room.

Twilight looked at her with concern. “Zecora, don’t you think you’ve been a bit harsh on her?”

She sighed. “Forgive me, Princess fair, but this item does not leave my lair, much less my vigilant stare.”

“That staff really seems to mean a lot to you, Zecora,” Sunburst joined in. “Who did it belong to?”

She went quiet as if she was hesitant to speak before she finally responded. “To somezebra very close to my heart, one I’d rather not talk right now about.”

Trixie tapped her hoof at the floor while they waited for the librarian to get back, her sight wandering over to the princess. “The Great and Powerful Counselor doesn’t want to sound snide, but it’s a standard that when one participates in an event, it’s very important to keep a peak appearance.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Trixie?” she looked at her, confused.

“Are you really planning to go out in public looking like that?”

Twilight looked down at herself and realized what she was talking about. After what she’s just been through, she was completely dusty and caked in dirt and mud, she also recalled some time earlier when she looked herself in the mirror that she looked like an absolute mess. And Spike left to inform the organizers so he can’t help her get fixed up.

“You need help with that?” her former student spoke.

She nodded. She was desperate, and any help right now would be most appreciated. Starlight’s horn light up and in a single shot from it, a bursting force went through the princess. After it settled, she looked at herself again and noticed she was completely clean… but why was everybody else staring at her? She then turned and noticed that all the filth from her got blown off and left a giant dirty trail behind her, leading all the way to the exit.

“Sorry,” the purple-maned unicorn apologized after she received a glare from her. “I guess we should’ve done this outside…”

The princess sighed. “Never mind that. Look, I’m late as it is. I’m sure you can handle it on your own from here.”

“We’ll get back to you the moment we find something, Twilight,” Sunburst said.

“No need to worry,” she responded. “You’ve got plenty of time before the library closes. Gotta run now.”

And with that she dashed out the main door, leaving the three unicorns and the zebra to proceed on their own, but not before they heard a flashing sound coming from outside.

He was nervous. Spike went ahead and informed the organizers of the bookstore opening about the situation. They were willing to wait. But as the time passed, the more the dragon thought about it the more he realized that Twilight was an absolute mess after what she was put through. No way she can show her face in public like that and he’s not there to help her get clean. What to do, what to do? But just as those words went through his head a loud flash exploded. He thought for a moment one of the photographer’s cameras accidentally went off, but then he noticed a shadow looming over him, a golden glow glancing off her royal attire.

“It’s Princess Twilight Sparkle!” one of the journalists yelled.

All the cameras began to snap, taking in the princess’ radiance.

Spike slowly walked to her side, whispering to her. “How’d you get cleaned up?”

She said only one word as she kept posturing. “Starlight.”

“Ah,” that was the only response that came from him. “Am I to assume there was a huge mess left behind?”

“Let’s just say somepony will be very unhappy about having to clean it.”

He snickered.

She sighed in relief as she leaned back on her chair in the conference room. This day was long… too long. What started as just a daily routine followed by a doctor’s appointment, turned into a face-off and a loss against a new unknown enemy. She relished in the thought of just falling asleep for the day, but somewhere in the back of her mind, there was this lingering dread of knowing what will inevitably follow. But she had to push it aside, she remembered what the shaman told her. Speaking of which, it was getting late and at this time the library should already be closed, so where were they?

“Well, today was eventful, to say the least,” Spike said as he entered the room.

“An understatement of the year,” she responded. “Thank Celestia the council meeting is tomorrow. Less stress and on top of that, once Starlight and the rest of the group come back with the information we need, we’ll finally be able to deal with the larger problem.”

She looked out the window, the sun slowly approaching the hour of twilight. She would have to trigger the amulet soon.

“By the way, Spike, did you settle the things I told you?”

“Yeah. I sent a letter to Thorax to warn him about Queen Chrysalis' return and I told the guards to get into the tunnel caverns beneath Canterlot. But are you sure that's not just a wasted effort?”

She shook her head. “No. Queen Chrysalis told me herself that Tirek and Cozy Glow survived the crash, just like she did. We need to retrieve them before she gets any bright idea of releasing them as well.”

Suddenly, a flash happened outside the balcony of the conference room and Starlight, Sunburst, Trixie, and Zecora materialized. Finally! Now they can explain what they are dealing with.

“Starlight! Great, you’re all here!” she hopped off her chair and opened the balcony doors to meet them. “So, what did you find out?”

But the looks on their faces were not reassuring.

“The Great and Powerful Counselor would like to note that she and her companions have searched high and low to find the answers to the great mystery,” Trixie began. “But… we found nothing.”

“What?!” Twilight erupted. “In the whole library?!”

“That’s why we didn’t come back until now,“ Starlight responded. “We searched every corner of the library, especially the restricted section. We looked up some of the oldest Equestrian historical records, dark incantations, summoning rituals; anything that could be linked to it, but…”

Sunburst put the jar with the dark mass inside it on the table. “…but we couldn’t find any records pointing to what THIS thing is supposed to be.”

“So… we’ve reached a dead end then?” the princess came to the only logical conclusion.

No. It couldn’t end like this! They had absolutely nothing to go on. The worry at the back of her mind suddenly begun to spill forward; she couldn’t risk it, but if they couldn’t find anything that would aid them, there was no stopping the doubt from resurfacing again. Then a voice held her thoughts at bay.

“We’re sorry it had come to this, Princess,” the zebra spoke, “but there is another way to cure this mess. If we lack written proof, we’ll need to find a still-living ancient who’ll lend a hoof.”

What was Zecora talking about? Canterlot Library holds records of events that took place more than a thousand years ago. Who could there possibly be alive today that…

And then it got to her. “Wait a minute… OF COURSE! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place! Celestia and Luna! They’re more than a millennium old, so if there’s anypony in Equestria that would know what happened that long ago, they of all ponies would!”

She let out a sigh of relief, that creeping feeling retreating in the back of her mind.

“Okay, no problem. We’ll just pop over to them and- “

“Twilight, stop,” Spike stepped in. “Look I know this is urgent, but it’s really late. Not to mention Seaward Shoals is far away and after what we’ve been through today, I think we need to have a break.”

“A break?! Spike the fate of Equestria may be on the line-!”

“Twilight, I know how dire this seems,” Starlight intervened. “But in your current state, you’re really not in a position to do anymore adventuring for today.”

“But, the Council of Friendship meeting takes place tomorrow! I can’t just-!”

“Then we’ll just go first thing at the dawn,” the dragon jumped in. “I’ll give the staff an advance notice that you’ll be absent, then we can go to Seaward Shoals, gather the two former princesses, and be back in time for the gathering.”

Twilight knew how dire the current situation is, she couldn’t show restraint in a moment like this. But then again, they all had a point. Rushing this will only make things worse for her.

She sighed in defeat. “Okay. We’ll call it for today. But I expect all of you to be in the meeting tomorrow as well.”

Trixie gasped. “Us? Participating in the gathering of the Council of Friendship? For the Great and Powerful Counselor Trixie and her companions it will be an honor of the highest caliber.”

“Come on, Trixie, no need to make it sound like a big deal,” Starlight smiled.

“We’ll keep an eye on it in the meantime,” Sunburst said as he picked up the jar again.

“There’s just one more issue to handle then,” Spike told them and casting his sight on the shaman.

Twilight remembered now that Zecora can’t return to her hovel. Not only was it thrashed, but with the darkness and changelings now infesting the Everfree Forest, she has no place to go.

“Starlight, please give Zecora a place to settle down in the castle.”

“Don’t worry. There’s plenty to go about,” the former student said. “If that’s all settled, we’ll be leaving now.”

The princess nodded. “Good night. And see you tomorrow.”

Starlight nodded in response and with a flash, they all disappeared.

“Come, Spike,” she beckoned her companion. “We best retire for today… we’ll have an early wake tomorrow.”

The dragon turned off the lights in the room and they left.

Skittering sounds could be heard all around the sinister tree. The newborn changelings inhabiting the cavern had been working tirelessly. Their green extract covered the cavern walls, slowly making it resemble the original hive. They had been busy throughout the day, but not as much as their queen. She marched through the entrance, there was a distinct look of exhaustion on her face. And of course, a slithery vapor hanging around her couldn’t resist but to give her a prod.

“Come now, broodmother. No need to look so gloomy. You’ve accomplished your job.”

“No thanks to you,” she growled. “Dragon Lands are so far away. We were lucky we had a cover of night, otherwise, any creature could’ve spotted us.”

“A necessary risk,” the shadow whispered. “It is the only place with the constant active volcanoes. There was no other way to acquire this otherwise.”

Two changelings came crawling out the tunnel behind them. They were pulling a giant bright rock covered in protrusions, that was at least twenty times their size, yet they didn’t seem to struggle with it one bit. They dragged it over to the edge of the pool and then skittered away.

“So,” the Queen of Changelings addressed the shade, “for what purpose exactly did we have to drag this giant weightless paperweight all the way here?”

The pools began to bubble up and not a moment later the Manifestation of Hate emerged from it. Its gaunt arm grabbed the rock and shoved it under the tree, between its roots. Chrysalis then watched something unexpected happen: the stone began to absorb the pool's magical substance, its magical glow completely enveloping it, until it turned into a darker shade of green.

“Wait... is this…” she stumbled over her words, realizing what it was. “Are you sure it will work?”

The looming teal-eyed shadow simply nodded. There was a sense of security growing inside the Pillar of Hatred, one she wouldn’t have much time to enjoy as the weaselly vapor got her attention again.

“What about the rest of the brood you sent out? Did they find the deposit yet?”

She sighed. “Yes, they should be bringing huge chunks by morning, but you’ve yet to explain to me why exactly do we need huge piles of- “

One of the changelings just crawled out of the tunnel and roared, grabbing her attention.

“Oh… it appears the other group was successful in their endeavor as well.”

“Excellent,” Doubt whispered.

Five changelings came crawling out, carrying a giant wooden crate, bringing it before their queen. She opened it. Nestled in it, isolated by the protective foam was… she had no idea what she was looking at. A decoration? A stone mask? Piece of a broken statue?

“What exactly is this supposed to be?” she asked.

“The next Pillar,” the harrowed voice spoke.

She turned to the manifestation and gave it a confused look. “This? I mean I get that it’s a rock, but how can this help us?”

“He’s not whole yet, broodmother,” the weaselly vapor answered. “That is why the other group was sent out; to gather the necessary material because it’s the very same substance from which he is made now. However, to fashion a body, we will require the Shaper.”

“The Shaper?” Queen Chrysalis questioned Doubt. “Who is he?”

“Oh, you will meet him, broodmother. However, that all depends on the success of your next mission, one you must not, at any cost, fail.”

Chapter 8: From West to East

One more night. Just one more night.

Royal guard Brightmane kept telling himself that. It was a quiet night in the castle’s sculpture gardens. It always was. But that didn’t change the problem he had. After the debacle no more than a day ago, he had to help the captain of the guard fix the schedule that the princess forced him to change just for his sake, so now he had to help him rearrange the whole roster. And finally, with everything settled, he had one more round to deal with. One more night on his old nightly routine and he’ll finally be moved elsewhere. He passed familiar shapes of the statues, the shadows that were formed from the moonlight giving him no small measure of discomfort. Yet as he passed a familiar landmark, he realized that a very specific set of statues was missing. Perhaps tonight won’t be as bad as the ones before.

Then he heard the rustling sound. He stopped dead in his tracks, his head slowly turning to sounds origin; it came from the bush next to him. He gulped, then slowly reached with his hoof for the foliage, preparing for the worst. The moment his hoof touched the leaves, a squealing sound came out, causing him to jump, and a squirrel rushed out of the bush, disappearing into the night. After a moment he let out a sigh of relief and trotted off. Maybe he got worried for nothing after all. As he made a considerable distance, however, a pair of teal eyes opened from the shadow.

A small door opened on the side of the ground floor of the castle. Moppin, the young custodian apprentice had just finished the early part of his daily shift; cleaning out the staff rooms. It was his favorite and easiest part of the morning routine, as he knew the latter would give him nothing but headaches, especially with the regular custodian gone. But luckily for him, his fortune was about to change.

He sighed as he opened the dustbin outside to dispose of the refuse. “Thank Celestia the boss is coming back from sick leave today,” he thought to himself, “because I don’t think I could face the princess again with that awkward situation.”

As he made his way back inside, he heard a rustling sound. It came from one of the nearby bushes. He thought to himself that it was probably just a squirrel, but then he heard it make screeching noises. No way that was a squirrel. He lifted his broom and slowly approached the bush. He felt cold sweat running down the back of his neck. What horrors are being concealed from him? As he got in reach, he had his broom at the ready, slowly reaching out with his hoof to remove the foliage. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder! And in a moment of instinct, he swung his broom at his side.

BONG!

Wood came into contact with metal, letting out a resonating noise, followed by the sound of something heavy dropping to the ground.

Moppin grimaced, realizing he’s just accidentally bashed a royal guard in the head. “Sweet chrimeny! Brightmane, I’m so sorry!”

He reeled on the ground, the vibrations still resonating in his head. “Agh. What’s gotten into you?”

“You scared me! Something’s hiding in the bush and I was going to…” he stopped as an opossum suddenly marched out of the bush, without a care in the world.

Moppin turned red from embarrassment.

“I hope that was worth it,” Brightmane said, as he spotted the animal walking away.

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Brightmane,” the young custodian kept apologizing. “Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

The guard rose, still rubbing his head. “How about something for the headache you’ve just given me? That’d be a good start.”

Mopping unlocked the door to the custodian's office and invited Brightmane to follow him in, hoping that he’d be able to lessen the tension caused by his own incompetence. The door shut behind. And as it did, a pair of teal eyes lit up inside the bush.

The silence in the hallway of the castle was broken, as the door to the dragon’s room shut closed. He yawned. He got so used to the current routine of having an “automatic alarm call” wake him up that it ruined his sleeping schedule. This time around he had to be early for the task at hand. And if anything, at least he’d be able to spare Twilight the recurring nightmare.

He knocked on the door. There was no response, so he entered the room. Princess Twilight lay in her bed, sound asleep, undisturbed. It seems that he got here just in time; she had not gotten to the bad part yet. He could see the moon from the balcony slowly beginning to reach the horizon. Time to wake her up.

He climbed on to her bed and gently shook her. “Twilight, time to get up.”

She continued to snore, so he tried again. “Twilight.”

No reaction. Then her hooves started twitching and she began to make whiny noises. She’s entered the stage of her dream where everything turned bad. It was now or never!

“TWILIGHT WAKE UP!” Spike yelled as he shook her aggressively.

Her eyes snapped open. “I’M AWAKE, I'M AWAKE!”

They stopped, looking at each other for a moment.

“So how far did it get?” the dragon asked.

“About the time when the NO sound came,” she said, still a bit groggy.

She yawned as she walked down the corridor. She was spared the recurring nightmare for today, but it didn’t make sobering up any less easy. She’d have to, however. It was going to be a long day ahead and she needed to get back in time for the council meeting.

“I’ll go ahead and tell the staff,” her companion said. “See you outside.”

He disappeared around the corner, leaving the princess. She took a moment to recollect herself, before following. She got to the part where she would normally find a certain apprentice complaining about the door to the repository for magical artifacts being inaccessible, but seeing as how she was early, she was likely not going to encounter him… And just then, she heard grunting from around the corner and then coming down the hallway. A cleaning cart was being pushed by a unicorn cleaner, struggling, slowly approaching before finally stopping at the designated door. And just as he moved out of the way of the wagon and approached the door, he instantly froze solid, after realizing that Princess Twilight Sparkle stood right next to him.

The tension was in the air for a few moments before the mare broke it. “Good morning to you too, Moppin.”

Seconds passed before words finally came out of him. “G… good morning.”

“You’re up earlier than usual.”

The stallion was stumbling over his own words. “W… well, you see, I… I just figured that…”

“Are you trying one more time to impress your superior before he returns?” she asked him.

He meekly nodded. The princess sighed and focused her magic on the doorway, causing the intricate lock to turn and the gate opened. Moppin stared, visibly confused.

“Just this one last time,” Twilight told him. “But in the future do try to be more organized.”

“Emmm… thanks?” he said, as he went behind the cart and pushed it inside, his gaze intently focused on the princess until she disappeared through the door.

She smiled and slowly trotted off to the castle yard.

Twilight inhaled the fresh morning air. She wasn’t sure what it was that made her feel lighter than usual; either because she didn’t wear her daily royal regalia today and it made her feel less dragged down for a change, or because her advisor managed to wake her up before the dreaded dream fully set in. Regardless, it felt like today could only get better from here on out. Captain of the guard arrived at his usual morning site and found himself being surprised. He always arrived before the rest of the royal guard gathered. This time things went differently. The princess was already standing in the courtyard; something he had not anticipated. She explained to him the situation, and that she would prefer to have the reports from the guard from him this time around. He obliged. She got through the debriefing, not spotting anything out of the ordinary, other than that Brightmane did not report in yet, but according to the captain he’s always been late and has, as result, delivered his reports directly so far. From what Twilight gathered, it seemed the goings-on at the Everfree Forest haven’t reached Canterlot yet. All the better.

The doors opened and Spike finally showed up. The princess dismissed the captain, and as he trotted off and the dragon got to her side.

She noticed a distinct red glittery residue aground his mouth. “I wondered what took you so long.”

“Huh? I dunno what you’re talking about,” he said just before he let out a low burp, noticing the residue falling off his lips and quickly rubbed them off.

She smiled. “Of course not. So, how’s your wing feeling today?”

The little dragon flapped his wings. He got off the ground, but after a while, one of his wings started to act up and fell to the side.

“Nope,” he said rubbing his side, “it’s a no-go.”

He found himself being lifted off the ground by a pink glow, as his older sister lifted him and nestled him on her back.

“Then we’re traveling old school,” she said. “Hold on tight, Spike. It’s a long way to Vanhoover.”

The dragon held tight. Twilight galloped off, opened her wings and they sailed off into the wide blue yonder.

They traveled west, past Cloudsdale and over the Unicorn Range. The mountain range created a natural barrier, separating the heartlands of Equestria from its west coast. As they passed over it and went further north, a distinct change in the landscape became noticeable, as the spruce trees became increasingly numerous. Several hours had passed and Vanhoover eventually appeared in sight, but they immediately passed over it; their final destination stood further off the northern coast.

Finally, it came in sight. A small settlement lay on the banks of the North Luna Ocean, houses littered all around the shore, nature shaping a natural harbor – Seaward Shoals.

“Where do you think they live?” Spike asked as they circled over the village. “It’ll take hours before we finally find them.”

“Or… maybe not,” she responded.

On one of the shoreside islands, many houses were clustered together, but one of them stood out; it was big and half of it was painted with dark and light shades of blue, while the other half was bright, with the tones of white and yellow. And lastly, a distinct shape of sun and moon stood on the tips of the roof.

“Wow, they’re… they’re really not trying to be subtle, are they?” the dragon quipped.

They landed on the pier and walked over to the house that popped out. Once they reached the door, Twilight stopped herself; she was about to meet her mentor and her sister again, after not seeing or hearing from them in such a long time. She inhaled and exhaled, before knocking. A few seconds passed and there was no response. She knocked again… and still nothing.

“Hello?” the mare called out. “Princess Celestia? Princess Luna?”

There was still no response. She pushed the door of the house and they slowly swung open. It was completely dark inside, not a sound in range.

The princess and her companion entered, but the latter had his doubts. “Maybe they’re out, Twilight? We should probably just wait for them.”

“We don’t exactly have the luxury of time, Spike. We need their help.”

She felt about with her hoof, trying to find if there’s a way to turn on the light source. She finally got something; it felt wriggly, thick, and… meaty? It coiled around her hoof and dangled off it. It was a mass of thick grey fur, a long snow-white muzzle, and tiny biddy eyes. It opened its giant mouth and let out a hiss. Twilight shrieked. She backed into Spike and they tumbled into the shaded part of the house, causing a lot of racket as the sound of broken wood and clanging metal objects could be heard all around them.

“Get it off, Spike! Get it off!” she cried.

“I can’t! I can’t see a thing!”

In the dark she could still hear the creature’s hiss, desperately trying to not get bitten. She flailed about until it finally got tossed across the room… and stopped in midair. Her own and Spike’s movement stopped as well. The room suddenly got illuminated, except not in bright light, but one of a night-time shade. They suddenly saw a figure standing at the doorway, its eyes completely white as the world around turned to visible dark. And then, a loud boisterous voice followed.

“INTRUDERS! YOU DARE INVADE THE LIVING QUARTERS OF THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, AND THEN PONYHANDLE TIBERIUS? FOR THIS ACT OF TRANSGRESSION, YOU WILL BE SHOWN A VERY MODICUM AMOUNT OF MERCY-!”

“Princess Luna stop, it’s me!” the princess of Equestria cried out.

There was a moment of silence, as the dark shade around them dissipated and a light source finally turned on in the house. Both Twilight and Spike lay in a pile of coats and umbrellas, the brightness finally giving them reprieve to get themselves out of the mess. Now they finally saw the figure on full display: a tall, dark blue-furred alicorn stood in front of them, her mane, infused with magic, flowing as if being blown on by the wind, while wearing a blue shirt with giant letters on it, saying “Blame my sister”.

“Twilight Sparkle?!” the gasp escaped her.

“Hello, Princess Luna,” she meekly responded, “sorry for… crashing in like this.”

“You know, if we had just waited a minute we could’ve avoided it all,” the dragon’s echoing voice came ringing from the regal horseshoe that covered his head.

She glared at him, then turned back to the Mare of the Night. “I’m sorry, for wrecking your place, but when I tried to find a light I came across some kind of a monster that…”

She finally realized what she actually saw, now that it was bright inside: that the monstrosity with grey and white fur was actually an opossum. Luna levitated him to her face and let it lay on top of her head before it scurried off and hid inside her mane.

“Sorry, Twilight Sparkle, but Tibbles can get downright cranky when his nap is interrupted.”

“Trust me, the feeling is mutual,” the dragon quipped, his sister giving him a look of confusion, whether he was talking about himself or her.

“Princess Luna,” Twilight resumed, “again I apologize for coming in like this, but I would’ve let you both know in advance that I was coming to visit if the situation wasn’t dire.”

The former princess walked in, picked Twilight and Spike up, levitating them into the house proper. The living room was completely illuminated by the sunlight, and in it was only a sofa and two chairs, next to it stood a kitchen with basic utilities. Other than that, there were two other doors between the area, likely the bedroom and a lavatory. The night mare plopped them onto the sofa, while she traipsed over the kitchen counter, took a mug, picked up a kettle, and poured in some tea.

“Please make yourselves at home.”

A few seconds of silence lingered before the former princess finally realized no words were spoken. “Well go on, tell me what it is.”

“But, what about Celestia? She needs to hear this too,” Twilight said.

“My sister’s not here,” she responded.

“Oh… well, when is she coming back? Did she go for a walk with you and you’ve just come home early?”

“No, Twilight Sparkle. What I mean is that my sister’s not in Seaward Shoals anymore. She hasn’t been for nearly a year now.”

“WHAT?!” she screamed so loud it could be heard all over the village.

Twilight was in a state of shock, so much so that Spike had to wave a blanket at her, as she hyperventilated. “HOW WHEN WHERE WHY?!”

“Twilight, please, calm down,” the dragon urged her. “So where is Princess Celestia then?”

He turned his head to face Luna, only to notice she had the whole cup spilled all over her face after the sudden shock burst. She shook her head, trying to shake off the moisture, before composing herself.

“You know what my sister’s like,” she sighed.

“Regal, confident and commanding?” Twilight’ responded, her breathing returning to normal.

“No, I mean REALLY like, when she doesn’t have to put on a facade: restless, energetic, and indulgent. We came here soon after your coronation, Twilight Sparkle, and we got ourselves this lovely house, we even gave it a paint job to spruce up the place… although that one may have had questionable results.”

“Well, you weren’t exactly difficult to find, that’s for sure,” Spike grinned.

“Anyway,” she continued, “we've spent about three days here in a peaceful retirement… and that’s how long it actually lasted before she got into one of her moods again.”

“Moods?”

“Yeah, thirst for some action, to feel the adrenaline rush. Now that she was no longer restricted to Canterlot and we’re no longer bound to royal duties, she decided to go into overdrive with it. I wasn’t really against it, so we went on a little trip… and when I say a little, I mean we traveled across Equestria. And if you think it was tiring when we were only gone for a day, imagine what it was like when we were gone for almost a month. Sure, the slower pace helped since we were no longer in a hurry to experience what we’ve been missing after all the centuries, but that didn’t change the number of activities that piled up. So, after a month we finally got back and I was so exhausted I just dropped and told myself I wouldn’t get up for three days. You know what happened?”

Twilight’s eyes shifted left and right after the silence lasted, realizing she’s awaiting a response. “It didn’t last?”

“Exactly,” she confirmed. “The next morning, I got tossed out of bed, and she wanted to go on another excursion and I decided to stay out of that one; I was just too exhausted to go on again. So, she decided to go on her own. On the third day I finally got up, fresh as a daisy and I had the whole place to myself, and I figured that she’ll probably come back in a few days… And it turned into a week before she finally came back. And so, it continued, until we finally managed to balance it out, where we were going about for a week and came back for another week.”

“So, what happened?” Spike curiously asked.

Mare of the Night gave out a deep sigh. “I’m not sure exactly when, sometime in the second year probably, but Celestia’s started to become increasingly listless. At first, I thought it was just the feedback from all the activities we’ve been doing on the weekly basis, but then I realized that old yearnings started to creep up on her.”

“Old yearnings?” Twilight was visibly confused.

“Getting involved with ponies. Sure, she has this obsession with getting adrenalin fills, but she still wanted to participate in activities with everypony else, ones that involved building lasting friendships. So, one day she said she wanted to go off on her own for a week or so, but then I didn’t hear from her for nearly a month. That’s when I got a letter, saying she’ll be away for a while. And… this is where I am now… alone, with Tibbles.”

“I’m… so sorry,” the princess was nearly brought to the verge of tears. “I can’t imagine how lonely you must feel.”

“Twilight Sparkle, please don’t mistake,” she intervened. “We’ve not grown apart. I still hear from her on regular basis. But at the same time, I cannot interfere in her work, now that she’s been at it for months on it.”

“What exactly is she doing?” Spike curiously asked.

“She's directing a stage play.”

A gasp of delight came from Twilight. “What?! No way! This is huge!” but then she realized something. “Wait… if that’s the case, wouldn’t there be news all over the place? How come I haven’t heard anything about it? All of Equestria knows Celestia. “

“And that’s precisely the reason why nopony’s heard about it,” Luna explained. “With my sister’s reputation, she wouldn’t be able to work in peace. She may not be a ruler anymore but ponies still revere her to the point where it becomes detrimental to concentration and productivity.” She levitated a newspaper on the table over to them. “Look at the front page.”

Spike grabbed the paper and spotted an ad at the bottom, featuring an image of a regally dressed black-maned stallion unicorn, and an equally regally dressed bright-maned mare in a romantic moment:

Briddleway Production presents

THE KING AND I

A comedic drama of a princess and her sorcerer sidekick, visiting a parallel world, where she falls in love with a unicorn king, whose own world counterpart is an evil tyrant. Was their love destined to end in tragedy from the start?

Written and directed by Tia Sunbeam

“Tia… Sunbeam…? Who’s that?” Spike asked, confused.

Before Luna could respond, the mare sitting next to the dragon immediately pointed out. “That’s her, Spike! Tia, as in Celes-Tia, and Sunbeam… well, that one’s pretty obvious.”

“You’re perceptive indeed, Twilight Sparkle,” the Mare of the Night nodded.

“But… Briddleway? As in Manehatten’s Briddleway? That’s on the other side of the country!” Spike pointed out.

Twilight jumped off the sofa. “Princess Luna, we need to get to Manehatten and I need you to come along. Spike, let’s go.”

“But, it’ll take at least twice as long to get there, Twilight. It will take the whole rest of the day.”

“Then we’ll just have to teleport there. I was trying to conserve magic, but the situation is such that I’ll have to go through with it.

“Halt, Twilight Sparkle!” Luna stopped her.

She walked over to the wardrobe at the entrance into the house, picking up some of the mess on the floor and tossing a hat and a coat at the active princess, while dressing herself up and putting on glasses.

“If we’re planning to go out in public, we need to look inconspicuous. If we attract too much attention it could ruin my sister’s anonymity, and the two of us, aren’t exactly the subtlest in appearance.”

“Hey, what about me?” Spike voice his complaint.

“I don’t think you need to worry yourself about standing out,” Twilight said until he started to pull a pouty face. “Princess Luna, another set please.”

Dressed in coats, hats, and glasses, the alicorns and the dragon got together. The two’s horns began to glow in their respective magical auras and disappeared with a flash.

FLASH!

The trio materialized in an alleyway, but the loud voices of masses going about their business on the street was incredibly loud. They didn’t stand about for long; the clock was ticking and they had to find the missing sibling, so without further ado, they exited the alleyway and the wide streets of Manehatten’s theater district opened before them, now they just had to find the right place.

Twilight remembered all too well, how giddy Celestia was last time when she got involved in a theatrical play, one of the few things in her life she never had a chance to experience, and by the end, she even managed to save the play from a complete disaster. Looking back now, she didn’t know if her joke about putting down her crown to devote her life to the theater was just that or a premonition of things to come. And now… she was living it.

“Is this it?” Spike stopped, looking up to a theater.

A giant sign sat above the entrance, reading: The King and I. Iron bars blocked the front doors. They walked to the side alley, where a door for the actors stood, a single giant muscle-bound earth pony barred the way, looking intimidating.

“Erm, excuse me, sir?” Twilight said as she approached him. “We’re here to see… Tia Sunbeam.”

The massive stallion’s eyes darted to her. “No admittance.”

“Look, I understand that there are rules about not allowing just anypony to just march in on the theater practice,“ the princess pushed, “but this is a matter of great emergency.”

“No admittance,” the strongman repeated.

Twilight started to get worried. “But you don’t understand! This is a matter of national emergency! I must speak to her right now!”

And once again the guard gave the same reply. “No admittance.”

Luna bristled, shoved Twilight out of the way, and came face to face with the stallion.

“KNAVE!” her boisterous voice echoed. “YOU DARE BAR OUR WAY WHEN THE SITUATION IS CLEARLY OVER YOUR HEAD? WE DEMAND AN AUDIENCE WITH THE DIRECTOR!”

Her voice rang out of the alley, causing some of the passers-by to stop and observe the situation.

“You know, maybe that was a mistake,” the dragon said, being aware of the situation.

“Listen here!” the brute spoke more than just two words this time. “I don’t care what kind of emergency this is! I wouldn’t care if you were the Princess of Equestria, nopony’s allowed to-!”

“What’s with all the shouting out there?!” a muffled-up voice called from the other side of the door.

Luna’s ear twitched; she recognized that pompous tone in the voice. The door swung open and an old greying mustached unicorn appeared, wearing a red butler’s tailcoat, with a visible cutie mark of a pocket watch.

“Well?” the unicorn questioned the bouncer. “Are you going to explain yourself?”

His gaze then wandered off to the three disguised figures before him.

The Mare of Night lowered her glasses and looked him straight in the eyes. “Kibitz.”

There were a few seconds of pause before he finally made a response. “Ah… that explains it. Come in.”

“Wait, Madame said- “ the guard protested, only to get shot down.

“Never you mind what Madame said, Pecks. These are here on official business. Now get back to work,” the unicorn instructed him.

The trio walked, as the door closed behind them.

“Talk about the stroke of luck,” Luna said as they were led down the theater’s hallway, removing their disguises. “We thought that thunderhead at the door wouldn’t let us through.”

“Pecks is just doing his job,” the unicorn explained, “you wouldn’t believe how many attempts at breaking an entry we’ve had. Some ponies are so noisy, especially with the mystery of this play’s director. It’s the current talk of the town.”

“So, how’s life treated you, Kibitz?” the Princess of Equestria asked. “I’m surprised you decided to stay in service after all that’s happened.”

“Your Majesty, “ he addressed her, “with all due respect, but my family had served the Canterlot royalty for generations. I would’ve been filled with shame if I hadn’t remained at the Princess… excuse me, Madame’s side after all these years. And besides, from what I understand you’ve found yourself a reliable replacement for my vacant position.”

He glanced at the dragon to his side, a smile of recognition appeared on his face from hearing those words.

They arrived at the door leading to the auditorium, Kibitz slowly opened them as to not make a noise. The seating area opened before them, probably more than five hundred seats. And in the far bottom in the first row, a fiery red bird was sitting on top of the seat and next to it they saw a multi-colored mane flowing in a constant motion. They quietly approached, Twilight hoping to surprise her, but her attention then wandered off to goings-on the stage itself.

The backdrop represented a beautiful garden, with small strips of paper hanging from the trees all around. Then the two actors came on the stage, and they looked… suspiciously familiar. They walked over to a podium, pretended to write something down, then they looked at each other… and their foreheads touched; and just then, Twilight heard a choking sound slipping out of the figure in the front seat. The mare parted from the stallion, jumping through what resembled a portal, only to be met by… The Princess of Friendship stopped. She recognized the clothes pattern of the unicorn that’s just entered the stage; they may have been off-color, but she remembered stitching those same clothes herself once. The unicorn was furious, yelling at the mare, before “casting a spell” on the portal to close it. In the end, the mare ran off the stage, crying.

“End scene!” a familiar voice finally came from the multi-colored mane in front. “Well done, everypony! Break time!”

“So… how much of that have you embellished?” Luna made a snide remark.

Celestia’s attention was finally grabbed and she turned her head.

“Hello, Princess Celestia,” Twilight meekly waved.

“Twilight?!” the former ruler’s voice gave out a clear sign of shock.

Mare of the Sun jumped out of her chair and galloped to her former student and embraced her. A warm feeling started to rise in Twilight. She finally got to see her life-long mentor after such a long time. She repaid it with the same gesture.

“It’s so good to see you again, my former pupil,” she said in a motherly tone, and as she parted her brow crook. “Say, something’s different about you. Did you finally start to “grow into my horseshoes”?”

Spike interjected. “Three inches so far.”

“My, talk about a growth spurt,” they chuckled, making the Princess of Friendship blush from embarrassment.

“Sorry, if we came at an inappropriate time, Princess Celestia-“ Twilight was stopped before she could finish.

“Please, you don’t need to refer to me by the title I no longer carry. Just Celestia. Or as I’m called in these circles, Madame Tia Sunbeam.”

She chuckled. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get used to not calling you that.

Luna traipsed towards the stage looking about. “So, this is what you’ve been working on? Turning your life story into a play?”

“Well, sort of. Most ponies don’t know about the misadventures of my youth, so I figured I could relate to them the tales of a naïve princess and her journey to when she finally becomes wise enough to lead a kingdom. Mind you, I had to change a handful of things to make the story flow better.”

“Aren’t you afraid that somepony will squeal to the public on who “Tia Sunbeam” actually is?”

“I’ve gone through all the necessary precautions,” she told her younger sibling. “All these ponies are under an oath of silence. But in any case, I’m delighted to see all three of you.”

“I’m glad to see you as well, sister,” Mare of the Night stated, “but I would not have come all the way here if Twilight Sparkle hadn’t said it was urgent.”

Celestia's expression soon changed to a more serious one, as she looked at the active princess.

“Princess Celestia, I normally wouldn’t come to you when faced with a problem, but something’s happened back home. It’d be too long to explain full details here, and I don’t want anything to get out in public that could incite panic. So, I would like to ask you and Princess Luna to accompany me back to Canterlot.”

Twilight waited a moment for a response from the former ruler, who seemed to have been in thought. “You’ve put me in a difficult position, Twilight. I and the rest of the team have been working on this play for months, the premier takes place three weeks from now and we’re making sure that nothing is out of place, and I’m risking my reputation on this.”

A sense of unease washed over Twilight. What was she getting at? Was she actually declining her urgent call for help?

“However,” she finally made her position clear, “I trust you enough to know you wouldn’t be here unless the situation was very serious indeed.”

The little mare sighed in relief.

“Kibitz!” Celestia called out.

The unicorn arrived at her side. “Yes, Madame?”

“Go tell the team that we’re closing down early for today. Urgent business in Canterlot.”

“As you say, Madame,” the old stallion nodded.

“Oh, and I’ll go to Silverbeak in person to tell him our meeting will have to be rescheduled.”

The unicorn nodded again and walked off.

“Before we set out,“ the sun mare told the trio, “there’s a little matter I need to deal with first, so I must ask you to accompany me until then.”

Disguised under the coats, hats, and glasses, the group walked down the street of Manehatten and out of the theater district.

“So, who exactly are we meeting?” Twilight asked.

“An old acquaintance,” the former mentor explained. “We met some time ago. He works as a historian back in the Hippogriff Kingdom, and he asked me if I could pull some strings to help open a seasonal cultural exhibition in one of the museums in Manehatten.”

A gleeful smile appeared on Twilight’s face. She still didn’t have time to see any more museums, and now another wing is being opened, this time on hippogriff culture. They finally got around the corner where the museum was supposed to be, only to be met with the flashing police lights and a gathered crowd. They moved through it up to the front and saw that the front door of the museum was busted down. The police were swarming all over the place. A couple of them were interviewing a group that seemed to be the museum's staff, but among them, one figure stood out: a grey hippogriff, with a beak as shiny as silver.

“Silverbeak!” Celestia called.

The hippogriff’s head turned and approached the shady group, but as he got closer, he recognized the tall bright “unicorn” mare. “Madame! You really shouldn't be out in public.”

“I know,” she responded, “but my friends and I are in a hurry. I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone today’s meeting.”

He sighed. “We might as well, considering the situation.”

“What exactly happened?” Luna asked.

“A break-in!” he told them. “Somecreature forcefully entered the museum last night and wrecked the entire hippogriff exhibition! We’ve had artifacts, going back as far as the founding of our kingdom and all the way to Storm King’s defeat! It’s an indescribable mess in there!”

“And what exactly was stolen?” Twilight questioned.

“No idea. The whole place has been turned over, almost as if they purposely didn’t want to give away what was taken.”

“And you’ve got no suspects?” Spike wondered.

“That’s… the unsettling thing,” the historian shifted. “There were eyewitnesses. They actually saw five creatures running by with a crate, but…”

“But what?” Celestia waited for his response.

“The perpetrators according to them were a dragon, a minotaur, a diamond dog, a griffin, and… a hippogriff. Why? Why in the world would one of our own want to steal our cultural artifacts?”

Twilight could clearly see the distress on the poor historian; were he not already grey, he’d likely turn from worry.

“I’m sorry, Silverbeak,” the sun mare tried to console him. “I can understand it’s not easy when somebody takes something precious for petty gain.”

He sighed. “There’s nothing to apologize for, Madame. We’ll find them sooner or later. But I won’t waste any more of your time. When you’re back, do let me know when you’re ready to have a meeting again.”

She nodded. “Good luck on your search, Silverbeak.”

The Hippogriff nodded in return and walked off to talk to police officers. The group walked off as well, sneaking into one of the side alleys, away from prying eyes.

“Okay, I think we should be good to go,” Celestia told them.

“Alright,” Twilight said, “now we just need to get to my old castle to pick up some additional ponies.”

The three mares looked at one another, nodded, and begun to focus on their magic. And in a flash, they disappeared.

FLASH!

The group finally appeared in front of Twilight’s old castle, and she could hear the sound of the Ponyville’s bell ringing, signaling the afternoon. All things considered, they’ve made a good time.

“Okay, just need to get Starlight and the rest, and we can all- “ she was about to walk up the castle stairs only to bash her head against a solid object. “Who in the world put this tree in front of-!”

She stopped after realizing what she just said. A tree was lying in the doorway of the castle; and not just any tree, it was Zecora’s hovel. What was it doing out of the Everfree Forest? Then she looked around and realized that wasn’t the only mess. The entire town was littered with dirt, branches, and strange white and black rocks.

“Twilight, is that the problem you were talking about?” Luna asked, pointing into the distance.

Twilight looked at the Everfree Forest and saw the darkness still rising far away. “Yes, it’s been rising over the forest since yesterday.”

“What about the one at Canterlot?” Celestia asked.

Canterlot? The Princess turned to face it and noticed black smoke rising from it. What in the world happened while she was gone? She focused her magic and instantly teleported all of them.

They appeared on the street of Canterlot. Parts of the city were on fire and there were some injured guards on the street, receiving medical attention. She looked about, then her sight trailed over to the castle and noticed a purpled maned mare standing on top of the balcony. She seemed to have noticed her and ran off. Twilight teleported again, and at this point, all of the other three passengers were feeling a bit woozy from not receiving a prior warning. Twilight saw all her friends; the Elements and the School of Friendship faculty members standing on the far end from the edge of the balcony, with really concerned looks.

“WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS GOING ON HERE?!” Twilight let out a shout of frustration and confusion.

While they finally removed their disguises, the tension was held for nearly a minute, before a voice broke it. “Ah, finally, the mare of the hour comes to resolve everypony’s problem, and on top of that she brought reinforcements.”

Twilight recognized that sly, manipulative voice. She looked up and noticed a deformed shape, slouching in the stained-glass window.

“Discord, what have you done?! Why does Canterlot look like in the aftermath of a battle?! Why is Ponyville messed up?!” she inquired in an angry tone.

“Oh sure,” the form in the stained-glass moved, lifting it, and the Spirit of Chaos crawled out in his pure form, “blame all the mess on the Lord of Chaos, why don’t you.”

He received glares, not just from Twilight, but also from Celestia, Luna, and Spike.

“Okay, okay,” he relented, “while the mess TECHNICALLY is my fault, this happened for a good reason. Right… Starlight?” he looked at her with a smile.

The Princess’s gaze drifted to her former student, who was bunched together with everybody else, giving her an awkward look.

“Starlight? What happened? What did you tell him to do?” she questioned her.

Before the headmare could speak, Discord jumped in again. “No, wait! I got a better idea. How about I show you instead?”

He snapped his fingers, teleporting the four arrivals to the rest of the group, and nestled them all in the theater seats, while a giant screen expanded on the far edge of the balcony and a movie started to play.

“Oh, this is gonna be good,” the Lord of Chaos said and he pulled out a carton of popcorn and started to munch.

Chapter 9: The Jester Enters

Sun slowly rose on the horizon and it illuminated Ponyville. On the far edge of town, the morning light roused the small winged inhabitants living in the trees by the house on the grove, their songs proceeding to wake everybody. Then a hushing sound followed, as the upper half of the door opened, and the timid yellow pegasus came flying out to meet them.

“Emm, excuse me,” she said, “I do not want to sound rude, but somepony else is still resting after a rough day, and I would kindly ask if you could keep it down just a little bit, please?”

The birds looked at one another and nodded in response.

She smiled. “Thank you.”

After flying back into the house, she closed the door and calmly absorbed the silence around her home. Perfect. She didn’t want the recovering patient to suffer any more stress than she already has. Then there was a knock on the door. Who would be coming around her house at this early hour? She went to open the door again, yet once she did there was nobody around. Was somebody pulling a prank on her? Upon looking down, however, she finally noticed a wrapped-up present on the threshold. She picked it up and returned to the house.

“Who would want to give me a present? And this early in the morning?” she wondered.

She pulled the ribbon to unwrap the mysterious gift, and just as she lifted the lid, the entire house burst with confetti. Tiny shredded pieces of paper filled the whole house, they were so high that Fluttershy had to swim to the surface. And as she gazed about, frustrated by the mess, she suddenly spotted something moving, slithering right under the surface of the confetti, fast approaching her. In a panic she quickly took flight, and just as the movement reached her position, it disappeared. The shredded paper suddenly flew off, as a tall figure quickly rose from it, its red and yellow eyes meeting the shy pegasus’. She gasped and was about to scream, only to then realize who it actually was. She recognized this patchwork art piece of various animal parts; only the head resembled anything close to an equine.

“HAPPY 40th COUNCIL MEETING!” the draconequus boisterously announced.

“Discord,” she sighed, “is it really necessary this early in the morning?”

He pulled her into a hug. “Oh, come now, you really think I’d simply miss a chance to surprise my best friend on such a monumental accomplishment? Today’s your fortieth moon cycle since your friend Twilight Sparkle became the ruler of Equestria, and you became part of her court. You; a sweet, innocent pegasus from a little village, who just wants to help animals.”

“I’m flattered, Discord, I really am, but I think you overdid it with the confetti.”

He looked about, seeing the giant mass of shredded paper cluttering the whole house. “Well, I suppose I did go a bit overboard.”

He snapped his fingers, and it all instantly vanished. “Now tell me, what delight may we entertain on today’s council meeting?”

She saw the excitement on his face and felt bad that she’s going to have to ruin it for him. “I’m sorry Discord, but I’m afraid- “

She didn’t have the chance to finish the sentence, as he shushed her and expanded one of his ears, acting as if he’s trying to listen. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“It sounds like a lot of whinging and whining.”

She gasped. “Discord, how could you say that!”

“What- NO! I wasn’t talking about you, I swear!” he tried to make an innocent face, after realizing there was a loss in communication.

He snapped his fingers, and they both teleported into a different room in the house.

“Aha, there’s the real culprit,” he pointed out.

They were in Fluttershy’s bedroom, but it wasn’t empty, since another pony took residence here after the events that took place yesterday. Rainbow Dash spent the night in her bed, while the owner slept on the sofa; it was only fair considering she was still recovering. The wonderbolt was still asleep, however, she was lightly flailing about with her hooves and letting out whiny noises.

“Oh no,” Fluttershy voiced concern, “I think she’s having a nightmare.”

There was a snapping sound, and in a flash the shy pony found herself wearing a doctor’s coat, while the Lord of Chaos wore a nurse’s uniform, holding a clipboard and a pen.

“Doctor F, the patient seems to be expressing mild signs of mental anguish,” he said writing it down. “Proceeding with a cat scan.”

He snapped his fingers and a small tabby cat appeared on the palm of his feline hand, which he then gently placed on top of Rainbow Dash’s head, while she still slept, then pulled out a monitor and turned it on. After the white noise cleared the image became clear.

Rainbow Dash flew across the sky with great haste; there was a clear sign of terror in her breathing. It became even more apparent when a cloud darkened the skies and strong wind began to blow. She looked back and fear clearly manifested on her face, just as one appeared on the cloud, its teal eyes approaching her fast. Cloudsdale came in sight, hoping she could take refuge there. Then a neighing cry followed. Those were Windigo cries, and they came from the dark cloud, as it opened its maw and breathed out snow and ice. It hit her and knocked her out of the sky, fearing she would crash to the ground, only to have her fall be softened by the blanket of thick snow. She climbed out of the hole and watched in horror as the dark cloud enveloped and consumed Cloudsdale. She panicked, and tried to fly up in an attempt to stop it, but fell on her stomach. She looked back and saw a familiar image: her wings were frozen solid, and in a desperate attempt to break them free, the ice shattered… and so did her wings in the process. She screamed in despair.

“Well… this is unsettling, to say the least,” Discord added.

Fluttershy couldn’t watch this anymore. “Discord, we need to wake her up.”

“Already on it,” he said, as he picked the tabby on the patient’s head, and dropped it in the doctor’s care, before reaching into the pocket and pulling out a tiny horn with a rubber bladder at the end. “Close your ears, dear.”

He shut his own ear as he said that, but instead of covering her own, Fluttershy covered the little cat instead. A loud honking noise erupted in the house, which lasted for about two seconds, scaring all the birds outside. After it finally settled, the shy pegasus finally released the kitten who hopped off and marched away, while she stared at the mess that Discord had just caused in her room, as the horn blew half of it to one side. Rainbow Dash meanwhile, lay upside down in the cluttered mess, her eyes wide open, and one of them and her hind leg twitching.

“Discord, that was too much!” she chewed him out as she rushed to the patient’s side.

“What? It worked, didn’t it?”

She got to the blue pegasus’ side, trying to get her attention. “Rainbow Dash, speak to me. Say something.”

The flyer kept staring in her direction as she kept talking to her before something finally came out of her mouth. “WHAT?! I CAN’T HEAR A THING YOU’RE SAYING!”

They teleported into the kitchen, with the two mares sitting on the chairs, while the draconequus stood by, wearing an apron. “Now, what can I get you two for breakfast?”

“How about something for this migraine?” Rainbow Dash said as she lay her head on the table.

Discord pulled out a bag and shook it. “How about an ice bag?”

The moment he said that the blue pegasus yelped and leaned backward, tipping off the chair.

“Sorry! Bad timing, no ice!” he said and threw it away. “Seriously Fluttershy, what happened to her that she ended up in this state?”

“It’s a long story Discord,” she started, “it happened yesterday when I went to Zecora, that’s where I met everypony else- “

“Hold on,” he stopped her. “Everypony else?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash and the rest of the girls, along with Spike came in my direction, looking for Twilight.”

“Fluttershy, this just won’t do," he shook his head. "If you weren’t there for the whole thing, then I likely won’t get the whole story.”

With a groan, the blue pegasus picked herself up and back on the table. ”Well, what do you suggest then, Discord?”

“I want to hear everypony’s perspective on what happened, so I can see what I’ve missed in the last twenty-four hours,” he suddenly stopped and his eyes turned into a pair of lightbulbs. “I got an idea! Council Brunch!”

“A council brunch?” his best friend inquired.

“We gather up the whole gang and have a brunch together, and you can all tell me everything in the meantime… although we may have some problem with arranging the place for it because your table won’t be big enough for the whole council, I’m afraid.”

“You’d have to include Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst as well by that logic,” Rainbow Dash said.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“They were there for the part of the event that took place.”

“Perfect! We can just use their castle then!” he said with finality.

“Wait, we can’t just go there unannounced!” Fluttershy intervened.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be a surprise.”

“That doesn’t just make it oka-“ before Rainbow Dash could finish the sentence, Discord grabbed a zipper in the air, opening a hole in reality and it sucked her in.

“Off we go!” he announced.

“No, Discord wait!” The shy pegasus struggled to resist the dimensional pull. “I didn’t give Angel his breakfast yet!”

As she got pulled in, the Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers, before jumping into the hole and zipped it closed.
The little bunny Angel slept softly in his bed when suddenly a pile of chopped vegetables materialized above him and covered him completely. The lagomorph climbed out of the pile and raged about, before realizing there’s nobody around. He picked up a piece of chopped carrot, sniffed it, and then simply shrugged, proceeding to munch.

A sizzling sound was in the air at Sugarcube Corner, accompanied by the smell of cooked eggs. A hole, in reality, burst open like a restaurant kitchen door and two ponies came out sliding on the floor, followed by the draconequus.

“First stop the food,” he said, before taking a long sniff of the air around him. “And it seems I’ve come at the right moment.”

As the two pegasi recovered, Discord bent over the counter, extended his neck, and spotted a certain pink pony by the oven. He tapped his own head, and a ringing sound came out of his ears, getting the baker's attention.

“Oh hello, Discord!” Pinkie Pie said in her usual hyped tone, as she hopped over to the counter, and noticing the other companions by his side. “Oh, hey girls! What are you all doing up this early?”

“It’s not like we had a choice, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash complained, “Discord’s behind the wheel… again.”

“Well, somepony’s a bit grumpy today,” she replied. “But… considering the other day, I don’t honestly blame you.”

Lord of Chaos leaned to her. “Oh, now you’ve got my attention. You should’ve seen her earlier with the ruckus she was making, and all I wanted was to prepare her breakfast to make her feel better. And speaking of which, what’s that delightful sound and smell coming from the kitchen?”

“It’s omelet!” she verified. “You guys wanna joining?”

He gasped. “Well what a coincidence, we’ve come to the right place at the right time!” He pulled her to his side. “Picture it with me: all of Twilight’s friends, including me and those living in her old castle now.”

“Picturing it…” she followed up.

“Everypony sitting at the table together, enjoying a delicious brunch.”

“…loving it,” the tone of her voice rose as she understood the concept.

“And best of all…”

“Best of all?” she tried to contain her excitement from what would follow.

“It’s a surprise!”

The pink pony began to shake uncontrollably, followed by a loud squeal, so much that the blue pegasus had to cover her ears.

After the moment passed, she returned to the draconequus’ side. “When do we start?”

“Can you work on the road?” he asked her.

“Well duh, have you met me?”

“Then we start now!” he smiled and snapped his finger, summoning a leaver, and after pulling it, opened another rift in reality, which sucked in Pinkie Pie and her oven, along with all the ingredients.

“Discord wait! Can’t you at least fasten us on to something, please?” the yellow pegasus pleaded.

He snapped his fingers, and had both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash strapped in child body carriers on the front and the back of himself, coddling the former. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

“Her? What about me?” the one in the back complained.

“Would you rather NOT be strapped in?”

“Never mind,” she receded her initial comment.

“Now, hold on tight both of you! Second stop: the drinks!” and he leaped with them into the rift and it shut closed behind them.

Applejack walked through the storage, rolling the last barrel onto a stack. A new delivery came from a family member and she was in high spirits to try the new product. Suddenly, a portal, in reality, slid open like a chicken coop, and the oven came sliding through, with a certain pink pony cooking up a mountain of omelets.

“Pinkie!?” she screamed in shock. “What in tarnation is this?!”

And then Discord stepped through, closing the portal behind him. “Oh… now it makes sense.”

“Applejack sweetie, don’t ever try to make sense of chaos… you just might go insane,” he joked as his pupils rolled around the rim of his eyes. “But speaking of sweet, what have you got there?”

The country pony realized he was pointing at the barrels. “What, this? It’s a little thing Grand Pear had made and sent over for testing. It’s Pear cider.”

“Cider?!” a cry came from behind Discord and as he turned, revealed the wonderbolt, drooling all over.

“You seem to be doing better, Rainbow, all things considered,” she told her.

“No thanks to him.” The former pointed at her carrier. “I could really use a pick-me-up, AJ.”

“Look, I’m trying to make it up, okay?” the draconequus explained. “That’s why we’re having the surprise council brunch.”

“I’m sorry, surprise what now?” the orange pony gave a confused expression.

“Discord got this idea of having a brunch with everypony for the fortieth council meeting…” Fluttershy explained to her, and then the Lord of Chaos interjected. “And because I want to know every little detail from everypony on what happened yesterday that’s made bluey over here… well, more blue than usual.”

“Ah mean, Ah reckon we could; Ah do want some opinions on testing the latest product, so it’d be nice to hear what everypony thinks, but don’t ya think we could wait just a bit? I mean I still have some things to wrap up an-“ the farmer explained, but wouldn’t be able to finish it, as another rift in reality opened and started to pull her in.

“Sorry Applejack, but we’re kind of in a hurry,” he responded.

She quickly grabbed onto a barrel to resist the gravitational pull of the other dimension, but unfortunately, it picked up the cider barrel as well and dragged it in along with her. It soon also pulled in Pinkie Pie, along with her oven.

“Okay, one more stop before the final destination,” draconequus said, before leaping into the portal and closing it behind.

Soft tapping sounds of hooves echoed through the storage, as a young yellow, red-maned filly with a bow on her head walked in.

“Applejack, we got a solution to our problem! I brought-“ Applebloom stopped, as soon as she realized her older sibling was not present. “Huh… I could’ve sworn she was here just a moment ago…”

Rarity hummed to herself, feeling fresh as a spring daisy after a good night’s rest. Carousel Boutique will be closed for today since the Council of Friendship meeting’s taking place, so before she goes, she might as well have some breakfast. She made it to the ground floor and was halfway to the kitchen when she suddenly noticed one of the curtains for her show reveal emanating a glow. The curtains opened and Applejack rolled out, still holding onto a barrel, Pinkie Pie slid out along with her oven and a mountain of omelets continuing to pile up, with Discord finally making a grand entrance, doing a posing stride with the two pegasi still attached to him.

Rarity just stood for a moment in silence. “Well… good morning, everypony. I would say nice of you all to invite yourselves in, but I can see you didn’t have much of a choice.”

“You don’t know the half of it, Rares,” muttered Rainbow Dash.

“So,” the unicorn cleared her throat, “to what do I owe the pleasure, Discord?”

He snapped his finger, clothing himself in a highly aristocratic manner, showing an uncanny resemblance to his alter ego. “Miss Rarity, I hereby cordially invite you to participate in a Surprise Council Brunch.”

“Oh my… I must say this is certainly unexpected. Although, I think I’ve missed the point of it being called a “surprise brunch” when I’m already onto it,” she explained.

“Acord” removed his monocle. “Excuse me, are you saying you were not surprised by our entrance?”

“Well, no, I mean I was, but-“ the white mare tried to explain herself before the draconequus ripped off his clothes and it exploded in confetti.

“I rest my case!” he declared. “We have the food and the drink, so all we’ve left now is your delicate sense for decorations.”

She felt taken aback a bit. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind participating, I do feel a bit peckish, but where is it supposed to take place?”

“Oh, that’s a very good question, to which I have an answer,” Discord said, as he opened his feline palm and pressed the pad on it, and a rift in a form of a trap door opened underneath all of them and they made a free fall.

Starlight yawned. It was such a lovely day to just sleep in, yet it was disturbed by the sudden banging sound with the break of dawn, and once it ended she couldn’t fall back to sleep anymore. No point in trying to drag it out, might as well just start the day. Yet as she walked down the hallway, there was a sudden booming sound echoing through the castle. What in the world could’ve made it?

The door behind her swung open as an orange unkempt stallion looked about, spotting the other resident. “Starlight, did you hear that?”

“I did,” she confirmed, “but I can’t think of anypony else who could do that but-“

She stopped, looking Sunburst directly in the face as they both yelled in unison from the realization. “TRIXIE!”

They galloped down the hallway and into the kitchen to find it completely white and spotting a mare covered in it, holding an empty bag of flour in the air.

“Do we even wanna know, Trixie?” she frowned.

“I was just trying to prepare breakfast,” she coughed.

“How could you even make the flour explode?” the stallion inquired.

“I didn’t,” the mare corrected him as she shook, shaking all the flour off her, returning her coat to the blue, “I ripped the bag open from the shock, I wasn’t the one responsible for that sound.”

“Well, WE are the only three living in this castle, so who else could it be?” Starlight told her.

A second booming sound followed and this time around they all saw none of them were responsible. They galloped off, further down the hallway, and noticed one of the doors lightly swinging back and forth.

“It’s coming from the dining hall!” Sunburst told them.

They stopped at the doorway and their horns lit, preparing for an attack on the intruders. “Brace yourselves, you two. On three… two… one… NOW!”

They charged in, bursting the doors wide open, only to stop after a few steps, confused and surprised.

“SURPRISE!!!” a unified loud shout followed.

The dining room was finely furnished, seats decorated with comfy pillows and an elegant tablecloth covering the table, stacked with omelets of all types and tall glasses willed with pristine yellow sweetness. And surrounding all of it were five familiar mares and an amalgamation that stood out like a sore thumb.

“Wha… ha… HUH?!” Starlight simply couldn’t find words to express herself.

“It’s a Surprise Council of Friendship Brunch!” Pinkie Pie announced loudly.

“But… we’re not members of the council,” Sunburst explained.

“Well, considering certain circumstances, we can make an exception this time… or you can just take it as “The Council of Friendship is Surprising you with a brunch”,” draconequus grinned.

Without waiting a moment longer, the blue unicorn happily traipsed over. “Well, you don’t have to tell me twice!”

“Considering the state of the kitchen, I’d say it’s in our best interest to join,” the stallion followed.

Starlight Glimmer stood for a moment to absorb the situation surrounding her. A dining room full of familiar faces, ones that she’s not seen in a while, all gathered in a moment of revelry. She felt as if a gentle breeze was blowing on her; she yearned to experience these moments again, and now… it’s right in front of her.

As the last guest joined at the table, Discord bent toward Rainbow Dash, who was already deep in her first mug of pear cider. “All things considered, I’d say this worked well for all of us.”

“I think you mean, you got lucky it all paid off in the end,” she said with a smug.

He felt proud of himself; everything was set.

“And now everypony,” he announced, “since all the participants from yesterday’s events are present, while you dig in, I’d like you to all enlighten me on what exactly transpired.”

“Well, that’s not exactly correct,” the headmare voice her disapproval, “Twilight was there as well, she was at the center of it all, and you’re not gonna be able to get her since he’s gone off to look for the former princesses.”

The Lord of Chaos frowned. “Excuse me, what? Luna and Cay-Cay are also involved?” then he looked about and realized there was somebody else absent as well. “And where’s Miss Rhymes-a-lot?"

“She went out early, saying she had errands to attend to, at least from what I understood,” Trixie added.

Discord pulled on his face in frustration. “Well, then we came in too early. We’ll just have to take a small detour-“

And just as he was about to snap his fingers five mares in unison gave out a loud and disapproving: “NO!” Stopping the draconequus dead in his tracks, as he looked about with a frightened expression on his face.

“Okay, never mind then,” he said with a disheartening sigh, ”I supposed I can settle for the second-hand recount. But I want to hear every. Little. Detail,” he said in an increasingly sinister tone before he finally returned to his usual jovial one. “But enough about that! HAPPY 40th COUNCIL MEETING!!!”

Despite the bumpy start for some, the rest of the early morning went swimmingly. They feasted on Pinkie Pie’s fine dishes and drank Applejack's new family produce, it was a good moment to catch up on going on, not just in their lives, but also the “more recent event”. The only downside some felt was that Twilight was unable to attend, but they couldn’t interfere in her royal duties.

After the brunch finally ended, they went into further details with Discord about what happened yesterday, as they moved the topic of discussion into the gathering room, where the Cutie Map stood, to make sure he got the point.

“So, let me see if I got this,” the draconequus said as he observed the imagery of a dark cloud looming over the Everfree Forest on the map. “Queen Chrysalis, after somehow escaping her petrification that me and the two princesses cast on her and her cohorts, summoned some dark sinister force that not even friendship can stop, and is the reason why miss wonderbolt over there got a case of mental trauma?”

“That’s putting it bluntly,” she retorted.

“But apart from the whole “infection” situation and the manifestation the size of a pet eating what light remained of the tree that the kids were using as their playground, that it?”

“You don’t really waste time on putting it more tactfully, do ya?” the farmer frowned.

“I just call it as I see, Applejack,” he responded to her. “In any case, I must say I’m very disappointed in all of you.”

“Excuse me?! You’re disappointed in us?!” Rarity raised her voice and came in closer to him. “Discord, I’ll let you know we barely managed to get away! What more could we have possibly done when our BEST wasn’t good enough?!”

“That’s not what I meant, Rarity,” Lord of Chaos calmly responded.

“It… it’s not?”

“No. What I meant, is that I’m disappointed that you didn’t call for MY assistance at moment’s notice when the worst came to pass.”

“You?” Trixie looked at him funny. “And what could you have possibly done?”

Discord gave her a neutral expression and then snapped his fingers. The castle suddenly turned upside down, and the headmare quickly used her magic to hold all of them aloft, before the snap sounded again and everything turned back to normal position.

“Did I have to do that to remind you who I am?” he said. “I’m the Lord of Chaos. I can bend reality to my will. Were I there, those two creatures now hiding in the Everfree Forest wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” Sunburst voiced his frustration.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Am I maybe not trustworthy to assist you, or something?”

As the draconequus spoke those words and waited for the answer, only Starlight spoke almost immediately. “Discord, your idea of assistance last time was freeing dangerous criminals and bringing them together to fight against us, in an attempt to give us morale.”

The silence was so tense you could hear the pin drop. Starlight was about as tactful as Discord himself when need be and wasn’t exactly known for mincing her words, calling things out for what they were. And one of the worst things he did after he “turned a new leaf” was bring Chrysalis, Tirek, Sombra, and Cozy Glow together under the guise of Grogar, with a purpose to have them face off against Twilight and her friends, to give them morale boost as future leaders of Equestria, only to have it backfire as his “allies” turned on him, becoming an even bigger threat as a result. And even three years after those events, those inflicted wounds did not yet heal.

“That hurt, Starlight…” he made a pouty expression, ”you just cut me really deep.”

Almost immediately Fluttershy flew to his side to comfort him. “Please don’t take it so harshly, Discord. What she means is that we’re not blind to your shortcomings.”

“Shortcomings? With all due respect Fluttershy, but I’m a pure and perfect being of chaos.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what she meant, Discord,” Pinkie Pie voiced her statement.

He glared at her for a moment. “Well regardless, it all turned out well, in the end, didn’t it?”

“Yeah… AFTER-THE-FACT,” Trixie added.

“Look, I’m here now. I say we use this chance and take care of the problem before Twilight gets back, and then we can have a victory party!”

“NO!” Starlight yelled, as her horn suddenly started emanating red vapor. “Discord, Twilight’s going to all the lengths to uncover what evil we’re facing. She went to look for the two princesses because they’re the only ones old enough to get a slight idea of what’s going on and you suddenly throwing a wrench into the whole thing and potentially making matters worse is something I’m not about to let you risk!”

The whole room was silenced. And they fully understood her frustration, when she and her crew spent hours in the Canterlot library and couldn’t find anything to go on.

“Look, I’m sorry,” she calmed herself, the vapor disappearing, “I know you just want to be helpful to make up for what happened in the past, but this is something we can’t just rush through.”

The draconequus sighed in dejection. “Fine.”

The yellow pegasus hugged him.

“Should we just go to Canterlot and await them there?“ Trixie said, trying to move away from the sore subject.

“Wait, shouldn’t we wait for Zecora to come back?” Sunburst questioned her.

“Ah don’t think we need to worry about that,” Applejack answered. “That zebra has a way of turning up at the right place and time when she needs to.”

And one after another all the other members of the court let their answer be known.

“Okay, then it’s settled!” the illusionist spoke, as her and Starlight’s horns began to glow, and with a flash, everybody in the meeting room disappeared.

POOF!

The group materialized outside the Canterlot castle. And it didn’t take too long before one of the royal guards guarding the main entrance recognized them.

“Ah, hello esteemed members of the Council,” the unicorn guard said. “Her Majesty had given us explicit orders to let you in while you await her return.”

The two opened the door inside, but as they walked through, the draconequus was stopped. “Excuse me, are you sure this one should be allowed to just wander in?”

“Don’t worry guys, he’s with us,” Rainbow Dash answered them.

He was finally let in, but with no less of a reminder that there’s a reason they don’t trust him. The castle’s entry hall opened before them, stairways leading to all possible parts of the castle. The members of the Council of Friendship have been here numerous times, so they knew the ins and out of the entire place, not so much the faculty members, except for Sunburst. So by the time they reached the top of the stairway, the headmare stopped.

“Something wrong, hun?” Applejack asked when she noticed her lagging.

“I think your pear cider’s giving me the run for its money,” Starlight told her. “Where’s the little fillies room here?”

“Oh, that's easy,” Pinkie Pie responded to the question. “Just go back downstairs, go right, then left, go forward at the first intersection, then right, right again, left at the second intersection, and finally go forward. You can’t miss it.”

She wasn’t sure if she heard it all correctly, but it shouldn’t be that difficult. It was just the bathroom; how hard to find could it be?

“I’ll… be back in a snap,” she said with an awkward smile.

“Don’t worry, Starlight,” Fluttershy reassured her, “we’ll wait for you here.

She nodded and quickly scurried off.

By the time she was out of sight, Discord made a quip. “She’s gonna get lost, isn’t she?”

“No no, of course not,” the whole gang tried to play off as if that won’t be the case.

“Wait, did she say left and right after the first intersection, or was it right and right again?”

With the instructions that the party planner gave her, it didn’t take long before she lost herself. Starlight couldn’t find any place that would stand out to use as a marker. Back and forth, left and right, no matter which way she went. The only recourse not would be to try and teleport back to the castle entry hall, but she’d end up making herself look stupid. Then again, it’s not like she had a better alternative. She closed her eyes and prepared to focus her magic, when…

“And another thing! I expected you to refill her Majesties’ toiletries! I went to check on them and nothing was done!”

A loud voice came from around the corner. Somebody was incredibly angry and her curiosity got her to check up on it.

“And another thing! I expected you to be done cleaning the artifact repository about two hours ago, not that you're finished only now!” the angry elderly voice said, followed by a meek younger voice. “Yes sir.”

Starlight saw an old gruff unicorn with a five o'clock shadow, trailing a young cleaner with his cart. Maybe they can show her the way. She hurried after them.

“And another thing-!”

“Emm, excuse me?” the mare finally let her presence be known, interrupting the old custodian.

He gave her an irritated look, but she had nothing on his apprentice, who made a frightened grimace the moment he saw her.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” he asked with a gruff voice.

“I’m waiting with my friends for the princess to come back. I was looking for the bathroom and I... kinda lost my way. Can you tell me where it is, please?” she asked with an awkward smile.

The old stallion scowled but gave her an answer. “Go back and to the right.”

“Thank you,” she responded and ran off.

She got lucky, but at the same time she felt bad for the younger employee and she heard again the elder one’s voice, reprimanding him for poorly performed duties.

It felt refreshing getting all that pressure out of the system. Starlight finally left the bathroom and was about to return. Yet at the back of her mind, she felt bad for the young cleaner. She was sure her friends won’t mind waiting for just a little and helping somebody in need. She walked back, over to where she last saw the two stallions and trailed where they went. She finally reached a wide door with a “custodian” sign attached to it. She entered and didn’t take long before realizing that maybe the elder custodian may have been on to something. The whole floor was covered in sticky green goo. No wonder he was so upset. Then she heard a wrecking sound coming from nearby. As she entered further she finally spotted the origin of the noise. The young custodian was aggressively trying to shut a giant wardrobe door, but it wouldn’t budge until there was finally a snapping sound, and was finally still. The young stallion sighed in relief.

“You okay?” the voice behind him said.

The young stallion jumped in shock at the voice, then turned to see Starlight standing behind him, making him downright jittery. “Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing in here?!”

“Calm down, no need to freak out,” she tried to lower the tension.

“No offense, but would you mind showing yourself out,” he told her. “I got in enough trouble already and I don’t want my boss to give me another tongue lashing today.”

“I’m really sorry you had to go through this. I was thinking of helping you out so you won’t get into any more issues… Speaking of which, where is your boss?”

“He…” he hesitated for a moment for some reason. “He went outside to check out on the trash. Yeah. Anyway, if you don’t mind I got places to be and floors to mop.” He proceeded to push his cart.

“Oh, that's not a big deal. You got more than one mop. And if we work together it’ll be done in no time. Your boss might not even notice,” she smiled and grabbed one of the mops in the cart.

“PUT THAT DOWN!!!” he suddenly yelled in an incredibly loud echoing voice, startling Starlight.

“Hey… calm down, what’s the big deal? It’s just a mop…” she responded to him, only for her voice to trail off.

It may have looked like a mop when it was still stacked in the cart, but once she pulled it out she realized she wasn’t holding a mop at all. It was a very delicately carved long wooden shaft, the tip where it was supposed to branch out was broken on both ends, yet there was a pristine crystal wedged in the fork. She’s seen this before: it was the Staff of Sacanas.

At the corner of the eye Starlight suddenly noticed a green flash, but didn’t have time to react to it, as a bolt of green magic hit her and sent her flying against the wardrobe. Her eyesight was blurry as she started to regain consciousness, but she saw the form of a young stallion picking up the staff and then picking up a small object out of the cart as well, before running off. She finally managed to rise, covered in the green goo, only to realize something else as well: the goo was flowing out from next to her, more specifically from the wardrobe itself. She busted it open and made a sour expression after discovering what its source was. There was a cocoon stuck inside the container, two in fact; one containing the elderly custodian and the other his young apprentice he was chewing off earlier… the same custodian that just now knocked her out and took a magical artifact and another item with him.

She knew all these signs too well. “Changelings…”

Author's Note

Hello, dear readers.
I was sadly late 2 days with the usual update, as I've had a severe case of block, considering Discord entered the story.
Should return to the regular schedule next week.

Chapter 10: The Queen in Disguise

“Anyone doubtful yet about the previous statements?” the Lord of Chaos asked.

It’s been several minutes now since Starlight left for the bathroom. They made a prideful assumption that she would be able to navigate the castle, despite the obvious issue. Now, however, it’s been so long that the gang started to question it.

“Nah, of course not. Never in doubt. Maybe there’s just a line. Or she accidentally locked herself in. Maybe I should’ve written down the directions instead,” were one of the many comments.

FLASH!

She appeared right then and there before them.

“There you are, Starlight,” Pinkie greeted her, “I thought for a moment we’d have to go and look for- “

“No time to discuss! We got a serious problem, everypony!” she blurted out.

Before they could react, her horn flashed again and they all disappeared.

FLASH!

They materialized in the custodian’s office and the first thing they saw was the scene that Starlight left behind right after discovering them. Both the elder employee and his apprentice were cocooned.

“Sweet Celestia, what’s happened here?!” questioned Applejack.

“A changeling infiltrated the castle!” the headmare explained. “It posed as one of the two cleaners and stole artifacts!”

“Wait, artifacts? Which ones?” Sunburst asked.

“I’m not sure about one of them, but I recognized the other. It was the staff of Sacanas.”

“Isn’t that the staff that can control storms and lightning? What would they want with it?”

Before there could be any further discussion, a snapping sound followed and the two custodians were outside their prisons.

“Look, if this is urgent, we should save the discussion for later and find him,” Discord urged. “Where did the changeling go?”

“He couldn’t have gone far. It wasn’t more than two minutes when all of this happened,” Starlight answered him.

“So that means he’s still nearby. The only question is-“ Trixie couldn’t finish her sentence before a crashing sound came from not far away.

Their attention had been grabbed and they rushed in the direction of the sound, only to find the heavy metal doors busted open, the signs of scorched marks pointing that magic was used. Starlight then picked up the pace and rushed ahead, while the rest lagged behind her. She got out of the castle and into the backyard only to spot a figure disappearing around the corner, just as the rest of the gang caught up to her, she teleported in a flash to the very corner the escapee was a few moments ago. And then she saw her: running towards the maze of the castle’s sculpture garden, was a tall dark figure; there was something off about her appearance, but she would recognize her anywhere.

“CHRYSALIS!” she called out.

The figure stopped just before the maze’s entrance and slowly turned her head, a malevolent grin appearing on her face. She was carrying the staff… and the second artifact, but from the distance, she couldn’t make it out. Just then the Lord of Chaos teleported all of them to the headmare, so they too saw her, and when the Queen of Changelings witnessed the reinforcements, she quickly ran off and disappeared into the maze.

“Does she honestly think she can just hide in the maze?” Discord questioned. “Anypony would easily spot her from above. This will be a cinch.”

A loud buzzing sound followed and Queen Chrysalis rose above the maze. And another… and another… and finally the fourth one. Four Chrysalis’ flew in the air, and each of them seemed to be carrying a staff in their mouth. Before they could properly react, they all zapped off in their own direction.

“Well this just got progressively worse,” Rarity reacted to the situation.

“She’s using other changelings to pose as her!” Trixie pointed out the obvious. “She’s trying to distract us.”

“But which one was the real one?” Fluttershy asked.

“We don’t know. Not until we actually catch her,” Applejack stated.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Then there’s only one way to handle this. We got to split up in groups and chase down each one individually.”

“Oh, we’re using the buddy system?” draconequus wondered, before pulling the shy pegasus to his side and nestled her on his shoulder. “I got mine.”

The wonderbolt sighed. “Of course you do. Anyway; AJ, you’re with me, Rarity, you go with Pinkie and Starlight, go with Sunburst-“

“No,” she intervened, “Trixie, you go with Sunburst. I’m going into the maze to double-check if she’s not hiding in here.”

“But Starlight, if she’s in there you’ll be facing her on your own!” the illusionist showed concern.

“Don’t worry about me, Trixie. I can handle her alone,” she smirked with confidence.

“Normally I would say you’re being overconfident, darling, especially after what we witnessed yesterday,” the fashionista second-guessed, “but considering the circumstances we don’t have much choice.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Discord preached. “We’ll manage to catch the other four in no time and be back in time to stop the fifth one if you’re still in trouble.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” Starlight smiled. “Now everypony! Go after the other four!”

They all nodded, and not a moment later Discord snapped with his fingers, the first group disappeared, followed by Trixie who teleported, with the other two groups running off on their own. Starlight was all alone now and made her way to the garden maze. Before she entered, her horn began to glow and she cast a spell, a strange line surrounded the outside of the labyrinth.

“There. If anypony without my magical aura tries to leave the boundaries, it will trigger the alarm,” she said and finally entered, unaware of eyes spying on her.

Queen Chrysalis flew to the western side of Canterlot, a staff clenched in her maw, residents below having their attention drawn by the loud buzzing of her wings.

“Thar she blows!” a loud yell echoed across the sky.

The Changeling Queen looked up and got blinded by the sun, only to see a silhouette eclipsing it. A whaleboat sailed in the air, being rowed by a group of Discords dressed as sailors, and at the very helm, one stood dressed in a dark trench coat and a capotain, accompanied by Fluttershy, dressed as a deckhand.

“First Mate!” he announced to the shy pegasus. “The harpoon, if you please.”

She picked up a pole with a metal tip at the end and hesitantly handed it to him. “Discord, please be careful that you don’t hurt her.”

“Oh come now, would I do that?”

And without a delay, he threw the harpoon at his target. Chrysalis’ eyes widened as the pointed weapon was going straight for her, but just before it hit its mark, draconequus snapped his fingers and it split into four, each having a corner of a net attached to it. It hit the target and the Queen of Changeling’s stopped dead in her tracks, as she got pinned to the ground, unable to wriggle herself out of the net. With a snap, Discord and Fluttershy appeared on the ground, the former hoisting the captured prey up like a fish, as a crowd gathered to observe.

“Now this is what I call the catch of the day,” he boasted.

The “fish” thrashed about in the net, hissing loudly as the pegasus tried to remove the staff from her.

“Hey! Play nice,” he scolded her, as he yanked the artifact away from her. “Well, this went easier than I thought.”

“Emmm, Discord, I don’t think we got the right one,” she corrected him.

“What makes you say that?” he asked curiously. “We got the staff…”

Draconequus finally realized that he was just holding a long stick in his hand. This wasn’t the Staff of Sacanas! They both then looked at the Queen of Changelings, who was still acting like an animal and hissing loudly. The Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers and the illusion dropped. Their target was actually one of her drones disguised as her. They looked at each other, realizing they’ve been duped.

“I wonder if others are having better luck…” Fluttershy said before Discord snapped his fingers and all three of them disappeared, leaving the gathering crowd baffled.

Another Queen Chrysalis holding the staff was running through the dark alleys going east, clearly hearing the galloping sound of her pursuers.

“Stop, you darn bug-plant creature!” Applejack called her out.

“I don’t think she’s just gonna stop on command, AJ.” Rainbow Dash kept up to her speed.

“Dash, can’t ya catch up to her?”

The blue pegasus tried to fly, but her condition hardly improved from yesterday. “No good. I can barely fully spread them.”

“Pity we ain’t got no slingshot or somethin’ than.”

As they continued to run, the wonderbolt spotted a ledge on the side of the building. “I got an idea! AJ, gimme a boost!”

The country pony stopped, standing on her front legs, the pegasus jumped over her and the former bucked her up in the air, sending her upwards so she managed to grab onto the ledge and climb up.

“Keep going after her!” she told the pony below and, in the meantime, prepared herself. “Okay, Dashinator. Time for Junior Flight School 101: gliding.”

She opened her wings as much as she could, then charged and leaped over the edge. Applejack watched from below as she saw her in the air for a moment and then nose-dived. Panic came creeping up on her with the thought that her friend was about to splat on the ground, but just before she reached it, a wind current picked her up and she finally flew through the air at a high speed. Queen Chrysalis was already way ahead, but as she looked back, fright came over her as she spotted the rainbow-maned pegasus dashing at high speed at her, and in this narrow alley she couldn’t open her wings properly; her only chance now was to speed up to the open streets in sight. Rainbow Dash was confident again as she felt the familiar rush of speed. She could catch her and in a straight alleyway, there were no obstacles to stop her from reaching the target. But then, just as she was about to reach her, the street opened up before them and the Queen of Changelings made an instant dash to the side, evading the pursuer. The pegasus screamed in panic as she closed her wings, her hooves touching the ground in a futile attempt to reduce her speed, and crashed into a nearby fruit stall, completely demolishing it.

Applejack came running out of the alley a few moments later, quickly coming to her assistance. “Rainbow, you okay?!”

She stuck her head out of a pile of crushed watermelons, her head spinning. “Could’ve been better.”

“Well, I do have to say, you really live up to the name Rainbow Crash.”

They both heard that voice. They spotted Discord lounging on the roof of the stall, eating an apple as if it were a ball of yarn, while Fluttershy flew down to her winged friend. “Rainbow, I’m so sorry we couldn’t get here sooner.”

“Never mind that! We need to catch her quick!” she pointed into the distance, showing the Chrysalis further down the street.

“Okay then,” the Lord of Chaos leaped down, “wanna try catching up to her again?”

“Not without me flying,” Rainbow Dash answered.

“Not a problem.”

Draconequus picked the blue pegasus up, spread her wings, gripped her in his feline arm, pulled it back to gain momentum, except the arm began to stretch, extending to an impossible length. By the time the pony realized what he was about to do it was already too late. The speed picked up as the arm was pulled back in and Rainbow Dash got flung forward. At ludicrous speed she flew right in the direction of her target and finally contacted it, both flying in the direction of a porcelain shop, but before they could crash into it, a giant mattress appeared on their path out of nowhere and crashed into it instead at such a force that it bent and rolled up. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Discord reached it, the latter slipping his arm into the mattress and pulling Rainbow Dash out by the back hoof.

“Don.. ever… do that… ‘gain…” she mumbled.

“Hey, it worked didn’t it?” draconequus answered, before reaching in again to pull out the artifact.

He dragged out the long shaft and the thief still clung to it… in its true form. It was just another changeling posing as its queen with an ordinary stick.

“Dagnabbit!” cursed Applejack.

“Oh well, maybe third time’s the charm,” Discord responded, snapping his fingers and they all disappeared.

“Where is that giant bug?” Starlight was still searching the maze.

It’s been a while since she started and she still couldn’t spot Chrysalis, and had she tried to get out she would’ve noticed. Or maybe she shapeshifted into something and is evading her in plain sight.

And just when she was thinking that she heard her scream. “THIEF! GET BACK HERE!”

Another sound followed; hoof stomps in rapid succession. Starlight quickly hid around the corner and then made a quick peek. Royal Guard Brightmane, holding the staff and another item clenched between his teeth, came charging in her direction, followed by a loud buzzing sound as the Queen of Changelings was trailing him.

“Reeeeeerp!” he screamed for help between his teeth as the monster was in fast pursuit.

The mare quickly slipped to the side of another passage and out of sight, and as the stallion ran past her, he lost the ground under his hooves as he got lifted in the air and got pulled to her, while the giant bug-plant creature flew past, not noticing them. As the buzzing sound slowly disappeared into the distance, Starlight finally put the anxious stallion to the ground, and while peeking out to check if she was nearby, the two artifacts dropped out of his mouth.

“You… you’re Starlight Glimmer, aren’t you?”

She turned back to face him. “Wait, you know me?”

“Sure I do. Her Majesty spoke about how you helped save Equestria three years ago.”

“Really?” his comment took her aback, from the idea that Twilight was praising her after she’s only served as a distraction and then got caught for the majority of the battle. “Oh, come on, I really didn’t do that much.”

“I’m serious, she has great confidence in you, she trusts you to be really capable at anything that’s put in front of you.”

At this point, the guard’s buttering-up had made her blush, before her eyes wandered over to the artifacts. The Staff of Sacanas was there and the other one… she recognized it: it was a bell, carved from green rock and covered in runes.

“Is that… the Bewitching Bell?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t know, miss. I’m not well versed in ancient artifacts,” he answered her.

“How in the world did you manage to get them from her?”

“It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that,” he explained. “Her wings sound as if a bug was the size of a pony, so I was able to predict her movement and ambush her when she least expected. If you hadn’t arrived when you did, I’d have been her lunch.”

Suddenly, the loud buzzing sound came around again and they hid into the side once more, as the changeling flew past.

“Miss Starlight, you need to take the artifacts to safety. I’m going to distract her so you can make a getaway,” he advised her.

“What?! No! I can’t let you do that. If she finds you and you’ve no artifacts on you, she’s going to do unspeakable things to you!”

“But we can’t fight a monster like her.”

“No,” she told him, “you can’t… but I can.”

She grabbed Brightmane with her magic, along with the artifacts, and tossed him over the garden maze, causing him to land face first.

After he finally recovered and shook his head, he turned back to the garden maze and called out to the mare. “Starlight!”

“Go!” she yelled on the other side. “Secure them, while I handle her!”

Without further ado, the guard grabbed the artifacts and ran off.

“Get back here, you pathetic excuse for royalty!” the fashionista yelled.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity chased the Changeling Queen down the most crowded street in Canterlot. The fact that she was flying caused them to lag enough as it was, but the crowds of ponies slowed them down as well. The only thing that was hampering Chrysalis was the fact that she got overconfident and started to pull faces at them from the distance, and it infuriated the unicorn to no end. Finally, however, she noticed the strings of banners stretching across the street and she got an idea. She focused her magic and shot one string, causing it to get untied and it fell right in the way of Changeling Queen, her wings tangling up and causing her to fall into the crowd below. The two ponies managed to finally catch up to her, but she would not wait, as she rose and charged right through the crowd, undeterred.

“Alright then. Close range is a no-go,” Pinkie said as she put on a helmet and brought out her party cannon. “We’re going long!”

BOOM!

The shot was fired and it hit, sadly missing the target and covering a group of ponies in a sticky goop.

“Drat! She’s too fast!” she complained.

“And your cannon has poor accuracy,” Rarity added.

“Then what you need is a homing missile.”

They turned to the voice and it was the Lord of Chaos, along with three other Elements by his side, dressed as a general and soldiers.

“Good idea, Discord. But where do I get one?” the pink pony asked.

He jumped in front of the cannon and stuffed himself inside, one of his eyes sticking out of the hole. “Fire when ready, gunner Pinkie.”

A smile curled on her face and she fired. The draconequus missile flew high into the sky and then faced downward, quickly descending at a rapid speed until it finally hit, scoring a direct bullseye on the target, causing an explosive sound that could be heard across all of Canterlot and beyond.

The dust finally settled, the Elements joined Discord’s side. He stood over a crater on the ground and in it lay a changeling.

“Well, seems like we got duped again,” he sighed, holding another stick in hand.

“Wait, again?” Rarity questioned. “You mean all of yours were fake as well?”

“That just leaves Sunburst and Trixie,” Fluttershy answered. “They’re the last ones left.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath dear,” draconequus said, before snapping his fingers and they all disappeared.

A battle of cat and mouse took place in the maze in the meantime. Starlight shot bursts of magic at Chrysalis, but she managed to dodge all of them. The only upside was that she didn’t take a shot at her once. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. The Changeling Queen popped around the corner, and lunged herself at the principal, hissing as she did. She instantly teleported behind her and unleashed a powerful beam at her, continuously increasing its intensity, until it sent the monster flying through the maze’s walls and having her crash into the side of the statue outside, collapsing it in the process. There was silence, no signs of movement, or even a voice, so Starlight walked over to the impact point.

Discord and the gang teleported to where they last saw the fourth Queen Chrysalis flee; outside the theater. The doors were broken off their hinges, so they were likely on the right track. They entered and the trail of mess on the way led them directly to the auditorium.

“Alright everypony, no need to fear, Discord is heeeeeeeere…” He struck a pose as he opened the doors wide, only to be silenced by the sight.

The two unicorns were standing on the stage; the blue one holding up a bubble in which a changeling was locked, angrily trying to break out, while the orange one held a stick up.

“Huh…” draconequus made a single noise, before snapping his fingers, conjuring a can of paint and a brush, and handing it to the fashionista. “Rarity, you get to do the honors.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Excuse me, but what am I supposed to do with this?”

He groaned. “Isn’t it obvious? Color me impressed, because I expected I would have to flex again.”

“Discord, you’re “powerful”, but one flaw you have is that you’re not “great”, especially on stage of all places,” Trixie made a smug remark.

“We managed to overpower and catch her… only to discover she was a fake, just like this stick,” Sunburst explained to them, as they walked over to the stage.

“So, that means all of the Chrysalises we hunted down were fakes this whole time,” Applejack compiled the events.

“Which means,” Fluttershy followed up, “the real Queen Chrysalis is still back in the garden.”

“And Starlight’s fighting her on her own!” Rainbow Dash concluded.

“Chrysalis?” the headmare called out to her, but there was no reply.

As the dust settled, the Queen of Changelings lay unmoving on the ground, out cold.

“That’s what you get for underestimating me!” she boasted proudly.

She managed to prevent the theft of artifacts and neutralized her opponent. It was one less threat to worry about, and once Twilight returns they can focus on stopping the darkness she had summoned. She observed her defeated adversary, seeing the creepy ooze flowing out of her open mouth, giving her the shivers… but then she noticed something strange. The trail of ooze was leading into the nearby group of bushes that stood only a few feet away. How did she do that? The attack and impact must’ve knocked her out almost instantly, she wouldn’t even be able to limp off back and forth. She slowly traipsed over to the bushes, carefully keeping her eye on the unconscious monster. She slowly parted the branches and leaves and gasped as she looked inside. A changeling cocoon was stuck inside the bushes. Somebody was trapped inside and he wore the armor of the royal guard. She quickly opened it, releasing the captive inside, and as she dragged the pony out, she instantly recognized him: it was the same guard she helped escape from Queen Chrysalis only a few moments ago. He slowly started to wake up from his coma.

“Hey! Hey you…” Starlight shook him, then realizing she never even got his name when they first met, “I’m sorry what’s your name?”

“B… B… Brightmane…” he answered in a groggy tone.

“Brightmane, tell me what happened! Where are the Staff of Sacanas and the Bewitching Bell?!”

“Staff… bell…? M… Miss what are you talking about?”

“You know! The artifacts that you managed to take from Queen Chrysalis after she stole them!”

“C… Chrysalis…” with those words the stallion finally sobered up, remembering her image haunting his dreams after seeing her so many times at night in the garden. “Wait, we’re under attack?!”

Something was wrong. The guard wasn’t making any sense, as if there’s a giant gap in his memory. Was he suffering from amnesia?

“Brightmane, tell me exactly what’s the last thing you remember,” she asked him.

The stallion spoke. “It was night, sometime before morning, I was doing my nightly rounds through the castle’s sculpture gardens and was preparing to call it a day… and after that, it all goes blank.”

Starlight felt unsettled. According to the royal guard, he had been out cold for several hours, yet she talked with him only a few moments ago. Suddenly, a realization came over her. She turned to the body of the unconscious Changeling Queen and walked over to her, then grimaced. In a green flash of magic, the mirage was dispelled, revealing that one of the changelings was posing as his queen. Suddenly, it all clicked in place: if this Chrysalis was a fake, and Brightmane was “off duty” this whole time, it meant that the real Queen of Changelings was…

Royal Guard Brightmane ran towards the outer wall of Canterlot, rousing the guards. “Changelings! The Queen of Changelings has invaded Canterlot! We need reinforcements!”

Without waiting, the rest of the guards at the wall quickly hurried off. After they had disappeared out of sight, the stallion quickly ran to the corner with a bush and pulled out the staff and bell and then with a gallop leaped over the fortification, landing on his hooves over the moat and then galloped off into the distance.

After several minutes he finally reached the Everfree Forest and stopped, panting. He looked about, realizing nobody was persuing him, before finally dropping the artifacts to the ground. Suddenly a cackle came from his mouth, growing louder, and then with a flash of green magic, Queen Chrysalis revealed herself. She lifted the artifacts, opened her wings, and flew off in the direction of her new hive.

“Oh, Starlight Glimmer…” she bragged in gleeful delight, “I wish I could be there right now just to see the dumbfounded expression on your face after you’ve realized you just handed me the artifacts willingly.”

Starlight Glimmer teleported on top of the balcony outside the castle’s throne room overlooking Canterlot, with the unconscious changeling by her side. She looked into the far distance of Everfree Forest where the darkness rose. Chrysalis was probably nearly there with the staff and the bell she had taken and had she been the wiser, she could’ve stopped there right here. A tear in reality opened and the whole gang came out, with the Lord of Chaos closing it behind.

“No good, Starlight,” Trixie panted, “we tried to catch up to her, only to find out we were bamboozled.”

“All of them were her changelings,” the stallion added.

Discord then proceeded to pull out a snow globe. There were tiny dark creatures angrily hissing inside, and desperately trying to break out, but to no avail.

“I’d say we rounded up all stragglers but one,” draconequus boasted. “And considering you’re alive and well, I’d guess you succeeded.”

“No,” the headmare answered, “Chrysalis is no longer in Canterlot at this point.”

“Wait, didn’t you fight her, Starlight?” her childhood friend asked.

Starlight pointed to the fifth changeling on the ground, which Discord promptly picked up and stuffed in a snow globe.

“But… where’s the real Queen Chrysalis then?” Applejack asked her.

Starlight bit her lower lip. “I… I let her get away.”

“Wait, what?!” blue pegasus exploded.

“She disguised herself as one of the royal guards,” she explained, “and pretended to be chased down by one of her soldiers posing as her. It wasn’t until later when I found the real guard cocooned in one of the bushes in the garden that I realized the one I talked to was an imposter.”

“So, we’ve all been duped then?” Pinkie wondered.

Rarity bristled. “And just when we thought it couldn’t get worse.”

“Well, we have to find a way to fix this,” Trixie said, “because who knows what she’ll do with that artifact.”

“Two,” the headmare corrected her.

“Wait, two?” Sunburst asked. “What was the second one?”

“The Bewitching Bell.”

“Great… just lovely,” the blue unicorn groaned

“I know, Trixie, out of everypony here I’m all too well aware, but what can we even do now, when she’s gone to a place where we can’t follow?” Starlight pointed out the main problem.

She went into deep thought. Something needed to be done, because who knows what unspeakable evils could Chrysalis unleash now, yet they couldn’t enter her lair. There had to be an alternative method. She began traipsing up and down, wondering, looking about for any potential idea.

“I must say, I’ve not seen this much chaos in a long while,” the cocky voice spoke. “It’s a breath of fresh air.”

“Discord, can you just not?” the headmare was running low on patience under the pressure. “The last thing we need now is you trying to make this situation look good.”

“Well, excuse me for trying to be an optimist, Starlight,” he huffed, “but if you’re going to be a case of sour grapes, I’ll just be showing myself out.”

She groaned to herself. Even after all this time, there were moments she found him insufferable, even when he was trying to be helpful. The Lord of Chaos ripped open a hole in reality and was about to walk into it… and then it hit her! There is ONE chance they could still salvage this thing, but it had potential risks.

“Discord wait!” she yelled.

He stopped halfway in, a visible smug cracking on his face as he turned. “Yeeeeeeeees?”

“There is something you can try to do… something the rest of us aren’t capable of.”

“Oh, REALLY now? And pray tell, what exactly did you have in mind?”

She was about to speak, but turned to everybody else; they could tell she figured out something substantial, but likely not good.

“Starlight, we ain’t not gonna like what yer about to say, are we?” Applejack preemptively asked.

“Very likely,“ she responded, “but all things considered it’s one thing we haven’t tried yet and we don’t have other options.”

“Well, lay it on us then!” Rainbow Dash urged in impatience.

Starlight inhaled and exhaled before speaking. “Clearly, we’ve been outplayed. Queen Chrysalis now has in possession two of some of the most powerful artifacts in Equestria. We need to do something before she has any chance of using them, which means we have to strike at the base of her power directly.”

“But Starlight, darling,” Rarity intervened, “we can’t. Even if we manage to somehow enter her lair again, if she summons that… thing again the result won’t change.”

“Yes, that’s true… which is why we should strike her lair at a distance.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Sunburst asked. “From this distance to affect something without facing it directly? You’d need to have incredibly powerful magic, one we don’t wield.”

“You’re right, Sunburst. We don’t…” the mare agreed with her friend, before turning her gaze to the Lord of Chaos, “but he does.”

Everybody’s attention turned on him.

“Besides the magic of friendship that you five and Twilight wield, Discord is the most powerful creature in Equestria,” she exposited. “He was able to draw prisoners out of Tartarus, which should be impossible for anypony else, he brought an umbrum out of the ether, one he could’ve singlehandedly wiped off without breaking a sweat, he can bend the world to his will with a snap of his finger!”

“Oh Starlight, stop it, you’re making me blush,” he covered his face like a bashful little girl.

“You forgot to mention the chocolate rain!” Pinkie added.

“Duly noted,” the headmare nodded, before turning back to draconequus. “But the point is, you’re the one who has the chance of still stopping this before it gets any further. And maybe we can get around the problem that magic of friendship didn’t affect the embodiment of Hate, by using the magic of chaos instead.”

“So, what’s the plan then?” Trixie said, curious where this was going.

“What I’m proposing, is that Discord uses his magic to lift the Everfree Forest itself and… give it a little tumble.”

“HOLD UP!” the country pony called out. “Girl, you’re actually saying that he flat out flips the whole forest upside down!”

“I’m kinda on Applejack side here, Starlight,“ the unicorn stallion joined. “Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”

“And what about all those poor creatures living in the forest?” Fluttershy expressed an extreme level of concern. “Their homes will be destroyed, or even worse, they could get hurt.”

The pink unicorn sighed. “Everypony, you have every right to be skeptical on this, but please try to understand in what position we’ve just found ourselves in: an old enemy, which you’ve previously defeated, has summoned a creature which you were unable to defeat with the most powerful magic at your disposal, she infiltrated the home of the princess of Equestria and stole an artifact which can control the storms and another which is capable of storing great amounts of magic. Yet despite our best efforts to prevent her from taking them, we’ve failed. Regardless of which way you look, she’s just acquired tools with which to cause even more havoc to an extent we cannot even imagine. Our last chance to stop her is to do something she wouldn’t expect, because when Twilight comes back and learns of what happened, not only will she be very displeased, but with what happened yesterday, do you really want to put even more burden on her consciousness?”

Unease hung in the air. Starlight made a really convincing point. Chrysalis had already become more dangerous as it is, and now it got worse. They couldn’t risk Twilight getting overcome with more doubt and have it possibly manifest like yesterday. The Lord of Chaos glanced at them, reading the expressions on their faces, then looked on the horizon at the gathering darkness. At this point, they were literally begging for his help.

“Well, when you put it like that, principle, I suppose I could give it the old college try.”

As he stepped forward, he felt a sudden tug at his leg. He looked down and noticed the shy pegasus clinging on to him.

“Discord, I beg you, please don’t do this!” she pleaded. “I don’t want Twilight to suffer anymore as well, but I don’t want to see those poor creatures suffer either. There’s got to be a better way!”

He suddenly hesitated. He wanted to help, they were practically begging him at this point and he yearned to flex his powers to a degree he hasn’t done in a while, yet at the same time, he couldn’t go against the wishes of his best friend.

Starlight walked over to her. “Fluttershy, I’m not saying he should just uproot the whole forest just the part that’s close to the location of the darkness. And I understand this isn’t easy, but all the cards are pretty much stacked against us. If there was a better alternative, I would suggest it, but we don’t really have the luxury of time on our side.”

“Ah hate to say it… but she’s got a point,” Applejack suddenly joined it.

“Applejack?! You?! How can you say that so bluntly?!” the timid mare gave her the look of betrayal.

“Fluttershy, I think I speak for all of us present that we’re not proud of this… but I fear that Starlight is right,” Rarity included herself.

The pegasus couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The fashionista as well? She looked at the rest of the group, their gazes refusing to meet hers; they were all of the same thought. She was the only one opposing this? This kind of peer pressure was something she has not faced since vampire fruit bats invaded the Apple orchard. All of those poor creatures in Everfree Forest don’t deserve this and she seems to be the only one who thought this wasn’t worth it; it brought her to the verge of tears.

Suddenly she felt a cat paw reach for her cheek and rubbing her, as Discord bend over to her level, coming face to face. “Fluttershy, I promise, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure nothing happens to them. Okay?”

She relented and nodded in defeat.

The draconequus rose and walked over to the edge of the balcony, Starlight stepping aside.

“Now, everypony,” he made an announcement, “watch the Lord of Chaos do what he does best.”

“Being a total blowhard,” Rainbow Dash whispered to Pinkie Pie, only to turn her head and realize she had Discord’s face in the place of her own.

“I heard that,” the face said before it went poof in smoke and the cotton candy maned pony shook her head, feeling like she spaced out for a brief second.

He snapped his finger, dressing himself up as a conductor and conjuring a music stand in front of him, slicking his head back over his head to create long flowing hair.

Picking up the score from the stand he proceeded to flip through. “Let’s see now… Lightning and Thunder, Bear mountain, Dance of the Deer, New world, Chaos and the Mare...”

“Discord, today!” Starlight urged him.

“Excuse me,” he turned to her, giving a snobbish look, “who’s the master of chaos here? That’s right, me. Let me do my job,” before returning to the score, “… AHA! Perfect!”

He placed the score back on the stand and pulled the claw on his feline paw until it extended in length and then plucking it out, to use it like a baton. He tapped with it and everything around went silent. The Lord of Chaos swung the baton, and thunder began to resonate across the sky, molded into a tune as if there was a grand orchestra playing it. Then he swung it in the direction of the Everfree Forest, and the whole world shook. The ponies then watched with mouths agape, as they saw in the distance the great mass of forestland being uprooted and lifted into the sky. Discord then started to swing the baton about, each time the thunder echoed across the sky, composing a melody, while the landmass was spun and twisted about. And while the song was enticing, the sight reminded everybody how terrifying the Lord of Chaos could be if left completely unrestrained. The crescendo of thunder was approaching the climax and then… Just like that, it came to a complete stop. Discord turned to the audience and gave a bow. Suddenly there was a tapping sound. Tiny black and white rocks started to land on the balcony in numbers.

“Everypony brace for backlash,” he told them, snapped his fingers and a protective bubble enveloped them.

Dirt, rocks, and growth started to fly in their direction, pelting all of Canterlot. Then roars echoed across the sky. This was the part that Fluttershy feared; creatures of all kinds inhabiting the forest, even when the attempt to minimize the effect was made, were flung up in the air and were now fast approaching the impact point. With a snap of his fingers, Discord summoned giant piles of cushions to soften their landing. It took a few moments before the pelting of flora and fauna finally stopped, and at the end Discord finally lowered the protective barrier.

“So, impressed?” he asked, waiting for a compliment, yet all he saw were the looks of confusion and disbelief on their faces looking in his direction. “Speechless, are you? Well, I do not blame you, but compared to my previous work, this was a piece of cake.”

“It looks more like a doughnut,” Pinkie Pie said.

Discord gave her a confused look. “Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that expression…”

“No,” she corrected him and pointed in his direction, “I mean, THAT looks like a doughnut.”

What was she talking about? He turned his head and immediately got what she was on about. The mass of land still levitated in the air turned to the side, and in it was a giant hole in the middle. He glanced down and noticed the piece of land that wasn’t moved, the perpetual darkness still rising from it. Snapping his fingers, the landmass readjusted itself and fell back down on its original position, filling up the hole it left. Then he snapped his fingers again, lifting the landmass again… and the hole was still there.

“And now it looks like an onion ring,” the party pony added as she saw the hole in the land being bigger than before.

Discord kept snapping his fingers, lifting and dropping the mass of land, over and over again, expecting a different outcome, until he finally felt something coiling around his leg.

“Discord, stop! You’re gonna hurt more animals that way!” Fluttershy pleaded.

He finally ceased, then looked back on the horizon. “This doesn’t make any sense. By all accounts, that whole area should’ve been lifted, yet the middle refuses to budge… unless…”

The Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers, summoning a flying pig, grabbing it, and flung it in the direction of the forest, and as the pig approached darkened area it dissipated into thin air.

“Oh dear…” he said in a concerned tone, “that’s not good. It seems something within that area is negating magic, so it’s been left completely unaffected.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. We were there just yesterday and we were still able to use magic in that area,” Rarity argued.

“Well in that case something’s clearly changed in the last few hours because otherwise that place would’ve been razed by now.”

Sunburst readjusted his glasses. “So, what you’re saying that there’s something in that place now that’s completely nullifying magic altogether?”

“Or… maybe just our magic,” a look of concern and realization suddenly appeared on Trixie’s face as everybody looked at her. “Starlight, Discord, doesn’t this situation seem familiar?”

“What do you mean, Trixie?” the pink mare responded.

“You know: you, me, Discord, land in which no magic can be used, Queen Chrysalis… does that ring a bell?”

Starlight thought for a moment, and then visible fear appeared on her face. “But… but that’s not possible! Chrysalis’ throne was destroyed! Its remnants were retrieved and built into Canterlot castle! Thorax said that stone was ancient and one of a kind in Equestria, so how is she doing it now?!”

“You don’t think it’s possible that she just created another one, do you?” the unicorn stallion asked.

“I… I’m not sure. It shouldn’t be possible to replicate that kind of power,” the principal was at a loss of words.

There was silence. It became increasingly obvious now that despite Discord’s gamble, they still failed. And all they did, in turn, was cause distress to woodland creatures and piled up more mess on the areas surrounding the forest, and if it reached Cantelot, she shuddered to think what Ponyville looked like.

Starlight looked over the edge of the balcony, seeing the mess littering the city while the injured guards were being taken care of below. She was just glad that Twilight wasn’t here to see this.

She saw a flash at the main entrance into Canterlot. Four figures dressed in coats and hats appeared out of nowhere, and Starlight immediately recognized them despite their attempt at cover.

She quickly turned, warning everybody. “They’re back!”

The reel stopped turning and the audience was left silent.

“Well, what did you think, Twilight?” Discord asked.

The princess said nothing and just buried her face in her hooves.

Chapter 11: Guides in Life

Author's Note

One of the things that left me angry, that drove me to start writing this story was the fact of what Jeremy Whitley did to Zecora and her culture in "Season 10" comics of the series. blatantly ignoring what was established.
Time to rectify it.

Chapter 11: Guides in Life

The morning light began to shine through the crystal window in Twilight’s old castle. It illuminated the dark room as if somebody just turned on the light. And it irritated the dark mass trapped inside a giant jar that sat on the bed, next to the sleeping resident. It wanted to desperately escape, and it began to bash against the glass until it finally tipped over and slowly started to roll off, about to fall over the edge of the bed… and then got caught by a long clump of black and white horsehair.

Zecora finally woke up. This wasn’t the routine she was used to. The mornings were dark and gloomy in the Everfree Forest, as no sunlight broke through the dense trees, yet there was no risk of waking to a cold dawn, as the firepit kept her small house nicely warm over the night. Starlight Glimmer was kind enough to provide her with temporary living quarters in one of the castle’s many rooms, but this wide cold emptiness would take a while to get used to. She already missed the place and didn’t think she could return home anytime soon. She rose from the bed and put the jar on the ground so the little pile of black mass wouldn’t try to break out again. Yawning, her eyes still half-closed, she walked over to the window, opening it to soak in a breath of morning air. She inhaled and finally opened her eyes… only to be met with an unsettling sight.

The window opened to reveal the sight of Ponyville, the early residents going about their business, yet none of them were aware of the horror that lay on the horizon, except for her, and that’s precisely what she saw at that moment: darkness rising over the Everfree Forest, the same one she revealed yesterday and it hasn’t dissipated yet. She quickly closed the window. There was a familiar unsettling sense boiling at the back of her mind; she witnessed the same scenery once before, far away from here, one she would see day after day if she remained; it felt like… No. Out of sight, out of mind. She took a few deep breaths. Thinking about it would bring nothing but trouble and that’s the last thing anyone else needed. Then her sight drifted over to the jar, the dark substance inside constantly swirled, retaining a single speck of light deep within its body.

You are truly an unrelenting mess, dealing with you will give me no small amount of stress. Unless…

She remembered another thing, an object that she received yesterday after the disturbing events took place. She started to rummage through her saddlebag and brought out a dark prickly nut that Twilight acquired the other day. The tree that bore it must have some connection to the darkness, and if the manifestation that the Queen of Changeling summoned was somehow related to it, then perhaps the fruit will hold the key. She grabbed a knife with her teeth and cut into the shell, splitting it in half and revealing black seeds within. It was confirmed that this was an all-natural matter, which meant it could be used in preparing a potion. First, however, it needed to be processed. She picked up a mortar and pastel, dropped the seeds inside, and started to crush them, which proved difficult as they turned out to be harder than expected. So It didn’t take long before there was a knock on the door and a blue unicorn poked her head through it.

“Excuse me Zecora, but do you mind not making such ruckus this early in the morning? Some of us are still trying to have some decent shut-eye,” Trixie complained.

The zebra turned her head. “Illusionist, with all due respect, rest is not something I can expect.”

She huffed and closed the door. The shaman was left alone again and returned to her work. She reduced the nuts to a fine powder, the perfect material for concocting potions. Now all she needed to proceed was… And then she remembered there was a problem: she had no reagents. When she left her hut, all of it remained behind, as she only took the useful potions with her, so now she had nothing on her to work with, and going back into the forest to retrieve it all was simply too risky at this point. There was only one thing left to do. She stuck the jar of dark matter into her saddlebag, the oversized glass shrinking into her enchanted container; she put it on and her cloak, and left the room. Her hoof steps echoed through the hallway in this early morning, the only other sound was coming from another room further down. She peaked inside. It was a kitchen, and Trixie was rummaging through the pantries, making a lot of noise. There was no point in disrupting her, so she traipsed off. The School Counselor eventually stopped to open a book and check on the recipes, and only then she finally heard the sound of hooves in the hallway. She ran out and spotted the zebra.

“Zecora, where are you going?” she asked.

The shaman turned her head. “To town, I must go, for without ingredients I’ve little creations to show.”

“… right,” the unicorn said, unsure if she understood what the visitor was saying, and retreated into the kitchen.

Ponyville slowly began to awake, as more and more residents came out of their dwellings to go about their daily business. Zecora in meantime went about stalls and shops, trying to gather what reagent she lacked for her concoctions. The day may have started rough with the view she woke up to, but the rest was going swimmingly; so many places to visit, so many kind faces, eager to help her out. It was hard to believe that a few years ago when she was still relatively new to this place, she would be met with fright and panic whenever she visited. Were it not for a sweet little country filly, who was too curious and brave for her own good, it might have remained so. Yet, somewhere at the back of her mind, there was this feeling of lonesomeness, for despite being accepted by ponies, she was the only one in Equestria, for her kind lived far away and the sight from the dawn brought that thought back on the surface. She had descended deep into thought as she walked down the street, barely aware of her surroundings, so she couldn’t hear the sound of galloping hooves as she came around the corner, and she felt a sudden blunt force making an impact against her, managing to stabilize herself so she wouldn’t fall over. And speak of the devil, a familiar face was the source of groans of pain that followed. A younger yellow-furred, red-maned mare with a bow on her head rubbed her head from the impact. Years may have changed her, but she would always recognize the young filly that once trailed her back to her house.

“Well if it isn’t Applebloom, my dear,” she greeted her. “What's made you bump into me here?”

The young mare looked up to her the moment she heard her voice. “Zecora! I’m so glad to see you! I was about to go to your house and… Wait, you’re surprisingly early in Ponyville today. You don’t usually go to town until much later. Is something wrong?”

The zebra remembered to keep quiet about the events that transpired yesterday. “I’ve… a potion to mix, but alas, my home ran out of the right fix.”

“Well, I’m still glad you’re here. Bessie’s got a bad case of cracked hoof and I could really use your help.”

The shaman smiled. “Let us hurry over the bend, so the bovine I can mend.”

Applebloom led Zecora to the Sweet Apple Acres, vast orchards opening before her as they passed through the main entrance, and vegetable fields on the side. To this day the zebra was still surprised how they managed to keep the harvests going all year long, the only exception being a rare phenomenon that was out of their control, the zap apples. The young mare led her to the barn, where she could already hear her older sibling’s voice coming from inside, and there was a strange sound that went silent, just when she entered.

“Applejack, we got a solution to our problem! I brought-“ Applebloom stopped, as soon as she realized her older sibling was not present, looking about. “Huh… I could’ve sworn she was here… She said she would be stacking barrels of Grand Pear’s new cider, but she’s not, even though I heard her just now.”

“Perhaps it’s best to let your sister be for now, and should instead just see to the cow,” Zecora suggested.

The apprentice nodded. Applebloom led her across their plot of land, to where the livestock was kept; pigs lounging about in the mud, chickens running about, pecking at the dirt and looking after the chicks, and out onto the open pasture where the sheep were grazing. Out in the shade of a tree, a single cow sat, that was likely her patient.

“Don’ worry, Bessie,” the young mare said to her, “we got an expert on the case.”

The bovine let out a loud moo. The shaman approached her and dropped her saddlebag on the ground, then reaching for her frontal legs to examine them. It didn’t take long before realizing where the problem was, as she spotted a crack trailing down her left hoof.

“Oh my, the cause of pain sends chills across my mane...” Zecora said. “Injuries like this can put one out for a good week, but lucky for you, I got just the trick.”

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a bottle of green liquid, uncorked it, and slowly poured it onto the crack in the hoof. A few moments passed for the substance to settle in and the crack slowly disappeared. Without delay, the cow rose on her feet, stepped about a bit, before finally giving out a loud moo, and trotted off.

“Oh my stars, Zecora I don’ think I’ll ever cease being impressed by what zebra potions can do!” Applebloom smiled. “I didn’t know your schools also taught you to make a hoof-a-cure potion.”

“Young apprentice, I must dispel the incorrect notion, it was my mada who taught me to brew the potion.”

The young mare regarded her teacher. “Your mom taught you to brew it?”

“That’s right, my little ‘Bloom, and funny enough,” she raised the green bottle and laughed, “this potion’s creation was the first I called tough.”

A little striped equine eyed up closely a leaf on an elevated ground that served as the table. She grabbed it with her teeth and dropped it into a nearby cauldron. The liquid inside turned from green to red and begun to bubble up, and suddenly it exploded into her face.

“You got it wrong again, Zecora,” a stern voice said. “If you add the final ingredient before the broth is finished conjugating under the heat, it will give you bumps upon application.”

And before she knew it, the little zebra’s face bloated up in several places and she began to panic. Luckily, a splash of blue liquid onto her face came within a moment’s notice and the affliction faded away. An elderly zebra with a face of a female lion on her flank stood before her, her mohawk long and split in a pair of braids at the bottom, hanging down her neck bound by golden rings, holding a wooden bowl in her mouth.

“Mada, I’m tired,” the child complained. “I’m never gonna get this right no matter how many times I try. Making potions is too hard.”

“There’s no such thing as never, Zecora,” the mare said. “The more times you try something, the faster you’ll learn it.”

“But I already tried it yesterday and I keep doing it wrong. I just wanna go play.”

“Your sister’s still over at the field and won’t be back for a while, and you know exactly when your father usually returns. You want to impress him with something new, don’t you?”

The filly made a pouty face. “Yes…”

“Then we’ll try again until you get it right.” The elder zebra walked over to the pantry to procure more ingredients.

“But mada, I just can’t. I’d rather practice with fada… because… then I would get farther…” she tried to rhyme, poorly.

“Then perhaps you need proper motivation, to light the fire that drives you to creation,” the mother smirked. “Your father taught me a word or two about rhymes, child. But you have to accept there will be moments in life when you have to do things you think you simply can’t do because there’s no one else to take your burden. Do you understand, Zecora?”

She waited for the daughter’s reply, but there wasn’t one. “Zecora?”

The filly was gone and only the clothed cover on the door signified that somebody just left. The mother groaned and walked outside the house. As she stuck her head out the doorway, she gazed upon the open savanna landscape, tall blades of grass and sparse trees as far as the eye could see, with the desert opening on the horizon, but not far from this place stood a small village. The mare saw nobody running that way, which meant that the child hasn’t left the vicinity of the circular house. She began to trail around the house, checking if the little rapscallion by any chance ran off somewhere in the distance, yet after she made the first round around the house, she knew she was still here… but where?

“Zecora, we’re not playing this game,” the mother said in annoyance as she made another round.

Big clay pots sat by the side of the house only a few feet from the entrance, and just as the mare went past them, one of the big ones shook and the lid was raised, as the little zebra took a peek outside. She snickered and tried to quietly climb out before her mother came around again. Unfortunately, the balance wasn’t in her favor as the pot tipped over and cracked upon a pointy rock that lay in front of it.

“Zecora!” the feminine voice suddenly turned to anger, followed by a loud galloping sound.

The filly grimaced. Her mother’s going to be mad once she finds out she’s broken one of the pots. She climbed out of the mess and just then the elder zebra appeared, with a fuming expression, and in a moment of fear the child ran off. The sound of the two rings clanging around her neck was the only thing she could hear in her ears, followed by a galloping sound behind her, then the sound of breaking pottery, and suddenly... a cracking sound, a yelp, and finally a thud. Zecora stopped in her tracks. That was her mother! She slowly walked back around the circular house, to find the elder zebra laying on the ground a few feet away from the broken pottery, writhing in pain.

“MADA!” The little zebra ran to her side. “Mada, what happened?!”

She said nothing, making only a sour face, then pointed down herself. Zecora noticed a giant crack running from the beginning to the tip of her back hoof. How? How did that happen all of a sudden… and then she noticed the rock sticking out of the pile of broken pottery; the same rock upon which she just a moment ago broke the pot when she accidentally tipped it over, she probably didn’t see it under the pile of broken clay when she went into a gallop and struck her hoof against it. And a horrible realization just came over her: her mother just got hurt because of her. There was something else that wasn’t right. She wasn’t making as much noise from such a sudden injury as she should.

“Mada, aren’t you in pain? Why aren’t you saying anything?” she questioned her. “Did… you bite your tongue?”

She nodded with a sour expression.

The filly helped her mother back on her feet and then walked her back into the house as she leaned on. The elder zebra lay on the bed and groaned.

“Mada, what do I do? How can I make the pain stop?” Zecora pleaded for an answer.

Her mother only pointed to the pot over the firepit in the middle of the room.

“You... want me to brew the potion?” she asked, to which she received a nod from her as a clear sign. “No, I… I can’t! I’m just going to mess it up again! Maybe we should wait until fada gets back-“

The elder zebra groaned in pain again. This couldn’t wait, it had to be dealt with immediately. Fear crept up on Zecora; the elder zebra was in no position to assist in any way and if she botched this up, they were both going to be out until somebody else comes home. Yet she couldn’t leave her mother in pain either; she would have to risk it. The filly collected all the ingredients needed and placed them on the elevation next to the cauldron, then looked to the bedside to see the mare, in search of approval. She received none, as she just lay there, it was all up to her now.

And she began; one after another, putting ingredients together into the pot in the correct order, processing and waiting as she was told time and again. For several minutes there was a foreboding silence in the house as if somebody was just waiting for something to go wrong. Finally, there was a light fizzing sound. Zecora dropped the last ingredient into the pot, and this time, instead of the brew suddenly changing color, followed by a volatile reaction, it remained green. She looked for a moment, waiting for that same reaction, yet it didn’t come to pass. Did she actually succeed this time? She grabbed a bowl and filled it up with the concoction, carrying it to her mother, the hoof sounds waking her up. The filly approached the broken hoof and slowly poured the potion on it. She patiently stood by, waiting for any reaction to happen, and it finally did; the crack in the middle of the hoof slowly fused back together, leaving no trace of trauma. The elder zebra wiggled her leg and then instantly jumped back on all four, then looked at her child; she just stood there, agape at the mouth, unable to believe she actually succeeded.

“You did it, Zecora,” she spoke in a happy tone. “I told you, you could do it!”

The little zebra finally snapped out of it, realizing what’s happening. “Wait… you can talk? I thought you said you bit your tongue?”

“I didn’t say anything,” the mare corrected her, “you just assumed I did. I just simply… played along.”

“Wait, you… you mean you were pretending?” sudden rush of anger lit up inside her. “This whole time you pretended that you were hurt?!”

“The tongue part? Yes. But not about my injury. It really did hurt, Zecora.”

“But… but why did you pretend?!”

Her mother sighed. “I wanted you to understand the gravity of the situation. It may seem like an unimportant thing, but this potion is one of the most important things you could learn in our people’s craft, in order to survive out here. You couldn’t do it if you were under the constant impression you only had to learn it because I wanted. That is why I purposely didn’t want to interfere in your experience; so you could do it on your own, to realize you CAN do it if you really wanted to.”

Zecora didn’t know how to react. Part of her was bubbling with joy knowing that she actually could brew a potion on her own without a fault, yet the other part of her was angry that she got put through experiencing worry for her own mother’s health and that she brought it to this point in the first place, so much so that she started to tear up. Without delay, the elderly zebra sat down and pulled her daughter into an embrace.

“Mada…” she wept, “I’m sorry I broke the pot…”

“It’s okay, Zecora. It’s just clay, we can always get a new one,” her mother coddled her.

“And thus, the little filly came to a realization, that sometimes we need a little push, to grasp the conception of medication,” the zebra finished her story, as she walked down the street of Ponyville with her apprentice.

“Awww, that was so sweet.” Applebloom wiped a single tear away.

“I do not want to pry if it’s a bother, but I do wonder, what did you learn from your-“ she could not end her rhyme as something interrupted her in the distance.

There was suddenly a booming sound, catching both of them completely off guard, as were everybody else on the streets of Ponyville. They looked about for a moment and then simply went back to their busy lives… but not the zebra and the country pony. They looked about in the sky where the sound came from, and they spotted only one place. There was a giant dust cloud rising from Canterlot as if an explosion just went off.

“Zecora, what do you think happened?” Applebloom asked.

“Nothing good, I believe,” the zebra responded, “which is why I should leave.”

She galloped off, but the young mare stopped her. “Wait! Zecora if somepony needs help, I wanna lend you a hoof!”

The shaman found herself in a conundrum now. If she allowed Applebloom to follow her, then she was putting her in a likely danger, especially if she got wind of what happened the other day and potentially revealing it to everybody else and setting off a panic, but if she told her to stay away and not follow, her rebellious nature would certainly get the better of her and come along anyway. As much as she felt she’ll regret it, there was only one possible outcome for this.

“Very well, young mare,” she stated, “if your mettle is up to the test, let me see what is your best.”

She puffed out her chest in pride and they both galloped off.

They left Ponyville, and ran across the countryside, not stopping for a moment. And even though Applebloom was no longer a little filly at this point, her leg length still wasn’t on par with a full-grown mare and was as result lagging behind a bit as they started to climb the mountainside.

“Curse these still-short legs!” she complained.

Zecora was kind of hoping she would lag behind and not have her get involved, but that wouldn’t be very kind. Yet she dreaded what was to follow; who knew what dangerous events could be taking place over at Canterlot right now. If it was anything like yesterday…

They finally arrived at the city’s main gate, yet for some reason, there were no guards about. They entered and saw a crater not far away on the main street, with several ponies gathered about, but whatever happened here had long since passed and they couldn’t hear anything from the mass of murmuring crowd. But then they heard something. Thunder. Not just thunder; it sounded like… a melody, resonating across the sky like a grand orchestra. It lasted for a few moments and then it all went completely silent. They were not prepared for what followed, however. It began with a slight tapping sound as tiny rocks began to land on the streets of Canterlot, followed by bigger chunks that soon broke as they hit the pavement, and lastly, boulders and trees, even wild animals began to rain from the sky. Panic erupted on the street and everybody ran for cover, as did the shaman and her apprentice, hiding into the narrow alley.

“Zecora, what’s happening?!” Applebloom asked in a distressed tone.

“There’s only one capable of such a commotion,” she held her close to protect her from potential danger. “He sweeps up everyone in chaos, much like the ocean.”

A solid minute passed before the rain of destruction subsided. The two mares finally came out of the alley and observed the damage caused by the sudden event. The streets were littered with rock, dirt, and branches, and in the worst case, a whole tree landed on top of one of the houses. Some were not so lucky to escape the rain, however, as several guards lay on the street, injured.

“This is where we come in, Applebloom. Are you ready to grant them your boon?” Zecora asked her.

The young mare nodded. The shaman opened her saddlebag and handed her a few vials of various potions. They spread across the street, each dealing with their own patients, trying to soothe their pain, some having bruised legs or a concussion. As they did, Zecora’s sight wandered about and noticed a pattern; among the mess of various flora, there were scattered rocks of two specific varieties: shiny black ones, and ones with protrusions on them. She had been in Everfree Forest for a while and didn’t recall ever seeing these types of rocks before. She scooped up a pair into her pouch. Perhaps others can make more out of it than her.

There was a sudden flashing sound. Zecora looked in its direction and spotted four figures, dressed in hats and coats standing in the middle of the street. She recognized them… or at least one of them, but his presence pretty much made them a dead giveaway. The three princesses made a return, making a visible expression of shock before the smaller one looked up and they then teleported away. The shaman did not envy her situation one bit.

This was too close for comfort. Just a moment ago Chrysalis was sure she was going to meet her end when the gravity under her disappeared and the world around her shifted. Had she been just a moment slower, the Lord of Chaos would’ve done her in. But luck was on her side, as it turned out, both Doubt and Hatred were true to their word, and the magical protection they had installed functioned as intended; not even the creature who can bend reality to his will can threaten her now. Perhaps expanding its influence wasn’t such a farfetched idea.

She finally came out of the dark labyrinth and seeing a familiar sight that reminded her so much of her old home. Her newborn changelings have done their job well. And with guaranteed protection from external forces… it was now perfect.

“Well done, Chrysalis.” Doubt slithered past her. “Your play of switch and deceit is truly a marvelous work.”

She giggled. “Oh please, you flatter me. My only displeasure from this whole event is that I couldn’t see the expression on their faces for how they miserably failed on every level.”

The bubbling sound followed, as Hatred rose from the pool beneath the tree, towering over the Queen of Changelings, its harrow voice echoing. “The artifacts, broodmother…”

She smiled, bringing the Bewitching Bell and the Staff of Sacanas she had just stolen from Canterlot’s artifact vault before her. Hatred reached out, the pointy tips of its gaunt claws gripping the hanger of the bell very delicately.

“This will help greatly. Put the staff into a safe place, for now, the Bell on the other hand will serve its purpose in the meantime, to call the Shaper,” the weaselly vapor whispered.

“How exactly do we put Grogar’s bell to use?” Chrysalis wondered. “Whatever magic of his it once contained was dispelled, and the one taken was already returned to their owners. I’m not sure of what use will this artifact be when it was designed to absorb and contain magic.”

“True,” Doubt replied. “The bell contains no power. But we didn’t want you to seek it out for that, now did we?”

She looked at it curiously. “Then what for?”

The harrow voice spoke. “Grogar was an all-powerful mortal being. He created creatures of horror and unspeakable terror, ones that still roam the world today, including their descendants. He may not have been around for countless eons now, but his essence is intertwined into the very indestructible tool that he used to forge his empire. And that is all that is needed to have the Shaper return back into the world.”

Chrysalis pondered for a moment and it finally clicked to her. “Grogar? Shaper? WAIT, GROGAR IS THE SHAPER?! You want to bring Grogar back?! How?! Nobody but Discord himself has that kind of power!”

“Bringing a creature out of the ether from nothing and making existing essence manifest itself are different things, Chrysalis,” Doubt answered. “And for the latter, the three of us will be more than enough.”

The changeling queen got a satisfying answer, but then she stopped herself. “Wait… the THREE of us?”

“You will serve as the focal point through which we will channel our energy,” Hatred spoke. “It will be more than enough to draw out the Father of Monsters.”

“B-but you said that holding more than one of turmoil’s aspects could be… fatal.”

The weaselly shadow coiled around her horn. “Well then, let’s hope he’s summoned BEFORE that happens.”

Queen Chrysalis gulped; she’s going to be used as a tool and declining was not an option. Hatred’s skinny claw brought the Bewitching Bell before her, waiting for her response.

“Do it!” she declared, gritting her teeth and bracing for the worst.

Hatred’s other hand was raised, its sharp finger pointing at the changeling queen; a tendril began to twist and turn out of it, slowly making its way toward her. Doubts slithered close, its tail extending and fueling into the tendril as well, as it finally reached its destination. A shriek and a shock followed the sudden burst of power, so vast that her magic instantly started channeling into the Bell. The artifact shook as powerful magic was being imbued into it; the markings on it lighting up as it began to ring incessantly. Below the Bewitching Bell, a silhouette began to manifest itself, the vague form slowly beginning to fill up as the essence in the bell trickled down. The process was slow and Chrysalis wasn’t handling it well. She survived Celestia’s power of the sun scorching her, but this was different; it felt like standing in dark winter night and being pelted with snowdrops that moved at the speed of sound for decades, tearing at her mind little by little. She couldn’t handle it anymore, her grasp on the world around slowly fading away…

“Enough,” the harrowed voice spoke and the tendril connected to the changeling was severed.

She collapsed, her body still trembling from the lingering power as it slowly exited, her sight returning, only to behold the creature that had spawned through her. The bell still rang as the last piece of the manifestation finally became solid and color began to flourish on the shape of an old ram: bristle blue fur covered the hunched over, stocky body, a tufted beard hanging off the end of the chin, grey mane running down the neck, with big bushy eyebrows and the tail of equal tone, and a pair of giant darkened antlers sitting on the top of the head. His crimson eyes finally opened, pupils zooming about, scanning the surroundings.

“Grogar?” Queen Chrysalis addressed him.

The old ram’s ear twitched at the sound, his head slowly turned to face her and the towering monstrosity. “What are you creatures? You’re not one of my creations, otherwise, I’d have recognized you. And this clearly isn’t Cloudsdale. Where’s Gusty and that sniveling little treacherous weasel?”

Chrysalis looked to Doubt in confusion. She really had no idea how to respond to someone who had been gone for who knows how many years, talking about names that didn’t make sense.

She cleared her throat. “Let us make proper introductions: I am Chrysalis, the Queen of Changelings. And you, Mighty Grogar, The First Emperor of Equestria- “

“Such fancy titles mean little to me… changeling, if that’s what you are,” he interrupted her, as his eyes were looking about. “I answer to only one of them and you clearly don’t fit the criteria to use it. Grogar will do just fine. Now tell me where am I. For some reason, I feel… off.”

The manifestation of Hatred slinked back into the depths of the pool, releasing its grip upon the Bewitching Bell, and just before it could land on the head of its owner, the Changeling Queen caught it midair.

“I believe this belongs to you?” She levitated the talisman before the grizzled old ram.

Grogar tried to grab hold of it with his own magic only to realize something was amiss when he couldn’t make it to respond to the force of his will, as the bell fell to the ground.

“What is this?!” he fumed. “Why am I unable to use magic?!”

“Oh right, I suppose I should’ve mentioned beforehand. You’re in my domain.” Chrysalis couldn’t help but feel smug for a moment, as the most powerful creature in Equestrian history stood before her, powerless. “My hive has been isolated with an enchanted stone that nullifies any magic but that of changelings.”

“No,” her ears perked up when she heard the dismissal. “There’s something else…”

The sorcerer felt something was off; he felt… naked. “Wait a minute… WHERE’S MY COLLAR!?”

“Your… collar?” she asked.

“Yes, my enchanted collar! The Bewitching Bell is a powerful tool, but without my collar, I cannot tap into the talisman to use the full potential of the power that’s locked within.”

“I’d guess you lost it where you suffered your defeat,” she gave him the only logical answer.

“MY DEFEAT?!” the ram roared. “What are you talking about?!”

Silence fell over the cavern; Doubt simply lay by, leaving the Queen of Changelings to deal with an awkward situation. “You better help him catch up to current events, broodmother.”

“What… is the last thing you remember?” she asked Grogar.

“I remember attacking the unicorns. They fled from their dwellings to request aid from the pegasi city of Cloudsdale. I remember my army of winged monstrosities darkened the sky. The unicorns, led by a little filly called Gusty desperately tried to fight them off, but she was powerless against me. Yet during our struggle, the pegasi finally intervened, and even then they couldn’t overcome my might. But then…” he stopped, trying to recall the events in detail. “Somehow a sniveling little weasel managed to unhook my bell from the collar in the battle and… That’s where it ends.”

Chrysalis slowly traipsed closer to him. “The events you’re describing, Grogar, took place thousands of moons ago. And in the time of your absence, much of the world you’ve known has changed.”

The ram squinted. “Changed how…?”

Chapter 12: A Shadow's Remnant

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Chapter 13: Tale of "The Great"

In the aftermath of yesterday’s events, Discord suggested that he and Fluttershy have a slumber party, much to Rainbow Dash’s annoyance, since she still shared the place with her host, considering she couldn’t fly. And after the night of revelry, silence finally fell over the household as all three of them fell asleep. The draconequus rested his head on a pillow, sucking his feline thumb and his cloven hoof kicking, mumbling.

BONK!

A blunt pain rang in the head of the Lord of Chaos, who was just woken up from his slumber, rubbing his head where the pain was coming from. Suddenly he realized something odd: his fur was completely wet. As his eyes finally adjusted, he saw several heads looking down on him in anger. The country pony, the fashionista, the wonderbolt, and three princesses. The only exception was the shy pegasus, with a concerned look on her face, and the dragon, who held a mallet in his hands.

“Did… did you just bash me over the head with a mallet?” Discord asked, almost in a shocked tone.

“We’re so sorry, Discord,” Fluttershy begged forgiveness, “but we couldn’t wake you up any other way. We tried to call you, prod you…”

“We emptied a whole bucket of water on you, and you still wouldn’t wake up,” the blue pegasus added.

“So we had to use more drastic measures,” Spike held the tool up.

“Yeah, but why?” Discord asked.

Everybody pointed in the same direction: to the window. He went to open it and saw the state of the world outside. Pinkie Pie sat outside the house, her mouth wide open as it rained chocolate, a ten-foot-long herd of lagomorphs stampeded, and pigs flew in the sky, which was filled with angry spikey clouds. After a moment of staring, he snapped his finger and everything disappeared.

“Oh come on!” the party pony yelled, her insatiable thirst left unfulfilled.

Draconequus sighed and turned back to the group, but they were still giving him angry looks. “Look, I promise, I didn’t do this intentionally.”

“Sorry Discord,” Applejack voiced her frustration, “but that’s gonna be a hard sell, considering the apples in my orchard came to life, grew twenty hoofs, and tried to plant me in the ground!”

“And while I find the sewing equipment coming to life and doing the work on its own amusing,” Rarity added, “they started to make those horrible shoulder pads dresses and bellbottoms while dancing to some of the worst tunes I’ve ever heard. SHOULDER PADS, DISCORD!”

“Applejack, Rarity, wait. Last time he did something like this unintentionally, it happened because of his dreams,” Twilight recalled familiar events.

“Discord, did you have a nightmare?” the yellow pegasus asked.

There was noticeable perspiration of hesitation on him. “M… maybe?”

“Care to tell us what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’d… rather not.”

The former Princess of the Night stepped forward. “Would you settle for showing it to me instead?”

“Well, err…” there was a sense of resistance in his voice. “To be honest, I mean I just got up, why bother wasting such a beautiful day sleeping, so much to do an-“

Luna’s horn lit up. “I can always “help you” go back to sleep.”

“Wait! If I have to get my lights turned off, at least let me do it myself,” Lord of chaos freaked out, grabbing Spike's mallet and bashed himself over the head, knocking himself out.

“Well… that was unexpected,” the dragon responded.

Mare of the Night closed her eyes, and the darkness enveloped all around her.

A hallway. There was always a hallway, covered with infinite doors. And that’s where she ended up, just like last time, except she didn’t have to look for its main resident for long. Discord stuck out of the floor, his head squashed into it.

“You know we really need to stop doing this,” he said, pulling himself off the torn carpet.

“For you to have your powers go rampant for no reason it means something serious must’ve happened,” Luna stood by his side. “Now we just need to find the right door to your last dream.”

The Lord of Chaos covered behind the former princess, pointing in the distance. “We won’t have to look far.”

A door stood not far from them, standing out from the rest quite distinctly. A giant sheep’s eye was engraved on it and black smoke was coming out of the cracks.

The blue alicorn approached it, until a feline paw and a bird’s claw tugged at her leg, stopping her. “I beg you, don’t make me go in there again!”

“Sorry, Discord,” she said, raising him with her magic, “but this is an intervention and we’re getting to the bottom of this.”

She opened the door and darkness enveloped them.

“Well… this isn’t what I was expecting,” Luna responded, confused.

They stood in a meadow of blooming flowers, bright sun shining down on them. They heard laughter in the air, and in the distance noticed two figures frolicking through it. One was the draconequus in question and the second, a too-familiar yellow pegasus. They were both happy, without a care in the world. He picked her up and they spun around, laughing.

“You make me feel so happy, Discord,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

“So do you, Fluttershy,” he replied. “And I promise I’ll always protect you from harm.”

Luna felt a slight turn in her stomach. This was way too sweet for her, especially considering it was coming from Lord of Chaos, and that’s when she noticed him covering behind her. What exactly was he afraid of?

“You couldn’t do that for me.”

Another voice just spoke, one that didn’t belong to any of the two participants of the dream, so she turned to its origin. The dream Discord also turned his head, and the look on him was unsettled, to say the least. A mare stood behind him; she was a white unicorn with a teal-colored mane and a single stripe of pink running through it. He was left flabbergasted, unable to utter a word.

“He knows you can’t,” she spoke, “and now he’s going to come back to take it.”

The sun suddenly turned black, vapor-like magical essence covered the sky, and a beam of darkness enveloped in sinister light shot down from the tainted sun, a strong wind blew, reducing the meadow to a barren wasteland. Luna erected a magical barrier to protect both of them from the blast, while watching the dream Discord pressed the yellow pegasus to himself, to protect her from violent winds, but as he finally raised her after the gust passed, he found her turned to black solid matter and the winds blew her to dust. The Lord of Chaos collapsed, visibly shaking from the experience. He turned and saw tendrils emerging from the dark light, fast approaching his direction, toward the unicorn.

“Draco, please do something! Save-!” the mare’s words went silent as one of the tendrils reached her and wrapped around her, imprisoning her in a bubble that deafened all sound on the inside.

A deep sinister cackle followed, it seemed familiar to Discord, but he didn’t want it to be; terror and dread came over him as he saw a giant blue head of a ram pop out of the pillar of darkened light, a pair of giant antlers resting on top of his head, crimson red eyes peering at the quivering creature of chaos. He knew his name, yet he was simply too terrified to even utter it.

“Where is it, draconequus?” the grizzled sheep asked in a malicious tone. “Where did you hide it?”

He barely managed to scramble together the courage to speak. “I… I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yes, you do. You cannot hide anything from me, draconequus. But I do not need your words to find what I seek.”

Tendrils finally reached Discord, twisting and turning until they formed a hand and grabbed hold of him. Another pair of tendrils reached for one of his ears and opened them wide, while another tendril reached out and into his ear.

“Luna, make it stop already!!!” the Lord of Chaos at her side uncharacteristically pleaded.

Mare of the Night finally snapped out of it after being drawn into fascination by the events on display. She exited the protective bubble, lighting up her horn, and proceeded to move through the scenery, while she watched as the tendrils conjured by the image of the giant ram pulled something out of Discord’s ear: it was a red strip of leather, with four golden runes embedded into it and a hanger in the middle of them.

“Ah… so that’s where you hid it,” he smiled. “But I’m not through with you yet.”

The ram’s horns lit up. Four stars suddenly appeared in the sky surrounding the tainted sun, a trail of magic connected between them and the sun itself began to expand, turning into a doorway into another realm, showing a sinister castle hanging upside down, slowly entering through it.

“Come, draconequus. Tambelon awaits.”

“NOOOOOOOOO!” the Lord of Chaos cried out.

A flash of light erupted, distorting the dream vision, but it refused to go away, even though the former princess was putting on the full force to dispel it; which meant there was still a source of the nightmare somewhere.

“Reveal yourself!” she called out. “The watcher of dreams commands it!”

WHY WOULD YOU DENY YOURSELF?

There it was again. That sinister voice. It remained fresh in her memory from not long ago. Without delay, she followed it to the origin point.

YOU TRULY HOLD SO LITTLE VALUE IN YOURSELF?

Its incessant prodding kept trying to bear down on her, but she refused to give in to its words. And then she finally found it. At the heart of it all, the same thing appeared as last night: a vaporous twisting shape exhuming darkness revealed itself, and as predicted, as she closed in on it, it took the shape of her own dark side.

I deserved better!

She frowned, unleashing a burst of light against the manifestation.

YOU CANNOT… ESCAPE US…

As it all cleared up, the imagery was gone, and the blooming meadow was there again. Luna took a deep breath and exhaled, then turned to the real draconequus, who approached behind her, looking meek.

“Discord, I need you to give me an honest answer; when did you start having this dream?” she questioned him.

“To be completely frank, never before,” he answered. “This is the first time I’ve had it.”

She thought for a moment, before responding again. “We need to get back and tell the others.”

“No, wait-!“ Discord’s protest was cut off.

Luna opened her eyes, followed by the Lord of Chaos; they were both back in Fluttershy’s cottage, surrounded by others.

“Well?” Twilight asked her. “What was it, Princess Luna?”

She sighed. “We may have a serious problem, Twilight Sparkle.”

“How serious?” her older sibling asked.

“Last night, I offered to look into her dream, to see what torments her and possibly dispel the issue. The problem was solved, but the culprit responsible for it left a mark, one that turned into… my darkest part, before it was destroyed,” she explained to Celestia, slowly turning her head to the younger alicorn as she continued. “And I’m afraid the same repeated in Discord’s case.”

“What do you mean by “repeated”? You mean that very same remnant of shadow that was causing me the nightmare?” the princess of friendship asked for elaboration.

Mare of the Night nodded. “Somepony… or rather something has the power to infiltrate one’s subconsciousness and torment them in their sleep with horrific visions. There’s something odd though.”

“What do you mean?” the new princess questioned.

“Your nightmare tormented you with the visions of a potential dark future and failure, likely to keep you despondent. But him?” She turned her head to Discord, who already had Fluttershy by his side comforting him. “It almost seemed as if his nightmare was trying to extract information from him, it was looking for something.”

“Care to explain yourself what's she talking ‘bout?” Applejack asked him.

The whole group looked at him, and they could clearly see the hesitation in his behavior. He was holding back something, something he didn’t want anyone else to know.

“Discord, please, tell us what’s going on.” The shy pegasus rubbed his hand gently.

He sighed, finally relenting. “Have you ever heard the story of… Gusty the Great?”

“Heard of?!” Twilight yelped and instantly teleported away, and reappeared a few moments later, holding a book, the image of a full-grown equine with teal mane and a pink stripe in it on the cover. “It’s one of the most popular books for children! There isn’t a pony in Equestria that wouldn’t know about it!”

“I never did,” a voice said.

Everybody looked at the originator of it, that somebody being Rainbow Dash. “What? I only ever read Daring Do books. Don’t blame me for not reading books meant for little kids.”

“Do we need to bring you up to speed, darling?” Rarity asked her.

“Wait!” a yell came from outside the cottage before a pink mass leaped through the window, grabbed the book, and nestled itself on the comfy chair in a single swoop. “If we’re going to tell her the story, we have to do this properly.”

“Pinkie, I don’t think we have the time for-“ Twilight protested but got cut off as she began.

Long time ago, after the three tribes defeated the windigos and came together to establish Equestria-

“Excuse me, Pinkie,” Discord interrupted, “I love storytime as much as the next draconequus, but can you please tell the abridged version so we can get to the point, please?”

The pink pony looked at him and then sighed in disappointment. “You’re really no fun, you know?”

After the three tribes officially established Equestria, the pegasi used their ability to manipulate weather and built their new home, Cloudsdale, the earth ponies established several farms to grow food in the new fertile land, meanwhile, unicorns traveled further south, seeking the riches that the new land provided.

However, the further they traveled south, the more the light of the land dimmed, yet they would not be deterred from their mission. That was when they first encountered monsters they didn’t meet up north, but using their magic they managed to keep their settlements protected from their attacks. It didn’t take long however for the one commanding the darkness of this southern land to take notice of the ones who trespassed into his domain. His name was Grogar; he was a ram that ruled over the kingdom he had covered in darkness, infested by monsters that he created. He would see these “invaders” not just expelled, but fed to his armies.

And that’s when the mare came forth to lead the unicorns in resistance against the evil tyrant. Her name was Gusty; a simple pony who dedicated her life to protecting her people from Grogar. Wherever the dark ram went, she would know exactly how to evade him at every turn. She was praised for it, and for that reason, everypony started to call her “Gusty the Great”. This infuriated Grogar, so much that he summoned an entire host of monsters to sweep across the whole land. Gusty managed to evade him again, but now the army of monsters made its way northward in a straight line, to find and destroy everything in its path. Gusty realized that she couldn’t fight Grogar on her own anymore, so she and the unicorns decided they needed help from the pegasi army.

And so Gusty and the surviving unicorns traveled north in great haste, and in smaller numbers, they managed to overtake the much larger and slower army of monsters. And while nopony had ever tried to reach Cloudsdale on hoof, Gusty the Great was not deterred! She and her unicorn warriors marched up the hill that was the closest to it. But suddenly, they encountered the treacherous Grogar, and Gusty could tell he was ready for battle.

Gusty called out to the unicorn warriors. “We can fight Grogar together!”

And the unicorn warriors shot magical beams into the clouds that wove into one! The beam, stronger than a thousand armies, shined down. It wrapped around Grogar and pulled him to the ground!

“Don't let him escape!” yelled Gusty.

Grogar was strong, for fear gave him power, and he broke through the bonds-!

“Pinkie, you’re in full narration mode again,” Discord reminded her.

“But this is the best part!” she whined.

“Yes, but can you just stay on the task, please?”

“Fine…” she pouted.

Gusty the Great saw as the ram sorcerer use the Bewitching Bell that hung around his neck to take away the magic of her unicorn warriors, but luckily, before she was overwhelmed by Grogar and his horde, the Royal Legion of Cloudsdale descended and took them on.

Grogar grew weary of the fight and decided to end it all. Using the power in the bell, he darkened the sky and from it, a giant sinister upside-down castle descended upon the battlefield to crush everything. In the final moment of the encounter, Gusty the Great took Grogar head-on and managed to grab the bell from him, and used it on the ram sorcerer himself. With his own power turned against him, the darkness and the castle that came down from the sky disappeared the same way they came, and finally, Grogar was shattered into pieces of light and sent into the sky, leaving behind a set of four stars.

In the end, the day was won, and Gusty the Great would forever be immortalized as somepony, who gave everything, to save everypony.

The End

The silence lingered in the room for a moment, before a blue pegasus finally broke it.

“I mean, the story wasn’t bad, but…” Rainbow Dash voiced her thought, “I think the delivery could’ve used a bit of something.”

“See? What did I tell you?” the party planner chewed out the draconequus. “It’s all about delivery, Discord. Now you’ve ruined Dash’s first experience. She didn’t even get the chance to see the illustrations in the book.”

Pinkie Pie huffed and opened the book on one of the pages, displaying the imagery of the characters in the story.

Luna looked at them, seeing the images of two characters printed in the book, the same characters she witnessed in Discord’s nightmare. “That… that’s them. The pony and the giant ram commanding the darkness. That’s what I saw in the nightmare.”

“You mean, they looked exactly like them?” Twilight asked.

“Well, not quite. Either the book is embellishing and portraying Gusty as taller and majestic, or the Lord of Chaos thinks so little of her that he imagines her being a helpless little pony.” She then turned to him. “But back to the question that started all of this; why is this important, Discord? What does this story have to do with your nightmare? What did it want?”

“It wanted… this.” Draconequus rose and snapped his fingers, conjuring an image.

An item levitated on his palm; it was a red strip of leather, with four golden runes embedded into it and a hanger in between them.

“What is that?” the fashionista questioned. “Not that the choker doesn’t look stylish, but it looks really REALLY old.”

“You’re nearly correct, Rarity,” Discord confirmed. “This item is called the Collar of Dominion, it is a powerful artifact that Grogar once used.”

“More powerful than the Bewitching Bell?” Celestia asked.

“No, definitely not. But it is nonetheless a crucial link to his power.”

“How come?” Luna couldn’t understand it. “Isn’t the Bewitching Bell already a powerful tool on its own?”

The Lord of Chaos looked at the Mare of the Night, sighing. “Have you never wondered why, after Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow took my chaos magic away all those years ago, they didn’t just use it to bend reality to their will, and instead just attacked Canterlot?”

They all looked at one another, unable to answer.

The Lord of Chaos stretched over to Pinkie Pie before he continued. “Because they couldn’t. I think our dear pink puffy party planner over here can attest that unless you’ve been washed over in the essence of chaos itself before, you would never be able to use it properly, especially outside the Chaos Dimension; it would turn on its user. That was one golden thread in our situation back then, and why they kept it locked inside the bell the whole time and never used it.”

“So, what exactly does this old bell hanger have to do with it?” Applejack frowned.

“The Collar of Dominion contains a very modicum portion of Grogar’s magic, but if the Bewitching Bell is attached to it, all the power locked inside it, no matter how dangerous or volatile, its energy can be used by the wearer, without repercussions.”

A gasp followed, coming from the yellow pegasus. “And since Chrysalis stole the Bewitching Bell yesterday, that means…!”

Tension spiked in the room in a matter of moments. There were so many things going on that seemed to be connected and no longer possible to be coincidences. Some unseen force gave Twilight nightmares, which eventually led to Queen Chrysalis being freed and releasing some great darkness in the Everfree Forest, resembling the imagery in her dream; and now, that same force gave Discord nightmares and was now threatening to uncover a secret that he was aware of. There was no denying at this point that the two things were related in some way. If Queen Chrysalis was after the Collar of Dominion, coupled on top of that she’s just gotten stronger and nobody could virtually hurt her in her new domain, there was no telling what horrors would she unleash next.

“Well don’t just wait!” Rainbow Dash urged him. “Give it to us so we can hide it somewhere safe!”

Draconequus snapped his fingers and the image of the collar disappeared. “That will be a problem, considering I don’t have it.”

“But I saw the image of Grogar dragging it out of your… ear,” Luna told what she witnessed.

“Yes. He wanted to see into my memory, to know WHERE the artifact is hidden,” he explained. “And sadly, I did know where it is.”

“Where?”

“The place where the Collar of Dominion is hidden… is known as the Jagged Ridge.”

Celestia thought for a moment. “Jagged Ridge? That’s a mountain range on the far western border of Equestria, just before the Nether Lands, home of the centaurs.”

“And every moment we waste, it means that whoever tried to extract that information from me, is a moment closer to finding the collar,” Discord urged, turning and preparing to snap his fingers. “So, I think we should go there as fast as possible and- “

“Hold on one darn pickin’ minute!” country pony stopped him. “Somethin’ ain’t addin’ up. The story of Gusty only mentioned the Bell. It didn’t say anything about the Collar, yet you seem to know about it and its location. Why’s that, Discord?”

His back was turned towards them, but with the awkward silence that lasted too long, they could tell something was off as if he hesitated to speak.

After a prolonged quiet he finally spoke. “I… knew where the Bewitching Bell was the whole time. How else do you think those three could’ve found it? I know many things, dear Applejack.”

Applejack just didn’t feel right about the answer; it just felt too evading, she wouldn’t have time to respond though, as Twilight finally spoke again. “Even so, we can’t just go on a whim, Discord. I left the castle without saying as much as a word, not to mention for an expedition to Jagged Ridge we’d need proper equipment- “

SNAP!

Twilight and everybody else found themselves in the Canterlot castle’s throne room, and moments later, after another snap, a pile of coats, rucksacks, and provisions fell on top of them.

“Okay let’s see.” The Lord of Chaos pulled out a clipboard and began checking off the list. “Clothing, equipment, food, and all other supplies… oh, look at that, all that’s left now is for you to sign on the dotted line that you’ll be absent for today, Twilight- “

“DISCORD!” the Princess of Friendship yelled so loud that it could be heard through all the castle.

“Listen Discord, I understand how serious the situation seems, but I can’t just drop everything to deal with it! Yesterday was an exception since it was the meeting for the Council of Friendship, but I can’t just leave all behind to let it “take care of itself”! I hold a position of responsibility that nopony can just replace on a whim, do you understand?!”

Draconequus froze in place and it became so quiet that one could hear the sound of the quill dropping to the ground as it slipped from his grip. The rest of the group was just as focused on her by the sudden outburst, the fuming expression as she just vented her anger.

“Twilight?”

“WHAT?!” the purple alicorn yelled at the voice that broke the silence, and it didn’t take long before a sudden wave of shame washed over her when she realized it was her former mentor addressing her. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to raise my voice against you, Princess Celestia, I was just- “

A gentle hoof shoved her muzzle, silencing her before she could finish. “Twilight, I can confidently proclaim that out of all in this room, I more than understand the burden of rulership. But at the same time, I also understand that there are moments when you cannot relegate important, especially crucial tasks to somepony else. It may not be my place to say it anymore, but this is a task you and your friends must undertake together.”

“But… but I can’t just drop everything and have things run themselves. And I’ve no pony who can take over my daily routines and schedules.”

The Mares of Sun and Night looked at each other and smiled. “On the contrary, Twilight: you have two.”

The Princess of Friendship’s eye widened from those words. “YOU TWO?! No, nononononono, I can’t accept that! After all this time you’ve been giving your lives as servants and protectors of Equestria, you finally got to live normal lives. I can’t just make you go back to your old ways! Besides, what about your play in Manehatten?!”

Celestia sighed. “Don’t worry, Twilight, this isn’t a permanent replacement. We’ve both been acquainted with the extent of this new threat we all face. If there’s any way we can help you and your friends, we’ll be more than willing to. And as I said before, an absence for a day or two won’t be an issue.”

The younger alicorn sighed. “Are you sure about this?”

“After what I’ve just witnessed twice in a row, I’d say our assistance is more than necessary right now,” Luna concurred with her elder sibling.

“Thank you… both of you,” Twilight replied with a smile.

“Well perfect then!” Discord said without allowing them to have a moment. “If we’re all set, we can all go straight to Jagged Rid-“

A loud knock suddenly came upon the throne room’s door, followed by a voice. “Your Majesty! Are you in there?!”

“Enter!” she called out.

The door creaked open and a single royal guard looked inside. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here, Your Majesty. I‘ve been searching the whole castle for the last fifteen minutes. None of the staff had any idea where you were.”

“I’ve… had a personal matter to attend to,” she cracked an awkward smile and glanced to everyone behind her. “Anyway, what’s the matter?”

“Two things, Your Majesty,” the guard said and opened the door wide.

With the sound of flapping wings, an owl flew into the room. The Princess recognized him, she’s not seen him in a very long time, since she’s designated him as a royal representative to the deer’s realm. She extended her hoof and he landed on it.

“Hello, Owlowiscious! How’s my special envoy to the Thicket doing?” She snuggled against her old friend.

The owl simply hooted and raised his leg, revealing a small cylinder attached to it. Twilight opened the brass cylinder and pulled out a piece of paper, and started to read it.

“Twilight darling, what is it?” Rarity asked.

She sighed. “An after-effect from yesterday. King Aspen is reporting that part of the forest close to Thicket has been completely ravaged and would like to inquire if we know anything about it.”

Everybody instantly glared at the Lord of chaos, who felt hopelessly surrounded.

“And the second thing?” she asked the guard.

He pulled out a scroll from a bag. “One of the morning patrols sent an urgent message from their routine.”

Twilight took the scroll and opened it. After a moment of reading through it, she let out a gasp.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

“Everypony,” she turned and looked with a very concerned expression, “we need to get to Tartarus immediately.”

Tartarus. This ancient prison was carved into the mountain, protected by a magical door. It stood far away from any civilization, for it was a place where the most wicked, vile, and evil creatures deserved to be locked away.
With a flash, the six equines, the dragon, and the draconequus teleported to its very doorstep.

Spike looked at his companion, stripped of her regal armor, noticing there was a nervous twitch in her expression. “Twilight, just relax, will you? Celestia and Luna know what they’re doing. I don’t think you need to worry about it.”

“Can they, Spike?” she asked. “They’ve been gone for so long, and I’ve changed so many things in the castle in the meantime, what if-“

He pressed his finger against her mouth. “Twilight, chill, okay? Just trust them.”

The princess inhaled and exhaled. “You’re right, Spike. Let’s just focus on the task at hand.”

“Maybe they can fill us in,” Rainbow Dash pointed in the distance.

Numerous royal guards stood before the giant ornate gate, their expressions displaying worry, to say the least. As they heard the sound of hooves coming towards them, they all lined up and stood to attention.

“I received your message as soon as I could,” Twilight addressed them. “What’s happened? The message was very vague on details.”

One of the guards stepped forward. “It’s Cerberus, Your Majesty. He’s disappeared.”

“Wait, that’s what this is about?” She crooked her eyebrow. “It wouldn’t be the first time that Cerberus just left his post. He normally comes back after an hour or two.”

“Your Majesty, when we first made our rounds and came here, he was nowhere to be found. And that was six hours ago.”

“Oh… well, I’m sure somepony saw him then.”

“I dunno, Twilight,” Pinkie leaned in. “I’m pretty sure a giant, thirty-hoof tall three-headed dog wouldn’t be that hard to spot, especially if he wandered into a town.”

“Yeah, I’m with Pinkie on that one, Twilight,” the blue pegasus added. “There’d likely be panic and we’d get notified.”

A slight tingle of uncertainty was slowly creeping up on the alicorn, but she hadn’t exhausted all her options yet. “Did you check inside Tartarus? Maybe he just went inside.”

The guards looked at one another, and Twilight could tell that something was bearing down on them. “We did, Your Majesty, and… that’s the other thing we sent the message for.”

“Why? What happened?”

“You… you may wanna see it for yourself.”

The gang looked at each other. What happened in the prison that warranted such hesitation? They walked to the giant door, covered in a runic pattern, with a very complex enchanted seal that could only be unlocked by the use of magic, being the only thing that barred the way. The Lord of Chaos slithering between their hooves to the front, extended the nail on his feline hand, stuck it inside the seal, and turned it. The pattern on the seal lit up, the mechanism on the side turned with a clank, and the gates slowly opened wide.

“After you, Your Majesty.” He bowed to the purple mare.

She rolled her eyes and walked inside, others slowly following close behind. A heavy creaking sound came from the back as the door slowly closed, sealing itself shut.

It was dark. They could only see light in the far distance, coming from the source of whatever lay in the deep abyss. Their eyes needed a moment to adjust to the blackness, but even before that they realized something was off about the place; it was quiet, simply too quiet, considering this place was supposed to house numerous horrible monsters. And by the time their eyes could finally see normally in the dim light, they fully understood why the guards outside were so tense.

“EMPTY?!” Twilight yelled, causing it to echo all around to drive the point home.

All of Tartarus was empty. Giant steel cages that once kept vicious supernatural beasts locked away were wide open and their residents, gone. Not a single creature that was once locked in the cages that lined up in the long wide hall leading up to the high-priority cells above the abyss, was present.

“How… in Equestria’s this possible?” Twilight was left agape at the mouth. “This is supposed to be the most impregnable place in all of the kingdom!”

“Well, that’s not entirely true,” Applejack answered. “Remember that “Mister Lord of Chaos” over here once pulled two villains out without a hitch.”

Discord glared at her. “Hey, I resent that statement…! But fair enough.”

“Now let’s be fair, Applejack,” Rarity joined in, “Discord’s power is great, so it’s predictable that he of all creatures could do it, but not everypony has his powers.”

“Yeah, but who else do we know that has a great amount of magical power to have been able to teleport dozens of monsters out of here?” country pony retorted.

A low gasp escaped the princess’ mouth. “Queen Chrysalis! That’s the only explanation! It all makes sense. With the amount of power she wields now, she could definitely have done it!”

“Nah, unlikely,” Pinkie Pie said as she dragged her face through the dirt trying to spot the clues. “If she had, she would’ve just teleported herself out of Canterlot yesterday and we wouldn’t need to play Ponies and Changelings with her.”

“Yeah, but who else is there, Pinkie? There isn’t any other creature we know of that has a great amount of magic power to teleport masses of prisoners out of this place.”

Fluttershy twirled her hoof through the dirt, seeing several giant footprints, then turned back toward the gate, thinking for a moment. “Erm… what if they just all went out the front door instead?”

The alicorn looked at her. “Fluttershy, no offense, but that theory would only be plausible were it not for one tiny problem: those imprisoned here were monsters! They’re angry, violent, and loud! Were they to go through the door somepony would’ve probably heard them, and even then, Cerberus would’ve stopped them from leaving!”

“But your puppy isn’t here, now is he?” draconequus stated as he put on a loupe on one of his eyes and looked at a rock. “Furthermore, the fact that he just disappeared without a trace, what’s then actually stopping the rest of the menagerie that was locked in here from leaving in the same manner?”

Twilight went into thought, and the more she did, the more Discord’s reasoning rang true, yet in the back of her mind something wasn’t making sense, something that the yellow pegasus voiced. “But, Twilight does make a good point, Discord. All those creatures would have to be really calm and docile to have gotten away unnoticed.”

“Yeah, do you know of somepony who could’ve gotten them that way?” the princess asked.

Discord was still for a moment, popping the loupe off his eye, before speaking in the most cryptic tone. “I can think of only ONE creature who’d be able to turn a gaggle of rampaging monsters silent and submissive… but the probability of being him is an absolute zero.”

Twilight couldn’t help but think he may be doubting his own words, especially after the nightmare he’s had, and the non-answer he gave when being questioned about knowing things.

“In any case, I think we’re done,” he brushed it all way. ”We won’t be finding these missing beasts now and we’re already pressed for time as it is.”

The guards outside stood to attention as the gates opened again and the group walked out into the sunlight.

“Your Majesty, what are your orders? What do we do?” questioned the leading guard.

“You will do the following,” Twilight ordered them, “you will return to Canterlot and report what happened to Princesses Celestia and Luna.”

“Ce… I’m sorry, did you just say that the royal sisters have returned?!” they were all taken aback.

“She’s replacing me while I’m away,” she explained. ”Also, tell them we’ve gone to Jagged Ridge as planned. You are dismissed.”

The guards all saluted and moved out with haste.

“Well then, are you all ready for our expedition?” the Lord of Chaos said, snapping his fingers, dressing everybody to look the part.

“Discord, do we even know how to get there? None of us were ever to the Jagged Ridge,” the blue pegasus asked.

“No problem on that front, Dash,” draconequus said, before snapping his fingers again and they all disappeared.

A strong wind was blowing. They found themselves somewhere high in the mountains, yet hot air brushed against them. It soon became apparent to them why this place was called the Jagged Ridge, as giant sharpened stone spikes stuck out everywhere around them.

“Welcome to the Jagged Ridge, everypony,” he announced. “I trust you caught on to the nature of its name?”

“Ugh, this is one of the most inhospitable looking places I’ve ever seen, Discord,” the fashionista complained. “Who in their right mind would even think of making it?”

“That would be the Nether Lands themselves, dear Rarity,” he explained. “The land on the other side of the ridge is a barren wasteland, hot winds that run across it crash against the mountainside that borders it, slicing right into it. And over the ages, it carved out the place we stand on now.”

“As much as I’d like to listen to the history of this place, Discord,” the princess intervened, “you said we’re in a hurry. Where do we go to find the artifact?”

“Through there,” the draconequus said and pointed in the distance.

There was a giant hole in the side of the mountain. Though this place seemed old, there was something about it that made it seem recent, something that the Lord of Chaos acknowledged as they approached the entrance.

“Odd, last I recall the entrance wasn’t as big as this last time,” he said, as he passed the threshold, which seemed to be at least twice his size.

“Last time?” Applejack questioned. “How would you know what this place was like “last time”?”

He froze, before finally replying. “Never mind that, let’s get going!”

As the Discord pulled on his beard, causing his eyes to turn on like flashlights and running in, the group lingered outside for a moment.

“Anypony else feeling like he’s been dodging a lot of questions lately?” Spike asked.

“That would be an understatement,” Rainbow Dash replied. “He’s definitely hiding something.”

“Girls, don’t be so hard on him. He’s probably just shaken from that horrible nightmare he’s had. I mean Twilight was,” Fluttershy tried to defend him.

“Yeah…” the alicorn replied, “after about two weeks. In any case, let’s go.”

The princess went inside first, with the rest of the mares and her companion following behind.

Chapter 14: The Father

The water drop sounds could be heard throughout the cavern as Discord led the group. In the surrounding darkness, nobody tried to even make a peep, even if the light source from the draconequus’ eyes illuminated the path. One saving grace in their current position was that the inside of the mountain didn’t seem as pointy as outside, otherwise, the whole place would’ve felt even more foreboding with the constant fear of impalement.

“Odd?” he said.

“What is?” Fluttershy asked.

“This pathway,” Discord responded. “It seems as if it’s been dugout.”

Twilight listened to his words and stepped closer to the wall, lighting up her horn for the light source. “You know, now that you mention it you may be right, Discord. It almost looks as if the walls have been clawed up in certain places, the stalactites broken. Almost as if something big tried to make its way in.”

The Lord of Chaos twirled his beard. “Maybe after all this time some creature made its home here. In which case, we may have gained some time if the one seeking the Collar of Dominion will have a hard time getting past-”

A loud splash followed. Everybody stood still, wondering what just fell in the water until they realized they were one pony short.

“AAAH COLD!!!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she swam to the surface of the cold cave pond.

Twilight grabbed the blue pegasus and put her back on the solid ground. “You really need to watch your step, Rainbow Dash.”

“It’s not my fault, the ground here’s so slippery.” she said in jittery anger, “This is the second time in less than a week that I got “iced”. Why does this keep happening to me?!”

“Maybe life’s just giving you a… cold shoulder,” Discord quipped.

“Discord, that’s not funny!” she yelled.

A roar suddenly echoed through the cavern. Everybody immediately huddled together at draconequus’ side. Soon, a loud stomping sound followed; it was drawing closer by the minute.

“Wha-wha-wha-what is that?” the wonderbolt asked, still shivering from cold.

“My guess would be the thing that made itself at home here,” Discord said, cracking his fingers. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

It was almost there, the loud noise it was making growing ever louder. Finally, they could see something in the dark: a pair of red eyes lighting up. And another pair. And a third pair. Six red eyes were suddenly approaching fast. The Lord of Chaos raised his hand, ready to snap when all of a sudden…

“STOP!” the yellow pegasus cried out.

Suddenly the loud tapping noise went silent and the approaching eyes stood still, but she instead traipsed over to them.

“Fluttershy, no!” Spike called to her.

But it was already too late, as she stopped at hoof’s reach of the massive form, to whom the glowing red eyes belonged. The eyes lowered to her level and a sniffing sound followed. A bark came out in three rows, along with a panting sound.

“Yes, there’s a good boy. Yes, he is, yes he is,” the yellow pegasus started making baby talk as she stroked the creature's face.

The rest of the group looked at one another. Then Discord turned on his flashlight eyes even further, illuminating even more of the cave. What they saw was a giant black, all too familiar three-headed dog.

“Cerberus?” Rarity couldn’t believe it. “What in Equestria is he doing all the way out here?”

“If he went for a walk, that sure was a long one,” Pinkie Pie jokingly prod what Twilight said earlier.

The Princess gave her a quick glare before moving forward to the guard dog, who laid by the side of the animal whisperer as she rubbed his faces. “Fluttershy, can you ask him why he’s here and not guarding the Tartarus?”

She nodded and stopped petting the oversized puppy. “Come on, boy. Tell me why you’re so far from your home?”

The dog went quiet and then started to make whining noises. A few moments passed and he finally went silent.

“He’s saying that he was led here by father, along with all the prisoners from Tartarus,” she exposited.

“Father? Who’s the father?” Twilight wanted to know.

Fluttershy looked at Cerberus, who was making giant begging eyes. “He can’t say it. He’s too terrified to speak his name.”

“This father… could he be after the collar?”

The alicorn suddenly felt brushed by her side, as draconequus went past her to Fluttershy’s side.

“Then we can’t waste any more time. Fluttershy, can you ask this K9 if he can find this?” he asked, conjuring an image of Collar of Dominion.

The timid pegasus looked back at Cerberus. “What do you say, boy? Can you find this for us?”

The guard dog got back on his feet and let out a few barks, before running off.

“He said he knows where it was!” she answered.

Discord snapped his fingers and dressed up as an aristocratic hunter. “Well let’s not dally any longer! Follow that mutt!”

He charged after the Cerberus, the rest of the mares, and the dragon following close behind. Twilight, however, noticed something was off with him. The way he pushed them to hurry up without even trying to console everybody else on the matter. What was forcing him? And this father that the guard of Tartarus mentioned; Discord mentioned he could think of only one being that could bring the monsters out without a problem, but he dismissed it as impossible. Was this “father” perhaps the culprit then?

They rushed down the corridors in the mountain, following the three-headed dog as he led them through the cavernous labyrinth. Several minutes passed before he finally stopped as the light appeared at the end of a long tunnel. A narrow stone bridge stood before a wide-open cavern, connecting it to a stone cell, surrounded by hanging pointy rocks on the other side. Cerberus stopped and refused to go further, Fluttershy questioning him.

“He’s saying it was in there,” she pointed over the bridge.

Applejack looked over the edge of the bridge and got cold feet after noticing they were above a bottomless chasm. “Whoa nelly, we’ll have to go slowly, one by one, everypony. I’ll go-“

The Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers and they immediately all appeared on the other side of the bridge, the country pony finishing her sentence in the meantime. “- first… or you can just do that.”

“You’re welcome,” Discord said with a smug expression, letting them enter the cell first.

It was dim. The slightest source of light was coming from protrusions in the wall, but it was enough to make out the shapes in the room. Rubble of giant stones littered the floor and on the far end, they could see a large pedestal.

“This is it,” he told them. “The Collar of Dominion is sitting over there.”

“How can you be so sure?” Rainbow Dash questioned him.

He groaned. “Can you guys just take my word for a change?”

He moved forward, with the rest following him. They approached the pedestal in the room to claim their prize, but as they reached it, they found…

“Nothing?” Rarity reacted. “Discord, this is nothing but a pedestal.”

The Lord of Chaos looked about. “This… this doesn’t make sense. It’s supposed to be right here.”

“If it’s not here, then maybe we’ve come too late and perpetrator already skedaddled away with the Collar,” Applejack voiced her opinion.

“No,” Discord responded, “we probably would’ve been given a sign that somepony already took it.”

“Maybe it just fell over somewhere?” the Princess wondered. “It’s been such a long time since this place was set up, maybe the artifact just fell over and is under rocks somewhere in the room, right?”

“I… suppose that's possible.”

“Well, let’s get started then,” she walked over to one of the rocks. “I bet the Collar is right under… here?”

Nothing happened. Twilight tried to use her magic to lift one of the giant rocks, yet it didn’t budge. She moved on to another, but it wouldn’t move either. What was wrong? Was her magic not working? She tried to cast a simple spell, yet her magic just evaporated.

“Rarity, can you try using your magic?” she asked her.

The fashionista did as she asked. She tried to cast a simple light spell, and just like Twilight’s magic, it evaporated.

“What’s happening?” she wondered. “Discord, you didn’t tell us this place was warded against magic.”

Draconequus snapped his fingers, fizzling out just like for the mares. “Odd, I don’t remember there being a ward against magic here. Unless…”

He froze. There was something in the back of his mind that didn’t seem right. He had to make sure.

The Lord of Chaos set a question for the timid pony. “Fluttershy, did Cerberus say where the Collar “was” instead of saying “is” specifically?

“Yes, why?” Fluttershy confirmed.

A realization suddenly came over him and let out a loud cry. ”EVERYPONY! GET OUT NOW!”

They looked at him in confusion as he ran for the entrance.

“Discord, what are you doing?” Rainbow Dash questioned him.

From the draconequus she received an instantaneous reply. “IT’S A TRAP!”

The moment everybody else realized that they dashed for it. Discord leaped through the entrance, but after that, it was already too late for the rest; the giant stone spikes that hung over the entrance suddenly collapsed and blocked it out, as if they were prison bars.

“DISCORD, HELP!!!” numerous voices cried out through the barred stone cell.

The Lord of Chaos got back on his feet, then started to levitate. He was able to use magic again, which meant it was only the inside of the cell that was canceled out. This also presented a problem since it meant he’d have to get some actual tools to bust open the prison that was warded against magic. Voices of his friends would soon be overshadowed, however, as loud monstrous roars came from the other side of the bridge, accompanied by a stampeding sound. Soon numerous ghastly creatures appeared and blocked the only exit and it was Cerberus’ barking that kept them at bay from crossing the bridge to them. They’ve been set up. Whoever was looking for the Collar of Dominion already came and left, leaving behind the monsters he freed behind, to make sure his pursuers would be kept occupied for a long time. He miscalculated, however. He didn’t take into account that the one guarding the prison would turn on the prisoners, and the second thing was, of course, himself.

He cracked his hands. “No worries, ladies, in a snap, maximum two, I’ll deal with these cretins, and then I can focus on getting all of you out.”

“Will you now?”

“Of course I will. I-“

The six mares noticed a sudden change in Discord’s behavior, as he made such a sour expression that his muzzle imploded into his face. It was the voice, one that didn’t come from any of them. It was old and grizzled, and its origin came from the other side, where the gaggle of monsters had just appeared, who at the moment the words were spoken, all went silent and meek. The sound of hooves tapping against the solid stone echoed all around them. Even though Cerberus blocked everybody’s view inside the cell, they could all clearly see the creatures meekly stepping aside to whoever was approaching. Suddenly the tapping stopped.

“Cerberus,” the voice spoke again in a calm tone, “heel.”

When the three-headed guard dog was ferocious a moment ago, at the drop of a word, he put his tail between his legs, whined, and slowly walked towards it. As he did, Discord's eyes slowly turned to the back of his head to observe what came up next; the Tartarus’ guardian stepped to the side and finally revealed the person to whom the voice belonged. A tall blue furred ram with great black horns stood there, surrounded by whimpering creatures that were numerous times bigger than himself; around his neck, he wore a red leather color engraved with golden runes, and hooked on it, hanging from its middle, was a familiar runed bell, carved from a green stone.

A low chuckle escaped him, as he smiled. “Hello again, draconequus.”

The group of ponies was close enough to hear their chaotic companion, even though he could barely harness enough strength in his voice to let out a whisper. “Grogar…”

“Wait… THAT’S GROGAR!?” Pinkie Pie made herself loud and clear before the following words came in a lower note. “He doesn’t look that scary.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash soon joined in, “it’s probably just Chrysalis in disguise, trying to scare us!”

“I agree!” Rarity added. “That explains why our magic doesn’t work in here!”

“Ah concur, though Ah dunno how she’s been able to do it,” Applejack capped it off.

Twilight’s gaze was focusing all around in the meantime; for this to be Queen Chrysalis it just didn’t add up. But her sight did wander off to the yellow pegasus who gazed into the distance with a depressed expression.

“Fluttershy, what is it?” she asked.

“They’re afraid,” the timid one replied, as she saw the monsters’ forlorn faces, “they’re all so afraid of him.”

“Of course they are,” another voice finally spoke, everybody finally turning their attention to draconequus. “His will, his very presence exudes domination and despair. There isn’t a monster in the world that doesn’t become submissive by his side.”

And for the Princess of Friendship, it all finally clicked into place. “Fluttershy, you were right. The monsters… they did just quietly walk out of Tartarus. HE made them… and that’s why Cerberus disappeared,” she looked at the Lord of Chaos. “He was the one you meant, wasn’t he, Discord? The only one you said that could do it?”

He nodded. “Now you understand why this can’t be Chrysalis. She may replicate appearances, but she can’t copy the feeling of one’s presence.”

“And neither could you,” the old grizzled voice spoke again, catching the attention of the Lord of Chaos.

The old ram made a few steps forward, before speaking again. “I’ve heard a lot about what you’ve been doing in my absence, draconequus. To think that you, of all creatures, had to nerve to pose as me. The associate of mine and her two cohorts may have been easily fooled by your appearance but were that actually me, I would’ve not been backstabbed from naivety. All that bravado, for what? To “help” your friends?” his cackle echoed. “Funny how the cycle repeats itself.”

“I… I dunno what you’re talking about, Grogar,” Discord said, in a confused tone, unsure what he’s referring to.

The ram made a hard stomp, causing the creatures behind him to cower. “Such disrespect… you will address me by the proper title, draconequus.”

The Lord of Chaos finally rose to his full height, defiant. “No. I refuse to use that word to describe somecreature as repulsive as you.”

“My my, such defiance. Seems I’ll have to put you back into the proper place then. And you’ve personally provided me with the means to do so,” he proudly brushed the red strap of enchanted leather around his neck that held the green bell.

“Wait a minute!” the voice came out, belonging to the purple mare behind bars. “It was you!? You’re the one responsible for giving Discord his nightmare?!”

Grogar laughed. “And how many names did he have to go through before he finally picked that one for himself? Well, not that it matters. If it will sate your curiosity, little pony, the answer is no; I may have been the one who provided the proper imagery but it was another creature solely responsible.”

“Who?” she kept questioning him. “Who is this creature?”

“To be frank, little pony, I don’t know. So much has happened and changed in the time of my absence. It was the one that awaited me when I returned. The shadow wisp’s nature eludes me, what I do know, however, is that DOUBT is his forte-“

“Emm, excuse me, not that I want to interfere in this fascinating exchange of information between two rulers, but care to explain why are you still even talking to us?” Discord broke the conversation between them. “You already got your blasted Collar back, so why wait for us?”

“Oh, I’m in no rush, draconequus,” he responded, “but if you’re in such a hurry, then fine, I’ll get to the point, for your own detriment. Yes, I’ve got both my Collar and the Bell back, but alas, the power that I’ve stored into the Bell itself has long since been purged… thanks to you. Hence I will require a new source of magic… namely yours.”

A brief moment after that sentence ended, hysterical laughter followed, echoing throughout the cavern, as Discord laughed uncontrollably. “I’m… I’m sorry, are you serious? You’ve literally just appeared before me and announced that you want to take my chaos magic? Don’t you think that’s kind of counterproductive? I mean you could’ve just waited in the shadow and sneak-attacked me; I likely wouldn’t have seen it coming. But since you’ve made your intentions clear, I could just fly or teleport away and you’d gain nothing. Don’t you feel even a bit stupid?”

Grogar grumbled to himself. “I suppose you’re right. You could just run away from me at a moment’s notice. But if you do that, then who will protect those in the cage…” he nodded at the prisoners, before nodding back at the menagerie behind him, “… from them?”

Now it made sense to Discord why he decided to be conspicuous; he made sure that the deck was stacked in his favor. No way he could just leave Fluttershy and the rest at the hands of monsters, not when they’re under the ram’s command.

And then it began. Grogar turned his head, looking at the chimera, and motioned her to move forward. She meekly walked to the front and when she locked her eyes at the draconequus, her feline, goat, and snake heads roared and then breathed flame at him. With a snap of the finger, he transformed it into confetti. A yeti walked to the front, roared, and shot an ice beam at him. A snapping sound came and it turned into a splash of water. Suddenly, a single loud stomp echoed. Their master beckoned them, getting their attention. And as every monster surrounding the ram looked at him, he simply uttered one word.

“Together.”

Like an explosion, the entire cavern echoed with all sorts of violent sounds. Magic, even boulders started to fly across the air, cause by the monsters in an attempt to harm their target. But it was all to no avail, as the Lord of Chaos simply redirected all of it into the chasm below.

“Okay, now I’m getting pretty sick and tired of this,” Discord groaned.

His hands began to glow, locked his gaze onto the army, and unleashed his chaos magic at them, a wave of light blinding everybody. When the brightness subsided, the monsters recovered and roared in fury… in a really high-pitched voice. The draconequus had turned every single creature at Grogar’s side into a baby version of themselves. Finally, he enlarged his head and let out a loud BOOO, scaring every juvenile creature, having them run off to cry and cower behind their master’s feet.

“Well well well,” the old ram rubbed his bearded chin with his hoof. “I must say, I’m impressed. Without as much as breaking a sweat you’ve reduced them all to sniveling little cubs.”

“That’s right, Grogar,” the blue pegasus shoved her arrogance in his face, “Discord can beat any monster you throw at him!”

“Oh really?” he frowned at the prisoner. “Well, there’s still one monster left he’s yet to overcome.”

“Yeah? Who?”

A vile grin curled up upon his face. “Me.”

And the attitude on Rainbow Dash faltered for a moment, but neither she nor the rest expected what followed. “But considering what monumental power he bears, what could I, armed with an empty container for magic and a collar that only provides me with a small amount of it, do against him? I suppose I can just lay down my arms and accept my inevitable end.”

“Is he bein’ serious?” country pony was confused.

And as on cue, she received her answer, as the ram’s horns lit up in a dark light, the collar around his neck came off and put it on the ground, then stepping on it as he turned his back to everybody.

“There,” he said, “I’ll even make it as easy as possible for you since there’s no point in trying to fight back. I accept my fate.”

A momentary silence fell on the scene and nobody had any idea how to treat the situation.

“Seriously? That’s it?” Pinkie Pie finally broke it. “This is kinda anticlimactic.”

“Ya know, Ah’m baffled myself that he decided to just give up,” Applejack scratched her head, “but if that stops him and any plans he had in mind, Ah’m not gonna lose any sleep over it.”

“Go get him, Discord!” cheered Rainbow Dash.

Soon other voices join in on cheering for Discord to finish off Grogar. Everybody except Twilight and Fluttershy. They noticed something was off; not just that a horrifying legend from a distant past simply decided to give up, but also because of Discord himself, as he was suddenly showing signs of hesitation, sweat running down his brow. But why? Why was he hesitating to raise his hand against him, when he so easily took care of Grogar’s monsters?

“Discord, what’s wrong?” the timid pegasus spoke, letting Twilight know that she wasn’t the only one in the crowd to notice something was off.

“What are you waiting for, draconequus?” the ram said, still turned with his back to him. “Aren’t you going to do the right thing? Wipe me off the face of the world, and perhaps you’ll finally redeem yourself in the eyes of your friends for what you’ve done in the past…”

The princess could see it; the Lord of Chaos was sweating even more profusely now. For some reason, he was holding himself back on using his powers.

“… or perhaps,” the old ram’s head started to turn just so slightly, so that his eye could be seen only barely, his voice remaining completely calm, “you’re simply afraid of what your actions will do next? That your attempt to help your friends will only bring them more harm… just like you did it to HER?”

The moment that the last sentence was uttered, Discord’s demeanor completely changed; from hesitant, to absolute spite. His hands began to glow and he focused a beam of chaos magic at the old ram, who has willingly resigned to his fate.

There was a sound that resembled a loud crackling thunder, that echoed for hundreds of miles, yet those who heard it were left perplexed, as there was no cloud in the sky anywhere in the distance. As for those who witnessed what caused the thundering sound, they were all left agape at the maw, completely flabbergasted. There was simply no more roof of the cavern and the entire mountain was blown clean off; the Jagged Ridge had lost its edge.

“Whoa... Discord I think you overdid it,” Rainbow Dash finally spoke, still shaken for what just happened.

“That would be an understatement, Dash,” Applejack replied. “He just blew the entire mountain top off.”

“I’m… I’m still trying to recover from all of this,” Rarity waved her hoof in front of her face, “but at least we’ve solved the problem, right?”

Twilight still couldn’t believe it the Lord of Chaos did it; she only saw what he did to the Everfree Forest through his flashback, but to see it happen in person, it was downright terrifying when he got really serious, so she was glad that he was now on their side. But as she looked at him, the expression on draconequus’ face betrayed the state of the situation; it was different than it looked.

“Discord?” the shy pony next to her addressed him after she recovered from the shock, noticing exactly what the purple mare did. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you just win?”

“No…” he replied with a clearly visible anxious look on his face, the hands with which he just tore apart the mountain, shaking.

“How disappointing…”

Suddenly a laugh followed, grabbing everybody’s attention. The dust that the mountain’s destruction kicked up was blown away by the hot draft that came from the Nether Lands, revealing the grizzled blue ram still standing there, completely unharmed, along with the shrunken monsters that cowered at his feet, revealing the visible markings of the range at which the chaos magic has passed him.

He slowly turned, putting on his Collar of Dominion upon which the Bewitching Bell was hooked once more. “All that power to bend reality to your will, and yet you couldn’t make yourself to harm even a single hair on me… Just as we both knew it would happen.”

It didn’t take long before critiques piled on, starting with the wonderbolt. “Discord, what the hay!!! You just missed him on purpose!”

“I agree!” fashionista followed. “Why would you go so far, but still miss him?!”

“Is this another one of your tricks to make us learn something?! ‘Cuz this really ain’t the time!” country pony joined.

“Yeah, at this point even I’m not finding this funny!” the party planner responded to the situation.

“Everypony, please calm down,” Fluttershy urged them, “I know this looks bad, but he must have a good reason.”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I have to agree with others,” the Princess of Friendship finally stepped in. “If this is the real Grogar, then we can’t take this light-heartedly.” She turned to face the draconequus. “So why would you purposely not harm him after you just blew up the Jagged Ridge?”

His back was still turned to them and after a momentary pause, he finally spoke. “I… can’t.”

“What do you mean “you can't”?!” more critiques ensued. “Just aim directly at him and fire! Why is it so hard for you to-!“

“EVERYPONY, YOU’RE NOT LISTENING TO WHAT I’M SAYING!” he finally raised his voice at them as he turned, silencing all of them. “I want to, believe me; out of all the creatures in the world I’m the first who would want to see him wiped out… but I just can’t.”

After his voice finally went silent, the shy pegasus was the only one who actually asked the relevant question. “But why, Discord? Why can’t you hurt him?”

The sinister laugh came from the old ram behind them. “Yes draconequus, explain to them why is it that you can’t hurt me? Or do you perhaps fear, that knowing the truth about you will have them think even less of you than they already do?”

The Lord of Chaos slowly turned to face him… or was it so that he didn’t have to face the gazes of prisoners.

“Discord, what’s he talking about?” Twilight asked him.

Some time passed, yet he didn’t respond, his back still turned to them, so Rarity tried to get his attention. “Come on Discord, tell us what he means.”

“Tell us the truth, Discord. You trust us, right?” Applejack chipped in.

But he didn’t. Nobody could tell why, but the draconequus simply refused to acknowledge them.

“Nothing?” Grogar finally spoke, after the time passed when no words were exchanged. “Very well then. If you won’t speak, then I’ll enlighten your friends, draconequus.”

Discord’s eyes raised to face him, almost pleading, as if his words didn’t make it clear. “Please... don’t.”

“Or what? You have no power over me to prevent me from breaking my silence.”

“Then speak already, Grogar! What is it that Discord doesn’t want to tell us? Why can’t he hurt you?” Twilight called from the distant prison.

“It’s very simple, pony,” the old ram smiled, “you see, in my long life I’ve learned many of its lessons. One that I’ve taken to heart was the knowledge that, whether a monster, a pet, a child, or whatever you choose to call that which you raise through your own sweat and blood, will inevitably bite the very hand that feeds it.”

“Now that’s just plain silly!” Applejack voiced her opinion. “That never happens in life if ya treat your pets well.”

“Well, technically Gummy still bites me regularly,” Pinkie Pie followed up to her statement.

“Pinkie, that’s not really helping my case,” she argued.

“Huh, amusing,” the old ram gave out a chuckle. “But it is a lesson I learned firsthand; I was the instigator after all. I understood that the very thing I did, someone else would inevitably do to me. And it is for this very reason that I took necessary precautions; I made sure that any creature I shaped as I desired with my dark powers, would have an integrated active compulsion to never bring harm upon its maker in any way.”

Nobody present was sure how much time had passed after those words were spoken; for one or two it took a moment before the words that were said finally settled in, for them to grasp the gravity of what was just said, and it could be told from the looks on their faces that it finally clicked for them. Suddenly, a loud and prolonged gasp came from inside the cage, as if the pink pony was trying to desperately grasp for air after asphyxiation.

Loud words soon followed. “WHAAAAAAAT?! YOU MEAN YOU’RE DISCORD’S-!”

The sentence couldn’t be finished as the lord of Chaos reached inside the bars with his hand to shut her mouth. “Pinkie, I would ask kindly, and greatly appreciate for you NOT to say that word, especially in HIS case, it just rubs me the wrong way.”

“But… but that doesn’t make any sense…” Twilight struggled to understand. “Discord… he’s a creature of chaos from another dimension. How could you have… created him?”

The old ram laughed. “Of course he would claim otherwise. How else could he stroke his own ego, considering that he was the lowest of the low; for in a world that I created, the strong preyed on the weak. And it was only because he was a slippery little weasel that he managed to survive. I’m still not sure how he’s managed to acquire such powers, but as it stands, my words hold.”

The Lord of Chaos parted from the cage, turning his back against the mares once more.

“Discord… is this true?” Applejack questioned him.

The draconequus finally made a nodding gesture, speaking at last. “So now that you finally know… will you scorn me?“

He waited. He had been hiding it for so long, and for him to finally reveal it after all they’ve been through he expected that there will be repercussions for his actions. He felt a sudden tug at his tail, and then a forceful pull caused him to fall. He turned his head and noticed a pair of yellow hooves reaching out through the stone bars and pulling him in.

“Look everypony, you have every right to be upset!” he self-flagellate himself, not even trying to resist the drag. “I’m a monster created by the evilest creature that ever lived. I completely understand that-!“

As he got pulled into the bars, six pairs of multi-colored hooves came out through the bars and they all embraced him.

“How can you even say that, Discord? To us of all ponies?” the alicorn scolded him.

“For somepony as upbeat as you, it’s just unlike you to go into a complete downer at the drop of a hat,” Pinkie Pie quipped.

“Even when your actions are misguided at times, we know you still want the best for everypony,” fashionista added.

The draconequus heard everything, yet there was still this feeling at the back of his head. “But I’m a-“

“You’re not a monster, Discord,” the shy pegasus said, snuggling his tail. “You're a wonderful, mystical creature of Chaos.”

He was nearly moved to tears by their kind words, thinking himself foolish that he thought even for a moment that his friends would look down on him for revealing that he was a product of the one who created monsters.

He reached with his hands inside the cage, and only then remembered something inconvenient. “You know, I’d hug all of you at once but… you know, magic nullifying field and all that.”

They laughed.

“How touching,” the grizzled voice behind them spoke, reminding them what situation they found themselves in. “But need I remind you that your position hasn’t improved?”

Discord finally put on his serious face, rose back on his feet, and faced the old ram. “Let me correct you, Grogar. The situation hasn’t improved for you. I may not be able to hurt you, but in the same vein, you cannot hurt me either. As far as I see, we’re at an impasse.”

He did it. He finally stood up to the worst creature he’s ever known. And he wasn’t just blowing hot air, he had what he needed and his adversary couldn’t do a thing about it. However, that soon changed. They were no longer surrounded by rock, so there wouldn’t be an echo, as suddenly a cackle came out of the ram.

“Oh, you are so horribly wrong, draconequus,” Grogar grinned. “This encounter is about to conclude because you will surrender your power to me… WILLINGLY.”

The rise of Discord’s confidence halted. The tone of Grogar’s voice; the way he said it, sounded as if he was absolutely sure with what he was claiming. But what can he still do? What ace did he still have up his sleeve?

“Oh yes? And how do you figure?” he asked.

“You will do it… because I know your biggest weakness,” Grogar proclaimed.

The Lord of Chaos glanced back at the stone cage, just to reassure himself before answering. “Sorry to disappoint you, but Fluttershy is still inside and you can’t reach her without going through me.”

“I’m not speaking of her, draconequus.”

Discord was confused by what he said. “Huh? Wait… then who?”

“You know her all too well. She was the first and only being to have ever shown you kindness in your pathetic existence.”

In the beginning, the Lord of Chaos couldn’t understand who he was talking about. But then memory took him back, to a far distant time and place. He recalled a dark world, once ruled over by a dark overlord, watching over the realm of monsters, where survival of the fittest was the law. And he himself, a lowly creature who would be constantly on the run from being devoured by his greater kin. And then… she came; a foreigner from a far-off land. He recalled her visage, and he finally understood… but what the enemy was saying made no sense.

“But… that was such a long time ago that she’s-“ he spoke, but soon got interrupted.

“Gone? Allow me to rectify that statement,” Grogar grinned.

The ancient ram’s horns began to glow as he cast a spell. A portal made of dark light suddenly opened on the floor and through it, a giant yellow orb arose. Even from the distance, everybody else could see what it was: a prison; a shape of a small equine was inside.

“Recognize her?” Grogar questioned his creation, as he brought the orb closer to his side.

The rest of the gang couldn’t tell from their distance, and even up close that wouldn’t help, however, one look at draconequus’ reaction gave away that he definitely knew this mare prisoner, as a single word escaped his mouth. “Gusty?”

Chapter 15: Vengeful Justice

Little was known about Gusty the Great, apart from what was known from the children’s book: a simple unicorn, whose exploration of the southern lands of their fledgling kingdom would have her come face to face with the dark emperor of the land she had trespassed on; she would, in the end, be the one responsible for stopping him from eradicating her kind and banishing him from existence. But beyond that, no other records existed about her further exploits or even what became of her in the end. At least, until now that is.

To break the stalemate between him and his rebellious creation, Grogar had played his ace card. A magic sphere prison levitated next to him, containing the one pony who had managed to beat him, the first creature who, as he claimed, had shown Discord kindness. The Lord of Chaos was left speechless, but not so much the prisoners in the stone cage.

“Wait... Gusty? AS IN GUSTY THE GREAT?! The hero from the story for children?! The living legend… here?!” were one of the many comments that mares and the dragon exclaimed.

As for Discord himself, only two words escaped his mouth. “But… how…?”

Grogar chuckled, as he pulled the orb closer to him, glancing at the mare inside who gave him a frightened look. “Oh, that is a story. The one who brought me back, the one who refers to herself as the Queen of Changelings, helped me catch up on the events that took place in the world since my “departure”. One thing she told me, in particular, was how she and her cohorts originally managed to acquire the bell.”

“We know that already,” Pinkie Pie said, then took in a deep breath. “Princess Celestia and Luna decided to retire from more than a thousand years of ruling duties and responsibilities and have Twilight take her place, but Discord felt she didn’t have the confidence in herself to do it, so he recruited Chrysalis, broke Tirek and Cozy Glow out of prison, and brought back Sombra, all the while posing as you and tried to get all of them to work together as we would as friends, which eventually led him to reveal where the Bewitching Bell was hidden, and they worked together to retrieve it and then hid it from him until they inevitably betrayed him and using the artifact to power themselves up while stealing Discord’s magic away while he was still pretending to be you, which eventually led to an attack on Canterlot, and the battle where all of the creatures of Equestria and the lands surrounding it came together to defeat them.”

Everybody was silent after the party planner stopped and inhaled loudly.

“You know that much exposition really wasn’t necessary, Pinkie,” Spike told her.

“Well summarized,” the old ram smirked, before glancing back at the Lord of Chaos. “It was really foolish of you, draconequus. So easily believing that the vile creatures you recruited would simply dance to your tune to the letter, just because you wanted, not even anticipating foul play nor thinking on double-checking if your pawns had done as you wanted. Which is a pity because if you had, you would’ve noticed not just the fact that the Bell was gone… but also noticed the one who erected the barrier that protected it.”

Discord gave him a confused look. “But… the enchantment on the cave atop Mount Everhoof was erected through the power of the Bewitching Bell itself.”

He nodded. “Exactly. And who was the last being that held it in possession?”

“Well, Gusty did obviously,” he answered, “but what does this have to do with it?”

A vile smile appeared on Grogar’s face, as he placed one of his hooves on top of the yellow prison sphere. “I told you, I always took precautions, that also includes the Bewitching Bell itself. I made sure that, as a last resort, if anyone had by some miracle removed my talisman from my grasp and tried to use the power it held for his own gain, it would trigger a spell that’s been cast upon it, trapping him in an unbreakable container, one which removes the prisoner out of the passage of time.”

“Hold on now…” Applejack stopped him. “Are ya actually tellin’ us that Gusty has spent thousands upon thousands of moons locked inside that sphere?”

“Oh yes,” said the old ram, and everybody else could just feel dreadful glee oozing out of him with what he continued. ”In her last attempt, in hopes that I would remain forgotten and my power never used again, she tried to bar the Bewitching Bell away atop the frozen mountain cave. Her final act of arrogance against me instead backfired, and the enchantment upon the Bell trapped her. And the spell could only be broken with the bell itself, one which was now inaccessible to her. Can you imagine? Having the key to the lock in front of your face, yet be unable to use it, sitting inside a small confined space, having nothing to do but observe the passage of time around you for countless eons, crying for help… yet nobody would answer it. One would go mad from experiencing something like this.”

The scene was tense. The prisoners on the other side were both horrified by the description of one of the Equestrian hero’s final fate, and also seething with anger by how much the enemy enjoyed bragging about one’s misery.

“A fitting end, for the one who dared to defy me,” Grogar proclaimed. “And that is what my associate told me was found atop the mountain where the Bell was hidden. So, after my return, I decided to see it for myself. And lo and behold, my most sworn enemy, in my grasp, at my mercy.”

He playfully tapped the orb with his hoof a few times, offering Discord no amount of respite from worry.

“What are you going to do with her?” draconequus asked in a trembling tone.

The old ram regarded him. “Well, that depends entirely on you, draconequus. If you still care a great deal about her as you did back then, then I propose an exchange: willingly offer to surrender your chaos magic to me, and in exchange, I’ll hand her over to you.”

“Hey! Stop right there!” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “What guarantees does he have that you’ll keep your end of the bargain, you old goat?!”

Gorgar didn’t like the goat comment, giving her a stern look. “None whatsoever. But if he refuses, then I assure you all, I need not even lift a hoof and I can shrink her prison… but the prisoner won’t.”

He just threatened the crush her down to size. And Discord believed it; he was cruel and ruthless enough to actually do it.

“Well draconequus? What will it be? Your magic, or…” Grogar glanced down at the prisoner, his eyes meeting hers, “your friend?”

There it was, the deal with the devil; choose one and abandon the other. And regardless of which he chose, the Father of Monsters would win regardless. The prisoners did not like the idea one way or another, but they didn’t dare voice their thoughts. Were they the ones whose safety was at stake they would’ve told the Lord of Chaos not to accept the deal, but it was somebody else’s life at stake now, somebody who only Discord himself personally knew. They couldn’t push him to sacrifice her, even if it meant preventing Grogar from taking his power.

The more the draconequus thought about it, the more he came to realize he’s been outplayed completely. That’s why he was so overconfident the whole time: he knew it would come down to this. Then he took one look at him and a familiar feeling of dread came over him. The grizzled old ram’s indomitable will was exerting pressure upon him. He couldn’t win this. There was only one logical way out now…

“I… I’ll give up my chaos magic, in exchange for her,” he sighed in complete defeat.

The Father of Monsters grinned. “I told you, you would give it up willingly.”

The mares and the dragon trapped behind stone bars couldn’t blame Discord for his decision. Even if his actions will likely bring a lot of harm to the world, they couldn’t simply sacrifice another’s life for it… especially when that someone was the legendary Gusty the Great. Grogar moved to the side of the sphere, keeping it close. His horns began to glow, the darkened light energy beginning to affect the Bewitching Bell, as it was raised and aiming directly at the Lord of Chaos. It rang.

From the open bottom of the talisman, a dark vortex opened and a beam shot out, the artifact’s sinister magic beginning to draw in the energy from its target. A familiar yet different sensation came over Discord; the power drain felt just like it happened when Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow used it on him. Back then it was a moment of shock and panic, now, however, he felt a sense of inevitability and compliance. For the sake of another, he chose this, though it didn’t make it any more pleasant. The Bell finally stopped ringing and went quiet. As the last vestige of his power finally left him, a feeling he experienced only once before came over him; feeling weak from having his power drained he collapsed to the ground, before finally managing to raise on all fours. He saw the old ram standing tall and unmoving, looking down on him, still having the prison sphere by his side.

“I… I did as you wanted,” he said in a weak tone, “now keep your promise and release her…”

Grogar’s horns began to glow and he picked up the sphere, raising it to his eye level, looking at the prisoner inside, then turning his head to the draconequus who was pathetically begging.

“Fair enough,” he said and dropped the orb to the ground.

It rolled on the narrow stone bridge going straight down the middle, the pony inside being tossed about. And just when it reached the middle point it started to careen off course, to the side, slowly going towards the edge. Discord panicked. On all fours, he scurried as quickly as he could over the bridge to catch the sphere, and just before it rolled over the edge, he managed to grab hold of the magical prison and pulled it to himself into an embrace, sighing in relief. The sphere was cold to the touch, either as a result of being atop the frozen mountain for hundreds of years or because of the spell’s nature itself, it didn’t matter, as in a few moments the spell dissipated and he felt warm fur in his hands.

He hugged her. Not for a moment has he ever believed he would get a chance again, yet there it was. His first and only friend he has ever known was safe and sound, and he didn’t want the sweet moment of reunion to end.

“I’m so happy you’re safe and sound…” he told her.

Gusty finally spoke in a soft silky voice as she nestled into Discord’s embrace. “Even after all this time… I should be angry at you for what you did… but I’m just glad to see you again, Draco.”

One could hear the aww sounds coming from inside the cage. It was a really sweet moment.

“Draco?” Spike wondered. “Why did she just call him that?”

He suddenly felt a prod from Rarity, signaling him not to ruin it. “It’s probably the name with which she knew him as back then.”

Returning to the moment outside, the two rocked together, while he apologized. “I’m so sorry, Gusty. Had I known, I would’ve been able to free you from the mountain sooner.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Draco.”

“Oh? What are you talking about then?”

The mare raised her head and looked at him, face to face. “Draco, you know what I’m talking about, you don’t need to hide it in front of your other friends.”

“Gusty, other than not saving you because I didn’t know you were trapped with Grogar’s Bell, I don’t know what you’re hinting at.”

After he said that, the mare jumped out of his embrace and stood tall, addressing him with a stern voice. “Draco, this isn’t funny. What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Well… that escalated quickly,” the dragon quipped, before getting to one of the bar openings and called out. “Discord, what is she talking about?!”

Discord regarded them all. “I swear I dunno what she’s talking about! If I had done some wrong, I would’ve remembered!”

Low, loud laughter followed; they all know that distinct tone by now, as it belonged to a grizzled old ram.

“What’s so funny, Grogy?” Pinkie Pie asked disrespectfully.

“Of course he doesn’t remember,” the old ram told them. “And you’ll soon understand why…”

The Father of Monsters raised his hoof, reached up to his neck, and touched one of the golden runes on the Collar of Dominion, as he parted, he drew out a small yellow orb and held it aloft.

“What is that?” Twilight asked.

Grogar was more than happy to oblige. “A memory, my little pony. I found it after I received back my Bell. It was hidden inside, in hopes that none would ever be able to draw it out… but me.”

“Whose memory’s it supposed to be then?” Applejack asked.

The old ram simply motioned to the obvious target. “His. Oh, what horrible things he must have committed or experienced that he would want to forget.”

Another voice came from the prison, this one belonging to Fluttershy. “Discord, what did you do?”

“I… I swear I don’t know… I can’t remember,” was the only thing he could say while looking at Gusty, who kept looking increasingly angry.

“Are you curious, little pony?” Grogar asked with a grin. “How about instead of just returning it to his owner, I show you all the crime that the filly over here is accusing her “friend” of committing?”

He raised his hoof and the ball of light flew up in the air, and even though the strong wind was now blowing around them from the Nether Lands since the former Lord of Chaos destroyed the mountain ridge, it wouldn’t be disoriented. It stopped and then began to glow brightly, so much that everybody went blind.

Dark corridors spread as far as the eye could see. It felt as if it was a memory of another world entirely. A shape scurried through as if it was trying to not be noticed, but even in the dim light, it could be recognized as a too-familiar patchwork of various animal parts. It was looking for something, but what? Then the sound of hooves began to echo in the distance, and the draconequus hid behind one of the pillars, trying to not get noticed. The hoof steps grew louder and as it passed, a gargantuan shape revealed itself, tall and imposing, its features difficult to discern, but the silhouette looked very familiar, especially with the red eyes glowing in the dark.

“Okay… let’s hope this works,” Discord said to himself, as he gulped and jumped out from behind the pillar, to address the shape. “Father?”

The darkened shape stopped, its head turned, and red eyes glancing to the back. Just the look alone made him quiver until he finally came closer and it became visible. The blue-furred ram with great horns and a bell around his neck towered over him. For some reason, the Lord of Chaos was very small, compared to his normal size, barely reaching to his knees.

Grogar regarded one of his lowly creations. “What do you want, draconequus?”

“Well,” his voice stumbled a bit, “remember that pony that seems to be constantly evading you?”

The old ram stomped his hoof in anger, frightening him for a moment. “The sneaky little Gusty cannot hide from me for long, draconequus. I’ve sent numerous creatures out to hunt her down, checking every nook and crevice. I won’t let a snot-nosed little child get the better of me.”

“Yeah… I don’t think it’s nooks and crannies you have to worry about when she’s hiding in plain sight.”

The dark lord bent down to see one of his creations, face to face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Discord had difficulty speaking, the overbearing presence was simply too much for him, but he knew if he said something wrong now it would end badly for him. “I… what I mean is, I know where she can be found.”

“Where?” Grogar asked.

The wind blew through the wide-open plains in the land where the sun rarely shined. Suddenly, a portal of dark light opened, and the draconequus and the old ram walked through. Discord felt a bit shaken; so far so good with what he had planned, but if he slips who knows what his maker will do to him.

“Well?” the father asked. “Where is she?”

The Lord of Chaos pointed into the distance. Nothing else was that way but mountainous hills.

“Are you trying to convince me that they dug themselves into the rock, draconequus?” Grogar questioned him, a noticeable tone of suspicion and anger was in his voice.

“No,” he explained, “the third one from the left is a fake. The unicorn ponies tore down the whole mountain to dig for precious gems and that’s where they built their village. That mountain is only an illusion that’s being projected by a group of powerful unicorn sorcerers. And if you follow the trail of their settlements it will eventually lead to where they came from.”

Grogar grumbled to himself as he looked into the distance, stroking his beard. He closed his eyes and his horns began to glow.

After a long moment, he finally opened them again. “I sense it… there’s a magical aura surrounding one of the mountain peaks. Had you not told me, I never would’ve found it.”

There it was. Grogar now knew where Gusty’s village was and there was no turning back from it. But now that he knew, what will he do? His head turned to the small shape, his eye glancing at him, a smile curling upon his face.

“Well done, draconequus,” he said. “Perhaps your existence does have some worth after all.”

This was an unusual feeling. No snide remarks, spiteful words, or even noticeable anger in the tone of his voice. It almost sounded like genuine pride. The Father has never praised him for anything as far back as he could remember. It almost felt… good, satisfying even. Then he remembered why he’s doing this in the first place.

Discord turned and started to march back to the portal. “Well, we best go back, Father. If you want to amass your armies we have to-“

The portal suddenly disappeared just before he entered it, the old ram speaking. “That won’t be necessary, draconequus.”

“Wh… why?” he asked in concern.

Grogar’s horns began to glow again and, in a moment, several dozen portals opened at his side in a line. Discord’s heart skipped several beats; things have suddenly turned the way that he didn’t anticipate.

“I was wondering what you were up to, draconequus,” he grinned. “And if you were to waste my time, I decided to prepare a few hundred of your “elder siblings” to teach you not to trifle with your maker. But since you decided to reveal to me something worthwhile, I’m now going to use them to crush these elusive invaders to my realm and follow their trail to the source.”

“What…?! But… but I... I mean…” the small creature’s tongue twisted.

“I knew, draconequus,” Grogar spoke, “I already knew you were in connection with the little Gusty. Who else would’ve taken in and cared for a pathetic little creature like you, who’s not capable of harming anyone and can do nothing but constantly run to survive? I was just waiting to see what you were going to do next.”

His heart nearly stopped beating right there and then. Discord’s attempt to deceive his maker had backfired.

The old ram mused. “To betray the only one in the world who had ever cared for you, in order to please me… you truly are a monster after my own heart, draconequus. And it fills me with pride, knowing I may not have created a failure after all.”

A pedestal made of earth suddenly rose beneath the Lord of Chaos and lifted him high above the ground.

“Now,” Grogar finished, “sit back, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

And with those words numerous shapes charged out of the portals, horrifying creations rushing forth towards the hills, spurred on by the Father of Monsters. Discord was horrified. This wasn’t part of the plan; this wasn’t supposed to happen! He had to go and warn Gusty before it was too late! He leaped over the edge of the pillar and sailed off. His flight was short, however, as the numerous winged beasts completely ignored him and bashed into him on the way to their target, knocking out of the air and into the overgrowth below.

He finally regained his consciousness as the sunlight shined into his face. Then he remembered that only rarely has the sun shined in this land, so where was the source of light coming from? Then he remembered what he did, and as he looked to the hillside, he saw in horror as the illusion was gone and the entire place was alit like a pyre. No, it couldn’t be over yet. There must still be a chance that they survived!

He flew as fast as he could, and by the time he finally reached his destination, all he could see were homes, completely demolished, and enveloped by flames. He panicked. This couldn’t be it! There’s got to be a chance that he missed her! But then his worry was set aside. He saw a familiar mare, facing towards the flames.

“Gusty?!” he addressed her. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alright, Gusty. I was worried Grogar-“

“How?” he got cut off as she finally spoke, her gaze still looking at the flames, her back turned against him. “How did Grogar know to find this place?”

He gulped. “W-well, you see Gusty, it’s like this-“

“Nopony from the village would have a reason to tell the being who wanted to destroy it where it stood. And the only other creature who knew where it was… was you,” the mare’s head finally turned, the single eye looking at draconequus, which embodied a sense of betrayal. “Draco… did you tell him?”

She knew. She already knew he was the guilty one in this matter, she just wanted him to admit it personally.

A lump came up in Discord’s throat, fearing to utter the word. “Yes, but it was for a good reason, you see-“

“HOW?!” Gusty finally fully turned to face him, her voice emitting pure anger. “HOW COULD BE GETTING YOUR MASTER TO DESTROY MY HOME BE PART OF A GOOD REASON?!”

“It… it wasn’t supposed to go this way, I swear,” he tried to explain himself, “I planned to drag Father out of his seat of power, where he cannot draw on the full power of Tambelon and would be forced to rely on the power he has stored in his Bewitching Bell, giving you ponies a chance to depose him while he’s at his weakest… but to do that I had to give away where his most hated enemy is, so he would follow the trail to where the rest of the ponykind live.”

“And for that, you chose to sacrifice MY village?! SACRIFICE ME?!”

“No! I had every intention of warning you so you could all escape, but Father came ready beforehand-“

“THAT’S YOUR EXCUSE?! You chose to go with a plan you made up yourself without even consulting me in the first place, or thinking even for a moment how things could go wrong?!”

“Gusty, please… I was just-“ he pleaded, but it would not be accepted.

“NO! No apology or reasoning is going to make this better! My home’s been burnt to the ground! My friends and family that weren’t out in the field were taken by Grogar and his army, and now they’re making their way for the rest of Equestria, and they’re gonna burn down and destroy everything in the path!”

“But-“ was the only and final word that he said, that she would ever hear from him again.

“I never should’ve trusted you in the first place!” she said in a finality, tearing up. “YOU’RE A MONSTER JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER!!!”

And with those spiteful words and tears in her eyes, she ran off to the road leading north of the burnt village. Discord was left all alone among the smoldering ruins, alone and abandoned.

“I just wanted to help…” he told himself in a somber tone.

The light faded and the memory was over. Nobody dared to open his mouth. The weight of what they just saw was just too heavy. No wonder their owner wanted to forget it. Which is why it didn’t surprise them at all that he was visibly shaking, now that the missing piece of his memory returned.

“Discord… you…” Fluttershy’s voice slipped out, yet was quickly intervened by the receptor.

“Guys, please, I swear, I never meant for things to go so badly wrong! You’ve seen it yourself, didn’t you?! Gusty, tell them-!“

A sharp pain interrupted the draconequus. A blunt force has decked him directly in the face, knocking him back to the ground. After the moment passed, he realized that he had a print of a hoof embedded on him now and it didn’t take long to realize that the one who delivered it stood right in front of him, with a visible look of disbelief on her face.

“How dare you…” Gusty uttered, the tone of her voice slowly growing angry. “You took away your own memories just so you didn’t have to live with the burden of guilt for what you’ve done…?”

Discord tried to speak. “Gusty, I-“

“HOW DARE YOU!” she finally exploded. “I spent hundreds of years locked away in a magical prison! Everypony I’ve ever known is gone and I was overjoyed knowing that at least you were still here and that you may have repented with the heavy burden of guilt on your shoulder, but instead you decided to just toss it away like it didn’t even matter!”

She inched closer to Discord with every word uttered, and every time, he felt getting smaller and insignificant… worthless; to the point where she literally started to walk over him, to get close to his face. “Why did I even think for a moment that after all this time you’ve changed? You’re still a vile, evil, mean, lying, backstabbing, pointless, worthless, GOOD FOR NOTHING SLUUUUUUUUUG!!!”

The final cry of centuries built-up frustration and desperation finally erupted, causing the draconequus’ heart to shatter to pieces. He simply didn’t have words to respond back; no excuse, clever quip, or anything, and the prisoners didn’t dare say a word either, they were about as shocked as they could be. The unicorn mare stood in his face as a living proof of how much his actions have hurt her.

Suddenly she was enveloped in a dark aura, and to her surprise, she got lifted off the ground and taken back to the far side of the stone bridge, the one who cast the spell traipsing forward in turn. Discord saw Grogar approach with his horns glowing, and with every step he made, the sound of his hooves clacking against the stone ground got louder, his form growing bigger and imposing. It was only then that he finally realized the opposite was happening: he was actually shrinking. And by the time the old ram reached the draconequus, the former Lord of Chaos had shrunk to the height of his knees.

The grizzled ram towered above him. “Now you once more fit the size that you feel you are.”

“Grogar-“ Discord tried to speak, only to be silenced by the sudden angry stomp of the ram’s front hoof.

“You will address me properly, draconequus,” he stated.

Even though he was already huge compare to his size, he could still feel his former master’s presence grow to the point where everything around him turned dark, and in his weakened state, after what he’s just been put through, he simply no longer had to will to deny him any longer. “Yes… Father…”

“Good,” Grogar smiled, enveloping “the child” in the aura of dark light, lifting him up to his face. “You’ve fulfilled your purpose, draconequus. You’re of no further use to me.”

With those words, Discord got flung across the air, straight at the prison, and being shrunk to his size, he flew through the narrow stone bars. Seeing this, the yellow pegasus quickly reacted and intercepted his approach, catching him in her hooves.

“Discord, are you okay?” she asked him.

He didn’t respond, and she realized how stupid her question was. Of course he was not okay; he willingly gave up his powers to save somebody precious to him, and then that same being chewed him out. His spirit had been broken. He looked so helpless and vulnerable she couldn’t help herself but to hug him. Hoof steps echoed again, as the Father of Monsters turned and slowly made his way across the bridge. Fluttershy knew he was responsible for the very experience of misery her friend just had to go through.

“How can you be so cruel?!” Fluttershy cried out. “All of the creatures you supposedly created fear you, so you’re clearly not treating them well. And Discord just gave everything he had to protect his first friend, but you still chose to belittle him after what he’s just been put through. You’re a monster!”

The old ram stopped, turning his head back. “Flattery will not release you from prison, child.”

“But I may,” another voice spoke.

After that, the prisoners could see a bright light suddenly flicker in front of Grogar, who turned his face forward again to meet to one who spoke. Gusty stood before him defiantly, with her horn lit with green light, prepared to fight.

“Yeah! Go get him, Gusty!” Rainbow Dash suddenly called out. “If there's anypony who can stop him it’s you!”

And everybody else chipped in and started to cheer on her. If there was anyone who could still defy the Father of Monsters now, it was her. Grogar glanced towards the prison, and a subtle smile appeared on his face before he began to approach his adversary. The bright furred unicorn glared at him, she was prepared to unleash her attack against him the moment he acted out.

Instead, however, she was met with words. “Put it away, child. You know full well you can’t beat me on your own.”

“Maybe not,” she responded, “but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to make it as difficult for you as possible.”

“If I wanted to destroy you, I would’ve already done so and I wouldn’t have to even lift a hoof.”

“If that’s the case, then why don’t you?” she questioned him.

“Because I want you to see a different perspective on your situation… or rather OUR situation.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The old ram went past her, despite her threatening stance. “Believe it or not, but I bear no animosity against you. Not anymore. The world in which we faced off against one another has been long gone, and I’ve moved on.”

“Even if that’s supposed to make sense, you’re still a monster, Grogar,” Gusty retorted.

“Yes, I’m a monster,” the old ram admitted, “and so you can trust that I will do as a monster does. I may be violent, malevolent, and cruel, but what I am not… is a betrayer. But you already know who fits THAT description, don’t you?”

“Get to the point, Grogar. What are you trying to tell me?” she asked in an annoyed tone.

“What I’m asking, is that instead of bearing your fangs against me… you should join me instead,” he replied.

“WHAT?!” the prison exploded with a loud noise.

Nobody could believe that from two ancient enemies, one of them would suggest to the other to join forces. For both Twilight and Rainbow Dash, this felt like some really badly written fiction.

At first, Gusty was baffled by the proposition and then got overcome with anger. “You… you’ve gone mad. Why in Equestria should I join the one who destroyed my village?!”

“Of course I did. Your kind trespassed into my domain, and just like a beast I made sure that you got expelled from my territory,” Grogar began to circle around her, like a shark his prey. “But here’s the thing: I never would’ve been able to hurt you if your village had stayed hidden. I wasn’t the one who found it, but SOMEBODY revealed it to me.”

His Father’s words finally awoke Discord from his stupor, when he realized where he was going with this. He jumped out of Fluttershy’s embraced and scurried over to the bars to see the events play out.

“Your village... is gone because of HIM,” Grogar stated, his head nodding at the prison. “He was never given an order to track you and then reveal its location to me. He did that out of his own free will. He is a lowly creature that is despised even by other of my children because he was so small and weak. Naturally, you felt bad for him and gave him something he never received: generosity and compassion. And what did he do with them?”

As Grogar spoke, the gang noticed something was happening. The longer he talked, the more the magic surrounding Gusty’s horn, which she was going to use to fight, began to fade. His words were actually getting to her? The draconequus also noticed it, and the worry in him grew.

“He betrayed them both, Gusty,” the old ram continued. “Your kindness and generosity, they were tossed to the wind in a pathetic attempt to give you the smallest chance of stopping me. He didn’t even want to be saddle with the burden of guilt that his own actions had brought him. I’m still not sure how he managed to acquire the powers of chaos, but he used them to turn your homeland into his own personal playground, twice, before he was finally stopped… by them.”

He once again nodded at the prison. Grogar was now talking about not just the events from more than a thousand years ago, but also the more recent ones, the ones in which the mares participated.

He resumed. “He hurt them as well, Gusty. Yet despite that, they chose to be lenient with him at every turn. The beings in the cage over there are no longer your kind, Gusty. They do not understand like you do, that there are beings in the world who do things so irreversibly horrible that they do not DESERVE redemption in any form, that there must be consequences for one’s actions. They know of crimes he’s committed, yet they chose to turn a blind eye in hopes that “friendship” will cure it all away. There will be no justice delivered for what he had done, not just because they don’t understand… but because they REFUSE to understand. Those you knew ceased existing long ago, and those of your kind who live today, will not side with you.”

The light in Gusty’s horn completely went out now, and as it did, Grogar gave the final ultimatum. “So I ask you now, Gusty, who do you trust more? An honest monster? Or a deceitful friend?”

A moment passed and the unicorn traipsed slowly over the bridge towards the prison. She stopped halfway, letting the quiet moment linger for a bit before she finally addressed the prisoners inside.

“Just answer me one question,” she asked, “has Draco ever knowingly decided to hurt you in an attempt to help you all?”

If there was a pin that dropped, they could’ve heard it right now, so deafening was the silence that followed the question. They knew the only obvious answer, yet they couldn’t speak of it, not just because the answer will likely push the hero from the story into the arms of her sworn enemy, but after what Discord had just been put through, they couldn’t make themselves to walk all over him; not that it mattered as they saw him looking in their direction and could tell precisely what he was thinking. Even he knew the amount of burden he’s piled up on all of them.

After the silence lingered for too long and noticing their interaction, it became apparent to Gusty what the answer was, even when they didn’t speak it. “I see… so that’s how it is…”

She turned around and slowly began to walk back towards Grogar.

“Gusty wait!” Applejack tried one last attempt to sway her away. “You have every right to be angry for what happened in the past but everypony deserves a second chance.”

“Or maybe even a third one,” Fluttershy added.

“Or fourth, or fifth, or sixth…” the party planner spoke.

“PINKIE!” the other mares stopped her.

“But it’s the truth.”

Spike finally brought his voice to the matter. ”Gusty, this may be hard to believe, but in this day and age, you’re a hero to every filly and colt who’s read the book about your battle with Gogar. Don’t do this to them by joining the very thing you fought against!”

And the voice of mares joined his, trying to desperately convince her not to do it. But no matter how hard they tried to reason with her, the stride in her walk wouldn’t be deterred; all of their pleas fell on deaf ears.
The unicorn hero stopped in front of the old ram who towered well above her.

“Do we have an accord then?” Grogar asked.

“Gusty,” before she could answer, another voice beckoned her.

She knew it all too well; it was silent for a while, but it did get to her, unlike others. The gang did not just hear him, they saw him: Discord was down on his knees, on all fours, desperately begging.

“I know I’ve done many awful things in life and I’m so… so sorry. But I beg you, in the name of everything that is good in the world, for the sake of friendship that we once shared… please… don’t do this…”

The silence lingered for a while, some being hopeful that things might change in direction than the trajectory it was going. But alas, it was not meant to be.

“I’m sorry Draco,” she spoke in finality, not even bothering to look at her former friend, “but I’m a few centuries too old to care anymore…”

A giant grin appeared on Grogar’s face. His horns began to glow and a giant portal of dark light opened behind him. He stepped to the side and gestured his new companion to enter. Gusty the Great only gave a single glance at the prisoners, and then without a second of waiting, entered the portal.

At that precise moment, something broke inside draconequus. He fell to the side, curled up in a fetal position, and began to moan loudly, tears coming out like waterworks. Everybody else was shaken by what they just witnessed as well; a hero of Equestria’s distant history just willingly sided with the very evil she once fought. They couldn’t even begin to imagine what their shrunken friend must be going through.

“Oh, you poor thing…” Fluttershy felt the worst for him, so she scooped him up in her hooves and hugged him.

Grogar observed for a moment, as the sounds of sobbing and wailing came from the prison. He hmphed to himself and ordered his shrunken monsters to scurry into the portal. Twilight, despite being forced to observe the scene on the other side of the bars, heard the commotion outside and saw him leave.

“GROGAR!” she called out, garnering her friend’s attention, while the old ram stopped dead in his tracks at the threshold of the portal. “It doesn’t matter if you leave us locked in here, sooner or later, we’ll get out and get you. I swear!”

The Father of Monsters paused before turning his head at the princess and speaking. “Perhaps… but that doesn’t mean I won’t make it any less hard for you.”

He raised one of his back hooves, it began to glow in a dark aura, and swiftly stomped the ground, sending a shockwave all around him. Suddenly, there was a breaking sound, as if something had just split in an instant. Rarity then noticed a clear straight line being drawn where Grogar had just smashed his hoof; his action had cut right through the stone bridge that was connecting the cavern with the stone prison, and with one of the only two pieces of support that held up the prison from being broken, the remaining one couldn’t hold up the mass on its own, and it began to crumble under its weight. The prison heaved backward, causing the gang to slide all the way in the back, then forward, having them slide right back into the bars, and then the entire prison cell simply slid off from its only support beam, falling into the dark abyss below.

Grogar listened to the sound of breaking rocks from the depths. Believing his work was complete, he let out a short cackle and then entered the portal, which closed behind him. The place was left calm, however, the cutting wind that blew from the Nether Lands, without a surface to grind against, were left to howl.

Chapter 16: Downer Drowner

There was a constant noise in the air. It sounded like water running and clashing against obstacles in its way. And on top of that, she felt cold running through her hooves. Her eyes slowly opened and a single ray of light shined down from the gap in the ceiling.
Twilight’s head hurt, her sight was constantly splitting into threes as it tried to adjust. She slowly turned it, trying to discern where the chill was coming from. She noticed the floor of the cell had been broken, and now there was water running in, her back hooves being partly submerged. As her consciousness finally cleared and got aware of the situation, instant panic set in.

She screamed. “AIEEEEEEEEE! WE’RE GONNA DROWN!”

She didn’t get far as the legs gave out under her weight from the fatigue. It rang in her ears, not hearing the tapping sound on the stone as a short figure approached.

“Twilight!” the little dragon spoke, as he jumped over a heaved stone plate and over the stream that ran through the broken cell, followed by the fashionista with an extremely frazzled mane. “Thank Celestia, you’re awake!”

The princess shook her head, thinking her vision is playing tricks on her. “Spike! Ra… Rarity, what’s happened to you?”

“This?” she grabbed a clump. “This is what happens with a freefall into the icy water. I’ll be lucky if my mane can be restored to its previous splendor without going for the scissors. I’ve not brushed for a whole day.”

“You mean, lucky if we even get out of here at all,” Spike corrected her.

“Don’t worry, Spike. All we need to do…” she suddenly stopped, realizing just now what the white unicorn said. “Wait… we’ve been in here for a whole day already?!”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Spike confirmed.

She couldn’t believe it she was out cold since the previous morning. “What about the others?”

Her companion motioned to follow him. The three climbed over the heaved rocks to the other side of the room and she could hear a strange buzzing sound as if somebody’s turned on a drill. She saw three and a half figures: the orange one lay motionless on one of the broken stone plates, the yellow on was curled up with her face buried in her hooves, and the blue one was standing by a hole in the wall, through which the backside of the pink one could be seen.

CLANG!

As the alicorn approached, a sudden sound of bending metal followed. The party planner finally walked backward, revealing the frontal pointy tip of her cotton candy hair bent in a sharp corner.

“Sorry Dashy, but I’m afraid it’s out of order,” she said with a frown.

“Girls, are you all okay?” Twilight asked as she approached.

Rainbow Dash turned her head at the sound of the voice. “Twilight, you’re awake!”

She looked at the country pony laying by the side. “What’s wrong with Applejack?”

“She’s been like that about as long as you, Twilight,” Rarity explained. “I think she may have gotten a concussion.”

“Don’t worry. If I know AJ, she’s gonna be up in no time,” the wonderbolt said.

The princess sight then turned to the yellow mare, who still had her face buried in her crossed hooves. “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”

“I CAN’T FIND DISCORD!” she cried out in a sobbing voice. “I searched the whole room and he’s nowhere to be found!”

Concern crawled up on Twilight’s face. “Wait… you’re not saying that he’s…?”

“Nah, doubtful,” Spike rebuked the notion. “If I were in his place, I’d probably crawl into a hole and never come out.”

“Spike, that’s a mean thing to say!”

“But it’s true. After I embarrassed myself at the Equestrian Games, the last thing I wanted to do was for anypony to notice me. He’s probably just hiding.”

“Ugh… y’all might try keeping it down? The scratching sound’s already hard to deal with…”

That voice just now didn’t come from the sibling. It came from the orange pony that was still unconscious not a moment ago.

“Applejack, you’re awake!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“No thanks to this scratching sound,” she groaned. “It’s clawing up somethin’ awful.”

“What are you talking about, AJ?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

The country pony tried to get back on her feet, but the disorientation still caused her to fall. “A lil’ help, please?”

The party planner and the shy one helped her get up, and sling her on wonderbolt’s back.

“Put yer ear to the ground over there,” she told them.

Spike walked over to the stone plate on which Applejack laid earlier and pressed the side of his head on it. He did hear it; a strange kind of scratching sound against the rock.

Twilight approached the plate to lift it, but as she tried to use her magic, it dispersed. “No good. The changeling magic negation is still active. I’ll need your help, guys.”

The blue pegasus flipped Applejack, tossing her on Rarity’s back, and skipped over to Twilight’s side; joined by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, as well as Spike, they managed to lift the heavy piece of rock and flip it over. There was a hole in the ground, almost like a well, at the bottom of which there was a piece of dry rock surrounded by water. And laying on that sole dry piece was a patchwork of various animal parts, with an empty look on his face, scratching the rocky surface with the tip of his avian claw.

They took a peek inside and not a moment later, they all suddenly got shoved aside by the yellow pegasus, who stuck her head into the hole. “Discord, say something! Are you okay?!”

It took a while before he finally gave a somber response. “No…”

“Did you break something? Where does it hurt?! Your arm?! Your leg?! Wing?!”

The draconequus stopped scratching at the stone, lifted his hand, and pointed at his chest. “This…”

“His pancreas?” Pinkie questioned.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy and pulled her back to create enough space for all of them to look inside again.

“Discord, what are you doing in there?” Twilight asked him. “Come out.”

“I’d rather not,” he rebuked.

“Discord, you’re being ridiculous,” Rainbow Dash answered.

Draconequus’s eye rolled to the side as if he was looking at them. “Am I? I was living a blissful life and then Father reminded me of something I had conveniently forgotten. The first friend I ever had, who I hurt, turned to his side because of what I did… and I couldn’t prevent it.”

“Chillax, Discord. It’s not like it was the only time you did it- OW!” an orange hoof smacked the blue pegasus on the back of her head before she could finish, trying to rearrange her sentence. “Errr… I mean, what I meant to say was-“

“No, you’re right,” the former Lord of Chaos agreed. “It seems like whenever I try to do something for the sake of somepony else I’m cursed to just harm them instead. And Father knew it.”

“Discord, you don’t need to keep calling Grogar by that name, he’s long gone,” Rarity voiced her thoughts.

He was not convinced, however. “If only it were that easy. I can feel him. I can feel his eyes and ears everywhere, he listens to everything, and if I step out of line he’ll come for me. I just want to stay here, with my miserable self.”

“What did I tell you?” the dragon said.

Spike may have been right, but this really wasn’t the time to be smug about it. Twilight moved closer towards the hole to get a better sight of the draconequus.

“Discord, I understand how hard it is for you right now, but you can’t just stay in there forever,” she told him.

“It’s best that I do,” he responded. “This is the only place right now where I can’t harm anypony.”

“But you’re hurting Fluttershy right now!” the princess stated. “She was worried sick when she couldn’t find you since yesterday while you were hiding in there. She really thought you got badly hurt, Discord. And if you stay, you’ll be doing to her exactly what you claim you don’t want to. Are you going to come out now?”

He ceased scratching the stone floor. Of course, she was right, she was the princess of friendship after all. And he couldn’t stand the thought of hurting his best friend either. Despite the dejected state, with minimal effort, he began to scale the wall of the hole. He barely peeked out of it, when a pair of yellow hooves grabbed him and pulled him into an embrace.

“Don’t ever do that again, Discord!” the pegasus cried.

He couldn’t stand seeing her like this. If he still had his powers, he’d have conjured a box of tissues for her, but as it was, he didn’t really have any other option. He hugged her cheeks and gently nuzzled them.

“Well, I guess we’re finally all accounted for,” Twilight sighed as the shy pegasus smothered the former Lord of Chaos with hugs. “Now we just need to get out of the prison. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

Except for Applejack, everybody else awkwardly looked at one another when she said that.

“Yeah… that may be a problem, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash exposited. “We’ve been trying to break out of here since yesterday without any progress. See the hole in the ceiling that’s the only light source here? When the cell fell into the chasm it got impaled on a giant sharp spike, breaking the floor and puncturing a hole in the ceiling.”

“We only managed to remove it thanks to Spike,” Rarity joined, pointing to the pointy half of the spike that lay by the side of the stone stump in the middle of the room.

“Yeah, after I spent half a day removing it myself,” the dragon added.

She resumed. “But that’s when we realized the water broke in. It seems we’ve landed just above the surface of an underground river, and the only reason we’ve not completely sunk yet is that we’re lodged on its narrow sides.”

“And we tried to break through on all four sides but two of them will flood us and the other two lead straight into bedrock, so this “thing” is out of order,” Pinkie Pie pointed at her bent drill mane.

“Wait… are ya sayin’ it’s only a matter of time before this place collapses and we sink?” Applejack on her back suddenly got worried.

“Yes,” she gave a blunt answer.

The princess began to share her concern when she suddenly heard a low rumbling sound nearby and jumped to the side. “On no! It’s happening already!”

But there was nothing. The sound was gone and no rocks crumbled away nor water breaking in. Her sight wandered over to the little dragon, who held on to his belly. The strange rumbling sound returned for an instant and this time she heard precisely where it came from.

“No…” Spike voiced a complaint, “that’s just my stomach. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday and we didn’t even have breakfast when we left.”

“None of us did, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity agreed.

The princess of friendship looked at everybody’s faces and finally realized that they weren’t doing all that well, and after a moment of thought she herself felt rather empty; she finally understood how serious the situation was. “Then it’s all the more imperative that we get out of here. Our only possible exit now is to go through the roof.”

“That’s not going to be as easy as you make it sound, darling,” the fashionista addressed the princess. “It seems like the rubble from above collapsed on top of us. Even with that hole punctured into the ceiling, there are several hooves of rock still between us and freedom.”

“I tried to just bust through…” wonderbolt said and leaped to try flying, yet she didn’t get more than a few feet off the ground before faceplanting on the ground, “but with the state in which my wings still are that’s not happening any time soon.”

“Even then, we agreed that brute-forcing it would probably cause the whole thing to collapse on us.”

“And since the changeling magic that Grogar placed on this room is still active, we can’t use our powers either,” the alicorn said. “There’s got to be another way.”

The princess went into thought. Some time passed; the sound of running water and the dragon’s occasional growling tummy were the only things that disturbed the peace. Fluttershy finally loosened her grip on the draconequus, her gaze traveling up to the hole for a moment, then back to the creature in her embrace.

“I… I think I got an idea,” she finally spoke, and everybody else’s heads turned to face her, as she lifted her miniature friend at them. “Discord’s small enough. He can get out through the hole and get help.”

“Great idea!” Spike responded and the mares soon join in agreement with him.

The draconequus on the other hand wasn’t seen as very enthusiastic; as everybody pushed him to go, he wasn’t showing particular eagerness. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, guys.”

“What do you mean, Discord?” his best friend asked. “You’ll more than fit right through.”

“That’s not the problem…” the former Lord of Chaos explained. “Yeah, I can pass through the hole without a problem, but what about then? The way I currently am, at my size, it’s going to take hours for me to get off the mountain itself, even with the roof missing, and it will probably take more than a day before I could reach civilization to get any help, and that’s the kind of time none of you have. And besides…”

“Besides what?” wonderbolt asked.

Discord flew from Fluttershy’s hooves and landed by the wall, facing towards it, his back turned away from the rest. “I think I’ve helped everypony enough for one lifetime. All I would do in the end is just hurt you if I tried to help… as it always happened.”

He was completely despondent. He was so beaten into the ground by his maker and his new cohort that he simply rejected any attempt in assisting out of fear of hurting those he cared about. This wouldn’t work. Fluttershy had the right idea, but the one who could do it simply decided to opt out, out of the feeling of self-loathing and inadequacy. Who could take his place? She thought for a moment and then her gaze wandered over to her companion, who was still rubbing his belly every time it made a growl.

“Spike, how’s your wing feeling?” she asked him.

The little dragon spread them out, one of them slightly lagging. “Better than before.”

“Good enough,” she responded, “you’ll have to take Discord’s place.”

“Wait, me?” he said in a surprised tone.

“You’re the only one who still has a chance of actually fitting through that hole.”

“Errrr… I dunno. I’m not feeling very optimistic.”

“Spike, don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now as well?” Rainbow Dash suddenly turned up.

“What? No, of course not! I just-“ he didn’t get to finish his sentence when his inner rumblings interrupted him. “I’m not sure I’ll make it in my current state.”

“But we got no other choice, Spike,” Applejack added. “You’re the only one who can save us now.”

“Help us, Spike! You’re our only hope!” Pinkie hopped in.

He felt pressured. He wanted to help, yet he wasn’t feeling very confident he’d be of much use to anybody if the stomach pains get the better of him now.

His tune would change, however, as the fashionista traipsed over to him, lowered herself to his eye level, and spoke in a tempting voice. “Please save us, Spikey-wikey.”

A sudden sense of determination stirred inside him. He can bottle up the empty feeling; his friends, as well as his fair lady, needed saving.

He quickly climbed on top of the stump of the burnt-off spike. “Twilight, gimme a boost!”

She obliged, grabbing him and flying up to the hole in the ceiling. He reached with his claws into the tunnel and pulled himself in, Twilight giving him a boost inside. It was really close. Despite his size, he could feel the sharp rocks grinding against him, but thanks to his scales, he luckily felt no pain, and after a few moments of a rather claustrophobic feeling, he finally squeezed out. They were right about what they said earlier; the prison was half-submerged in an underground river, and the spike inside, as well as the narrow walls on the sides, were keeping it up, on top of that, the rubble from upstairs all fell on top. He could see the clear skies above from the broken mountain. Now the only problem would be how to climb up there. His wing was still suffering from a sprain to actually fly up directly, so her made a compromise. He walked to one of the walls, gripped one of several ridges, and pulled himself up, and as he did he quickly flapped with his wings, giving himself a significant boost. He repeated it several times, quickly scaling up the wall.

Several minutes passed and the little dragon finally managed to reach the ledge that the old sorcerer ram cut off and pulled himself up. He was panting heavily. He managed to get to the top in his limited state, but it was still draining on him. He heard that familiar growling sound again. No! He had to keep it down; the lives of his friends are at stake and he can’t think of hunger right now. He rose back on his feet and followed the tunnel. He was sure he was up to the task of traversing the mountainous maze.

He overestimated himself. It was uncertain to him how long it was, but by the time he finally managed to get through the main entrance he was completely exhausted, and that growling noised started to get increasingly consistent. It was hard for him to think straight. But one thing was certain: he couldn’t stop. He walked a few more feet to the edge of the ridge, and looking down he saw a forested area below and in the far distance some houses. The civilization and help were in sight but they seemed so far off. No way he could walk all the way there! It was time to improvise. He stepped to the edge of the Jagged Ridge and spread his wings open. He may not be able to fly normally, but at the very least he can glide a considerable distance and save up some strength. He leaped off and sailed through the sky. It was working! Despite all odds, he might actually make it all the way out of the forest and into the open fields just before the settlement, saving up hours he would have to thread through the forest. But just he was starting to feel optimistic, disaster struck.

A cramp! The sharp pain erupted in his abdominal region, as starvation finally hit him, and in the spasm, his wings shut closed. He fell like a rock. He desperately tried to open them again but it wouldn’t help, the stomach pain was simply too much. He bashed against the treetops before he started to descend lower, crashing against the branches which slowed his speed ever so slightly, until he finally rolled downhill and landed in a shallow stream at the bottom. Everything in front of his eyes was spinning; whether it was the trauma he just received or the hunger, it didn’t really make a difference. With what little strength he had, he dragged himself out of the water so he wouldn’t drown and then collapsed.

This was it for him. He hurt all over, could barely move a muscle and the lack of nourishment for more than a day was absolutely unbearable. There was no way he would make it now. He failed them all… especially Rarity. All he could hear was the sound of water from the nearby stream splashing, it kept growing louder until it mutated into something different… it sounded like hoof steps, ones that kept coming closer. He shifted his head in the direction of the incoming sound; everything was still spinning in front of his eyes and all he could discern was a tall figure looking over him, the head strangely big for a pony.

“I feared the worst would come. Are you okay, my chum?”

The six mares and the draconequus were left in the prison, all their hopes were now pinned on a single little dragon, who himself was not in the best state, but nobody else was in a fitting position. All they could do now is wait, hope for the best, and be prepared for the worst. But even knowing how serious their situation was, boredom and irritability began to bear down on them, so it was only a matter of time before somebody just got frustrated enough to start asking some questions that were on their minds.

“Are you finally gonna come clean with us?” Applejack directed it at the former Lord of Chaos.

“About what?” he asked.

“Discord, don’t play coy with us!” she said in a stern tone. “Ah haven’t forgotten yesterday mornin’ when Ah asked you how you knew so many things and you decided to just dodge the question, as you did several times up until THAT moment upstairs, and now Ah finally understand why you’ve been avoiding them. So now that the cats out of the bag, how about you start bein’ honest with us and tell us the whole truth? Grogar, you, Gusty, all of it!”

“I agree,” Twilight nodded, “there were so many times you could’ve told us, and maybe we could’ve avoided this mess in the first place.”

“I concur,” the fashionista simply added.

“I’m with AJ,” wonderbolt joined. “Maybe it’s because I heard only the abridged version from Pinkie, but I wanna know THE TRUE version of Gusty the Great.”

“Ooooh, is it storytime? Great!” Pinkie Pie simply jumped with excitement.

Fluttershy stepped before them to create a barrier between them and her friend. “Everypony please, I understand you’re frustrated, but please go easy on him,” she turned slowly to face the draconequus. “Discord, please tell us what happened?”

He sighed in defeat. “I suppose there’s no point trying to hide it any longer. And since we’re not going anywhere any time soon, I might as well,” the former Lord of Chaos cleared his throat. “Now, a long time ago-“

“Oh oh oh! I have a question!” the pink pony interrupted him before he could properly start.

“What is it, Pinkie?” he asked.

“Where do baby monsters come from?”

An awkward silence fell over the prison before Twilight broke it. “Pinkie, what kind of a question is that?”

“I always wanted to know that. I know pony babies come from-“

Before she could continue a blue hoof was shoved in her mouth by the rainbow-maned pegasus. “We already know where they come from, Pinkie, no need to just throw it out.”

The draconequus surprisingly cracked a smile. “Well, I can tell you that’s not the case here. Monsters aren’t “born”, as you may understand, they’re created. One moment there’s nothing and all of a sudden, POOF! You can see, you can hear, you can smell you can feel, and if lucky, you’re by some miracle able to speak comprehensive words. But one is always frightening.”

“You have really odd standards as to what counts as “frightening”, Discord,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Because you didn’t seem that scary the first time we met you.”

He sighed. “You could say I’m a special case. Father always had this knack for creating monsters by distilling the strongest traits of two or multiple creatures and embody them into a single being, eliminating any weaknesses the single creature had. But there was this one time he felt like seeing what it would be like for a creature to exist that’s made entirely of traits that have no beneficiary strengths.”

“Wait… he created you… just because? As an experiment?” Twilight frowned.

“I guess that’s the best way of putting it,” he resumed. “After that, he just tossed me out of Tambelon, into the wilds, and let my “elder siblings” do the rest.”

“The way you describe it, it couldn’t have been all that rosy,” the fashionista voiced a sense of discomfort coming on.

“That’s putting it mildly,“ he assured her. “I was… I am small and scrawny, with no special or unique traits. The best I can do is fly, but what makes me look threatening in the first place? Nothing. And they caught on to it quickly. To them, I was a little more than a tasty morsel waiting to be devoured. I only got lucky because they started to fight between themselves about who’s going to feast. And that was basically the routine for as long as I can remember. I would keep hiding at every turn, always moving, always living in fear and despair when another of Father’s creations would appear when I least expected and have me for brunch.”

The yellow pegasus covered her mouth from what she was hearing. “That… that’s just so horrible, Discord!”

The former Lord of Chaos simply nodded in agreement.

“So how did you find Gusty?” country pony asked.

“It was the other way around, actually,” he corrected her. “I had just made another narrow slip and as I was resting under a rock, I wasn’t aware somebody was rummaging about and lifted it. That’s when she revealed herself. I’ve never seen a pony before; she was tall, bright, and had this… spark of life in her eyes. But the moment she saw me, she screamed in shock, I screamed in panic, and then she trapped me in a bubble and took me away in fear that I’d tell “my siblings” about it.”

“You sure know how to make a first impression, Discord, I’ll give you that,” wonderbolt smiled.

The draconequus glared at her. “I’d like to see you in my shoes and see if you’d do differently. Anyway, I spent a night in a small camp she had built, and once she learned I can actually talk, she started to ask questions, I answered, and we got it off. A few days in her company we managed to evade other monsters together. At that point, I warmed up to her enough that she decided to trust me, and take me home.”

“What was Gusty’s home like?” asked Rarity.

“First off, she had me promised to keep myself inconspicuous. She may have trusted me, but everypony else was still as antsy as ever from anything that didn’t look like them. She took me to the mountainous hill, and I thought to myself, “how could anyone possibly live inside a rock all their life, it must be a miserable place”, and after that…” he let out a deep sigh this time. “Let’s say I’ve not been so dazzled before in all my life. The slopes and the peak were only an illusion on the outside, but on the inside, it was completely different; it was a town full of vibrant colors, of laughter and cheer. I couldn’t comprehend the stark contrast between this and the world that stood outside of it. For this blooming paradise to exist so deep in Father’s domain, where everything was dark and dreary… it was inconceivable. And even though I spent most of the time concealed in the attic when her family was around, it was a remarkable experience, and with all the things we did together, I felt something strange I never felt before. Do you know what it was?”

There was no response. For a moment he thought he would have to spell it out, but it didn’t take long before the pink marshmallow hopped in his direction, picked him up, and spun him about.

“I know!” she proclaimed loudly. “Living in a bland, dreary, and colorless world, with no laughter or cheer, and then suddenly experiencing all of it… Discord, you felt joy!”

He gave her an awkward smile. “Yes, Pinkie. Now please put me down.”

She put him back on the solid ground and patted him on the head before hopping away.

Draconequus resumed. “Those were the happiest moments I remember. For the first time, I felt like I was actually enjoying life and not constantly fleeing for it. I hoped it would last forever but… deep down I knew that would never be the case. It would only be a matter of time before Father eventually found it, and if he did, he would hurt Gusty. I wanted to do something for all she’s done, but as long as Father was around I knew this would never happen… not unless he was removed permanently, and I was well aware that neither I nor any other of his creations had the will to stand up to him. But I knew who did now: Gusty’s kind. If she and her kin, who lived further north came together, they would be able to rival Father and maybe even destroy him. And then in my enthusiasm, without thinking the whole thing through…” he paused, knowing what was coming. “Well, you saw what happened after that.”

How couldn’t they? His maker shared it all for them to see it. He sold out his ONLY friend in an attempt to help her, thinking everything would work out without a hitch.

“Ya know,” Applejack spoke again, “Ah think I’ve noticed a pattern where you seem to think ya know what you’re doing and then having the whole thing blow up in your face and making things worse for everypony else.”

“APPLEJACK!” Fluttershy scolded her. "There's no reason to rub it in!"

“No no, she’s right,” he rebuked her attempt at censure, “this was just the first time. After that happened, I felt so horrible I couldn’t live with myself. Gusty’s words… were just so painful. I had to make it right. For her sake, I had to. So I did the only thing I could… I followed.”

“So how did you remove your memory then?” Twilight wondered.

Discord sighed again, before looking in her direction. “Remember that climactic battle between Father and Gusty from the book? Where she removed the Bewitching Bell from his collar and used it to depower him? Truth is, she didn’t… I did.”

“YOU?!” a collective shout followed, causing him to cringe and cover his ears.

After the noise settled, he resumed. “I was there when Gusty took Father head-on. I knew from the start it was a folly. She may have been gifted with magic, but he had the power of Tambelon with him. The only way to stop him was to use his own tool against him. So, while the two faced off, spells flying all over the place on the battlefield, nearly completely obscured by the kicked-up dust, I used that chance to sneak up on Father and unhook his bell. It was a few moments later that he finally realized something was amiss and finally spotted me. And that’s when I decided to use it.”

“Wait, hold on,” Rarity interrupted, “that doesn’t add up. Grogar said that all of his creations have had an active compulsion programmed into them so they wouldn’t try to directly harm him.”

“And it’s true,” draconequus confirmed, “that’s what I felt immediately after I decided to use the bell against him… I couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force myself to use it. Father knew that as well. But the look of anger on his face… the fact that one of his creations dared even for a moment thinking of defying his will. I’ve never seen him so angry. That’s when I decided to work AROUND the problem. I couldn’t hurt Father directly, so I did it INDIRECTLY. I put myself between the Bewitching Bell and Father… and rang it.”

“What… what happened?” the shy pegasus asked in a surprised tone.

“I… don’t remember. All I do remember before I rang it, was that I wished for only one thing: I wanted to forget the look of Gusty when she was at her worst - when I hurt her. I just wanted it gone. By the time I finally woke up, Father was gone and Gusty lay unconscious. That’s when I heard the sounds around me change. Without Father to spur on his children, they all turned on one another in the middle of a battle; without his command, they became disorganized and were easily swept aside by the ponies. That’s when I realized they’ll be coming for me as well, after all, I was a monster myself. I couldn’t haul the bell with me and make a quick escape, so the only thing I could do was simply leave it in Gusty’s care. But there was one thing that needed to be dealt with: The Collar of Dominion; it was all that was left behind by Father after he was defeated. If these two artifacts were left together, who knew what lunatic would try to use them again for his own personal gain. I had to make sure that the two remained separated forever. So, I grabbed the Collar and ran away… and that would be the last time I ever saw Gusty.”

The country pony asked the obvious question. “So that’s how you knew where the artifact was? You brought it here?”

Discord nodded. “I ran for days, maybe even weeks with the strap of leather. I couldn’t stop knowing that I might have pursuers on my tail, who were hunting down straggles after the battle. I couldn’t stay in Equestria, but I couldn’t return home either, and east was ruled by the Griffon Kingdom, who were constantly watching over their border like angry hawks. I only had one place to go: west. I ascended the Jagged Ridge and hid the collar deep into the mountain, hoping it would never be found. After my task was finally done, I only had one place left to go. I descended the other side of the mountain and entered the Nether Lands,” he stopped with a pause. “And that’s where it all ends.”

A dreary atmosphere was in the air; the story was just downright depressing.

But the princess’ curiosity wasn’t sated yet. “Wait, you’ve not covered everything. There’s this word you mentioned a few times about Grogar, but you never explained it. What exactly is Tambelon?”

Before the former Lord of Chaos could answer, they heard a thud. It came from above. Did somebody just land on top of their prison or was it just a rock?

“You guys!” a familiar voice spoke through the hole. “You still okay in there?”

Twilight flew to the spike stump and looked through the hole upwards and saw the well-known giant reptilian eye, surrounded by purple scales. “Spike?! You’re back?! Did you get help?!”

“Well, actually it found me, but ye, gimme a moment I’m lowering it right away!” he responded.

Lowering? What’s he going to lower into prison? The whole gang gathered around. The light disappeared momentarily and the dragon pushed something down the narrow shaft. By the time it finally got through, everybody was left confused. It was a saddlebag, knitted from brown straw, yet there was something familiar about it.

“Spike, what are we looking for in the bag?” country pony asked.

“Nothing,” he simply replied, “just climb inside.”

What did he just say? Climb inside the saddlebag? That didn’t make any sense at all.

“Spike, that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard for this kind of situation!” Applejack retorted.

“Just trust me!” he answered.

If only it were that easy. How are they all supposed to just “climb inside the bag”? It wouldn’t even fill one leg, let alone six whole ponies.

Twilight pulled the saddlebag with her and set an awkward question. “Soooo… who wants to go first?”

“Oh oh oh! Me!” the pink pony predictably jumped with excitement.

The princess rolled her eyes and held the bags opening in Pinkie Pie’s direction. The party planner took a few steps back, wiggled her backside, and charged. Everybody else braced themselves for a predictable impact that would follow, and just when she was about to reach them, she leaped at the bags opening and flew straight in. It took a moment for them to completely register what just happened, their mouth being left agape.

“It… it actually worked?” Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it.

Soon, the pink pony poked her head out of the opening. “Come on, girls! It’s actually quite roomy in here.”

She slipped back inside and the other mares looked at each other with astonishment. But if she’s telling the truth, then perhaps Spike was being serious after all. The wonderbolt walked over to the bag’s opening and peeked inside when suddenly pink hooves grabbed her by the head and dragged her in. Now seeing that the dragon was being completely serious, they all lined up and followed through. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy with Discord one after another entered until Twilight was all that was left; it was her turn now. She stuck one hoof into the bag’s opening and pushed in, yet she didn’t reach the bottom, so she stuck in the other hoof as well until she was nearly up to her waist inside.

“Spike!” she called out to him. “We’re about ready to go!”

“Roger!” he replied.

Just when she was about to slip inside, the pull from upstairs forced her in. She suddenly found herself in a dark space, landing in a soft pile consisting of her friends.

“Told you guys it was roomy,” Pinkie Pie giggled.

“Pinkie, you could’ve given a heads up, you know?” Rainbow dash complained. “Now I got this feeling in my back as if I’m bent on top of something.”

She shifted about, a clanking sound came, and something plopped and rolled out from under her. It was a giant jar. They all looked at it, noticing something dark moving inside.

Pinkie Pie slipped out from under the pile and walked over to it, picking it up. “Oh, look here who’s come to join us, girls!”

She lifted the jar in their direction and a familiar presence emerged. The swirling black mass inside suddenly formed a mouth and hissed at them. They all panicked and scrambled off the pile to the side.

“It’s Mister Grumpy! Who’s the mean little Grumpy?” she loudly exclaimed, before making baby noises at it, and it snapped back at her. “Yup, still grumpy as always.”

“Pinkie, what’s that thing doing here?” Rarity pointed at it. “I thought we left it with Zecora back in Ponyville.”

“Wait…” Fluttershy stopped them. “You don’t think the one to whom this bag belongs is actually-?”

The room shook. The floor suddenly slanted until they all fell on the wall, and even that turned into a slope and they all slid down towards the opening. One after another they rolled out of the bag and onto the stone ground. They could finally see the clear sunlight from the broken mountain top, even if it was through the tunnel, and on the far edge of it, the little purple dragon stood, holding the bag.

“You guys had a nice lift?” he quipped.

He suddenly felt the loss of ground under his feet as he was lifted and pulled into Twilight’s embrace by her magic. And all other mares joined in.

“Thank you, Spike,” she cuddled him. “I told you, you could do it.”

“You’re my hero, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Thanks,” he blushed, “but I can’t take the whole credit. Had it not been for her, I don’t think I would’ve made it.”

“Her? Her who?” the princess inquired.

The sound of hoofs echoing through the corridor followed. A figure approached, and the light from the outside illuminated her features. Even though she wore a cloak, she was easily identified.

Chapter 17: Royalties and Parties

Author's Note

Late update.
Once again more Zecora worldbuilding. Fixing what Jeremy Whitley botched up just to set it up to fit the overarching storyline of Season 10.

Chapter 17: Royalties and Parties

“Alright alright, I said I’ll fix it all, I told you already,” draconequus complained.

Discord was led in front of the group by Fancy Pants, through the hallways, all the way to the front entrance of the castle. As they finally passed the threshold of the main entrance, a group of nobles already awaited them outside, showing some really angry faces. And for a good reason: the streets of Canterlot were littered with all manner of refuse from the Everfree Forest he had just turned upside-down multiple times, on top of wild animals running about after they got tossed as well.

“Look, everypony, I know this looks bad, but don’t worry, I can fix it all in a snap,” he let them know.

“We’ll believe that when we see it!” someone in the crowd yelled.

He sighed, raising his hand and snapping his fingers. In a blink of an eye and a momentary flash, all of it disappeared; the streets were once again clean, with no noticeable lasting damage. The nobles looked around themselves, surprised at how quickly it went.

“There,” he proclaimed, “everything’s again as it was… although if you ask me, a bit of chaos gave this bland place a bit more character.”

“Excuse me, a bear flew in through my bathroom window!” one of the nobles exclaimed.

“Yeah!” another one answered. “You cleaned the town, but what about our mental damages?!”

More and more of them began to voice their displeasure. Twilight decided it was time to step in.

She walked before the Lord of Chaos. “Everypony, please calm down! I understand you’re very unhappy with what happened here today, but I promise you, there were… circumstances in which this could not have been avoided.”

She tried to give as diplomatic an answer as possible in order not to spill the beans on what’s going on and sending everybody into a full-on panic mode.

Unfortunately, the satisfaction was not on her side, as some of the resumed. “Princess Twilight, how can you possibly say that this… monster using his power was in any way a good idea?!”

As the crowd grew unrulier as more and more voices of anger rose. At this point, the princess felt she may not have any other choice but to tell them the truth if it meant they’ll be quieted down, but the aftereffects…

Suddenly Fancy Pants walked to her side. “Now look here everypony, I completely share your displeasure after what happened here, but do have some trust in the princess, especially considering she had brought a guest with her.”

He turned to the side, and Celestia emerged from behind the group as she slowly traipsed to the front. “Citizens of Canterlot!”

The voice in which she spoke caused the angry crowd of nobles to go silent, replaced by murmurs as they all acknowledged her reveal.

The former monarch resumed. “I understand you are personally hurt by what happened today, but I assure you things happened that could not have been avoided. You demand justice, but I ask you to trust in the words of my former pupil and the current princess, the same way you all trusted me, long before you were in positions you hold today.”

Everybody went silent. There was a distinct sense of shame hanging in the air; it seemed that the nobles had been hit right in their pride by the words of the Mare of the Sun.

The high noble unicorn decided to finally break the atmosphere. “Now, everypony, in honor of the former majesty returning for a brief visit, I’ve decided to personally organize a party.” He turned to the white alicorn, making a subtle bow. “Madame, I, and to that extent the rest of Canterlot’s high society, would be absolutely delighted if you could join us, even from the lack of royal regalia.”

She giggled. “Oh, Fancy Pants, how could I possibly say no to such a request.”

Cheers erupted from the crowd and in a matter of moments they all dispersed.

“Well, that’s taken care of them.” The stallion smiled, then turned to the rest of the group. “And of course, Your Majesty, I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you and the rest of the council of all ponies.”

“Wow, emmm, that’s mighty neighborly from you, Mister Fancy,” Applejack said in a rather awkward tone, “but that’s a bit on short notice, ain’t it? I mean we didn’t exactly come prepared for-”

With a snapping sound, the whole group suddenly found itself all dressed up, each individual wearing a fitting fancy outfit for the ball, taking everybody aback before their gazes flew right at the Lord of Chaos, who himself was wearing a stylish suit.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” He readjusted his bowtie. “We can’t have a party without “the life” of it.”

“Discord,” a set of eyes belonging to the yellow pegasus were glaring in his direction, “make sure we do not have a repeat of last time you came to a fancy ball.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my-” he responded with an X appearing on his chest, then flying up, materializing a cupcake, and just when he was about to perform the final move, a high-pitched scream Interrupted him.

“Rarity, what’s wrong?” Starlight Glimmer asked as she saw her scream, flailing her hooves in front of herself as if she was desperately trying to make it go away.

“What’s wrong?!” She gave her a look of horror, grabbing her by the head and dragging her to the front of herself. “Look at this and tell me WHAT’S NOT WRONG!”

And everybody soon got what she was referring to. The only zebra in the group was dressed in a very kitschy frou-frou blue dress, and in a few moments, after realizing what she wore, she cringed.

Looking at the dress, Applejack squinted. “Ya know… it looks familiar…”

“It clashes with her complexion so badly I can hardly look at it! Discord, what were you thinking?!” the fashionista snapped at the draconequus.

“Sorry, I was just working from my memory… and I realized that I’ve never seen Miss Rhymes-a-lot ever wearing a dress… actually I’ve never seen her wear anything else, I just went with what came to mind first.”

Rarity used her magic and instantly tore the dress off, sparing Zecora anymore indignity. “You aren’t fit for the position, Discord. For a perfect dress, one needs to have a perfect feel for it. Luckily you have me here.” She began to traipse about, lifting the zebra’s limbs. “Come to think of it, I‘ve never attempted to make a dress for a zebra before…” She gasped, before turning to the rest of the group. “So many possibilities! Girls, you go on ahead without us. We’ll go to my boutique and fix things up so we’ll be fashionably late. Ooooh, this is so exciting!”

Her enthusiasm was soon dashed away, however, as a hoof tapped her on her shoulder. “As flattered as I am, Rarity, I’m afraid duty will have me abstain from the festivity.”

“Wait what?! But the ball, the dress-“ the fashionista’s tongue was twisting in response to her decline.

“I appreciate your generosity, but not while we’re dealing with a monstrosity. Give yourselves a moment of reprieve and play, while I try to make sure to keep the shadow at bay.”

“Awww, come on, Zecora, are you sure you can’t go with us for a change?” Applebloom begged.

“Well you ain’t going to the ball anyway, Shugacube,” her older sibling answered.

“What?!” the young mare exclaimed.

“This is a council meeting day, remember? And you still have chores to deal with back at the farm.” She turned to the Lord of Chaos. “Discord?”

Draconequus rolled his eyes, snapping his fingers, and the dress on the younger sibling disappeared.

She pouted. “It’s not fair.”

Her mentor reached around the young mare with her hoof. “We’ll walk together, our homes are close by the same heather.”

“Are you sure we can’t convince you to stay for a change, Zecora?” Twilight asked. “We never see you participating at the parties.”

“Trust me, Your Highness,” she said, “recover as best you can. I have a great many things to plan.”

There was disappointment hanging in the air, but it was understandable.

“Okay, we’ll check up on you tomorrow again, Zecora,” the princess said.

The zebra nodded.

“Alright, enough babble. I believe we have a party waiting on us,” Discord pushed them to move on.

Zecora and Applebloom departed for Ponyville. And while the rest of the group were led by Fancy Pants to the place for festivities, Twilight got up close to Discord.

“Discord, are you sure you cleaned up EVERYTHING? Including Ponyville?” she questioned him.

“Well, mostly, but you need not worry about that part. Let’s just say some zebra’s in for a big shock when she gets home,” he snickered.

The princes gave him a confused look.

The two walked down the path all the way back to the little town. It was quiet for most of it, but the elder one noticed the younger one fuming.

“Fret not, little Bloom, missing one party is no reason for gloom.”

“It doesn’t make it any better,” she pouted. “Besides, you could’ve stayed. Even with what’s been happening, you could’ve joined my big sis and the rest. Why dodge it?”

“‘They may have time to spare, but not I, for gathering ingredients for potions is a consummate affair. Now I’ll be able to experiment to my heart’s content, and I fear among glamorous steeds my presence is ill-spent,” she sighed.

“But… you’re not bashful. Are you? You’ve participated in Nightmare Night, surely you’ve been to other parties before?” the young mare asked her.

“In the tribe which I was born to we did not revere kings, instead we have those who bestow us with things. They are kind and care for us, it’s only natural to honor them by being festive and generous.”

An elderly zebra and her little filly walked through the tall grassland savanna in the scorching sun. All they had on them was a pair of saddlebags, knitted from brown straw.

“Mada,” the filly complained, “why do we have to do this? We’ve had the Conje… Conja… ermm, Can… the celebration before. Why do I have to help?”

“It’s called the Conjugation, Zecora,” the elder zebra corrected her. “And yes, we’ve had it before, but this year it’s special. Residents from all over Farasi will visit this year, especially because the Three Kings will be honoring us with their presence. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so the whole village will be helping.”

She pouted. “I’d rather be helping fada.”

“You know full well your father cannot be disturbed when he’s performing his duties. Your sister’s already gone ahead of us to prepare the feast, and all must be ready before the twilight falls. That's when the guests will come.”

“Yes, mada,” the child grumbled.

They finally left the tall grasslands and entered a large clearing. Numerous zebras were going about, setting up tables full of festive food, yet the majority of the crowd was concentrated in the center of it all, where a giant pyre was being built, as pieces of dried wood were being stacked up.

The elder zebra opened her saddlebags and tipped them over. A huge pile of blankets suddenly fell out, they did for a few moments, in fact; it would’ve been impossible to fit that many in a bag of that size were it not enchanted. The two went to work on setting up the sitting area around the pyre. As they did, however, Zecora noticed something else; around the fireplace, large wooden tubs were already set up, but she couldn’t understand what for. Were they expecting rain? And if so, why around the place where somebody could be sitting instead?

Some time passed and the area was all set for festivities as the sun was slowly drifting towards the distant horizon. The whole village had already gathered, apart from the High Shaman; all they had to do now was wait for the visitors.

“Look! To the east!” one of the villagers called out.

Heads turned in the direction. A great cloud of dust could be seen on the horizon, yet it took some time before anyone could actually be seen as it approached slowly. The elder zebra stood at the front of the gathering crowd and her little filly soon joined her. She was unsure what to expect; what she heard of The Three Kings was from her father, but she had never actually seen anyone from outside of her village. By the time the cloud of dust reached them, it had already dissipated as it left the desert sands and the figures became more discernable.

A great procession of zebras marched in their direction, all adorned in fabrics of vibrant colors. It would’ve been hard to tell whether they were all guards or simply participants of the feast, were it not for the noticeable gleaming metal gear that covered them. As they approached closer, it became clear that a handful of them was pulling a large golden chariot that was fashioned into a throne. Sitting on that very throne was a zebra that towered above all others, wearing no garments above the waist, other than a golden crown, which was designed to look like lightning bolts crossing each other, his mane bright and jagged like several thunderbolts.

The little filly was awestruck, so much so that her jaw was agape; she’d never seen anything of the like.

“Kid, you’re gonna make us look bad if you’re gonna be pulling that face,” a voice said.

Zecora was roused by the voice just now; she knew to whom it belonged and she scowled in response. Another zebra, at least a head taller, joined her side. The front of her mane was tangled up in a braid that hung down the side of her face with golden rings keeping it clapped together. What irritated the younger one was the smug look on her face though.

“Sanaa, what were you doing earlier than, when you were pulling that same face as well?” the elder zebra scolded her. “You’re in no position to preach.”

“Yes, Mother,” the other zebra rolled her eyes.

The procession finally stopped. The escort beside the chariot parted and stood still in a line, as the first king stepped off his golden throne and walked to the gathered locals. He approached and stopped within the reach of the High Shaman’s mate.

“King Abraxas, welcome. You honor us with your presence here today,” the elder zebra spoke and bowed to him.

The taller equine stood still for a moment, not saying a word, then turning his head to the side and regarding the two younger mares. Zecora felt a bit threatened; this zebra towered well over two heads above her mother. No normal zebra could be this tall. But she chose to act tough, so she took in a deep breath and raised herself to her full height.

After a brief moment, the king smiled and turned his gaze back to the elder one. “You’ve raised a pair of beautiful and strong daughters, tribal matron.”

“Thank you, sire,” she finally raised her head again. “Your seat of honor awaits.”

He nodded. King Abraxas then looked back and motioned to his company. At a moment’s notice, they all followed him to the sitting area and made themselves comfortable.

“So far so good,” Sanaa said before turning her head to her younger sibling and noticing she was starting to go blue in the face. “Kid, do you wanna choke before they all get here?”

The filly finally exhaled, gasping for air. Then she noticed that the wind started to pick up. Was a storm coming? There was not a cloud in the sky. That’s when she noticed something on the horizon again.

“Look! South-east!” another villager cried out.

A cloud of dust appeared on the horizon again, but something wasn’t right; it approached at a great speed and it didn’t seem to be stopping. Fear washed over Zecora and she hid behind her mother.

“Kid, are you really gonna start cowering now?” the older sibling said.

The filly gave her an angry look. “Oh yeah? Then why are your legs shaking?"

She gave her a look of insult, but before the fight could escalate, their mother got their attention. “Stop making such fuss and get in line, you two. The second guest is coming.”

The two mares steeled themselves. Just before the cloud of dust reached them, it suddenly stopped, brushing ever so gently past them, and as it cleared away, figures finally revealed themselves. They were covered in cloaks and shawls varying from blue, white, and grey, but the one at the head of them was the only wearing red. He swung his head back to remove the cowl, as did the rest.

Zecora never saw anything alike. They resembled equines yet were completely different: Their coats were mostly earthly colors, they had scrawny legs compared to zebras, yet they were still able to support their weight, their faces were considerably longer, and above their noses grew a pair of horns. As for their leader, who much like the one who came before him, was taller than the rest of his kin, and on his head, he wore a headdress made of numerous feathers. He walked towards the organizers and stopped at the family.

“King Amun of Abadas, welcome. You honor us with your presence here today,” the elder zebra spoke and bowed to him.

Zecora expected the same reaction as with the previous monarch, but then he smiled. “Greetings, tribal matron. It’s a delight to participate in tonight’s event.”

The filly couldn’t understand. There was this glow of positivity radiating from him when the previous one felt as if thunder was about to strike anyone who stepped out of line.

The elder zebra raised her head. “Thank you. Your seat of honor awaits next to the other guests.”

“Wait… other guests?” as the abada spoke it felt as if the wind suddenly shifted.

Zecora noticed as well that his attitude suddenly changed, as he nodded to his entourage to follow him. She followed through the crowd, escaping the gaze of her family, sneaking off to where the sitting area was. King Abraxas and his followers already made themselves comfortable. Then Amun with his escort arrived at the scene and the two leader’s eyes met. There was a sudden tension in the air. Was it animosity? Spite? Whatever it was, things didn’t seem like they were about to go in a positive direction.

The king of abadas came into the leg reach of the zebra king. “You cheated!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the zebra said in an unamused tone.

“You went off early!” abada explained. “You went several hours ahead and got here a few moments before me! If you started when I did, your followers wouldn’t be here with you now!”

“We weren’t competing anyway, Amun,” he dismissed him. “Besides, we both know if we did, I would always beat you in terms of speed.”

“THE HAY YOU WOULD!”

This was a downright childish display on sight. The other participants agreed with Zecora's thoughts as they simply took their seats, ignoring the quarrel between the two monarchs. Suddenly she felt a tug at her tail, as she got dragged out of the crowd and back to the front by a rather angry mother.

“Zecora, stay still,” she scolded her, “we still have to wait for the last participant to arrive and she’ll soon be here.”

The child looked to the horizon around her, yet she saw nothing out of the ordinary. ”Mada, I don’t see anything.”

She felt a tremor. And another one. Suddenly the ground began to quake. A hill started to grow nearby, a huge mound of earth rising until it finally burst open and a water spout shot out. A huge mass of water erupted and washed over the welcoming committee. Zecora coughed. What was happening? She’s never seen a water spring this close to the village.

All of a sudden, she heard her sister’s scream of panic. “Mom, my mane’s ruined!”

“Just bear it, Sanaa. This was bound to happen,” the mother said, remaining adamant.

A loud thud followed. A giant figure just flew out of the watering hole and landed in front of them. If the previous two visitors were tall, this one was absolutely huge; it barely looked like an equine at all: It had a long deep blue body, almost resembling a serpent, with a tail fin at the bottom end, two pairs of webbed fins on each side serving as limbs, only her head looked somewhat equine, with her dorsal fin extending from the top of her forehead and all the way down her spine to look like a mane.

Zecora was downright terrified. What in the world was this monster and what is it doing here?

“My apologies,” the creature said, “but navigating the underground of the desert is a complicated matter.”

Acting as if nothing had happened despite being drenched, the elder zebra approached and made a bow. “Queen Watami of Kelpies, welcome. You honor us with your presence here today.”

“Please matron, no need for decorum,” she urged her, “we’re both equals.” She stopped and then started looking about. “I sense the tension in the air… as if a storm is brewing… are the other two here already?”

The zebra nodded in response.

The kelpie queen sighed. “Of course they are.”

“Your sitting areas are all prepared for you and your following,” the elder explained.

The kelpie nodded, then turned to the hole from which the water was flowing. “Come on girls, take your seats!”

One after another, figures started jumping out. Creatures, roughly resembling their queen appeared, yet they were much smaller than her. Blobs of water suddenly became animated, lifting them and carrying them over to the pyre where the wooden tubs were set up, and placing them inside. As the kelpie queen joined them, she spotted Abraxas and Amun closely glaring at each other.

“So, who did it this time?” she asked as she slouched in her own tub.

“He cheated!” the abada exclaimed.

“Did not!” the zebra responded.

“Well, I’m calling you full of hot air, and trust me: I can tell!”

The kelpie just giggled at their childish behavior.

“We’re all set now,” her mother stated as her daughters watched the scene in progress. “Now we just wait for your father to join us. Take a seat, girls.”

The two siblings sat at the very front along with the elder zebra.

Of course, the youngest one’s curiosity got the better of her. “Why are they called the THREE KINGS, when one of them is a queen?”

The elder sibling groaned. “Because it sounds better. Or do you think saying “Two Kings and a Queen” all the time is better?”

Time passed and the sun was slowly sinking over the horizon, and the High Shaman was yet to appear. Among the crowd talking, Zecora’s gaze drifted over to the three leaders who were still doing the same shtick as before. Three creatures, completely different in appearance and personalities, it simply baffled her how they could be friends when they acted as if they were about to break out fighting.

Suddenly, the crowd went silent and the sound of hooves could be heard from the distance, coming from one noticeable figure. Zecora’s father approached, dressed in his usual ceremonial garb. As he stepped before the pyre that had not been lit yet, he pulled out his staff and knocked it against the ground a few times. At that precise moment, the sun disappeared over the horizon, entering the twilight hour.

Finally, the shaman spoke. “Kings of Farasi, honored guests, and friends! We gather now, as twilight descends, to honor the land and those, upon whom our good fortune depends! Lightning, whose flash announces the season.”

As those words were uttered, King Abraxas clapped his hoof against the floor, and thunder roared in the sky above.

“Wind, which gives cool when heat threatens our reason.” King Amun struck his hoof and a cool breeze began to blow.

“Water, the source of life and rejuvenation.” Queen Watami rose and spread her fins, and suddenly gentle rain began to spray.

“Earth, without it there’d be starvation,” at the words of their High Shaman, the tribe began to bash their hooves against the ground, Zecora promptly joining them.

“And Fire, scorcher of ills and preventer of chills.”

With those words, he bashed the bottom of his staff against the ground and lightning came down from the sky, striking the pyre, and setting it ablaze. There was a momentary gasp from the crowd, namely Zecora herself, as she only experienced it once before.

“Let us no longer delay, let the Conjugation give way!”

And then it happened: As the High Shaman began to murmur, lightning struck from the sky on its own in front of him, turning into an animated figure, rocks began to rise in a clump until they resembled a body, a spark of flames jumped out of the pyre and began to wildly dance in front of them, a gust of wind picked up the dust and blades of grass, twisting and turning until it resembled a moving form, and lastly a string of water jumped out of one of the kelpie tubs and slithered like a serpent to the front. With all the elements present, they began to dance around and slowly levitate, until their bodies began to fall apart, fusing together with one another in a twister until they finally conjugated into a single form of five elements. There was a flickering flash and then an explosion happened, sending a powerful shockwave of magical energy across the land.

There was a lingering silence for a moment, one that the shaman soon broke. “It is done, help yourselves to a drink and a bun.”

And cheer erupted. It turned into an actual party now. Food was shared and drink flowed all around between the residences of kingdoms. Zecora still couldn’t quite comprehend what she had just seen; the elements, nature's forces came to life. She didn’t think it possible; so strong was the magic. But then she looked at the rest of the gathering. Where there was a noticeable tension in the air between the rulers before, it was all gone now, the looks on their faces, any form of burden and wrath dissipated.

The little zebra began to realize something: the zebras, the abadas, and the kelpies; regardless of their differences, they shared a strong bond with this land, and as such, the bond between each other, even if they may not always see eye to eye. What was it though? What was this power of unity called?

“Wow…” Applebloom gasped in amazement. “I wish I could’ve seen it.”

“Indeed, little Bloom, it was a marvel to behold, but I can tell you such feats one does not easily get ahold. And as I learned it first hand, without proper respect, things will easily go ba-“

Zecora went silent, not even able to finish the sentence as her jaw was agape.

“Zecora? What’s wrong?” her apprentice questioned her yet she got no response, and when she looked in the direction she was, she quickly understood what paused her.

The long talk from Canterlot got them back to Ponyville by this point, and while the streets were cleared of the mess that had landed in the same manner as it did back in the city, it appeared that the Lord of Chaos had left a little parting gift, namely for her. As they walked down the main street in direction of Twilight’s old castle, the zebra spotted a familiar structure laying in the way and blocking its front entrance. They galloped off and eventually stopped at the uprooted treehouse that was flung from the Everfree Forest.

“The nerve of Discord…” she whispered, then raised her voice, “to thrash my home with the force of a horde! What’s worse, with the castle’s door blocked my workstation’s as good as locked!”

“Well, can’t you work anywhere else?” Applebloom questioned her.

“I need a secluded space to keep noise and other elements out of place,” she explained.

“Well… what about in there?” She pointed to the treehouse. “I mean, it’s a closed-off space and you can work in it until Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie return.”

The zebra was about to deflect the notion, but after a moment of thought, she realized the young mare had a point. They’re dealing with urgency and she can’t really slack off and wait for the school’s faculty to return. She’ll just have to make due.

She smiled. “Who’d have thought I’d work again in the home I fled after it was turned on its head.”

She climbed up the roots and the trunk, opening the shut door of her home, and looked inside. One honestly couldn’t have noticed the difference; the mess left behind looked the same as when Queen Chrysalis thrashed it.

“I can help you clean up, Zecora,“ the country pony offered assistance.

“‘I thank you for the offer, Applebloom, but you’d best finish what you started with a broom,” she declined.

“Oh… okay,” she said in a dejected tone, before perking up again and preparing to leave. “But I wanna hear more of that party you participated in next time. I wanna see it one day myself, Zecora. Goodbye!”

The young mare dashed off to her home, her mentor waving her. “‘I’ll pique your curiosity more…” Yet as the apprentice was a considerable distance away, the tone of her voice lost its flare. ”But I fear the latter would leave me cold and sore...”

She dropped into the treehouse. The whole mess would have to be cleared away before she proceeded with her work. She took off her saddlebags and began to sweep the floor with her tail.

Some time passed and what little was done would have to do for now. Since she was basically standing on the wall she would have to take percussions that the whole tree doesn’t go up in flames, so she used the rocks that surrounded her original fire pit as isolation, however, it also meant she would have to work with a much smaller cauldron as well. The experimentation could now start. She reached inside her saddlebag and pulled out a small jar filled with dark powder that she made from the mysterious nut that she crushed. There was a potion she had in mind that could be of use: a long time ago, when Twilight Sparkle had just become a princess, the Everfree Forest suddenly came to life and from one of the invasive roots she managed to create a vision potion, yet she was unable to finish it before the dark force expelled her from her home, forcing her to ask the new alicorn to finish the job herself. Now she had plenty of time to work on it in peace.

She began to pour the reagents into the cauldron, most of it went easily, as she already knew the recipe from her head, it would be the final and main ingredient that would decide whether or not she would be successful. She took a small speck of black powder from the jar and dropped it into the cauldron. In a few seconds, the entire concoction turned pitch black, overflowing from the cauldron, and then exploded with a shrieking cry, forcing the zebra to press against the wall, or rather the ceiling, in this case, to avoid the eruption. This was an incredibly volatile substance, even though she used the amount she would normally use for all her potions. She had to tread carefully now. She would have to go through the process of preventing the volatile reaction from recurring while making sure the potion didn’t lose its purpose.

Hours passed. No matter how often she tried, the end result would be the same; the cauldron would overflow and explode in a violent cry, and each time she would have to start from scratch, weighing which ingredient to reduce, but it seemed that even though she kept reducing the amount of black powder, the reaction would still happen, that is, until she managed to isolate a single grain and dropped it inside. The concoction inside the cauldron still turned pitch black, but this time, when she anticipated the volatile reaction, it didn’t happen. Long calm rested on the moment before she finally approached the cauldron. Did she finally succeed?

Suddenly there was a tremor. No, not from the brew; the whole house was shaking. It turned, shifting the interior to its proper position, yet as result, the whole mess that was swept aside went flying, the temporary fire pit along with the completed brew got tossed across the room, as well as her owner.

“Hey, did you hear that?” a voice came from outside.

Somebody was definitely outside her house. And there was no way anyone could’ve just flipped the tree if they didn’t have a great amount of magic power. Which meant that the faculty members have finally returned.

Before she could go out and give them a piece of their mind, she felt something; intense heat rising and the smell of burning. She turned her head and at the moment’s notice ran for the door. The burning kindling from her firepit set the tip of her tail on fire, and in her panic, she rushed out the door and made a quick dash for the pond that stood at the entrance of Twilight’s School of Friendship, and made an immediate leap, diving into it.

Sunburst, Trixie, and Starlight Glimmer stood in front of the castle, with the latter levitating Zecora’s treehouse away from the front entrance, hearing the zebra’s scream and dash for the body of water.

“Starlight, I think you made a mistake…” the blue unicorn said.

“How was I supposed to know she was inside?!” she yelled.

“Well, I mean, she did say she was going home and the fact that the tree was blocking the entry into the castle,” the stallion pieced it together, only to be cut off.

“Sunburst, can you please not?” she told him, planting the tree into the ground and rushing away, with her two companions following her.

They came to the edge of the pond in front of the school just when the zebra finally came to the surface, gasping for air. The moment she saw them, the angry look on her face came up.

“Zecora, we’re so sorry!” the principal pleaded. “We had no idea you were inside!”

“Again, you’re the one who thought about moving the tree, not us,” the school counselor corrected her.

“Trixie, you’re not helping,” the pink mare said between gritted teeth.

“‘Whether your fault or not, I’m forced to restart, thanks to you lot!” the zebra yelled at them.

She got picked up by Starlight’s teal aura and levitated out of water. As she was completely drenched from head to hoof, her mane spread in half, hanging on the side of her face.

“Hold still for a moment,” the principal commanded.

A burst of magic shot out of her horn and into Zecora, creating a burst of wind. By the time it passed, the shaman was dry, yet her mane and tail stuck out like hardened spikes.

“Better?” Starlight asked, hoping she may have gotten off the hook.

The zebra still glared at her, running her frontal hooves from the back of her head to the front of her forehead to fix it. She then angrily stomped away back into her house and out again, carrying her saddlebags, before entering the castle. The three unicorns rushed in after her and caught a glimpse of her as she was moving to the room she spent last night in.

“Zecora, come on! Starlight said she was sorry,” Sunburst pleaded. “At least let us help you.”

She stopped before entering. “If you wish to help, then listen! Return after the sun has risen!”

She slammed to door behind. It frustrated her. She was done and now she’ll have to work again to make the batch perfect. She began rummaging through the saddlebag, pulling out the reagents, when she suddenly stopped. She just realized something…

“Wow… that’s one zebra that can hold a grudge…” Trixie said.

Starlight sighed in defeat and walked away. “She has every right to be upset. I was being careless.”

Then the door of zebra’s room opened, garnering their attention, as her head poked out. “On second thought, there’s something I need brought.”

The unicorn group gathered at the door, awaiting command. The shaman raised her hoof at them, revealing a pair of small rocks, one light, and the other black.

“Rocks?” Trixie questioned. “What are we supposed to do with rocks?”

“These are what rained today when the Lord of Chaos was sent to play,” she explained. “I’ve lived in Everfree Forest longer than most, but still! The stone I found eludes my comprehension, so why not bring this matter to your attention?”

Sunburst levitated the two pieces of light and black rock to his face, adjusting his glasses as he looked. “I wish I could help, but I fear my knowledge is also limited without diving into it. If we had more samples I could perform some tests to try and decipher what they are, but as it is, to tell from only this, we’d need a rock specialist.”

“But Maud’s at Crystal Empire right now, and we can’t just waste a whole day going there just to ask her what these things are,” Starlight pointed out.

“Then we just need a good reason to go there for a longer period of time,” Trixie stated.

The childhood friends looked at her, the mare being the first to respond. “Trixie, what do have in mind?”

“How about we have the ending field trip with the students earlier?” the blue mare asked.

“Wait, early? As in tomorrow?” the stallion questioned.

“Look, I know it’s kind of out of the blue, but try to look at it this way. The students have been depressed for a while now, especially after what’s happened yesterday. We need to give them something else to think about, get them away from this place, and if by some chance things get worse with whatever’s happening in Everfree Forest, they won’t be affected by it. In the meantime, we can use this chance to hang out with Maud and Mudbriar and get them to fill us in on what we’re dealing with.”

The headmare thought for a moment. “I mean, it’s a solid idea, but to just spring it on students like this?”

“Don’t worry, you got me to deal with this,” the school counselor winked and ran out the front door.

“Aaaaaand she’s gone…” Starlight sighed.

“And what about that second thing, Zecora?” Sunburst asked.

“With my progress undone, and tools now gone, I fear the race will not be won,“ the zebra explained her predicament.

The yellow unicorn stroke his beard for a moment. “I may have a solution to that. Back in a jiffy.”

The stallion ran upstairs. There was a sound of rummaging and things falling to the floor and moments later he returned running downstairs holding a suitcase.

“I hope this will help in some manner,” he said as she opened it, revealing multiple compartments with flasks, beakers, a heating source, a stand, and all other manners of things. “It’s my old alchemy set. I’ve not used it in a while, but I hope it will suffice, even if the production will be minimal at best.”

The zebra looked through it and a smile appeared on her face. “It is more than enough. I hope my words before didn't strike you too rough.”

Starlight smiled. “It’s alright, Zecora. No harm done.”

“Now if you excuse me, I must depart, so I can finally get my work to restart.”

“We understand,” Sunburst answered. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

And with that, the zebra grabbed the suitcase with her teeth and dragged it in.

The two unicorns lingered outside her door for a moment. “So, how do you think the students will take Trixie’s idea, Sunburst?”

Chapter 18: The Vision Chaser

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Chapter 20: The Plans

Howling winds ran across the snowy landscape. So far north of the Crystal Empire, where the magical protection of Crystal Heart ceased, snowstorms were present all year-round, yet even then, some made their home here, which meant somebody had to keep things in check. A little unicorn mare named Glitter Drops ran the Arctic Patrol, and she was going about her usual routine. No, not patrolling; it was that time of the week again and she had to go pick up the food for her numerous pets. Of course, that didn’t stop the occasional request for assistance, from which she was just returning, and it took longer than she anticipated, but she didn’t have to worry about her critters, knowing her co-worker was at home looking after them. This late in the afternoon it was almost nighttime out in the wilderness, so she had to pick up the pace if she didn’t want to run into any undesirables. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have to look far, since they found her first.

There was a movement in the nearby trees that made her stop. She couldn’t quite make up what it was, apart from a pair of yellow eyes glowing in the shadows. And then it came lumbering out, with heavy footsteps and breathing; it was tall, its body made of wood, shaped to resemble a giant omnivore.

“Lumber bear,” the little mare whispered to herself.

It wouldn’t be the first time she had an encounter with the species, and much like their distant cousins, the timber wolfs, they were extremely aggressive. She prepared herself, stepping into a fighting stance as her horn lit up. The creature stopped and then let out a roar. Suddenly, behind it, from the shadow of the trees, a dozen more eyes lit up, and before she knew it, more lumber bears joined him. Glitter Drops’ confidence sank; she might have been able to take on at least one of them, but a whole pack was too much. There was only one way out now. Her horn erupted in bright light, blinding them all. By the time their sight returned, their target had already dashed away, leaving hoofprints in the snow.

She ran as fast as she could. She may have bought herself some time with her trick, yet she could already hear a massive stampede accompanied by roaring sounds right on her tail. If she was to have any chance at all, she would need to get her co-worker’s assistance. She was fast approaching the border, just one more turn, and the deep snow would no longer slow her down as much. She made a turn right around the cliff edge and…

BAM!

She had just hit her head on a rock, the blunt pain echoing in her head caused her to lose balance in her hooves and she collapsed in the snow. There was a distinct ringing sound in her ear, her vision had gone a bit blurry, but even then, she could see the pack of lumber bears fast approaching. There was no way for her to outrun then now. She cowered at the corner of the rock she had hit, covering her face. The stampeding sound suddenly stopped and there was silence for a moment, then she heard a strange sparking sound; first, it flickered, then the second time, and on the third turn it became constant, followed by a sudden sound of a lightning bolt striking, along with a strong flashing light. The wooden usras let out roars of terror and ran off. Finally, the quiet fell on the surroundings, the sound of the cold wind was all the was left in its place. Glitter Drops’ senses finally fully recovered, but it still boggled her mind what exactly happened? What could’ve scared a whole pack of lumber bears? The lightning? Even so, where did it come from? And what was that sparking sound moments before? She was about to depart while pondering, only to realize she was about to bash her head into the rock again, even though she could’ve sworn she avoided it, what caught her off guard though was that she was able to see her own distorted image on its surface. Startled, she took in the full picture as she took several steps back and realized what was actually in front of her.

A giant bipedal shape towered over the little pony, covered with a cloak and cowl, yet past the lower half, its dark body was visible to her, showing a reflective, yet rough surface. She then heard the sparking sound again and then noticed there was light flickering in the palm of its right arm. As the northern winds blew, the cowl covering its head moved slightly, and the unicorns spotted a single teal eye under it. She was suddenly overcome with fear; the creature was peering right at her.

“Huh?” a voice came out of it as it turned its head to the right side. “Yeah yeah… I’m going already…”

With those words, the creature finally took a step, moving slowly in Glitter Drops’ direction… and stepped over her, acting as if she wasn’t even there, as if nothing happened. But something has happened; this creature of stone just saved her life, yet it acted as if it was not a big deal.

“Thank you!” she called out to it when it was already a considerable distance away.

It stopped for a moment and turned its head to the side. “Huh? Yeah sure… whatever…”

Without another word, the creature continued its march, wandering off into the Frozen North. She wanted to thank it properly, but she could see it had other priorities. There was one little problem left, however: the encounter will have likely left the unicorn with a nasty bruise on her head, she’d prefer to just stick her head in the snow for a few minutes and let it cool off. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of time as her pets were hungrily awaiting her back home and her co-worker was likely growing anxious from her absence, so she didn’t waste much time and trotted off home.

Her office finally came in sight. The cold wind may have been helping soothe the sting from her bruise, but she could really go for a nice ice pack in a warm home.

She entered the reception lobby and took off her saddlebags. “Fizzy, I’m back! How are the kids?”

Instead of a response, a crash followed.

“Fizzy?!” Glitter Drops called and entered the living room.

It was chaos. The furniture was turned over as a mare was running around, being pursued by a group of starving felines.

“Dropsy, where’s that food?! Stop them already!” she cried.

The unicorn brought out the bags, and she didn’t even have to do as much as shake them, and the sound of treats contained inside drew the attention of the attackers.

“Come on, kitties! Mama’s got a little something for you!” she called out to them.

The gaggle of cats immediately gathered at the hooves of their owner as she walked over to their bowls and began filling them up. It didn’t take long for them to finally go silent and proceeding to stuff their faces. With the pets dealt with, it was time to clean the mess, but not before a sigh of relief got her attention, from the co-worker who just emerged from behind a back chair. The mare was at least a head taller than her, the fur purple and her mohawk-shaped mane in a darker tone of pink. However, this unicorn had several other notable characteristics that would make anyone recognize her; the most notable was her broken horn, followed by a claw mark on her right eye, and the last but not least, the dark clothing with metal armor attached to it and a very recognizable symbol of two teal lightning bolts facing each other to shape eyes. Even with the name like Fizzelpop Berrytwist, she was mostly remembered by others only as Tempest Shadow, the Storm King’s former lieutenant.

“Fizzy, what’s happened?” her smaller companion inquired.

“Your critters are ravenous monsters, Dropsy. That’s what’s happened,” Tempest responded to her question.

“Couldn’t you have just stopped them?”

“How? You know I can’t use force on them. Or should I have just locked them in a confined space?”

“Well, no, but look at this place, Fizzy. It’s a mess.”

“Sorry, but this was as long as I could keep them calm before the hunger got the better of them,” she made excuses. “Where were you anyway? I thought you were gonna be back quickly, but you were away for more than an hour.”

“Sorry, but I had a few side calls to take care. And on top of that-“

“Dropsy, what’s happened to your head?!” the ex-commander raised her voice in panic after finally noticing the giant bruise on her friend’s head.

“Oh, this… I was getting to that. I had a close encounter with a pack of lumber bears.” The teal mare tried to gently touch her head only to flinch from the sting.

The broken unicorn rushed into the kitchen and returned with an icepack, which Glitter Drops picked up and placed on the area of trauma.

“Dropsy, tell me exactly what happened.”

The streets of the Crystal Empire were lively as ever. The crystal ponies had their shops and stalls opened for visitors to buy their crystal-based products; visitors who came far and wide from all over Equestria. One of them took particular interest, not so much in the things that were being sold, but rather things that weren’t sellable. The figure sneaked to one of the houses, checked about to make sure nobody was looking and then quickly bit into the corner of the crystalized house, taking a huge chunk out of it. She chewed, the sound of crystals grinding against one another and breaking down inside her mouth made her feel giddy. This was the fourth house she tried and it had a distinct flavor from others, and she wondered what the next one would taste like.

“Smolder!” a stern voice called out.

She flinched. She’s just been seen, and at the moment’s notice, she jumped into the nearby trash can. Luckily for her, it’s already been emptied, though that didn’t eliminate the lingering stench. That’s however where her luck ran out as the dragon felt the can in which she was hiding, move, and then turned upside-down, causing her to fall out and onto the pavement.

“Smolder,” the angry headmare looked down on her, “what do you think you’re doing? You can’t just go about eating bits of somepony’s house. How would you feel if somepony decided to take a bite of your house?”

“Well, I-“

“Hey! What happened to my house?!” the resident returned only to find the state in which his home was.

Starlight pulled a concerned face and pushed the dragon in front of her, trying to make sure they get away from the place of the incident unnoticed. “Don’t look back at him, don’t look back at him, don’t look back at him…”

The students from the School of Friendship were all over the place across the empire, and Starlight Glimmer had to make sure that they were not up to any mischief. Sandbar in the meantime helped Silverstream carrying a few bags as she went on a shopping spree.

“Sandbar, you know you don’t need to help me,“ Silverstream said.

“Yeah, but I lost Yona and Gallus, and Ocellus is likely at a book store, the least I can do is help you… all things considered,” the young stallion said, as he struggled under the weight of the hippogriff’s bags.

He stopped at one of the stands, spotting a plethora of mini-tarts of all kinds. “You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the next store.”

The hippogriff flew off. As he browsed which desert to buy, the temptation set into the lemon-furred pony. All of these deserts, all of them so uniquely designed, all of them looking absolutely delicious… he couldn’t just take ONE! They all looked so good that he’d feel like he picked the wrong one. And since the old habits die hard, the earth pony couldn’t help himself but buy just about all the types at disposal. He would soon regret his decision, as the already heavy load he was carrying got him to wobble, threatening the surrounding passersby with a collapse. Eventually the inevitable happened the blue-maned stallion crashed into somebody, the cupcakes on his back came tumbling down and pelting the unfortunate victim.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” he started to apologize.

“It… it’s okay,” the silky female voice spoke.

“Please let me help you get cleaned up,” he frantically grabbed paper towels from a nearby stall and desperately tried to wipe the cream off the mare’s face.

“No… please, it’s okay. I can do it myself,” she argued.

A green aura surrounded the mare’s bulge on her forehead; she was a unicorn. Suddenly all the cream on her was enveloped by the magical aura, and in a split second, it all went flying off her, splattering right into Sandbar’s face.

“Oh… oh dear, I’m so sorry about that,” she apologized back.

The young stallion chuckled. “Nah, it’s okay, I totally deserved that one. I’m so sorry for making a mess, miss-“

He stopped after wiping off the cream from his eyes and actually seeing the mare. She was white as snow, her mane long and green as a grass field with a single pink streak running down it. He could’ve sworn he’s seen her before somewhere.

“What?” she asked him. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

He shook his head. “I’m so sorry, but… you look like somepony I saw somewhere before…”

She smiled. “Trust me, you wouldn’t be the first one who told me that. Now if you excuse me…”

She trotted off past him. Sandbar still couldn’t figure out why this mare looked so familiar, he did however notice that she carried a saddlebag filled with books, and one of them lay to the side where she was just now; it likely fell off when he bumped into her.

“Miss, wait!” he called out to her, before grabbing the book between his teeth and ran after her.

The mare eventually stopped when she heard him, turning to face him, and the young stallion finally got to her and offered her the missing book. “Oh my… why thank you, young man. I’d get some really mean looks from the librarian if I didn’t bring that back.”

She picked it up and levitated it to her side. As it did, the earth pony managed to catch the book's title, “History of the Crystal Empire”. There were other books with related titles, such as “Magic of the Crystal Heart” and “Amore: The First Crystal Princess”, to name some.

“You seem to have a lot of books about Crystal Empire, miss…” he let her know his observation.

“I’m not a local and this is my first time visiting, so I’m trying to learn as much about this place as I can,” she answered him.

“Well, I won’t hold you back any longer if that’s the case. Again, I’m sorry for the inconvenience, miss.” He quickly scurried away to the mess he had left behind, picked up what wasn’t destroyed, and ran after the rest of the group.

As the student left, the mare quickly trotted off, picking up the pace until she finally slipped into an alley between two houses, proceeding to an old rundown door, checking whether or not anyone has followed her, and then snuck inside. It was dark, the thick curtains blocking just about all the light inside, while a mess lay all over the place. This building has been condemned for a long time and it’s been years since anybody has lived in it, so it made a perfect hideout for anyone trying to keep a low profile.

“Did you bring them?” a grizzled voice spoke.

A shape of an old ram emerged for the shadows, becoming only slightly clearer.

“This is all I could gather on the Crystal Empire, Grogar,” the mare said as she levitated the books from her saddlebag to his side. “But is all of this necessary? I could just tell you all you need to know.”

The books that levitated were now enveloped in dark light, as the sorcerer brought them closer. “As generous as that may be, I’d prefer to not gloss over any details.”

“You don’t trust me?” the unicorn asked.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just don’t trust you have the information required,” he explained himself.

“So… what? You’re just gonna go through books? Shouldn’t we be doing something more productive while we wait?”

“Until that rug rat comes back we’ll still have more than enough time. We’re dealing with ancient magical artifacts of great power here, so we have to find a way to disable it, as well as finding the seal to the prison.”

“But what if the answers you seek aren’t contained in any of the books?” she inquired.

Grogar levitated one of the books to his face and opened it. “If all else fails… I suppose the child can be of assistance.”

“The child…? Wait a second, you don’t mean-?”

“She’s young and naive… she doesn’t know any better, nor does she know any of us. These kinds of weaknesses are easy to exploit. We’ll just have to use a proper approach,” he chuckled to himself. “But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

The afternoon sun was high and Princess Cadence walked through the crystal flower garden. Ever since she took the legendary Mistmane into her service, she served as the royal landscape artist of the Crystal Empire. Much like plants, the quartz and other forms of crystals bent to her will as if clay, making it look as if the empire was in a constant blooming spring. It was in places like this that the Princess of Love took a momentary respite from the everyday struggles of the ruling. As she walked through the quartz garden, she heard a voice in the distance, so she peeked around the corner. It seemed that the old unicorn had a visitor today: it was an earth pony, his fur and mane were both of earthly color, and he had a strangely indifferent look on his face. She couldn’t quite make it out what was being said, all she saw was the stallion nodding after a prolonged discussion and then walking away.

The princess finally decided to move out in the open to confront the old mare. “I don’t remember ever seeing you receive visitors, Mistmane. A friend of yours?”

The old mare turned to the sound of her voice. “Oh, hello Your Majesty. No, nobody I know. But it seems the young man was very keen on finding me for a special request.”

“A special request?” Cadence frowned. “He didn’t ask you to undertake a dangerous mission, did he?”

Mistmane laughed. “Oh no, nothing as drastic as that, but he did consider it important. He asked me to fashion for him a very special crystal flower jewel… for a special event… for his special somepony. Though if I’m honest, I think you should do the honors in my place of delivering it, considering your position.”

“Me? My position? What are you trying to-“ the Princess of Love was confused for a moment, but then it immediately all clicked into place for what the landscape artist was implying. “Wait… are you saying he’s going to…?”

Mistmane simply nodded in response.

A little squirm escaped the princess’ mouth. “Awww, that’s so sweet. No wonder he decided to seek you out for an occasion like this.”

The old mare smiled. “Mind you it will take a lot of work, likely a day or two.”

Just then, Cadence noticed a strange smoky shape fast approaching her from the distance, and when it reached her, it transformed into a sealed wrapped up parchment. It bore Twilight’s seal. She quickly opened it and began reading through it.

Meanwhile, Mistmane watched patiently, as she noticed the expression on the princess’ face became burdened with concern. “Your Majesty, is there something wrong?”

She didn’t respond to her. “Twilight… what are you thinking?”

“Are you absolutely sure, Scotaloo?!” Applebloom frantically asked her friend as the two young mares ran down the street of Ponyville.

“There’s no doubt about it. The way Princess Celestia reacted when I delivered her Zecora’s message, it was clear something’s gone wrong,” the orange pegasus explained. “After that, I went to check up on both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and they weren’t home!”

“Applejack hasn’t come home since yesterday,” the country pony said. “She said she was going to check on some Council business and that's it!”

Another set of galloping hooves could soon be heard, as it came rushing to their side from opposite direction.

It was Sweetie Belle. “Rarity’s been gone as well! Her store’s been closed since yesterday and she left no note or message or anything that she’s gone somewhere!”

“Pinkie Pie was absent from Sugarcube Corner!” added Applebloom. “And it seems that even Twilight is gone!”

“But where? Where could they have gone?!” Scotaloo flailed about.

“I can only think of one thing that happened…” Applebloom stopped herself before she could finish the sentence, remembering that what she’s heard was supposed to be a secret. “Never mind.”

“Applebloom?” the fashionista’s little sister caught on. “What were you trying to say just now?”

“Nothing…”

The two young mares suddenly glared at her. It was clear she wasn’t telling them something.

“Come on Applebloom, what is it that you’re not telling us?” Scotaloo urged her.

“I… I can’t say, I promised Applejack,” she resisted.

“Well Applejack is likely in danger now and you’re the only one who may know what’s up!” pushed Sweetie Belle.

She kept her mouth shut. The unicorn and the pegasus looked at each other and then promptly jumped the earth pony. They were determined to get a confession out of her.

“Say it!” the white mare poked her.

“No.”

“Say it!” the orange mare proded.

“No."

“SAY IT!” they both cried out in unison.

Suddenly a flash erupted in the sky above Ponyville and it blinded everybody temporarily, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which was more than enough to grab their attention. A wide purple magical screen opened above the town, the imagery showing the balcony outside the throne room. And then the Council of Friendship walked on to the stage, accompanied by the legendary wizard, the two sisters, and the shaman.

“Rainbow Dash! Rarity!” both the unicorn and the pegasus yelled.

The earth pony exhaled in relief. “See? You guys got frustrated for nothing.”

And then the Princess of Friendship spoke. “Residents of Canterlot! Of Ponyville! I’ve come before you today as the ruling princess of Equestria to make a few important announcements. In the last few days, you’ve been a witness to several events taking place here in the heart of our kingdom, starting with the invasion of the earth elementals on Canterlot, however with the changeling infiltration that took place not long after that, we can confirm the following.” She conjured the image of the reborn changeling queen for everybody to see. “Queen Chrysalis has escaped her stone prison. We’ve yet to discover where her other two associates are, but it is very likely that they’re yet to reveal themselves. The Queen of Changelings has summoned some unspeakable evil that resides in the depths of the Everfree Forest, as such it is hereby decreed that all the citizens stay clear out of the Everfree Forest and report all the comings and goings out of it to your local authorities.”

Sweetie Belle and Scotaloo could hear a sigh of relief coming from Applebloom. “Thank goodness. I don’t have to hide it anymore.”

“Wait, that’s what this was about?” the Pegasus looked at her.

“I was at the wrong place at the right time, so I heard it, and Applejack made me promise I wouldn’t tell.”

“Which brings me to the second point,” the Twilight announced on the big screen. “After yesterday it’s become clear that the Queen of Changelings is not acting alone in this matter. Somehow she’s managed to acquire allies that nopony could’ve ever expected.” She conjured an image of a grizzled old ram. “Only kids may recall this creature from their storybook, but I can assure all of you that he is quite real. Grogar, the dark sorcerer from the legend of Gusty the Great has returned and is now working alongside Queen Chrysalis.”

Murmurs could be heard on the streets of both Canterlot and Ponyville, but it was nothing compared to what would soon follow. “Which brings me to the last and final point. Due to the circumstances that have presented themselves, it’s become clear that the situation has escalated to the point where I cannot simply just sit by and let others handle the situation, and since this is something that will require the whole of Council of Friendship’s attention and involvement, and I have no idea how long this endeavor will take…“ she paused, preparing herself for the reaction of what she was about to say. “…I will be stepping down as the ruler until further notice, effective immediately.”

The moment she finished the sentence, loud noise erupted across Canterlot and Ponyville. They couldn’t believe that their princess decided to simply stand down after ruling for little more than three years. Some of them even started to panic.

Starswirl had just finished unloading the burden of knowledge onto the Council and the two sisters, a burden of which only he was privy to for more than a thousand years. The darkness called Turmoil that slept under the Everfree Forest, which he used as his extension, the only alicorn king who defeated it and now… to the possibility that it might return.

And by the end, Applejack asked the obvious question. “So… now that we know what we’re dealing with, what’s our plan of action?”

For a while Twilight just stood there, unsure what to say, but after what she’s just heard, there really wasn’t any way to mince words. “I… I don’t know. All of this… it’s just so much to digest. Our enemy clearly has an advantage since they seem to know what to do and in which direction. Me? I don’t even know where to start. If we’re supposed to beat Queen Chrysalis and Grogar to where the next fragment of Turmoil is, how are we even supposed to track it down? We’ve no leads to go on where they could’ve gone.”

“I don’t think that’s entirely true, darling,” the fashionista responded.

The group looked at her, but only the old wizard answered. “Is there something on your mind, Miss Rarity?”

“Mister Starswirl,” she addressed him, “can you conjure up the memory of Turmoil’s defeat again?”

The old sage didn’t really enjoy the idea of revisiting a past he did not want to be remembered of again, but if the mare had some idea on how to deal with this, it was worth a shot. His horn began to glow and the light enveloped everything.

They found themselves back at the courtyard and they all saw the events played out: Turmoil’s approach, King Titan’s arrival, and his sacrifice as the light tore the dark mass apart and exploded.

“STOP!” Rarity cried out and the moving imagery came to a stand. “Rewind it just a little bit.”

The vision slowly moved backwards, it was really odd experience watching the whole thing move in reverse.

“There!” she finally called. “Now look up.”

The vision stopped where the Turmoil’s body exploded, just before it unleashed a shockwave that knocked nearly everything down, high above where the six-faced amalgamation stood, there were three noticeable trails of magical light, in colors of purple, green, and orange, flying across the sky, each in their own direction.

“What is that?” Spike asked.

“It’s them…” Twilight’s whispered upon realization. “Starswirl said he found one of the fragments where the Turmoil’s remains were, that it was trapped inside a gemstone of the king’s bejeweled crown. Which can only lead to the conclusion that these must be the other stones that the explosion scattered all over the place.”

The old unicorn looked at the fashionista. “I must say, your keen sense for details may have saved us all, Miss Rarity.”

“Oh, pshaw, sir, ‘twas nothing.” She flipped her mane with her hoof.

“Hold on, this doesn’t add up,” Pinkie pie interrupted them. “The way I see it, Grumpy’s daddy had six faces, one was found by mister “the Bearded” and is now back in the cave with the tree, and the other three are scattered about, if all five are needed to make the sixth, then we’re still one short.”

“Errr… Grumpy?” Starswirl crooked his brow.

“That’s what she named the piece of black mass which Zecora keeps sealed in a jar,” Applejack explained. “But she does bring up a point. If these are the gems that contain each of Turmoil’s “faces”, where’s the fifth one?”

No answer could be found on that matter, but even so, Celestia spoke. “We don’t know, but sadly, it’s the only thing we have to go on. At the very least we have to try.”

“Princess Celestia’s right, at the very least we have a lead in which direction the possible fragments went,” Twilight said. “And if we take into account the geography of the castle in the way it’s positioned, the purple went flying north, the green went east, and the orange went somewhere southwest.”

“True, but that “somewhere” still has a lot of ground to cover, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash responded. “Those gems could be anywhere between here and the other side of the world. No way do we have that much time to look for them.”

“But where else do we look for gemstones that hold powerful forces that can cause calamities?” Rarity wondered.

“Where the calamities took place,” Luna finally spoke after a prolonged silence, garnering everybody’s attention.

It did make sense what the Mare of the Night was saying; the Manifestation of Hatred was only pacified for so long because Starswirl made sure to isolate its influence, but other pieces…

“So where exactly is somewhere north that something horrible had happened?” Fluttershy asked, her sight fixated on the purple trail.

Spike almost immediately answered the shy pegasus’ question. “The Crystal Empire!”

They all made their way out of the archives. They may have finally found a destination. Crystal Empire had faced many calamities in the past; firstly, the mysterious storm that had been pacified only thanks to the Crystal Heart, Sombra’s rise, and his inevitable return, twice. If there was any place for sure that one of the fragments was, it was there.

“Okay, now we finally have a course to follow: go to Crystal Empire, track down one of the fragments before Chrysalis and Grogar get to it. It may take some time before we find a trail there, but we can do it,” Twilight explain her plan as they returned back to the old study. “In the meantime, Starswirl can try and decipher where the other two places that calamities took place in Equestria are.”

“We? Who’s we?” the dragon questioned.

“The Council of Friendship of course,” she answered him.

“But without you?”

She stopped in her tracks just as she walked out of the room. That was Celestia’s voice, and it was stern, something she rarely did.

“Princess Celestia?” she turned to face her former mentor.

“Everypony, please wait for us in the courtyard,” Luna announced.

Everybody looked at each other and then quickly departed; something serious was afoot.

As the door shut closed, the former Princess of the Night resumed. “Twilight Sparkle, my sister and I do not believe you’ve thought this through.”

“P-princess Luna, what do you mean?” she inquired. “This is the best plan I could come up with.”

“I’m not talking about your plan of action, rather who you’re planning to involve in the plan. When you said “the Council of Friendship” you only meant others, but not yourself, didn’t you?”

The purple alicorn froze; how could she have picked up on that. “I… I can’t leave. My priorities are in Canterlot, to run the whole kingdom. I mean I could send a few soldiers to assist the girls on the mission-”

“You are the Element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle!” Luna scolded her. “Without you, the other Elements cannot act as a whole. You cannot seriously believe that sending your friends into danger, even if we may face an enemy that is immune to your powers, is a good idea!”

“But I cannot leave Canterlot and the whole kingdom unattended either!” she cried out in frustration.

“No…” former Princess of the Sun finally spoke in a silky voice. “No, you can’t.”

Twilight knew she was trapped between a rock and a hard place. She couldn’t be in two places at once. Long gone have been the days when she was sent on a mission with her friends, while somebody else held the reigns of ruling the kingdom. Now she was in the position of a ruler and she couldn’t just abandon it even for some high adventure to the ending of a world. Her hooves were tied.

“Then…” she struggled to find the word, begging her former mentor for an answer she didn’t have. “What am I supposed to do…?

The two sisters looked at each other for a moment, then faced the Princess of Friendship as the younger one spoke. “There’s only one way to handle this, Twilight Sparkle. But I can tell right now you will not like it.”

“Discord!” Fluttershy flew about, trying to find the draconequus.

The rest of the group simply lounged about in the courtyard, with Rainbow Dash desperately trying to fly and failing miserably, and Rarity combing her hair, while the zebra in the meantime stared off into the distance, looking at the rising darkness over the forest. She wasn’t the only one, however. Somewhere, high on the broken walls of the castle ruins, the patchworked creature looked down on the same scenery, his thoughts burdened.

“There you are!” The pegasus finally found him. “Discord, please forgive Pinkie Pie for the lack of tact.”

“Truth is never not tactful, Fluttershy,” he answered. “Only painful.”

“Discord, you didn’t stay to listen,” she traipsed closer to him. “Starswirl explained that even if the Tree of Harmony and the Elements weren’t destroyed, this would’ve likely still happened.”

“You mean just as likely as Sombra discovering where they were and destroying them? If I hadn’t brought him back, there would’ve been so many things that could’ve gone better but instead-”

He got interrupted as the yellow pegasus scooped him up with her hooves and pulled him into an embrace. “Shhhhh, it’s okay. I’m here for you.”

And a loud prolonged moaning sob followed. “Father was right… I just keep repeating the same mistake over and over again…”

The wailing could be heard all the way down to the courtyard, and it lasted for a few minutes before it finally went silent. Soon after, the pegasus descended back to the ground, with the draconequus wrapped around her neck.

FLASH!

The three princesses appeared instantly in the courtyard, everybody but the zebra, who took some time before her attention was roused, went to their side.

“Alright Twi, what’s the word?” Applejack asked.

Twilight was quiet for a moment, before finally speaking. “I know how to handle this… but it’s not going to be easy for anypony.”

The three young mares just stood on the street of Ponyville, flabbergasted. “What in the world is Twilight thinking?!”

But that was nothing compared to what was happening at the seat of power. Chaos had erupted on the streets of Canterlot from the notice that had just been given. Most of the residents were frightened of what would happen now; who was going to lead Equestria, and who would fill the vacuum of power?

But the alicorn princess hasn’t finished with her announcement yet. “So, until things return back to normal, I will be hereby transferring power over to the two mares you all know and adore, who had led this kingdom long before I ever did, and you know you can trust in dire times, who have been the eternal guardians.” She removed the crown from her head and stepped aside as two figures stepped forth. “Princesses Celestia and Luna!”

The rabble suddenly went completely quiet as the tall white alicorn with flowing rainbow mane, accompanied by the smaller darker one by her side, spoke.

“Citizens of Canterlot and Ponyville!” she loudly announced. “You have just witnessed a Princess of Equestria relinquish her own position of power, but let us reassure you, you should not look at this as a moment of sorrow and despair. Twilight’s Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship has decided to personally undertake a mission to protect you all, along with the rest of the Council of Friendship. And while you all await her victorious return, my sister and I will look after the kingdom. It may be some time, but know that the bringer of dawn and harbinger of the night, will work diligently to ensure your lives will not be anything less than they were up until now. All we ask, is that you put faith into her… and into us, as you have in the ages past.”

Silence loomed for a moment, then a pair of hooves started beating the pavement on the streets, followed by another, and more, and soon enough the whole street began clopping, echoing well beyond the wall of the city, reaching as almost as far as Ponyville.

Author's Note

Update 14.09.2021: I Noticed I accidentally replaced the original text. Fixed now.
Sorry for the inconviniences.

Chapter 21: The Chase Begins

She’s done it. She didn’t want it to come down to this, but there it was. Giving up her power so that the Elements of Harmony could remain united on the dangerous quest that was set before them wasn’t something she thought needed to be done.

As the crowds outside on the streets of Canterlot continued to cheer the return of the Two Sisters, they in the meantime retreated back to the entrance to the throne room, along with the rest of the Council and the other two participants. Now that the public business had been done and warnings have been given out, it was time to prepare to go forth.

“I understand this couldn’t have been easy for you, Twilight,” Celestia said as she walked down the hallway beside her.

“Not so much for me, Princess Celestia, but more for you and Princess Luna,” she explained. “You didn’t have to do this after all that you’ve done to make sure Equestria remained prosperous and safe. Not to mention your play-”

“Twilight,” the Mare of the Sun interrupted her, “I already told you, saving the world takes precedence over a theater play. The best I can do right now is to just make sure that the staff and actors in Manehatten stick to the regular schedule.”

“Yes, but what about Luna? She finally gets to enjoy some relaxing time after-“

“Twilight Sparkle, you need not speak in my place,” Mare of the Night interrupted her this time. “As much as I enjoy peace and quiet of Seaward Shoals, after what we’ve just heard from Starswirl, I don’t think I’ll have the luxury of peace of mind with the knowledge he had given us. If this Turmoil is somehow responsible for giving you and Discord nightmares, how many other ponies have been afflicted by him during my absence?”

“Am I to take that means you’ll be busy for a long time?” the Princess of Friendship asked.

“Compare to what you and your friends are about to do, it will be nothing,” she answered.

The rest of the group was already gathered, awaiting the princesses.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Twilight addressed them. “The last train for the Crystal Empire departs in less than two hours, which gives us plenty of time to get ready. Everypony should go home and get the necessary gear.”

“Emm, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash voiced a concern, “that might be a bit difficult for some of us.”

“I still have to make a few calls to some of my waiting clients that my boutique will be closed,” Rarity added.

“I have to find somepony to look after the animal sanctuary,” Fluttershy leaned in.

“And I-“ Pinkie Pie was about to say something, but Twilight intervened.

“Okay, I get the point; I’ll shorten the travel time,” she said before quickly turning to the dragon. “Spike, go back to the room and start preparing for when I get back. I’ll return in just a moment.”

And as her right hand ran off, in a flash, everybody, including the zebra and the old sage disappeared.

“Wait!” Luna screamed, but by then it was already too late. “I wasn’t expecting she would take him as well.”

“You seem to have a lot on your mind.” Her elder sibling looked at her.

The younger steed did the same. “And you don’t?”

“Of course I do,” Celestia sighed. “To think he’s been hiding this the whole time…”

“And there are so many questions that need to be asked,” Mare of the Night finished off her sentence.

Twilight teleported over and over again, delivering each member of the council to their respective homes to give them a chance to prepare for the journey. Lastly, she stopped at her old castle where she dropped off both Zecora and Starswirl, as she had to show something to the old sage. She led him into the council room to where the Cutie Map was, to show him the set display.

“See? Just as I told you.” She pointed on the active map, revealing a dark cloud looming over the location of the Everfree Forest. “Since the Tree and the Elements were destroyed by Sombra it remained dormant, and then according to Starlight it turned on a few days ago when we faced Queen Chrysalis again.”

The sage stroke his beard. “Unusual indeed… If the source that created and operated the map is gone, then who could be operating it now?”

“I hope that’s one more thing you could figure out while we’re away, Starswirl. I’ll return and pick you both up when we’re about to depart,” the princess of friendship said, as she teleported away.

This truly was a mystery, however considering the recent revelation, the old sage began to wonder whether or not Turmoil’s re-emergence had something to do with it. But the question was how. Surely the darkness doesn’t have the power to take the place of light in its absence… could it? His attention soon wandered across the map and realized he wasn’t alone in the room, as he spotted the shaman sitting by the side of the table, noticing how intently she’s focusing on the noticeable specific area.

“Miss Zecora, right?” he finally addressed her. “Shouldn’t you be preparing yourself for the journey north?”

His attention was finally grabbed. “It’s not as though I’ve lost my way, but I’ve no garments to keep the cold at bay.”

The wizard smiled, his horn lighting up, conjuring an old brown winter coat. “You may have this. It isn’t much, but at the least, it will ward off the elements.”

The zebra picked it up; one could judge the coat was about as ancient as him, but she was in no position to be picky. “I’m grateful for your generosity, but I dare not brave the cold’s present ferocity.”

“Your kind does not take the cold well?” he inquired.

“In a land where the grass is tall, and the wind and sands swallow all, the blazing sun prevents any kind of snowfall,” she explained as she began shoving the coat into her saddlebag.

“I see,” Starswirl mused. “I’ve never been to the homeland of the zebras before. Which reminds me, I didn’t get a chance to listen to you explaining, what kind of magic is it that you used to reveal Turmoil’s location?”

She closed the top of her bag as she finally put away the garment. “You cannot command this magic, it was plucked from a different stem. You can pursue your studies or try conjuring until you’re coughing up phlegm, but the power only comes to those that are worthy to them.”

“Them? Are you referring to some sort of sentient magic? One that has a mind of its own? Curious.” But the wizard wasn’t done yet. “Does that mean you once revealed darkness like this before?”

The zebra stopped, not responding for some time. “No. It was done by another... But please, Old Sage, this conversation I’d rather smother. It’s sore to me, and quite a bother...”

Starswirl finally relented with his inquiries. “I understand, miss Zecora. The feeling’s mutual.”

The zebra glanced at the old unicorn after he said that, as he returned to trying to decipher the mystery of the map. After revealing one of Equestria’s darkest secrets, was there something else he still didn’t want to share?

They had to work fast. Even though Twilight returned with more than enough time to spare, Spike knew her thought process all too well. By the time she popped back to the castle, he was already waiting with parchment and a quill in his hand. The standard procedure followed: make a checklist of all the things to take on the journey, gather up all the necessary equipment, make a checklist to double-check everything was present, and lastly, triple-check the checklist just in case.

“…okay. That should be all, Twilight. On both our ends,” Spike sighed in relief after he checked out the last item for the third time.

“Okay, how much time do we have left before the train departs, Spike?” she inquired.

Spike checked the watch. “Ten minutes…”

“Perfect! Just enough time to gather up everypony else.” She picked up both of their backpacks and went out onto the balcony of her room. “First stop, Rainbow Dash.”

The little dragon ran to her side and in a flash, they disappeared.

FLASH!

The two teleported inside the cloudy building belonging to the wonderbolt.

“Rainbow Dash, we’re here! You all set to go?!” Twilight called out.

There was no reply.

“Rainbow Dash!” Spike yelled.

There was still no response. The two ran up the stairs and that’s when they heard a loud snoring sound coming from her bedroom. The blue pegasus lay in her bed, her mouth open with a drool, letting out a neighing noise every now and then, while one of her legs twitched.

“RAINBOW DASH!” the alicorn screamed.

She shot up from her bed almost instantly from fright, even though the look on her face showed a sign of grogginess.

“Rainbow Dash, you were supposed to get ready to go on a journey, not to bed,” the dragon quipped.

She yawned. “Sorry. I was done so quickly I figured, I might just as well have a little shut-eye while I wait. But I’m all set and ready to go.”

The Princess of Friendship noticed a pair of saddlebags sitting by the side of the bed. “Isn’t this kinda lightweight?”

“Lightweight?! I got all of the necessities stored in there!” she complained.

“What about your tent and winter gear?” Spike inquired.

An awkward silence followed, one that lasted a considerable time before the rainbow-maned pony spoke in a hesitant tone. “Wha… why would I need those?”

The two siblings looked at each other, then the elder one spoke. “You’re kidding, right?”

All she could do was give an awkward smile in response.

The alicorn frowned. “Rainbow Dash, we’re going to the Crystal Empire. We can’t discount the probability that we might end up going somewhere further north.”

“You know, where it’s cold and snowy?” the dragon added.

The blue Pegasus instantly straightened out, and shivered, as if a chill just went down her spine.

The alicorn and the dragon glanced at one another, then asked a question. “You don’t wanna go there, do you?”

“Am I not being obvious enough?!” she yelled.

“Rainbow Dash, why are you acting this way?” Twilight wondered.

“Twi, don't you get it? I still can’t fly!” she explained, climbing out of bed. “Ever since what happened in the Everfree Forest a few days ago, just thinking about going anywhere near snow and ice, gives me the chills! And to make matters worse, ever since then, I was time and again put in a position where I got “chilled” unintentionally, which only kept reminding me of that event!” She dropped to the floor, coiling her hooves around the Princess’, and made big puppy eyes, while her lower lip wobbled. “Please, promise me that we won’t go further north!”

Twilight looked at Spike, and he only crossed his arms and shook his head in disproval.

She sighed. “Sorry, Rainbow Dash, but that’s something I just can’t promise.”

She used her magic to pull the winter coat out of her closet, and at the sight of it, a loud cry of refusal followed from the house’s resident, as she desperately clung to the edge of her bed, refusing to let go as she was being pulled away. “Please don’t make me do this!”

“Rainbow Dash, this isn’t time for an intervention!” Twilight argued as she pulled her. “The train’s about to leave and we only have… Spike, how much time do we have left?”

The dragon pulled out a watch and grimaced upon looking at it. “Six minutes!”

The alicorn followed suit, and instantly her horn flashed, causing them all to disappear.

FLASH!

They appeared inside Fluttershy’s house and Twilight soon let go of Rainbow Dash, causing her to roll on the floor.

“Sorry we’re late, Fluttershy! We’re all set to go now!” the purple mare announced.

There was no response, but rather a quick tapping sound. A little white bunny stood in the doorway with an angry expression and crossed arms, his right foot stomping the floor.

“Oh, hello Angel, where’s Fluttershy?” she asked him.

The bunny hopped over to a book and opened it on a page showing a train, pointing at it.

“Wait… she already went on the train?”

“Great…” the wonderbolt finally picked herself up. “So, we came here for nothing.”

The alicorn glared at her. “Only because you had to make an issue of your situation.”

Hers was met by an equal one from the rainbow-maned pony. “Listen you-“

“STOP IT!” Spike screamed, silencing both mares before the thing could further escalate, then pointed to his watch. “We got five minutes and counting.”

The ponies looked at each other, and without delay the purple one’s magic activated, causing them to all disappear. Angel sighed, facepalming.

All gone. Twilight teleported herself, Rainbow Dash, and Spike to all locations of her other friends, but the result was the same in all cases: the Cakes informed them that Pinkie Pie already left, so was the case with Applejack, as members of her family told them, Rarity’s boutique was closed, and neither Starswirl nor Zecora were present in her old castle. When it became apparent that nobody else was left to accompany them, the alicorn used her magic one last time to teleport to the only place that was left to go at this point.

FLASH!

The trio appeared on the platform of Ponyville’s train station, and in haste, her spell misfired a bit, causing the blue pegasus and the dragon to land on top of her along with the luggage.

Spike pulled out the watch again. “Two minutes…”

And then she saw everybody gathered on the platform, including Celestia and Luna, waiting for the latecomers to turn up.

“Twilight, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“Y’all took your fancy time,” the country pony said.

“Yeah, we thought we’d have to leave you behind.“ The pink one jumped to the front.

“Sorry Applejack, but somepony needed to have “an episode” at the least appropriate moment,” she directed her tone of annoyance as one of her companions.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash glared. “You’re the one who decided to show up like ten minutes before we needed to leave.”

“I needed to triple-check that we had everything to go on the journey. It’s not my fault you wasted all those precious minutes that everypony already left!”

“Ten minutes? Twilight darling, we’ve all been here almost twenty minutes beforehand,” Rarity interjected. “As far we’re all concerned, we’re with Rainbow Dash on that one.”

Everybody present nodded. Twilight’s face turned red from shame, realizing that in her determination not to leave a thing out she ended up being the last one to arrive.

“Final call!” the conductor announced. “Train departing for Crystal Empire!”

“C’mon! We need to get going!” Applejack yelled and quickly entered the train, the rest followed suit.

The younger alicorn stayed behind for a moment, facing her mentor. “Princess Celestia, I’m so sorry it’s come to this. I was hoping there would be more time to say goodbye…”

“Never you mind, Twilight,” she sighed. “I think there’s somepony else that would need an apology instead.”

“Yeah… I know.”

“Good luck on your quest, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna addressed her.

The whistle blew. The Princess of Friendship nodded at them, then turned, but just before she stepped on the train, she gave one final look to the old wizard.

“Good luck with your research, Starswirl.”

He shook his head. “You should save it for yourself, Twilight. I believe you and your friends will need it far more than I will.”

She stepped onto the train and the doors closed. With a loud toot, it departed, leaving Ponyville.

The Sisters and the old sage were left standing on the platform, but not for long, as the old unicorn’s horn began to glow and they all disappeared with a flash.

Reappearing on the castle’s balcony outside the throne room, the trio looked down on the tracks, watching the train disappear into the distance.

“And so they leave to save Equestria once again,” reminisced Celestia.

“Or at the very least, prevent the situation from escalating further,” Starswirl corrected her. “But I too must go and play my part in this as well.” He turned to depart. “I just need to grab a few texts from my study here before I leave.”

“Starswirl, wait!” the Mare of the Night stopped him.

“Yes, Luna?”

“I know this is all of a sudden and maybe there could be a better time to talk about this, but I… I mean, both me and Celestia have questions that only you know.”

“And that would be?” he asked.

She took in a deep breath. “What was father like?”

A considerable time passed in silence, before the old wizard, who still had his back turned to them, finally gave an answer. “He was… a paragon of virtue. A stallion of spirit like no other. The closest thing I had as a student back then… maybe even… a friend…” he paused again, seeming as if he’s having difficulty expressing himself. “Luna, Celestia, I’m sorry… but even after more than a thousand years it’s still a sore subject for me to talk about.”

He walked away, leaving the two sisters alone outside.

The train rocked as it ascended the steep slope, and went past Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and eventually into the Galloping Gorge. It would still take several hours before they finally reached the Crystal Empire, yet the sun was already slowly drifting towards the horizon as the day was coming to an end. Within the rocking cart, the group made themselves comfy, but not all of them were.

Twilight sighed and walked over to Rainbow Dash’s seat; the mare had a moody expression on her face, sitting by the window. “Rainbow Dash?”

“What?” the blue pegasus acknowledged her in a stern tone.

“I’m… I’m sorry for earlier.”

The rainbow-maned pony glanced at her, then closed her eyes and sighed. “Yeah… I’m sorry too.”

And the purple alicorn pulled her into a hug.

“So, what’s the plan, Twilight?” Spike interrupted the moment, after which the mare released her friend from an embrace.

“Okay, everypony, the plan is as follows,” she ordered the rest of the council to gather around her. “I’ve sent a message beforehand to Cadence. I’ve not yet explained all that’s happened, but she will be expecting us when we arrive. The library in the Crystal Empire has some of the oldest known text, dating as far back as the founding of Equestria…”

“That’s assuming if Sombra hasn’t burned them to a crisp.”

A muffled voice spoke, coming from Fluttershy’s direction. The yellow pegasus had a fanny pack hanging around her neck. She opened it and the small draconequus lay inside.

“Come on, Discord. There’s no need to be so negative,” she tried to uplift his spirit.

“If you say so,” he sighed and closed the fanny pack.

“Yes, well... as I was saying,” the Princess resumed. “The books and text should give us some indication if somepony in the past spotted a purple shooting star or something along those lines and maybe we could get some directions on where to find it. Is all clear?”

“Yep. Uhuh. Totally. Crystal. Definitely. Absolutely,” all the members of the group responded, except for one.

The zebra sat by the window all alone, looking outside, as if her thoughts have been completely isolated from the world around her.

“Zecora?” Twilight tried to get her attention.

“YO! ZECORA!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

The shout finally got her attention and she turned towards them.

“Zecora, did you just hear what Twilight said?” the fashionista asked.

“Yes, clear and fine,” she answered. “There is no need to whine.”

And with those words, she returned her gaze to the window. The Princess and her friends found it odd that she was the one with the lack of words. Regardless they chose to leave it at that.

The sun was slowly beginning to sink past the visible horizon of the Frozen North by the time the train finally reached the train station. As they stepped on the platform, much like the train, it was empty since nobody else came this way at such a late hour. What awaited them however was a group of crystal guards.

“Princess Twilight,” one of them spoke, “Princess Cadence asked us to escort you to the castle with haste.”

Twilight looked back at the group. “I guess Cadence took my message very seriously.” She then turned her head back at the escort. “Lead the way.”

The crystal guards led the group from the station all the way to the empire proper. On the very residential limits, several more guards have been posted, and it seemed that it was spread all around the empire. Cadence was taking this very seriously, she was making sure no undesirables would enter the city at any time. Little did they know that they were already on the inside, stalking from the shadows of the now setting sun.

A pair of green and teal eyes skulked about, examining the goings-on at the city limits. She didn’t like what was happening. Why was there such a sudden increase in security at the border? She was about to move forth when a sound of new arrivals grabbed her attention because their voices sounded eerily familiar to her. Her eyes opened wide. She knew them! But how can they be here?! Last time she saw them was in… She dashed away from cover to cover to avoid the guard’s gaze. He needed to be warned.

The large doors of the castle opened wide as the guests entered. The further they got in, the more guards the group encountered.

“Yish, I think that may be going a bit overboard,” Applejack commented.

“Considering who we have to deal with, I think that it may not be enough,” Twilight answered. “We can’t really be sure what’s the extent of damage that Grogar can cause now that he’s taken Discord’s chaos magic. We’ll be lucky if he’s not here, but I can’t say the same for other places.”

“AUNT TWILY!!!” a high-pitched squeal sounded.

Everybody got alerted to it and then saw something approaching at a high speed. A small ball of pink fluff flew in their direction, it had a purple curly mane with streaks of blue in it. It was the youngest of the alicorns, a royal born to the Crystal Empire, the child of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, Twilight’s older brother. Even though her story was yet to be told, everybody knew her name.

“Flurry Heart!” the Princess exclaimed before promptly having the filly crash into her face, causing her to fall on her back.

“Mama said you would visit, aunt Twily,” the little princess said as she crawled off her face, sitting on her neck.

Twilight was still surprised how much the little filly had grown over the course of three years, she still recalled her being just a little baby with uncontrollable destructive power. Now she was four years old, her legs were no longer as stubby, and her mane considerably longer. And like any child, she was hyperactive.

“Hello, Flurry. How’s my favorite little niece?” She picked her up so she could get back on her feet.

The purple alicorn began making noises at her as she rubbed her nose against hers, and the little pink filly squealed. It took some time before the Princess of Friendship finally realized she was being watched by others. She blushed in embarrassment, only to have the rest of the gang join her side to greet the filly.

“’Pike! Miss Bash! Appleyak! Flutty! Miss Swirrly! Pink Puffy!” Flurry Heart called out their names in a way she memorized them best.

There was a popping sound as the fanny pack around Fluttershy’s neck opened and Discord poked his head outside. “Ugh, you mind keeping it down out there.”

Suddenly, a yellow aura enveloped him and dragged him out, landing in the embrace of the youngest alicorn. “Mister Slinky!”

“Wait…” the draconequus struggled to speak and he got crushed. “Too strong…!”

“We’re all glad to see you too, Flurry Heart. Where are Shining Armor and Cadence?” Twilight inquired.

The little filly stopped squeezing the former Lord of Chaos, giving him a moment of reprieve. “Daddy went with Blondie to visit the kitties.”

“I’m sorry, he went what now?” Applejack asked, not understanding a word.

“She means that Shining Armor and his mentor for diplomacy went to visit Abyssinia on a mission,” another voice answered.

From one of the side doors, the Crystal Princess finally made an appearance. Twilight put her niece to the side as she was still holding Discord, trotted off to her and they embraced.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she said to her former babysitter.

“So am I, Twilight.”

Then she parted from her after she noticed her daughter playing with a weird serpent-like thing, recognizing what it was. “Twilight, is Discord’s condition related to what you mentioned?”

“Part of it, yes,” she confirmed.

The older alicorn traipsed over to her child. “Flurry Heart, it’s time for you to go to bed.”

“No,” the filly protested, “I wanna play with aunt Twily and friends.”

“It’s getting late, deary. You can still play with her tomorrow.”

But the child would have none of it. She pouted.

“If you go to bed now, I’ll tell you a story,” she tried buttering her up.

Without delay, she looked at her mother. “Okay!”

She let go of the draconequus and trotted off to her room, while he gasped for air.

With her child’s prying eyes and ears gone, the Princess of Love’s voice rang in a serious tone now, but not before noticing that another new member had joined the company, as she spotted the zebra standing in the back of the group. “If you’ve brought Zecora along, then something serious must’ve happened. Now don’t skimp on details. All of you, explain to me in detail.”

A shadowy figure sneaked past the guards and into an alley, then quickly entering one of the condemned buildings and slamming the door shut.

“Grog-!” she tried to yell, only to have dark light envelop her in a bubble and lifting her off the ground, before being carried into the living room.

In the darkness, a pair of antlers were glowing in an ominous light, but the owner recognized the intruder. “Oh… it’s just you, Queen of Changelings.” He let go of her, letting her fall to the ground, as he resumed flipping the pages of a book. “If you’re going to make such ruckus you should expect to be met with hostility when we’re supposed to keep a low profile.”

“Grogar, we got a problem!” she yelled as she got back on her feet. “Those ponies… they’re alive and well... AND HERE!”

The old ram stopped flipping the pages for a moment. “Are they now? Curious…”

“How can you be so calm about it?!” Queen Chrysalis raged. “You assured me that they were going to starve at a bottom of the mountain, yet here they are, not looking worse for wear!”

“Will you quit shouting already?” he replied in a stern tone. “If they haven’t found us yet, they certainly will if you keep making so much noise.”

The changeling queen felt like she was about to burst because clearly her companion didn’t care about the seriousness of the situation.

He resumed flipping the pages of the book. “If the residents of the empire already knew we were here, this place would’ve likely been turned upside-down. Which means they don’t suspect anything yet. One thing is true though, from this point on we must proceed with extreme caution. Until the rug rat returns with what we require we must remain inconspicuous. But most importantly, now that the enemy we thought was defeated returned, we must keep a watchful eye on them. Perhaps some of their actions, even words could reveal how they managed to evade the fate I’ve given them.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” she asked.

The book slammed shut and Grogar gave the Queen of Changeling a really annoyed look. “Am I really going to have to explain that to a creature that’s well aware of her own nature? Do what you’ve been doing this whole time and let me work in peace!”

He dropped the book to the ground and opened the next one, flipping through its pages. The Pillar of Hatred scowled. If she could, she would lash back against him for daring to raise his tone against her, but she was well aware that, as he was, the old ram’s power was above her own… and she contributed to that. Without any other option, she turned back to the door and walked off, her body glowing in a quick flash of green just as she closed them behind.

After they told Princess Cadence what’s happened in the heart of Equestria, it didn’t take long before they went into action. The paragon of love gave them access to the royal library and all the old books and texts that were stored there. The mares and the dragon immediately went to work on the research. But as diligently as they worked deep into the night, their sweat bore them no fruit, and tiredness began to take its toll.

“Ugh, this is so frustrating!” Rainbow Dash complained, tossing one of the books to the side. “I think we’ve checked about every written thing in this place that would have any relevancy on what we seek, and we still got nada!”

Applejack yawned. “We can’t give up just yet, Dash. There’s got to be something. Right, guys?”

The responses were mixed; Twilight agreed, but Rarity and Fluttershy, as well as Discord, were not in particularly high spirits. Meanwhile, both Pinkie Pie and Spike lay with their faces on books. Only one of them who was still awake made no reply, as she propped her head, staring at the open book.

“She’s been reading that book for a long time now.” The wonderbolt walked to her side to check out what she was reading. ”'Crystal Empire: Early design of plumbing'… Zecora, how’s this relevant?”

She made no response and kept staring at the text.

“Zecora?” she asked again and this time, those that were still awake had their attention grabbed.

But the shaman didn’t respond. The blue pegasus then bumped the leg she was using to prop up her head and she slipped, bashing her head against the table. The sound and the vibration woke up the party planner and the dragon.

“Zecora, you’ve been zoning out a lot lately, ever since Starswirl told us about Turmoil,” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight had to agree. She didn’t recall ever seeing the shaman being so absent-minded as she’s been now. Something must be keeping her attention occupied.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked.

The zebra felt surrounded now and everybody seemed to be staring at her, and she sighed in defeat. “There is one thought in mind which creates disquiet, but I’ve been hesitant to share it on the chance it might cause a riot.”

“Whatever do you mean, Zecora?” Rarity asked.

“Remember our encounter in the Jagged Ridge not long ago, where nopony else would search high or low?” She reached into one of her saddlebags and pulled out a small bottle containing black liquid.

“Isn’t that the bottle you said it helped you find us?” Spike said.

“It is true, I made this brew,” she proceeded to explain, “when the Everfree Forest was made wild anew by the draconequus’ tangly crew. However, this one was crafted from a tree’s dangerous fruit... And upon tasting it, a vision granted me a bond to its root.”

“Fruit of the tree… bond to the root? Wait, you mean you saw through something that was connected to Turmoil’s Tree that Starswirl mentioned?” Twilight inquired.

“Hold on! Are you telling me that you were able to see what the enemy sees?” Discord wondered.

The Zebra nodded.

“That’s awesome, Zecora!” the wonderbolt cheered. “You should’ve told us that sooner!”

“I agree,” the fashionista joined in. “Then we wouldn’t have to waste hours upon hours rummaging through dusty old books.”

The shaman shook her head. “I’m sorry, dear friends, but I could not. The old sage’s words much terror brought. If this Turmoil’s horror is greater than none, how could the fruit give me some of the same to look upon? I’ve yet to experience the side-effects of my creation, but if it can see me as well... It fills me with consternation.”

“Zecora, have you not been feeling well lately?” Fluttershy asked. “As if something’s off, like memory gaps, or something?”

“I’m not feeling blue, that is true,” she answered.

The Princess of Friendship approached the zebra, coming into close proximity of her. “Zecora, I know I’m asking a lot, but as we speak, the enemy may have a head start on us and the longer we wait, the bigger the chance that they’ll retrieve one of Trumoil’s pieces before us. Please try to use the potion again to try and discern what you can see. And if not, then give it to us at least so one of us can try.”

“‘Princess, are you insane?!” the Zebra raised her voice. “You’re asking me to have its effects pollute your brain? The Council I won’t compromise, for if even one of you falls it will mean collective demise.” She stopped herself, trying to calm down. “No… if risks must be waged, the player who’s the lesser threat must be staged.”

She reached into her saddlebag, picked up a piece of chalk, and started to draw circles on the library’s floor.

“What’s that for?” Pinkie Pie asked.

She put the chalk away. “To keep the threat in a single plane, should any dark force in my body remain.”

The shaman picked up the small bottle and walked to the central circle where she sat down, pulling out the cork. She gazed into the black liquid and she hesitated for a moment; she freshly recalled the unpleasant feeling she experienced last time and she had no desire to go through it again, but she didn’t see any other option. She took several breaths to clear her mind, and then took a quick sit. And the horrible aftertaste hit her as quickly as it faded, and then the rest followed: the feeling of regurgitation and finally blackness began to bubble up in front of her eyes. The last thing she heard and saw were muffled up voices of her companions and as they rushed to her before darkness took all her senses.

A snowy landscape opened before her. The sky was covered by dark clouds and snow fell ever so lightly. She heard the sound of heavy footsteps, yet as she moved it was clear they weren’t hers. She suddenly came to a halt, her sight turning downwards into the snow.

“Here,” she heard her own messed-up voice speak. “This is where it lies. Now dig.”

She heard the footsteps again as they approached closer, and then from her position, she saw a pair of dark three-fingered arms reaching into the snow before her, and began to shove it away. She couldn’t quite make out the form of the creature that began to shovel the snow away with its bare hands, even as it dug deeper; apart from the arms, the rest of the body was covered in a brown cloak. A clanging sound followed and the creature stopped digging. It stood up, climbing out of the hole it had dug out, and opened its dark, rough, glistening palm. It held up a piece of pointy curved rock that had clearly belonged to a larger piece. Its tip was crimson red and as it approached the base from which it was broken off, it began to transition into grey color.

“This is it,” her voice said. “That is all that remains of the umbrum king.”

“What the heck is an umbrum?” a voice suddenly came from the bipedal figure.

“The ponies would refer to them as ponies of shadows,” she explained. “But they are far more than that. They are creatures spawned of terror, their powers so great that they can make anyone’s darkest fear become manifest. And that power is overshadowed ONLY by the one who gave birth to them.”

“That’s it? Did we trek across a barren frozen wasteland for this? What use is this piece of red-greying rock to us?” the creature complained.

“You misunderstand, Scourgelord,” she spoke. “He will serve our means. You see, this is not just a way to track down what we seek, but also a necessary tribute.”

“Oh, for the love of… Will you stop calling me that! I’m the-!” the creature’s voice went silent upon noticing the horn began to radiate a glow.

“There it is!” she responded. “He calls out… for her.”

“Her? Her who?” the creature questioned.

But its question was not answered. Suddenly, a black tendril stretched out from under her gaze and touched the glowing piece of rock. Suddenly something changed; she started hearing a voice.

FEAR.

A gentle feminine whisper was traveling in the air, from a specific location. Her gaze looked about until it became pronounced.

“There she is… I can hear her voice calling,” she spoke.

“What?” The creature raised its hand to where its head was under the hood, turning around slowly in every direction, trying to listen. “I don’t hear anything.”

She sighed. “Of course you don’t, you’re nothing but a rock with consciousness.” Her gaze flew in the direction where the whisper was most discernable, before turning back to the creature, beckoning it. ”Come, Scourgelord. It’s time we meet the mother.”

Her sight turned in the direction of the gentle whisper, and then her vision began to fade into blackness, yet even as it did, the feminine voice persisted to echo, speaking a single word.

FEAR.

“Zecora!” a voice called out to her.

She opened her eyes and gasped for air, only to find the group looming over her as she lay on the ground.

“Zecora, what’s happened?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, your eyes just went black and then you went completely still for a few minutes,” Rainbow Dash added.

The shaman managed to get into a sitting position. “My friends, history’s full of repetitions and boasts; the potion allowed me to see through the eyes of one of Shadow’s hosts.”

“It… it did?” Twilight’s voice became concerned.

“Well, whaddya see?” Applejack inquired.

Zecora took a deep breath. “I’ve seen a frozen wasteland of the north. A dark, cloaked figure walking forth, with a kingly remnant of the umbrum, here. And the whispering voice of… the Mother of Fear.”

“Kingly?” questioned Rarity.

“Umbrum?” Pinkie Pie tilted her head in confusion.

“A Mother…?” Applejack wondered.

“Of Fear?” Fluttershy asked in a startling voice.

“A frozen wasteland?!”

That last tone of panic which belonged to Rainbow Dash, got everybody’s attention, having them looking at her in confusion, and she pretended as if nothing was wrong with what she said.

“Wait…” Twilight paced up and down, thinking, trying to decipher Zecora’s vision. “The frozen wasteland likely means the wastelands of the Frozen North. The kingly umbrum could only be referring to King Sombra. But the Mother of Fear and the dark, cloaked figure… I don’t know what that could be referring to.”

“But Twilight darling, Sombra’s been destroyed,” Rarity pointed out, and it didn’t take long for Pinkie Pie to make an addendum. “Yeah, twice even.”

“I know,” she agreed, “but Zecora said “kingly remnant”, as in what remains of him. It’s likely that when Sombra was destroyed by the Crystal Heart, what remained of his body was probably blown out into the wasteland.”

“But why in Equestria would they need Sombra for?” Applejack asked the logical question.

“I think there’s an obvious answer to that,” the Princess answered. “If they’re here looking for the missing piece of Turmoil, then one of the darkest creatures from Equestria’s history could help them track it down. And I have a feeling that this “Mother of Fear” may have something to do with it.”

“So then, what’s our next course of action, Captain Sparkle?” Discord said, sitting on the edge of the table.

“Now that we know where our opponent went, there’s only one thing to do…”

In the back of the group, the wonderbolt held her hoofs together as if in prayer, quietly murmuring. “Please don’t say it. Please don’t say it. Please don’t say it.”

Twilight finally announced. “Tomorrow morning we’re going into the Frozen North.”

A loud cry of panic came out of Rainbow Dash, echoing throughout the castle. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Chapter 22: Unfulfilled Expectations

Sun slowly began to rise from behind the mountain range in the east, illuminating the tall spire that served as the center of the Crystal Empire. And as such, those residing now in the tower were the first to wake up at the crack of dawn, but none were as early as a little filly that’s been overly excited that her favorite aunt came to visit.

With a low creaking sound the little filly opened one of the castle’s many doors to the guest rooms; she had no idea in which one Twilight was spending the night, so she might as well just start with the first one.

“Aunt Twily?” the child said as she peeped inside.

Nobody answered. There was certainly somebody in the room though, as a big lump lay in bed under the cover… along with something else on top. Curiosity got the better of her so she entered and approached. As she finally got to the bedside, she saw that what sat on the bed was a giant jar with strange black goo inside… and it was moving. She leaned on the edge of the bed so she could get a closer look as the substance inside began to swirl, noticing a single light inside of it. That’s when it began to rise, and then… it opened its mouth at her and hissed. The filly gasped and fell backward, but it wasn’t over yet, as the creature inside began to bash against the glass until it finally tipped over and began to roll it over the edge. And just when it was about to happen… a clump of black and grey hair wrapped around it, preventing any further movement.

“Morning, so soon?” a voice came with a yawn as the lump finally rose on the bed, covering the figure’s features. “But first, who dared to wake me, the buffoon!”

The child didn’t recognize the voice, it didn’t belong to her aunt or any of her friends she knew, it only confirmed her realization too, when the cover came off, revealing a grey equine with black stripes, with a black and white mane that stood up straight.

“You’re not Aunt Twily!” Flurry Heart exclaimed.

In another room, the light already began to shine inside, something that the smaller occupant didn’t appreciate as he turned in his bed to avoid eye contact. The other one didn’t mind though. Twilight rose from her bed and stretched out. It was refreshing to wake up in the morning again without any tormenting forces being involved.

“Spike, time to get up,” she told him.

The little dragon mumbled under his cover. “Just five more minutes…”

“No time for sleeping in today, Spike,” she said as she rose from her bed. “We got a lot of work ahead of us today.”

She brushed her mane as she pulled the cover off her companion, who did not appreciate the gesture, but after some time there was no way for him to keep his eyes shut any longer. He rose and slowly joined his big sister as she was about to walk out of the bedroom.

The duo walked out into the illuminated crystal hallway that had many doors, and as soon as they exited their room, the other residents slowly started popping out one after another.

“Mornin’ y’all,” Applejack greeted.

“Cheers, everypony,” Rarity responded. “We need to have trips to the Crystal Empire more often. All that morning glamour is so uplifting.”

Fluttershy came out, with the draconequus hanging around her neck. “Please try to be a bit quieter, he’s had a bad night.”

“Did he have dreams about his dad?” Pinkie Pie asked, to which the pegasus nodded.

The gang was coming together, but two members were still absent. The door to the zebra’s room was slightly opened and a muffled sound could be heard from the inside. But the other?

Twilight walked over to the door and knocked on it. “Rainbow Dash? Are you awake?”

A loud sneeze followed as a response. All the other mares joined her as she opened the door to look inside. The blue pegasus lay in bed with multiple bed covers and blankets on top of her, with a thermometer in her mouth and a box of tissues on her side, making sniffing sounds.

“Rainbow Dash, are you feeling alright?” Fluttershy asked.

She coughed. “Yeah… sure, why wouldn’t I be?”

“What’s all of this then?” Rarity came in. “You weren't like this yesterday? What happened?”

“I dunno…” She sniffled. “It’s probably because of the cold northern wind that came into the room when I had the window open all night.”

The Princess of Friendship looked at the open window, knowing full well that she too had it open all night. She knew where this was going.

The alicorn walked over to the rainbow-maned pony and put her hoof on her forehead. “Oh my. Rainbow Dash, you’re burning up. I think you got a fever.”

“Aww shucks,” the wonderbolt complained, as she lightly coughed. “I’m so sorry, guys. Seems I’ll be forced to stay here until I get better.”

The party planner jumped to the front. “Don’t worry Dashy, we’ll stay right here with you until you get better.” She zoomed away and came back with a cup of tea. “Make sure you drink plenty of liquids.”

The fashionista traipsed over to her side and puffed up her pillow. “You’ll need a lot of rest too, deary.”

The patient sniffed. “Thanks, guys. You’re the best.”

“There’s still one more thing left: we’ll need to do something to keep that high temperature of yours down. Which means we’ll need…” Twilight said with a smug smile, as she conjured a medical bag. “Lots and lots of… ICE.”

And as she predicted, the reaction followed. At the moment she summoned the ice bag, the pegasus’ eyes opened wide and with a scream leaped into the air, clinging on to the chandelier on the ceiling, trembling in fear.

“Well, Ah’ll be… Ah don’t think Ah’ve seen somepony get cured of fever this quickly,” Applejack quipped.

A burst of collective laughter followed, much to Rainbow Dash’s annoyance, who let go of the chandelier, opened her wings, and slowly fell back on the bed.

“Oh, for the love of… was that really necessary?” a voice of annoyance spoke.

It seems the sudden cry woke up Discord, who was still hanging around Fluttershy’s neck, sticking one of his fingers into his ears. Soon the sound of galloping hooves followed from outside, as the other missing member finally joined.

“I heard someone yelp. Who needs my help?” The zebra rushed into the room.

To the surprise of everybody present, she wasn’t alone. The little alicorn filly sat on her back, propping herself on the back of her head, squashing her mane in the process.

“Stripy Lady talks funny,” Flurry Heart giggled.

They all had a good laugh about it as they left the room, except for one who was left with a sour expression on her face.

“Ah reckon we should go get breakfast, everypony,” the country pony said as they walked down the hallway. “We’ll have a long day ahead of us.”

“Dibs on the pancakes!” the party planner exclaimed.

“Not if I get them first!” Spike interjected.

When they came to an intersection, however, the alicorn had a different idea in mind. “You all go ahead and start without me. I need to find Starlight so I can update her on the situation.”

“You’ll not go alone,” Zecora intervened, “for I must ask for something of my own.”

“I’m coming too!” Flurry Heart said as she leaped off the zebra and onto her aunt’s back.

As the trio walked off, the dragon stopped and ran after them. “Wait for me!”

“And then there were five,” Applejack said as the rest of the Council of Friendship was left standing by themselves.

“Five?” a voice asked. “What am I? Clam chowder?”

It belonged to the draconequus, who felt slightly insulted by the fact that it was just insinuated that he wasn’t present.

“Sorry, the present company accepted.” The orange earth pony gave him an awkward smile.

“Watch out! I’m gonna get you!” the dragon said playfully.

A high-pitched squeal zoomed around as Flurry Heart fled all over the place, trying to evade Spike’s pursuit. Galloping, flying, even an occasional teleport to keep ahead of him. Meanwhile, the two mares walked down the street, with the alicorn inquiring about the zebra’s motivations.

“So, both Maud and Mudbriar are here as well?” Twilight asked. “Had you just waited a bit and I could’ve probably figured it out for you, Zecora.”

“Forgive me, Twilight, but it was called for and done,” she explained herself. “After the day’s events, this I could not shun.”

The princess sighed. “Of course not. Mind you, it’s still going to take us some time to find any of them. The Crystal Empire is huge, they could be anywhere.”

The players of cat and mouse ran and jumped on top of each of the mares, then between the two, rushing forward and into the crystal market ahead, which spelled misfortune considering it was cluttered.

“Flurry Heart, be careful!” Spike called out.

It was already too late. The little alicorn dashed between the passers-by and it didn’t take long before she bumped into one of the customers carrying a heavy load. A single nudge caused the unbalance that toppled giant crates. The dragon rushed to the filly’s side and grabbed her to try and evade it, but they were too slow. At the moment when he thought they were done for, a yellow shield popped up, enveloping both of them, while at the same time, as she always did when she was frightened, raising her wings as a cover.

Nothing happened. The crates should’ve already fallen on them, but instead, they were levitating in the air, a few hooves above them, enveloped in the teal aura. A pink mare appeared from the side, immediately recognized the perpetrators or at least one of them.

“Spike?! What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Starlight?” he responded in a muffled tone inside the bubble, as the little filly was still cowering by his side, quivering in fear. “Hey, hey, Flurry, it’s okay. No need to be afraid anymore, it’s over.”

She finally opened her eyes and saw the crates being put back, dropping the shield. The sound of galloping hooves soon followed behind them as the child’s aunt and the shaman soon arrived at the scene, the former almost instantly plucking the little filly off the ground.

“Flurry Heart, are you okay?!” she panicked. “You’re not hurt, are you?!”

“I’m fine, aunt Twily. Miss Glimmy saved ‘Pike and me,” the child said as she got snuggled up to her face.

The purple alicorn finally regarded the savior. “Thanks for turning up when you did, Starlight.”

“I think a more proper say would be that she bumped right into us,” the headmare smiled.

“Us?” Twilight asked.

“By us, she’s referring to herself and us two.”

Another voice answered. There was this obnoxious tone to it that immediately gave it away who it was. A stallion walked around the stack of boxes, revealing himself. He was tall and lanky, his fur and mane were bland earthly colors, and his cutie mark… a stick in mud. Another one appeared soon after, this time a mare. She was considerably shorter than him, the tone of her fur was grey, yet her mane was purple, and she wore a dress of dark blue. One thing they both had in common, however, was the neutral expression on their faces.

“Ah, the earthly scholar and the enjoyer of wood,” the zebra responded to their appearance. “I truly didn’t think our fortune would be this good.”

“Maud? Mudbriar? What are you two doing here?” Twilight questioned.

“We’re on an anniversary trip for our three-year of going steady,” the Pie sibling spoke in her typical emotionless voice.

“Technically, the trip’s already over, so it’s more like a vacation,” the other earth pony answered, “and technically, it’s not the anniversary until tomorrow.”

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrright… what they said,” Starlight Glimmer just agreed. “Anyway, what are you doing in Crystal Empire, Twilight? And why did you bring Zecora along?”

The alicorn sighed as she put her niece on her back. “Starlight, so much has happened since you left the other day. It’s like this…”

Both Twilight and Zecora pitched in on explaining the course of events that took place in the last two days to help the principal and her two friends to catch up, while the little filly played with her mane. As they did, however, they weren’t aware of a figure lurking in the background, watching them intently, stealthily approaching, and closely listening to what they were saying.

“Wait, wait, Twilight! Grogar? Gusty? Turmoil? This… this is too much to take in all at once,” the headmare said to her former teacher.

“I understand, Starlight,” she reassured her. “But this is how it is. We came to the Crystal Empire in hopes that we might get a clue where to find one of Turmoil’s missing pieces, but as it turns out Zecora found it for us.”

“Now since we’re on the matter of finding, what qualities in the rock samples did you find worth minding?” the shaman inquired.

“Funny you should mention it, Zecora,” Starlight answered, “they figured it out like five minutes ago.”

“Technically,” Mudbriar responded, “it was Maud who figured it out in a few seconds, at first glance. We just met barely five minutes ago.”

After he finished, his significant other reached into her bag and pulled out the two rock pieces, and Starlight levitated them over to Zecora. “The bright one is pumice, and the dark one is obsidian.”

“Wow, you really know your rocks, Maud. Then again, considering where you live it shouldn’t be at all surprising you were able to figure it out so quickly,” Twilight said.

“That is entirely an incorrect notion,” Mudbirar answered. “Because by all accounts, these two types of rock being anywhere near Ponyville or Everfree Forest, makes no sense.”

“What do you mean, Mudbriar?” Starlight was confused.

The rock mare immediately answered. “Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The foam-like texture is made by the rapid cooling and depressurization, which means that the likely place to be found is underwater, and has, therefore, a unique property of being able to absorb moisture.”

“In the same vein,” her boyfriend resumed, “obsidian is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows, which have a high content of silica, giving them a high viscosity in which the atoms defuse, and coupled with the rapid cooling, it creates a natural glass that is both hard and brittle at the same time.”

“In other words, they’re both volcanic-based rocks.” Everybody else looked at them when they said that sentence in unison.

“You know,” after it passed, Twilight thought for a moment, “you two actually make a good point. How could a volcanic rock exist in a place that doesn’t have volcanoes?”

“It doesn’t make sense, Twilight,” Spike entered the conversation. “Especially with the mess in which Canterlot and Ponyville were left after Discord turned the Everfree Forest upside-down. The only nearest place with volcanoes is the Dragon Lands.”

“It would make sense…” the headmare voiced her opinion. “If the rocks were brought from there in the first place.

Starlight’s thought did seem logical and it all pointed to that, but there was still one more that hasn’t voiced hers.

“What do you think, Zecora?” Twilight asked the mare next to her.

She didn’t answer. Come to think of it, since she was given the rocks back she hasn’t made any gestures at all. She was just staring into the dark glistening rock, observing her own reflection. There was something in the back of her head that didn’t give her peace. A dark, reflective, solid matter, she’s seen something alike in very recent memory.

The Princess of Friendship nudged the zebra. “Zecora, what’s wrong?”

She finally reacted. “Princess and friends, though I dread to think what this portends, I may know where the obsidian’s source ends.”

“What do you mean, Zecora?” Spike asked. “Didn’t we establish that this rock can’t be found in Equestria?”

“True, little dragon, the rock has no place in this land, old or new, though it doesn’t deny the purpose it hides from view,” she explained, “Dark and lustrous, yet rough like a sting, I’ve little doubt it carried the remnants of the umbrum king.“

“Wait…” Twilight stopped her. “You mean the dark, cloaked figure you mentioned? The texture of its body was the same as obsidian?”

Zecora nodded.

“So, what she’s basically saying is that there’s a construct made of obsidian wandering through the frozen wasteland, doing the bidding of whatever that evil called Turmoil is? But why?” Starlight wondered. “Why would they send it, instead of sending Chrysalis and Grogar to find one of its fragments themselves?”

“My only guess would be that they’re trying to cover more ground,” the alicorn said the first possibility that came to mind. “Which means that both Chrysalis and Grogar are likely not even anywhere near the Crystal Empire and are trying to recover one of the other fragments elsewhere.”

“But Twilight, that would mean…” Spike tried to speak only to be cut off.

“We’re running out of time more than we originally thought!” Twilight stressed out. “We need to get back to the castle and warn everypony, and then immediately depart for the Frozen North.”

Both the zebra and dragon agreed with her, however, there was one small voice of protest to what was just said. “You’re leaving already…?”

The purple alicorn recognized the distinct tone of voice, and she feared where it was going, so she plucked the little filly on her back and brought her to her front. “Flurry Heart, I know how happy you were that we all came to visit and you were looking forward to playing with us again, but please do try to understand that we came here with a mission, to begin with, we were never guaranteed to stay here for long. You do understand, right?”

There was an uneasy atmosphere in the air, everybody felt it, and they could see the expression on the little alicorn child’s face beginning to make a frown, her lips beginning to wobble, signaling that waterworks were about to break.

“Calm down, Flurry Heart. No need to get upset, what Twilight meant was-“ Spike tried to calm the rising situation, but it was already too late at this point.

It started with a low volume and after a few seconds, it rose to a high-pitched noise as the little filly began to cry. It didn’t last long, however, as her horn lit up and disappeared in a yellow flash. But the aftereffects remained, as the group was left standing there and the passers-by surrounding them were staring in their direction.

“You’re not very good at communicating with children, are you Miss Sparkle?” Mudbriar said, a choice of words for which he got angry looks from everybody present, including his girlfriend. “On second thought, I retract that last statement.”

“You three better go deal with that,” Starlight urged her former mentor.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” she responded. “But Starlight, I must ask you for a favor before I go. I’m not asking that you should leave the students in the lurch, but could you maybe go back to Ponyville and help Starswirl with his research?”

“But Twilight, me, Trixie, and Sunburst were about to take the students on to the next destination tomorrow, and you’re asking me to leave them? Why?” the headmare questioned her request.

“You’re the only other pony I know who’s skilled with magic and good at deciphering ancient texts. I figured two ponies could do more work than one,” she explained herself. “And this is the fate of Equestria we’re talking about.”

She was quiet for a moment, then sighed in defeat. “Trixie and Sunburst aren’t gonna forgive me for this.”

“Hey, if they’re your friends, they will,” the alicorn reassured her.

She smiled. “I’ll leave first thing tomorrow when we all depart.”

That was good enough for her. Without delay, she took a few steps back, her horn lit on, and with a flash, the princess, her companion, and the shaman disappeared.

“It’s a pity Pinkie couldn’t stay,” Maud said in a neutral tone. “She could have organized our anniversary party.”

“A minor inconvenience,” her boyfriend reassured her. “We’ll just stick to the original plan.”

“Well… good luck to both of you on that one,” Starlight said before slowly traipsing away with a sigh. “I have to go and break the news to the rest of the gang.”

The group finally dispersed, but the figure creeping in the back, listening to the conversation, was still there. And now it made its way through the morning shadows to relay what she overheard.

While the two mares, the dragon and filly were out, the rest of the Council of Friendship were deep in the breakfast situation, and by now, the dining room in the castle had already quieted down. The tranquility however would not last for long. Outside the room, there was a low flashing sound, followed immediately by a loud child’s cry.

“Flurry Heart?!” the mother immediately jumped off her chair at the sound of her daughter crying.

There was a light sound of tapping hooves as the filly galloped away, and by the time Cadence opened the doors to the dining room to check on her, another flash happened right in front of her, materializing three figures.

“Flurry Heart, please, I know this sounded bad, I was just-!“ the purple alicorn stopped mid-sentence when she realized her sister-in-law was standing right beside her.

“Twilight, what’s just happened?” the Princess of Love asked with a noticeable tone of anger in her voice.

“Bad timing,” Spike quickly answered.

“Care to elaborate?”

“Well,” Twilight explained herself, “we went to try and find Starlight Glimmer, and we happened to bump into her, as well as Maud Pie and Mudbriar, and after an exchange of information we came to the conclusion that our situation may be more urgent than we thought yesterday, so I said we needed to leave for the Frozen North right away and… well, Flurry Heart didn’t take it too well.”

Cadence’s tone of voice finally mellowed down. “I wish there was a better way to tell her. Ever since Shining Armor left for Abyssinia she has been rather down. With all the work we have to deal with running the Empire we normally change shifts on who plays with her, and now that he’s not here, poor little Flurry is all alone most of the time.”

“Doesn’t she have anypony else to play with?” the dragon asked.

She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. It may be shocking to hear, but she doesn’t have any friends her age. I was hoping that you and your friends could help lighten her up since you sent the message that you would come, I just didn’t think you would be leaving so soon.”

“Neither did we, Cadence,” Twilight tried to smooth things up. “I didn’t want to upset her, but-“

“I know it’s not your fault, Twilight. There’s nothing to apologize for,” the Crystal Princess assured her.

“Still, I should go and talk to-“ this time another halted the younger alicorn from speaking, as her black hoof reached out to her.

“At the risk of sounding like a bother, this moment requires the light touch of a mother,” Zecora told her.

The Princess of Love sighed. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ll go and have a talk with her. You go and tell your friends what you’ve figured out in the meantime.”

“Okay…” Twilight relented.

As Cadence trotted off, the trio in the meantime headed into the dining room where the rest of the gang was gathered.

“Twilight, what in tarnation happened out there?” Applejack asked.

“Let the professional deal with that problem, everypony,” she deflected the question, “we got a new development, and it’s urgent.”

The Crystal Princess approached the doors of the room that was slightly opened. Her daughter was inside and she needed to be coddled.

“Flurry?” she called.

She slowly opened the door with a creaking sound, only to find no light source present. But even in the dim light, she could clearly see a tiny shape huddled by the side of the bed.

“Flurry sweetie, is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes…” the filly said.

The mother knew better. The child was hugging a stuffed toy resembling a snail, her “Whammy”, as she called it, she would always hold it when she was upset.

She approached her and sat down by her side. “Come on, sweetie, you can tell mommy what’s wrong.”

She could see the grip on her toy tightening before she answered. “Aunt Twily doesn’t like me.”

“Oh come now, dearie, that can’t be right. What makes you think that?” she asked.

“She and her friends came, and now they’re going again. We didn’t even play any games,” the filly told her.

The mother put her hoof around her. “Oh, Sweetie Heart, I know you’re not happy. But aunt Twily and her friends came this way because they have work to do, just like daddy does.”

And then it came. First with a whimper, followed by a snivel, and ended with a loud sob. At the moment’s notice, the Princess of Love scooped the weeping filly into her embrace.

“I miss daddy!” she cried.

“I know, Flurry, I miss him too,” she cuddled her, “but daddy had to go do an important job, just as I’m doing it every day, just as aunt Twily and her friends have to. I know how hard it is to have somepony leave when you don’t want them to.” She caressed the child’s mane, trying to calm her down. “But do you know what the good part is?”

The filly looked at her mother with glistening eyes, tears still streaming down her cheeks, shaking her head, and she gave her a bright smile. “You know that they’ll come back one day. Daddy may be gone right now, but he’ll come back someday and he’ll be able to play with you again. And just the same, you can expect aunt Twily to come back after she’s done her job up north, and then she and her friends will be able to play with you.”

A subtle smile appeared on the child’s mouth. Perhaps mother’s words did help if only a little.

“Do you still think aunt Twily and her friends don’t like you?” she asked her.

“No…” Flurry answered under the stream of tears.

Cadence brought over a box of tissues and wiped her face. “Can you then forgive her that she doesn’t have time right now?”

“Okay…”

Within the darkness of the abandoned house, the dark light illuminated the dim living room, as its only current resident kept flipping through the pages. His ears twitched as he heard the creaking sound of the door; she’s returned.

“I’ve some news, Grogar,” she said as she sauntered around the corner.

“I do hope they’re better than what I have to deal with.” He dropped the book and it landed on the floor with a loud thud. “None of the books here contained any mention of where the prison is.”

The Queen of Changeling’s head tilted. “Are you kidding me? Two days and you got absolutely nothing?”

“No… I tell a lie,” the old ram corrected himself. “There is one passage mentioned in the book of ‘Amore: The First Crystal Princess’, the one who created the Crystal Heart, saying that deep in the Crystal Caverns beneath the city she stored numerous magics too dangerous to be left unprotected.”

“I fear I’ll have to disappoint you on that front, Grogar. My changelings have swept the city for any nooks and crevices, and I, unfortunately, have to say they found no underground caverns.”

“Yes, that is unfortunate…” The ram stroked his beard. “However, if the book mentions these caverns existing, yet the entrance cannot be found around the city, it can only mean that the caverns are inaccessible to the outside world, and the only entrance could be found in a place that ONLY the Crystal Princess herself would have access to.”

“The only such place you speak of is the Crystal Castle,” Chrysalis added, “but the structure’s designed in a way that it would be impossible to reach underground in any plausible way.”

He only said one word in response. “A portal.”

She looked at him confusingly after that word was said.

“The only answer is that there’s a portal leading to it that can only be found inside the castle,” he explained. “That’s where our goal is, Queen of Changelings. We need to get inside and search the place.”

“Oh sure,” Queen Chrysalis put on her joking tone, “we’ll go to the castle’s entrance, knock on the door, and say: “Excuse me, princess. Do you happen to have any portals in possession that you’re not using? No no, it’s for no particular reason, we’re just trying to find a sealed vault where the horrors and terrors that once plagued your Empire are locked away.”.”

Grogar was looking at her with an unamused expression. “There’s no need to be snide, Queen of Changelings.”

“Well, you invited it yourself,” she resumed talking in her serious tone. “The castle is one of the most guarded places in the Empire.”

“And now they’re anticipating that we might get here. It will be difficult trying to sneak in without arousing suspicion,” he added.

“That’s not entirely true,” she corrected him.

The ram raised his eyebrow. “Oh? Care to elaborate?”

She relayed the information. “I have some positive news. The ponies, they’ll be leaving for the Frozen North soon.”

He frowned. “That’s positive news?”

“Don’t you get it, you old sheep?” she said in a frustrated tone. “They’re leaving the city, which means we’ll be able to move about without too much fear of being discovered.”

“From where I stand, it doesn’t sound positive,” he answered.

“Grogar, what are you talking about?” Chrysalis was confused.

He sighed. “You don’t get it, do you, Queen of Changelings? Those ponies, after somehow escaping my trap, have come here soon after, and are now moving to the Frozen North. Don’t you find it kind of suspicious?”

“Ah,” she made a quick response, “I know what you’re referring to. I overheard them talking. In fact, they seemed to have figured out who’s out there.”

“So… they figured out that the rug rat is out in the wastes then?” He paced up and down. “This is most unfortunate. Just as they somehow managed to escape their fate, so too they somehow figured out what our next move is.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Grogar,” a grin appeared on her face. “They don’t suspect a thing. In fact, from what they just learned, they don’t believe we’re actually here.”

The old ram stopped in his tracks. “Well… perhaps fortune is on our side after all. Still, that doesn’t negate our current predicament about entering the castle.” He turned to the changeling queen. “Was there anything else? What were they doing while you were listening?”

“Well, mostly just explaining what happened since the Jagged Ridge,” she explained, “then they talked about how they managed to see the pile of rocks, and after they said they’ll be leaving right away, the Princess Cadence’s brat, who just so happened to be Princess Twilight’s niece, threw a temper tantrum after she heard it. That’s all there is.”

The Father of Monster stroked his beard again. After a few moments, a devilish grin appeared on his face.

The Pillar of Hatred noticed his behavior. “Do you have a plan, Grogar?”

He turned his head to her. “I believe the time has come to put plan B into motion, Queen of Changelings.”

“Wait… Are you referring to what you said the other day?” She wasn’t sure if he was being serious.

His eyes flashed. “Oh yes… the current situation has given us an advantage that we cannot pass up. All we need to do now… is wait at the right place, at the right time.”

Everybody has been caught up on the situation by now. They couldn’t waste much more time so they all gathered in the hallway, all geared up for the expedition, wearing heavy clothing and carrying all sorts of winter equipment.

“So you’re all set then?” Cadence asked them.

“As best as we can be,” Twilight responded. “Although who or whatever we’re tracking down has a good head start over us.”

“If that thing you and Zecora mentioned, is made of stone, it’s likely moving really slow,” Applejack noted.

“Yeah, we should be able to catch up to it in no time,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Wow, Dashy, does that mean you got over your fear of ice?” Pinkie instantly asked.

And at the moment’s notice the pegasus’ confidence immediately plummeted into noticeable silence.

“Well,” Twilight tried to divert the conversation, “be that as it may, even if our target is slow we’ll still need to track it down out in the frozen wasteland.”

The Princess of Love tapped her chin. “You know, I think I may be able to assist on that part.”

“But Cadence, you’re not planning to go with us, are you?” Fluttershy inquired.

A head poked out of the fanny pack around her neck, one that belonged to the former Lord of Chaos. “If that’s the case and you require a babysitter, count me out. Getting asphyxiated isn’t healthy, especially when one doesn’t have the ability to fight back.”

The older alicorn giggled. “No, of course not. Nothing as such, but I do know a couple of ponies that are stationed at the Arctic Patrol Office on the border. Maybe you can ask for their assistance. There’s a likelihood that they spotted something out of the ordinary as they do their usual rounds near the Frozen North.”

“Thanks for the tip, Cadence,” Twilight answered.

“It’s no problem. Besides, it will be nice for her to meet an old friend after such a long time.”

“Her?” the Princess of Friendship wondered who her former babysitter was referring to.

She giggled. “Don’t worry, you’ll get it when you see her.”

“Alright, y’all!” the country pony announced. “We’re all set, let get going!”

As the group, slowly made their way out of the castle, the Princess of Friendship lagged behind. “Cadence, about Flurry Heart, is she…?”

“I talked to her, Twilight,” the Princess of Love answered. “She doesn't want to see you go away. She’s not happy, but I got her to understand you’re not doing this out of spite.”

“Thank you,” she replied. “I’ll try and make up to her when we get back.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” The Crystal Princess smiled.

The company left the castle down the main road, leading north. From the tall spire, however, a single little filly was still all alone in her room, holding her Whammy, watching out the window as they left. Her mother’s words helped, but she was still sad to see her aunt and her friends leave, just like her father did. All she wanted was to have somebody she could play with.

Suddenly, there was a sound of flapping wings and something landed next to her. She gasped in shock and tumbled backward onto her bed. A bird sat on the window, but it looked unlike anything she’s ever seen: it had the head and body of a lion, trunk, and tusks of an elephant, the comb of a rooster, and bird wings. It jumped onto the bed and slowly approached her, leaving her terrified, as it slowly reached with its trunk for her… only to bop her nose, and then tickle her, causing her to squeal. The avian creature started hopping around her, then jumping on top of her head and bopping her nose again, before jumping off. Flurry Heart tried to reach for the strange creature, and it moved before she could touch it, and when she tried again it did the same, playfully bopping her nose at the end. At that moment, the little filly charged at it, turning the situation into a cat and mouse game, as she ran around her bedroom, chasing the weird bird, laughing as she did. Suddenly, while being pursued, the creature jumped on to window's edge, wiggling its tailfeathers at her before flying away, and without a second thought, the little alicorn did the same and chased after it.

They flew a considerable distance before it landed on one of the city streets and they continued the chase on foot, dodging between passers-by before it made a sharp turn around the corner and into an alley. Just when the child made a turn as well, she instead bumped into something, causing her to fall on her back.

“Oh, my goodness,” a voice said, “are you okay, little girl?”

The silky voice belonged to a tall, white unicorn mare with a green mane and a single pink stripe in it, her cutie mark resembling a cluster of leaves.

Flurry Heart was enveloped in a green aura and raised to her height. “You really need to be more careful, sweetie. You can’t just run about without ignoring others in the way…” she suddenly stopped. “Wait… you’re the daughter of Princess Cadence, aren’t you? What are you doing out here all alone?”

“A birdy with long nose came into my room and I tried to catch it,” the filly answered.

“Oh,” the mare responded as she put her back on the ground, “you’re talking about my grandfather’s pet, aren’t you?”

She stepped aside as to not obscure the child’s vision. The little alicorn saw the weird creature standing next to a figure, being petted on the head. But whoever it was, she couldn’t tell, as the owner wore a deep blue cloak with a cowl, obscuring his features, except for the single blue-furred bristled hoof.

Chapter 23: Cold Trails

A house stood on the very border of the Crystal Empire, with the guards keeping watch close by. A sign stood outside, saying “Arctic Patrol Office”. Cadence told the gang to check out if the employees spotted anything so they can help them track down the obsidian construct. Twilight stepped forward and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” the voice on the other side said.

The moment the Princess of Friendship opened the door, a bunch of raccoons scurried past her, in fact, a whole lot of animals were running about the place, only the cats were mostly lounging about on the reception desk.

“Twilight, are you sure this is the right place?” Rarity questioned.

“Yeah, this looks more like an animal shelter,” Spike added.

But of course, the usual suspect wasn’t complaining one bit, as the nearby pets instinctively got in range of her the moment she entered the house.

“Why hello there, little friends,” Fluttershy said as the nearby pair of bunnies started sniffing her hooves, with which she then ran through the ears of one of them, making him do honking noises.

It didn’t take long before more and more animals came to her side and started piling up on her, desperate for attention, something that the resident of the fanny pack wasn’t too keen on sharing.

“Hey, get in line, fuzzballs!” Discord yelled as he popped his head out.

But they ignored him completely. As the yellow pegasus and her draconequus busied themselves with pets, the rest began to wonder where the owner was. They heard its voice, yet the room was empty. Applejack walked over to the reception desk and rang the bell.

“One moment please!” the voice said again, before addressing somebody else. “Come on Ferris, I think you’ve had enough rubs for today, I have work to do.”

A small dog appeared from behind the desk and then he walked off. Suddenly, a head popped up from behind the said desk; it was a teal unicorn mare with a curly bright mane.

“Hello,” she greeted them. “Sorry for the wait, but the kids tend to get needy for attention.” She noticed the shy pegasus being avalanched by the critters. “But I can see you’re already aware of that. Now, how can I be of a service miss…” Her voice trailed off after she looked past the country pony and noticed who else was present, as the slightly taller purple alicorn stuck out like a sore thumb. “Oh my gosh, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s in my office!” she began to gush. “Hold on, let me get you some nice warm cider!”

She quickly trotted away from the desk and was about to go into the side room, only to be enveloped by a purple aura and lifted off the ground to prevent her from going any further. The Princess of Friendship made sure of it.

“Your very kind, miss… Errr… I’m sorry, what’s your name?” Twilight inquired.

“Glitter Drops, Your Majesty,” she answered as she was still being levitated.

“Glitter Drops, we appreciate your hospitality, but I fear it will have to wait, we’re here on urgent business and we could really use your help,” the alicorn explained as she put her back on the ground.

“Well, I’ll assist in any way I can, Your Majesty.” The unicorn walked back behind the desk again. “Now then, how can I help you?”

“In the last few days, did you notice anything suspicious around here?” Twilight asked.

“Hmmm… apart from Princess Cadence setting up a tight border guard? I can’t say anything in particular really,” Glitter Drops answered.

“Did you by any chance spot any odd individuals or creatures going about?”

“Oh dear… that’s not really narrowing it down a lot,” she replied. “Can you describe who or what exactly you’re looking for?”

Twilight paused for a moment. She didn’t know exactly what the construct looked like. Only the shaman was the one who actually saw it.

“Zecora,” she turned to the zebra, “can you by any chance describe what this cloaked figure looked like?”

Covered under the old, patched-up, brown winter cloak that Starswirl the Bearded had generously provided her, the shaman removed some of it to be able to express proper wording. “I could explain by way of description, but I believe in this case it’s best to use a depiction.”

Twilight looked at the desk and spotted a pencil laying on it. “May I borrow this, please?” she asked the teal unicorn.

She nodded. The princess levitated it over to the zebra, but just before she could grab it with her teeth, it got picked off by a blue magical aura.

“No offense, Zecora,” Rarity budded in, “but the detailed description will be no good if you have to use your mouth. Here, let me help you and we’ll get it done together.”

“I appreciate your assistance,” she thanked her, “we’ll finish sooner with persistence.”

The two mares proceeded with their work on the description of the perp. While they were at work, a sound of hooves began to sound in the room nearby, three of the steps sounded metallic, while the fourth sound was strangely low.

“Dropsy,” the voice said, “I think Ferris took one of my horseshoes again.”

The teal unicorn bent behind the desk. “It’s over here, Fizzy!” she called out.

“Fizzy?” everybody except for the fashionista and the shaman looked at one another.

Fizzy… that name sounded really familiar, too familiar. They all knew it was short for a much longer one, but there was also one other name they all remembered that the owner of this one identified as. The door opened, and a familiar purple, scared unicorn stepped through.

“I swear, if he does that again, I’m gonna…” her voice trailed away as soon as she saw the group of familiar faces.

“TEMPEST!?” a collective shout followed.

“Wha… what are you guys doing here?!” the broken unicorn exclaimed in a surprised tone.

At the moment’s notice, a giant purple cannonball launched itself over the group and hit her, knocking her to the ground, before suddenly feeling a tight grip around her legs and waist, nearly asphyxiating her as she got raised in the air, locked in party planner’s hug. “IT’S FIZZLEPOP BERRYTWIST! WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!”

“N… nice to see you too… Pinkie… Pie…” she struggled to talk in her embrace.

“Pinkie, you may wanna put her down before she expires from the lack of air,” Spike suggested.

She finally let go of her and she gasped for much-needed air.

“Tempest, what are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“What do you mean, what am I doing here? I live here. I work here,” she told her.

“Sorry, but I’ve kinda been out of the loop on that front. We’ve not seen you since Twilight’s coronation, and she never said you’ve ever sent any letters about what you’ve been doing.”

While the two exchanged words, the teal mare at the desk sat there, wide-eyed, before her coworker finally noticed it. “Dropsy, why are you making that face?”

“Fizzy, you never told me you were close friends with the Princess of Friendship and her council!” she finally spoke.

“I never thought that knowledge mattered that much, so I never brought it up,” Tempest explained. “Oh, speaking of which, where’s that horseshoe of mine?”

Glitter Drops bent behind the desk and popped up again, carrying a metal horseshoe, levitating it to the broken unicorn, who then slammed it into the floor for it to settle in.

“We’re so glad you’re doing well, Tempest,” Twilight finally addressed her.

“All thanks to you, Twilight,” the look on her face slightly mellowed. “You gave me a second chance to do something right for once in my life.”

“I never would’ve thought of you as an animal lover, Tempest,” Fluttershy pitched in as she was still surrounded by a pile of critters, with Discord desperately trying to get them away but failing miserably. “Your sanctuary is doing quite well.”

She raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s not a sanctuary. Glitter Drops just loves animals so much she takes them in whenever she encounters a stray, it’s almost detrimental.”

“Well, she did take you in so…” the wonderbolt quipped, and just about everybody in the room looked at her in shock.

However, a snort escaped the purple unicorn. “Funny. Anyways, this IS the arctic patrol station, and I’ve been assisting Glitter Drops over here in her duty.”

“Fizzy’s been ever so helpful,” the teal unicorn praised her. “You wouldn’t believe how many times it’s been, since she came, that we got out of a sticky situation. My work got a lot easier.”

“You two seemed to have hit it off pretty well,” Pinkie Pie said, “Tempest’s not the kind of pony that connects well with somepony she hardly knows.”

Glitter Drops smiled. “Maybe it’s because I’m one of the only two childhood friends she’s ever had.”

Twilight, hearing that Tempest actually managed to reconnect with somebody from her past, made her gush. “Awwwww, Tempest that’s so sweet, you’ve rebounded…”

She on the other hand cringed a bit, a tone of darker color rising on her face. “Twilight, don’t make this sound as mushy than it actually is!”

The room erupted in laughter, even Glitter Drops couldn’t help but giggle.

“Look, never you mind about us,” the broken unicorn tried to drive the subject away from embarrassment, “what are all of you doing here dressed like that? You clearly had a reason for coming here, so what is it?”

“DONE!” Rarity shouted, everybody turning to her and Zecora, as their attention finally returned to the room. “Oh! Tempest Shadow! Fancy meeting you here!”

“You… literally noticed me only just now?” She glared at her. “What was so important that you didn’t even saw me?”

“If your curiosity is to be sated, then perhaps you could answer if this creature you’ve baited?” Zecora asked.

“I’m sorry, what?” Tempest looked confused. “And who are you anyway? I… only vaguely remember seeing you briefly during Twilight’s coronation.”

The Princess of Friendship picked up the piece of paper on which the fashionista had been scribbling, took a glance, and then face the broken unicorn. “Her name’s Zecora, Tempest. She lives in the Everfree Forest… or at least she did until recently. I’m not gonna go too much into details right now, but I need to ask something important: did you happen to see this creature pass by here recently?" She levitated the sketch over to Tempest’s face.

The purple unicorn looked at it. On the piece of paper was drawn an image of a bipedal being, the head, along with the upper half of its body was covered with a cloak, while the lower part was black and rough looking while glistening at the same time.

She shook her head. “Sorry Twilight, but I didn’t really encounter anycreatue like that.”

“Are you sure, Tempest?” Twilight inquired as she put the sketch on the desk. “It’s very important that we find it and we’re racing against time.”

“Sorry dear, but I have to disappoint you. Me and Glitter Drops have a regular patrol up north, and I’m pretty sure either one of us would’ve remembered if we encountered-“

“It’s him…” the teal unicorn’s voice interrupted her.

Tempest’s head turned to Glitter Drops; she had an expression of shock on her face as she was looking at the picture. “It’s who, Dropsy?”

“That creature I told you about the other day when I went to get food for the critters… it was him, the one who saved my life,” she answered before facing her.

“You’ve seen this creature then?!” Applejack exclaimed. “Phew, finally we got a trail to go on.”

“Hold on now,” Tempest stopped them, “care to explain what this is about?”

“The creature in the picture is made of natural material, but the one which leads it is a force most ethereal,” Zecora answered.

The purple unicorn tilted her head. “What is she talking about?”

“She means that this being we’re after has been raised by a dark force, and we have to track it down so we can stop it before it causes any harm,” Rarity explained.

“But… it can’t be that bad, can it?” Glitter Drops wondered. “He saved me from lumber bears. He didn’t even ask for anything in return.”

“Glitter Drops, I understand you have a second thought about this, but we know there’s a sinister force leading this being,” Twilight said. “This is for the sake of protecting Equestria. I request that you aid us and help us track it down.”

“She ain’t going anywhere,” the broken unicorn interjected.

Everybody present was looking surprised at her. “Tempest, what do you mean?” Fluttershy asked. “We need her help really badly and-“

“If she’s going, then I’m coming along,” she explained. “No way I’m letting her go all by herself.”

The teal unicorn smiled. “Thanks, Fizzy.” She then turned to the rest of the gang. “I’ll help you, but just give me a few minutes so I can close down.”

The gang waited outside the office along with Tempest, now all dressed up for a colder climate. As they did, she observed everybody else’s behavior. Pinkie Pie was by a nearby tree where some snow was left, trying to build a snow pony, Fluttershy sat nearby and was brushing Discord, Rarity had pulled out a mirror and tried to readjust her hat so that her mane wouldn’t be ruined, Applejack leaned back on the railing of the house and pulled her hat over her eyes, the zebra was rummaging through her saddlebags and pulled out a jar of weird black liquid before putting it back inside, while Spike and Twilight were doublechecking that they had everything with them just in case. Only one stood out, the blue pegasus was pacing up and down with a really nervous look on her face.

“Twilight,” she addressed the princess next to her, “why’s Rainbow Dash looking so nervous?”

Spike quickly replied. “Traumatic reaction. You’d be surprised how often she started to freak out lately whenever the word…” he stopped himself for a moment, before whispering, “…eye-see-e, is mentioned. Ever since a monster that breathes it nearly took her wings.”

“Ice?” she asked and immediately a loud yelp followed, grabbing Tempest’s attention, seeing Rainbow Dash was looking in her direction in a cringing position. “Oh, this is rich. So that explains why I’ve not seen her flying about.”

“Yeah pretty much,” the dragon confirmed.

“So tell me, what exactly is this creature that did this to her?” she inquired. “Is it somehow related to whatever you’re hunting down now?”

Before the alicorn could offer an explanation, the door of the office slammed shut and Glitter Drops locked the door. “There. I left the kids enough food while we’re gone for at least a day.”

“That’s assuming we’ll get to it in time, Dropsy,” the broken unicorn said. “Considering you’ve seen it yesterday, that thing could be far away from us by now.”

“The laws of nature, by luck, affect the large and small,” Zecora responded, as she passed her. “The being is made of rock, we should be able to catch up to its crawl.”

The purple unicorn leaned to Twilight’s side to whisper to her. “Does she always talk this weird? I’m having a hard time understanding what she’s saying.”

“She’s sayin’ that, since the creature's made of rock, we’ll have an easier time catchin' up to it because it’s slow,” the country pony said as she put her hat back on her head and stood up.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Tempest responded, then turned to her coworker. “Okay Dropsy, lead the way.”

The group gathered and began their march northward. Equipped with the means to combat the harsh cold elements, they made their way in the direction of the Frozen North. They marched forth with purpose in their stride, but one of them was noticeably not as eager. By the time they finally reach the snowline they all passed it without as much as a traipse, yet Rainbow Dash froze solid on its threshold. Since that traumatic experience, the blue pegasus was less than willing. Her wings were yet to recover, and the thought of meeting a cold climate was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to abandon her friends, but the sense of dread at the back of her mind simply wouldn’t let her go and they were beginning to make the distance between her.

“Showing hesitation before the beginning? I would think you wouldn’t join unless we were winning.”

The voice grabbed her attention. She was so focused that she’s only just now noticed that the shaman was standing right next to her, also on the snowline’s threshold.

“I can’t help it,” she shared her grievance, “every time I get near anything cold, or even imagining snow or ice, it takes me back right to that moment… the howling wind, the stinging cold… a pair of giant teal eyes bearing down… and I feel like I’m paralyzed… just like my wings still are…”

“I understand your pain, Rainbow Dash,” the zebra sympathized with her, “and I do not want to sound rash, but neither of us can afford to abash.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus looked at her, confused. “You? What’s your problem?”

Zecora shook her head. “Have you ever wondered why during the time of Heart’s Warming I make myself scarce? Despite my innocent encounters with all of winter’s wares, I’m happiest when spring, and summer, flares."

“Pfffff, you’re scared of cold just ‘cuz?” the blue pegasus began to brag. “That’s so weak.”

“What’s your excuse in this case?" she threw it right back at her, and Rainbow Dash realized she caught herself in her own words, making a sour face. “Regardless, our shortcomings we must set aside, and the enemy give chase,” she finished.

The wonderbolt realized she was right. The thought of stepping into the territory she didn’t want was unsettling, but she couldn’t just bail out on her friends either.

She sighed in defeat. “Together then?”

“Just say when,” the zebra replied with a smile.

With a coordinated motion, the two mares both made a single step over the snowline, the blue one shivering as they made contact. Slowly, but surely, the two began to march slowly next to one another.

Meanwhile, ahead of them, the group stopped on the corner of the cliff edge where the incident took place. And as Glitter Drops predicted, a pair of deep footprints were left in the shallow snow, leaving a trail that went onward.

“This is where I encountered the creature that saved me,” she explained. “This close to the Empire the snowfall is still light, so the tracks haven’t disappeared yet, although I can’t guarantee it will remain the same the further north we go, where the snowfall is nearly constant.”

“If that thing is made of rock, as they say, it will mean the tracks will be much deeper because of its weight,” Tempest added. “It’s unlikely that the tracks will have disappeared overnight even in that weather.”

“Well, expert trackers,” Applejack addressed them, “we best get to it then.”

They were about the leave when Twilight noticed the pink earth pony standing still. “Pinkie, what are you waiting for?”

“We may wanna wait a bit, we seem to be a pair short,” she answered.

The rest of the group halted and saw Rainbow Dash and Zecora slowly moving in their direction, one step at a time.

“Are we really gonna have them be like that all the way?” Spike wondered.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” the country pony answered.

“HEY!” the broken unicorn yelled. “If you’re both gonna be moving at this rate, then your quarry may give us a slip.”

“Give us a break, will ya?!” the wonderbolt yelled back.

“Am I gonna have to carry both of you so we can pick up the pace?”

“Now Fizzy, be nice,” her co-worker said.

The taller unicorn sighed. “Fine… Just try to pick up the pace and keep up.”

She walked onwards, following the trail with the teal unicorn by her side. The rest of the group followed suit, with the two mares in the back trailing behind them, as they ventured forth into the inhospitable, uncharted lands of the Frozen North.

The strange creature that looked like an elephant, a lion, and a rooster fused into a single being, sat on the edge of a small crystal rising from the ground in the narrow alley, being pet by the hooves belonging to a cloaked figure. His “granddaughter” stood nearby, presenting her “grandfather” to the unexpected Flurry Heart.

“Go on,” the unicorn mare said, “there’s no need to be scared.”

The little filly slowly passed her and approached the cloaked figure, and as she got in reach of him, his pet didn’t try to run away.

The pet owner turned his head to regard the child. “Do you like my little critter, child?”

She nodded in response. He stopped petting the creature and shoved it forward, having it approach the filly. And just as it did before, it got in hoof’s reach of her and then bopped her nose with its trunk, causing her to squeal, before hopping on top of her head and began rummaging through her curly mane.

“Remarkable creature the hatsadiling is, isn’t it?” the figure spoke.

“It’s a funny birdie,” Flurry Heart giggled. “I wish I could have it.”

The cloaked figure laughed. “That will be hard, little girl. Would you believe if I told you that these beings can grow to the size of a house?”

The alicorn stopped, looking at him with big eyes. “Big as a house?” She looked to the side and pointed at one of them. “You mean as big as this one?”

“Maybe even bigger,” he explained. “Which is why it would be difficult to have one at home when it wouldn’t even fit inside.”

“I don’t think that would be a problem for her,” the mare said.

“Oh?” the cloaked figure looked in her direction in a confusing tone. “What makes you say that?”

The white unicorn sighed. “Grandfather, haven’t you been paying attention to what I said earlier? That’s Flurry Heart. She’s the daughter of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza… or rather Princess Cadence, the one who rules the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh yes… how quickly I forget.” He looked back at the filly, who was still playing with the strange avian. “What are you doing out here all by yourself chasing my pet, little princess? Won’t your mother be missing you?”

The little filly’s joy soon plummeted and she made a sad face. “Mama’s working hard so she can’t play with me, and Daddy’s gone visiting kitties, and aunt Twily and her friends left.”

“Aww, you poor little thing,” the mare said. “If it will make you feel better, we can play with you.”

“But… I don’t know your name,” the alicorn child confessed.

The white unicorn smiled. “Then let’s fix that. My name is Gusty. And this is my grandfather, G-“

“Gar,” the hooded figure intercepted, “you can just call me Gar, little girl.” He rose and walked closer to the child. “Would you like to see more of my marvelous creatures?”

Her eyes widened. “You got more of them?”

“Yes, but if I showed them all here, we would run out of space. You wouldn’t happen to know an open space where we could be alone?”

Flurry Heart looked down for a moment as if thinking, then quickly raised her head. “I know a place!” She quickly got up, getting the avian creature to hop off her head, and trotted out of the alley, before stopping and turning back to the duo. “Come on grandpa Gar, I’ll show you!”

The two stood still for a moment before the cloaked figure turned to the unicorn. “Gusty, you go about your business while I entertain the child.”

“But what about-“ the white mare tried to ask a question only to be cut off.

“Don’t worry,” he interjected. “When the time comes… just call for me and it will be done.”

Gusty stood there for a moment, not sure if her companion meant what he said, but then she relented. “Okay, grandfather. Good luck.”

And with those words, the unicorn mare trotted off into the nearby abandoned house. Yet even though it was only him and the little filly now, despite waiting for him, “the grandfather” didn’t move for some time, looking at the house’s window, but after a few moments, he finally turned to face the alicorn child.

“Now then, little girl, show me this place of yours.”

The royal guard stood watch on the borders of the Crystal Empire. This wasn’t the first time they’ve had to deal with a changeling invasion. Since they could impersonate anyone, the sentry was composed of groups of three guards to make sure they’re all at one another's backs and one of them wasn’t so easily replaced; among other things, it also included heightened security clearance with passwords that they were changed on a daily basis to make it easier to identify the imposters. Princess Cadence made sure that there would be no infiltration. What followed next was something the royal guard did not expect, however.

The lands south of the Crystal Empire were vast open fields, with no present population, and what forested pockets existed were spread apart and isolated. In one of them, which was the closest to the Empire proper, shapes rustled between the trees, but one of them stood out from the crowd, as she was taller, more elegant looking.

“I hope that old sheep knows what he’s doing,” she said.

The guards had just made the daily change when they spotted a strange dark cloud approaching, followed by the sudden loud buzzing sound in the air. They soon realized what was approaching. Changelings, a whole swarm of them. The alarm sounded out, the invasion had begun.

Back at the castle, the news immediately reached the Crystal Princess as one of the guards delivered the report. “An entire swarm? Is Chrysalis leading them?” she asked.

“The sighting seems to confirm it, Your Majesty,” he answered. “She’s at the very head of it.”

“Then we need to reinforce the southern border immediately,” she declared. “If this is a full-blown changeling invasion then we need to make sure they’re repelled and our ranks aren’t infiltrated.”

A loud galloping sound was growing louder as another guard was running down the hallway and entered the throne room, panting heavily. “Your Majesty… reporting… an update from… the southern border…”

“What? What’s happened, guard?” she inquired.

“It’s the changeling swarm, Your Majesty… They’re… they’re…,” he gasped for air.

“What?!”

“The changeling swarm… it’s just standing there… or rather… it’s just flying on the border…”

Cadence gave him a confused look. “Come again?”

“They’re not attacking at all. It’s as if they’re just waiting for something,” the guard elaborated. “The unicorns in our ranks have tried to shoot them down, but their spells don’t seem to be having an effect on them.”

“If that’s the case, it’s time to meet them head-on.” She turned to a pegasus royal guard. “Flash Sentry!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” the stallion stood to attention.

“Gather a battalion of pegasi and lead them to the southern border. You are to confront the changelings on sight,” she ordered. “If Chrysalis is just waiting for the confrontation she’ll get one. You are to capture her and bring her into custody.”

“Right away, Your Majesty!” the orange guard saluted and immediately flew away.

Back on the front, the swarm flew above the royal guards, whose unicorns were desperately trying to shoot them down, but to no avail. A group of changelings dressed in a strange dark green armor that was covered in pores, flew at the very front of the swarm and as the spells approached their vicinity, they simply evaporated. Queen Chrysalis in the meantime lounged in the air, on top of a group of drones that lined up together to form a perch, yawning from boredom. She didn’t care for the grunts on the ground who were trying to get her, she was just waiting for HER to turn up. Then she spotted something approaching in the distance, a cluster of shapes was flying in her direction. She leaped off her drones and flew to the front to check who was leading them. Led by Flash Sentry, a group of pegasi was fast approaching them, and if they got too close then they might pose a threat that what she was doing.

“Oh dear, oh no,” she posed dramatically, “I’m clearly outmatched. There’s no way I can win this… RETREAT!”

At the command of their queen, the changelings turned and began to fly away.

“They’re retreating!” one of the guards on the ground called out. “Chase them down!”

“Belay that order!” Flash Sentry stopped midair. “The pegasi battalion will do the job! Remain here and resume with your duty!” And with that, he flew off again at the head of the army trailing after the swarm.

They were chasing down the changeling cloud for some time across the sky until it finally began to descend into the forest below. By the time the army landed, the target had already disappeared.

“Guards,” the orange stallion gave an order, “form into groups minimal of three. Do not let anypony out of your sight. Start combing the area!”

And the guards went to work, checking all the trees and bushes in the forested pocket to try and find where the changeling swarm had hidden, for all they knew they could have even turned into the local flora.

“Move it, you slowpokes! They’ll see us!”

Some of the guards, along with their leader, heard that alien feminine yell. They quickly followed the direction of the source, and soon after they spotted the Queen of Changelings standing outside a hole that’s presumably been dug out by the queen's brood.

The moment she spotted the pursuers, she once more posed dramatically. “Oh no, they found us. Now we’ll all be trapped because of you idiots,” she moaned, before scurrying into the hole.

Flash Sentry approached the hole that seemed to have led further into the ground. It appeared that the Queen of Changelings had made herself a lair inside.

“You three!” The orange pegasus looked at a group of three. “Fly back to the Crystal Empire and have a group of unicorn guards come to assist.”

The three pegasi flew away. Several minutes passed and they returned with several unicorns, enough for each group to have at least one of them to provide a light source.

“Everypony, listen up!” he addressed them all after they integrated. “We will descend into the tunnels below in the single file. There are likely numerous pathways underneath, so the group that is ahead will go take the first turn if it appears, one after another. And as is per decorum, do not separate from your group no matter what and always keep each other’s backs. The last three groups will remain outside and keep a check on things. Is everything clear?”

They saluted in unison. With Flash Sentry at the head, the first group descended, and the rest followed suit. Inside the dark tunnel, the unicorns in the group finally lit up their horns to serve as a light source, as they made their way down. It didn’t take long before they came at the first intersection, and the leader’s group immediately split from the rest, followed by another further down, until all the groups scattered.

The tunnels seemed endless. The guards had been traversing the darkness for a long time and it didn’t seem like they were getting to the end. What’s more, they spotted no abnormalities on the way, no signs that would indicate that changelings were present. But at long last the leader’s group reached the end of the tunnel, revealing a vast open space before them. And he wasn’t the only one, as from other tunnels nearby more and more groups of guards came together. By the time they all finally gathered together, the unicorns present illuminated the area well enough for all of them to clearly see what the room held.

“It’s… empty?” one of the guards looked confused.

It was all just a big wide room with nothing in it. This didn’t make sense, especially after all the guards went through inspection to make sure their ranks didn’t get infiltrated and nobody got replaced, but in the end, everything checked out. And most of all, just like his own group, others reported not encountering any obstacles or changelings on the way. How was that even possible? If the changelings and their queen retreated here, which they saw happen, while not encountering any on the way, this is where they should’ve ended. So what happened? They couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, could they?

Chapter 25: What Hides Beneath

“WE’RE HERE!” Flurry Heart finally yelled with excitement.

They arrived at their destination, an archway made of blooming flowers… or at least, it looked like it was at first sight. The cloaked figure leaned in closer for inspection and realized it wasn’t flora at all; it was rock, crystals to be specific, carved and shaped to resemble one.

“Come on, grandpa Gar! There’s a lot of space in there!” She hurried inside.

As he passed through the archway, he saw more of the unique and marvelous designs. The crystals simulating the actual plat life to such nearly uncanny resemblance… nobody could’ve carved something so intricate with hooves alone. No, it must’ve been magic. Whoever was the architect must have been very powerful and skilled in its ways. But he didn’t come here to admire the marvelous handiwork; he needed to find a quiet spot that would be isolated from anyone's sight, someplace where nobody would be able to see it unless it was directly looked for.

The filly trotted on and then stopped, as she looked back and saw the elder’s rear end sticking out from one of the bushes. “Grandpa Gar, it’s this way.”

He pulled his head out and turned in her direction, hurrying his step. She led him through the maze of high bushes until a field finally opened before them.

He was mesmerized for a brief moment. If the archway at the beginning was a premonition, then the garden before him was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Crystals of all colors, shapes, and sizes were molded into floral imitation, decorating every corner he could see. For a city to stood on the border of the frozen wasteland, it seemed that the Empire was in constant bloom.

“Isn’t it pretty, Grandpa Gar?” Flurry Heart asked him.

The ram paused for a moment before answering. “Well… that’s one way of putting it. Someone very powerful must’ve done all this.”

“Granny Misty did it,” she explained. “Mama said she had no place to go, so she stayed and made a pretty rock garden.”

“Granny Misty, you say?” he pondered. “Curious…”

Before he could inquire further, however, his pet hatsadiling jumped off his back and began to walk about, garnering the alicorn’s attention and reminding her why they got here.

“Grandpa Gar, show me more pets you got!” she requested.

“More you say?” the cloaked figure smiled. “I have so many I wouldn’t even know where to start. So, how about we play a game, little girl?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” the filly jumped with excitement.

The elder chuckled. “Here’s how we’re gonna play it: think of two, or if possible, three animals that come to your mind, and then we’ll see how far it gets, okay?

She was unsure where he was going with this, but she still chose to play along. “Okay… errrr… bear… tiger… and, errr…” She couldn’t quite think of another animal at a top of her head until she spotted the long-nosed avian and she immediately blurted it out. ”Elephant!”

He raised his hoof and stroke his beard for a moment, letting out a loud humming sound. “How about… a baku?”

As he uttered the word, a light flashed for a moment under his cloak and it suddenly began to move. The covers parted and a strange creature came lumbering out: it had a head of an elephant, a body of a bear, and the legs of a tiger. At first, Flurry Heart staggered backwards in fright at the sight of it, but then the beast stopped in its tracks and just simply fell over, stretching out its legs and yawning, before curling up its trunk and letting out a loud snoring sound.

“Hmm…” the elder grumbled, “perhaps this may not have been the best choice. This one mostly just sleeps.”

The filly slowly approached the creature and poked it with her hoof, it didn’t react. Then she prodded it once and it let out a grunting sound. She kept prodding it and it kept making more sounds and she started to giggle to the response. Then hatsadiling leaped on top of it and started rapidly hopping on its belly. The beast finally woke up, quickly rising on its feet, getting the avian hybrid to hop away sideways as it lumbered after it. But the baku didn’t make five steps forwards before it collapsed again and curled up its trunk, falling asleep. And it kept repeating several times over.

“He’s a big sleepy baby,” the alicorn princess laughed as she watched the events play out, then turned her attention back to the elder. “Show me another one!”

“Alright, let’s play the game again, same as the last time. Name me the animals,” he requested.

Flurry Heart went into thought again. “Errr… a pig… a weasel and… errr… snake?”

The elder stroke his bear once more. “I think I know that one. Ramidreju.”

The inside of his cloak flashed again, and a small green head of a pig poked out.

The filly approached and bent down closer to it. “Awww, it’s cute!”

Before she could react, the creature dashed right between her legs, its green fur brushing her right under the belly, and she squealed. That’s when she realized it was long… really long, it took a few seconds before the weasel-snake-pig hybrid completely crawled out. When it finally passed the filly turned and ran after it. Despite being so long it was moving incredibly fast. She managed to catch up to it, but then it stopped and began to twist and turn right between and the sides of her legs, and it took her a great deal of effort to finally wrap her hooves around it, but even when she did, it managed to quickly wriggle out and then wrapping around her belly.

“Slinky tickles!” she squealed again.

In the distance meanwhile, a shape wandered through the crystal garden, admiring the beautiful surroundings, and the sudden high-pitched noise finally got her attention. She looked around the corner of a tall hedge and spotted the daughter of the Crystal Princess, playing with a strange, long, and agile green creature, chasing after it over a large fuzzy sleeping elephant beast, with a strange bird running after them. The creatures that the child was playing with, she’s not seen anything like them before. And the cloaked figure that sat nearby, she didn’t recognize it either. Her curiosity got piqued, she needed to investigate.

“One more, Grandpa Gar!” she happily yelled in a pile of hybrid animals. ”A rabbit, a cat, and a-“ She wouldn’t be able to properly say the word marmot, as the ramidreju slid all over her face. “-ot!”

“A rabbit, a cat, and a goat?” the elder tried to recall what she meant. “Ah yes… sigbin.”

The inside of the cloak flashed once again and then, as if a draft blew out from under it, it parted for a moment. The little filly managed to climb out of the pile of beasts and trotted over to him, eagerly waiting for the newcomer to come out and play, however after a prolonged silence, nothing happened.

“Where is it, Grandpa Gar?” she asked.

He chuckled. “It’s already here, little girl. It’s just invisible.”

The little filly frowned at him, not believing his words. “Come on Grandpa Gar, if you can’t do it you don’t have to lie to me.”

Suddenly, a clap echoed behind her. She quickly turned to see where it came from, yet there was nobody there.

“You heard that, didn’t you?” he questioned. “That was the critter just now. The clapping sound is coming from his ears.”

Another clap followed, and she turned to face it, yet again there was nobody in sight. The clap happened again, but this time she was facing its direction, so she knew where it came from. The filly slowly moved in its direction and then heard gentle footsteps moving from, and she leaped at it, only to land on her belly, hearing the scurrying sound as it moved to the side, over to where the other creatures lay in the pile. And just then, the weasel-pig-snake hybrid turned about, its nose twitching. At the moment’s notice, it leaped and coiled like a serpent around something that wasn’t there. Then the shrilling sound erupted and a form materialized in ramidreju’s grasp. A short creature, with a head of a goat, the long ears of a rabbit, and a body of a feline. It screeched and tried to desperately break from the grip. Suddenly, the avian creature jumped on top of the green serpent-like beast and began striking it with its claws. And soon enough, the tiger-elephant hybrid rose, slowly lumbering up to them and wrapped its trunk around them.

At this point, it became apparent to Flurry Heart that they weren’t playing at all, they were fighting, literally trying to hurt each other.

“Please stop!” she begged, but her words fell on deaf ears and they kept getting more aggressive. “Please stop fighting!” The little filly was on the verge of tears with the sight on display, when all of a sudden, the cloaked figure went past her and stopped in front of her.

“ENOUGH!” he yelled, his grizzled voice echoing around. In the split moment, the beasts immediately dropped grips from each other and cowered in fear, huddling together in a pile. “PLAY. NICE,” the elder said in a stern tone, and the hybrids whimpered in response.

He sighed, turning his head to the filly that stood slightly behind him, and he saw what he expected; there was a noticeable look of fear on Flurry Heart’s face since she’s clearly never seen this side of him before.

“You have to forgive me, little girl,” the elder apologized, “but some creatures simply do not play nice unless I let them know they’re supposed to.” He stepped to the side, stretching out one of his hooves in the direction of the beasts. “Don’t worry, they know better now.”

She hesitated for a moment, then slowly traipsed over to the side of the hybrid animals who were still cowering in fear. The filly reached out at the sigbin with one of her hooves and it winced until she finally touched it and gently rubbed the side of its cheeks. It let out a gentle whimper.

“Shhhh, it’s okay,” she coddled it and slowly pulled it into an embrace, gently snuggling it.

Flurry Heart then looked at the other three beasts that were still huddling together in fear and reached out for them, waving her hoof. One by one, slowly but surely, the hybrids approached her; the baku snuggled against her, then laid down by her side, ramidreju head touched her hooves to be rubbed, then slowly coiled around her, leaving just enough room for her to move, and lastly, the hatsadiling hopped over the other two beasts and then nuzzled against the filly’s cheeks, and the little girl laughed.

“Well…” the ram said, as he observed the development, “I did not expect the situation to deescalate this quickly…”

“You would be surprised how easily creatures melt in her embrace.”

His attention was grabbed. There was somebody else present, watching the whole thing play out. He slowly turned his head to the right, the direction from which the voice came. A unicorn mare stood by, her horn curved, her purple fur and teal flowing mane were greying, the age lines on her body clearly visible, as well as her old torn clothes. She looked unlike any other unicorn he’s encountered so far.

“Granny Misty!” Flurry Heart yelled as she spotted her.

Through the Frozen North, the group of ponies ran, with a duo limping in the back. That voice of agony that was echoing, accompanied by the arching lightning bolts was their target. Whoever that was needed their help, and they were not about to fail. Little did they know, the truth was far from what it seemed at the distance, to the eyes that weren’t observing the situation at hand.

Agonizing cries echoed all around. The construct was slowly backpedaling in an attempt to avoid the crystal’s wrath as bolts of lightning flew about, striking at the barely rejuvenated shape of the umbrum king.

“Mother… I…” Sombra tried to speak, only for another bolt of lightning to strike him, causing him to scream in pain.

“You had one job, Sombra… ONE!!!” the shrilling voice echoed from the crystal. “You were to release your kin that have been imprisoned under the Crystal Empire by the first Crystal Princess! That’s the ONLY thing you had to do, and you failed!”

“Please, Mother, I tried to…” he made excuses, “but the two princesses… I was unable to find the location before they came to banish me… I don’t know where they’re locked away…”

“Is that why you decided to just give up?!” she scolded him. “You thought to yourself, ”oh, why bother trying to free your own family when you can just rule the whole world by yourself.” That’s how it was, wasn’t it?”

The smoke with a face froze. “But… but how did you…”

“I peered into your memory, wicked child, and saw your thoughts! When you returned for the second time you didn’t even bother to look for the prison!”

Sombra struggled to speak as bolts of lightning kept pelting him. “Mother… please…! I… I couldn't… I… I knew the amount of time I held the Crystal Empire wouldn’t be enough to try and look for them… I had to push the events along to destroy the source of power of the Elements of Harmony-“

“You should’ve bid your time!” the voice scorned him. “You should’ve allied with the Father of Monsters and work with him for your own benefit. But in your pride, in your desire to be THE KING of Monsters, and not be outmatched by one whose power was already greater than your own, you actively chose to upstage him, to prove to him you were capable of doing it on your own. And in the end, when in your hubris you thought you had already won, you were defeated by the very ponies you thought you had just de-powered!” The voice paused for a moment, returning to its normal tone, and then just as quickly rising back to where it was a moment ago. “You have failed, Sombra. You’ve failed your own kin. But worst of all… you’ve failed YOUR MOTHER!!!”

The lightning continued to spring from the crystal to punish the disobedient umbrum, and the cloaked construct had no desire to get caught between the two. Unfortunately, walking backwards caused him to inevitably trip and fall on his backside and into the deep snow. Perhaps it was best if he just sat this one out. As he watched the castigation in progress, he noticed something moving from the corner of his eye. The construct quickly started to push huge piles of snow onto himself as to look more obscure.

“What are you doing?” the weaselly vapor next to him asked.

“We’ve got company!” he quickly answered.

Doubt turned, trying to spot whatever the Scourgelord was referring to… and it did. First, it was three figures; one of them was a purple unicorn with a broken horn, the one next to her, a smaller teal unicorn that it encountered yesterday. And the one in front…

“WHAT?!” it exclaimed. Soon much larger group joined as well, each and every one of them was familiar to the slithery vapor. “What are they doing here?!”

The construct was already buried under the pile of snow, only his teal eyes could be seen. “What’s the matter?”

“Why are they here?” Doubt wondered out loud. “Apart from the Broodmother and the Shaper, we’re the only ones who knew where to go! How did they manage to track us here?! It doesn’t make sense!”

The construct didn’t answer. Covered under the curtain of snow, his head slowly moved to not arouse suspicion, focusing on the group of newcomers.

“They’re going to interfere in our plans! Scourgelord, stop them!” the weaselly vapor commanded.

There was no response for a few seconds before a resounding answer came from him. “No.”

It gave him an angry look. “What did you just say?”

Flurry Heart laughed as she ran about, her new creature friends chasing after her, or at least three out of four did, as the other one was slowly pacing after them. They’ve been playing tag and she managed to dodge them for a while before she got tagged, and then the chase turned to another until it eventually came down to the baku being the one to chase others, but due to its slow nature he never would’ve had the chance to catching anyone, so the filly let herself get tagged on purpose.

As the child and the critters ran about, the hooded figure sat down by the side of a hedge, along with the elderly unicorn mare, observing the scenery.

“Would you believe that only three years ago she was an absolute flurry of emotions?” Mistmane commented. “She would quickly lose all control of her temper if things didn’t go her way, or was upset. And with the magic she possesses as an alicorn, things would turn for the worse. And now with her father away, she’s been very moody.” She turned to face the hooded figure. “I thank you for taking time to keep her spirit up and reliving her of any turmoil, Gar. These creatures though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them before. Did you happen to have anything to do with the way they look?”

“Well…” he responded, “let’s just say I have a particular way with magical creatures. Then again, you yourself aren’t a stranger to magic, are you?”

She giggled. “Being a unicorn is that obvious, is it?”

“Well yes,” he elaborated further, “but also the fact that I’ve rarely seen any other pony with flowing manes like that, not unless they carried a great concentration of magic in them.” He looked about his surroundings. “You’re the architect of this place, aren’t you?”

“Oh my, you’re perceptive. But yes,” the elder mare confirmed, “this is the place I’ve been working on. It may be hard for you to believe, but I’ve been away from the world for a long time. Apart from the friends, with whom I’ve shared my absence, my family, my home, and everything I’ve ever known is gone, and I’ve no place to return to where my craft could fit in this modern time. Princess Cadence on the other hand saw my potential and offered me a job and a place. It’s not much but…” She halted herself for a moment. “Oh, but look at me talking as if I live in an unfulfilling life. My apologies, I don’t expect you to understand.”

“No, the feeling is quite mutual,” the ram responded, Mistmane giving him a somewhat surprised look. “I too have been away for a really… really long time. I have no home or place to return to. And the world I grew up in… has been long since gone.”

“Oh… I’m so sorry.”

A humph escaped his mouth. “There’s nothing to apologize for. I will see my world again someday… all that requires is a right time and place.” The old sheep looked to his side and realized the old mare was staring at him, unsure what he meant. “Sorry… my daydreams tend to slip out in my old age. Now, you said earlier you work here, this crystal garden? All of it, your doing?”

She nodded. “It took a while to get used to. I was normally able to deal with plant life, but working with crystals is something that was new to me. I did miss at times chatting with flowers as I did back in the day.”

“You can talk to plants?” he looked at her with suspicion under his hood.

“In a way, nature has its own way of speaking,” the mare giggled. “But I learned that sometimes you need to help something take the shape of beauty that wasn’t there initially. It opened a new perspective to me I didn’t know before. I had always believed that anypony and anything had inner beauty, and I always wanted to help bring it out, but that was only for the things I already knew. Yet shaping stone to resemble organic matter is something that taught me to look even further, to see and help bring out the beauty in things I didn’t think about before.” She stretched out her hoof and trailing it across the garden. “And lo and behold, the end result. Beauty truly is in EVERYTHING.”

There was a moment of silence, but then chuckles escaped the hooded figure.

“Have I said something amusing?” Mistmane wondered.

“Oh no,” he answered. “I just can’t believe it took me this long to realize you’ve been pulling the wool over my eyes…” His head turned to face her. “…young lady.”

“There’s no deceit, I assure you, Gar. Anypony who’s ever heard the legend of Mistmane already knows the story of the young, beautiful mare who had given up her beauty, becoming wizen and old, in order to rejuvenate the land and her friend-“

“I’ve never heard of the tale before,” he intervened. “I’m not speaking of that.”

“Oh?” she looked confusingly at the grizzled figure. “What do you speak of then, Gar? What gave it away that I’m not what I seem?”

He grinned. “You look old, but your inside betrays you. You believe that everything in the world has a beauty, a good that can be brought out, as long as one believes it can be accomplished, to show them, help them bring that good out. That is an optimistic look that only somebody young can carry because unlike the old, truly old, they are not carrying decades of experiences on their backs, they are not burdened by horrible truths and knowledge... somebody who has not experienced the darkest and the worst the world has to offer.”

Silence fell again, but this time it lasted. A look of suspicion appeared on her face. This was the first time she’s heard him talk in a cryptic manner like this, even she couldn’t decipher what he was going for.

“Gar,” Mistmane asked. “How heavy is your burden?”

The ram raised his head to the open sky. The old mare could sense there was something on the edge of his tongue. She patiently waited, but just as he opened his mouth to speak…

“Grandfather Gar!” a yell traveled in the distance.

The hooded figure turned in its direction, yellow light flashing under his hood for a moment before he finally spoke out. “Ah, I believe that’s my call.” He stood up once again, stretched out his limbs with a cracking sound. “This has been a most enlightening conversation, but alas, it’s my time to depart… as is theirs.” He tapped the ground with his hoof.

As the hoof stomp echoed, the beasts that were playing with Flurry Hearts stopped in their tracks, turned around, and ran to their owner, leaping into the flapping opening of the cloak, disappearing in a flash.

The filly stopped soon after and watched in disappointment as her playmates left. “No!” she cried, before running to the old ram. “Grandpa Gar, don’t go! I wanna play some more.”

“I’m sorry, child,” he told her, “but every fun must come to an end. My niece is waiting for me.”

The alicorn rose on her hind legs, pressing her frontal ones against grandfather’s chest, making huge begging eyes. “You’ll come back again, won’t you?”

He chuckled. “Of course I will, little girl. You’ve not seen the last of me, I promise.” He then looked at Mistmane. “I trust you will escort her home… young lady?”

Flurry Heart crook her head in confusion. She wasn’t privy to the conversation the two elders had while she was dashing about, playing with the creatures. Then she felt a hoof on her and saw that it was Mistmane.

“Don’t worry. I’ll escort her back,” she answered.

“Good,” he responded. “Because there seems to have been a commotion on the street earlier with the guards. We wouldn’t want that something happens to the child of the Crystal Princess if there’s a threat coming from outside the Empire.”

“A commotion?” the old mare wondered. “I don’t recall seeing anything.”

“It did happen, Grandma Misty!” the little filly spoke. “A lot of guards ran down the street, even pegasus did!”

“Grandfather Gar!” the voice called in the distance again.

The cloaked ram turned his head before finally decided to give parting words. “Granddaughter’s becoming impatient. I will not keep you two any longer. Until we meet again.” He nodded and traipsed around the corner of the hedge, towards the garden’s exit, leaving the two ponies alone.

“Grandpa Gar’s really nice, Grandma Misty,” the alicorn said. “I hope he comes back soon so we can play again.”

“I’m sure he will, Flurry Heart,” the elder smiled.

She was unsure about him, however. What was he about to say before they were interrupted? What kind of burden was the old goat claiming to carry? She wouldn’t have time to ponder that for long, as another voice came for the other side of the garden.

“Miss Mistmane?” the stallion called.

She turned to face him. “Oh, you’re the young man from yesterday. I assume you came to ask if the present is ready yet?”

A white unicorn with a green mane and a pink streak in it, trotted through the hedge maze made of crystals, seemingly perspiring, unsure where to go. She needed to find him, hopeful that the sheep didn’t blow their cover.

“Grandfather Ga-!” she yelled, only for the being in question to pop up in front of her from around the corner.

“No need to make such a ruckus, will you?” he grumbled.

She jumped. “For the love of… can you not do that?”

“Never you mind,” Grogar dismissed her request. “Was the operation successful?”

“Yes, but this was cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” Gusty asked. “If you hadn’t shut it down when you did, our cover would’ve been blown.”

But he paid no attention to her concerns. “And the rest? Are they-?”

“Already hiding amongst the populace now,” the mare answered. “When do we execute the next operation?”

“Tonight.”

“Wait… tonight already?!” she was shocked by his quick response. “Why so early?”

“There are… factors that have just introduced themselves into the setting. We cannot risk going about in the daylight anymore, or going near any greenery now that I know they have ears.”

She gave him a confused look. “Come again?”

“This garden’s architect can hear things from nature. Prolonging the plans any further will risk potentially exposing us, we’ll need to accelerate.”

“So, how do we proceed?” Gusty asked.

“Back at the house, dear,” he said as they walked through the garden’s archway.

Twilight still ran in the deep snow, the heavy snowfall didn’t deter her. The agonizing screams became ever more constant in the distance. She had to stop it and save whoever was suffering. The rest of the group was right on her tail, with Tempest Shadow and Glitter Drops by her side, the rest of the group close by them, while Rainbow Dash and Zecora were still lagging behind. But they were almost there, the screams kept growing louder, as they climbed a tall hill, and then…

The heavy storm ceased. In stark contrast to the blizzard outside, this place was almost peaceful with the light snowfall.

“What in the…? This can’t be right,” Twilight said.

The rest of the Council finally caught up as they came through the veil of heavy snow. Their reactions were pretty much the same.

“Whoa, how’s this possible?” they said almost collectively.

The sound of a zipper followed as the fanny pack around Fluttershy’s neck opened, and the draconequus poked his head out. “Well… if we were looking for something abnormal out in the Frozen North, I think we may have just found it.”

“At least we got a short reprieve from the blizzard out there,” Rarity said, as she took off her big poofy hat, caked in snow, her mane cascading down, trying to shake the article of clothing clean.

Applejack traipsed further in the snow, following the deep footprints all the way to where the alicorn and the two unicorn trackers were. “The footprints in the snow here seem awfully fresh, Twilight. I reckon they’re very recent. It’s likely close by.”

“Maybe whoever is making that lightshow can tell us more,” Pinkie Pie wondered.

“Lightshow?” Tempest looked at her confusingly, but she would soon receive the answer as he could see flickering light from the corner of her eye.

They all saw giant bolts of lightning shooting out of an object in the distance, the light source glistening off its surface. The lightning then arched and directed itself at a figure before it, but they couldn’t make out what it was. It struck! And the too familiar cry followed. That was the origin of the agonizing scream.

Twilight leaped and dashed towards it, followed by the rest of the group, except for the shy pegasus. “Twilight, wait! Rainbow Dash and Zecora aren’t here yet!”

“We can’t wait for them!” the alicorn exclaimed. “Somepony needs our help!”

The shy one looked back into the veil of snow. She didn’t want to just leave the rest of the group.

“We can trust those two to be able to get here on their own, Fluttershy,” a familiar voice came from around her neck. “But Twilight’s right, somepony else needs our assistance far more urgently.”

She was reluctant, but Discord was right. Looking back into the blizzard one last time, she dashed after the rest of the group.

A few moments passed since as the Element of Kindness disappeared, and just then, two figures came lumbering out of the heavy storm, leaning on one another. “Phew, finally,” the blue pegasus said, pulling the shawl off her face. She would not get a reprieve, however, because the moment she wiped her brow, she realized that the gang was already galloping in the distance towards a lighting arch. “You guys, wait up!” she yelled and tried to trot to them as quickly as possible. Her grey companion didn’t even have a chance to respond, as her position compelled her to move side by side with her, and together they marched as fast as they could at their own pace after them.

The Princess of Friendship ran as quickly as her hooves could. Whoever was suffering needed rescuing, and she was not about to let this continue any further. However, even as she thought that, as she got closer to the destination, her movement began to slow down until it inevitably stopped, same as did the rest of the Council of Friendship and company, as they beheld the scene in full.

A red crystal cluster stood out in the middle of a frozen wasteland, lightning shooting out at a mass of shadow before it, causing it to scream in pain.

“What in tarnation is going on here…?” the country pony wondered.

The lashing of lightning suddenly ceased, giving the punished shadow a moment of reprieve, while a feminine voice spoke. “Well now, what is this? A thousand years had passed since the last living creature came this way, and now all of a sudden there are visitors coming…”

The gang turned about in confusion. “Who… who said that just now?” Glitter Drops questioned.

“What’s the matter, ponies?” it spoke again. “Have you never seen a talking crystal before?”

With those words, their attention focused on the red cluster before them. Twilight stepped before the rest of the group.

“Excuse me… errr… miss?” she tried to address the voice. “I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle. My friends and I are looking for a construct made of rocks that seemed to have come this way and for somepony, or something, called “the Mother of Fear”. You wouldn’t happen to have seen or know anything about that do you?”

“Twilight… Sparkle…?” a voice came from the mass of shadow in front of the red crystal.

In the brief moment, a single bolt of lightning shot out from the cluster, quickly silencing the speaker, causing the alicorn princess to flinch in fear.

“Mother of Fear, you say?” the voice from the crystal spoke, followed by a laugh. “That’s something I’ve not heard before. It’s a fitting title I suppose. After all… I have spawned creatures of unspeakable terror into the world… including the failure before you. Come Sombra, aren’t you going to meet your old friends?”

“SOMBRA?!” the gang yelped unanimously.

The shadow shifted, its face finally turning to face them. There was no mistake. The shadowy mane, the ashen fur, the red-green glowing eyes, and a red horn sticking out from the forehead; it was him.

“How… how is it possible?” Discord commented.

“The Magic of Friendship reduced him to dust,” the fashionista added. “How is he back?”

A pair of fangs appeared on the umbrum king’s expression. “Of course it did… I’ve not forgotten what all of you did to me. You are all the source of my torment!”

“We’re at fault?” the party planner came to the front. “We’re not the ones who tried to take over Equestria by mind-controlling everypony, and then have them bake a black licorice fruitcake with green frosting!”

A roar escaped him. “I was a fool… I should’ve trapped you all forever in your worst nightmares from which you would’ve never woken up when I had the chance...”

The alicorn princess drew herself to her full height, standing adamant, as the rest of the council came to her side, looking down on the punished umbrum. “Even if you tried that now Sombra, you would’ve failed. No matter how powerful your fear is, the power of Friendship will be stronger than it. Try and do that to us now, and the end result will be the same as the last time.”

He couldn’t even respond. In his weakened state, the shadow pony could barely move, and if he tried, he would risk incurring his mother’s wrath. In his shadowy form, he simply sat there and took the humiliation from opponents he couldn’t fight.

A cackle followed, originating from the crystal; at first, it was feminine, but then it slowly mutated into downright disturbing. “Oh… is that a fact, Twilight Sparkle? Sombra!” At the sound of the voice, the fallen king turned to face his mother, with a look of fear in his eyes. “I’m feeling generous, well enough to consider giving you a second chance. Tell me, child, would you like to have revenge on them?”

His eyes grew at the sound of those words, ones he didn’t expect to hear from her. “Yes…” he said and a wicked smile curled upon his face.

As soon as that word was spoken, lightning shot from the crystal again. At first, it seemed to the Council of Friendship that he was being punished again, based on the scream that followed, but soon it turned out it was the opposite. The umbrum king’s shadowy form began to twist and turn until it became solid, resembling a familiar shape, accompanied by a crown, an armor, and a red royal cloak.

“This is your last chance to redeem yourself, Sombra,” the voice in the crystal spoke. “Do not waste it!”

“Yes, mother,” he answered.

The King of Monsters was alive and well once more, standing before the leaders of Equestria, so at the moment’s notice, Twilight gave the command. “Everypony, together!”

The Elements of Harmony came together and prepared themselves, waited, and then… nothing happened.

“Emmm… guys,” Spike replied. “I think we’re one pony short.”

That’s when they realized that Rainbow Dash was not present. She was still somewhere in the back and in their haste, they all forgot. They would not get the time to react, however, as King Sombra’s eyes began to glow, and he shot magic from his horn at the ground. Suddenly, a cluster of black rocks began to sprout out, quickly approaching the group. It didn’t try to impale them, instead, it began to rapidly grow between each of the participants, completely isolating them from one another. Tempest Shadow saw the clusters approaching, and in the heat of the moment, she kicked Glitter Drops away before she could be blocked in as well.

“Fizzy!” the teal unicorn cried out, running back to the wall, banging her hooves against it. “Fizzy, say something!”

“Never you mind me, Dropsy. Just get out of here!” her muffled voice came through the rock.

Inside her cell, Twilight looked about. The quarters were just so close, and she couldn’t see anybody else inside with her, not even Spike. She tried to use magic, teleporting herself out of the cell, right in front of the umbrum king, only for an unseen force to drag her right back in through the solid rock.

“Nice try, but I fear your magic is useless here, “Princess of Friendship”,” he boasted.

Just then, two last remaining participants of the expedition, the blue pegasus, and the zebra, were approaching, seeing the events play out before them, they quickened their steps in hopes that they would be able to help.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable, Sombra!” the alicorn yelled through the stone cell. “The moment Rainbow Dash comes, your plan will fail.”

“No…” the feminine voice spoke, garnering Sombra’s attention, so loud it was the princess could hear it beyond the rock, as did everybody else present. “None of you will see your friends or anyone else ever again. We stand above the ruins of ancient kingdoms, who in their hubris saw themselves as masters of this world, a world, which Hatred itself made sure would be cursed, as long as your kind persists. Sombra! Take them below, and show them what lies… at the Heart of Fear.”

The umbrum king grinned. He turned into smoke and expanded, surrounding the rocky cells behind which the Council of Friendship and Tempest were locked.

Suddenly, the ground quaked, there was a cracking sound all around. The area with the rock prison began to collapse. When Rainbow Dash and Zecora saw it happen, they simply tossed caution to the wind and rushed as fast as they could. Glitter Drops quickly ran away as she saw the ground collapsing, but at the proximity, she saw there was no way for her to outrun it. She lost her footing under her hooves and was about to fall into the chasm that opened beneath her, only to be grabbed by the two late participants at the last moment. They too would not be still for long, as the ground began to collapse under them as well.

“Glitter Drops, go back to the Crystal Empire and tell Cadence what happened!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

She then fully exerted herself and tossed the teal unicorn to the side and back on solid ground, just as the one they were standing on collapsed, and both mares fell into the dark chasm below, following the stone prison that King Sombra took down.

The little unicorn was all alone now in the Frozen North, shaking in horror by what she just witnessed. She’s just watched her best friend, as well as the Princess of Friendship and her friends, falling to their doom, and there was no way to stop it. A cold chill suddenly settled into her, and she ran away.

Silence finally fell on the scene again. A gentle breeze blew, leaving the “Mother of Fear” all alone before the giant gaping hole… or at least, that’s how it seemed before the obsidian construct rose from the pile of snow under which he buried himself in order to hide.

“Well… that just happened,” he commented.

Chapter 26: Descent Into Unknown

“Ahh… my head...”

There was darkness. Then blurry dim light began to emerge on the vision. Rainbow Dash finally woke up from a daze. She wasn’t sure what exactly happened, all that she recalled was her and Zecora falling into the darkness as the snow under their hooves gave out. That’s when it hit her.

“Zecora?” she quickly rose and called. “Zecora! Where are you?!”

“I’ll ask of you to not yell in my ear, though first, lift up your rear,” the voice said.

She shook her head, realizing that she was sitting on something very comfortable, only to look down and discover that she sat on top of the zebra.

She quickly jumped off. “Yikes! Sorry about that, Zecora! I- WHOA!“

The blue pegasus would not stand for long, as she slipped and landed straight on her belly and slowly slid away, spinning. She screamed in panic, unable to prevent it herself, only to suddenly stop. Somebody was pulling at her tail. The zebra seemed to have bit it before the pony could’ve spun further away, and then pulled her back to her side.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Save your thanks for the time being, I don’t believe we’re better... At least it’s what I’m seeing,” the shaman said in a sour tone.

“Do you remember anything?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Last I remember we lost footing under our hooves, and then I blacked out.”

“Your gap seems to be the same as mine, to find where we are I could use a sign.”

They both looked about. They were in an ice cavern, slippery frozen water surrounding them both above, below, and beside them. Yet surprisingly it wasn’t as dark. It seemed there was a light source coming from somewhere, but they couldn’t point it out from where.

“How the heck did we get this far?” blue pegasus wondered. “There’s no hole through which we fell above us.”

“Feel free to make a guess, but more pressing matters I must address,” the zebra answered, then quickly took off her saddlebags and began rummaging through.

“Errr… what are you looking for?” the pony wondered.

She wouldn’t wait long, as the shaman pulled out a jar, containing a black mass that shifted, with a single spark of light in it, still trying to attack its captor. She sighed in relief.

“Why did you have to bring that thing with us?” the wonderbolt questioned. “If we have to keep making sure that the jar doesn’t break, it would’ve been safer to just leave it back at the Crystal Empire.”

“I don’t trust anyone to guard this well, even for a spell. The risk of our enemies finding it and releasing its evil is too great to tell,” she explained. “I’d prefer to keep it at hooves length, rather than-“

Zecora stopped before she could finish. Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look as to why, but then she noticed the reason. The shadowy mass inside the container went silent and motionless, yet its form was still visible. It turned to the side of the jar and pressed its face against the glass, letting out what resembled a wailing sound. Both the zebra and the blue pegasus were unsure what this was about. Why was the abomination acting as if it was being called?

They heard something. A low whisper. They couldn’t make out what it was saying, not because it was too quiet, but rather because it was unintelligible as if more than one voice was talking over each other. But they did know where it was coming from. Their heads turned in the direction that the shadowy mass was. They gazed into the icy tunnel, unable to see into the darkness, but they could clearly hear it. The only question remained was: who was making that sound?

The voice began to grow louder all of a sudden, causing the rainbow-maned pegasus to gulp, but it didn’t end there. The whispers began to turn into screeches of terror. In the back of her head, panic began to set into the wonderbolt. Little by little she began to walk backwards, until finally… she dashed away.

“Rainbow Dash, wait for me!” exclaimed Zecora. “The further you run, the worse it will be!”

But her call went unheard. She quickly tossed the saddlebag on her back, grabbed the edge of the neck of the jar between her teeth, and rushed after her. If they got separated, it will lead to only more trouble if they get lost.

Meanwhile, the pony kept running in fear, but the moment she tried to turn on the first corner, she slipped again, fell on her belly, and spun for some time until she finally crashed into something. She groaned, getting back on her feet, and then instantly froze at what was in front of her.

The shaman managed to catch up to her soon, luckily not experiencing the crash that her companion just did, dropping the jar out of her mouth on the patch of snow. “Please, I must protest. The Princess and her other friends have gone missing, I do not jest. If we don’t go together, the perils ahead we will not weather.”

“I don’t think we’re alone anymore…” Rainbow Dash uttered in a tone of fear.

The zebra looked past the block of her companion and realized what she’s just crashed into. A covered bundle laid on the ground in a patch of snow, next to a leather bag; it looked like a cloak, pony-sized, and somebody was clearly underneath it. The two mares were silent for a moment, then the blue pegasus reached out and prodded it. It didn’t respond. She then reached for the hood and slowly pulled it off. What followed then could only be described as a cry of horror, as Rainbow Dash seemed to have revealed what looked like an equine skull.

The sun was slowly setting on the Crystal Empire. The royal guard had finally returned to the city after combing through the forest patch for hours to find any trail of Queen Chrysalis and the changelings but to no avail. It seemed that they had just disappeared into thin air. And of course, captain Flash Sentry had to report to his ruler the unfortunate results.

“I’m so sorry, Your Majesty,” he apologized, as he stood before the throne upon which the Crystal Princess sat. “We failed.”

She sighed. “It’s okay, Captain. It would’ve been foolish to think Chrysalis would’ve been captured this easily. Return to the rest of the guard and announce the next shift change, and resume as it was up to now.”

He took a bow and trotted out of the throne room. Cadence leaned back on her throne, rubbing her forehead. Now they had a confirmed sighting of changelings as Twilight warned her, but even with all the preparations, despite the quick and effective response, their leader managed to avoid capture somehow. What more could even be done at this point? And how long will it be before the changeling queen makes her next move? In her questioning, she looked out the window and watched the last sunrays disappearing over the mountains. That time of the day was coming, to put the little filly to bed, and with the situation she had to deal with and not be able to give her the time of day, things were likely not going to be well.

She slowly made her way to the little girl’s room. She’s likely going to be sitting by the side of her bed, holding her Whammy, and have a really moody look on her face. Yet as she went through the door, she saw a scene she wasn’t expecting. Flurry Heart sat in the middle of the room with sheets of paper all around her, levitating colors about, drawing, while humming to a tune.

“Flurry sweetie, I’m sorry mommy couldn’t play with you today,” she apologized.

“It’s okay, mama,” the filly simply answered.

She found it odd; she expected her to be less receptive, so she inquired further. “Why are you so happy today? Weren’t you bored?”

“No, mama. Grandpa Gar and his friends played with me.”

“Grandpa… Gar?” Cadence’s eyebrow crook. “Who is he?”

“He’s a nice old man, mama,” the filly eagerly explained. “And he brought his pets to play with me.” She picked up the pictures that were laying on the ground and began showing them to her mother, starting with what looked like a cat with a goat’s head and rabbit ears. “This is Sigby. He’s really good at hiding.” She switched to the next one with a strange green snake with arms and legs, and a head of a pig. “This one’s Ramdi. She’s really fast and she can always find him.” Next, she showed the picture of a bear with cap paws and an elephant’s head. “Here’s Baku. He’s a big sleepy baby and is really slow.” Lastly, she gave her a picture of a chicken with an elephant’s trunk and tusks. “And this is Hatty. He likes to jump a lot and likes to bop my nose.”

Her mother was unsure what to think of. She’s never heard of these creatures and the way they were drawn, it seemed as if they were made up. But then her daughter brought up the last picture. It was colored all green, she had drawn herself, along with a purple, green-maned unicorn, and next to her… was a figure that she couldn’t quite make out, it was partly blue, and completely covered in black, looking very ominous, even if he did have a happy smile drawn on.

“See? Here I’m in the garden with Granny Misty and Grandpa Gar,” she explained.

“Granny Misty? Was Mistmane there as well?” her mother inquired.

“Yeah,” the filly answered, “but they just sat down and talked, while I was playing with grandpa’s pets. He had to leave, but I hope I get to see him again tomorrow.”

Cadence smiled, then lifted her child off the ground. “Well, I’m glad you weren’t bored all day. But now it’s time for you to go to bed. I’m sure you’ll have a lot more playtime tomorrow as well.” She stacked her drawing by the side of her bed, and then levitated her, tucking her in. “Have sweet dreams, Flurry Heart,” she said as she kissed her goodnight.

As the little filly closed her eyes and huddled up in her bed, the mare slowly walked out, turning off the lights, but not before she had a few more parting words. “I love you, mama.”

“I love you too, sweetie,” the Princess of Love said as she slowly closed the door.

She sighed. She didn’t recall seeing her daughter leaving the castle. None of the guards even reported that she left. How has this escaped her notice? And this “Grandpa Gar”, who was he? She needed answers, and luckily, she now knew who to turn to for them. But Mistmane could wait until morning. It’s been a long and exhausting day. She would need a good shut-eye herself before she goes to make inquiries first thing in the morning.

Night loomed over the city. The residents were tucked away in their beds, oblivious to whatever is taking place outside their houses. Meanwhile, the crystal guards patrolled the streets and guarded the borders. This was probably one of the worst times for those who were designated for the nightshift when the shadows themselves could be harboring the enemy. For that reason, those who stood on the edge of the city, gazing into the darkness beyond, were especially jumpy. But regardless, the night was mostly peaceful. And to make sure the stalwart defenders wouldn’t lose their nerves during their watch, some of the other guards acted as delivery ponies to supply their co-workers with refreshments during the long night, it almost turned into a small social gathering. And it was during that eventful moment that it happened. It started with one of the guards opening a bottle of soda pop and it made a fizzing sound… a fizzing sound that didn’t seem to end. It seemed to have suddenly become multiple and kept growing louder with every passing moment. That was when the guards realized something wasn’t right as it started to sound a lot like buzzing.

“Flare!” one of them yelled.

A unicorn crystal pony cast a spell, sending a sliver of light into the night sky, where it exploded, illuminating the land. A giant dark cloud loomed in front of them, just outside the visibility. But any of those who were present during the afternoon events immediately recognized what it was. Changelings have returned!

“What’s the matter, guards?!” a sinister voice rang out from the buzzing darkness. “Is your dear princess too sleepy to protect you?”

Silence lay over the Crystal Castle. Not a peep could be heard, besides the sound of the guards patrolling the corridors as the two members of the royal family slept, but one of them would soon be in for a rude awakening. The sound of hooves could be heard galloping down the hallway, ceasing, and then the beating on the door to the princess’ room began, waking her up.

“Your Majesty! Emergency!” the voice called on the other end.

She yawned, got out of her bed, traipsing over to the door, and opening it to find captain Flash Sentry, his mane completely frazzled. “Captain, what’s wrong?”

“It’s the changelings, Your Majesty! They’ve returned, amassing on the southern border!” he answered.

She was finally roused, fully awake. “Already?!”

“They’ve gathered just like last time, and they’re not doing anything, just looming over our troops in the night.”

“Send as many available guards you can spare to meet them! We can’t allow them to use the cover of night to infiltrate the city!” she ordered.

“Right away, Your Majesty!” the captain of the guard responded and turned, running off. He galloped down the hallway, when he suddenly heard the sound of hooves next to him, as it seemed that Cadence was right by his side. “Your Majesty, what are you doing?”

“If the changelings are preparing for a night attack, it’s all the more imperative I’m by the troop’s side. If we get overwhelmed I’ll have to use my power to expel them.”

“But Your Majesty-“

“Besides, the pegasi won’t be able to join the battle in the dark. I won’t hear it, captain,” she dismissed his argument.

Among the buzzing sound, a single yawn could be heard. A group of changelings lined up in close formation to form a ledge, upon which their blossoming queen lounged. She was observing the events that she witnessed no more than several hours ago; with the armored soldiers at the front, the unicorn spells were being nullified, and the cover of darkness made it difficult for their opponents to perceive them. And she knew that the pegasi will have difficulty tracking them down this time around. She only cared if the only pony who could be a significant threat would appear.

It didn’t take long before those thoughts came true. A bright flash erupted in the distance, illuminating the Empire in perpetual light, blinding the changeling army, and fast approaching, even the crystal guards below were confused for a moment, but then the cheers followed. It was her! The Crystal Princess was fast approaching with the captain of the guard by her side, and the pegasi battalion at her back. This was it. That was the sign for Queen Chrysalis to spring into action.

“The princess of the Crystal Empire approaches!” she dramatically announced. “Our plan has failed! Retreat!”

And without further delay, the changeling queen flew away, and the swarm instantly followed.

“They’re running away again, Your Majesty!” the orange pegasus pointed out.

“Flash, go to the troops below and order some of the pegasi to follow,” the princess ordered, “I can track Chrysalis down and guide the troops to her.”

He saluted and descended below, while the royal continued to pursue the dark cloud, with the pegasi army at her tail.

Calm still laid over the castle, and in her room, the little filly was fast asleep. But the loud voice and the sound of galloping hooves could be heard outside her room. She shifted. A few moments later more voices could be heard outside, and this time, a bright light began to shine through the window and into her room. At this point, the situation literally forced the girl to wake up, as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was still sleepy, yet she couldn’t understand why it was day already. She slowly wobbled over to the window and looked outside. There was no sun in the sky, it was still night. However, she saw a light source flying across the Empire into the distance. What was it? Her eyes were barely open and she couldn’t make out the figure. She would soon forget about it, when a flash erupted behind her, followed by a familiar voice.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed at this hour, little girl?”

She recognized it. She knew it all too well, that grizzled tone in the voice. At the drop of a word she quickly turned, and beheld a cloaked figure, illuminated by the outside light, as it slowly dimmed away.

“Grandpa Gar?” Flurry Heart responded. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled. “I promised we’d meet again, haven’t I? Are you still sleepy?”

“Yes,” she yawned.

“Would you like to play a quick game before you go back to bed?” the ram suggested.

The child’s eyes opened wide, there was a rush of excitement in her now. “Oh yes yes yes yes!”

“Shhhhhhhh,” he tried to silence her. “Not so loud, you’ll ruin the game.”

“What game are we playing?” she curiously asked.

“Hide and seek,” the elder answered with a grin. “We hide… and the ones out there, will seek.”

The zebra examined the remains, while her companion pressed herself against the icy wall in an attempt to be as far away as possible from them… and failing miserably, as she kept sliding in their direction.

The shaman sighed. “Fret not Rainbow Dash. This pony parted long ago, I doubt it’s anyone we know.”

“That doesn’t make it any less creepy, Zecora,” the wonderbolt answered, cautiously approaching. “Who was this unicorn anyway?”

“Forgive me, but I’m not versed in reading bones,” she replied, “through their possessions, however, I might recognize some tones.”

A saddlebag lay next to the remains, partly covered in snow, an image of a yellow staff with two snakes coiled around it, with a pair of wings on top. The zebra pulled it out and opened it, emptying its contents. It was stuffed with a few books and papers, mostly they were books on magic and spells, nothing that would indicate anything specifically.

“Nothing that concrete I’m afraid, that would show who it was that met the fate so tragic. Whoever the unicorn was, seemed to be just one like any other, greatly gifted with magic.”

“Well, what about that one over there?” the blue pegasus pointed out. ”It doesn’t look like a spellbook or anything.”

The shaman looked at the book lying by the side of the bag. The cover was bland, without any title on it. She opened it and skimmed through it.

“I agree, Miss Dash,” she answered after a prolonged period. “This book, unlike others, holds a stash. It’s a diary, but not entirely.”

“Does it tell who it belonged to?”

“I cannot draw a bead from what little I could read,” the zebra shook her head, “but Sombra he knew, indeed.” She closed the book shut. “We can speculate later, we must tend to a pressing matter much greater.” She turned to face her, only to see the rainbow-maned pony with wide eyes, looking in her direction. “Why do look this way? Did I say something to cause you dismay?”

Rainbow Dash raised her hoof pointing in her direction. “Was that thing always acting like this?”

Zecora raised her eyebrow, and looked to her side, in the direction she was pointing, and soon understood what she meant. The black blob trapped inside the jar was active again, but it was displaying abnormal behavior. When it would usually lash out and try to break through its container, it was now huddled up, almost as if it was cringing, while making unusually whiny noises. She grabbed the jar and picked it up, and in a matter of moments, it returned to normal, trying to attack her captor. This was unusual. What caused its behavior earlier? The shaman put the jar back on the spot it was before, and before she knew it, the black mass huddled up once again. Zecora repeated the process a few more times and then began to realize the pattern. The black mass seems to have been acting differently when put in the proximity of the unicorn’s remains. This time she pushed it further, closer to them. And as predicted, the blob’s reaction got only more noticeable, as it aggressively pressed against the opposite side of the jar, trying to desperately keep its distance; however, there was something else, something that even Rainbow Dash seemed to have noticed.

The single spark of light inside the black mass… was flashing. And the closer it was pushed, the brighter the light shined, and in the process, the aberration began to release violent noises… almost as if it was in pain. This time around the shaman was determined to push it to the limit. She grabbed the jar and placed it right next to the remains. The black mass let out a shrilling cry, as the spark began to glow in a nearly blinding blight, but something unexpected followed. The remnants began to emanate a radiant blue glow, until they were all but consumed by it, disappearing. It then began to move towards the container, entering through the glass and then being absorbed by the spark of light. Once it was done, the bright light erupted, the dark blob let out one final cry, and then… there was silence.

When the light finally dissipated, the two mares uncovered their eyes and beheld what was in front of them. The spark of light was once again still and lifeless, but the black mass… seemed to have lost some of its purity, as it has become more of a dark grey now.

Rainbow dash finally got up the nerve to approach the place where the remains were a few moments ago, tapping about to make sure they’re really gone. “Is… it supposed to do that?”

“I also am uncertain,” was the only answer Zecora could give, as she walked over to the jar and picked it up, examining it up close. “Whatever affected the essence will perhaps, in time, reveal itself from behind a curtain.”

“Soooo… what do we do in the meantime?” the blue pony asked.

The shaman packed the jar away and stashed all the books and papers back into the saddlebag they found. “We're only two out of ten, it's best we become whole again.”

She swung the bag on her back, and then walked past her, down the tunnel from which they just came. Seeing that unnerved the rainbow-maned pegasus; she could still hear the whispers coming from the foreboding darkness; they couldn’t go that way.

She lept after the zebra and grabbed her tail, pulling her back and preventing her from moving on the icy floor. “Hold on, let’s not rush! We can’t go down there, who knows what’s awaiting us. How about we first explore the other side instead?”

Zecora stopped walking and turned her head. “Do you speak out of fear, seeing what we found here?”

“… no!” she yelled after a moment, then taking a calmer tone. “I just think we shouldn’t jump at the worst possible choice when we got an alternative, that’s all.”

The companion rolled her eyes, then slowly turned and began walking down the other side of the tunnel. “Perhaps this time your advice I'll heed. Let us see where the other path will lead.”

As she passed her, the pony sighed in relief, wiping her brow, then hurrying after her to make sure they wouldn’t get lost.

The icy floor eventually disappeared, replaced by the hard, frozen earth, slowly ascending as they progressed through the tunnel, yet as they did, the light coming from outside kept getting brighter. The passage finally ended, and a wide cavern opened before them. It seemed like a completely different world, but it became obvious that they were under several miles of ice and snow. And just as on cue, a patch of snow lay not far from the tunnel’s opening.

“Well, I believe we got to the place where we fell…” Rainbow Dash answered, only for Zecora to resume her sentence, “...but it doesn't explain how we ended there all too well.”

The pony skittered around the snow patch, trying to continue her trot over the unexplored underworld, only for her to stop dead in her tracks and grimacing when she realized she nearly stepped over the edge. A giant hole was bored into the frozen earth, it was easily the size of a small town, spanning all around the open icy cavern, but what could’ve made it was beyond her. As she gazed about, she did notice that there were three other, bigger tunnels made into the ice, each opening on a different side.

“Which one do we take first, Zecora?” she asked.

The zebra looked about. “We shall proceed clockwise, simply stay on track. If we're lucky we'll both come back.”

“Yeah… hehe… if lucky,” she smiled awkwardly, as the zebra led the way, and the pony followed.

They walked around the giant hole for a few minutes until they finally arrived at the first tunnel, then slowly descended. The light dimmed behind them as they went deeper, however, it soon became bright again as the tunnel came to an end. What was peculiar was that their hooves were beginning to give out loud clopping sounds, as if they were walking on rock. It took a moment for them to look down and realized, they weren’t just walking on rock, it looked like a stone construction, a bridge to be exact. And then, something appeared before them that they did not expect. A giant stone wall with gates blocked their way. Rainbow dash approached it and tapped on the doors, causing it to emit the wooden sound. They certainly weren’t dreaming nor was it an illusion, it was real.

She propped herself against them. “Ey Zecora, give me a hoof so we can open this thing.”

The shaman pressed her hooves against the door and pushed. After a few moments, the creaking sounds followed as the gates slowly opened. At that point there was no mistaking it; they entered a courtyard and their surroundings became apparent.

“This…this is a castle?” the rainbow-maned pegasus was confused. “What’s a castle doing under a mountain of ice and snow?”

“I think a better question would be, why was the way cleared for us to see,” the zebra asked.

“What do you mean?”

“The gate,” she answered, “stands solid despite the passage of time. The elements alone would have crushed it like a lime.”

That was odd. And now that Zecora mentioned it, the courtyard itself seemed to have been rather clean, despite being under miles of ice and snow. Somebody else must’ve come here before them, but who could’ve been? They didn’t even know what this place was. Ravages of time, despite under low temperatures, were noticeable. The only indication was a single tattered banner hanging above the main gate into the keep, one that resembled a unicorn’s head.

“Let’s see what’s hiding behind door number one, shall we?” the pony nodded to her zebra companion.

She said nothing and simply followed, as she traipsed over the yard, and over to the door. The pegasus pressed against it, and this time around they opened with no need for assistance. A great hall of the throne room opened before them. This place had even more deteriorated from the passage of time: the tapestry was torn, the rugs were shredded, the walls were falling off, the windows broken, and the throne… A gasp escaped the wonderbolt. On the far end of the throne room, a figure was levitating in the air, and quiet noises could be heard coming from it… or rather, her. Both the pony and the zebra immediately recognized the too-familiar purple alicorn.

“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she charged at her, the shaman following close by.

They had almost reached her, but as the pegasus was few feet away from her, the atmosphere suddenly changed. It became dark, and Zecora seemed to have disappeared, but most of all, she beheld an unexpected sight. She was in Canterlot, on the balcony of the castle, and the world around her was covered in dark clouds, but in the distance, she saw a great dark mass approaching. And then the light erupted on the courtyard below. She knew it; that was the magic of friendship radiating and the source from which it was coming… it was the Council. But as the darkness was pushed back, a sinister cry erupted from it.

NO!

It startled her and she immediately backpaddled. The world around her shifted once more, and it was bright again, as she found herself back in the old castle’s throne room with the zebra by her side.

“Z… Zecora what the hay just happened?” she inquired.

The shaman didn’t answer. Instead, she traipsed a few feet in front of the pegasus, stopped, and then extended her hoof in the levitating Princess of Friendship’s direction. What followed looked as if she’s just put her limb into running water, except that it was made from a torrent of shadow that was invisible unless interacted with it.

She pulled her hoof back out and addressed her companion. “Explain to me, when you entered, what did you exactly see?”

“Well,” the pony tried to recollect what she saw, “I was back in Canterlot and there was this great darkness approaching, only to have Twilight and… the rest of us beat it back with the power of friendship, and then there was this horrible voice that caused me to jump and… I got back here.“

The other mare sighed. “Your princess I'm afraid is trapped by a terrible blockade. We cannot move ahead, unless we were to temper it with fire, instead.”

“What are you talking about, Zecora?”

“What you describe is something she confided in me. To wit, the nightmare which wouldn't let her be. What she's suffering through, is what we now pursue.”

Rainbow Dash gazed at her friend struggling. This is what started it all? She was reliving the nightmare of which Spike told her about?

“We need to do something!” she urged.

“I know this well,” Zecora answered, “but we've not the means to rescue her from the wretched cell. Only through the might of her will can she be free from this ill.”

“Well if that’s the case, then the only way is for us to interfere in her nightmare!” she announced, getting back up on all fours and preparing to charge in.

“Rainbow Dash, let me be blunt. This matter is not one we can confro - AAAA!” she got cut off, as the blue pegasus grabbed her by her coat and dragged her into the invisible torrent.

They entered the dark world once again. Zecora wasn’t sure this was the best course of action, but what was done was done at this point. They gazed upon the city of Canterlot from the castle’s balcony and… they both saw it. The shadowy force that was approaching them, this pillar of darkness with five faces… Starswirl showed it to both of them, as well as the rest of the Council of Friendship. This sinister force of nature… was Turmoil. They saw the radiance of magic of friendship being unable to deter it, it reached the six ponies and tentacles shot out of the shadows, one by one tearing Twilight’s friends from her embrace, devouring them whole. At that point, the element of loyalty couldn’t just stand by any longer and watch this. She lept over the edge to fly down, only for her to realize at the last minute that she couldn’t and she plunged to her doom, yet she somehow managed to land gently on all fours… it seemed that the nightmare realm wasn’t affected by physical reality.

“Zecora, hurry!” she called out for her to join her quickly.

The darkness began to close in, consuming everything in sight, seeking to isolate Twilight from everything around her, as she curled up in a fetal position. With a loud stomping sound, the shaman landed on the solid ground, she charged at the darkness, pulling out her staff, and after reaching her destination in front of the dreamer, she stood in the way of the oncoming darkness and began to wave it about, distorting the imagery, as well as their taunting voices.

The rainbow-maned pony finally reached her friend, gently tapping her cheeks. “Hey! Hey Twilight, wake up!”

The princess finally managed to open her eyes, as she realized the scenario that she had been through numerous times by now had slightly changed. “R… Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here? I just saw you-“

“Twilight, listen to me: none of this is real!” she tried to convince her. “You’re trapped in your own nightmare!”

“But… but it looks so real…” the alicorn said weakly.

“With Rainbow Dash, I must agree,” the zebra shouted as she kept flailing about with her staff. “It’s all a facade to keep you from being free!”

“Zecora speaks the truth, Twilight! Think!” the wonderbolt kept urging her. “You just saw me get eaten by that black thing, yet here I am, I winter gear, along with her. You’re not back at Canterlot, and Turmoil hasn’t risen yet! We’re here to prevent that from happening! We can’t do this without you Twilight! We need you!”

She couldn’t believe it. She’s been down this road so many times now that it seemed almost inevitable. And yet, right now, at this very moment, something has changed, just as Rainbow Dash described.

She managed to slowly rise back on her hooves. “Zecora… stand back.”

The shaman heard her and she stood aside, letting the faces approach her, their vile words trying to bear down on her, while the final, sixth one, made itself manifest. And yet she just stood there, unmoved.

“You’re not real…” she slowly said.

Something happened then. Bright cracks appeared on the mass of shadow surrounding them, and it didn’t respond.

“You’re not real,” she repeated, and even more cracks appeared all around them. She finally stood adamantly and gave one final cry of defiance. “YOU’RE. NOT. REAL!”

And the darkness collapsed. The invisible veil that surrounded them shattered, but not before briefly turning into a shadowy horned equine, roaring loudly, and then disappearing.

Twilight fell on her back, groaning, while the other two mares loomed over her.

“Twilight, you okay?” the wonderbolt asked.

“Ugh… yeah… but I swear that's one mother of a headache…” she rubbed her head, then stopped when her eyesight finally adjusted and saw her surroundings. “What the… where are we?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. No idea what a castle is doing here under a mountain of ice and snow, but it’s clear somepony was here before us. They seemed to have cleared the path for us.”

“What about the others?”

“Still no clue,” the blue pegasus shook her head. “You’re the first we’ve found so far, but who knows where others are… Twilight?” She had expected her to still be reeling from the experience, but the princess defied her expectations.

She got back on her hooves and traipsed about the room. It seemed familiar in some way. The design of architecture, the tapestry… she recalled reading a history book about it, but couldn’t quite put her hoof on it what was it about. But when she turned to face the pegasus and the zebra, she saw the throne standing behind them. She quickly flew past the two and began examining it closely.

“Errr… Twilight, what are you doing?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

After a prolonged silence, she slowly turned and gave a reply. “I know where we are…”

“You do?”

“This place… this castle, it used to be the home of King Diamond Broke, father of Princess Platinum…” she answered.

The pegasus went into thought for a moment, rubbing her chin. “That last name sounds familiar for some reason…”

“It should be, Rainbow Dash!” the alicorn princess exclaimed. “She was one of the founders of Equestria! This used to be her home! It means… this castle, this place… it’s the original home of the unicorns!”

Author's Note

New post: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/962263/slowing-down-the-pace

Chapter 27: A Rise to the Occasion

“Twilight?”

“I can’t believe it!” the alicorn princess hopped about the throne room with excitement, while the pegasus and the zebra stood by, and watched her hyping about. “This is Monoceria! The legendary homeland, from which our predecessors came, it’s been buried under ice and snow this entire time!”

“Twilight.”

“I mean, no wonder nopony knows where it disappeared to after Equestria was formed!”

“Twilight!”

She gasped. “When we get back home I need to send an archeological expedition! So much forgotten and unexplored-!”

“TWILIGHT!!!” the rainbow-maned pony yelled on the top of her lungs this time, finally pulling her overly hyped friend out of her moment. “I get that this is an important discovery, but this really isn’t the right time!”

“With Rainbow Dash, I must agree,” the shaman joined in, “this isn’t the moment to overflow with glee. You may be feeling stout, but the rest of your friends I believe will shout for help, so they too can gallop about.”

After being stuck in Canterlot for so long, it was a moment in which the princess so easily lost herself, after making a discovery nobody could’ve dreamed of. The other two mares finally managed to snap her out.

“I’m sorry…” she apologized. “It’s just that… This discovery is beyond anything anypony could’ve imagined. There are no written historical records about what became of the original home of unicorns after the mass exodus to escape the frost and snow that the windigos had brought with them. And this whole time… it was buried beneath the Frozen North.”

“But why did Sombra bring you here of all places?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“I don’t know,” she answered, “but I am surprised that he made sure this place remained intact.”

The zebra and the pegasus glanced at each other. “Your assumptions would be sound, if not for the truth in facts we found,” the shaman replied.

“What do you mean, Zecora?”

“She means that Sombra may not have been the one who made sure that this place is in a better condition than it should be,” the other pony interjected. “Somepony else must’ve been here long before Sombra brought all of you guys. And speaking of which…”

“I know, I know,” Twilight concurred. “Let’s go and search the rest of the castle, see if perhaps any of our friends are here as well.”

“I’d be surprised if they weren’t. Let’s move,” Rainbow Dash ordered and she marched on to the door on the left side of the throne room.

This time around, however, she was met with near-complete darkness. It appeared that the light that illuminated the castle’s interior wouldn’t be much help in a place where the light source could barely come through. And just as she made the first step forward, she immediately tripped over the rubble that lay in her way, landing face-first on the floor. The alicorn got to her side and helped her get back up.

She finally lit her horn up, creating a more permanent light source. “This should work better. Stick together, both of you.”

The three mares slowly made their way down the hallway, and as they did, it noticeably kept going darker, especially since they began to descend the stairs. At this point, even Twilight slowed the pace with which they started. It seemed like it would take a long time, because despite walking for several minutes, even after getting to the bottom and finding themselves in another corridor, it didn’t seem to end. Suddenly, the princess stopped dead in her tracks, halting her companions with her wings.

“Twilight, what is it?” the blue pegasus asked.

“Shhhh,” she tried to keep her silent. “Listen.”

They all remained quiet for a few moments, intently listening. There was nothing. And just when the pegasus tried to question, she did hear something. It was really low and weak. She couldn’t quite make it out what it was saying, but it sounded like a voice.

Twilight motioned to move forward, and as they did they kept listening to the sound. It happened again. And every time they moved, the sound kept growing louder, and more pronounced.

It could finally be heard. “Noooooo…”

Little by little the group quickened their step, and little by little, it became clear that the voice was a cry of terror.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The Princess of Friendship stopped again after that. “That voice… IT’S TEMPEST!”

Without waiting even a moment longer, she dashed down the corridor, and the other two mares had to speed up so they wouldn’t get lost in the dark. Soon, the light appeared in the cracks of the door in front of them, and they immediately got bashed open.

A wide room opened before them and the light source seemed to have been the candle holders on the wall that somebody conveniently lit up. Broken down pieces of wood were lying about, roughly resembling furniture, with bits of some really old hay lying about. From the looks of it, this was the servant’s quarters.

However, the source of the noise was present in the middle of it, as a scarred, broken, purple unicorn was levitating several hooves off the ground, panting frantically, and after a few moments, the cry followed again. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“Tempest!” Twilight cried in panic, seeing her suffer, and charged at her.

She would quickly fall as the wonderbolt lept on top of her, slowing her down. “Twilight, wait! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“But we got to help her! Tempest is-!”

“Trapped in a nightmare, same as you,” Zecora intervened, slowly walking in front of her, “which is why you must know what you’re getting yourself into.” She raised her hoof, slowly continuing to move in the direction of the prisoner of the dream until she finally hit it. The alicorn saw it; the zebra's touch disturbed previously the invisible dark torrent of shadows that served as the prison’s bars. “Beyond this point lurks her innermost darkest domain. Unless we assist her, trapped she’ll remain.”

“It’s just like what happened with you, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash further elaborated. “We need to convince Tempest that what she sees isn’t real, so she can break herself out.”

The princess took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay, let's do this properly… just get off me, please?”

The pegasus jumped off her and followed to where the zebra was waiting.

After the latter readjusted herself to the alicorn’s other side, each of the two mares put their hooves on her side, awaiting her command. “Ready?” she asked.

Both the shaman and the wonderbolt nodded in response, and all three stepped through the veil of nightmare.

The sound of droplets falling from the ceiling could be heard all around them. A dark, damp cave surrounded them, they could barely see in front. The silence would soon be disturbed, however. They could hear the light sound of hooves coming in the distance, fast approaching, yet the loudness wasn’t raised but was instead accompanied by loud panting. Out of the darkness, the main perpetrator appeared; it was a little purple filly unicorn with a short pink mane, charging in their direction.

“Was… was that Tempest?” Rainbow Dash asked, confused, as the little girl didn’t stop, and instead just ran past the group. “Why does she look like a little kid?”

It didn’t take long for the Princess of Friendship to search her memory to guess what was going on, but she would be unable to voice her explanation… because it made itself become known all by itself. A loud growl echoed. Heavy stomps were fast approaching from the direction the filly just came in, garnering the group's attention. From the darkness they could see dancing lights, one much bigger than the others, they kept growing brighter with every passing moment. And then… a pair of red eyes appeared underneath the brightest light. Soon, the form completely stepped out of the darkness, for it to be on full display: a great blue-furred body stood before them, vaguely transparent, dim stars covering most of it, except for several brightest ones at the back of its tail, and a single big star on its forehead.

“URSA!” the wonderbolt yelled in panic and quickly pushed her two friends to the side to avoid it, as it charged in their direction, then running past them.

When it quieted down, the zebra finally made a complaint. “Rainbow Dash, this wasn’t necessary. Remember, what you see around is all imaginary.”

She scrambled off both of them, before blushing in embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“We need to hurry and catch up to her, before the Ursa Minor does the-“ Twilight urged them, however, before she could even finish, she heard a roar coming down the tunnel behind them.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” the filly’s cry followed, then a snapping sound, and after that everything went quiet.

The mares looked at each other, all of them terrified. What they just heard… was unsettling, and now there was nothing but dead silence. They did not anticipate what came next, however. They heard the light sound of hooves coming in the distance, from the same direction they did earlier, fast approaching. The little filly appeared again, running as fast as she could, past the group. They were confused; didn't she go that way a few moments ago? Why was she coming from the same direction again? And of course, the pursuer would soon follow, as the Ursa Minor came charging after her.

Without waiting a while longer, the princess jumped back on her feet. “Come on, we need to help her!” And she rushed in their direction.

The pegasus and the zebra got up as well and followed. They ran down the tunnel and turned a corner, only to behold the scene on display. The little unicorn was pressed against a dead-end, and the giant constellar omnivore was bearing down on her; there was no way for her to escape. It then raised one of its arms, displaying grisly claws. Twilight, seeing what was about to happen, immediately shot a blast from her horn at the Ursa, only for it to end up passing right through it. The action went completely unnoticed, and the beast brought its claw down.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” the filly cried out in terror.

A snapping sound followed, and soon after, a pink flash blinded everybody. When the light finally dissipated, the mares could finally see again, yet the little filly and the bear were both gone. The trio approached the scene closer and checked the surroundings. There was simply no trail left.

“Is this the storm-mare’s greatest fright? The source of all her trauma which gnaws like a blight?” Zecora inquired.

“Yes,” the alicorn solemnly answered, “this is the one moment in Tempest’s history that defined her as a person. All of the life choices she’s made, especially her working for the Storm King in the first place, came from this moment. And it seems that even after all this time… even after all she’s done to try and move on with her life, this moment still haunts her.”

“Ye, but where is she?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “Both her and the Ursa Minor were here a moment ago. They couldn’t have just sunk into the ground.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “No… but they both ran past us twice in a row. My guess is that this nightmare is in a constant replay.”

“Replay? You mean like a rewind button?”

“You could put it like that,” she elaborated further. “It’s possible that she’s experiencing the event happening in real-time, but she’s unaware that she’s in a loop.”

“Then the only way for us the break the loop is to interfere!” the wonderbolt answered.

“But I just shot the Ursa Minor and it went straight through it.”

“Not the illusion, Twilight, we need to get Tempest to snap out of it,” the blue pegasus urged, when a roar soon echoed in the distance further down the tunnel, proving Twilight’s theory true. “And I think now’s the right time!”

She ran. Little Fizzlepop Berrytwist ran as fast as her hooves could take her. Desperation pushed her. But in the back of her mind, she dreaded that she wouldn’t be able to get away. She could hear it, right on her tail, with low growls, and heavy stomping, fast approaching. The Ursa. It will get her. It will catch up to her and maul her. And she had no power to defend herself. She knew that. She couldn’t do anything, she was just so small and weak. And just when she turned the corner, the filly felt the ground under her hooves disappear. She was levitating, with no explanation as to why. And to make matters worse, she could hear the bear approaching ever closer. She flailed about desperately, but it did not help, she couldn’t move an inch.

Ursa Minor charged through the cave. It already knew where his prey was going, it was already predetermined. Nothing would stop him. He turned the corner, predicting that the little pony would be trapped in a dead-end, only to find… nothing. His quarry was not where it’s supposed to end up. As he was looking about, he didn’t notice that a group of figures enveloped in pink aura descended from the ceiling behind him… that is until his attention was drawn by the tapping sound, echoing all around as they tried to sneak away. The Ursa Minor turned and spotted his prey, letting out a roar.

“Curse these darn horseshoes!” Rainbow Dash swore.

Twilight quickly picked up the little filly again and dashed through the tunnel. The bear didn’t waste any time and ran after them, the zebra and the pegasus didn’t even have time to make the considerable distance to escape him, but the beast simply ran through them, as if he was made of vapor. The two mares looked at each other for a moment, then ran after him.

“We need to hurry!” wonderbolt urged. “Twilight’s not a fast enough runner to outpace the Ursa Minor, and if it catches up to them, Tempest’s toast!”

“I can disrupt the illusion and lessen its speed,” Zecora answered, “but with only my hind legs I’m hard-pressed to succeed!”

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. “I got an idea! Ditch the packs, quick!”

The Princess of Friendship, well ahead of everybody else, kept running, but she could already hear the bear’s sound behind her.

In the heated moment, the little unicorn finally managed to become aware of what was going on around her. “Twilight? What are you doing here?!”

“We’re saving you, Tempest!” she answered, before stopping herself from saying what she originally wanted. “Awww, you’ve got the cutest little voice.”

She blushed in embarrassment from somebody saying that about her, but it would soon disappear and be replaced by panic once again, as she heard a loud roar behind them. “Twilight, you can’t be here! He’s gonna get both of us!”

The alicorn finally got herself back on track. “Tempest, he can’t get us! This whole place, it’s all a nightmare in which you’re trapped!”

“Nightmare?! I’m not dreaming all of this, Twilight!”

“Yes, you are, Tempest! And you’re the only one who can-!”

She tripped. Somehow Twilight managed to bump her hoof against a rock, then flew a few hooves and dropped to the ground, sliding for a bit. She was confused. How could this have happened? This whole place was an illusion. Unfortunately for both of them, this slowed moment was enough for the Ursa Minor to finally come in sight. She quickly scrambled to get back up and gain the lost speed, while grabbing the filly, but it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to get away in time. However, there was a galloping sound far in the back, quickly catching up. Rainbow Dash moved at a high speed, but she wasn’t alone. Zecora sat on her back, holding her staff in her hooves. And when they finally caught up to the charging beast, the shaman made a single swing at the star-bear, passing through him and distorting his image, stopping him… for a moment, before it became normal again and resumed with its speed.

“Keep swinging that stick of yours, Zecora!” the pegasus yelled.

She could only do one thing, and she proceeded. A swing with her staff at every turn possible was enough to cripple the beast’s speed, but even then, it slowly moved after its prey. Twilight took this chance to run off with Tempest before the beast caught up to them. She made a turn, hoping to get some reprieve, only for her to stop dead in her tracks. It was a dead-end! It seemed like, regardless of which way they went, both sides would cease.

Seeing that the Ursa Minor was still not close, she put the filly on the ground. “Tempest, listen carefully. This whole place around us is your nightmare coming to life. You’re the only one who has the willpower to break through it.”

“How? How am I supposed to break out?” she questioned. “And this can’t be a dream. It’s all real.”

“Nonsense,” the alicorn said, picking up the little unicorn. “If this wasn’t a dream, do you think I could do this?”

She charged straight into the wall, a decision she would soon regret, as she bashed against it, and then fell to the ground.

“What the hay was that?” the filly asked, confused.

“I…” she tried to speak while she was writhing in blunt pain, “I wanted to go through the wall… it’s how we got in but…”

“See?!” the filly yelled. “How can this be a dream when this whole place is solid?!”

A loud, disturbing roar echoed around the corner, and soon, the large blue shape adorned with stars appeared. The zebra was still swinging about with her staff to distort the vision, but it was clear that she was getting tired.

“That’s it, it’s over!” the little unicorn huddled against the wall. “Any moment now that thing’s gonna get here and take everything from me! I’m gonna be left all alone again!”

There was an undeniable horror in Tempest’s voice, Twilight could tell. They were running out of time. Things didn’t go the way she had hoped, some didn’t even make sense. What could she possibly do or say at this point that would get her to see the truth?

“This won’t hold for long,” the zebra called, “you must make her see she’s wrong!”

The Princess of Friendship heeded her words. She managed to get back on her feet and get over to the shivering little unicorn, picking her up in her hooves.

“Tempest, listen to me, and believe me when I say, this is a nightmare. Zecora’s doing her best to slow down the Ursa Minor, but the only way you can get out of here is if you free yourself.”

“But…” she spoke with teary eyes, “I’m just a helpless weak little unicorn…”

“You’re neither weak nor little, let alone helpless!” Twilight loudly stated. “You’re not just a unicorn named Fizzlepop Berrytwist! You’re Tempest Shadow! You’re strong, tall, and one of the most capable ponies I’ve ever met! But most importantly… you’re not alone. The fact that we’re here, doesn’t that mean something?”

The words lingered. Not long after the princess finished that sentence, however, Zecora made one last swing at the imagery of the star-bear, before the staff finally slipped from her hooves. He charged, and this time there was nothing to deter it anymore. It got in range of her prey, stood up on his hind legs, and raised his giant claws. In one last-ditch effort to protect her, Twilight stepped before the filly, just as the limb was brought down on her.

ZAP!

A bolt of lightning shot out and destroyed Ursa Minor’s claw, shattering it into stars. He didn’t even react, he just stood there, confused, unsure what had just happened. And then he spotted her. The little unicorn filly had crawled between the legs of the purple mare and now stood defiantly against him, her horn flickering.

“Get. Away,” she spoke in a cold tone.

He remained motionless, then once again roared, raising his other claw, but before he even had a chance to bring it down, her loud voice echoed through the tunnel. “I said, get… AWAY!!!”

A stream of lightning shot out from the unicorn, cutting straight through the beast, and puncturing a hole in the ceiling of the cave, penetrating the darkness, causing it to collapse on itself. The invisible veil that surrounded them shattered, and just before it completely disappeared, it turned into a shadowy horned equine, which roared loudly, and then disappeared.

It finally settled down, allowing Twilight’s sight to readjust. Her two companions were laying on the ground on the other side of the room, but the victim was saved. Tempest Shadow was wide awake, standing tall, staring in the distance, taking in slow breaths, as she’s just woken up for a nightmare.

She finally looked at the princess. “Where are we?”

“Are you serious?” the broken unicorn asked, as she and the rest of the group wandered back into the throne room, while on the way, the alicorn explained to her what had happened in the meantime.

“I am, Tempest,” the princess confirmed. “I couldn’t have believed it myself at first, but the evidence is overwhelming.”

“And this… Sombra-thing brought us here? But to what point? If his goal was to keep all of us trapped in a nightmare, wouldn’t it matter if we were all just stuck in the same place?”

“He wanted to isolate us. He didn’t dare risk it like he did last time when we managed to free ourselves after he put us under his power, so who knows where everypony else is.”

“So where do we go from here?” Tempest asked.

“Well there’s only one door here that we haven’t tried yet,” the alicorn told her, as they stopped in front of it.

They had no idea what they were in for next, but Twilight, nonetheless, moved to open them. However…

“Shhhhh,” Rainbow Dash tried to silence everybody. “You hear that?”

Everybody quieted down and listened. It sounded as if the wind was blowing through the damaged building, creating a wailing sound. They knew something was off, though. They were underground, behind closed doors; there was no possibility that wind could be blowing in a place like this. But the question remained: where was this sound coming from? It certainly wasn’t in the room, it was coming from somewhere outside. They ran out onto the courtyard and the wailing noise became louder. They looked about and couldn’t quite tell from where it was coming.

“Up there,” Tempest said.

The other mares turned in her direction. She was looking upwards, and that’s when they saw the tallest tower of the castle. The wailing was coming from the very top of it. Without waiting, they ran back inside, through the corridors, until they finally arrived at a spiral staircase. This was it.

“What’s the probability that this place is haunted?” the wonderbolt asked.

The Princess of Friendship gave her a confused look. “Why would you even think that?”

“Well… it’s just that earlier-“ the pegasus tried to elaborate, only to be interrupted.

“Pffff,” the noise came from the broken unicorn, “if you’re afraid of ghosts, you’re free to stay. I’m not.”

She began to climb the stairs, and the rest followed. It took a while, as the loop seemed to have no end. Yet there was an indication that they were making progress; as they kept advancing the wailing kept growing louder… it almost sounded as if somebody was moaning. But they would soon get their answers when they finally reached the door to the top of the tower. With a single buck, Tempest busted them open and charged in, battle-ready, only to stop and looked into the distance, confused. The rest of the group followed and became overcome with worry. The source of all that wailing, the moaning sobs, they belonged to the elegant fashionista, her make-up completely smudged, levitating off the ground in a middle of a broken-down royal room.

“Rarity!” Twilight called.

“Is… this what I looked like when you found me?” the broken unicorn questioned.

“Compared to this?” Rainbow dash turned to her. “Nope, not this badly.”

The former lieutenant decided to march on first, only to be called out by the princess. “Tempest, wait!”

She didn’t make two steps when her hoof disturbed the shadowy veil and then backed up in surprise. “Is that the “invisible zone” you were talking about earlier?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered, “but it wasn’t THIS BIG.”

“You know, now that you mention it, Twilight, Tempest’s zone was kinda bigger than your own when we found you,” the wonderbolt interjected.

Uncertainty burdened her, so the princess turned to the shaman. “Zecora, what do you think?”

The zebra rubbed her chin. “I cannot see the answer far ahead, but I surmise the controller's power is widespread. When one is freed, the others under the spell must still their master heed.”

“Wait… are you saying that there's a possibility that Sombra’s strength over Rarity might have gotten stronger because I and Tempest were freed?"

“It's my best guess in light of this mess.”

This was a cause for concern. There was no telling what would happen now, but they didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Their friend still needed rescuing and all she could hope was that their increased numbers would help the outcome.

Twilight inhaled and exhaled. “Everypony, stick close.” And as per her order, the broken unicorn, pressed against her, and the wonderbolt and the shaman followed suit. “That’s not what I meant… but whatever. All together now.”

And together they marched on, and through the veil.

They found themselves inside a house. It was alien to Tempest, but the other three mares recognized it. It was Carousel Boutique - Rarity’s home and workplace, and it wouldn’t take long to understand what was giving the fashionista the grief when a familiar voice spoke.

“Yeesh! No thanks, Rarity!”

Twilight’s gaze almost immediately turned. That was HER voice. She spotted her own duplicate, dismissing Rarity, as she was offering her a fancy saddlebag, running out the front door.

“But… but Twilight, I made it just for you…” the fashionista said as she ran after her.

A shriek followed and the four mares quickly followed outside. They were out on the street of Ponyville and a crowd had gathered around the princess. Next to her stood a cross-eyed alpaca, wearing clothes with very bad color coordination, which also reflected the gift that she bestowed upon the mirage of Twilight: a saddlebag, sewed together from various fabrics, each in colors that clashed terribly, with big glittery letters embedded on it, saying “Purinses Twilite”.

“Oh my gosh, Mayribell, it’s absolutely gorgeous!” the mirage of the princess said in a delighted tone. “Your generosity can be matched by none.”

Soon, other familiar faces popped out of the crowd, getting to her side and praising the creator.

“Well shimmy muh apple trees, Mayri, Ah don’ think I’ve seen anything the like of it!” Applejack praised her.

“I have to admit, it looks pretty,” Fluttershy joined in.

“Okay, no contest: that’s like, the coolest thing ever!” Rainbow Dash said.

“You’re the bestest, most generous gift-giver, EVER!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

The broken unicorn just stood there, unsure how to even react to the awkward situation, but she could clearly see what her two companions thought: they were cringing, either because of the product that was being shown, or their copies giving it praise. That was nothing compared to what Rarity must’ve been going through, as she stood out of the crowd, motionless and speechless.

“But… she didn’t even spell your name right…” she finally voiced her thoughts.

Suddenly, everything started to turn surreal, as the world began to turn dark and twisted as if reality was bending. Gazes of all the mirages suddenly turned to the fashionista.

Soon, one after another, the images of her friends too began to turn the same way. “What would a two-bit tailor know about creativity?! We don’t need anything from you, Rarity! We ain’t ever will! Exactly!”

“No… please don’t…” Rarity begged as their voices began bearing down on her, their shapes turning into shades. “Please, don’t abandon me! Don’t forget me! PLEASE!” She collapsed, covering her face, and began to sob loudly, and with it, more and more darkness emerged.

“Ooookay, I think it’s time to throw the proverbial wrench into this,” Tempest commented.

“No arguments here!” both Rainbow Dash and Twilight said almost simultaneously, giving each other a quick glance of surprise before the latter made a call to action. “Zecora! Take care of the images so we can deal with this!”

The shaman didn’t waste words. She clenched her staff between her teeth and ran at the mirages, cutting straight through them, causing the disruption in the nightmare. Soon she swung her staff in Rarity’s direction to dispel the shadow that was rising out of her… only for it to bounce back. The zebra flinched. Did that just happen? She swung her staff at the shadowy mass again and again, and each time it bounced back.

“What the…” Twilight herself was visibly confused as well. “Zecora, what’s going on? These images shouldn’t have a solid physical form.”

The shaman would not be able to answer after what happened next. She swung her staff once more and this time, the darkness coiled around and gripped it. Suddenly, a pair of giant eyes opened from the darkness, emitting a diamond-like radiant glow.

“How uncouth…” the silky echoing voice came from the shadow.

Both the princess and the wonderbolt backtracked. That voice just now; it sounded as if it was the fashionista’s, but distorted, sinister even. The shadow twisted the staff that the zebra was holding, and spun it, sending her flying a considerable distance away. It then turned its attention to the host from which it was rising. Tendrils sprouted from the shadow, reaching for the fashionista, wrapping around her, lifting her off the ground, dragging her slowly into its depths, not even trying to fight back in a moment of despair.

“RARITY!” the Princess of Friendship called out to her.

The voice reached her, and she finally raised her head, noticing her at last. “Twilight…? Twilight, please I don’t want-!”

Her voice was drowned out, as the shadow completely took her in. After the deed was done, it began to twist, taking on a new shape, resembling a tall equine, long strands of flowing hair extended from its head and tail, clusters of stars lighting upon them, along with several white streaks, the tri-diamond cutie mark with flashes appearing on its flank. The shadow’s new form finally solidified, and the pair of radiant diamond eyes once again opened.

“Ahhh… better. So much better…” the shadow equine spoke, elegantly flicking her starry mane, before setting her gaze on the other three mares. “Well now, look who decided to enter my domain.”

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, with Rainbow Dash immediately jumping in. “And what have you done with Rarity?”

The shadow equine giggled. “Isn’t it obvious, darlings? I am Rarity, or rather, the TRUE Rarity, one that resided in the darkest corners of her mind.”

“What the hay are you talking about?” the wonderbolt protested. “You’re seriously trying to convince us that she of all ponies would have such a problem?”

“Then you don’t know your friend as well as you think, Dash darling. The other me… she was so tormented by her worst fear that I finally managed to surface, in this of all places, where the reality bends to my will.” The shadow equine’s horn lit up in a blinding light, and in a matter of moments, she wore silver royal horseshoes, chest crest bearing her cutie mark, and a helmet with an opening to allow her mane to flow out. “Remarkable, isn’t it? Without any effort, I can conjure whatever I desire in this place. And best of all… I can make others look as glamorous as me.”

“Rarity… if it really is you, please listen,” Twilight urged her. “You can still be generous and nobody will take you for granted. You just-“

“No, Twilight sweetie,” the dark mare interrupted her, “I’ve set my sights on something greater. Why bother trying to be generous to somepony and risk having them refuse me… when I can just MAKE THEM accept me?” Her horn began to glow again. This time the world around them began to tremble. Suddenly, giant crystal spires began to rise all over the surrounding area, creating a giant crystal metropolis. The princess, the wornderbolt, and the shaman desperately tried to dodge it all, while the former lieutenant just stood in place, defiant. “Instead of a Princess of Friendship, Equestria will have a Queen! Dark and beautiful,radiant as scorching sun, more terrifying than the blackest night!The most glamorous creature in the world! And all shall love me anddespa-!”

ZAP!

A giant bolt of lightning suddenly flew towards the dark mare, hitting her and sending her flying into one of the crystal formations behind her. The two Elements looked in shock, their sight turning to the broken unicorn, whose horn stump was still flickering.

“Seriously, why do they always go into some self-righteous monologue, and leave themselves open to an attack?” she said with a frown.

“Tempest, what were you thinking?!” Twilight scolded her. “We need to convince her to free herself from the nightmare, not pummel her senseless!”

“Sorry to disappoint you, princess, but I fear that at this point, whatever grandiose speech you had ready, would’ve fallen on deaf ears.” And just then, the sound of breaking rocks came, as their opponent re-emerged.

As the dust settled, and the form of the black mare revealed itself again, Twilight noticed something. There was a gap in the chest of the shadowy being, and sticking out of it was a bright face belonging to her friend.

She seemed to have regained consciousness, trying to cry out, before the shadow surrounding her silenced her again. “Twilight! Twil-!”

“Ugh,” the dark mare groaned and her body fully mended. “That was incredibly rude of you, Tempest Shadow. Do you want to test your power against me? FINE!” With a roar, her body was illuminated. “Feel the wrath of your queen… GLAMOROUS DARK!”

The unicorn gave the alicorn a quick glance. “See what I mean?”

Tremors began as the living nightmare charged at her attacker. The unicorn once again shot lightning at her, but this time she was prepared, summoning a barrier that fragmented her attack. With the proximity she was at, Tempest decided to move to evasive tactic, dodging the charge, and hiding behind one of the crystal clusters. It would not take long before the charge came her way again, and managed to dodge again just before the nightmare pony shattered it. Tempest kept dodging her attacks and tried to flank her, but she was simply too agile.

While this was happening, Rainbow Dash peeked from behind one of the risen crystals to observe the situation, before slinking back to where the other two mares were. “This ain’t good, Twilight! There’s no way Tempest can fight that… thing on her own, we need to help her!”

“I must concur,” the Zebra agreed, “this rampage must no longer stir, but…” She glanced at the Princess of Friendship. “To which path now do we recur?”

Twilight was quiet, thought buzzing through her head, as she knew what she saw. “Rarity… she’s trapped inside that nightmare that manifested itself from her own fear. She wants to break free, but she’s not strong enough on her own.” She turned to the shaman. “I need to reach her, but I can’t while she’s inside that mobile darkness that has a mind of its own.”

“Well, Tempest’s attack earlier managed to get her out for a moment, but that’s unlikely to happen now that she’s got her defenses up,” the wonderbolt pointed out. “We need to find an alternative.”

The alicorn went into thought once more, trying to find how to make it work. The pegasus told her that only one attack worked so far against the manifested nightmare, and even that was when she was distracted. But now that she has her defenses up, she… And that’s when she finally figured it.

“I may have a plan… but I need Tempest to hear it as well.”

And as if on cue, the former lieutenant lept behind the crystal where they were hiding, landing right on top of them all. “Ladies, this isn’t the place to lounge about! Any moment she’s gonna-!”

Just then, the sound of heavy horseshoes could be heard coming their way, and Twilight at the last moment teleported everybody away as Glamorous Dark broke through their hiding spot. They teleported behind one of the other crystal formations, but she knew it’s only a matter of time before they’re discovered.

“Everypony okay?” she asked.

“Peachy,” Tempest said as she crawled off them.

Rainbow Dash managed to get back up and peeked from the cover. “If you’ve got a plan, you better tell it quick, Twilight. Rarity’s nightmare is bound to get the second wind soon.”

Author's Note

She's emerged~

Chapter 28: Shining on the Situation

The waking nightmare strode through the world she had fashioned, yet despite all the work she had put in, she was not satisfied. The offender and her friends were still here, and her thirst for vengeance would not be sated until she had caught them.

“Leaving a lady waiting is quite unbecoming, everypony,” she called. “If that’s how you’re going to play, however, then I’ll just have to teach you to get the POINT!”

Her horn lit up, and all of a sudden all of the crystal spires and clusters began sprouting pointy spikes. And it didn’t take long before the sound of hooves could be heard, and she spotted the group running from behind one of the crystal formations, scattering. She would deal with all of them, but the broken unicorn needed to be taught a lesson first. Her horn lit up and she charged after her, breaking through the crystal formations with ease. Tempest saw her approach and stopped, sliding in the process, charging up her horn shooting a bolt of lightning at her pursuer, only to be split in twain as it hit the unstoppable force projected by the nightmare. It was approaching at high speed and she would be unable to dodge it when suddenly a pink beam shot at the charger and knocked her down. The dark mare rose, turning about to scan where the projectile came from, but there was nobody in sight, even the broken unicorn was gone. Then she spotted a pink beam, being reflected off several crystal structures until it was heading for her, but this time around, she dodged it.

“Well aren’t you clever, Twilight. Using my creations to your own advantage,” she smugly said. “But guess what: two can play at this game.”

Her horn lit up, sending out beams of light at all the structures in sight, causing them to bounce off several times. And as predicted, the alicorn eventually let out a shriek and flew away, trying to dodge the cluster of incoming attacks. And while she succeeded, it made her blind to her attacker, who promptly lept into the air and brought her down, pinning her to the ground. The princess met the dark form of her friend face to face, her gleaming diamond eye staring intently at her, accompanied by a wicked smile.

KRSSH!

Something hit the tall mare in the back of the head, breaking against her headgear, and as she turned, she suddenly felt irritation in her eyes, causing them to water. Through the blur, she saw a vague black and grey form, and she knew exactly who was responsible.

“You… you’re gonna regret doing that, Zecora!” she yelled, trying to clear her vision. “Once I’m done with Twilight, you’re next!”

FLASH!

The sound made her turn again, only to find the pinned alicorn gone, as she teleported away, and then quickly turning back to the shaman. “Let me rephrase that previous statement. NOW you’re next!”

Her horn lit up again and charged after the zebra. Her opponent was at a disadvantage this time since she had neither Tempest’s agility nor Twilight’s mobility. She tried to evade her around the crystals, but she would simply charge through them.

“Your short legs won’t help you, Zecora!” the night-mare bragged.

Suddenly, there was a cracking sound in the air. Lightning? Thunder? No. It sounded as if something was breaking. In her distracted moment and limited vision, she hadn’t noticed that Rainbow Dash was bucking at one of the giant crystal towers at the base. And with the final kick, the support of the structure gave out, causing it to fall, right in the way that the zebra was leading the manifested nightmare, crashing on top of her, and shattering into pieces.

There was silence for a moment, but soon, from the rubble, a beam of light shot out, and the dark mare jumped out, landing on top of the giant cracked remnants of her creation, surrounded by a luster shield, unscathed. At that precise moment, both the princess, the wonderbolt, and the shaman lept at her from cover, each of them attempting to execute their own attacks. She simply frowned, causing her luster shield to expand and knocking all three of them back.

“I have to say, you nearly had me,” she boasted. “But in the end, your attempts failed! You can’t touch me!”

“You’re gonna be eating those words.”

She was confused. She couldn’t pinpoint where that voice came from until it was too late. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed flashing, accompanied by a sparking sound… from under her. Between the cracks of the ruins of the giant crystal formation, the broken unicorn lurked, positioning herself right in the night-mare’s blind spot, and at the most vulnerable moment, unleashed her lightning strike. The Glamorous Dark was hit and sent flying into another crystal tower.

Before the dust even settled, Twilight quickly got back on her feet and flew off. She knew she only had a limited window of opportunity. If Tempest’s attack worked as it did previously, she won’t have much time to save her friend before her darkness rejuvenates. And she was right. As the dust cleared, revealing the walking nightmare, her chest was exposed, revealing the fashionista partly sticking out, regaining her consciousness just long enough to witness the Princess of Friendship fast approaching.

“Twilight! Twi-!“ she cried for help, as the dark tendrils silenced her, slowly rejuvenating the darkness.

Just before it fully healed again, Twilight managed to reach her and grabbed her hoof, trying to pull her out. But the inner darkness wouldn’t let go; instead, the tendrils reached out, beginning to wrap around her, until it dragged her into the darkened body as well. And the Glamorous Dark awoke once more.

“TWILIIIIIIIGHT!” Rainbow Dash screamed in panic.

Pink aura enveloped her horn to conjure a light source and a familiar feeling stirred inside Twilight. There was darkness all around her. She’s experienced this once before when she entered the Pony of Shadows, another darkness made manifest, belonging to an ordinary, no-name unicorn, Stygian. There was only one difference: she could hear sniveling in the air, coming from not far. And she only needed to make a few steps forward to spot the perpetrator. The white, purple-maned unicorn lay on the ground in a fetal position, her misery on full display.

“Rarity?” the alicorn asked.

Her head moved at the sound of the voice, slowly turning to face her. She instantly jumped at the princess and embraced her. Twilight froze, unsure what’s to come, only to hear her weeping.

“Twilight…” she cried, “please don’t go… My generosity was tossed aside... like it never mattered… I don’t want anypony to leave me… I don’t want to be left forgotten… Please…”

She couldn’t watch this. Her friend was being tortured with an unbearable mental torment, which in turn drew out her inner fear that made itself manifest. She had to put a stop to it.

“Rarity, listen…” she said, before stopping herself, as she realized words alone may not be enough; she needed a more concrete reminder. “No… forget what I just said. Instead,” she corrected herself before her horn began to glow in a pink aura, touching the white unicorn’s, “remember.”

A memory flashed in Rarity’s mind. It was an event in which she was at the bottom when she believed that everybody only acknowledged her because of her glamorous appearance, which had now been taken away from her. But in the end, THEY were the ones who came to reassure her.

And it was the alicorn that spoke first. “Rarity, you're not invisible. You're our friend. A friend that started a fashion empire.”

“A friend who made us all feel beautiful in her lovely creations,” the shy pegasus responded.

The wonderbolt joined in. “A friend who stuck by us, no matter what!”

“A friend so generous that she once chopped off her own tail to help a sea serpent,” the country pony finished off.

The memory faded, and the look on Rarity’s face changed somewhat, as her tears stopped streaming.

“You know full well that none of us would ever forsake you, let alone forget your generosity, Rarity,” Twilight said. “And that’s why you must know that what you’re seeing isn’t real, but only you can make it go away. Only you have the power.”

The crashing sound was constant. The nightmare manifestation was running after the three mares that were left to fend for themselves, now that the princess had been dragged into its depths along with the host. Their one chance to try and break their friend out had been snatched from the grasp of victory, and now it was the Glamorous Dark’s turn to play the game.

They couldn’t do anything about it, not even be able to split up, as it seemed that the crystal spires were growing spikes that kept extending, preventing their dispersal. It became obvious soon that they were all being funneled, positioned in a way where they inevitably got backed into a corner. The pace of the dark radiant beauty slowed down, reducing to a traipse, as she slowly moved toward her prey. In one last desperate attempt, Tempest shot from her broken horn bolts of lightning, but all they did was glance off the shield that the tall dark mare was projecting.

“Tempest, sweetie, you don’t know when to call it quits, do you?” Glamorous Dark said as she kept approaching. “I will make all of you look fabulous!”

Her horn began to glow brighter, and all of a sudden, crystals began to erupt from the ground around them, closing in on them, enveloping their hooves. They struggled to move, but could not budge an inch, as crystal coating slowly began to spread.

“Don’t struggle… friends,” she told them. “Instead, strike a pose that truly defines you. Embrace it, because you’re all about to be… IMMORTALIZED!”

Her eyes lit up, and the crystal began to spread even faster over their bodies. They were powerless to stop it. And just as it was coming up their necks, about to envelop their heads…

KRSSH!

The nightmare manifestation suddenly stopped, her eyes and horn ceasing to glow; the sudden cracking sound distracted her, getting her attention. She looked about, but couldn’t determine where that came from.

KRSSH!

There it was again. It annoyed her that she couldn’t see who was doing it.

KRSSH!

Suddenly, she caught an unexpected light source from the corner of her eye. Soon the gleeful expression on her face changed completely when she realized there was a giant crack on her chest. The source of the cracking sound as well as light… was coming from her.

KRSSH!

The crack slowly began to spread all over her body, and at the same time, the darkness all around them was beginning to crumble.

“No! It was not supposed to happen! IT CAN’T HAPPEN! I’M THE GLAMOROUS DARK! I’M THE ONLY REAL RARITY! I CAN’T-!”

The nightmare’s voice went silent as the light finally broke through every inch of her body, and all that followed was a shrilling cry, before an explosion happened, blinding everybody present.

The invisible veil that surrounded them and generated the nightmare vision shattered. And just like before, it turned into a shadowy horned equine, which roared loudly, and then disappeared.

They once again found themselves back in the tower’s top. Tempest Shadow, Rainbow Dash, and Zecora finally felt the paralyzing grip disappearing. Then their gazes turned to where the center of the nightmare was. Twilight Sparkle sat on the ground, with Rarity nestled in her embrace, passed out.

The princess sighed in relief, before turning her face to them. “She’s back.”

The sound of hoofsteps echoed through the hallways of the Crystal Castle, as one of the guards patrolled the premises, now that the Crystal Princess has left, and the empire was on a high alert. It all seemed calm, but he was unaware that, as he passed one of the doors, they slowly creaked open, and the head of an alicorn filly popped out, inspecting.

Flurry Heart stuck her head outside her room to check if anybody was coming close, while her guest patiently waited by the side of the bed. The old ram couldn’t risk exposing himself and getting caught, his plans would get ruined otherwise, so he let the naïve child do the work for him. As he awaited a response from her, his sight trailed around the room, until his curiosity got piqued, when he noticed a stack of papers by the side of her bed. There was something drawn on the one that was on the top but couldn’t quite make it out. He levitated it to his side to inspect it up close. The picture was colored all green, the little alicorn was on it, along with a purple, green-maned unicorn, undoubtedly Mistmane, and on the other side of her, he recognized himself. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

“Grandpa Gar, the coast is clear,” Flurry Heart said.

He heeded her call and put the picture back on the stack. The door slowly creaked open and one after another they left the room. Advancement through the corridors was really slow, almost sluggish. Every few steps they heard the incoming sound of hooves, forcing them to hide either behind the curtains or ridiculously large potted plants. And soon, it was getting too close for comfort for the little one.

“There’s too many, Grandpa Gar,” the filly whispered.

“You’re right, little girl,” he agreed. “If we want to stay hidden for good, then we’ll need a hiding place. Where do you think we should hide?”

She thought for a moment. “We could hide in the kitchen.”

“Do you like cookies, child?” he asked, to which she eagerly nodded. “If that’s the case, don’t you think that’s exactly where others will come looking?” the ram pointed out, and the enthusiasm in her look faltered. “Tell me, do you like books?”

“No,” Flurry heart answered, “they’re big, old, and smelly, with nothing but a lot of boring words, and you can’t even draw on them.”

The elder stroked his beard, pretending to think. “If that is so, then they likely won’t look for us there either. Does your castle have a place where there are lots of old books, little girl?”

“Well, we do have a place called lie-berry,” she answered.

“Is that so? Can you take us to this… lie-berry?”

The little alicorn nodded and trotted off, with the old ram slowly following her. They turned a corner, quickly dodging the sight of a guard that’s just passed before the filly stopped at one of the larger doors.

“It’s here,” she said, turning the doorknob, and pushing the door, only for it to make a loud creaking sound.

“Who’s there?!” one of the guards yelled as the sound reached him, and he galloped after the source.

When he arrived at the site where it supposedly came from, however, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He looked about a few more times before he shrugged and resumed his patrol. Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, the grizzled ram was holding the little alicorn, pressing against the wall. After a few moments passed and hearing the hoof sounds distancing, he finally let her go.

“You need to be more careful, child,” he told her. “If you do not think ahead, you’re risking losing the game.”

“I’m sorry, Grandpa Gar,” she said in a sad tone.

“Never you mind now, little girl. We should be safe,” the elder said, looking about, reassuring himself that they were in the right place, as he saw numerous shelves covering the great room, filled to the brim with books. “Tell me, is there perhaps any other door that leads here?”

“Yeah,” the filly pointed, “there’s another one on the other side.”

“Very well then. In that case, you stay on this side of the room and keep your ears sharp. I’ll keep watch over the other side and let you know if anyone is coming.”

“Okay,” Flurry Heart slimed, pressing her head against the door, while the old ram walked away.

As he crossed the room and passed several shelves, he finally spotted another door. He pressed his head against the door for a moment to listen if anyone was passing by at that time, yet there was nothing. He stepped back, and his horns lit up, illuminating the doorknobs in dark light, until a heavy seal materialized, blocking the entry off.

“There… that should keep any unexpected guests down to a minimum… provided the kid does her job,” he thought to himself.

The ram then walked off in a different direction, towards a great window. His horns lit up again, and the bottoms of his hooves lit up, allowing him to levitate as if climbing stairs. Reaching the top of the window, he opened it and stuck his head outside. Looking about for a moment, he then ripped out a single small chunk of the side of the Crystal Castle, imbuing it with magic, before inscribing a strange rune on the castle’s exterior above him. After he finished, he descended once more, leaving the window open. He checked one more time to see what the alicorn filly was doing, peaking around the corner of a shelf, noticing her still listening to the other side of the door. He slinked away, slowly moving between the shelves. At his command, the books, one after another, flew off them, beginning to circulate the old ram.

“Now then…” he mused. “Which one of you holds the secrets to the shadows of the empire?”

The flames danced in the fireplace. The mares managed to descend to the bottom of the tower with Rarity in tow, returning back to the throne room. The fashionista was still not quite there, so they took time for respite. They gathered the broken pieces of wood and piled them up into a great fireplace that stood in the room, the princess setting it on fire with ease. They all needed some downtime with what they’ve all been through, except for one broken unicorn, who was still bursting with energy and had no intention of waiting when there could be potential victims in the vicinity, so she left to explore the rest of the castle, while the rest remained behind to recuperate.

A groan came from the white unicorn as she finally awoke, grabbing the wonderbolt’s attention. “Rares, you okay?”

“I’m fine, Rainbow Dash. I just…” She rubbed her head when Twilight levitated a beaker filled with warm tea to her, taking a sip. “Thank you, Twilight darling. As I was about to say, I had this really unpleasant dream. I dreamt that everypony decided to spite my giving nature, and I felt so crushed that the whole world turned black, before Twilight came and reminded me.”

Hearing that the fashionista was unaware of what happened, the pegasus gave the alicorn an awkward look. “Who’s gonna tell her?”

The princess glanced to the zebra, who was more concerned with keeping her hooves warm than anything else, before giving a reply. “We don’t have other options, do we?”

In the meantime, as Rarity took another sip, she suddenly noticed strands of her mane sticking out the front of her winter hat. She pulled it off, and a whole tangled mass fell out from under it. After making a low moan of frustration to herself, she immediately pulled out a mirror and a brush from her backpack. She looked into the mirror to start working on correcting her mess of a mane when she suddenly froze. A second later, a high-pitched shriek followed which could be heard all over the castle.

The galloping sound could be heard coming from behind one of the side doors of the throne room, growing louder, until they burst open, the broken unicorn charging through, her horn stump flickering with lightning. “What?! What is it?! What’s attacking us?!”

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Zecora were lying on the ground in an awkward position. It seemed that the sudden spontaneous cry shocked all of them. Rarity, on the other hand, had her head buried in her hooves, holding her mane and tail, while wailing.

“It’s… it’s much worse than that, Tempest… I… I…“ she kept choking, trying to say the unthinkable, “I’VE GONE GREY!” The white unicorn stretched out her limbs, displaying a white streak running down both her mane and tail.

The sparking sound died down, and the former lieutenant’s expression went from alerted, to neutral. “Seriously? We’re risking potential attack from the enemy in an unknown territory, and you’re worried about the few white patches in your hair?”

The fashionista’s sight darted and locked right onto her, then stood up and marched right up to Tempest, who started to back away, as she came straight at her face with a really angry look. “Excuse me! But not all of us are meant to be conquesting combatants! I take pride in my mane! Now, look at it! I’m in the prime of my youth and I’ve. Gone. GREY!” She collapsed on her backside again and moaned once more. “How did this happen…”

“Erm… Rarity?” Twilight finally managed to get back up and get her attention. “Remember that dream you said you had earlier?”

Tempest sat by the fire, next to the shaman, holding a beaker of tea between her hooves, taking a sip every now and then, while the other two mares explained in detail what had happened. The fashionista brushed her hair, gently whimpering each time she saw the marks on her glamorous mane in the mirror.

“Hey, chill, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash tried to console her, “it’s not that bad. I’m sure you can make this work.”

“Yes… I suppose so… I mean, nothing a little mane dye can’t fix, right?”

“You’ll pull through this, Rarity, I know,” the princess reassured her. “Although I’m not sure how we’ll be able to handle King Sombra this time arou-“

A sudden snapping sound followed. In her anger, at the sound of the name, Rarity broke the handle of her hairbrush.

“Sombra…” she coldly fumed, ”he’s the one responsible for this entire mess in the first place. He’s going to pay!”

“No worries, Rarity,” the blue pegasus agreed. “We’re all in on this one. We just need to find the rest of our friends, track him down, and one friendship blast later… WOOOOOOOOOOSH! He’ll be gone.”

“Rainbow Dash, considering all the factors, I think the former is going to be a lot difficult before we even get a chance at him again,” the alicorn argued.

She gave her a confused look. “What factors, Twi?”

The Princess of Friendship pulled out of her backpack a quill and a piece of paper and began writing down. “Firstly, each time, just before the mirage is dispelled, whatever was maintaining it makes itself noticeable, so we know King Sombra is directly involved in controlling and maintaining the nightmares in which his victims are locked. Secondly, it seems that if one comes into contact with the one whose nightmare we’re witnessing, they become susceptible to the physics of that nightmare.”

“I’m… not following, Twilight,” the pegasus admitted.

“You weren’t there to see it, Rainbow Dash,” she proceeded to explain. “When we were in Tempest’s nightmare and I carried her, the environment became corporeal. I couldn’t simply pass through the solid objects anymore. That’s why I managed to trip and bash against the cave wall when I was holding her.”

The broken unicorn stopped drinking for a moment and looked at them. “But earlier we weren’t in contact with the last victim, yet the world around us was completely solid.”

“Yes… that,” the alicorn shifted uncomfortably, “that’s an issue I’m not quite sure I understand.” She turned to the fashionista. “Rarity, I know you too well, we all do. You’ve never really said much of ever having fears of having your generous nature being worthless to others, you’ve always held your head up in self-confidence and courage. So how did it come to this?”

“Courage?” The voice grabbed everybody’s attention; for a while, the zebra had been quiet, and only now did she finally break her peace. “You speak as though it’s the only partner in a marriage. Its counterpart is Fear, knowing this one first allows the latter to be brandished like a spear. The same is true if you compare Clarity and Doubt, the former springs from the latter, after a bout.”

There was a brief silence in the air, the sound of devouring flames ever so slightly breaking it before the white unicorn spoke. “There’s… always been this dread in the back of my mind, Twilight. I just learned to live with it, knowing I could always best it. I just never thought it would…”

“Bubble up on the surface?” the wodnerbolt finished.

“But Sombra’s never shown to have this kind of power before,” Twilight questioned.

“Then perhaps it’s the proof, when Mother of Fear had given him a helping hoof,” Zecora added. “As I had said before, when one takes their leave, those still in King’s grasp will have a lesser reprieve.”

The Princess of Friendship looked back at the list and wrote it down. ”Then for the third possible point… each time a victim is released, the control over those who are still trapped in his nightmare veil becomes stronger.”

The situation was really not set in their favor. King Sombra’s mother, the so-called “Mother of Fear”, who had brought him back, had made him stronger in some way they did not predict. She recalled back when the umbrum king returned for the second time; when he turned the crystal pony populace into his servants through his power, and the princess and her friends were put under his sway as well, she witnessed firsthand what that nightmare world looked like. Back then, it was the Elements of Harmony that sprung them out, but without them, as it was already made clear, the victim could only free itself from its own nightmare through the strength of its own will. They’ve proven that it could be done if they interfered in the nightmare veil where the prisoners are trapped, but after the last one… The last point made it clear that, even if they manage to free their friends, the nightmares in others will likely only get stronger, as a result, making the dispelling process even more difficult.

“Even so…” she finally spoke, “we cannot just sit here and not do anything. Others will still need rescuing regardless. The best we can do is to just deal with one problem at a time.”

“As long as we don’t encounter ghosts, I’m fine with it,” Rainbow Dash said.

Tempest gave her a frowned look. “Why would you think even for a moment that this place is haunted?“

The blue pegasus hesitated for a moment. Both she and Zecora knew what they saw earlier after they woke up, but she didn’t want to sound crazy. Although, considering the last few days, ghosts would be the last thing that would’ve weirded anyone out at this point.

“Well… earlier when I and Zecora woke up, we had an encounter with… somepony who had departed a long, long time ago,” she explained.

“Oh…” Twilight’s voice sank. “It was probably some unfortunate victim who couldn’t escape during the exodus to Equestria.”

“I don’t think so…”

“Why would you say that?”

Rainbow Dash looked at Zecora. Without saying anything, she already knew that was her cue. She pulled out the saddlebag they found near the remains and presented it to the princess.

“We found this by one who passed away,” she elaborated, “though its contents don’t match the suspicions you convey. And to make the matters even more unsure…” She opened up her saddlebag and reached inside. “What the leftovers did to our aberration, made the picture most obscure.” She pulled out the jar containing the shifting, violent, black mass.

Twilight bent down to examine the jar up close, and she immediately noticed the difference. “Did… did it just lose its pure black color?” She tapped the glass, to see if the creature inside would react, but there was no response. “How did that happen?”

“I dunno,” the wonderbolt gave an unsure answer, “we just pushed it closer to the remains and they started glowing, turned into blue light, and then got absorbed by the spark of light inside.”

The alicorn squinted, looking up close at the spark inside the black mass, thinking for a moment; something was at the back of her mind, something the old unicorn sorcerer told her. “Wait a minute… Rainbow Dash, Zecora, remember what Starswirl the Bearded told us? The spark of light, the one which he and the rest of the Pillars of Old Equestria used to create the seed from which the Tree of Harmony grew; he told us that, for it to grow, it needed proper sustenance. It required virtue to feed on. That’s the only possible explanation for what you described happened, and why the black mass isn’t... well, so black anymore.”

The four mares sat there, amazed, realizing what was going on. Only Tempest Shadow remained by the side, unsure what they’re talking about.

“Princess, your deduction is most sound,” the shaman concurred. “Though it begs the question, I seem to have found… Whose virtuous essence did the light’s spark take, and into what presence?

They all went silent. They didn’t know. But Twilight was sure where the possible answer lay, as her sight shifted to the saddlebag that Zecora had provided. She picked it up, noticing the image printed on it, resembling a yellow staff with two snakes coiled around it, with a pair of wings on top, before opening it. She pulled out all the contents, all various books, and papers, quickly skimming through them.

“These are all spellbooks for learning advanced magic… I mean, really old ones,” she answered.

“Well, Zecora went through them a bit, but even she couldn’t figure out who this was... except that he seemed to have known Sombra,” Rainbow Dash added.

The princess suddenly stopped, which the fashionista noticed. “Twilight, darling, is something wrong?”

She turned the book to their face, showing a seal printed on the last page of it. “This book… it’s from the Canterlot library. Nopony’s ever been allowed to acquire these books without the princess’s express permission! Unless…” She quickly picked up the stacks of papers and spread them around, quickly sifting through them until she stopped at one of them. It was an envelope, opened, but she recognized the broken seals on it; they belonged to the two sisters. Whoever this was must’ve been one of the special students, but the question remained who was it. She opened it and pulled out the letter inside. Even after such a long time, the text was still readable. She began reading through… and a gasp escaped her mouth, as she immediately stopped after reading only a few sentences.

“Princess, what troubles your mind?” Zecora asked. “Do you know who he was, which knew the umbrum king to find?”

Her gaze slowly lifted from the letter to look at them. “I know who this bag belonged to… and it was not a HE, but a SHE. And she… was Radiant Hope…”

For a split moment, there was silence, before the two unicorns and pegasus unanimously broke it. “Who?”

A bright light shined over the forest patch on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. Princess Cadence flew above, providing the light source for her guards who were flying by her side as well as those below. They managed to chase the changeling swarm and their queen to another isolated forest, the same way as they did the day before. And just as the day before, the guards below went on the same routine of combing through the whole place in groups, to prevent infiltration. But some time had already passed since then, and the alicorn was beginning to worry. That’s when a trio of pegasi finally flew up from the treetops and approached the princess, but before they got any closer, the guards beside her put themselves between them, preventing their approach to the monarch.

“Though the light shines brightest before the dawn…” Cadence said, awaiting a reply.

“… it can’t compare to the one within our hearts,” the three pegasi finished the sentence.

She sighed in relief, she knew they weren’t imposters. “Report.”

“We managed to track down the changeling’s hideout, your majesty,” one of the guards said. “They dug a tunnel into the ground.”

Then the second guard resumed. “We sent squads inside and combed through the entire complex.”

“Good. I assumed you’ve managed to apprehend Chrysalis?” she inquired.

An awkward silence followed, after which the third guard finally spoke. “N-n-no, Your Majesty…”

“What?”

“The whole place is completely empty, Your Majesty. Neither the Queen of Changelings nor her swarm is anywhere to be found!”

She was dumbfounded. This was just like a few hours ago when the captain of the guard reported to her. How could this have happened for the second time? Where did they all disappear?

Chapter 29: Tales a Plenty

He couldn’t find it. It has been some time since Flurry Heart led the kind old ram into the library to play hide and seek with the guards outside, yet despite all that time, and keeping the child oblivious to what he was doing, Grogar was no closer to finding the information he was looking for. This place was enormous; he wouldn’t have minded staying here for hours on end, but time was not a luxury he could afford now, as it was only a matter of it before the Crystal Princess returned. He was not likely to get a second chance.

“Blast…” he grumbled, as he came to the end of another book, getting no closer to the answers. There had to be some way to thin out the numbers, some noticeable mark or sigil that would differentiate books or a book from the rest. “Again…” he groaned as he came to the end of another one. He had hoped that the one titled “The last memoirs of Amore” would’ve yielded something, but he had no such luck; all he ended up with was her supposed portrait printed on the last page. “Where would you hide it, Princess of Love?” he addressed the picture. “Where would you hide the darkest secrets of your precious empire? How would you mask that which nobody else should find, yet know yourself what to look for?” He was met with silence, not that he expected the picture to speak.

His sight traced across the portrait of the tall, regal unicorn mare, her cobalt crown sitting on top of her sparkly raspberry mane, slowly turning blue further towards its tip, her very pale vermillion fur being adorned in blue trappings holding a golden heart, and hear rear end bearing… the mark of a blue snowflake, surrounded by a horseshoe. Something clicked to him. He hasn’t tried looking through the books that bore her so-called “cutie mark”, it would’ve lightened his workload a lot. His horns began to glow brighter, his eyes turning red, and in a matter of moments, the books that were still levitating were sifted through at rapid speed, setting them back on their proper shelves, until only 3 books remained. The first was a book he’s held before, “Amore: The First Crystal Princess”, slowly putting it away, and the second as well, was “Magic of the Crystal Heart”; it seemed that these two were the originals, and the ones that were provided by his co-conspirator were merely copies. After he put it away, he focused on the third book.

“Well now… what’s this?” he mumbled.

He flipped through the book quickly, his eyes widening, and a smile cracking upon his face. This book… perhaps he was actually onto something.

SKREEE!

He got startled! A loud screeching noise suddenly erupted and echoed throughout the entire library, and even though it lasted for only a few moments, he immediately knew where it came from. He ran past all the numerous shelves, still holding the book, to where the open window was. There was nothing in sight, but he noticed a green oozing substance spilling over the edge of the opening; he knew what this was. His horns lit up for a moment in dark light before fading out again.

“Grandpa Gar!”

The yell caught him off guard. The little alicorn was behind him, yet he didn’t hear her coming. Hoping she hadn’t noticed it yet, he quickly slipped the book under his cloak, before slowly turning around. The girl was flying towards him, so it was no wonder he didn’t notice anything.

Flurry Heart landed behind him. “Grandpa Gar, what was that noise?”

He turned back, looking at the oozed open window. “Some kind of night shrieker, little girl. Not very dangerous on their own… but very loud. Which means, the guards will likely have heard that.”

“What do we do now, Grandpa Gar?” she asked.

“There’s only one thing we can, child,” the ram answered her. “We’ll have to go back to your room before they all come running here.”

“What about then?”

“Then?” he gave her an unassured look for a moment. “Then I think it’s time for you to return to bed.”

“What? But you were here for so little and we weren’t caught!” the filly moaned.

Yet he kept trying to push her to listen to reason. “And it will be a miracle if we’re not caught at this point. Besides, what will happen if your mother finds you out of bed?”

“But I don’t wanna go back to bed! No no no!” she whined.

The old ram was starting to get frustrated by the child’s attitude, but he could do nothing. He knew now that it’s only a matter of time before the Crystal Princess returned, he couldn’t get caught here, otherwise, he would risk losing an opening to exploit. Yet the same was the case for the princess’ daughter; he needed to stay in good graces with her, or she would likely blab out everything to somebody, exposing their plans, but he needed to get her to stop making so much complaining noise and get her to return to bed before her mother gets back. He needed something to distract her, to make her think of something else…

A smile suddenly curled upon his face, as he looked at the filly again. “Tell me, little girl…” he asked, causing her to calm down for a moment. “Do you like to listen to stories?”

And with a smile, Flurry Heart vigorously nodded. “Yes yes yes, I do!”

“Tell you what, if we can get back to your room, I promise, I can tell you a story, the kind you’ve never heard before and never will again,” he said in a gleeful tone.

“Wait, hold on. I think I misheard you,” Rainbow Dash said after hearing Twilight Sparkle’s quick explanation to the query. “Did you just say… a friend? King Sombra has A FRIEND?!”

“I have to agree, Twilight,” Rarity concurred. “I’m having a hard time imagining that… monstrosity ever had a friend.”

“Look everypony, I know it’s hard to believe what I just said, but it’s the truth,” the alicorn tried to elaborate further. “Sometime after King Sombra was destroyed, after the Crystal Empire returned, Cadence and I tried to look for any information about him that could give us some insight, in case he ever came back. And under the Crystal Castle’s throne room there’s an enchanted door which originally led me to find the Crystal Heart, but this time it led us to his study where he kept his journal. And in it, he described in great detail his relationship with Radiant Hope, the only pony to have ever been his friend, before…” she paused.

“Before what?” Tempest Shadow curiously asked.

The princess resumed. “The Crystal Heart showed both Sombra and her their future, their destiny. Radiant Hope was to become a princess and he… well… what he is now.” She lifted a letter bearing the broken seal of the Two Sisters. “This letter was the catalyst. When princesses Celestia and Luna recognized her gift with magic they invited her to study with them, and he ran away, into the Frozen North, where he found his “mother”.”

“Mother? You mean that voice coming from the giant talking red crystal up on the surface wasn’t being facetious?” the fashionista inquired, her attention pulled away from her mane situation.

“I fear that’s the case,” Twilight replied. “After that Sombra declared himself king and took over the Crystal Empire, while Radiant Hope alerted the Princesses about what he’s done. Celestia and Luna managed to banish Sombra, but he took the whole empire with him. And after that, the journal ended. And whatever happened to Radiant Hope, nopony knows what happened to her in the end.”

“Not true, Twilight,” the wonderbolt said. “I think we know now what’s become of her…”

She already knew. Based on what the pegasus and the zebra told her all pointed to that. The crystal pony’s path ended here, in the cold dark depths beneath the frozen wasteland. They all knew at this point, the silence was the only reasonable response to that.

“We know she fulfilled her end,” Zecora broke the stillness, “but how, from the world above, did she come to descend?”

A good question, for which the alicorn didn’t have an answer, none of them have. Yet it didn’t take long before the eternal scholar jumped to it right away, rummaging through the books, to find one that stood out, which had a bland and title-less cover.

“This may be the one book you need, what little information I got came from it,” the shaman answered.

The princess opened it, began reading through it, and after a short amount of time passed she finally spoke. “This is it. This is Radiant Hope’s diary. Most of what’s written at the beginning are her final days at the Crystal Empire before Sombra destroyed Princess Amore, then its aftermath when it disappeared.”

“What about the rest?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“I was getting to that. Next, it talks about her time studying with the Princesses, but according to the diary she felt completely dejected from the whole experience; her home gone, the friend she betrayed-“

“She betrayed?” the broken unicorn voiced criticism. “From what I recall a few moments ago it was established that Sombra clearly betrayed her and the empire.”

“Not the way she saw it, Tempest,” Twilight answered. “She may have told the Princesses to save the Crystal Empire, but at the same time, she also turned her back on a childhood friend in a heat of a moment, a decision that’s clear she regretted. She lost both in the end.”

“So then what happened?” Rarity asked.

“According to the diary she abandoned her position as a student and just left…” she stopped for a moment before realizing what she just said. “She voluntarily left Celestia and Luna’s tutelage! Can you imagine?! How could somepony ever think of doing-?!”

“Twi! Chill!” the wonderbolt stopped her, putting her hoof on her shoulder. “You’re Twilighting.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just…” She took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Okay, I’m good.”

“So? Does it say what she did afterward?” the former lieutenant awaited an answer.

“Yes, actually. It’s as far as I got. And it goes as follows,” Twilight said as she cleared her throat before she began reading out loud.

I’ve arrived where it all ended, where my home once stood, and my best friend lived with me. Both are now gone because of my decision, because of one moment where I let my emotions get the better of me. I have to fix this. I have to make things right. I must find out where Sombra disappeared to on that day, to discover what’s changed him, and maybe I can find a way to undo what was done to him. I’ve managed to hold in my possession a few of his items before the empire disappeared, and in what little time I’ve spent studying in Canterlot, I’ve managed to learn a few useful spells. With the spell that tracks one’s magical essence, I will be able to follow the trail to where he went, however, I can already see my journey will not be easy, as his path seemed to have taken him into the darkness of the Frozen North. I only have enough provisions to last for a day, maybe two, but still, I must try.

An unexpected predicament happened. I managed to follow Sombra’s trail into the frozen wasteland. I never would’ve imagined how my home could’ve suffered without the protection of Princess Amore’s Crystal Heart. This unkind cold endless dark is what it protected us from. Yet I didn’t expect that the eternal snowstorm would’ve ended by the time I had reached the end of the trail. A great red crystal is sticking out of the ground, and it seemed that only around it, the elements gave reprieve. And it spoke. A voice was coming out of the crystal, asking to know who I was and why I came here. After I explained myself, it revealed something to me: it knew Sombra; he came here, to this place, to embrace his destiny. This crystal, it claimed to have been his mother; she brought him into the world, with the sole purpose to destroy the Crystal Heart and free the rest of “his kind” that have been trapped under the Crystal Empire, so they could destroy it. However, when I asked why I received no response. Instead, the red crystal shot lightning at my hooves, and before I knew it, the ground under me gave out and I plummeted into darkness. By the time I awoke, I realized I was lying on something soft. It seems I fell through a roof of a building, and the bed in the room inside softened my fall. I’m yet to determine where exactly I am.

I’ve searched the whole building, starting from the top of the tower in which I ended up and just in case, I blocked the hole in the roof through which I had fallen to make sure the snow won’t get in. This entire place has been buried under it. Whoever lived here had left a long time ago, but as to who I’m not quite sure. Several things hint that this place is Monoceria, the unicorn homeland, but what are the chances that it was buried under a mountain of ice and snow this whole time? I tried to explore the outside, only to be met with snow blocking everything, so I spent a good chunk of time clearing up the courtyard until I finally managed to reach the main gates. I had to break them down since they were frozen solid, only to be met with an open tunnel leading out on the other end, followed by a strong gust of wind. I fixed the gates to make sure the outside elements wouldn’t cause further damage to the interior of the castle; perhaps once all this is done I could tell others about what I found here.

“So that explains why everything was cleared out on the way here,” Rainbow Dash spoke. “Radiant Hope was the one that removed all the ice and snow so we were able to find this place.”

“Rainbow Dash, please sit down, I’m not finished yet,” Twilight told her.

I managed to get out of the tunnel. I had expected to finally be out into the open again but instead ended up in a giant cavern made of ice and snow, and a gargantuan hole in the middle of it. All I could spot was another tunnel not far from it, yet when I tried to approach it I began hearing whispers. They were trying to repel me, telling me to go away, and after I tried descending further, the voice became so unbearable I had no choice but to heed it. I returned to the tunnel that led into the castle, and seeing as I couldn’t go my original way, I instead took the only one that was available. Where the path will lead me, I’ve no idea yet.

The wonderbolt knew what the journal was talking about. The whispering in the tunnel where she and Zecora woke up, was likely the same thing the crystal pony experienced. But something was bothering her. She clearly heard the whisper, yet she had to convince the zebra not to follow the tunnel. Did she not hear it? Why?

A farmhouse. Or at least it looked like one. It’s positively huge, and judging by the state of it, the elements did more damage to it than the castle earlier. I can’t say anymore what there is.

I’ve searched about, cleared the field on the other end of the building, and came across a few houses, some long-since demolished by the storm. The only thing that’s sure is that this used to be a farming community, as I found several rusted tools and frozen vegetables, so who used to live here? The only thing I had to go on was the banner of Monoceria hanging in the big farmhouse, along with two I don’t quite recognize. Was this settlement in some way connected to it?

“A settlement? This far north? Under ice and snow?” the fashionista wondered

“Then if I’m not mistaken, we have a set path to be taken?” the said shaman asked.

Twilight closed the book and put the list back into her backpack. “Not just yet. We first have to go and find the rest of the gang that’s trapped here.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, princess,” Tempest finally put her beaker on the ground. “But I fear that’s a wasted effort.”

She shot her a glance. “What do you mean?”

“While all of you were making yourself comfy here, I went ahead and scouted the rest of the castle for any potential victim. When I heard the scream, I was already on the way back. I found nopony else in the castle.”

“I’d appreciate it if you drew as little attention as possible to the reference of the current state of my mane, Tempest,” Rarity requested, before turning her attention to the princess. “But besides that, I think we can take that as a sign that neither Applejack, Pinkie Pie, or Fluttershy are here.”

“Or Spike and Discord,” the alicorn added. “But Zecora’s right, if Radiant Hope’s journal is anything to go on.” She rose, putting the book along with others and the papers back into the saddlebag. “One thing is certain: Sombra brought us all down here, which means they’re definitely trapped elsewhere in this cave system. Everypony ready to look for them?”

Rarity put on her hat, stashing her greying mane under it, and soon Tempest Shadow, as well as Zecora, who put the jar containing the aberration back into her saddlebag, rose. However, …

“I dunno,” the pegasus voiced a slight protest, “I was just getting cozy by the fire and I don’t relish going on in the cold just yet...” After receiving a moment of frowned looks, even from the zebra, she changed her tune. “Actually… forget I said anything.”

They walked across the courtyard towards the castle’s main gate. Both the wonderbolt and the shaman have been beyond them already, so the princess let them lead in front. As she closed the larger doors behind all, she marveled that a crystal pony unicorn had such strong power of restoration that the gate managed to remain intact even after a thousand years. The same couldn’t be said for the stone bridge that lead to the castle, as there were multiple holes in it, but luckily, the ice kept it together. As she looked at the damage, she spotted something though. Far below the bridge in the darkness, she saw a strange eerie green light. It seemed… familiar for some reason.

“Yo, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called as she saw her friend staring at the ground.

It got her attention and she quickly ran after them.

The castle’s hallways were still crawling with guards, and the little filly and the ram had to tread carefully to not be discovered. Luckily for them, returning to the child’s room was a lot easier than the escape from it. It was easy to recognize a pattern in which the guards were moving about, although it still required some of the elder’s interference to make sure the little one wouldn’t give them away. By the end, they finally managed to reach the doors, and after opening them without making a sound, they retreated inside, collectively giving out a sigh as they closed.

“Well done, little girl,” the grizzled ram praised her. “We won.”

Flurry Heart on the other hand was already past that. “I don’t care about the game anymore, Grandpa Gar. You said you were gonna tell me a story if we go back, so do it now!”

He let out a chuckle. “Of course. I wouldn’t think of going back on my word. Go on, off to bed and I’ll start.”

The little alicorn jumped on her bed, and pulled the cover over herself, while she nestled herself on the pillow, waiting in anticipation.

The old ram slowly walked to the side of her bed and sat down, before clearing his throat. “So the story goes as such…”

A long time ago, in a distant land, long before Equestria existed, there were rolling hills, pastures as far as the eye could see. And there, existed a peaceful village, led by a mighty ram. He was tall, strong, and prideful, for he was stronger than any other animal in his community, so he was basically made a leader. But his greatest pride was his family: a ewe, with whom he had a dozen lambs, ones who would grow up to be big and strong, just like their father. But of course, as is with every big family, there’s always going to be a runt of the litter.

“A what?” Flurry Heart asked, not understanding the word.

The elder sighed. “Runt of the litter is what one calls the smallest and weakest in the family. Anyway, as I was saying…”

The ram was proud of his children… the runt, however, had to live up to expectations he couldn’t reach; he was small, scrawny, and weak. His elder siblings looked down on him, and his father would not give him a break. His mother was the only one who gave him solace, who would comfort him when he was down. One day, after another disappointing moment with his father, she revealed something to him. Beyond the gates leading up to their home, stood a large green rock, almost as big as the ewe herself. She told him, that a long time ago, his father and his friends used to compete over who could move it. It was how he managed to gain a reputation for being strong because he was the only one to have ever been able to move it. And she urged him to keep trying to move it just as he did because eventually, his strength would reveal itself to him. The little runt was inspired and wanted to try his luck, unfortunately, his elder siblings got wind of it pretty quickly and decided to test themselves against the great rock, not letting him do it himself, which dragged all the way to when the sun finally began to set, for that was when residents of the pastures shut themselves into their homes. Nobody dared to go outside the moment when twilight fell because-

“When did aunt Twily fall?” the filly interrupted.

He gave her a confused look. “Aunt… Twily? What are you talking about?”

“My aunt Twily’s name is Twilight,” she explained. “When did she fall?”

The elder one sighed, realizing there was a clear loss in communication, before delving into an explanation. “No, little girl, twilight is what you call a moment in time when the sun has set, its last rays long since passed beyond the horizon, yet you can still see the vague light, just before complete darkness falls.”

“Oh…” she uttered, understanding what he meant, and he resumed the tale in turn.

They always told their kind to come into the house before the night fell, telling them that horrible things lurked outside at night. The little runt, however, was upset, as he was excluded from proving himself by his elder siblings when he wanted to do it just once. And so that night, as the family was fast asleep, he decided to disobey his parents for the first time in his life. They always told him never to go out at night, telling him something awful was out there, but he’s never seen it, he thought to himself that perhaps that wasn’t even true. So he finally went out of the house into the darkness, to the green rock outside, and finally tried his luck, as he rammed against it, and after bashing his head against it for the first time, he couldn’t help but yelp in pain. That’s when he finally heard something. Something moved in the cloak of night, something heavy, something swift, something that was growling. And that is when he saw them: several red eyes glowing in the dark, approaching him. These were the terrors which his parents warned him about, the beasts that wandered the night.

“What… kind of beasts, Grandpa Gar?” the filly asked in a frightened tone.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be able to describe them to you, child,” the old ram spoke. “Nothing is more terrifying than knowing that horrifying creatures lurk in the dark, you can’t see what they look like, but you know they are there because you can clearly see their wicked eyes. And that is precisely what the runt saw.”

Paralyzed by the sight of the beasts, the runt didn’t move. And as they swiftly approached there was only one who would intervene to protect him. His mother woke up after hearing his cry of pain, only to look for him and find him outside, with horrifying beasts about to get him. She ran and put herself in front of them to shield her child, and in turn, the beasts dragged her away. When the grip of fear finally let loose of the runt, he heard the door of his home slam shut. He ran for the house, desperately banging on the door for his father to save his mother. But he received no reply, and the door would not open, he was only met with silence. He simply wouldn’t come… out of fear. And then… something triggered inside the runt. The fear of never seeing his mother again pushed him in the opposite direction, the desperation of wanting to see her again drove him; if he didn’t do anything, who else would if they didn’t? And so, he ran off, away from his home, after the beasts that took his mother, for he was the only one who would dare. He ran through the night and into the morning, hoping to catch up to them, but alas he couldn’t, he was small and weak, and by the time the sun rose, those he ran after were no longer in sight. He was all alone, away from the home he had known, lost, and on top of that, tired, so much that he passed out. By the time he finally woke up, the sun was nowhere to be seen; he was in a cave and the only light could be seen from the crystals that adorned the cavern. And there… he was looked over by creatures that brought him in when he was found unconscious. Long scrawny brown bodies, with spines sticking out their backs, and long muzzles, armed with sharp teeth and black claws, these creatures called themselves Chupcabras, and they wondered what to do with a little lost lamb they had found. They were tall and imposing, and the runt was shivering with terror. However, there was something that frightened him far more than the look of these creatures: the thought that something bad might have happened to his mother. He didn’t want to feel this way, he didn’t want to be a coward like his father who hid when somebody was in trouble, he wanted to be big and strong, he wanted to be feared so nobody else could threaten him again or anything he cared about. And in a desperate act, he did something unthinkable… he asked the Chupacabras, to teach him to become like them.

“He wanted some other creatures to help him become as scary as them?” Flurry Heart questioned.

He chuckled. “I know. That sounds ridiculous, right? And that’s exactly what they thought as well.”

They cackled; a little lost lamb wanted to be like them? Absolutely laughable. And for a good laugh, they tossed him into a bramble overgrowth, saying if he managed to get out they might think about it, not that they believed he would succeed. And yet, the runt did it, dragging himself out despite being all scratched up. Then they tossed him into a river, thinking that the strong currents might do the job, but despite their effort, the runt survived, pulling himself out of the water. And so time and again, the Chupacabras tossed him into possible danger from which he would unlikely recover, however, over and over again, their actions would bear no fruit, as the little lamb seemed to keep coming back regardless. So eventually the Chupacabras decided it simply wasn’t worth the effort, and allowed the little lamb to walk by their side, undisturbed. The runt refused to give up; he was determined to become stronger, so he could find the beasts that took his mother away. He would not be a coward as those back home were, he was going to be stronger than the beasts that took his mother. He would become…

There was silence in the air, the filly impatiently waiting for the elder to finally speak. “Become what, Grandpa Gar?”

His sight shifted to her, the expression on his face looking as if he was about to speak, only for him to smile instead. “That, little girl, is a story for another time.”

“Awww, no! You can’t end it now!” the alicorn whined.

“Do not worry, little girl. The tale is still long and if you do not get a rest now, we will not be able to play games next time.”

She pouted for a moment. “When will I see you again, Grandpa Gar?”

“Tomorrow,” he answered and rose, “very certainly tomorrow. But for now, we will have to part.”

“Do you promise?”

The ram simply nodded. “You have my word, little girl.”

Hearing him make a promise put Flurry Heart at ease, as she snuggled up in her cover and pillow to make herself comfy, while the elder tucked her in. “Goodnight, Grandpa Gar,” she said as she closed her eyes.

She waited for a reply, but it didn’t come for a while; with her eyes closed, she only saw a vague bright light, before she finally heard the ram speak. “Goodnight.”

By the time she finally opened her eyes, the bright light was gone, and so was the elder. She couldn’t understand how he managed to do that, she looked all over the room yet there was no indication of where he went. Then something began to stir at the back of the little filly’s mind, as she scanned the room, seeing her toys sitting all around, covered in darkness, yet there was a distinctly reflected glaze in their eyes.

Nothing is more terrifying than knowing that horrifying creatures lurk in the dark, you can’t see what they look like, but you know they are there because you can clearly see their wicked eyes.

Those words slowly sank into the child’s thoughts as she could now see multiple eyes, staring at her from the cloaking night, and in fright, she pulled the cover over her head.

Led by the wonderbolt and the shaman, the unicorns and the alicorn were led through the frozen tunnel and out into the giant cavern with multiple passageways. Twilight stood about for a moment, marveling over the sight in front of her. Radiant Hope’s journal was proving true; the wide frozen cavern, the gargantuan hole in the middle of it, and several passageways all around it.

“So, which way do we go from here?” she asked.

“NOT RIGHT!”

That quick yelp right next to her ear startled her. It came from Rainbow Dash who had this uneasy look on her face, and she received a frown for it.

She coughed, clearing her throat. “I mean… the journal said that Radiant Hope went left after she came out of the castle, right? It’s best we just follow her.”

As much as she showed that she was just trying to cover up her fear, the princess had to agree to the proposal – the easiest path to follow would that of the one who already walked it before them, and if they did, it would reduce their chances of ending into some unpredictable situation. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Let’s go everypony.”

Their hooves made crunchy noises as they walked over the frozen earth for several minutes, before reaching the tunnel on their left side, and once again the descent followed into a frozen passage. Zecora went ahead of the group slowly leading them, probing in advance to expose the potentially slippery floor. The pegasus and white unicorn followed soon after, yet as the alicorn was about to do the same, she noticed somebody was absent and spotted the former lieutenant still standing on the plateau surrounding the hole, looking about.

“Tempest?” she called. “Is something wrong?”

The broken unicorn’s attention was grabbed, as she turned to meet up with others. “No… I’m probably just hearing things.”

The light dimmed as they descended into the unknown, but this time around, the two unicorns present assisted in lighting up the surroundings, reducing any potential environmental dangers. After a while, their hooves could feel the crunchy frozen earth again, and their destination came in sight. A wall with a door and window on each side stood in the way, and just like the gates of the castle, these seemed to have been restored no doubt thanks to Radiant Hope.

“So… care to guess what’s behind door number four?” the pegasus asked.

Nobody said a thing. Instead, Twilight trot to the front of the group and went to open the door. It took only a split second to take in what they saw, as they completely ignored the surroundings and focused on who was in the middle of the room. The pink puffy-maned party planner was levitating off the ground, making weird noises and pulling funny faces.

“PINKIE!” the Princess of Friendship yelled in panic.

She rushed to her side, but just as she stepped over the threshold of the house, she disappeared into the invisible veil of shadows.

“Whoa… this one’s bigger than yours, Rarity,” Tempest commented.

“Well, we can’t let Twilight be in there all by herself! Go, go, GO!” Rainbow Dash urged as she went at the back of the group and pushed all of them into the house and straight through the veil as a result.

Chapter 30: Plain in Sight

They broke through the veil. Luckily for them, they bumped into Twilight immediately, before something could’ve separated them.

“Girls… I miscalculated,” the alicorn said as she became aware of their presence. “Pinkie’s veil is-“

“As big as a house? Yeah, we noticed,” Tempest Shadow finished her sentence.

“So… where are we exactly?” Rainbow Dash asked.

They finally managed to take a good look at their surroundings. Black masses were all around them, but once their eyes adjusted to the dim light they realized they were in midst of a huge crowd of ponies, all clustered together. Yet they couldn’t figure out why they were here, when all of a sudden, they heard a strange booming sound in the distance, slowly approaching them, becoming more pronounced, and they quickly realized it was the sound of a massive crowd booing, as the surrounding equines began to make the said noise.

“Yish… these ponies sure don’t like whatever is happening up in the front,” the broken unicorn said. “What are they getting so worked up about anyway?”

“Tempest darling, you’re taller than all of us. Can’t you see what’s going on?” Rarity suggested.

“Not from this distance. It’s really far away. All I can see is dancing lights.”

The Princess of Friendship flew up a bit to elevate herself, and she saw that her companion was speaking the truth, seeing nothing but lit up area in the distance, and lights being spun about.

“We’ll just have to get there then,” she said as she landed back on the ground, her head turning to the shaman. “Zecora, we’ll need to clear the path to the far end.”

The zebra didn’t waste much time and heeded the alicorn’s request. She drew out her staff, clenched it between her teeth, and took a swing at the crowd, the mirage dispelling itself momentarily, allowing the group to pass through them. And so, they made their way through the illusionary crowd, yet the further they waded through, the louder and the more constant the booing sound became.

“Tempest, you see anything yet?” Twilight eventually asked.

The broken unicorn squinted, trying to discern what was happening in the distance, and soon enough, after a few more steps she finally made a reply to the query. “Oh, that’s just pathetically sad.”

“What is?” the fashionista wondered.

“What our happy-go-lucky merry-maker is going through.”

“Wait… Pinkie Pie?” the wonderbolt chipped in. “What’s happening?”

“I think the crowd’s responses alone are an answer to this question,” she answered.

Twilight didn’t wait long to act. She flew up to see what the ex-lieutenant was talking about and instantly got the message. Now that they were closer, it became clear what the dancing lights they saw earlier were: a huge stage stood far away, stage lights trailing about it, and the party planner was on it, dancing about while wearing multiple instruments in an attempt to entertain the massive audience, but it was clear from both expression on her face, as well as the obvious reaction of the crowd, that it wasn’t going in a way she had hoped. She couldn’t watch this happening anymore. She dashed through the air, over the heads of the audience, towards the stage; there was nothing to deter her from her path… or at least she thought so at first.

Just as the pink earth pony attempted another joke by spraying her mouth with whipped cream, the audience booed again. The sound began building up as the massive crowd voiced their displeasure in unison, becoming so loud that it turned into a shockwave, being sent outwards, hitting Twilight and sending her flying backward through the air. The whole world was spinning, completely disorienting her. That’s when Rainbow Dash spotted her coming back their way. She instantly lept on Tempest’s back, bouncing off into the air at enough height to intercept her incoming friend, crashing together, causing them to roll on the ground behind for several hoofs.

“Rainbow Dash, are you alright?!” Rarity asked in a concerned tone.

The blue pegasus shook her head as she finally got up, holding the alicorn in her hoofs. “Ye, but never mind me. Twilight, you okay?”

“Urgh… yeah…” she answered in a groggy tone. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

“What exactly happened?” the broken unicorn questioned. “I saw you fly towards the stage and next thing I know, you were sent flying back.”

“It’s the nightmare, Tempest,” she explained. “It seems that it’s only gotten stronger after freeing Rarity. So much so that it’s now actively trying to repel us from getting closer to Pinkie.”

“Well, that certainly explains a few things,” the wonderbolt said.

The alicorn wondered for a moment what she meant until she saw the crowd in front of her that Zecora had been dealing with. When earlier she was able to just sweep them away with a single swing of her staff, it was now moving very slowly in a thick black mass that roughly resembled ponies.

She finally managed to pull her tool out, causing her to fall on her backside. “Forcing our way would be like wading through dense molasses. The nightmare’s blocked all of our passages.“

“How are we supposed to get to Pinkie Pie then if her own nightmare is obstructing our way?” Rarity gave Twilight a concerned look.

A sparking sound soon followed as lightning began to form around Tempest Shadow’s broken horn. “I can always blast a way through.”

“NO!” the princess almost instantly responded. “We can’t make the situation any worse, Tempest! King Sombra’s grip has clearly gotten stronger since we’ve rescued Rarity, so much so that some of the nightmares are now actively trying to prevent us from interfering! Who knows what will happen if we try to force it!”

The cracking died down and the broken unicorn sighed. “Fine… so what are we supposed to do then?”

“We have to give Pinkie a notice in some way, to make her realize she’s stuck in a nightmare of her own making.”

“How are we supposed to do that from here?” the blue pegasus questioned. “And what are we even supposed to tell her? The crowd’s clearly not getting any more light-hearted.”

“Well, the nightmare is clearly trying to convince Pinkie Pie that she’s not as entertaining as she thinks she is,” Rarity voiced her thoughts, “so we need to do something about that, obviously, but who’s supposed give the back-up she needs?”

“With Rarity, I must agree,” the shaman chipped in. “I ask you all who stand before me, who do you think brings out the best of her glee?”

Twilight sat and went into deep thought; she needed to find an answer. She may already know how to deliver the message to the party planner, but what was she supposed to convey? Who does she know that can bring much joy to her? She shares an unbreakable bond of friendship with the other elements, but who does the Element of Laughter look up to? Who does she know that can communicate on the same level as her that the rest don’t understand?

That’s when she finally got it. “Girls… I think I know who can help Pinkie. She’ll be overjoyed to see her, considering she didn’t get a chance to meet her back at the Crystal Empire.”

“Heh… tough crowd…” the pink earth pony said to herself out loud, as she failed to put the audience in a good mood once again.

To say that the crowd was lacking a good mood would be an understatement. With everything she was trying to pull, the displeasure in the watchers only seemed to grow, the booing voices kept growing louder. And as it grew, Pinkie’s confidence slowly began to dwindle. She’s had to deal with unhappy customers before, but nothing on this level; there were ponies everywhere, rows as far as the eyes could see, their eyes constantly watching, judging, their unhappy faces clearly visible, infinitely scowling in dissatisfaction. And she was running out of tricks, none of them worked, what will happen once she’s got nothing else left to show? How can she put a smile on everybody’s face?

A flash suddenly happened in the distance among the crowd. Pinkie noticed it, shielding her eyes from the strong stage lights and squinting so she could gather what it was. A great pink screen loomed above the audience, on it there were pictures of Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Tempest, and Zecora, along with a lot of flashing hearts, decorating the surroundings of the bright words at the center:

Pinkie Pie, don’t get discouraged! Offer to this nightmare some Ham & Pan!

Ham and Pan. It took some time, but after a few moments, the realization came over her and her expression of confusion turned into a grin.

“Sooooooo… you ponies want something to laugh about, do you?” she addressed the audience in front of her. “Fine!”

She reached for the side of the stage and dragged out a door, having it stand in the middle, and then waited. There was silence all around for some time, so clear that the cricket’s singing could be heard.

A knock on the door suddenly followed, to which the earth pony made a surprising gesture. “Oh my, who could that be?”

She opened them, revealing a room on the other side. A mare of grey fur, with a flattened purple mane, wearing a bland dark blue dress, stood in front of a large canvas, painting a giant rainbow gemstone with the brush she held in her mouth. The party planner entered and shut the doors behind her, after which they fell over, garnering the mare’s attention, who turned her head, revealing the neutral look on her face.

“Maud!” the Element of Laughter exclaimed.

The older mare put the brush on the canvas stand before addressing her. “Hello, Pinkie Pie.”

“What are you doing here, Maud?” the younger sibling inquired before turning her attention to the canvas. “Actually, what are you doing?”

“Painting a picture of bismuth,” she plainly answered, looking at it as well.

“Odd,” the pink mare replied, “I don’t think I’ve seen you draw. I don’t think you’ve ever even shown interest in it.”

The grey pony turned to face her. “You’re just jealous I’m a little hobby horse now.”

Silence followed the exchange, one could even hear the cricket’s song. But then, all of a sudden, laughter from a single person followed, yet the moment Pinkie turned to it to see where it came from, it went quiet.

“Who was it?!” she called out at the audience. “Who was the somepony who thought this was funny?!”

Nobody answered. But it didn’t matter to her. It wasn’t just the fact that somebody actually laughed for the first time, it was also the fact that the crowd wasn’t booing at all this time around. Were they trying to suppress the laughter then? She was about to find out.

Pinkie Pie turned back to Maud, and the setting on the stage had already changed from a few moments ago. The older mare was standing in the middle of a park, and a little fox wearing a suit was going about between her legs.

“Awww, who’s your new friend, Maud?” she asked.

“His name’s Jamie,” the grey mare answered in her usual monotone voice. “I met him during my morning run.”

“Drat,” the party planner cursed, “I’d have liked to see that fox trot with my own eyes.”

“You still can, the hunters are looking for him,” her elder sibling told her.

This time around there was no moment of silence, nor was just the sound of one person laughing. The laughter started springing up from various locations of the audience, while the rest remained quiet, no booing whatsoever.

“Oh, you find this funny, do you?!” Pinkie Pie addressed the audience again. “Well... get ready for a big one!”

She turned back to Maud once more, and again, the scenery on the stage changed. This time it was a decorated room, ready for festivities. Nobody could figure out what it was about, but there was one clue that sat on the table: a tall, brightly frosted wedding cake, with a pair of pony figurines on top of it. But the elder sibling couldn’t be seen anywhere, however, noises were coming from a folding dressing screen that was standing on the side of the stage.

“Maud!” the pink pony called out. “Do you have your present ready for the wedding party?”

“Yeah,” the monotone voice spoke, before the mare stuck her head past the screen, revealing she was wearing the harness on her head. “They can use it right away, see?”

The younger sibling tilted her head. “…Why a bridle, though?”

Finally, Maud stepped out of the folding screen, revealing that, besides the harness, she was wearing a wedding dress. “Somepony has to guide the fretting bride down the aisle.”

Suddenly, little by little, laughter erupted in the same manner that the booing did earlier, starting from the front row, and expanding to the back, growing louder with each passing moment. The world around them began to quake, the darkness and the nightmare that was being generated began to collapse on their own.

“Thank you, thank you! You’ve been a wonderful audience!” the Element of Laughter said as she took a bow. “And give it up for my sister, Maud!” The other mare who stood beside her merely nodded instead of taking a bow as well. “Once again, thank you, and good night!”

And with those final words, the veil of nightmare shattered. As it did, the remains of the shadow that was generating it, turned into a shadowy horned equine, which roared, and then disappeared.

The party planner was still taking a bow before she finally raised her head, and realized she was in, what looked like, a big barn house, decked with banners. The surroundings were alien to her, but not so much the group of mares that were sitting close by.

“Oh hey, girls!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “You wouldn’t believe what just happened!”

“Trust us, Pinkie, we would,” Twilight reassured her, with the other mares nodding in agreement.

A snorting sound came up for a split second behind them, grabbing their attention, seeing the broken unicorn standing still, acting as if nothing had just happened, only for her to notice everybody giving her weird looks. “What? I thought that last one was funny.”

“Where is he…?” Chrysalis groaned.

She was lounging, the library books elevating one of the big pillows on the dusty old chaise that was inside the abandoned house which served as their hideout, after all, what other option did she have? It’s been long, way too long. She had sent him a warning that he wouldn’t be able to ignore, and that was some time ago. Where was he? If the decrepit elder had gotten himself exposed and caught by some miracle, it was nobody else’s fault but his!

A flash happened. A giant portal made of dark light opened inside the dusty living room, garnering her attention. A cloaked figure stepped through it, after which the gateway immediately closed shut. The magical aura lit up again, surrounding the figure’s hood and pulling it back, revealing Grogar’s face.

“Took you long enough!” she rebuked him. “I gave you notice about… probably half an hour ago. I was beginning to think I’d have to spring you out of whatever prison you’ve been taken to.”

“No thanks to you,” he replied. “Were you any louder you might have gotten your wish, but that would hardly benefit to any of us.”

“So what took you?”

“I had to cover my tracks, what else.”

“Oh, let me guess, you were telling the kid a bedtime story?” the Changeling Queen laughed at the notion that the Father of Monsters had to put the alicorn child to sleep, until she noticed he was staring at her, not showing an ounce of amusement. “Wait… you’re serious?”

“If I’m too hard to read, I'll just tell you plainly: yes,” the ram answered. “I had to make sure to remain on the little girl’s good side, otherwise she might go blabbering to somebody.”

“And what kind of story did you tell her? ‘The Little Filly and the Big Bad Timberwolf”? she mused as she slinked around the coworker.

“It doesn’t concern you, Queen of Changelings,” was the only answer he gave her.

The Broodmother frowned disappointingly. “Always so serious about everything… Did you at the very least find what you were looking for? I hope my acting career out there is paying off, considering I’ve pulled the same stunt in less than half a day.”

The grizzled ram smiled, and from under his cloak, a light turned on as his magical aura dragged out a book. “You can take comfort in the fact that I did.”

“Excellent!” Chrysalis said as she ripped the book out of Grogar’s grasp with her magic. “Now that we finally have the information we need we can start working on the-“ Her voice stopped when she brought the book to her face and saw the actual title on it. “'Crystal Empire: Early design of plumbing'… Grogar, is this some kind of joke?”

“I don’t find anything humorous about this, Queen of Changelings,” the elder one answered.

“NEITHER DO I!” she yelled at an incredibly high volume in frustration, her voice resonating, as she threw the book on the floor. “I’m out there risking myself to distract the guards and the princess, so you can get in there and find the location where the umbrum are locked up, meanwhile you were playing with the princess’ brat, and then you bring back-!”

A beam of dark light shot at her face, transforming into a strip that attached itself to the changeling’s mouth, instantly silencing her. She struggled to remove it, but it wouldn’t come off, as its caster made sure it would remain in place for as long as he wanted.

“If the guards outside haven’t found us so far, they certainly will now if you’re going to make this kind of racket,” Grogar said, as he slowly dispelled the strip. “In any case, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

Chrysalis raised her eyebrow. “Did… did you just use a metaphor in a literal sense?”

“Yes,” the grizzled ram answered, raising the book in the air. “This was a very cunning disguise. After all, it’s not important what the outside looks like, but rather what’s inside that counts.”

“Can’t you be a bit more specific?”

He opened the book, flipping through a few pages and then stopping, leaving it open. “Look at the book and tell me what you can see.”

The Queen of Changelings crook her eyebrow then leaned forward, and began reading the contents of the book. “Bathtubs and showers can be made from a myriad of materials ranging from the conventional enameled, cast iron and steel, to fiberglass, acrylic, and-“ The book immediately slammed shut, scraping the very tip of her nose, making her flinch in the process.

“I didn’t tell you to read the contents of the book, Queen of Changelings,” the elder sheep sighed. “I shouldn’t have expected you to understand…”

“Well what did you want me to see then?” she replied in an angry tone, rubbing her nose.

The book opened again, this time the pages slowly flipped though. “Look at the edges of the book, outside of where the text is,” the ram instructed.

Chrysalis cautiously leaned in again and listened to what he was saying, observing. As the pages kept turning, she began to notice something: on each of the pages, there was a symbol at the bottom edge of the text.

“These… runes, wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with it?” she asked.

“Congratulations, you’ve figured it out,” Grogar confirmed. “This whole book is, in reality, a container… and the runes, of which I just so happen to know their meaning, are its key.”

“I see…” the Changeling Queen replied, a tone of skepticism in her being noticeable. “And how exactly are we supposed to “unlock” it?”

The whole book was enveloped in dark light, and then one after another, pages began to fly out of it, past the Pillar of Hatred’s face, arranging themselves next to one another in lines and rows by her side. The thick book cover fell to the ground, empty, its holder deciding that it had served its purpose, slowly walking to them.

“It is a code, Queen of Changelings,” the grizzled ram elaborated further. “When the runes are activated correctly, it will trigger the pages’ true purpose.”

“Ah… I see,” she said as she sauntered to his side. “What’s the password then?”

He gave her a blunt answer. “I’ve no idea.”

She looked at her hunched-over companion in surprise. “What? But I thought you said-“

“I said I know what the runes mean, I didn’t say I know what is the combination that the container’s maker had set up,” Grogar explained. “And considering there are over one hundred pages in the book, the number of any possible combinations could be over…” His voice ceased after being interrupted by a softened-up thud, as the Queen of Changelings landed face-first on to the pillow on the chaise upon which she was lounging a few moments ago. “I see you’ve grasped the gravity of the situation.”

“That better not have been a pun you’ve made just now…” Chrysalis said in a muffled voice. “Anyway, this one’s entirely on you, considering I’ve been doing all the heavy lifting over here.”

“Funny… I was under the impression that Changelings do not tire out,” he mused.

“Of course we do, ignoramus. Exhaustion only starts hitting hard on us when we haven’t fed on love in a while.”

The elder sheep turned back to the pages, only to let the silence linger for a few moments, before he finally spoke, stroking his beard. “Curious…”

“What is?” Chrysalis asked.

“Nothing… just inner thoughts. But speaking of lifting…” the grizzled ram grinned, as the books stacked under the pillow began to glow and then flew out, dropping the elevation on the chaise, making the changeling’s neck bend unnaturally with a crack.

“Hey! Do you mind?!” she yelled, raising herself and forcing her twisted neck back into a normal position with another crack.

“My apologies,” he said, “but if I’m to unlock it, I’ll have to re-use the material to gain some insight into the inner workings of the owner’s mind. And even the smallest clue will be of use right now.”

“So, you’ve no idea what this place is?” Pinkie Pie asked as she trotted about the house, looking at things after they had explained what had happened so far.

“Sadly no,” Twilight answered as she looked about as well, “even Radiant Hope offered no clue to this. Or at least the part we read so far didn’t.”

“But there’s got to be a reason as to why we’ve been sent here in the first place,” Rarity wondered.

That was a question they couldn’t find an answer for, until the party planner explained, as she stopped by one of the windows and stared outside. “Well, Applejack is probably here because she’s a farmer and all.”

All the mares looked at her, but the blue pegasus was the first to answer. “What makes you say that, Pinkie?”

“I mean, she’s kinda doing her thing out there.”

Out there? The other mares quickly rushed to her side and looked out the window. There was an open field on the other side of the house, frozen solid, houses sticking out of the icy walls, but levitating in the middle of the field was a figure, and they quickly recognized the color of her winter gear.

“AJ!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“Come on, everypony! We need to go!” the alicorn ordered, and everybody quickly galloped to the doorway leading outside.

The doors swung open, and the pink earth pony immediately dashed out into the field. “Don’t worry, Applejack! We’re coming!” she yelled.

“Pinkie, wait!” Twilight yelled and grabbed hold of her tail with her magic, stopping her on the spot, before getting to her side. “We can’t rush into this, Pinkie. When we found you, the veil of nightmare was already expanded to the whole house, and now that we’ve freed you, who knows how big Applejack’s veil is.”

While the rest of the group slowly joined, she let go of her friend, and slowly moved forward, with her front leg lifted, waving about the check for the veil’s location. She didn’t make it more than a few hooves towards the field before she touched the invisible shroud… and it was big.

“That’s the swirly shadowy thingy you were talking about, Twilight?” the earth pony asked.

She simply nodded, while her companion got back on her feet. The rest of the group meanwhile caught up and they stood beside the princess in a row; they already knew what would’ve followed, and they were ready.

The alicorn looked at both sides. “Now remember, everypony, we go in together, on my mark. Ready?”

“READY!” they yelled in unison.

“Now!” she ordered, with that, the group walked through the invisible veil.

Surprisingly, it was daytime. The sun was high in the sky and all around them… was a barren wasteland. They couldn’t figure it out; there were miles upon miles of barren dried-up dirt with dead trees, without any signs of life, plant or otherwise.

“Twilight, you said that this place was just an illusion, right?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Yes, why?” the princess replied.

“Then why…” she said as she pulled off her hat, the signs of perspiration on her face visible, “am I sizzling in this heat?”

Now that the party planner had mentioned it, others began to feel it too. With the winter clothing, they had been wearing to repel the cold, the sweltering heat began to show its teeth. And the atmosphere certainly wasn’t a factor in any of the previous nightmares.

“Twilight, in the light of the current events, may I suggest that we step back outside and discuss before we go any further?” the fashionista suggested.

“You know, as much as I hate going out in the cold again, I’m with Rares on this one. Let’s just figure out how we’re supposed to- OOF!” the wonderbolt said as she turned to exit, only to hit a solid object.

A large boulder lay in the middle of a dried-up field of trees. This was probably where they came in through the nightmare veil… which begged the question, why was it solid? Rainbow Dash started beating against it with her hooves, yet it wouldn’t budge.

The tall broken unicorn stopped her. “Let me try.”

Tempest positioned herself, with her back end facing the boulder, tapping the soles of her metal horseshoes against it, before pulling back and then flexing, her hind legs crashing against the boulder, only for it to end up crushing it in half.

Some time passed after she noticed what she had done, before turning to face the rest. “Hold on, I didn’t expect this would’ve happened, I swear!”

“I don’t think you’re to blame for anything, Tempest,” Twilight told her.

“Twilight, we’re trapped inside, with no way out now!” Rarity stressed her frustration.

“Yes, but not because of her,” she elaborated. “Remember when we were inside Pinkie’s nightmare and at some point, the nightmares became impossible to wade through? Now that Sombra’s no longer watching over her, the nightmare may have become solid all on its own.”

“Hold on… are you saying we’re permanently trapped in this place until AJ wakes up?”

The princess would not have time to answer that question as she noticed that one in the group was absent. That’s when she finally noticed the zebra walking up to a nearby hill where an old dead tree stood. She tapped it with her front hooves, before grabbing hold of her staff and swinging it against it. Instead of the shaman’s staff going straight through it, as it did with all illusions before, the two pieces of wood connected, making a resounding noise.

The staff was lowered and she removed the cowl of her coat, before returning to the group. “Twilight, what you said before rings true. It seems the umbrum king’s might grew. I must report, with rue, my power here will not break through.”

“If that’s the case, then we better hurry,” the princess urged. “Because this heat’s not gonna drop any time soon.”

“Wonderful… just wonderful… As if my mane’s not gone through enough already today,” Rarity complained as she pulled off her hat, her hair cascading down.

“Is there something wrong with your mane, Rarity? You look… grey,” Pinkie pie commented on the fashionista’s current state.

“Pinkie, can you please NOT mention my predicament,” she whined.

There was a sudden sound of heavy garments dropping to the floor, everybody noticed that the shaman had just stripped down, removing her coat.

“Zecora! Not in front of everypony!” Rarity freaked out.

“Forgive me, Rarity, but excess insulation will rob us of acceleration,” she explained. “And if my worst assumption is true, the nightmare’s veil will give us its due.”

Tempest walked to the front of the group, removing her cap. “Yeah… whatever the zebra just said, I’ll have to agree with it. If the nightmare is just creating a room in which we barely even move, our stuff’s still gonna be left on the ground where we originally dropped them regardless of where we go.”

“Well… that’s true,” Twilight concurred.

“Well go on then, all of you too,” the broken unicorn gave an order, as she removed her shawl. “Or do you want to be carried the rest of the way once you get a heatstroke?”

And so, the rest of the mares removed their clothes and packs, leaving them in the pile, before they finally began to march in one direction; even though they didn’t know in which way their lost friend was, they knew they’ll reach her eventually. But the track was no walk in the park. It’s uncertain how long they trot through the barren wasteland, it felt like hours, and in the light of the scorching sun, some were no longer able to pull their own weight. Twilight was the first to drop off, forcing the Rainbow Dash to carry her, then Rarity fainted, making Tempest Shadow carry her, eventually Pinkie Pie finally deflated, at which point they realized they couldn’t continue as such. Luckily, Zecora kept her saddlebags with her, so they managed to get a rope and some cloth, as well as some old wood to fashion a makeshift stretcher, upon which they put the three passed out mares, while the remaining three pulled them. Inevitably, however, even Rainbow Dash couldn’t keep up and longer and collapsed, adding the last Element to the group. And so, the broken unicorn and the zebra pulled the stretcher pilled up with mares, on which they were harnessed by themselves. Besides the weight, Zecora wasn’t particularly bothered by the environment, this was as close to home as she ever was in Equestria, and it was nice to finally feel some warmth after numerous hours out in the cold for which she wasn’t suited. Her sight gazed to her side, seeing the purple mare who was a good head taller than an average pony, pulling her own weight, and despite showing noticeable signs of strain, she kept on a firm face.

“I must say,” the shaman addressed her, “I had figured by now, you would’ve followed our friend’s way.”

“You expected me to pass out after a little walk like this?” she regarded the zebra. “Please, I’ve had my fair share of desert crossings in my life. This is little more than a stroll for me. I’m not some little soft marshmallowy thing.”

“Yes, I figured as such. The ursa had pushed you so to change that much?”

“What are you talking about?”

“No need to hide, Miss Shadow, the princess spoke to me aside. Even if the events did not come to pass, what transpired in your darkest hour was visible to us, like glass.”

The purple mare sighed. “I wish you didn’t have to see that. Magic is everything to a unicorn. To have it be taken from you… it feels like losing a limb. That’s what’s happened to me; not only did I lose a part of me that was a core to who I was, I also lost the only two friends I had. Even if some things may have been different than I had seen from my perspective, for so long I believed the world had wronged me. I was angry and bitter, I wanted to do anything to get that part of me back again, but I couldn’t do it if I was weak. I left my home, I grew stronger, and I searched for a source of power, anything that could help me regain my magic back…”

“To wit, hailed the Storm King? He who claimed to be nature's force in full swing, who made offers you could not win?”

The unicorn grit her teeth. “I was a fool. I had sincerely believed that somecreature who saw the world as I did would be true to his word. Instead, he used me to get what he wanted, and in the end, he turned on me, after all I’ve done for him.”

“And yet through thick and thin, it’s clear the Princess and her friend stood by you like kin. Why have you not stayed with them, even for a brief look in?”

“Twilight and her friends are generous, don’t get me wrong, but their town was just too… cheerful for my taste. And besides, after the Storm King was destroyed… after all I did in his name, I had to do something to make things right, but after all I’ve been through, I didn’t think there was a place for me in Equestria…”

“But did you not find it here, where lands collide, ear-to-ear?”

“Well, not at first. I came to the Crystal Empire, not really expecting much until Cadence put me in the right direction… and I met Glitter Drops again.”

“Ah, the little teal mare. But your parting end bad, was it too much to bear?”

“It did. And I was still bitter after meeting her again but… then I learned something I couldn’t see from where I stood. And if it came to it again, were it up to me to decide whether the same fate had befallen her instead of me-”

“Would you have chosen, instead to flee?”

She nodded.

“She’s precious to you, more than all the land’s riches presented to you?”

“More than you can imagine.”

“No, I’ve no trouble imagining," the shaman spoke as they began to climb the hill. "Everypony is made of past events, good and maddening. Some they sadly block or crush, others mold us by standing by without nary a blush. I sympathize with you, for special bonds leave marks, some visible, others great like sparks.”

She gave her a look of suspicion. “Is that what the whole rhyming thing is about? Because of somepony else?”

The zebra shook her head. “It’s more than that, my friend. It’s-“

As they reached the top of the hill, Zecora’s voice stopped. A barn house stood in the distance with several others, amidst the lifeless land.

A groan came from the stretcher at the back. “Hnnn... why did we stop?”

Tempest shot a glance back, noticing Rainbow Dash stretching. “Have you been lounging this whole time…?”

“No!” the pegasus protested. “I… I was just really tired after all that’s happened. I and Zecora have been up this whole time, while the rest of you had a nice snooze.”

The shaman shot a glance back as well, then both she and the unicorn’s faces met before Tempest answered back to the load. “You have some really weird ideas of what “a nice snooze” is. Anyway, everypony get on your feet, we’re here.”

The other mares finally woke up from their conditions and looked about, the alicorn eventually spotting the structures as well. “That’s Sweet Apple Acres! Everypony, get up!”

“Apples? Did somepony just say apples?!” The party planner’s head popped up in an instant. “Let me through, I’m hungry!” she yelled before she ran after Twilight.

“Hey Pinkie, wait up!” the wonderbolt scrambled and charged after them.

The zebra and the broken unicorn watched them run off, but one was yet to move. “What about you?” the latter addressed the fashionista who was still lounging on the stretcher.

“No no, I’m fine, darling. You two just keep on going,” Rarity answered.

After hearing that reply, Tempest and Zecora looked at each other again and gave one another an unamused look; no way were they going to drag her the rest of the way. They unstrapped their harness’, causing the stretcher to flop to the ground, rousing the white unicorn, and they ran off.

“Girls, come on, I was just kidding!” she cried, quickly getting up back on her feet. “Wait for me!”

The merciless sun beamed down on the helpless little farm. The country pony moved from one building to the next, checking every nook and cranny, but in the end, it was no use; all the cellars, all the pantries, everything was empty, with no food in sight. This was horrible. There wasn’t even any food to feed the farm animals… as a matter of fact, there were no farm animals anywhere; on the farm and everything around it was dead! And it was all her fault. She was responsible for taking care of Sweet Apple Acres, her family’s legacy, and she let all of this happen. Speaking of which, what was she going to tell them?

“Applejack!” a voice came from outside.

She dreaded what would follow, so she slowly traipsed out the door. The rest of the Apple family was already waiting outside, none of them looking one bit pleased. Applebloom sat on the ground, clutching her belly, both Big Mac and Sugar Belle stood beside her, looking drained, and next to them stood by a wooden bucket was Granny Smith, scowling.

“Ya see this?” she said as she tipped it over, causing it to fall to the side and show that it’s empty. “We got notin’! No apples! And without them, we and the rest of Ponyville are gonna starve!”

“Eyup…” the red stalling weakly agreed.

“Applejack, I’m soooooo hungry…” the youngest sibling agonized as the growl came from her tummy. “Why couldn’t you grow any apples…?”

“Ah… ah’m sorry, everypony… If I had just done my job better-“ Applejack tried to apologize only to be interrupted.

“I never should’ve returned to Ponyville,” another voice spoke, revealing it to be Grand Pear, who now stood next to the elderly mare. “I would’ve taken my sweet little Pear with me by force had I known her choice would’ve resulted in a failure like you.”

Those words… they cut so deep, she didn’t want to hear that, not from Grand Pear of all ponies. But that wouldn’t be the last one.

Another pair of earth ponies suddenly appeared next to him, their cutie marks resembling oranges.

“You know what dear, I’m glad you decided to leave Manehatten and returned to the farm,” the stallion spoke, only to have the mare join in. “Yeah. If you’re this bad doing something as primitive as farming, I shudder to think what you would’ve done to the Orange reputation.”

And it just wouldn’t stop, more and more members of the other branches of the Apple family began popping up out of nowhere, their criticism piling up. It hurt, every single word hurt so much, she just wanted it to stop.

“Applejack!”

That voice just now… sounded different than the others, it’s very familiar.

“Applejack!”

Another one! She finally turned her gaze and looked to the side. She saw figures coming from over the hill, fast approaching… and she knew them.

“Wha… what are y’all doin’ here? Ya need to leave. There’s no food left here, not for my family, let alone you guys.”

Twilight managed to reach her first. “Applejack, you have to snap out of it! This whole thing is a nightmare!”

“No… no, Twilight you don’t get it,” she replied despondently. “Look around… the trees, the plants… everything is dead. My whole family’s gonna starve, and it’s all my fault!”

The princess lifted the county pony’s hung head. “Applejack, when I say that this is a nightmare, it is a complete and honest truth. You’re a farmer without compare, so I know you would always do your best to make sure your job would never be shirked in any way.” The rest of the Elements joined, as well as the two companions, while she continued. “And I know for the fact that you’re not prideful so any more that you wouldn’t call for us to help you if you were in trouble.”

“But…” she said in a startled tone, “but it looks so real…”

“Only because of Sombra’s doing, darling,” Rarity answered, “he’s the one who’s been generating these awful places we fear most to keep us trapped forever.”

“Yeah, so do us all a favor and get us out of here, I’m starving!” Pinkie Pie urged, leaving an awkward silence afterward.

“Oh, that was a good choice of words right there,” Tempest quipped.

But despite all that, after seeing the barren wasteland, her family being completely drained, doubt still hung around the orange earth pony. “Ah… ah dunno if Ah can do this, y’all…”

Suddenly, a pair of blue hooves grabbed her and shook her for a bit. “AJ, you listen to me and logic me this: what kind of a sorry excuse for a farmer would help their snooty upper-class relatives build a conglomerate in Manehatten???”

Something stirred in Applejack’s memory, she recalled it… some time ago she returned from Manehatten on a business trip, before she got sidetracked by what was happening now. She remembered!

“Ya know what… ye’re right!” she shouted as her memory caught up. “Ah’d never let Ponyville end up in this sorry state if it were under my watch!” As she said that, the world around her shook. “And ya’ll need to shove off!” she yelled at the gathered Apple family, their forms being disrupted as she did. “And…” she turned back to her friends before she finished, “you’re right… Ah’m not too prideful anymore to admit that you girls will always be there when Ah need ya.” She smiled. “Thanks.”

The nightmare shattered, collapsing on itself, the invisible veil dispersing. From its shadowy remnants, the form of horned equine appeared, disappearing, but not before roaring loudly.

Applejack shook her head, feeling completely lost as she realized she was standing in a frozen field surrounded by a ceiling of ice and snow, with frozen houses on the far ends. But before she could speak, somebody beat her to it.

“COLD!” the wonderbolt yelled and shivered, as the chills came over her, now that the heat that the nightmare had generated was gone and she had no winter gear on.

All of the rescuers were in the said predicament, except for the broken unicorn who was keeping up the brave face.

Chapter 31: Attempts Were Made

The nightmare illusion fell off, and the cold temperature in the frozen underground finally got at the mares who stripped down to avoid the heat within it. At the moment’s notice, Pinkie Pie wrapped her puffy mane around herself to form a ball made of pink wool, having Rarity jump, joining her inside, while Rainbow Dash instinctively grabbed on to Zecora, who was standing nearby, and in a state of convenience, she did the same as she was taking it worse than anybody else. Twilight on the other hand immediately stumbled backward and fell over.

SPLASH!

“EEEEEEEK!” Twilight shrieked.

“Twi, you okay?” Applejack asked as she was the only one who was still wearing the winter gear.

The alicorn flailed about in panic, as she’s just fallen in the water and will likely freeze… until she realized the wet feeling wasn’t cold at all. She finally looked down on herself and discovered that this wasn’t even water. It was a strange green glowing substance. She couldn’t have noticed it when they came from the direction of the house, and they seemed to have conveniently crossed a bridge over it while they were inside the veil so they avoided it originally.

“Ah think it’s best if we take shelter in someplace warm,” the country pony suggested.

A growl followed, coming from the ball of pink puff. “And someplace where we can have something to eat! I’m starving, Applejack!”

“I agree with Pinkie,” the fashionista added. “I could use some nourishment…”

A loud snore came up, everybody looked in the direction of the shaman and the wonderbolt, noticing the latter clinging on to the former, asleep. “And perhaps a warmer place, so somepony can sleep with grace,” Zecora said, as she dragged the sleeping pegasus with her in the direction of the house.

“Hey, if it’s got a functioning kitchen at least, there ain’t nothin’ Ah can’t fix up,” Applejack said, following them.

Without saying so much as a word, the pink earth pony dragged herself and the white unicorn after her, followed by the former lieutenant and the alicorn princess. They all got to the point where they entered the nightmare veil and have left all of their things, picking them up one after another as they made their way towards the big house. Tempest, however, heard hoof steps going in the opposite direction, noticing the Princess of Friendship dragging her equipment back where they were moments ago.

“Twilight, what are you doing?”

“Never mind me,” she answered, “I’m just going to check on something. You go with everypony back to the house and make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be back soon.”

The broken unicorn frowned, but after a while, she chose to go with it and followed the rest of the mares towards the house.

Twilight in the meantime made her way to the strange green oozing river that ran through the field. It came out from one end, near the previously mentioned house as it went uphill, and disappeared further down, on the other end of the frozen walls as it went downhill. Something about it rubbed her the wrong way, as memory began to jog, realizing she’s seen it before: once it was a few moments ago, under the bridge of the Monoceria castle, and the second one… She remembered the dark place under the Everfree Forest; a Queen Chrysalis reborn, a haunting twisted tree, beneath, a pool of green bubbling substance… and a Hatred made manifest. Was this the substance from which it came? What was it? She needed to get to the bottom of this.

The Queen of Changelings lay on the chaise, stretched out, her eyes closed, her ears listening to the quiet sound of paper being flipped through. Nothing else but complete silence was present in the room… when all of a sudden it was all disturbed by a loud thud.

For hours, Grogar had stood before a giant wall of runed paper, flipping through the books from the library in search of any possible clues what the correct combination was to unlock the hidden text left by the first queen of the Crystal Empire. But alas there was nothing that seemed to stand out, and in his frustration, he finally dropped the last book to the ground with a loud thud.

The Changeling Queen awoke from her sleepless state and sauntered over to him. “Let me guess: it was a bust?”

“Useless,” the grizzled ram fumed. “I checked all the pages from the books, tried any possible combinations, and yet still nothing worked.”

She chuckled. “It seems Princess Amore was simply too cunning for you.”

“No,” he deflected, “it should be possible. This code should be easy to break. I’m familiar with the design so I should be able to make it out.”

“How exactly do you know what these runes are? You never told me.”

“That doesn’t matter, Queen of Changelings,” he deflected her question. “This is the only obstacle in our success now, and we cannot allow it to get the better of us.”

“You mean, get the better of you, Grogar. One would think that, with the amount of boasting you’ve been making about this, a child would be able to succeed,” she made a snide remark.

The old sheep sorcerer did not appreciate that, but then a thought came into his mind, something he had not considered. “Hmmm… perhaps I’ve been overthinking the whole thing.” He trailed his hoof across the runed paper. “Maybe the combination isn’t as complicated as it seems. Queen of Changelings, how old would you assume the first princess was when she created her artifact?”

“Beats me,” she shrugged, “I was around before the empire first came into existence, so it’s likely she wasn’t ancient like Celestia and Luna.”

“Exactly. We’re not looking for some complicated wordplay. We’re looking for something simple and naïve… something a child could come up with. Let’s see then…”

The grizzled ram began pressing various pages. Each time he touched one, it lit up in bright light, yet after pressing a few more, the light faded away. He grumbled and pressed a few more, and the outcome repeated itself. Chrysalis stood by and watched in confusion, unsure what exactly he going for; she herself couldn’t make heads or tails of what the runes he was pressing meant.

PUNG!

A sudden ringing sound erupted after several attempts were made, and the final page was touched. The levitating pages all began to glow, quickly flew together in a stack, and then exploded all over the room. They began to spin around, slowly catching up with one another, assembling into a single form.

“It… it worked?” the Broodmother looked in surprise. “What did you do? What was the code?”

The old ram gave her a look and smiled. “Love Conquers All.”

Chrysalis wasn’t sure if he was genuinely smiling from success, or was he just grinning to suppress the cringe from having to say those words. The pages finally fully assembled and eventually stopped glowing, their movement grinding to a halt as they stopped back in front of the old ram. The huge piece of paper that formed was covered in runes, ones that the Queen of Changelings still couldn’t decipher, yet one thing did stand out was a large drawing, depicting statues, a set of four equine faces, each holding a pair of iron poles joined into a bridle at the statue’s mouths, and they extended towards a strange giant iron lid on the ground that they seemed to be keeping it shut.

“Aaaaah, there it is… the hidden scripture of the founding of the Crystal Empire,” Grogar mused.

“Hidden?” she tilted her head. “Why would the founding be hidden in the first place?”

“Well, we’re about to find out. Let’s see then…” The grizzled ram’s gaze flew across the runes printed on the giant piece of paper. “After the three tribes established Equestria, the remaining survivors continued to pour from their homelands in the north that have been devastated by the effects of windigos. And so, on the border of the two lands, a small settlement was built to assist survivors in their exodus. After all the refugees had left, many decided to remain in what had basically become their home. Time passed, and the settlement would grow into a town, prospering. But then one day, a bad omen appeared; a bright purple light flew across the sky, trailing from the south and disappearing into the far reaches of the Frozen North. Then, darkness began to roll in, the sky was covered in thick blackness accompanied by harsh snowstorms, and with them came the umbrum, the shadow ponies, creatures of darkness, bringers of fear and horror, and they began to terrorize the town. The residents would live in constant terror for some time until a resident pony, one called Amore, stepped forth, determined to save her home. Somehow, she had managed to acquire a strange magical artifact of great power and used it to open a doorway into another realm, one beyond their own, one which she would enter by herself. By the time she returned, the artifact lost what power it had and crumbled, but in turn, she had in her possession an artifact she had created herself: a big heart carved from a teal crystal, which she conveniently called the Crystal Heart, a weapon with which the umbrum would be stopped. But when the time came, the Heart alone didn’t have enough power to turn the tide against the living embodiments of fear, and in her desperate moment, Amore called upon the residents of her town to assist her, to offer the Heart their love, for their home, their family, and the rest of pony kind. Moved by her words, the residents offered all they could to the artifact, overcharging it. Fully powered now, the Heart emitted a powerful magical wave that pacified the umbrum, reducing them to shadows of their former selves. But something else occurred as well; the residence of the town had been changed, their fur and mane have been imbued by the magical essence, transforming them into ponies of pure radiant crystal. As for Amore… she too had changed, beyond recognition; the artifact she had made in another realm, empowered by the love of her people, made her transcend what she once was, she had become a living embodiment of the Crystal Heart's essence. As for the creatures of shadows, though the artifact had crippled them, a more permanent solution was needed, so in the center of the town, these “crystal ponies” dug out a deep pit, at the bottom of which they built a sealing container, where the umbrum would remain locked away. As for the prison itself, it was covered up and a massive structure was built on top of it, and it would be in the heart of this castle, under the throne room, that the only portal to the deep prison could be reached, accessible ONLY to the descendants of Amore’s line.”

“Well…” Chrysalis finally spoke as her compatriot stopped reading. “I fear we may have hit a snag again. We know now where the prison is and how to reach it, but how are we even supposed to get there?”

The old ram sighed. “You’re making it sound more difficult than it is, Queen of Changelings.”

A twisting cracking sound followed as the Changeling Queen turned her head in an unnatural way in his direction. “Am I? You said it yourself that the portal to prison can only be accessed by one of Princess Amore’s descendants.”

“Correct…” he answered calmly. “And we have one at disposal. I mean, I’m assuming that the princess in the castle is related to the first one.”

“Yes, but prey tell how are you going to convince Princess Cadence to unlock it for us?”

“I won’t,” he said bluntly before finally giving her a glance, “you’ll be distracting her.”

“Distracting her?! How will that help us?!” she yelled.

“It’s going to keep her distracted from what will be happening inside the palace, Queen of Changelings,” Grogar said as he folded the giant enchanted piece of paper and put it away. “After all, the scripture said A descendant can open the way, it doesn’t have to be a specific one.”

Chrysalis thought for a moment, and it finally clicked for her. “Ooooooooh… I see. Well, you seem to be doing well on that front, so I’ll give you that. But I’m concerned about the whole “distraction” thing. I’ve gone through this twice in a row already. I’m having a hard time believing they’re going to fall for it the third time.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised how quickly people flare up after sleep deprivation,” he said.

“Point taken. When do we start?” she asked.

The old ram traipsed over to the window cover and looked outside. “Hmmm… the dawn’s about to come, and the state in which the pursuers will be returning… I’d suggest NOW is about the right time to get to work.”

“Wait, now? As in RIGHT NOW?! That’s not going to be enough time to-!”

He closed the curtain, interrupting her. “I can only assist you so much, Queen of Changelings. The rest…. You’ll have to figure something out.”

“But what if despite all that the princess doesn’t get coaxed out of the castle?”

“Then be bolder in your approach,” the grizzled ram told her. “Time is of the essence, who knows when that rug rat will finally turn up, and we must be prepared for his return. I can only provide you with the necessary access, but the rest of the brunt is on you alone. If the princess will not take the bait, then offer taunts, threats, anything that will MAKE HER come after you. Put that hatred of yours to some use.”

“Fine…” she groaned.

The sun slowly began to rise over the horizon, the early sparks of light illuminating the land. As the morning birds of the empire began to awake and go about their businesses, they saw a large flock flying in from the south. The pegasi, led by their illustrious Princess of Love, returned to the city after being up all night, patrolling the skies above the patch of forest where the changelings had fled to, while the unicorns and earth crystal ponies combed through their hideout. But alas, just as it happened with the day before, they came back emptyhanded; the changelings and their queen had once again disappeared without a trace.

Princess Cadence yawned. Being thrown out of bed, and then having to lead a search party in the middle of the night and all the way to dawn wasn’t how she wanted to start her day. She was exhausted, with no idea how’s she going to pull through the regular working day in her current state.

She, along with her company, landed on the border checkpoint to meet the stationed guards, the one leading stepping before her. “Though the light shines brightest before the dawn…”

“… it can’t compare to the one within our hearts,” she slowly answered.

“Welcome back, Your Majesty,” the guard bowed, stepping aside.

Cadence walked past, leading the rest of the exhausted units through in a procession.

“Your Majesty,” her guard’s captain tried to grab her attention as they approached the castle, “should we resume with the regular routine?”

“Yes… switch the guards, sort out the new password, and…” She yawned. “… report back to me in about… three hours.”

“Three hours? Your Majesty, what about the morning inspection and reports?”

“Just…” She yawned again. “We’ll handle it later. I have some prior engagement to deal with first.”

Flash Sentry already knew what this “prior engagement” was, he honestly couldn’t blame her. Most of the men that were with him were hardly in any better position, and they were the nightly exchange.

“I’ll report back to you later then, Your Majesty,” the captain of the guard answered as they approached the castle’s main entrance.

Without saying much else, the Crystal Princess nodded, as the guards opened the main door to let her in, and closed it behind her.

What an arduous night this was, and she had no results to show for all the exertion she had to deal with. If she could, she would just drop to the ground right now and have a nice snooze on the cold crystal floor, as her sight was starting to become wobbly, heck, the guards would’ve probably carried her back to her bed. But she couldn’t, there was another matter she had to deal with first. As she walked down the castle’s numerous hallways, she eventually stopped at the door leading to her little filly’s room. She gently juggled the door handle, slowly opening the door and taking a peek inside. The sunlight was still dim, despite the sun slowly rising, yet she could still see a small bump in the bed rising every now and then. The mother flew to the side of her bed so her horseshoes wouldn’t make so much racket. The sweet little pile of curly hair was all snuggled up in her bed, softly snoring. The mother smiled, and gave Flurry Heart a gentle kiss on her head, before once again flying to the door, and then slowly closing them behind.

Cadence once again slowly walked down the hallway, this time encountering several of the royal guards that were patrolling the castle at night, and much to her delight, they reported nothing out of the ordinary happening, taking another burden off her mind. She opened the doors to her bedroom wide and sauntered over to the big, inviting pile of softness that was just screaming for an embrace. She stopped at the foot of her bed, waited for a few moments, and then promptly fell face first on it. She nuzzled the warm, soft fabric, slowly beginning to feel the stress leave her, the consciousness slowly beginning to drift away; she would finally be able to sleep.

The sounds of horseshoes echoed through the castle’s hallways, growing louder, before the doors suddenly burst open, a too familiar captain making a whole lot of racket. “You’re Majesty! They’re back!”

A small groan escaped her in her half-asleep state. “Who’s back…?”

“The Queen of Changelings and her army, Your Majesty! They’re attacking again!”

Her eyes shot open. She probably hadn’t laid down for more than five minutes, and now all of a sudden, the changelings have returned, after they spent all night looking for them?!

With great resistance she rose for her comfort zone and went back on her hooves, Flash Sentry noticing the sorry state she was in. “Your Majesty, if you’re in no condition to deal with this, please don’t burden yourself. The rest of the guards and I can-“

“No, Flash,” she cut him off, “I have to be present. It’s clear at this point that the changelings aren’t gonna stop coming until Chrysalis is dealt with.” She turned and walked forward only to end up hitting her face against the open door, the blunt pain waking her up. “Let’s go,” she said as she sauntered through the doorway, pretending as if nothing had just happened, her guard’s captain following her with a concerned look.

A familiar sight was in view: the changeling swarm flew on the border of the Crystal Empire, the special armored soldiers hovering at the front of the host, protecting it from the shots fired by the unicorns below, and in the heart of the swarm, the changeling queen lounged on top of a small group, waiting, yet this time it was different. An amount of uncertainty lurked at the back of her mind as things were moving fast, too fast for her taste, she wasn’t even able to make proper preparation for the occasion. But she had to have faith that her actions would buy the old ram enough time to achieve what he had to.

“SOUP’S ON, EVERYPONY!” the country pony’s voice rang.

Surprisingly, the big house had a serviceable kitchen, despite it looking ancient in comparison. It took a little while to get it cleaned up, but Applejack immediately went to work on fixing something warm to eat. After some time, she finally came out of the kitchen and into the big open room in the middle of the structure where the rest of the gang had huddled up, all dressed up again, carrying a cauldron with vegetable soup. She picked up a ladle, and almost instantly Pinkie Pie jumped to the front holding a bowl in her hooves anxiously waiting for the first portion. The orange mare poured it in, and quickly as it came, the party planner went on to chug it down, only for her to realize that it was hot, causing her to cry out in a scorching fire.

“Wha- who- whe…” Rainbow Dash finally woke up from the noise, spotting the pink pony holding her burnt tongue.

“Ya may wanna slow down a bit, suga’ cube,” Applejack suggested. “Okay everypony, gather ‘round!”

The rest of the mares joined, having a well-deserved break, after everything they’ve been through, allowing them to get the country pony up to date on what’s happened. And of course, it didn’t take long for the wonderbolt to once again snooze off, her muzzle still stuck in a half unfinished soup bowl, blowing up bubbles.

“Well, somepony’s been having it tough lately,” Applejack said, then her gaze slowly drifting to fashionista’s side. “Although Ah guess somepony’s been having it harder than others…”

A glare escaped her when she realized what the earth pony was insinuating. “You’re as tactful as ever, Applejack.”

“Hey, somepony had to be honest about it.”

“As if others before you weren’t!” the unicorn snapped at her.

“Sorry…” she apologized. “But that begs the question where do we go from here? We’ve yet to find Fluttershy, Spike, and Discord. I mean do we even know what this place is?”

The loud slobbering sound stopped as Pinkie Pie pulled her face out of her bowl. “I dunno. I mean, apart from Chancellor Puddinghead’s frame and all of the others before her on the wall, there’s really not much to go on.

The slobbering sound resumed, only to be stopped by the county pony’s sudden realization about what was just said. “Wait… Pinkie, what did you just say?!”

“I dunno?”

“No, I mean after that! The Pudding frame thing!”

“Chancellor Puddinghead? I said his frame is hanging on the wall over there,” she said, pointing to the wall on the other end of the house.

Everybody’s heads turned in the direction and spotted frames hanging on the wall in a long line, and Applejack got up and got close to inspect it. The pictures in the frames looked faded, almost blank to indiscernible details, yet the last one was still intact, and there was no mistaking it who was in it: a slender elder stallion with an overbite, a hat that roughly resembled a dish with a glop in it, and a large ruff around his neck.

“Sweet mother Applesauce… it is Puddinghead,” she confirmed.

“Applejack, isn’t that another of the founders of Equestria?” Rarity asked.

“All of you seem to know a lot about these “founders”,” the broken unicorn finally spoke.

Other mares gave her a confused look. “Tempest, you’ve never heard about the story about the founding of Equestria?”

“I’ve been away for as long as I can remember… either that or I’ve forgotten most of the things I knew as a filly,” she explained.

“That’s silly! Every filly and colt knows the story about Heart’s Warming Eve!” The party planner popped up from behind her. “A long, long time ago, there were three pony tribes,” she started telling the story as leaped onto the balcony, where a purple banner with a unicorn’s head, surrounded by diamonds hung, “the unicorns,” she then ran to the balcony next to it, where the banner displaying the sun, the hills, the fields, and flowers hung, “the earth ponies,” she finally zoomed over to the third hanging banner blue banner, which displayed a winged horse’s head surrounded by stars, “and the pegasi! But they lived in hatred for one another, and then one day a huge snowstorm came out of nowhere and devastated the whole land. They decided to assemble to discuss how to handle it, yet after they had a meeting in a city hall, much like this one, they couldn’t agree on anything, and they all went their separate ways and traveled south where they… Girls, are you even listening to me?”

They weren’t. With the party planner jumping all over the place and pointing things out, it made them observe the surroundings more clearly.

The country pony’s gaze went to the wonderbolt who was still asleep, tapping her hoof on top of her head, waking her up. “Dash, can you please stay awake for just five minutes?”

“Why?” the pegasus groaned.

“Not that you’ve been paying attention, but does that banner look familiar to you?” she said, turning the blue pony’s head in the direction of the balcony where the tattered blue banner hung.

At first, Rainbow Dash squinted, her eyes still being foggy, but once they cleared, they shot open, and she instinctively jumped to fly up for closer inspection, only to land flat on her belly. “Ugh… Of course, that’s the one thing I’d forget…”

A pink string dropped down to her eye level. She reached for it and got instantly pulled up by Pinkie’s flexible mane, only to hit the ceiling before falling flat on top of the balcony.

“Sorry…” the pink pony awkwardly smiled, with the pagasus only giving a groaning response.

The latter pulled the tattered banner in for closer inspection, and after looking at it for a while it finally dawned on to her. “This… this banner looks like the banner of… errr, the name is on the tip of my tongue… Ptolemya, I think?”

“And that unicorn one definitely belongs to Monoceria”, Rarity confirmed.

“And Chancellor Puddinghead’s portrait is here…” Pinkie added. “But what does it all mean?”

Applejack stood silent, looking about, her mouth agape. “No way… THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE ALL THE TRIBES GATHERED?!” Applejack erupted. “In this city hall?! Then that means this place… Soiliana?”

Just like back in the castle, this was another piece of ancient history that seemed to have been lost to time, causing them to absorb the atmosphere of the discovery.

“SOILiana. Really?” Tempest quipped. “The ancient earth ponies were really bad at naming places, apparently.”

“Pfff, that’s nothing,” Pinkie said. “Chancellor Puddinghead wanted to originally name Equestrian lands Dirtville.“

“… I rest my case.”

“But, this can’t be right.” Applejack still couldn’t believe it. “There’s a whole lotta question that’s come with this. Surely there’s got to be an explanation why things are set as they are, right?”

“That’s all in the jurisdiction of “her highness”,” Tempest answered. “She’s the one carrying the only book that seems to indicate where we’re going, and she’s still out in the yard.”

The door swung open, the sudden chill flowing in, garnering everybody’s attention. The purple unicorn entered, carrying all her things, not even wearing her winter gear.

“You guys!” she yelled. “You’re not gonna believe this, but this place, I know what it is! It’s Soilania!”

“We know!” they all collectively said.

“Y… you know already?” she was confused. “How?”

“You can thank Pinkie Pie for that,” Applejack answered, causing the party planner to grin. “But how did you figure that out, Twilight?”

“I’ve been digging through the information. I’ve come to several conclusions that I didn’t expect. I swear this is-“

A loud thud followed as Rainbow Dash jumped off the balcony and landed next to the princess, interrupting her, while receiving a look from the pegasus. “Twi, have you been out there this whole time?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“All by yourself?” country pony asked.

“Yes?”

“Without wearing something warm and nice while under snow and ice??” Zecora finally offered a question.

An awkward silence followed, Twilight’s eyes zooming from side to side as every mare seemed to be staring at her. “What makes you say that?”

“Because darling, you look like you just used a whole can of manespray,” the fashionista gave an answer.

Twilight’s mane was standing straight, solid from the cold outside. The wonderbolt didn’t do much, other than to flick a small cluster of strands that were sticking out from her friend’s side and they snapped off with a sound, causing her to twitch.

“Well…” she smiled awkwardly, “maybe I got too dragged into the moment and I tunnel-visioned for a bit…”

A large warm blanket suddenly got wrapped around her and dragged in by the orange earth pony. “Ya ain’t going anywhere or sayin’ another thing until yer all warmed up, suga' cube. Yer not getting a cold even if we have a professional curer with us.”

Sitting in the middle of the town hall, wrapped up in a warm blanket and drinking warm vegetable soup, Twilight managed to get some reprieve from the potential case of frost as a result of her carelessness.

“Better?” the country pony asked.

“Yes, thanks everypony,” she answered.

“Now out with it, how did you know that this was the earth pony's original homeland?” Rainbow Dash set up the question.

The alicorn put her soup bowl down. “I decided to take another look at the book from Radiant Hope, hoping to shed some light on the situation.” She pulled out the blank book from her bag, opening it to begin reading. “This is how I managed to find it.”

I retreated back into the farmhouse, it’s so cold down here beneath ice and snow, and I must conserve as much energy as possible, otherwise, I don’t think I’ll survive long with the number of supplies I’ve got with me. I’ve managed to clear up the mess that lay about and conjured some lights, allowing me to explore the house in detail. This indeed used to be a farming community a long time ago, but upon further inspection, I came to an unexpected discovery. Banners were hanging on the balcony above the great open room where the collapsed table stood before. One of them looked like the banner that I found in the castle before, which I assumed that belonged to Monoceria, but I’m unfamiliar with the other two; stars and a winged pony head, and four-part framed depicting land, who did these belong to?

I searched further and came across a line of pictures that hung on one of the walls. Most of them were slightly faded, however, the plaque beneath them suggested that these were ponies holding the chancellor positions in the past, and strangely enough, they were all earth ponies. Yet it was only when I came to the end of the line, to the picture of the last chancellor that I’m finally beginning to understand what this place is. “Puddinghead”. That’s what the stallion’s name was. I recall the talk during the history class, how the leader of earth ponies at the time led an exodus south to establish Equestria along with the other two tribes, which would confirm that this place, where they originally used to live was actually Soiliana. There is this unsettling feeling at the back of my mind now; back at the castle, revealing that it was Monoceria, I would’ve called it a coincidence, but with this, it can’t be anymore. Sombra’s Mother, she sent me here for a purpose, to see this, but what for? I couldn’t find anything of substance, either in this house or in the field outside, where all I found was a green enchanted stream that doesn’t seem to freeze. There is only one route I can take now and it’s back out again, and now that I’ve acquired all the information, I’m beginning to suspect what will follow next. The Home of unicorns and earth ponies have been revealed to me, and if this has anything to do with the founders of Equestria, that means that the only possible next place I will find is Ptolemeya, the home of the pegasi.

“So, it’s all true then. Radiant Hope came to the same conclusion the rest of us did,” Rarity said, as Twilight closed the book.

“So, lemme get this straight,” the broken unicorn complained, “you stayed outside to read the book? Why didn’t you just come inside with us instead of going through that?”

“Because, Tempest, there was another reason I decided to stay outside,” the princess answered, before reaching into her bags and pulling out several vials filled with green liquid.

“Twi, what’s that?” Applejack wondered.

“Remember that “green enchanted stream” that the book mentioned? This is it.”

The party planner popped her head forward to look it up closely. “But why would you want to collect some stinky old green water?”

“Do you all remember when we were in the underground cavern in the Everfree Forest?” she asked.

“Sure we do, darling,” Rarity spoke. “We dropped everything after Spike told us what happened and we went to rescue you.”

“But none of you saw the full picture. I was in there some time before you arrived,” the alicorn proceeded to explain. “I saw everything while I was fighting Chrysalis. The giant foreboding tree we now know to be the empty husk of Turmoil, its roots were burrowed into a giant pool of green magical substance, the changeling eggs were also dipped in it. But most of all, the Manifestation of Hatred rose from it, and it beat us with ease.”

Rainbow Dash shuddered. “How could we forget…”

“And yet for some reason, it didn’t chase after us. It could’ve destroyed us all, yet Chrysalis sent her newborn changelings after us.”

“What exactly are you getting at, Twilight?” questioned Applejack.

“This may be just a theory, but we know that Turmoil’s aspects were locked away in jewels after he was defeated and scattered about, right?” she further elaborated. “We know now that Hatred was trapped inside the gemstone which served as a base of the Alicorn Amulet, but what if the gem itself wasn’t destroyed in the process?”

The mares looked at each other. “I’m not sure I follow…” the pegasus said.

“What if the gem in which Hatred was locked still exist, and was only able to assume the dark, towering, ghastly form because something is enabling it, giving it power?”

“Soooo… you’re assuming this is the same magical water, is that what you’re saying?” Tempest wondered. “How can you be so sure about it?”

“Because this isn’t the only other place I found it,” Twilight said. “Before we departed the castle where Princess Platinum used to live, I caught a glimpse of it, running under the castle’s bridge. And there’s a considerable distance between these two locations as is, so who’s to say it doesn’t reach further?”

“Twi, can you confirm any of this?” the country pony asked.

“There may be a way but… I’m not sure what are the consequences of our action going to be.” The princess turned her head to the shaman. “Zecora, please give me the jar.”

For a moment the was unease in the air. The zebra knew all too well that trying to tempt with the piece of the sinister manifestation was a bad idea, but she too wanted to understand whether or not that theory was true. She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the jar containing the black mass, which had been strangely quiet since she and the wonderbolt had an unexpected encounter.

The princess pulled the jar to her side and was about to open it, only for the orange earth pony to stop her. “Wait Twi! You know this sounds like a really bad idea, right?”

“You’re absolutely right, Applejack, but there’s no other way to tell otherwise, and we desperately need any possible options on how we can stop Turmoil’s aspects from coming together if the worst comes to pass. At the very least we have an isolated sample we can try it out on.”

“Shouldn’t we take some additional measures in case things go south?” the fashionista questioned.

“Ah agree,” Applejack said as she ran to the side in one of the rooms, and after some time passed, with the clanging sounds coming out, she finally came back, carrying a pot with a lid on it, putting it down in front of Twilight. “If that jar breaks or something, drop it all in and bolt down the lid on it.”

A crude percussion, but the only one that could possibly work, all things considered. Twilight lifted the jar and slowly opened it, fearing that the aberration might come to life all of a sudden and leap out. It didn’t happen, the ooze remained completely motionless. She then opened one of the vials containing the green glowing liquid and slowly poured it inside. Nothing happened at first, but after a few moments, the ooze and the liquid inside began to twist and turn, more specifically conjugate, and the spark of light inside began to glow as well. Suddenly the blob began to bubble up, and at that precise moment, Twilight quickly shut the lid on the jar to prevent it from escaping. They all watched then as the blob began to rise, maw formed once more, but this time it also formed a pair of eyes.

It looked at the group surrounding it, everybody expecting to give the shrilling cry, but instead, a single sound came out of it.

“Merw?”

Chapter 32: In the Shadow of the Empire

“Did it just… meow?” Applejack tilted her head.

“I think it sounded more like a door creaking open,” Rainbow Dash added.

Something had happened. The vial of strange green fluid that Twilight had mixed into the jar with the dark manifestation seemed to have revitalized and woke it up from its stillness.

Twilight stared at the contents of the jar for a moment before she finally reacted. “So my theory was right after all… This is the same substance from which the Manifestation of Hatred emerged.”

“While I agree with your assessment, darling, something’s clearly different about our case,” Rarity countered.

Pinkie Pie quickly pulled the jar to her side and observed it up close, rubbing her chin. “Hmmmmm… There’s something different about it, alright. Grumpy seems less… grumpy than usual.”

Zecora leaned in, taking a peek at the glass. “I suspect it stemmed from what it strained from Radiant Hope remained.”

“Yeah, but back then all it did was just change color and went quiet,” Rainbow Dash butted in.

“Maybe it was just thirsty?” the pink pony questioned.

“We can’t say for sure,” Twilight continued. “What is sure, however, considering that we may be on a higher elevation than Turmoil’s lair in the Everfree Forest, it’s a likely possibility that the stream came from here. This is the source that is assisting him.”

“And why would that be the case?” the voice garnered everybody’s attention, as Tempest finally spoke. “What exactly is Turmoil? What would some mysterious green liquid that seems to have originated in a far north have to do with a creature that’s apparently somewhere further down south?”

There was no response. Nobody had any idea what relation there was between the two. And what the Storm King’s former lieutenant said only brought up more unanswered questions.

“Sooooo… What do we call it now?” the party planner eventually broke the tension in the air.

Rainbow-maned pony gave her a confused look. “What do we call what?”

“Grumpy, who else. We can’t call it Grumpy anymore when it’s acting like a scaredy-cat.”

“Pinkie, I think we have more pressing matters to deal with than to ponder to what we should rename a bottled-up concentrated evil,” Rarity said.

“Ah agree.” Applejack turned her head to the princess. “Maybe that book can lend some more answers, Twi? Why don’t ya look up what the rest says?”

She heeded her. The alicorn picked up the book again and opened it where she left off.

After returning to the crossroads, I immediately took the passage to my left and made my way through the tunnel, until I reached a dead end. Strangely though, the wall of ice that was blocking the way wasn’t that thick, and after chipping it away it collapsed, opening a way in. And when I entered, lighting up the area a bit, I understood why. Before me I beheld a giant frozen acropolis, rising atop a pile of iced up clouds. This was undoubtedly Ptolemeya, the ancient homeland of the pegasi. It seemed to have crashed down from the sky, and whatever magic the pegasi were using to construct their architecture, spilled all over, causing the whole place to be enveloped in a protective bubble that froze up everything. My advancement through could only be described as icy. Everything around was frozen solid and I managed to avoid several falls, one of them nearly had me take a dip in a glowing magical stream that I happened to recall also seeing in Soiliana earlier. When I finally began exploring the city, I was surprised at how perfectly preserved everything looked. But what puzzled me was how did it come to this? Clouds do not just fall from the sky, which could only mean that the city plummeted BECAUSE it was frozen. But why did that happen? What kind of powerful magic could’ve done such a thing?”

“There it is again,” the princess pointed out. “Radiant Hope mentioned the stream again just as she did in the entry before. This isn’t a coincidence.”

“Ye, but it doesn’t get us any closer to the answers,” Tempest said.

“True, which is why we’ll have to go to that place and take in a closer look,” the princess declared. “Besides, we’ll have to find Fluttershy there, and she’s in the worst position out of all of us. Who knows what nightmares and fears King Sombra’s going drag out of her, and… well, you know how meek she is.”

“THAT’S IT!” Pinkie Pie’s voice resonated throughout the house.

“What’s what Pinkie?” Twilight’s asked.

“Meek! That’s what I’ll call our little friend!” She pressed her face against the glass, causing the bubbling mass inside to cower on the far end of it. “Isn’t that wight, Meeky?”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway…” the country pony decided to change the subject. “What makes you think Fluttershy isn’t here, Twilight?”

“Think about it, Applejack,” she elaborated. “There’s a pattern here: Myself, Tempest, and Rarity were trapped in the place where unicorns once were. Both you and Pinkie Pie were trapped here, where earth ponies once used to live. Which can only mean that the only place Fluttershy can be, is where the pegasi came from.” She glanced at the only two mares who stood out. “And the only reason why both Zecora and Rainbow Dash were spared, was because they were slow enough that they didn’t get captured by Sombra like the rest of us.”

“What about Discord and Spikey-wikey?” Rarity asked

“I don’t know… But I guess we’ll find them eventually.”

A long yawn came from the blue pegasus. “Can we… like, take a break for a bit?”

The country pony gave her a mean look. “A break? Our friends are in danger, and you’re talking about a break, Dash?!”

“I’m not sure about you guys, but had any of you wondered how long has it been since we left the Crystal Empire?” she questioned.

The mares exchanged glances. “Now that you mention it…” the fashionista complained. “I do feel a bit fatigued. How many hours has it been?”

The pegasus yawned again. “Look, I’m not saying we should just go to sleep for a few hours. I mean we should for just enough for us to recuperate a bit.”

“Anypony else in favor of taking a break? Raise your hoof,” Twilight asked, raising a hoof herself, and soon enough pretty much everybody did the same. “Okay,” she sighed, “carried unanimously.”

Cadence flew across the sky from the palace to the southern border. Exhaustion was bearing down on her after the long night, but right now it wasn’t the time for relaxation, she had to face the Changeling Queen again. By the time she arrived at the southern end of the city she already saw the situation; just like before, the changeling swarm flew above the border guards, who were unable to do anything against them, despite the unicorns shooting spells at them. Something was different though, as, unlike the previous two times, at the sight of the reinforcements, the swarm retreated, but not this time, however. They continued the fly above, not showing any signs of evasion. The princess got concerned, and in her alertness, she cast a spell. A large blue wall began to spread across all over the empire until it was completely enveloped by it. A larger barrier now stood between them and the invaders. She finally landed at the border post, with the guards saluting her.

“Your Majesty, thank you for coming, but you really shouldn’t be out here after you’ve been up all night,” one of the officers spoke.

“Never mind about me,” she deflected. “What about the changelings? Have they done anything yet?”

“No, Your Majesty. They’ve been waiting about, just like the last two times.”

“But they’re not retreating this time,” Cadence pointed out, before raising her head at the swarm above. “Chrysalis! I know you’re up there, reveal yourself!”

Some time passed before a familiar voice came out of the mass of swarming bug creatures. “If you want to speak, you better come up here. I’m not lowering myself to your level.”

The princess groaned. She’s purposely trying to make her work, but it’s not like she had a choice in the matter. She flew up, the guard’s captain and several pegasi following her. Finally reaching the swarm's elevation, noticing a group of changelings clad in strange rock armor flying in front of the rest of the brood; these were the ones that had been blocking off any forms of spells from harming them. She chose to wait and soon enough, the armored ones began moving to the side, in fact, the whole swarm was splitting in half, making way for a group that was stacked together to form a place to lounge, and on top of it, rested their illustrious broodmother.

As soon as she saw her, she made an expression full of confusion, something the changeling picked up on. “Why are you making that face, Cadence?”

“Wha… what’s happened to you, Chrysalis?” she confessed. “You look completely different than I recall.”

She smiled, flicking the strands of her elegant hair. “Oh, you’ve noticed? Remarkable what wonders a little essence of Hate does for your complexion. You should try it… considering your circumstances.”

“No thank you,” she glared since her opponent knew she hasn’t had a shut-eye. “What are you playing at, Chrysalis? You’ve been sending your swarm back and forth, twice in a row, every time the guards come running. So why aren’t you running away this time?”

The Changeling Queen didn’t answer the question, instead, looking past her adversary for a moment. “Your sweet little sister-in-law isn’t here, is she?”

“Don’t play dumb, Chrysalis. Twilight told me everything about what you and Grogar are doing. She assumed you weren’t here, but even if you are, as we speak, she and her friends are out there trying to thwart your plan.”

“Well, that was to be expected. But that’s not of a concern I have to deal with when somebody else is already working on that, and your little in-law will have to deal with him.”

“Wait… Grogar’s out there in the Frozen North looking for a piece of Turmoil?” a tone of concern came up in Cadence’s voice.

The queen was quiet for a moment, her expression passive, and then it curled into a smile and cackled. “Oh, did she tell you what he did? Taking away Discord’s power…” She rose from her “lounging chair” and flew to the barrier. “Oh, how satisfying it felt… watching that pathetic collection of assorted parts beg and grovel like a helpless little brat. Then you already know what they’re up against, Princess of Love. They’ll be outmatched against Grogar, even if they have the power to neutralize chaos magic, that old ram is crafty.” She began flying back and forth along the barrier, with Cadence continuously glaring at her. “And in the end, if by some miracle they manage to one-up him, they will return to discover…”

“What? What will they discover when they return?” the princess asked in anticipation.

The Queen of Changelings stopped pacing, her head turning ever so slightly until the corner of her eye could be seen before she zoomed to where Cadence was flying and aggressively pressed against the barrier. “They’ll discover that the Crystal Empire has fallen! Its citizens brought low! Its princess usurped, replaced by a queen! Every last living creature in the city will be devoured!” She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, pressing it against the barrier and licking it in a frenzy, causing Cadence to cringe in disgust. “Everypony will be drained of every little inch of love they have in their body. And… do you want to know what I wonder? Come closer, princess.” She motioned her, and the alicorn slowly flew closer, until she was by the side of the barrier, yet the broodmother motioned her further, until she nearly pressed her head against it, at which point the changeling queen approached her in a whispering fashion. “I wonder… what your brat will taste like.”

That was the trigger. The moment that sentence was spoken, Cadence, in a moment of anger, subconsciously dispelled her shield that was covering the whole of Crystal Empire, and instantly shot a bolt at the gloater, sending her flying back and disappearing into the swarm.

“Your Majesty!” Flash Sentry called out.

She finally got out of her trance, realizing too late what she has just done, as maniacal laughter came out of the mass of changelings, as they slowly parted, their queen coming in sight again.

“Struck a nerve, have I? GOOD!”

And with those words, Chrysalis’ horn began to glow and shot a green bolt at the princess, who luckily managed to block it. Unfortunately, she was in a predicament now; it took some time to erect the shield and there was no way the Queen and her changelings would just sit idly by while she did it. No. At this point, there was only one viable option left.

“Pegasi guards! Charge!” she yelled, and the pegasi immediately flew forth at the swarm, crashing against. “Unicorn guards! Focus fire on the Queen of Changelings!” she ordered, and the unicorns below fired their spells at the swarm, aiming directly at their queen.

Just then, the armored changelings swooped in and put themselves in the attacker’s way, causing the spells to dissipate, before spreading about to surround and protect their broodmother. As the battle raged, the thought came up in Cadence’s mind. Something was off, what exactly was Chrysalis up to? It seemed as if she was specifically waiting for her to turn up this time, but she couldn’t figure out why. Why did the previous two times simply flee? What has changed? Only then did it come to her mind. What she said earlier triggered her immediate response… She turned her head and looked at the castle in the back. That’s what she was aiming for!

“Flash!” she called out.

The Captain of the Guard who was directing the pegasi quickly rushed to her side. “Your Majesty?”

“Gather a group of guards and send them back to the castle! Have them bar up every opening they see and under no circumstances are they to allow anypony from either entering or exiting until I return! Is that clear?!”

Flash Sentry noticed a tone of frustration and desperation in her voice, likely for being up all night added to her state. Regardless, he saluted and quickly flew down.

“Hey, Princess!” the familiar resonating voice spoke. “I think you have a bigger problem to deal with right now!”

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

There was this incessant banging all-around all of a sudden, causing Flurry Heart to awake from her slumber. After the last night’s events, the words that her visitor left lingered for some time, preventing her from falling asleep out of fear. Inevitably, however, her determination dissipated and she snoozed off. And now the loud sounds all around her snapped her awake. She rubbed her eyes and looked about, noticing the window of her room being shut off.

“Mama!” she called. “Somepony shut my window!”

But no response came. She jumped out of her bed and trotted out the door to her room.

“Mama!”

And again, there was no response, the whole place was surprisingly quiet. As she walked down the hallways, they were all illuminated by magic, however, she quickly noticed that all the windows on the way were barred off as well. Lastly, she came to the castle’s main gate, yet as she tried to open them, they were locked shut. She couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Mama!”

She ran throughout the castle, calling for her, yet there was still no response, she checked all the rooms along the way, yet nothing. The whole place seemed to be deserted.

“MAMA!”

“I fear your mother is currently busy.”

She stopped. She heard a voice but knew it wasn’t her mother’s. It was a familiar one, however. The voice came from her room, one she had just passed, and she trotted back, taking a peek inside. A familiar hooded figure stood by the side of the bed, flipping through the pieces of paper on which the little filly had been drawing the day before, ones he had only been able to catch a quick glimpse of.

“Grandpa Gar, you’re back already!” The little filly pranced with joy.

“Well, not for long, unfortunately,” the grizzled ram said. “I fear I’ll be leaving the Crystal Empire soon.”

The joyful expression on her face immediately dissipated. “What?! Why?!”

“My niece and I will be going on. With all that’s been happening, she figured it may not be safe for us to stay here any longer. We’ll be leaving today, so I figured I’d come by to say goodbye.”

“Noooooo! You can’t go!” the filly whined. “We only got to play yesterday and last night! I don’t want to be alone again! Please stay!” She ran and clung to the ram’s leg, garnering his full attention, making big begging eyes, her lip wobbling, as if she were on the verge of tears.

He sighed. “Oh very well, I suppose I can stay for a little longer. Besides, it’s not like I’m going anywhere, considering that we’ve been locked inside the castle.”

A bright smile lit up on her face. “What do we do, Grandpa Gar?”

“Well…” He grinned. “I don’t think you’ve ever shown me what your home looks like. How about we start there and see where it takes us?”

The little filly led the ram through the castle’s corridors, showing him all the rooms. Something was odd, however: there was nobody in sight, even though there would normally be guards patrolling the castle. She began to think it has something to do with whatever’s been going outside, so they all left, and since all the entrances to the castle have been shut, according to her new friend, she didn’t pay much attention. Inevitably, she brought him to the huge gates, where the seat of empire’s power stood. A great room opened before them, with a purple carpet leading from the doors, all the way to the far end, where a seat, chiseled out of a cluster of crystals stood.

“So… this is the throne room?” the elder asked.

“Yes,” Flurry Heart answered. “Mama always sits here during the day and works.”

“And she has no time to play with you?”

She made a moody expression. “No.”

“And your father doesn’t have time either?”

“Daddy’s been away for a long time,” she explained. “He and Blondie went to visit the kitty country.”

“That is unfortunate,” he patted her head as he walked past her. “But tell me, do you ever see yourself sitting on the throne one day?”

“Mama’s always on it, so I can never sit there.”

“Well… She’s not here now,” he pointed out. “And there’s always the first time.”

Flurry Heart’s head slowly turned to the empty throne, then back to the elder, a smile forming on her face, and dashed off, jumping on the seat and planting herself on it.

“It’s… hard,” the filly said as she tried to adjust on the thin cushion.

The grizzled ram slowly approached. “Well of course. After all, your mother sits on it every day for hours. How hard must it be for her to carry the burden of the empire on her lone shoulders then.” He traipsed around the side of the throne. “Not everybody has a strong will, determination, to command such power.”

“I do!” the filly exclaimed, jumping on the seat. “One day, I’m gonna be the best princess in the world, just like mama and aunt Twilly.”

He chuckled. “Ah, such youthful optimism. The young are always so confident in themselves. Just like baby birds in a nest, until their parents push them out to learn the harsh reality.”

Flurry Heart stopped herself after hearing those words. “What do you mean, Grandpa Gar?”

“What do I mean? I mean that-“ the hooded figure ceased his explanation as she reached the far side of the throne, his gaze locking on to something and then solely approaching the throne, disappearing from the filly’s sight.

The little princess jumped off the seat and followed to where the ram had disappeared, only to find him sticking his head in a narrow passage between the crystal clusters. “What is it, Grandpa Gar?”

He pulled his face out of the passage. “Does your castle have any hidden passages?” The filly shrugged in response. “Well, from my experience, castles and palaces always have hidden places that were built by those who came before long ago. If you’re still up to doing something exciting before I go, we could try to look for them.” He could easily see the spark of excitement lighting up on her expression. “I’m too big to fit in, but you’ll get through just fine.”

He stepped aside, giving the filly some room to approach the passage in the back. She quickly squeezed in and made her way through, disappearing from sight. Now that she was gone, Grogar made his way back to the side of the throne where it was visible in full. He read Amore’s texts, he knew where the passage to the gateway stood and how to activate it, but he couldn’t do so without arousing suspicion further down the line. He needed to use the girl’s naïve and curious nature to his advantage.

“Grandpa Gar!” the voice echoed from behind the throne.

“Yes?” he answered.

“I’m at the end! There’s nothing here!”

“Perhaps there’s a hidden mechanism that will trigger the hidden passageway,” he told her.

“A what?!” she asked.

The grizzled ram rolled his eyes. “Just tap the crystals and see if something happens.”

It was quiet for a moment before a low tapping sound against the crystal throne could be heard. This was the moment he was waiting for. Dark light began to glow from under Grogar’s hood, focusing his sight on a large crystal standing above the throne’s seat. His hood got blown off, revealing his large horns enveloped in a magical aura, as a beam of dark light was shot from them and into the crystal. It then turned from bright and radiant, to dark and dull, a shadow began creeping out of it, down the throne and over the room's floor, slowly revealing a large opening with stairs leading down.

Before anyone could get the wiser, he quickly pulled the hood over his head again, concealing his horns, before calling out for the little girl. “Child! You did something!”

The tapping ceased, and soon the wiggling sound followed. Flurry Heart climbed out of the passage and trot over to the grizzled ram who stood in front of the throne, facing away from it, only for her to gasp when she spotted the giant hole in the floor, with the stairs leading into the darkness below.

“So child…” he asked. “Are you ready for an adventure?”

Changelings buzzed across the sky in a mass, clashing against the crystal guards, the pegasi pursuing them from above, while below the unicorns shot at them from the distance, and any of them who did land had to deal with the might of the earth ponies. The true battle of supremacy, however, was fought further away, between the Queen and the Princess. Cadence did all she could, evading and dodging her opponent’s attacks, blocking them with shield spell when necessary, and shooting bolts at her prime target. All of that effort felt as if it was for naught though. Chrysalis flew about, pursuing her prey, shooting bolts of her green magic, getting more and more frustrated every time her attacks missed their mark, and the more her hatred seethed, the more aggressive and stronger her attacks were becoming. Unlike her opposition, however, she didn’t bother to try and prevent the princess’ attacks, she didn’t need to; the changelings outfitted in a strange stone armor stuck close to their queen, and whenever one of the opponent’s magical conjurations approached, they almost instantly evaporated. Things seemed to be tipping in the favor of the latter, yet as the two monarchs flew across the sky of the empire, the queen managed to slowly survey the surroundings and beyond her hateful gaze discovered the opposite was happening. Even though her swarm was outnumbering the forces of the Crystal Empire greatly, they were stronger and well equipped. Despite her attempt to soften them up with a game of cat and mouse, they were prepared for possible attacks, no doubt thanks to Twilight Sparkle. Her army won’t be able to hold up for much longer, and she thought to herself that by now, surely, the grizzled old sheep had managed to accomplish his part of the plan. It was time for her to cover her tracks again.

Chrysalis fired multiple shots from her horn at the opposition, who also fired her own. Inevitably, the shots collided, creating a shockwave that pushed the princess off her balance for a moment, disorienting her. When she regained her focus, the Changeling Queen was no longer in front of her, but she could still hear the loud buzzing sound of her wings, and she was behind her... flying towards the Crystal Castle. A fearful thought came over her; she sent guards to seal any possible entrances, to make sure nobody got in and out, but even if they're guarding them, they would be unable to stop Queen Chrysalis, especially now that she seems to be at her strongest, and if she breached the castle...

“Flurry Heart…” Cadence thought to herself and without delay flew after the enemy.

She was dashing close behind, slowly approaching, maybe she could catch up to her and stop this whole thing. But as they approached the proximity of the castle she realized something was off. Chrysalis didn’t seem to be slowing down or changing her trajectory, she was still going at full speed directly at the castle’s wall. She was going crash right in it… or was she expecting that she can just break through several hooves of thick rock formation. What followed took her completely off guard. Just as the Queen of Changelings was approaching the castle, she raised her legs in its direction, crashing against its wall, and a few moments later, with all her might, bounced off its surface, flying directly at the Princess of Love, who was unable to either change her direction or slow down at that point, the only thing she could do was raise a shield and have her crash against it. Chrysalis grinned, positioning her horn, and just as she did the Twilight Sparkle a few days ago, punctured a hole through it. A moment of shock came over Cadence, giving the Changeling Queen enough time to pull it out, leap over the shield, and promptly bucked the princess downward, causing the alicorn to plummet to the ground, but not before crashing into the tree and then landing into the dirt.

The lone captain of the guard saw it happen and immediately dashed to the princess’ side. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty, are you alright?!”

She groaned as she got up. “Yeah… I… I got careless…”

“Your Majesty, you should rest. You’re in no condition to take on Queen Chrysalis after-“

“NO!” she loudly brushed him away. “I’m not going to let that THING get any closer to my daughter, do you understand?! We need to stop her from getting inside the castle.”

Flash Sentry looked to the sky. “But… Your Majesty, she’s going in the opposite direction.”

He was right. Cadence had expected that the Changeling Queen would use her incapacitated state to break in, but instead, she was flying away from the castle, to the outskirts of the city, towards her swarm. And she saw how, the moment she passed by them, the black collection or particles in the distance suddenly shifted and began following her. They had disengaged from battle.

To the orange pegasus’ surprise, the princess dashed and quickly ascended, forcing him to follow her. “Your Majesty, wait! They’re fleeing, there’s no need in pursuing them at this point!”

“No! We have to catch up to them, Flash!” she explained as they flew over the city. “Somehow Chrysalis and her army are disappearing out of thin air whenever we try to trap them. If we fail again, she’s just going to repeat it over and over! Here are my orders: all earth ponies and pegasi are to remain behind and protect the empire, meanwhile the unicorns are to assist us in tracking down the changelings! She’s not getting away this time!”

Somewhere in the depths of the castle, an expedition was on its way, as Flurry Heart and her new friend descended the stairs into the black abyss beneath the throne room. The little filly, full of excitement decided to go first, while the elder paced slowly behind her. They’ve been walking down the circular stairway for several minutes, yet it didn’t seem to end, and the deeper they went, the darker it was getting, and instinctively Flurry Heart’s horn lit up, her initial excitement slightly getting toned down.

“Afraid, little girl?” the grizzled ram behind her asked.

“N-no,” she said in a jittery tone.

He chuckled. “Good. Being devoid of fear is something that only the truly strong possess. And do not worry. Unless we encounter an umbrum, we’ve nothing to fret.”

“What’s an umbrum, Grandpa Gar?” the filly curiously asked.

She suddenly heard the sound of hooves behind her cease. She stopped and turned around to find the elder standing still.

“You’ve never heard of an umbrum, child?” he asked with a grim look on his face, to which she shook her head. “I see… your mother was trying to protect you from fear… how silly of her.”

“Wha… what’s an umbrum, Grandpa Gar?” she asked.

“An umbrum is a creature of darkness, it lurks in the shadows, and its very presence spreads terror to anyone and anything around it. It is a horrifying creature that can bring your worst nightmares to life.” There was a noticeable quiver in the filly’s stance. “I heard rumors, that the Crystal Empire was built upon the defeat of such a creature. But what became of it is unknown. Who knows… perhaps it lurks in the very shadow of your empire, waiting to strike at somebody who least expects it.” The old ram noticed Flurry Heart shivering in fear, the light on her horn glowing brighter, and all he did was smile. “But as I said, unless we actually encounter it, we’ve nothing to fear.”

The child smiled nervously and proceeded to walk down the stairs again, the old ram once again following her. It became pitch black, so much so that even the light from the hole above in the throne room could no longer reach them, the filly’s horn being a sole provider of the light source now. Finally, however, they reach the bottom of the stairs. Nothing else was in sight but a single door on the wall. Flurry Heart asked herself where it could lead, only to see the grizzled ram walk towards them. Yet, just as he reached forth with his hooves and was about to touch them, the door instantly moved to his side. He went for it again, trying to touch it, and it moved once again. He tried to rush it this time, only for the frame to move once more, zipping all the way to the other side of the room, while he bashed his head against a solid wall.

“Grandpa Gar, are you alright?” the filly ran to his side.

The elder shook his head. “Yes, I’m fine. But this door… it’s enchanted. Only powerful magic can force it to open. Something that I, alas, don’t possess.”

“How are we supposed to open them then?” she inquired.

He only shrugged. Flurry Heart turned her attention towards the door and tried to figure out how to deal with it. She was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice a light lit up under the companion’s cloak.

KRAK!

A sudden sound frightened her, causing her to jump and point her light at where it came. A rock lay on the floor. It seemed to have chipped off somewhere.

KRAK!

Again, the same sound from the opposite direction, and again it was a rock that’s fallen off. And soon more would follow, rocks began to chip off the surrounding walls. Flurry Heart was confused, yet not frightened… then she heard a screeching sound in the air, echoing, and she began to tremble in fear.

“Grandpa Gar, what is that?! Who’s making that horrible noise?!” she panicked.

The grizzled ram feigned innocence. “I think it might be… the umbrum…”

“Where?! Where is it?!”

“I do not know…” he answered

“Grandpa Gar, make it stop!”

“I’m sorry, child. I don’t have the power to do so… but I think you might.”

She gave him a confused look. “Me? How?”

“The umbrum needs to be locked away, correct?” he postulated. “Think of a place that this creature can be locked away and focus your magic on that enchanted door. That may be the only way to do it.”

She turned back to the door and tried to concentrate, but the loud noise all around her left her too terrified. “Grandpa Gar, I’m scared!”

A sudden embrace enveloped her, and it felt as if the world around her went quiet, yet she could still hear the elder’s voice whispering in her ear. “Shhhh… There’s nothing to fear, little girl… Now, focus.”

A brief moment of respite did the trick. Flurry Heart concentrated her thoughts on imprisoning the umbrum and shot a beam of magic at the gem above the door. After a few moments it was glowing, the world around the two went quiet, and they finally burst open. What followed was a mass of tiny glowing insects skittering out the doorway, illuminating the bottom of the stairway. Finally, the filly got back on her feet and walked to the open door, too scared to enter. The elder walked to her side and reassured her with a pat. They entered together.

A great hall opened before them, and there was something that immediately stood out. There was a set of four giant statues shaped like equine heads, each of them had a bridle in their mouth, which extended as poles down to the lid that was bolted to the ground.

Chapter 33: Setting the Final Pieces

The foreboding atmosphere surrounded them, it felt almost as if the darkness surrounded this very place, pulled to whatever was locked underneath the giant lid. Flurry Heart unlocked the way to a place she’s never seen before in the castle, but whatever it was, it seemed to have drawn her in. There was a strange sensation in the air, gentle whispers calling her in, tempting her to approach. The little filly did so without even realizing, and just as her hooves were about to touch one of the four statues that were holding down the lid…

“STOP!” a voice echoed around the room, snapping the little princess back to awareness, turning her head, only to notice the elder ram standing on the other end of the doorway. “Child, listen and do exactly as I say… step away, walk back through the door.”

“But Grandpa Gar-“

“NOW!” his voice echoed again.

The little filly was frightened and confused. Why was he acting so angry and aggressive all of a sudden? She heeded him regardless as she slowly made her way back to the doorway, and the moment she passed the threshold, the grizzled ram promptly shut them closed. The slam resonated all around them, frightening the light bugs, causing them to skitter about. When the calm finally fell, the elder banged his head on the door and exhaled.

“Grandpa Gar, what was it?” Flurry Heart wondered. “Why did you do that?”

The Grizzled ram turned his head, giving her a serious look. “We may have just made a grave mistake, child… I had assumed the umbrum was about, threatening us, but instead it tried to trick us. You opened a doorway, not to where it could be trapped, but to a place where IT IS trapped. Had you gone further into that room and did something you could’ve unleashed it on to the world.” He came closer, putting his hooves on the little filly. “Listen to me carefully, child. Nobody must know we were here, do you understand? Not only would your mother be angry if she found out you’ve been in places you were never supposed to go, but should anyone with ill intent find out about this place, they would try to use whatever is within that sealed vault for their personal gain. Our actions would doom the world. Nobody must know. Am I clear?”

Flurry Heart didn’t say a word, she was too threatened by the burden of thoughts that were just thrust upon her mind. All she could do was nod in agreement.

“Good…” he sighed in relief. “Let’s get out of here before anyone else finds us… not to mention my niece is waiting.”

He turned to leave, making his way towards to stairs, only to be halted by the little princess’ voice. “Grandpa Gar… will you finish the story?”

“Excuse me?” he stopped after the first step.

“Last night you told me a story, and you said you’ll finish it next time. Please tell me the story before you go,” she pleaded.

The grizzled ram sighed. “Oh, very well, I suppose it’s fitting that I finish what I started, it’s only fair. Just not here; topside.”

After some time, the duo finally reached the top of the stairs. It wouldn’t take long before the filly was ordered to quickly go behind the throne to “trigger the switch”, and while she was doing it, Grogar quickly acted to dispel what he cast on the throne’s crystal which revealed the secret chasm, after which it disappeared once again.

After a few moments, the little princess squeezed out of the passage with fervor. “Now tell me the story, Grandpa Gar!”

“Alright, little girl. Plant your rump on the cushion,” he ordered.

The filly quickly scurried to the throne and sat down, while the elder walked to her side and sat on the ground.

He stroked his beard. “Now, where did we leave off?”

“Some creatures kidnapped the baby sheep’s mama, and he went after her-“ the filly uttered what she remembered, before the grizzled ram finished in her place, “- and met a couple of Chupacabras, and asked them to teach him how to be strong. Yes, I recall now”.

It was not an easy task to accomplish for the little runt. For a long time, Chupacabras would put him in constant danger, to put as much physical exertion on him as possible. Yet despite all that, the runt would persevere, and over time, as the moons went by, he would slowly grow, and they would let him roam alongside them. And as they would travel, he would continue to search for that which had been taken from him, yet no matter where he went, every time he would end up not finding it. And at the end of every day, the group would return to their lair, the cave where they would rest. The Chupacabras have made it their home for a very long time, and he was free to stay. He was, however, forbidden to venture further into the deeper parts of their home, never explaining why. And because the curiosity killed the cat-

“Who did what to kitty?!” the filly broke the moment.

The elder sighed. “It’s just an expression, child. It means that being curious can get you into trouble. Then again, that’s a fitting description for what followed.”

Curiosity eventually got the better of the “not-so-runt-anymore”, and he would venture into the depths of the cave that the Chupacabras called home while they were asleep. Needless to say, he stumbled onto something that rocked him to his very core – a boneyard; mountains upon mountains of remains littered the place, remnants of those who had fallen prey to some unsavory creatures. He had never seen anything more terrifying. But that was nothing compared to what he found next. He found his mother. Do you know what became of her?

“W… what happened to her, Grandpa Gar?” Flurry Heart meekly asked.

Before the old ram could speak, he felt a twitch; something was moving under his cloak and it soon came out. A little glowing insect, one of many that had grown in the depths of the umbrum prison, crawled out of the cloak and began skittering about him, it seemed that it managed to crawl up the ram’s leg when the doors were opened. The elder extended his leg and the insect eventually crawled over it and stopped at the very tip of his hooves. He brought it closer to his face, observing it for a moment. Without any warning, he suddenly opened his mouth, sucking the crawler right in! A crunch followed… and a swallow.

“EWWW!” the filly cringed loudly. “Grandpa Gar, that’s gross!”

He chuckled. “Maybe… but that’s precisely what the creatures did.”

Among the remnants he found an item that seemed very familiar: a red collar… the same red collar that his mother used to wear… who was taken away by the creatures in the dark, to save him. And the final piece of the puzzle finally fell into place: the Chupacabras were the creatures in the dark, the monsters that he was told they skulk the night… and it was they who had taken that which he was looking for, what he so desperately wanted to retrieve. And they knew it. They knew the whole time who he was, and they thought they’d delight in his torment, yet he would continue to prove them otherwise in his determination to become like them, to a point that the Chupacabras began seeing him in a trustful manner. But something… broke inside of him at that moment. There was a storm of so many emotions brewing; the anger, the hatred, the sorrow… and the feeling of deceit. Whatever feelings they had for him now, that didn’t matter to the “not-so-runt-anymore”; they were the culprits, the source of all that ached him. Yet despite that knowledge, he had grown enough now to be smart, to know that he was not yet ready to face them alone. So, he decided to wait, bottling up all those emotions, letting them stew in seething anger and hatred… until the moment was right.

Seasons changed, and time passed by, and by the end, the runt was no longer a runt, for he had changed as well: he became tall, his horns have grown to be strong as metal, his hooves became harder than a rock, but most of all, he feared nothing. The Chupacabras have put him through many hardships, so they began seeing him as one of them as a… friend, kin even. They trusted him that what they did next, he would act unquestionably. They traveled to a faraway land, the land of rolling hills, and pastures as far as the eye could see, where a village stood. The “no-longer-runt” recognized it, the memories of this place were all too familiar. And under the cover of night, they attacked. He charged at the first house in sight, and without a struggle broke down its door with his horns. In it, a family of sheep huddled in fear, moaning in terror at the sight of the creature that almost looked like them, who had invaded their home, as well as the sinister companions that would enter and prepare themselves to feast. But the “no-longer-runt” remembered what drove him. He knew the horrible truth that his “friends” had hidden from him, he knew the truth this whole time, and all the anger and hatred he had bottled up for so long would finally have an outlet.

The elder paused, looking at the listener, who was still sitting on the throne, but now she was holding the cushion in her hooves, hugging it tightly, visibly trembling from fear.

“…what happened then, Grandpa Gar?” she asked.

The grizzled ram sighed. “To tell you in detail what followed next would be too much for your delicate little ears, child. But to put it bluntly…”

He destroyed them. All of that rage that had been building up in him this entire time had finally been unchained; in a place where it started, he would finish it. His enemies lay broken before him, and he succeeded in protecting his home, something nobody else he knew had the courage to do. But did he get anything out of it in the end? Was everybody cheering for their savior who had saved them from the terrors in the dark?

The little filly said nothing.

No. The rest of the villagers finally emerged when the sound of battle died down, only to take cover back in their homes after what they saw. This creature, this… thing, that had saved them, it was neither a sheep, even though it looked like one, and it wasn’t a beast either, for they do things they do to survive. No… before them stood something far, far worse… a monster. But the “no-longer-runt” did not care, for when he looked upon the faces of those who were once his family, he remembered two things – weakness and cowardice, things that he had learned to spite. He knew he no longer had a place among these creatures, and so he left, willingly… but not before something stopped his passage. A large green rock that stood outside his former home… the anger that flared up upon seeing it; this was what it all began. And in a single charge and thrash with his horns, the rock flew over the air, until it landed in the next field. He felt nothing. He had finally become stronger than anyone… and yet he felt nothing, the price he paid to become strong had taken everything from him, and the only thing he had as a reminder… was the red collar belonging to someone that was once precious to him. He would wander off, to be alone and forgotten… forever…

The elder sighed in relief, having finally brought his tale to a close, but the listener on the other hand… her face was practically overflowing with tears. “That’s the saddest story I ever heard, Grandpa Gar. Was he really all alone forever?”

The answer that followed, however, surprised Flurry Heart. “No. Actually, I tell a lie. There were… some… who saw what had happened and were in awe. Runts themselves, they too desired to be strong, something they could never achieve as they were, and despite their parent’s protests they ran away, following their “hero”, he didn’t care what they did anyway.”

“But why, Grandpa Gar? Why would they run away from home?” the little princess inquired.

A low chuckled escaped him. “Because power is many things, child. Just as the stars gather around the moon, so too will the weak ALWAYS be drawn to power, or more specifically, the one who holds it. And they followed him, for they understood, much like he did, that no matter how generous, kind or compassionate one is, it will never mean anything unless one has power, the strength to back it up. In the end, the only thing that truly matters is POWER.”

“But that can’t be true, Grandpa Gar!” the filly protested. “How can you even say something like that?”

Silence fell on the throne room, and after a while, the grizzled ram finally spoke again. “Little girl, allow this old one to depart some wisdom onto you.” He rose. “Once you’ve lived for as long as I have, you will discover how futile is it to try and change those around you, to have them see the truths that you’ve seen, because in the end, in this world, wherever you see light, you will always find darkness under it, for the same reason both “good” and “evil” also exist. It is the facet of reality that we live in.”

The filly tilted her head. “I… I don’t understand, Grandpa Gar.”

He sighed again. “Let me put it this way: let’s say, you have friends, who are in danger, and you are the only one who can help them, you have the power to do it. What do you do?”

“I help them, of course!” she instantly spoke.

“Yes, you could do that,” he said. “But in exchange, you will be badly hurt, something you may not be able to recover from. On the other hand, you could also choose NOT to intervene, and you will remain intact, power and all.”

“But then your friends will get hurt!”

The elder nodded. “And that is my point, child. For every action, there’s going to be a reaction, and we can never have what we truly want without suffering for our choices. The good, the bad; one, without another, cannot exist. And in the same vein, just as wishing to bring or preserve peace initiates wars, so too is hatred born out of the desire… to protect love.”

What was just said didn’t sit well with Flurry Heart. “Grandpa Gar, that’s not true! My mama’s the Princess of Love! Everypony loves her, and she’s able to love everpony else! She can’t hate!”

“Is that so?” It felt suddenly as if the temperature in the room dropped as he said that. “Tell me, child, have you ever seen your mother angry? And I don’t mean mad because you’ve stolen a cookie, I mean fuming in unbridled rage for something that was done, something absolutely inexcusable that cannot be forgiven?”

She didn’t speak. The little princess’ thoughts were playing through events as far back as she could remember, yet she couldn’t scrape anything up. Truth be told, she didn’t recall any events which would warrant anger in a way that the elder one was talking. She shook her head.

The grizzled ram spoke in finality. “Little girl, I want you to remember this for when the time comes one day: nobody is free from one’s inner turmoils; we may try to bottle them up, but in the end, they will always win out. And when that happens, when we are at our worst... it shows us for what we really are.” Silence lingered for a moment, before he turned, slowly walking away from the throne. “In any case, I fear our time has run out. I must leave before my niece gets anxious.”

This immediately garnered Flurry Heart’s attention. “Wait, you... you’re leaving?”

“Yes,” he bluntly answered.

The filly jumped off her seat and ran after him. “Can’t you stay just a little bit longer?”

“No,” he responded just as bluntly.

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

And the same request was spoken several times on the way across the room, and each time, the refusal would be the same. Yet just as the elder finally reached the door and opened them, the little alicorn finally clung to his front leg.

He stood still, not reacting to the situation, and waiting for her to respond instead. “Grandpa Gar… will I ever see you again?”

His head turned to face her, with huge begging eyes on full display, and a simple smile formed on his face. “I promise you, child… Some day.” He slipped his hoof out of her grasp, then walk past the threshold of the door. “Goodbye,” he said as he slowly closed them shut.

A strange sound, as if something was flashing, could be heard on the other end, and Flurry Heart didn’t wait a moment longer. “Grandpa Gar!” she yelled as she rushed through the door after him.

He was gone. He just disappeared into thin air. It was only then that she heard groaning sounds, and noticed somebody else was nearby. Several guards were standing in many places throughout the corridor, looking rather groggy.

“Miss Flurry Heart, what are you doing in the throne room?” one of the guards close by addressed her.

Her eyes zoomed left and right before finally speaking. “Playing?”

A loud buzzing sound could be heard in the air, as a giant mass of changelings moved across the plains south of the Crystal Empire. Right on their tail, the Princess of Love followed, advancing on them at increased speed, and as she predicted, the changeling swarm made its way to another forest thicket that stood out in the open, just like last time.

Another set of wings could be heard flapping by her side, as the orange member of the guard finally caught up to her. “It’s all set, Your Majesty! The ground and air units have fortified all the borders, as well as the palace, and the unicorns will be here in a few moments.” She didn’t respond, almost as if she hadn’t noticed he was there. “Your Majesty?”

Her attention was finally grasped. “Huh? Right, good, well done, Flash.”

“Your Majesty, I can clearly see you’re not well. Maybe you should go back to the city and wait-“

“No,” the princess cut him off without being able to finish. “I know you mean well, but my mind will not be at ease as long as that THING is still out there. And this time I’ll personally make sure she gets caught.”

The sound of stampede could be heard from below as the army of unicorns were close by, following the two, winged equines. But one of them would only accelerate, as she saw the black cloud slowly descend into the forest thicket.

Just before she could get away, however, somebody was tugging on her tail. “Your Majesty, wait! The password!” The princess slowed down for the stallion to reach her head and whisper. “For love and family… we’re prepared to go to any length.”

And with only a nod, she brushed past him, leaving him in the dust. She had to make sure the queen and her swarm didn’t escape this time, and she was lucky to arrive just as the last changeling disappeared into the treetops. Cadence descended into the forest and began scouting for the fiends, trying not to make a sound. In the end, her perseverance paid off.

“What do you mean it’s not ready?!”

She recognized the tone of anger, and it was close. She snuck through the bushes and the overgrowth, and finally took a peek from one of the bushes. The gathering of changelings was streaming into a hole that was dug out of the side of a hill, and as they did, the Queen towered over one of her drones with a frustrated expression.

“You know what, never mind, we don’t have much time for this,” she groaned. “We’ll have to improvise.”

She waited some time until the final changeling disappeared into the hole before she went inside, yet she didn’t disappear completely, instead, her horn stuck out of the hole and began to glow in a green aura. The hill into which the hole was dug shook, and finally, rocks and dirt crumbled and fell over the opening, covering it up completely.

The Princess of Love finally jumped out of hiding. She knew their exact location now and had to notify her entourage. Her horn lit up in a purple aura and shot a bolt into the air. It passed the treetops, and once it was high in the sky it erupted into a bright flare. The young captain of the guard saw it, and without delay directed the soldiers below. Eventually, the army arrived at the location from where the flare came, only to find their princess standing over a mountain of rubble.

“They’re here!” she told them. “Their entrance is under the mound of the earth! They collapsed it to try to cover their tracks! Quick, we need to dig it up!”

None of the guards responded, they just stood still, looking awkwardly at each other, until Flash Sentry slowly approached his monarch, before stopping at the leg’s length. “For love and family…”

“We’re prepared to go to any length!” she quickly answered. “Now go already!”

The unicorns quickly got to work, using their magic to lift the mountain of soil. In a few moments, the hole opened before them, and without delay, the alicorn jumped in right away.

“Your Majesty, wait!” the captain called, but his words went unheard. “Guards! Double file, frontal split at each intersection! Go!”

He jumped right in, and the rest followed. They descended into the underground tunnel, and as expected, just like last time, it was littered with side tunnels. As soon as the first intersection came up, the captain and two of the guards split from the group into the side passage, yet they would not get far, as it was only a few feet deep. Reaching the dead end, the group quickly turned and continued their way on the main tunnel. And as they proceeded further, it became apparent that the same was the case with other side passages, as guards kept popping up after a matter of moments, yet the deeper they went, the longer it took for them to return, as it seemed that only the lower parts of the complex were mostly finished.

Meanwhile, ahead of everybody else, Princess Cadence continued to rush down the primary tunnel, without even considering taking side access', the desperation, the fear, drove her into tunnel-vision. She suddenly stopped, as she discovered that the tunnel had come to an end. She was thinking of taking one of the side passages at that point, yet something was nagging her at the back of her mind, only to notice that the dirt seemed rearranged as if the passage was blocked off only recently. She then pressed her head against the wall and heard a muffled voice on the other end. Her horn lit up, and an explosion followed, as the block was blown away. Cadence stumbled through, coughing and covered in dust, and when her vision cleared, she froze in place at what she was seeing. A large chamber opened before her at the bottom of the hideout, a handful of changelings she saw were scurrying through a portal of dark light that stood open, with their queen standing by and prodding them to move… or at least she was until she heard the sound of the blast, her sight turning to the hole, through which an alicorn came wobbling out, and after her sight cleared, both of their eyes locked. They were staring at each other for a few moments, until a voice could be heard coming from the tunnel, catching the princess off guard as her head turned, and while distracted, she heard the sound of hooves digging in. Turning her head again, she saw the Queen of Changeling run through the portal of dark light. She grimaced and quickly dashed for it in desperation, going as far as leaping for it, but just as she was about to reach the magical doorway, it dispersed, and the princess landed on the dirt, dragging for a few hooves before the pile slowed her down. The guard’s captain finally came through, spotting the monarch on the ground, moaning.

He slowly approached and stopped by her side. “For love and-“

“We’re prepared to go to any length,” she cut him off before he could finish.

He helped her get back on her feet. “Your Majesty, I’m so sorry. I came as fast as I could. What’s happened?”

“Flash,” she addressed him, “call off the search. We’re returning immediately to the Crystal Empire.”

She quickly walked off, yet the captain followed her close, confused. “Y… your Majesty, why? What’s just happened?”

She glanced at him. “We’ve been tricked. For all we know, Chrysalis and her changelings have been inside the Crystal empire this entire time, right under our noses. We’re putting the entire city on lockdown, search any abandoned or vacant houses. If anyone tries to leave they’re to be treated under immediate suspicion.”

A flash happened, as a portal of dark light suddenly opened inside the abandoned house, and a cloaked figure walked through, before promptly closing it. Grogar finally dispersed his cloak, he’s done his part, he wouldn’t need it anymore. All he had to do now was for his cohort to finish up on her end, but she didn’t seem to be back yet. The house was quiet, as there was nobody in sight, except for another portal of dark light that was still open on the far end of the living room. All of a sudden, a changeling ran through the doorway, followed by another, and another… soon, an entire army poured through, beginning to fill the entire room in a matter of seconds; they were expanding so fast that the house would likely burst if the entire swarm were to gather here. Before they piled on the grizzled old ram, his horns began to glow, and a bright light enveloped everything.

Things seemed to have quieted down, only for Chrysalis to charge out of the opening, tumbling as she came through, screaming on top of her lungs. “GROGAR! GRO-!”

Before she could call for him again, a tape made of dark light got slapped on her mouth, silencing her. The aforementioned sorcerer stood above her, his horns alit, holding what appeared to be a small sack made of pure magic.

“Be quiet,” he calmly said, as he directed his focus on the portal, closing it, “we’ll get exposed if you make such a noise.”

The “duct tape” over Changeling Queen’s mouth came off, but she would not remain silent. “We might as well now! We’ve been exposed!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”

“We repeated what we did the last two times,” she explained, “but with the small time frame we had, my changelings weren’t able to fully complete the distraction and…”

“And?”

“She saw me, Grogar! The princess of the Crystal Empire saw the portal and my changelings moving through! Our cover’s been blown! Please tell me you’ve managed to unleash the umbrum in the meantime!”

“No,” he gave her a blunt response.

“Wait... don’t tell me, you were unable to convince the brat to do her thing?”

“Oh no, it worked perfectly,” he smiled. “She gave me access to the prison. And I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

There was this strange frustration beginning to build up in Chrysalis. “Wait… you got all that you needed… and then did nothing? I sacrificed myself to buy you time! Any moment now Cadence’s gonna come back and search the whole city for us! And you’re telling me it was all for NOTHING?!”

Silence lingered in the air for a while, the Changeling Queen’s spite was so strong at this moment that it could almost be heard. However, Grogar sighed in disappointment.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing” he mused. “If you’re afraid of being caught, we’ll just be moving to a new place.”

“To where?! There's no place in the Crystal Empire that they won’t find us now!”

He chuckled. “Queen of Changelings, have you forgotten already? The doors may be closed…” He turned his head towards the wall, a beam shot from his glowing horns, opening a portal made from dark light. “… but I, am the skeleton key.”

The grizzled ram traipsed calmly through the doorway, leaving Chrysalis standing confused in the middle of the room all alone. She couldn’t figure it out; where could they go now that they won’t be found now? Without much of a choice, she followed him through the portal.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the complete darkness that surrounded her, as the only dim light source was coming from Grogar’s horns since the portal closed soon after she came through.

“Wait, I need to retrieve my changelings!” she protested.

The magical sack the sheep was holding up was tossed at her, and she caught it. She gave him a suspicious look, before opening it. All of a sudden, an army of changelings poured out of the sack, avalanching on the top of their queen, burying her completely, while the ram was already a considerable distance away to avoid her mishap. She finally climbed out of the pile, and with her eyes fully adjusted now, she beheld an unexpected sight. They were inside a large underground crystal cavern, a set of four large horse head statues were set up in a square formation, a large round lid was bolted to the ground, and long iron poles were running from it to the statues, designed as a bridle. She only saw it once, but she recognized the sight which she saw drawn in the enchanted message that Grogar revealed.

“The umbrum’s prison…” she gave him a confused look. “But… but I thought you said only a Crystal Princess can gain access to it!”

“Correction, only a Crystal Princess could open the doorway that led to where it was located. But this place isn’t isolated against magic, anyone who uses it can either teleport or open a gateway to it if they already know of its location and what it looks like.”

A sudden burden was lifted off the Pillar of Hatred, as she sighed in relief. “Good… I hope you’ve done some unmentionable things to the brat after she served her usefulness.”

He glanced at her. “I thought you were complaining earlier about not being able to cover your tracks, that hardly seems productive.”

“Pity…” she sighed. “Well, what are you waiting for then? Open the seal and release them! I want the princess to be in for a big surprise when she gets home.”

“I fear that’s not an option, Queen of Changelings,” Grogar said and pulled out the large enchanted piece of paper. “According to this, the seal is keeping the umbrum locked up, but opening the way itself won’t do a thing, as long as that which suppressed them in the first place remains active. In other words, before we can release the umbrum from their prison, we must first stop Amore’s weapon.”

Queen Chrysalis understood where he was going with this. “The Crystal Heart.”

Rainbow Dash yawned. The little prolonged nap had done well enough for her, as it did for all of them. With the brief break they took to recuperate a bit, they finally got up and left the ruins of Soiliana and returned to the great crossroad cavern with a gaping pit in the middle. They already had another destination set in their sight, the one place they knew that their missing companions could be found. It took them a while to reach the next corridor, but once they did, they immediately began their descent into the tunnel leading to what they were anticipating to be Ptolemeya.

Yet as they slowly trotted to avoid slipping on ice, Twilight again noticed that one of them lagged in the back, a certain broken unicorn was staring out into the cavern. “Tempest?” She didn’t respond, so she approached her and tapped her on the shoulder, finally garnering her attention. “Tempest, what’s wrong?”

“Earlier I thought I was just hearing things,” she answered, “but this time I know I’m not. We’re being followed.”

“By who?” the princess asked, only to be shushed.

They remained silent, and heard something: it was a very low thud, followed by the sound of tiny rocks getting crunched.

“I don’t know… but whatever it is, it’s big and heavy,” Tempest said, her horn beginning to flicker.

She immediately charged in the direction of the sound, her broken horn beginning to conjure lightning, and just as she came around the corner she thought the sound was coming from, she stopped.

“Tempest, wait!” the princess caught up to her, only to behold the same sight as she did.

Nothing. Whatever was making the heavy sound was not here, and nothing out of the ordinary stood out except for a large black glistening boulder.

“Maybe it was just a distant echo of rocks crashing,” Twilight suggested.

“Maybe…”

They stood by for a while longer waiting in anticipation that the sound would return, but instead, a voice called to them.

“Twilight! Tempest!” the party planner’s voice echoed.

“Coming!” she called back. “Let’s go, Tempest, the others are waiting.”

The former lieutenant wasn’t as sure about the alicorn’s assumption, but whatever was making that noise had gone silent. Her horn stopped flickering, and they quickly made their way back to the rest of the group.

Back together again, the group made its way through the tunnel, but they quickly discovered something was different about this one. A strong draft was pulling through, making the cold all the more intense.

“What’s with the sudden COLD?!” the blue pegasus moaned.

She would soon get her answer. They stopped at a large opening in solid ice that seemed to have been broken into.

“It’s just like Radiant Hope’s journal mentioned,” Applejack spoke. “She broke in through the solid ice. An’ since it’s so cold, the draft keeps going through.”

“I have to agree with Rainbow Dash though,” Rarity spoke, trying to not get her hat blown off, “this wind is really unbearable.”

“If we’re to find our missing friend, this threat we must face to the end,” Zecora spoke.

The pink earth pony jumped in front of the group. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, Spike, and Discord! We’re coming!” she yelled, yet as she tried to run through the opening, a combination of slippery ground and pink magical aura holding her tail held her in place.

“Hold on, Pinkie,” Twilight said, making her final stop, while the princess went in front of her before the opening, slowly reaching out with her hoof through it, and just then, a torrent of shadow slipped past them, making the illusion visible. “I had feared it would come to this… the nightmare veil is extending across the entire area.”

“I’m just gonna take a stab in the black here, but considering Fluttershy was never the first to laugh in the face of anything frightful, so...” the rainbow-maned pegasus said, only to be shoved by the orange earth pony. “Ah, look, I’m just saying they’re likely all trapped in it considering how big this thing is, but considering we don’t know what’s tormenting her; it could be just a small insignificant thing that we can deal with in a jiffy…”

“Or maybe it’s something big, and since nightmares are now one-hundred percent real, it means big trouble for us,” the fashionista pointed out.

“It don’ matter whose nightmare we encounter, we’ll have to help them deal with it,” Applejack said, stepping next to Twilight. “Ah’m ready, Twi.”

The alicorn nodded in acknowledgment, then turned her head to the rest of the group. “What about you guys?”

And they followed suit, stepping to the side of the two mares in a line. They all looked at the princess with approving glances.

“Okay. Go.” And with those words, the team passed through the nightmare veil.

A familiar cottage, that’s where they ended up. The sun shined through the window, the sound of birds singing could be heard through the open half of the door, the atmosphere was altogether pleasant, yet the house’s owner was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, a thumping sound came up, and a little bunny came in through the doorway of the kitchen.

“Oh look, it’s Angel Bunny!” Applejack noticed him, only to watch him hop past the entire group and stopped at Pinkie Pie, gently rubbing against her legs.

“Awww, you want belly rubs?” the party planner asked, and began rubbing his tummy, making him squeak.

The birds flew in through the open windows, sitting on their perches, singing a melody. Heavy stomping followed, as a bear stuck his head out the open half of the door, and let out a pleasant low growl.

“Okay, if this was some kind of a haunted mansion-looking place, I’d understand, but this?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “This is Fluttershy’s nightmare?”

“You guys sure that your friend isn’t a brood with dark thoughts?” Tempest asked. “Because all this bright sunshine being a nightmare could explain it.”

“No, Tempest darling, we can assure you that Fluttershy is anything but that,” Rarity refuted.

Don’t disturb them…

Twilight’s ears twitched. “Shhh, did you hear that?”

“Don’t disturb them…” the voice became more noticeable.

They turned their heads to the opposite end of the room and noticed a long pink mane sticking out from around the corner.

“Fluttershy? Is that you?” the country pony asked.

“Yes…” she answered. “But please, whatever you do, don’t do anything that will make the animals feel unpleasant.”

“What?” the party planner wondered, taking her hooves away from the bunny. “Why is that a problem?”

“EEEEEEEK!” the shy pegasus’ voice screamed and the flock of hair disappeared behind the corner.

“Fluttershy darling, what’s wrong?” the fashionista inquired.

“It’s Angel! Pinkie Pie just stopped rubbing him after he begged her to do it!”

The pink earth pony’s head tilted. “Errr… why is that bad?”

A shriek followed, garnering everybody’s attention. The little bunny was standing up now, with an angry look on his face, his eyes glowing red, and snow-white coat suddenly turning black as night, finally releasing a sinister roar. Rarity was so startled she back into the perch for birds, knocking down all the food that had been set up. The birds suddenly stopped singing and began to screech, their eyes turning red as their colorful feather turned charcoal color. It caused Applejack to stagger backward and accidentally slammed the opened half-door right in the bear’s face. He roared in anger, his eyes lit up in crimson while his fur turned as dark as ash. All of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, as it became dark outside, and the timberwolf howls could be heard in the distance.

“Oooookay, now it looks like Fluttershy’s nightmare,” the rainbow-maned pegasus quipped at the least appropriate moment.

“Errrr… Fluttershy, what do we do to calm them down now?” Pinkie Pie asked as she and the rest of the mares slowly backpaddled into the opposite direction, as the savage creatures of the night slowly approached them.

“There’s nothing that can be done! EVERYPONY RUUUUN!” she screamed and ran up the stairs.

The rest of the group didn’t bother thinking of an alternative to the situation. They immediately bolted after the shy pegasus.

“Quick! Get in!” she urged, as she held the door to her room open, letting her friends inside, before shutting them close, and began to pile up the furniture against the door.

Twilight’s horn glowed, enveloping the large objects throughout the room and pushing them against the door. “There, will that hold them out?”

“It will,” the yellow pegasus nodded. “For about ten seconds!”

“WHAT?” her friends yelled.

Soon the bashing against the door began, the bear’s sharp claws tore through the wood with ease, and through the hole in the blockade, the sinister eyes could be seen.

“We’re trapped!” Rarity screamed. “We’ve got ourselves stuck in a dead-end!”

Tempest walked in front of the group. “We can always go down fighting,” she said, her horn beginning to flicker.

“NO!” Fluttershy protested. “They’re innocent creatures! You can’t hurt them!”

“Well, what are we supposed to do then?! Wait for the end?!” the blue pegasus made an angry remark.

The princess looked around the room and soon got an idea. “Everypony, stick together, quick!”

They all looked at each other in confusion for a moment, but then huddled together in the end. The alicorn’s horn lit up, and everybody got enveloped by a magical aura. She turned and dashed for the window, pulling the group with her.

CRASH!

Twilight and her friends flew out of the house and up into the sky.

“Hey! Why does everything look like it’s Nightmare Night?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Chapter 34: At the Heart of Fear...

A full moon hung in the night sky, yet even though it illuminated the land below, the darkness did not fully disappear, in fact, it only enhanced the terror. Twilight levitated the whole group over the sky, away from Fluttershy’s cottage, landing on the road in the distance. But the night horrors would soon crawl out of the house in hot pursuit of them, their red eyes being visible.

“Everypony, quick! Into the bushes!” she ordered.

“No! Not the bushes!” the yellow pegasus protested.

“Why not?”

Just as the princess stuck her hooves into the bushes to part them, hundreds of tiny eyes lit up and then flapped away, while letting out ear-wrenching screeches.

“Then we go up the tree branches!” the wonderbolt urged, and she started to climb it.

“No! You can’t go up the tree either!” was the response that came out.

All of a sudden, a pair of branches on the tree bent and warped around Rainbow Dash, holding her up, being unable to do anything as she watched how the bark on the tree began to shift about, until it twisted and opened red glowing eyes, part of the trunk split open, creating a snapping maw, about to devour the pegasus who could do nothing but flail about. A pink beam shot from Twilight’s horn, burning off the tree’s hands and having her friend fall on her hooves, but it didn’t end yet. The animated plant roared, and the remaining trees surrounding it also sprouted glowing eyes and maws, their roots began to move as the trees uprooted themselves and started to crawl after the group of ponies. They ran; that’s the only option they had, to run as fast as possible from the increasing number of pursuers, that kept growing each time they tried to lose them through concealment, as the local flora and fauna came to life and began chasing them.

They eventually stopped in front of a sinister dark cave. “NAH!” they all collectively reacted.

“I hate to ask the obvious,” Tempest stated, “but is there ANYTHING your friend here ISN’T afraid of?”

“Tempest darling, I think that’s the wrong question to ask,” the fashionista said before turning to the yellow pegasus. “Fluttershy, is there any place at all where it’s safe?”

She was silent for a moment before speaking. “Well… emmm… under my bed…”

Rainbow Dash’s brow rose. “Fluttershy, did you just use self-deprecation? I might have laughed if the situation wasn’t serious.”

“But I am serious,” the timid equine urged, “it’s my safe space! That’s where I’ve been hiding from nightmares until you girls came.”

The alicorn gave her a surprised look. “Wait… Fluttershy, if that’s the case why didn’t you say anything when we were back at the cottage?!”

“Well... you told us to get together and then pulled us all through the window before I could say anything…” she explained, causing the princess to bury her face in her hooves.

“Fat thing that’s gonna help us now!” the wonderbolt complained. “Those creatures of nightmare are infesting it now and there’s no way for us to get back in.”

“Not sure how that helps, considering a whole lot of the creepers are chasing after us, Dashy,” the party planner pointed out.

That’s when Twilight realized Pinkie Pie had a point. The entire nightmare world was at their heels, meaning that the animals also left the house, a moment of opportunity they could not waste.

Just then, the noise of the incoming monstrosities could be heard approaching fast. “Everypony,” she commanded, “back to the cottage!”

They ran as fast as they could, the sound of darkness that stalks the night fast approaching. At this point, the group had already gone full circle, which became apparent when Fluttershy’s cottage came in sight once more. In a matter of moments, they ran through the front door, with Applejack shutting them close.

“That’s not gonna stop them, AJ!” blue pegasus yelled when she was on the other end of the room, about to go upstairs with the rest.

Sure enough, loud banging followed, and the country pony ran after the rest, while the creatures broke down the door. They got upstairs, with the entrance into the bedroom being broken down, and everybody stopped at the only supposed “safe place”.

Fluttershy quickly slipped under the bed, while the others waited outside before she came back. “Quick, everypony! Get under here!”

They looked at each other confusingly and then one after another crawled under the bed, even Zecora didn’t bother to think twice about it. However, …

“You’re not being serious about this are you?” Tempest questioned their decisions. “What in the world makes you think they’re not gonna look for us under there?”

A roar was coming up the stairs, the broken unicorn quickly turned and her horn began to spark, yet before she could even use it, the yellow pegasus popped her head out from underneath the bed, grabbed her hind hooves, and dragged her in. Pulled through the dark, narrow, yet soft corridor, she finally saw the light at the very end, and the pegasus let her go. Tempest was about to make a very serious complaint with what she’s just been put through only to notice everybody else just staring with dropped jaws, and she would soon join them. Fluttershy wasn’t kidding about her “safe space”; there was an entire room existing under her bed, walls made of giant stuffed toys, a giant lantern sat in the middle, generating a light source, and the side was stacked with all sorts of food, from carrots to peanut butter.

A sigh of relief came from the group’s side. “We should be safe now, everypony. Make yourself at home while we wait for all of this to blow over,” Fluttershy said, as she flew to a giant teddy bear and snuggled up to it for comfort, only to realize that everybody else was still just standing in place with open mouths and confused looks. “What’s wrong, everypony?”

“F… Fluttershy… what is all this?” Rainbow Dash finally spoke, with a noticeable confused tone.

“I told you: it’s my safe space,” she reiterated, “I stay here so the horrors outside can’t get me.”

“B-b-but that’s not possible, Fluttershy! We were all trapped in our worst nightmares, with King Sombra using them to torment us all!” Rarity stressed out.

“Yeah, how are you able to escape to some quiet place where the nightmares can’t hurt you?” Applejack inquired.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just wanted to retreat to a safe place where nothing could scare me, and this is the place to where I always went for Nightmare Night.”

The shaman rubbed her chin. “Fluttershy, if I understand you right, by thinking about it your safe place appeared in sight?”

“I… I guess?” she answered.

Twilight thought for a moment and then gasped at the realization. “Fluttershy, that’s absolutely good news!”

“It… it is?” the meek pegasus asked.

“Of course! The only way for you to escape this nightmare world is to know that it’s just a nightmare and it doesn’t hold control over you!”

Fluttershy was quiet for a moment. “But Twilight… I already know this is a nightmare… It’s a nightmare I have to live with every day…”

“But you just said that you wanted to be in a safe place and you made it happen.”

“Yes, but I can’t affect things that are…” she paused. “Out there.”

“You’re wrong, Fluttershy,” Rarity chipped in. “If you already know this is a nightmare, then instead of fleeing from it, you should embrace it.” Everybody turned to the fashionista, confused by what she was saying. “Don’t give me that look. Surely you recall the time when Fluttershy chose to step out of her comfort zone and be a part of the Nightmare Night?”

“Oh yeah,” the country pony recalled, “Ah remember you’ve given us all a darn good scare, Fluttershy.”

“Yes,” the yellow pegasus replied, “and I said I would never participate in it again because I don’t like seeing my friends be in danger.”

The fashionista approached her side. “We know Fluttershy, but I fear this is the point where you’ll have to step out of your comfort zone again. Because if you don’t, not only will you forever have to live in this nightmare, but we can’t leave this place either.”

Pinkie Pie hopped to her side. “And who knows what nasty things Chrysalis and Grogar will do if we’re left forever trapped here.”

Soon the rest of the group joined her side, and she began feeling pressured. “But I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do…”

“I told you Fluttershy, if you become the very thing that’s causing you to be scared, then the thing that frightens you won’t be there anymore. So, instead of fearing the nightmare of this world, you should BECOME the nightmare of this world,” the white unicorn explained.

“Yeah,” Twilight added, “just think, the same way you did to make your safe space appear, and it will work.”

There was a visible unease in her expression, but with the look of desperation on her friend’s faces, Fluttershy quickly gave in. “Okay… I’ll try…” She closed her eyes. Some time passed and everybody waited, looking at her, noticing a strain on her face, before she finally stopped. “I… I’m sorry everypony, but I just can’t do it. I can’t imagine myself becoming something dark and sinister as… whatever is out there…”

Things have turned troublesome; she was the one person who could make the whole thing come to an end, and she couldn’t muster the will required.

Zecora finally stepped out of the circle of friends. “Then perhaps you need some assistance, to lift the block that’s causing you resistance.” The shaman opened her bags and pulled out a small vial filled with strange powder. “Fluttershy, close your eyes. Breathe in deep, and let my voice in you seep.” The rest of the gang backed away, while she followed her orders, and after she did, the zebra sprinkled the powder across her and her surroundings, while she spoke. “‘See the moon which hangs in the night sky, looking down upon the world as an eye. Feel the wind move the trees back and forth, flowing softly through your mane as it travels north. Listen to the water rushing, like avalanches’ might do its crushing. Your hooves trample the soil, mixing dust into rivers and making them roil. Embrace the embodiment of what this world provides, and realize all might to command it in you resides.”

Something strange happened. The color of Fluttershy’s fur began to darken, along with the rest of her body, until she looked like a shadow standing in the room, and then it began to shrink until she finally disappeared.

“Fluttershy?” the alicorn walked to where she stood and tapped at the empty ground. “Zecora, what did that dust do to her?!”

“No need to pout or frown,” she tried to reassure her, “only some incense to calm her down.”

“Sooooo… where did she go then?” Tempest asked.

They looked around the room, but in the end, their eyes ended up at the exit, that was the only way for them to go and look for her. They crawled through the narrow corridor and one after another popped their heads out from under the bed, realizing too late it was a bad idea, as the terrors have been waiting outside for them to turn up. They flipped the bed, and the “safe space” in which they had taken refuge had disappeared. The party planner shrieked and everybody huddled together, forcing the broken unicorn to climb on top of the pile, as she was determined not to go down without a fight. Her horn flickered, but just before she shot, the ground began to tremble.

“ENOUGH!” a loud booming voice echoed across the sky, causing the creatures in the dark to freeze in place out of fear.

Suddenly, the roof of the house got torn off, and the walls collapsed. A huge line of trees surrounded them all, rustling in the strong wind that blew, the sound of rushing water from the nearby stream deafening out all sound, and finally, the moon in the night’s sky… blinked. It suddenly turned to the side, revealing another moon, and the land extended to the sky, the treetops reached for the two celestial bodies, fusing together on their sides until it began resembling a mane, the stars arranged themselves into a line until they looked like a mouth and snout.

“Fluttershy…?” Pinkie Pie slowly said, too taken aback.

The dark creatures surrounding the group and those lurking outside the house were silent, and the booming voice spoke again, the stars resembling a mouth moving in tandem with the words that were spoken. “YOU’RE BEING VERY MEAN!”

The lumbering trees and bushes that had not turned into her mane quickly went still, their red glowing eyes going dark. The quake followed and the creatures surrounding the gang were lifted by a huge mount of earth that rose into the sky right in front of the gigantic face, its judging eyes peering directly at them.

“YOU ARE BEING SELFISH, ARROGANT, RUDE, AND EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT!” The creatures huddle together in fear on the far end of what was once a cottage. “AND ON TOP OF THAT… YOU’VE FRIGHTENED MY FRIENDS!” As the angry voice echoed, their dark colors began to fade away, their red eyes dimming, all of them returning to their original state, whimpering in complete terror. “YOU! ARE ALL! MEANIES!!!”

The ground quaked again, as the mound of earth rose further, raising the creatures and the gang to her face and at a high speed, seeming as if they were about the crash into the giant face.

“FLUTTERSHY NOOOO!” Twilight cried out in one last attempt, and she and the rest of the girls screamed in panic, covering their faces.

And then there was silence. They finally opened their eyes realizing they stopped only a few hooves away from the face and it was gently rocking back and forth for some reason, which became apparent when they looked to the far end of the house’s remains, where the creatures stood, and the surface of the face was slowly and gently rubbing against them, as they covered in fear.

“BUT REGARDLESS… I still love you all… even if you are meanies…” the booming voice in a matter of moments turned into a silky whispering wind.

And then the loud noise followed, as the animals began to cry loudly, from being shown kindness even after what they’ve done. A happy giggle escaped the giant amalgamation resembling the meek pegasus, and slowly the light began to break through the darkness, as the stars in the night’s sky expanded, eventually consuming everything around.

The veil shattered, turning into a shadowy horned equine, roaring loudly, and then it disappeared. As the light faded, the gang found themselves in the middle of the icy pegasus city of Ptolemya, discovering that their movements have been restricted, as the animal caretaker had her hooves wrapped around everybody’s necks, only to open her eyes and gasped, releasing them all.

“You did it, Fluttershy!” Applejack cheered.

“I gotta tell ya, you had me worried for a second there.” The wonderbolt wiped her brow in relief.

“Trust me, Rainbow Dash, I’m sure you’re not the only one,” the princess quipped.

“Are you feeling okay, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I… I think so…” she answered. “But I don’t ever wanna do something like this again.”

“I speak for all of us when I say none of us do,” Tempest answered.

“Still, I’m glad you all managed to get here,” the meek pegasus said in a brightened-up tone before she looked about inquisitively. “Where’s Discord?”

They all looked at each other awkwardly, before Twilight spoke. “Fluttershy… I’m afraid he’s not with us… and sadly… neither is Spike…”

“What?!” she raised her voice. “Where are they?!”

“We don’t know,” the country pony said, “that’s why we’re here, we’re hoping to find them in this city.”

Fluttershy was confused. “City? What city?”

That’s when she realized her surroundings. They were sitting in the middle of a large acropolis, which, much like the clouds that were seen in the distance, the ones from which this city was formed, were completely frozen solid.

“No need to fret, Fluttershy,” the party planner tried to cheer her up, “we’ll find Discord and Spike before you know it.”

The sound of hooves against the ice got their attention, as they saw the zebra walking away from them, and stopping on the edge of the building, looking over the land below. “If that is the case, we should spread around, going separate ways will help us cover more ground.”

They didn’t wait much after the shaman spoke. They split up throughout the ancient grounded frozen cloud city, combing it top to bottom. It was no easy task, however; Fluttershy and Twilight were the only ones who could fly, which gave the latter enough time to bring the former up to speed, but for the rest, they had to advance slowly as to avoid slipping on the unending frozen kingdom.

“DISCORD!” the yellow pegasus called above. “SPIKE!”

That’s all they heard throughout the entire time. Yet despite their best efforts, by the time they finally came around, turning up back at the acropolis, they all had the same thing to show.

“Nothing?!” the animal caretaker exclaimed. “None of you found anything?!”

“Whoa, calm down, suga’ cube,” Applejack tried to reason with her. “Ah know you’re worried, but losin’ your head over this won’t do you any good.”

“You don’t understand, Applejack! After what Grogar did to Discord… He’s so small, vulnerable, and weak he may not be able to survive in this place on his own, he’ll freeze!”

“Never mind Discord, what about poor little Spikey-wikey?” Rarity pitched in. “And I doubt Twilight would just sit idly by while he’s suffering.”

“Speaking of,” Pinkie Pie said, as she trotted about, “where is she?”

That’s when they all realized that the princess was nowhere in sight.

Near the entrance into the frozen kingdom, the sound of a stream could be heard. That’s what caught Twilight Sparkle’s attention, as, by all accounts, the whole place should have been frozen solid, but at this point, she was suspecting that the sound did not belong to water. Running through a dish-like canal, instead, was a familiar green liquid substance. The alicorn pulled out an empty vial from her backpack and drew some of the liquid. She then pulled out a vial that was already full and compared the samples. No matter how she looked, what was in both of them was the exact same thing. By now it’s become clear that the elements had no effect on it, since it was magical in nature, and it helped one of Turmoil’s aspects manifest. But the question still remained, where was it coming from?

“Twilight.”

The voice staggered her, nearly getting her to slip on the slippery ground, managing to get her balance back at the last moment. She turned her head and noticed the group gathered behind her.

“Twilight, what are you doing?” the wonderbolt inquired.

“I was looking for the boys, but when I couldn’t find anything I decided to check on what Radiant Hope mentioned in her journal,” she explained, levitating the vials before her. “See? It’s the same green substance. And it’s running in a stream even though everything around here is frozen.”

“Your confirmation aside, we’re still no closer to finding Spike and Discord, Twilight,” the fashionista pointed out.

“What other place is there left to go?” Fluttershy frantically urged. “They need help!”

Rainbow Dash put her hooves around her. “Fluttershy, slow down. Take deep breaths.”

The party planner raised an eyebrow. “Wow… if Dashy’s the one who has to say “slow down”, then things are really dire. Twilight, is there’s some other place that we can still go to check out?”

She rubbed her chin, then pulled the journal, and flipped through the pages, thinking perhaps the writer had some further clue on what happened next. The group watched then, as she turned the page one last time and then went still.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?” the country pony asked, noticing the concerned expression on her face.

She didn’t answer and instead read it out.

My exploration has yielded little so far, but one thing is certain: the kingdoms of Monoceria, Soiliana, and Ptolemya, all three cradles where the three pony tribes came from were here in the Frozen North, buried under a mountain of ice for years. I’ve heard windigos have devastated them, which caused the exodus that founded Equestria, and as result the Crystal Empire, but to such an extent, was something beyond my belief. Now there’s only one place left for me to go.

I returned to where my original trail led me, but this time around, the sound that was trying to turn me away before went silent. There’s this thought beginning to stir in the back of my mind that it was trying to turn me away on purpose, to force me to see everything else before this. But why? I honestly don’t know. My supplies are running low, but at this point, I’m confident that whatever awaits me next at the end of the last tunnel, will surely bore answers.

“And?” country pony awaited the answer.

“And that’s it.”

“Wait, what?” Rarity stressed. “There’s nothing else?”

“This was her last entry…” the alicorn answered. “The journal comes to an end after that…”

“But now we don’t know what happened next!” the party planner pointed out.

“Uh oh.”

Everybody’s head turned to where the voice came from, noticing that the wonderbolt was looking uncomfortable.

“Rainbow Dash, why did you just say that?” the yellow pegasus next to her asked.

“Because, Fluttershy, we both came to the same conclusion: we know where Radiant Hope’s trail met an occlusion.”

“You know about this other tunnel, Zecora?” Twilight inquired.

“Of course, it’s where we awoke. After the umbrum king brought us below, it’s where we found what remained of her, once alive long ago.”

“So, we all know where she ended up now,” the fashionista looked at the blue pegasus and the zebra. “Though I shudder to think what Radiant Hope has seen in her final moments.”

Applejack stepped in. “An’ since we searched this whole area top to bottom and found nothing, that means that both Discord and Spike can only be in that place now.”

The alicorn didn’t waste any time. She used her magic and levitated everybody up to the top of the broken entrance to make sure nobody would slip on ice while trying to scale up the decline. They would soon find themselves back at the all-too-familiar crossroads, and on their left, they finally saw the final tunnel, the same one from which the shaman and the wonderbolt retreated initially. The descent began, but soon the princess noticed somebody was staying behind, as the broken unicorn leaned against the edge of the icy wall.

“Tempest, what are you-?”

She shushed her, waving her hoof to the side. The alicorn pressed herself against the wall as well, as she approached her, and just like her, she waited. Then there was a tap as if a pebble had just landed on the ground, followed by heavy thuds and rocks being crushed, and then suddenly, it sounded as if there was a scramble, and the quiet followed. There was a tapping sound again, somewhat lighter this time, and it was slowly coming closer. Tempest gritted her teeth, her broken horn began to spark; whatever was following them, she’s going to catch it this time. She dashed around the corner, the lightning flickering from her head stump. The shadowy figure appeared around the corner and it screamed in fear. The former lieutenant stopped in her tracks, sliding on the icy ground for a few more hooves, enough for the light from her sparking horn to reveal the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked confused. “What are you doing back here? I thought you were already ahead of everypony.”

“M-me? No, I was just…” she yawned. “I was just feeling a bit tired and I decided to slow down a bit, you know?”

The two horned equines exchanged glances. “You’re procrastinating,” the taller one said.

“What?! No, I’m not!” she argued. “When did you ever know me to procrastinate?!”

She got enveloped in a pink aura and slowly levitated before them. “Look Rainbow Dash, I get that you’re not yet over what happened back in the Everfree Forest, but we can’t really wait on you to get over the fear of ice in this of all places.”

“No Twilight, I swear, it’s got nothing to do with that!” she cried as she got carried away into the tunnel.

Both purple mares rolled their eyes as they walked away, knowing they got worried for nothing and descended into the final tunnel. In the shadow where the wonderbolt was hiding, however, there was movement, a large black hulking bipedal mass of rocks slowly stepped out, a single teal glowing eye peeking from under the hood, around the corner.

“Well… talk about a close shave.”

“Where've you guys been?” the country pony asked, as the whole group waited further down the tunnel.

“Somepony got cold hooves,” the broken unicorn quipped, as the pony in question got levitated to their side.

She glared at her. “Not funny, Tempest!”

“Aww, don’t worry, Dashy,” Pinkie Pie got to her side, tossing a large blanket over her and squeezed her tight, “aunt Pinkie’s gonna make sure you’re all warm and toasty for the rest of the way.”

“Pinkie, knock it off! That's not it, it’s…!” the wonderbolt complained and then went silent.

She recognized where they were waiting, since, on the frozen floor, there was a patch of snow by the side of the tunnel wall, and the shaman stood next to it.

“We came to here, from our base, and dashing back we found Hope’s resting place,” Zecora announced. “We wouldn’t have strayed, had the whispers in the dark our direction not betrayed.”

“Whispers in the dark?” Fluttershy asked. “Like the one that Radiant Hope mention?”

“The same,” the zebra confirmed, “but much like she stated, the voices we heard back then dissipated.”

“Just like for her…” Twilight stated. “It seems the voice was driving her away as well until she came back full circle. But why?”

“Well, we’re not gonna find out by just standing around,” Tempest said as she began moving in front of the rest of the group. “And we still have the dragon and the dragon-esque guy to find.”

“Errr… Tempest, it’s draconequus,” the shy pegasus corrected her as she passed by.

They finally started moving again. They had expected to reach their destination soon, as it was the case last three times, but such was not the case, as the path seemed to extend far longer than they had expected, and soon, what little light there was, completely disappeared, forcing Twilight to conjure a light source. As they made their way further, they began noticing something strange was going on, however. The cold surrounding them had started to disappear, and the darkness was beginning to wane, yet in turn, a strange red hue was replacing it.

“Hey, anypony else feeling a bit warm right now?” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

“Ya know, now that ya mention it, it’s not as chilly as it felt earlier,” Applejack concurred.

“How’s that even possible?” Rainbow Dash looked confused. “I mean look at all the ice around us.”

Rarity stopped and approached the glistening wall, gently tapping on it. “Rainbow darling… That’s because this ISN’T ice… It’s all crystal.”

Everybody finally managed to take a proper look at their surroundings with that knowledge. The entire tunnel before them was made completely out of red crystal, one that looked suspiciously familiar. Suddenly, a sound followed, a cry of panic and terror echoed from the far end in the distance and it hit them like a gust.

“Discord!” the animal caretaker immediately recognized it and dashed down the corridor ahead of everybody.

“Fluttershy, wait!” the fashionista called and ran after her along with the rest of the gang.

But soon something else could be heard. It was a low weeping sound, and in the stampeding racket it escaped everybody else’s hearing, but one…

“SPIKE!” the alicorn yelped.

Her horn began to glow, the pink aura enveloping both her and her friends, her wings began to flap, and at a high speed, she dashed forward through the crystalized tunnel, dragging everybody else with her. Soon enough there was a strange glow visible in the distance, and the princess landed, making a squeaking sound as she slid on the crystalized flor, straight through the tunnel’s exit, the rest of the group sliding on the ground beside her.

“Ugh… Twilight, what’s gotten into you?” Rarity groaned as she poked her head out of the pile, her hat missing.

The rest finally righted themselves, but the yellow pegasus noticed something. “Oh my… Rarity, what happened to your-“

An elbow jab from the wonderbolt interrupted her. “Khm, Fluttershy! Ixnay on reygay anemay!”

“Rainbow Dash, I heard that!” The fashionista gave her a mean look.

“YOU GUYS!” Twilight yelled, silencing everybody. “Look…”

A great cavern made completely out of red crystal opened before them, and in the middle of it was a pond made out of the recognizable glowing green substance that the group was more than familiar with now, with a pair of pillars sticking out of it, almost touching the ceiling.

Feminine laughter echoed throughout the cavern all of a sudden. “Congratulations, children. You’ve reached the end of the line.”

The group stirred, their attention focused on the voice that rang all around the walls of the cavern.

"Twilight, what's that voice...?" the wonderbolt asked, her hooves making a low clattering sound as fear started to seep in.

"It's her, Rainbow Dash," the princess explained, remembering that the blue pegasus and the zebra were absent from what had happened. "The one that brought Sombra back... his mother."

"But do you know what I am, child?" the voice spoke ominously since it clearly heard her speak.

“Mother of Fear, that's the only name I know you by,” the princess stated before proceeding to ask. “Where are Spike and Discord? I know Sombra has them trapped in the veil of nightmares just like we were. Where are they?”

“The dragon and the draconequus?" the voice responded. “Oh, my child is overseeing their torment… personally.”

The pair of pillars suddenly got lowered, almost to the pond’s surface, allowing its glow to illuminate the two figures on them. On the left one was a small curled-up ball of purple scales and green spines, desperately struggling not to weep and failing, while on the other, a serpent-like amalgamation of various animal parts, twitching and twisting, while making incoherent noises.

“SPIKE! DISCORD!” the alicorn and the pegasus were first to react.

“YOU MONSTER! RELEASE POOR SPIKEY-WIKEY AT ONCE!” the white unicorn yelled.

“Sorry… But what’s happening to them now is out of my control,” the voice spoke. “The wicked child is especially invested into these two, who have caused him the most grief imaginable. One an infant of two worlds, yet fitting in neither, and the other, an abominable creation who lives in constant dread of his maker’s spite. And he’s going to make sure that their eternal punishments are especially fitting.” The room suddenly shook and small pillars began to rise from the pond until they connected between the two platforms and the bank where the group was standing. “However, you know how the game is played by now: break into one nightmare and free the victim, while the other will only get more difficult. Do not worry, I’ve suppressed the child’s nightmare veil range so you won’t immediately get enveloped by it, but what follows next is all up to you… which one will you save first?”

It was toying with them. The Mother of Fear saw this whole thing as just a game. But that made Twilight wonder why was it doing this. Wasn’t the one who created Sombra supposed to help him? Why were they given a chance to save them in the first place? Something didn’t add up. But it didn’t matter at the moment why, a far more serious decision stood before them, and it was clear that the rest of the mares were in the same predicament. How could they possibly pick one over the other? The alicorn, however, already knew where she had to go, she instinctively moved in the direction of her little companion.

“Twilight?” the meek pegasus was the first to respond.

She stopped on the pillar line above the pond. “I understand this isn’t an easy choice. Regardless of who we choose, not only will Sombra’s hold over the other one get stronger, it will also prolong the suffering of the one that’s left…” Her head turned, and everybody noticed the expression of distress on her face. “But I can’t just watch Spike be like this…”

Nobody said a word, letting the princess proceed on her trail, and soon the rest of them lined up to follow her. Fluttershy was the last one remaining on the bank, her gaze trailed back to draconequus who was still twitching and turning; all she could do was let out a suppressed whimper, and then slowly followed the rest of her friends. They waited patiently for her to join them on the lowered pillar, but it was difficult to simply stand by and watch the little dragon curled up in a fetal position and crying. Twilight was determined to put an end to it.

“Everypony ready?” she asked, awaiting a response; they all nodded. “Alright… Don’t worry Spike. We’re coming.” She walked forward, disappearing into the veil of shadow, the rest of the mares following her.

The sun was shining and the birds were singing, everywhere around, ponies were happily going about their business without a care in the world. The group recognized the place they ended up at - Ponyville.

“Okay, let’s start the countdown…” the broken unicorn said, everybody else giving her a look of confusion.

“Countdown? To what, Tempest?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We all know how this works: it’s all rainbows and sunshine, and a few seconds later it turns dark and dreary.”

“Tempest darling, I understand that the last few hours have been moody, to say the least, believe you me, but you can’t just predict how things will… play… out…?” Rarity voiced her disbelief, but it would be quickly shut down as her attention was grabbed by a sudden appearance of shadow above her.

Giant winged bodies cloaked the sky in perpetual darkness, turning the atmosphere black, and then they descended, crashing into the town below.

“Thanks for jinxing it, Rares…” Applejack responded.

They watched as a multitude of huge dragons descended upon the settlement, grabbing hold of structures, ripping them off the ground, and taking them along.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Ponies were panicking all around, but that shriek was unbelievably loud. “Jeez Rarity, I know this is unpleasant to watch but there’s no need to raise your voice. It’s just a nightmare, remember?” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

“Pinkie darling, that wasn’t me…”

“That was clearly your voice, so who was it then if not you?” the wonderbolt wondered.

The same shriek repeated itself, causing everybody to look in the air. One of the dragons was carrying the Carousel Boutique in his clutches, and a white, purple-maned unicorn was sticking out of its windows, flailing about and screaming.

“Okay, I have to say this feels really surreal…” the said mare commented, watching herself being taken away.

The mares watched across the sky, seeing the winged beasts pass by, all the way to a familiar-looking mountain peak in the distance, where they all seemed to be disappearing. “Talk about a déjà vu,” the country pony commented.

“Where are they taking everything?” Fluttershy questioned.

Twilight’s horn began to glow. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

In a flash, they all disappeared and reappeared on top of the mountain with which they were familiar, yet the moment they rematerialized they lept into cover behind a pile of rocks as they saw dragon after dragon land at the mouth of the cave and entered it, carrying their freshly acquired loot. The princess motioned to follow, as they sneaked inside. Dragons were gathered here; those emptyhanded stood by the side, while those carrying things walked forward and then stopped in front of a wall. A strange sound was in the air as if something was being ground above them, only to notice that the ceiling inside the cave was full of black clouds. The grinding sound stopped and a pair of red eyes with a green glow appeared from the impenetrable dark. Suddenly, huge black armored claws reached down to where one of the dragons stood, holding what looked like Sapphire Dance Studio, and it snatched it from his grasp, pulling it all back into the clouds.

The grinding sound resumed, and soon after a deep dark voice spoke. “Tasty…”

The dragon bowed and moved to the side with the rest. The next dragon came forth, holding one of the spires of the castle of the Crystal Empire, raising it before the wall, the black claws reached from the clouds and pulled it up again, followed by a grinding sound.

“Delectable…” it said, and the dragon moved to the side.

The mares hid behind the rocks, watching the ceremony play out. “What in tarnation are they feeding all that junk to?” Applejack wondered.

The shaman listened to the grinding sound and watched the remains of the structure fall to the ground. “I’ll be honest with you, without harshness, I shudder to think what’s hiding up in the darkness.”

“I know making a joke at a moment like this would be most inappropriate, but you’ve got to admit, whoever or whatever it is, seems to have a good taste,” the fashionista spoke.

“Oooooooooh… That would explain why your house is next, Rarity,” the party planner spoke.

Her head turned at the drop of a word, and she saw a large purple dragon come next in line, holding Carousel Boutique in his grasp. He lifted it above his head, and the giant dark claw reached for it from the obscure area, clutching it in his grip, causing the part of the shop’s exterior to break. The white unicorn was about to shriek at the sight, but at the last moment, her friends quickly silenced her by putting their hooves over her mouth. The structure was dragged into the clouds above, and the grinding sound proceeded… then it stopped, a cough followed, and all of a sudden, the building fell through the clouds and crashed against the floor, almost fully destroying it in the process.

“You,” the sinister voice ordered from above, “come closer.”

The dragon nervously rubbed his claws as he stepped closer before the wall. In a quick motion, the large black armored claw reached through the dark clouds and swiped him, sending him flying a few feet back. The dragons that stood by the side quickly burst into laughter.

“I am the most powerful creature in all of the land,” the voice boomed, “I ordered that I was brought the most desirable looking things for my enjoyment… And you bring me DRESSES?! WHAT KIND OF A PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A DRAGON ARE YOU?!”

He crawled on the floor, and the mares saw on the expression that the dragon in question had - he felt shamed and belittled. Something was off though, he looked familiar for some reason. It wasn’t until Rarity finally managed to get back up from being piled on by everybody else, that she noticed it too. She remembered a giant purple dragon with large green spikes that once kidnapped her, a creature born out of ravenous insatiable greed, the only difference this time was that he had wings. Yet she knew exactly who it was.

“Spikey-wikey?”

Author's Note

There we go ladies and gentlemen, the final chapter of the year.
I know the Crystal Empire arc has been going for a long time now, but rest assured, it will be coming to an end soon, now that the pieces have been set.

Chpater 35: ... there is only torment

Failure. He failed again. He had tried so hard, and it wasn’t good enough. Thinking as far back as he could remember, regardless of how hard he tried to do something right, anything to please him, he failed time and again, and as always, he paid the price for it. His peers laughed at him, and despite being bigger than them, he felt incredibly small and inadequate. What? What would it take him to make his existence finally have meaning and not be regarded as being worthless than all? To be finally recognized as an equal?

“Spikey-wikey?”

A voice! It did not belong to a dragon, it was too small and squeaky. His head turned, eyes searching the direction from which it came and located small shapes moving, he crawled closer but he could not see them clearly in the shadow of the cave, for some reason his vision was dim.

“Spike, what’s happened to you?” another shape spoke to him.

It knew his name for some reason. But how? Not even the dragons would refer to him by his name.

“SERVANT!”

He shivered. His master's voice called him. He turned, looking up into the dark fog that clouded the ceiling before bowing.

“What have you got there?” the deep voice above asked.

He stepped aside. The shapes turned their heads to where the voice was coming from.

After a moment of silence, the deep voice above spoke again. “Aaaaah… the unwelcomed guests have managed to sneak in unannounced… and I’m already tired of their presence. Servant!” the voice called, garnering the purple dragon’s attention. “Dispose of them, and perhaps I might overlook your mishap just now.”

This was it, his chance to redeem himself to the master, even the slightest bit of recognition and respect would be enough. He turned to the shaded figures and raised his claws against them.

“Spike, what are you doing?!” one of them cried.

He didn’t respond to the shades, bringing down his claws on them. They scattered, each running in their direction. He chased after the nearest one that seemed to be flying just above the ground, screaming. The rest of the dragons said nothing and only moved aside as he rushed after the tiny shadow, much to his detriment, as he inevitably crashed into them, causing them all to tumble, after which he lost her. He climbed out of the pile, looked about the cave, and found another tiny shade, chasing immediately after her. It zig-zagged rapidly between other dragons, and this time around he simply forced through them, knocking them to the side so this one wouldn’t escape him. Then he saw another little shade, standing in his way, unmoving, even as the one he was chasing ran past it. He slowed down, unsure that it was planning, and suddenly light began to flicker from her head, growing brighter.

Out of nowhere another shade flew in and tackled the one in front of him. “Tempest, no! Don’t hurt him!”

“Oh, come on! We can’t keep running forever and waiting for something to turn up!” it answered.

“Yes, we can!” the other one responded.

He lunged himself at them, and the flying one quickly picked up the one that was grounded and they flew away, only for him to give chase. He trailed them throughout the cave, until he suddenly staggered, stopping on the spot, as something was stabbing him in the foot, noticing a board sticking out of it, plucking it out. He realized he was standing by the wall where his master lurked above in the shadows, and he’s just walked past the remains of “the gift” he had given to him and was rejected. Suddenly, there was a movement coming from the remains of the Carousel Boutique. One of its walls finally levitated, and a figure crawled out of it. It was a pony, a unicorn mare to be precise, her coat was pristine white, her elegant purple mane curled up, and her blue enrapturing eyes, even though in the dim lighting, sparkled like precious gems. To the dragon, she was absolutely enticing, the most beautiful creature he has ever seen… which is why what followed hurt all the more.

Their eyes met and she let out a high-pitched scream, throwing the huge piece of the building she was holding straight into his face, causing him to topple to the ground. “YOU BEAST!”

He reeled from the pain, especially after realizing a large board was sticking out from his snout. But how? His scales were hard, even from the stub earlier, it felt like it was more of a nuisance, but this… it genuinely hurt.

“You’ve just crushed my home! My livelihood!” the mare screamed and threw another piece of the wreckage at the dragon.

He felt pain again. Her words of scorn accompanied by the projectiles tossed in anger actually hurt him.

“I’ve slaved years of my life on my pride and joy and you’ve destroyed it in a matter of seconds!” she yelled again, followed by a flying piece of her home.

More and more words followed, accompanied by debris. The dragon couldn’t handle it. It hurt so much, he curled up, covering his face in hopes it would help, but it didn’t. The pain felt from her words was simply too much, he began to shed tears.

Finally, the mare raised the huge pile, all that was left of her house, and lifted it over her head. And although it wasn’t bigger than the dragon’s head, to him it looked like it was the size of a moon.

“I’m never going to forgive you for this! YOU MONSTER!!!” she finally yelled, and the planetary-body-sized remains flew in the dragon’s direction.

This was it. No way he was going to survive this. He huddled together in a fetal position, tail and all, still covering his face and closing his eyes, preparing for the inevitable end… one that would not come. He waited, and after a while nothing happened, finally forcing himself to take a peek. The wreckage was flying in front of his face but did not move. It was wrapped in both pink and light blue aura, and that’s when he noticed a pair of shades he was chasing in front of him, colorful auras emitting on top of their heads.

“Don’t you dare badmouth…” the first shade spoke, only to be overtaken by the second one, “… or lay a hoof on the poor little Spikey-wikey! FAKING NIGHTMARE!!!”

The remains of the building flew across the air, and crashed right into the pristine white unicorn, leaving no response in the aftermath.

One of the shades turned and approached him, tapping a limb on his snout. “Spike, are you okay? Say something.”

Why? He was trying to hurt them, why were they helping him? Soon six more shapes came out of hiding and joined them.

“Of course, he’s not fine. Look at that nasty splinter on his nose, the poor little guy,” the other shade next to the first spoke.

That voice… he recognized it. He heard it earlier. Yet instead of spewing vile words that hurt, it was smooth and soothing to hear.

“Let’s remove it together, Rarity,” the first shade answered, followed by the second’s response. “Let’s, Twilight.”

Twilight… Rarity… he remembered those names, their voices. Suddenly, the fog clouding his sight began to dissipate. As the aura surrounded the board that stuck out of his snout to remove it, the shapes became more and more clear. First, he saw a white unicorn with glamorous purple hair, with a grey streak running through it, then a purple alicorn he had known all his life, a yellow pegasus gently rubbed his face with great care, accompanied by a pink puffy-maned pony, along with an orange country girl, and lastly a blue, rainbow-maned pegasus, while the last two shades revealed themselves to be a too familiar zebra and a purple broken unicorn. He finally remembered again. After a moment, the “splinter” finally got dislodged, yet he felt no pain, even though he shed tears; he was simply filled with joy to see them again.

“Spike, do you remember us?” the princess of friendship asked.

He slowly opened his mouth to speak in a tone that was hardly his own. “Twi-“

“SERVANT!” the voice thundered from above.

Suddenly, a chain materialized from the dark clouds, running all the way to the purple dragon, until an iron collar formed around his long neck and then got yanked back, smashing him against the wall.

“SPIKE!!!” all the mares screamed in shock.

“I have given you an order to dispose of the vermin, servant,” the deep voice angrily spoke, “and you can’t even do that right? You’re an absolutely pathetic excuse for a dragon!”

A large armored black claw suddenly reached through the darkness in the cave ceiling, going for the purple dragon. Twilight didn’t wait for a second, flying to intercept, casting a shield to form around Spike, causing the large claw to bash against it.

“Well, isn’t this humiliating? Vermin are protecting you now? How embarrassing,” the claw's owner spoke as the limb hung about.

“SHUT UP! Spike is not yours to torment, King Sombra!” the alicorn angrily responded.

Laughter followed. “Oh, you are wrong, Princess Twilight. I have EVERY RIGHT to torment your friend.”

“Oh yeah?!” Rainbow Dash shook her hoof in anger at the darkness above. “And who the hay do you think you are?!”

The mountain suddenly shook, and the mares watched anxiously as a pair of red green-glowing eyes lit up, while their friend cowered in fear, covering his eyes. A huge body descended from the shadows upstairs, almost twice the size of the purple dragon. It was covered in grey scales, turning black as it reached the tip of its tail, armor cladding the legs, arms, and neck, the red royal cloak on its back extending into equally crimson wings, a steel crown stilling on top of its head, with a black mane that flowed as if it were vapor, and a huge red horn sitting between red green-glowing eyes, purple smoke escaping through its nostrils and mouth. It was uncanny how, despite being a completely different species, he still resembled his pony form.

“I am his lord,” Sombra spoke, “his DRAGON LORD.”

He cackled loudly, only to be interrupted by a flash under him. He noticed a purple light emanating from the princess of friendship but was unable to react in time as a large beam was shot at him, raising particles and obscuring his presence. Even the other mares realized just now that their friend has initiated the first strike.

“Well, I’m surprised, Twilight,” Tempest said, “I thought I’d be first to provoke a conflict.”

She glanced at her. “After how he derogated Spike, words are the last thing I want to exchange with him.”

“I’m not sure that did anything good, Twilight darling,” Rarity commented.

There was a flapping sound in the air. On a third one, the particles were blown away by Sombra’s giant wings, revealing him to be unfazed by her opponent’s actions.

“Huh… you know if I had felt any of that it might have actually tickled.”

“Wha- ho- you didn’t even flinch?!” The alicorn was confused. “I put everything into that attack!”

The king laughed. “I’m the most powerful creature in all the land, princess. Nothing in this world can harm me, not even you.” He glanced at the cowering chained purple dragon beside him. “And he believes- no, he knows that I am. And as long as he does, you cannot do a thing to me.”

He flat out spelled it out for them. Of course, it would make sense that Spike’s nightmare was fueling the very creature that was casting it. The rules haven’t changed, he just needed to muster the willpower to break free.

“Spike, snap out of it!” the princess called out to him, and the other elements would join her. “Don’t let him bring you down, Spikey-wikey! Yeah, turn that frown upside-down. We’re here for you, Spike! We believe in you, Spike! Give that fake scaley what for!”

Yet despite all the cheering, the purple dragon would still cower, leashed to the self-proclaimed lord of dragons, who merely cackled in response. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, ponies, but no amount of coddling will fix his predicament. I fear your friend has been… BROKEN.”

That final word that the scaled colossus before them said, lingered in the air, taking a while before Twilight finally made a response. “What… what do you mean “broken”? What did you do to him?!”

“A better question would be “what haven’t I done”. So many unfortunate memories, so much shame, regrets, humiliations… funny enough, the last one seems to be stemming from a certain creature he was well acquainted with, and knowing that, the other one’s already paying the price for the grievances he’s caused all of you, caused even to me. This one was easy to crack though, for one memory that burdens him, one of which he’s truly ashamed of was when he looked like this. The one thing that is constantly hanging over his head is the cluelessness, the obliviousness of what he’s supposed to be, what it’s expected of his species. Now, imagine having to re-experience your life’s failures, lowest moments, your shortcomings, and all of your greatest fears, and repeat that numerous times to the point that it feels eternal… well, with the latter I’m sure you’re all familiar.” He grinned, and they all scowled in response to him bragging about what he’s put them through. “I have broken your little friend, ponies. He is destined to forever live in the shadow, always remembering all his failures, only gazing upon what he will never be, constantly tormented by his younger peers and plagued by the knowledge, that he will never be a real dragon like me!”

The “dragon lord” laughed, and all the other dragons laughed with him, causing the mountain to shake. And if what he said was true, then they were faced with a predicament. They all managed to overcome their nightmares through clever arguments to convince the prisoners, but this? They never had to deal with somebody who has already relegated himself to his fate. Twilight especially couldn’t believe this was happening to her lifelong companion. If the umbrum king was telling the truth, then her little brother had already abandoned all hope, he has resigned himself to forever be an eternal incompetent servant of his dragon lord… Something triggered in the princess's mind. What she just said… no, what Sombra had said, there was a sense of wrong in his words. She may have a small chance that this could work, but she had to try.

“You’re wrong, Sombra,” she spoke loudly.

The laughter quieted down, the black dragon bend his head forward to his intruders. “Oh really? Do tell, princess, how am I wrong?”

The alicorn inhaled. “Look, I’m not gonna pretend that Spike is perfect.” She turned her head to her friends. “Heck, I’m sure all of us can remember whenever he royally messed things up. Like that time when the Crystal Empire held the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, and I was so tired that he replaced me, and caused the entire city go up in anger while I took a nap.”

“Or that time when he stole Opalescence's toy mouse, because he was so jealous, thinking Owlowiscious would replace him, and then destroyed it, trying to pin the blame on him,” the white unicorn added.

“Or when he gave you a magical book that made you go all nutty and ruin somepony’s birthday party,” Pinkie Pie popped up from behind her, making her roll her eyes.

“Or the cringy performance at the Equestria Games,” Rainbow Dash snickered.

“Or when he was so desperate to repay me for saving his life that he made things hard on the farm for me,” the country pony pitched in.

“Or… emmm…” the shy pegasus tried to find words. “When he turned… well, into that.” She pointed at the purple dragon.

He clinched in shame, they all remembered it, yet his current predicament didn’t allow him to literally shrink in shame.

By the side, meanwhile, the shaman and the former lieutenant watched. “Are they trying to help him, or turn him into a doormat to walk on?” the broken unicorn commented.

The zebra glanced at her. “Nothing to worry about, Princess Twilight will sort it out.”

The black dragon was unamused, however. “Well, now you’re just taking all the fun out of it. I’m the one who’s supposed to be degrading him, not you. What’s the point?”

“The point is, King Sombra,” she turned her head to face him and addressed him, “is that we recognize that he is flawed. But then again so are we, there are a lot of things all of us have done that we’re not proud of… yet despite that, something we can be proud of regardless… is Spike. Me especially. From the moment he hatched from his egg he was by my side every day of my life, he was somepony I could rely on, he was my little brother, and looking back on it now, he was the closest thing I had to a friend before I moved to Ponyville and I wasn’t even aware of it. And time and again he was the voice of reason when all sanity seemed to have disappeared. Not to mention, his achievements are not something one can forget.”

“Yeah! Even after he embarrassed himself at the Equestria Games in front of a huge audience, he singlehandedly saved a whole stadium from certain doom,” the blue pegasus pointed out.

“I know he messes things up when doing them, even when he’s not used to it, but even then, he always cares a great deal,” the shy pegasus spoke up.

The fashionista moved forth. “He made friends with Thorax, who ran away from Chrysalis and convinced the crystal ponies to accept him, even at the cost of his heroic reputation…”

The party planner hopped on top of her. “And he then showed other changelings that they don’t have to steal love to survive.”

“And whenever any of us are at the end of our wits, he’s always there to keep us grounded,” the country pony said.

“And most importantly,” his sister finished, “in case you’ve forgotten, he was the one who managed to take the Crystal Heart from your grasp.”

“PURE TECHNICALLITY!” the dragon lord raised his voice. “Had Princess Amore’s “replacement” not been there to snatch him away, my victory would’ve been assured. And HE knows now! Regardless of how much you try to blow up his accomplishments, he will only ever live in my shadow, and never be a real dragon!”

The other dragons around the cave cheered loudly in his triumph.

“But you’re not a real dragon, Sombra,” the princess interrupted.

“Excuse me…?” Immediately, all of the dragons went completely silent when their leader spoke.

His wings flapped, causing a strong gust that ran through the cave. They beat for the second time, and Twilight had to create a protective bubble around everybody so they wouldn’t be blown away. On the third and final wing flap, the entire mountain broke into pieces, blowing it asunder, along with the other dragons being swept away, leaving nothing in place, but the seat of a spire upon which he was lounging before he descended.

“Look upon me, puny creatures!” he boasted. “My stomps will cause the earth the tremor, the beat of my wings will cause the storms to roar, weapons will break upon my scales, my breath will set the land ablaze… and my cravings are insatiable. I am the most perfect embodiment of EVERYTHING a dragon is supposed to be!”

“You say that. But that’s not what dragons are,” Twilight denied. “And honestly, I do not blame you for having such a narrow view of them.”

Something odd happened then. The black dragon tilted his head, followed by a quick grumbling sound; he was genuinely confused with what she was talking about.

She inhaled. “We all thought that once. Ponies have always had little contact and as a result, information about the dragons. I mean who were we to blame? They’re huge, bad-tempered, greedy, selfish, and they never cared for anything that wasn’t dragon-related. Avoiding them completely was the best choice.” She looked at Spike. “And he experienced it first-hand. He saw how cruel they could be just for the heck of it. That’s the very reason why he always saw himself as being more of a pony than a dragon because if he had to choose between being kind and sensitive, or being what basically amounted to a monster, he would’ve always chosen the former. Better to be an outcast, than to be accepted by them.” She let the silence linger for a moment before she continued. “But Spike… he changed them.” She watched and noticed how the cowering purple dragon raised a gap between his hands, attention having been grabbed. “With an act of kindness, he showed Princess Ember, the REAL Dragon Lord, who too wanted to prove herself to her kind, that there’s more to being strong than just being big and brutish, he showed her the value of friendship. And through their connection, she started to change the dragons' outlook on the world, showing them that they can be more than what their environment had conditioned them to be. And they’ve shown great acts of kindness and selflessness. Their species was able to start changing for the better of all Equestria… simply because one of them believed that they can be better.”

They all saw him. They saw the purple dragon remove his cover, they all knew his lifelong companion had succeeded. There was no sign of shame on his expression any longer.

All that was required now was one final blow. “Face it, Sombra!” she loudly declared. “Spike is already more of a dragon THAN YOU WILL EVER BE!”

Despite being outside, there was a clear echo from what she just said. A shadow suddenly loomed over them. The “dragon lord” raised his claw and brought it down on the protective bubble without warning. On the impact, the ground shook, and the bubble was barely holding together.

“You insignificant little FLEAS!” he raged. “You DARE mock me when my power overshadows your own a thousand times over?!” he bashed the shield again, forcing Twilight to strain herself to keep it up. “Once your bubble bursts, I will crush you all into the ground, until there’s nothing left but a stain under my claws!!!”

With the third and final swing, the protection that the alicorn provided broke, and she collapsed from exhaustion. Her friends came to her side to assist her, but at that point, it was already too late. The umbrum king grinned, raising his claw one last time, and proceeded to bring it down, and in a last-ditch effort to stop him, Tempest shot a bolt of lightning at him, but it didn’t even phase him. She got pulled into the group as they all huddle together around Twilight, screaming out loud.

A sudden tremor followed and everything went quiet. The shaman opened her eyes after some time had passed, realizing nothing was happening and poked the alicorn to make her aware of the present situation. She saw the purple dragon, even though he was smaller than “his lord”, holding his giant claw from moving.

He turned his head to the side, realizing what had happened. “You… YOU dare to intervene, servant?!”

The smaller dragon didn’t answer at first, and what followed was a deep voice. “I. Am not. YOUR SERVANT!”

He gripped the black dragon with both of his hands, and dragged him along, beginning to spin him about, lifting him off the ground, before finally releasing his grip, launching him into his elevated throne, causing him to crash, and making it collapse on top of him in pieces, burying him under. He’s done it. He finally stood up to the nightmare that was tormenting him this entire time, and he felt a weight rolling off of him.

He turned to face his friends who were still huddled together, bending closer so he could meet them as face to face as he could. “You guys okay?”

A bright smile quickly lit upon his sister’s face. “You did it, Spike!”

“We were really worried for a moment,” the shy pegasus said.

“But seriously, he didn’t see it coming! One moment he was “Urrr! Big dragon smash!”,” the wonderbolt imitated before the party planner lept on her back. “And then he went “WHAM!”

“I’m just glad you’re okay, Spike. Unlike some of us…” the fashionista told him, twirling her grayed mane.

He turned his giant head to her. “You’re as beautiful as you ever were, Rarity.”

The compliment made the white mare blush.

“Y’all, I hate to spoil the celebration, but don'tcha think that something’s wrong?” Applejack pointed out.

“What are you talking about, AJ?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, Spike’s just beaten his nightmare, so by that logic, shouldn't this whole place be coming down by now?”

The country pony made sense. The veil should’ve dissipated by now yet they were still trapped, and their dragon friend was still in his giant size. So why wasn’t the illusion collapsing?

There was a rumble and movement where Spike had thrown his adversary, and in a matter of moments the rubble went flying everywhere, and the “dragon lord” rose again. “You little worm! You’re gonna pay for that act of defiance!”

“Okay, King Sombra, time for you to go!” the orange equine told him. “You’ve got no sway over Spike anymore, so skedaddle out of here!”

He let out a laugh. “Did you think it was going to be that easy, pony? The rules have changed, I fear. You lot managed to get out unscathed because my full attention was not set on you, but I’ve been here for so long now that I’ve anchored myself to the landscape of your friend’s mind.”

“Unscathed?!” Rarity raised her voice and waved her mane in his direction. “Does this look unscathed to you?!”

The black dragon began flapping his wings, creating a wind that blew the group off the ground, only being saved by Spike’s quick intervention as he got hold of them in his hands.

He slowly took off the ground. “The only way he can win now is by forcing me out, but that will never happen. I will break him AGAIN, and it will all come back to square one!” He flew off, grazing Spike’s spines and he flew into the air. “Now, “Spike the Brave and Glorious”, watch as the world around you collapses!”

As he reached the skies, his wings suddenly lit ablaze, leaving a trail of fire that obscured the sun’s presence, turning the world red. It then dived, crashing into the ground, causing the world to erupt in earthquakes, splintering the land, before he finally took off into the sky again. For everybody watching, it seemed like the end of the world was coming. The princess looked at her companion and based on the expression on his face determined, that his confidence was beginning to vain from what he was seeing. She had to stop him! If he sank back into his previous state again, then they will truly be doomed.

“Spike, listen!” she tried to get his attention. “Don’t pay attention to what he’s saying or doing, you have all the power you need to beat him!”

He looked at her, his deep voice giving off his feelings. “Twilight… I’m not sure I can best all of this…”

“Spike, he’s trying to demoralize you. He knows fully well that if you manage to fully regain control, he’s lost, that’s why he’s trying to look as unbeatable as possible right now. And if you remember from earlier, Sombra’s knowledge is limited, because he only looked for the worst things you remember, but not ALL of the things you remember. Use that to your advantage!”

“Twilight’s got a point, Spike!” Rarity added. “Remember, this is all happening in your mind, your imagination is the limit, something that he definitely has!”

He gazed into the sky, watching the black dragon slowly returning, then looking back at them. “Okay… I’ll try-“

“No!” the rainbow pegasus spoke. “No trying! JUST DO IT! We don’t have time for trying!”

He gave a nod, and then slowly placed them on the ground before turning and flying off, leaving them atop the broken mountain that seemed to be the only safe place from the cataclysm around them. That’s all they could do. They sat there and watched as the clash of titans happened, the black “dragon lord” fighting against their friend that he had tried to subdue. Yet it seemed that King Sombra had the upper hand in the end, as he managed to get behind him, grabbed him by the wings, and then took a dive dragging him along, before slamming him into the earth, causing an earthquake and raising a cloud of dust.

“SPIKE!” the mares screamed on top of the mountain in concern.

By the time it settled, the black figure was standing over his smaller opponent, holding his neck between his claws. “This is the end, servant,” Sombra bragged as he sat on top of his opponent. “Any last words before I put the leash back on you?”

“I… just have…” Spike struggled to speak. “One… question…” He suddenly felt the grip around his neck loosen; it seemed that the umbrum king was willing to humor him one last time, something he was going to regret. “Did you read the Power Ponies comic issue 102, where they faced off against Tyrant Dragon, the villain who was responsible for all the bad things that had happened since issue one?”

What followed was an awkward silence, being capped off by the black dragon’s reaction. “… what?”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know that you didn’t,” he grinned.

He instantly shrunk, slipping through the gap in his claws. The “dragon lord” was confused for a brief second before realizing what had happened. He spotted him running between his legs, so he bent over to try and grab him again, only to miss him. He stretched out his neck to try and bite down on him as he ran past his legs but was too fast. Suddenly, his opponent grew back to his previous size again, grabbed hold of his head, and pulled, causing Sombra’s whole body to turn and fall flat on his back, before getting dragged, lifted above Spike’s head, getting slammed into the ground on the other side.

“You little… I’m gonna-!” he spoke as he tried to rise, only to suddenly feel a pair of arms squeezing him around his abdomen.

The purple dragon lifted the black one off the ground and bent backward, suplexing him, squishing his elongated neck. The “dragon lord” flopped on his back, revealing his bug-out eyes and a bodily twitch. Now that his opponent had been stunned, it was time to deliver the finishing blow. Spike flew into the air and disappeared into the burning sky, only to come flying down a few moments later with a dive, before raising his elbow. By the time the black dragon had regained his senses, it was already too late, as his opponent crashed into him. The world shook and the earth heaved, the ponies on top of the mountain were tossed about for a while, before it finally became quiet, seeing only a cloud of dust where the impact took place. Soon, a figure would rise from the cloud, and as the rest of it settled, the clear victor was finally visible. Spike stood triumphant, and a large hole was in the ground where his opponent was just a few moments ago.

With a flash, the alicorn teleported everybody to her little brother. “See?! I told you, you could do it, Spike!”

He made a deep-voiced sigh. “Only because you convinced me that I could, Twilight.”

“Wait, lemme get this straight,” Rainbow Dash wondered. “You mean to tell me you got a strategy to defeat him from a comic book? If it’s that good, you gotta lend it to me someday.”

Spike thought for a moment before giving a reply. “Nah, the only reason I remember it is because of how bad it was. I mean, this Tyrant Dragon villain just came out of nowhere and declared he was the big-bad the whole time, even though there was never any mention of him before that? Who in his right mind wrote that?”

Laughter erupted among them. In their moment of jubilation, however, they didn’t notice how black smoke began to creep out from the hole where the “dragon lord” was. It began to rise until it finally began to spread across the sky, drowning out the fire, and that’s when they finally noticed it, turning to the events in progress.

A pair of giant red green-glowing eyes opened above them. “YOU LITTLE WORMS!” Sombra raged. “I will crush all of you!”

As the umbrum king’s shadow spread across, darkening the world, Spike sighed; not from exhaustion, but plain irritation. “Okay, I think you’ve outstayed your welcome.”

He grew. He grew bigger than the dragon which Sombra took the form of earlier, and by then he could tell by the expression on umbrum’s face that he was just trying to fake confidence at that point. Spike took in a deep breath, and with a roar, followed a blazing inferno that was aimed right at the shadow. And as the intense heat began to burn him away, the veil of shadow surrounding them began to show cracks, until finally, with the umbrum king’s final cry, it shattered.

He screamed on top of his lungs, straining himself to the brink to make sure he was gone until he finally ran out of breath and fell on his back. He panted, while his eyes readjusted, realizing he was no longer in a dreary world, but a cavern made entirely of crystal, sitting on a platform in the middle of a green glowing lake. He discovered he’s returned to his normal small self again, but he wouldn’t have time to ponder when a rainbow collection of equines piled on him.

“You did it, Spike!” Twilight hugged him, and the rest of the mares followed suit while the white unicorn showered him with kisses. “You’re my hero, Spikey-wikey! You’re a hero of all of us, Spike! You rock! Never doubted you for a moment! GROUP HUG!”

He blushed, his stomach getting filled with butterflies from being shown this much praise. Yet out of the group, only the broken unicorn and the zebra stood by the side of what was happening.

“Yeeeeaaaah… I’m sitting this mush-fest out,” Tempest commented.

“I concur,” Zecora nodded, “best to let their victory’s celebration occur.”

They finally had a moment of reprieve after a hard battle was won, yet the enjoyment would soon fade.

“So moving…” Everybody went still as a feminine voice echoed throughout the cavern. “I would’ve shed tears if I had eyes to do so… for you that is.”

There was a rumbling sound that followed. The room shook and small pillars began to rise from the pond until they connected to the platform upon which draconequus was still levitating, all the while he was still twitching and making noises of panic.

“What…” the dragon asked. “What’s with Discord?”

“He’s going through the same thing you were going, Spike,” Fluttershy answered him, quickly getting back on her hooves. “We need to go and save him, quick!”

“If you can,” the feminine voice interrupted her gallop. “Had you gone to deal with him first, perhaps you might have still stood a chance, but now…” The voice let out a shrilling cackle. “The wicked child is now focusing his full attention to make this one’s misery especially hard. It will be a miracle if you all manage to come out after what he’s done. So go on, children. Go, and meet your end.”

Quiet fell on the surroundings once more. Spike hopped back on his feet again, walking over to the shy pegasus.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” he assured her. “We’ll get in there, and get Discord out of his nightmare. I’m sure whatever he’s going through can be solved with ease.”

“Unless,” Zecora caught him off guard, “he’s dealing with a parent he cannot appease.”

His stride came to a complete stop after realizing that. “Yeah, if that’s the case then we may have a problem.”

“But we have to go and save him regardless!” the animal caretaker urged.

“Can we just take a little break before we-?” the wonderbolt questioned, and immediately went quiet.

Her kin turned her head, and revealed a pent-up frustrated look on her face, before flying back to the group and pushing them all in a pile, forward. “NO! NO MORE BREAKS! We’re saving him! NOW!”

“Whoa, suga’ cube, calm down!” Applejack tried to calm her as they got pushed on the narrow pathway to their destination.

They finally stopped on the platform and the yellow pegasus lept in front of them. “Everybody here?! Good! GET IN LINE!”

Fluttershy’s aggressive behavior was surreal but understandable. They all lined up next to each other before the border of the host’s veil.

“Don’t worry Discord, we’re coming,” the element of kindness said, before trotting forward, without Twilight even having the chance to check in with everybody.

She stepped through the veil and disappeared, forcing the alicorn to order a move immediately. “Now!” And they all rushed forward.

“Emmm…guys? Does anyone else find this place familiar?” the dragon questioned.

“Ya know, now that ya mention it, Spike, Ah swear Ah’ve seen this place before somewhere recently…” Applejack agreed.

They all thought the same. This sinister atmosphere around them was coming from the dark corridors that spread as far as the eye could see, with specks of light in the distance indicating that there was a light source.

“Well, I have to admit, I've had my expectations subverted,” the broken unicorn quipped. “With the trend, we’ve been having, I’m surprised that this actually looks like something from a nightmare to begin for a change.”

“This really isn’t the time to make clever comments, Tempest,” Rarity said.

“I one hundred and twenty percent agree,” Rainbow Dash concurred. “Since Sombra’s now fully invested into Discord, it’s gonna be all the more difficult to get him out. And who knows what unimaginable terrors the nightmare version of Grogar will have waiting for-“

The yellow pegasus shushed them. “Be quiet. Listen.”

Nobody made a sound. At first, they didn’t hear anything, but then they heard soft tapping in the distance, and it kept growing louder, but based on the volume, whoever it was must’ve been tiny. And to Fluttershy that immediately gave away who it was. A tiny serpent-like shape fashioned out of numerous animal parts skittered across the stone floor, and it was in such a hurry he wasn’t even looking ahead properly, causing him to ram against the hoof of his best friend, disorienting him for a moment.

“DISCORD!” she raised her voice and quickly scooped him into an embrace. “Don’t worry, you’re safe with me now. Are you okay?”

He didn’t respond yet as he was still recovering from the daze, but once his sight was fixed, his eyes almost popped out of his sockets after seeing Fluttershy, as well as the rest of the group, and he let out a scream of panic. He quickly wiggled himself out of her grasp and avoided any attempt of being caught again.

“Discord, what are you doing!? Why are you running away?!”

“STAY AWAY FROM ME, CLONES!” he yelled, skittering further down the corridor.

Everybody was left confused. They managed to get into contact with the one they were supposed to save, and he just ran off in fear from them.

“Clowns?” Pinkie Pie voiced an objection. “But none of us are even dressed! I didn’t even bring the costumes with me.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “He said CLONES, not CLOWNS, Pinkie. As in, copies made from our genes.”

“But I didn’t bring jeans with me either…” she replied.

“NO PUNS!” the shy pegasus yelled as she ran past them. “Discord’s clearly in distress! He needs our help!”

“Fluttershy, stop!” the country pony called to her as the was at a distance already. “Don’t go ahead, you’ll get lost!”

In a rush, everybody went after her, and luckily, they caught up soon, as their legs were long enough that they managed to get to the fleeing draconequus, who was noticeably starting to run out of breath.

“Discord, stop! We’re trying to help you!” Twilight called.

“You’re not fooling me!” he replied. “I know precisely how this will go!”

They reached a large door on the side of the corridor, where their little friend promptly stopped, and the mares, one after another, crashed into the one in front of each. Spike jumped over the pile and reached in, pulling the former Lord of Chaos out.

“Discord, what’s with you?” he wondered. “What made you stop all of a sudden?”

“THAT!” he pointed at the doorway.

With a clopping sound, a short figure appeared, no bigger than a pony, yet it wasn’t one even though it looked like it. He had a brown equine-like body with a bright bulging muzzle, with a tail that had a tuft of hair growing on its tip. He wore an orange cowl, some of his dark brown hair was sticking out the edge of it, partly obscuring his green eyes, along with a pair of long ears through the holes in the garment, and around his belly, he wore a belt, with a golden key attached to it.

“Is that a donkey?” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

Spike was just as confused, only to see Discord awkwardly waving at the newcomer. “H…hi there, Bray.”

He glared at him. “The master is most displeased with you, draconequus. So am I… and so is Paramis.”

Heavy stomps followed, and a great shadow appeared behind the donkey, towering several times over him, revealing itself in the dim lighting. It looked like a grey goat, yet it had a stocky torso with opposable hands, its back and arms were covered in thick hair, all the way to its head. It was adorned with accessories made from gold, yet what truly drew everybody’s attention was a single giant orange-yellow eye with a horizontal slit sitting in the middle of its face.

“Is that an arimaspi?!” Pinkie Pie pointed again.

Rainbow Dash gave her a look. “Wait, you mean like the one that destroyed Griffonstone?”

The hulking beast let out some incomprehensible words before his head turned in the direction from which the group just came, as did Bray’s. The sound of hooves was approaching from that direction and out of the darkness, a familiar ram sorcerer appeared.

“Well well, isn’t this quite a gathering,” the elder mused. “I fear, however, that the list for the family reunion is already full, and all of you are somewhat superfluous.”

Discord panicked and jumped out of Spike’s grip, trying to escape, only to be grabbed by Fluttershy, who refused to let him go.

After a while, he stopped struggling and turned to face his maker. “Father, I beg you, I-“

“What’s the matter, draconequus? Don't you want to say hello to your friends... or should I say... your sister?” he grinned and turned his head back.

Another sound was coming down the corridor where the ram came from. It sounded like hooves accompanied by something more flesh-like. As this was happening, everybody started noticing that Discord was beginning to show hysteric behavior, and it wouldn’t be long before they realized why.

Out of the dark, a creature, at least twice its maker’s size, appeared. It was covered in periwinkle-toned scales, with brighter ones running down the front of its neck and belly, its frontal legs were hooved, and its back ones were claws. A large horn, with a pair of green-scaled ears, sat on its equine-like fanged face, and under them, a pair of thick-lined, rainbow-colored eyes. Its head and the tip of its long reptile tail grew out twirly violet hair that had layers of pink and yellow in it, and it was so long that it was dragging all over the stone floor. Its wings, though feathery at the start, turned fleshy halfway as if they belonged to a bat. But what put them off completely, was that when the creature came out in the dim light, they noticed it had a cutie mark – a purple sun-like shape covered its flank, and in it were petals of seven different colors, with a diamond on the tip of each.

And finally, the disturbing voice came out of its mouth, which sounded as if several different voices were speaking in unison. “PlAy WiTh Us, DiScOrD… cOmE pLaY wItH uS.”

Author's Note

The longest chapter I've done so far, and just as well, considering I had you waiting for 3 weeks for an event that was canceled.

Once more, a piece from the past becomes realized, as well as a more recent one.

Chapter 36: Where the Monsters Are

Trapped in what seemed to be the domain of the Father of Monsters, as imagined by Discord, the ponies were completely caught off guard; the nightmare was waiting for them. Not only was he present, but also a pair of his cohorts, one of which only the party planner and the wonderbolt were familiar with. While they were expecting resistance, they were not prepared for the large grotesque creature that came shambling out of the dark, an abomination that looked like somebody had smushed an equine and a lizard together.

“We WaNt To PlAy,” the creature said. “We WaNt To PlAy WiTh DiScOrD, FaThEr.”

“Patience, Chimeracorn,” the elder calmed it, “you will get what you desire soon.”

In the middle of the group of ponies, Applejack heard him, and it jogged her memory. “Chimera… corn? As in the creature with a head of a tiger, a goat, and a snake for a tail?”

The ram regarded her. “Oh? You’re familiar with her, are you? Remarkable creature indeed. Strength of all three species, yet the weakness of none. Mind you, having three separate brains attached to one body can cause a whole lot of distractions, which is why in this case, I’ve decided to simply fuse all seven brains into a single one… although the result, in this case, is questionable.”

“That’s an understatement,” Rainbow Dash whispered to her side, as saw the expression on the creature’s face, making it seem as if she’s in a state of ecstasy.

“What poor little creatures did you hurt to make that thing?” Fluttershy asked.

Grogar turned a grim smile. “Are you curious?”

“NO!” the draconequus immediately rose and clapped the yellow pegasus' mount shut. “She or anyone else don't want to know!”

He laughed. “My my, aren’t your uppity. Fine, I’ll humor you. But surely your seven friends will be able to figure it out on their own, won’t they?”

Spike was confused. What was the sheep talking about? Why would they be able to recognize the creature? He took a closer look at the abomination, and he honestly couldn’t fathom what was up. Yet as he absorb its appearance, something was beginning to dawn on him. This creature, this Chimeracorn, had familiar features: the body alone resembled an equine if the details were excluded; the horn was clearly something a unicorn would have, and the wings, for the most part, looked like that of a pegasus, or rather, both features would belong to an alicorn. The creatures’ mane was extra-long as if it belonged to the animal caretaker, yet it possessed the elegance of the fashionista, something that also showed in her eyelashes, her eyes, however, made it seem as if the creature wasn’t mentally present altogether. And even though the facial structure was equine-like, it bore large sharp fangs, like a carnivorous beast. Her body was mostly covered in scales, except for her feathery wings, and even those then expanded to have a fleshy design, as if they belonged to a dragon. It had hooves at the front, yet the hind legs were strangely contorted and had toes, they almost looked like dragon claws. What put him off, however, was its cutie mark. Did Grogar create this creature from a pony? It certainly would explain the equine look. The strange purple sun-like shape looked more like tendrils of the cosmos that he saw in one of Twilight’s old astrology books from Canterlot, and within it were seven rhombus shapes of seven different colors, each with a diamond at the tip of it. He couldn’t decipher its meaning. What was the point of these seven geometric shapes that Grogar was trying to say to Discord that his seven friends would be able to… and something clicked in his thought process. Seven! That was the key. He mentioned it before, fusing seven brains, just then he mentioned seven friends, and now… now he was looking at the seven shapes, each of every specific color that the dragon was familiar with. He turned to his friends, recognizing the familiar fur patterns: blue, yellow, purple, white, pink, orange. The seventh one, the green one was missing, however. Who was the other one? He doesn’t know any specific green pony worth mentioning. He rescanned the creature again, and finally realized he’s missed a detail: the creature’s ears! They were longs and scaly… and green!

The alicorn noticed her companion’s suddenly erratic behavior, as his jaw began to wobble, yet his teeth weren’t rattling. “Spike, what’s wrong?”

“I-i-i-i-it’s…” the little dragon had a hard time speaking from the shock, “us…”

All the mares turned their heads to him. “Wait, what?!” Pinkie Pie responded.

“That thing is all of us smushed together!” he loudly announced.

Their heads turned to the creature, it still looked at them with a look of anticipation, and now that Spike had said his piece, they all noticed the similarities this creature had between all of them. Soon enough Rarity screamed out loud, and the rest of the elements and Spike did the same, while Tempest, Zecora, and even Discord, shut their ears from the high-pitched noise. They would soon be joined by them, however, as the Chimeracorn suddenly opened its mouth and let out a scream, that sounded exactly as the 7 of them screaming in unison, but much louder, overpowering their voices, forcing themselves to stop.

After a few seconds, the screaming stopped, but the creature’s personality became even more expressive than before. “ArE wE hAvInG a ScReAmInG pArTy? CaN wE pLaY mOrE? ThIs Is FuN!”

Her father sighed. “Now look what you did. You made her even giddier. At this point, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep her at bay.”

“WHAT THE HAY IS WRONG WITH YOU, SHEEP?!” Applejack yelled. “Who gave you the idea for this bad joke?!”

“Well… he did, obviously,” he nodded in their direction.

There was only one person to whom he could be referring, and he stood by his best friend’s side, so everybody looked at him. “Discord, what bright ideas did you give him?” the wonderbolt inquired.

“Nothing! I swear I said nothing to him, all I’ve been doing was running from him!” he denied.

“It’s not like he had to say anything,” the ram explained, “after all… I can read him like an open book. What he fears so badly, is for me to start interfering into the life he still has left, to see harm come to those who are dear to him, especially the yellow one.” When those words were spoken, the said pony let out a gasp. “I caught them all. They were nothing before my power. I extracted their essences to create copies of them, and then time and again crossed them, and unfortunately, the early results were not particularly positive. And he…” The old ram began to cackle. “He was made to watch the entire process happen over and over again, his friends, becoming horrible failed experiments, until at last my work began to bore fruit. I finally managed to conjugate the Elements of Harmony, as well as their pet, into a singular perfect being that now stands before you. The strengths of all seven, and weakness of none… and it’s under MY COMMAND!”

It was just so shocking. Now Discord’s words when they first encountered him made sense; with everything that he’s been through, he thought they were just copies of the originals. And even as they thought that the serpent patchwork slithered away in the commotion, behind the group, trying to sneak away. He didn’t get a few stone blocks away, when suddenly a large grey shape jumped in front of him, blocking his path, and the loud thud it caused made everybody else aware. The arimaspi towered over them on the opposite side of the corridor, letting out some incomprehensible sounds.

“Pamaris is not going to let you get away, draconequus,” Bray answered.

Rainbow Dash looked at the unimpressive minion who now stood by himself, blocking the doorway. “Well, it’s not like you’re gonna stop him if we all go through you, donkey.”

Suddenly, a portal of dark light opened behind him, and the blue ram stepped out of it, joining his side. The blue pegasus was confused, as were the rest when they realized that Grogar was no longer standing next to the Chimeracorn.

“Did you really just open a portal to move twenty hooves away?” Pinkie Pie asked him.

Soon, another figure stepped through the portal; a familiar white unicorn with a green mane that had a pink streak in it, and a cutie mark with a bunch of leaves.

“Gusty?” Twilight gasped.

“I do not believe you’re in any position to question how Grogar uses his powers in his domain,” she scolded them. “You’ve nowhere to run now, so as far as he’s concerned-“

The ram lifted his hoof, silencing the pony. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re all at my mercy. Perhaps my newest creation could use a twin… and they can both play with draconequus together.”

The situation was anything but rosy. There were three pathways and all of them were now blocked by the Father of Monsters and his minions, and to make matters worse, he announced that he will put them through what Discord had been seeing. And to be added to this equation did not sit well with Tempest, who was stuck in the middle of the clustered group, as well as the other companion that stood out from the rest… who for some reason was busy sticking her head inside one of her saddlebags.

“What are you doing? It’s not like blocking the sight and sound will make things better,” she told the zebra.

“'I'm not trying to hide,” Zecora told her, sticking her head out for a moment, “I'm searching for something to turn the tide.”Soon she pulled her head out, holding a small grey vial between her teeth, repeating it two more times until she had three. “Tempest, I need to know, how well can you throw?”

“I once turned the princesses into obsidian statues at 50 hooves away if that counts for anything.”

“That will do,” the shaman said, “now aim for their legs, and strike true!”

She tossed the vials into the air. The broken unicorn leaped after them, and one after another bucked them in three different directions. As they smashed against the ground before their enemies, a cloud of dust erupted by them, obscuring their vision.

Seeing them distracted, the alicorn issued a command. “Everypony! This way!”

She ran in the direction where the arimaspi stood, he was large enough that they’d be able to get past him, running between its legs, with the rest of them following, with Spike swiping up Discord as they did. And running was all they could do. It wouldn’t be long before their opposition became aware they slipped past and they’d be hunting them down.

After a few corners have been turned, the princess spoke again. “Everypony listen! I think it’s the best that we split up!”

“What?!” the country pony shot. “Twi, are you nuts?!”

“Yeah! Haven’t you ever heard the horror stories where there’s a monster chasing a group, and then they split up and they get picked off by it one after another?!” Rainbow Dash added.

“I hate those stories!” Pinkie pied voiced the same concern.

“Yes, I get it, but that’s not the problem!” she explained herself. “The only saving grace right now is the fact that this place is almost like a maze, so they’ll have a hard time finding us unless the Grogar has a way to track them, in which case, us sticking together would only be detrimental! Especially if they come at us together!”

“Well, considering the sheep can teleport all over the place, I’d say that’s a sound plan!” Tempest agreed.

“But I don’t want to be on my own in this dark place!” the shy pegasus complained.

“You won’t, Fluttershy,” Twilight assured her, “we just need to break down a bit so they can’t come at us together. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, you go. Applejack and Rarity, go the other way. Tempest and…” Before she finished the sentence, the broken unicorn and the zebra already made a turn and disappeared. “Okay, that’s just the four of us them. Spike, give Discord to Fluttershy-“

“No!” he protested. “Just let me go so I can slink away in a hole.”

“Discord, we’re not letting you go after what just happened!” the animal caretaker argued.

“She’s the one that’s gonna come looking for me, and you can’t fight her!”

And just then, somewhere further in the back of the corridor, a distorted cry echoed. “DiScOrD!”

“AIEEEEE! She’s right on our tails!” he spazzed out. “Any moment now she’s gonna catch up to us and then it’s over!”

Twilight could hear the sound of hoof and feet fast approaching. There was no way they’d outrun it! The fact that it already caught up to them meant that not just her abilities, but her senses as well were enhanced. It was likely hearing the sound of their galloping hooves from that distance. There was a way to avoid it, but it was risky.

“All of you, keep quiet right now and do as I say,” the alicorn instructed.

They quickly turned a corner and then promptly stopped.

“Twilight, why are you sto-!” draconequus yelled, only to have a hoof shoved in his mouth.

“I said be quiet,” the princess whispered and then motioned at a gap between two pillars on the wall. “Everypony, huddle together.”

They did. They all pressed against the wall between the pillars, with Twilight holding Spike, while Fluttershy held on to Discord. The alicorn’s horn began to glow, concentrating her magic to create a barrier of illusion. After that they remained silent, all they could hear, however, was a loud gallop fast approaching, followed by a sliding sound. It was quiet for a moment before the heavy stomping of hooves and claws followed. A giant form passed their illusion and then stopped next to it. The creature twisted her head about as if she was trying to listen to the noise, yet she caught nothing.

“DiScOrD!” its disturbing voice spoke. “WhErE aRe YoU, dIsCoRd?! LeT’s PlAy ToGeThEr! FaThEr SaId We CaN!”

It just stood there, calling out for them, only a few feet away. Fluttershy felt the vibration in her embrace. The draconequus was absolutely trembling in her hooves while desperately trying to hold his mouth shut so he wouldn’t freak out, so terrified was he of the situation. After a few moments, the abomination slowly walked down the corridor, still trying to call for them. When the stomping sound was far enough that it could barely be heard, they finally knew it was gone, they all let out a sigh of relief. That was a mistake. The galloping sound was returning in their direction, and before they could react, Chimeracorn slid on the ground, stopping right in front of them, and then immediately charged in their direction, straight through the wall. They all cowered, yet all they heard was the sound stone breaking time and time again behind them while crying for the name. The creature had left a gaping hole in the wall, and it didn’t even notice them as it passed through the illusion.

“Talk about good hearing,” Spike noted. “Even I’m impressed that my ears are that good.”

“She’s gonna come back soon when she finds out we’re not there,” Discord urged. “There’s got to be a better place to hide.”

They all looked through the hole in the wall, scanning about to see if their pursuer was in sight while looking for another place they could hide in. That’s when Twilight noticed a source of light in the distance, it was far brighter than what she had seen in this place so far, so a thought ran through her head.

“This way,” she whispered, and took off, flying through the corridor with the dragon on her back, with the yellow pegasus following her, still holding the draconequus.

“Twilight, where are you leading us?” Discord asked. “That’s the way outside.”

“It is?” she gave him a surprised look. “Good. That’s the last place she’ll come looking for us and we can formalize a plan for us all to regroup.”

“No! Twilight, you don’t understand! Out there we’re-“

Before he finished they already passed the threshold of bright light. The alicorn exhaled in relief that the shadowy close quarters were no longer present; just wide open…

And then she stopped in mid-air, as did the pegasus, and all but Discord were left with hanging jaws. Twilight didn’t know whether she should marvel at the sight, or be absolutely terrified from the illogicality of this place. The infinite cosmos opened before them, distant stars and planetary systems were on display as far as the eye could see. Yet despite that, not far from them, a giant dragon head shaped-pipe was just standing in the air, without being attached to a wall, yet brightly colored liquid was flowing out of it, and as she looked around, there were more pipes attached to the foreground of the cosmos, each releasing a different type of colorful stream. When she checked where all of it was flowing, she finally realized that this place actually had ground, as small as it was, creating an outer earthly ring around a huge pit where all of the magical streams conjugated together into a swirling whirlpool of ever-shifting color, a nexus of ley energies; its magic was so overcharged that its excess essence seemed to be flowing upwards, as steam from a boiling pot, all the way up to… And that’s when the unsetting feeling set in. This open space, along with the floor also had a ceiling. This ceiling was a gargantuan black fortress that hung upside-down over the nexus, its energy coalescing throughout the superstructure.

“Discord…” she had a hard time speaking from being taken aback, “what… is this place…?”

After he was silent for some time, the draconequus finally spoke. “Tambelon… the seat, and the source of Father’s power. And in his realm, nothing is beyond his sight…”

“What do you mean by that?” Spike asked.

He received his answer. They caught glimpse of a bright light source from the corner of their eyes, as, on one of the fortress’ ledges, a portal of dark light opened. To their surprise, through it, six multi-colored equines fell out in a pile, and soon after, Grogar followed, with Gusty and Bray standing by his sides, and lastly, the arimaspi emerged.

“Wait! When… how did he…?!” the dragon was at the loss for words.

“That’s what I meant when I said that nothing’s beyond his sight in his realm,” Discord explained. “Inside the fortress, we still had a cover, but out here he'll sense us.”

The ram suddenly grinned. His horns were still glowing, but this time, his frontal hoof was enveloped in a dark light as well. Twilight immediately recognized what he was about to do; he did it before! She quickly dived, and not a moment later, the ram stomped. The further end of the ledge where the mares were, snapped off, and they all fell towards the giant swirling pit below. Before they even reached the ground level though, they were enveloped on a pink aura and slowed down, as the princess managed to get there just in time. She flew up to where Fluttershy was still with her little friend, finally regrouping, and then came face to face with the Father of Monsters and his entourage.

“Well, this was disappointing. I was feeling a bit generous and was hoping of sparing you all from the previously mentioned fate, but since you’re too stubborn, I guess I’ll have to deal with you how I said in the first place,” the ram said, before raising his voice. “Chimeracorn!”

The sound of rock breaking began to erupt from the upside-down fortress. Some of the structural design was beginning to noticeably fall apart. Finally, one of the outer walls burst open, and the pony-dragon hybrid came flying out.

“WhAt Is It, FaThEr?” it answered.

He boisterously announced. “Playtime!”

A huge smile appeared on the creature’s face, and its eyes darted at the group of equines, more specifically, the yellow one, who was holding her older sibling. At high speed, it dashed at her, yet just before she managed to come close, Twilight enveloped everybody in a large purple bubble, causing her to crash into it. Chimeracorn shook its head, then roared, as its horn began to glow in chromatic color, finally shooting a beam at the bubble. It withstood… for now.

“Twilight, what do we do?!” Spike panicked, noticing the strain on her expression.

“Be quiet, please! It’s really hard trying to hold her at bay and concentrate on thinking at the same time.”

“Think about what, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Like, how did Grogar get to everypony. By all accounts, if what Discord said was true, then only me, Fluttershy, Spike, and himself should’ve been found out. So why didn’t it work?”

It’s not like he had to say anything, after all… I can read him like an open book.

That’s when the princess finally realized what happened. “Discord. It’s you. You’re the one who let him know where they were.”

“Me?!” he erupted. “But how was I supposed to know where they were inside?!”

“You didn’t,” she explained. “You just already knew they were going to get caught.” Draconequus was visibly confused, so she elaborated further. “This is all a nightmare, YOUR nightmare, maintained by King Sombra. He sees into your fears and makes them manifest. I had almost forgotten about it considering how real it is and after seeing this place, but right now Sombra is solely focusing on you, he’s drawing on everything you fear and dread, which is why he was able to find them. For all of this to stop, you have to realize that this is just a nightmare and fight against it.”

His gaze wandered to the fortress where his makes and his cohorts stood, including the pony mare. After a moment she noticed him, realizing he was looking at her, and in response, she turned her head away with a humph.

He turned back to the alicorn with a despondent tone. “I can’t, Twilight.”

“Of course, you can, Discord!” Rarity stepped in. “Sombra’s done it to all of us, we’ve all managed to free ourselves from our nightmares. You can too!”

“But the outcome won’t change in the end. This isn’t a nightmare… it’s a vision of the future.”

“Discord, what are you talking about?” the alicorn questioned.

“All that we see here, I pushed it to that point. None of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t been so prideful and told those three where the bell was hidden.”

“Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow were beaten in the end, Discord,” Rainbow Dash reminded him. “We’ve managed to disperse the magic they took from the bell with the power of friendsh-”

“YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!!” he cried out. “If the bell had remained where it was, it wouldn’t have been kept in Canterlot after they were defeated, Chrysalis wouldn’t have been able to steal it, and Father would’ve never been brought back. My one action had triggered a chain of events that can no longer be stopped. This here, this nightmare… is the final culmination, the inevitable conclusion of everything I’ve done…”

Chimeracorn’s eyes glowed, and Twilight noticed it. Discord’s dread was feeding the nightmare with power, which became all the clearer, when all of a sudden, the intensity from its attack increased to the point where it overwhelmed the princess, popping the bubble and knocking them out of the sky. They fell, and being disoriented they became aware too late that they were about to splatter against the only solid ground, which surrounded the magical vortex beneath the fortress. And just when they were about to smash against it, the ground bent and bounced them back, several times as they kept falling back, until they finally stopped.

The party planner poked the ground. “Is this sponge cake?” She quickly bit a large chunk out of it. “Mmmmmm, tasty.”

Tempest gave her an awkward look. “Whatever it is, it let us survive.”

“Everypony else okay?” the alicorn asked.

They all answered in unison with an okay… except for one. “Wait... where’s Discord?!”

A scream came from above, as the draconequus nosedived and then glided across the floor where he ended up rolling in the dirt. Something crashed into the ground nearby, and from the rising dust of the impact, the twisted creature emerged and slowly approached the former Lord of Chaos. Twilight quickly rose and ran to intercept it, while the rest followed.

As they ran, the sound of grinding rocks came up, and then a spitting sound, and they all noticed Pinkie Pie trying to remove whatever she just had in her mouth. “Yuck… all of a sudden it went salty and dry.”

Meanwhile, the pony-dragon hybrid approached, displaying a gleeful smile in her twisted expression. It was finally going to play just as her maker promised. Yet just as she was in hooves reach of her target, she banged her face against a purple shield. Anger flared up in her and proceeded to bash her hooves against the obstruction that the princess had set up. They managed to intervene at the last minute, but it was only a matter of time before the creature found a way to bypass the protection.

“You know, just give a word and I can keep her busy for a bit,” the broken unicorn offered.

Twilight was about to decline when moaning interrupted their situation; draconequus was curled up in a fetal position, and he wept. “It’s all my fault. ALL OF THIS IS MY FAULT! You’re all gonna be turned into that hideous creature and I’ll be forced to watch it happen over and over and over-!”

“Discord, listen to me!!!” the princess intervened, as she knew that if he gave in now, the monster outside will win. “I know how painful it is knowing you’ve done something that has caused unforeseeable consequences, especially if you’re thinking about how much worse it can get. But that’s why we have to try and change that!”

“I can’t! I can’t forgive myself after what I’ve seen HIM do because of me, I can’t!”

“You must, Discord! If you don’t then you’ll never have a chance to try and make things right again!”

“But that’s the point, Twilight! I can’t change THIS! It’s already been set in st-!”

“NO!” the yellow pegasus yelled, grabbing everybody’s attention, silencing the whimpering draconequus. “Now you listen to me, Discord! Nothing is set in stone. Regardless of what you think, things change. Years ago, I would’ve never imagined I’d get out of my comfort zone. I used to be really antsy, I still am, but not as I used to, I never would’ve thought I’d get to the point in life I am now. This nightmare, it will only come to pass if you allow it to happen, but it’s not destined to happen.”

She hit the nail on the head, and the alicorn knew it. “Fluttershy’s right, Discord. This place isn’t your destiny.”

“Destiny?” a dark voice spoke. “What would you know… about destiny?”

Everybody’s head turned in its direction. Chimeracorn was standing still, looking down on the opposition… with red eyes and a green glow.

“Sombra?” the Twilight asked.

It shook its head, then opened its eyes, which were now chromatic again, before giving out a roar and proceeding to bash the shield again. The mare found this odd, something interrupted the nightmare for some reason, and it was enough to give them momentary pause, but they still had to fully convince their small friend to fight back.

“You’re the only one who can fight this back, Discord,” she urged him.

“But even if you say this is a nightmare, without my powers of chaos, I can’t do anything.”

“Discord, this is happening in your mind,” Spike answered. “It doesn’t matter what power you hold while awake, you’re the one who can shape this place at will.”

“Yeah! What happened earlier when we were falling and you thought we were going to splat?” the wonderbolt asked.

“Well,” he spoke, “I panicked and I didn’t want anypony to get hurt, and I wished for the ground to be softer… and the first thing that came to mind was Pinkie’s sponge cake.”

“AHA!” the aforementioned pony exclaimed. “I thought it tasted familiar… for a moment.”

“That’s all the proof you need, Discord,” the fashionista stated. “Trust our words.”

He gave them a concerned look, but there was nothing as such on the faces of the Elements, even the two additions nodded in response. Chimeracorn on the other hand became increasingly irritated that the object of her desire was in plain sight, yet it was being prevented from claiming it. Suddenly her horn was wrapped in a chromatic aura and then used it to pierce through the magical bubble, like butter. Twilight panicked and backpaddled to the group, as the creature crawled through the protection and was now inside their safe space.

“DiScOrD, pLaY wItH uS!” it repeated.

The mares screamed in terror as there was no way to stop it now. It quickly approached the yellow pegasus, and just as it reached her, Discord, on instinct, grabbed the monster’s horn, pulled it back like rubber, and released it, causing the recoil to send it flying backward, to the other end of the earthen ring.

“It… it worked?” he said in amazement. “That actually worked?”

It confirmed what the mares were saying. Chimeracorn on the other hand was angry. It lept into the air and with high speed, flew in their direction.

“Quick, do something more looney!” Pinkie Pie suggested in a hurry.

Discord was still skeptical for a moment, but he was reassured when the creature reached the bubble, and instead of breaking through it on touch, the protection snapped outwards, trapping it inside. Something else came to his mind as well. He snapped his fingers and with a bang, he found himself towering over the equines like he was used to.

“Haha!” he let out joyful laughter, before snapping his fingers again, creating a copy of himself. “It’s been so long I’ve almost forgotten how liberating this was.” As they spoke in unison, the original looked at the copy, and lifted a small "ball" in which Chimeracorn was now trapped. “Tennis?” he made an offer to his other-self. “Would I?” he replied.

The other one teleported on the other side of the earthen ring, they all pulled out tennis rackets and began to pass the “ball” back and forth. It seemed that the draconequus had been pulled out of his stupor and returned to his usual jovial self… or so it seemed. As the two Lords of Chaos passed the trapped sibling back and forth, the ball eventually stopped in the middle of them.

“Hey! That’s foul play!” the other Discord yelled from the other side.

“Hey, that wasn’t me!” the real one replied.

“Well, then who’s doing it?!” the copy said back.

A portal of dark light opened on the ground, and the Father and his companions exited through it. At the moment’s notice, Discord’s cheerfulness vanished, just like his copy, and he shrunk back to his small size, before running off into the embrace of Fluttershy.

“I think we’ve played enough,” Grogar announced, irritation noticeable in the tone of his voice.

“Yes, you’ve played enough, Grogar,” Twilight spoke. “Or should I say, King Sombra. Discord’s now aware that his power is limitless in his mind, just like Spike has. And even if you posed as his creator, no matter what monster you have in store, he has the power to overcome everything you throw at him. Right, Discord?”

“Well, I-i-i guess… maybe… surely?” he replied in a jittery tone.

Out of nowhere, the area around them echoed deep unnatural laughter, HIS laughter. Grogar was grinning.

“You’ve no idea what a REAL monster looks like, pony,” the ram said. “But you will witness it… firsthand.”

The ground trembled, and the magical water of the swirling pool erupted and splashed over the area where the Father of Monster stood, and he disappeared. Suddenly, the colorful liquid turned dark, with a light radiance, it began to grow, expanding into a massive mountainous form until it finally formed a sinister silhouette that resembled a head of a ram. But it wasn’t over yet, as his sides began to expand, one completely formed of darkness, and another of pure light.

“I will taste the day…” the creature’s deep voice spoke, “… and savor the night.”

The head of light let out a roar as it opened its mouth, and all of a sudden, the light of the infinite cosmos surrounding them, all of the countless stars began to dim, as it absorbed it all into itself. Meanwhile, the head of darkness let out a low growl, and as the light dimmed, it opened its jaws and began to absorb the blackness that remained in the empty cosmos, draining all the color from it. As this was happening the world began to shrink, replaced by the empty void the two heads had left behind. The ground under the ponies had completely disappeared, just as everything else had until there was absolutely nothing left, but the towering creature.

“And now…” the deep voice said, “…embrace the inevitable end.”

The two heads finally shut their maws, and that’s when the ram’s head opened its mouth. It became apparent what was about to happen.

“Discord, quick! Stop him!” Spike yelled.

Draconequus heeded his words and lept out of his best friend’s embrace to the far front of the group. The sinister ram suddenly released a beam of dark light aimed straight at them, only to be blocked.

“You’re doing it, Discord!” Fluttershy praised him. “We told you, you can beat your nightmare!”

“Can he?”

That voice came from the sinister beast, yet Grogar’s head wasn’t the one speaking, as it channeled the destructive beam. Instead, it came from the head made of light.

“You think that with what he had seen, what future awaits, he has clear consciousness?”

“No,” its voice followed up, it didn’t come from the head of light this time, but from the head of darkness. “He knows the truth now. He has willingly deceived and hurt his friends in an attempt to help them, just so he could feel good about himself. He willingly freed those he knew could not be trusted, believing he could manipulate them, and in the end it all backfired, just as it did the first time, and somepony had to suffer for his actions, just as you all will.”

The head of Light resumed. “He will willingly let himself submit to torment soon because deep down, he knows he had done things so inexcusable, that he doesn’t deserve redemption… And it’s only a matter of time now before his will falters.”

As the Father of Monsters spoke, the language in draconequus’ movement betrayed the situation: he was growing weaker; even after all that was said, he still didn’t believe himself worthy after he had already spent his trust for the third time. Everything it was saying was true. Perhaps this is how it was meant to be, it would be the only way for him to make up for what he had done. Suddenly, just as he was about to let go, a grip formed around him by a pair of yellow hooves, pulling him into a snuggle.

“You’re wrong, King Sombra,” Fluttershy stated. “Nopony is beyond redemption, as long as they have the desire to make up for what they’ve done.”

Discord turned and gave her a look of uncertainty. “Even after all I've done? After all you've seen?”

She nodded with a smile. “I believe from the bottom of my heart.”

The princess joined at her side. “And we’ll help you get there, Discord.” And one after another, the rest of the elements followed, joining at draconequus' side with a group hug.

He broke into tears, yet did not utter a single whimper, but instead two words. “Thank you…”

The continuous beam that was assaulting Discord suddenly split in two, the beam of light disintegrated the head of darkness, while the black beam purged the head made of light, before reuniting back at the ram’s head, distorting it. All of a sudden, on the body of the giant black mass, a pair of red eyes with green residue opened. The umbrum king was desperately resisting, trying to refuse the losing battle of the mindscape, but in the end, it did little, as it roared in a final attempt of refusal, before getting expelled.

“Is it finally over?” Tempest asked as the veil disappeared.

They found themselves back on the platform above the green magical lake, in the middle of the crystal cavern.

“Okay, we all present now?” Twilight asked.

“Present!” the mares one after another answered, except for the animal caretaker as she smothered the draconequus with kisses.

“I’m so glad, you’re back, Discord,” she told him.

“Thank you for believing in me when I couldn’t,” he said.

“Just remember that no destiny can stand in the way of atoning for something you-“

“Don’t you preach to me… about destiny…”

They all stirred. That voice certainly did not belong to the Mother of Fear, and it was coming from a specific location. On the other side of the room, a mass of shadow was slouching against the wall, it began to move and twist until it finally formed a familiar equine shape.

“He’s still here?!” the wonderbolt shouted.

“I mean, it’s not like what we did had destroyed him, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity pointed out.

“But that’s about to change.” Applejack knocked her frontal hooves together.

The umbrum king struggled to get back up, it seemed that the battle of minds had been taxing on him. “Destiny has brought me to this point, ponies. From the moment I saw the vision of the Crystal Heart, I knew something was different about me. And after I had reunited with mother, she had liberated me of all constraints, to fulfill the purpose for which I existed.” He inhaled. “DO NOT TELL ME THAT DESTINY MEANS NOTHING!”

The reply he would receive would not be to his liking. “Based on what’s just happened, Sombra,“ Twilight spoke as she stepped to the edge of the platform, “your destiny is about to come to an end. You tried to convince Discord that he was an irredeemable monster… but the only irredeemable monster I see here is you.”

Soon the rest of the elements joined at her side, while the broken unicorn and the zebra backed away. "You may want to stand back, the whip is about to crack," Zecora told her.

A bubble of light enveloped the elements and they began levitating. The moment that happened, panic set into Sombra, he knew what was coming, and he had no power to avert it. There was only one thing he could do as a final act of desperation.

“MOTHER, HELP ME!” he cried out.

His voice echoed throughout the crystal cavern, yet he was met with silence, there would be no help for him… or so he thought. There was a sparking sound coming from above him, and that was when he noticed sparks on the surface of the crystal wall, along with a strange tiny shadow among the glow, an oddity, buried under the surface.

“You want my power, wicked child?” the feminine voice asked. “So be it…”

The purple lightning bolts erupted and shot at the umbrum king, who cried out in agony preemptively, only to discover there was no pain. He felt a surge of power that was unlike anything, the power that could not be contained by his solid form. His shape collapsed into a mass of shadow and began to expand, filling the room with darkness. The Elements of Harmony saw it happen and unleashed their power, the bubble they formed expanded and met the darkness head-on. The two forces collided and began to contest who would overcome the other. Somewhere behind the group, Tempest and Zecora could do nothing but watch, yet they couldn’t even do that as the light was difficult to stare at, so they turned their backs against it. They were able to rest their eyes for a moment, but then… a gasp escaped the shaman.

“What’s with you?” the broken unicorn asked.

She looked in the direction she was staring and noticed what she was seeing. On the other end of the room where the entrance was, it would previously be too dark to see anything, but now that the light was illuminating the cavern they could see clearly into the mouth of the tunnel. A tall bipedal glistening figure with a cloak over its upper half was standing there for the two mares to see. The discovery settled in them both; it was the figure that Zecora saw through the eyes of another in her vision, and Tempest knew now that she was right in hearing somebody else being down here.

“You guys! There’s-!” the former lieutenant tried to warn them, but then noticed that the darkness outside the bubble was beginning to envelop it before it all went white.

The birds were chirping and the sun was shining, and the whole group found themselves in a blossoming field on the outskirts of Ponyville.

“Oh no… not again,” Tempest put a hoof over her face.

“Tempest darling, what’s wrong? the fashionista wondered.

“I know what’s wrong,” Twilight answered. “Why are we in Ponyville if we’re supposed to be in the Frozen North?”

“Wait one darn minute, are you saying we’re in another nightmare again?” Applejack questioned.

“But how’s that even possible?” Fluttershy shared her concerns. “We used the power of friendship, didn’t we?”

“Yeah! How did Sombra overcome that?!” added Rainbow Dash.

“All I saw was him getting struck by lightning from his mama,” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

“But that still doesn’t explain it, Pinkie,” Spike said. “The only other time somepony was able to stand up against the power of friendship… was…”

The sun suddenly disappeared, replaced by dark gloomy clouds, and lightning began to rain, tearing at the landscape. In a panic, Twilight quickly erected a barrier to protect all of them, yet it seemed that it was conveniently missing them. The roaring thunder turned into a maniacal cackle, and from every corner where shadows were visible, they all began to move, coming together, merging into a single being that ended up towering over them.

“Now, do not worry, visitors,” the sinister voice spoke. “I’ve no intention of harming you in a simplistic manner like this.”

“Sombra!” Twilight shook her hoof at the giant black shapeless mass. “Enough games! In whose nightmares are we trapped now?!”

It laughed again. “Nobody’s, little pony. You’re all trapped in a realm of fear, created and ruled over by its lord.”

A familiar pair of giant red eyes with green residue opened, and then unexpectedly, another pair of eyes opened above those, but these were yellow and without pupils.

They all looked down at them, and with a voice that sounded as if two beings were talking in unison, a giant yellow maw opened beneath the eyes. “ITS NIGHTMARE LORD!”

Chapter 37: The Nightmare Lord and the Radiant Clarity

“The vision I saw will come to pass. I have seen it; the Crystal Heart showed it to me, and now mother will help me realize it. I have seen… mountains of rubble… and rivers of shadow… and I... will have… MY… WORLD!”

As the dual voice rang all around, tiny tendrils could be seen coming from the shadow underneath all the prisoners, extending to the towering dark mass.

“I can feel it,” it cackled, “your fears. Even if I had not seen all of them, inhere, in my realm, they’re practically oozing out of you all. Fears born out of doubt, born out of trauma, and born out of… guilt even?”

They all heard somebody in the back making a few steps back at the sound of those words; somebody’s fear was beginning to show, but they were too fixated on their adversary to give it attention.

“Good…” the four-eyed creature answered. “And you can expect things will only get worse for you from here on, because this time around, you have no power to free yourselves. Now… BE CONSUMED BY FEAR!”

And with those words, the towering darkness exploded in a burst of wind and black fog, washing all over them, disappearing. Silence loomed for a while, as everybody waited for something to happen.

“Huh, compare to what we’ve just been this wasn’t half bad,” Applejack finally broke it.

“I’ll say,” a tiny voice said.

They were taken by surprise by the voice that wasn’t part of the group, yet Twilight recognized it, and in dread she looked in the direction where it came from, only to have her fears confirmed. A little purple unicorn filly stood in the place where the broken one was, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

“Although you guys growing this big is a new one,” she added. “Well… except for him.”

She pointed in a direction and a large purple dragon was looking over them.

“Spike?! Not again!” the princess raised her voice.

“I… I’m not in control of this, Twilight,” he said in a deep voice.

“Well, Tempest isn’t either, Spike,” Rainbow Dash answered, “otherwise she wouldn’t have turned back into a kid again."

When the purple unicorn heard her say that, she quickly reached for her head, only to go numb when she realized her horn was back and she had returned to her child form, and that could mean only one thing. A roar came from the nearby woods, and from it, emerged an army of angry ursa minors, charging in their direction, and immediately the panic kicked in, as Tempest started backing away and was about to run off, only for Applejack to stop her.

"Calm down, Shuga’ cube. We ain’t gonna let that pack of imaginary teddies get to ya. Right, gang?" the yellow pony announced.

The mares nodded and stepped in the way of the incoming charge, determined to stop it, with the giant dragon putting his arms in front of them all, blocking the path. Then the ground began to quake, and at first, they thought it was the pack of incoming creatures, but then they saw raging masses of people coming from the town. They were screaming mean words, all the while carrying crossed-out pictures of the party planner, the fashionista, and the country pony.

“This is just gonna keep getting worse, isn’t it?” Pinkie asked.

“Just be steadfast and we’ll prevail,” Twilight instructed.

Suddenly, a portal of dark light opened, and Grogar, along with his three cohorts stepped through, followed by sinister dark creatures, and they slowly began to advance on their position. The moment he appeared, Discord clung on to Fluttershy, who much like him had a tremble attack.

Tell yourself again that these are truly your friends.

A whisper. They all heard it, but could not figure out where it came from.

“Twilight’s right,” the wonderbolt urged all, “even if Sombra’s pulled out another trick, there’s no way he’s gonna-!”

In a moment, Rainbow Dash went silent as she felt the temperature drop to an unprecedented degree, even in her winter clothing, and a strong wind began to blow. They all turned to the sky and watched, as snow clouds began to gather in large quantity before a pair of teal eyes opened along with a giant gaping maw, and let out a bellow. Thoughts brought her back to that one moment in the Everfree Forest, of the towering darkness of the same facial features, and what it had done. She shrieked as panic set in, and in the moment of absolute terror, she dashed away from the group.

“Rainbow Dash, stop! You’re being deceived by the umbrum king’s prop!” Zecora yelled.

The zebra chased after the pegasus, and they were unable to stop her since she was already further away from the rest of the group. Just as they thought that things were going bad, they suddenly turned worse, as something unexpected followed.

Your friends will abandon you.

Twilight had been prepared to fight back, as she’s anticipated what fears of her friends she’s already experienced might pop up and be able to counter them, she did not expect, however, for the element of loyalty to be the first to succumb, as well as a strange shrilling sound. It came from the lake, its water began to bubble up, until it started to rise, forming a pillar, sprouting tentacles, all the while taking a distinct serpent-like shape. Finally, it revealed its glowing azure eyes and opened its jaws, as it let out another shrill. What was that thing? Whose fear did just materialize? And then… it finally came. Darkness all around began to conjugate under the snow clouds, turning into a pillar that connected the sky and earth, spawning five different menacing faces, until the sixth giant one emerged, followed by the sinister laughter.

You will never leave this place. There is no way home for you.

They all heard Turmoil’s whispers, but it did not matter if they knew their origins, as it kept taunting them, trying to break their resolve.

You have already lost.

At that point, even the princess of friendship’s confidence had begun to flare out, and she could tell that everybody present was in the same position, fear was clear as day on their face. Suddenly, the giant purple face opened its mouth and released a bellow with such a strong force that everybody, including the giant dragon, was swept away and scattered.

After vertigo had subsided, it took Twilight a moment to completely regain her senses. She was standing in Ponyville, or rather its ruins, as the whole place was demolished. But worst of all, there was nobody in sight.

You will be all alone in the end.

Turmoil’s voice haunted her. It was close, so very close, she could practically feel its presence. She galloped away, feeling the sinister force right on her tail. And in the rush, she overestimated her jump over the rubble and fell into ruins under her. She reeled for a moment and then noticed something lying in front of her face. Zecora’s saddlebags… without their owner. How could she have dropped them? She never would’ve left them unattended, especially with what was in them. That thought reminded her to look inside to check on it. She quickly pulled out the jar and sighed in relief that the black mass was still inside, quivering. The princess suddenly felt moisture under her hooves, noticing a small stream was beginning to leak through the cracks in the ruins. The broken-down walls exploded, and the watery serpent she’s seen awaken earlier stood before her, face to face. And in the moment of stillness, Twilight was able to see up close that something was off about this creature: where its head was, there was a shadow visible inside, it was an equine creature for sure, the silhouette could not be denied, and its mane stood up like a mohawk, but the details of its features could not be seen in the thick body of water, other than blue glowing eyes. The serpent bellowed, the alicorn quickly lept in the air with the saddlebags, through the ruins, and flew away. She thought she’d be able to evade the monster out in the open, but its watery tentacles sprouted from the ground, forcing her to dodge at every turn, until the serpent finally thrust its head up through the ruins, its jaw wide open, about to eat her whole. She screamed, knowing she’d be unable to dodge it in time, but just before that happened, something wrapped around her and pulled her away, making the creature miss.

She watched it disappear in the distance as she was flown away from the scene, giving her a chance to finally look up, recognizing a familiar companion who had grown too big for his own good. “Spike?! Where’s everypony else?”

“I don’t know, Twilight,” he answered in a deep voice. “After I woke up you were the only one I saw.”

All of your friends are gone.

Her heart skipped a beat at those words, but she remembered then that she knew better, she knew it was all lies, trying to make her give in. And then she saw it; the towering darkness with six faces was approaching, and the feeling began to sink in.

“Spike, quick! Get us to Canterlot!” she ordered, as it was the only place left she could think of going to, to try and evade it.

He listened and continued to fly, as the castle was in clear sight. However, they didn’t get further than the outer walls, and Turmoil was all of a sudden within the perimeter of Canterlot, and the two were within its reach. A gargantuan claw grew out from the dark pillar, and it smacked the dragon, knocking him out of the air, and he fell to the ground with a loud thud.

No one is coming to save you.

The princess opened her eyes, and a familiar sight was before her, the scenario that’s been playing out in her dreams for days. The castle was being devoured by the darkness all around and she couldn’t stop it. The dark force loomed over her, then its faces extended, turning into heads that resembled dragons, and began attacking her companion who was still reeling from the impact. Twilight couldn’t watch this. She quickly lept on top of him and tried to erect a barrier to protect him, only for it to end up being torn through. Suddenly, the yellow face began to grow until it completely overshadowed the others, and stared directly down at the alicorn.

Embrace us.

Hysteria began to take over, and in the moment of terror, Twilight desperately tried to crawl away, and in the process, the zebra’s saddlebags slipped from her grip, causing them to tumble down her giant friend, the jar fell out of it and rolled down the street. However, the sound seemed to have garnered the creature’s attention, as it stopped its approach and turned its head. Another arm sprouted from the dark form and grabbed the glass, bringing it closer to its eye. As it stared at it, the little black blob containing the spark of light stared back at it, barely moving.

Is that…

Suddenly, the speck began to flicker until it finally erupted in a blinding light that enveloped everything.

“Twilight…”

She heard Spike’s voice, but she couldn’t see a thing. It was only after a few moments that her eyes finally readjusted, but even then, all she could see was an empty white plain of existence before her.

“Twilight…”

“Spike? Where are you?” she asked.

“Under you…”

She lept on her hooves when she realized that her little brother had shrunk back to normal and she was laying on top of him this whole time. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Spike! Are you okay?”

“All things considered… I’ve been worse,” he answered, and crawled back on his feet. “Where are we anyway?”

“STAY BACK! I’VE GOT A PINKIE PIE AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!”

The two’s attention was grabbed. They turned their heads and noticed Rarity holding the party planner over her head with her hooves, with Applejack cowering behind her.

“She ain’t kiddin’, y’all! Just do what she sa-!” the country pony stopped herself when she finally realized her surroundings. “Twi? Spike?”

The fashionista finally put the pink earth pony down. “Oh thank goodness. For a moment we thought the angry mob was going to do us in.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t believe the language we just heard,” Pinkie Pie concurred.

“Discord!!!”

Another familiar voice called out. The shy pegasus was running about calling for her companion’s name, yet he would not answer.

“Fluttershy, you’re here too?” Pinkie Pie addressed her.

She finally noticed them. “Girls? Have you seen Discord? I had him in my hooves a few moments ago and then he just vanished!”

“Trust me, Fluttershy, he’s not the only one who just disappeared,” Spike pointed out.

The five elements have gathered, and only one was missing now. And they didn’t have to look for long to notice her. The wonderbolt was curled up on the ground, shivering, making quiet whimpering sounds. Applejack walked over to her and poked her rump, and in a moment, she screamed and leaped backward, madly flailing her frontal hooves at them before she realized things were not as they seemed.

She looked about. “Guys, what is this place?”

“That’s what I’d like to know as well, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained. “The last thing I remember was that Turmoil got hold of the jar containing the blob that consumed the spirit of the Tree of Harmony, and after that, a bright light erupted from it.”

“Oooooooh, that explains what that thing is.” The party planner pointed with her hooves.

They all turned in the said direction. A spark of light was levitating a few hooves away from them, surrounded by blackened essence. As they slowly approached, the light began flashing brighter until its source could no longer be seen. And when the light finally dissipated, a figure revealed itself to be standing in its place. It was a unicorn pony; her fur was purple, with a light blue mane, and arctic blue eyes, all the while the whole body was emitting radiant light.

“The Elements have gathered,” she spoke. “Good. I’m glad I was able to finally reach you.”

“Excuse me, miss, but who are you?” Fluttershy asked.

But Twilight had already figured it out. She spotted the mares cutie mark: an image of a yellow staff with two snakes coiled around it, with a pair of wings on top; she’s seen that image several times now, she knew who the mare was.

“You’re Radiant Hope, aren’t you?”

“WHAT?!” the rest collectively shouted.

The mare lowered her head. “I was… a long time ago. I’m little more than a memory now. And it was only thanks to the actions of your two friends, that the spark of light had preserved the last vestiges of what I was, princess, that I can be present here before you now.”

“Wait!” the wonderbolt halted her. “Where are Zecora, Tempest, and Discord? Why are we the only ones here?”

“Your friends are still out there,” she explained, “but I called for the elements specifically, and here you are.”

“Hold on,” the dragon interrupted. “Why am I here then? I’m not one of the Elements of Harmony.”

The mares looked at him; he made a good point.

“I do not know, little dragon. Perhaps your connection to one of the elements is so strong that you got dragged in here?”

“But that means that they’re still out there being tormented by Sombra!” Rainbow Dash urged.

Hope shook her head. “Do not worry. Whatever is happening out there has been put to a halt. They’ve all been frozen in time… including them.”

Suddenly, a gargantuan form materialized behind the group, and Twilight fell on her back in shock. Turmoil’s massive form stood there, frozen in the same pose when it picked up the jar.

“Ah shudder to think how we can beat that when it’s practically real at this point,” Applejack commented.

“It is still just an illusion,” the mare said, “and once it’s been stripped, you’ll see for what it is.”

Her horn glowed, surrounding Turmoil’s image. Some of the features began disappearing while revealing others: five of the faces disappeared on the dark body, leaving only the yellow present, and in the depths of its dark mass, the umbrum king was levitating.

“Is that Sombra’s mom? Taking over Sombra?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Yes,” Hope answered. “He willingly submitted himself in a moment of fear, and that’s when it took over him.”

“It?” the animal caretaker wondered.

“Fear,” Radiant Hope resumed. “Sombra was born from it, and that is why he commands such great power over it, just like the rest of the umbrum do. Yet despite all that power, without a host, Fear is unable to exert it to the full extent. And that is the only way for you to break out from his nightmare realm: you must sever his connection to Fear.”

“An’ then we’ll be able to destroy him?” Applejack asked.

To their surprise, her answer was different. “To free him.”

Curiosity got to Rarity. “Wait… you’re not seriously suggesting that we HELP Sombra?”

She nodded in response.

“HOLD ON!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “You’re actually asking us to help a spawn of terror, who just put us through nightmares?!”

“I don’t like that idea either!” Pinkie Pie added, along with the rest, except for the princess and her companion.

Hope sighed. “I understand all of you. I was in the same position once. How could I possibly trust somepony who had turned Princess Amore to stone and then shattered her, and afterward enslaved the crystal ponies… Which is why, before this goes any further, you need to see… what I had witnessed in the end.”

The mare closed her eyes and her horn began to glow until it blinded everybody.

Radiant Hope walked through the crystal tunnel in the dim lighting. At the end of it, she finally saw a light source and quickened her pace. Eventually, she stopped as she passed the threshold, when she discovered a large crystal room, being illuminated by a pool of strange green liquid she was familiar with. But there was nothing else; the room was simply empty.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is anypony here?”

She was met with silence. It seemed that she had hit a dead-end. If there was no other place left to explore, then the best she could do was to return to the crossroads and try to figure out how to escape this frozen underground.

Yet just as she turned to walk away, a feminine voice whispered to her throughout the cavern. “Welcome, child.”

She stopped in her tracks and quickly turned. “Who said that? Where are you?”

The room began to rumble, and from the magical pool, pillars began to rise, creating a pathway across the mass of liquid, to the other side.

“Don’t be shy, child. Come closer,” the voice said.

As she moved there was an unsettling sense of dread in the air, the same kind that she felt earlier when she originally tried to come here, but without invasive whispers this time. As she crossed the bridge and got to the other end of the room, she saw an oddity in the wall, a strange purple shape was stuck under a layer of crystal, and she could hear the voice coming from it now.

“Are you frightened, child?”

“A little…” the pony answered.

“Perhaps not enough,” the voice resumed. “Tell me, what have you seen on your journey through forgotten realms?”

The mare began to recount what she witnessed in the frozen underground, though unsure what good this would do. “I ended up in the unicorn kingdom of Monoceria. Then I traveled to the farmlands of Soiliana. And in the end, as I predicted, I ended up in the fallen pegasus city of Ptolemeya.”

“Good,” the whisper said. “And do you know what caused their downfall?”

“Well, from what I understand it was windigos, the spirits of winter that caused all of this.”

“You are partially correct, child. But there is something you have to ask: where did windigos come from?”

It was an odd question, and for it, there was only one answer she could offer. “They were born… of magic?”

“Correct, child. But even spirits do not have the power to simply spring out of the ether unless powerful magic is involved.”

The mare’s curiosity got piqued. “But what kind of magic?”

“Come now, child, surely you can figure it out by yourself? With what you’ve seen from your journey, including this room, should give you some inkling of what it is.”

What could the voice be talking about? There were so many things she’s seen when she investigated all the realms, it would be too many things to try and pick apart. And this place she was in right now, there was nothing in it; the only thing it contained was the gemstone trapped within the crystal wall and a body of… It finally came to her. She’s seen it several times but didn’t consider it to be significant, even though it was strange to her that these green rivers were not frozen.

She turned to the lake. “What is this strange water?”

“It is called the lifeblood of the world, child,” the voice explained. “It is the concentration of magical energy from the world itself, and from it, under the right condition, the elements can draw on its power, so far as to be able to manifest functioning bodies.”

“So… windigos were born from it? But how? How are such creatures even born? What does this have to do with anything?”

“Everything!” the voice raised its tone for a moment. “You are a healer, and yet you don’t try to seek the causality for an illness?”

Hope got caught off guard by the voice, forcing her to look for an answer through the view of her life’s purpose. She went quiet for a moment, trying to think. But she didn’t know much about these creatures of ice and snow, they only appeared once and it forced the entire population of three pony tribes to leave their homeland.

She tried to remember what was said about them, but in the end, she could only come to one possible farfetched conclusion. “Hatred… created them?

“Well, aren’t you perceptive, child,” the voice applauded her. “You’re absolutely correct. Your forebearers were the architects of their own demise. From a lasting doubt, fear was born, it lingered, eroding one’s sanity, until it evolved into anger, which like a festering wound, inevitably turned into hatred. In this case, the windigos are little more than a symptom of a problem that’s been brewing for a long time. From small acts of evil, greater ones were born.”

This wasn’t new information for Radiant Hope, but it reaffirmed what was said, yet this also prompted a question from her. “How do you know all of this? You’re not a pony. Are you also some sort of a spirit?”

“In a way,” the voice solemnly answered. “But I’m not here because I wanted. I was trapped here… after I was prompted into existence, we all were.”

“We?” the mare questioned. “We who?”

“Me, and the others alike. We were once whole, one entity. And we were awakened into existence… by the pain of the world.”

“What… what are you talking about?”

A gentle laugh echoed through the cavern. “How about I show you?”

Suddenly, strange whispers began to invade the pony’s mind, growing louder by the second, so much that she writhed in pain, losing all her senses. Her eyes weren’t open, yet she could see moving images, they looked more like shadows on the wall. She saw what looked like an alicorn princess, facing up against a giant dragon, who, in its grasp, held another pony without any particular features. A battle erupted between the alicorn and the dragon until a strike from both of them send the other falling. The noise finally stopped, and her senses returned.

“This is what we felt,” the voice in her mind said. “We felt the pain. We felt it in the lifeblood of the world, and it prompted us to act. We sought out its source, to silence it, and then… we were broken. We were scattered. And I... became trapped here, alone and forgotten in the cursed north.”

Radiant Hope was still reeling from the experience. The images that were shown to her were moving extremely fast, too hard to comprehend as if this communication wasn’t meant for creatures of flesh and blood.

“But luckily,” the voice continued, “the lifeblood of the world was in my reach, and throughout several cycles I’ve managed to absorb it and put it to use, expanding my influence through growing crystals, until a fracture of it finally reached the surface. Yet the pain we felt was still fresh, and I was determined to silence it, but I could not move from this place, even if I spent all of the lifeblood’s power. And so… I severed part of myself into pieces, used the magical source to give them life, and release them upon the world, to terrorize your kind, child.”

She thought about it, of creatures of terror, that once attacked Crystal Ponies, and she understood. “The umbrum... they’re part of you?”

“Yes, child,” the voice confirmed, growing shrill. “Through them, I could see, hear, and feel… feel the fear and horror of those they terrorized.”

A sense of dread was beginning to build in her. “Who are you? What are you?”

It cackled. “That lump in your throat? That’s panic slowly beginning to set in. Search your feelings, you already know what I am.”

How could she search her feelings? She couldn’t possibly concentrate in a moment when all she could feel was…

“You’re… Fear?”

It laughed. “Yes, child. And it is unfortunate that my actions then, unlike now, didn’t bear fruit. My “children’s” voice went silent, overshadowed by a brilliant radiance that I could feel even this far. “

“The Crystal Heart?” the unicorn realized. “Of course! It’s the one that stopped them.”

“Yes. It was quite a predicament. It was clear that the manifestation of my essence simply wasn’t strong enough to approach the heart. Which is why a great amount of magic had to be consumed, in order to fashion an agent who could approach it and remove it, while still being made of my essence.”

The moment she heard that she knew who it was talking about. “Sombra…”

A chuckle escaped the voice. “He came here, as you found out, child. To the place where the crystals broke through the surface. He was so desperate for answers, he wanted to know why he was that way. I opened his eyes, and as I gazed into his memory, his thoughts, I saw everything, including the vision that had driven him here. But there was still something that was holding him back…”

The noise invaded her mind once again, but this time she saw events play out clearly. She saw a grey unicorn with a crimson horn, the mane of ash, his eyes red and green, purple smoke escaping from them, and just then, he transformed into a shadow.

“What do I do with this power?” he asked. “Why am I the only one with it?”

“You aren’t,” the familiar voice in the crystal spoke. “There is an army of umbrum waiting below the city. They only wait for you to dig down and set them free. But first, you must destroy Amore’s weapon.”

He turned with a hesitant look. “But if I try to destroy the Crystal Heart, I’ll lose the only friend I have.”

“You no longer have a choice, Sombra. If you have not removed the heart by the next Crystal Faire, it will destroy you.”

And then the gaps filled up, as Hope’s memories were brought forth and they connected, forcing her to rewatch the events that she witnessed, events that broke her: Sombra stealing the Crystal Heart, turning Princess Amore to stone, shattering her, even after she begged him to stop it. She didn’t want to see it, it hurt her heart so much she started crying, and eventually, the vision ceased.

“So, that’s what happened on the other end,” the whisper said, “even after his true nature was awakened, for a brief moment, he still cared about you.” A chuckle escaped it. “Well, it was never meant to be anyway. He has become the creature of darkness he was always destined, and you… you’re the princess who would stand in his way in the end.”

“But… I’m not a princess…” Hope refuted under her tears.

“Oh now don’t sell yourself so short, child,” the voice mockingly coddled her. “He was simply superior-“

“No! I’m not a princess, PERIOD!” she yelled in frustration while trying to combat tears. “I went to the school of Princess Celestia, but I felt horrible for giving up on him in a heated moment and causing him to erase my home from existence. I left the school so I could find answers and maybe find a way to make things right, and here you-“

The silence after that lasted a considerable time, and the presence picked up on it. “I what, child?”

Something was going through Hope's mind. With the outburst of emotions and spelling it out, it brought her realization; of something that the umbrum’s mother had mentioned, but only now did she find it significant.

She wiped her tears away. “I’ve known Sombra all my life. He was my best friend, we were inseparable, he was so full of joy and life, even when the signs of Crystal Heart having an effect on him were beginning to show. And we both were revealed a glimpse of the future that awaited us, but Princess Amore told us that we can change the future, that there is no predetermined path. Because that’s what future is: something, that has not yet come to pass.”

“Very philosophical of you, child. But what does that have to do with-?“

“When he came to you and you awakened his power, you told him that, in order to free his siblings, he first has to destroy the Crystal Heart, or it will destroy him. But if that’s the case, how did the other umbrum survive the Heart's power in the first place?”

Something unexpected followed: silence. For the first time, the voice went completely quiet, as if it didn’t have an answer to the question.

But Hope knew. “You lied to him… You had to. Sombra’s not like the other umbrum. He had to be, in order for him to be resilient to Crystal Heart’s power, but that also meant that he could not be directly controlled. And even if the Crystal Heart was hurting him because of his nature, he could’ve left and lived elsewhere, and enjoyed a fulfilling life… I would’ve gone to the ends of the world if it meant I could be with my best friend. But you couldn’t allow that, could you? You had to convince him that his path was already set and he couldn’t deviate from it, that it was his destiny… so he would do as you desired.”

Eventually, the silence was broken. “… the sole purpose of his existence was to liberate others. Nothing more. And the reason was already told. The umbrum… we, are a symptom of what was done. I have given you the truth-”

“The truth? Do you mean the truth that only you can comprehend? Or a lie that suits only you?” the mare interrupted her.

A crackling sound suddenly filled the air, and the unicorn noticed sparks forming on the surface of the crystal wall. In the last moment, she quickly raised a shield around her, blocking bolts of lightning that came flying at her.

“IMPIDENT CHILD!!!” the voice shrilled. “Regardless of what you think, at this point, you’re already too late. Sombra has accepted his purpose. And one day he will return, he will do what is expected of him.” The mare struggled to keep the protection up, but the power of the sinister force was simply too great, and then the atmosphere grew dark, while the voice became gentle again. “You cannot save him anymore, child… but that does not mean you should abandon him. There is still a chance that the two of you can meet again. All you have to do… is give in. Give in to doubt, the realization that what you know is a lie, let it fester, and turn to fear. You’ve tasted the pain I had shared, it is real. You know… that I’m right.”

It could be seen on Hope’s expression that she was struggling. The lightning strikes were simply too much to handle and her magic wasn’t suited for this.

But then, after several attempts of getting assaulted, the look on her face calmed down. “No…” was the only word she uttered.

A bright light lit up on her horn and began to expand enveloping her surroundings and growing, dispelling the lightning bolts that were aimed at her until it enveloped the whole room.

“WHAT?! WHAT IS THIS?!” the voice raged as its power was dispelled.

“I have seen and heard too much, Fear,” the mare explained. “I would be a fool if I gave up now that my vision has been cleared. I know the truth… and you cannot stop me.”

She was sure that she had succeeded; she resisted the temptation of a dark force and she won out. But then, the pool of magical green liquid began to bubble up, and one after another, crystal pillars rose in clusters and pinned the pony in place, immobilizing her and causing her light to fade.

“Such disappointment,” the voice dropped any pretense of acting subtle anymore. “I had hoped that one of your kind, somebody as small and frail would easily submit… but it appears that you are… incorruptible, paragon of virtue. And if that’s the case, you’ve become a dangerous liability. The best thing you can do now, IS TO WITHER AWAY INTO NOTHINGNESS!!!”

A pillar suddenly emerged from the wall and shot directly at the incapacitated pony. She managed to conjure a shield right upon impact, but it still sent her flying across the room and into the tunnel, causing her to slide for a distance. She hurt all over, but she had to leave this place at once before the dark force got the better of her.

She ran as fast as she could, hoping that she’s be able to get away. Yet as time passed, the tunnel didn’t seem to end, and exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on her. She collapsed in a soft patch of snow on the icy floor, her eyes heavy.

“You are the only one who knows,” a soft soothing whisper entered her mind. “And that is what you will take with you. You have fought enough, paragon of virtue. Now… close your eyes… and sleep…”

The soothing voice, on top of exhaustion, the cold, and hurt, was causing her consciousness to drift away. She desperately tried to fight it, but she was simply too tired. And the darkness took her.

Her horn stopped glowing, and the bright light disappeared. To say that the princess and the rest of the Elements of Harmony were shocked would be an understatement, they were flabbergasted. This was how Sombra’s only friend had met her end.

“Then my suspicions have been confirmed,” Twilight spoke. “Now I understand how he overcame us when we used the power of friendship on Sombra. There was only one creature who had the power to stand up against it, and it lurks in the depths of the Everfree Forest.”

“Because…” Spike added in, “because Sombra’s mother is…”

“It’s one of Turmoil’s missing aspects we’ve come to look for, Spike. It’s Fear.”

Radiant Hope solemnly nodded. “And through her words, my friend has been led astray… and I wasn’t there to help him. And now I’m gone, unable to tell him what I saw. And that is why I’m now placing my hopes into you, Elements of Harmony.”

“To help Sombra? As if!” Rainbow Dash spoke out.

“Ah’m with Dash on this!” Applejack concurred.

But before the rest of the mares could voice their rejection, the princess stopped them all, facing the image of the long-departed unicorn. “Radiant Hope, I searched the Crystal Castle and found Sombra’s old journal, describing his growing up, the mention of you, how close the two of you were, and the tragedy that followed when he became what he is today. I want to be on your side, WE want to be on your side… but we can’t. We’ve experienced firsthand what he’s done. The moment the Crystal Empire returned he tried to take over it, and it was only thanks to the Crystal Heart that he was stopped. When Discord brought him back, the first thing he did was assault the Crystal Empire again and enslaved its population, including my brother, my foalsitter, and my niece. He destroyed the Tree of Harmony and the Elements, and then placed our hometown under mind control, including Spike, and then seized Canterlot. He’s done so many horrible things to us, Radiant Hope, and he’s never shown any signs of trying to repent for his actions. I think his mother may be speaking the truth that he’s too far gone, that he’s simply embraced being what he was from the start, but how can you, despite everything, think that he can still change if he was given an offer?”

All was said what needed to be. They were all in the same boat. For a creature of darkness, who was born of fear itself, after all the horrible things he had done, how could anyone possibly believe that he could be redeemed, without making it look like naivety?

And to their surprise, the radiant unicorn simply smiled. “Because I believe. In the final moment, I have attained clarity I never had before. Princess Amore knew from the start what Sombra was, and she believed until the last moment that he could change his fate, she knew the truth the whole time. And if I couldn’t believe in him; me, who was by his side all his life, and knew him through and through, when she did… then what kind of a friend would that make me?”

With those words, a thought came to the princess’ mind, of something that Zecora had said:

Courage? You speak as though it’s the only partner in a marriage. Its counterpart is Fear, knowing this one first allows the latter to be brandished like a spear. The same is true if you compare Clarity and Doubt, the former springs from the latter, after a bout.

The mares and the dragon suddenly saw the alicorn shrink, while making a cringing sound. “Twilight? What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

“Girls, I…” she had difficulty speaking but she had to force it out. “I’m so ashamed of myself right now.”

“What? Why?” the fashionista questioned.

She inhaled. “You saw what Radiant Hope just showed us, right?” They all nodded in agreement. “She had clearly found out the truth about Sombra, she realized the reality of what was happening, all her doubts have been purged. That’s why Fear couldn’t corrupt her. She knows she was right.”

“But why are you ashamed of yourself?” Pinkie Pie wondered.

“Earlier, when we came out of Discord’s nightmare and he was at our mercy, I…” she cringed again, “I said that he was an irredeemable monster. I actually pushed him into begging for his mother’s help…”

A heatwave washed over all of them, as they too were pretty much in agreement with what she said back then. They were all ashamed of being so full on emotion at that moment in time, without even trying to consider an alternative, when they were supposed to be the Council of Friendship.

“Do not blame yourself so harshly,” the unicorn stopped them, “after all, you couldn’t have known the truth of the matter. But now you do, and there is still time, to make things right.”

They all regarded her, and were prepared to do the right thing this time, but not before one of them still had a question to ask. “Wait, something I don’t get, though,” Spike questioned, “you said earlier that you WERE Radiant Hope once. So… what are you now then?”

As he asked that, her body began to glow, emitting bright light that kept growing stronger. “I am the embodiment of what she left behind; her memories, but most importantly, virtue – I am the Spirit of Clarity. And with my help… you will pierce the darkness, Elements of Harmony.”

And the blinding light enveloped them all.

Turmoil recoiled. The Nightmare Lord who posed as it was confused as to what had just happened. He was holding a strangely mutated piece of shadow and light contained in a jar and now… it was gone. His sight redirected itself back to his victim but could not comprehend what followed. The giant dragon and the alicorn it tormented were gone, in their place, two bright lights stood, shooting a pillar high in the dark sky, and soon, six other pillars erupted from across the different parts of the realm of nightmare, piercing through the darkness, revealing the starry night sky. They flew up and approached the Nightmare Lord at increased speed. Seeing that, he split, as more and more of his victim’s manifested nightmares sprung from it, hoping to deter them all.

And then, a soft voice began to sing:

Fear not this night

You will not go astray

Though shadows fall

Still the stars find their way

Distant sounds of melodies

Calling through the night to your heart

Auroras, mists, and echoes dance

In the solitude of our life

Darkness spreads throughout the land

And your weary eyes open silently

Sunsets have forsaken all

The most far off horizons

Nightmares come when shadows roam

Lift your voice, lift your hope

The lights cut through the Nightmare Lord’s form, and the noticeable feminine voice roared in agony.

“Mother?” the male voice noticed. “Mother, what’s wrong?”

It grunted, trying to recover. “This light… I know it, but… HOW?! HOW CAN THE PARAGON BE HERE?!”

“Who?”

The lights quickly turned around and pierced through the Nightmare Lord once again. This time they caused a rift between the giant form, revealing a dark shadow and its host that was being fueled by it.

Fear not this night

You will not go astray

Though shadows fall

Still the stars find their way

And though the night sky's filled with blackness

Fear not, rise up, call out and take my hand

“Sombra, don’t listen to it!” Fear’s voice shrilled.

He noticed the separation between them, only a few tendrils were still attached to him. He quickly ran back to his maker to rejoin with it, but it was already too late, as the flying lights quickly came back and severed the last vestiges of their connection. With their link broken, Fear was no longer connected to the realm that Sombra had formed, and it began to phase out of existence.

“MOTHER, NOOOOO!” he cried out in desperation, but she would not hear him, and a few moments later disappeared.

Fear not this night

You will not go astray

Though shadows fall

Still the stars find their way

And you can always be strong

Lift your voice with the first light of dawn

On the distant horizon, the sun began to peek, and its light began to burn the umbrum king. He was the king of monsters, the embodiment of darkness, and as such, the light hurt him, just as the Crystal Heart once did. This was his fear, and now he was trapped in the realm of his own making, no longer in control of it. He roared in pain as the flames began to consume him, he watched in dread as the lights that had separated him from his mother began to amass in front of him into a singular being of light. It obscured the morning light from hurting him, yet its radiance was still unbearable to behold for him. It reached out to him, and the umbrum king winced in fear of getting hurt. He felt a gentle tap on his forehead, as the creature of light touched it with its own. He felt a warm soothing feeling, one that he felt before… a long time ago. He finally opened his eyes and met a pair of familiar arctic blue ones.

“You…”

Dawn's just a heartbeat away

Hope's just a sunrise away

And the realm of nightmare began to disappear, overtaken by the radiance of clarity.

Author's Note

The climax draws near.
As for those who would like to hear the full song, enjoy it.

Chapter 38: Return of The King

Queen Chrysalis walked through the Everfree Forest, accompanied by Doubt, who led her to the destination, as she and her changelings carried a few objects along that Grogar would soon require. He told her that, for this occasion, they would require an elevated place for what was about to happen, and the Everfree Forest didn’t contain any apart from the cliff edge where the Castle of the Two Sisters stood, he would have to improvise. She couldn’t quite understand what it was talking about until she spotted movement in the overgrowth, and a large earth elemental emerged from it. She prepared herself to strike at it, but it simply went by as if it didn’t even notice her. As they proceeded to travel further into the forest she spotted more of them, moving in a single direction. By the time they finally reached the end of the line, she finally got what was happening. A large hill made of rocks and overgrowth stood before her, she saw the earth elementals approach it and then fell on top of it, merging and pushing the peak further off the ground. The hill was literally growing by the second.

“You’re the one that called them to act?” she asked the wisp as they began ascending the slope.

“Yes, Broodmother,” it answered, “the lifeblood of the world has the power to bring natural forces to life. Those same forces that were sent out to liberate you.”

“Wait though…” She stopped for a moment. “If that’s the case, why did you have me go through all the hoop-jumping in the first place?! You could’ve just used this so-called “lifeblood” to begin with!”

The weaselly vapor sighed. “Broodmother, do you not think if that was possible that it would’ve already been done?”

“So, what’s stopping it?” she wondered.

Doubt wiggled its tail, beckoning her to continue the climb. “Elements are simple creatures, they do not have a “consciousness” so to speak, they’re literally just a "force of nature"; you point them in a direction and they will go, you hurt them and they will backlash in response. But to awaken a consciousness of a living creature that’s been locked away in the stone… that, unfortunately, is beyond its power. It cannot affect living creatures.”

“But it freed ME from the prison of stone, didn’t it?”

“Yes… but you’re different, aren’t you?” it pointed out.

They finally reached the summit of the hill, consisting of a solid platform, which has by now risen quite high over the treetops. On top of it, the Father of Monsters paced around a large stone table, where chunks of obsidian lay about. His horns were glowing in dark light, picking up bits of volcanic rock and fusing them, molding them as he desired.

“You’re running me like a workhorse, wisp,” he sighed when he noticed them. “You’re asking me to construct a body, made out of a very brittle stone, for a creature I’ve never even heard of, nor was I given a reference on how it looked like, and you’re making me work from pure imagination.”

“Come now, Shaper,” Doubt taunted him, “I was under the impression that creativity was your forte.”

The ram sorcerer lifted what looked like a pair of legs, and began putting them together. “I look upon the body of a living being, and I see only potential. I cannot do that when I’ve never even seen a satyr before in my life, these creatures aren’t native to this land.”

“Well, considering that nobody wants to remember what he originally looked like, we couldn’t really provide you reference material, so look at it this way, you get to try something new for a change,” it taunted him.

“That’s not going to be helpful if the body won’t fit him,” he grumbled, as he attached the set of legs to the giant torso.

“Seriously though, Doubt, was this… thing, really that special that was worth going through all the hardships?” the Queen of Changelings inquired.

The vapor grinned with his limited facial features. “Oh, you’ve not seen this one in action, Broodmother.”

There was a gentle tapping sound in the tunnel at the entrance of the mouth. For some time now, the “fog of war” was obscuring the vision of what was happening in the room, and the giant construct was simply standing about, waiting to see what would happen next, while a vaporous shadow lay coiled on top of its hooded head. Suddenly, a bright light began to penetrate through the darkness, and it eventually dispersed. He was confused as to what had happened, as the equines were all laying in a pile, while the umbrum king was sitting completely still not far from them. And despite the bright light earlier, the lighting in the room went dim for some reason. But soon, a light source would begin to illuminate the cavern once again, accompanied by a sparking sound.

It took a moment for Twilight’s eyes to readjust to her surroundings, as they went from blindingly bright, to suddenly nearly dark. “Is… is everypony okay?” she asked.

“Ugh, what a trip…” Pinkie Pie agonized.

“Yeah, let’s not do that again,” Applejack agreed in a groggy tone.

“I swear… if I see another Ursa, it’s gonna be too soon,” Tempest complained.

As she was beginning to see through the dim room, she quickly realized why that was the case. The lake that covered the majority of the floor was gone, only a few small puddles of the glowing green liquid were left, leaving behind tall platforms upon which they were now standing. As she could now finally see the shapes of her friends, she began to count them. Her little sibling was still clinging on to her, the party planner laid on top of the country pony while the wonderbolt was leaning upside-down against them both, the fashionista and the animal caretaker had their manes tangled up, with the draconequus crawling out of it, the broken unicorn was laying on the side rubbing her head with her hooves, and…

“Hold on… we’re one zebra short,” the princess realized. “Where’s Zecora?” The rest of the gang looked around themselves. “Rainbow Dash, she was with you. Where did you see her go?”

“I dunno, Twilight,” she answered, “I ran as fast as I could and heard her hoof sounds behind me, but sometime after that it seemed as if she just vanished.”

“But then where’s the-!” the alicorn panicked and then noticed her saddlebags laying nearby.

She quickly picked it up and looked inside, sighing in relief that the jar was still there, untouched. Who would’ve thought that the thing that started it all ended up being their savior in the end? It seemed that despite the darkness consuming the spirit of the Tree of Harmony, it was still active, even going so far as to take a form of a virtue of the umbrum king’s friend… That’s when she remembered him. By now, everybody had mostly regained their senses and looked to the other side of the room. Sombra was just standing there, motionless, as if he wasn’t quite present at the moment. That, however, would soon change, when a bright purple light began to glow on the wall behind him along with a sparking sound, and in a matter of moments, a lightning bolt shot out of the encased gemstone and struck at the umbrum, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Failed!” the shrill voice erupted. “Even after lending you my power you’ve failed, Sombra!”

“Mother… I just need-“ he struggled to speak before another lightning bolt struck him.

“No. No more chances. Even if I would, I couldn’t anymore. Your actions have caused the depletion of what lifeblood was left. IT’S INEXCUSABLE!”

With the yell, another bolt shot out from the gemstone in the wall and struck the umbrum. “Mother… please!” he begged.

“Do not begrudge me for what I do, but every good mother knows there are times when she must discipline her offspring,” the voice said, as another bolt flew out, only to crash into a purple shield that just got erected out of nowhere. “WHAT?!” That’s when even the mares realized that the princess had gone to the other side of the room, and put up a barrier between Fear and Sombra. “YOU DARE INTERFERE, CHILD?!” it raised its tone.

“You call yourself his mother, yet you would choose to torment him because he’s unable to do as you demand?” Twilight stood her ground. “I would be ashamed of myself if I were in your hooves.”

The umbrum king reeled in agony for a moment, then realized what was happening as he spotted the alicorn standing next to him, he quickly jumped back on his hooves, made a distance between himself and her, and then shot a magical bolt. Luckily, Twilight was aware of his actions and quickly raised another shield between them.

A split second later, Tempest rushed to her side, with her horn beginning to charge, only to be tackled to the ground by the country pony. “Oh come on! Really?!”

“Tempest, violence ain’t gonna solve this problem,” she argued.

“Yeah!” the wonderbolt quickly rushed to her side, before addressing the umbrum king. “And what the hay were you thinking, you idiot?! Twilight’s trying to protect you from your mom and you’re attacking her?!”

“You’re trying to deceive me!” he yelled. “You’re just waiting for the right moment when my guard is down so you can wipe me off the face of the world!”

“Are you fo’ real?” Applejack joined her side. “If we wanted you gone we’d have done so already.”

“Yeah! Why would she try to protect you from the zappity-zap-zaps otherwise?” the party planner popped up from behind her.

“Apart from her expression, Pinkie’s right,” Rarity pitched in.

“LIES! ALL OF THEM!” Sombra yelled.

“Why is it so hard for you to believe that we’re genuinely offering you kindness?” Fluttershy joined.

“Why?! Maybe you should ask that patchworked thing on your back!” he pointed at Discord. “I prodded about in his mind while he was trapped in his nightmare. I saw the truth! He brought me back just so I could serve as an obstacle for all of you to overcome! NOTHING ELSE! Your “kindness” is nothing more than a thorn coated in honey just so you can strike down an irredeemable monster like-!”

“I’M SORRY!!!” Twilight loudly declared, her voice echoing through the crystal cavern, silencing him. “I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry for calling you an irredeemable monster! We’re sorry for trying to destroy you again in the heat of the moment without even trying to consider an alternative!”

Sombra remained quiet, a subtle look of confusion visible on his face. “Why are you apologizing to me? I AM an irredeemable monster. I was born a monster, I was destined to become a monster. This is me, what I was always meant to be.”

“Radiant Hope didn’t think that,” Spike said.

At the drop of the name, his eyes darted to him. “How do you know that name…? And don’t you DARE mention that traitor to me!”

“I visited your old study, Sombra,” the princess explained, “I found the journal describing your whole tragic tale.”

“Oh please, spare me the tears,” he made a snide remark. “I once offered her to be at my side when I embraced my destiny, and she declined it. It was expected. Our destinies were on conflicting ends, so we were never meant to be, I just tried to tempt fate one last time and it proved me right. And then she went to cry to the Two Sisters about my horrible deeds, and as they banished me, I cast a curse upon the whole empire to make it disappear in my final act of spite for her. I became the King of Monsters, and she became the princess-“

“She didn’t, Sombra,” Fluttershy interrupted her.

He gave her a frown. “What are you talking about, of course, she did! I just wasn’t in this world long enough after my return, to see what she-“

“Hope never became a princess, don’t you get it, Sombra?” Rainbow Dash finally stepped in. “We found what was left of her here, under a mountain of ice and snow. All her documents, the journal in which she described her journey, we have them right here.” She pointed to the saddlebags that Twilight was still in possession of along with Zecora’s. “Besides, who do you think was the one who broke your hold on us in your nightmare realm and then promptly saved you from it?”

A sense of doubt slowly began to creep upon him. After all, they succumbed to the power his mother had given to him and they were on the breaking point, and then all of a sudden, an alien yet familiar presence interfered. There was no denying that they made sense.

And yet there was part of him that still didn’t want to accept it. “No… you lie, this is all some kind of trick. You’ve probably come up with this whole thing only a few moments ago when you couldn’t beat mother.”

“Seriously?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Ya think we’ve got a power of foresight or somethin’? Besides, if ya don’t believe us, why don’t ya see it for yourself. Twi, give it to him.”

The alicorn levitated the saddlebags over the barrier and over to Sombra. He looked at them suspiciously before picking it up. He immediately recognized the image on them. It was a cutie mark… HER cutie mark. He opened it and pulled out its contents. Most of them were magical books, not worth mentioning, but there were two that stood out. The letter… he recognized it. It was what triggered it all, it drove him to the depth of Frozen North where he found his mother. And the other, a book that didn’t stand out, her journal. He opened it and began to flip through the pages. How the diary was written, there was a sense of truth to whom it belonged, but his thoughts still pushed it all away. But as he moved one of the books, a jingling sound came out of the saddlebag. He looked inside and pulled out a small piggy bank, shaped like a dragon. It brought back memories, memories of an innocent time, when they were gathering crystals to buy crystal corn at the Crystal Faire – a desire that would never be fulfilled. His doubts suddenly turned into a sense of certainty… a grim certainty.

“This… this doesn’t make sense. She was supposed to become a princess. Her destiny-“

“Oh for the love of Celestia, will you stop it with the “destiny” thing already!” the dragon told him. “The fact that Radiant Hope never became a princess should be enough proof that a predetermined path doesn’t exist.”

Twilight stepped to his side. “Spike’s right, Sombra. She CHOSE not to embrace her destiny. And Princess Amore knew that full well, she was saying that to both of you from the start, and you simply chose to give in… though to be fair, you were pushed into it.”

“What… what do you mean? And it still doesn’t make sense… Hope may have followed me, but that doesn’t explain how she ended up here.”

“Ah think that’s a question you should be askin’ your mother, Sombra,” the country pony answered.

His mother? What were they talking about? How could she have anything to do with it… And that’s when he noticed something was wrong. For the whole time since the princess erected a shield to protect him from her wrath, the voice seemed to be quiet, not even lightning was flying about to try and penetrate the defenses. It was almost as if she was waiting for somebody to address her.

He turned to face the gemstone. “Mother, what are they talking about? How did Radiant Hope come here? Did you bring her here?”

There was no response for a while, but soon a blunt word was spoken. “Yes.” And the mares were taken aback with what followed. “She came here, looking for you. I brought her here. This paragon of virtue had become an obstacle, so I did the only thing I could, and I… removed her.”

She didn’t even try to sugar coat it, something that Applejack was at the loss of words. “Ya know, I had expected for her to try and mince words after what we saw, but she’s just going all out on it…”

“Because there’s no point, child,” the voice addressed her. “If you’ve seen what I think you did, there’s no point in trying to deny it. I can already tell by his expression he’s slowly realizing that none of this is a lie.”

Fear was right. So many things have been called back to at this point that there was no way it was all made up. And with what the Council of Friendship has provided, there was no denying it.

“But…” there was a shred of tenseness in his voice from the shock. “Why…?”

“I shared my pain with her, Sombra. I tried to convince her to stay, same as you have tried, I showed her the truth of the world… and she condemned it. She refused to accept you for what you are. That foolish paragon, she still believed that you could be “saved”, to be returned to how she remembered you… but she had no idea of the shadow that lurks within you. She simply couldn’t understand that deep down in your heart, you’ve already accepted, you already knew, that you and I… we, are both THE SAME.”

The silence was in the air for a brief moment, before a low rumbling sound started coming from the umbrum. Suddenly, he transformed into his shadow form, flew over the protective shield, landed on the other side, where he materialized, and then roared, shooting a bolt of dark magic at the oddity in the wall, raising dust in the process. It happened so quickly the mares weren’t even able to act on it. As the dust cleared, however, it was revealed that the attack had no effect at all. The crystal wall remained intact, as well as the gemstone. He gritted his teeth and fired several more bolts, yet the result was the same, so he proceeded to channel a beam at the same spot.

“You…” a gasp came from the voice, “you would dare strike at your own mother?”

“YOU DECEIVED ME!” he yelled. “I WILL-!”

“Sombra, stop!” Twilight urged him on the other side of the shield. “Don’t get provoked by it!”

“No,” he brushed off her words. “It’s time for me to vent some anger. She opened up old wounds that I sealed using my spite. SHE WILL PAY FOR IT!”

He continued to channel his beam at the gemstone, yet nothing seemed to have changed, or at least that’s how it looked.

“Tell me, Sombra, how do you feel?” the voice asked.

“I feel anger! I feel hatred! I feel nothing but contempt for you!!!” he yelled.

“No, wicked child, I didn’t ask about your feelings. I asked, HOW do you feel.”

He didn’t understand at first, but it slowly began to dawn on him what Fear was saying. He felt a sense of fatigue, tiredness, exhaustion; one that kept growing. He tried to stop channeling his beam, only to discover he couldn’t, it was out of his control.

“Wha… what… have you done…?”

“Have you forgotten already, Sombra?” Fear asked. “I made you. I brought you into this world… and I can just as easily take you back.”

He struggled to no avail. When she was pelting him with lightning strikes earlier he felt pain, but now… this was different, it was as if his consciousness was drifting away, all of his senses were. It almost felt… blissful.

“STOP!” the alicorn yelled as she dispelled the barrier, and erected it again to block off the beam, causing the umbrum king to finally stop channeling it, and he ended up collapsing.

The rest of the gang joined her side, standing between the block and the shadow pony. “Step aside, children! This does not concern you,” the voice said, and the lightning struck out of the gem against the protective field.

“No,” Twilight responded. “We’ll protect him from you, no matter what.”

“Why…” another voice asked. “Why are you doing this…?”

Sombra laid on the ground, and clearly, something was different about him. The tone of his voice was noticeably weaker, but also the bright crimson eyes have turned dull, and they were no longer exhausting purple vapors.

“Why are you protecting me from her? I’m a monster… born of her. I’ve done horrible things. I turned the first crystal princess to stone and shattered her. I put a curse on Crystal Empire that made it vanish for a thousand years. I enslaved its populace. I took your family prisoner, princess. I destroyed the Tree of Harmony. I cast a mind-control spell on your friends and family, including your dragon,” he nodded in Spike’s direction. “I’m a monster in every sense of the word. I’ve proven it time and again. I don’t deserve redemption. So why… why are you willingly standing between me and the one who wants to punish me for failure, when I’m merely getting just what I deserve?”

Tempest traipsed to their side. “You know, I kinda agree with it. Maybe we should just let him have it if he so desperately wants it.”

“Tempest, no!” Rarity declined. “I get that you feel the urge for “just deserts”, but you weren’t there to see what the rest of us have.”

“What Rarity is trying to say, Sombra,” Twilight resumed, “is that Radiant Hope believed that you can still take another path, a path you thought this whole time was closed off for you because you were convinced that your nature has conditioned you that it was the only way. But both Princess Amore and she believed this whole time that you can still change your path in life. You’re the arbiter of your own destiny.”

“And if we couldn’t believe that you can change, when they did…” the dragon intervened, “… then what kind of Council of Friendship are we?”

“But… after what I've done-“

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Fluttershy interrupted him. “Nobody said that the path to redemption will be easy. Nopony’s going to forgive you right away, but you have to at least try and make up for things that you’ve done.” The draconequus sitting on her back nodded.

He had a hard time processing this. How could he believe anything anymore? There was this familiar feeling raging in his core, screaming that all of this was wrong. And yet, somewhere at the back of his mind, there was this strange feeling. It almost felt like… hope.

“Do not listen to them, Sombra!” Fear warned. “Do not allow their words to corrupt you! Do not let them change you from what you know you are!”

“Do I?” He turned his gaze to the gemstone. “I was led to believe that I’m merely a pawn of my existence, that I exist solely to fulfill a certain purpose. Yet there were those who kept telling me that despite all of that, I can choose any path I desire. And if that’s true… if I truly can choose... Mother… my first act, my first choice… is to denounce you.”

He’s done it. The umbrum king actually chose to stand up to his maker, even the Elements were surprised by it. Eventually, the lightning that was striking at the barrier began to vain, until there were only sparks left on the wall’s surface, and they disappeared as well. The princess dropped her barrier, as she noticed the light in the room had grown even dimmer as that last remnants of the lifeblood had finally evaporated, and the only light source left now, was the gemstone in which Fear was trapped… and it began to blink.

“Sombra…” the voice said in an almost sorrowful tone. “You’re breaking my heart…”

“Oh spare us the crocodile tears!” the wonderbolt told it.

“Dashy, she doesn’t have eyes to cry…” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “She doesn’t even have a face.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Regardless… You’ve failed, Fear. Sombra was the only one that could help you and through your actions, you’ve alienated him, regardless of his nature. It’s over now. We’re the only ones who know about you, and you’ve got nobody else to assist you now.”

They won. The umbrum king had turned, and the aspect of Fear had been pacified, with nobody else left to assist it. And just as Twilight said those words, Tempest remembered. She quickly turned towards the tunnel’s entrance. It was too dark to see into it now, but she recalled what she saw not long ago.

“Twilight, that’s not really the case.”

Everybody turned towards her. “Tempest, what are you talking about?” she asked.

The chuckle of Fear could be heard throughout the room all of a sudden, causing everybody to turn back to its source. “Your companion is correct, child. After all, who do you think was the one that brought Sombra back to me in the first place?” It was quiet for a moment; it seemed as if the voice awaited their reply, but just before anyone could say anything, a shout followed. “SCOURGELORD!”

The sparking sound could be heard again, and the alicorn quickly raised her barrier once more to protect her friends and the umbrum from her attack. Soon though, she realized something was wrong; no sparks were forming on the wall where the gemstone was trapped, and now that she listened to the sound, it was clear that it wasn’t even coming from there, but the opposite direction. It was already too late then, for just as she turned her head, from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash in the tunnel behind them, and a lightning bolt shot out of it, electrocuting everybody present. They all dropped to the ground, spasming in shock, their muscles twitching uncontrollably. Heavy thuds followed, the stomps echoed throughout the cavern, and a large hulking shape walked through the opening of the tunnel. The group was still unable to move a muscle to look at it, however, when it finally came in midst of them, their eyes finally caught it. What little light there was in the room now, it glanced off the surface of its body, and the upper half was covered by fabric so that its features couldn’t be seen.

“Well done,” the voice said. “Now… bring him to me.”

The construct grabbed the umbrum king by his neck guard and carried him along. As he was being brought closer, a sense of dread overcame him. He struggled, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t slip from his grip, and he was simply too drained to put up any fight at all. At this point, there was only one thing he could do.

“PLEASE! HAVE MERCY!” the umbrum screamed.

The construct stopped on the spot, close to the wall. “Mercy…?” it regarded him. “Sorry, but my… condition, has left me cold to your pleas for mercy. Now, go cry to your mommy.”

It raised him, bringing him face to face with the purple gemstone, only a few inches away from him.

“Let me make something perfectly clear to you, Sombra,” the feminine voice spoke in a shrilling tone. “You’ve made me very, VERY upset with what has happened today. But do not for a moment mistake my anger, my frustration, for animosity…” The tone of Fear’s voice began to mellow down. “For all the anger, for all the rage… I could never spite you… I am… incapable of hating you. You… are my child, my offspring… a part of me.” A low sparking sound emerged from the surface of the wall, and it slowly began to reach out for Sombra’s face. “And I… will protect you from their corruption… Now… come, my wicked child… Return to your mother’s tender embrace.”

The mares struggled to move, even though the spasms have ceased, they were still unable to get up, it was almost as if there was a strange small net made of electricity covering them all, and if they tried to move further then allowed, it shocked them. But that shock was nothing compared to what they saw happening. Their attention was grabbed as they heard the heavy stomps of the construct as it moved away, and they saw a purple lightning trail all over Sombra’s body. A flash happened, and all of a sudden, the umbrum’s body was being blown away like dust, his particles absorbed into the gemstone until nothing was left of him, after which, the gemstone began to blink rapidly until it finally stopped and lit up so brightly that it illuminated half of the cavern.

“AAAAH!” Fear gasped, its voice changing as if two voices were talking in unison now. “The sense of completion… even a partial one, it feels so… fulfilling! Doubt… you were right about this one.” The mares were confused as to who it was speaking, as it was clear that besides the construct, there was nobody else present. “He is cunning, patient, and remorseless. He truly is fitting to be OUR bearer. Now, Scourgelord, liberate us! The rest of our children await!”

The hulking mass of rock moved back into place, smashing into the crystal wall with his giant arms, and then pulled. And pulled again. And again. Yet the formation was simply too sturdy to simply pull it out.

He dragged his arms out and grunted in frustration. “Right. Time to give it the good old one-two,” a voice finally came out of him, as he clenched his right fist and pulled it back.

Meanwhile, the mares were simply frozen from what they just witnessed… except for the broken unicorn. Her stub began to flicker, until it erupted in lightning, disturbing the electric net that covered them all and dispelled it. Afterward, she quickly jumped on her feet and dashed in the construct’s direction. He noticed her; the sound of her heavy metal horseshoes was something that couldn’t go unnoticed. She shot a bolt of lightning at him, and instead of trying to dodge or block it, he simply opened the palm he had pulled back as he was preparing to swing, allowing it to connect with it. The magic attack made contact and then disappeared. Tempest shook her head, her attack just vanished. How?

“Oh that was a really poor choice, sweetie,” the construct said. “But if you’re gonna be an obstructionist, you’ll be the perfect target to trounce.”

He moved and began approaching the Storm King’s former lieutenant, swinging his giant arms at her. She outmaneuvered him and he missed. He took another swing and missed again. It didn’t take long for her to determine his weakness; he was slow, something she could easily exploit with her agility. As he took a swing at her again, she bucked his arm, changing his trajectory, causing him to twist and roll to the ground. She then jumped in the air, her horn lighting up again, and shot lightning at him. Seeing that, he raised his right arm again, and the attack disappeared as it touched his palm. She saw it this time. She would have no chance to ponder it though, as the construct grabbed her by her legs as she was in the air with his other arm, and swung her to the floor. As she reeled for a moment, it gave him enough time to get back on his feet again and then reached out at her, yet she managed to make a quick recovery and shot lightning at him, which he promptly blocked with his right arm.

It frustrated her. “How is he doing this… How is he able to disperse my magic?” the unicorn thought.

As she came closer to his palm, through the flashing light she was finally beginning to see something; there was a strange glowing crystal embedded in the palm of the construct hand. And it wasn’t dispersing her magic… it was consuming it. And its shape, as well as something that looked like wood attached to it, there’s was something very familiar about them, but… it couldn’t have been possible.

Grogar finished attaching a pair of giant arms to the torso and then faced them. “For what’s it worth, the body is more or less finished, but this is still little more than a giant walking paperweight. What kind of a weapon is this thing supposed to use, or are we expected to keep it safe from harm?”

“Broodmother,” Doubt poked her.

She raised a narrow wrapped-up changeling pod she had brought along and snapped it open, pulling out a carved long wooden shaft with a crystal attached at the end of it.

“This is called the Staff of Sacanas,” she explained and she levitated the artifact over to the ram, who soon picked it up. “Some time ago, something invaded Canterlot and used it to drain the power of all four alicorn princesses.” She sighed. “It’s unfortunate I wasn’t aware of what was happening at the time. The whole castle was ripe for the taking. Although I’m not sure how this staff is supposed to be useful when the power was later returned to the princesses. At this point it’s probably little more than an empty container like your bell was, Grogar.”

The old sorcerer didn’t say anything for a while as he twisted and turned the artifact about, examining it. “No.” he finally said bluntly. “This artifact is still able to contain magical residue. If it absorbed power once, it can do so again.”

“Why would you assume that?” she asked.

“This staff… is of centaur design.”

The changeling gave him a curious look. “How can you tell?”

The grizzled ram inhaled. “I once visited the Nether Lands… a long time ago, when I was expanding my influence throughout the land, and it took me westward, past the jagged mountain ridge that borders it. It is a barren wasteland where life is barely possible, and even then, many strange creatures lived in it, and it is there that the centaurs made their home, and their environment had conditioned them to constantly fight over scarce resources such as food, wood, and water; basic necessities that would allow a civilization to thrive. As such they’re barbaric tribesmen in a constant state of conflict.”

“That’s kind of outdated, Grogar,” she intervened. “From what I understand, the centaurs have a kingdom, they had it about a thousand years ago. Otherwise, how else would Tirek have the title of a Lord?”

“Who?” the ram gave her a confused look.

That’s when she remembered that her former ally came long after Grogar was already gone, although based on his information, it seemed that the generation before him still remembered the grizzled sorcerer. “Never mind. Anyway, how can you tell that this staff was made by centaurs?”

“Two reasons,” he announced. “First, the design of the shaft alone is a dead giveaway that a skilled craftsman who originated from that place was working on it.”

“Okay, point taken. And the second one?”

“The crystal,” the ram answered. “Despite being a barren wasteland, the Nether Lands is still a magical place, you just won’t notice it at first sight. Under its surface, there are pockets of a rare gas, one that quickly disperses when taken out, so containers were created to transport it about, with crystals such as this one.”

“And what exactly do they do?”

“You’d be surprised, considering your species, but constant warfare leaves very few people about to look after the settlement, even with females being left in charge. And with the amount of rock just lying about everywhere, the centaurs carved servants out of it and used the magic to bring these inanimate objects, these gargoyles - to life. That is why they call the gas The Breath of Creation.”

“How in Equestria do you know all this?”

“I already told you, Queen of Changelings,” he repeated himself. “I was to the Nether Lands a long time ago. I was able to observe everything from their kind; their customs, their culture. After all, I invaded that place and proceeded to subjugate its population, and considering the tribes were in constant conflict they were easy to deal with. Unfortunately, I got wind of invaders coming into my heartlands, so I decided to abandon my expansion temporarily and left the centaur lands behind.”

“Temporarily… I’ve heard that one before,” she said under her breath. “Well, thanks for this educational lecture, but can we proceed?”

“We could,” Grogar mused, “if the staff wasn’t broken.”

“Wait, what?!” Chrysalis erupted. “What do you mean BROKEN?!”

He levitated the staff to her face. “See the head of the shaft where the crystal is nestled? On the sides there were supposed to be a pair of branches standing out, acting as the stabilizing foci for the staff’s magic, but you can clearly see they’ve been snapped off, and without them the artifact is uncontrollable. This is a dangerous weapon indeed, but only to the user alone.”

“Are. YOU. KIDDING ME?!” she yelled.

She was so frustrated with the knowledge that she sweated herself to acquire the staff and now it turned out to be useless for whoever was supposed to use it. Her anger boiled over and she instinctively shot a bolt of her magic into the sky.

After the moment has passed, her blood was still boiling, but then she noticed that the weaselly shadow was simply floating nearby, not saying anything as it watched her throw a tantrum. “What’s with you?”

“Are you forgetting who you’re talking to?” Doubt said, before turning to the ram. “Shaper?”

“Oh I’m sure we can work around the problem,” Grogar answered, and walked back to the stone table where the unfinished construct lay.

He lifted its right arm and brought the Staff of Sacanas closer, completely enveloping it in dark light, before embedding its bottom into the brittle rock, and then attempting to bend it.

“Wait, what are you doing? You’ll break it!” Chrysalis warned him.

“Unlikely,” the sorcerer responded, as the staff suddenly began to twist like a wet noodle, slowly wrapping it around the construct’s right arm, until he finally reached the palm, and imbedded the crystal head into the rock itself.

“There, problem solved,” he proudly said.

“Please, help me understand…” Tempest stirred, realizing that the construct was addressing her. “Why? Why do you still wear that?”

“What are you talking about, hunk of rock?” she asked.

“THAT!” he pointed at her. “Those clothes! Why do you still wear the armor, the symbol of the king you chose to betray?”

“The Storm King betrayed me!” she snapped back. “I’ve done everything for him, everything I’ve been asked of, and then he went back on his word after he got what he wanted!”

He took a swing at her with his other arm, and the unicorn quickly evaded it, jumping back to create a distance between them. “That’s not the point, Tempest Shadow! But since you put it that way, I wonder: do you wear it because you still feel a semblance of loyalty towards him after all this time… or do you wear it as a penance, out of guilt for betraying your own kind to satisfy your own selfish interests?”

“Tempest has put her past behind her!” Twilight said as she was slowly recovering from the shock along with the rest of the gang. “She shouldn’t have to feel any guilt over what’s happened anymore!”

“Really now?” there was a smug tone in his voice suddenly. “Who was the one who revealed where some of the most powerful magic in the world could be found? Who was the one that provided the Staff of Sacanas to drain the said magic? And who… was the one who was prepared to swear eternal fealty, as long as she got what she so desperately desired?”

Cold suddenly ran up Tempest’s spine after what the construct just said. “How… how do you know all this…? WHO ARE YOU?!”

The rock creature stood still for a moment, and then straightened itself from its hunched-over pose, putting its hand over its face. “Oh for the love of… Tempest, am I really gonna have to spell it out to you? Like, open up your eyes, do you really not see who I am…” There was an awkward silence before the construct looked to both his left and right sides and then slapped his forehead. “Silly me, it’s the cloak, isn’t it? Just gimme a second.”

It grabbed its cowl, and ripped the whole thing off, letting the cloth flow to the side. They weren’t sure what to make of it. From the position the stone creature was standing, the light that Fear was emitting was shining on its back, so they couldn’t see the frontal features. And then… a pair of teal eyes lit up. Something was unsettling about, something familiar. Especially to Twilight and Tempest. Then the creature rose its right arm, opened its palm, and the sparks of lightning illuminated its facial features.

Chrysalis was silent for a moment. “Color me impressed, Grogar. You sure know how to go about it in a creative way.”

“Active imagination does wonders, Queen of Changelings. You should try using it more often, thinking outside the box.”

“And speaking of boxes,” the weaselly vapor interrupted their exchange, “it’s time to put the last piece to the creation.”

Chrysalis nodded, then turned her head and motioned the changelings that were carrying a large box, to bring it forth.

The Father of Monster’s desire for knowledge, however, was unfulfilled. “And what are we supposed to call this creation of ours, wisp? Who was it that we’re awakening anyway?”

“Actually, I’m curious myself,” the Changeling Queen said as she opened the crate. “Who is this creature, whose head we had to steal from a hippogriff exhibition, and a staff made by centaurs?”

“Very well,” Doubt said, “allow me to enlighten you both. Once upon a time, in the lands beyond Equestria, there was a king. A cruel and dangerous king, commander of a mighty fleet, whose reach spanned across the vast seas, bringing its thundering force with it. He was a conqueror of dozen lands, destroyer of dozen more, and many were the titles bestowed upon him by those who feared him: The Conqueror of Mount Aris, the Scourge of Abyssinia, the Lord of the Thundering Isle, to name a few. But there was only one that truly mattered to him. For the name of this invincible, implacable self-proclaimed force of nature was…”

And out of the isolated container, the Queen of Changeling lifted a carved piece of obsidian, or at least it looked as such. The head, missing a lower jaw, its hair resembling jagged spines, bulging eyeballs, a small squashed nose nestled between them, a pair of large horns sticking out on the top of its head, with the left one being broken off, and sitting between them was a small crown, shattered.

“The Storm King.”

She sighed. “I’m rather disappointed. How could the supposed “fear incarnate” end up the way it did?”

“Overconfidence, Broodmother,” Doubt answered. “The bane of anyone who seeks absolute power.”

“Of course…” She rolled her eyes, before levitating the head over to the grizzled ram.

He brought it face to face. “So, this is the creature I’m supposed to bring back? Should be easy enough. Although…”

“Although what, Grogar?”

“The look on his face…” he mused. “That’s an expression of absolute terror that’s been permanently imprinted on it. I wonder what unspeakable horrors he experienced in his final moments.”

“You can ask him that yourself, Shaper,” the weaselly vapor pushed. “Now proceed with it.”

Grogar carried the head over to the complete and armed obsidian body, fusing it to the top of the torso. With the construct now complete, he proceeded to the final stage. He picked up an ordinary rock from one of the earth elementals that were propping up the elevated platform, and molded it into a chisel, before proceeding to carve a border around the stone table where the construct lay, accompanied by runes. Once it came full circle, the chisel was dropped and the ram sorcerer closed his eyes, while his horns were still glowing. Soon, the inscription he had written began to glow in yellow, while dark clouds began to gather above.

“Grogar… you better know what you’re doing,” Chrysalis warned him

“Do not worry, Queen of Changelings,” he calmed her, “our new companion will just need a little kick-start.”

The carved runes suddenly began to expand across the table, until the construct’s whole body was covered by them. Some time passed with relative calm, but then… the clouds above darkened the skies, a strong wind began to blow and followed by the sound of thunder as the rain began to fall. A twitch in the construct’s right arm, then in its left arm, then the legs. And then it happened: the eyes of the Storm King’s head that had been dull and empty suddenly began to glow in bright teal color, and then the rock finally blinked. All of a sudden, he shot up from the stone table he was lying on, raising his arms into the air. The thunder roared, and out of nowhere, the lightning struck from the clouds straight at him, getting absorbed into the Staff of Sacanas that was coiled around and embedded into the construct’s right arm.

Fear. They were overcome by it. The creature that stood before them, it should not be… and yet here he was.

“The king is back, BABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!” the satyr screamed.

Author's Note

Surprise everybody!
Early post this week, since I had most of it already written out, it just needed some polish.

More MLP worldbuilding
Enjoy.

Chapter 39: Calm before the Storm

The first sparks of the morning sun slowly began to peek over the horizon. While most of the residents of the Crystal Empire still slumbered, the royal landscape artist did not. This was her favorite part of the morning routine for a very specific reason. She walked into the crystal flower garden, carrying a tiny box by her side, then stood still as she waited. The garden was forebodingly dark, but as the first rays of light emerged, it touched one of the crystals at a higher elevation. It bounced off and spread throughout the whole area one after another, and soon, the whole crystal garden lit up in a matter of seconds, illuminating the whole place. It never got old for her; for a brief moment, she would witness how an unpleasant sight could turn into a breathtaking one. That's when she realized she was not alone in the garden, as she noticed a stallion standing nearby.

“Oh my. Young man, have you been waiting in the dark this whole time?”

“Yes,” he bluntly answered. “I’d prefer to get this done while my significant other is still unaware that I’m not present.”

The old mare giggled. “I understand. And speaking of presents, here it is.” Mistmane levitated the tiny box to the earth pony’s side and opened it. “Designed directly to your specification. It took two days of arduous work, but I managed to complete it. I trust it’s to your satisfaction.”

The stallion looked at the contents of the container for some time before she finally spoke. “It will be adequate.” The elderly mare closed the box and levitated it over to his saddlebag and placed it inside. “Allow me to express my deepest thanks to you, Madam Mistmane. Now if you excuse me, I must go before my absence is noticed.”

“Farewell, young man,” she waved him goodbye as he trotted away, “and good luck with your proposal.”

He suddenly stopped and glanced back. “Technically, it’s a betrothal.”

“Come on, everycreature!” Starlight announced. “Get your luggage, the train will be leaving in a few minutes.”

The day before, after Starlight met with Twilight and was warned about what had happened, she also thrust a request upon her. She didn’t like the idea of not being there for the students, but as things were, her help was necessary elsewhere. Luckily for her, the two co-workers were more than understanding and have given her a pass. They all waited outside the hotel they were staying at for the few days they were at the Crystal Empire, as the students began leaving. Ponies went off quickly, but the ones that stood out were the last the come out, except for one. Smolder stood close by as per headmare’s order, as she didn’t want to risk her wandering off and eating somebody’s house again. Silverstream came out, holding Sandbar under hoof, all the while he was moaning.

“You really shouldn’t have overdosed on all those sweets last night, Sandbar,” the hippogriff said. “Now you’ve got a stomachache.”

“I couldn’t just let the leftovers go to waste…” he complained.

“Then maybe next time you shouldn’t buy more than you can stomach, Sandbar,” Trixie told him.

Silverstream burst out laughing at the pun. Then the grinding sound followed. A large cage with teal bug eyes held a big avian creature with a feline lower half inside, and it was being pushed by a yak.

“What are you guys doing?” Sunburst inquired.

“Gallus wouldn’t go,” Yona explained. “Ocellus and Yona had to get him by force.”

“Okay, enough playing cops and robbers, all of you,” the pink unicorn ordered, and the changeling returned to her original form. “Gallus, I get that going back home isn’t exactly on the top of your bucket list, but don’t deprive anycreature else of a new experience. Don’t be selfish.”

“Oh yeah, that’s gonna be an experience alright,” he mumbled.

Unable to hear it, the headmare went to the front of the crowd with the rest of the faculty members. “Alright, everycreature! We’re all gathered now. We’re off the catch the next train to Griffonstone!”

“Yippie…” the griffin sarcastically said.

The group of students was led through the main street of the city, on the way to the train station. The unicorns figured something was off as they saw numerous guards running about, but the full realization hit them when they discovered a large magical bubble had enveloped the whole city, and there was a huge, loud crowd gathered on its border. Starlight went ahead to check what was going on, but she had a hard time moving through, and all she could hear was one of the guards telling them that the city had been placed under lockdown. She wondered what could warrant such actions, only to get disturbed when she heard a cry from the student crowd.

“I FOUND ONE!”

Soon more guards rushed in and surrounded the group of students. The pink mare saw it and quickly teleported back to them.

“Hey, what’s going on?!” she asked, only to notice that Ocellus had a shackle locked around her neck. “What do you think you’re doing to one of our students?!”

Several guards looked at them. “Your students?” one of them asked.

“We’re the members of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship,” Trixie announced, “and that over there is one of our students your ponyhandling! And clear the way, we have a train to catch!”

The guards looked at each other. “If that’s the case, you’re ALL getting detained. Seize them!”

The guards piled up and projected a bubble around the whole group, only with the changeling being separated from the rest.

“Wait, what are you doing?! We’ve done nothing wrong!” Sunburst argued.

“The princess will be the judge of that. Take them to the castle,” one of the guards ordered.

The guards projecting the enclosure led the suspects away from the crowd and down the street.

“What are they gonna go to Ocellus?” Silverstream showed concern. “What are they gonna do to us?”

“Best case scenario? We’re not leaving the Crystal Empire any time soon,” Gallus quipped.

The guards led the faculty members and their students through the corridors of the Crystal Castle, with the most obvious-looking suspect being kept on a very short leash, literally. They were escorted to the meeting room where numerous guards had already gathered, with the princess sitting at the head of the table, looking rather moody.

“Your Majesty,” the guard announced, “we’ve caught a changeling.”

“I already told you, I’m not the one you’re looking for!” Ocellus protested.

“That remains to be seen,” he said.

The princess rose from her seat and walked over to the prisoners. Upon seeing her up close, Starlight Glimmer realized that she was in an even worse state than she saw before: her mane was frazzled, sticking out in many directions, baggy eyes became all the more noticeable, and as she was getting closer, she noticed that she was slightly rocking left and right with every step.

“Princess Cadence, are you alright?” the headmare asked.

“Forgive me if I don’t offer an answer, considering I don’t know if you are what you seem to be,” the alicorn sternly said. “Can you give me some sort of proof that you’re really Starlight Glimmer?”

She didn’t say a thing. Instead, her horn began to glow, and in a bright flash, she disappeared before their eyes. Panic erupted among the guards, while the princess just stood still, looking at the empty space. A moment later, the flash happened again, and the pink unicorn materialized outside the enclosure, carrying a pair of golden ruby heart-shaped necklaces.

“These are the necklaces that I and Trixie got as an award for defeating Queen Chrysalis.”

“That’s not specific enough, Starlight,” the aforementioned mare interjected. “It was also for freeing everypony alongside Discord and Thorax.”

“If I may add my two bits to this, I was Flurry Heart’s official-“ Sunburst wanted to add only for the alicorn to raise her hoof and stopped him.

“It’s fine, I heard enough. I think the fact that you just teleported out of here is proof enough. Guards,” she ordered, “they’re clear. And release the changeling.” The magical bubble disappeared and one of the guards unlocked the shackle around Ocellus’ neck and removed it. “My sincerest apologies for this, everypony, but with the current state of things I couldn’t risk it.”

“Cadence, what’s going on?” the pink unicorn questioned as she teleported the accessories away. “You look like a wreck.”

“How much do you know about what’s happening here?”

Starlight was about to speak, but then glanced at everybody else present, remembering that the students were still oblivious to what’s been happening. “Everycreature, I need you to wait outside.” They all looked at each other but chose not to question her order, so they walked out of the meeting room and the doors shut behind them.

“The students don’t know?” the tall mare asked.

“I’ve been trying to keep it under wraps, especially from those six. After what they’ve been through recently they don’t need any more anxiety piled upon them. Anyway, Twilight explained yesterday regarding Chrysalis, Grogar, and… whatever it is they’re looking for. I figured that’s why there’s been so much security in the city after we’ve arrived.”

“That’s the case, unfortunately,” the alicorn confirmed, “but after what’s happened this morning, I realized things are far worse than I had thought.”

“How much worse?” Sunburst asked.

“We’ve had three incursions from Chrysalis and her changelings since yesterday,” she explained. “After the first attempt the guards came back emptyhooved, so for the second attempt that happened in the middle of last night, I joined the troops. We’ve searched all up to morning and we found nothing, it was almost as if they just disappeared without a trace. But the third time, they didn’t run away at first. Chrysalis even decided to put up a fight. Twilight wasn’t joking, she’s changed, and she’s become stronger. I had thought we were facing a full-scale invasion that time, but for some reason, they still ran away. This time I managed to catch up to them… and discovered what was really happening.”

“So, what was it?” Trixie asked.

“At first, I thought that Chrysalis was acting on her own in the city, that Grogar went out into the Frozen North to look for Turmoil’s piece. But then I caught her and her changelings stepping through a portal in a secluded place.” She turned to look at Starlight. “That’s how I know you’re not fake.”

The pink mare thought for a moment and then realized what she was saying. “If she had to step through a portal to escape, that means she can’t teleport around.”

“But even if that’s the case, that still means that the changelings and their queen have been in the city this whole time,” the yellow unicorn added.

The Princess of Love nodded. “Exactly. That is why I’ve put the whole empire on lockdown, and have any abandoned house searched in case they're hiding there."

“Well then it’s no wonder your guards put Ocellus on a chain at the first sight, Cadence,” the illusionist said. “But still, a changeling disguised as a changeling? Who’s ever heard of that?”

“I fear there’s another thing that’s come up with this,” the alicorn confessed.

“Wait, there’s more? What?” the scraggly maned stallion inquired.

“It’s obvious now that both Chrysalis and Grogar have been working together on infiltrating the city, but that also means there’s a third participant at work, somepony’s out there, in the Frozen North, somepony… or some creature, that could be a threat to Twilight and her friends, but the question is, who?”

That did warrant some concern. There were only a few creatures in the world that could be a potential threat to Princess Twilight Sparkle when it comes in terms of power, but if the two most viable people have been hiding in the city the whole time, who else could be out there?

The doors quickly swung open, and a pair of guards rushed in. “Your Majesty! News!” they yelled in unison, before looking at each other at what they had just done. “Make that two,” one of them corrected.

“Yes?”

“We searched one of the empty houses, Your Majesty. The place was supposed to be abandoned, yet there were signs everywhere that somepony had been there recently. And we also found these at the scene.” The unicorn guard carried a saddlebag and he pulled out of it a container holding several books. “We went to check out at the local library, and we discovered that they were all checked out only recently, some three days ago… except for that one.”

Cadence picked up one of the books, or at least what it used to be, as there was only cover left from it. “Crystal Empire: Early design of plumbing? And why are all of its pages missing?”

“Maybe they found something they were looking for?” Sunburst wondered.

“From a medieval book about plumbing? That’s a good laugh,” Trixie responded.

“And when have you ever seen a book specifically about plumbing from a medieval era?” Starlight asked a question that got everybody curious. “I feel like the title is just a cover for what the book actually contains.”

The princess sighed. “Well it’s too bad we’ll never know what was inside then.”

“Oh, it’s nothing that a little reconstruction spell can’t fix,” the headmare smiled.

Her horn began to glow and enveloped the book cover in teal aura… only for it to stop glowing and dropping to the floor. They all looked surprised, Starlight included. She tried again, and after a moment it fell to the ground once again, as well as on the third try.

“Errr, Starlight, what are you doing?” Trixie asked.

“I don’t get it… The reconstruction spell should’ve reformed the missing pages into the book, yet it’s not working for some reason.”

“Maybe it’s magic related?” the vice-principal suggested. “As you said, Starlight, the cover may have been just a cover, but what if the contents of the book itself were enchanted and they can’t be reconstructed for that reason?”

“Yes, but where did this book come from?”

The three unicorns pondered, while Cadence grabbed the book’s leftovers and looked it over. She couldn’t understand either what could possibly be contained in such an odd book, yet as she looked inside the cover, something caught her eye: within there was a small image printed, of a blue snowflake, surrounded by a horseshoe.

“Amore’s mark…”

“What?” the student counselor responded.

“This book has Princess Amore’s cutie mark on it, there are only a few books that have it and most of them are focused around the history of her and the Crystal Empire itself.”

“You don’t mean that whatever was ACTUALLY printed in this book was something of great significance?” the pink unicorn questioned.

Sunburst readjusted his glasses. “I think that may be the case, Starlight.”

A gasp escaped the alicorn. “And since it was confirmed that this book didn’t come from a public library, it can only mean… it came from the castle’s library!” She quickly turned to the guard that brought the material. “You! Tell the other guards to comb through the library, and then check every nook and cranny in the castle, top to bottom!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” He saluted and ran off.

Cadence was hyperventilating. She was rarely this tense, but the lack of slumber and events happening one after another have been doing a number on her. She took a deep breath and exhaled in hopes that it will help, before addressing the other guard.

“What’s the other news?”

“There’s somepony we’ve brought to the castle, Your Majesty. We found her on the edge of the city some time ago, as apparently, she couldn’t get in through the barrier and passed out.”

“Is it a changeling?”

“I don’t know, Your Majesty. I was hoping you could maybe help confirm it. We have a nurse taking care of her, but we’re keeping a close eye on her.”

She sighed, before looking at the faculty members. “Okay. You three follow me.”

“Cadence,” Starlight protested, “can’t you just let us go? I mean we were about to take the students to Griffonstone and the train will-“

“I’m sorry, Starlight,” she interrupted her, “but until the crisis is resolved, and Chrysalis and Grogar are caught, nopony’s going in and out of the city. It’s for your own protection.”

The three looked at one another. “What do we tell them?” the blue unicorn asked.

“Honestly…” the pink one answered, “nothing. Just let them be for now. At least in the castle, they’ll be safe.”

“That’s questionable if they managed to already get inside,” the yellow one pointed out.

“Oh… good point.”

“Don’t worry, the guards will look after them. Now come on.” Just as Princess of Love was about to stride out of the room, she accidentally bashed her head against the door, before readjusting herself and following the guard, with the three unicorns following her.

“Well? What are they saying?” Sandbar asked.

The students were waiting outside the office, but they had no intention of being oblivious, as Smolder pressed her ear against the door. “Kinda hard to get it. But from what I caught, we probably won’t be leaving the Crystal Empire any time soon.”

“Sweet,” the griffin said as he slouched against the wall, “no skin off my beak.”

“Gallus, I don’t think being isolated is in any way good,” the changeling argued.

“What are you talking about? We’re not isolated, that would require us being alone, like… being in a small confined space.” A shiver went down his spine as he said that.

“Not really.” They all looked at the hippogriff, who had a concerned look on her face. “You don’t need to be alone. After the Storm King devastated Mount Aris we fled to Seaquestria, we’ve been cut from the outside world for a long time. Sure, you had relatives and neighbors, but that didn’t make the feeling go away that there’s no other place but your home left.”

When she put it like that nobody else liked the idea either. Something bashed against the door, causing them all to flinch and quickly distanced themselves from the door, pretending that they were ignorant. They opened, and the Princess of Love trot out, holding her head, with the three unicorns following her.

“Headmare Starlight, when are we going?” the yak asked, acting oblivious.

She sighed. “I’m sorry students. But it seems we’ll have to postpone our departure. We’ll have to stay at the Crystal Empire a while longer.”

“Are we going back to the hotel then?” the pony inquired

“Just wait in the castle for the moment. We still have some things to discuss with Princess Cadence,” the stallion unicorn told them.

They walked around the corner and disappeared.

“So what do we do now? Twiddle our thumbs?” the dragon asked the rest.

The princess and the unicorns were led by the guard down the corridor, and that was when a small bundle of fluffy curly hair skittered towards them.

“Mommy!” Flurry Heart called out. “Mommy, listen! I-“

The parent sighed and stopped for a moment. “Flurry sweetie, mommy can’t play right now, she’s got something important to deal with. I’ll come back later, okay?”

And they all passed her. They left the little filly all alone, and she made a pouty expression on her face. She walked off, dragging her tiny hooves in sadness, knowing that her mom didn’t have time for her again. She nearly got to the end of the hallway when something caught her eye: from around the corner, there was a feline backside sticking out.

“Kitty!” she squealed and dashed off, before pouncing on it.

A scream erupted. It certainly didn’t sound like a feline one, it sounded more like an avian squawk.

“What is it?!” Gallus questioned loudly as he shivered.

“Relax, Gallus, it’s just a little pony,” Sandbar calmed him.

The little filly opened her eyes and looked at her surroundings. All manner of creatures were around her, but most importantly the backside she landed on, while it was feline, the other half wasn’t.

“You’re not a kitty,” she said. “You’re just a kitty rump.”

Silverstream started laughing, only for the griffin to glare at her. “I ain’t laughing here.”

Ocellus flew up close. “Isn’t that Princess Cadence’s foal?”

“Hey, you’re a big buggy, like ‘Rax,” the little alicorn pointed at her.

The changeling looked at her in confusion. “What? Who’s Rax?”

“I think she means King Thorax, Ocellus,” Smolder told her.

“And you look like yellow ‘Pike.”

“Pike? Since when do I look like a fish…” she stopped herself, thinking for a moment. “Oh… right. Spike.”

The pony of the group approached her. “What’s your name, little filly?”

“Flurry Heart!” she declared.

“Awww, she’s so adorable,” the hippogriff squealed. “I’m Silverstream,” and one after another they introduced themselves to her. “Sandbar. Smolder. Ocellus. Yona!” The griffin finally sighed. “Gallus.”

“Would… you like to play?” the filly innocently asked.

The group looked at each other. “Well, we’re not going anywhere anytime soon anyway,” the dragon shrugged. “So why not.”

Gallus bucked, his backside rising and tossing the child pony up in the air before catching her in his claws. “How about instead on my back you sit on somecreature more comfortable,” he said under gritted teeth, as he flew up and placed her on the yak’s back. “Yona, she wants to play. How about you give her a ride?”

“Yona gonna entertain tiny pony!” she yelled and then charged off.

For a moment the group stared in silence before one of them exploded. “Gallus, what were you thinking?!”

“Relax, Yona’s just gonna give her a round or two, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“With Yona’s track record? You know how she is when she gets overexcited!” the changeling reminded him.

“Come on, you’re making a bigger deal out of it than it is.”

And in the distance, the sound of something breaking came, and the griffin quickly changed his tune. “Okay, I think I’m about ready to eat my words…”

“Quick! Go after them!”

While the students played with the Princess’ daughter, a commotion was about to take place. Outside, underneath the castle, stood a pedestal, and on it levitated the magical object that was protecting the Crystal Empire from sinister external forces, the Crystal Heart. It was always here, barely noticeable at times, but ever since the changelings have shown up, guards have been placed next to it to keep an eye on the artifact, and since this morning, that number had only increased. Even so, the people in the city didn’t want to miss a chance to see this magical artifact, and as time passed more and more ponies began to gather around it. To the royal guards who were surrounding it, however, it occurred to them something was off, as they’ve never seen a crowd this big coming together, especially not in a state of emergency like this, especially when some of them had nasty looks on their faces. Unseen to them, behind one of the support beams of the castle, a white unicorn mare with green mane poked her head around the corner, and her horn flashed in a green aura several times. And they struck. The ponies surrounding the guards pounced on them in mass numbers. Incapacitated by the superior numbers, they could do nothing when several of them knocked the Crystal Heart off the pedestal, and it slid across the floor to where the pony that had given the signal stood. She picked it up and quickly ran off, and not long after that, the attacking ponies disengaged and ran after her, but some of them were not as lucky, as the guards they had attacked struck back, before sounding the alarm.

The whole empire had already awoken by now, it was hard to miss what was happening, as they saw an army chasing after a group of ponies one of which was carrying the magical artifact. The guards were aware of one fact: the city was sealed shut. A barrier was up which meant nobody could get in or out, and they had no place to hide; the best they could do was run and they’ll still get caught in the end. The armies split in half, and have the other one running in parallel to the first one, which would allow them to corner the thieves. And just as predicted, they ran into a narrow alley, so as the first group ran after them, the second group would approach from the other end and cut off their escape. Yet as they entered, the two guard groups did manage to see them, but their numbers have been greatly reduced, as they saw them all jumping through a portal made of dark light, and by the time they finally caught up to them, the last one stepped through and the portal closed shut. They lost the Crystal Heart!

“She’s over here.” The guard led them into the room.

At least six more were standing close to the bed where the nurse was checking over a patient. As the four approached, the taller one gasped and quickened her pace. Lying in bed, fast asleep was a teal unicorn mare with a curly bright mane.

“Do you know this one, Cadence?” Starlight asked.

“It’s Glitter Drops,” she answered. “She and Tempest Shadow are running an Arctic Patrol Office on the edge of the city.”

“Wait…” The headmaster tapped her chin. “That name sounds familiar… Isn’t she the pony that once attacked Canterlot in the name of the Storm King?”

“Yes, but she got better. I sent Twilight and the rest to them in hopes they might be able to help.” The princess looked at the guard. “Was she all alone when you found her?”

The guard nodded.

“Then we’ll have to wait and see what she has to say for herself when she wakes up… assuming she’s not a changeling in disguise,” Trixie said.

“At this point… I’d prefer if she was one,” the alicorn voiced her concern. "If she's real and she came back all alone, who knows what's happened to Twilight."

They waited patiently for her to wake up, and while they did, all they could hear was the little mare mumbling in her sleep, saying words like Princess, Fizzy, but most forebodingly, Sombra. But then they got interrupted. There was a loud noise that sounded as if something was just broken down by force.

Knock knock. Anybody home?

A voice could be heard speaking all the way to the room yet it was clearly somewhere in the distance, that’s how loud it must’ve been. And then the high-pitched shriek followed.

“What’s going on out there?” Trixie wondered.

“I don’t know,” the alicorn answered. “An attack? At this point, I wouldn’t put it past the changelings. We’ll go and intercept them. Guards, stay here and watch over her!”

“Cadence, are you sure you wanna do this on your own?” Starlight questioned her. “You look like you’re barely awake.”

She groaned in irritation. “Starlight, I don’t need you to tell me where my limits are, now come on.”

As the alicorn walked to the door, the faculty members looked at each other with concern. “I feel like something’s about to go very wrong,” the stallion whispered. “It would be for the best if we get the students out of here.”

“Out where? We’re stuck in the city,” the illusionist pointed out.

“Or maybe not,” the headmare rubbed her chin. “Sunburst, what time is it?”

He pulled out a watch. “It’ll be twelve soon.”

“Good, then we’ve still got enough time, we just need to get to the students.”

“Are you three coming?” The princess stopped in the doorway waiting for them and they hastened to her.

Squealing sounds echoed throughout the hallways. Little Flurry Heart sat on the back of a yak and she was having so much fun, as did Yona, and unfortunately, in her moment of joy, the predictable happened, as she accidentally knocked over pedestals, flower pots, and vases as they passed by. The rest of the group was closing in and they saw the aftermath of their friend’s stampede. They finally managed to get close enough to see them, before they disappeared around the corner again.

KRAKOOM!

What followed was a thrashing and crashing sound.

“The headmare’s gonna kill us for this, I just know it!” Gallus grimaced.

They quickly turned a corner, only to see what they weren’t expecting. She stopped. The yak stood still not far from them, and there was no noticeable damage, despite the contrary.

“Yona wasn’t the only one that heard that. Right?” she asked.

KRAKOOM!

There it was again. The same sound and it certainly wasn’t coming from within the castle. That was the thunder that roared across the sky. This wasn’t right. Not in the middle of a sunny day. Yet that was what they saw when they looked out the window in the direction it was coming from: a large black cloud was fast approaching from the north. They noticed something else as well, something was glowing on its very front, something akin to a lightning bolt, and a figure was holding it… it looked as if somebody had put a bridle on the cloud and was now riding it, steering it in the direction of the Crystal Empire. As it approached the vicinity of the city, the protection of the Crystal Heart began to show its effect, as the dark cloud began to dissipate, until it completely vanished under the figure’s feet, causing it to fall and scream, before it crashed against the barrier, making it sound as if a bug just hit the window. Things were quiet for a moment, but soon they heard a sparking sound and saw a hole being punctured through the barrier, and the shape dropped down, sliding on the sloped walls of the Crystal Castle’s many spires until it finally reached the nearby window and climbed inside.

“What was that?” Sandbar asked.

“I dunno, but it clearly trespassed into the castle,” the griffin said.

“Let’s go get it!” Yona declared.

“Yeah!” the little alicorn on her back agreed.

The changeling was quick to protest. “Hold on! Shouldn’t we take Flurry Heart somewhere safe first?”

“Relax,” the hippogriff was quick to answer. “There’s like six of us… well, six and a half if you count her. We clearly outnumber it. And besides, you can just turn into anything you want, remember?”

“And you’ve got a fire-breathing dragon on your side,” Smolder boasted.

“There you have it. Let’s go!”

The group rushed down the corridor. They managed to remember the part of the castle where the figure had climbed in, so they had a rough idea where that creature was. After making numerous turns they came over several lined-up doors in the hallway. One of them was surely harboring the intruder. They crept close to the first door and Smolder reached for the doorknob, ready to turn it.

CHRASH!

The door after the current one burst open, flying off its hinges before they even had a chance to investigate.

“Knock knock!” a voice came from the room, before a giant black figure came out, forcing itself to bend over so it could go through the door, so big it was. “Anybody home?!”

A giant construct made of black rock, carrying a bundle around his neck, stood before them, scanning its surroundings until its gaze finally caught the group. The students, who were initially boasting about bravery were quickly overcome by doubt. Suddenly, a thudding sound grabbed their attention, as the hippogriff had lost control of her legs and landed on her backside, trembling in horror.

“Silverstream, what is it?” Sandbar asked.

But among the group, Gallus already knew what it was; he’s seen this creature before, or at least its silhouette, but the glowing teal eyes were unmistakable. “It’s the Storm King!”

The hippogriff released an ear-piercing shriek.

“A hippogriff? This far north?” the construct mused. “Well, now I definitely can’t let any of you get away, you’ll spoil my surprise comeback.”

The students didn’t meander about it. They quickly grabbed Silverstream and dragged her along since she was too paralyzed, and they ran off. Yet despite the speed, the satyr was so big that he was quickly closing the gap between them. The only time they managed to widen the gap was when they turned a corner and the guards became aware of the invader’s presence, but even they were little more than a minor distraction as the Storm King simply swept them aside with his giant arms without much effort. That’s when the crossroad hallway, where the rest of the students from the School of Friendship were, became visible, and it didn’t take long to notice what was going on, especially since one of them screamed out loud. But it was too late to run and escape at this point, as he was already only a few hooves away from them. Just as they passed the threshold of the great crossing hall, the construct suddenly bent forward and slammed to the ground like a plank, causing a small tremor to resonate throughout the castle. He was still for a brief moment, but then his head moved. He was confused as to what just happened, how was he able to trip even? That’s when he turned his head to the side and noticed a blue unicorn extending a long chain at the ankle level from one side of the threshold to the other.

“Why you little…” an angry voice came from it. “You ruined my entrance.”

“That’s the point, Rocky,” Trixie grinned. “I, out of all, know how important presentation is and you’ve just fudged it.”

“Well guess what, horsey, I’m about to present to this gaggle what THESE are going to do to you.” He shook his fist at her.

“Not likely, the show’s over and WE are pulling the curtain… STARLIGHT, NOW!”

From the crowd of students, a teal glow began to shine. The Storm King quickly tried to smack the blue unicorn, but she managed to dodge it and run for the group, and in a bright flash, everybody disappeared, leaving the construct all alone.

“Oh, that’s just great,” he grumbled as he got back up, “now my surprise comeback will be ruined.”

“That’s not the only thing that will be ruined!”

There was another presence nearby, talking to him. And the first thing that he spotted was a small filly sitting nearby, all alone.

“A talking baby?” He looked confused. “Oh well, I suppose you’ll have to do.”

He approached the child and was about to reach for her, when a blue beam suddenly passed by his face, missing him for a single hair.

“Don’t. You. DARE. Lay a finger on her.”

It was the same voice again and it certainly didn’t come from the filly. A tall pink alicorn mare with curly mane stood on the other side of the intersection, with a mean look on her face.

“Hey, I know you,” he regarded her. “The swirly-haired horse… although last time I remember you being a bit more… my color.”

The tone in his voice was so clearly oozing with mockery, and considering how run-down the princess was, the irritation caused her to shoot another bolt of magic at him, but she missed him for the same reason. He charged at her, but she easily jumped and flew over him, before firing another bolt at him, only to have him block it with his palm.

She landed next to her daughter. “Flurry sweetie, go and hide, quick!” The filly quickly skittered out of sight around the corner, leaving her mother to deal with the invader. “Twilight warned me about it before she left. About a creature made of obsidian with a sinister purpose. That was you wasn’t it?”

“Oh, she spilled the beans, did she? Well, I very much would’ve liked to know how she got to us in the first place, she was very short on words last I saw her… considering how unfortunately our encounter ended.”

As he said that, a touch of cold suddenly ran down Cadence’s spine. “What did you do? What have you done to Twilight?”

Everybody was paralyzed. Before them, stood a creature they’ve all seen perish, yet there it was, moving, talking.

“How’s that possible…” Tempest couldn’t comprehend it.

“This don’ make a lick of sense,” Applejack spoke. “We all saw you get turned to stone, fall over the edge of the balcony, and get smashed to bits.”

The giant dark construct closed his palm as he was projecting the light to illuminate his facial features. “True… but I got better.”

“That’s not how it works, Storm King!” Rarity pointed out. “You can’t just get better from… well… from not existing!”

The satyr bowed and spread his hands. “And yet here I am... existing.”

The Princess of Friendship, however, already put the pieces together. “It was Grogar, wasn’t it?” Everybody present looked at her. “He took Discord’s magic. If he was able to bring Sombra back out of nothingness, of course, he’d be able to bring you back as well.”

“Oh? So you’re already acquainted with the old goat, are you? Well if that’s the case I won’t bore you with explanations,” he rose and turned his back to them, proceeding to approach the wall where the Fear’s gemstone was trapped. “Now if you excuse me, the Gramps and Missus Freckles are waiting for me.” Just as he was about to get there, his attention got piqued by the sound of heavy horseshoes, knowing full well to who they belonged. “Really, Tempest?” He slowly turned to face her. “You really wanna do this again?”

The broken unicorn was slowly walking towards him, intent noticeable on the expression of her face, she didn’t have to say a word. She charged at him, and the construct prepared to take a swing at her, yet just as that happened, the mare quickly turned in mid charge, sliding on the floor, preparing to buck his swing to topple him down again, but this time, he halted his strike halfway, and since she didn’t make contact with anything, she bucked into empty air. As soon as that happened, the satyr moved his foot forward and stepped on her tail, preventing her from moving anywhere.

“Nice try, but I won’t fall for the same trick twice,” the Storm King said in a happy tone, before he raised his fist again, to gather momentum.

The former lieutenant struggled. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t even turn in an attempt to dodge the attack. She was completely vulnerable and exposed.

“Tempest, duck!” Twilight yelled as she stood tall, her horn charging up.

She saw it, but her reaction was the opposite. “TWILIGHT, NO-!”

But it was too late. The princess unleashed a channeled beam at the obsidian construct. He already saw it coming, but he didn’t flinch from the spot. Instead, he thrust his fist at the attack and it connected. After several seconds the alicorn finally stopped. She put so much into that attack, and after what she’s been through, she sighed in exhaustion. When their eyes finally readjusted to the lighting though, they were in for a shock. The Storm King simply stood there, unscathed, his palm open and the crystal of the Staff of Sacanas embedded in his palm was glowing in vibrant pink color.

“That,” he addressed her, “was a really bad idea, Twirkle Spirkle. You should’ve been already aware of what this toy of mine is capable of. So…” The crystal in his palm began to glow brighter. “Return to sender!”

And in the split second, without having enough chance to react to it, the same attack that Twilight had just unleashed came out from the Storm King’s hand right back at the group, sending them flying to the far end of the room, scattering them. A chuckle escaped him as the dust settled and he was finally able to use the extent of his power. It filled him with a sense of pride, knowing how easily he could turn the power of others back at them.

KLANK!

His attention got grabbed. That sound wasn’t the one he knew, and he saw a small pebble rolling away from him, before seeing Tempest making some distance from him as well. It made him question how she managed to slip out. He looked down and raised the foot with which he was holding her down. Upon inspecting it and wiggling his appendages, he discovered one of the two was missing.

“HEY! YOU JUST MADE ME LOSE A TOE!”

Though his expression was difficult to read considering how stiff it was, the tone of his voice was a clear indication of rage. He charged at the mare and took a swing at her, and she easily dodged.

“You’re wasting time, Storm King,” she told him. “Regardless of how strong you are, you’re still slow. And the fact I just made you lose a piece of yourself, means that you’re not indestructible. I’m just gonna take you down piece by piece.”

“IF… you can get close enough,” the construct said, swinging in her direction, his palm opened, launching a lightning bolt at her.

She managed to dodge it, and more followed one after another, with each of the satyr’s swings, but despite that, the unicorn wasn’t touched by them. “It’s no use!” Tempest yelled. “Even if your attacks are as fast as lightning your movement is still too slow! You’re not going to catch me!”

Another lightning bolt was tossed in her direction and she dodged with ease, but this time, just before it slipped out of his reach, the Storm King grabbed the tail of the electrified magical string and swung it in Tempest’s direction like a whip. It coiled around her hind leg and shook her, before being pulled back, making her fly across the air, and that’s when he reached out with his other hand and grabbed the pony by the neck.

He brought her face to face. “You really shouldn’t jinx things, Tempest. Bad things happen when you do.”

“STOP!” a voice came from not far away.

The Elements of Harmony managed to recover from the attack, but they were clearly hurt by it, and Twilight couldn’t risk the fight going further, especially now that their opponent had one of her friends in his clutches.

“Please, don’t hurt her, Storm King,” she pleaded. “Just let her go and I promise we won’t try to stop you from leaving, we swear.”

The construct chuckled. “Awww, isn’t that nice of you. I might make an exception for you… but not THIS ONE.” He shook the pony in his hand. “I have a bone to pick with her for what she’s done.”

Rainbow Dash stepped up. “Listen, you don’t get to pull the “disloyalty” card after-!”

“I’m not talking about that, Bluey,” he interrupted her, before turning his gaze to the pony in question. “You know what you did.”

She struggled to speak in his grasp. “Made you… uglier than you already looked?” The grip around her neck suddenly tightened and she struggled to breathe.

“I’m not in the mood for taunts, Tempest.” He turned his gaze back to the rest of the group. “You’ve also seen what she did, ponies. And if that’s too difficult to understand, let me ask you this: I wield the power I’ve always wanted. But tell me… do you think… I’m happy?”

Silence followed the question that sounded awkward, and nobody seemed to know what he was saying… except for the party planner. “Considering how stiff you are, I’d say… no.”

The satyr raised his finger, about to protest, before stopping himself, thinking for a moment. “Actually, that’s pretty accurate, cotton candy head. I wield all this wonderful power, but do you know what I feel?” Silence followed again and the mares assumed he was waiting for an answer again, but it soon came, as if the sound of thunder echoed throughout the crystal cavern. “NOTHING! I wield the power over magic, over storms themselves, yet now that I possess it I feel nothing. SHE made me into this!” He shook the pony in his grasp at them. “I’m nothing but a giant pile of rocks with consciousness. I feel nothing... I can’t feel the rain spray on my face, nor the wind in my hair… I can’t even feel how my claws are squeezing the life out of you right now…” The broken unicorn struggled to breathe and was beginning to blackout, only for the grip around her neck to suddenly loosen and end up dropping to the ground, gasping for air. “Tempest… What you’ve done, was rob me of the ability... to feel joy…” His limbs had gone limp and the construct just stood there unmoving; for a moment they almost pitied this pathetic creature, until what came next. “My only solace now… is in seeing YOU suffer.”

Tempest finally managed to catch up some air. “Do your worst… there’s nothing else you can take from me.”

“Oh, really?” the tone in his voice went from somberly depressing to light-hearted. “I might have believed you… if I didn’t already know you were trying to deceive me.” He went down on his knees to get closer to her face. “I know about HER, Tempest. I didn’t give it much thought when I was making my way to this place, and I just so happened to have come across a tiny teal horsey who was running from the local beasts. I didn’t have to save her, I just figured it would be better to keep a low profile. But boy, was I surprised topside, where I was taking cover when I saw her again... alongside you. And then when you were all trapped, she started going “Fizzy! Fizzy! Fizzy!”." He mockingly imitated a feminine voice. "You don’t use such words unless you’re close to somebody.” He could hear it; the sound of the mare’s heart pounding loudly, faster by the second, and he could even see the grim expression on her face, now that she knew he knew about Glitter Drops. “So you see, I know there is something that you value greatly. Remember what I once told you once? “Fail me, and your horn won’t be the only thing that’s broken.”.

“Don’t you dare-“

“Or what? You’re in no position to stop me.” He rose again and turned, making his way back to the wall.

He picked up the cloak he had removed not long ago and carried it along before he stopped in front of the crystal formation. He took a swing with his arm and crashed into it. Bits and pieces flew all about, and the gemstone containing the fragment of Turmoil fell to the ground, still trapped inside the crystal. He picked it up, wrapped it into a bundle using the fabric, and then hung it around his neck. And then multiple sounds of hoofsteps approached him, as the Elements got close to their indisposed friend.

“If yer planning to go out there just so you can intentionally bring more harm to everypony, then yer not getting past us,” Applejack declared.

“Yeah, and now we know your weakness. We ain’t letting you get away that easy, Storm King!” The blue pegasus puffed out her chest.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to do anything, rainbow collections,” he said.

He raised his arm to the sky with an open palm, the staff began to glow and shot lightning into the ceiling. It began tearing through it, making the whole place shake, pieces of crystal, and heavy chunks of ice and snow fell on the gap between them, blocking them off.

“I’m taking the expressway out so that Mommy Dearest here can be reunited with her babies,” he mockingly said. “Meanwhile, all of you can get buried under a mountain of ice and snow.” He gazed at the broken unicorn. “As for you, as the frost slowly takes you, you can think of all the horrible things I’m going to do to her when I get back to the Crystal Empire.” Suddenly strong wind pulled in through the hole his lightning had carved, as it now reached the surface. “TA!”

And with those words, the obsidian construct grabbed hold of the lightning and an unseen force pulled him up, making him disappear out of sight. The mares quickly ran in the opposite direction to get to the tunnel. Twilight sped up in front of everybody along with Spike to try and hold it up in case it was about to collapse, but she was beaten to it as the room caved in right behind her, blocking everybody else’s escape. Her friends were trapped and there was no way to remove the debris. There was only one thing she could do. She quickly summoned a shield over her friends to protect them as the rest of the ceiling came down on top of them, saving them at the nick of time, but unfortunately, as they were protected, she was unable to erect a barrier over herself as well, and then the ceiling started collapsing on her end as well.

“TWILIGHT!!!” the mares cried on the other end as they saw everything crashing down on top of her, and then the barrier surrounding them disappeared.

Author's Note

Once more I've crossed the threshold on chapter length more than I ever did before.
It wasn't intentional, but with the amount of action happening, this wasn't avoidable... and would you believe that I originally had it planned to be even longer?

Chapter 41: Mother's Wrath

The ponies out on the street were showing signs of anxiety. The barrier protecting the Crystal Empire fell, and all of a sudden, clouds began to emerge, accompanied by the sound of thunder. At that point, it became clear to them that something was wrong, and they began to slowly gather in the courtyard in front of the castle to inquire about what was happening. All of a sudden, a portal of dark light opened next to one of them, grabbing everybody’s attention. After nothing happened for a few moments, the residents cautiously approached it to inspect it. And just then, a shape came through, made of smoke and shadow, roughly resembling an equine with glowing yellow eyes, it let out an echoing neigh. And the crowd dispersed in terror. And it wasn’t just near the palace; all across the Crystal Empire portals opened and the umbrum poured through, covering it in a black mist, so numerous they were.

Starlight Glimmer teleported herself near the center of the city after seeing what had happened from the train station and went to investigate herself, only to find the whole place had descended into panic. A group of ponies was running in her direction, chased by one of the shadowy creatures, and the headmare stood her ground, firing a beam of magic at it. It imploded, only for it to come back on the other end and reform. Now, however, its attention switched from the fleeing group to the pink unicorn mare in front, and when the monster’s gaze met hers, its eyes flashed and a sense of fear crept up on her when she didn’t feel it before. It approached her, and in a panic, she shot a bolt, only for it to pass through its body, over and over again. She kept doing it even though it was clear it wasn’t working, she’s been completely overcome by hysteria, all of her senses succumbing to tunnel vision, so much that her legs wouldn’t even move so she could run. And just as the umbrum was about to reach for her, a pair of figures ran by and scooped her off the ground, carrying her away. The creature roared in anger and chased after them down the street, trailing them into a narrow alleyway, zig-zagging from turn to turn, oblivious that its prey had taken cover under a nearby fabric that was covering a bunch of crates, deceiving it.

“I think we’ve evaded our pursuers.”

“Agreed.”

The pink unicorn could hear muffled voices, but couldn’t see clearly, and it took her a while before she finally became aware of her surroundings.

“You okay?”

She shook her head, finally snapping back to normal, and quickly recognizing the two figures present. “Maud? Mud Briar? What are you doing here…? Actually, what am I doing here? I was on the street a moment ago.”

“You seem to have been overcome by the mental assault from one of the shadowy apparitions that are plaguing the streets,” the tall stallion answered calmly.

“How do you know that?”

“We were on our way back to our accommodations to prepare for the festivities when one of them jumped us,” he explained, after which the purple maned mare turned his significant other’s face to the side, revealing a hoof mark. “It was the only way I knew how to get him out of that condition.”

“Do you have any idea what these things are?”

“Your guess is as good as ours,” the dead-pan mare responded.

Starlight sighed. “Great. Well, it doesn’t matter, we’re not safe out on the street. We have to get to Princess Cadence so we can figure out what’s going on.” Her horn glowed in a magical aura, and in a flash of light, they disappeared, only to reappear in the castle’s throne room.

She slowly opened the giant entrance door and looked about, and there was no soul in sight. “Okay, we’re in less danger than out on the street, but not by much.” She faced the couple. “I have to go and find Cadence to make sure she’s okay and help her deal with the Storm King. You two stay here and don’t go anywhere for your own safety until I come back. Okay? Okay, good!” The dead-pan mare was about to say something only to be cut off by a quick response and then have the door closed on her.

The headmare ran down the hallways in the direction of the one where she was last time. She feared that, after they had disappeared with the students and left Flurry Heart right in that spot according to them, something might have gone wrong if her mother didn’t interfere in time, so she had to go and check up on that place first. She nearly got there, when she heard a scream, accompanied by the sound of stampeding hooves. It appeared that the battle had moved elsewhere, and it would be best to assist. Yet as she ran in the direction of the sound she encountered several beaten royal guards lying by the side. If the strongest military force of the Crystal Empire couldn’t stand up to the obsidian construct, she shuddered to think of the poor sap who had to face him next.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

There was that scream she heard earlier, it was loud, clear, and… familiar… in fact, she knew the sound of that voice and to whom it belonged, but it would’ve been impossible for her to be here. But her thoughts would soon be confirmed. The sound was growing louder and coming from the corridor by her side. She saw Flurry Heart sitting on top of the party planner’s head, accompanied by the country pony, the fashionista, and the former lieutenant of the king that was right on their tails, chasing them down.

“Pinkie?!” she quickly reacted and dashed forward to pace herself up for when they passed her.

“Oh hey, Starlight,” she greeted her nonchalantly, “I thought you’d already be gone by now.”

“With HIM around? Unlikely! We were here when that oversized paperweight turned up,” the pink unicorn explained herself.

“I heard that!” the construct raged behind them. “And you’re all gonna pay for turning my foot into a peg leg!”

That's when Starlight noticed that the Storm King was limping after them, as one of his roughly chiseled feet was missing all the fingers.

“If we had more time I could’ve taken the whole leg out from under him,” Tempest pointed out.

“Ah agree,” Applejack joined in, “but somepony thought that just tripping him would be the best option.”

“It was in the nick of the moment, everypony!” Pinkie snapped back.

“You mean like how it’s been a nick of the moment that we’ve been running the same circle five times in the row now to avoid him? He’s not gonna get tired, you know!”

“If you’ve got a better idea, I’d like to hear it!”

“Girls, stop arguing!” Starlight stepped in. “What are you all doing here? Where’s Twilight?”

The mares looked at each other. “Long story short,” the broken unicorn answered, “she’s got us here, she's out, and Zecora’s taking care of her.”

“What about Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Discord, and Spike?”

“Lookin’ for the Crystal Heart,” the orange pony answered.

“Right…” Starlight thought for a moment. “I guess it’s up to me to deal with him.” She stopped in the middle of the hallway and faced the incoming construct.

“Starlight, what are you doin’?!” the earth pony yelled as she stopped along with everybody else.

Meanwhile, the Storm King had caught up to the stationary target. “So, one of the prissy horses finally decided to stand her ground, huh?”

She said nothing, not that he cared. He shot lightning bolts at her from his hand, only for her to conjure a shield to block each of them. When it became apparent that he was not going to make any progress that way, he charged, swinging his fist at her, only to hit a barely noticeable barrier that she had set up. He began aggressively punching it, but he made no progress. While Starlight was just standing there, watching her opponent’s futile attempts, she got an idea. Her horn glowed brighter, and the tremors followed. Suddenly, the walls on each side came off and slammed the obsidian construct together, leaving nothing but a pile of crystal rubble behind.

“Starlight, that’s too much!” the white unicorn yelled. “You’re ruining the castle!”

“Sorry, Rarity, but this was an emergency,” she apologized as she walked back to them. “Besides, I’m sure Princess Cadence will understand.”

The pile of debris shook and a black arm shot out of it, followed by another, and they slowly began removing the broken crystal pile. Storm King’s head finally emerged, unexpressive, but it was clear that he wasn’t pleased, especially since her opponent was just standing there, looking at him with a huge smirk, her horn still glowing. And as he continued to dig himself out, he noticed that the barrier she had set up earlier had faded away, and the fact that her horn was continuing to glow brighter by the second, he quickly realized what she was planning.

And among the present mares, they all noticed it and immediately panicked. “STARLIGHT, STOP! DON’T-!”

But it was too late, as a huge beam shot out of her horn, straight at the Storm King, who was still half-buried in the rubble. He didn’t make any rushed moves, only raising his right arm and opening his palm. And it worked like clockwork; despite the beam being almost as big as the hallway as it got shot further away, the spell was absorbed without a problem. He was relishing in the thought of what was to follow. The beam finally ceased and the mare was still standing there, and the reaction he had awaited, manifested itself.

She was flabbergasted. “Whaaaaa….! But… I… and he… and… what is this?!”

“Starlight, he’s got the Staff of Sacanas embedded in his arm!” Rarity warned too late.

“Your fancy friend is correct, Flashy Flash,” he mockingly told her. “And they already know what’s gonna happen next.” The flickering light in his right arm began to glow brightly.

It didn’t take long for Starlight to understand what was gonna happen next, realizing she walked right into a trap. She could easily teleport out of his way, but the shot would hit everybody behind her in the hallway, and they wouldn’t be able to outrun it. There was no other way: She conjured a large shield, knowing she would have to take on the full brunt of the attack she had just cast.

“Return to sender!” the Storm King yelled.

A powerful blast erupted from his hand, traveling in a straight line, hitting Starlight’s barrier. Even she didn’t anticipate how strong her attack would be, so much so that the force bushed her backward, hitting everybody on the way until they all crashed against the wall on the far end. The light faded, and luckily the barrier held, but the same couldn’t be said for the conjurer.

“Starlight!” the pink pony ran to her side. “Are you okay?!”

“No, dad, it’s not a phase…” she mumbled in a groggy tone.

“Oh, that’s just dandy. One pony who’d be of great help now, and she’s out of it,” Applejack complained.

Lightning suddenly struck the ceiling on both sides of the corridor’s end, causing them to collapse and turning it into a dead end. “No place to run and no place to hide now,” the construct cackled.

He began approaching them with a quick limp. This may end up being the final stand-off. Rarity, Applejack, and Tempest stood in the front of Pinkie Pie who was holding Flurry Heart in her embrace, to protect them both. As he started going faster, he aimed his right arm at them and quickly shot a few lightning bolts at them. The fashionista quickly conjured a shield, blocking them all, only for her action to backfire, as he came in melee range he swung his arm to the side, hitting the shield and shoving them all to the side with it. He didn’t stop, quickly moving at the party planner, who was pressing against the wall with the little filly next to the knocked-out headmare, reaching out with his left arm.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” both Pinkie and Flurry Heart screamed in unison.

All of a sudden, one of the blocked passages burst open, as a form sprung forth, leaping in the gap between the pony and the construct that was being bridged by the latter’s extended arm. With a single swing of her hoof, the obsidian arm shattered into pieces, before both pink ponies were grabbed and pulled out of the Storm King’s way.

“Huh…?” was the only word that came out of him, as the whole thing played out so fast that he lost his balance, fell to the ground, and bashed his face against the wall.

It was quiet for a moment before everybody registered what had happened, as a grey purple-maned mare in a dull blue dress stood by their side now. “Maud?! What are you doing here?!” Pinkie Pie let out a tone of surprise.

“Technically, Starlight brought us here.” Mud Briar popped his head through the hole where she came from, before making his way over the toppled construct, to their side. “But Maud can’t be stopped when her “sense” goes off.”

“Your… Maud Sense went off?” Rarity tilted her head.

“No one lays a hoof on my sister,” the dead-pan mare explained, “even if it is an igneous rock.”

The younger sibling squealed and hugged her, and she wrapped her hoof around her in turn. But with their gaze turned away from the villain only for a moment, they didn’t notice when his arm was raised in their direction. The mud stallion was the only one who saw it and quickly shoved his significant other to the side, and a lightning bolt struck him instead.

“Mud Briar,” Maud said in her usual monotone voice to express distress, as he dropped to the ground.

“I’ve heard of something costing you an arm and a leg… but this is ridiculous!” Everybody turned to the construct, as he rose again, though with slight difficulty since he had only one arm now, his gaze locking on Maud. “And how did you do that?! You can’t just break rocks like that with one touch!”

“Joke’s on you, Storm King!” Pinkie Pie declared. “My big sis is a certified rocktor!”

“… a what?”

“I can easily find a mineral's weakness since I’ve got a doctorate in rock studies from the Equestrian Institute of Rockology,” the grey mare calmly said.

“I.E., a rocktorate,” the voice of Mud Briar said as he was twitching on the ground

The Storm King laughed. “Oh, I see. That’s funny, real funny… But also inconvenient.”

His hand lit up and a bolt was shot, everybody dodging it, while it created an opening in the debris. They took that chance to flee while the dust was still obscuring the vision, carrying Starlight and Mud Briar with them, but it didn’t take long for the construct to go after them.

“Anypony else got any bright ideas?" Tempest asked them. "Hardly anything changed, and now we’ve got to carry two ponies with us to boot.”

“Uh! Uh! Uh! I know!” The pink pony turned to her sister. “Maud, you’ve got an idea, right?”

Her sister carried her boyfriend on her back, slowly turning her head at her. “Yes.”

They disappeared around the corner near the open balcony, while the construct was still limping behind.

Soon a voice came. “Ouch! Ouch! Oh no! I twisted my hoof and I can’t get up! Please, don’t trample me at high speed while I’m being picked up! Ouch!”

He grinned. If that was the case, unless the mares wanted to leave their friend behind to get stepped on, they’d have to slow down, at which point he’ll get close enough to zap them all, even if they managed to escape. He sped up, still hearing the whining around the corner he was about to turn.

“You know, if what I’ve just seen was real, Maud, this might actually work,” Tempest said.

On the other end, obscured from Storm King’s view, Pinkie pie was pressed against the wall, trying to suppress Flurry Heart’s laughter, while she was making the noise of pain, and at the same time, both the country pony and the broken unicorn were holding up the Pie sibling above their heads, and the fashionista listened to the sound of approaching heavy stomps, waiting for their moment to act.

“Now!” Rarity called.

The two ponies tossed Maud forward, right in the path of the construct. She spun, positioning her hindquarters in his direction, and then bucked. His foot shattered into pieces and he ended up flying in the air, about to fall right on top of her. Rarity quickly acted, using her magic to form a bobsleigh track that switched his trajectory right out into the open balcony, landing on his face and grinding for a few feet.

“Enough joking about, Scourgelord!”

He landed right next to the crystal encased gemstone, and its occupant was starting to get impatient.

As he picked himself back up, it continued to berate him. “The umbrum are out already! If they cannot hear us, then all has been for naught! And if you’re going to fail because a group of ponies are too much for you-!”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!!!” a bellow of anger erupted from the construct, so loud that it traveled to the furthest reaches of the city, garnering the attention of the panicking populace nearby. “I. AM. THE STORM KING!”

He raised his right arm in the air, and the embedded Staff of Sacanas shot lightning in the air. It reached the storm clouds, and all of a sudden smaller lightning bolts got attached to it, streaming back down to him. He grabbed hold over the lightning’s tails, and after that, for a brief moment, it felt as if the time stopped just before another shout followed.

“And you are all gonna get… THUNDER CLAPPED!!!”

He swung his hand forward, pulling the lightning tendrils, ripping giant thunderbolts from the storm clouds above, accompanied by a ripping sound that evolved into a boom as it landed its mark. The lightning slapped down on top of the Crystal Castle, ripping straight through it like a hot knife through butter. The structure shook as the attack cut through the crystal building, the interior coming apart, causing everybody present to scramble to avoid the debris from falling on them.

By the time the dust settled, the ones that were responsible for stopping the invader lay beaten and bruised under the rubble, save for one. A beam of light shot out from a pile of crystals, pushing it apart, and the little alicorn fully revealed herself, enveloped in her shield, without even a scratch. But the realization of what had just happened hit her soon enough.

“Appleyak! Miss Swirly! Pink Puffy! Zappy-Zap! Mud!”

But none of them responded with anything but groaning. Then a strong wind blew, clearing the dust that was caused by the crumble of the castle. The obsidian construct stood motionless in the position he had motioned, the expression on his face blank… and then his teal eyes lit up again, scanning about his surroundings.

“Anyone else wants some more of this?!” he yelled, pausing for a moment, awaiting a reply, only to receive none. “Yeah, I didn’t think so!” His gaze then traveled to the encased jewel in which Turmoil’s aspect was trapped, not even giving it a chance to respond. “And you! Let me make it perfectly clear, Mommy Dearest: You’re in no position to command me what to do! You’re at my mercy, and you’re not getting out of that until this whole empire submits to me!” He paused, the tone of his voice calming down. “However, luckily for you, you won’t have to wait long for that.”

The Storm King’s head slowly turned, his eyes meeting Flurry Heart’s, who was running about, trying to awake her aunt’s friends. The moment that happened, he began to slowly move in her direction with his damaged legs, wiggling the finger on his right and only arm, trying to beckon her, while making cutesy sounds. Little did that help, as the filly quickly started shooting bolts of magic, only for him to deal with them using the staff. She desperately continued as he approached until he was finally at the arm’s reach, but just before he could touch her, she raised a protective bubble.

“Oh, sweetie baby,” he childishly mocked her, “you don’t really believe that little thing of yours is going to stop me?”

He opened his palm and pressed it on the magical conjuration. In a matter of moments, the Staff of Sacanas began to eat through it, and only her constantly renewing the spell kept it up, but at this rate, it was clear it was only a matter of time before he reached in. And with that knowledge, the full brunt was finally starting to get to her: Her aunt’s friends that were protecting her were taken down, all the castle guards were swept aside, and she’s just seen this giant dark hulking monstrosity tear lightning from the clouds and rain it down on them all. And now it was toying with her, purposely prolonging her struggle, when he could’ve just quickly reached forth and grabbed her. She was terrified, beginning to tear up. And with nobody else being there to help her, there was only one thing she could do…

Cadence still didn’t understand what had just happened. A strange thing that looked like lightning just came through the ceiling and then through the floor next to her, only inches away. Regardless of what it was, it had given her a moment of respite, since it came into contact with the electrified net she’s been trapped in, causing it to discharge and disperse. She was finally free, glad that she was no longer shocked every time she tried to move. Even so, what had just happened concerned her, especially since she saw the cut running through the hallway in a straight line. Somebody was able to harness the power of lightning to such an extent to be able to damage the castle so, and it worried her about what had happened to Twilight’s friends. And yet despite that knowledge, before she could even take one step forward, she collapsed in the process. She was completely exhausted, hardly able to even lift a hoof. The adrenaline from earlier managed to keep her up, but it’s now subsided. She needed some rest, even for a moment. Her heavy eyes were slowly closing, the fading consciousness telling her that her friends could handle it, that nothing could stand in their way, and that they’ll keep Flurry Heart safe. Until…

MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Her eyes shot open and she immediately rose her head. That was her scream, she’d recognize it anywhere! The tone on the other hand was something alien to her – full of sorrow and fear; how she’s never heard her before. And that’s when it happened: She was exhausted, bruised, the thought that her sister-in-law and her friends were hurt by a monster made of moving rock, and how it was going to do the same to her little filly now… something inside her suddenly snapped. The sense of fear that’s been growing inside her, it’s been boiling in frustration for a while now, and it suddenly erupted in a feeling of unrestrained anger, beginning to spread throughout her body, making her act.

“Come now, sweetie. I just want to reunite you with your mommy, there’s no reason to call for her when you can just let it go and allow me to take you to her.”

The Storm King squatted in front of the crying alicorn filly who was trying to put up a fight even though she knew he’ll get her soon. Meanwhile, the rest of the Elements, as well as Tempest and Maud, managed to recover, but in their state, they knew they couldn’t pose any threat to him.

The construct turned his head as he heard them rising from the rubble. “Oh, you’re awake again, are ya? Well, I hope that little demonstration earlier taught you a lesson. So do yourselves a favor and just let me do my thing, ‘kay? Sit down, wait out, and maybe you won’t have to take another beat…ing?”

Something odd happened. The atmosphere in the castle began changing, the radiant crystals that comprised the castle suddenly lost their luster, becoming dull and grey. The construct suddenly lost the balance in his position, tipped backward, and ended up on his back. He didn’t know what had just happened, yet as he looked where he was standing earlier, there was a strange crystal formation sticking out, looking like a gnarled root. They suddenly heard heavy steps approaching the sound of iron clacking against the rock, and as this was happening, the surroundings suddenly turned sinister black.

“Y’all, what’s happening?” Applejack asked.

“Oh no… don’t tell me that an umbrum got into the castle…” Rarity grimaced.

Tempest limped in front of them, her horn flickering slightly, trying to muster up enough will to fight against the new threat.

“Tempest, I don’t think we’re equipped to fight a tag team if we can’t even deal with a solo,” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

But as the sound got louder, the shape that was causing it became visible. It wasn’t an umbrum, but the older alicorn princess.

“Oh, it’s just you Cadence,” the fashionista sighed in relief. “I was afraid for a moment that one of Sombra’s siblings got… through…?”

Her voice trailed away as the princess just walked past them without a word with a steady traipse, stopping a few feet in front of them all. Something was off, that much they could tell by what had just happened with the castle.

Yet the villain was unfazed. “Oh, look at that, you managed to get out of my net. Well, just as well, saves me the time of having to drag your kid all the way back to you.” He conjured a lightning string in his hand. “Now be a dearie and put this on, so all three of us can walk over to the balcony and you can announce that-“

Without giving him a chance to finish, a bolt of purple-green magic shot out of the pink mare’s horn straight at the construct, only for him to move out of the trajectory.

“Ah… I see we’re back to square one…” the Storm King said. “I’m game!”

He began to move in her direction, slowly accelerating, the crystal in his palm glowing. Yet he wouldn’t get far as he tripped all of a sudden, landing flat on his face. He looked behind him and noticed that another crystal cluster had grown out of the floor, in the same manner, that the one earlier caused him to lose balance. But for them to sprout almost instantly… who was causing this?

“Well… this is embarrassing,” he said as he picked himself up. “Now, as I was saying-“

He barely made a move forward and he quickly stopped when he heard a clanking sound, realizing that another cluster had just emerged and was about to trip again. Then more of them began to appear, and they were beginning to grow. He was getting annoyed by the obstructions and he began kicking them about, yet in the end, they were growing faster than he could destroy them, and they ended up surrounding him, completely immobilizing him in place. Then he saw the alicorn’s horn light up again, but he was unable to even move his right hand so he could absorb the attack. It fired, sending the Storm King flying across the hallway.

The mares were all confused by what they were seeing. “Cadence?” the fashionista tried to grab her attention but she didn’t reply.

They finally noticed a strange hue coming from under her frazzled mane that was covering her face – her eyes were exuding purple green magical essence. She began to slowly move forward in the construct’s direction.

His head was spinning for a moment. This wasn’t right. The Princess of Love was barely holding herself up not long ago, so how was she now displaying such power? It didn’t make sense! He quickly turned when he heard the sound of her hoof steps. He quickly shot a lightning bolt out of the Staff of Sacanas at her, only to be countered by her bolt of magic. He repeated, and the result was the same. He did it over and over again, but the outcome didn’t change. She didn’t even try to fire a shot at him, almost as if she had learned from her mistakes, and to make things even more inconvenient, the crystal clusters that she had summoned from the ground could immobilize him. He was growing desperate… until he noticed that Flurry Heart was still inside her protective bubble nearby.

The construct quickly moved close to her and placed his hand over it. “Hold it, Mommy Dearest!” he commanded. “Don’t make another move, or the kid gets it, see?”

He was confident in his tactic. There was no way the mother would put her child in danger on purpose; she’ll have to heed his demand. And yet she didn’t.

“Huh? You’re still approaching me? Hello?! Didn’t you hear what I just said?! Stop, or your kid is toast!”

But instead of that something else happened: She noticeably gritted her teeth, and at that moment he was so focused on her that he didn’t realize that the clusters suddenly sprouted from the wall and enveloped his whole arm, leaving him stuck. And after seeing him struggle, the little filly dispelled her bubble and quickly scurried past him.

“Hey! Get back here!” he yelled, raising one of his feet to stomp her.

He wouldn’t get the chance, as clusters erupted from under him, trapping his legs in place. Once more he was completely immobilized and the mare was approaching him. He couldn’t waste any more time because he knew what would follow. He released lightning in his hand, liberating it from the crystal, and quickly turned towards her… except he couldn’t. He had positioned himself so that when he was threatening the child with his only arm he was looking over his shoulder, and now that his legs were stuck in place, he was unable to turn back with his obsidian body. He wouldn’t be able to free himself in time as he saw the glow of the dark energy building up behind him, and was then unleashed. A powerful burst of magic sent him flying across the air and out the balcony, where he hit the railing at the very end. Once more his head was spinning, he did not anticipate that the alicorn princess would end up being so troublesome. Now, however, she had his full attention. No more distraction! Even if he was missing one of his arms she’ll still end up bending to the Storm King’s will. He tried to get back on his feet… and that was when he realized something had gone awry. He couldn’t get back up, and he discovered that the place where he was immobilized was still holding his legs in place… They weren’t with the rest of his body anymore – he had been reduced to a torso with only one arm!

An explosion happened, as the dark magic swept the constructs remnants out of the path by the alicorn princess, who simply continued to approach the balcony.

“Mommy?” Flurry Heart tried to grab her attention, but she wouldn’t respond as she went past her, almost as if she had gone blind and deaf to the world around her, except for the target she was going after.

He saw her coming his way. He quickly shot a lightning bolt at her, and yet she would counter it as she did before, and the process repeated itself, to the point where the Storm King began flailing about in a desperate attempt to stop the incoming mare, only for his lightning to finally hit the archway entrance to the balcony, causing it to collapse and block the way.

“Phew…” he said out loud, as he had no lungs to let out a sigh of relief.

He thought about it, wondering why did he even do that in the first place? Why was he feeling relieved from that? Was he worried for a moment?

“You’re delaying the inevitable, Scourgelord.” Fear's voice was strangely calm as it spoke again. “Look over the edge.”

The construct was leaning against the railing, and all he had to do was turn his head even a little. Down in the courtyard of the castle, he saw ponies scrambling around, fleeing from the umbrum, while some closer to the castle were staring up in confusion at what was happening above them. The Storm King didn’t quite understand what Fear was talking about, but the longer he looked the more he felt a strange tingle in the back of his mind. There was something eerily familiar about this situation… something he didn’t want to think about, and yet the longer he stared over the edge the clearer it became why. He had been in this situation once before. Hanging by the edge, assured of his victory, and then…

“We know you can feel it, Scourgelord,” the voice stated. “This is the final fate that awaits you, and you’re beginning to realize it. How unfortunate. Had you actually done what you were ordered to do from the start and free us, you wouldn’t be in this position now.”

It was telling the truth, even when he didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want things to play out the same way they did last time. With the one arm he had left, he grabbed the crystal-encased gemstone and bashed it against the floor in an attempt to break it free. It didn’t work; the red crystal remnants were holding tightly, so he began to continuously bash it in hopes it would work.

“Your efforts are wasted, Scourgelord, no matter how hard you struggle at this point,” it continued. “When the mother you had wronged breaks through, even if her magic doesn’t obliterate you, all she has to do is push you over the edge.”

The dread in the back of his mind had begun to spread throughout his body, even if he was only a consciousness, his actions mimicked his thoughts, smashing the crystalized gemstone against the floor harder and evermore aggressive. He didn’t want to go through what he felt last time! And as panic began to hold a grip over him, his teal eyes suddenly began changing their hue, turning into bright yellow.

And Fear’s voice grew louder in his mind. “Does that unnerve you, Scourgelord? The thought that there is somebody stronger than you out there? The thought that somebody else will be able to… break you? To push you into the cold, dark embrace of… OBLIVION?”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” and in the cry of fright, he put all his strength into a swing and smashed his fist into the floor.

There was a cracking sound and small red shards flew all over the place. A strange shockwave spread throughout the Crystal Empire, and the umbrum that had been chasing their prey all over the place suddenly stood still, their attention shifting towards the center of the city. They heard it; their mother called and they flew off in its direction, towards the Crystal Castle.

He held his hand a lot, holding the now liberated gemstone. It was pulsing, calling to them, and they heeded. Darkness and smoke began to gather above the structure before it descended; the conglomerate of all the umbrum was being absorbed into it, in the same way, that Sombra was, and the more the gem consumed them, the brighter it began to glow.

CRASH!

The rubble that was blocking the entry onto the balcony was blown away by the magical attack, and through dust, Princess Cadence, high on anger and hatred, stepped through, her sight pinned on the Storm King, but was distracted by the sudden flashing light that kept growing in front of her, while the darkness was infusing it. The last vestiges of shadow finally disappeared into the gem, and everything became still, like the calm before the storm. The construct finally looked at the alicorn princess, seeing the disgruntled look on her face made him act, thrusting his fist at her, holding the Fear-infused gem, and out of it, a large yellow lightning bolt shot at her. The princess quickly acted and shot a large bolt of magic at it. Instead of canceling each other out upon contact, it created a powerful shockwave that sent them both flying back, with Cadence hitting the rubble, while the Storm King hit the railing… and went flying right over the edge of the balcony.

He was there once again. The memory of the moment that he had dreaded most played out, but unlike last time, his voice was still working, and in a moment of unmitigated terror, he screamed. He fell a great distance, his heavy body only accelerating his descent to the solid ground, and then…

“Cadence!” Tempest cried as she limped to her side. “Princess Cadence, are you okay?!”

The rest of the mares soon followed to check up on her, but they were curious about something else as well. “Does anyone know what happened to the Storm King?” Rarity inquired.

They all looked to the far edge of the balcony where they have last seen him, the railing on which he was slouching now broken. They all expected what happened, they’ve seen it before. They slowly walked over to the edge of the balcony, expecting to see the shattered remnants of a walking, talking statue. And yet…

“Hey, does that swirly thing look familiar to anypony else?” Pinkie Pie asked, pointing at the strange anomaly made of dark light on the ground where the supposed victim was supposed to be.

“’ Course it does, Pinkie!” Applejack agreed. “That’s one of Grogar’s portals! He must’ve opened it before he hit the ground!”

“But wait…” the fashionista pointed out, “that means he must be somewhere nearby!”

With that knowledge, it didn’t take long for them to spot him. On the other side of the castle’s courtyard, on the flat roof of one of the houses, another portal was open, and in front of it, the ram sorcerer stood, accompanied by the Queen of Changelings.

Cadence finally started to wake up, her eyes still showing signs of negative emotion making itself manifest; she wasn’t sated yet. She walked over to the edge of the balcony and spotted her - Queen Chrysalis! Immediately she shot a beam of magic at her, but before she could hit her, the grizzled ram stepped in her way, blocking it, unmoved by the act. She pushed herself further and further, all the anger, all the hatred had been spilling against him, and yet he just stood there, unfazed.

“Cadence, stop! It’s not working!” Rarity urged her.

She didn’t respond. Applejack went to her and shook her, only for a bubble to suddenly blow up around her, preventing anyone else from touching her. They all beat against it, and it was simply too sturdy.

“Mommy!” Flurry Heart called to her.

Even to her, she wouldn’t respond, but the little filly wouldn’t be dissuaded. Her horn lit up and started to channel a beam at her height, at the bubble. Strangely enough, it seemed to be working, as the beam of light began boring through the darkened magical shell, until a tiny beam finally broke through, stinging the elder alicorn at the back of her leg. She yelped.

The child gasped. “I’m sorry, mommy!” she apologized as she stopped channeling her spell. “I just wanted to-!”

The Crystal Princess suddenly turned in her child’s direction, lowering her head to her height… and snarled. The filly, seeing this, lost the strength in her legs and fell on her backside, as words played out in her head.

Tell me, child, have you ever seen your mother angry? Fuming in unbridled rage?

Those were the words she recalled Grandpa Gar asking her. To see the anger and hatred manifest on her mother’s face... terrified her.

Suddenly, a shockwave followed. Light erupted from underneath the castle and it began to grow across the Crystal Empire until it burst, and the dark clouds disappeared. The sun was shining once again, as it seemed that the Crystal Heart had been returned to the position it was taken from.

Cadence felt the grip of negative emotion fade away… only to come to a horrible realization. Her child was in front of her, trembling in fear, and she remembered her actions from not a moment ago.

“No... No, no, no, Flurry Heart, I didn’t mean to-!” She tried to reach for her, but the child quickly lept to her feet and ran into the castle. “No… what have I done…” She staggered, before burying her face in her hooves in shame.

The mares present did not fancy the idea of being in her position, it was difficult to watch it happen to begin with. Their attention quickly switched back to where Queen Chrysalis and Grogar stood, but they were long gone.

Author's Note

It's funny... there was a lot more happening in this chapter originally, but the action was taking up so much that I already crossed the line further than the current longest chapter, so I had to cut things and make it more focused while saving up the rest for the next time.

Chapter 42: The Northside Story

“TWILIGHT!!!” the mares cried as they saw everything crashing down on top of her, and then the barrier surrounding them disappeared.

The moment it vanished, Rarity quickly used her magic to summon a pyramid shaped shield, covering everybody present. Despite her quick thinking though, the immense force was pressing down on her and she was not used to exerting herself in this manner.

However, the broken unicorn acted fast. “Everypony, quick! Hinds up!”

Tempest rose her backside upwards and pressed her back hooves against the construct of light, other mares following suit. They all felt the pressure the fashionista had to put up with; the weight of the land was crushing down on them. After a few moments though, the pressure began to let off and the quaking stopped. Quiet finally surrounded them, and the mares finally dropped to the ground.

“Sweet Celestia…” Rarity sighed as her construct disappeared. “How Twilight does this for a prolonged period of time is beyond me…”

“Don’ matter,” Applejack answered. “That was quick thinkin’, Rarity. Ya saved our flanks.”

“I’d save celebrations because we ain’t out of the wood just yet.” Tempest stood up. “We only bought ourselves a short amount of time. If we don’t start moving to find an exit we’re gonna run out of air in a matter of minutes.”

“Wait… we’re still in danger as we speak…?” Fluttershy reacted to the realization and began to hyperventilate, only for the former Lord of Chaos to quickly shut her mouth with his tiny arms.

“Fluttershy, normally I wouldn’t begrudge you, but you’re using up all our air!”

“But what are we supposed to do?!” she erupted. “We’re trapped under a mountain of ice and snow!”

Regardless of how calm things were, considering the circumstances, the situation was still grim. They were trapped in a small confined space, formed by the white unicorn’s magic, and they were running out of time.

“I just have one question,” the former lieutenant said. “Does anypony here carry any form of tools with them? Anypony at all?”

She waited. Although she didn’t expect that to be the case; carrying heavy tools on a tracking expedition certainly didn’t promise such possibilities.

The Elements looked at each other and then smiled. “All under control, Tempest,” Rainbow Dash answered. “Chillax. We’ve got the ULTIMATE tool.” Her head turned to the pink pony. “Pinkie Pie!”

She saluted, stretched her puffy mane until it recoiled into a drill, then charged straight into the snow wall and bore into it. It was working; the party planner was able to go through the ice and snow with ease, advancing quickly. Suddenly the drilling sound changed its tune, as it hit the crystal wall and it continued to do so.

“Pinkie, stop!” Applejack yelled.

“What?”

“We’ve gone off course! We need to bore through the snow so we can get to Twilight and Spike.”

“Odd,” she replied. “I just thought it’d be easier to just go outside and go opposite the clock.”

“I think she makes a good point,” Tempest intervened. “If we were to bore directly through the snow, not only are we risking of hurting them, but considering we’re disoriented right now, who knows how long it will take for us to get to her, and we’re kinda short on-”

“Shhhhhhhh!” the yellow pegasus tried to get them quiet. “Do you hear that?”

They listened. They heard a sound as if somebody was trying to dig through the snow, somewhere way in the back. They backtracked and looked for its origin in the cold tunnel. It finally made itself noticed, as somewhere on the floor level the snow was moving and the mares closed in to look at it. All of a sudden, a huge chunk was thrust out of the wall, shaped like a grisly face of a beast.

“YETI!” the party planner screamed and all the mares screamed in unison.

“I’ll give you yeti! Or I would, were my limbs free to toss some confetti.”

It spoke… in a voice that was familiar to them. Its head shook, the face falling apart in a pile of snow, leaving only an old brown cowl in its place. The country pony approached and lifted it, revealing the head of a zebra.

“Zecora!” Fluttershy yelped.

“I would appreciate some assistance,” she said. “The cold is wearing thin my resistance.”

Pinkie Pie and Applejack grabbed the shaman by the head and pulled her out of the snow, showing that she was still clinging to her staff.

“We thought we lost you, Zecora,” Rarity sighed in relief. “Where were you? When we got out of Sombra’s nightmare you simply disappeared.”

She shook her head after she got dragged out, before readjusting her cowl, pausing momentarily after the question was asked. “I… struck my head and passed out, but against what I have some doubt. I woke now under the platform’s edge, it protected me from the collapse, like a ledge. While I have your attention, explain to me the situation and my saddlebags’ location.”

The orange mare was willing to oblige. “Long story short, Zecora: The Storm King’s back, an’ he just took Fear with him back to the Crystal Empire so that it can absorb the rest of the Sombra’s siblings and become whole again, an’ he left us here, dropping the whole of Frozen North on our heads. As for your saddlebags… Twilight was the last who held them after you had disappeared.”

“I’ve heard enough,” the zebra stated. “Let us proceed, while there is still air to huff.”

And they resumed. The party planner continued to drill a hole into the crystal. Several minutes in and they could already feel the air getting thinner, making it difficult for them to breathe, slowing them in the process, prolonging their escape, and in turn, again, making the lack of oxygen become an even bigger issue; it was a cycle they couldn’t break. Suddenly, the wall in front of the drilling mare collapsed and a cold breeze blew in. They quickly crawled out, gasping for air, and found themselves back in the crystal tunnel that was connecting the crossroads of the underworld kingdoms to the room where the “Mother of Fear” was trapped.

“Sweet air!” the drilling mare yelled.

“Ah’ don’ think I’ve been this deprived of oxygen since I fell in Pa’s waste disposal for pigs,” the Element of Honesty added.

“I’d rather not hear about that one, thank you,” Rarity commented nearby.

“Look, let’s just get ourselves properly suited up, okay?” Rainbow Dash said as she fixed up her clothes, the chill starting to get at her again. “This cold draft’s not gonna help us get to Twilight and Spike if it gets us first.”

The broken unicorn gave her a confused look. “Draft? There’s no draft in this tunnel.”

“Well, where’s that wind coming from then?”

They all stopped themselves, realizing something was different. When they came down this way the first time it wasn’t as cold, since the ice was replaced by the crystal formation by the Turmoil’s fragment. Now, however, they could all feel a chilly wind blowing in from the direction of the room where the battle took place, where the princess and her companion had last been seen. Something had changed. They picked themselves up and proceeded to make their way in the said direction. As they made their way forward they could hear the howling of the wind growing louder, yet the closer they got, the sound started to resemble moaning, and by the time the exit came into view, it became clear that it wasn’t wind at all – it was a person… who was crying. They ran through and were met with a surprise: Almost all the ice and snow were gone, leaving most of it on the other end of the large gaping hole that was separating the two sides; that was where the strong wind was coming from. And on the side of the cleared space, the Princess of Friendship lay on the ground, with her dragon companion holding her head in his embrace, crying his eyes out.

“SPIKE!” Fluttershy yelled at the sight and ran to their side, the rest following as they saw the scene. “Spike, what’s wrong? What happened to Twilight?

The little dragon could barely speak in his state. “She… she’s not moving…”

Applejack approached them, putting her hoof on the alicorn’s forehead, and almost instantly pulled it back. “Sweet Celestia, she’s as cold as ice!”

The elegant mare went to his side, gently caressing him in an attempt to calm him down. “Spike, we’re here now. Please, tell us what happened.”

“It… it happened when the ceiling came down on our end. She had just enough time to kick me out of the room before all the ice and snow came crashing down. After it got quiet I immediately started to dig to get to her. I dunno how long it took, I found her buried under a pile of snow, and I fire-breathed the surroundings to give us some room, but…” His waterworks were starting to come on again. “She was like this…”

Fluttershy came closer and touched the unconscious mare. “Oh no! She’s got hypothermia! Her body temperature dropped below what it normally is. If we don’t bring it back up soon, then… she’ll never wake up…”

At those words, Spike instantly let out a loud sob.

“Hey, hey, calm down, Spike!” the pink pony urged him. “We’ll bring her back to normal.”

“How?!” he yelled. “I can’t just use my fire on her, I’ll just end up burning her.”

“Spike’s right, I’m afraid,” Fluttershy concurred. “In order to raise her body temperature, we’ll have to apply a heat source directly on her… And there’s only one way to do it at this point.” She lifted the princess’ limp body, and pulled her into an embrace, letting out a yelp.

“Fluttershy, what are you doing?” the blue pegasus gave her a confused look.

“I’m t-transferring my own body heat onto her,” she answered. “But I w-won’t be enough on my own. Everypony, c-come on in.”

They looked at each other and nodded. The fashionista, the party planner, and the country pony joined, hugging their unconscious friend, each of them letting out a yelp as they came into contact with her cold body. The Elements came together… except for one. The wonderbolt just stood there, perspiration visible on her face, her thoughts going back days ago to the one event that was still fresh in her mind, especially in this place. And now she was staring at the final fate that would’ve befallen her, had she been even more unlucky. She was anxious; she would’ve been more than happy to assist, but the thought of coming directly into contact with cold on her fur made her freeze in place.

“Hey! You okay?” Tempest bumped her to snap her out of it.

“Y-y-yeah…” she answered in a jittery tone.

“Uh-huh…” The purple mare already knew that wasn’t the case.

The shaman in the meantime wandered about checking every nook and cranny. She was looking for something. Eventually, she stopped on the edge of a giant hole, looking into the abyss, as the strong wind blew upwards, into her face, disrupting her mane.

“Spike,” Zecora asked, “I apologize if I sound tactless, but I demand to know: what made this hole in the crystal floor, and where did my saddlebags go?”

“I dunno,” the little dragon answered. “By the time I finally cleared the area it was already open. And Twilight was the last to hold them. I’ve no idea where they are.”

She turned her head back to the windy opening, thought for a moment, and then let out a sharp whistle. Everybody’s attention was garnered, looking at her as she just stared into the abyss for several seconds. She whistled once again, and then remained quiet for a while.

“What are you-?” Tempest questioned only to be stopped as the zebra raised her hoof at her.

She whistled for the third time and waited once more. And then she saw what she was waiting for: in the darkness, a small bright light was flickering.

She sighed in disappointment. “It is as I feared, all my belongings fell down, and they disappeared.”

“We wish we could help, Zecora,” the country pony said, “but right now, Twilight’s recovery takes priority.”

“Even if the medicine I gave her, could cure faster what ails her?”

“No offense, Zecora, but if your medicine is anything like what I was given it's best we just take our time and let Twilight recover slowly,” the blue pegasus said.

“Time?” Tempest grabbed her attention. “What makes you think we have any time at all? The Storm King’s left us to get buried alive, and considering how quickly he managed to escape to the surface it’s easy to assume he has a way of quickly getting back to the Crystal Empire. I don’t know about you, but if he intends to keep his promise then Glitter Drops is in grave danger. Unlike you guys, I have something to lose if we don’t stop him asap!”

“That’s not true, Tempest!” Spike rose in protest. “Both Cadence and Flurry Heart’s lives are in danger… no, not just them, also Starlight, Trixie, Sunburst, and all the students from the School of Friendship that Twilight herself established, not to mention ALL of the Crystal Empire. We all have something to lose!” He let the silence linger, before sighing. “But you’re right. We need to get back as soon as possible and we’re not going to catch up to the Storm King on foot. Twilight’s the only one who has magic strong enough to teleport us there immediately, but in her current state…” His gaze traveled back to his unconscious elder sister, worry visible on his face.

The zebra nodded. “Then by request stand quick as if it stings. All I need is help from one with wings.”

Instantly, the little dragon jumped in the air, his wing has recovered well enough now for him to fly normally. He dashed forward, quickly diving into the hole… only for him to end up being blown out a few moments later, bashing against the ceiling, before dropping to the ground.

“Spike, are you okay?!” Rarity voiced her concern.

He groaned. “Could’ve gone better. This wind that’s coming from below… it’s too strong for me to fly down.”

“Then we need somepony heavier!” Rainbow dash quickly ran to the shy pegasus and pushed her forward to the edge.

She looked into the darkness below, gulping. “It’s so… dark.”

“Come on! You’ve literally come out of your worst nightmare where it’s Nightmare Night all the time!” the blue pegasus pushed her. “You can deal with a little flight in the dark.”

She gulped again. “Okay, I’ll… I’ll try.”

She started flying, going off the ground, and slowly flew into the dark opening. However, as she went deeper the wind just kept getting stronger, and even though she tried to use her wings, it would only push her upwards; she was making no progress.

She flew out and landed next to the other pegasus. “It’s no good, Rainbow Dash,” she sighed. “The wind’s too strong and I can’t fly downward when it’s pushing my wings upwards.”

“Well, it’s no wonder when you’re not using the proper technique!” The wonderbolt positioned herself. “Back at the Wonderbolt Academy, they taught us a technique that enables us to fly against the strong vertical wind. First, crouch your hooves. Then, stretch out your wings and bend them to ninety degrees in a circular formation so that it creates a wind tunnel. That way you maximize your central weight as well as make sure the air current travels in-between as if through a tube, undeterred. And after that… you… just…” She stopped, realizing that Fluttershy was no longer standing next to her, she turned and noticed other mares were standing in line, looking at her, and it didn’t take long for her to realize what they were up to. “Oh no… Nononononononononono!”

“Considerin’ your expertise you’ve just displayed, Ah’d say you’re the right one, Dash,” Applejack bluntly said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I still can’t fly! Even if I manage to get down, there’s no way I can get out again!”

Before she knew it, the broken unicorn and the zebra had already tied up a rope around her waist. “There, problem solved. Now go.” The apple horse turned her and started pushing her rump towards the edge.

“Wait! Stop! I can’t do this!” the blue pegasus protested.

“Oh come on! Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark now too?”

“I’M AFRAID OF THE COLD!” she yelled out loud, her voice echoing around them, stopping in her tracks.

“Big deal. Who isn’t?” Tempest rolled her eyes, then nodded at Zecora. “I’d say your stripy friend over here has more reason to be in your position considering she’s not used to it.”

“Dash darling, listen,” Rarity spoke who was still by Twilight’s side, holding her, “I know the events from a few days ago had gotten to you, but you can’t just keep ignoring the problem. You have to face it or it will never get better.”

“We have to get back to the Crystal Empire to protect Cadence, but also we need to help Twilight right now,” Fluttershy said. “Everything depends on you.”

“Rainbow Dash, please… For Twilight,” the dragon said with begging eyes.

She was surrounded, pressured by all of them. “Sure… no pressure…” she sighed in defeat.

The wonderbolt turned back to face the opening on the floor. She gazed over the edge of the abyss, the strong wind blowing in her face, took a deep breath, set herself in a squatting position, and then… she stood there, sometimes passing before anyone finally addressed her.

“Dash?” Applejack asked.

“Just gimme a second, I’m readying myself,” she answered.

And again, some time passed and nothing happened. “She's not gonna move, is she?” Pinkie Pie whispered to the side, everybody nodding in agreement.

Seeing the whole thing not working, the purple unicorn walked over to the wonderbolt. “Need some help to overcome that?”

She sighed in relief. “Yes, thanks, Tempest. You wouldn’t believe what this whole journey has been like for me, I don’t think I can go through another-“

Before she could even finish the sentence, she got cut off as the broken unicorn walked behind her and with a buck in the rump pushed her over the edge. She fell into the blackness, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Don’t forget to pull the string when you’re ready to get back up!” the ex-lieutenant called from above.

“TEMPEST!” everybody else yelled.

“What? It’s not like I’m just gonna let her fall,” she said, biting down on the end of the rope.

The weight of the falling pegasus pulled her over to the edge, and only with the intervention of the zebra and the workhorse did they finally stop.

She screamed as the fell like a rock, her position completely nullifying any form of pushback from the wind below until she eventually ground to a halt, as the safety line reached its end. She finally stopped, realizing something was different. The wind had disappeared, and for a good reason: just above her head, a large hole was carved into the wall, and that was its source. She also discovered a ledge on the other end of the hole, a weak light flickering; that was likely where Zecora’s things have ended up. Unfortunately, however, it was on a higher elevation so she couldn’t simply swing over on the rope to reach it. She groaned; it meant that to get there she would have to leap higher up, and the only such place was right above her. The pegasus climbed up, strong wind blowing straight at her, chilling her to the bone, making her feel... moist? She looked at her hooves, discovering she was standing in a small puddle of glowing green substance. She's seen it before so many times, but what was it doing down here? Her gaze followed its trail, noticing that it was dripping from the wind tunnel that was curving upwards. It clicked to her now where the wind was coming from: at the center of the crossroads of this underworld that led to the forgotten pony kingdoms, there was a giant hole in the middle. Since they were brought down here from above, a hole was broke open, so the draft from the Frozen North was now coming inside and coming out here. But the question was why? Why did the hole from above lead to this place? It seemed that the drop into the abyss below was even deeper, but what made it? Because it was clear that someone or something bore straight through the solid bedrock. She shook her head, realizing that she was being sidetracked.

She untied her safety line and attached it to a nearby rock to keep it in place. She looked over to the ledge on the other side; it was a long distance, impossible to reach even if she made a run for it, which meant she would require a gust of wind to push her further. The wonderbolt spread her wings and the moment she felt the brush of cold wind against them she felt paralyzed, bringing her right back to that moment in the cavern below the Everfree Forest, in the face of Hatred's icy cold breath. But alas there was nobody else left to act in her place and she didn't want to be here any second longer either. She took a few steps backward, braced herself, then galloped forth and jumped over the edge. The wind raised her, letting her glide across the air, but by the time she got halfway, she started dropping at an increased rate. She wasn't going to make it! Any moment now she was going to miss the ledge's edge and there was nothing she could do! She closed her eyes in panic; this was her final fate – failing her friends as she fell to her end. She didn't want it to end like this. If only her wings weren't still numb... She suddenly felt solid ground under her hooves. It confused her; there was no way she already reached the bottom of the abyss at this point. She opened her eyes, and to her surprise, found herself standing firmly on the ledge. But how was this possible? She was certain she was about to fall and miss it by a horse leg, unless... Her head turned to the side, looking at her wings that were now hanging down. She raised them upwards, they moved in a vertical position, and then... a flap. For a brief moment, she felt the ground underneath her disappear. She did it again. And again. Even though she couldn't flap fast enough, it raised her a few hooves off the ground for a moment.

“AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!” she screamed at top of her lungs.

Suddenly, the dim light source that was lit up nearby went off and a scurrying sound could be heard. Whatever it was it came from a nearby location.

“Rainbow Dash!” the voice came from far above. “Everything alright down there?”

The group waited upstairs for the wonderbolt to give some sign, but it’s been a while now. They returned to unconscious Twilight’s side to keep her warm, while Zecora and Tempest with the rope in her mouth kept watching by the edge.

“AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!” a scream suddenly came from below.

The mares noticed it, and Applejack quickly dashed over. “Rainbow Dash! Everything alright down there?”

It took some time before a reply came back. “Yeah! Pull it up!”

The country pony and the zebra bit the rope, and together with the broken unicorn pulled her up. It was going well… too well in fact. It was almost as if she was light as a feather, considering how quickly they managed to pull her. All of a sudden, the end of the safety line flew up, pushed up by the strong air. Deafening silence followed and the mares instantly rushed to the edge and looked into the darkness.

“RAINBOW DASH!” Spike yelled.

There was no response. A horrible thought nestled into their minds. Their gazes turned away, the shock was just too much for them. They couldn’t believe what has just happened, it couldn’t be possible! Not Rainbow Dash of all people! Tempest especially, as she was the one who tied her up and then pushed her over the edge; the burden of guilt lay solely on her. Suddenly, a form swooped upward from the hole, pushed by the constant wind from the abyss, landing on top of the broken unicorn, knocking her off her hooves. Everybody jumped in surprise by her sudden appearance, as the wonderbolt proudly stood atop the unicorn carrying a pair of saddlebags on her back.

“Gotcha!” the wonderbolt said in her ear. “That’s for kicking me over.”

“Rainbow Dash!” they yelled in unison.

“Well, duh! Who else did you expect?”

“But… but Rainbow Dash, how did you do it?” Applejack questioned. “We thought your line snapped and you fell.”

“Nah. I just sent it back up.”

“But how did you…?” Fluttershy stopped herself, realizing it. “Rainbow Dash, does this mean you can fly again?”

The blue mare spread open her wings and slowly flapped them. “Not yet, but it’s a start. For all the bad memories it brought back, the draft ended up being useful.”

The zebra on the other hand did not meander about. She immediately retrieved her saddlebags and dashed over to the unconscious princess, with the rest quickly following her.

She rummaged through the contents and then stopped, pulling out a little coiled bundle of scales. “Here, Fluttershy,” she said as she handed the tiny lizard to the pegasus. “Let him feel the warmth of your coat, while I find the proper antidote.”

“Awww, he’s so cute.” She nuzzled the little curled-up thing and it quickly got up and rubbed against her face.

The former Lord of Chaos quickly protested. “Hey, buddy, who gave you permission? Get in line!” And in response, the lizard opened his mouth and belched a puff of flame at the draconquues, singing his fur.

“Ooooooooooooh, it’s a fire-lizard...” Pinkie Pie zoomed in.

“Oh… so that’s how you noticed where your bags were, Zecora,” the shy pegasus realized, to which the shaman only nodded.

Out of the bag, she finally pulled a bottle filled with orange glowing liquid.

“Errr… Zecora, is that what I think it is?” Rainbow dash pointed at it.

“You guessed true, and it’s the only way the princess will pull through,” she answered.

The party planner held open Twilight’s mouth, while Zecora poured the potion into it. And then they waited, the blue pegasus preparing for the response she knew would follow soon. The alicorn princess suddenly opened her eyes and rose to a sitting position, but before anyone had a chance to address her, her fur and mane turned fiery red, her eyes bugged out, and she let out an unspeakable scream, accompanied by fire. She quickly lept and dashed for a pile of snow that was lying nearby and plopped on top of it.

“Seriously, Zecora, you need to find a way to mellow down your meds,” Rainbow Dash complained as they all ran to the princess's side. “If I and Twilight are anything to go on, they could do without “the sting”.”

“Ah don’ think we’re out of the woods just yet, Dash,” Applejack responded. “That could’ve just been the reflex.”

They pulled the Element of Magic out of the pile. It was clear she was conscious again, but not quite present and there was a noticeable groggy tone in her voice.

“No BBBFF, two plus two is four, not apple…” she mumbled.

“Oh great, she’s delirious…” Tempest commented.

“That won’t do! We need her to be stable if we want to get out of here!” Rarity pointed out, leaning to the alicorn’s side. “Twilight? Twilight darling? Pull yourself together! We need to get back to Cadence, quick!”

“Sowwy, big brother, but fillysitter just left…” she mumbled, making the fashionista smack her hoof on her face.

“Hold on, let me try,” Pinkie Pie jumped in and pulled Twilight to her side. “Ssssssssh, Twilight. Are you listening?” she whispered.

“Yeeash…?”

“Do you wanna go sleepy?”

“Yeeash…”

“Then think of the warm, comfy bed in your room at the Crystal Empire, and how we’re all there together, and... try not to think about the fact that Storm King is about to invade it and possibly release the umbrum army onto the world.”

“Oh yeah, that’s really tactful, Pinkie,” Applejack said.

“Mmmmmm, bed…” Twilight murmured, when all of a sudden, her horn began to glow.

“Everypony, come in and hold on tight!” the party planner yelled.

Everybody clamped together, and a few moments later, a bright flash of light happened, making everybody disappear from the caverns beneath the Frozen North.

Mistmane went about her usual daily tasks after she had fulfilled the request. Most of them involved making sure that some of the crystals have matured well enough. This is why she recalled that some of the quartzes in the garden have been looking rather dull, and they’d need some recharge or a complete replacement. And as she walked through the large crystal maze that she had grown she heard a strange sound. It was almost as if it was the sound of thunder, but that would be impossible due to the protection of the Crystal Heart. As she continued on her way through the path she knew too well, she heard another one. She was aware of the current situation and knew that Princess Cadence had erected a barrier for protection from an outside force, which is why it puzzled her when it suddenly disappeared. Perhaps the immediate danger had passed? She was about to reach her destination, when suddenly…

KRAKOOM!

The sound of thunder staggered her. Two things happening in a row would be considered a coincidence to her, but three things happening one after another… something must’ve gone wrong, especially after she saw storm clouds rolling in. She galloped, zig-zagging through her garden so she could get to the Crystal Palace.

“There you are! I thought I would have to get you after you sent me to nullify the Crystal Heart! What happened?”

The elderly mare stopped. There was somebody present in her garden, an echoing feminine voice. And did she hear that right? Nullify the Crystal Heart? She slowly walked in the direction of its origin.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Queen of Changelings. They’ll be coming out any second now.”

Did she hear that right? The Queen of Changelings? Here?! And that other one, the grizzled voice… it was familiar to her, but couldn’t quite put her hoof on it.

“Coming? From where?” she asked.

“All over the place,” the elderly one answered. “I left a few portals open so they’ll spread across the whole city. In the meantime, we’ll go to someplace where we can safely watch the chaos unfold.”

“What about the Heart?”

“Leave it. We’ll be too exposed out there with it. Besides, we just need to keep it off the owner’s hooves for long enough for the rug rat to do his duty.”

“And if he doesn’t?” the female raised her tone. “You said it yourself how rebellious he is. What if he’s just going to waste time and procrastinate?”

The male chuckled. “If I’m not mistaken, then he will incur the mother’s wrath if he’s planning what I think he is.”

“But what’s Fear going to do if it’s trapped?”

“Who said I was talking about THAT mother?”

Mistmane could hear the two voices growing louder, and what they were talking about was not good at all. She finally stopped at one of the maze’s walls. Although they were made of crystal, she quickly discovered that one of them wasn’t – the wall was just a simple leafy tree. Somebody had tampered with her garden when she wasn’t paying attention! She stuck her head into it, and through the cover of branches and leaves she could only glimpse a strange formation of light and darkness disappeared… but what was left behind was left clear for her to see.

FLASH!

Everybody ended up falling into a pile, softened by the comfy sheets. They were in Twilight’s room, inside the Crystal Castle. A sigh of relief followed in unison.

Rarity slipped off everybody. “Sweet Celestia, how I’ve missed the warm atmosphere of this place.”

“You and me both, Rares,” Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah... home sweet home,” Tempest said under the pile of bodies.

“All we need now is a nice sunny day to complete it,” the pink earth pony said after she walked to the window.

“What do you mean, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked.

“Emmmm… it’s best that you all come and see for yourselves.”

It didn’t take long to figure out what she was on about. Dark storm clouds have been gathering all around the Crystal Empire, a sight that was too familiar to the Elements of Harmony. And to top it all off, panic spread across the entire city as large dark masses of ever-shifting darkness with yellow eyes were chasing down its residents.

“DANG NABBIT!” Applejack cursed. “We’re too late!”

The doors suddenly slammed open and they watched the Storm King’s former Lieutenant bolt.

“Tempest!” the country pony yelled after her. “Dang it! She’s planning to confront the pile of walking rocks again! We can’t let her face him alone!”

“Well, what are we waiting for then? After-!” the fashionista urged when she was suddenly interrupted.

There was a sound of a firework explosion coming from the window on the other end of the room. They quickly went to investigate and spotted a large visible magical aura, shaped like a heart, pointing downwards, above the crystal garden.

“I think I’m beginning to get what’s happening,” she said.

“What do you mean, Rarity?” the animal caretaker asked.

“Isn’t it obvious, Fluttershy?” the white unicorn proceeded to elaborate. “The storms outside the Crystal Empire weren’t brought here by the Storm King. The last time something like this happened was when Flurry Heart destroyed the Crystal Heart. It was protecting the city from the storms. Which means that it was taken away this time. And I can make a good guess where it might be.”

“How do you know it’s not a trap?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“We don’t,” the blue pegasus responded, “but we don’t know where to find it anywhere else. I say we go for it.”

“Hold on, Dash!”, Applejack interrupted her. “We have to go after Tempest right now before she bumps into Storm King on her own.”

“But we can’t just let the storms consume the empire either!”

“In that case, it’s best for all of us to split,” Rarity suggested. “Those who can fly, go look for the heart.”

“No!” the dragon quickly protested, as he sat near the princess, who was not out cold again. “I’m not leaving Twilight’s side now when she’s at her most vulnerable!”

The zebra reached for him with her hoof, grabbing his attention. “Do not worry, Spike. Take flight, and I’ll look after the princess with all my might.”

Reluctantly he nodded, knowing full well he could best serve elsewhere, then flew over to Fluttershy, Rainbow, Dash, and Discord.

“Alright then,” the country pony concluded. “Me, Pinkie, and Rarity will go support Tempest. Good luck!”

“Right back at you,” the wonderbolt said and then lept out the window along with her team, while others ran through the door, leaving the shaman alone with the alicorn.

The broken unicorn galloped down the hallways of the castle. She’s already come across some leftovers that her former employer had left behind, as the wounded guards littered the floor. She was on the right trail.

“Tempest!” voices in the hallway further behind her called to her.

But she wouldn’t stop. She had to find HIM before he has the chance to get to Glitter Drops. As she was approaching the end of the corridor she saw a figure quickly fly by at a high speed. She couldn’t quite make it out, but it looked like a guard who was carrying a child with him. And then she heard heavy stomps following in their direction. She recognized them! She quickly hid around the corner and peaked. And there he came, a giant obsidian construct walked by, trying to catch up with his apparent prey, and then he stopped, punching the wall in anger.

“There you are, Tempest!” Pinkie Pie said as she and the rest of the “grounded unit” caught up to her. “I thought for a moment we-!”

The broken unicorn immediately shoved her hoof in her mouth to silence her, pointing to the happening around the corner. The rest of them peaked as well, and apparently, the Storm King didn’t hear them, as he was too busy ripping a large crystal pillar from the wall. Then he walked down the corridor, straight in their direction. The mares held their breath in fear of being found, but just before he got to the corner, he faced the wall, pointed the pillar he was holding in its direction, and charged, breaking through. They could hear as more walls were broken down, the construct refusing to stop.

“Sweet Celestia, that thing’s an unstoppable force,” Rarity said. “How are we even supposed to stop that juggernaut?”

“Oh that's easy," Pinkie Pie spoke, "we tip him off balance, that’s his weak spot. It won’t be difficult.” She turned to the orange pony.

“Way ahead of you,” she answered, pulling out a rope.

“Oh, I see what your plan is," Tempest said. "Come. We’ll intercept him. If he just went after what I think he did, he’ll be coming back from the opposite direction. Follow me!”

They ran into the corridor where she saw the pegasus disappear, going further down where the balcony was in sight, right around the corner, and that’s when they saw a carpet on the floor.

“Perfect. Tie it on the nearby pillar and hide it underneath, then we wait close by,” the broken unicorn ordered

They did so and then hid in the corridor opposite to it, holding the rope at the ready. Soon they heard it, the heavy stomping coming in their direction. They saw Flurry Heart run by them, and just as the stomping sound was about to pass, they pulled. The construct lost his balance and landed flat on his face, the wrapped-up bundle around his neck flying off.

“Okay… I’m getting pretty sick and tired of this…” the satyr mumbled. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, also shame on you. But do it the third time, and you’re officially THAT GUY! You know, the one that’s gonna be-!” As his gaze met them, the reaction indicated clear shock. “Wha… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

Meanwhile, the flying team descended into the crystal garden where the magical image was pointing to a maze. Locating the conjurer, however, didn’t take long, as the old unicorn was visible in plain sight.

“Mistmane!” Fluttershy was the first to respond.

“Ah, hello, little ponies,” the elder greeted them with a warm smile. “I’m so glad somepony heeded my signal. I’m delighted that it was you.”

“We know that the Crystal Heart has been stolen, Mistmane! Do you know where it is?!” Rainbow Dash started inquiring.

The Pillar of Beauty raised her hoof and shushed them. “I know where it is. But before we do anything, I need you to see the situation yourself. No matter what you do, be quiet as a mouse.”

She motioned into the nearby leafy shrub and they all stuck their heads inside. Through the cover of the foliate, they saw a scene on display: The Crystal Heart, flickering, surrounded by changelings wearing dark armor, accompanied by a small swarm of regular ones.

Spike quickly pulled out. “They’re negating the Heart’s magic?!” he yelled under his breath. “How?!”

“They’re changelings, think Spike,” Discord pointed out. “They have a way to negate magic other than their own. What makes you think they can’t do it now when it already happened before?”

“Ah,” the greying mare mused, “that would explain why I wasn’t able to use magic to remove the Heart. For some reason, my spells were just dispersing.”

“We’d need an army to dispose of the swarm that’s in there,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“No, child,” Mistmane retorted. “We’re all we need. And now that you’re here we can return the heart to its proper place.”

“How? You said that your magic is being negated,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Yes, when used directly, but using it to influence the garden itself… that is another matter entirely.”

“Wait… if you were able to do that from the start, why didn’t you?” the dragon questioned.

“I cannot fight them and retrieve the heart at the same time,” she explained. “That task will fall solely on to you all.”

“Mistmane… are you sure?” Spike asked one last time.

“Child, if I was that easily beaten by oversized bug plants I wouldn’t be here today. Now, get ready. You’ll have to act quick.”

They collectively nodded and readied themselves. Mistmane’s horn began to glow, and soon after the ground under them lit up. There was a strange sound coming from the other end of the shrub and soon changeling screeching followed. They looked to the sky and saw the crystal growing upwards, morphing into a plant-like imitation, disorienting the creatures, while leaving the Crystal Heart on top of a great blooming flower. The dragon went first, flying way up to the bloom, and grabbed hold of the artifact. He flew down, and some of the changelings quickly noticed him. He dodged, but there were too many, so he tossed it at Fluttershy. She caught it and flew further out of the garden, yet more changelings came after her. Rainbow Dash lept in the air and started kicking them about, to push them back and widen the gap, but the numbers were beginning to overwhelm them all. Suddenly, beneath them, another crystal formation began to grow, creating a thick shrubbery into which the pursuers crashed and got stuck.

“Go!” Mistmane called below. “Go and deliver it back!”

And they went off. So far so good. They managed to take out the perpetrators of the theft, they just had to make it back to the castle. Although with the wonderbolt’s condition, the flight would take longer. They were close by when the thunder roared, and out of nowhere, the thunderbolts passed over the edge of the building, falling right at the group.

“LOOK OUT!” Rainbow Dash yelled, quickly zipping to the side and grabbing both Fluttershy and Spike, making them drop the artifact in the process.

They landed on the nearby roof, trying to recover from the shock. “You all okay?” the wonderbolt inquired.

They both nodded

“Wait… where’s the Crystal Heart?” the dragon asked.

They all grimaced in response and quickly went to check over the edge, in fear that it might have smashed to pieces from the impact. Luckily their fears turned out to not be true, yet they were left surprised, as it was just lying on the ground, seemingly unscathed. They descended, avoiding the panicking masses that ran past them, only to discover the reason as to why it was unharmed… at the expense of somebody else.

The shy pegasus discovered a patchwork body under the crystal artifact. “Discord!” she panicked, quickly pulling the draconequus from under it. “Say something! Are you okay?”

He groaned. “If I was in my normal state, this wouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.”

“But still… you protected the Crystal Heart, Discord!”

“Fluttershy, as praiseworthy as that is, now’s not the time,” the blue pegasus urged. “If we don’t bring the Crystal Heart back to the pedestal soon, none of this will matter if we don’t pacify the umbrum.”

“I’m more worried about that lightning striking in the same spot twice, Dash,” Spike said. “That definitely wasn’t normal, even from what we were expecting. Where did it come from?”

“I don’t think it matters now. All things considered, it’s best if we make it back on foot,” Discord suggested.

They agreed. They couldn’t risk another potential thunder strike. They ran down the street, yet as it turned out it was just as dangerous. The umbrum flew all about, trying to catch potential prey, luckily, however, they were tunnel-visioning, so they went unnoticed… until they ran through one of them by accident. It took notice of them, and with a roar it gave chase. They were panicking, and even though it fueled their flight, the shadow was simply too fast, and eventually, the shy pegasus tripped and fell over.

“Fluttershy!” They all stopped and quickly ran back to assist her, and that’s when the Umbrum caught up to them.

They prepared for the worst as they huddled together in fear… they felt a shockwave. They noticed that the creature had gone still before them, and then it slowly turned, flying towards the castle.

“Wha… what’s just happened?” the yellow pony wondered.

“Let’s not wait to find out. Go!” Discord urged them.

They went for the last mile dash, the castle was right in front of them, they couldn’t prolong this any longer. And then they finally saw it, the pedestal underneath the castle. This was it. They had expected some last-minute disaster to intervene, but they were proven wrong. The artifact locked itself in its place and spun. The blast wave of magic spread across the empire, and the storm clouds disappeared, letting the sunshine once again.

“Alright! We did it, guys!” Spike cheered.

The rest of them cheered in jubilation on a job well done. But as the streets have finally calmed down from the disaster, they soon noticed that people in front of the castle were showing signs of anxiety, whispering to one another. But why?

They took up and flew up the castle wall, knowing full well there was a balcony they could get in and save themselves the walk time. Yet as they finally reached it, they noticed something had gone wrong. They saw the other group on the balcony, alongside Cadence, who was crying her eyes out.

“Is this a bad time to pat ourselves on the back?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Chapter 43: A Mother's Piety

Author's Note

Sorry, guys. Due to work on my relative's stables, I lost productivity for two days and as such, the chapter came out late, especially since this is the longest chapter so far, and even then I had to trim the fat so I can insert it later.

The good news is, it's likely the next chapter will come out earlier.

Anyway, enjoy

Chapter 43: A Mother's Piety

The dark finally cleared from her eyes. Glitter Drops ran through the Frozen North for hours without break and in panic, back to the Crystal Empire, until she finally collapsed from exhaustion. The sense of fatigue was still on her, but at least now she was aware of her surroundings. She looked about, realizing she was lying in bed, and she wasn’t the only one. A grey stallion lay nearby, with a shorter, purple-maned mare watching over him, and not far from them was a too familiar alicorn princess, with a zebra and a small dragon next to her.

“You’re really going already then?”

“Yeah. I still have to send a message to the guys over at Griffonstone, and after what we’ve just been through, I think Starswirl’s gonna need all the help he can get. Give my regards to Twilight when she wakes up, okay?”

She recognized some of the voices. Voices of the same ponies she and her co-worker assisted. She tried to rise, only to realize that something heavy was keeping her down. It was only then that she finally noticed that the aforementioned co-worker was resting her head on top of her.

“Fizzy?!” she yelped.

Just as she did, the broken unicorn snorted and woke up. The green mare was able to sit up only to see a bright flash erupt elsewhere in the room, after which she saw very familiar faces of the Elements of Harmony. They all noticed her and quickly went to her side, but the one in closest proximity beat them to the punch, as she lept and wrapped her hooves around her. The other mares stopped at the sight, letting the moment last for quite a while.

“Fizzy?” the smaller mare finally spoke after being held for a long time.

“Dropsy, what’s happened to you?!” Tempest gave her a frantic look. “If he did something to you I swear I’m gonna-!”

“Tempest,” a blue pegasus tried to garner her attention, “chill, will ya? You can see she’s okay.”

“You can’t be sure of that! You’ve seen her knocked out! For all we know, he could’ve-!”

“Fizzy, I’m fine,” the other mare reassured her. “I’m just really tired… After you all got swallowed by the depths I ran as fast as I could back home for hours to warn Princess Cadence of Sombra’s return… but it seems I didn’t make it, since I lost consciousness somewhere near the border. Are you all okay?”

The Element’s heads turned to their resting leader. “For the most part,” the white unicorn answered. “But I have to tell you that Sombra’s not a problem anymore.”

“Really? You managed to beat him?”

They gave each other an awkward look. “Well… A lot has happened while you were absent, Glitter Drops,” Applejack answered.

The mares proceeded to explain the events that took place in the depths of Frozen North; of Sombra’s fate, of the teal pony’s “rescuer”, and finally the events that took place inside the castle while she was asleep.

“I can’t believe it…” Glitter Drops said in a shaken tone. “This whole time… Had I known the Storm King was-“

“You couldn’t have known, Dropsy,” Tempest calmed her. “None of us could.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie concurred, “I mean, how could any one of us have known that Chrysalis would’ve gone through an elaborate plot of stealing a magical artifact from Canterlot and remains that the hippogriffs have been keeping as a trophy… You know, actually saying that last part out loud makes it sound really creepy.”

“Ah mean, if he was just a walkin’ talkin’ statue we could’ve easily dealt with him, but then he had to have that darn staff with him as well… or rather ON him,” Applejack made her frustration known.

“Yeah, seriously, Tempest,” the wonderbolt pitched in, “we’ve had plenty of trouble dealing with it the last time it nearly destroyed Canterlot. Where did you even get that stupid stick anyway?”

“Very likely she stole it. King Vorak is not the kind of person who would simply relinquish the symbol of his sovereignty to anypony.”

The broken unicorn didn’t even have a chance to explain herself when somebody else got ahead of her. The voice came from the fanny pack that hung around the shy pegasus’ neck, which now served as a form of transportation for the former Lord of Chaos, who at that very moment was sticking his head out.

As expected, they all gave him a confused look. “That name sounds kinda familiar.” Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin.

“Well it should,” Discord said. “After all you were all there when I first mentioned it. I used it to taunt Tirek to slip up.”

It took them a bit to recall the events from years ago, when Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, empowered by the magic that was trapped inside Grogar’s Bewitching Bell, launched an assault on Canterlot, where they got utterly defeated. And it was only thanks to Discord’s actions that they managed to get away to plan a counterattack against them. And soon, the words that triggered the dark lord of the centaurs to act came to their minds.

You're right. "Cretin" is too polite. How about "pathetic centaur who uses magic to compensate for the fact that deep down he's afraid he'll never be enough to please dear old dad, King Vorak"?

“Wait… Discord, how do you know about Tirek’s dad?” Fluttershy asked the question that everybody wanted to know an answer to at that moment.

“And how do you know that Staff of Sacanas belonged to him, to begin with?” Rarity asked the second one that was on their mind.

The draconequus suddenly felt surrounded by all of them. “Well… the thing is… you know what, it’d be too long of a story to tell.”

“Hey, until Twilight gets up we’ve got more than enough time.” Their heads turned as another presence joined in on the conversation, this time being the purple dragon who had just left the princess’ side.

He groaned. “Fine… sit yourselves down, cuz it’s a whale-staggering story.”

“I didn’t know whales could stagger,” the party planner remarked as they all sat down.

Discord cleared his throat as he found himself in the center of attention once again. “Well, our story begins… Or rather continues, from where we left off last time. After I had hidden Grogar’s Collar of Dominion away in the depths of the Jagged Ridge, I crossed over to the other side, leaving Equestria behind, descending into the Nether Lands. To say that the place was inhospitable would be a gross understatement. It’s a barren wasteland, with no life in sight, no food or water… just scorching winds. For days I was traversing the land with a constant sun beating down from above for most of the day. I’m not sure how long it was, but by the end, I was simply too exhausted from hunger and thirst, hiding under a rock, unsure I’d see another day. And then… I had a case of Déjà vu.”

“What do you mean, Discord?” Rainbow Dash inquired. “Did somepony peeked under a rock like how Gusty found you or something?

An awkward silence followed for a moment before he resumed. “Well… yes, actually. The only difference was that I was too tired to act when the rock was lifted. And past the blistering sunlight, I beheld a visage. She was a creature, unlike any I’ve seen before: the tone of her muzzle was the same as the rocks upon which I’ve walked throughout the land, the brown hair flowed down her face as the winds blew, with a pair great bat wings sticking out behind her. And the look in her eyes… it looked like… pity. She scooped me up and took me away, and after that, I blanked out. I’m not sure how long it was before I finally woke up, but when I did, I was in a tent, and I could hear voices coming from outside. I was in a settlement, hidden in the cover of a large cave. That was when I first saw the centaurs and their former servants, the gargoyles.”

“What do you mean former servants?” Rarity questioned.

“I’m getting to that,” he said. “Strangely enough, the residents didn’t seem to mind my presence, as there were clearly other odd creatures that walked among the prime residents of the Nether Lands, so many that I practically blended in. It was unusual for me to say the least, that they didn’t consider me an alien. Of course, I wanted some answers, so I went looking for the head honcho, which was obviously marked by the biggest tent. And that was when I first met him. Vorak, not yet a king, but a young leader of the resistance, along with my would-be savior, one called Haydon.”

“Resistance against what?” Applejack asked.

“Father, of course. The centaur tribes have been in a constant war for supremacy as long back as any resident of the Nether Lands can remember. But Father’s reach into the wasteland had complicated things for everycreature. He was simply too strong for any individual tribe to fight his forces alone, hence a desperate alliance was made between the tribes to fight back against the invader. That, of course, also meant that the centaurs were forced to adapt to the changing times and alter some of their traditions. The gargoyles were carved from rock and brought to life by something called “The Breath of Creation”. They used to be merely their servants, but the difficult circumstances forced them to start treating them on the same level as their former masters, after all, if they perished at Father’s command, so too would they. And it’s been a long time since then, making Vorak the next generation’s leader.”

“But Discord,” Fluttershy paused him, “wasn’t Grogar defeated?”

“Of course he was… but they didn’t know. Even though Father had left the Nether Lands some time ago, its residents were oblivious to the matter. They’ve been living in constant fear for so long they believed that their own shadows could harbor enemies out in the scorching daylight.”

“And you didn’t tell them?” Spike jumped in.

“I did. And they didn’t believe me at first, but after much persuading, they called in a centaur, who used a strange magical artifact to draw out my memories of what I’ve seen… or rather, what I remembered at the time. When it became clear that I was speaking the truth, there was nothing but cheers being heard.”

“Oooooh! You were having a party?” the party planner hopped.

“I mean, as much as a party as one can have, considering the circumstances. But even so, for the first time, in the jovial setup, without being forced to conceal my presence from anypony, I was being treated as just another resident of the land. It felt… as if I had finally found a place to belong.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw,” the sound escaped the shy pegasus as she hugged him. “Discord, I’m so happy for you!”

“Fluttershy, I’m not done yet. Please put me down,” draconequus protested, and the mare obliged. “Anyway, the jubilation wouldn’t last forever as the obvious problem was inevitably going to bubble up to the surface again.”

“What are you talking about?” the fashionista inquired.

“The centaur tribes came together in desperation to fight a common enemy. With that enemy gone, what was keeping them together still?”

“Friendship?” Pinkie Pie naively said.

“No, Pinkie, not in the Nether Lands,” Discord shook his head. “No matter how close they were now, the land still had scarce resources that no amount of friendship could fix; it was an issue over which the centaur tribes have been warring from the very start. Without somecreature to keep them together, it would all return to how it was. And Vorak knew it, he couldn’t risk it happening, especially since he had gotten… “close”, to his former family servant. So, he started working on a plan. He had his best craftsmen fashion for him a staff, of a wooden shaft and a crystal headpiece, imbued with this so-called “Breath of Creation”. At the height of the revelry, in the presence of a moonlight night, he led his people out into the heart of the wasteland, where he used it. From the dried-up soil, a giant tower born of the earth arose like a tree, and just like it, life was beginning to sprout from the land around it. He called it the Midnight Castle, and it could be seen from the furthest corners of the Nether Lands. It was a symbol for the seat of absolute power, but also a reminder, a promise, that one day, the barren wasteland which they had been calling home for centuries, might actually bloom someday so that desperation would never tear his people apart again. And so, Vorak became the first king of the Nether Lands.”

“What about you?” Spike asked.

“Me? I had no other place to go to, and the Nether Lands were about as close to a home as it could be, despite its obvious flaws. Besides, I still had a little debt to pay to the one who rescued me; Haydon, who funny enough, became the queen. She was… she was special. So gentle, tender, and motherly...” His head turned towards the animal caretaker. “Almost like you, Fluttershy. So it’s not surprising that Vorak was drawn to her. It is unfortunate, however, that their union, in the end, produced a… well, you’ve all seen the kind of person Tirek is.”

“Look that’s all nice and sweet,” Tempest interrupted Discord’s storytelling, “but what you’ve just described is nothing like what I’ve seen. I read in the books about the centaur’s unique way of drawing out magic, so I went to the Nether Lands, which was anything BUT peaceful, just monsters constantly fighting amongst themselves. I did, however, see a solitary tower-like structure sticking out like a sore hoof. There was no life in it though, other than a handful of scrambling gremlins. I managed to interrogate them and they pointed me to the Staff of Sacanas, which was in the hands of one of the many statues that littered the place. And after that, I simply sent it to the Storm King.”

“Did they also tell you how to use it?”

They all stirred, as that voice didn’t come from any of them. It was coming from one of the beds, where the purple alicorn lay.

“Twilight!” At the sound of the dragon's voice, they all got up and ran to the side of her bed. “How long have you been awake?”

“From when Discord resumed where we left off last time.” She finally opened her eyes and managed to sit up. “Where are we? How long have I been out?”

“Since yesterday,” Rarity explained. “We got back to the Crystal Empire in time to intervene with the Storm King, but unfortunately he got away, along with Queen Chrysalis, and Grogar.”

It took a while for the words to finally reach her before she reacted. “Crystal Empire?! CADENCE!” She lept off the bed and dashed for the door.

“Twilight, wait! You’re not well yet!” Applejack protested.

She didn’t heed her. She was too concerned for the well-being of her former foalsitter. But she didn’t get further than the door’s threshold when she crashed into something, stopping her in her tracks. The quick reaction from earlier coupled with the aftershock from the hit finally got to her, and she slouched against whatever the object was. Whatever it was, it was strong, yet soft, and… fluffy?

“We really got to stop bumping into each other like this.”

Her eyes shot open as she recognized that voice. It was an orange pegasus stallion, wearing the armor of the captain of the guard. All she could do was crack an awkward smile and laugh. The rest of the mares came through the door, only to see the situation as it looked.

“Don’t worry girls, I think he’s got her,” Rarity quipped.

Hearing that, the alicorn blushed and pulled herself back, trying to stand on her own, only for her friends to catch up to her, helping her stand in place.

“Flash Sentry, where’s Cadence? Is she alright? I need to see her right now!” she asked.

“Her Majesty is in the throne room right now,” he answered. “As for the state she’s in… well, you should see for yourself.”

The captain walked off. The mares were about to follow him when they realized that one of them remained behind.

“Tempest, aren’t you coming?” the princess inquired.

“Nah, you guys go ahead. I’ll join later. After what I’ve seen, I think she’s gonna need your help more than mine.” And the broken unicorn closed the doors.

They walked down the hallway of the castle, destruction noticeable for all of them to see. There was a deep line running straight down the middle of it, and it baffled Twilight as to what could've possibly caused it. They finally reached the throne room and entered, only to be met with a sight of a pink alicorn sitting on her throne, her mane frazzled, and almost seeming like her bright colors have faded, hunched over, with a despondent look on her face.

“Cadence?”

The moment Twilight uttered the name, her head rose and she immediately ran to her and pulled her into an embrace. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re okay. After what I heard Storm King say I thought…”

She struggled to speak from the pressure. “I… I’m okay, Cadence, but could you loosen up just a bit, please?” She finally relented and let her go. “Are you okay, Cadence?”

She paused for a moment after the question. “Yes… yes, I’m fine…”

“Are you sure?” the purple alicorn doubted her words. “I’ve seen the state the castle is in and the girls haven’t told me yet what had happened while I was out, but I can tell just by looking at you that something bad had happened.”

The older alicorn sighed. “You’re right… I’m not fine, Twilight. What happened is something I will never be fine with. After you all left for the Frozen North, Changelings started to act up. Through the day and into the next morning they kept drawing our army out of the city, disappearing without a trace, tiering us all down. It wasn’t until this morning that I discovered we’ve been tricked, as the changelings have already infiltrated the city. And then the Storm King came and attacked the castle, and the rest of the guards were unable to do anything because the Crystal Heart was stolen, and to make matters worse, after that, the umbrum suddenly came out of nowhere. Everything was just coming apart and I simply didn’t have the strength to continue fighting him, but then… it happened.”

“What happened, Cadence?” Twilight wondered.

“Flurry Heart… I heard her screaming in fear. The Storm King was going to hurt her. And when I realized that I just… I just felt so angry.”

“That would explain the Sombra-like look you had on your face at that time,” the party planner pointed out.

Twilight realized what she was talking about, remembering how she had to force a negative emotion onto herself to access the umbrum king’s quarters. “Cadence… are you saying you allowed it to get ahold of you?”

“I couldn’t help it, Twilight. The thought that the giant brute would hurt my sweet little girl… I just wanted to destroy him. And the people outside saw me when I knocked him over the balcony and then attacked Grogar and Chrysalis that were standing in plain sight.”

She gasped. “Oh no… are you saying that the crystal ponies have lost faith in you after seeing you at your worst?”

A titter escaped the Princess of Love. “If only it were that. Public perception is something I can live with.” Her momentary smile faded. “No, Twilight, I did something far worse. When I clashed with Grogar, your friends tried to dissuade me, but I wouldn’t listen; I just wanted to see those who have wronged me hurt so badly. That’s when Flurry Heart managed to get to me to get my attention when I was at the peak of the emotion and I… I…”

Twilight sensed it, saw it even, as she choked up, trembled all over, tearing up. “Cadence… what did you do?”

“I SNEERED AT HER, TWILIGHT! I SNEERED AT MY LITTLE FLURRY HEART!” she cried out, then collapsed on her rump, and started to cry uncontrollably.

The younger alicorn closed in. “Cadence, don’t worry. I know things seem bleak, but time heals all wounds. I’m sure in time she’ll-“

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, TWILIGHT!” the elder one cut her off. “She’s seen me at the possible worst I’ve ever been. All that anger and hatred that I was focusing on those I earnestly wanted to hurt, in a moment of distraction, I aimed it at her. The most sweetest and innocent thing I’ve ever known! The Crystal Heart may have purged the negative emotion, but I knew full well what I did in a heat of the moment. And then she ran away in fear of me. She’s been in her room since yesterday and she won’t come out. I can never face her again… She was completely innocent and I scorned her! I’m a horrible mother!”

Her cries of despair echoed throughout the throne room. It was downright disheartening to listen, to watch a mother grieving that she had lost the trust of her little filly, it even made some of the mares tear up. One of them, however, walked back to the door, aiming to exit.

“Zecora?” Rarity was the first to spot her, despite the waterworks. “Where are you going?”

The zebra turned to them. “Excuse me, but I should be preparing. There's another wound which needs repairing.”

The doors closed behind her, leaving everybody else confused, as they had no idea who else was there left in the castle that needed treatment.

The sun was already high in the sky, yet in one of the castle’s rooms, the atmosphere was gloomy. Flurry Hearts sat by the side of her bed, holding her Whammy. Since yesterday nothing had changed, as there were words of the hooded elder and images of the recent events constantly playing out in her head.

Just as wishing to bring or preserve peace initiates wars, so too is hatred born out of the desire… to protect love.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, disrupting her thoughts.

“Go away!” she yelled.

Yet despite those words, the doors creaked open. She had expected one of the guards had come to try and convince her to leave, yet much to her surprise, an unexpected black and white equine face popped in.

“Stripey Lady? What are you doing here?”

“My apologies, little Heart,” the zebra said as she entered, “but navigating the castle is difficult as there is so much room. While I'm here I have to ask, why are you so full of doom and gloom?”

“I don’t want to talk about it…” She shrunk, hugging her stuffed snail toy.

She closed the door and slowly approached her, sitting down by her side. “I can see that your thoughts are not at ease, bottling them up is something only your inner turmoil will please. If it will elevate your mind you can always tell me what’s giving you the grind.”

A snicker suddenly escaped the filly’s mouth. “You still talk funny, Stripey Lady.”

“I'm glad at least something's distracting you from your plight, but please, Zecora is my name, speak it right.”

Her mood switched back to what it was before. “Miss Kora…” She waited a few moments before she finished the sentence. “… is mommy bad?”

The shaman was about to correct her, but then stopped herself, realizing it’d be pointless, as she was only a child. “Little filly, I’m shocked. The Princess of Love, an agent of wroth? What could possibly give you that thought?”

She shifted. “Grandpa Gar told me something…”

Zecora tilted her head. “Who?”

“A kind old man,” Flurry Heart explained. “He played with me and told me stories when I was alone. He had pets, lots of them, and we played in Granny Misty’s garden.”

“It's well and good to play, but what did he say?”

“He said…” She tried to recall his words. “That good things make bad things happen. If we try to pretend that the bad thing does not exist, it will come out strong. He said that when we’re at the most bad… it shows us what we are.”

The shaman pondered for a moment. “There is some wisdom in those words, no doubt. Pray tell, why would it make you assume the worst about your mother and pout?”

“I’ve never seen mommy angry like that. But when the big black scary rocky pile came and attacked me, her eyes looked like that of the bad King Sobra. I tried to make her stop but…” She suddenly went quiet. “She gave me the evil bad look. She never did that before.” The filly gave the zebra a pleading look. “I’m scared, Miss Kora. Can loving somepony too much make you go bad?”

And Zecora finally saw where the problem lay. Whatever this “Grandpa Gar” had told the little filly, it corresponded with what she had experienced. And it rattled her perception of pure, genuine goodness that her mother was supposed to exhibit. But there may still be a way to repair the damage done.

She smiled. “Little Flurry Heart, I sympathize with your pain. A parent in the grip of strong emotions can make you strain, especially when by mistake it falls on you like rain. But do not assume when the moment comes, it all becomes crumbs. And a mother's love is a terrifying power, at times sweet and others sour, but tell me, how can you know peace without getting mad, or love without causing bad?”

The little filly sat there, confused, unsure what to say.

“If it's too hard for you to understand, how about I explain you in a story most grand?” Zecora proposed.

“Is it a scary story…?” she meekly asked.

The shaman shook her head.

Across the vast dunes, a large gathering of zebras traveled, with their high shaman ahead of them, with his filly, who was not so little anymore, by his side. They had been traversing the desert sands all day since yesterday, and without a cloud in the sky, the blistering sun was beating down on them all. But at least this time Zecora came prepared, she had learned from her previous mistakes not to underestimate the Kuhama Desert, and she made sure to pack properly. Even so, they’ve been tracking for the second day now. Her tribe needed water, but this was the first time that she joined the group responsible for delivering it, and she still had no idea what to expect in the end. As they continued onward, the zebra felt the ground change, as the sands had slowly disappeared, replaced by solid ground, and little by little, grass began to sprout from the soil, turning into fields that were being worked on by the local bovine.

“Watami’s grace upon you,” one of the buffalos said as they passed him, the high shaman nodding in response.

The younger zebra was confused by his words. And as they continued through the lush grasslands, bodies of water started to become more noticeable, and with it, more and more local creatures started appearing on their way, from the buffalos to giraffes, and each of them would offer the same greeting words.

Watami’s grace upon you.

She finally asked the obvious question. “Fada, why is everybody saying that when we pass them? What does “Watami’s grace” mean?”

The elder one gave her a look as if he was anticipating the question. “I do not blame you for not knowing, for this is your first showing. Many creatures which make this place their home, greatly revere the ruler of the kelpie hearthstone.”

“Why’s that, Fada?”

“Long ago, not many lived here, for back then it was dry, my dear. No life could survive in this barren waste until from the sea a visitor arrived post-haste. She looked upon the land of sand, took pity on those who lived there and burrowed deep to make a spring gush forth from its sleep. Over many a generation, the desert blossomed without hesitation. She remained, to ensure life could be sustained. Hence, in honor of the spring which has brought glee, Watami’s name is spoken well and free.”

All of a sudden, a snicker escaped her, realizing that the name almost sounded as if somebody was saying “Water me!”.

But there was something that still made her wonder. “Fada, how old is Queen Watami?”

He chuckled. “Older and wiser ones pondered it before, alas, none could get the right score.”

With that being said and done, Zecora had expected by now that they’ll just dip into the nearest river and fill the barrels they had brought with them, but they wouldn’t stop, not yet. For many more hours they trot across the lush green lands, the further they went, the bigger the rivers became, so much that they turned into waterways, and they saw numerous rafts traveling up and down the stream. Finally, they ran out of land to traverse… and then they saw it.

All of the rivers that spread through the kelpie queen’s domain were coming from a giant lake, bigger than the oasis that her father watched over. And it was at the very heart of this lake that a giant fountain stood, spouting water which fell into the surrounding lake.

“We'll slake our village's thirst by drawing water from here first,” her father announced. “To Carthage, I will go, for the purest liquid can only be found where its source is found below.”

One of many rafts that were going about the lake finally landed on the bank, and the shaman stepped on it. “Come, Zecora,” he beckoned her, “I will show you, the brilliance I speak of is true.”

Zecora lept, her five golden rings clanging as she landed on the wooden raft. She was a bit confused though, wondering why her father wanted her to see a water fountain up close, but also the fact that the raft had no driver. Now that she thought about it, how did the raft get here in the first place? Then it moved, slowly picking up the pace, until it sped up, nearly causing her to fall off before her father caught her. By the time they had reached the halfway, the younger zebra realized her eyes were deceiving her. What looked like a giant fountain in the middle of the lake was actually a city, carved from rock. On the surface level, there were numerous wooden piers where the other rafts were being moored, coming and going one after another. As they approached it, their raft slowed down until it came to a complete stop right on the mark. The father hopped off, but it took the daughter a bit longer as the whole thing transitioned too fast. She wondered what moved their raft in the first place. She looked at the other rafts that were moored nearby, noticing that strange fin-like shapes were splashing out of the water, and when she turned to look at her raft, she yelped, after she suddenly spotted a strange blue head that looked somewhat equine, with an orange dorsal fin sticking out of its forehead, extending down her spine to look like a mane before it submerged itself again.

“Zecora,” the high shaman called her.

She quickly joined him, still confused about what that creature was, and they walked off together, unaware that it was watching them disappear into the crowd.

Through the mass of creatures they waded, under a large stone cover that was open only in a straight line down the middle, and at the end of it, there was a large hole in the tower’s base, with a pair of stairs leading up its sides. There were stalls spread all around, locals selling their wares, trinkets, and goods that Zecora had never seen before. One of them eventually caught her eyes: a small spherical white object that glistened in the sunlight. So mesmerized she was that she stopped, and her father, unaware that she did, continued until he disappeared into the crowd. She wandered about, looking at all the other oddities that were being sold. And then she saw a giraffe hauling a crate into a nearby wooden construction, a pipe filled with water, simply dropping it inside, and strangely, instead of going down, the current pushed it upwards. That’s when she realized that multiple wooden pipes were running all across the city, all of them leading up to the top of the tower from which all the water was spilling into the lake. She approached one of them and knocked on it. She heard a strange bumping sound coming from inside, as if something was moving, occasionally hitting its walls. Then she recalled that she’s seen these wooden pipes near the dockside, and back then she was unsure why they were there. Curiosity got the better of her; she ran to the rafts and spotted the access to the pipes. Wandering closer, she looked into it, yet there was nothing there. Suddenly, the bumping sound from earlier was echoing from the inside, accompanied by a strange constant noise.

“GO AWAY! SHE’LL CRUSH INTO YOU!”

The voice suddenly got Zecora’s attention, but all it did was distract her, making her unaware and a rush of water burst out and she got swept into the lake with it. And just as quickly, she was tossed back upon the dry land by an unseen force, coughing, as she was caught completely off guard.

“You think she’s gonna be okay?”

“Relax. A little dip never hurt anybody.”

She heard two voices talking nearby, and it didn’t take much to see to whom they belonged. Two creatures were lying on the pier, as they didn’t have legs to stand on. These creatures looked almost exactly like Queen Watami when she last saw her all those cycles ago at the ceremony back home, except that they were smaller, less majestic, and of course, their bodies had a noticeably different color, one of them having red fins, while the other had orange ones and was shorter.

“You…” she directed at the latter, “You were there earlier when fada and I landed... Were you the one who pulled us here?”

“Oh, so my sister’s the one that got you here?” the other one responded.

“Wadi, I’ve been covering for you again,” the orange one scolded her. “If you had just gone and done what mom told you to, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Ugh, so serious.” She rolled her eyes. “One of these days you’re gonna turn drab if you keep being like this, Wash.”

“This is serious, Wadi. If something had happened to her, people would talk and mom would’ve known instantly. You should’ve come down from the tower earlier.”

“Oh cry me a river, it’s not like anyone would notice.”

The two creatures continued to argue before Zecora finally intervened. “Erm, excuse me… are you two kelpies?”

The two stopped and looked at her. “Oh, the look isn’t obvious enough, huh?” the taller one sarcastically asked. “Ye, we’re kelpies. I’m Wadi, and this is my younger sister, Wash.”

“I’m really sorry for all of this,” the smaller one apologized. “If my sister had just done her work from the start this wouldn’t have happened to you.”

“No, no, it was my fault,” the zebra refuted. “It’s my first time here, and I saw these giant wooden pipes all over the city and I wanted to know what they’re for since they all make so much racket.”

“Oh?” The red-finned kelpie raised her eyebrow. “You’re sightseeing? Well in that case how about we give you a first-class tour of the private areas?”

“Wadi, no! Mom’s gonna notice if somebody enters our sanctuary!” the orange-finned one protested.

“Relax. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” She looked at the outsider. “What’s your name, by the way, zebra?”

“Zecora,” she answered.

“Right. Zecora, we’re prepared to show you a place where no outsider can go, but you must promise to never tell anyone of this, okay?”

She simply nodded.

“Alright! You heard her, Wash! Give her a ride and follow me.”

“First of all, she didn’t even say anything! Second-“ she complained only to realize it was a wasted effort, as the elder sibling jumped into the lake. “Sorry, she just never listens,” she told Zecora.

She followed suit, and the zebra was unsure what to make of it. Where were they even going? The orange-finned kelpie floated to the surface and she jumped on top of her, and they swam near one of the other wooden pipes, which was submerged underwater.

“Take a deep breath, this might take a little,” Wash told her passenger.

She inhaled and then they dived. The elder sibling entered the pipe, followed by the younger one. At a high speed, they traversed it, traveling upwards to wherever they were going, and after a few seconds they finally came out with a splash into a pool. The kelpie let go of the zebra, and the moment that happened she desperately tried to reach the ground with her hind legs to keep her head above the surface level.

“Not a swimmer, are you?” Wadi asked her.

Of course, she wasn’t. She’s never been in a huge body of water even once in her life; she didn’t know how to swim, and it took some nudging from the younger kelpie to the edge of the room, where there was a higher elevation so she could stand normally.

“Sorry,” Wash apologized.

Zecora looked around the place, now that she didn’t have to focus on survival. The area in which she ended up was a circular pool of water, while elsewhere there were strange pods under the surface that resembled beds, and on each of the far ends of the room was a watered tunnel, and open windows on her side. All around though, pedestals were sticking out on the surface, some holding colorful trinkets and other accessories while some had delectable treats, most of the things she had seen in the markets below.

“Neat, huh?” the little kelpie said. “This is what we get when the surface dwellers pay tribute to our mom for providing for them.”

Zecora didn’t have time to make a proper response as her breathing halted. No, not from the lack of it. As she was observing she looked out the window, realizing she was high in the air, overlooking the massive lake below. Everybody looked like ants and she spotted a swarm of them on the edge of the eastern bank, likely her tribesmen. She was inside the towering spire of the “water fountain” and she was somewhere near the top of it.

“This place… it’s beautiful,” she said.

“Yeah, but once you’ve lived here for as long as we have it becomes soooooo boring,” the elder kelpie complained.

“You’re joking, right?” She gave her a surprised look. “I wish we had that much water back home. Then my tribe wouldn’t have to walk all this way for two days.”

“Wait, your people don’t have their own water source?” Wash looked confusingly.

“Well, that’s not entirely true,” the zebra corrected. “Only when there's rain. The only other place is an oasis close to our village but… Fada told me that it must remain undisturbed, to not awaken a sinister force that lies underneath it.”

“Have you ever seen this “sinister force”?” Wadi asked.

“No, but fada always told me it’s there.”

“I see. And has your dad ever seen it?”

“Well… no, I don’t think so.”

“So how can you be sure that it’s real?”

“Because… fada said so?”

“I knew it. I think you’re putting way too much trust into what your dad’s saying, Zecora. For all we know, all that he’s telling you might just be superstition from those who came before him. Take it from me: They say our mom sees everything in her domain, but I’ve not been caught once slacking off. For all you know you could just get water from home and nobody would’ve noticed-”

“Wadi, stop that!” her sister intervened. “Stop trying to get others to rebel, it’s just going to lead them into trouble one of these days.”

“And you’re mama’s obedient little girl," she snapped back. "Just like fifty others of our sisters.”

“Wait… you’ve got fifty sisters?!” She looked around the room again at the bedding arrangement. “I thought you only had four?!”

“You don’t believe me?” Wadi raised an eyebrow. “Come, I’ll show you.”

The younger kelpie swam over to Zecora, allowing her to hop on her back so she wouldn’t struggle to move. They passed through one of the tunnels, moving in a clock-vise formation, and as they came out, they found themselves in another room in the same design as the last one, having four beds. The same happened as they went through the next tunnel, ending up in another room, and other subsequent rooms after it.

“And there’s more of them out there, beyond the borders of Farasi,” the orange-finned kelpie said.

“What?! How?” the zebra inquired.

“Mom had plenty of kids since she came here,” the red-finned one explained. “She has new ones every few dozen seasons.”

“But… that can’t be right, there’s no way there's this much room up here.”

“Well, most of them, when they’ve matured, decide to leave and return to the sea,” Wash elaborated, only for her sister to resume. “And I don’t blame them. Mom doesn’t let any one of us lie about as there are constant visitors that arrive in Carthage on daily basis, so instead of letting us do as we please, she has us pull the rafts to the city.”

“Ah…” Zecora let out a knowledgeable tone, “I see you’re one of those who can’t wait to leave either then.”

Wadi stopped. “And do what? Go to see more water? If that were the case I’d be long gone from here.” She swam over to one of the open windows. “I want something else… I want to see what lies beyond the wetlands we call home. I want to see what lies in the solid lands, what the world above has in store for us…”

“Well if that’s the case, why don’t-“ Zecora stopped herself, as the kelpie raised her back fins out of the water and waved it about, realizing she had no legs.

Suddenly, there was a splashing sound coming from another room, many even, and they were approaching. The two kelpies quickly stirred and panicked, looking for a place to hide Zecora. Soon, the elder kelpie grabbed her and swam to the other side of the room towards a pipe with a cover over it.

“Take a deep breath,” she advised her.

“Wadi, wait, that’s-!” Wash tried to warn her, but it was too late as the other kelpie opened the cover and pushed the zebra inside, after which she closed it and pretended as if nothing had happened, before promptly shoving her younger sibling underwater.

Not a moment later, a group of kelpies turned up from the other room, some of them looking more elderly than the rest. “Wadi? Wash? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on schedule?”

“Us? Oh, yes of course,” she tried to play innocent. “I and my little sister were just-“

Wash finally managed to let loose from her grip and thrust her head out, screaming in anger. “Wadi, what were you thinking?! You’ve just put her in the cargo distributer! It’ll take at least ten minutes for her to get to the lake!”

“Yeah, so what? I’m sure she can manage-“

“WADI, SHE’S NOT A KELPIE, SHE CAN’T BREATHE UNDERWATER FOR THAT LONG!!!”

The older sister quickly put her fins over her mouth to try and shut her up, but by that time it was already too late, as other kelpies already heard it. “Wadi, Wash… who did you bring up here?”

Meanwhile, inside the wooden pipe Zecora spun around and around. Yet no matter how much time passed, the end didn’t seem to come. She was beginning to run out of air, her consciousness slowly fading; there was no way for her out of this. All of a sudden, she felt the moisture disappear, feeling as if she was flying in the air, and then splashed into a body of water. She quickly pulled herself out, gasping for air. She found herself in the market district from earlier, in the small fountain at the heart of it. She noticed there were bits and pieces of wood all around, but also of rock, and that’s when she noticed that one of the nearby pillars supporting the wooden pipe had collapsed, liberating her from certain doom. People all around her were staring, whispering to one another. Suddenly, dark clouds obscured the sun, and from a large opening that stood between the pair of stairs, water began to rush, and then a large mass spilled forth, landing near the fountain. The deep blue body pulled itself to its full height, and it towered over everybody. Queen Watami stood before them all, with an eerie atmosphere around her, and everybody present bowed in her presence.

She looked at the broken stone structure and destroyed wooden pipe and in front of her, a little zebra, barely recovering from a near-death experience. “Child,” her voice echoed all around, “why were you in there? How did you destroy our transportation system?”

She didn’t answer, either because she hasn’t fully recovered, or because of fear seeping in from her presence.

“Zecora!” another voice called out of the crowd, an elder zebra rushed forth to where the soaked one was, to check up on her. “Zecora, are you alright? Nothing that had sapped your might?”

“High Shaman,” the kelpie queen addressed him, “this is your filly? She was inside the pipe that was there to transport objects from our sanctuary below. And on top of that, the pipeline was destroyed in the process. And if she’s responsible for violating the rule that nobody but kelpies are allowed to enter our inner sanctum, as well as destroying the city’s infrastructure… then she must be punished.” The sound of thunder echoed after saying those words as if her wrath had manifested.

The father looked to his filly. “Zecora, what is the meaning of this? Explain yourself, this problem I cannot dismiss!”

Zecora wanted to speak, but she remembered she made a promise not to tell anyone. Even so, the atmosphere continued to grow darker in the presence of the kelpie queen.

After some time had passed, her father didn’t manage to get a word out of her, Watami stretched out one of her long fins and slowly reached for the little zebra. “I had expected you to have raised your daughter better, High Shaman…”

“MOTHER STOP!”

She froze, turning in the direction of the voice. From the side of the market, more kelpies emerged, and one of the big elder ones was first to speak. “We were the ones who destroyed it, mother. It was the only way to save the surface dweller child.”

She regarded them. “You were? And how did she end up inside in the first place?”

They moved aside, revealing two smaller ones, one bigger than the other.

“Wadi? Wash? What’s happened?” their mother inquired.

They didn’t say anything, they just stood still.

One of them, however, was trembling, and then she bent forward, holding herself up on her fins, and lowering her head. “IT’S OUR FAULT, MOM!” Wash started crying. “Wadi crashed into her at the lake access and she wanted to show her inside and I carried her upstream to the sanctuary, and then she shoved her into the cargo line when we heard others coming! We’re sorry, just please don’t hurt Zecora!”

“Tattletale…” her older sister mumbled between her clenched teeth.

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, you two,” the queen said, before turning her gaze back to the two zebras. “As for you…”

She raised her fins and reached for the ground, causing the little zebra to cower in fear.

THUD!

Quiet followed as nothing had happened for a while. The little zebra opened her eyes, seeing the dumbfounded expression on everybody’s faces present, and as she turned her head she understood why. The kelpie queen propped herself with her fins, bending forward in the same manner her daughter did, bowing her head.

“Please, forgive this old fish for jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst of you and your child, High Shaman.”

Soon the storm clouds began to part, mother's own wrath subsiding. Other kelpies pushed the smaller ones forth to their mother’s side, where they proceeded to bow their heads, or at least one did, as the other one was resistant and needed a prod, before reluctantly doing it.

Finally, Watami rose. “We will fix the damage that was done, High Shaman. There’s no need for you to wait about. You’re both free to leave.” Her head turned to the side, to her daughters. “We’ll have a talk about this.”

And with those words, the queen crawled back into the hole from whence she came and disappeared out of sight, while the younger kelpies with shamed looks followed, the younger one looking back in sorrow at the zebra before she disappeared.

Father and daughter were left all alone now, as the crowd dispersed and some of the creatures started removing the rubble.

He rose. “Let's make our return. The others should have gathered enough in turn.”

She quickly picked herself up and followed him back to the rafts, but something was bothering her. “Fada, please, I have to know. Did you think I was guilty… without proof to show?

The high shaman smiled. “If I thought you were to blame, did you not think before the queen you’d feel my wrath and shame?

Zecora finished relating her tale, carefully watching the little filly’s expression throughout, and after what she had told, the look on her face showed awe but also something else. “A mother's wrath can be great, ‘tis true, her drive to protect what she loves and make the wrongdoers rue. But once the urge had subsided, regret and shame is something she could not have abided. So now that you’ve heard my tale grand, is it easy for you to understand?”

The little filly slowly nodded.

“If you’ve gotten the point of it, do you believe your mother is somepony you could remit?”

Back in the throne room, with all the Elements of Harmony now present, explanations went flying back and forth from both fronts. And while they were finally familiar with the fate of the two unfortunate souls up north, as well as the events that shook the empire to its core, there was still a question about what to do with the leftovers.

“Princess Twilight, are you sure this is a good idea?” Flash Sentry asked.

“I’m positive,” she answered. “We’ve had to clean up changelings back when they infiltrated Canterlot. Best we can do is send them over to Thorax and others so they can be reformed and deny Queen Chrysalis numbers, although I’m not sure that’s gonna do much.”

“It’s still the best decision,” the older alicorn reassured her. “Teaching these new changelings about an alternative to devouring love will do a great more good than-“

The door clanked, pulling everybody’s attention. The shaman finally returned with her saddlebags and slowly approached the throne.

“There ya are, Zecora,” Applejack said. “Took ya a while. Ya got somepony cured at last?”

“That I cannot tell, as first, we will have to see if the reception will be handled well,” the zebra answered and then slowly stepped to the side.

A deathly silence fell, as hiding behind Zecora was the little curly-maned alicorn filly. The moment she came in sight, a gasp could be heard echoing throughout the room, and they all saw Cadence quickly shift, turning away from her child she could not face.

“Zecora, what are you-!” Twilight spoke out at the awkward situation the shaman had just set up, only for her to raise her hoof and shush her.

In the tense atmosphere that had just developed they all watched, as Flurry Heart trot up the stairs to where her mother sat, still unable to look at her in shame. She stopped and reached with her tiny hoof, pressing it on her side, and she flinched in fear of what would follow.

And then, the tiny soft voice spoke. “Mommy… I’m not angry at you.”

Her eyes shot open. She must’ve misheard it. There was no way that voice came from her, not after what she had done. She looked down, past her frazzled mane, and saw a tiny little alicorn filly reaching out at her… with an innocent gentle smile. She couldn’t believe it. After what’s she’s done, the thought that the relationship between her and her child would be forever scarred, had pushed her into despair, and yet she was here, acting as if it was all in the past…

She trembled uncontrollably, and little by little the burden came flooding out, as she reached out, scooping the little filly into her hooves, and hugging her. “I’M SORRY, FLURRY HEART… I’M SORRY…!!!” she cried at the top of her lungs.

And as the atmosphere changed, so too did the state of everybody present, as Twilight was moved to tears, she went in to hug both her sister-in-law and niece and one after another, the rest of the Elements followed to share in comfort. Seeing everybody preoccupied, to not spoil a tender moment, the shaman waved at the captain of the guard; she slowly backed away while he flew to the door, and they exited the room, making sure not to be heard.

Chapter 44: Breaking the Storm

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Chapter 45: New Beginnings

The blistering sun shined high in the skies, as a breeze blew through his tiny hands.

My son… on the day you were born, the winds of Nether Lands carried your name across our barren kingdom…

The image of his hands holding a strange materialized energy emerged.

I watched you when you awakened a gift that was rare to your kind.

He walked to the end of the balcony, looking upon the vast reaches of the desolate wasteland below.

And I am certain, that when the time finally comes, you will use your power for the greater good of our kingdom.

The light in the throne room was dim, its source coming from the setting sun as a large quadruped figure towered over him.

Unworthy. He is unworthy to sit upon my throne.

Shackles. His arms were locked in chains. Before him stood a pair of tall radiant equine figures, and beside them, a sulking lowly creature.

Lord Tirek! For the crime of conspiring against Equestria, by our sovereign right, we hereby sentence you to ETERNITY in the depths of Tartarus!

He wandered through the dark streets. He was hungry, he needed to quench his thirst for magic. Seeing an unsuspecting little pony, he reached out for him, and then he turned, revealing a familiar smug face.

Tirek, I presume?

Power. He felt unimaginable power coursing through his body. He used it, yet his enemy wouldn’t fall.

I may have given you my Alicorn magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!

Gone. He felt incredible power not a moment ago and it was gone. And now, the two tall radiant mares and a patchwork of parts stood before him, when he was at his weakest.

There isn't a punishment worthy of all you've done!

May I help? Please?

He was losing the feeling in his body and could do nothing but cringe, the darkness took him… and then, a green light flashed before his eyes.

“Welcome back to the waking world, Lord Tirek.”

That echoing voice… he recognized it, but couldn’t see the form that was making it, as his eyes had not yet adjusted. But after a moment, the dim light finally made the shapes visible.

“What is this decrepit old half-horse mutant supposed to be?”

Another voice spoke, though this one was unknown to him.

“Weren’t you paying attention, rug rat? It’s a centaur.”

That voice… he’s heard it before, but the first thing that came to him was deceit. His sight finally cleared and three figures stood before him: The first one was familiar to him, although she looked different somehow, and the second was unknown to him as it looked like an inanimate object that has come to life, however, when his eyes finally set on the third figure present…

“DISCORD!” he yelled, as his legs scrambled, trying to back up and rise at the same time, after seeing an elderly ram, failing badly.

The memory was still fresh, of the draconequus who had freed him from eternal imprisonment in order to act as a pawn in his game, under the guise of one of the darkest beings in Equestria's history; he and his cohorts stripped him of the illusion, revealing the truth – there was no real Father of Monsters, it was all a lie. And now he was in front of him again, posing as that same lie once more. He was drained of strength, but he certainly wouldn't go down without a fight, not like last time. He desperately tried to summon what little magic he had, yet the moment it was about to materialize, it dispersed. He tried again, and the same thing repeated.

“Do not waste your energy, Lord Tirek,” the Changeling Queen answered. “In my domain, anyone else’s magic will be nullified.”

The centaur’s gaze turned to his former comrade. “Chrysalis, what is the meaning of this?! Why have you sided with that filthy backstabbing Lord of Chaos?! And what’s with the giant walking paperweight?!”

He would regret those words. The construct reached for him and grabbed him by his scrawny neck, lifting him off the ground, and up to his face.

“Listen here, you cringing wildebeest! I’m the St-!” he stopped, rethinking his words, speaking them through gritted teeth. “I’m the Scourgelord! I dunno what special powers you’re supposed to possess to warrant releasing you from petrification, but in here I outrank you by a mile, so you better watch your tone, or things are gonna get ugly, capiche?!”

He tried desperately to get loose from his grip but it was a fool’s struggle; he was simply too weak and literal rocks were crushing his larynx.

“Rug rat,” the familiar voice came from the blue ram, “let the boy go. He’ll be of no use if you crush him.”

The stone made a grunting sound and opened his hand, releasing the centaur, making him drop to the ground. Soon though he felt the ground under his hooves vanish, as a green aura enveloped him, levitating him over to the caster.

“Do try to make nice, Lord Tirek,” the Queen of Changelings said in a rather patronizing tone. “The tall and shiny over there, as he said already, is formerly known as the Storm King. And the other… well, I think you’re already familiar with Grogar from second-hand experience.”

He gave her a confused look. “Wait… you’re telling me he’s the real deal? Not Discord in disguise? How? And why are you following him?”

She shook her head. “I’m not. We’re all working on the equal level here… on demand.”

“What?! On whose demand?!”

“Well… THEIRS,” she said and turned him around.

The moment of aggravated anger quickly subsided. Tirek looked upon the strange abominations that towered over him next to the giant foreboding tree, their dark forms rising out of the strange green glowing pond. One had teal eyes, with icy spray seeping out of its barely closed jaw, while the other taller one, had multiple yellow eyes lining up down its face. There was an unsettling dread radiating from them.

“Chrysalis… what have you dragged us into?”

“Captain!” one of the unicorn royal guards called out.

Through the hallways of the Crystal Castle, workers were going about, trying to work diligently to fix the damage that was done the other day. Past them, the shaman and the pegasus guard leader walked, as they excused themselves from the rebounding jubilation. That’s when a member of the unit arrived and saluted.

“Report,” Flash Sentry said.

“We’ve managed to round up and pacify the changelings that have been left behind in the city. What do we do with them?”

“By Her Majesty’s order they’re to be delivered to the Changeling Kingdom and be left in King Thorax’s care,” he commanded. “Anything else?”

“There’s another thing, captain,” he continued. “While we were dealing with the changelings that Mistmane was able to pacify we… came across a problem.”

“What do you mean "a problem"?” the pegasus wondered.

A pair of unicorns turned up in the hallway behind the reporting guard, pulling with them a giant bag, dragging it all over the floor.

“Why are you pulling this with you? The castle is in need of repair, don’t make things worse for repairponies, just use magic to carry it,” he said.

“That’s the thing, captain. We can’t…”

Flash gave him a confused look, then approached the bag. He opened it and inside found dark, spikey, yet familiar-looking armor. He grabbed hold of one and tried to lift it, only for him to collapse under its weight.

“Need some help?”

The voice came from behind them. The Elements of Harmony, accompanied by Princess Cadence with Flurry Heart sitting on her back, have finally left the throne room and made their way in the same direction it seemed. Twilight Sparkle was at the front of them, and she started to focus her magic, its aura trailing in Flash’s direction and then… it dispersed. She was confused, unsure of what’s happened. She tried again, and once more the spell just vanished.

“What’s going on?” the smaller alicorn wondered. “Why is my magic vanishing?”

“It’s the armor, Princess Twilight,” one of the guards answered. “The changelings that were protecting the stolen Crystal Heart wore it. We had to remove it from each of them individually because our magic was being nullified by it.”

The guards proceeded to remove the weight off of their captain, after which the Element of Magic went to inspect it further.

“We saw them, Twilight,” the blue pegasus concurred. “We were there with Mistmane when we went to liberate the Crystal Heart. They all wore it, so that’s likely what was hampering it. But I didn’t think it was this heavy.”

“And that’s just one piece,” the workhorse added as she weighted it. “If an ordinary pony has difficulty wearing this, how strong do then these new changelings have to be to wear this metal in flight…”

The alicorn banged her hoof against the armor, and it quickly put her off. “I don’t think this is even metal, Applejack. It’s rock!”

“Rock?!” they all reacted in unison.

“Well, this certainly sounds very familiar,” the former Lord of Chaos said, as he was poking his head out of the fanny pack around the shy pegasus. “Changelings and a rock that can negate magic? I don’t see that as a coincidence.”

“We can’t be sure of anything yet,” Twilight said. “We need to examine this before we can determine what it is.”

“Uh uh uh! I know what to do!” The party planner hopped. “We’ve got a rock expert right here! Come on, everypony!” She grabbed onto the ropes holding the giant bag in an attempt to drag them along, only for the immovable object to make her flop on the back. “A little help here?”

They made their way back to the room that was used as an infirmary, where the two childhood friends and the couple were still present, the former talking, while with the latter, the mare was still looking over her sleeping stallion. The expert was given a request on the matter of identifying what this strange substance was, but alas…

“I have no idea what this is,” she calmly said.

“What?!” her younger sister yelped. “But Maud, you’re the expert here! You’ve never had problems identifying rocks!”

“This is the first time I’ve seen this type of rock, Pinkie,” the deadpan mare said.

“But Maud, surely it’s got to be related to something,” Twilight argued. “What about obsidian? The Storm King’s body was made of it, and the fact that he’s working alongside Queen Chrysalis it can only point to it.”

“It’s not obsidian,” she refuted in a monotone voice. “It possesses several characteristics that are closer to pumice, but it’s not; it’s too heavy, and it’s not supposed to have magical properties.”

“So I am right,” Discord said. “It can’t be a coincidence, considering what happened a few days ago while you were away from the castle, Twilight. Whatever is warding off the Everfree Forest from being affected by magic now, must also be the same thing that this changeling armor is made off.”

“But even so, Discord, if this rock is the same as the one that Chrysalis had in the Changeling Kingdom, we still don’t know how did she manage to acquire it,” Rarity pointed at the issue. “It was destroyed, and its fragments were used to isolate the Canterlot’s castle from being able to teleport inside.”

“Great…” Applejack sighed. “Seems like the more we uncover, we’re only given more unanswered questions in turn.”

“I suppose we’ve no other choice but to do some research,” Twilight said. “Luckily, there’s a wise old unicorn and a smart headmare that are waiting for us back in Ponyville. They can assist us with that.” She opened her hooves, awaiting the deadpan mare to hand her back the black stone armor, remembering too late how strong Maud actually was as she was holding it with ease, leaving her crushed under the rock’s weight once she handed it to her. “Help…”

The country pony and the party planner assisted in taking the heavy weight off their friend and moved it back to where the full sack was. As they stuffed it inside though, something fell off from the top, as it seemed another much smaller bag was sitting on it previously.

“Huh, what’s this?” Pinkie Pie reached for it.

“That saddlebag was found among the rubble by the cleaning crew,” one of the guards spoke. “We’ve no idea who it belongs to.”

The pink pony, however, turned it about and found one telling sight: a picture of a stick, stuck in the mud. “Hey! Mudbriar, this is your bag!” she said, and the aforementioned stallion shifted in bed.

She opened it and started pulling things out. “You got lucky. With all that’s happened none of the things you got for the party got crushed. Let’s see, we got crystal chalices, we got crystal chocolate hearts, crystal sticks, crystal rocks, crystal crystals, and… Hold on, what’s this?” She pulled out a small box that was stashed among all the things and quickly opened it, her eyes widening as a luster shined from the contents inside. “Oooooooooooh, shiny.”

The fashionista approached her. “Now you got me curious, Pinkie. Not often do you make such statements and pull a face like that unless it’s something really-“ She froze as the gazed inside the box, her eyes expanding just like the party planner. “It’s… Pinkie, it’s absolutely dazzling.” Soon curiosity got to the other mares present and they tried to see inside themselves. “For whoever this masterpiece of a craft is, must be one very lucky pony.”

Mudbriar started to wake up, slowly looking about the room, noticing his significant other by his side, and not far from his bed, her sister and her friends, looking at… His eyes shot open and he grimaced when he saw them handling the box.

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” he yelled and leaped out of bed at them.

In shock, Pinkie Pie raised her hooves, and the box she was holding flew into the air. They all watched with a grim expression as it slowly descended, fearing that whatever was inside will break if nothing was done to stop it. Twilight quickly reacted, using her magic to stop the box in midair… upside down, causing the contents of the box to fall out of it, and landed straight in Maud’s hoof that she stretched out at the last moment. A collective sigh followed, seeing that the crisis was averted, but the tall lanky stallion didn’t share that thought, in fact, he was making even more of a grimace, in the direction of his mare.

Maud looked closely at what she was holding: It was a flower, unlike any she had seen before, as its center was made of a pink gemstone, its vitreous luster shining brightly while surrounding it were numerous small triangular gems that were connected to form petals.

“Maud, I’ve never seen a flower like this before,” Pinkie commented.

“It’s not an actual flower, Pinkie,” she bluntly stated. “It’s a pink sapphire with pink tourmaline, all of them interconnected to form an imitation of fauna.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a rare natural occurrence, Maud,” Rarity added.

“It’s not natural. Whatever this is, it was likely made by the use of magic. There’s a theme behind it though – both of these two minerals… symbolize love.”

A surprised gasp could be heard after what was said, but they missed where it came from. Flurry Heart knew, after all, she was right on top of the head of the one who did it. Cadence suddenly connected the dots: Days ago, when she went to visit Mistmane, she saw her talking to a young stallion who apparently asked her to craft a special jewel for him, and then the elder mare told her that she should’ve done the delivery because she was the Princess of Love. She knew now who the mysterious pony was.

The stick-in-a-mud stallion sighed. “Well, there goes the main event.” He reached for the saddlebags that were lying nearby and pulled out a long scroll. "I have prepared a speech to commemorate the occasion and have it led into the following part..." He then crumbled the paper and threw it away. "But since the cat is already out of the proverbial bag at this point, I'll just go straight to the point."

He reached for the gem flower that his chosen mare was holding and took it in his hooves, before presenting it to her. "Maudileena Daisy Pie... would you give me the honor of joining me in the sacred matrimony?"

And then, deathly silence followed, not a peep could be heard, as not a single person present dared to interfere in the tense atmosphere, except for one…

"Applejack,” the pink earth pony whispered into her ear. “What did he just say?"

She whispered back. "He just asked Maud to marry him."

Quickly, the party planner clamped her mouth shut, desperately holding on to her breath, so she would not burst from excitement. The deathly silence continued, and they all watched as the rock mare was just sitting there, looking at the gift being offered to her, while her opposite also sat immovable on his bed.

Then Maud’s mouth slowly began to move, a word finally coming out. “No…”

All of a sudden, when the word was heard, Pinkie let out a loud prolonged gasp that grabbed everybody's attention, as she couldn’t believe what had just happened.

"Pinkie,” her older sister spoke, “I'm not done yet."

And just as quickly as it came, Pinkie Pie clamped her mouth shut again, trying to hold it in.

The rock mare faced her stallion again. "No one... has gone to all this trouble for my sake. You got me this rock… and I'll roll with you until our final days."

With those words, Maud jumped off her chair, walked over to Mudbriar, and pressed herself against his neck, rubbing her head under his chin.

At first, none of them were sure whether or not she actually said yes or no, but a few moments passed and the realization finally came to them what the answer was. Suddenly, a tremor followed. No, it wasn’t an earthquake, in fact, it was nearby. It didn’t take them long to spot the Element of Laughter shaking uncontrollably, the excitement going way over what she could contain, and it was about to be unleashed.

“Everypony hit the deck!” Fluttershy screamed. “She’s gonna blow!”

But it was already too late. Outside on the city’s streets, ponies were going about, still clearing up the rubble from the day before, although the physical damage wasn’t as bad as the mental one that the residents had to suffer from being under the influence of the umbrum. What followed, however, was something completely else. It started off as a high-pitched noise that only those near the castle could hear, yet by the second it kept growing louder, so much that by the end, the whole of Crystal Empire was aware of it, but its residents were baffled by what it was.

"MY SISTER'S GETTING HITCHED!!!" Pinkie Pie squealed, lept into bed, on top of the couple, and squeezed them both in her embrace. “I’m so happy for your both! When will the event take place?! I could handle the planning for the after-wedding party!”

“Technically,” Mudbriar interrupted her, “this was just a proposal. The announcement must still be delivered to your parents and see whether or not they will accept it.”

“And we still have to pass the Choosing Stone,” Maud's monotone voice interjected. “Nothing’s set in stone yet, Pinkie.”

“Who cares!” she yelled. “You’re both gonna pass with flying colors! Oh! I’ll help you fill out the invitations!” She pulled out a tablet and grabbed a pencil with the tip of her puffy hair. “Let’s see: We’ve got the Apple family, Rarity’s family, Twilight’s family, Rainbow’s family, Starlight and her dad, Sunburst and his mom-!”

“Pinkie.”

This time the voice came from the rest of the group, and the party planner quickly got the gist to let it go. “You know… maybe later then.” She tossed it all to the side. “I guess we’re kind of on the clock what with the whole “world-ending scenario” happening right now. Oh! That also reminds me, girls, when’s the next train back to Ponyville leaving?”

The train was waiting at the station on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. It was going to be departure time soon, and with what happened the other day the conductor didn’t expect things have improved, especially with the strange sound that he heard coming from the city not long ago. He was about to blow his whistle when he spotted shapes coming from over the hill, and a few moments later they became discernable.

“Hold the train!” he called. “The princess is coming!”

Twilight and her group, accompanied by Cadence with Flurry Heart riding on her head, Tempest Shadow, and a pair of crystal guards along with their captain, pulling a large bag with them, was fast approaching. The latter unloaded the cargo onto the train cart, while the passengers went to say their goodbyes.

“You want us to keep you up to date?” Fluttershy wondered by the broken unicorn’s request.

“Yes. I’m gonna stay here for now and help fix the mess. But when you get the idea where the Storm King’s gonna strike again, I need you to notify me, and I’ll come running.”

“Tempest darling, there’s really no need for you to frustrate yourself with it,” the fashionista interjected. “If something happens I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it. You don’t need to burden yourself.”

“No, Rarity,” Tempest refused, “he was right by what he said. I was the one who brought him to Equestria in the first place. When he was destroyed I still wanted to make up for all the bad things I did in his name. Now he’s back, and if he ever tries to fulfill his promise for a change… I have to finish what I started, only then will my consciousness be clear.”

“We’ll let you know if something happens, Tempest,” Applejack said.

Tempest nodded before the party planner squeezed her in an embrace. “Goodbye, Fizzy! We’re gonna miss you!”

“Pinkie… that’s too close… literally and figuratively…” the purple unicorn struggled to talk before she was finally let go.

Meanwhile, the Crystal Princess and her in-law had their own way of seeing each other off.

“We didn’t have the chance when you first got here Twilight, considering how serious things were. Sooooo…” Cadence said before both she and Twilight started prancing.

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!

Laughter followed, including from the little curly ball that sat on her mother's head before she got picked up and the purple alicorn smothered her with kisses.

“Be good, Flurry Heart, okay?” she said to her little niece

“Okay, Aunt Twily!" the little filly happily said as she was nestled back on top of her taller alicorn's head.

“Bye-bye!” the mares said in unison as they all boarded the train, however…

“Zecora,” Cadence said just before the zebra stepped on the train. “Can you come over for a moment?”

The shaman was unsure what the Princess of the Crystal Empire could possibly want from her at this point. As she turned and approached the much taller equine, the moment she got within the hooves range, she extended them, pulling her into a hug, leaving her confused.

“I’m sorry… There are no words big enough for me to express my gratitude for what you did for me and Flurry Heart but… Thank you.”

She smiled. “‘To see a patient well, a dutiful healer all manner of disease must quell. It’s up to them, however, to ensure they’re cured with personal endeavor.”

“Even so, without you being there-“ Cadence said before her filly interrupted her. “Will you visit again, Miss Kora?”

“Perhaps, if the circumstances are willing-”

Suddenly the train conductor blew his whistle. “The train for Canterlot is departing now!”

“Zecora, come on!” Rainbow Dash popped her head through the door.

“But for now, I must say my bidding,” she finished her rhyme, then stepped on the train.

“Your work will never not be welcome, Zecora,” the alicorn said one last time, as she and her child waved goodbye.

“Your acknowledgment I appreciate…” the zebra said with a smile as she bowed, yet as the train doors closed shut, the tone in her voice turned somber, “… though I wish my doubts I could alleviate…”

The train started moving, and through the window, the Elements of Harmony waved the two alicorns and their entourage goodbye, disappearing into the distance.

“Are you serious…?” Tirek questioned.

His former companion had just finished relating to him the tale of her escape, of her empowerment, the return of the Father of Monsters and the Storm King, boasting of the magnificent power they had obtained in the progress.

“How can I know that you’re on the level?”

She gave the centaur a frown. “Really? Look around you and tell me what you think is more likely?”

The answer was pretty much staring him in the face, not just the three figures before him, but also the two giant towering manifestations of darkness. “Okay, let’s say that I trust what I’m seeing, but what’s the catch?”

“If you get the power that you desire, do you even care?” the living obsidian construct next to him asked.

The centaur pondered for a moment. “No, I suppose not.”

“So, are you in then?” the Queen of Changelings asked.

“And what other option do I have? If I decide to leave, with the whole of Equestria on high alert thanks to the ruckus you’ve caused, the only thing that’s gonna happen is getting turned back into a lawn ornament. Of course, I’m in! I want my strength back!”

She smiled and turned to the weaselly vapor that floated next to her. “See, Doubt? It wasn’t so hard to convince him.”

“Chrysalis, who are you talking to?” the centaur lord inquired.

She realized that he couldn’t see the manifestation. After all, he hadn’t been touched by Turmoil’s essence.

“Never mind. You’ll see eventually who I’m talking to.”

“Are you sure that power hadn’t just gone to your head?” he made a quip.

She quickly picked up on it. “Don’t test your luck, “Lord” Tirek. You should think twice before making snide remarks in the heart of the Changeling Queen’s domain, where you’re powerless.”

“True… I can’t use magic, but that doesn’t mean I can’t absorb it. And I feel famished.” He rubbed his belly. “I haven’t eaten anything in more than three years. I could go for a feast right now, and I can sense powerful magic radiating out of you. And it feels…” He licked his lips. “Tasty…”

Her horn suddenly lit up and she slowly traipsed in his direction. “I dare you to try…”

Despite his weakened state, the centaur lord tauntingly waved his hands, signaling her to come closer. The situation was growing tense, and in the middle of it all, the satyr started jumping up and down, making loud noises.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” he screamed.

THUD!

The Queen of Changelings stopped her advance at the sudden sound, a leg’s reach away from the scheming centaur. That stomp, she knew to whom it belonged. The grizzled ram stood there, with a rather displeased look on his face, almost as if he was trying to signal that time is being wasted on petty childish grievances.

She looked back at Tirek and then promptly rose her nose at him with a humph, before walking away. “You’re not worth it.”

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!” the centaur started to rage. “Get back here right now and-!”

“Be quiet, boy,” Grogar said as Chrysalis passed him. “We haven’t the time to listen to your temper tantrums because you haven’t got any toys.” He looked at the satyr. “Rug rat, bring him over.”

“Listen here, you! Don’t call me a-!”

He wouldn’t able to finish his sentence, as the Pillar of Fear grabbed the centaur around his equine abdomen and lifted him off the ground with one arm. “Consider yourself lucky, cringing wildebeest. You got promoted to a kid, meanwhile, I’m still locked on an infant status!”

“Hey, put me down!” he complained as he was carried towards the tree. “I’m not gonna be treated like a-!”

Once more he was cut off, as a strip of sickly green magic flew in his direction and shut his mouth, reducing him to mumbling.

“I swear, I’ll have to use this more often if he’s gonna be moody like this,” the Queen of Changelings said as her horn stopped glowing, before turning her attention to the pool where the benefactors loomed. “What needs to be done?”

The manifestations of Hatred and Fear dipped their hands into the green pool and raised it together, creating a small platform made of green substance. It began to morph, changing shape to resemble to lay of the land, and in the middle of it, a twisted form that resembled the Tree of Turmoil arose.

With everybody now present before the map that was formed, Doubt proceeded. “A long time ago, after the Sundering took place, Turmoil’s broken form was hidden away from the eyes of the waking world, while its fragments were scattered in the process, trapped in the accessories that the one who broke it wore. I alone managed to preserve my own existence by severing myself from Turmoil, but in doing so I’ve also resigned myself to the weakest possible form. I have no grasp over the material world, but at the same time, I was no longer restrained by it. I already knew that the unicorn wizard had taken Hatred with him, but the others were scattered across the world.” It flew to the point of the map that showed the western shores of Equestria. “I had trailed one of them westward but by the time I reached the open seas I could no longer sense it… meaning something had already suppressed it.” It then flew to the mountainous north. “Then I traveled north, where I could still feel Fear’s presence, but then, I felt it vanishing, as it split itself into fragments that were then locked away under the Crystal Empire… save one.” It finally flew east, off the coast of Equestria and into the landmass opposite of it, south of another that was close by. “But this one… This one I could still feel for a long time at a fixed location. Its presence BURNED like a thousand suns, unending, unquenching… until it suddenly went cold and quiet. And that is the next fragment that we must retrieve, but first, we must find out what’s become of it.”

The grizzled ram stepped forth and looked at the map up close. “The Griffon Kingdom.”

“What?” Chrysalis looked at him, confused.

“I’ve dealt with their kind before,” he answered. “They’re as greedy as they are tenacious. When my creations pushed them out of the mainland, they then tried to cross the sea to the east, to the territory they lived in. It was a war of attrition that was simply wasting too many resources than it was worth. I would’ve dealt with them eventually if I had space for ground support to knock them out of the sky, but that wasn’t going to happen soon, so I decided to work my way westward instead. If we’re planning to assault this world power, nothing short of an army will do.”

Chrysalis was still giving him the look of confusion, before finally speaking. “Grogar, those are the Dragon Lands, not the Griffin Kingdom. I think we’re more at risk of getting burned alive there than getting clawed by a bunch of bird-cat hybrids. And besides, even if that were the case, I don’t think the griffins could possibly pose any danger, considering how fractured they’ve been ever since the arimaspi stole that sacred idol of theirs.”

The satyr bent over the map, with the gagged centaur still in his grip. “So what? We go over to the dragons and look for a needle in a hay-“

“Wait…” the Father of Monsters cut him off, before turning his head at the Pillar of Hatred. “What did you just say?”

“That the griffins lost their idol?”

“No. That name you used.”

“The arimaspi?”

The old ram went quiet for a moment, wandering away from the group. “After all this time… that he had actually survived…”

“No, I don’t think he did,” she answered. “As far as it’s known, the arimaspi fell to his doom along with the idol he stole.”

“Hey, Freckles,” the Scourgelord tried to grab her attention. “What’s an arimaspi?”

She gave him an annoyed look, and with a flash of green she shapeshifted. A grinding sound escaped the construct’s jaw, trying to simulate a gulping sound, as a creature towered over him, resembling a grey goat, with a stocky torso and with opposable hands, its back and arms were covered in thick hair, all the way to its head, and a single giant orange-yellow eye with a horizontal slit sat in the middle of its face, its body adorned with accessories made from gold.

Afterward, she changed back to normal in a flash. “Does that answer your question?”

“Ooooooooh,” he responded. “That explains what those weird goat people were when I saw them all those years ago.”

“Wait… you’ve seen MORE of them?!” the sorcerer raised his voice.

“Errrr…. yeah?”

Silence followed again, the ram’s pondering was noticeable to all. “To think… that he had sired offspring… I didn’t think it was possible…”

The two Pillars looked at each other. “Grogar, you’re acting really weird,” the first one said before the second one resumed. “Yeah, you’re acting like a dad that’s just discovered that he’s become a grandpa.”

The ram grumbled. “I will suffer that jab... only because it isn't far from the truth…” He finally faced them again. “The arimaspi is one of my creations… my FIRST creation. And I have endowed him with gifts that separate him from my other works. He is… was, my eyes and ears, an agent of my will; where he went, I was there.” He sighed. “It is unfortunate that his eyes can’t be put to use.”

“Eyes?” Chrysalis tilted her head. “Last I checked an arimaspi has AN eye, not more.”

“That’s not entirely true, Queen of Changelings,” he answered. “Before he became what I made him, he had a set like any other being. It was a price he had to pay in exchange for uplifting him, something he did gladly. Infused with magic, his eyes were given a rare and unique ability – they’re connected, being able to see into the realms beyond, and to see, divine even, magical energies and artifacts that would be difficult to find otherwise.”

“If such a thing even exists, I would’ve likely found it by now,” the satyr said. “Either that or it looks so weird that it can’t be recognized.”

“It looks as what it is, rug rat: It’s literally his eye – the Eye of Arimaspi.”

Suddenly, the centaur under the satyr’s arms started to mumble loudly under the magical restraint, so much that it was becoming annoying. Grogar looked at Chrysalis and nodded to her to make him stop. She groaned, knowing how much screeching will likely follow.

“YOUCH!” he screamed as the magical strip came off his mouth. “You just did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Quit whining, boy,” the grizzled ram asserted himself. “Now tell me what you wanted to say.”

“Not to you, Grogar, to her,” he motioned to the Queen of Changelings before turning to her. “Doesn’t that sound like that weird goat eye-looking orb that Discord was using while he was posing as him?”

The cavern was left quiet. She didn’t say anything, she was too preoccupied with looking nervously at the elder ram, whose gaze kept slowly shifting between her and the centaur.

“Wisp,” he finally spoke again, his voice calm, “I believe we are ready to depart. However, we will be taking a slight detour on the way to our destination. I assume that won’t be an issue?”

“Huh?” The young lord gave him a confused look. “Who are you talking to? Are you off the deep end just like Chrysalis over there?” The old sorcerer ignored him.

The weaselly shade glanced at the towering monstrosities that held up the map, before looking back at the group. “No.”

At the drop of the word, the Manifestations of Hatred and Fear collapsed, sinking back into the lake, leaving nothing but quiet behind. Doubt flew off in the direction of a tunnel, with Grogar following it, along with the Changeling Queen.

“Come on, cringing wildebeest. Time to get to work,” the construct said as he carried the centaur with them.

“I’m a CENTAUR, you dimwitted piled of pebbles!” he yelled at him.

“I told you already, I’m the St-!” he stopped himself again, forcing the word through gritted teeth. “Scourgelord. And I don’t need to listen to another frail old grandpa. I already have to deal with one.”

“Rug rat.” The satyr froze on the spot after hearing Grogar addressing him in a calm tone. “Put the boy down. Let him carry his own yoke.”

He glanced at Tirek, and opened his arms, dropping the centaur to the ground. “Fine by me,” he said in a jovial tone and then happily marched forward.

“Hey,” the frail half equine said as he barely picked himself up, “wait for me!” And he slowly limped after them.

They came outside on a mountain ledge. From it, they could see all of the Everfree Forest and a small settlement in the distance, and a castle nestled in the mountainside even further away. The Rambling Rock Ridge was bountiful in rare gemstones, and as such, home to Diamond Dogs, but it seemed that the newborn changelings had made sure that they would be kept away when they dug out the tunnel. However, the only path down was a very narrow one that was leading by the side to the ledge they had just come out on. They lined up, with the weaselly vapor flying ahead, the ram sorcerer leading the way, the Queen of Changelings simply flew, while at the back, the centaur and the satyr clashed.

“I’m going first, glazed pebble,” Tirek said as he got ahead of him.

“For the third time, cringing wildebeest, I’m the St-!” he stopped himself once more, trying to force the word through gritted teeth, but couldn’t. “No! No, I’m sorry, I just…! I just can’t, okay?!”

The group stopped. “Now what’s eating you?” Queen Chrysalis gave him an annoyed look.

“What’s eating me?! I’d be happy if I’d even be able to eat!” the satyr responded. “I can’t get over it that I‘m still… well, THIS! And because of it, I can’t use the name Storm King even though by all accounts it fits my brand, and yet at the same time being forced to use the word Scourgelord just feels wrong! I can’t take it!” He walked over to the mountainside and smashed his head into it. “I need a rebrand…” he groaned.

Grogar finally turned and frowned at him. “What?”

“I need time to think,” the satyr said, raising his hand at them and waving away. “Just… Let me brood for a bit…”

“Listen, Storm King - Scourgelord or whatever you’re aiming to call yourself, I’m not about to have you waste our time because you have an existential crisis,” the Changeling Queen raised her voice.

“Leave him…” They all looked surprised at what the grizzled ram had just said.

“You’d just let him go? You trust him that much?”

“I trust him to know he’s not going to try and do something stupid. After all, he knows how bad things will happen if he… disobeys.” A chuckle escaped the ram. “And even so, if he’ll need time to catch up, our little friend here will surely show him the way.” He nodded at Doubt. “Besides… I need you TWO far more than I need him. Now come.”

For the first time, the two former allies looked at each other; there was a sense of concern growing in them. Without a word they descended the side of the mountain, leaving the obsidian construct to his own devices.

It tormented him; the clash of two identities was frustrating to no end, he just couldn’t put it out of his mind. In one moment, he shot a lightning bolt in the air and dark clouds began to gather. He was STILL the Storm King, now more than ever, yet that name represented somebody he was in the past, and Fear showed him that part is long gone. Yet even though he hated it, the name Scourgelord was also true to what he is, what he always was. Yet the two names couldn’t exist at the same time… Or could they?

He looked at the hand that contained the Staff of Sacanas and started to focus. Lightning began to flicker and a bolt shot out of it, but instead of going up in the sky, it stopped, beginning to bend until it ran the length of his other hand, going back and further between the two points multiple times, until several lightning bolts were lined up together, looking like guitar strings. He raised his left hand in the air, and then promptly brought it down on the strings.

KRAKOOM!

Chapter 46: Magical Mystery Pebble

Shadowy images were dancing on the wall. An alicorn princess flew high, fighting against a giant winged reptilian shadow that resembled a dragon, who was holding another pony without any particular features in its claws. They battled, their fire and magic flying all over the place, the dragon seeming to look like it was doing all it could to stop the princess from getting to its captive, and when the final clash was about to happen…

KRAKOOM!

Twilight snapped out of her slumber. On the way back to Ponyville, the group could hear the sound of raindrops falling. It was still a long way home, so the constant tapping sound finally made her doze off. But the sudden thunder clash woke her up, and only now did she realize that it was an absolute downpour.

“Criminy,” Applejack commented, “it’s rainin’ cats and dogs.”

“Weird… I don’t recall there being any talk about rain showers from Cloudsdale, especially not this intense,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

Fluttershy suddenly realized something. “Wait… You don’t think… HE is responsible, do you?”

“Well, he definitely didn’t crumble to bits like last time,” the party planner said. “We’ve all seen Grogy’s portal opened where he supposedly fell.”

“Delightful…” the white unicorn sarcastically said.

She didn’t blame her for the reaction. With all that’s happened in the last few days, they pretty much had the right to be disgruntled. The only one whose reaction she didn’t see was Zecora’s, who was completely covered by the winter coat; it seemed as if she just wanted to sleep through the entire thing until they all came home.

“ARRIVING AT CANTERLOT! NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!” the conductor announced.

The group was still lounging back, but the Princess of Friendship rose.

“Twilight? Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked.

“I have to report to Celestia about what’s happened,” she answered.

“Fine, we’ll go,” the wonderbolt made a lazy groan.

“No,” she quickly declined, “I’ll go by myself. The rest of you go back to my old castle. Starswirl and Starlight are likely already waiting for us. Tell them all that’s happened, and I’ll be back later. Besides, the cargo that we were given needs to be delivered.”

They gazed at the large bag that sat on the floor near the entrance door, full of changeling’s magic negating armor, and they knew that it couldn’t be moved around magically.

“Okay, Twi,” Applejack agreed. “We’ll wait for you back in Ponyville."

The Princess of Friendship nodded and then walked over to the door that opened soon after, with Spike quickly running to her side. After stepping out on the platform, she quickly cast a spell, and they disappeared in a flash of light.

FLASH!

Twilight and Spike teleported to the front entrance of the Canterlot’s castle, making the guards at the front jump from shock.

“Your Majesty!” one of them yelped. “We didn’t know you were coming back.”

“I need to see Celestia right away,” she commanded.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The doors opened and the two quickly strode in, before the alicorn teleported them. They turned up in the throne room, where the mare expected her former mentor to be, only to find it empty. She could be anywhere and she didn’t want to waste energy teleporting all over the place, so she instead opted to just look for her on foot. Yet the moment she stepped through the giant door she only ended up crashing into an unsuspecting passer-by. She recognized this elderly stallion with a mustache and red butler’s tailcoat.

“Oh my goodness! Kibitz, I’m so sorry!” the mare apologized, and quickly scrambled to pick up whatever the old unicorn was holding. “I didn’t see you! I thought Princess Celestia was inside, but she wasn’t, so I wanted to check elsewhere and-“

“Is that lavender?” Spike pointed at the pile of flowers that the princess was holding, but didn’t realize it immediately.

“Kibitz, I’m sorry,” she apologized again. “You’ve probably been to my room in the last few days and saw all the lavender around the place. I should’ve said ahead of that there was no need to replace it, as Princess Luna had managed to help me deal with the issue.”

The elder unicorn got up and readjusted his glasses. “Your Majesty, I’m glad that you’ve returned, especially considering the recent events. As for the lavender, they are not for you, but rather for the aforementioned Madame’s younger sibling.”

“For Princess Luna? Why?”

“Come and see for yourself,” he offered.

He picked up the lavender and carried it down the hallway, with the duo following him. They eventually stopped at the room that once belonged to the Mare of the Moon, and the butler promptly entered, while the younger alicorn and her sibling peaked inside. Most of the room pretty much remained untouched as it was left, except for the bed. The former Princess of the Night lay in it, slowly turning and making a mess of it, making incomprehensible mumbling words. The old unicorn in the meantime placed the lavender on the nearby flower pot, before slowly walking out and closing the door behind.

“What’s with her?” the dragon asked.

“She’s been like that since the night you all left: Sleep-deprived, exhausted, almost delirious,” he explained.

“Why?” Twilight still wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“I think Madame will be able to give you a better explanation,” the unicorn stallion said. “She’s in the conference room at this very moment.”

The old butler escorted the alicorn and the dragon down the hallway to where the previously mentioned room was, and they could all hear multiple voices coming from the other side of the door. She knocked and slowly opened the door, looking inside. It was loud; ponies were sitting behind the table, yelling over one another, so much that Twilight couldn’t understand what they were even saying, and would also explain why they didn’t hear or notice her enter. Somebody else did, however. On the far end of the table, the Mare of the Sun sat, listening to their grievances and complaints, her eyes slowly wandering left and right between those present, and then, as she was making another pass, she finally spotted her.

“Twilight!” she raised her voice, and all other ponies went silent, their gazes turning to the door.

She waved awkwardly. “Am I interrupting?”

The elder alicorn rose from her seat. “Everypony, the conference will be adjourned for now. We will reconvene within two hours.”

They said nothing, merely nodding their heads, and then marched off, past the Element of Magic, the last one closing the door behind her. Before she was even able to address her, the former princess dashed to her and pulled her into an embrace.

“Twilight, I’m so glad that you’re okay.” She finally let go of her. “Cadence sent a message the day before, and although short as it was… it was rather cryptic, saying something about “the Storm King returning”.”

“It’s more than that, Princess,” the former student said. “So much has happened that that part is more of a cherry on top.”

“Tell me everything, Twilight,” the white alicorn insisted.

“We’re gonna be here for a long time then,” Spike sighed and opened the conference door. “Kibitz, you better bring some tea.”

For nearly an hour, the two alicorns and a dragon sat at the table, as the younger set talked about the events that took place in the Frozen North: Of King Sombra’s return, the original heartlands of ponykind that were buried under the Frozen North, Sombra’s mother from which he and all the umbrum were born, the victims she had claimed, and last but not least, the confirmation of the satyr warlord’s impossible return.

“That explains a lot of things,” the white alicorn sighed. “Those ponies that were here when you arrived, they had a series of misfortunes. The storm that’s come out of nowhere yesterday has been devastating the crops, setting trees on fire, and even causing landslides across the center of Equestria. If the Storm King is the one responsible then he’s truly grown in power.”

“What he did last time when he visited seems like a cakewalk at this point,” the dragon said as he bit a muffin, “but that still doesn’t explain how did he manage to get back. We’re seen what was left of him after we restored everypony’s magic.”

“I think I can guess how.” Celestia levitated a letter off the table to her side. “Do you both still recall Silverbeak? The hippogriff historian in charge of the exhibition in Manehatten, which was vandalized? After Cadence’s letter arrived, I sent an inquiry to him asking if they figured out what was stolen yet. The letter arrived this morning, confirming what item was taken.”

“Let me guess… his petrified head?” Twilight asked, knowing the answer was already obvious, to which the Mare of the Sun nodded.

“But that still doesn’t explain how, Twilight,” Spike continued. “We all know what the Storm King did, and I’m pretty sure nopony or any other creature that was involved with him in any way would want to see him return. But Chrysalis and Grogar? They likely never even heard of him, let alone know what happened to him in the end. So how did they manage to concoct such an elaborate plan where they went and gather all the necessary materials to bring him back?”

“Spike, I’m not sure I follow,” his elder sister looked at him confusingly. “Are you saying that there’s another creature that seems to be working alongside them, that we’ve not seen yet?”

“I mean that’s the only possible answer. Remember those Earth Elementals attacking way back when, because of which we lost petrified Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, and all of a sudden she turned up? And the strange shadow thing that’s affected your mind and gave you nightmares, and for some reason also affected Discord not long after?”

She paused for a moment. “Now that you mention it, Spike, remember what Grogar said at the Jagged Ridge? He said that somecreature which he called “the shadow wisp” was responsible for Discord’s condition… meaning it was likely responsible for mine as well.”

“It’s a good thing Luna managed to fix that problem.”

“That reminds me…” the princess finally returned her attention to the former one. “Princess Celestia, I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s happened with Luna? When we arrived and bumped into Kibitz he was delivering lavender to her room, and he was very sparse with words.”

“So you’ve seen the state she’s in?” She sighed. “I fear that my sister’s gone overboard in re-entering her former duty.”

“What do you mean?” the dragon asked.

“She told me of the things she had seen when she entered your and Discord’s dreams, of the mysterious shadow remnant that was tormenting you… and of the form it took when she faced it.”

Spike tilted his head. “You mean when Twilight’s manifestation turned into Nightmare Moon?”

She nodded. “After you all left for the Crystal Empire she started entering the dream realm during the night. She would continue doing it, vigorously so, to the point that she’s become overworked. Probably more so than she did before.”

“But why?”

“Luna is the only one with the power to gaze into the dreams of others, it was a power she was born with, it was her purpose,” she answered. “Years ago, after we left you and your friends to look after Equestria in our place, Twilight, we were finally able to enjoy the leisure, which our responsibilities have denied us before. But after we learned what’s been happening… after what Starswirl revealed to us, she became overcome with dread over the thought that there could be many more innocent ponies suffering from the same affliction that both you and Discord had to go through. She feels guilty, Twilight: She’s the only one who could’ve seen it happen and she let it.”

“What?!” the Princess of Friendship raised her voice. “But what happened wasn’t her fault!”

“We both know that, Twilight. But Luna also knows that if she didn’t neglect her duty completely and at least kept checking on the realm of dreams every now and then, the damage could’ve been mitigated.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do for her?”

“I wish there was… But I fear words will do little at the moment,” she shook her head. “Besides, I believe you have a greater problem to tackle.”

“We know, the whole Turmoil-thing,” the dragon stated the obvious.

“It’s more serious than that, Spike,” the younger alicorn corrected. “If the storm that appeared yesterday was indeed caused by the Storm King, it means that he and the rest of his peers are ahead of us on wherever they’re going next, and we’ve no clue where to follow them yet, which means we’re kind of short on time.” She rose from her seat. “We’ll be showing ourselves out, Princess Celestia.”

The white alicorn nodded. “I completely understand. I have to return to dealing with the aftermath anyway. I’ll be waiting for your next report.”

“Why am I having a sudden deja vu of you being back as her apprentice?” Spike quipped.

A chuckled escaped both mares. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and the butler entered.

“My apologies for interrupting, Your Majesty,” Kibitz addressed the princess, “but there’s a message that’s just arrived for you.”

“Oh? Well do bring it over,” she answered.

“It will be brought, Your Majesty. I would, however, ask in advance, if any important documents are present, that they are put at a safe distance. The messenger has had a clash with the current weather pattern.”

Twilight was confused about what the unicorn was talking about. All of a sudden, the doors swung open further, and a short feathery figure flew in, making loud hooting noises, splashing water all over the place with each beat of its wings, before finally crashing into the mare, knocking her off her feet. After a momentary daze, she finally realized what it was: A little owl was sitting on top of her, completely drenched from the rain, shivering from the cold.

“Owlowiscious!” She hugged him. “Awww, poor little guy, you’re shaking all over.”

She quickly conjured a towel and wrapped him in it to dry him up. As she did, the owl extended one of his legs, revealing a message tied to it. She noticed it, quickly unwrapped it, and started to read.

There was a prolonged silence before Spike finally got her attention. “Bad news?”

“You could say that,” she replied. “King Aspen is saying that the storm’s hit them pretty hard as some of the trees have been struck by lightning and set on fire. And… he’s also saying that there’s unease in their neck of the woods. There’s a dark sinister presence that the forest seems to be emanating that couldn’t be felt before. He wants to know if we know anything about it.”

The two siblings looked at each other, and then they both turned to the elder alicorn. “Both of you best leave now,” she told them.

They nodded and were about to depart, but just then, the mare stopped herself. There was something that was left unfinished.

“Princess Celestia, before I go, there’s something that I need to give you.” She pulled off the extra set of saddlebags she was carrying with her.

The elder alicorn picked it up and looked it up closely, noticing an image of a yellow staff with two snakes coiled around it, with a pair of wings on top printed on it. “Twilight… is this what I think it is?”

She solemnly nodded. “It may have been only for a brief moment, but in the end, she was still your student. I figured it would be more fitting that you keep it.”

The former princess said nothing, only quietly opening the saddlebag and then slowly started to take out the contents, staring at them. The silence lasted for so long that it started to feel awkward.

“I’m not sure if I’m reading the room right, Twilight,” the dragon whispered. “Is she content or…?”

“It’s okay you two,” Celestia finally spoke. “You best go as fast as you can. I won’t hold you back anymore.”

Spike pulled out a quill and a parchment, preparing himself to write the response letter for the Heart of the Forest, as dictated by the princess. With that, the two finally left the room, Twilight’s voice being heard from the other side. The Mare of the Sun was left all by herself now, a frown forming on her face. Among the things she shuffled through she found the letter, one she wrote so long ago, inviting the bright and gifted little unicorn to come to study under her, old library books that by now have been completely forgotten by the new workers of the place where they were borrowed from, and lastly, the journal detailing her journey and discovery, the only thing that was missing from it was the ending, one which her former protégé delivered to her. She was another one… one of the students that she couldn’t have helped.

“I’m sorry… I wish there was more we could’ve done for you…” she said, as a single tear ran down her face.

FLASH!

It took them a while, but they finally managed to get outside of the castle for Twilight to teleport her feathered companion back to the deers, and then directly to her old holdings in Ponyville. When the bright light disappeared, they were inside the room where the Cutie Map was, and as expected, the rest of the Elements, along with Zecora, Starlight Glimmer, and Starswirl the Bearded were present, waiting for her.

“Hey everypony,” she greeted them, “sorry for letting you wait, but I had to explain to Princess Celestia what happened. Now, for those who haven’t been informed yet-“

“I already explained to Starswirl what had happened, Twilight,” the headmare intervened. “You were out cold the day before, so the other 6 were pretty much able to go in-depth on what happened.”

“Oh… Well, I suppose that saves us some time, considering we’re running short on it-”

“Twilight,” she interrupted her again, “you may wanna come to check this out.”

The group moved away, making a clear path for her to the map. The Princess of Friendship moved forward and took a look at the map along with her companion. In the middle of the map where Ponyville and Canterlot were, there was still the sinister dark cloud looming over the Everfree Forest’s location. She wondered what Starlight was talking about, but it didn’t take long to notice what was sticking out like a sore thumb. Further up the map, in the northern direction where the Crystal Empire stood, there was now a dark cloud that was constantly raining thunderbolts.

“How… when did…”

“It happened yesterday,” the ancient unicorn wizard answered. “While I was doing some research, I notice from the corner of my eye, how the thunder cloud suddenly manifested out of nowhere. And as to what had caused it, my best guess, based on what I was told happened at the Crystal Empire, it may be because this “Storm King” creature used his power.”

“You mean to tell me… he’s grown so powerful he can leave a mark so noticeable that the Cutie Map feels it’s worth registering?”

“That’s a possibility, Princess Twilight. And a very likely one.”

The thought unnerved her. She recalled when she faced off against Chrysalis in her master’s domain; empowered by hatred she was able to completely overpower her, and it was only with the rest of the Elements that she was nearly defeated. But with the satyr not just surviving but also growing in power that seemed to outmatch what she faced before, did they even stand a chance against him now…?

The alicorn felt a tap on her side as the workhorse reassured her. “Don’t worry, Twi. Even if the walking pile of rubble’s gotten stronger, we’ve faced off against far worse, remember?”

“What about the giant massive towering goop by the tree?” the party planner pointed out.

“I was referring to the non-eldritch variety, Pinkie,” Applejack rolled her eyes. “True, we can’t do anything against that thing beneath the Everfree Forest, but we can still stop the other bits of it from coming back, Twilight.”

The princess inhaled and then exhaled. “I know, Applejack. But still at this point, finding out where to go next, will require some research. Starswirl, Starlight, and I can handle it from here. The rest of you can go home for the moment. We’ll call on all of you when we find something.”

“Twilight, are you sure there’s nothing we can help with?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ve been out for more than a day. I think all of you deserve a little R&R while we work.”

“Ah supposed Ah could go check up on the family,” Applejack said. “Ah wonder if the storm’s damaged any part of the orchard.”

The fashionista looked at her mane, the grey streak running through it was an absolute eyesore to her. “Well, I really could go for something to get this… unsightly thing, out of my mind.”

“Yeah… I could go for a little chillax… although getting home’s gonna be a bit of a problem,” the wonderbolt said.

“Because your wings aren’t well yet?” the animal caretaker asked.

“Well, yeah, but also cuz of the storm outside.”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, you can stay at my house tonight,” she said with a smile.

“As long as I don’t get another wake-up examination from “you-know-who”,” the blue pegasus whispered in her ear.

Suddenly, the fanny pack around Fluttershy opened and Discord poked his head out. “I heard that!”

They said their farewells to Twilight and left, the main doors closed shut and the three magical ponies and the dragon were left all alone.

“Okay, let’s get to work,” Twilight eagerly said, trying to grab hold of the bag containing the changeling armor, remembering too late that she wouldn’t be able to use magic to move it, before grabbing the ropes that were attached to it to try and pull it, but the contents were too heavy for her to budge and she ended up falling flat on her face as the rope slipped from her bite.

“Maybe you should’ve told them to move the bag inside before you sent them away,” Spike answered, to which his elder sibling groaned.

“Then you are in luck that I have no other place to run amok.”

That was the zebra’s voice, and only now did Twilight realize that she hasn’t left yet.

“Oh yeah, you two don’t know that Zecora’s staying here, considering her tree house is a complete wreck, to say the least,” Starlight answered.

Without wasting a moment, the shaman gripped the other piece of rope, and with combined might, they dragged the bag into the room.

Zecora was strong enough to pick up one of the black spikey helmets from the bag and placed it in the middle of the table they have set up with a loud thud. Then she stepped aside to where Spike stood, while in the distance, the old wizard, the headmare, and the princess stood at the ready. When the alicorn gave a sign, they simultaneously unleashed a powerful magical attack in the armor’s direction, only for it to simply evaporate a few hooves from it.

“Seems you were right, Twilight,” Starswirl said. “It was nullified completely.”

“This is just like what had happened in the changeling kingdom,” the alicorn replied. “There’s no doubt now that both this armor, the protection of the Everfree Forest, as well as Chrysalis’ throne, are in some way related.”

“I know, Twilight,” the pink unicorn concurred, “but that still doesn’t explain how. I mean, even before that I couldn’t understand how is it possible for powerful magic to exist that negates every type of magic, but that of changelings. And Thorax made it clear that the stone from which Chrysalis’ old throne was made was unique in the world. How was she able to replicate such power all of a sudden when she couldn’t have done it before?”

“I would guess that the thing under the forest is somehow responsible,” the dragon stated.

“That is a sound thought,” the Zebra replied, “but the question remains how it formed the force that makes all magic for naught?”

“Powerful magic must be at work,” the old wizard added. “But even so, it’s clear that this creation is mineral-based. Unfortunately, my geology knowledge is severely lacking in this regard.”

“I already made an inquiry on that from one of the best rock experts I know, Starswirl,” Twilight quickly spoke. “I had Maud Pie examine the armor beforehand, and she said that it’s unlike anything she’s ever seen. I suggested that since it was made of black rock that it might be obsidian, which would’ve made sense since the Storm King’s body has been rebuilt from it, which means they managed to acquire it in huge supply from somewhere, however, she said that it resembles pumice, but it doesn’t make sense since that it would have such power or be ridiculously heavy.”

“Then we will have to perform some experiments.” With a flash from his horn, the Pillar of Sorcery summoned forth a giant wardrobe, swinging its doors open, revealing a large collection of reagents. “I’ve traveled across Equestria, and I’ve collected many rare and difficult-to-acquire ingredients for powerful spells and potions. We will use obsidian as a base for the experiments, and then work our way to see if any other mineral will display magic-negating effects. One of them is bound to show results.”

“Oh, well in that case it’s a good thing we have a potions expert on the hoof as well,” Starlight looked at the shaman.

“There is no need for flattery, your acknowledgment is satisfactory,” she waved her hoof.

“But still, what are we going to use all that stuff on?” Spike wondered. “There’s like thousands of different types of rocks and minerals out there and anyone could be used.”

“I know, little dragon, but we have little choice,” the elderly unicorn shook his head.

To say that the task before them was monumental would’ve been a gross understatement. The five participants would together have to find the right combination of mineral and magical substance to recreate the desired effect, and they had an entire geological and alchemical world to cover. Starswirl and Zecora worked together on preparing the proper concoction, with Twilight and Starlight using their magic to add additional magical enchantment upon the alchemical creation, in hopes that it would boost its effect, all the while Spike stood by to write down all the possible combinations. The results were as expected: They were conducting tests for several hours, yet they ended up having nothing to show for it, as the obsidian samples simply bent to their overcharged magical creations, most of the time ending up dissolving as a result.

“Ugh,” the headmare groaned. “We’re not getting anywhere.”

“We’ve not yet exhausted all the options,” the old wizard urged. “All the reagents that I have here would provide several hundred possible outcomes.”

“Well,” a voice came out from a nearby pile of several parchment roles, “with this last one we’re on number 569. And we’re nowhere near close.”

Starlight looked about. All the mess they’ve made with failed outcomes was strewed all over the floor, the dragon climbed out of the pile of parchments, Meanwhile, the shaman diligently continued to mix the selected ingredients that the Pillar of Sorcery had provided, not letting any sound disrupt her. She looked out the window and saw that, even though it was still raining, it was already night. This would also explain why the Princess of Friendship was out at this point, her head laying on the table. Yet when she went to check on her up close, she discovered that wasn’t the case, as she was just making a pouty face.

“I know it’s a drag, Twilight. We can stop for today and try tomorrow.”

“I’m not tired,” she answered with a grouchy voice.

“That look says otherwise.”

“I’m not doing it because I’m tired, I’m just frustrated,” the alicorn retorted.

“From failing?” Starlight asked.

“No, not from the experiments,” the alicorn answered. “There’s this thought that’s been gnawing me since we left the Crystal Empire. Something that we discovered in the depths of the Frozen North.”

“You mean the original home of the three tribes that you discovered?”

“No, not that,” she elaborated further. “When King Sombra dragged us into his nightmare realm and the spark of Radiant Hope saved us, she showed what she experienced when facing Fear. It tried to tempt her by, what it called “sharing their pain” and she showed her a vision of some event that I can’t understand what it’s supposed to be.”

“Huh… others didn’t mention any of that when they explained what happened,” the headmare wondered.

“They looked like shadows dancing on the wall; I can still remember it vividly, but even so, I cannot decipher its meaning.”

“What exactly do you remember?” the pink unicorn tilted her head.

“It looked like… an alicorn princess, facing up against a giant dragon, who was holding an earth pony in its claws... “

CRASH!

BOOM!

Two loud sounds followed one after another as if it was a chain reaction, which turned out to be the case, as the two mares both looked in its direction, seeing broken glass next to Starswirl's hooves, while the nearby zebra’s face was blackened by a sudden magical blast, the tip of her mane being slightly singed.

“My sincerest apologies, shaman!” the old wizard apologized, as he quickly summoned a patch of water to fall on top of her, extinguishing any potential blazes. “It seems that fatigue is beginning to grip me as well.”

Zecora said nothing, only letting out a grumbling sound, as she tried to fix her flattened mohawk mane.

The princess and the headmare looked in confusion for a while, the latter giving him a look of suspicion before the former finally got her attention. “As I was saying, the princess and the dragon clashed, and then both fell to their demise. That’s how I remember it.”

“You sure it wasn’t just a trick that Turmoil’s aspect was trying to play on her?” Starlight wondered.

“I wish I could say so, but it felt so real,” she continued. “The words that Fear spoke carried weight in its voice. It claimed that it felt the pain, that it felt it in the-“ She suddenly went quiet.

“What? It felt pain in what, Twilight?” the pink unicorn inquired, but didn’t receive an answer.

She couldn’t believe it; she had the answer with her this entire time and she realized it only just now. “The lifeblood of the world… The lifeblood. Starswirl, I know what substance we’re looking for!”

She lept over to where her luggage was and started to dig through, eventually pulling out several vials filled with a glowing green substance.

“Twilight, what is that?” Starswirl inquired.

She brought the vials to the experiment table and placed them on it. “Fear called this substance the lifeblood of the world. The room where it was trapped all this time was filled to the brim with it, and what's more, I’ve seen streams of it running through the kingdoms of the three pony tribes. But most importantly… I’ve seen it under the Everfree Forest, surrounding the Tree of Turmoil.”

The old sage leaned in, observing the contents of the small container, and the memory came to him. “I remember it now… After Turmoil was destroyed this substance started to ooze out of its remains before I buried them.”

“Twilight, are you sure it’s a good idea to carry this around? It could be extremely dangerous,” Spike voiced his concerns.

“Considering I’ve bathed in it and I’ve not sprouted dark tentacles or speak in multiple voices as a result, I can safely say that it’s got no effect on ponies,” she refuted. “Minerals though…” Her sight was set on the piece of obsidian that was on the table. “Everypony, brace yourself.”

She opened a vial and slowly poured the green liquid on it, and let it set. They waited for a reaction for quite some time, but there was nothing. Twilight then used her magic to envelop the rock piece and lifted it off the table.

“Well… looks like we’ve got another dud in the end,” Starlight sighed.

The princess fumed in anger. She was certain that she was onto something and in the end, it didn’t pay out. She let go of the rock, letting it fall on the table with a heavy thud. They were all drawn to the sound. Obsidian was supposed to be light, it shouldn’t make that kind of sound. The dragon got on the table and poked the sample with the tip of his claw. He then picked it up and knocked on it, the sound that it made was almost... metallic.

“It changed the composition of the mineral,” Starswirl said before Starlight picked up the rock and tapped on it herself. “The rock turned into iron?”

A bright smile appeared on the alicorn’s face. “So I was onto something after all!”

“Well, we’ve one problem down then,” the headmare leaned in, “but that still leaves us with the one of finding which mineral will turn into what we’re looking for.”

“We may not need to seek far,” the zebra finally spoke, “the answer might be where the Lord of Chaos’ actions are.”

“Discord? Zecora, what are you talking about?” the alicorn questioned what she meant.

The shaman walked over to her saddlebags, searching. “On the day that you were away, and the draconequus came to play, the mess he left was most peculiar, I must say.” She pulled out a bright piece of stone, along with a black one.

“Wait, aren’t those the rocks that you gave to me to give to Maud to examine?” Starlight recognized them.

“You are right: One of the rocks which rained upon us was pumice, white, the other, black, was obsidian and did not crack.”

“Wait… and because we know now that obsidian was used to make the Storm King’s new body… does that mean the other rock was for…?” Spike tried to put it together.

“We’re about to find out,” his elder sibling answered.

Twilight grabbed the small white stone and levitated it over to her side. She then opened one of the vials and dropped the rock inside of it. And then it happened: They all watched as the level of the green liquid began to drop, and as it did, the small bright sliver started to change color, until it turned into a darker shade of green. It finally stopped; the change was complete, and the vial suddenly slipped from Twilight’s grip, falling to the ground, breaking in the process.

“Twilight, why did you do that?” Spike said after he flinched from the surprise.

“Spike, I didn’t! It just…”

“Negated your magic,” the wizard said.

There it was. They found the answer they’ve been struggling to discover for a prolonged time.

“Well, we finally got somewhere in the end,” Starlight said. “But still there’s a problem with this. I recall that both Maud and Mudbriar said that these types of rocks can’t be found normally around Equestria.”

“That’s true,” the dragon concurred, “they’re volcanic-based rocks. The only place that has them that comes to mind is the Dragon Lands.”

They went quiet, trying to think where the other possible source could be, but they didn’t wonder for long, as the hoof steps from the old wizard got their attention when he moved over to the Cutie Map, and they all decided to join in.

“I think we can try and guess from where the next possible destination lies,” he said.

His horn glowed, and suddenly a pillar of light appeared on the map at the location of the Everfree Forest. It suddenly spread across the sky in three different locations, one going west, the other north, and the third one east.

“This is the trajectory of where Turmoil’s fragments have been sent flying,” he further explained. “The northern one, as you and your friends have proven, Twilight, fell in the direction of the Crystal Empire. As for the other ones…”

They saw the south-western trail disappear off the map into the body of water, meanwhile, the eastern trail continued to travel past Baltimare, Horseshoe Bay, and into the Celestial Sea, until it finally reached the landmass that was on the opposite end of it, littered with volcanoes.

“It really went in that direction?” Twilight wondered.

“You’ve heard what Luna said,” the old unicorn said, “it’s likely that the fragments are at the locations where great calamities took place. Your expedition to the Crystal Empire confirmed that. However, I know of no horrible things that took place in the eastern part of Equestria, which means…”

“We’re going to Dragon Lands,” Spike stated as he gazed at the map.

On the airfield on the edge of Canterlot, the royal zeppelin had been prepared. The Princess of Friendship knew that they were already behind the opposition for more than a day. Any other form of transportation would take too long and they couldn’t wait for the storm to let up. Hence, drastic measures would have to be taken.

“Ah don’ get it, Twilight,” Applejack questioned. “If we’re gonna teleport to Dragon Lands anyway, why do we have to take the blimp with us?”

“We can’t risk getting there without a backup,” she explained while Spike was writing down the checklist. “If Chrysalis and the rest decide to move we’ll have to catch up to them.”

“Twi, you do realize they have a magical sheep that can teleport them anywhere across the world, right?”

“I know, Applejack. But even so, we cannot risk staying behind. If we have to return home, even if we can’t get past the storm, the least we can do is get to the closest town. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be strong enough to teleport all of us back to Canterlot if things turn bad.”

“Isn’t teleporting all of us, along with the blimp gonna do the same to ya?” she looked at the airship

“Yes… which is why we’re gonna need some help to save up on energy. We just have to wait for them. Not to mention I can't disturb the only three who will be busy with holding things together on this end after this.”

A sudden gust pulled in, and everybody braced for it until it finally passed.

“Twilight,” Starlight said, “can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Over there”, she nodded to the side of the ship. “Alone.”

Concern turned up on her face. What was it that required them not to be heard?

“Excuse us for a second,” the princess said as they walked off, and stopped in the cover.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang was standing by, trying to seek protection from the rain and wind. Fluttershy looked about for the rest, seeing the dragon and the workhorse talking, Rainbow Dash snoring out loud by her side, and on the other end, Zecora, her head hanging down, her cloak obscuring her facial features. And the fashionista…

“Wow, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie jumped in, looking at a giant bun on top of her head and tail, wrapped in tin foil, “are the beehives back in style already?”

“Not a chance,” she replied. “I spent several hours trying to fix the travesty that Sombra did to my elegant mane. And I don’t want to risk it getting ruined in this rain.”

“You sure you’re not risking it getting struck by lightning?”

“Oh please Pinkie, we’re under the cover,” she boasted. “No lightning could ever hit-“

KRAKOOM!

Suddenly, a thunderbolt struck the nearby lamp post on the airfield, and everybody flinched out of the cover, a strong gust pulled in, ripping Rarity’s head and tail protection, the heavy rain drops quickly washing away all the pristine purple color on her mane, revealing the grey hair strands.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” she cried in sorrow. “All the hard work, wasted!”

FLASH!

They all flinched again, fearing that the lightning struck for the second time, but instead, the three horned ponies appeared before them, the dark blue one slightly slouching against the bright one.

“Sorry for the wait, ladies,” Starswirl announced. “I hope your wait hasn’t caused you any grieve-“ He went silent as he saw the white unicorn crying her eyes out.

“Can we please postpone the travel for a few more hours so I can get back to Canterlot Carousel?” she whined, only for the rest of them to give her a frown. “Okay…” she sighed. “I suppose there are greater priorities…”

The unicorn sorcerer went past them. “Everypony, get on the airship. Celestia, Luna, get to your positions.” He trotted past the moored ship and spotted the other two mares by it. “Is everything ready?”

Twilight looked at Spike, who gave her a thumbs up. She nodded in response.

“Excellent. Starlight, get on your position. The ritual will require a lot of magic and concentration, and I’ll have to compensate a bit considering one of the participants is… well, under the weather so to speak.” He moved to the back of the ship.

As he reached his destination and prepared himself, he suddenly heard a cry. “NO!” He rose his head, seeing that the princess was behind it. “I mean… NO problem on this side of the ship.” She said loudly and smiled awkwardly, before mumbling something to the pink unicorn, who after that let out a groan.

“Thanks,” she hugged her. “Take care.” As she made her way over to the ramp, her pace slowed down, as she saw the former Princess of the Night standing nearby, looking like she was barely holding up. “Princess Luna… are you okay?”

She made an awkward smile. “Of course I am, Twilight’s Sparkle… Just… I got pulled away from my nightly patrol and I received a bit of a backlash as a result, that’s all.”

She was lying, she could tell, but she knew that words wouldn’t dissuade her; all she could do was offer encouragement. “Just please… look after yourself.”

The alicorn nodded, but the moment the younger one turned, she could see from the corner of her eye that it changed into a frown. It would have to wait, they had to go. She stepped onto the airship and seeing everybody present, she gave others a signal to go. She started casting the teleportation spell, her magic enveloping the entire airship. Then Starswirl cast his, followed by Celestia, Luna, and lastly Starlight. The entire ship was enveloped in bright rainbow light, and with a blinding flash, the blimp disappeared before their eyes.

“Urk… there go the legs…” the dark mare uttered before collapsing in the rain.

“LUNA?!” the older sister cried out upon seeing the younger sibling falling down.

Chapter 47: The Dragon Lords

Author's Note

Hey everybody.
I survived the infection and managed to get back to you all, if only with a week late to bring you a new chapter.
Enjoy the Dragon Lands arc.

Chapter 47: The Dragon Lords

FLASH!

The entire airship rocked as it sought to find perches after its location had just changed in an instant. It tilted, and everybody on deck rolled to the far side, piling on top of one another.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” the alicorn princess complained. “I was certain that this specific location would be stable. What gives?”

“No time to complain,” Applejack commented. “We have to get it fixed before the bad weather does even more… damage…?”

Only now did they all realize that wasn’t the case. The rain was gone, and the scorching sun was high in the sky. They all took a peek over the edge of their blimp and saw the rocky wasteland, filled with active volcanoes, and littered with lava rivers.

“Well, looks like we got to our destination after all,” the wonderbolt said. “And ahead of time for a change.”

“That still doesn’t explain what went wrong, Rainbow Dash,” the alicorn continued. “I’ve been to the Dragon Lands before and I recall this spot. It should’ve been stable enough for the airship. So why is it crooked?”

“Why is what crooked?”

Their attention was grabbed. There was a voice that didn’t belong to any of them, yet it was familiar, not far from them. A young blue dragon stood nearby, her hands resting on her hips as she looked at the newcomers.

“Ember!” Spike yelled.

He crawled over the edge of the tipped-over airship, flew over to her side, and hugged her. As expected, she petted the much smaller purple dragon on the head.

“Dragon Lord Ember!” Twilight addressed her as she crawled over the edge and landed in front of her, with the rest of the company following suit. “I wasn’t expecting to meet you this quickly after our arrival. Were you expecting us?”

“Nah, not really,” she answered. “You guys are actually lucky your ship only tipped over.”

“What do you mean?”

“Go look on the other side of it.”

The princess was confused as to what she was talking about but chose to listen to her. She went around the ship and quickly realized the peril they actually found themselves in. Only a few hooves away from the vessel there was a slope; she knew it wasn’t there before, but it was obvious that it had been created recently, as it formed a giant crater, and at the bottom of it there were masses of ponies going about dressed in gear designed to protect against extreme heat, surrounding a strange orange glowing rock.

“Holy…!” Applejack reacted to the revelation. “If our ship tipped in the opposite direction we’d have ended up in big trouble.”

“Dragon Lord Ember, what is that at the bottom?” Fluttershy inquired.

“IT’S THE METEOR!” Twilight yelped in a high-pitched voice.

“Excuse me?”

“I read it in the paper a few days ago! A meteor supposedly landed in Dragon Lands and Equestrian Astronomy Institute was sent on site! I never would’ve thought I’d end up right here to see it!”

“And because of this meteor I had to make sure to have somebody guarding the site,” Ember spoke. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the dragons got a bright idea of simply taking the meteor and adding it to his hoard.”

“But aren’t other dragons supposed to listen to you?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“Technically, but older ones are another matter. Anyway, what are all of you doing here? I doubt you’ve come all this way with your blimp just for the meteor.”

The princess finally took her excitement off from the site below and faced the Dragon Lord. “It’s a long story, Ember. Is there a place we can discuss it with you in private? We don’t want potential panic to erupt if somecreature heard it.”

“It’s that bad, huh? Okay, I know of a place where we’ll be undisturbed. But you may wanna do something about that airship of yours.”

Twilight looked at the tipped-over vessel and started to use her magic. The pink aura enveloped it and it slowly rose in the air.

“Okay, lead the way,” she said to Ember as she struggled.

“You sure you don’t need help with that?” the blue dragon inquired.

“Yes, just go!” she said as she pushed herself to hold up the weight.

Ember waved to follow her, and they all did. Meanwhile, in the group of pony excavators below, near the meteor, a lone pony was watching things play out on the top of the slope. It slipped past the crowd to where it wouldn’t be seen and removed the headgear that was protecting her from the heat, revealing a bright-furred unicorn mare, with a green mane that had a pink streak in it.

“The Princes and her friends are here…” Gusty said to herself.

After a short trot to the nearby patch of land that was big and flat enough, the alicorn princess put their airship down, finally stabilizing it. Even so, the mess was left behind on the inside after the vessel tipped to one side, so they had to clean it up. After it’s been dealt with, Spike prepared some tea while they related to the blue dragon what had happened: Of Queen Chrysalis’ return, the darkness she had awakened, the return of the Father of Monsters, and the reawakening of the Storm King.

“You guys really can’t catch a break, can you?” the Dragon Lord said as she bit through the crystal china.

“And so a potential trail led us here, Ember,” Twilight finished explaining. “Considering that the storm hasn’t reached you yet, I can assume that we managed to get ahead of them.”

“I’m not really feeling good about this, Twilight. What happened to Smolder?” The blue dragon bit the crystal cup again.

“From what Starlight told us, she and the rest of the students from the School of Friendship boarded the train before things escalated,” Fluttershy explained. “By now they should be safe at Griffinstone.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.” And she tossed the remaining handle of her cup into her mouth.

Meanwhile, as Spike was refilling the cups, he noticed that his pony of affection was acting rather tense. “Rarity, what’s wrong?”

“Can you please tell her to stop doing that, Spike?” she whispered to the side.

“Doing what?”

As he was waiting for a reply he watched as Ember picked up another crystal cup and bit into it like an apple, and as she did, the fashionista cringed. “That!” she whispered again in frustration. “That’s the royal crystal china she’s eating!”

“Calm down, Rarity. We can always get more from the Crystal Empire.”

“That’s beside the point, Spike. It’s the principle of it. The thought of those works of art being used as a snack…” She cringed again when she heard another chomp.

“Well look on the positive side: At least she hasn’t mentioned-“

“By the way, Rarity,” the blue dragon addressed the white unicorn, “what’s with the grey streak in your hair? Some kind of a new pony fad?”

And the smaller dragon face-palmed, as the fashionista made a whimpering sound.

“So! Moving the conversation back to the point,” Twilight quickly interfered to try and divert the attention away from her humiliated friend, “with what’s happened I want to know something, Ember. First, did you notice any strange happenings in Dragon Lands in the past few days?”

“You mean, besides an obvious giant glowing rock that’s attracting potential dragon thieves like moths to a flame? No, not really. The closest thing you could call strange is dragons on the beach.”

Applejack thought for a moment. “What’s strange about that?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie jumped in. “Maybe they’re having a beach party!”

“But why would dragons in Dragon Lands want to swim in the water, when you’ve got lava streams all over the place?” Spike explained.

“Maybe some of them were drawn to the new ideas thanks to Smolder and are trying it out?” the princess questioned.

“That’s something I’m having a hard time imagining,” the bigger dragon added. “The fact that, when you leave the salt water to dry, it goes under your scales, making that really uncomfortable grinding feeling when you move about.” She shivered at the thought.

The alicorn thought to herself, unsure what to make of it. “As for the second thing, you wouldn’t happen to know if there was perhaps an event of cataclysmic proportions that has happened in Dragon Lands at some point in its history?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Twilight, but I fear you’ve come asking the wrong dragon,” she shook her head. “You’re asking if I know of some event that took place in the distant past, but I’m a little older than you guys. You want to know about the past, you’ll have to ask a dragon that’s older than me, one of the elder dragons… and it’s unlikely they’ll be willing to talk.”

“What?” Pinkie Pie was confused. “But you’re the Dragon Lord. Isn’t it up to them to listen to you?”

“You’d think that,” she explained, her gaze moving to Twilight, Rarity, and Spike, “but how many elder dragons actually attended the battle of the Gauntlet of Fire last time when the three of you came here and it was time for my dad to pass the title?”

Suddenly, a snicker escaped the purple dragon.

“What’s so funny?” the bigger one questioned.

“You don’t get it?” he tried to explain. “Because your dad’s name is Torch. And he had to “pass the torch”.”

Soon, another snickering sound could be heard from the pink earth pony, but after a few moments, it became clear that the daughter was not amused by the joke.

“Just don’t say that in front of dad or he might get the idea of swallowing you whole,” she said.

A gulp could be heard from the little dragon.

“Well, anyway, back to the question,” Rarity tried to defuse the situation by changing the topic, “no, we didn’t see any “elder dragons” in the group.”

“Exactly. That’s because they don’t care, they’re beyond caring for anything other than their hoard and sleep. Even trying to ask them to talk would be like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. You’d have to force them to talk.”

Based on their past experience, the Elements of Harmony saw sense in what the Dragon Lord was saying. A long time ago, a dragon made his home in a mountain peak near Ponyville. And much to everybody’s frustration they couldn’t get him to stop blowing smoke that obscured the skies. It was clear now that he was one of those so-called “elder dragons”, and it was only through Fluttershy’s intervention that they finally got him to stop.

“You know, this may not be such a big problem, Ember,” Rainbow Dash said. “We just so happen to have an expert with us who can tame a creature as savage as they come-“

“What? No! Rainbow Dash, we’re not doing that!” the shy pegasus quickly protested.

“But Fluttershy, you’ll make it so easy. All we have to do is walk over to them, ask them, and when they refuse to talk, you just give them “The Stare”, and we’ll get them to talk!”

“You mean like how we got the Vampire Fruit Bats to stop eating Applejack’s orchard?” she snapped back.

And an awkward silence followed. “Yeeeah, Ah’m with Fluttershy,” the country pony finally broke it, “we ain’t going through that again.”

“Fine…” the wonderbolt sighed. “It was just a suggestion… But what other choice do we have then? Are we to just wander these blasted lands until we find something?”

“If all else fails, we may have to comb the desolate trails,” Zecora finally added to the conversation.

Ember finally became aware of the strange, yet slightly familiar equine that seemed to be blending into the background in comparison to the rest of the colorful companions. “I’m sorry, who are you again? Your appearance really doesn’t jog my memory.”

“That’s Zecora, Ember,” Spike explained. “She was there for Twilight’s coronation, remember?”

The blue dragon gave him an expression that showed a sense of uncertainty. “Weeeeeeeell… kinda… but what’s she got to do with this whole thing?”

“She used to live in the Everfree Forest where all the bad stuff started to happen, and she’s the one that helped reveal Turmoil,” Fluttershy answered.

“Well, it’s a change,” the Dragon Lord remarked. “I got used to seeing ponies with more pastel colors.”

“She’s a zebra, not a pony.”

“Huh… is that the reason for the funny language?”

“Moving right along!” Twilight intervened once more before things got awkward again. “Do you know ANY elder dragon who’d be willing to talk, Ember? Please, we’re desperate.”

She finished eating the next cup. “Luckily for you guys, I do. Dad’s got a few centuries under his belt. If there’s an elder dragon that’d be willing to talk, it’s him.”

The princess leaned back on her chair and let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to her. So where exactly is he now?”

“Look out the window.” Ember pointed.

The group huddled together by the window to see what there was outside. In the far distance, there was a mountain range to the north, and one of the highest peaks had a carved-out dragon’s head sticking out.

“See that dragon’s jaw sticking out the side of the mountain?” Ember said. “Ever since he’s retired dad moved there. Well, technically he’s always lived there so he could have all of Dragon Lands in his view, but now he’s using it to make sure nobody’s disturbing his nap, just like it’s the case for all elder dragons.”

“Huh, well it’s a good thing we brought the blimp then,” Pinkie Pie remarked.

It didn’t take long for them to take off. Twilight manned the helm and steered the airship, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack made sure that altitude was increasing. Reaching their destination on the other hand was another. Their path was in a straight line; however, the distance was far greater than they imagined. For some time, they floated high above the volcanic badlands, watching the sceneries below: The meteor crater that slowly disappeared behind them, the lava rivers that some of the dragons were diving into, and little whelps playing in the shallows, and…

“Uh uh uh! Look!” Pinkie Pie jumped with excitement as she was holding a pair of binoculars.

Twilight picked them up and looked through them. “What exactly am I looking for, Pinkie?”

“Look towards the ocean!”

She gazed further into the distance, where the land met the body of water. That’s when she spotted figures; dragons doing all manner of things on the beach, such as playing ball, building sand castles, chasing one another, and some of them were diving into the sea.

“I see… dragons on the beach,” she answered. “And they seem to be enjoying themselves.”

“See!?” the party planner exclaimed. “I told you they were having a beach party!”

“And it’s still weird,” Ember said.

While everybody was taking turns trying to look through binoculars, the shaman was wandering about the edge of the airship, looking around the lands below. This place was close to home as it could get, despite the excess geological activity, and the thought of combing every inch of this place if all else failed simply didn’t sit well with her; it would be like trying to look for a needle in a haystack. Maybe she should try using the ritual she did back at the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters to reveal the corruption, but that would only cover a small area, and the Dragon Lands were huge, not to mention gathering the necessary reagents for it and doing it multiple times would be impossible. Suddenly, her gaze stopped, as something piqued her interest, but…

“Alright, we’re here,” the Dragon Lord announced.

The airship finally reached the large draconic jaws on the side of the mountain and they slowly docked, although the terrain made things a bit difficult as they tried to disembark past the fangs.

Applejack noticed the zebra was still staring over the edge of the ship. “Hey, Zecora, come on, we’re here!”

She finally snapped out of it and proceeded to join them. The blue dragon led the group to the borderline where light and darkness collided and then stopped.

“Now remember, guys,” she forewarned, “dad may not be the Dragon Lord anymore, but that doesn’t mean his ego’s gotten any lesser, even after he retired. Whatever you do, make sure to show him respect. Address him as "former Dragon Lord Torch".” Her gaze traveled to the party planner. “And no jokes on his account.”

Pinkie Pie looked around, trying to figure out at who she aimed that last part. She didn’t ponder for long though, as Ember suddenly took in a deep breath and released a bellow that echoed into the blackness of the cave.

“Ember, what was that for?” Spike questioned.

She didn’t answer and instead shushed him. And then they heard a sound coming from the darkness. It started low, and then it kept growing until the roar echoed loudly back at them, shaking their surroundings. And then the stomping followed, drawing ever closer until finally a pair of orange eyes could be seen lit up like torches, and a giant maw opened, flames bursting out in their direction, causing everybody to drop to the ground, except for the blue dragon. Finally, the dim light illuminated gargantuan dark-teal scales, a pair of large horns sitting on each side of it.

And then, the deep boisterous voice spoke. “Who dares awake former Dragon Lord Torch?! Who dares to enter his domain, thinking he will not taste his wrath?!”

“Hey, dad,” his spawn bluntly said.

The large dragon crawled out of the darkness and looked down upon the guests. “Ah… Dragon Lord Ember. A pleasure to have your presence grace my humble home… and I see you’re still not wearing the crown you’re expected to.”

“Dad, stop that! You’re making it sound so patronizing!” she rebuked him. “Besides, that crown’s bigger than me, it’ll take decades before it fits on my head.”

He laughed out loud, making the whole cavern shake. “As if there’s any other dragon around to spread the word.” He noticed the smaller purple one. “Ah… well, except for your friend of a runt.” He finally noticed the rest of the non-draconic beings present, as they were lying on the ground, trying to avoid the fire breath from earlier. “Hmmm… at least the rest of your friends show proper decorum.”

“Dad, that’s Princess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of Equestria, and her Council of Friendship.”

He moved his head closer, his eyes finally adjusting to the light from outside. “Ah… I see. And for what reason did you disturb my slumber by bringing them here?”

The alicorn princess finally rose. “Former Dragon Lord Torch, your daughter brought me here because we’re on a mission of great importance, failure of which could spell doom for all of Equestria. And you’re the only elder dragon she said would be willing to talk to us, and I’m sure with your… advanced age, you have some great wisdom to share and we’d very much appreciate your help.”

A grumbling sound could be heard coming from the former Dragon Lord. “I see. Very well. I’m feeling generous enough, I supposed I could answer your request… depending on what it is.”

Twilight sighed in relief; perhaps some good fortune will finally be placed on her. “Former Dragon Lord Torch, you have lived for so long and have looked over your realm longer than any creature I can imagine. Would you recall at some point of some great calamity that had befallen the Dragon Lands?”

A moment of silence followed, only to be replaced by loud laughter that once again shook the cavern. “Is water wet? Is fire hot? Are gems tasty?” More silence followed, making it awkward as the princess didn’t know what to say. “The answer is yes, to all of them. My point is that you wouldn’t notice a calamity happening in Dragon Lands. That meteor that’s just fallen a few days ago has done nothing but drew other dragons like flies. An even bigger one could fall, and nobody would’ve noticed. A volcano the size of my mountain could explode and nobody would care. Such is the case with this land, if some form of disaster would happen, it would go completely under the radar.”

“But… but surely some dragon would take notice of something happening and document it, right?” there was a noticeable tone of desperation in her voice now. “Books, scrolls, any form of written text?”

The mountain shook again from the teal dragon’s laughter. “And what use would a dragon have for books and scrolls, in a land of fire? If you want answers found in those things, you’d have bigger luck getting them from a dragon that’s not in Dragon Lands.”

She couldn’t believe it; he was the one dragon that could help and he was telling her that he can’t.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that, Twilight,” Ember tried to console her. “But hey, at least you got a tip to where to go next. And I remember there’s supposed to be a dragon archivist on Mount Metazoa, named Blacktip.”

The alicorn recalled the events from some time ago. Atop Mount Metazoa, there was an emerald building called the Hall of Unity. It was at that place, that the convocation of creatures took place once in a few centuries. Twilight recalled meeting representatives of multiple races and working as archivists in a vast library of information. And as a good lead, as it was, there was one problem…

“But Mount Metazoa is really far away, it’s going to take days for us to get there and back, and time is not the luxury we have right now,” she complained in despair. “Please, former Dragon Lord Torch, isn’t there anyone you know that’s older than you and would possess extensive knowledge on the events of Dragon Lands?”

He made a grumbling noise again and rubbed his chin. “The only one that would come to my mind to that extent would be... mother.”

“Your… mother?” Twilight tilted her head.

“OUR mother, pony. The mother of ALL of us – the Mother of Dragons.”

“Dad, come on, be serious, these ponies don’t have time for your dragon tales,” his spawn rolled her eyes.

“Ember, what’s he talking about?” Spike inquired.

“Mother of Dragons is supposed to be this mystical creature that predates all dragonkind,” she elaborated, “a being from which all other dragons came. But that’s just a story that’s being told to try and scare dragons into thinking that there’s some creature out there more powerful than the Dragon Lord.”

“That’s what you think, my daughter,” Torch asserted himself. “When I was still a whelp, not bigger than you, the older dragons told me: “Torch, you’re one from the last clutch of eggs that were laid by Mother, you’re destined to do great things!” And lo and behold, I became the Dragon Lord!”

“Yeah, and nobody else knows whether or not she ever existed…”

“With all due respect, former Dragon Lord Torch,” Twilight intervened. “But I have to agree with Ember. I’m looking for something concrete that actually exists, and wouldn't have to travel to distant lands. Are you sure that any other Dragon Lord before you didn’t have anything of worth?”

The large dragon raised his eyebrow. “Anything of worth you say?” The ground tremored, not from his laughter this time, but rather movement, as he moved out of the cave’s interior towards its exit, stopping momentarily. “Ember, go fetch the bloodstone scepter. Bring it to Broken Hollow.”

“That old place? Why?”

“Just do it and you’ll see,” he ordered.

The blue dragon nodded and quickly flew away.

“Ummm, excuse me… former Dragon Lord Torch,” Rarity inquired, “but what exactly is the Broken Hollow?”

“It is a place that one of the previous Dragon Lords lived in,” he explained. “He left behind something… but I fear you’ll be in for disappointment if you’re still thinking you’ll find something worthwhile.”

The cavern shook once more as the teal dragon made his way. At the last moment, the country pony remembered that they parked their airship right at the entrance of the mouth and he was charging in its direction, he would likely end up crashing into it and destroying it!

“WAIT!” she raised her voice, and he stopped at the entrance of the mouth, turning his head, having an irritated look on his face. “My apologies, former Dragon Lord, but can you just give us a moment so we can move our blimp out of the way?” she tried to say in a respectful tone.

The great dragon bristled, smoke escaping through his nostrils. “Fine, just be quick.”

Applejack quickly ran ahead of everybody else who made their way back to the airship. It was only then that she realized that one of them wasn’t present throughout the entire conversation. At the entrance of the cavern, the shaman stood still, looking out into the lands below, unmoving.

“Zecora, what are you staring at?” the workhorse asked as she got to her side.

In response, the zebra pointed. It took her a bit to notice what she was aiming at, but when she did it became apparent what got her attention. West of the mountain range, there were vast pools of lava, but the center of the location was barren, and out of it stuck out a rock formation: It resembled a wide-open gaping maw, a pair of crevices above it looking like slit eyes, and its top split in three ways, two of the sides forming horns, while the middle one was an open-top. It looked like a volcano with a face, yet it looked silent.

“Emmm, former Dragon Lord Torch…” she tried to get his attention, “what’s the weird head thing in the distance?”

The great dragon stuck his head out of the opening and knew what they were talking about. “Ah, that would be the Ol’ Rager,” he explained. “Legend has it that a long time ago, Dragon Lands were a lush jungle, where there was no shortage of rain. Then one day, the Ol’ Rager awakened. Its emergence released magma high in the sky, consuming all the rainclouds in the process, it spewed copious amount of lava, forming the vast lakes that surround it, and it rained molten rock and fire, creating more and more volcanoes in the process, burning all the plants and trees, and creating lava rivers and springs that cover just about every corner of the Dragon Lands.”

“Oh my… that sounds awful,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s all just stories, pony,” Torch responded. “I can remember it way back as a whelp that the Dragon Lands looked like this, and even back then that giant head was there. It’s little more than an empty cavernous pit, not a volcano.” It was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Well? Are you gonna move your balloon or what?”

“ALL ABOARD!” the country pony announced to get them to quickly move, before the dragon got tired of waiting and simply force his way out.

They finally embarked, moving away from the mouth of the save, and the former Dragon Lord climbed out, spreading his wings, and took flight before motioning them to follow him. It dragged on slowly. With a single beat of his wings, Torch was already ahead of them while they still slowly moved, descending the northern side of the mountain ridge. Some time passed, and soon enough they heard another set of wing beats approaching from behind. It was Ember, and she landed on the ship’s deck holding her ceremonial object: A scepter carved from a purple crystal, holding a large red glowing gemstone in its grip.

“Wow, this thing moves really slow, you guys,” she commented.

“This thing isn’t made for high speed, Ember,” Spike responded.

“If we had Twilight’s old balloon we could’ve pushed it to go faster,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Who would push it? You? You just barely got your wing feeling back, Dash. You’d be moving at a snail’s pace,” Applejack said behind the steering wheel.

The wonderbolt’s eyes darted in the workhorse’s direction like daggers, but before the conflict could escalate further, they heard the loud sound of wingbeats approaching, and before they knew it, the former Dragon Lord was flying by the side of the blimp, his eyes showing a clear lack of amusement.

“Are you all planning to follow or not?”

“I’m sorry, former Dragon Lord Torch, but this is as fast as it can go,” the shy pegasus apologized.

A sighing noise came out of his mouth, they understood his frustration, but as they established, it can’t go faster, what followed, however, was something that took them completely off guard. The elder dragon grabbed the airship by its edge with one hand, while the other one grabbed the balloon. His wings beat again, and as he moved he dragged the blimp with him. The sudden acceleration threw everybody off their feet and they struggled to grab hold of the nearest solid thing so they wouldn’t be swept away. Several seconds passed before things finally calmed down and the airship came to a standstill. They needed a moment, some of them were still reeling from the experience.

“That fast enough for ya, Dash?” Applejack, still holding on to the steering wheel asked, the mare in question didn’t reply, as she slid off the nearby wall.

“Dad, that was reckless! You could’ve gotten them all hurt!” the Dragon Lord scorned the former one.

“Well, they didn’t. And besides, we’re here,” Torch proudly said.

They managed to recover from their stupor and look over the edge of the blimp. They were on solid ground once again, and before them, was another gaping maw carved into the mountain just like the one in which Torch made his home, but this one looked ancient, the passage of time visible as part of it was collapsed.

“What is this place?” Spike asked as he flew over the edge and landed on the ground.

“You’ll see soon enough, runt,” the great dragon told him. “Come on all of you!”

One after another they climbed off their vessel, the shaman being the last one to crawl to the ship’s railings. “Had I known I would have to endure this vertigo, I’d have just stayed below and waited for the go…”

She finally managed to slip over the edge, her senses not yet fully recovered, landing atop the party planner, who purposely stepped in her way. “Happy to have cushioned your fall, Zecora,” she giggled, before trotting after the rest of the group with her.

Together with the three dragons, the ponies entered the razor jaws. However, a shadow moved from nearby piles of rock, observing the arrivals that had disappeared into the cavern.

“Where are they going?” the echoing voice wondered.

It was dark. They needed to wait for a moment before Twilight lit up her horn to illuminate the room. The cave wasn’t particularly big. It was so small that the former Dragon Lord had to lay on his belly and crawl on all fours. There wasn’t anything noteworthy about this place, but there was something that stood out: There was a throne carved from a rock, adorned with red crystals that have long since gone dull, in front of it was a table, around which were small stone seats. Somebody had lived here a long time ago… a family perhaps? But why was it abandoned? They suddenly came to a standstill, as the great dragon stopped in front of a pile of boulders, and began removing them.

“Dad, why did you bring us here?” Ember questioned. “Every dragon knows this place is empty and abandoned.”

“Who used to live here?” Fluttershy wondered.

“Oh, some Dragon Lord whose name has been long forgotten from what I understand,” she explained.

“Of course,” Torch answered, “because I told so to everyone.” Everybody present gave him a confused look. “I came to the Broken Hollow a long time ago, back when I had just become a Dragon Lord. I decided to scour the Dragon Lands and seek out the places where all the other Dragon Lords before me used to live. I thought, since I’m the leader now, that means all of their treasure and hoard were mine by right. This was one of the first places I visited. And yes, it was empty and abandoned… but after what I discovered in it, I decided to make sure that rumor continued. And you’ll soon see why.” He removed the last boulder revealing a large smooth stone wall, at the center of which there was a strange small gap. “Ember, insert the scepter in it,” he pointed.

The blue dragon flew up and looked at it, unable to understand why he would say that, but she listened anyway. To her surprise, as she inserted the bloodstone crystal top into it, she discovered that it fit in perfectly. Suddenly, the red crystal began to glow, and it spread across the smooth stone wall. A tremor followed, the entire cavern shook as the wall suddenly began to move back and then slowly slid to the side. All of a sudden, a bright glow erupted from the secret room, blinding everybody.

“Come,” Torch ordered, as he moved into the light, his shadow obscuring it enough for others to regain their sight and follow.

Another cavern opened before them. This one was vast, big enough for the great dragon to pull himself to the full height. The blinding light finally dissipated, and the sight that they beheld, left them speechless. Bright radiant crystals of many colors covered the walls, and other than the ceiling, everything was obscured by them. Torch anticipated the reaction of others: Their eyes were open wide, and his daughter and the runt were even drooling at the sight.

“Behold,” he announced, “the legacy of the Dragon Lord that came before me. And it's all mine.”

Ember finally snapped out of her trance. “Wait, you knew about this place this entire time? And you didn’t tell anybody?! Even me?!”

“This is my hoard, Ember,” he said. “You think I would keep it at an arm’s reach so the scavengers could come and pick it off one after another while I’m sleeping? I’m smarter than that. I made sure to keep it in one place nobody would ever think of looking, and every now and then I would sneak out in the dark of night to enjoy its splendor.”

“Somecreature like him sneaking about?” wonderbolt whispered to the party planner. “That’s a good laugh.” Pinkie Pie who was still carrying Zecora on her back giggled.

“Yes, but what about what you said earlier, former Dragon Lord Torch?” Twilight finally spoke up. “You said something about one of the previous Dragon Lords leaving something behind.”

He regarded her. “And I also said you’ll end up being disappointed. I brought you here to make the point – you will find no written knowledge in Dragon Lands. The Dragon Lords that came before have left only riches, ones that are to be enjoyed by the powerful and coveted by the weak. We tell tales of the glory of beating an enemy and making them lesser… but that is all you will get from any dragon that has ever lived here, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

He said it outright, and it saddened her. She was hoping that for a change the answers would finally be in her sight, only to be met with disappointment. And for all she knew, Chrysalis, Grogar, and the Storm King will be arriving at Dragon Lands any moment now, likely already knowing where their quarry is and she couldn’t do anything to intervene in time. The feeling of sadness was beginning to turn into a flame in her belly, and she was getting so angry that she wanted to kick something just to relieve the stress. But…

“HEY!” Her attention was caught by Torch’s sudden yell; so loud it was that the cavern shook a little, and the sound of crystals clanging against one another resonated.

It seemed that her little companion was so mesmerized by the sight of the great collection of crystals that he couldn’t help himself but wander off to the first bright one that sat by the entrance and picked it up. Just a little bite, that’s all he was craving for right now. But the former Dragon Lord caught on to it just as he was opening his mouth, and the yell startled him.

“Don’t think even for a moment of eating that, runt!” he yelled once more, causing the tremors to shake the cavern again. “That’s mine! DO YOU HEAR ME!? MINE!!!”

The final furious bellow made the vault quake so much that the perfectly stashed crystals finally tipped, causing them to rain on top of everybody. It was too late for them to run to a safe distance at this point and all they could do is cover under the great dragon’s massive form. By the time the rain of crystals stopped, a large pile of them covered Torch up to his waist, and nobody else was in sight but Spike and Ember, who were near the wall and managed to avoid the pile-up.

“Whoops…” a single sound escaped from the large dragon.

“Never mind the whoops, dad!” Ember yelled. “Get them out of there, quick!”

The elder dragon did little more than raise his claws out of the pile and raised six equines out of it.

“I’ve heard of the “crystal shower” back at the Crystal Empire, but I don’t think these are the same things,” Pinkie Pie said as she was holding onto one of the big fingers, with Zecora holding onto her tail.

The rest of the ponies managed to get themselves up, with Rarity contently clinging to a giant crystal that was in Torch’s palm. However, one of the ponies was not present, as the alicorn princess tried to climb out of the narrow hole that the great dragon just created. Ember flew up on the top of the pile, laid the bloodstone scepter down, and tried to pull her out. Some of the crystals moved in the process, and in the chain reaction, the scepter tumbled down the pile.

“I got it! I got it!” Spike yelled as he was still holding the crystal from earlier and tried to catch the scepter.

It missed the shot, and the scepter’s head fell right on top of him. “Told you… I got it…” he said weakly, as was recovering from the impact, holding the bloodstone in one hand and the white crystal in another.

They touched. A red flash happened momentarily, and all of a sudden, the white crystal began to grow incredibly bright, almost blinding them all. The bright light faded, and as the purple dragon’s eyes readjusted he screamed in fear. A large white head of the dragon was staring at him, and in panic, he tossed the crystal away. The head disappeared… it was moving with the roll of the object. It eventually stopped rolling and the image appeared clearly again. The projection of a great white dragon, who was almost as big as Torch, was looking at the said crystal, tapping it with his claws.

“Are you sure it will work, mother?” his deep voice asked.

All of a sudden, another voice answered; it sounded feminine, but it was so deep it could barely be noticed. “It will, Skygar. The memory crystal will record everything in its vicinity… providing whatever is being recorded isn’t too far away or too big. All it requires to trigger it are gentle taps, like the ones you just made. It’s happening as we speak.”

“But mother, why do we have to go through all of this?” the white dragon inquired.

“My time is short, child,” the other voice said sorrowfully. “I have centuries ahead of you, and I cannot watch over the brood constantly. Until the time comes, you will have to watch over them in my place… until I’m ready to return.” All of a sudden, a gigantic white claw, almost as big as the dragon himself appeared, and in its palm, it was holding a pulsing crystal of a slightly grey shade. “This is the key to it all. I have imbued the bloodstone with my essence so that when the time is right, you will be able to use it. And in the same vein, it will also trigger the memory crystal activation. For should you fail in your task, those who will come after you will see the message and understand what needs to be done.”

The dragon humbly reached up and took the glowing grey crystal. “But… mother, why would anyone of my siblings listen to me?”

The claw reached upwards, disappearing, there was a snapping sound, there was a roar, accompanied by the sound of burning flames, and the claw appeared again, holding a cluster of crystals in a shade of grey.

“Because you will be their lord… MY Dragon Lord.” And the claw placed the crystal crown on the white dragon’s head.

All of a sudden, the projection became distorted, and it disappeared. There was silence in the cave now, everybody was left perplexed by what they had just witnessed.

Chapter 48: A Three Way

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 49: Beaches, Sortings, and Cities Galore

Author's Note

Hey everybody!
Sorry for the long update, but with the new job I just got it drained me of my drive to finish the chapter for another week.

Chapter 49: Beaches, Sortings, and Cities Galore

The western side of Dragon Lands was covered in rocky ridges, separating the interior from the ocean. That was the terrain that the three equines and the misfit had to traverse, one being rather upbeat and optimistic compared to the rest.

“Come on, guys!” Pinkie Pie hopped happily forward. “We’re almost there!”

“You said that like half an hour ago, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash groaned, “and we’re nowhere near it yet.”

“I agree,” draconequss said, as he poked his head out of the fanny pack around the shy pegasus’ neck and wrung his mane, moisture dripping out of it. “And this head is absolutely unbearable, especially in here.”

“Relax, you two. This time we really are riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight… THERE!” The pink pony stopped in front of a tall rocky ridge that was blocking their path.

“Seriously? You want us to go over that?” Discord complained. “Why didn’t we go around the ridge in the first place?”

“Oh, you silly,” she petted his head. “We’d be hiking for hours if we did that.”

“As if this little cliff will stop me,” the blue pegasus declared, opened her wings, and with each wing beat, she lept on a ledge one after another.

“Dash, wait!” the party planner called. “Don’t go!”

“Hey, you know I can’t do much to help in this case. Besides, it was your idea to come here in the first place. So, see ya on the other side!”

And with those words, Rainbow Dash continued to leap, scaling the geological formation; it was easy enough, especially now that her wings were finally somewhat functioning, even if not fully yet. Just as she leaped onto the ledge just before the peak, she heard a low growl, only for her to freeze on the spot when she turned in its direction. It seemed that one of the elder dragons had made his home near the top of the cliff, and she landed right in front of its face. It roared, and in response, the wonderbolt screamed in panic, quickly leaping further up, as the dragon reached out with his head and tried to snap at her, following her to the top of the peak and over to the other side where he finally stopped going after her. She sighed in relief, completely forgetting for a moment that she was in freefall, and when she did, she quickly tried to slow down only to land flat into a pile of sand. After some time passed she finally raised her head, the sun blinding her until a figure stepped in its way, blocking it.

“Took you long enough,” a familiar voice said, as another figure appeared next to it.

The element of Loyalty shook her head, quickly realizing who it was. “What the-?! How did you guys get here?!”

The shy pegasus simply pointed behind her, and upon looking back, the wonderbolt noticed a hole in the cliffside.

“Maybe if you had just waited for a second, you’d have heard her say that we got “the ultimate tool”,” Discord prodded her.

That’s when she finally realized they were talking about Pinkie, and in frustration, she bashed her head in the sand several times.

“Anyways… WE’RE HERE!” the party planner announced and finally stepped away from her.

A wide sandy beach opened before them, with waves splashing on the shore. And just as Ember said, it was littered with dragons, some chasing one another, some sunbathing, others playing with a beachball, and then there were those that were swimming in the sea; the place was absolutely lively.

“Dibs on the ball court!” Dash yelped and ran off.

“Time to make a splash!” Pinkie declared, putting on her swimming gear and running for the sea, leaving the shy pegasus all by herself.

“Let’s go for a nice quiet walk on the beach, okay, Discord?” she asked, waiting for a response, but there was none. “Discord?” She poked her fanny pack, and still, he didn’t reply, so she opened it, only to discover he wasn’t with her! Where did he go?

The wonderbolt ran to where the dragons were playing with the ball, not realizing that the draconequss was holding on to her mane, determined to show off at the play. The realization of his current situation hit him quickly, as they got in the proximity of the court, the ball flew over the net, past the one that was trying to bounce it back, and straight for the blue pegasus. She managed to dodge it, but unfortunately, the former Lord of Chaos had no such luck, as the ball hit him instead of her, launching him a fair distance away before the ball finally stopped on top of him. Luckily, the animal caretaker was close by and she bumped the ball off of him.

“I don’t think in your current state you would be able to play with anyone bigger than Angel Bunny, Discord.” She scooped him up in her hooves. “Let’s start with something less active, okay?”

He sighed, disgruntled. “Okay…”

She placed him on her back and they wandered down the beach, while Pinkie Pie cannonballed into the sea, meanwhile, the ball game halted as the dragons stared at the blue newcomer. “So, which team wants to have this professional sports pony?” she pridefully asked.

The princess and her advisor returned to the heart of the crystal repository. Inside, the Dragon Lord and the former one were already waiting, the latter slouching against the cave’s wall, with a grumpy look on his face. The little dragon stopped and unfurled the giant roll like toilet paper, extending for several hooves, and then took the quill out of his mouth.

“Okay, we’re all set, you two,” she announced to the two Dragon Lands natives. “Let’s get started.”

“Yes, but where?” Ember asked the obvious question. “That Disco-Cord guy did make a valid point. There are several thousand years of messages to go through and we only have a start.”

“No worries, we just need to sort them out,” the alicorn said.

“But how, Twilight?” Spike inquired. “This isn’t gonna be as easy as sorting books. They have an author’s name, the date of print, titles, etc. How can we set the crystals apart from one another?”

“We’ll piece it together one crystal after another until we have a complete puzzle.” She looked about the cavern, and the first stone that caught her eye was pristine, transparent, almost like a diamond. “Ember,” she said as she picked it up, “let’s start with this one and see where it’ll get us.”

The blue dragon approached them, extended the bloodstone scepter towards it, and touched its surface with its tip. They waited for the crystal to respond as the previous ones have, but there was nothing. Confused, the Dragon Lord touched it again, waiting for a bit, only to be met with no response.

“What is this now? Nothing’s happening,” she addressed.

“I... I don’t know,” Twilight spoke. “We did everything as we did before, so by all accounts it should’ve worked.”

“Don’t tell me that some of them don’t even work now…” Spike wondered. “If that’s the case we might really end up looking for a needle in a haystack. And we still got no idea how to categorize them.”

“We could try tasting them.”

Everybody’s attention was grabbed by that blunt suggestion that came from the former Dragon Lord Torch, who still leaned on the cave’s wall, scratching his belly.

“NO!” Twilight yelled, before clapping her mouth shut, realizing she just yelled at him, and Spike quickly intervened to catch the crystal from falling to the ground. “I mean… We can’t temper with them. Even if by some miracle they can be differentiated by taste, we can’t risk damaging them. Even one of them could hold critical information.”

“Fine,” he grunted. “It was just a suggestion.”

The princess went into thought. Before she got anywhere, however, she heard a light tapping sound behind her, and turned a few moments later, only to find her companion’s tongue extended, dragging it across the surface of the pristine crystal.

“Spike!” she yelled and in shock, it slipped from his grip and fell to the ground. “What did I just say?!”

“I swear wasn’t gonna eat it,” he made excuses. “I just wanted to see if his theory held any water.”

“And?”

He shrugged. “I honestly didn’t notice a difference between it and any other gem or crystal… unless I can try sampling another one-“

“No!” she reiterated. “No tasting whatsoever, do you understand?!” She stopped, inhaling, then looked about and saw a small bright crystal nearby. “Okay, let’s try this one.” She lifted it in Ember's direction and she touched it with the bloodstone scepter.

The crystal glowed, and after the light passed, the familiar imagery of a giant hand whose owner could not be seen due to her size, appeared, as well as a recognizable Dragon Lord that was the first they saw earlier. Something was off, as there was heavy breathing in the air, and the smaller dragon that had just arrived at the scene looked rather distraught.

“Mother?” he asked. “Mother, what’s wrong?”

“It…” the deep feminine voice paused as it gasped for air, “it is time, I fear… My time… is nearly up now.”

“No! Mother, there must be something that can be done! I-“ he protested, only for the giant claw to reach for him and pressed one of its fingers against his muzzle.

“No, child… There is nothing you can do to stop this… All you can do… Is that you come with me… so you will know where to look for me… Aid me… when the time is right…”

“Aid you? In what?”

“In my… reawakening…” There was suddenly a loud thudding noise as if there was an earthquake and the mountain shook, but instead, they saw bits of a gigantic form pass the first Dragon Lord, disappearing behind where he stood. “Take the crystal with you,” she ordered.

The smaller dragon picked it up, and the imagery party disappeared into the ground as its recording position changed. “Where are we going, Mother?” he asked.

“To the place that only I know of… I call it the Pool of-“

All of a sudden, the projection just disappeared in the middle of a sentence and everything went quiet.

“Wait, what?” Spike tilted his head. “Why did it just stop?”

Twilight turned the crystal about, perplexed. “I don’t know, Spike. This didn’t happen before; the recording was much shorter than the previous ones. But why?”

Ember stepped closer to examine the crystal herself. She looked at the spot where it looked like it was shattered, snapped off even. And suddenly, a thought came to her mind, her gaze traveling to her sire.

“Dad…” his spawn inquired, crossing her arms. “You didn’t eat any of them before, did you?”

“Noooooo…” he extended the word longer than it should be, making it sound rather suspicious. “Well, maybe a bite or two before I decided it was too valuable for a snack.”

“DAD!” she snapped at him.

Things just kept getting messier: Her companion made a valid point that there was no clear way to tell one crystal apart from another, other than color, and that’s unlikely the indication of markings. Furthermore, some didn’t even work or were otherwise damaged either by the strains of time or somebody nibbling on them, which made things ultimately inconclusive. The princess tried to concentrate, but with the arguing noise in the background, it was rather difficult. There had to be a way to tell the crystals apart from one another; there was no way that the Dragon Lords of old would make such oversight and would be able to tell which memory crystal came from which dragon, but what could it possibly be?

There was suddenly a momentary flash that she caught from the corner of her eye, but when she looked it left her confused. There was a purple crystal lying on the ground, yet she was sure it wasn’t there earlier. And where did the pristine one she held earlier go?

“Spike, where did you put that crystal from before?” she asked.

“It’s where I dropped it,” her purple companion said.

That didn’t make sense. She was sure none of the other crystals were moved apart from the empty and the broken one, so where did this one come from? And where did the pristine one disappear to? As she wondered, her gaze kept switching between the crystal and the little dragon, and it slowly began to dawn on her that they were both the same color. Now that she thought about it, the broken crystal and the one they saw at the start had the same color, and the dragons recorded in it were the same. What if…

“Ember,” she interrupted her scolding her senior, and lifted the purple crystal in the air, “use it on this one.”

The blue dragon landed on the ground and used the bloodstone scepter once more before the object was put on the ground. The purple crystal flashed, and once the blinding light dissipated, even though she was glad her suspicions were confirmed, she was still left surprised. The image of Spike appeared, tilted since the crystal was no longer held up, tapping his finger on it. Yet as soon as he began licking it, he was interrupted.

“Spike! What did I just say?!”

That voice… As soon as it came up, the image of the little dragon dropped the crystal, and the scenery fixed itself. Twilight’s image was right there on display. And what they witnessed was the events of the last few moments playing out: Her trying to make a point that they won’t be consumed, their attempt to use another crystal, and realizing it was broken before the Dragon Lord went to chew out the former one, and it finally ended with Twilight going into deep thought. After that the imagery became distorted and the projection disappeared.

The Dragon Lord was left baffled. “Errr… how’s this possible?”

“I think I figured it out,” the mare said. “That pristine crystal. It didn’t activate because it was empty - there was no memory recorded in it.”

“But why did it activate now, and why did it change color?” her advisor asked.

“Remember the first recording, Spike? It explained that the recording starts when one taps on it. You triggered it, and it recorded what happened not long ago.”

“Okay, but do enlighten us on how that helps us?” Torch inquired.

“Easy,” the alicorn replied. “The memory crystal doesn’t only seem to record the surroundings, but also the user’s essence. In the first recording we saw, as well as the last, the crystals are of the same color, and it’s clear that the first Dragon Lord was present in both of them, meaning he likely had bright scales, which would explain why the crystal that Spike activated turned to the color of his scales. Which means…” She cast a spell, and the clusters of crystals shifted around until, out of them, several more of the same color appeared as the first one. “We know how to categorize the memory crystals now!”

The two earthbound mares traveled east, past the mountain range that was now behind their backs and deeper into the heartlands of the domain of dragons. Sun was high in the sky, which didn’t help that they trekked through the land that spewed molten rock and fire. And Applejack certainly felt it. She was used to hard-working days out in the open fields back home and they were cool in comparison. The only time she experienced something close to this was when she and her friends had to walk through the Bone Dry Desert as they were trying to get help from the hippogriffs; this was something else entirely, as the heat was coming from every corner of the land, beating on her at every move, she couldn’t imagine being able to endure all of this on a daily basis as its native residents could. She stopped for a moment, wiping thick sweat drops off her brow.

KREEEEEEEE!

A sound came from above. She looked up, and through the blinding sun she spotted a silhouette; it was a bird, a vulture. She quickly picked up the pace, she didn’t want to give it an idea that she was on her last leg so he would have a feast. In the end, though it flew far ahead of them, in the same direction they were going.

“You seem to be having a hard time, Applejack,” the shamans said as she stopped. “Say we stop so you rest your back?”

“Nah, Ah’m good,” she tried to put on a brave face. “But… you seem to be doing more than well. Ah take it you’re just used to heat by nature?”

She smiled. “I'm no stranger to the heat, though even back home it wasn't a treat. But now let's advance with care, burns won't cure themselves with only air.”

The orange pony knew too well what she was referring to. As they got closer to “the Ol’ Rager”, the geological formation became rather imposing at this distance, all the while vast magma lakes surrounded it, and the two would have to traverse them. Easier said than done, as they had to keep a good distance as they moved through the borderlines, trying to make sure not to lose balance and drop inside, and it didn’t help that intense heat was rising from the lakes, increasing the temperature from earlier when they were still just under the sun. And the workhorse had to take it all - not a small feat. She stuck close to the shaman, who despite her claims from before, seemed to be holding well on her own. Unfortunately, her perseverance faltered for a moment, as the strength in one of her legs slipped for a moment, and when she tried to quickly recover, the edge of one of the lakes gave out, making her slide off with it. She screamed, and just before she went over the border, she stood still, looking into the impending boiling doom under her, with only her hind legs standing on the very edge of the slope. Yet she didn’t fall in, as the zebra managed at the last moment to bite down on the clump at the end of her tail, and then slowly dragged her out.

The pony sighed in relief. “Thanks, Zecora. If ya hadn’t been here I’d have ended up more fried up than one of Apple Fritter’s fritters… when she has a bad day.”

“Were you not here to watch my back my resolve might have gone slack,” she answered. “Though the only other time when the heat was to be beat, I recall was in the boundary of Musa's foundry.”

The orange mare nodded, and then stopped after she processed what she heard. “Sorry, the what now?”

Zecora stopped. “Forgive me, I suppose my words are lost on one whom my land they haven't crossed.”

“Ya know,” Applejack suggested, as she removed her hat to wipe her brow, “if it’ll keep this heat away, I’d very much like to know what it means.”

She giggled. “I will indulge you, stick close and carry on within view unless you want the event of before to renew.”

A camel trade caravan traveled back and forth to the furthest parts of Farasi, their trade route. And right now, they were on their way to the far eastern part of the land. The place they would have to traverse was narrow, as the mountain ranges on each side created a funnel through which the sea winds rushed in, creating sandstorms that obscure the visibility of any creature that tried to push through, save for them. However, they were not alone this time, as a pair of unexpected travelers joined them on the journey to the kingdom in the far east; the high shaman, and his youngest filly, who was not so small anymore, and at an age when rebellious nature began to crop up.

“Are we there yet?” Zecora asked.

“Your question will be answered as before, there are still many steps to travel in store,” her father responded.

“When will we get there?” she groaned. “We’ve been on the road for three days now. And why did we leave the rest of the tribe at Mount Chinjaio?”

“The trade route only extends three ways; too many of us can’t travel through the heat and haze. Hence we carry the goods to them and in exchange receive our pays.”

“Then why did I have to come along? I was hoping to spend some time with Imari since I hardly see him.”

“You're growing tall and strong in your own right, but you've yet to visit every corner of Farasi which doesn't appear in sight.”

“Fine…” she groaned. “But what is this place we’re going to?”

He only smiled. “It's best you see with your own eyes, my words might make them seem like lies.”

It frustrated her. She wanted to know why this place was so special, but he just refused to give her an answer. Yet she was determined for somebody to give it to her. She quickened the pace to the front of the camel herd, only to stumble backward, as the sandstorm only got more intense and she was enjoying the protective shielding that their much taller companions were providing.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, little girl,” a voice said, and Zecora quickly noticed whose it was.

At the head of the herd, a sole camel trot. She could hardly see his features through the intense sandstorm, all that she noticed was a flowing white cloth on top of his head, held together by a string. She quickened up again, this time standing behind his rear to make sure the swirling sands didn’t get to her again.

“Mister Tajir? I want to ask something,” she spoke up.

“Of course, you do,” he answered. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left the safety of the caravan.”

“What is this place we’re going to?”

His head turned back for a moment. “You want to know about the capital of the kingdom of Musa? You should wait and see it for yourself. Mere words would make it seem untrue to you.”

“Fada already said that!” she complained. “But I still want to know what’s so special about this kingdom.”

“You still want me to indulge you?” he questioned, only to see her nodding. “Very well. Beyond this sandy valley, there is a spring that provides fertile grounds for a vast settlement. A settlement full of towering spires, and streets full of vibrant colors and bliss unparallel.

“And why do your people visit this city?” she inquired.

“Ah, a very good question, little one. Kelpie’s Carthage forms the largest of the three kingdoms, one where creatures of all kinds can live together and are blessed by Watami’s presence. Abadas of Chinjaio are provided the most fertile ground in all the land, gaining them bountiful harvests every year. But Musa… Musa possesses things that other kingdoms are unable to provide because they lack a certain SPARK of innovation and as a result the natural material that they were able to acquire.”

“Natural material?” the zebra wondered. “What kind?”

“Well, you’re wearing one right now.”

She looked over herself; besides the saddlebags, the only thing she had on was the four sparkling rings that adorned her neck and left leg. Was this what he was referring to? Before she could inquire further, however, the wind went silent and the constant sand sprinkling ceased. The sand storm had ended and over the ridge, she could see the light. They finally arrived at their destination! She advanced but stopped after she realized the rest of the travelers weren’t following her.

“Okay everybody!” the leader ordered. “Set up the camp! Tomorrow we’ll descend into the valley below to the city!”

Zecora was left confused. “Wait what? But we still have daylight! Is the city still that far?”

The caravan leader chuckled. “That’s not daylight, dear. That is the power source that is generously provided by the king. And it will go out the moment he drops off for today. Which should be happening right about…”

And as he spoke, the zebra noticed the light over the ridge dim, until it disappeared, entering the twilight hour.

“What did I tell you? In any case, even if we went there now, they won’t let anyone in. We’ll spend the night out here and make our way to the city in the morning.”

She pouted. She was hoping to finally see what all the fuss was about and she got denied.

“Zecora, don't pout and sit! Come and help with the fire pit!” her father ordered.

The night has fallen upon the camel camp, and the fire had slowly died down, leaving only a few flickering embers. The entire herd was fast asleep, including the High Shaman… but not his foal. She couldn’t sleep, the desire to know why they were so vague on details was frustrating her. And in the end, the curiosity got the better of her; day or night, she was going to see what the big deal was. She made sure that everybody around her was asleep and then slowly traipsed out of the camp and climbed the rise. When she finally got to the top, she could only describe it as a disappointment: She could hardly see anything at all, as whatever the structures in the distance were, were obscured by a mountain ridge behind it, and the only thing she could see was the stars reflections on the water surface. She had to get closer, yet as she did, the atmosphere around her started to feel rather foreboding, as the towering structures obscured the starry sky, removing what little light they offered. She could only see the vague outlines of the buildings so she could move through the empty streets without crashing into anything, but it helped little; she could see anything special… but she did hear something. It sounded like clanging chains, soon to be accompanied by the sound of hooves, and they were approaching her location. Whoever or whatever it was, she didn’t want to be found and she quickly scurried into a nearby narrow alley and went silent, trying to slow down her breathing. And then she saw them; a pair of silhouettes as they passed by, stopping in plain view of her.

“Did you hear that?” one of the voices said.

“Eh, it’s probably just some vermin scurrying about,” said the other.

“What if some dangerous beast came into town?”

“Please, rookie,” the other voice scoffed, “you’re being too paranoid. Hardly any beast would dare to come near the city, whether in day or night.”

“So why are we here then?” the naïve one wondered.

“To enforce the curfew of course,” he answered. “The city’s hardly gonna run on time if somebody’s gonna make a ruckus and keep others from sleeping. Now come on.”

And the sounds began to disappear in the distance. She sighed in relief and began to rethink the previous decision. Perhaps it would be better to go back to camp and just wait out the night. Before she could get around it though, as she stepped back onto the main street, something caught her eye. A light! She could see a single spark of light in this city of darkness in the distance. Her curiosity drive kicked in again, and instead of going back, she proceeded, picking up the pace until it turned into a gallop.

Some time passed and it became apparent that the light source was not actually IN the city, but outside, on the other end of it. A tunnel was dug into the mountainside and there was intense light coming out of it. She slowly walked in and trotted through it for some time, slowly realizing that the deeper she went, the heat kept climbing, and by the time she finally got to the end of it, she understood why. A vast room opened up before her, strewn with mining wagons and chains, and in a pit below there were numerous stone crucibles, containing heated-up liquid, as they spilled out into the bolds below them to form ingots. She went further and then stopped, quickly hiding behind some mining carts when she heard voices below, and spotted a pair of zebras coming out of one of the shafts.

“Ugh, I hate overtime shifts…” one agonized.

“Same. But at least we can finally hit the hay. Good thing there’s still enough energy left here because I’d sure hate to push all those carts manually,” the other responded, and pushed a nearby lever, causing the nearby carts to move forward into the shaft from which they just came.

“Wait…” One stopped. “What about those up there?” He pointed to where Zecora was hiding.

“Yeah, yeah, calm your mane,” the other answered. “Already on it,” and proceeded to push another lever.

There was a clanking sound. The tracks under the little zebra suddenly trembled, but the carts where she was didn’t move. Then she heard a loud sound coming from behind her, only to turn and discover carts were coming down from the hill where she came from! In a panic she quickly lept out of the way and grabbed onto the nearby chain that was hanging by the edge, only for it to clang and quickly lowered itself, stopping with full force, causing Zecora to slip down to the very end of the chain, barely managing to hold on as she dangled over one of the giant crucibles that still contained boiling liquid. In the moment of panic, she screamed, causing the two workers below to finally take notice of her.

“Hey! What’s that kid doing here?!” one guard yelled.

“Quick!” the other urged. “Move the chain before she gets fried!”

The worker ran to pull the lever by the crucible, but when he did nothing happened. “No! We just ran out of power!”

“Girl, don’t move we’ll think of something-!”

But the words of the foundry worker would be for naught. She couldn’t hold on to the slippery chains and she could feel the intense heat from below rising. After a few moments, the last link finally slipped from the grip of her hooves and she fell, screaming in terror as she fell to her burning doom.

KRAKOOM!

The was a clashing sound and all of a sudden, the little zebra found herself unharmed, suspended above the boiling crucible. She felt a tightening feeling around her waist and noticed there was a golden chain with a trident head attached to its tip, and it trailed up the ledge where she was before, and another zebra was standing there, gripping the chain with his teeth. He had a cowl with a golden band around it to keep it fastened, and wore a sash, but both articles of clothing were sewn from a golden fabric.

“A storm guard!” one of the foundry workers shouted in relief.

The guard trotted backward, pulling her back to the solid ground. Once she was finally out of danger, he untied the chain.

“You two close the place down already,” he ordered to the workers. “I’ll escort her home.” And with that, he put one of his hooves over her shoulder and guided her out of the foundry.

“Rarely are my instincts wrong. It’s a good thing I went to confirm my suspicions, even though my partner told me otherwise,” the guard said as he led Zecora through the darkened city. “Were I not there, you’d have probably ended up like a fine statue. Now, tell me where you live. Your parents are probably waiting for you.”

The entire time she was quiet, and it took a while for her to speak up. “I don’t live here.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you don’t live here? You’re a zebra, you’re in the city where all zebras in Farasi come from, of course, you live here. Or are you simply saying this because you don’t want your parents to get angry that you broke the curfew?”

“No. I’m serious: I don’t live here.”

“I see…” he paused and stopped, holding her in place. “If that’s the case, I’ll just have to take you to the captain and you’ll spend the night at the station, and he’ll decide what to do with you. Is that what you want?”

A cold sweat washed all over her; this was more trouble than she had bargained for. She didn’t expect to get caught by authorities, and now, no matter what she chose, she would end up in trouble. Was there nothing that she could do?

TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!

A loud honking sound suddenly echoed throughout the city, and it was obvious that this wasn’t normal, as the storm guard freaked out, jumping back, and letting out a yelp. What it was, she didn’t know, but she was quite aware that the guard was at a distance. She didn’t want to face her father’s wrath. It was now or never. She dashed away.

“Hey! Stop!” the guard called after her and quickly pursued her.

They zig-zagged through the streets, and it quickly dawned on Zecora that he could hear her gallop and that’s how he followed her. After a quick corner turn, she went still, and the storm guard went right past her, while she tiptoed away. The guard, however, stopped when he realized that his target had disappeared, unaware that she was sneaking past him not far away in the dark. Yet just when she thought that the darkness will provide her with the necessary coverage, there was a sparking sound coming from his direction, and a light source began to light up. From the cover she spotted how the gold chain he was carrying became charged with lightning, lighting up the surroundings. She was trapped! There was no way for her to get out of the cover without him spotting her and if he does… what’s stopping him from tossing the chains at her, as she remembered how quickly he intervened back at the foundry.

“ADIL!”

The guard jumped at the sound, noticing another zebra guard approaching him from another direction.

“Where the heck did you go?!” he scorned him. “We’re not supposed to separate until the end of the shift, rookie!”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “but I just had this nagging feeling like something was off and I went to check on it. And I was right! One of the kids was breaking the curfew and she nearly fell into the foundry’s crucible!”

“Really now?” the other guard said in a suspicious tone. “And where is she now?”

“I was going to take her to the station since she didn’t want to speak where she lived, and then that weird sound came and it startled me. And I got so distracted that she ran off, and I lost track of her,” Adil explained. “Speaking of which, what was that thing?”

“That loud honking sound? A foreign vessel just landed in the harbor. But never mind that. Describe that girl for me.”

The rookie halted for a moment, wondering what to tell him that it wouldn’t sound weird. “She was… bare.”

“Come again?” His partner raised an eyebrow.

With the light from the electrified chains dimmed and the two guards distracted by the conversation, Zecora slowly crawled away from their position and out of the dark city. Finally, on the settlement’s outskirts, she once again went into a gallop and didn’t stop until she climbed over the ridge where the camel camp was, only to end up being short on breath. She simply dropped from exhaustion into her sleeping bag and hoped that by tomorrow nobody noticed anything happened or that they had just plain forgotten.

“Wake up, Zecora, no time to fuss,” a voice gently called her. “Tajir’s herd already went ahead of us.”

She shuffled under the cover. After the last night's experience, the last thing she wanted was to get up, even if the light was so bright; it felt as if she hardly slept.

“Not yet, fada,” she moaned, still half asleep. “I’d rather have the scorching sun at my back than to endure its light right now…”

“You are wrong, little one. What’s trying to wake you is not the sun.”

She must’ve misheard it, so she pulled the cover off her head and looked over to the ridge, where she saw the light gleaming over it. “What do you mean it’s not the sun? What’s the light then?”

The High Shaman chuckled. “Follow me north, then you’ll finally see what wonder did the light bring forth.”

What was he talking about? She couldn’t understand, and with what she saw last night, the place was rather unimpressive. Nothing could change her mind about what the city was like. She crawled out of her sleeping bag and slowly climbed the hill. As she did, however, she began to hear sounds coming over it; it sounded like the plucking of strings, drum beatings, and timbila being played. She finally got over the top, and she had to shield her eyes from the blinding light, taking a moment for them to finally fully awake and adjust, and after that happened, she finally looked upon the valley… and was left in awe.

“Welcome to the city of Mansa, Zecora. The capital of the Kingdom of Musa,” her father announced. “Let us descend to the valley below, there its wonders to you I’ll show.”

To the far western side of the valley, there was a lake, whose excess river spilled forth towards the glimmering sea, creating the lush river lands that could support a vast settlement. And her father was correct: The sun hasn’t risen yet, its first rays were just now beginning to peek over the horizon. The source of this light, however, was something else entirely. Flying in the air before her, was a giant yellow orb; it wasn’t the sun, it wasn’t even made of fire, no – she could see sparks flying off it and tendrils skittering all over its surface. This conjuration was made entirely of lightning, and it was illuminating the entire valley; some very powerful creature was responsible for constantly maintaining it. A city of spires sat underneath the ball of lightning, their tips covered in a reflecting metal that was constantly being stroked by the tendrils. Now she also noticed that there were numerous people out in the street. Without uttering a word, an invisible force drew her forth, and her father followed. Once she was on the streets of the city, it was unrecognizable from what she initially saw. Zebras. Zebras everywhere, going about their business, dressed in colorful clothing, women carrying their little foals in the saddlebags as they went about the market stalls, men boisterously talking and laughing. She went by one of the open houses and saw residents cook food in a lit area, even though there was no fire around. But most of all, the markets contained objects made of irons; copper, steel, silver, and even gold in large supply. Unlike the other two kingdoms she had visited, this place was unparalleled.

Something still made her wonder. “Fada, what is that giant orb above the city?”

“It is the source of the kingdom's power, its existence ensured by its king, who lives in the yon tower. The energy radiates from above the city, its residents employ it to make life less gritty,” he answered.

She suddenly remembered what the caravan leader told her the day before, and now she understood what he meant. It all made sense now.

Suddenly, a galloping sound interrupted her marveling. From the opposite end of the street, she saw stallions galloping in her way. She recognized their outfits: They wore the same things that the guard yesterday did when he apprehended her, and they were charging her way. The familiar cold sweat rushed over her at the thought that the guard last night reported to others and they finally found her. She was about to run, only to see them run past her. She sighed in relief… but too soon.

“You!”

She remembered that voice all too well. She slowly turned and before she knew it, the familiar stallion was within reach of her.

“You really thought you wouldn’t get noticed if you walked down the street?!” he yelled.

His voice finally caught the attention of her father as well, and seeing him rush in, he stepped in his way, causing him to stop before him.

“Sir, are you the father of this child?” the guard inquired, and he simply nodded. “Just so you know, sir, your daughter broke the city’s curfew last night! Not only that, she entered the foundry where she nearly fell to her doom were it not for me to save her!”

“I understand,” his gaze glanced behind her, “thank you for letting me know firsthand.”

“Hold on sir,” he wasn’t finished yet. “She broke the curfew under your care, which means you too must be reprimanded. As soon as the captain comes-“

“Stormguard Adil!” a yell traveled down the street and the said stallion quickly shut up.

Heavy stomps were head coming down the street that he came before, and a tall zebra dressed in green fabric, wearing a chainmail shirt made from pure gold over it.

“C-captain, I’m glad you came, sir,” he said nervously. “This is the child I reported about the night before. Now that we’ve got the father as well, we should-“

“Spare me your righteous speech, Adil,” he brushed him off, “or I’ll have you patrol the mountain range next time.”

“S-sir? W-what did I do wrong?” he stuttered.

“What did you do wrong?! That’s the High Shaman you’re accusing!”

He was about to say something, then stopped, his head turning to Zecora’s father, then back to his superior. “The… the High Shaman…? Y-you mean the one whose tribe is-“

“Yes, Adil, THAT tribe. Or is the fact that he’s the only zebra in Musa that’s walking around nearly bare, with a rear print, not an obvious proof?”

The guard sunk his head in shame. “I… I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know…”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” he motioned to the two. “Go on.”

Adil slowly turned, his head still lowered. “I’m… sorry.”

“Good,” he said before a sudden sound of clashing thunder echoed in the sky, and he quickly reacted. “Move it, all of you!” the captain ordered. “We’ve got an incident to contain!”

And the Stormguards moved down the street where the previous group went, leaving the father and daughter alone. She was sweating, dreading what he would do next.

“I would have been most upset,” his head turned with a glare, “were I unaware of the troubles you tend to beget.”

She gave him a surprised look. “You… you already knew?”

“My slumber broke in the middle of the night, I looked around, but you had taken flight. Though demise by foundry, it escapes my imagination's boundary.”

“But… then why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to see for myself. If the burden of guilt was too great to bear, you'd confess, and lay the truth bare.”

She lowered her head. “I’m sorry, fada.”

He put his hoof on her head and ran it down her mane. “I'll forgive you today, but in the future tame your curiosity so as not to stray.”

She was silent for a moment before speaking. “So long as the place doesn't impress, to the point, I'll soon be in distress.”

The elder zebra let out a laugh and soon she joined. They proceeded to move, the little zebra still admiring all the wonder that the city had to offer. After some time, however, her ears picked up on the sound of a rumble going on, and it was coming from the direction in which the city guards have gone. With her parent’s attention diverted elsewhere, she trotted off to have a closer look, wading through the crowd that had gathered around to inspect the event in progress. The storm guards have chained up an equine creature. It looked weird to her: He sort of looked like a zebra, but he didn’t possess any earthly colors like them, having a teal coat instead, and his clothes also seemed alien, nothing like it anything in Farasi. Suddenly there was a thundering sound in the air. The sound of crashing thunder erupted and, in a flash, a tall figure stood near the edge of the crowd. Zecora recognized him, even though she’s seen him only once as a child, she would always recognize this tall, imposing, masculine figure – King Abraxas.

“Your Majesty.” The captain of the guard bowed his head. “We’ve restrained the outsider.”

The giant zebra approached the small equine being. “Who are you, outsider? Who sent you?”

“I-i-i-I’m Seasaddle, sir,” he answered in a jittery tone. “I’m from Equestria, and I had to make port since my trade ship got damaged in a storm.”

“So you claim,” the king looked at him with a disapproving gaze. “And what exactly were those things that you released into our city?”

“Sir, I did not release anything,” he protested. “One of them must’ve stowed away on my ship and it was eating my supplies. They’re-“

“Pestilence? Is that what you were gonna say?” the captain intervened. “They were. They ate up nearly half of the food that was stored in the granary before his majesty disposed of them.”

“I swear, I’m as surprised they were here. I swear, I never had any intention to cause harm to you people!” he excused.

“That remains to be seen,” Abraxas ended, before turning to the subordinate. “Captain, do your duty.” And with a flash of lightning, the ruler of Musa disappeared, leaving his storm guard to clean things up.

“Wha-what are you gonna do to me?” the colorful equine asked.

“We’re placing you under arrest, outsider, until further notice,” the captain stated. “Until we strip your vessel apart and make sure none of those things are left. Guards! Take him away!” The crowd parted, as a handful of guards pulled the chained stallion away. “The rest of you, go search the ship! Leave no plank unturned! If even one of those creatures manages to slip away, whoever finds it… will spell doom upon them.”

With those words, the rest of the guards, along with their captain, departed, and the crowd dispersed. Zecora wondered what had happened; had she arrived earlier, maybe she’d have seen it, but she was still bed-bound because of the night before. Now she was angry at herself for going out. She was about to depart and join her father when…

Purri!

She stopped, she heard a strange chirping sound nearby and saw a tiny shadow move in the shade of a nearby basked at the weaver’s stall. She moved closer to have a better look at it. The creature she saw was unlike anything she saw: It was a small round purple ball with big teal glistening eyes, and it had tiny wings – it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen.

Purri!

“Aww, hello, little thing,” she addressed it. “Why are you hiding in there?”

She crouched closer, trying to reach for it to gently stroke it, and it rubbed against the soles of her hooves. It suddenly hopped off along the length of her leg and crawled into her saddlebag that was now resting on the ground with her. She got back up and looked inside, seeing the innocent little creature snugging in the fabric that served as her sleeping bag.

“Don’t worry, little thing,” she told it. “When we get back home, I’ll take good care of you, I promise.”

“Zecora!” a familiar voice called to her, so she put the saddlebags back on and ran off.

"Zecora?" Applejack interrupted her.

She made the shaman end her story - after all, they arrived at their destination. They passed through the numerous magma lakes, and now they were at the threshold of the giant gaping maw. And the former Dragon Lord spoke truly: Had this been a volcano, they would be staring in the blazing inferno, but instead, they were met with an impenetrable darkness, they couldn’t see a thing. They slowly walked in, and Zecora started to rummage through her saddlebags to try and find something for a light source when they suddenly saw something in the darkness. It was a green glow, going back and forth.

“What the hay is that thing?” Applejack wondered.

Whatever it was, it must’ve heard her, as it suddenly stopped and then started to look as if it was vibrating and growing, when in fact, was coming closer. They didn’t know what to expect, but by now the zebra had pulled out her lantern and turned it on, and illuminated the figure that approached them. It was a dark purple teal-maned unicorn mare with glasses, carrying saddlebags, and she covered her face from the intense light.

“Miss? Who are you?” the workhorse inquired.

She didn’t answer, and instead, put down her saddlebags and rummaged through them, before pulling out a small laminated card with her picture and name. “Whimsy Windsdale. From Equestrian Astronomy Institute.”

Chapter 50: Humble Origins

By late afternoon, the storm had slowly dispersed and the sun once again shone upon Ponyville and Canterlot. However, one place remained covered in the perpetual darkness – the dark cloud hovering over the Everfree Forest, where the Turmoil’s remains rested, reaching almost as far as the Castle of the Two Sisters. And it’s upon these castle grounds that the Pillar of Sorcery teleported to, pausing for a few moments as he stared into the encroaching shadow that he once tried to suppress, before finally moving into the ruin’s interior. Yet the silence outside was brief, as another figure teleported to the wizard’s location, and slowly followed. It climbed the stairs into the tower where the old unicorn once had his quarters, and that’s where she saw him unlock the hidden passage into his repository, and as he descended, the figure followed. When he finally reached the ground floor, the figure slinked away before he could notice it, passing past the shelves that were stacked with all sorts of documents and items… and she was determined to find answers.

The Princess of Friendship and her friends were on the airfield on the edge of Canterlot, preparing the royal zeppelin in the middle of a storm; they were aiming to save up on energy by requesting aid from other most powerful beings in Equestria, Starlight included. They had just finished making the final preparations and were now only waiting for them to turn up. However, the aforementioned mare was bothered by something, and she had to let her former teacher know.

“Twilight,” Starlight said, “can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure, what is it?” the alicorn answered.

“Over there”, the headmare nodded to the side of the ship. “Alone.”

Concern turned up on her face. What was it that required them not to be heard?

“Excuse us for a second,” the princess said to the rest of the Elements as they walked off, and stopped in the cover. “What is it?”

“I have this suspicion something is amiss,” the unicorn explained. “With Star Swirl.”

“What?” she gave her a confused look. “Why would you say that?”

“A flinch.”

“A… flinch?” the alicorn repeated.

“You know that thing that happens when you’re talking about some critical things to which you don’t know the answer, and all of a sudden somepony makes an “oopsie” and gives himself away?” she elaborated. “That kind of flinch.”

“Wait… are you suggesting that the accident he made earlier during the experimentation didn’t happen because he was tired?” she questioned

“Twilight, have you seen him? He may be older than Equestria, but he still carries himself like a young stallion,” the unicorn told her.

“Oh… right,” she said in an awkward tone, remembering all too well how he saved them both during his expedition. “But are you sure, that you’re not just imagining things?”

“Trust me, I'm not.”

KRAKOOM!

They flinched as a thunderbolt struck a nearby airfield lamp post, followed by a cry of Rarity as the storm ruined her attempt to fix her mane.

FLASH!

Once again they flinched from a sudden flash, as a graying old unicorn and the two alicorn princesses appeared in front of the group, the dark blue one slightly slouching against the bright one.

“Sorry for the wait, ladies,” Star Swirl announced. “I hope your wait hasn’t caused you any grief-“ He was distracted by the sound of the white unicorn crying her eyes out.

“Everypony, get on the airship,” he resumed after a prolonged silence. “Celestia, Luna, get to your positions.” He trotted past the moored ship and spotted Twilight and Starlight by it. “Is everything ready?”

Twilight looked at Spike, who gave her a thumbs up. She nodded in response.

“Excellent. Starlight, get on your position. The ritual will require a lot of magic and concentration, and I’ll have to compensate a bit considering one of the participants is… well, under the weather so to speak.” He moved to the back of the ship.

“See what I mean?” the headmare said when he was finally away from ear’s reach. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Even so, we can’t really go and ask him, we’ve no proof to the matter,” the princess spoke.

“I could always go snoop around,” she suggested.

“NO!” she yelled, quickly realizing she had drawn the attention of everybody. “I mean… NO problem on this side of the ship.” She smiled awkwardly. “You’re not going to snoop on one of the Pillars of Old Equestria, promise me.”

The pink unicorn rolled her eyes. “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah…”

“Thanks,” she hugged her. “Take care.” As she made her way over to the ramp, her pace slowed down, as she saw the former Princess of the Night standing nearby, looking like she was barely holding up. “Princess Luna… are you okay?”

“Sorry, Twilight,” Starlight Glimmer thought to herself, “but you should know I don’t leave things lying down when I know something’s off.”

Star Swirl told her to wait back at the castle, but she chose to blatantly ignore his request. She tip-toed past the row of shelves and snuck into one of the lanes, hoping to sneak close enough to see if the old wizard was up to something, or if she could maybe find something, whatever it was that would point her suspicions being correct. She soon realized how monumental her task would be if she had to comb the whole repository for the information, and was hoping that wouldn’t have to be the case. Then she looked about and found out that her target had disappeared. Where did he go?

“I told you to wait behind.”

The voice came from her side. He was right next to her and in shock she spazzed out, accidentally crashing into one of the shelves, causing them to break since they were ancient, making them collapse on top of her. After the dust had settled she peaked out of the rubble and the elder unicorn was looming over her.

“I hope you’re happy,” Starswirl said with an unamused expression. “Let’s just hope for everypony’s sake that nothing important was damaged in the process.”

“How… how did you-?”

“Know you were here? I set up magical wards to trigger, so I know whenever some undesirables entered without my permission.” His horn lit up and the wooden rubble that covered the headmare flew up and slowly began to reconstruct itself. “Now, care to explain what is it that couldn’t wait until I got back?”

A cold sweat came over her. She got caught red-handed snooping around. The only silver lining at the moment was that he hasn’t caught on it yet, she could still cover it up, but she had to think of something quick, something that wouldn’t seem off and only the old sage would know.

There was one thing she could try. “Well, I wanted to wait until you got back, but there was this anticipation getting to me and I couldn’t wait, since you’re the only one who could enlighten me.”

“Really?” His eyebrow rose. “And what special thing is there that only I can enlighten you on?”

It seemed to be working, she just had to push it in the direction she was aiming. “When Twilight and others told me where they were, what they found underneath the wastes of the Frozen North, and it made me curious since, well, you were there.”

“Under the Frozen North?”

“Before it was that, Starswirl. Monoceria, our ancient homeland… what was it like?”

It took a while before she realized some time passed, and the wizard had yet to answer; he seemed to have gone silent. Did her tactic work?

“I don’t know if there are words for me to describe it, Starlight,” he finally spoke.

“Can’t you just tell me anyway?”

“No.” That was blunt an answer as she had expected, but not what followed. “I’ll show you.”

Starswirl’s horn lit up again, and a blinding light took them.

After her eyes finally readjusted, Starlight discovered they were standing under an open sky, in the middle of rolling blooming hills.

“Emmm, Starswirl, where are we?” she asked.

“The Frozen North,” he bluntly answered, “or rather, before it became such. The Greenlands is what it was called.”

“I still can’t believe that this place used to look like that. But anyway, let’s go see that castle of yours,” she said and was about to move from the spot.

“Stop,” the elder unicorn ordered. “Do not waste your movement. The only thing you’ll do is crash into an object. We’re still in the repository, remember?”

“Oh… right.” She halted. “So how do we move onward?”

“You just stand there... and enjoy the scenery.”

And it happened. The ground underneath Starlight’s hooves began to move, even though she was still. They traveled across the endless pastures with great speed, and eventually, they started to climb uphill, and at that point, they were beginning to slow down. He must’ve been doing this on purpose, as there was no reason why projecting the imagery of a hill climb would make it difficult for him, so why was he doing it? It was a question that would be self-explanatory, as they got over the top, she skipped a breath at the sight in front of her.

A vast green valley opened before her, and with it, three noticeable points of interest immediately came into view. On the left side, there was a small unimpressive-looking town, and next to it, a great many bountiful farming fields were strewn all over the place. Next to its right, flying high atop the clouds, stood a gargantuan acropolis, whose shadow covered nearly half of the valley. And lastly, to the right of it, a hill rose up to create a cliffside, under which a small town stood, yet atop the said cliff, a majestic castle towered over it. And in the middle of the valley, separating all three locations, there was a giant green lake.

The elder unicorn turned his gaze and saw the look on the younger mare that he anticipated. “Surprised?”

“That… would be an understatement…” she finally spoke. “Starswirl, this place is marvelous.”

The scenery once again started to move, this time in the direction of the small town underneath the castle. As they passed the fields they noticed several little colts and fillies playing on the outskirts of the settlement, apart from a single grey colt with a blonde mane that was just digging his hooves into the dirt, finally passing through the giant gate and into the city’s proper. It was sprawling with unicorns, dressed in colorful medieval clothing.

“Monoceria was the cradle of the unicorn kind. We were born with innate magical abilities that other types of ponies could only dream of. We were the ones who had the power to raise and lower the sun. We were masters of our world, adhering to nopony,” he explained. “That being said, that didn’t mean we didn’t have to deal with those that were trying to encroach upon our domain.”

“You mean the other two pony tribes?” Starlight inquired.

“No,” he simply said, and then the events around them played out.

The bell began to ring in the town square, and all of a sudden, the residents of the town scrambled, running back into their houses. The headmare wondered what that was, but before she could act, the scene shifted; they were standing now atop the giant city wall that overlooked the lake, and that’s where she saw what was afoot. On the banks of the great green lake, there was a disturbance: Earth was rising, beginning to shift, bits and pieces of it slowly bonding together into greater ones, until distinguished shapes became noticeable. These creatures born of rock and dirt began to march on the city, and their intent became obvious when they began chasing after the children that were playing in the fields, letting out deep bellows of anger. One of the fillies was not so lucky and was grabbed by one of them and lifted off the ground; she screamed in panic, and then quickly went quiet as a bolt of magic hit the elemental’s hand and it fell off. The little grey blond-maned colt stood in the creature’s presence, battle-ready, his horn glowing. The filly ran off, and when the elemental gave chase, the colt quickly shot a bolt again and blew up the being’s chest. Even if the damage seemed significant, the being of rock quickly regenerated the missing pieces with its surroundings, before attacking the boy. But he wised up by now, and instead of shooting another attack at it, he enveloped the earth elemental in his magic and lifted it off the ground, promptly tossing it into another one. He kept repeating it over and over, but with the number of elementals present, he was slowly overwhelmed, getting tired. He pondered for a moment and thought of another way: As the creatures approached clustered together, he stood his ground, trying to pour as much magic as possible into what he was doing. All of a sudden, the earth in front of the elementals cracked and a fissure opened, causing the manifestations of rock and dirt to walk into the opening and ended up being swallowed by it. When the last one disappeared into the depths and things went quiet, the colt finally collapsed from exhaustion. Soon enough, several city guards came running to the location, only to be left surprised. The child managed to singlehandedly take care of an attack that would take the whole group working together. He not only fought smart but was also strong in the ways of magic, more so than any average adult. And then they watched, as the boy’s body began to glow, was lifted up in the air, and after a flash, landed back on the solid ground. He finally woke up; he was unharmed, but there was something different about him, as on his previously blank flank was now a mark – a moon with a star attached to its tip.

“Earth elementals?” Starlight reacted as the two stood by.

“Yes. For as far as anyone could remember, the manifestations of elements would always try to attack our kingdom,” Star Swirl nodded. “They would never succeed of course, but we still had to maintain a constant vigil. I should know – this was the first time that I came face to face with them.”

“You did?” She tilted her head. “Where were you? Because the only one I’ve seen fighting them was the little greeeeee…” Her voice trailed off before she could finish the sentence, as her head turned to the little colt that lay on the ground beside her, then panned back to the elder unicorn, who rolled his eyes and then promptly lifted his cloak, revealing a cutie mark of a moon with a star attached to its tip. “…ooooh. That explains it.” A thought suddenly came to her mind; he didn’t catch up on the intention of her being here, so perhaps she could coax him into revealing something. “This was your first time dealing with them then? But surely a lone colt couldn’t have taken on the army of elementals all by himself?”

He chuckled. “True. I was born with great power, but it wasn’t fully refined yet. Then again, myself, you, and Twilight aren’t that much different in that regard.”

“Oh no need to flatter me.” She waved her hoof. “But anyway, continue the story.”

The scene shifted to a classroom, with the gray colt standing in front of a teacher. He cast a spell, and pretty much all the tables in the room began to levitate, spinning around the room before gently placing them back on the ground.

“After my magic finally manifested itself, I was taken into the Monoceria’s school for gifted unicorns. But to say I was gifted would be an understatement - I went from a "new colt" to "an elder" in a matter of days. I’ve already reached the point where I’ve outgrown basic education, so I had to go to a special place for further advancement.”

The scene shifted once more and now they stood in front of a majestic castle that towered over the town below. The colt trotted through the gates and was accompanied by the guards down across the blooming courtyard and to the giant gates. The throne room opened before them, revealing King Diamond Broke, a stocky bright-furred blue-maned stallion, sitting on his throne, with a much younger mare of equally bright fur and a pink curly mane sitting by his side, Princess Platinum. The colt bowed to them.

“The royals saw great potential in me, so they assigned me to tutors, who also happened to be Celestials.”

“Celestials?” Starlight looked at him, confused. “What’s that? I don’t think they have anything to do with Princess Celestia… do they?”

He chuckled. “No, of course not. Celestials were a group of powerful unicorn wizards whose sole task was to raise and lower the sun - it was a monumental task that no lone unicorn could do. They knew the highest teachings and potential that magic could bring, so they became my tutors.”

The scene changed, and soon the imagery of the elder unicorns testing the little colt came into view, as they had him do tasks impossible for an average child; teleportation, transmutations, levitation, etc. - the magic that both Starlight and Twilight were all too familiar with. Yet despite the colt’s continuous success, the tutors seemed to show less and less joyous expressions with each task that he succeeded; something that the headmare picked up.

“They… don’t seem to be particularly happy with the way things are going.”

“Can you blame them? They were some of the most powerful wizards in the entire kingdom, and a little child was outperforming at everything that took them years to learn.”

“Are you saying… they were jealous of you?” she inquired.

“Maybe a little,” he answered, but it wasn’t what she expected. “What really hung over them was worry. Before them was somepony who embodied power that they alone managed to reach, but unlike the colt, they had experience, they knew the dangers, but he did not. And it was only a matter of time before he did something stupid that he’d regret…”

Once again, the scene changed, this time to the colt staring at the mirror and struggling really hard to cast magic but nothing was happening. “What are you doing?” the pink unicorn wondered.

“Trying to earn respect from my new masters, what else? I knew they were giving me a look of dissatisfaction, and I got to the wrong conclusion. I believed that they only did that because I was just a child, so I figured that if I looked more grown up, like let’s say, having a beard as they did, they would give me the respect that I deserved. And so, I spent some time trying to get it, force it to grow.”

“But our manes can’t be grown by magic!” Starlight pointed out. “What made you think you could grow your beard by force?”

“I didn’t, dear. But I was determined to get it done… an act for which there would be consequences…”

The colt harnessed as much magic as possible and enveloped himself in it. But nothing happened in the end, and in frustration, he went to bed. Yet as he got up and looked in the mirror the next morning, he noticed something: There was a tuft of hair growing out of his chin. It worked! Perhaps all he needed to do was to wait for the effect to take hold. And when he went to check it out the next morning, he was in for a surprise, as he noticed that, not only did he grow a beard to a great extent, he’s also grown taller! And so, he trotted about, pridefully swinging his mane and facial hair back and forth as other residents of the castle simply stared at him.

“You know…” the headmare had to comment, “you kinda remind me of-“

“Sunburst?” he responded. “Yes, I figured as much. But unlike in his case, whose appearance is the least of his concerns, I took great pride in mine. I was so certain that they’d have to respect me now, but it wouldn’t take long for me to realize what a grave mistake I’ve made.”

A new day came and he dragged himself out of bed. Something was wrong though – there was this strange ache he was feeling that he didn’t feel the day before. And when he looked in the mirror, he was in for a shock: His beard did not only grow bigger, but he also noticed that his appearance was starting to show age lines. A sense of dread was beginning to creep up on him, and the following day he became well aware it was realized, as his blonde mane and beard were beginning to turn white and the age lines became even more pronounced.

“Wait…” Starlight finally caught what happened. “You didn’t use a spell to grow your beard… you used an age spell to make yourself older!”

“An age progression spell, to be specific,” he corrected. “I was so frustrated by my inability to get my beard, that I tossed up a whole bunch of spells together, creating the result you see.”

“Surely it shouldn’t be difficult to reverse it, right?” She waited for the reply and after she noticed that he didn’t answer, she looked at him and he was giving her a look, bereft of amusement. “Oh… right…”

“Yes, I believe that the answer’s pretty obvious. I’ve created a spell that I had no idea how to untangle and adding up to the fact that I was literally aging myself into oblivion put an added stress on me that robbed me of straight thinking. The best I could try to figure out… would be to stop the process before it got worse.”

And so, the now-stallion proceeded to cast spell after spell. All that could be heard from his quarters was the sound of explosions and flashing lights, which continued all the way to the next morning. But little did the residents of the city know that they would be in for a huge surprise. The scenery shifted outside, to the banks of a giant green lake, where there was rumbling afoot. The surrounding rock and earth began to move, coming together to shape a body. Unlike previously, where several bodies were formed, this time, all the material began piling up into a single humongous form. When the conjugation concluded, its eyes opened, it let out a bellow, and it began to lumber towards Monoceria, each step quaking the ground. The alarm bell began to ring throughout the city, as the residents took shelter and the guards charged to the front entrance in defense of the city, however, much to their surprise, the wall and the front gate would help little this time, as the earth elemental as so big this time around that its midsection already towered above them. With a simple move forward, it broke through and wandered into the settlement, beginning to destroy the building with its giant hands. The guards tried to fight it off; had it been the size they usually were, they would’ve been able to handle them, but with a body this size, the damage they inflicted on it would quickly restore. When they finally caught its attention, it didn’t take more than a single swing to send them flying. It roared, and grabbed one of the houses, ripping it off its foundations, with a family still inside, panicking, screaming in terror, and a moment later, tossed it at the castle on the hill. It stopped, inches away before it hit the target, enveloped in a bright glow before it was put down. The creature tilted its head, confused why nothing happened, and then its attention was grabbed by a flashing light on the ground level near it. A tiny figure stood before it, the urge to destroy it pushed the elemental to act and it lunged at it… and it stopped; it could no longer move – it was enveloped in the same bright glow that it had seen earlier. It was beginning to levitate off ground, flying high into the sky, well above the castle’s highest tower. It finally stopped, only for an invisible force to begin tearing it asunder, and after a final roar, the earth elemental’s body shattered into pebbles and was scattered across the distant reaches of Greenlands. As the dust of battle settled, the town’s residents finally emerged from their homes. Some of them saw the one who defiantly stood against the enormous attacker, in fact, he was still there, standing in the place where the creature stood a moment ago. The figure turned to face them, and the pink unicorn felt for a moment as if she was staring in the mirror as the elder wizard stood face to face with it - apart from the lack of cloak and hat, they both looked exactly the same.

With that, the bright flash of light surrounded them, and they found themselves once again standing in the hidden confines of the old castle, the old unicorn’s horn finally ceasing to glow. “I was a vain fool in my youth. And for that foolish vanity… I had to pay with it.”

“I’m so sorry, Star Swirl…” Starlight expressed her condolences.

“Nah, don’t be. I have had many regrets in my life, but this wasn’t one of them. It was a hard lesson that I had to learn, and I wouldn’t have been able to learn it otherwise.”

“But surely we could reverse the process and-“

“You’re forgetting something, young mare,” he stopped her before she finished her suggestion, “I may have been stuck in Limbo for a thousand years, but between the founding of Equestria and my departure has passed quite a long time. And I believe that my age has finally caught up to my appearance at this point.”

“You sure you don’t want to have a chance to experience what “youth” is like?”

He laughed. “I don’t think I’d want to lose my “the Bearded” title. I’ve GROWN quite fond of it.”

She was about to respond and then halted, thinking for a moment, and let out an awkward laugh soon after. “Oh, I get it. Beard, grown.”

Then her sight wandered over to the mess that was left on the floor from when the shelves collapsed. She levitated them back into the proper position, but she halted on the last item that caught her eye: It was a bright radiant crystal, with a darker purple color; she was so mesmerized that she couldn’t take her sight away from it.

“Don’t break that,” Star Swirl ordered. “Some of these things aren’t just documents containing information, they’re mementos of events from the past.”

She was roused from the trance. “And what’s this crystal supposed to remind you of?”

“Of a request, I made to protect Equestria… and the price that I had to pay for it.”

Headmare noticed a somber tone in his voice when he said it. “Was that one of your… regrets you mentioned earlier?”

He was quiet for a while before just moving down the lane of shelves. “Look, if you’re here now, you might as well help me with things.”

He didn’t answer her question – she caught “the tell”. Whatever the event he was talking about, it was likely too ashamed to speak of it. Perhaps she may have found something. She pretended to put the crystal back on the shelve, putting it down loudly enough for him to hear it, and then quickly cast a teleportation spell on the object. She then went to catch up to the old sage, hoping he didn’t notice it.

A blue crystal was levitated in the air by the alicorn princess, prepared. The Dragon Lord stood at the ready and then slowly extended the bloodstone scepter at it, gently touching it. It began to glow, and after the blinding light passed, they saw the event in progress.

An image of another dragon appeared. He held the memory crystal in his hands and was moving, but he wasn’t walking - a huge sharp claw held him in its grasp. The movement suddenly stopped, and he was put back on solid ground.

“Here is it, child,” a familiar deep voice said. “This is my most valuable possession in all of Dragon Lands.”

The dragon moved closer to the object, but the recorded imagery only showed him getting to the edge of a bank, where he stood still.

“It’s… a pool…?” he answered in a confusing tone.

“The Pool of Conjugation, child,” it responded. “That’s what I named it. It’s one of the oldest things in my domain, and it predates the dragon kind.”

“Predates? Mother, how do you know about it then?”

The deep voice chuckled. “Because I was there when it was first formed… before I became what I am.”

“Then… what were you, mother?”

“I do not know, child.” They couldn’t see it, but it felt like the oversized form was shaking its head. “I only recall what happened that day. Fire rained from the sky, damaging the land upon impact, leaving craters in its wake, and one of them was so gargantuan that it caused the land to bleed, its green essence filling the basin. I inspected it, and discovered it to be rather soothing to the touch, I bathed in the pool to feel its warmth. And then… they appeared.”

“Who, mother?” the smaller dragon inquired.

“The elementals, child – the physical manifestation of the world’s natural elements, the children of the world itself. The very earth that surrounded me came to life, they tried to reclaim what was uncovered, to bury the magical pool. But I would not give it up; it was MINE, and I wouldn’t just let them have it! I thrashed each and every one of them that tried to take my prize away until I was completely covered by the rubble in the end. Then, the flames that fell from the sky and set the nearby trees alit, came to life, trying to destroy me, and it perished in turn instead after a fiery battle. Finally, the winds were blowing so hard that they nearly picked me up, yet I firmly held my ground until their strength had subsided and I prevailed in the end. Silence came and there was nobody left to challenge me, yet from all the trials and hardship I was left exhausted. I laid down into the green soothing pool that I fought to keep, and then… the darkness took me.”

The image of the dragon stared at the figure that was too big to fit on the screen. “What happened then, mother?”

“I do not know. But when I awoke, I felt… different, I WAS different. My hide was as hard as a rock, my breath was so hot it set the land aflame, I had gained wings so strong that their beats caused winds to roar, and…” The rising boisterous voice suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by a depressing tone. “I shed tears of sorrow…”

“Why, mother? What made you sad?”

“I felt what the world itself felt, child – pain. The pain of being wounded, pain so horrible that it called its children to make it stop… and in my greed, in my desire to possess that wound for its beauty and comfort, I destroyed them all… and their remains… became one with me; I had become connected to the world, destined to forever bare its burden as my own. And that is why I care for all my children so much. None of you deserve to share in my burden, and why you all deserve as much kindness as I can provide… so that none of you fall down the same path as I did once. And that is why you are so important to me, Widejaw, my Dragon Lord – in my absence you must pass on that kindness to all the other offspring that were born of the descendants of my brood. No child must ever be left without guidance, for if that happened, the thought that it would give birth to another being what was as greedy as I once was, the harm it could bring to the world because of my inaction…”

“NO, MOTHER!” the smaller dragon yelled and flew upwards, reaching the tip of what looked like a crystal formation, reaching out and placing his hand on the cluster. “I promise, I’ll never fail you or what you had taught us, mother.”

Suddenly, giant claws reached forward, scooping up the Dragon Lord. Then the cluster began to move, or rather, the dragon himself was moved past it until he came face to face with a gargantuan eye, whose iris was shaped like a diamond. “I know you won’t, child… I know you won’t,” the Mother of Dragons said.

The Dragon Lord hugged the being's face and the imagery disappeared.

Silence lingered in the crystal cave, as all the participants watched the events unfold, except for Torch who seemed to have dozed off. “This was the third one now,” the princess said. “It varies in explanation, but the same thing is told.”

“Mother of Dragons wasn’t an actual dragon at the start,” Spike resumed, “she became one after coming into contact with this “Pool of Conjugation”. Talk about wild, right Ember?” He awaited a response but received none. “Ember?”

She just stood there, almost seeming as if she wasn’t present, staring at the reflection of herself in the red crystal of the bloodstone scepter.

“Ember, what’s wrong? You seem like you’ve been lost since the last few recordings.”

“Spike, how come you’re not more rattled by this revelation?” she asked. “We’ve all heard it multiple times now.”

“Why should I be?”

“WHAT ARE WE EVEN, SPIKE?!” she raised her voice, startling him, her scepter dropping out of her grip, and rousing her father from his slumber. “According to the memory, dragons aren’t even a real thing! We aren’t natural to the world, we were born of a creature that wasn’t a dragon and has been mutated by forces outside of its control to become one.”

“Ember, what’s wrong with you? You’ve never been this shaken by anything before,” Twilight spoke.

“I… I’m sorry, Twilight,” the blue dragon struggled to control herself, “but I just don’t know how to process these… emotions, that I’m feeling right now… I mean, I’m shocked… and yet also angry. Us dragons are supposed to be just that – dragons, we’re born strong and durable, unlike any other creature in the world. Now, however, we learned that our predecessor wasn’t one of us at all. What are we supposed to be, if our kind is nothing but a lie?”

“A lie?!” Torch’s loud bellow echoed throughout the cavern. “How did my daughter come to that conclusion? Prior to Mother, no dragons even existed. She may have been "a dragon-made", but as a result, the rest of us have been "dragon-born."" His giant head leaned in until it was by his offspring’s side. “What she was prior to that means nothing now. We are simply what we are – the reflection of the one who made us, and there is no lie in that, Ember.”

The past didn’t matter, the knowledge of the origins changed nothing. His words were true, despite all the problems he caused in his ignorance way back, there was wisdom in them. All of a sudden, Torch felt a touch on his face, as his welp leaned in and hugged him.

“What are you doing?” he bluntly asked.

She snapped out and backed off. “Sorry, sorry! I know you’re not into that touchy-feely stuff.” She felt somebody poking her rear end, only to be the small purple dragon.

“I am,” he said with a smile and hugged her, and for a change, she hugged him back.

After the moment passed, they parted. “Okay, I’m good,” she sighed in relief and picked up the bloodstone scepter again. “Alright. Which one’s next, Twilight?”

With that, the alicorn grabbed the next crystal in the set of blue, eagerly anticipation what new revelations would follow. Little did any of those present realize that a shadow was lurking among them, watching, and learning.

A small flickering light traveled through the dark cave. The zebra was holding a lantern in her mouth, as the workhorse and a newly acquired companion walked beside her, the latter leading them.

“Ah’m confused, Miss Windsdale,” Applejack spoke. “What would a member of Equestrian Astronomy Institute be doin’ here? Shouldn’t you be back over at the site of the meteor crash?”

“The institute got here several days ago,” the purple unicorn elaborated. “We’ve been examining the site for a while now. Unfortunately, due to the intense heat that it radiates, even wearing protective gear can make you intensely hot, so we’re forced to work in shifts. While the Dragon Lord was generous enough to make sure we’ll be having peace during our work, doing anything else during the downtime periods was another matter. So, while I was bored, I noticed this place rising in the far distance and decided to check it out since it sticks out like a sore thumb. I came here for a few days in a row and I made a discovery - this isn’t a volcano.”

“It’s not?”

“No.” She shook her head. “The outside may give that impression, but the interior is another matter. There are no magma rivers or springs anywhere around. On top of that, the inner walls have a distinct shape of an impact site, much like the one we were inspecting, but it seems to be sunk beneath the ground.” She stopped, and so did the other two, and managed to see around a giant room. “We’re at the heart of the geological formation now. As I said, there are no underground connections, but the walls are showing that it was an impact site at some point, but what became of it, I’ve no idea.”

The orange pony had to agree with the expert since her own knowledge was limited on this matter. Maybe Zecora was wrong on this matter after all, since they’d reached the dead end of their destination. As she twirled her hoof on the ground, however, she felt something was off. The soil under them… wasn’t matching with what the rest of the land was – grains were easily scrapped with hooves, like digging in the sand. She knocked on it, and the sound it left almost seemed… hollow. What if… She started to scratch at it, trying to dig.

“Err… miss, what are you doing?” Whimsy looked confusingly.

“The ground just ain’t right, it almost feels like there’s nothin’ on the other end. And if what you’re saying about impact site is true, Ah think Ah may know where the rest of it is.”

The workhorse continued, and soon enough cracks were beginning to form on the floor. However, only the zebra noticed how far they were beginning to trail. She dropped the lantern from her mouth to speak, but before she could quickly give away a warning, the floor under them gave up, and they all fell through the ground.

SPLASH!

The body of glowing liquid they just fell in softened their fall, but things turned south quickly.

“EEEEEK!” the unicorn screamed. “I just fell into something wet! And it’s making me tingle all over – and not in a good way!”

“Calm down! We just need to get-!” Applejack said and she stopped, immediately making hacking cough sounds as if she was choking.

The shaman was the only one left, and no misfortune has occurred to her yet. She turned her attention over to her companions and noticed that the unicorn was splashing about in a body of liquid that was about half a leg deep. Eventually, she also realized that herself and quickly scurried away to the side where the shore was noticeable. The threat didn’t pass for Applejack, however, as it seemed that she was legitimately choking, trying to gasp for air. Zecora rushed to her side, stepped behind her, wrapped her hooves around her abdomen, and pressed. With a spat, a cluster of strange light objects came flying out of the pony’s mouth.

“Thanks, Zecora,” she gasped. “Ya really got me out of that one.”

“A regular occurrence now, for sure,” she quipped. “But what was it that made you choke up before?”

She looked at the surface before her, there was something floating on it. “Ah… Ah can’t see it clearly.”

“Hold it right, give me a moment to fix a proper light!”

She reached for the lantern that was floating in the glowing body of water, but unfortunately, its light source was extinguished. She took off her saddlebags and quickly started to rummage through them until she pulled out her small scaly friend. She put it closer to the lantern and made a clicking sound with her tongue. The fire lizard burped a puff of flame and their source of light was once again active.

Their surroundings were now properly lit up; enough to allow the orange pony to see what she was holding, and it left her confused. “A feather?” Her eyebrow rose. “Where the hay did that come from?”

Zecora raised the lantern and tried to look up, spotting the hole where they came through, noticing the same grey plumage sticking out of the side of the broken false bottom. “It must’ve been trapped in the floor. To whomever they once belonged, I can’t tell for sure.”

“Zecora, Ah think we may have a bigger issue. Look what we’re in,” Applejack pointed out.

Now that the urgency had ceased she looked around herself and grasped what the orange pony was referring to. The body of liquid they were in certainly wasn’t water, that much was for sure; the glowing green substance was at this point all too familiar.

"Wait, you people know what this stuff is?" the unicorn asked.

"Ah believe Twilight said that it's called "the lifeblood of the world"," the workhorse answered.

Chapter 51: Clash of the Titans

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 52: An Old Friend

Author's Note

Hello again everybody.
Sorry for the late update. As mentioned in the latest blog post, I had a case of food poisoning, so it halted my initial release plan. I managed pick myself up again, but unfortunately, it was in the middle of the week then and I remembered that the algorithm goes bad if not posted on the weekend so I decided to halt it a bit more, and in the meantime, I extended the chapter for all your troubles.

Chapter 52: An Old Friend

The Griffin Kingdom stood east of Equestria, on the other side of the Celestial Sea. Its outer lands were ruled by the Griffin Lords, politicians that ran administrations of different territories that comprised the kingdom. However, it was a kingdom in name only, as Griffinstone, the heart of the nation, remained the same since its collapse – without a monarch, beaten and rundown, its populace lethargic and apathetic. But some time ago things started to change ever so little, as an Equestria embassy was being built, even if at a sluggish pace. Outsiders started to come every now and then, the streets were slowly cleared of refuse, and the despondent city was slowly starting to show little rejuvenation. That of course got some other residents thinking about improving the living conditions. Since houses were made of wood and bound to the tree, a certain griffin who sold scones had an idea to uproot a few abandoned structures and have them patched together into a single bigger one. That way, not only would visitors be able to taste her product, but also have a place to stay the night. She wasn’t prepared though, that the first customers that she would receive were from Twilight’s School of Friendship, and after explaining the ordeal that they had to go through, they spent the night here.

Even though the sun hasn’t shown its first sparks yet, the dawn was clearly coming to the city, and the griffon, who was hardly even a local at this point, was the first that woke up. He had almost forgotten how early the sun turns up in Griffinstone since it was on such a high elevation, and he got used to slow mornings in Ponyville. Regardless, he got up and decided to check up on others on how they were doing. He left his room and went down the hallway with many doorways, knocking on the closest one.

“Silverstream? You awake yet?” he asked, waiting for a bit, then pressing his head against the door to hear a low hum coming from the other side. “Silverstream?” he repeated, and still got no response, only hearing the humming.

He juggled the door handle to open it, not anticipating a giant pile of paper standing in its way that quickly collapsed on top of him, burying him. He quickly got back up and waded through, into the small room, spotting the hippogriff sitting by the table, turned away, holding a quill and writing something on a piece of paper, before tossing it to the side and beginning to write on a new one. Curious, he picked up one of the papers and read the content:

To Miss Bluefeather,

The Storm King has returned! Tell your neighbors, and have you, your family, and everybody else retreat into Seaquestria!

Love,

Silverstream

He picked another piece of paper, only to discover the message was the same, only the recipient was different. And after he went through a few more, he realized that was the same for all of them.

“Silverstream, how long have you been writing these? And why?” Gallus inquired.

“I dunno.” She slipped a new paper. “It’s been a few hours. And as a necessary precaution, I decided to send a message to every resident of Mount Aris. I mean who knows if any of them will get lost on the way. Except for Seaquestria, cuz, you know, water and ink don’t do well-“

“No, I mean, why are you writing at all?”

He heard the sound of scribbling stop, and a few moments later, the eccentric hippogriff lept off her chair, grabbed him by his feathers, and pulled him in, face to face, the griffon being disturbed by the restless, yet frightened look on her face. “THE STORM KING IS BACK, GALLUS! WEREN’T YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!” She quickly zipped back to the table and started scribbling. “And I still have about nine-tenths of the population still to address, and I just wasted five seconds to tell you that and now the list of names in my head slipped... No wait, I had it written all down on this paper…” Her head trailed to the pile of paper on the side. “Oh no! I lost it!”

She jumped into the pile and started frantically tossing them about, trying to find the right piece, only for the griffin to grab hold and restrain her from behind. “Silverstream, breathe!” Things slowed down as the two stood there motionless for a moment, enough for her to stop flailing about. “Silverstream, chill, okay? Everycreature’s still asleep, don’t wake them up.”

“But-!” she tried to speak.

“If you’re worried about your home getting attacked, I’m sure Princess Twilight’s already sent a message to Queen Novo about what’s happened; there’s no need for you to be so worked up about it. And if you’re worried that he might be coming here, why would he? There’s nothing here of value that he would want. This is probably one of the safest places in the world. Okay, Silverstream?”

Some time passed and the hippogriff finally calmed down. “Okay… You’re right, Gallus. I’m sorry about this, it’s just… you’ve no idea how it feels to hear that awful sound… For so many years, the crash of thunder marked the Storm King's presence on the surface above Seaquestria… To hear it again-“

KHR-KHR-KHR!

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” she screamed and jumped on top of him. “HE’S HERE! HE’S HERE!!!”

“S… Silver… stream… that’s… the door…” Gallus struggled to speak as she squeezed him in her embrace so tightly he was beginning the suffocate.

Suddenly, doors in the hallway could be heard creaking open, followed by the sound of multiple steps approaching.

“Silverstream, what is it?! Who’s-?!” the yellow, bearded unicorn with a cloak came to the door to inquire about what was happening, only to stop at the sight of an awkward situation.

Moments later, the blue mare joined, as well as four other members of the group to see the display. “Are… we interrupting something?” Ocellus asked.

The griffin finally managed to loosen her grip enough to gasp for air. “This isn’t what it looks like. The knock freaked her out.”

KHR-KHR-KHR!

The sound repeated.

“See?”

Suddenly the stomping sound could be heard from upstairs, as the loud knocking finally roused the owner from her slumber, and she couldn’t stand it anymore, she stomped downstairs with a frustrated sleepy look on her face.

“Okay, that’s it!” Gilda complained and walked over to the door that was rumbling, unlocking it. “You better have a dang good reason why you’re throwing me out of bed this early-!”

The moment she jiggled the doorknob, the door burst open and a grey griffin rushed in before she shut them closed again. She was completely wet.

“Gabby? What’s with you?” the owner inquired.

“Thanks for letting me in, Gilda,” she sighed in relief.

“Actually, you just let yourself in. Now tell me what is it.”

“There’s a storm fast approaching. I was halfway home after my mail delivery when I saw it coming from the west,” the spirited griffon explained. “It’s moving really fast. I just barely got away from it.

“It doesn’t look like you got away considering how drenched you are.” Gilda poked her plumage.

“Oh, that’s not rainwater. I just worked up a sweat.”

“EEEEEW!” the owner jumped back with a loud sound of disgust.

Gabby suddenly felt a gentle nudge on her head. She turned her head in its direction and saw a pink claw poking her. An avian creature stood before her; she looked almost like a griffin, but her rear end betrayed that illusion as it was that of an equine.

“Wow… you’re wetter than a seapony that just got beached,” she answered.

The grey griffin then noticed several other figures that were sticking their heads out the doorway of the room: A short lemon-furred horse, a large brown bovine, a winged orange lizard, an equine that resembled a bug, and last but not least, a familiar blue griffin.

“Oh, hey Gallus!” she greeted him. “I didn’t expect you and your friends to be here.”

He sighed. “It’s not like I’m here by choice… None of us are really.”

“What he’s trying to say is that we’ve come to Griffinstone on a field trip,” another voice said, as its owner, a blue unicorn went past the gathered crowd, followed by a yellow one. “Although truth be told, we did have some issues with… let’s just say “late departure”.”

After awkward laughter from the visitors, the house owner sniffed about and then shut her nose closed. “Gabby, do me a favor and go take a shower. I don’t need you to stink up my joint before the first customers arrive.” The grey griffin got up and walked off through one of the doors. “Okay, you guys go back to whatever you’ve been doing, I need to get-“ She halted thinking for a moment, before looking out the window on the top of the great tree’s branches where the towering fortress stood. “Ah drat. I completely forgot about Grandpa Gruff. At this time of day, he’ll likely be up there, brooding like a hen.” She turned to the group. “Gallus, you’ll have to go get him before the storm gets here.”

“Wait, what?! Why me?! Why don’t you go?!”

“I have to heat up the oven and get some baking done, so I can’t leave the house. And I’m pretty sure none of your friends or teachers know the way around the place. Besides, I’m sure it would be… what’s the word… Oh yeah, not appropriate to have my guests do menial tasks.”

“But Gilda, Grandpa Gruff hates me,” he moaned.

She rolled her eyes. “I think you should be asking yourself if there’s anyone he likes. Besides, he’s your guardian. Now get going before the rain gets here.”

He mumbled and then slowly walked through the main door and slammed it shut behind him.

“Gilda!” Gabby’s head suddenly popped up through the door that she just went through. “Where’s your bathroom even? I’ve never had the chance to be at your new place since you- Hey, where did Gallus go?”

“He had to go and fetch Mister “Selfish Grump who couldn’t give two rotten figs about him”,” Trixie answered. “I honestly do not get how that unpleasant old griffin ended up being that poor guy’s guardian.”

“It’s not like he put himself forward,” Gilda responded, “but when the Council of Griffin Lords makes a decree you don’t have an option to decline it. If anything, he’s doing it out of reluctance.”

“The council of… what now?” among the group of present students, Sandbar asked.

“That would technically be the rulers of Griffin Kingdom,” the unkempt unicorn explained. “They’re the ones making all the decisions while the king’s not present.”

“But vice-principal Sunburst,” the changeling inquired, “hasn’t the Griffon Kingdom lacked a king for… well, a very long time now?”

“That’s why they’re still in charge after all these years,” Gilda got ahead of the pony. “And that’s not gonna change… Ever.”

“Why?”

“Because-“ she suddenly stopped and sniffed about, quickly squeezing her nose shut. “PE-EEEW! Gabby, get going already!”

“But-“ the grey griffin tried to remind.

“It’s the fourth door on the left!” the white-brown one finished, making the other one disappear before taking a deep breath and resuming. “Anyway, as I was about to say, there’s not gonna be a king in Griffinstone again. Not without the Idol of Boreas.”

“Wasn’t that just a myth?” Smolder spoke up.

“You’d think, wouldn’t you? When the only one in Griffinstone who remembers it actually existing is an old grumpy half-blind shut-in who’d always come running when outsiders came asking about it in exchange for a few bits. He’s absolutely obsessed with it. Any griffin in this place would think he was just missing a few screws; I did too…” Gilda paused for a moment. “But I was wrong. Grandpa Gruff was right: I saw the Idol with my own eyes, like, inches away.”

“Wait, Yona don’t understand,” the yak finally jumped in. “If Idol real, why griffins not get it back?”

The baker sighed. “Because I’m the last one who saw it… Just before it slipped into the deep dark chasm where it was believed it disappeared a long time ago, and now it really did. And no griffin’s crazy enough to go into that dark bottomless windy ravine, bits or no bits.”

“Miss Gilda, I’m so sorry,” the hippogriff answered. “You were so close to being able to restore your kingdom to glory-“

“Whoa whoa whoa!” she halted her. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I may have lost the idol, but if I didn’t I’d likely hate myself for the rest of my life for losing a friend… And as unfortunate as it is, we did find a way to work around with the help of the said friends.” She walked over to one of the windows and pulled away the curtains, revealing the street. “Prior to that, I was trying to raise money so I could move out of the dump that was our town. Now, look at it. Sure, it's been a few years and it’s been a slow process, but the atmosphere’s not as uninviting and doldrum as it used to be. Most of the griffin population is finally trying to put some effort in restoring Griffinstone… well, save for one.”

“You mean the Rough-Gruff?” the school consular quipped.

“Trixie!” Sunburst tried to get her to recall that.

“He can’t help it, he’s the oldest resident of the town. Though it was only recently that I noticed him going out of his house early in the morning before the crack of dawn and moping around the abandoned fortress. I think the fact that he knew about the Idol in the first place and in how much detail he usually described the events, means he must’ve been there when the arimaspi stole it. That’s why I never told him about the idol; I don’t know what he would’ve done if he knew that I almost had it and I let it go on purpose-”

KRAKOOM!

The thunder suddenly roared outside, interrupting the discussion. Gabby was right; the storm moved with great speed and it was already here now. And the moment the sound echoed, the pink hippogriff lept and hid underneath the nearest sturdy object, namely the yak. The owner saw that and figured it would be best to try and keep her mind preoccupied and diverted away from the thoughts that seemed to be plaguing her.

“You know what, I think that’s enough doom and gloom for today,” Gilda changed the subject. “I have to get the first batch of the day done. So, how about you kids help me with baking? There are free scones in for you all if you do.”

“Wait, you mean the famous Griffinstone’s griffin scones?” Sandbar swiftly jumped ahead of them. “I’m totally in!”

“Are they made from actual stone?” Smolder inquired. “Cuz, you know: Stone – scone… I mean, I’m a dragon so that doesn’t bother me that much, but still…” The orange dragon noticed a frown on the owner’s face, which quickly made her go quiet.

“You know, had you asked me that a while back I might have actually said yes, so I’ll overlook that remark.” The griffin’s look soon mellowed down.

“Yona not too good at baking,” the yak answered. “Don’t have a gentle touch.”

“Don’t worry. A gentle touch is something you learn from experience. Now come on all of you, follow me.” Gilda proceeded to walk down the hallway.

“Hey, I’m not gonna say no to free breakfast,” the orange dragon shrugged and followed.

Sandbar was way ahead of her already as he pranced happily, and it didn’t take long for Yona to join them, moving from her spot and leaving the hippogriff exposed from the refuge she had taken, desperately trying to grab hold of her legs to pull her back, but she was already out of reach now.

“Silverstream,” Ocellus finally spoke, “you can’t keep hiding from the sound of thunder forever.”

“Can’t I?” She gave her a desperate look.

“Well… yes, you could, but you shouldn’t,” the bug rephrased it. “There could be a storm on the other side of the world and that still wouldn’t mean that the Storm King is there.”

“You can’t know that!”

“Maybe. But that still doesn’t mean you should abstain from things, especially if they can at least get you to think of something else instead of being in constant dread.”

The hippogriff thought for a moment and realized her little friend had a point. She was up for so long that the feedback was starting to show on her appetite after she stopped worrying even for a moment - she was starving. The changeling went ahead and went after her right away, leaving the two adult unicorns the only ones left.

“Time for the Great and Powerful Trixie to make her debut in the kitchen,” the blue mare declared.

“Trixie, after the last time you handled flour I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Sunburst pointed out.

“Look, I already told both you and Starlight that happened because of Discord’s shenanigans,” she pointed out.

The scruffy stallion didn’t know how much truth was in that.

Gallus flew past the partly cleared, yet still shambled streets in no sense of hurry; he wanted to prolong getting to his destination as long as possible simply because he knew too well who was gonna be waiting for him at the end.

KRAKOOM!

Thunder roared above him. Gabby wasn’t kidding when she said the storm was approaching quickly; it moved so fast that by the time he was halfway to the location he already saw the dark clouds flying over him, past the tower-like structure that sat on the highest branch of the colossal tree. He wanted the trip to take as long as possible, but at this point, if he didn’t hurry he’ll end up getting soaking wet. And just as he said that he suddenly felt raindrops falling on his beak. Other griffins that were out on the street felt it too and decided to retreat back into their houses to avoid the incoming rain. He groaned under his breath; now he really didn’t have a choice but to hurry up. He picked up the speed and flew up the tree’s wide ancient trunk, to the highest point of Griffinstone, where the towering wooden fortress stood. He landed at the edge of a giant hole in the wall and gazed inside, and just as Gilda said, a greying wizen old griffon with the fez sat on the side, staring in the direction of a pedestal that sat in the middle of the room and the throne.

“Grandpa Gruff!” Gallus called out.

The old griffin flinched; he got caught off guard, and he seemed to be sure that nobody else was going to come here today.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said in a sour tone. “What do you want?”

“Rain’s about to start. Shouldn’t you be going back to town?” He motioned outside

“No. Nobody asked you to come and get me.”

“Actually, Gilda’s the one who sent me to fetch you before the rain starts.”

KRAKOOM!

And with the thunder striking outside, the sound of rain became increasingly loud.

“Oh, just lovely… And you couldn’t even get here fast enough before the downpour started. Ever since that pink and blue miniature horses appeared in Griffinstone all those years ago, everybody’s gotten noisier and noisier.”

“Noisier? Don’t you mean kinder and welcoming? Griffinstone’s been going better in the last few years.”

“Better?” the old griffin scoffed. “You wouldn’t know what “better” looks like. In any case, go back and leave me be.”

“Look, I’m not going back to town alone at this point, Grandpa Gruff,” the younger one insisted. “I already got here, I’m gonna get back soaking wet in the end, and I refuse to return emptyclawed. The descent is gonna be slippery from all the water and there’s no way we’re flying back in this weather.”

“Listen here, boy,” his voice turned stern. “You’re not MY keeper, I’m YOUR keeper. So do not even for a moment think about giving me the “frail old fowl” attitude. Second, you don’t…” He slowed down when he realized that his gaze was focused elsewhere. “Hey boy, are you listening to me?!”

He wasn’t that much was clear, but why? That’s when the elder noticed something odd. He saw shadows in the wall behind him. The fact that it just turned dark outside there shouldn’t be enough light for them to cast shadows, especially inside the fortress. That’s when he turned to look for the light source and his expression matched the younger one. Flying in the room, several feet off the ground was a large swirling mass of light, with darkness coalescing all around it and in the middle of it. They had no idea what that thing was. All of a sudden, a mountain of rock came crashing through and filled the room with dust, causing them to both finally get roused from the dumbfounded gaze.

The old sorcerer and his prisoner spent the whole day overlooking a seemingly bottomless chasm below, the only things preventing them from falling to their doom were a pair of ledges in the walls. The grizzled ram sat on the larger one where the dried-up remains of one of his creations rested, holding and gazing into the large yellow crystal ball, while the centaur lord sat on a much smaller one, much to his inconvenience, as he barely fit on, making his moment of respite rather difficult, as he was already uncomfortable with all the bondage on him; this just added it to the pile, but in the last few hours he finally managed to get in a position where he could finally rest for a bit before the big show began. And that time was now.

“Boy!” Grogar shouted.

The noise roused Tirek from his slumber, and it took him off balance, giving him only a split second to grab onto a ledge before he leaned over the edge uncontrollably. “You couldn’t have woken me a bit quieter?”

“I already did once before, and you didn’t register. It’s time, boy,” Grogar announced. “While you were dreaming I managed to find a secluded location where we won’t be disturbed. Now brace yourself, because you’re gonna have a nasty fall otherwise.”

Fear washed over the shackled centaur after looking over the edge, and hearing the grizzled ram’s warning. The depths below were already dark and beyond clear sight, and the sudden appearance of the storm only dimed the visibility.

He clenched onto the nearby large rock on the small ledge on which he was. “So to where are you going to lift us from the ravine?” he inquired.

“Lift us?” The sorcerer chuckled. “Who said anything about lifting us up?”

Tirek tilted his head in confusion. How else was he going to get them to open space if not outside the ravine? Suddenly, the ram’s horns began to glow, causing the prisoner to hold even tighter onto the rock, awaiting what would follow. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a glow. No, not from above, not even the side, but from below. A portal of dark light opened right under their hooves, and the rock that he was clinging on to instantly dragged the centaur through, causing him to scream until he finally hit the ground a few feet later. Unfortunately for him, the rock that was in his grasp tipped over upon impact and crushed him under its weight, and it took him some time to harness enough strength to push it off, and his shackles weren’t making it any easier. Meanwhile, Grogar landed nearby on his hooves, still holding his orb, and soon a collection of bones rained from the portal above them, in a giant horned single-socketed skull landed on top of a moldy, fungus-covered pedestal.

“I told you to brace for an impact, boy,” he told him. “And as a result, you just had a nasty fall.”

“How was I supposed to know you were going to drop us?” Tirek complained, still reeling from the fall. “Anyway, where are we?”

“It’s a safe place,” the Father of Monster explained. “It’s one of the last few places that he had seen before his demise. It’s out of anyone’s sight, where nobody will come snooping while I start the ritual.”

The centaur looked around. They ended up in an old wooden structure that seemed to have been abandoned and decayed with the passage of time. Whatever this place was must’ve belonged to a ruler, as there was a noticeable throne on the far end of the room. But as he continued to look about, his gaze quickly froze.

“Grogar…” he tried to beckon him. “I think you may have misjudged the part about not being in anyone’s sight.”

The grizzled ram heard him and quickly turned in his direction. He was correct. Out by the larger opening in the wooden structure, two figures stood: Both griffins - one, old greying half-blind with a fez, the other, young and blue-feathered. The looks on their faces had a clear sign of surprise.

“Oh dear… So I have.” He shrugged. “Oh well. At least we’ll have a captive audience.” He picked up a nearby rock, enveloped it in his magic, and drew a circle around the designated area, before beginning to inscribe runes upon it.

The elder and younger griffin were in the meantime standing still before the latter finally acted. “Grandpa Gruff,” Gallus calmly said and tugged on his hand, “we have to go and warn everybody below…”

“What? Nonsense!” the half-blind guardian protested. “There’s like only two of them, we can take them on!” He raised his claws, prepared for fisticuffs.

“Grandpa Gruff, that’s Lord Tirek! And that other one’s Grogar! We don’t stand a chance against them!” Gallus grabbed hold of his senior’s arm and tried to pull him away.

“How soft are you? Look at them! One of them is in no better physical health than me and the other one is in chains!”

A chuckle escaped the grizzled ram as he finished inscribing runes into the ground. “Such confidence. Clearly you carry yourself as a warrior. If only your hatchling was brimming with it as well. But I suppose his generation skipped it.”

“He’s not my hatchling, you old goat,” Gruff corrected him. “He’s just some kid that the council forced me to become a guardian of.”

“Thanks for a boost of confidence…” The younger one scowled at the older one.

“How about I test how much your resolution will hold, old warrior?” Grogar wondered. “The two of us have no intention of fighting you, but there is somebody who would be more than willing to take our place for that… One who has been sleeping for far too long.”

“Thanks, but I think we’ll take a raincheck on that offer,” Gallus tried to avoid conflict and drag them both out of danger.

“Oh, I really must insist,” Grogar said with a grin and levitated the giant yellow orb, gently placing it inside the socket of a skull that sat upon the pedestal.

No matter how much the schoolboy would struggle, Gruff would resist; he was determined to not flinch, and he had no fear of them. However, the sense of fear was slowly beginning to creep in, as he looked upon the pile of bones surrounding the pedestal the Idol of Boreas once stood, and in its place, a giant horned skull now sat… one that looked strangely familiar for some reason. And it was only when he looked at it as a whole, with the large yellow eye sitting in its single eye socket that it finally began to dawn on him what it looked like, but by then it was already too late.

The magical circle on the ground lit up and a veil of shadow was erected, obscuring the vision, but leaving the visible silhouette of the goings on inside. The bones began to levitate and slowly attach to one another until they created a frame for what looked like a giant body, and while this was happening, the giant skull began to levitate and lastly fastened itself on top of the frame. The skeleton began to twitch slightly, finally moving in the direction of the shadowy veil and pressing against it. It struggled, but the grizzled ram stepped aside, as did the centaur once he realized that the dark barrier began to bend to its force, eventually causing the skeleton to push past it and end up completely enveloped in the darkness behind which it was locked. It stumbled, landing on all fours, but it didn’t get up just yet. The shadow that was completely enveloping it shifted, little by little its color began to change and the form became more pronounced. Grey color finally began to emerge, a coat of thick hair and mane sprouting from its head, down to its toes. When the last vestiges of shadow disappeared, a large stocky goat-like creature towered over everybody. Finally, its single giant yellow eye opened, its iris zipping in all directions, but the creature didn’t move, and as such, the two figures standing by its side escaped its view… but the two griffins in front of him didn’t. The moment it spotted them, it rose on its short hind legs and let out a loud bellow.

MAAAAAAAA!

“IT’S THE ARIMASPI!!!” Gallus screamed.

He quickly lept and flew for the opening. He was about to fly past its threshold when he stopped on the edge. Something was off, something didn’t feel right, as if somebody’s presence was missing close by. And when he turned his head he understood why. He had expected the elder griffin to follow suit, but that wasn’t the case, as he noticed him still standing where he was before. However, it became clear he was no longer spoiling for a fight, he was quivering.

In disbelief and horror, he looked upon a creature that fell to its demise, the being that was plaguing his nightmare for many long years, getting revived before his very eyes. So many times he was thinking about how he would defeat it if he had a chance to encounter it again, and now that it was, he couldn’t do anything – he was simply too frightened. It finally moved, slowly lumbering in his direction. His thoughts were screaming to move, but his body wouldn’t respond – he was frozen in fear.

Gallus had to react and quickly think about the next move. He swooped in and grabbed hold of Grandpa Gruff, and with him not resisting now, the younger griffin had a much easier time pulling him away, and just in time too as the arimaspi reached from them and got away from his grasp at the last moment. He busted open the main gate of the fortress and dragged the elder through, before slamming them shut and lodging a nearby broken-off pole on it to make sure it wouldn’t open.

The thunderstorm and the downpour outside were relentless, and Gallus knew there was no way they would be able to fly away safely. “Come one, Grandpa Gruff! We have to go while he’s trying to get out!”

“That won’t hold him,” he said in a calm tone.

“You don’t know that!”

KRRHHHH!

Not just the door, but also a large section of the wall around it immediately broke away as the creature on the other side busted them down without breaking a sweat. The blue griffin was just left agape at the sight.

“Who do you think made that giant hole in the wall in the first place?” Gruff confirmed his statement from earlier.

“Never mind gloating about it right now! RUN!” Gallus screamed and they both ran off down the branch towards the town below.

The arimaspi made a grunting sound and then perused after them, leaving behind the large wooden enclosure, as well as completely ignoring the two people that were left behind, now walking through the new hole in the wall and looking below.

“Was that part of the plan, Grogar?” Tirek inquired.

“Let him be, boy. He’s been away for a long time and the spirit needs to settle properly into the new body. Let us follow.”

The grizzled ram slowly walked out into the heavy rain without a care, and as reluctant as the centaur was from going into it, he had little choice since he still held his chain.

“And… Voilà!” Trixie declared.

There was chaos in the kitchen. The owner went to preheat the oven and gave the students a run-through on how the recipe for the scones worked. Yet despite the clear instructions, to say that the results were mixed would be generous. The yak wasn’t kidding when she expressed her issues, as she was preparing the dough for the scones she ended up pressing too hard, kicking up a cloud of flour all around the preparation table, which caused Smolder to sneeze, burning almost half of the dough in the process with her fire, causing Sandbar to flinch and fall over backward on Ocellus as she was delivering the finished pastries to the oven, making her drop at least half on the floor. And of course, then there was Trixie, who amassed a huge amount of dough and sculpted it into the imagery of herself, posing dramatically with sparking stars erupting behind her.

“Real impressive, miss Flare,” Gilda commented in a sarcastic tone, “but this thing isn’t going to fit in my oven.”

“Oh, no problem,” the student consular said and her horn lit up, “I can cast a spell that will make your oven the right fit-“

SLAM!

The brown griffin smashed her fist on the dough statuette of the unicorn, causing her to yelp in shock. “No! You’re not playing with food, you hear?! If you wanna have breakfast, you make it the right way! Now go from the start.” And she walked away.

“Our host sure takes her baking almost as seriously as Pinkie Pie,” Sunburst compared as he sat nearby.

Trixie gave him a mean look. “I don’t see you helping out.”

“Hey, I’m not good at this cooking thing, I’ll likely only cause even more of a mess in the kitchen than it already is.”

Gilda meanwhile walked over to the over and set in a finished plate that the changeling had just brought over and put it into the oven, but before that she did notice that this batch was actually well done in comparison to others, and a moment later, Ocellus came back with another plate of equal quality. She placed the scones in the oven and watched where they were coming from, and saw her walk over to where the pink half-avian was sitting. She walked closer and saw the young hippogriff working quickly with the dough.

“You’re pretty good at this, kid,” the griffin commented.

“Well, with the amount of time we spent with professor Pinkie Pie, I picked up a thing or two,” she answered.

The baker rolled her eyes. “Of course, it’s her.”

“Also, these are very handy,” Silverstream said and wiggled her hand claws, to which Gilda herself wiggled her.

“No argument from me there.” She smiled.

KRAKOOM!

The clash of thunder outside echoed and everybody present went quiet, their sight locking on to the hippogriff. She went still, staring into nothingness for a few moments… and after that resumed working. She, however, soon realized the eyes were still upon her.

“Is… something wrong?”

“Silverstream, are you okay?” Sunburst asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she gave a simple response. “Ocellus was right. I just need to keep my thoughts preoccupied and the rumblings outside don’t seem so threatening anymore.”

The whole room sighed in relief.

“That’s good to hear,” Sandbar commented. “Despite the rain outside, I honestly think things can only get better from here on.”

“Yeah,” Smolder added. “And assuming I don’t end up burning any more of our potential breakfast, once Gallus gets back we can-“

MAAAAAAAA!

The entire room went deathly silent. That sound just now…

“Yona don’t think that’s thunder…” the yak said.

“Then… what was it?” the changing wondered.

The ground suddenly began to quake under them. Considering that they were on top of a tree, the vibrations from the wood could be felt growing stronger.

“I dunno. But whatever it is, it’s outside.” Gilda ran out of the kitchen, and everybody else dropped whatever they were doing to join her.

They stepped outside of the house. It was raining cats and dogs, but even then, it didn’t take them long to see through the gloomy weather what was happening. In the distance, a large mass with a single yellow eye was charging down the main street of Griffinstone. The residents that were still outside quickly retreated into their houses, but unfortunately, two of them did not have that luxury as they were the beast’s primary target.

“EVERYCRATURE BACK INSIDE!” Trixie screamed, creating a line from her magic that wrapped around the group and pulled them back inside the house, then quickly shut the door. “Don’t make a sound!” she commanded.

Everybody remained quiet, feeling the rumblings going louder as the beast passed them in a loud huffing sound before I started to fade away in the distance. After enough time had passed they finally inhaled. But soon they heard another rumbling sound, but this one was coming from within the house. The grey griffin suddenly emerged from one of the doorways with a happy smile, completely oblivious as to what had just happened.

“What’s with all of you? Why are you all huddled up together by the entrance?”

“Gabby, haven’t you heard or felt any of what just happened?” Gilda inquired.

“Well, I did, but I just assumed it was a mishap in the kitchen.”

“Excuse me? When did you ever know me to have mishaps in the kit-“

“Never mind the kitchen right now! What the hay was that thing?!” the student consular asked the obvious question.

“I think that may have been an arimaspi, Trixie,” Sunburst answered.

“Wait, the monster that supposedly destroyed Griffinstone? Here?”

“Yeah, and it was chasing down two unlucky fellas, but I couldn’t see who they were,” Smolder added. “I wouldn’t want to be in their position, whoever they were.”

“Miss Trixie, Sunburst, are we in serious danger?” the changeling questioned.

“If the arimaspi is anything like from Grandpa Gruff’s story, then it’s likely here for the gold,” Gilda explained. “But even so it doesn’t make sense. Griffinstone doesn’t have anything flashy and noteworthy to steal. And the last arimaspi that did… well, let’s just say I saw what became of it.”

“Is Yona only one who feel somecreature’s missing?” the large student popped a random question.

And it dawned on the rest of them that may have been the case. Besides the blue griffin that was still outside, there was another student of the avian variety that was missing.

“SILVERSTREAM!” they screamed in unison.

Under heavy rain and in panic, the two griffins ran down the road, hearing the huffing and puffing of a monster they just saw come back to life right on their tail. They were too preoccupied thinking about just running for survival to think about what to do next. As they turned a corner they disappeared out of its sight, but the arimaspi was going to reach them a just a moment. Yet as it turned a corner, the creature was confused, because its target disappeared out of its sight, even though it towered quite a bit over the rooftops, it didn’t notice where they went. It bent over, closer to the ground, inspecting the side of the house, one of many that were small and narrow compared to others, and it started to look inside its broken windows. And right under the said window through which the beast was watching, three feathered characters were huddled together, surrounded by a pile of abandoned old mattresses and pillows, the middle avian one wrapping her arms around the other two, holding their beaks shut with her claws. There was a huff and a grunt, and the large glowing eye that was watching through the window moved away, followed by a stomping sound. Once it became clear that the beast was gone, the hippogriff finally let off the griffins.

“Silverstream? What are you doing here?” Gallus asked.

“Saving your feline rear ends, what else,” she answered. “I saw you two running down the road. What is that thing?”

“It’s him…” the quivering voice of the elder griffin answered. “The nightmare… the nightmare made itself manifest right before our eyes… The bleating, the roaring, the huffing, the breaking…”

“Grandpa Gruff?” She was confused. “Gallus, what’s with him?”

“Probably shell shock. He’s been telling the story of arimaspi destroying Griffinstone so many times to see him actually be brought back by Grogar probably got to him.”

The hippogriff had her attention grabbed. “Wait, what? Grogar? He’s here?”

“And so is Tirek… in chains, for some reason.”

“That’s all the more reason for us to get back and tell school consular Trixie about it. We need to get back to Gilda’s house, quick,” she ordered.

She went to the other side of the abandoned house and looked out the open window to see if the monster was anywhere in sight. The coast was clear so she climbed out, then quickly turned back inside.

“Now you two, quick,” she hurried them.

Gallus picked up the quivering elder griffin and walked him over to the opening, but on the way, he stumbled on the crooked old floor and ended up ramming him into the pile of busted-open feathered pillows. His nose twitched as he felt a tickle in his nostrils, and he couldn’t have helped but follow it up with a loud sneeze.

AT-CHOOO!

It echoed, so loud it was the sound, and everybody went quiet, watching and waiting for what would follow. There was nothing. It seemed that they were in luck and the sound slipped past the predator’s radar, Gallus could help himself but make a sigh of relief. A flash! From behind them, a bright light lit up outside the window, a large yellow eye was staring inside. The house began to shake and the hippogriff outside suddenly disappeared out of sight. The arimaspi grabbed the small house with his giant arms and lifted it from its foundations, leaving Silverstream helpless to watch from below. Inside, the two griffins were tossed about the small room while the monster stared in. The younger one decided to fight back and give him the run for his money, by grabbing the nearby piece of a broken plank and tossing it at the most exposed part of its body. That turned out to be a big mistake. The arimaspi let out a sound of irritation, and after shrugging off the sting, he started putting pressure on the building, and in a matter of moments its frame broke and it started to crush the structure in a small pile, squeezing both Gallus and Gruff into a small confined space where they could barely move. After the deed was done, it simply turned to the edge and threw the mangled-up remains of the house with two griffins inside, over it, and the wooden clump fell down and into the dark ravine beneath the colossal tree.

“GALLUS!!!” Silverstream screamed in absolute horror at what she just saw happen.

It heard her. The arimaspi’s ear twitched and it quickly turned in mortified hippogriff’s direction. It approached slowly, and when her instinct kicked in and she quickly made a run for it, the beast accelerated. She made a dash and quickly turned a corner, and hid in a narrow alleyway with several cluttered houses. She heard it. The creature saw her go in, but it couldn’t pass through, yet she could still see its gigantic muzzle sticking through the passage, if it could reach in with its hand it would’ve gotten her by now, but to see the horrifying expression of a giant glowing eye staring right at her, it was absolutely terrifying, so much that she was on the verge of tears as she saw no other way out.

It stopped. She saw the eye suddenly shift to the side and then the large head pulled back. Something else got the arimaspi’s attention, something more important than her. And she could hear it. The sound of hooves walking down the wooden street echoed, even in the heavy rain. And it left to follow the sound. With the passage unblocked, Silverstream slowly crawled out and peaked around the corner to see what was happening.

Down the street, the grizzled old ram and the bonded centaur marched, completely drenched, though one didn’t really care about it. He was far more interested in seeing somebody very special. And it seemed that the mere sound of his walk got its attention. The arimaspi stood on the street, motionless, staring. Then it started to walk slowly, with every passing moment picking up the pace until it was in full gallop, charging in their direction.

“Errr… Grogar, I don’t think he has any intention of being friendly with us,” Tirek said with reservation, based on the way things looked from his position.

“You don’t know that,” the old sheep responded, slowly lifting his right hoof in the air in the direction the beast was coming from.

“You know if you’re planning to use some magic, now would be a good time.”

“I don’t need to use magic on him,” he simply responded.

But the centaur was not convinced. The beast was going to crash into them at any moment now and he had to run out of its path. He failed, as the collar kept him from moving beyond a designated range. He panicked, he had no other choice but to huddle on the ground behind the old fool and use him as a shield, hoping he somehow survived the stomping. The beast was closing in, but soon its movement slowed down ever so little until it finally came in reach of Father of Monsters, where it came to a complete stop. It sniffed his hoof, then closed its eye, gently pressing its giant muzzle against it.

And the grizzled old ram gently rubbed him. “Hello again, Paramis… old friend.”

The centaur lord flinched; did he just hear that right? “Friend?” He lifted his head. “Did you just call this giant hulking mass of fur “a friend”?” His chain was yanked, pulling him back to the ground.

“I suggest you watch your tongue, boy,” Grogar scolded him.

The arimaspi rose and started to make incomprehensible noises as if it was trying to speak.

Grogar chuckled. “Yes, I know. Even draconequus wasn’t kept on such a short leash.”

Tirek lifted a frown. “Wait... you can understand what that thing is saying?”

“That THING, as you so tactfully called, is one of my oldest and closest confidants. And where he goes, I go.”

“Does that mean, we’re done here? Are we going to leave for Dragon Lands now?” the prisoner inquired.

He was about to speak, but the beast intervened; it was mumbling something, making noises. It was telling his maker something, but the centaur had no idea what it was.

After it finally went quiet, Grogar once again regarded him. “No,” he plainly said. “There is something that has just come to my attention right now that I was not aware of. There is one little task that we still have to perform. But first…” He raised his head to the thundering clouds above. “CONSTRUUUUUUUUCT!”

The thunder roared, and a few moments later the clouds parted, and a giant dark cloud forming the face of Storm King descended to the ground below, a short distance away from the source of the caller.

“SO, WHAT’S THE WORD, GRAMPS?” his voice boomed. “WE ALL SET TO GO NOW?”

“Not yet,” Grogar answered. “I’m going to need you to stay a while longer and keep things under lockdown. Make sure no creature leaves the premises in order to alert the outside world.”

“SOUNDS EASY ENOUGH. BUT HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KILL TIME IN THE MEANTIME?”

“Oh, I’m sure you have a way to flare up your spirit and entertain your audience at the same time.”

The giant face looked to the side, pondering for a moment, and then finally realized it. “OH, I GET IT.”

Silverstream simply couldn’t describe things she was feeling after what she saw earlier and what she was seeing right now from the cover. But whatever it was, it could all be described with one word: BAD. Nobody was paying attention to her right now and with the heavy rain, this was her only chance to get to safety while the figures were preoccupied. He ran as fast as she could to Gilda’s house and tried to open it, only to discover it was locked.

Panic took over, and she aggressively started to bang on the door, begging. “Let me in! Please somecreature, I beg you, open! I-!”

The doors quickly opened and an unseen force pulled her inside before closing them shut again.

“Silverstream!” Smolder said as she and the rest of her friends piled on her in an embrace.

But it soon became apparent something had gone wrong, as the hippogriff started to sob.

“Silverstream, what’s happened? What’s wrong?” Sunburst inquired.

“Ari… Gallus… Gruff… Ravine… Tirek… Grogar… The Storm King!” she blabbed words under the weight of all the stress she’s just been under, making no sense.

“Silverstream, calm down. Breathe,” Trixie suggested, giving her a few moments to calm down. “Now tell us slowly. What exactly happened out there when you just disappeared into the-“

There was a strange sound in the air that interrupted them. It roared like thunder, but it sounded like electric strings being plucked.

And soon another equally loud sound followed. “HELLO, GRIFFINSTONE!” a voice suddenly boomed outside. “THIS IS SL/SK COMING TO YOU LIVE ON-SITE! PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A SHOW THE LIKES OF WHICH YOU’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE!”

Chapter 53: Three-Creature-Squad

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 54: Spelunking

Gallus’ head rang, so badly he had to hold it. All of his senses were numbed except his ability to feel. One thing was sure: He was upside down, as the gravity was clearing pulling him by the top. But whatever he was laying on it was soft. His memory of the last few moments started to come back: The arimaspi trapped him and Grandpa Gruff in the storage house for pillows and mattresses, crushed it down, and after that everything started to spin and he could feel the banging all around him until everything went dark. The aforementioned objects seemed to have softened his fall, yet he was still unsure where he was. He tried to feel about, but he reached a mattress only inches away from him; in fact, he could fill them and pillows all around him, almost fully pressing against him and he couldn’t move them away. Then he felt it - that familiar, horrible feeling he wanted to avoid as much as possible. Even though he couldn’t see it, he felt the walls around him closing in, pressing harder and harder with each passing moment, making him feel at the loss of breath, panic was beginning to set in, as the realization that he couldn’t do anything became all the clearer. He was trapped in a tight space and his claustrophobia was kicking in.

“HELP! HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP!” he screamed in fear, it was the only thing he could do, yet with his voice sounding so muffled due to his surroundings, he had lost any hope that he will get out.

Suddenly, he did hear something. The sound was coming under his feet, or rather, above him. Somebody was clearly shoving away the debris that surrounded him. All of a sudden, he felt something reaching for his feline tail and he let out a loud yelp of pain as it got pulled, dragging him out of his predicament, through several feet of tight, yet soft wreckage. After a few moments, he finally felt the surroundings disappear and fresh air, desperately grasping for it. It was still dark, but now he could at least perceive the environment full of rubble and pointy rocky spikes.

“Finally. I’ve been looking for you for who knows how long, kid.”

He recognized that old frustrating voice. And even in this blackness, he could see the old griffin, no worse than before.

“Thanks, Grandpa Gruff,” Gallus responded.

“Well, if I let something happen to you, boy, then the council of Griffin Lords won’t be one bit happy knowing that I let something happen to you.”

“Geee… thanks,” he reiterated in a sarcastic tone.

“By the way,” the elder griffin added, “you really need to start doing something about that condition of yours. It’ll become really inconvenient if you at some point end up fighting an opponent in a tight space.”

He gave him an angry look. “Excuse me? You’re one to talk. You went completely limp when we saw the arimaspi come to life.”

“That was just a moment of shock, boy,” the elder of Griffinstone deflected. “Had I been ready, I could’ve easily taken that giant hooved fur-bag on my own.”

“Sure you could,” the younger one said in a patronizing tone while rolling his eyes, then started to look about his surroundings, unsure what to make of it as it seemed alien to him “Anyway, where are we?”

“Oh, we just had a little tumble and a roll and we ended up in Neverland,” Gruff jokingly said. “Think, boy. We just got tossed over the edge of Griffinstone, where do you think we landed? We’re at the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss.”

When he heard that, Gallus looked up. He was trying to see if there was any sight of the world above, but he couldn’t see anything through the blackness.

“We have to get out of here, Grandpa Gruff.”

“Get out? Boy, haven’t you been paying attention to where I said we were a few seconds ago? This is the Abysmal Abyss! No griffin or any other creature for that matter has ever come out of this place. If we try to fly out of it, the turbulent winds that pass through the ravine will pick us up and likely end us. The best thing we can do now is to wait for the rescue.”

“Rescue?!” He gave him a surprised look. “Grandpa Gruff, for all we know the arimaspi is rampaging through town and destroying everything in its path! Everybody up there is in more danger than us right now, we can’t expect a rescue!”

“Well, if you have any better ideas on how we’re supposed to get out of here then please, by all means – “share”.”

And the young griffin went into deep thought as he tried to come up with a solution, but as he did, it started to become really obvious that his elder may have been in the right. The outside rescue was out of the question due to the previously mentioned arimaspi issue, but on top of that, he also remembered the ram sorcerer and the chained centaur. And the only reason why there was no wind tossing them about right now was that they ended up at the very bottom of the ravine where turbulent winds could no longer reach, but if they tried to get up normally, they would end up just as the Grandpa Gruff said. Something was off though as he tried to look up the chasm where they were right now: Even though it was too dark for him to see the world above, that wasn’t the case with his surroundings. By all accounts, it should’ve been pitch black just as above, but he could still see the beak in front of his face.

“Grandpa Gruff,” he inquired, “why is it so bright here?”

“Beats me,” he shrugged. “When I woke up it was already like this.”

“Are you sure there isn’t a light source somewhere down here?”

“At the bottom of Abysmal Abyss? Where no living creature ever came out of? You must be joking.”

“That’s the only logical explanation, Grandpa Gruff. I say we go look for it!”

The elder groaned. “That’s gonna be a complete waste of time and energy.”

“Well, you asked for an alternative and I just gave it to you. We’re not waiting here in vain hopes for anyone upstairs to try and rescue us.” He walked past him. “We’re gonna look for another way out, and we’re starting with finding out where there’s light down here. Come on.”

Gallus marched down the narrow natural hallway, determined to find the source of the only light in the abyss. His senior, however, was not as optimistic. Nothing had ever survived the fall into the Abysmal Abyss, so how could there possibly be anything down here that would be helpful in their escape?

Tirek sighed in relief to himself. He was laying down, and for the first time in a long while he was able to relax even for a moment, despite being bound in shackles and muzzled. He recalled all too well how, for a whole day before, he had to endure the lack of sleep on a small ledge, out of fear of falling into the dark abyss below, and the strong cold winds that were brushing off him reminded him all too well of that fact. Luckily, the large shaggy beast proved itself valuable, as it hunkered down, allowing him and its master to use it as a shield against the natural force. But now they had passed the threshold, as the large platform made of dark light descended further into the Abysmal Abyss, the winds seemed to have died out. That being said, the end destination didn’t seem to be in sight yet, mostly due to the darkness that surrounded them all, their mode of transportation was the only light in the darkness. He was still unsure what they were supposed to find in the deepest darkest corner of the world, the old sheep wasn’t very keen on sharing the information. Speaking of which, throughout the descent, his arimaspi pet was just laying huddled on the ground unmoving, with his giant yellow eye wide open and unblinking, facing his master, while Grogar did the same, but unlike his “friend” he was at least showing some signs of life, as he noticed his facial expressions subtly changing. After a quick glance to confirm that his jailor hasn’t shifted from his position, the centaur turned back and tried to regain what little strength he could from his arduous journey, frustrated that he couldn’t be stronger. Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him. It seemed like a chuckle, coming from the ram sorcerer. He turned his head and realized that was the case: He and his creation were still unmoved since they descended into the ravine, but the smile on him and the sound he was making were unmistakably his.

“What’s so funny?” Tirek asked.

The Father of Monsters regarded him. “Nothing. I just… perceived, something humorous.”

“You saw?” the wizen prisoner was confused. “What can you possibly see in this cold dark abyss?”

“Never you mind, boy,” he refused to answer. “Do yourself a favor and try to recuperate as much as possible. You’re going to need what little strength your frail body can provide.”

If Grogar could see past the muzzle he had put on him, he would’ve seen the centaur grit his teeth in anger. He was taunting his condition, and he was unable to do anything against him. The only thing he could do was to lay away from him again and stare into the darkness so he wouldn’t be able to see him. Things quieted down again, as the prince of the Nether Lands tried to rest, while his jailor turned his sight back to his unmoving hulking companion and gazed into his eye once again.

“Clever…” he mumbled to himself. “Very clever of them.”

“WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!” Smolder screamed in vertigo.

“I THOUGHT SILVERSTREAM HAD EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT ALREADY!” Ocellus yelled.

“I DIDN’T BELIEVE THE WIND WAS AS BAD AS THEY SAID IT WAS!” she tried to defend herself.

The hippogriff, the dragon, and the redeemed changeling descended into the ravine, but they were wholly unprepared for what followed. Just when they entered the giant gap in the ground, the strong wind that was running from one end of the peak to another quickly picked them up and began tossing them about, left, right, up, down, like paper on the wind. The three desperately tried to grab onto tiny protrusions that were sticking out the side of the walls only for them to slip; they were completely at the mercy of the natural force. They could barely even see in the ever-increasing darkness, and the only source of light that provided any sight was the constant flashing from the racket high above the great tree. Yet it was just enough for Smolder to notice a large dried-up branch sticking out of the side of the wall and grab onto it, embedding her claws, stopping in the process. Not a moment later, the other two came flying by, and she quickly grabbed the hippogriff by one of her hind hooves, and soon after that, the aforementioned halfling grabbed the changeling by her front legs. Vertigo had finally stopped.

“You two okay back there?!” the dragon yelled in the blowing wind.

“We’d be better off if we didn’t have to deal with this!” Silverstream answered.

Suddenly, they felt a twitch, but it was only the branch holder that could notice it. The weight that they were putting on it was beginning to break it.

“Guys, we’re about to lose our safety line! Quick! DO SOMETHING!”

It was quiet. It quickly became apparent to her that they were dry on ideas. There was already too much going on that made thinking straight nearly impossible, and the surroundings they were dealing with didn’t offer any obvious solutions either. The silence was indicating that they had no solution… or at least, that’s what she thought.

“I got an idea!” Ocellus finally spoke. “Silverstream! Toss me at the wall!”

“What?! What good will that do?!” she responded.

They shook again, as the branch kept making the cracking sound.

“JUST DO IT!” the dragon commanded.

The hippogriff looked back and then gave a concerned look to the changeling. There was a noticeable determined look in her bug eyes. She nodded reluctantly and then began swinging to the side to gain momentum to make sure the wind wouldn’t immediately pick her up, before promptly releasing her. Ocellus flew toward the wall, feeling the momentum of the wind slowly picking up, and just before it nabbed her, a flash of blue magic enveloped her. In her place, a giant form appeared: A hulking purple body, with a star-shaped bloom-like nose, armed with buck teeth, and a pair of giant claws. The creature crashed into the surface and stayed there, held in place by its armaments.

“Wait, is that a maulwurf?!” Silverstream yelled in response.

The branch shook again, and both she and Smolder yelled in panic. The giant mole creature in meantime began digging into the solid stone wall, carving out a hole big enough to crawl inside. A moment after that, however, the branch finally snapped and both remaining students were quickly picked up by the wind and dragged off by its current once again, screaming in terror, only for the branch to be grabbed by a giant claw that reached out of the hole in the wall and pulled them both into the cover. The only problem they had to deal with now was the complete darkness that surrounded them, but that was something that was soon taken care of, as they finally calmed down, the dragon breathed flame on the broken-off branch that they were holding on to.

“Phew… that was close,” she sighed in relief. “That was quick thinking, Ocellus.”

In a magical flash, the changeling returned to her original form. “Thanks.” She turned her head to the hippogriff. “But seriously, that was a really bad idea from the get-go, Silverstream.”

“Guys, I swear, I didn’t know it was gonna be this bad,” she apologized. “I just thought that if we just try to navigate the air currents and follow the flow we might be able to get deeper into Abysmal Abyss without problem, but I didn’t think the winds were going to be this strong.”

“Even if that were possible somehow, I think that giant talking cloud out there might be making it all impossible, considering what a storm he’s cooking up there and making the draft that’s passing through the raving all the stronger.”

“If that’s the case, maybe all of this could’ve been avoided if we did THIS right from the start instead,” Smolder suggested. “Ocellus, turn back into that thing, and let’s dig our way down to the bottom instead.”

“That’s not gonna be easy, Smolder,” the hippogriff pointed out. “How do we even know where to go? Gallus and Grandpa Gruff could be anywhere in Abysmal Abyss.”

“You’re forgetting something, Silverstream,” the changeling answered. “Maulwurfs have a very strong sense of smell. They can smell their target even when under solid rock.”

“Okay, but how does that help us find Gallus?”

There was a moment of silence, where Ocellus and Smolder exchanged glances, before smiling, with the latter trying to suppress a laugh. “You’ve got Gallus all over you.”

Silverstream’s face turned red when she heard that, remembering the early morning when she freaked out and was all over the aforementioned griffin. “O-okay, but what about the dark?” the halfling questioned, trying to divert the awkwardness away from herself.

The scaled one picked up the giant burning branch. “We’ll have a good enough light source… as long as the wood lasts.”

Through the barely visible surroundings, the two griffins walked, one more eager to proceed than the other. They’d been tracking through the rough and spikey terrain for a while now and in complete silence, traveling in the direction where the light source was coming from. As they did, however, the younger one was beginning to notice a subtle change, as everything around the started to turn into an ever so slight shade of red.

“So, are you finally gonna tell me what you’re up to?” the older griffin finally spoke.

It made the blue-feathered one stop in his tracks for a moment. “Wha-what do you mean what I’m up to, Grandpa Gruff?”

“You know, your school?”

“What brought that up all of a sudden?” Gallus questioned as he continued his track, and the grumpy elder followed.

“What do you think? I’m gonna have to submit a report to the Griffin Lords at some point anyway. Since we’re stuck down here you might as well tell me now.”

“Oh… You know, same old, same old. Study this, study that. And you’ve seen we’re on the school trip to visit other places-“ he began listing things up only to get cut off.

“I’m not talking about that, Gallus,” the elder said. “It’s been four years since you’ve been enrolled in Equestria’s School of Friendship. I know full well that your time there is about to come to an end. And since that’s the case… why don’t you tell me what your plan for the future is?”

He’s been dreading it would come to this. It’s been going through his mind for a while now. It was only to his friends that he confessed the issue and nobody else. And to have Grandpa Gruff of all creatures ask that question was the worst.

“Well, boy?” the half-blind old bird asked after a prolonged period of silence had already passed. “What are your plans for the future?”

“Since… since when do you care about the future?” he tried to deflect the repeated question.

“Since when don’t I care about the future? I was here when Griffinstone was at the height of its glory, and I watched that glory fall because of that stupid humongous one-eyed sheep, fade away from history as it declined-“

“Hey, I think I see something!” he interrupted him, partly relieved that he didn’t have to hear another one of the elder griffin’s speeches, but also scared that he may have stopped the distraction a bit too early.

But he was onto something. There was a short slope in front of them that descended into a short tunnel, and through it, he could see a strange red light emanating. That’s what must’ve been the source of light down here.

“Come on, Grandpa Gruff, let's see who we’re gonna find,” he urged him as he moved downwards.

“For crying out loud, Gallus, won’t you just listen to reason?” the elder complained as he hurried to follow him. “There’s no way any living creature could live down here in the Abysmal Abyss, let alone one that could help us get out.”

Just as the younger griffin finally reached the mouth of the tunnel, he halted, and so would the elder one. The tunnel was only a few feet long and after that, a wide room opened before them, with a volatile-looking red mist moving, shifting just beneath the elevation that the two were standing on, with a single elevated pillar made of rock piles sticking out of the middle of it.

“What is this place, Grandpa Gruff?” the blue one wondered.

“How should I know?” the grey one responded. “I’ve never been to the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss. For all we know, this thing could be dangerous.”

The younger griffin slowly approached the bank of the misty lake, reaching out with its claw and slowly dipping it into it.

“Hmmm, odd. I don’t feel any- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Gallus started to scream, acting as if he couldn’t pull his arm out of the red fog, making his guardian look concerned. “Grandpa Gruff, it’s got me! Run! Run before it…!” He suddenly stopped and pulled his hand out, wiggling with his fingers at him while smiling. “Just kidding.”

“Boy, that wasn’t funny!” the elder exploded.

“Relax, will you? This thing’s perfectly safe to the touch, whatever it is.” Gallus splashed about playfully in the clouds.

“Well, if you’re gonna be such a smart aleck, why don’t you go over there to the middle and see what the deal is with this place?” He pointed.

The direction that he was aiming was at the small elevation that was rising out of the mists that surrounded it. Suddenly, the student didn’t feel particularly brave. Sure, the substance didn’t seem dangerous at all, but how deep was it? He gave a quick glance back at his senior, and all he was giving him was a stern look; he would have to suffer the consequences for the prank he pulled. He slowly stepped into the misty lake and walked further in, until he was neck deep while on all fours. He sighed in relief.

“Make sure nothing in there bites you on the way,” Grandpa Gruff advised.

Cold suddenly ran down Gallus’ spine. Why would he say that? There was no way for him to know what was hiding in the swirling mist, he couldn’t see anything. And in his fear of the potential danger that his guardian had introduced, he very slowly walked forward, carefully stepping one paw and claw after another to make sure he wouldn’t step on whatever could be lurking in the red fog. He was halfway to the middle already and his confidence was beginning to rise again. Perhaps he was being overly careful and Grandpa Gruff was only doing a tit-for-tat? And in the sudden brim of confidence he didn’t raise his claw high enough as he moved forward, he hit something, and tripped in the process, falling into the mist. He couldn’t see a thing; everything was red, he flailed about and felt nothing else. It seemed that his senior really was indeed just trying to give him a payback. He sighed in relief, but when he tried to inhale again, he felt a scorching burning sensation in his throat and lungs. He quickly surfaced, violently coughing. He wanted to get away from it, to some higher elevation so he could get away from it, and the only nearby place he could see was the elevation where he was sent to. He quickly dashed forward and climbed on top of the pile of rocks and desperately deeply inhaled and exhaled, an action that made him feel rather dizzy afterward.

“Boy!” Grandpa Gruff called from the other end. “What’s wrong?!”

He inhaled one last time, and the burning sensation finally passed. “Sweet giblets, it’s like concentrated salt or something…!”

“Well, I hope that taught you a lesson not to pull pranks on your elders, boy! Now get back here!”

He was right! It was a tit-for-tat! He huffed in anger, and it was boiling, he felt like he was about to explode from it with what his guardian made him endure just for the sake of payback. He struggled to push it back, to bottle it up, before descending back into the misty lake, but this time he made sure to keep his head high above its surface to make sure he wouldn’t experience the unpleasant sensation again. As he made his way back to the bank, he felt unsettled though. They discovered the source of the dim light at the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss, but that was it. On the way here, they saw no life whatsoever, and who knows how long the depth of the ravine ran. Perhaps Grandpa Gruff was right after all; perhaps there was no escape from this place, maybe the only solution they had was to wait for somebody from Griffinstone to send help. After all, Silverstream saw them, so she must know what had happened and told others. That being said, he had no idea what was happening in the world above. Was the arimaspi still there, ravaging the town, along with the one who brought him back? The thinking made him forget about something that had just happened though. Just as he got to the mid-way of his path, he hit something with his claws as he was moving forward, and he once again tripped.

Grandpa Gruff only watched as the blue griffin once again disappeared into the red mist. “Gallus?!” he called out.

A moment later, his head popped up on the surface again, and it was clear by the look on his face that he was desperately trying to hold in his breath. He finally exhaled in order to inhale a breath of fresh air again.

“Seriously, I’ve just about had it with this!” he raged, reaching into the fog surrounding him and grabbing hold of whatever made him fall the second time. “What in the name of Princess Twilight is this accursed thing?!”

His emotions were running high. The fact that he just fell for the second time, for the same reason, made him so angry. He just wanted to pick up whatever this rock was, just so he could throw it against the wall. Yet as he finally pulled the object out of the mist, he froze, realizing what he was actually holding. Even though the surrounding light made everything seem red, it was clear that what he held in his claws was a golden item, whose shape resembled a flame surrounding a small round rock-like object that sat in the middle of it. There was a name for what he was holding, but after glancing at the elder on the shore, it was immediately obvious even to him what this was.

It was quiet. Not a sound could be heard around them. And for the first time in a long while, the centaur lord slept; a welcoming reprieve to be sure… One that soon came to an end. He suddenly felt a bash against his head and he clenched it in agony. It took him a moment for his eyes to readjust to his new surroundings, especially since the sole light source that was accompanying him throughout his descent had disappeared and he ended up landing on the solid ground with his face.

“Was that necessary,” he complained. “Couldn’t you have just woken me up?”

The sorcerer and his one-eyed goat-like monstrosity stood nearby, the latter mumbling something to his make, words that Tirek himself could not understand even a little.

Grogar finally turned towards him. “We’ve arrived, boy. This is the bottom of the abyss. This is where you would’ve met your fate had you slipped off that ledge.”

“Or where your pet would’ve ended up if he didn’t hit one on the way down,” the prisoner bit back.

A mistake. It became obvious the moment Grogar yanked his chain and pulled him close to his face.

“What did I tell you about not showing respect to Paramis in my presence, boy?”

At this point he was already fed up with the old sheep ordering him around, belittling him at every turn, but he was in no position to do anything against it. “Sorry…” was the only thing he could utter.

“Good enough,” he hmphed and loosened the grip.

The centaur tried to get back on his feet. “Okay, now that we’ve reached the bottom of this hole, are you finally going to explain to me what exactly are we doing in this pitch blackness?”

“Yes.” The Father of Monster nodded. “Come here.”

The withered centaur approached him, positioning himself in front of the arimaspi.

“Alright, Paramis,” he ordered, “show it.”

The beast hunched over, low enough for his head to be on the same level as Tirek. He became motionless, as his large yellow eye suddenly started to glow and the iris inside it disappeared. An image of a shape began to emerge inside of it, twisting into a form. And when it was finally done, he saw a strange-looking object: An item made of solid gold, whose shape resembled a flame surrounding a small round rock-like object that sat in the middle of it.

Yet he was confused, not sure what he was looking at. “What is this…?”

“That is the object that had drawn Paramis here in the first place,” the grizzled ram elaborated. “As I had mentioned before, I infused his eye with magic, giving it a rare and unique ability to see, divine even, magical energies and artifacts that would be difficult to find otherwise. And this artifact drew him in.” He pointed at the imagery in the said eye. “The Idol of Boreas – the object that brought the whole of griffin kind together. I recall their kind way back. Even back when they weren’t united, it made my expansion eastward difficult. They are persistent creatures. Now imagine that persistency multiplied, made stronger by this artifact that had brought them all together. That’s what Paramis had sensed. He had almost gotten away with it but…” he paused, reaching out with his hoof at arimaspi’s face, gently stroking it, causing the imagery in the eye to disappear, and the beast once again became aware of its surroundings. “Fate was not kind to him.” He finally lowered his hoof. “This is what you’re going to recover here before we leave.”

“Fine… let's go,” Tirek groaned, slowly walking off, “the sooner we find this thing, the better-”

“I don’t think you heard me right, boy,” Grogar yanked his chain, stopping him in the process. “I said YOU are going to recover the artifact, not US.”

“What?!” he yelled, his voice echoing all around him. “Why do I have to do it by myself?!”

“I could’ve made you look for Paramis’ eye way back after it was lost under a mountain of rubble, but I considered that to be a waste of everybody’s time,” he elaborated further. “Surely looking for a large item that you know what it looks like, in open terrain, isn’t going to be too difficult for you, will it? Oh, and before I forget…”

His horns suddenly lit up, aiming them in Tirek’s direction. He covered, unable to even imagine what the Father of Monsters was going to do next to him. He waited but didn’t feel anything. That’s when it got him: He didn’t feel anything, that included the bonds. He opened his eyes and realized that all the shackles and the muzzle he was adorned in were gone.

He looked at the grizzled ram, who was just smiling at him. “You… you’re just letting me go…?” he asked in a confused tone.

“Well, due to the short-sightedness of the events that took place upstairs, my friend over here made sure that somebody else is already down here, to begin with,” Grogar explained, giving the arimaspi a rather disappointed look in the process, and he hung his head in shame. “So, it would be most inconvenient, if you encountered them while being restricted while in an already weakened state. At least now, you’ll have a little chance against them.”

Tirek was still confused by the fact that, after all that Grogar was doing and saying, he was just gonna let him go off on his own now. He couldn’t wrap it around his head. Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to waste this chance. The sooner he found the artifact the faster they could leave. He turned away to leave, when suddenly…

“And boy.”

The centaur halted, groaning at the sheep for using that word. “What?”

“I would like to leave you with a piece of advice,” he answered. “If you take somebody else’s power for your own, does that really make you stronger? Would you prefer a struggle to become stronger, or are you willing to become a slave to power you think you can control?”

The just stood there for a while, perplexed by what the old sorcerer was telling him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Grogar shrugged. “Just take it as you will. I’ve said my piece. Now off you go.”

Still perplexed by what his former jailor had just uttered, the withered centaur lit up a small red orb above his horns to serve as a source of light, as he stumbled across the uneven terrain, to look for an artifact he wasn’t even sure he would find.

As his light finally disappeared into the distance, obscured by the dim light, the arimaspi bent over to his master and began speaking in incomprehensible gibberish to him. “I told him all he needed to know, Paramis. Any further information will just be an unwelcomed deterrent.” The companion spoke again. “If he fails to realize it? Well…” he chuckled. “Then he will learn a very hard lesson about what it means to play with fire… and get burned by it.” He walked around the arimaspi and stepped closer to the wall. “Now come. Those three will be coming here any moment now, and I don’t want any interference in watching what comes next.”

The goat-like beast walked over to his master’s side and huddle itself close to his size. Grogar’s horns began to glow in the dark light and an illusion was cast over both of them, making them blend into the surroundings to look like a giant boulder. A considerable time passed in silence, but soon sounds could be heard coming through the nearby wall, and not a moment later it burst open. A maulwurf came crawling out of the hole, followed by a winged lizard holding a burning branch, almost halfway gone from what it originally was, and lastly, a hippogriff came through. And in a blue flash, the large purple animal disappeared, leaving a small alien bug-like equine in its place.

“See? Told you guys this was gonna be way easier,” Smolder proudly said.

Chapter 55: Revelations and Oubursts

Author's Note

Hey everybody.
Sorry for another late update, but lately my creative drive's been on a low end. Hope this satisfies you all.

Chapter 55: Revelations and Oubursts

The shaman and the workhorse waded through the pool of green glowing liquid and marched up on the bank where the unicorn from the Equestrian Astronomy Institute was sitting, trying to shake the substance off herself. In the meantime, Zecora put the lantern and her saddlebags on the ground, opening the latter so she could help her fire lizard friend back inside where it could be safe. A blowing sound came past her head and saw a few feathers fly past her and fell into one of her saddlebags.

“Ack, that was a nasty experience,” Applejack moaned, as it seemed that some of the feathers that she nearly choked on earlier were still in her mouth. “Still, that don’ make a lick of sense. Whose feathers were that, and why were they stuck in a layer of what basically amounts to sandstone?”

“Sandstone?” Whimsy Windsdale looked at her in confusion after she finally stopped grooming herself. “Miss Applejack, we’re in a middle of a land full of volcanic activity.”

“I agree,” the zebra added, “the thin layer above gives me pause on how it came to be. It makes no sense, don't you see?”

“Well, somethin’ had to make it in the first place. Those feathers that were stuck in it. And then there’s that giant puddle we landed in too. This place is really weird, Zecora…” Applejack counted all the issues that didn’t make sense, but her voice trailed off, before pointing in her direction. “’Cept not as weird as what’s happenin’ in your bags.”

The zebra gave her a confused look and then turned back to her saddlebags. There was a bright light glowing from within it, and she could’ve sworn she heard a familiar sound echoing as well. She quickly went to reach for the source and pull it out, leaving her surprised by what she was holding. It was the jar containing the shadowy manifestation, one the color of darker grey, and it was screeching. It didn’t take long for her to spot the single spark of light within it flashing, glowing brighter by the second. But why? She soon spotted it: One of the feathers that landed in her bag earlier was drenched in the pony saliva and was stuck to the side of the jar, and it was that direction that the blob was desperately trying to avoid by pressing against the opposite side of the glass, but it was a wasted effort. A radiant blue glow enveloped the feather, until it was all but consumed by it, disappearing. It then passed through the glass and got absorbed by the increasingly bright spark of light. Once it was done, a blinding flash erupted, followed by the dark blob’s violent cry, and then it went quiet, the surroundings returning to near darkness, illuminated by the lantern. And the zebra could see that with the spark of light dimmed again, the contents of the jar became noticeably just normal grey color.

“What… the hay… was that, Zecora?” Applejack broke the silence that followed.

“I have seen this happen before,” the shaman answered, “yet since you weren’t there I imagine you do know not what’s in store. But you saw it awaken, Applejack if I'm not mistaken.”

She thought for a moment, trying to recall what she was talking about regarding the blob. Suddenly, she remembered back in the Frozen North, when they got separated. When they managed to get together again, Twilight showed the blob, a remnant of the attack on her by an aspect of Turmoil. It had become still even though it was aggressive, and after an experiment, it was revived by the green substance, the lifeblood of the world, yet its behaviors completely changed, something that the shaman and wonderbolt commented on happening when the spark inside of it absorbed the essence of Radiant Hope.

“Zecora, ya think the same thing will happen again if we do it?” the workhorse wondered.

She nodded, then put the jar on the ground and reached into her saddlebag, pulling out a small wooden saucer, traipsed over to the large pool of glowing green liquid, and filled it up.

“Emmm… excuse me,” the purple unicorn wondered, “what’s going on?”

“You just wait a bit, Miss Windsdale. You’ll get yer answer soon,” the Element of Honesty replied.

The zebra approached the opened container and slowly poured the magical substance into it. The same reaction occurred just like last time, as the ooze and the liquid inside began to conjugate, and the spark of light inside began to glow along with it, the blob began to bubble up, rising, its eyes and maw opened and then… it just sat there looking about confusingly. Its tendrils then slowly reached out for the edge of the jar, pulling itself up, and then it looked about its surroundings. First, its sight went for the two equines that stood by the jar – the orange and the striped one, letting out a murmuring sound, as if it was concerned by their presence. Then it turned to the unicorn, and they both noticed how its eyes expanded all of a sudden. It lept off the edge of the jar and then began dragging itself across the floor and towards the scientist pony making strange noises that almost sounded like desperation. She screamed and backed up with increased speed, trying to avoid the blob getting near her, only to eventually hit the wall. But the blob didn’t get far as the workhorse managed to put the jar over it and then sealed it again. The creature shifted about a bit in its old prison, before turning towards the direction of its target and started to make whining noises.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Miss Windsdale,” Applejack apologized. “Ah should’ve been a bit faster on the lid.”

The scientist finally got her gaze away from the shifting form and aimed it at the country pony. “Okay, could somepony care to explain what in Equestria is that thing?!”

“As much as I’d like to, miss, it’s a very long and complicated story, and I fear that we have a more pressing issue to deal with.” Applejack looked up where weak light shined through the crack in the ceiling. “We have to find a way out because if we don’t we’ll be stuck here for a very long time.”

“Relax.” She waved her hoof dismissingly. “Members of the Equestrian Astronomy Institute know I’m here and I told them when I’m planning to come back. Once they see I’m not back yet they’ll come looking for us. So, in the meantime…” She levitated her saddlebags over to her, put them against the wall, and prompted herself against it. “You two start explaining what did you drag me into.”

Applejack and Zecora looked at one another, the latter picked up her packs and they moved closer to her.

“Well, you see miss, it’s like this…” the former elaborated.

“Okay, I think that’s the last one,” Twilight said as the light went out and then levitated the blue crystal over to her companion.

They’ve been working for hours at it. At least now they finally knew that the color of the crystal indicated which dragon it belonged to. It made categorizing of the scattered crystals much more manageable, but not easier. There were still thousands upon thousands of colorful crystals, completely scrambled from the mishap earlier, and to make matters even more difficult, despite being the same, there was a very subtle different tone in some of the colors, and it required very keen eyes to spot it.

Spike took the latest addition to the collection of the same color and placed it in a row, then picked up a checklist and crossed it out. Where they started from white one, each consecutive set of crystals slowly changed into the one where they ended up now. Even so, it was exhausting work, and as he turned back to where the rest were, where the alicorn princess, the Dragon Lord, and her sire hung out, he saw a large multicolored pile still just sitting there, and it didn’t seem to have shrunk since the last time he saw it; the whole situation, the thought of having to get through all of that, while he was already tired made him feel quite woozy, sick even, which became apparent when he got the sudden feeling as if he was about to regurgitate. That’s when he suddenly realized it - he knew that sensation all too well, it’s just been so long since he had it last time, ever since SHE stepped down. He tried to hold it in, but the force was too strong.

BUUURP!

The little dragon opened his mouth and with a loud belch, green fire erupted with lots of smoke, that soon after materialized into a sealed parchment.

His older sibling noticed it, even though it’s been a long since she last heard that sound. “Spike? Is that a message from Princess Celestia?”

“Who else do you think has the ability to send a message like this?” He hit his chest trying to get the remaining smoke out. “But it’s been so long since she did that…”

“Is it urgent?”

He opened the scroll and quickly skimmed through it. “Uh oh,” was the only words he said.

“Uh oh? What do you mean by “uh oh”? Is it a good “uh oh?” Twilight tried to be hopeful.

“Since when is “uh oh” supposed to be a good sign?”

“Can’t you at least pretend it is, considering what we have to deal with?” she begged, to which all she received, was a raised eyebrow. “Okay fine, let me have it. What does it say?”

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,” he began reading out loud, “I trust your search for the whereabouts of the missing piece of Turmoil in Dragon Lands is going well. However, I have rather unsettling news. I just received word from Starlight Glimmer that Ponyville has been assaulted by an unseen force, and Star Swirl confirmed it must’ve been magical in nature. As of this moment, the entire town, as well as Canterlot will be put under a protective magical field that will prevent any further interference from this outside force. So, just in case you’re planning to reply back, I’m letting you know that the message will not be received. Do not get distracted, Princess. Have faith that we can hold our own while you’re away. Kind regards, Celestia.”

After a moment of silence, Twilight exploded. “Ponyville attacked?! What?!”

“Twilight, chill,” he tried to calm her. “Remember what Celestia said. You need to keep calm and not get distracted. She’s been dealing with these things for a thousand years, remember?”

“Yes, I know, but still… “

“Now come on, let's continue with the investigation,” he said and moved back to the crystal pile.

Despite what Spike said, she couldn’t help but be worried. With all that she’s seen happened, she couldn’t be sure that even her senior would be able to do much against what they were facing. They returned back to the cluster of crystals where the elder dragon and his whelp waited, with the former being fast asleep at this point.

“Problems at home?” Ember asked as the two approached.

“Nothing that can’t be handled, right Twilight?” The little dragon glanced at her.

“Yeah, sure… I’m not worried,” she responded, noticeably nervous.

“Sure…” the Dragon Lord responded, rather unsure if she was honest. “Anyway, which one do we have next?”

With a flash of magic, Twilight conjured an image of a color wheel. “According to this, considering how far we’ve come, I think the next one is…” She looked through the pile of crystals until she finally picked a dark purple crystal. “This one!”

“Alright guys, get ready,” Ember ordered, extending the bloodstone scepter in its direction and touching its surface with its tip.

As many times before, bright light erupted upon their connection, and when it disappeared, an image was presented before them. The Dragon Lord was present, he was about three times the size of the current reigning one, and he stood on a cliff edge, staring into the distance, in one hand holding the bloodstone scepter, and in the other the memory crystal with which he was recording. Spectators were unsure what was happening yet, but it was clear that it was raining heavily, yet what followed was unexpected.

“It is finally over…” he spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice. “After more than a dozen cycles, the cataclysmic calamity has finally come to an end, however… The calamity consumed most of Mother’s Pool of Conjugation, and the devastation that it left behind cannot be reversed. Our homeland will forever be marked by it. I do not know for what purpose my feathered friend will use the container in which the calamity is sealed; despite it’s changed nature, I do not think anything good will come of it. But in the end, that’s not my main concern right now. The devastation had scattered the broods all over our lands, and I wouldn’t be surprised if orphans were left behind. Now that the threat has ended, I must find them and bring them back into the fold. Not a single whelpling must be left abandoned and forgotten, as Mother said: Without guidance, the primal instinct will get the better of them. And once things have finally settled… Mother…” The crowned dragon paused. “Perhaps then we can finally look for you, wherever you’ve disappeared off to…”

And the imagery disappeared, and while the silence lasted a bit, it was for a good reason. The calamity. That was what they were looking for!

“You… you all saw that, right?” Twilight questioned, and everybody present nodded in acknowledgment. “We’re on the right track! Quick, start looking for other crystals of the same color! Our goal may be in sight!”

Without further notice, the purple dragon lept into the sea of gems and swam through it like a fish, meanwhile, the blue dragon and the alicorn combed through the surface, trying to find the crystals that matched the color of the current one.

“I got it!” a yell came from under the shiny clutter, and moments later, a purple claw popped out of it, holding a much darker purple crystal.

The pony gleefully grabbed it, only for her excitement to shrink, while the Dragon Lord’s reaction seemed to be of an increasing rage, as they both noticed that, while the crystal was absolute of the same color, it seemed much smaller in comparison; it was chipped, almost as if “somebody” had nibbled on it. It didn’t take long before Ember’s gaze traveled over to her father, who was sound asleep, oblivious to what was happening.

“Let’s try it?” Twilight suggested.

Ember pushed down her anger for a moment and focused on the task at hand, hoping that whatever the crystal was about to show won’t be very important when it cuts off. She nodded, and the princess levitated the crystal in front of her, while she touched it with the tip of the bloodstone scepter. And the blinding light followed.

The image of the Dragon Lord from earlier appeared again. He was holding the memory crystal and ran, eventually coming to an abrupt stop.

“I came as fast as I could, Mother,” he gasped for air. “What’s so urgent?”

There was a quaking sound that followed, and they saw a giant figure pass the dragon.

“Child, I will be leaving,” the familiar deep voice said.

“Leaving?” he paused, then the sign of fear appeared on his face. “No… Nononononononono! Mother, it can’t be your time yet! I’m not ready! There’s got to be-!”

“Calm yourself, Obsidian, it’s not my time yet,” the voice reassured him. “This is a different matter. I will be leaving Dragon Lands for some time, but I will return eventually.”

“But where to, Mother? And why are you leaving?”

“There was a visitor that came to my doorstep, a foreigner from the far west,” the explanation followed. “Apparently, he asked other of my children that live beyond our domain, looking for the strongest dragon of all. I met him, and he was desperate. A great misfortune had befallen his kingdom and he had begged that I assist him in a matter that he alone couldn’t resolve without causing the entire kingdom to collapse.”

“An outsider?” The Dragon Lord tilted his head. “Why would you help him?”

More stomping sounds followed, and soon after a giant crystal formation came into view, and it moved up and down while the voice spoke. “For the same reason that I care about all of you. I cannot ignore a call for help when love is involved, even love for one’s home and a desire to preserve it. And this one… this one begged for it.” The cluster disappeared from view. “But rest assured, child, I will be back. But first, I must help the Beard-“

And just like that, the vision came to an end.

There was a low rumbling sound that followed afterward. It wasn’t a geological event, it was Ember, her face turning red and steam coming out her nostrils, specks of flame slipping through the cracks in her mouth as she was trying to suppress the rage. The duo knew that wasn’t going to last, so they quickly made their distance from her; a good decision, as not a moment later, her mouth opened and with a yell, a pink flame erupted.

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”

With the echoing noise all around, the former Dragon Lord woke from his slumber. “Wha… Did something happen?” he wondered in a sleepy tone.

She turned to her elder, with the angry flame flickering in her eyes. “Yeah, something did happen! We were finally going to get a clue what happened to Mother of Dragons, and then the message was cut short, because of YOUR eating habits!”

Torch groaned. “I told you already. I may have given the collection a nibble or two-“

“That nibble or two happened 20 crystals ago!” she vented her rage. “Every time we made a progress, to find a clue, we had to dig deeper in order to find a proper message to match what we were missing! But this time we can’t because what we saw was one of a kind thing and now we’re stuck! And it’s all your fault!”

Her voice echoed throughout the cavern, and after a momentary quiet, while the Dragon Lord was still fuming over the events, the voice of the other boomed out.

“Fine! If that’s the way you’re going to be…!”

The elder dragon rose up on all fours, and went past the small group, towards the exit, the ground trembling as he did.

“D-dad? Where do you think you are going?” Ember inquired.

“Back to my lair! I’m not going lay there and be scolded by my own whelp!”

He crawled into the opening, surroundings shaking as his large form brushed against the ceiling.

“Dad! Dad, get back here!” the blue dragon yelled, and when it became apparent he didn’t hear her, she ran off after him.

The duo looked at each other and then ran after them.

Torch crawled out of the entry into the cavern into which he barely fit, he spread open his gigantic wings and prepared himself to fly. Yet just before he did, his offspring came running out of the mouth of the cave trying to stop him.

“Dad, come back here!” Ember commanded. “As your Dragon Lord, I order you to stay!”

Torch stopped, his head turning back to his spawn. “Tell that to an elder dragon who cares.”

“You’re the elder dragon who cares!”

“Not anymore,” he bluntly retorted.

With a single beat of his wings, it created a powerful gust of wind that kicked up the dust and blew them off their feet, before flying higher and disappearing around the corner of the mountain.

When the dust finally settled, the former Dragon Lord’s offspring raged. “That big, overblown, self-absorbed… UUUUUUUUUUGH!”

“Ember, enough already,” Spike spoke out.

“Because of him we just lost a piece of the puzzle, Spike! I have every right to be angry at him!”

“I think you’re being a bit unfair to him, Ember,” the alicorn answered.

The Dragon Lord gave her a look of surprise. “Twilight? You?! Out of everybody else, you should be most furious about this!”

“Not as furious as I’m about to be!”

They all went quiet. That voice wasn’t theirs, it belonged to somebody nearby. Near the airship, they saw a large piece of cloth laying nearby, and somebody was struggling to move under it. Twilight used her magic to lift it up, revealing a white unicorn mare, who had her head wrapped in a piece of cloth, strands of her mane sticking out the sides.

“Rarity, why are you wearing that thing on your head?” the little dragon asked the mare of his desires.

She wiped her brow. “I’m trying to preserve what little semblance of my radiant mane is left, Spike.” She forced back a noticeable strand of grey hair that was sticking out in front of her face. “And this scorching sun is really not helping my condition.”

Meanwhile, Twilight looked about. She had expected the fashionista to be done patching up the balloon of their ship a long time ago, but now that she looked about, there was a more noticeable mess about than before. “Rarity? What are you doing?” she inquired.

“I’m trying to fix the blimp, Twilight. Just like I said I would.”

“But I thought you’d have been finished by now,” she stopped herself for a moment, thinking. “Wait, you’re not being serious about what you said earlier, are you?”

“Twilight darling, you should know by now I never do anything in half-measured,” she said, lifting all the fabrics that were blown about and stacking them up. “I came to the realization that a simple patch job won’t do, so I’m working on the whole thing from scratch. I made some considerable progress in the time that you were away, but then former Dragon Lord Torch messed things up with the wind he’s raised.”

Then the princess diverted her attention to the situation at hand. The sudden distraction managed to de-escalate it before they got even more heated up. “As I was saying, Ember, I think you’re being rather unfair to your father. Yeah, sure he bit off the crystals, but in his defense, he couldn’t have known what they really were since we all know now that just about every dragon forgot any of these things happened, and even more so, it happened over a thousand years ago. I mean, most of the ponykind pretty much forgot about Nightmare Moon actually existing, even though we had written records and a prophecy pointing to it, so everypony was surprised when she actually returned.”

“Well, except for you,” Spike pointed out.

“Anyway, as I said, I fully understand you being angry at your dad for making our search difficult, but it’s unfair since he couldn’t have known.”

The blue dragon still wanted to rage regardless, yet by this point, the rage had already subsided and she couldn’t muster anymore of it. “I know, but,” she said between her clenched teeth, “it still makes me angry when he’s like this…”

The small purple dragon walked to her side and held her hand. “It’s okay, Ember. I’m sure that there are still other messages that can help us find out what happened. I mean, that was the case for other recordings, maybe it will be for this one as well.”

The Dragon Lord breathed in deeply and expelled what built-up heat was left in her, then looked at her little friend and nodded before walking back into the cave together. Twilight sighed in relief that things settled down, then glanced in the fashionista’s direction.

“Rarity, you sure you don’t need any help?”

“No no, Twilight, as I said, I can handle it.” She waved her away. “Now you go move along and continue what you guys were doing.”

She was sure that the Element of Generosity could use some assistance, but with everybody else already set on their task, she was right, she had to do her part. And she traipsed back into the cave after the two dragons.

“So, let me see if I understood the basics,” Whimsy Windsdale said. “There’s the darkness that resides in the Everfree Forest, and you’re traveling all over Equestria to try and find it before these villains do, and on top of that, you somehow managed to get a piece of it, and you keep it in a jar?”

Applejack finished retelling the events of the past few days to the member Equestrian Astronomy Institute. “Well, that’s pretty much how you described it. It was only recently that we realized that the piece of Turmoil is being revived using the magic water that seems to be all over the world for some reason. Ain’t that right, Zecora?!” She waited for the zebra to confirm her statement, but she didn’t respond; her head was hanging low, and the workhorse swore that she was hearing a low sound coming from her. “Zecora?” She nudged her, and the shaman instantly raised her head with a snort. “You feelin’ okay?”

She yawned. “Forgive me, Applejack, but I’m nearly spent. All this time I’ve been helping the princess, with sleep at zero percent…”

She was telling the truth. She was the one who stayed with her to try and find the clue that led the to Dragon Lands, and she didn’t even consider her own needs before the ones of others.

“Tell ya what,” the Element of Honesty suggested, her head turning to the unicorn, “since we’re stuck here and have to wait for the rescue anyway, why don’cya take a load off and have some well-deserved rest, Zecora?”

The shaman didn’t say anything. She simply tipped backward and landed on her back with a resounding thud, followed by a loud exhale and then a snoring neigh.

“Wow, your… your friend’s really out of it, huh?” the unicorn asked.

“Yep, we’ve all been pretty strained for the past few days. Then again, Ah already told you what happened and what we’ve been doing, so that’s hardly surprising.” She leaned against the wall. “So… while we’re waiting for your research team to come and break us out, we might as well just take a breather, miss Whimsy.”

“Well… I suppose we might as well.”

The Institute member lifted her saddlebag and placed them behind her to make her resting arrangement a bit comfier as she lay down, seemingly already fallen asleep. The orange pony simply pulled her hat over her eyes and exhaled in relief. Some time passed and things have gone quiet as the three mares rested… or at least two of them have. The third one opened her eyes, looked at them for a moment, and then turned her head in the direction of one of the underground tunnels, before getting up and tip-toed off.

The trio was once again in the crystal cavern, the large glistening pile lying in front of them, its secrets just waiting to be unraveled further. The smaller dragon once again dived into it, while the bigger one and the alicorn princess busied themselves with what was on the outside.

“I found one!” Twilight called out after several minutes.

Soon after, the Dragon Lord came to meet her on her side, and the companion crawled out of the pile. The former picked up her bloodstone scepter, and as the ruler of Equestria allowed it to touch the crystal she was holding, it lit up, and they watch the recording play out.

The Dragon Lord they saw before appeared. He was sitting by the fire that he himself had just lit up with his breath, with the bloodstone scepter resting in his lap, and he was holding a crystal in his claws. The look on his face and the tone of his face was depressed, to say the least.

“It is the tenth cycle since the cataclysm began, and our home has been completely changed by it. Where there were once lush trees and overgrowth along with rushing crystal rivers, with magma flowing from the nearby active volcano, the calamity awoke even more of them, and they destroyed all the greenery and evaporated all the springs. To make matters even worse, Mother’s Pool of Conjugation has been swallowed by the giant gaping maw when the fiery star fell from the sky, right on top of it. Something good did come out of it, though. The breaking and shifting of the earth opened up underground deposits of gemstones, enough for us to gorge on it but…” He paused for a moment. “They’re all near the vicinity of the fiery mountain that arose from Mother’s pool. Any long-term exposure to its surroundings seems to be having an effect on the brood, as other dragons seem to be showing signs of unrestrained anger; so much so that fights between not just other broods but even broodkin erupted. The calamity has already left several orphaned hatchlings in its wake, and now, even more, will follow. Mother… I wish you were here right now. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do without your guidance… How can I help my kin when I can’t-“

“Hello? Is anyone in here?”

The Dragon Lord raised his head in a sudden surprise, dropping the crystal as he quickly rose, grabbing the bloodstone scepter. There was somebody else in the cave, and it certainly wasn’t a voice he recognize.

“Who’s there?!” he questioned. “Who dares to enter the lair of the Dragon Lord?!”

And from the corner of the recording, a shape came into view. What this creature was certainly wasn’t a dragon. It looked like a bird, an eagle to be specific, and yet, he had four legs, his lower half belonging to that of a feline, and he wore a scarf. Not that it mattered to a dragon as they almost never wore any clothes.

“What sort of creature are you?” the dragon inquired. “What do you want?”

And the light went out.

“Wait, it just ended?!” Ember raised her voice in frustration. “For the love of… Dad, not again!”

“Ember, calm down,” Twilight intervened. “I don’t think this had anything to do with your dad. The recording may just be short because he got caught off guard.”

“I wish I could believe that, Twilight,” she tried to shut down the rising anger.

“That still doesn’t answer who the visitor was,” the purple dragon pointed out.

“By the looks of it, it was a griffin, Spike. But why would he be here in Dragon Lands?”

“There’s only one way we’ll find out. Back to searching!” the Dragon Lord commanded and she dug into the crystal pile, and the two siblings followed suit.

The trio resumed their search for answers, assured that they will become visible. Unknown to them, however, a sinister weaselly shape that had been observing the events play out, decided it had seen all that it needed.

“Going high!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she prepared to serve.

The dragons welcomed the new player to the game surprisingly without any objection. And throughout the early game, the pony was dominating the opposition, she was practically carrying it. Yet even though she was winning for the first half, things started to turn, as she was slowly getting more and more tired, while the dragons remained strong after just a little break. Now it was an intense match, as the score was ninety-nine for both teams, which meant this shot counted for all of it. She hoofed the ball and it flew over the air, and one of the dragons easily lept high and slapped it back to her side of the court. The wonderbolt saw the trajectory and realized that the one trying to counter it won’t make it, so she dashed for it, beating her teammate to it and smacked it back, but soon after, another dragon lept for it and slapped it back. And it continued for several more hits until at last, when the pegasus left for it, she didn’t put enough force into her leap and she landed face first in the sand, with the ball landing on the ground a few inches away from her hooves. The opposite team went wild and the dragon that was holding the scoreboard flipped the numbers.

The tired pony raised her head out of the sand. “Okay, I’m tapping out… I… I need a break.”

She dragged herself out of the field, far enough to not risk somebody either tossing a ball at her or getting run over by one of the several dragons running on the beach. After making a considerable distance she rolled over and just let the sun’s heat wash over her. It was peaceful for a moment, a moment that wouldn’t last long.

“So, how’s our sport’s pony? Tired of doing victory laps around them already?”

She hasn’t heard that smug tone in a long while now but she still remembered it all too well. Standing over her was the shy pegasus, and the draconequus was hanging out of the fanny pack around her neck.

“Oh it’s you,” Rainbow Dash said in an annoyed tone. “I thought you’d still be mopey, all things considered.”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy reassured her, “he got it out of his system. Nothing a peaceful little walk on the beach couldn’t fix. And I also met a new friend who’s got quite a few things to say.” She raised her hoof and there was a shell resting on it, a hermit crab poking his head out. “Isn’t that right, Mister Crabs?” The crab clacked with his claws.

“Right… As for the question earlier, Discord, no. There were no victory laps,” the wonderbolt explained herself. “Dragons may have questionable thought power at times, but their endurance is something else, and I’m not talking about their heat resistance. After just a little break they caught up to the cap that I made during the game.”

“So they totally whooped you?” the former Lord of Chaos wondered.

She groaned. “Can’t you be a bit less blunt?”

“Bye-bye!” another voice came from the direction of the sea, as the party planner came hopping out of water, wearing an inflatable tube, waving at the dragons who were still swimming. “Been fun! Hope we can do this some other time!” The pink pony traipsed over to where the rest of the trio were, smiling.

“Lemme guess,” the blue pegasus went ahead of her, “you were having a good time as well, weren’t you?”

“Sure I did,” she answered still smiling. “But, emmm, can we step over there behind that ridge for a moment?”

There were several rocky formations nearby that were putting up the cover between the beach and the mountain behind them, and she waved them to follow her. They were confused as to why. Rainbow Dash got up and she and the rest traipsed after her. Once behind the cover, the puffy-head one took a quick peek over the top to make sure nobody was looking in their direction, and when she realized the coast was clear, she dropped the facade.

“Girls, something’s really wrong with this beach party!”

“Actually, I was about to say-“ Fluttershy tried to add when she suddenly went quiet.

They could hear the sound of somebody approaching right in their direction! In the blink of a moment, Pinkie Pie pushed them all into a nearby crevice in the ground, before jumping in herself, just when one of the dragons poked its head over the ridge, only to find nothing.

“Get… off… me!”

The interior of the fissure that they’d just fallen into was much bigger than it seemed on the outside. They all managed to fit in without pushing against one another, and on top of that, there was a hole in the wall which allowed a ray of light to shine inside, and it had a view of the beach where the dragons were playing. The voice just now did not belong to any of them, however. They were surprised that their landing was softer than they had anticipated, but the sound quickly gave away that they had landed on somebody. It was a dragon. He was big, with red scales, and orange spines, and there were sharp teeth sticking out of his mouth even though he had them closed.

“Garble?” Fluttershy immediately recognized him.

Chapter 56: Changelings! Changelings Everywhere!

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 57: Infectious Fumes

Author's Note

Hello everybody!
The hiatus is over and we're back.
Sadly, the chapter was a week late since I was dealing with a block.
But in any case, enjoy and the Griffinstone/Dragon Lands ark moves into the finale.

Chapter 57: Infectious Fumes

“THE IDOL OF BOREAS! GIVE IT TO ME! GIVE IT!”

The elder griffin could’ve been a mile away and he’d still recognize the object. He quickly jumped into the lake of red vapor and rushed to the young griffin’s side, ripping the artifact out of his claws, and making him drop beneath the vapor level. Gallus tried not to inhale it, gasping for air as he finally got back on the surface, then looking about to spot the assaulter, only to find him sitting on top of the small island in the middle of the lake, cradling the golden artifact.

“King Grover’s legacy… After all these decades, in my grasp at last…”

“Grandpa Gruff,” Gallus coughed, “you’re being overly dramatic over this.”

“You don’t get to tell me that!” he barked back before turning his attention back to the item. “Don’t listen to him. You’re more important than anything in Griffinstone.”

“Aaaaaaand you’ve just lost it… Listen, we can’t stay here, Grandpa Gruff. We have to find a way back to the surface. Grandpa Gruff?” The old griffin didn’t answer, as he held the object and rocked back and forth with a smile on his face. “GRANDPA GRUFF!”

“Be quiet, kid! Don’t disturb my moment of bliss!”

“Grandpa Gruff, you’re being delirious, not blissful. Whatever you think this idol will do for Griffinstone, you’re blowing it way out of proportion.”

“You know nothing! At long last, a new king will be crowned, and the decline of Griffinstone will be reversed… Once more, it shall be a shining beacon that rises over the horizon…”

“It’s been years, and everybody in Griffinstone’s moved on,” the blue one kept going. “And things are improving already. We don’t need that stupid idol, Grandpa Gruff.”

Silence suddenly fell on the underground cave, and the elder griffin slowly turned and gave the younger one a deathly stare. “You know nothing!” his voice echoed. “You can’t possibly know how grandiose our kingdom was a long time ago! The glamour, the splendor… you didn’t live in the era that I did, so don’t you DARE come at me with that!”

“Jeeez, calm down…” the hatchling defended himself. “Yeah, I know Griffinstone wasn’t in a good spot, I grew up in it, remember? That’s why I know things have started to get better on their own, ever since Princess Twilight’s friends came to visit. And it can only get better, I know that because I’ve been attending her School of Friendship - the one which you’ve had me sent to in the first place, remember? All the years I’ve been there with my new friends I’ve learned that lending a hand to others will always help-“

“But they haven’t helped you find your purpose, did they?”

Gallus froze. Did he really ask that? He tried to find words but he just couldn’t.

“Don’t bother trying to lie. I already know,” the greying griffon stated.

“Wait, how can you know?”

“Do you think I have memory problems? Earlier, when I asked you, I quickly realized that you were procrastinating. You don’t really know what to do with your life, do you?”

He caught onto it. He had hoped the elder wouldn’t have noticed, but he was still sharp despite his condition. And he couldn’t master the words to speak, all he could do was lower his head in shame.

“I knew it,” he said in a tone of pride. “I can’t wait for the griffin lords to hear that I was right. That’ll show them never to doubt me again.”

“Wait… you mean you were waiting for me to fail?”

“No. I knew you were going to fail from the start. Four years and you’ve found no purpose in life. And I wonder why is that. Are you sad because you never knew your parents? BAH!” he scoffed. “If your only grievance in your life is that you’re an orphan, then you don’t know what real pain is, unlike me.”

“What makes your pain so much better than mine?!”

“BECAUSE I CAN’T LET IT GO!!! Do you understand?! I can’t because my memories bind me to this place! Every morning I wake from the same nightmare; I was there when our kingdom fell into decline. I was there and I couldn’t stop the arimaspi from taking the idol that gave our people unity! Every morning I wake to see what’s become of our kingdom! I do not wander the streets because I recall what they were like and I don’t want to see what’s become of them now. Every day I was haunted by my life’s greatest failure. That’s why this moment has significant meaning to me…” He gave the younger one a look of anger. “And what are you? Nothing! That’s what! You got sent away because you are a nothing! A NOBODY!”

Suddenly he felt it, a sensation that felt like fire rising up from his belly and spreading throughout his body. The words that the elder just said were like kindling that suddenly turned into a raging flame, and the anger erupted.

“FINE!” he yelled and stomped away through the misty lake, getting to the exit. “Stay here for all I care! And I don’t! I’m getting out of here and I don’t care what happens to you! YOU HEAR ME?!”

But Grandpa Gruff didn’t respond as he kept holding on to the artifact with great affection. Gallus continued to climb regardless, still fuming in anger. He wouldn’t get far past the threshold of the entry tunnel, when all of a sudden, from behind a rock, a gaunt arm reached out and grabbed him by the tail, lifting him off the ground.

“A-HA! Finally got one of you featherbrains,” Tirek said as he finally revealed himself, as a small orb lit up between his horns. “Now, since I’ve no intention of wasting what little strength I have, I’m gonna use you to help me find the Idol of Boreas. I assume you’ve heard about it?”

“It’s in there!” the griffin angrily pointed in the direction from which he came. “That stupid old idiot has it, cradling it like a baby! NOW LET ME GO!” He began swiping at him with his talons.

Out of fear of getting scratched, the centaur let him go. He landed on all fours and proceeded to walk off in anger.

“Wait, you’re not gonna try and stop me from getting to your elder?” he inquired.

“WHY SHOULD I GIVE TWO FLYING FEATHERS ABOUT HIM?!” he yelled and resumed walking.

The centaur was confused as to what had just happened, he shrugged and slowly descended into the tunnel.

The blue griffin continued to march, stewing in rage, when he suddenly saw a bright light approaching him. That must’ve been him - Tirek’s companion and his pet that he sent at them. But he didn’t care, he just wanted… no, he NEEDED an outlet for his frustration.

“You wanna piece of me?!” he yelled, prepared to fight. “Come on! I’ll take you and your stupid goat pet on by myself!”

“Gallus?!” a familiar voice answered.

The bright light suddenly approached faster and soon in the glow, three figures became noticeable, one of them holding a torch.

“Gallus!” Silverstream squealed and rushed in, locking him into an embrace and hugging him tightly.

“Calm down, Silverstream. If the fall didn’t do him in, you definitely will,” the dragon joked.

“Gallus, we were so worried! Are you okay?” the hippogriff inquired.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” he mumbled with suppressed anger.

“Wait, what about Grandpa Gruff? Where is he?” Ocellus wondered.

“I don’t know,” the griffin raised his voice at his name. “For all I care, he and Tirek are probably having a tea party right now.”

“Why would you think that?” Smolder inquired.

“Because I met him not long ago and I sent him there.”

“Wait, you WHAT?! Why would you do that?!”

“Because I don’t care, that’s why! Serves him right for what he said!”

“Gallus, what’s gotten into you?” the hippogriff questioned. “Grandpa Gruff’s said many mean things but you’ve never been this mad about it.”

“Well, this was as much as I could take! I don’t care what that four-legged freak does to him! I DON’T CARE!”

“Whoa, calm down, there’s no reason for you to get angry-“

“If I’m angry it’s your fault!”

“Our fault? What did we do?” Ocellus asked.

“What?! Your stupid mom for starters, Ocellus! Had it not been for her then neither Grogar, nor Tirek, nor the Storm King would’ve returned! And with other changelings suddenly appearing, what’s the likelihood that she’s managed to find a way to turn them back to the old ways?! Are you gonna be next, Ocellus?!”

The reformed changeling put her hooves over her mouth from the words that were said.

“Gallus, that’s enough!” Silverstream interjected. “Don’t blame Ocellus for what Chrysalis did! It’s not her fault.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk, Silverstream! Sending all those messages to all of Mount Aris in fear of Storm King coming, so you could cower and hide instead of trying to fight him! Like you, like your people - COWARDS!”

She gasped in shock at him saying that.

“Hey, back off, featherbrain!” Smolder finally stepped in. “Don’t you dare say things as if you know what you’re talking about!”

“Oh, go blow some hot air! That’s what you dragons are good at!” he walked off.

“Hey, come back! You can’t just leave!” the dragon tried to grab him by the tail only for him to swat her hands.

“Yes, I can! I’m going out and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!”

“FINE! GO! WHO NEEDS YOU!”

“FINE!”

“FINE!”

“FINE!”

“FIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!” Smolder yelled so loud that fire burst out of her mouth

Things went quiet, and the only sounds that could be heard were Gallus’ walk and the dragon’s heavy breathing.

The girls walked down the corridor, led by Smolder, still holding the burning branch. She stomped in a huff and puff, while the hippogriff was silently walking behind her, followed by the sniffling reformed changeling.

“We’ll stop Tirek by ourselves and save Grandpa Gruff! We don’t need that fat-headed birdbrained-!”

“Smolder, enough!” Silverstream raised her voice, with a noticeable crack in it that sounded out. “Throwing mean words at Gallus isn’t going to help anyone, even if he were here.”

The dragons stopped. “Silverstream, how can you possibly be calm and unfazed after all the things he said about your family?!” Yet as she moved her torch in her direction, she realized that the darkness was obscuring the truth.

The hippogriff was clearly on the verge of crying, trying really hard not to burst out before she wiped her tears away. “Even if things were said, we have to focus, one thing at a time. Nocreature’s gonna come down here to our rescue, and we three are the only ones who can stop Tirek now.”

“Tirek, maybe. But what about Grogar and his pet?” Smolder pointed out.

“According to Gallus, he didn’t show up with him. It might be that they split up and he’s checking out the other path of the ravine. In which case we just might be in luck. As for how to deal with Tirek…”

“We’ve got our fire,” the dragon proudly said and blew a burst of flame from her mouth.

“And if that fails, we’ve literally got somebody who can change into ANYTHING that’s stronger than him in his current state, right Ocellus?”

She didn’t respond. As the dragon moved the torch closer to her, she was looking at the ground with a despondent look. Silverstream approached her and wrapped her hands around her to comfort her.

“Girls,” the changeling wondered, “do you think Gallus is right?”

“No!” the dragon and hippogriff yelled in unison, then going quiet realizing that their voices echoed, and the latter resumed. “No, Ocellus, of course not. Gallus was probably just running his mouth in a fit of rage from something that Grandpa Gruff said. You’ve seen how dismissive he was of the very thought that we should rescue him. The very fact that he simply let Tirek get to him means he must’ve said something really awful to him. But even without Gallus, we have to save him ourselves.” She scooped the changeling’s face in her hands and gently squished it. “And you’re right now the strongest among us. You’ll help us, right, my dear buggy friend?”

The little compliment finally got her to smile. But they would not have much time, as not a moment later a scream could be heard coming further down the ravine. They quickly got back on their feet and ran as fast as they could. The elder was in great danger.

Tirek didn’t take long to get to the entry of an underground passage where the strange red light was coming from. This is where the young griffin said that his elder was, along with the artifact he was looking for. If he was lying he was likely not gonna get away, what with the turbulent winds barring the only escape from this place. He slowly descended, eventually reaching the red glowing misty lake, and on a small platform in the middle of it, he spotted his quarry. Firstly, he dipped his hooves into the lake to check if it was dangerous, and once it was clear that it was safe, he marched in, quickly picking up the pace. It was only just before he reached the lone island that the griffin finally took notice of him, and as he turned, the centaur noticed the artifact he was holding onto.

“Okay, old timer, let’s make this easy,” he ordered. “Hand me the idol, or else.”

Grandpa Gruff let out a loud feline roar in refusal before getting struck by a hacking cough. But to Tirek that was all he needed to know – he charged at him. The griffin lept over him but unfortunately, the ceiling was too low for him to take flight and make a quick getaway, so he tried to run through the red mist, desperately trying not to sink beneath its surface. By the time he finally got to the shore where the exit was, the centaur was already close by him; he may have been weakened and shriveled, but on flat terrain, four legs easily outpaced three. Climbing the tunnel was another matter though: Grandpa Gruff made a run for it with ease, while Tirek had difficulty getting up the slope. By the time the latter finally managed to get to the top, and with the rocky terrain there was no way he’d be able to catch him even with four legs against three. But then he got an idea. Even in his weakened state, he was still able to use a small amount of magic. A small red orb formed atop his head, between his horns, and aimed between the gap of the two boulders that the griffin was approaching. A long red line manifested itself between the two points, and in his haste, the elder wasn’t able to spot them in time, and he ended up tripping, the idol falling out of his grasp. He tried to recollect himself and quickly rush to recover his most coveted object, only for him to be halted. Something was holding onto his leg as he couldn’t move, and when he finally looked back he noticed a red glowing chain with a shackle around his hind feline leg, it was attached to one of the bounders – he could barely move an inch. By now though, the sound of hoofstepps have already gone past him as his opponent came into view.

“You know if I had a bit more magic, this stupid chase would’ve ended before you even saw me,” Tirek boasted as he went to pick up the Idol of Boreas. “Finally got this stupid thing. Now I just have to get back to Grogar and we can get-“

…eed.

He stopped himself for a moment. He stuck a finger in his ear to unplug it, and after that listened again. He only heard silence. Perhaps he was just hearing things.

…eed.

There it was again. He was sure he heard a really low whisper this time. But to whom did it belong? He closed his eyes and tried to focus on listening, as he felt that whatever was being said was being cut off.

…feed.

Feed? Now there was a novelty; he wished he could. He felt almost as if the voice was taunting him. Speaking of, where was it coming from?

…feed.

He finally managed to trail it and was left in a surprise. Outside of the mist-filled cave, there was now a distinct feature noticeable on the artifact. On the small geological orb that sat in the middle of the artifact, surrounded by gold, there was a tiny crack on it, and the red vapor was slowly flowing out of it. It piqued the centaur’s curiosity, as it cascaded across the surface of his hands. He pulled it closer to his face and took a quick sniff. He almost immediately sneezed. Whatever this thing was it flared up his nostrils almost instantly… and yet, he felt something strange, something familiar about it. Could it be…?

He raised the idol above his head and let the red vapor flow down, while he opened his mouth in the process. After a solid minute, he started to feel the substance already overflowing his mouth and he closed it shut, then swallowed. He suddenly felt it – the sudden surge of energy bursting through every fiber of his being, as his shriveled body hulked up, and the dark grey scarlet skin turned fiery red.

“WHUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! That’s spicy!” he howled, then looked at the Idol of Boreas. “This artifact… it’s a source of magic! No wonder Grogar wants to acquire it.” A smile curled up on his face. “Oh, he made a big mistake in sending me to get it. He probably wasn’t expecting that its power was leaking. I think I’ll be keeping it for myself. And if I can extract more of it- GAH!”

He suddenly felt something biting him on the back of his hind hooves. He finally noticed the elder griffin, his beak biting down on his legs; it seemed that he managed to crawl up to him and drag the boulder to which he was attached while he was focused elsewhere. He shook his hooves, and while managed to shake him off, the griffin then grabbed hold of them with his claws.

“Give me back the Idol of Boreas! IT’S MINE!” he yelled defiantly.

Suddenly, the red orb lit up between Tirek’s horns and he was enveloped in a red aura, levitating Grandpa Gruff in the air, the grip finally loosening, making him suspended in the air. He was just floating there, while the centaur raised the artifact once more, opened his mouth, and let the red vapor fill his mouth again.

“Give it back! You’ve no idea what this means to the griffinkind!” He struggled to swipe at him but couldn’t get close.

“Listen here, old-timer,” Tirek paused his feeding, “I’m gonna need you to hang over there and shut up. I need to have a good fill so I can get stronger, after which I can just blast you into oblivion with one shot. Otherwise, if I do it in my current state, it will just be slow and unsightly.”

He made his intentions clear. And whether or not the old griffin’s zeal to fight diminished, it didn’t matter – he couldn’t do anything but wait for the inevitable end. But then, the centaur was caught off guard. Tirek noticed a sudden burst of bright light after his shadow suddenly appeared on the wall in the direction he was facing. He only had a split second to turn his head and notice an orange flame going in his direction and could only duck from it, losing his concentration and dispelling the grip on Grandpa Gruff. The old griffin didn’t waste a second and grabbed hold of the artifact and made a run for it.

“Hey! Get back here!” Tirek yelled as he scurried after him.

Before he could even reach out for him, the orange flame erupted again, and this time he dodged behind a boulder. When it passed, he quickly peaked over it and noticed the griffin sitting next to the source of the fire - an orange dragon. And she wasn’t alone, as a pink hippogriff stood by her side next to a boulder.

“Brats! Give me the geezer if you know what’s good for you!” the centaur yelled, shaking his fist at them, before dodging behind the rock again as another breath of flame came his way.

“Who do you take us for, Tirek?” Smolder said. “You’re outnumbered three to one.”

“Hah!” he laughed. “More like two to one. The gramps over there hardly counts.”

Suddenly, the boulder behind which Tirek was, began to move, as he gripped it, lifted it above his head, and tossed it in the direction of his enemy. Silverstream grabbed Grandpa Gruff and pulled him away, while Smolder hid behind the boulder that was close to them. Tirek took a moment to recover; he overestimated himself, as in his current form, while finally being strong once more, he still wasn’t strong enough to just toss the boulders almost his size with ease. He needed the artifact to make that happen! He galloped forward, trying to reach the two feathered beings, only for the fire to come his way again, and was forced to duck behind cover again. He quickly became aware there was no way he’ll be able to get the idol; the two avian creatures couldn’t do anything against him, but the dragon posed a considerable threat. He had to take her out… no, he’ll use her as a bargaining chip, he knew all too well there was no way they’d just abandon their friend. He grabbed a big nearby rock and threw it in her direction.

“AUA!”

There was a yell that followed when the large rock hit the boulder, and he assumed that it must’ve hit the target when it bounced off. Knowing his target was distracted now, he lifted the boulder behind which he was hiding and charged in the direction of the enemy cover. The moment she came into view he tossed it, and Smolder managed to dodge it at the last moment. Before she could become aware of her surrounding, the centaur stepped on top of her tail with one of his hooves.

“HELP!” she screamed.

“Smolder!” the hippogriff grimaced.

A smile appeared on the centaur’s face. “Well well well, how quickly the tables have turned. And there you were boasting about three versus one, and one of you was just a dead weight. Now…” He proceeded to grab the nearby boulder behind which the dragon was hiding a moment ago, lifting it above his head. “Tell the old bird to have over the idol, or else I guarantee you that your scaly friend here will not have a good time with this mass over here.”

“No way!” the griffin protested without a second thought. “The Idol of Boreas is mine! I waited too long! Nobody else is gonna get it, you hear me?! NOBODY!”

“Yeah, you heard him!” Silverstream joined in. “You aren’t getting this thing no matter what!”

“Hehe, so predictable. I knew you’d be the one to- Wait, what did you say?” the smug expression quickly vanished from his face, thinking he must’ve misheard what they just said.

“You heard them,” the dragon got his attention after, propping her head with her arm against the ground, looking as if she was bored. “Go on, get on with it.”

“Yeah, get on with it!” the hippogriff followed up.

“COME ON! GET ON WITH IT!” all three shouted in unison.

Tirek was perplexed. They wanted him to do the deed? And they didn’t look one bit bothered by it?

“You think I’m joking here?!” he finally raised his voice. “FINE! YOU ASKED FOR IT!”

He focused his sight on the dragon and threw his arms forward to drop the boulder on top of Smolder. It was gone. The heavyweight that he was holding up this entire time disappeared as soon as he tossed it. But how? Then he suddenly heard a strange buzzing sound above his head. He looked up, and much to his surprise, a little pale blue changeling was flying right above his head. A split second later, in a bright flash, she transformed into a bugbear, grabbed the centaur by his horns, and lifted him off the ground, while Smolder got back on her feet and joined the feathered duo.

The bugbear flew higher, taking Tirek along with him. “Put me down, you mama’s reject!” He flailed about, trying to get himself loose.

He was too late to realize the folly of his demand. The bugbear released him from its grip and he ended up crashing against the solid rock below. As he tried to crawl back on his feet, he didn’t even raise above his knees when a large boulder landed on top of him with a loud thud that echoed quite a bit. When things quieted down, in a magic flash, the boulder disappeared, and in its place stood Ocellus, standing atop Tirek, who was now beaten into the ground.

“That’s for that rock you threw at me earlier! See how you like it!” she huffed and jumped off, joining the rest of the group.

“Told you he’d fall for it,” Smolder boasted.

“I was afraid this wouldn’t work, Smolder. I thought we’d have to deal with Grogar and his beast on top of it,” the changeling said.

“But we didn’t have to, Ocellus,” the hippogriff pointed out. “Luck was on our side.”

As the girl’s attention was diverted, the centaur managed to regain consciousness and crawl out of the hole that was shaped like him. The moment they took notice of him, they quickly positioned themselves in front of Grandpa Gruff to protect him.

“Y… you… cheaters…”

“Oh, now who’s moaning about fair play,” Smolder rolled her eyes.

“You all got lucky that you managed to get the artifact away from me…” he said in a groggy tone. “If I had some more time to feast on its magic, you’d all be done for now…” He suddenly stopped himself, his head turning into the direction of the tunnel where the Idol of Boreas was found, and a realization materialized. “Hold that thought…” A cunning grin appeared on his face, as he crawled back on his hooves and limped into the tunnel.

The group was left all alone now, and they waited for a bit if something was going to happen. Once it became obvious that nothing was going to transpire, the girls focused their attention on the rescued person.

“Are you okay, Grandpa Gruff?” Ocellus inquired.

“What are you little girls doing down here?” he wondered.

“We’ve come to rescue you,” the avian of other variety answered.

“You’re the rescue? That’s hard to believe considering you’re all at the bottom of Abysmal Abyss and you’re all fliers. You just got dragged down by the wind, weren’t you?”

Technically it was only partly true, but none of them wanted to admit it. “We dug all the way down here, Grandpa Gruff. Wind’s not a bother through the solid rock,” Smolder explained.

“Going the way of the dredge, are we? Well, it wouldn’t be my first choice, but at least feather ruffling will be spared. And that fool Gallus wanted to get out by himself. He’ll be in for a surprise when he finds out I was right.”

“Hold on, Grandpa Gruff,” Silverstream halted him, “we need to talk first. We met Gallus some time ago and he had… well, to say his words were meanspirited would be an understatement.”

“Yeah, he got super aggressive the moment we mentioned finding you as well,” the dragon added.

“What did you do to put him in such a sour mood?” the changeling added.

He pondered for a moment. “No idea. I just confronted him about not finding his place in the world yet and I said he’s nothing…”

“YOU WHAT?!” the three girls yelled out in unison, so loud was their voice that they made the surroundings shake.

That’s what they thought anyway. But after a few seconds, the quaking didn’t stop. It was in fact getting stronger and louder, and on top of that, the ground was beginning to rise not far from them where the underground cavern was, where Tirek disappeared.

The centaur scurried away, hoping that his enemy wouldn’t think about trying to catch up to him from the revelation that he just had. He finally reached the bottom of the tunnel and paused for a moment, looking behind his back. Nobody was there; it seemed he got lucky in that regard. He finally turned back to what he was looking for – the giant lake of dense red mist. He still couldn’t believe that he realized only a moment ago what it was: The Idol of Boreas was likely stuck down here for a long time, and the red vapor that was seeping from it, the one he consumed, formed an entire room full of the said magical mist and considering the deep color it had, it must’ve been building up for years.

He lowered himself and bent over to the lake’s surface, before inhaling a mouthful and swallowing it, only to be in for surprise when a moment he couldn’t help but belch a burst of fire. “Sweet mama, that’s strong!”

But that’s precisely what he was hoping for. If the mouthful from the artifact earlier was able to return him to his basic form, then with this much magic… He couldn’t help but grin in anticipation, as he quickly stuck his head into the mist. It didn’t take long for the mist to begin to retreat from the whole room, being sucked into the centaur’s orifice at an accelerated speed; so great was his gluttony that it was all gone in a matter of seconds. And when the lake was finally fully drained he felt it – the sudden burst from within him beginning to rise, he could feel his body expanding, evolving. And in the excitement, he failed to realize that he was going to outgrow the small room he was in right now. The moment his head hit the ceiling, his anger flared up, and he punched upwards, the solid rock crumbling from his fist.

After a few more punches, he finally created the hole to the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss and he crawled out, possessing a form that was four times greater than his original one, his horns now long and curved, a tremendous red energy ball sitting between them, acting as a light source. He felt powerful again but… he still wanted more. He quickly scanned his surroundings, and it didn’t take him long to discover the elder and the kids were still there, completely flabbergasted by the centaur’s sudden appearance.

“How did he get like that?!” Smolder yelled.

“I don’t think he’s in the mood to share! RUN!” Silverstream yelled.

Ocellus quickly changed into a manticore, scooped Grandpa Gruff into her mouth, and they ran off. Tirek laughed; how could they possibly think of evading him in his current form? But the answer soon came, as he realized that his form became so massive he had a hard time moving forward without scraping against the ravine’s walls. In his anger, he just decided to punch the side of the wall to make some room for himself. Sure, it would take some time, but he’ll inevitably catch up to them.

They ran for their lives. Never mind the possibility of encountering Grogar now, they thought they stood a fair chance against weakened Tirek, but this was way over their head. They could hear him fast approaching even though he lagged behind, his source of light could be seen right around the corner. The tremors shook the surroundings, causing rocks to chip away and fall in their path, making the escape all the more difficult. A loud bellow suddenly made them stop, when they noticed that one of the rocks fell on top of the transformed changeling’s chimera tail. She quickly changed back to her original shape, freeing herself, but even the small amount of time they were slowed down was too much as they could see the source of light about to come around the corner.

“Got you now you little…!” Tirek came stomping, only to find nobody in sight. “Hmmm… seems like they got faster somehow. No matter!”

The centaur resumed rampaging through the narrow passage. Little did he know that he just passed his quarry. They huddled together behind a pile of rocks that the quaking brought down. They wouldn’t have even thought about hiding in plain sight, were it not for the blue-feathered griffin who just so happened to appear when they least expected.

“That was close,” he sighed in relief. “You guys okay?”

“Gallus, what are you doing here? I thought you said you were ditching us,” Smolder inquired.

He grumbled to himself as he walked further through the bottom of the ravine in the direction that he came from. He didn’t need him, his friends, or anyone. After all, what did they do? All everybody did to him was… As he went off further, in the dark calm that surrounded him, the fuming rage that had gotten hold of him slowly subsided, and in turn, his thoughts became clear. So much so that he eventually stopped on the spot, and the gravity of the words that he said finally hit him. For Grandpa Gruff it was one thing, but the knowledge that he just sent Tirek his way without even trying to stop him, or the horrible things that he had said to his friends when they were trying to be helpful and reasonable; he simply couldn’t understand what had gotten into him to say such awful things. He felt heat rising again, but not of anger this time – he felt hot shame washing over him. The only people who had ever actually shown genuine care to him and he did nothing but spat venom-filled words at them. He felt so unbelievably awful that he just crawled to the ground and started crying.

This low to the ground, even in a moment of devastated emotional turmoil, Gallus suddenly felt a tremble. And another. And soon another followed. The sound started to get louder by the moment and it was coming from the darkness, approaching him fast. Whatever it was, it was big, and considering he just saw Tirek, it could only mean that the old sheep sorcerer and his pet were likely here as well. The griffin quickly scrambled and pressed himself against the wall, desperately trying to find some sort of place to hide, yet there was no obstruction in sight. As he felt about though, he suddenly discovered a crevice in it, big enough for him to crawl inside and out of sight, and there in lay the problem – it was just barely big enough, and the very thought of his claustrophobia kicking in again prevented him from acting. However, as the rumbling started to get accompanied by a heavy huffing sound he quickly knew what was coming, and he instinctively crawled inside. He could vaguely see it inside the crevice; the walls so incredibly close, closing in on him. He was about to start hyperventilating, but with the sound that was drawing closer, he knew he only had one option left. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, attempting to completely shut down all of his senses, hoping that the danger outside will pass quickly. The noises outside finally reached where he was… and then they went quiet. In their place, he heard a strange mumbling sound, it was almost as if a goat was trying to talk but it didn’t have a tongue to utter proper words.

“No, we do not have time for it, Paramis. Bring him over.”

He recognized that voice. It was him – Grogar! But who was he talking about? Against his better judgment, he opened his eyes and turned his head to try and look outside at what was happening. He couldn’t see anything, it was black, almost as if there was something obstructing the entrance into the crevice he was hiding in. And then a blinding light source lit up. Gallus recognized it because it was staring at him once before and it was no less terrifying than the first time – the Eye of Arimaspi. He screamed in panic but would help him little, as the beast punched into the wall, making the gap he was in even bigger, making it not difficult for him to reach in and scoop the young griffin into his grip with his giant three-fingered claws. Struggling was futile, as the monster brought him out and stared at him for a moment, before once again speaking in incomprehensible gibberish.

“Because this one is yet to serve his purpose, Paramis. Put him down.”

The arimaspi put Gallus on the ground and retreated a step, leaving him confused. The monster’s giant glowing eye illuminated the surrounding area, making it clearer than the red hue did. And from behind the imposing figure, a much smaller shape emerged and then stepped into the spotlight. It was the creature’s maker himself.

“What are you doing, hatchling?”

It took him a moment to realize he was addressing him. “W-w-who? M-me?”

“Is there perhaps any other creature of avian variety here?”

“W-well, Grandpa Gruff’s a bit further down… and Silverstream…” the griffin unintentionally made a snide remark.

“True,” the grizzled ram surprisingly humored him, “and as we speak, the centaur that you so conveniently directed to your elder, is about to make him a mischief, and the same goes for your friends if he manages to acquire the power that your elder is currently holding.”

Gallus was confused. What was Grogar talking about? What power? The only thing that Grandpa Gruff had right now was the Idol of Boreas and it didn’t have any power other than a symbolic one.

“So I’m asking you, hatching,” the sorcerer reiterated, “why are you here instead of trying to help your elder and friends?”

“W-wait…” the young griffin spoke, “you’re not gonna stop me?”

He smirked. “I wouldn’t dream of it. In fact, they’re the ones that are gonna need help when the centaur finally manages to consume some sort of magical essence to power himself up.”

Gallus wasn’t sure whether the old sheep was just playing with him or if was he being genuine. And even if the latter held water…

“I… I can’t,” he sulked, huddling together, trying to hide his face. “I can’t go back and face my friends after the horrible things that I’ve just said… I’m too ashamed…”

The only thing that came out of Grogar was a groan. “Oh, the yammering, the whinging, at least the boy’s easier to push. You on the other hand? You’re gonna just sit here and sulk over words that were said?”

“I-“

“Listen, hatchling let me put it like this: Right now, you have a choice to either go to where the centaur is right now and maybe have a fighting chance against him in greater numbers, or you can stay here, where, even if you were accompanied by your friends, wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

Once again, Gallus couldn’t comprehend what was happening, yet this time he chose to ask. “Why are you doing this? I thought you and Tirek were in cahoots, so why not stop me from trying to stop him?”

The ram looked to the side and stroked his beard. “I believe the ponies have a saying that goes – “Do not look a gift horse in the mouth”. Now I’m not of equine variety by any stretch but do you really want to question these things considering your position? Now, enough prattling, hatchling,” the grizzled ram declared in a tone of finality. “Make your choice.”

There really wasn’t much of a choice even if the old sheep said there was - there was only one option at his disposal. He was still skeptical as to why he was even letting him run off in the first place, yet as he said - “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. He still wasn’t sure what to say to his friends, yet he was gonna take the chance he was given. He dashed off.

As he ran, he could hear Grogar’s voice behind him. “A wise choice.”

“I couldn’t….” he said with a hanged head. “There’s no excuse for what I said, I just felt so angry and hurt at that moment that I wanted somebody else feeling hurt as well… Out of everycreature I know, you guys are the ones who never deserved that. You are my best friends and… I don’t know what else I can say but… I’m so sorry…”

A pair of pink claws quickly wrapped around him and pulled him into a hug, squeezing him tightly. “Come here, you big blue goof!”

“Wow… never thought I’d see Gallus so “choked up” thrice in a day,” the dragon snickered, followed by the changeling.

“What did I tell you, Gallus?” Grandpa Gruff finally spoke again. “We’ve got people coming to our rescue right here, so there was no need to try and leave on our own.” The rest of the group finally turned to him, giving him some really ugly looks. “What?”

“From what we understand, Grandpa Gruff, you’re the main cause of what’s happened,” Silverstream spoke out.

“Excuse me? I’m not the one who tossed myself and the kid over the edge of Abysmal Abyss!”

“Grandpa Gruff, please don’t raise your voice, he’s gonna hear us,” the changeling whispered.

“It’s not his fault, Ocellus,” Gallus interjected. “He’s been acting up ever since he got his claws on that stupid artifact –“

“DON’T YOU DARE CALL THE IDOL OF BOREAS STUPID!!!” the elder griffin yelled at the top of his lungs at the remark, only to have his beak clapped shut by the dragon.

“You stupid old bird, do you want the big guy to find us?” Smolder whispered with restrained anger.

“Already did.”

The deep voice was followed by a bright light that illuminated the area of their cover; the giant centaur was right there, one of his frontal hooves raised, aiming at the group.

“Guys, this way!” Gallus ordered.

They screamed and made a run for it before the stomp landed, running between the centaur’s legs. Soon Tirek found himself with another inconvenience: With the size he was, he could barely turn, he literally had to raise himself on his hind legs to be thin enough to turn around. Which made things difficult when his target was starting to zip back and forth between his legs each time he changed sides. The little griffin knew what he was doing.

“Okay, that’s it! This has got to stop! I need more space!” the centaur roared in frustration.

The orb atop his head had shot a beam at his feet, running a trail all around him until it connected. The students and the elder were inside of it while they were running back and forth, and the moment they turned once more, they suddenly lost their footing and ended up in a freefall. Luckily, they all remembered that they were able to fly and glided off. Yet one of them was too preoccupied with what he was holding; Grandpa Gruff managed to open his wings so he wouldn’t drop to the ground, but with his attention being diverted, he didn’t notice where he was going and ended up crashing into the side of the house, his artifact falling out of his grip. The rest finally realized that they were back atop Griffinstone and they quickly went back to help the old griffin to check how he is. They wouldn’t have much respite though, as they looked up and saw that there was a doorway in the sky, that’s how they got back… and it’s how Tirek managed to descend through it and landed on the wooden ground with a resounding thud. The students only had a brief moment to find cover behind one of the houses before he could spot them.

“Ah, much better.” Tirek wiggled his hooves. “Now, come out, shrimps! And hand me the artifact!”

The group hid behind the house, and they could clearly see the Idol of Boreas lying only a few feet away, out in plain sight, yet the centaur was so large that his eyes simply couldn’t see the object – with little luck he wouldn’t notice it or them. Yet as Grandpa Gruff finally began to awaken from the accident, he quickly noticed that his coveted object was no longer in his grip and was lying not far. Completely oblivious to the situation, he scurried off, the students being too late to stop him, and when he came out in the open, Tirek locked his sight on him and quickly saw the trajectory. He grinned as he finally noticed the idol, and using his magic he enveloped it in an aura and pulled it in his direction before the old griffin could grab it, making it fly off and land in the palm of his hands.

“NO!” he screamed. “Give me back the idol!”

Before he could fly further to try and take it back, the two younger avian hybrids grabbed hold of him and brought him down. “Grandpa Gruff, stop! It’s not worth it!” Gallus struggled.

“No! Without it, Griffinstone’s going to crumble!!!” he cried in desperation.

“Awwwww, how sad,” Tirek taunted him. “Gramps wants to realize some sort of a dream? Well, we all can’t have what we want in life, oldtimer. Now then…” The orb between his horns lit up. “Since you’ve given me nothing but trouble while retrieving this thing, I wonder, how am I going to dispose of-“ He didn’t even finish the sentence when all of a sudden lightning struck right in front of him, making him jump. “Hey, Thunderhead!” He shook his hand in anger at the clouds. “What’s wrong with your aim?!”

Suddenly, the group became fully aware of their surroundings: The atmosphere wasn’t the same as when they left, since there was no ear-ripping music playing and the heavy rain had stopped. They spotted the Storm King’s face hovering high in the clouds, looking down to where Trixie and Sunburst were out in the open with Trixie’s chest. Then they looked to the other side of Griffinstone and they saw an airship fast approaching, lightning striking at it, only to be deflected by a purple energy shield.

At the head of it was Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 58: Breaker of Boundries

“Zecora… Zecora…” The country pony gently shook the sleeping zebra.

She groaned. “Applejack, what-“

The orange pony’s hoof came over her mouth and shut her. “Don’t speak. Somethin’ real strange is happenin’ Zecora. Ya better come see.”

She dragged the shaman away, over to the edge of their cover, to see what was happening. From the hole where they had fallen through, dragons were coming in one after another dipping rocks into the pool of glowing green substance and then flying off.

“They’ve been doin’ this for who knows how long now, they just keep coming going doing the same shtick,” the country pony explained.

The shaman rubbed her head and looked about. “How long was I out? Shouldn’t our archeologist’s friends be here and help about?”

“That’s the thing - Ah think Miss Windsdale disappeared, Zecora. I looked for her when the dragons started coming up and I couldn’t find her. Ya don’ think they did something to her, do ya?”

She honestly couldn’t tell. The unicorn mare seemed earnest enough when they first met her, and her reactions didn’t seem very out of place. What seemed out of place, or rather, what caught her attention, was what the dragons were making: The strange bright rocks that they were dipping into the green substance transformed into a jagged black formation. She’s seen this happen before!

“Applejack, my friend, I fear trouble awaits. Those may not be dragons, which means we'll be in dire straits.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, Zecora?”

“Do you recall not long ago, when the Princess told you of the night we had to forego?”

“The experiments you mean? What about them?”

“Of the night before, what the dragons are doing is the fruit that they bore.”

“Wait, you mean the rocks transformed into whatever they’re handling? But why would you say they’re not dragons?”

“The rocks are designed to negate magic, except for one. Who do you think would benefit from leaving the rest with none, while they have all the fun?”

Applejack thought for a moment, finally gasping with realization. “The changelings…”

Zecora nodded. “Now that we know of that fact, could that explain Windsdale’s vanishing act?”

“Wait… you don’t mean that she was really-?!”

“The Changeling Queen? Up until now, it would have been unforeseen.”

“But… if that’s the case, it still doesn’t explain who she was talkin’ to. Mah vision may have been a bit foggy, but Ah swear Ah saw nopony around when she was talking in the thin air.”

Zecora thought for a bit, then reached for her saddlebags and pulled out a small bottle containing black liquid, the pony knowing fully well what it was.

“Wait, Zecora, what are ya gonna do with that?” the country mare asked.

“My mind has been dealing with the problem of thought, one that I simply could not have forgot. Back at the Jagger Ridge when you were freed, you said Grogar mentioned a shadow wisp, indeed. Since then, each time I imbibe this broth, I think as I stare into the froth: Through whose eyes I've gazed? Not razed by sleep or lack of rest, nor the world which might put it to the test, the source of this sight was granted to me, by a seed plucked from Turmoil’s tree.”

“Ya mean to tell me that whatever Miss Windsda- I mean Chrysalis, was talking to was… whatever you’re seeing though when you drink this potion?”

The shaman nodded. “If it's true, the shadow I must follow, and keep in view. The Queen will likely then appear anew.”

“Wait, Zecora, considerin’ the company that’s not far from here, don’cya think we might attract attention?”

The zebra rummaged through her saddlebag and pulled out a chalk, drawing circles on the ground. “It may be true, but alas we must follow through.”

She sat down in the center and calmed herself, preparing for the unpleasantness she knew would soon follow. She opened the bottle and took a sip of the vile brew. The feeling of regurgitation came up and trying to keep it down, blackness began to bubble up in front of her eyes, and finally, all her senses went dark.

The bright light of the sun suddenly blinded her. She was by Torch’s mountain, where the airship landed. No, not on the ground, in the air, she was overlooking the whole place from high above the mountain’s peak. And she saw it happen as she looked around: The dragons were swarming the mountain, placing large black rocks all around it, so many there were that the mountain itself was starting to turn black in places. They were all coming from the base of a cliffside not far from it, yet they flew past it, toward the giant volcano-shaped mountain with a face, only to come back out and gather around the Broken Hollow. She understood now where the dragons were coming from, but what were they trying to achieve?

Suddenly she could hear a loud buzzing sound in the air, drawing closer. That’s when she suddenly spotted a black shape flying closer - the Queen of Changelings finally came beside her.

“It’s done,” she said. “I tried to salvage as much as I could, but the rest have imbued the pumice with lifeblood. Princess Twilight and her friends will be stuck inside the cave for a while, and with Dragon Lord’s dad indisposed, it should buy us enough time.”

“Well done, Broodmother,” Zecora’s distorted voice spoke. “It's unfortunate this beneficial venture had to come to an end, but sometimes, great sacrifices have to be made.”

“I’m not bothered about a few rocks, Doubt.” The bug creature stared below.

“And yet, something troubles you?”

“To leave so many changelings behind… This is the third time that happened - first Canterlot, then Crystal Empire, and now this.” There was a noticeable sober tone in her voice.

“Another needed sacrifice. Besides, you’re the Broodmother, you can always make more of them to serve us-“

“They’re MY children!” she erupted right in its face. “And nobody gets to command my changelings but ME! UNDERSTAND?!”

The tension lingered in the air after that outburst, yet it soon dispersed as her voice spoke again. “Point taken. Now, lets us go north.”

With that, the gaze turned away from the events playing out below and flew in the aforementioned direction at high speed, the buzzing sound not far, indicating that the changeling queen was close by.

“Still, this doesn’t make sense,” the queen questioned, “how did the fragment end up in Griffinstone when you said that it was in Dragon Lands this whole time?”

“It was moved, that’s how,” the voice elaborated. “Anger is an unstoppable force of destruction. There is no way it could’ve been just pacified unless somebody was aware of lifeblood’s unique property. That explains why the “Ol’ Rager” was empty, and the double bottom that separated the pool. And your confirmation of feathers found in the layer is proof that the griffin had something to do with it.”

“In other words, the ponies were close to figuring it out as well, so we had to slow them down because they’ll likely be able to get there before us. Am I following this?”

The vision jiggled up and down in acknowledgment. “But even if we find it, there’s still a problem…”

“What?”

“The Devourer…” There was a noticeable tone of anger in the vision’s owner now. “We may be able to find the object in which Anger is contained, but without him, we can’t liberate it…

“Great…” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “All because he got too greedy. He could be on the other side of the world now of all we know. What do we do?”

“One thing at a time, Broodmother. One thing at a time…” And with those words, the vision began to blur, until it all went dark.

“Zecora… Zecora… ZECORA!” the county pony called out to her as she was holding her up with her hooves as she regained consciousness. “There ya are. Ya feelin’ okay?” The shaman nodded in response. “Good. Tell me, what did ya see?”

The zebra rubbed her head. “‘There is too much to process in one sitting. The truth is, Princess Twilight’s situation, and ours, is fitting.”

“Come again?” Applejack raised her eyebrow. “She’s trapped?”

Zecora nodded. “What the so-called dragons are doing, is taking their product to the mountain for reviewing. The Queen will get away without anyone pursuing.”

“What about Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy? Where were they?” the pony asked, to which she shook her head. “Oh, that’s just lovely… Chrysalis is out there doing whatever bad thing she’s planning, and none of us can stop her – those three are at the beach, too far away to see what’s going on, while Twilight’s group and the two of us are trapped here…” She sat down and pulled her hat over her head.

“Dear Applejack, do not rue, the latter is not entirely true,” Zecora corrected her.

The other mare gave her a confused look. “What are ya talkin’ about? We got no way out of here, especially not with those dragons over yonder.”

The zebra went back to rummage through her saddlebag again, eventually pulling out a completely red bottle. “Do you recall when you first encountered the horde, and to find a way home you implored?”

“Yeah, actually I wondered about that. You got us out but you were all weird and… ghostly-like. What was with you?”

“There is a potion that I was taught to make, that makes the user’s physical boundaries break. One cannot interact with the world around, but absolute freedom to go anywhere is abound. The only flaw it has is that you leave a piece of yourself behind, so you return to the place where body and mind were twined. And in the position we’re in, a ruckus will make our troubles begin.”

“Then let's use it, and while I keep the changelings distracted, ya can go and find a way to get Twilight out.”

“The problem is, this last bottle is all there is,” the shaman dashed her idea. “Whoever is left behind, guard duty will be assigned, lest the halves are not ever realigned.”

“I see… In that case, you better start drinking.”

“Me?” Zecora was surprised. “But the rest of the Elements-“

“Look Zecora, ya already used this potion before so you know already how to make it work around it, not to mention, after what you just saw you already have a basic idea of what’s going on out there, so you’re best equipped to go out there instead of me.”

“‘I must protest,” she argued, “I’ll have no rest if the changelings’ wrath catches up to the rest!”

“And who’s gonna keep ya from harm in either case?” Applejack countered. “I’ll stay behind. There’re so many tunnels underground here that I can avoid them. I’ll keep an eye on ya. Just make sure to get Twilight out, okay?”

Zecora smiled and nodded. “I’m thankful for your trust in me, I’ll see to it your life will return, I guarantee.”

She dropped the bottle and it crashed on the ground. Bright blue vapors erupted from it, completely enveloping the shaman. Just as that happened, the country pony heard the sounds coming from not far; it seemed that the “dragons” took notice of a sudden sound of breaking glass, and they decided to go investigate it. A cold sweat washed over her as she didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t just bolt and leave Zecora behind, but she also didn’t know what she was supposed to do about her at the moment. Just then, a stream shot out of the cloud – it was the zebra, in the aforementioned spectral form, lighting up the surroundings. She turned to the Element of Honesty, gave her a wink, and then dashed off in the direction of the incoming disturbance. She came in view of the imitating dragons, and at the first sight of her they tried to snap at her, yet she managed to get past them without success as she moved too swiftly. They all went after her, trying to get her, and by the time she finally got out of the giant maw of the Ol’ Rager, they all gave up, leaving the equine specter to do as she pleased. Back in the cave, Applejack sighed in relief, as Zecora’s departure diverted everybody’s attention. Now she had a chance to find a more secluded place until she got back, but she still had to take care of what she left behind: Her saddlebags and a collection of glimmering light outlining her original shape. She touched it, discovering it felt sort of warm and squishy, yet tangible enough to grasp. She grabbed hold of the shaman’s outline and dragged her away from her current position, relocating into a nearby tunnel.

“Good luck, Zecora.”

“Please, turn it down a bit, dearies!” the fashionista complained. “It’s so hot I’m sweating like a pig!”

“We don’t have time for one of your moments, Rarity!” Ember yelled. “Spike, blow harder!”

Trapped within the Broken Hollow, the two ponies and dragons were well aware of their predicament and what was at stake. With the entire mountain surrounded by the changeling’s magic-negation rocks, neither the two Elements of Harmony were unable to use their abilities, and as such, the task of escaping fell upon the princess’ companion and the Dragon Lord. The two dragons blew their fire at the spikey rocks that were blocking the only exit, they have been for a while, and yet their progress was close to nothing: It took them a while to break even one rock, while several more blocked their way, and even then, they could still hear the sound of even more rocks being piled up.

“Ah… I… I da… I don’t think I ca… can do it anymore…” Spike gasped for breath, coughing as he tried to blow one more time, before collapsing on his back.

“I still can’t believe was prepared for this,” the blue dragon paused. “This whole time Chrysalis was operating in my domain, and I didn’t notice anything.”

“I’m more concerned as to how far she’s prepared to take all of this,” the purple mare said.

“Wh… wha… what do you me… mean, Twilight…?” Spike inquired.

“As we speak, Queen Chrysalis is on her way to Griffinstone, and she left her soldiers to keep us trapped here. Just like it happened at the Crystal Empire, she’s sacrificing them all to her ends,” she elaborated. “You’d think after her grand speech she’d be more reserved, and yet she’s doing this? How many more is she willing to sacrifice to get what she wants?”

“Well, those sacrifices of hers are certainly doing their job,” Rarity stated. “Who knows how long will it take before somecreature out there saves us.”

“Considering that they can basically just turn into dragons, it may be a while,” the Dragon Lord responded. “Nobody but you guys and dad know we’re here…” She halted herself after saying that. “It’s strange though… With all the racket that the changelings are making out there, you’d think dad would’ve already heard the commotion and come to save us.”

Ember’s words were true: Nobody could’ve been able to just ignore the noise, not this close to home; they could still hear it and they were under a pile of rocks now. But that same noise started to get louder all of a sudden, and little by little they could see light from the outside breaking through the cracks.

“Aha! Speak of the dragon!” Ember grinned. “Dad!”

The rocks that were blocking the exit were being moved away, until finally one of the frontal ones was moved, creating a ray of light that broke through the darkness. And from the blinding light of the setting sun, a silhouette could be seen. No, not of former Dragon Lord Torch. It was small and had a long mane.

“Oh dear, is everypony okay?”

The princess recognized the voice. “Fluttershy?!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaand frieeeeeeeends!”

More silhouettes popped up, one belonging to the screaming party planner, the second to the wonderbolt, and the third… they couldn’t tell. They didn’t wait around, as the two dragons quickly flew out of the opening and then helped the two ponies out. And in the skies above the mountain, they saw dragons fighting dragons, some of them getting swatted out of the sky and crashing to the ground before reverting to their original changeling forms.

“Don’t worry, we’re dealing with the sussy ones. From here, to Ol’ Rager, and all the way to their hideout, they’re not gonna be up in the air for much longer,” the voice spoke, one that belonged to the red dragon that was standing with the other three ponies.

“Garble?” Spike reacted. “Didn’t expect you here.”

“Trust me, you weren’t the only one,” Rainbow Dash made a snarky comment.

Rarity grimaced in disgust. “What’s HE doing here?”

“We met him,” the shy pegasus explained. “Without his help, we’d be caught by the changelings, and he was the one that called the dragons to get rid of them. He helped us a lot, right Rainbow Dash?” She was waiting for the reply and then noticed that the blue flier was trying to hold back and sort of excitement. “Dash!”

She groaned. “Yeah…”

“That can wait!” Twilight jumped in. “Everypony, I’m glad you came to our rescues, but we’ve got an even bigger problem!”

“Hold up!” Ember interrupted. “Where’s former Dragon Lord Torch?”

Garble shrugged. “I dunno. Shouldn’t he be in his cave on the mountaintop?”

“With this much racket outside, next to his home? He’d have heard something was off and come running and then wonder why dragons were putting rocks on his house and over the Broken Hollow. I’m going to check up on him.” The Dragon Lord opened her wings and flew upwards.

“Anyway, before I got interrupted,” Twilight resumed, “we’ve got a problem.”

“You mean the one where Queen Chrysalis found out that you discovered that Turmoil’s missing piece is in Griffinstone, so she sent all of her undercover workers to lock you up to buy time to get there before everypony else?” Pinkie Pie blurted everything out. “Yeah, we know about it already.”

Both the princess and the fashionista’s expressions turned to surprise, yet only the latter responded. “You… you do? But… but how?”

“Let’s just say somepony else was already aware of it,” the shy pegasus answered.

“Look at them swarm,” Pinkie Pie said as she looked in the distance with her binoculars.

She, Rainbow dash, Fluttershy, and their dragon companion Garble were standing outside the rocky tent not far from Torch’s mountain, and the former could see the dragons flying about the mountain, depositing large black rocks around it.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Fluttershy asked. “Twilight, Ember, and Spike are probably trapped inside.”

“Fat much we can do, considering the progress they’ve already made.” Discord slouched on the edge of his fanny pack.

“And as much as I’d want to take on all those dragon-changelings all by myself, I don’t think I’m fit just yet,” Rainbow Dash commented before noticing that the red dragon next to them was trying to nibble on the crystal they had found. “Garble, no!”

He grumbled, putting it away.

“I think I’m seeing something other than dragons coming this way,” the party planner pointed out.

Pinkie Pie could see a long streak of flying beasts traveling in a triangular direction from the hideout, to the distant mountain face, to Torch’s home and once again back to the hideout to resupply. Now though she saw an oddity: A bright light was approaching the direction of the Ol’ Rager, and when it got to the Broken Hollow it tried to get through the main entrance, which was now blocked off by the black rocks, and it just bounced off them.

“What is that thing?” the wonderbolt asked.

“It looks like a glow-in-the-dark zebra,” Pinkie Pie commented.

“A zebra?!” both pegasi reacted.

But the red dragon was clueless. “What’s a zebra?”

“We need to get her attention!” the draconequus suggested.

“Way ahead of you!” the pink pony said, pulling out her party cannon, and shooting fireworks in the sky, making the flashing lights turn into an arrow and pointing downwards, saying “WE ARE HERE!” with her face on it.

“You know, that’s a pretty good way to blow our cover,” Garble said.

“But it worked! Look!”

The light that was in the distance began approaching. The Element of Laughter spoke the truth, as they saw her in this form once before.

The shaman’s ethereal form stopped several hooves away. “I had nearly given up hope. I’m glad I do not have to mope.”

Pinkie Pie smiled. “You’re looking as light-footed as ever, Zecora.”

“I could go for a mile if my message was not so hostile,” she gave a serious response.

“Are we to assume it has something to do with the dragon triangle?” Discord asked.

“Is that thing a zebra?” the red dragon interrupted them.

“Yes, Garble, now shush!” the wonderbolt shot him down. “Zecora, all these dragons are changelings! They’ve been gathering ocean rock that they’re now taking to where you and AJ went, only to then deliver it to where Twilight, Ember, and Spike are!”

“Then just like me, through the rouse, you’ve seen. They’ve been commanded to act as a deterrent by the changeling queen.”

“We know!” all five of them said in unison.

“I see…" the shaman was taken aback for a moment. "Then you’re on the same page as me.”

“Except we’ve no idea where she’s gone now," Fluttershy spoke

“That, to me is not unknown. She's gone towards Griffinstone.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Griffinstone? Why would she go there?”

“It's too long a tale to proclaim, but the short answer is, she knows where her prize to claim.”

“Wait… The students from Twilight’s school are in Griffinstone right now!” the wonderbolt came to the realization.

“And we’ve no way to want Trixie and Sunburst!”

The blue pegasus groaned. “Curse my condition. Could’ve been there and back already.”

“Miss Rainbow Dash, if that’s the case, let me take your place,” Zecora said.

“You? But you’re not a flier, what can you do?”

“Currently, I'm not bound by physical limitation. I'll get there and back, without hesitation. You make sure to free the princess and the rest, and grab Applejack at the cave, I suggest.”

“She left for Griffinstone?! On her own?!” the alicorn panicked.

“Chill, Twilight,” the blue pegasus calmed her. “As it was said, she’s just going to warn Trixie and Sunburst. To make sure the students are protected.”

“That reminds me, Rainbow Dash, what about that mare over there?” Rarity inquired.

Not far away, leaning against a large rock was a dark purple teal-maned unicorn with glasses, holding her head as if she had a migraine.

“One of Chrysalis’ victims,” Fluttershy explained when all of a sudden Discord popped out of his fanny pack. “We found her where she had her rocks stored and we freed her. The zebra mentioned that it’s probably because she used the cover to excavate for clues over by the “mouth volcano” so if a dragon came snooping about she’d have an excuse. I’m a bit doubtful about that.”

“Why?” the carrier asked.

“She could’ve just turned into a dragon and none would be the wiser. Why change into a pony from a high-profile expedition and risk her cover being blown if somebody started asking questions?”

Speaking of the said expedition, it came their way. A group of ponies was approaching, with an elderly greying unicorn stallion at the head of them.

“Good to see you came this way,” the wonderbolt said.

“When I heard that one of my expedition members went missing I had to go and check it out, this never happened before.” The old unicorn went closer to the much younger mare. “Miss Windsdale, are you alright? What happened?”

“I… I’m not sure, Proctor Nightbliss,” she tried to recall. “All I remember was that I went to take a break after the meteor examination sometime in the afternoon… and after that, it goes blank.”

“Do you recall which examination it was?” the senior asked.

“I think it was… number 35.”

“35?” Nightbliss rubbed his chin. “Considering we just finished with examination number 44 and we take examinations five times daily… Miss Windsdale, you’ve been gone for nearly two days!”

“But Proctor Nightbliss, that’s not possible,” one of the other expedition members protested. “Windsdale was with me during the examination yesterday.”

“Same here,” another answered.

“Me as well,” spoke the third. “I only didn’t notice her during the last one we had and she should’ve been there.” He took a purple heat-resistant suit out of his saddlebag. “I found this behind one of the pillars, not far away from the base camp and the excavation site – it belongs to her, it’s been custom designed since she loves purple color. I know she is tidy, so I assumed something must’ve happened to her if it was just laying around.”

“Are you sure that suit belongs to this one?”

Everybody presents turned their gaze in the direction of the voice. Garble was the one who uttered.

“Garble, what do you mean?” Twilight wondered.

“Well… it’s just that, some time ago when I went to check on the weirdo dragons that were partying on the beach, I flew past the meteor excavation, and I saw the pony wearing this suit. But the one who wore it definitely wasn’t her.” He pointed at the other purple mare.

“Really?” the expedition leader wondered. “What did this pony look like?”

“Let’s see… erm, she was a horned one, she was white, and she had green hair… that’s about all I remember.”

“Well, nopony from our expedition has those features. See for yourselves.”

The proctor spoke the truth. Out of all the ponies present, none of them matched the description he mentioned.

Then the princess stepped closer to him, with a serious expression on her face. “Garble, tell me something and I need you to be certain of it: Did that unicorn have a pink streak in her mane?”

“Y… yeah, I think she did. Why?”

The dread on the alicorn’s face became noticeable, and as she turned her head to the rest of the group, so did the realization of everybody in the group present, but especially draconequus. “She… she was here?”

“Princess Twilight, do you know this mare that was described?” proctor Nightbliss inquired.

The situation became unpleasant. Yes, they knew the mare in question, but they didn’t tell anyone about her. They had hoped to encounter her again when they met Grogar again, but they didn’t expect that she would go out in the open to do the sorcerer ram’s deed. And now they were put in an awkward position where they would have to explain who she was…

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!”

The sudden cry of terror echoed across the sky and it garnered everybody’s attention. Under her breath, Twilight sighed in relief that things got derailed at the last moment, yet it puzzled her to whom it belonged.

“It’s Ember!” Spike yelled. “Something’s happened!”

“Everypony, get to the airship, quick!” Twilight ordered, before turning back to the institute members. “I’m sorry for cutting it short like this, but I fear duty calls. I’ll leave miss Windsdale in your capable hands.” And she dashed off, leaving proctor Nightbliss to look after his missing member.

The group quickly got back to the airship, now fully patched, with a noticeably improved blimp design, as the rainbow colors spun to the side, eventually coming together at the very tip.

“Looking great there, Rarity,” Pinkie Pie complimented her work.

“Thank you, Pinkie. I just need to add one last finishing touch on-“

“No time! We have to go!” Rainbow Dash bumped in.

“What?! No! My design’s not finished!” the fashionista whined.

“Ember’s in trouble, Rarity! Priorities!” the alicorn urged.

The unicorn’s lip wobbled as she reluctantly climbed onboard. The engines rumbled and soon the vessel took off moving higher toward the peak where the former Dragon Lord’s lair was.

It was late afternoon in the griffin capital, though nobody could tell from the storm clouds that surrounded the mountain peaks. Gilda just pulled some freshly baked scones out of the oven, thinking that perhaps, despite all that was happening, somebody was bound to be hungry.

“I’ve got a fresh batch if anyone wants.”

The atmosphere in her living room could only be described as depressing, the way the two faculty members of Twilight’s School of Friendship, and two of its students were acting. And for a good reason: Not only was the Storm King outside raining bolts on anybody that was trying to get away from his ear drum-destroying music, not only did Grogar bring the arimaspi that was responsible for the town’s decline back to life, and not only did Lord Tirek return but also because four out of six of the exchange students had disappeared.

Gabby was the only one that showed any enthusiasm. “I’ll have one.” She reached out for it.

The other griffin offered one to the school’s staff, and surprisingly, the stallion wasn’t so far off as to decline the offer as he levitated his scone closer to take a bite. “You want a bit?” he offered to the mare next to him.

“The Great and Powerful School Consular Trixie does not have the stomach for it right now,” she answered with her face buried in her hooves.

“Yona does not have the stomach for it either,” the yak said in a downed tone, as the younger pony leaned against her.

“Trixie, you haven’t eaten anything since we got up in the morning,” the scruffy-maned pony urged. “Moping about it won’t change our situation. Even if we can’t get out of Griffinstone, I’m sure somepony or somecreature will eventually discover something’s off and they’ll come to our rescue.”

“That’s what worries me most, Sunburst,” the blue unicorn finally gave him a look of despair. “Because things will turn ugly the moment it’s discovered we just lost more than half of our students. Because if Starlight doesn’t kill us for it, other kingdoms will! She told me that the last time the students disappeared it nearly started a war!”

“Yeah… Yona sorry about that,” the yak apologized.

“But it all ended up fixing itself,” Sandbar pointed out.

“Well this won’t fix itself, Sandbar,” the older pony darted her eyes at him. “The only way for us to actually try and find Grandpa Gruff and Gallus was taken for us by the three students that can fly, and I wonder if they’ll even survive the descent into Abysmal Abyss. We’ve no hope!”

“Surely there’s got to be somecreatue that can help us.”

“Unlikely. Because unless that creature is as swift as the wind and immune to lightning, that’s not going to happen.” Trixie slumped back on the armchair.

“Swift as the wind and untouched by the lightning rain? It’s a good thing I came through to see you’re in pain.”

They all suddenly realized that that voice belonged to none of them and it came right out the doorway. They all noticed a strange spectral-like being that resembled a familiar striped non-pony equine.

“Zecora?!” Sunburst dropped his scone.

“What are you doing here?!” Trixie inquired. “And why do you look like that…? Oh no… Don’t tell me you were on the way to Griffinstone on foot and got struck by lightning and now you’re a ghost?!”

The two students screamed and quickly hid behind the sofa.

“I assure you,” the zebra put an end to that idea quickly, “I'm well and hale. I came this way to warn you of a perilous detail, lest harm on Princess Twilight prevail.”

“Wait… Twilight? Twilight’s coming this way?!” Sunburst jumped on his hooves.

The shaman nodded. “Although the storm outside I did not foresee, and why is its King striking at you all with glee?”

The ship stopped by the mouth of the entrance and they quickly disembarked, as they heard pleading cries coming from within, but they didn’t have to get far to see the drama playing out.

The bloodstone scepter lay on the ground, while its owner was flying about the significantly bigger dragon’s head, desperately trying to get him to respond. “Dad! Dad, please say something! It’s me! Ember!” She heard the sound of hooves behind her and took notice of them. “Twilight, something’s wrong with my dad! He’s just sitting there and not moving! I punched him, kicked him, belched fire in his face, and he just won’t react! What’s with him?!”

Twilight took off and flew closer, looking about for abnormalities, only to find none on Torch’s body. As he got to the head though, she noticed a strangely blank expression on his face, along with green eyes, and she was sure that he didn’t have them before. She recognized the symptoms, there was only one creature she knew that could’ve caused this affliction.

“Ember, I fear Chrysalis may have gotten hold of your father,” she answered.

“What?! What does that mean?!” the blue dragon desperately wanted to know.

“I know these symptoms,” the alicorn elaborated. “Chrysalis has the power to manipulate one’s love and desire, putting his victim under mind control. I know this because she did it to my brother when he was going to wed Princess Cadence. She kidnapped her and then disguised herself as the bride, taking complete control over Shining Armor.”

“Then do something!” Ember urged. “Use your magic to cure him!”

“I’m sorry, Ember, but it’s not that easy.” She shook her head. “Queen Chrysalis’ magic is really powerful, and I’m not well equipped in dealing with love-related spells; that’s Cadence’s field of expertise… and sadly, she’s at Crystal Empire, dealing with her own problems.”

“But we can’t just leave my dad like this!” the dragon protested.

“Well, the only other option I can think of would be to get Chrysalis to remove the spell herself.”

When she made the following suggestion, the Dragon Lord quickly lept off the bigger dragon’s face and picked up the bloodstone scepter again. “Then we have all the more reason to go after the giant bug thing! We’re gonna catch her and bring her back to undo what she did!”

“You heard the Dragon Lord! Everybody back on board!” the red dragon commanded.

“You’re not going anywhere, Garble,” the blue one stopped him.

“What? Why?”

“This is a dangerous mission and I don’t want any more participants than we already do.”

“But-“

“That’s an ORDER, Garble!” She pushed past him onto the airship. “Now, let’s go! The longer we take, the further that oversized bug thing will get!”

“Ember, we can’t go after her yet,” Rainbow Dash halted her.

“Why not?”

“There’s still three-quarters of a pair that we need to collect,” Pinkie Pie informed her.

Across the cloudy sky, the imagery of the zebra ran undeterred. She did what she could. She only hoped that her preemptive warning would help prevent even further misfortune that nobody had expected. There was a sudden buzzing sound, it was fast approaching her way, and for a split second, Zecora swore that she saw a black shape at her side, only to have the sound slowly die down as she continued to travel. It was her! The Queen of Changelings! They nearly collided, but it appeared that, much like her, she was in a hurry. Hopefully, she didn’t notice her. She resumed her trail and she began seeing Dragon Lands in the distance. She had to get back to the Ol’ Rager and return to her physical form, however, she quickly realized a strange force pulling her. That’s when she spotted the pony airship fast approaching her, only for the pull to grow stronger. She realized now that the Elements of Harmony managed to get together again, meaning she was there as well. She dashed for the vessel and squeezed through the keyhole to the room where everybody was gathered.

“Zecora!” they all yelled in surprise at seeing her.

Noticing Applejack was still holding onto her leftover, she quickly dashed off to its spot and rematerialized.

“There’s mah zebra parent!” the country mare hugged her. “Told ya I’d take good care of ya.”

“I’m glad to be back in my frame,” shaman expressed her gratitude before her expression turned serious, “alas, I bring dire news I must now proclaim.”

“What? What is it, Zecora? What did you see on your journey?” Rarity inquired.

Twilight leaned back on the comfy armchair, rubbing her head. “Let me get this straight: Griffinstone is under siege by the Storm King, who has turned into a giant talking cloud, and to top it off, Tirek apparently joined the gang, and he and Grogar are there as well, and the latter resurrected the arimaspi that destroyed the city to do his bidding. So now, not only do we have to worry about Chrysalis getting there and putting the residents in danger, she won’t have to do a thing because EVERYCREATUE there is already in danger! And to top it off, more the half of the students from my school went missing! Not to mention that Gusty was apparently in Dragon Lands, doing whatever her “partner” ordered her to do. I mean, is there anything else that could possibly go wrong today?!” Nobody dared to say a word… and yet the pink puffy one was raising her hoof, waving it. “What, Pinkie Pie?”

“I know the elephant never forgets, but I forgot what the elephant remembered.”

And an awkward silence followed.

“Pinkie, what’s the point that you were trying to make?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“I know there was something important but I can’t remember what it was. Does anyone else think there was something extra important? It’s like on the tip of my tongue.” She grabbed her tongue and pulled it out of her mouth to take a close look at it. “Nof, nof fere.”

“While miss Pie looks for the missing thought, there is one thing that I would not have forgot,” Zecora spoke again.

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the jar containing the living grey ooze.

“Oh yeah, that thing,” the Element of Honesty remembered, “with all, that’s been happening Ah forgot that this was a low priority so it kinda slipped my mind. When we fell into the giant green pool inside the Ol’ Rager we discovered some feather’s that were stuck between the layers of the false bottom. That thing that Zecora and Dash said happened way back at the Frozen North occurred and the blob went weird. Ah think it absorbed one of the feathers.”

“Wait, you mean like what happened when we found what was left of Radiant Hope?” the blue pegasus wondered.

“Probably. It changed color again and then went still. And when we revived it using the green water it came back to life.”

Fluttershy looked at it up close, seeing the amalgamation containing a single spark of light turning about, letting out a rather noticeable whining noise. “It seems so… helpless… so vulnerable.”

“Trust me, Fluttershy, it’s anything but that. When it came back to life it acted all passive, and then all of a sudden it charged at miss Windsdale, and acted all whiny when we put it back in the jar.” Suddenly Applejack went quiet, thinking really hard as if she’s come to a sudden realization. “Ya know, now that I think about it, considerin’ that Windsdale that we met was actually Chrysalis this whole time it would explain why it was so desperate to get to it. It knew it was her this whole time.”

“Chrysalis…” an angry snarl escaped from Ember, as well as a puff of flame.

“Calm down, Ember darling, no need for you to start getting aggravated at the moment like this,” the fashionista tried to calm her, before turning her attention to the discussion. “Anyway, that still doesn’t explain why this… thing, had such a reaction. I mean, to whom did those feathers belong anyway?”

“I can make a good guess, Rarity,” Twilight quickly answered. “There’s only ONE feathered creature that was in Dragon Lands, and we know for sure that he went to where the Turmoil’s missing fragment was.”

“You mean King Grover?” Spike answered with a question.

“Exactly. From our extensive look at the memory crystals, we know now that King Grover and Dragon Lord Obsidian were friends. Grover somehow managed to stop the fragment and imprisoned it inside the Idol of Boreas, and we know he didn’t get out of it unscathed. Those feathers you and Zecora found, Applejack, were probably his.”

“But why did that happen?” Fluttershy asked. “Why did the blob absorb one of his feathers? Why did it turn non-violent after that?”

That was a question they didn’t know. Throughout the entire discussion, the only one that was completely absent from it was the party planner. She was desperately trying to recall something important, and yet she couldn’t concentrate from the constant talking about blobs, griffins, Dragon Lords, and memory crystals…

“I KNOW WHAT THE ELEPHANT REMEMBERED!” she raised her voice, grabbing everybody’s attention.

“Pinkie, what are you talking about?” The wonderbolt raised her eyebrow.

The pink pony simply trot across the room to a closet and opened it. A pile of clothing instantly tumbled out, only for it to suddenly start moving. A moment later a red-scaled dragon crawled out, giving everybody an awkward toothy smile.

“Garble?! How did you get here? We thought we left you back in Dragon Lands,” Rarity questioned, only for Applejack to butt in. “How did you even get back on the ship?”

The Element of Laughter raised her hoof. “Guilty. I snuck him on while nopony was looking. He said he could get me rock candy to give back to Smolder. I thought it would be fitting, considering the circumstances.”

“What circumstances?!” Ember raged. “Grable, I gave you a direct order to stay behind!”

“My little sis is in danger!” he countered, raising back on his feet. “No way am I sitting out of this and letting that oversize bug thing do something to her! Besides you want to get her too, don’t you, Ember?”

“Well we can’t turn back now,” Twilight pointed out. “We’re already behind as is and turning the ship back would take even longer. And considering that things are way worse in Griffinstone than we thought earlier, we’ll have to stay the course.”

The Dragon Lord groaned. “Fine, you can stay. But I’m not taking responsibility if something goes wrong.”

Garble crossed his arms in satisfaction, knowing that he’s outplayed his superior. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Hand it over, Garble,” Pinkie ordered.

He frowned. “What?”

“You know what I’m talking about. You were told to keep it safe and not even think about nibbling on it.”

The red dragon rolled his eyes and reached into the pile of clothing, pulling a dark purple crystal out of it. The moment it came into view it got pulled out of its grip. Surrounded by the princess’ aura she levitated it to her face, examining it up close.

“But that’s… Garble, where did you find this?” she asked, scarcely able to believe what she was holding.

“Oh yeah, funny story about that one,” Rainbow dash chuckled. “When we were fleeing the changelings, we took refuge inside the remains of what looked like a stone tent that’s been covered by rubble. We only discovered it because the REAL miss Windsdale, who was with us at the time, accidentally sat on it. We saw what it looked like and we thought you three would be able to find something about it, Twilight.”

“But why would this memory crystal be hidden outside the Broken Hollow?” the little purple dragon wanted to know.

The alicorn shrugged. “Guess we’re about to find out. Ember.”

Ember picked up the bloodstone scepter that lay nearby and slowly approached, but not before darting her gaze at Garble, making him flinch. “I swear, if I find even one chip on it, I swear I’m gonna-!”

“Relax, Ember,” the princess immediately diffused the situation, “there’s not a crack on it, it’s whole.”

“Alright then. Let’s see what our last Dragon Lord had to say.” The blue dragon reached out with her scepter and touched the crystal, making it light up.

It was raining, and the raindrops could clearly be seen. The image of Dragon Lord Obsidian was present, clutching onto the memory crystal, lying in a fetal position inside a makeshift tent made of two large slabs of stone, one that was too small for him to fit in the whole. He was crying.

“Mother… I failed you… You were right… Without guidance, the whelps would succumb to our nature… I couldn’t act to the disaster fast enough… After the calamity was removed I tried so hard to find all the hatchlings that have become orphaned… And I was too late… Little Scales… Sweet, innocent little Scales… I had given her all the kindness and love I could… And she betrayed that kindness… In front of everybody she struck at me and took the bloodstone scepter for herself, declaring herself the new Dragon Lord… It’s all coming apart now… Other younger dragons are beginning to wonder. Wonder if being strong is all that takes to become the Dragon Lord… They’re going to strike at her, Mother… They’re going to do to her what she did to me to take power for themselves, and then the cycle will continue…” After prolonged sobbing, he finally went quiet, getting a serious look. “Mother… I may have failed as the Dragon Lord, but you… The love and care that you had given us, taught us to nurture... That knowledge must not be forgotten. Your legacy must not end with me. I swear… I will do what needs to be done… For your love for us…”

And the vision ended. Deathly silence hung in the room. Nobody could find proper words to speak after witnessing what they did. The only sound they could hear was the rumbling of thunder in the distance – one that would soon grow louder.

Chapter 59: Timely Interventions

Thunder clashed across the sky above Griffinstone, twisted into an unbearable sound, generated by its player. For hours the Storm King had been plucking the lightning strings, generating music while safely within the giant storm cloud that was shaped like his head, all the while making sure to keep the town below isolated until the ram and the centaur returned. Nobody’s been trying to get out in the open for a while now and he believed it would remain so. However, he eventually paused momentarily, as he noticed something. Somewhere in the distance, he could see a strange blue light approaching across the air. He was unsure what it was, but just in case it would pose an inconvenience to what he was doing, he shot a lightning bolt at it. To his surprise, the blue light was unaffected, in fact, it was approaching faster. He shot at it again and again, yet nothing changed, the strange thing was completely undeterred by what he was doing. The light finally reached Griffinstone and proceeded to fly through the streets before it disappeared into one of the buildings.

“What the…” he thought to himself, confused.

He looked about, trying to see if anything else was coming nearby that he likely couldn’t shoot down, he’d be in a real pickle if this was a scout and a superior force was coming his way. But soon, the light from earlier came out of the house in which it disappeared and then flew off in the same direction that it came from. He let the thought linger for a while, and when it became apparent nothing was going to happen he simply shrugged and then resumed playing his music. After a while though, as he stopped for but a moment, he suddenly noticed a bright flash below. Out of the building that the light came and left from, there was a blue figure dressed in purple, with a large trunk by its side.

The look from above was betrayed by an illusion from below. A large pony head made of bread and colored blue was standing on a wooden construction that was covered in purple cloth, and under it, the Vice-headstallion and the Consular were huddled together.

“Trixie, this is either a brilliant or a crazy plan, and I honestly can’t tell which is it.”

“Brilliance is often confused with craziness, Sunburst. Then again, we had to make due considering what we had to work with.”

“And the fact that your reputation is on the line,” he made a smug remark.

“You heard what Zecora said!” she began imitating her voice. “Miss Trixie, surely you can figure out a distraction, that will lead the Storm King to inaction. And while you have his attention, it will keep him blind to our intervention.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that you still had your metal rings from your magic show in your prop trunk so we could create a lightning rod and connect it from the horn and into the trunk so it can fire back.”

“But you’ve seen the face Gilda made when I told her I’ll need a lot of baked dough to make a fitting resemblance of myself.”

“You’re paying for that, you hear?” the aforementioned griffin yelled through the closed door.

The blue unicorn rolled her eyes and went to the megaphone. “Let the show begin!” she said and yelled. “HEY STORM KING, REMEMBER ME? I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL SCHOOL CONSULAR TRIXIE!”

His voice called from above. “I remember you! The tripping blue horse from Crystal Empire!”

“WELL, I DO HOPE YOU’VE HAD A GREAT FALL,” she answered back.

“Oh, you think you’re funny? Well here’s something to laugh about!” and immediately a lightning bolt shot from the clouds above.

It hit the horn, causing the electricity to travel through the iron wiring from the wooden construct and over to the trunk, where it was shot out again and back to the sender.

“It worked!” both unicorns cheered.

But the Storm King was not happy one bit. And in turn, began raining lightning upon the blue pony below, yet all his attacks came right back, even if they did not affect him. Despite all, he kept doing it and he wasn’t sure how long the process was being repeated and how much time had passed when all of a sudden…

“STORM KIIIIIIIIIING!”

He stopped himself before he could finish charging up his attack. That shrieking echoing voice! He knew it all too well! He turned in its direction and he saw a large spot flying in his direction, the buzzing noise growing louder by the moment. The Queen of Changelings was fast approaching him, with an angry expression on her face.

“Oh, there you are, queenie,” he answered. “I hadn’t expected to see you here of all places.”

She flew in and their bodies made contact, the changeling tried to pounce on the stone construct but she wasn’t strong enough to do it so she simply pressed her hooves against him. “You’re one to talk! You have the NERVE to leave me in the lurch and have me do all the heavy lifting all by myself!”

“By yourself? P-huh-leas! I’d hardly call having your minions do all the hard labor “doing it yourself”. Oh, and by the way, it’s not the Storm King anymore - it’s the SL/SK.”

“What?! What in the world does that even-?!”

“Broodmother, be quiet,” a voice interrupted her ranting, as a weaselly vapor finally came close to them, before facing the construct. “Scourgelord, you have some explaining to do. Why are you here?”

“Don’t call me Scourgelord either,” he huffed. “I’m both that and what I once was. That’s why I’m now SL/SK. But I digress. I’m here because gramps requested me to go here, and he took the wildebeest with him after they dropped out of the portal.”

Doubt’s eyes expanded. “The Shaper and the Devourer... they’re both here?”

“Wait, hold on!” Chrysalis jumped in. “Tirek and Grogar have been here this whole time?! Why?!”

“The old goat apparently wanted to retrieve a minion that he’s been lacking and he had to bring it back,” he explained. “But after he got it, he told me to isolate the whole half-bird town and make sure nothing leaves and enters it. After which they descended into “the great divide”.” He pointed to the great chasm that was splitting the mountain in half, the Abysmal Abyss.

“I’ll go and look for them,” the wisp answered. “You two stay here and-“

“Hey! Rumbly McCloud’s Dale!” an irritating voice from below called. “I’m still waiting for you to give me your best shot!”

The construct glanced downwards and quickly shot a bolt of lightning at the pony below, only for the bolt to come back not a moment later, zipping right past the changeling. “I swear this blue one’s been really annoying for a while now,” Storm King explained. “Just give me a few minutes and I can-“

“We don’t have a few minutes, Storm King!” Chrysalis snapped at him.

“We don’t have any time at all. Look.” Doubt turned into the direction from which they just came.

Even in the near darkness, they could see it: A vessel was flying in their direction, a boat-like body attached to a large blimp in a rainbow color scheme.

“They’re here already?!” Chrysalis freaked out. “There’s no way they managed to get out of that jam so quickly!”

“And yet they did, didn’t they?” the shadow voiced its curiosity.

“Nothing a bolt or two can’t fix,” the stone satyr hmphed.

Soon after, from the clouds above it, a lightning bolt shot out of it and straight at the zeppelin. Before it could make contact, it crashed and exploded against a purple shield that was protecting it from strikes. A noise of confusion slipped from the construct before another bolt fired, and the same result was there. This time a sound of frustration escaped him and lightning rained from above, and still, all the projectiles bounced off.

“Knock it off already, Storm King,” the changeling queen groaned. “You can clearly see they’re protected.”

“Yes… almost as if they were prepared for it.” Doubt rubbed its chin with its tail, before turning to face the caster. “Scourgelord, are you certain that nothing left the settlement while you stood watching?”

“It’s SL/SK! Get it right!” he corrected it. “And no. Ever since the wildebeest, gramps, and his pet descended into the chasm nothing escaped me… Except for some time ago, a blue light came to town, entered one of its houses, and then left in the same direction that you two just came…” He went quiet after the realization. “Oh… That’s what it was, wasn’t it?”

“YOU THINK?!” The Pillar of Hatred pressed her face against his in anger. “And you didn’t even try to stop it?!”

“It’s not that I didn’t try! All my attacks went straight through it!”

“Quiet you two,” Doubt shut their quarreling. “So, something managed to get here ahead of us and warn them. That would explain their preparation.” Its gaze turned downwards where the blue pony was. “And it would explain why that one came out to play with you, Scourgelord - to distract you.”

“It’s SL/SK!” he repeated.

“Who cares!” she shut him. “They’re coming here! They come too close and they’ll blast us with friendship magic! What do we do?!”

THUDD!

They all got caught by surprise. This wasn’t a crack of lightning that they just heard, it came from below. Not far above Griffinstone, a large portal opened in the sky and from it, a red-skinned black-furred centaur, so large that he could measure up to some of the houses, crashed on the ground, so loud he was that just about everybody took notice.

“Lord Tirek?! And in his prime too?!”

“He’s almost as big as the time I fought him,” the construct mused.

“Wait, what?”

“Too long a story for what’s happening right now. Wispy, out with it, what do we do?”

But the shade didn’t answer right away, it was just staring in the distance as if it wasn’t fully present. “It’s here…”

“What is?”

“Anger… I can feel its presence. Which means, its container must’ve been weakened.” It turned to face the pillars. “Stall them. If the Devourer appeared just now it means he must have it on his person. They must not get a hold of it before it is liberated.” And it flew off to the town below.

“Stall them?! Did it just say “stall them”?! How are we supposed to do that when I can’t even touch them?!”

She chuckled. “Simpleton. The ship is only being protected from your lightning but that doesn’t mean it is foolproof. Besides, look.”

The changeling pointed back to the approaching vessel. There was a figure that just flew out of it and approached the town below. There was only one that she knew would go and face the centaur lord since only she had the power to do it… and she was unaware of her presence.

“She’s split from her friends, which makes them vulnerable.” A grisly grin appeared on her face. “You continue doing what you do while I come up close. They’ll never see it coming.”

“They really came,” Sunburst said gazing up from under the giant colored bread statue of Trixie. “But how are they gonna deal with him?”

“Never mind them! Look!” The mare pointed in the direction of where the giant centaur just emerged; It was them – the kids! “I’m so glad they’re okay!” she sighed in relief.

“That doesn’t mean they’re safe yet. Not with Tirek right there in the open. We have to find a way to distract him.”

The door to Gilda’s place creaked open and the two female griffins poked their heads out. “Need help with that?” the lively one offered.

“Thanks, but I don’t think that’d be safe for either of you,” the yellow unicorn declined. “We need to find some long-distance measures.

Trixie thought for a bit. Sunburst was right, there was no way to come out safely and grab the centaur’s attention while the giant angry cloud was above them as well. Then she got an idea and began pushing her magic box until it was tilted to forty-five degrees, aiming in the direction of the giant.

“Hey, a little help holding it still over here,” she requested from the rest. “Not you two!” she halted the younger pony and the yak when they tried to get out of the shelter.

The group grabbed the box and held it still.

“Trixie, what are you planning?” the unkempt stallion questioned.

“Just hold it still.” She approached the horn that was connected to the loudspeaker and took in a deep breath. “Hey, you colossal Thunderhead! I’m still waiting for that bolt of yours to tickle me!”

After a moment of quiet, there was the sound of thunder rumbling, and then a bolt shot from the sky at their location, striking the horn which acted as a lightning rod, the power surge traveling from it to the coil that was hidden inside her box of magic tricks, and the lightning bolt that was meant for her shot out of it, arcing across the air and striking the ground in front of the centaur lord.

“You missed!” Gilda pointed out.

The supposed target though quickly turned to face the sky and shook his fist in its direction. “Hey, Thunderhead! What’s wrong with your aim?!”

“Nope. That did it,” the blue unicorn pointed out as they saw the group that was either hiding or was out in the open, making a run for it while the attention was not set on them. “You two, stay in there, got it?” she ordered Sandbar and Yona before motioning to the other older unicorn and two griffins to move out.

Yet as they left the cover, Gilda stopped, looking to the sky.

“Gilda, you coming?” Gabby asked.

“You go ahead without me. Somebody else will need my help more than the kids.” And with that, she took off.

“Wait, what?! Come back, you can’t just leave us!” the student consular called back to her but her cry fell on deaf ears.

“No time now, Trixie,” the stallion pushed her. “We have priorities.”

“Right…” she composed herself and they went off.

Tirek was angry. There was only one creature who he knew could hurl thunderbolts at will and he was right above him. The nerve of him! But his attention soon changed as he saw the airship approach as it was pelted by the aforementioned “Thunderhead” above. There was a small shape that flew out of the airship and began to approach him, but at the distance and visibility, he couldn’t quite see what it was.

“Give it back!” Grandpa Gruff yelled.

“Grandpa Gruff, stop!” both Gallus and Silverstream cried out as he broke from their grips and flew off.

Tirek felt something cling to his fingers. There he was again, that silly old griffin, desperately trying to rip out the Idol of Boreas that was lodged between his index finger and thumb. He simply reached out with his other hand and flicked the old griffin away, sending him flying at high speed at the nearby building. Before he could splatter against the wall, however, he was enveloped in a purple aura and ground to a halt at the last minute. The centaur lord noticed it, and it quickly became clear to him: There was only one creature who knew had powerful magic and was willing to take him on in his current state, and she flew into view not far from the old griffin.

“Princess Twilight!” the two avian hybrids screamed in joy.

She levitated the elder to their side. “Take him away, quickly!”

They both nodded and dragged Grandpa Gruff away from the site, while the alicorn faced her imposing opposition.

“Well, well, well,” Tirek chuckled, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, quite a surprise, I must say.”

“Spare me your snide remarks, Tirek,” she told him. “So, you got released from your punishment as well then, just like Chrysalis?”

“Yes. Both of us were part of that unfortunate fate that your senior, her sister, and that backstabber thrust upon us,” he let his tone of anger get noticed. “And now that I’m free I’m going to get my vengeance!”

“I’m not going to let that happen, Tirek! I don’t know how you managed to grow this much, but I know for a matter of fact you didn’t just consume all the pony magic in Equestria, nor did you devour Discord’s magic. You stand no chance!”

He chuckled. “Funny. Last I recall, you don’t have all the alicorn magic either so that levels the playing field… No, scratch that. The favor is tipped in my favor. Thanks to THIS!” He raised his hand and showed the artifact to his opponent.

Twilight had to squint for a bit, but it soon became apparent what he was holding, and fear set into her. He had the idol!

“Where did you get that?!” she inquired.

“Funny thing about it, old Grogar told me about it and where to get it,” he explained. “He was a fool to trust me to find it and bring it back to him. I’m keeping it. It is an unlimited fountain of magic.”

“Tirek, you don’t know what you’re doing! That thing’s dangerous!”

“To you, maybe.” He opened his mouth and popped the Idol of Boreas in, then closed it shut. “You see as long as this thing is safely inside I’ll only keep growing stronger ever so slightly, while you keep getting weaker.”

“How would you figure that?”

“Oh please, Twilight Sparkle, do you think I didn’t notice?” He turned skywards in the direction of the approaching airship that was still protected by the purple shield while the bolts of lightning rained on it. “At this moment, your magic is the only thing that’s keeping your friends safe. Your full concentration must be focused on keeping that shield up if you don’t want your friends to get a nasty zap. And that means…” His hind legs suddenly bent and he launched himself forward, preparing to swing his fist. “You can’t fight back!”

Twilight saw him coming. She quickly closed her wings and she dropped like a rock, evading the centaur’s attack, which ended up landing in the building, punching a large hole through it, and then she opened them again, the drop speed propelling her forward, flying between his legs and landing further away where he stood earlier.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Tirek,” the princess said as she turned to face him. “We came prepared.”

The changeling queen flew off in the direction of the airship. The rain of bolts soon began and they all bounced off as they saw earlier, but upon closer inspection, Chrysalis noticed that it only covered three-quarters of the ship’s size, while leaving the bottom exposed. She used this chance to fly in past the barrier and peeked over the edge of the ship’s railing. All the equines were gathered, as well as the purple and red dragon, while the blue pony was on the opposite side of the ship’s railing.

“Y’all know what to do, right?” the country pony said just as she was done talking to the pegasus, turning to face them. “We get down and we save the kids, that’ll give Twilight free room to fight back against Tirek. We just need to wait for HER to show up.”

“Assuming you can even get down!” Chrysalis stated as she finally flew up and landed on the deck.

They jumped in shock at the sight of her. “That’s the queue, Dash! Go go go!” Applejack ordered, and the wonderbolt lept over the edge of the airship.

“That’s not going to help you!” the changeling queen declared. “Your princess made a poor decision in leaving your ship and you undefended just to go and chase Lord Tirek. You lot cannot even stand up to my knees in terms of power. She’s going to regret making such a stupid decis-“

“CHRYSALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!”

She didn’t notice the owner, but her loud yell turned into a roar, and then a burst of pink flame followed, giving the Queen of Changelings only a split second to react, leaping backward and flying off, almost immediately hitting the protective barrier, causing her wings to shut and she ended up sliding off the ship’s proximity until she finally stopped in midair a short distance below the vessel. She wasn’t sure who just interfered, but that answer would soon come, as a figure dived right after her, revealing herself to be the Dragon Lord with an absolutely furious expression on her face. The Pillar dodged, while Ember quickly navigated to get right back to her target.

“Turn my dad back to normal! NOOOOOOOOOOOW!” the blue dragon raged, her scream turning into a bellow that ushered a blast of flame.

The changeling queen managed to evade her attack and then a taunting smile appeared on her face, realizing what she was talking about. “Make me.”

The Storm King watched as the bug queen flew under the shield while he pelted it with his attacks, and a few moments later she dropped down, being chased by fire, accompanied by full of sound and fury.

“What was she thinking… That it was going to be this easy?” he thought to himself, yet as he continued to trail her battle above the town, he suddenly spotted shapes moving through the streets. “Hey! Who said you could leave!? Get back inside right-!” A sudden force pushed the giant head to the side, nearly having him fall out of the cloud’s mouth. “What the… What was that?” He waited for a moment, yet nothing happened. “Oh well.” He shrugged and prepared himself to strike at the beings below, only for the said force to push him from the other direction. “Hey! Who’s the wise guy here?! You think this is funny?!”

A head suddenly popped up, its rainbow mane hanging down the upper end of the open mouth of the giant cloud. “It’s a wise girl… And yeah, I find this funny,” Rainbow Dash grinned.

She stomped the upper side of the cloud head, closing its mouth shut, before bucking right in its eye, making it roar. The pegasus galloped on the cloud’s back, entering the gargantuan mass that covered the whole town, and came out on the very top of it where there were no clouds, only the sight of the sun that had just set over the horizon. The wonderbolt felt the ground under her beginning to wobble – he was gonna show up any moment. And not a second later he did, his giant head breached the surface, angrily looking about for its target. There was a tap on its side, and the head turned in its direction, only to have a swift buck delivered in the eye again. He yelped once more only to see the pegasus dive and disappear in the sea of clouds again, the head diving after her. She came up again, waiting, the head emerged, looking for her, she got its attention and then kicked it in the eye again, before hiding in the field of clouds once more, with the Storm King’s head in hot pursuit. Yet when she tried to repeat the process, she waited but felt no rumbling this time. All of a sudden, a lasso made of lightning string sprung out from under her, wrapped around her hind leg, and dragged her through the clouds and back under them until she ended up hanging upside down. She couldn’t move a muscle as she got shocked, being pulled up by its caster who was standing on the edge of the opened mouth of his giant head.

“You thought that trick would work for the third time? Even a monkey would’ve caught it at this point,” he bragged, before finally pulling her up and grabbing her with the other hand. “Don’t worry. This’ll be quick.”

The hand in which the Staff of Sacanas was embedded flared up with a flickering bright light, and he prepared himself to unleash the light’s destructive power upon the pony who was at his mercy now, unable to escape his grip. A powerful blast was unleashed, creating a streak across the sky that cut even through the clouds. When the flashing light caused by the attack disappeared, the satyr’s hands were empty.

“Huh… This hit harder than I had expected… There’s nothing left of that one,” he thought to himself before he finally heard loud wing beats close by.

Much to his disappointment and great frustration, he discovered that the pegasus managed to get away at the critical moment, or rather, she was saved. A white-headed brown-bodied griffin was flying away from him, carrying her off.

“Hey! Get back here!” he yelled and the head charged after them as they disappeared into the clouds above.

The Storm King’s head pushed through and breach the surface of the sky, looking about, expecting that they would be hiding in the vicinity, but couldn’t find them, as they were hiding right under a patch of clouds that obscured them, gazing at the monstrosity not far.

“Gilda, you’ve no idea how glad I am to see you right now,” the wonderbolt told her.

“Same here, Dash. Seriously though, what’s up with you? I’ve never seen you get tangled up like this, you’d normally just dash away.”

“Yeah…” She rubbed the back of her head. “This is kinda awkward to say, but I’ve had an incident with what’s happening here so my wings aren’t fully healed yet. I need you to help me keep at the higher elevation so we can keep this guy busy while Twilight takes care of Tirek. Can I count on you, G.?”

“Sha, you have to ask?”

The two faculty members and the messenger ran through the streets to Griffinstone, they had to make sure that the four kids and the elder were safe, and while the thundering above ceased, there was now another problem, as a giant centaur rampaged through the city, trying to strike the flying princess.

“Let me go! He’s got the Idol of Boreas, I must get it back!”

“That thing’s gonna be useless to you if he steps on you, you deranged old beak!

It was them! Even in the chaos that was overshadowing everything, their struggle with the elder griffin made their presence noticeable.

“Gallus!” the unkempt unicorn called out.

A moment later a blue avian head popped up from around the corner of one of the houses. “Vice-headstallion Sunburst!” He tried to move past the cover only to be held back by an obstruction her was holding onto. “Come on already!”

Moments later, Silverstream appeared as well, both of them dragging Grandpa Gruff, who they had to tie up and gag to keep him grounded and quiet. After that, the reformed changeling and the dragon also appeared.

“They’re all here!” the school consular shook her co-worker. “We’re gonna live!”

Words that she would regret, for as the students ran in their direction to reunite with them, Tirek had a bright idea of uprooting one of the houses and tossed it in alicorn’s direction, who just so happened to be in the direction where the non-combatants were. The structure crashed against the one they were near, making them all freeze on spot. Then the cracking sound followed as the stationary building began breaking down and a large mass began falling in their direction. When the dust settled, the students we cowering on the ground, realizing they were unharmed – and for a good reason, as a giant mass of muscle and fur stood in over them, holding all the wooden rubble from falling on top of them.

“Guys, move, quick!” Sandbar ordered as he stood close by, helping to pull the old bound griffin away, and soon the rest of the group made a run for it before the yak finally tipped and let the collapsed building fall.

“Sandbar! Yona!” Trixie voiced her anger. “I thought I told you both to stay behind!”

“Yeah, sorry, but we really couldn’t do that,” the lime pony gave a non-answer.

Nearby though one could hear the sound of groaning, as the largest of the six students grasped the four and crushed them in her embrace. “Yona’s so happy that Yona’s friends okay!”

“Yona… too tight…!” Ocellus struggled to utter words.

“Let’s just get out of here, this area isn’t safe,” Gabby suggested.

As soon as she said that, another house landed in their direction. “Agreed. Back to Gilda’s place!” Trixie yelled.

The yak dropped her friends and they ran off back to the baker’s house. Meanwhile, the battle continued to rage between the centaur and the alicorn, during which he uprooted another building and tossed it right in the way of the escapees. The orange dragon saw it coming in time - she inhaled and blew out a blue-yellowish flame, cutting through the incoming projectile and making it miss its trajectory. But not a moment later, a giant hunk of wood came flying in the same direction at an increased speed, and she didn’t have enough time to perform the same action again, all she could do was cover her face. Another burst of yellow flames suddenly punctured a hole in the piece of wood, creating a giant hole that simply fell on the group’s surroundings. Another dragon appeared, flying down and landing not far from them: This one was red, and the smaller one knew him all too well.

“Garble?! What are you doing here?” Smolder reacted in shock.

“What do you think? When I heard that my little sis was gonna get in trouble, did you think I was just gonna stand by and watch?”

“Awww, come here.” The orange dragon flew up to him and pulled him into an embrace. “You’re such a big softy, Gar-Gar.” Nobody could tell from his red scales, but it could clearly be seen that he felt a bit awkward. “Wait, hold on,” something dawned on Smolder, “how did you even get here? You don’t even know where Griffinstone is.”

“That’s cuz he came with us... unannounced.”

The voice was somebody else’s entire. From behind one of the buildings, four out of six Elements of Harmony appeared, accompanied by a purple dragon and a zebra. With the danger above distracted their airship managed to land and they made their way to those in need of rescuing.

“Miss Applejack! You’ve no idea how glad we are to see you!” Sandbar sighed in relief.

“Yeah, with all that’s been happening, we thought nocreature was gonna come to help us… Hold on though, where’s Rainbow Dash? I only see Princess Twilight fighting Tirek,” Silverstream wondered.

“She’s gone up to distract the Storm King. Should help her speed up her recovery with all that activity she’ll have to put in,” Pinkie Pie explained.

“And Ember’s distracting Chrysalis as well,” Spike added.

“You guys have no idea how much trouble we’ve been having through the whole day because of that guy. The unpleasant noise, the lightning strikes, the-“ Sunburst began counting, only to be interrupted by his co-worker who couldn’t help herself but notice one of the mares looked off. “Rarity, what’s with that color? Trying out a new style?”

Almost instantly they could feel heat around them rising as the expression on the fashionista’s face betrayed frustration, trying to bottle it down. “No... This is just a little… interference from the opposition.”

The rest of the students were glad that help from outside finally arrived. The shy pegasus though noticed that an elder griffin who was with them was tied and gagged and couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Yet the moment when she pulled the rag out of his mouth…

“Let me go!” he screamed. “I have to go back! The big one’s got the Idol of Boreas with him! I have to-“

Gallus quickly zipped over to him and clap his beak shut. “Please don’t do that, Miss Fluttershy. He’s been nothing but a deterrent.”

“Wait… what did he say about the Idol of Boreas?” the purple dragon quickly noticed.

“It’s a long story, but when we were at the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss we came across the Idol, and now Tirek’s got it.”

When they heard that, the rescue group quickly turned to the battlefield. He had it with him?

“We have to help Twilight now if that’s the case!” the country pony declared. “We have to get together and blast him.”

“One problem,” the party planner pointed out. “We’re one Dashy short… AGAIN!”

“And I fear we’ve got an even bigger problem, you guys!” Gabby finally spoke, as she was standing on the outer edge of the large piece of wood. “If that big guy continues to rampage through the town there’s gonna be nothing left of it. We have to go and evacuate all the residents!”

“Well, then let’s not waste any more time!” Applejack yelled. “All of you spread throughout the settlement, get the griffins to-“

Before she could finish, a bright light suddenly exploded in the sky, blinding everybody for a brief moment. They couldn’t understand what it was, so the pink earth pony pulled out a spyglass and looked through it.

“Uh oh,” was the only word she said.

“Pinkie, what is it?” the little dragon inquired, to which he was given the instrument to see for himself.

Spike looked through the spyglass in the direction of where the light came from. Suddenly, he spotted Chrysalis flying on the spot and laughing. He zoomed down in the direction where she was staring and suddenly noticed the blue dragon, who was spinning downwards towards the ground.

“EMBER!” Spike screamed and immediately flew off.

“Spike, don’t!” Rarity tried to stop him.

“Don’t worry.” Smolder took off. “I’ll go with him to make sure-“

Before she could leave the group, she got enveloped in a pink aura and was left frozen in place. “Oh no, you’re not!” Trixie argued. “You girls have already gotten yourself into so much trouble when you left earlier, I’m not having you do any more heroics!”

“But-!”

“Besides, we’ve got to evacuate the civilians from their homes before Tirek destroys the town! Come on!”

In the sky above the town, the Queen of Changelings and the Dragon Lords fought for supremacy, the dragon flying after her target, to try and burn her, yet she easily dodged, while at the same time, the changeling tried to shoot her down with green shots from her horn, yet she received the same result; both fighters were on equal footing. Ember decided to try something else this time. She generated flame and doused it inside her mouth, creating a thick veil of smoke which she then used to surround the enemy. Chrysalis was caught off guard, unable to see. Before she could do anything, she suddenly felt something grip her horn. She tried to move, but she was held in place. By the time the smoke screen cleared, it was clear that Ember had the upper hand.

“Don’t move a muscle!” she threatened her. “Now you’re going to surrender and come back to Dragons Lands with me and undo the spell you’ve put my dad under. Refuse, and you’ll get burnt!”

If she expected her to play along she was in for a surprise, as she started laughing. “I don’t think so.”

Suddenly, her horn began to glow brighter until it caused a flashing eruption, and at this distance, the instant burst of green light blinded the blue dragon. She let go of the horn to instinctively cover her eyes. All Chrysalis did was simply fly behind her, opened her mouth, and regurgitated green gelatinous goo all over her wings, making them go still and causing her to fall. Ember panicked – she couldn’t see and she couldn’t fly, and she could feel an increased acceleration, knowing any moment she was going to hit the ground. Suddenly she felt a tug at her tail, followed by a strong pull, as somebody halted her fall, allowing her impact to get softened.

“Don’t worry, Ember I got you,” a familiar voice said.

“Spike? Spike, is that you? I… I can’t see…”

“We need to get away, Ember, any moment now she’s gonna…”

The little dragon’s voice halted when he realized he was too late on what he was about to say, since it only took a moment for him to hear the loud buzzing sound, and the changeling queen appeared before them. He tried to put on a brave face and stood between her and the incapacitated Dragon Lord, battle ready.

“Oh, so brave,” she taunted him, “like the princess, like the pet. You do know that you stand no chance against me, right? You didn’t last time you fought me, and I was nowhere near in terms of power that I am now. So, now I’m gonna-“ She suddenly stopped and looked to her right. “What?! Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here? Can’t you get the “Cloudy” to do it?” She groaned. “Okay fine.” And with that, she simply turned and flew off back to town, leaving the two dragons behind.

“Spike, what’s just happened? I can hear the buzzing going away,” Ember inquired.

“I’m not sure. She just… left.”

“We need to go after her,” she urged.

“Can you even see yet?”

“No…”

“And you can’t fly either.” He quickly went behind her back and started to scrape away the green gelatinous goo that was beginning to harden at this point.

“Hey Dash, you know what this reminds me of?”

“Lemme guess - back in flight school when we used to sneak out in the middle of the night and taunt the instructors while we were hiding by banging on the door of their rooms?”

The Griffin and the pegasus were hiding in the seat of clouds just beneath the surface, and they were peaking at the white giant tower that stuck out of it, with the head of the Storm King looking about its surroundings, trying to find them.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Gilda said. “The only difference is that back then we just got detention for getting caught. This time though, if we get caught by that thing…”

“Relax, G. He may be watch tower, but in this dark, he can’t really see us even if his eyes are lit up. Come on.” She motioned.

They crawled closer to the towering structure of cloud, and when the head’s gaze was turned away from them, the wonderbolt lept out of hiding and bucked at its base, taking bits out of it and having it tip over in one direction, before quickly jumping back into hiding and changing their location because as soon as she did that, the giant head turned and lightning raining into the clouds where they were before.

“I’VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT WITH YOU TWO!” Storm King raged. “You can’t keep doing this forever!”

The due couldn’t help but snicker at the fact that a childish prank like this was keeping him occupied. But the creature’s ranting soon went silent, something that they noticed, including its head, turning in a specific direction, and they swore they could hear him talking.

“What? You want me to zap who exactly? You’re joking… Isn’t that counterproductive to what we’re doing? Fine… fine, I’ll do it.”

The giant head leaped off its attachment and dived into the sea of clouds, disappearing.

Rainbow Dash crawled out of her hiding place, now surrounded in near complete darkness. “What the… Where the hay did it go?!”

“No idea, but my guess is that it went back to Griffinstone. Let’s go, Dashinator!” And they both jumped into the clouds.

Back on the colossal tree, the town turned into a battlefield between the alicorn princess and the centaur lord. Twilight did her best to fight back, now that her friends managed to land and the storm above was distracted, she didn’t have to focus on holding up the protective shield and focus on battle. That however proved to be more difficult, as she noticed progressively that her attacks were showing little to no effect on Tirek. Not only that, he seemed to have been growing bigger and stronger during battle and he was showing no signs of exhaustion – the magic that he was leaching off the Idol of Boreas kept fueling him. In comparison to her, she only kept growing tired. This situation felt familiar, she experienced it when she fought Chrysalis on her own, and she kept growing stronger during the battle from her hatred being constantly fueled. If that was the case then there was only one way to defeat him…

“Come on, I grow tired of this!” Tirek ranted. “FIGHT ME! You can’t just keep dodging my attacks forever!”

As he shot a beam from his hands at her she quickly teleported away. “I don’t have to fight you when I can just tire you out.”

“Hah! Not gonna happen! And if you won’t face me willingly…” He turned in the direction of the part of the town that wasn’t demolished yet, and even though night had fallen, thanks to the lighting flashes above, he could see figures coming out of their houses in the distance and running away. “Then I’ll make you!”

A red orb began manifesting between his horns and it kept growing larger. When Twilight saw what he was doing she knew she was being drawn into a confrontation, yet even so she had to do it. She teleported before him and at that precise moment Tirek unleashed a powerful beam, and she countered it with her own. Her thought was correct with what she assumed earlier - the centaur was strong, really strong at this point; it was taking everything she had right now to keep his attack at bay.

“HAH! I knew it!” he bragged. “Raise a hand against the weak and even if you’re weak yourself, you’ll come running!” Tirek intensified his channeled beam, putting even more pressure on the princess as it began to overwhelm her. “You made a huge mistake, Princess Twilight. Had you and all your friends come at me together from the start, maybe you could’ve still had a chance of beating me with the magic of friendship, but you chose to spread them out, to distract the talking pebble and Chrysalis just to get to me. You’ve set yourself up for failure.” He began walking towards her, while she continued to struggle to make sure the beam wouldn’t hit those behind her. “Go on. Call for help now. Scream! Because your dear friends won’t be able to save you now.”

Twilight was beginning to realize that her opponent may have been right, but what other choice did she have? This was the best she could do with what she had at her disposal and she couldn’t risk the locals getting hurt. And Tirek could do nothing but gloat… so much in fact that he didn’t realize that the surroundings became awfully quiet and that the only light that was now illuminating the surroundings was their projections of power. It wasn’t until he felt the rain falling that he realized something’s changed. And then…

KRAKOOM!

A lightning bolt struck from above, hitting the centaur in the rear, causing him to cry out in pain and disrupting his channeling, which in the end resulted in the alicorn’s attack hitting him in the face and knocking him down. She just stood there, unsure of what had just happened.

The centaur groaned and managed to get back on his feet, furious. “You idiot! I told you earlier to watch your aim!” The Storm King’s face was flying above him, unmoving, staring directly at him. “Why are you giving me that look…?” And soon after the face spat out a lightning bolt, which Tirek dodged at the last moment, realizing what happened before. “You… YOU’RE TRYING TO STRIKE ME?!” And soon after another bolt fell, which he countered with a blast from his hands. “FINE! You want round two?! I’ll give it to you!”

A red orb formed above Tirek’s head and he shot a beam at the face, which then quickly dodged. As the centaur kept assaulting his attacking ally, the alicorn just stood there, confused about what was happening. And in all the flashing lights, from the corner of her eye, she noticed a shape moving through the dark, trying not to get noticed, making a fluttering sound with its wings every now and then, slowly approaching Tirek.

“You know what happened last time!” he continued to rage and shoot beams at Storm King’s face, while it kept dodging. “This time I’m going to reduce you to rubble without a second thought!”

TK-TK-TK!

He ceased his assault. He felt something tapping him on the side of his left horn. He turned his head, and in the dark, he couldn’t quite make out the shape, but he did recognize a pair of sickly green-teal eyes.

“Say cheese!” the voice of chrysalis said.

Her horn began to glow brightly until it generated a strong green flashing light, and this close to Tirek’s face it instantly blinded him. He screamed in agony, and if he could barely see in the dark, now he saw nothing, as he staggered about from the shock.

KRAKOOM!

The thunder roared above and the lightning rained, and this time Tirek couldn’t do anything. It hit its mark and knocked the centaur to the ground, twitching from being struck by an electric attack. Then another fell, and another, he was being pelted by bolts of lightning. Twilight saw this and realized she couldn’t just stand there anymore and made a run for it. Meanwhile, the victim contorted on the ground, all muscled in his body twitching from the attacks he was receiving, with no sign of reprieve. And yet, it finally came: A few seconds passed and he didn’t feel a strike made at him for a while, finally sighing in relief. And then something happened. He still couldn’t see anything, but he felt static in the air as his hair began standing up straight and he could hear a strange cracking sound coming from above. He knew what was coming; there was only one thing he could do at this moment. He quickly erected a shield and a second later he could feel a powerful burst of energy pressing down on him, and it didn’t seem it would stop any time soon. He couldn’t believe this was happening – he was unbeatable and not a moment later he was on the verge of defeat.

“How does it feel, Devourer? Having your only allies in the world turn on you? Betrayal is repaid with betrayal.”

That voice, he heard it earlier, the sinister whisper he didn’t want to listen to and yet it was here now… taunting him. “Do something! Help me!” he cried out in desperation.

“I can’t do anything to help you, Devourer,” Doubt said. “I don’t have the ability to do anything. The only one who can save you now is… yourself.”

“How?! Tell me how?! Quick!”

“What I told you earlier when you refused to heed me,” it commanded. “Take the Idol of Boreas and break it open… Set Anger free.”

He was desperate enough. He freed one of his hands that was channeling the protective barrier, making it difficult to do it with a single hand as the barrier started to get distorted. He stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled the artifact out of his mouth; it was so small compared to how it was earlier that he could barely feel it between his fingers. He began squeezing it to try and destroy it but it didn’t work, despite all the strength he had, at this critical moment he was too weak and worrying about his own safety.

Doubt formed a grin. “Is that how it’s going to end for you, “Lord TIrek”? What do you think your father would’ve said if he saw you now? Would he call you… weak?”

That was a taunt too far for him. Anger, that’s what he felt right now, unrestrained, anger, so strong it was that his yellow eyes turned fiery red. He needed to release it and there was only one arm he could use right now to do it. He applied pressure on it and…

CRACK!

Somewhere safe, the Eye of Arimaspi was showing the events play out.

“So, you chose to surrender yourself to your own inner turmoil, boy?” its watcher spoke in an unamused tone. “I had expected as much and I’m still disappointed, falsely hoping you might be stronger than that. You’re going to regret this decision for the rest of your life… which won’t be long.”

Chapter 60: The Harbinger of Peace

A weaselly shape flew from the stormy clouds downwards where the city was. With everything that was going on it shouldn’t be too difficult to get the centaur's attention. Suddenly, something swooshed past it - a winged equine with a pink aura zoomed by, directly where it was going. It was her: The “Twilight Princess”, and she was going to interfere in what should’ve been a simple task, making it difficult. It sped up its descent, but even so, it was already too late, as the bigger one assaulted her and the surroundings turned into a battlefield.

Doubt flew closer. “Devourer,” it whispered but got no response. “Devourer,” it repeated, and still nothing. “Tirek!”

In the clash, the towering centaur finally took notice of somebody calling him by name. “Who said that?” He stopped chasing the alicorn and looked about, eventually noticing a tiny shadowy being flying near his face. “You? What are you supposed to be?”

“Doubt. Now, where’s the Idol of Boreas?”

“And why would you assume I have it?”

“The fact that you can actually see me now when you couldn’t before when you were released, is proof enough,” the shade explained.

The centaur thought for a moment and it finally dawned on him. “Oooooh… so you’re that thing that I couldn’t see, yet the other three were talking to? I thought they just had screws loose.”

“Never mind that! Where’s the artifact?!” it insisted.

Tirek reached into his mouth with his fingers and pulled out the small golden statuette that he held between his thumb and index finger. Even though his size was immense, he could see the wispy creature’s expression change.

“I can feel it… Quick! Break the idol!”

“Excuse me, what?!” he immediately protested. “This is an endless font of power that keeps me fed! Why should I destroy it?”

“What you’re feeding on is the essence of Anger itself, Devourer: A power so great it can burn the whole world. You have been awakened for the sole reason of releasing it because you’re the ONLY ONE who can. Now use that anger of yours and break it open.”

Tirek was quiet, pondering for a moment. “Perhaps I will,” he said, then popped the artifact back into his mouth. “After I deal with Princess Twilight and her friends, that is. Then I MIGHT actually do as you asked.”

He proceeded to move and resume the battle, but Doubt was dissatisfied with his answer. “Anger will not be denied its freedom, Devourer! Release it now, or-!”

The centaurs hand reached in his direction and then flicked through its form, disturbing it, before it finally came back together. “Or what? You have no power to make me.” And he charged back into battle after one of alicorn’s attacks hit him in the back of his head, doing no damage, only irritating him.

As the fight resumed, Doubt just floated there, its thoughts displeased. “So, you haven’t succumbed to your own inner turmoil yet… I’ll fix that.”

It flew away. It needed help to make him cooperate, and there were only two at its disposal. First, the wisp flew in the sky above Griffinstone, where the battle between the Queen of Changelings and the Dragon Lord took place. It watched how the changeling disoriented her, followed by disablement. She would’ve fallen to her doom had the timely intervention from a much smaller dragon not occurred. And that gave Doubt an idea.

“Oh, so brave,” Chrysalis taunted Spike, “like the princess, like the pet. You do know that you stand no chance against me, right? You didn’t last time you fought me, and I was nowhere near in terms of power that I am now. So, now I’m gonna-“

“Broodmother.”

The Pillar of Hatred turned to face the weaselly wisp. “What?! Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?”

“Your powers are required, Broodmother. The Devourer refuses to obey and he needs to be put in line.”

“Can’t you get the “Cloudy” to do it?”

“He will follow, do not worry,” it assured her. “It will take both of you to make this work. Now come.”

She groaned. “Okay fine.” She disengaged from the battle with the Dragon Lord and flew towards the town. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Hide amongst the ruins, the night will give you cover. And when he’s distracted, garner his attention and give him a “flash”, the kind you used earlier.”

“That’s not gonna be much of a cover if the Storm King keeps making a commotion up there.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle him.” And with those words, Doubt zoomed upwards and disappeared into the clouds.

It came out on the top of the sea of clouds, and before him, a childish joke was being played upon the stone satyr, as his cloud manifestation towered over it, where every now and then, a blue pegasus and a griffin popped out of hiding and took pieces of it at its base little by little, destabilizing his foothold, and when retaliation followed, he missed them.

“I’VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT WITH YOU TWO!” Storm King raged. “You can’t keep doing this forever!”

The vapor sighed and moved closer to him, garnering his attention. “Scourgelord.”

The giant cloud head turned in its direction and opened its mouth, revealing the controller within. “What?” the construct asked with a noticeable irritation in his voice.

“I’m going to need you to use your lightning to strike at somebody.”

“You want me to zap who exactly?” he asked.

“The Devourer.” In response, it was given a confused look. “Tirek.”

The construct rose an eyebrow. “You’re joking…” The shade shook its head in response. “Isn’t that counterproductive to what we’re doing?”

“The centaur still hasn’t learned his place, he is now actively obstructing our goal. We have to put him in a position where he will have no choice but to do as I command. And I’m going to need you to stop playing with children and deal with him. NOW.”

“Fine… fine, I’ll do it.” The mouth of the giant head closed shut, leaped off the tower it was attached to, and dived into the sea of clouds, disappearing into it.

Doubt gleefully stood by and watched as the centaur was continuously being struck by bolts of lightning, unable to act, completely paralyzed, and all he could do was scream with each strike.

“Desperation,” mused the weaselly shape, “a state that moves any creature to act upon self-preservation, making them susceptible to do things they would never even think of doing. You will beg for my aid, and you will in turn unleash the flames of destruction.” And it flew to Tirek’s “aid”.

“Quickly! Leave your homes! We need to evacuate!” Gabby burst through the door of one of the houses.

With the town devolving into a battlefield, innocent lives were at stake. Those same innocent lives were still taking cover inside their homes from earlier when the Storm King was destroying their eardrums. But now the situation’s changed and their only refuge became a trap. This was where the mail carrier and the members of the school of friendship, including some of the Elements of Harmony, came into play, as they went about the town, their numbers allowing them to cover more ground and being able to warn all the griffins to leave their houses and get out of town. Soon all of them gathered on the outskirts of Griffinstone, where the tree sloped and led to the old abandoned fortress at the very top of it.

“Think that’s all of them?” Sunburst asked.

“It should be,” Gabby answered. “With the ruckus that’s being done, nobody had any intention of simply waiting out the storm as they did earlier.”

“It’s not over yet!” the elder griffin was still with them, tied up to make sure he wouldn’t do something stupid in desperation. “The Idol of Boreas is still in there! We have to save it!”

“Just accept it you’re not gonna get it, Grandpa Gruff! Not now that Tirek has it!” the younger griffin tried to hold him back.

“I can take him!” he resisted. “I’m not gonna be stopped this time! I’m gonna succeed! I’ll-!” Before he could say another word, a piece of blue bread was shoved into his beak to gag him.

“Finally,” the blue unicorn sighed in relief. “I couldn’t take another second of his whining.”

“Well, that’s two problems we’ve dealt with in that case, but what do we do now?” Rarity questioned, to which Applejack joined. “She’s right. Tirek’s still rampaging and we’re still short a wonderbolt, an alicorn princess, as well as her dragon buddy. How are we supposed to stop him, Storm King and Chrysalis?”

“Hold on now! I think I see somecreature coming this way!” Pinkie Pie said, holding a spyglass.

Something was indeed coming their way - two forms in fact. A smaller one was holding the bigger one by the hand, leading her closer to the group, where they finally landed.

“Spike, Dragon Lord Ember, you’re okay!” Smolder cheered, only to notice something was off when they arrived. “Wait… what’s with her?”

“Chrysalis got her good,” the purple dragon answered.

“No need to rub it in, Spike,” Ember responded. “Besides, my sight’s coming back now.”

The fanny pack around Fluttershy’s neck opened and Discord popped his head out. “Wait, you’re saying you two managed to beat Chrysalis by yourselves?!”

And just like that, the taller red dragon jumped at his side. “Alright, Spike! That’s awesome! Give me one up!” Garble raised his hand, expecting to high-five him, realizing he was too small to reach so he lowered it to his size, only to be left hanging.

“Not really,” Spike elaborated. “I mean, she came before us and was about to fight us, then all of a sudden she started to talk to herself, or she talked to something that we didn’t see, and then she just flew off.”

“Hold up!” Applejack quickly went in front of everybody. “Did you say she was talking to herself?”

He nodded. The country pony then glanced at the zebra in the crowd and she nodded, they both knew what that meant.

“So wait, where’s Chrysalis now?” Sunburst asked, to which the little dragon shrugged.

“Oh boy…”

“Miss Applejack, something wrong?” the young yak noticed her response.

“Don’ wanna alarm anypony or anycreature, considering how bad things just got, but Ah feel like something far worse is about to happen…”

All of a sudden, the flashing light in the clouds dimmed. It became dark and the rain began to fall. The only noticeable light was a red glow that was coming from the battlefield.

“AH!” Ember screamed. “Spike, something’s wrong! I’ve just gone blind again!”

“If that’s the case, maybe we’ve all gone blind,” the party planner remarked.

KRAKOOM!

The dimness didn’t last, when all of a sudden, a single lightning bolt shot out of it and struck the town. A cracking sound followed, accompanied by a cry of pain.

“Who was that?!” the shy pegasus panicked.

“My guess? Whoever the lightning just hit,” Trixie pointed out the obvious.

“But we evacuated all the griffins! The only one that’s left in town now is…” Ocellus quickly went quiet with the realization of who might have just been struck, something that Sandbar punctuated. “Princess Twilight!”

It appeared then. From the clouds above, the giant face of the Storm King emerged and spat a few lightning bolts at the town below, only for a few seconds later to start dodging red blasts of energy that were shooting from the town. As the progression of the fight seemed to have changed, in the flashing light, the group suddenly noticed something else was in the sky. Whatever it was, they were two and much smaller than the giant head, and what was more, they were approaching. They felt relief as they realized it was the blue pegasus and the griffin coming down.

“Rainbow Dash! Gilda!” the pink earth pony celebrated.

“I’m so glad you two are okay!” The happy griffin lept at them and hugged them. “What’s happened up there?”

“We’d like to know the same thing,” Gilda said. “We managed to keep him occupied, but then he just started to talk to himself, and then he just left. I was sure it was gonna keep him busy for a while.”

As the new arrivals explained what happened, the orange earth pony and the zebra once again glanced at one another. One could’ve been a coincidence, but twice? They were sure now something was off. But before they could say anything…

“Hey, where’s Twilight? Shouldn’t she have dealt with Tirek already?” Rainbow Dash asked, and it was only a moment later that she finally noticed the blasts of energy being shot at the giant cloudy face from town.

“Go, Princess Twilight!” Silverstream cheered. “Give him what for!”

Suddenly, a great bright flash happened, followed by a scream, and the shooting stopped. The Storm King’s head ceased fleeing and repositioned itself, beginning to spit lightning bolts out of its mouth again several times over. Everybody watched in horror at the sigh, especially at the thought that the alicorn was being afflicted by the display on sight.

“TWILIGHT!!!” Spike screamed as he watched what was happening, and he couldn’t do anything.

But as things seemed to have gone grim, the constant flashing revealed another form flying in their direction. And the gasp of surprise and relief followed when they realized who it was.

“TWILIGHT!” the Elements of Harmony cheered in unison as she landed not far.

“You’re all okay? Good. Listen, we-“ The princess was unable to continue as her younger sibling ran to her side and hugged her.

“Twilight! I’m so glad you’re okay! When the Storm King started shooting lightning at the town where you were fighting, I thought you were done for…”

“Wait, if she’s here, then who or what is Storm King shooting at?” the hippogriff wondered.

“It’s Tirek, everycreature!” she hastily explained. “During our fight, the Storm King suddenly began attacking him, and he decided to completely ignore me and they started to fight amongst themselves. Then, out of nowhere, Chrysalis appeared and blinded him with a bright flash, and now Tirek’s being mercilessly assaulted!”

“Isn’t that… I dunno… good for us?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“Tactically, yes… But I’d prefer this comes to an end before any side suffers any more damage.”

“Are we pulling out the trump card, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie hopped closer to her.

She nodded.

“Wait, why didn’t you use that earlier when you just got here?” Trixie questioned the princess' decision

“I didn’t know what was going on down here. I needed to make sure everycreature was safe first.”

“We doing it then?” Applejack asked.

“Of course we are! We’re far away from that thing in the Everfree Forest, and we’ve got the Element’s power! How can things not go our way?” The wonderbolt proudly flexed.

The flashing stopped, and everybody looked to the sky. The Storm King’s head was no longer just content with spitting out lightning bolts – it opened its mouth wide, and an electric power began to charge up to fire.

“Everypony, quick, before it fires!” Twilight ordered.

They joined hooves. Magical energy that radiated from everybody enveloped them, lifting them off the ground, and illuminating the darkness that was only temporarily being disturbed by the flashing of lightning above. The giant head in the clouds noticed it too, but it didn’t try to stop it, it knew it had a job to do.

CRACK!

This deafening cracking sound that suddenly followed, echoed. One thing was sure: It wasn’t a lightning strike. Strong red light erupted from the town where the battlefield took place. The Storm King’s head finally unleashed a powerful electric beam straight at it. But instead of making contact with the ground, a powerful red beam pushed it back, overpowering it, and forcing the giant cloud head to dodge it. Towering above the houses, a large imposing figure suddenly arose, in its right hand, a tiny spark could be seen levitating.

And then, laughter followed - Tirek’s laughter. “Hahahahaha! This power! It’s beyond anything I’ve ever tasted! I feel like the fires of destruction are coursing through me!”

The group suddenly felt a heatwave washing over them, accompanied by a sense of dread. The feeling was justified, as they watched fully illuminated Tirek sprout a white mane. The last time he wore it, was when he had consumed almost all magic in Equestria.

It was now or never. “Together!” Twilight shouted.

The bright light coming from them began to expand. Out of town, Queen Chrysalis quickly flew further up to make the distance between the inevitable doom that would follow if she got caught in the crossfire, as did the Storm King, whose fear got the better of him at last.

The same could not be said for the centaur, who roared as he saw the light approach. “You think YOUR friendship is stronger than my anger?!” A large orb appeared between his horns, as bright as the sun, and a moment later, a beam erupted out of it, clashing against the magic of friendship that kept expanding, suddenly halting it in place. “Evenly matched?! Hah! I can do better!”

He opened his mouth, turning it at the small green stone that was levitating in his hand, inhaling deeply. A stream of red magical mist suddenly erupted from it and he gobbled it all up. The centaur’s eyes lit up even brighter, and the beam became even more intense, suddenly beginning to push the wave of light away.

When the two griffins next to the ponies saw it happen, panic settled in. “Everybody, go! Get to the old fortress and take refuge there!” Gabby directed.

The griffin populace ran for their lives to higher ground to avoid potential doom.

“Come on, students!” Sunburst ordered. “We have to go too!”

“No,” the blue griffin declined.

“Gallus, this isn’t the time to play a hero, we have to g-!” Trixie picked up Smolder, ready to take her away, but she broke her bond.

“No, I’m with Gallus! We’re not going to run at a moment like this!”

“We all are!” Silverstream stepped to his side, as did Yona, Sandbar, and Ocellus.

“Guys, this isn’t funny!” Garble spoke. “What can six of you do?!”

“Give them a helping hoof… or a claw,” the pony answered.

The group of students quickly lept forward, too fast for anybody else to stop them, and they entered the light. Inside, they saw six Elements of Harmony struggle against an increasingly overpowering force. They looked at one another and then joined hands. The surroundings pulsed, and the bright light once again began advancing toward Tirek.

“WHAT?! NO!” he roared, opened his mouth, and began siphoning even more power out of the gemstone.

As Tirek consumed more and more of the intoxicating power, not only did he keep growing, but his mane, his tail, and his beard, suddenly caught fire, while his tiny eyes expanded. “You cannot stop me! I won’t just destroy you! I’LL BURN THIS ENTIRE TREE TO THE GROUND! NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE!!!”

The magic of friendship once again halted. Even with the Elements and the successors working together, the power that the centaur was now using was beginning to overpower them. And then… they heard it.

THE WORLD WILL BURN IN THE FIRE OF OUR ANGER.

That roaring voice, whoever said that was definitely not Tirek, even if it came out of him. Regardless, this was the breaking point: A giant wall of flame suddenly erupted from where Tirek was standing, and everything around him suddenly caught on fire: The wooden ground, the houses, the heatwave pulsed out, and the beam he was channeling only accelerated the sudden pushback of the Element’s bright light.

“Not good! Run for it!” Trixie commanded and they all dashed up the branch.

None of them got far. The heatwave washed over the ever-shrinking bubble of the magic of friendship, cutting off everybody else’s retreat. The only place they could go now was to stay near the Elements and the students. Things truly seemed hopeless at this point, as not only them but also the whole of Griffinstone and its residents were condemned to a cataclysmic end. Amid encroaching doom, the shaman finally noticed the contents of her bags were acting up. Since the Elements of Harmony used the magic of friendship, she noticed that the jar she was a caretaker of began acting up. The ooze that moved inside kept thrashing about, all the while the spark of light kept flickering. That only intensified when the six students went to assist them. It looked desperate, no matter what it was trying to escape the jar, but where? She had noticed back in Dragon Lands when she revived it again, the blob’s attitude changed again - at first, it was angry, then it became frightened, and now, it seemed like it was desperate for something, but running away wasn’t one of the things it seems, as it kept leaning towards the light. She grabbed the jar with both hooves, she needed them to see it, but in a moment of urgency she tripped, and it flew off into the light that the elements were channeling. The container landed on yak's back, where it bounced off, landed on the lemon pony’s head, bouncing off again, eventually the orange dragon noticed it coming her way and she caught it. The blob inside screeched, and the light coming from the spark finally overtook everything around them.

The bright light finally disappeared from their sight, being able to see others present, but that didn’t change the fact that the students were now in an empty white plane.

“What the… what is this place?” Gallus Wondered. “Where is everybody else?”

“I don’t know,” Silverstream answered. “The last thing I remember was us trying to beat Tirek, we were losing, and then…” She went quiet, slowly coming to realization. “Oh no… no… no no no no no…” Her yammering quickly turned into a cry of sorrow.

“Silverstream, what’s wrong?” the changeling asked.

“We didn’t make it, Ocellus!” she burst out. “Tirek was too strong for us! We didn’t make it!”

Hearing this, the blue griffin looked about the vast emptiness around him. “Wait… are you saying this is…?”

“YES! We’ve been done in!” the hippogriff cried louder, pulling the changeling into an embrace, and she also began to cry as well.

Everybody seemed distraught. The realization began taking over Gallus as well, and he began hyperventilating, Smolder just stood motionless, staring at her hands, meanwhile, Sandbar rubbed his head.

“I thought you get stressed like this in small spaces, not open ones,” the pony questioned the griffin.

“And… you’re… not… freaking out…?” he grasped for air.

“My head hurts… Something hit me just before we ended up here.”

The yak on the other hand picked up on it. “Wait… if Tirek got Yona and Yona’s friends, how come Sandbar feel pain?”

“Probably cuz we ain’t dead,” Applejack said.

The students halted whatever they were doing when they realized that voice belonged to none of them. They looked to the side and noticed the Elements of Harmony and Spike not far from them.

“Princess Twilight?! You’re all here too?” Sandbar reacted in shock.

“Nooooooooo!” the hippogriff cried again and the changeling followed. “He got you all as well!”

“Come on, you heard what AJ said,” Rainbow Dash repeated. “We’re not dead. If that were the case, why aren’t Zecora, Garble, Grandpa Gruff, Gilda, Gabby, Sunburst, and Trixie here too? Then again, I think your bro would be the only one to survive if that were the case, Smolder.”

But the dragon didn’t answer, she was still motionless, looking at her hands, so Spike approached her. “Smolder, snap out of it. We’ve been through something like this before.”

The griffin finally stopped grasping for air. “Really? So, we’re still alive then? What is this place then?”

But before he could get an answer, Smolder at last spoke. “The last thing I remember before everything went white, was that the jar that contained the evil blob which consumed the Spirit of the Tree of Harmony landed in my claws.”

The rest of the students quickly looked at her. “Wait… really? But where is it then?”

“We were getting to that, darlings,” Rarity asserted herself. “This scenario occurred to us not long ago. One of Turmoil’s fragments was about to get the better of us, and then something pulled us all into this place at the last moment to spare us the demise. And it seems the same thing happened again.”

“Ooooh, and lookey! It’s already waiting for us!” Pinkie pointed in a direction.

A spark of light was levitating a few hooves away from them, surrounded by the essence of grey color. The ponies quickly made their way toward it, but the same couldn’t be said for the students.

“Come on, students. There’s no reason to be afraid of it,” Fluttershy urged them.

They were hesitant and for a good reason. The last time they saw it, it had just devoured the aforementioned Spirit, and they weren’t able to stop it, so coming this close to it again was a fresh wound. Regardless, they heeded their words and joined their side. They slowly approached, and as they did, the light began flashing brighter until its source could no longer be seen. A figure became visible after it dissipated, the creature’s talons echoed as it walked forward, and at the same time, they masked the sound of the second set of appendages, the feline ones, the bright grey body, atop which was an eagle’s head, spread out a pair of great wings. It was a griffin, but the only noticeable features that made him stand out were the purple scarf around his neck and a crown.

“King Grover?!” Gallus immediately exploded. “B-b-b-but it’s been centuries, how when where why-!”

The royal griffin chuckled. “Young Gallus, out of all, I would’ve expected you to not be for the loss of words.”

“Wait… You know my name?”

“Of course I do.” He looked at everybody else. “I know all of you here.”

“So why did you bring us here?”

The tone of his voice became solemn. “I felt it: The manifestation of Anger that I had locked away has been liberated by a creature that was made a pawn. You have seen the extent of the power that he now wields, as blind as he is. You alone cannot seek to defeat it.”

“But then who will?!” the pink hippogriff demanded an answer.

“One moment, Silverstream.” Twilight traipsed forward and in front of the students. “King Grover… Or at the very least you look like him, but from past experience, I can guess you’re something else entirely.” The students looked at one another, confused. “I know you’re going to tell us how to defeat Tirek and Anger, but if you still remember, there’s something that I want to be answered. Why did you lock one of Turmoil’s fragments into the Idol of Boreas?”

The king nodded. “I see… Very well. I will reveal to you the past that I once had.”

The whiteness around them darkened, only to be replaced by a scenery. It was a bright day and they were on a street in a town built into the mountainside. But the scenery was a bit too familiar, as the houses were barely holding together, even though in some cases they could have seen leaking piles of gold, which some of the griffins would quickly scurry about to get for themselves.

“The notion that a griffin’s greed could only be rivaled by that of a dragon is a gross understatement. I was born and grew up in a world that saw currency as the end goal of everything. Griffins of old were so consumed by greed that conflict was part of everyday life, as wealthy families constantly tried to one-up one another. It was a world of constant strife, one in which peaceful means failed, force would instantly be used to acquire what was desired. It was a world of war for possession between our people.”

“That… sounds like an absolutely miserable place to live in,” Silverstream commented after seeing a pair of griffins having a scuffle and one of them running off with the other’s loot. “How can a kingdom function like this?”

“There was no king,” Grover explained. “The griffins were fragmented, living on all mountains that you can see all around, but there was no unity, nobody to command or lead them. And I was not always a king; I was just an orphan living on the street, with no power or a bit to my name - a nobody.”

Something struck with Gallus when he said that - it was what HE was called not long ago, and it stuck with him, mostly because it was closer to the truth than anybody else but Grandpa Gruff knew. “So… what changed?”

The scene shifted to a dark starry night, the young griffin with a purple scarf sat on the edge overlooking the mountains. “It was only during the night that everything settled down, but even that was a short reprieve. I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I stared into the distance, and I suddenly saw a green star in the sky. I believed it was a vain attempt, but I had nothing to lose, so I wished for the day when the griffins would finally stop squabbling amongst themselves.” The green star suddenly began to move until it formed a tail and began to move across the sky. “When I saw it, I was sure it was not a coincidence – it was an omen, and I decided to follow its trail. I left my homeland for the first time and flew off into the uncharted south, where no griffin has ever gone.”

The soon-to-be-king flew for several days until he arrived at a land completely devastated by an unknown force: The heat had evaporated the rivers that ran through the land, replacing them with lava flows, and the trees had been burned to the ground, leaving only scorched stumps, and in the distance, a giant mountain with a face towered over the land.

“I was perplexed. This scorching wasteland, this inhospitable place, there was no way the star guided me here. I needed to find somebody who could help me… But that would’ve ended up proving difficult.”

Younger Grover encountered dragons, but they wouldn’t be of much help, as they kept fighting amongst themselves in a heated battle. One of them even attacked him, and it was only because he hid in the sand on the beach that he managed to evade it. This place reminded him of home too much. After some time, he finally came across an old cave and he could see a fire burning inside it. To Twilight Sparkle, the figure that appeared next was all too familiar, she’d seen him before, only this time he had a deep purple color on his scales.

“Dragon Lord Obsidian,” the griffin king resumed. “That’s what his name was. In this inhospitable land, he was the only one who showed any form of kindness. I asked him about my mission and the green star that I saw coming this way, and his response was not optimistic. He told me about the green star, it did indeed come this way… IT was the one responsible for the state that his homeland was in at the moment, how it turned the lush tropical jungle was transformed into a barren wasteland, his kin turning on one another, and as the final mark, its facial visage rose from the land. I didn’t like what I was hearing, but I needed to see this star up close. As reluctant as he was, he took me to the edge of great lava lakes where the giant mountainous face stood, and even though he pleaded with me not to go and suffer the same fate as his kin, I had to.”

He flew off, the heat of his surroundings bearing down on him as he made his way to the entrance of a giant gaping maw whose eyes were alit. But if he thought that outside was hot, inside was absolutely unbearable. A pedestal made of hardened magma rock stood in the middle of a large room, in the center of a pool of green substance that was being pumped up through the formation into a small basin on top, in it sat a small green gemstone that was constantly pulsing. He flew closer and landed in the magical green pool, the only thing that wasn’t too hot to stand in.

The moment he did, his surroundings shook and a furious voice followed, originating from the gemstone. “Who dares enter my domain?!”

He covered for a moment but then presented his plea. “I am Grover. I seek your aid, wishing star. My people suffer from eternal strife and conflict. Tell me, how can I put it to an end?”

“It’s easy,” the voice answered. “Take me to them. Their anger, their rage, if you claim that they’re all possessed by it already, my presence there is all that is required.”

“And that will make them stop fighting?”

“Of course, it will, after all… they will be subjugated.”

“What? No, I don’t seek to subjugate my people, I just want them to stop fighting amongst themselves,” he made himself clear.

“But that’s precisely what it will do. You will have the power to press them into what you desire. Anger is a powerful tool that can destroy any opposition! You said you desire to end the conflict. Use me!”

Grover became hesitant, that was not what he desired to hear. “No… no, that’s not what I want. I don’t want to bring harm to my people by the use of force.”

“THEN YOUR WORDS ARE HOLLOW!” the voice erupted.

The gemstone began to glow, and suddenly, from the boiling lava rivers that surrounded them, a construct made of it rose. The griffin stumbled from shock and landed in the green water on his back. He backed away, noticing that there was suddenly a strange sticky gooey thing on one of his claws – it seemed that when he was hiding in the sand from one of the dragons some of it got stuck in the crevices and pockets of his scarf, and coming into the contact with this green substance turned it into something completely different. But it was only a temporary diversion from what was now before him.

“YOU SEEK CHANGE YET YOU HAVE NO WILL TO USE FORCE?! THEN NOTHING YOU DO WILL EVER MAKE A DIFFERENCE! AND THIS KIND OF NOTION MAKES ME ANGRY!”

The lava construct reached out to try and grab the griffin. In his last desperate attempt to resist, Grover swung his claw at it, tossing the gooey thing in its direction. Not only did it miss its mark, but it also didn’t even get close to it, landing on top of the pedestal. But then something happened: As the goo fell into the small basin where the green gemstone was, it hardened around it, and as that happened, half of the construct’s body suddenly collapsed. A confusing grunt followed; it seemed that the creature did not expect this to happen. The construct reached out with its remaining body and worked on scraping the hardened mass off of the gemstone. Grover realized this was his chance to get away while it was preoccupied. He flew off, and in the nick of time, as the gem was once again liberated and the construct became whole again, launching itself after him, but by the time the griffin made it out of the mountainous maw, it stopped.

“As you can see,” the king resumed his tale, “my hope that the wish I made would come true was quickly dashed aside. The shooting star, or rather, the creature within it was not friendly at all, and I now understood the devastation of the dragon’s homeland. It would’ve been better if I just left this horrid place behind, but I couldn’t simply abandon Obsidian and his kin to their fate. Especially since I knew now that there was a way to suppress this evil force.”

The griffin returned to the Dragon Lord, who was surprised that he managed to get back. He explained what he had witnessed, and the plan he had to end the calamity. Time passed, and Obsidian managed to gather several other dragons that have not succumbed to the calamity’s effect, helping to carry a lot of sand from the beach and back to the mountainous face, as it was expected that they would not have an easy time getting to their destination, which became true when several of their kin that have been completely possessed by anger came to interfere with the plan. Regardless, the griffin and a handful of dragons managed to enter the giant maw and that’s where the imprisoned being had once again taken notice of him.

“So, you return,” the voice regarded him. “And what brought you back this time?”

Grover stood on his hind legs. “To end your destruction upon the land, creature. You have ravaged and turned these creatures against one another.”

“I am Anger. It is in my nature to make emotions righteously burn. The destruction that they had suffered is what made them feel that way, but it was not my choice to bring devastation to the land.”

“If doesn’t matter,” he ignored. “The suffering you have brought will come to an end.”

“NOT BY YOUR HANDS!” its voice rose. “YOU ARE A WEAKLING WITH NO CONVICTION!”

From the lava pools in the room, numerous constructs arose and the dragons quickly dropped the piles of sand they were carrying into the green water and went to challenge the opponents. A battle erupted, in which Grover was outmatched, so instead, he scooped up the goop that the conjugation of magical water and sand had produced and aimed it at the pedestal, only to be blocked by one of the constructs.

“It won’t be that easy,” the voice said.

The gemstone suddenly began to flicker rapidly and a red aura pulsed throughout the room. In the heat of battle, the dragon’s eyes turned red and began battling even more ferociously, to the point where they even began fighting amongst themselves when there was no other visible enemy in sight. The lone griffin saw it… no, felt it. The being trapped inside the gemstone was exerting its will upon its surroundings. He now understood how easy it was for any of the dragons who came close, to fall victim to its influence.

“There is no point in trying to resist me. I am the fire that burns within you, I am the wrath that consumes the world. There is no reason for you to deny me. I can still help you. Take with you, and I will bring an end to the conflict as you desire.”

“No…” the griffin tried to resist the pressure. “Subjugating my people will not bring an end to the conflict. The only thing it will do is have the conflict broil underneath against a common foe – the one who put them down!”

“THEN HOW?!” the voice once again turned booming. “YOU SAY YOU WANT TO SILENCE THE CONFLICT, YET YOU REFUSE TO USE FORCE AGAINST IT! YOU CANNOT ATTAIN PEACE WITHOUT IT BECAUSE THE SILENCE WILL NEVER LAST WITHOUT IT! AND YET YOU REFUSE IT DESPITE IT ALL! TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT, GROVER! TELL ME! TELL MEEEEEEEEE!!!”

And the griffin began to realize what the being was trying to say: He wanted his people to cease fighting, but by its outlook, it couldn’t see that happening, except through even more conflict and the one holding control over it to be trapped in a perpetual cycle. That was never going to bring about… And at that moment, it dawned on him. The being wanted to end the conflict by inciting even more conflict, but he wanted to end the conflict with the exact opposite…

Under the continuous pressure, he rose up, and uttered a single word. “Peace.” A bright aura surrounded him and expelled Anger’s pressure from his surroundings, dispelling its control over the dragons who have been fighting in the background.

“WHAT?! IMPOSSIBLE!!!” it erupted.

Gaining momentary reprieve, Grover scooped up a pile of goo, ran for the pedestal, and dumped it on top of the gemstone before the construct by it could react. The connection was disturbed, causing the creation to collapse in on itself, but then the room around them shook.

“This place will be your tomb, Grover!” Anger spoke, its voice suppressed. “I will not allow it to end like this! I will not be silenced!”

In a last vein attempt to free itself, flames erupted from the pedestal and tried to scrape the increasingly hardened shell, but it wasn’t enough, as those too began to harden upon its surface, and as the griffin pulled it out of the basin, it stretched, trying not to split from the source of its power, which in the end was for naught – the gemstone was now locked away in a hardened orb infused by the green liquid, and the flames that tried to protect it became what basically amounted to decoration made of gold. But Grover was not out of danger yet. As the walls of the room began to collapse on one another, her had to make a run for it, but in his escape, at the last moment, some of the sides clasped his wing feathers and he couldn’t get away. Luckily for him, the dragons that were with him had not left him in the lurch, and after a pull and a yelp, they rushed their savior out of the gaping maw at the cost of a few feathers. Seeing this, Applejack finally knew: Those feathers that she and Zecora found in the layer of the false bottom inside the Ol’ Rager… they were Grover’s, preserved in time.

“You… you singlehandedly fought one of Turmoil’s aspects and won?” Rarity asked in amazement.

“No. Not fought. By the sheer force of my will and dedication to what I believed was right, I have overcome anger itself,” he corrected. “I have succeeded in freeing the dragons from the burning anger.”

“But its nature changed, didn’t it?” Twilight led up to what she knew was going to follow.

The king nodded. “Indeed. Not only was Anger suppressed, but the radiance it was giving off changed into a soothing and peaceful one. I thought that perhaps my wish may have come true after all. But alas, I knew I could not keep it. Anger had destroyed the dragon’s home and they would need that unity through peace more than I did. But…” he paused for a moment. “I never could’ve foreseen what followed.” The alicorn and her companion already knew what he was referring to - the scene played out where the griffin decided to hand the Dragon Lord the artifact, but instead, Obsidian handed it over to him. “Never before in my life was I ever moved so. I had already given up hope that my mission would succeed, and yet in the final moment, he gave it to me. Obsidian… he was my true and only friend I’ve ever had, and it showed me how kind and generous the dragons truly were.”

The low squirming sound was caught by Smolder, and it came from Spike. It made her wonder if he’s already seen this before.

The scene switched to Grover flying back in the early morning, with the artifact in his hands. “I had to get home before the crack of dawn. I had to make an entry that would get everybody’s attention before the squabbling began.”

He flew up and looked down upon the small town built into the mountainside. As the first rays of the morning sun peaked over the mountains, he raised the artifact in the air, and the morning light shone off its surface, revealing the brilliance to all. As the griffins came out of their houses, they were left in awe - never before have they ever felt something so grand and majestic, so… peaceful. The soon-to-be-king flew with the artifact across all the mountain peaks where the griffins resided, drawing them to him, eventually leading them to a lone mountain that sat in the middle of all, upon which a single great tree grew. The time suddenly sped up, and the tree was soon littered with majestic buildings, with a great fortress standing atop the highest branch. And within it, King Grover and his royal guard resided, eternally watching over the famed Idol of Boreas. The watchers were left in awe, especially the blue griffin, who only now finally began to understand his guardian’s desperation.

“Never again would the griffins be fractured,” Grover concluded. “In the heart of our lands, we have built Griffinstone, the great and majestic city, where all of our kind could live in peace. Here, we would protect the Idol of Boreas, so that it would remain a beacon of unity for all times.”

“Yeah… until some goat monster decided to ruin everything.”

As Rainbow Dash said those words, the surrounding once again turned to an empty white plane, and the griffin king’s expression turned gloomy. “Yes… None of my successors anticipated that there could be an outside force foolish enough to come to the heart of our land to steal the Idol. The damage that the artifact’s disappearance did to my legacy is irreparable, especially now that the being that was responsible for it has been freed and now thirsts for vengeance.”

“Not so much that it thirsts,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “More like desiring to eradicate everything within the mountain’s range, including the tree.”

“How can we even beat Tirek in his current state?” Fluttershy wondered.

The king shook his head. “You can’t.”

The alarm went off in all of them when they heard him say that. “So wait, we really are doomed then?!” Silverstream was about to freak out again.

“I didn’t say that,” he corrected. “You all cannot stop it… But I can.” Everybody looked at one another in confusion, unsure of what he was talking about. “Your recent actions have made me strong enough to once again manifest myself.”

“What are you talking about?” Sandbar inquired, and Ocellus joined. “I wanna know that too. Especially since earlier Princess Twilight said something about you not being what you seem. You can’t be the real King Grover, he’s been gone for ages. Who are you really?”

The griffin smiled. “Ocellus, inquisitive as ever. You are right. I only took on his appearance because of the virtue that was bestowed upon me – HIS virtue. As to who I am… Perhaps another form will seem a bit more familiar.”

The king’s body began to glow, his features disappearing and leaving only a whiteness in his form, but that stood in its place… The Elements of Harmony were left agape, unable to understand what they were seeing, especially Twilight herself: It was her! But the students did know who it was. It was their life guide that strengthened their bond of friendship, it made them face their fears, and they kept it alive, and yet… when it needed their help, they were too late and powerless to stop it. The image of Twilight disappeared, and King Grover’s body returned to normal. A cry followed. Not from the hippogriff though. It was the yak. She charged at the tall griffin and snuggled against him.

“Yona sorry!” she cried. “Yona tried her best but still couldn’t save you!”

The griffin king stroked her head and then invited the rest of the students to come closer. They didn’t dally and they rushed into his embrace, some shedding tears of joy.

Gallus was the last one who approached him, stopping a few feet away. “You’re the Spirit of the Tree of Harmony, aren’t you…?”

He nodded. “Part of it, yes. I am the Spirit of Peace. And I will defend the homeland of the griffins… one last time.”

And the blinding light enveloped them all.

Tirek laughed as his surroundings burned down. Houses that had stood for hundreds of years, were reduced to cinders, and soon the tree upon which Griffinstone stood would burn. But in his revelry, he noticed something was off: No matter how hard he pushed, his magic did not move. He couldn’t understand what was happening. His enemy couldn’t have possibly mustered enough power to oppose him… could they?

“I can’t see again!” Ember complained.

“Me neither!” Garble agreed

“You’re not the only one!” Gilda fussed.

“Hold on… I think it’s going away,” Gabby responded.

The blinding light that took away everybody’s sight had finally passed. Much to their surprise, even though they were certain that doom would soon follow, they remained unharmed.

“We… we’re not dead?” Trixie realized, to which Sunburst sighed in relief.

“I’m glad you’re all having a moment of reprieve, but can you help this one with relief?” a rhyming voice requested.

Zecora seemed to have regained her senses a bit earlier than the rest and was trying to untangle the ropes on Grandpa Gruff who was still gagged. Luckily, the baker quickly jumped in and released him, but much to her surprise, he didn’t move from the spot, other than pulling the gag out of his mouth, yet was still left agape.

“Grandpa Gruff, what’s with you?” she asked, and all he did in response was point forward.

He was pointing in the direction where the Elements of Harmony and the students were… and there was another figure, who stood in front of them. Among the two groups, the jar containing the grey blob was projecting an image of light that was barring the assault of the centaur.

Without a moment of doubt, the elder griffin immediately recognized him. “King Grover…”

Everybody else turned their attention to it, unable to comprehend what was happening. They were in the same boat as Tirek who took notice that his advance has been stalled, and he tried to force more and more power into it.

“COME ON! WHY WON’T YOU BURN?!” he raged.

But to no avail. Meanwhile, the Spirit remained unshaken, unmoved, regardless of how much its enemy tried.

“I don’t wanna sound impatient,” Applejack spoke, “but we can’t just keep stalling him. We have to do something to shut him down.”

“Do not fear,” the Spirit assured her. “It will all be over any moment now.”

They didn’t know how it can be so sure. The power he was drawing on made Tirek look neigh invincible. How could he ever run out of power? But just as they thought that the blazing heat simply dissipated. The only noticeable light was now coming from their surroundings.

“It... it actually happened?” the shy pegasus said in amusement.

“Great! Now that we’ve got an opening, let's give him what for!” Rainbow Dais rubbed her hooves, eager for a fight.

“Don’t,” the image of King Grover intervened. “Do not leave the protection from what will soon follow.”

Tirek suddenly felt a sense of exhaustion, so much so that his flaming extensions died down. He’s exerted so much power, thinking he would never run out of it and now he was bereft of it.

“Y… you… you all won’t get away from this…” He grasped for air. “I… I just need… a little break… and once I’m fully charged again… I’ll-“

Must feed.

He went quiet. He recognized that voice.

Must feed!

That voice. He heard it earlier in Abysmal Abyss when he first held the Idol of Boreas, but it was only a barely intelligible whisper.

MUST FEED!

But now, that voice became loud and booming, full of anger and fury. And now, at last, he could hear what the voice was saying.

MUST! FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!

His whole body was suddenly enveloped in flame. Thinking he was powered up again he flexed, but he soon realized something was not right. He felt a quick sting. And another. And soon after he felt little stings all over his body that kept growing harsher and harsher until it turned into a sensation of getting burned. He screamed, collapsing on the ground, flailing about and contorting uncomfortably - he was in unbearable pain.

The ponies and other creatures did nothing but stood by and watched in horror. “What… what’s happening to him?” Fluttershy wondered, to which her tiny companion around her neck had no fitting words. “I don’t know…” answered Discord.

But the Spirit knew. “Anger is like fire: The more it consumes, the stronger it becomes. But it needs to keep consuming and growing stronger in turn, for when it can no longer consume anything anymore, it will flare out… and die down.”

The alicorn took heed of those words, and that’s when she noticed that the flames that have enveloped Tirek… had eyes! And they were bobbing up and down as if they were doing a chewing motion. That’s precisely what was happening. Without a moment to lose, Twilight galloped through the protective barrier in the centaur’s direction.

“Twilight! What are you doing?! Come back!” Spike called out.

“Tirek’s being consumed by Anger!” she called back. “Even he doesn’t deserve such a cruel fate!” She arrived at his side, and watching him contort in an unnatural way was unbearable to watch even if he was a villain. “Tirek, listen to me!” she tried to reason. “You need to let go of Turmoil’s fragment! I can help you-!”

For a brief moment, as the pony began talking to the centaur, he stopped moving, but as he turned his head at her, she was met with burning red eyes and a look of unbridled rage. “DON’T TOUCH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” he yelled and threw a punch in her direction, hitting the ground, causing the burnt wood to heave and launching her into the wall of the nearby ruins, stunning her.

“TWILIGHT!” Spike freaked out and flew off.

“Spike, don’t!” the fashionista tried to stop him, only to be held back by the workhorse. “Don’t! You’re just gonna get caught in the crossfire!” The latter looked at the Spirit with a plea. “Please, tell me something can be done so they won’t get hurt?”

It turned its head to the crowd in the back. “Dragons, this is your one chance to prevent any harm from coming to them.”

The blue, the orange, and the red dragons looked at one another, but it was the former that made the first move. “Spike, hang on!” Ember took flight.

“Wait up, I’m coming!” Smolder followed, and with her brother seeing that, he quickly went after her. “Sis, wait!”

Meanwhile, Twilight was slowly regaining her senses, but she couldn’t think clearly. The only thing she saw was the centaur’s form, as he picked himself off the ground, his expression showing nothing but wrath.

“Burn!” he said and the flames around his expanded. “BURN!” he repeated, the fire growing larger. “BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN!”

And the flames exploded, turning everything white.

When it finally died down, Twilight was curled up, and what was more, she felt the weight on top of her. As her eye readjusted, she realized that the four dragons were lying all over her, acting as a shield to protect her from being scorched by the fire. She felt tiny claws holding her face, and a familiar face calling to her.

“Twilight! Twilight, say something!” the purple one begged.

She smiled. “I’m okay, Spike.”

At the moment she spoke he hugged her in relief, while the rest of the dragons crawled off her.

“That was too close for comfort,” Smolder commented.

“Tell me about it,” Garble replied. “All of you could barely cover half a pony.” The younger sibling laughed.

But the jovial atmosphere quickly died down. “Wait, where’s Tirek?” Twilight asked.

They all turned to where the centaur stood earlier, but he was gone. On the floor where he once stood was a portal made of dark light. Twilight quickly realized who was behind it.

“Foolish boy,” an elderly voice spoke, accompanied by hoofsteps. “He played with fire and got himself burnt. Then again, why did I think he would’ve chosen differently?”

With the scorching heat gone, the rain once again began to fall on the Griffinstone surroundings, and out of its ruins, the grizzled old ram emerged, but not before opening another massive portal close by, allowing the arimaspi to walk out in the open. Everybody present, especially those closest to him were left frozen, but the Father of Monsters did not attempt to harm them.

As he reached the edge of the portal, he waited, gazing into the sky. “Construct!” he yelled into the sky.

Out of the thundering skies, the giant head of the Storm King reemerged, accompanied by the changeling queen. “Thanks, gramps!” he said. “You really got us out of that one!”

“Quit yammering and move!” Grogar ordered.

The satyr didn’t wait about, as his giant form flew off and squeezed through the portal on the ground, disappearing almost instantly.

And then, the weaselly wisp came to his side. “So… This is your pet that you have come all this way for, Shaper?” it questioned. “And glad as I am with you keeping the Devourer under control, we are going to talk about your… liberties.”

The ram looked at the alicorn and the four dragons who were staring at him. “Perhaps,” the ram said. “But not here, or now.”

“Indeed.” And with that, the shadow vapor disappeared through the portal.

Lastly, the Pillar of Hatred landed by his side. “You really have a knack for turning up a most convenient moment, Grogar, I’ll tell you that.”

“As flattered as I am, Queen of Changelings, this isn’t the time to dawdle. Go before-”

“Chrysalis!” Ember screamed when she saw her, flying off at her.

“Right, no dawdling. Just make sure you lock the door behind,” the queen said and lept into the portal.

But Grogar made no move to follow her, and just as the Dragon Lord came close to leap into the portal behind her, he closed it shut, having the dragon crash against the wooden ground. “How unfortunate. Had you been a little faster, you could’ve caught her.”

The taunting didn’t sit well with the blue dragon, and she gave him an angry look before leaping at him. “Open it again! Get me to Chrysalis!”

Suddenly, with a bleating roar, a large clawed hand wrapped around Ember, gripping her tightly. There was no way that the arimaspi would allow somebody to harm his master. She struggled to loosen his grip, and when it became apparent that it was impossible, she decided to breathe fire at him, only for her own flame to envelop her. The beast’s grip around her was gone, but now she was trapped in a ball made of dark light, and it was holding it. It seemed that just as the beast didn’t want any harm to befall its master, so too did the master not want anything ill to befall his creation.

“Ember!” Spike cried out.

Soon, everybody else present came to the side of the princess and the four dragons, facing up against Grogar.

Chapter 61: Pulled Back from the Brink

Thunder and lightning echoed across the sky above the large burnt tree, raindrops being the only thing that had extinguished the fire by now. What was left of most of the Griffinstone was little more than ruins, only the buildings close to the extended branch were mostly spared. The only structure that was left untouched was the old fortress that up until now had been left uninhabited, but now, it was teeming with life. The residents of the city took refuge from the storm outside, huddling together, while the rescuers made tried to ensure that their stay was as comfy as possible.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash, along with the two dragon siblings and the changeling, tried to fix the large hole high up in the wall, the foremost beating the last nail on it. “Alright, we’re done,” the orange pony said, after spitting the hammer out of her mouth. “Well done, y’all.”

“AJ, you sure that’s gonna be enough to keep the rain and wind out?” the pegasus asked.

“Ah’m the one doing the fixin’, Dash, Ah know what I’m doin’. Now come on, get me down.”

She grabbed the earth pony around her waist and slowly glided to the ground. “Well, you maybe know what you’re doing but I don’t think she is.”

She pointed at Rarity and Silverstream, who were putting up curtains over the entrance that was missing the doors since the arimaspi busted them.

“Rares, what are you doin’? That’s not gonna keep the elements out,” Applejack complained.

“Well, it's not like we have much choice. After all, you had to use the busted down doors to plug the hole in the wall since they were the only thing big enough to cover it.”

“Point taken,” she sighed.

The hippogriff peaked outside, through the clothed entry. “You sure you don’t want to come inside, Gallus?”

“I want to be alone right now, Silverstream,” the griffin’s voice came from the other end.

She pulled back in. “I’m really worried about him… He’s been really moody ever since he and Grandpa Gruff were in the ravine.”

“Did he get hurt?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“Not physically, no. And certainly not from any of the monsters that were here today. I wish there was something I could do for him…”

“Twilight could probably do something about that. Go and ask her. She and Zecora are making sure nobody got hurt too badly.”

The pink hippogriff walked off with a concerned look on her face.

The wonderbolt walked over to Rarity’s side. “Rares, come. We have to do this.”

They went towards the trio of dragons, or rather a duo, as one of them shapeshifted into her normal form.

They were about to leave when the two mares approached them. “Garble, can we talk to you for a moment?” the sports pony asked

“Ocellus, you’re free to go,” the fashionista said.

As the reformed changeling trot off, her peer showed some concern.

The two ponies looked at one another and then hung their heads. “We’re sorry for doubting you,” they said in unison.

The look on the elder one displayed surprise, while his younger sibling was confused. “What’s this about?” Smolder inquired.

“We have to confess, Smolder, to your brother,” Rarity explained. “I know back at Dragon Lands we said we were willing to look past the… well, past. But the truth is that we couldn’t. We still remember what awful things Garbel did, and we couldn’t just let it go.”

“But when we saw how your brother willingly used himself as a shield to protect Twilight from the fire blast, that’s when we realized that maybe you deserve to get some slack cut,” Rainbow Dash elaborated. “So, we’re now asking if you could forgive us.”

The red dragon felt taken aback. “I… I don’t know what to say…”

“I don’t think words are necessary here, Gar-Gar.” She shoved him with an elbow.

“Smolder!” he said in restrained anger, acting as if he was trying to shut her mouth as she grinned.

The two mares looked at each other, confused.

Pinkie Pie, as well as Gilda, were preparing the nourishment for the refugees. To help pass the time, Trixie and her “assistant” were entertaining them, all the while Fluttershy and Yona were playing with griffin hatchlings.

Silverstream walked among the gathered crowd trying to locate the Princess of Friendship, but she noticed that somebody was missing. “Miss Gilda, where’s Gabby?”

“Went off to see the Griffin Lords. They need to know what’s happened and we can’t wait until the storm stops.

“I see. Say, have you seen Twilight? I have to ask-“

“Silverstream!” her voice called out. “Just the hippogriff I’m looking for.” Spike and Zecora were by her side.

“You and me both,” she replied.

“Listen, we’re just about done checking everycreature for wounds. Have you seen Gallus?” the little dragon asked.

“Well, yeah I was actually going to get you for that. He’s outside by the entrance.”

“Why is he not inside?” the shaman wondered. “Nobody would go out right now for a stride.”

"I was hoping you could figure that out."

The rain was still falling, the sound of thunder being heard every now and then. Outside, the local student was leaning against the fortress wall, looking into the distance where the smoldering ruins of the town now stood. The healer checked the young griffin from head to toe to make sure, and he made no moves to resist it as if he just wanted to get it over with.

“No physical ailment that I could see by eye,” Zecora answered. “He seems as fresh as Pinkie’s pie.”

“Please don’t mention food, Zecora,” Spike said, his tummy grumbling.

“Don’t worry, Spike, we’ll get to eat soon,” Twilight calmed him. “We just need to check up on Ember. She said she’ll let others go ahead of her, that she doesn’t need any medical attention, but considering how roughed up she was, I’m doubtful.”

“Assuming we can find her. I wonder where she went, it’s almost as if she’s just disappeared.”

“Dragon Lord Ember? She went down to the ruins,” Silverstream answered.

Twilight was shocked. “Wait, what?! When?!”

“Earlier when I was helping Rarity hang up the drapes.”

“Why would she just wander out into the rain?” The little dragon couldn’t understand.

“We’re gonna find out. Come on, Spike.”

“Wait, Twilight! An umbrella!”

And in a purple flash, an umbrella appeared out of thin air and landed in his hands. Without further wait they dashed off down the tree towards the ruins, leaving the two feathered hybrids and the zebra behind.

“You should go back inside, in this weather your health is an unpredictable ride,” the shaman ordered the pink student.

She nodded and was about to walk away, then halted for a moment and looked behind her back at the sulking griffin, before finally leaving.

“Well, why are you still here?” Gallus said to her in a rather rude tone. “You’ve checked me over, you can clearly see there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Your physical condition is fine, ‘tis true, but it’s plain as day that you’re all blue,” the zebra answered, and Gallus could only groan after hearing her rhyme. “I’m here to help, so I sent her away, to make sure there won’t be a hearsay. So please, explain, what is really causing you pain?”

“I doubt you hearing what I have to say will make things better,” he pushed away.

“It might be for naught, but perhaps it might alleviate a knot.”

He couldn’t believe she just said that. “Fine,” he groaned. “It’s not like it can get any worse. For a while now, ever since it became clear that my time at Twilight’s School of Friendship was about to come to an end I began to realize that I would have to find something to do. All my friends already did so, but me… I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do. And Grandpa Gruff knew about it. And when we were trapped at the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss, the Anger that was trapped within it took over us and made us say things. But even so…” he paused, “the truth is that he was absolutely right. I’m an orphan, a nobody. And I can’t find my place in the world. I just…” He buried his face in his claws. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do…”

The truth was out. Not even to his friends did he tell how really deep his problem was and how the elder only made it worse. He doubted that even the zebra had an answer to his problem. She laughed. Not a chuckle, a suppressed grin, or a snort – a genuine laugh that would indicate amusement. Gallus looked at her in disbelief.

“Fret not, young griffin, do not mistake,” she finally stopped. “I wasn’t laughing from the amusement of your ache. Truth be told, you’re not the only one, my apprentice had a similar problem, hay, just like my sun.”

“Wait what…” the griffin stopped her. “That didn’t make sense with what you just said… What “sun”?” He watched Zecora turn to the side and shake her rear end. “Oh… that one.”

“But let me assure you: Quite often your destiny is trapped in a fog, trying to look for it alone can get you stuck, like in a bog. I was in such a place, long ago. Only with the help of another, I could grow.”

The young zebra could finally feel the dirt under her hooves again. After being on the trail for about a week, trudging through the desert, she was finally back in the home region just as the sun was beginning to set. Her delight was shared by those that accompanied her father, stallions, carrying loads of cargo they had brought along from the Kingdom of Mansa in order to supply themselves with what their home couldn’t provide, and after being away from their spouses, they were all too eager to be home again. Just as they came through the threshold of the settlement, they noticed a commotion by one of the houses.

One of the villagers noticed their approach. “Ah, High shaman, you’re back! Just in time too!”

“Please do not shout, and explain what this gaggle is about,” Zecora’s father spoke.

“Our harvest’s been collected faster than usual, and it was more bountiful than last time as well.”

Zecora recalled, as they passed the fields earlier, that they seemed barer than when they departed. “Oh yeah, I did notice.”

“She’s organized and managed the harvest. By the end, it became clear she had an epiphany. Grandmother Zeg'us is dealing with her as we speak.”

“Who?”

But before she got an answer, her father pushed past her through the crowd and to the front, where he stopped. His offspring joined his side just in time, as an elderly zebra came out of the house.

“Mada?”

As the head stallion and mare came face to face with one another, the former trot to her side and they touched heads for a few moments to greet each other. “She’s found her place, and is prepared to play her part in the tribe,” the Tribal Matron declared.

“Who?” the younger one kept asking.

The cover of the house flapped open and the zebra in question walked out in the open. Sanaa stood still with a solemn expression on her face, and then promptly turned to the side and flashed her rear end in the crowd’s direction. Zecora saw something that wasn’t there before - a symbol of a fern, printed on her flank. The shaman walked closer to his offspring and stroke her mane in approval.

“I want one!” the little zebra quickly declared and was about to rush into the house, only to be grabbed by her tail by her older sister.

“No, you’re not, kid,” her older sister taunted.

“Oh come on! It’s not fair!”

The older female pulled her back and shoved her in the direction of the home as her spouse departed. “You’ll be given your own print once you’ve had an epiphany,” she said.

“What’s an epiphany?” she asked, not knowing the word.

“A sudden realization… of a great truth.”

Zecora was preparing to lie to bed, emptying her bag. But there was something that was hidden inside, something that she’s been quiet about. A tiny purple ball with big teal glistening eyes poked out of it.

Purri!

She came close to it and nuzzled it. “Hello, little friend. I hope you’re doing okay. I’m sorry, I had to keep you in the bag this whole time, but fada probably wouldn’t have approved of me taking an unknown creature home.” She stroked it. “You’re so cute and adorable, and you hardly take up any space. You’ll be much better off here than in a city.”

Purri!

She was surprised. There was another sound but it clearly wasn’t from the creature she was interacting with. A moment later, another tiny ball with big eyes appeared, only it was yellow.

“What…? Where did you come from?” She looked at the first one. “When did you bring friends along?”

Purri!

Purri!

And just like that, two more balls popped up, one green and another of pink.

“How…how did you all get into my bag?”

“Zecora?”

She suddenly heard an elderly voice coming from outside, and she quickly tossed the bag on the bed and threw the cover over it, just as her mother entered.

“Zecora, who were you talking to?”

“Nothing, mada,” she lied, “just… pests, that’s all.”

The child turned away, trying to feign ignorance as the mare approached her and placed her hoof on her. “I know you’re glum from what was said earlier but do not despair, child. Your time will come eventually.” She gave her a peck on the head to say goodnight and then left.

The younger zebra sighed in relief, then pulled up the cover, and the four round beings she hid under were already fast asleep on her pillow at this point. “We’re gonna have a talk in the morning about sneaking your friends with me without telling me,” she told them, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her. “And then I’m going to find you a nice place where you can be safe.” And with that, she lay in her bed next to the creatures and fell asleep.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

The wake-up call was not a friendly one. Whatever that shriek was it was soon accompanied by a multitude of other panicking voices, rousing the young zebra from her slumber. She opened her eyes and lying next to her head were the four cute round creatures. And the fifth. And the sixth. Zecora suddenly shot up and looked about. There weren’t just six of these things, there were several dozen all over her house, flying about, bumping into things, and tipping them over. She was confused about where they all came from. She watched one of them finish eating a piece of bread and it began acting as if it was about to get sick. Not a moment later it regurgitated a slimy green ball, which then began to move, and soon after, it sprouted a set of wings and legs and opened its large eyes. It became terrifyingly clear to Zecora where so many of them came from: She remembered feeding the single one she had in her pack only little scraps while she was still on the way, and that was the reason it didn’t multiply immediately, but now… A realization came over her, and she dreaded to confirm it, yet she still walked over to the window and looked outside.

It was just as she feared: They were everywhere – an entire swarm of these innocent-looking creatures was spread across the entire village below. She left the house to inspect things further and discovered that it was even worse up close. The populace was running about in panic, screaming, trying to get the pests away from whatever they were interfering with, especially as they were gobbling up anything edible in sight and just kept on multiplying.

“They’re eating everything!” one of the villagers screamed. “Somebody, stop these things!”

KRAKK!

Thunder clapped from above, halting the panic in the village, but it didn’t stop the swarm from its feeding frenzy. Not that it mattered, as moments later a powerful gust of wind kicked up, pulling through the settlement, through every nook and cranny, picking every single sprite and dragging them out of the village and casting them far out into the desert. Calm finally fell, and the villagers spotted a blue glow on the hill where the sole hut stood, its owner sitting outside, power radiating out of him, his spouse by his side. They all cheered that their leader had purged the devouring pests, but that wouldn’t last long, for as the High shaman descended below, the damage was evaluated.

“High shaman, it’s horrible! Those pests have eaten nearly everything in the village! Including the rich harvest that we collected yesterday! There’s hardly anything left!”

“What were those things? Where did they come from?”

Those were just a few of the things that were said by the locals. Soon though, the leader came before them.

“I think I know of this malevolence. In the Kingdom of Mansa, in the city of Musa, the king, and his men have purged a pestilence. Of how it followed us home, I do not know.”

But his offspring did. And she couldn’t say it, not in front of the entire village.

“Okay, everybody, calm down!” the elder sibling stepped in. “Let’s not lose our heads over this yet. Let us go and see what we have left and what can be done about it!”

The villagers went about their duty to make sure anything was saved. So did the High shaman’s significant other, who returned to their home and went on to see what was left. By the end it became apparent that there wasn’t much, the swarm had eaten almost everything. As for the youngest one, guilt was beginning to get the better of her. There was nobody else around and she could only confine to her.

“Mada…?” she came in through the doorway.

“What is it, dear?” the elder one answered, not quite paying attention, but before she could hear what the child had to say, her eldest walked in. “How does it look, Sanaa?”

“Not good, I fear, mom,” she said. “We’ve checked the granary and those pests ate nearly everything. It’s barely enough left to feed the village for a day or two. The seeds were the only things they haven’t managed to devour, so we could try to plant the fields again.”

But her mother shook her head. “If only it were that easy… We’re about to run out of water, and it’s not enough to water the fields. Your father was planning to take another trip to the kelpie’s realm soon after he got home, but now that we hardly have any food left there’s no way we can go and collect it.”

“Oh… That explains it.”

“What does?”

“As soon as we realized how bad things are he left,” the daughter explained. “I think he went to talk to the spirits.”

“We can only hope that they hear his plea.”

“Why don’t we just collect the water from the oasis?” Zecora suggested.

The moment she did, the two older mares looked at her, the eldest one giving her a grim expression. “You know full well why not. And it’s a good thing your father isn’t here, he might raise his voice at you for even entertaining such a notion. Whatever darkness lies beneath the oasis must not be disturbed. Do you understand?” The youngest one nodded to her. “Now, what was it that you wanted?”

“N-nothing, mada,” Zecora said and trotted out of the house.

She was absolutely terrified. She was about to confess her crime to her mother hoping to rid herself of guilt, but now that the full extent of the damage her actions have caused became known, there was no way she could confess. What was the whole village going to do to her for that? All she could do was just keep quiet and hope that things improve swiftly.

They didn’t. Days passed and the situation in the village only kept growing, as people were forced to ration what little they had left. The only form of nourishment that was left was the dried-up grasslands of the savannah, and the dried grass only temporarily halted hunger. The sounds of growling stomachs could be heard throughout the settlement, and the form of activity came to a halt as the residents tried to conserve and not waste energy. All their hopes were now solely pinned on the High shaman; an act that the longer it took, the more Zecora began to abhor. Every day she would secretly follow her father to the location where she first saw him perform the ritual, but unlike that time, the elder zebra simply sat in the center of multiple circles and murmured while holding his staff. That’s all he did for several hours, before returning home. It frustrated her – there was water and edible greenery in the blooming valley just below the ledge where he sat, and yet he refused to acknowledge its existence, instead simply waiting and hoping that the natural forces of Farasi would heed his call, which they obviously didn’t. Why would he stay passive while his people suffered? She’s seen the extent of the power he was able to draw, so why couldn’t he just FORCE the elements to assist them? And that made her ask questions that she never asked herself about her home.

“Good evening all, I again return at horizon’s fall,” he said as he entered the hut.

He and his mate nuzzled and sat down beside the rest of the mares for dinner. A wooden plate was filled with a handful of fino cereal and dried grass, it became a standard after a long time. But even so, some were not satisfied with it.

“I hate dried grass,” the youngest complained.

“I know, dear, but it’s the best we’ve got,” her mother reminded her.

“Yeah,” the elder sibling added, “we’re lucky we at least have that in abundance.”

“I want some tasty millet,” she resumed. “The ones we’ve had when we were with camel caravan were delicious.”

“That’s because that grain is from the Musa kingdom,” the parent answered. “If you would want to have it brought here.”

“And why isn’t it?” she imposed a question. “Why do camel caravans go to other kingdoms, but our tribe gets ignored?”

The two adults looked at each other for a moment, but then the younger mare intervened. “Because the camel caravans only go to kingdoms that have something to offer to one another. It’s not like we have anything to offer in turn.”

“Well, it’s still not fair!” Zecora stomped. “All of my friends do not seem to suffer from any form of attrition in their homeland, yet we have to constantly be in fear that we don’t end up starving!”

“Hey! Listen up, kid! We’ve never had problems with that, or at least I can’t remember ever being on the verge of starvation like we are today!”

“Sanaa, enough,” their father interjected. “No need to fight against little one’s rebuff.” He turned his gaze to the youngest. “The greater forces have always kept us well fed, keeping us with baskets full of bread.”

“And where are those “greater forces” now, fada?” Zecora continued to complain. “It’s been days since the incident. You’ve been going back and forth regularly and your call still hasn’t been answered. Our village won’t survive like this for long.”

“I do not blame you, little one, it’s true – the elements have not yet answered, perhaps somebody else is in the queue. But until then we have to persevere, even if our position seems quite severe.”

“Why?!” she finally got upset to the point where she became determined to finally put him on the spot. “Why do we have to live in such a harsh place and be at mercy to our surroundings?! I’ve seen the power you’re able to wield! If you wanted you could’ve turned this barren land into a garden where we would never go hungry or thirsty-!”

“AND I WOULD VIOLATE THE LAW OF NATURE, AND I WOULD NEVER BE HEARD AGAIN!” the High shaman rose to full height and raised his voice. Not once before has Zecora seen her father act like this. All the times she’s done something wrong he would just laugh it up, whether or not he was aware of her doing. This… was different. There was a noticeable thunder in his voice, and what was more… he wasn’t rhyming.

“You understand nothing. Nothing of what’s at the heart of the power that I wield. These powers are granted to me because I ask, with respect in my heart, willing to give something in return. I request only the barest needs for my people, and in return, I thank these powers, knowing that they are borrowed, not bought or taken. They come to me because they chose to, not because I demand! These are not servants that are made to do my bidding, Zecora! They are powerful entities that were ancient when this land was young! Mansa Musa would never-!”

CLOP!

He went quiet, his gaze drifting to his spouse who caused the loud stomp.

“No, Khari," she called her husband by his name, shaking her head. "She’s not ready yet.”

After a moment, the stallion sat down, returning to his calm demeanor. “Enough of this reprimand. I don’t expect you to understand.”

It was clear that he wanted to dissolve the tension, but for Zecora they’ve already gone past that point. She sneered, making a noise of repressed anger, and stomped out of the house. Outside she fumed, angry that her father was determined not to do anything to change things. She was beginning to understand Wadi’s abrasive attitude towards her mother. But there was a difference between them: While Wadi was unable to change her position of being bound to water, she wasn’t. And if her father refused to do anything, then she will.

That night, as everybody was fast asleep, Zecora rose out of her bed and made her way to the underground closet where “certain ingredients” were kept. She picked them up, stole her father’s staff, and made her way to the oasis, to the ritual site where the shaman was on a daily basis. Upon the circles on the ground, she started adding other reagents from her bag: She poured flakes of ice from a small gourd, a saucer filled with water, she lit a fire and put one in the circle, and another outside of the other one by a rock to cast a shadow. The only one that was missing now was the lightning, which Zecora did not have at hand, so the only sensible thing would be to try and call for it.

She started to mumble gibberish, not knowing what words her father used for the chant, and after a while, it became clear that it wasn’t working. “Listen, I don’t know how to make this work, but my people need help!” she yelled into the sky but got no response. “Look, this isn’t funny! My fada may be willing to wait, but I can’t! My people are starving! Help us!” Once again, she was met with silence. “HELP! I COMMAND YOU TO HELP US!!!”

By the end, it was clear that there would be no answer from higher powers, as the fire had already died down and the ice melted. She tossed the staff against the ground and screamed at the top of her lungs, angrily bucking in the air until she eventually tired out and lay on the ground. She was angry – angry at her father for being passive, angry at the higher powers that didn't answer, but most importantly… she was angry at herself. She was the one responsible for things ending up the way they did, whether in ignorance or not, her actions have brought suffering to her entire village and she was powerless to change it. The anger eventually turned to sorrow, and she began to cry in despair.

Come…

She stopped. Was she hearing things?

Come…

The first time, she may have just been imagining, but the second time could not have been a coincidence.

Come…

The voice, it was calling out to her. There was nobody in sight, but she could tell where it was coming from. She looked into the valley beneath her where the great baobab towered. THERE! That’s where it was coming from. She went around the ledge to descend into the oasis beneath the ritual site. This was the first time that she entered the land that her parents specifically said never to venture into. She didn’t think it was terrifying previously, yet now, in the dead of night, it was full of horror, as the growth formed nightmarish shapes in the dim light, coupled with a voice calling out to her.

Come…

The young zebra halted. She stood at the very base of the giant dead baobab tree that towered over the oasis, and in front of it, a pair of stone slabs stood against it. It puzzled her why there would be a door in a tree, but it was certain that it hadn’t been opened in a long time, as it was covered in vines, and furthermore, the voice was coming from the other side. She bit through the overgrowth and struggled to open the giant stone door, budging it only enough for her to squeeze through. The tree was hollow – no wonder that it was dead, but something was still inside, the tone of its voice growing louder.

Come…

She entered a great hall, and quickly noticed that it suddenly got really chilly inside, but if it wasn’t how else would’ve been ensured that a pillar of ice didn’t melt? It stood in the center, surrounded by a large pool of glowing green substance. She slowly descended the slope, trying to find where the voice was.

Come closer…

She suddenly spotted an orange glow, a tiny speck of light inside the icy pillar. Was this where it was coming from?

“Hello? Did you call for me?” she asked.

“Yes… Your cry of desperation… Could be heard…” the voice spoke.

“You…? You heard me?”

“Your pain… It is not unknown to us…”

“Can you please help me?” she pleaded.

“Free us… Break the ice, and let us taste the lifeblood again…”

She entered the green pool and approached the pillar of ice. She bucked it, and it shook. That wasn’t good enough! She bucked it again, repeatedly, for several minutes before it became apparent that she was finally making a dent.

CRACK!

On the verge of exhaustion and with a final hit, the ice finally cracked open, creating a hole through which a small orange gemstone rolled out and splashed into the pool beneath her. Suddenly, the surroundings shook, and cracks in the wall began to form. Water erupted and began to flood the ground; the zebra quickly ran to a higher elevation. Things went quiet soon after and she stopped, thinking it was over, but it has only just begun: Water suddenly came to life, and it thrust forward, in Zecora’s direction, past her, and towards the exit, yet when it finally reached it, the water dissolved.

“So… his descendants ensured that we would be locked here for eternity?” the sorrowful voice spoke. “Then we will work around it.”

A shadowy mist suddenly began to surge from the pool, like liquid, filling the room. Zecora was about to make a run for it, but her way was cut off, she was trapped! There was only one thing she could do now. She quickly rummaged through the bag and pulled out a piece of white chalk, and quickly drew a circle around herself. And not a moment too soon, as the shadow mist quickly reached her and was repelled by the circle’s border. Yet the shadow kept overflowing, eventually making everything around her pitch black.

And then, the voice returned. “Why are you resisting us? We’re only trying to help you, just as you asked us.”

“How?!” the young zebra questioned. “How can you help me? If you’re some sort of good spirit, why were you locked away?”

“Mansa Musa and his companions locked us away,” it explained. “They found us dangerous, we shared our pain, and it was too much for them to bare. We wanted to share it with all the land and make them understand. But only you do…”

“How can you possibly help me?” she inquired.

“The land and its people will be consumed by a tidal wave of despair.”

“Wait, wait! How will that help my tribe?”

“Misery loves company - once everybody is as miserable as you, you will no longer feel like the world was unjust to you.”

“No… no, no, that’s not what I wanted! I was just frustrated that all my friends and people outside of my tribe live in a better place, I didn’t want them to suffer as well!” she refused.

“You no longer have a choice in this matter, Zecora. You released us, now you will accept us. It is the only way we can all leave this place.” The darkness began to press down on her, the magical white circle that the zebra erected was the only thing that was keeping her safe, but it was unsure how long it would last against such immeasurable force. “Accept us… Only then can we help you... Refuse… And you will be all alone in the end.”

The sinister force that she had unleashed… was too much for her. She collapsed on the ground and began to cry. She brought this upon herself, and now there was nobody that could save her. All of a sudden, light erupted through the enveloping darkness and everything went white.

She regained her consciousness, feeling herself wobbling back and forth, realizing she was being carried. The stars once again covered the sky as her sight readjusted, before finally being dropped to the ground.

She looked about and finally saw her savior, who stared into the distance, at the place where she was rescued from. “Fada?” He didn’t react to her acknowledgment, although she knew why, considering all she’s done. “Fada, you were right! About everything! I never should’ve gone against you! It’s my fault that thing has been unleashed! I-!”

“It would be an understatement to say that I’m displeased,” he interrupted her as he spoke. “But the thought of losing my little girl had left me uneased.” He turned to face her. “If I had failed to protect what I most cherished… Then any sense of love and duty I had… would have perished.” There was a tone of sorrow in his voice, almost as if he had just lost something. “My little foal, for you I would’ve given up all, to protect you from the fall.”

She jumped on her hooves and ran at him, wrapping them around him while burying her face in his chest, sobbing loudly. “Fada, I’m sorry!” she pleaded. “I’m really, really sorry!” The elder zebra put his own hooves around her to embrace her.

After cradling her for some time she finally went quiet, giving him a chance to speak. “And such is the duty with which we’re tasked: To give hope to others without being asked. To those around, close or not, protect them from being distraught.”

As the two kept sitting in an embrace, the first rays of light began to peak over the distant horizon, illuminating the land. Zecora finally raised her head and saw her father’s face: Enveloped in the morning beam he looked so… adamant, he was somebody who she knew could comfort people in difficult times… Just like he has through this entire time, people didn’t lose faith, knowing that he would deliver them. He was… like a sun that broke through the dark.

And then it became clear to her. “Fada?” The stallion glanced at her. “I think I finally have what mada said I needed."

The high shaman smiled.

“Wow…” Gallus reacted when the story ended. “And here I thought I had problems… No, wait! I still do! Your story didn’t help at all!”

Zecora sighed. “This is the point I’m trying to make: Sometimes, only with the help of another can your purpose awake.”

“That’s nice and all, but I don’t really know anyone who could help in my position.”

“Or perhaps the right one already knows your pain, and you should instead try to ask him for your purpose to obtain,” she nudged him.

He suddenly realized what she was hinting at, and he didn't like the thought one bit. “Wait… you’re asking me to talk to Grandpa Gruff? Are you nuts?!”

“If your relationship has already reached the bottom end, how could you possibly further offend?”

He really didn’t know how to respond to that other than admitting to himself that the zebra had a point. He really didn’t have anything to lose at this point.

“Ember!” Spike called out, as did his elder sibling.

The Princess and her right hand walked among the charred ruins of the city, the smaller one holding an umbrella while the big one generated a source of light, trying to find the Dragon Lord, and it didn’t take them long. She was sitting out in the rain, on a pile of rocky rubble, staring at the scorched crater with a despondent expression.

They all stood there, unmoving in the rain. The Father of Monsters stood before them, and behind him, the arimaspi towered over everybody, holding a yellow orb, in which one of their friends was trapped, completely at his mercy.

“Let Ember go!” Spike ordered.

There was a moment of silence, some of the little dragon’s friends questioning whether he was brave or foolish to try and demand things from somebody who was superior in terms of power. The old ram turned and looked at the prisoner, pondering for a moment.

“You’ve heard them, Paramis. Return what is theirs.”

The goat monster glanced at the orb, let out a huff, and then rolled it on the ground in the direction of the colorful equines. They caught the orb, halting it in its track, and soon after the prison disappeared.

“Ember, are you okay?” the orange pony inquired, to which she only nodded.

The hostage was freed, but the danger was still present, as the grizzled ram and his servant stood there, seemingly just waiting. The alicorn decided to take the chance while he hasn’t turned hostile yet.

She stepped in front of everybody. “What have you done with Tirek, Grogar?”

“I saved him,” he answered. “In fact, I saved all of you. Had the boy managed to get through with what he had in mind, the only thing that would’ve been left of the tree we’re standing on, would be a smoldering crater. It’s a good thing he’s predictable, so I anticipated what he would’ve done if I told him where to find Anger’s artifact.”

“Wait… you knew this whole time that Anger was trapped inside the Idol of Boreas?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t.” Then nodded in the direction of his minion. “He did.”

The arimaspi began grunting, speaking incomprehensible words that none could understand… Except…

“I felt it. It was like a fire, not that of the sun, but rather a scorching ravaging fire that could destroy the world. I knew it was there, and I wanted to keep it until my Lord returned.”

Everybody turned their heads to the side, in the direction of the one who just translated what it said. “Fluttershy, darling, you can understand what that beast is saying?”

“Yes, why couldn’t I?”

The sorcerer chuckled. “I must say, I’m surprised. There aren’t many who can understand what Paramis is saying. As you can see, though, even in my absence he’s remained loyal to me.”

“As if!” a voice jumped in, coming from the fanny pack that hung around the shy mare, its resident poking the tip of his eyes out of the opening. “The only reason that he’s dancing to your tune is because you twisted him in the same way that you twisted everybody else.”

The arimaspi roared in response, speaking in gibberish again.

“How dare you, worm,” the yellow pegasus translated, letting out a little gasp at the sound of the creature belittling the draconequus. “Lord Grogar has no control over me. What I do, I do of my own free will.”

“Wait, what? That thing’s not under his control?” Sandbar tilted his head. “Why is he following him then?”

Once again Grogar chuckled. “I don’t expect any of you to understand loyalty, considering who you allow to come along.” He nodded at the former Lord of Chaos.

“EXCUUUUUUSE ME?” the Element of Loyalty responded. “What the hay am I?!”

“Rainbow Dash, enough,” Twilight got her friend to simmer down, before turning her attention to her opponent. “Grogar, I have to ask something. Why did you save him? Why save any of us? Anger’s already been released, why protect Tirek and not just let the whole tree burn down along with the rest of us?”

“So, you want a reason for my “generosity”?” the grizzled ram said in a way that made the white unicorn feel uncomfortable. “I could just say I was doing it out of the kindness of my heart, but we all know you wouldn’t believe me. Truth is, he still has a role to play, just as the other two had, each of their respective Pillars of Turmoil. And besides…” he chuckled, “The weak do not get to choose how they meet their end.”

Ember quickly raised her head in his direction. What he just said – it struck a nerve for her.

“Then I have one more question,” Twilight continued. “Why did you send Gusty to the Dragon Lands? What was she planning to accomplish there?”

There was silence for quite a while, the sheep’s expression remaining passive. Then, the Father of Monsters began to cackle, and it kept growing louder.

“Grogar, tell me! Why was Gusty in Dragon Lands?!” she repeated.

But she would receive no answer. The ram’s horns began to glow in dark light, and behind him, a portal opened, large enough for his companion.

“Come, Paramis,” Grogar said. “He’s waiting for us - he has been for a very long time.”

The arimaspi grunted, turned, and disappeared through the portal. He was leaving? The blue dragon was not just going to let this sit. She lept out of everybody’s embrace and flew in the direction of the dark sorcerer. He saw her coming, yet didn’t bother to put up any resistance. All he did was smirk at her, and made a few steps, vanishing into the portal, which then promptly dispersed, just as the Dragon Lord got to it, failing to grab onto anything and sliding against the ground for a short distance. When it all passed, Ember got up on her knees, remaining silent for a moment, and then let out a bellow of anger, hitting her fists against the ground in frustration.

Weak. That’s what was going through her mind. She recalled far back, what seemed like a distant past to her, how she was viewed as weak due to her size and frame, despite being the daughter of the Dragon Lord. Without Spike’s help she never would’ve stood a chance in getting the bloodstone scepter before other dragons, heck, she could’ve drowned if it wasn’t for him. It was all thanks to help from another that she was able to attain her father’s position of power… And now, her shortcomings were beginning to exude. She was too weak to pacify Chrysalis on her own, and then she was too weak to go up against both Grogar and his pet. She tried really hard, and in the end, she couldn’t do anything to help her father. She just felt so… helpless.

“Ember?”

Her senses finally became aware of her surroundings, as the bright light illuminated her, and she realized that the raindrops stopped, blocked by an umbrella that a small purple dragon was holding up over her head.

“Ember, is everything alright?” he repeated.

She regarded him. “Alright? Oh sure, Spike. I mean, other than that the only creature that could break the spell under which she put my dad escaped, it’s all FINE!”

“I’m sorry, Ember,” Twilight leaned in.

“No,” she refuted. “The only one’s fault here is mine.”

“Ember I know you wanted to get Chrysalis, but we’ve been outplayed. First by her, and then by Grogar.”

“And you’ve heard what he said: “The weak do not get to choose how they meet their end.” And he was right. We survived only because HE chose so… Same as Chrysalis.”

“Ember, don’t be discouraged,” the alicorn tried to lighten her up. “I know how bleak things are, but you'll get over it. You’re the Dragon Lord, remember?”

“And I’m wondering if I should’ve been in the first place…”

“Wait, what? Ember, what are you saying?” the purple dragon asked in confusion.

“Spike… Way back when we participated in the Gauntlet of Fire, we managed to succeed by helping one another,” she elaborated. “We… no, you managed to get the bloodstone scepter because of that. Compare to either of us, all other dragons were bigger and stronger. Any of them could’ve gotten it on their own. My dad designed the gauntlet for a big strong dragon to beat. I would’ve drowned at the start were it not for you. Without my help, you would’ve been trampled by all other dragons, especially Garble. We managed to get the scepter only because we worked together, but apart…”

“Ember, I don’t follow. What are you trying to say?”

“We’re weak, Spike!” she erupted. “That may not mean much to you since you’re so small, but me…!” She went quiet. “Dad wanted a big strong dragon like himself to take his place. I wanted to prove I could be just as good as him if not better without being either… And look what’s happened. If I was strong, he wouldn’t be… what he is now…”

She curled up, wrapping her tail around her and draping herself in her own wings, burying her face in her crossed arms. She was just too ashamed of herself for being weak in the face of adversity. Was this how Dragon Lord Obsidian felt?

“Ember.” Spike placed his claw on her arm. “I know all too well how it feels to be completely helpless. And I know it doesn’t mean much at this point but… I’m here for you.”

The purple dragon was caught off guard, as the blue one reached out, scooped him off the ground, and pulled him into an embrace. This was the first time she’s ever done it voluntarily, and she hugged him tight. Then a snorting noise followed, it changed into a repressed wheeze, and then a really ugly-sounding sob.

“It’s okay,” Spike encouraged her. “Just let it all out. I won’t think any less of you, Ember.”

She pulled back from the embrace, the look on her face completely normal. “Spike, I’m not making that sound.”

“Where is it coming from then?” Twilight wondered, looking about, only to spot a single light somewhere further in the town’s ruins.

A light ran through the dark and stormy night. The elder griffin had a lamp strapped on the top of his fez while holding an umbrella in another, he wasn’t going to let the elements stop him from his mission. He descended into the charred ruins of his town and began looking about. He had to find the last place where the centaur was before the eruption, that’s where the prize he sought was. It didn’t take him long to find it, as the deep scorch marks were quite visible, and he made it to the center of it. He began clawing through the burnt wood and mash of wet ash, he couldn’t stop, he had to find it, his mind would not be at peace until he found the object of his desire; he wouldn’t be denied again.

CLANK!

He hit something metallic with his claws. His heart rate sped up, he knew this was it! He clawed further to dig out the object… and after he did, his heart sank. He found the Idol of Boreas, or at least what was left of it – a broken golden frame. He just stared at it, unmoving.

He was motionless, he couldn’t move a muscle. Before him stood the founder of his kingdom, single-handedly protecting everybody from the blazing destruction. The fire eventually died and calm followed, replaced by the falling rain. He finally managed to crawl closer to him, and he took notice.

“King Grover… I promise to you, I swear, I’ll get the Idol of Boreas back to its rightful place… Griffinstone will be restored to the glory that you bestowed upon us…”

The image of the griffin king gently smiled. “Gruff, you have always been so loyal, clinging to what made this kingdom great. But I fear that time has now long since passed.” He turned fully to face him. “You will see Griffinstone restored again, Gruff… But it’s time for you to move on…”

And with a flash of light, the image of the first griffin king disappeared, and the only thing left in its vicinity was a jar full of grey matter, which the zebra promptly scooped up.

“Grandpa Gruff?”

He was roused from his daze, knowing the voice all too well.

“Grandpa Gruff, everybody’s looking for you.”

“Oh lovely. And let me guess, they told you to bring me back, didn’t they, Gallus?”

“No. I went to look for you myself. I wanted to talk.”

“Oh, this should be entertaining,” he said in a sarcastic tone. “What is it?”

Gallus had a hard time trying to put words together. “Look, I’m not going to hold it against you for what you said back in the Abysmal Abyss. I get it, we weren’t thinking straight because of Anger, and we both said things that were out of line.”

“No, not really. My words may have been harsh, but I meant what I said.”

“Wait… You mean you really meant when you said that I’m nothing? A nobody?!”

“Yes. And you’ve no idea how lucky you are.”

“What?! Grandpa Gruff, you’re not making any sense! How am I lucky to be a nobody?”

“Because I used to be somebody, boy. I was once a royal guard, tasked with the charge to protect the embodiment of our people’s unity, as well as its king. I failed. And for that failure I had to endure decades of watching how our kingdom declined, becoming a worthless shell of its former self. You’re a nobody! There’s nothing that’s binding you here! You can go out there and make a name, a reputation, anything out of yourself! That’s why I pushed you away! You can move on from the pain of being an orphan, but I can’t move on from the pain of knowing that I failed in my task of preserving our kingdom! And now… Griffinstone is no more… just like the artifact responsible for its foundation…” He shoved the broken artifact to him. “The spirit of King Grover said to move on, but how can I move on when the tree from which our history grew just burned down to nothing?”

The silence surrounding them was only broken by the sound of the raindrops, and it lasted a while, as the elder griffin sat in the dirt with an emotionless look on his face, while the younger one simply stood by. Gallus just wanted to leave before it became awkward, but he had to force himself.

“Grandpa Gruff, can you explain something to me?” he set up a question.

“What?” he bluntly responded.

“What was it like to be a royal guard?”

Surprised, he raised his head. “Where did that question come from?”

“No no, it’s fine,” he repulsed. “I get that you don’t wanna talk about what was it like to serve as the guardian of what made the kingdom great.” He baited him into it, he knew he wouldn’t waste the opportunity to brag about “the good old times”.

“To be a royal guard…” he reminisced, “it meant being a part of something greater than oneself, to be a living armor that protects the heart of the Griffin Kingdom. There wasn’t a griffin around that wouldn’t give a claw or a leg to be a part of something greater than themselves. They wanted to bask in the glory, in the radiance of the artifact and its king. It meant that through you, the realm would endure for decades until somebody else comes along to pick up the mantle that you left behind…” Gallus could see a spark of life on the old griffin’s face, the joy that remembering it brought him. “That’s why I clung to it. Even as I watched over the decades how our once glorious city devolved into a pile of refuse, I kept clinging to hope that someday, hope would return. And now… that hope is finally gone for good… and so is the future of Griffinstone..."

“Come on, Grandpa Gruff, that’s not true. A city can be rebuilt; even without the Idol it will be made from the ground up…”

“By friendship you mean?” he said in a tone of deep doubt. “Can you see friendship in a physical form?”

“Well, yeah, you see it with people interacting…”

“Can you hold it, touch it, worship it, guard it?” he piled up things one after another, overwhelming the young one. “Our kingdom lasted for so long because it had something to stand behind. Even the ponies had Princess Celestia, she ruled over their realm for a thousand years and it remained intact. Friendship is a concept, and they rarely stand the test of time. Tell me, Gallus: Does friendship have a physical form?”

And he went silent. He may have actually had a point, and he had no answer to it, especially regarding Princess Celestia…

And at that moment, when he repeated that name, it finally dawned on him, the realization setting up shivers all over his body. “Yes. Yes, it does. Friendship DOES have a face, Grandpa Gruff! It’s Princess Twilight Sparkle! She’s the physical embodiment of friendship! She founded the School of Friendship! She and her friends are the Elements of Harmony! She’s the reason why Griffinstone started turning better, and that’s not gonna change even if our town is in ashes now!” He finally calmed himself down. “I think I finally have it, Grandpa Gruff.”

“Oh yes?” he said in a tone that sounded rather unsure.

“I do. And I promise you: You will see Griffinstone restored someday, and I’ll be there to make sure it happens.”

The half-blind griffin turned away, seemingly losing interest, returning to brood over his misfortune. Gallus saw it, he wanted to depart but stopped himself. There was still one last thing he had to do.

He approached his guardian from behind and wrapped his arms around him in an embrace. “I know I never had anything nice to say to you about anything, Grandpa Gruff, but…” He paused momentarily. “Thanks.”

He suddenly felt shaking. He thought for a moment there was an earthquake, but he quickly realized that it was the old griffin. There was a snorting noise, it changed into a wheeze, and then it finally turned into a really ugly-sounding sob which he was trying to suppress, failing miserably. Gallus couldn’t think whether he found it funny or gross, but pulling away or laughing simply wouldn’t be appropriate. And so, he just sat there, beside his guardian who was overcome with strong emotion, as the storm clouds slowly began to part and the sun finally began to peek over the mountain peaks, announcing a brand-new dawn.

Chapter 62: Ring of Fire

Night hung over Canterlot, as the controller of the sun decided to take a break for the day. As she slumberd, her younger sibling took up the charge. She has been working really hard, trying to unravel the strange mystery behind the infiltration of dreams, leaving her completely drained at the end of her shift. Right now, though, she was fresh to start her routine. She stood on the balcony, looking in the direction of the magical shield that was blocking any form of entry into the capital, as per the instructions of the headmare of the School of Friendship. She gazed into the distance where Ponyville stood, and beyond, towards the Everfree Forest. From the events of the past several days her mind was abuzz with questions.

Why is the shadow shifting into the image of her dark side? How does Turmoil have a power that is stronger than the Elements of Harmony? Can they really beat a being that even her father couldn’t?

Suddenly, she noticed a small flash of light over the forest, and a moment later, it was overshadowed by a large explosion that illuminated the entire forest, before dying down, leaving behind a flickering light that was coming from the set location.

“SISTER!” she yelled, running inside.

A small clearing was formed where the explosion happened, the trees and greenery have been burnt away. All of this came from a portal of dark light that hovered over the forest. And it wouldn’t be the last thing, as a moment later, a large cloud forced itself through and crashed into the ground. It dispersed, and in its place stood an obsidian construct, kneeling on one leg and propping itself on one hand.

“He sticks the landing, and the crowd goes wild! “Yay, SL/SK! Wooo!” he tried to imitate the cheering fans.

A shadowy wisp exited the portal, flying to his side. “Save your cheers for later, Scourgelord.”

The satyr groaned. “Ugh, can you at least remember what I’m called? I repeat it’s-“

And finally, the changeling queen swooped down through the opening, landing not far. “That’s one angry dragon, even if she was pint-sized. Now we just need to wait for-” And just before she could finish the sentence, as she looked upwards, the portal through which she had just emerged vanished. “-Grogar…? Wait, where is he? He should’ve followed me through the portal.”

“Heh, he’s probably trying to deal with those miniature horses and take all the glory for himself to brag about,” Storm King rolled his eyes.

“The Shaper is many things, Scourgelord, but stupid is not one of them,” Doubt corrected him. “Despite all his cunning, without support from either of you, he’s the weakest among all. He has no power of his own and is forced to use one that he took from the Lord of Chaos, which the magic of friendship will easily purge.”

“Yes, but where is he then?”

“One issue at a time, Broodmother. And speaking of which, we have to deal with the current one first.”

Right under where the portal was opened, a large scorched crater was left behind. And at the very bottom of it, the centaur lord, back to his drained form, lay face first in the dirt, unmoving.

The Pillar of Hatred flew down to inspect him. “He looks perfectly normal, considering he just set himself aflame,” she said. “Hey! Wake up, Lord Tirek! Are you going to lay there and have us carry you, or-” She nudged him with her front legs to try and wake him up, only to quickly retract and backed up a little when she realized that his body was like fire to the touch. “GAH! Sweet mother of all hives! He’s burning up!”

“Of course.” The shade flew to her side, followed by the construct. “He’s just consumed Anger’s essence. It’s a wonder that he survived... But I wonder how long that will last.”

“We can't leave him like this! We’d need to wrap him into something so we can bring down the heat.” The wispy shade and the satyr looked at one another and then both turned to her with a frown. “What?”

“I dunno. How about you tell me, Miss Goo-producer?” the Storm King made a snide remark.

“You have got to be joking…”

“We’re not, Broodmother. Since we’ve no other way, we’re going to have to resort to your… natural product.”

She rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe she would have to resort to what she used to preserve her prey, but she didn’t really have any other option. She stepped closer to Tirek again, opened her mouth, and regurgitated green gelatinous goo all over the unconscious centaur’s body. After about a minute, she finally stopped, as the body was now replaced by a cocoon-shaped object. But it wouldn’t last, as a few seconds later, as she puffed up in pride for an accomplished job, the cocoon cracked open and burned away – the centaur’s body was just too hot. But she would not be deterred. She let out a roar that echoed throughout the Everfree Forest. In a moment, a mass of changelings came crawling out in the open from every tree, bush, and cranny and surrounded the body. Each of them began regurgitating green goo all over Tirek, and as expected it was burning the substance away, yet they simply wouldn’t stop, continuing their task, until there was a giant hardened green chrysalis in its place. They waited patiently for several minutes, and after waiting for a while it became apparent that this time it worked.

“Finally…” she sighed in relief before issuing a command to her minions. “Alright, all of you, get it to the hive!”

The changelings immediately crawled under the large green hardened mass, raised it, and slowly carried it out of the crater. Their queen looked at the satyr and motioned him to follow.

“Halt!” Doubt stopped them before they could get any further, then pointed with its tail in the nearby direction. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Several hooves away, not far from where Tirek laid, a small green gemstone was flickering on the ground, the causality of all that had happened.

Chrysalis turned to one of the present offspring. “You! Pick it up.”

The changeling scurried to where the gem lay, and as he approached it and leaned forward to pick it up, he almost immediately repulsed.

“Well, it appears your children do not have the will to grasp hold of Anger, Broodmother,” the wisp said. “And since I do not have a form to grasp at anything either, one of you two will have to take the burden. Who’s it gonna be?”

“HE! SHE!” the two Pillars instantly pointed at one another.

“Are you nuts, freckles?! I can’t hold that thing!” the Storm King argued.

“Well neither can I, so why are you pointing at me?!” Chrysalis rebuked. “Besides, I’m already doing my part. Time for you to pick up the burden.”

“How?! Neither of us can touch the stone, you already agreed with me!”

“Oh, you’re a smart and cunning piece of rock, you’ll think of something.”

“And be quick about it. Anger will not wait,” Doubt added.

“FOUR!”

At the head of their queen, the changelings carried the isolated body of Lord Tirek through the Everfree Forest in the dead of night.

“FOUR!”

After reaching one of the only few entrances to the dark underground of the forest, they descended into it, and after a while finally reached the hive, where the Tree of Turmoil stood, rising over the lake made of the lifeblood of the world.

“Drop it here,” she ordered, and her servants dropped the green object.

They were all prepared. They now just had to wait… for him.

“FOUR!”

Out of the tunnel, the small green gemstone flew out and rolled a short distance. Soon after, the construct came walking in, holding a large piece of wood that roughly resembled a putter.

He raised the handle, pretending it to be a microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re back from the commercials and right onto the field, where the SL/SK has reached the final hole after only 56 hits. Can he manage to score the hole in one hit, or will he have to go for a round 60?” He stopped, seeing his partner in crime with an unimpressed frown on her face. “What?”

“You know, if I was trapped in there, in the end, even if you saved me, I would’ve thumped you really hard for the fact that you just hit me 56 times,” the changeling queen answered.

The Storm King put his hands on his waist. “Well, excuuuuuuuse me, queenie, but I didn’t see you come up with a better idea, I had to improvise.”

“Except she’s on point, Scourgelord,” Doubt slithered by his face. “You’ll be lucky if you do not face Anger’s wrath after it’s released because of this, and that’s a tall order. Now go and get the gem into the pool.”

He sighed. “Fine.” He walked over to the stone on the ground, a short distance from the tree, grabbed his stick, and began self-commenting once more. “And we’re now at the final hole, ladies and gentlemen. SL/SK is in position and is concentrating on one final strike. Let us hold our breath as he concentrates to perform this very critical-“

SCOURGELORD!

That was Fear! He’d recognize that shrilling multitude of different voices anywhere – and they were angry. The feeling almost instantly sank in, and in a moment of freak-out, he swung the stick, hitting the green gemstone too hard, making him hit the tree and it bounced back. He hit it again as he saw it approach, and much to his misfortune, not only did the stick slip out of his grip, he hit too hard again and the stone bounce off the tree trunk back in his direction, so he quickly grabbed a nearby changeling and swung with it. Luckily, the changeling’s body was soft, so this time the gemstone bounced off into the lake.

The bubbling sound came from the green water, as a dark, vapor-like substance began to emerge from the lake. “Anger,” Hatred’s harrowed voice echoed, “it has returned to the fold.” And soon, Fear spoke as well. “Yes… one more returns to the source. And soon, it will measure the pillar.”

Dark matter rose above the ground level, over the tree’s height, then curved, and then smashed into the large green object that lay on the bank of the small lake.

Tirek’s senses finally awoke. Yet no matter which way he turned he only saw darkness. It wasn’t until he flailed his arms in front of him that he noticed he hasn’t gone blind. He got back on his feet and looked about, then tried to gallop in every direction, only to realize that he wasn’t making any progress.

“Okay, listen!” he said in frustration. “Whoever’s doing this I don’t find it one bit funny! My patience’s wearing thin!”

“Not as thin as mine had been worn.”

Whoever said that did not shout, but even so, its voice was booming, echoing all around him, making it difficult to determine where it came from. He didn’t have to wait though, as right in front of him, a pair of giant red eyes opened, looking down on him.

“You… You’re Anger, aren’t you?”

A chuckle followed. “Fire’s name is easily remembered once you get burned by it, doesn’t it? We’re surprised you managed to survive, though to be honest that fate would’ve been rightfully deserved. We’ve about had it with your constant rebellion, although to be honest, it’s to be expected from you, considering your past. If only that aggression that YOUR KIND is expected to have could be diverted to something more productive.”

“And what would somebody… No, something, like you, know about MY kind?”

Suddenly, a great red maw opened under the eyes and it let out a loud bellow, causing Tirek to close his ears shut. It didn’t help, not that it mattered, as it ceased, and all of a sudden it inhaled. He suddenly felt even weaker, as if something was draining him, and then everything went dark.

He could feel the sun rays on his face, and the hot rocks on which he was laying. The heat finally made him open his eyes. Much to his surprise, he beheld a too-familiar scenery. This barren wasteland under the scorching sun was the one he knew all too well – his home.

“Your homeland is inhospitable. Nothing should live here, and yet that’s not how nature works,” Anger’s voice echoed in the background, beyond his sight.

The scene shifted to a small camp, a centaur settlement. It wasn’t anything that seemed familiar to Tirek. It seemed… primitive.

“From the moment that your kind learned to walk, your environment conditioned you to adapt to it. Even a small amount of resources is enough to support a basic civilization, but what happens when there’s not enough of them for all?”

He noticed two centaurs were arguing over a pitcher of water, neither willing to give the other more to slake their own thirst. In a squabble, the pitcher broke, causing them to accuse the other and a brawl broke out. Other residents came to intervene, taking sides and accusing one another. Before he knew it, they too clashed with one another, and then, in a bright flash, the scenery shifted to a battlefield. Centaurs decked in armor and armed with weapons, fought.

“Your environment became a crucible that forged your people into creatures of warfare. The conflict was bred into your body.”

The centaur lord couldn’t deny that watching an all-out battle tingled his senses, an urge to simply jump in. It was almost like a primal instinct. But before he could execute his action, something interrupted it.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

He knew that loud bleat. He’s heard it recently so many times it would’ve been difficult to forget it. The fight between the two armies stopped, and he, much like them, looked to the nearby cliff edge. He recognized the creature that produced that sound, this giant grey one-eyed goat-like monster.

“But that all changed when the wielder of the dark light came among them.”

And right then, a small shape walked between arimaspi’s legs, to the front. The blue ram sorcerer looked down upon the battlefield and grinned. Then, his horns began to glow, opening multiple portals, and allowing his minions to rush out like an unstoppable tide that completely overwhelmed the warriors below. The conflict that followed was completely one-sided, as the creatures that Grogar had unleashed dominated. By the end, the centaurs dispersed, demoralized, and they fled for their lives. The scene shifted again. He saw a familiar female gargoyle fly from cover to cover, trying to evade the gaze of horrible creatures that wandered the barren land of Nether Lands. She flew off and into a concealed entrance to a tunnel, which led to a settlement that was set up in a cavern, centaurs and all the other creatures that have inhabited the Nether Lands gathered here. And on the former, Tirek noticed something different - it almost seemed that the fire within them had been extinguished.

“The enemy that your forefathers faced was beyond any of them. Fear made them understand that there could be no victory. Either all the tribes worked together to survive, or they would all perish one after another. Their thirst for battle was replaced by fear, by a drive for survival.”

And among those that made this refuge their home, Tirek watched the female gargoyle fly to a centaur that seemed to be in charge. Much like the latter, it looked familiar – he was much younger than he remembered, but he knew this centaur with deer-like antlers. Before he could say it though, the scene changed. A great portal of dark light was opened before him and hordes of monsters that have been wandering the Nether Lands for a long time were now leaving. The arimaspi from earlier was the last to depart, as it patiently waited by the side of his master, who was taking one last look at the barren wasteland before they finally both entered it, and the portal closed shut. It turned to nighttime, and the residents of the land were taken over by jubilation from the knowledge that the being that was trying to subjugate them finally left. And in the moonlit dark, a tower-like castle arose in the heart of the land.

“And yet, after a generation, the seasons changed once again. Finally, for a brief moment, your people knew peace. But SOMEBODY knew it was fleeting, and decided to prevent things from returning to the old ways. And then… you came in.”

He heard a cry. Atop the Midnight Castle, a new member of the family entered the world, a baby centaur. Time quickly flew by, as Tirek watched himself grow older by the second, running about the castle. He was prohibited from leaving the castle grounds for a reason he didn’t understand. Then one night, the curiosity got the better of him and he snuck out in the middle of the night. Out in the wastes he saw a camp full of centaurs. They were partying, but not the kind he’s been used to.

“Even after a generation, there were still some who remembered the old ways – ones that were bred into them for eons. Your family tried to keep you isolated, to divert you from the path they were trying to keep your kind away from for the sake of peace, so you wouldn’t try to follow the way that your forefathers have been on for centuries.”

Conflict. As he watched the centaurs fight for the fun of it, something awakened in Tirek, the strange sensation he’s never experienced before. Every night he would venture out secretly, finding joy in fighting. Then one night, as he returned home, his disappearance was already discovered - his mother and father put him on the spot for disobeying them. But no matter how much they told him that he was in the wrong, he’s already seen what they didn’t want him to. He couldn’t understand why he was being scolded for such a thing; it just wasn’t fair!

“And then, at the peak of the moment… it awakened.”

Stop it!

The image of the young lord screamed, and a small puff of volatile energy erupted from his hands, scorching the ground. After a momentary silence, his mother jumped out of joy – her son was gifted with magic, a rare trait in centaur kind. The revelation stopped the heated moment… at least from Haydon. But his father… the only expression that could be described that he had on his face, was absolute terror. But he made no mention of it. After that things quieted down, and soon, Tirek’s younger brother, Scorpan, would be welcomed into the family. He would constantly be on his tail, trailing him like a shadow, almost always by his side. Even when he continued to sneak out of the castle he would follow him, but he made him promise that he’d never tell anyone. That devotion was a necessity that Tirek needed, as after the day that he first demonstrated his magical capabilities, his father became increasingly distant for some reason, always sternly talking to him as if he was expecting more from him. But that also brought up the issue of developing his magical power; there was nobody known in the kingdom who could do so, as a centaur wielding magic was extremely rare. But one caught Tirek’s eye one night, as he sunk out of the castle again, this time without Scorpan. He caught sight of an elderly centaur, draped in a cloak and carrying a staff, who levitated a pair of thugs that got too eager in spoiling for a fight and tossed them to the side, before leaving the village and returning to the humble home that was carved into the cliff formation. He confronted the elder, the so-called Sendak, wanting him to teach him all he knew about magic. And when the old centaur became aware that the king’s son was born with magical abilities, he was more than willing to oblige. He taught him a way to become stronger by draining magic, which wasn’t difficult to display from the amount of “Breath of Creation” he was hoarding. But this partnership of master and the apprentice wouldn’t last long. One day, after going on a journey to a distant land called Equestria, Sendak returned with a captive: A unicorn pony, one that he was draining of magic, magic more potent than anything that could be found in the Nether Lands.

“Your thirst for power cost you the ONLY true ally you had in your realm.”

It was true. To counter the growing disdain that his father seemed to have been showing towards him, he was determined to make himself stronger to prove him wrong. On the night of Sendak’s revelation, he was determined to take the unicorn's magic for himself, despite the warning that he was not yet ready. A warning that fell on deaf ears, and in the struggle between the centaur and the small equine there was no winner, leaving the elder trapped in his home, but the racket that he caused drew the attention of the locals. He managed to escape the consequences, leaving old Sendak to be forever locked away deep beneath the Nether Lands for his crime. Tirek tried to feign ignorance of the events, but it was clear that his father knew better, despite his pacifism, he had eyes and ears all over his kingdom, and the disdain between them only grew. But to him, it was all the clearer that his father was increasingly getting frightened by the thought of him becoming stronger. He knew how to get stronger now, he knew of the source that could provide it, and what his mentor failed to accomplish, he would succeed in.

One night, after he had grown older, Tirek snuck out of the castle, like he always did, but even if he was found out it wouldn’t matter, he was going to be beyond the kingdom’s borders. What he didn’t anticipate though, was his younger sibling following him.

“Brother?” He caught him as he got outside the castle, beyond the first ridge. “Where are you going?”

“I’m running away, what does it look like?” he answered.

“Brother, you can’t do that! Where will you go?!”

“I’m going to Equestria, Scorpan. I’m going to take their magic and show father what I’m capable of. Don’t try to stop me.”

“Tirek, you can’t go by yourself!”

“Why are you telling me this? Do you want to come along or something? Feel free to go back to mom and dad and tell them what I did, but I’m not stopping.”

He marched on. And much to his surprise, the gargoyle followed him, all the way beyond the Jagged Ridge, to the land of Equestria. They walked through the bountiful and flourishing land that was unlike anything their homeland could provide, the younger sibling found it marvelous, but not so much the older one, whose thoughts were focused, only on using him to scout the population for a great amount of magic that he could devour. That trail eventually brought them to the gates of a majestic city named Canterlot, and a pair of very powerful alicorns known as “the Princesses”. He remembered how he had to wait for several days in hiding, as he did not exactly look like the friendliest being in the kingdom, letting his younger sibling do all the work. Then one night, after hiding in the cave that overlooked the city, Scorpan returned.

“There you are, Scorpan. Tell me, what did you find out?”

“There’s an event called “Hearts and Hooves Day” tomorrow, Tirek,” he explained. “The Princesses will be on a float that will go throughout the city. They’ll be right in the open.”

“Perfect.” He grinned. “Here’s the plan. When they’re surrounded by the biggest crowd, you will cause a distraction that will divert everybody’s attention away from them. When that happens, I’ll catch them off guard and take their magic. They’ll never see it coming.”

“Brother, I’ve been thinking. What if… we don’t do it?”

The smile on the centaur’s face quickly vanished. “What? Why would you say that? My plan’s not good enough?”

“No, it’s not that, Tirek, it’s just that… What if we just abandon this whole thing of stealing magic?”

“What did you say?”

“Tirek… I’ve talked with the Princesses, and-”

“You what?!”

“Brother, don’t get angry, just hear me out. They recognized the medallion that I’m wearing - it is the sigil of our kingdom. We talked and… As it turns out, father’s been putting a lot of effort into this relationship between our kingdoms. He’s been trying to ensure that the goods we’re lacking can finally be brought to us so that all the other tribes in Nether Lands will no longer need to fight amongst themselves again, just like dad promised.”

“And you’re suggesting we should what? Just drop everything and go home?”

“Look, I know our home is not something to be happy about, but if that’s the case, we could just stay here. We could help the ponies with whatever we can and strengthen the relationship between our kingdoms even more. Father would-!”

“I don’t care what father would think about this,” he quickly brushed the thought away. “I came here to prove to father that I was in the right. I’ll finally have him respect me when I come back and have proof that I’ve become strong enough to not just rule one kingdom, but two.”

“Brother, stop and think what you’re saying! You would jeopardize our father’s life’s work and our people’s better future on the point of pride?”

“Our father’s life’s work tried to blind me to the truth of our kingdom. The tribes that reside in the Nether Lands still remember the old days, before the kingdom existed. They relish in the heat of battle, something that “our dear king” was trying to prevent me from knowing so that he could mold me into somebody who values peace over conflict. The thrill of battle, the heat of rage – once I tasted them I realized what he tried to make me lose. This is a matter of principle, and if I gave up now, it would’ve made me look weak.” He gave Scorpan a serious look. “Tell, little brother. Are you weak?” He didn’t answer, only shook his head. “Good. Then we begin with the plan tomorrow.”

The scene shifted. Tirek stood in the shadow of an alley of the streets of Canterlot, where he snuck in before dawn, draped in a cloak. The street he was looking at was packed with ponies, cheering as the Princesses of the Sun and Moon stood side by side on a giant heart-shaped float, waving to the crowd, one being rather sheepish out in the open. The centaur was in the position he needed to be, he just had to wait for his younger sibling to do the job, he knew all too well he wouldn’t let him down. And just as the float was about to pass the alley…

BOOM!

A noise echoed throughout the city, on the opposite end of the street. Everybody stopped in their place, perplexed by what just made that sound, trying to see where it came from. This was it! With the crowd distracted, Tirek galloped out of cover, lept over the group of ponies in front of him, landed out on the street, and with another leap jumped at his targets that were in plain view… And before he knew it, Celestia and Luna instantly turned their gaze upon him and their horns glowed. All of a sudden, Tirek lost the ground under his hooves and found himself floating in the air.

“You have a lot of nerve, knave!” The dark mare spoke in a boisterous tone. “Attacking the Equestrian Princesses on this most splendiferous occasion?! You will-!”

“Enough, Luna,” the older sibling halted her. “He may be an assailant, but he is still a lord from another kingdom… Though I think this will soon change.”

Tirek flailed about, trying to reach for something solid to stabilize himself. “If you know that I’m the Lord of the Nether Lands, then put me down now! My father-!”

“I know of your father, Tirek. He was the one who brought a unicorn back to Equestria when one of his people kidnapped him to take his power for himself. I had expected eventually something like this would’ve happened again… But not from his own family.”

Luna jumped in. “And do not bother trying to use his authority to excuse yourself from this act. I’m sure once your younger brother tells him what occurred he’ll understand that the fate you’re about to endure is most deserving.”

He was shocked. The way they told it was almost as if they had expected an attack… And that’s when he noticed Scorpan on the other side of the street between a set of buildings, hunched over, with a despondent look on his face. He did it! He led him into a trap!

“TRAITOR!!! WEAKLING!!!” the centaur raged.

“Lord Tirek!” Princess Celestia made a grand proclamation. “For the crime of conspiring against Equestria, by our sovereign right, we hereby sentence you to ETERNITY in the depths of Tartarus!”

Tartarus. This underworld-like place was the final destination for the vilest creatures on the land. The prison was carved into the mountain and sealed with a magical gate that could only be opened using magic, and on top of that, it was guarded by a three-headed dog, Cerberus. But there was something else about this place. There was a sinister aura about it, one that kept all the beasts and monsters in a perpetual state of dejection, so they wouldn’t try to escape. Tirek could feel it too, as he sat in an isolated cage, away from everybody so he couldn’t feast on their magic, the dread of the place constantly trying to break him. But he wouldn’t give it. He would persevere, he would survive. And even if it takes centuries before he finally manages to escape, he would remain resolute. He would never forgive, or forget.

Finally, the centaur lord found himself alone again in the darkness, as the background disappeared. The visions have come to an end, but it left him perplexed as to why all of this was necessary.

“You were given numerous chances to succeed after that, Devourer,” Anger’s voice still echoed around. “And yet you failed. Time and again. If you ask us, you ARE weak.”

“I’m not weak, Anger!” he quickly protested, shaking his fist at the darkness.

The booming voice cackled. “In that state, you still claim you’re strong? Prove it.”

FLASH!

Everything’s gone white before centaur’s eyes, but it soon faded, the silence replaced by what seemed like people cheering. And they were. Tirek found himself in a circular arena, with several wooden pillars, surrounded by fire, and on the other rim of it, crowds of centaurs cheered loudly.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Ring of Fire!” the announcement followed. “Before you stands the challenger of the day! Will he persevere, or will he be added to another pile of losers who couldn’t measure up?”

He was still trying to process what was going on, but it was clear he wouldn’t have enough time, as the nearby draw bridge opened over the fiery pit, and a figure walked in. At first, he thought he was just seeing things, but that illusion was broken by the announcer.

“And here comes the reigning champion! The champion, the supreme ruler of Nether Lands! Lord Tirek!”

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was him, in his withered form, traipsing into the ring, and the draw bridge pulled up.

He pointed at him. “You! Who are you?!”

The other one chuckled and pointed back at him. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m you… but better.”

“Nobody’s better me than ME!”

“Show me,” the other Tirek grinned.

He suddenly grabbed hold of the nearby wooden pillar, ripped it out of the ground, and promptly swung at him. The centaur dodged, galloping away. Taking cover behind one of the bigger pillars. He couldn’t understand how could this reflection have the strength that he didn’t have. But curiosity got the better of him. As he dashed away when the clone beat down his cover, he reached out for one of the much bigger pillars and grabbed hold of it. But to his surprise and joy, he managed to rip it out of the ground, it didn’t even feel as heavy as it looked, despite being able to inflict damage on the battlefield. He quickly turned and swung at his opponent, his own pillar breaking under the mass.

“Impressive,” the other one said. “You caught on quickly.”

It then grabbed not just one, but two pillars, swinging them at Tirek in a frenzy, he dodged, running in the opposite direction, the pursuer following, trying to bash him, only hitting pillars that were in the way, past which the centaur was trying to dodge. By the time they came full circle, the other one didn’t seem to have tired down, not that it mattered to Tirek, who then instantly stopped in full gallop, allowing his opponent to come within range, and then instantly kicked him, sending him flying in the pillar on the other side of the arena. Suddenly, it created a chain reaction, where the impacted pillar began to fall, hitting the other one after another until they all came crashing down, right on top of the champion. The crowd went wild, cheering even louder, and Tirek couldn’t help but wave, to soak in their praise. It wouldn’t last long, as one of the pillars flew by his head and ended up getting consumed by the fire around the arena. He turned and saw his other self standing tall once again, seemingly unscathed by his actions, the objects under which he was littering the surroundings.

“Not bad, I must say,” the champion spoke. “Cunning, resourceful, and all of it self-taught. Not half bad.” Then he began mumbling to himself as if he was wondering. “Still, something’s missing… There’s something in you that’s… lacking right now…” He grumbled for a while when finally gasped in realization. “Wait… I see now.” He pointed at Tirek. “It’s you! You’re denying your anger its purpose!”

Yet he could only give him a confused look. “I don’t need anger when I’ve got all the tools I need to defeat you right here,” Tirek told him.

“Oh yeah? Come on then. Take a shot at me.”

Instantly, the centaur grabbed the nearby pillar and from a great distance brought it down on his doppelganger. It snapped and scorched off halfway. He saw him standing there with a smug face, a large red energy ball hovering between his horns, but it shouldn’t be possible, not in his current state.

“Wait… how’s that possible?!” Tirek was left flabbergasted. “Where did you get that much magic?!”

“This?” the double pointed at the giant orb. “This isn’t magic, loser. This is anger made manifest. It’s all the power I need to beat you.”

The orb stirred and a powerful blast was sent in the centaur’s direction, forcing him to dodge. The battle had now turned into a casting one, something that Tirek was not confident he could win. He rose back on his feet and tried to conjure enough magic for an attack, but the tiny orb that he managed to produce did little more than tickle his opponent when he fired.

“Your anger is trying to consume, devour… Destroy your enemies, and yet for some reason, you’re holding it back right now. And I wonder… WHY?”

Tirek already knew the answer. So many times, in the heat of the moment, when he was supposed to focus, he allowed the emotion to get the better of him, and as a result, things quickly went awry for him, and especially recently.

“He will destroy you, Devourer, if you do not act.”

Tirek could hear the voice of Anger in the back of his head, then suddenly realized that his surroundings have frozen.

“I can’t allow it to happen again,” he protested.

“You mistake a moment of spontaneous emotion as anger, Devourer. To use the true power of anger, one must keep it aflame, compress it into the core of your body, focus it on your target, and then release it. Do that, and you will survive.”

“Even if you say that, I can’t just get angry on the spot,” he protested.

“Oh yes, you can. Close your eyes and concentrate.” Tirek followed suit. “Think back. Of all who wanted to deny you your destiny. Of those who made you suffer.” The images of all the ponies suddenly popped up, from Celestia and Luna to Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony, and many more. “Of all the ones that have tried to turn you from the nature of your people.” The image of his mother and father appeared in his thoughts. “And think about all of those… who BETRAYED YOU.”

When it said those words, the image of Scorpan emerged in his thoughts, that was the trigger. Tirek suddenly felt a rush of anger lighting up in his belly, and it kept growing and growing, allowing it to wash over him. Finally, he opened his eyes and focused on the lookalike. He let out a loud bellow, and soon after began inhaling. Suddenly, the fires surrounding the arena were being drawn into his open mouth, until all lights went out and the arena disappeared. The doppelganger could only watch, as Tirek began to grow huge, his body bulging out until his power was at its peak again. He then looked down upon his double.

“You… You’re a reflection of me, aren’t you?” He pointed at him. “The reason why I was weakened was because you were drawn out of me to be used as a challenge. Now… it’s time to go home.”

But it refused. It shot a beam of magic at the giant centaur, but all he did was open his mouth again and began inhaling his attack. Finally, it consumed the giant magic orb, as well as its holder, and they both disappeared. Tirek once again stood in complete darkness but was now fully energized.

A pair of giant red eyes opened once again, this time at the centaur’s level. “Well done, my Pillar of Anger. Now that you have been set in place, conserve that anger. Harness the rage. You will have an outlet for your frustration soon enough. You will be the pillar upon which our return will be guarded. Step once again into the waking world, and become the harbinger of our destruction.” The darkness surrounding him began to crumble on itself. “Awaken… DEVOURER.”

To those outside, almost as quickly as it began, it already ended. The darkness that surrounded the giant object made of hardened changeling slime retreated, and inside, a vague shape began to glow until it finally exploded, destroying the cocoon, and making Chrysalis and the Storm King cover. From the wreckage, a tall muscular figure arose, his tail and back hair were lit aflame.

“Hey, wildebeest, I think you’ve got something there. You know, flammable.” The satyr commented.

Tirek turned his head and it became obvious that it wasn’t just his hair that was on fire, so too was his mouth, after he ran his hand over his head. “Honestly, it doesn’t really hurt that much. I think it may just be a cosmetic effect… But I can tell who’s about to feel something.” He cracked his knuckles and began approaching them.

“Whoa, halt!” the construct protested. “Just for the record, what happened back at the griffin tree wasn’t our idea! Come on, freckles, tell him!

But Chrysalis said nothing, she was just standing still, almost as if she wasn’t quite present. But before things escalated, a weaselly shape flew in to intercept.

“He speaks the truth, Devourer. What happened to you at Griffinstone, the backstabbing, was my idea. It was the only way to get you to do what needed to be done.”

Tirek stopped advancing and glared at the wisp. “If you weren’t incorporeal I’d squash you right now.”

“And if you did that you’d have to answer to Anger. What did it tell you?”

“The centaur spoke between gritted teeth. “Conserve my anger…”

“Then do that.” Doubt flow down to where the other two were. “Now to the matter at hand. It seems our Broodmother is having one of her moments.”

Storm King waved his hand in front of her face and she still didn’t react. “Hello, anybody home?”

She finally snapped out. “I feel another one’s coming…”

“Another one what?”

“My clutch.” She flew up in the air and towards the lake. “Gentlemen, if you could please avert your eyes.”

At this point, her words didn’t reach them, something that they would not appreciate later. The newly awakened Pillar was curious about something else.

“Hey... Errr... SL/SK? Where’s Grogar?”

Dark stone corridors stretched a great distance, the only light that illuminated them was the dim flickering source in the distance from outside. They were deathly quiet… for but a moment. The sound of hoof steps could be heard echoing, belonging to a lone donkey. He wore an orange cowl, and some of his dark brown hair was sticking out the edge of it, partly obscuring his green eyes, along with a pair of long ears through the holes in the garment. This trail was not foreign to him, he’s passed it so many times but the number eluded him. This place… time lost all meaning in it. He couldn’t leave it, not until HE returned to it, and to leave it… He couldn’t imagine it; the outside world was something he didn’t want to experience alone, not again. But even if he couldn’t tell the time, he could feel that a lot of it has passed. And HE had been absent this whole time, what if he really was gone? Was he now truly all alone…?

FUUUUM!

He stopped. He could’ve sworn he just heard a sound. But maybe he was just hearing things. He didn’t dare give himself false hope. Yet as she resumed his walk…

FUUUUM!

There it was again! One may have been a coincidence, but the second time? He stood still, unmoving listening to every sound just to make sure.

FUUUUM!

He heard it, truly this time. There was only one thing that could’ve made it. He dashed off, galloping down the infinite hallways, listening to the glowing sound. There was only one object that could be making it, but why now, after all this time? He entered a great hall with a sinister throne, near it, a pedestal stood, shaped like a claw, and in its grasp, it held a large orange-yellow orb, an eye that once belonged to his friend. He slowly approached. There was a tingle in the back of his head, he was quivering from anticipation. He reached out and touched the orb. It flashed in bright light, and within it, a silhouette emerged, one that was slowly beginning to show detailed features, ultimately revealing the image of the Father of Monsters.

“Bray,” he spoke softly.

“Master… Is it really you…?”

“Yes, Bray. How long has it been?”

“I… I don’t know, Master… This place… It makes you forget the time and…” he was fumbling words as if he was on the verge of strong emotion. “Master, I thought you were-”

“Deposed? If these are the rumors then they were highly exaggerated.”

“What about Paramis? Is he-?”

“Also here. How do you think I’m contacting you? Now… Open the doorway.”

“Master?”

“Has it really been this long that you’ve forgotten? I’m at the portal’s location. Open the Doorway to Tambelon.” The grizzled ram insisted, yet for some reason, the donkey just stared at him. “Bray, what are you waiting for?

“Master… I fear I can’t do anything.”

“Excuse me?”

“The doorway is unlocked, Master. It has been this entire time in anticipation of your return. I do not want to say anything bad about you, Master, but…”

“But what?”

“I fear that the fault may be on your end.”

“WHAT?!” the dark sorcerer exploded. “I’m trying to open it on this end and it won’t react! This shouldn’t be happening unless…!” Almost instantly, the anger vanished from a sudden realization. “Unless… SHE did something to me…”

“Master?”

His image was looking to the side. “That’s the only thing that could explain it. But the knowledge, it’s beyond either me and the draconequus’ knowledge…” He turned back to the screen. “Bray.”

“Yes, Master?”

“I will have to do some investigating. Wait until I call you again. And if I never do…” He paused for a moment. “Consider yourself the lucky one.” And with a flash, Grogar’s image disappeared, and the Eye of Arimaspi became dormant.

He was gone. He left just as quickly as he returned, but he did return – he was still out in the world. But what he said at the end left him confused. Why did he say that, as if he might not return? Was there something that was threatening him out there? No. He knew better. He will return to the realm once more. He knew of the grand plan that they had to fulfill, and he, much like Paramis, was a faithful servant. He would wait for his master’s return.

The centaur and the satyr sat in the heart of the hive, their backs turned and their ears shut while the Pillar of Hatred was doing her business. Or at the very least, one of them was. The animated construct just sat by the other one, his expression showing disturbance. He shoved Anger’s servant to garner his attention.

“What?!” Tirek exploded, before covering his ears again to try and silence the background noise.

“I wish I had a pair of fully functioning ears right now,” the Storm King told him.

“Why? So, you could hear all those sounds behind us?”

“No, so I could plug them up.”

“But you already have ears.”

“They’re not real! I can hear sounds no matter what and it’s downright disturbing!”

“And here I thought you’d be the last one to have problems with bodily functions, construct.”

The two turned to the voice, which belonged to a familiar face they were missing for a little while now. The grizzled ram stood before them, bereft of amusement.

“You seem to be doing alright, boy. All things considered,” he remarked.

“Where did you come from?” the satyr wondered.

“Through the tunnel, like you. You both were just so preoccupied with cringing that you didn’t notice.” He gazed behind them.

“Old man, avert your eyes,” Tirek said.

“Why, boy? I’m not some weakling that couldn’t stomach the sight of the miracle of life - I’ve seen it enough to not be bothered by it. Can’t say the same about either of you.”

“Listen you, old fool, I’m not gonna-!”

Before the centaur could speak his mind, the animated statue intervened. “Wait, where’s your pet?”

“Outside. He need not be bothered with what’s happening here. It’s gonna get crowded pretty soon anyway.”

“What makes you say that?” Tirek inquired.

“Turn around, boy.”

“I don’t think I want to.”

“Wait… I can’t hear anything anymore,” the Storm King realized.

Tirek unplugged his ears. He was right – it’s gotten quiet. The two pillars turned their heads. Beneath the sinister tree, in the green pool, the Queen of Changelings lay atop a large pile of eggs, clearly exhausted from the ordeal. After a few moments, she got back on her feet and stretched. Her gaze soon locked on the new arrival.

“Ah, Grogar. We’ve been missing you,” she giggled.

“That would be an understatement.” Doubt, which was previously coiled around the Tree of Turmoil, flew towards the sorcerer, the tone in his voice clearly displeased. “You have a lot to make up for the stunt you pulled previously.”

“Stunt that I have pulled?” He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean, the stunt that the boy has pulled because he got too greedy for his own good?”

“Hey!” instantly reacted.

“Be that as it may, you should’ve contacted us after that incident,” the wisp resumed.

“Even if the boy hadn’t done his deed I was going to ask you to help me restore my missing companion. And I’m doubtful you wouldn’t have seen it as “a waste of valuable time”. True, I may have “borrowed” the boy and the construct to assist me in the task, but I had faith that the Queen of Changelings would be more than adequate for the task.”

“I mean, it’s Doubt – faith is alien to it,” Storm King commented, to which everybody turned to him. “What? It’s true.”

“But back to the point. In hindsight, had we all gone together to Dragon Lands, do you honestly think things would’ve gone better than they have?”

“Sorry, to say that, Doubt, but he’s got you there,” Chrysalis

“Speak for yourself, Chrysalis!” the centaur glared at her. “I could’ve been saved a burn too many!

“Enough, Devourer,” the weaselly shape silenced him. “I will take your point on this, Shaper. But let me be perfectly clear, to all of you: I, nor any of the other fragments will tolerate any further deviation. We’ve come too far now to fail. One fragment remains, and I will not risk Turmoil’s return to be compromised on a point of pride from any of you. Do I make myself clear?”

Surrounded by the Pillars, Doubt looked around, trying to see their responses, which amounted to a “yes” behind clenched teeth. Then it looked at the blue ram, who was yet to give a response.

He smiled. “Of course. I assume you already have a plan to track down the last one?”

Much to everybody’s surprise, the shadowy vapor shook its head. “It is a complicated matter, unfortunately.”

“Can’t be more complicated than what we just had to go through. How long will it take to find this one?” the satyr asked

“Give or take a few hundred years.”

“WHAT?!” the three Pillars collectively said.

“As I said last time, this piece flew completely off my radar. Unlike Anger, which remained present for a while, this one disappeared before I could locate it. Last I’ve sensed it was on the south-western shores and that’s where we’ll have to start.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chrysalis voiced her frustration. “You want us to check every single inch of land and/or sea, without any fixed location?!”

“What do you expect, Broodmother? The world is vast. As far as we know the final piece could be on the other end of it. And unlike previously, we have nothing to go on. We have no clues to track it.”

“The clues might be closer than you are aware, Doubt,” the shrilling multiple voices spoke.

The ground shook, and from the green pool, a large dark form arose, its multiple eyes opening, looking down on the forms below.

The shadowy vapor slithered closer to it. “Fear? Do you know something I do not?”

It cackled. “Oh yes. You wouldn’t have known unless you had entered the veil that one of my children had conjured when we gifted him our power. I had seen so many fear and dreads that made themselves manifest, but one of them… This fear was born of regret and guilt. There was something odd, familiar even about it.”

“Show me,” the weaselly shape requested.

A long slender arm sprouted out of the multi-eyed black mass. It reached out and gently poked the incorporeal formation, and its form bent as if it was touched. Its eyes flashed for several seconds before it finally snapped out of its trance, shaking its head.

“Despair…” It said in a tone of sudden realization. “This whole time, the answer was in front of us and I didn’t know…”

“Doubt? What are you talking about?” Chrysalis curiously wondered.

“There is ONE who knows where the final piece is,” it explained.

“Well, where is it? Tell us so we can drag it out of him.” Tirek eagerly said.

“Or is this going to involve another overly long investigation?” the satyr questioned.

“We need not do anything,” Doubt spoke. “All we have to do is wait.”

Chapter 63: Past Sins and Regrets

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 64: The One Who Knows

Although the day was slowly coming to an end, the celebration of Hearts and Hooves Day continued. Completely oblivious were the revelers to what took place in the Princess of Friendship’s former castle, for if they were in on it, the celebratory mood would’ve immediately dissipated. Past its large doorway, in the foyer, the Elements of Harmony, the members of the School of Friendship, and its students, as well as a lone zebra, stood silent before the old unicorn wizard, after revealing the truth behind the aforementioned holiday. Nobody said a word after his memory visions came to an end. After all, what could they even say to the revelation that, not only was there not just one, but TWO alicorns that predated the two sisters, the tale of the origin of Hearts and Hooves Day was real, and both the first alicorn princess and the Mother of Dragons disappeared in the end? All of this happened because the elder sorcerer desperately tried to bring the ponykind closer, and although his desire was not foolish, his methods were.

But it was Starlight Glimmer that was most touched by what she just saw, especially because the old wizard addressed her personally, reminding her of the conversation they had in the repository from where she stole the object that lead to this revelation. It made her realize something: They were both in the same position, but all things were reversed. She still recalled her old self – self-righteous and sanctimonious, and when her attempt to create her perfect vision of society failed, she chose to lash out at those who foiled her plans, determined to destroy their destiny out of sheer spite even if it meant the destruction of the world, using Star Swirl’s very own time travel spell. He too wanted to create a better world, but not through changing the whole of society as had she wanted, merely letting things progress naturally; he only messed it up when he determined that things were either progressing too slowly or didn’t at all, and was trying to force the progress. The outcomes were completely different though: Whereas the headmare’s past crimes were erased by the spell's very nature, as if the events never even happened and she was able to make up for her past transgressions… he couldn’t. He couldn’t undo the tragedy that led to the demise of Equestria’s first alicorn princess, the same as the fate that befell the last Dragon Lord and his Mother’s Legacy that he tried to protect. She stared at the old unicorn wizard, who seemed to have aged even more over the course of the last few minutes, and she couldn’t help but feel pity for him. But before she could even utter a word…

“So that’s why he doesn’t like Hearts and Hooves Day.”

They all snapped out of the moment. That voice didn’t belong to any of them. Somebody was watching, or at least listening to what had just happened! They looked about but saw nobody, almost as if the voice didn’t come from within the castle. But the headmare quickly determined there was only one place that anyone could’ve heard or seen what just happened in the foyer. Her gaze turned to the main entrance, and using her magic she opened the door. Figures dropped on the ground, past the threshold, as it was clear that they propped their heads against the said door, Starlight’s action taking them completely off guard.

“Applebloom!” the workhorse recognized her younger sibling.

She wasn’t the only one, as the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders never strayed far from one another. “Sweetie Belle! You have the nerve to eavesdrop on things like this!” And soon after, much like the fashionista, the wonderbolt chewed the pegasus out. “Yeah, Scoots, totally not cool!”

The young mares quickly scrambled back on their hooves. “We didn’t see or hear anything, we swear!” the youngest Apple tried to make excuses.

“Then what was that Hearts and Hooves comment?” Applejack frowned. “Who said it?”

Starlight stepped in. “Girls, why did you come back? I thought you went on when it was made clear that THAT holiday wasn’t welcomed by…” She nodded at the elder wizard unicorn.

“Well, it’s not like we wanted to,” Scotaloo answered, “but we needed somepony higher than us to handle our new guest that’s been waiting outside the barrier since yesterday because of your barrier Starlight. He’s saying he wants to speak of Twilight, we just weren’t aware she was back already.”

That’s when everybody realized that there was another presence among the three, he just wasn’t noticed, since he was buried under a pile of young mares, but now he’s pulled himself up to full height. It was a deer. The young stag towered over the Cutie Mark Crusaders, his coat yellow and so bright that it almost seemed like it was golden, he had red eyes, on his head a pair of antlers grew, fashioned in a way that it looked like he was wearing a small crown, and around his neck wore a golden collar with a small barrel at the front. But no matter how others looked at it, there was only one way to describe the young stag – radiant.

“Who’s your new friend, girls?” the head mare asked.

Sweetie Belle gasped. “Starlight, don’t you know who this is?!” The other two crusaders gave her a weird look as she motioned with both hooves to present the deer. “This is the son of King Aspen, the Heart of the Forest! The prince of Thicket! He’s-!”

“Bramble? They sent you?” Twilight interrupted the young mare, who soon after pouted for having her presentation spoiled.

“Yes, Princess Twilight,” the young stag calmly spoke. “Although considering the urgency of the message I would’ve expected to be let in yesterday.”

“Oh, that…” The headmare rolled her eyes to the side, then pulled the blue unicorn over to her. “Our bad on this, kid. You see-”

The unicorn of the trio gasped. “Starlight, weren’t you listening?! This is the son of the king from another kingdom! You can’t talk so casually to… him…” She looked about and everybody, including the prince himself, was staring at her. “Sorry, never mind,” she meekly apologized, flustered.

Her older sibling turned the attention away from her. “Khm, as Starlight just said, we apologize for the unsavory turn of events, Bramble. We gracefully welcome you.”

The stag turned to her and was about to speak, but then halted himself and squinted at her. “Errr… Rarity, right? There’s something off-putting about you…”

The Elements of Harmony knew too well what he was referring to – the streak of grey that ran across her glamorous purple mane was sticking out like a sore thumb, and they knew full well how the fashionista was touchy about the current situation, so they desperately tried to warn the prince not to mention it, flailing about and shaking their heads, not sure if the message was getting through, as he only gave them a look of confusion.

Luckily for them, the one mare who was silent this entire time intervened on their behalf. “Not to preach to a choir, but as Miss Rarity said, we are most glad for the arrival of the offspring of the Forest’s sire.”

Bramble turned to the zebra, surprisingly with a smile on his face. “I’m glad to see you here, miss Zecora, safe and sound. I assume the forest has run you out of your home?”

“Not per say, it’s its shadow that torments your kind now that was at play.”

Seeing the immediate potential for the rising tension dispelled, Twilight stepped in again. “Bramble, you will have to explain what’s happening over there. King Aspen’s message was not very big on details.”

He inhaled. “Something’s off with the Everfree Forest, Princess Twilight. A few days ago, we noticed a strange dark cloud hovering over a specific area. We went to investigate the location underneath it, but the woodland creatures warned us about changelings hiding in the area so we decided to monitor the situation from a distance. Then a few days passed, and we were roused by a loud lightning crash that hit a forest area. The scouts went to investigate and found the Queen of Changelings and a blue ram hauling a large piece of rock with them, after which the darkness in the area kept growing. And then yesterday evening a fiery explosion burned part of the wood not far from Thicket. We managed to suppress the wildfire but we were unable to investigate the location. Luckily, the forest creatures informed us that the changelings, along with their queen and a large walking statue, carried a strange four-legged creature that also had arms, away, and the darkness in the forest only grew after that. Father became aware that this wasn’t something that the deer could deal with on our own, so he sent me ahead to coordinate with you. And as I left Thicket for Ponyville… I realized that things were far worse than we thought.”

“What do you mean, Bramble?” the princess inquired.

“As I traveled through the Everfree Forest I was suddenly attacked by timber wolfs.”

Other mares looked at one another in confusion. “What’s so strange about that? Timber wolves attack just about anything on sight,” Applejack remarked.

“Not us! Timber wolfs are creatures of nature, natural forces made manifest. And because of our connection to nature, they have never attacked our kind. When I came in sight of them, they suddenly became extremely agitated and they gave chase. I tried to get to Ponyville to take refuge, but there was a barrier surrounding it, so I had little choice other than to outrun them. These beings shouldn’t be like this.”

“Excuse me, young forest prince, but are you saying that something changed timber wolf’s behavior patterns?” Star Swirl wondered.

He nodded. “It would take some incredibly powerful magic to alter the behavior of creatures that were born of nature itself.”

“If that’s the case I can guess what creature we’re talking about.” He turned to Twilight. “But why has it happened only now, I wonder?”

She uttered a single word. “Anger.”

“We found the dang thing in Griffinstone”, Rainbow Dash explained, “but we were too late.”

“Yeah! Tirek used it to nearly burn down the whole tree if Grogar hadn’t dropped him through one of his port-holes… Soooooo, my guess is that’s what the fiery explosion near your home was, Bramble,” Pinkie Pie came to a logical conclusion.

“So, wait, Chrysalis and her cohorts were all at Griffinstone?” Starlight asked.

“Well, not all at once, but by the end they were, yes,” Sunburst confirmed.

“That would explain the strange thing that the Cutie Map revealed just recently…”

“Wait, you mean that something else appeared on the map?” Applejack questioned.

The elder wizard nodded and they all followed into the great hall where the map stood. After a quick scan, the obvious detail became noticeable. The giant tree upon which Griffinstone sat was engulfed in flickering flame.

“If Lord Tirek used this new power, then we were given a warning to the event,” the headmare pointed out.

“Same as what had happened with the Storm King at the Crystal Empire.”

“Then why isn’t it here too?” a low timid voice spoke, everybody realizing it belonged to Ocellus. “We all saw the Storm King. Heck, he was terrorizing Griffinstone nearly all day until Princess Twilight and her friends arrived.”

“Agreed,” Sandbar added. “If, as you said, the map shows when Chrysalis and the rest of her group use their powers… wouldn’t then the cloud and lightning appear over the Griffinstone map as well?”

Starlight rubbed her chin. “Now that you mention it, Sandbar, I think you may be right. Star Swirl, if that’s the case, then our initial theory may have been wrong.”

“So it would seem…” the elder nodded. “Then we will have to look into that as well. You will have to explain everything that happened since you all left.”

Twilight turned to the rest of the Elements. “Girls, you can go home for now. It might take a while before we can plan out our next course of action. And I’m sure you have something to deal with at home.”

“I’ll say,” Rarity was first to respond. “I need to go home and finally get what’s left of my dignity back in order.” She stroked her mane across the grey streak that ran down the middle of it.

The workhorse rolled her eyes. “Right… Anyway, Ah have to check up on how Sweet Apple Acres is doin’.”

“I have to go check on Angel and the rest of the critters,” Fluttershy said.

“And after what I’ve just gone through,” the wonderbolt yawned, “I’m gonna drop out and snooze for a week.”

“Considering the track record we seem to have lately, that’s not likely gonna happen,” Pinkie Pie commented. “But still, I think Gummy could use a bath, it’s been a while. And I could go for some baked sweets. And I need to check up on home if Mom and Dad already received the announcement from Maud about Mudbriar’s proposal. And...”

“Okay, point taken.” Starlight intervened before more could be said. “You all clearly had a rough time. Off you go, and have some well-deserved rest.”

Twilight turned to the deer visitor. “Bramble, you’re our guest. You should go and rest too considering what you had to go through since yesterday.”

“Hold on!” he protested. “My father sent me here and I want to see and hear the whole thing.”

“I’ll give a full explanation later, but right now, we have some work to do, and it’ll take both me, Starlight, and Star Swirl a lot of concentration to figure out our next move.”

“Fine… But don’t think about trying to hide or sugarcoat things.”

“Stop.” The mares halted as they were about to leave, deterred by the voice of the elder unicorn. “While we’re on the subject of that, we need to address the situation before we got disrupted.” He paused, letting the seriousness sink in. “You’ve all just witnessed what I have been carrying with me for more than one thousand years. You’re the first ones that bore witness to what never should’ve come to light… This is a burden I should’ve taken with me to the grave. But now that you all know the truth. So tell me earnestly, what will you do with that knowledge?”

Everybody present looked at one another, but it was the alicorn that spoke first. “We’re not going to tell anyone anything, Star Swirl.”

“Wait, we’re not?” the Element of Honesty raised an eyebrow, but the other mare already went ahead of her.

“We chose not to tell anything to Princess Celestia. That being said, however, this is entirely on you.”

“And what am I to do?” the old wizard wondered. “Reveal everything to her?”

“Of course! Honesty is the best policy!” Applejack predictable spoke.

“I wish that were true…” He shook his head. “Miss Applejack, what exactly is to be gained from this? Neither Celestia nor Luna ever wondered where they came from, they simply accepted things for what they were. I only revealed their father, King Titan, because he is relevant to the threat we face now. And to be honest, I’m not sure how I’m going to explain that part to them. It’s… It’s something that’s difficult for me to talk about. But things that predate him? What would be gained from revealing to her that Equestria nearly fell, the first alicorn princess and the progenitor of all dragonkind’s disappearance, all because of my youthful impatience? All it would do would afflict them with burdens they never had to deal with before. And considering what lies out there in the forest, only stone's throw away, THAT is the last thing we want.”

There was unease with what the elder just said. He was right about the sinister darkness that has been a thorn in their side the whole time, the main threat they had to deal with. And if past experiences held water, and dark force was able to manipulate their inner turmoil, then perhaps it was best for them to keep quiet about this. And yet even so…

“So, you’re just going to keep quiet about it?” the Element of Honesty refused to relent. “You’re just going hold on to that burden of guilt? That’s not healthy in any way.”

“It’s a burden I’ve been carrying with me for a very long time, Miss Applejack. I think I can hold it a while longer,” Star Swirl deflected an attempt of persuasion.

“Sooner or later you’re gonna have to spill the beans, Star Swirl.” The workhorse glared at him.

“Maybe,” Starlight intervened, “but not today. You’ve heard your princess, off you go for some well-deserved rest, all of you.” She turned to the students. “That goes for all of you as well.”

There was a groan of disappointment from all of them. “Yona’s adventure went as fast as it came,” the yak moaned.

“I’m sorry, Yona,” the headmare tried to console her. “We’ll do the trip again next time.”

“That’s assuming there will be a next time,” the yellow dragon remarked.

“Now, Smolder, no need for the gloom and doom,” Trixie halted her. “Come, everycreature. Sunburst and I will show you to your rooms so they can work in peace.”

With everybody moving off Twilight turned her attention to the Prince of Thicket again. “Bramble, I’ll show you a room in the caste where you can stay.”

“NO, I’LL DO IT!”

Everybody stopped from the yell. The origin of it was the bright-furred, curly-maned young mare, who also seemed to have realized that her voice went a bit too loud for a moment, as she was holding her mouth shut, before making a corrective cough.

“I mean, no need for you to make yourself get worked up about this, Twilight, you’ll need all that energy for the brainstorming. I’ll show him to his room.”

The princess stared at the unicorn for a bit before speaking. “Oooookay… If you wish.”

A smile appeared on her face and she trot over to the young stag. “Prince Bramble, allow me to show you to your quarters.”

“Erm… Sure. Please, lead the way,” he spoke after being briefly quiet.

The horned Cutie Mark Crusader walked off with a noticeable hopping motion and a big smile on her face, while the prince of the forest followed. Everybody else just stared as they left.

“Applebloom, what’s with Sweetie Belle?” the elder sibling asked. “She’s actin’ weird.”

“We’re as confused as you, Applejack,” she answered. “We were on the edge of Ponyville by the giant barrier that Starlight put up, and when she it dropped we came across Bramble who was already waiting on the other side to get in. And then she started to act like that.”

“Yeah, she’s been acting all quiet, then putting herself in our way when we led him here to meet Twilight,” Scotaloo said. “Honestly, if we knew any better, I’d think she was head over hooves for him.”

“Yeah, but then we remembered this is Sweetie Belle we’re talking about, she’s never shown any interest in romance except in books,” the earth pony followed up and they laughed it up.

“I don’t think that’s a laughing matter, girls,” Rarity finally spoke out, grabbing their attention. “I saw her when she passed just now: That glint in her eyes, the skip in her movement, the over-eagerness in her actions. I don’t think she’s just head over hooves for him… she’s over the moon!”

“Wait, you mean to tell us she’s really into him?!” the two young mares reacted with shock, to which the fashionista nodded.

“Awww, well isn’t that sweet,” Starlight commented.

“No, it’s not, Starlight Glimmer, it’s deadly serious business,” she retorted.

“Rarity, what’s your problem with your little sister being in love?” Fluttershy wondered. “It’s not because of what the deer did last time, is it?”

“I know we’ve had bad experiences with what the deer did last time to Ponyville and Canterlot, but that’s not my primary concern.”

“What is it then?” the workhorse wondered.

“It’s the fact that he’s royalty,” Rarity answered.

“Ooooooooooh… You’re still not over that one, huh?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more humiliated in my life by a self-centered, pompous jerk like him!” the Element of Generosity fumed.

“I don’t think it’s fair to compare Bramble to Blue Blood, Rarity,” Twilight pointed out.

“I’m not. But my sweet and innocent little sister still needs to be taught a thing or two about the perception of others, ESPECIALLY boys, so she doesn’t end up making the same mistake I did that one time.” She trotted through the main doorway. “Better not risk and go straight to it.”

“Right now?” Starlight asked. “Don’t you have a more pressing engagement to deal with? You know: Like that “unsightly thing” that’s attached to your mane right now?”

Rarity halted, freezing in place so fast that her mane swung past her sight, reaffirming the state of her condition she was desperate to fix. “On second thought… Maybe Sweetie Belle can survive on her own for a little bit. In which case, toddles!” And she dashed out the front door.

“Wow, that quickly averted an awkward situation,” Trixie commented. “Nice one, Starlight.”

“Thanks. But I think that’s your cue to leave as well.” She looked at everybody still present. “For all of you.”

The Elements left one after another, followed by the School’s staff and the students, with the shaman behind them. However…

“Wait, Zecora,” Twilight stopped her. “Before you leave, I would ask that you leave your prisoner with us.”

She knew what she was referring to. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a large jar in which a living blob, now noticeably grey in color rather than black, sat.

Star Swirl levitated it to his and headmare’s side. “Wait… did it change color again?”

“I’ll explain that too,” the princess said before turning her head back to the zebra. “Thanks for all your help again, Zecora. We’ll talk again in the morning.”

She was about to speak when it became apparent that there was still a pair of young mares present. “We’ll go and get Sweetie Belle out of here before she does something wrong,” Applebloom said, followed up by Scotaloo. “Yeah, like embarrassing herself in front of a foreign royal.”

They left, leaving the zebra all alone, but even she didn’t stay long. “I hope for once we’ll have a night that is alright, to which all I can say is – good night.”

And with that, she left the three magic users alone.

The two unicorns listened to the alicorn’s tale of events that transpired, a conversation that went on into the night when everybody else in town already fell asleep. After turbulent few days, things seemed to have finally quieted down, the perpetual darkness that loomed over the Everfree Forest being the only exclusion. And from beneath that looming dark, a shadow slithered out of the cover of the woods. Even if it wasn’t nighttime it wouldn’t have difficulty advancing, but it desired the current situation, it required it. The weaselly shape flew over to the former castle of the Princess of Friendship, easily passing through the tiny cracks in the physical matter, and breaking into the structure’s interior. And there it beheld her – its target, its host, sleeping. It slithered to her side and began to whisper sinister and malicious words, and as it did, it slowly entered its host’s resting consciousness.

Sun slowly began to set over the savannah lands, yet there was a sense of revelry around the round hut on top of the hill overlooking the village. Inside, the three female zebras, an older one, a middle one, and a young little filly were sitting down, eating appetizing dishes. Eventually, the bare filly looked at an empty spot by the sitting area; somebody else was supposed to sit with them as well.

“Mada, when is fada going to come?” she asked.

“Do not worry, Zecora.” Her mother smiled. “He will join us soon. He wouldn’t want to miss his little girl’s special day. Oh, and while we’re at it…” The eldest mare stepped away and quickly returned with a small wrapped-up bundle, and placed it near her youngest’s side. “This is for you.”

The youngest member of the family eagerly reached out for it and opened it, revealing a large golden ring.

“Mada, is that the same circle you and Sanaa are wearing?” she inquired.

Her mother nodded. “Let me put it on you.” She grabbed the golden ring and slipped it over her head, as she was so small that it nearly slipped past her neck.

“Mada, why do you were these?”

“It’s to show a place in our tribe, little one. The more of them a mare wears, the more important her place in the tribe is.”

“Will I have as many as you one day?” She excitedly asked.

“Nah. You’ll be lucky to even have half of mine, kid,” the older sister taunted her, as she wore three rings, making the younger sibling glare at her.

“Sanaa, don’t tease your sister. She still has a long way to go. Now then…” The mare stood up and went to pick up a small pitcher and a thin horsehair brush. “Follow me outside, Zecora, so you can leave your mark.”

She was confused by what she said, yet chose to follow.

As her sibling tried to follow, her parent quickly stopped her. “Not you, Sanaa. You’ll clean up after us.”

“What?! Why?!” she quickly protested.

“That’s for ridiculing your sister on her special day,” her mother answered, as she closed the door curtain, leaving her firstborn to pout.

Mother led her filly around their round home to the very back. As she did, the offspring looked at the wall, noticing strange scribbles on it, they looked like figures painted in black and white, dozens of them. She stopped, just as her mother did. There was a point where the scribbles ended, the last ones being of what seemed to be four equine beings, but beyond that was only a blank wall.

The mare placed the small pitcher and the brush on the ground. “Alright, Zecora. See that last picture?” She pointed at the very image that the filly last saw. “Dip the brush into the paint.”

The filly did so, gripping the object with her teeth and dipping it into the picture, drawing out a tint of bright yellow color on its tip. Suddenly, her mother scooped her up and raised her to the drawing, since she couldn’t reach it herself.

“Now, draw a single line on that little figure.”

She spotted it and noticed that two of the three bigger figures had a few yellow lines around what seemed to be a neck. She reached out with her mouth and dragged a line with the brush. She pulled back, rather proud of herself, and she stared at her work. As she did, it began to dawn on her what she was looking at: Four zebra figures, one tall and with green markings on its face, while the other three, from biggest to smallest, had gold things around their necks.

“Mada, is that us?” she asked.

The mare chuckled. “You noticed, did you? Yes, Zecora, this is your whole family.”

The filly’s head turned to the rest of the scribblings. “What about others?”

“Our predecessors, Zecora,” she answered.

“Our what?”

“Those who came before us,” her mother elaborated. “There were many who lived in this hut, and each drawing tells a story of that family. Stories that go back for generations.”

The child marveled. All those pictures she saw from the entrance to the back, there were so many who once lived in their home before them.

“Mada, what was the first story?”

She gave her a curious look, she was not expecting to hear that from her, not that she objected to it. “Come,” she ordered, and they both walked back to the front entrance.

They stopped at the threshold. Above it, Zecora noticed that above the curtain there was a cover, it seemed to be blending with the doorway. Her mother reached up and pulled it away. What the filly saw left her… confused: The picture depicted three figures, but only one of them was a zebra, the second looked too skinny and grey with horns, while the third was large and blue. There were splashes of vibrant colors of yellow, green, and blue all around, while in the very center of the picture, a single orange dot sat.

“Mada, why is this picture covered up?” the filly inquired.

“Because this picture represents the cornerstone upon which our tribe was made, Zecora. It is being covered up so that the sun doesn’t bleach out the colors.”

“What does the story tell, mada?”

“That is a story from a past, now long since forgotten, told to us by those who came before,” the mare began. “Once upon a time, a star fell from the sky and landed in the heart of Farasi desert, and those who saw it came to investigate. In the heart of our land, they saw the star as it wept, it wept so hard that its tears threatened to wash away everything within its reach. When they discovered that, the leaders of zebras, the abadas, and kelpies, came together to try and quell it, but in the end, even they couldn’t stop it. So, they begged the spirits of the world itself to help them, and they answered – lightning, wind, and water, they answered the leader’s call, and with their help, they buried the weeping star away from the waking world. And to make sure it remained so, the young king of zebras made a sacrifice - to leave behind his family and home, to watch over it. And over time, other zebras would join him, willing to share his burden, bearing the marks that would make us distinct from the rest of our kind.” She looked down at her filly and then tapped the side of her flank with her hoof over the symbol of a head of a female lion. “We wear these as a symbol of where we came from so that those outside of our tribe know who we’re descended from. And of the burden that your father carries.”

“Fada’s burden?” Zecora tilted her head.

KRAKOOOOM!

The little filly jumped from fright. She looked to the sky and she saw the storm clouds all around, perplexed, as she didn’t see any a moment earlier. But it didn’t matter to her soon after when she suddenly saw a tall figure walking up the hill.

“Fada!” the filly quickly recognized her father and ran to his side, only to slow down a few hooves away from him, noticing something was wrong.

The thunder roared above, and it began to rain heavily, while the elder zebra stood still, his eyes closed. He suddenly opened them, revealing a bright glow.

“Fada?” Zecora tried to get his attention.

He said nothing. His mouth opened, and green liquid began to pour out, falling on the ground. Shocked, the little zebra retreated, after which the ground began to shake. Water spouts began to erupt all around her, and eventually, the entire landscape was washed away, and she found herself stranded in the middle of an ocean, with nobody else but her senior.

“Fada, what’s wrong?!” she pleaded.

No response was given. Instead, the water beneath enveloped him and it began raising him upwards, forming a pillar that began to expand, sprouting tentacles, all the while taking a distinct serpent-like shape. Finally, its glowing azure eyes opened, as did its massive jaw, the shadow of the High Shaman still noticeable in its head.

Zecora was paralyzed by fear, unable to move or even utter a word, which gave the giant water serpent all the time it needed to reach out and clench her in one of its tentacles. Its head then lowered and clapped shut on its prey. In response, the filly desperately tried to grasp for air but realized she wasn’t lacking it. Even so, she felt her consciousness drifting off, images flashing before her eyes – downpour over the village, a metropolis on the water, a jungle settlement overlooked by an icy mountain, a city of spires covered in gold, a teal equine from another land, a foreign-looking ship, a vast endless sea, and at the end of it, a land of-

Out of nowhere, a blue beam of magic was shot, cutting through the sea serpent’s muzzle, severing it from the rest of the body and freeing the zebra from its grip, letting her fall into the water beneath. She grasped for air as if she’s just woken up from a nightmare, only for her fears to settle in again when she looked upon the towering monstrosity. Much to her surprise though, she noticed that the creature was just as confused as to what had just happened. Then, a noticeable beat of wings garnered both of their attention. Looking skywards, they saw a tall mare with a horn and wings, her coat dark blue, and her mane just as much, yet wavy and filled with small white spots that resembled stars, and the look on her face… pure rage and disgust.

“CAUGHT YOU RED-HANDED AT LAST, PARASITE OF DREAMS!” Princess Luna loudly declared.

The filly saw as the monster’s eyes expanded for a moment, before instantly leaping away and into the water beneath it, trying to get away. It was scared of her; the monster was scared of the former Princess of the Night. The said mare quickly pursued the watery being, shooting bolts of magic at her, but the beast was mobile under the water, enough to evade her attacks. She then shot a beam past it, seemingly missing, only to hit the pathway on which the serpent was, making all the water disappear and ultimately beaching it on the solid dusty ground. The monster panicked, desperately trying to get away in an environment for which it wasn’t suitable, only to be drastically slowed down. The princess shot bolts of magic at it again and this time hit her mark, making holes into the watery aberration. Its head then detached from the rest of the body, dropping to the ground, and tried to crawl away, but at this point, the mare was already by its side and stomped on it, halting it in place.

“YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY!” she yelled.

Luna’s horn began to glow until it expanded, creating a bubble that expelled the nightmare forces in its radius, and the water serpent began to dissipate.

“STOP HIDING IN THE SHADOW OF OTHERS’ NIGHTMARES AND REVEAL THE REAL YOU!”

As the severed head of the monster began to vanish, a single dark sliver slipped out from its tip and left it behind. The tall alicorn finally saw the nightmare’s architect, not just its echo, as the sliver of darkness took on its usual form - a small, slender, weaselly-like shape, with a pair of spikes for ears, and a couple of small slit green eyes. The two stared at each other, the mare feeling confident that she’s finally put an end to it. But then, much to her shock, its eye bent in a way that it almost seemed to have smiled.

“You are too late, child of the Night,” it whispered. “With her revelation, your hope will die.”

That voice… she could’ve sworn she’s heard it before somewhere but couldn’t tell why. She should’ve acted immediately, but a moment of distraction was enough, as the dark wisp bore into the background of reality and slipped through, disappearing, and as it did, it left behind the residue of its essence. The dark smoke it emanated began to twist and grow, and the mare quickly acted before it got any further. She directed her horn at it and unleashed her magic, obliterating it completely, and the whole world was consumed by the light. Once more, the savannah grasslands opened up, nearing the sunset, and the native sat on the ground nearby, still trying to process.

The alicorn princess walked to her side. “Zecora, I apologies for an untimely arrival.”

The zebra, now no longer a filly, got back on her feet. “Princess of the Night, do not fret. The nightmare has passed and-”

“Zecora, I’m sorry to interrupt you but this is important,” the alicorn interrupted her. “That shadow just now, it wasn’t here at random. It invaded your mind for a reason. What you just witnessed, that THING that it transformed into, it was something tied to an event in your past, right?” A question to which the zebra, seemingly reluctantly, nodded. “Tell me, what exactly was it trying to get from you?”

The shaman paused, thinking for a moment. “I’m not sure what its goal was, though I agree, it was probably for a bad cause. All I recall was a path, a trail, from sandy dunes to the one, where on a ship you set sail. I don’t know why it wanted to give me a heart attack, unless…” she suddenly paused, as if a realization came over her, “unless… it wanted to backtrack…”

“Backtrack to whatever YOU saw at some point?” the princess asked.

She didn’t answer, but it became apparent that wasn’t necessary. “Princess, if what you say is true, then there is something I must ask you to do. Return me to the waking world, posthaste, so that the invader can be traced.”

She nodded and obliged, her horn glowing bright and enveloping everything in a blinding light.

The shaman snapped awake, quickly jumping out of her bed, and reached for the saddlebag, rummaging through it and pulling out a small jar of pitch-black substance. She didn’t even bother trying to create a protective barrier, there was no time. She took a quick sip, forcing the disgusting broth down, and at this point, it felt so familiar she didn’t even get the nauseating feeling. Darkness filled up her sight and all her senses went numb.

Through the dark forest her sight traveled, with the speed with which a living creature couldn’t, through growth and rocks, nothing deterred, all the way to a familiar opening she saw once before, but not before she saw a giant hulking one-eyed goat-like beast that rested near the entrance. Things went dark, and after a while, light emerged, caused by a green glow from the lake under a giant dreaded tree. And there she beheld them all: The Pillar of Hatred laying on top of her eggs, gently caressing them, all the while the Pillars of Fear and Anger stared at one another, the stone one standing completely still, while the one with flaming hair seemed to be struggling to keep his face straight. Only the Father of Monsters calmly sat by the bank of the large pool.

“Everyone!” the zebra’s distorted voice yelled to get their attention.

The centaur flinched from surprise and started to rage.

“Ha! You blinked!” the Storm King said, curving up a smile.

“No fair! I got distracted!” Tirek complained.

“Both of you, shut up,” Grogar stepped between them as he passed them, Chrysalis following him not far behind.

“Well, Doubt?” she inquired. “Have you found what we need?”

“Yes,” the distorted voice confirmed, “but we must act quickly!”

“Why the sudden urgency?”

“Recklessness. The Child of the Night intercepted me during the extraction.”

“Wait, you mean Princess Luna saw you?” the centaur wondered.

“Which means they’ll be on us before you know it!” the satyr added.

“Does it matter?” the grizzled ram interjected. “As long as we know where to go next it doesn’t matter. Brief us, Doubt.”

The weaselly shape flew over to the tree, and as it did, the Manifestations of Hatred and Fear emerged, but Anger seemed strangely absent. Doubt touched their forms with the tip of its tail, and after that they dipped their hands into the green pool and raised it together, creating a small platform made of green substance that morphed into a landmass that roughly resembled an equine’s head with a mohawk.

“What is this place?” Tirek tilted his head. “I don’t remember seeing this land on any of the maps before.”

“This is our destination, Devourer,” it elaborated. “Within the heart of this land, the final fragment lies in waiting.”

“Oh, so we already know its exact location then? Good, that saves us the time combing it,” the Queen of Changelings sighed in relief. “But that still brings up the question, who do we need to bring along so it can be carried out?”

“Nobody, Broodmother,” Doubt answered, to which she gave a confused look. “This one has already been liberated. It has been waiting for a long time. All we need to do is provide the extraction.”

“Oh? That’s all?” The obsidian construct raised one of his eyebrows. “Well, I got to say, this will be a real walk in the park then.”

“It will be anything BUT that, Scourgelord,” its voice suddenly turned serious. “It’s true, our goal seems easy enough to snatch, however, standing between us are three great kingdoms of the land. Kingdoms that have been isolated from the outside world for a long time, and will not tolerate any outsiders walking in. And if even one of the kingdoms will be assaulted, the other two will react in response. Launching an assault on this land will require nothing short of an army.”

“An army?” Chrysalis smugly pointed to the swarm of changelings that were skittering about her new hive.

“Let me rephrase that,” weaselly shape corrected itself. “We will require nothing short of ARMIES. Your minions will not be enough in this case, Broodmother. Especially since you will have to leave a handful of them behind to protect the hive and the tree.”

She lowered her head in disappointment.

“In other words, our task right now is to gather a considerable force in order to face off against the natives that will stand in our path, if I follow?” Grogar finished, to which Doubt nodded. “Well, I and the Queen of Changelings need not worry on that matter.” His gaze then turned to the other two Pillars. “Thought I can’t say the same for you both. But surely, considering who both of you were in the past, you should be able to call upon your… servants… vassals… slaves? Whatever you call them.”

The talking statue rubbed his chin. “Now that you mention it, I could go and look into getting back into contact with my employees…” He eagerly rubbed his hands together. “Oooooh, this is gonna be great! We’re gonna have a big “come back together party”!”

The centaur lord rolled his eyes. “Well that’s all nice and dandy for you, Rocky, but I don’t have that luxury. As far as I know, I’m exiled from my own homeland, so trying to get anyone from there to join me is not gonna happen. I can’t get an army of my own.”

“THEN YOU WILL MAKE ONE!”

Everybody’s heads turned from that roaring voice.

Doubt chuckled. “Anger is right, Devourer. You are going to make an army of your own.”

“Oh, I see. And I supposed YOU know where to get one?” he sarcastically mused.

The weaselly vapor slipped under his nose, answering with a smug tone in its voice. “As a matter of fact, I do. There are many creatures in this world, that, by their very nature, are extremely susceptible to their own inner turmoil. Creatures that ponies themselves have already made contact with…” Its voice then became stern. “And we therefor have no qualm about inflicting harm upon them. Devourer, you will go south, to the Peaks of Peril, and you will take Anger with you. There… you will acquire your army.”

The vision suddenly became blurry, the sound went silent, and then everything went completely black.

Zecora regained consciousness, and when she did, she quickly jumped on her hooves and ran out of her room. What she just saw, she couldn’t hold for herself. They had to be warned. She galloped through the castle, finally bursting into the great hall.

“Twilight Sparkle, we have a problem at hand!” the shaman warned. “I know of the plot the Turmoil’s servants have and for which land!”

The three horned equines slowly turned their heads at her. “I think we have a pretty good idea ourselves, Zecora,” Starlight commented, before turning her gaze back.

The zebra was confused. She approached them to see what they were looking at, and the answer became perfectly clear. There was something different about the Cutie Map: It had shrunk… Or rather, the scale of the map shrunk. All of the Equestria could now be seen, as well as its neighboring lands. And to the southwest of it, beyond the area of a raging storm, there was an equine-shaped landmass… and in the middle of it there was a dark rain cloud looming over the desert area.

Chapter 66: Ship Ahoy!

KRAKOOOOOM!

Equestria wasn’t the only one plagued by the storm. There was another that raged further south, in the direction of the setting sun. But this one, however, wasn’t a product of an individual. This was a natural, magical phenomenon, born from the world itself. It was eternal, looming over a vast area of the sea, and underneath it, a single island stood. Its natives had to adapt to the harsh conditions, yet even then, nature itself provided them with a natural deterrent against the threatening element. Some time ago, the whole island was littered with large black metallic protrusions that offered the native satyrs a form of protection, as it caused the rains of lightning to bounce off them. That all changed when among them, a single one rose to power and domination, subjugating the rest, and building a dark foreboding fortress on the high peaks of the island with the metal that was immune to the elements. That was a long time ago, and without their ruler around, without the Storm King to command them, the satyrs were left without a purpose, the aggressive tendencies that were forced into them being replaced with passiveness. And in that, they found a substitute: They had a large fleet of airships at their disposal, the only one capable of traversing the surrounding thunderstorms, and they capitalized on that, using it to ferry outsiders across the area in exchange for goods. At this time of the evening, the final zeppelin docked on a platform on the beach to deliver the daily payout.

“Evenin’,” a yawning voice came up.

A short figure awaited them on the dock. It looked unlike any other satyr on the island, probably because he wasn’t one. It was a hedgehog – his fur as gray as the rest of the natives, his back spines just as white as their fur, and around his neck, he wore a bib with a cupcake on it. Grubber, once the former lieutenant of the Storm King, then reduced to Tempest Shadow’s right-hand man, and now an overseer of the operations on the Thundering Isle. And with the end of the day, he came to inspect the daily income…. And his fair share.

“Alright guys, let’s see what you brought.”

One of the satyrs opened the trap door to the hold below, and the hedgehog jumped in, followed by another of the storm guards. The lights inside the cargo hold gently jiggled as the small overseer examined the items of the day, ranging from basic building materials like wood and metal, furniture and books, and food of all kinds such as vegetables and fruits.

But the hedgehog was looking for something very specific. “Where is it, Jeremy? I know there’s got to be some.” The satyr walked past him and opened one of the crates, pulling out a quiche and presenting it to the short beings, making him cringe. “Ewww! Are you trying to gag me or something? Come on, Jeremy, you know what I want.” The storm guard let out a sigh, tossing the baked food to the side, and opened another crate, pulling out a chocolate cake, bigger than the overseer himself. “That’s the stuff!” Grubber couldn’t contain his excitement, immediately sticking his hand into it, ripping out a piece, and sticking it in his mouth. “Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah…” He ripped the cake out of the storm guard’s grasp. “Alright, tell the rest to get this unloaded. I need some me time right now.”

As the rest of the satyr began unloading the cargo, Grubber made himself comfortable on a beach chair nearby, with a chocolate cake on a table close to him, and a strange umbrella-looking rough sculpture made of dark metal.

KRAKOOOOOM!

Thunder roared above and a lightning bolt shot down at his location, only for it to bounce off the metallic object and fly off into the distance. This was common on their island. Previously, when the Storm King still ruled, he ordered to gather all the resistant metal on the island to build his fortress on the mountain peak, but with their master now gone, the stronghold was torn apart and spread throughout the island so that the natives could once again enjoy the natural protection the island’s mineral offered.

“Yep. This ain’t half bad,” the hedgehog said to himself. “We get a daily job done, we get paid with stuff, I get to eat my favorite food.” He reached for another piece of cake and went into a momentary daze as he enjoyed it. “This sort of life’s pretty good. I honestly don’t know what could possibly spoil it…” As he reached for another piece of the desert and was ready to gobble it all up, he was suddenly interrupted by a strange sound. “Hey, which one of you guys is making that weird noise?” he asked them.

The satyrs shrugged though. They clearly weren’t the ones making it, but they could hear where it was coming from, and one of them pointed in the north-eastern direction of the island. They saw something strange in the sky above. There was lightning, visibly trailing through the thick storm clouds, towards the island. It quickly became obvious to everybody that this wasn’t a natural phenomenon. And that noise - it sounded like music, and it kept growing stronger as it got closer, until it reached the middle of the island, finally going silent.

KRAKOOOOOM!

From the dark clouds, a single bolt of lightning descended, narrowly evading all the stationed protection, hitting the ground, causing the earth to heave from the impact, tossing everybody and everything, including Grubber, who ended up with the cake landing on his face after he finally made contact with the ground again.

“MY CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!” he cried out in terror, then angrily marched in the direction of the impact site. “Alright, who’s the wise guy?! You think you can just come and ruin my meal time?! You’re gonna regret…” his voice soon trailed off.

A large crater was left in place where the lightning struck. The cloud of dust that it generated slowly cleared away, revealing a kneeling form at the bottom. It rose to full height and soon the spectators gazed upon its shape. It wasn’t just the hedgehog that was left short on breath - other satyrs were as well, as this black statue was chiseled to resemble their former king.

“Hey, Marty!” Grubber called out, making one of the nearby satyrs rush to his side, while he picked up a stick that he pulled out of the debris before handing it to him. “Go down there and poke that thing so we can see if it’s real or did I just think it moved.”

His underling took the stick and slid down into the crater, walking to the towering black statue, while everybody watched in anticipation on the descent’s edge. When he was nearly at arm’s reach he extended it and nudged it. It remained unmoving. The satyr turned and looked up to inform his superior, but before he could even utter a coherent sentence, a glow, followed by a sparking sound, emerged. He only had a moment to turn his head and glance at the statue’s yellow eyes as they opened, its arm extended, and a source of power flashed in his extended right hand.

KRAK!

The satyr screamed as a force blew him out of the crater and sent him flying into the hills, leaving everybody else speechless.

“Oh no… It’s real.” Grubber followed his trail.

And just as he said that he felt something coiling around his belly and shocking him. A trail of lightning extended from the black construct to the hedgehog, wrapping around him. The animated statue pulled on the lightning like a rope, and Grubber flew across the air, straight into the heart of the crater, just before he hit the ground, the statue extended his other arm and grabbed him by his head spines. The hedgehog now had a full view of the creature that stood before him. This animated statue was a spitting image of his long-since departed king, the only noticeable difference about him being the yellow in his eyes and the sigil that was carved across his chest.

“You know, who I am, don’t you?”

There was a noticeable rumble in his voice but otherwise, the hedgehog recognized it. “Y-you… you’re the Storm King, r-right…?”

After a short pause, he resumed. “Yes, but actually no. But that explanation can wait. While we’re on the matter, I recognize you, but your name escapes me. Who are you again?”

“G-g-grubber, sir.”

“Oh right. You’re the pint-size that I replaced as my right hand until the “horse that will not be mentioned” took over. Now that we’re done with introductions, let’s get down to business.”

He crouched and leaped in a trail of lightning, arcing across the air, and landed outside the crater, still holding the hedgehog, who was in even more shock after what he had just gone through. He then raised his arm and wiggled his hand, motioning other satyrs to come closer. After a moment of hesitation, they slowly crept out of their hiding spots one after another and came into proximity of their returned king.

“Now then, Grubber,” the construct addressed him, “I expect you’re able to account for your actions?”

His eyes shifted left and right, unsure what to say. “My King… I’m not sure I follow.”

The Storm King lowered the arm in which he held him, raising his other to rub his face in frustration. “Am I really gonna have to point it out?” He then raised the hedgehog in the air, facing him towards what was left of his stronghold. “My fortress is in complete shambles.” He pointed him to the nearby iron construction that stood nearby. “Its remains are littering the whole island.” Then directing him to the moored airships. “My vessels are docked when they should be airborne and raiding some distant land. And…” His gaze stopped at a pair of satyrs who had gone motionless in the middle of a dance once they noticed they were being watched. “Are you having a dance party?”

“Well yeah, I mean, the guys were working really hard today. It’s Friday and so we decided-”

“That’s beside the point,” the Pillar of Fear interrupted him. “What happened with my island?”

“Your Omnipotence, I… I’m not sure how to tell you this…” Grubber twiddled his fingers.

“Just be blunt, I don’t have time for word-mincing.”

The hedgehog gulped. “Well, you see Your Exuberance, after your… departure, we were left without a leader and without work, so we returned to the Thundering Isle. Since nobody was living in the fortress anymore we decided to…” he paused, fearing to speak with his king’s judging eyes motionless set on him, “take part of it apart, and then use the bits to cover the rest of the island with them, so that everybody could go about their business without having to worry about getting zapped by lightning. But we still needed a way to feed ourselves, so we decided to use our airships to transport people and stuff, and they paid us for it. And we decided to have a party in… remembrance of you, sir. Look, we even have a cake.”

Grubber waved at one of the satyrs and he brought over a cake, frosting as black as the iron spikes, and on top of it was a drawn image of a bunch of figures that resembled the locals dancing around happily, and under their feet was a mishmash of what looked like rubble, one of them looking like a head with crosses for eyes. The hedgehog could only laugh awkwardly.

“Awww, well isn’t that sweet, you guys.” A few seconds after saying that, the construct swung his empty hand and the cake flew in the air, disappearing in the increasing darkness. “But unfortunately, in my current condition, I couldn’t stomach it.” He finally let go of the hedgehog, making him fall on his butt, while he walked off in the direction of the moored airships. “Anyway, back to business as usual. Grab your arms and board the ships, we’ve got places to go.”

Grubber got back on his feet. “But Your Majesty, we can’t. We’ve just finished our daily shift and we were about to retire for the weekend. Besides we don’t do any-”

His words we interrupted by an increasingly loud sparking sound. The form stopped on the spot as the lightning sparks in his hand began to flash brighter.

The animated statue slowly turned his face and glanced at them. “Excuse me, did I just stutter or something?” He made a full turn, his words suddenly turning thundery. “Let me put it in a way that you lot are gonna understand: This is a hostile takeover. The company is being restructured. The current leadership is being replaced by a new-old one. GOT THE PICTURE YET? OR DO I NEED TO REMIND ALL OF YOU WHO IS THE LORD OF THE THUNDERING ISLE?” He raised his sparking right arm in the air. “WHO IS THE KING OF ALL STORMS?”

KRAKOOOOOM!

Lightning shot in the air from the arm on which he had the Staff of Sacanas attached. It disappeared into the storm clouds, and then a consistent clash of thunder could be heard. The dark clouds suddenly parted and strong light emerged, garnering everybody’s attention. A giant orb made of lightning levitated above the island, almost dwarfing it. It immediately became clear to just about everybody that if it descended, the entire island would get wiped out from the face of the world. But that would not come to pass, as the conjurer snapped his stone fingers, and almost instantly, the orb dispersed, discharging lightning bolts in every direction. As the thunder echoed across the sky, for a brief moment, the skies above the Thundering Island cleared, and stars could be seen in the night sky before finally being covered by the dark clouds. The leader of the satyrs lowered his head, and finally saw what he had hoped: His people kneeling on all fours before him in complete subordination.

“Good,” he finally spoke again. “Now that we’re finally on the same page… MOVE OUT!” The satyrs quickly scrambled in all directions, going off to fulfill their tasks in preparation for departure, but he stopped the smallest one. “You. With me.”

He turned and walked off to his moored airship, with the hedgehog rushing right behind him. “Mighty One, I do not want to sound insubordinate,” Grubber excused himself, “but the guys just pulled through a day’s worth of shift. If there’s going to be any sort of fighting or raiding I don’t think they’ll be of much use to you.”

“No need to worry about that,” the Storm King assured him. “Right now, I require the fleet to transport a couple of my coworkers and their armies to a distant location. In which case, they’ll have plenty of time to rest up while they practice on their instruments.”

“Instruments, Sir?” He gave him a confused look. “You mean their weapons?”

“No, I was being literal.”

“What? What good are instruments gonna be to you, my Mighty Storm King?”

He stopped and the shorty who barely even reached his knees bumped into him. “I’m not “the Storm King” anymore, Guppy. I rebranded myself. Now I’m the SL/SK.”

“It’s Grubber, You Omnipotence…” He waited for a moment in case he was going to receive a shocking response to his words and only continued when that didn’t happen. “While we’re on that subject, I’m not sure we have anything on the island that could qualify as… well, instruments.”

The construct rubbed his chin. “If that’s the case, we will have to go on a small raid to the nearest high-quality music store on our way to the meeting point.”

The rainy night was not pleasant to the radiant unicorn that had to stay at Twilight’s old castle. Others who were spending the night here were the lucky ones; they were already whisked off to the dreamland and as such didn’t have a problem sleeping through it. The same was not true for the fashionista, who lay in bed and could hardly get an eye shut from all the pounding of the rain. The tapping eventually faded away, but by then it was already beginning to dawn on the horizon. She moaned from the lack of sleep, miffed that she couldn’t lay in bed any longer no matter how hard she tried to keep her eyes shut. She got up in a daze, trying to stay still on track as she was trying to get to the bathroom. She managed to reach them, but just as she jiggled the handle…

SPLASH!

The door of the bathroom burst open and water washed all over her. She was so out of it that she couldn’t even muster the urge to scream, only her eyes shot open to see what caused it. Inside, a deer was desperately trying to work a faucet, and failing.

“Please help, Miss Rarity!” Bramble begged as the water stream eventually hit him in the face.

Without saying anything, her horn lit up and a blue aura enveloped the handle of the faucet, finally shutting down the water stream.

“Thank you, Miss Rarity. I have no idea how this thing worked.”

She tapped the side of her head to force water out of her ear. “You’ve never used a sink before?”

“We don’t have any of these things in Thicket. We have a stream diverted to run through our trees so we have fresh water constantly at our disposal. These things are alien to me…”

She budged in haste, trying to look at the mirror above the sink. She unwrapped the wet cover over her head; she had to make sure of what had happened. She soon sighed in relief - the hard work she spent on her mane last night did not go to waste, it seemed that the protective isolation she applied managed to safeguard her from water.

“Wait… Miss Rarity, why are you here?”

“Let’s just say, we had an emergency meeting in the middle of the night, after which SOMECREATURE decided to make it rain, so I was forced to spend the night here to avoid the unpleasantries.”

“Emergency meeting? Why wasn’t I informed about that?”

“The key personnel gathered and it was urgent. Don’t worry, once Twilight comes back I’m sure she’ll fill you in before we set off.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?”

“That’s right. We just got a heading to where we have to go, but unfortunately, we’re lacking the guide to the destination so she and the princesses went to look for the information, along with Zecora.”

“Well, wherever you’re going I’m coming along. Father will want-”

“With all due respect, Prince Bramble, but this is a dangerous mission where our lives will be put at stake, just like several times before that. And last I checked, you were sent here as a liaison between your kingdom and ours. I’m pretty sure your father wouldn’t have approved of you suddenly running off to some foreign country and risking your life. Besides, you’ll be plenty occupied by what’s happening here… not to mention my sister.

“Who?”

“Sweetie Belle!”

“Oh… you mean the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

“Well, yes, but her especially?”

“Why?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice?” she rolled her eyes.

“Notice what?”

“Haven’t you noticed the way she acted?”

“I don’t know…? Eager and serving?”

“Aha! So you did notice!”

“I… just figured she was trying to make a good impression on a royal visit.”

“Oh for the love of… Are you unable to read a woman’s actions? She’s got a crush on you.”

“She… she does…?” the tone in his voice gave away that he was taken off guard.

“Surely you’ve seen it? The glint in her eyes, the skip in her movement, the over-eagerness in her actions.”

“Well, now that you mention it…”

“And I expect you to do right by her while I’m away.”

“Do… right by her?”

“When I come back, I’ll want to hear everything she has to say about her experience. And if you’ve done something that will hurt her in some way, I promise you, Bramble, I may not be able to do something, but I’m sure Twilight will be willing to send a message to your father about poor etiquette. Did I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes, madame,” he answered in a scared tone.

“Good! I’m glad we had this chat.” She traipsed out of the bathroom with a smile, leaving the deer royal behind as he tried to process his situation. “Now I don’t have to worry about talking to Sweetie Belle in case I have to go before she wakes up,” Rarity thought to herself. “Now, I wonder if Starlight will be willing to treat me with a breakfast, I’m feeling a bit peckish.”

She walked down the hallway to where the gathering room was, slowly opening the door and peeking inside, finding the two unicorns to be asleep, the younger one on a chair and the elder one on the map table. She walked in and gently nudged the pink one to try and gently wake her up.

“Starlight? Starlight darling? I don’t want to intrude, but I was wondering if I could-”

FLASH!

The sound of teleportation echoed through the foyer of the castle, and straight through the opened door, waking up the two unicorns in shock, Star Swirl raised to attention with a snort, and Starlight rolled off her chair and onto the floor. The fashionista turned to the origin of it, only to find the castle’s former owner, her companion, mentor, and a zebra materialized.

The headmare moaned. “Thanks for the wake-up call, Twilight…”

“If it’s any consolation to you, Starlight, I was trying to wake you up anyway,” Rarity said.

“Sorry about that, everypony,” Celestia replied. “But we figured we waited until sunrise to give you a little more respite before you set out.”

The greying unicorn rubbed his eyes. “I assume you’ve found our target?”

There was a sudden knock on the door that stopped the answer from being delivered. The Element of Magic quickly opened the door without even inquiring who was it, she knew already. There were four mares on the other end, looking slightly groggy, but no worse than they were some time ago.

“Seriously,” Applejack yawned. “Princess Luna needs to invent a better system to wake others up that doesn’t involve ruining their dreams…”

“Let me guess, another apple-related one, AJ?” Rainbow Dash smirked.

“Ehem,” the purple alicorn cleared her throat. “As we said last time, you were gonna get called once we found what we needed.” She brought out a piece of paper. “This is what we managed to get: Seasaddle was previously employed at Baltimare’s Shipping Yards. The employment office kept the records of his address when he was still working there. So, if we’re lucky, we may be able to get to him.”

“Oh goody, then we finally know where to go,” Pinkie Pie clapped excitedly.

“And while we’re looking for one who will do the steering, some of you will have to go and inspect the kirin,” Zecora suggested.

“Oh my, you’re right!” Fluttershy remembered. “We’ll have to get to the train soon to make sure we get there.”

“Hold on!” Rarity halted them. “What about preparations? Provisions, rations, and everything else? What about breakfast?”

Spike’s tummy rumbled. “I agree.”

“I’m sorry, everypony, but that will have to wait. As for the preparations, I ordered the airship to be prepared for when we get back so we’ll be all set to-”

“Erm, guys… You may wanna check this out,” Starlight called.

Everybody came to her side wondering what she was talking about, and it didn’t take them long to notice it. South of Macintosh Hills, which separated the central equestrian from the jungle and barren lands, a lone hill, known as the Peaks of Peril, stood. It was surrounded by flickering flame, just as Griffinstone was.

“It wasn’t like that a few moments ago,” Star Swirl answered.

“Oh no! It happened! Somebody used one of Turmoil’s fragments at the home of kirin!” Fluttershy panicked.

“And if my eyes don’t deceive me it’s the same one that was used at Griffinstone,” Celestia noted.

“We have to go then! Quick!” Rainbow Dash urged.

“Hold up!” the purple alicorn stopped them. “We need to split into two groups. Here’s how it’ll go: Myself, Spike, Zecora, and Pinkie Pie will go to Baltimere to look for Seasaddle, and the rest of you get on the next train south and get to Peaks of Peril, and help the kirin. Once we get our helmsman and navigator we’ll take the airship to pick you all up.”

“As for how to save up on travel time, don’t worry, we’ve got that covered too,” the dragon answered, pulling out a postcard featuring a metropolis by a bay, and “Baltimare” written on it in big letters.

“I’ll teleport us there and back to Cantrlot again once we find him. It’s a recent release so we’re not risking teleportation into something unpredictable,” Twilight confirmed, then turning to the workhorse, the wonderbolt, the animal caretaker, and the fashionista. “Now go before miss the train.”

Applejack nodded. “All right, y’all! Let’s go!” She dashed off, followed by the blue and yellow pegasus, with the white unicorn being the last to depart.

“Well, I guess it’s our turn then,” the party planner said as she turned to the alicorn, who nodded.

“Okay, everypony, ready?”

“Princess Twilight?”

They were stopped at the last moment by a voice that came from the side. It was the blue griffin.

“Gallus? You’re out of bed already?” she regarded him.

“Well, all the noise from earlier made it kinda hard to keep an eye shut. Are you leaving already then?”

He received the answer in a nod. “No need to wake everycreatue up to tell them that, okay?”

“I wasn’t going to. Actually, I was hoping to get you alone before you left. Princess Twilight, I have a request.”

She gave him a look of confusion. “Okay, I’ll hear you out.” The student walked to her side and whispered something into her ear that others didn’t hear, only noticing the surprised expression she made. “Wait… you really mean that, Gallus?”

“Twilight, what did he say?” her former mentor inquired.

She just smiled. “Princess Celestia, when you return to Canterlot, please tell Flash Magnus to meet me on the airfield.”

The older mare glanced at the griffin before smiling. “I’ll do that, Twilight.”

“Thank you.” She turned her attention to the rest of the group. “Okay, everypony, gather around.”

The pink earth pony and Zebra came closer to her side as her horn lit up.

“Good luck, Twilight Sparkle,” Star Swirl said his farewell, with Starlight just nodding.

FLASH!

And in a moment, they were gone.

FLASH!

The quartet found themselves on the lookout point, with the view that mirrored the one postcard, as the vast city with many skyscrapers by the side of the aptly named Horseshoe Bay opened before them. They didn’t wait about, immediately descending to the settlement. Baltimare was smaller than Manehatten in comparison, but there was a distinct charm compared to it. With the largest port in all of Equestria, ships were coming and going, bringing in goods from all over the known world. But charm was something that the group was trying to ignore, much to the failure of the party planner who got distracted several times when they passed the pastry shops. After some time, they finally arrived at the destination that was written down on a piece of paper, and it was in a set of multicolored rowhouses, the one on the far end, colored aquamarine.

“This is it,” the princess said. “I hope he hasn’t moved away…” She pressed the doorbell.

“Twilight, are you sure it’s a good idea?” her companion asked.

“What do you mean, Spike?”

“Well, according to the book he wrote, he was locked up in the city of Zecora’s homeland for a long time. How do you think he’ll respond to us asking him to come along?”

“He’ll probably shut the door in our face, lock it up, and while we’re pleading to him, he’ll slip out the side window and make a run for it.” The rest looked at the pink earth pony who just spilled out a very possible outcome. “But hey, that’s just me, maybe it’ll play out differently.”

The doorknob suddenly clanked, the way slowly opening, but only partly, halted by the door chain, as a teal, slightly bearded pony looked through the door. “Can I help you?”

“Seasaddle?” the purple mare addressed him.

He stared for a bit, then closed the door to unshackle the chain to open the entry a bit further, finally seeing her in full. “Princess Twilight Sparkle…? What an honor. And to what do I owe the pleasure of visiting a humble former sailor like-”

His voice instantly halted, as he fully opened the door and saw the full company that what with her, including a small purple dragon, a pink puffy-headed pony, and next to her… a zebra. He instantly shut the door and the clank of the lock followed.

“Huh… I guess I was right,” Pinkie Pie quipped.

Twilight ran to the door and knocked. “Mister, Seasaddle please, just hear me out-”

“There’s nothing to explain!” the muffled yell came from the other side, accompanied by the sound of moving. “Take that THING away, I’ve seen too many of them for one lifetime!”

“Mister Seasaddle, I understand you’ve had past experience with the place you’ve mentioned in the book you’ve written, but this is serious and you’re the only one who can help us!”

“Forget it! You’re not getting me out, you hear?! Horseshoe Bay will freeze over before I deal with any of their kind again!”

“Please, Mister Seasaddle, let me expla-!” She felt a tap on her shoulder, as the shaman got to her side to make her go quiet and then waved to step aside.

“I thought you would be singing a sea shanty, about the one that helped you get free,” Zecora said.

Soon, the sound inside the house went quiet, and then the hoof steps followed to the door once more. The door opened and the old teal stallion peaked out the chained door.

“What did you say?” he asked.

The shaman smiled. “I don’t believe it, pony, that you of all would forget about me.”

He shut the door once more to remove the chain, and then fully opened the door, staring at the mare in front of him. “Turn to the side,” he ordered.

She obliged, turning, showing off the swirly sun mark on her flank.

His eyes widened. “Well, I’ll be a seahorse’s uncle… Zecora?”

“Forgive me for giving you such a shock, I was expecting my sight you wouldn’t have blocked.”

He traipsed out the door into her personal space and put his hoof around her, as she did in kind. “It’s been a long time.”

The bystander just looked in surprise. “Hold on, you two know each other?” Spike wondered.

“It’s a long story, I’ll make it short – Seasaddle’s the one who brought me to an Equestrian port,” she answered.

“Only after she set me free.” He let go of her. “Would you believe she was just a wee little filly when she sprung me out of prison?”

She gave him a playful shove. “Please don’t wag your tongue, I wasn’t that young.”

The teal stallion chuckled. “Apologies for my early reaction. A friend of my rescuer is a friend of mine…” He looked about. “Say, where did the pink one that was with you go?”

Only when he mentioned it now did the rest realize that the Element of laughter disappeared. “Oh no… Don’t tell me that Pinkie Pie made tracks for one of the bakeries we passed earlier,” Spike moaned.

Twilight groaned. “We can’t look for her now, she’ll come back, we’ve more pressing matters.” She turned her attention to the bearded former sailor. “Mister Seasaddle, as I said this is an emergency and you’re the only pony in Equestria who can help us right now.”

“Well, I’ll do what I can, but I’m not sure how I can help the Princess of Equestria in any way.”

The alicorn brought out a book with which the teal pony was more than familiar. “In this book, you’ve described your stay in a far-off land, and you’ve given the details of the culture and people that Equestria never had contact with. The book unfortunately does not give directions on how to reach it. That is why we’ve come to you for aid.”

“Of course, I didn’t write that,” he spoke. “It’s the last place I’d want anypony else to visit. It’s best that nobody else but the author knows the way.”

“So, you do know how to get to Farasi then?” the dragon asked.

He was about to speak, but stopped himself, realizing the pattern and where this line of questioning was going. “Wait, you’re not seriously asking what I think you are?”

“Mister Seasaddle, will you please be our guide to the land of Farasi?” the Element of Magic asked.

The silence lasted for a bit, and then the stallion raised his hood. “Will you excuse me for a moment?”

He traipsed to the door, but just as he was about to enter he bumped face-first into another. A pink one.

“Were you going to leap through the back window and run off while pretending you’re looking for something?” she asked with an innocent smile.

He yelped, staggering backward. “Wait… How did you…”

“You opened the window earlier when you shut the door on us, so you were likely preparing to ditch us right away, that is if Zecora hadn’t stopped you. I climbed through it while nobody was looking since I figured you weren’t gonna be cooperative. Oh!” She pulled out a chocolate-covered pastry and took a bite. “I also had a quick piece of bunt cake from the shop on the other side.”

She walked out of his house and shut the door behind. The former sailor was now feeling completely surrounded.

“Seasaddle?” Twilight waited for a response.

“You have no idea what I was put through, Princess…” he said. “A storm forced me to land on a foreign shore, and to make my luck worse, a parasprite snuck onto my ship and attacked the city of Musa. The locals managed to contain the pestilence but the damage was already done, and I ended up being blamed for everything. I spent such a long time in their prison that I almost lost track of time. There was never going to be a trial or anything. I was going to spend the rest of my life rotting away in a cell for an act over which I had no control. I would probably still be there if it wasn’t for her…”

“So… you’re not going to help us? Even though the fate of Equestria depends on it?” Spike asked.

He didn’t say a thing. He couldn’t get himself to do it.

Finally, the shaman stepped in. “Seasaddle, please listen to me, I know what we’re asking is more than something you can agree. But remember back, when you were alone, I helped you get back on the right track. All I asked was that you take me along, and you happily agreed, while you sang your song. I never would’ve asked you to face the source of your despair, unless there was something worse that could not compare. So, I’m asking you, please, for the old-time sake, will help us prevent an outbreak?”

He continued to just sit there for a while longer before finally glancing at her. “You’re really going to twist my hooves on this, aren’t you?”

“So, will you do it then?” The princess of Friendship asked.

“Under protest,” he replied. “I don’t want to go back to that land… But I’d feel guilty knowing that all hopes for saving Equestria are pinned solely on me…”

“Yay!” Pinkie Pie cheered. “He said yes… Well, sort of, but we’re all good!” She pulled out a cake. “See? I also bought one of these earlier just in case. Let’s celebrate our new crewmate joining us!”

“Crewmate?” the dragon raised an eyebrow. “Where did that come from?”

“He’s gonna be our captain, Pinkie. Save the celebrations for when we’re on the ship,” the alicorn pointed out.

“Captain…?” he got confused. “Princess, with all due respect, but I don’t have a ship of my own. I left the sea years ago.”

“No worries about that, Seasaddle, we’ve got that covered. Everypony, come together.”

The group stood next to one another, and then…

FLASH!

They dematerialized, only to reappear on an open field. The wind was blowing, and not far from them, their vessel was already waiting, along with somebody else.

“Ma’am, welcome back,” a centurion-looking pegasus stood nearby. “Celestia told me to wait for you with further instructions.”

“Flash Magnus,” Twilight greeted him, staggering a bit from using magic to teleport herself and multiple people to a great distance, then turning to the party planner. “Pinkie, take Seasaddle to the airship so he can get familiar with it. Spike, Zecora, go with them, I’ll join you in a moment.”

“Alrighty,” Pinkie Pie enthusiastically replied. “Come on, CAPTAIN, and meet your new ship.”

As they all went off to prepare for take-off, the princess approached the drill sergeant. “So, what was it that you needed me for, Ma’am?”

“Flash, I would like to inform you about a potential new recruit for the royal guard.”

The Lavender Spirit Airship took off and traveled southward over Ponyville. After some time, the greenery disappeared, leaving behind only the dusty rocky lands, most of which belonged to the bison. Eventually, the mountain range of Macintosh Hill split the land, opening the vast jungle lands of the south.

Pinkie Pie hopped over to the steering wheel that its new captain and navigator occupied. “Soooooo, Captain… How does it feel to be back in the SADDLE that isn’t exactly SEAworthy?” she snickered.

“It’s taken a bit to get used to it. Steering an airship is another matter than just a regular ship. You don’t have just left and right to worry about, but also up and down… And the probability for us to crash is significantly higher.”

“Oh…” she said in a tone of grim realization.

“That being said though, you all need not worry. There’s yet to be a ship that I’ve mishandled and that’s not about to change,” he reassured her.

“Oh, that’s a relief.” She pulled out a plate with a piece of cake on it. “Enjoy!”

She hopped out on the deck where the rest were – the princess and her companion were reviewing the local map, while the shaman sat at the front of the ship and stared at the distance.

“Okay, if these coordinates are correct, then the train station but close by, which means the Peaks of Peril should be as well.” Twilight pointed.

“Yeah but…” Spike looked at the front, seeing blackness in the distance. “I fear we may have a storm coming our way.”

“I don’t know, Spike. Those don’t look like storm clouds.”

“In this case you are correct,” Zecora answered. “If what we saw in the morning on the map, it’s what we should expect. If the mark resembled what we saw at griffin’s home, then we should expect the same symptom.”

They remember what happened at Griffinstone, but it took them a moment to remember the mark that was shown on the Cutie Map in its aftermath… the same mark that then appeared over their destination.

And there they saw it – Peaks of Peril, engulfed in red, opal flames.

Chapter 67: The Last of her Kind

The train tooted. It has several times throughout this journey, as four mares traveled directly south. The road to Apple Loosa alone took several hours, and the beating sun of the climate wasn’t one bit generous to the passengers. Luckily, the sun eventually disappeared as they passed into the narrow ravine of Macintosh Hills, the only passage south. Finally, some reprieve for the sleeping white unicorn, but it wouldn’t last long. In the shade of the environment, the train suddenly began to slow down just as the cover disappeared. They all felt something was off: The train had stopped and they hadn’t reached the station yet.

The orange mare got up and traipsed to the conductor, who was just staring out of the door window of the cart they were in. “ ’Scuse me, why did the train just stop? We’re kinda in a hurry to get to the Peaks of Peril.”

The conductor didn’t answer her, he only pointed out the window. She couldn’t understand what could have given him such a grim look, but she soon mimicked it. The train stopped just as it exited the narrow ravine and into the open jungle that later turned into a savanna. The reason for it stopping was because it couldn’t get to the station. Everywhere was partly green and orange, but on the large foreboding peak that wore the sinister name – it was engulfed in red and opal-colored flames, a long streak leading from it and through the land where the station stood, or rather, what was left of it.

“DASH! RARITY! FLUTTERSHY! The whole dang place is on fire!” she quickly alerted them.

The two mares quickly joined her side, while the other one took some time as she wobbled over to them and looked out the window.

“Oh no! The kirin!” the yellow pegasus panicked, awakening the draconequus in her fanny pack. “Who-wha-?”

“Sweet Celestia, we were too late!” the fashionista gasped, finally fully awake.

“Well, what are we still waiting about then?!” The wonderbolt immediately forced open the cart’s door. “Quick! We have to help the-”

As she lept into the air to rush ahead, before she could finish, her tongue twisted, as the workhorse bit her tail to stop her in place. “Hold, thunderhead, you don’t even know where to go. You try as much to approach from the air and you’re gonna suffocate from the smoke, if the heat doesn’t get you first.”

“I hope you still remember the way, Applejack,” the white unicorn wondered.

“We both do,” the animal caretaker assured her.

The Element of Honesty turned to the conductor. “Sir, go tell the driver to hold the train until we come back.”

“What? Excuse me, miss, but we can’t just hold the train,” he argued.

“There’s sentient creatures living atop that burnin’ mountain and we have to save them! And if you’ve got a problem with that you’re gonna have to explain it to Princess Twilight Sparkle, got it?!”

All he did was nod and dash out of the cart.

“Alright girls, let’s get goin’!” Applejack commanded and dashed off, with Fluttershy quickly catching up to her, with the other two Elements following them.

They got to a small creek, not far from where the fiery streak ran down the peak. They hopped over to the other side of it where the base of the mountain was. Nearby, there was a large rock, and both the shy pegasus and workhorse pushed it aside, revealing a large crevice in the wall. “This way, y’all,” the latter urged.

Yet, just as they were about to enter it, the former overheard something – it sounded like the sounds of terror and fright. “Wait!” Fluttershy ordered and quickly flew to the nearby bush, opening it, and revealing a group of squirrels huddled together and quivering. “Oh, you poor things.” She reached out and gently petted them. “Shhhhh. It’s okay, I’m here for you. Come on.” She scooped the four animals into her embrace and gently rocked them. “What’s happened to your home?” One of the squirrels finally spoke in a chittering noise. “What? Are you serious?”

“What are they saying, Fluttershy?” Rarity inquired.

“They’re saying… that the kirin set the whole peak ablaze.”

“Wait, what?” Rainbow Dash gave her a confused look. “They’re the ones responsible for all this destruction?”

“That don’ make a lick of sense,” Applejack joined in. “Kirin wouldn’t just set things ablaze unless they transformed into nirik. But Ah reckon we’ll find out once we get to their village. Come on.”

As the other three mares went on to the crevice, she let the critters climb up on her back. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe, won’t we Discord?”

The wormy patchwork slipped out of the fanny pack and crawled up on the top of her mane. “Well, normally I’d say yes, but as things are, you’re the only one that’s capable of doing it, Fluttershy.”

She trotted off to join the rest of the group that already entered the narrow tunnel, and after a short walk, the light came at the end of the exit. And it proved to be anything but a good sign as they came out into the valley within the peak. Fluttershy and Applejack still remembered this place when they first visited it: A paradise, tucked away in this mostly inhospitable land where the locals have been living with nature for generations beyond counting; it was a breathtaking sight. Now, however, it was a sight of horror, as the entire village, all the greenery and the beautiful scenery, was reduced to a burning wreck.

“It’s… not supposed to look like that, is it?” The white unicorn pointed.

“No… You’ve no idea, Rarity,” the orange pony answered in a somber tone.

“But why would this happen? I thought we had the whole thing sorted out the last time we were here,” the shy pegasus wondered.

“Think about that later! We have to douse the fire!” the wonderbolt urged, as she ran further off and dug into the dirt, bucking it away at the flames.

The workhorse wanted to suggest simply using the nearby water source to do the job, but it didn’t take a moment for her to notice that it had already evaporated from the intense heat. The dirt job was in order then. She motioned to the rest and they followed. All of them pitched in, kicking up the dirt to put the red and opal-colored flames, even the squirrels and Discord joined in to assist, as little as they helped.

But as much effort as they put into it, the fashionista eventually voiced her observation. “It’s no use…” she huffed. “No matter how much of this… EUGH, dirt, we dump on fire, it just won’t go out.”

Even Rainbow Dash stopped. “How does that make any sense?!”

“Unfortunately, Rarity’s likely right in this case,” the draconequus spoke. “I can make an easy guess that we’re dealing with magic fire.”

“Great… So it was all a wasted effort…” the orange pony sighed in frustration.

“Even if we can’t put out the fire we at least have to look for survivors.” Fluttershy scooped up her small friends.

“Look for survivors? In this inferno? That’s about as likely as…” the wonderbolt’s voice trailed off as she began staring at Rarity.

The white unicorn took notice of her, she noticed all of them were suddenly staring at her. “What? Why are you all giving me that look?”

The other mares looked at one another before the yellow pegasus jumped in. “I-I think what she meant to say was that there’s likely nobody in the house. And last I remember, the kirin, or rather, nirik, burned in such colored flames. If they were the ones responsible for the fire it’s unlikely they’ll get hurt by it.”

“Even so, where did they go? Any indication of what happened went up in flames, and there is no way for us to look for clues when all the houses are impassible.”

Applejack rubbed her chin, looking about the burning village, when her eyes finally stopped at a trail that was leading out of it, jogging her memory. “Maybe not all of them… There’s one place we have to check first to be sure. If fire hasn’t reached it yet we may be in luck.” She turned. “Come on, everypony.”

They galloped in the said direction with the Element of Honesty leading them, eventually getting out of the burned growth, finding a trail to be more pronounced now against the orange and brown rocks, and their sight caught a small house sitting on the cliff edge, surrounded by vegetation that had not been touched by the fire.

“Phew, Ah was right. This one’s still safe.” She wiped her brow.

“Applejack, how did you know about this house?” the shy pegasus inquired.

“Because its owner brought me here when we got here the first time, Fluttershy.”

“You know the owner?” the blue pegasus asked.

“Oh yeah, she’s a chatterbox that one. If she’s here then she won’t be easy to miss.”

They climbed the hill and finally arrived at the house, and Rarity had to make a statement. “Well, one thing’s for sure, your friend’s taste is… well, wanting, to say the least.”

“Autumn Blaze!” Applejack called out.

No response was given. She ran all around the house and inside, but there was no trace of it. Then she climbed the log that led to a ledge. And still no trace of her.

She gave a disappointed sigh, then gazed at the landscape, seeing the trail of fire leading into the horizon. “Ah was certain she would be here. She loves this spot, she comes here to reflect… Then again, with what’s on the horizon she probably wouldn’t want to see it.”

She stared at it, for so long that others climbed onto the ledge, curious about what was taking her. But they were unaware of the weight limit of the structure, which, after making several squeaking noises, gave out, causing it to collapse, including all that was attached adjacently to it.

Applejack pushed one of the planks off of herself. “Ouch… Everyopony okay?”

“Been better…” Rainbow Dash groaned as she crawled out of the remains.

“I managed to land on this soft bag,” Fluttershy answered atop a large wrapped-up bundle, which just so happened to be atop Rarity as well.

“In the name of everything that’s decent would you please get this thing off me…?” the white mare moaned.

The shy pegasus quickly hopped off, while the workhorse grabbed the bundle and pulled it off of her. As the wrapped-up object was dragged away, it suddenly began to move. It soon became apparent that something or somebody was in it, which became especially obvious when a bulge rose up in the form of a head. The orange mare ripped it open and revealed a familiar face: The creature’s head closely resembled that of a pony, however, it had a scale-like formation running from its forehead to the tip of its nose, it had a long, curved horn, with a small tip growing out of it in the middle, and it had a long, curly mane that extended all around her neck as if it were a beard.

“Autumn Blaze!” she cheered and hugged her. “Thank Celestia you’re okay. We really thought for a second nobody was left after what we saw happened to the village.” She pulled back and noticed that something was off with her friend, as the expression on her face looked... passive. “Autumn Blaze, are you okay?”

The kirin only shook her head in response.

“Oh... yeah, Ah suppose that was a stupid question to ask after what we saw.” She rubbed her head. “What’s happened here?”

The kirin nodded in the direction of the burning village.

“Yes, we know what’s happened, we were there. But can you be more specific about it, please? We didn’t see anypony there and you’re the only one who’s…” She slowed down, noticing that she didn’t make any attempt to talk this whole time, her whole expression seemed completely unresponsive, and then she remembered she saw such symptoms in the past when she first visited. “Autumn Blaze, did you take a dip in the Stream of Silence?”

The kirin simply nodded.

“Oh no…” was the only response from the country pony.

“Applejack, what’s the Stream of Silence?” the fashionista inquired.

“It’s a magical stream, Rarity,” the animal caretaker elaborated. “If you touch it, it will remove any sort of emotions from you.”

“Oh, that explains why I’m not seeing the aforementioned “chatterbox”.” Discord nodded to himself, only to have the wonderbolt put a hoof over his muzzle.

“KHM!” The earth pony coughed in order to distract. “Anyway, we need to get an antidote. Fluttershy, can you ask your squirrel friends if they have any Foal’s Breath around? Because based on that inferno in the back I doubt any of it survived.” She felt a tap on her shoulder, as the kirin grabbed her attention, nodding at her house. “Wait… You have it? Why didn’t you use it already then?”

She didn’t answer, instead, she got up and traipsed through the doorway and a moment later came out levitating a wooden teapot and a cup. She poured herself one and then stared at it for a while, not moving at all.

“Autumn Blaze, what is it?” Applejack tried to get her attention.

After a while, the kirin looked at her and then down to the cup again, before finally taking a sip. A gulp followed, a soon after the passive expression on her face disappeared. The wooden cup and teapot stopped levitating and fell to the ground, spilling what was left. Everybody then watched as a frown formed on her face, she began hyperventilating, and they saw tears beginning to form in her eyes. And then a scream followed, only to be replaced by a distressing cry, as she collapsed on her hind quarters, waterworks in full motion. The country pony was about to approach her, but halfway she just ran at her and began shaking her violently.

“Rain Shine! Village! Fire! Big One!” and all the other random broken words were being spewed out of her.

“Wow… She’s not just a chatterbox, she’s a tongue-twister,” Discord made a snide remark only to be bumped on the head by the wonderbolt.

Applejack pulled Autumn Blaze in and wrapped her hooves around her. “Shhhh, it’s okay, we’re here for you, suga’ cube.”

The word spouting finally ended and was replaced with sobbing.

While the acquainted duo tried their best to calm the weeping kirin, Rarity picked up the wooden pot to try and make some tea. There was drinkable water and herbs, the heat source was another matter though; she had to improvise. She used her magic to enclose the wooden pot in a cube and then put it inside the nearby fire for a few seconds, and it was finished. She returned to the house on the hill, noticing that the moaning had finally stopped, though the earth pony and the pegasus were both still close to her to console her, all the while the Element of Loyalty kept a close eye on the draconequus so he wouldn’t say something tactless.

She poured a cup of tea. “Here you go, darling.”

The kirin’s horn began to glow, as she levitated it to herself, taking a sip. “Thanks. By the way, I like what you did with your hair, Rarity.”

She made a prideful mane swing. “Oh, this old thing? It’s nothing, darling. It’s all natural…” Her voice trailed off when she noticed from the corner of her eye that the wonderbolt was looking at the distressed local, making a cutting motion at her direction, before noticing that the fashionista locked her gaze with her, and then quickly pretended like nothing happened. “Rainbow Dash, what was that?”

“W-what was what?” she feigned ignorance.

“That thing you just did with your hoof. It’s almost like you were trying to cut Autumn Blaze from speak-” Once more she stopped when she noticed Applejack and Fluttershy doing the same thing, both facing the kirin, then pretending they didn’t do it when she noticed that they were being watched. “And you two, what was that for? What’s wrong with everypony?”

There was an awkward silence in the air until the local finally spoke up. “I think they were trying to tell me not to mention your mane for some reason, but that’s just me.”

Both pegasi and the earth pony looked at her with a grim look on their faces.

“My mane? What’s wrong with my mane? It’s perfectly combed, glistening and-” This time Rarity’s voice went silent, as she brushed off her hair with her hoof and then brought it before her face, noticing a purple smudge mark.

“Soooo… that’s not your new mane style then, is it?” she remarked once again.

There was a sense of dread creeping up on the white unicorn, as she slowly brought out her hand mirror, and a single look at it confirmed her fears – the intense heat from the fire had melted away her mane color, revealing the grey streak. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” she cried out upon revelation, bursting into tears. “All that hard work wasted! AGAIN!” she wheezed. “Excuse me…” A magical aura enveloped the wooden cup that the kirin was already drinking from, ripping it from her grip and drawing it to the fashionista. “But I need something to drown my despair right now…!” And she began drinking fervently, refilling it after it was empty, making a suppressed sob every now and then.

“Hey, look at it this way, Rarity,” the former Lord of Chaos quipped. “Misery loves company. You’re both miserable now and you can keep each other’s company.”

He only finished the sentence, and already the blue pegasus scoped him up and shoved him into the fanny pack of the yellow one. “Sorry, but I’ve had it with his tactless responses.”

“Sorry,” his muffled voice could be heard from inside.

Applejack once again turned her attention. “Autumn Blaze, explain what exactly happened here.”

She sighed. “I don’t even know where to begin, Applejack. I mean, it started off so well: I got up and opened the window of my door to soak in the morning sun, and Fern Flare came by to say “good morning”, and I went to the stalls to get some delicious vegetables for my breakfast, and I cooked them for-”

Rainbow Dash coughed, interrupting her. “Sorry, but, I’ve got an idea: How about you tell us when it actually started, cuz we’re kinda in a hurry here.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Autumn Blaze cleared her throat. “So, we were setting up the stage for the monthly stand-up. Things were going fine, but then something went “dum, dum, dum!” as if something heavy was approaching. I found it odd because, by the sound of it, it should’ve been close to the village already. Then, a large shadow was cast over the village and we saw a figure standing on the rocky edges that surround the village, and we had no idea how big it was until it lept off and landed right in the middle of it.”

“What was it?” the workhorse inquired.

“I’m not sure. It had four legs, so one would assume it was equine-related, but where its head was supposed to be was instead a muscular torso with a pair of arms and a horned head atop it.

“Wait… That sounds like Tirek,” the shy pegasus pointed out.

“Who?” she gave her a confused look.

“Lord Tirek. He’s a centaur. You know – we faced off against him and two other villains when a call for help was given.”

The kirin thought for a moment. “Oh yeah… I thought he looked familiar, even with the makeover he got.”

“What do you mean “makeover”?” Rarity asked, still in a state of distress.

“He was huge compared to back then, as tall as a house. Among other things.”

“What? Don’t tell me his hair also caught fire or something as well?” Discord jokingly said.

“Actually, that’s pretty accurate.”

“It… it is?”

“Yeah. And he was just standing there for a while, looking at us. Our leader, Rain Shine, approached him and tried to communicate by saying “hello”, but he didn’t speak. Instead, he just broke Blossom Burst’s house with a single swing of his arm. He did the same with several other houses, and we tried to talk to him in vain. So, we tried to use magic against him, trying to tip him off balance by throwing stuff at him, and all it did was make him angry. So angry in fact, that he breathed fire on us. At that point we didn’t really have much choice – we had to fight fire with fire… In a literal sense, I mean.” Red and opal-colored flame suddenly enveloped her, taking the workhorse and the animal caretaker off guard, making them jump, revealing her rather unpleasant dark-looking form, before the process repeated and she returned back to her normal self.

“Wow! That’s pretty cool,” the wonderbolt complimented her.

“Please don’t do that again,” Applejack reproofed. “So, what happened then? Did a fiery battle erupt between you and him? Is that why the Peaks of Peril are on fire?”

“No. Quite the opposite happened. When we turned to nirik we expected a full-on destructive fight to ensure, but instead, he just began backing up. We didn’t even attack him directly at that point and he was retreating. The whole village joined in, and slowly he got backed into the walls of the peaks where he finally got cornered. He didn’t even try to fight back, so at that point, we were just waiting for him to apologize.”

“Did he?” Fluttershy hopefully wondered, to which, just about everybody who knew who was being talked about, gave her an unimpressed frown.

“Fluttershy dear, it’s Tirek we’re talking about. Of course, he wouldn’t,” Discord answered her question.

“Your slinky friend is right, Fluttershy,” Autumn Blaze resumed. “All of a sudden he started to laugh. And then went: “Good, good. Let your anger flow through you. And now, get consumed by it.”. Only then did I notice that around his neck he wore a small bag, tied with a rope. He took it off, opened it, and then, like a sinister villain from a play declared: “BEHOLD THE POWER OF BURNING DARKNESS!!!”,” she yelled out loud, making everybody twitch from the sudden outburst. “And then…” she paused as if she was trying to find words. “I don’t know how to describe it, but all of a sudden I felt heat rising all over me, there was this red haze that began clouding my senses as if overcome with strong emotion, something I wasn’t able to control began taking over me. I just… I just wanted it to stop, and I did the only thing I could think of with my consciousness fading.”

“Ya ran for the Stream of Silence, didn’t ya?” the orange mare connected the dots.

She nodded. “I ran for it and immediately took a dive. And instantly: “POOF!” it was all gone. The fiery haze was lifted and I could think clearly once more.”

“Yes, but you also lost all of your other emotions as well,” the shy pegasus pointed out.

“For the better, honestly.”

“What…?” Rarity finally stopped whimpering and sipping her tea. “Why would you say that?”

“What happened next…” There was a pause that the kirin let happen for a long time. “When I finally crawled out of the stream I came to realize I was the only one; none of the other villagers were there, either because they didn’t think about it or they didn’t manage to make it. So, I snuck back to see what was happening. When I saw them, I understood why that was the case. They stood there, motionless before the Tirek guy, Rain Shine was the only one who seemed to still be fighting to keep control of herself, but in the end, she too went still, her eyes turning red like the rest. The big guy then stretched out his hand before her, like this.” She mimicked the motion. “And then said in a calm dominant tone: “Now, kneel before your Lord.”. And that’s what she did, what all nirik did.”

“He tried to make the entire kirin village angry at him and then coax them all to surround him and turn into creatures who are especially susceptible to anger.” Discord made an observation. “He used their anger to take control of them. And I think we can all guess, from the recent experience, what caused it, right?”

They all knew its name. There was no need to speak of Turmoil’s fractured essence that nearly burned down the home of the griffins. And now, the Peaks of Peril suffered the same fate.

And that’s what bothered Applejack. “But if Tirek took control of all the nirik and has already left, why is the whole place on fire?”

The look on the kirin’s face became grim. “What he did next… He said: “Now we march south, to the western sea. And we will leave a path of destruction for everybody to see. Starting with this village. BURN IT TO THE GROUND!”.” When Autumn Blaze yelled out those words, she began to quiver. “I couldn’t do anything… I just watched.... Watched as my own kin burned down our homeland. This wasn’t like when our anger got the better of us over a trivial spat and we ended up burning our village. This was unbridled rage, hotter and uncontrolled. Not just our homes, but also all the trees and plants burned. And it will continue to burn because nirik fire does not die down, not until they revert back to kirin form. All I could do was hide away. And even if I couldn’t see the action in progress anymore, the mouth-frothing cries persisted.” The tone in her voice began to crack. “In a single day, I lost both my home and my people… That’s why I didn’t want the Silence’s effect to end. I couldn’t bear the burden of emotions, I just…”

She broke, tears beginning to surge forth. The Elements of Honesty and Kindness quickly closed the gap between her to try and comfort her. The Element of Generosity stared at the now once more distressed female, and looked at the cup she was holding, before refilling it and handing it over to the weeping kirin; compared to what she was going through, she needed it more.

“I’m sorry,” the kirin apologized under her tears, as she grabbed the cup of tea and took a sip. “I know I seem so pathetic for just waiting for somepony’s shoulder to cry on… But I really didn’t know what else to do… I don’t know if it’s a miracle or a chance that you all got here in my time of need…”

“Chance nothing! We knew we had to come here.” Rainbow Dash spoke up, making Autumn Blaze pause and give her a look of confusion.

“Dash is right, Autumn Blaze,” Applejack budged in. “We came here because the Cutie Map showed us something has happened to Peaks of Peril, so we came to investigate. In fact, we’re trying to prevent whatever Tirek and the rest of his goons are doing. If there’s a way to save your people from them, we’ll help you.”

“You can count on us, darling,” Rarity agreed.

The kinin looked at all of them, their words and looks radiating confidence. “Thank you…” she sniffed with a hopeful smile.

“I do wonder where Tirek could’ve taken all the nirik,” Fluttershy wondered.

“We don't have to think about that too hard,” Discord answered. “That trail we saw when we left the train because the path to the station was blocked by fire? That’s the path they left behind. If we end up following it we’ll eventually reach them.” He turned to the kirin. “Am I right?”

She nodded.

“Well, it’s a good thing there’s a way to keep track of them. Still, we’re gonna have to leave this place,” the earth pony resumed. “It’s a good thing that most of this land is barren so that the fire doesn’t spread far. There’s a train waiting down by the tracks for us.”

“Wait, we may have an issue though, Applejack,” the unicorn stopped her. “Twilight will be coming this way on an airship, we can’t put her at risk of our transport catching fire.”

“Yes. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have some sort of magical way to let her know,” draconequus pouted.

“You know what?” the Element of Loyalty grinned. “We may not have magic to do it, but we do have another way.

“No good, Princess Twilight, we can’t get any closer!”

The Lavender Spirit Airship approached the Peaks of Peril, but going any further was out of the question, as the captain said – the flames were too intense.

“But we have to get down! My friends are waiting for us there!” the alicorn insisted.

“Twilight, I don’t think they’ll be anywhere near this place,” her companion said as he looked over the edge. “I’m a dragon and I’m feeling this place is really hot.”

“We can’t just leave, Spike! We agreed that we would meet up here.”

“It may be presumptuous for me to make an injection,” the shaman responded, “but would it be possible for them to leave us a direction?”

“Zecora, that’s nonsense! How could they leave us a message?”

“By writing it in large letters?” Pinkie Pie replied as she leaned over the other edge of the ship.

The princess joined her side and discovered that she was being serious. Away from the fiery mountain, on the dried barren ground, there were lines on the ground made from tree logs, set up in a specific way that resembled writing, saying – “CROUP TOWN HARBOR. AVOID THE FLAME TRAIL.”.

The captain also looked over the edge of the ship after a while. “Croup Town? The city that stands on the western coast?”

“You know it, Seasaddle?” Twilight turned to him.

“It’s where I set off from with a cargo ship before I got caught in a storm and was brought to… that place.”

“And it’s also where the rail comes to an end.” Spike reviewed the map.

“But how do we know this was set by them?” the princess wondered. “For all we know this could’ve been put up by the very thing that destroyed the kirin village and it’s trying to divert us from the real trail.”

“Or mayhap, the answer is more obvious and not likely a trap.” Zecora pointed at a set of spaced-out letters that lay beneath the message, displaying A, F, R, RD, and AB. “Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash are the names I can make out, but the latter fills me with doubt.”

The tracks that ran through the narrow ravine in between the untamed jungle to the barren lands of southern Equestria split in two at some point. One of them led to the dead-end station near the Peaks of Peril, while the other continued further, where the path opened to the vast empty desert, at which point it once again split in two - one turning left towards Mount Aris, while the other turned right, and trailed along the mountainside, all the way to the coast. And this is where the port settlement of Croup Town stood. There were only a handful of houses, most of them belonging to the sailors who were sailing their ships to the other side of the continent or the neighboring ones. Still, the town had its basic businesses that were required to function properly, such as a restaurant, no more than a street away from the harbor. One that a certain group was currently occupying to sate their morning cravings.

“Ahhhh… That hit the spot,” Applejack let out a sigh of relief after scarfing down the last apple pocket.

“Ye…” the blue pegasus said with her mouth full, still munching a large hayburger.

“I agree, it was delicious,” Fluttershy wiped her mouth with a napkin after finishing her humble meal. “Although…” She turned her head to the side.

Next to her sat the kirin who didn’t order anything to eat, with a forlorn look on her face, yet she was the complete opposite of the white unicorn sitting next to her, who was gorging herself on ice cream.

“Waiter, another one, please,” Rarity said as she finished the last one, and he was already in wait with another bowl.

“Don’t you think you’re going a bit overboard, Rarity?” the workhorse made her concerns known. “That can’t possibly be good for your health.”

“No… But it just feels so good…”

The survivor next to her glanced. “This cold mush actually helps?”

The fashionista halted herself, pulling the spoon out of her mouth. “Autumn Blaze, don’t tell me you’ve never had ice cream before?”

“Well, considering where I live and the fact that I have an “incineratory condition”…”

“Oh darling, you have no idea what you’re missing. Here.” She scooped up a spoonful and shoved it into kirin’s mouth without notice.

At first, she was in shock, but then the expression on her face mellowed down. “It’s… so goooooooood…”

With her magic, she ripped the spoon from Rarity’s own, dug into the frozen pile, shoved another spoon full into her mouth, and soon after began rapidly stuffing herself.

“Dear, please, slow down!” the unicorn warned her. “If you do this so fast you’ll end up with-”

It came too late though. As she put another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, she stopped, as she felt a strange cold sensation coming over her head, spreading all over her, feeling the sting. “AAAAAAAA!” she screamed, falling off her chair and clutching her head. “What is this?!”

“That’s what they call brain freeze,” Applejack answered. “Ya eat too much cold stuff really fast and that’ll happen.”

The wonderbolt was about to chuckle, yet was unable because her mouth was still full. And even if she was able to, it would’ve quickly turned to a frown. As the kirin was wincing from her condition, her eyes suddenly turned white, exuding opal flames that were bordering the color red. A moment later the said flames completely enveloped her, as she turned into nirik, her flame blasting upwards, burning the umbrella cover under which, they were sitting. A few seconds later, the flames enveloped her again and she returned back to her normal form.

“Phew… Okay, it passed finally,” she sighed in relief.

The ponies just sat motionlessly and stared at her, the cover that was shielding them from the sun now gone. A shadow suddenly obscured the sunlight from above, and it was too sharp to be that of a cloud. They looked up and saw an airship passing over them. This was their cue.

“Let’s get the hay out of here before the owner finds out what happened to his umbrella,” Rainbow Dash suggested, with the country pony tossing a bag of bits on the table.

They all left the table and made their way to the harbor, but just as they did, the fashionista stopped in her tracks. “Girls… You go on ahead and tell Twilight to wait. Nature calls.” And she quickly dashed inside the restaurant.

The workhorse rolled her eyes, nodding to the rest to follow. They finally exited the town and onto the large web of docks that stretched across the bay of Croup Town. The airship they saw earlier was beginning to descend and eventually landed on one of the piers. Approaching, they finally noticed a purple mare, on it.

“Twilight!” the yellow pegasus greeted her, as she, the orange pony, and the kirin waited for the ramp to be lowered, while the blue pegasus just flew up on deck.

“Yo, Twi!” the wonderbolt greeted her, noticing a new face steering the vessel. “I take it that’s our guy?”

“This guy,” the stallion heard her, “miss, is the one who will get you to the destination when nopony else can. Thank you very much.”

“What’s with him?” she leaned into Spike.

“He’s in a bad mood because he didn’t want to come and feels like he’s being guilted into going.”

“I shouldn’t worry,” Pinkie Pie hopped by. “A few days on the sea and he’ll get over it.”

“Pinkie, we’re not sailing on the sea…”

“Oh, right, sorry. OVER the sea.”

Meanwhile, other mares boarded the ship, and the princess noticed somebody was missing. “Where’s Rarity?”

“One last bathroom trip before we cast off.”

The Element of Magic realized that a new voice was among them. “Wait. You’re…” she tried to recall. “Autumn Blaze, right? What’s happened at your home?”

As soon as she mentioned it, her gaze dropped and her expression became depressed.

The country pony quickly stepped in. “Twilight, here’s what’s happened at Peaks of Peril.”

Rarity came trotting out of the restaurant, finally relieved. She didn’t hold still for long though, she had to hurry and catch up to the rest, so she quickly galloped towards the dock. As she was coming to the street corner though, somebody came right around it. She ended up crashing into him and he fell all over her.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” he apologized, as he crawled off her. “I was so engrossed in the book I wasn’t paying attention. Are you ok… Miss Rarity?”

She shook her head, the voice that greeted her seemed familiar. As she got up to take a good look at the pony: He was a unicorn stallion, short in stature, his fur grey and mane dark blue, with a look that almost made him seem aged than he really was.

“Stygian? Fancy meeting you here of all places.”

“I could say the same,” he replied. “What are you doing here on the far end of Equestria?”

She gave him a curious look. “Didn’t Star Swirl or any other of the Pillars of Old Equestria notify you about what’s been going on?”

“Well, I’ve been away from home for a while now, traveling Equestria, having time to think about things and write the next story.”

“Oh, you mean Me and My Shadow series? You got only two novels out over the course of the last three years compared to how quickly the first three came out.”

“Yeah… As I said, I’ve been away to have some time to think… Which was about a year and a half ago.”

“Wait… You mean to tell me you’ve had no contact with anypony else you know for that long? In any way?”

“Erm… yes?” he gave her an awkward shrug.

“Sweet Celestia! Stygian you really need to meet up with your friends every now and then. Prolonged loneliness is really unhealthy for you. Not to mention you seem to be completely out of the loop of what’s been happening.” She was prepared to speak further but then remembered she was in a hurry. “Look, I’m in a hurry, so I’ll be blunt about it: Something bad is happening in the Everfree Forest. I’m here with Princess Twilight Sparkle and everypony else to set off to a distant land to stop it. And as I’m speaking everypony else is already waiting for me.” She began trotting backward towards the harbor. “Go to Ponyville and you’ll get the answers you need. Toddles!” And she ran off.

The scrawny pony was left all by himself now, unsure what to do with what he was just told. “This doesn’t sound good,” he thought to himself. “Maybe I should go and check up on that but… The last thing I would want now is to face any one of THEM again…”

He shook his head. That last part - it felt right, and yet he got put off by the idea that such a thought even came to his mind. It brought back the memory of a time that he didn’t want to remember, of a time… when his anger and hatred felt just. He trotted off in the opposite direction, towards the train station, wondering what could’ve brought that up, completely unaware of the shadowy wisp, which managed to sneak just past the corner of his sight when he was distracted. It grinned before it flew away.

The Lavender Spirit took off from the harbor and sailed away into the west. The atmosphere was anything but pleasant aboard since they just related what had happened at the Peaks of Peril.

Twilight went past her companion, who was looking through the spyglass back at the shore. “What are you looking at, Spike?”

“That line of fire that Autumn Blaze mentioned,” he answered.

“What about it?”

“I think I found its tail.”

“Come again?”

He handed her the instrument and she looked through it. She saw the fiery line in the distance as it approached the waterline, further south of Croup Town, in the desert, where it ceased. And that’s when she spotted them! An army of nirik gathered on the shore, adamant and motionless. But they weren’t alone, as near them a skittering swarm of changelings was also present. And sitting on the very edge of the border, were their two leaders.

“It’s Tirek and Chrysalis!” the alicorn let out a suppressed scream, hoping that others wouldn’t hear them.

“Why are they just standing about?” Spike wondered.

“My guess is that they don’t have the means to cross the sea. If that’s the case then we still have the upper hand to get to our destination before them.”

“Do we let… her know?” He nodded in the direction of the kirin, who was being consoled by Applejack and Fluttershy.

“No… I think seeing her kin like that again would just demoralize her even more.”

With that knowledge, the dragon quickly put the spyglass away.

“Yo, Spike!”

The call made him jump, making him quickly turn to the one who made it. “What, Rainbow Dash?!”

“You got a stopwatch?”

“Why?”

“If we’re gonna be flying for a long time, no way am I just gonna sit about. I just barely recovered and I think my wings have gotten a little rusty. I need to get back in shape while we’re on the way. So, start measuring.” And she flew over the edge of the airship.

Spike shrugged and went off the look for the stopwatch, leaving Twilight alone. In the meantime, Twilight picked up the spyglass and looked back at the shore again, where the Pillars of Hatred and Anger waited. It made her worry. They were getting ahead of them, but how long would that last?

A day passed, and there was no land anywhere in sight. The passengers were trying to pass the time or to keep their thoughts busy by playing cards or board games. The only ones not present for the activities were the captain who was steering the ship, the wonderbolt who was trying to break her flight limit, the dragon who was timing her, and strangely, for some reason, the shaman, who was just sitting at the very head of the ship, staring at the horizon. The day was passing just normally until the pony at the helm caught something in sight.

“Ship’s ahoy!”

The mares came running out and looked over the edge. On the left side of the vessel in the distance, they saw a fleet of dark airships passing by them. And they knew exactly to whom they belonged.

“The Storm King,” Twilight whispered.

“A friend of yours?” the kirin asked.

“Hardly,” Rarity answered. “He’s with the one who took your kin, Autumn Blaze.”

“Ah. I see.” There were no other words for her to say.

“If he’s gonna come at us we getter go to battle stations,” Applejack suggested.

“I don’t think he will,” Twilight said. “Even if they spot us he’s not going to waste time. They’re in a hurry to transport others to Farasi.”

Fluttershy smiled. “It’s a good thing then that we’re a good day ahead of them then.”

“A good day ahead that will hardly help us miss,” the captain spoke up again. “Look ahead of us, all of you.”

They all went to the front of the airship where the shaman sat. They gazed to the horizon, or rather the lack of it, as in the distance, large storm clouds could be seen, covering a long reach to the north and south.

“Same place as I knew it would be. That darn storm nearly got me last time. And it’s the reason I ended up in that land. If y’all don’t want to experience what I did all those years ago, we’re gonna have to go around it.”

“How long will that take?” Spike inquired.

“We’ll be lucky if not more than a day.”

“And since the Storm King’s airships can just fly through the storm undeterred it means they’ll have shortened travel time than us…” Rainbow Dash realized.

“Even so, that’s our only way,” Seasaddle finished.

Ears of some dropped in knowledge, and they went back to the accommodation to pass the time. As the shy pegasus was the first to pass the threshold, the small worm-like creature quickly stopped her at her face.

“Discord, what are you-?”

He wrapped around her mouth to shut her up. “Shhhhh. Quiet.”

Other mares who were behind her noticed it. “Discord, what are you doing?” Rarity inquired.

He unwrapped from the pegasus’ muzzle and crawled up to the white unicorn. “I think we have stowaways.”

“What makes you think that?” the animal caretaker questioned.

Draconequus flew to the table where the games and snacks were. “I remember specifically there were salted pretzels right here. I know because I was about to have a nibble before we got called out. Now there’s a handful of them missing.” He skipped over to the other ones. “So are the chocolate-covered hobnobs, the roly-poly, and do I even need to continue?”

“Okay fine, Discord, but where could a stowaway even hide?” Rainbow Dash.

“Gee, I wonder,” said Pinkie Pie, who rolled her eyes, before rolling herself all over the floor in a specific direction. “It couldn’t possibly be in this one giant obvious place that’s proven itself to be completely capable of hiding an individual being. That would be silly.” She stopped rolling as she reached the closet and pointed at it.

They all looked at one another. Twilight used her magic on the handle of the closet to open it, and much like last time, a pile of clothes tumbled out of it. And much like last time, they began to wiggle. The draconequus was right, somebody else was here unannounced! They all surrounded the moving pile, both Rarity and Twilight charging up their magic, while others grabbed large objects that weren’t bolted to the floor to use as weapons, except for Fluttershy who peaked from behind others. The pile of clothing finally rose and a face popped out. A familiar face, giving an awkward smile! They all knew this yellow-furred, red-maned young mare with a bowtie on her head.

“APPELBLOOM!?” they screamed in unison, her older sibling being flabbergasted. “WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

Chapter 68: The Exiled One

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Chapter 69: Landfall

She exhaled. It has been so many years since she thought about the events that brought her to Equestria in the first place. She buried those memories away, but the recent events made them bubble up on the surface ever so slowly. Strangely enough, even though she bottled those memories up long ago she felt strange. Not as strange as the looks that others present were giving her. They seemed quite flabbergasted by what they had just heard. The only noticeable stand-out was the kirin, who was holding a handkerchief and wiping her teary eyes.

“This was so heart-wrenching to listen…” Autumn Blaze said. “The cruel irony didn’t get past me: You give hope to others… and yet weren’t able to keep any for yourself.”

“So, wait a dang pickin’ minute,” Applejack suddenly spoke up, “you’re telling us that you knew this whole time where one of Turmoil’s pieces was?”

“Not only that, but you freed it from its prison?” Rainbow Dash jumped in before they both answered simultaneously. “AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US?!”

“No,” she simply answered. “I knew of a darkness that my ancestors locked away and I accidentally freed. My intentions were never to impede.”

“But more to the point, Zecora,” the Princess stepped in. “Did you just say that the Manifestation said that… you’re its Pillar?”

“Why? What’s that mean, Twilight?” Spike wondered.

“I’ve heard it being said by Chrysalis when I met her again during our first confrontation in the Everfree Forest. She called herself the Pillar of Hatred, she surrendered herself to the Manifestation of Hatred and it remade her… Probably because she freed it. After all, she was the one who stole the Alicorn Amulet.” She gave the shaman a concerned look. “If one of the reasons that you ran away was because you thought your presence would put the whole land in danger, I completely understand why you wanted to get away so desperately.”

And then the youngest of the equines lept off her chair, and everybody watched as she traipsed to the other end of the table and stopped beside the shaman.

She finally spoke. “I’m sorry, Zecora,” Applebloom apologized. “If I had known how awful it was for you at your home I wouldn’t-”

The zebra raised her hoof, interrupting her. “My worry for your safety was just, so I don’t want you to think I’ve held for you nothing but disgust. My anger may have gotten the better of me, but it’s time for us to put that behind us, don’t you agree?”

Relief washed over the young mare, so much so that she immediately lept into her mentor’s embrace, a sniffle of happy joy escaping her. The zebra wrapped her hoof around her apprentice and stroked her hair.

“Zecora, I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible it must’ve been for you,” the shy pegasus spoke. “Having to live with all that guilt this whole time… I don’t think I could’ve handled it.”

“’Tis true, I was burdened, at first. But all the bad memories, I’ve bottled them up, so I wouldn’t feel so cursed. What I experienced as a young mare is all in the past, but it wasn’t until Princess Twilight came to me, and told me about her issues, that it reminded me of what had passed.”

“Zecora darling,” the fashionista leaned in, “I’m glad that you were being earnest with us. That said, I think we may have a problem. If all that occurred to your tribe through your actions is true, wouldn’t it be risky for you to be with us? I mean, if we come to encounter them on our trail, wouldn’t that make things difficult for us? If they hold some sort of grudge against you, wouldn’t they try to hinder us in some way?”

They all looked at Rarity, and then back at the shaman.

“Yes, Miss Rarity, it’s true. And it’s all the more reason why it was best for you to hear this from me now so that my silence wouldn’t inconvenience you.”

“LAND HOOOOO!” the voice belonging to the captain sounded from outside.

“Wait, already?” The alicorn princess shook her head in surprise.

“I guess that story was so engaging and long that we lost track of time,” Pinkie Pie commented.

“Let’s go outside, everypony!” Twilight commanded.

Everybody began making their way through the doorway, and by the end, only the dragon and the zebra were left. And just as the former was about to follow, the latter halted him.

“Before we join with the rest, I have to say, Spike, I appreciate you urging me to get it off my chest.”

“Aww shucks, it’s nothing,” the little dragon showed a flustered expression. “Now come on. I wanna see this “Golden City of Spires” that I’ve been hearing about.”

The two joined the rest outside, but they were in for a surprise, especially the shaman. A familiar mountain range appeared before her as they approached the land, but the sky was covered in thick smoke, she didn’t recall seeing it before. They got past the mountain tops and the smoke was so thick that it completely obscured their vision of what was supposed to be before them.

“Seasaddle, get us lower,” Twilight ordered.

One could’ve heard a gulping sound, almost as if he was hesitant, but he did it anyway, and the airship descended to a lower elevation. That’s when the zebra finally began hearing the familiar sound - the plucking of timbila's strings, the whistling of a flute, and the drum beatings. And as they finally got beneath the thick smoke cloud, the dimness almost completely disappeared, replaced by a blinding glow. Only once their eyes finally adjusted, did they realize that the source of the light was generated by a great yellow orb sitting atop a giant tower, and even though the smoke was blocking any form of sunlight, it made it look like the sky was clear. And beneath it, they saw it: A giant city full of glowing golden spires was revealed before them, its streets full of vibrant colors as the locals were going about their business. The Elements of Harmony and the guests stared and marveled at the sight, the youngest especially, as she finally got to see her mentor’s homeland, and it was splendorous beyond compare. She noticed though that she didn’t share her sentiment with the frown that she was pulling.

“Zecora, what’s wrong?” Applebloom inquired.

She didn’t answer, as she was staring at a different part of the city, one that she remembered wasn’t there before. She recalled a wide-open space where the front entrance to the city was, but now it was strewn with houses that didn’t resemble the local architecture. She knew what tribe they belonged to – hers. As a result, there was a lump that suddenly worked itself up to her throat.

But there was another who was showing less than enthusiastic expression. The captain of the airship was visually shivering, so the alicorn went to his side to check on him.

“Nervous?” Twilight asked Seasaddle.

“That would be an understatement, Miss. I still recall all too well how it was the last time I was here…”

Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up from behind the green stallion. “Relax, Captain. Last time you were here with a regular ship. This time we’re pretty high up, they can’t reach us. You’re safe.”

HKNN! HKNN! HKNN! HKNN!

“What was that sound just now…?” the alicorn wondered by what she heard as if a pointy object just pierced through metal.

“Twilight, we’ve got a problem!” the wonderbolt called out.

The princess saw her and others leaning over the edge of the ship. She joined them to inspect the situation and almost instantly realized what had just happened. Four tridents were embedded into the hull of the ship, with golden chains attached to them, leading all the way down to the city below. And then they all felt the tug. It quickly became noticeable to them that they were losing altitude.

“All of you better get ready,” Seasaddle finally joined them. “We’re about to have an unpleasant welcome.”

“Maybe they just think we’re bashful and are trying to get us down to get to know us? Maybe the welcome won’t be so bad?” the party planner awkwardly smiled.

The Father of Monsters stood before the arimaspi, gazing into his crystal ball-like eye. He wasn’t completely sure how much time had passed outside since they departed, but at this point, he had already read through the entire collection of Me and My Shadow, and it was beneath him to entertain any other form of childish literature. He figured he might as well do some advanced reconnaissance before they made landfall on this foreign land that he knew nothing about. And that’s exactly what he’s been doing for a while now, trying to see the surroundings of the troublesome trotters that have by now already reached their destination.

THK! THK! THK!

His concentration broke. Somebody was knocking on the front door. The ram walked over to the doorway and stopped, pondering for a moment, as he knew exactly what would follow once he broke the enchantment that isolated him from the noise outside. His horns glowed, his right hoof did in response, and he reached out, touching the door, and in a flash, the enchantment broke. It wasn’t there. The so-called “music” that the commander of the fleet was playing outside was missing, only the sound of the ship’s engine could be heard. He opened the door, only to find the familiar black hedgehog standing before him.

“His Thunderness has sent me to summon you, sir,” Grubber meekly said.

Grogar made a few steps out the door before stopping beside him. “Were those his words or yours?”

“His, sir,” he answered.

“Very well. I will inform your master of the accomplished task.” He proceeded, his gaze catching a momentary glimpse of the hedgehog’s joyful smile.

The ram walked out and onto the deck, and there he saw the animated obsidian statue that was the Storm King, standing on the very tip of the ship, gazing into the dark clouds that they seemed to have been traversing.

Grogar’s attention was grabbed by them as he approached him. “What’s all this? I thought you said it would take us no more than a few hours to pass through your homeland?”

“We’ve passed it a long time ago, Gramps,” the satyr king finally addressed him. “The reason you’re still seeing dark clouds is because they’re being generated by my airships. We’ll need that cover once we arrive at our destination within less than an hour, according to Doubt.”

“Is that why you had me “summoned”?” The grizzled ram waited, but the satyr didn’t respond. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, construct!” He stomped the floor. “Or are you so desperately trying to hide that smile of yours?”

The statue slowly turned, and just as the elder one predicted, a large curved cut on the stone’s facial features could be seen. “Sorry but not sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I need all the emotional stimuli I can get just to feel something.”

“Well, consider yourself lucky it was me you decided to do that on, construct. Had you tried to do that on either the changeling queen or the boy, things would’ve turned out bad for you, the latter especially considering his current state. Speaking of, where are those two?”

“Yeah, about that… I’m gonna need your help on that, Gramps. I tried to get their attention for a while now, but for some reason, they didn’t respond. Sooooooooo… any chance you can pop over there and get them?”

Grogar raised an eyebrow at him, and he nodded in the side direction in response, making him sigh. “Paramis!” At his command, the arimaspi crawled out of the captain’s private quarters and out on the deck, while his master summoned a pair of large portals. “You collect the one on the other side. I’ll take this one.”

The beast nodded and stepped through the portal, as did the ram through his own, ending up on one of the other ships that served as transport for each of the Pillar’s respective armies. And here the Father of Monster discovered why Tirek wasn’t responding to the Storm King’s call – the nirik were all active, channeling magic at their master, who was levitating in the air, seemingly sound asleep.

“BOY! WAKE UP!”

But the ram’s call was not heard. An effective way to block out the outside noise, but he knew how to work around it. His horns began to glow, and not long after, dark light enveloped the slumbering centaur, overcoming the nirik’s spell. With a single tug, Grogar flung Tirek through the portal, only to hear a loud thud and a cry of pain coming from the other ship. Seeing his task done, he lept through the portal, only to find Tirek upside-down against the wall, eyes twitching. Before he could even make a comment though, the ram’s minion came rushing through the other portal, being swarmed by an army of changelings who were trying to protect their queen, which he held in his hand. And the first thing that was noticeable about Chrysalis, was that she had a pair of thick-woolen sheep strapped to her ears.

“Do I even want to know what that’s about?” he said.

The Pillar of Hatred tapped the two sheep, which then promptly transformed into a pair of changelings. “You have to ask? What have you been doing for the last two days? The walking pile of rocks over there was making such incessant noise I thought I was going to go crazy. I had to improvise.”

“Well, at least you got off easy, unlike the boy.” He nodded at Tirek who was barely just picking himself up.

The aforementioned centaur stomped in anger. “You! When I get my hands on you I’ll-!”

“Be quiet, Devourer.”

He did so, but only because the words were whispered into his ear by a shadow wisp which then made its presence known.

“Ah, there you are, Doubt. Am I to guess that your absence was also just a moment of “emotional stimulation” as well?” Grogar gave it a sideways glance.

A limited grin appeared on its face. “Was that perhaps too much work for you, Shaper?”

“No. Just mildly inconvenient.”

“I suppose we’re all met up now. And assuming you’re the only one here who’s done something productive while we waited, Shaper, why don’t you show us the layout of our landfall destination.”

“Excuse me?!” the Storm king roared. “What the blinking lightning bolts was I doing this entire time?!”

The only thing that happened was that both Chrysalis and Tirek glared at him since they had to endure the brunt of the ordeal.

“Anyway, Shaper, if you would?” Doubt insisted.

The sorcerer’s horns glowed and a beam shot into the floor, creating a diorama of the city, made of dark light.

“So, we just have to deal with this one city? That doesn’t seem so difficult,” the changeling queen commented.

“It’s not the city that’s the problem, Broodmother. It’s who’s inhabiting it,” the shade reprimanded her. “As it was established earlier, three powerful creatures rule each of the three kingdoms. And the moment one of the cities gets attacked, others will react in response. Even with the armies we have gathered, the only thing that would end up happening would be a battle of attrition that we would lose in the end. For that reason, we need to get to other kingdoms to ensure that they won’t be able to support one another.”

“In other words, the plan is to divide and conquer then?” Tirek asked. “That makes things a lot easier. They’ll never stand a chance.”

“Don’t get overconfident, Devourer.” The weaselly vapor turned to him. “Even on their own, the kings are formidable beings, not to mention their armies. You will have your hands full with one as is. Our primary goal is NOT to conquer, but to distract.”

“Distract?!” the construct responded negatively to the knowledge. “We’re a distraction?!”

“Exactly. Three will be preoccupying the entire continent, but the fourth one alone is enough to go where our goal is. Remember, our primary goal is the extraction of the final aspect of Turmoil. Are we clear?”

The three Pillars nodded in unison.

“Excellent. Now, let’s strategize.”

“Some welcome this is, huh Pinkie Pie?” the workhorse commented, her chain rattling.

“Yeah, I’m about to pass out from laughter since it’s so funny,” Rainbow Dash added sarcastically.

The party planner’s initial assessment of the possible outcome didn’t come true. The moment the airship was finally forced to the solid ground, more tridents with golden chains flew over the edge of the vessel and quickly entangled the passengers. Not that they tried to resist, they knew all too well they were on thin ice at the moment, since they were in a foreign country being detained by its armed forces.

“Quiet, both of you!” one of the stormguards watching them commanded. “We’ll see what the captain decides to do with you all!”

They all quieted down, the authorities didn’t seem all too keen on listening to their argument as they pointed their weapons at them, all the while holding their bonds. Among them, Applebloom looked about while they waited, observing the native civilians that surrounded them. She noticed a visual disparity between the zebra populace: Some were draped in bright colorful cloth, while others were completely bare, apart from some of them wearing golden accessories; considering that Zecora looked the part, she easily assumed that those were females. Two of the zebra foals locked eyes with hers, and she waved at them. They waved back, but their parents noticed it and quickly pushed them behind, away from the view. They themselves were then pushed aside when a zebra dressed in green fabric, wearing a golden chainmail shirt, pushed through the crowd and came to the scene.

One of the guards saluted. “These are the outsiders we caught breaching the city’s border, captain.”

The captain went past the outsiders, eyeing each of them, and then stopped, his head turning to the green stallion over which he had a considerable height. “I recognize you. You’re the intruder, the one who came to Musa a long time ago and brought the pestilence along. You’re easy to recognize. Why did you come back? Did you bring more defilers to our land?”

Twilight spoke up. “Sir I assure you, we’d never do something like that! We-!”

“Quiet!” he silenced her, before turning back to Seasaddle. “I had hoped that I wouldn’t see you again. I cursed myself because I failed to catch you last time when you fled.”

Zecora’s thought stirred. She remembered when she and the sailor fled. They managed to get away only because the one who found them “failed” to catch them. Now that she thought about it, she took a closer look at the captain of the stormguard and it dawned on her - she knew him!

She intervened. “He wouldn’t have a need to return if he didn't have another concern.”

The captain’s gaze turned to her, and then he traipsed to the shaman’s side, glaring at her, before removing the hood from her head, only to be met with a surprise. “Why is this one chained with them?” he asked one of the subordinates.

“She was with them, sir.”

“You mean to tell me she wasn’t kidnapped and that they didn’t come for a ransom or something?”

She shook her head. “I thought I could get your memory to ring, considering how much I helped you… and you helped me with THE ONE THING.”

The captain suddenly shifted nervously, then stepped further past the striped mare to lift her cloak and examine her rear end, only to be met with a familiar sun-shaped symbol.

“Zecora…?” he recognized her.

She smiled. “Adil.”

“Why did you come back? I thought you said you would leave forever,” he questioned in a frantic tone, his stoic demeanor completely changing from earlier.

“I had believed that before, but something happened that made me come back to the home shore. And if you want to know what is going on, please lend your ear to my companion.” She nodded at the purple mare.

The captain turned back to the pony he silenced earlier, and she finally explained. “Sir, my name is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and this is my Council of Friendship. I’m the one who recruited Seasaddle to take us here. I’ve come to warn you of danger that is approaching your kingdom.”

“Is that so?” Adil raised an eyebrow. “And what does this supposed danger want from our kingdom?”

“Not your kingdom specifically. They seek a dark artifact that has been hidden in your homeland, and they plan to use force to get to it.”

He pondered for a moment. “If that is the case then you will have to seek an audience with King Abraxas himself. Follow me.” He made a few steps before stopping. “Right. Stormguard, unshackle them!”

Almost instantly, the shackles that were binding the group let go and the chains retracted back to the guard’s waists. They then stepped in line on each side, surrounding them, and then marched alongside them as the captain led the way. They were practically parading them through the street as the crowd gathered, lining up all the way to a giant tower that stood right in the center of the city, the same one that was touching the giant orb of lightning that they saw before they landed. And among the crowd, a zebra mare spotted a familiar face among the strangers.

As they passed through the city, Zecora began to notice something she hadn’t seen when she was here last time: Not just the thick smoke that was covering the sky above and that the people of her tribe had intermingled with another, but there were lines of gold plating on the ground across the streets and every now and then wagon without anyone pulling it passed through, as well as a large building being constructed with machinery she didn’t recall seeing anywhere except in Equestria. The structure they were building, however, bore a large symbol of a swirling sun and it was called Healing Bright. Her gaze didn’t wander for long after that, as the guards lined up at the entrance of the tower, the commanding officer led the newcomers inside and then closed the door behind them. Suddenly, the room rumbled, and they all felt as if a gravitational force was pressing down on them before finally stabilizing.

“Wait… is this an elevator?” Pinkie made an observation.

“They’re called raisers, miss,” the captain corrected her. “It’s called that because it raises the enclosed platform to a higher elevation.”

“Sooooo… it IS an elevator then?”

“Adil, I have to say, I’ve been left surprised,” the other zebra addressed him, “I did not expect to see the city become so... mechanized.”

“Well, you can thank all of that to your fellow escapee over there.” He nodded at Seasaddle. “Turns out, all the weeks that he was here, our engineers went through his ship and made some fascinating discoveries. Apparently, your outsider friends have some very advanced technology. So, the big brains in the city decided to improve it all, based on what was found. The golden-plated lines that are strewn throughout the city are magnetically charged and allow for the transportation of heavy objects directly to their destination, and the advanced machinery they were able to build has made construction a breeze. Though there are some drawbacks, as you noticed: Because the new technology increased the foundry output we've been having a lot of problems with the environment, but most people aren't bothered by it since there's light regardless.”

“And the building outside that was wearing our resident zebra's rump mark?” the kirin inquired.

“Oh, you noticed? For that you can thank her personally,” he explained, playfully nudging the zebra mare. “Even after she left, people in the city didn’t forget how much she’s helped them. Being the only zebra with a very specific feature that everybody can see makes it hard to forget. And then she left... But once the rest of her tribe got here, the citizens began asking them for cures for ailments that they couldn’t deal with. Eventually, seeing how high of a demand the cures have become, they established an institution to deal with the situation and have our own doctors trained in their craft. That building you’ve seen earlier, it’s being enlarged for the fourth time now.”

“Wow, Zecora talked about the mark she’s left on the city, but I didn’t think it was this big,” the shy pegasus said in amazement.

"I'm pretty sure her butt's not that big, Fluttershy," the party planner snickered.

Some of the others in the group followed, but the shaman was not amused. “I’d rather not think about the past,” she deflected. “We need to inform the king of the force that has amassed.”

“Zecora, listen,” he regarded her, “this isn’t going to be easy. You left, and I expected that you wouldn't come back. But you did, and not just that, you brought along outsiders, one of them being the same one that brought creatures who nearly devoured the city’s entire food supply.”

“Look, in my defense, I didn’t know the parasprites were aboard my ship! I said that before!” Seasaddle defended himself.

“And I’d believe that, but that’s beside the point. See, after you escaped, a decree was passed that banned any outsiders from setting foot on Farasian shores in order to prevent any other invasive species from coming here and causing havoc. Had it not been for Zecora none of this would’ve happened.”

“Wait hold on!” the wonderbolt stepped in. “Weren’t you also the one who-!”

Before she could say another word, the captain shoved his hoof into her mouth and pressed her against the wall, shushing her. “Be quiet. I don’t know what else has Zecora told you, but I’ve worked really hard all these years to get my station in life, and I don’t need any of you to say something that would ruin it. Especially not here of all places. The tower can hear things.”

“It… it can?” Spike gulped.

The zebra stallion removed the hoof from the blue pegagus' mouth, the mare desperately trying to get the dust off her tongue. “You are in the domain of one of the Three Kings of Farasi. And you’re about to be in his presence. Listen.”

They all went quiet. They heard something. It started off with soft plucking of strings, followed by a whistle of a flute, and then a gentle humming chorus, with one voice singing, all of it growing louder. They felt the elevator grinding to a halt, and then the doors opened. The music from earlier became clear, as the room before them housed musicians and singers, all of them sitting on each side of the pathway that led to the next door. Captain of the Guard went forth first, and the rest followed; they weren’t sure what to expect in the next room that required so much build-up, but as Adil opened the door it all became clear. First, they were met with a blinding light, which then retreated. Much to their shock, almost the entirety of the room was covered in gold, which explained the latter, and the reason for the light retreating was because a pair of servants were holding mirrors that reflected the glow across the room and they now removed it, though it was confusing what the light source was, considering that the whole area outside was covered in thick smoke. And there, on the far end of the room, sitting upon a large golden throne, was a person whom they couldn’t see clearly yet. As they entered the room and got closer the imagery became clearer – the zebra stallion sitting on the throne was big even by the species standards, his muscles pronounced even through the black and white coat, wearing no garments other than the open skirt that was woven from brown and golden strands, and a crown which was designed to look like lightning bolts crossing each other was sitting on his head, in front of jagged mane that resembled thunderbolts.

“Oh my…”

The workhorse quickly picked up on the sound that escaped the fashionista. “Somethin' wrong, Rarity?”

She seemed short on breath. “I don’t know… He just looks so… Primal… And masculine…”

“Bah, he doesn’t seem so tough,” Spike made a gagging sound and then flexed his arm, trying to make a bulging muscle, only to fail miserably.

The procession finally stopped at the foothold of the throne, and the captain kneeled. “King Abraxas. I come before you, bearing news.”

“Is that about the foreign ship that entered our kingdom, Captain Adil?” the imposing stallion spoke. “That’s no news to me, I saw it coming from here.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

“And you already know that the punishment for outsiders entering our realm, even in ignorance, is immediate incarceration, don’t you?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. But-”

Out of the group, the blue pegasus jumped to voice a complaint. “Hold on! You’re just going to play along with it?! You’re gonna let us get put in prison?! We don’t have time for this nonsense! The Storm K-!”

KRAKOOOM!

With a loud stomp that the king made, a lightning bolt shot down from the sky near them, and they all flinched. They didn’t understand how lightning could rain inside a room, but when they turned their heads skywards, they realized where the light source from earlier came from. Only a small part of the room where they entered had a cover, while the rest of it was open, and just above it was the large orb of lightning they saw earlier. Now they understood the full extent of the controller’s power.

“You will speak when spoken to, outsider,” Abraxas’ spoke calmly, yet his voice thundered.

Rainbow Dash shrunk back into the back of the group.

“Your Majesty,” Adil asserted himself, “I fully know the law of the land. But before we proceed to that, I ask that you hear them out. They asked to be brought before you because they bear a warning.”

“A warning? Or a threat?”

“I believe it’s a warning, Your Majesty.”

The king sighed. “Very well, I’ll hear them out.”

The captain stepped to the side, showing the mares in full. They were hesitant after the display of power, but the alicorn finally acted, stepping out of the group.

She bowed. “King Abraxas. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am the Princess of Friendship. And these are my friends, we are the Council of Friendship. We come from Equestria to bring a warning of an evil force that is making its way to Farasi.”

He chuckled. “Is that so? And this “evil force” thinks it can threaten me? Threaten all the Kings of Farasi? The natural forces of the land itself aid us in protecting our kingdoms. If they’re aiming to show as much fighting force as you have, then they’re going to be in for a rude awakening.”

“No, no, you don’t understand. They too possess powers that we couldn’t best, and now they’re bringing armies here. They will not stop until they reclaim the Despair that rests beneath your land.”

As she said that, the expression on the zebra stallion became serious. “Despair, you say? And how does an outsider like you know of that?”

Before the mare could speak, a hooded figure came out from behind the group, walked to the princess’ side, and then finally removed her hood.

At the sight of her, the king shifted in surprise. “What’s the meaning of this? Why is one of our own with you, outsiders?”

“Her name is Zecora, Your Majesty,” she answered. “She’s been living in Equestria for many moons. She’s the one who discovered what this evil force is trying to obtain and where it is.”

The king shook his head. “You’re not making any sense, Princess. Not just any zebra of Farasi knows what you’ve told me. And the only ones that do are…” A look for sudden realization suddenly appeared on the imposing stallion. “Let’s say I believe you…”

Twilight sighed in relief. “Thank you, Your Majesty-”

“That being said, however, I would question how the one of THAT tribe, assuming she is, ended up in your land.” His eyes trailed through the group that was present, finding it peculiar that two of the companions didn’t look anything like them, but one of the look-alikes caught his eyes. “You there, the green one! Step out of the group!” At the command, the green pony stallion made a few steps out in the open, visibly quivering. “Ah… I thought you looked familiar. You’re the reason why this whole thing started. I found it odd that you managed to escape from prison after you were here under constant watch for a few weeks.” Then his gaze trailed to the shaman. “And now I understand how that happened.”

“Your Majesty, I-”

KRAKOOM!

The alicorn tried to resume but was instantly silenced by the loud stomp that triggered a lightning bolt.

“Before this discussion goes any further, I want to have it confirmed that this mare is indeed part of THAT tribe.” The king lightly tapped the ground and one of the servants came to his side. “Go out and bring-”

A loud banging on the door suddenly interrupted him. Another servant stepped through and ran to the throne, kneeling before his king.

“Your Majesty, matriarch Zeg’us has come, requesting an audience with you,” he announced.

“Ah, perfect! I was about to send for her. Let her in.”

The mares suddenly heard a gasp escaping somebody, their heads turned to the right, quickly noticing that the shaman was the one who let it out. “Zecora, what’s wrong?” asked Fluttershy.

But she wouldn’t answer, only pulling the hood over her head again. The manservant in the meantime already passed them and sounded the large gong. The door opened wide, and a zebra mare traipsed through. She was tall, even by zebra standards, mostly because of her unusually long neck, her mane was almost completely white apart from a few strands of black and adorned with jewelry, around her waist she wore a teal piece of cloth, and the mark on her flank resembled a smiling setting sun.

“Greetings, matriarch,” Abraxas welcomed her. “You came just in time.”

The elderly mare smiled. “Am I to guess it has something to do with the newcomers to our fair city, Sire?”

“So, you figured it out? There is somebody among them that I’d like you to check over if you would.”

She nodded and approached the collection of foreigners that were lined up. “My my, what a colorful collection,” she commented before her gaze wandered to the kirin and the dragon. “Diverse not just in color it seems.” But once she passed them, she stopped at a figure in a cloak, and it was hanging its head, almost as if it didn’t want to be seen. “You though,” the elder addressed her, “if I look under your cover, what will I find?” She knew that the person before her wouldn’t answer as she waited. “Will it be a swirling sun?”

Finally, the hooded figure before her raised its head, and finally revealed a zebra face. The elder reached out with her hoof and lifted the back of her cloak to reveal the tattoo on her flank, one that she knew all too well.

“So, you finally returned, High Shaman’s youngest?” the taller zebra smiled.

But Zecora couldn’t utter a word to her, she felt unsettled. She had hoped that she wouldn’t have bumped into one of her own this early, and it was one who could easily recognize her. What truly made her feel uncertain though was the elder’s reaction to her presence. Either she was really good at covering expression, or she held no spite against her whatsoever.

“So, it’s true then, matriarch?” the king spoke, diverting the attention to himself. “She’s one of your tribe?”

Zeg’us nodded. “Yes, Sire. I know her all too well: She’s the youngest daughter of the High Shaman.”

“The one that your tribesmen reported missing years ago? Well, I guess we know now what happened to her.”

“She was away a long time, Sire. The reason was that the moment was not right yet. I knew she was a part of something greater the moment this mark on her rear end came into existence. “The sun will shine again after a prolonged darkness.” And now her time has come.”

“And why would you be so sure of that, matriarch? I do not sneeze at prophecies, but what does she have to do with anything?”

She smiled. “Because Sire, she is a pureblooded descendant of your ancestor.”

The king’s eyes suddenly widened in surprise. “Wait, what?! She’s a pure descendant of Mansa Musa?! Are you certain?”

“Who’s that?”

The discussion between the two was interrupted, as their attention was grabbed by the kirin, and everybody else was aware of it.

“Autumn Blaze, not now!” Applejack tried to keep her quiet.

“You really don’t know what tact means?!” Spike joined. “You’re just gonna get us in even more trouble!”

“But I’m really interested in that. I mean, Zecora over there mentioned it once in her story, so it bothers me who that character was. Considering what he did, it sounds like there’s a big story behind it.”

“So do I, but this isn’t the time,” Twilight argued. “We mess up with diplomacy now and we’re done for.”

“So,” the king’s voice thundered through the throne room, making them jump from fright, “you want to hear about Mansa Musa, do you?”

They waited in fear of what he was going to do next. He then raised his hoof and tapped the ground three times, making it echo. Nothing happened, instead a servant rushed to his side.

“Bring a table, along with beverages and some snacks. We’ll be here a while,” he ordered.

Within a few moments, a multitude of servants rushed in, carrying a large table, and dropped it at the bottom of the throne, and even more of them came running, placing pitchers of juice, along with what looked like millet cakes, on the table. For a while, the group just stood there, not sure what to make of it, until the chiseled stallion finally rose from his seat and made his way to the table.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Sit.”

What seemed like an intimidating presence a few moments ago seemed to have mellowed down. The ponies didn’t want to risk a regression so they hopped to it, digging into treats. Only their zebra companion seemed to be reluctant to join in a hurry. She did only after both the king, as well as the matriarch joined the table – she was really trying to keep a low profile.

After waiting for the servants to fill up their glasses, the imposing stallion began. “To sate your curiosity, outsiders, the city of Musa is the very heart of the kingdom of Mansa. Both of them bear the namesake of its founder - my ancestor. Mansa Musa was a stallion of great appetites and ambitions: Our people were once nomads, wanderers without a place to call our own. The majority of Farasi is known as the Kuhama Desert, and the only place that can support life stands beneath a now dormant volcano, which is ruled by the abadas. Mansa Musa led our people from across the barren wastes and settled down in this small river valley, where my people finally managed to take root. But the city only truly began to prosper when a great discovery was made, of a resource that has become a staple of our kingdom.”

“What is it? These tasty treats?” Pinkie Pie wondered, taking another bite of millet cake. “They’re delicious!”

Abraxas made a chuckle. “Amusing, pink one. But I ask you, what do you think all of décor, dinnerware, and furnishing is made of?”

“Hold on… Are you serious? THIS MUCH GOLD?!” Spike simply wasn’t able to comprehend it, when earlier he thought the king was just being flashy and was hoarding it all.

“There are mountains worth of it under the surrounding peaks, little one,” the stallion resumed. “It’s been dug through for hundreds of generations and there’s still no end of it. But I can tell you now, precious metals cannot be eaten, and there was a point when the city fell on hard times, as such, in desperation, a trade route was established between our people and the abadas, whose lands were so fertile that we knew they’d never risk running out of food. Thanks to this cooperation, our city grew. Of course, Farasi is home to other native creatures, but they never managed to establish their own stable homes, constantly wandering back and forth, from civilized cities in the east and even to the barren lands to the west. Sometime later, these wanderers brought back news of newcomers arriving on the western shores. These outsiders were nothing like anything people of the land had seen before – they resembled fish, yet they weren’t, as they were far too big, not to mention sentient. Kelpies they were called, and what they did was dig out underground wells, allowing the western side of the desert to flourish into a vast network of waterways. They were able to provide for other creatures what they couldn’t before, so the trade route was further extended, thus creating a system that ultimately bound our three kingdoms in a union.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, Your Majesty. It was most enlightening,” Autumn Blaze expressed her appreciation, as she levitated a golden cup to take a sip. “But something still boggles my mind. What was said about Zecora earlier, that she was a pureblooded descendant of your ancestor. But if this Mansa Musa was the founder of this kingdom or rather the king, and he was your ancestor, then wouldn't that mean…”

Rarity let out a loud gasp. “Your Excellency, don’t tell me that Zecora is actually the long-lost princess of this kingdom?!”

The entire Council looked at the white unicorn after she said that and then at the cloaked zebra, who shifted uncomfortably, having the attention fixated on her.

King Abraxas let out a loud laugh. “Miss, I assure you, it’s not something as extravagant. There is a different meaning behind this. You see, Mansa Musa established this kingdom, but he would not lead it to the end. You see, he abdicated his position and passed it on to another member of the family. I may be his descendant, but only by half.”

“Wait, the founder of this kingdom dropped his title? Why the hay would he do that?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

“Gee, Ah wonder,” Applejack rolled her eyes at her. “It couldn’t possibly be because being a leader of a kingdom is a long tiresome job that at some point you wouldn’t mind dropping to get some rest. Am Ah, right?” She winked, trying to relate a very familiar situation.

KRAKOOM!

A sudden loud thud on the table, accompanied by the lightning strike, made them freak out, especially the orange earth pony, as the zebra stallion was leaning on the table, anger well expressed on his face.

“Don’t you dare assume that!” his voice boomed. “My ancestor was not slothful!”

“P-pardon, sir,” the workhorse jitterily apologized.

“Why did he leave then?” the wonderbolt reiterated.

The king retreated, taking a deep breath. “Matriarch Zeg’us, this is your field of expertise. And I need a moment.”

The elder zebra that sat next to him took a sip of the juice before beginning. “There is a story that has been passed through generations of our tribe. A long time ago, a star fell from the sky and landed in the heart of Farasi, deep in the Kuhama Desert, so great was the impact that it made the land bleed. Mansa Musa and other leaders of their respective cities came to investigate, and when they found it, they discovered that the star manifested itself in the watery form of a serpent. It cried and wailed about how much it was in pain, and it wanted to share it with everybody to make them understand. And so, the entirety of the desert was taken over by endless floods. No physical weapon forged by Farasi’s residents could harm what seemed to be a force of nature. And so, in their most desperate hour, Mansa Musa and his abada and kelpie companions beseeched the spirits of the land for aid. The kelpie leader begged for the change of current, and her affinity with water awakened, the leader of abadas asked for a favorable course, and the winds answered, while Mansa Musa begged to strike down anything that would threaten all of the life of Farasi, and the lightning became his tool. With renewed strength, the empowered leaders pushed the monstrosity back to its origin point and sealed it away. Farasi was finally saved… But Mansa Musa would never return home again. He understood that as long as this evil remained, even if locked away, it would pose a threat to everybody. And so, he chose to stay and keep a watchful eye on it for the rest of his life. Some of the people of his former kingdom never forgot their benevolent king, and they chose to share his burden. And thus, my tribe…” She glanced at the hooded mare. “Zecora’s tribe… came to be.”

The shaman didn't respond, only shifted nervously - it almost seemed as if she didn't want the attention to be on her.

Spike picked up on it. “I don’t get it,” he wondered out loud. “Why seal it away? Wouldn’t it be easier just to destroy this evil and save everycreature a whole lot of trouble?”

She sighed. “I’m not the first one to ponder that, little scaled-one. But nobody ever figured that out. Only Mansa Musa himself would know, and he’s been long gone.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt this very interesting exchange, and I hope I get to hear more about it,” Twilight finally spoke up. “But Your Majesty, this evil that was spoken about just now is the reason why we’ve come here. As we speak, dark forces are making their way here. They know about this evil that is locked away in your homeland, and they have every intention of freeing it. If they succeed, not just Farasi, but also our home, if not the entire world will suffer if the piece is returned to a greater whole.”

“A greater whole you say?” the king raised an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me that there are more beings like the one that we harbor?”

“Yes! And their servants will be here any moment now, as we speak. That is why I need your assistance to guide us to-”

KRAKOOOOM!

They all jumped in fright, but the Element of Honesty had enough. “Excuse me, Your Highness, what was wrong with what she just said?”

The king’s gaze was elsewhere, staring into the distance. “That wasn’t mine… Who else is making the thunder crack out there?

While the newcomers were in the audience with the king, the locals stood by their airship at the port, the authorities searching the vessel to make sure there wasn’t anybody hiding aboard, while some of them stood by, ensuring that no civilian got near it.

“Sahir,” one of them asked another, “don’t you find it odd?”

“What do you mean, Haman?”

“We’ve known Captain Adil for years, and we’ve always seen him as a stern individual. But then, these outsiders come with one of ours at their side, and he suddenly began acting strangely, I mean his demeanor completely changed when she said his name.”

“Speaking of, it seems she knows him. In fact, he seems to know her too. I wonder what’s their relationship.”

The first one then turned to the third one. “What do you think about it, Salif?” He received no response, and only then noticed he was just staring into the distance. “Salif, what’s wrong?”

The guard raised his hoof and pointed to the open sea. The other two noticed it as well: A large dark cloud was racing across the sky, fast approaching from the sea.

“That’s not how the weather is supposed to act, is it?” he wondered.

And then something unusual followed. It sounded as if a chorus was chanting in an unrecognizable language, accompanied by the instrumental sound of drums and trumpets. All of a sudden, as the clouds were nearing the coast, they slowed down and soon after, they parted, revealing a large fleet of dark metallic airships.

Author's Note

The invasion of Farasi begins!

Chapter 70: Electric Cage Match

The train exited the Macintosh Hills, before finally reaching Apple Loosa, but it took even longer before it arrived at the main destination that stood near the center of Equestria.

“NEXT STOP, PONYVILLE!” the train conductor announced.

He finally arrived. Stygian landed on the platform among the crowd, blending in with his surroundings, but as they all left the station, they dispersed, and he was all by himself. The unicorn was hardly ever here, which made things inconvenient for him. He was sent here by one of the Elements of Harmony, regarding something that seems to be happening in the heart of Equestria. Yet he knew that Princesses Celestia and Luna no longer ruled and that Twilight Sparkle had taken their place, and since Twilight and her friends were obviously elsewhere he even didn’t know where to start. He’s been absent from everybody’s life for so long that he had no idea where any notable people were who could inform him. As he looked about the small town he’d just arrived in, a large crystal structure caught his eye. If he recalled correctly, this was where the Princess of Friendship previously lived, but he had no idea who was inhabiting it now, so he might as well start there. It took him a bit of a trot to get to the other side of town, and when he finally got there he climbed up the stairs and was about to knock on the door. All of a sudden, the door swung open, hitting him in the face and sending him flying to the side of the stairway.

“Aaaaaaaaaah, what a beautiful day.”

He couldn’t see, but could clearly hear what sounded like an inhaling sound, followed by the voice of a young mare.

“Perfect for some fun at the local lake, Prince Bramble.”

“S-sure.”

He heard another voice. This one was clearly male, but the tone of it seemed somewhat odd as if he was afraid.

“Are we really going to have another day of following you about all over the place, Sweetie Belle?”

And there was the third voice, another young mare, and she sounded frustrated.

“Scotaloo, while Twilight and others are away it’s our duty to keep the prince from another kingdom company. Besides, he’s likely gonna die of boredom if he’s gonna be stuck inside all day.”

“That last one you decided all by yourself, didn’t you?”

“And Prince Bramble agrees with me. Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?”

“Y-yes, sure.”

A groan from the other mare followed, and then the sound of them walking down the stairs. The unicorn finally managed to get himself up, only to see the three figures depart the castle, two of them being mares, and the third one, much to his surprise, a deer.

“Make sure you don’t go too close to the Everfree Forest, girls!” another voice called through the open door.

“We won’t!” Sweetie Belle replied back.

As the three left his sight, Stygian realized just now whose voice the other one belonged to, he knew it! He dashed back up the stairs and saw the pink, purple-maned unicorn mare standing in the hallway of the castle, facing her back to him, as she looked through a pile of papers she was levitating.

“Star-”

“Starlight.”

He tried to call out to her, but another voice beat him to it. Another voice he knew. But when he heard this one, a strange feeling of anxiety came over him, and even more when the visage of an old grey, white-bearded unicorn in a cloak and a hat came from the side of the hallway.

He was about to speak when he noticed the opened door, but nobody was present. “Why are the doors wide open?”

“Oh nothing,” the headmare answered. “Sweetie Belle’s just taken our visitor for another day of delight for her, and much frustration for Scotaloo. And the latter wasn’t in a mood for closing behind her.”

“I really don’t think they should be going out, Starlight. For all we know, the dark forces that lurk within the Everfree Forest could be skulking about, never mind that we removed the protective barrier.”

“In broad daylight? I think you’re being a bit too paranoid, Star Swirl,” the pink mare calmed him. “Besides, we needed to remove the barrier anyway, considering I had it erected because of Trixie’s incompetence.”

“Hey!” the aforementioned mare called in the distance. “It was a moment of panic, not incompetence!”

The two unicorns rolled their eyes and shut the entry into the castle. But the scrawny stallion stayed out of sight - the moment when he saw the Pillar of Sorcery he jumped away from his view. He didn’t want to, but the instinct was just too strong.

The last thing I would want now is to face any one of THEM again…

The thought kept repeating in his mind as if somebody had been whispering to him. He hadn’t heard it before, but after he met Rarity at Croup Town it just popped up out of nowhere, and as he thought about coming here it wouldn’t stop. That is why it took him so many days to arrive in Ponyville: He was trying to think of something else so it would stop, he needed to take his mind off, which is why when he took the train for central Equestria, he stopped at Mount Aris and every subsequent stop that followed, until the whisper finally went quiet. But now, when he finally got here and one of the Pillars of Old Equestria appeared, when voice turned up again. And likely for a good reason; there was this sense of guilt that still hung over him after all that’s happened, and it kept convincing him not to face them. And he heeded it, walking away from the castle, towards the center of the town.

The atmosphere in the town square was positive, but nobody could see that Stygian wasn’t. He’s been dragging his hooves the entire distance, the shadow of doubt hanging heavily over him, trying to figure out how to get rid of this heavy feeling. Perhaps he should go for a walk to the outskirts of town and the surrounding area, or maybe even board the next train and explore other parts of Equestria. But the more he thought about it, the more it began dawning on him that he was just trying to distance himself from the problem. But what else he could do?

“Stygian?”

He froze on the spot. Somebody called out to him, and it was again a voice he knew. His thoughts were so preoccupied that he completely missed the incoming stallion, which would’ve been impossible considering the massive size of this blue pony, with a short mane that was partly tied up in a braid, and on his back, he was carrying a shovel.

“R-rockhoof?” he acknowledged his presence.

“Stygian!” he answered in a jovial shout, before picking him up and giving him a bear hug. “Lad, it’s been a while! I forgot to count how long it’s been since I last saw you! I’ve missed you, my dear friend!”

“Th… The feeling is mutual,” he barely spoke in the embrace, before he was finally let go. “Why are you here?”

“Me? I just got back from a trip up north, to visit me ol’ place. See, since the headmare of Twilight’s school said she’ll be takin’ the kiddes all over the place I decided to go for a little trip. I had plans to travel for a while, but then I had t’ turn around.”

“Why’s that?”

“See lad, after I made a stop at the Crystal Empire, I saw it bein’ in a sorry state. I met good ol’ Mistmane, and she told me what happened. I came back to talk t’ Star Swirl about it.”

An idea suddenly popped up in the unicorn’s head. “Say Rockhoof, you’re probably hungry after such a long trip. Why don’t we have something to eat and you can fill me in on what Mistmane said.”

“Ya know what? That’s an excellent idea, lad!” he pulled him to his side. “Oats on me!”

Stygian sighed in relief. He would finally get some answers without dealing with his bothersome thoughts.

KRAKOOOOM!

The clash of thunder echoed across the entirety of the city of Musa. The irregularity drew the attention of its king, who walked over to the balcony of his central tower, only to see an unusual dark cloud drawing close at high speed. The dark formation suddenly parted, revealing a fleet of dark flying vessels.

“More flying ships?” King Abraxas raised an eyebrow. “Is that how those of the outside world travel these days?”

Soon, others joined his side, and almost immediately the alicorn princess responded negatively. “IT’S THEM! That’s the Storm King’s fleet! Your Majesty, you need to do something! Quick!”

The imposing stallion glanced at her. “The Storm King, you say? Somebody who claims to be king of all storms will have to prove his mettle if his intention is to usurp me.”

“Sir, this isn’t a laughing matter!” Twilight urged.

“I’m not laughing, miss. Do not worry. My Stormguard below will be able to handle them as they land.”

Below, the aforementioned military units set themselves in a formation, bracing themselves for the enemy charge once the airships were to land. But none of them did. Once they arrived at the shoreline they all stopped, not moving from their position. Meanwhile, the soldiers anxiously anticipated something to happen, but when it finally did, it was out of their line of sight. A portal of dark light opened behind the units, and soon after, a group of large creatures clad in black armor charged out of it, crashing into the back end of the zebra defender, completely blindsiding them. Those at the front who became aware of what had happened quickly turned and lunged their golden chained tridents at the enemies, but they easily blocked them with their shields, and even those that didn’t were able to shrug the attacks off due to the protection of their armor.

“What…?” the tone in the king’s voice gave up a genuine surprise. “How did they just appear out of thin air?”

“That’s Grogar’s handiwork,” Discord answered, who was poking his head out of Fluttershy’s fanny pack.

“What… who?” the zebra king looked confused seeing a creature he hadn’t noticed earlier, talk. “You have a talking pet?” he addressed the meek pegasus.

“He’s another villain, Your Majesty,” Rarity further elaborated. “He’s a powerful sorcerer who can open doorways in reality. That’s how the Storm King’s soldiers were able to appear without landing their airships.”

“This is a serious, King Abraxas!” the Princess of Friendship warned him. “His army attacked our home once before and we were unprepared for them! They’re equipped with armor that is immune to lighting or any other magical attacks! Your soldiers are at a disadvantage!”

Suddenly, the king stomped his hooves, and sparks of lightning began to rise from him, giving everybody else a pause, and forcing them to make distance from him. “But are their defenses also physically strong?” he answered in a thundering voice.

He crouched, and then with a push of his hind legs lept over the edge of the balcony. The newcomers gasped in shock, which disappeared a moment later, as the ruler of Farasi zapped away at lightning speed towards the ground, leaving only the electric trail behind him. He rushed through the streets until he came in view of the harbor, and much like the invaders earlier, he executed the ambush on them, crashing into their back, sending some of them flying, before immediately charging into another set, zipping back and forth between each individual attacker. One of them finally caught what was happening and braced his shield in hopes of blocking the attack, yet it came with such a force that upon contact, the black shield that was meant to resist any form of magic, bent, before being sent flying as well. As the dust settled, the king who commanded lightning stood adamant among the beaten foes, and his men cheered.

“Surround the portal, Stormguard,” he ordered. “Make sure to repel anyone who comes out of it.”

They all stomped in salute before aiming their weapons at the opening in reality, while he himself zapped away, through the streets, up his tower, where he landed on the balcony once more.

The newcomers were left agape at what they had just seen. “Holy…” Rainbow Dash was the first to actually utter a word. “That… that was like twenty seconds in total… This guy’s fast!”

Close to them, the matriarch chuckled. “Now do you see, outsiders?” Zeg’us said. “This is just a small portion of the power of one of Farasi’s kings. If these enemies have intent of bringing harm upon the city it won’t be easy for them.”

“And with the Stormguard watching over the portal, they won’t be able to just charge out of it either,” Abraxas stated.

As he said that, Twilight glanced at the portal’s location, quickly addressing the ruler. “King Abraxas, I don’t think the situation has been handled yet.”

“Nonsense, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie disagreed. “I mean, it’s just one portal. If like, four or five more opened up, then we’d have a reason to worry about.”

They all just stared at the pink earth pony, and the king quickly realized the unpredictability of the situation, but he was unable to react properly to it. And then, from the corner of their eyes, they noticed another flicker of light, as the second portal opened on the opposite end of the city.

“Your Majesty!” Adil called out as he was looking out the balcony on the other side of the room. “We may have a problem developing!”

The large stallion and everybody else rushed to the side of the captain of the guard and discovered what he was referring to. Another portal could be seen in another part of the city, and the fourth one on the far end of that one.

“Now, let’s strategize,” Doubt said.

Turmoil’s agents loomed over the map of Farasi that the ram sorcerer had conjured from the dark light, and he was the first to speak. “The way I see it, the giant orb of lightning above the city is the power source that is being conjured by something or somebody powerful. If it’s one of the kings, it means we’ll have to use a direct counter to lightning.” He turned his gaze to the stone satyr. “Construct, you’ll have to do.”

“I’ll have to do? Do you know who you’re talking to?” The Storm King opened his right hand in which the Staff of Sacanas was embedded, and lightning tendrils began to swirl out of it. “I can take whoever it is with ease.”

“But can you take on the armies as well?” Grogar raised an eyebrow.

“Of course, he can’t, Grogar,” Tirek spoke up. “He wants to take on the whole city by himself, and he’ll have to do it without our help. The city this big probably has more defenders than you have soldiers, Rocky. A head-on assault would be stupid.”

“Oh really? And what do you suggest, wildebeest?” the statue glared at him.

“The answer is simple: Divide and conquer. The same tactic that we’ll use to prevent other kingdoms from supporting one another, we’ll use to keep this one preoccupied.” The centaur walked to the other side of the map. “If you decided to unleash your forces on a single point of the city, then the defenders will pile up on you, as well as their leader.” He reached across four corners of the city, tapping the solid map, and leaving a red glowing marker in place. “Here’s the idea. Grogar will open portals at multiple locations throughout the city and allow the ground troops to wreak havoc. The defenders will have to spread themselves thin, making for an easy picking. And if they block those… we pop up more of them.”

A chuckle escaped the grizzled ram. “I thought that your little “attempt at me” was just a stroke of luck. I didn’t think you had a strategic mind. Color me surprised, boy.”

He groaned, easily recognizing the patronizing tone. “Grogar, can you NOT for five minutes, please?!”

Just as quickly as the portals appeared among the confused populace, the armed satyrs emerged through, sending the residents into panic as they began destroying everything in sight with their weapons. And atop the tower, the ones in charge as well as the guests saw it all happen.

“They’re coming out from all over the place!”

“Thank you for stating the obvious, Autumn Blaze,” Discord responded.

“This is not the time for snide remarks, Discord,” the shy pegasus scolded him.

“Captain,” the king addressed the commander of his army, “have the tower evacuated and then direct the Stormguard to spread out in groups throughout the city. I’ll keep the invaders busy until then.” With a stomp, lightning bolts erupted from under him, and he zapped way right over the balcony and into the city below.

“All of you, follow me!” Adil spoke.

He rushed to the door into the throne room, with everybody following him. In the room that led to the only elevator, the musicians were standing about, confused by what was happening.

“Everybody,” he addressed them, “our city is under attack by outsiders! Evacuate the tower and take cover out of the streets immediately!”

The zebras immediately rushed into the elevator, stuffing it completely full so nobody else could fit inside, forcing everybody else to wait while the contraption lowered them. After a while, the elevator returned and they all rushed inside.

“Phew. Safe,” Spike wiped his brow.

But just as the elevator moved halfway past the doorway, it suddenly stood still.

“Why did we just stop?”

“Because you had to jinx it, that’s why,” Discord groaned.

The guard captain began frantically pushing the button. “It’s not working! There’s no electricity!”

“What do you mean by “no electricity”? We’re right underneath a giant ball of lightning! You’re not seriously telling us that it just went out or something?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Hey, anypony else noticed it got kind of dark all of a sudden?” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

Now that she mentioned it, they all became aware of how the light from outside dimed. Even the overwhelming light from the throne room had disappeared, giving it a gloomy atmosphere.

THUUD!

And just then, in plain view of the room that they were seeing through the small opening of their elevator, a large bipedal form landed in front of the throne, kneeling, one of its arms hitting the ground, causing it to release sparks.

“Hmmmm… Nah, this doesn’t work,” it said. “Superhero landings just don’t fit the theme.”

King Abraxas leaped with lightning speed to the ground and dashed between all four invasion points of Musa city, bumping into the invading armies to keep them preoccupied and spread out through the rest of the city. The satyrs by now realized their enemy was faster than them, so they set up a defensive formation and turtled down. To the attacker that didn’t matter. He just needed to keep them busy until his forces regroup and mount up an offensive.

KRAKOOOM!

He stopped halfway between one of the points. The clash of thunder sounded out again, and it’s been bothering him this entire time where it was coming from. After all, these armies belonged to what the newcomers called “The Storm King”, meaning he must’ve been responsible for the thundering sound. And then he saw it: In the sky, at the front of one of the dark airships, a single lightning tendril shot into the sky, and a tiny figure was dragged into the clouds above. The thunder roared again, but this time it sounded as if it was an actual voice belonging to a creature. And then, a giant head made of clouds descended. It traveled across the sky, to the center of the city, where it reached the giant lightning orb. It opened its mouth, bit it, and in a matter of moments, the power source of the entire city shrunk until it disappeared, plunging the already smoke-obscured environment into a state of doom and gloom. The giant head then touched down to the tip of the central tower, where it disappeared.

The king of satyrs stood in the throne room, lighting up his right arm and illuminating his surroundings, marveling at the glistening gold that surrounded him. “Man, look at all this BLING!” He turned around in full circle. “Pity I can’t take the whole room with me.” He looked at the giant throne. “This one though…” He walked to the top and stretched himself all over the seat. “I’ll definitely take it with me. Though with this much gold, I wouldn’t be surprised if these people have even more of it.” He chuckled to himself. “If I didn’t have the condition I might’ve even stayed here.”

“Let’s crawl out of here before he sees us.”

“No! You get out and he’ll notice you right away!”

He noticed something then. Voices, somewhere in the distance, but it was clear that they were close. His curiosity to know who it was made him get up and walk off the throne and towards the next room.

“Oh no, he’s coming this way! Take cover!”

The sound of panic made him move faster, wanting to see who was still there so he could gleefully terrorize them further. But before he even got halfway through the throne room, a trail of lightning crossed his way, making him jump in surprise. After the momentary shock, he realized that a tall zebra was standing in his way.

“So, you’re the so-called Storm King?” the stallion asked.

“No no.” The satyr wiggled his finger. “It’s the SL/SK, thank you very much. And lemme guess, you’re the king of this city, aren’t you?”

“If you’re already aware of that, then I’ll skip the pleasantries and be direct with you, outsider – LEAVE. Before you and your army face the full wrath of me and my Stormguard.”

The construct gave him a confused look. “I’m sorry, YOUR Stormguard? The Stormguard belongs to me, stripey. And while your soldiers are helplessly trying to defend a singular point in the city, they’ll destroy it from other ends.”

“The defenders of this city ARE called the Stormguard.”

“Wait, so hold on a second,” the Pillar of Fear realized. “Both mine and your soldiers are called the Stormguard? That’s copyright infringement! I’m gonna have your pay-!”

The king stomped his frontal hooves and lightning struck at the animated statue, knocking it on its back and leaving him motionless.

“Your Majesty!”

He turned his head in the direction of the call and then noticed the elevator that was half stuck. He dashed to it and noticed that his guests were inside.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but the power went out just before we left,” Adil apologized.

“Do not worry, captain. It won’t be difficult to deal with the stragglers now that-”

“LOOK OUT!” Twilight cried out.

A lasso made out of an electric tendril flew across the air and landed around the zebra king’s neck, noosing tightly and electrifying him. The response came too late from the ponies who saw the construct still lying on his back, his head raised and his arm pointing at him.

“Grogar, can you NOT for five minutes, please?!”

“Quit your whining, Lord Tirek,” Chrysalis stepped in. “Anyway, your plan has a flaw in it. Even with the forces spread out, there’s still the big fish that will just gobble up all the smaller ones, one after another. This will be a very short distraction.”

“No, it won’t,” the centaur responded. “If the “big fish” resides in the tower beneath the giant lightning orb, as Grogar suggested, it’ll come flying straight out to help its troops.”

“That is IF these kings are as powerful as Doubt said,” the Storm King remarked.

The weaselly vapor glared at the animated rock. “You dare doubt me?”

A strange grinding sound came out of the moving statue as if he was trying to suppress a laugh. “You walked right into that one.”

“ANYWAY!” Tirek tried to get everybody’s attention on himself again. “Zap over to the tower and dispel his creation. That should get his attention on you, pebble. After all, to attract big fishes, you need a big lure.”

“Oh stripey, did you really think you could get me this easy?” The Storm King got back on his feet, holding the rope made out of electricity. “In case you don’t know, rock doesn’t conduct electricity. Something that can’t be said for you.” He pulled harder, laughing manically, thinking he had already disabled his opponent successfully.

But the stallion remained adamant, glancing at him. “Tell me – is your body harder than your men’s armaments?”

Once again, the construct gave him a confused look, but that was the only response he could give, as the stallion dashed with lightning speed, hurling his body against the animated rock, and knocking him at the throne, breaking it. A moment later, the electric lasso around his neck disappeared.

“Your Majesty, are you well?” matriarch Zeg’us inquired.

The king turned to the trapped group. “I’ll be fine, but I’m not sure I can be of assistance to any of you. He dispelled my energy source to the city, so even if I put it back up he’ll just dispel it again.”

“King Abraxas,” Twilight addressed him, “you need not worry about that, I can teleport us all to the ground level.”

He sighed. “Good. That makes my job a lot easier.” He turned to the commander of his army. “Captain, here are further orders: After you’ve gathered the forces, have some of them begin to evacuate the city.”

“Sir, are you sure?” Adil asked.

“This will be more difficult than I had suspected. It will become a battlefield and we cannot let the civilians come to harm. And as much as I hate to do this, we need to alert Amun so he can lend aid.”

“It will be done, Sir,” he saluted.

“Your Majesty, is that another of the Three Kings of Farasi?” the alicorn beckoned once again for an answer, to which she received a nod, “We came all this way to offer assistance. The Storm King is not acting alone and it’s only a matter of time before others join the fight. We’ll go and warn the other king.”

The stallion sighed. “Very well, outsiders, I’ll trust you. Now go.”

“Everypony, get ready,” she ordered, her horn beginning to glow, and then in a flash, they all disappeared.

And just as they vanished, the satyr king climbed over the wreckage of the golden throne. “Alright stripey, now I’m mad!”

FLASH!

The group materialized on the street just beneath the tower, and they already saw the result of the invasion, as the locals were wildly running about in panic and confusion.

“All of you, get to the city limit to the south!” the captain of the guard ordered.

“Wait, what about the people?” Fluttershy wondered.

“She’s right,” Applejack joined in. “We have to help with the evacuation.”

“As much as I appreciate your help on that front you’re the least suited,” he declined. “You are foreigners who just came into our country after it’s been isolated and were apprehended by the authorities. What will they think when you burst into people’s homes and tell them to leave?”

“He’s kinda got a point,” the kirin agreed.

“Don’t worry. The Stormguard can handle the invaders,” he reassured them.

“I’ll lead them to the edge, captain,” the elder zebra spoke. “My tribesmen are settled there anyway.”

“Good luck!” the stallion said and rushed away.

“Alright, fillies,” Zeg’us playfully ordered them, “follow me.”

And the old mare slowly led the newcomers through the city. It was no better elsewhere, with natives fleeing in fear, but now at least more of the defenders began turning up. After a while, they finally reached the wall that separated the city proper from the huts that were standing next to it. And there, the bare, tattooed zebras were standing outside in confusion.

One of them rushed to the elder zebra when she saw her approach with the group. “Matriarch Zeg’us, what’s happening? Who are these outsiders?”

“They’ve come to warn us,” she explained. “There is an evil force that’s come to our land to acquire… what we had kept at bay.”

When she heard those words, the look on her face became grim. “Do we evacuate the village?”

The elder nodded.

One of the stallions rushed to her. "Wait! What about our children?! They're still at the school in the city!"

"The Stormguard will protect them," the matriarch reassured him. "We must go; the abadas must be warned.”

Back in the tower, the two kings clashed against one another, yet even though they both had control over lightning, the satyr seemed to be at a disadvantage with his slow body despite being immune to the attacks, as the zebra kept bashing against him.

“You can’t win this, Storm King. Give it up.”

“How many times will I have to tell you?” The obsidian construct picked himself up again. “IT’S SL/SK! And you’re in no position to talk. Even with all the back and forth you’re doing you can’t even put a dent on me from the distance that you’re charging. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”

“Even if I don’t defeat you right away it’s only a matter of time. Once the abadas get wind of what’s happened they’ll be here.”

The animated statue slapped his forehead. “Oh yeah,” the satyr king said in a tone of realization. “Thanks for reminding me.”

He raised his arm in the sky, and the stallion prepared himself to dash again in preparation for an attack, but instead, something else happened. A single lightning string was shot into the sky and he grabbed onto it, the propelling force pulled him into the clouds above. He didn’t see that coming, nor what followed. The Storm King’s malevolent face-shaped cloud emerged. It opened its mouth, revealing the controlled inside, holding a guitar made from lightning bolts. But instead of aiming it at his enemy he aimed it at one of the tall towers, overcharging it, before moving to the next one, and then the remaining two.

Meanwhile, on the outer settlement, the zebras were beginning to leave their homes and making their way out. This time the Elements of Harmony and the company assisted in evacuation. Things were going smoothly, when suddenly…

KRAKOOOM!

That awful sound again. And this time they saw something else happening. They saw a giant monstrous cloud face spewing lightning at the golden-plated towers. Huge electric tendrils began connecting them, and soon enough they began to expand outwards, slowly descending, and it was coming right their way. Before any of them managed to even get out of the settlement, the field came down, blocking out their path completely.

“Well, you certainly got the distraction down, I’ll give you that, Lord Tirek,” the Pillar of Hatred said.

The towering centaur glanced at her. “I can feel a BUT coming up.”

“But, there’s still one more issue that you’re overlooking. Sure, we’ve got the military personnel taken off guard as well as the leader, but what about the civilians? The moment when things no longer turn in their favor, or even if their leader orders them to evacuate, they’ll make a run for it. One way or another, the refugees will be the ones calling for reinforcements.”

He rubbed his chin, his fingers passing through his flaming beard. “Yes, that will pose a challenge. It’s a pity we cannot simply put some sort of a net around the whole city, it would’ve made everything so much easier.”

A strange sound suddenly disturbed the centaur, as it sounded as if pebbles were crashing against each other, but in reality, it was the living statue making a cackling sound. “Is that all it would take? You have no idea what I did when I invaded the Crystal Empire. Actually, none of you were present to see it happen. So…” His eyes shifted maliciously at the Pillar of Anger. “How about I give a demonstration?”

He pulled his hand back, his hand flashing, and a string erupted from it, grabbing it and then swinging it in the direction of the centaur. It flew, but it didn’t travel further than an arm’s reach, when a pillar made of dark light sprung out of nowhere, and the lightning string wrapped itself around it.

The Storm King’s eyes widened, looking at the old sorcerer. “Hey Gramps, what gives?!”

The ram gave him an unamused look. “I just stopped you from doing something you were gonna regret, construct.”

Tirek looked at them in confusion. “Am I missing something? What’s this all about?”

“What he was trying to prove, boy, is that that he can conjure lighting tendrils, and be able to shape them in any way possible,” Grogar elaborated, being vague on the satyr’s intent, before glancing at him. “Right?”

The animated rock rolled his eyes and then dispelled his creation. “Yes. Anyway, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Once the power source is disabled, I can use my own to spread it across the city.” He reached out and touched the tips of the four tallest towers in each of the corners of the diorama that Grogar was conjuring, leaving a tiny spark on each. “Each of the towers will serve as a link between one another, creating a dome-shaped electric field that will prevent anyone from leaving. The locals will be trapped. No escape.”

“I’m not sure what you’ve achieved with this,” King Abraxas called. “All you did was lock yourself inside with me.”

A crackling sound followed, mimicking a laugh. “You’ve got it all wrong, stripey. I’m not locked in here with you.” The gigantic cloud head turned toward a part of town. “THEY, are trapped in here with ME!” It opened its massive maw and unleashed a continuous torrent of lightning upon a densely populated part of the city.

“NO!!!” the stallion suddenly cried in horror, leaping over the balcony.

“DANG NABBIT!” the workhorse cursed. “So close!”

“No worries, Applejack,” the alicorn assured her. “I can get us on the other end without a problem.”

“Yeah, but if you do that, how are you gonna protect anypony… from them?” the party planner pointed behind them.

Another portal of dark light opened, and the Storm King’s army rushed out of it. They were against the wall and in no position to fight them, and Twilight couldn’t just abandon the locals to their fate. Suddenly, a stampeding sound could be heard approaching, and soon enough Adil and the city guards came charging in, forcing the satyrs to take cover.

“Talk about cavalry at the last moment,” the wonderbolt sighed in relief.

The head stallion rushed to them while his men were preoccupying the enemy. “Seems like we’ve got another problem.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna take a while to evacuate all these zebras,” Spike said.

“No time, I fear,” the stallion shook his head. “Every second we waste the enemy gets more dangerous.”

“It’s not like we can just leave them all behind.”

The captain turned to the gathered locals. “All of you! Those who want to defend your home, stand your ground. And if there’s anyone among you that wants to leave, step forward, I won’t hold it against you.” He waited, and to the Council’s surprise, none of them moved from the spot. “Then grab a weapon and fight the invaders!” he commanded.

The group dispersed, joining the Stormguard, but among the crowd, the matriarch stood still. “I fear I won’t be of much use to them at my age.”

“Then we’re at least taking you with us, madame,” the fashionista answered.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I fear I’ll only slow you down.”

“But somepony has to show us where we’re supposed to go,” the shy pegasus begged.

“No need to worry about that, young lady. You already have a fitting guide through the land.”

“That’s gonna be a problem!” a panicky voice called, everybody turning to Applebloom. “Where’s Zecora?!”

Only then did they realize that their local shaman was not present. She’s completely slipped their radar in the chaos around them.

“I’m pretty sure she was still with us when we entered this part of the city,” Rarity remembered.

“Although she’s been eerily quiet since her elder came up,” Autumn Blaze pointed out.

“Maybe she just decided to go ahead of us just in case something happened?” the young mare speculated.

Adil sighed. “Even if that’s the case, we can’t take chances. I fear you’ll have to go with them after all, matriarch.”

“Very well. I suppose somebody has to warn the rest of the tribe in the other kingdom anyway.” She walked to their side. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“No worries, ma’am. We’ll pull you if it comes to that,” Applejack offered.

The old mare chuckled.

“Alright, everypony. Ready?” The princess inquired, to which they all nodded.

FLASH!

In a split second, they reappeared on the other side of the electric fence. They looked one more time at the Captain of the Guard who stared at them from the other end.

“Go,” was the only thing he uttered before turning and running to join his troops.

The group then began ascending the sandy hill that led out of the river valley, and every now and then they heard the clash of thunder, only to see the gigantic cloud head flying over the city, spitting lightning at the ground beneath it.

“Hey, is it just me, or was somepony this way just recently?” Discord poked his head out of the fanny pack again, pointing at the trail of hoofprints that were in front of the group, and they seemed recent.

And that’s when the youngest Apple suddenly picked up the pace and rushed forward.

“Applebloom? Where are you going?” her older sibling questioned.

She didn’t answer, all she did was push forward, determined to get to the top as fast as possible. She knew to whom those hoofprints belonged. She knew her all too well, there was no way she’d just run away. The young mare finally reached the top of the hill, and there she beheld a figure wrapped up in a cloak.

“Zecora!” her apprentice immediately recognized her.

But the mare didn't respond, she only stared in the distance.

Chapter 71: Trail Mix

"Zecora, where the hay have you been?" the workhorse questioned her.

Applejack rushed up to the top of the sandy hill to catch up with Applebloom, who got ahead of everybody to find her mentor having gone ahead.

But just like before, she didn't answer, and instead pointed into the distance, to the canyon, into which the sandy hill upon which they currently were, descended. “The path below us is the trail we must take. But let me warn you, this will not be a piece of cake.”

“Just as well, Zecora, but unfortunately I couldn’t bring along-!” before the party planner could finish, the orange earth pony shut her.

“Not now, Pinkie,” she said, turning to the zebra. “Zecora, you didn’t answer my question: Where did you disappear off to?”

And yet, she still didn’t reply to her query. The pony was about to speak again, until the elder zebra stepped past her, and stood by the younger one’s side, leaning forward to check under her cloak, before pulling back.

“That’s not important right now,” she addressed the rest. “We will have to descend into the canyon, that is the usual route that will lead us to the homeland of abadas.”

“Doesn’t seem like a big deal, madam,” Spike said, as he gazed downhill. “How long will it take us to get there?”

“Three days.”

“THREE DAYS?!” It was a response that just about everybody else shared after hearing it.

“The canyon below leads to the open dunes of Farasi,” she elaborated. “It is actually a short trail, however, because of the winds that push from either east or west, they funnel the sand storms into it, making the journey slow. Only camel caravans are able to traverse it at a faster pace, but they’ve been gone for days. If we were to try and travel down that road… it would probably take even longer.”

“But we can’t travel three days or more!” Rarity exclaimed. “I doubt that people trapped in the city will be able to survive that long!”

“Do not underestimate King Abraxas, miss,” Zeg’us reassured her. “He’s far more powerful than you’ve seen him.”

Discord popped out of the fanny pack. “If I may add another problem that involves us directly, but how are we even supposed to survive three days or more without any food or water?”

“Twilight,” the draconequss’ bearer turned to her leader, “can’t you teleport our supplies from the airship to us?”

The alicorn seemed to be in deep thought when she called her, breaking her concentration. “I fear that’s not possible, Fluttershy. When we got arrested, I saw the guards moving all our things. I can’t just bring them here when I don’t even know where their location is. But that can wait for a moment.” She turned to the old zebra. “Madame Zeg’us, I have to ask: Hypothetically, if the sandstorms weren’t present, and if we galloped all the way to our destination, how long would it take?”

The elder gave her a confused look. “That’s a lot of wishful thinking you’re asking of me, miss.”

“Just please try.”

The zebra rubbed her chin. “Well, if we remove all the obstacles, then my guess would be… about half a day. But I fail to see how that’s of any help.”

The princess of friendship smiled. “Because I can make it work.”

“Is that so, miss?” The Zebra raised an eyebrow. “Can you make the sand storms cease? Do you possess the power equal to Farasi’s Kings?”

“Probably not. However, I can make sure that the sand storms won’t bother us. I can erect a magic barrier that will keep the elements at bay while we travel.”

“What about the foodstuff shortage, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked. “And even then, we won’t survive the whole journey without water.”

“I know. But I’m pretty sure that Zecora has enough stashed in her saddlebags. She always comes prepared in case of an emergency. Right, Zecora?” The alicorn looked at the hooded zebra, who seemed rather distant, and she thought she didn’t hear her, yet just before she repeated her question, the shaman nodded. “See, Madame?”

“You’re a clever mare, miss,” the elder one acknowledged. “However, there’s one little issue that you’ve not taken into account.”

“You mean yourself?” the wonderbolt recalled. “No worries. As we said, we’ll carry you the whole way if we have to.”

“Pull her, Dash,” the workhorse corrected her. “But that was before we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Sure, Twilight’s cut our travel time down, but even so, we’re working against the clock, so we’ll be exerting ourselves to the limit. Even if we pass the ma’am between each other we’ll just end up slowing ourselves down.”

The mare in question sighed. “Then you see the problem. Even with all the deterrents dealt with, my condition will force us to go with a slow tempo.”

“But… but we can’t let the city of Musa fend for itself for three long days!” the alicorn stressed out the urgency of the situation. “There has to be some other way!”

And the silence fell upon them, being disturbed by the clash of thunder not far from them, reminding them of how serious the current situation was, and even so, the princess couldn’t just deal with being forced to leave the natives to their fate.

“We can help.”

They were all quickly roused by the voice. Behind them, standing on the edge of the other side of the hill, another zebra appeared, and another, and another, followed by several dozen more that climbed to the top.

“What the… what is this?” Zeg’us looked at them confusingly, as she could tell that they were members of her tribe, based on their bare bodies. “Why are you outside of the city?”

The zebra who was slightly taller than the rest and at the front was the first to respond. “We were on the beach when we heard the commotion, and when we saw the dark airships arrive, we decided to make a run for it to the edge of the city just in case. And then all of a sudden, this giant electric field came down only a few hooves away and we couldn’t get back in. That’s when we saw you going up the hill. We cannot help our kin that are trapped inside the city, but we’ll be more than happy to assist in any way possible.”

The group members looked at each other in surprise. “Well… That’s convenient,” Autumn Blaze responded.

“If you’re gonna help, then get us a sand sleigh or something, so that granny can be given a lift!” Rainbow Dash urged them.

A hoof suddenly got wrapped around her, as the aforementioned old person pulled her in. “Let me give you a piece of advice, young filly: Do. Not. Call me a granny. Age may have not been kind to my bones, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give a good buck when one deserves it. Did I make myself clear?” And the wonderbolt quickly nodded.

The group of zebras disappeared and returned sometime later, several of them pulling a makeshift wooden sleigh with a single seat on it. It didn’t take long for the elder mare to place herself on top of it.

“Wait, where are our spots?” the fashionista inquired.

“What makes you think there’d be any room for us?” Fluttershy asked.

“I mean, if there’s this many, why not put more seats on it? We need not waste our energy in a climate to which they’re all suitable.”

Her tail was suddenly tugged, her hooves dragging in the sand as the workhorse pulled her away. “Come on, Rarity, let’s not take advantage of them, you’ve got a perfectly well-suited set of legs.” The white unicorn whimpered as she dragged her to the leader.

“I think we’re all set to go, Twilight,” Spike reported.

“Excellent. Now then, Zecora, why don’t you go and lead...” The alicorn looked around, as their zebra friend, who was sitting nearby, disappeared out of sight again. “Zecora?”

“There she goes again, Twi. She’s acting really suspicious,” Applejack pointed out.

“I’m sure there’s a reason why she’s acting so evasive.”

The group of locals that were pulling the sleigh passed them, the contraption garnering their attention as it stopped next to them. “If that’s the case, I supposed it’s up to me to point you all in the right direction,” Zeg’us smirked. “Now then, miss Twilight, right? Will you provide the protection that you’ve mentioned earlier?”

The alicorn didn’t meander about. Her horn glowed, creating a magical field that expanded several dozen hooves in diameter, covering everybody present. The matriarch pointed, and the horde of zebras marched on, pulling the sleigh, and the rest of the visitors following them. But as they did, one of the striped equines that was wearing a cloak was left in the back, pacing after them in the distance.

“So, Chrysalis managed to escape from her imprisonment and she attacked the Crystal Empire with… What did you say his name was again?” Stygian asked.

He was sitting outside Café Hay enjoying a meal, and with him was his enormous companion, who was retelling what was told to him on his journey, but not before gorging himself on a large bowl of oats.

“The Storm King, lad,” Rockhoof elaborated. “From what I got, it once invaded Equestria, but that was before we came back, the princess and her relatives had dealt with him before. I’ve not seen ‘im myself, but I’ve seen the whole castle cut right down the middle, that was the extent of ‘is power. But from what they told me he was supposed to be destroyed, so I’ve no idea how he came back.”

“That’s not the only thing, Rockhoof. What about-?”

“Oh, one moment, lad,” he stopped him. “Waiter!”

And just when he dropped the word, a yellow pony with slick hair and a small mustache, carrying a proud look on his face, was standing right next to him. “You called, monsieur?” Savoir Fare asked.

“Ah, perfect! I’d like-”

“Another portion?” he placed a large bowl of oats on the table.

“Well, I’ll be… How d’ya know?”

“Call it an instinct, monsieur. That, and ze fact that this was ze third bowl you’ve scarfed down it was easy to narrow it down.”

“Well, thanks a lot for that then.” He quickly took a mouthful, while the empty dish was taken away. “Now, you were sayin’, lad?”

“The other thing you’ve mentioned, Rockhoof,” the scrawny unicorn resumed, “one that was with Chrysalis and the Storm King… Grogar. Are you sure that’s what Mistmane said?”

“It’s what Princess Cadence told her. I’d take her word for it.”

“But, Rockhoof, how’s that possible? Grogar was a myth, a legend, a name of terror that struck fear in the hearts of ponies in the time now forgotten. Even our generation never saw him, or any trails of his existence, except for hearsay. I mean, I know that his bell existed, one that the changeling queen and two others used, but how did HE end up working with her?”

“That’s a whole lot of questions that I’ve no answers for, lad,” the massive stallion answered, before taking another mouthful. “’Tis why I decided to come back to Ponyville. Mistmane told me that Star Swirl’s here, so I came to ask him about that.” He took a mouthful one last time, before getting up. “There. I think we’re just about done. Let’s get going and see what he can tell us.”

“Wait, not yet!” Stygian raised his voice in fear, other guests of the café giving him a look of surprise.

“Why not?”

“Because I…” he tried to make an excuse. “I… haven’t finished my oats yet. I don’t want to waste food.”

When they arrived, they each ordered a bowl, but while the bigger pony managed to down three of them in that time, all the while pausing to relate his journey, the little one hadn’t even managed to finish off the first one.

“Y’ve not even gotten down to half of it, lad,” he noticed.

“I mean, with the tale you’ve been telling me, I didn’t really have the time to focus on eating,” he smiled awkwardly.

“I’ll be happy to get rid of it for ya if ya don’t want to waste it,” the Pillar of Strength offered.

“Ho-how about I get you another bowl of oats instead? That way, I’ll get to finish mine and you can get yourself another so you won’t have to wait for me.”

He was waiting, hoping that his attempt at temptation worked.

“Well, I certainly won’t say no for another bowl of oats, lad,” he eagerly sat down again. “Hey, waiter! Another one!”

Stygian exhaled in relief, he bought himself some more time, if even a little, enough to think of the next step that would not get them in contact with the Pillar of Sorcery. But he wasn’t sure at the moment what he could say, and considering how fast his companion was handling his meal, he knew his time was short.

“Crepes!” the waiter called out into the kitchen.

“Oui, Fare?” the chef by the name responded, as she ran about the kitchen.

“It’s ze big lug from outside again, he wants more oats!”

“It’ll have to wait, mon ami! I ran out of it in ze kitchen, I have to get a new bag from ze cellar!”

“Well do hurry. The way he’s been eating them, I fear he might devour one of ze customers if he doesn’t get his fill soon.”

The chef opened the doors to the cellar and ran downstairs, turning on the light, and began rummaging through the bags that were stacked against the wall, checking which of them contained the necessary cereal.

CRASH!

She jumped at the sound of breaking glass. A bottle of cider fell off the nearby cupboard and crashed against the stone floor.

“Oh, come on!” she moaned and went upstairs to grab a broom.

CRASH!

She froze halfway up. Another bottle just fell out of the cupboard and broke. She was certain she didn’t see any other item on the shelves looking like they were about to fall off. It soon became clear to her that wasn’t the case, as the cupboard suddenly shook and another thing fell out of it. The chef thought for a moment that there was an earthquake, but when she went to inspect the shelves it became clear to her that only it was rumbling. She pulled it away from the stone wall, only to find the cause for it at the back. Stone bricks of the wall were budging outwards as if something was trying to force itself through. The bricks finally fell away, and a face popped out of the hole in the wall. A dark green, horned equine-looking face that resembled an alien bug. The moment its eyes met the ponies’, it hissed. The chef screamed in panic and crawled backward. The horrid creature climbed through the hole, and soon enough, several more followed it.

She quickly ran upstairs and locked the door shut. “CHANGELINGS! THERE ARE CHANGELINGS IN OUR BASEMENT!!!”

The banging of numerous forces could be felt against the door against which the pony was pressing to try and hold them back, but it didn’t take long before they broke down, and the numerous attackers burst through, hissing. They lept against the first moving thing they saw, and it was the lone chef who was trying to crawl away. Before they could even claim their prize, however, the head of a shovel swung in and smacked the attackers back through the door. It took her a moment to realize what had just happened, and that she wasn’t alone in the kitchen anymore. Looming over her was a large imposing light-blue stallion, holding a shovel in his mouth, with a small scrawny unicorn by his side.

“Monsieur! Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!” she hugged his hooves and kissed them. “You saved my life!”

“Calm yerself, lass. You get out of here. We’ll handle these things,” the tall one ordered. “Stygian, with me.”

As the staff member ran out, the two descended downstairs, where they were met with the aforementioned creatures, some of them recovering from the pain that the Pillar of Strength had just inflicted upon them. They hissed at him to try and terrify him but he didn’t even flinch, something that couldn’t be said for his companion. He lept into the fray, swinging his tool at them, while the unicorn tried to use his spell to keep his blind spot covered. The fight was fierce but brief after a few strong swings with the shovel – all the invasive intruders lay on the ground bruised and unconscious.

“We’ve made a downright mess here, lad,” the imposing earth pony said as he put down his shovel. “Let’s clean it up and go.”

“Hold on, Rockhoof. I’m pretty sure changelings weren’t hiding in the cellar this whole time if the chef came running out,” Stygian pointed out.

“How do you mean? They can shapeshift into everyday objects from what I learn. They could’ve been in waiting for a while.”

“True, but if that were the case, the chef wouldn’t have noticed them either. For all we know the pony would’ve been replaced by one of them and we wouldn’t have even noticed it.”

“Wait, then, does that mean that the chef that came screaming for help was actually-?”

“No, of course not, and that’s all the reason why I don’t think it was her. If she was a changeling there’d be no need for her to pretend she was being attacked, she’d just act like nothing was happening.”

“You’re making sense, lad. But then how did they get here in the first place?” Rockhoof wondered.

It didn’t take much time for both of their eyes to wander across the room and notice the moved cupboard. They went to inspect it further and noticed the bricks of the wall being broken down.

“I think we’ve found it, lad.” The large stallion raised his shovel. “Let’s go and see where this takes us.”

“Hold on. Before we go anywhere, what about the changelings?” the smaller one pointed out.

“Oh yeah. We can’t have ‘em just scurrying away and hiding among other ponies. Best you stay behind and keep your eye on them.”

“Wait, I can’t do that! Somepony has to cover your back. If there’s more of them on the other side, who knows where they’re hiding? Not to mention even on my own, when they wake up, I wouldn’t be able to keep them all in check for long. Let me go in. I may not be a capable fighter, but I’ve got a keen sight, I’ll be able to spot any oddities if they’ve set up an ambush.”

“Oh no, lad! That’s precisely why I ain’t lettin’ you in there on your own,” Rockhoof protested.

“But we have to assess how bad things are on the other end,” Stygian insisted.

“Well, we’re just two. What are we supposed to do otherwise?”

The unicorn went silent. An action needed to be taken, and the two of them just weren’t enough, they needed more people and they didn’t have any…. Or at least, that’s what he initially believed. A thought formulated in his mind. It was sound, but he didn’t want it to be taken there, he wasn’t ready yet. Even so, they didn’t have any other option.

He inhaled deeply. “Give me a second,” she said, before trotting back up the stairs, opening the door and finding the chef and the waiter by the side of the door, nearly missing him with the frying pan.

“Sacre bleu! I thought you were one of them,” the mare expressed surprise as they pulled back at the last moment.

“Sir, miss, I need you to go to the Castle of Friendship and fetch Starlight Glimmer. Tell her to come here immediately,” Stygian instructed.

“What about you?” the stallion inquired.

“We’ll go and check where the changelings came from. In the meantime, do not let anypony else inside. Understood?”

Both staff members nodded in unison before the scrawny pony shut the door and trotted back down.

“So, what happened?” the bigger pony inquired.

“I’ve sent them to get Starlight here. She’s powerful enough to isolate the changelings so they won’t run amok. You and I will go inside in the meantime.”

“Excellent!” he prepared himself to rush through the opening in the wall.

“WAIT!” the unicorn stopped him. “We can’t just rush in. This was just a reconnaissance group, so we managed to deal with them. If an entire swarm is waiting on the other side I don’t think we’ll be able to survive it.”

“So, what’s the plan then?”

Stygian looked about the cellar and noticed several roughly sewed bags of earthly color that contained potatoes. He knocked several of them over to empty them and cut them in half.

“What are we supposed to do with these?” the bigger one wondered.

“Camouflage. Should be enough to fool a casual observer in a badly lit environment.” The smaller pony levitated them with him as he moved to the opening in the wall.

He looked inside and it was completely dark, and it forced him to illuminate the surroundings with his horn. The tall stallion followed him as he squeezed inside, he needed some help, as the hole was narrow, and the inside was barely better; the walls were just close enough for two changelings to walk together upright and next to each other. A long tunnel led into the distance, and they were unsure of what was waiting for them further away.

The sandstorms were unrelenting, intensified by the funnel that was the long canyon that connected the kingdom of Mansa to the rest of Farasi on the other side of the mountain range. It was no wonder that hardly anyone except for the camel caravans was able to traverse it, and even they took a long time to finally reach their destinations. But Twilight Sparkle’s workaround did the trick. The barrier that she erected created protection for her friends and the horde of refugees from the city of Musa. And no matter how hard the elements pressed, they managed to keep a steady gallop, something they needed if they were to reach their destination in time. After several hours the alicorn finally noticed something had changed in their surroundings: The sandstorm had softened up, as when they could barely see anything earlier, sandy dunes were now visible, as was the obscured sun.

She halted, and the rest of the equines did as well. “Madame Zeg’us…” The princess took a moment to catch a breath, standing next to the sleigh that the group of zebras was pulling. “Did we just leave the confines of the canyon?”

“Yes, miss Twilight,” the elder answered. “The Kuhama Desert has now opened before us. And once we pass beyond the veil of elements we will see our goal in sight. But before we do that…” She turned to look at the group in the back. “I believe your friends could use some reprieve.”

“That’s okay. We can continue without-”

“Twilight,” the yellow pegasus breathed deeply, “I speak for everypony when I say, that we have a break, please.”

The pink earth pony groaned, dragging herself through the sand. “We haven’t eaten anything since breakfast, and I need my daily intake. I’m beginning to think that sand is brown sugar…” She scooped a tongue-full it into her mouth before spitting it out.

“We’re all a bit plumb tuckered out, Twi. And if we’ve still got half a way to the end, Ah’d rather we all get an hour break or somethin’.” The workhorse pulled off her hat to wipe her brow.

“But this is urgent! The king-!”

“Twilight, we’ve been in this predicament once before,” the dragon reminded her. “It was urgent back then too when Storm King invaded Equestria, and we ended up getting saddled with nothing but trouble when we rushed things. Besides, I think you could use a break yourself. I saw you stumble a while back.”

“Wha-! No, I didn’t!” she denied.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I saw you too,” the kirin interjected, and a moment later, so did the former Lord of Chaos, as he poked his head out of his refuge. “I third that notion.”

She groaned. “Okay fine, I did… Let’s have an hour-long break so we can recuperate.”

“Can we have our rations now?” Pinkie Pie inquired hopefully.

“That is if we can find the carrier, Pinkie,” Applejack looked about. “Anypony seen Zecora?”

“She’s not that hard to find if you know where to look,” her younger sibling poked her and pointed behind them.

Twilight remembered all too well how Princess Cadance managed to raise a protective barrier around Crystal Empire. If she could do it then there was no reason she wouldn’t be able to. It was no wonder that she was beginning to feel the burden. The magical barrier that protected the group from the sandstorm was quite large, big enough to cover the team of nine, as well as a horde of natives that were pulling the elder’s sleigh, and then some. And at the very far back of the barrier, near its border, was the shaman, standing still.

The Elements of Generosity, Honesty, and Laughter approached her. “Zecora, darling,” the former addressed her, “we’re taking a break. Can you please provide us with some food?”

“Just not one for thought, my tummy’s in some serious need,” the pink one urged.

The zebra took off her saddlebags and reached inside, and out of it, she pulled three large, tied-up sacks. “I have a set of three to provide fulfilling nutrition for thee: Cereals to ensure cravings will be out of the question, fresh fruit for fortitude and staving off dehydration, and bread to help with your digestion. In case the way before us will be longer still, please, try to ration it, if you will.”

The party planner couldn’t contain herself any longer and instantly stuck her face into one of the bags, moments later raising her head out of it, holding an apple in her mouth, before devouring it in a frenzy, and soon after sticking her head back into the bag.

“Pinkie!” Rarity panicked, grabbed her by the tail with her magic, and dragged her away, along with the bag of cereal. “Please, control yourself! Save something for everypony else!”

As the two mares departed, the third one remained, and she tossed the sack of bread on her back. “Aren’t you gonna join us for lunch, Zecora?” she inquired.

The zebra shook her head. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ve had my fill already. I’ll just have a rest so that my path won’t feel unsteady.”

“You sure you’re not just makin’ excuses not to be close to somepony you don’t want to be?”

As soon as she suggested that, the shaman lowered her head, her face completely obscured by the cowl, and she gave no reply.

“Zecora, what’s going on? You hardly spoke a word since we left the city,” the county pony questioned. “And what’s with you disappearing out of sight? Why are you staying away from everypony?”

She didn’t answer. And before the workhorse could interrogate further her tail got tugged by the blue pegasus.

“Come on, AJ. Gran… I mean, the zebra elder said she needs her fill.”

“Dash, a moment, will ya? I’m asking-”

“And she wanted me to tell you not to pester HER right now. Now come.”

The orange pony grumbled as she got pulled away, leaving Zecora all alone again. The rest of the group was already being handed out the fresh fruit by the time they rejoined, at which point the country pony opened the bag with bread and they dug in.

The fashionista levitated the bread and some oats to the rest of the zebras and offered them to the eldest one. “For you, Madame.”

“Oh, why thank you, miss,” she smiled, before taking a mouthful.

The pony then levitated more bread and cereal to the other members of the herd. She offered it to one of the stallions, who took one sniff of it and then made a cringing expression.

The senior took notice of it. “You really should eat something, boy.”

He didn’t answer; the mare from earlier did instead. “Oh, we’re fine, madame. We’ve all had a hefty meal before the invasion of the city happened. We’ll manage to survive until we get to the destination, don’t worry.”

The old mare stared at them for a bit. “Alright…” she said in a tone of uncertainty, before turning to Rarity. “You may go back to the rest. We’re fine.”

The fashionista was surprised that the zebras were able to survive a gallop for several hours and hardly showed any exhaustion, even though their eldest still needed something to eat. Was this their species at the most basic? She couldn’t tell when even their own zebra needed a break. She rejoined the rest of the group that was filling their tummies, and she proceeded to dig in herself.

But out of them, one mare, the youngest one, showed concern, as she was staring at the back of the group where her mentor was. “What’s wrong with her? Why is she avoiding us?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Applebloom,” her elder sibling answered. “She refused to talk to me. Ah wonder what’s eatin’ her.”

“Don’t worry, Applejack,” Autumn Blaze said as she bit into a piece of bread topped with banana slices. “I’m sure when she’s ready to talk she’ll let us know what’s up.”

“I wonder about that,” the orange mare said, unsure, and the younger one seemed to be of the same thought, as they watched the cloaked zebra in the distance.

The Pillar of Strength and his companion crawled for what felt like miles through the narrow tunnel, and so far, they hadn’t encountered any changelings. But then they began hearing a skittering sound, and dim green lighting in the distance. They finally reached the end of the tunnel, only to find a bigger one connected to theirs, it was big enough for multiple people to travel through in massive numbers. And that’s when they saw changelings, coming and going back and forth down it. They hadn’t noticed them yet, so they waited for the coast to clear just enough for them to get out, and then quickly covered themselves with the large drapes and pressed themselves against the wall. As several other changelings passed them it’s become apparent they didn’t catch wind of their presence, so their disguises seemed to have been working. Stygian motioned to Rockhoof to follow further down the tunnel and then proceeded. The tunnel was going for quite some time, but the further they traveled, the more they began noticing that this large tunnel had multiple passageways, similar in size to the one through which they came out. And if those were anything alike, where were they leading?

Rockhoof came to a halt when he noticed his companion wasn’t moving anymore.

“What’s wrong, lad?” he quietly inquired.

The unicorn finally noticed that the dim light had become brighter. The source of the lighting was clear in the distance – a large lake made of glowing green substance, with a giant sinister foreboding tree that was growing out of it and…

Out of the lake, a large mass of darkness was sticking out, ever-shifting, yet retaining its form, a pair of scrawny arms supporting the towering being as it propped itself against the bank. It was staring downwards, changelings came to it, stared at it for a bit, and then moved on to the tunnel. The young stallion had no idea what that thing was, but from what he could tell, it was bad. He was about to say something to Rockhoof, when he noticed the dark being’s head suddenly turn in his direction, a pair of giant teal eyes meeting his, even though he was hidden under the cover. His heart nearly stopped by what followed.

“We sense a presence,” a harrowing voice emerged from it. “A presence… one touched by turmoil. So much hatred.”

Suddenly, the ground shook. The changelings that surrounded the duo still hadn’t caught onto them even after their attention was drawn back to the source. Another massive shadow emerged from the pool, it twisted and turned until finally, several giant yellow eyes opened on it.

“Plagued by fear,” the multitude of voices came from it. “And others…”

Rockhoof was not ignorant to what he saw, but it was all the more imperative for him to notice his companion - he was shivering, likely from fear by what he saw, unable to control his own actions, as his cover slowly slipped off of him, fully exposing him to the surroundings. The Pillar came to realize they’d seen enough. He threw caution to the wind, grabbed Stygian by the neck of his cloak, and ran off, completely exposing himself as well. Suddenly, the swarm stirred. It took them a moment, just as the ponies passed them, but they quickly responded, and in a tidal wave pursued them. The blue stallion was more than capable of outpacing his enemy, but it quickly dawned on him, when they reached the hole through which they came out, that they wouldn’t be able to get away through the narrow space unless their enemies were stopped. He dropped the small unicorn by the entrance, and whipped out his shovel, making several digs into the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, causing it to collapse, finally deterring their pursuers.

He gave out a sigh of relief before turning his attention to his friend. “Lad! Ey, lad, wake up!”

After some severe shaking, Stygian finally snapped back into reality. “Wha… Rockhoof? What just happened?”

“I was wonderin’ if you could tell me? You just suddenly went limp. Like you had a cold or somethin’.”

“I… I don’t know what happened, I just…” he tried to recollect his thoughts, “I just felt completely overwhelmed by emotions all of a sudden, and then everything went black.” He looked about. “Wh-where are the changelings?”

“Stopped, for now,” the Pillar answered. “But we need t’ get goin’ fast, lad. They’ll be after us any moment now and we have t’ cover our tracks. So, get in, quick!”

The unicorn quickly crawled into the hole, and the earth pony followed, but in reverse, as he used his shovel to collapse the mouth of their tunnel, completely obscuring it from the other end. Stygian managed to traverse the path normally, but Rockhoof, because of his size was forced to walk backward since he couldn't turn in such a confined space, which forced the unicorn to help him. After much struggle they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and climbed out, sighing in relief after what they had just been through. But it only took a few seconds for Stygian to realize a lack of certain bodies around them. He was about to yell in panic when he noticed a pink glow above him, and that’s when he spotted a bubble of the same color levitating above his head, and it contained the changelings he feared had gotten away. As for the caster, she stood at the top of the stairs.

“Stygian? What are you doing here?” Starlight reacted in surprise.

Author's Note

Hello everybody!
The last chapter of the year.
I hope you enjoy it. And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Chapter 72: Familiar Faces

The sandstorms didn’t relent, though they were less harsh than when they were still in the canyon. And with that, Twilight’s fans and the zebra horde continued their advance after a brief break, trying to reach their destination to deliver a warning. They managed to endure the first part of the trail, but the second half remained, and for some reason, it felt much longer. It may have been that after the break they took, the momentum of their bodies ground to a halt, and was trying to readjust again, but after more than six hours of galloping, a mere hour wouldn’t cut it to get rid of exhaustion. A few hours passed by now, and finally the light brown blanket disappeared, leaving only the scorching sun in their wake, one that was slowly drifting to the far distant horizon, meaning it wouldn’t be long before it set. And then they finally spotted something that literally stood out in the distance – a giant dark hill rose high into the sky, where it turned white as snow.

“We’re almost there,” the elder zebra on the sand sleigh announced.

“Is that our destination, Madame Zeg’us?” Twilight inquired.

She nodded. “Before you stands Mount Chinjaio, the realm of abadas, and the home of king Amun.”

“Finally!” Rainbow Dash cheered. “My hooves were beginning to kill me.”

“Well, they will for a while longer, Dash. Look how far that mountain is,” the workhorse pointed out, making her groan.

“Indeed,” the zebra agreed. “It’ll take at least another three hours before we get there, but at least you’ll be able to feel solid ground under your hooves soon, ladies. Miss Twilight, I believe you can remove your protection at this point."

She obliged. Her horn stopped glowing and she exhaled in relief; that was one strain she no longer had to deal with it after prolonging it longer than she ever did. As she did that, the zebra horde in front of them sped up, pulling the sled with them, forcing the gang to follow quickly.

After about two hours of running, they finally noticed a change beneath them, as the sandy dunes were replaced with brown earth, and little by little, greenery began cropping up. The towering peak that they observed earlier now seemed far closer than before, and in the distance, they saw massive fields, and beyond those, a thick jungle landscape that spread between the dormant volcano and the mountain ranger.

“Oh, sweet Celestia, it feels so dang good to feel some good dirt under my hooves again,” Applejack said and everybody around her noticed a subtle skip in her gallop.

A thudding sound suddenly stopped them, especially once they realized that one of their friends was no longer present - the kirin lay face first on the ground.

“Autumn Blaze?” Fluttershy showed concern, and they all retreated back to her side. “What’s wrong?”

The mare had a dried-up expression on her face. “I don’t think I’ve had enough sustenance during the break…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Discord popped out of the shy pegasus’ fanny pack. “You’ve eaten two whole breads and no less than several mouthfuls of oats.”

“But not enough fruit…” Applejack reminded before her head turned to the pink earth pony. “Because SOMEPONY ate all of it, leaving hardly anything for us.”

The mare in question pulled a sour face. “Sorry… But my tummy was making awful noises and I had to make it stop.”

“Yeah, and look what happened as a result, Pinkie.”

“Never mind… whose fault it is…” the kirin barely spoke. “Just get me something… to drink…”

As the group huddled together, the alicorn noticed that the zebras were getting away from them. “Hey wait! Madame Zeg’us! We’ve got somepony down for the count, we need to stop!”

The elder zebra on top of the sleigh garnered the attention of others. “Slow down, boys and girls. The visitors are lagging behind.”

They slowed down, but soon the mare who was ahead of everybody spoke out. “But madame, we have to warn others in the village. Time is of the essence.”

“Alright. I’ll wait behind for them. The rest of you go and inform of what’s happened and set up the audience with King Amun, he’ll want to see the newcomers.”

The mare nodded at the stallions behind her, and almost instantly the horde dropped the sleigh harness and ran off at the head of the outspoken mare, leaving the senior behind, slightly perplexed.

As the Council of Friendship helped their friend recover with the bowl of water, the fashionista decided to take a sip or two directly from the source; she too felt somewhat parched. After several gulps in the stream, the sensation was gone, but with the matter resolved, her attention was preoccupied by something – her reflection. It’s been a while since she stared at a reflective surface, one which the stream now provided. It was blurry, so the details of her appearance were rather blurry, and yet, there was something that she immediately recognized: A grey streak running down her now less-than-elegant mane. It frustrated her. She couldn’t remember how many times she tried to mend the damage, and yet in the end, by a constant stroke of bad luck, it kept returning. It made her angry and sad at the same time.

“My senses tell me that something’s troubling you, miss.”

She was roused from the trance, finally noticing another reflection standing next to hers, one that resembled the elderly zebra, before finally looking to her side. “Am I that obvious, madame?” Rarity wondered, to which she received a slow nod. “It’s just… it’s THIS abominable this!” She angrily pointed at her mane.

She looked up and down. “I’m sorry, you will have to be a bit more specific about what I’m looking at.”

“This grey thing that’s running right down the middle of my mane, madame. It’s been a thorn in my side from the moment it was forced upon me.”

“I’m sorry, are you saying you didn’t receive it naturally? My apologies, young lady, but I was under the impression there was a considerable age gap between you and your friends,” the zebra chuckled.

Rarity’s lip wobbled. “Please, madame, don’t say that! I’m still young! All my life I’ve devoted to making things full of glamor and splendor. I’ve dedicated myself to it so completely that I embody it visually… or at least, I used to… This… thing, is a stain on my image. I’ve been trying my hard to fix it, yet for some reason, it seems that the world has conspired against me!” She slumped on her rear end. “At this point, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to regain my visage of perfection…”

The elder mare rubbed her chin. “Perhaps… fate’s been trying to steer you in the right direction?”

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps the reason why your efforts have been thwarted is because it was meant to be.”

“I beg your pardon?” the fashionista quickly rose back on her hooves. “I can’t stay like this! Grey and purple, these two colors just don’t go together! And I’m in the prime of my youth! I can’t go about looking like this, or everypony will think my warranty’s about to expire, that I’m about to reach the end line, that I’m about to turn decrepit, shriveled, and oooooooooooo…” Her voice trailed off on a singular note, after all, it took her a moment to realize that she was being stared at with a glare by the elderly zebra.

“Old?” she raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you were about to say?”

“What? Pfff, no, of course not!” she awkwardly tried to deny it. “What I meant was…”

“Don’t play coy with me, miss. I wasn’t born yesterday, and that’s the point. We all cross that line eventually, some sooner than others apparently. But even so I continue to keep going on. Beauty was the first to go for me, but if somebody were to offer me a chance to return to youth, to be about…” The elder eyed the fashionista up and down. “About your age, I would decline it. I’ve already lived a fulfilling life, with all of its ups and downs. And I wouldn’t want to re-experience it something that I cherish.”

“With all due respect, Madame Zeg’us, and I do mean it, but I’ve not gone that far yet. I cannot go around looking like this, it’s not my time yet. I’m a trend-setting fashionista, for the love of Celestia! I cannot be seen like a wilting flower,” the white unicorn pleaded.

“I’m not sure what that “trend” word means,” the elder confessed, “but I believe that in your current moment of weakness, you are forgetting your greatest skill and not putting it to use.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Madame… I’m not sure what you’re saying.”

“She means that you should use your passion, to turn your current condition into new fashion.”

Both mares were stirred by the voice that came from behind them, the rhyming words did not escape them. They turned, and the hooded familiar zebra was once again within their ranks, something that the rest of the visitors became aware of as well, more to the fact that she seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere since their priorities were focused elsewhere.

“Well, look who’s decided to join the party,” Rainbow Dash said. “What got you to finally stop lagging behind?”

“I’ve been sensing some bad mojo since the start, so I stayed behind since I figured that was smart. Now that we’ve stopped we will have to pick up the pace. So tell me, Autumn Blaze, are you well enough to give chase?”

After several chugging sounds, she finally answered. “Of course.”

“Then let us go forthwith. Grandmada Zeg’us, we’ll offer you frith.”

“Thank you, dearie,” she smiled and trotted beside her.

Applejack was about to speak, more than eager to ask questions, only to be halted when she felt a sudden tap on her shoulders, one belonging to the alicorn, who shook her head at her to dissuade her from attempting.

“Y’all aren’t really buying any of this “bad mojo vibes” excuse, are you?” she asked them all.

“Whether or not we do isn’t important, we all see something’s bothering Zecora, but we all got a hint from her senior that we shouldn’t push the issue, darling,” Rarity agreed with the interceptor.

“Seriously, what is it with everypony being willing to just keep secrets recently? First us with Gusty, then Star Swirl, now Zecora.”

“We understand how important honesty is to you, Applejack, but things aren’t that simple,” Fluttershy reasoned.

“Sometimes I wish they were.”

They resumed the trek at a slightly slower pace now that they had an elderly one at their side, but at least now neither the sand nor its storms were a deterrent to their progress as they moved further inland. On the way they saw strange equine beings with coats that were mostly earthly colors and had scrawny legs compared to zebras, yet they were still able to support their weight, their face was considerably longer, and above their noses grew a pair of horns. And speaking of zebras, they were helping them tilling the fields and gathering the produce.

“I’ve never seen such odd beings before,” Applebloom whispered.

The note of curiosity gave the elder sibling an idea of how to pry out the information. “I’m more confused about something else. There seem to be a lot of zebras here. I thought this place was the home of abadas.”

“It’s for a reason, Missy,” the grey zebra overheard them. “This was the first place that our tribe moved to after we went into a mass exodus from our village.”

“Mass exodus? Why? What’s happened?”

Zeg’us sighed deeply. “A tragedy. Close to two decades ago, the place where our village stands, was struck by one catastrophe after another. First came the pestilence that robbed us of all the food, then came the endless rain that couldn’t fill the void, and last but not least the disappearance of… a certain member of the tribe.” When she uttered those words, she glanced in the direction of the individual at whom the ending was aimed, and like her, the workhorse noticed the shaman suddenly lowering her head. “And with the tribe’s leader missing the entire village fell into complete despair. Things became so unbearable that other members of our tribe decided to leave, and to some of them, the village was the only place they’d known their whole lives. Eventually, even I left, as the whole settlement became completely devoid of life, and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in doom and gloom.”

“Ah… Ah’m so sorry to hear that, Ma’am,” Applejack apologized when it became apparent by the tone in the elder’s voice that it was a sore subject.

“Don’t pity me, filly. Pity the one who chose to stay behind.”

“Wait, somepony chose to stay behind in the abandoned village?”

“Yes. Many have tried to convince her to leave, saying that there’s no sane reason to stay and endure suffering that could easily be avoided. And she flatly refused.”

“Why would anypony want to stay in a horrible place you describe?”

She uttered a single word. “Hope.”

The words lingered, and the mares waited for a follow-up, but there was nothing. Not that it mattered, as a voice in the distance soon got their attention.

“Grandma Zeg’us!”

It came from the front, on the trail that they walked. A group of abadas was carrying the freshly harvested produce off the field and stacking it in a pile just by the side of the trail, and a lone zebra stood by, waving in their direction. The elder one waved back, and like her, the rest of the followers sped up to get to her… but not all.

As the youngest in the group rushed with the rest so she could keep up, she suddenly slowed down, and that was because she realized that she wasn’t the only one whose pace slowed down, but her ground to a halt. Her mentor was standing still like a statue, or at least it seemed so. But when Applebloom went to check up close, her shorter stature allowed her to see beneath the hood, and she saw the shaman with a shocked look on her face - she was trembling, it almost seemed that she was about to start hyperventilating.

“Zecora? What’s wrong?” she asked.

The Elements and the additions approached the managing mare with Zeg’us. The mare before them had a frizzy mohawk that hung on the right side of her face, bearing a symbol of a fern on her flank, and she was moving the beads about on an abacus that she had with her, calculating the amount of produce.

“Grandma Zeg’us, what going on here?” she inquired.

“Surprised by the new faces, are you, Sanaa? I have to say, I was surprised as well when I first saw them. Apart from being outsiders, I had not expected them to be this colorful.”

“Khm,” Spike interrupted the awkwardness, “Madam, I believe introductions are in order.”

She chuckled. “Of course, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce you to Sanaa, our High Shaman’s eldest daughter.”

“Oh please, Grandma, stop with the flattery, I’m just the manager of the fields. And while I’m happy to meet them, aren’t you worried about repercussions for letting outsiders into Farasi? What if King Abraxas found out you’ve welcomed them?”

“But Sanaa, Abraxas allowed them to enter Farasi. Hasn’t Zola told you?”

“No. And that’s all the more what I was wondering, grandma. How are you here? The caravans haven’t departed for Mansa yet. And why did Zola and a horde of others come running up the road just a few moments earlier?”

The elder gave a confused look. “Wait… they didn’t stop and tell you anything?”

“Why? What’s happened?”

“Sanaa, the kingdom of Mansa has been attacked by outsiders.”

“What?!” She pointed at the characters next to her. “Who are they then?”

“They’re the ones that came to warn us about the attack. Those evildoers came from their homeland.”

“No… I wasn’t informed at all. Zola and others just ran by without stopping. I even waved at her, and all she did was look at me as if she didn’t know me.”

When she said that, it suddenly set off an alarm in the ponies. “Hold on, did you just say she acted as if she didn’t know you? Are you sure she wasn’t just in a rush to warn the king of abadas?” Twilight questioned.

“We were friends from way back when we were just fillies. I know her, even if she did move to the city of Musa. And the last time I’ve seen her was some sixty solar cycles ago; that’s not nearly enough time to just forget a person.”

“It wouldn’t be the only time, girl,” the elder agreed. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen her being odd, especially because I could’ve sworn I saw her in the group of other zebras when they chose to fight against the city’s invaders. I’m not sure how she ended up on the beach.”

“Wait… Madam, did you just say that she was elsewhere completely compared to when she said she was when we met her?” Rarity inquired.

Now both zebras’ attention was directed towards the ponies. “Miss, is something wrong?” the younger one wondered.

“I’d say so,” Pinkie Pie spoke out. “If some things seem off with somepony, like acting as if they’re not themselves or seem to be in more than one place at the same time, it can only mean one thing…”

Before she could answer fully, a sound of panicking and screaming could be heard in the distance.

“Oh no… You don’t think…?” the workhorse suggested.

They quickly galloped off in its direction, leaving the two zebras behind.

“Wait! What’s going on?” the younger one wanted to know.

“Trouble!” Spike answered.

The two had to pick up the pace to try and catch up to them, as the Elements of Harmony entered the dense jungle to which their path had taken them, and as they pushed onward, the sound of chaos grew louder. They finally came across a tall wooden wall with a wide-open gate, and once they passed through, they were met with the sight of the huts made from dried grass, strewn all over the place, the settlement itself looked as if overgrown with exotic plants, and their residents… they were being chased about by very familiar alien-equine creatures.

“So, we were right!” agreed the party planner.

After a while, the two zebras finally managed to catch up to them and were left shocked by what they were seeing.

“What is this?! What are these creatures?!” Sanaa panicked.

“They’re the changelings!” Rainbow Dash exposited. “They were with the Storm King this whole time! I thought it was weird that they didn’t just jump in when they invaded the city.”

“But where did they come from? If they were trailing us all the way, then Zecora would’ve likely noticed them, she was at our back after all.”

The younger mare gave her a confused look. “Wait… What…?”

“They can hide in plain sight, Madam Zeg’us,” the animal caretaker interrupted the inquiry from the other equine. “They have the ability to-”

“ZOLA!” the manager called out all of a sudden, interrupting the explanation.

Her sight wandered across the scene and quickly spotted the zebra mare, who she recognized as her friend. This same mare that had led the front of the group the whole way for Twilight and the rest, and now she stood in the open and that’s when one of the invasive beings came charging in her direction. Immediately, Sanaa galloped in her direction.

“Wait, stop!” Twilight tried to dissuade her.

She ignored her, leaping and tacking the other mare to the group to save her from the invader who nearly got her.

“Are you okay, Zola?” she asked her, to which the mare was just staring at her without a word, and then slowly nodded.

“Look out!” another voice called out.

Even more changeling drones swooped in all of a sudden and right at her rescuer, but before they could reach their target, they were all enveloped by a pink aura and got tossed aside, as the alicorn acted quickly, as she and the rest joined her side. “Sanaa, you can’t go charging in like this!” she scolded her. “These creatures are unpredictable and deceptive! If you’re not careful they will swarm you!”

And that’s precisely what happened, as several dozen changelings suddenly directed their attention to the newcomers and surrounded the air around them, and soon after, a handful of zebra stallions came running out of the cover, and towards the group. They knew the attack was coming, and the princess decided to act quickly, erecting a magic barrier around them… or rather, she tried - she cast a spell, and just as it was about to materialize, it dispersed. She tried again, and nothing happened.

“Twilight, we could use some magic right now,” her dragon companion urged.

“I’m trying! I don’t know why nothing’s happening!"

But as she looked around, and saw that the zebra stallions were no longer approaching, but instead stood still, it was beginning to dawn on her what the reason was. Suddenly, the rescued zebra got back on her feet and simply walked away from the group.

“Zola, what are you doing?!” her friends wondered.

She stopped halfway between them and other zebras, before turning to her, and a wicked smile appeared on her face.

“Zola…?”

“She’s not what she appears to be!” Fluttershy warned her.

Aboard one of the zeppelins of his fleet, the Storm King loomed over the map made of dark light, depicting the city of Musa, and explaining his scheme. “The locals will be trapped. No escape.”

“Very ingenious, Storm King,” Queen Chrysalis praised. “If you don’t count somepony who can just teleport herself and others on the other side of the barrier.”

He groaned. “That’s not my problem, queenie! You can’t expect me to take care of all the holes in our plan! If you think you can come up with a better idea, I’m all ears! If I had fully functioning ears anyway…”

“Touchy, aren’t you?” she said with an unamused expression. “Anyway, I wasn’t trying to be dismissive of your plan. In fact, this works to our advantage.”

“Oh yes? Do explain, Chrysalis,” the centaur lord eagerly awaited. “If Twilight and her gang of misfits manage to escape the city’s lockdown, how does that benefit us?”

“Simple, Lord Tirek: Regardless if the lockdown succeeds, in order to make sure our plan works, there are still other two kingdoms that need to be pacified, and the fact of the matter is, we don’t know where they are, and how to get there. We could be combing the entire land to find it, sure, but that would take far too long. So, why not let others show us the way instead?”

“And how are you going to do that?” the walking statue inquired.

“Easy. Twilight and her friends will get beyond your electric fence, that’s a guarantee.”

“Yes, you already said that, but they don’t know the way either. They’re here for the first time just as we are.”

“True. However, one good thing they have going for is that our attack will without a doubt put them in good graces with the locals, which means they’ll help them in any way they can.”

“Ah… I see where this is going,” the Pillar of Anger put it together. “You want to exploit that good grace.”

She nodded, then moved to the side of the map and pointed at the border of the barrier to the south by the oceanside. “Grogar, once the barrier is up, I’ll need you to open a portal at this location. It’s far away enough from prying eyes, and the locals will be too panicky to notice us. After that, we just have to wait for the ponies to turn up and follow them. Can you do that?”

The ram sorcerer remained silent as the three Pillars discussed the plan, while he was maintaining the presence of the map. “No problem.”

A giant monstrous cloud face flew over the city and then spewed lightning at the four tallest golden-plated towers that represented the corners of the settlement. Electricity between them connected and expanded into a large electric dome, trapping all of the inhabitants within its limits. While this was happening, on the coast, outside of the barrier, a portal of dark light opened, and the queen of changelings and her swarm rushed through before it closed again. And then she kept out of sight, observing the goings on inside and waiting, all the while carefully keeping an eye open on the hill that was the only exit from the valley, and soon enough, she saw figures climbing it, ones that were clearly more than just colors of black, and white.

She grinned. “It’s time.”

And in a massive green flash, the changelings shapeshifted into the form of locals.

A burst of green flash enveloped her, and the Queen of Changelings was once again in her normal appearance, towering over other equines before her.

“Well… I thought it felt all too convenient…” Autumn blaze quipped.

“Y… you’re not Zola…” the field managed staggered.

“Oh? Did the absence of bright color give me away?” she joked. “You should be more worried about yourself right now, dear.”

The zebra stallions that surrounded the group also flashed in green color, revealing themselves to be changelings as well, and these wore dark spiked armor, something that a trio of fliers recognized.

“Hey, they look like the changelings that were negating the magic of the Crystal Heart back at the Crystal Empire,” the wonderbolt pointed out.

“Of course, they are, Rainbow Dash,” Discord said as he poked his head out of the fanny pack around Fluttershy’s neck. “They’re made from the same stone that they’ve been mining in Dragon Lands.”

“So that they could use it against us,” the animal caretaker gulped finished.

“Recapping how you all ruined my operation aside, I must thank you all for leading us here,” the lead changeling cackled.

“You’re not going to get away with this, Chrysalis,” the alicorn bit back. “Once the king finds out-!”

“The king? He knows nothing. We’re the only ones who know what’s happened, and my changelings have already taken care of all the locals in the surrounding area. I’ve seen the size of this place, and this is just a small settlement tucked away in a massive jungle. We’ll deal with them slowly, one after another, until only the place where the king dwells remains, but by then it’ll already be too late,” Chrysalis boasted about her plan. “Now go on. Call for help. Scream, all you like, but there are none here now that will be able to help any of you.”

Twilight hated to admit it, but she may have been correct in her assessment. Subtlety was something that the changelings were extremely good at, and they came prepared for a covert action. They weren’t. And with her soldiers wearing the magic-negating rock armor, she wouldn’t be able to do anything against them. They were completely at her mercy.

A gentle breeze was in the meantime pulling through the trees; it was completely harmless. But moments later, it started to pick up, the strength of the wind was slowly beginning to push the changelings that were flying off their positions. Soon enough, Chrysalis also took notice of the sudden change in her surroundings. She saw the fliers getting blown away, and even the ones that were on the ground and wearing armor were beginning to show signs of struggle. And just when they thought that the gale was at its peak, an unexpected force that would match a storm thrust through the jungle and picked her and her soldier off their feet, sending her flying. Moments later, the wind subsided, completely disappearing. The group was unable to understand what stroke of luck they just had from this sudden divine intervention sent by nature, but they soon discovered they were only half right.

With a grinding sound on the ground nearby, the group was alerted to a presence that had just joined them. It was an abada, taller than those they saw on the way here, and he wore a headdress made of numerous feathers and a red cloak. And the look on his face was stern.

Out of the group, the younger zebra rushed out and then bowed before him. “King Amun, I cannot thank you enough for the timely rescue.”

“I can see that,” he answered, then gazing at the ponies. “My guess is that Abby’s attempt at keeping outsiders away has failed, hasn’t it?”

“Unfortunately, Your Majesty,” the elder one joined, “and with the help of these colorful ones I’ve come to warn you about it.”

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash forced herself into the conversation, “Chrysalis said that nobody knew we were here, how did you get the warning?”

“I told him.”

Another voice came out of the nearby growth, and another abada entered the settlement clearing; this one was brown, but also black, as he was almost completely caked in dirt.

“Imari?” Sanaa regarded him. “How did you know?”

“Did you forget where I work, Sanaa? I can see really far in almost any direction from the top of Mount Chinjaio. A large horde of zebras trekking through the desert isn’t something that could be considered normal, so I told the king about it.”

The leader nodded, before directing his attention to the newcomers. “And who are you, outsiders?”

The princess stepped forth. “Your Majesty, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and there are my friends, the Council of Friendship.”

“Except me,” the kirin answered, “I’m just here because of unfortunate circumstances.”

“Anyway,” she resumed, “we came to warn you about the villains from our lands that have come here to take what Madame Zeg’us and Zecora’s tribe are hiding.”

With those words, the younger zebra and abada quickly turned to her, but the ruler spoke first. “I see… If that is the case, then I guess that Abby’s hooves are full right now.”

“AND SO WILL YOU!”

The howl of rage was carried on the wind, soon to be accompanied by a loud buzzing sound, and its owner was fast approaching, malice drawn on her face.

“Wingardians!” Amun commanded.

Just as it seemed that the Queen of Changelings was going to reach the target of her hatred unopposed, four sudden quick bursts of wind came from four different directions, completely putting her off balance, making her hit the dirt under her and grinding to a halt. It even took the Elements of Harmony a bit to realize that four new figures were suddenly standing beside the king of abadas, each of them dressed in a shoulder-long cloak made of feathers.

“If you’ve come to our land to do us harm, Creature of Malice, you will find it difficult to achieve your goal. The five of us are more than enough to deal with you,” the leader looked down on her.

As Chrysalis rose from the dirt, only a wicked smile could be seen on her face. “Four against me, maybe. But what about four against… A SWARM?!”

Suddenly, from their surroundings, a buzzing sound erupted, and from the cover of the jungle, a multitude of changelings emerged, eager to attack their target. They charged! Without their leader having to say anything, the four guards rushed each in its own direction, bursting through the invading army. Some of the changelings assumed the forms of other flying creatures, such as birds of prey and dragons, but their speed wasn’t able to match them. Meanwhile, the king focused his sight on their leader.

“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t bother, you feather-headed idiot.” All of a sudden, several of her armored soldiers rushed before their queen to protect her. “Your pawns may be able to keep others at bay, but you don’t stand a chance without your magic.” Much to her surprise, he slowly began to walk in her direction. “Wait, you’re approaching me? Didn’t you hear what I just said?” He didn’t answer, his pace only increased. “Fine,” she smiled. “Let’s watch that speed of yours grind to a halt.”

And then he went off into a gallop. All she did was laugh, but that quickly disappeared, when he became so fast that her sight barely kept up with his movement. He went straight through her “barrier”, and then she went into the air just before he had a chance to hit her, but by then she already lost track of him. She was confused, the anti-magic armor should’ve nullified his power, so why was he able to use it still? She suddenly felt a breeze at her back, one that quickly turned into a gale and something solid contacted her back, knocking her out of the sky and making her fall.

“Wow… he’s as fast as Abraxas…” Rainbow Dash commented.

“I’m faster.” The wind lord was standing right next to her, and his sudden appearance made her jump in surprise. “But we alone won’t be able to stop her by ourselves. Watami needs to be warned as well.”

“I can show them the way, Your Majesty,” Sanaa quickly offered. “And they’ll be able to protect Grandma Zeg’us.”

“Then don’t wait for my orders, High Shaman’s foal.” And with those words, he dashed away.

“Alright, come on!” the young zebra ordered, and others present quickly followed.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Chrysalis roared and quickly flew after them, only to be stopped on the spot, as the king rammed into her. “How… how are you still able to use your powers when I have items that negate magic?!”

He glanced at her. “Because that power isn’t mine alone to own, shapeshifter.”

The younger zebra led the group through the trail that was overgrown, traveling further west and out of the jungle. After some time, they finally stopped for a reprieve, allowing the elder one to rest.

“Imari, why are you still here?” she asked the abada. “Shouldn’t you stay behind and help your people?”

“I would. But there’s something I want to ask the outsiders, and I couldn’t do that in the midst of chaos.”

“Actually, thanks for reminding me. I too have something to ask.”

“And I also have something to ask,” Autumn Blaze suddenly said. “Anypony else thinks we’re a few numbers short?”

They looked about, and the ponies quickly realized that there was a decrease in their numbers by three.

“Hold on, I thought that we were missing something greenish… I wasn’t just imagining. Where’s Seasaddle?!” Rainbow Dash was the first point out.

“I don’t know! I remember he was still with us back in Musa!” Fluttershy looked about. “When did we lose him?”

“Never mind him!” Applejack raised her voice in panic. “Where’s Applebloom?! Did the changelings get her when Ah wasn’t paying attention?!”

“I shouldn't worry about her, Applejack. If I had to guess, she probably went the way of Zecora,” Pinkie Pie pointed out. “And looky here: She too disappeared. The way she was acting since we landed, I bet she’s gone after her. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Wait wait, all of you hold everything!” the younger zebra garnered everybody’s attention. “So, you were serious with what you’ve said earlier? Zecora’s here? She’s really back in Farasi?”

“You know her, miss?” Rarity asked.

“Of course, I do! She’s my little sister!”

Chapter 73: The Splits

“Wait. So, they crawled out right from under this restaurant?” Starlight Glimmer inquired.

She stared at the opening in the wall through which the changelings had come, all the while levitating the invaders whom she had trapped inside a large magical bubble after she had found them all unconscious. By now though, most of them had woken up and were making hissing and buzzing noises.

“Aye, lass,” Rockhoof confirmed. "Ah think it must’ve been fate that we were ‘ere when dat happened. Were it not for the two of us, dem nasties would’ve taken over the whole place, and none of us would’ve been the wiser.”

“What were you and Stygian doing anyway?”

“Well, after dat lil’ invasion, we decided to check where dey came from. The tunnel’s pretty long, and crawlin’ all the way to the end didn’t help. And we found dis huge tunnel dat connected to ours, and we saw many more changelings, digging more and more of it. We tried to go further to the source, to see where dey were comin’ from, but when we managed to get der our cover was blown and we had to leg it. Ah managed to buy us enough time by collapsing the tunnel so we could sneak back through our passage and blockin’ the entrance in the progress, so hopefully, dey won’t be able to follow us.”

“I wouldn’t be too hopeful, Rockhoof.” The headmare put the prison orb on the ground for a moment, and then her horn glowed, as did the inside of the tunnel, and in a flash, what was once a hole in the wall was now completely gone; no trace of dug-up dirt was present. “There. They won’t even know it ever existed.”

“Well, except for dat lot,” he pointed at the prisoners.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him, as she levitated the wall bricks back in their place and fixed up the structural damage. “I think I know what to do with them.”

“Ya should be worried more what their queen’s gonna do once she finds out dey went missing. Considering she’s ordered dem to dig that tunnel she might get suspicious.”

“That can’t be right, Rockhoof. That’s actually something that’s been bothering me. Chrysalis isn’t in Equestria anymore. As far as I know, she went to a foreign land, and Twilight and the rest went after her. She’s been gone for several days, so she couldn’t have been the one to order them to dig that huge tunnel.”

“Den who did, lass?”

The question was stuck in their heads. Starlight especially couldn’t come up with a possible suspect, knowing how loyal these changelings were to their queen and mother, but especially seeing how aggressive they were compared to the original ones. But then her eyes halted on the scrawny grey unicorn who was quiet through this whole time, seemingly in deep thought.

“You’ve hardly said anything since you came back, Stygian,” she regarded him. “Is there something on your mind?”

He slowly turned to her. “There’s… something I saw when we were in the tunnel.”

“Odd. Ah didn’t see anything,” Rockhoof said. “Ah just saw you go completely still, so much so dat yer cover fell off and Ah had to carry ya away so dat the changelings wouldn’t get ya.”

“And whatever you saw,” the headmare continued, “it gave you pause? What was it?”

“At the end of the big tunnel, I saw a large pool of green glowing water. There was this giant sinister tree growing out from the middle of it, and…” he paused before answering. “I… I’m not sure. It was like a mass of darkness, rising from the pool, and it was looking at the changelings with its icy stare.”

“Wait,” the pink unicorn made him hold the thought, “a green magical pool with a tree growing out of it, and a presence of a shadowy being?”

“You know what it is?”

“By what Twilight and others described to me. Stygian, I think what you saw was the problem that resides within the Everfree Forest. It’s called Turmoil. Or rather, a piece of it.”

The stallion thought for a moment. “Then… that’s what Miss Rarity told me about!”

“Wait, you’ve met her?”

“Yeah, by pure coincidence. I was in Croup Town when I bumped into her. She was in a hurry and didn’t have time to explain what was going on, so she sent me here.”

“Well, then I guess my words would be pointless since you’ve just seen the problem first-hand. What else did you see?”

“The changelings. The being was towering over them and looking down on them, and they moved swiftly. It didn’t speak to them, but they acted as if they were given orders: They moved swiftly and with purpose.”

“Are you suggesting, Stygian, that IT was the one that commanded them to dig the tunnel?”

“I don’t see any other possible way if Chrysalis isn’t here.”

“But that still doesn’t explain how or why. Chrysalis wouldn’t allow anycreature to command her changelings. So, what happened then?” She saw that he was about to speak but then paused as if the words that were about to be uttered refused to leave his mouth. “Stygian? What happened?”

He finally said something, but it was clear it was something else entirely. “I saw another one rise.”

“Another one?”

“Yeah. The sentient mass of darkness, just like the other one, but whereas this one was cold, that one was terrifying to look at. And when that happened, I felt as if all the air got knocked out of me and…after that, it all went blank.”

“Aye, ya did, lad. Dat’s why Ah had to pick ya up, because ya outright fainted. But truth be told, Ah couldn’t really see anything dat you did, so Ah’ll just take your word for it,” the Pillar of Strength said.

Starlight picked up the trapped changelings. “Then my guess is that what he saw was another one of Turmoil’s manifestations. Both of you were lucky you managed to get away when you did. Considering how close you were to the heart of the villain’s lair. Still, it doesn’t explain why they’re digging the tunnel.”

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Is everything okay down zhere?” a voice called out from the other side of the door after the knock on them.

“No worries, we’re done,” the headmare answered.

The cook finally opened the door and trotted downstairs. “Zhank you very much for your help, Miss Starlight.”

“Eh, I’m just the clean-up crew here. You should thank them for being in the right place at the right time.” She pointed at the two stallions. “Anyway, we’ll show ourselves out now. But if something similar happens again, come and call us in advance. Rockhoof, Stygian. Come, we’re getting out of here.” Her horn began to glow, but just as she was about to teleport them away…

“Wait!” the skinny unicorn stopped her. “If it’s all the same, I’ll go back to the castle on foot. I have… things to think about.”

She nodded. “Okay, we’ll meet you there. I’m certain Star Swirl will be delighted to see you.”

“Ah’m sure he will. Ah know Ah was.” The imposing stallion smiled.

And with a flash, they were gone.

Stygian looked then at the cook, and waved her goodbye, before hurrying up the stairs and dashing out of the restaurant. He galloped away from the town’s center, finally stopping within the settlement where there were fewer people around. Finally, away from any form of distractions, he inhaled and exhaled, so he could clear his thoughts. And yet when he tried to do that…

We sense a presence. A presence… one touched by turmoil. So much hatred.

Plagued by fear. And others…

Those words, uttered by those voices. That’s what was hanging over him. Even though he was clearly hidden from their sight, they sensed his presence… or rather, they sensed his burdens. The terrifying thing was that, before he heard that doubting voice in his head, this wasn’t an issue, but now that he was in the presence of those dreadful abominations, thoughts that he thought he had long dispelled, began bubbling up on the surface again. And he hid it from both the Pillar and the headmare. He had to. He couldn’t let them know what he was bottling up inside, not after all that’s already happened. And to make matters worse, Star Swirl was now going to know for sure that he was in town, which meant that he couldn’t just run away either. And he knew how perceptive Starlight was. What could he possibly do at this point so that his emotional state wouldn’t be pointed out in the presence of others?

As he was wandering about with preoccupied thoughts though, he was soon roused out of them by the sound of heavy hooves coming from his left side, but from whom they were coming was not what he expected. It was a young unicorn mare, the one with a curly mane whom he had seen earlier when they left the castle. She was the one making the angry stomping sounds, and for a good reason – an ice cream cone was sitting in the place where her horn was supposed to be, and the icy sweetness was dripping down her face. To say that her face was displaying anger would be an understatement. He looked in the direction from which she came. There was an ice cream stand close by, and there he saw the other two who were with her earlier – the small-winged pegasus mare and the stag, the latter having a horrified look on his face.

“Bramble, are you gonna be okay?” she asked him.

After a prolonged pause, he dragged his hooves away from her. “I… I need to be alone right now…”

The unicorn watched the deer walking away from the stand, while the pegasus ran after the unicorn. Stygian noticed that he wasn’t going to any other part of town, but out of it. He watched him closely and soon realized that he was going in the direction of the Everfree Forest. And then he saw it, looking in the distance above it, was a dark cloud that was casting a sinister shadow below. That was likely where this “Turmoil” resided. Then, he suddenly remembered the conversation he overheard from the young mares – this was a prince from another kingdom… and they just let him wander off on his own into the worst possible place! He had to interfere!

“Hey wait!” he called out, running in his direction.

The despondent young stag raised his head in notice.

“Wait, you’re Zecora’s older sister?!” Pinkie Pie reacted in shock after the revelation from the zebra with a droopy frizzy mohawk, before returning to normal. “Oh yeah, she did mention she had one.”

“Is that so?” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised she even remembered that I existed.”

“Then I’m more than happy to confirm that it’s true,” Twilight answered with a smile.

Before she could speak further though, the black dirt-caked abada rushed to her and grabbed her with his hooves, shaking her in excitement. “So, it’s true?! Zecora really has come home?!”

“You know her too?” Applejack wondered.

“Of course I do! She’s my best friend in the world! She’s the only one that doesn’t call me by my nickname!” the stallion said excitedly.

“Dust Bowl…” an angry tone suddenly escaped the zebra next to him.

He came to realize that she was glaring at him for that slight. “Sorry. I meant to say one of the few who don’t call me by nickname.”

“Get in line, Imari. I’m the one doing the questioning here.” The abada let go of the alicorn and stepped to the side, while she came to face her. “So, it’s true that Zecora’s come home then? Good, because I would like to share a few words with her.”

“It’s perfectly understandable, miss,” Rarity agreed. “I know full well what it’s like to not see your little sibling in a long time…”

“You misunderstood,” Sanaa interrupted her. “I do not want to see her again so I can express my affection towards her. I want to see her so I can chew her out, and tell her how much I hate her for what she’s done to our tribe!”

The Elements just stood there, agape, unable to believe what they just heard.

“Oooooooooookay, this went from one to eleven quickly,” Autumn Blaze leaned to the side and whispered to Rainbow Dash.

“That’s horrible! She’s your sister!” Fluttershy responded. “Zecora’s just returned home after so many moons to help protect her home, and you would want to spite her? Why?”

A loud sound of multiple screeching creatures erupted in the jungle behind them, followed by the wrath and fury of their queen.

“That will have to wait,” Zeg’us answered to its notice. “You’ve heard what King Amun said, Sanaa. We have to get to Carthage and warn the kelpie queen.”

“HOLD ON!” the workhorse immediately protested. “What about Applebloom?! She could be anywhere and in danger!”

“Don’t worry, Applejack,” the party planner calmed her. “I think we can take an easy guess that she went after Zecora, that would explain why they both disappeared. You can trust that she’ll take good care of her wherever she goes.”

The Element of Honesty gave her a concerned look, but it mellowed down after a while. “Okay… I’ll trust Zecora. She’s never failed us before.”

A snorting noise followed as if somebody present was doubting that idea. It didn’t take long to figure out it was the younger of the two zebras.

“Lead the way,” the elder one prompted.

“Right, grandma.” She nodded, then turned back to the mud-caked abada. “Imari, go back and warn the rest of your tribe about what’s happening. Your king’s gonna need all the help he can get.”

“Wait, what about-” he protested for a moment.

“Zecora’s not here, as you’ve just heard. Now stop standing about and move, quickly!” At her command, the local dashed back into the overgrowth, disappearing out of sight within seconds, after which she then turned to the rest and nodded to follow her.

They galloped across the fertile fields that stood on the edges of the dense jungle area, traveling further northwest. Unlike earlier, however, the sun was slowly beginning to touch the horizon, and by now they’ve only just started to notice that the dirt under their hooves was beginning to disappear.

“Hold up!” Spike called up.

Riding on the back of his sibling, they stopped close to the guide. It became apparent that the rest of the group was lagging and for several good reasons.

Pinkie Pie’s puffy mane was beginning to sag, as she carried Zeg’us on her back after being handed to her by the shy pegasus, as the elderly mare had to be exchanged between each of the council members so that she could keep up with the rest. “Excuse me…” she breathed deeply, before tossing the passenger on the back of the blue pegasus, whose legs had nearly given out from under her, “but how long before we get to where we’re going?”

“The kelpie’s domain is still a few hours away,” the leading zebra answered. “We won’t reach it by the time the sun sets.”

“Great…” Rainbow Dash dragged her hooves to the rest. “Can we finally have some well-deserved rest then? We’ve been running non-stop for the past twelve hours…”

“Of course not. We’ve still got a good hour or so before the sun sets, so we’re continuing until then.”

“Pardon my language, miss, but: You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rarity erupted, the tone of frustration noticeable in her voice. “We’ve been in near constant gallop since this morning, and we’ve not rested for more than an hour!”

“And I supervise all the fields beneath Mount Chinjaio. From down till dusk. Every. Day. You’ve no excuse saying you’re exhausted when I basically do more work than anybody else here besides the King.”

The elder zebra slid off the wonderbolt’s back. “Now Sanaa, not everybody’s a workaholic workhorse like you.” She turned to the rest. “Do forgive her. She’s always had an obsession with completing her tasks to the maximum. Has ever since she was a wee filly.”

“Grandma! Don’t talk about me as if I’m an infant and not present!”

“Be that as it may, Sanaa, we’re close to the dunes. Once the sun sets, the cold’s going to fall on the desert, and we’ve nothing to keep us warm. If we have to continue, at least let them have some respite.”

“What are you suggesting, Grandma Zeg’us? That we just sit down here and watch how the abadas are fighting against monsters until we fall asleep?”

“I think King Amun has everything under control. Don’t take him and his Wingardians lightly.”

There was a sudden flash of light. It came from the opposite direction of where the sun was… where the battle was taking place. They saw a big part of the jungle suddenly being on fire when there was none before.

The field manager stared at the scene in shock. “What the… I didn’t know those monsters had fire powers too!”

“They don’t,” Twilight gazed in horror. “But I know who does.”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh…” Tirek groaned loudly.

Hours had passed since Grogar had opened a portal that allowed the changeling queen to proceed with her undercover operation. He watched all of it unfold, as he stared into the eye of his arimaspi, showing him the image of a person which he was following, and most of it was spent running through the desert. And at this point, the centaur had gotten bored.

“Is there really nothing going on?” he questioned the old ram.

“Nothing that would be of concern,” he answered.

He groaned again. “It’s been hours! I can’t believe that that bug hasn’t done anything yet. Meanwhile, I’m here wasting time, when I could actually be doing something!” He slouched against the railing of the airship, and gazed into the distance, at the lightning dome-covered city, as its owner, a giant living cloud face, rained beams of lightning at the buildings beneath him, and every now and then, a small figure leaped at it, leaving a light streak behind, failing to catch him, all the while he could hear smaller battles on the streets. “Look them all, having so much fun. The sound of steel clashing, the war cries, the displays of great power… It’s making me feel… GIDDY.” His hooves started to jitter, making the ship’s deck squeak and boom as the metal and wood trembled, making a noticeable noise.

“Knocking it off, boy,” Grogar scolded him. “You’re disturbing my concentration.”

“Fine, I’ll do that.” The Pillar of Anger grabbed hold of the ship’s railing. “I’m going down there, so I can pass some time-”

“Don’t even think about it!” a voice halted him, one that belonged to the weaselly shape that flew to the front of his face. “You’re going to stick to the plan, Devourer. The Scourgelord can handle things by himself. You’ll be of no use if you end up tiring yourself out by the time the last kingdom is reached.”

“I’ve been waiting all day, Doubt! The sun’s about to go down and it’ll be dark soon. For all we know, Chrysalis’ group will stop for the night. What am I supposed to do?!”

Conserve your anger… Harness the rage… You’ll have outlet for your frustration, soon enough…

That voice, that whisper. It garnered his attention for a moment, knowing it came from the small bag that hung around his neck.

“Anger has spoken, Devourer. Do as you are told.” And the vaporous form flew away.

Once again, Tirek groaned with boredom. “Fine. Then I’m taking an early snooze… even with the racket below. Wake me up at the crack of dawn.” And as he lay down, the fiery hair on his head, face, and tail slowly died down as if somebody had turned down the gas on the cooker, but…

“I fear your nap will have to wait, boy. You’ll have to spring into action,” the grizzled ram announced.

At the drop of a hat, the flame on him instantly rose again, and he jumped back on his hooves. “It’s time then? They’re at the last kingdom now? Took them long enough.”

“No,” he corrected him. “The Queen of Changelings has arrived at her destination and is putting up a fight against the locals as we speak.”

“Wait, why did you wake me up then?”

“You’ll have to go ahead of her.”

“Go ahead of… Hold on! What’s that supposed to mean?” the centaur inquired. “You’re telling me I’m to go off before those ponies get to their destination?”

“Yes,” he bluntly stated.

“We already have the plan set up, Shaper,” Doubt protested as it slithered to him. “We’re not deviating from it.”

“Plans never survive contact with the enemy. And in this case, we’ll have to change it.”

It glared at him. “Why?”

He glanced at the shadowy form. “Because I can only keep an eye on one event at a time.”

Some time passed before another word was spoken. “And this… event, is far more important than what’s happening at the moment?” Much to Doubt’s surprise, the sorcerer nodded. “So, what exactly are you suggesting then?”

“The boy is bored. Have him hunt his prey to pass the time. The final result will ultimately be the same, even if the element of surprise is gone.”

The vapor looked at Tirek, and then to the neighboring airship where the nirik waited. “Very well. We’re doing it.”

“What?! Why are you siding with him?!” the centaur erupted in anger, his flaming features glowing brightly.

“You’ve heard him, Devourer. You said you wanted to pass the time, here’s your chance.”

Tirek rolled his eyes. He didn’t expect that his frustration would come to bite him in the rear end. Even so, it was better than waiting here and doing nothing. He turned in the direction of the ship that hosted his army, then charged and lept over the edge, landing on the deck of the said vessel. He then turned and waved back.

“Open the way, Shaper,” Doubt ordered.

The ram’s horns began to glow in dark light, and soon after, a portal opened on the airship where Tirek and his army awaited. From their position they could hear his yell, commanding his anger-controlled masses to march through. By the time the last nirik disappeared, the centaur himself marched through, and after that, the portal shut closed.

“Now explain yourself, Shaper,” the weaselly vapor regarded the ram who still sat in front of his pet, staring into its eye. “It’s clear that the Devourer was a thorn in your side and you wanted to see him gone. But who exactly did you think was worth your time more than the very beings that could ruin our plans?”

“The ponies will reach their destination regardless; even if we’re trying to prevent the kingdoms from interfering we’re only delaying the inevitable. However…” He chuckled, and the physical manifestation of Doubt joined his side to check what he was looking at. “There is one who already knows where, what we are looking for, is, and she’s decided to go her separate way. She will lead us to our goal. You know of whom I speak, don’t you? After all, you saw her torment.”

The grizzled ram glanced to the side, and he noticed what resembled a grin forming upon the vapor’s limited expressions. The Eye of Arimaspi depicted the image of Equestria’s local zebra, frantically galloping.

As Tirek finally exited the portal, he wasn’t expecting at all that he was entering a battlefield. Changelings were flying all over the place, being flung about by the blurry shapes that he couldn’t clearly see. And even their leader was struggling to catch up with her target, that much was certain.

“Well, well, well… Having a hard time, Chrysalis?” he gave a snide remark.

She finally noticed him. “Tirek?! What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, nothing. I just figured I’d come and see how you’re doing, to see if you could use a helping hand,” he mused in a taunting tone.

“SHUT UP! I didn’t call for help! I don’t need you, nor your heckling-!” And just as she said that she got knocked out of the air, managing to stabilize herself at the last moment.

“Yes, I see. Anyway, I got sent to catch up to those trotters. Any idea where they went?”

“Hello?! I’m in the middle of something here and you expect me to keep an eye on them as well?! They disappeared into the jungle! You go and find them yourself!” A sudden breeze brushed past her and she quickly dodged it.

The Pillar of Anger rolled his eyes; if she refused to be helpful, he would have to do things on his own. “All of you, wait here,” he ordered to the nirik army.

He lept in the air at a nearby tree, reaching about halfway of it, and then began climbing it, imbedding his claws into the wood to help his ascension, until he finally got above the canopy. Over it, he could finally see the lay of the land, as the dense jungle sat between what looked like a dormant volcano and a mountain ridge, and miles upon miles of fields, which eventually turned to sandy dunes on the edge of the horizon. Even so, he couldn’t see where his targets could’ve possibly gone, and the sun was going to set soon - he had no choice but to improvise. He hooked his legs on the branches so he could have free use of his hands, and on each of them, he connected his thumb and index fingers, then proceeded to channel his magic to, create tiny fields that filled the circular gap in the formation. He then put one hand before the other until the fields aligned and then looked through them, allowing him to see in the distance, as if through a spyglass. He slowly turned around, trying to spot where the ponies could’ve possibly gone, going as far as the north by the volcano’s edge, slowly trailing to the left in the direction of the mountain ridge. He spotted a lone black and white shape running up north; there was no way that was any one of them. But as he moved further...

“AHA!” he reacted, as he suddenly noticed multiple figures moving in the direction of the setting sun, two of which seemed local, but the rest seemed just too colorful.

KRAAAK!

The tree suddenly shook and the centaur felt it! Something below was doing something to it, and he was too late to sense that it began to bend backward – the tree was falling, and he, with it.

THUUUUUD!

He crashed on the ground, and it fell on top of him, the only saving grace being that the top part of the wood wasn’t as thick as the bottom of it. Even so, it hurt. After twisting and turning, making sure that all of his bones were still in place, he suddenly noticed a lanky, long-faced, horned, equine-like being with a shoulder-long cloak made of feathers.

“You…” He glared at it. “You did this!”

He swiped at it, but the creature managed to dodge his attack. He got back on his feet and charged at it, but regardless of how much he tried to hit it, it evaded his every move. And the longer it took, the more frustrated he got, his flaming hair becoming brighter, until…

“ENOUGH!” and in a howling roar, the centaur breathed fire at the creature, and inferno so big that the jungle caught fire.

“Hey!” a familiar fury-like voice reacted. “I said I didn’t need your help! Go off already!”

“SHUT UP!” he roared. “I’m going to burn this whole place down-!”

No… You will not…

Tirek froze in place – he knew where that restrained voice was coming from, but he could feel its heat rising.

Stop wasting time… After them…

He didn’t want to just let it go like this, but he had to. At least he knew now where the ponies had gone. He noticed the creature that he attacked earlier close by, unscathed by his attack, but the horror was visible on its face.

All he did was sneer at it, before turning to his army. “Alright, all of you! With me!” and he galloped away, the nirik following him.

Despite barely participating in the fight, a momentary intervention from the centaur lord had greatly turned the tide of battle in the changeling’s favor. With the forest on fire, the locals from the surrounding houses began to panic and rushed to the site in an attempt to stop the fire from spreading, only to be ambushed by the alien-like terrors. Now, King Amun’s and his guard’s focus on the battle was completely broken, forcing him to dash between the trees to protect their people as they were attacked.

“You know what… Maybe I can work with this.” She smiled malevolently.

“Tirek’s here…” Twilight told them.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Spike complained.

“Ah hate to be that mare, but Ah don’t think that the king can handle both of them at the same time,” the workhorse gave the two zebras a concerned look.

“Twilight, I think we’ll have to go back and kick their rear ends,” Pinkie Pie suggested.

“I don’t think that’s an option, Pinkie,” the alicorn shut her down. “If what Autumn Blaze told us is true, then Tirek’s got one of Turmoil’s fragments with him - that’s how he’s controlling the kirin to serve him. And if our experience is anything to go on, there’s no way we can even hold a candle up against Tirek if he has it in his possession.”

“What are we supposed to do then, Twilight?” the fashionista asked. “Just let things play out?”

She didn’t answer immediately, turning her gaze away from the fire in the distance, and to the zebras. “If we’re lucky, he’ll come after us instead of staying behind. And if that’s the case, Madam Zeg’us, I fear we’ll have to continue the track to kelpie kingdom to make sure he doesn’t catch up to us.”

Some time passed, as the two still looked into the distance at the inferno that had just erupted. “If that’s the case,” the elder spoke at last, then turning to the younger one, “Sanaa, lead the way.”

She finally stirred, looking at her for a moment, and then dashed off, the rest of the mares following her, but not before the pink pony scooped up the old zebra and plopped it on the white unicorn’s back. “Your turn, Rarity!”

Her legs buckled from being unprepared for the load being dropped on top of her. “Agh! Pinkie, a forewarning would’ve been nice!”

They rushed off, but the shy pegasus slowed down once she realized somebody was not following. The lone kirin still sat, her back turned, facing the direction of the fire.

“Autumn Blaze?” she tried to get her attention.

There was a tone of grim certainty in her voice. “They’re with him, aren’t they…?”

Fluttershy placed her hoof on her shoulder. “I’m certain they are. But we can’t face them by ourselves. We have to go.”

She still sat for a bit longer, then finally got back on her feet and followed the animal caretaker, both of them galloping to catch up with the rest.

A lone zebra had been running for hours through the desert, the sand under her hooves not deterring her. She knew the path, she’d crossed it so many times in the past, and even after all these years, it hadn’t changed. The same went for the tall dune that she always had to ascend and descend – that was probably the hardest part of her journey so far, but it was nothing compared to what she would have to face if she stayed behind with ponies. She didn’t want to leave them, but meeting her family this early, especially the one she knew could bite… she just wasn’t ready for it yet. Once she reached the top of the sandy hill, she quickly descended to a nearby familiar rock, where she could take shelter, as at this point, twilight had already fallen. Even if she tried to cross the desert during the cold night, she was too exhausted after the day-long gallop – she needed to rest. She reached into her saddlebags, pulled out some firewood and kindling, and started a fire. The moment the light came on she let out a sigh of relief... only for it to turn into a yep of a shock when she suddenly noticed a young mare standing on the other side of it.

“I barely managed to keep up with you, Zecora…” Applebloom panted.

Chapter 74: A Respite for Some

KRAKOOOM!!!

Thunder echoed above the city of Musa as the Storm King’s massive cloud-shaped head zoomed about and rained lightning down upon the populace beneath him, striking at anything that moved. His storm guards were unaffected since they were clad in magic-resistant armor, but the same could not be said for the local populace and their city’s defenders, who ironically were also named the same as the satyr warriors, yet were lacking their protection. But there was one saving grace on their side: Their king, Abraxas. Empowered by lightning, he zapped through the city at ludicrous speed, intercepting each and every strike that the Pillar of Fear had rained down from above, dispelling it. That, however, was all he could do. His whole city was covered by a lightning field, which prevented the populace from escaping, as well as leaving him open to vulnerability if he tried to break through it to reach for the animated cloud above. With the entirety of the city’s productivity being shut down, the thick smoke that once covered the sky cleared, leaving the sun to be the sole provider of the light source throughout the day, even with the living cloud obscuring it.

But as the day started to come to a close and the last rays of light peeked over the mountain range that bordered the western side of the valley in which the city stood, it became clear that the night was about to fall. Not that the satyr king cared; whether in day or night, he had no intention of stopping, or rather, he had no reason to stop. The battle had been going on for hours now, and yet he felt no fatigue whatsoever, not surprising since he was literally a consciousness living inside a rock, which meant physical exhaustion was non-existent for him, and so was the risk of him running out of power. He had become a deity in every possible way, whatever would burden the lesser races below him, he was immune. The fact that his soldiers were one of them, escaped him, however. As he was flying about, he began to take notice that his storm guards were beginning to retreat through the portals, even though no order was given.

“HEY!” his voice boomed. “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING? GET BACK IN HERE RIGHT NOW!”

“They can’t, Your Omnipotence!”

That known voice was coming from his airships, and it was echoing. And that’s where he saw his satyrs exiting through the portals and collapsing on the decks, all the while, at the very front of the flagship, a pintsized creature stood, holding a megaphone in his hands.

The cloud flew to meet him face to face, its mouth opening, revealing the controller inside. “Guppy, what’s the meaning of this? I didn’t give permission to retreat.”

“With very great respect, Your Great Thunderness, the soldiers are exhausted,” the hedgehog defended. “They’ve been fighting all day and they’re tired.”

“I’ve been doing my part the whole day as well, and I’m not one bit tired! Don’t make excuses on their behalf!”

“But Your Unparallelance, you wield great power beyond the comprehension of any of us, and they’re… well, don’t. They’re small and feeble compared to you. And…” He paused as if he was thinking for a moment. “And they’re not the only ones. Even if they rest, our enemies below will have to rest as well. Don’t you think that things weigh out in our favor one way or another?”

The second-in-command waited nervously for his superior’s response, hoping that he had said things in a way as to not insult him in any way.

“Well… I supposed that’s true,” the animated statue finally answered in a calm tone. “Fine, they’re free to rest. But at the crack of dawn they’re going down there again, is that clear?”

“Yes, yes, of course, sir!” he eagerly nodded.

The mouth of the giant cloud closed, and the satyr lord’s voice became booming again. “IN THE MEANTIME, ENJOY THE EVENING PERFORMANCE.”

He cackled and flew back above the city, where the mouth opened again to enhance the vocalization before the Storm King used his magically enhanced hand to summon forth an electric guitar made from lighting tendrils. He ran his hand across the strings, generating an electrifying sound. Before he could continue though, a sudden bright flash caught the corner of his eye, and he noticed that the decks were covered in a dome of dark light.

“Hey! What’s the big idea?! You can’t just drop out of my concert like that! It’s gonna be at least eight hours before the dawn comes!” he complained.

Then another bright flash caught his attention, and this one was coming from below, continuously sparking, as King Abraxas was charging against the electric barrier.

“Oh no you don’t!” he immediately knew what his enemy was trying to do, and he had no intention of letting him break through the barrier he erected to keep the natives trapped. “Stay inside the thunder dome!”

“Phew…” the hedgehog sighed in relief. “Thanks for that, Mister Grogar.”

The sheep in question still sat in front of his arimaspi and gazing into his eye. “Grogar is enough, Grubber. And it’s no bother.”

“But even so, I speak for all of us when I say we appreciate you sparing us from listening to the “concert”. His Majesty’s been running us ragged the whole way here, and we could really use a break.” And the satyrs surrounding him nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I’m all too familiar with the construct’s… tendencies. That’s why I decided to erect the barrier in the first place just so I could have some peace. Now then, if you and your fellows are planning to rest, feel free to do so. But do not disturb my concentration.”

“You’ve heard him, guys! Lights out!” He then stared, as the soldiers looked at one another in confusion. “I meant “you can go to sleep”, not literally turning them off… since we can’t.”

In a matter of moments, the satyrs dropped their weapons and immediately fell to the ground, and soon enough snoring sound began to cover all of the airships.

“You’re being surprisingly supportive of them, Shaper,” the green-eyed shadow slithered around him. “Is there a reason?”

“It pays off to be on the good side of servants, especially the mistreated ones. They tend to be more… persuasive if you decide to throw them a bone every now and then.”

“And you’re not bothered by the noise that they’re making?”

The ram wasn’t bothered by it, the racket that they were making was tolerable compared to what their leader was doing, and he managed to block it off. After listening to the sound of battle throughout the day he needed that concentration to make sure that the target that he was now observing through the arimaspi’s eye didn’t get away from him.

Night had already fallen upon the desert by now. There was no moon in the sky that would light the dark, only the stars shimmered in the distance. It was a good thing because certain individuals were desperately trying to ensure they weren’t being followed. But some of the group was lagging.

FUP!

The white unicorn flopped on her belly on the sand under her, weighed down by an elder zebra mare that she had carried. “Twilight… darling,” she gasped for air, “I think we’ve made enough… distance… Can… can we rest… please?”

“Yeah, Ah’m with Rarity, Twi,” Applejack agreed. “Ah don’t think anycreature will be able to follow us in the middle of the night. Ah mean, if it were Chrysalis Ah’d have reasons to be concerned, but with Tirek, Ah think we can take five…”

Twilight halted, turning to the younger zebra who she was following the entire time. “Sanaa, how long before we reach the kelpie kingdom?”

“If I’m right, we should be reaching first waterways as soon as the sun rises beyond the horizon.”

“Waterways?”

“The kelpie kingdom is actually huge, princess. It’s the largest of the three kingdoms of Farasi, and it has to be because it’s home to other beings of the land who do not have their own. The capital of Carthage stands in the middle of the lake that borders the sea to the far western shores. So, let’s hope we’re lucky enough that one of Queen Watami’s offspring will be able to take us there.”

A snort followed, coming from the pink puffy pony. “Queen Water-me? That’s a funny name.”

“Pinkie! Show some respect!” the alicorn scolded her.

“It’s fine, princess. She’s not the first to make that observation,” the zebra calmed her.

“In any case,” the eldest in the group approached them, “I think our newcomers have earned their rest, Sanaa.”

“Agreed. Feel free to tell your friends to rest,” she gave the pony the permission.

The alicorn walked back a bit and waited for the rest of the group to come together. As she counted them, she noticed that not all were present. The kirin was the absent one, and she was sitting atop the small sandy hill, facing in the direction from which they had come.

She approached her. “Autumn Blaze, what’s wrong?”

Meanwhile, the group had come together by now, and even though they would finally get to rest, another problem arose.

“W-w-w-what the hay is up with this c-c-c-c-cold…?” Rainbow Dash shivered, and she wasn’t the only one displaying it.

“During the day, blistering heat beats down on the desert, but because sand can’t absorb it when night falls, all that daily heat disappears,” Zeg’us answered. “One would think that you girls have never been in the desert before.”

“N-n-n-n-not during n-n-n-n-n-n-night…” Fluttershy jittered.

“Well, doesn’t matter now anyway.” The field manager joined them. “Seeing as we had little choice we’re stuck here now. No cover from the elements or heat source to ward off this cold.” She shivered a little.

“No heat source? I think you’re forgetting something,” Spike proudly directed the attention to himself. “I’m a dragon.”

Sanaa gave him a confused look. “And that means…?”

“Oh… you guys don’t have dragons here, do you?” Spike’s ears dropped in mild disappointment. “Okay, dragons one-oh-one: We can breathe fire. That should be enough.”

“I see. And you can breathe through the entire night then?”

And once again his ears flopped. “Well… when you put it like that… no.”

“Hey, no biggie, Spike,” the workhorse tried to cheer him up. “Even if ya can’t blow it all night, remember, we’ve got a perpetual heat source with us.”

“We do?”

She pointed to the alicorn and the kirin who were standing on the nearby sandy hill, looking away. “Autumn Blaze can transform into a nirik and keep the fire going for us throughout the night.”

“Good thinking, Applejack!” the animal caretaker praised her. “We just need to wait for her and Twilight to come back and we’ll be fine."

“W-w-w-w-well, I won’t be f-f-f-f-f-fine!” the wonderbolt uttered between her clattering teeth. “I need something warm, like, right now!”

The dragon rolled his eyes. “Alright alright, I guess I can keep the fire going for just a little. Everypony stand back!”

The equines cleared away in front of him. The dragon took in a deep breath and prepared himself to push the built-up heat that was congregating in his throat. And then, just as he was about to, his mouth was closed shut by a pair of purple hooves.

“Spike, don’t!” his older sister cried out.

She zapped to their side so fast they didn’t even get a chance to react, but the one most prone to complaining responded first. “Twilight, what the hay?! We’re freezing over here!”

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but we can’t do that,” she answered.

“No problem, Twilight. If Spikey-wikey’s fire’s too dangerous to use as a heat source, I’m sure Autumn Blaze can provide an alternative,” Rarity suggested.

“No!” she denied. “Not her either. No lights whatsoever! Do you understand?”

“What? Why?”

“It’s best you all come and see.” She motioned to follow.

They all did, and they noticed that the kirin had not moved from her spot atop the sandy hill where they were now going. Once they came to the top, they spotted a light source in the far distance – that was undoubtedly the abada village, and it seemed that they still hadn’t managed to douse the fire. But then they noticed the second light source, one that was far closer to them… and it was red and blue at the same time.

“What’s that weird colored fire?” Sanaa inquired as she stood by their side.

“He’s following us,” Twilight answered. “Tirek's has been one our tails this whole time, along with his army. He’s looking for us.”

Spike quickly realized it. “You mean… if we turned on the lights in any way…”

“We’d be found, Spikey-wikey,” Rarity finished.

“Exactly.” The alicorn descended the hill again. “And for that reason, we cannot light any fire or create any sort of light source whatsoever.”

“You. Have got. To be. Kidding me.” The blue pegasus immediately made her displeasure known.

“I’m with Dashy on this one!” Pinkie joined.

As did the fashionista. “I agree, Twilight. We’ve no blankets or covers. There’s no way for us to ward off the cold. And now we can’t even have a heat source.”

“In other words,” the wonderbolt resumed, “how the hay are we then supposed to survive the night?! We’re all gonna freeze!”

The princess stopped and sat down, and they could tell she was also shivering. “Gather around, everypony.”

They heeded her request and came to her side.

“Come closer,” she said when they were a few hooves away, and they approached. “A bit more.” And they moved to a leg length. “There’s only one thing we can do now: We huddle together.”

“’Scuse me?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

“True, we don’t have anything that could provide heat, except for our own bodies. So, I’m suggesting we get together and share warmth with one another for the night.”

“No offense, Twi, but are we really that desperate?” the orange earth pony asked.

“If you have got a better idea, Applejack, please, be my guest - share,” an annoyed voice spoke, as the draconequus climbed out of his shelter.

“WHAT IS THAT THING?!”

They all got taken by surprise by the loud yell that came from the curly-maned zebra, who pointed at the former Lord of Chaos as he cowered behind his carrier’s mane.

“That’s Discord, he’s our friend,” the animal caretaker explained.

“It’s not a serpent, is it?” she inquired.

“A serpent?” Discord raised his eyebrow, before laying on his back and wiggling his toes. “Do serpents have legs maybe?”

“Oh… Sorry. I just have bad experiences with serpents,” the zebra apologized.

He attached himself to the side of the shy pegasus’ face. “Anyway, while you lot are figuring out some other way to warm yourselves, in the meantime, I’ll make sure that sweet little Fluttershy is kept nice and warm during the long night.” She smiled, held him with her hooves, and snuggled him.

Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash made a gagging expression in response.

“You know what? So will I!” The little dragon proudly waddled over to his pony sibling and nestled himself between her hooves, and she quickly wrapped him in an embrace. “Come on, Rarity. There’s room for one more,” he offered.

“Oh, well aren’t you a gentleman,” she smiled and pressed herself against him, close to the alicorn.

“If this is how we’re going to survive the night, then scoot over a bit, young lady,” the elder zebra ordered. “Elders first.” And she sat down next to the fashionista.

Soon enough, the rest joined in, with Pinkie Pie leaping at them, her puffy pink mane acting as an added protection against the cold for whoever was going to sit by her side. At that point, Fluttershy and Discord pressed against them, and without uttering a word, so did the younger zebra. In the end, only the wonderbolt and the workhorse were left.

“This is gonna feel awkward…” the orange pony said.

“Yeah… But if I don’t end up freezing, that’s good enough for me,” added the blue one.

They finally joined the rest of the group, with both of them sitting on each side of the local field manager. The temperature dropped considerably by now, and the cold was unrelenting, yet surprisingly, for the most part, the method seemed to have worked, as the ones closer to the center were warm enough, while those on the other rim only managed to fend off the cold partially, some of them beginning to regret on not acting sooner.

“So,” Applejack broke the long silence, “how about you tell us the story, Miss Sanaa?”

The curly-mane zebra gave her a confused look. “Story? Does your kind need a bedtime story so they can go to sleep?”

“Emmm, rude much?” Rainbow Dash quickly responded. “She was talking about what you said earlier when we mentioned Zecora.”

“I agree,” Rarity joined in, “I thought you said she was your little sister, one you’ve not seen for several moons. How can you hate her?”

She scoffed. “I don’t expect you to understand that selfish kid.”

“Selfish?” Fluttershy expressed her shock. “Zecora’s the kindest zebra I’ve ever known. She’s selfless, always willing to help everypony else, and never wanting for anything in return. She’s helped us so many times!”

“Well, technically she’s also the ONLY zebra we’ve known up until now,” Discord commented as he curled around her neck.

“Discord, you’re not helping,” Spike glared at him.

“But seriously, Sanaa, why do you hold a grudge against Zecora?” the princess wondered.

The field manager sighed. “She’s never told you what she did, did she?”

“Well, to make a long story short,” Pinkie Pie unloaded her knowledge, “she told us she accidentally released an ancient evil from its prison and then ran away out of guilt, and that’s how she’s got to Equestria in the first place.”

“And now, her time has come,” the elder zebra added. “She’s returned to finally live up to her mark.”

The younger one though, scoffed. “Sure, make it all rainbows and sunshine. Who cares about hundreds upon hundreds of days of turmoil that our tribe had to suffer because of it.”

“So, what happened?” the workhorse asked.

“All our troubles began the day when all our harvest was devoured by some sort of pestilence that was alien to our homeland. I asked some time later in the city of Musa about it, and it was revealed that it was brought here from a foreign land, by one of your kind no less.”

“Is she talking about Seasaddle?” the wonderbolt whispered to the alicorn.

“He was the ONLY pony to have ever come to Farasi, Rainbow Dash. And if I’m to guess, the pestilence she’s talking about may have been a parasprite.”

“Ouch, that’s harsh.”

“Excuse me, will you let me finish?” Sanaa waited for the silence to be noticeable before she resumed. “Anyway, the seeds for the future crops survived, but we were low on water, so much so much so that we couldn’t even mount an expedition to get more. And so, famine struck our tribe, all we could do was sustain ourselves on what little was left, and hope that my father’s pleas to the spirits of the land were heard. And then, one day, it finally happened: Rain was falling. I thought our struggle had finally ended, but instead, it only got worse. Not only did the crops not grow, but the atmosphere became downright unbearable in our village. Doom and gloom, that’s how it could be described. Then one day Father didn’t come home, which wasn’t unusual considering the circumstances. But soon after that… Zecora disappeared as well. When she vanished without a trace we searched the whole village and its surroundings, and we couldn’t find her. Nobody knew where she went, but I had my suspicions. I knew how attached she was to our father, so I went to the only place I could think of, even though we’d all been told not to go there except for the High Shaman. And considering the state that the whole village was in any way, it’s not like I was going to be stopped. I went to the forbidden oasis, where the giant dead baobab tree towered. I searched everywhere, calling out for her, until I finally reached the base of the tree and found a large open stone doorway, judging by the wines that covered them, it was clear somebody had cut them recently. And inside… I saw it.”

“What did you see?” the shy pegasus asked.

“My father, trapped inside a magic bubble, surrounded by a large watery serpent…”

“That would explain the fear of serpents…” the party planner whispered to the fashionista.

The Elements of Harmony listened, and up to this point, the story pretty much matched with what they were told back on the airship. But that was going to change soon.

“I asked it what was going on, why was it holding my father trapped inside. And it told me that it was being trapped by him. For generations, it was locked away in that place… until SHE released it.” There was a tone of anger in her voice now. “My father had to sacrifice himself to fix HER mistake. And the serpent told me that, when she finally came here again and saw what had happened, it told her that the only way she could undo what was done, was by taking his place. AND SHE REFUSED! THE BRATTY KID TOOK HIS STUFF AND RAN AWAY!”

“Whoa, hold on!” Applejack stopped her. “Are you blaming your sister that she didn’t choose to sacrifice herself for her pops? Because from what Ah understand she was no older than my little sister is, so what makes you think that she’d be able to do what her parent was?”

“Because it was her destiny,” everybody’s attention was grabbed by the elder mare who hardly said anything up until now. “But it was not her time yet.”

“Stop making excuses for her, Grandma Zeg’us!” the younger one yelled. “After that, I went back to the village and told everybody what I saw and heard. Mom already wasn’t taking it too well because of dad’s absence, and this news certainly didn’t improve the mood. The same was true for the rest of the tribe when they heard the news. And as the days passed, others couldn’t take it anymore and decided to leave the village. I mean, after all: If the High Shaman’s own child ran away in despair, what hope was there for them? They took what little food and water they had and left for Mount Chinjaio, since it was the nearest habitable place. And so, little by little our village became deserted, until even I couldn’t take it anymore and left. After that arduous journey, my tribe spread across the tree kingdoms, never to be reunited again…”

Now it all began making sense to them. It didn’t seem like a big deal when they were in the city of Musa and they saw zebras that were distinct from one another, but after seeing them in the jungle area it became noticeable. The two kingdoms of Farasi they’ve been to so far, while having distinct cultures, housed those that resembled their local zebra. And if what they’ve just been told was true, it meant that the third kingdom was also housing them.

“So, they all just left? Your village is just abandoned now?” Fluttershy wondered.

“No,” the single word from the elder once again garnered everybody’s attention. “One… chose to stay behind.”

“When it became apparent that we wouldn’t be staying for much longer, I gave the order for the complete exodus. But mom…” the younger one elaborated, but now they could sense a tone of sorrow in her words. “She loved dad, she was devoted to him unconditionally. And even if he was now trapped inside the magic barrier that he erected to keep the darkness at bay, she wouldn’t part with him, even if the rest of the tribe left. I tried to convince her but…” She paused for a moment. “And she’s been there ever since, willingly subjugating herself to living in the land plagued by despair... alone. I visit every now and then to show her she’s not been forgotten, and that she doesn’t feel lonely. And yet…” The rest could hear a sniffling sound. “What I wish most, is to bring her suffering to an end… None of this needed to happen…”

“And yet it did, sadly,” Zeg’us said. “But in the end, it’s all come full circle now. Whether we like it or not, events have progressed to this moment, so that now we may have a chance to remove the plague of despair for good.”

“Yeah, that’s why we came!” Twilight agreed. “We’ll do whatever we can to remove Despair from the land before Queen Chrysalis and others have a chance to get to it. And once your land is clear of it, your tribe will have a chance to come back together again and-”

“No it won’t,” the storyteller shot her down immediately. “Our tribe had scattered a long time ago. We had to leave the only home we’ve had, and some of the villagers have never gone outside of it even once in their lives. We had to get used to living in places that weren’t our own and intermingle with the locals. And now, an entire generation had passed, with those who had never once even thought about nor cared of the place where we’ve come from, ignorant of our roots and the purpose behind which our tribe’s existence stood. And even if by some miracle that wasn’t the case, the endless suffering that my tribe had to endure, nothing can take that away. All of us could’ve been spared. SHE could’ve ended everyone’s suffering… and she chose NOT TO. That’s why I hold nothing but spite for my little sister. THAT… is why I’ll never forgive her, no matter how much she will try to apologize.”

There were no words that could’ve been spoken to push back against this. The voice that told the tale, her words were heavy and true. And the mares were in no position to put themselves in the middle of a family dispute, especially because the zebra in question was not present. Nobody tried to speak back, and so the conversation flared away. On top of that, the current state of the climate finally began making everybody drowsy, and they started to nod off, some of them hoping that the slumber would finally clear the dourness of the atmosphere.

As they did though, the workhorse realized that somebody else was now not present as well. “Wait… Where’s Autumn Blaze?”

“She’s back where we left her,” Twilight whispered.

The orange pony looked back and saw her still sitting on the sandy hill, overlooking the south. “Ain’t she gonna join us?”

“She will when she’s ready,” the alicorn finished before resting her head against her little dragon so she could sleep, as did Applejack, who pulled her hat over her head.

The aforementioned kirin, however, stood on the hilltop, overlooking the blue and red fire that glowed in the distance. She didn’t wail or whimper, and yet, tears were streaming down her face. They were there, all of them. And yet she couldn’t do anything – she was completely powerless to help her people.

All she could do was sing. “Sometimes you've gotta let it… rain…”

He looked about. He saw them go this way, and yet now that he had gone this far he couldn’t locate them. He had hoped that by now, with the cold that had fallen upon the desert, they would be desperate enough to light a fire, and with his new improvised spyglass that he had invented just a few hours ago, it would been easy to spot them. But he was not that lucky. He’s been observing for a long time, and yet the horizon remained dark.

Tirek groaned. “Bad luck. Either they have nothing to keep the fire going through the night, or they know that turning on the light would be a mistake. Either way, there’s no chance for me to find them now, and if I continue to go on aimlessly I’ll just get lost.” He looked back on the jungle region that was still on fire. “And there’s no point of me going back and getting myself involved with her. Whelp, guess there’s only one thing for me to do. Alright, listen!” he addressed the nirik, who were standing still at the front to help improve visibility for their master. “You’ll continue to look from the north to northwest, and if something comes up, you’ll let me know!”

The mind-controlled servants didn’t respond, they didn’t have to; their master already knew they’d follow his commands without a question. In the meantime, the centaur piled up a mound of sand with his giant hands, before laying his flaming head on it to rest. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep as well – there was no noise in the air since the Changeling Queen’s battlefield was too far, and his servants didn’t even make a peep, nor did their ever-burning fire. But if Tirek was awake now, he would’ve noticed something odd with them. The tallest one, their leader, one who went by the name of Rain Shine, towered over the rest of her kind, she was stronger than any of them, her perception keener than the rest. And that is why she could hear a voice, a melody on the wind, but she couldn’t tell from which direction it was coming. Yet she recognized it: That elegant beautiful voice; even though she couldn’t act beyond the order of her new master, she was moved. A single tear slid down her cheek.

Chapter 75: Two of a Kind

“Hey wait!” Stygian called out to the young stag.

The sun was beginning to set over the horizon, and yet despite that, the child of the Heart of the Forest made his way towards the Everfree Forest, the one place ponies considered to be too dangerous to enter, especially in the nighttime of all things, let alone with what was going on in it now.

He stopped in response to the call. “Do I know you?” the forest dweller inquired.

“Well… not technically, I just saw coming out of Princess Twilight’s old castle,” Stygian answered. “The sun’s going down, so shouldn’t you be going back?”

But soon after that, he once again resumed his stride. “No. I’m going home.”

The unicorn perused him. “Hold on, that’s the Everfree Forest!”

“Exactly. That’s where I live.”

“But-but-but… you can’t go there in the middle of the night! Not with what’s lurking in there!”

“I don’t care. I’d rather go and face the consequences of my actions right now than wait in for the inevitable end in dread.”

He wasn’t stopping. He clearly had no intention to do so and yet Stygian knew he had to do something that would stop him and prevent a potential interspecies incident, but by now they’d already passed the threshold of the forest. And then the thought formed in his mind. Not a kind one, but he needed to do something regardless. He focused his magic at a nearby tree, at its ground level, at a root that was slightly exposed. He needed to put a lot of force into working since his magic was nowhere near the Element of Magic or the Pillar of Sorcery, yet he still managed to raise the root off the ground just as the deer passed over it, getting in the way of his hooves, causing him to fall on his face.

“Oh my gosh!” he faked his reaction. “Your Majesty, are you okay?”

He approached, but just as he got to him, the young stag released a scream, not one that seemed to be of pain, but rather of built-up frustration, after which he started banging his head against the ground.

“I! JUST! CAN’T! EVEN! ANY! MORE!”

The unicorn only stood by and watched the meltdown. Eventually, the prince finally managed to calm himself down, panting heavily, before the sound of heavy breathing was replaced by a suppressed sob. Suddenly, the pony felt guilty, he needed to act fast.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” was the only thing he could come up with saying.

The young stag raised his head and sniffed. “It’s not like it can get any worse…”

He was surprised that the young royal was willing to cooperate considering the state he was in a moment ago. And as the deer walked away to sit under the nearby tree, he followed.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

He gave him a perplexed look. “How do you know I’m royalty?”

“I was… close to the castle when I overheard it being said. You’re an envoy for another kingdom, I take it?”

“I’m Bramble from Thicket – a majestic realm where the deer live. It resides within the Everfree Forest.”

“Ah… That explains it. But really, it wouldn’t be wise for you to go there during the night considering what lurks in there at the moment, so why were you so determined to leave?”

Bramble made a frown. “Trust me, we’re more than aware of troubles in our neck of the woods. My father, King Aspen, the Heart of the Forest, sent me to Princess Twilight to get more details about what’s been happening and to act as a liaison. I arrived at Ponyville but there was a magical barrier covering it, so I had to wait for it to disappear, all while being chased by timberwolves, and after I finally lost them it finally dropped, and that’s when I was met by three mares, who just so happened to be the younger sisters of the Council of Friendship, and they escorted me to the castle. It’s where I’ve been staying while observing the goings on. And maybe I should’ve stayed elsewhere…”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“There’s this one mare, one of the three that I met, ones that I mentioned earlier, named Sweetie Belle. Since I met her she’s been acting really friendly and indulging, and I thought at first that it was just decorum. But then…” the young stag halted for a moment. “Her older sister caught on what was really happening with her…”

“And what was happening with her?” Stygian curiously tilted his head.

“She told me she… She said that her little sister had a crush on me.”

“Oh… Em, that’s… Good, I guess,” the pony responded unsure of what else to say.

“Not for me!” the deer yelled at him. “I don’t know what I was supposed to do. I’ve never considered a relationship outside my own kind, nor have I even been thinking about a relationship to begin with. And that wasn’t the worst of it. Miss Rarity seems to be particularly protective about her younger sister, and she told me that if I’ve done anything to upset her, she would know, and would then tell my father about my “poor etiquette”.”

“Oh… I see how this could get awkward then.”

“You’ve no idea. For the past few days, I’ve felt like I was walking on eggshells so I wouldn’t do something wrong.” He winced suddenly. “And then today… it finally happened.”

“What’s happened?” the pony wondered.

“Sweetie Belle, Scotaloo, and I went out to the lake today. As it was coming to an end though, she invited me to participate in something called “a screaming eye”.”

The unicorn tilted his head in confusion. “A… screaming eye?”

“There was this stand, where the guy served some strange cold thing, some in cardboard-like cones, others on a stick, and then there were ones that were simply put in a small tub, but all of those things were like cold snow, yet sweet.”

“Hold on,” he halted him as a realization came over him. “Did you mean ICECREAM?”

“I... suppose that was the right name. Anyway, it was so tasty I gobbled up mine almost immediately. I was going to ask for another, but then… Out of nowhere, my head started to hurt, it felt like it was in the middle of a blizzard, that’s how awful it was.”

“Ah. That would be a brain freeze. It’s a common occurrence when you consume something really cold really fast,” the pony elaborated.

“I wish I knew in advance, because in a state of panic, I flailed about with my hooves and accidentally knocked one of the cones, and it landed right on top of Sweetie Belle’s head. I tried to apologize and begged her not to tell Miss Rarity about it, but all she did was walk away with an angry expression.”

And that’s when it clicked for Stygian – what was witnessed earlier, the white curly-manned young mare walking away with ice cream dripping off her head, was the aftermath of the event that the deer prince was describing.

“So why did you not return to the castle? Why did you go to the Everfree Forest instead?”

“Because I wanted to go home,” Bramble explained himself. “I was going to return to Thicket and confess my father and face his wrath, rather than stay here and wait in dread for the inevitable doom that would follow once Twilight and her friends returned.”

“Oh, come now, surely it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“You have no idea. My people have had bad experiences with your kind when we made a direct first contact some time ago, and it wasn’t pretty; we were trying to mend the fence, so to speak. This was my first official visit, and my father hoped that I’d keep up a good image. The last thing I wanted was for something bad to happen that would reflect badly on us… And as you can see, I failed…”

“Come on, it really can’t be that bad-”

“You don’t know anything!” the young stag yelled at him. “I was trusted with a special charge and I failed at it. How am I supposed to face my dad and tell him I couldn’t even do the bare minimum for my people? You have no idea what it feels like to be useless…”

The young prince sulked as he went silent. And yet as the unicorn tried to cheer him up and tell him otherwise… he couldn’t. Useless. That word that he uttered, struck a nerve with Stygian, a too familiar one, one that he didn’t want to think about, but that whisper in the back of his head, the one that was trying to hold him back from a certain action… it was the cause of it all.

“No… You’re wrong. I do know what it feels like…”

The words that the grey pony spoke after some time garnered the deer’s attention. “You? How?”

He inhaled. “A long time ago, I lived in a small village on the eastern coast of Equestria. I never dreamt of being anything more than a scholar who was fascinated with new discoveries, that’s all I wanted in my life. And then one day… the sirens came.”

“Sirens?”

“Creatures of the deep seas that only roughly resemble equines, with the power to spread discord among people and feed on the strife it produces. And that’s exactly what happened to my village. I wasn’t born with any particular strength or skill, so I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to beat them, I needed help. And so, I traveled to many parts of Equestria, looking for powerful ponies, renowned for their power. We’ve traveled together for so long that we sort of started to bond, something I would’ve never expected. But after we collected the last member of the team and we returned to my village, I suddenly began feeling… distant.”

“Why?” the prince wondered.

“In the group of such powerful and gifted individuals… I was the odd one out. I realized that all too early as we traveled back. And when we finally reached our destination and were preparing to defeat the sirens… I got asked: What I can contribute to the plan? And I could only give one answer – nothing… Even so, in the end, the sirens were defeated and banished from our world. My village was saved, but… I couldn’t get over it. I was in the presence of mighty heroes, fought beside them so many times, even if my contribution was minimal, and yet when things truly counted… I couldn’t offer anything to them. I wasn’t a hero… how could they have possibly seen me as somepony worthy of being anywhere near equal to them? And I wanted to change things… I wanted to do something that would put me on an equal level with them but… The only thing I did… was hurt them… and they scorned me for it. And I didn’t know it back then, but in a moment of despair that I felt… I heard a whisper, one that-”

The tables seemed to have turned. In an attempt to sympathize with the young prince, he was now unknowingly pouring out his thoughts. He was so focused on it that he got caught completely off guard when the deer shoved his leg into his mouth, silencing him.

“Hey! Wah ah yu-!”

“Shush!” he whispered, before dragging the unicorn behind the tree.

And there they sat quietly, waiting for something to happen. Stygian wasn’t sure what this was about, but then he heard it, rustling in the bushes. Soon enough, a form emerged from the growth, it walked on four legs, and even though it resembled a wolf, its body was built from pieces of wood, some greenery sprouting from its head and forming facial features, its eyes glowing green. It passed the tree behind which they were hiding, disappearing into the woods again.

“Phew,” the grey pony sighed in relief, “thanks, Prince Bramble. If you hadn’t warned me it would’ve-”

“Shush!” he quieted him, shoving his hoof in his mouth again.

Bushes once again rustled, and another beast emerged, disappearing where the previous one did. Just as he believed that it had passed already, the deer refused to let him go. And for a good reason: Soon, even more timberwolves emerged from the bushes, one after another, with a noticeable spaced passage of time. Finally, as the last one disappeared, the young stag let go of the pony.

“Wow… that was a close call. I never would’ve thought that a pack of timberwolves was going to come this close to us,” Stygian once again sighed in relief.

“That wasn’t a pack…”

“What do you mean it wasn’t a pack? They came together one after another, going in the same direction.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” he began elaborating. “If it were a pack they’d be sticking close to one another when moving to a different location. But these… That space of time between their emergence makes it clear that they didn’t come together. It’s almost as if they came from various locations. That’s not normal.”

“But why would they emerge like that then?”

“That’s exactly what we’ve been wondering for a while now. Back at Thicket, we’ve noticed the timberwolf's unusual behavior and we weren’t able to discern why because of the sinister force that now lurks in the forest. It seemed almost as if they were being drawn to a specific location as if they were being summoned.”

The deer was making sense, he seemed to be more knowledgeable about the behavior of nature’s creatures than he. But it seemed that even he wasn’t able to understand why that was happening.

The unicorn gazed at the location where the creatures had disappeared. “Maybe we can unravel the mystery together, Prince Bramble.”

“Please, just Bramble is fine. Speaking of… I don’t think you’ve told me your name.”

“Stygian,” he answered. “Anyway, if we follow the path where the timberwolves went, maybe we can get some answers. Although… I’m not sure it’d be wise to venture into the forest now that night is coming, now that I think about it…”

“Don’t worry. If push comes to shove, I can use my magic to get us out of the pinch,” the young stag reassured him.

“Your people can use magic?”

“And potent one at that. So, it’s best I don’t use it unless things get really serious. Can I count on you to use your magic if in the meantime?”

“I mean, I’m no Twilight or Star Swirl, but I’ll try.”

“Alright.” The young deer took the lead and trotted in the direction where the wooden creatures had disappeared. “Come! Follow my lead!”

Stygian followed the young prince, who ran through the overgrowth, a task that wasn’t very easy for him. There were so many obstacles in his way, from overgrowth to branches, the exposed roots, constantly inconveniencing him with a slap or a stumble. None of that was the case for the deer, however, who skipped through everything in his path without being deterred. Finally, he stopped on the spot, allowing the pony to get to him and catch his breath. The stag waved at him as he peeked through the bushes, motioning him to join. The pony came to his side, looked through the opening in the bushes, and beheld the scene. In a small clearing, a gathering was held – timberwolves were all around, clustered together. Then one of them began to howl, and soon, others joined in, creating a chorus so loud that the two quadrupeds hiding in the bushes were forced to cover their ears. And out of the overgrowth, changelings emerged. They stood there for a brief moment, staring at the wooden beasts, and once things quieted down, they all shapeshifted into maulwurfs and began digging the ground, disappearing under the surface. The ground suddenly quaked, and the duo saw the earth at the scene beginning to sink. It didn’t end there though, as the vibration began to move in their direction. They realized too late that their surroundings, not just what they were looking at, split. The earth heaved, including the part where they stood. It collapsed and disappeared into the dark abyss along with the timberwolves and the changelings.

Thousands upon thousands of dancing lights were everywhere, occupying the astral plane that was known as the Realm of Dreams. This place was beyond the reach of anyone, except for the one who had the power to enter it – one whose purpose was to watch over it. Former princess, Luna, walked through the realm that was hers to watch over, observing the dreams of numerous ponies that were in their moment of slumber. She was diligent in her work, but not just because it was her purpose. She has been absent from her duty for a long time, not even thinking about ever going back to it, until she saw the damage that was done in her absence… no, BECAUSE of her absence. She had to fix what was done because of her negligence. The shadow that had infected several people, she had seen it firsthand now, and yet when it slipped away, it left behind a residue of its essence, one that would eventually turn into Nightmare Moon. It was clear that the shade was only able to manifest nightmares of the victim it was currently inhabiting, and yet when she reached for the source, it turned to her dark side. How did it know? She herself was never afflicted by it, and if she was, she would’ve been the first to counter it. That was the question that she had been pondering for several long restless nights as she wondered the Realm of Dreams, keeping a close eye on the ponies. That fatigue was now beginning to crop up again, and at the same time, she began noticing that some of the light began to disappear, which meant that the dreamers were beginning to awake, which was signaling that it was soon going to be time for her to rest again. She sighed and was prepared to exit her current state, but then her eyes caught an unusual sight in one of the floating dreams. She saw a grey, blue-manned unicorn with a brown cloak, looking at a strange well-like structure. He simply wandered over to the opening and just fell in!

Scorned, cast out. He earnestly believed that the Pillars would’ve understood why he had taken their artifacts, but his pleading had fallen on deaf ears. He wandered the land, aimless and listless until…

Come…

He heard a voice... no, a whisper. He couldn’t see it, yet he felt it coming from the front of him. And he followed it, Stygain traveled to an abandoned village that stood under one of the many large spires that were strewn over the area, known as the Hollow Shades. He didn’t like this place; there was a strange ominous aura about it, and yet, he heeded the call. He came to the middle of the abandoned village and saw a well that had been unused for a long time. Once again, the whisper beckoned him.

Come…

Even though he was scared of simply dropping into the darkness below, he made a single step and fell down the hole, thinking she was going to land on solid rock, only for a splash into a body of water to soften his fall. It took him a moment for his hooves to find perches and climb atop the rock that was sticking out of it. As he finally collected himself, he came to realize that the whole place was covered in glowing green liquid.

And then, a sinister voice spoke. “You have done well, Stygian. You’ve reached the end of your journey.”

“W-who are you?” the pony asked.

“Me? Call me your desire.”

“My… desire?”

“Yes. Your desire for power. The power that you RIGHTFULLY deserve. Power… that was denied to you.” The unicorn sulked, yet the voice resumed. “You were with them, nay, you were the one who brought the Pillars together. You knew each and every one of them, by both reputation and as people. You DESERVED to be EQUAL to them. And when you tried to take what was rightfully yours they showed nothing but spite towards you. They have wronged you, Stygian. They deserve to be repaid in kind. That is why you were brought here. This place is a remnant of what had once passed. A being of great power once threaded upon this place and left behind a residue of its power. It has remained untouched for a long time, and now, you have the chance to take it as your own.”

The pony then noticed that the green fluid was beginning to turn dark, turning into a dark vaporous form that floated in front of him now, and as he reached out to it, he suddenly halted. There was a thought in his mind, a memory really – he was here before. This situation, he faced it before, and he remembered where it led to.

“No…” He backed away, trying to resist. “This isn’t right. This… this dark power isn’t the answer.”

But tendrils suddenly emerged from the vaporous form, tangling around the unicorn’s limbs. He tried to fight them, but more just kept sprouting.

“Don’t deny it. Embrace it… You know what your heart truly desires.”

A strange aura began to pulse from it and a sense of illness overcame him, his sight dimmed and was completely taken over by blackness - something was being drawn out of him. When the feeling finally passed, he saw a shadow standing in front of him - a shadow whose outline resembled him! The dark vapor released him from its grip and began to infuse the shadow, and in turn, it grew in proportion. By the end, the vapor disappeared, and it was now radiating from the colossal dark creature that towered over Stygian, forming its mane and wings. It cackled, and tendrils erupted from its chest, coiling around him, and dragging him into itself. It was happening again! Stygian panicked and tried to fight it but the Pony of Shadows was too strong! And just when it seemed to be too late…

FLASH!

A powerful light erupted, and the towering form almost instantly disappeared. The unicorn needed a moment to gather his thoughts to comprehend what had just happened, as he stood in an empty void. But in the end, his gaze turned to the origin of the strong light, one that soon revealed the guardian of the Realm of Dreams.

“Princess Luna?” he regarded her. “Thank you so much! I didn’t think I was going to make it.” Then he noticed the worn-down look on her face. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine, Stygian,” she deflected the notion. “It’s a good thing I came at the right moment. Yet even if I’m dispelled the dream, I feel that something’s still not right.”

“Why is that?”

“A nightmare this powerful wouldn’t manifest itself unless you feel troubled. Is something the matter?”

“Is it that noticeable?” he sighed as the watcher of the dream smiled. “Do you ever feel like you’re… backtracking?”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“I don’t think you can understand. It’s like… You’ve done something bad in the past but just when you think you’ve gone over it, you suddenly feel guilt, like you’ve done something wrong again, even though you didn’t?”

The Mare of the Night stood there puzzled, yet it sort of felt like she knew what he was talking about. “I think I know what you’re talking about, Stygian. Truth is… I’m in it as well.”

“You?” the unicorn was flabbergasted. “But you’ve overcome being Nightmare Moon! Everypony loves you!”

“Exactly… And how did I repay that gratitude? Apathy.” She hung her head. “If I had not relinquished by duty when my sister and I abdicated our positions for Twilight Sparkle…” She sighed. “Let’s just say that things wouldn’t have progressed as they did, not that you’d know what’s happening.”

“You mean regarding a creature known as Turmoil within the Everfree Forest?”

She raised her head in surprise. “You know about that?”

“It’s why I’ve come to Ponyville in the first place after I met Miss Rarity. She said Princess Twilight and the rest are going to a foreign land. I wanted to know more what it was about.”

“Does Star Swirl know already you’re here?”

For a moment, Stygian froze. “No… I couldn’t yet.”

“Couldn’t? Or won’t?” The mare received a shocked look from the pony. “Is that what you were talking about earlier? You feel guilty about something?”

“I… I don’t know why, but ever since I’ve been told about something happening, I’ve been having this thought, almost a whisper, in my mind, and I can’t resist it.”

“A whisper?” Luna’s horn began to glow, and the background suddenly shifted, as if the time around them reversed, freezing at the moment after the green liquid turned dark, and into a large dark vapor. “This? Is this the whisper you were talking about?”

“It’s the whisper that I heard as I surrendered myself to darkness… and became the Pony of Shadow”, he elaborated. “It called to me way before that.”

A grim look began to manifest on the alicorn’s face. “Stygian… I think I’ve heard it as well. Twilight, Discord, and Zecora were afflicted by some sinister force to pray on their worst nightmares. Some outside force caused it, and it seems to be connected to Turmoil. I finally caught it in the act and…”

She stopped mid-sentence, her horn glowed again, and time around them progressed for but a moment, only for the voice to speak.

Don’t deny it. Embrace it… You know what your heart truly desires.

When it froze again, she resumed. “It’s the exact same voice… And after it ran away, it left behind a residue of its essence, one that turned into Nightmare Moon when I approached it, taunting me about the time… that is now only a distant past.”

The unicorn kept staring at the vapor. “Princess, you mean to tell me that what we’ve experienced, the voice that we’ve heard… it’s connected in some way?”

“I dread to admit it, but yes. And for that reason, I need you to go to Star Swirl and tell him the truth when you wake up.”

He was about to say something, but now, his expression turned grim as well, as he faced the Mare of the Night. “Oh no… Now I remembered! Myself and Prince Bramble were on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest when we saw a group of timberwolves gathering, changelings came, and all of a sudden, the ground under us broke and… After that it all went back.”

“You mean to tell me, you’ve lost consciousness in the enemy territory?!”

“Yes! Please, Princess Luna, I need you to wake me up! I have to make sure Bramble’s okay!”

The alicorn’s horn began to glow and the light enveloped the scholar. “I will alert Celestia! Try to survive to the best of your abilities until then, Stygian!” she ordered him.

And with a flash, the little pony disappeared.

He gasped for air as he suddenly awoke, quickly shifting about to try and determine his location, but it was too dark to see – he needed light. Yet as he tried to use magic to light up his surroundings, nothing happened. He tried again, and the result was the same. Something was negating his ability to use magic! Panic gripped him. He still couldn’t see and he had no idea where he was, and on top of that, he still didn’t know where his companion was. He began feeling about with his hooves, trying to determine if there was a pathway because wherever he was, it was full of leaves and brambles. He waded through the growth for a bit, until he hit something with his head. Based on the feeling it was clearly wooden, but by the shape and weight, he couldn’t tell. Something odd happened then: He didn’t know if his eyes adjusted to the darkness or if a light source illuminated his surroundings from somewhere far away, but he could see well enough now to make out the outline of what he had come across. The moment he did that though, he screamed in fear, as he stood face to face with a timberwolf.

“Stygian?”

He recognized that voice – it was his deer companion. He looked around and finally realized that there was indeed dim light coming from a small hole above him, and there he saw the outline of the young stag, who quickly jumped down to him.

“Bramble, look out! There’s a-!” the pony tried to warn him, but the prince quickly covered his mouth.

“Shhhhhhhh! Be quiet. Look carefully,” he whispered to him.

It took him a moment to calm down, and when he finally did, he took a better look at what it was in front of him. It was a timberwolf, but only the upper part of its head, stuck in the overgrowth, the green light that displayed its eyes had gone out.

“What’s happened to it?” he asked.

“It has become one with nature again. That’s what IT has done to it – it will do it to all of them,” the deer answered.

“It?”

Bramble motioned him to follow. “Come and see for yourself.”

They began climbing the growth to reach the exit above them, but the pony still had questions. “Bramble, what’s happened? How long was I out?”

“I’m not sure myself, but it was a very long time,” he began explaining. “After the ground gave out under us, I was in a daze for a bit, but you were completely out cold. We ended up in an underground tunnel that was swarming with changelings. I managed to drag you away just in time, as they were scouring the surrounding areas.”

“What were they looking for?”

“Timberwolves. They survived the fall and then made their way down the tunnel where there was a sickly green light at the far end of it. We couldn’t stay because the changelings were literally carving up the ground that fell from above. I managed to uproot one of the bushes and I dragged you towards the light source. But let me tell you - when I finally got to it… I was beginning to wish we had gone the opposite direction and risk facing the changelings instead.”

“Why?”

They finally reached the top of the hole and crawled out of it, and Stygian soon understood why he would think that - he had been here before, earlier today! The giant overgrowth that they were on stood by the wall of an underground cave. The light source came from the very familiar green lake, in the middle of which sat a giant jagged black rock, on top of which was a giant, twisted, foreboding tree. And then… he saw them: A pair of giant dark monstrosities, one had a thick build with multiple yellow eyes, and the other was slender with blue eyes, noticeable icy spray emanating from its open maw. The latter was leaning on the bank of the lake with its gaunt arms, where timberwolves sat in massive numbers, reaching out to each of them, touching their head with its pointy fingers, pausing at each for a bit, before moving on to the next one.

Almost instantly, Stygian took cover in the hole. “It’s them! It’s them it’s them it’s them it’s them it’s them!” the frantically whispered.

“You know what these… things, are?” Bramble inquired.

“Take cover quick!” he urged the deed, who quickly did so. “I’ve seen them just before we met. Changelings have dug a tunnel under a restaurant in Ponyville and it led to this place. This is the source of all the problems. Those two creatures can sense strong emotions, and if we stay here they’re going to find us even if we keep hiding.” He then turned his attention to him. “So what’s that one doing to the timberwolves?”

“This growth here, it used to be one.”

“Come again?” the pony raised an eyebrow.

“I managed to drag the bush to this point without us being noticed and saw it. They all gathered before this creature and then it began poking each of them. One of them noticed our hiding place and got suspicious. It got to us and then, just before it poked its head into the bush, I panicked and threw a rock at it. And then… well, it exploded and turned into this giant mess of leaves and branches. I thought we would get discovered at this point, but apparently, they weren’t interested in the sudden demise of one of their own. And so here I’ve been, watching this process while I waited for you to wake up.”

“Well, we need to get out of here before any of those two sense us.”

“If that’s the case we’ll have to fight our way out.”

“No good. For some reason, I can’t use my magic.”

“Really?”

The deer grabbed a nearby leaf and opened the small barrel that he wore on the golden collar around his neck. He dipped the small leaf into the body of water that was inside it, and in a matter of moments, the leaf grew, turning into a shrubbery, before the stag had to drop it down the passage so that they wouldn’t get stuck by it.

“Odd. My magic’s working just fine,” he reaffirmed.

The unicorn found it odd as well and decided to try again, but much like before, the spell he cast simply evaporated. “It seems only my magic is being negated. It’s up to you to do the hard labor.”

“I would, but how? The easiest way for us to get away would be to make a tree grow and break through the ceiling of the cavern, but for that, I’d need a tree seed, which I don’t have on me.”

A predicament indeed. They had limited options, and Stygian knew there was no way for them to directly fight their way out, especially not with those two monstrous things present. He thought for a moment: If he needed a seed, maybe he could look for it in the dense growth where they were hiding at the moment, but trying to find something so small would be equivalent to trying to find a needle in a haystack. He tried to shift into a more comfortable position so he could think, and he suddenly felt as if there was a weight hanging in the hood of his cloak. He reached for it and felt something bumpy inside the cloth, before turning it to the front so he could get a better look inside. He almost let out a cheer, trying really hard to suppress it.

“We may be in luck,” he told the deer and showed him his hood, revealing to have a handful of acorns in it.

Bramble gasped. “Oak seeds! These will be perfect!”

He ripped the pony’s cloak right off of his and descended back into the bottom of the growth, forcing him to follow quickly. The young stag dropped the handful of acorns on the ground of the hideout, then once again opened the small container around his neck, but this time he poured quite a bit of water on them.

“Okay get ready, it’s gonna get bumpy really fast!” he warned the unicorn.

The nature magic of the deer reacted quickly. The seeds burst open, and the plants quickly reached for the ground so they could take root. The moment that happened, the stems began to expand and grow, and with multiple trees rapidly growing together, the two could feel the buoyancy beneath their feet, as the plants pushed the surrounding growth off the ground. This lasted for only several seconds before it came to an abrupt stop, as the tree tops hit the ceiling of the cavern. Then the crumbling sound followed, as the trees were determined to not let anything stand in their way. Everything around them shook before they were once against forced to the bottom of their protective growth. Then it all stopped again, but this time it was slowly. It was quiet for a while, the two being unsure of what had happened, and it was the pony who decided to climb up to the exit, through which a much brighter light than earlier was shining.

“Bramble, I can see Ponyville,” he told him.

“Really? Great! Seems that our plan worked perfectly!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Come and see.”

The young prince was curious about what he meant by that, so he joined his side and looked through the opening. He saw the early morning light coming over the horizon. It soon became clear to both of them that they had spent all night underground in the enemy territory. But the pony was right – Ponyville was visible right in front of them… some two hundred feet off the ground! The oaks have grown so tall that they were almost thrice the size of other trees of the Everfree Forest, so theirs stuck out like a sore thumb. They had managed to escape their predicament, but now they were faced with another one, unsure of how to deal with it. Suddenly, the tree shook for a moment, and then once more. It quickly dawned on them that the reason was likely that SOMETHING at the base of the oaks was trying to chop them down. And their reaction was too slow to make a response to counter it, as they felt that the trees were bending in a singular direction. The two couldn’t do anything but desperately hold on to the growth as they fell at an increased speed with which the oaks were beginning to fall, neither of them able to do anything that could soften their call. And just before the tree tops crashed to the ground, the ground to a complete stop. Stygian then noticed a teal glow enveloping them.

“DER YA ARE!!!”

The yell came from the nearby pine, under which a familiar large blue pony with a shovel was, along with a pink unicorn, whose horn was glowing, and she was displaying a noticeable lack of sleep. “Where the hay have you two been?! Do you know how worried you’ve made us?!”

She dispelled her magic, and the tree top finally hit the ground, breaking open large growth, and scattering it all over the place, with the remnant head of its maker landing at Rockhoof’s legs.

“Ooooh, a timberwolf trophy! Nice.” He picked it up and stashed it away.

Meanwhile, Starlight Glimmer approached the unicorn and the deer who were picking themselves up. “You two have some explaining to do, right now!”

“Yes, we do. You all need to hear what we’ve just seen,” Stygian insisted. “We need to… go and meet Star Swirl.”

Chapter 76: The Fiery One Cometh

Flashing. Flashing and thundering everywhere. Within the city of Musa, the trapped residents took refuge inside the buildings that the street fighting and the rain of lightning bolts from above hadn’t damaged. For a whole day, King Abraxas’ Storm Guard had been fighting the Storm King’s ones, trying to protect their people. As the sun set though, the invaders disappeared back through the portals from which they had emerged, allowing the natives to finally have some respite… or so they thought. Even though the enemy armies had retreated, their leader was still flying above them non-stop, raining bolts on their city, yet the attack wasn’t as intense, as he was preoccupied with dealing with one of the Three Kings of Farasi. Even so, the constant flashing and booming sound would barely allow any of them to rest enough so they could be prepared for the next day when the attack would resume again.

The same was not the case for the said invaders. They were all making themselves comfortable and resting high above, aboard their airships, all of them protected by domes made of dark light, which isolated any unpleasant sounds. The conjurer of the said spell had remained awake through the night, motionlessly gazing into the eye of his companion, observing activities far away from them.

“Anything yet?” Doubt asked as it circled around the border of the magical barrier.

“Still nothing,” the ram responded. “All I see is darkened dunes.”

The weaselly vapor let out a groan in response before resuming its circling, and then once again stopped after a full round. “The sun is rising.”

“How do you know when we’re surrounded by dark light?” he turned his head to it in question.

“Trust me, I can tell. Anyway, this lot will have to wake up soon and join their leader again.”

“You know what? I’ll take your word for it,” the sorcerer said as he gazed back into the arimaspi’s eye. “I think I can finally see something.”

The shade quickly turned and flew to his side. “Is that so? What can you peek at?”

“I see the sparks of light, illuminating the sandy dunes. And yet… I see dark. Dark and rain.”

“That’s it!” it raised its voice. “This must be the place! Open the doorway, Shaper!”

The grizzled ram rose on his feet. “In a moment, Doubt. First though…”

He turned about to see the satyrs still fast asleep, but he knew that wasn’t gonna last much longer. His horns began to glow, and in a matter of moments, the protection fields surrounding the airships dropped. One would’ve expected that the first rays of light would’ve woken up the sleeping army, but instead…

KRAKOOOM!

Only a few seconds passed before the first crash of thunder pierced the sky, and instantly, all the satyrs jumped on their feet in fright. They spotted a glimpse of light, but the more noticeable one came from the direction of the fight between the two kings, and theirs was still flying above the city in his cloud form.

“WELL WELL WELL, LOOK WHO FINALLY WOKE UP,” he regarded them. “DID YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD NIGHT’S REST? YES? GOOD! NOW GET YOUR REAR ENDS DOWN THERE AND GET BACK TO FIGHTING!”

They all groaned. “Not even a breakfast?” the black hedgehog murmured under his breath, in hopes that he wouldn’t be heard, and then noticed a portal of dark light opening near him, before gazing at the caster. “Mister Grogar, couldn’t you have left us to sleep just a little bit longer? Or at least wake us up so we could first have something to eat?”

He regarded him. “Alas, little Grubber, I fear I could not. It’s my time to act now, and I must depart.” He faced forward, and a portal opened before him, big enough for his companion to pass through. “Paramis,” he uttered, and at the drop of the word, the arimaspi rose and rushed through, disappearing out of sight. “In the meantime, make sure your master doesn’t get into any mischief that would end badly for him.” And with that, the sorcerer passed through the portal, and shortly after that, it shut closed.

The Storm King’s right hand sighed. “Well, it was pleasant while it lasted, boys… Anyway, you’ve heard our king. Move out!”

At the command, the satyrs rushed through the opened portals aboard their ships, appearing back on the streets of Musa, and just as they did, they soon encountered the locals who met them to fight. It was clear from the first contact though, that one side was suffering from lack of sleep. Meanwhile, on the tops of the city’s spires, lightning zoomed left and right, then leaping in the air and making contact with the electric barrier that barred everybody’s escape. It tried to break through it, only for the giant sentient cloud face to come down and counter the escape from the other side, as the cloud’s controller exposed himself through its open mouth, using the enchanted arm to absorb the attack of the lightning zebra king.

“I’m impressed you’ve lasted this long, pal,” he complimented King Abraxas. “You’re certainly more durable than your followers, I’ll give you that. But there’s still one problem: Unlike me, you’re still just a living creature. I can go on forever, but I wonder… how much longer can you last and protect your precious city?”

While the zebras in their kingdom had at least a modicum of reprieve, the same could not be said for the forested area beneath Mount Chinjaio. Throughout the night, the fires raged, and even though the locals tried to put it out, it was almost next to impossible because of the strong winds that were caused by their leader and his honor guard, as well as the invasive species that they were fighting. As the first speck of morning light appeared, a trail of devastation was left from the slopes of the mountain and all the way to the village that was deep in the jungle, half of it burned down. As one of the villages came by with a bucket to try and douse a nearby burning tree, his ruler appeared close by with a gust of wind.

“What’s the situation?” Amun inquired.

“Sir, we’ve tried our best to douse the fire, but it’s spreading so fast. And these changelings are making things worse, they keep attacking us while we’re trying to work,” he complained, as several more abadas joined him, carrying buckets.

“We don’t have other options. All we can do is hope that Watami is warned. And in the meantime…”

The king walked past them, and his people began following him close by. All of a sudden, he stopped and quickly spun around them all, until they were picked up by strong wind and flung into the air. As they were flailing about, all of them were enveloped in a flash of green, revealing themselves as the invading forces, one of them included their queen.

“I was wondering where you’ve slipped off to! If you’re planning to deceive me by impersonating my own people, you’re going to rue it!” And the abada king lept into the air and clashed with Chrysalis.

“Persistent, aren’t you?” She smiled. “Your lackeys are short on breath, but you seem in a different league compared to them. Let’s see who lasts longer, shall we? Your chilly winds, or my ice-cold hatred?”

He grunted. The centaur spent the cold night in the middle of the desert with no problem. He recalled that in certain areas back in the Nether Lands, nights could get quite cold, but surprisingly, he felt no such thing that night. Yet even so, he was dealing with an unusual case of discomfort sometimes half through the night: When he was nice and snug on a pile of sand, he now felt hard surfaces all around him, and he kept twisting and turning to try and find a comfortable position, but he had no such luck. Then the light over the horizon began to emerge, attempting to rouse Tirek from his slumber, yet he only turned away from it, refusing to comply with the wake-up call; he just wanted to sleep some more, desperately trying to make himself comfortable and failing. After some time passed, however, a strong light suddenly erupted all around him, finally forcing his eyes to open – he was in a foul mood from being robbed of the modicum of comfort, and when his eyes finally adjusted, he realized what was the cause of his unpleasant condition. Glass. Glass all around him, it almost looked like a bowl. The Pillar of Hatred was unaware that his current state passively radiated heat from his body, an ever-increasing one. And during his slumber, his body released so much heat that the sand he was sleeping on turned to glass. As for the strong light, the sun had already traveled beyond the horizon, and its radiance finally ended up reflecting into the bowl where the centaur was lying. He would’ve laughed at the unpredictable result, were he not peeved. As he rose up, he smashed the ground he was standing on, causing the creation of his action to instantly crumble underneath him.

“Ugh…” he groaned. “I wish I had the power to push the sun down for a bit longer…” He cracked his neck and flexed his muscles. “Well, I guess I should look for the ponies then…”

He connected his thumbs with index fingers, then proceeded to channel his magic to create tiny fields that filled the circular gap in the formation. He then put one hand before the other until the fields aligned and then looked through them, allowing him to see in the distance. He gazed across the vast ocean of sand, hoping to finally spot them, but now he was faced with a problem he did not foresee. The ocean of sand was turning into a literal ocean, or at least a murky resemblance of it. The scorching sun reflecting off the surface of the sand created a distorted image, through which the centaur lord was unable to gaze past despite his magic.

“DRAT!” he cursed. “Now I can’t see them even in broad daylight! No good. I need a higher elevation so I can look past the mirage…”

He gazed through his makeshift spyglass and looked about his surroundings, and finally spotted a particularly high sandy hill in the distance to the west. To march to that location in this scorching climate would’ve probably taken hours, adding up to more unnecessary exhaustion, but Tirek had no intention of wasting his time with such trivialities - all he needed to see was his location up close, and he could make it work with ease. A fiery orb manifested itself between his horns, and without even blinking, a doorway enveloped in fire opened before him, and a familiar location that he had just witnessed was on the other side.

“All of you! With me!” he commanded, and the nirik immediately followed him through the portal.

The Pillar of Anger stepped through the doorway, and now, along with his armies, found himself atop the tall sandy dune that was overlooking the vast desert. And with the mirage no longer obstructing him, on the northwestern side, he finally noticed signs of greenery. Once again, he conjured his makeshift spyglass to look for his targets, but after scanning for a while he still couldn’t spot any sign of them. They must’ve gotten ahead of him while he was still sleeping. But if that was the case, it also meant that they were already on the way to one of the three kingdoms - there was no point in looking at the desert anymore. His gaze turned to the greenery he had seen earlier and took a better look at it. There were surprisingly a lot of rivers, several trees, as well as some fields, being tended to by the natives, but still no sign of the culprits that would stand out from them. He looked further into the distance, and finally, something caught his eye. No, it wasn’t the ponies. As he followed the river to its source, he finally came across a large body of water, and there… he saw it, a superstructure, standing out of the middle of this vast lake, like a fountain statue. This was it! No regular being could live in a place as grandiose looking as this: This must’ve been the home of the third native monarch!

Long before that, just as the first rays of light began peaking over the east, a portal of dark light opened at a certain location in the desert, one that the Father of Monsters had only recently become aware of, as he passed through it, along with his arimaspi companion, as well as a weaselly shape that can slither across the air before the conjuration shut closed behind them. The ram was following a certain somebody. This place, one of the natives knew where it was and how to get to it, so he was trailing her instead of the ponies. And it led to this place: There were dark clouds in the sky before them, concentrated on a very specific location, never seeming to wander out of bounds, which created a clear contrast between it and the outside – the sun was slowly illuminating the land, but not the area under the clouds, where there was nothing but constant dark and rain, the atmosphere was truly depressing.

“So, this is where the final piece is, Doubt?” Grogar inquired. “I can feel great power originating from this place, even if the clouds weren’t there, I can tell there is a sinister force at work.” He was waiting for confirmation, but the usually talkative shadowy wisp was strangely silent. “Doubt?” he called it again, but when silence followed again he decided to regard it.

He had thought that the manifestation had already departed in eagerness to liberate its significant other, but it was still there, levitating on the spot, being completely silent. That’s when the grizzled ram noticed something unusual: As the shade was staring into the distance, tiny blobs were forming on the bottom border of its green eyes, trailing down its slim form and evaporating as they parted from its body.

“Doubt? Are you… shedding tears?”

There was a solemn tone in its voice. “Despair has been freed, yet it’s being incarcerated by one of the natives, who called upon the elements of the land to assist him. The locals have made their bed when their ancestors chose to stand up against a fragment of Turmoil, but the elements…” it paused. “They do not deserve such torment…”

“I do not understand you, Doubt,” Grogar spoke. “You seem to hate living creatures and want to bring harm upon them, yet you seem to feel “hurt” when the same courtesy is extended to the natural forces of this world. Why is that, I wonder?”

The vapor’s whip-like tail moved towards its head and wiped the tears away. “That does not concern you, Shaper. I will go ahead to the prison. Look for a lush jungle land, and at the heart, you will find its location. Do not dally.” And the weaselly shape flew away into the darkened lands.

The creator and his pet were left standing on its border, the latter addressing the former with grunting gibberish. “No, not right away, Paramis,” the maker spoke. “My curiosity has been piqued.” The arimaspi once again addressed him in incomprehensible sounds. “Who knows…” The grizzled ram’s head turned to the dark land before them. “Let us move at our own pace.”

Elsewhere, the sun was also just beginning to rise over the horizon, immediately awakening one of the two zebras that were leading the newcomers, who were now in a cluster with them so they could survive the cold night.

The younger one yawned before stretching out. “Okay everybody, get up! We’ve got a good time to move on!”

And soon the moans and groans of the group surrounding her came up. “As expected from Sanaa: Always the early bird,” the elder one said.

“Well, somebody has to be, Grandma Zeg’us. Otherwise, nothing would get done out in the fields. Besides, I was partly being kept awake due to SOMEBODY’S jittering.”

Her glare was pinned on the blue pegasus who was pressed against her. “Sorry,” Rainbow Dash apologized, “but it was just so cold, even if we were in this position all night.”

“Then you should’ve thought about getting ahead of everybody, instead of gagging at the prospect when it was suggested.”

“Yeah, Dashy!” Pinkie Pie popped up from behind her. “You should’ve snuggled up to our “heater” in the middle, and then you’d be all snug and cozy.” And to that response, the wonderbolt could only grumble.

Spike yawned, having a difficult time stretching as the purple alicorn rested her head on his, who was soon after roused from slumber. “Did you sleep well, Twilight?” the little dragon wondered.

“Of course it was,” she smiled.

“I agree. Who would’ve thought that such a small package could pack so much heat,” Rarity mused, as she rubbed the little dragon’s chin, almost making him melt in her hoof.

“Yeah, Ah agree, Spike. Your scales as so warm and comfy…”

The orange pony uttered that; she was still half asleep, but everybody present could tell things were not as they seemed for her. “Em, Applejack? Those aren’t my scales…”

The workhorse finally opened one of her eyes, and it took her a moment to clear the mist from her sight to become aware of her surroundings. Much like the blue pegasus, she was forced to spend the night on the outer side of the cluster, depriving her of the majority of the heat that the rest of the group shared. But unlike her, she had a surprisingly warm night, thinking that she managed to get close to Spike, and now she was able to see green scales on the back end of another equine-like being, who was not there when they all dropped off, and she was still sleeping.

“Autumn Blaze?!” she jumped in surprise, causing her to twitch in shock.

“Can we wait a little bit, please? I’m not an early bird…” she mumbled, still not fully awake.

From the cover of the animal caretaker’s pink hair, Discord popped his head out. “Well, of course, you’re not, you’re a kirin. How long have you been up?”

She yawned. “I’m not sure. At some point, I just got tired of sorrow and I wanted to have some sleep.” She stretched herself out.

“Autumn Blaze,” Fluttershy confronted her, “are you okay?”

She gave her a look, and others were not sure if it was one of sadness or tiredness. “No,” she bluntly answered, “I’m not. All night I saw the nirk fire burning, reminding me that all my people were right there, in front of me, and I was powerless to help them.”

“I’m so sorry…” the shy pegasus apologized.

“Don’t. I had a long time to think about things in the dead of night. And in the end, I came to realize something: I was down this road once before. You know, being excluded from the rest of my kind. Previously, I was kicked out for refusing to conform to the dull life that we had to endure out of fear of harming one another. And now, I’m once again excluded by my own choice. Except this time, they’ve been taken by a force they can’t resist. Surely breaking its hold on them should be easier than trying to squeeze water out of rock, right?”

She waited for their response, hopeful. They wanted to say it, but they knew an issue was afoot. The problem in this case was not Tirek himself, but rather the source itself that was controlling the nirik - Anger. They didn’t expect that one of Turmoil’s aspects would be brought along, and if they ended up facing it, much like back at Griffinstone, they knew full well they wouldn’t be able to fight back against it, or at least, not directly. But they needed to say something optimistic, they had to, now that the lone kirin finally showed some genuine optimism in the midst of all the gloom and doom. Before anyone could utter a word through, a growling sound emerged among them, garnering their attention. They looked about what could be causing it, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that it was coming from the party planner.

“By the way, when do we eat?” Pinkie Pie inquired.

“As soon as we get to Carthage, pink one. No sooner,” Sanaa answered. “Unless you’re satisfied on munching your own manes.”

“Thanks, darling, but I think we’re not that desperate yet,” Rarity declared, but not before she noticed that the pink pony had been licking the tip of her puffy hair.

“What? We haven’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday, and now Zecora’s go-” Twilight quickly shut Pinkie Pie’s mouth as soon as she heard her utter their resident shaman’s name, at which point her elder sibling was glaring at her.

“Alright, everypony! Who’s next to do the heavy lifting?” Rainbow Dash suddenly declared. “Oh right, I think it’s you, Twilight.”

“Wait, what? What heavy lifting?” She gave her a confused look.

“Remember yesterday? We were taking turns on who’s gonna have to carry graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” the blue pegasus’ voice suddenly trailed away when she realized what she was about to say, and she felt eyes like daggers pointing at her. “Grand matriarch Zeg’us to the end destination, remember?”

The elderly figure towered over the rainbow-maned pony. “The “grand” part was a bit too extravagant, but still, good recovery, girl.”

“Right,” the alicorn stepped in, “and since we’re on the clock, the sooner we reach the queen the better. Madam Zeg’us, if I may?”

“Certainly,” she accepted, and before the elder zebra knew it, a pink glow suddenly enveloped her, and she began levitating off the ground.

“Miss Sanaa, lead the way,” the princess requested from the guide.

She nodded, and wandered off in the direction of the northwest, with the visitors all following her.

The travelers continued their trek across the desert. As time passed and the sun kept rising higher, they began noticing that the heat was beginning to rise in the previously cold desert. But soon, the heat began to stabilize, as some of the ponies began noticing that dirt was beginning to appear under their hooves, and greenery was beginning to sprout everywhere. Soon enough, they came across a couple of gazelles, who were standing in the middle of a path and talking, and their attention quickly got grabbed when they noticed approaching equines that were alien to them.

“Watami’s blessing upon you,” was what Sanaa said as she approached them, and they responded in kind. “Is one of the rafts currently moored nearby? We need quick transportation to the city, right away.”

“I believe so,” one of them answered. “We went by one of them close by and it wasn’t active yet.”

“This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with these… strangers, would it?” the other one inquired.

“Yes, but all the more both of you should go and warn others in Watami’s domain that a threat is coming their way and that they should take cover,” the zebra warned them.

A loud growl suddenly followed, and when the gazelles heard it, they yelped and quickly ran away. That was not the sound of the aforementioned threat though, it was the sound that the pink earth pony's stomach had been making the entire way.

“Nice going, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash glared at her.

“I can’t help it! I need some yummy for my tummy…!” she whined.

“We’ll get that fixed once we reach our destination. Now follow!” the field manager beckoned.

They continued their advance, and with the solid ground again under their feet, their pace increased. Soon enough, they came across the first body of water – a thin river with a pier, and a raft with railings floating close by it.

They all stopped on it, but the mare with an eye for details quickly noticed something odd. “Hold on, this raft doesn’t have any oars or anything. How are we supposed to use this?”

“Yeah, Ah doubt we’ll get far if we have to use our hooves to move it. We might as well just go on foot at that point,” Applejack pitched in.

“Hold on all of you,” the guide calmed them.

She walked to the edge of the pier, leaned over the edge, and tapped the surface of the river. A few seconds passed, and soon enough the silent body of water was disturbed, and a form emerged from beneath: It had a long, deep blue body, and even though it was rising from the water below the pier, it came face to face with the caller, it almost resembling a sea serpent, with two pairs of webbed red fins on each side serving as limbs, only her head looked somewhat equine, with her dorsal red fin extending from the top of her forehead and all the way down her spine to look like a mane. The ponies were taken aback a bit, and they'd only seen a sea serpent once before but this one seemed different. For starters, the first thing it did was not even regard them, it raised one of its fins to cover her mouth and yawn.

“An early bird as always, huh, Wadi?” the zebra smugly said.

“That’s not funny, Sanaa. You know I can’t deal with this early,” she finally spoke.

“Odd. You’d think after being here for several cycles now that you’d have gotten used to it.”

“I’m not gonna deal with your smug attitude, Sanaa.” The kelpie began to descend back into the body of water. “If you wanna get to the capitol, go on foot.”

“Wadi, wait!” she finally said in an urgent tone. “This is serious. I need you to get us all to Carthage, we have to warn your mother, the queen.”

The aquatic being halted just as her sight was about to pass the pier’s surface, and only then did she finally notice the company that was with her. “Well, there’s something you don’t see every day. Do these outsiders have anything to do with it?”

“They’re friendly. But others that made landfall on the eastern shores of Farasi aren’t. Both the kingdom of Mansa and Mount Chinjaio are under attack, and now the third attacker is coming this way.”

The kelpie stared at the zebra for a while longer before she sunk beneath the surface. The rest thought that the warning had fallen on deaf ears, but that soon changed as the raft suddenly shifted a bit and came closer to the pier.

Wadi popped her head out from under the raft. “All of you, hop on. And make sure to hold onto something.”

They all rushed ahead, but not before Twilight put the elder on the raft first. “Sorry about the bumpy ride the past few miles, matriarch Zeg’us, but I couldn’t keep up much longer.” After which the rest clustered together with her.

Once they were all set, the kelpie’s head disappeared underwater again, and the raft moved. They traversed the river line slowly, but as they left the shallows, the speed began increasing. Soon enough, they were forced to grab hold of the railings so they wouldn’t fall off. As they advanced, they began seeing more greenery, as it turned into a forest, and many more native creatures were going about, like wildebeests, giraffes, buffalos, and even more bare zebras.

In the meantime, as the latter ones were seen, the workhorse noticed a forlorn look on the guide’s face, and she decided to divert her attention. “Tell me somethin’, is our carrier always in such a sour mood?”

“Wadi, you mean? She’s bitter and has been for a while now, ever since she did something that peeved off her mother because her younger sibling told on her. As punishment, she got stationed on the edge of the domain to ferry others.”

“She’s got a lil’ sis too?”

“Yeah. She’s apparently too good for her own sake.”

“Think she’ll ever forgive her?”

“Who knows? This grudge’s been going on for a while now. Something monumental would probably have to happen.”

“But there is still a possibility, right?”

She was about to say something, but halted herself, and then turned her head to the orange pony. “This isn’t really about them, is it?”

Applejack sighed. “Look, Ah get little sisters can be a handful, Ah know from first-hand experience. Back home on a farm, she always got to all kinds of mischief, and even outside of it, she’s done all sorts of stuff that got her and her friends in very hot water. You and Ah aren’t that different from one another.”

The zebra scowled. “Has your sister ever unleashed an evil that corrupted your homeland and caused the destruction of your whole tribe?”

“Well, no, nothing as drastic as that. The worst Ah recall them doing was spewing a bunch of lies about everypony in town, which made them outcasts in the entire community. Even Ah was angry at her, but they did a lot of apologizin’, and eventually things returned to normal.”

“Look, miss, why do you even care?”

“Because Ah knows how hurt Zecora is. She knows full well that what she’s done was wrong, but she didn’t know any other way to fix things. Even you should understand that a single filly, even if she did just become a mare, wouldn’t be able to do what her pops could. Ah know it’s been a long time, but now that she’s back Ah don’t want the two of you to be at odds after being apart for so long.”

The zebra turned away. “The despair that we all had to endure, the scattering of our tribe, the break-up of our family… Some things just can’t be forgiven in a lifetime.”

Applejack wanted to press further. “Have you always had a bad relationship with your lil’ sis?” The guide shook her head in response. “Were you on bad terms when she disappeared?” And once again the zebra shook her head. “Don’t you miss your sister even a little?” She waited, but there was no response to her words. “Miss Sanaa?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she coldly replied.

And the conversation fizzled out. The Element of Honesty turned away from her, only to realize that everybody else was staring at them; it seemed that they were all quietly observing the development, equally hopeful that the situation would be resolved.

“We’re here,” the elder zebra announced.

As they turned a corner on the waterway in the jungle, wide space opened before them, as the river spilled out into a giant lake, and in the middle of it, a giant spire stuck out in the middle of it, spewing water.

“It looks like a water fountain,” Pinkie Pie commented.

“Pinkie, don’t be so rude!” The fashionista glared at her.

“You’re not the first one to make that observation, young lady,” Zeg’us chuckled.

As they approached, the “fountain” finally took on the form of a city that had been carved out from a rock, and they also began noticing more and more rafts coming and going from the direction of the spire.

“It… it looks so majestic,” Rarity said as they approached.

Finally, they moored at the dock where more rafts were stationed, and everybody disembarked.

“Alright, fillies,” the matriarch announced, “I’ll lead you to the entry where the queen’s quarters are so we can receive an audience with her. Follow.”

The mares all followed her, but the workhorse wasn’t so lucky, as she was about to leave, something tugged on her hind leg and she fell flat on her face. She looked back and noticed a red colored fin wrapped around her leg, as the kelpie was sticking her head out.

“Can Ah help you?” she asked in an annoyed tone.

“Tell me something: Did you say earlier that Zecora’s come back?” the aquatic being asked.

“Yeah, why? You know her?”

“Of course I do! She’s my friend! I’ve not seen her in ages! Where is she?!” she asked frantically.

“Yeah… this is awkward.” The pony rubbed the back of her head. “She split with us when we were over in abada’s kingdom. But we’re assuming she’s going the way where we’ll end up anyway.”

And almost instantly, the kelpie dived into the water. Applejack stared for a moment, confused, but soon after the creature popped her head onto the surface.

“I’ll get Mom to meet you all below,” was all she said before she disappeared again.

“Applejack! You coming?” Rainbow Dash called out to her, after which she joined them.

They walked through the stone-covered area that was strewn with stalls that were selling things and wooden pipes everywhere, and on the far end of it, was a large opening into solid rock, with stairs on each side of it. It quickly became apparent that the eyes of the locals were focused on them, but the looks were something that needed to be ignored since they had to meet the ruler. They got as far as the fountain that marked the center-point of the market when a loud thudding sound made everybody go quiet. It was coming from the giant opening, and water was beginning to rush from it, first in small spills, but soon, a tidal wave came and it washed all over them, making them completely drenched. Then, a large mass spilled forth through the opening – it was a giant kelpie, with a deep blue body and fins of royal red color. It towered over everything, and when she appeared, everybody present bowed before her, except for the newcomers, who were wet from head to hooves.

“Queen Watami,” the elder zebra made a slow nod in response, “I appreciate you’ve come all this way just to meet us.”

“My apologies for the inconvenience, matriarch. But Wadi had just informed me that there’s something urgent afoot and it couldn’t wait, so I came to see it for myself.” Her eyes then wandered to the outsiders that were with her, and when they took notice of it, they all quickly bowed. “All these newcomers in my kingdom… How did they get past Abraxas?”

The alicorn finally raised her head to address her. “Your Majesty, I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle! And I’m-!”

She was interrupted by a growl, one that the Elements of Harmony had to endure for the past few hours, but now it’s become so loud that overshadowed her voice. They all turned to the pink earth pony, who was clutching her stomach.

“Hungry?” the kelpie queen wondered.

Several locals have just landed on the southern banks of the great lake with their rafts, prepared to go about their business. All of a sudden, something flashed in their vicinity. A strange doorway in space, surrounded by flames, opened. On the other end, they could see a desert, as well as a giant imposing figure, and numerous shapes, enveloped in red and blue flames. Lord Tirek made a single leap through the threshold and landed with a loud stomp on the other end.

“Come!” he commanded.

The nirik charged through, and as they began filling up the space in the vicinity, the natives quickly made themselves scarce, as they could tell by the look of them that these creatures didn’t have good intentions. And the doorway behind him closed, he looked about and his sight finally focused on the tall spire that sat in the middle of the lake. He once again created the makeshift spyglass with his hands and finally managed to take a closer look at the side location. He saw stalls of shops, people going about, and among them, a towering fish-like creature. That must’ve been the one he had to distract. But there was something else he saw… He saw THEM: some were stuffing their faces, especially the pink puffy ones, while some tried to get themselves dry, most notably the prissy white one, and the alicorn was talking to the giant fish.

He grinned. “Right in the nick of time.” He turned to his servants. “Alright, listen up! Scorch the entire length of the bank! Make sure the fire line’s thick enough that nothing will come and leave this place!” At his command, the nirik army split in half, and they ran by the side of the lake, leaving the scorched trail of red and blue fire behind. “As for you,” he addressed the tall one, “you’re coming with me.”

As the ring of fire around them spread, a fiery orb manifested itself between his horns, and a fiery doorway opened before them, showing the docks. As they stepped through and landed on the city’s border, several of the locals spotted them and began crying out. The two quickly dashed up the ramp that led into the market above, and at the sight of them, the people ran off in fright, only the colorful four-legged equines remained present.

“Oh no… He’s here already,” the princess murmured.

“Well, well, well,” Tirek mused as he slowly walked toward them. “Princess Twilight. I’m surprised you’ve managed to get as far as you did, despite all the obstacles. Crossing the desert on foot for several days couldn’t have been pleasant for you, was it? All tired, exhausted, and hungry. I, on the other hand, am well-rested and fed. And on top of that, I have a get-out-of-jail card just in case.” He gently stroked the bag that was hanging around his neck that contained Anger’s gemstone. “And look.” He pointed at the on both sides of the lake, where the nirik’s magical flame could be seen spreading around it. “I’ve also made sure that neither you nor anyone else here will be able to just leave. Outplayed and outmatched. What can you do at this point, when you can’t even run away?”

Out of nowhere, watery tentacles suddenly wrapped around his limbs and lifted him off the ground, completely disorienting him. More tentacles appeared and they tried to go after the nirik leader, but she was too fast for them and she managed to evade them, charging at the ponies. Twilight jumped in front of everybody and erected a barrier, and the attacker crashed against it head-first. And it didn’t stop; she flared up and continued to try and force through the obstacle to get the alicorn – the burning anger inside her pushed her to do so.

“Rain Shine…”

She halted. A familiar voice stopped her, one devoid of anger and full of song in her tone. The kirin on the other end of the barrier – she knew her, and she came to the alicorn’s side!

“Rain Shine, it’s me, Autumn Blaze. Don’t you recognize me?” She pressed herself against the barrier so she could raise herself to her eye level. “I know you’re there, I know you’re inside of this raging monstrosity, this isn’t the real you! I beg you…” She pressed her head against the barrier. “Please… Don’t let the anger keep hold of you…”

There was a sudden shift, a change in her behavior – the menacing look on the leader’s face disappeared, and the fire surrounding her dimmed. “Autumn… Blaze…” she slowly uttered.

“What are you waiting for, slave?!” the suspended centaur commanded in rage. “GET THEM!”

Almost instantly, the fire surrounded the nirik and the raging expression returned, her flames beginning to spread across Twilight’s entire barrier.

“I’m sorry, Autumn Blaze, we tried, but I fear this just isn’t enough,” the princess expressed her condolence, before looking at the attacker. “I’m sorry, Rain Shine. I promise we’ll come back for you… For every kirin…”

FLASH!

The Pillar of Anger was up in the air, in grips of watery tentacles, being moved about. His head was spinning, and was desperately trying to focus, opening his eyes every now and then. Eventually, he managed to put a picture together: On the side of the tower city, he spotted a pair of serpent-fish-like creatures that resembled the leader, and they seemed to be channeling some sort of spell to make the water form in a certain way. He knew what needed to be done. First, he superheated himself, causing the constrictors to almost immediately evaporate. As he landed with a loud thud on the ground, he acted quickly, focusing his magic. He knew where his targets were – out of sight, but not out of reach. The orb between his horns lit up, and he tightened the grip in his hands. And then he heard it, the sound of creatures struggling, as he lifted them both out of the body of water and brought them before him. He grinned menacingly, before opening a portal in space once again, to a desert land, and then, with a single swing, threw both adult kelpies through it, before closing the way. Easily dispatching the deterrent, the centaur once again ran up the ramp to where his enemies were… Only to find the lone nirik leader, trapped inside a pink bubble. He wasn’t pleased, not one bit. He stomped over to her and with a single thump shattered it.

“Well? Where are they?” he inquired.

Rain Shine pointed to the side of the tower, and at the last moment, all that Tirek saw was a giant deep blue body, as it took a deep dive into the lake.

“What are they thinking? The entire surrounding area is enveloped by magic fire that just keeps spreading. Where do they think they can escape to?”

Chapter 77: The Doldrum Domain

Author's Note

Back from the break everybody. Enjoy!

Chapter 77: The Doldrum Domain

“They’re both indisposed?” the mother of kelpies asked.

The Elements of Harmony managed to deal with the lack of nourishment from the early morning, as the queen of Carthage hosted the newcomers. While they filled their bellies, Twilight Sparkle informed her of the events that they had witnessed transpiring over the course of the past few days.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she confirmed. “The Storm King had isolated King Abraxas’ city behind a wall, along with its citizens, meanwhile, King Amun and his guards are keeping Queen Chrysalis and her swarm at bay but I’m not sure they’ll last much longer. And as we speak, Lord Tirek is on his way here. The whole point is for them to try and acquire something that Madam Zeg’us, Miss Sanaa, and Zecora’s tribe have been hiding. It’s-”

“Despair made manifest.”

The alicorn was quiet for a moment, surprised that the towering queen finished her sentence. “You… you know about it?”

“All too well, little one. It came here, centuries ago. It wanted to drown the whole of Farasi, starting with the desert in which it landed. It would’ve succeeded if my other companions hadn’t been present with me on that faithful day.”

“Your companions?”

“The previous ruler of abadas, Oya, Amun’s ancestor. And of course, Mansa Musa, Abraxas’ distant ancestor,” she explained.

“And our tribe’s founder,” the elder zebra added, as she sat behind the table with the rest, eating.

“Hold up, one darn second,” the discussion got the workhorse’s attention, “what do you mean by “your companions”, Your Majesty? From what Ah recall, these events happened a really long time ago, you couldn’t have possibly been there, could you?”

“Applejack, isn’t it obvious that she’s just stated that?” The fashionista was the only one not at the table, as she was still too preoccupied with drying herself up after the welcome they’d received. “Surely you’re not assuming that longevity is something non-existent, not after Princess Celestia had ruled our home for more than a thousand years.” She turned to Queen Watami. “I mean, look at her – that massive radiant elegance, it’s something somecreature could attain by transcending what one would consider a standard.”

The Element of Honesty rolled her eyes. “Okay, we get it, Rarity, cut down with the flattery.”

“Yeah, I’ve never seen a fish blush before,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

And that’s when the rest realized that the kelpie queen had one of her fins raised to cover up her face while waving the other one.

“Right…” Twilight resumed. “As I said, we’ve come to warn you about the coming threat, Your Majesty. Tirek is a powerful magic user and should not be underestimated.”

The queen finally dropped her current expression. “Do not worry, little Twilight. We’ll be ready for him.”

She sighed in relief. “Good. With that done, all we need now is directions to your village, Miss Sanaa. We need to get there as fast as possible.”

The field manager was at the table with the rest, filling herself up. “Sure, I can do that. But we’ll need some provisions for the trail.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie agreed as she stuffed herself, “we can’t risk another situation like we’ve just had, even if it means not eating anything until dinner time.”

“More than that I’m afraid, pink one,” Sanaa corrected her. “The trail there will take at least three days.”

Almost instantly, nearly everybody at the table who wasn’t a local spat out in surprise. “THREE DAYS?!” everybody said in unison.

“Sorry to burst everybody’s bubble, but the distance between here and our old village is very far. A whole caravan was needed to cross the vast distance of the Kuhama desert. In other words, you all will have to pull your weight from now on.”

“Wait a minute!” the workhorse suddenly burst out from the gathering. “You’re tellin’ me that Applebloom and Zecora are out there, in the middle of the desert, and they’ll be stuck in it for three long days?!”

Her voice echoed through the stone structure, the anxious tone in her voice clear for all to hear. But then, another one spoke.

“Did you say Zecora?”

From the side of the building where the body of water was noticeable, a small figure poked her head over the edge. It was a kelpie, much smaller than the rest, with orange-colored fins.

“Wash? What are you doing over there? Have you been eavesdropping?” the queen regarded her child.

“No, Mother! I was just-!”

“Don’t bother. You’re a bad liar. You only responded because Zecora was mentioned, otherwise, you’d just keep glaring at me.”

A familiar red-finned kelpie from earlier popped her head over the edge as well, displaying considerable height over her younger sibling.

“Wadi… I should’ve known,” their mother said disapprovingly.

The kelpie queen lifted one of her finger-like fins, and all of a sudden, a water spout shot out from beneath the two siblings, launching them in the air and onto the stone platform where the rest were.

“Wadi and Wash… Hehe, they just go hoof in hoof, don’t they?” Autumn Blaze commented.

“Anyway, back to the issue that Ah just pointed out. Ah know Zecora had supplies with her, but there’s no way a little filly like Applebloom will manage to hold out in the desert for three whole days. Her hooves aren’t even long enough like ours, which means it’ll take her even longer…!”

The wonderbolt placed her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “AJ, calm down, you’re hysterical.”

“How could Ah not be, when my little sister is stuck in an environment for which she’s not suited?!”

“Hold on, pony,” Sanaa intervened. “Here’s the thing about the village’s destination: The path to it from Mount Chinjaio is much shorter. Takes a little longer than a day.”

“Excuse me, WHAT?!”

“Yeah. Remember, the kelpie domain is pretty big on its own, and the Kuhama desert after it is even longer. That’s not the case for the domain of abadas. It’s much closer in comparison.”

“AND YOU TELL US THAT NOW?!” Applejack raised her voice.

“Applejack, stop,” Twilight tried to calm her before things escalated further. “Even if we knew that beforehand, what good would it have done for us? We’d still need to deliver our warning to the queen regardless, even if we did know in advance.”

“Well, now that we do know, teleport us back there so we can catch up to those two!”

“I wouldn’t advise that. For all we know, Chrysalis is still on the offensive, and we have no idea how far the battle has spread through that kingdom.”

“So, we’re to just let my lil' sis wander the desert aimlessly?!” the workhorse heated up again.

“Oh shimmer down, Miss Worries, you’re getting heated up over nothing.”

The orange pony’s eyes darted to the voice of one who was small enough to stand on the table, eating one of the local sweets, right next to his caretaker. “He may be a bit tactless, Applejack, but Discord does have a point. Remember, Zecora’s out there as well. If Applebloom suddenly disappeared, she must’ve followed her.”

A suppressed groan followed from the younger zebra, as she addressed the Element of Honesty. “Your softie friend’s on point. Even if we’re still here, my little sister is on her way to the village. And as much as I don’t want to say it, she’ll be able to keep an eye on her until we get there, in case somebody else tries to get ahead of us.”

“I fear you’ve got it wrong, Sanaa.”

The zebra looked at her elder in confusion. “Grandma Zeg’us, what are you talking about?”

She sighed. “If I’m correct, and I always am, I fear our little lost foal is in great danger.”

“Wait, you’re not saying something’s out there that will threaten Zecora, Madame?” Rarity wondered.

“Madame, Zeg’us, I think Carthage is in far greater danger. Tirek’s got with him one of the fragments of the evil that resembles the one that your tribe guarded. Anger has the power to burn all in its path, and on top of all, those who have been taken over by strong aggressive emotion are controlled by it.” As the princess explained that, she quickly glanced at the kirin. “That’s what’s happened to our friend’s tribe.” And in answer, Autumn Blaze lowered her head.

“True, Anger is a powerful and destructive force,” the elder acknowledged, “but Despair is far worse than it…”

“How?” Fluttershy wondered.

“Tell me something, fillies,” the old zebra addressed everybody. “What was Zecora like when she realized that she would have to return home?”

For a change, the pink puffy pony stopped eating, before inhaling deeply. “Well, when she first told us she didn’t say anything, she was just quiet and went with the flow, but then when Applejack’s younger sister got involved she got real moody until she told us the whole story of why she left her home to begin with, after which she got a bit more light-hearted, but then she closed off completely when she met you, and we all remember that she was extremely distant afterward, up until we got to the CHIN-JAI-OOOOOOOO, where she completely disappeared.” She quickly took a bite and swallowed it after a few chews. “So either she’s got a lot on her mind, or she’s got digestive problems.”

After a momentary pause, Zeg’us spoke again. “I can make an estimated guess that Zecora disappeared at Mount Chinjaio because she saw a CERTAIN SOMEBODY that she wasn’t ready to face yet.” As she said that, her eyes wandered over to the aforementioned zebra's older sibling, and she quickly caught on to it. “Her actions are driven by guilt. She’s desperate – and that’s where the problem lies. Despair drowns one’s senses, making them passive and reluctant. One who is possessed by despair will no longer care either about themselves or others. And if she’s in such an emotional state, and she'd reach the destination…”

A gasp escaped Sanaa. “Wait… Grandma Zeg’us, you’re not saying that…?”

“Yes… The worst enemy that Zecora will be facing in the doldrum lands… is herself. And if she falls prey to Despair’s influence…”

Suddenly the state of urgency blew up, as did the workhorse, as she lept off her chair and began shaking the field manager. “NOW! We need to get there now!”

“I-i-i-i-i t-t-t-t-told y-y-y-y-you!” Sanaa’s voice jumped before the pony stopped jittering her. “There’s nothing I can do! From here, our village is three days away! There’s no way to cut down the travel time!”

“Actually, there is another way,” Queen Watami answered.

They all faced the towering ruler. “There is?” Applejack asked in a hopeful tone.

“There is a path that I have created underneath the desert sands a long time ago, it was specifically made to travel to the village. I’ve only used it once in a generation, each time to commemorate our bond with the new High Shaman. So, it has been a long time since it’s been last used and it’s likely in a poor condition, but it is there.”

“Wait, there’s actually a fast travel part to Zecora’s village?” the smaller, older kelpie asked. “Mom, why didn’t you tell me?!”

“And me!” the younger one joined.

She looked down at her daughters. “It would do you nothing good knowing about it.”

“You could’ve taken me there when you visited Zecora’s village last time!” Wadi complained.

“Both of us,” Wash added.

“Both of you were far too young to go there, so of course you were left behind, as were others of my children who were your age.”

“Erm, excuse me, Your Majesty,” Rainbow Dash interrupted them. “How long would it take for us to get there that way?”

“That’s difficult to tell, but from past experiences, the sunset was almost the same when we left as well as when we got to the end.”

“Wait, you mean on the same day?” the alicorn questioned, to which she received a nod from the giant kelpie.

“REALLY?!” the joy on the workhorse quickly became noticeable. “Twi, let’s get going, now!”

“One moment, orange one,” the queen halted her. “It’s not that easy. If we’re to traverse that path I will have to check on it first. Riverflow! Channel!” At her call, two large kelpies emerged from the lake and poked their heads over the edge of the stone platform, and despite being large, they were still dwarfed by their queen. “Keep a close eye while I’m away. If some unsavory individual appears and threatens the guests, keep him occupied until I return.”

“Yes, Mother,” they both said in unison before they dived back into the water.

The Queen Watami dragged herself across the stone floor and over to the edge, preparing to slip into the lake, but was stopped. “Wait! Your Majesty!” the princess halted her. “You can’t just leave! Tirek could come at any moment!”

“I am trying to lend you all a helping fin on your quest, little princess,” she answered. “If I am to do that, then I will require you all to stand vigil in my place in the meantime. I will return posthaste.”

She slinked over the edge, and with a splash disappeared into the body of water.

“Finally!” the older of the two kelpies made her excitement known now that her mother was gone. “I’ll finally get to see the world beyond the waterways! And what better way to do it than by meeting up with a friend I’ve not seen in ages.”

“You’re not going anywhere, especially in a place that’s supposed to be dangerous,” the younger one stopped her.

“Since when are you my keeper that says where I can or can’t go?”

“Somebody has to be, considering how much trouble you have a knack for causing.”

“Oh there we go again – mama’s little girl constantly tattletales about what somebody’s doing. All because of that one time I invited a guest to a place I shouldn’t have to begin with.”

“WADI, ZECORA ALMOST DROWNED BECAUSE OF YOU!” Wash yelled at her.

As the two kelpies argued, the visitors simply stood by and watched. “This land really seems to have a case of dysfunctional families,” the rainbow-maned pony leaned and whispered to the workhorse.

“More like dysfunctional siblings, Dash,” she responded. “First, Zecora and Sanaa, and now them. Ah mean, it only happened twice, but, surprisingly, it happened in a row.”

“I don’t have siblings so I wouldn’t undestand,” the kirin let them know. “But I do know a song about sibling’s love. It goes something like this. Love, is a… burning thing… and it makes a fiery ring…”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s an unusual song about sibling love, Autumn Blaze.”

“IT BURNS, BURNS, BURNS! THE RING OF FIRE, THE RING OF FIRE!!!” she began yelling and aggressively pointing her hooves in front of her.

They looked at her in confusion with what she was doing, but the moment they turned their heads they noticed that there were streaks of red-blue flame forming on the banks of the lake and continuously spreading around it. They knew what they were looking at as there was only one set of creatures who could create it.

They were wholly unprepared for the centaur lord’s attack. He teleported himself straight to the city and was prepared to go full-blazing had two of the elder kelpies not intervened and restrained him, but his nirik servant remained. She lashed out against them and failed, and once it became clear that there was no way to get to her, Twilight encased her in a magical bubble. While that was dealt with, the main threat remained, and they just watched how the centaur lord destroyed the objects that were obstructing him and he landed on the ground again. Any moment now he was going to charge up to them and they didn’t have the means to stop him! Just then, a splashing sound followed from the side of the stone platform, and the kelpie queen’s head peaked over the edge.

“Your Majesty, he’s here!” Rarity panicked.

She didn’t say anything, as she watched in shock as two of her elderly children were enveloped in a red aura and lifted from the body of water. “We cannot wait any longer. Wadi! Wash! Tell everybody to retreat into the safety of the tower until I return!” The two siblings jumped into the lake, while she regarded the elements. “Are you all ready to go? It’s now or never.”

Twilight’s horn glowed, and almost instantly, a large purple bubble enveloped the entire group. “We’re ready, Your Majesty!” she confirmed.

The queen smiled and reached out with her elongated finger-like fins to grab hold of the orb, before dragging it along as she plunged into the lake, diving deep below its surface. The group watched the light slowly dim as they swam further away from the world above until all but complete blackness surrounded them. In the darkness, Twilight lit up her horn to illuminate the surroundings, but it didn’t help – wherever they were, the light did not reveal anything but an empty void, except for the fins of the kelpie queen who was dragging them along. That changed soon though, as they suddenly noticed ground beneath them, as well as a sudden change in the transport’s behavior. They felt a sudden pull of gravity as if they were picking up speed, and that became obvious when the force pushed them to the far end of the bubble they were in. And it didn’t end. They didn’t know how long it passed, and yet the force was still present. Eventually, however, the momentum slowed and they finally slipped back to the bottom… when all of a sudden, another force pushed them against it. And all of a sudden there was light, blinding due to the length of time that they were lacking it. There was a jerk, and everybody flew all over the place within the bubble before everything completely stopped. Twilight’s head was spinning from the journey, all she could see was the ground beneath her, and it quickly became obvious that it was desert sand. They must’ve finally reached the end, so she dispelled her conjuration, and everybody landed on the soft dunes.

“Thank Celestia,” Spike sighed in relief. “I didn’t think it would end…”

They finally took notice of their surroundings, as they spotted a large mound of sand from which water was spilling, and Queen Watami was sticking her head out of it. “This is as far as I am willing to take you, children,” she said. “But beyond this point, you will have to traverse the Doldrum Domain by yourselves.”

“Doldrum Domain? That sounds rather depressing,” Pinkie Pie pointed out.

“I’d say it’s fitting. Look,” Autumn Blaze pointed in the opposite direction.

They were all facing away from the kirin, but once they looked her way, they understood what she meant. Where they had emerged, they were met with the scorching afternoon sun of the desert, but no more than several hooves away stood a vast land covered by clouds and shrouded in a constant downpour. Not a single ray of light was breaking through the gloom.

“I didn’t think I would ever come back to this place…” the elder zebra said as she looked upon the place she once called home.

“I was here only a month ago, Grandma Zeg’us,” the younger one added. “I didn’t think I’d have to return so early.”

“My apologies, but you would be less safe in my domain than here at the moment,” Queen Watami told them. “I must return. What happens beyond is now entirely up to you all, outsiders. The fate of Farasi is entirely on your backs.”

And just like that, she disappeared out of sight. She dived back into the passage that she had traversed and quickly swam back. Her kingdom, her children, her worshipers - they were all in danger! When she finally reached the exit, she breached the lake’s surface and saw a red aura, almost resembling fire, engulfing her tower city. The centaur stood there, clutching his fists, as he levitated several of her oldest daughters in the air. She had to intervene! But her emergence didn’t go unnoticed.

“Aha! The fish queen finally shows herself!” Tirek announced boisterously.

They stared into the dark realm before them, but none of them acted yet. Almost as if there was a reluctance to simply walk in, both the visitors and the locals.

“So,” Rarity finally broke the long silence, “I don’t suppose anyone of you has an umbrella?” She only received looks of confusion. “Don’t give me those looks. After the wash we’ve had earlier I really don’t want to march through all this rain.”

“I guess we’ll have to improvise,” Twilight said. “Nothing a little magical barrier can’t fix.”

“Still… I really don’t like the looks of this…” the shy pegasus responded, followed by the one that was constantly hanging around her. “I agree with Fluttershy. I’ve seen the Everfree Forest thing, but this is something else entirely.”

“Can we just get going already instead of meandering around on who’ll take the first step?”

They all stood to the attention of the voice that clearly didn’t belong to any of them. It came from the very hole through which they all came, and from it, emerged a familiar smaller kelpie with red fins.

“Wadi?! What are you doing here?!” Sanaa exclaimed.

“Isn’t it obvious? A friend of mine needs help, so here I am.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be here!”

This time she was the one to be taken aback, as another familiar kelpie surfaced behind her. “WASH?! What are you doing here?!”

“I could ask the same for you. Mom told you to warn everybody to take shelter in the tower, and you couldn’t even do that! The moment she went off, you just went right after her!”

“Duh! This was a one-time opportunity to finally feel some freedom. Besides, here we’re far away from danger back at home.”

“But all our sisters are still out there! Our tower was one safe place, and they’re still in the lake!”

“Relax, will you? Mom’s got this handled. This Tirek guy’s probably not that tough at all.”

“Au contraire, miss Wadi,” Rarity suddenly spoke. “That’s where you are oh-so-wrong. Tirek alone is already a menace, but now he’s a serious threat, even if he doesn’t drain one’s magic.”

“It’s true,” Spike concurred. “Your mom’s gonna have to work really hard to deal with him and I doubt any other kelpie’s help will be of much good against him.”

“See! Even they agree!” Wash pointed.

“Whatever,” the older one sighed in annoyance. “I’m getting some free time at last, and there’s nobody here that can stop me.”

“Wadi, if you don’t go back right now-!”

“What? You’re gonna tell on me? Go on, tattletale. See if I care.”

The younger kelpie made an angry expression, showing that she was about to burst from anger, but instead, she took a dive and disappeared.

“Hmph. Younger siblings… Am I right?”

The older kelpie looked at everybody with a smile, but she received none back from any of them.

“Wadi, this isn’t a field trip,” the local zebra quickly protested.

“It’s not like I’m going just for leisure, Sanaa. If Zecora’s really out there, I wanna do whatever I can to help her.”

She groaned. “Of course, you would. You both had a knack for getting into trouble.”

“Well, I don’t see you being enthusiastic to help her. And you’re her sister.”

“A pot is calling a kettle black, Wadi. Stop it.”

A splashing sound followed, and a figure of a kelpie lept out of the water atop which the lone one floated. She was short on breath.

The elder sibling raised an eyebrow. “You’re back with mom already, Wash. I thought it’d take longer for you to get back to the lake.”

“I can’t get back to the lake, Wadi! The water in the tunnel… IT’S BOILING HOT!”

“Wait, what?”

“I swam back, and the water suddenly got really hot, and it just kept getting hotter and hotter. I tried to get away, and the temperature just kept rising. Here it’s cold, but I’m not sure how long it’ll stay like that.”

“But how? Who could do something like this?”

“I can make a good guess who,” Rainbow Dash said. “He’s big, he’s red, has horns, and got a firepower upgrade.”

“It seems you’ve underestimated, Tirek, Miss Wadi,” the fashionista reiterated.

An awkward silence was the only response she had, and it was expected since the brash kelpie had just been proven wrong in her assessment. They expected an apology to follow, but that wasn’t the case, as she gripped the edge and pulled herself out of the water, perching herself on the sandy edge.

“Well, since we can’t go back there’s no point in dawdling then. It’s all the more urgent that we go and help Zecora now.”

“Ah appreciate the willingness, miss,” Applejack welcomed her eagerness. “We’ve got to go, true, but Ah fear that there’s one tiny issue if you want to come.”

The kelpie regarded her. “And that is?”

The pony wiggled her floppy hoof at her. “How are you expected to walk on land? We sure as hay cannot afford to carry you.”

Wadi raised an eyebrow. “Who said anything about walking?”

The ponies looked at one another, confused with what she was insinuating. The kelpie then raised her fins, and the water in which her tail was still dipped, began to bubble up. Suddenly, blobs of liquid began to levitate, surrounding the creature’s lower half and eventually lifting her off the ground.

The Elements stared with their mouths agape. “Wait, what?! What the hay is this?!” Rainbow Dash said in a perplexed tone.

“Filly, think for a moment,” elder Zeg’us told her. “She’s the child of one of the Three Kings of Farasi. Why shouldn’t she be able to do that?”

The alicorn’s thoughts suddenly wandered off. It was true what the old zebra said, but it especially made sense in the context of what she’d seen throughout the journey through this new land.

“Abraxas’ Storm Guard… Amun’s Wingardians…” she counted. “They’re getting their powers from their rulers?”

The old zebra chuckled. “Naturally. The powers of this land, of the elements, do not belong solely to a single entity or a hooful of individuals, however, the Three Kings are the conduits through whom those powers are made manifest, and it is they who bestow fractions of it upon their subjects. And just as you mentioned, that extends to Queen Watami’s own offspring.”

“Well, that’s odd,” the pink earth pony interjected. “If she was able to do this the whole time, then why was she constantly complaining that she can’t get out of water? She seems to be doing that just fine.”

“Because, pink one, I do not possess the extent of powers that my mom does. And even then, this power has limitations,” Wadi explained. “Sure, I can levitate a body of water so that I can end up lifting myself off the round, but that water will quickly evaporate. So you see, I can’t really go anywhere unless there’s a lot of water. But seeing as how there’s a constant downpour right in front of us, it’ll help quite a bit.” She nodded in the direction of the raining realm.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” everybody jumped when Wash yelled. “You didn’t do what mom told you, our sisters were left unaware of the threat to our home, and now we can’t even go back because the water is boiling! We’re stranded here, and all you care about is going off on land! How can you be so selfish?! You don’t care even a little that mom and sisters are in trouble because of you?!”

“And what else am I to do?” she answered without a shred of regret in her voice. “Simply lay about and moan while waiting for something to happen? Not a chance. Right now, my friend, no, OUR friend, one that we’ve not seen in ages, has finally returned home and she’s in danger out there by herself. I’m not just gonna sit idly by, while these outsiders have come to help us. I’m going with them to help them in any way I can. So you’ve got two choices, Wash: Either you come with us and help as well, or you can wait here, and hope that the boiling water in the passageway doesn’t reach you. So, what will it be?”

The younger kelpie let out a suppressed whimper, and soon after, the water surrounding her bubbled up and began levitating, just like that of her sibling.

The older one smiled smugly as she passed her. “Somebody’s finally got a backbone.” She levitated to her side, facing the rest of the group. “Okay, we’re ready to go, Sanaa.”

The equines looked at one another awkwardly. “Miss Wadi, I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Fluttershy spoke out.

“Well, we don’t have much choice, shy one, now do we?”

The elder zebra sighed. “Fine, you can come along. But let me warn you: The atmosphere here quickly begins to bare down on you after a while, so you’re going in at your own risk, girls.”

“Noted,” the kelpie finished.

The old mare traipsed to the noticeable border of the raining realm before her, before turning to the alicorn. “Princess, it’s your turn.”

Twilight sighed, and then her horn glowed, creating a large oval-shaped purple roof over her head. “Okay everypony, let’s go,” she commanded.

All the mares joined her under the protective creation, and as they all moved, so did it. The moment it passed the border, the continuous rain fell on it, creating a noticeable tapping noise. And that noise was constantly present as they traversed the dark and dreary landscape. Even though they had a source of light, it certainly didn’t help light up the mood. They all followed the two zebras, the only two locals who knew the way, all the while, the two kelpies followed them at the back in the rain, levitating in their direction.

There was no light in this forsaken land. Only Twilight’s magical creation was illuminating the close surroundings, and it was up to the two natives to lead them, who, despite not having any better sight than them, instinctively knew the lay of the land. And where they led them didn’t really have much to speak of, except for dried grass that was typical for savannah, with an occasional tree now and then.

“Wadi,” the younger sibling said to the older one, “this place is giving off a really bad feeling.”

“Oh please, going soft already?” she taunted her. “We only got like, like…” The kelpie pondered for a bit before looking at the equines. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to measure land distance. How far did we get?”

“I don’t know either,” the only bipedal member of the group pointed out. “Honestly, it feels like we’ve been going on forever, but I’d chuck that up to the weather conditions.”

“Ye, I’m with Spike on this one,” Pinkie Pie agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a darker and drearier place before, and we’ve seen Sombra's Crystal Empire.”

“I don’t know what that is, but I agree,” Autumn Blaze joined. “I mean, sure, my village got burned down by magical flame that won’t go out until they all snap out of it, but at least the red-blueish flames are nice to look at. This though… All I see is doom and gloom.”

“Have you also noticed that even though it’s raining all the time, there’s no moisture in the ground?”

The younger of the two zebras uttered that, and it only dawned on them now that was the case.

“Odd,” the elder kelpie noticed, “we can feel it perfectly fine on our scales.”

“Then I’m guessing very powerful magic must be at work,” Twilight wondered.

“That’s what Despair did,” the younger of the zebras suddenly spoke. “When even the land is unable to slake its thirst, it quickly brings the entire population down.” As she said that, they passed a large empty field. “This place used to be so blooming, even in the middle of a savannah. And now it’s practically barren…”

“I rest my case,” the party planner repeated.

More undetermined time passed thanks to the aforementioned weather. And at some point, the group halted due to the two zebras standing still, as they stopped between two rugged pillars, each of which had what resembled a wall on each side.

“I remember this,” Zeg’us said. “This was the archway that marked the entry. It used to have a head-high stone wall that was covered in clay and dressed in numerous colors. But now… it’s nothing. The rain had washed away everything, even the framework.”

“Entry to what exactly?” the workhorse inquired.

“Our village…”

They couldn’t see it through the dimness that the rain was causing. As they moved forward, however, they began noticing their surroundings, or rather, what was left of them – the test of time and the environment had wrecked the huts of the settlement, leaving behind little more than ruins of rock, clay, and straw. The newcomers realized that the experience had begun taking the toll on the zebras, as they noticed their pace slowing down.

“It never gets any easier… no matter how many times I visit…” the field manager uttered.

They eventually left the houses behind, only to then begin to climb a hill, and once they ascended it, something caught them by surprise – a hut stood atop the hill, yet unlike the ones they passed earlier, it was still in good condition as if somebody’s been maintaining it.

“Finally,” Sanaa said, “a moment of respite. Everybody, come on in.” She then looked at the kelpie sisters. “Though I’m not sure you’ll fit inside.”

“No problem.” The older one waved her fin dismissively. “We’re good out here. Right Wash?” She waited, but she didn’t answer, she was gazing into the dimness. “Wash?”

“Huh? Yes, yeah, sure,” she finally snapped out of her trance.

The zebra stared at them for a moment, with a doubting expression, but she had her attention grabbed by the shy pegasus. “Excuse me, but who would possibly be living in a place like this?”

“My mom, of course,” she answered before she finally moved toward the threshold house and pulled back the curtain.

Compared to the outside, the interior was surprisingly cozy, especially with the fire that was lit in the pit in the middle of the house, along with a large pile of blankets by it.

“Mom!” Sanaa called, but she got no response. “Mom!” she repeated, finally entering, and again she received no response.

The rest of the group followed her inside. “Maybe she’s not home?” Rarity wondered.

“Mom doesn’t go out unless she has to. Nobody would be willingly out there. Mom!”

Suddenly, there was a groan, and a pile of blankets by the fire moved. From it, a zebra’s head popped out - an elderly one, though younger than the one that was with the group, with her mane flattened, strands of it falling down the head in every direction compared to the typical zebra.

“Huh? Wha…? Who’s there?” the mare questioned.

“Mom! It’s me!” the field manager repeated.

“Sanaa?” She unfurled her covers. “Please, come closer so I can get a better look at you.”

The daughter trotted to her side, while the rest were halted by the wonder bolt’s whisper. “Why is she asking her to get closer when she’s just a few hooves away?”

The confused mare reached out when her child came within leg’s reach and scooped her face in her hooves, squinting. “Sanaa, sweetie,” she finally said in a happy tone. “How nice of you to come visit.”

She hugged her. “I wish you’d finally stop living in this horrible place, mom.”

“Oh honey, you know I can’t just go. I have things to look after.”

“Your looks are certainly not one of them, Pilirani,” the eldest in the room jokingly addressed her.

“Wait… There’s somebody else with you?” the mare noticed it and she pulled back from the embrace. “It sounds familiar but I can’t put my hoof on it.” The elder approached her. “Matron Zeg’us? You’re here too? I haven’t seen you… Well, in a really long time. You look well for your age.”

“And you on the other hand don’t, little Pili. Your sight is worse than mine.”

The late middle-aged mare chuckled. “I guess it comes with the territory. When you see nothing but gloom outside your home and the only light you see is your fireplace, you sort of get used to it.”

“That’s why I keep telling you to leave, mom,” Sanaa pleaded. “This place isn’t good for your health.”

The matriarch sighed. “And I’ll keep giving you the same answer, girl – I cannot leave this place alone, not where there’s one more left that needs to be looked after. And if I’m not here for him, who else will?”

“You staying here and suffering for dad’s sake is not going to help him, mom.”

“So you say, dear. But I’m willing to bear the same burden of despair that he’s taken upon himself.”

“That’s why we’ve come, Miss,” Twilight finally spoke, making her presence known.

The old mare’s attention was grabbed again. “There’s somebody else with you? Today just keeps getting livelier than I can recall way back,” Pilirani chuckled. “Please, come closer.” The Elements of Harmony approached, and a noticeable curious expression formed on her face when she finally saw them. “Oh my, I don’t ever recall seeing such a colorful collection of individuals in our land before.”

“I’m Princess Twilight of-” she tried to introduce herself, only for Sanaa to interrupt her.

“Sorry, Princess, but we’re in a hurry so introductions will have to wait. Mom, these outsiders came to help. All the other kingdoms have been besieged by evildoers who came to our land to get the Despair that rests in our land,” her daughter quickly explained. “The Kings are holding them back but I’m not sure they’ll be able to hold out for much longer.”

“And Zecora’s brought us here so we can prevent them from getting it,” Spike added.

The zebra mother looked at the dragon, her expression still locked into one of curiosity, but it was clear it was because of shock. “I’m sorry, what did you say, little lizard?”

“I’m a dragon, not a lizard, ma’am. I said that Zecora’s brought us here,” he repeated.

Her face was still frozen in the previous state, and she turned to her elder. “He speaks the truth, Pili. Your little filly’s back in Farasi, I’ve seen her myself.”

The expression on the mare suddenly collapsed and she made a choking sound, trying to suppress a cry. “My little filly… She’s back…”

“Mom, hold the waterworks,” the eldest daughter tried to hold her back from the eruption. “You mean to tell us she’s not passed here yet?”

The teary-eyed mare looked at her in confusion. “What…? Why would she be here already? Wasn’t she with you?”

“She split from the group when they got to Mount Chinjaio. And I can make a good guess she did it to avoid tongue-lashing from me if we came face to face. And we’ve not seen her since yesterday, since we had to get to Queen Watami to deliver the warning, so I assumed she’s gotten here before us.”

She shook her head. “Nobody’s come this way since you were here last time, Sanaa…”

“Madam, I understand you’re in a vulnerable state right now,” Rarity interjected, “but we have to get to where the evil is locked away, we can’t risk others getting to it first.”

“Hold up, glamour girl,” the younger zebra halted her, “nobody’s been to that accursed place since the tribe’s exodus, we’ve no idea what surrounds it now.”

“I assure you, the prison’s surroundings are quite safe,” the mare assured as she wiped her nose.

“How do you know that, mom?” Sanaa wondered.

“Because I kept a close eye on it every day. It was one of the only things I’ve been doing on a daily basis. I even put up a seal to ensure that nothing would come out if my dear Khari’s will was to falter by any chance.”

“Good, then we’re in luck.” Her daughter got up and trotted towards the entrance. “We won’t be long, mom. We’ll deal with the evil that infects our land, that way you won’t have to live in this dreary place anymore. And after all of this is done we’ll never have to deal with that stupid selfish Zecora again.”

A gasp escaped the Elements after they heard her say it, especially in front of her family.

“Whoa, hold up, that’s a bit much now,” Applejack intervened. “You can’t just go and say that, especially not in front of your mother.”

“Excuse me, miss Stick-my-nose-in-things-that-don’t-concern-me, you’re an outsider and you’re in no position to judge me!”

“Sanaa,” her mother suddenly halted her. “A miracle has happened – a filly I thought lost has returned. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Do you really hate your little sister that much?”

“Yes, I do, mom! I have nothing but hate for her! Had Zecora just done what was expected of her, none of this would’ve happened! Father, you, the tribe! None of the hardships that we had to endure all this time would’ve happened! And I’m never gonna forgive her for being so selfish!” And with those words, she stormed out of the hut.

“Well… that went about as bad as I expected it would…” Autumn Blaze quipped.

“I’m so sorry about this,” Twilight tried apologizing.

The late middle-aged mare rubbed her head. “Do not hold it against Sanaa, miss, none of you should. She’s been raised to care about the well-being of the tribe first and foremost. For somebody to think about themselves in the moment of self-preservation is something she has difficulty to comprehend. She just needs time.”

“You’d think after so many cycles she’d have gone over it already,” the elder noted. “Just goes to show how festering hatred is. Don’t worry, Pilirani. We’ll go with her to make sure she won’t do something stupid.”

“Madam Zeg’us, shouldn’t you just wait here where it is safe and dry?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “I mean, it’s nice and warm, and out of danger-”

“Are you calling me for a wet blanket, filly?” the elder zebra gave her a stern look. “I’ve come this far, I might as well see this to the end. Somebody has to keep that “volatile fern” in check after all.” She walked past them, then stopped at the doorway. “Well, what are you waiting for, princess? For us to get wet?”

The alicorn quickened her step, as did the rest of the group, and once she was outside she again created a field to keep the rain away.

“You just wait, Pilirani,” the matron said one last time. “We’ll get your two fillies back.” And she passed the threshold, disappearing behind the curtain.

There was a weight that seemed to have rolled off the tribal matriarch’s chest. She sighed in relief, yet there was a noticeable sense of restrain in it. Her child has finally returned and she brought friends with her, but the true test was still before her, and if anything was to go on from what they had told her was happening in the other kingdoms, they would need all the good fortune they have. She reached for the brew and took another sip of it to reassure herself.

FNNN.

Suddenly, she heard a strange sound in the distance.

FNNN. FNNN.

It was far, but whatever it was, it sounded heavy.

FNNN! FNNN! FNNN! FNNN!

The sound seemed to be multiplying as it drew closer, as if a giant four-legged creature was approaching, and the vibrations that it was giving off caused the liquid in her cup to vibrate. She was starting to get concerned. All the time she’s lived here since Despair took over, she’s not encountered something like this. Which could only mean… it could be related to invaders.

The sound suddenly stopped as it reached the foothold of her home, and all she could hear was a strange grunting sound afterward.

“Wait here, Paramis,” a voice said on the other side. “This may be a while.”

There was another presence outside, the heavy stomping was masking it from her still fully functioning senses. And then her burdened eyes saw the light move at the doorway, signifying that somebody had just entered her home, and then she heard the sound of hooves approaching, but they stopped on the threshold of the light that her fireplace was producing, not even able to see the silhouette of the presence.

“Who’s there? Who are you?” she asked.

“I could ask the same question,” the grizzled voice answered, quickly signaling to her that whoever he was, was old. “I have been traveling this realm of depression for a long time, and I’ve not met any other living being that hasn’t fully succumbed to despair.”

The way he spoke, there was power in the tone of his voice. “I am Pilirani, the last matriarch of the tribe,” she indulged him.

“Is that so?” the voice wondered for a moment. “In that case, I come seeking your council, matriarch.”

She was surprised, she had not anticipated that the presence was willing to ask for advice. “My eyes are not what they used to be. Please, come closer so I can see you clearly.”

“If it’s all the same, matriarch, it’s best for both of us if you do not know my identity,” the voice declined. “You see, much like the trotters that were here a few moments ago, I am an outsider. And I seek your wisdom, for there are questions that even my own age and experience are not enough to answer.”

He was clearly reluctant to do anything that would give him away, but she knew that he wasn’t just going to let her be if she declined him. “If that is the case, then I will do what I can to assist you. What do you want to know?”

Following the younger of the two zebras, the Elements of Harmony continued to traverse dim unknown land. Eventually, however, she came to a halt.

“What’s wrong, Sanaa?” the alicorn asked.

“We’ve come to the edge of the forbidden jungle.”

“So?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

“I’ve only ever gone this way once, and back then it wasn’t as dark as is now. My sense of direction isn’t going to be of much help now, so I’m gonna need your help. Can anyone generate more light?”

The ponies turned to the only other unicorn present. “Me?” the fashionista gave them a look of surprise.

“Hey, I can provide light too,” Spike argued.

“But spike, if you use dragon fire to light the way you’re likely going to set the forest aflame,” Fluttershy noted.

“Oh… right.”

Rarity sighed. “Well, I suppose if there’s no other way… Though I wish I had my suitcases with me, I had my hardhat in one of them.”

She went to the front of the group and her horn lit up brightly, illuminating their surroundings quite a bit, and revealing the growth in front of them. They pushed onwards through the dense jungle until they finally came to an open area, and the light was so bright that it revealed a great valley before them, although the atmosphere didn’t improve the look of the place. Something did stand out though.

“What’s the giant building that’s in the distance?” Wadi wondered about the silhouette.

“If it were anyone else, they would think it was one of the Musa’s spires, but that’s actually a dead baobab tree. And it’s there that the prison is. So, we need to hurry.” Sanaa quickly went ahead and descended into the valley beneath them, with the rest following.

And once again they trudged through the overgrowth beneath the giant tree but when they did, they were met with an unexpected sight. At the very base of the tree, a set of giant stone doors was opened, and erected in front of them was a large pink barrier that seemed to be going all around the tree’s base.

Pinkie Pie hopped to the front and knocked on the barrier’s surface. “Hello, anypony home?”

“Hah! The pink one’s funny,” the eldest of the two levitating kelpies noted. “Right, Wash?” But she received no reply, as the younger sibling was just staring into the distance. “Wash!”

“Huh?!” she snapped out of the trance.

“What’s with you? You’ve been acting absent-minded since we got here?”

“It’s just… This place is giving me a bad feeling.”

“That’s to be expected,” Zeg’us told the kelpies. “It’s the aura that’s originating from this place that’s making you feel down.”

“And so is my mom, so let’s hurry up and bring this ward down.” The field manager urged.

Twilight stepped forward and dispelled the cover, and soon enough, rain was falling on everybody else present. In the meantime, she focused her magic to dispel the barrier. However, she quickly realized something was off because no matter how hard she tried, the barrier remained.

“Sanaa, do you maybe know how to remove this?” she asked her.

“Me? Why would I? I’ve no expertise in this, and I’ve never seen something like this before.”

“But your mother said she’s the one who placed a ward. Do you really have no idea what sort of spell she could’ve used?”

"This is a new one to me, to be honest. I've not seen sealing magic like this being used by our tribe."

“Madame Zeg’us?” she turned to the elder mare.

“Sorry, dear, but I fear I'm as much in the dark as you are.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” the workhorse yelled as water dripped down her hat. “We came all this way and nopony thought about asking how to remove this barrier?”

And an awkward silence followed as the rest of the quadrupeds looked away in embarrassment.

“I just thought it would’ve been easier to remove…” Twilight said in an awkward tone.

“We know about zebra magic as the next pony, Twi, which is next to nothing. Now we’ll have to go all the way back to ask Zecora’s mom how to do it.” And with an irritated groan, she walked the way they just came from.

“Applejack?!”

Almost instantly the Element of Harmony stopped in her steps. She knew that voice - everybody except for the natives present did! It came from the other side of the barrier. And there they spotted her – a familiar young mare with a large bowtie on her head was present before them.

“APPLEBLOOM?!”

Chapter 78: Running Away in the Opposite Direction

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 79: The Weight of Despair

There was no end to the downpour in the land of the rain - so it has been, so it would remain. And outside the only livable home that used to be part of the main settlement of this region, a lone arimaspi huddled himself at the entrance. He didn’t want to be out in the rain, but he didn’t have a choice since he was bigger than the hut. Besides, his master ordered him to keep watch so he wouldn’t be disturbed while he was making inquiries. To pass the time he laid down on his belly and rested his head upon his arms, as his single eye gazed into the dimmed distance. But then he felt something – the rumbling of the ground, it roused him from what would have caused him to snooze away. He got back on all fours and waited, thinking it would repeat, but instead, something else did – the surroundings beyond a few hooves finally became noticeable, and all because the rain stopped falling. He quickly let out several grunting sounds, and before long, his master popped his head past the flap that was covering the entrance of the hut.

“What is it, Paramis?” Grogar wondered, but seeing the environment change from what it was before made him understand. “Ah. I see. Things have been set into motion then.”

“Hello? Sir? What’s happening?” a voice called out to him from within the hut.

The grizzled ram turned and addressed the resident. “It’s best you come out here and see for yourself, matriarch.”

“Sir, in case you’ve forgotten, my eyes are not as good as they used to be.”

“I do not think you will need your sight to discern what’s going on.”

He stepped out of the hut, and a few moments later, an elderly zebra mare with a flattened mane emerged. She walked a few hooves past the threshold and then suddenly stopped, waving her hooves about.

“You’ve noticed, didn’t you?” Grogar wondered.

“The rain… it stopped.”

“And what does that signify?”

“Two things. Either that the evil that is locked beneath our land has finally been pacified for good or…” Her voice suddenly became distraught. “Oh, my sweet Khari, please don’t tell me…”

The Elements of Harmony and companions were frozen in shock. Whatever had happened beneath in the prison did not work in their favor. A large tentacle made of water was sticking out of the doorway, and it had just destroyed the last protection with ease. It retracted, making the quadrupeds believe that it was about to retreat back into the hole, yet the kirin quickly realized what was about to happen. She was instantly enveloped in a blue and red flame, her body turning black as if charred, and she dashed in front of Applebloom and Zecora, creating a curved line of intense flame in front of them. And just as she finished it, the tentacle thrust forward at them, only to evaporate as it made contact with the magical flame.

“Guys, don’t just stand there! RUN!” Autumn Blaze yelled, as she quickly made a U-turn and ran past everybody.

The rest listened and quickly followed her, with Twilight using her magic to pick up Zeg’us and carry her away, and just in time, as the watery tentacle quickly reformed and now even more of them began forcing themselves out the doorway, breaking it apart in the process. They ran through the dense jungle, eventually climbing up a hill, until they finally reached the flat tops that were overlooking the valley below. The kirin by then, had already phased out of her dark form, trying to catch her breath.

“Talk about a close call there, Burnie,” the older kelpie thanked her, before turning her attention to the younger sibling she was holding in her embrace. “Hey Wash, come on, the rain stopped already, wake up!” But she gave no response.

With the Elements finally catching up to her as well, Twilight finally placed the elder zebra on the ground again. “Madame Zeg’us… That thing… What we saw coming out the door…” She panted.

“That was our would-be prisoner, miss. It has been unleashed,” she confirmed what the alicorn wanted to know.

“This isn’t good! Zecora, whatever happened down there?!” Rainbow Dash demanded an answer from their local shaman.

Before she could speak, however, she was interrupted when the workhorse rushed in her direction and tacked the mare that was running by her side, squeezing her into an embrace and smothering her with kisses and snuggles. “Oh Suga’ Cube, you’ve no idea how worried Ah was about you. Ah could hardly shut my eyes out of fear that Ah’d never see you again. Never mind that you were only a hoof away and Ah wasn’t able to help you.”

“Ap… ple… jack… Too… tight…” the young mare struggled to speak in her older sister’s embrace.

It was a moment of reprieve for all and a chance to elevate... but there was some tension in the air. The pony siblings were at peace, and the kelpie siblings were better off than before, but the same could not be said for the zebras. As the Apple sisters were hugging it out, Zecora’s gaze wandered around the rest of the group and her eyes met Sanaa’s. She was staring at her with a surprised expression for a split second, before it finally turned into a nasty scowl, which just showed what she was thinking. Others present could see that things were about to get awkward.

The elder zebra smacked the young angry one on her frizzy mohawk mane, flipping in on the other side of her head, breaking the moment. “Will I have to pull you by the ear like a little filly before you finally make up?”

Sanaa only let out a humph and turned away from everybody else.

Meanwhile, as the Element of Honesty rocked her sister in her embrace, she suddenly felt something moist on her front legs. “That’s okay, Suga’ Cube. Just let it all out, Ah understand how awful it must’ve been.”

“Applejack, I’m not crying.”

“What are you talking about? I can feel your tears right on maaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…”

The workhorse’s voice trailed away, turning high-pitched when she pulled her head back and saw what was actually making her fur wet. The yellow earth pony was carrying the zebra’s saddlebags, and out of it something was sticking out – a familiar grey blob-like creature which was normally supposed to be sealed in a thick glass jar for rock candy, but now it was outside and part of it was stretching out and clinging to the orange pony’s front leg.

“Twiiiiiii… Twiiiiiii…” The country pony tried to get the princess to notice her without alerting and aggravating the physical manifestation of evil they had been containing.

Instead, it was the fashionista that took notice of her. “Applejack darling, why are you talking as if you were silently screaming?” She approached and came within view of the formless blob. “TWILIGHT!”

The scream finally alerted everybody else, and when she did, Applejack quickly swung her hoof in an attempt to fling the creature off her younger sibling’s back. It flew a short distance before splattering on the ground and reforming itself.

“Where the hay is the jar?!” Rainbow questioned as she jumped for the two sisters and began rummaging through saddlebags that Applebloom was carrying.

“Rainbow Dash, wait! It's not what it looks like!” the young mare tried to calm them down.

“It’s escaped, that’s what it looks like!” the older sibling said. “Twi! Isolate it quickly before it gets away!”

The princess acted, using her magic to scoop out a ditch around the aberration, creating an elevated pillar from which it couldn’t crawl away. And then it began making a sound that resembled a cat crying.

“Dash, where’s that jar?!” Pinkie panicked.

“I’m trying! I can’t find it among all this junk!” she answered as she stuck her head into the saddlebag.

“It’s not here, Rainbow Dash,” the Cutie Mark Crusader told her. “We lost it down in the prison.”

“Wait, you mean to tell us it broke?!” her older sister raised her voice. “How in tarnation could you let that happen?!”

MREEEE!

“Girls, no time to point hooves! How do we deal with this?!” Rarity complained as the aberration cried out again.

The young mare took off the saddlebags and shoved them at her sister. “Hold these for me.” And she galloped off in the direction of the isolated creature.

Before she could reach it, just as she lept over the trench that Twilight had dug out, the aforementioned alicorn froze her in midair. “Applebloom, stay away from that thing! It’s dangerous!”

“No, it’s not, Twilight! It’s good now!”

Silence followed, only to be broken by the country pony. “Beg pardon?”

“Look, I dunno what exactly is the deal with this creature, but I’m tellin’ you: It’s not dangerous.”

“Applebloom, I assure you, we’ve seen what this creature has done and I can tell you it’s anything but that,” the princess told her.

Somebody tapped her on her shoulder, only to discover it was their local shaman, who stopped trying to avert herself from her older sister’s gaze and was now by the pony’s side. “Do as she requests, she’s not the kind to make such jests.”

Twilight was reluctant to even entertain such a thought due to her experience. But she rarely ignored Zecora’s words, she must’ve known what she was talking about. She levitated the young mare to the isolated area and released the spell on her.

“TWI, NO!” Applejack tried to stop it, but it was already too late.

The Cutie Mark Crusader trotted to the crying blob and gently stoked its gooey surface. “Shhhh. There there, calm down, it’s okay.”

“Merw…”

Much to the Elements’ surprise, the aberration stopped making agitated noises, being replaced by ones that almost sounded content. Out of everybody, the representative of Kindness flew up to get closer.

“Wait, Fluttershy! Don’t get close to that slime ball!” Discord urged her as she flew with him over to the young mare.

She landed beside the grey blob, startling it for a moment, but after she reached for it and gave it a gentle rub, it resumed making the sounds of contentment. “Awww,” she said, as she scooped it into her embrace. “It’s not harmful at all, it’s all gentle and cuddly.”

“Bleach! Yeah, about as gentle and cuddly as the Smooze,” the former Lord of Chaos made a gagging sound as the gelatinous substance smooshed against him since he was nestled in the fanny pack around the animal caretaker’s neck.

The rest of the Elements just stared in disbelief at what they were seeing.

“I don’t believe it…” Twilight turned to their local zebra. “Zecora, how did this happen?”

“If you want to hear what happened during my task, I fear I’m not the one to ask.” She pointed at her pupil.

The rest finally approached the two yellow ponies who were comforting the aberration.

“Applebloom, you’ve got some explainin' to do,” her older sibling demanded. “We’ve been dealin’ with this… thing since the trouble began, and it was never like this.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie jumped in. “It’s always been on some level of nasty. Why is it acting like a cat all of a sudden?”

“You know, AJ, now that I look at it up close, it looks lighter than when we last saw it,” Rainbow Dash confirmed.

Twilight finally reached them. “Applebloom, tell us what exactly happened down there in the prison?”

The youngest in the group finally grabbed her attention. “Okay, I’ll explain it all. But I fear it’s not all rosy and… we may have a big problem on our hooves.”

“You mean like the one that just came crawling out?” Rarity asked.

“No… It may be something even worse.”

Applebloom gulped. Even though she tried to steel her heart, her thoughts were still shaking from the wailing echoes that came from the depths of the prison. But she understood that she was the only one who could do something on the inside of the magical barrier. She stood before the threshold of the giant stone door that was just barely opened for one to squeeze through, and after waiting a few seconds, she slowly descended. The initial part was familiar to her and it passed quickly, but once she got to the part where she initially stopped, she lost any visibility she had, and she began hearing it again – wailing… those awful wailing cries, as if somebody or something was in unbearable agony, and it only got louder as she descended further. That wasn’t the only thing she noticed - she felt an increasingly heavy atmosphere, as if the air was thick with moisture, as well as sensing the splashing under her hooves on the stairs. But soon enough, the darkness began to disappear, as an increasingly glowing light began to illuminate her surroundings. The young mare soon started to become aware of them, and that’s when she spotted the source once she finally reached the bottom of the stairs.

The passageway opened to reveal a large room, and in the middle of it was a dome of light. And it was from this dome that those unbearable wailing cries were coming. At this point though, it became clear to the earth pony that this voice certainly didn’t belong to the zebra; whatever it was, it sounded… unnatural. And speaking of her mentor, this was where another object caught her eye, or rather, several of them – a pair of the shaman’s saddlebags, and her cloak! She’s just left them here? Why? She would’ve never left her belongings behind! Where could she have gone? That’s when she noticed that among the items she’d left behind, something wasn’t there – her staff, the one that she’d been carrying around and wouldn’t let go of no matter what. And it didn’t take long for her to put two and two together and determined there was only one place she could’ve gone. This was it – her mentor’s final confrontation was here, and she must’ve entered the glowing, wailing, magical bubble. There was no way she was going to let her face this evil alone! She picked up the cloak and stuffed it into one of the saddlebags, which she then tossed on her back and made her way closer to the dome of light. She stopped for a moment, her courage giving her a hard time, dreading what was waiting for her on the other side. She reached out at the bubble, creating a trail of magic on the dome’s surface, before she finally steeled herself, and with a long step, she stepped through the magical anomaly.

It flashed before her eyes for a bit before they finally readjusted to the new surroundings, but after a while, she thought it would’ve been better to keep them shut as she began feeling nauseous. The colors were vibrating all around her, changing at a quick interval, making things nearly impossible to focus on. And yet among it, there was a discernable sound that was coming from nearby. It sounded as if the wood was crashing against water, and every now and then, she heard a grunting sound. With her eyes closed she followed the increasingly loud trail, until she finally felt water splash into her face. Applebloom finally opened her eyes and discovered what was happening. She saw Zecora, standing face to face with another zebra, who was much elderly and wizened compared to her, dressed in tribal garments and wearing a mask. And surrounding him was a giant watery serpent with deep blue eyes, relentlessly striking at her mentor, who constantly repelled every strike with her staff that she seldom parted with. And each time the two forces connected, the colors of the surroundings shifted.

“My pillar,” the mournful voice came from the serpent, and it quickly became clear to the pony that it was its wailing that she heard earlier. “You finally came back… after all this time… Yet… why is your intent so… hostile?”

“Do not talk down to me, as if I'm an unweaned filly! After what you’ve put me through I never wanted to return, but now that I’ve seen the whole picture, I know now I cannot ignore at every turn!”

“Have you forgotten already, my pillar? I’m not the one trapping him… He is keeping me trapped with him. And you would intentionally dispel his protection? To what end?”

“To prove I’m not as weak as I was before! That I can bear the burden and protect that tribe he cared for! Seasons came and went, and I’m stronger and wiser too, and this time I’ll ensure that my fada is freed of you!”

The zebra and the living water were tossing the words at one another, seemingly unaware of the newcomer to their battlefield. That soon changed…

“Stronger? Wiser?” The voice that Applebloom heard this time was different, almost whispering, and it clearly didn’t belong to either of them, yet it was certain somebody else spoke that couldn't be seen. “You count time in a manner that means nothing to eons. You are still a child regardless… Though not nowhere near as the young one.”

The pony suddenly noticed that the watery serpent’s head switched its attention from Zecora and directly at her. Watery tentacles erupted from it and flew past the zebra, who was confused for a moment as to why it missed her, only to turn her head and spot its target.

“Applebloom?!” the shaman cried out in shock and quickly dashed to her side to try and intercept.

The young mare in the meantime reacted to the assault on her, running to the side. Yet even if she did that, the elemental tentacles trailed after her. It wasn’t until the zebra finally stepped in the way and swung her staff that they dispersed.

“Applebloom, I do not need a harrier!” she chewed out her apprentice. “You were supposed to stay on the other side of the barrier!”

“Why? So you could fight and win against this thing on your own?” the pony defended herself. “Twilight and others are already here, Zecora! And they can’t get past the barrier which you tricked me to put up!”

“While I’m glad for their willingness to assist, their assistance, I will have to delist!”

“You mean like how Twilight did it to you when she blocked your path when she faced Chrysalis?”

“IT’S NOT THE SAME!!!” the zebra completely broke the calm demeanor. “She wasn’t the one responsible for bringing the changeling queen back! THIS! THIS IS MY BURDEN TO BEAR! NOBODY ELSE’S!!!”

Her voice echoed in anger, but that’s not what put Applebloom off – it was the fact that Zecora didn’t rhyme what she just said. She recalled how often, even in the face of danger, she would be able to make words connect. This wasn’t the case. At this very moment… she was not herself.

“A burden that is too heavy for you, even now…” the whispering voice spoke again.

A moment of distraction was enough. One of the watery tentacles crept behind the duo, and the moment the voice garnered their attention and made them turn their heads toward it, it struck! Zecora’s staff was launched out of her grip and flew across the air, landing halfway between them and the watery serpent that surrounded the elder zebra. The shaman panicked, quickly jumping and running to retrieve the only object that had the chance of repelling one of Turmoil’s aspects, and at the same time, the said creature reached out for it as well. The zebra was faster than it, though. She was going to make it at the last moment.

“AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

The tentacle that disarmed her remained where it was before, its presence completely ignored after what had just happened. Yet, as the young mare galloped after her tutor, unable to keep up with her speed, it stretched after her, coiling around her hind legs and lifting her in the air like a rag doll. Applebloom let out a shriek of fear, and the moment that happened, Zecora stopped for a split second out of worry for her apprentice. It was over. One of the tentacles reached the staff, coiling around it and snatching it from her. It raised it far beyond her reach, after which, another tentacle joined it, coiling around it, and they both began applying pressure on it, bending it. And the shaman could do nothing but watch as the inevitable was about to happen.

“You. Were not. Prepared.”

SNAP!

And as soon as the whispering voice finished, the tentacles snapped the staff in half, dropping it on the ground. The zebra quickly scrambled to pick up the pieces of junk from the floor, failing to hold both halves in her hooves as she was shaking.

“No. No. No. No. No.” she kept repeating in a visible state of shock.

“How does it feel, pillar?” the mournful voice suddenly returned. “To have that which you treasured broken? The possession that reminded you of your sire so much that you were prepared to do anything to protect it? That one last tie to your family… gone.” And then the whispering one spoke again. “You could’ve preserved it. You could’ve preserved all. Your family, your tribe. And in a moment of hesitation, you threw it all away.”

“No,” she fought back. “I couldn’t do anything that would help back then. Even... even if I were to stay…” she tried to connect the rhyme, but her thoughts were simply too distraught.

“Even the words that you scramble to speak, they are not yours. You hold no greater meaning to them - they are a reminder, a desperate clinging to the memory of your father who was able to twist his words. And now, you’ve even lost your voice.”

“Now… you are truly,” and as whisper spoke, mournful one overtook it. “ALONE.”

And the light of the room slowly began to dim, everything around them disappearing into the darkness. Applebloom tried to free herself from the watery tentacles, but it was of no use. Soon, the blackness overtook her.

Applebloom regained her consciousness. She still saw the brightness surrounding her, but this time it was different – it was coming from the beating sun above her. And she was surrounded by blades of grass. She wasn’t inside the prison anymore, that was for sure; she was in the savannah grasslands, one that resembled the one she and her mentor had to pass, only in the cover of heavy rain. The pony looked about and only noticed a small settlement in the distance among the grasses, leaving her with no other choice but to go towards it. With her sight not being obscured, the traversal to her destination felt pretty quick, but she soon stopped. Before her stood an archway – one which they also encountered, yet unlike that one it wasn’t ruined. It was very colorful, its top adorned with white, red, blue, yellow, and brown tints intertwining, almost resembling a rainbow. its walls were stretching in a circular curve, depicting the border of the settlement. She passed through it, and on the other side of it finally saw what she encountered earlier which caused her mentor’s despondence to become noticeable. A village full of zebras, going happily about their business, children running about and playing on the dirt road, with not a care in the world.

“So this was what Zecora’s home looked like,” she thought to herself. “I’d hate to see it end up the way it did.”

Then she heard a sound – a buzzing sound as if a massive collective of tiny bugs was approaching. And she saw it! A swarm quickly approached her location, and in a matter of seconds, it washed over her. It passed as quickly as it came, but something hit her in the face and then sat on her muzzle – it was a tiny blue ball-like creature with insect wings, four tiny legs, and large innocent eyes. But the young mare immediately knew that this creature was anything but innocent from first-hoof experience, as the parasprites once devoured Ponyville. This is why she quickly realized what was to follow, and recalling what she thought not a moment ago, she knew now that she jinxed it. The invasive species descended upon the unsuspecting village and the chaos erupted, with the locals running about, screaming and panicking as the creatures consumed anything edible they could find.

“No! No no no no no! I didn’t know they were bad! It’s not my fault!”

Out of the many cries of terror, one of them stood out. A young zebra mare, no older than Applebloom herself, was running down the dusty street, frantically looking about with horror on her face, her words sounding unlike anything that somebody would say in this situation. But it was her voice that was familiar, even if it wasn’t as deep. Was that maybe… HER?

KRAKK!

Thunder clapped from above, halting the panic in the village, though the parasprites didn’t care. At a small hut on top of the hill that overlooked the village, a lone masked zebra stallion was sitting outside of it, and he began glowing in blue. Suddenly, the wind kicked up, pulling through the settlement, through every nook and cranny, picking every single sprite and dragging them out of the village. Much to the pony’s shock, so was she, as the force of nature pulled her away and sent her lying out of the village, past the threshold of the archway she had initially passed, and it’s where she finally stopped. She rose again and shook her head to recollect herself, and then quickly rushed through the structure again to enter the village. The moment she reached her previous location, she realized something had changed: Based on what she saw, some time had already passed, and the lively atmosphere from earlier was gone; nobody was working or going about their business, and there were no children playing outside, but those she did see were lying on the ground in the shade, and what children she saw were crying, all the while she could hear strange growling noises in the air. To say that she found the sight of famine unsettling would be an understatement.

“No… No… It’s not fair… Why do we have to live like this…? We don’t deserve it…”

And once again the familiar voice reached her ears. She saw her again, the young mare, and this time she was slowly dragging her hooves through the dusty street, the look of despair visible on her. There was no way it could’ve been anybody else but her. She tried to beckon her, but she ran away towards the hill. Something odd happened then, as the sun suddenly set and the moon rose, stars blanketing the sky. Night had suddenly fallen ridiculously fast, and the only light she saw was on the hilltop where the younger version of her mentor had run off. She followed her hoof steps and got to the house, but was immediately met with yelling, whatever was happening inside she couldn’t make out what was being said, but it was clearly an argument. She got to the threshold of the house and was about to pull the curtain away to enter it, only for a shape to suddenly run out and right past her. It was the young zebra from earlier, and once she was a short distance from the house she screamed at the top of her lungs, angrily bucking in the air for a while until she eventually lay on the ground. And then she began to cry, a desperate cry for help that nobody would come to offer her. Applebloom couldn’t simply stand by and watch this heart-wrenching scene, she had to comfort her. But before she could utter a word to her, another voice spoke… a mournful one.

Come…

The zebra turned her head in its direction and began walking towards it.

“Zecora, stop! Don’t go after it!” Applebloom called out to her, but her voice didn’t reach her.

Seeing her going away, the pony didn’t stand by idly and quickly ran after her. And the moment she did that, the zebra began running as well. This time things were different though – both their legs were about the same length, which meant that she couldn’t outrun her. That plan would soon get dashed away, however, when the rain suddenly began to fall, and a familiar scenario played out for her, as the visibility suddenly dropped just when she reached the forested area, to the point when it all became pitch black, more so than compared to what she initially saw. The pony stopped in her tracks. At this point, it became clear to her that something unnatural was at work, something that was actively preventing her from following her mentor’s younger version. She couldn’t follow her anymore, she needed something that would help her see in the dark, so she sat down and began rummaging through Zecora’s saddlebags that she had been carrying around this whole time, trying to find something useful.

“I need to find it, something that will light the way,” she thought to herself. “I’m the only one who can help Zecora, and after all that she’s done, there’s no way I’m gonna give up on her.”

Hope is a light in the darkness, when all other lights have gone out…

Her thoughts were roused to attention by a gentle voice. She looked about to see where it came from but couldn’t see anything through the darkness that surrounded her. But then she saw it – a glow, coming from within one of the saddlebags. She quickly reached inside and much to her surprise, pulled out a glass jar she saw earlier. The animated gray blob was still motionless, but the spark of light that it harbored within was glowing. It took her a moment to finally notice something was odd: She was holding the jar close to the ground and saw that the darkness that had enveloped her completely disappeared and was replaced with the crumbling stone that resembled the stairs she had descended into the vault not long ago. The light within the jar was dispelling the illusion that surrounded her! She quickly searched the saddlebags again to find a rope and then tied it around the jar's neck so she could hold it in her mouth, before advancing further. Once again, she was descending further, her hooves able to find proper footing, but it didn’t take long before she began hearing wailing cries again, but they were different this time around. They almost sounded like…

“Zecora!” Applebloom called out while trying to make sure the rope wouldn’t fall out of her mouth.

SPLASH!

She stopped, as that wasn’t a sound she was expecting to hear. She looked down and saw her front hooves standing in a body of glowing green liquid. She was frightened for a moment, wondering what she’d just stepped in, before raising her hoof to take a closer look and giving it a quick sniff. She waited a few seconds, but when she once again heard her mentor’s wailing sound she didn’t wait anymore and quickly jumped into the fluid, running after the voice. She stopped after she finally laid her eyes on her – the young zebra was hunched over on the ground, moaning.

The pony dropped the glowing jar and approached her to try and comfort her. “Zecora, it’s okay, I’m here. There's nothing for you to wor-”

In a moment it became clear why she was in such a state. The light source she had left behind illuminated the area just enough to vaguely see ahead, and what she saw made her think of a horror movie. Zecora was on the ground in front of the elder zebra stallion she had seen before, but he didn’t look the same anymore – his whole body was drained and shriveled, and his eyes were pitch-black as if it was signaling that he was devoid of life.

“Fada is gone…” she cried. “I wasn’t able to save him… And it’s all my fault…”

Applebloom herself was horrified by what she was seeing. But then something came to her mind: The spark in the blob, the moment it lit up she noticed that her immediate surroundings didn’t just dispel the perpetual darkness, but also illuminated what really was. And now that she was away from it, unexpected things have shown up. Now that she thought about it, the jar was sitting in a body of strange green liquid, and once she left the range of its light she wasn’t making any splashing sounds as she was walking. Was there perhaps a possibility that what both she and her mentor were seeing was just an illusion then?

“Wait Zecora, I know this looks bad, but maybe things aren’t as grim as they seem. Let me just retrieve-”

“I never should’ve left… I should’ve stayed and done what had to be… And now because of me, Despair’s been unleashed… And soon… so will Turmoil…”

Light suddenly came in front of them, but it wasn’t the morning sun. It was fire, fire that was being exhausted from a giant red-eyed gaping maw. A giant dark formless creature towered over the land and everything around it, a giant set of purple eyes and a mouth were the only things that signified where its face was, and even that was difficult to distinguish, as there were other faces all over the blackened form, one of which was simply slithering among them. The light blue one breathed cold that froze everything in its path, the yellow roared with crackling thunder that rained from the sky, the red one fraughted at the mouth with a raging fire that engulfed the land, and finally, the last one wailed as water gushed from its openings – that same water rushed in their direction, fully washing over them! Applebloom panicked and quickly took a deep breath as she was swallowed by the sea. Was this what Zecora and the Elements of Harmony had seen? Was this what they were fighting against this whole time?

Despite their current position, the shaman didn’t seem to struggle as her apprentice did, as she simply floated a bit off the sea floor. “There is no hope left,” her voice echoed through the increasingly darkened depths, as tentacles began to emerge and slowly coiled around her. “Not for my home… not for Equestria… nor our world…”

The pony was horrified by what she had seen, and she could feel the pressure all around her, on top of that, the obstacles from earlier returned and were numerous. There was no way for her to do anything at this point… Maybe the zebra was right. Then, her gaze got drawn by the vague light that was coming behind her, and when she looked at it, she remembered where her thoughts were a moment ago before her attention got distracted. The jar containing the blob and the spark of light was still glowing on the floor, one that didn’t change at all – it was still showing it being half dipped in the green pool of water! The young mare quickly began to swing towards it, she had to, as it became obvious, that the tentacles that were taking hold of the shaman were beginning to follow her as well. She was almost there. She finally came in the radius of the light and suddenly felt the pressure of her surroundings disappear, yet she couldn’t go further than her head, as in that moment, one of the tendrils got hold of her hind legs, preventing her from fully escaping the illusion. All she could do was force herself just a bit further, for her mouth to reach the rope on which the jar was tied. Finally, multiple tentacles grabbed her and pulled her back inside, an act that would be their undoing. In the last moment, Applebloom bit on the noose, pulling the jar of light with her, and as she did, the surrounding darkness was disrupted, but the momentum from it made her slide on the wet floor, straight in the direction of the constricted zebra, who seemed to have all but completely surrendered to despair.

“No! There’s still hope because hope is the light in the dark when all others have gone out!” she vaguely repeated the words that she heard before.

She held the jar with both her hooves and shoved it forward as she came within reach of the mentor. The tentacles almost immediately disappeared, as did the crushing pressure of the deep sea, and Zecora covered her eyes from the blinding light. A strange shrilling cry followed. It didn’t come from either of them, even though it was within their reach. Suddenly, the pony noticed something odd – past Zecora, the elderly zebra stallion sat motionlessly, though he didn’t look like drained, shriveled remains, and next to his head was a strange green-eyes weaselly shadow, it twisted and turned, as if it was desperately trying to avoid the light, an act that was impossible as it washed all over it, disturbing its form; if the light that was dispelling the illusion of despair around them hurt it, it meant it was just as evil. Applebloom quickly acted and forced the glowing jar at it. In response, it let out an agonizing cry, yet something else happened as well, as the light became blinding, turning everything white.

A shadow flew across the land that comprised Equestria, from the barren desert lands of the south to the temperate climate of the north that was its heart. It flew toward the direction of the central settlements that were Canterlot and Ponyville, but it did not stop there – it flew towards the thick forested area that was now shrouded in perpetual darkness, the Everfree Forest. It entered the tunnel and navigated a labyrinth, before finally coming out in the open, into a great cavern where a sinister ancient tree sat atop a protruded black rock, below which a vast green lake was. It stopped on its bank, the ground quaked, and accompanied by the neighing cries of windigos, towering darkness emerged from the green liquid, sprouting a pair of scrawny arms that it used to lean on the shore.

“Well, Doubt?” the dark manifestation asked. “Is it all set?”

“It’s all going according to plan, Hatred. Both the Broodmother and the Devourer are on the western shore, waiting for the Scourgelord to return with his fleet so their armies can be transported. The only problem is that the Shaper has once again disappeared without a trace.”

“It matters not. He will come, won’t he?”

“Of course he will, he has no choice. Once they all come together we will set out to look for Despair.”

“Excellent. While they’re away, we will set the groundwork to make sure that Turmoil’s reemergence is unopposed.”

“The Broodmother’s eyes are averted. She will not know.”

The dark monstrosity grinned and raised itself to full height, then opened its mouth, and accompanied by the sound of windigos, it unleashed a bellow that echoed all around. When it quieted down, the changelings that were covering the walls and tending to the hive all turned to face it and their eyes began to glow bright. Then they all crawled off the walls and began digging in a specific direction, creating a large tunnel.

“The changelings exist to serve us. They will deliver doom,” it said.

The ground once again shook, and another mass of shadow emerged from the green pool, and a multitude of small yellow eyes opened on the body before a pair of giant ones did.

“And the timberwolves will be its harbingers,” its shrilling voice echoed.

The light dimmed, and the tutor and the apprentice were left alone now, blankly staring in the distance, confused by what they had seen. But soon, they would snap out of it, as the wailing sound returned, anger noticeable in its tone.

“Harmony… You dare bring its light into our prison?! YOU! WILL! PERIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!”

From the darkness the two mares could see several giant tentacles emerge, picking up large pieces of rock and chucking them in their direction. For a moment it was believed that nothing would happen since they were just illusions, until one of the boulders came within a hair past the pony. They were all real! The pony stuck the roped jar in her mouth and the two quickly scrambled and ran all over the place, desperately dodging, but there was no way for them to get out of danger, for if there was an exit from here, it was beyond their sight. As one of the boulders flew, Zecora quickly noticed it was going too fast and right at Applebloom! She grabbed her by her tail and pulled her back at the last minute. Yet, even though the Cute Mark Crusader was spared harm, that item she was carrying wasn’t, as the tug caused the jar in the mouth to swing forward, right in the path of an incoming boulder, smashing it in the process. The container broke, and its contents, the gooey grey substance, and the spark of light that was stuck inside it plopped into the body of green liquid, and the source of light disappeared. They both grimaced – that was their only protection against the sinister force that they were trapped with. In the distance, they could see more and more tentacles sprout, but this time they didn’t aim to throw things at them and instead reached for them. The two young mares screamed and huddled together in fright from what was soon to be their doom. Suddenly, something flickered beneath the surface of the pool of green water. A blob-like substance suddenly emerged, levitating out of it, illuminating the green liquid. Suddenly, powerful light erupted from it, lighting up the whole room, destroying all the tentacles, and soon after, completely enveloping everything.

Both young mares were still huddled together, in fright of what would’ve followed. But now that silence had finally fallen, they were surprised to have found themselves on another plane of existence, where everything was white.

“At last… I feel strong enough...”

There was another presence with them! This presence came in the form of a blob they saw appear earlier and was now levitating close by them. Its color tone was now much brighter than it was earlier, and as such, the spark of light within it was barely noticeable. It began flashing brighter until its source could no longer be seen. Then, ringing of clattering metal could be heard, as the figure manifested itself and then approached the two. It was an elderly zebra mare with a long mohawk that turned into a braid at the bottom, hanging down her neck, bound by golden rings, and on her flank was the face of a female lion.

“Hello again, Zecora,” she gently said.

Applebloom was confused as to who this zebra was that just appeared before them; she clearly knew her mentor. And when she looked at her, all she could see was shock.

“Mada…?” the young mare uttered.

The pony’s head shifted between the two. “Mada? Wait, as in your MOTHER?! That’s your mom?!”

“No,” she bluntly answered. “That cannot be her.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’ve seen her earlier… in the village.”

The crusader thought for a bit and then remembered how she had to avoid a mare that was wandering the ruins. “That?! THAT was your mom?! Why were you so desperate to avoid her then?!”

She didn’t answer her back this time, her focus was solely on the image that stood before her. “You’re not mada. You took on the image of when I last saw her and that was a long time ago. What are you really? If you are the aberration from earlier, then I demand you release fada at once!”

And the image of the elderly mare frowned in sadness. “I’m sorry… But the High Shaman can no longer be helped.”

“What? What do you mean?” Applebloom wondered.

“He… he had succumbed to despair, didn’t he?” the younger zebra said in a depressed tone, already knowing the answer.

“Yes. But not because of it.” As she said that, the two young mares displayed confusion. “He had to endure despair for numerous cycles since this all began, and he held firm to this day.”

“Then… what’s changed?”

The image looked to the side, and next to her, a still imagery appeared. It depicted the elderly stallion sitting still, surrounded by a dark blue-eyed watery serpent. That was what they had both seen earlier. However, there was something they noticed that clearly wasn’t there before, or at least one of them didn’t see it. Flying by the side of High Shaman’s head was a small weaselly shadow with green eyes, appearing to be whispering into his ear.

“Hey, I saw that!” Applebloom quickly pointed out. “When I tried to save Zecora I saw this thing floating close by. What is it?”

“The shadow of Doubt,” the mare solemnly said.

Author's Note

I will be taking a break for August and 1st half of September. I have to focus on finishing Tales of the Ashes chapter that should've been done a month ago, and I keep postponing it because of work.

Chapter 81: How The Cities Crumble

Author's Note

(Late) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, dear readers!
This was originally supposed to come before the end of the year, but unfortunately, I came down with a bad case of sick, and my production suffered for a week.
Anyway, Here's to a start of a new year.

Chapter 81: How The Cities Crumble

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

An ear-piercing screech spread across the realm that was only a few moments ago covered by unending rain. Its sudden disappearance was related, as the source was the one exhuming it from the prison the entire time. And now it was free, possessing the one person who was keeping it in check this whole time, it made itself manifest in the form of a gargantuan watery serpent that had now broken through its containment. The sound of its liberation could not only be seen but also heard by everybody within this isolated land in the middle of the desert.

“No… No, Khari, NO!” the half-blind elderly zebra mare cried out in despair, as she immediately knew what had happened, and instinctively tried to run in the direction of the sound.

“Paramis,” the voice close to her uttered, and the giant one-eyed goat monstrosity quickly grasped the mare in his hand, keeping her in place.

“What are you doing?! Let go of me!” she kicked and screamed.

“The question is: What are you doing, matriarch?” the grizzled ram wondered. “Running off when you can barely see your own muzzle in front of your face? That is ill-advised.”

“This is not amusing! My mate and my two girls, my whole family is at the mercy of the darkness incarnate right now!”

“And you were going to do what? Face it off on your own, thinking you can win? Or are you just trying to commit one final sacrifice so that would join you with your family’s inevitable end?”

A few moments passed, and the High Shaman’s wife finally relented, knowing that her visitor was right. She was just so desperate to do something that could make the situation change, burdened by the thought that she would lose what she had.

“Do not despair, matriarch,” Grogar reassured her. “If what you’ve told me earlier is true, then I have this slight suspicion that something is about to give…”

“Errr… Twilight, any ideas how do we stop this thing…?” the rainbow-maned pony asked the alicorn close to her, only to realize she didn’t register her words after seeing what had erupted from the dead baobab tree.

“TWILIGHT!” Rarity yelled, which finally got her attention. “Rainbow Dash asked how do we deal with this!”

“Wha… Why are you asking me?”

“’Scume me?” the workhorse raised an eyebrow at her unusual response. “You always have a plan for something, Twilight!”

“Not for the WORST-CASE SCENARIOS like this, Applejack! I thought that maybe Chrysalis or one of her allies would interfere and snatch Despair before we got to it, but it materializing and freeing itself was not something I could’ve predicted!”

“It’s not free yet,” the elderly zebra corrected.

“Come again, Madame Zeg’us?” she asked.

“The manifestation has been liberated, yes. But it’s still within the warded surroundings of the baobab tree that was preventing it from escaping. Until it finally moves from the spot, it’s still trapped.”

“How long will that take?” Fluttershy wondered.

“Until the tree falls…”

“Emmm, excuse me,” the kirin interjected. “Am I missing something? Can’t you guys just use that rainbow laser beam that I saw some time ago against these very villains? Well, two of them anyway.”

“To make the long story short, Autumn Blaze: We tried on two separate occasions – and it didn’t go as planned,” the animal caretaker explained.

“Doesn’t matter now! It’s only a matter of minutes before things turn to worse! What can we even do in that time?!” Twilight panicked.

A slinky patchwork of appendages suddenly emerged from his protective refuge around the yellow pegasus. “You’re the smarty pants around here, Twilight. Use that giant brain of yours and I’m certain you’ll get an idea.”

“I mean, we only have a little time before that thing gets out, but no pressure, okay?” Pinkie Pie pointed out the obvious.

“Right… no pressure…” the alicorn smiled nervously, and then sat down to try to focus herself by picking up a stick and drawing into the dirt, all the while she could hear the beast’s roaring in the background.

She did not expect to find herself in this predicament. When the kelpie queen Watami returned to her domain, she beheld it surrounded by a flame of blue and red. Even so, it didn’t take her long to find the head invader. On the platform of a city beneath her tower home, there was a distinct red glow radiating. And there was more. There were large shapes levitating around it, enveloped by it – it was her children! The horned, four-legged fiend with blazing hair was standing in the courtyard, his arms raised, keeping the kelpies who failed to stop him up in the air.

“My patience is wearing thin, minnows!” he boasted. “I’ve no time for small fries! Where is she? Where’s the big fish of this pond?”

And just as he said that a pair of giant tentacles formed from the water's surface and lunged at him. They were cut off before they could reach him though, as with great speed, a wall of red and blue flame was erected around him, formed by the mind-controlled leader of nirik, dedicated to protecting her master.

“Ah. There she is.” He grinned when the flame died down, and saw a large scaley body raised itself with giant hand-like fins over the edge of the city.

“Flame Feind! You will release my children, posthaste!” she commanded.

“Oh, is that so, queen fish? Where should I do it? Into the hot scorching desert where the first two went?”

Another tentacle rose from the water's surface and made its way in the direction of the centaur, but once again, it didn’t reach the target, as the possessed servant erected a magical flame barrier that negated the impact.

“Pathetic,” he boasted. “You can’t even get past my lowly servant, and you think you can face me?”

Just as he said that water arose over the edge of the elevated platform again, but not in a manifested fashion – it was like a puddle that kept expanding all over the floor; in fact, the water level in general seemed to be rising. The nirik’s magical flame did little at this point as Rain Shine tried to avoid the water, only for it to rise over her head and completely envelop her, drowning her in the process.

“Oh… I see…” was all that Tirek could say from the realization, just before the water enveloped him as well.

Too concerned with survival, his magic that was levitating multiple other kelpies faded and they all landed in the water.

The elevated body of water allowed the queen to easily come to the platform. “You have the nerve, outsider, to come into my domain and think yourself my better. The domain of water is mine to command, and you will feel its wrath firsthand.”

As the kelpie ruler approached them, the other smaller ones swam to her side. “Mother, what do we do?”

“Retreat into the tower where the rest are. I’ve already given the order for others to retreat before he got here. You’ll be safe… in there…”

She gazed at the two prisoners who were on their way to a watery grave. The dark, equine-like creature struggled to breathe, meanwhile its master… Something was odd about him. He didn’t seem to be struggling in his current position. He was actually giving her an intentive look, anger visible on his face. He was suddenly enveloped in a red glow and then… his surroundings began to bubble. It didn’t take long for Watami to feel it. There was an intense heat that was radiating from the invader, and the water surrounding them just kept getting hotter. He was trying to turn the tables on her! Immediately the water level receded, leaving the queen and her daughters beached on solid ground, but at least they were all free from the threat.

But so too were the prisoners. “Clever fish, you picked up quickly. A little longer and I’d have you cooked for lunch. But hey. Here’s an idea.” Tirek clenched his fist and the intense head surrounding it turned it brightly red color. “How about I level the playing field and make it happen for the whole lake?”

He raised his hand and brought it down on the paved platform. Upon contact, fire and tremors erupted across the whole platform. The kelpie queen felt the floor disappearing right from under her and she landed in the water again. She couldn’t seem much apart from rubble scattering across the lake. When the smoke cleared though, beside the fountain-like tower, what was left of the city was just a stub beneath the water surface, upon which the centaur was now knee deep, while his servant was desperately trying to crawl on top of a wooden wreckage that was floating nearby.

“Girls, go! Quick! Get to the shore!” the queen commanded.

“We’ll get into the tower, mother-”

“There’s no time! Get to the shore! QUICK!”

There was an urgent tone in her voice. They all listened and swam away. With them gone, Watami focused on Tirek, who had just dipped his hands into the water he was standing in. Soon enough, his body was enveloped in a red aura and it began to bubble. The queen didn’t wait, and raised herself on a body of water, high above its surface, just as the boiling radius was about to reach her.

After a few moments, the Pillar of Anger finally noticed what had happened. “What the… You can do that?!”

“Outsider, if you think even for a second that you will do me in this easily, you’re gravely mistaken. Even if you separate me from the source, it doesn’t mean I can’t use it. And all you’ve done is reduce the distance where you can act yourself.”

“Oh, you think your distance is better off than mine, huh? Let me show you how wrong you are about my reach.” A red orb suddenly formed between Tirek’s horns, and a moment later, a beam went out in the kelpie’s direction. The body of water she was levitating on above the boiling surface moved, and she nearly dodged it. When the centaur realized his missed, he roared in anger, before sending out another one. I didn’t help. Despite seemingly being out of her element, the kelpie queen managed to easily evade his attacks by moving her suspension at high speed across the hot lake. It quickly became apparent to her that the opponent was in a state of a single-minded fury. Seemingly distracted, she commanded water to leap at him, drenching him in boiling hot water.

She stopped moving once she noticed he ceased. “How does it feel to be on the receiving end, outsider? To feel the burn that you wanted to force upon another?”

He began laughing. “You think this hurt at all, fish queen? I can’t feel the burn any longer. All you did was splash some water at me!”

“Then how about another?”

“Another water bolt shot out of the surface behind him, but this time, it came in with such force that it nearly knocked him off his feet, which occurred when another one came from the side. It didn’t stop. More and more water bolts began shooting at him at rapid speed, making him unable to react. They were so numerous and forceful that they lifted him off the broken support pillar, juggling him in the air higher and higher. Watami raised her hand-like fins, and soon enough, the bolts of water were replaced by pillars and they rose high in the sky, surrounding the centaur until he was trapped deep within a giant watery orb.

“Do you see now the extent of my powers, outsider? You were a fool to think you could fight me at the base of my power and beat me. Now… Suffer the consequences of your actions.”

The giant watery orb levitated high above the ground, and a single red dot could be seen at the heart of it. But suddenly, it turned radiant, and the water that surrounded it began to, not just boil, the heat was so extreme that it was outright evaporating. The kelpie tried to remedy to situation by adding more water to it, but at the rate it was going, it pretty much evaporated in a matter of seconds, leaving the red dot to once again land on the broken pillar that was just beneath the surface.

The centaur was once again on solid ground, and the look on his face could only be described as fury. “You think I’ll be beat by a stupid fish throwing bubbles at me?! You can’t do anything to harm me! I’m gonna break you!”

She humphed. “Threatening words, and that’s all they are. As far as I see, I may not be able to do much against you, but neither can you do the same.”

“Oh, big fish, you are so wrong there. I’m going to bend you to my will.”

“And how will you do that?”

The wrathful teeth grind on his face suddenly turned upside-down, into an angry smile. He turned, and gazed upon the only structure that was still standing – the giant tower. He turned, and as the red orb between his horns lit up again, he raised his arms, and the debris and wreckage from the destroyed platform levitated to his side, forming a bridge to the tower which he then traversed.

“Wait, where are you going?” Watami asked in confusion.

Tirek stopped at the base of the tower and embedded his claws into the large brick wall that constituted the structure. The kelpie queen was perplexed. What was he trying to do? Lift the tower? The building was huge, there was no way he could think even for a second that… And then she heard it – the cracking sound, clearly coming from his direction. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the centaur ripping the tower off its foundations.

He slowly turned it to the side so he could see the expression on her face. “Did you think I wasn’t listening to what you said?” He grinned. “I know what’s inside. And there’s other ways to break somebody.” He turned his head upwards, towards the top, and then the red orb between his horns began to glow brightly.

She was confused. What did he mean by “what she said”? What could she have said that could possibly be related to the tower… And then it hit her. Her children! She told Wadi to tell everybody to retreat into the safety of the tower to avoid the fight. They were all inside! And now she noticed that the orb that the Pillar of Anger had summoned didn’t just glow brighter, it grew several times!

“NO!” she yelled in a terrified realization of what was about to happen.

Tirek roared, and the giant orb that was now so big that it was levitating outside of his horns unleashed a laser beam that traveled upwards the tower he was holding, destroying the rock in its path, until it finally hit the enlarged top, and making it explode. The red hue from the blast covered the surroundings of what used to be a city and it took a moment for the scene to become visible.

The centaur dropped what was left of the bottom part of the structure into the lake and then turned to face his opponent. “How does it feel, big fish? How does it feel, knowing that part of your bloodline has just been eradicated? That I’ve just… fried your children?” He let out a laugh.

But his laughter ended when he realized that the sky had turned dark and was beginning to rain. What curtain of dust was still left in the air was washed away, revealing the silhouette of the kelpie queen, who raised her hand-like fins. Four giant tentacles emerged from the water's surface and they all simultaneously stretched at the invader, crushing him from all four sides. But he wouldn’t just wait. Extreme heat began to radiate from him once again, and the water surrounding him quickly evaporated. Several multitudes of the same watery formation erupted and attacked him, but the Anger’s Chosen remained defiant.

“You’re still throwing splashes at me? Come on! Make that burning feeling inside your flow! Get close and personal! GET REAL ANGRY!”

He soon realized that the kelpie wasn’t where she was a moment ago. A sudden force suddenly shot him up from below. It wasn’t a water attack, otherwise it would’ve been negated. As he stopped spinning in the air, he had a moment of a second to see her launch out of the water beneath him and rammed him with the tip of her face, launching him even higher, before her weight pulled her back to the water. This one hurt… But she was going get back a hundred-fold. As Tirek finally stopped in mid-air, he took notice of Watami waiting for him far below among the ruins. She was waiting for him to come down. The centaur grinned, clenched his fist, put it forward, and then the fall propelled him towards his target. As he traveled, the power in his arm intensified. And beneath, he could tell that his opponent was preparing to strike at him. The size of her compared to him would surely leave a mark if she had managed to strike him again. But he knew better. Just as he was nearly there, he opened a doorway in space – he disappeared through it and came out the other end, facing the giant kelpie’s abdomen. With her gaze turned away, a moment of confusion from his sudden disappearance was enough. His fist connected, carried by the momentum of his fall. Her body bent and she was sent flying, while he halted on the spot where the contact happened. After bouncing off the water surface several times she finally stopped, clutching onto her stomach from the pain she was inflicted. As she writhed in agony, she couldn’t hear the centaur approach, as he infused his hooves with magic to walk on the lake’s surface, over to his wounded opponent.

He looked down upon the beaten queen. “What’s the matter, big fish? Is that your best?”

Even though she was in pain, the wrath returned. The lake in their proximity launched crashing waves at him, momentarily staggering the centaur, giving the kelpie enough time to quickly recover, as her attacks amounted to nothing since the heat radiating from him made them all evaporate. But she wouldn’t be deterred. What this monster did to her children, she would make him suffer. Water suddenly wrapped around her hand-like fins and she made a strike at him.

Tirek managed to easily take the brunt of her attacks, and he knew that if she tried to make physical contact with him, she would get burned for it. Much to his surprise though, she didn’t stop striking him. It was almost as if her anger had made her immune to feeling pain.

“Good. Good, big fish.” He grinned. “You’re good and angry.” He grabbed the small bag on a rope that he was carrying around his neck with one hand and opened it.

Suddenly, a powerful aura erupted from it. Watamai was frozen by it for a moment, but then the heat washed over her. A strange red haze began to creep into her consciousness, her senses being overcome. She just wanted to hurt him, nothing else mattered. The sense of fire washing over her though… it felt familiar, yet different. For a moment, her memory flashed back into a distant past. She stood on the borderlands of her kingdom and the Kuhama desert. Or rather, she was staring at the desert that was being swallowed by an endless tidal wave. And she felt it. Even though she was an aquatic being, she could feel a sense of drowning washing over her - a sense of despair. She could tell that others beside her felt it too. After all, they were at the site where this phenomenon had awakened, and they were powerless to stop it; what chance did they have? But among the group, a single zebra stepped before everybody, as did the abada. They were her equals of other kingdoms – their rulers. What could they do? He kneeled. He kneeled in front of everybody and gave a prayer, as did his companion, as did she. That was the only thing they could do: Pray and hope that somebody would hear their pleas. She remembered what followed after that. Despair had been beaten with the newfound powers that the land itself had gifted them. But there would be no salvation this time around. Her consciousness was fading, being overtaken by anger that she couldn’t fight on her own. Nobody would save her this time.

“That’s it, big fish! BE CONSUMED BY THE FIERY DARKNESS!” Tirek boisterously announced his victory.

BOOM!

“Huh? What was that noise?” He turned his head back, to where the sound came from.

Never has the lush area under Mount Chinjaio been hot. The fertile grounds that the volcanic soil had provided created one of the most blooming lands in all of Farasi. So, if the winds coming from the icy peaks didn’t satisfy, then the lush growth certainly would. That was no longer the case. Since the day before, the abada’s homeland had been invaded by foreign shapeshifting creatures. That alone was already enough, but then the giant, fiery, four-legged, two-armed abomination emerged out of nowhere and started a fire, which quickly spread across their whole village and to the rest of the jungle. Two threats were impossible to handle for the locals, as the former was constantly interfering in the resolution of the latter. The whole night long, they were trying to put out the ever-spreading fire, and the changelings would constantly disrupt their efforts. Even though the ruler and his bodyguards have been running the alien-looking equines ragged, their acts also contributed to fanning the flames. By now, the whole village was already burned to the ground, but the destruction continued to the rest of the forest.

The Wingardians flew through the overgrowth, intercepting the changelings that were attacking the residents, but one of them lagged, so the other three had to stop. “Hey, you okay?” one of them asked.

“Yes, it’s just,” he paused and rubbed his eyes as he traipsed to an unburned shrub, “I haven’t slept since yesterday…”

“How do you think we feel? We’re in the same as you, but we can’t stop. Amun’s still going about and he hasn’t been complaining.”

Unknown to them, the unburned shrub that they were near was actually a mimicry perpetuated by their enemy. All of a sudden, about a dozen changelings dropped the illusion, and tackled the king’s guards, who were taken completely off guard and buried under their mass, unable to respond. And just then, a strong wind kicked up through the burned land and brushed the changelings off, sending them flying.

All they saw was a green blur, but the Wingardians knew who it was. “Your Majesty!” one of them called out.

King Amun dashed like the wind across his domain, striking at the enemy at every opportunity. He had to, he couldn’t allow himself to stop. The moment he did, he knew his biggest fear would kick in – paranoia. All night he’s been dashing about, tackling the changeling queen all by himself, hoping that he would give his followers some reprieve. But by dawn, he quickly learned that he couldn’t trust anyone; every friendly face was likely a monster in disguise, waiting for the right moment to abuse the trust and strike when one would least expect. He couldn’t trust anybody, even his own Wingardians could have been compromised. All he could do was keep attacking the enemy until they had finally exhausted themselves. And that presented a major problem he had been facing: While the swarmlings were beginning to show signs of exhaustion, the same could not be said for their queen. He’s been butting heads with her all night long, and she’s shown no exhaustion whatsoever. In fact, it seemed she’s only been getting stronger, as he recalled that she has had hard time keeping up with him, but now she was beginning to catch up. It certainly wasn’t from his own over-exertion that this was happening.

Let’s see who lasts longer, shall we? Your chilly winds, or my ice-cold hatred?

That’s what he remembered her saying. At this point, he was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t all just bluster.

AIEEEEEEEEE!

A cry for help, one belonging to a youngling. She was carried away by a pair of changelings who were tossing her back and forth in the air. He rushed between them a snatched her when she was in mid-air, all the whole knocking them out of it. Finally, he decided to stop - a mistake that would cost him dearly. As he placed the abada filly on the ground, it began to rumble. From beneath, the swarm emerged in countless numbers and surrounded them both, to the point that everything around them went dark, leaving only flickering light to make things visible. And then he heard her.

“Oh, brave king, saving a helpless innocent youth. How noble,” the changeling queen's voice echoed all around, making it impossible to tell where she was. “I hope that act of compassion was worth because now you’ll pay dearly for it.”

She was trying to intimidate him, but the abada ruler remained steadfast. He nudged the filly in the middle of the enclosure and then he began to run in circles around her, picking up speed to the point that it created a powerful gust that almost instantly dispersed the swarm that surrounded them.

“My hero!” the little abada behind him thanked when he finally stopped.

But before he even had a chance to turn and tell her to go hide, from the corner of his eye he saw a green glow, before a powerful blast hit him and threw him a short distance. He reeled from pain; that was no physical attack, it felt like he was just burnt by a magical blast. But where did it come from? He dispersed all the attackers. And as he finally turned, he realized where it came from. The little abada filly that he had just saved, was slowly approaching him with a grin, and her horn was emitting a sickly green glow.

“You…” he uttered.

She began to laugh maniacally, and in a flash of green, she disappeared, and her form was replaced by a towering creature that resembled the swarmlings – their queen, radiant like nature, yet corrupt.

“Oh darling, that was just too easy.” Queen Chrysalis traipsed over to his side. “Even when you have to deal with a threat you know could be disguised as ANYBODY, you would immediately go and save a potential threat. That’s why your types are so easily beaten.”

Amun tried to get back on his feet, but before he had a chance, the green glow enveloped him and he ended up getting tossed about against the ground several times before finally being lifted and brought close to the changeling queen.

Several of the swarm joined her side, making screeching noises in anticipation. “It’s over, Your Majesty. Look around.” She slowly spun the incapacitated ruler of abadas in full circle. “Your kingdom lies in ruins. Your people were beaten. And now you have no power to resist me any longer. For all the boasting that changeling magic can’t negate your own, it did you very little in the end.” She reached out to his ear to whisper. “I outlasted you. And now, I’ll…”

She didn’t finish. Or rather, she didn’t know what to say, as if something was lacking in the back of her head as if something was missing that she knew all too well, some sort of natural instinct.

BOOM!

She snapped out of her state, roused by the sudden sound she had just heard. The rest of the swarm was stirred by it as well.

“What was that?” she wondered.

The streets of Musa were quaking from the tremors of hooves. The defense led by Captain Adil fought street after street against the invaders who had suddenly emerged from the portals after the night’s break. The civilians that were trapped within the city surrounded by an electric shield required constant watch; the danger was just too great to leave them alone with the attackers appearing out of nowhere and a giant sentient thundering cloud raining bolts of lightning on them. The golden electrified chained tridents were flying about, some trying to incapacitate them, others trying to inflict damage. But regardless of which, the satyrs were able to keep up with their magic-resistant armor. Despite the difficulties, the locals had to deal persevere, but not everybody was enthusiastic, though not at their own fault.

“Sahir!” Adil yelled as one of the guards who had just snoozed off for a moment.

“I’m sorry, captain,” he yawned. “But last night…”

“Was sleepless, I know. I’ve seen others dealing with it as well. But we don’t have an option of slipping at this moment. We need to regroup with another squad so we can mount a counteroffensive. Follow me!”

With the order, the guards went with the captain, protecting the civilians as they rushed into a narrow alley – his intention was the cut the path and avoid the larger groups of invaders, after all, they did not know the city’s set up, unlike them. They went on, and in the back, the sound of battle faded away for a moment, offering a brief reprieve to their senses… something that would work against them. As the loud noise faded, the captain’s vision suddenly became blurry and he began to swing slightly left and right with each step he made, his concentration faltering. And then, just as they were about the leave the alley, a group of armed satyrs jumped from their covers as the unsuspected escort leader, realizing too late to call for an order.

THUNNN!

The sound of bent steel echoed, as a force moved in with lightning speed, intercepting the satyr ambushers, and sending them flying into the nearby building.

King Abraxas drew himself to full height. “You’re slipping, Captain Adil.”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty!” he apologized.

“Save your apologies. There are more civilians on the northwestern end. You need to go there-”

KRAKOOOM!

The king’s head immediately turned when that clash of thunder echoed. He got distracted for too long, and now others will have to pay the price for it.

“Captain, get a move on! NOW!” he commanded.

“At once, Your Maj-!” before he could even finish the sentence, he was gone.

He dashed as fast as possible to meet the main opposition head-on, as it loomed over the city on the other end of the electric barrier and rained bolts of lightning down on the unsuspected civilians, intercepting the last attack. Although he did not show it like his guards did, the zebra king was beginning to feel the burden of constant battle. The adrenalin was what had been keeping him acting throughout the night. But he had to keep going, because the moment he stopped, the moment takes even a momentary breather, he would exploit it…

And Storm King was aware of it all too well. Though their powers were comparable, he was still a living creature of flesh and blood, bound by limitations; ones that have been stripped off him. He had been patiently waiting, doing everything in his power to keep exhausting the zebra king. Now he was just waiting for the right moment to strike. And it finally presented itself. He saw an elderly zebra couple trying to quickly pace through the street and avoid the fighting while carrying a little colt in their saddlebags. The giant head-shaped cloud spat a quick bolt in their direction but not aiming directly at them. The bolt hit the ground beneath them and the earth heaved, tossing them about. The couple was fine, but the child landed on the other side of the street, several hooves away. The satyr king smiled and this time breathed out a lighting laser in their direction. They huddled together and screamed in panic, only for King Abraxas to suddenly appear at their side to intercept the attack… just as the Pillar of Fear anticipated. As the zebra rulers came in to intercept the lightning attack, he suddenly realized something was off about it: The attack wasn’t coming straight for the two civilians. At first, he thought it was going to miss, but then he realized it was beginning to curve, going completely around them. It was only then that he realized where it was actually going – it was aiming for the little colt! With but a fraction of a second, Abraxas made a quick U-turn, and unable to intercept the attack directly he could only save the youth in the last moment, sliding into the alleyway and coming out on the other end… And that’s where he was waiting. The Storm King shot himself out of his cloud-head, launching at the exit point where he knew his opponent would come out completely unprepared. His lightning-forged guitar turned into an axe and was gathering the momentum to swing it.

“YOU BLINKED! I WIN!!!” he loudly declared, as he swung his weapon, determined to finish off his enemy.

BOOM!

In a moment of excitement, he didn’t have a chance to realize that wasn’t the sound of his booming thunderstorm. And just before the strike connected, something went past between the two combatants; he couldn’t see anything but a multitude of colors, as it went straight through his weapon and discharged it.

“Eh…?”

That was the only sound the satyr could make in confusion before King Abraxas made a swift counterattack With his enemy now exposed and in a vulnerable position, a single lightning kick connected to the obsidian construct and sent him flying into one of the four spires that were erecting the lightning dome.

The zebra king finally took a moment to breathe, still holding the colt in his embrace. But what was that? Who or what had just intervened in their fight?

Chapter 82: Brave Heart and Clear Mind

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Chapter 1: New Dawn

Calm night laid over Canterlot. The gentle night breeze blowing through the flags was the only sound that was disturbing the near-perfect silence. Then, the sun began to rise over the horizon, marking the coming of a new dawn. And as the light illuminated the tallest spires of the city, it also lighted the new princess responsible for its coming.

Princess Twilight Sparkle watched over her new kingdom that the previous monarchs had left in her care. Just as Princesses Celestia and Luna stood on top of that same structure every day for countless generations to raise the sun and moon, it was now her duty to do the same for both. She closed her eyes and inhaled, trying to soak in the first fresh sparks of morning light, the gentle breeze passing through her mane. Suddenly, the breeze turned into a strong gust, disturbing the calming moment. Twilight saw something on the horizon. A great mass of shadow emerged from the land itself. It began to grow and grow until it ate the sky, plunging Equestria into darkness. She took flight. It was up to her to banish the mysterious darkness threatening her home.

The shadow moved, advancing with great speed on Canterlot, consuming everything in its path. Twilight met it halfway. She concentrated her power into her horn and shot several spells at the shadowy mass. Before the smoke from the explosions cleared she concentrated a large amount of her magic into a single shot and released it, causing an eruption that enveloped everything in a destructive fire. It was ineffective, all of it. The mass of shadow continued to advance undeterred. Fear settled into the princess all of a sudden. She flew back to the city, calling for the citizens of Canterlot to evacuate immediately. But somehow the darkness already skipped into the city with miraculous speed and began to devour everything and everyone in sight. She tried to make one last-ditch effort to protect the citizens, firing spells at the darkened mass, but to no avail. Several tentacles suddenly shot out of the shadow, wrapping around Twilight, and proceeding to drag her into itself. She struggled, desperately trying to free herself, but couldn’t. She was simply too weak. Alone. With nobody to help her.

BOOM!

She heard a breaking sound echoing in the air and before she knew it, she was torn out of the dark grasp in a split second, carried off by a familiar rainbow-maned blue pegasus.

“Rainbow Dash!” she shouted in surprise.

“Did you really think we’d just leave you hanging like this, Twilight?” the pegasus said with overwhelming confidence.

They flew past the mass of shadow as it desperately tried to grasp at them, unable to keep up with Rainbow Dash’s speed. The pegasus redirected herself and started flying back towards the castle. That's when Twilight finally saw four other very familiar faces.

“Darling, I’m so relieved Rainbow Dash got you out of there at the last moment,” Rarity said.

“We were worried you wouldn’t make it,” Fluttershy joined her.

“Now, tell us what needs doin' to stop that thing,” Applejack inquired.

“I got the heavy artillery all ready to go off!” Pinkie Pie loudly announced as she brought her party cannon.

But Twilight’s heart sank. “I’m sorry, everypony. But I’m afraid I don’t have anything to counter that thing. My own magic wasn’t strong enough to do anything. It just devoured everything in sight. I couldn’t do anything to help protect Canterlot or its residents and now it will consume all of Equestria. I’m a horrible leader... I failed.”

She felt completely hopeless, overcome with despair.

An orange hoof reached out to her shoulder. “Twilight, don’t say that. You know full well that’s not true.”

“Yeah,” the blue pegasus joined her. “We got into a similar world-ending situation like a hundred times at this point.”

“Celestia and Luna left you in charge knowing fully well that no matter how dire the situation gets you would always come up on top,” the white unicorn added.

“I know not everything will always go the way you hope, Twilight- “ the shy pegasus joined before the hyperactive pink pony smushed them both into the princess. “But that’s why you got us here, to keep your spirits up!”

She felt content. After such a long time she had almost forgotten what it was like to share an embrace with friends. She has missed it, she missed all of them. And reminding her that they’re here for her in this dark hour moved her to tears. With her spirit lifted, she felt light rising within her. Empowered by the magic of friendship radiating from the 6 ponies, a bright rainbow light shot out of them and redirected itself at the mass of shadow, slowly pushing it back. Twilight knew it was over. In the end, they succeeded.

NO!

Twilight’s eyes opened as she suddenly heard a sinister cry originating from the darkness. The dark mass stopped retreating and resumed the advance; it was no longer deterred by the rainbow light. Five faces began to form from the shadow: the first breathed cruel icy cold, the second roared with crackling thunder, the third fraughted at the mouth with a raging fire, the fourth wailed as water gushed from its openings, and finally the fifth, a single shadow, slithered like a constrictor among the other four. It reached the six ponies and tentacles shot out of the shadows, one by one tearing Twilight’s friends from her embrace, devouring them whole, until only she was left, surrounded by the sinister faces, their voices bearing down on her.

UNFORGIVABLE!
FAILURE!
TRAITORS!
HOPELESS!

Only the fifth face remained silent. It approached, separating itself from the mass of shadow and taking on a weaselly shape, coming to Princess Twilight, who was overcome with tears of despair, its green eyes meeting hers. She looked at it and all other voices were deafened out as she finally heard it speak.

WHAT MAKES YOU SO BETTER?

And as it said that, Twilight saw a pair of gigantic purple eyes open behind it. The sixth face materialized, opened its gaping maw, absorbing all other faces into itself, and lunged at the princess.

“NOOOO!!!” Twilight Sparkle screamed in full horror.

Shadows haunted the castle’s sculpture gardens. It was the royal guard Brightmane's turn to do the nightly rounds and he hated it. He was a morning bird, not a night owl, and walking through the gardens was the last thing he wanted to do. Even though the moon cast its light, illuminating the grounds, the shadows that were formed because of it frightened him, even if he did know what statue lies at every corner. This is why he was especially anxious with the last addition to the menagerie of statues in the garden. Not that it was just one, but three in one.

Three figures stood on the pedestal. Three creatures capable of great evil: a frightened little pegasus child, Cozy Glow, a cringing frail old centaur prince, Lord Tirek, and last but not least, a ravenous monster, the Queen of Changelings, Chrysalis; turned to stone, forever frozen in time in their final moments of defeat.

Brightmane finally came by them and he just wished to get away as quickly as possible. Two of them looked absolutely pathetic, but the third one… that razor-sharp open maw, the look of hatred carved into the eyes, and her pose literally charging in for the kill. He knew she can’t do anything, but in the dark of night, the reality blurred. She was just standing there, pretending… waiting… craving for her next meal… ready to attack at the moment’s not-

“NOOOO!!!” a loud voice cried out, frightening Brightmane, causing him to stumble backward into the bushes.

He peeked past the leaves, seeing the shapes remained unmoved. He sighed in relief. That shriek of terror didn’t come from statues. He climbed out of the growth and looked around but saw nobody until he turned his sight skywards and saw a light turn on in one of the castle rooms.

“Oh… it’s this again,” he thought to himself before he trotted off. “Well, at least now I know it’s a perfect sign for shift change.”

“Twilight?! Twilight, are you okay?!” Spike burst into the room.

The princess was sitting in her bed, in a cold sweat, breathing heavily, trying to recover from the state of shock.

“It happened again, huh?”

She nodded.

“That’s happened for two weeks straight now, Twilight. Should I schedule an appointment with a doctor?”

“Which one, Spike?” she asked in a frustrating tone. “Because I don’t think there’s any other in Canterlot that didn’t prescribe the same methods.”

Overworked, overstressed, required sleeping medication. Those were always going to be the responses from them.

“What about doctor Manebrane? She said that bad dreams normally come from suppressing subconscious feelings about something.” He walked over to the side of her bed. “Are you sure that nothing’s happened in the last three years?”

“Spike, you’ve been with me all the time since I took the throne. If anything had happened you would’ve been the first to know.”

She climbed out of bed, into her regal horseshoes, and trapesed over to the table, her sight still a bit foggy.

“Maybe we need to add more lavender then?”

And as he said that, Twilight bumped her head into a flower pot. She shook her head. They looked around the room and there were at least a dozen pots of the said plant spread about.

“If we added any more lavender, my room would turn into a greenhouse,” she said as she reached the table, picked up the brush, and started to comb her mane.

“But what other option do we have left then?” the dragon asked in a concerned tone. “You can’t just keep going through that every night.”

“I know, Spike, but honestly there isn’t anything else I can think of that would make the nightmares go away. The only other option now would be to use unorthodox means.” She paused for a moment before turning to her companion. “We’ll have to go and visit Zecora.”

“Twilight, you know that’s currently not possible,” Spike protested. “We got a whole schedule set for the next week. We barely managed to squeeze in the appointment for the last doctor in Canterlot and even then, we were 15 minutes late for the meeting with Fancy and the rest of the noble committee.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” She grimaced. “I know Fancy Pants is quite forgiving, but the rest were giving me unpleasant looks. But still, I have to try.”

“We’ll have to figure that out later. I got your morning checklist ready.”

“Wait. You already have my schedule?” She looked at him surprisingly. “I thought you came to check up on the commotion?”

“Well... it’s just that after this same thing has happened for 14 days in a row it just kind of became predictable, like a clock I guess.”

She scowled. “Does… does the castle staff know about this as well?”

The dragon only gave her an awkward smile and a shrug. She groaned before bashing her face on the table. They all knew what was happening.

She put on the chest crest and her crown, took in a deep breath, and exhaled. “You know what, never mind. Let's just get this day done with.”

She opened the drawer and pulled out a magically charged amulet. She recalled receiving it from Princess Celestia, who imbued it with her own and Princess Luna’s power, so she could raise the sun and the moon in their absence. That first try really didn’t go well when she accidentally put both of them in the sky and then broke the amulet in a desperate attempt to fix all of it. Now, all those years later since they left, it became a mundane routine, like turning on the lights.

She walked over to the balcony and looked to the dark horizon. She brought the trinket before her and activated it using her magic. The moon slowly drifted from the sky and disappeared beyond her sight. Then, the light began to peek over the horizon, marking the beginning of a new dawn as the sun finally rose. Twilight closed her eyes and inhaled, trying to soak in the first fresh sparks of morning light, the gentle breeze passing through her mane.

NO!

The horrifying voice from her dream echoed and the princess suddenly saw the world darken, the shadow from her dream being materialized, the faces of great evil roaring.

“Twilight!” Spike shook her.

She snapped out of her daze and in a moment of weakness, the amulet slipped from her hold, falling over the edge of the balcony. She bent over the railing and caught it at the last minute, sighing in relief and after Spike pulled her back, she looked on the horizon again. There was nothing. Just bright light illuminating the land.

“UGH,” she vented. “The day's just started and it’s already going downhill.”

“I’m really sorry, Twilight.” The dragon tried to comfort her. “But at this very moment, there’s nothing that we can do. Let us just try to get through the first half of the day and hope things improve.”

“Okay.” She sighed as she returned to the bedroom and put the amulet away.

“Now, for real. Time to tackle the day,” the princess said with confidence as she opened the door.

“Twilight, wait!” Spike called out.

“What is it, Spike?” She stopped and turned around before she could walk out.

The little dragon pointed at the measuring tape on the wall.

“Seriously?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Hey, I’m just trying to keep the record straight.”

She sighed, as she walked over to the measuring tape and straightened herself out. The little dragon flew up to her head height and drew the line on the tape at the edge of her head.

“It’s getting close to three inches. And in only 3 years.”

“Is that really necessary, Spike?”

“Hey, I want to see if you’re going to end up as a giraffe at the end of it.” The dragon grinned as he said that.

“Oh, hahaha. You’ll be lucky if you ever even grow to my size.” Twilight playfully rubbed his head spines.

“Oh, you just wait 'til I catch up to you, sister.”

They giggled.

“So, NOW are we ready to tackle the day?”

Spike thought for a moment, scratching his chin. “Yes.”

They finally walked through the bedroom door.

“So, it goes as follows,” the dragon began to read out as the duo walked down the hallway, ”first, we need to review the royal guard’s nightly report, then check up on the state of the kitchen staff, all that’s daily trivia. After that we have to meet the delegates from Abyssinia, to sign a trade agreement- “

“Oh, pony feathers!”

That interrupting noise came from around the corner. They saw a unicorn wearing a cleaner’s outfit standing in front of the large foreboding doorway, rummaging through his satchel, grumbling to himself.

“Misplaced your key again, Moppin?” They approached him.

The cleaner got startled. “M-my sincere apologies, Your Majesty. I know this is mighty inconvenient, but with the number of rooms I have to deal with I just tend to end up taking the wrong keys with me.”

Twilight giggled. “It’s no biggie. Here, let me help you with that.”

The princess turned her horn on the doorway. The intricate mechanism moved within and it opened.

“I-I promise it won’t happen again, Your Majesty, I swear.”

“It’s fine, Moppin. We’ll pretend this didn’t happen.” She smiled.

The cleaner smiled nervously and dragged his cart through the door.

“You know, you probably should get somepony more reliable to clean the room where all those magical artifacts are being kept in,” Spike complained as they continued to walk down the hall.

“Cut the guy some slack, Spike. Since the regular custodian’s been away on medical leave since last week I need his apprentice to fill in. He’s going to be replacing him one day, so he might as well get some early practice.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see if you'll still stand by that when he accidentally triggers one of them one of these days.”

Twilight Sparkle opened the gates leading to the castle courtyard where the royal guard had gathered. The morning light shined off their polished golden armor, so much so it nearly blinded her.

The moment the guard captain saw her exit he commanded at the top of his lungs for his men to stand to attention. They lined up at moments' notice. Though it was normal for the captain himself to gather reports from his soldiers, Twilight chose to take a more direct approach and hear the reports from the guards personally. One after another she would talk to them individually to learn every detail. It served two-fold: to hear every detail of their experience and in turn also to build a closer bond with them in the process.

One particular soldier at the far end of the line was not all there, however, swinging back and forth half asleep as if he hadn’t shut an eye in a while.

“BRIGHTMANE!” the guard captain shouted. “YOU’RE TO STAND TO ATTENTION WHEN HER MAJESTY ADDRESSES YOU!”

The poor blonde-maned stallion snapped out and shot out, trembling from shock.

“Brightmane, is it?” The princess walked up to him. “Is something the matter?”

“Y-y-your Majesty, may I speak frankly?”

“NO, YOU MAY NOT, SOLDIER!”

“Captain. It’s fine.” She raised her hoof against the captain, before turning to face him. “You may speak freely, Brightmane.”

“F-f-for the last few nights I’ve been selected to patrol the sculpture garden grounds. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with a night shift but… I know this may be a tall order to ask, but… Can you please move that set of statues somewhere in a secluded place where they can’t be seen unless you try to look for them?! Every time I go past them in the night they give me nightmares the following day so I can’t even have a good rest before my next shift.”

“Soldier, are you complaining to Princess Twilight about garden arrangements?!” captain raised his voice again.

Twilight silenced him quickly.

“Brightmane, I sympathize with you, but I’m afraid I can’t do that. Those three were put on display there so that future generations of ponies learn of the dark forces that were once trying to destroy our world, and it’s up to the Royal guards like you to make sure they’re kept safe.”

“I… understand.” He sighed in disappointment.

“However, if it would help, I could have you rescheduled to NOT patrol the grounds at night.”

“But… but Your Majesty,” the captain protested, “I can’t do that! I already had the whole roster set up for this month, I’d have to redo the whole schedule!”

She twirled the tip of her hoof on the ground in embarrassment. “Could you… do it anyway? Pretty please?”

She gave him an awkward smile and without even putting up a fight the captain relented and nodded in submission.

“Great!” she said in delight. “If there’s nothing else to report you’re all free to go.”

The pegasus captain declared dismissal. And as all the guards walked off to start their duties, so did Brightmane, with a smile on his face… until the said pegasus captain pulled him over with one of his wings.

“And where do you think YOU are going?”

“Errr… to rest, Sir?” the guard nervously replied.

“Oh no, you’re not. You just got me into quite a mess by getting the princess to change the roster just for you after I’ve worked three days on it, so now you’re going to help me re-work it.”

“B-but Sir, that’s not fair-!” Brightmane protested.

“Do you want me to have drill sergeant Magnus put you through the wringer instead?”

“N-no, sir.”

“Okay, guard inspection, check,” Twilight told the little dragon as they walked across the courtyard and back toward the castle. “Now off to the kitchen and meet the staff.”

Spike intervened after checking out the list. “You know Twilight, that guard may have had a point. Do you think it’s a good idea to have petrified Cozy, Tirek, and Chrysalis just standing in the backyard? It might’ve been better to move them to a safe location where nopony would be able to interfere with them in any way.”

“Spike, you heard what I said. The future generations of ponies must know what we had to go through to enjoy a new age of friendship and prosperity when every creature stood together for the first time in Equestria’s history against a common enemy. They must learn what happened to those whose dark desires overcome their own sense for love and kindness so nobody else will ever walk down the same path.”

“I mean, I get for two of them, but Chrysalis was just a monster. Besides, Discord sat in that same garden for about a thousand years and he eventually escaped. So, doesn’t that kind of make my point?” the dragon questioned.

“And that precisely why I have the guards patrolling the grounds frequently now, for preventive measures. Anyway, as far as we know that’s the worst that the world had to throw at us, so who can be worse?” she said with overconfidence as she opened the door.

“WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” a pegasus guard flew over, sounding the alarm.

Spike scowled and looked at Twilight. “You just had to jinx it, didn’t you?”

She glared at him.

Some time ago, before the sun rose, on the edge of Canterlot and Ponyville, the Everfree Forest laid silent in the night, pacified after Sombra’s invasion and destruction of the Tree of Harmony, so for a while there was peace again. Yet the forest itself was ancient, harboring dark mysteries forgotten by pony kind, for that which is eternal can lie without fear of decay, and with countless centuries even decay may perish in the presence of eternity.

Darkness began to creep out of the forgotten corners of the woods, dark shadowy tendrils coiled through the trees and rocks, imbuing them in the process.

Then there was a movement. Rocks and growth began to merge into a mass of shapes, forming an army of creatures of the earth itself.

TOO LONG HAVE WE DREAMED… TOO LONG DENIED. WE GO NOW TO RECLAIM WHAT IS OURS BY RIGHT.

Spurred on by the command of the sinister whispers, the horde of elementals marched on Canterlot.

Several minutes later at Canterlot’s main gate, the night guards had already switched with the fresh replacements, so they could go report to the princess. For a moment the guards enjoyed the sweet, calm, radiant morning… until it was interrupted by sudden rumbling.

They looked over the castle wall and saw a huge army of earth elementals slowly marching toward the city. The horn was blown as several more guards joined at the front gate and the bridge leading to it has risen. The horde of rocks didn’t stop however, as they continued to push forward, they didn’t even stop at the moat, they just fell in. But as more and more elementals fell into the water, they became so numerous that the moat was filled up and the animated rock creatures began to climb over each other until they finally climbed over the city wall.

“Get reinforcements!” one of the unicorn guards yelled and a pegasus guard flew off.

The Canterlot royal guard in the meantime faced the elemental army with unfavorable results. Bucking them and using magic to shatter them did partly break them, but after a while, the loose rocks would re-attach themselves to their owners and it didn’t help that more would appear while the wounded ones regenerated in the meantime. Inevitably, however, the elementals destroyed the bridge control, causing the drawbridge to lower and while the gates still held shut, it didn’t take too long before the horde broke it down under its massive force.

The earth elementals broke through the main gate and begun to advance on the castle itself, like an unstoppable tide. Soon the whole royal guard amassed on their path, blocking their passage.

Suddenly a wide pink screen appeared in front of the charging horde, they stopped as the face of Twilight Sparkle appeared on it.

“Attention, mineral and floral creatures! This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria!” The alicorn princess stood on top of one of the towers, projecting her image below. “You have invaded the sovereign territory under my protection and have thus incurred the wrath of all Equestria. I will give you one opportunity to apologize and depart without further delay, or we will be forced to use force against you… Please.”

There was a moment of silence and it didn’t take long before it was broken. The warning to elementals fell on deaf ears and they proceeded to charge once again.

She groaned. “Why did I even expect a different outcome. You can’t reason with a rock.”

“Unless you’re Maud,” the dragon quipped.

“Not helping, Spike! Come on, we need to help them below!” she responded and they both took flight.

The unicorn guards summoned magical shields in order to block the creature's advance, and while it did work, they put themselves under a great strain as the assault just kept coming without delay.

“Everypony move out of the way!” the sound echoed across the sky as the guards looked to its origin.

Twilight flew down and dashed past other guards on the ground level at high speed. Her horn lighted up and the purple light enveloped her, turning into a living spear as she thrust through the elemental army, breaking them apart in the process.

She landed and sighed in relief. Then she noticed as the broken rocks began to reattach back on their owners. Her attack did little. Then a group of them jumped and piled on top of her.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted in panic as he flew towards her, past the guards.

Purple light erupted from the rock pile and they were repulsed. The princess knew she was in over her head at this point. She tried to fly back behind the magical shield barricade, but halfway there the passing elementals managed to grab her by the wings. After she got dropped to the floor, more of them ganged up on her again, their weight beginning to crush her.

“GET OFF OF HER!” Spike yelled as he took a deep breath and breathed fire in a straight line through the horde, all the way to the pile where Twilight was.

As the smoke cleared, Twilight was enveloped by a small purple bubble, panting heavily. Spike managed to land by her side, trying to inquire if she was okay, but before he could speak, Twilight grabbed him and pulled him inside with her, as one of the elementals almost jumped him.

“Thanks, Spike!”

“No problem, Twilight,” he said as the living rocks started to approach the shield. “But I don’t think that did much good if they just keep coming.”

“That’s not true Spike. Look!”

He looked around, seeing the horde approach, but he noticed some of the elementals were deformed as if they were missing parts of their body, and all they had were scorched marks in their places.

“They do have a weakness. If they don’t have natural material close to them, they can’t regenerate. And your dragon fire’s strong enough to melt rocks away.”

He gave her a confident look. He was born for this.

“Okay. On a count of three.” She stood up and they prepared themselves to jump out of the bubble. “One. Two. Thr-!”

CRASH!

They both stopped and turned to where the sound was coming from. A gargantuan earth elemental had climbed the mountainside and while the castle guards were busy with invaders at the front, it leaped over the castle wall and landed on top of the castle towers, crashing into them in the process.

Things have just gone worse. Together they could’ve managed to deal with the horde of little elementals without a problem, but that giant one was about to start demolishing the castle.

“THREE!” Twilight yelled, the bubble popped and they leaped into the air as the mass of rocks collapsed in their place.

“Everypony!” she called out. “If you have anything that can dissolve rock use it against them! Spike, let’s go!”

The duo flew to the castle. The huge elemental broke through the walls as it was climbing downwards.

“Spike, I’ll draw its attention. While it's distracted, breath fire on it.”

The dragon nodded.

Twilight got to the elemental and started to fire shots at it. It didn’t take long before it got aware of her presence. It tried to reach out with its massive hands for her, but she was too fast.

Spike flew in closer range and prepared himself to take a deep breath. Unfortunately, as the beast was wriggling about trying to strike the target, the vines on the trees that the elemental carried on his back swung out and one of them wrapped around the dragon’s leg, pulling him along with the motion.

Twilight noticed it and as she tried to get around the rock elemental, but the creature only followed her and as it turned, Spike ended up getting tossed into one of the broken rooms.

“Spike!” she panicked.

A moment of distraction was enough for the elemental to catch her in its grasp. She struggled to get out, but the beast didn’t even bother with her attempts at escape as it continued to descend the castle, puncturing further holes into the structure.

FLASH!

At the high speed, a powerful force chipped away at the elemental’s grasp, severely loosening it, allowing Twilight to wiggle herself out.

“My apologies for the slow response, Ma'am!”

The princess recognized that voice immediately. It was a familiar yellow pegasus wearing ancient centurion armor.

“Flash Magnus! You’re a lifesaver.”

“The captain and the rest of the men are still handling the army below as you requested. How do we deal with this one?”

“We need Spike. His fire’s strong enough to melt away the rocks so it won’t regenerate. Keep it busy!”

“Right on it, Ma’am!” Flash saluted and proceeded to buck the giant as much as possible to keep it preoccupied.

Twilight in the meantime flew up to the open room where her dragon companion was tossed. There was rubble and broken furniture everywhere. She called out to him several times until he finally groaned and she dug him out.

“Spike, are you okay?” She held the little dragon in her hooves.

He coughed. “Yeah, I think so- OW! But… I think I sprained my wing.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry you. You just make sure to keep that flame alight.”

Meanwhile outside, Flash was still flying about keeping the giant earth elemental busy, and much like with Twilight earlier, Magnus was just too fast for it, but at the same time, the vines from the trees on its back were flailing around each time it turned. Eventually, one of the vines hit the pegasus and clipped one of his wings. He got caught off balance and hit the wall before he managed to stabilize himself in the air again, unfortunately, the animated rock brought its hand down on him and broke him through the castle wall itself, before finally pulling him out, holding him tightly in his grasp. It then brought Flash over to its face and opened the gaping maw and roared.

“Hey, bulkhead!” Spike yelled as he rode on Twilight’s back to rescue the drill sergeant. “Eat this!”

He took in a deep breath and unleashed an inferno at the rock elemental. The flame throw cut through the animated rock’s hand, allowing Flash Magnus to fly off, but it also melted through its other hand that was holding on to the castle wall and being severely weakened by the melting flame, its hand was no longer able to support its massive weight. It snapped off and the elemental roared as it fell off the side of the castle, plunging right into the sculpture garden below, shattering into million pieces as it crashed onto the ground.

Twilight grimaced. Their actions may have just destroyed a precious part of Equestria's history and it’s all going to be on her.

“I’d say the threat’s been neutralized, Ma’am.” The pegasus tried to keep up a brave face despite his obvious injury.

“Flash, are you going to be alright?” she asked in a concerned tone.

“Nothing I can’t handle, Ma’am.”

“I need you to go and rejoin with others at the front. Take Spike with you. If they’re still unable to stop the elementals you’ll succeed with his help.”

“Wait. What about you?” the dragon asked.

“I need to check up on the damage that was done to the garden below. I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal right now, but I have to make sure that nothing important was destroyed and that the pile of rocks doesn’t reform.” She picked him off her back. “Can I count on you to do that?”

He nodded and after he was sat on the back of Magnus, they flew off, while Twilight descended upon the garden below. She landed, slowly moving the rubble left behind the creature, making sure that the pieces stayed as far apart from each other as possible, all the while taking precautions not to potentially damage any statues.

In meantime, the guards at the front managed to stop the advancement of the rock horde, although there were difficulties as only a few unicorns were able to cast fire spells hot enough to melt the opponents. It wasn’t until Flash Magnus brought Spike, who was later mounted on another pegasus that the tide of battle had completely turned, as the dragon breathed fire down on the battlefield as he flew by.

After several minutes, Spike was completely out of breath, but the battle was finally over. The invaders have been melted away and the damage was kept at a minimum for the most part.

Moments later a group of royal guards at the head of the captain and Spike returned to the sculpture garden. Twilight had pretty much sorted all the rocks apart to make sure the elemental wouldn’t reassemble and luckily none of the statues were destroyed by the monster crushing down… except for one.

There was a pile of boulders stacked together that hasn’t been cleaned up yet. It had her worried about what’s become of THEM. They may have been villains, but this wasn’t a fate they deserved. She hoped this wasn’t the case as she slowly lifted the boulders to reveal…

Nothing.

The statues were no longer standing there. Tiny rocks lay all around and in their place a hole in the ground was open.

“Twilight! It’s over!” Spike ran to her side. “Those living rocks on the street have been cleared out. Canterlot is safe again.”

“Thanks, Spike. Although… I wish the same could be said for them.”

It was strange. There was a sense of sadness hanging over her. Yes, those three beings were evil; they deserved to be put away where they couldn’t hurt anybody ever again, yet to see them perish like this…

Only once has she seen one meet such an end, and that was when the Storm King got turned to stone and ended up getting crushed to pieces as he fell from the balcony and onto the castle courtyard. This was different; he perished from the mistake done by his own hands, but it was HER actions that lead to the three’s demise. She, with Spike’s help, was the one who caused the giant earth elemental to fall on them. It felt like… guilt.

“Twilight,” her companion put his hand on her side to try and comfort her, “you could not have predicted it would come to this.”

“I wish I could believe that, Spike. I really wish I could…” the princess’s voice trailed off.

A light shone through the hole in the royal garden where the three statues once stood. Unknown to Twilight, however, they weren’t destroyed. They lay deep at the bottom of a chasm that was caused by the earth elemental's attack. Combined statues of Cozy Glow, Lord Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis lay to the side, with the latter being dipped into a mysterious glowing substance, a magical stream that ran through the caverns beneath Canterlot. The mysterious liquid began to spread from the pool in which the Queen of Changelings was dipped, trailing all over her face and body until she was completely enveloped by it.

FROM EARTH SHE WAS BORN. THUS, FROM EARTH SHE MAY DRAW STRENGTH. OUR EARTH… OUR STRENGTH.

The Changeling Queen regained consciousness. It was an unusual sensation. A moment ago, she was trying to make one last desperate attempt to attack the Royal Sisters and the spirit of Chaos, and then the next thing she knew, she was surrounded by near-total darkness, with a tiny source of light coming from far above. It may have been a coincidence that she managed to somehow escape her petrified prison, but she was not about to let that chance go to waste. Forget Tirek and Cozy Glow, they’ll be of no use to her if she was going to get caught with them when the Canterlot guards come to investigate. She followed the upstream current of the strange substance and disappeared into the darkness.

Chapter 5: Bounded Shadow and Ice

A cold wind began to blow through the Everfree Forest, chilling the zebra to the bone. Even during the winter season, the cold simply didn’t do well for her in general. But her thoughts were elsewhere; she’s been dousing the entrance into the cave with some kind of potion for preventive measures. If the ponies inside were going to come dashing out in retreat the least she could do is offer a way to block the potential pursuers.

Then she heard it again: the neighing cry echoing across the sky. It wasn’t just momentary this time, it was very long… and it was getting louder. That’s when she saw them; the spectral equine forms descended from the dark clouds above and were quickly approaching Zecora. At the sight of them, she immediately jumped to the side to dodge them and they simply rushed by her into the tunnel, as if they didn’t even notice her.

Spirits of hatred and spite! What kind of monster could draw their delight?

And then she saw the magical trail that Twilight Sparkle summoned to track down the Alicorn Amulet slowly fade away. If things come to worst they’ll all have a difficult time getting out of the dark tunnel. A small red lizard crawled out of her bag as she started rummaging through it. She needed to find it; that one difficult-to-produce potion that could help in this situation.

Dread washed over the six ponies and the dragon. The towering monstrosity of black mass lingered above them, its gaunt arms seemed to be the only thing that supported it as it bent forward, the icy look bearing down on them as puffs of white smoke escaped its slightly opened maw.

Queen Chrysalis stood before it, tall and unshaken; so confident and sure of herself that nothing could possibly go wrong. Twilight thought for a moment she was asleep, she wished she was because at least then she knew the nightmare would eventually end. This… this was worse. She recognized that creature; that ice-cold vile face was one of several that had haunted her sleep for days. That nightmare had now made itself manifest.

She shook her head, pulling herself together. “You won’t succeed, Chrysalis. It doesn’t matter what evil from what dark corner of the world you’ve summoned; as long as my friends are by my side we’ll banish it from this world.”

The Changeling Queen smirked and uttered one word. “Try.”

That smug look on Chrysalis' face; the princess knew that by the end she would lose it. She raised her hooves, beckoning them to join her. “Everypony!”

And they did. Magical energy that radiated from everybody enveloped them, lifting them off the ground as the sense of dread around them was dispelled, the cavern illuminated by bright light. Queen Chrysalis shielded her eyes, unable to look into the blinding light, a familiar sense of fear slowly lighting up inside her. She could already hear Doubt whisper in her ear, ironically saying "do not doubt us". Then came a low growl; she looked to the side and saw the manifestation of Hatred lift one of its scrawny arms and slowly reached forward at the princess and her friends.

“Together!” Twilight opened her eyes and the light turned everything white.

OUR HATRED FOR YOUR KIND… IS ETERNAL.

Shielding her eyes, Chrysalis prepared for the worst, for the inevitable end… one that did not come. She still felt the same. The hate, its power coursing through her; it didn’t dissipate, yet the blinding light was still there. What in the world was happening?

“Too bright for you, is it, broodmother?” the slithery whisper next to her asked. “Here, let me assist.”

Doubt’s tail extended and entered Chrysalis’ mind, her sight darkening to the point when she couldn’t see anymore, forcing her to drop the cover over her eyes. She could finally see through the blinding light what was happening; she stood there for a moment in complete disbelief, yet the understanding finally washed over her and she began to cackle insanely.

The Queen of Changelings wasn’t the only one shocked, however, unlike the former, the moment didn’t pass for them. The power for friendship was rising, its energy flowing out, and yet… it didn’t move. A giant black claw clenched the bubble in its grip, preventing it from expanding; the darkness that was stopping the magic of friendship from growing could not be hurt by it at all.

“How… why isn’t it working?” Twilight Sparkle said in a calm tone, unable to comprehend the situation.

Chrysalis stopped laughing for a moment. “You still don’t get it, do you, Twilight Sparkle?! You cannot hurt it because compare to YOUR magic of friendship, ITS HATRED... IS STRONGER!”

A roar, accompanied by the cries of windigos sounded out as the giant black mass opened its maw, a spray of snow begun to blow from it until it eventually turned into a full burst of ice, being shot directly at the adversaries. The beam of ice and snow collided into the magical bubble generated by the outsiders, which the shadowy manifestation was pressing down on, cracks slowly appearing, and as the ponies and the dragon inside noticed that happening, the dreaded aura began to leak inside once again, slowly overwhelming them until it finally popped and exploded.

There was ringing in Twilight’s head as she slowly awoke, noticing that the light, which was generated earlier had slowly faded, returning to its previous dim state. She tried to get back on her hooves and instantly slipped, falling to the side. Looking about, she discovered that the land around her was frozen, with icy spikes sticking out.

“Is everypony okay?” she called out.

One after another separate voices sounded out, groggy from the experience they just endured, confirming to their friend that they were fine… then a shrieking cry came from one of them. Twilight turned in its direction; that was Rainbow Dash's voice!

“G-g-guys… I c-c-can’t feel anything…” she said in a stuttering voice.

The rainbow maned pegasus was curled up in a fetal position on the ground, shaking, her back along with her wings, was frozen solid. They all slowly tried to get back on their hooves so they wouldn’t slip on the frozen floor and walked over to her side.

Applejack scooped her up in an embrace. “Hey, hey, Dash, keep calm, we’re here for you!”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy panicked. “We need to help her before she gets frostbite!”

As the rest of the gang tried to comfort the injured one, Twilight turned to face Chrysalis, and the giant abomination she had summoned. The Changeling Queen just stood there, taking in every moment of satisfaction of watching her enemies reeling from the defeat they did not anticipate, but the princess’ focus was on her “benefactor”. This “manifestation of Hatred” as she called it, must have a weakness. Perhaps there’s a source that she can disconnect it from, maybe then they can still win. She closed her eyes and focused on her magic; if she can gaze at the creature through the magical sight, perhaps she can uncover something.

Queen Chrysalis still stood there and noticed the princess’s momentary behavior as her eyes lit up, pondering what she was attempting to do, but it didn't take long before she finally exited her trance. Then she noticed the expression of fear on her face, and then her movement; her hind legs made a single step backward. Was she attempting to flee? Was she actually scared of the current situation? A monstrous smile curled up in the knowledge.

“Girls, Spike,” she announced calmly as she could to them as her sight returned to normal, all of them paying close attention to her. “Listen carefully: Rarity, help put Rainbow Dash on Applejack’s back. And then no matter what happens… we all need to run.”

“Wait, what?!” the party planner asked in a surprising tone.

“RUN!!!” she cried out.

Rarity quickly scooped up the wounded blue pegasus and put her on the country pony, Spike jumped on Twilight’s back and they galloped towards the tunnel.

“Fools! None of you will leave this place!” Queen Chrysalis gloated.

The shadowy mass roared and reached forward, its massive gaunt arm moving in the direction of the only exit as the gang ran as fast as they could while trying not to slip. The claw crashed to the frozen ground, the earth heaving in massive chunks of dirt and ice, putting most of them off balance. Twilight landed flat on her face and Spike flew off her and crashed into Rarity, who tumbled into the dirt. She shook her head and from the corner of her eye noticed something shiny laying on the ground. The princess in the meantime looked back and sighed in relief, realizing that the giant claw missed her by little more than a few hooves, yet as she tried to get back up she felt something tug at her. The dark hand had its index fingers extended and a tendril shot out of it, getting hold of Twilight’s leg, pulling her back. She started to panic; this was another moment from her nightmare, but unlike in the dream, Rainbow Dash was in no position to help anyone.

“Leave her alone!” the dragon yelled, leaping over Twilight and breathing fire.

The tendril snapped as it got burned off, allowing the alicorn to get back up, scooping up Spike and dashing off into the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.

Queen Chrysalis still grinned with the delight of seeing her enemies failing miserably until it began to dawn on her that the manifestation of Hatred wasn’t making any effort to stop them, it just stood there, motionless. “Well? What are you waiting for? Go after them!”

“No...” was the only word that came out of it, as it slowly slinked back into the magical pool and disappeared.

She stood there for a moment, trying to process before she finally exploded. “NO?! They’re in full retreat and you’re just letting them go?!”

Its harrowed voice rang out. “Your brood awakens… Use it.”

She gritted her teeth in frustration. Why would it just let her enemies go! But her attention was soon drawn to another matter. She noticed them; the changeling eggs began to shake, the soft organic tissue beginning to split as shells slowly cracked open, followed by high-pitched growling noises. The new generation of changelings begun to emerge from their pods, their distinct difference from older ones being very noticeable; they were already hatched full size, their bodies possessing the slightly darker color tone as that of the pool from which they spawned, and they were very aggressive. Seeing her first brood hatch after so many centuries filled the queen with a sense of great accomplishment. So what if her enemies managed to escape her; it was a temporary setback, one that she will soon rectify.

“Changelings!” she loudly announced, the soldier’s attention directing at her. “Scour the tunnels and find our enemies! Hunt them down! DEVOUR!”

And with those words, the newly born swarm skittered into the tunnel, their sounds of aggression being heard loud and wide as they disappeared into blackness.

They ran as fast as they could. The situation earlier showed that they don’t stand a chance, especially with one of them down for the counting. They zig-zagged through the twisting corridors, following the magical trail Twilight had summoned some time ago to find this place; they thought this was the least of their worries. They were horribly wrong.

Suddenly, the trail just faded away and they all stopped dead in their tracks in complete darkness. The princess lit her horn, illuminating the surroundings, revealing numerous pathways.

“Twilight, you wouldn’t happen to remember from the top of your head which way leads out, do you?” Rarity asked.

She looked about, and it didn’t help at all; all the passageways looked the same.

“Well, we need to go somewhere!” Applejack urged, as the blue pegasus still lay on her back desperately clinging to her neck, shivering. “We’re not gonna get anywhere otherwise and Rainbow’s condition here ain’t gettin’ any better.”

There was a shushing sound and everybody’s attention turned to Pinkie Pie; she was the one doing it. “Does anypony else hear that?”

Their ears perked up. There was a small screeching sound echoing through the tunnel, the patter of hooves following it; one that started to grow louder by the second. Whatever was coming their way couldn’t be friendly. Twilight started to frantically look about and noticed a hole in the wall; she nodded to them and one after another they all squeezed in.

“Rarity,“ she commanded, “I need light!”

The unicorn protested. “But what about-?”

“Just do it!”

The white pony conjured a light source, while Twilight focused her magic on the hole and generated an illusion to cover it up while shielding the light source from exiting it. They all quieted down as they heard the noise becoming incredibly loud. The horrifying-looking beasts came by; dark green horned creatures resembling ponies with bug wings, their eyes glowing teal as they spread through, spreading throughout the passages. As the moment passed and their noise disappeared through other tunnels, the illusion was dropped and they all trot out of the hole.

“Those creatures…” Fluttershy questioned. “You don’t think they were… changelings, do you?”

“I’m afraid they were," the princess answered. "And they look far meaner than the original ones. If we don’t get out of here, we’re going to end up being their lunch.”

“Where are we supposed to go?” The shy pegasus was trembling. “We could be trapped in here forever and now those creatures are crawling everywhere. There's no chance we wouldn't get spotted.”

She couldn’t give her an answer; she was at a complete loss this time and panic begun to settle in.

“Hey, what’s that?” Pinkie pointed out as from one of the tunnels a bright light was fast approaching.

Twilight grimaced. “They’re coming back! Everypony back into the hole, now!”

They all huddled inside once more, Twilight erecting the illusion barrier. The bright light approached and entered the area where they were in, they didn’t see anything, however. The light source’s form wasn’t visible.

“Twilight,“ the party pony said, as her alicorn friend tried to shush her, “I don’t think changelings are making this.”

“How would you know that?” she whispered.

Then a melodic whistle echoed through the location, Pinkie remaining adamant to her statement. “Well for starters, they normally don’t whistle to a tune.”

She jumped out of the group and through the illusion that Twilight was generating. She yelped, trying to stop her from getting out but fell flat on her face as she tried to snatch her from going through and failing. The princess looked up and anticipated the worst. Instead, her breath was taken away at a marvel before her, and Pinkie concurred as her eyes were open wide and dilated. The illusion dropped, revealed the rest of the gang who also gazed upon the shape before them. A spectral being floated above them, a light blue glow radiating from it, the spirit’s form resembling a familiar face.

“Zecora?” Spike asked as he walked out of the hole. “Is that you?”

She smiled. “I hope I’ve arrived at the right moment? I confess I thought I’d be forced into atonement.”

“Zecora, we can’t find a way out! And changelings have swarmed the tunnels; they could come out of anywhere at any moment!” Twilight pleaded.

“Do not distress, Princess!” the apparition responded. “Follow my trail and you will safely prevail!”

The zebra’s spirit skipped through the air and everybody followed in her direction. She zigged-zagged left and right, skipping like a carefree spirit, but the rest trusted her to know what she was doing; they’ve not encountered any changeling yet. Then Applejack slipped and fell forward, letting out a cough as she was weighted down with somebody, Rainbow Dash let out a loud yelp as her wings made a sudden movement in their frozen state, making it echo through the tunnels. They all froze in place, and Twilight and Rarity quickly went back to help them get back on their feet, hoping that nobody heard that. They were mistaken. Low roaring noises could be heard from far away, all around them, followed by a skittering sound.

“The locals are getting restless, everypony!” Pinkie Pie panicked. “RUN FOR IT!”

They dashed as fast as they could, screaming, Rarity and Twilight remaining at the back to give Applejack and Rainbow Dash support so they wouldn’t tumble again. They turned another corner and they finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel, spotting zebra’s apparition disappearing into the distant light; they quickened, their drive for survival reaching its peak as they could hear the sound of changelings right on their tails.

By the time they finally got out, Zecora was already waiting for them, her cheeks bloated and with one of her hooves raised and a small lizard sitting on it. As the last of the ponies got through the opening she stepped in the way, the zebra sprayed a fluid out of her mouth at the entrance and the lizard breathed out a puff of flame, igniting the fluid, which in turn set ablaze the concoction she had spilled all over the front of the entrance. The changeling swarm which had nearly reached the exit stopped dead in its tracks, unable to bypass the heat source, but their aggressive roars could still be heard beyond the firewall.

The gang just stood still in amazement for a moment.

“We’ve given them pause, but we must be gone!” Zecora urged them as she let her fire lizard companion climb back into the saddlebag pouch. “The fire will not deter them for long!”

They moved at a quick pace. There was no telling how long it will take before the swarm finally caught up to them and none of them were about to risk it. Of course, another urgent problem remained; one that has only grown dire.

“Dash, please tell me you’re still with us?” Applejack asked the patient on her back.

“Still…” the blue pegasus only whimpered as she still clung to her friend.

“We need someplace where we can stop so we can try and unfreeze her,” Spike said.

The zebra nodded. “In spite of my hovel’s destruction, the creatures would’ve searched as they’re under instruction.”

“Where else can we take shelter then?!” Fluttershy cried out in concern.

Twilight looked about, desperately looking for something, someplace… Then she noticed they’ve returned into the familiar part of the forest; in the distance to her right, she saw ruins of an old castle and a familiar crystal structure rising over them.

“There!” she commanded.

“Whoa!” Smolder gasped as she checked today’s newspaper. “A meteor fell on Dragon Lands!”

The five foreign students and one local from Twilight’s School of Friendship were spending their free time at the house that they created from the remains of Tree of Harmony, at the urge of remains of the spirit that once inhabited it. After three years, this place has become a regular afterschool hangout, but as always it remained a place for when something was troubling them. This time was especially serious, however. Their attendance at the School of Friendship was reaching the end of the fourth year and a cloud of uncertainty was hanging over all of them.

“Wait, a rock fell on dragon friend's home?” the yak questioned.

“That’s not just a rock, Yona,” the timid reformed changeling explained as she was reading a book. “It is a rock body from space, possibly even a star.”

“You know, you could always look for a shooting star and it’d be the same,” Gallus told Ocellus as he slouched on the railing.

“Are you kidding? This sounds way more exciting!” Silverstream flew by the griffin, carrying a plate with cups of tea. “Back in Seaquestria we couldn’t even see stars underwater, but I never thought they could fall from the sky!” she squealed. “I wish I could see it happen!”

“Well back in Yakyakistan clouds always in the sky; no creature sees stars, so no rocks can fall on heads,” the little yak boasted.

“Yeeeeaaaah, that’s not how it works,” Gallus added. “Star’s gonna fall even if it’s cloudy. The only difference is that if you have a clear sky you might actually see it coming and have time to dodge it if it’s gonna fall on you.”

“Wait… YOU MEAN YONA CAN GET CRUSHED BY ROCK AT ANY MOMENT?!” she cowered.

“Calm down, Yona, there’s no reason to be afraid.” Sandbar came to her side to comfort her. “Meteors are a very rare occurrence. You getting hit by it is close to zero.”

“That’s why it’s special when it does happen. And one landed practically in our backyard,” Smolder said as she grabbed one of the cups to take a sip.

“I know!” the hippogryph handed her yak and pony companions their cups. “That’s why we should totally check it out when we get on that field trip for the ending of- “

She stopped herself, realizing what she was about to say. The others were in the same state. The unpleasant thought circled through their minds, the doubt, of what the future will bring.

“I mean…” the dragon finally spoke after a prolonged awkward silence to break the tension. “I wanna go home and see the meteor too, but I don’t wanna leave this place behind.”

The yak stomped in frustration. “Yona think so too! Yona loves Yakyakistan, but Yona doesn’t want to leave friends!”

“I don’t want you to leave either, Yona…” Sandbar quickly corrected himself after realizing how he made it sound. “I-I mean all of you! I don’t want any of you to leave, but I know we can’t just stay at School of Friendship forever.”

“Well… maybe we can?” Everybody’s eyes turned to the reformed changeling saying that. “I mean, considering how successful this whole experience has been, after this, Thorax will likely send more changelings to attend Twilight’s school and… I know I may not have been at my best when I first got here, so I want to be there and help them adapt to the new environment.”

“Ocellus, are you actually saying you want to work AT the school?” Silverstream asked, and the changeling was unable to read whether the response was supposed to be positive or negative, but it didn’t take long before the answer made itself clear as the hippogryph rushed to her, grabbed, and started to shake her rapidly. “YOU’RE A GENIUS! I’ll do it too! I’ll show all the new hippogryphs and sea ponies what an amazing place this is, and best of all: I‘ll still get to see you every day!”

As she gushed over, the dragon took a sip, before adding to the conversation. “You know what? I want in on that action. I know one or two dragons who could use a bit of a fix-up on their attitude.”

It didn’t take long before the hippogryph’s arm got aground her and lifted her off the ground in excitement. “That’s three down!” Silverstream then turned to the yak. “Yona, you in?”

There was a moment of uncertainty in the air, as she paused to think for a moment. “Yona not sure Yona good as a teacher. Yona wants to show ponies, everycreature, all the awesome things Yakyakistan has to offer. But Yona wants to do something creative, but not sure yet what.”

A yellow hoof pressed against her. “We’ll be here for you to help, Yona.”

Sandbar immediately found himself in a crushing grip of his yak friend as she yelled. “Yona know!”

“Good enough!” the hippogryph boisterously announced. “Gallus, come join in on this!”

“Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah, I think not,” he said as he was still slouching against the house railing.

In a split second, a collective shout came from the other five. “WHAT?!” and one by one, voices started piling on one another. “Gallus, what are you talking about?! I thought you liked it here! What did we do wrong? You just ruined the perfect moment! Yona thought griffin was our friend!”

“IT’S NOTHING LIKE THAT!” he finally cried out to silence them all. “Truth is… I dunno what I’m supposed to do.” Gallus returned to his melancholy state. “All this time at the school I just wanted to live in the moment, but now… now that it’s all coming to an end I’ve absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do with my life.”

“Pfff, is that all?” the dragon said. “And here I thought it was something serious.”

It didn’t take long before Silverstream pitched in. “Yeah! Like, finding what you’re meant to do in your life isn’t that hard.”

“Take it from a pony, Gallus. She’s right,” Sandbar pitched in.

The Gryphon groaned. “No offense, Sandbar, but griffins don’t exactly have the luxury of “looking for special talent until a mark pops up”; most are just self-absorbed and not caring about others or the outside world. Besides, what do we got to show for it? Scones and a group of lords that only deal with personal matters within the kingdom; and neither of those are appealing to me.”

“You could try and find a place a Twilight’s school too...” the changeling said.

“Ocellus, you may not have noticed, but I’m not exactly “teacher material” like you. Teaching others about friendship just isn’t something for me. All this time I only cared about spending it with you guys and the fact that I wasn’t back home. And I don’t want to go back to Gryphonstone. The only thing there is the reminder of how alone I felt before I met you all…”

The tension was so thick you could cut into it, as the group realized how heavily the issue put a friend of theirs in a state of depression. There was a stomping sound as the yak marched up to slouching Gallus and embraced him, without an attempt to squeeze him.

“Yona know griffin friend sad,” she said, “but Yona and friends will help as best we can.”

Silverstream flew over to them and joined it. “How did that old saying go again? “Birds of a feather flap together” or something? But basically, what she said.”

A flap of leathery wings followed, and another one buzzing. “What kind of friends would we be if we left you in a lurch now of all times?”

A sound of traipsing hooves followed. “Whatever happens, Gallus, know that we got your back.”

There was a momentary reprieve from the dreary atmosphere. Reassurance from them is what he really needed.

“For what it’s worth guys… thanks,” he exhaled.

There was an eruption of a strange noise, accompanied by a sudden flash of light; it took the group of six students off guard and they faced it. A shape of light made itself manifest within the tree taking on the form of Princess Twilight Sparkle. But they knew better; this wasn’t the princess, but an entity they’ve known very well. One they’ve not seen in a very long time.

“Spirit of the Tree of Harmony? What’s she doing here after all these years?” Sandbar questioned.

“Students, I implore you: Beware,” the spirit warned them, “a great shadow that has recently been pacified has awakened again, and it’s approaching this place at this very moment. Whatever you do it must not come here. If you fail to contain this darkness, then not just myself, but everything will be lost. Please. I beg you. You must prevail!”

And with a flash of light, it disappeared. There was a momentary silence around; they were baffled by what just happened. The spirit of the tree had clearly tried to warn them about some encroaching danger, but it was incredibly vague and cryptic. What darkness was it trying to warn them about?

BANG!

A loud crashing sound came from behind their backs, where they were turned before the spirit of the tree grabbed their attention, and they turned their attention. The gates into the castle ruins have been swung wide open and eight figures charged in. They stopped, panting, showing signs of fatigue and exhaustion. Two of them were carrying the other two; the smaller figure jumped off, but the second one was still being carried; she looked injured. And it didn’t take long before the students recognized a somewhat taller purple alicorn.

“PRINCESS TWILIGHT?!” they called out in unison.

She was absolutely livid. After some time, the newborn changelings returned to their queen in the sinister cavern, having nothing to show for their efforts, since their quarry managed to slip away. But she knew exactly who was to be blamed for this mishap and she could do nothing but seethe with a stewing rage. In it, however, she seems to have forgotten where she was, and it didn’t take much longer before her radiant state drew out the key perpetrator, as its black mass rose from the magical pool below, solidifying as a familiar feature of teal eyes and a gaping maw materialized.

Its harrow voice spoke. “Your hatred radiates like a burning star, broodmother. Yet we wonder, why is it directed at us?”

The manifestation loomed before its Pillar of Hatred, awaiting diligently for her to respond. She offered the creature a hateful glare at the snap of its voice. Is it joking? Does it not realize what its inaction had just done? Is she literally going to have to spell it out?

“Why shouldn’t it?! You had the Princess of Friendship and her friends at your mercy, so you better have a good reason as to why you just let them go and had my brood having to chase them down. They failed and now they’re going to send out a nationwide panic on what’s happening here. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” Chrysalis raged.

There was a moment of silence that lasted too long, making it awkward as it seemed that her words went unheard. But just before she could say anything else, the monstrous shadow raised its hand and it didn’t take too long before it got to her what it was about to do. She dodged to the side as the hand came crashing down where she previously stood. It was actually trying to hurt her! Why?! It reached for her again and this time Chrysalis had no choice but to defend herself.

“Changelings! Protect your queen!” she cried out.

The swarm stirred and jumped at the giant mass of darkness trying in vain to stop the abomination. As she flew, a familiar whispering vapor appeared at her side.

“You know that’s a really bad idea,” Doubt told her.

It soon became clear what it meant. As the changeling brood attacked the manifestation of Hatred, making physical contact with it, I didn’t even bother reacting to their actions; instead, tendrils began to sprout from its surface, trapping its attackers and drawing them into the depths of its darkened body.

“DOUBT, DO SOMETHING!” she pleaded to the shade as she watched her brood being consumed.

The weaselly vapor shrugged. “I wish I could offer a hand, broodmother. But I’d need a set of them myself first.”

How could this green-eyed string of darkness even for a moment consider this to be funny? The first hatchlings she’s had are being devoured and it treats it like it’s no big deal. A low growl followed, as Hatred finally set its sight on Queen of Changelings again. She flew as fast as she could around the cavern to try and avoid her benefactor, but she didn’t get far as it took a deep breath and its icy burst created an impassable wall into which she crashed. She regained her senses soon, but it was too late as the giant hand reached for her and she desperately tried to crawl into the corner of ice and rock and cowered, waiting for the inevitable end…

Nothing happened. She slowly opened one of her eyes and saw the tip of the giant claws lingering only inches away from her. Hate just stood there, unmoving. She took that chance and made a dash for it, then flew away from its location. Only after she made it past its side did she finally notice what was going on: Hate’s massive form was all the way on the side where she was before, but only a single string of dark substance from which its body was comprised was still connected to the magical pool beneath the tree, and it didn’t look like it could go further without severing their connection.

“Now do you understand its predicament?” The weaselly whisper slithered by her side.

She turned her head, regarding Doubt with a bit of a confused expression, while the mass of shadow slowly slinked back into the pool and as it did, it slightly inflated and with a single huff, exhumed all the changelings it has just absorbed out of the body, sending them flying all over the cavern.

Its harrow voice finally spoke again. “Our essence has been liberated and returned to the source, however, we are permanently bound to the vessel of Turmoil’s remains; should we leave its presence, our form would dissipate.”

The broodmother landed on the ground, seeing the members of her swarm reeling from the experience, but no worse for wear, they were all well.

“In other words, Hate can’t leave this place,” Doubt chipped in.

Chrysalis looked at it. “But… you’re just like it, aren't you? So why aren’t you bound to this place as well?”

The weaselly shade simply shook its head. “Too long an explanation that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme. The point is: your guests would've gotten away, one way or another.”

“But… but we have to do something!” she said in a desperate tone. “If those ponies bring the whole world to bear like the last time, then we’re all doomed! Isn’t there a way to “unbound you”?!”

The manifestation came face to face with her, its harrow voice speaking. "There is only one way.”

Queen Chrysalis regarded the manifestation of Hatred, her ears perked to hear what it had to say.

“The remaining three fragmented essences must be gathered and returned to the source. Only then will Turmoil awaken, and finally bring about… the Hour.”

“The Hour?” she asked, confused.

“The Hour when the final twilight falls on the world. Its final end," the weaselly vapor explained. "So, considering the circumstances on who its last ruler will be, you could even call it... The Hour of Twilight.”

Doubt laughed. Chrysalis did not; had the situation not been as dire, she might have actually cracked a smile at the irony, but this really wasn't the right time.

“Well, what are we waiting for? " she urged. "If you know the locations of those essences, tell me so the swarm and I can set out to bring them ba- “

“It’s not that easy, broodmother,” Doubt protested.

The harrow voice continued. “By bringing our essence here and embracing hatred, you have been reborn and empowered to be our agent, our Pillar of Hatred. But were you to try and handle more than just the weight of hate, the consequences would end up being… fatal. Only another Pillar can recover the next essences.”

Chrysalis stood there, perplexed. All this power and she wouldn’t be able to put it to good use.

“But… how are we supposed to find and gather these other pillars then?” she questioned.

Weaselly vapor coiled aground her. “This is where you come in, broodmother. Now that your brood had grown strong enough, it’s time to put it to use. It falls upon your shoulders now; not to just make sure that this place, your new hive, is protected, but also… to gather the means with which to bring forth the other Pillars.”

“Then what needs to be done…?” the Queen of Changelings asked.

Chapter 19: The Sage and his Secret War

Luna gazed to the horizon as the airship was returning to Canterlot, her thoughts burdened with worry. What Twilight told her about what happened at Jagged Ridge yesterday was not a good sign in any way: Grogar’s return, Discord’s loss of power, Gusty’s betrayal… How’s her sister going to take the news? Of course, she also had to deliver the news to the active princess as well.

She traipsed past the airship’s crew which was going about its business and went below deck where rescuees were. It was noisy; the Council of Friendship, all bandaged up and band-aided, was sitting at the table. Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were stuffing their faces with food and drink after being malnourished for a whole day, Rarity’s been desperately trying to comb her mangled up mane. The only two exceptions were the zebra, who sat on the floor by the wall, rummaging through her saddlebags, and the yellow pegasus who was coddling a patchworked rolly-poly in her embrace.

“Despite what you’ve been through, you seem to be doing well, Twilight Sparkle,” the Mare of the Night complimented her.

“Princess Luna, you’ve no idea the position we’ve been in,” the Princess of Friendship told her. “Were it not for Zecora we would’ve still been trapped in there.”

“Were it not for your striped friend I wouldn’t even be here,” the dark mare responded, and pulled out a piece of paper with a few scribbled words and a symbol of the sun.

“I’m thankful for your words of appreciation, but I acted to prevent further tribulation,” the shaman responded. “Though I must say, former Princess of the Night, how did you not arrive before us, even in flight?.”

She sighed. “I would have… My sister received the message, and since she was tied down with things back at Canterlot, she sent me to organize the rescue mission immediately. But just when we were about to depart… a thunderstorm spread across the city and its surroundings.”

“A thunderstorm?“ Rainbow Dash wondered as she stopped stuffing her face for a moment. “Didn’t you call Cloudsdale to disperse it?”

“We did. But they couldn’t do it. The storm was simply too strong, untamed, almost as if it had a will of its own. And it remained active throughout the following night, so we had to remain moored. It was only in the morning that it finally dispersed on its own.”

“Great,” Twilight rubbed her head. “Things just keep getting worse. Just for once, is it too much to ask to have some good news?”

“Yes, about that,” Luna resumed, “it seems fate was on our side. Since we had to wait until the next morning to begin with the rescue mission, something came up in the mail. For you.”

The Mare of the Night pulled out another piece of paper, handing it to Twilight. It was an envelope addressed to her and it was already opened, yet inside were multiple letters with short scribbled sentences and several photographs.

After skimming through the letter, she gasped. “IT’S FROM HIM!”

It got everybody’s attention.

“From who, darling?” Rarity asked.

“It’s from Starswirl!” she exclaimed.

She cleared her throat and began reading it out loud.

Dear Twilight,

I must apologize beforehand for going silent for a long time. I had expected that my stroll through the Hayseed Swamps would be a little more than a hop, skip, and a jump, but it all expanded into an adventure that I had to experience in full.

I never got to explore the uncharted wonders of southern Equestria in my lifetime, the lands before ponykind, so I decided to follow the trail of a great adventurer.

Unfortunately, this untamed jungle contains forces that made it difficult for me to remain concealed, so I’ve compiled photos of all the sights I’ve seen on my journey and sent it directly to you while the forces ruling this place are distracted.

I’ll be going on the final stretch for the temple soon, and as soon as I get out of this overgrown place, I can -

“Wait… it just cuts off?” the fashionista asked.

“Yeah, it just stops mid-sentence… and the envelope was opened… which means he must’ve sent it in a state of emergency! He must be in trouble!”

“Well, where is he?” Applejack questioned.

“I don’t know,” the princess replied, as she emptied the whole envelope, “there’s no indication as to where he’s gone. All he had are these pictures he seems to have taken during his trip.”

She spread the photos over the table, they were showing all forms of jungle flora and fauna, and on some of them, stone structures were sticking out of the canopy. Twilight really couldn’t tell from pictures alone where he went.

Rainbow Dash bent on the table to look at them. “You know… that actually looks like one of the temples from Daring Do’s adventures.”

“Wait, what?” she turned to her.

“Now that I think about it, all these structures… they look like the temples in Tenochtitlan Basin. Look, this one even shows the shape of Ahui-“ she stopped before finishing the sentence.

She recognized this giant dark purple creature with a long maw and a hand at the end of his tail; the resident that had played as the protagonist’s foil for a long time.

“Wait… maybe that’s why he sent them… as a call for help,” she speculated. “Maybe Ahuizotl caught him and sent it directly to you as a sign!”

Everybody just stared at Twilight as she had bug eyes, then her horn began to glow and, in a flash, she disappeared.

Pinkie Pie, who was still stuffing her face this whole time finally stopped and looked where the princess was just a moment ago. “Did she just… “poof”?”

Applejack banged the wonderbolt on the back of her head. “Dash, what in tarnation were you thinkin’? You know full well how on edge Twilight’s been lately, and now you’ve scared her off to teleport!"

“I agree,” Rarity joined. “You really didn’t need to give her the idea that the only pony who may know what’s going on is in danger.”

“But Ahuizotl is a legitimate threat!” she tried to defend her actions.

“Rainbow Dash, this is Starswirl the Bearded we’re talking about,” Luna addressed her. “A unicorn that singlehandedly kept the Everfree Forest from going rampant before the Tree of Harmony was planted. It’s unlikely that some dog-ape hybrid creature from a jungle can pose a threat to him.”

“But but… Ahuizotl has a ferocious army of… cats.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before the Mare of the Night resumed. “I rest my case. What we must do now, however, is to return to Canterlot immediately and report to Celestia everything that’s happened. After that, we will have to travel south and retrieve Twilight Sparkle. In the state that she left she’s not going to pose a threat to anypony.”

“Well, emm, I have a suggestion,” Fluttershy finally spoke after being preoccupied with the former Lord of Chaos. “We can tell Starlight Glimmer and she can get us down there quickly.”

“Yours would be, Fluttershy, a plan most sound, if a problem in it I had not found...” Zecora told her.

FLASH!

Twilight appeared out of the thin air. Before her stood the scenery she saw in the picture, exactly as it was. Suddenly, she felt a gravitational pull from the loss of ground under her hooves and fell on a tree, tangling herself in vines as she came down.

“Okay, note to self: never use teleportation spell again to a place where you don’t know the exact lay of the land,” she moaned.

“It was a hard lesson to learn, that’s for sure.”

A voice spoke within an earshot of her. She struggled to turn in a tangle and she had to wiggle a bit before the vines finally turned around. And there he was: wearing an explorer’s outfit didn’t disguise the one noticeable trait for which this old unicorn was known. He was just sitting there, having a cup of tea.

“Starswirl?!” she finally noticed him.

“Hello, Twilight,” he greeted her, “you are the last pony I’d expect to show up here.”

“Starswirl, are you okay?! I got your message and…” she struggled to talk as the vines turned a full circle, turning her gaze away from him.

The old unicorn used his magic and teleported the princess out of the tangle, setting her down before him, before noticing the state she was in. “Are you okay, princess? You really shouldn’t be going about carelessly like that in such a bad state.”

“I had to come Starswirl! I received your message and the way you left it gave an impression that you’re in danger and need help.”

He took a sip of tea. “Oh… you received my compilation. That was my mistake.”

“Your… mistake?” Twilight was confused.

“I was on the exploration trail described in miss Daring Do’s books,” he explained. “I wanted to explore the lands beyond Equestria that haven’t been touched by ponykind yet even after all this time. Unfortunately, after the first week, I had to stop sending letters since I realized I was being trailed. I decided to compile the notes from the whole jungle experience until I finally got out. I managed to stay consistent for a few weeks, but this morning when I was writing down the letter to add to the compilation, I got jump scared by one of the unsavory characters that live here, and, in shock, I accidentally sent it to you.”

Twilight paused for a moment. “Soooo… you’re not really in danger?”

Suddenly she heard rustling in the nearby bushes and quickly turned; a small white kitten came walking out of it.

“I think we’re both about to be,” Starswirl said as he poofed his teacup away, picked up the alicorn, and ran off.

“Starswirl, what are you doing?” she spoke as she got levitated away. “It’s just a harmless little cat.”

“Yes, one harmless little cat that’s bringing a whole gang with him.”

And just as he said it, several other felines came out of the bushes and started to chase after them, the runt of the group lagging in the back. They ran after them, not stopping for a moment as the older pony dragged the younger one with him, zig-zagging around the jungle corners and ruin remnants. Sometime later, the grey unicorn finally hid behind a nearby wall, giving his pursuers a slip as they ran past him completely unaware.

“Emmm…. Starswirl?” the alicorn tried to get his attention as she was still being levitated while he was peeking around the corner.

“Sorry Twilight if I made you feel worried over my mishap,” he apologized, “I can see you came at your own inconvenience. So, if it’s okay, I’ll send you back and I can send you a proper letter in a few days.”

“WAAAIT!” she screamed for him to stop as he began charging his spell, startling him, and immediately shoving a hoof in her mouth after realizing they could be found.

After a few moments passed she finally resumed. “Starswirl, please we need your help. I’ve been looking for you because some mysterious dark force has awakened and nopony, not even Princesses Celestia and Luna know what it is, and you’re the only one left who could shed some light on it.”

He finally put her down. “Well, I’ll try as best as I can to assist, Twilight. What exactly has happened?”

She inhaled. “Chrysalis somehow escaped her petrified prison and managed to discover where the legendary Alicorn Amulet had been hidden and then used it to summon some dark sinister force in the Everfree Forest. We don’t know what it is.”

The elder unicorn stroke his beard. ”Hmmm… that is very unfortunate, but what you’re describing is very vague. And what exactly is “the Alicorn Amulet”? Saying it’s “legendary” doesn’t really jog my memory.”

Twilight quickly conjured an image of the amulet with her magic. “This is the Alicorn Amulet. A long time ago Trixie found it and used it in a duel against me, it granted her immense magical power and after we tricked her into giving it up, Zecora hid it away, but we speculated that somepony else also knew about it.”

She waited for a response. She noticed the legendary wizard squinting and approaching the image as closely as possible. Did the image finally jog his memory?

“Tell me,” he finally asked, “when your friend donned this “Alicorn Amulet”, was she perhaps overcome with hatred?”

“Yes, actually. Do you remember it now?”

He didn’t respond to the question, instead, the expression on his face turned from searching to concerned. “Twilight, we need to get back to Canterlot right now. From what you’ve described, it’s-“

Unknown to the two ponies, a figure loomed over them on top of the broken wall, holding a giant straw bowl the size of a house and he soon brought it down, trapping the two inside. Ahuizotl laughed as he’s managed to capture the invasive pony who trespassed into his jungle. Soon the feline members of his gang joined him, licking their lips. As the cats surrounded the bowl, their leader lifted it for them to pounce on their prey… and there was nothing. The two ponies were gone. From the distance, a loud howl of anger was all that could be heard by the other residents of Tenochtitlan Basin.

The airship in the meantime already returned to Canterlot, and the passengers, accompanied by the shaman, quickly returned to the castle to inform Celestia about what had transpired from yesterday, from both the Council of Friendship and The Mare of the Night.

“…and that’s what happened,” Luna finished telling her older sibling.

“Yeah, and if the idiot here hadn’t opened her lawn chewer, Twilight wouldn’t have gone missing,” Applejack glared at the blue pegasus.

“Sorry,” she apologized.

“And with Starlight Glimmer away at the Crystal Empire we can’t get to her quickly,” Fluttershy explained, while Discord hung around her neck.

“We need to go and depart for Tenochtitlan Basin,” Spike urged. “Who knows what will happen to Twilight the longer we wait.”

The former princess sat in the chair she always had for a long time, rubbing her head trying to process things. “Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get worse. One thing is certain: Twilight may have been able to keep this whole thing under the rug for as long as she did, but at this point, I fear we’ve no choice but to-“

FLASH!

Everybody’s attention in the room was grabbed by the sudden burst of magic as it came from the balcony outside. Soon two forms emerged, one older, now wearing a blue hat and cloak, with a purpose in his stride, and the other younger, acting a bit woozy from fatigue.

“Wow,” Pinkie said, “talk about an entrance.”

“Twilight!” the little dragon yelled as he jumped to her side. “Are you okay?! Did Ahuizotl hurt you?!”

She smiled. “I’m fine, Spike. Though were it not for Starswirl it would’ve come to that.”

“Everypony, I’ll skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point, so gather around,” the Bearded one announced. “Twilight has given me some vague details on what happened, and I may have an idea on what you may be dealing with, but I need some proof of this “sinister force” that she said had awakened in the Everfree Forest.”

They all looked at the zebra, knowing she had it in her possession. Zecora walked over to their side of the table, then reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the jar she’d been entrusted with, placing it on the top. The old wizard squinted at the strange black mass within, spotting a single spark of light inside it, and then flinched as the black mass came to life and tried to break through the glass.

“That was the parting gift that thing in the Forest left us,” Rarity explained. “That tiny speck inside is all that’s left from the Spirit of the Tree of Harmony after it ate it.”

“No…” Starswirl the Bearded grimaced.

This was a side of him they’ve not seen before; the look of horror on his face was something else completely. How serious was the situation when even the world’s most powerful unicorn sorcerer showed such great concern?

“Starswirl, do you know what this is?” the Princess of Friendship asked.

“I do…” he responded, “I can tell you more… but not here. We need to go to my old archives.” His gaze turned to the two sisters. “Celestia, Luna, this is a matter that concerns you two especially.”

The two alicorn mares looked at each other in confusion.

FLASH!

They all found themselves in the place where it all started, the Castle of the Two Sisters, where the Treehouse of Harmony stood, now dull and lifeless.

“It’s a good thing the students didn’t come along this time around,” fashionista lamented. “They wouldn’t be able to handle returning to this place after the last time.”

Their destination wasn’t the Tree itself, but rather the structure behind it. Long ago in the distant past, this castle served as the home of the younger alicorn princesses, as well as their mentor. Whatever answers the old wizard could provide, they had to come here and visit his old study.

They were all about depart, but the key participant was missing, as he stood into the distance, looking at the cloud of darkness rising from the forest. “Have things truly gone this bad already that its power is beginning to leak?”

“Do not burden yourself, old sage, for the darkness is still in its cage,” Zecora answered as she came to Starswirl’s side. “All I did was make it appear visible on-stage.”

He looked at her. “You… made it visible to the naked eye? But you’re not a unicorn. What kind of magic did you use to do that?”

Before the shaman could answer, a prod came from nearby blue pegasus. “You two can talk about magic when we’re done. We’re in a hurry, remember?”

“Right,” the old stallion rushed ahead of the group and led forward, with the zebra pacing behind them all.

They climbed the stairs of the old ruins to where Starswirl’s old study was. It seemed like the place remained untouched for hundreds of years with the gust of dust that came rushing out as they opened the door. The room was densely covered with spiderwebs and the level of dust build-up nearly reached the end of their hooves. The wizard entered and traipsed to the far end of the room where the shelves with books stood. Twilight imagined that must’ve been where all the knowledge they required is, it’s been just sitting there in the open for so long and they never even thought about looking for it. However, the old unicorn then used his magic, blowing away the shelves along with the wall, lifting a giant curtain of dust in the process. Everybody coughed, but by the time it settled down, they understood why he just did that. Behind the shelves, behind the stone wall, was actually a giant door, sealed with runes and a single orifice in the middle of it. Starswirl the Bearded approached and inserted his horn into it. With a magical glow, the runes on the door lit up and the gateway opened.

He turned to his company. “Everypony, stay close and watch your step.” He turned to the purple alicorn. “Twilight, please walk with me and explain in full what happened in my absence.”

She joined him and they descended into the dark stairway, followed by everybody else.

As they worked their way down deeper into the underground passage to which only the elder was privy, he lit the way with his horn, while Twilight explained how all that’s transpired to have led them to this point; from her dreams to meeting Queen Chrysalis reborn and the Manifestation of Hatred, all the way to Grogar’s return and Discord’s loss of power.

“I still can’t believe all of this began because of a dream,” the grey unicorn said.

“Princess Luna made sure to dispel it when she finally came back,“ Twilight explained to him. “But as to what was the source, who caused them, she couldn’t tell. Only Grogar seemed to have a grasp on who’s responsible but we got cut off before he could-“

“We’re here,” he announced.

The stairway ended and they arrived in a great dark hall. The light on the wizard’s horn rose and spread in several directions, lighting up torches all around. The light illuminated the surroundings, revealing giant archives, shelves upon shelves stacked with papers and books. The purple alicorn was agape at the maw, drooling slightly.

“Starswirl… I can’t believe it…” Celestia said in amazement. “All of this... you built it right under our noses?”

“This is a place where I stored critical information from across all of my lifetime, there wasn’t a place up top that could contain all of this while keeping it safe, but primarily, I built it to harbor the knowledge that should have remained forgotten by ponykind… for their own sake,” he told them as he led them further in.

“But what kind of knowledge would be so horrible that nopony should’ve remembered?” Luna asked.

He stopped, as did the rest, then turned around. “Everypony, step away from the sigil.”

They all looked to the ground. A sigil was engraved on the stone floor, resembling fire and darkness intertwining. As they all moved away from it, the elder unicorn’s horn lit up again and in turn, so did the sigil. There was a sound of grinding stone as frames of fire and darkness began to move, and as they did, the light started to shine. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust, but by the time the sigil split, they could see what was on the floor. Stained glass was illuminated by a magical light on the other end.

“Tell me, Twilight, does this look familiar?” Starswirl asked her.

The stained glass depicted a purple dark alicorn, his mane was bright, resembling fire of the sun, wearing a golden armor with a bejeweled crown attached to it. He was firing a shot of energy from his horn, directed at… Twilight paused, her eyes being wide open. How couldn’t they be? The edge of the glass portrayed a mass of shadow… with six faces. The nightmares may have been gone now, but the images were burned into her memory.

“That’s… Starswirl what is that thing?” she asked, desperate to finally know the truth, as was everybody else present.

The look on the elder unicorn became dark, as he seemed to have suddenly lost that youthful spark he had not long ago, uttering a single word. “Turmoil.”

There was a sudden chilly breeze that caused everybody to shiver, even though there was no way for the draft to come in.

“And… what exactly is Turmoil?” Spike asked the obvious question.

Starswirl took a deep breath. “It is darkness made manifest. Nopony knows where it came from, but this is where it appeared more than a thousand years ago, long after ponies settled Equestria… before this castle was known for belonging to “the Two Sisters”. “

“So, this evil truly is older than us?” Luna wondered.

“Not quite,” the former teacher replied. “You two were already born by that time, you were just too young to be aware of the world around you, so naturally you wouldn’t have remembered it.”

“So, what exactly made Turmoil so horrible?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Doesn’t seem to be particularly threatening.”

“You’re looking at the stained glass, miss Dash,” he addressed her, “but to stand in its presence, that very certainty would be overcome by doubt, it would consume your hopes and disinter despair, it would inhale your courage and breathe out fear, and all the peace and love you’ve ever known would be replaced by anger and hatred. That is what it meant to stand before Turmoil… only those of truly strong will could face up to it. And even then… our magic could not harm it.”

“But how was it stopped? Who did it?” Rarity asked.

The elder sighed, his eyes wandering back to the stained glass. “You’re looking at him.”

Everybody looked at the alicorn, but Pinkie Pie voiced what they were all thinking. “So who’s this anyway?”

“That, miss Pie, would be the first… and the last alicorn prince… or rather, king of Equestria. His name was King Titan.” His head turned to the Mares of the Sun and Night. “Your father.”

“WHAT?!” the two alicorns shouted in unison, their “royal voices” completely overshadowing the exclamation of the Council which had about the same reaction.

“We… we had a father?!” Celestia questioned.

“What? Did you think you were born from a cabbage patch or something?” the wizard frowned. “Surely you’re old enough to know where fillies and colts come from.”

“Well, yes, but still… why haven’t we heard about this from anypony before?! Not even history books mention him!” the younger sibling joined in.

“And neither is the darkness he fought. And that’s because…” he paused, preparing himself for a reaction to what he was about to say. “Because I made sure that part of history remained forgotten by the world.”

“WHAT?!” this time the shout came from everybody.

“Starswirl, what were you thinking?!” Twilight yelled at him. “Why for the love of Celestia would you purposely remove any knowledge of some great evil and the one who saved us from it?!”

The bearded unicorn inhaled, his horn lighting up once more. “I will show you… so you can understand the gravity of my decision.”

And bright light enveloped the entire room.

They found themselves in the courtyard of the castle again, but the treehouse was no longer there and the castle was no longer just a ruin, it looked like an impregnable fortress. Ponies were pouring in through the front gate in panic while the soldiers barely held the line, and they immediately understood why. Darkness covered the sky across the distant horizons and a giant pillar of shadow connected it to the earth itself, and that same pillar was on the move, quickly approaching them. Suddenly, a purple face emerged from the darkness, letting out a maniacal cackle, and soon after five other faces appeared; the first breathed cold icy winds, freezing everything it touched, the second rained down lightning, leaving tracks of destruction in its wake, the third breathed fire that scorched the land, the fourth vomited water that drowned everything that wasn’t on its height, and only the fifth did nothing, its green eyes slithering across the dark mass of shadow. It was fast approaching and nothing could stop it; soldiers who tried to fight it head-on were quickly consumed by the dark body.

This was it. This is precisely what Twilight had experienced in her dream… but Starswirl experienced it firsthand. Then a flash happened behind them and they all looked back, except for the conjurer of the vision; he already knew what would follow. As the flash dissipated, two figures emerged: the unicorn wizard, old and grey as he’s always looked, but he seemed to have been roughed up by something, and the alicorn king, standing tall and unshaken. He opened his wings and a burst of radiant light followed, awing all who were present. He took flight and with great speed dashed in the direction of the encroaching darkness. Turmoil took notice of the lone approaching spark of light. Its face extended forward, its gaping maw opening wide, and just then when the alicorn’s body enveloped itself in the light magic, its mouth shut closed on him. A gasp followed by what they just saw happening, but the watchers weren’t expecting what came next.

A single ray of light broke out from what was considered the amalgamation’s head, followed by another, and more followed. The six faces writhed and screamed as the light began to tear them apart until an explosion erupted that blinded everything, sending a shockwave that knocked down nearly everything in sight, but not before three visible magical trails were seen passing across the sky into the far distance. When the dust settled, the darkness was gone, and the light began to shine through parting clouds. Cries of joy and cheers began to rise among the crowd. It was over. The darkness had been vanquished.

“And this is how he met his end…” Starswirl answered in a forlorn tone. “Sacrificing himself, to protect his kingdom and his people.”

It took some time before the rest finally got notice of him, Twilight addressing him. “But you’ve won! If Turmoil was defeated, why would you purposely make sure nobody remembered him?”

“He wasn’t,” he replied, with the scene around them fading away, and another reappeared. “Some time passed, and things settled down, damage done had been fixed and everypony went on to live their lives, celebrating their king’s heroic act. But I knew something was wrong; I could see some form of agitation on other resident’s faces, gossip of sinister whispers in the dark, some of them even starting to succumb to their own inner unrest. And then one night, as I was drowsing away at my desk in my study… I heard a whisper; it was dark and sinister, probably what the rest of the populace was talking about. So, in the dead of night, I decided to follow its beckoning, and it led me to where the shadow met its end. And what I saw was the truth.” He revealed an image of him standing on the edge of the crater, at the bottom of it, a familiar twisted tree stood, sinister green substance oozing out of it profusely, creating a pond underneath it. “Turmoil’s essence was imbued into a twisted tree. But my attention was elsewhere. It came from a source that lay not far. I recognized it: one of the radiant red gemstones that was once embedded in King Titan’s crown. However, there was something else as well close by, a tiny spark of light, it was calling me out, it begged me for help, yet I paid no attention to it, as its voice was so small and frail, while that of the red gemstone was loud, asking me to pick it up. Yet when I did, I suddenly felt a great burden inflicted upon me; the gemstone, it radiated such immeasurable amount of hatred, its spiteful words were like poison; I had to let it go before I lost all my senses to it. And that’s when I noticed the flora around coming to life; Turmoil’s tree began to exude its influence all around, forcing it to do its bidding. I had no choice but to take the gemstone and the spark of light with me. However, there was one more thing I had to do first.”

The elder scooped the red gemstone into his hat so he wouldn’t come in contact with it, before turning his attention towards the tree, and then the unicorn’s horn lit up. Suddenly, huge mounds of the earth arose from the sides and filled out the crater, completely flattening the entire area, before he ran off.

He resumed. “I returned to the castle after I managed to bury what was left of Turmoil, but its influence on the populace was already clear. As long as everypony knew about Turmoil’s existence, their thoughts would be burdened, meaning they could succumb to his influence. I realized I had to put an end to it, but… that also meant I had to erase the memory of alicorn king as well. And so, with a heavy heart, I cast a powerful spell on the surviving populace that was present that day when the hour of our doom came, wiping their memory.”

“That’s why nopony remembers?” Twilight questioned him in an angry tone. “You wiped everypony’s memory out of fear?”

“Twilight Sparkle, look at me!” He gave her a stern look. “Knowing what you know now, what you experienced, were you in my position; look me in the eyes and tell me with absolute honesty if you would have done it differently?”

She was about to speak, but after she thought for a moment, she realized he was right. To be in presence of a force that could have one’s darkest feelings bubble up to the surface just by its mere existence, and knowing her own magic couldn’t harm it, after having to live through it for several nights, wanting to forget it… she would’ve likely done the same.

“It wasn’t a decision I made lightly,” Starswirl sighed. “But it was the only way to truly free Equestria from Turmoil’s grasp. However, the mysteries of a malicious gem and the whispering spark had yet to be uncovered. I speculated that a fragment of Turmoil’s power was imbued into the remnant of King Titan’s crown jewels when he destroyed it, and I quickly came to the realization that the gemstone was simply too dangerous to be left as it was. I decided to create insolation around it, so its influence could only be limited to when one actively tried to draw power from it. After all, metals and rocks have unique properties when interacting with magic.”

“The Alicorn Amulet?” Rarity asked. “You’re the one responsible for making it?”

“Yes…” he replied. “Although I never gave it that name, nor did I forge an equine head and wings on it. My guess is somepony else did it to “fancy it up”.”

“But what about Turmoil? Surely that couldn’t have been the end of it?” questioned Applejack.

“Of course not,” the wizard answered. “Though for a long time I believed it was the case. I simply resumed with my life’s work, exploring magic and gazing into other realities with the spells I created, all the while being a teacher to the growing princesses. That however changed one night, when a certain somepony was so frustrated she wanted to prove she can be just as capable as her sister.”

His gaze moved to the Mare of the Night, and she knew precisely what he was talking about, so did her elder sibling. “Oh yeah, that little misadventure. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it.”

“But what exactly changed, Starswirl? What made you think differently?” Mare of the Sun wanted to know.

“What you told me, Celestia: “A voice spoke to her.” A voice that your sister heard, but you couldn’t,” he explained. “That is what stood out. I have bore witness to many different worlds, which is what made me rethink my perspective on the situation. Many of those worlds I visited before contained evils that have devoured the light of their own world, that’s when I asked myself “What of ours? Where is the darkness that seeks to devour the light of OUR world?”. Perhaps the spark of light that called out to me was not some random thing, but rather the very light that was devoured by Turmoil, the evil of OUR world, and with its destruction, it was set free again, frail as it was. But it made me think: if the dark forces from another realm could draw in Luna, what is exactly stopping the darkness of our realm from trying to take her as well, BOTH of you in fact? And so, the next night after that event, I decided to venture out into the forest once more to try and confirm my suspicions, but I did not get far this time around. The forest… had come to life.”

“Come to life?” Fluttershy questioned.

“The forest seemed to have gained a mind of its own. Even with the Turmoil’s husk buried six hooves under, its influence over the flora hasn’t ceased. Every day it passed, the forest kept growing, and after the events of the night before, I came to realize that it was coming to claim its prize. I still wasn’t sure why, but after that, I had no choice but to move both sisters away from their old home, somewhere where the sinister clutches couldn’t reach them so easily. And thus, I had them built a new home… Canterlot. During the day I was the teacher of the two royal sisters, while at night I returned to the old castle to fight my own secret war against what we know today as the Everfree Forest.”

“But you couldn’t have kept doing it forever!” Mare of the Sun pointed out. “Surely there had to be a permanent solution to this?”

“You already know what the answer to that question is, Celestia.”

There was a moment of silence, nobody was sure immediately what the old sage was referring to, but the zebra voiced her thoughts. “To fight the darkness which threatened the land, a force of light was made with might, so it could withstand.”

The old unicorn smirked. “Well put, miss zebra. While I was doing all of that, I tried to unravel the mystery of the spark of light I found so long ago. It was frail, and I had no idea how to help it. That is until I imbued it with my own magic, and to my surprise… the spark actually grew, even so slightly, its voice started to become clearer. And I wondered whether or not the very light that Turmoil once consumed, could be used to keep it at bay. But that proved to be a difficult task, for just as the manifestation of darkness fed on one’s strife to grow stronger, the spark of light needed nourishment of its own… it required virtue. My own magic wouldn’t be enough for the task and I was simply too preoccupied to set out and look for somepony of high moral values. And as result I tried working around the problem; if I couldn’t find a way to pacify the darkness, maybe I could create a spell that would TURN IT instead.”

“Turn it? You mean as in “change it into the opposite of what it is”?” Spike questioned his choice of words.

“Yes, that would be the case, Spike. But that too proved to be a difficult thing to accomplish. There exist numerous mind-altering spells in the world to influence one’s behavior, but to change one’s nature, one’s DESTINY… that was something even beyond my own capabilities… the one work that I started, yet could never finish.”

The Council looked at one another and lastly at the Princess of Friendship. Was he talking about what they thought he was?

He resumed. “But my luck would soon change. As I was busying myself one day in the garden, a group of unlikely individuals turned up. These legendary heroes from across Equestria I’ve only heard rumors about came to me, with a request from an average unicorn that brought them together. They asked for my assistance, and I of course obliged. After our task was finished, I came to realize I found what I was looking for. Each of these ponies embodied a virtue of which they were a paragon: healing, bravery, beauty, strength, hope; with these, the spark of light could be fed. So, we met in a cave underneath the old castle and channeled our energy into the spark of light. When the ritual was complete, the spark of light turned into a single seed, which we then planted in that very spot. As soon as that happened, it sent a magical shockwave across the area. I wasn’t sure whether or not what we did worked, until some time later as I noticed that the flora stopped spreading and it became less aggressive. The Everfree Forest had been finally pacified.”

“That still doesn’t explain how the Alicorn Amulet ended up in some trinket shop where Trixie got it,” Rarity was curious.

“That is, unfortunately, the result of my own carelessness,” Starswirl lamented. “When I discovered that Stygian stole our artifacts for some purpose, I went to confront him while I was still hauling my traveling wagon around. And in my zealous pursuit and bad weather, it tipped over, and... that was when I lost track of it. I’m not sure how many times it changed hooves and how many innocent lives it ruined, but at that point, it was already beyond my ability to intervene.”

The Bearded one’s horn stopped glowing and they found themselves back in the forgotten archives, where he finally exhaled. “And now you all know the truth. I returned back to the world after being stuck in Limbo with the rest of the Pillars, and despite the circumstances at the time, I was delighted to know that the Tree that was planted to suppress the darkness I had to battle for so long, withstood the test of time…”

“Yeah, until King Sombra somehow managed to return and destroyed the Tree along with the Elements,” Pinkie Pie jumped into his word.

A loud gasp followed from the yellow Pegasus after hearing what she said, not for herself, but the small form that soon after jumped off her and then skittered away, back up the stairs.

“Discord wait! She didn’t mean it like that!” Fluttershy called, as she tried to run after him, only to be stopped by Twilight, levitating her off the ground.

“Fluttershy… just let him be alone for a moment,” the princess told her.

“But…!”

They all looked displeased, still remembering what happened, especially knowing who was responsible for the umbrum king’s return in the first place. But they weren’t spiteful enough to step all over the draconequus after what he’s just been through. Letting him be alone is the only way they could handle this for now.

“Okay…” she said in a disappointed tone as she got put back on the solid ground.

“Yes…” Starswirl resumed. “What happened was… disastrous, to say the least. When I felt the Tree die I feared the worst. The only thing that was stopping the Everfree Forest from expanding was now gone and to make matters worse, your town was now standing on its very borders. Even if we pushed it back it would keep encroaching. I did not expect however that six of you would’ve ended up fixing the problem on your own.”

“Yes, the Everfree Forest has been pacified once again, but that didn’t stop Turmoil from returning, Starswirl!” Twilight said in a frustrated tone.

“Sadly. I had believed that simply burying away its remains where they couldn't be reached would've been enough, but now it appeared that simply wasn't the case in the end. Much like the Crystal Heart of the Crystal Empire is keeping the northern storms from spreading southwards from the Frozen North, so too did the Tree of Harmony and its Elements, the Council of Friendship’s own power, was always only keeping the Everfree Forest in check… but not the one who controlled it.”

“And now we’ve met one of its faces, the one that breathed ice." Rainbow Dash shivered at the thought of the experience he had in the encounter. "The thing Chrysalis called Manifestation of Hatred certainly isn’t just a tree, old-timer.”

The wizard looked at the wonderbolt with a frown. “That remark aside, I fear my original theory has been wrong based on what I’ve been told now. The “Alicorn Amulet” may not have contained just a remnant of Turmoil’s power… but actually one of its aspects, one that the Queen of Changelings has now revived.”

“One? Ya mean to tell us there’s more than just the one that breathes ice and snow?” Applejack inquired.

“You’ve all seen their faces, miss Apple. There are four others still out there, who together make up Turmoil as a whole. My guess is, much like Hatred, those too have been locked away in one of the first king’s crown gemstones.”

“Isn’t there a way to stop this altogether?” Rarity questioned.

“Other than preventing the other aspects from coming together? I fear not, miss Rarity. Which makes this situation all the more urgent. It seems Queen Chrysalis, as well as Grogar, have both been made pawns to Turmoil’s desires. We cannot allow them to find and gather all the other missing pieces, because if that comes to pass, should all of the Turmoil’s aspects reunite once again with his husk…”

Starswirl couldn't finish his sentence, as Twilight’s low voice of realization interrupted him. “He’ll return…”

That was it. That was about the only logical conclusion they could’ve come to after what they’ve all experienced and heard now.

“So… now that we know what we’re dealing with, what’s our plan of action?” the country pony awaited a response.

Author's Note

Ladies and gentlemen, the chapter where the cover of the story from 7 years ago finally becomes relevant is realized at last (mind you, some things have changed since the original concept I had in mind, but the premise has remained the same more or less).

Chapter 24: Rising and Falling

“Are we there yet?”

“No,” the weaselly vapor answered.

For hours Doubt flew through the barren frozen wasteland in a constant heavy snowstorm. It didn’t bother it, however, due to the lack of physical body. On the other hand, there was another issue it had to deal with: the mass of black stone that needed to be escorted to the designated destination, it couldn’t just leave him behind, as he carried with him a necessary object for furthering the plans. He was not made of flesh and blood, so the weather didn’t affect it, but that didn’t eliminate the main problem, especially now that they’ve been ascending a tall snowed hill.

“You are so slow, Scourgelord,” it groaned. “Too slow. At the rate you’re going, both the Broodmother and the Shaper will have found the umbrum prison before we have claimed what we need.”

“Oh there you go again with the codenames… why are you so insistent on using them?” the construct argued. “We’re not exactly being in a covert-ops right now, there’s nobody around here that could be eavesdropping on us… unless you’re afraid that the snow-covered hills have ears?”

It sighed. “I refer to them that way because it’s their purpose of existence. Chrysalis is the Broodmother of the changelings, it’s her duty to keep replenishing the swarm so it doesn’t die out, Grogar is the Shaper because he has the power to shape creatures as he desires, and you… well, with what you’ve done in your life is it any wonder you have such a fitting title?”

“Well, I don’t like it! It doesn’t fit my character. If you have to use a title for me, use the one I’ve had the whole time. I’m the-“

“Rug rat?” An imitation of a grin formed on Doubt’s face after it said that, and not a moment later, its form was shredded, as a giant black arm came down on it and went straight through, but in the end, its vaporous form simply reassembled. “Oh? Struck a nerve, have I?”

“Don’t you DARE call me that!” the construct raged.

It playfully coiled around the hooded pile of rocks. “It’s not like you have the power to stop me.”

“Oh really…?” He raised his right arm and opened it, revealing the broken horn of the umbrum king. “You know if you’re not nicer to me I could just as well-“

Before the construct could say anything further, the shadowy vapor instantly slithered in front of his face, its eyes peering into the opening of the hood. “Before you say anything further, I want you to consider the following: should you try to show any form of defiance, I may not be able to hurt you, but step out of line and I can go fetch the one who most certainly can. He brought you back from oblivion, he can do the opposite as well, and considering the pace at which you’ve been going since yesterday, even if I leave you here all alone, you wouldn’t get far before he catches up to you.” Doubt lay down on top of his head. “So, what will it be… Scourgelord? Would you like to taste the silence of oblivion again?”

The howling wind was the only thing that lingered in the air. The construct didn’t say a word. Instead, his hand lowered, and without a word continued marching onward up the snowed hill.

“Yeah… I didn’t think so.” It slithered off and moved forward.

They didn’t get a few feet further than the top of the hill before a familiar question followed. “Are we there yet?”

Doubt groaned, its form shivering in frustration. “This is the 367th time you asked me that since we got on track yesterday…” Its form then returned to slick, the tone of voice back to calm whisper. “But yes… we’re here.”

Flatlands opened before them. At first sight, there was no discernable difference between the frozen wasteland they’ve tracked through for hours and this place. However, the snow fell very lightly, and as they advanced a bit further, there was a noticeable form, or rather formation, rising up before them. A giant red gemstone was sticking out of the ground, surrounded by a cluster of smaller stones, the dim light of the north ever so slightly giving them a noticeable glisten.

“My child…” the feminine voice spoke on the wind.

The construct stopped dead in his tracks, looking about. “What was that noise?”

Doubt slowed down momentarily. “Oh? So you finally hear the mother’s voice as well? Come on, stop lagging behind.”

Not a few steps did he make before the voice spoke again, slightly louder. “Where is my child…”

“Who is this mother? What is she?” the construct asked, a noticeable nervous tone in his voice.

The shadowy vapor giggled. “That lump in your throat… figurative one, is panic, slowly setting in. Dare you guess what follows?”

The construct continued to move, but there was a visible change in his behavior: his steppes hesitantly moved forward. There was something at the back of his mind, a dreaded feeling he has never felt before and only did after he woke up again.

“First, the pupils dilate,” the weaselly vapor floated next to the crystal, preaching, “then the muscles tighten…”

Every step he made closer to the crystal formation, the feminine voice kept growing more foreboding. “Where is my child?!”

“…hysteria replaces sanity and finally…”

“WHERE IS MY CHILD?!” the feminine voice turned to fury, invading the construct’s mind.

He clenched his head, swinging about trying to get the invading shrilling voice out of his head.

“… fear shatters the mind,” Doubt finished.

He tumbled down, rolling in the snow, still holding on to his head, but this time cries of terror followed. “Make it stop!!!”

The slithery shape finally decided to stretch out its tail and touched the surface of the red crystal formation. A quick flash happened, after which the construct finally stopped tossing about in the snow, going still.

“This one…” the feminine voice spoke, originating from the crystal. “I remember… Doubt…”

It nodded. “It has been too long...”

“How delightful that you finally came,” the mother said. “But I am confused… why bring a golem with a consciousness of another thrust in it?”

“This one,” it proceeded to explain, “has a gift for you, one that only he could have delivered.”

The construct finally got himself on all fours before going into a sitting position, its head rising, looking in the direction of the slithery form and the red cluster.

“Come, Scourgelord,” Doubt urged him, “present to mother that which she covets most.”

He rose and slowly trudged in their direction, and as he stepped before the red cluster, which was just about his height, he opened his right palm and presented the item.

A prolonged gasp followed from the crystal. “The child has returned… after too long… I want to speak with him.”

He waited unmoving before the slithering shadow gave him a prod. “Well don’t just stand there, give it to her.”

The construct clenched the broken-off red horn between his three fingers, and have it touch the surface of the crystal. A small shockwave followed and lightning shot out from the crystal, coming in contact with the horn and began to levitate it.

“Now, child,” the feminine voice spoke, “reveal what your eyes have seen, what your ears have heard… what thoughts you had thought…”

The moving pile of rocks took several steps back to avoid making contact with the horn, as it moved in his direction and then stopped. “So… what happens now?” he asked.

Doubt simply slithered to his side and landed on his shoulders. “We wait... and watch.”

It was another peaceful day in the Crystal Empire. Ponies were going about their usual business, not expecting anything special to happen. But among the crowds on the street, two stood out: a little alicorn filly, happily trotting along, followed by a tall cloaked figure, with a strange elephant bird creature on his back. Of course, everybody in the Empire already knew Flurry Heart and greeted her as she passed by, but the other one remained inconspicuous despite his suspicious-looking appearance.

“How long before we get to this place you said you knew earlier?” he asked.

“We’re almost there, grandpa Gar. Just a little bit,” she answered.

Just then, the ground began to quake. An army of royal guards was running down the street, and the cloaked one had to halt the filly and pull her to the side so she wouldn’t get trampled. Then the sunlight dimed for a moment and they noticed a vast group of pegasi guards flying overhead in the same direction as their ground counterpart. When they all passed, the child was finally let go.

“What was that?” she wondered.

“Probably something bad happening outside the town,” he responded. “All the more reason we should hurry.”

Flurry Heart gave him a nod and she ran, or at least she ran at the speed where he only had to trot to keep up.

Trudging through the barren wastes of the Frozen North, the Council of Friendship and the three participants made their way, hot on the trail of their quarry. As it was predicted, even with the constant heavy snowfall, its deep trails remained visible. As they were on their track for a few hours, the Princess of Friendship took her time to get the Storm King’s former lieutenant up to speed on the events that have led them to this point.

“Twilight, you should’ve informed me asap on what was happening,” Tempest said. “Were I there, several situations you’ve gone through could’ve been prevented.”

“I don’t think so, Tempest,” the alicorn answered, “there was no way for any one of us to predict things would’ve gone the way they did. It wasn’t until yesterday that we finally understood how bad the situation actually was.”

“If that’s the case, let's hope that, whatever that thing you’re hunting down is, we can catch up to it before it actually does something bad.” She stopped and looked back, seeing the rest of the group behind her, except for two who were pacing further away than they should’ve. “Hey! Hurry up in the back, you two! You don’t wanna get lost in the snowstorm, do you?”

Rainbow Dash and Zecora were moving forward side by side, their conditions giving them difficulty with keeping up with the rest of the group, and the strong wind forced them to lean on one another.

“How about YOU get lost already,” the blue pegasus grumbled in frustration under her breath. “Right, Zecora?”

The zebra didn’t answer. The wonderbolt glanced to her side to notice she had her eyes closed.

“Zecora, are you asleep?!” she raised her voice.

The shaman slowly opened her eyes. “Rainbow Dash, I assure you that’s not the case. To combat the current situation, I’m trying to think of another place.”

“What good will that do?” the rainbow-maned pony wondered.

“To fight the cold I think back, to a time in a scorching land, when first I met the cold unparalleled, and remind myself how worse it went when it got pushed too far to the other end.”

The blue Pegasus looked about the frozen wasteland, before turning back to her. “Care to share it? I could go for some warm thoughts right now.”

Zecora laughed.

“Zecora!” the elder zebra called. “It’s time to go!”

The little zebra dragged a little pack around, putting things inside, and bursting with excitement. Her father needed to go on the journey to gather some specific reagents that could only be acquired from places outside the village and its local area. After bearing witness to the gather of all the other tribes of Farasi so long ago, the little zebra’s curiosity got piqued, and after days of begging and pleading she finally convinced him to take her along. For the first time, she was finally going to see the land outside her village and she was so excited. There were some waiting outside the hut, however, who weren’t too keen on the idea though.

“Why does she get to go?” the elder sibling complained. “I’m older, I can help father better than she can.”

“You just want an excuse to not work out in the field, Sanaa,” her mother called her out.

Her eldest daughter grumbled, knowing she got caught trying to skip work, meanwhile the tribal matron looked to her significant other, who, besides his usual attire, carried a pair of saddlebags. “Dear, are you sure she should go? Maybe she should wait until she grows up a little more.”

The High Shaman smiled. “I understand you are concerned, but the rewards to this test must be earned. Challenges and experiences give way to growth; a plant in the soil is no different, for sunlight and water, it needs both. Thus she needs the right elements to carry on with her developments.”

The little filly finally turned up through the cover door of her house, with the pack on her back and a giant grin on her face. “I’m all set, fada!”

“Wait at the village’s edge, I’ll see you there, this I pledge,” he told her.

As the little zebra trotted off, the two elders faced each other one last time. “Take care of the tribe while we’re gone-“

“- So it shall be done,” she finished his sentence before their heads touched one another and rubbed in a tender moment.

With that, the stallion departed and went after his offspring.

The elder mare looked to her daughter, who was still making a face of displeasure. “Come now, Sanaa, those weeds won’t pull themselves.”

Despite her quickened steps, the father was easily able to overtake his younger daughter in terms of speed, walking in front of her. The path took them through the tall grasses of the savannah region, the distance where Zecora herself didn’t recall ever venturing as far on her own before. Soon, however, she crashed into his backside, as he stopped.

“Fada, what is it?” she asked and traipsed to the front.

Her breath was taken away. Only a few hooves in front of them, the grass and soil ceased existing, and the only thing she saw was sand, mountains of it, as far as the eye could see.

“Zecora, your first test begins now. We’ll trot across the desert as if tied to a plow,” he told her. “Southeast we will go for a day and a night if we’re not slow, 'til Chinjaio ahead will show.”

She looked at him, confused. “Who’s… Chin… jai… o?”

“You will soon know,” he reassured her. “Best not to worry, though. You’ll see it in time, for now, let’s go.”

Without further ado, the high shaman marched into the sandy hill. Zecora didn’t wait long before joining him, only to realize she may have gotten ahead of herself, as her hooves sank into the sand; she had to raise her hooves quite a bit, to make sure she wouldn’t end up dragging through the whole way. Despite the setback, she quickened to catch up to her father.

They traveled southeast, over the vast dunes, on the scorching sunny day. The little zebra soon realized how difficult the trial before her was. She was used to the heat back home, but now, where the sun’s heat rose because of the sand, it became nearly unbearable; and she was to walk all the way to the destination for a whole day. Hours had already passed, and the sun was slowly beginning to set on the horizon at their back. A giant rock stuck out of the sand on their way, at which point, the High Shaman finally stopped.

“We’ll rest here tonight, our destination tomorrow will appear in sight,” he said. ”Over the ridge, it waits, ready for us until our weariness abates.”

“But fada, if it’s so close, why don’t we just go there now?” she asked. “The sun will go down soon and it’ll be much easier to go the rest of the way.”

“I cannot condone it, little one. You’ll thank me tomorrow when we can both go on.”

“But-“ the filly tried to argue, only to be shot down.

“You only need to wait a little while and you’ll soon see what will wipe away your smile.”

The stallion walked over to the rock and took cover by it. The little zebra still couldn’t understand what he was on about, as he opened his bag and dragged out straw, kindling, and some old wood, proceeding to light up the fire. What was he thinking? It was already hot as it was and now he was lighting another source of heat despite all of it. She turned back to face the setting sun on the horizon. As the last ray of the sun slowly went away with its setting, Zecora could already feel the heat beginning to drop; it was going to be a nice stroll, so they could easily avoid another exerting trial from today… She would soon, however, change her tune. As the sun finally disappeared and the light dimmed, the temperature kept dropping further and further. The little zebra suddenly felt chill all over; she’s never felt this cold at night back home, it was downright freezing! Another light source finally caught her eye, as her father managed to light the fire and she immediately rushed to it.

“Fada, what’s happening?!” she yelled between her clattering teeth.

“’Tis the Kuhama Desert, a land beyond mercy or measure.” the high shaman explained. “By day the blazing sun reflects itself upon the sand, but come the night all heat abandons the land. Had we gone the rest of the way, we’d have fast perished to our dismay.”

The little zebra huddle closer to the fire. “At least we won’t be cold now.”

“The fire’s mercy is temporary, hence I brought this for I was wary. Alas, I’ve no other which is complementary,” the elder one said as he dragged out a sleeping blanket, warping himself in it, and then noticed a desperate look on his child’s face.

She didn’t bring hers. Even though her mother told her to take it, she didn’t think it would’ve been a big deal. She wasn’t aware that the situation would’ve turned the way it did. So, the prospect of having to survive the cold night once the fire went out wasn’t something she was looking forward to. She shook her head in shame.

The stallion sighed and opened the cover. “Come little one, we’ll share the heat this time.”

The little filly traipsed over to her father and nestled herself in front of him, and then he closed the cover. Her teeth were still clattering, but as time passed it slowly faded away, and the dancing fire was slowly mesmerizing her to sleep.

“Rest now, Zecora,” he told her, “sleep well. When dawn arrives we’ll journey for another spell.”

And with those last few words, the little zebra dozed off.

It came with the first spark of light, announcing the beginning of a new dawn. In the shelter of the giant rock, Zecora finally woke up, the warm embrace of the blanket around her, yet somebody was clearly missing. Her sight readjusted slightly and noticed her father, sitting down facing the direction of the rising sun.

“Ah, you’re awake at last.” He turned to her. “Let us pack and move fast.”

“Wha?” she mumbled as she wasn’t quite there yet. “But we didn’t eat yet, fada.”

“When we reach the trail’s end to our bellies we’ll tend. Now fully awake, or under the sun we’ll bake.”

The child groaned. She just wanted something to fill her belly, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.

The High Shaman pulled out a gourd from his saddlebag, offering it to his daughter to slake her morning thirst. “Drown your hunger, for an hour or two. By the time we arrive, you’ll have something besides morning dew.”

After she’s had her fill, she packed away the blanket, and the two continued their march. They finally managed to climb the tall sandy hill before them, and when they did, Zecora beheld an unexpected sight and she finally completely snapped for the morning daze. In the distance she could see a single white cloud in the air… or at least it looked like a cloud, considering it was white, yet it kept stretching downwards where it was replaced by a giant dark hill.

“Fada… what is that?” she asked, her mouth agape.

“Say hi-yo, little steed, to Mount Chinjaio,” he answered, ”It is the place where I replenish whatever is needed, case-by-case. Do not be fooled by what you see, within its walls greater secrets await you and me.”

He made a single step forward, sliding down the sandy hill. Now the child’s curiosity had been piqued. She wanted to see more of what this place had to offer, and it’s been a long time since she’s seen the abadas. She leaped over the edge of the hill, screeching as she slid down just like her father, and immediately joined him as soon as she reached the ground.

For some time they walked, and the sun was already up to considerable height, the heat of the desert beginning to rise again, but she could feel solid ground under her hooves once more. And the contrast wasn’t just noticeable by the feel, but the look as well, as the bright sand was replaced by dark soil. Now that they’ve gotten closer, the mountain became more noticeable, as well as the vast mountain range in the distance behind it, stretching to both sides as far as the eyes could see. Tall grasses began to sprout in their wake, but it wouldn’t be long before it was replaced by greenery, and soon the first fields came in view. Scrawny, earthly-colored, two-horned equines were going about their daily routines, making sure that the crops were well kept. Zecora hasn’t seen any of these plants before, wheat was most of what she recalled back home, here, however, she was completely lost. And then she noticed the lush vegetation beginning to pop up the closer they got to the mountain.

As they pushed further along the mountain’s side, the child became increasingly curious. “Fada, how is this possible? Why is this place so green, while back home, except for the “forbidden place”, it isn’t?”

He smiled. “All thanks to the Mount itself. Long ago it spewed fiery death, sparing none whether or not it drew breath. Its rage subsided, gifts to those left behind it provided. Years turned into many a century, allowing abadas to live in comfort and plenty.”

“So… evil made fire and then it made all better?” she asked. “If the evil back home is freed as well, would it bestowed gifts on us too?”

The High Shaman stopped dead in his tracks, causing the filly to crash into him, then turned and gave her a serious stare. “What sleeps beneath the oasis is beyond any kind of miracles or graces. Fire and earth, after they fell, gave to others a place to dwell. I implore you, Zecora, to not consort with the force near our home, for nothing good can come from that sealed dome.”

She meekly nodded. The stallion turned and proceeded on the overgrown trail, the filly following him close behind. As they moved into the shadow of the mountain, Zecora began to feel a bit chilly, although luckily it wasn’t as bad as the night before; the area between the mountain range and the dormant volcano seemed to have created a natural heat repellant during this time of day. They crossed a hanging bridge and finally a great wooden wall came in sight, and as they passed through the giant archway, the village opened before them. Huts made from dried grass were strewn all over the place, the settlement itself looked as if overgrown with exotic plants, and the residents were going about their business in a relatively cheerful spirit. The two zebras descended into the village, hardly turning heads of the locals as they passed by them, except for a handful of abada kids who were running down the street, playing a game. They came across another hanging bridge and when they got to the middle of it, the little zebra stopped as she looked beyond it. What they just passed through was just a small part of the village as the rest of the abada’s heartlands spread out across the entire valley that was nestled between the mountains and the volcano, with even bigger grass huts towering below.

“Zecora, come here fast!” her father called from the other end of the bridge. “We’ve arrived at last!”

She hurried up after him, while he moved on and later stopped in front of a large hut that was standing right on the slope of the volcano, surrounded by spiky plants, and then proceeded to walk right in. The child joined him, but it was something she would soon regret. The inside of the hut was icy cold, likely on the same level as the night in the desert, so it didn’t take long before her teeth began to clatter as she stood behind her father.

“Ekene! Are you about?” the High Shaman called out. “I need counsel to clarify a personal doubt!”

Tapping sounds soon followed and a brown abada appeared from behind a nearby curtain. “Ah, I did not expect you to be here so soon, High Shaman!” he greeted him.

He nodded. “My work requires diligence, old friend. Among the five reagents, I fear one is at its end.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I’ve just…” the abada’s words trailed off, as he heard a strange rattling sound in his house. He stepped to the side a bit and noticed a little zebra standing right behind his customer, her teeth clattering up something awful. “Well now, who are you, little lady?” he asked her.

“Z-z-z-z-ze-k-k-k-ora,” she barely spoke.

“Oh dear, you’re not used to cold, are you?” The abada turned to face her father. “Was it wise to bring her all this way?”

“She will overcome, same as us,” he answered. “To make her strong, while young, she must not fuss.”

“If you say so. Anyway, as I was about to say, I just got back with a fresh supply, although…” the abada walked over the covered doorway behind him, sticking his head out for a moment, before quickly pulling it back in. “Okay, you both may want to stand back a bit!”

There was a tumbling sound that followed, growing louder, it sounded as if rocks were rolling down the hill. Then the cover of the door was pushed away as a pair of tied-up balls of cloth rolled into the house and then stopped before the elder zebra’s feet.

The little one was curious and tried to check out what was inside, only for the horned equine to stop her. “Don’t get any closer! The Dust Bowl’s yet to come!”

She was confused. What’s a dust bowl? Just then she heard another sound; unlike the last one, this time it sounded as if somebody was sliding through rocks and dirt. Suddenly, a figure slid past the door cover, past the two zebras, and right through the front door, finishing up with a crashing sound. The three poked their heads through the front door and spotted a figure lying in the pile of overgrowth. It was an abada, much smaller than the other one, likely a child, completely caked in black dust and dirt.

“Imari, how many times have I told you to stop doing that,” the older horned equine scolded him, “you nearly hit our guests.”

The colt got back on his feet and shook to try and get the mess off himself, not that it helped. “But it’s so much fun, papa!”

“That doesn’t matter. You could’ve hit someone.”

The kid pouted and dug his front hooves into the dirt.

His father in the meantime turned his attention to the guest. “Let’s go back in and settle this shall we?”

The High Shaman nodded and walked back in, then stopped when he noticed that his daughter wasn’t following. “Will you not come inside?”

“I’ll wait out here,” the little zebra told him, “So I can… from the chill be clear?”

He chuckled at her poor attempt to rhyme. “As you wish, but don’t run off and hide. I’ll be done, quick as if on a slide,” before disappearing behind the curtain of the door.

Zecora was now left outside. She was just glad not to be in that unnaturally freezing house. She was, however, left in the company of somebody who was her peer. He wasn’t too pleased, as he paced up and down grumbling. It didn’t take long before she stepped in the way of his trail and he bumped into her.

He gave her an uneasy look, as she was staring at him, even if he was considerably taller than her. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Why does your fada call you “Dust Bowl”?” she immediately asked.

The peer once again shook himself and black dust kept falling out of him, yet he was still completely black. “Cuz I’m always covered in Chinjaio’s dust.”

“Why?” the zebra wondered.

A grin appeared on the little abada’s face. “Come with me and I’ll show you.”

He ran behind the house, away from the eyes of his parent, and Zecora followed. When they came to the other side, a wide long slope of the volcano opened itself before her, the far distant peak being completely white.

“Race ya to the top!” he yelled and charged uphill.

She didn’t even get a chance to respond, and she ran after him. But the climb was a literal uphill battle for her; there were so many times where she slipped due to the rocks and soft soil. The abada on the other hand was able to skip at a high speed without any visible exertion, or fear of a slip-up. He eventually stopped, waiting for the zebra to catch up with him.

“You don’t do these kinds of things at home, do you?” he said as she finally got to him, panting, visibly tired.

She didn’t answer, as something else piqued her attention. Firstly, she noticed that it got considerably chilly, almost as it was inside the house earlier. Then she noticed the borderline where the black dirt ceased and was replaced with the strange white stuff further up the mountain. She approached it and stuck her hoof inside, and then flinched backward. It was cold to the touch.

“Dust Bowl, what is this stuff?” Zecora asked him.

The abada gave her a confused look. “You mean you’ve never seen snow before?”

“Well… maybe?” she recalled back to some distant event. “I’ve seen fada use something like this.”

“Of course he did,” he answered. “Papa said High Shaman always visits our shop. Mount Chinjaio is the only place in Farasi where you can get snow because it melts quickly, and my papa’s the only one with the house close to the mountain so he can gather it every day for the rest of the village to use. I know ‘cuz I have to help him. It’s why he and all the other villagers gave me the nickname.”

“But why are you constantly dirty?” the zebra asked.

“Because of the game I play,” he explained. “It’s too long a walk back home, so instead I just slide… like this!”

In that instant, the abada jumped down the slope, his hind legs lowered as he slid down the terrain filled with black dirt, causing it to fly all over him.

“Dust Bowl!” Zecora cried as she watched him go downhill at a fast speed.

The colt just turned his face and called back to her. “It’s fine! Come on, join in!”

The shaman’s daughter felt uneasy about this. The slope was so steep, and from this height, it felt like she might actually end up flying over the valley below. Still, the abada made it look so easy, no way she would chicken out now. She readied herself, made a slight hop and she began to feel the dirt and rocks under her hooves beginning to loosen. It was slow, but little by little, the speed began to pick up, and her descent accelerated. She screamed as panic started to settle into her as the house came into sight, and she had no idea how to stop herself so she wouldn’t crash into it.

Suddenly, she saw a figure rushing up the hill. The little horned equine was skipping at high speed in her direction, and just as she was about to pass him, he leaped to her side and grabbed her by the tail, pulling her back. The deterrence finally slowed them down, and they reached the house, unscathed.

“I’m so sorry!” the little colt apologized. “I didn’t want to scare you so badly! I just…” he stopped for a moment then looked at the doors. “Hold on, lemme just go check that papa didn’t hear anything.”

He ran off into the house. The little zebra was still panting from the moment of fear, but that revealed a problem. From all the excitement she’s completely forgotten that she hasn’t eaten anything yet since she got up, and now her stomach was making a growling noise; she needed something to eat. That’s when her sight wandered to the spikey plants that surrounded the cold house, they were bearing small red fruits that looked really appetizing right now; surely they wouldn’t notice just one of them missing. She plucked one of the red fruits and crushed it between her hooves, exposing its juicy flesh. She bit into it, and was met with sweet crunchiness, she just wanted to savor it for as long as possible.

“Okay, my papa and yours didn’t suspect anything. We just need to pretend that-“ Dust Bowl came out of the house with a sigh of relief, only to freeze on the spot the moment he spotted the guest eating. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

The sudden yell caused her to spit out the fruit from shock.

“Imari, what’s wrong?” the voice came from inside the house.

“Nothing, papa, it’s nothing!” he yelled back, then quickly hurrying to Zecora’s side, raising his tone in the quietest manner possible. “You can’t eat this!”

“I-i-i’m sorry,” the filly stuttered, “I was just hungry. I didn’t want to steal-“

“That’s a fruit from kuungua plant!” he cut her off. “We use them to ward off predators! They’re poisonous!”

The crushed fruit fell from her grasp as she heard that. But surely that couldn’t be right. What she tasted was so delicious and… then she felt a sting on her tongue, and another, and pretty soon her mouth was on fire; it felt like she stuck burning thorns into her mouth, the pain was so unbearable she cried out, only to be silenced as the abada shut her mouth from opening and then dragged her away from the doorway, all the way to the far side of the house.

“Tell me you didn’t swallow any of it,” he quickly asked as he finally let her go, yet he got no reply as the zebra began to cry. “Please, just let me know you didn’t swallow the fruit!”

She finally managed to quiet down over the streaming tears and shook her head.

He sighed in relief. “Okay, okay, then there’s still a chance to fix this. Open your mouth and hold still.”

The crying zebra hesitantly opened her mouth, revealing her tongue to be covered in red boils. The colt cringed for a moment, then closed his eyes and inhaled. Suddenly, one of his horns lit up in green light, and then the second one, by which he began showing noticeable signs of straining, and then green mist started to roll out. He stepped closer to Zecora and directed his head at hers, the green mist beginning to trickle down and onto the zebra’s tongue. The magical substance coated the organ, and in a matter of moments, the boils disappeared one after another. The abada’s horns stopped glowing and he collapsed in exhaustion. Meanwhile, the filly closed her mouth and checked about with her tongue. She felt nothing.

“It… it doesn’t hurt anymore…” she reacted to realization.

“Do… do you promise not to tell papa then?” the colt breathed heavily.

Zecora was confused. “What do you mean?”

He sighed, trying to sit down. “Papa’s always angry when we get visitors and I do things to irritate his customers. Just for once, I wanted him to feel like I did something right. That’s why I wanted to show you how much fun it is to ride on Chinjaio’s slopes, but I didn’t think you wouldn’t be good at it even when you never tried before. I…“ he stopped himself, looking to the side with a look of guilt in his eyes. “I was afraid that, if papa heard you crying right now, he’d notice I did things wrong again. That’s why I wanted to cure you, so he wouldn’t notice… Please… don’t be angry at me…”

There was a moment of silence as the zebra tried to process what’s happened, and she noticed by the look on the colt’s face that he was on the verge of tears. She wiped her own tears away, traipsed over to him, and wrapped her hooves around him.

“It was my fault that I ate the fruit. And you made the pain go away,” she said. “I can’t be angry at you.”

The little abada, in response, laid his head on top of hers, over her mane, putting his skinny front legs around her.

The moment didn’t last long, however, as he broke it. “Wait… what’s your name?”

“Zecora,” she smiled at him.

“Imari!” another voice called out, one that belonged to the elder abada.

She looked back for a moment, then returned to her peer. “Let’s keep this our little secret, “Dust Bowl”.”

A big grin appeared on his face. He hopped back on all fours and ran off, the filly got back up as well and followed him, to where abada’s father was poking his head out the doorway.

“What is it, papa?” he asked, with Zecora soon joining his side.

And just as he was about to say something, an unspeakable cry followed.

Zecora’s story came to a halt after that sudden scream. And it soon became apparent that she wasn’t the only one who heard it.

“W-w-w-what was that?” Rainbow Dash stuttered.

The whole group stopped, trying to locate where that scream came from. Suddenly there was a flash; a purple lightning bolt arched across the sky in the distance and the scream followed again. Somebody was crying out in agony, from wherever that lightning was coming. Without waiting another moment, two arctic patrollers and the alicorn princess dashed in its direction, with the rest of the crowd following, while the wonderbolt and the shaman tried to pick up the pace in the back.

“You think this has anything to do with what we’re looking for?” Glitter Drops asked as another cry followed.

“At this point, I would be surprised if it wasn’t, Dropsy,” Tempest added.

“Even if it’s not, whoever it is, he needs our help!” Twilight added, as she quickly dashed in front of them both.

“You guys!” the blue pegasus yelled, while she was still leaning on the zebra. “Wait up!”

Purple lightning was erupting from the crimson crystal cluster, striking at the horn’s remnant of the umbrum king. Only a single arc of lightning was being channeled into it only a few moments ago, but now it was flying all over the place, yet still violently striking at the red unicorn horn.

“Sooooo… is this supposed to happen?” the construct asked the whispering shadow on the side of his shoulder, with a noticeable tone of concern.

“I don’t think I’m in a position to guess, Scourgelord,” Doubt responded.

As the lightning continued to strike at the remains, the horn suddenly began to wiggle and the black vapor was beginning to exhume from the broken-off area.

“I think I’ve seen enough…” the feminine voice coming from the crystal was slowly turning shrill. “I want to have a word with you now. You’ve slept long enough… AWAKEN, SOMBRA!”

A cluster of lightning bolts arched out from the crystal and struck the horn again. The black matter began to ooze out of the broken horn, slowly solidifying in the process, reconstructing the facial structure of the one to whom it belonged, along with the grey fur, the black flowing, smoke-like mane, and finally a pair of red eyes, accompanied with sickly green vapor emanating from them. The face of the horn’s owner materialized fully, while the rest of the body was little more than black smoke.

Finally awake, his mother greeted him. “Hello again… wicked child!”

Author's Note

Late update, everybody. I've been suffering from work feedback for two days so the upload was late.
Anyway, enjoy more Zecora. =)

Chapter 40: Besieging the Crystal Empire

For hundreds of years, the Frozen North had remained undisturbed; the ice and snow had built up and completely covered the green landscape that once served as the original home of the ponies under miles of snow, making it a permanent and unchanged icy wasteland. Yet in a matter of seconds, one creature tore a hole through its crust, lassoing himself one of the many clouds that loomed over the land using a lightning bolt, and pulling himself out, before harnessing it as if it were a beast of burden and rode it south, towards an unsuspected city.

The Storm King laughed. “Did you see the look on their faces, Doubt? Those helpless, confused looks? The enfeebled expression on Tempest?”

The weaselly black vapor hovered near him. “That’s nice and all, but are you already forgetting the plan? Your task was to liberate Fear and bring it back to the Crystal Empire, where the Broodmother and the Shaper are preparing to release the umbrum so that they can return to the source to make it whole again. You’re not wasting time running about a city looking for one pony just so you can exact revenge on somebody who did you wrong.”

“Relax, will you? I don’t need to do anything. I just gave her the idea of harming somebody and now that thought will slowly instill and become endless anguish because she’ll be unable to do anything about it… at least until she freezes, that is.”

“You shouldn’t be so confident. I thought those ponies were dealt with last time, yet they somehow managed not just to escape certain end, they even found us.”

“Oh come on,” the construct bragged, “they’re buried under a mountain of ice and snow, how can anyone recover from that?”

“Be that as it may, you’re not deviating from the plan. You got that, Scourgelord?”

“Fine…” he grumbled.

They flew across the vast northern expanse. It took them hours previously to get to their destination, considering how slow he was moving, but now, riding on top of a cloud, they bypassed all the natural obstacles and saved up on time, which became evident as only a few minutes passed, and the city came in sight.

“I need to inform them that we’re ready. Until I return, do not approach the settlement, or the magic protecting it will hinder you.”

The manifestation of doubt flew off towards the city, leaving the satyr all by himself, yet as it disappeared, he simply continued to push the cloud forward.

“Scourgelord,” Fear’s dual voice came from the wrapped-up bundle around his neck, “what are you doing? Stop.”

“Nah.”

“What?!” it erupted in anger. “Weren’t you paying attention? Doubt just told you-!”

“I know what it told me, Mommy Dearest. I’m still sticking to the plan, I’m just taking a little detour. I’m going to make a grand entrance and these mini-horses will tremble in fear so that when your babies wake up, I’ll be ripping all the glory.”

“Nobody gave you permission to improvise, Scourgelord! Stop treating this as a game right now or-!”

“I AM THE STORM KING!” he yelled back. “And I’m sick and tired of being called by a name that means nothing to me! Besides, what are you going to do about it? You’re still partially trapped in the crystal prison that you’ve created for yourself, and without the lifeblood of the world to power you, you can hardly even raise your voice. I’m behind the wheel now, sweetie. The King is about to make a comeback!”

The dark cloud passed the threshold which the storms of the north couldn’t trespass, and it began to approach the city that was enveloped in a magical bubble. Yet as they drew closer, the satyr noticed something was wrong as the cloud he was riding slowly began to dissipate.

“What-? What’s happening?!”

“Idiot! Why do you think you were told to wait?! The Crystal Heart is preventing the storms from destroying the empire, which means you’re about to have a really nasty fall!”

“Not if I can help it!”

But by the time they passed the border of the city, the cloud under the construct finally dispersed and he fell, landing on top of the magical bubble with a loud thud.

“Ouch…” he groaned. “I’m gonna feel that in the morning…”

“Feel? You are a rock with consciousness, how can you feel anything?”

“Shut up! It’s a phantom pain, okay?”

He rose on all fours and knocked on the surface several times. It was solid as iron, and since it was covering the entire city it was clear that a powerful spellcaster was behind it. But the Storm King was more than equipped to handle it. He opened his palm and pressed it against the surface. In a matter of seconds, it began to melt through, absorbing the magic that was projected, carving a hole big enough for him to crawl through. He looked below and saw only near vertical spires of the castle, and there was no clear way for him to land without things ending badly. He soon got an idea; he lept through the hole, reaching the tower, before sliding against one of the spires, embedding his claws onto the castle’s surface, and slowly descended the slope, before his hands finally grabbed hold of a window's ledge, halting his descent, and then crawling inside.

The royal guards had searched the abandoned house top to bottom, there were clear signs that somebody had been here recently. The brand-new books, except for one that seemed to have been mishandled, were left on the dusty floor and had been taken away. Yet whoever was here seemed to have left some time ago, leaving no clues behind where they went. This was precisely what Doubt had found when it came to the scene; its pawns were missing from the hideout where they were originally set up, but it knew they prepared the necessary measures if they had to abandon it. It left and flew across the city, looking about for any possible signs, when all of a sudden, a bird flew in its way and stopped. For a moment, the weaselly vapor thought it was just flying about and stopped by it by coincidence, but then it let out an unnatural sound. That was the sign he was looking for. The bird flew off and the shadowy creature followed it to the nearby roof, where it squeezed through the narrow passage, and between its walls, there was a small portal made of dark light.

“Very curious…” the old ram said.

While they were waiting, Queen Chrysalis was lounging about, surrounded by a pile of her minions, surrounded by tiny portals, as the changelings came in and out, shapeshifting into various small animals each time they departed. Meanwhile, Grogar wondered around the large sealed lid that stood in the middle of the room, held in place by four large statues of equine heads. He was trying to figure out how to break the seal, but what he discovered was something far more fascinating, as he realized that the statues that were controlling the intricate mechanism, were adorned in very familiar runes. Suddenly, a small bird flew in through one of the small portals, returned to his changeling form, and let out a shrill.

“Well well,” Chrysalis noted, “it appears they’re finally back.”

Not a moment after, Doubt came through. “You two seem to be doing well. I was worried for a moment when I noticed that the original hideout had been found.”

“Did the rug rat succeed? Where is he?” the ram asked.

“I’ve ordered him to wait on the outskirts of the city,” it answered. “Is everything prepared?”

The sorcerer sighed. “I fear we’ve encountered a small problem, wisp.”

“Define… “problem”?” the tone of Doubt’s voice showed noticeable irritation.

“We’ve managed to get to the umbrum’s prison, and we can unlock it. We just need to disable the Crystal Heart.”

“So? Where’s the problem?”

“You’ve noticed the sudden spike in guard’s activity upstairs, haven’t you?”

“Along with a giant magical barrier surrounding the empire? Yes,” it concurred.

“Hold on, this wasn’t my fault!” the Changeling Queen protested. “I didn’t have enough time to set up a diversion like I had the last two times! Besides, how was I supposed to know that Princess Cadence would be the one to ruin the whole thing?!”

The other two stared at her with unamused expressions on their faces. “In other words, snatching the Crystal Heart will be impossible now without engaging into an all-out battle,” the weaselly shape made a groaning noise.

“I didn’t say that,” Grogar corrected it. “Now that the rung rat has returned, he’s going to give us what we require.”

“The Scourgelord?” One of Doubt’s eyes widened in confusion. “He’s not going to do anything on the outskirts of the city.”

“And do you honestly trust him even for a moment that he will stay put?” An awkward silence followed after the grizzled ram asked that. “He still clings to the memory of who he once was, it is the only thing he knows. The Storm King is rebellious. I may have reawakened him, however, he’s not yet come to terms with his condition, but he will by the end.”

“Grogar, that hardly helps us if he gets smashed to bits again,” the Pillar of Hatred pointed out.

“I can always rebuild him,” he grinned as he said that. “But before it comes to that, he's going to provide us with a necessary distraction, so that most of the empire’s eyes will be focused on him… instead of where they should be…”

The young captain of the guard has had a hectic morning. It didn’t help the fact that he had been up since the night before, but following the revelation not long ago made the situation more urgent than he could’ve imagined. Knowing that the changelings have infiltrated the Crystal Empire, have since the moment they received orders to strengthen the security, the princess gave additional orders to, not just mobilize the entire military, she had them search any vacant house in the city under the pretense that they were hiding there, all the while also keeping an eye on the populace and view with suspicion anyone who was trying to leave the lockdown. He walked down the main street of the city as he directed and received reports from the other guards while seeing that despite the commotion, the citizens were more or less calm.

“Captain!”

He sighed, he knew it couldn’t have lasted for long. “Report.”

The unicorn guard saluted. “We’ve caught them, captain! We’ve caught the changelings!”

“Really? Where?”

“Southern entrance, captain. One of them was caught without a disguise on, but the rest of the group are still trying to convince us they’re innocent.”

“I see.” He rubbed his chin. “That’s good to hear. Have them get escorted to the castle, the princess will know what to do with them.”

“Already underway, sir.”

Flash nodded. “Dismissed!”

He sighed in relief. Perhaps he was wrong. The way things were playing out there likely won’t be any further escalation, but he still decided to be present when the princess decided what to do about it.

KRAKOOM!

He stopped dead in his tracks as he was about to leave for the castle, and he noticed that other ponies around had the same reaction. That was a thunderbolt sound, but this close to the Crystal Empire? Impossible. The magic of the Crystal Heart should’ve prevented it from coming any closer. And that’s when he suddenly saw a dark cloud approaching from the north at a high speed. This wasn’t normal, something was going terribly wrong.

“Guards!” he called, and those that were nearby quickly lined up by him. “Go to the northern border and reinforce the unit there! Now!”

They ran off and he followed. If somehow the natural force that was approaching was immune to the artifact’s power, both unicorns and pegasi will count, every one of them, so as they made their way towards the location, the captain called on all the magical and flying units to assist. They had already gotten past the castle when he suddenly stopped, as he noticed that the dark cloud was beginning to shrink until it suddenly disappeared over the city. He sighed in relief. Perhaps he was jumping to a conclusion too quickly considering what a tense situation he had been in.

“Guards, halt!” he ordered and they all stopped.

He was about to dismiss them when he suddenly heard a sound of a commotion not far. It sounded as if ponies were fighting. He suddenly saw a group of them run in the opposite direction, at a tail of a white unicorn mare with a green mane and a pink streak in it, who was carrying something glowing. That’s when he heard the alarm being risen.

“Crystal Heart! They’ve stolen the Crystal Heart!”

He didn’t waste any time in rallying the present troops. “Guards! After them! We have to retrieve it!”

They charged after the thieves, with Flash Sentry calling out for any other available soldier to assist until there was enough of them. That was when they spotted the targets disappearing around the corner. “Split in half! Take the other route! We’ll cut them off with a pincer!”

And with those orders, a group split from the whole and pursued the infiltrators from another street, while they ran after them into the alley where they disappeared. He was certain of the success, there would be no place for them to run. The young captain ran after the guards, proceeding into the narrow street, where they all eventually cluttered together and then made his way to the front where the groups met. And as he finally waded through the crowd, he found an open space, with nothing at it.

“Wha… what’s the meaning of this? Why are you all standing about? Where did they go?!”

“They were here, captain,” one of the guards spoke, “but they got away. A portal was opened in the alleyway and they all escaped through one after another. By the time we managed to get to them, however, it had already closed.”

The stallion was left petrified. The symbol, and the protection of their empire, was stolen right from under them… and under his watch. And if they somehow manage to destroy it, then the storms would emerge and bury the city under a mountain of ice and snow. A thought came to him for a moment, thinking if it could get any worse at this point.

BZZZZRRRR!

A sound echoed across the sky, one that Flash Sentry knew all too well. He looked up in dread and watched as the protective shield isolating the Crystal empire began to disappear.

“Everypony, go to your designated locations!” he ordered, then looking at the group of ten guards that were left. “All of you! With me, to the castle!”

He ran as fast as he could. Things have been playing out at such an accelerated speed one after another that it couldn’t have been a coincidence, even though deep down he had hoped that Princess Cadence had only dropped the shield because she passed out from exhaustion, but he would in no way let that to a chance. He and the group arrived at the castle entrance to find some of the guard unicorns pacifying a group of changelings that failed to escape and had dropped their disguises, into a magical bubble. As reassuring as it was that the situation on this end had been handled, the one in progress was still ahead.

“All of you spread out!” he ordered as they burst through the door.

Each of the guards went their separate way, as the castle was big and there would be a lot of ground to cover. Yet as he dashed down the hallway, he soon heard a strange flashing and zapping sound. He quickened the pace, and after a few turns, not only did the sound get louder, he also encountered a small winged curly-maned puff, peeking around the corner.

“Princess Flurry Heart! What are you doing here?”

The little filly was staggered from being startled by him. “Mister Flashy, mommy’s fighting a big black scary rocky pile!”

“A big black… what?” he wondered, as he took a peek around the corner to see the scene in progress.

“No…” the alicorn princess refused. “You’re lying…”

The Storm King towered over her, his right arm opened, prepared to absorb her attacks. “Am I, though?” he asked. “Considering that I got what I came for and they were in the same place looking for it, I’m the one who’s now here and they aren’t. So tell me, what’s more likely?”

Cadence couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She knew Twilight and her friends all too well, there was no way what he had just told her was true. And yet despite that, even if the construct couldn’t form facial expressions, the tone of his voice almost sounded… true.

“I think you should be more worried about your own problems, Taffy horse,” he mocked her. “I’m the worst possible matchup for you, who can only use magic to battle. You’re all fluff and no punch.”

He swung at her and she easily dodged, before dashing to the side and firing a bolt of magic, and he turned his hand at her, absorbing the attack. She repeated it several times: the construct would attack, she would dodge, then fire, and he would in turn absorb.

“Look, do we really need to waste time with this?” he asked her. “Why don’t you just come here so I can put you on a leash, walk you out onto the balcony and declare myself the victor, and spare all of us some trouble?”

“You say that,” the Princess of Love answered, “but for all of your boasting, even if I can’t harm you, you can’t do it to me either.”

The construct groaned as he stood upright. “Yes yes, prissy princess, that’s an obvious point. But there’s a big difference between the two of us. See, for all the complaining about my condition, it does come with one perk: I’m just a walking pile of rocks, only my consciousness is active and as such, because my body isn’t real, I don’t ever tire out. You on the other hand…” he paused briefly, observing his opponent and then chuckling. “Well… you look like you’re barely even able to stand at this point. So why don’t you just do yourself a favor and come quietly… Because I’ll have to go really rough on you otherwise.”

She glared at him. “Then you’ve never fought an alicorn princess before, Storm King. I may have been put out of commission by your former lieutenant when she first invaded Canterlot, but don’t think even for a moment I’m some sort of one-trick pony…”

She was cut off as the construct burst out laughing, bending over and slapping his knee. “Oh, oh I get it, it’s cuz you’re a pony. That’s funny, really funny.” He wiggled his finger at her.

“LISTEN TO ME!” she yelled at him in rising frustration. “You’ve invaded my empire, hurt my guards, and you’ve even threatened to hurt my daughter! Even if what you said you did to Twilight doesn’t turn out to be true, those facts alone are enough to consider you’re an absolute threat! Do you think I’m frail in my current state? I once managed to protect the Crystal Empire from Sombra for three days straight without even a shuteye. So if you think even for a moment I’m going to topple like a domino with barely a nudge, then you’re asking for a lot of trouble.”

She was lying to herself. Even as she was saying those words she was rocking back and forth, and the only reason why she was able to hold up the protection spell for as long as she did last time was that she abstained from any other physical activities. But now after all that’s she’s gone through, it seemed like fear and anger were the only things that were still keeping her awake.

“I see,” the satyr said and he pulled himself to the full height. “If that’s the case, then there’s no point in me holding back.” He raised his arms and tried to crack his knuckles, only to stop after a high-pitched scratching noise followed, then rolling his eyes after remembering that he had no joints to crack. “Now, get ready, Swirly Curly.” He made a step back, clutching his fist and pulling it backward. “You’re now in for a world of hu-“

A figure flew over his head, spotting it from the corner of his eyes, but he was too slow to react. A pair of hooves swung down and bashed the Storm King in the face, the balance was tipped, and the obsidian construct toppled with a loud thud.

An orange armored pegasus stallion landed by the princess’ side. “Captain Flash Sentry!”

“Your Majesty, we need to go, while he’s distracted! Quick!”

The two quickly ran in the opposite direction, while the pile of black rock was flat on his back.

“You came in the nick of time, Flash,” she said as she ran beside him. “I don’t think I’d have been able to hold him back on my own for much longer.”

“I wish he was the only problem, Your Majesty, but we got another, even bigger one,” he explained. “The Crystal Heart’s been stolen.”

“What?! How?! When?!” she raised her voice.

“The changelings, Your Majesty. They overwhelmed the guards that were watching over it with superior numbers. They took it through a portal that appeared somewhere in the city and disappeared.”

“This doesn’t look good… But still, we’ll solve one problem at a time. First, we need some very strong ponies to deal with this one,” the mare answered.

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, we need to focus on finding where they’ve taken the Crystal Heart. If they destroy it…“

“Don’t worry Flash,” she calmed him. “The Crystal Heart is a powerful artifact. It would take a type of magic as strong as Flurry Heart’s to actually destroy it. Until then we can-“

KRAKOOM!

They suddenly both stopped dead in their tracks. That just now was the sound of thunder, and it came from outside. The horror came over them, as they looked out the window and saw clouds coming over the horizon, fast approaching, and with them came the everlasting snow and ice.

“The storms… That means the Crystal Heart was…” the young captain could barely speak.

The monarch was hardly better. “No… that’s impossible… How…?”

They were both shaken by the sight. If what they saw happening before them was real, it could only mean that their greatest fears have come to pass. The protection of the Crystal Heart had been dispelled. So distracted they were, that they weren’t paying attention to what was happening around them. A lightning bolt shot past Cadence and then wrapped itself around her neck like a rope, shocking her.

“Your Majesty!” the captain finally reacted, trying to reach out for her, only to get shocked as well upon the touch, leaving him reeling.

“Ooooooooh, I think I got a nibble!” a mocking voice came from the other side of the hallway.

The Storm King was sitting down, his right arm holding the lightning bolt’s tail, holding it up as if it were a fishing rod. “Oh boy, this one’s heavy. It must be a four hundred pounder,” he talked as he was reeling in his prey. “Whoa! That’s a keeper!” He made a strong tug and pulled the alicorn princess to her, grabbing her by the neck. “You know, prissy princess, back in the day, whenever I conquered a kingdom, if they quickly submitted without a fuss, I would simply take the valuables and let them be. I mean, the whole place still burned to the ground, but that’s all part of looting and pillaging, you understand? But those who chose to prolong a losing battle, those who chose to fight me, I was never lenient with them. I would parade them around the street, having them shamed by the looks of the defeated, those who had put their hopes in those they thought could win, and ultimately failed. Seeing them being reduced to my trophies broke the spirit of the people… and that’s precisely what I’m about to do to you. I’m going to make an example of you, curly pink-“

A bolt of magic suddenly flew past his sight and he heard the sound of rock cracking and then seeing a bit of it falling to the ground. The satyr's head turned, discovering that his left shoulder had just been grazed.

“HEY! WHO DID THIS?!” the tone of sound and fury rose from the construct as he turned in the direction from which it came.

A little alicorn filly was standing in the hallway behind him, her legs wide, her horn glowing in bright light, and an angry expression on her face. “Leave Mommy alone!” She fired another burst of magic, but this time the construct opened his right palm and absorbed it.

“Well I’ll be… the little bumblebee can sting?” he mused.

“Flurry Heart, no!” Cadence yelled in a fearful tone. “Don’t fight him! Run!”

The satyr's gaze turned back to her. “You know what? I’ve changed my mind.” He dropped the grown-up alicorn to the floor, pulled up the string of lightning upwards until it was straight, letting it go, the lightning solidified and then promptly fell apart into smaller particles, creating a net around her, and the moment she tried to move in it, she was shocked. “I’ll postpone your walk of shame… until the baby joins in.”

The Storm King turned and slowly began to march towards the little alicorn filly, who kept firing bolts of magic at him, only to absorb them. He thought to himself this will be a child’s play, yet he merely got halfway to her, when another, that was quiet up until now, finally spoke again.

“Enough already, Scourgelord!” the voice came from the wrapped-up bundle around his neck. “We can feel it! The magic of the Crystal Heart had diminished! Release us already, quick!”

“Listen here, Mommy Dearest.” He stopped, groaning. “First of all, I don’t want to hear another word from you calling me by that name. I’m the Storm King. STORM. KING. Second of all, stop whining as if I’m gonna have a hard time dealing with a walking curly puff…”

Flash sentry just stared at what was happening. He couldn’t understand why the enemy suddenly stopped what he was doing, and was now talking to himself. But still, he was distracted, which only gave him a small window of opportunity now that he’s recovered. Both the mother and the daughter were in danger, both separated by a walking, talking rock; he could only save one of them before the thing got wind of what was happening. The elder alicorn was out of the creature’s line of vision and was closer; he’d have an easier time of getting her away, but she was wrapped up in an electrified net and there was no way for him to save her without him getting shocked as well. The little filly on the other hand was on the other side, in the construct’s line of sight; if he passed him he’d just end up getting shocked by him for trying to get in the way. Furthermore, the child was more than able to run away, but it’s become clear that she had no intention of doing so, she was determined not to leave her mother's side, and as powerful as she was at her age, she couldn’t do anything against the Storm King, just like her mother couldn’t. There was only one thing he could do, and in the position that the enemy had set himself up, he had the perfect chance to incapacitate him, even if for a moment. He flew into the air and dashed forward. He made no noise as he approached, he quickly turned and bucked the construct in the back of his head at high speed. Once more he got tipped off balance and landed face-first on the ground. The captain of the guard used that chance and quickly scooped up the little princess in his hooves.

“Flash, run!” Cadence yelled. “Take Flurry Heart and run!”

“Mama!” the little filly cried and the pegasus quickly took her away.

But the moment had finally passed and the satyr managed to pick himself up from the floor again, smashing his fist in anger at the ground. “You just sit there and wait, Taffy horse.” He briefly glanced back at the older alicorn. “I’ll reunite you with your little horsey girl.” He ran after the two fleeing equines, as the one flying had just disappeared around the corner.

And the Princess of Love was left all alone, unable to move from her position, restrained by the satyr’s lightning magic.

They could hear it. The construct’s heavy footsteps could be heard loudly close by. Even if they managed to make a distance between them; he was still close thanks to his size, and all the while he had to dodge the occasional bolt of lightning that came flying his way. Soon, however, he heard other footsteps closing in. It was the guards that came with him; it seemed they had gotten wind that something was going on, and had come to the site of the commotion.

“Guards! Protect Princess Flurry Heart!” the captain ordered.

The guards stood in the path of Flash Sentry and the Storm King, and the latter didn’t show any intention of slowing down. The unicorns shot beams of magic at him, but he easily negated their attacks with the Staff of Sacanas embedded in his palm. Then the earth ponies charged at him, and all he did was lower his arms to the ground and them flipped them all, launching them at his ranged attackers.

“Out of the way, cannon fodder!” the satyr yelled as he charged through them, sweeping them aside.

The guards had offered little deterrence and the walking pile of rocks continued his pursuit. But it wouldn’t take long for him to realize he had lost his quarry. The pegasus was flying so he couldn’t even hear the sound of his hooves. In anger, he punched the nearby wall. He was frustrated: the little princess could be anywhere in the castle by now and the incessant voice from the wrapped-up crystal just wouldn’t shut up. How in the world was he supposed to catch them in they could hear him coming down the hallway? His gaze suddenly stopped at the spot in the wall he had just punched; he had left a hole in it. An idea suddenly popped up in his mind.

They stopped. The captain was still holding the little filly in his hooves as he was flying in the air, then gently landing and listening to his surroundings. There was no sound around them. He sighed in the knowledge that they had lost the pursuer.

“Let me go, Mister Flashy!” the little alicorn fussed. “Mommy needs help!”

“Princess, please,” he tried to reason with her, “you must understand that your mother is not in immediate danger, but that thing that was trying to hurt her is now after you.”

“But I wanna help! I can stop it! I-!”

“No, princess… Magic’s not going to be of any help here. If your mother couldn’t stop him, what chance do you have?”

“But-!” she tried to protest.

“I understand that you want to help, princess. But there are times when we can’t do things alone. The only thing I can do now is to protect you until more guards ca-“

He was interrupted by a loud noise. It didn’t sound like it was coming from one of the hallways, it was muffled, as if it was coming from one of the rooms. And yet despite that, that strange noise kept repeating itself every so often, growing louder… and closer.

CHRASH!

Next to them, the wall suddenly burst open, and the giant black construct came walking into the hallway, holding a large crystal pillar, using it as a battering ram.

“Peekaboo!” he said when his sight locked on them both.

Without taking a breath, Flash Sentry quickly lept in the air and tried to fly away, but at this range, he was in Strom King’s reach, as he shot a lightning bolt and electrocuted him, but not before the filly slipped from his grip and she slid across the floor unharmed. She shook her head from confusion and looked about, spotting the captain of the guard laying on the floor, twitching, meanwhile the construct approached and went past him, completely ignoring him.

“Come here, pumpkin! Come back to uncle Storm King!” he made baby noises to try and coax her.

She would have none of that. Her horn lit up and she shot a bolt at him, only for him to negate her attack, and yet despite the obvious result, she would do it over and over again, only for the outcome to remain the same. Fear was slowly beginning to settle in her the closer he got and she slowly began to back up. The Storm King caught that and his footsteps quickened to the point where he started running, and when he did, so did the little alicorn. She turned a corner and ran on the carpeted hallway that was leading to the castle’s balcony, but the obsidian construct was quickly closing the gap, his arms stretched out and were about to reach for her. All of a sudden, the satyr hit something with his ankle; he didn’t see it, but he could definitely feel that something was holding back one of his legs as he was about to move it forward to make a step, he lost balance and landed flat on his face. The stop was so sudden that the wrapped-up bundle around his neck flew off, across the air, and then rolled on the floor out onto the balcony. Flurry Heart noticed it as well as the sound, stopping some distance away, noticing that her pursuer had stopped.

“Okay… I’m getting pretty sick and tired of this…” the satyr mumbled. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, also shame on you. But do it the third time, and you’re officially THAT GUY! You know, the one that’s gonna be-!”

His gaze locked on what had hindered him. Under the carpet he was walking on he noticed a rope tied from the wall on one side, leading into the corridor he had passed, and to the one who was holding up the rope that made him trip.

“Wha… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” the tone of his voice betrayed a sudden shock.

Grogar was still walking about the sealed lid and the statues holding it shut, inspecting the runes engraved upon them. Suddenly, he started hearing voices nearby. On the far end of the underground cavern, a portal of dark light was open, and changelings began pouring through, before the Queen of Changelings finally came in last, carrying a large crystal artifact.

“Close it! Close it now!” she yelled.

The old ram’s horns glowed, and the portal closed shut.

“Phew, that was close…” she sighed in relief. “Now, when the Heart’s power is disabled, be prepared to open the lid. Got that?” She received no response. “Grogar?” There was still no answer, he seemed completely absent-minded. “Hello?! Equestria to Grogar! Wake up! We’re on schedule! Get the lid open!”

“If we don’t want to trigger the protection spell it’ll have to wait,” the grizzled ram spoke at last.

“What? What “protection spell”? You never mentioned anything about a protection spell earlier!”

He tapped the border near the lid. “These runes, the same ones that were written in the plans on how to reach this place… They’re all over the seal. I’ve been examining them while we were waiting for the rug rat to come back, but I’ve only managed to crack it just when you left. Although I’ve not been able to decipher yet what triggers it. It could be just about anything.”

“YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN READ THESE THINGS AND YOU BROUGHT THAT TO ME JUST NOW?!?!” she burst in anger, accidentally letting the Crystal Heart slip from her grasp.

The artifact bounced off the ground and touched the edge of the lid. It flashed, and then one of the runes lit up, followed by those next to it until they all lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Oh… I guess now we know what triggers it…” she said in an awkward tone.

“YOU IDIOT!” Grogar snapped at her.

That was the only thing he could do as the light erupted from the seal and then began to quickly expand. The ram sorcerer wasn’t able to react in time, and as the light touched him, a magical bind immobilized him, freezing him in place. Chrysalis saw what happened and quickly lept in the air before the light on the ground could touch her, as did the rest of the changelings. As the light was spreading, it inevitably reached the walls and enveloped it as well, until the entire room was brightly illuminated.

“Well? Don’t just wait, open the portal!” Chrysalis urged the sheep.

It was only then that she realized that he was struggling. “I… can’t… It’s the protection spell. I can’t open the way outside the city.”

“Oh great… Just wonderful. Things can’t possibly get any worse at this critical moment.”

She would curse herself after what followed next. On the other side of the sealed lid, the excess light energy from the surrounding area began to conjugate in a single place, slowly beginning to build up a form. It was an equine: a tall, regal unicorn mare, her cobalt crown sitting on top of her sparkly raspberry mane, slowly turning blue further towards its tip, her very pale vermillion fur being adorned in blue trappings holding a golden heart, and hear rear end bore the mark of a blue snowflake, surrounded by a horseshoe.

Both villains stood there, speechless. “Is that…” the Pillar of Hatred spoke first, before the Shaper took over from her, “… yes, she is. And she’s not your problem to deal with.” The ram strained himself, and soon enough a portal of dark light suddenly opened nearby.

“What the..? You just said-!” she tried to inquire.

“I could only open it to a nearby location. With the chaos outside this is one place they won’t think of looking at. I’ll remain here and open the seal. Now go.”

“You can’t be serious! You’re-!”

“GOOO!” the Father of Monsters raised his voice to the level the Queen of Changelings hasn’t heard before, causing her to quickly pick up the Crystal Heart and disappeared through the opening with her minions.

All the distractions have finally left the place, and the frustrated expression on Grogar’s face disappeared, as he slowly turned his head to face the visual manifestation of the protective spell. “Princess Amore, I presume…?”

It was less than two minutes before departure. The train conductor waited outside the station of the Crystal Empire for anyone to come, but he’s been standing there for a long time now and nobody’s was about. And considering that he saw the city in the distance covered in a great protective bubble he was getting the idea that nobody was coming anyway, he might as well give it an order to go.

He blew his whistle. “All aboard! The train for Griffonstone departing no-!”

FLASH!

The conductor couldn’t finish the sentence, as a great weight suddenly piled on top of him out of nowhere. Mostly ponies, but also other creatures left the cluster, panting as if they had just survived an arduous ordeal.

“Is everycreature okay?” a voice came out from the clutter.

“Maybe that’s a question we should be asking you, headmare Starlight,” the reformed changeling answered.

Both Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst lay on the ground, being pressed down upon by a force. When they were back at the castle and heard the commotion, the faculty members and the princess quickly became aware of what had invaded it, after all, he wasn’t being very subtle about it. As such, the plan was made to remove the students from any potential danger while she and the guards contained the Storm King. The temporary diversion was enough to get all the students together and away from the immediate danger, before teleporting them to the nearest safe place. Of course, the one creating the diversion had to make a quick leap at the last second, and crashed on top of the ones who were doing the “getting away”.

“Talk about a close shave,” Trixie said, sitting on top of them both before she got enveloped in a teal aura and lifted off.

“Way too close if you ask me,” the headmare added as she got back up.

The stallion, meanwhile, looked in the direction of the city and watched as the protective bubble surrounding it began to disappear. “Well, I guess Cadence made contact with the Storm King now.”

“Shhhhhh!” Sandbar made the noise. “Vice-principal, please don’t use that name, not now.”

“Why?”

The three finally looked at the crowd of students and among the five that were irregular, one stood out. “He was there…” The hippogriff was clutching her arms, shivering as if she was cold. “It shouldn’t be possible… he was shattered into pieces, his head was the only thing that was intact and was kept in Mount Aris museum… Why is he able to walk and talk again…? I mean, is the Crystal Castle just another Tree of Harmony? Possessed by a spirit? That should explain it, right? That was all just an illusion to test us just like-”

Another avian hand reached for her shoulder, grabbing her attention. “Silverstream… I’m sorry to say this, but that wasn’t an illusion like the last time we saw him. He was real.”

After the griffon confirmed she wasn’t seeing things, she sunk her head into her hands, and the yak embraced her to try and comfort her. The pink mare would soon join to her side.

“Don’t worry, Silverstream. We’ll get you all out of here and take care of him, I promise.” Even if her words didn’t exactly hit the note she was hoping it was the best she could do to console her, but this would have to do for now. “Students!” she announced. “The departure will continue as planned. Everycreature, board the train for Griffonstone. We will reorganize when we get to the destination.”

The ponies began to board the train, alleviating the conductor of a great burden, while the other students helped the hippogriff.

As the crowd moved, the three unicorns reconvened. “Things won’t really go according to plan, will they though, Starlight?” Sunburst asked.

“Yes, but not in the same manner that I thought at first,” she answered. “I’ll go back to the Crystal Castle and help Cadence contain the…” she stopped herself before rethinking her words. “The S.K.”

“You sure you don’t need any help?” the blue mare questioned.

“I appreciate that, but I think the two of you will have more than enough to deal with by yourselves. After things are done here I’ll go back home and help Starswirl with his research, like I promised Twilight. I’ll send you both a message after we’re done with-!”

“Flurry Heart!” the orange dragon flew about the train station and called out. “Flurry Heart!” The rest of the students also stopped just before they entered the train when they heard her.

“Smolder, what are you doing?” the stallion inquired.

“Have you seen Flurry Heart? She flew off Yonas back when we got to the group just before we were teleported.”

“Wait, she was with you guys?!” the headmare erupted, only to see the rest nod. “Oh no… we just left her right there when I cast the spell! At HIS mercy! I need to get back before-!”

KRAKOOM!

She staggered, all of them were in fact, Silverstream shrieked in shock. That was the clash of thunder, and it came from the direction of the city. And what they saw was a sudden gathering of storm clouds encroaching from beyond their gaze, fast approaching.

“Headmare Starlight, what’s happening?” Yona asked.

She knew very well what was happening. She and Sunburst both. They’ve experienced it firsthand when a newly born Flurry Heart destroyed the Crystal Heart using her power at the peak of emotion, the snow and thunderstorms that came afterward nearly buried the Crystal Empire under a mountain of ice and snow. If that was happening now, it could only mean that the artifact’s power had disappeared. And then they heard it… no, not thunder, something far worse – screams, howls, shrieks. These horrible sounds, unspeakable, unnatural sounds began to rise from the city… along with large masses of ever-shifting darkness. With all that was happening, it seemed as if the world itself had come to besiege the Crystal Empire.

Author's Note

Originally I wanted to steal the title Siege of the Crystal Empire, but then I changed it at the last moment, realizing it might leave a sour taste from the poorly thought-out story that Jeremy Whitley had written.

Chapter 65: Connecting the Dots

Author's Note

Updated the previous chapter as I seemed to have made a slight zebra world-building error.
Fixed it now.

Chapter 65: Connecting the Dots

It shifted nervously. The aberration that’s been trapped inside the jar since the trouble began started off as a perfect reflection of what they were facing: Dark, evil, vile, malevolent, eldritch horror. Now though, it was hardly recognizable: It was now greyer than anything, and it was hardly showing any form of aggression, but definitely signs of fear and concern. And right now, the latter stemmed from a trio of towering forms looking town of it, and their eyes mercilessly judging it… And then a loud snoring sound diverted the gaze of one of the eyes, making them depart.

“So, it changed again then?” Starlight asked, levitating the glass around.

“Pretty much,” Twilight confirmed, then walking off and putting a blanket over Spike, who fell asleep on one of the chairs. “It never left Zecora’s side. And when she and Applejack were in the place where the fragment originally fell and King Grover faced it, it came into contact with something he left behind.”

“And that forced the change. Same as what you mentioned happened in the Frozen North,” Star Swirl stated. “I’m beginning to see a pattern here, Twilight. One that I’m all too familiar with.”

“You mean last time you spoke about how you uncovered the spark of light?”

He nodded. “As I mentioned, when I uncovered it after burying Turmoil’s remains, I fed it the only thing I could: My magic. As I said, it required nourishment to grow, and virtue was that nourishment. I and others – Rockhoof, Mistmane, Mage Meadowbrook, Flash Magnus, and Somnambula, each gave a part of ourselves. Our virtues of sorcery, strength, beauty, healing, bravery, and hope helped the spark grow into a seed that eventually grew into the Tree of Harmony, from which the Elements of Harmony came - your Elements of magic, honesty, generosity, kindness, loyalty, and laughter, which, despite it being gone, you have inherited, as did the six students. And now, the spirit, even while enveloped in Turmoil’s essence, continues to absorb virtue and grow stronger. At first, it was the clarity from Radiant Hope, and now peace from King Grover. Despite things seeming to be grim, there is positive development happening.”

“Yes, but I fear that we’re at a disadvantage regardless of how you look at it. And while we’re on the subject of Radiant Hope, there is another thing that I discovered after you revealed the recent…” the alicorn paused, “unpleasantness of your past, the one that Starlight called “a tell”.”

The wizard gave her a calm, yet serious look, glancing at the headmare who was looking at the jar up close, before turning back. “My tell?”

“The one that distracted you when I mentioned an alicorn princess and a dragon holding another pony. And now I know one was Radiant Bliss, and the other Mother of Dragons, holding Brown Mane – it’s simply too close to be a coincidence. The spirit of Clarity showed us that Fear revealed to Radiant Hope that THIS was the act that ultimately awakened Turmoil, that it felt pain and tried to stop it before it was destroyed.”

“Twilight, what you’re saying makes no sense,” he retorted. “I don’t know why it felt pain, but I don’t see any relation in it trying to destroy all ponykind. Turmoil is a manifestation of evil, of pure darkness that hates everything that is opposite of it and will seek to destroy it.”

“I wonder about that…” the pink mare spoke, the other two looking at her.

“What do you mean, Starlight?” the Element of Magic inquired, only to have the jar brought to their faces.

“This has been confusing me for a while now. The spawn of Turmoil’s essence consumed the spirit of the Tree of Harmony, but it didn’t destroy it. And in the same vein, even though the spirit has become stronger, which by all accounts should mean that the blob that devoured it should’ve been purged because of its very nature, and yet look at it.” She turned the jar around. “Not only is it not the color I remember it being at the start, but its attitude is also completely unrecognizable. It’s almost like Harmony…”

“Changed it?” the old stallion interjected. “That may be, but what are you trying to say, Starlight?”

“Think about it. What if there’s another way around this? What if we don’t have to directly fight Turmoil and we can-”

“Talk to it? Is that what you were going to say?” he interrupted.

“Star Swirl, remember what happened last time when we went through this? When you, the other Pillars, and the Pony of Shadows were released from Limbo? I stated, based on past experience, that the map always guided everypony on a mission to fix a friendship problem. It led us to Hollow Shades where we banished the Pony of Shadows and freed its host. So, the fact that the first thing that the map showed when it reactivated after all these years, was the darkness that lurks just outside, wouldn’t that mean that there is something else to be done?”

The old unicorn sighed. “While I see your point, that is entirely debatable. You’d also have to explain why all the other signs appeared, which happened soon after Turmoil’s servants used its fragment’s powers. Furthermore, when the map had called, it always displayed the cutie marks of those involved in the problem’s resolution. It never showed the usage of power. But what I have to absolutely refuse is the notion that this evil can be reasoned in any way.”

“But you thought the same about Stygian-”

“IT’S NOT THE SAME!” shouted, his voice echoing, and making the sleeping dragon jump from shock. “Stygian was a pony, one of us, and was led astray. What we speak of is an unstoppable force of nature that will not cease until all of us are gone! Do NOT even for a moment try to convince or guilt me into thinking that all-consuming darkness could be reasoned with after my own student sacrificed himself so that we all could live!!!”

Deathly silence fell on the room, Starlight freezing in place with a grimace, a reaction from the unexpected outburst.

“Star Swirl,” Twilight finally broke it, “who are you talking about? Which student?”

After not responding for a bit, he inhaled and exhaled. “Never mind. But to make it a point that I’m right, Twilight, tell me, when you encountered Turmoil’s fragments, have you tried to reason with them in any way?”

“Well… Truth be told, we only ever spoke to Fear, and it wasn’t very eager. All it talked about was wanting for “the pain” to stop before the Storm King freed it.”

The headmare finally unfroze. “Star Swirl, try thinking very hard, have you ever talked or interacted with Turmoil, before when you first saw it?”

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Starlight, that is an oxymoron. But to give a clear answer, no - I never saw Turmoil before it attacked for the first time.”

“But surely there has to be a reason that it apparently hates ponykind? What’s this “pain” that is being referenced?”

He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, I fear.”

“Ugh, all the shouting will be the end of me,” Spike moaned.

“Sorry about that, Spike,” his elder sibling apologized. “We had a moment of tension.”

“I warn you: Awaking an angry dragon is something you don’t want to see… even if I’m not fully grown yet.” He turned, rolling up in his blanket.

Twilight rolled her eyes at her companion’s attempt to act scary when he was half asleep. She wished she could’ve cracked light-hearted jokes at times like this. It just came up so weird and silly talking about being angry and awake… Suddenly, something came to her mind. She quickly reached for a quill and a piece of parchment.

The former student noticed. “Twilight, what are you up to?”

“Establishing a timetable,” she answered, scribbling more, before finally showing her and the elder brackets. “Okay, here’s the deal: What was mentioned in the afternoon made it clear that the sinister signs on the Cutie Map weren’t a response to Chrysalis or any of her allies using their powers, as the timing of the events simply doesn’t add up, nor do multiple signs of the same type show up. So, what if it’s possible that it’s related to something else that’s happening at the same time? The fire around Griffinstone appeared on the map while it was almost morning, meanwhile, there, it was still nighttime, and that’s purely due to the time difference. The thunderclouds above the Crystal Empire pretty much match up with the timing. Which only leaves the first sign – the dark cloud above the Everfree Forest. Starlight, this is very important, so please try to remember it clearly: At what time did the Cutie Map reactivate to show the image?”

“Me and Sunburst came back to the castle after school, and Trixie found it before us.”

“Yes, but that’s her finding it. But when did it activate?”

“Truth be told, Twilight, I don’t know,” the pink unicorn confessed. “We rarely went into that room on a daily basis. Last we were in it was when we caught Trixie playing pretend that she’s the Queen of Equestria on one of the crystal chairs, and that was a day before.”

Twilight gave her a confused look. “Ooooookay… That weirdness aside, that means we cannot exclude the possibility that the map could’ve been reactivated during the night while you were all asleep. Zecora told me that she was ambushed by Chrysalis in her own home at the time when the sun had already set, in which case it matched up with the timeline.”

“Okay, but what does any of this means, Twilight? What are you getting at?”

“Awakening,” she answered.

“Come again?”

“All the fragments have something in common, and that’s that they were trapped, sealed away in one form or another. Hatred was locked inside the Alicorn Amulet, Fear was locked away in a crystal of its own making, as well as splintering itself into umbrum, and they were locked away beneath the Crystal Empire, and Anger was locked inside the Idol of Boreas. And it’s possible that those signs on the map are actually showing the fragment’s liberation, an awakening.”

Star Swirl stroked his beard. “I think you may be onto something, Twilight.”

“It’s more than that!” Starlight jumped in. “In fact, I think she may have found a way for us to get ahead of Chrysalis and others!”

The alicorn gave her a confused look. “Wait, you got ahead of me on that one, Starlight. Explain.”

“The spirit of the Tree of Harmony and the map are connected, obviously. It’s somehow able to keep track of Turmoil’s “misadventure”. So, there’s a thought: What if it can track where the pieces that haven’t been found yet are?”

The alicorn went into deep thought. “That… that’s actually a brilliant idea, Starlight. But will it work?”

“I mean, what do we have to lose?”

The headmare handed the jar over to the princess, who looked at the elder unicorn, and they both nodded in agreement. She levitated it over the map, and once at the center of it, channeled a beam of magic at it, as did her senior. The Pillar of Sorcery and the Element of Magic channeled their respective powers into the spark that was trapped inside the sentient blob. It shrieked as the light from its prisoner enveloped it and then the said light shot at the map beneath it. When it dissipated, silence followed as if nothing had happened.

Twilight’s ears flopped in disappointment. “I really hoped that we could finally get ahead…”

The sorcerer tapped her. “Twilight, look.”

The map suddenly began to move, its contents beginning to distance away from the displayed borders.

“It’s shrinking…? No, wait. The scale is increasing… The map is expanding!” excitement in her rose.

Where the map previously only showed as far as Mount Aris, Dragon Lands, the Frozen North as far as Yakyakistan, as well as the western borders of Equestria, it was now expanding far beyond. The vast empty expanses of the Frozen North were now revealed completely, revealing a large circular crater, more of the Griffin Kingdom’s mountainous region, and the Dragon Lands became visible, including a set of strange floating chained islands further east. And on the southern front, on the eastern side, it revealed another separate landmass called Abyssinia, home of the cat people, while on the western side, the vast sea opened, and it didn’t seem to end. And then, a lone island came into view, almost all black, surrounded by thunderstorms that expanded far beyond its border.

“Oh no…” Twilight grimaced. “This is it! This is where the last fragment is! And we’re too late! If it spread this far already then Chrysalis and others won’t have a hard time getting to it. For all we know they’re probably already there!”

“Calm down, Twilight,” Star Swirl put his hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t think this is what we’re looking for.”

“How can you be so sure?” Starlight wondered.

“Look at the map – it’s still expanding. Besides, look at the details surrounding the island. This seems like a storm that’s part of the local weather pattern. It doesn’t look out of place like something that just sprung into existence.”

“But what kind of a place would have a constant storm full of thunder and lightning…” She thought for a moment. “Oh… I guess I just answered my own question. I guess we now know where the Storm King came from.”

“But we’re no closer to finding our goal. For some reason, the map is still expanding, which means we’re not there yet…”

And just as he said that the map’s growth ground to a halt. It didn’t take long for the alicorn’s wandering eyes to notice an abnormality. In the further southwestern corner of the map, past the sinister island, a land mass became visible, but only partially. What could be seen though, showed a land that seemed mostly covered by sand, yet there were clear signs of greenery on the far east, to the south, and to the west, where the land turned into a large system of waterways that eventually spilled out into the sea. Combined with the mountain ranges that bordered the land, it created an outline that almost gave it a form of a zebra. And in the place where its eye would fit, the Princess of Friendship finally spotted an irregularity: There was a small patch of greenery that was visible, but it was obscured by a large dark cloud that hung over it – a dark rain cloud with a constant downpour.

The two unicorns came to her side to observe the phenomenon. “This… This doesn’t seem right,” Star Swirl commented.

“Is this it?” the headmare inquired. “If the map expanded directly to this point I don’t see how there could be another-”

Suddenly, the doors of the great hall burst open, with Zecora standing in the doorway, short on breath.

“Twilight Sparkle, we have a problem at hand!” the shaman warned. “I know of the plot the Turmoil’s servants have and for which land!”

The three turned to her. “I think we have a pretty good idea ourselves, Zecora,” Starlight commented, after recent revelation.

Applejack was giant-sized and lounging about while grabbing trees and shaking them to get the apples in the nearby cart, Fluttershy relaxing while being pampered by her oversized animal friends, Rainbow Dash zapped around and created a hundred consecutive Sonic Rainbooms, Rarity desperately tried to escape a giant tidal wave of grey color that was trying to take over her mane, and Pinkie Pie guzzling while swimming in a giant lake of melted chocolate. These were the dreams that the Princess of the Night had to go through to get to the other Elements of Harmony and warn them of what had just happened, and she had to act quickly. Upon visiting the final member and getting her to get up and join at Twilight’s former castle, she exited the dream realm and found herself standing atop of the balcony overlooking Canterlot and Ponyville. She galloped back inside and through the hallways of the castle to get to her elder sibling. She too had to be warned.

She burst through the bedroom door. “Sister!” Celestia snapped awake to her call. “I found it! I caught the nightmare infiltrator in the act!”

“You caught it?” she wondered.

“Unfortunately, no. I managed to destroy its nightmare manifestation, but it managed to slip through the veil and escape.”

“And who did it attack this time?”

“That’s why I needed you to get up. We need to get to Twilight’s old castle right away.”

“Twilight’s…? Who got attacked, Luna?!”

Through the dark, the two former princesses flew across the sky. The younger sibling informed who the latest victim was and they needed to check up on things. Celestia wondered what the zebra knew that the enemy wanted. She could understand what happened to her former student and Discord – one was a deterrent and another artifact tracking. But her? What did she know? But her thoughts were interrupted as she glanced at her younger sibling who seemed to be not present while in flight.

“Luna, what’s wrong?” she grabbed her attention and she snapped out of her trance. “I can tell by the look on your face that something’s not right.”

She sighed. “I didn’t tell you earlier, sister, but there was a reason why I didn’t manage to catch it, as it wriggled out of the realm of dreams and left behind a dark residue that would’ve lingered.”

“You mean the residue that tried to mimic the voice of… your other side? Is that what made you pause?”

“No. I dealt with it before it manifested. It was its voice that distracted me.”

“Whose? That of the infiltrator? Why?”

“I don’t know, it’s just…” she paused. “This was the first time I’ve seen this creature, and yet its voice sounded… familiar in a way, but I can’t tell why.”

She was concerned, not just for Zecora, but now also for her little sister. What kind of creature did she encounter that gave her pause? But that question would have to wait, as they finally arrived at the castle’s doorstep, but they weren’t the only ones, though these arrivals were coming at a snail’s pace. It was in the middle of the night and the Elements of Harmony were all present, barely holding up, as they all got tossed out of bed. That was especially noticeable for the party planner and the wonderbolt who were leaning against one another, with their eyes shut. In the group though, there were some grateful for the wake-up call.

“Princess Luna, I cannot express enough how thankful I am for that timely intervention,” Rarity praised her, carrying a tinfoil bun on top of her head and rear end where her tail was.

“Speak for yerself, Rarity. Ah wish she didn’t,” Applejack complained.

“Compliments and critiques will have to wait,” she halted them, “we’ve got an urgency at hand.”

Meanwhile, Celestia traipsed forward and pushed open the main gate. Inside they could see the bright light coming from the slightly opened door of the great hall, and when they came through those as well, they saw four equines and a small dragon inside, with books flying all over the place.

The grey unicorn noticed their entry. “Ah, you’ve all managed to get here. Good. We have a lot to discuss.”

The blue pegasus yawned. “Couldn’t this have waited until morning? I thought we had a time-out.”

“That changed a few moments ago,” Starlight answered. “You better look at the map.”

They got closer and finally noticed Zecora sitting by the edge of the map, staring at it. They all did too when they saw a dark rain cloud hanging over the newly revealed landmass.

“The map expanded?” Fluttershy said in amazement.

Soon after, a zipping sound could be heard coming from the fanny pack around her neck. “Fluttershy, could you please keep it down a notch?”

“Oh sorry, Discord,” she apologized and then repeated in a whisper. “The map expanded?”

“It appears so, Fluttershy,” the fashionista answered. “But that is a long way from home…”

“What in tarnation is that far-off place?” the workhorse inquired.

“Farasi is the name of the land where the mark stands,” the zebra answered, “my homeland, enveloped by sands.”

They all looked at her. “Zecora, this is your home?” Rarity asked.

She nodded.

“So, wait. Do we actually already have a heading then? We don’t have to go through some elaborate hoop-jumping to find it?” Applejack eyed the map up close. “Great! We’re finally ahead of Chrysalis and the rest for a change!”

“I fear that’s not the case, Applejack,” Luna responded. “There’s a reason why I called everypony here.” She walked to the front so she would be in everybody’s sight. “Tonight, I finally encountered the invasive force that had infiltrated and tormented Twilight Sparkle and Discord. And I found it…” She turned her head towards the shaman. “In her dreams.”

“Zecora’s dreams?” The shy pegasus looked in surprise. “Did you manage to catch it?”

The mare of the night sadly shook her head. “No, unfortunately. It managed to wriggle out of the dreamscape before I had time to react, but not before I’ve seen its form – it was a shadow wisp with tiny green eyes.”

“Wait a second, did you say “a shadow wisp”?” Twilight further inquired, then thought back. “If that’s the case, back at the Jagged Ridge, Grogar was telling the truth. He also said that it had the ability to force doubt upon others.”

“It is the missing piece.”

She looked at the elder unicorn, who just spoke. “What do you mean, Star Swirl?”

“Back when we were in my repository and we planned the counter-action, Miss Pinkie Pie pointed out that one of the pieces was strangely missing when Turmoil’s body was severed and its fragments scattered. Furthermore, the fragments that you encountered so far – Hatred, Fear, and Anger; so it would fit that Doubt is one of them. It is the fifth missing piece.”

“You know,” Spike spoke as he carried one of the books, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the reason that Chrysalis and the rest managed to be one step ahead of us. In fact, I’m certain of it, considering how many times we’ve seen her be seemingly talking to herself.”

“And recently we’ve seen others doing the same,” the Elements collectively agreed.

“Which finally brings us to the big question,” Starlight stepped in. “Princess Luna, what do you mean they know where the last piece is? I mean, they couldn’t have found out from the dream you visited unless-”

While the point-to-point discussion was happening, Discord was getting increasingly angrier by the snoring sound next to his fanny pack, as the pink and blue mare had fallen asleep, each using another’s rear ends as a pillow. He’s had enough of it, so he climbed out and jumped on the party planner’s backside, plucking a single horse hair from her tail.

“SHE KNOWS!” Pinkie Pie yelped from the sudden tug and bucked, sending the pegasus flying up and making her land on the chandelier.

They all got distracted for a moment by the unexpected outburst, but their thoughts quickly returned to what the headmare was saying, as they all directed their attention at the zebra.

The pink unicorn began asking the obvious. “Zecora, if you knew this whole time where the last fragment was, why didn’t you-?!”

“I wasn’t sure, that’s the truth,” the shaman answered. “True, I had encountered a shadowy force in my youth, but I didn’t think it and the darkness in this land would somehow end up going hand-in-hand.”

“But that still doesn’t make sense, Zecora! How did they even know where to look in the first place? What made them think you knew something?”

“I think I can guess how,” Luna spoke again. “The enemy couldn’t have drained the information out of the victim unless she was weakened first by something she dreads.”

“Did you see something like that inside the dream, Princess Luna?” asked the party planner, now fully awake, rubbing her read end.

The horn of the mare of the night began to glow and she conjured an image of a large water serpent with blue eyes, with tentacles sprouting from its body. “Have any of you seen this creature before?”

It didn’t take them long to respond. “Wait, Ah do recall this thing. We all do!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie spoke out. “It was in the nightmare realm, after Sombra’s mom empowered him, this thing just sprung out of nowhere and we couldn’t figure out whose nightmare this was supposed to be… Then again, in hindsight, since we’ve all seen what everybody else’s nightmares look like several times over, this one should’ve been an obvious tip that it belonged to somepony that we didn’t see before… Or rather somezebra in this case.”

“But why does this creature frighten you, Zecora? What is it?” the wonderbolt asked.

“What you see before you is liquid despair, a creature with a truly terrifying glare,” she offered an answer. “I’ve laid my eyes on it as a filly, and since then, the memory of it makes me feel so chilly.”

“And because Fear saw it, it’s how they figured it out where to look for a trail.” Fluttershy put it together.

“Oh great,” the workhorse moaned. “That means they’re ahead of us AGAIN! For all we know they’re already on their way there with a good head start!”

“That’s not necessarily true, mind you,” Zecora retorted. “Although we are now on the same footing, they know they cannot just go in without foolproofing.”

The country pony gave her a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“The servants of Turmoil may have a heading, but first they have to make sure they don’t make their own bedding. Farasi is a place ruled by creatures of great power, of which each holds a kingdom, as impregnable as a tower. Were they to try and take them alone head-on, their end would’ve come.”

“Wow. Zecora that’s actually helpful,” Starlight praised her. “I wish our books could’ve done the same.”

“Well, what are we waiting for then?” Discord began urging them. “If we know where that thing is and we have the knowledge that those guys are going to be busy with preparations, then we need to go off and leave them in the dust. Come on, everypony! CHOP CHOP! Let’s get to this Far-asia or whatever it’s called again!”

“That’s the problem that I was going to follow up on, former Lord of Chaos,” Star Swirl intercepted. “We can’t.”

He stopped in mid-flight. “Come again?”

The books that were strewn all over the place or were flying suddenly lined themselves up and then began to spin around like a twister, eventually flying back into the bookshelves. Only two books remained floating about - a big and a small one.

Twilight levitated to her side the large book, the title of which read Equestrian World Encyclopedia, and opened it on a page dedicated to zebras, and it didn’t fill even half of it. “This is the only official information we have. Zebra’s homeland is so far away that we scarcely have any information on them. Look, even the information that we have, its source is a first-hand recount from somepony who was only there briefly.” She showed the page up closer, the written source pointing to a book titled The Golden Spires of Mansa. “And that’s what we got.” She shut the encyclopedia closed and put it away, bringing the aforementioned book, with a green background and sand-colored spires drawn on the cover. “The author of this book is a stallion named Seasaddle, an ordinary merchant ship captain. In this book he recounts how a storm sent his ship to a distant land inhabited by zebras, after which he was locked away by the local authorities because a parasprite apparently hid amongst his cargo and they nearly devoured all the food in the city after it multiplied; they held him responsible for bringing an invasive creature to their land. As a result, he spent about fifty moons locked away, until one of the locals helped him escape. After he got back to Equestria he retired from seafaring, and he wrote this book, detailing his experience.”

“Oh great… In other words, while Chrysalis and the rest of her goons know where to go but can’t because they’re not strong enough, we know where to go but can’t because we don’t even know HOW to get there…” Discord moaned.

A sense of dejection began to loom over the room from the impasse they just came across, yet it was dispersed the moment the shaman walked over to the floating book and turned it to her side.

“Perhaps things are not as grim as you may think. If we don’t know the way, then we need to find the one who can make the link.”

“Wait, you mean as in finding the author of the book?” Twilight asked.

“Actually, if you think about it, it does make sense,” Rainbow Dash joined. “Since he was the one who managed to get there and back, he obviously must know the way.”

“One problem though: Where are we supposed to find ONE pony in all of Equestria?” Starlight wondered.

“That is something Twilight and I can deal with,” Celestia finally spoke up. “If Seasaddle is still in Equestria we can find him wherever he went.”

“Finally,” Discord sighed in relief. “Things are finally going our way.”

“If that’s the case we’ll show ourselves out for the night and see you guys in the morning.” Rainbow Dash turned and was about to trot out.

“I fear despite the good tidings, I have to report unfortunate findings.”

The wonderbolt halted. “I knew there was gonna be a “but wait, there’s more”.”

“After the former Princess of the Night had freed me from the nightmare, I went to check how bad things were going to fare. I took a sip of concentrated evil brew, and through the vile eyes, I’ve seen things that might make us rue. In order to counter the forces of the land of such a distance, armies they will seek for their assistance. I do not know what they intend, but one of them, to the Peaks of Peril, was sent.”

The name of the place sounded familiar, and it was the workhorse and animal caretaker that quickly remembered the name. “Peaks of Peril…? Wait… But that’s the home of the kirin! Why would they go there?” the latter pointed out.

“I don’t know, but considering what they can do we have to get there before they do! We have to get to Peaks of peril before them!” Twilight dropped the book. “Everypony, we gather around!” she ordered. “We’ll use the royal airship to get there during the night. At this pace, they won’t be able to-”

KRAKOOOOM!

She went silent. That dreaded sound. She had hoped she wouldn’t have heard it right at this moment and yet she did. She dashed over to the window, still clinging to a sliver of hope that she was just hearing things, only to have it dashed away. Outside, she watched as a dark cloud began to emerge from the Everfree Forest, spreading across the star-covered night, obscuring the clear skies. Soon after, she saw a zap of lightning shooting from the forest where the clouds emerged, up into the clouds, and then watched as an obscured flashing form traveled across the sky and disappeared into the distant south.

“Dang nabbit!” Applejack cursed. “Don’t tell me that-”

“They knew we’ll be reacting to the revelation,” Star Swirl pointed out. “They’re trying to make sure they slow us down as much as possible.”

“And they succeeded. There’s no way we can fly the airship in this weather.” Twilight’s ears dropped.

“Well, what are we supposed to do now?” the Element of Harmony questioned.

“There’s nothing we can do to remedy this. The best we can do is hope that the storm clears by morning, and if not, we’ll have to take a train to Kirin’s home.”

“What do you mean, Twilight?” Fluttershy questioned her suggestion. “Can’t you just isolate the blimp just like you did back at Griffinstone in defense against Storm King’s attacks?”

“Yes, but that was only because I partly covered it. I can’t isolate the ship from a raging storm and have it move at the same time.”

“But the first train will leave in a few hours from now! We can’t wait that long!”

“I know, Fluttershy, but we really don’t have a choice.”

The shy pegasus hung her head in disappointment, to which the draconequus quickly flew up to her face to comfort her.

The Princess of Friendship tried to keep them positive. “But let’s do what we can. Celestia, Luna, and I with Spike will go to Canterlot and try to find whatever information we can about the author of this book. Everybody else should go back to bed.”

“If I may interject, Twilight,” the zebra spoke out, “the knowledge that bad things will happen to my homeland has left me in fright. For that I would offer my service, to make sure I don’t feel so nervous.”

“Very well then: The four of us and Zecora will go. The rest should go and rest up.”

“If we can,” Applejack said. “Ah’m more worried about what’ll happen to Autumn Blaze’s village.”

“Same here,” Fluttershy agreed.

“I know,” Twilight tried to comfort the, “I’m sure we’re all worried about the kirin but that’s not going to help us. Just try to get some rest and we’ll reconvene in the morning.”

“Star Swirl and I will stay here and keep an eye on the map in case something changes,” Starlight ensured her.

The princess nodded. “Until tomorrow, good night everypony.” She turned to her seniors. “Let’s go.”

Spike jumped on Twilight’s back, who walked over to the taller mares, joined by the shaman. Their horns began to glow. Soon after, a flash followed, and they disappeared. Silence lingered for a while, as they were filled with worries, the workhorse and the animal caretaker especially.

“Well… Ah guess we’ll see ya’ll in the mornin’,” the country pony said, as she made her way toward the front gate, with the rest following her.

And the moment they opened the door, they were met with a heavy downpour outside; it didn’t take long for the storm that the Storm King created to make things difficult even on the ground level.

“You know,” the wonderbolt commented, “it would’ve been easier if Luna had just relayed the situation in our dreams. Then we could still be back home and asleep instead of having to come all this way and having to get home drenched.”

“Don’t be so grumpy, Dashy.” The party planner petted her head. “If you’re afraid of the flood, I’ll send Gummy to fish you out.”

The blue pegasus rolled her eyes, then turned to the shy counterpart. “There’s no way I can get to my house in this weather. Looks like I’ll be crashing at your place again, Fluttershy.”

“We won’t have to go through what we did last time, will we?” Discord joked.

“Oh haha, so funny I forgot to laugh.”

“Alright, alright, enough you two,” Applejack tried to diffuse the argument, then turned to the two unicorns. “See ya tomorrow, Starlight.” She then faced forward and made sure her hat was tightly fastened on her head. “Good luck, girls.”

And she dashed out into the heavy rain in a gallop. Soon after, the two pegasi followed, with the shy one trying to use her wings as a cover. Lastly, the pink earth pony slowly hopped off toward her home, seemingly undeterred by the downpour. But there was one that didn’t move from the spot: The fashionista was standing still, seemingly paralyzed.

She slowly turned to the headmare. “Starlight, I think I may have to ask for accommodation for tonight.”

The pink mare raised an eyebrow. “Rarity, you’re not seriously afraid of getting a little wet, are you?”

“You call this little?!” she raised her voice, then shut her mouth, remembering that the students of the school were already sleeping. “And no, it’s not just because of the heavy rain, it’s the fact that I’ve finally had some respite and got the travesty on my mane fixed, and I don’t want to have it all go to waste AGAIN.”

Starlight rolled her eyes.

FLASH!

In front of the Canterlot castle, the four equines and the dragon materialized, right in front of the royal guard, who swiftly let them enter.

“Okay, we’ll check for the publishers first if they have any address of Seaspray,” Twilight planned things out as they walked down the hallway, “and if that doesn’t turn up any leads, we’ll ask the maritime offices around Equestria. Either of the two must know where he is. And after we locate him we-” She halted when they came to an intersection and realized that the dark mare went in a different direction than them. “Princess Luna? Where are you going?”

She halted. “I need to return to my duty.”

“But you stopped the invader in Zecora’s dreams, it’s all good now.”

“Yes… Now. But what about when it strikes again? For all we know, that… “Doubt” creature, if Star Swirl named it correctly, is already infiltrating another dream. I have to make sure that’s not the case.”

She proceeded to leave, but the Princess of Friendship stopped her. “Princess Luna, wait! Look, I know things have been hectic, especially for you. I’ve seen the state you were in after a night’s work, I understand that you feel guilty for what’s been happening, but you’ve got to stop for a moment and rest. This isn’t solely on you.”

She was quiet for a while, refusing to turn her back away from her. “When I came back from being Nightmare Moon, I believed that things could never change from how they were, that I would forever be forced to live in the shadow of my greatest failure. But the children… They began to believe that I was better, more so than I ever did. That’s why I worked extra hard to make sure they would be spared the torment of their own nightmares, and in time, that expanded to others. And after all the hard work I put into every day, I was tired – I wanted a change of scenery for a little bit, away from royal duties.” She went silent. “And look what happened in my absence… Without me, the sinister force, one for which my power exists to combat, managed to find hosts to afflict – you, Twilight, then Discord, and now Zecora. Had I kept watch over the dream realm even a little these things wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Everypony was finally beginning to show faith in me, and how did I repay them? With apathy and negligence. I have to make things right again. I’m the only one who can walk the dream world, and if I don’t… then who will?”

With those words, the mare of the night wandered away, leaving the group.

“Princess Luna…” Twilight whispered in a sad tone, feeling disheartened from the inability to help her.

Celestia put her hoof around her. “Come, Twilight. There’s nothing we can do for the moment.”

She turned away and followed her mentor, the zebra, and her companion.

Elsewhere, away from the heart of Equestria, further south, a vast forested area separated the heartlands from the barren desert, and the storm did not reach this far. Under the starry sky, a portal of dark light opened, and a massive goat-like monstrosity stumbled through, soon followed by a small blue ram. The giant monster addressed him with a grunting sound.

“No, Paramis,” Grogar answered. “If the boy is so confident in being able to do things on his own, then I’m not going to deny him his challenge. Besides, somebody else is making sure that he’s being kept on a leash, even if it can’t be seen.”

After closing the portal behind him he turned to observe the landscape before him, illuminated by the full moon. There was forest all around him, yes, but not from where he was standing. In front of him stood a range of towering spires, and atop the largest one sat a gargantuan skull with a single eye socket.

“So… this is where those you sired dwell?” he asked, and the arimaspi nodded his head in reply. “Very well then. Let us go and meet your extended family.”

Chapter 80: The One Who Lit the Way

“The shadow… of Doubt?” Applebloom gave a confused look at the image of a weaselly shadow.

“Yes,” the elder mare answered. “It is deceitful and insidious by nature. Its whispers weaken its victim’s resilience, making them prone to other outside influences.”

“Miss, something happened earlier. When I held the jar that contained the bright light, it revealed it when it wasn’t there before.”

“Yes, child. If there is one thing that Doubt cannot abide, it’s Clarity – it’s natural opposite.”

“Yes, but there’s more. When I thrust the light it, I saw…” The pony paused for a moment. “I’m not sure what I saw. It showed a scenery of something happening back where my home is but I didn’t understand any of it.”

The old zebra nodded. “As I said, clarity is what doubt fears, and it’s because it has the power to reveal the truth. So, it is possible that when it saw you, it triggered a revelation of a memory to which you are related in some way.

“Ponyville… That’s what it showed me… Will something bad happen there?”

She shook her head. “I cannot tell, child. Only you can. But regardless, even if your actions have in some way harmed the shadow, because of it, Khari will succumb to despair.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” Applebloom questioned. “Why is it only happening now when it was here the whole time?”

“No, child,” she corrected. “The High Shaman locked himself in with Despair alone, and he’s managed to bear its power for a very long time. This creature here, however, arrived only recently. It could not have entered here in the first place unless the seal that was locking the prison was broken.”

“Oh no.”

The elder and the pony’s attention was diverted from their conversation. The young zebra mare, who was supposed to be the latter’s mentor, and was now resembling her pupil’s age, finally reacted.

She was very distraught. “It’s all my fault… I was the one who removed the seal that was on the door. Fada will now turn… because of me…”

The Cutie Mark Crusader tried to calm her. “Don’t fret, Zecora, you couldn’t have-”

“NO, I COULD HAVE!” She screamed, not in anger, but despair. “Everything that happened to my home, to my tribe, to my family, it was all my fault! Because of me, the whole village starved! Because of me, Despair was freed from its prison! Because of me, fada had to sacrifice himself to protect me! And because of me, the land was cursed and my tribe scattered, and worst of all, mada stayed here and suffered this whole time!” She curled up and buried her face in her crossed hooves, and even then, one could the agonizing sobbing. “I never should’ve run away… I should’ve stayed and sacrificed myself… It would’ve been better than to live, knowing how many I’ve hurt…”

Applebloom just stared there, her heart being torn apart from the sight of Zecora flagellating herself and desperately wishing all the harm befalling her instead. Back on the airship, when she told the story of how she ended up in Equestria, her words didn’t show the gravity of what had been eating her.

“Is that why you’ve turned into a nearly a filly then? Because this was you when you were at your lowest?” The depressing mood was quickly interrupted by the elder mare that was still standing by this whole time, her mood not swaying. “Do you honestly believe that if you had taken a different path, you could’ve spared others from harm? Had you taken what you’re wishing for right now, little filly, Despair would’ve been freed long ago, and nobody, not even the Three King of Farasi, completely caught off guard, would’ve been able to stop.”

“But…” the young zebra tried to speak. “But it’s all my fault… I deserved to get punished…”

“Punished? Maybe. Though you deserve leniency for being ignorant. But if you think even for a moment that your own family would be willing to see you suffer for your errors, you are wrong. They would’ve sacrificed themselves to protect you if they knew you were in harm’s way… and they did. We chose it.”

Zecora finally raised her head from her crossed hooves, her cheeks moist from tears. “W… what do you mean?”

“If you think this was all done in a spur of a moment, allow me to show you otherwise.”

And as she said that, the bright empty surroundings were suddenly replaced up by a plethora of colors, as the vision made itself manifest.

The tribal matron was pacing up and down her house, her mind was not at ease. Her mate was usually gone by this time of the day, and her eldest child had already left home to work in the fields in the early morning, yet the absence of her youngest is what was disturbing her. She was never an early bird, but to make matters worse, she woke up in the middle of the night to discover she was already gone, along with things that belonged to the High Shaman. She alerted her mate and he ran off at the moment’s notice. He hasn’t come back yet and the sun had already risen by now – she was dreading the worst.

She heard hoof steps approach, and a familiar masked zebra stallion walked in. She was about to ask about the child but her words were needless, as he turned and showed the filly sound asleep on his back.

Without a moment to spare she pulled her into an embrace, smothering her with kisses. “Khari,” she addressed her significant other, “did she come to harm?”

“No, dear. Her safety had been assured.” The mare sighed in relief and then snuggled her sleeping daughter, the stallion, however, was not done yet. “But I fear I can’t be certain that our tribe’s safety had been secured.”

He told her what had come to pass – the prison penetrated, the manifestation of Despair released, and its intent to acquire freedom through its liberator. She had been saved, but the immediate repercussions of her actions were yet unknow; after all, even freed from its bonds, the dark force was still trapped inside its prison, unable to leave without a host. Only time would tell what would follow.

As the sun got high in the sky, the parents took the little filly to the village elder to receive her tribal marking – a swirling sun, marking that she had finally entered marehood, and as a final achievement, the mother placed the final ring around her neck. Things were looking up, despite the state of famine that the village was in. However, that night, the older mare was roused from slumber by the sound of wheezing - everybody was. The youngest one was in her bed, making struggling noises as she violently thrashed about.

Her mother rushed to her side and shook her to try and wake her up. “Zecora!”

She finally snapped awake and looked about.

“Kid, what happened?” Sanaa asked. “You were thrashing about and wheezing.”

“Nothing, just… a nightmare.” After a momentary pause, she got up and traipsed to the entrance of the house. “I need to get some fresh air.”

Though it seemed she purged herself of the nightmare, the following days would prove that was not the case. Every night the young mare would wake up the rest of the family, forcing them to snap her out of her nightmares. To her older sibling it was annoying, but the adults knew that the younger one was suffering the most. And it all pointed to one specific source. At last, the duo finally decided to investigate things, and together they descended into the forbidden oasis, at the base of the giant dead baobab tree. They entered it through the giant slightly opened slabs of stone that functioned as the door and descended into the darkness, one that eventually disappeared, as the light that was originating from a green pool of glowing fluid at the center of the growth lit up the interior. And there, the two zebras saw it – living water, slithering around the room like a serpent, with a noticeable deep-blue glow in its head representing the eyes.

It's spotted them. “Mansa Musa’s descendants… You dare show yourselves here…? Have you come to free us…?”

“You believe us naïve?” the stallion said. “Almost amusing that’s something you would conceive. And if I’m to guess, you’re the one responsible that the filly who freed you is a mess?”

“She liberated us… Her own despair drover her to do it-”

“We know that already, spirit of drowning senses!” the mare interrupted it. “Now tell me what are you doing to my daughter!”

Its gaze turned to the matron. “Your offspring, is she? Our Pillar… We’re calling to her… It is fitting that she fulfills the part she was willing to play, even if she is of a different thought now…”

“You will release her.”

“No… We will not. She will continue to hear our calling in her dreams, until the torment finally becomes too much for her to bear… She will submit willingly… And you cannot stop us…”

The two zebras looked at one another. They departed, leaving the manifestation of despair behind. They were troubled – their child was under the influence of a malevolent spirit, and they came home just in time to once again rouse her from her nightmares. She needed help! They needed help saving her!

The following morning, the two leaders went to the heart of their village. There was one person in the village who they knew they could confine in, as she’s been a leader long before them.

“The sun will rise again after something sinister had occurred.”

“Come again, mother Zeg’us?” the younger zebra wondered, as she and her significant other met with her and informed her of what had happened.

“You heard me, Pilinari. That’s what I had told your little filly when I made the mark form on her rear end. That is what it symbolized, and I’m rarely wrong on such things. And judging by what you’ve just told me… It seems that something sinister has indeed occurred.”

“You speak the truth, matriarch,” the stallion agreed. “I witnessed the evil’s power in the dark. And if I weren’t there to stop it-”

“Khari, seriously, what you need to do is stop speaking in rhymes at all time. It’s starting to get on my nerves when you have to use prolonged convoluted mess of words to say something fast.” And the High Shaman shut his mouth in response.

“Our little filly has been possessed by a spirit of Despair and it won’t stop until she’s broken enough to willingly free it. What do we do?” the mare questioned.

The elder sighed. “This situation is far worse than just your child being tormented by a sinister force, Pili. If the mark on her flank is something to go on, it means that this was meant to happen and there was no way to avoid it. I fear that fate is pulling not just her or our whole tribe, but all of Farasi in a direction that will not bode well. And if that is the case, then we have little options.”

“But that’s why we’ve come to you for guidance, mother Zeg’us. Please, tell us what we can do.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do or say that will help you. My time passed when your handsome stallion over there took up my late husband’s duty.” She looked at him. “You are the High Shaman.” Then turned towards the mare. “And you are the tribal matron. It’s up to you both to decided what the right course of action is, and how to protect our tribe.”

The elder could not help them. Now the situation truly looked dire. They returned to their home, and observed how their youngest offspring’s wellbeing continued to decline. They would continue to try and live normally under the famine, while the High Shaman continued to wait for the answer from higher powers.

Finally, on the fourth day, before dawn, the matron was roused from slumber. It wasn’t the sound of her child’s torment, but her husband instead, towering over her, full equipped already.

“Khari? What is it?”

“I’m trying to make you aware: I think I know how to hinder Despair.”

At the sound of what she had heard, the mare almost instantly got on her feet, trying to make sure not to wake her children. The stallion motioned her to follow, and she did, expecting him to elaborate away from their ears. Yet as they got out of the house, the High Shaman didn’t say a word, he only motioned her to follow. They traversed through the familiar overgrowth into the forbidden oasis and descended into the valley below, and entered the dead baobab tree, where, at last, he stopped at the border of the room that the prisoner couldn’t traverse.

“Khari, what is it? You said you know how to stop Zecora’s ailment.”

The stallion was silent for a long time, staring at the Manifestation of Despair that slithered around the room. “I do, but there is a price to pay. Our filly will be tormented unless… somebody has to step in the way.”

As soon as the mare heard that, she protested. “You want to take her place?! How is subjugating yourself to it going help?! Zecora may be freed but Farasi will be doomed!”

“You are right… But only IF one’s will is not strong enough to resist.” He faced his mate. “And with a little help, I can persist.”

“No! I won’t let that happen! You cannot seriously think that this will solve anything! You-!”

“Pilinari, listen!” he yelled out, making her words grind to a halt. “You heard what Zeg’us said. It’s up to us to do what we think will protect the tribe and Farasi. And if our little girl is destined to do more, than she has to go on… And we’re the only ones who can do that.” The silence was deafening, his seriousness was compounded by the lack rhyming in his words. “I have given it a lot of time to think, and if Farasi wills it… I must go through with it.”

She slowly approached him, stopped only inches away, and then thrusted herself into his embrace. He wrapped his hooves around her, after which she proceeded to shed tears.

“How will your tribe go on without you…? How will our girls go on without you…? Me…?”

“Our girls are strong, just as the tribe is,” he tried to calm her. “They will find their way in time. And that’s why you must remember that, even if I’m not by your side, I will always be here. And if things become too much for you to handle, you should take everybody away.”

She pulled back. “No. You may be content with your fate but I’m not. I’m not leaving the only home we’ve ever known, that most of our tribe’s known. I will remain here and patiently wait. And even if the rest of the tribe decides to eventually depart, I will stand by your side.”

The two zebras pressed their foreheads against one another. “Pili…”

“We have sworn loyalty to each other, Khari. And I will not break that bond…”

“… from now, to beyond…”

And their muzzles connected in a kiss.

Finally, the stallion pulled away, dropped his staff and his saddlebags on the ground, before giving his wife one last glance and finally entering the room.

His presence made the slithery water serpent take notice of him. “You come to us, High Shaman? Have you become so desperate that you’ve decided to sacrifice yourself in order to spare your youngling?”

“I’m not sacrificing anyone, despair-made-manifest,” the zebra answered as he entered the body of glowing green liquid in the middle of the room. “I will contain your destructive presence to that others may rest.”

“Such arrogance!” the spirit snapped. “You believe yourself strong against us? We are a world’s worth of despair! You are a mere mortal! You do not have the willpower to bear the weight of the world on your back alone!”

He suddenly stopped in the center of the glowing pool. “You’re right, to your influence I would be prone, if I tried to stand against you… alone.”

He sat down and began chanting incomprehensible words that resonated across the room, as he slowly rummaged through the green liquid body. Suddenly, the water that was leaking from the walls began to move on its own, and even the sinister manifestation was surprised.

“Wait… that’s… NO!” The serpent launched itself at the zebra, but before it even got to him, its momentum ground to a halt as its body began to shrink. “Leave the spirits of water be! They are not yours to control!”

“Then you’ve learned nothing from the past, abomination. The elements of this land act to our dictation. They recognize you for the evil that you are and are willing to offer assistance, for they too fear they will succumb to burden without persistence.”

“HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU PRESUME YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT US! ABOUT THE ELEMENTS! ABOUT OUR SUFFERING!!!”

The sorrowful raging voice began to dwindle as its owner’s body continued to diminish. And then, the shaman slowly raised his hooves out of the body of magical fluid, and between them he was holding an orange gemstone – the source of the desperate creature’s existence. His eye opened, enveloped in a radiant glow, a shockwave erupted from him, and the giant water serpent was reduced to a snake.

It reeled for a moment, then quickly looked about its surroundings, realizing that they were both surrounded by a barrier of light that encircled the entire magical pool. It hatefully glared at the zebra who was now in complete trance. But then it remembered that another presence was still close by – the shaman’s spouse watched on the other side of the luster barrier.

“You think this changes anything, mare? You think his sacrifice made a difference? Your offspring may have been spared, but in the grand scheme of things, the course was not altered. Our patience is eternal. And even if your mate’s will remains unshaken, his body with eventually give away to the streams of time. We will be free, it is unavoidable, so why bother waiting for the inevitable when you can just give in?” It slithered to the edge of the barrier where the female zebra stood. “Go on… go to your mate, and tell him to give up… and embrace the inevitable end…”

She stood there, motionless, with an empty look on her face; one would’ve thought that she was about ready to surrender to its whims. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“No.”

She couldn’t see it, but the entity noticed a radiant glow suddenly emanating from the zebra mare, it blinded it, causing it to crawl a distance from her. The light she was exuding, it had a name, and it was the one thing that despair couldn’t handle…

“Khari believed that something greater awaits our little girl, and he gave her a chance. And if he had faith in her, that he was willing to make the sacrifice, then I will stand by his side to the end. I will wait and endure you, Despair. Just as my tribe did. Just as all of Farasi did.” She turned and proceeded to slowly walk away.

Manifestation made final attempts to demoralize her. “It is all in vain! The end will come! What was shattered will be made whole again! YOUR WORLD WILL DROWN IN DESPAIR!”

But the provocations fell on deaf ears. The mare ascended through the dark and came out into the open world once again. After a long trek she finally returned home, her two daughters fast asleep, and the youngest without a trace of disturbance on her; she seemed at peace at last. And for that reason, she couldn’t tell her. She couldn’t let her know that her father sacrificed himself to free her from torment. She wasn’t ready, not yet.

Dark clouds began to emerge from the oasis, the skies were beginning to darken, and while the villagers below were cheering for the reprieve to finally come, the matron of the tribe who stood outside her house on the hill, knew that was not the case. As the days passed the outcome became noticeable, as the sense of despair that was being exuded from the clouds above began to affect the populace. But then, the unexpected happened, as the mother woke up one morning and discovered that the filly was no longer at home. She sent word to others and they searched for her to no avail. But her eldest daughter was another matter entirely.

“Mom!” Sanaa rushed into the house. “Zecora’s gone!”

Her mother looked at her. “What do you mean “gone”?”

“She ran away! I…” her daughter paused. “I went to the oasis, mom.”

The older zebra’s eyes widened in shock. “Sanaa, you know you we’re supposed to do that!”

“I know. But I know full well how Zecora would always go after father where she wasn’t supposed to. And since he’s been gone-”

“Then you’ve seen him, didn’t you?”

The field manager’s words halted. “You… you already know about this…? When did it happen?”

“Some time ago. We came to realize that what Zeg’us said and what had happened, was related. And for that reason, your father chose to sacrifice himself.”

“But the watery spirit, the one that’s trapped within with him said-”

“What do you believe, Sanaa? Would you believe the words of a malevolent creature that would do and say anything to free itself from its shackles, or would you believe your own mother?”

She went quiet again. “I… I believe you mother. But still, it said Zecora ran away! There’s no place for her to go except…”

Outside of the tribe’s domain, beyond the desert sands that separated it from other kingdoms of Farasi. She could’ve gone anywhere, but the logical conclusion led to her going towards Mount Chinjaio, since it was the closest. But they couldn’t just go after her, not when the whole tribe was suffering from the despair infested downpour. As a few days passed, it became clear though that the atmosphere was simply too much for some to bare, and if not dealt with right away, it would lead to their demise. There was only one way to handle this: Sanaa took those who were at their worst, and the handful of best, stocked up on what little supplies they had, and led the caravan out of their homeland, towards the home of abadas. On third day after their departure, they finally returned. Those who were weakened by the environment had stayed behind at Mount Chinjaio, but she and those who were still holding up came back with supplies, much to the delight of the rest of the tribesmen. News of the missing young mare also came up. Sanaa was well aware of the company her little sister was keeping, so she questioned the person related to the matter – she was there, but she left for the kingdom of Mansa not long after arriving. At least they knew her whereabouts.

Some time passed once again, and supplies were once again beginning to run low, and so was the persistence of the villagers. Many of them were beginning to get sick and tired of living in misery, and if leaving their home for the greener pastures was the only option, they were more than willing to take it. And so it happened that, as time passed, more and more tribesmen left the village, and the atmosphere in the village got drearier and drearier as any form of life disappeared from the streets, and the elements began to eat away at the abandoned homes.

Finally, when there was only a handful of souls left in the light-forsaken place, the last remaining residents were finally preparing to leave. However, there were disagreements.

“Mom, why?” The field manager stood in the heavy rain, with her mother just outside the threshold of her home. “Everybody else has already left, we’re the last ones. We can’t live in this place anymore.”

“Then go. Take what’s left of the tribe and help them find a place where they can prosper again.”

“But not without you! You’ve no reason to stay here. If you do, all that will happen is for you to suffer for nothing!”

The old mare shook her hear. “No. Not for nothing, Sanaa. I swore that I would stay here and endure any hardship, just like your father is.”

“But mom-!”

She was silenced by the matron puting her hoof over her mouth. “I am not about to break two bonds at once by abandoning him. We’ve both sworn an oath - to each other, and to protect our family, our tribe. I’ve accepted to bear his burden as well. And for that reason, I need you to do me a favor, Sanaa.”

“Anything, mom, anything!”

The elderly zebra pulled the younger one into and embrace. “Find Zecora, and make sure she’s safe. Promise me that.”

She couldn’t see or hear it, but she could feel her daughter’s head bobbing, moisture from her cheeks grinding against hers. And with those final words, the last remnants of the tribe left the village, leaving the tribal matron all by herself.

Time would pass, and the lone mare would spare her day living her life as if nothing had changed, even if she was all alone now. Most of the time she would spend indoors to avoid the rain, only temporarily she would leave for the oasis to check on the state of the prison. As time went on, however, the mare began feeling that her strength was slowly leaving her, her sight included. It became clear to her that it will become difficult for her to keep her daily activity, but she had anticipated that. It was unclear how much time had passed now, but the mare’s braid had grown to a ridiculous length by now, so much in fact that she had to carry it around like a rope. One day, she arrived to the entrance of the prison, and forced it shut. After that, she brought out a wooden carving of a masked zebra face, surrounded by what looked like elements of earth, fire, water, lightning, and wind, and inserted her long braid into it, before hanging it over the set of giant stone slabs. There was only one thing left to do now.

SNIP!

And with the sound of the cutting hair, everything went dark.

The vision disappeared, and the two young mares couldn’t believe what they just saw, especially the zebra.

She turned to the elderly mare behind her. “This whole time… you…” she stopped and corrected herself. “I mean, mada, she chose to endure all the hardship by herself…? For fada’s sake?”

“No,” the taller zebra corrected. “For everybody. For him, you, your sister, your whole tribe, for all of Farasi. She has been waiting this whole time, for when the moment of destiny was at hand. Destiny, that was marked by YOU returning home, Zecora.”

“But how can you know? I never planned on coming back, I was never meant to come back after what I’ve done.”

“And what have you done, filly? Left your home because you saw no way to help as you were back then? You see, Zecora, you deciding to leave and travel beyond your home, was how fate entailed it. Whether or not you intended to return, willingly or otherwise, did not matter. You’ve always been moving in the right direction, unknowingly.”

The bright empty surroundings disappeared, and were replaced by a forest. The place seemed familiar to young zebra and it didn’t take long for her to realize why, as she suddenly saw her past self, the age that she resembled now, weeping as she was clinging to her father’s staff, as the full gravity of her current situation finally hit her.

“You were in a foreign land, far from home, with nobody you knew or loved at your side – all alone,” the elder mare reminded her.

She recalled it all too well. After she finally got tired of shedding tears, she whipped them away, fastened her staff on her saddlebags, and set forth to explore this new land she knew nothing about. Once she finally got out of the woods she beheld the full scenery. Green. Geen everywhere. From forests, to the grasslands, to the mountain ranges. It was unlike anything that she had seen back at home. Even abadas didn’t have anything alike, despite living in the most fertile land. She passed through the growing fields, small towns bustling with life, inhabited by Seasaddle’s kin.

“New horizons opened to you, something you couldn’t have dreamed of before.”

There was a sensation that was mingled by her current situation. The desire that was breed into her from all those times that her father had taken her beyond the borders of her isolated village, across all of Farasi, to see the land that she was part of. And now it reawakened. She wanted to see more, to know more about this new land and all the creatures that called it home. She would traverse this foreign land – from the growing fields to mountainous ridges, from icy north to the barren south, and from rural areas to the sprawling metropolis, to even cities in the sky, or at least, as close as she could get to them. So much diversity, in not just areas, but also the natives - ponies, dragons, griffins, and all sort of manner of monsters that she couldn’t believe even existed.

“And yet, for all the wonderous grandeur that this new land gave you… You felt there was something… lacking.”

She traveled for many years across this vast new land which she learned was called Equestria, and see its wonders. Yet, as time passed, there was a strange sense creeping up on her consciousness ever so slowly. She knew its name, yet she tried to keep it down, but to no avail in the end. She had encountered so many strange sentient creatures, she learned things from them, and yet she never stayed in the same place for long, she never had a chance to create bonds with those she had met. Whether it was because of wanderlust, or because deep down she feared she would end up bringing harm, based on experience, she didn’t know. But there was one thing for certain – she felt alone. The desire to advance on land eventually ground to a halt, and it happened in a strange place - there was a sinister aura about it, one that felt somewhat familiar. The creatures of this land called this place the Everfree Forest, and it was the only place in this realm that felt… primal, outside of pony control. It almost felt as if she were back home, minus the constant downpour of despair. And on top of that, it provided most of what she would need to survive, and for any wild beast that would intend to do her harm, she’s learned how to ward them off by now. If she had any plans to stay in one place, then this would certainly be it. Building a home was another matter though, she had no skill in architecture, so she carved out a home into a tree. She built a little garden to grow her limited herbs that weren’t native to this land, and luckily the forest’s soil was so fertile that she would never be lacking them. There were some local ones that were out of her reach, but to her fortune, there was a settlement on the outskirts of the forest where she would be able to get them.

Ponyville. That’s what this town was called. It was situated beneath the large mountain where Canterlot, the heart of this kingdom, stood. It was bustling with all manner of shops and vendors, and if luck willed it, then everything she could ever need was here. As she exited the shade of the trees, flat grasslands opened before her and she could see it in the distance. It didn’t seem so far away, which meant she could make trips regularly like this. As she got to the town proper, it immediately came to her that something was no right. It was empty, deserted even. There was nobody out on the streets and everything seemed to be closed down. She removed the hood of her cloak to make sure her eyes weren’t just playing tricks on her. She traipsed around town for a while, checking all places of business and residents, and yet there was nobody around. It was odd; it felt like it was active only a few moments ago. Seeing that there was nothing she could do, she returned back to her home, figuring that she might try again tomorrow.

The following day Zecora came to town once again, and much to her disappointment, she was met with the same outcome – there was nobody around. She thought once was a coincidence, but twice in a row? Surely the third time would’ve been the charm. But she had no such luck. Every day she would come to town to try and see if anyone was about, but all the same, the streets were empty and the houses quiet. Soon enough, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. By now she should’ve given up, and yet something was keeping her from stopping. She would go to town once a month just in hopes that some soul would be out on the street. Something in her was desperately clinging to some manner of hope that it was not in vain… to keep the joy in her life from finally going out, as the memory of a dreaded warning kept ringing in her head.

…you will be all alone in the end.

“And then, at last, a most unexpected being turned up.”

Digging at the ground. That’s what she’s resorted to doing. Surely somebody would take objection at making an inconvenient pothole in the street, but nothing – another disappointing day. She made her way back to the Everfree Forest, past a narrow path that led through a field of blue flowers call Poison Joke.

“APPLEBLOOM!”

She instantly stopped and turned! A living soul? Here? She noticed a little yellow pony filly with a red mane and a bowtie on her head, trailing not far behind her. The voice that called out, however, was not hers, as she too was startled by it, as much as she was by the fact that the one she was going after, took notice of her. And that’s when she saw a group of mares rushing after her.

“You get back here right now!” the orange pony with a cowboy hat called out.

The ponies were fast approaching, there was a tense aura around them, their intent felt aggressive, yet in fear. The zebra began backing away from them to not escalate the situation, but she noticed that in their pursuit, they weren’t paying attention that they were trotting through the poisonous flora.

“Beware! Beware, you pony folk!” Zecora warned them. “Those leaves of blue are not a joke!”

The orange mare scooped up the little filly on her back. “Y-you keep your creepy mumbo-jumbo to yourself, ya hear?”

She disappeared into the creeping forest fog, but not until she gave a warning again, in hopes that they wouldn’t unknowingly inflict harm upon themselves. “Beware! Beware!”

She galloped back to her home, where she finally stopped. There was a sense of relief that finally washed over her – somebody really was in the village; it wasn’t abandoned after all. But the reason for their hostility was unknown to her. Surely this wasn’t because of the holes she had dug out in the town?

New dawn came, through it was difficult for her to know, considering how dark and gloomy the forest was during any part of the day. She lit a fire under a small caldron atop the fire that she had set up in the middle of her home to preheat it up for breakfast. She walked outside and began pulling out some root vegetables that have grown over night in the forest’s magically fertile soil. She was about to take the fourth one when she suddenly stopped. There was something that piqued her curiosity out of the corner of her eye. The plot where she was pulling her food from stood by a large overgrowth, and it was in that same overgrowth that she noticed a gleam from the dim light. Something or somebody was hiding inside. She slowly approached and the stuck her head in, only to be met face to face with another.

“Hi…” it awkwardly smiled.

The zebra yelped and jumped backwards in surprise. Soon enough, a tiny head poked out of the hideout.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” the meek voice apologized.

“You maniac! You’ve almost given me a heart attack!” the mare complained.

A small form crawled out of the growth, so that the zebra was finally able to see it in full.

“Wait, correct me, you may, but aren’t you the little filly that trailed me home yesterday?”

“My… my name’s Applebloom,” the filly cautiously introduced herself.

“Yes, I remember it. From the other one who called and would not permit.”

“That was my big sister, Applejack. And miss Z… Zecora, what’s wrong with her?”

The zebra tilted her head. “Before I can try and infer, you’ll have to explain what ails her.”

“She’s shrunk. And the rest of her friends are completely off as well.”

She quickly picked up on what’s happened. “It seems my warning she didn’t get. The Poison Joke’s collected its debt.”

“Poison… joke?”

“A plant that grows in this forest, my dear. Innocent, yet inconvenient, that is clear.”

“Is there a way to cure it, miss Zecora?”

Suddenly, a tingle ran all over the shaman, it’s been a long time since anyone had requested help from her. “Little filly, if ailments to cure is what you seek, then you need not be so meek. I just so happen to have a book of abundance. Come with me and I’ll give you the guidance.”

There was a change in the surroundings. There was a familiar sense of purpose that she finally felt again, one that’s been absent for so long she had nearly forgotten how it felt - the desire to feel needed by somebody… After telling her about the ingredients she still needed and sending her out to look for them, she prepared the broth for the healing concoction, only to then be interrupted by the ponies she saw yesterday. Things escalated, and at the heated moment, the crisis was averted as the aforementioned filly returned, and the mess was finally cleared. Zecora had no idea that the locals were afraid of the Everfree Forest and whatever came out of it, and considering she wasn’t a pony, all the Ponyville’s residents hid away every time they saw her coming. The fog of doubt finally passed, and the zebra was finally able to feel like she belonged. Though she still rarely visited town, for a change she felt welcome once again. And the little filly? For all the mischief and trouble that she and her two friends would get into, the least she could do for her was to be there to help her when her thoughts were not at ease, even teaching her the craft of her people. She would forever value her as somebody who had managed to bring joy back into her life once again.

“It’s only fitting that the filly, the one who brought you back from the brink of despair, is here with you now – back where it all began.”

The imagery disappeared. And the little filly who was beside the now-young zebra, was now a growing mare. The two looked at each other, and the yellow pony quickly noticed that her eyes were on the verge of overflowing, something that she herself felt was about to happen. She pulled her into a hug, and the two young mares shared an embrace of joyful tears.

And then, the elder zebra embraced both of them. “After all these cycles of waiting and all that you’ve been through, it has all led to this moment. Light will shine on the land once again… But first, the High Shaman must be freed from Despair’s grasp. Little fillies, take what you’ve learned, and relate it to the Elements of Harmony. They will know what to do.”

Zecora looked at the elder mare. “But wait! Who are you? I know you’re not mada.”

She chuckled. “Zecora, you already know my name. I’ve been with you this whole time. You’ve been giving me away to everybody else who was in need, yet you never felt worthy of me yourself.” Her body began to glow, emitting bright light that kept growing stronger. “I am the Spirit of Hope… I am the light that guides the way…”

And the blinding light enveloped them all.

Applebloom was still clinging to her equal, or at least she thought she was. When her senses returned, the young mare felt as if whatever she was holding in her embrace had gotten larger. She finally opened her eyes and realized that her mentor had returned to her normal size, and was completely enveloping her in her embrace.

“Zecora?” she tried to rouse her.

The zebra’s senses returned as well; she looked about, noticing that the surrounding darkness had completely disappeared now, and they were sitting near the center of the room, in a pool green glowing liquid that was illuminating the room. After she stopped scanning the room, her gaze once again met the earth pony’s, and after a prolonged stare, she pulled her into an embrace once again.

“Z… Zecora, what’s that for?”

“I came here in thought that I could never be free, and in despair I’ve forgotten who’s steered me back on the path - thee.” She snuggled her, and in response the pony couldn’t help but burry her face in her chest.

It dawned on the young mare that her mentor was once again rhyming, but then something occurred to her – she felt moisture between them. She thought at first it was just glowing pool they were sitting in, but as she pulled back, she let out a yelp and jumped backwards a bit. Stuck between them was a strange light-grey blob-like creature, and it was stuck on Applebloom. On instinct she thought about shoving it away, until she realized it wasn’t aggressive at all; it almost seemed like it was trying to snuggle up to her. She scooped it up in her hooves and gently pet it, and in response it made a noise that sounded like purring.

“This thing,” she finally addressed her mentor, who was just as equally surprised by what she was seeing. “It’s what summoned the Spirit of Hope, didn’t it?”

“I think you may be right, Applebloom. By its behavior, I can tell it protected us from gloom.”

And just as things seemed to be turning out well, the pony realized they weren’t alone in the room.

“Zecora, behind you!” the Cutie Mark Crusader warned.

The zebra slowly turned; it seemed she too was aware of what was to follow. In the middle of the glowing pool where they were, sat the elderly male stallion that they saw earlier, his eyes, which were glowing earlier, were closed now, but he was still holding the orange gemstone between his hooves. What was more off-putting though, was that the watery serpent was no longer present, and that the magical light barrier surrounding the pool was gone – a sense of unease now hanged in the room, especially because the duo remembered what was said earlier by the spirit that protected them. Even so, the shaman slowly approached, stopping hooves distance from the still elder, and she slowly reached out.

“Fada?” she called to him.

His eyes suddenly shot open with a glow - not the bright one, but that of deep blue… the same that the Manifestation of Despair had.

“He failed,” the stallion spoke in an unnatural voice that was clearly not his own. “And with his failure, our prison weakens.”

The ground shook, and water began to break through the walls of the room, quickly filling it up. Zecora quickly grabbed Applebloom who was still holding onto the blob, and dragged her to a higher elevation.

“THE HIGH SHAMAN IS OURS!” the possessed zebra’s voice echoed as the room began to rapidly fill up with water. “WE WILL BE FREE! MANSA MUSA, HIS DESCENDANTS, AND ALL OF FARASI WILL PAY FOR ADDING TO OUR TORMENT!”

Tentacles suddenly formed from the water and began to rush towards the two equines, growing larger. They had no other choice. The young mare quickly dropped the blob into her mentor’s saddlebags that she was carrying, and then they quickly ran up the stairs and towards the exit, while the mass of watery tentacles followed.

“Something… doesn’t add up here…” Applejack said.

“So, you’ve noticed as well, young miss,” the elder zebra agreed.

“Really? What is it?” Twilight asked curiously.

Before the workhorse could give an answer, the ground shook. Her little sister explained what had happened in the prison below, and the aftermath of it now followed. There was a cracking sound in the air; not lightning though, it sounded as if a rock was crumbling, and it was coming from the direction of the giant dead baobab tree in the heart of the oasis, which was plain for everybody to see now that the heavy rain had finally ceased. Multiple cracks began to appear on the thick petrified trunk and water began to gush out of them. Finally, a large pillar of water broke out from the top of the tree, parts of it falling apart. They all noticed a small orange flicker that could be seen at the very heart of the pillar, as the formation suddenly began to twist and turn, its basic shape beginning to gain a more detailed form – one that was very familiar to some of the observers. Finally, a pair of deep blue eyes opened up on it, and the pointy top split down the middle to form a mouth, releasing a booming cry.

“Errr… Twilight, any ideas how do we stop this thing…?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

Author's Note

I'm finally back, dear readers.
Here's hoping that the new chapter sates your thirst.
Get it?:twilightblush: