Impossible Mission - Sealing Tartarus

Chapters

The Impossible Mission
Flutter, Cut, and the Gate
Rainbow, Trail, and the Gargoyle
Pinky, Wind, and the Trials of Earth
Rari, Dozen, and the Game of Tag
Twilight, Chrome, and the Core of Tartarus

The Impossible Mission

Monochrome and Ravewind stood in Twilight Sparkle’s library; Monochrome ran his hoof through his solid black mane, rubbing it against his broken horn getting off the sweat that was running down his forehead, Ravewind was putting him on the spot…again, and Mono was starting to get rather annoyed, keeping his emotions, and his magic in line was becoming a bother the past couple days and Ravewind’s constant pestering wasn’t helping in any way.

“Mono it’s been years now and I’m still the only one who knows, I can understand you being worried but Twilight’s different.”

Monochrome rolled his eyes, but the gesture meant little as his eyes were covered by the dark-tinted black shades that he always had on, even indoors, not that he had a choice in the matter. “I know you don’t need to remind me just how powerful a prodigy like Twilight is, I’m a magic prodigy myself after all.”

“Yeah, but you’re a prodigy for a different reason, after all how many ponies can use Bla-“

Ravewind was cut off by Mono’s hoof being shoved over his mouth, at the same moment Twilight Sparkle the renowned Unicorn mage and one of Monochromes dearest friends walked through the door.

“Hey Mono, oh hey Ravewind, what are you doing here?”

Ravewind smirked and ran his hoof through his mane, which was black just like Monochromes, only significantly shorter with a stripe of red dye in the middle courtesy of Rarity.

“Oh you know, just helping my friend Monochrome set up a couple things.”

Monochrome sighed, Ravewind was the definition of different, while most ponies wore little to no clothing, Ravewind was always dressed in a short-sleeved, skin-tight, black body suit, complimented by a white pin-striped vest, Monochrome didn’t see the need for Ravewind to always be dressed like he was, but at the same time he respected his choice in clothing, specifically the colors which reminded him of his Yin-Yang cutie mark. Ravewind’s mark was always covered by his suit, and this time around, do to today being a special occasion he was also garbed in his favorite black cape which featured two neat L.E.D light attachments for his Pegasi wings.

Twilight looked around the library in an almost paranoid fashion then dashed forward in between the two colts and whispered to them. “Well when you two are done, do you mind helping me? Today’s my birthday and I KNOW that Pinkie Pie is planning something, so I’m gonna find out what it is before she gets the jump on me like last year.”

Ravewind and Monochrome stared at each other briefly, and then looked at Twilight with really bad, really awkward smiles. Twilight gave them each a confused glare, and finally Ravewind spoke up.

“Yeah, Twilight, about that…”

Ravewind looked at Monochrome who was already in the process of channeling his magic. Small rings of dark grey energy began to form near Monochrome’s forehead in the shape of a horn, this was how Mono used any and all of his magic, since his horn was broken, and thus he lacked one, he made one temporarily using magic, and that horn served as him for any and all of his magic needs. As energy began to pulse from Monochrome several of the books in Twilight’s library became highlighted with a grey magical aura and began to float towards her.

“Monochrome what in Equestria are you-”

Suddenly the books expanded and burst making several loud popping noises, Twilight found herself buried beneath several ponies who all at once shouted out “Surprise!” as they landed.

Twilight arose from the pile of disorientated ponies, her eyes were spinning and she was seeing stars, she shook her head and found herself, then looked around to see the other ponies laughing about the whole affair. Surrounding the young mare were her best friends Apple Jack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and of course, Pinkie Pie, along with her newest friends who she had recently met, Monochromes buddies knows as Joe-Buck, Blazing Trail, Diamodozen, Shortcut, and of course Ravewind, and Monochrome himself, who rather than laughing simply stood there with a light hearted smirk on his face, satisfied that his little trick had actually worked.

“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight having fully recovered quickly tackled her pink giggling friend. “Did you plan all this?!”

Pinkie only continued to giggle her pink ‘Cotton Candy’ mane bounced around as she laughed.

“Of course not silly this was Ravewind and Mono’s Idea!”

Twilight looked up and over at the two colts. “Oh is that so?”

Monochrome and Ravewind froze with awkward smiles on their faces, as they had no idea how to react. Twilight’s smile sent the message Good job, it was a nice trick, but her eyes read I’m going to kill you in your sleep. Finally Monochrome swallowed and cautiously began to answer.

“Yeah, sorry Twilight, we wanted to do something special for your birthday, you’re kind of the center of our little group here, and this is the first time we’ve celebrated anyone’s birthday since we’ve all became friends.” That answer seemed to satisfy Twilight, as she dropped the more malicious look she had for a sweet and happy smile and nod. Ravewind and Monochrome both heaved a sigh of sweet relief.

Pinkie Pie’s grin suddenly tripled in size. “Aaaalright it’s not a Surprise Party without the PARTY so let’s do this!” Pinkie moved her hoof up to her mouth and let out a loud whistle, out of nowhere Twilight’s door flew open revealing Pinkie’s Party Cannon, the cannon rolled a few feet into the room and fired. Covering the entire entry way and the twelve pony friends in a thick layer of cake batter. All at once everyone glared at Pinkie.

“Woops!” Pinkie Exclaimed. “I Guess I did it again!”

And with that the twelve friends (even Monochrome) began to laugh, finally the actual birthday party had commenced.

As the party went on, the ponies began to spread out throughout Twilight’s Library. Monochrome had walked onto Twilight’s balcony at the top of the tree house, it was night time, but Monochrome’s Shades were still on, and he found himself sentimentally staring at the moon. What most ponies didn’t know was that Monochrome was Princess Luna’s apprentice much like Twilight to Princess Celestia. When Monochrome was first banished from Canterlot and his horn broken, he often found himself sleeping by day and traveling by night. The princess of the night took pity on Monochrome, believing that there was still much good potential in him despite his interest and “deformities.” She watched over Monochrome like a guardian angel and in exchange, Mono often wrote letters to her about his adventures with his friends; much like the Friendship Reports Twilight sent. Lately though, Monochrome stopped sending the letters, having found new friends that cared for him, but he still found himself watching the moon for hours at night, wondering what his Princess was up to.

Twilight Sparkle opened the door to her balcony and joined her friend.

“You alright Monochrome? The party’s downstairs you know.”

Monochrome shot Twilight a light smile. “Yeah I know, I just came up here for some quiet is all, you know I don’t like noise.”

Twilight shook her head. “There’s more too it isn’t there.” She looked down lost in thought then back up at him. “Are you thinking about Vinyl?”

Monochrome stopped looking at Twilight and looked back at the moon. “I haven’t thought about her since she left, not much point in getting sentimental over something like that, it just makes you upset.”

Monochrome and Vinyl Scratch, otherwise known as The DJ-Pon3, were dating for a long time while Monochrome was in Ponyville, Mono and Vinyl had similar taste and interest in music and both were fascinated by each other’s unique eyes. Monochrome in particular was fascinated at how Vinyl’s eyes shifted from bright red to dark magenta as day turned to night. Sadly their Partnership didn’t last long. A changeling commander by the name of Lord Catalyst sabotaged their relationship and almost ended their friendship; the two got through the ordeal but agreed that it was best just to remain as good friends, afterword Vinyl left Ponyville to go on tour with her friend Octavia, and Monochrome stayed behind.

“If it’s not Vinyl then what is it?”

Monochrome sighed, “It’s about my magic, you see I-”

Monochrome was cut off by a loud belching noise and a bright green flare, Twilight Sparkle’s assistant and friend Spike the baby dragon opened the door and quickly ran to the two.

“Twilight! Twilight! You’re gonna want to read this right away!”

Twilight scrambled through the scroll which was considerably longer than the scrolls she usually received, once finished she let out a large gasp. “Come on you two! Gather everyone in the main area! We have a problem!”

Flutter, Cut, and the Gate

Twilight Sparkle read the scroll aloud to her friends:

My dearest Twilight:

I have an important mission that I need you and your friends to undertake effect of immediately, although it pains me to assign such a task to you on such a special day, I am afraid this simply cannot wait. An ancient foe of Equestria has made his way into the gates of Tartarus and I fear he may be planning to unleash the evil creatures we have kept imprisoned there for so long.

You and your friends have shown flawless control over the Elements of Harmony time and time again, and your newfound allies proved their potential when they discovered the Elements of Order. With the powers of Harmony and Order on your side there is little doubt that you will defeat this threat and bring peace to Equestria once again.

Signed, Princess Celestia

Everyone looked at one another, they had been on their fair share of dangerous adventures, even plenty of times when they were together as a whole group of twelve, but never in their lives had they believed they’d be called upon to do something on this scale before. Tartarus was a vile and corrupted land that housed evils of every shape and form, and the princess was asking them to enter this land and deal with a foe that could potentially be the greatest threat they have ever known.

Fluttershy cringed and she began to slowly skulk away into a corner. “I don’t know girls; maybe this is too dangerous for us.”

Shortcut nodded in agreement. “I’m with Fluttershy, this is way too big for us, this is something the royal guard should handle…”

Twilight shook her head. “No; it’s not. The Princess is right, we represent not only Harmony, but also Order, and with all of us fighting together there’s no power in all of Equestria that can beat us!”

Ravewind jumped at the opportunity to rally his friends. “Besides if we can’t do this no one else will! We’ve been given a chance to bring true peace to Equestria for a long, VERY long time!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as an Idea occurs to her. “You’re right Ravewind! This isn’t just about catching some bad guy; this is about bringing peace to Equestria!”

Mono’s attention shifted immediately to Twilight. “What are you thinking Twi?”

Twilight’s face grew a confident smile. “We’re going to seal Tartarus! Permanently, and all of the evil in side it too! We’re going to make sure that nothing evil ever escapes from that place ever again!”

Several of the ponies mouths dropped to the floor, they couldn’t believe what Twilight had just purposed; still, a chance to bring true and permanent peace to Equestria was something the group just couldn’t pass up.

First one to step up was Blazing Trail the eccentric sky-blue unicorn trotted in place, his flame colored mane wavered with excitement. “I’m up for it!” he stopped trotting and struck a pose as though he was going to go rushing out the door on his own.

Next up was Rainbow Dash who did a backflip through the air and ended in the air just above Blazing Trail. “If BT’s going, then so am I!”

Apple Jack stepped up next followed immediately by Joe-Buck the tall, statuesque, dark purple colt shifted his hat and brushed on his black mane, his wings, which were larger than average size flapped out then quickly retracted to their normal position which completely covered his cutie mark and most of his flank.

“I’m not about to let those two go anywhere without me” exclaimed Apple Jack.

“Eyup, and I’d follow Apple Jack to Tartarus and back anyway.” Apple Jack and Joe-Buck bumped hooved and shifted their hats back behind their ears.

“As dreadful as a place as Tartarus sounds, I’m not about to let my friends go it alone.” Rarity ran her hoof through her hair as she was prone to doing. “Who knows, maybe something good will come out of this little outing.”

Diamodozen was the next to speak up, like all of his other friends; the bright white, blue haired; earth pony was excited at the opportunity he was provided with.

“Tartarus supposedly has lots of lava in it, and where there’s lava there’s Obsidian, and Obsidian makes gorgeous gems!”

Diamodozen pulled out his hat and placed it on his head, unlike the large cowpony hats that Apple Jack and Joe-Buck wore, Diamodozen wore a small simple black artist’s hat, perfect for his job as an appraiser. “I’m all for this!”

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down excited and full of energy as she always was. “If you’re all going IM going!”

“I second that” Ravewind called out. “You couldn’t use the Elements of Order or Harmony without me and Pinkie anyway.”

Everyone’s gaze shifted to Fluttershy and Shortcut, Twilight Sparkle walked up to Fluttershy and hugged her.

“Come on, we can’t do this without you.”

Fluttershy squeaked out something incoherent, but then took a deep breath and look at Twilight with newfound, if not feigned, determination. “Okay…I’m going…”

Everyone cheered; Twilight looked at Shortcut who nodded in agreement. “I guess that means I’m going to.” With their affairs in order and everyone ready to go, the group met in the center of Ponyville, and after a quick sign off and goodbye wave from the mayor they headed off to Tartarus.

Upon arrival, the group was met with a rather ominous sight. Tartarus was every bit as grim as they had read and been told in stories, and even grimmer still. The skies above the ground with jet-black ominous clouds that swirled around in a constant circle, from what the group could tell the clouds were moving on their own, just like the clouds of the Everfree Forrest, thunder and lightning rang out from the clouds, yet they were just too dark to see any silver linings. Tartarus itself seemed to be a big cave like area carved into the side of a massive and long mountain chain, but almost the entirety of it was blocked; by a massive golden gate larger than anything the ponies had ever seen before which was blocking the entrance.

“WOAH!” Rainbow Dash stared at the massive shining gate mouth agape she quickly shook her head and pointed at it.

“How did anypony get past THAT?” No doubt every other pony was thinking what she just shouted out, the wall was massive, and from what they could tell all but impenetrable, there was no way anyone could have gotten in, let alone out.

Twilight having looked over the massive gate once in her life already had been wondering about the situation since they left Ponyville, suddenly the answer came to her.

“What if nopony did?” The group looked at her with a combined “Huuuh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes with an annoyed look on her face. “Think about it for a second, what if the issue isn’t that somepony got in, what if somepony had already been in there to begin with.”

Monochrome caught up to Twilight before anyone else. “That would explain how creatures leaked into the Everfree

Forrest, and how evil can exist in Equestria despite the presence of the Elements, it’s because there’s Somepony-”

Twilight cut Monochrome off “Or something, that has been opening the gate letting creatures out.”

“It’s our job to find out whom or what is doing this, but first we need to get past this gate.” As the ponies conversed with one another they slowly made their way closer to the wall.

“Look over there!” Rainbow Dash pointed in the direction of a massive lever. “That has to be how you open the gate.”

“I’m on it!” Without a second thought Blazing Trail’s horn erupted in fire and he sped towards the switch expecting his speed magic to provide him with enough force to push the leaver, BT dived head first into it, only to connect with it with a loud BONG! Blazing Trail slid down the lever, shaking off the stars and butterflies he pulled on the leaver as best he could but it was just too massive to budge. “This is way too heavy, how does anypony open this thing?!”

“Uh, I don’t think it’s a pony that opens it!” Twilight pointed to a massive black creature that was headed their way at an insane velocity, the ponies readied themselves for a confrontation, but were quickly interrupted by a cry from Fluttershy.

“Cerberus!” Fluttershy raced past the group and ran straight into Cerberus who quickly doubled over on his back, all three heads panting as Fluttershy petted him. “Who’s a good boy? You are, yes you are, I haven’t seen you in a long time have I boy?”

Cerberus barked loudly and quickly began assaulting Fluttershy with a flurry of licks. Shortcut watching this went into a bit of a panic and rushed over to them.

“Are you alright Fluttershy?” Shortcut called to her.

“I’m…o…oka..ay” Fluttershy tried her best to respond to Shortcut but she was too busy giggling and laughing from all the face licks she was getting, this was the most affectionate any animal had ever been to her.

“Fluttershy do you think you can get Cerberus to let us in?!” Apple Jack yelled up to her friend

Fluttershy whispered to Cerberus who quickly let her down, head was covered in dog saliva and her mane draped down completely covering her face. Shortcut couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh wow, I’m gonna have my work cut out for me after this is all done.”

Fluttershy giggled and looked up and Cerberus who nodded and went over to the lever, all three heads bit down on it and pushed. Slowly the lever started to move down and the gate let out massive creaks and complaints as it opened. The ponies cheered and ran through the gate as they did Twilight turned back noticing Fluttershy and Shortcut were not there.

“Fluttershy, Shortcut lets go, we need to hurry!”

“Oh…I just can’t leave little Cerberus all alone, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.” Fluttershy had fixed her mane and had gone back to petting her giant three-headed friend. Twilight put her hoof to her face then looked at Shortcut who shrugged.

“Sorry Twilight, just go one without us, we’ll make sure the gate’s still open when you get back.

Twilight let out a sigh and ran off catching up with the rest of the group.

Rainbow, Trail, and the Gargoyle

The inner area of Tartarus was even more bleak then the outside. The path down seemed to spiral into an endless void, and the entire cave area had a dark red color to it, like blood that had been exposed to oxygen then dipped in black paint. Evil auras leaked from every crack and crevasse of the place and all matter of wicked looking creatures flew around and crawled all over. Though to the ponies’ surprise, none of them seemed particularly interested in them, in fact despite their appearances, none of them seemed to be malicious in any way and were content to leave the group well enough alone.

“Maybe it is best that we left Fluttershy and Shortcut behind, they probably would have run for the gate when they saw this place anyway.” As Diamodozen said this he looked around for a way down to the spiraling land-stairs. The original way down appeared to have been broken by something and now a massive gap stood in their way.

Ravewind nodded in agreement and gave his friend a hand; jumping off the cliff that had been made from the broken stairs he did a quick scout around nearby, as luck would have it the broken pieces of the stairway had fallen down onto a cliff below and were for the most part intact. Ravewind quickly speed back up and relayed the message to his friends.

Twilight Sparkle and Monochrome teleported across the gap and looked down, concentrating hard the two of them lifted up as much of the rubble as they could, once in place Rarity and Blazing Trail began to magically seal the rocks back in place.

Rarity let out a sigh of relief, “It’s a good thing Diamodozen and his friends came along for this, we’d have been stuck here forever if it was just us.”

“We’re not done yet” yelled Twilight to her friend, “this is the last of it, come on Monochrome just a little more!”

As they last of the rubble rose up the ponies heard a series of loud screeching noises, looking up they saw a swarm of single-eyed bat like creatures all rapidly descending towards the bridge in a nose dive.

“Look out, Ahrimen!” Yelled out Twilight, she couldn't believe what she was seeing, Ahrimen were creatures of legend, one eyed bat like creatures that were nothing more than a head, two wings, and two three-talon claws for feet. Without a second thought Joe-buck lunged forward onto the bridge, he grabbed any and all of the rubble that wasn’t sealed in and began throwing it up; knocking as many of the Ahrimen out of the air as he could. Unfortunately Joe-buck ran out of rubble far too quickly, and there were just too many of the now enraged cyclopean bats.

“This will have to do!” Blazing Trail shouted out as he quickly zipped across the bridge. “Move it or lose it ponies!”

Everyone quickly makes it over the incomplete shards of a land bridge, the slowest of the group, Rarity makes it over just in time for the Ahirmen to smash head first into the ground, shattering the bridge into dozens of pieces causing the rubble to tumble back down to the cliff.

Monochrome turns to Twilight, “Should we try to fix the bridge again?”

Twilight simply shakes her head, “There’s no time for that, come on we need to hurry.”

As the group starts to run down the spiral land-stairs the screeching is heard yet again, some of the Ahrimen, not fond of the idea of trespassers broke off from the attack group and were now chasing the ponies down the path. As the group ran downwards Monochrome noticed a cave rapidly coming up on them, closing his eyes and concentrating hard, Monochrome enclosed his friends in a dark grey bubble, then by pushing to the side with all his might Mono managed to get the bubble bound ponies rolled into the cave, the entrance of which quickly collapses behind them.

“Nice thinking Mono” commented Ravewind, as the bubble subsided he rose to his feet dusting off his white vest.

“Agreed” Diamodozen added, “and good call sealing the cave behind us, that should keep those one-eyed flying freaks from finding out where we went.”

Monochrome looked back quickly in disbelief. “Uh oh…this is bad.”

“What’s the matter Monochrome?” Rarity asked the bewildered pony, “Your plan worked perfectly.”

“Except that wasn’t part of my plan” Monochrome turned back towards his friends, they all looked at him confused and Mono pointed at the caves now blocked off entrance.

“I didn’t do that, something else sealed the cave.” As Monochrome said this the earth beneath the ponies shook, rocks and rubble feel from the cave’s ceiling around the ponies causing them to group into a tightknit circle, they looked around in fear desperate to find the source of the quake, finally they found it, torches lit on the opposite side of the cave, revealing a massive stone gargoyle his hands were buried in the ground but he could still move them resulting in violent quakes, his wings were carved out of stone like the rest of him but they didn’t seem able to move, upon getting a second glance, Monochrome saw that they were bound to the rock walls of the cave. The massive creature let out a moan and stretched as best it could stiff from inactivity, the creatures attempts to move did nothing more than shake the cave.

“What, what is that thing Twilight?” Pinkie Pie’s entire body shook up and down in place from the quakes the constant vibrations almost took the puff right out of her mane.

The creature moaned again and began to speak. “I am Guardian, protector of the lands of Tartarus.”

Blazing Trail stepped forward with feigned bravery. “Hold on a second I thought that Cerberus was the protector of Tartarus!”

The creature snapped its massive jaws and Blazing quickly retreated to the group. “He is but one! There are four mighty beings that inhabit and protect Tartarus, without our direction, the evil of this land would escape and cause havoc among the world which you ponies call Equestria.

Twilight looked at Guardian with newfound determination. “Then we’ll just have to get past all of you if we’re going to seal Tartarus!”

Guardian let out an earth shattering laugh. “You seek to seal Tartarus? Impossible, Tartarus cannot be sealed without both a source of light AND dark magic!”

Ravewind smirked at Guardian’s riposte, “Well it’s a good thing we have Mono ‘cause he-”

“ENOUGH!” Ravewind swallowed hard as the hulking stone creature interrupted him. “If you truly wish to attempt this fool’s errand, and get to the core of Tartarus to seal it, you must get through me, and to get through me you must solve two riddles.”

“Sounds simple enough” Monochrome readjusted his shades and prepared himself, if riddles were they key to get through, then they would need knowledge and logic, and no one in the group was going to do that better than Twilight and himself.

“This is the first riddle.” Rubble fell from the massive maw of the gargoyle as he spoke, there were frequent pauses in his voice as he spoke the riddle as if it pained the creature to speak for that long. It occurred to Monochrome that it just might, seeing as though up until that point the massive stone cretin hadn’t said anything other than what it needed to.

“I am a creature that walks on four legs by morning, none at noon, and four again by the night, what am I?”

Everypony thought long and hard about the riddle, every so often a pony would throw out ideas about what the creature was as part of a group brainstorm effort.

“Maybe it’s some kind of bug?” Shouted Pinkie Pie

“But which one, there must be thousands of types of insects in Equestria.” Pinkie shrugged at Twilight’s argument.

“Not to mention the types in the Everfree Forrest that we don’t even know about.” Added Joe-Buck

“It could be a creature from the Everfree Forrest!” Exclaimed Ravewind

“Well if it is we’re in trouble, the only one among us that would have any idea of what animal is Fluttershy.”

The group realized that Monochrome was right, this was a riddle for Fluttershy, the group’s animal expert, but as they all knew she was back at the gate with Shortcut and Cerberus. As the group continued to wrack their brains over the puzzling riddle Rainbow Dash watched with confused interest, when she realized that each of her friends actually had no idea about the answer to the riddle she doubled over on her back and started laughing uncontrollably.

“Rainbow what’s so funny?!” Twilight demanded to know why she was laughing, Rainbow Dash was the only one of the group that hadn’t put any effort into thinking about the answer and now it seemed she was making fun of them for turning up nothing at all.

“You guys seriously don’t know the answer to this? Especially you Twilight you’re usually great with riddles.” Rainbow Dash went back to laughing.

“Of course I don’t Rainbow; this riddle could be about anything in Equestria!” Twilight looked at her friend enraged at her teasing.

“Nu-uh, there’s only one thing in Equestria that this riddle is about and I know the answer!”

Twilight looked at the Pegasus skeptically, Rainbow’s strength was her agility not her brains, there’s no way she could have figured out a riddle this complex. “Alright then spill the answer!”

Rainbow smirked. “Okay I will!” Jumping up from where she was laying Rainbow Dash leaped towards Guardian, “The answer to the riddle is ‘A Pegasus!’”

Everyone looked at Rainbow Dash with mixed looks of disbelief and dread, fearing that Rainbow Dash might have just sealed their fate, literally.

Rainbow Dash looked back at the group and attempted her best to reason with them. “Hear me out guys, when a Pegasus is born IE the day time, they crawl around on all four hooves, when they’re grown up, the afternoon, they don’t walk on any legs cause they’re too busy flying, uh no offense Joe-Buck.”

Joe-Buck shrugged it off; he didn’t need her to remind him he preferred being on the ground with his Earth Pony and Unicorn friends.

“Anyway” continued Rainbow Dash “when a Pegasus gets old, night time, they can’t use their wings as well any more so they’re back to walking on their hoofs again.”

There was a brief dramatic pause; the ponies all stared at Guardian awaiting his response.

“You are correct.” The group of ponies cheered as those words echoed out from the Gargoyle’s maw. “Now solve this next riddle and you shall pass.”

“I can have both but I choose not to, the sky is not my friend, nor is the soil, I can make my skill my talent, and my talent my skill, I can have one, but must sacrifice another. What am I?”

Rainbow Dash looked at Blazing Trail and with a smile of satisfaction he looked back at her.

“You got this?” Rainbow asked

“You bet I do!” Blazing replied, and with a quick hoof-bump Blazing walked forward.

“The answer is ‘A Unicorn!’ Unicorns can’t walk on clouds or work with plants or the earth without the proper spells, they can get a magic cutie mark, or they can get a cutie mark in something else, and use their magic to help them with it.” To demonstrate this, Blazing trail used his magic and quickly zipped around in a circle leaving a flaming doughnut in his wake.

“IMPOSSIBLE!” The creature roared out, “how did you solve my riddles so easily!?”

“Well to be perfectly honest they weren’t very good riddles.”

Blazing Trail began to laugh to himself and Rainbow Dash quickly joined in. “Yeah, next time don’t make your riddles about the things that come walking into your cave!”

Guardian enraged by the taunts and laughing let out a thunderous massive roar. “You dare mock A Guardian of Tartarus?! I will bury you alive!” With that the colossal statue guardian let out another roar and began to shake his arms furious causing a massive quake, boulders, stone, and other things attached to the ceiling of the cave began to viciously rain form the sky.

“Oh now you two have done it!” Shouted Rarity.

“Over there there’s the exit!” Twilight pointed to the other side of the cave across from where they came in, just inches away from Guardian was an opening. The ponies spared no time making a mad dash for the exit, as more and more rubble started falling down, Blazing Trail and Rainbow Dash collected any of their friends that were straggling behind the group, and bolted at max speed.

The cave collapsed just as the ponies made it out Twilight Looked around making sure that her friends were all right.

“Hooey, that was too close.” Apple Jack brushed off the dust from her hat.

“Eyup, too close for my taste.” Joe-Buck started to do the same.

Twilight Gasped “Wait a minute everypony, we’re short one!”

Everyone else gasped and looked around, as the dust settled from the cave of the entrance Blazing Trail let out a series of coughs. He was alive, but trapped under the rubble that sealed up the cave.

“Blazing Trail!” Rainbow Dash raced to the unicorn’s aid quickly moving away any rocks she could lift.

“Don’t y’all worry; we’ll dig ‘em out!” Apple Jack and Joe-Buck quickly began bucking the stones; they shattered to pebbles from their combined strength, any rock they didn’t need to kick the pair quickly moved out of the way. They had to be careful though, one false kick could bring the entire cave down on their trapped friend.

“You guys go on ahead; we’ll dig BT out and catch up to you in no time!” Joe-Buck reassured the group then went back to helping AJ.

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, concerned for her friend. “Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash sniffed, she had tears forming in her eyes ever since she found BT in the rubble. She whipped the tears from her eyes using her hoof and quickly dashed back to work. “Sorry Twilight, no way am I leaving Blazing Trail behind, we started this together and that’s how we’re finishing it!”

Twilight nodded “Alight I understand, let’s go everypony, Double Time!” The remains of the group; Monochrome, Twilight Sparkle, Ravewind, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Diamodozen raced off and out of sight, the dig team watched them leave then went back to work.

“Hang in there Blazing!” Rainbow yelled to her friend, the tears returning to her eyes.

“I’m fine Rainbow Don’t worry…man this is a bummer.”

Apple Jack couldn’t help but smile at BT’s enthusiasm, “Let’s go everypony, we need to get him out now!”

Meanwhile back at the other half of the group Monochrome and Ravewind were talking with one another. There was something about the Guardian’s riddle that Ravewind just didn’t understand.

“I get the ‘the sky is not my friend’ and the ‘I can make my skill my talents, and my talents my skill’ part, but what did that giant hunk of rock mean by ‘I can have one, but I must sacrifice another?’”

Monochrome looked down then looked up towards what remained of the group. “I think I know what he meant…”

The conversation ended after that, Monochrome realized he wasn’t in the mood to talk.

Pinky, Wind, and the Trials of Earth

As the group continued down the path they found themselves lead to a dark tunnel, none of them could see what was inside, but one thing was certain.

“Wings won’t do us any good here” explained Ravewind “The tunnel is just large and wide enough for us to walk though.”

“Well you’re the only flyer left in our group anyway,” as Diamodozen said this he looked around the tunnel entrance for a light source but found nothing of use.

“Rarity and I will light the cave with magic, stay near us.” Twilight and Rarity took the lead into the cave and the others followed sparks of light bounced from their horns as the two unicorns made their way through. The tunnel was dark and very, very old, but there wasn’t any mud so Rarity didn’t really have anything to complain about.

The tunnel lead to a massive cave that was even less lit then the tunnel, as the group walked through the cave suddenly began to shake.

“Oh no not again!” Rarity shrieked, the three remaining girls let out a scream and suddenly the lights on their horns went out.

Ravewind called out for Pinkie, and Diamodozen called for Rarity, neither of them got a response, and suddenly the sound of magic filled the room around them. They looked over to find Monochrome who had just cast the same spell that the girls did, his artificial magic horn emit a glow that lit up the cave. To the surprise of the colts, the cause of the earthquake was a massive wall that had formed between them and the mares, splitting the group right down the middle.

“Well this is an inconvenience…” Monochrome scanned the wall looking for a weak spot he could blast through.

“An inconvenience?” Ravewind looked at his friend surprised, the group was just separated, there was no response from the girls, and they were trapped almost literally between a rock and a hard place, and this was nothing more than ‘an inconvenience’ to him? Sometimes even in the present Ravewind still found himself surprised at just how calm and cold Monochrome could be.

Monochrome nodded in response to Ravewind’s outburst and continued to look over the wall, it was solid, and clearly it was manipulated with beings of powerful magic.

“Stay on your hooves everypony, I’m not the only one here using magic.”

Shortly after Monochrome said that a thick purple mist began to rise from the ground, Ravewind and Diamodozen stood back to back and Mono quickly joined them.

As the mist covered the room the three colts began to hear noises in the distance, as the noise intensified they began to recognize Pinkie Pie’s distinctive giggle.

Ravewind called out for Pinkie Pie again.

“Ravewind…” The voice was definitely Pinkies, but it was ominous and drifting like the mist.

“Pinkie?!” Ravewind began to panic a little, which Monochrome took notice of.

“Ravewind…let’s play a game…” Chills ran down Diamodozen’s spine and even Monochrome was getting a little uneasy about this.

Pinkie’s giggle could be heard again only this time it was fading.

“Pinkie wait” Ravewind began to dash towards the sound of the laugh but Monochrome was one step ahead, using magic he captured Ravewind’s hooves in cuffs made from the stone on the floor.

“Don’t Ravewind” Monochrome glared at his friend, the emotion was hidden by his shades but Ravewind had been friends with Monochrome long enough to know how to read him even with the shades on. “Whatever these things are, they want us separated!”

“Oh Diamodozen, could you give me a hand with this please dear?” Rarity’s voice ran through the cave. Diamodozen called out to her and ran off before Mono could catch him too, while Monochrome was distracted Ravewind broke out of the cuffs and dashed off in the opposite direction.

“I don’t believe this.” Monochrome shifted his glasses as he mumbled out the words.

“Monochrome?”

Mono froze, that was Twilight Sparkles voice he had just herd.

“Oh for the love of the moon…” Monochrome quickly scanned his surroundings, and spotted the silhouette of a pony off in the distance. As the silhouette drew closer to him he began to make out the appearance of his friend Twilight.

“Oh good, Monochrome, we’re alone.”

“So it would seem…” Monochrome looked to either side of him in the directions where Ravewind and Diamodozen had ran off.

“You’re always so cold; it’s something I’ve always really liked about you.”

Monochrome was still and emotionless.

“Come on Monochrome, there’s no point in hiding it any longer, we both have feelings for each other, admit it, you love me.”

The word hung in Mono’s skull like a bad migraine, who or whatever this was, it wasn’t Twilight, suddenly a certain line from an incident long ago ran though his mind and repeated over and over like a broken record.

“She’s a Changeling she takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them.”

Suddenly memories began flooding back, painful memories that fueled bottled up anger that was growing in Monochromes core, his horn began to glow a malicious grey color and soon his whole body followed.

“You…you, Heartless, CHANGELING!”

A sudden spike in magical power burst from Monochrome and quickly combusted into a massive magical explosion ‘Twilight’ had just enough time to shout out “Wait I’m not a-” before she was consumed by the concussive force. The wall that blocked the colts’ path was obliterated to rubble and the mist instantly cleared. The Rarity and Pinkie Pie that had been calling out to the colts found themselves flat on their back next to the imposter Twilight Sparkle, suddenly the magic of the three creatures had worn off revealing the true forms of the ponies.

Diamodozen and Ravewind got to their feet and dusted themselves off they looked at their friend Monochrome his shades had dropped the ground and had a slight crack in them, Monochromes eyes were solid white and glowing, his mane, and tail had been replaced with a vicious black fire that ran along the entire length of his body, and most notably of all, he was mad, really really mad. Looking around Diamodozen spotted the real girls on the other side of the wall, they were unconscious on the ground, he raced to wake them up, starting of course with Rarity as Ravewind went to try and calm down his friend.

“Take it easy Monochrome, I don’t know what set you off, but you need to calm down.”

As Ravewind talked the fire on Monochromes back died out and his mane and tail returned, albeit they were both letting off black steam and Monochrome himself looked like he had a bad run in with Blazing Trail or Spitfire, but he was calming down and that was the most important part. Monochrome picked up his shades, and quickly apologized, the two of them walked up to the three new ponies that were now out cold on the other side of the cave.

All three had bright white bodies like Monochrome, they were mares with red collars around their necks and long black manes, one had blue highlights, the other had red, and the third had green, their hair resembled Fluttershy’s but rather than being neatly cut like hers was, the ends of their manes appeared to be primitively, and savagely cut off.

“What are they Monochrome?” Ravewind looked at his friend who let out a sigh of relief.

“Succubai” answered Mono. “They work like Changelings, except only female unicorns can become them, they transform into a pony that you care about, convince you that they’re who they say they are and that they’re in love with you, then they gain power by feeding off your desire for that pony.”

“That’s harsh even by Changeling standards.”

Monochrome turned around and began to walk towards Diamodozen and the others. “You have no idea…” he whispered to himself.

Twilight and the others regained consciousness.

“Are you three all right?” She asked them in a panic “There was an earthquake and something knocked us all clean out.”

Monochrome nodded “Yeah we’re fine.”

“Oh Monochrome your shades are cracked!” Twilight gave her friend a concerned look.

“Not a problem darling” Rarity’s horn sparked to life and the crack was quickly out of sight.

“Thank you.” Mono said bluntly.

“Oh think nothing of it, glad to help.” Rarity replied.

There was another earthquake suddenly.

“Oh now what?!” Ravewind yelled out.

“This is starting to get old!” Added Diamodozen

A pile of rocks toppled down from the ceiling and after the earthquake ended they started to move, and laugh. The laugh wasn’t as earth snakingly loud as the Gargoyle’s but it was still intimidating, whatever this is was, it was incredibly huge.

“I never would have guessed someone would defeat my minions, let alone so quickly.”

“Alright, boss battle!” Ravewind jumped up and down prepping himself Monochrome stretched his hoof out in front of him cutting him off.

“This isn’t a game Ravewind, that thing is an Atlas, the rarest and most powerful brand of Earth Elementals.”

“Ele-what-als?” Pinkie looked at Monochrome then over to Twilight.

“Elementals are rare beings made entirely of something from the world, there are Earth, Air, Water, and Fire elementals, but each tree has a series of different types of elementals, the more powerful they are the more uncommon.” Twilight swallowed hard when she realized that Monochrome was Right. “The rarest and most powerful elementals are Atlas, Pyroplasm, Hurricanes, and Windigoes.”

“Oh oh oh! You mean like the Windigoes from the Hearths Warming Eve story?”

Twilight nodded in disbelief “Yes Pinkie, but what is an Atlas doing in Tartarus? The Elementals are neither good nor evil.”

“Foolish mare” Replied the elemental, “There is little you know about this place and much you do not, I am Atlas, Protector of Tartarus!”

“Guardian said he was one of the four protectors of this place.” Started Diamodozen

“This hulking pile of cave clutter must be the third!” Yelled out Ravewind.

The Elemental let out a groan, a series of rocks came together in the shape of a massive hammer and began to move down towards the Pegasus, the attack was slow and lumbering, easy as pie to for the excited flyer to predict, moving out of the way with time to spare Ravewind dodged out of the way and flung off his cape in one swift motion taking to the skies.

“Is that all you’ve got?!”

Atlas became annoyed with the constant taunts and redoubled his efforts, but even at his best he was still slow and couldn’t hit the flying colt.

“I see an exit!” Shouted Monochrome who pointed at the end of the cave, to the back of the area was a massive hole in the wall that must have been blown open by Mono’s little episode earlier.

“Pinkie, Ravewind, let’s move” Shouted Twilight.

Pinkie shook her head. “No can do sister!”

Ravewind dodged another blow spinning as he did. “We’ll handle this guy, the rest of you get going!”

Twilight couldn’t believe this, every time something huge and monstrous showed up, their group got smaller and smaller. With the group of twelve now reduced to four the ponies moved on.

“Bet you can’t catch me!” Pinkie repeated over and over while shaking her tail and flank at Atlas taunting him.

“Hold still you piece of oversized pink fluff!” Atlas punched at pinkie who bounced up and landed on his arm, with a furry filled yell the colossus brought down his other hand, but Pinkie simply bounced out of the way causing Atlas to shatter his own arm. “Gaaaaah, you’ll pay for that!”

Rari, Dozen, and the Game of Tag

The remaining ponies’ quest led them to a dark tucked away section of Tartarus, they had no idea where they were, but seeing as though they had already passed three of the four protectors of Tartarus, Twilight Sparkle deduced that they must be heading to the core, none of the ponies had seen a torch or any other light source for what seemed like hours, the only lighting they had was a warm glow that came from various small pools of lava. As they walked, Diamodozen took scenic routes, digging around the lava pools collecting obsidian for Rarity. Obsidian was the most sought after jewel in Equestria, lava was extremely hard to come by in the peaceful land, and thus Obsidian was uncommon on the best of days. Diamodozen would give some to Rarity for her next ensemble, and keep the rest for his traveling shop, which seemed to be doing significantly less “traveling” since he settled down in Ponyville with his friends.

“Maybe with these I can afford to get an actual shop, maybe something with two stories and next to Rarity’s boutique.”

“Diamodozen, what’s the hold up?” The colt looked up to see that the others had gotten a pretty large amount of distance past him while he was distracted.

“Coming, I’m coming, sorry about that.” Diamodozen trotted up to the rest of the group, Rarity let out a quiet laugh as the group carried on, there were only four of them left now: Rarity, Diamodozen, Twilight Sparkle, and Monochrome, who was leading the way, keeping an eye on every little detail of Tartarus with an almost paranoid glare; waiting for the next trap to spring.

Reaching the end of the cavern they found themselves at a strange pass. A small but wide open area separated the last cave they were in from another directly in front of it. The pass was so vast the ponies almost couldn’t tell they were still in a cave, in fact the only way they knew was that it was still dark and the floor was still the same ancient crimson stone they had been walking on for hours, or maybe even days at this point, the ponies had absolutely no way to maintain a sense of time.

“The core is in there!” Twilight exclaimed as she pointed to the other cave

Monochrome looked at Twilight skeptically. “How can you tell?”

Twilight frowned, “It has to be, after all we’ve been through, after we left everyone else behind, it just has to be in there, where else could it be?”

“I see Mono’s point” after giving it some thought Diamodozen realized what Monochrome meant. “Ever since we got here we’ve been jumping into the first doorway we could find every time, for all we know the protectors of Tartarus have been leading us on a wild pony chase.”

Diamodozen let out a grunt as Rarity smacked him on the back of the neck. “Don’t be absurd darling, of course Twilight is correct, sure we’ve been jumping through any door we could find, but it’s not like there were any other doors to take at those times. I trust Twilight’s instincts and if she says the core is this way, then it’s this way.”

The two colts shrug and the four of them head off towards the cave. Inside the cave was pitch black, not a single thing was visible.

“Hang on, I can fix this.” Rarity’s horn glowed and suddenly the glow began to expand exponentially. “Wha-what is going on?” There was a bright burst of light from her horn and suddenly the entire room was visible, remnants of Rarity’s magic sparkled off of various gems of all different shapes and sizes that covered the room. The ponies eyes were bewitched at the sight of so many; in the center of the cave was one massive gem that reached from the floor to the ceiling, the gem was sealed into the ground by a massive stone wall that stretched around the entire length of the marvelous stone. The rest of the gems seemed to spread out from this center gem and up the walls.

“This is absolutely astonishing!” Rarity called out, hypnotized by the sights.

“I agree” added Diamodozen “I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.”

As the two stood mouth a-gape, Twilight Sparkle and Monochrome searched around. Suddenly the ponies began to hear high pitched giggles. Every pony looked around frantically for the source, Monochrome caught something out of the corner of his eye, but it was gone just as soon as he saw it. Everyone looked towards the main crystal as it began to glow, then strangely enough; the glow it emitted began to move. It appeared almost like steam in nature it circled around the gem multiple times then appeared before the ponies.

“I do hope you like my gems.” The creature was an apparition, a ghost of some kind and it spoke with a voice that even Pinkie Pie would find high pitched.

“Your gems?” Rarity repeated to the spirit, with an almost disappointed sound in her voice.

The steam suddenly grew two light blue eyes and two hands, each with 5 thin looking claws at the end.

“Yes, my gems, they are very precious to me.” The spirit whisked back up to the center gem and hugged it. Twilight approached the gem and confronted whatever it was that was talking to them.

“Who…what exactly are you?”

“I am Phantom” explained the creature. “Before the arrival of ponies to this land, back when I was alive, my people ruled over this land, but we were a greedy malicious people, we were separated into many great tribes and governments, each wanting all the world’s riches for their own. Eventually our greed got the better of us, and we began to fight one another.”

As Phantom spoke it sat atop the massive center gem with a depressed look on the closest thing it had to a face, the spirit was lost in thought and the thoughts clearly upset it.

“That’s just horrible” exclaimed Rarity.

“What happened to the rest of your people?” Diamodozen asked immediately after Rarity’s outburst.

Phantom only shrugged and continued its story. “A few of our people, myself included were gifted in the ways of magic, magic now used by the ones you call unicorn. Combining our efforts we unleashed a powerful spell that washed over our lands, we hoped to cleanse away the greed in our hearts, but in the end, we washed away our entire race, greed and all.”

Twilight Gasped and Monochrome looked away.

“Afterwards my people roamed the land as Remnants, ghost of what we once were, we faded one by one, but I did not. I found my way to Tartarus, instead of accepting my fate; I became a protector of this place. On my watch, no evil creature; greedy or otherwise, shall ever escape from here.”

Twilight approached the spirit yet again. “We’re on a mission to the core of Tartarus, an ancient foe of our ruler has made his way there, and we think he’s trying to unleash all the evil in Tartarus. We’re trying to seal this place away for good before he can. If you let us pass, I know a spell that can put you to rest where you belong.”

Phantom waved off the gesture. “It’s too late for me, I don’t need pity, and if I let you into the core I wouldn’t be doing my job as a protector of Tartarus.”

“There must be some way you’ll let us in.” Rarity pleaded.

Phantom thought to itself then nodded. “Alright, since you and your friend seem to have an eye for jewels, we’ll play a game.”

“A…game?” Repeated Diamodozen there was a hint of hesitation on the colt’s breath.

“Yes, a game, think of it as hide and seek, I will pick a gem to hide in and you’ll have to find me, if you find me you win and I let you pass.” After saying this Phantom began to glow a bright white shade, and rushed to the center gem. After a brief explosion of light he was nowhere to be found.

“What do we do now? Why there must be over a hundred jewels in here.” Rarity looked around in a panic. Diamodozen looked around a bit slower as he scanned the wall something caught his eye.

“Rarity, give me a hand full of gems from over there.” Diamodozen pointed at the segment of wall, and Rarity using her magic ripped several gems from it. Diamodozen looked over each gem one at a time; examining shape, size, hue, and anything else he could for the slightest change or defect, grabbing the last of the gems he noticed something. He quickly picked up the last gem he held, and then the one before that to make sure his hypothesis was correct.

“He’s in here! This gem weighs more than any of the others!” As Diamodozen said this the Phantom emerged in full view from the gem.

“Congratulations my little ponies that was fun we should play again!”

“We…really should be going” Rarity hesitated but before she could finish her full sentence Phantom had already gone and hid. Both Rarity and her colt counterpart let out moans Diamodozen began scanning the room again and Rarity pulled more gems from the walls.

“This is going to take a while…”Monochrome spat out rather bluntly.

“Look!” Twilight pointed to the end of the cave the entrance to the core of Tartarus had opened up, Phantom must have kept to his word after all.

“Rarity, we have to go.”

“You go on ahead, don’t worry about us darling we’ll keep Phantom preoccupied.”

Diamodozen tapped on a gem with his hoof; Phantom appeared from it and stuck out what the ponies figured was a tongue then disappeared again. Diamodozen could only sigh and return to searching.

“Good luck you two” called out Monochrome as they left.

“You two as well” replied Diamodozen.

Twilight, Chrome, and the Core of Tartarus

As Twilight Sparkle and Monochrome entered the center area of Tartarus, they were suddenly shocked by the massive increase in light; Twilight covered her eyes as they entered the central cavern letting them adjust. Monochrome, whom still had his glasses on, shook it off with relative ease and stared straight forward. In the center of the central cavern was a massive pillar; atop this pillar with a black and white orb that looked almost identical to Monochrome’s cutie mark, the orb leaked light and dark energies in the form of lightning blasts; colored white, black, and every shade of grey imaginable. The energy shot off the walls and out to the rest of the multitude of caverns, it was literally the Core of Tartarus. As Twilight and Monochrome approached it they spotted a third pony already there, the pony was dark blue, but had green hair with red dyed tips on his mane and tail. His cutie mark was strangely enough, a book with a tombstone on it; it was unlike any cutie mark either of them had ever seen. It didn’t take long for the mystery pony to realize he was being watched, without turning he acknowledged his guests.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” The stranger asked.

“The core?” Twilight Responded to him.

“The two energies of the world acting in a perfect yet completely unstable harmony, its life within death, harmony within disharmony, Order within Chaos.” As the stranger turned to face them the first thing the two ponies saw was the mystery colt’s eyes. They were a pitch dark grey and slit like the eyes of a dragon.

“Your eyes!” Monochrome looked at the colt with complete astonishment, he had only seen those eyes one other time, and he didn’t think they existed anywhere else.

“THIS, is the price I pay for my research.” The colt pointed at his eyes. “THIS is the thanks I get for what I did with my life. These eyes are a curse, a reminder that ponies should never walk as close to the edge as I walked.”

Monochrome muttered the words “you’re wrong” but it was drowned out by Twilight.

“Who are you?!” She demanded to know.

The colt smiled and returned to staring at the core. “I had many name when I walked upon Equestria, they called me Endermen, Slender, ‘The Illusive Colt,’ to most people I was just that creepy pony who stalked around in the back, unnoticed and unwanted by society. I am a writer and researcher, who traveled all over Equestria collecting tales, taking notes; studding the magic of fear.”

Something about this colt made the back of Twilight’s mane stand on end. “The Magic of Fear?”

The colt turned back to them a wicked and insane smile on his face. “Black magic, forbidden tomes, lost scrolls, stories and myths of ancient creatures, I collected it all. I went from town to town collecting stories used by ponies to make their foals go to sleep at night, or eat their vegetable. I created a multitude of creatures based on myth and legend, and by using this core I was able to manifest them. Most of the creations I made were kept here in Tartarus, and were kept under lock and key by the four guardians you have no doubt already encountered, but every so often I let something slip out into your world.”

“But why?” Twilight again demanded to know.

The colt only snickered. “To see the fruits of my labor of course; after all I cannot study fear without causing a panic or two, unfortunately there were two things that continually got in my way.”

The two ponies stared at the colt waiting for him to finish, the colt suddenly put on an annoyed almost aggravated look. “For some reason, none of my creations ever made it past that place you call the Everfree Forrest; it’s as if somepony was keeping them all locked up there.”

Monochrome couldn’t help but snicker under his breath; he knew exactly who the colt meant.

“The second was you bunch of misfits!” The colt pointed at Twilight who gasped, Monochrome stepped out and stood in front of her.

“Every single time something did manage to make it to you all, it was defeated by you and your friends, the hydra, the cockatrice, for pony sake at one point I was so aggravated I even sent Cerberus down just to do what none of the other creatures could get a chance to.”

“You’re the reason Cerberus got away from Tartarus?” Twilight gasped.

“Well of course, I do run Tartarus after all, the protectors of it answer to me.”

“Not anymore they don’t” Monochrome finally spoke up after staying quiet for as long as he could. “We’re shutting you down; we’re destroying the core and sealing Tartarus forever!”

The colt let out an insane laugh, something similar to what Discord would throw out. “How do you purpose you will do that huh? You need a source of light AND dark magic in order to operate the core, something you don’t have!”

“He’s right,” Twilight frowned, she didn’t want to admit it, but that fact had been bothering her since she heard it from Guardian, they lacked a source of dark magic so there was no way they could destroy the core, at least that’s what she thought.

“He’s not right.” Replied Monochrome, Twilight and Endermen both looked at him and Monochrome let out a sigh, if there was ever a time to do this, now was it.

“I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now Twilight, but I just never had the time or the courage…” with that, Monochrome reached for his shades and took them off. Tossing them to the ground he looked up and faced his good friend and his enemy, his eyes were the exact same as Endermen’s.

“Impossible! No other pony could possibly have my eyes!”

“Mono…what…I…how…” Twilight was at a complete loss for words if what Endermen said was true, then Monochrome one of her best friends had been practicing dark magic.

“I didn’t know how you’d respond so I kept it to myself for as long as I could.” Mono put his shades back on and began to approach the still disgruntled colt across from him.

“You’re wrong about dark magic Slendermen or whatever in Luna’s sake your name is.”

Endermen smirked

“Dark magic is the magic of emotions, yes fear is involved, but so is anger, sadness, guilt-” Monochrome turned to Twilight as he continued. “As well as happiness, joy…love...”

Twilight blushed.

“Dark magic is emotional magic, and if one has total control over their emotions, if one has a sound and stable mind, it can be just as good and powerful as light magic. The same magic that kept you at bay all these years.”

Endermen shrugged, realizing that his one trump card had been outplayed he only had one remaining option. “Fine, fine, however, even if you can operate the core as I can, I’m not just going to give it to you.” Endermen’s horn glowed the same shade of dark grey as Monochrome’s magic. “If you want it, COME TAKE IT!” Upon shouting this Endermen fired a massive blast of dark magic at Mono and Twilight.

“Lookout!” Twilight jumped infront of her friend and shielded them both from the blast with her force field, but the dark magic was empowered by Enderman’s rage and her force field fizzled away after just one shot, after which Enderman quickly fired again.

“My turn” Monochrome threw out a force field of his own unlike Twilight’s, Monochrome’s field was enriched with his own dark magic causing the projectile to be absorbed.

“Commendable” complimented Endermen, “but in vane!” Endermen turned to the core and poured magic into it, after some time a small magical burst erupted from the core and a hydra appeared before the ponies.

“No way” Twilight stared at the three headed behemoth in disbelief.

“As I said” snickered the sinister pony, this core allows me to manifest legends, I can make a story come to life.

“I got a story for ya!” Twilight and the Endermen looked towards the core to see Monochrome who had teleported his way over, Monochrome mimicked the spell his colt nemesis unleashed and in a matter of moments both Ender and the Hydra were staring face to face with the mythical Platinum Dragon, the strongest and rarest of all the worlds’ dragon breeds. Monochrome twitched a little and sweat dripped down his face, it took all of his concentration to keep the dragon under his control, but soon it began to fight and pin-down the hydra Endermen had created.

“Now Twi!”

Monochrome shifted his focus for a brief moment and fired a dark magic beam at Endermen who retaliated with his own, as the two stood in a stalemate Twilight took the opportunity to teleport behind the wicked colt blasting him with a magic bolt of her own. Endermen flew off to the side, magic energy coursing through his body as he lay there on the ground.

“Okay, while he’s down lets destroy this-” Monochrome was cut off by coughing, some sputtering, and a weak laugh.

“Even if you defeated me, you still won’t destroy the core, because the ponies who cast the spells on the core will die, the destruction of the core will trigger a shockwave that will destroy everything within Tartarus.”

“What? No way!” Twilight began to back away from the core, she wanted to seal away this evil place, but not if it meant sealing the fate of her firends in the process.

“Then Twilight will leave and I’ll seal this place myself.”

Both of the other ponies found themselves looking at Monochrome.

“Mono are you crazy?!” Twilight glared at Mono but he shook it off

“You were right Twilight, Tartarus needs to be sealed away, and we need to make sure this kind of power never falls into the hands of that colt or anyone else. This is what my cutie mark represents, I can use both light AND dark magic, and I can seal the core myself.”

Tears began to form in Twilight’s eyes. “Monochrome please, you can’t be serious.”

Monochrome turned around. “As a heart attack, now get going, I’m starting the spell now.”

“but Mono-”

“FOR THE LOVE OF LUNA GO ALREADY!” Monochromes mane flared up again, like it did in the Succubus cave.

Twilight gasped; as she did Endermen walked by

“There’s much fear in that one. I think this is something he clearly doesn't want to do.” He smiled then looked towards the startled mare, “You know, if you leave now, you just might save the rest of your friends from the same fate as him.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, all of her other friends were still fighting their own battles (so to speak); she needed to warn them, and get them out before they got caught in the shockwave. Twilight ran out of the entrance to the core and away from them crying as she left. Endermen let out a wicked laugh, slipped into the shadows and disappeared. As he left Monochrome could hear him speak though his voice was quickly fading.

“Tartarus was an asset, not a necessity, my research will continue, remember my friend...fear is always behind you…”

Monochrome shook the words off and began to concentrate, focusing as much of his power as he could toward the core. Magical rings wrapped around his broken horn to form his artificial one, this time the horn shot out longer than normal, all the way until it touched the core. When the tip came in contact with the core Monochrome was jerked into the air, his glasses were shattered revealing solid white glowing eyes like the ones he had before. Moments later the shockwave rang out. A black, white, and grey sonic rainboom looking explosion blasted out obliterating everything it came in contact with as it spread through Tartarus. The Dragon and the Hydra being the first things to go.

One group at a time Twilight retraced her steps and gathered up her friends. Each group asked the same question “Where’s Monochrome?” And each group received the same answer: “I’ll explain later.” Upon reaching the destroyed land bridge Twilight concentrated with all her might, but try as she could she couldn’t muster the strength to teleport eleven ponies including herself. She gasped for breath broken, tired, and out of power.

“The pegasai can fly everyone out!” Blazing Trail yelled out to his friends desperately looking for a solution.

“There’s no time” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, we’d have to make two trips and we wouldn’t be able to do it before the shockwave got here.

“I’ve got…to try…again.” Twilight conjured any strength she had left but it wasn’t enough, she collapsed to the floor exhausted.

“Not good!” Yelled out Ravewind

As the shockwave closed in on them everypony gasped and yelled, suddenly though the colts Ravewind, Joe-Buck, Diamodozen, and Blazing trail began to glow. The mares stared at them as their elements; The Elements of Order suddenly appeared. Ravewind and Joe-Buck suddenly found themselves wearing golden necklaces shaped similarly to their cutie marks, a massively multicolored glow stick and a detailed Celtic cross. Diamodozen and Blazing Trail’s left eyes began to glow and were replaced by eye patches in the shape of a diamond and a flame. The energy from these four fluxed out and shot straight up. The girls looked up to see what almost appeared to be the Core of Tartarus, a massive Black and White orb.

Twilight stuttered with tears in her eyes. “Mono…chrome?”

A massive magical energy spike occurred, knocking the ponies out cold. Sometime later the group found themselves waking up outside of the mountain range, with Fluttershy and Shortcut looking over them.

“Are you all okay?” Shortcut asked his friends, with a worried look on his face.

“There was an explosion, then the gate collapsed and Cerberus disappeared.” Fluttershy explained, “Then there was another explosion and you all appeared right here.”

Everypony looked at Twilight Sparkle who was crying uncontrollably, it didn’t take them long to put together the massive Black and White energy spike and her crying to realize how they got out. Everypony looked down, Apple Jack and Joe-Buck removed their hats, Ravewind approached Twilight.

“Did he tell you?”

Twilight nodded sobbing, Ravewind didn’t need to go into details, she knew what he meant.

Back at Canterlot a celebration was held for the returning heroes, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, personally honored and congratulated the heroes on going above and beyond what she had called them to do, Tartarus was gone and as soon as the remaining creatures in the Everfree Forrest were taken care of Equrestria would be free from monsters and other vile creatures for generations to come. Once the honoring ceremony had ended, a massive funeral gathering was held in the Canterlot Cortyard, to honor Monochrome’s sacrifice to save his kingdom and his friends. Princess Celestia found her sister Luna among those who were crying, Luna had just lost her most prized student, a pain Celestria prayed she would never have to feel. Among the honored guests that arrived were Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, Monochrome’s ex-girlfriends, as well as Monochromes original family, the Quadra-Colors, to the mane six’s surprise, the Quadra-Color family all had extravagantly colored manes, tails, and bodies, even Rainbow Dash was impressed by the sheer amount of colors on each of them.

That night, was a slow night for Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but especially for Twilight, who just couldn’t seem to get to sleep. Getting up from her bed, Twilight walked to her balcony, the last place she had seen and talked to her dear friend, as she opened the door there was a bright light on the other side, Twilight raced out to find a mysterious, glowing, golden necklace lying on the balcony railing. Twilight picked it up and realized it was Monochrome’s element of Order. She closed her eyes and a sweet, reassured smile slowly made its way across her face. Using magic, she put the necklace around her neck, then after taking one last look at the moon, she turned around, and with a yawn went back into the library and headed off to sleep.