The Most Horrible Hearth's Warming EVER: A Candy Mare Tale

At last the moon was reaching its zenith.

Soon the stars would be aligned and Stygian could begin his spell.

Though he was not a Guardian like his friends, not a powerful warrior nor a skilled sorcerer, Stygian was and always had been a fine scholar. While Starswirl might busy himself crafting new magics, Stygian delved deep into the works of Pre-Equestrian authors and knew more on the subject of their secrets and mysteries than the entirety of of the Royal Collage combined. Those ancient civilizations did not have the benefit of Equestria's harmony, or even the tentative peace of the three tribes, so they had guarded their secrets well behind archaic riddles and complex codes. Many an academic could spend their entire life trying to transcribe and understand the significance of a single tome with little success. Not Stygian, however, for he had collected and deciphered everything from papyrus to clay tablets from all corners of the world. Instead of bashing his head against the wall of the conundrum of just one civilization, he had sought to understand all of what history had to offer and, in so doing, he had found insight into enigmas that had thwarted the best minds of his age by cross referencing, comparing and contrasting, puzzles and solutions from a wide array of disciplines. It was by doing so that he had first come across the tales of the legendary ponies that he would one day gather together to form the Pillars of Equestria, after all, so to say he had some success where others found only failure would be something of an understatement. Of course, compared to unraveling the mystery of Ponehenge, those achievements had been little more than a warm-up.

Even in the ancient times Stygian had studied the true purpose and meaning of the circle of rune covered stones had been lost to the mists of time. Before the three tribes had settled in the lands that they had so recently been forced to abandon, the civilization which had erected Ponehenge had already gone extinct. Wiped out by famine or flood, or perhaps simply lost to the less dramatic forces of progress and entropy, all that was known about those who had raised those monolithic stones was that they were druids who spoke their own dialect of early Pone-ish. The construction consisted of a circular stone foundation upon which a central dais had been raised and around that had been erected six massive obelisks that curved inward towards the center like the fangs of some hungry beast. Had it been carved by ancient tools or was it constructed by raw magic? Was it gifted to some forgotten tribe by ancient alicorns or maybe some far more advanced race lost to the annals of history? No one living could say for certain as even translating the runes carved into the stone surfaces offered little in the way of answers.

What had Ponehenge been for? Some great working of magic or ritual? A way to chart the movements of the stars? Or merely a way to help keep track of the seasons? Perhaps it was just a collosal practical joke played by the prehistoric world on its descendants? It was any pony's guess. Ah, but Stygian did not have to guess! Stygian knew what the circle of stones was for. Or at least what he could use them to achieve.

Not long after he had discovered the primordial monuments location he had been able to determine that, whatever it's purpose had originally been, it lay at the very center of the spot where a complex matrix of ley-lines intersected. These invisible channels of power funneled magic naturally through the land and could be found all over Equestria. The flow of power was essential to the health of the land and those that inhabited it. Normally, magical beings like ponies would benefit from the power channeled by such ley-lines passively, absorbing the energy in the same qay they absorb oxygen by breathing air, the magic would saturate them simply by existing. Some ponies, perhaps more receptive, absorbed this power more readily and became particularly skilled unicorns, agile pegasi, or physically gifted earth ponies. Learned sorcerers, of course, knew how to tap into these ley-lines directly and could siphon the magic from the earth to aid in the working of larger and more complex spells than a single pony should normally be able to achieve on their own.

Stygian was no learned sorcerer, but with the sheer number of ley-lines overlapping one another where Ponehenge stood he did not need to be. In normal circumstances it would be dangerous to tap into one of these magical channels, even for a great wizard. If done improperly, draining the magic from the land could have dire consequences for all living things in the immediate vicinity and unpredictable impacts on the balance of nature in general. Ponehenge, however, nimbly circumvented that danger by having the standing stones serve as both insulators and batteries for the magical power. No matter how much power one drew here, it would be almost impossible to drain enough to truly do the land any lasting harm. It would be like Stygian was drawing water from a lake with a silly-straw, no matter how much he could possibly draw with his crude abilities the relative level of the lake would remain unchanged, and even if he did draw too much the stones would naturally replenish it over time. By accident or design, Ponehenge was the perfect place for a pony like Stygian to duplicate the powers of his friends, and to safely create powerful artifacts that anypony could wield!

No, not just anypony, but Stygian himself!

For too long he had been the pony that needed saving, that had to stand aside uselessly while others put their lives on the line. For too long he had been relegated to merely recording the adventures of other ponies while doing his best to stay safely out of the way. Now it would be Stygian's turn to do the saving and taking risks! Now it would be his adventures that others would write about! Now, at last, it would be his turn to save the day. He would finally be able to lay the burden of the guilt he felt, which lay so heavily upon his heart, aside and stand beside the Pillars of Harmony without shame!

Or so he hoped. Surely they would understand why he had done as he had done once they saw the fruits of his labor.

"The artifacts have each been aligned correctly with the planets," muttered Stygian to himself as he made the last few adjustments to his calculations. "The central dais is bathed in moonlight. Everything is set. In a few minutes I should be able to begin."

"No Stygian, I think you will find that you are already finished!" boomed the powerful voice of Starswirl the Bearded, full or righteous fury and indignation.

Before Stygian had a chance to respond, a blast of magic forced him to jump away from Starswirl's tome of sorcery, the very artifact he needed most to enact his spell successfully. As the tiny unicorn looked up in shock, he could see that all of the Pillars were here and that they each glared at him accusingly. He had seen that thunderous look in their eyes many times before now, but never directed at himself; That was the look that his friends had always reserved for right before the moment when they were about to defeat a villain...

"Stygian, how could you lad?" asked Rockhoof, genuine dismay and despondency in his voice. "Of all of us, I can understand how helpless you feel without an artifact of power - I was a scrawny colt myself before I raised my shovel. But what I can't understand is why you think that gives you the right to steal from your friends!"

"I had no choice!" pleaded Stygian, the unicorn scholar backing away from their judgmental stares. "I asked, again and again, but you never gave my requests a second thought. No matter how I presented my ideas they were always put upon a shelf in favor of some other matter. Each of you in turn ignored what I had to say and drove me to this!"

"So that makes it alright? Stygian we put our trust in you." asked Mistmane, lifting the vase that held her orchid from its resting place at the base of the obelisk where Stygian had so carefully positioned it. As the scribe watched helplessly, each of the Pillars reclaimed their artifacts one by one. "We thought you were our friend. Now that faith is damaged and it might never recover."

"I-I never intended for that happen..." stammered Stygian, trying to explain. "Your friendship means much to me, b-b-but even so..."

"Whatever your intentions, it is your actions that have condemn you," replied Mage Meadowbrook, donning her mask. "A trusted friend would not take from another without asking, and even if they did they would apologize if caught. That you're still trying to justify stealing from us, even now, it leaves us wondering if you were ever truly our friend at all. Because of this, we cannot allow you to have your way."

"Quite so," agreed Starswirl, his eyes glowing menacingly beneath the brim of his hat. "Stygian, in honor of your past aid to Equestria, we will not punish you for your treachery. But we can no longer trust you, nor can we risk you further undermining our cause. I hereby cast you out. No more will we tolerate your presence among us. Stygian, by the power invested in me by the royal sisters, you are forthwith banished! You will no longer be allowed to have any contact with the Guardians of Harmony or any of the individual Pillars in any fashion!"

"But- but where where will I go? What will I do?" asked Stygian at a loss. He had devoted his life to the Guardians of Harmony and to the cause of defending Equestria.

Without that, who was he?

What was he?

"Frankly Stygian, it matters not to me," answered the sorcerer, turning his back on his former friend with a flourish of his cloak, the bells sewn into its hem chiming with more finality than the toll of a funeral bell. "Come my friends. We have lost enough time on this distraction. The princesses... Neigh, the very realm of Equestria needs us!"

With that, the ponies who had been his friends all turned from him and galloped towards their next adventure. Stygian hung his head low and sat in a motionless heap at the center of Ponehenge. He could still feel the power of this place, so tantalizingly close, yet so far away. He could have seized it still. He could have channeled that power into himself. But without an artifact to contain it the magic would leech away back into the soil in no time at all. Stygian, sickly and weak, simply had not been born the kind of unicorn that could handle such magic on his own.

Instead Stygian chose to give in to his despair. A momentous choice, with far-reaching consequence even the wisest could not fathom. He hunched his shoulders and hung his head so low his horn nearly scraped the ground. Stygian turned from his friends path and walked, maudlin and weeping, into the shadows.

Flash Magnus turned back and hovered in the air for a moment, watching Stygian trudge away. Taking Netitus from his back, he looked down at the reflection of himself in the shields polished surface. He was not sure he liked what he saw. The hard look in his eyes softened, and his brow furrowed in thought. "Did we do the right thing here? What if Stygian really was just trying to help? He seemed more misguided than truly treacherous. Besides, what if he was right and his way was the only way to defeat this evil - or perhaps even some greater evil down the road?"

"Even were that so, it was not his place to make that decision unilaterally," responded Starswirl, though much of the fury had faded from his old voice. Now he sounded merely tired. "It took me years of study to craft the spells held in the pages of my tome. It took Meadowbrook and Mistmane time to master their crafts as well. You should already know that it takes more than strapping on a shield to make a soldier, just as it takes more than simply lifting Rockhoof's shovel to make a hero. Somnambula's blindfold draped over his eyes would merely rob Stygian of his sight. Until he understands this, our power in Stygian's hooves would be a terrible threat to Equestria no matter how noble his intentions."

"If Stygian is truly our friend, then in time he will will realize how deeply he has wronged us and will find a way to apologize for what he has done," reasoned Somnambula, as she took wing beside the legionary. "Fret not Flash. I have hope that we will be seeing him again soon. I'm sure the day when we make amends with one another and put all this trouble behind us is not far off."

"I hope you're right," Still, Flash could not take his eyes off the retreating form of his erstwhile friend. He watched until the scholars silhouette faded from sight, and only then did he turn to catch up with the others.

"Still, perhaps this has not been a total loss," considered Mistmane, "That place that Stygian discovered was astonishing, and far more ancient than even the palaces of my homeland. Never have I felt such an enormous amount of natural magic gathered in one place outside of the Everfree Forest."

"It's true," agreed Starswirl, remembering the glimpse of the runes he had seen carved into the surface of the obelisk beneath which his tome had lain. "Stygian may have inadvertently led us to the ancient site of Ponehenge. If so, then that is exactly what we may need to accomplish my latest spell! We might have to sacrifice ourselves in the process, but if we had a way of luring the Candy Mare back to that circle of stones then we could open a portal to Limbo and banish her once and for all!"

"We can try to think of a plan on the way, comrades," insisted Rockhoof, as his long legs ate up the ground. "But in the mean-time, we have a princess that needs saving!"