Prologue: The Calm Before the Storm
Twilight Sparkle was trotting back and forth in the throne room, having requested an audience with Princess Celestia. She had to speak with her urgently about strange matters that, although seemed irrelevant with each other, needed to be discussed. Twilight kept looking at the clock, swinging her head back and forth every second or two. Celestia was supposed to be there one whole minute ago!
Suddenly the door opened and Celestia came in looking as regal as ever, her celestial mane flowing as it normally did. She walked to her throne before sitting in it, guards on both sides of her as Twilight bowed. "Oh Twilight, my faithful student, you should know by now that bowing is not neccessary," she said, humbled by her show of appreciation, "anyway, what is it that you needed to discuss so urgently?"
Twilight raised her head, looking up at her teacher and monarch, using her magic to pull out a marker board, the biggest she could find. She looked at the two guards and then back at her princess, "Before I begin, I would like this to be private," she said.
Celestia nodded and issued the guards outside, just out of earshot for indoor voices, but close enough that they can hear her scream if she was in trouble. Twilight nodded before getting a marker to write on the board. "I know that this may seem trivial and irrelevant, but it's just too weird to be coincidence," she said, testing the marker.
She drew a timeline of everything that had happened in the last couple of years, such as the Nightmare Moon situation, the Hydra, the dragon in the mountain, everything bad or strange. "I'm sure we've all been aware of these situations and issues that have come up in the last year and although they seem irrelevant, I have a feeling they were all a precursor to something... Bigger," she said, circling the Cerberus attack on Ponyville, "as you know, Cerberus, the guard of Tartarus, had attacked Ponyville and Fluttershy calmed him down. That's fine, but what if there is a correlation with the Cerberus attack, where it comes from, and every thing else?" she said, writing out the term "Tartarus".
"Now, we all know that Tartarus is the impure, banished land and it is large, no one knows how large it is or how many species of creatures there are in that land. We do however know that the Changelings did come out from Tartarus to attack us, however... Doesn't it seem strange that a species living in a secluded location would know that the Elements of Harmony were still around and that they were the only things that could defeat us. I realize that they could have overheard you talk about it to us, but how would the message get around so fast and even if it did, how come there were hundreds of changelings there?
"What if the reason they knew is because of this..." she circled the parasprite attack on Ponyville, "the parasprites were giving recon? They live in the Everfree forest and they are plentiful. However, they are also small and hard to see. What if they got past Cerberus every day to give the message on what's happening in Ponyville or observing everything that happened? Such as when we defeated Nightmare Moon..."
"I can understand this Twilight, however, I don't get your point. The Changelings attacked and we defeated them and sent them back to where they belong. That doesn't mean the parasprites are allying with the Changelings or sending messages to them."
"Yes, I get that there will be things that are hard to believe, however again, there seems to be something going on and the changelings by themselves would be incapable of enraging the Cerberus, it's too smart for that. Something had to rile it, something had to get it angry. Princess, I believe that Equestria may be in danger and at the very least, I think we should send a small group to Tartarus and just check it out, see if something, anything is wrong. The Cerberus normally won't harm a pony like us, not that I would think anyway."
Celestia thought about it for a moment before she nodded, "I trust that you feel there is something wrong, so I will adhear to your request," she said, calling in a few guards, "rally a group of five military ponies! We are sending a group to Tartarus to check out the situation!" she said. The soldiers saluted in understanding and marched off, going to do her order. "In the meantime Twilight, you need to get some rest," she said.
Twilight nodded before walking out of the throne room and getting on her way back to Ponyville, hoping that nothing will go wrong. She got home a few hours later and climbed into her bed, sleeping and hoping for good news in the morning.
Silver Blade was walking along the dark and narrow path, leading the pack of soldiers to Tartarus. He thought it was the dumbest mission imagineable. If it wasn't given by his Princess, then he would have laughed in the pony's face. Still, a mission was a mission and he was determined to finish it.
"I wonder why we of all ponies were summoned to check out Tartarus," the meek pony in the back, named Glimmering Dagger, said, "Why not Shining Armor or one of the Royal Guard?"
"Because Shining Armor is with his pregnant wife and the Royal Guard is exactly that!" the burly Steel Hoof said.
"Besides, it's an easy mission! Nothing is going wrong, nothing will hurt us, we'll be fine!" the slender Couragous Light said.
"And even if something goes wrong, we will still be alright! We are fully capable!" the grinning Proud Force said.
"Everyone shut it!" Silver Blade commanded, "we're almost there and I want to focus on the task at hand!" He stomped his hoof on the ground. He always hated banter before a mission and tried to get everyone to calm down. He knew they were right though, there was nothing to worry about. The other ponies stopped talking and began to march forward along with Silver.
After about an hour of walking, they were at the gates of Tartarus. Everything seemed right, but Cerberus was missing. He was probably getting some water. The ponies looked at the gate and everything was secure, there were no cracks in the wall. All of a sudden though, the gates creaked open and they looked inside. They turned to each other and nodded. They went in slowly, deciding to get an inside look and make sure everything was as tame as they assumed it would be.
They were searching for a good twenty minute before they split up at a 4 way intersection. One stayed behind. They decided to look around and make things a bit easier, everything seemed relaxed.
Proud Force went on the left-most path. As he walked along, he came across what looked like a kindly meddow. The grass was green, there were flowers all around and the sun was shining. It looked nothing like the dark forest he just came out of. "What a beautiful field!" he exclaimed, looking around, leaning into a flower and inhaling deeply.
He kept going around before he got a bit woozy. He started to wobble around, losing the ability to walk forward. He heard the sound of something like a small foal giggling. They got louder and slower as he kept losing conscious thought. "You're such a fool!" the foal's voice said, "you didn't find it weird that in this terrible place there was such a friendly field? You're such an imbecile! You should have ran when you could!"
"W-who are y---y---y---" he kept trying to finish his sentence but his tongue could never finish the word, his mind was slowing at a rapid pace.
"That flower you sniffed was a poison! It was all an illusion! If all of Equestria is like this, then it will be an easy takeover!" the voice said.
"So she was right... You... Are... Going... To... Atta---" he said before he coughed up blood and fell over, dead. He would never be seen again.
Couragous Light went down the second path to the left. The path led to a cave. It was dark and gloomy, however Light did have a special power. He used magic to light up the cave and the first thing he saw was a massive Earth pony-like creature, asleep. It looked like it had been working out since the day it had been born.
The creature opened its eyes and glared at Light. He stood up and towered over him. "Wut da...? Whose you?" he asked with broken sentences, "Wut are ya doin' in ma cave?" he grunted.
Light stood up proudly, looking as elegant as he could manage, "My name is Couragous Light! I am a private in the Equestrian Royal Army!" he said.
"Equestrian Royal Army eh...?" he laughed condescendingly at the pony, "yous guis are so ded! Ya don't stand a chance!" he yelled before dividing into three different versions of himself, each one smaller then the original, "I think I'm gunna kill ya slowly!" they said, each picking up a boulder and crashing it on the pony, killing him upon impact. There was nothing left but a bloody pulp.
Steel Hoof went down the second path to the right. As it went on he came across a unicorn pony that looked familiar to him... In fact, it looked like his wife. He ran up to her and went in front of her, hugging her tightly, "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home!?" he asked the figure, wanting to know what she was doing why she was there. The mare pushed him away and looked in his eyes.
Her eyes were black with blood red pupils. Steel Hoof looked in them in horror, he was scared, and yet he couldn't look away. The woman laughed as his own eyes began to change, "That's right you stupid FOOL!" she said, "Become one of us! You honestly thought you knew me!? You Equestrians will be easier then we thought."
His eyes changed completely and he blinked before looking at her, "Woah, that was weird... Oh, greetings sister! Thank you for showing me the light!" he said, patting her on the back.
Glimmering Dagger went down the final path, nothing weird with this one at all. It was the same old forest environment that he had known since he arrived. It didn't terrify him anyless however. Suddenly, he heard a snap, as if a tree branch was stepped on. He ran as fast as he could, going back down the path he came from. He heard the clopping of hooves following him, going faster then he was.
Suddenly, there was a small stretching sound before an arrow pierced his neck, severing his jugular and killing him in an instant. Out of the brush, a half man, half horse creature came out and picked up the body, pulling the arrow out as he put the body on his back, trotting away, a small trail of blood going behind him.
"What's taking them so long?" Silver Blade asked, stomping on the ground impatiently. He hated waiting and he hated how he wasn't able to go with. Instead he was supposed to guard the back in case anyone or anything came in behind him.
He waited for a long time, growing more and more impatient as time went on. Two hours have passed when suddenly, an arrow landed right by his front hooves. He was startled and drew out his sword with magic. Out of the brush came the same creature that killed Dagger, an arrow cocked back as he aimed. The creature was cocky, thinking that Silver would be a push-over. Little did he know that Silver was the most capable of the bunch.
Silver kept weaving and moving, trying to distract the creature, getting closer and closer to him as the creature tried to keep up. Suddenly, before the creature could react, a swing was made, lopping off his head immediately. Silver sheathed his blade and turned back, knowing that his allies would never come back. He fought his tears for as long as he could, Celestia had to know that there are creatures in there that meant business.
