I Will Never Give Up

The crystals had a strange glow about them but Twilight had begun to understand why. She figured it to be due to some sort of connection to the princess that warded the Lunarium. It was the best explanation she could come up with. A real princess was down there. She was Luna and she was waiting for them, that had been it. They should follow the right path, she had said and then she had been gone.

Twilight didn't quite get the feeling in her own body. There had been a surge of magic, for sure and it felt good now. She felt better, could even stand and walk all on her own. The thing was she had felt just as strong before. This was Magia's magic, Twilight knew, even if she didn't understand how Firefly, a pegasus, could handle it. Twilight was so baffled about it that she couldn't quite think straight.

The trio moved through the dark corridors, lightened up by the crystals, and fast. They had run past the large hall, away from the water and had followed the only path that had appeared lit up. It was like walking beneath a clear nightsky, something Twilight had never done before. It made her remember how she had spent her days before just sitting in her bed and reading. She longed for those days and at the same time didn't. It was weird, it felt like something was messing with her head. She should be sad and worried, Twilight knew, but she wasn't. Maybe that was worrysome but somehow they simply went forward.

Okay, maybe not simply. It was all they had done. With all the chaos around them, all they had done was plunge into the dark head first. Twilight thought that sentence again, wondering since when she was able to think like that. She had struggled through most novels with great endurance and when the books were of a more sciency nature she had merely looked at the pictures and not even understood those. Yet, she felt like she had changed.

Her train of thoughts was broken by Derpy. "What is the long story?" She asked that looking at Firefly, the quiet pony they had known as Raindrops. She lead the group now and seemed so much taller than before. It was a weird sight but somehow Twilight didn't feel much about it. Maybe she was just so lost that she couldn't even grasp anything anymore, she thought with a bitter smile.

Firefly threw her head back, "Remember how that griffon girl got me to your family and told you my name? We flew all the way across the eastern sea from where all pegasi once came. I was part of the last remaining herd who still with the old way. They went and I was left behind, so to speak and I really wanted to think that it hadn't happened. Or at least I wanted to think that it hadn't happened to me. My mother named Firefly, she told me, since she saw a fire in my eyes and knew I would fly to the highest heavens."

There was pride in her voice but Twilight had seen the pony's eyes now. They were different from other ponies she had seen. Not in color or shape but that it truly seemed like she'd been staring into this pony's burning soul. She had created a circle of flames with magic, too.

"You come from the east?"

"Yeah and I guess I'll need to go back someday. It is said that when the old magic returns, the old cloud poleis will appear again and I really want to see them. We've been waiting for centuries for that to happen. It'll be great." Firefly laughed.

Derpy didn't appear to be happy about that. It appeared that she felt the same way Twilight did. Aware that she should be sad but at the same time wasn't and if her weird misplaced eyes were anything to go by she was saddened by that thought more than anything else. Now with Firefly saying that she would leave, it appeared to hurt her even more.

At that moment, Twilight wished herself back into her thoughts. Raindrops and Derpy had lived together and were more like sisters than friends, that much she had understood. Frankly, she couldn't even say anything here. She wasn't even a pegasus or knew that much about their story.

Firefly noticed the mood, too. "Don't worry, Derpy. We'll find our parents,"  she seemed sure of it, "and when we're ready we'll all fly east."

Derpy looked up to her sister and Twilight found herself smiling. "That sounds like a good plan," the unicorn said, looking down. Her coat was lavender and her mane purple.

"What're you gonna do when this done, Twilight?" Firefly asked.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll write about magic, the first real modern spellbook. I really wanted to bring my family together but. . ." she tried to think of what to say next. She had struggled together with them all as they had followed the river after Trixie had distracted the soldiers. That alone felt like a thousand years ago. She could still see the face of the pony with half her teeth missing engraved in her mind. She remembered how she had woken up after she had collapsed on the streets and how Trixie had prepared her magic show.

She remembered meeting Lyra who had asked about hands, Octavia who had plucked her strings and insisted that she was just 'prattling on'. She remembered how there had still been muffins left for her on the strangers' table and she remembered their taste. She remembered how Derpy aided her until this point and how Raindrops had cried out after Lyra's first miserable attempt at magic. Of them she had more memories than she had of her actual family and none of them had ever looked at her as the weak littlle filly who only caused problems with her illness. The taste of muffins lingered in her mind and she knew what to say.

"Well, first I'll shout at Trixie for running off like she did and then I'll help you find Hugh and Madame and after that. . . Well, I don't know, actually. I don't think there's much left for me."

"You could stay with us, then, both you and Trixie. Everything's gonna be better with magic, I'm sure of it and nopony's going to mind a pony as nice as you." Twilight just had to notice the fire with which Firefly spoke, the passion in every word. It seemed so completely different from the pony she had known before. Her parents were gone and she was far from home. Twilight couldn't really relate to that but she was sure it had been hard, maybe too hard. Maybe Firefly had learned something, considering how much development everypony had seemed to go through.

Yeah, maybe that was it. They had been through a lot together and Twilight had been a part of it, she was glad of that and the sheer optimism that came from Firefly was contagious. "Yeah. . . Let's do that." The answer came easy now, because all this would end well. It had to.

The crystals were still shining as they went through another corridor and at its end there were stairs carved out of the rock. They went down and Twilight looked back for the first time. They had followed a gutfeeling, or rather a trace but nothing had truly indicated that they had been on the right path. This should have worried Twilight but it didn't. Instead a different word was on her mind.

Magia.

It was coming now, even though she had thought that the darkness that had shrouded them by the waterfalls and taken Lyra had been it. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a different thing. Magia had been different. There was a hurt in her mind as she tried to remember how it looked. All she remembered were eyes of such blackness that it was blinding to stare into them. The thought that the creature even possessed a visage sent shivers down her spine.

"We should hurry up," she heard herself saying.

"Yeah," Firefly agreed and Derpy looked at Twilight.

"You look pale, are you okay?" The gray pegasus asked.

"It's-" Twilight started, suddenly starting to feel a cold. "It's coming."

There was a faint laughter in the distance. The bright laughter of playing children, the laughter of the beast that had destroyed Canterlot. Twilight knew that it had found them and was trying to get to them. Why specifically them, she didn't even bother asking. The Lunarium held all the answers and if not, it would at least hold a solution. Twilight clenched her teeth. The wise goat had told her that she could change everything and she had believed in his words. Now was the time to believe in them, in herself, once more.

"We need to go. Now," she yelled and then they were galloping down the stairs into the darkness, barely making out the steps beneath them. There were no crystals in the walls and Twilight didn't even dare to try to use magic. For some reason, though, she found herself leading them through the dark. The laughter was following them with every step, coming closer and closer. From one moment to another she felt the cold in her growing and even though she tried to block it out the thought of its visage came into her mind, the memory becoming clearer as it approached. Twilight felt sweat running down her face and even tried to speed up. Fear started taking over.

It was the same for the others, though the images in their heads, their worst nightmares were shaped differently. Twilight didn't know since she was in front of them but the image of a burning field moved across Firefly's mind and Derpy heard them shouting once more, accusing her once more. Whatever had given them strength and hope vanished more and more as the laughter grew closer and they realized more and more the situation they were in.

Three fillies in the dark, all scared of the coming nightmares.

They hurried down the steps and Twilight almost slipped more than once. She became clumsier as the laughter became louder, shriller, more terrifying. She remembered its face now. The white skull of an equine with a red liquid, swirling in circles where the eyes should have been, and a body of bones and shadows. Back in Canterlot it had stared at Twilight for a moment, before its cackling had become a cacaphony in her ears. The whirlwind of shades had closed in on Twilight and claws had formed all around her. The memory of the taste of her own blood came back. It didn't scare her, since the dream hadn't really died.

She remembered a pony with an ethereal mane and a white coat smiling at her and calling her her faithful student. She remembered her parents smiling and her brother. She thought of Trixie, Lyra and Octavia, of Derpy and Firefly. She thought of what she had gone through until this moment and then she stormed into wide hall of stone with large pillars leading to the starry ceiling. She noticed statues on the sides but didn't bother looking at them.

They galloped as fast as their legs could carry them, which for some reason felt faster than before. Then she heard rock exploding behind them and the laughter growing into the same cacaphony again.

I'm not scared. Nightmare's belong into the realms of dreams and this here is the real world. I'm not scared and I will never give up! She screamed that in her mind, moving closer and closer to the bright light and whatever was awaiting them behind it.

She heard the pillars breaking but didn't bother to look behind her. Trixie hadn't looked back, Tavi hadn't looked back. They were gone now but they had left with confidence in their skills and the hope that they'd all make it behind. Now it was Twilight's turn to believe that. She felt the darkness swirling and noticed the same creatures that had attacked them by the waterfalls moving, she also heard hooves on the ground behind them. The doorway was getting closer and she knew that they were closing in on their target.

Now came the final part of their journey and the Lunarium awaited them.