My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic — Season Ten

Danger Dash, a yellow unicorn mare with long orange hair and wearing an adventurer's outfit, dropped down into a large cavern. The rope in which she descended hung just above her head. Dash looked around the dark environment to see a whole lot of wet stone and moss. At the far end of the room, she spotted a wide tunnel that led further in.

"Bingo," she said with a proud smile as she trotted forward, the sound of her hooves against stone echoing off the walls.

She stopped at the entrance and lit up her horn, the light illuminating more mossy stone. She looked around the edge of the tunnel to find a strange writing. She gasped with glee and leaned in for a closer look.

"Ancient Lumerian," she said in awe. "It is here." She examined the writing and found where it began. "To those who enter here, a most treacherous fate will befall you." Dash scoffed. "Come on. I've dealt with plenty of traps before."

She moved into the tunnel and stopped when her horn lit up a long row of stone tiles with a Lumerian letter carved into each one. Danger looked around for a clue as to what she needs to spell out. The layout was five tiles across and looked to be seven long. A couple of large tiles were gone, implying another tried and failed. Her eyes scanned the remaining tiles in the first row.

"U. P. H. And... C." She looked at the next row. "O, W, T, R, and G. Well, the first one I can test," she said as she walked over to the C and placed one hoof on it. "Nothing, huh?" She asked as she stepped on fully. "Alright. First letter is C. So..."

Her eyes fell on the farthest tile, which was O, and then one diagonal from her which was R. She shrugged and stepped on the R. Safe. She fully committed and jumped onto the tile.

"C-R."

The next row had I, L, T, W, and F. Danger took a running jump and landed on the I tile, sliding into the wall with a grunt.

"C-R-I?" Danger asked as she looked at the next four rows. "Crimson." She jumped to the next three tiles with relative ease. When she landed on the O tile, she saw the N at the other side. "Oh, boy. That's a jump." She tapped on a T tile next to her to see it crumble into a dark pit.

She backed up and did another running jump. Her hooves landed on the wrong tile and she kicked off as it crumbled. She fell through but managed to get her forelegs on the correct tile. Her hind legs dangled over the pit as she tried to pull herself up. With a few grunts of effort, she managed to swing her hind legs up and onto the safe floor before she pulled herself up. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.

"That was close."

She got up and looked down the tunnel. The walls were covered in what appeared to be ash. Danger moved forward and came to a doorway with a carved message. She wiped away some of the ash and read it aloud.

"Speak her name?"

Dash looked back and then at the ash. "Crimson Ash?"

There was a loud clank as the door slid up to reveal another long tunnel. At the end, she could see a floating red crystal over a stone pedestal. She took a step forward into the room when a large, pendulum blade swung past her face, making her fall backwards. More and more blades began to swing down the tunnel.

“Okay,” she said as fire shot out from the sides at regular intervals. “You got this.”

Danger ran forward and dove past a blade before sliding under a spinning saw blade. She had to jump to the side to avoid being burned before she jumped over a blade in the floor. After expertly dodging three more, she jumped past the last one and landed by the artifact.

“Yes! In your face!” She shouted triumphantly at the taps. Safe then turned to the red crystal and moved in closer. “It’s amazing.”

She picked it up in her forelegs and looked it over. It looked like it had a black smoke cloud inside. Danger put it in her pack and turned around to face the traps again.

“Alright… Here we go again…”

Danger climbed up the rope and found herself back in the main cave. As she left the darkness and stepped out into the light, she had to shield her eyes.

When her vision returned, she saw a group of stallions surrounding the mouth of cave. Danger took a step back before they turned a circle around her.

One brown unicorn stallion stepped forward. “Thank you for retrieving the crystal for us. Now, if you’d be so kind as to hand it over.

Danger Dash looked around at the other unicorns. “Did you put a tracker on me?!”

The leader chuckled. “Of course. Now hand it over!”

Danger sighed and pulled her pack off before tossing it. The stallion caught it with his magic and levitated the crystal out. His eyes lit up as he dropped the pack.

“There she is,” he said in awe, before he raised it and smashed it on the rocky floor.

“Hey!” Danger yelled angrily. “I worked hard for…”

She trailed off as a black smoke came out of the broken crystal. It swirled around before them before it began to form into an alicorn. The body became red as the smoke became the mane and tail. Her yellow eyes shot open as she let out a loud yell.

“Finally!” She exclaimed, making Danger yep and fall backwards.

She scooted backwards as the lead stallion approached the alicorn. “Crimson Ash,” he greeted. “My name is Doctor Shard. It is an honor to meet you.”

“The honor is all yours,” Crimson sighed. “What year is it?”

“2052,” the doctor answered.

“So, it has been a while.”

“I-I would just like to say, Miss Ash, that we are willing to pledge ourselves to you.”

The red alicorn glanced at him with a confused expression on her face. “Who are you?”

“Um… Doctor Shard?”

“Huh. Well, Doctor Shard… even though I would normally welcome anypony under my command… I have simply been asleep for far too long… and I require energy.”

“W-Well, we can find you energy.”

“This is easier.” Crimson lit up her horn and blasted the stallion with magic which caused him to burst into smoke. Crimson sighed as the smoke merged with her mane. “Better. But I need more.”

Danger scrambled to her hooves and pushed past a couple stunned unicorns as they watched the alicorn vaporize another. When Danger looked back, she saw some of the stallions were attempting to fight the alicorn while others tried to run. It was no use. Crimson simply blocked the attackers and used her magic to vaporize the runners first.

Danger looked forward just as she ran through a bush and tripped on a root. She tumbled down a hill and landed at the bottom with a grunt of pain.

Crimson trotted past a few piles of dark red ash as she looked around with a sigh. “Well, that was boring. I could’ve sworn there was somepony else here.”

She simply shrugged and unfurled her wings before she took off into the air like a rocket, leaving a trail of black smoke behind her.

On the beach of the ocean town Silver Shoals, two alicorns rested on beach chairs while basking in the sunlight. The white alicorn simply had her eyes closed while the dark blue alicorn wore tinted sunglasses.

“Almost time for our yearly visit back to Ponyville, sister,” Luna said with a smile.

Celestia smiled. “Twilight’s been handling things pretty well, hasn’t she?”

“Yes. I admit, I was worried at first. But she certainly has proven herself.”

They suddenly heard a commotion and sat up to see a yellow unicorn mare running across the beach towards them.

“Isn’t that… Daring Do’s daughter?” Celestia asked.

Luna shifted her shades so she could see over them. “Yes, it is. And she looks rather worried.”

“Celestia! Luna!” Danger exclaimed as she skidded to a stop by their chairs.

“What’s wrong, Jewel?” Asked Celestia with a concerned look on her face.

“What do you know about… Crimson Ash?”

Both ex-princesses went wide-eyed and looked at each other with worry.

The doors to Canterlot Castle’s throne room closed as the ruler of Equestria let out a sigh of relief.

“That was a lot of meetings,” the purple alicorn muttered.

The purple bipedal dragon beside her approached her throne. “You did good, Twilight.”

The alicorn giggled. “I did well. And, thank you, Spike. I can’t believe it’s been 40 years since I took over.”

“I know what you mean. Feels like only yesterday we were battling Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek.”

“Well, not much has changed since then. My friends got older and we passed the Elements to Smolder and the others. The kirin have integrated back into society. And there’s been peace ever since. What could possibly go wrong now?”

Before Spike could reply, he burped out a letter and caught it. He eyed Twilight, who just stared at him. Both had a bad feeling about this letter. Spike cleared his throat and unrolled the scroll.

“Twilight. Trouble is coming. Her name is Crimson Ash. If you still have that book I gave you, give it a read. We will arrive shortly start we finish up here.” He then looked at Twilight.

“Celestia?” Spike nodded. “Do you know which book she’s referring to?”

“I think so,” Spike said as he took off running for the castle library.

Spike soon returned with the book and Twilight levitated it in front of her. She flipped though the pages, noting it seemed to be a journal written by a variety of ponies. She found an article written about Crimson Ash.

“Is this real?” Twilight asked when there was a flash of light near the doors. She looked up to see Celestia, Luna, and a yellow unicorn she didn’t recognize.

“Oh, you found the book,” Celestia said as the trio trotted down the carpet towards the thrones.

“Is this real? Crimson Ash can vaporize ponies?”

“She turns them into smoke and absorbs their essence, becoming even stronger.”

“What happens to the pony she absorbs?”

“I’m afraid there’s no way to help them. Which is why it is of utmost importance that we deal with her quickly.”

Crimson Ash landed with a thud outside a small town tucked between two small mountain ranges. "Ah, Cirrostrata," Crimson sighed as she moved forward. "It has been a while."

She lit up her horn as she cast an invisible aura around her, making all the ponies see her as a yellow unicorn with long red hair. She trotted through the town until she came upon a newspaper stand. She trotted up to it and glanced at the front page news.

"Over 30 Years of peace," Crimson read aloud.

The gruff stallion behind the counter chuckled. "Oh, yeah. Princess Twilight sure turned things around. With the help of the former princesses, of course."

Crimson eyed him. "Come again? Former princesses?"

"Yeah. Where have you been? Under a rock, or something?"

"Or something." Crimson slowly leaned in and placed her hooves on the table. "What... happened?"

The stallion took a step back, clearly intimidated. "Around thirty years ago, Celestia and Luna turned over Equestria to Twilight Sparkle."

"Why would they do that? Did this... Twilight Sparkle do something worthy of being ruler?"

"I'd say. I wasn't there, myself, but I heard she took on Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and a filly named Cozy Glow, turning them to stone. Because of this, peace was restored to Equestira and she became princess."

Crimson stared at him, before a smirk spread across her face. "Thank you for the information."

Luster Dawn stood in Ponyville as she watched a dark-colored hippogriff in the distance. She let out a sigh and was about to move forward when Twilight appeared in front of her. Luster yelled loudly and stumbled backwards as all the ponies in the area stopped and looked. A small commotion started up when they saw the princess in town.

Twilight waved at everyone before she leaned in close. "Meet me by the old crystal castle," she said, before she teleported away.

Luster smiled nervously at the other ponies before she slowly slipped away to go see what the princess wanted.

Twilight stood before the abandoned crystal castle, her mane blowing in the wind. Luster came down the walkway and saw her mentor. "I'm here," Luster announced as she trotted closer. "What's going on?"

"Before that," Twilight said before she turned to face her student. "what about you? How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, thanks."

"How are your friends?"

"I wouldn't all them friends yet. More like... acquaintances."

"Oh. What's wrong?"

Luster sighed loudly. "I don't know. I just can't seem to connect with them, you know? Shade seems distant. Brutus is too... crazy. Moss Glow and Sundial seem... okay, I guess."

"That's only five..." muttered Twilight.

"Come again?"

"Oh. Nothing. Let's not worry about that now. The current threat is Crimson Ash. I'm sure you came across her in magic studies?"

"Briefly. I've heard that name mentioned as one of the most powerful alicorns to ever exist. Is she back?"

"Yes. Unfortunately. And I fear our thirty years of peace is about to end."

Crimson landed in The Prairies just outside Canterlot and Ponyville where the statue she sought rested. "Well well well. Queen Chrysalis and Lord Tirek," she cooed. "And the small one. I know you can hear me in there," she said as she tapped the statue. "I can free you from there, of course, but I demand your unwavering loyalty. The three of us... and the... filly... will show the ponies of this land what true fear is. We shall worm our way inside their minds and turn them on each other in ways they could never imagine. And just when their hope is withered down to a speck, we shall shatter it beneath our hooves."

She lit up her horn and the stone began to crack. The statue suddenly exploded as the three villains collapsed to the ground. They let out a groan as the filly sat up first.

"Um, did you say something?" Cozy asked. "Sorry, it was kinda muffled in there."

Crimson stared at her as her eye twitched.

TO BE CONTINUED