Dying Embers

Chapters

Beginning of the End
One Princess's Perspective is Another Man's Lies (Edit overhaul)
Anger Leads to Hate
Ace in the Hole
Hate Leads to Suffering
Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
No More Gods
(REWRITE) Bringing Down the Sky
Holy Fire
Tactical Withdrawal
Astral Sea
No Turning Back Now
The Black Sheep Learns Truth
A Broken Man
Rendezvous with Death
Riddle Me This
Ancient Relics
Twisted Perceptions
Snuffin Out the Flame
Epilogue
COMIC Something to tide you over
Revenge is Everlasting
Ignorance is Bliss (Edit overhaul)

Beginning of the End

“Oh I’m so sorry about your fabrics,” said Fluttershy.

“Oh it’ll be fine. They weren’t due for another month, anyhow,” replied Rarity.

Rainbow Dash spoke up, “So how exactly did all those things get in here anyway?”

“I’m not sure, but it was awful,” ranted Rarity.

“One moment I was finishing getting ready for the day and heading downstairs to work, the next moment I find my lovely boutique filled with those pests.”

“Now wait just a second here. First Fluttershy’s animals are too scared to come out of hiding. Applejacks animals start freaking out and the little statue of Princess Celestia snaps in half. Then we hear how the weather-making in Cloudsdale isn’t working right. Now Rarity’s house is overrun by a plague of pests!” said Pinkie Pie as she counted out the strange occurrences on her front left hoof with her right while sitting back on her haunches. “This is crazier then that time I found that weird hoof print just outside my window this morning.” The others gave her a look of confusion.

“What hoof print?” quietly asked Fluttershy.

“This one silly,” Pinkie said with a big grin as she reached behind her back and tossed out a molded imprint of the hoof print into the midst of the group.

“How’d you do that?” asked Applejack.

“You silly-willy box of Applejacks. I was carrying that with me the whole time. I mean, what kind of character would I be if I didn’t have at least one important contribution to advancing the plot?” said Pinkie with a smile spreading ear to ear. She stared back at the others. They just accepted it as Pinkie being Pinkie. Though Applejack silently wondered how and when she had been carrying that without the others noticing and why she would even take a mold of the print at all. Applejack decided not to over think it.

“Whoa, you weren’t kidding, this IS a weird hoof print.” It was Rainbow Dash as she was holding the hardened clay imprint in her hooves. She was turning it sideways and upside-down as she inspected it.

“Come on RD. Ya’ll can look at that later. Right now we still gotta see Twi at the library.”

“Oh yeah,” said Dash.

“I’ll go with you,” Rarity said, “She’ll probably know why there were so many of those foul creatures in here and how to keep them out of my beautiful boutique.”

And so, the group of ponies went down the street to Twilight Sparkle’s house to find out just what the hay was going on. Along the way they noticed that most of the other ponies were inside. They would see the occasional pony trot by as if something was wrong. But when one of them asked what was wrong the only response they would get was, “Sorry can’t stop to explain.” The cluster also heard the occasional racket coming from some of the buildings as they passed. Seemed like others in town were having their own problems.

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As the assortment of equines arrived at Twilight’s house they were preparing to be shown some sort of predicament here. The tension was palpable as Rarity knocked with a nervous twitch of the eye. “Twilight it’s us. May we speak to you?” It was Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon assistant and in many ways her little brother, that answered the door. He seemed to be fine, the five ponies noted with relief.

“Hi guys!” Spike said with a smile. “Twilight is reading upstairs. Come on in.” He stepped to one side and held the door open for them. As they walked in they didn’t see anything out of place.

“I guess Twilight isn’t having any trouble today. That’s good,” Fluttershy said. She was relieved that not all of Ponyville was having trouble except Pinkie Pie.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked with a blank look on his purple and green scaled features. “Yes, what’s all the commotion about?” It was Twilight.

“Twilight!” yelled Pinkie as she suddenly blocked Twilight’s entire field of vision. “You wouldn’t believe it! All the animals everywhere are going crazy with a capital two plus two equals FISH! Not only that, but things are breaking, the weather in Cloudsdale isn’t working right and Rarity even had rats in her house! RATS! No pony has seen an actual rat in Equestria in, like, foreveeeeeeeeer!” She was speaking a mile a minute. It was so much talking in such a short amount of time it was a wonder of the world that she hadn’t passed out from lack of oxygen. “Also I was-mnmphmunamph…” She was trying to go into more detail but Twilight had put her hoof in her mouth before she could start another aneurism causing explanation.

“I think I get the gist of it Pinkie,” said Twilight.

“Okey doki loki,” Pinkie said before finally giving the librarian back her personal space.

“Pinkie also said she found this hoof print at her house.” Dash said as she handed over the little clay impression she had been carrying on her back. Twilight levitated it closer to herself to examine it more closely. The other mares and Spike all leaned in to look at it too. To call it a ‘hoof print’ was a stretch, seeing as how it barely looked like one at all. It was roughly hourglass shaped with one end a little bigger than the other. It was also very deep which indicated whatever or whoever made it was at least as heavy as the average pony. The bottom of the print wasn’t smooth like an animal print either. It had a pattern in it like was wearing clothes on its feet at the time. It also didn’t seem to have any claws; though they wouldn’t show if the claws were retractable like some animals had. The most peculiar thing however though was the center of the print was covered in ashes.

“Wow. I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s defiantly not a horseshoe print Pinkie.” stated Twilight. “Why are there ashes in the middle?”

“Well the print WAS burned into the ground when I found it.” Pinkie Pie said.

“It doesn’t look like any animal print I’ve seen” said Fluttershy.

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An hour later, anyone entering the library would have seen the six of them all helping Twilight look through the multitude of books in a fruitless attempt to find out where all the problems were coming from. They were just about stumped when Spike burped up a scroll with a small puff of magical fire.

“A letter from Princess Celestia?” Twilight said in surprise. She was usually the one sending letters back to the Princess of Equestria not the other way around.

“What’s it say?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Hold on a minute. Let me see,” Twilight replied, clearing her throat.

“My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,

I require your presence as well as that of the other Elements of Harmony. Gather your friends as quickly as you can and be ready at your home for some of my guards to arrive. They will take you to my castle in Canterlot. Be ready.

Princess Celestia

The room got uncomfortably quiet after that as they waited, not knowing what else to do. Not thirty minutes later there was a firm knock on the library door. Twilight used her levitation spell to open it and saw two large pagesi in golden armor.

“Miss Sparkle, you and the other elements of harmony are needed in Canterlot. Are you and your friends ready?” the right guard said.

“Yes we are,” she said.

It was a fairly uneventful ride on a gold chariot to Equestria’s capitol city. On the way they failed to notice the path of crushed trees in the distance creeping closer and closer to their homes from the Everfree. Their ignorance would not last long.

One Princess's Perspective is Another Man's Lies (Edit overhaul)

Author Note: Many thanks to Book Smart for editing AGAIN!!! He's so awesome.

The throne room of Canterlot castle stood nearly empty. The guests and petitioners that normally frequented the court had to be moved to one of the secretary’s rooms due to ‘Royal Business’. Equestria’s daytime matriarch was sitting in her throne, waiting with patience that only thousands of years of life could grant. She was quite a sight to behold. Much like her younger sister Luna, Celestia had both wings and a horn, but that was where the visual similarities ended. Her short fur coat was of the purest white that would put doves to shame. She was much taller then most ponies, including Luna. Her eyes were of light magenta, and filled with a beauty and knowledgeable insight unique to her that had humbled many a visitor. Her mane and tail were in constant flux of several pastel colors; both in constant motion, as if blown by a summer breeze. It was a testament to her magical power that such a thing was the case. Finally her cutie mark (a term she had coined long ago, after all) was a symbol of a glorious blazing sun.

The large, beautifully designed doors leading in and out of the courtroom suddenly swung wide as six colorful ponies burst through.

“We’re here, Your Highness! We got here as fast as possible,” said Twilight Sparkle.

“I could have gotten here faster but I had to wait for those slowpoke guards,” interrupted Rainbow Dash.

Twilight shot her a glare. They were in the presence of royalty after all, and insulting the Princesses’ Royal Guard was not the most respectful thing to do. Rainbow just shrugged awkwardly as she hovered in place.

Princess Celestia began to speak after dismissing her royal guards from the room’s entrance. This matter would require the utmost privacy. “I’m very grateful you all are here. I need your help. But first, has anything out of the ordinary been happening at Ponyville?”

“Yes Princess. Several things have happened actually,” Twilight replied in all seriousness.

Celestia nodded with a knowing look in her eye. A frown spread across her visage. “I feared as much. I’ve been receiving such reports from all over Equestria for the last nine hours. Tell me my student. Have you ever heard of a gremlin?”

Twilight’s near photographic memory went to work as her mind sorted through the mental library of information she had learned from books. “I believe they were a sort of fey creature that was fond of causing as much trouble and chaos as it could. Supposedly they were a favored pet of Discord because of all the mischief they got into. Those aren’t supposed to be anything more than old mares’ tales though. They’re passed on by the same ponies who believe in gargoyles and demons,” she said.

Celestia looked somewhat disgruntled at her student before saying, “As much a myth as the Mare in the Moon, Twilight?”

Twilight Sparkle cringed in embarrassment at this. She was saved from further discomfort though when a grey unicorn guard in a white robe pushed in a large bird cage that was covered with a black velvet sheet. The thing was rattling and mean-spirited sounding gibberish could be heard coming from it.

“THIS,” Celestia said as she rose from her throne, “was caught trying to set fire to the royal record’s room in the east wing.” She lifted the sheet off the cage to show a hunched, pointy eared, wild eyed, two legged, greenish blue creature in the cage. It was nearly bouncing around in the cage, obviously trying to escape, but to no avail.

“Is that what I think it is?” Twilight’s eyes grew larger than dinner plates as she looked at the supposedly fictional creature in front of her.

“Yes it is, and a particularly nasty one as well,” Celestia said.

As if to confirm this the Gremlin blew a raspberry while making several rude gestures, nearly causing Rarity to faint.

“That’s more then enough,” Celestia gave a light, magical, shock to the foul little monster to make it stop, even if for just a few moments. “You may take it away now Loyal Heart.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the guard replied, recovering the cage. He levitated the cage with his magic and backed out the side door.

“I assure all of you that most of the creatures of legend and old mares’ tales are as real, or at least were, as dragons and diamond dogs are today,” said the Princess.

“What do you mean were?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“Follow me,” commanded the Princess.

She led the main six through several hallways and spiraling staircases to a part of the castle that they had never seen before. They followed her through a few more corridors shrouded in shadows and cobwebs. They were only lit by the occasional magically fueled torch. They stopped at what looked like a dead end.

“There’s nothing here,” Rainbow said with a small hint of impatience.

“Not quite my little pony. One simply needs to look past the obvious,” said Princess Celestia.

Her eye as well as her horn glowed a soft white as she cast a spell she had learned from a hermit half-elf she hadn’t used in what she thought may have been centuries. It made her feel rather old as she thought of one of her long dead teachers, especially combined with the fact that the half-elf had lived to a cranky six hundred before she had passed away.

“And one must have the proper key of course,” she finished saying with a smile as her eyes and horn returned to normal.

The previously dead-end alcove was now transparent. Celestia confidently stepped forward. Instead of smashing her regal self against what looked to be a glass limestone wall she passed through it as easily as Pinkie Pie passed over the laws of physics without magic. The others took pace after her. As they all stepped through it, the six young mares looked in awe at the huge room they had entered.

“This room was my own study many, many years ago. I used it to understand more about the other creatures of this land before the nation of Equestria was fully formed.”

The room had a curved dome roof with a tile mosaic of the sky. Its left side was dominated by dusty bookshelves overflowing with literature; while its right side had several objects on metal tables and pedestals, some of which were in display cases like at a museum. The floor was a polished wood paneling unlike the rest of the castle, which was either tile or carpeted. There were no windows, but a strange chandelier made of white marble with a glowing white stone affixed to its center provided at least enough illumination to read by.

“Before I tell you what you need to know it would make me very happy if you were to look around first. It’s been too long since anypony besides me learned of a part of Equestrian history I couldn’t give a personal recount of.”

The six ponies took Celestia’s invitation to look around. Dash hovered over to one of the display cases. The plaque at the base of the glass read ‘Eye of the Chained God.’ She squished in close to the glass to get a better look at the black, perfectly circular stone. As she did, the sphere flooded with red fiery color. A cat or dragon-like pupil stared intently back at Rainbow.

“AAH!” Rainbow cried out as she nearly jumped out of her skin in surprise.

“Be carful,” Celestia calmly explained. “Some of the artifacts here are dangerous if they were ever to be released.”

“You don’t say,” said Dash, trying to regain her cool composure. She didn’t want to lose face in front of her friends and Princess Celestia, after all.

Fluttershy had been drawn to a part of the room where the books were in order to look through the book she saw titled ‘Animals of the Fey Realms’. She was intently looking at the various entries, some with red inked notes in the margins likely made by the Princess. Many of them included animals Fluttershy had never heard of. That was quite the feat seeing as how Fluttershy made a point to know just about every animal she could, in case one ever needed her help. There were entries about things like the Couatl - a serpentine creature of unparalleled beauty and wisdom; the Shocker Lizard - a small blue reptile that protected itself through magically generated electricity; Sprites (distant cousins to the Parasprite) - mysterious winged creatures of nature that tended to attack anything ugly or potentially damaging to their environments; the Grick - a pony sized carnivorous worm monster with a deadly beak. The list just went on. It was a VERY thick book. While skimming through, Fluttershy couldn’t help noticing that most of the animals’ pages also had the words ‘extinct’ or ‘disappeared’ written in red above them. Fluttershy closed the book after a bit when the sadness in her overly kind heart became too much to bear. She put the book back in its place as she struggled to hold back her tears.

Applejack was inspecting some farming equipment on one table that certainly didn’t look like it had been made for use by ponies. Most of it looked like they were made for use by diamond dogs. Only thing was, she was pretty cotton-pickin’ sure that diamond dogs didn’t do any farming and the tools all came in different styles. Some were blockish and straightforward. Others were curvy and elegantly designed. Still others looked spiky and menacing like whoever made them was just as likely to use the tool as a weapon as for gardening.

Pinkie Pie had hopped to the side of a rack on the wall that held a wooden staff with a blue orb on the top. The staff itself had an inscription that read, ‘There will be a time when I am needed once more. When it comes, a king of kings must unite the land. I will be there for him…in another time…another place.~Merlin’ Pinkie Pie couldn’t help but start to feel sad. Her intuition was telling her somepony great had been lost to time. She didn’t know why she even thought that, but it kept nagging at her until she finally turned away from the staff.

Rarity, on the other hoof, had instantly been drawn to the gold and brass octagon that rested on one of the pedestals. It was utterly beautiful and geometrically decorated. ‘Whoever made this was clearly a master craftspony who took pride in their work,’ Rarity thought. In its center lay a single ruby that looked suspiciously like a button. It wasn’t in a case like some of the other things in the miniature museum, so she pushed it. The curiosity instantly began shifting its pieces like a rubix cube that solved itself until its designs roughly resembled some kind of wide, bearded face. The face’s mouth then opened to reveal a small compartment that contained a rolled up piece of wax covered parchment. Curiosity once again got the best of Rarity as she carefully lifted it out with her magic and unrolled it. It showed a map, but it wasn’t of Equestria. It almost looked like it was a map of an underground nation all its own, but that was unlikely. The words weren’t printed in Equestrian script either so she couldn’t discover what it said. Had she been able to read Dwarven she would have seen that it read ‘Map of the Dwarven Thiags by the royal choreographer Edric Stonefist. May the ancestors guide and protect you.’ She carefully put it back with her magic and pressed the button that had initially opened the stylized container. It shifted in its unique way one last time as it safely sealed the map again from the ravages of time. It hissed as the device ejected all the oxygen in the compartment to seal it air tight.

Twilight Sparkle had, of course, skimmed through five books in the time it took the others to look around. She was trying to find a book that answered the questions in her racing mind. Why have there been so many strange occurrences happening lately? Where are these once believed mythical creatures coming from and why? If most of the old myths were true, then where had they disappeared to for so long? She was still looking when Princess Celestia was satisfied with their investigations.

It brought an old joy to her heart that she could share some of her old findings with others, but they needed to get back to the business at hoof. “Now that you’ve looked around at the relics of the old ages I think it’s time I told you what I believe all the chaos is coming from. My little sister Luna…ah, it seems she’s already here.” The Princess then looked towards the back of the room. She raised her voice by only the faintest audible amount when saying, “You know it’s not polite to spy sister.”

A regal yet mischievous sounding voice echoed back from the doorway as a dark almost invisible mist coalesced within the dusty old study. “We are sorry sister,” The dark mist became visibly more tangible as it became the shape of an alicorn. Then the shape compressed like somepony squeezing a clod of soil to make it denser with the princess of the night’s features coming more clearly into view. She finished her little spectacle of an entrance before continuing, “But we didst not wish to interrupt.”

“Princess Luna!” the main six said in unified surprise, quickly bowing.

“I believe my sister can explain what started all the commotion,” Celestia said. Her expression hardened just the tiniest amount.

Luna quickly told the Elements of Harmony about her encounter with the strange half-dead thing in the Everfree Forest and its threatening message.

“Any questions?” Asked Celestia after Luna had finished.

Not surprisingly Twilight raised her hoof to her mentor to ask, “Do you know what it meant when it spoke about claiming what’s theirs?”

Almost immediately after Twilight, Applejack piped in with her question also. “Yeah and what exactly is a HUE-MIN-EAGHTY?” the last word came out weird due to applejack’s confusion on the subject. Neither she nor the others in the room, with the exception of Celestia, knew what they were and Applejack struggled with the foreign word.

Princess Celestia had been expecting these questions, but it still hadn’t prepared her enough. She was about to explain something even she herself, arguably the oldest living thing in Equestria, didn’t know much about. “I’ll answer both your questions but it requires some explaining.” The seven other mares in the room made themselves as comfortable as they could - they could tell this might be another long story. The marble chandelier kept illuminating the room as the princess recalled the correct memories, giving off an atmosphere of mysterious intensity.

“Luna and I weren’t always as mature and experienced as we are now. When Luna was a baby and I but a small filly, our parents were put in charge of this land as ‘Guardian Spirits’ by other much more powerful entities. Our father Thunder Fall was charged with protecting the land and plant life. Our mother Heavenly Mind was charged with maintaining peace and the natural balance of the land. Ponykind had not yet arrived from its original country and most of Equestria was like the Everfree Forest. Scads of monsters roamed everywhere from jungles and mountains to rivers and the underground. I remember our mother telling me how the land was such a small piece of a grand and ancient world. Mother and Father had guidance over only a small fraction of it. Their were other beings here besides the monsters however. They were beings of reason and logic with their own morals and opinions. I found out later through my research that these races had been created by others who’s abilities made ours and our parents seem like toothpicks trying to stand up to a dragon’s inferno breath. These were beyond the domain of our parent’s guidance. Most of the records I later found about their origins recited stories and poems of a great pilgrimage from other lands called Eberron, Thedas, Middle Earth, Mid-Guard, Krynn, the Forgotten Realms and several more.” Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony were amazed at what they were hearing. Celestia was divulging information that citizens, especially the scholarly types like Twilight Sparkle, had been wandering about for hundreds of years. If this was supposed to be a secret why tell them now? They continued listening, but now with their jaws nearly hitting the floor. Well except for Pinkie Pie for some reason. She was busy looking at a random direction in a frustrated fashion while apparently trying to reach out to someone that was imaginary. She was also muttering something about ‘cupcakes’ and to ‘stop doing that’ but the others took no notice.

Princess Celestia continued, “Several species came from their previous homes to escape their harsh and war plagued countries. But so many years of fighting combined with an environment filled with monsters must have taken its toll. After many more years of the unsupervised races being left to their own devices I remember our father having fights with our mother. There was some sort of mass fighting going on in the central plains. He said it was his duty to protect the land that was being demolished in the fighting, but our mother just kept restating that what the other races did was not their priority and they should let them work it out amongst themselves. She was sure the other races would come to a peaceful solution soon. One morning our father just…didn’t come back.” Celestia’s normally reserved and peaceful expression had now evaporated faster then a gallon of liquid nitrogen did when exposed to a bright sunny day. She was not STRUGGLING to hold back tears but it was plain that her tear ducts were reacting to massive sadness. This was getting to some rather sensitive issues. Luna didn’t seem too emotional about it though. Her expression was one of sadness like when one misses a recently departed pet, not when one loses a father, she was simply too young to remember. All she had was faint glimpses from faded memories and the stories about them from her sister. It was now that Princess Luna interrupted. “Tia you never told me about that part.” Luna’s formal speaking voice had gone out the window as she spoke to her sister. Luna had believed that a possible reason she had never been graced with the opportunity to meet her daddy would have crossed Tia’s mind at some point in the thousands of years the two of them had been alive.

“What good would that have done Luna? I still never knew the exact reason Daddy left” the Elements of Harmony tried to keep from laughing at this. Had they really just heard Princess Celestia use the term ‘daddy’?! But no, this was a serious thing by pony and they weren’t going to laugh at the choice of words the princess had used.

“Telling you would just leave you with the same unanswered questions about it as me,” said Celestia.

Luna turned that over in her cranium for a moment. Her sister was right of course. Having only the knowledge of an argument and some sort of outside conflict that caused him to leave wasn’t much to go on. If Tia hadn’t found an answer to what actually happened to him, she seriously doubted she would have had anything to show for the info except for things to have occurred differently somehow. The six smaller ponies looked around awkwardly. They sensed that this should have been a private moment between family, but under the circumstances they couldn’t very well just leave. They still needed to know what exactly humans returning had to do with all the problems. Luna noticed them looking uncomfortable. She motioned with her hoof for Tia to continue. The princess of the sun cleared her throat before getting back on track.

“As I was explaining, father had left. It was quite a while later, after I had first learned how to exert my will over the sun, that our mother became very ill. She had been increasingly distraught after Father’s disappearance and was always exhausted after using her daily spell of calming harmony. It was like she couldn’t gather the will needed to make others happy anymore. With father gone the land had no true protection from the more dangerous monsters anymore. The races, I’m sure had to defend themselves and that is not the sort of situation one finds happiness in. I was at our mother’s bedside when she…” Celestia hesitated. Even thousands of years had not done enough to dull the pain. It still felt like a dagger had been sent straight through her heart. “…when she moved on. She told me that my sister and I didn’t need to worry about fixing their mistakes. She told me that she had pleaded a deal to save the other races and to protect us (her daughters) in exchange for her. When Luna and I were both much older and stronger we decided to leave the safety of our castle home. We cleared out many of the monsters and drove back the darkness that shadowed the land like a cloak. Eventually all that remained of the darkness was the Everfree Forest and beyond the Equestrian borders.”

Luna continued further, “We hardly found any members of the other races. Only a few stragglers and hermits stayed behind for the most part and they either didn’t know where their kin had gone or they wouldn’t tell us,” She sighed heavily “I miss them sister. They were always such a colorful bunch, especially dear Ben Baggins. He had the greatest sense of humor,” said Luna.

“I miss them too sister but I’ve told you we can’t live in the past. Nothing good ever comes of it.” said Celestia.

The elements of harmony digested the massive revelation of history they had just heard. Twilight was the first to break the silence that filled the room like the unbearable odor of brimstone and smoke that filled the air around most adult dragons.

“So you’re saying that humanity was one of the races that came here looking for a better life then disappeared and that the monsters and weird occurrences are just Equestria returning to its native chaotic state in response to the return of one of these foreign groups.”

“That’s it exactly, my student.” Celestia smiled a little. Twilight’s intellect was still as sharp as ever. “With the human tribe’s return, Equestria is adapting to the humans’ reinsertion by reverting to its primal state.”

Applejack scrunched up her muzzle in confusion. “But your majesty, if’n that’s all true then why does that one human got such a grudge against ya’ll? It sounds like they up’n left on their own, not like they got kicked out by ya.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that dear Applejack,” replied Celestia. She put one of her forehooves up to her mouth and looked down in concentration. “It’s possible that something went wrong with whatever it was that convinced them to leave or it was only temporary or perhaps something else. I can’t be sure.”

Princess Luna of the Night stood tall then. It was time for action not more standing around and talking. “Sister we dare sayeth that thou should ready Equestria for the worst. We must prepare for the strong possibility of an invasion.” Luna had become serious and was falling back into her ‘Royal’ speaking voice.

“Yes Luna, we should,” Princess Celestia said as she turned back toward the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. “In the meantime I want you six to prepare as best you can. When and if I must, I will call on you to use the Elements of Harmony to stop any aggression from the humans.”

“I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that point Princess,” Twilight said with concern on her face.

Princess Celestia nodded, “I hope so too my little ponies.” She seemed to lose herself in thought.

“I hope so too.”

Anger Leads to Hate

The campsite was busy despite the march so far. It had been about a month of grueling foot marching so far in addition to an eight week voyage by ship. The voyage over the sea would’ve taken even longer, but the galleons they had used were sped up thanks to the few magic users they had; all martial members of the company of soldiers were grateful for their presence. While most of the magic users were a pain on the march, what with constantly getting tired, needing help getting unstuck from the mud and tree roots or other terrain hazards, their usefulness at long range and healing or bypassing obstacles was invaluable. That, however, was most certainly NOT what was going through the mind of one of the warriors. A tall, well built man with long brown hair and black eyes named Gua. All he was thinking went along the lines of ‘shut up. Shut Up. SHUT UP!’ followed by a string of profanities so strong it would make a priest faint. Gua had been forced to listen to his assigned partner, a wizard with glossy, short, black hair and a 5 o’clock shadow that went by the name of Terran. He prattled on and onnnnn about magical theory and its effect on the school of alteration in relation to some other magic gobbelty gook that the middle aged veteran couldn’t care less about. The wizard in red robes was supposed to be some sort of prodigy. He was young, the youngest member in the entire company in fact(figures Gua would get stuck with him). Gua would have told him to shut the nine hells up but he couldn’t bring himself to crush the young man’s spirits.

It wasn’t helping matters that the scrawny wizard followed the mostly armored axe wielder around the camp like a lost puppy. In truth the orichalcum adorned fighter enjoyed the young man’s enthusiasm. It somewhat reminded Gua of his youth back with his father. How he would tell stories of that time he had slain an ogre in the kings service with only a dull iron hatchet. His father had filled the youth with visions of glory in service to a greater cause. It was why he was here now. It was also why when Gua had learned how to fight from the guild of warriors that he had talked his father’s ear off about what he had learned. In the same manner that Terran was doing to Gua now. So, he faced the problem the way many human males faced obstacles they weren’t sure how to deal with – a combination of strong drink and trying to ignore it.

It wasn't working.

The other members of the camp, about twenty five not including the two chained trolls that served as beasts of burden or the attack-Umber Hulk, were addressing their individual partners and/or problems. One sword master was arguing with her partner, a psychic monk from the Temple of Iris, about leaving her prized weapon alone with the monk insisting he could fix the sword master’s mental link with her broadsword so it would respond faster to her commands. Two warriors, one a paladin in fire proof steel plate and the other a knight commander in blessed red steel plate, bickered like children over who had the better armor. A group of barbarian warriors were cravenly insulting and telling the lone shaman in the company he should have stayed home along with his creepy rituals. The dark skinned shaman had a necklace of finger bones, gold rings on his neck and arms with tattoos adorning his shaved head and was wearing nothing but tan shorts. He had long since stopped caring what the skittish barbarians said on the ship ride here. He simply sat cross legged with his hands outstretched to his sides as he peacefully meditated. One particularly observant scout sitting on his sleeping matt watched the camp thinking If we don’t get there soon this jungle heat will make us kill each other long before we even get to our homeland. As the rather diverse company of soldiers continued to bicker and for the most part get on each others nerves there was a sudden rise in temperature.

They all looked towards the center of the campsite where the flag of the old nation resided having been planted in the ground. It was blowing majestically in the light breeze of the jungle clearing. It was a fine flag made with a gold and purple threaded background and a simple black colored Solar Cross in its Center. An equal armed cross in the center of a circle.

The shaman opened his eyes and, in a hushed tone said, “He returns.”

An intense flash of crimson fire briefly flared up, leaving a half-dead humanoid figure in it’s place. The camp went as quite as a graveyard. The only sound was the rushing water of a river off in the distance. The figure was the same man that had alerted Princess Luna. “My loyal followers…” he spoke through his sundered face. “We are closing in on our destination. Soon we will be on the usurper’s doorstep. You are all the fittest and most faithful remainders of the old kingdom. While the isolated castles of other younger kingdoms still fight amongst themselves on the land your ancestors were forced to move, we will rise from the ashes and build anew from the old! I realize you are not inclined to get along. You have each chosen different paths in life.” The humans all silently agreed with his words.

“However, you must leave those petty divergences behind, for we are all one under the new empire. You will rise and flourish in it as my chosen; my Crusaders of Fire. Gather yourselves, for tomorrow we continue our march. Tomorrow we take back what is ours by right! Tomorrow…we reclaim the Empire of the Black Dragon!” The undead man raised his fist defiantly in the air with those final words. The deathly figure’s speech resonated in the hearts and minds of his acolytes. They rallied “HAAAAAAA!!!” The martial oriented warriors raised their weapons in his honor. The arcane based members had no physical weapons to speak of but cheered and clapped at his inspiring speech. Even the shaman was clapping, though it was light and he still sat in his meditative stance. The old partially dead man in black took in their cheering, his heart feeling just the slightest trace of happiness. A smile spread across his grizzly features. Wrongs would soon be put right in the blood of a goddess. He was pulled from his brief happiness as he felt one acolyte tugging on his decayed trench coat. It was the little prodigy he had found named Terran.

“Sir what about that secret weapon you said I and the other arcanists needed to restore? We’re almost there, yet we have seen no such weapon,” Terran said.

“You’re right. You have not seen the weapon because we have not arrived at its resting place. I was about to gather you all for that. Why don’t you get the others? Your group will be taking a little detour with me personally,” the entity said. His eyes flashed an unnatural yellow quickly as he looked down at the young wizard.

“Y-Yes sir.” Terran said nervously.

“We will be ready when you need us Sir Illitheous.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been nearly a day since Sir Illitheous had roused his followers with his speech. The martial warriors had continued on the route their half dead leader had painstakingly traced out for them on the group’s map. They could be a dense lot sometimes. It had showed the way to Canterlot. The arcanists, on the other hand, had grouped up with Sir Illitheous and branched off the original trail. Nine magic users trailed behind each other in pairs of two, with Illitheous leading the collection of men and women in front and one bloodmage bringing up the back. The sun had mostly set casting the sky above the humid jungle a deep indigo. The ground was soggy with moisture, and the magic users were sweating like salty human waterfalls. Their bodies mostly used to sitting down and studying, not the physical exertion they now had to endure. Some of them were worried that without their martial escort to protect them that if some ferocious monster were to ambush them they wouldn’t be able to cast their spells in time before one of them became its next entree. Illitheous had no such fears however, as they would be extinguished like a candle in a hurricane. Just then there was a crunching of branches to their right. They all froze in their tracks. The wizard in the group who was one of the two directly behind their decayed master whispered in his ear.

“Sire, my detect life spell shows a large living monster just beyond the trees. We won’t be able to use any fire magic in this jungle though and Demoses won’t be much help since she mostly just specializes in fire based invocations.”

“Very good Schreyer, but you forget who leads you. I alone am a match for whatever is dull-witted enough to try to intimidate us,” replied Illitheous.

The other mages stepped back a bit. They all needed at least a little distance so they could prepare whatever magic they had that would be effective against the unknown danger. Magic by its very nature, unless weaved into an object by enchantment, usually takes time to properly cast lest the caster have his spell fizzle out or, worse yet, explode. The crunching of wooden limbs and rustling of foliage sharply rose in volume. Several of the mages were sweating even more from nervousness. Illitheous scowled. He then broke formation to stand in front of the others and much closer to the noise.

*CRACK* went the decayed figure’s ribcage as a beast pounced on him with bone shattering force. The beast was snapping its jaws at his face. Foam and spittle went flying in all directions. The figure’s skeletal hand was keeping the beast away from his torn face by mere inches. Even this close to it he couldn’t tell exactly what it looked like. He could make out that it was some sort of wolf shaped creature. Its entire body was a blurry dark smudge and it was partially blending in with the air itself. It was also big. It was easily twice the size of a panther. Illitheous owed it to his infernal power that he was even holding it back at all. His followers had now gathered various weapons of the arcane nature but they couldn’t cast them yet. If they attacked now they risked hitting their leader. The ring on Illitheous’ ring finger bone inverted its colors slightly. The black stone for the ring itself began to switch with the red of the ruby affixed to it. The colors moved like a painter who had spilled red and black into a still water pond.

“GrrrraAAH!” Illitheous yelled as he pushed the animal not only off himself but into the nearest tree so hard the bark splintered on impact.

The monster roared in what sounded something like a grizzly bear’s roar.

“You want some more? Get ready to die,” said Illitheous.

His skeletal hand with the ring on it was suddenly alight with fire. The beast decided at that moment to try and bite his legs. It ran the short distance with speed that made all the arcanists except Schreyer lose track of it. Illitheous, however, was just quick enough to see its movement and bring down his hand, palm open, so that it made perfect contact with the canine’s forehead. That was all he needed. This pathetic skirmish was now over. The beast went limp instantly and slid, not too lightly, on the ground just past Illitheous. Its eyes now glowed blood red. Its body began to convulse violently. Foam was pouring out of its mouth and it was making noises one couldn’t help but feel sorry for. Next, yellow lines spread instantly all over its body that resembled the lava that cracks out of the side of certain volcanoes. Then faster than one could say ten seconds flat, the thing lay still, the glowing eyes and lines gone. Its camouflage ceased. Whatever biological or magical ability it had obviously didn’t work after expiration. The corpse was that of a large black muscular dog.

“Shadow hound,” said Illitheous as he kicked the dead beast. “Born of the leftovers of stronger black magic.” His burning skeletal hand now returned to normal, as well as his ring. “We’re getting close. Soon we will arrive at the site of our little ace in the hole. Form back up.”

One of the more merciful mages moved closer to see if there was any healing magic he could cast for the poor animal. Perhaps it wasn’t past saving. Illitheous glanced over at that moment to see one of his followers kneeling over the monsters body. He yelled to his comrade and subordinate.

“What exactly do you think your doing Turluck? Get away from that filthy creature!”

Ace in the Hole

Luna wasn’t sure where she was or how she got there, but everything was on fire. She was seeing nothing but flames as they hugged themselves to the buildings and trees. Burning away thatch roves and greenery. She could hardly breathe, and the smoke was hurting her eyes as well. The sky was pitch black in hue. She trotted forward, both to get out of the blaze and to try and find any survivors. She realized her royal vestments were gone for some reason. She was momentarily distracted by this as her ear twitched. Somepony was calling in the distance. It sounded like they were in danger. Luna’s common sense insisting she just keep going to escape the fire. Her conscience on the other hoof was blaring like an annoying rooster that wouldn’t shut up in the morning to go help. The choice was easy. It sounded like the shouting grew louder, even through the deafening roar of the inferno raging around her. The matchsticks that had once been trees grew in quantity.

Luna was getting closer when she started hearing whispering.

“You can’t save him.”

“It’s hopeless.”

“Your land will die.”

“All will die.”

“He cannot be redeemed.”

The malicious whispering continued, but Luna barely registered it in her mind. All she could focus on now was the cries for help. She skidded to a halt as she arrived at the scene before her. There was a puddle of quicksand. In its center was a young human male. He was waist deep in the natural deathtrap by now. His eyes locked with hers. They practically verbalized his plea for help for the Princess to rescue him. Luna was running short on time. The forest around them was burning hotter, while getting closer and closer every second.

“Please take my hoof. I can pull you to safety,” Luna said.

She used her wings to hover just above him. He seemed to be sinking even faster now. He reached out his hand to hers. His fingers were just nearly making contact with her. Suddenly muddy claws made of quicksand reached out from the puddle. The human began panicking as the extremities grasped his shirt and attempted to pull him down to cold, eternal rest. Luna wasn’t about to let that happen. She hovered as close as she dared and grasped his hand with both of her hooves. She then increased the flapping of her powerful wings to pull the younger man to relative safety of the burning forest. At least he was out of the quicksand now. That was something.

She asked “Are you all right? Quick, we must get out of this forest. I can’t fly us through all that hot smoke and fire. We must get away by ground if we are too-“

“It burns.” The man interrupted.

“What?” Luna looked at the man, fearing the worst. Something looked wrong with him.

“IT BURNS.” He said while clutching his hand.

He then ignited! The flesh was cooked from his bones in less then a second. He stepped closer to Luna despite the lack of any muscles or tendons. The burning forest was gone. Replacing it was an abyss of darkness. The fiery figure’s skeleton held Luna’s throat in his grip.

“MAKE IT STOP! IT BUUUUURNS!

Princess Luna awoke with a gasp. She was in cold sweat under the star print covers of her bed. The fire was gone, replaced by the darkening serenity of her room in Canterlot Castle. She glanced out her rather large window, her hoof rubbing her chin in thought. The thick velvet curtains were pulled back to reveal the evening sky. She still didn’t have to raise the moon and stars for an hour or two. She slumped in her bed. As the Princess of the Night, she was gifted with many of the powers linked to it. The rarest and most mysterious, not to mention the most annoying, being able to view the past, present, or future in dreams. It wasn’t the clearest of abilities and her sister Celestia; despite being so cleaver and organized, could not see things like Luna could. Of course being the avatars of night and day certain gaps in similarity was to be expected. Because of this Luna was forced to try and decode her obscure and often abstract visions alone. It was a somewhat dangerous thing to attempt. The future and even the present to a degree were always in motion. While glimpses of the past themselves were a little safer to analyze, the reason for their viewing was difficult to grasp. If she acted on visions incorrectly, she risked causing terrible accidents. She had dreamt of visions of Nightmare Moon before it had come to pass. They had led her, incorrectly, to believe there was an adversary heading for Equestria that only she could halt. She had tightened national security to near dictatorship levels. That had caused tensions with her sister and the ponies of Equestria. It had also later caused the little ponies to shun both her and the night out of fear. That, in turn, led to the later events that led to her becoming Nightmare Moon. You certainly wouldn’t find any of THAT in the history books.

Luna got up from her bed, pulling the covers back neatly with a levitation spell. She started pacing, trying to get a clearer idea about her dream’s true meaning. It definitely wasn’t a dream about the present. It could have been a dream about the past. Yet such visions almost never involved her in the actual events of the dream. All that was left was another abstract dream about the future, right? The princess sighed. Even with the approaching threat of the humans (at least she assumed they’d be a threat) the Princess had hoped to put off such matters. Only two days had passed since the meeting with the Elements of Harmony. Ugh, it was too early for this. She rubbed her head in exasperation. What did it MEAN!? She’d have to think this over a lot more, but first… coffee.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

About half an hour later the curious group arrived at a vast clearing within the jungle.

It was easily 170 feet across with large limestone pillars on the edges of the clearing. The ground was unusually bare with nary a trace of plant life except the occasional tuft of weeds or grass. Even the trees on edges were all growing away from the clearing. It was as if the vegetation itself knew it simply wasn’t welcome there. It was the long dead equestrian human empire that owned this part of the Everfree. The humans all sauntered up to the center of the clearing where a stone pedestal had been conspicuously placed. It went up to about waist level. It seemed to be springing up from somewhere in the dirt. The nine arcanists looked to their leader about what to do next.

He spoke in a raspy but commanding tone. “Finally, we are ready to begin the ritual. Gather in a circle and focus a spell of candlefire near the center of the pedestal. I will be in the center handling the rest. First though, we must inscribe the runes of animation and willpower. Then Mundall will invoke the spirits of the wolf, stag and eagle.” He nodded to the shaman, who in turn nodded back.” As he does that, Turluck and Terran will re-inscribe the runes with these.”

Illitheous reached into his tattered trench coat and pulled out two pouches. He tossed them to the enchanter and the overall prodigy. They were filled with human blood and gold dust mixed together. Don’t ask where he got the human blood; you really don’t want to know.

“Now move! We must finish the ritual before dawn. I want NO mistakes.” Illitheous ordered.

And so the runes were carved into the ground with the pedestal being the center focal point. The necessary alchemy ingredients were used and the proper totem spirits were appeased. The ten then gathered together in that forbidding jungle clearing. The air around them seemed heavier then before as they all cast the simple beginner’s spell. Ten tiny fires only big enough for a wax candle appeared. They illuminated the humans with a devilish red glow. The nearly dead commander of the others stepped up to the pedestal. His boots echoed sternly as he approached the center. One could almost hear chanting. It was as silent as a whisper on the wind. The power of spirits and astral energy flowed like water though a riverbed, leading past the pedestal and into the earth below.

The earth trembled as the man from a bygone era spoke. “I Sir Illitheous demand you rise once more. Your strength is needed for the reborn Empire of the Black Dragon. The spirits call and you answer. You will answer to us. You must obey.” He stretched out his, mostly, unrotted hand and placed it on the pedestal. “Meae misereatur animae Dues.” (See authors note at bottom) With those last words a jagged metal spike shot through the decrepit man’s hand. He screamed in pain. The others nearly broke their spells to go and help, but he barked at them. “Don’t you dare break the spells or I swear you’ll die where you stand! We all must make sacrifices! This is just another of mine.”

Then he started to shake in agony. The remaining veins in his arm burned red. The machine was taking away part of what remained of his soul. The spike retracted and the candlefire spells were sucked into the new gap created by the spike. Suddenly the stone pedestal was gobbled up by the earth and the runes began glowing florescent green. Illitheous was currently kneeling down grasping his hand. The flesh on it was self repairing but it felt like his hand was being dipped in acid as it did so. The others hadn’t moved away from the glowing sigils yet.

“Move now. I can’t afford to lose any of my crusaders to a magic mishap now can I?” said Illitheous. They moved as instructed, though somewhat reluctantly. The ground now shook violently. Gravel and soil erupted from one side of the clearing as a giant metal hand erupted up to the surface, like a drowning man reaching for air. A second hand followed on the opposite side. The entire clearing was now being disrupted as a massive three story tall behemoth was literally digging itself out from its resting place. Even in the darkness, all could view the fierce majesty of the construct before them under the waning moonlight. It was entirely made of metal that gleamed like silver and green hued malachite. Its joints seemed to be made of clockwork gears and steel struts. It was basically human shaped but definitely not an exact copy. Its features were all exaggerated. Its chest was overly broad and coated with untold layers of that beautiful imposing metal. Its arms were thick, like that of a muscular wrestler. The legs were nearly the same, but longer, and the feet looked like combat boots made of additional metal. Its head was a little small compared to the rest of its massive body, but that wasn’t saying much. It looked like a human skull with the lower portion of the jaw gone. Its eye sockets were vacant, but for the golden glow in their centers.

Then it spoke “I…shall serve…those who have…awakened me.” Its voice sounded like metal grinding on stone with a faint echo to it.

Illitheous’ grin seemed to spread even to the half of his face that was no longer present. “Yes, arise for your empire!” He then addressed his crusaders of fire.

“Behold the Adamantine Golem!”

Authors note: For those of you that are curious, “Meae misereatur animae Dues” is Latin and translates roughly into May God have mercy on my soul.

Hate Leads to Suffering

Editor's Note: Fixed some things I missed earlier. Sorry.

“Sire, is something wrong?” inquired Turluck. He sensed his master was in some kind of pain. The magic wielding group had made great time while heading back to group up with the warriors who had headed to the Capitol through the Everfree Forest. The reason for their superextremeawsoamazing gain in ground? The Adamantine Golem had used the sigils still glowing with untapped astral energy to teleport the company far enough that, after regaining their bearings, allowed them to meet the others before the attack. The Golem had also cowed all beasts away. It also cleared the way across the rapidly thinning jungle turned forest by brutishly smashing everything in its way.

They had nearly caught up now. They had stopped temporarily for a moment to catch their breath and to drink and eat a portion of their rations. It was starting to get too dark to travel safely. Illitheous was currently clutching his bony hand with the black ring on it as if his whole life depended on it. The thing was, it kind of did. The same forces that allowed him to keep breathing were extracting their impatient toll, rather painfully at that. He had taken too long and his body was suffering for it…slowly. The ring was glowing once more as the magic imbued in it demanded what it had been forced there for.

“It’s nothing. Just a flesh wound,” said the deathly being.

“But sire,” protested the healer and enchanter "that hand doesn’t even have any flesh on it. Unless you broke it the only possible problem is a poison of some sort in the bone marrow or some kind of magical trauma. Let me see if I can help.”

He moved closer to inspect the hand. Instead Illitheous’s loud commanding voice took a rather invasive inspection of Turluck’s eardrums; violating them in new and horrible ways. “I said it’s nothing whelp! Learn when you services are not wanted!”

Turluck was hurt at that. He was just trying to ease the pain Illitheous was in. If he doesn’t want any help, fine. Let him revel in the affliction he so clearly wants to keep. “As you wish. I know when I’m not wanted.” He got up from the ground near his leader and went back to the others who had been staring since the outburst. They were still farther away near the Golem. Some were still enraptured at its design and discussing the possible properties and capabilities of the ancient construct; oblivious of the little argument between the commander and Turluck.

Illitheous observed his departure. The healer could do nothing for his pain. Nothing ever could. It was a seemingly permanent price he had unwittingly paid in order to keep both him and his dream alive. A dream of the land he had once called home being reclaimed by its rightful rulers. That, along with humanity being remembered forever, not forgotten like a crazy relative the family never talked about. They would not be forgotten.

He would make sure of that.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been roughly half a month since the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony had gathered to decide how to address the news of a substantial threat heading to Equestria. Although they had tried to be optimistic about it, they were all still worried. Celestia was still insisting she knew only what she had said while doing her best to ready the defenses. Twilight was doing intense research on different types of spells and trying to find out more about humans. The other Elements trained as best they could, in case push came to shove. Luna had gone back to the Everfree Forest to watch for any sign of danger. On one particularly clear night as she sat on a tall hill overlooking much of the forest, she spotted smoke and light on the horizon.

“Wonderful isn’t it?”

Luna gasped as she heard the voice of the deathly figure sitting next to her, legs hanging off the steep
hillside. How did he get there? Did he teleport? Luna wondered before saying,

"What?”

“Can’t you see little Luna?” said Illitheous. “It’s the return of our Empire. We will reclaim our glory and the lands your sister and parents have stolen. We will not fade away as a forgotten myth in history as the weavers of fate might have us,” he said with an unsettling flatness.

“Tis hardlya good thing creature. Your return is to be nothing but an attempt at invasion.” Luna said.

Illitheous slowly, deliberately turned toward Luna, his scowl showing in the pale moonlight. “You would have us all die then?” He began to get to his feet. His ripped, moth eaten trench coat flowing in the gentle breeze.
“You would wouldn’t you? You and your sister would see us all wiped from your perfect little utopia. We don’t matter to you. You long lived ruling beings are all the same.” His voice raised a decibel.

Luna stepped back a few paces. She could see the sudden anger, no the HATRED, showing in the eyes of this entity of old.

“You think us mere insects...an inconvenience to be crushed and ignored. You live so very long while we die in the blink of an eye to you,” Illitheous continued. “Well Princess we refused to die quietly. We’ve clawed our way out of the grave your family so happily dug for us!” The dark form was practically towering over Luna now.

“I don’t know what thou speakest of,” Luna said quietly. She wasn’t about to be cowed, but she was beginning to feel a chill within her chest.

“LIES!!! Surely by now you are old enough to have learned the truth! I will deeply enjoy crushing your sister’s windpipe. Perhaps I’ll make you and all your subjects watch.” Illitheous paused. The open tear that exposed his teeth, cheek, jawbone, and a bit of his neck prominently displayed the grinding motion his canines were now using. “I was going to spare you since you were just a baby during our near genocide. I now see you will only turn out as bad as your parents, always obsessed with order. Order is an illusion used by those in power to step on the weak.

“But now…” he took a step closer.

“We’re…” the air around him shimmered “..STRONG!” At that moment his whole body resembled a fiery version of his skeletal hand. Although his clothes were unscathed his entire body was lit up brighter then a bonfire.

He lunged at Princess Luna; but before he made contact there was a brief flash of light. The next thing he knew, he had hit the dirt where the Princess had been. As Illitheous scanned the top of the surrounding hillside he saw nothing but the trees below and the dark sky mocking him. As the darkness washed over him like the flames over his skull he unleashed a guttural roar. Cursing the gods, as he knew they sat in heaven, laughing at his failures once more.
“AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was in the middle of the day. Big Macintosh sat across from his little sister, the familiar scent of hay and apples filling his nostrils. They were presently in the main barn sitting at an old, wood table with a pitcher of juice set between them. Two empty cups sat on opposite ends of the table. Big Macintosh, or Big Mac which is what most called him, had finished his chores early when Apple Bloom had approached him asking for some help with her math homework. Not being one to decline helping his family, Big Mac had agreed. He wasn’t one for words but he did his best to explain things to his beloved little sister.

“…and then ya carry the two,” he finished telling Apple Bloom.

“Ugh. All this fancy mathematics is giving me a headache. Why can’t ah be as good at this as you big brother?” the little filly complained.

“Your doin’ fine. Now…” Big Mac trailed off mid-sentence.

Apple Bloom grew alarmed at this. “Big brother?”

“Shhhhh,” went Big Mac.

Something was wrong. He stared at the pitcher of apple juice he had placed in the middle of the table. There were little ripples in the center.

Thud.

Ripple.

THUD.

RIPPLE.

THUD.
RIPPLE.

Just then the workhorse’s eyes widened in realization. The back side of the three story barn splintered to pieces. Down!” exclaimed Big Macintosh as he jolted across the table to shield the filly from the shrapnel that had zoomed at them like blood thirsty timber wolves. A few of the wooden hazards punctured their way into the red colt’s back. He only grunted quietly in pain. Apple Bloom couldn’t stop herself from looking at the back of the new diet barn. (With only half the calories and half the barn!) There was a cloud of dust where a wall had been only an instant earlier.

Then, through it walked a scary looking animal in black with some of its bones exposed.

“I’m back.”

It marched closer to the both of them, a dangerous grimace on its features. Big Mac turned around despite the pain. He would keep his sister safe from this monster that obviously meant them harm. The colt didn’t bother with a warning as he ran up, turned and gave a light buck to the monster’s chest. Even a weak kick from him should be more then enough to knock it out. He inwardly cringed at the unmistakable sound of cracking ribs. Illitheous stumbled back only a single step. His grimace turned to a look of angered insult. He growled as he put full force behind a punch that landed perfectly onto Big Mac’s face, sending him flying a foot above the ground followed by a crash into a support beam. It almost collapsed
as his heavy physique made contact.

“Don’t pass out yet. I’m not done with you,” Illitheous said through gritted teeth.

Big Macintosh was struggling to remain conscious despite the darkness that threatened to eclipse his vision. The nearly dead entity picked him up by the wood harness he wore around his neck. Holding him up with his good hand Illitheous then proceeded to beat him with the other. Illitheous was grinning with his natural disaster of a face when there was a tiny, yet slightly powerful, kick to the back of his right knee. He buckled down to one leg as the other gave out from under him. Big Mac dropped to the floor, still fighting to stay awake. His face had changed from red to a deep purple from the bruises already forming.

“Leave mah brother alone! What’d he ever do tah you?” Apple Bloom shouted.

No! Big Mac thought. Run away! But he couldn’t get his mouth to move. Illitheous got back up and effortlessly picked up the little filly by the mane. She squirmed and wiggled to get free but it was pointless. To Big Mac’s surprise the thing above him only stared at her, not hurting her at all. Even more to his surprise, a gigantic metal creature whose likes he had never seen before, now moved past the still thick dust cloud with its head smashing into lower parts of the ceiling. It didn’t seem to notice whatsoever. The strangeness continued as many other creatures similar to the one holding Apple Bloom strode in after it. He could hear Granny Smith crankily complaining from somewhere outside. The deathly being looked back down at Big Macintosh then, his boot becoming all he could see. Before it collided with his cranium only one thought sailed into his brain. Where are Applejack and ‘er friends when you need ‘em?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where is Big Macintosh when ya need him? Applejack mentally complained. Couldn’t he fill in for me in just one of these silly get-togethers?

Honestly she knew the biweekly meetings with Princess Celestia were important and she knew only the bearers of the elements were reporting their preparations in order to keep ready when the humans arrived. But she still wished somepony could fill in for her on one of these boring meetings just once. The only training the mare had been able to really do was some common strength exercises. It’s not like she was under the tutelage of some mystical sensei or anything like that. “I’ve gotten a might stronger” was all she ever really had to report anyway.

Twilight was explaining the different spells and the tidbits of info she had scavenged from old tomes about humans since the last meeting when Princess Luna surprised everypony by popping up in the throne room after a blinding flash of light.

“Luna,” Celestia said. “I haven’t seen you since yesterday evening. Where have you been?”

Luna was gasping for breath as she answered her sister. “I was avoiding the human’s search efforts via teleportation. The humans have some kind of incantation that prevented my teleporting the closer one of them gets. I only gained enough distance just now.” Luna’s tone changed to an even more serious level. “Sister, they must be at Ponyville by now. We must go immediately!”

The residents of said village eyes’ widened in fear at those words. They were here having a meeting while their homes, families, and other friends were in danger!

“Everypony to my chariot immediately! It’s the fastest way to Ponyville without teleporting,” Princess Celestia ordered. She turned to one of the stallions in gold armor near the doors and extended a hoof his way. “Guard, tell the captain to gather all the soldiers still stationed here at Canterlot and send them to Ponyville!”

“Yes, your Majesty!” the guard said with a swift salute.

Rainbow Dash’s impatient look that usually accompanied her increased several levels. “Your guards aren’t fast enough, Princess! I’ll head out ahead and meet you guys there.” RD began flying at the nearest open window.

“HOLD IT!” exclaimed all the others, including the Princesses, loudly.

Dash looked back just then right before turning her attention back forward, only to face-plant into the wall instead of going out the window as she had planned.

“We need to stick together for this RD,” Apple Jack said.

“We can’t separate now when the elements are needed together most. Remember, we’re strongest together,” explained Twilight Sparkle.

“I concur darling. Now is not the time for flying off the handle,” Rarity said.

“Besides Dashie, we always beat the bad guys with the power of friendship! How can you use the power of friendship if all your friends are miles away?” Pinkie excitedly stated.

“Uh, well, I agree with the others. I hope that’s ok Rainbow,” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Your friends are right. You must stand united if you are to defeat this foe and save Equestria,” Celestia decreed.

Luna was content to only nod in confirmation of the others points. Rainbow Dash flapped back over to them with a slightly defeated look spread across her features, her forelegs crossed together in frustration.

“Ok fine, but we better not be too late.”

Auther's Note: Picture Provided by OnixBlood from the website deviantart.com

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

Meanwhile…

Lyra kept running as fast as she could, which wasn’t nearly fast enough since unicorns were easily the least athletic of the three types of ponies. The aqua unicorn with an aqua and white main/tail combo had always believed in the myths of humans ever since she was a filly. She even managed to get her hooves on a couple old books that proposed their existence, not just in Equestria but in realities beyond it and perhaps even among the stars. One had gone into theory after theory about how the oldest human civilizations had vanished from Equestria, why they weren’t around now, and gave details about their technologically advanced society that still left traces of their glory buried in the dunes of the southern desert most ponies called the wasteland. Lyra had been reading that very volume when the door to her house was kicked off its hinges and a large human clad in the fur of woodland creatures entered. Bon Bon (her roommate) was out getting groceries so the unicorn was alone with the muscular man. Lyra’s first instinct had been to ask him all the questions she had about him and his species. That was when she noticed the two sided axe at his side that was nearly as big as he was and her other, more basic instinct kicked in.

RUN

This brings us back to the current situation. This is, without a doubt, the worst introduction to humans I’ll ever have. Lyra currently thought.

“Ooof!” Lyra grunted as she was tackled to the ground.

“Gotcha you little…uh…horse…thing!”

Ok, so clearly this human wasn’t the brightest candle out there. The barbarian leaned over to the side and yelled. “Got another one over here mage. Get on it.”

The specialist necromancer and time weaver, who was the only caster within earshot, rushed over. “My name is Dails Assent, you savage. And I’d appreciate it if you got my title of Nechronomancer correct instead of applying that generic term you deem an appropriate adjective. Besides I’m assigned to several other individuals I was regimented to disenable prisoners for. Not just for yourself and your repressed anger engagement techniques.”

The well built barbarian stared for a minute at the other man. “Uh, what?” He had barely understood a word that left the mage’s mouth.

Dails Assent scowled at the idiot he was forced to work with. “Just keep it pinned. While I-“

“My name is Lyra Heartstrings and I’m a ‘she’, not an ‘it’, “ Lyra may be their prisoner but they could at least bother to learn her name and gender for crying out loud. Also what did the fur clad one eat, lead? He felt like he weighed a thousand pounds.

The nechronomancer sneered a bit before continuing. “Just keep her pinned while I conjure the restraints.”

The aqua and white unicorn could feel a tingly sensation around her legs. Then it stopped. The huge lug on top of her finally got off and allowed her to breathe correctly again. “Now come with us,” he said. Lyra instead tried to run. She wasn’t very good at magic so decided against fighting back. The minute she attempted to move her legs, however, she found she could barely budge an inch. It felt like trying to run in ice cold molasses mixed with glue and tar. “Don’t bother trying to escape. The incorporeal restraints you now wear increase the friction around your extremities the more force and speed you try to use. Oh and they also disrupt any innate magic all you pony tribes have, so don’t bother resisting either. Bring her to our glorious leader Illitheous and he’ll tell you where you should store her,” Dails Assent said.

“Yeah, yeah don’t get your robes in a knot.” The fur wearing man bodily scooped up the unfortunate unicorn by the ankles and held her upside down over his back like a sack of potatoes. Lyra’s half lidded expression and frown were her only reaction. This day was just off to an absolutely AMAZING start. While being carried to who she assumed was the human’s group leader, she saw the same sort of thing happening to other ponies that had happened to her. The style of the capture seemed to differ from one human to the other.

She noticed Carrot Top was unconscious after one unarmored human had stuck its thumb and index finger into her neck. Some kind of pressure point assault? The three flowershop ponies from a few blocks over were hugging each other in fear as two fully armored humans loomed over them. Lyra wouldn’t even be able to tell they weren’t some kind of living metal monsters if it weren’t for their two legged posture and all the other humans in armor scattered around. Before the unicorn could scan the chaos further, the hulking mass of muscle that currently served as her taxi cart stopped.

“Sir!” the barbarian cried “Where do I put the things I catch?”

“In the pit near the Umber Hulk and the siege drill from the elemental chaos we brought!” came a holler from farther off.

Lyra noted the voice sounded busy with something. Her receding view of Ponyville continued a bit longer before the man stopped and talked to her.

“Alright horsie. In ya goes.”

He then uncouthly chucked her into a circular pit that was about eleven feet deep with dirt walls going up at ninety degree angles. Lyra noticed there were numerous other ponies here including pegasi. Guess that dark robed one was right about none of the others’ magic working. The pit was unusually smooth thanks to some kind of magic probably. Or maybe humans were just really good at digging deep pits others couldn’t climb out of?

Drip.

“Hey what just dripped on my head?” Lyra asked nopony in particular.

She looked up to see a bug eyed horror looking down over her. It was brown, and big. It had an exoskeleton just like some kind of insect. It had four arms. Two were tiny and had pincers on the ends. The upper pair was as wide as tree trunks with three-fingered hand shapes at the ends of those. Its legs were smaller and shaped roughly like a diamond dog’s with the biggest difference being needle shaped claws at the ends. Its head was dominated by two feelers, two sets of eyes (one set small above a larger set) and two massive mandibles. The last feature was the source of the dripping or rather dribbling.

Oh GROSS! Lyra thought.

Overall, it looked like a cross between a Silverback Gorilla and a Beatle.

“Lyra? Lyra is that you? Over this way,” a familiar voice tried to get her attention. Lyra looked from side to side, searching for the voice’s owner. An off white hoof waved from amid the captured ponies. “I’m over here.” Lyra politely darted her way through the crowding pit to her roomie.

“Bon Bon they got you too.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah. I was tackled by one of them when shopping for radishes for us.” The earth pony with a magenta and navy blue mane replied.

“Same basic story here. Except I was at home reading when one barged in,” Lyra explained. There was a momentary quiet between them. Lyra beamed as she prepared to say what she always wanted to say to her doubtful friend. “I told you so.”

“Oh just shut up will you?!” said the annoyed earth pony.

____________________________________________________________________________

The Crusaders of Fire continued to round up the little equines at a slow, yet steady pace. Quite a few were being a royal pain to round up. Not from fighting back mind you. The few who fought back were overpowered easily. It’s just that many were difficult to catch. Illitheous, standing on the shoulder of the Adamantine Golem, found it rather insulting actually. The race that had taken the place of his, an entire town no less, couldn’t even stand up to about 30 humans. Granted, his chosen were the most talented and firmest believers in the cause he could find, and he didn’t truly expect much resistance from the villagers. Still, the two trump cards of his were just standing idle and the ease of all this made human villages of similar size seem deadly by comparison.

The town would serve as a good launch point for their onslaught of the capitol. They would spend a day, maybe two, resting completely here in order be at their absolute peak when the attack commenced. The few resources they needed, namely food and comfortable beds to sleep in, were all in abundance here. He knew because he had secretly scouted the entire town before his forces were even close. Teleportation was a wonderful thing. He had almost been spotted a few times by an all too pink villager but had managed to continue unnoticed. The wind shifted marginally. Illitheous' head went ringing with alarm bells. Something was off about it. The breeze was unusually strong and warm. His infernal senses told him several strong auras and many more weak auras were heading their way.

I had hoped for more time before they knew where and when we arrived. Oh well. The time of confrontation will just be moved ahead of schedule, I suppose. The man’s ring glowed very faintly, giving his voice an echoing quality that could be listened to by all in the rural community. “We’re expecting some unwanted guests! Get ready for air forces to attack!” The other humans all stopped chasing down the stragglers and switched to readying their weapons. “Prepare pattern Spider and Fly!”

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The Royal Soldiers of the Sun: Probe Division were the first to arrive at the community of Ponyville. When pegasi pulled in closer all they could see was an evidently deserted province. After five minutes of flying by the area and seeing nopony they all landed in town square. It was eerily quiet. There were forty of them, all wielding crossbows clamped onto both their forelegs. Not a single one of them felt safe despite them being extremely well armed by pony standers.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were hugging each other for emotional comfort. They had all been caught and now resided in the large pit with all the others. A human had come only minutes earlier and told them to be quiet while the other warriors discussed something. The ugly ape had then put a metal wire cover over the pit and put leaves and twigs on top of that. The CMC had heard the pair of footfalls, the thunderous sounding pair belonging to the scary bug thing that had been the pit’s sentinel. After a moment, or several, of cowering together an idea suddenly hit Sweetie Belle like an anvil to the head, or maybe a baby grand piano. “Crusaders, doesn’t this seem weird?”

“Well duh it’s weird. We all got kidnapped by a bunch of weirdo hairless monkey things.” Scootaloo said unhappily.

“No I mean why would they just ASK us to all be quiet instead of just forcing us to with magic or something. Plus what does the cover have to do with keeping us silent? It doesn’t make sense. Unlessssss…” Sweetie Belle leaned in close to her friends with a smile on her lips, waiting for them to fill in the gaps.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both grinned as they put two and two together. “Unless somepony up there is trying to rescue us and they don’t have time to move us somewhere more secret!” they said together.

“HELP SOMEPONY!!! WE’RE DOWN HERE!!!” The CMC yelled at the top of their lungs, which was considerable as anypony who ever had to deal with their antics before could attest. Eventually the rest in the pit realized why the three fillies had decided to yell now and joined them. The screaming made it through the metal wire and foliage cover, but it was muffled.

“Do you hear that?” The sergeant of the group, who went by Fallen Angel, perked up an ear.

“Somepony help us! Help!”

“Sounds like the missing citizens,” another of the guards stated.

They all moved in a square formation with twenty on the ground and twenty hovering just over them to provide cover fire if necessary. They moved closer and closer to the voices. While they did so the hoverers kept their aim at the windows and doorways. They had been told no human could fly and they used a wide array of weapons and that they might be able to cast unknown magic, but that was all they really knew about human war tactics. They rounded the final corner leading to the villagers. In the remains of a building that had been gutted, with only the outer walls and the roof remaining, crouched into a ball was the unrivaled mass of the Adamantine Golem. Anyone seeing it from the sky wouldn’t have seen a thing out of the ordinary.

“Please! Help us!” It repeated perfectly in the voices of the villagers.

“It’s a trap!” one of the pegasi yelled.

The three story building exploded apart as the titanic construct stood to full height and sent a massive fist hurtling at the surprised forces. They all tried to move away as fast as possible. A good fifteen of them weren’t fast enough as they either were struck by a bone shattering glancing strike or by the shock wave of force that followed. They went hurtling like four legged bowling pins after the strike. The few pegasi that were reflexive enough shot bolts at the thing but they bounced off harmlessly. They didn’t even leave scrape marks. Then human warriors seemed to materialize out of thin air and charged at the opposing soldiers. One of the mages had used his expertise to cast a powerful illusion spell earlier to cloak the entire human platoon, making them invisible and silent. Several more pegisi went down, either injured or unconscious, before the human onslaught. Barbarians cracked skulls, Sorcerers froze bodies, knights disabled extremities, and wizards paralyzed nervous systems. The royal soldiers had not only been taken entirely offgaurd by this clever and brutal ambush, but they were completely outmatched. This wasn’t a battle. It was a beat down.

The sergeant Fallen Angel, the leader of this particular squad, was barking orders left and right while injuring a couple opponents in between his shouting. The human forces were nothing if not effective however in incapacitating the pegasi with unknown and different fighting styles. A guard would fight off a master of eloquent swordplay only to be paralyzed by a pressure point barrage from a robed martial arts master. The royal forces were finally regrouping in the air, away from the melee fighters and launching practiced waves of crossbow bolts back at the humans. When the first few fired and transitioned to reloading, the other ones would fire. It was starting to push the bipedal apes back when the giant made of some unknown metal sent another massive fist at the formation. They all managed to fly out of its path this time.

“Focus on that thing and look for a weak spot!” Fallen Angel ordered while pointing with an armored hoof at the Golem.

Like a swarm of hornets the flying ponies dodged this way and that while firing a continuous barrage of projectiles at the golem. It didn’t return the attack this time with its fists, seeming to stand down for no reason. Had they focused less on shooting it and more on its face they would have seen the golden glow increase in its eye sockets. A buzzing sounded right before a field of electricity effectively knocked out nearly every Pegasus left.

One lucky son-of-a-gun hadn’t been in range of the fierce blast and was now attempting to wrassle the metal sucker down with a chock hold. The Golem swiveled its head effortlessly to better see its assaulter. It raised a hand and flicked the admittedly brave colt with its thumb and middle finger. The pegasis went flying not of his own desire into the side of a house with a solid crash. Maybe not so lucky.

The sergeant scowled. Horse apples! I’m the only one left. Sorry, Your Majesty. Looks like I wont be reporting back in. The sergeant landed and prepared to make his last stand a memorable one.

The human crusaders wearing the heaviest armor surrounded the lone colt, victorious grins already showing. The Adamantine Golem blotted out the sun as it loomed just behind them, ready to halt any escape attempts.

“I’ll make you regret invading Equestria!” taunted Fallen Angel.

“I think not,” said a gravely voice.

The pony sergeant attempted to turn around and shoot the possessor of the voice. He was stopped and felt his throat close up. He was being choked by an even uglier one of the hairless apes.

“Give up and I’ll be merciful,” it offered. Fallen Angel instead opted to spit in the monsters eye. “Arg!” the dead looking creature wiped his eye with his good hand, now holding the fully armored war horse with the skeletal one. The sergeant thought that would allow him enough freedom to break the leader’s hold on his throat, but somehow the grip didn’t lessen in the slightest. “You’re loyal to the crown. I can respect that.” The human had misinterpreted his feeble attempt to break his grasp for sheer defiance. A tiny smile developed on the mans mouth but there was no humor to it. “Would you look at that?” a feeling of dread began forming in the pit of Fallen Angel’s stomach. “There’s something on your face,” Illitheous’ ring’s ruby and black stone mixed colors as his hand, still holding the soldier by the throat, ignited. The war horses body twitched and shuddered uncontrollably with red lave esqe lines developing over it. Fallen Angel tried to scream, for the torturous pain was worse then anything he had ever experienced, yet he couldn’t get his mouth to move right. He started foaming there now too. Followed by that was the fiery red glowing of his eyes. He continued for another minute as his soul was torched along with his body.

Illitheous finished his earlier dialogue “It was DEATH.” He unceremoniously let go of the colt. The body hit the cobblestones with a sickening wet thwack and the clang of now blackened armor. Illitheous put his still burning skeletal hand up to his neck as he jerked his cranium close to his shoulder with an unhealthy sounding *CRACK* of neck vertebrae.

Fallen Angel had been right about one thing. His last stand had been memorable.

No More Gods

Twenty minutes later the other royal soldiers had been gathered and restrained with the same binding spell the villagers had on them in addition to being sent into an arcane cage emitting from a sigil that had been permanently stamped into a stone tablet. They were also in a copy of the pit the other villagers were still trapped in both of which were hidden in remote area just outside of town near an old stone bridge. The cage would forcibly push them back whenever one of them got to close to edges. The guards’ bodies were battered, bruised, and broken. Spectacularly enough not a one of them had died. Only the sergeant who had spit directly in the eye of the human ringleader had been killed. Such was either due to luck, which was not what the current circumstances would imply, or due to the superior skill of the human invaders. History books would later suggest the latter. The soldiers had their armor removed and were currently feeling a mix of emotions; anger at the humans for invading and themselves for failing, sadness for the loss of Sergeant Fallen Angel and fear at what would happen next. None had been assigned by Illitheous to watch them seeing as how they were readying for the next siege that would likely come. The cage, pit, and magic and movement canceling binding were deemed security enough.

Many yards, away standing straight with his arms at his sides, Gua (the axe fighter who had previously been partnered with the young mage Terran) was reporting the Crusaders of Fire’s condition to his undead leader. They were speaking privately outside at the base of a tall clock tower. “The mages capable of healing have already cured the few injured during the battle and our flag has been placed where you ordered my lord. The Golem received no damage and the town is ours. All as you predicted.”

“Very good, that was likely a test force of her faster traveling troops to see if she could destroy us easily. She may even be heading the next, real assault, herself. Keep the others ready to retaliate,” said Illitheous. Gua was turning to leave when his harbinger briefly stopped him. “And Gua…good job. Tell the others I was proud to fight by their sides.”

Gua tried to think of something to say. Illitheous almost never gave praise. That he did so now meant he was truly pleased with them. “Uh, yes my lord. Thank you. I’ll be sure to tell them.”

Illitheous shifted back to his introspective state, hands held together behind his back. This skirmish had gone exceptionally well. Perhaps Celestia would even come to them. That would certainly make things faster. Those forces left at the capitol would only retain the less powerful Luna to aid them. He was getting ahead of himself now. First he had to repel follow up assault. The battle with either of the alicorn demi-gods would also be difficult, even for him. Still, he knew he was in the right and he trusted his men to carry on the spirit of the Empire of the Black Dragon once it was as it should be.

Men will fight to choose their own destinies but I will guide them to the right one.

The flag with the solar cross sat atop the former city hall, majestically blowing as another thermal blew by. It was a wind powered by royal and ancient magic.

_____________________________________________________________________________

The Princesses of Equestria along with the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, which they now wore, were sitting close together on the overloaded chariot of the Sun Goddess. It was going really fast but it still wasn’t fast enough for anyone riding in it. There was no such thing as ‘too soon’. The longer they waited to get there, the more trouble the humans might have caused. Around the ornate golden chariot (which was powered by Celestia’s magic instead of a pegasus) many other Royal Guards flew in tandem with her. They were almost the entire Equestrian Army. Only the ones that were still stationed at other towns to far away like Stallion Grad and a single garrison at the royal castle were not present. The sun was starting to go down now, but it wouldn’t actually start setting for a couple more hours.

Seeing as how the chariot was crowded as it was, when Pinkie Pie burst at the top of the group shouting “There it is! Ponyville!” she nearly shoved Princess Luna, who was the closest to the back, right off the edge.

“Pinkie Pie! We kindly request that thou never dost that again.” Luna said while climbing back over the side of the chariot. Sure she could fly if she fell but it was always terrifying to fall unexpectedly off anywhere this high up.

“Sorry Lu-Lu. I’m just excited that we’re finally here.” The pink pony said.

Both Celestia and Luna blanched for a moment. That wasn’t a good idea for princess Celestia to do as the sudden lack of concentration and magic made the chariot start to tip downward.

“Princess!!!” Twilight screamed in fright.

Celestia looked back at the chariot she no longer channeled magic into and the land below that seemed to be replacing the sky. “OH! Yes of course. My apologies.”

“Pinkie…how dost thou knowist about our sister’s fillyhood nickname for us?” Luna asked.

Pinkie Pie just smiled as she looked at the younger of the two princesses, still trying to keep her mouth from catching flies. “I don’t know. How do youuuuuuu,” she touched Luna’s snout with a hoof that made an audible honking noise. “get more fans then Celestia when you’ve only been in three episodes ever.”

Luna blanched again, this time in confusion instead of shock. “Sayeth what?”

“INCOMIIIIING!!!” shouted a particularly big guard that went by the name Heavy Weapons when off duty, or just Heavy for short. They all held on for dear life as fire balls, arrows, and other assorted offensive magic whizzed passed them. Celestia did her best to dodge the various lethal projectiles. She knew she needed to land or they would be nothing but a moving golden target. She sped the transport down as fast as she could, dodging along the way. It would have been good fun if not for the whole mess up and you die part. She thought she spotted a foreign flag as she raced past but didn’t really have time to look.

The chariot landed with a not-so-gentle thud. A big cloud of dust came to greet them, getting to know each of their lungs on a more personal level. The equines lungs didn’t feel like playing with their new dust buddy however so they pushed out as much air as possible to regain some of their personal space. The other guards landed more gently around them after the group’s coughing fit was over.

Celestia was the first to recover and looked around. They had touched down next to the mayor’s office. She noticed the fearsome looking group of humans charging at her and the others. The guard closest to her asked urgently, “What are you orders Princess?” She thought for a second before recalling one of the books in her study that had mentioned a symbol the humans sometimes used for peace and to parlay. She didn’t want to have any of her subjects get hurt if there was no need for it.

“Ah Ha! It was an olive branch symbol!” Celestia realized. She immediately called forth on her inner reserve of magica and channeled in into her horn. The result was a grand fire works display in the air above them that made the symbol.

The wall of deadly human forces slowed to a halt as they neared. They had clearly seen the symbol. Unsure expressions were had by all until a sequence of crashing footsteps echoed from behind the humans. They parted to each side of the road and crossed their arms together as it neared. The royal guards were speechless (more so then usual) with their mouths hanging open as if Celestia had spontaneously disintegrated in front of them.

We have to fight THAT THING?! was all of their thoughts in a nutshell. Then just behind it came something else. It was only half the height of the metal monstrosity but it was just as intimidating (well almost anyway) it looked unbelievably strong and none of the royal forces wanted to get better acquainted with those mandibles any time soon as the Umber Hulk neared. The princesses were both silently impressed at the show of power but made sure to both keep their princess poker faces on. Thousands of years of ruling a country without parents to help tended to necessitate that skill. Twilight Sparkle and the others also did their best to keep straight faces.

Perched on the Golem’s shoulder was Illitheous, one hand placed on the golem’s head for stability. “I’m surprised,” he said before being lowered to the ground on the golem’s flat palm. “You bothered to learn the old human symbol for peace. I have to tell you though humanity doesn’t use that symbol any more. Your texts are out of date Majesty.” Illitheous explained as he confidently walked up to the leaders and heroines of Equestria. “Those six behind you must be the famous Elements of Harmony. I take it the last ones who used it are long dead right? Oh but YOUR still here so the deaths of others doesn’t matter. Tell me, how many died to stop The Darkness from escaping your top security vaults a few thousand years back. Couple hundred? Bah I’m sure you don’t recall. What about Discord? I suppose unfairly harsh punishment methods runs in the family huh? Oh and little Luna don’t think I forgot about you. Don’t give me that dirty look.”

Luna had only lost her blank expression of neutrality for a barely perceptible instant. She was surprised he had noticed it. But the real question that was knawing at her since was what the hay the metal…thing was that stood behind the human. She dared a question even though a voice in the back of her head was telling her to let Celestia do the talking and to at least stay on topic.

Oh who cared? Questions were meant to be asked. “By chance human, would thou care to explain what that metallic entity behind thee is?”

The smug look on the undead man’s face turned to one of surprise. He raised an eyebrow as he looked back to the construct. “Why, this is the Black Dragon Adamantine Golem little Luna.” Luna couldn’t stop a frown at the unwarranted nick name he used for her. “It was a gift to the Empire from the Dwarves. As a token of good will. It’s an artificial life form made almost entirely out of adamantine as the name suggests.”

The Princesses and Twilight inwardly gasped. Adamantine was easily one of the all time rarest metals in the known world and it was nearly impervious to anything. A prospector who found even a bit of it the size of grape would be living the highlife in Canterlot in a four story mansion. How did they even find a quarter of the metal required to make this Golem as the human called it.

“The dwarves only had about a hundred or so of these and the gesture was not lost on our Emperor at the time. This incredible piece of machinery doesn’t need sleep. It doesn’t eat. It doesn’t complain about suicidal orders. It follows those orders to the letter and it’s smart enough to face any situation thanks to the fragment of a soul it possesses.” Illitheous continued, his arms now crossed as he did so. “It was stored in a secret location and forgotten after your manipulative Mother…”

Celestia’s unrevealing expressing faltered as the eye not covered by her beautiful mane now twitched a little. This was going to be a really short negotiation if this human kept up the increasingly painful insults.

She stopped him by cleared her throat. “As Princess of Equestria I command you to cease your hostile actions so we may resolve this peacefully,” said Celestia.

“No,” stated humanity’s remnants in unified defiance.

Celestia’s usually unrevealing façade fell to surprise at this. She had hoped they would at least listen to what she had to say. She considered herself a just and kind ruler and when asking requests of her subjects (no matter who they were) she always both made her request reasonable and even refusable if the other pony had good reason or was gracious about the refusal. This however was pure defiance and she couldn’t just let them hurt anypony and terrorize the town at their leisure.

“What did you say?” asked Celestia with both shock and a hint of irritation.

The other ponies, including the royal guards and Princess Luna, looked back and forth between the equine and the primate in worry. Things could go sour very quickly right now. It had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the humans.

Illitheous repeated himself, “We said, Your Majesty,” his tone was dripping with acid at that word, “NO.”

The main six looked nervously at the Sun Princess. These creatures and their leader had just flat-out refused, and insulted by proxy, someone who was for all intents and purposes a goddess to them.

“What’s the matter, Your Majesty?” There was that word again. “Have you never had someone besides the occasional monster or fellow demi-god not do every little thing you wanted before?” He raised his arms in a mock gesture of surrender, further taunting her. Illitheous loved every minute of this. Millennia of dreaming of standing up to this unjust dictator were becoming reality before his very eyes. She would not stop him, COULD not stop him, from achieving his justice. His followers grew more confidant as their bold leader continued to verbally abuse what they had heard was one of two daughters of minor gods. Illitheous paced from side to side as he continued to speak.

“Well, WE say ‘NO!’ We won’t be doing anything you say nor will we be leaving or having your little ‘Peace Talks’. We mortal men defy you and everything you stand for! You can’t stop us! YOU CAN’T STOP JUSTICE!!!” He paused briefly then took a few steps closer to Celestia, who by now was both angry and saddened at the turn of events

“Now destroy me.”

“What?!” all ponies said together at once including Celestia.

“You heard me. I’ll give you one free shot. Kill me. End it all now before your country is damaged beyond measure. I dare you!” Illitheous continued with a sick grin on his face.

Celestia didn’t move. She was torn between striking down this clearly insane man at the cost of her ethics and being forced to find another method that didn’t involve murdering another living being, even one so clearly enveloped in dark magic and hatred.

“Go on…live up to your legacy.” That sick grin dominated Illitheous face.

Celestia stood as still as a stone. Illitheous turned around and walked back to his loyal comrades and the monsters of war they brought. “See my fellow Crusaders? Not only is she selfish and entitled to everything as I told you, but she is too weak to strike me down in front of her subjects lest she lose their loyalty. Even she doubts the strength of her rule!”

That wasn’t it at all! Princess Celestia thought.

The unnatural entity that had once been a normal man walked back to his followers. He spoke at normal tone once more as he gave his orders. “Alright now, most of you go capture the soldiers and deal with the Lunar Princess in whatever way you deem fit. I want our Adamantine Golem and the Umber Hulk to assist me with the princess of the sun. Terran, Gua, White Strike, Dails Assent, Kiera, and Sheeva…as for the Princesses pets...kill them.”

(REWRITE) Bringing Down the Sky

Author's Note: I have, due to some valid points made, rewritten this chapter. What the happens and the end results are the same as before but HOW it happens is different. The exceptions are Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Sooo...yeah. Also many thanks to Book Smart for Editing this and soon the other chapters too. Enjoy.

The fighting began. Six of humanity’s best Crusaders of Fire vs. Equestria’s Elements of Harmony with the undead abomination and his relics of destruction vs. the ‘holier than thou’ minor goddess of the sun. Each of them were facing their opponents, sizing them up, while Luna got stuck with the rest. At least she had the Equestrian military to back her up so she’d be fine…probably.

Applejack had hoped for a peaceful solution to this mess but wasn’t in the least bit surprised when the two legged creature hadn’t cooperated. Now here she was, facing off against one of them who had orders to tuck her in for a dirt nap. She saw that this one (the one Illitheous had referred to as White Strike) wasn’t a magician. He wore only a red and orange pair of slacks that were elastic at the ends near the ankles; no shoes either, unlike the others. His body was incredibly toned and muscled, even more so than Big Macintosh. Scars were scattered across his body. He had no visible hair, even on his head. Applejack could already tell that she was in for a fierce tussle. White Strike readied into a defensive stance while thinking, I will not fail my master.

“I will honor you with the first move,” He offered.

Applejack felt a competitive smirk grace her lips. “That’s mighty sportin’ of ya’ll, under the circumstances.”

“I have no vendetta with you personally. I simply do as Master Illitheous commands so that we may have a home once more.” White Strike said.

“If’n ya’ll are tryin’ to make me go on a guilt trip, it ain’t gonna work.” AJ replied.

“I believe its still your move.” The unarmed man emotionlessly stated.

The orange mare could feel herself sweating nervously while thinking of how to approach this guy.

Oh buck it!

Applejack charged head on with the intention of tackling this bad guy down quickly. White Strike’s body moved like water as he shifted his weight, pushed her forward and tripped one of her back legs all in one fluid motion. Applejack grunted as she crashed muzzle first into the dirt and cobblestone road. She pushed herself up and looked back at the martial artist. He was finishing a windmill motion of his arms then returned to a defensive stance. He put his arm out and moved his fingers in such a way that communicated “try again”.

The farm pony and Element of Honesty felt a blush of humiliation blossom on her cheeks. She galloped up to him, slower this time, and gave a buck aimed at his chest. She was much stronger then she been a month ago and the wind whooshed away from the strength behind the double backward kick. Unfortunately the buck missed by a wide margin as the warrior arched his spine backwards while still keeping his footing. He hastily ducked under her follow-up kick and launched an onslaught of his own. Two double fingered jabs hit Applejack in the right back leg followed by an iron solid punch to the exposed belly, causing her to tumble away. The punch hit harder than Rainbow Dash crashing though her barn. The earth pony resisted the urge to revisit her lunch. She moved to try a different attack but found herself falling instead. She looked to see what had caused it. Nothing seemed wrong. The mare tried to get back up but only fell again.

“What the hay?” she complained.

The scarred martial artist moved closer while explaining Applejack’s sudden impairment. “Do you know why they call me White Strike? They call me that because, unlike the other warriors who draw blood or cause bruising with their weapons, I strike at your nerves leaving a clean kill.” He was uncomfortably close to AJ who was still struggling to stand up properly. “That numbness in your rear leg is because I have severed its connection to the rest of your body and spirit. Now we will see how well you can fight with only three legs instead of four.”

This is real bad!

Twilight Sparkle was ready for the human in front of her. She had gathered from what little she could gleam from fragmented reports and findings that humans were a creative and aggressive lot with a special talent for holding grudges. Supposedly they could be peaceful and cooperative but the odds of that being the case with this group had been a long shot at best. The human, or Homo Sapien if you wanted to get technical, before her was called Terran if Twilight’s memory was correct.

He had short black hair on his head and face and he wore a lightweight robe of red with gold trimmings. He was younger then the others as far as Twilight could tell. Being the talented unicorn that she was, she immediately was aware of the aura of various magical energies swirling invisibly around him. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he was a very talented wizard, not unlike her. Terran had the same impression surge through his thoughts, though the purple unicorn only had one class of magical aura about her, a maelstrom of astral energy.

I can’t disappoint Master Illitheous. I’ll make him proud, Terran thought.

Twilight Sparkle took one last shot at diplomacy. “Do you and I really have to fight? Are you absolutely positive we can’t just work this misunderstanding out by talking? I’m sure we could come to SOME sort of agreement, don’t you think?” Twilight pleaded with a puppy eyed expression. She really hated how this was all playing out. There needed to be more logic and less passion right now. From what she read humans weren’t like trolls or hydras. They could be reasoned with like anypony.

The young human prodigy sighed. “I’m sorry but… I promised our master that I would do whatever it takes to get a better home free of problems like the one your princesses’ mother forced ours to.”

“So you do have a home?” Twilight asked, still searching for the whole story.

The arcanist briefly looked down before saying “I wouldn’t exactly call it that. Home invokes a sense of security and belonging.” His fists balled up as he steadied his will. “No more will we be forced to live in a dying land. We will start anew by re-envisioning our old glory. That is his dream. That is why we follow Illitheous, and that is why if he gives me an order I’ll follow it. I know everything he does has good reason. Now fight or perish!” He punctuated that final sentence by shooting a beam of blue energy towards the purple mare.

She teleported out of the way at the last second. Twilight found that the teleport was much harder than it should have been. The beam made contact with a door to a house behind her, making it instantly shatter to pieces. The unicorn glanced back to see the spell’s effect. That spell had been a freeze spell, and a potent one at that. I’ll have to be careful. He’s just as talented as he felt and twice as deadly.

She dodged again, the normal way this time, as Terran conjured swords and hurled each at her with enough telekinetic force to make them almost seem a blur. Twilight proceeded to block the rest of the keen-edged projectiles with a greater force field spell. When Terran ran out of blades he mentally checked for another spell to cast. He took a second too long as Twilight cast a bolt of lightning. It was only so much that she was sure it would knock him unconscious. She didn’t want to really hurt him. The bolt made contact but he managed to absorb it with a steal magica ward in his hand.

He felt his magic return and cast a more powerful version of an incantation called Orbs of Acidic Destruction. His eyes quickly flashed as he performed the proper mental exercise and tapped into his reserves of mystical energy. The dangerously talented youth held high his arms as five floating green spheres congealed out of the air to surround Twilight. It was a spell she had never seen before. The mare wisely enveloped herself in two layers of protection. One was a personal ward of magic canceling that cast her body in a reflective white. The second was a bubble shaped force field that would hopefully halt the orbs. Terran swung one arm down. One of the green balls of disintegrating acid dived at poor Twilight, leaving behind a ghostly green trail in the air behind it. Although the wards protected her greatly they didn’t keep her entirely safe. The human continued to swing his arms and the globs of acid were now hitting her like a like an angry swarm of hornets. The outer barrier shattered like glass. Now her second defense was beginning to weaken under the merciless assault. The orbs now started to leave the occasional gooey burn mark as she strained to keep up the ward. She couldn’t concentrate enough to cast a counter spell and her mana was draining with each hit. This is bad.

Rarity wasn’t entirely sure she could fight this drab bohemian and win. Her training for this face off had been far too hard for her liking, but with Twilight’s encouragement and patient help the fashionista had managed to learn many different illusions. It had been tough getting her to adapt her magic talent from making dresses to creating false sensation to the senses and mind, but it had been the only school she could learn in a sufficiently short time. At least now she wouldn’t be helpless. Her human foe was dressed head to hoof, er, foot, in gray robes that had cuts in certain spots to allow utterly unhindered movement. His face was hidden by a cowl and hood that could be removed to allow his face to be seen if he desired. He did have a rather fashionable gray cape, in Rarity’s opinion at least. The only skin exposed was the area around his eyes. Right now they were staring daggers at her that made her want to scold him for being so rude.

No words were spoken between these two. Rarity didn’t feel like conversing with such a mean looking creature that clearly had no taste in fashion or common courtesy; and the Nechronomancer had absolutely nothing to say to an enemy that would soon be under his command as an undead thrall.

He was standing across from her when he fluctuated like a mirage and disappeared. Rarity’s jaw almost dropped. Her eyes widened as she urgently looked to see where the dangerous thing had gone. Then a skeletal hoof burst from the road just in front of her. Rarity let out an ear piercing scream of fear. Spike had been right after all. It was a zombie pony! Worse still was the other five that dug their way out of the dirt after. Thankfully for her one of the few offensive spells she learned was specifically useful against any dark magic. Necromancy certainly counted. Unfortunately for her it could be used only twice a day before it needed to be recharged. She cast the ray of purifying light on the zombie pony closest to her. Its fiery eye sockets burned out and the remains crumbled to dust. The other zombies, although slow, used that time to get close to her. They closed in and took bloody bites out of her.

Then the Illusion of Rarity vanished. The spell canceled out from the physical interference. The zombies all scanned their surroundings. They discovered Rarity posing on her hind legs near one of the two story houses with a foreleg covering her mouth as she yawned. “Come now boys, is that all you’ve got? I’m disappointed.” Rarity said playfully. The undead shambled to her with surprising speed. Then Rarity gave a tiny little tap on the building. She had noticed, thanks to her amazing eye for detail, that it was missing a great deal of its foundation due to some earlier fighting. It creaked as it slowly began to lean. Its shadow blocked out the setting sun as it fell down on the horrid monsters. Their red eyes widened, one of them quietly muttering “Mother.”

*SPLAT*

The white and purple mare petitely giggled. “Oh was that me? I really must be more careful.”

As she finished speaking, a pair of big shale crafted hands sprouted from the ground and seized the poor fashionista. Only her head and neck were out of its clutches. The human nechronomancer shimmered into reality again.

“You should be more careful. An old lady like you shouldn’t be out alone. It could be deadly,” growled Dails Assent.

Rarity gasped deeply,”I, whaa…did you just call me OLD!?! I’ll show you old, you brute!”

The unicorn struggled valiantly against the shale formation holding her and even squeezed a couple inches out. Dails Assent’s gloved hands glowed florescent green before beams of that same unholy magic arced out and began sapping Rarity of all her energy and (unknown to her) quickly went to work ageing her. This is horrendous!

Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches with a smile. She looked over at the other standing across from her. It was the axe wielder who Illitheous called Gua. He currently wore an open faced helmet while his body was encumbered by leather armor. There was iron affixed to the spots that didn’t require mobility. He was fairly in shape but he seemed kind of old in Pinkie’s opinion. He had no facial hair, but he was more wrinkled than the others her friends had to deal with. In his gauntleted hands rested two identical pristine battle axes. The head of each was forged from rare blue steel, named so from the special creation process that used bits of silver and malachite, which formed an icy blue metal. They were single edged and a diamond shaped cut-out in the head to allow faster swings from reduced weight. The grips were made of pinewood with a brace of common iron zigzagging down it to resist war related breakage. A single sapphire was set in the base of the grips. He had each axe raised forward and to the sides in preparation for the duel.

“Whenever you’re ready kid,” Gua calmly stated.

Pinkie just kept smiling before saying “Okey-Dokey-Loki Gua!”

Gua was taken ever so slightly of guard by that. How did she know about the Old God of mischief? That religion was long dead after some un-seen Ragnarok and it was strictly very old human knowledge. The small equine in front of him should not have known about. The veteran axe wielder benched his curiosity about that though in order to clear something else up.

He was still in an offensive posture as he spoke “Look kid; don’t call me by my name. We’re mortal enemies and it’ll be easier for us both if we regard each other as such. You’re no fighter I see so I’ll try to make you passing quick, alright.”

Pinkie Pie motioned with a hoof as she talked “Aw. We could still be friends. You don’t have to have to be a big old meanie pants just because that scary guy told you to. I’m good at these things and I can tell you’re actually really nice.”

Gua lowered his weapons and raised an eyebrow in trade. “How old are you kid?”

The party pony turned her head and closed her eyes as she made a shooing gesture with her hoof. “That’s not important. But what is, is that you be my friend so we can get past the conflict of the story and go straight to the party I’m going to throw at the conclusion. There’ll be caaaake,” she said those last three words in a particularly happy sing-song tone. Her head and outstretched neck popped up behind Gua’s shoulder after he’d blinked. “And streamers too! It’s not a party without streamers!” she continued.

By the maker how did she get there?! Shouldn’t have dropped my guard. She tricked me before launching an attack. Won’t happen twice, thought Gua.

The pair of family axes of his was swung as fast as the man’s muscles could muster but the mare had already moved to a different spot now.

“I was so not tricking you. I really really mean it!” She said.

A yelp escaped Gua. She was a teleporting, mind reading, witch of some kind.

“You know mister monkey man I’m not actually a mind reader. I was just reading along with the story, see? I’m just your friendly neighborhood Spider M-uh Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie said while pointing in a seemingly random direction.

The axe wielder wasn’t looking that way though. He had been fooled by her supposedly harmless nature once. It would not happen again. He swung his family axes with deadly accuracy, but she was already to his right. The air she had previously occupied was all that made contact with the heavy blades. Pinkie had a sad pout with large watery eyes. Gua had a frustrated scowl with sweat causing his face to reflect the waning sunlight. Gua made sure his fluid and powerful swings didn’t use all of his energy. He now was wise to her out of sight teleportation trick, but no matter how focused on maintaining eye contact he was…no matter how much he tried to keep her in the contact zone of his weapons…he just, kept, missing. He yelled his frustration between swings.

“Why”

Swing,

“Cant”

Swing

“I”

Swing

“Hit You!?”

Swing

Pinkie maintained her masterful avoidance of his attacks while shouting back.

“Because”

Miss

“The author”

Miss

“Won’t”

Miss

“Let you!”

Miss

The axe wielder’s weapons crashed down into the ground after that last swing but the pink pony had shifted again, this time to a doorway that led into somepony’s house. Gua saw her go in and was rushing to the doorway. Pinkie realized her mistake when she found the house had no back door to escape through. She was trapped like a cat in a big red hat. This wasn’t how I planned this at all.

Fluttershy was shaking like a pony possessed she was so intimidated. Her knees were like jello. The pitter patter of her frightened little heart threatened to bust out of her chest.

Oh what do I do? The little pony thought. Ok Fluttershy just remember what Rainbow Dash taught you. Size up the competition and look for a weak spot. If you don’t find one just charge head on and give it your best. She forced herself to look over the human standing across from her. She’s so big though.

On the cobblestone and dirt road across from her was the archer who went by Sheeva. She was tall, lithe woman dressed in chainmail armor. Her well tanned skin complemented her shoulder length black hair. She had a better complexion then most of the other martial fighters in the human troop, but not clearer than the mages who never put themselves at any significant risk of injury if they didn’t absolutely have to. An old, well healed scar was etched horizontally across her cheek. Her beautiful emerald eyes showed concern even if the rest of her didn’t. The archer’s hands were sweating.

I can’t displease Illitheous. She mentally stated.

Sheeva knew the race of intelligent horse beasts were supposed to be powerful, magic wielding, usurpers. She had seen the point of imprisoning the villagers. They would have run and gotten a more adequate force of those golden plated wearing pegasi before they were ready. Her leader could have ordered their execution, but he had been merciful; instead choosing to imprison them. Not only that, but he had ordered none of the prisoners hurt as they “Did not choose this war even though they deserve it.” In fact, it occurred to Sheeva that the only two ponies who had been truly hurt were the red one who had the nerve to attack Sheeva’s commander on sight and the enemy sergeant who spat in his face. All that had made sense. Slaying the absolutely terrified yellow pegasus, who didn’t even wield a weapon just felt utterly inhumane.

Sheeva opened her mouth to break the tension, at least a little. “Uh,” was all she uttered when the most cuddly, unimaginable, adorably, heart-stoppingly, cute series of squeaks emitted from the necklace wearing pony like the singing of angels (and in Ponyville they say that Sheeva’s medium sized heart grew three sizes that day).

Fluttershy had been attempting to muster the courage to say she wouldn’t let anypony hurt her friends but when the scary human had said something she couldn’t halt the squeaks. It was an embarrassing reflex of hers when meeting somepony new and startling. Fluttershy hid behind her mane, still shivering in fear. Sheeva slowly reached for the bow on her shoulder. Fluttershy was so scared she couldn’t move. All she could do was close her teary eyes and hope her friends could forgive her weakness. A second passed and she wondered if she was already in pony heaven as she was lovingly embraced by somepony. She opened one eye to see who was hugging her and was surprised to see it was the human.

Fluttershy was startled at first. She let out a quiet “eep” which only made Sheeva hug harder. The Element of Kindness soon returned the hug when she realized it was sincere. Human and pony discarded differences in a display of pure friendship. Too bad everyone around them was too busy fighting to take notice.

Sheeva quietly told Fluttershy “I’m sorry for the situation we’re all in.”

Fluttershy whispered back “I’m sorry we didn’t try harder to be friends.”

They still hugged as the sounds of battle and the occasional magic induced explosion surrounded them. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide with concern as a line of thought occurred to her. “You’re not going to be punished for not attacking me are you?!”

The caring mare placed her hooves on the woman’s shoulders and was at arms length now. Sheeva’s expression was one of resignation. Fluttershy’s was one of serious concern.

“Probably will actually,” Sheeva sadly stated.

Oh No! How awful!

Rainbow Dash hovered just off the ground. She looked at her adversary with a suspicious glare. The sword master Kiera offered the same glare. While Rainbow Dash readied herself Kiera mentally checked her equipment like she always did right before battle.

Full body heavy drake scale armor? Check

Absence of helm to allow best possible field of vision? Check

Diamond edged katana? Check

Uniquely crafted disorientation bombs for rendering the enemy helpless? Check

First aid if hurt? Check.

The essentials were all accounted for. Only amateurs entered a conflict unprepared. And back at the human’s forced home, amateurs tended not to live long.

I shall never lose. Illitheous needs me to win no matter what! The expert dualist thought.

The human and pony stared each other down. Both blond and Technicolor hair stuck closely to skulls from the tense sweat seeping out of their pores. The setting sun was lighting the sky red to their side. It was a scene straight out of a tale of samurai. In characteristic haste Dash was the first to act. She stopped hovering and dropped to the ground. Then, with her best war face on, used her wings, legs and inner pegasus magic in conjunction to charge at the sword master.

In a feat of practiced precision Kiera used the gauntleted hand she had been holding onto the scabbard with and flicked the blade out a few centimeters. Then, faster then the eye could see, moved her right arm and drew the gleaming blade out to slash at her charging target.

Rainbow has nothing if not fast reflexes though. Her brain took immediate control as it registered a dangerous obstacle. It ordered the muscles in her wings to veer her to the left. The human had predicted this fight would end as quickly as it began. She was dismayed as her rainbow-maned foe actually managed to avoid the cut in time. Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt and turned around. Kiera, likewise, turned with her blade still drawn. She had a frown as the counterpart to Rainbow Dash’s smug grin.

She put a hoof to her chest while saying, “Hah! Not a scratch on me! Maybe you should give up now and save yourself the embarrassment of losing to me.”

After Rainbow finished her sentence, the very tip of her mane fell cleanly off her head from the cut it had suffered. Her expression changed to a wide eyed stare as she looked down to the piece of cut hair, then back to Kiera, then back at her hair, then back again to Kiera.

The katana wielding warrior only smiled, then said, “You were saying?”

Rainbow frowned. “Fine. You wanna do this the hard way? We’ll do this the hard way!”

“Age before beauty,” Jeered Kiera.

This time the blue pegasus started flying in circles around her opponent as fast as she could instead of charging head on.

Gotta keep my distance from that sword of hers, thought Rainbow Dash.

Kiera slashed whenever RD lessened the distance between them a little, but she wouldn’t be making a cut anytime soon at this rate. Dash was just too fast. Kiera noticed the dust was beginning to kick up and encircle her. The wind was getting more and more difficult to resist even with the added weight of her armor.

Rainbow accelerated further. “You know what I call this one?”

The human female didn’t reply seeing as she was too busy covering her face and trying keep from being blown about like a rag doll. Before she knew it she was no longer able to resist.

“The Rainbow Whirlwind!” Dash said.

Kiera kept ascending into the sky. She went so high she could just peer over the rooftops. She realized that by the time the rainbow colored tornado the pony had made stopped, the landing would probably break a lot of bones, even with armor.

The attack had an exploitable flaw though. The mare had to keep circling her ‘til they were high enough. Kiera pulled three small ceramic balls from a pouch and tossed them out into the surrounding gale. She covered her face as they easily shattered, releasing black smoke. RD stopped and they both plummeted. Rainbow was coughing and her eyes were blinded with tears. The pair landed with the smack of flesh and the clatter of metal.

Can’t breath *COUGH* or think straight. The pegasus was curled into a ball and continued coughing in pain. Through her tear-clouded vision she saw the Duelist move toward her.

Aww crud. This isn’t good.

Just when the battles of the element bearers seemed at a forgone conclusion, the Elements of Harmony softly pulsed once, flooding their minds with images of their past accomplishments, both big and small. The mysterious artifacts knew they were needed now more then ever. They inspired their wielders all in their own ways about how to resolve their present predicaments and increased there innate powers tenfold!

Applejack’s body started to glow an incandescent orange and her eyes turned pure green with the splendor one would find in the middle of a spring meadow. She looked down at her bad leg and carefully placed one of her hooves on it. Then she hammered down on the exact spot where she had been hit by the human’s nerve strike. She let out a groan of pain but otherwise didn’t show how painful what she had done had been. With all four legs working again she picked herself back up. Honest confidence now replacing her expression of despair.

The human’s eye’s widened but otherwise he kept a black expression.

“You’re able to stand. That is impressive; but can you fight?” queried the human.

“I’ll do whatever needs doin’ to help those Ah care about! No matter what the hardship! And right now that means beatin’ YOU!” proclaimed Applejack, the magic power within her making her voice echo with each word.

The martial artist scowled. “You think you can?”

“Ah KNOW Ah can, because I got somethin’ you ain’t.”

“And what is that?”

“Ah got the right on my side.”

The human let out a chuckle. “Our grand master Illitheous would have to disagree with you on that.”

“Don’t matter what he THINKS. I can see now that while ya’ll have gone through tough times I also see that what your doin’ now ain’t the right way to go about this. I can tell you won’t stop peacefully, so I’ll just have to buck ya into next week to stop ya, and that’s the honest truth.”

White Strike scowled again, adopting an aggressive stance. “We’ll see what the fates have to say to that.” This time the human charged instead of waiting for AJ to advance. She was entirely calm and still. She heard the footfalls on stone and earth. She smelled the aroma of sweat and anger he gave off. She felt the wind blowing through her mane.

She saw the opening in his attack.

His center of balance was too high right then, leaving his lower body unstable. AJ borrowed the martial artist’s earlier tactic and made it her own. As he got within striking distance the mare ducked low under his double two-fingered jabs and swiped at his ankles. As White Strike fell Applejack kicked him hard in the ribs and he went rolling away followed by a string of pained cursing. The earth pony’s strength was beyond its usual levels, and White Strike now had seven broken ribs along with numerous fractures. He barely managed to get back up before nearly doubling over in pain. He glared daggers at AJ while clutching his side.

The martial artist didn’t like the current situation. Now HE was the injured one and his opponent held the edge in this battle. He was shocked that the Equestrian had enough strength to actually force the chi flow back into working order. It was akin to popping one’s leg back into place. Ignoring his own pain, he moved closer to his enemy and attacked one again, keeping his guard up this time. An impressive display of jabs, kicks, dodges, bucks, and general hand to hoof combat followed. However, while the human finally began to tire the earth pony kept going. It was like she was tapping into an endless supply of energy from somewhere. The human thought this at the wrong moment when Applejack flung a hoof out at his head. Due to his distraction he failed to block in time and received a nose breaking punch to the face. White Strike found himself falling backwards. He now lay on his back while his vision began to blur. White Strike looked to see a beautiful, red-hued sky blocked out by a glowing orange Equestrian wearing a one of those “Elements of Harmony” artifacts he had heard Illitheous mention. That’s when White Strike realized how the mare had suddenly gotten so much more powerful. It was that Element of harmony. White Strike silently applauded his opponent’s skill and trickery while simultaneously shaking his head at the obvious reluctance to do what was necessary to end his threat permanently. She brought her hoof down and he waited to see what the next life would bring.

AJ knocked White Strike unconscious with her hoof. She saw the opportunity to end the danger he presented permanently and had even considered it for a second. She knew in her heart though that, if she had done that, it would haunt her and leave her no better then the blacked out fighter below her. She had done the right thing. She knew that her friends would too.

Rarity could feel the life draining away from her and her spirit weakening as black magic exuded from her foe. Suddenly, her necklace began glowing and her eyes changed to resemble beautiful blue marbles. Rarity had an idea that just might win the day. The human master of limited time spells and necromancy noticed the change in appearance but seeing as how the mare wasn’t escaping or doing anything other then struggling he paid it no mind. He could care less if his victim wanted to look pretty before she became his undead slave..

“You know sir,” her voice sounded shaky and with an odd echo to it but Rarity focused solely on using a subtle charm spell and her own persuasiveness to make her sound as utterly convincing as possible, “before you destroy me would you grant me one last request?”

The Nechronomancer continued the youth draining spell as he spoke, “and just what action could I possibly be persuaded to perform for an enemy who is mere dust by comparison?”

“Why, showing me a display of your superior magic of course. I’m just a novice, not even fit to use the wondrous art of magic. I see that now. But YOU are like an artist painting a masterpiece every time you cast a spell. One little display of your vast magical superiority is all I ask.” She put on her most persuasive puppy dog smile, though it was watered down by her many new wrinkles.

The Nechronomancer stopped his youth draining and puffed his chest out in pride. His already massive ego had been stroked and he was more than happy to show off his superiority a bit. “A little display of my abilities is all you ask? I will allow you the largest, most incredible display you will ever witness in you short life!” He turned his back on her and raised his arms into the air.

Green electricity exited from his fingertips and showed flashes in the air of places and entities both in and outside of time. Green tinted images of all kinds were shown. A great tentacled monstrosity in the vastness of space, two armies of men riding upon dragons, mushroom shaped balls of fire scorching the land, an entity made only of light and thought, all these things and more revealed themselves to the human. He had backed up a bit to allow more room to cast the admittedly impressive and eerie lightshow. Rarity had used that time to forcibly gather her mana provided by the glowing element around her neck and focus it into her horn.

Dails Assent ceased his sundering of time and slowly turned around with a smug grin to finish off his victim. He saw too late what was happening and he raised his hands up to stop it. He barely had time to bring up a small ward spell about the size of a shield to defend himself from the unexpected retaliation. Rarity’s horn shined like a lighthouse. The ray of light she had wielded against the zombie ponies raced out of her ivory horn with many times the intensity it would usually contain. The spell of light simply flowed around the human’s flimsy protection ward and hit him with the fury of a woman scorned. He was blasted off his feet and onto the road unconscious, his robes singed.

“AHAH! NOPONY CALLS ME OLD!” the Element of Generosity cried jubilantly, her voice resembling the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Now I just have to go to the others and-“ Rarity’s face changed from triumphant to aggravated. She had forgotten one very important detail.

“Just as soon as I get out of these constrictive stone claws, that is.”

Fluttershy was hugging the human archer again when she started to glow like the others and an overwhelming, warm, happy feeling of kindness filled the shy little pegasus. Fluttershy realized that the Element was giving her courage and strength to defeat her foe, except she didn’t really need it. An idea lit up in her head like a lantern.

Maybe I can use this to help! she thought. “Wait, I know how to make it look like you decided to attack me and just lost instead of not fighting.”

Sheeva gave Fluttershy a befuddled look. “How exactly?”

“W-we fake it,” she explained.

“But that wont work. If I use my bow it could still accidently hit you. Besides I already told you I’ll receive the punishment I deserve for disobeying orders.”

“We won’t need to use the bow, if I just happen to knock it away.”

Sheeva caught on quickly. “And if I just happen to be too busy fighting with you to get it back.”

“Then you won’t get in trouble.” Fluttershy smiled happily at the thought of her not having to fight and the nice human not being punished for doing the right thing. Sheeva thought she could hear a faint “squee” when the shy pegasus grinned.

The human reached to her shoulder where the bow was, scaring Fluttershy in the process.

“W-what a-are you doing?” the canary yellow pony asked.

Sheeva held up a lightly armored leg and brought the comparatively brittle bow down hard.

*SNAP*

The broken bow dropped to the ground at Sheeva’s feet.

“Making it convincing.” Sheeva answered.

Fluttershy put her hooves to her mouth “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to have to break your belongings.”

“It’s fine. Now hurry! Before the others notice.”

Fluttershy puffed out her chest “All right. Let’s do this.”

What followed was a unique interpretation of the most epic slap fight in history!

Gua entered the dark house the pink menace had escaped to. He immediately noticed there was only one window near the entryway where he now stood. There was no back door to speak of.

Perfect. He thought before realizing something else. Wait a minute. Where’d she go?

The house was only two levels tall and consisted of three rooms on the ground floor. The dual axe fighter hadn’t seen her escape (assuming the quirky witch couldn’t traverse through solid walls) so she had to be hiding in here somewhere...or setting up an ambush.

The man’s footsteps made creaking sound as he put pressure on the old wood floor. The window was his only source of light. His common sense was tingling, telling him something bad was about to happen. Then he heard footsteps, no, HOOFsteps, along with stifled laughter coming from the room above him. Axes still in hand, he slowly, cautiously, moved to the bottom of the flight of stairs. It seemed unforgivingly dark and foreboding. No sound except for his own breathing stirred from the dark corners of the house. He made his way up the steps, wood creaking all the while, expecting the walls to crush him or for some unholy abomination to leap from the ceiling onto his back, but no such thing happened.

At the top of the stairs he saw only the darkness of the attic and a few beams of light making their way through some holes in the thatch roof. There was still no ambush and no sign of the pink Equestrian.

The aging veteran let out a sigh of relief and turned to leave. Guess she escaped after all. Don’t know what I was so worried about.

“SURPRISE!!!”

Gau screamed at the top of his lungs as lights came on and Pinkie Pie threw confetti in his face. He stumbled backward into the wall behind him. Unbeknownst to either of them it suffered from a severe case of termites. The warrior’s heavy armor and weapons worked against him. He tumbled through the weak excuse for a wall and crushed a cart on his way to meet the cobblestones. The helmet he had worn had been jostled loose in the fall. It knocked his head hard enough to force him to black out, despite the cushioning within.

Pinkie Pie looked through the hole in the wall at Gau, an expression of disappointment adorning her features.

“Aww,” she groaned. “I don’t think he liked the surprise.”

As the sword-master neared the prone pegasus something very surprising happened. Rainbow Dash was not only getting up, she was glowing with magic energy and bits of lightning crackled around her necklace. At first Kiera wondered if her knockout bombs had somehow misfired or if she didn’t pack enough of the irritation substance. Then the human saw Dash was opening tear filled eyes that now shined with an eerie incandescence. The winged pony was standing defiant through sheer determination and the considerable boon granted by the Element of Loyalty around her neck.

I won’t lose. I won’t let down my friends. I won’t! Rainbow Dash thought to herself.

She couldn’t rely on her eyes and she had some trouble breathing still, but her other senses worked fine. Her opponent had gone quiet in order to take advantage of her sightless condition but heavy plated armor, no matter what it was forged from, always made noise. That noise was picked up by Rainbow’s keen ears. Pegasi were known for having the best eyesight of the three races but their other senses weren’t exactly dull.

Kiera came at her fast and strong, but she was already flapping out of the way. About a foot off the ground she avoided the swift cuts from the human’s blade, narrowly dodging some of them by mere inches. The entire time Rainbow Dash had a small smirk with her eyes still closed. Growing tired of the deadly game of tag, she performed a few dives that were intended to mock and aggravate her opponent. She was using her unaffected sense of smell when flying higher up to get the gist of where Kiera was. The female stank. It was like the odor of a fully grown dragon.

Kiera was getting tired now. She had swung her sword and missed countless time and it was showing. Just like the other elements Rainbow Dash was being provided with a near limitless and admittedly unfair amount of energy. Not only that, but her inner pegasi powers were amplified to an extreme. Rainbow finally stopped foaling around and flew high into the air until she was out of sight to anything stuck on land. At first Kiera wondered if the cocky Equestrian had flown the coop. Another minute passed and nothing happened. Then, the human duelist observed a large, rainbow colored shockwave expand outward and throughout the sky. It was beautiful. It was so awe inspiring that Kiera almost failed to notice the tiny black dot moving at an impossible speed toward the ground. At first she thought it was bird. Then she noticed the rainbow trailing behind it and how it was not just heading for the ground but for her specifically. The human, not knowing how what else to do and wishing she knew defense magic, bolted for the cover of an old abandoned building.

“What the fu-.”

The booming explosion that followed demolished the entire building. A rainbow colored mushroom cloud hurled splintered lumber and the sword-master back several feet. She was lucky she hadn’t actually made it inside the building or she would have wound up as a red mist. Instead she only was tossed straight through another house, before bouncing on the ground a couple of time before finally coming to a stop. Rainbow Dash had flown as high as she possibly could before performing an enhanced sonic ground boom. She was satisfied with the amount of damage and she had inflicted to the human who wasn’t moving anymore. She was about to fly away and help the others, but hesitated when her nagging conscious made her think of her opponent. She sighed heavily and flew over to check and make sure the baddie was still breathing. After discovering she was and that she wasn’t too dinged up thanks to the metal plating, Rainbow flew off. With her glowing bright form and bright magically lit up eyes she flew away, leaving a magnificent trail behind her. She was determined not to let her friends down.

Twilight struggled to keep up her failing barrier as the acidic beating continued. Just when all hope seemed lost. Her title-sake element filled her with an extra burst of magic that was not possible for most magic users. Her eyes turned florescent white, and her body was covered in a blindingly bright white-lavender. Her barriers returned tenfold and disrupted Terran’s spell in the process.

“I’ll never let down my friends!” Twilight Sparkle’s voice was magnified, laced with the power given to her by the Element of Magic.

“And we will never give up!” Terran yelled back. His voice notably lacked the power and certainty of his purple counterpart.

His dark eyes shined with mystical energies as he cast his own spell. Twilight’s eyes shined bright lavender in a mirror image of magic power.

“Earthen Dread!” the young wizard bellowed.

The earth at Twilight’s hooves burst open like a flower bud. Jagged rocks and magma went for her with deadly earthen fury, yet they were no threat to the strength of the Element of Magic’s arcane defense.

Terran tried another spell.

With a series of hand gestures, ice enclosed the unicorn. Not a second later the ice shattered with the unicorn still unharmed inside her arcane barrier.

The human’s breathing was ragged. His magic was nearly depleted and he had used nearly all of his top spells. His most powerful spell would likely kill him if he cast it with such a low magic level. So instead he cast his next best spell in a desperate attempt to win.

“From coldest winter and burning fire let destruction rain with hate and ire!”

The unicorn looked up to see a mass of deadly energies. From the swirling elemental forces was shaped the head of a Dragon. Its scales formed an inferno. The eyes were an endless black void. Its teeth were of lightning. The air around it held all manner of smaller spells orbiting like the planets. It raced to her in order to perform its apocalyptic crescendo.

The Element of Magic’s powers only increased in the face of this unparalleled aggression.

“FOR EVERYONE I CARE ABOUT, I WILL NOT FAIL!!!”

The monster-of-a-spell’s jaws shut around Sparkle’s barrier like it was a gumball. The resulting eruption obliterated a smaller house that was too close to it, as well as the surrounding landscape.

Terran fell to his knees, his energy far past empty. He smiled in triumph until someone tapped his shoulder. He gazed to his left and saw that the purple unicorn was right next to him! Had she teleported?

But, I saw her get swallowed up by my attack. Terran thought to himself. He looked back to where the unicorn should have been. The dust started to finally clear away. There in the center of the magically created crater was what looked just like his opponent in the same force field. The image was an illusion however and started to fade away. Twilight had never even been there when his incantation had hit.

The tiara on her head finally stopped glowing and so too did its bearer. The mare looked at the human. She was both impressed and horrified at the magic she had just witnessed for herself. It was magic created solely for the sake of war. She noticed his eyes were beginning to glaze over.

Terran swore he saw not gloating or murderous victory in his opponent’s eyes, but worry for his wellbeing. Confused as to why, he drew a breath and gasped out, “I don’t understand. Why don’t you…ki…”

He blacked out and crumbled to the ground. Twilight stared at the human with pity for but a moment before the sound of the battle still going on brought her thoughts back to the present.

I have to help the others.

Holy Fire

Illitheous barely felt a breeze on his slowly decaying skin but he could feel the energies of the heavens whipping around his adversary.

“It’s been a long time coming Celestia,” he commented in a scratchy deep voice.

Celestia didn’t respond. She just stood there, her mane flowing, the turmoil of the fighting at her flank. From her view she saw only a shell of what once must have been a dedicated and caring person; now nothing more then a retainer full of hate and pain.

The sun had started to set behind him as it cast everything in a reddish glow. His two monsters of war were at his sides. All three of them were silhouetted against the setting sun. They seemed as shadows except for the Golem’s golden fire for eyes, the vague glow of the Umber’s nocturnal set of eyes, and Illitheous, whose ring glowed with hellish power and whose frowning teeth seemed unnaturally visible for her to see.

A few minutes passed.

It felt like eternity to both parties (although for completely opposite reasons). Finally, after some unseen queue, the metallic and carapace giants charged straight at Celestia, their footsteps leaving mini earthquakes and craters from their sudden momentum. The Umber Hulks maw and razor sharp mandibles drooling as it lunged. The Adamantine Construct broke the nearby windows not already shattered by earlier combat with the sheer air pressure its descending fist caused. A quick flash told both their efforts were wasted as they made their respective strikes.

Quickly looking around, they saw the alicorn had teleported to the top of a shop to their left, nearer the Golem. It reacted faster this time. It brought its adamantine palms together in a mighty clap. The princess was able to fly away from where its hands met but she was buffeted to the ground by the force it made. She rose, but the bug-eyed hulk had climbed like a monkey over the building separating the two, over a boulder and leaped once more toward Celestia. It snarled some kind of animal threat as it descended. The Princess flew easily as fast as the Element of Loyalty past the monster’s outstretched claws and clenching mandibles until she was behind its head.

The bug monstrosity had now landed. It kicked up more dirt as it did so. Celestia had already lined up a charged shot of heavenly fire. She wielded it with all the intensity one should expect from a princess of the sun. Her horn was bright yellow as it directed an inferno focused into a cone of the purest flame. The dull beast caught sight of this and moved to escape the fiery demise it would surly suffer if it stayed. It screamed a high-pitched insectoid screech of distress as its entire lower half was burned to a crisp. It was a stubborn thing though, just like the man it served under. It was using both pairs of arms to crawl away from the alicorn. The cauterized wound helped, of course, by stopping the bleeding. The exchange had only taken a couple minutes.

The living construct had finally moved past the row of dwellings that were just big enough to keep the Golem from simply stepping over them. It picked up a handful of nearby rubble that used to be part of a certain maroon colored teacher’s house and flung it at Princess Celestia. She easily dodged the improvised projectile, but the golem wasn’t out of junk to chuck just yet. It tossed another and she maneuvered out of its path. Another was thrown, another was dodged. Celestia was just about to unleash a powerful quicksand spell when the next clump of rubble flew by.

On it was perched none other then Illitheous, his ringed hand ablaze. Celestia was completely surprised at the unorthodox and reckless attack. Earlier he had ordered the Golem to hurtle the first few, not as a true attack, but as a feint of sorts so she would grow used to the deceptively simple strategy and ignore the one carrying the human. He leaped to get at the previously out of range aerial target.

“AHH!” she yelped in equal parts surprise and pain as Illitheous grabbed hold of her forelegs, his skeletal palm burning her. The minor goddess was naturally resistant to fire, but the man’s unholy source caused the hellfire to harm even the Princess of the Sun. He was heavier then he looked. Celestia struggled to keep both herself and the undesired passenger aloft. The look of determination to see her dead was crystal clear in the undead man’s eyes. It frightened even Celestia.

She had NEVER seen a gaze so angry, so unending in its ire before. She felt something she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time, Terror. Not the nervousness or unease she might usually feel at times, but unwavering terror like when she had known her mother was dying.

Celestia began to panic.

“Get off!” yelled the princess.

Illitheous moved the scorching hand up to where Celestia’s shoulder connected to her wing, causing more pain. She started kicking at his face with the one newly freed foreleg and his legs with her back pair. The back ones made several firm impacts. Illitheous’ own legs made squishing and cracking sounds, but his murderous expression never changed, never shifted from the all encompassing fury! The red sky made it all the more horrifying. It was an image that would undoubtedly never be forgotten by Tia. That was, if she survived to next nightfall. She presented a surprisingly good hit to his half-intact face, cracking the exposed jaw and neck portion.

His head went limp and Celestia thought she may have seriously injured him, but he slowly moved his head back to where it was before.

“You can’t stop me” he deadpanned while positioning his normal hand up to the base of her neck. The other was rising to her snout.

Tears were falling down her cheeks. Her voice lost its regal tone and rose to a girlier pitch.

“Leave us all ALONE!”

She used her nearly endless magic to engulf them both in a sphere of fire and plasma. Illitheous was not ready for that and cannoned to the streets below in a smoking heap of bones, flesh, and rags. Princess Celestia wasn’t without pain and her own trail of smoke, but it had been HER mana and a spell of her own making so the effect had been very limited on her.

Luna was still preoccupied, helping the currently losing royal forces against the humans to see if her sister was alright. Celestia touched down gently onto the street, breathing ragged. Was it over? The new crater Illitheous had smashed into seemed eerily calm. The Princess certainly hoped so. It wasn’t Celestia’s day apparently for she caught movement coming from the crater. The deathly figure’s bony hand reached up and out of it.

Celestia readied herself for the monster’s retribution. The extremity was still grasping at the sky when the ring switched colors completely. The blood red ruby now shined as if it were some blasphemous black and purple beacon. Fire slowly crept outward from the ring. It swirled along the charred, blackened claw. The fingers balled up into a fist. A burst of intense heat flared up from the blemish in the earth then died back down. Celestia repressed a shudder. The dark energy Illitheous constantly exuded had just tripled. She nervously shuffled her hooves. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself down to a manageable amount of anxiety.

Illitheous’ hand slammed down onto the bare earth. He clawed at it for purchase, leaving reddening, almost molten dirt at the pit’s edge. Where Tia had expected a cadaver of a man with midnight black hair and clothes to climb out, she instead laid eyes on the form of a hellish skeleton clad in hellfire and the damaged clothes of the human commander. Illitheous entirety was healed of the chars and trauma it had received.

“For that latest attempt on my life you have set in stone a very slow death.”

With a grimace Princess Celestia took flight. She circled Illitheous from on high like a bird of prey. The alicorn started blasting a plethora of unique fatal spells. The burning skeleton took spell after spell full force. Although each spell caused him the same amount of pain as they would a normal creature, he stood his ground like a conflagrating fortress of bone. Blasts of acid, pure energy, holy magic, electricity, illusions, even a few trap spells; nothing was having any permanent effect. Illitheous’ head jutted forward, his arms in an aggressive up position while he yelled.

“Coward!!! Your entire family is nothing but cowards and usurpers! While my people we suffer you rule a false utopia! Why should we be subjugated to misery while you prosper in harmony on OUR land?! You don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve any of it!!!”

Illitheous’ fiery aura intensified. The alicorn princess had been out of his reach, but he had had more then enough of it. It was more than a lifetime’s worth of her being just beyond his ability to reach. He harnessed his fury, drew power from it and let loose a mighty shout. His seething hatred combined with the dark magic he utilized and formed a cone of powerful, black hellfire from his gaping jaw. It ignited the air near Princess Celestia.

She was forced to evade the onslaught and halt her own. Through a beautiful display of aerial maneuvers the alicorn dodged the hellfire, yet it was always trailing right behind her. The Princess realized she couldn’t continue like this and expect to win. As much as she wanted to keep a safe distance and buy time to find a spell that worked, this new technique prevented such. Eventually she would slip up.

She did a nose dive, simultaneously creating an impressive force field around her body that crackled with power. The hellish figure continued to unleash his breath weapon, but it was blocked by the barrier. The Princess of the sun tackled the undead human hard.

Celestia’s vision was blurry as she opened her eyes. Apparently the force field hadn’t been able to juggle the tasks of protecting her and acting as a battering ram quite as well as she planned. The dust that had been kicked up like a storm quickly parted. Celestia’s eyes went wide and her pupils shrank at what she saw. Illitheous was still aflame and very much unscathed. The goddess had struck the human with the actual force of a comet but he wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

He stood low, looking into her eyes. It was as if he was viewing all that she had ever experienced; all the joys of her little pony’s growth and happiness over the thousands of years as well as the sadness she still bore after their inevitable passing. He saw it all but was unmoved. The blaze of his hatred never dimmed.

“I despise you,” he said. “with every last bit of my essence. I hate you so much it hurts. I won’t let you take away my vengeance.” His voice lowered to a murmur for a moment. “It’s all I have left.” The fire surrounding him burned brighter. “Now you will die. And this time, only the true heroes will be the victors.”

“Celestia! Don’t worry! We’re coming!” a familiar set of voices called.

The flaming abomination looked away, momentarily distracted by the interruption.

If I act now it will give the elements the time they need. Celestia thought.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. The illusion spell titled ‘Solar Flare’ blinded Illitheous with light.

“Aaarrg!” he covered his eye sockets in vain, attempting to douse the pain now shooting through him like someone had set off a private fireworks display inside his own head. The main six crowded around the princess who had stepped back from the blinded human.

“Hurry! Now might be our only chance! Use the Elements!” Celestia ordered.

The six best friends took the positions they always did for this. Applejack had a bit of trouble getting in place due to her one leg still being completely numb and useless. Twilight’s eyes became luminescent and she started to float off the ground. The other battle weary mares followed suit and the area around them charged with the “Magic of Friendship”. A rainbow of cosmic power arced toward Illitheous, attracting the attention of all the others still engaged in combat. Illitheous finally possessed unhindered eyesight just in time to see a rainbow he faintly recognized as belonging to the princess’s pet underlings heading right at him.

“CELESTIAAA-” he roared, but the sound was drowned out by the attack.

Tactical Withdrawal

An explosion of harmonic energy expanded to all sides of Ponyville, knocking most off their feet or hooves.

The Elements of Harmony lowered to the ground, reverted from their beleaguered conditions back to their usual state. Normally they would have rejoiced at this turn of events but they were all still focused on the current situation. Every living being and one Golem stood still like the ashen shells left behind by the victims of a volcanic disaster. Both pony and humans stared at the settling dust. All eyes widened, some in despair, others in hope. The human leader looked up to the element bearers and Celestia. Illitheous was entirely the same.

Illitheous laughed. It was a deep and dark cackle that echoed throughout the town.

“It would appear your attempt at my destruction was destined to fail.”

“No,” Twilight whimpered.

“How does it feel to have the world as you know it crumble around you? To fail at protecting the few things that make our wretched existence tolerable? Does it anger you? Does it injure your all important pride that one as lowly as I have bested you? Well, be ready, for that was only the beginning of your pain. Take comfort in your journey to the next world that we will rebuild. With my guidance, the most deserving of civilizations shall rise again into a NEW GOLDEN AGE OF POWER AND PROSPERITY!” Illitheous spat a molten glob to the side in disgust at what he was about to say. “I will even deign to honor your race’s memory by keeping it alive, despite how you tried erasing ours,” he said while jabbing a bony extremity in the others’ direction.

With a pitying look Princess Celestia spoke, “Illitheous, can’t you see what you’re doing? The suffering you’re causing? You can’t bring into being a country founded on hate. Look around us.”

Illitheous decided to humor her, this once. He was about to hold high her head as a trophy after all. He looked around. There was, of course, the Princess and her six servants. The mostly unconscious forms of the six crusaders he had believed capable of beating them. Then he saw the burning and destroyed homes of the villagers. The earth was disfigured with craters and arrows. Fires burned in many places unheeded. Rubble lay strewn about, with injured filling the gaps not occupied by warriors. Princess Luna was on top of a clock tower that had managed to keep itself from falling apart. Below her was the Adamantine Golem. She must have been the reason it hadn’t returned to aid him. Its orders (which he himself had given) were to regard any nearby alicorns as its primary victim. This wasn’t the utopia he sought.

“Is this what you fight for? A land bled by your own desire for revenge?” asked Celestia.

She and the six ponies beside her all looked at with an expression he couldn’t quite distinguish.

With only the briefest pause the skeleton responded. “No, this isn’t what I wanted, but I can fix it. Make it better.”

“You’re wrong. All your doing is hurting others. Please, let us help you. I know your upset, but if you calm down I know we can work together to make everything right.” Celestia held out her hoof.

To Illitheous the scenery seemed to spin nauseatingly. Does she honestly believe we can just forgive and forget?

The black and red ring he wore subtly increased its glow on its own. Illitheous’ mind cleared itself of doubts. “No, you’re lying. That’s all your type ever does! No more talking! No more lies! You say everything will work out? Well, where was the happy ending for the other races, huh!?! Where was that happy ending for the dwarves or orcs or my own kin? Where was it for me!?! When disaster arrives your family kicked me and my brethren out rather then help. Without aid we had no choice but to take what others had or perish. They left us to die.”

“You know that’s not true! My Mother and Father would NEVER do such a thing. You slowly destroyed yourselves because you couldn’t look past each other’s differences and find a way to live side by side as friends.” The Princess of the Day said with a stomp of protest.

“SHUT UP AND DIIIE!!!” Illitheous moved faster then his usual limits allowed.

He trampled the dirt, heading straight for Celestia. However, in a twist of fate things didn’t go as it appeared they would...again. Twilight Sparkle focused harder then she ever had before, her horn glowing with a radiance it had only mimicked once while subduing an Ursa Minor. And despite the magic that was supposed to keep teleportation to a minimum in the human’s presence, the seven ponies dematerialized right as Illitheous’ hands reached Celestia’s neck. They now only clutched the empty air.

No! Illitheous screamed in his mind. It’s happened again! Revenge had been within his grasp, and then plucked away, AGAIN. No! NO!! NO!!!

He immediately turned in the direction of the royal guards, only about 30 now, plus a battered Luna. The moon princess saw what had just transpired, same as everyponyelse. She knew what was about to occur if she didn’t do something fast. She sped right in between the fiery skeleton and the nearest guard he had made a b line for.

She used her royal Canterlot voice “COMMANDER ILLITHEOUS! IN THE NAME OF THE ROYAL FORCES OF EQUESTRIA…” She reluctantly bowed before him. “We surrender.”

The stallion behind her protested in hushed tone “But Princess Luna, we can still win this.”

“Shh don’t be a foal. Besides, we must buy my sister and the Elements time. They’ll be back.” She whispered back a little harsher than she intended.

The avatar of rage hadn’t seemed to notice the murmuring, as he was conflicted about the situation before him. He was dimly aware that the princess and guards served him better as prisoners of war, examples to be made of to any Equestrian townsfolk that might get the foolhardy idea to rebel once he captured the capitol. Luna herself would easily be of use as leverage if the need arose. However his boiling rage demanded he break every last bone in their collective bodies and then feed them to the ogres that pulled his siege engine back at the outskirts of town. A multitude of animalistic grunts and sound exited his jaws while he held his divided mind, and the skull that housed it, in his hands.

Luna feared that even offered a surrender, he would attack anyway, but the hellish human finally decided they would live for now. He called for Dails Assent and Terran. The two magicians stirred groggily. They were no longer knocked out, but they were anything but in good condition.

“Cage. Now.” their leader ordered.

The two men struggled to cast the strongest containment wards they could with the help of two magic scrolls produced from the folds of Illitheous’ coat. They managed to stay unincenerated since hellfire generally damages living things only. The magic users fumbled slightly with the scrolls. They were sweating profusely as they did so, and it wasn’t just from the heat given off from their master. None of the dubbed “Crusaders of Fire” had seen him so angry. He looked as if he might literally explode in a fit of anger. The Pony forces were all enclosed within the confines of a clear force field and a lattice work of crystalline material that left them feeling drained and without any substantial amount of magic.

“Now,” Illitheous continued, “as for you.” He punched Dailes Assent in the face; leaving a mild burn and a bloody broken nose.

Luna’s eyes widened, her lower lids rising in shock. A hoof went up to her muzzle. Such brutality even to his own. The humans’ cruelty continued to astound her.

The nechronomancer fell back. He was then roughly hauled back up to his feet by Illitheous. “Why did your ward against teleportation magic fail? Celestia and those others should have been capable of teleporting no more then a few feet at most!” Illitheous demanded to know.

“I, I don’t know.” Dailes stammered.

A blow to the gut was his reward for such a poor choice of words.

“Wrong answer.” Said Illitheous

“But the incantation is still in effect. *Cough* The mana reserves required would need to be nearly without limit. I spent weeks on that spell. It isn’t feasible that they or anything here would possess the magic ability to escape by such means,” reasoned the nechronomancer.

Illitheous remained unconvinced. “Then where are they now? And how are they so far away that I can’t even sense Celestia’s repulsively bright aura?”

He gripped the shorter man’s clothes and pulled his face so close to his that Dails Assents‘s eyelashes were singed off. Dails Assent wriggled, starting to panic despite himself.

“Please Sire, I apologize. I won’t disappoint you again.”

“It’s due to YOUR incompetence that Celestia escaped! Because of you, my vengeance has been denied further! Now you will SUFFER MY WRATH!!!" thundered Illitheous.

Terran tried to calm Illitheous down. “Master please, he couldn’t have foreseen their escape. It’s their fault, not his. We should focus on retaking the capitol and finding them. Our numbers are low enough as it is. If you kill Assent we’ll be one useful man weaker.”

“You think I don’t know that, boy? I don’t CARE! This failure deserves death! Someone needs to pay! You should learn to watch your tongue…” he paused, “…but you’re right.” The burning cadaver released the frightened necromancer who promptly and repeatedly bowed and gratefully thanked him for not incinerating him until he was a black smear in the dirt. Illitheous stormed off and away from everyone.

Dailes Assent regained a little of his composure as he wiped away most of the blood on his face. “I appreciate the assistance Wizard Terran.”

Terran looked back somberly at him as he spoke, “You’re welcome, but I didn’t do it to save you.”

Terran gazed back at the direction Illitheous had left. He thought of the stress his master must be feeling and of the noble goal he had, always being ruined…how nothing in the man’s life seemed to ever go as he wanted in the end. And of course, living for so long with nary a single fellow human for countless years must have taken its toll. Not until finding the few small fiefdoms with humanity’s tattered remnants had he not been alone. Terran remembered his “home”, the endless wars whose original purpose none could recall. It had been Illitheous who had showed up and offered all the men and women that followed him the promised land only he had not forgotten. He offered the land, not in its’ death throws, they had been long banished from. Given them a place where they could begin again. Terran had joined, but not to reclaim a lost empire or even to simply find sanctuary from the suffering. The idealic young mage traveled with Illitheous because Terran had seen a damaged man who only wanted his people to live well, enough perhaps to have sacrificed all he was so they could. Illitheous, Terran believed, was perhaps the closest they would ever have to a savior of any kind. It was because of that he had stopped him from killing the rather unpleasant Dailes Assent. It would have torn apart his heart afterward, to realize he had murdered one he had been trying to save.

“I did it to save Illitheous.”

Astral Sea

The royal gardens of Canterlot lay deserted except for the animals that always dwelled there. Night had finally fallen with the setting of the sun. Many of the various critters were preparing for a good night’s rest while the nocturnal set were just waking up.

One raven, who went by Benjamin, Ben to his friends, was just getting up. He had slept the day away in his nest due to another nightmare about the terrifying yellow and pink four-legger. Usually the four-leggers were a quiet bunch, but a few seasons ago Benjamin and the others had been beset by the pony they all had subsequently dubbed “Repressed Voice.” Benjamin the Raven ruffled his feathers in agitation. His sleep cycle was utterly thrown off since then and he was constantly cranky from the continuously fitful sleep. At least the garden had remained mostly normal afterwards.

A sudden, bright violet light rendered his eyes temporarily useless. After he opened his eyes and shook his head to clear the spots he was, he looked below. To his surprise the “daylight provider” and six lesser four-leggers had materialized out of thin air. Even more astonishing, and many times more frightening, was that the haunter of his dreams was there too! Ben’s brain decided right about now would be a splendid time to faint. Luckily for the little bird, said fainting would last until day break with a normal sleeping schedule once more. It would probably be the best fear induced sleep he ever had.

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Twilight Sparkle felt her legs wobble and the sweat tangle her fur. Her breathing was audible as her lungs begged for more air. The teleportation had been utterly exhausting, but her friends and fellow Elements of Harmony were there for her like they always were. They crowded around her, making sure she was alright.

“Twilight, are you ok!?” Rainbow Dash.

“Is there anything you need dear?” Rarity.

“Are you hurt? Let me look at you please.” Fluttershy.

“Wow Twi, that was some fast actin’. Maybe ya’ll should lay down fer a minute.”Applejack.

“HOLY GUACAMOLY! Twilight that was soooo supercalafragilisticexpealidocious! I can’t believe how much magic you must have to get us away from that monster all the way to Canterlot WITH a ‘no teleporting cause we’re mean’ thingy trying to stop you!!” Pinkie Pie.

The studious unicorn gently pushed her friends back with a tired smile. “Don’t fret girls. I’m okay. Really. I’m a lot more concerned about Spike and Luna and everypony else.”

Her expression fell significantly as she thought of them. The six looked at the ground in worry at the thought of the others.

“They better not lay a single of those dirty meat paws on anypony or I’ll, I’ll”…Rarity stamped at the grass in frustration.

“We should get back there and show those jerks who’s boss.” RD punctuated her idea by pounding her front hooves together.

“That’s a bad idea RD. The elements didn’t work for diddly squat and not even the equestrian royal forces could stop ‘em.” AJ countered.

RD scowled. “Well what are we supposed to do? Just ask them to go away nicely again?”

Flutters interrupted “W-well actually Rainbow Dash, I was going to suggest that. The human I met was rather nice. We only pretended to fight so she wouldn’t get in trouble.”

The others went a little wide eyed after hearing that, except Pinkie Pie.

“You know Gua, the human I met, wasn’t so bad either. He’s just really loyal I think. Like you Dashy! He just wants a good home and to be happy like everypony else. I could tell he’s nice deep down.” Pinkie Pie added.

Twilight tapped her head in thought. “This provides a new perspective on them but it doesn’t change that, as a group, they won’t listen to us. Plus, they’re still so violent; not to mention they all still see us as an enemy.”

“And that creepy feller Illitheous sure ain’t helpin’ none. He just keeps eggin’ ‘em on.” spoke Applejack.

Rarity nodded. “I have to agree with Applejack on that. I wonder what in the world could drive him to actually hate somepony so much. It must have been absolutely dreadful, though he’s still clearly a brute.”

“I bet he’s just a jerk who thinks he’s better then us.” Dash thought out loud.

“Maybe, but he seems like he genuinely cares about the other humans following him. Maybe we’re all just looking at this the wrong way.” Fluttershy offered.

RD gave her a half lidded stare that said, Are you serious?

“Or not, that’s ok too.” the canary yellow pegasus whispered with a sheepish smile.

Twilight realized then that Celestia hadn’t said a word the entire conversation. “Princess, what should we do?”

The other mares all looked to Celestia as Twi said that. Celestia was as still as one of the statues on the royal trotting path. Her sharp mind was working overtime to process the full repercussions of what had just occurred. She had failed to reason and find peace with the humans. They had captured all of Ponyville, the near entirety of her defenders and worst of all her little sister Luna. She hadn’t been able to overpower the humans with superior numbers, magical advantage or even the Elements. Ponies were (and still would) suffering and it was her fault. Her responsibility. It was the Changeling incident all over again.

No, it was even worse. This time it wasn’t that she felt like she couldn’t stop it, but with the hope that Twilight and her friends would come through. This time they had tried everything at their disposal and had still lost. She couldn’t banish them with the elements and she couldn’t…slay their leader. Not that she wanted to resort to that, but even with Illitheous forcing her hoof nothing had an effect. She was truly starting to feel helpless.

Princess?

Yes, she was a princess. One that had let down everypony she-

“Princess.”

Twilight’s voice snapped her out of it. “Huh! Oh, uh, ahem, yes Twilight Sparkle?”

The six ponies next to her were all staring, their eyes glistened with moisture and uncertainty.

“What should we do?” Twilight repeated.

The princess of the sun’s mouth clenched tight. Her eyes moved this way and that. “I’m afraid I only have one more idea.” She paused before continuing, “There’s no guarantee it will do any us good though.”

“Please princess, we have to try. It could be our only hope.” Celestia’s student urged.

Princess Celestia looked at her subjects, no, subjects was inaccurate, her FRIENDS. The look of determination on their faces said it all. Celestia smiled, “All right then. Follow me back to my old study. There are two things I must collect first.”

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They entered through the incorporeal wall into the old study in that forgotten part of the castle. They didn’t look around this time. Celestia moved quickly to the side solely dominated by a vast amount of books and tomes. The princess scanned the titles- Necromancy for the Illiterate, Necronomicon: EVIL Incarnate, Netra Crystals and the Danger They Pose, etc.

“Ah, here it is” spoke Celestia. She blew the thick lair of dust off it. “Never Ending Secrets from the Age of Gods by Dala Tyrn of Sharn” Then she immediately started flipping through the pages with her magic. Still levitating the ancient book she turned toward the others while finding the part she needed. After finishing one last paragraph she looked up from the tome to a metal box that sat on the floor nearby. “Just one more thing.” Her eyes closed and her ivory horn light up a soft yellow as she concentrated on the complex spell that would unlock the container. Several clicks were heard. It slowly opened and filled the room with sheer, radiant luminosity.

In the unremarkable tin box was a diamond that shined a thousand times more than the largest forest fire. Rarity zoomed closer in an instant. Her blue orbs glittering in wonder almost as much as the gem.

“My STARS! That has got to be the most beautiful diamond in all of Equestria! Where did you find it Princess?” Rarity gushed.

“It’s an old family heirloom.” Celestia answered.

“That there gemstone has got to be worth more bits than if you sold Canterlot Castle.” Applejack stated.

“Actually it’s worth a lot more then that.” Celestia corrected.

“It doesn’t look like an ordinary diamond either, Your Majesty. Plus it’s awfully, uh, bright.” Twilight Sparkle noticed.

“Very perceptive Twilight. This isn’t a common jewel. It’s actually an astral diamond. They can only be found in a higher realm of reality called the astral sea. It is home to the Elder God as well as the resting place of the Lonely Summit. You’ll be traveling to one of the many islands there to find a mysterious artifact called the Adamant of Order.”

“What’s the Lonely Summit, Your Majesty?” Fluttershy asked innocently.

“It’s an unfathomably tall white and green mountain floating in the expanse of the astral sea that is supposed to house the souls of all just living beings after they depart from our realm. Almost none know what lies beyond the gates at the top except the Elder God and it will never speak of it.” Celestia refocused her attention so as not to get too far off topic. “Anyway this diamond will act as a furnace in order to power the spell that you’ll be using.”

Rarity gasped, “Your not going to just burn up such a beautiful family heirloom, are you?”

“Rarity, will ya’ll just focus on what’s practical?” AJ fumed.

“Applejack is correct Rarity. An old family bauble is a very small price to pay if it can help stop this chaos. Now please set down your necklaces.” Celestia requested.

“Don’t forget the big crown thingy.” Pinkie Pie piped in.

Princess Celestia smiled at the colorful description of the Element of Magic. “Well, yes and your ‘Big Crown Thingy’ my student.”

The six best friends set down their Elements on one of the study tables next to a brassy anvil with the words Mordin carved on its side. As the main six did so, the Princess moved to the center of the room closer to the doorway and telekinetically shoved the tables and artifacts aside. She allowed just enough room for all of them to be in a circle with breathing room left over. She gently lowered the radiant diamond onto the floor’s center. She then bowed her head and tapped the floor with her horn. White lines of light danced and tangled in the air before settling on the floor imbuing a magic rune into the stone. It resembled a circle-filled pentagram of sorts. At each point of the six headed star were more circles. The Princess asked that the heroines stand on them while she cast the needed mix of spells.

The air shimmered in that old dusty study. The runes on the floor then started to glow brighter. “Good luck to all of you.” Celestia stated.

Twi and her friends were squinting now as she replied, “Don’t worry Princess Celestia. We’ll make you proud!”

Twilight thought she could see a tear falling down her mentor’s cheek, but that must’ve been the ever brightening light playing tricks with her vision.

“You already have,” was what it sounded like the Princess said. She couldn’t be sure since right then her attention was gathered by the twisting and stretching she felt as the magic carried out its intended purpose.

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Twilight Sparkle awoke.

Wait, I don’t remember falling asleep. Guess it’s a side effect of the spell.

It was then that Twilight Sparkle’s brain registered that she was looking into a black void of a sky instead of the back of her eyelids. It was as dark and dreary as one of those emo ponies that she had read about in the Ponyville School newspaper once. She sat up and found herself on a bleached white sandy beach. It looked normal enough except for two things. One was that, despite no moonlight or stars to light up the beach, the sand was almost as bright as it would be in the daylight. The second curiosity was much more obvious. There were no waves crashing against the shore. The liquid was as still and undisturbed as that alfalfa that once found its way onto Pinkie Pie’s dinner plate.

Twilight moved closer to the shore to better determine the strange calmness of the endless ocean before her. What she beheld made her slap herself to confirm this wasn’t a dream.

*Smack*

“Ouch!” Ok, definitely NOT a dream.

In front of her was, indeed, a sea of stars. Not in a metaphoric sense but an actual, honest to goodness sea filled with the twinkling things as they seemed to float in place within the liquid. Not only that, but quasars, nebulas and all other manner of celestial bodies floated within. The purple unicorn decided a quick poke wouldn’t do any harm. It would be a poke for science! She cautiously sunk her hoof in. She felt the warm temperature of the liquid. It was thicker then water as well, like gelatin. The heavenly bodies remained just out of her reach to the frequent star gazer’s disappointment. The mare forced herself to cease her gawking. She called for her friends, who weren’t in sight. After a second or two she heard them calling back.

“Twiliiiiight!” they yelled.

“Giiirrrls!” she screamed in return.

Applejack’s head popped over a sand dune. It swiveled to the side as she hollered, “Found ‘er!” The orange earth pony slid down the dune as Rainbow flew within view next. Following were Rarity, Fluttershy and a bouncing Pinkie Pie.

AJ was the first to speak. “Gee-Wiz Twi that spell sure packs a wallop don’t it?”

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “I don’t think we’re on the same planet. As far as I can tell, we might not be in our own plane of existence either!”

Fluttershy looked worried. “You don’t think we’re s-stranded here do you? I mean, it’s very beautiful, but I couldn’t stay here and leave Ponyville in danger.”

The studious mare waved a hoof nonchalantly. “Don’t be afraid Fluttershy. Princess Celestia wouldn’t send us here without a way back.”

“Your right. I’m shouldn’t doubt her.” The quiet pony said as she smiled meekly.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the view though. I’d be hard pressed to think of a more beautiful view then this sea of stars.” Rarity commented.

“I know right? I sure wish I had a way to make my parties look this pretty. Too bad I don’t have a camera for this.” Pinkie Pie agreed.

Rainbow Dash glanced at it before turning her head back to the group and saying “Yeah it’s really pretty and all but we don’t have time to admire the view. We have a country to save from a certain hot head, remember?

“Right. We need to find out where exactly we need to go.” Twilight said confidently.

On top of one of the larger sand dunes Pinkie Pie called back to her friends. “Hey Twi, I think I have an answer for you. Come have a looksie.”

The five ponies trotted up to Pinkies position. They found her squinting intensely and leaning forward. She looked like she might tip over at any minet. The others in the party followed her gaze to the distance where from here looked to be some form of cave sticking out of the sand.

“Well I guess that answers that, seeing as how that’s the only visible land mark as far as I can see.” Commented Twilight Sparkle.

“Weeee! Let’s go!” Pinkie shouted abruptly while striking what she considered a heroic pose on her hind legs with one hoof outstretched in the air.

The cave loomed ominously in the distance.

No Turning Back Now

Author's Note: Pictures below provided by demonic101 from deviant art. Also I have a new cover image for myself that shows Illitheous in his skeletal form that I think you'll all enjoy. I know I do. CHEERS.

The cave the group had seen hadn’t seemed so far away before they started, but the sand dunes quickly became a problem. Going up and down them repeatedly felt like climbing several fights of stairs over and over again. Rainbow Dash would have flown ahead but she didn’t want to leave her friends alone in this weird desert island place. It practically shouted at her, “forbidden secrets,” and RD didn’t trust it anymore then she trusted having a manticore over for dinner. She also would have flown higher in order to get a better look at her surroundings, but whenever she flew over some sort of invisible line she started to feel afraid, like she would tumble up into the pitch dark sky forever. Just below her, Pinkies usual hyper attitude had fallen quite a bit.

“Ugh, I’m thirstyyyy…are we there yet?”

Twilight groaned. “Pinkie I told you to stop hopping the whole way, and besides, I conjured up some water for you two minutes ago. You can wait till we get there!” she said.

Pinkie Pie was predictably unsatisfied with the answer. “But I’m booored and nothing is happening and my legs hurt and the story won’t move fast enough! Are we there yet?” the pink pony complained.

Twi and the others, with the exception of Dash, who was purposefully flying out of earshot frowned.

“I need to conserve my mana reserves Pinkie, in case we need magic to get out of trouble. Condensing moisture from the air into enough to drink is tough enough in the fields of Equestria, let alone in this strange desert. You’ll just have to go without,” Twilight scolded like a mother.

“Okey dokey,” Pinkie Pie said somberly.

They continued in silence for about three minutes.

“I’m thirsty. Are we there yet?” Pinkie complained.

“Celestia give me strength,” Twilight whispered under her breath.

AJ looked up from the dunes and spotted a plant she knew would solve their complainy pinky pony predicament.

She pointed an orange hoof at it. “Pinkie lookie there!”

The pink earth pony somehow popped out from under the farmer’s hat. “OH, OH, OH! ARE WE THERE NOW!?!” asked Pinkie Pie excitedly.

Applejack went cross-eyed as she tried to look up at the pony on her head. “Uh, not yet, but ah found just the thing fer yer thirstiness. See this here plant?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well this one time with Big Mac ah saw him break one open to get at the water these here plants keep tucked away. An this ‘un don’t even have needles like the one mah brother used. It’s perfect!” Applejack smiled with her eyes closed, quite happy with her own clever solution.

Fluttershy politely interjected “You know Applejack; it could be d-dangerous for her to be eating that. Not all plants are alike and some can be p-poisonous.”

“Ah know not all plants are the same. I’m an apple farmer fer a reason ya know.” The element of honesty said, slightly hurt that Fluttershy of all ponies was doubting her.

Pinkie wasn’t privy to her friends exchange as she was busy breaking open the spineless blue cactus.

Rarity and Twilight put forth their two bits also. RD only hovered lower to see what the others had stopped to talk about.

“Actually AJ, I’m inclined to agree with Flutters on this one. There are many look-a-like plants that are very unhealthy to ingest according to my books back home,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“And I can scarcely believe a plant such a tacky shade of blue could be good for anypony,” said Rarity.

The others heard the Element of laughter mutter, “Mmmm that hits the spot.”

“NO!” Rarity, Twilight and Fluttershy yelped in unison. It was too little too late. Pinkie had all ready swallowed the pulpy juice. She seemed fine though.

“See notin’ to fret over.” The farm pony triumphantly stated.

“Yeah girls I’m fine. This stuff is really thirst quenching too.” The party pony said while holding half a cactus filled with watery juices out in one pink hoof like a cup.

She smiled wide. Her eyes then opened and the others noticed her pupils dilating like crazy. She traded her signature smile for a neutral wide eyed expression. She shook her head left to right so fast it was a pink blur. Then she stood on her back legs and waved a forehoof in small a circle at the cactus cup in the other.

“Drink Cactus Juice!” she proclaimed. “It’ll quench ya,” she instantly was doing the worm as she continued, “Nothiiiiiiiiiiing’s quenchier!” Now she was on her back hooves again. “It’s the quenchiest!”

The five other mares stared in silence at her until Twilight lifted the cactus cup with her magic and poured its remaining contents into the sand.

“Oookay, I think you’ve had enough,” the purple mare stated.

Rarity shot Applejack a look that said, ‘Told you so.” Applejack covered her reddening face with her hat.

Pinkie broke their unspoken conversation by crushing her friends in a hug while saying “Alrighty my multicolored pony pals! Let’s go do the thing at the place!”

Rarity and Applejacks eyes bulged slightly out of their heads from her bear trap of a hug.

“Uh, Pinkie dear, your, choking, us,” Rarity squeezed out hoarsely through the unintended chokehold. She and Applejack fell to the white sand as the party pony released them a little too fast.

Pinkie Pie put her hooves to her head and GASPED. “I would NEVER hurt anypony Rarity! Those cupcake stories are all LIES! OMG R U OK?!? CPR!!!”

"Pinkie Pie put her hooves to her head and GASPED

“Bwaaaaah! Pinkie no! Stop, I’m fine! I can already breathe!” The white and purple unicorn shouted. She was frantically pushing her confused pink friend away while stretching her neck and head as far away as possible to avoid the puckering pink lips of doom.

Pinkie quit trying to give Rarity CPR and just said, “Oh, okay.”

This simple sentence made her friends jaws almost drop.

“Wait, what did you just say?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I said okay…or DID I?” Pinkie Pie answered.

“Not okey dokey?” the Rainbow maned pony asked to be extra sure she had heard her friend correctly.

“No not okey-OH MY GOSH!!!” the mare looked like she had just seen a ghost she couldn’t laugh at.

“What?!” her compadres asked in concern.

“MY FINGERS ARE MISSING!” she responded.

The others face-hoofed all at once.

Twilight turned to Applejack one more time. She emphasized her words with two solid taps to AJ’s sternum, “Never…Again,”

The lavender and purple unicorn steamed off past the cowpony. The others followed, except for Applejack and Pinkie Pie. The latter was still looking slack jawed at her digit less stubs. The farmpony waved the delirious party pony to follow the others.

“Come on, Pinkie.”

Pinkie’s insanely dilated eyes focused on her as she complied, “Sure thing Ashleigh Ball!”

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After a good twenty more minutes of travel, the Element bearers of Harmony finally arrived, legs tired and with a stranger-than-usual-acting Pinkie Pie. At least she hadn’t complained anymore or passed out from the cactus juice.

“Ok everypony, whatever it is we need to stop Illitheous and his band must be inside.” Twilight said.

As it turned out, the land mark they had seen wasn’t exactly a cave. It was, indeed, made of obsidian rock, but it was carved like a downward entrance into a gothic medieval church. Statues looking down from the tops of columns that were placed across from each other made it feel like they were being silently judged. Each statue had large feathered wings on their backs and roughly looked like strangely robed…humans, maybe? It wasn’t easy to tell what they were supposed to be. Each of their carved faces was completely smooth and featureless, with the exception of eyes one couldn’t look into for long without averting their gaze. The statues all carried either a scythe or a sword. The increasingly uneasy equestrians moved past the forbidding columns with their statues to the somehow even more intimidating entrance. Its obsidian walls were a stark contrast to the white sand. Near the entrance were stalagmites and stalactites that made it appear to be a fanged maw eager to snatch them up in single massive bite. The party moved the through the sizable gaps and neared the dark tunnel that would take them further in the recesses of the underground structure.

"Statues looking down from the tops of columns..."

Then, a massive slab of crystal fell, blocking the mares’ path. Another slab, one of metal now, fell in front of the crystalline one. Two more slabs fell forth. The first of iron ore and the last of shale, all landed with an echoing crash.

“Great. How are we supposed to get past this?” Rainbow Dash asked aggressively.

“Why don’t we ask the statue bug?” Pinkie Pie suggested in a very dazed tone of voice.

Fluttershy yelped, “Eeep!”

“What is it Fluttershy?” Dash asked.

“Up on the roof of the cave, something’s there,” spoke Fluttershy while holding up a trembling hoof.

Indeed there was. With the sound of cracking stone an insectoid creature worked its rocky joints and moved from its perfectly blended hiding spot. Dust and sand fell from its joints each time it moved one of its six limbs. It looked similar to a pony-sized cockroach made of obsidian. It had two main body segments. It used the lower segment at a horizontal angle that four of its legs were connected to. The “upper body” segment was positioned vertically with the remaining two appendages that had sharp pincers at the ends. Its head was long, most likely to make space for the four corresponding sets of small mandibles that served as its mouth. It didn’t have any antennae to speak of, but it did possess two glowing white eyes. As the earthen insectoid finished climbing its way from the ceiling to the cave floor, the three pair of pony variations prepared for the attack that was surely coming.

Instead, it asked a question. “Who have we here kkkk.” It clicked it’s mandibles from top to bottom after speaking, then it cocked its head far to the left like a confused dog. “Six brightly colored steeds with large eyes kkkk. It was expecting a group a little more…rugged looking to come. Perhaps one with a more, adventurous flair about them kkkk. Tell this humble one why you have journeyed to this forgotten place kkkk.”

The group of friends looked at each other silently pondering who should answer. Then their eyes set on Twilight Sparkle to make their case.

She wiped away the unsure look she had on her face and cleared her throat. “Uh, sir, we are the Element Bearers of Harmony from the land of Equestria. Our home is in great danger and our ruler, Princess Celestia, sent us here on the last hope that somewhere here is an artifact that will aid us. This is the only landmark we’ve seen since we arrived, so we’re led to believe somewhere here is what we need to save our home. Would you be so kind as to let us through?” Twilight finished with the biggest, most sincere grin she could muster. It came off a bit more like she was hiding something.

The stone entity’s face was unreadable; its exoskeleton made facial expression impossible. “No,” it said.

“WHAT?!” five of the mares exclaimed.

Pinkie instead whined, “But whyyyyyyy?”

“If this one let just any enter because of a saddening tale, it would be a very poor guardian indeed. Leave this sacred place kkkk. Return from whence you came or seek out another of the infinite wonders that fill the realms…if you are so inclined kkkk.” The creature turned its carapace on them and was about to climb up the wall to its previous hiding spot on the roof of the cave.

The element of magic yelled for it to stop. “Wait!” she said extending a hoof.

The guardian turned itself around. “Yes kkkk?”

“Please, you have to let us in. Innocent lives are in trouble and we can’t do anything to help without your assistance. We tried everything we could think of, including negotiation and magic, but nothing worked. Without the artifact inside this place we have no hope…please.” the young unicorn pleaded, her eyes watering in desperation and sadness. Every word was true.

The unreadable insectoid looked down, its glowing white eyes drilling a hole in the stone. It looked back up. “What kind of monster would it be, if it were to leave so many without hope kkkk. Without hope there is no purpose and without purpose, life has no value. This one senses the truth behind your words kkkk. You may pass.”

The ponies smiled at those words, but the rocky guardian made certain it finished.

“But be warned there are yet more barriers besides this one, all potentially deadly kkkk. If you manage to reach the end, be sure to touch nothing but the Adament of Order or risk defiling this sacred ground kkkk.” It turned around once again to face the outermost stone slab.

Its entire body shined a radiant white. All the slabs disappeared back into the sockets they slammed out of, clearing the path. The radiant glow dimmed slowly until the rocky sentry was back to its original black obsidian appearance. It skittered to the side to allow Twilight and her friends to enter. They each offered a sign of gratitude while cantering by. Rarity bowed, Applejack winked, Fluttershy whispered “thank you”, Rainbow Dash smirked and nodded at the guardian and Pinkie Pie unsteadily wobbled by, still dizzy from the cactus juice. Twi had only moved until she was less then a foot apart from the insectoid sentinel. It cocked its head to the side, now in a recognizable sign of confusion.

“Why do you stare at this humble one?” it asked.

The following hug the unicorn gave took the creature entirely by surprise.

“Thank you… for giving us a chance,” Twilight said mid-embrace.

The guardian’s upper body appendages gingerly shifted from it’s sides to return the hug.

“This one feels stange, like bubbles are rising in it’s core kkkk. You should go on.” The rocky thing said.

Twilight broke the hug. “Right.” She headed down before turning one last time to the bug eyed guardian. “Oh, and that bubbly feeling you have? I’m pretty sure its happiness.”

The obsidian guard watched her go. Happyness, mortals are the strangest things.

The Black Sheep Learns Truth

A moonless night had fallen upon Ponyville. It was a fitting setting for the distraught captives as the human invaders went about their preparations. Some of the humans slept, but many more were too restless to sleep. The thought of the siege of Canterlot and the retaking of Equestria (or Black Dragon Empire depending on which side of the conflict one asked) kept them awake. Around the once agrarian village, grindstones sharpened weapons, spells destroyed target dummies, and repairs and other last minute preparations were made. All this was done in grim silence.

The pit with the captured Princess Luna was filled with the sound of snoring, exhausted royal guards. Luna had attempted to heal the injured, but with the magic suppressing force field they were imprisoned in, she had only been capable of healing a hooffull of them over the course of several hours. She lay on the ground, legs folded under her, at the edge of the barrier. Just across from her was a human sitting forward in a simple wooden chair.

The male biped wore light weight scale armor with a long bow on the ground next to him. The human had short cut, blonde hair and a gaunt face. He came from a long line of both poverty and skilled hunters. He whittled away at a block of wood with an ornate dagger by the soft light of a sun stone. Luna watched him work. She was surprised none of her captors were any more hostile than an indifferent stranger. Luna had expected foul harassment, perhaps sprinkled with some petty gloating. Instead, the humans had ignored her and the other prisoners almost entirely. She briefly wondered if they weren’t quite as malicious as they had initially seemed or if they were simply over confident. The one across from her hadn’t paid her any mind more then once before he had sat down. Luna was used to quiet and usually enjoyed it, but this silence felt oppressive.

“Thou’s whittling skills are most impressive,” she said in an attempt to start a conversation.

“Ya gotta find somthin’ ta do in an army or ya go crazy wit boredom in ‘tween the battles,” the human said without even glancing up from the slowly shaping wood.

There was a pause. The alicorn searched her mind for something else to say. “Thou could surely make a living as a wood carver. We’re sure others would greatly enjoy thou’s work in their homes.”

“Sure they would enjoy it. As fire wood,” the archer sarcastically stated before switching to a gruffer tone. “None a us got time fer somethin’ so functionless. Too busy survivin,’ fightin’ fer resources that there ain’t ‘nough worth fightin’ fer anyway. Well I s’pose the royals do, plus a few a them luckier mages, but not most a us.”

“Surely thou can’t be fighting like that all the time,” Luna said in astonishment.

The archer looked up from his carving with a grimace. “Yes. All the time.” He looked back down to his block of wood. “War…is all we know.”

Luna’s face didn’t change, but internally she gasped. An entire race without enough to live, killing each other, with the subsequent generation growing up in worse conditions then the last. She couldn’t begin to imagine the ponies of Equestria having to go through such struggle. The thought of foals like Pipsqueak growing up in such a setting caused the princess of the night to cringe. She hadn’t really believed the human’s unnatural leader about their struggles. He had a dark aura about him that made reading him nearly impossible. The other humans though were normal enough that the Lunar Princess could sense their emotions. The archer only gave off honest indifference now.

Luna decided to change the subject a little. Perhaps she would gain important knowledge in the talk. “We’re surprised thou’s leader Illitheous has not returned to oversee preparation for his own take over. Might thou know where he resides?”

“Commander Illitheous trusts us ta be prepared. As fer his where ‘bouts, he’s on a nonya mission,” the human replied irritably.

“May we inquire what a nonya mission is?” Luna asked.

“It’s none ya business.”

Ugh. I can’t believe I’m more than a thousand years old yet I didn’t see that coming, the embarrassed princess thought.

She still wanted to know more about the unique human that led this invasion though. With the little amount she now knew to be true, her curiosity was piqued. It wasn’t like she had anything else productive to do, trapped in a magic prison with only one human to talk to.

“Would thou happen to understand as to why Illitheous hates me and my sister so dearly? Luna asked.

The man’s aesthetically pleasing knife ceased its motion.

“That’s a bold question yer askin’ there. Not too sure I should give ya an answer.”

“Tis not as if thou need tell us anything regarding military stratagems. We only wish to understand his situation.” The royal alicorn spoke with as much persuasion as she could muster.

The scale armor wearing human scowled at the ground, then pinched the bridge of his nose with an annoyed sigh. “Right. I’ll give ya the short version the way most a’ us know it. None a’ us know the full story though, so you’ll just have ta get over that. But” he paused “only ‘cause I spect the commander to get rid a ya once his temper gets the better a’ him.

The human told the pony before him a less detailed version of the following historical events, but not including the part where Illitheous vanishes after his death as no one but Illitheous himself knew what took place at that point.

It was going to be an exhilarating day. Ahdean could feel it in his bones. The wind was whistling across his face and tossing his long, midnight black hair this way and that. The morning sun was rising. It warmed his silver armor and finally began to remove the previous night’s chill. He scanned his surroundings once more. He was in the central plains of the new land his great grandfather, along with near countless other pilgrims, had traveled to so long ago. The land was entirely flat almost as far as the eye could see. The grass was a healthy green from the summer sun. Tents made of strong fabric were grouped just behind the human Ahdean. Each tent was temporary quarters to four combatants. There were thousands of them.

Just to the south only about a mile distant lay the dwarves’ camp. Their camp strangely consisted of small buildings built from extremely light metal sheets latched together in perplexing ways. How the race of stone was able to create such a sturdy camp overnight without magic was beyond most races. To the north, south, and east Ahdean knew lay the three other army’s camps, the human’s and dwarves camps consisting of the western most army.

He thought about the other forces he would have to face soon. He briefly considered suggesting one last try at parlay, but thought better of the lost cause. The southern army consisted only of Fey and Eldritch forces: Elves, Brownies, The Wilden, hill and forest Giants, a small contingent of gnomes etc.

The eastern most forces were a strange conglomerate of Orcs, Ogres, Dark Elves, The Tassels, various mage groups like the Circle of Magi or the Lords of the Efreet, Shadow Born and other supposedly “mal treated” groups.

As for the last army, in truth, Ahdean did not know who or what made up the northern most forces whose camp was a covered by a black and red haze of smog. All he had been told was that he was better off not knowing beforehand. Somehow that didn’t fill Ahdean with confidence. He wondered if the human empire should have tried to stay neutral.

Conflict was not always the answer. The Predorian controlled lands had certainly stayed out of it, going so far as to cloak their entire cities in invisibility spells and teleporting them to remote locations. Other groups had simply gone into hiding like the hunter-gatherer Goliath tribes or the migratory Oni. Unfortunately for humanity, doing the same was beyond their abilities. They weren’t an entire race of sorcerers or stealthy predators of the world after all. Besides, the humans had too much to lose. There simply weren’t enough resources, food, unclaimed water, or otherwise, to go around. Plus, the constant monster attacks on minor settlements weren’t helping any. Ahdean sympathized with the other race’s plights. He really did, but he couldn’t agree to let his race die so that a few others might live.

His thought process was pleasantly interrupted by familiar voice. “Contemplating existence again Ahdean?”

Illitheous walked up to him. The same happy grin glued to his face like always, his short brown hair and green eyes shining with lighthearted joy.

Ahdean spoke, “Illitheous, my brother! I wasn’t expecting to see you. I didn’t take you for the patriotic type. Or were you conscripted? How’s the wife and kids?”

“I did expect to see you here. You were always the man with a mission,” Illitheous replied. Illitheous’ grin markedly decreased in size. “They all passed on. Caught some sort of illness. I had a good healer look at them but there was nothing that could be done. So, when the Empire called for soldiers to aid it, I heeded.”

Ahdean’s usual unhappy expression shifted to an even deeper frown. “I’m so sorry brother.”

Illitheous looked his brother and best friend in the eye. “Don’t be. I know they’re in a better realm now.”

Illitheous’s brother Ahdean didn’t smile at those words. Faith in something greater was one of the few things he and his brother didn’t share. That was why he never sought love and had no children. What would he be if he brought another precious life into this all too often dark world for it to only be lost some day to nothingness.

“I wish I could believe that.” The grimmer of the two brothers said.

The two siblings noticed that while they were chatting, the others in their camp and the dwarven camp had all gotten ready for battle. Their own Emperor was at the head of their camp on the back of a trained wyvern. Their aging Emperor had always led by example. He wore armor and a traditional top knot while wielding a bow from the majestic relative of the dragon’s back. The brothers could also see the king of the Dwarves at the head of his own army. The dwarf king was flanked by sixteen steel golems and was riding some kind of metal contraption with what looked like slots for crossbow bolts on all sides and several cannons in front. Each ruler was equally impressive in their own way. The call to war was upon them. Ahdean and Illitheous gave a very quick hug, hoping none of the others would notice. It was a surprising feat considering they both wore heavy battle armor.

The Human Emperor

“See you at the end Illitheous,” Ahdean said.

“Don’t worry Ahdean,” Illitheous said with a reassuring smile. “Everything will be alright.”

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The fighting had gone on for hours. To the humans in the human-dwarf alliance however it felt like weeks. Ahdean had initially fought back to back with Illitheous but they had gotten separated from each other in the chaos. Ahdean had just finished hacking apart an ice archion when there was a blinding light not too far from his position. At first he thought one of the enemy mages had cast some sort of spell. He was resigned to the impending vaporization that he could do nothing to stop. Instead, the light grew even brighter, so bright that everyone and everything on the battlefield stopped fighting to cover their eyes, or whatever served as eyes. After Ahdean stopped seeing spots he looked back to see what had happened. He, along with about one million others, nearly dropped his weapon in shock.

One of the two supposed god-guardians was in the center of the battle field. Worse yet, it was the stronger and more temperamental of the two. It was the alicorn protection spirit of nature in this land. Ahdean couldn’t recall his name.

“THOU WILL CEASE THIS VIOLENCE AT ONCE!!!” Thunder Fall shouted in that “royal” voice he used. “THOUST’S CONFLICT IS CURRUPTING THIS LAND AND DESTROYING THYSELVES! WE COMMAND ALL PRESENT TO CEASE OR ELSE FACE THE MOST DIRE OF CONSEQUENCES!”

A cacophony of objections poured out from the many leaders of the various race’s leaders.

The god spirit seemed taken aback when the many leaders objected. To stop fighting would result in massive starvation and deprivation for nearly all the races present. Not to mention all the other disagreements, like the fey objecting to any cutting down of forests even though many other races needed the lumber and firewood.

“You can’t order US around!” the burly, face pierced, gray orc tribal leader bellowed.

The Orc Leader

“You have no power over us and thus, no say in what we can or can not do,” called out the mechanical general of the Warforged in a metallic voice.

Leader of the Warforged

“The dwarves would die before listening to a glorified mule!” Shouted the gold clad King of the Dwarves.”

The Dwarf King

“You are no god of mine! I’ll see you dead where you stand for getting in the way of our glorious Empire!” The human Emperor commanded his now injured wyvern to leap at Thunder Fall, its fangs dripping with paralyzing and deadly venom.

An instant later, both the wyvern and the Emperor dropped to the ground. Their corpses smoking from the mighty lightning strike they had been served for their conviction. The echo of thunder rang out to infinity as Ahdean stared at his liege.

His Emporer was dead.

He was…dead.

No, that monster Thunder Fall was dead, NOW!

The silver clad soldier attacked the alicorn, screaming as he held his claymore over his head.

THE BEAST WILL PAY!

Time seemed to slow down. Thunder turned to look at his newest assailant. His horn glowed white. A bolt of electric fire was projected out, hitting Ahdean right in the jaw and neck. His skin and flesh sizzled away as he fell. The man was briefly aware of the other warriors all heading the way he had been heading. Their primal yells sounded muffled as they ran by. They all seemed to move in slow motion. Was that his brother Illitheous that just sped past?

His vision was blurring now. Why was everything getting so cold?

So very cold.

Darkness.

The pics all come from verious editions of DnD so credit goes to those guys. Eeyup.

A Broken Man

Authors Note: Short chapter is short. I would have made it longer but I have been rather busy getting ready to move in about a mounth and I felt that ending it on the part I did was a better idea from a story standpoint. Anyway here you go and please leave comments, thumb ups and all that good stuff.

“Wakey Wakeeey. You’re already dead, now your just being lazy. GET UP!”

Ahdean arose after that while feeling a pointed kick to his gut. He grunted in pain.

“Gooood. Now that you’re awake I have a little proposition for you.”

Ahdean looked up through blurry vision to a sight he would never be allowed to forget. Standing over the silver clad man was a monster that made his worst nightmares more closely resemble dreams about frolicking through the meadow like one of those sissy elves. The monster possessed a head of a bull, but with the addition of another, third yellow eye on its forehead. Its body was a grotesque mass of melted flesh that still managed to look incredibly well built. There were three golden orbs stuck in its chest. Its arms were similar to its torso but they ended in dragon claws with red spikes on them. Finally, its lower body was much like a griffin’s with a barbed tail emerging from its hind quarters. The whole creature was the color of polluted water.

“W…where am I?” Ahdean asked.

“Why my boy,” the demon said deeply that sounded as if it were many voices speaking at once “you’re in hell.”

The demon offered a toothy grin that could have frightened a blind man.

“The third layer of nine to be exact.”

The horror was evident in Ahdean’s voice. “Hell? I may not have believed in the gods, but is that such a sin?”

The demon turned away from him and walked to a throne made of yellowed bone he hadn’t noticed. Ahdean looked over his surroundings for the first time. He could see that he was in some kind of room made of bloodstained ivory. There were two massive doors behind him made of yet more bones, as well as a chandelier similarly crafted from bone. There also appeared to be some kind of torture table in the corner whose particular functions Ahdean preferred not to think about.

The infernal monstrosity deigned to answer the mortal’s question. “Well, actually no. Not believing isn’t enough of a transgression to warrant being sent here. I merely wanted to make you an offer.”

“What if I refuse?” the human soldier boldly asked.

“Then off to the lonely summit and the final realm you go. It would be as if you never met me. However…you’ll want to hear what I have to offer. What do you say?"

Ahdean paused to think. This monster was unquestionably evil, that was certain. The curiosity at what it had to offer him was piqued though. Besides, he could always say no.

“Alright, but make it brief,” he said.

“Wonderful,” the demon said clasping its claws together. “Now you may not know this mortal, but the hierarchy of the nine hells isn’t set in bone.”

“You mean set in stone right?”

The demonic entity scowled and said “No. Don’t interrupt me again worm. As I was saying, I am one of the nine lords of hell under our grand lord. We each keep our positions through force, trickery and power. My position is closer to the lower end of the latter then I’d like. Every demon, devil, abomination down here can gain the title of Lord of Hell if they successfully kill the previous one. We gain power by absorbing souls. But there is an obstacle that keeps us from rightfully taking souls whenever we desire. They have to agree to trade it, or they must die by our minion’s hand. Now you, my boy, you’re dead as dead can be; but I can grant you a second chance. Before you say anything…no, I won’t be needing your soul. I will trade you the power to kill the gods that took everything from your Empire. Think about it. You get a second chance at life and extract revenge on the ones who killed you and your emperor. I, of course, will get the powerful souls of a pair of godlings. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. Now,” the demon stretched out his hand to Ahdean. A wicked smile spread across his lips that sent a chill up the human’s spine despite the supposed friendliness it represented.

"Do we have a deal?"

The human was understandably hesitant. “So you give your word you won’t take my soul? Or the souls of others except those wretched alicorns?”

“Don’t insult me. A High Lord of Hell can never go back on their word. I will not take your whole soul. I will only take the souls of those you slaughter with the gifts I grant you.”

The hot wind sounded like a tortured moaning outside of the demon’s fortress of ivory as the human named Ahdean made his decision.

"Deal."

The High Lord of the third layer of hell interrupted the silence as the two shook.

“Yeeeessssss.”

A wave of pain the likes of which Ahdean had never experienced shot up the hand he had extended to the demon. There was fire swirling around it like a blazing tornado. The muscle and skin turned crispy. They crumbled off his hand and lower arm, leaving only the bone structure untouched. The entire time Ahdean was screaming at the top of his lungs and actually crying from the pain.

In between one of his screams he managed the words, “It BUUUUUUURRRNS!!!”

The monster standing over him responded as casually as if he were answering a small child’s question about something. “Of course it does maggot. Hellfire burns not just the body but the soul. Did you honestly think my power came without a price?”

A black ring with a ruby gemstone affixed to it appeared from thin air on Ahdean’s bony ring finger. The colors then abruptly switched on the ring and his armor was replaced by a brand new solid black coat and a commoner shirt and pants underneath. The human’s face was sweating profusely as he fought the agony in order to speak.

“But, ergh, but you promised not to take my soul,” Ahdean struggled to say.

“I promised not to take your whole soul. I only used about an eighth of yours. Next time listen more carefully. You owe me until you get me those two souls. Now,” the nightmare said as it lifted back its clawed hand. “Enjoy!”

The back of its claw slapped across the man’s face. Ahdean felt like he was sent flying across an immeasurable distance before landing IN something squishy and cold. Then he blacked out.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ahdean awoke once again. Instead of being kicked in the stomach though, he slowly opened his eyes to peer into the face of a Chuthuluite or more commonly known as a mind flayer. He rolled away, expecting to have his brain devoured. Thankfully, the squid like being was no longer among the living. Its eyes were a milky white instead of the normal colorless pupils they usually possessed when alive. Ahdean picked himself up off the brown grass.

Ahdean looked down at himself. His armor was gone. He instead wore the new cloths the demon had given him. He slowly looked at his actual body, afraid of what he might see. It was as bad as he feared. His skin was pale like a month old corpse. It was painfully clear he had lost more weight than seemed at all healthy. He found himself wishing for a mirror to see what the state of his face was, but that would have to wait. His hand was still a bony claw with that ring attached. He tried pulling it off. It didn’t budge an inch. He put more effort into it this time, but it was being stubborn and refused to move. The warrior gave up and looked around. It was a gloomy cloud-filled evening. He was still in the central plains, right at the spot where he had died, only now there were thousands of bodies from all four armies. He saw his emperor, still charred and broken on the body of his wyvern near that damned god spiri-Wait a minute!

He ran closer to the winged and horned body. His body felt oddly heavy as he forced his limbs to obey. It was almost like there was an invisible aura about him that caused his every movement to feel like a marathon. The so called “God of Natural Order” was dead like he deserved. The body was slightly mauled from several different types of injuries.

Good. He deserves no better then a painful and unceremonious death, the ghastly undead human thought. Another thought gained entrance to Ahdean’s skull. How am I to get the demon the soul of a god that has already died? Oh yes, there is another that yet lives. Or if not, then perhaps they had, ugh, children. They’ll pay for the damage they’ve done to our Empire.

At that anger driven thought the man noticed something shining in his eyes a ways off. He got up, inextricably drawn to it. Ahdean noticed the bodies around him had started to decay. How long was his soul missing from his body? The meeting with the monster had only been a few minutes, right? He arrived at the source of the shiny glare. Ahdean went completely numb. It was Illitheous in his miraculously undamaged looking plate mail among a pile of bodies.

Ahdean didn’t move. At first it seemed like he hadn’t a scratch on him. Perhaps he was just sleeping. Yeah, that was it. That’s when Ahdean noticed his brother’s armor.

It DID have a scratch on it or more specifically a hole. It was in the weaker area around the abdomen that allowed better movement. It seemed that he had been hit by some type of destruction magic. The rusted blood stains that ran down from the gash implied he had probably died of blood loss after the actual blast had made contact. Illitheous’ death mask was a happy one; utterly content to finally be with his wife, children and presumably his previously deceased brother in the afterlife.

The undead brother, Ahdean, collapsed to his knees in despair. Lightning flashed and rain chose that very moment to fall from the sky.

Why do you have to look so peaceful? You’re dead and I’ll never see you again. Ahdean thought. “I’ll keep your memory alive brother. You have no more children to do it. I will become you, Illitheous. I’ll make sure everyone will remember your name…everyone.”

The last tears the undead human would ever shed were lost with the rain. He had no more tears to give. The newly named brother didn’t notice. All he could think about was the true Illitheous’s last words. Everything will be okay. Always with that smile of his.

“No,” the newly christened Illitheous spoke.

“Nothing will ever be okay again.”

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After the human archer finished his story of past events, there hung a deafening silence between him and Princess Luna. Tears flooded down her cheeks like waterfalls. She desperately wanted to say something, anything that would justify what her father had started. She did not utter a word.

Tears flooded down her cheeks like waterfalls.

The human archer spoke for her, “That’s the way I hear it anyway.” With a stern expression he tucked away his knife into its sheath on his right boot. Then he tossed the little wood carving he had finished during the telling in front of the weeping princess’ magically conjured prison. “Just ponder this, princess,” the human said after getting up to take his leave, “who are the real villains here?”

Luna looked down at the wood carving of an Alicorn king. She didn’t have an answer.

Rendezvous with Death

Almost there, Illitheous thought.

He was sitting with his legs crossed, eyes closed, in an improvised isolation chamber. It was made of slabs of rock he himself had torn from one of the few dwellings whose walls were made of stone. The moonlight tried and failed to pierce the rocky tomb. The only light came from two diamond shaped crystals that floated in the air before him. Illitheous was no longer in his rage-fueled skeletal form. His hands rested on his lap, palms open, in a meditative posture. He was NOT, however, attempting to relax. He was instead using the crystals to focus on a vision. He dared hope the vision would show him a way into the castle of Canterlot and Celestia that did not require the use of the noisy and easily foreseeable army he brought. He would take the goddess’s life himself. There would be no more interruptions and nothing to get in his way. Seeing a stealthy method into the castle remained illusive however. The dream vision would near his mind then it would slip away like water. He was no path-walker or shaman but only he had the strength of will to FORCE the vision to come to him.

His partially decayed features tightened in frustration. He had seen a path that would take him past the outer defenses of the city if he remained vigilant, but a way into the castle proved harder to catch then a Willo-the-Wisp leading the unwary to their deaths. Then, like a bolt of lightning, it came to him. There was an old, seldom used passage that served as an emergency exit if the castle was ever under siege. He saw it clear as day in his mind’s eye. He chastised himself for his stupidity. Of COURSE there would have been an escape route. No matter how peaceful and under control that cursed goddess thought her kingdom, she wouldn’t be so arrogant as to leave herself completely cornered. But now the man knew…and the alicorn abomination would DIE. Illitheous’ bloodshot eyes opened wide and his body once more regained its torch like quality. Before he went to commit his bloody and (in his mind) justified action, he remembered the fellows who needed his guidance, likely waiting for his decision outside. Still…he knew he must do this most important act alone.

Always alone.

A few hours later.

It was still dark. There was a muffled knocking and asking of permission to enter the chamber Illitheous had been secluding himself in. There was a sound of rock grinding against earth. The entirety of the human forces, including one golem and two ugly ogres pulling what looked like a massive metal and stone drill built for destruction, gathered around the entrance. Illitheous’ youngest, and perhaps most devoted, follower stood in front. One wizard prodigy named Terran.

“Master Illitheous, daybreak nears. What are your orders…” Terran trailed off.

The small chamber was barren and empty like a crypt. Only a simple hand-scrawled note and a crystal on the dirt lay within. Terran picked the note up and read to himself what was written on the note. The young mage lowered the note and stared straight ahead, a distraught and surprised look on his face. All those behind him leaned in, trying to see what was jotted down on the note, even the dim-witted golem hunched over in curiosity. It was a rather ridiculous sight to be honest. The well built older soldier named Gua more or less politely plucked the thick paper from the younger man’s hand since he remained silent on the matter. He read it out loud so the others would hear.

I am sorry my brothers, but I see now that I can not bring you with me in our moment of greatest triumph. Without your assistance the opportunity to destroy Celestia would likely never have been as good as it is now. She is weak and without her sister and many others to come to her aid, but the final step will require a more subtle approach and I can only do this alone. You will have the victory and justice we all deserve. I ask for your forgiveness at my leaving of you for this. I will still need you to conquer the capitol, but I know that it will take you a day or two to reach the city. This viewing crystal will show you all that you need see when the time is right. Celestia should be dead and gone when you arrive and the capitol city ripe for the taking, as will this whole land.

If by some chance I do not survive to see our victory, be sure to keep yourselves alive.

Live on my brothers and sisters, live on.

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The dawn would soon rise upon the mountainous landscape, bringing forth a light that would eliminate any reasonable chance of true stealth for Illitheous. His undead form was almost imperceptible in the waning moonlight. His burning aura would have given him away to any guards he neared, so he had intentionally suppressed it while still utilizing the stronger form’s power. Only wisps of black smoke drifted from his bones. At first he had been teleporting with a sequence of fiery “jumps.” Each jump had brought him a good couple miles closer to the capitol city of Canterlot until he had reached the inclining train tracked mountain on which it rested. The jumps were simply too noticeable at night so Illitheous was currently making his way there on foot (though to his credit, he was making time that would make even Rainbow Dash envious.)

He moved like a macabre blur from boulder to boulder, using the nearby train tracks as a point of reference so he would keep going the right way. He had seen only a couple guards keeping watch. Illitheous surmised they were indeed low in number, with the bulk in the prison back at the town encampment of Ponyville, and that most would be guarding the city and Celestia herself. There likely weren’t enough even for that, but any competent general would leave at least a scant few to warn the rest if enemies were spotted. They would not spot Illitheous.

Illitheous ran behind another rocky outcropping and glanced over the side. Two unicorns with spears stood on a bridge that served as the only clear path into the city with the bright purple pink of a force field rising in the shape of a great wall behind them. Besides the path in the middle there was no obvious way past. A sheer cliff face dropped to the left and the mountain rose to the right. The human hiding behind the rocks closer to the rising mountainside felt the stirrings of a plan form in his mind.

The two unicorn sentinels stood stoic faced as they were trained to do despite the mix of tension and boredom they felt. All was clear so far. The ear of the unicorn on the right twitched slightly.

“Hey Cross, you hear that?” asked the equine.

“Hear what?” the other unicorn raised an eyebrow.

“It sounds kind of like…” the solider trailed off. He leaned forward slightly, struggling to hear.

About seven or so pony sized boulders rolled their way from higher up on the mountain to their right. They would have most likely been crushed had the one not heard the telltale sign of cracking and shifting earth. The pair’s horns glowed. The rocks slowed down until they came to a complete stop only a few paces away. The duo had their spears at the ready and slowly went up to the spot where the rockslide had originated. Nopony was there. The two looked around in apprehension.

“Hey what’s this thing?” One of the royal guards asked the other. He briefly strained to pick up an object from the ground. It came out with a pop and a hiss of steam spouted from the oddity.

The other looked it over. It looked like a weird cross between a pot filled with machinery and a drill. It was about the size of the spear head.

“No idea, but we should get back to our post. Don’t want to get chewed out by the sergeant for getting distracted, right?” said the more observant of the two.

“Right,” his buddy said.

“Right,” Illitheous muttered to himself from the side of the cliff. It was far too steep for anything without hands and a steel grip to climb across. It was also a very long way down. “Next time I must be sure to ask of Terran an incantation that allows flight or perhaps a way to teleport past magic barriers.”

Once he was sure he had edged his way far enough past the barrier and its guardians he put all his strength into his arms and pulled. He hurtled up above the steep side and a good five feet above the ground. He landed with hardly a sound and rushed like a smoky shadow to the center of Canterlot, or more specifically, the forgotten passage that traveled from there to somewhere into Canterlot Castle. The sun was already beginning to rise. Time was not on the human’s side.

After an unknown amount of time later, Illitheous made his way past a normal enough set of mansions to what appeared to be a dead end alley without alerting any to his presence. He was no stranger to stealth after all. He had been forced to rely on it for many millennia while he gathered info on his enemy and searched for a way to safely reach the remnants of his fellow man. The infernal human knew this was the spot and seeing as how there was no way he could discern the key to getting it to open for him, he relied on something more simple and direct. He had always preferred things that way anyhow. He placed his hands on the smooth wall and channeled his hatred for the alicorn rulers into a vast, yet non hell-fueled heat that would incinerate a dragon. A section of white wall the size of himself melted into a puddle near his booted feet. Without any fear of possible danger beyond, he stepped through intent on reclaiming what was rightfully humanity’s.

The secret exit/entrance wound and twisted this way and that like a serpent. Illitheous pondered if perhaps it was not the passage he was looking for, especially after having just come through a portion of it that echoed with the sound of rushing water and leaking droplets of it seeping through the roof. Was he under a river? Where was it taking him? After being in the cramped hallways for so long he had lost all sense of direction and wasn’t even sure if he was moving deeper into the earth or heading somewhere above it. Illitheous came to a sudden stop. The once narrow pathway had just opened up considerably into what looked more like a natural cavern. At the opposite side was a single door. Illitheous headed straight before stopping again. He sensed something was amiss. And it was coming from the slight dip in the middle of the cave.

Illitheous was fed up with this drivel and decided to tempt fate. “I don’t have time for this! Show yourself or leave me be! If you get in my way I will make you eat your own liver after I rip it out! Now make your choice!”

A moment of silence passed. Then a rumbling at the cave’s center transformed into what felt like an earthquake. Fate had apparently answered his challenge. The floor collapsed almost entirely. The human teetered on the remaining edge of stable floor and looked down to find a horrible mass of brown, teeth, and tentacles. It was an Oyortogu, a species of plant that grew to enormous size that had a diet of meat, metal, garbage or pretty much anything that it could fit into its massive mouth. They tended to live only in damp places or areas with a huge amount of non plant material to devour and lured anything unlucky enough it could into its belly. Illitheous had thought that they were among the monsters that had gone extinct after the New Princesses had gone on their campaign to make “their land” safe, driving back the wilds until all that remained in any large quantity was the Everfree Forest. Apparently they had missed one. Judging from the small (in comparison to most at least) size of this one and its brown color the abhorrent creature was likely slowly starving to death.

Guess that explains why they don’t use this passage any more. Illitheous thought.

Before Illitheous could think any more on the subject, one of the Oyortogu’s needle laced tentacles moved to grab him for a bite to eat; and not in the “hey, let’s have dinner together” kind of way. Illitheous hopped from one part of stable footing to another with the grace of an acrobat. The needle covered tentacles kept him on the defensive. The tentacles would smash into the stone walls near him in a sort of tantrum. Every time it missed gravel and debris rained down on top of him. All the plant wanted was its next meal. It was its sole objective in life. To eat, grow, and eat again, that was all the beast knew. With hunger driving it to near insanity the monster would stop at nothing short of destroying its own lair if it meant it could eat after so many years of starvation. Sets of tentacles kept thrashing about as it grew increasingly erratic in its need to consume.

Illitheous was in no mood for this whatsoever. Another barbed plant extremity almost impaled the undead human. It was just about to pull that tentacle free but Illitheous grabbed it with both hands and pulled in opposite directions.

“ENOOOOOUUUUUGH!!!”

With the brutality of a demon Illitheous ripped apart the Oyortogu’s tentacle with his bear hands. Green blood sprayed like a sick fountain. The monster screeched in agony, shaking the room. Illitheous was at full hate fueled power again. He caught and held the next tentacle that lashed at his direction with only one fiery hand. Clenching his fist hard a line of fire burned at the tentacle and trailed down it, heading strait for the Oyortogu’s toothy mass that served as its body. The pitiable creature was on fire both inside and out as it screamed, perhaps for the pain to cease or perhaps only out of some animal instinct. It had no eyes, so one couldn’t be sure if the creature had a soul that was being incinerated as well, but it was definitely dying in a pain that could not be matched.

The cavern was alight in red and orange that reflected off of the Oyortogu that was now a living, screaming fire pit. Illitheous’s face was like a scowling statue of the Grim Reaper. He turned and teleported to the bit of floor in front of the door leading out of the thing’s self excavated grave. The creature was still screaming as he left it to die.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Inside a castle foyer a pair of unicorn guards in gold armor stood lazily at their post chatting.

“Look I’m telling you the Princess of the Sun has a thing for the pegasus troops,”stated the unicorn on the right named Informing Trooper.

“Yeah sure. Last weak you said the Legendary Elements of Harmony were all filly foolers and that the they all liked each other. And the week before that you thought Her Majesty was gonna send you to the moon for accidentally knocking over that vase. Oh and we can’t forget when you said that more than half the ponies in Equestria were actually born as some kind of alien monkeys and were all shape shifting into ponies in secret with the help of Twilight Sparkle,” the unicorn called Stoic Belief said.

“Hey! That last one was sort of true. Remember the changeling incident?” Informative Trooper said.

“Pfft. Look you really need to stop reading those stupid tabloids. None of them are ever true,” Stoic Belief responded.

“I’m SERIOUS Stoic! Why do you think she has so many pegasus guards with white coats and made it regulation for those without to dye theirs white? She has a thing for white coated pegasus guards I’m telling you!” Info said.

“Ok then Info. Does your little theory explain why she lets unicorns join? Or why we have to dye our coats gray?” spoke Stoic

“I guess it’s for when she feels like something different maybe?” Info offered.

“OR she has us each dye our coats to give a sense of uniformity and to make it easier to tell what branch of the royal military we’re in,” Stoic countered.

“Ok NOW who’s the pony being gullible? You actually buy that official line?” Info

“Well it makes more sense then what you say,” Stoic

An uncomfortable silence settled on the two colts until Informative Trooper tried to start up another conversation.

“So…you see those new BT-16’s?”

“Greetings, you wretched piles of filth,” interrupted a gravely deep voice.

The two less-then-ready guards fumbled with their spears as Illitheous leaped out of the shadows of a decorative pillar and landed with a heavy thud in front of them. The human smashed their helmeted craniums together with extreme prejudice. An audible crack was heard even over the clang of metal. The stallions slumped to the floor, unconscious. Illitheous stepped over their bodies as casually as one stepping over a slight bump in a road. He marched through a set of doors with a stylized sun symbol above it. No doubt it led to Celestia’s chambers. To his slight aggravation, beyond the golden doors was a large, spiral staircase instead of the ruler’s chambers. With no real directions to go on, he decided to keep going up. It was as good a direction as any. Illitheous lost count of how many steps he impatiently climbed by the time he reached another set of gold doors. With the faint trace of a sadistic smile on his flaming skull the black clad human kicked them open. A startled looking alicorn looked at him from the middle of a master bedroom decorated in pink and blue. She was smaller then a fully aged alicorn. She had pink fur tinged on the edges with purple and a cutie mark that was definitely not that of the sun.

“You are NOT Celestia,” Illitheous growled.

“I…I’m Princess Cadence. Who are YOU?” Cadence stammered in surprised.

“I am the last thing you will ever see.”

Illitheous sprang like a cheetah. Cadence barely managed to move away in time. The commander crashed and set alight the bed behind her where he landed. Destroying the wooden edges of the bed with a swipe of his arms, he threw one of the splintered burning chunks at the newly discovered alicorn. He missed, but the piece actually imbedded itself into the wall like a spear in the belly of dead warrior.

“What do you want!?” Cadence cried.

“FOR EVERY RULING GODDESS HERE TO DIE!!!” Illitheous said.

Illitheous cornered the poor mare and inched closer. He was crouched like a wolf about to pounce on its prey. Princess Cadence was terrified. She had only been told a meager amount of details of what had been happening in Ponyville by her aunt Celestia. The much older mare hadn’t wanted to worry her niece. Cadence was completely inexperienced with any real conflict. This was befitting a demi-goddess of love and Celestia didn’t want to involve her so as to protect her. It was a plan that had gone swimmingly until just now. Illitheous had no prior knowledge of the relatively new princess who usually stayed in the safety of Canterlot’s walls. On the opposite side of things Cadence only knew a threat to the kingdom was centered in Ponyville. She knew that it was from ancient times that involved Untie Tia and Untie Luna’s pasts. Now she was practically staring death in the face.

“ *panting* Cadence I’m back from helping maintain the array of force fiel…GET AWAY FROM MY WIFE YOU MONSTER!”

The skeletal figure turned to see Shining Armor in the doorway wearing a brave and furious expression. All the undead human saw was a fool-hardy unicorn who was wearing the traditional Guard Captain uniform with a unique coat of arms badge. Illitheous looked back at the quivering demi-goddess, noticing for the first time the ring on her horn.

They’re spreading like the damned plague! He thought in disgust.

“Have you children?” the man inquired.

“What!?” was Twilight’s older brother’s confused response.

“I will take that as a no.” Illitheous said.

“Please don’t hurt him!!!” Princess Cadence begged.

“Don’t worry,” the fire around his skeletal hands grew hotter. “This will only take a moment.”

With a gesture, a cinder jumped off of the cadaver’s hand and landed on the carpet in front of Cadence. From it combusted a circle of tall fire that trapped the princess of love.

This only further upset Shining Armor. “If you hurt one hair on my wife’s head you’ll regret it!” he threatened.

“Worry more about what eternity rotting in a dungeon will be like,” Illitheous replied.

The second those words left the undead creature’s jaws a shiny pinkish purple force bubble enclosed around him. Illitheous didn’t flinch.

The captain of the guard put a hoof up to his chest in pride. “Ha! That was easy. Maybe next time you should bring backup.”

Illitheous tilted his skull to the side, a disturbing image considering he was a black-coated, fiery skeleton. He moved his skull back and put a hand on the wall of the force field.

“I wouldn’t waste energy trying to escape. Nopony’s ever escaped my force field before and I aim to keep that record intact,” Shining said with just a hint of fear in his voice. He created another force field shaped like a ring and lowered in onto the fire around his beloved wife to pat out and suffocate the flame.

Cadence moved next to her husband with a frown. She couldn’t stop looking at the fearsome creature inside the force bubble. She could sense a nauseating amount of dark magic exuding from it but…something else as well. Sadness perhaps? Buried under a planet’s worth of anger. She couldn’t help feeling more then a little sympathetic to the trapped entity inside. Being a demi-goddess of love will do that to you.

*CRACK*

The two ponies’ eyes widened and their ears shot up. The creature hadn’t budged from his position since being imprisoned. His hand was still on the wall of the force bubble. Another crack sounded from the sphere, this time a hairline fracture was clearly forming on the spot where its hand was. The sphere started to change its color to that of a ruddy orange.

Shining Armor’s pupils shrank to pin pricks. “CADENCE, WE GOTTA GO NOW!” he yelled in warning.

Not an instant later, the force bubble violently exploded. The two ponies were hurtled into the walls so hard they couldn’t move lest their nerves send out pain signals too numerous to deal with without fainting. Illitheous cracked his neck vertebrae and kneeled down near the two ponies in real need of a doctor. He thought about killing them both right now but realized he had spent far too much time dealing with Celestia’s lackies then he should have. These two obviously weren’t going anywhere anytime soon and “Her Majesty” was the real prize. The revelation of another alicorn was troubling though. How many others were there he didn’t know about? It would have to wait. Celestia might already be readying her cowardly escape. He took a moment to bind and gag the two with the heavy drapes on the nearby window and then shoved them in a closet.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Illitheous said with a smile.

He then melted the lock on the closet before exiting the room. Illitheous was a black and red blur of motion. He ran up those spiral steps in a mad (in every sense of the word) dash for the top chamber. His boots left melted imprints in the carved rocky stairs. His patience was completely gone and he would find the sun princess if it killed her, since that was what he would do when he found her after all. The steps ceased. Another set of gold doors loomed before the undead entity. These were larger than the last few he had passed, including the two that had led to the unexpected encounter with that other lesser goddess and her spouse.

He should have considered pursuing a different profession. Illitheous mused.

Riddle Me This

At first the tunnel was like any other dark tunnel. It was narrow, cold, and not lacking the aroma of fresh dirt. As the Elements of Harmony trotted on, however, the passage gradually became wider, more symmetrical and the rocky steps became smoother and better carved. Fluttershy was the first to see the light at the end of the otherwise dark tunnel. She ran toward the light.

“Wait Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled to the now jubilant pegasus. “We don’t know if what’s causing that light is dangerous!”

Fluttershy didn’t register what Twilight had said, seeing as how she was focused solely on getting out of the dark. When she finally reached the fear smashing illumination she gasped. Her friends heard and rushed to her side to make sure she was all right. When they got there they each gasped in turn. The cavern they were now in was coated in brass and gold. All around them were dark gray statures carved from the cave itself. Each was a unique species, all holding a lit white candle and in a similar gown with the chiseled hood raised. They filled the extremely massive cavern, leaving only a golden walkway in the middle as space to move around. The walkway led strait across from the ponies to a large circular slab made of simple wood. It stood in heavy contrast to the materials surrounding it. The group of six walked along the brilliant path, past the solemn statues.

“This is incredible.” Fluttershy said, wide eyed at the surrounding statues and gold.

“Indeed, just look at all the trouble the hardworking fellow at the entrance put into this.” Rarity concurred.

Rainbow Dash gave her friend a look of confusion as she hovered along next her. “What makes you so sure that bug thing made these?”

“Well my dear, I haven’t seen any evidence to suggest there are any others on this strange island; and he was formed of rock .” Rarity said.

Applejack snickered, “Yeah RD, ya’ll should listen to ‘er about boulders and such. After all, she dated Tom after Discord introduced ‘me.”

RD laughed at that while Rarity turned a shade of red rivaling the mark on the earth pony’s hindquarters.

“Applejack, be a dear and kindly stuff a sock in it if you would.”

“Ewww. Why would you have socks with you in public miss marshmallow? You’re crazy,” Pinkie chimed in.

The others had taken to completely ignoring their pink friend until she got the cactus juice from earlier out of her system.

Twilight was still at the back of the party, taking her time in order to get a better look at the different statues. She deduced the gowns to be type of religious uniform with the candles likely representing something. What exactly, she couldn’t say without in-depth study (something she wanted to do in order to learn more about the plethora of different species). She recognized a few – griffin, tulgar, minotaur, raavasta, there was even a human statue!

Oh the things I could learn if I just studied these a little. No, focus Twilight! You’re not here on an archeology expedition!

She rejoined her friends who had stopped in front of the circular wooden portal and were giving it a ponderous look. “What’s up gals?” she asked.

Fluttershy pointed up to the door. “L-look there.”

Twilight stared where the pegasus was pointing and finally noticed what was literally writing on the wall.

‘Like a Riddle, I Unwind.’

‘Like a Green Tide, I Reach Out.’

'Like a Thief in the Tomb, I Seize.’

‘What am I?’

“Well it’s obviously a riddle. So my guess is we have to solve it to get through,” Twilight said.

“Let me take a crack at it.” Applejack spoke. She took a gander at answer. “Is it a pony?” They reach out for stuff and take ‘em when they reach ‘em. Plus I know ah like to unwind after a hard days work.”

Not only did the wooden circle that served as a door way not budge, it also did something very unexpected. In red magic letters the word ‘WRONG’ appeared. Before Applejack or the others could respond in any fashion, a whip shaped shadow shot out from the surrounding darkness. It coiled around her legs and pulled her away into the hidden recesses of the brass and golden cavern.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHhhh…” the orange mare cried as she was pulled into the shadows.

“Don’t worry AJ, I’m coming!” Rainbow proclaimed.

She zipped in the direction she had seen her friend get taken. She searched with the sharp eyes of a bird of prey. The other four waited anxiously. The land bound mares due to the statues being way to close together to allow anything bigger than a snake or mouse to slip past; and Fluttershy who was far too frightened to move from her spot. Rainbow Dash returned alone after a few minutes, her eyes starting to water up. Her silence was all her friends needed to hear. Their eyes started filling with held back tears as well. Even the out of sorts Pinkie Pie was in serious need of a tissue. Twilight forced herself to break the silence threatening to group sob.

Her voice cracked with restrained sadness. “Don’t worry girls. *sniff* I bet if we just solve the riddle on that door we’ll get AJ back since the two must be connected in someway.”

Her friends might have disputed the purple unicorn’s logic if it wasn’t the only hope they had of rescuing Applejack. They all squinted in thought at the thick door in thought.

“Why are we staring at this door?” Pinkie asked.

The others groaned in unison.

“Because we need to solve the riddle, save Ponyville and get Applejack back, ok?! Try to focus past the dang cactus juice! This is serious!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Pinkie’s eyes were half as dilated as before but still made it look like she wasn’t ‘all there’ yet. She set cyan saucer plates on the door in a confused way. Then she closed them and smiled.

“The answer is 42”

Rainbow Dash hovered next to Pinkie with a hoof on her hip and a questioning eyebrow rose. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight held equally doubtful expressions. “How, exactly, is the answer to the riddle 42?” Rarity asked, pointing a hoof at the enchanted obstacle.

“Because, the answer to everything ever will eventually lead to 42!” The pink mare said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“But it makes no sense Pinkie!” said Twilight.

“42.”

“But--”

“42!”

‘WRONG’ Door

The same rope shaped shadow shot out with a whoosh of air, wrapping around Pinkie Pie’s legs like it had with the other earth pony. She only had enough time to say one thing before succumbing to the same fate, whatever that was.

“Jeez, can’t this place take a jooooooke!!”

“PINKIE!!!” the others yelled.

Predictably, there was no response. Another silence lapsed by. Fluttershy’s eyes shed tears. Twilight hugged her despairing friend. “It’ll be ok. We just need to get the right answer to the riddle and they’ll be fine. I promise.” Twilight Sparkle broke the hug to look her timid friend in the eye.

Fluttershy wiped her tears away and tried to steel her emotions as best she could. “Ok. I’ll be brave. For my friends.”

With a sad smile purple unicorn spoke “That’s the spirit. Now come on everypony. Lets figure out this riddle and put this whole mess behind us.”

Just then the fashionista, who was duck facing at the riddle carved into the door, spoke to herself ponderously. “Seize, unwind, and reach out, hmmm. Oh girls. I may have the answer we need. Though I’m not sure if I should attempt it.”

The purple, yellow, and blue mares exchanged nervous looks but did not object.

“All right.” The white unicorn gulped. “Is the answer” she hesitated. “Time?”

Once again the big, red letters materialized and read ‘WRONG’.

Flutters spotted movement and actually yelled “RARITY TO YOUR LEFT!”

The fashionista noticed the movement too thanks to the meek pegasus’s warning. On an instinctive urge, she jumped in surprised. Unfortunately it didn’t help her evade the creeping tentacle for more then a half second as it still coiled itself around her back legs. Rarity, front hooves still free, held onto the nearest statue for dear life while being tugged by the hidden thing.

“Not THIS time!” Rainbow shouted.

She clutched Rarity’s mane in her teeth. Twi grabbed onto the element of loyalty’s tail and Fluttershy onto Twilight’s tail.

“Oh dear. OW! Be careful!” Rarity complained as her hooves slowly began to scrape across the statue of a robed four eyed muscular creature.

“Mrum trinin!” Dash said through a mouthful of now-not-so-perfectly-styled hair. Even with three other ponies pulling the stringy, mostly hidden item was slowly winning the tug of war. Rarity’s hooves continued to scratch across the gray stone as she was beginning to lose her tenuous grip.

She gasped. “Oh no! I think I'm slipping!”

Sensing it’s opening, the shadow made a powerful tug during the tiring unicorn’s distraction. She flew threw the stagnant cavern air with a shriek. “NO!” the others yelped in dismay, hurtling in the opposite direction. The Elements Bearers of Magic and Kindness were staring in sad shock. Dash did too before her sorrow turned to anger. She exploded with fury at the door.

Hovering right in front of it she berated it with insults. “STUPID DOOR! I OUGHTA TURN YOU INTO FIRE WOOD! GIVE BACK OUR FRIENDS RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I’ll-“

More magic red letters appeared on the circular obstruction. ‘HORSE PLEASE, I’M A DOOR’ *THWIP* Rainbow was forced away as not one, but many of the things coiled around her so fast they were a blur.

“Cheaterrrrrrrrrr!” Dash screamed.

Her words faded into the light and shadows of the cave.

About half an hour had passed with neither Fluttershy nor Twilight Sparkle being certain enough on an answer.

“Um, Twilight, can we please take a little break? My head is starting to hurt and we still haven’t come up with the answer.”

“You can if you want but I won’t rest until I crack the riddle and retrieve our friends.” Twilight answered.

Truth be told, the unicorn was sure she had almost solved it. The answer was on the tip of her toung. If only something would click the last invisible piece into place. The element of magic looked around, hoping something would give her that final hint. Fluttershy was rubbing her head with her eyes shut in an attempt to evict the throbbing it currently housed. The golden path way they were both on astonishingly remained unsmudged and unscratched even after the six of them had trecked across it. The various species of statue had since stopped looking fascinating to her and now seemed rather menacing with their candle lit bodies casting creepy shadows in the orange hue of fire and brass. Then there was the door. Larger then her by at least eight feet. Made of wood, likely something sturdy like oak or maybe Ironwood, and clearly heavily enchanted.

Wait a minute. She reread the riddle and focused on one line in particular. Like a green tide, I reach out. Like a GREEN tide. Why specify the tide as green? It seems so unnecessary on the surface. It’s a hint. Gotta be. But how does it pertain to the answer? Is it referencing something in here? There isn’t any wind and I don’t see anything that is or ever could have been green except maybe the wooden door…wooden door, wood, tree, plant. Twilight inhaled with bright smile.

Shy looked up in surprise. “What’s wrong Twilight?”

“Nothing at all! I have the answer!” the studious unicorn beamed.

Fluttershy was not entirely convinced. “Are you sure? Rarity said she might know it too but, well…” the winged pony trailed off.

The intelligent unicorn was confident however and would not be deterred. “I’m 100 percent sure about this Fluttershy. Well technically its more like 99.999 percent sure but statistically speaking-“

“Ok,” Shy muttered before changing her expression to a supportive smile. “You can do it Twilight. I know you can.”

“You do?” Twilight

“I do.” Fluttershy

With a nod Twi then turned to the door without a lick of doubt. “The answer is VINES!” She stated loudly and clearly.

Letters materialized on the door over the carved riddle. ‘WELL DONE’ they said. The door rumbled. Like a big wheel, it rolled to the side into a slot on the side until it was hidden as if it had never been there at all.

“Twilight, Fluttershy you did it!”

Hanging in the air were none other then the pair’s abducted friends. They were trapped in the constrictor like hold of thick vines. Sparkle could make them out now without them darting by so fast and the aid of the candle light. The vines lowered and released the four ponies without any hard feelings. Even Rainbow, who was wrapped up to mouth with only her lavender eyes peaking out, was lowered to the ground gently. One of the sentient vines even pattered her on the head to show there were no hard feelings.

Rainbow Dash turned her nose up at it, resisting the urge to bite it. “Humph.”

“Oh we’re so glad your ok.” Shy spoke.

After a group hug Twilight asked her friends the current question buzzing in her head like an angry bee. “So what happened to you guys? Are those vines the same things that grabbed you?”

“Sure are but they ain’t troublemakers. Just another one of the guardian types like that feller outside Ah reckon. They kept us hanging around until you came through with the riddle.” Applejack explained.

One of the vines curled to mimic Spike’s ‘thumbs up’, confirming what she said.

“Indeed. I believe they were just doing their duty. Though they DID manage to ruin my once glorious hooficure but I suppose it can’t be helped,” spoke Rarity.

“Yeah whatever. Can we go now? I’ve had enough of this place already,” the rainbow maned pegasus complained.

“Of course. Let’s go. Come on Pinkie Pie.” The magic wielding leader said.

The overly energetic mare stopped the game of patty cake she had been playing with two of the vines. “Aww ok. Bye Mister and Missus Vine. See ya around.”

The two vines (along with the other plants) waved good-bye as the earth pony bounced away.

Ancient Relics

The group of mares went down farther into the bowels of the cave. The tunnel had gradually changed to a simple one with stone steps once more. There were no gilded tunnels with precious metals to be found here. Fluttershy watched as Pinkie Pie happily bounced along.

“If you don't mind me saying Pinkie you seem like you’re feeling better.”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all!” The earth pony replied. “I do feel like my old self again. But I tell ya Fluttershy since I ate that cactus I’ve seen some thiiiiings mare. I mean like stuff you wouldn’t believe. There was just crazy crazy crazy in my face all the time. It was like I could see everything happening everywhere at once! I couldn’t even handle it and I’m usually the best with that kind of stuff.”

Fluttershy craned her neck back to put some breathing space between her and her party-throwing friend. “Well, uh, that’s, uh, nice. I’m just glad you’re feeling better again.”

“You know it!” The element bearer of laughter replied.

“Hush girls, I think the we’re entering the next chamber.” Twilight rebuked.

They shielded their eyes as they adjusted to the sudden burst of light. They all uttered one word in unison after seeing this newest chamber.

“Woah.”

If the last cavern could be described as big, then this one could only be described as gargantuan. The last area had been more wide than high to allow room for the statues of various followers of an unknown faith. This part of the temple, however, was the polar opposite. The ceiling of the cavern just seemed to go on indefinitely, perhaps it did. The walls of the chamber were also set very far apart but at least one could actually see where they ended. Eerie carvings of faceless winged beings like those outside could be seen on them with their arms raised. Four majestic waterfalls tinted the whole room a beautiful aurora of color with a calm blue being the most prevalent. Now, one might wonder where the water could go once it had entered the cavern. Wouldn’t it flood the whole place? Well it would, were it not for the obviously artificial grated hole in the center of the floor acting as a drain. Water pooled in and around the cavern floor as it waited to be flushed away to who knew where.

The six ponies forced themselves onward through the calf deep water. Onward to the exit they went, more cautiously then previously. Even Pinkie Pie trotted along slowly instead of bouncing about like a fool. No sound was made except the echo of splashing accompanied by the smell of mineral water .

There was a *click* and the sound of stone grinding against stone followed by Pinkie saying “Ooops”

They all stopped dead in their tracks. Twilight Sparkle slowly turned her head around like it was a rusty door hinge.

She asked her friend a very important question. “Pinkie Pie, what did you just do?”

The pink mare rubbed the back of her neck with a guilty grin glued to her face. The spot where that same leg had been now revealed a hidden pressure plate.

“Prooobably something I shouldn’t have,” She offered.

The room cavern started shaking like there was an earth quake going on as one of the many traps was set off. The four ponies unable to hover off the floor struggled to maintain balance.

“Consarn it Pinkie Pie! If we make it out of this in one piece I swear I’ll throttle ya!” Applejack yelled.

“HURRY!! We have to reach the exit before-“Twilight was interrupted by a loud slam amidst the rumble as their escape was cut off by a slab of some kind of rare crystal. “-that happens” she finished.

The steady beat of drums filled the entirety of the jostling room. Disturbing, deep voices came form the walls. “HO, HA, HO, HA, HO, HA”

The strong chant repeated along with the drums. The shacking was growling more violent and the speed of the music and chant was becoming faster too. Then it all stopped.

The six looked around in apprehension. “Was that all?” Fluttershy asked.

Abruptly an almost deafening chorus assaulted their ears. The four on the ground clutched their heads and rolled about in agony. Rainbow and Fluttershy soon followed suit.

“AAAAAAAAA! LIFE BEYOND DEATH IN THE SKYYYYY!

THE UNELIGHTENED DRIFT IN A SEAAAAA!

OUR SOULS WERE OOOFFERED HERE,

THIS IS WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO BEEEEE!

EVEN AS OUR FAMILYS CRIED OUT,

FOR US TO RETURRRRRRRRRN,

WE ONLY HEED THE GREAT ONES CAAAAAAALL!

WE ONLY HEAR THE REAPER’S SOOOOOOONG!”

As this painfully loud (and, as Pinkie would later point out, pretty bad) song rang out the water flow had increased. The waterfalls were now powerful jets of water and the cavern was filling up fast. Now they were being forced to use their forelegs to swim instead of cover their ears. At first Twilight and Rarity both tried to halt or dull the music but found it impossible to concentrate in order to cast anything. RD had recovered her wits enough to fly above the water again use her forelegs to cover her ears. She raced into action and tried to find another way out somewhere along the walls. Fluttershy cried and begged for the lyrical attack to stop, but sound isn’t exactly known for its ability to be reasoned with. Rarity was panicking and Pinkie was of no help whatsoever. Twilight, being the physically weakest was attempting to tell Applejack her current theory that she believed could save them but she kept getting a gulp full of water every time she tried.

Applejack was easily the strongest swimmer. She didn't need as much oxygen for her muscles due to her being both a hardworking farmer and that she was of the physically superior earth pony race. Because of this and how her friends weren’t making any headway she took it upon herself to search the only area they hadn’t, underwater near the drain. The liquid was still rising rapidly, there wasn’t much time before the group got too tired to swim or the chant knocked them all out and they would drown! AJ swam for all she was worth, fighting past the pain of the supernatural song.

She reached the grate. It had rather small holes that only allowed a measly amount of water to drain away. The earth pony saw a handle attached to an iron chain and grabbed it with her teeth. With water flooding her lungs she still forced her body to tug at the chain. Her vision was darkening and her lungs screamed at her for air when she pulled the chain far enough. The grate swung inward on a hinge. The water flooding the cave swirled swiftly down into the hole along with the farm pony. The mind crippling music was gone now and those on the water’s surface held on to whatever they could to keep from being sucked down into the whirlpool.

When the colossal cavern’s water level had finally dropped to its previous state the elements of harmony gathered back together from their spots. Rainbow Dash landed with a panicky Pinkie Pie and a rattled Rarity. Twilight had dug her hooves onto one of the openings where the jets of water where ushering though until she could teleport down. They looked around for their most timid and stalwart companions. They found the former first.

“I’m up here!” the mare had called from the edge of one of the wall carvings.

The five friends now only needed the element bearer of honesty, but were befuddled and could not locate her. The reality that their best friend had most likely sacrificed herself to save the others hit home. Their eyes watered, not with the remnants of the trap, but with tears. They hugged each other and cried for their friend.

“She was the bravest of us all!” Rarity balled out.

“I can’t believe she’s really gone.” Fluttershy sobbed.

“I never got to tell her how sorry I was for sneaking into her room at night and taking suggestive pictures of her then selling them to the colts in Cloudsdale for thirty bits a pop!” Rainbow confessed.

“Y’all did WHAT!?”

The five ceased their group hug and poked their heads over the edge of the drain to see Applejack hanging onto the chain switch with her mouth still clamped down on it. She swung gently from side to side with her front hooves holding her hat to keep it from being dragged down into the pit.

“Applejack, you’re alive!” Twilight said ecstatically.

“ ‘course ah am” replied the earth pony “Now somepony help me up already.”

The lavender unicorn levitated her tired, soaking wet friend up. After a quick round of hugs the party finally moved onwards. AJ hung back for a second.

“Hey RD, come ‘ere.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

The strongest mare in Ponyville socked the fastest flier in the side.

“Ow! What the hay was that for?!”

“For taken pictures of me and selling ‘em! What do ya think?!”

Rainbow Dash looked everywhere except the orange mare’s face as she answered. “Right… Well if it makes you feel better, I did it with the others too.”

“That just makes it worse!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Don’t make such a big deal about it. I only did it once when I was reeeeally low on bits and I couldn’t afford food that week. Wont happen again.” RD explained.

Applejack gave her a suspicious glare. “It better not.”

The two moved to catch up to the others, Rainbow Dash thinking Okay, whatever you do, DON’T tell AJ about the photos of Big Mac you keep under the bed.

Another dark tunnel, more nervous silence. Twilight dropped to her knees all of a sudden and gasped. Her friends were already by her side.

“Oh Twilight are you all right? What’s wrong? Tell me the symptoms you feel if you’re getting sick,” said the kind pink and yellow pegasus.

The magic wielder took her companion’s outstretched hoof to help her up.

“I’m fine Fluttershy. Just got the wind knocked out of me. Can’t you guys feel that?”

The purple pony was met with looks of incomprehension.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Well I do feel a tad light headed from all the background magic here but it’s been like this since we arrived.”

Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “It’s not that. Just now it felt like a massive force just shoved me down. Now it feels almost like we’re being watched.”

Fluttershy cowered at the idea of some invisible monster watching her. “W-watched by what?”

Twilight could only offer a look that said ‘I wish I knew’.

Pinkie Pie hopped excitedly. “OH, I feel like I’m being watched all the time! Except I never mind because most of the watchers give me a happy feeling in my chest but you’re totally right Twilight! Now that you mention it I can say I feel it too! It’s like when your daddy is watching you work and you mess up and you know that he knows but he doesn’t SAY that he knows it just eats at you so you want him to forgive you SO much but you’re nervous hewontbutyouwannatryanywayandthewholetimeyourthinkingthisyoufeellikehe’sreviewingyourentirelifeandjudgingyou!!! AMIRIGHTTWILIGHT?!”

Pinkie Pie had changed hues from her namesake to a dark blue as she had forgotten to breathe towards the end of her verbal assault.

Twilight was a little wide eyed when she responded. “Well…yeah actually. That’s exactly what it feels like. But you’re not a unicorn Pinkie, let alone one whose talent relates to magic.”

“Well of course I’m no unicorn silly! Although I bet I would make an amazing one, not that you aren’t but if I was I would be like the best party pony ever! I could just poof all the decorations on in a snap which is totally weird since we ponies can’t actually snap but the humans back home probably can. Oh do you think they came up with that and we kept the phrase out of habit after they left ‘cause that would explain a lot of weird stuff in equestrian, not to say weird stuff is bad like the human invasion because weird stuff makes things fun and I love fun! I’m all about fun, that’s why I’m Pinkie Pie!”

Taking a second to digest everything the hyperactive earth pony said, Miss Sparkle settled for continuing her earlier line of questioning instead of pursing one of her friend’s stray thoughts. “Uh, but then how can you sense that presence around us when Rarity, a unicorn like me, can’t?”

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “I dunno. I’m Pinkie Pie.”

Miss Sparkle went stiff and her right eye twitched. Her other friends could tell this bugged her beyond measure. Twilight was a mare that needed things to make sense. She had come a long way in accepting the pink equestrian’s eccentrics but every now and again Pinkie would say or do something that made just enough sense so that it hinted at something deeper yet remained an unsolvable puzzle. Now was one of those times and it drove Twilight batty. Rainbow Dash steered the conversation back to the immediate situation. She patted Twilight on the back.

“Don’t stress it, she’s just being Pinkie Pie, you know that. Shouldn’t we get going and stuff?”

Twilight zoomed into Rainbow’s personal space and starred her straight in the eye. “But I NEED to know what she means.”

Dash was sweating while looking this way and that with a forced grin at Twi’s slightly creepy behavior. Pinkie interrupted the two in order to soothe her frazzled friend. She adjusted the purple mare’s head to look at her.

“Twilight, its OK if you don’t know everything. I know you don’t always understand me but believe me when I say its better that way.” The usually goofy equestrian’s hair darkened slightly in rare moment of seriousness. “Knowing everything isn’t so fun, especially about what’s GOING to happen. So just enjoy the moment and smile, despite the world trying to keep you from doing just that, ok? If you don’t the mysteries and less happy facts of life will drive you craAaAaAazy!”

Rarity, as well as the others, worried about Pinkie Pie. This was unusually serious and deep of her.

The white unicorn put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Darling, are you alright?”

The pink earth pony cheered up immediately. Her fur becoming brighter again and her smile returning from its ‘bitter sweetly philosophical’ sitting to its regular ‘life is amazing and I wanna hug you all to death’ setting.

“Don’t worry, I was just thinking too much just now instead of living in the moment.” She said.

“Only if you’re certain you’re fine,” Rarity.

“I’m alright as long as you all are,” Pinkie assured

“I’m sorry about over focusing Pinkie Pie. Let’s get that artifact, together,” Twilight said.

All of them looked at each other and put on determined looks of comradery. They knew they had to save Equestria from the humans. Not because they were aggressively taking things by force, not because of some ancient fault of Celestia or her parents. They had to stop Illitheous and his Crusaders of Fire because if they didn’t innocents who didn’t even know what was causing the fighting would continue to become hurt and homeless in the crossfire. They were who truly mattered.

“TOGETHER!”

Immediately after that Twilight felt a slight shift in the invisible presence that watched them. The shift was one of both approval and resistance. Their conviction was admirable yet their intrusion was viewed as an ambitious insult. Soon the six would discover just who or what these views actually belonged to.

_
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The last chamber was just as large as the others with none of the artificially crafted aspects of the last two chambers. Only the walkway and steps leading up to a massive pedestal-shaped structure up ahead showed signs of anything besides natural cave formation. To both sides of the flat walkway was a dark chasm that seemed endless. The path way was only wide enough for up to four of them at a time. The only light source came from a glowing white stone upon the top of the pedestal. It showed a dazzling display of illumination that would put even the brightest night carnival to shame. The mares, especially Rarity, eyes grew huge at the sight of such a clearly powerful and pristine jewel. Twilight snapped out of her revelry first with a shake of the head.

“We finally found it girls! We just have to get that diamond and we can stop all the senseless violence back home! We won’t let anypony else get hurt. Single file girls! I don’t want anypony to slip and fall off.” Twilight ordered.

“GOT IT!” the other five said with a series of salutes.

They moved in line, slowly and carefully. Upon nearing the base of the pedestal a hunched over figure in a hooded robe exactly like the ones the various stone statues and carvings were shown wearing, colored brown, grew visible. It was heard to make out in the darkness if it intended harm of not so Twilight made her horn glow with purple tinted light to get a good look. She and the other bearers of the elements set their gaze on weird, elderly creature. It shielded its massive eyes with two of its thin arms. It was rather tall and lanky with every limb (two legs and four separate three fingered arms at its sides) giving a good impression of leafless twigs. Its neck was as long as its arms and legs. On it rested a human sized, hairless cranium with a pair of massive glassy black eyes that dominated its face. It had no nose or ears in a traditional sense, just tiny holes where they would normally be. Its lipless mouth showed the flat teeth of a vegetarian. The creature appeared ill due to its hairless pale skin. It was ghostly white and wrinkled like it had dried up riverbeds all across it.

He, evident by its voice, pleaded for the light to go out. “No light, no light! Stings the eyes it does.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry! Just let me…there.” Twilight ceased channeling magic into her horn.

The seven of them once more bathed only in the glow seeping from the brilliant artifact. They could all see each other but not the finer details.

The alien man half asked half rambled to himself. “What’s the word? What are the words? So long? No, not so long. Uh hello? Yes, that was it. Hello adventurers. Who might you be?”

The group broke out of their single file formation to greet the character. He seemed friendly enough. That he was the first thing that had showed any common manners instead of attacking them in awhile helped of course.

“Well I’m Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie. We hail from Equestria. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them but we are the current wielders of the Elements of Harmony. The fellow at the entrance said if we could make it past your obstacles we could take that magic item to help our world.”

The pasty old man seemed upset after hearing who and why they were here. He turned away from them and threw his upper arms about in a fit and rubbed his temples with the lower pair of arms as he whispered to himself.

“Not right, not right. Supposed to be the follower races or the next keeper. How long? Have to wait, have to keep waiting, can’t let its power fade. They need me, no one else can, have to stay, have to wait. Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait.”

Fluttershy, ever the bleeding heart, fluttered over the old creature. “Oh you poor thing! You’re not well. How long have you been cooped up in here? When was the last time you slept?”

AJ leaned in to whisper to Twilight, her expression a mournful one. “Now Twi, I don’t like sayin’ this kinda thing about anypony but I’ve been around Granny Smith long enough to recognize when the apples ain’t all in the orchard no more.”

Twilight nodded. Fluttershy was still doting on the old creature but the rest of the group overheard Applejack.

The element of generosity crinkled her snout and whispered “Applejack! That is not a polite thing to say. Give the poor dear a benefit of a doubt. Anypony would be out of sorts after being stuck in here for so long with only a bedazzling jewel for companionship.”

The blond earth pony gave an apologetic shrug. “Just callin’ it like I see it.”

“Well crazy or not,” Rainbow Dash added “we can’t just leave the guy down here. We should take him back with us. Get him fixed up.”

Meanwhile Fluttershy was still trying to calm down the subject of discussion. She was petting him on the back and spoke in a soothing tone. “It’s ok now. Why don’t you just sit down and rest.”

“NO REST!!!”

Fluttershy peeped as the sudden outburst startled her. The other ponies now refocused on the odd creature.

“Can’t rest, never, not even for a moment! Have to be vigilant. Have to be. Protect the stone they said, guard it, care for it. IT is your life now they said. We’ll be back for you later. But later never came, never came, never came back. But swore to remain until they do. Have to stay. Staystaystaystay. No going back. They’ll come back,” the old watcher was sounding increasingly frantic.

Twilight stepped closer and asked, “Who? Who never came back?”

The thing’s huge eyes stopped focusing on his inner thoughts and honed in solely on the lavender unicorn. “Everybody.”

Fluttershy spoke up, “What do you mean by everybody?”

“All fell, all gone, great and terrible battles claimed so many. So many worlds burned to cinders and nothingness. Nothingness, gonegonegone. Apocalypses, Armageddon, the end of the eldest gods and their acolytes. So long ago. Can’t remember. They lost faith. No faith, no power. No power, no life. So few left. The Elder God still sits on its throne watching. Others gone. The first Angelus, Zeus, Isis, Talos, Bahamut, Gaia, Julianos…all gone. Angelus said they’d come back for us after the Daemons were gone but they remain, feeding on souls. I was no help then but I will be now. Just have to wait, have to protect, have to maintain. Just have to…stay…here.” By the end of his rambling he curled up into a ball and hugged himself. He just sat there and stayed utterly silent. The girl’s hearts broke at the pitiable sight. Twilight whispered a last question.

Her voice cracked a little. “Can you tell us anything about the artifact? Like what it is or how we use it?”

The old member of an unremembered race glanced up at her with glassy, distant eyes. “It is the Adamant of Order. One only needs to focus emotion into it and it will stop even the strongest of corruption. When taken picture home in your mind’s eye and it will take you there. Unless you have no home to go back too. Then you stay...here...alone.” He explained before going quite again.

After deducing the creature wasn’t going to explain any further the leader of the elements started up the rough stairs with her friends following behind. Once at the top all of them were stunned with the Adamant’s perfect beauty. Up close it was about the same size of a soccer ball and in the shape of a dodecahedron. Amazingly it was floating just off the little rock pedestal due to the colossal magical energy contained within its glossy surface. Miss Sparkle much like in the novels of Daring Do, slowly positioned her left hoof on the pedestal for support and the other to swipe it. She did just that. For a second nothing happened. The cut crystal just floated an inch off her hoof. She put it on her back to free her hoof up.

“We better get back home now.” She said.

“Oh I hope it’s still in one piece.” Spoke Fluttershy.

“Once we use this baby to defeat that Illi-err-skeleton guy we won’t have to worry about it.” Rainbow said confidently.

The air pressure suddenly felt almost painful. *Ruummmmmble*

“What was that?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously.

Twilight, Rarity and the member of a forgotten race all rubbed their heads. A sudden throbbing pain bothered them but Rainbow Dash wasn’t paying attention to that.

“I bet it’s another trap,” Dash said. “Let’s blow this place and go kick the humans out Equestria before it-“ She was cut off by the decrepit creature at the foot of the steps.

“NO! You intend to use the Adamant for war? It is only for learning, protection and the lifting of the veils of evil! You’ve angered Mitharu and the other survivors of order with un-pure intentions! Forgive them masters! They know not what they do!”

A legion of angry voices filled and shook the cave. So powerful were the voices of the last gods of order that dust and boulders fell as the underground structure started collapsing. “INFIDELLLLLLS!!! YOU HAVE DEFIIIIIILED OUR MOST SACRED TREASURRRRRRE! NOW YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN, SEE THE LIGHT, OF, DAAAAAAY!!!”

The pedestal burst into a pillar of white-hot fire! The cave’s once soft bluish hue was now a harsh bloody red that reflected the fury of the offended deities. The equestrians were blown down the stairs into a heap but immediately untangled themselves. Applejack yelled to be heard over the earthy crumbling.

“Twilight! Hurry up and picture home!”

“What?”

“The artifact! Use the artifact!” AJ repeated.

Twilight’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh right.”

The unicorn closed her eyes and the Adamant of Order glowed ever brighter. A swirling gray vortex with the sight of Canterlot on the other side congealed in front of them. Pinkie was the first to jump through followed by Fluttershy, Rarity and then Applejack. The element of loyalty hesitated and kept looking back and forth between the praying monk and the portal to her home realm.

Twilight coaxed her friend forward as beads of sweet stung her eyes. “Hurry Rainbow! I don’t know how long I can hold this!”

“But what about him?! If we leave him here he’ll DIE!” she replied while pointing at the four-armed being.

A huge chunk of rubble almost crushed the two mares.

“But if we stay here all of ponykind will suffer instead!” Twilight said.

Dash didn’t know what to do. Ultimately her loyalty to her friends, homeland, and the Princesses won out. She groaned then headed into the portal while combating the urge to look back. The lavender unicorn took up that task for her instead. She saw the robed figure with all four arms raised to the sky/ceiling.

“COME ON!” she yelled.

The place was falling apart. She didn’t want to leave him either but she was out of time.

The old monk didn’t move. “CAN’T, CAN’T! HAVE TO STAY, HAVE TO WAIT! THEY NEED ME! I BELEIVE IN THEM! THEY WONT ABANDON ME!”

Twilight Sparkle struggled to hold back her tears. There was no time left. The entire ceiling fell down. The young mare jumped through the swirling portal and both vanished.

The old man’s black, glassy eyes reflected the avalanche of rock. As it raced to claim his life he whispered the last thing he had clung so desperately too.

“They’ll come back.”

Twisted Perceptions

It seemed like an eternity of endless stairs. After his encounter with the other alicorn and her sickeningly devoted husband Illitheous had passed no less then fifteen more doors that all looked EXACTLY THE BLOODY SAME. Illitheous was contemplating that he had ascended up into the wrong tower and whether he should head back down when he finally reached the top. Illitheous now felt a sickeningly bright aura seeping through from the other side. This was Celestia’s room all right. He lifted a booted foot in the air and kicked open the heavy metal doors with ease. In the comfortably furnished but not lavishly-so space stood the elder co-ruler of Equestria. She was busy writing a letter and with her quill and parchment as if absolutely nothing was wrong.

“Celestia.”

The alicorn ceased writing but did not turn around. She did stiffen slightly however.

“Illitheous, you’re here to kill me, yes?”

“I’m here for justice.” Illitheous hissed.

There was a pause.

“Look at me when I’m talking! I am not some ant for you to ignore and look down upon when it suits you!”

Celestia turned very slowly to reveal a face full of tears. “I have NEVER considered you or any living being ‘below’ me. Why can’t you see that?”

Illitheous eyed her warily. ”Crocodile tears won’t save you Celestia. I won’t fall for any of your tricks.”

He began to circle across the room to get closer to the princess. She did the same in order to keep the distance between them. They circled each other like sharks.

“You can’t escape your legacy Celestia. I won’t let you take away my victory.” The undead human stated as he continued to circle the princess.

“Your lust for vengeance has already done that.” Celestia said. Her expression was grim and the tears had not stopped.

“I said don’t lecture me you harlot! I see through the lies of your kind. By days end I will have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire!” Illitheous shouted.

“Illitheous, listen to yourself! Don’t you see what you’ve become?!” Celestia yelled back.

“I will become whatever it takes to raise my people out of the grave. Even if I must sacrifice my own humanity.” Spoke the human as his aura of fire made itself more visible with its ever-increasing temperature. His feet started to melt the floor.

“So, this is how it must be.” The alicorn’s horn began to glow bright yellow and her aura of white light materialized as her power rose to a level that matched Illitheous’ own.

They both halted their movements. Each was an alternate vision of fire.

“I will do what I must.” spoke Celestia.

The human cracked his knuckles.

You will try. he countered.

Illitheous leaped, channeling all his power into his ringed fist at the same time that Celestia channeled much of her power into a magic blast of energy from her horn. Celestia’s beam attack made contact first and catapulted Illitheous out of the window in her room. In a beautiful display of shattered glass Illitheous plummeted to the distant ground. Illitheous would not be bested so easily though. He quickly positioned his limbs outward to catch more air and slow his decent. However that alone would not be enough to save him. He angled himself so he was close enough to the tower to grab it. Using his power of fire he clawed at the white stone. In a spray of melting masonry and torn out marble he slowed his decent to a crawl while simultaneously leaving a scorched scar in the formerly pristine white tower. Putting full power into his legs he leaped off the damaged tower to one of the nearby roofs of the palace.

The undead figure landed with an excessively heavy thud on the roof of another part of the castle. He raised his skull to the tower Celestia was still in. She lived in a castle that served no purpose but to further her own illusion of importance. She and her whole family thought themselves better then the rest. It was because of her kind that humanity was weakened to state of near extinction and before she even had the nerve to say they had brought it on themselves! How he despised her. How he loathed her. How he hated her! In one swift move he flung a powerful ball of fire at the tower. It exploded in an eruption of destruction.

To his dismay he spotted Celestia escaping the flames and diving towards him. He took some consolation from seeing he had badly burned one of her wings in the attack. As Celestia landed she immediately blasted Illitheous with a simple but easily cast force spell. The invisible but audible projectile cannoned into the human’s gut. He was hurled backward and bounced like a rag doll. Illitheous quickly rose to his feet just as Celestia fired another force ball spell. Illitheous was ready this time and braced himself. He grunted with effort to block the attack.

Although he managed to stay on his feet he was pushed back. His sliding footwear left twin trails of dust in their wake. The currently not-so-beloved princess did what any combatant who didn’t have a death wish would do. She pressed the attack. Her horn glowed and the stone around Illitheous suddenly shifted and sparked with magic. Four masses of hoof-shaped marble floated out of the castle and came at Illitheous from all directions. He put up his hands to stop two of them but failed in stopping any of them. They pounded into him with devastating force. The human squirmed between the rocky hoofs before letting out a roar of anger. They all shattered as he flexed his arms free.

It was the human’s turn now. He kneeled and placed both his skeletal limbs flat on the ground. Immediately, visible cracks like those seen on the side of a volcano made their way from his hands to the alicorn. She couldn’t fly away with her burnt wing. Instead she gave teleporting a chance. She thanked whichever god was watching over just then, teleporting out of the crack’s path just in time to watch them converge in the spot she had just been standing. A geyser of molten marble and brick exploded outward. Illitheous turned an angry skull her way. Celestia cast out a fast bolt of fire and kinetic magic. It hit her foe right in the face and down to the ground he went. Illitheous moved his spine and shifted his balance first to his back then to his lifting legs and jumped back to his feet without even using his arms. The skeleton mocked his reluctant adversary with maniacal laughter.

“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! You’ll have to do better then-UGH”

His body, which already was heavy with infernal magic, suddenly felt like it had been burdened with countless iron weights. He was flattened to the floor with cracks forming in the bleached white stone. Then the weight seemed to leave as quickly as it came. He pushed himself back up less gracefully then before. Celestia’s horn was aglow with light. She jerked her head down and the man felt the weight return. The princess was using a gravity spell backed by the power of the sun. The dark robed skeleton didn’t waist any time pushing himself back up. His hands burned with hell fire but the ethereal maned ruler jerked her head down again before he could retaliate. Once more the cadaver was crushed onto the rocky ceiling. His bony limbs shook with effort as he picked himself up.

“Stay down Illitheous.” Celestia said flatly.

Cracks in his bones mended themselves as he gave her a quite answer.

“No!”

He was smacked down again.

“Stay down Illitheous.” Celestia repeated more firmly.

Illitheous was on his knees and hands. He trembled in waning effort to get back up this time. Celestia noticed with an inward cringe that he was in the bowing position he so loathed.

“NO!”

The millennia old mare closed her eyes and turned her head away as she hit him with another effective gravity spell.

“Ugh!”

She still had her eyes closed as she asked him again, hoping beyond hope he would listen.

“Please stand down Illitheous”

“N-nn…very well.”

Celestia’s eyes shot open at that. She looked to see the poor man lying in the newly made indention in the roof with a hand raised. The flames around his body had gone out almost completely.

“No more…you win.” He said those last two words as if he was admitting to destroying his own brother.

The princess was struck speechless. Illitheous took the silence as her thinking about killing him anyway. It’s what he would do.

“I surrender.” He uttered in a pitiable voice.

Celestia experienced a hurricane of emotions. Among them were relief, happiness, exhaustion, and surprise but most of all she felt remorse. She slowly moved forward until she was arms length away. With a smile and a tear she extended a hoof to the human.

“I’m sorry,” she spoke.

The undead being slowly grabbed her hoof with a shaky skeletal hand. His look of defeat turned back to its usual mask of hatred.

“You will be.”

The princess barely had time to gasp before the lich’s ringed hand sent twisting coils of hellfire up her leg. She pulled away thanks to the humans weakened grasp but that hardly mattered to her just then. She fell on her backside and clutched the severely burned limb with the other screamed in unmatched pain. She retained just enough of her wits to surround the injury with a powerful healing field. That managed to stop the hellfire from spreading across her body and to her soul but it still felt like her foreleg was being dipped in acid. Ad that to her already burnt (but to a much lesser extent) wing and it was clear she needed the best healers if she ever wanted to recover. While the equine was occupied the lich had ceased the opportunity brought forth thanks to his trick.

The unholy magic gifted to him so long ago worked to repair his ailing body. Now he was nearly completely healed. Illitheous got up and charged. He intended on finishing the soul burning while she was distracted. Just a single bit of solid would seal her fate and restore that of his people. However, Celestia would not let it be that easy. She teleported to the other side of the roof just before he could touch her.

The monstrous man just rushed her once more, speaking under his breath “Run Celestia, run if you can. You can’t defeat a dead man.”

He filled the air with unhinged laughter as his aura of flame was back in full. Princess Celestia had her injury under control for now and lowered herself to the ground like she was ready to pounce. She gathered all the magic she safely could without endangering her health. The unprecedented amount that was her power was channeled into her horn. The castle rock underneath her split open in fear.

Bits of chipped brick actually floated around her. Her focused magic was creating its own mini gravity field. The undead human didn’t even notice, so consumed was he by battle fury and vigor. Although his aura of fire and dark magic was nothing to sneeze at, he wasn’t currently focusing it in any defensive way. All his focus was on the offensive, same as Celestia was right then.

A quick lesson of magic and might should be remembered here. When two opposing forces of arcane power collide they will either negate entirely or become explosive. Yet if one of those forces has a range advantage on the other like, say, from a horn, the lesser ranged force will be soundly outmatched.

The Princess of the sun let loose a hyper powerful beam of pure solar energy just as her two legged opponent was only a few feet away. The godly blast smashed into Illitheous in an explosion of light! He was caught as it slowly disintegrated his body as fast as his healing could keep up and cannoned him through the stone ceiling into the floor below but it didn’t stop there. Illitheous was blasted to the next floor then the next and the next and still the next! All the while he experienced death upon death from an attack no mortal could normally hope to survive and NO living creature should have to suffer through. His agony would put the greatest torturers of the nine hells to shame. The pain was unending.

His screams of rage and suffering echoed throughout Canterlot, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Celestia, panting with effort, looked teleported down to the first floor of the castle where Illitheous had finally stopped. Beams of sunlight filtered down from the rough holes leading in from the ceiling far above. Dust swirled around her as the minor goddess shakily surveyed the carnage she had reluctantly wrought. Half covered by debris in one of the grand foyers that was damaged beyond recognition were the blackened, nearly obliterated remains of her undead assailant. His trench coat was a tattered rag that had miraculously remained somewhat intact. His bones were now brittle and charred with only one of his hands and skull unbroken.

Celestia was numb as she starred at what she knew once must have been a good person. The nearest set of doors slammed open as several of her royal guards filed in. They fawned over their injured ruler and quickly set up a guard around her and the crater containing the human’s remains. Celestia nearly fainted but two of her guards caught her.

“Are you all right your highness? Is there anything we can do? Anything at all?” The more compassionate of the two that caught her inquired.

“…No, everything is not alright my faithful guard. None won this day. I need to get my sister. Broker a truce if I can. There has been enough death today.” Celestia.

That same guardspony looked at her with sympathy. “They aren’t monsters are they? The humans I mean.”

Celestia whispered back. “No, they never were. Please go get Captain Shining. I will need him.”

That particular guard saluted and dashed out of the room. Only seconds later one of the guards by the crater noticed something.

“Uh sergeant? Is that ring on its fist supposed to be glowing red like that?”

Tia’s expression was the manifestation of fear itself.

“Everypony run before it's too late!!!” She screamed.

She was blinded by black light as a sphere of not red but BLACK fire expanded from the creator, obliterating everything around it including the guards into oblivion. Simultaneously the human started screaming again. His mind still trapped within the agony he had previously endured. Celestia barely survived and was hurled out into a courtyard through the newest gaping hole in her castle. She lay on the ground in a heap. She opened her eyes. Before her was a raging inferno within the perfectly spherical wound inflicted to her home. She could just make out Illitheous’ reforming figure as he continued howling in rage and pain. Just as the alicorn could no longer see him in the fire he leaped an inhuman height out of the blaze and landed just beyond her. Tia’s blood froze in her veins.

Illitheous was seemingly back in his right mind as he slowly made his way to the near helpless princess. He saw her tears and injuries and his steps faltered for just a moment. He held his skull like it hurt before shaking it off.

His voice was eerily calm. “Don't cry dear Celestia. Your pain has only just begun.”

The sound of crunching grass caused the infernal creature to look over his shoulder.

“This destruction stops now Illitheous.” Twilight Sparkle said.

The cavalry had arrived.

Snuffin Out the Flame

Illitheous spat at the ground in disgust upon seeing the returned element bearers now with a new artifact of some kind.

“I don’t know what that thing is you had your little brainwashed slaves fetch but they will not get a chance to use it,” He said.

The lich wound his arm back, ready to throw a ball of fire at the interlopers. Thankfully, he was interrupted by a magic projectile smacking him in the stomach. His fireball dissipated as he clutched his gut. Steam rose from the sun princess’ horn. Her head flopped back down. She had used every last spark of magic she could spare.

“Twilight, I can do no more. You and your friends must do your best to stop him on you own.” She said in a raspy voice.

Now seeing the devastation first hoof the undead creature had inflicted Twilight wasn’t so sure, not without the princess’s help. Twilight Sparkle made to object but the princess interrupted her.

“I believe in you Twilight. All of you.”

The elements of harmony steeled themselves. They had done the seemingly impossible before and they could do it again.

“Ok girls, just keep him occupied until I use this thing,” said Twilight.

The others gave their nods of agreement. Meanwhile the tiny hole that pierced Illitheous’ gut was now healed. He looked back up to Tia. Realizing was no real threat at that practice moment he turned to the main six.

He snarled.

Meanwhile…

“PULLLLLL YOU MONSTERS! PULLLLLL!” A particularly hairy human fellow ordered the two ogres harnessed to the elemental siege drill. “If we don’t get there in time you can kiss your ugly hides’ goodbye!”

He wiped them for good measure. They along with the rest of the humans were steadily working their way up the mountain to Canterlot. The first Equestrian defenses had retreated almost the minute they laid eyes on the approaching invaders. Their numbers were the bulk used in the fight for Ponyville much to the Crusaders delight. They would have been content taking their time up the mountainside but after the Seeing Crystal had gone black, right when it had shown Celestia firing a ray of powerful magic at their leader no less, the sense of urgency had jumped drastically. The Crusaders of Fire approached yet another magically reinforced barricade. The siege drill was activated. It didn’t actually spin like a dwarven drill would but the point immediately turned orange with the chaotic raw energy of the elements of nature. Earth, fire, ice, air and plant all converged at the tip and hit the obstruction with a forceful strike. It shattered like porcelain and unicorns retreated again, firing magic missiles as they ran. The front line of humans used shields to keep the others behind them unharmed. One of those in back was the axe warrior Gua who had early gone up the super charged element of laughter and lost. Now he sported a fresh set of bandages on his head. He also was very much not wearing a helmet anymore.

This is taking to long. He thought. If the commander needs us then we should already BE there I can understand pride as a warrior and I get it’s real personal for him but still, not taking us with him wasn’t the best tactic I’ve ever seen. We need to stick together. Ain’t that what he wanted us to do?

All around Gua many were thinking along similar paths.

“HRAAHG!” Illitheous roared while sending another geyser of fire at the two pegasi hounding him. One almost managed to burn Fluttershy but his aim was thrown off again by one of the head sized pieces of rubble bucked at his head by Applejack. His skull would heal the fractures each time but it still caused him pain. He started toward the earth bound pony but was tripped by Pinkie Pie. He caught himself before he hit the ground. He looked up only to see the hyperactive pony was now only a little over seventy paces away, readying her party cannon. A very small part of the black clad figure’s mind registered this and found it to be very odd but the rest of him just wanted to wring her little neck. He raised his fist and punched at the air. The resulting fireball collided with a bundle of streamers and confetti. This furthered Illitheous’ level of annoyance. Next, a bolt of electricity hit him as Rainbow used a storm cloud as a weapon. The undead horror spat fire at her but Rainbow Dash was far too fast a target.

This cycle of distraction would continue just until Twilight Sparkle’s emotion would nearly endow the adamant of order with needed “charge” while Rarity acted as her look out. The human leader meant what he had said about not letting them get to use it though. Whenever Twilight would get close to using it he would ignore through his assaulters just long enough to send out at least his weakest of attacks. Even his feebler moves were enough to necessitate moving out of the way. After all, the fiery corpse could heal nearly any wound, and the mortal equines could not.

Like the turning of the seasons, this cycle of distract, attack, charge, and interrupt continued for what felt like an endless eternity. An explosion followed by footfalls and many lighter ones sounded not to far away. A vaguely skull shaped metal head peaked over a crumbled heap of what used to be a wall. The distant yells of Illitheous’ small army made their way to the fighters. Illitheous’ toothy grin was displayed as the reinforcements worked hard to reach him. He planned to gift his followers with a scene of inspiring victory. One that would further solidify their loyalty to the Empire he reasoned. His ring shined ever brighter with a frightening clarity. He knew how to end this little game of distraction. As Fluttershy flew a little too low the human put massive effort into his legs. He jumped and grabbed Fluttershy out of the air in a single move. She shrieked in surprise and terror. Illitheous held on to her torso with one arm and covered her snout with the other. The smell of burnt flesh and rotten cloth invaded her sinuses.

The cadaver whispered in her ear, “Perish knowing your friends will soon join you in death.”

“ILLITHEOUS STOP! Celestia’s family must have granted you more mercy then THIS!” Rarity begged.

The human bristled at that. “You call this mercy!?” he angled his face while it momentarily reverted to the ravaged portrait it had been since the day he had died. Fluttershy felt the old human’s grip tighten around her neck like a noose. “You reap what you sow equestrians! THIS IS JUSTICE!!!”

*CRACK*

The human’s body went limp as Rainbow Dash’s hooves made contact. The kinetic energy transferred from them to Illitheous’ face, head, and neck. He fell to his knees and his body slumped forward, his head turned to an unsurvivable position. The fires around his body were snuffed out and his scarred visage staring off into the void. Everypony there including the princess went as silent as the corpse before them. The full impact of what just happened fell over them like a smothering blanket. Twilight in particular looked at her friend in shock. The element of loyalty, her friend Rainbow Dash, had just murdered Illitheous.

“Rainbow Dash…how could you? I just needed you guys to buy me some time to use the adamant of order, not to break his neck!” said Twilight.

Dash fumbled over her words. She had never killed anything before.

“I-it wasn’t my fault! He was going to hurt Fluttershy. I had to do something!” she said.

A huge column of fire erupted into the sky. Illitheous’ torso shot up. His skeletal hands slowly, gingerly, went up to head, grasped it, and *SNAP* back into place. His glowing red eye sockets refocused on the ponies.

“You. Kill. Slaughter.”

His fury was reaching a new level. He couldn’t even think clearly enough to form coherent sentences. His voice sounded darker somehow now. Slowly the flames around his body turned a purple black. It was at about this time the Crusaders of Fire finally made it to the wasted castle grounds. They skidded to a stop, seeing their leader had things well under control. The black fire was disconcerting though. The young wizard Terran spoke for the group when he shouted.

“Master Illitheous, do you need any assistance?! We stand ready for what you need of us!” Terran said.

A burst of fire erupted near the crusader’s feet. They all jumped back.

“Your assistance is no longer required maggots. I now have what I desire.” Illitheous snarled in a deep echo of a voice that wasn’t his own.

The humans just watched, stupefied.

Illitheous marched to Celestia’s prone form. The elements of harmony reacted fiercely. Rock after rock pelted the lich but he barely even tilted his head when they struck home.

Stomp.

Pinkie Pie threw everything she could at him including a kitchen sink but he only swatted every makeshift projectile aside like flies.

Stomp

Rainbow Dash’s lightning bolts from her storm cloud dispersed into nothingness after nearing Illitheous.

Stomp

Fluttershy was so bold as to fly right near him and then begged, pleaded, asked nicely, for him to stop. She started to cry while the creature just spat at her weakness.

Stomp.

He was two strides away from the princess of the sun.

“Twilight just use that thing already!” Rarity screamed in a rare unladylike voice

“I’m trying, but it’s not ready! If I use it now won’t stop him!” The lavender unicorn explained in a panic.

Celestia, tears falling again, closed her eyes. “You’re only the monster my father made and I neglected to save. I’m so sorry,” she paused “I guess that makes me a monster too.” Her voice cracked with regret.

“I’m sure my new bone puppet would have loved to hear that, but I’m the only one he’ll be listening to now.” A ringed skeletal hand slowly reached for Celestia’s head and neck. “All this for a insignificant race and a worthless little brother. Ha!” His bony hand stopped. “What is this-“ “Don’t. Ever. Insult. My. BROTHER!!!”

The burning skeleton started to yell at himself.

“What are you all just standing here for? Master Illitheous isn’t himself. We have to go help!” spoke Illitheous’ most loyal follower Terran.

A firm hand on his shoulder kept the young man in place. Terran looked over it and met gazes with Gua.

This isn’t our fight anymore. It’s his. The old veteran silently informed the prodigy magician.

With a resigned frown Terran nodded and stared back at his intimidating mentor. Said mentor was clutching his head with both hands and screaming at the sky. On his right side was the black blaze and on the left was the red blaze.

“Get out of my head! You belong to me now. I am no slave! You’ve always been a slave mortal! Whether it was to your people, your own emotions, or after our deal. It’s all you’ll ever be until I say otherwise! You can shove our deal up your ugly- You will give their souls! I…HAVE…FREEDOM!!! You…HAVE…NOTHING!!!”

At that instant Twilight Sparkle was finished preparing the Adamant of Order. The artifact hovering off the unicorn’s back started spinning rapidly. It started a high-¬¬pitched humming sound and expelled silver, magically propelled water. The two beings battling for control of the same undead body were both to engrossed their engagement to even see the stream of liquefied natural order hurtling at them. The blast was blinding. The explosion slowly faded until the others present could see again. All their jaws hit the dirt. The hellish creature was no longer there. In its place was the solemn man once known as Ahdean. The red and black ring on his finger slid off like it was coated in foul grease. It fell to the earth, shattering into millions of pieces. The jewel of the ring released a tiny puff of smoke that resembled a three-eyed demon. A single cry of demonic fury was uttered before being forever silenced. Illitheous couldn’t believe his eyes, nor could anyone else.

He was whole once more. It was a REAL second chance he thought. He did something he hadn’t for thousands of years. Illitheous smiled. It was a beaming smile that caused his cheeks to hurt but it was the best pain he had felt in a long time. Just as the tremendous atmosphere of surprise was lifted from both humans and ponies it returned to one of despair. Illitheous’s skin was wrinkling and flaking off. His midnight shaded hair turned snow white. His fit build thinned out and his posture curled into a ‘c’ shape. The humans, plus one golem, rushed to the aging man’s side with Gua and Terran in front. The ponies helped up their injured Princess who managed to limp over to the human group fawning over their once glorious leader.

Terran blocked her while barely holding back tears. “You won’t touch him.”

“I only want to talk. Please,” said Celestia.

The look in Tia’s eyes spoke of her sincerity. The wizard let her and the other six pass. The previously terrifying man was now a pitiable sight. The golem gently helped prop up the man who had sacrificed a fraction of his soul in order to give it life. Illitheous continued aging by the second as the natural order of life and death took hold. Twilight couldn’t stop starring partly out of guilt and partly out of curiosity. Applejack took her hat off out of respect. Rainbow Dash looked at her friends, not sure how to feel. Rarity put a hoof to her mouth to stifle a gasp. Pinkie Pie’s hair had gone flat with sadness. Fluttershy was crying into Pinkie’s side. Celestia spoke up after Illitheous had halted his current coughing fit.

“Illitheous, what you did was wrong and under normal circumstances I could not forgive you,” Her tone softened. “But these aren’t normal circumstances are they? I meant what I said before Illitheous, every word. I’m sorry.”

"I'm sorry"

Illitheous scowled before going into another coughing fit.

“If there’s anything I may do here, for you, please ask.” Celestia finished.

“Uh Princess-“

“Hush Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia said.

Clutching his chest Illitheous fell to his knees. His hair now fell out in clumps and his hands shook. The black trench coat now hung on him loosely like a blanket.

“Give my crusaders land to rebirth the Black Dragon Empire.” Illitheous uttered.

“Done.” Celestia.

“Leave my fellow humans free and unharmed and they will do the same,” Illitheous.

Terran was about to object but wisely kept his mouth shut out of respect for his master.

“Done.” Celestia.

“I can’t forgive you or your family.” Illitheous stated.

“…I know. I accept that.” Celestia said remorsefully.

He stood up and looked up to the sky one last time. Defiant until the end he spoke.

“Your kind has never understood Celestia. I could never bring my brother back anymore then you your parents. True peace is a lie. Love won’t last and neither will harmony. The only thing all life truly shares…is death.”

Illitheous grunted in pain and his flesh turned to dust, leaving only his bones and the tattered clothing he had worn.

To be concluded…

Epilogue

The ceremony was kept small and quiet. If the general populace (especially Canterlot) were made aware that the rulers of Equestria were hosting a funeral for a war criminal and killer the results would have been less then satisfactory. All those who had been captured were now free and repairs to the damages suffered in the fighting could begin. Unsure of how their general had wanted to be laid to rest, the humans opted for the oldest burial rite they knew. Illitheous’ remains were put into a miniature brass coffin. Normally the symbols of the departed’s gods would be etched onto it but they knew how he had felt about gods. The crusaders of fire paid their various cultural respects to the casket. Most also had to refrain from touching sense the adamantine golem wouldn’t let them get too close. It protected the coffin like a loyal dog who’s master had passed away first.

The bearers of the Elements of Harmony shuffled uncomfortably and with Twilight feeling especially guilty. These events would plague her thoughts for years to come.

"These thoughts would plague her"

Was what they did necessary? Absolutely. Could they have found a better solution? Maybe, if they had more time. Was what they did the right thing? …It was difficult to say. Luna and Celestia stayed respectfully quite. While Luna starred at the ground in deep contemplation Celestia forced herself to look at the funeral and commit it to memory. The princess of the sun was determined not to let herself forget this no matter how much easier it would be. A true leader bared the weight of her failures no matter how unintentional or indirect. The minor sun goddess planned to put in a new stain glass window in the Hall of Remembrance about the whole affair. This was an event that would be remembered by others as well as Discord’s reign or the reemergence of the Crystal Empire. She owed Illitheous that much, to keep his memory from being erased by the cruel sands of time.

"Celestia forced herself to watch"

After an argument over where he should be buried the once hostile crusaders traveled to the coastal bit of land located far north of Las Pegasus. It would serve as port for trade as well as transport for the few humans who chose to leave or attempted the grueling journey to bring back more of their own from their land of banishment. They would grudgingly honor the peaceful conditions set by Illitheous. So too would they do their best to rebuild. Alone, and away from any outsider interference, the humans did something that they believed, was right, even if Illitheous might not have approved. They did not pronounce their new land the Empire of the Black Dragon as the reborn government Illitheous had lived under and pledged his life too. Instead they dubbed their land the Illitheoun Empire in honor of the man who had refused to give up on his people, even centuries after his death.

After some time, back at the weather-worn tombstone in the Everfree where Illitheous had first warned Princess Luna, new words chiseled in equestrian had been inscribed along with the old. Altogether, the lonely rock now displayed:

Here lie the remains of Sir Illitheous, his wife Niava, 32, and children Paelias, 10, and Mika, 4. So too now lies his brother Ahdean, who fought for him and his memory.
Your sacrifice shall not be forgotten. -Love Luna
Luna carves into the tombstone.
THE END

Later...

Ending Credits

A tale written by MrSpartan

Edited by BookSmart and ProtheanBrony

Voice Actors: Christian Sekhanan as Illitheous Voice example
Anthony Skordi as the Demon
Dante Basco as Terran
John Rhys-Davies as Gua
Nicole Oliver as Princess Celestia
Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle
Ashleigh Ball as Applejack and Rainbow Dash
Andrea Libman as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie
Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity and Princess Luna

With special thanks to all the readers out there who tolerated my high jinks and ofcoarse Lauren Faust for reimagining an 80’s TV show for little girls into something amazing. See ya later Equestrian cowboys.

COMIC Something to tide you over

As you all should know I lost my editor and I'm working on finding another one. It's going rather SLOW but I'm hopeful I'll have one sooner rather then later. I could really use some help with that. Anyway that's why the story is on hiatus even though I have all the chapters actually TYPED UP. They just need to be edited. In the mean time here is the 2nd of 2 comics to this story. Go on over and give it a look and leave a comment. (No Ghost Rider comments please) I have a couple Dying Embers comics over there actually.

Here be the link. Dying Ember Comic part 2 of 2

Revenge is Everlasting

It was nighttime. The stars shone like diamonds and the moon, majestic and full, had been raised over all the land. As Ponyville and its citizens began preparing for bed, happy and content, not too far away, just in the edge of the infamous Everfree forest, the pony responsible for the beautiful night trotted quietly. She had a deep blue flowing mane and tail, with stars that seemed to sparkle in them as they would in the night sky. She wore a strange black metal plate around her neck with the symbol of a crescent moon on it, just like the mark that adorned her flank.

Luna normally resided in her nation's capitol, Canterlot, with her sister Celestia, but lately at night she had taken to nightly walks on an unused path she had recently found. It led past the ancient ruins of a castle, where the nightmare moon incidant had been successfully resolved with aid of the Elements of Harmony.There was a strange glen with an old worn tablet with writing in a language even Luna, despite being thousands of years old, could not decipher. She found the glen had all the traits she found so interesting about the Everfree Forest. It held a sense of ancientness to it that was rare for Luna to experience; with her age, nothing ever seemed that way to her anymore. It also possessed a strange, dark mystery to it that she felt she related with, even after her purification by the elements.

She was headed there now along the few remaining cobblestones on that old path.

As she reached it, she stared at the lone tablet sitting upright in its spot at the center of the glen.

Princess Luna happily kneeled down onto the grass next to it as the moonlight filtered through the leafy canopy of the forest down upon her. After about thirty minutes she felt an uncomfortable chill on the back of her neck. The forest had gone quite. That’s strange. The only time it’s ever quite in this forest is when a powerful predator nears, yet I am not nearly deep enough for it to be a manticore or hydra. There was no telltale howling of timberwolves either.

She still felt like something was watching her however, so she turned away from the tablet shouting, “If thou art smart, thou shalt show thyself immediately or leave, lest you anger the Princess of the Night

There was no response. The Princess wondered if perhaps it was simply her mind playing tricks, but she could still sense something skulking around in the shadows. Losing her patience, she cast a spell of starlight.

What she saw both shocked and disgusted her.

Half hidden behind a tree was something Luna had never seen before. It stood on two legs and wore clothes over most of its body, but that wasn’t the shocking part. What was, was that this thing’s body was sickeningly skinny, as if it were starving to death. Its left hand was like a monkey’s paw, but less hairy while it’s right was a skeletal version of the same thing with a black ring with a blood red ruby affixed to its center on its middle finger bone. Its face had a slight fullness the rest of its body didn’t but had clearly seen better days. The entire left side of its jawbone and cheekbone were exposed. It had a nose like an ape, instead of a muzzle, and its brown eyes were smaller than those of a pony. Its eyes had a pain in them that, had Luna not been alive so long as to be able to read others, would have gone entirely unnoticed. Its mane was the color of blackest midnight and long and straight like the members of a famous pony band, Ponallica, that Luna once saw in an older magazine. However, it was thin, unkempt and hanging in tangled strands. It had no facial hair as far as Luna could see. It wore loose trousers and a simple shirt that hung off its body. Both of them were black. It had a weathered, black trench coat with numerous tears and moth eaten holes in it.

“Hello there,” it muttered. Its voice indicated it was male.

Luna was almost speechless “Who…what art thou?” The creature ignored her as it stepped past her, causing Luna to flinch to the side with a look of fear on her face. She wasn’t one to be scared of much, but this thing wasn’t natural. She could sense the dark arcane aura around him. He went up to the tablet protruding from the ground. He kneeled down as he read aloud the words-

“Here lies the remains of Sir Illitheous and his wife Naivara 32 and children Paelias 10, Mika 4.”

Luna, despite the unnerving situation, found herself holding back a tear.

“This is a grave?!” she exclaimed in shock.

He seemed to ignore her question, but this time he turned around to face her with his back to the grave marker.

“Princess Luna,” its voice now cold with not a trace of emotion in it “listen and listen well. I want your sister to get this message,” he said, the forest and sky darkening. “She thinks herself safe, that she is infallible. She won’t think so when the armies of man return to her doorstep and claim what is rightfully ours as we burn the empire she and both your parents built atop the bodies of our dead. Tell her,” The wind suddenly picked up and was blowing furiously as lightning flashed above and thunder cracked menacingly around them. “Tell her that humanity has returned!” Just then lightning struck. The half dead figure was nowhere to be seen the next instant.

Luna found herself flying as fast as she could back to the castle in Canterlot. She had to tell Celestia!

Ignorance is Bliss (Edit overhaul)

Authors Note: Major credit to Booksmart on this site for the editing! I'm serious!

The day’s atmosphere felt tense and foreboding for the ponies of Ponyville. Well, for most of the ponies anyway. A certain bright pink pony with cyan colored eyes hopped happily to Fluttershy’s cottage, humming a tune that she found strangely familiar, as if it were a friendly theme song of some sort. She was on her way to help the shy pegasus with the animals she took care of – there were a bunch of brand new bouncing baby bunnies to feed and Fluttershy needed somepony to help before they got rowdy. Fluttershy had asked Pinkie Pie after explaining she couldn’t ask any of their other friends. She hadn’t felt comfortable asking Applejack after the bunny stampede incident. Rarity, being the cleanliness obsessed pony she was, had politely declined so she wouldn’t get dirty. Twilight was busy with her studies, as usual; and Fluttershy knew Rainbow Dash wasn’t the best with animals. Pinkie had readily agreed, eager to help her friend. After a few more minutes of hopping through Ponyville she arrived at the edge of town to find Fluttershy outside in a bit of a panic.

“Oh dear. Oh my. Please don’t be scared. It’s alright.” Fluttershy was saying to various spots in her garden.

At first Pinkie thought Fluttershy was trying to talk to logs and bushes, which was silly since logs and bushes can’t talk…unless Fluttershy had found some magic talking plants that lived in her backyard. If that was the case, then how had they gotten there? They weren’t there before. Pinkie Pie was sure she would have noticed those. Unless some garden gnomes had moved in - which kind of made sense. They were magic and probably brought the talking plants with them for company. Not to mention they really liked gardens. So why didn’t she tell Pinkie Pie? Unless she wanted to keep all the funny little bearded gnomes to herself.

Pinkie let out a HUGE gasp. “Fluttershy, how could you?!”

Fluttershy squeaked in surprise while half hiding behind her mane. She turned to see who it was. “Oh Pinkie, I didn’t know you were here already. How could I what?”

“How could you keep all the funny little gnomie womies to yourself and not share them?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Pinkie’s eyes were big and watery. Her lower lip quivered like Rarity’s would.

“Um I was just trying to get the baby bunnies out to feed them but they just won’t come out of their hiding places.” Fluttershy sighed. “Even worse, almost all the animals I’ve been taking care of ran off late last night and I couldn’t find them this morning.” Fluttershy looked defeated as she shuffled her hooves a bit while looking at the ground.

Pinkie Pie’s expression grew sober. “Hmmm…my pinkie sense says something strange is going on here.” She placed an old style Sherclop Hooves hat on her head, a bubble pipe in her mouth, and a magnifying glass in her hoof. She started out to town, following a trail only she and her mighty magnifying class could see. “Pinkie Pie private eye is on the case!” Fluttershy decided that coaxing the bunnies wasn’t going to happen and left Angel in charge. He saluted, munching on a carrot like a cigar. Fluttershy quickly followed after Pinkie Pie in order to keep an eye on her and to see if something bad really was going on.

________________________________________________________________________________

After Fluttershy and the pink menace were gone Angel gave the all clear whistle. Three of the bunnies that were hiding came out of the bushes with one garden gnome behind them. One of the rabbits had a baseball cap on. Another had a mohawk between his ears. The last one simply had a very smug look about him.

“Alright team, you know our mission. Get this garden gnome back to his house inside the Everfree Forest no matter what. You remember our deal right old timer?” Angel squeaked.

“Of course, you get me back home and I give you and your team all the carrots you can eat,” the gnome wordlessly replied.

“Good,” Angel spoke through a mouthful of carrot, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

________________________________________________________________________________

Pinkie followed the invisible trail, her snout close to the dirt path. Sweet Apple Acres towered nearby.

In the shade of the barn rested an earth pony with her signature Stetson over her face. Her ears twitched as they picked up the sound of hoofsteps approching. Applejack got up from her resting spot against to greet her friends.

“Howdy partners!” she said enthusiastically.

“Hi Applejack,” both Fluttershy and Pinkie replied in unison.

“So what are ya’ll doin’?” asked Applejack. She raised an eyebrow at Pinkie Pie’s costume. “And what’s with the weird getup?”

“We’re solving the case of the ninja gnomes!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving her front hooves in the air to emphasize the point.

Fluttershy quietly spoke up, ”But um Pinkie, I thought that um, you know, that we were looking for the reason the animals were acting so scared.”

“Oh yeah that too!” Pinkie said loudly as she jumped around Applejack like a happy pink shark circling it’s pray.

Applejack took a momentary pause. She put her hoof up to her chin in thought. “Ya know partners, some right strange stuff has been goin’ on around the farm today too.”

“Like what?” Pinkie asked, impossibly stopping mid-jump. She was in detective mode again.

“Well fer starters all the pigs, chickens, and sheep have been causin’ a major ruckus since last night. Also that little statue of Celestia Granny Smith keeps in her room done snapped in half.” Applejack explained.

“Ooooh the plot thickens!” Pinkie paused for a moment, deep in thought, “Wait I think I know who’s behind this! Follow me!” Pinkie said enthusiastically. She beckoned her friends to follow her before shooting off in yet another direction.

Applejack and Fluttershy just gave each other a look that said “Not like we could stop her if we wanted to anyway” then proceeded to follow her.

________________________________________________________________________________

Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy all stood underneath Rainbow Dash’s cloud house.

Applejack was confused, “Er, Pinkie, what exactly we doin’ here?”

“Oh, you’ll see soon enough,” the pink pony replied. She took a deep breath.

“Raaaiiiinbooooow!!”

This promptly woke Rainbow Dash from her mid-day nap. She had told Pinkie Pie before not to wake her up from her naps. This must have been fairly important then. She flew down to see what her friend wanted

“Ugh, what is it Pinkie?”

“I know what you did!”

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow looking nervous and sweating.

“Don’t play dumb Dashie. I know what you did. Now fess up.” Pinkie demanded, her neck stretching out. Her face was just inches from Rainbow’s.

“Honestly I don’t know what you me-“

“Confess!”

“What?” stammered Rainbow.

The others were now all staring at Rainbow Dash, curious to find out if she had really scared all the animals and broke the Apple family’s Princess Celestia statuette.

“I said confess!” Pinkie repeated.

Rainbow’s eye began to twitch as her pupils were now shrinking to rosy dots.

“Ok I admit it! I’m the pony who dropped your toothbrush in the toilet and put it back without washing it last week!”

Pinkie Pie’s entire body seemed to drain of color as she shrieked in horror. All thoughts of the investigation were forgotten as she licked the ground to get the horrible unclean toothbrush remnants out of her mouth. All the while Rainbow was covering her face in shame.

Applejack, meanwhile, was laughing uncontrollably and Fluttershy was struck silent.

________________________________________________________________________________

Later, after Applejack could finally feel her sides, Pinkie had stopped freaking out (mostly), Rainbow had apologized a good 10 times, and Fluttershy had suggested they never speak of that instance again, the topic of what was causing the strange happenings at Applejack’s farm and Fluttershy’s cottage came back up.

They all agreed that they should go see Twilight Sparkle. After all, she was regarded as the most intelligent pony in all of Ponyville, and if anypony would know what to do, it would be here. The small group made their way to the main thoroughfare where Twilight’s library residence stood just a few streets away. Rainbow Dash began telling her friends that Cloudsdale was acting even weirder then Sweet Apple Acres and Fluttershy’s animals.

“How so RD?” asked Applejack.

“You guys wouldn’t believe it! It was crazy!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. She flew in front of the others waving her hooves around the emphasize her point. “First the clouds around Cloudsdale started getting really cold, like winter cold, and all at once the rainbows turned gray and started dissolving faster then we could make them!” Pinkie Pie, who had been listening as closely as both Applejack and Fluttershy, could only express shock.

“No more rainbows?! No way! They fixed it though, right Dashie?”

“I don’t know.” Dash said with a shrug. “Probably. Those rainbow brewing ponies are pretty good at that sorta thing since it’s their job and all.”

Applejack spoke up “If’n nothin’ else I’m sure Twilight will know what’s goin’ on.”

“And hopefully how to fix it” said Fluttershy. “Oh I hope the animals aren’t too scared. Maybe I should go back and check on-“ Her train of thought was interrupted by a eardrum shattering scream. Without realizing it the four equines had entered the busier part of town and were currently only a yard away from the Carousel Boutique, the lavish go-to place for everypony’s fashion needs and apparently the residence of a banshee.

“That sounded like Rarity,” said Rainbow Dash.

“No. Really?” Applejack deadpanned, sticking a hoof in her ear to try and dispel the ringing. The four of them hastily galloped into Rarity’s house/shop to something they never in all their craziest imaginings thought they would see. The fashonista’s normally clean and classy boutique was being completely overrun by a plague of rats and a somewhat smaller host of cockroaches and other bugs. And, plague was truly the perfect word for the rodents. These were NOT the normally cute white and gray mice that ponies were likely to see. These were huge, mangy, black, red eyed RATS, and the insects were just as repulsive. This was terrible for poor Rarity whose ladylike mannerisms could hardly stand the sight of such horrors, let alone enough of them to build a miniature community in her living room. To make matters even worse the rats and bugs were starting to eat the various fabrics scattered around the room.

“Somepony save my beautiful boutique!” Rarity screamed from her perch atop a large shelf, Opalescence hissing at the monstrosities below them.

With that said, the other four mares sprang into action to rid Rarity of these rotten rodents and roaches. Rainbow was the first to react by flying quickly in a circle, using her innate pegasus magic to control the air current. She formed a small tornado that swept a fair portion of the pests out of the building. Applejack was using the lasso she always kept in her Stetson to capture several of the vermin with extreme accuracy. She proceeded to toss the group she caught out the door where the frightened pests scattered in all directions of escape. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were scaring the remainder out the doorway. Pinkie used several whistles and noisemakers (all of which seemed to impossibly fit in her mouth with still enough space to use them), while Fluttershy used her Stare. Both ponies started at opposite corners of the room and herded the things gradually closer to the door. Fluttershy was staring so intensely with a look of such angry dissapointment that the animals chose to leave the store rather than suffer under her gaze. After the last of the vermin were out, Applejack bucked the front door shut with a resounding slam. “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“Oh my Rarity, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

Rarity seemed markedly calmer now. She jumped down from her safe spot on top of the shelf.

“Oh I’m doing much better now thanks to you girls.” She grimaced when she looked at her textiles. “I just wish my fabrics didn’t look like they just came out of a giant cookie cutter,” she sighed. All of her materials had holes and chew marks, some of which were undeniably and unexplainably shaped just like rats.

Her horn glowed with a magical aura as she used it as an arcane focus on the tattered remains of her projects, assessing them before floating them to the nearby waste bin.

She would just have to start from scratch later.