Lodestone

by PK

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Original Character
Length: 21659

An ancient wound in a healing world is re-opened. A strange artifact emerges, with a strange power- Spectrum cannot die. Can he uncover his true purpose before his time runs out? Sequel to Antipodes.

Several decades after the heroic actions of Jigsaw, Tiptoe, and Incendia restored the princesses, the world has begun the slow process of healing. Spectrum is a headstrong young stallion from Totemhoof who signs up with an excavation team in the hopes of experiencing a life changing adventure. What he finds will send him into a head-on collision with forces he can't begin to comprehend- and, perhaps, a chance to fulfill his destiny.

Sequel to Antipodes- though you don't need to have read it to enjoy this, I hope.

AKA An2podes

Published 2013-01-07 01:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-10 07:45:18 UTC

Journal 1

1

I think I'm just about at the end now.

Whoever finds this, Goddesses, if anypony finds this, I just want you to know that I tried to stop it. I don't know quite how wide the effect is now. It's spread out beyond what I can see.

I really hope somepony finds this.

I can hear them outside. Hundreds of them, spilling over each other and pounding their hooves into the dirt and Luna knows what else. I think it's going to be finished soon.
Those poor bastards. I hope I can help them.

I'm writing this in a cave near where I planted the Lodestone. After I realized it was too late for me to stop it, I decided this would be a better use of my time. I gotta get this all down on paper so I don't just lose my mind.

Ugh, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

~~~

My name is Spectrum. Unicorn. Brownish red coat, dark blue mane, cutie mark in the shape of a prism splitting light, blah blah blah. I enjoy long walks on the beach and the warm
comforts of a crackling fire.

Anyway.

I worked at the crystal mines. Ever since I was a foal, I've always been good at putting enchantments into spell-fixing crystals— naturally occurring crystals with an affinity for magic. They're used in pretty much everything— small ones for storing information, power, keeping food cold... pretty much anything magical that needs to stick around awhile, it's got some kind of crystal in it. And if it was made in the last three years, odds are I had a hoof in it. It was a pretty solid job. It was a pretty horrendously boring job, too.

Every day, about a billion different crystals came down the assembly line, and I had to put the appropriate spell in each one. Most of them were simple: enchantments to give off light when a pony was nearby, or enchantments to store names and dates. If I say I had to enchant a city’s worth of crystals, I wouldn’t be exaggerating. See, back before I was born, the Princesses were gone, so the sun and moon didn't move. That basically meant that only a tiny part of the planet was the right temperature for ponies. Anyways, these three ponies named Jigsaw, Tiptoe, and Incendia saved the world or whatever, and now the Princesses are pushing for us to go out and uncover old ruins and found new cities. It basically means there's never a shortage of stuff that needs enchantment. It's important enough work, I guess... but I hated every minute of it. Today was special, though. It was my birthday.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the shift and I joined the stream of unicorns out past the punch card station and out into the lobby. Thankfully, my friends were already waiting for me.

Standing near the exit were my friends Flicker and Green Thumb. I don't think anypony ever figured out what "thumb" meant, but your name's your name, right?

"Hey, Spectrum!" Flicker called.

Flicker was a pegasus mare, dark blue, almost black, and a pale grey mane. Her cutie mark was lightning bolt. Green Thumb was a stallion and— shocker!— dark green, with a cutie mark in the shape of a sprout.

"Hey, guys!" I called back, making my way through the stream of ponies to the other side of the room. "You ready for tonight?"

"Absolutely!" Green Thumb exclaimed. "I've been looking forward to this all day!"

"Not as much as I have," I replied. "Let's get out of here!"

The three of us set off out the door and into the streets of Totemhoof.

Totemhoof was the capital of Equestria, since old Canterlot was demolished on Jigsaw's escapades. It was the largest populated city in Equestria— thousands of ponies called it home. Tall, sleek spires built by the engineers from Stalliongrad rose from the valley Totemhoof was established in, all the way up to the perpetual cloud ceiling that the pegasi maintained as special housing for the weather workers. Apparently, generations ago, the pegasi that lived here figured out a special way of working the clouds that made them cascade down around the valley, preventing anything from getting in that wasn't supposed to— or anything not authorized from getting out. I suppose it was beautiful.

To me, the city felt like a prison. I'd never been outside the valley— they said it wasn't safe. The only ponies that did get to leave were ponies on official government business or the special caravans to and from the colonies. Of course, I'd tried to get out on my own. It was practically a rite of passage. I never got anywhere, though— the clouds had a way of twisting you around and spitting you right back out where you came in.

The tavern was a small, curved stone building like they used to have before the attack. Loud music blared within. The three of us settled in at the bar and Flicker ordered us three dandelion milkshakes. This was my version of a birthday party— getting shitfaced.

"Here's to another year of being stuck around here and doing nothing," I said, downing the glass.

"Aw, c'mon," Green Thumb said, eyeing his dandelion juice with some suspicion. "You didn't hate it here when you graduated."

"Yeah, because I had an audience," I muttered under my breath. I took another swig of dandelion juice.

I cleared my throat and spoke louder. "Don't you guys want to see what's out there?"

"I'm a pegasus, sweetheart," Flicker said with more than a hint of sarcasm, "I've been up above the clouds. Only things out there are raiders and desolation. We've been over this."

"Yeah, maybe just outside Totemhoof, but there's a whole world out there! Parts of it are only just now becoming accessible to pony kind again. Don't you wish you could be part of an excavation team?"

"Just give it up, Spectrum," Green Thumb said. "Those guys are hoof-picked by the Princesses themselves. Now, shut up, and enjoy your birthday present."

Flicker reached down under her bar stool and pulled out a small, green package and slid it down the bar towards me. "Happy birthday, Spectrum."

I levitated the package towards me and tore off the paper. The box was small; not much larger than my hoof. Inside was a single shard of blue crystal, fixed within a golden ring attached to a small chain.

"Flicker, it's… it's beautiful, but I'm not much for jewelry," I said, somewhat bemusedly.

"This isn't just regular jewelry," Flicker said. Her voice had dropped to a soft, almost reverent tone that cut through the dandelion buzz like a knife.

"This is a fragment of Tantalus' phylactery," Flicker finished.

My jaw fell open. "Tant— I don't... How in Equestria did you get this?"

Flicker smiled. "A lady must have her secrets."

I reverently lifted the necklace and placed it around my neck.

"I thought that, since we can't give you an adventure, we'd give you the next best thing."

I couldn't believe what was hanging around my neck. Tantalus— the big bad that had caused all that trouble with the princesses I mentioned— had stored the spirit of the body he was inhabiting in this crystal, rendering him unkillable. It had been shattered in the final battle that lead to his defeat. The shards had been recovered years after the fact, but almost all of them had been taken into government hooves for display. In fact, only two fragments had been given to private ownership— one to Tiptoe, and one to Incendia.

Now, I know a thing or two about crystals, and let me tell you, this one was exquisite. It was very thin and narrow, but it had a beautiful deep blue coloration, and the crystalline structure was flawless (except around the breaks).

"Thank you, Flicker," I said. "This is… priceless."

"Hey, I chipped in too," Green Thumb said.

I smiled. "Thank you. Both of you. This means a lot to me."

"Yeah, yeah," Green Thumb said, finally starting to drink his dandelion juice. "Let's not get all mushy. Let's get wasted!"

"Yeah!" I shouted. "Three more down here!"

The rest of the night passed in a blur of talking, laughing, and dancing to the band playing in the corner, which sounded progressively better and better the more I drank.

Eventually, though, the party had to come to an end. Flicker and Green Thumb paid the tab and unsteadily made their way out of the bar.

I drained my glass and began to make my way towards the door when a dark red earth pony who had been sitting at a table got up and blocked my way.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying hard to not slur my words. This guy looked like he might want trouble.

I guess I wasn't doing such a good job of looking tough as I thought, because the first thing the stallion said was, "Relax. I'm not going to start anything. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about an opportunity. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. You want to see the world, don't you?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, maybe. What's it to you?"

The stallion's smile diminished ever so slightly. "Didn't I tell you I don't mean any trouble? Look, I'm a recruiter for the Princesses. There's an expedition to the polar hemisphere and we need laborers. Unicorns are in short supply for a mission like this. You'll be paid well at the conclusion of the expedition. One month. Meals provided. What do you say?"

I blinked and tried to focus. "You're… you're inviting me on an expedition?"

"Sure am, champ," he said. "A lot of kids frustrated with city life come here. I try to recruit 'em. Here."

He pulled a small scroll out of his saddlebag and handed it to me.

"Read this when you sober up. I'll be back here tomorrow night. If you want to go, sign it and bring it to me."

I unfurled the scroll and looked at it. The print was small and seemed to swim across the page, but I saw the multicolor, raised seal of the princesses at the bottom, and that told me all I needed to know.

"Forget tomorrow. I'm signing this right now."

"You sure, kid?" The earth pony said. "This thing is binding. Once you sign it, you're on."

I smiled. "Give me a pen."

He pulled a pen out of his saddlebag, and I slowly and carefully inscribed my name onto the parchment.

It flashed blue once and the seal's colors faded.

"Well, now that you've signed up, we don’t have to wait anymore. Can you leave in the morning?"

"I could leave right now," I said with a smile.

"Sure you could," the earth pony said, snatching the parchment out of mid air and stashing it back in his saddlebag. "Get some sleep. If you have any warm clothes, pack those. Don't know how well you tolerate the cold. It's warm enough, during the day, but it gets below freezing at night. Report to the passage at noon."

"I'll see you there," I said.

I left the bar that night absolutely elated. One chance encounter and suddenly all my dreams had come true! I was going on an expedition to real ruins, the kind ponies hadn't seen for thousands and thousands of years!

Before I knew it, I had reached the base of the apartment complex where I lived. It was a slick, towering, building, with the distinct pointed top and curving arcs unique to Stalliongrad architecture. I should know. My mom was an architect.

I made my way into the lobby and typed the code into the little keypad near the elevator. With a hum, the doors slid open, and I stepped into the car.

The elevator gave a shiver and began to move up. After a few seconds and a few popped ears, I stepped out into the hallway and, from there, into my apartment. It was small, just barely large enough to fit a bedroom, a kitchen, and a table. Crystal enchanting doesn’t pay super well.

I debated taking off the pendant, but decided against it. Somehow, I felt like I should keep it on. I'd pack in the morning.

The morning came a lot sooner than I'd like. When I awoke, my head pounded and my throat felt like sandpaper. I stumbled over to the sink and stuck my mouth directly under the faucet. Yeah… not exactly attractive, I know, but if I'm not honest here I might as well not be writing this. Anyways, once I had drank my fill, I glanced at the clock. It was 11:30 in the morning.

For some reason, that struck me as important. I thought for a moment. Did I have work that day…? Nah, it was saturday; I didn't work saturdays.

Suddenly, it hit me. The earth pony in the bar. The contract.

Oh, Celestia, I had forgotten to set my alarm! The expedition!

I levitated my saddlebag over from the corner of the room and stuffed a coat into it. I didn't really have time to pack anything else.

I slung the bags over my shoulder and galloped out the door and towards the elevator when I suddenly froze— I couldn't leave like this. I had to let my friends know where I was going.

I ran back into my room and grabbed a small, round metal disk with a lens in the center and set it in the center of the room. I tapped on the lens to start recording.

"Hey, guys," I said quickly. "You're not gonna believe this, but I ran into an expedition recruiter last night and I signed up. Yeah, yeah; I know; it was hasty, but… dammit, you guys know how much I wanted it. I'm gonna be gone a month, but when I get back, I'm taking you all out. Not to the bar, but to somewhere nice, okay? Thanks for the birthday. Try checking at the expedition office and see if you can't send me some letters— I don't think I'll have access to a computer out there. Bye!"

I galloped back out the door and put the recorder sticking halfway out my mail slot. I figured Flicker at least would think to check my apartment when I didn't show up for a while. With that done, I did one final mental inventory, and finding everything in order, I began my descent.

It was pretty much impossible to miss the caravan. It was pretty much impossible to miss any caravan. A string of trucks and busses lined the street leading to the passage out of the city, all hovering a few inches off the ground. From the looks of things, I wasn't too late.

I galloped down to one of the busses and got in at the end of the line, behind a yellow, burly unicorn wearing small, square glasses.

"You're here awfully late," he said. His voice was unusually deep and somewhat intimidating.

"I know; I forgot to set my alarm. I'm not too late, am I?" I replied.

"Nah, you're fine. This your first expedition?"

"Yeah, it is."

"I can always tell the newcomers. You a scientist or what?"

"Nah, no scientist. I'm just going there to lift stuff, I guess."

"Nothin' wrong with that," he said. "Never enough unicorns on the workforce. A lot more delicate than the earth ponies— uh, not that they aren't important, too," he added hastily.

He approached the bus, and a dour-looking pegasus glared at him. "Name."

He gave his name— Tau— and the pegasus checked the list before her, which I guessed must have been a list of contracted workers.

"Get on board," she said lazily.

The unicorn clambered into the bus and I stepped forward. "Name?" the pegasus droned.

"Spectrum," I said. She checked the list.

"Get on," she said, and I eagerly jumped on board the bus.

The bus was one of those big ones that they use to travel long distances— the ones with the built in toilets? Yeah. You pretty much only saw them on the caravans traveling between colonies.

Do I even need to tell you how excited I was?

I sat down next to the burly unicorn I had met earlier.

"Did they tell you what's going on?" he asked.

I shuffled my hooves uncomfortably. "I... uh… didn't read the contract."

He looked at me and smiled. "Got you at the bar, did they?"

"I… um…"

"Yep. Listen, buddy, I'm a scientist. Been going on these expeditions a long time. They get a lot of kids from the bars when they're not thinkin' right. I'll help you out here: they found somethin' frozen in the ice up there; somethin' that doesn't look like the usual stuff. We're goin' to check it out."

"What did they find?" I asked.

The unicorn glanced around, as though making sure nopony was listened, and said, "Some kinda vault, like at a bank, right? Only this thing is locked magically. And the magic is old. We're talkin'… this was old before the fall."

Before I could reply, the bus rose up off the ground and began to move forward.

"Off we go," Tau said.

I watched eagerly as the caravan glided forward, sliding into the cloud wall one by one, until finally we approached the barrier. We slowed down slightly as we entered, and bus began to quiver slightly, as though it was being buffeted by a high wind.

The view outside the windows fogged over, and my hair stood on end. It was as if my whole body had fallen asleep— pins and needles prickled me all over.

Then, simple as that, we emerged on the other side.

I stared greedily out the window, taking in every aspect of the world outside the city. Behind us, the cloud wall cascaded down, billowing out and spreading along the ground like a fog. Beyond that, fields of rolling green grass stretched out as far as the eye could see, dotted with bright red berries on deep green shrubs. It was beautiful.

"First time you've been outside the city?" Tau asked.

"Yeah," I said, only half paying attention.

"They pretty much all react like this. Trust me, kid; you ain't seen nothin' yet. There's really not much out past the city, and we’ve got quite the ride ahead of us. If I were you, I'd get some sleep. They're gonna expect you to get out and be ready to go when we get there."

For a while, I just stared out the window, watching the hills go by, but after a while I took Tau’s advice and closed my eyes.

I awoke with a jerk. The sky outside the bus had gone dark.

"How long was I out?" I asked Tau.

"No idea," he replied. "I only just woke up too. I think we're there, though."

"What, already?" I said, surprised.

"Yeah, we're only about nine hours away from the timber line."

The dour pegasus who had let us on the bus stood up at the front of the bus.

"Alright, ponies, we're here. Laborers: when you get out, go to the nearest truck and get your equipment. Set it up according to your supervisor. Do not— I repeat, do not— interfere with the scientists. Do not touch anything you aren't supposed to. Don't look inside any tents that are zipped closed. And do not approach the vault. I ain't gonna sugarcoat this for you fillies— you approach the vault without permission, we willuse force. Understand? As much as is necessary. Scientists— you have your orders."

I exited the bus with the rest of the ponies and took in my surroundings. A thick coat of snow covered the ground, chilling my hooves. The land was almost completely flat as far as I could see— save a forest and the hint of a mountain in the distance. The only things that broke up the monotony were the tents and the massive pit to the east.

It was by far the most striking feature of the landscape. It looked almost like some kind of quarry carved into the ice with an icy slope winding around the rim and angling down out of sight.

I trotted up to the nearest supply truck. An earth pony was standing at the back, unloading supplies.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked eagerly.

The earth pony glanced at me, then down at the clipboard held in his mouth, then up at me again.

"Is yer nmme Sptrim?" he inquired, his voice muffled.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" I said.

He spat out the clipboard. Ew. "Is your name Spectrum?"

"Yeah?" I said.

"Special assignment for you. Get over to truck 17, the one with the yellow stripe."

I glanced down the line of trucks and found the one with the yellow stripe.

After a few minutes, I arrived at the yellow truck. An older, shockingly pink unicorn stood at the base of the truck. “Spectum?” he asked, his breath forming an icy mist as the question left his mouth.

I nodded.

"Special assignment for you. Thank Celestia you signed up when you did; we were in a terrible state without replacements."

… Huh? Replacements? I had no idea what he meant, but before I could ask, his horn flared to life, and the back of the truck flickered and vanished, revealing a cargo hold filled with piles of crystals.

"Something up here just eats through the enchantments on these crystals. It's gonna be fantastic having somepony up here to replace the ones that burn out. A lot of delicate scientific instruments up here."

I couldn't believe it. I could feel my dreams of adventure die as I looked over the pile of crystals. It felt bad. Really, really bad.

The unicorn gave me a small, floating cart, and loaded it with crystals of various shapes and sizes, then pointed me towards a tent with a tall, pointed roof.

I pushed the cart over the snow and ice, still in disbelief.

When I pushed the cart through the folds of the tent, I got one small comfort. A small, round device in the center of the room was giving off waves of heat.

While it was nice to be able to feel my hooves again, that was just about the only nice thing in here. It was a very small tent, barren but for the far side of the room, where a small table was set up. I pushed the cart up to the desk and sat down.

Moments later, the unicorn from the truck came through the door, scroll clasped in his mouth. He trotted over to me and dropped the scroll on the desk.

"Alright, my name's Axon. All you have to do is follow the instructions on this sheet, and you can go back to the big tent near the rim of the excavation site. That's the mess hall. The barracks are attached to the back. Any questions?"

"Am I going to do this every day?" I said, my voice strained.

"Most likely," Axon replied. "We are in constant need of new crystals. You noticed I didn't levitate the scroll in here? Try lifting it."

I shrugged and ignited my horn, unfurling the scroll before me.

"Feel that?" he said.

"Uh, no, not really," I said. "Feels pretty normal to me."

Axon frowned. "Probably haven't gotten the chill in you. Something up here— my money's on the cold— makes it really tiring to do any magic. It also makes the enchantments on the crystals last way shorter than normal. I don't envy your job, I'll tell you that much."

"I'll keep it in mind," I said. "Anything else I should know?"

"Not really," he said, smiling. "Welcome to our little arctic home. The caravan heads back in thirty days."

With that, Axon left, and I stared at the pile of crystals with disbelief. I think that was the moment it really sunk in that this was actually happening. My once in a lifetime adventure opportunity wasn't that at all. I had just traded my boring day job in Totemhoof for a boring day job hundreds of miles away from all my friends in the freezing cold.

I pulled the first crystal from the pile and placed it on the table. The chart said they needed 14 crystals enchanted to radiate heat. I set to work fixing the enchantment into the crystal.

Now, as much as I hated the job, credit where it's due— I was good at it. A lot of unicorns had really limited ranges of spells they could weave into the crystals, but not me. My special talent was putting spells into these crystals, and I was damn good at it. There wasn't an enchantment yet I haven't been able to work with enough practice.

Good thing, too, because after the heat and a handful of light spells, they got weird. Spells that make the crystal fluoresce in the presence of blood, for instance. I figured they must be for the aforementioned "delicate scientific equipment". It was a grueling day.

Finally, I placed the final enchantment— for a crystal that regulated the power flow through a system— and headed out from my work tent towards the mess hall. I didn't even bother eating. I had no appetite. I was too tired and upset. I headed back into the barracks and found the cot with my name on it and fell asleep.

That was my routine for the next two weeks. I woke up in the morning, ate my breakfast, went into my tent, worked until it was done, ate dinner (or didn’t), and went to bed. I didn't talk to anypony, and nopony tried to talk to me. I was miserable. Completely, utterly, soul-crushingly miserable.

Until the day they opened the vault.

One day, when working on a particularly sensitive and tricky enchantment, a voice crackled over some unseen speaker: “Everypony, please report to the mess hall for a very special announcement.”

When I got there, a giant screen had descended over the far wall, displaying an image from the center of the excavation site.

This was the first time I'd seen it close up. It didn't look that impressive. It was a featureless white cube, barely larger than my work tent. A group of ponies, wrapped tightly in warm coats, stood in front of it.

As we watched, an elderly unicorn with a cutie mark in the shape of a lock and key stepped forward. His horn began to glow, and four strange symbols shimmered into being around him.

The unicorn looked extremely stressed, as though this spell was causing him great pain. His teeth were gritted and I thought I could see tears beginning to form in his eyes. After a moment, however, the symbols flew forward and collided with the featureless white box.

It flared to life, the featureless white surface suddenly covered in glowing symbols that I had never seen before.

Then, with an earth-shaking boom, the white cube fractured, revealing a dull, metallic cube underneath. Next to me a scientist muttered, "There goes the bone…"

Boom! The metallic layer disappeared in another flash of light, revealing a much brighter metal.

"There goes the lead…"

This process repeated five more times, with layers made of silver, gold, and even wood. Finally, when it was all over, only one thing remained.

A small, black spike was hovering an inch off the ground where the vault had been. It reminded me somewhat of the crystal fragment hanging around my neck. It was broad at the top, but narrowed to a sharp, jagged point at the bottom.

Then, just like that, the screen turned black and retracted to the ceiling.

"Alright, everyone," came a female voice from the front of the room, "Vault's open. Vacation's over. There’s still work to be done."

I blinked, coming out of the reverie I had slipped into while something actually interesting was happening.

I couldn't go back to that tent for another two weeks. I made a decision then: I was going to have an adventure whether adventure wanted me or not.

I worked through the rest of the day— placing enchantment after enchantment as quickly as I could, until finally I had met the quota for that day.

By the time I was done, the sun had set, and the puddles of water that formed under the sun had begun to freeze over once more.

I trotted over to the edge of the pit. Deep down, at the base, I could see the strange artifact, floating silently above the ground, illuminated by a single floodlight. I was going down there.

For all their blustering about not going near the excavation site, they really had very little protection. Two ponies stood guard at the entrance to the site, but that was about it. There was pretty much nothing stopping me from making my way around the rim quietly and just slipping down the sloped wall till I got to the winding ramp which lead down to the artifact.

I crawled along the rim, out of sight, the cold, wet snow sapping all the heat out of me. Finally, I reached the opposite side of the rim. The sloping path was about forty feet below me. I placed my forehooves on the slanted walls of the rim and began to slide down, gaining speed over the slick ice.

I hit the sloped pathway… and didn't stop.

Yeah, I know, looking back now, it was an incredibly dumb idea. Slide down the side of the pit? How did I plan on stopping on the ice, exactly? Look, I wasn't concerned with that at that moment. I was concerned about having an adventure, and…

I careened off the side of the slope and out into the air. Involuntarily, I let out a shriek and saw, for a split second, the guards start to turn around before I started to fall back to earth.

I hit the slanted pit wall hard. Something in my chest cracked, and I tumbled head over hooves down into the pit.

I don't remember much of my quick and violent descent. I felt my head crack into the ice. I remember tasting metal, and I remember feeling my limbs bend in ways they were never intended to— then not feeling them at all.

And perhaps, most clearly of all, I remember seeing the strange, obsidian spire in front of me, symbols beginning to glow and then flowing across its surface as my vision went black.

The next thing I remember was feeling my heart lurch in my chest, pounding against my ribcage as though it was attempting to escape. I remember gasping for breath, taking in a deep, refreshing gulp of air. I remember the blinding white light above me.

I also remember the scream. I instinctively rolled over to get on my hooves, only to find nothing but air. I was lying on some sort of table. When I finally stood up and got my bearings, I understood what the fuss was.

I was in another tent, one that I recognized immediately. A pony wearing a doctor's mask cowered behind the silver table I had just rolled off.

I had just woken up in the morgue. From the look on the doctor’s face, and that scream, I had just woken up from the dead.

At this point, I think it's fair to say that adventure had finally found me at last.

End of Journal 1

Journal 2

2

"Don't come any closer!" the doctor shouted. Her coat was a shocking blue-and-yellow combination that kind of hurt my eyes. Poor mare. Her voice was shrill. "I'll— I'll call security!"

"Calm down," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. "I don't mean you any…"

My forelegs suddenly turned to jelly and I stumbled. The doctor pony gasped and scrambled away from me. My vision tunneled.

I concentrated and took a deep breath. The world came back into focus.

The doctor's gaze turned from fear to concern in heartbeat. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"I have no idea what just happened," I mumbled in between slow, deep breaths. "The last thing I remember is—"

I paused, suddenly acutely aware I had broken pretty much the only law I had been given, but then realized that they had to have found down there to begin with.

"— tumbling down the side of the pit," I finished.

"Tumble nothing," the doctor said. "We found you stone cold dead… or at least I thought you were. I didn't detect any heartbeat or breathing, and your legs were fractured in over a hundred places."

"I feel fine," I said. "Just a little dizzy."

The doctor's brow furrowed. "I've heard of cases where people who die of hypothermia can sometimes be revived hours later after they warm up, but… I'm certain of your internal injuries. Even if you weren't dead, you shouldn't be on your hooves. Sit there. I'm going to examine you."

I sat, still dazed, as the doctor looked inside my mouth, shined a light into my mouth, and checked my pulse. As the time passed, I began to feel more myself. I suddenly became aware of the golden chair around my neck.

"Hold on," I said. The doctor paused. "Why didn't you remove my necklace?"

The doctor's eyes flitted downwards in surprise.

"I… what? Where did you get that?"

I blinked. "I was always wearing it. I don't think I've taken it off except to shower for the whole time I've been here."

"What is it?" the doctor asked.

"I think it might have had something to do with my survival," I said. "It's a fragment of Tantalus' phylactery."

The doctor took a step back in shock, her eyes going wide.

"I… I think I need to call the overseers. Will you follow me? Can you walk?"

I stood up gingerly and was relieved to find my legs had stopped shaking. "Yeah, I think so."

There were sterile, metal stairs leading up and out of the morgue. For the first time, I realized the walls were solid— not canvas. There was only two permanent buildings in the encampment— the medical clinic and the overseer's office. We must be in the basement of the clinic.

We reached top of the stairs and walked down a narrow hallway before we opened out into the icy wasteland. The sun was down and bands of pale green light snaked their way across the sky. It was kind of beautiful.

The overseer's office was a low, wide, hastily constructed building. Plaster was chipping off the walls, and the few windows there were were cracked or missing entirely. I'd only ever seen it from a distance, but I actually felt sorry for the overseer, having to live in that place.

The door couldn't even slide open properly. As we approached it, the door began a shuddering slide into the wall, only to stop halfway through. We squeezed through it into a dingy, dusty hallway. The lights were off, meaning that I could only see a few feet into the hallway before it faded into darkness. It wasn't even heated. My breath formed a wispy mist in front of me.

"This is really the overseer's office?" I said. I was working hard to keep my teeth from chattering— it felt like the cold had suddenly hit me.

"No," the doctor assured me. "The overseer's office is much nicer than this. They just built this thing way bigger than they needed or something so they only bother keeping a couple rooms nice. "

As if on cue, a door to our right slid open, and light and heat flooded the hallway. The overseer, a minty green earth pony named True North, stuck her head out of the room.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice tinged with irritation.

"You really need to see this," the doctor responded.

I'm getting really sick of calling her "the doctor". I don't even actually know if she was a doctor. Do doctors do autopsies?

I wish I had asked her.

True North looked me up and down.

"Who's this?"

"This is Spectrum," the doctor said. "The one we found… near the artifact."

True North's eyes widened. "The dead one?"

"So they tell me," I said.

"Give me just a minute."

The door slid shut and I could hear the sounds of papers being moved around and drawers opening and closing. When she opened the door again, she was wearing a small saddlebag.

“Come inside, then.”

I followed her through the door into her office, which was bathed in warm, yellow light. And when I say warm, I mean literally warm. The light in the center of the room wasn't the single, bare electrical bulb I'd gotten used to, but a tiny, luminous ball of light and heat, suspended in the middle of three dark blue crystals embedded into the wall. I'd enchanted crystals like that before— they were mostly used for ostentatious wealthy types. I was very surprised to see one here.

The room was decorated modestly but very comfortably. A deep brown mahogany desk sat directly facing the door, and a large bookshelf stood to my left, full of books on the arctic.

"So, how do you feel?" True North asked me, as the door slid shut behind me.
I opened my mouth to respond, but the doctor stepped in front of me and cut me off.
"I examined him in the morgue. He seems to be in perfect health. He doesn't even have any injuries."

"I didn't ask you," True North snapped. The doctor took a step back.

"I… feel fine," I said, confused. "A little bit weak and dizzy when I first woke up, but I feel normal now. Wh—"

I stopped short as the light in the room suddenly flared bright and died.
I heard a sharp exhale from True North, the scratching of a hoof against a wall, and then the yellowish light of an electric bulb flared to life.

"Sorry about that," she said, sounding more irritated than apologetic. "I knew the thing was bound to go out any day now. Nothing magical worth a damn lasts around here anymore—"

True North froze in place and turned back to me. "How's your spellcasting?"

"Fine, I guess," I said. "I haven't really tried anything recently."

"Can you recharge the crystals in the ceiling?"

"Sure."

I focused on the dark blue crystals in the ceiling and my horn began to glow. Resetting enchantments on crystals is always easier than enchanting them for the first time— though the enchantment never lasts as long the second time around.

In a few moments, the crystals flashed and the orb of light flickered back to life.
"Was that difficult at all?" True North asked.

"Not really," I said with a shrug. "I've been doing this a long time."

True North looked at me shrewdly and said, "I think I need to tell you a few things. Follow me."

"You too," she added to the doctor, making her jump.

True North turned towards the book shelf on the far wall and said something in a language I didn't recognize. Probably the old language. I was never much into ancient history. Back then, anyway.

The bookshelf slid to the site like something out of an old movie, revealing a sterile steel cargo elevator. The three of us stepped inside, and True North hit one of the buttons.

The cargo elevator was smooth, but it was going down very quickly. I almost felt as though I was going to lift off the ground. Well, until the end, when I felt like my knees might buckle under the g-forces.

The door slid open, revealing a somewhat disappointingly small room. On the far side was a huge glass pane looking into another, larger room, like an observation room. I couldn’t get a sense of the size of the room because the walls were shrouded in darkness.To our right was a door, which I presumed lead to the lower level.

"Go look down there," True North said, gesturing with her head towards the observation window.

The doctor and I trotted towards the glass. The room was dark. As far as I could tell, there was nothing in it.

"What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?"

“Bring up the lights,” True North ordered. A monitor beneath the glass window flashed green and floodlights illuminated the space beyond the window.

The room beyond was recessed about 30 feet below us. The walls were stark, featureless metal. Evidently, the room wasn’t heated, as ice was forming in patches along the walls.

At least, that was what I thought until I saw what was in the center of the room. As the last of the floodlights kicked on, I could see that, resting on a small pedestal, was the strange crystal that had been my last sight when life had left my body for the first time. The strange symbols were still visible on the surface, but they weren’t glowing. They were rippling slowly over the jet black surface.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” True North said in hushed tones. “We brought it down here after we found you. We’ve run all sort of tests on it, but how it reacts to us is not nearly as interesting as what it does on its own. Follow me.”

She walked over to the door at the right wall and it slid open to reveal a similarly sterile steel stairway.

“What exactly is going on here?” the doctor said.

I jumped. She had been so quiet I had kind of forgotten she was there.

True North froze for a moment before turning to look at us once more.

“As far as we can tell, short-term exposure has no long lasting effects.”

“How can you possibly know that?” the doctor protested. “It was discovered two days ago! You brought it in here less than 24 hours ago! And it clearly had a lasting effect on Spectrum!”

For just a second, I saw a look of confusion pass over True North’s face. I thought for a second she might turn us around right there— but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished, replaced by a small smile.

“Well, I’m fine, aren’t I? she said. “Besides, you won’t believe the things it can do. You’re curious about Spectrum aren’t you?”

The doctor shuffled her front hooves. I saw her eyes dart towards the door, but she eventually trotted to my side.

I don’t remember what color her eyes were.

True North trotted down the stairs, and we followed close behind.

Let me maybe give you some context for why I was following this sinister pony: This wasn’t the first time I’d seen True North. She was my boss.We hadn’t directly interacted, but I saw her in the mess hall getting her meals along with everypony else. The outpost wasn’t huge— 100 ponies, max. She also was the one that gave the pre-recorded announcements— so it wasn’t as though she was a total stranger. Not to mention I was pretty much still in complete shock over, you know, dying. That’s not something a pony just walks away from. Usually. I wanted to know what had happened to me.

Our hooves clanked obnoxiously on the metallic staircase— the room seemed to reflect the sound of each hooffall back at us,

The door at the bottom was thick and covered in rivets. It reminded me of a bank vault.

I guess it wasn’t locked, or something, because True North just pushed it over and we trotted into the viewing area.

The artifact was smaller than it had looked from above. It looked like frozen lightning, if that was possible— all jagged edges. It was just a little bit too large to easily fit in one of those big saddlebags they use for hiking.

It seemed to respond to us when we entered the room. The symbols lining the surface began to glow ever-so-slightly red. If True North found anything unusual about this, she didn’t say anything.

“We’re calling it the lodestone,” True North began, “because of its most obvious property— it’s magnetic. But that’s probably its least interesting property. Spectrum, have you noticed anything odd about this room yet? You should.”

I glanced around the room. Aside from the glowing black crystal, the terrified-looking pony in scrubs, and the imposing, grey-white unicorn standing near her, I didn’t notice anything strange.

Wait. Crystals... that was it! All of the lights— all of them— were bulky, inefficient, incandescent bulbs. Not a single one of my crystals glowed above our heads.

“It’s all electric,” I said. “There’s no magical devices running down here.”

“Good!” True North said. “Very astute. You’re correct. As soon as we brought it down here, our magical devices began to fail. Not just that— watch this.”

True North’s horn began to glow— and then, just a moment later, the glow faded.

“What was that?” I asked, confused.

“Magic just doesn’t work near it. We have no idea why or what’s going on— if its somehow dampening magic or actually absorbing it— but even that isn’t its most interesting abillity.”

She walked right up to it and stared at the glossy black surface of the lodestone.

“There’s something here that I can’t understand...” she said. “You’re connected to it. When you died, it let off a huge amount of energy, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. We haven’t been able to replicate it since.”

She craned her neck around and undid the strap on the saddlebag.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“Just look at it,” she said. “We haven’t been able to get any result out of it, but the moment you walked in, it lit up. We need to study the lodestone, and to do that, we need to study you.”

Her brow furrowed, and with what seemed to be concerted effort, a small syringe floated out of the saddlebag and hovered in mid-air.

“Woah,” I said, taken aback. “I don’t want any trouble, I can just—”

Before I finished my sentence, the syringe zipped through the air, jamming itself into my neck. A burning sensation crept from the injection site and diffused through my body in an instant. My legs began to quiver and spots appeared in my vision. Distantly, as though from the other end of a long tunnel, I heard the doctor gasp.

I don’t remember much after that. Whatever they gave me was strong stuff. I think I drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. I remember hearing occasional snippets of conversations. Bright lights. Something clamped around my horn. The sight of blood snaking up a tube..

The first thing I can remember clearly is taking a sudden, deep breath, and pain. A deep, throbbing pain in my head, as though I’d been smashing my head into a wall for the last twelve hours. My eyes were closed, but i could sense I was lying on my back.

I tried to raise my hoof to rub my aching head, but it felt heavy. So heavy, in fact, that I seemed unable to lift it at all.

I opened my eyes a crack. I couldn't see much— just a sliver of light. My eyes stung.

I blinked. The world came into slightly sharper focus. I could tell I was still in the underground observation room— the lodestone, glowing brilliant red now, was directly ahead of me.

As my senses came back online, the dull pain in my head got more intense, and a new pain appeared in my leg.

I blinked again and the world came into focus. I was strapped to a table— my legs splayed out to either side, held on by leather straps. In my right foreleg was an IV.

In the time I had been out of it, a collection of what looked like scientific instruments had been erected around me. Most of them were pointing towards the lodestone— but more than a few were trained on me. I could tell at a glance they were top-notch equipment— the technology of the Stalliongrad refugees and their children had a distinctive flare to it, clean lines and shiny black metal, and it was the best available.

The lodestone itself looked... angry, if that makes sense. The red light radiating off it was intense and came in pulses about thirty seconds apart. It was bright, too, as though somepony had taken a blowtorch to it and heated it until it was about to melt.

The strange writing swirled across the surface like a swarm of insects, randomly changing direction and speed, making focusing on any one character for a length of time impossible. They also quivered and warped, as though the crystal was full of liquid that the letter were floating on, and something beneath it was disturbing the flow.

I struggled against my bindings, but they were tight, and whatever drug they had given me had really done a number on me. Hell, I felt worse than when I was dead! My throat was dry. My muscles ached. All of them. It even hurt to blink. It shouldn’t ever hurt to blink! Just about the only thing that didn’t hurt was my skin, which felt numb and tingly.

I concentrated, turning my focus inwards. I felt magic well up within me. Maybe I could undo whatever was fastening the straps to the table...

Instantly a jolt shot from my horn and shot through my like I had been struck by lightning. Whatever had been clamped around my horn seemed to inhibit magic.

“Hello?” I shouted, my voice hoarse. “What’s going on?”

I wasn’t expecting answer. To my surprise, I got one.

To my left, out of my field of view, I heard the sound of the heavy iron door scraping along the floor. In my addled state, my first thought was that that seemed like a significant design oversight.

It was the doctor pony. She was wearing a surgical mask, but her rather garish color combination left no doubt in my mind.

“What happened?” I said.

“I shouldn’t talk to you,” she said. She grabbed a pencil off the table near me and began jotting down notes from a monitor i couldn't see.

“Why not? What am I gonna do?”

She looked back to me, and in that moment I saw a glimmer of concern in her eyes.

My brain kicked into action. I knew she was probably the only chance I had of escape.

“I just want to know what’s going on. I don’t feel great,” I said, which was true.

She glanced at the observation window, then shuffled closer. “I can’t talk long. True North is keeping you here to study the lodestone. You have some sort of magical connection. You’ve been in and out of consciousness for a couple of days.”

“What?” I said in disbelief. I did not feel as though I had been unconscious for a couple of days. What the hell did they inject me with?

“The lodestone drains magic,” she continued. “We don’t know how or why, but anything that comes near it doesn’t last long. Pegasi temporarily lose their ability to walk on clouds after about forty-five minutes of continuous exposure, and unicorns generally have extreme difficulty casting even simple spells. I’m amazed True North even managed to hit you with that syringe of paxathol.”

Oh. One mystery solved, I guess. Hooray.

“Anyway,” the doctor continued, “you seem to be a special case. The lodestone tries to siphon your magic, but it’s almost as if it can’t process it. The magic it siphons off seems to just dissipate and you seem to replenish it instantly. In fact, left alone with you, the lodestone seems to actually funnel energy into you, a trait we’ve not observed in any other individual. We—”

She cut herself off and looked at me and I saw shame in her eyes.

“True North ordered me to drain your blood. We did. All of it. You died for the second time in the early hours of this morning. The second you died, the lodestone began to give off huge amounts of magical radiation, the likes of which we’ve never seen before, all pouring directly into you. This continued until a few minutes ago when you woke up.”

Oh. I guess I did feel this bad when I came back from the dead. And I had done it again. I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind.

“You have to let me out,” I said, trying to keep the panic I felt from creeping into my voice.

“I can’t,” she said. “They’ll kill me.”

“Then come with me,” I said. I was making this up on the fly. “We can escape together. They can’t kill me, and my magic still works! I have an advantage!”

The doctor didn’t move. I played my last, desperate card.

“Please, I can tell you know this isn’t right! Something’s wrong with True north. Probably something this artifact did! Letting me out is the right thing to do. I’m scared.”

That did it. She walked over and began fiddling with the straps that bound me to the table.

As they came loose, I felt a rush of relief. I slid off the table and the device fastened around my horn was yanked off with a sensation like a static shock. I was free.

“Is there anyone else down here?” I asked.

“Not when I came down,” she said, “but there could possibly be more in the observation room. True North didn’t want most to know about the project.”

“Let’s get going, then,” I said, making my way towards the door.

“Wait!” the doctor shouted. I froze.

“We have to take it with us,” she said, looking at the lodestone. “we can’t leave it in True North’s clutches. She’s unhinged. But you seem to be immune to it! You can take it and hide it somewhere safe!”

I paused. I didn’t want to take it with me. Just looking at the thing made me uncomfortable. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. There was something strange going on with me and that crystal, and I had to figure it out. I couldn’t leave it here.

I quickly trotted over to it and levitated it into the air. Remarkably, it took very little energy to do so— this thing was light, almost as if it was hollow inside.

I gingerly floated it down and onto my back. It was was sharp and cumbersome, but bearable.

“How am I going to keep this thing on?” I asked.

The doctor responded by wrapping one of the straps that had kept me held down on the table around and around my midsection until I felt the lodestone tighten against me and heard the clasp fasten with a click.

“There you go,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

We made our way into the stairwell and back up to the level with the large glass window.

“Are there no stairs?” I asked as the doctor pressed the button to call the elevator.

“No,” she said. “I have no idea why.”

The elevator doors slid open a moment later to reveal a mercifully empty elevator car. I squeezed my way through the narrow door, trying not to bump the lodestone against anything. The doctor came in next and the car shuddered upwards.

When we arrived at the top level, the doctor stuck her head out of the car first, then gave me the all clear to proceed.

True North’s office was a mess. Papers were strewn over the floor and most of the furniture had been moved to the walls— I assume to make room for when they hauled the equipment down.

“Wait here,” the doctor said. “There’s something I have to get.”

I nodded and she left down the dark hallway.

The room was eerie by myself. The crystals that had given off light previously were dark, and the room was lit by a stark, bare electric bulb. Wires hung loosely off the ceiling and walls and snaked out of sight.

A shaped moved at the door.

A young grey pony dressed in a white lab suit walked into the room.

Our eyes met.

I don’t know what possessed me to act. Maybe it was the lodestone, thought I doubt it. More likely it was pure nerves.

I lunged forward as the scientist opened her mouth to shout— to raise the alarm, I imagine. I slammed into him and knocked him into the wall. Before he could stabilize himself, I pivoted on my front legs and brought my back ones up into his face with a sickening crunch.

I didn’t mean to hit him so hard. I didn’t know I even had that strength. He collapsed to the ground, twitching, a pool of blood spreading out from the fissure I had created in his skull.

I backed up quickly, leaving bloody hoofprints on the floor. I couldn’t believe what I had just done!

Suddenly the rush of adrenaline wore off and my body felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds. I felt vomit rise at the back of my throat, but I turned away from the body and pushed it down.

That’s when I felt it.

The lodestone was getting hot. So hot, in fact, that I thought it might burn me. I couldn’t see it, but it was giving off brilliant red light. And then...

A blinding flash of light, and tingling sensation in my back, and it was over.

I looked around to try and see what had happened, but I didn’t notice anything different. At least, until I noticed the body

It wasn’t twitching anymore. Instead, it was lifting itself of the ground, slowly, unsteadily.

For a moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I hadn’t killed him! The lodestone didn’t just bring me back, it brought anypony back! It was okay!

It was at that moment that the doctor came back into the room. Clasped in her mouth was the small, blue crystal shard on a chain that I had been given on my birthday.

“I brought this back for you,” she said, she voice muffled by the chain. “I hope— ah!”

She dropped the chain as she saw the scientist getting to his hooves.

“No, it’s okay!” I said. “He saw me and things got out of hand, but the lodestone brought him back! It’s alright!”

He opened his eyes. They were glassy, unfocused. Dead. For a moment, they trained on me. The gash in his head was still gouting blood.

I’m not proud of what I did next. When I saw that, I knew something was wrong. I knew he hadn’t been brought back. Not correctly, anyway.

I did nothing.

I stood there as he turned to the doctor.

I watched her drop the crystal and scream as she saw the nightmarish face of the pony I had killed.

I watched him bite her neck, tearing off a huge chunk of flesh. He didn’t eat it. it just fell to the ground.

I stood there, paralyzed with fear, as she bled out on the ground.

Another tingly sensation. Another blast of light. She got back up.

I backed towards the far wall as they both turned to face me. I was sure I was next.

Instead, they turned and made their way into the dark, drafty hallway.

This time, I did throw up. Tears began to well in my eyes and I sobbed.

I don’t know how long I lay there like that. Probably hours. The lodestone flashed again every few minutes, though with less intensity every time. I heard sounds of shouting— very faint ones— coming from outside.

Eventually it stopped. The lodestone didn’t flash anymore and I didn’t hear any sounds coming from outside.

I got up slowly. I didn’t want to. I didn’t feel like I deserved to. I had killed that innocent scientist. I had indirectly gotten the doctor that had saved my life killed too. Actually, no— death would have been kinder than whatever they were now. And I had done that. Me.

I trotted over to the necklace on the ground and slipped it around my neck. The gem felt strangely warm— not hot, like the lodestone, but a comforting kind of warm, like a warm fire.

I made up my mind then. I was going to run, get as far away from civilization as I could, and ditch the lodestone. Bury it back in the ice or something. Then I’d figure out what to do with myself.

I made my way down the hallways carefully, but there was nothing there for me to worry about besides the chill blowing in from the open door at the far end of the hallway.

Outside, however, was like something out of a horror movie. Splatters of blood were everywhere, staining the slush in between the tents red.

For a moment, I was mystified at the fact that there were no bodies. Blood everywhere, bits of fur, maybe, but I couldn’t see any carnage.

I heard what sounded like hammering in the distance, over by the pit, and squinted in that direction.

I could see ponies moving around out there, milling about at the mouth of the pit. The hammering sound I was hearing was from one of them smashing his head into the side of a tree over and over. Some of them were dragging sticks around and arranging them in geometrical patterns. Most of them were just milling about aimlessly.

I was too far away to make out any details, which was probably for the best. I had no doubt their injuries were gruesome.

I’m not proud to say I didn’t bother to look for any survivors. I didn’t even head back to my room to try and salvage any supplies. I just ran away from the pit.

It was night out, and the moon was high in the sky, meaning I couldn’t really see anything out in the distance to run towards. There was the road leading out of camp, but I didn’t want to bring the lodestone closer to civilization.

As I made my way through the thin forest that surrounded the camp, I tried not to think about what had just transpired. My brain felt numb. It was like I was walking through a thick fog that blocked all my emotions. I had a profound sense of unreality.

Before too long, I found a small clearing in the forest. In the center was a small pit surrounded by rocks. I guessed it was the remains of an old fire pit.

Of course, this didn’t really help me as I didn’t know how to make a fire.

I curled up on the thin layer of snow, shivering, and attempted to get to sleep. I thought about the doctor who had helped me, and the scientist I had killed. I thought about all the bodies I saw milling about the pit. I thought about the lodestone. What was it? How can it bring back the dead? How am I connected to it?

No, I told myself. It doesn’t do any good to think about that kind of stuff. I didn’t mean to kill anypony.

My dreams were troubled that night.

~~~

I awoke the next morning damp with snowmelt. The sun was high in the sky— I must have slept until at least noon.

I got up slowly and shook the water from my fur. The lodestone sat next to me. The glow was mostly faded from its surface and the letters were almost imperceptible.

In daylight, I could see where I was. I had walked through the forest towards the base of the mountain that was barely visible from the campsite. It was now looming over me, taking up everything I could see to what was, judging by the sun, the east.

I tried to turn back towards the fire pit when I found something tighten around my neck. The golden chain that held the fragment of phylactery was pulling me towards the mountain.

As I turned to follow it, I saw something strange. The crystal shard was floating in mid-air before me, pulling me inexorably towards the base of the mountain. I levitated the lodestone back to me and strapped it on and began to make my way in the direction the crystal indicated.

As the trees thinned, I could make out the features of the mountain better. Starting from its base, a beautifully carved white marble staircase wound up a mountain trail— leading to what looked like the ruined remains of a castle overlooking a brilliant frozen waterfall.

Rubble was strewn about on the ground between the edge of the forest and the stairs. Most of it was uninteresting— stone blocks, scraps of metal.

One piece of debris stood out, however. Near the edge of the forest, a huge golden statue of an alicorn sat, head partially embedded in the earth. Aside from the coating of dirt, mud, and ice, it was remarkably well preserved. There was an upside down inscription on the base of the statue written in the old language.

I didn’t know much old language, but this was one of the words everypony learns.

Inscribed at the base of the statue was one ornate word: “Canterlot”.

End of Journal 2

Journal 3

3

Last time, Spectrum was tricked by the sinister True North into becoming a victim of experimentation due to his apparent inability to die. In the process of breaking out, a misplaced kick claims the life of another pony, and Spectrum discovered that the lodestone bringing somepony back perfectly is the exception rather than the rule. The reanimated corpse begins to kill others to swell its numbers and, once they run out of living prey, begin some kind of mysterious construction. Spectrum, terrified at what was transpiring, fled into the forest before finding a rubble-strewn valley and a statue bearing the inscription "Canterlot".

If you're thinking about paying a visit to Canterlot, here's my advice: Don't. Those illustrations in the old books? Not really an accurate representation of reality. There's a reason ol' Sun and Moonbutt set up shop in Totemhoof. Yeah, I know, blasphemy— but in this instance, I'm pretty sure they'd forgive me. Not that they were ever really a stickler for that kinda thing anyway.

Probably. I don't know. They're sort of indisposed at the moment.

Anyways. Canterlot. In a word: cold. In three words: Cold and wet. I have no idea what latitude Canterlot's at, but several tons of ice in the form of a waterfall that probably hasn't thawed for a thousand years or more is a pretty effective air conditioner, even when the sun is up— which brings me to the wet. When I arrived at the ruins of Canterlot, the sun was high in the sky, and all the ice and slush on the ground was beginning to melt. It was almost as if I was in a marsh. Every hoofstep I took sank a few inches into the dirt, and I had to pull my hooves out with great effort and a loud squelch.

Canterlot proper, of course was not this slushy wasteland. Canterlot was, in the ancient past, a huge castle at the top of a mountain with a city off to the side. From what I could see, time had not been kind to it. The castle had collapsed who knows how long ago— Huge chunks of stone and marble lay all around me, and the mountain was scarred and scored as though the parts had slid down as one huge avalanche. I assumed that was where the statue had come from. Maybe half the castle remained atop the mountain, but its grandeur was lost. No spires remained to scrape the heavens. The ornate paintings and carefully-tended gardens had long since been eroded by time. All that remained was a grey stone rectangle, the foundation still stubbornly clinging to the mountain face.

I began to look around the rubble. The statue was intriguing. Despite its age and tumble down the mountain, it appeared to be perfectly preserved. It was definitely of a pony, but since it was embedded halway into the permafrost, I had no way of telling who it could be a representation of. I circled around it to see if there was writing anywhere else on the statue, but there didn't appear to be any. Tentatively, I touched my horn to the smooth, golden metal.

Instantly, I knew how this statue had survived the eons. Woven into the metal were powerful spells- spells of warding and protection as well as more mundane ones to ward off wear and tear.

"They could only have been cast by the princesses themselves," I thought, marveling at the strength of the enchantments. If I had wanted to cast spells like this- not that I could, but if I had the power to- I would have to carve glyphs into the surface of the metal and imbue them with magic- and they would need replenishing every few months. To force this kind of power into regular bronze- the magic required was stunning. When you grow up seeing your goddesses walking around the palace every day, it can be easy to forget exactly what they are.

However, I didn't get to marvel at the statue for long. After only a few seconds of probing with my horn, I felt a sudden, searing pain along my back. The lodestone, held there by the strap, was heating up. With a sudden crackle and a concussive blast, I was hurled back from the statue, skidding to a stop a few feet away. Clearly, whatever the lodestone was, it didn't play nice with the spells in the statue.

"What the hell was that?" I said, craning my head around to get a good view of the crystal strapped to my back. It was glowing brightly now, the strange letters rippled over the surface so quickly that they almost formed a solid line of color. The heat was intense- I felt sure that if it got much hotter, it was going to leave serious burns.

Then, as suddenly as it started, the glow faded. The heat stopped. My back felt a little raw, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. But then a sharp crack brought my head whipping around. The statue now had a deep, jagged crack running vertically from the ground to the upside-down base of the metal pony above me. The bronze no longer looked pristine and shining, but old, dull, corroded.

I turned my head back to the now quiescent lodestone, its jet black body now almost devoid of symbols. Unbidden, images of the death and destruction wreaked on the science camp came flooding back to me- the strange and mutilated bodies of the ponies, animated by the lodestone, going about their enigmatic business.

With a gesture of my head, my horn ignited, and I flung the crystal off my back and drove it deep into the muddy ground. I’d had enough of that thing. I didn't know what kind of power that was, and I didn't want to know.

I turned tail and began to gallop away. The power in the statue had impressed me, but the power in the crystal scared me. I didn't want any part in it anymore. Gone was my curiosity about the ruins- all I cared about was that home lay westward.

I ran back through the forest, trampling some tentative green shoots that had sprouted in the thawing ground. After a moment, I arrived at the remains of the firepit I had camped at last night.

I stopped here, panting hard to catch my breath. Even though I hadn't run very far- maybe a quarter mile— I felt very tired.

Snap!

The sound of a twig breaking underhoof came from my left and I just about jumped out of my skin. Something was lurking in the forest, and from the sound of that crack, it was dangerously nearby.

I tensed, trying to hear anything else. Any other sound, so I didn't run headfirst into whatever was lurking in the forest. And hey, maybe it was just a deer! A cute, harmless deer.

A stream of air, hot, wet, and moist, wafted into my face. It smelled disgusting, like rotting meat, a garbage pit, and a sewer drain all rolled into one. There was something else in it, too, a bitter, metallic scent like the smoke rising from the foundry smokestacks. There was another quality to it too, something I couldn't quite place my hoof on, an unnatural quality that made my teeth hurt.

Okay. Not a deer. Or, at least, any deer I wanted to meet. That wasn't the worst bit, though. I could deal with zombie deer. No, the worst bit was what it said.

"Spectrum," it hissed.

"Hissed" doesn't really do it justice, though. It didn't sound like it was coming from any mouth that was supposed to speak. It didn't sound like it was familiar with pony speech at all. It was almost a high-pitched whine, like an electrical transformer, and the S in my name was grossly elongated. I knew what it was immediately. I was dealing with a chaos elemental.

Now, I imagine some of you don't know what a chaos elemental is- not exactly something you'd deal with in day-to-day life. The only reason I even know they existed is that I had voraciously devoured every one of the forager's reports as soon as they became a matter of public record. See, when Jigsaw killed Tantalus, his spirit was destroyed, but his power lingered, in some form or another. He'd twisted the land in so many ways for so long that he left incredibly powerful magical traces behind… wounds on nature, if you will. And that power wasn't sitting around. Some of it corrupted the land and native flora and fauna, some of it left huge, barren wastelands, but some of it lumped together, creating free-willed (though rarely intelligent) beings of pure magic. They were bad news. Very bad news.

I took off running in the opposite direction. I didn't see it, nor did I want to. They could take nearly any form: some of them had bodies made out of earth or water, others were pure energy, and some looked just like ponies. The one thing they all had in common was they were powerful and malign.

I dodged through the trees and across the icy ground at a full gallop, desperately running away from the creature. Behind me, I could hear the elemental crashing through the ancient trees. I glanced over my shoulder.

Mercifully, the creature hadn't yet caught up to me and was obscured by the trees. The only thing I could see was a flash of motion behind the thick trunks, silhouetted against the mountain in the background. Good. I was running away from the lodestone, too.

"Spectrum!" it roared, again in that horrible voice. "C-come back…"

Yeah. No. I was almost to the edge of the forest. I could see the open plains beyond. Just a little bit farther…

The trees began to thin, but even as they did so, the horizon seemed to stretch away. The trees towered over me now, impossibly tall, dark branches piercing the sky like spears. I couldn't see the sun anymore.

I knew I was running the right way. I could feel it in my gut. I would be safe up ahead. The air even seemed to get fresher, losing that awful heat from the creature. The sound of the elemental in the background began to fade. Finally, I burst out of the forest.

I was greeted by the wide, green, rolling hills on the other side. Behind me, the chaos elemental shrieked. I turned just in time to see it. It looked like a huge serpent made of green fire. It shrunk away from the sunlight and slid into the forest. The trees looked normal again, no longer huge, towering monoliths. I didn't really care. I was too relieved.

I turned back to the hills, to try and plot my course. "I should be able to find Totemhoof if I walk due west for a day or two, it won't even be that far- wait, what?"

The green hills had vanished, replace by a huge, steep mountain. The ground was coated in ice, not grass. A few feet ahead of me, half-embedded into the icy sludge, was the lodestone.

I stared for a long time in stunned silence. I didn't quite understand what had happened. Where did the hills go? What about the chaos elemental? I turned on my hooves so I could see the treeline.

There was no chaos elemental that I could see. What was apparent, though, was something much more disturbing: a set of hoofprints heading out into the trees at a gallop, and another set coming back out, sedately, towards me, terminating where I now stood. I had walked out of the forest. Walked, not ran.

I turned back to the lodestone in horror. Had there even been a chaos elemental? Probably not. What had happened? Could I not even run away from this thing properly?

"What do you want from me?" I screamed at the stone. I know, I know. It was dumb, but I was confused and scared.

The stone, of course, didn't answer. The strange symbols just rippled across the ebony surface. It was almost beautiful. I tore my eyes away. My gaze once again fell upon the glittering waterfall and the ruins at the top.

"Well," I said aloud, with a sigh, "I guess that's as good a direction as ever. Maybe I can get the lay of the land." Begrudgingly, I lifted the crystal back onto my back and secured the straps.

To the left of the waterfall, a staircase of immaculately preserved marble wound its way from the base of the mountain, snaking along until it connected with the castle, probably a couple thousand feet above me. The stairs themselves were beautiful- pure white, gleaming in the sunlight. A slight trickle of meltwater flowed down the stairs, like a miniature version of the waterfall that stood like a sculpture to the right. Idly, I wondered how long it would take before it thawed enough to start flowing again. The thought occurred that I was standing in the same place Jigsaw himself must have stood.

Suddenly, inexplicably, I became aware of the fact that I hadn't eaten or drunken anything for over a day. My throat felt dry and raw as sandpaper. I bent my head down and interposed my head between the polished marble and the flow of cold, clear water. It was good. Great, even. If you've never had pure, untouched meltwater from an ancient glacier, I highly recommend it. Though I would still advise against taking a visit to Canterlot for reasons I'll get it into… later.

I drank greedily until my thirst was satiated. I was still hungry, but there was no food to be found down here on the ice ground, so, lacking any other option, I continued up the stairs. I think, despite everything, I was still curious about what lay above. After all, Jigsaw and the rest of the crew had been here, but the history books had always glanced over this particular fragment for reasons I never understood.

I began the ascent, climbing the stairs one by one, making slow progress up the mountain. One nice thing I will say about the lodestone- probably the only nice thing- is that it's light.

I was about halfway up when the crystal shard hanging around my neck began to glow. I stared at it in surprise; I had almost forgotten it was there. It felt warm against my chest, not hot, and the warmth seemed to diffuse into my entire body. It was quite a welcome relief from the chill of the valley and the searing heat the lodestone had given off earlier.

"What are you up to?" I said to the crystal. "Where are you taking me?"

As if in answer, the crystal lifted itself off my chest and tugged me forward, up the steps, drawing me inexorably forward. Despite everything, I couldn't help but fine myself fascinated with this little shard of crystal. It had come from a source of immeasurable power- I had read just about every book on crystal magic there was, I lived above one of the richest magical crystal deposits in the known world, and yet I had never heard of any magic that would allow someone to create a phylactery... not one like this, anyway. That magic must have been incredibly powerful- which makes sense, since Tantalus was kind of a giant evil dragon god or something. The weird thing, though, was that I couldn't really feel anything strong from the crystal, and if anyone should have, it was me. I mean, I knew it was magical, but it didn't give off this aura of great power, nor did it feel especially evil or anything. It felt vaguely magic and that was it. Like an illumination crystal or something. I had a sneaking sensation that this tiny deep blue crystal held more secrets than it let on.

Anyways, the walk up the staircase after that point was fairly uneventful. It was pretty slippery with all that meltwater, but I have to say, it was beautiful. The pseudo-arctic landscape was incredible to behold, vast expanses of deep blue ice, pure white snow, and dark green fields of tenacious evergreens blanketed the land to the east.

The ruins of the castle at the mountain top looked much more intimidating in person. Maybe forty feet of structure still stood, but the castle's most impressive feature was a huge, incredibly ornate door. There were carvings on it I couldn't quite make out, save the inscription above the door- "Canterlot". Of course.

Now, I was in a bit of a bind here: the door had no handles. Or knobs. Or anyof those metal pushbars. And I was pretty sure it wasn't one of those fancy Stalliongradian sliding doors, either.

I walked towards the door, preparing to attempt to push it inwards for lack of other options when suddenly the crystal around my neck began to glow brightly and spark. Taken aback, I stepped away from the door. White sparks showered from the gem around my neck, vanishing as soon as they hit the ground. It tickled.

The doors blasted open and I was buffeted by a strong wind that chilled me to the bone. No- strike that. It chilled me to the marrow. This wind wasn't your usual, pedestrian cold. This wind was prescription strength.

A pale white light appeared in the darkness behind the doors, illuminating a grey stone hallway. After a moment, it began to float towards me, bobbing along like a lure on the water. As it came nearer, wisps of smoke seemed to materialize out of nowhere, swirling around the ball of light. The nearer it came, the more smoke it gathered, forming into the rough shape of a pony walking towards me.. Finally, it came to a stop at the doorway of the castle. I couldn't make out the facial features very well. It looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my hoof on it. If I had to say, I'd say it looked like… everypony. A little bit of everypony. The initial light that had appeared in the hallway was now floating directly in the center of its smoky skull, giving the eyes a disturbing lamplike property.

I didn't approach it. My muscles tensed up. My first thought, again, was a chaos elemental, one of the spiritual variety. My second thought was that I wasn't even sure how to tell.

"What are you doing here?" the creature demanded. Its voice was strange, like many voices layered over each other, forming a crowded though not unmelodious chorus.

"I honestly have no idea," I said. "Are you real?"

It didn't answer. Instead, it took a step forward, staring at me with a piercing intensity. I still wasn't sure if it was a hallucination or not- and besides, if it WAS a chaos elemental, there wasn't really anything I could do to defend myself. Besides, death didn't seem to be much of an obstacle for me nowadays.

"You should not be here," it finally said, taking a step back.

"Well, gee, I'm sorry, ghost pony. I'll just head on back down the mountain, then. Nice meeting you! Beautiful ruins you have here."

"I would not be so glib if I were you," it said. "You are a fool, Spectrum. You should not be here. Not yet. You have forced me into a direct confrontation and I find this distasteful, especially with one such as… yourself."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" I blurted. I was so relieved at not being eaten that my fear had turned into confusion- and no small amount of indignation.

"The undead," it said, matter-of-factly. "And anything tainting with the power you wear on your back."

"You know about this?" I said, all other thoughts momentarily getting pushed out of my mind. "Do you know what this is?"

It hesitated before it answered. "I do not know much. It is… beyond me. It is too early on your journey for me to reveal too much too soon, but…"

It looked confused. I don't know if you've ever seen a perfectly generic, androgynous smoke pony look confused, but in case you haven't: it's very strange.

"We are… connected, in a way. It is easy for me to manifest here, where the veil is thinnest, but through you I may be able to act more overtly than what is normal. It is not the first time I have helped. The three who came before seeking the fragment of the goddess were judged fairly. I do not have the same luxury with you, but perhaps…"

It trailed off into silence. I waited for a moment, and when it didn't respond again, I began to speak.

"Hey, listen, I love cryptic half-speak as much as the next guy, but if you could tell me what's going on, that would be really gr-"

I was cut off in mid-sentence. The smoky creature whipped its head around and stared directly into me with those headlight eyes, cutting through to my very spirit, and images flashed before me. An ornate crystal tomb. A deep depression in and endless desert. A pillar of fire in the center of a field… and others, jumbled, confused, distorted. It felt as though my head was burning, like there were hot coals behind my eyes, advancing steadily forward, ready to boil through my eyes.

Then, as suddenly as it started, I staggered forwards. The tip of my nose passed through the smoky ethereal flesh of the creature, and tiny ice crystals formed on contact.

"What…?" I didn't have the mental wherewithal to continue.

"All the assistance I can offer now," it said. "You have an important duty, Spectrum. More important than you know. The powers that be have chosen you for a grand destiny, though I cannot fathom why… That crystal complicates matters. I cannot sit idly by if it once more holds power under the sun. Visit the locations I have revealed to you and return once your tasks are completed."

I swallowed. My head was spinning, trying to process what I had just seen and what the creature was telling me.

"Wh-what are you?" I managed, my head still swimming with pain and confusion.

For the first time, the creature smiled, revealing a row of smoky, pointed teeth.

"You know me better than most, Spectrum. I am Death."

Another chilling breeze, this time blowing intocastle. The smoke dissipated and the castle doors slammed shut.

"Huh," I said, weakly, before succumbing to the darkness that had begun to accumulate on the edges of my vision.

Journal 4

Author's Note

Last time, Spectrum explored the ruins of Canterlot. He described chaos elementals- creatures of pure magic left over from the destruction of Tantalus- and discovered that the lodestone has mind-influencing abilities that prevent him from getting too far from it. He also ascended the steps to Canterlot Castle and encountered a spirit which claimed to be Death itself and gave him cryptic visions of where he should search for answers to his predicament of immortality.

Journal 4

4

Shining glyphs floated behind my eyelids, searing into my eyes and making me blink in confusion.

I was lying on a cold stone floor, looking out into a dark room. I struggled to my hooves and just about toppled over again, the extra weight from the lodestone strapped to my back momentarily forgotten.

The weight kicked my brain into gear, and memories came flooding back to me: The smokey, insubstantial form that claimed to be Death, and it's assertion that the only way to get rid of this stone was to travel to… where?

I struggled to remember the locations shown to me in the visions. Most of them were unfamiliar—a pillar of fire, a pit in the desert… but one came back to me, clearer than any others: an ornate crystal tomb, the edges cut and polished, shining with all the colors of the rainbow.

This was a sight I recognized. This was one of the most revered places in Totemhoof: the tomb of our founder, Rainbow Dash. She had been enshrined after her death in a coffin made out of the crystal that made Totemhoof viable as a colony, as well as, to paraphrase, "preserve her awesomeness for future generations". But I guess I should explain before I go on exactly who this "Rainbow Dash" character is, right?

Well, way, way back before the fall of the Princesses, there were a group of six ponies—Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy—who controlled this powerful magic known as the Elements of Harmony. The Elements were so powerful that the first thing Tantalus did when he broke free from his magical prison was destroy Twilight Sparkle, rendering them powerless. Most of the information about the ponies except Rainbow Dash has been lost to time, at least in Totemhoof, but Rainbow holds a special place in our hearts. She fought in the Grand Cataclysm and, when it became apparent that neither side was going to win, she left and began scouring the earth for a suitable site to establish a colony, bringing with her a platoon of soldiers. They eventually stumbled across the valley that would become Totemhoof. The defensiveness of being walled in all sides by mountains, as well as the magical cloud barrier that she and a group of other pegasi developed, fueled by the magical crystals that grew underneath the earth, formed a bulwark against the forces of Tantalus that stood the test of time. As far as I know, Totemhoof is the last major civilized area on the planet.

Now, I'd been to her tomb before. Practically everypony had—Rainbow had achieved almost legendary status over the years, and some ponies even went so far as to worship her along with Luna and Celestia (though they've been gently discouraging that since they’ve returned.)

Anyway, back to reality. So there I was, standing at the top of a mountain, looking into a dark, ruined castle, my mind spinning with what I had just learned—not to mention a legendary headache. I had to consider my options.

On one hoof, I had no idea what that creature I just saw was. It seemed to know about the stone on my back, but I didn’t know if it was trustworthy. It could just as easily been a clever chaos elemental or… something alien. And even if it actually was the spirit of Death, was that really somepony I wanted to follow? What would be in it for me? I sure didn't want to die. Again. Forever.

On the other hoof… What else was I going to do? This stone was evil, that much was for sure, and there was definitely something strange going on with me and it that I wanted no part in. Maybe this could help me find something out? Didn't she… he… it… say something about destiny? If it was Death, maybe it… knew about that kinda stuff? I mean, everything has a time to die, right?

But even putting all that aside, I didn't really have any other options. I couldn't just sit and rot in this castle. First of all, I'm pretty sure I couldn't rot because of the stone, and second of all… y'know, that would suck. Now, luckily, Canterlot wasn't all that far from Totemhoof—maybe about a day's walk. Celestia and Luna could help with my undeath problem, and I could visit the tomb, to boot? I made up my mind: going home was the only option that made any kind of sense. If a chaos elemental was, in fact, trying to hitchhike into Totemhoof with me, the mist wall would keep it out. Plus, even though they weren’t back to their former power, Celestia and Luna were a force to be reckoned with.

I turned around and slowly made my way down the icy steps of the castle. Now, coming up a staircase covered in ice sucked, but going down was even worse. I don't know how long it took me to get to the bottom, but it was long enough that I actually considered jumping off the mountain and letting the lodestone revive me.

I won't bore you with my trek through the forest. It really wasn't that interesting. I made my way through the sparse forest until I got to the plains beyond. They were beautiful sweeping carpets of soft, green grass, dotted here and there by the bloodberry bushes that were a delicacy in Totemhoof.

And boy, was I glad to see them. I hadn't eaten anything in almost two days! I ran up to the berries and plucked a few. They tasted sweet and fruity, and their eponymous blood red juice helped to quench my thirst, too.

When I had eaten my fill, I turned to the west to see the shrouded city. Totemhoof was visible for miles around, or so I had read- this was my first time seeing it from the outside. It really was a majestic sight.

The cloud wall that separated Totemhoof from the rest of the world looked a lot less solid from the outside. The mountains weren't huge—about a thousand feet or so—but they looked much larger since the rest of the landscape was flat. Totemhoof was surrounded by—you know what? It would be easier if I just sketched it for you.

Yeah. Roughly like that, but, like... more fog. It was a sight to see.

I made my way across the sea of grass, and before long, I stood at the entrance to Totemhoof. How long had it been since I had left through this very same pass? A month? Two? The ground beneath me was beginning to wear away and reveal track marks, a visible sign of Totemhoof's isolation coming to an end.

Now, I knew I had a problem. A cool breeze blew out from the craggy mountain pass, though it didn't seem to affect the fog at all. The air was crisp and cold. Visibility was shot; I could only see a few feet in front of me, the path into Totemhoof fading away into nothingness before me.

Now, this wasn't ordinary fog. The pegasi used some kind of weather magic that basically meant that unless you had explicit permission, you couldn’t enter. You'd get all twisted around and spit out the other side. You could even dive headlong into the top of the clouds and you would just pop right back up. Trying to walk through it was disorienting and unpleasant. This, of course, was the magic that had kept Totemhoof safe for generations. Of course, not only did I not have permission or a guide to lead me through the clouds, I had a giant ridiculously evil crystal that makes zombies strapped to my back. That seemed like the kind of thing that this barrier was designed specifically to prevent.

Plus… I didn't even really like the thought of taking it into town at all after what I had witnessed at the research camp. Did I really want to take it in after that? Would it cause the same kind of effects it had there? Would the Totemhoof cemetery spring to life, and overrun the people of Totemhoof? (Heh. Spring to life.)

I glanced over my shoulder at the dark surface of the stone. The pale grey light illuminated the tiny glyphs that drifted lazily under the glassy surface of the crystal. Whatever might have been going through my mind, it wasn't too concerned.

All this swirling around in my head made me acutely aware of just how tired and sore I was. Every joint and muscle hurt. My head felt heavy, and it still pounded. Maybe now wasn't the best time. It was hard to tell through the fog, but I was pretty sure the sun had almost set. Yeah, now would be a good time to nap. Take up my adventure tomorrow, try and find a way through the mists. Maybe I could waylay the next pony to come out or something. Either way, that cool grass looked mighty appealing.

I stepped over to the side of the path and curled up on the deep emerald grass. It was slightly damp with dew, which felt good against my sore muscles. I was out in minutes, if not seconds.

In my dream, I was floating above Totemhoof, inside the cloud layer. The city was spread out below me, twinkling in the darkness. The colors were muted and dark. After a moment, I began to glide down. I could feel the cold night air against my face, whipping through my mane. I passed by the soft, rounded steel tops of the Stalliongrad buildings and began to glide towards the older part of town. The buildings became more angular, made out of hewn stone instead of steel and plastic. The streets were cobblestone instead of asphalt, and there was not a pony to be seen. Eventually, we came to the old temple of Luna. It was carved directly into the ground, a building shaped like a huge wheel, buried halfway in the ground.

The of the hallway was spacious and lined with dark blue crystals. During the day, they'd bathe the interior of the hall with soft light, but tonight they were dark. I drifted through the hall and down a twisting stairwell.

At the bottom of the stairwell, the space opened up once again. This was the mouth of the crystal mines. In the center of the room was a colossal statue of a pony carved from a single crystal—the largest ever discovered. Every crystal I enchanted came from here; every bit of magical technology Totemhoof possessed relied on the crystals within to keep running. The mines ran extensively under the mountain but, thank Luna, they haven't shown any signs of running out yet.

By this point I had figured out where I was going. I moved forward through several twisting, subterranean tunnels until I emerged into the mausoleum. Rainbow Dash's tomb glistened and glimmered in the dark. Then, suddenly, a loud crack issued through the hallways and the top of Rainbow's sarcophagus split open. From inside, something shifted, a dark, formless shape, seeping up and out of the crack into the room…

"Ow!"

I shouted and blinked as I was yanked rudely back to consciousness by a sharp pain in my snout. There, standing over me, was a mare with a coat the color of mint chocolate and a mane that was striped with alternating lines of dark green and mint. On her flank was a loaded crossbow.

When I say there was a loaded crossbow on her flank, I don't just mean her cutie mark, mind you. Strapped to her back was a mounted crossbow: a sort of spring-loaded backpack that allowed an earth pony to aim and fire a crossbow easily without needing magic. It sprung out to the side when it was needed, and when it wasn't, it could be easily retracted into the backpack and removed to repair the mechanisms or reload it. The trigger—which was operated by a bite—was already in her mouth. The sharp pain on my nose had been a crossbow bolt scraping against it. She had it trained directly at me.

"Don't make any sudden moves," she said evenly, though her voice was somewhat muffled by the trigger. "Get up. Slowly. You try anything and I'll put a bolt between your eyes."

Now, I know that a crossbow bolt to the head would be less lethal for me than it might be for a normal pony, but I really did not want to experience that. Thankfully, having a loaded crossbow pointed at your face tends to wake a guy up pretty quickly.

I slowly stood up, and the tip of the bolt still aimed at my head.

"Alright, good," the mare said. "Now, why don't you tell me who you are and why, exactly, you're taking a nap just outside the only way in and out of my town?"

I had to think fast. Say the wrong thing now, and I was dead. Again.

"I—bwuh—I was just—I came from—I mean, I’m from... I live in Totemhoof!"

Oh, yeah. Real smooth. Luckily, she didn't fire the bolt.

"Let me try that again," I ventured, straightening up. "I live in Totemhoof. I left on a scientific expedition, but something bad happened, and now I need to go see the Princesses. My name's Spectrum."

"You live in Totemhoof, huh?" the mare responded. "Alright, prove it. Tell me something that a citizen would know."

"Uh, I live in one of the new Stalliongrad apartment buildings, on the thirtieth floor. It's on the western hills. I work in the crystal processing center enchanting crystals. The crystals are mined from beneath the ancient Temple of Luna."

"Not good enough," the mare said, the trigger in her mouth.

"Wait!" I shouted. "I live across the street from a small diner called Equestria Edibles. They make pancakes with bloodberry sauce. I eat there most mornings before I show up for work."

The mare stared at me for a moment, her narrow eyes the color of tree sap. Then she bit down.

I winced, expecting to feel a bolt through my skull, but instead, I heard the sound of a ratcheting gear and the crossbow began to retract into a metal box on the mare's back.

"Well, you convinced me; you're really a pony from Totemhoof. My name is Barkbough. I'm a ranger."

(That would be bough as in boughs of a tree. Pronounce it like you would when you bow down.)

“Bark? Like a dog?”

“Like a tree,” she snapped. Right, okay. Avoid jokes.

“Well, thank you,” I said, relief rolling over me. Rangers were the backbone of Totemhoof. They were the ponies who ventured outside of the city to gather food and lumber from the nearby forest. More importantly, they were part of the very small group that knew how to navigate the mists. “I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back in, but I guess that solves that problem. I—”

“Not so fast, there,” Barkbough said, “I still have quite a few questions before I let you back in. What exactly happened to the rest of your supposed expedition?”

No way I was telling the whole truth. “There was an accident at the facility. An... explosion. I don’t know if anypony else made it out. I just started running.”

“And where exactly was this expedition?”

“To the southeast, where the glaciers are starting to thaw. We were exploring some ruins that got uncovered by the ice.”

Barkbough’s expression was stern and unreadable. I couldn’t tell what was going on behind her eyes. “Likely enough. What’s that you have strapped to your back?”

...Oh. Crap.

“This is something that we uncovered at the site. I brought it back with me. I work with crystals, remember? I thought this might have... interesting... uh, applications. But that’s not the important thing! I need to tell the Princesses what happened!”

“And that small one around your neck?” Barkbough asked.

I had actually completely forgotten about the small crystal dangling around my neck on a chain. Too many damn crystals to keep track of.

“This? This was just a gift from a friend. It’s just pretty, is all.”

I couldn’t tell if Barkbough bought it or if she was about to eject that crossbow and shoot me all over again.

“I’ll take you in,” she said, after a tense silence. “But you won’t get an audience with the Princesses right away. You’ll be held in a holding cell until we can verify your identity. I’ll pass along your message to the royal guards. That crystal of yours will be held in storage until that time. Understand?”

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” I said. Inwardly, I was worried about bringing the stone into the city and putting it so near the Princesses, but... this was pretty much my only offer. I just had to hope it would be close enough to me to avoid... whatever it was that had happened in the forest when I had tried to run away.

Barkbough moved closer to me. She was slightly taller than me. She stared directly into me, her bright blue eyes sparkling with intensity.

“If you try anything, if you hurt hurt anypony in my city, if you so much as flick your tail in the wrong direction, I will put a bolt through your neck faster than you can blink. Do you understand me?”

This girl was not kidding around. I’d met rangers before, and they weren’t nearly as scary as Barkbough here was. Then again, I’d always been on the right side of the cloud wall.

“Understand! Understood, I mean. I won’t try anything. I just want to explain what happened and try to get some help.”

Barkbough nodded and turned to face the cloud wall. “Walk slowly and stay next to me. You drift away, you’ll get tossed right back out where you came from.”

The trip through the mists was winding and disorienting. I didn’t know how Barkbough did it. Maybe she counted her steps or something. We’d walk a few yards, stop, turn, and walk a few more. Sometimes we even turned backwards and walked the way we had come. We could barely see a feet through the fog, and to add to the uncomfortable enclosedness of the place, the fog made my fur stand on end. It felt like tiny electric shocks all over my body. Bus is definitely the way to go if you have to get in and out of the city.

Eventually, the mists began to relent, and we emerged into Totemhoof. Home.

Guards at the ready, unicorns, most of them, holding various weapons. However, when they saw Barkbough, they stood at ease, though they still watched me warily. Barkbough approached one of them, a grey unicorn wearing the crested helmet and silver armor that marked him as a royal guard.

“What do we have here?” he said gruffly.

“I found him asleep on the grass just outside the city. He says he’s a citizen who left for a research mission, and he knows an awful lot about the city. I’m inclined to believe him, but I’m going to take him to lockup and hold him there while I verify his ident. Can you run a check to see if there’s anypony named Spectrum living in the city? He says he worked in the crystal factory. Check there first.”

“I had friends that worked there, too,” I interjected. “Flicker and Green Thumb. Find them and ask them. They’ll corroborate my story and who I am.”

The guard pulled up a small tablet and began jotting down information. “Flicker and Green Thumb?”

“Yep,” I responded.

“All right. Barkbough, take him in. I’ll wire this to my commander.”

Barkbough nodded. “Come on,” she said, nudging me forward. “We’re going to the castle.”

It was still pretty early in the morning, so there weren’t too many ponies out on the streets. Before the Stalliongrad refugees, Totemhoof’s population had been disproportionately pegasus, and even now the distribution was still unequal. Most of them lived above us in the clouds and worked to keep the barrier up and the weather regular, but a lot—mostly the ones married to earth ponies or unicorns lived on the ground and commuted to the sky to work. Even among the ones that were on the ground, though, strange looks were surprisingly few and far between. Maybe they were just used to seeing weird stuff come in with rangers.

Much to my relief, the lodestone stayed quiet. The symbols, which had glowed so brightly at the research base, were imperceptibly dark. Nopony fell over dead in the streets, and, perhaps more importantly, no dead ponies rose up through the streets.

We made our way through the winding streets of downtown Totemhoof, passed Incendia’s forges, and passed through the residential area. We passed the sleek, metallic buildings that were the hallmark of Stalliongrad influence and we passed the stone and wood buildings of old Totemhoof. It made me feel good to see all the familiar sites of home again, dire though the circumstances were.

Before long, we had reached the northern face of the valley and were standing at the base of a Celestia and Luna’s castle. It wasn’t a big, showy castle like the ancient one at Canterlot had been. It was shaped like a trident with three towers rising from the central base to reach several hundred feet into the sky. Their tops tapered to a point. At the top of the middle tower, which was longer than the other two, stained glass sparkled in the sunlight, identifying the throne room of the Princesses. From up there, they could see the entire city.

I wasn’t led up the tower, though. Instead, Barkbough again explained my situation to the royal guards, and they allowed her to take me in through the metal doors that served as the entrance to the castle. The inside was beautiful—decorated with white tiles and colorful windows—but I didn’t get too long to enjoy it. Instead of taking me up the stairs at the far end of the hall, I was shuffled through a small door to the left and down a set of stone steps.

The dungeon of the castle was small—only three cells. Totemhoof had its own prison underground, so I guess they didn’t feel the need to build a whole new one here. In fact, judging by the expression of the warden’s face when he saw me, I’m guessing they saw very few actual inmates here.

After another fun round of explaining my predicament, the warden—an elderly brown earth pony—shuffled over and unlocked a cell.

“Quite an unusual situation you’re in there, buddy,” he said. His voice was warm and jolly—not at all what I expected from a jail warden. “I’m sure they’ll all get it worked out in a jiffy, but I need that there big spiky rock you got strapped to your back. It’s protocol, y’see.”

My horn began to glow as I undid the straps that held the lodestone to my back and floated it out in front of me.

“What do you, uh, want me to do with this? You’re, uh...” I said, the stone hovering in front of me. The only ponies in here were earth ponies, and this thing was way too big to be carried in one’s mouth.

Barkbough rolled her eyes. “Just drop it on the ground. I’ll push it. I’d prefer it if you didn’t treat me like I was incompetent,” she said, her voice sharp and venomous.

Yeesh. Ix-nay on the agic-may.

“Alright,” I said quickly, dropping the stone to the floor. Barkbough eyed me suspiciously for a moment longer, then pushed the crystal with her snout, rolling it slowly towards a door behind the warden’s desk.

It comforted me to know it was only going to be a room away, buried here under the castle. Probably the best place for it.

When Barkbough was gone, the warden looked back at me. “Don’t mind Barky,” he said. “She’s young and wants to prove herself, is all. She don’t mean nothin’ by it. She’s a damn fine ranger. It’ll all get sorted out, just you wait.”

Wait I did. For a whole day I sat in that cell, twiddling my hooves and staring at the wall. The warden, bless him, gave me something to read, but all he had in his desk was the latest issue of the Equestrian Inquirer, which got me up to speed on the happenings in Totemhoof since I last left. However, that wasn’t as helpful as you’d think, since the most important event that had happened in the last month was a farmer growing a fifty pound pumpkin. It got a full page spread.

To be fair, it was a pretty impressive pumpkin.

Strangely, though, it wasn’t that bad. Just being home—and having nothing catastrophic happen—had calmed my nerves like nothing else. Everything that came before—the research base, Canterlot Castle, especially meeting Death—felt unreal.

Eventually, in the late afternoon of the day after I arrived, Barkbough came back down the stairs.

“Well, good news, Spectrum,” she said. “Your story checks out. We found your papers, and Flicker confirmed your story. It seems you really are who you say you are.

Phew.

She walked over to the warden’s desk and grabbed the keys off their keyring with her mouth. The warden winked at me. I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“I’m sorry about the threats,” Barkbough said tersely. “We can’t be too careful. We’ve had cases where a creature has just been in the shape of a pony.”

She surprised me by smiling. She wore a smile well. “And I have a little surprise waiting for you. I’ve arranged a meeting with the Princesses in two hours. They seemed very interested in your story. Flicker said she’d be waiting for you at your apartment. You’re free to go, but don’t be late to your audience.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I stammered.

Barkbough stiffened up and put her inscrutable mask back on.

“You’re welcome. Now get your things and go.”

The warden unlocked the room behind the desk and I strapped the lodestone to my back. I thanked him and Barkbough again, then galloped up the stairs and out the doors of the castle.

I hailed a small taxi cart and had it carry me to my apartment. It was one of the brand new automated hovercarts that had just rolled out earlier this year—much faster than the old horse-drawn ones, if less personal.

After a short ride, I hopped out at the base of my apartment building. To my relief, they hadn’t changed the door code. It opened to my number and I hopped in the elevator.

Thirty floors later, the doors slid open to reveal my apartment. That was the reason I picked this apartment building, incidentally—due to the shape of the building, there was only one apartment on the thirtieth floor, and the elevator opened directly into it. Wasting space? Maybe a bit. But boy, was it nice.

My apartment was just how I left it: in shambles. A thin layer of dust lay over everything. Strangely, though, a delicious smell wafted in the air, and on my couch—

“Spectrum!”

Flicker flung herself from the couch and threw her hooves around me. “I was so worried when they told me what had happened! An explosion? Nopony else has come back! I thought something terrible had happened to you!”

Ha. An explosion would have been significantly less terrible than the truth.

“I’m okay, Flicker. It’s good to see you,” I said, hugging her with my neck. “I’ll tell you all about it after I get back from my appointment with the Princesses.”

Flicker broke the hug and we both flopped down on the couch.

“A private audience with the Princesses, huh?” she said. “That’s pretty impressive. Moving on up in the world.”

“Hardly,” I said with a chuckle.

“I bought you some food. Figured whatever they gave you in jail wasn’t super good. Green Thumb says hello, by the way, but he couldn’t get away from work. What’s up with that weird crystal?”

“Just something I found,” I lied. “I thought it was weird so I wanted to take it back.”

Flicker shrugged and produced a box full of fried vegetables sprinkled with spice. We ate and chatted and laughed. I deliberately avoided the subject of what had happened to me.

“I have to get going to make my appointment,” I said, letting the fork I had been using float to the table. “Thanks, though.”

“You have to tell me what happened when you get back, though,” Flicker said.

“I will,” I said.

“Get going, then,” Flicker said. “It’s nice to have you back. And... Spectrum?”

I was halfway to the elevator. I turned back to her.

“Thanks for keeping that crystal I gave you.”

“Of course I kept it,” I said.

“It was really expensive.”

"Yeah; that's why I kept it," I replied, playfully waggling an eyebrow.

“Get out of here,” Flicker chided dismissively. Her face betrayed her, however, as she wore a warm smile.

I stepped into the elevator and pushed the ground floor button.

~~~

The elevator in the castle was much nicer than the one in my apartment. It had one of those mirrors which face each other and make it look like it tunnels into infinity. I look in it and realized this was the first time I’d seen myself since the research base. To my surprise, I didn’t look as bad as I thought. My fur was clean, and my dark blue mane didn’t have any bloodstains or anything in it, which was nice.

The elevator arrived at the top with a soft ding as the doors slid open. The inside of the throne room was made of polished black marble inlaid with gold, which ran along the floor like rivers, twisting and curving and forming intricate patterns. Barkbough was waiting for me just outside the elevator.

Celestia and Luna were incredible. I’d seen them in person before, riding through town, but they looked positively resplendent in their throne room. Their manes waved through the air ethereally, as if blown by a wind that didn’t exist. I thought I could almost feel waves of power coming off them, Celestia’s like rays of warm sunshine, and Luna’s like a cool breeze. I wasn’t nervous when I had been riding up, but seeing them seated in their golden thrones made me gulp.

They seemed to sense my nervousness. Celestia smiled.

“Come forward. You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”

I slowly approached the thrones and bowed low. Celestia and Luna nodded in response, and I stood back up.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Spectrum,” Luna said, “I wish it were only under better circumstances. I understand you went out with one of our research expeditions.”

“I—yes, I did, your graces. Uh, your majesties?”

“There’s no need for titles,” Celestia said. “We don’t bite. However, we must insist you tell us what happened at the research base. We know you lied to Barkbough.”

I shot a glance at Barkbough, who stood next to me, her face tight.

“How did you know?” I said.

“True North was supposed to file reports directly to us, and the last few reports we got mention that crystal you have on your back.. As time went on, the messages got increasingly erratic, until they stopped altogether. When we got the report about you, and it mentioned you had a crystal strapped to your back, we knew they were connected. And now that it’s here...” Celestia trailed off. “Tell us what happened.”

No point in lying now, I suppose. I started from the beginning.

When I had finished, Barkbough was the first to speak.

“So, this thing on your back drives ponies insane, makes them kill each other, and then turns them into zombies, and you decided to bring it right into the center of town?!”

I flushed. I didn’t really have an answer for that.

“That was very irresponsible, Spectrum,” Luna chided. “However... We do not know that you had any other option. From your tale, it sounds as though you are unable to move too far from the lodestone.”

“Do you know what it is, then?” I asked, hopeful.

Celestia and Luna shuffled uncomfortably. “Actually... no, we don’t,” Celestia said. “I have never heard of any power like this. I felt it the moment you entered the throne room. It is drawing power from us, weakening us. It is not any magic I‘m familiar with, not even that of Tantalus.”

“So... what, then? What do I do?” I asked.

This time, it was Luna who responded. “I know of the Death spirit. The realm of dreams and the realm of the dead sleep side by side. However, never in all my time upon the earth have I heard of death directly contacting the living. These events are unprecedented. As such...” Luna looked over at Celestia, who nodded. “As such, we believe it is most prudent to allow you to continue down the path that the Death spirit has revealed.”

“What?” Barkbough exclaimed. “Isn’t serving Death a bad thing?”

“Like us, Death is a spirit of balance,” Luna replied calmly. “It is tasked with keeping the balance between the world of the living and... whatever comes next. When I was fragmented, it protected part of me, keeping it out of the hooves of those that would use it for ill. If it seeks your help, than the power that stone carries is a threat to that balance.”

My heart sank. This is not what I wanted to hear. “Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“Yes, there is,” Celestia said. “We can assign Barkbough to help you.”

“What?” Barkbough and I said in unison. We glanced at each other.

“Please, you can’t do that,” Barkbough continued after a moment. “I belong here, protecting the city! Surely there must be somepony better suited to this than me. One of your royal guards!”

“Or all of them,” I offered. “Why not just send an army?”

“Because,” Luna said, cutting off Barkbough before she could retort, “We cannot spare an army. Totemhoof is still besieged by raiders, creatures, and wild magic. We are still weak. We need the royal guard to keep the city safe. If we sent them all with you, we would be overrun. However, one ranger can be spared. Barkbough knows how to use the stars to navigate and how to survive in the wild. She will help to keep you safe and to move quickly on your endeavor, because we fear time is of the essence.” She glanced uneasily at the lodestone. “Even now, it draws power from us. We expect it is dormant because it expended all of its stored energy at the research base, but that will not be the case much longer.”

“Complete your quest as fast as you can, Spectrum,” Celestia said. “Do not linger here. Your first objective should be to head to the tomb. And not a word from you, young mare,” Celestia said sternly, her gaze shifting to Barkbough. “This is a direct order from me. You are an excellent ranger . Do you understand?”

Barkbough nodded curtly.

Celestia and Luna stood from their thrones and extended their wings. They filled the entire room with their presence.

“Go, now, Spectrum and Barkbough,” Luna said formally, “and accept our blessings on your quest. We will help in any way we can.”

Barkbough bowed low, and I followed her lead, dropping my head low. The black marble floors were so glossy I could see my blue eyes staring back up at me.

“You are dismissed,” Celestia declared.

Barkbough stood, spun on the spot, and began to trot towards the elevator. I quickly followed.

“Listen up,” Barkbough said after the golden doors had slid shut. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this situation. I don’t trust all of this magical nonsense. It complicates things and doesn’t help anypony do anything. And, most importantly, I don’t trust you.”
She gave me her cold death stare again. I was getting pretty familiar with this look. Ever looked a cocatrice full in the face? This is worse.

“Do you know what being a ranger means? It means I’ve dedicated my life to protecting the people of Totemhoof. You brought that... thing,” she said, gesturing with her head at the lodestone, “into my city, endangering everypony in it, and you did it knowingly. Worst of all, though, you lied to me. You knew what you were doing and you looked me right in the eyes and you lied. So I want to make one thing clear.”

She sprang into motion, catching me unaware. Before I knew what had happened, I was pinned against the side of the elevator cabin, Barkbough’s hoof pressed against my throat. I tried to gasp, to shout, but I couldn’t get any air.

“We are not friends,” she growled. “We’re not partners. You’re an assignment, and if you put one hair out of line, I won’t hesitate to put a bolt in your brain, undying or not. It takes you a while to revive, right? In your story, you were out for nearly a day before you came back. I wonder how that would work if you were six feet underground at the time. Are we clear?”

“C-clear,” I squeaked.

Barkbough let her hoof fall away, and I collapsed to the floor of the elevator.

Hoooooly crap. This mare was not messing around. Just my luck that I would get assigned a “protector” that hates my guts and doesn’t trust magic. I had a feeling the Princesses had done more damage than help.
We reached the base of the tower and the elevator slid open. “We should head straight to the tomb,” Barkbough said. “Get this over with.”

“Good idea,” I said. Barkbough gave me a withering look. Flattery gets you everywhere.

The tomb was built in the eastern hills, a short walk around the rim of the valley. There were more ponies on the street today, watering crops, pulling wagons full of goods, hawking wares at street corners. For whatever reason, I got way more strange looks this time around than when I walked through the city the first time. This did not help my mood.

Finally, we arrived at the old temple of Luna. Once the spiritual center of Totemhoof, it had been declining in popularity a bit in the decades since the return of the Princesses. Why worship at an old temple when you have the flesh and blood Luna walking amongst you?

The inside of the temple was lit by magical crystals, the kind I had enchanted hundreds of in my time at the factory. I thought I could see them dim just a bit as we entered.

We were waylaid once on the way to the tomb by a priest, but he promptly let us pass when Barkbough said we wished to visit the tomb of Rainbow Dash. I’m glad Barkbough knew the path through the temple, because it had been a long time since I’d been through here in anything but a dream.

The tomb itself was magnificent. Cut from a single block of crystal, it gleamed and sparkled in the low light as though it was lit from within. Every color of the rainbow shimmered and shone from its surface, causing multicolored lights to dance around the room like droplets of water on a hot stovetop. Carved into the stone of the coffin was an image of a pegasus soaring through the clouds.

“So... what now?” Barkbough said. “What’s supposed to happen?”

As if in response, or possibly actually in response, the lodestone on my back began to get hot. Like, burning hot.

“Argh!” I exclaimed, casting it off my back.

The black surface of the crystal began to glow with those strange symbols, and the atmosphere in the room changed. The colors seemed to grow muted and dull. Waves of strange energy radiated from the lodestone, just like it had back at the camp.
Something was off this time, though. I couldn’t quite place it, but something felt... different. There was something else, some other power at work here, something... something coming from the tomb.

The lodestone began to quiver, then shake, then positively writhe in a grotesque way, more like an animal than a crystal.
There was a flash of light, a deafening crack, and the lid of the coffin broke in two and fell away.