Convexa Tempus

Sixteen

Philomena swooped over the battlefield. While some might question the logic of putting a phoenix in charge of a battle, anypony who owned one could not doubt their title as one of the most intelligent creatures in existence. She cawed over individual battalions, relaying instructions directly into their minds. After the six had disappeared through the gate, absolute chaos had broken out. The front lines held against the first onslaught, and thankfully they hadn’t lost any.

But the creatures were ceaseless, and there was no way to predict their movements, their numbers, or even what might walk out of the gate. Philomena had seen giant insects, ogres and wyverns. Things that had never been recorded of before. She did her best to instruct each unit in the best tactics for particular enemies, but this was only successful to a degree, as the shear number of beasts made it impossible for her to command everypony at once.

So steadily their forces began to get whittled down, Peewee had been doing well but was shot down early and Philomena was forced to take sole control of the army. Occasionally there was a great drop in the number of creatures coming from the gate. While they never stopped completely there were few enough that she could reorganise and re-establish formations, but she couldn’t hold out forever, if they didn’t make some progress soon, it would be a lost cause.

Seventeen

Nopony spoke; Dusk didn’t try to push for a conversation. They were all in shock, and while they kept moving out of realisation that this mission was bigger than any of them, they still felt hollow. They knew when they walked into Tartarus they wouldn’t all walk back out, but still, it was another thing entirely experiencing it.

After leaving the organic area behind they found themselves in another series of cavern, this one filled with living shadows, clinging to the walls, stalking them.

“Shoo,” Scootaloo said flicking at one of the shadows getting inappropriately close. They silently sat down, Spitfire walked off on her own, sitting in a corner, not even trying to swat the shadows away.

“Are you alright?” Dusk asked Dawn leaning close, she nodded, but her eyes were still red from crying. Then Shining Armour approached Dusk.

“Dusk, can I talk to you in private for a minute?”

They walked to the side, out of earshot of Dawn and Scootaloo.

“What is it?” Dusk asked suspiciously, but Shining Armour hesitated.

“I didn’t want to tell you this, but Zecora thought I should be honest,” Dusk tilted his head questioningly; “we haven’t been entirely honest with you about this mission.”

“What are you talking about it?” Dusk asked.

Shining Armour sighed.

“How many people do you think have died in the last few years?” he asked.

“Too many to count,” he answered simply, not sure where this was going.

“If you had the chance to save all those lives, would you take it?” he asked slowly. Dusk didn’t answer; something made him think this wasn’t simple trivia.

“Why are you asking?” Dusk enquired, his suspicions growing.

“When we get to the vault, if we stop Fate, could you just walk away, go home and live your life?” Shining Armour looked as if he was regretting his decision to confide in Dusk. Dusk turned and looked over at Dawn.

“Yes, I could,” he replied honestly, Shining Armour rubbed his head.

“Well we cant, that is, Cadance, Spitfire and I cant.” There was a chilly silence.

“We’ve lost everything, the ponies we cared about are all dead, if we could change all that, we would,” he finished.

“So you want to stop Fate using the power in the vault, just so you can,” then he understood why Dawn and he hadn’t been told, “and in doing so, you’d save those lives, but Dawn and I would never meet.”

Shining Armour nodded sadly.

“Well then it’s a no!” Dusk shouted, causing Dawn and Scootaloo to glance up. Shining Armour led him further away.

“What is one love, weighed against hundreds of lives, perhaps even thousands?” he begged.

“But it’s our love, it’s not yours to decide,” Dusk began to walk back to the others but turned back briefly, “we’ll help you stop Fate, but I will not let you do this.”

As he walked back Shining Armour went to check on Spitfire. Dusk was furious, they’d lied to them, and they were prepared to use them. He got back to beside Dawn who turned to him.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said giving nothing away.  She clearly didn’t want to drop it but she had something on her mind.

“Can we talk?” she asked, Dusk nodded and they walked over to where he and Shining Armour had spoken.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s Zecora…” she hesitated, “I knew she was going to die.”

Dusk took a breath before continuing, “your dream?” she nodded, “how did it play out?”

“It made no sense, but I saw them fall in order, starting with Zecora,” she said quietly.

“Who was next?” Dawn looked over at the others and he followed her gaze.

“The thing is, in my dreams… we stop Fate, some of us die, but we win,” she said breathing heavily, “Is it better to let a few die so many more may live?” she asked. Dusk thought about this, his mind wondered back to what Shining Armour had said to him. Perhaps it wasn’t wrong to let a few more die, especially if in doing so they could save them and many more.

Eighteen

Grim dashed through the battlefield, the enemies fell easily before him, and they were no match for his speed and dexterity. Unfortunately his soldiers weren’t faring so well, he dived in to pull a few of them out of the deep end just as Nova had the same idea.

“We’re going to get killed because you couldn’t do your job right,” she spat at him.

“I know you’re new to battle but normally we wait until after to have conversations,” he replied sarcastically.

“Are you joking?” she demanded, “we’re losing, Sullivan’s going to kill us all if we go back there and tell him we failed again.”

“Of course we’re losing,” he said confidently, Nova looked at him stunned.

“Is this part of your plan, because it’s a poor one,” she shouted, he just smiled in response.

“Like I said, in the middle of battle, we save the talking for later,” with that he charged off breaking the line of the approaching earth ponies.

Nineteen

Scootaloo was worried about Spitfire; she hadn’t uttered a word since Zecora died. She knew her well enough to know she wasn’t the kind of pony who would let things get to her, but she guessed everypony had a breaking point. As they continued walking Scootaloo tried talking to Spitfire, getting her to contribute in group conversations, but she remained silent. Dawn put her hoof out to indicate that Scootaloo should fall behind, and once they were out of earshot of the others Dawn turned to her.

“I know you’re trying to help,” she said in a low but reassuring voice, “but you have to realise she needs time to come to terms with everything herself.”

Scootaloo sighed, she knew she was right, but she also had a sickening feeling it was about to get a lot worse. They emerged from the cavern system in a room that was reminiscent of an ancient temple; there were pillars, statues, and platforms connected by an intricate series of staircases and bridges.

Without needing to be told Scootaloo flew up getting a view of the whole room, so as to decide where they should go next. As she sat in the air she caught a glimpse of her own flank, and wing emblazoned on it. She thought back fondly to the days in Ponyville when she, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom tried an incredible number of things to get their cutie marks. But it was never a problem that they never did, so long as they were together.

Scootaloo shook herself out of her memories and continued scanning the room. They’d come through a tall door at floor level, and there was a similar door on the other side much higher up. She spread her wings again and swooped down to relay the information to Shining Armour.

“Good work Scootaloo,” he said, then he turned to the rest of the group, his horn glowing, “come on everypony, we’re almost at the end.”

They began navigating the temple using a combination of Shining Armour’s magic and Scootaloo flying to get a bird’s eye view. Finally they reached the top floor and were now standing on a bridge lined with statues of armoured ponies. Dawn approached them and began studying one, while Dusk examined the door at the other end of the bridge. Scootaloo heard a thump and turned to see Dusk had tried kicking it, but it hadn’t budged.

“This thing's sealed tight,” he said turning back to them, “do you think you can crack it open?”

Shining Armour stepped up prospecting it, “if you give me some time I can open it.”

He immediately touched the tip of his horn to the crack, ad the whole door shone with a faint reflective light. Scootaloo joined Dawn at the statues.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked, Dawn didn’t answer.

“No,” she said at last, shaking her head.

As they both turned away they heard something crack, slowly they looked around. The statue had come to life and stood shaking its limbs like it were cracking joints. They stood stalk still staring as clouds of dust fell through the air. Then all around them the statues began breaking themselves free, they were armed with stone spears and in unison they leapt into attack mode. Scootaloo was taken by surprise and got knocked down, but Dawn fired a blast of light at her assailant then rushed to help her up.

Looking around she saw that Shining Armour was still probing the door, Dusk stood behind him aiming kicks at the statues, the places his hooves made contact exploded into dust. Dawn ran to his side and began using the elements to destroy the enemies encroaching upon him. Scootaloo was too busy watching everypony else, that she didn’t notice the statue approaching her from behind. She turned in time to see a stone spear driving towards her face, and knew it was all over, when out of nowhere Spitfire sped in smashing the statue off the bridge.

“Don’t lose your focus,” Spitfire said before speeding off to fight the others. Scootaloo grinned, then spreading her wings she soared into the air and began dive bombing the statues. They stood no chance against their combined efforts, and very quickly they were reduced to piles of dust.

“Is everypony alright?” Dusk asked, they all nodded, and then Shining Armour stepped back from the door.

“That’s done it, let’s keep moving,” but his words were drowned out by an earth shattering roar.

They all stood frozen, looking around wildly for the next threat. The wall at the opposite end of the room burst open, reduced to rubble and clouds of dust in seconds, and from inside a giant creature began to uncoil itself. First its bulbous head appeared, with pincers like scythes snapping at the air. It was quickly followed by a procession of scuttling legs, which like the pincers were razor sharp. As it descended from its nest, rather than standing on the bridges themselves, it rose up and began gliding through the air.

The centipede noticed them instantly and after gaining some height it came pummelling done. They would have all died, but for a bubble of light enclosing them, the bubble shrank disappearing before reappearing beyond the threshold of the door. Scootaloo quickly realised Dawn had protected them, and lucky she had, the centipede smashed through the bridge they’d been standing on.

“We have to get out of here,” Shining Armour shouted as the beast readied itself for a second attack, but as they turned to run Scootaloo noticed Spitfire hadn’t moved.

“Come on,” she said trying to drag her away, but she just shook her head.

“That thing can easily chase us, and we might not be so lucky next time,” Spitfire began walking forward.

“Don’t be crazy, you can’t take that thing on your own,” but she understood, Spitfire knew she couldn’t beat it, she planned to hold it off while they escaped.

“Just go Scootaloo,” she commanded, “fly until the very end.”

Scootaloo nodded, the words sticking in her throat. Then taking one last look at Spitfire, her friend, her mentor, she turned tail and ran after the others.

Twenty

Grim had sustained an injury during the battle, but he didn’t let it affect him. Nova was at his side panting, Davitt and Brutus close behind. Apart from them there were eight soldiers left, all injured. Glancing over his shoulder he could see the enemy advancing, they were catching up, and if they had to run much further they’d never escape, but they didn’t have to run any further, because they’d arrived home, Sullivan’s kingdom, the gates of Tartarus.

They ceased running and collapsed at the foot of the gate panting and puffing. Nova turned furiously to Grim.

“You betrayed us all!” she screeched, “you planned for us to lose, then you led them right back home.”

The other soldiers all stared at him, fury blazing in their eyes. Grim felt their hatred chilling the air, and sneered.

The enemies were only minutes away, as the gates would not open for them while they were close by, Grim knew as soon as the enemy reached them they’d all be slaughtered.

“Indeed,” he said, feeling their hatred wash over him, “and now you’re all going to die.”

Nova screamed bringing all her energy into the tip of her horn which began shining with a brilliant purple light. She then pointed her head down, and fired at Grim.

The effect was instantaneous, from where they stood it was as if an ice age had just been beckoned, a sheet of ice spread for miles around, imprisoning every enemy soldier in a prison of ice. Grim dodged the attack, which bounced off the gate, not leaving a scratch. The cold didn’t affect him, it wouldn’t affect any of them, they were beings of darkness, and they were already ice cold on the inside.

Nova stared in disbelief, her mouth gaping wide from shock.

“How? How?” she stammered, Grim began laughing.

“I told you it was all part of the plan,” he said, turning to Davitt he continued, “while it was my idea, Davitt was instrumental, you all were to be honest.”

Nova still looked surprised, unable to speak.

“Perhaps I owe you an explanation,” he said walking across to the frozen enemies, the ice creaking beneath his hooves, “after I was tasked with eliminating the enemy forces, Davitt and I took a little trip.”

“We went to a cave high in the mountains, and there we found three deceased Windigos,” Davitt croaked, “after a number of experiments I successfully managed to revive one.”

“The truth is, we never had a hope of beating them,” Grim said picking up where Davitt left off, “of course Windigos feed on hate, so in order to use its power to our advantage, I needed to grow hate inside you all, which I did by sending you on a suicide mission. Those of you that survived fed the Windigo with your anger, allowing it to freeze the battlefield, which of course, would never affect us.”

When Grim finished explaining himself he turned to see the few remaining soldiers staring in awe at him. Davitt had lost interest in the conversation and was now waiting to be let through the gate, Brutus showed no expression, but Nova wore a wide grin.

“It seems I truly underestimated you,” she said. Grim didn’t care; he did it for Lord Sullivan, not her.

The gates finally began to open, and infirmary ponies came out to attend to them. Grim looked up and saw snow was falling, looking around once more at the biome that had been created; this section of the land may be like this forever now. But as he turned to walk through the gate, he noticed it remained just as it had before.