A Game of Chess

The cavern was large, but not to the point that it was impossibly massive. The ceiling hung low, and arched off to either side of them, creating an almost semi-circular path. The sand and grit lay behind them, now, leaving only the cool floor of the desert underpass.

But the darkness, however, hung around them like an eerie cloak, hiding everything away.

Twilight let out a shudder. Even if her eyes had long since adjusted to the shadows around them, she still couldn't rid herself of the fear in her heart. Next to her, however, Dusk walked onwards, his face a mask of calmness.

"Something the matter, Twilight?" he asked. "You seem a bit worried." He looked over at her with a smirk.

She let out a sigh. "Sorry, I'm just not too good around dark places..." murmured the lavender alicorn in reply.

Dusk looked forward, once more. "Do you fear the night?" he asked, his voice still calm.

"Well, no," Twilight said, "but that's because, even if it's dark, there's still some light to keep me from getting lost."

The mercenary scoffed. "Light and darkness... How odd, Twilight, isn't it? Let me ask you a question -" he glanced over at her "- what do you think of the two forces?"

She bit down, and answered. "I know that dark isn't evil, or anything," she said, "but the fact is that some ponies don't do very well when we can't see anything."

"Fear of the unknown," translated Dusk, looking back towards the area that they were going to. "However, I understand your point. Dark isn't automatically evil, just as light isn't automatically good. It's what a pony does with these elements that makes them what they are." He looked over at her, again. "What about you, Twilight Sparkle? Which of the two do you prefer?"

"Light or darkness..." she said, quietly, before looking back to the mercenary. "Do I really have to choose? I mean, I like both of the princesses!"

Dusk said nothing for a few seconds. "... The princesses of the moon and sun," he said. "How... humorous."

"How so?" asked Twilight, but she continued walking.

"It should be obvious for you," replied the mercenary. "You are - or rather, were, I suppose - Celestia's protégé, weren't you?"

"Wait, how did you know that?" Twilight asked, surprised.

Dusk simply stared forward, once more. "I'm a mercenary, Twilight," he said. "I have... connections, so to speak."

"Like Deun?" pushed the alicorn. "How do you two know each other?"

"We met awhile ago," said Dusk, not elaborating any further, "on a little... 'quest' of my own."

"Huh," Twilight knew better than to pursue this further. It would inevitably end with Dusk just brushing off her attempts to learn more about his past.

"But enough about me," mused the mercenary. "What of you, and your own exploits?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Twilight, cautiously.

"Well," started Dusk, "I doubt that one as... brilliant as Celestia would send several creatures such as yourselves on this journey, unless you've proved that you can hold your own." His eyes flashed. "Even if you are the Elements of Harmony."

Twilight sputtered. "Wait, but how did you -?"

"Like I said," replied Dusk. "I'm a mercenary. I have connections."

He stepped on ahead. "Damn," he muttered, "this place is as dark as Hell..." He touched the sword at his side, and raised it up.

Twilight watched in silent awe as the blade began to glow. Various white lines that ran along the black sword began to shine with a beautiful, wondrous light that seemed to carry throughout the cave. Even the ponies behind Dusk held up their hooves in surprise at the vast amount of new brightness.

"Yes," Twilight heard herself mutter, "just wait until our eyes adjust to the darkness before you blind us."

Dusk grinned. "Well, I needed a way to change the subject," he said, "and this seems to have done it the best."

Twilight simply shook her head, waiting until her eyes adjusted to the brightness before she spoke again. "Right," she said. "Nothing's better for changing the conversation than just blinding everypony around you."

"Exactly," said the mercenary, still grinning, "but this... this is only a fraction of Constellation's power."

"Really?" asked the lavender alicorn. "What else can it do... besides cause permanent damage to my retinas?"

"You'll have to wait and see," replied Dusk, his face becoming serious once more. "This is one of several legendary weapons, and its power is enough to do things that no ordinary sword could even begin to accomplish. The light its emitting is one of its most basic features, next to its immensely sharp blade, and another ability that I'm sure you'd enjoy." He held it up in front of him. "And, after years, after several experiments, I've managed to finally realize its full potential. I prefer not to use its more advanced functions except for times of urgency due to the massive amount of magic that they drain, but -" he shrugged "- sometimes one has no choice."

Twilight stared at it. "How do you even carry a thing like that around?" she asked, genuinely curious.

As if to show off, Dusk threw the sword into the air, stopping just short of the ceiling, and caught it. "I've no idea what you're talking about," he said, smirking, before shaking his head. "To be serious though, years of practice."

"... How many?"

Dusk looked away from her, and paused for about ten seconds. "... Many, many years," he said. "Too many, one could say."

"You're dodging my question," she supplied, annoyed.

The mercenary looked over at her with a grin. "You're just noticing it now?" he asked. "But, honestly, these scars are quite symbolic, wouldn't you say?" He touched one of the many markings on his side. "Symbolic of every failure that I've ever made. Of my failures when I was studying Constellation, of my failures on the field of battle... They're all marks of wretched, horrific failure. All of them, and especially..." He trailed off again, his eyes filling with a strange sorrow.

"Forgive me, Twilight," he said. "Memories. Such wretched things..." He shook his head, and smiled, sadly. "Yes, such cruel things memories can be..."

The lavender alicorn refused to pry. Instead, she simply walked along beside Dusk, not wanting know just what cruel memories he held deep within his mind, not wanting to know just what 'wretched things' his memories were.

Instead, they walked in silence for several minutes, with only the sounds of their friends's conversations leaving Twilight with the knowledge that they were alright. Even in the brightness of the cave, she still feared for their safety.

However, not letting this show, the lavender alicorn still walked on, as more time passed, and the conversations began to gradually die down. After several hours of walking in relative silence - with only the children talking, Valice and Rainbow Dash exchanging stories, and the occasional talk between Dusk and Twilight - the cave walls suddenly lurched outwards, leaving them standing before a massive, almost perfectly circular room.

On the far side of the chamber was another passageway, but one that seemed to give way to a place filled with light. However, the area itself was not entirely dark, as the ceiling formed a kind of funnel, allowing a small amount of light to trickle in, as well as sand.

And, in that trickle of light, the creature that lay there was all too evident. Its body was shaped like a  rounded diamond, but seemed to act more like a turtle's shell in appearance, and had several legs, some large, and some small, poking out from underneath it. On its circular head, two large mandibles could be clearly seen, and its eyes lay just beside those, closed in slumber. Around the odd insect lay several pieces of jade-colored carapace shards, but there were no claws or tails in sight.

"Naturally," Dusk said, quietly, as he put the light of Constellation out so that the creature would not wake up.

"What is that?" hissed Checkmate, stepping up to the front.

Dusk grimaced. "I think you can guess for yourself. Take a look -" He gestured to the funnel "- we're in sand-pit-trap. And the fact that there's at least one dead jadetails in here..."

"This is an antlion's den," translated Twilight. "The antlion doesn't look too dangerous, though, if a bit large..."

It was true. The creature was roughly fifteen feet long, just slightly longer than the jadetails that they'd met the day prior. Its mandibles, however, were at least five feet in length.

"The problem is, though," Dusk muttered, "this is just a larva. Thankfully, it's sleeping, but it could still tear us apart in seconds. Not as fast as Deun, maybe, but I'm not about to say that's a good thing."

"Look over there," Valice said, stepping forward as well. "Do you see that light in front of us? I'll bet you anything that it puts us right in front of Solace."

"What makes you say that?" asked Checkmate. "Solace should still be days away, theoretically."

"Well," explained Valice, "considering how stupid our luck seems to be - getting us away from Deun only to find ourselves in this situation - wouldn't it make sense for something like this to happen? At this point, I'm honestly expecting that we've somehow bypassed a lot of what makes this desert take so long to travel across."

Dusk sighed. "Good point," he said, "although it wouldn't surprise me if the antlion wakes up just before we reach the exit."

"After we step on a conveniently-placed shard from a jadetails's carapace?" continued Valice, and she grimaced. "Yeah. There's no way we're getting out of this without a fight, are we?"

"You two sound like you've been through this kind of thing before," observed Twilight.

Dusk shrugged. "You learn a lot as a mercenary, Twilight. In all of my travels, every single time that I've encountered a sleeping monster, regardless of whether it's an adult or a baby, it always wakes up. Always."

"Well that's comforting," muttered the lavender alicorn.

"Hey!" Valice said, indignantly, "I was going to say that!"

"Regardless," Checkmate passed a look between the two, "it doesn't look as if this thing is just going to let us pass. So... what are our options?"

"We kill it," said Valice, readying her twin daggers, and standing on her rear-legs.

"Sounds like our best option," Dusk admitted.

"Isn't there anything else we can do...?" asked Fluttershy, the meek pegasus looking back-and-forth throughout the group. "I-I mean... it's just a baby..."

"No, unfortunately," Dusk said. "Nopony's ever been able to tame or escape from a ravenous and enraged antlion, and odds are we're not getting around this thing without a fight..."

Fluttershy hung her head in defeat, and looked away from the creature, obviously not desiring to see what was about to happen.

Twilight, Checkmate, Valice, and Dusk stepped up to it, while the others kept themselves standing away from the center of the room and protecting the children, and readied themselves to attack the gigantic insect.

Then it awoke.

Deun and Wendigo stood in a large cavern behind the Hellgate Mines, the place where the king of the windigoes made his "castle", so to speak. The king of the windigoes stood in front of a long passageway, but none had gone beyond the chamber and seen just what lay in the room beyond it. Regardless of this, however, many windigoes speculated just what could lay in it.

Wendigo stared over at Deun. "So," he said, "I take it that the brats escaped?"

Deun bowed his head, refusing to meet the king's eyes. "Yes, Wendigo," he said. "Unfortunately, I underestimated them, and I allowed Checkmate Vigarde and his allies to escape into an underground cavern."

"You really are worthless, aren't you?" sneered Wendigo, but then he asked, his voice somewhat softer. "And what of your soldiers? Are they all alive?"

"They all survived," Deun said, calmly. "Many of them have lost much of their morale due to our failure to capture Checkmate, but, for the most part, they're all safe."

"Good," said Wendigo, looking away, his voice still retaining the odd softness. "The last thing that I need is to lose any more windigoes..."

"What are we to do about Checkmate Vigarde?" asked Deun, coldly.

Wendigo smirked, his smile like that of a wolf. "You don't worry, Deun," he said, and he laughed, his voice returning to its original volume. "After all, it's been far too long since I've met with the brat and his entourage. I think it's high time that I pay those damned sleipnirs a visit. You and your lot are to stay behind in Darkfrost, where you can't screw anything else up."

Deun bowed. "Very well," he said. "Is there anything else?" His body was rigid, as he knew that Wendigo was not one to let those who failed him off lightly.

"No, nothing more. Get out of here."

Deun bowed, once more, and turned to leave. Although he was confused to not be punished - a method that usually involved permanent scarring or gashing - for not capturing Checkmate, he took this opportunity with no questions, and the slightest amount of joy.

However, as he left Wendigo's chamber, he could almost have sworn that he heard the sound of ice being smashed against stone.