//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Order-naries // by CTVulpin //------------------------------// Contrary to Ashen Blaze's prediction, the flying carriage and its pegasus escort didn't have any trouble covering the distance from the darkness barrier around Canterlot to the landing area attached to one of the castle's towers. Ash leapt off the top of the carriage as Twilight and the other five non-winged ponies got out. "Ok Twilight," Ash said to the lavender unicorn, "This is your old territory, right? Where should we go?" "I don't know," Twilight said, "I'm not even sure who we're up against anymore, Tau'rin or Nightmare Moon." "My money's on both," Soul said, "That barrier was apparently Tau's work, but he's never been able to mess with the rotation of a planet." "Different rules here, remember?" Gale said. "Ok," Soul said, rolling his eyes, "but he's only got two Gems at most, and I doubt that'd be enough to take down two ponies with enough power to move the sun and moon without assistance." "I suppose we should try the throne room then," Twilight said, "If Luna has become Nightmare again, she'll want to be where ponies can come bow to her. Follow me." She trotted toward the door leading into the tower, glancing in cautiously before entering with the others close behind. "Good luck," one of the pegasus teamsters called after them. "Oh," Fluttershy said, stopping and looking back at them, "What about you? What are you going to do?" The four pegasi glanced at each other. "Uh," one of them said, "we'll… we'll be ok." Fluttershy didn't look convinced, but when she saw that the others were leaving her behind, she squeaked and ran to catch up. As she disappeared through the door, the four pegasi began to unhitch themselves from the carriage, just in case something jumped out at them as they went to look for shelter. They'd barely finished, however, before they found themselves caught up in a pool of paralyzing dark magic that began seeping up through the ground, part of which branched off into a tendril that stretched toward the tower door in pursuit of the ten would-be heroes. The group was crossing a landing two stories down when the darkness caught up to them, the tendril springing out of the ceiling to grab Gold Heart. She struggled for a second before the power froze her movements and began to carry her away as more tendrils appeared to attack the rest of the group. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were captured before the others could respond. Soul Mage threw his magic around Heart, weakening the tendril slightly as the aura of spirit power engulfed Heart but not enough to loosen its grip. Ash pushed his limits sending out several lancing bolts of light to sever the tendrils coming for him and the ponies around him. Taking advantage of the cover, Fluttershy and Rarity did their best to prevent AJ and Dash from being dragged away while Twilight tried to free them, pouring her magic into the darkness ensnaring them. Pinkie Pie bounced around, her Pinkie Sense allowing her to predict the movements of the tendrils chasing her so she could dodge them effortlessly until Ash could spare a moment to reduce their numbers. Soul struggled against the force of the tendril that was trying to kidnap his sister, but he was starting to lose ground. As he felt his hooves begin to slide on the floor, he began to panic. "No," he grunted, trying to get a more solid stance and slipping a few more inches, "You are not taking her. Let. Her. Go!" His horn flared and three ethereal bolts of blue energy shot out in a curving path to strike the tendril just behind Heart. The darkness around the golden-yellow pegasus dissipated and her limp form flew toward Soul from the strength of his pulling. Soul yelped as Heart crashed into him and the two rolled across the floor. Untangling himself, he shot a quick glance around the room before shaking Heart gently. "Wake up," he demanded weakly. Heart moaned and stirred, eyes blinking open slowly. Soul breathed a sigh and relief and stroked Heart's cheek. "Rest," he said, "I'll protect you." He straightened up and stood over Gold Heart in a defensive posture, soul aura aflame as he linked to her spirit. "We need to end this," he said, channeling his magic into his horn and firing out bolt after bolt of it at the tendrils coming from the ceiling. "That we do," Ash replied, smiling as he saw that Soul had recovered one of his old skills, "Any suggestions?" He nullified three of the tendrils Pinkie was baiting before taking out one that was about to snag Gale. "Something with a larger area of effect would be nice," the brown earth pony said. She ran to add her strength to Fluttershy's efforts to keep Rainbow Dash in the room. Twilight finally managed to break Applejack free of her captor and sat back to clear her head. "Will a big flash of light do?" she asked. "It'd help at the least," Ash said, starting to tire himself. More tendrils were coming his way, preventing him from doing anything to help Dash, who was dangerously close to one of the walls the darkness was taking over. "I'll handle it Twilight," Rarity said, "Catch your breath and then get Rainbow." The lavender unicorn nodded as the white one's horn began to glow brighter and brighter until she released the magic in a blinding flash of light. The darkness retreated up to the ceiling and about half the tendrils withered away, including the one surrounding Rainbow Dash. "Please to be doing that again," Soul said, blinking rapidly. Rarity obliged, and the dark magic was reduced to a small spot on the ceiling that Soul quickly blasted away. Everypony waited tensely for a few moments, but when no more tendrils or shadows showed up, they breathed a sigh of relief and began to take stock of their situation. AJ and Dash were still mostly paralyzed, but Heart had recovered enough to stand up. "That was intense," Heart said, "thanks for saving me Soul." "Hey, I couldn't just let them have you sis," Soul said, "I'm worthless without you." "Do you think that darkness got anypony else?" Gale asked, "It seems like a pretty effective way to take control of a place." "We won't know until we explore further," Ash said, lying down, "for now, I recommend we take a break. Unicorns, we'll trade off keeping an eye out for a second attack and hoping it doesn't come." Once Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Gold Heart were ready to move, Twilight led the group down a few more flights of stairs and then out into the castle proper. "The throne room's this way," she said, "We just need to get through this hallway and the antechamber." The group proceeded cautiously, organized with the four unicorns split between the front and back and the pegasi on the ground in the middle of the procession and everypony on edge, watching for any signs of an ambush. "So," Applejack said, trying to ease the tension a little, "We've got five of yer magic Gems- Light, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. What are the two Tau'rin'll have?" "The Amethyst of Darkness," Ash said, "which we've already seen plenty of evidence for. The last Gem is the Pearl, and I must admit it's a mystery to me." "How so?" Twilight asked. "Well," Ash said, "It tends to stay out of play until near the end, and we've only had it in our possession in about half of the worlds we've been to, so there hasn't been much time to figure it out. I know that it can summon lightning, but I suspect its actual attunement is to Aether, the only magical element without a known opposite. Mastering the use of Aether beyond controlling lightning is a feat few were able to achieve back home, and I'm not one of that group. I don't think even Tau'rin knows the full capabilities of the Pearl, and his fate is tied as closely to it as to the other six Gems." "Sounds to me like he's going to be push-over," Dash said smugly, "You magic users can beat back the darkness, and with a weather pony like me around you won't have to worry about any lightning." "Don't get cocky," Ash warned, glancing back at the pegasus, "It won't be natural, cloud-born lightning like you're used to. Besides that," he added in an angry tone, "we've already lost our chance to keep one of our Gems out of the equation." "Couldn't you just hide one somewhere around here?" Pinkie asked. Ash shook his head. "Tau'rin and Nightmare Moon have this place filled with Darkness, and that element's quite useful for finding hidden things, and that Gem-stealing spell's probably still active anyway." "But… if Tau'rin can get at all of them…" Fluttershy said, ears flattened in worry. Ash glanced back at the yellow pegasus and slowed to a stop, unsure of what to say. The others also stopped, the weight of what they were walking into hanging over them like a dark storm cloud. "We'll just have to do our best," Gold Heart said at last, nuzzling Fluttershy reassuringly, "Who know? Maybe the Elements of Harmony will tip the scales in our favor this time. Or maybe we'll be able to deal with Nightmare Moon first and free Princess Celestia so she can help." "Yeah," Pinkie said enthusiastically, "Just think about what could go right!" Fluttershy smiled thankfully at the pink pony. She looked at Ash and gave him a confident nod, which Ash returned before gesturing for Twilight to lead on again. "Hey, how about a song?" Pinkie asked. Without waiting for a response, she added a bit of bounce to her gait and Gale could've worn she heard music starting to play… "How about no?" Ash said, "You'll give away our position." "You really need to have more fun," Pinkie said, still bouncing with each step. Ash just shook his head slowly, feeling his patience starting to wear thin. He prepared to snap as Pinkie started to sing, only for both song and reprimand to be cut off as the group rounded a corner and discovered a stretch of hallway full of ponies frozen in place, many in poses indicating that they'd been trying to run away. "Ok then…" Soul said slowly as they walked cautiously toward the statuesque ponies. "I think they're still alive," Applejack said, leaning her head in close to one as they passed by, "They're warm at any rate." "This would be us if we'd lost that last fight," Ash said, "This isn't a pure Dark element spell though…" He stopped to take a closer look at one of the ponies – a tall white unicorn stallion with amber hair and wearing a very stylish tuxedo and large bow tie. "Yeah," he said at last, "basic stasis spell, enhanced for duration. Breakable, but it should wear off on its own once the one who cast it is incapacitated. How much further Twilight?" "Just past these poor ponies," Twilight said, pointing down the hall to a pair of large doors. Ash nodded and the group made their way down the hall, although Rarity paused for a second to smirk at the expression on the tall unicorn's face. They came to stop in front of the doors, which Ash and Twilight both looked over, searching for anything unusual. "Looks clean to me," Twilight said, "Maybe they didn't expect us to get this far?" "Not enough resistance for that," Ash said, "One of Tau'rin's biggest failings, if it can be called that, is he prefers to take us on personally once he knows we're around. Let's go." Focusing his magic he flung the doors open to reveal a waiting room containing a few more frozen ponies. Disappointed, Ash walked to the next set of doors and flung them open as well. The throne room spread out before him- a large, open room broken only at need by stone columns with more arched windows than walls. At the far end was a high dais topped with a golden throne. Occupying that throne was a tall, elegant black alicorn with a mane and tail that rippled in some un-felt wind and resembled the starry night sky. She narrowed her eyes at the intruders, an expression matched by Ashen Blaze as he strode purposefully into the room ahead of the others. "Well, well," the alicorn said, "It would seem you have made some more friends Twilight Sparkle." She spread her wings and glided down to the floor, landing a short way away from the dais. "I've made one myself, and I think you've already met him." A vortex of darkness formed next to the alicorn, out of which stepped the winged bull demon Tau'rin. His horns were still gone, and he still bore a mark on his forehead where the Sapphire had resided. A large amethyst and an equally large pearl were embedded in the remains of his horns, and both were glowing with power. "This ends here Order-naries," he said in a growl. "Agreed," Ashen Blaze said as Soul Mage, Gold Heart, and Gale formed up beside him, ready to fight.