"How did you manage to find such a unique one, Luna?" Celestia had already decided to inquire after her sister's apprentice had gone, "I'm curious about where she is from, never in all my years have I ever met an earth pony with unicorn powers, I've also never met a pony who could roar with more ferocity than a griffon either though."
"That is the thing, Sister." Though she was hiding it well, Luna was just as bewildered by her unofficial student as her sister, "It was she who approached me asking that I teach her magic, even though she already knows more than the average unicorn." Luna motioned for Shining Armor and Cadence to come closer, "And she was raised by dragons."
One second she was in the throne room of the Crystal Castle, the next she was standing in a large cave with no source of light. That is what it is like to be teleported by some pony else. Particularly Discord.
"Well that was rather rude of him." Midnight took account of her surroundings as her eyes quickly adjusted for night vision.
'Okay, start with the obvious.' She did a quick 360 degree turn, 'Cave, crystalline structures, cuts in the uneven walls.' The night blue mare smiled to herself, "This must be the Crystal mine, and mines are a system of pony-made caves underground that normally have a center of operations and branch out from there!"
With that conclusion drawn Midnight now needed to figure out which way she needed to go to get to that center of operations. From what the royalty had told her, there has been unusual seismic activity occurring. Therefor the cause of said activity would be at the heart of the mine. "AHA! LOGIC STRIKES! AGAIN!"
"Who are you?" The voice of a young filly echoed in Midnight's mind, sending a brigade of chills up her spinal chord. The darkly colored mare whipped around to find that no pony was behind her. Again the young voice rang out, "Are you here to visit us?"
The thoughts 'Us' and 'Visit' echoed in the red-eyed blue pony's mind, a different voice every time.
"There are many of us, imprisoned in this place. We have been for so long we have forgotten the warm embrace of the sun and the cool kiss of the moon."
Again, hundreds of voices echoed in the apprentice's mind saying things like, 'Many…' and 'So long..' and 'forgotten…'
With that Midnight had had enough of the creepy echoing in her mind. "Okay, I feel sorry for you and all, really, I do. But I hate it when things burrow into my mind. And I have a job to take care of and I can't spend all day listening to your problems when I need to make sure the entire Crystal Empire doesn't collapse and kill every pony." With that statement the fanged pony began her trek towards the end of the cave of the seemingly endless and dark cave.
"Are you trying to leave?" The question was also repeated by the echoing voices barely audible above the sound of Midnight Starsong's hoof steps.
"Nope." She answered with a knowing smile, "I am."
"No pony leaves this place," Began the disembodied voice of a little filly, "Because we never let them."
Upon her last word a fog began to rise from the stone cold floor, and out of that fog poured thousands of bones. "Well…" As the bones rattled to the stone they began to assemble themselves into a legion of skeletal monstrosities! "That is not a good sign." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"I cannot allow for such monstrous creatures to roam freely." Her voice completely steady she opened her eyes as the pupils narrowed like a reptilian and she charged the undead army while simultaneously cloaking herself in a sheet of roaring flames.
The front most skeleton simply stood there, completely stunned out of it's skull, as the flaming ball of pony hopped into the air and crushed the bear skull with a single well placed stomp. Bone dust billowed out as Midnight struck headfirst through more skeletons, scattering the bones as if they were bowling pins.
The boney limbs that reached out to grab the speeding pony were set ablaze by the fire left in her wake. Wherever the flaming mare set hoof the stone floor burned. In a minute the entire cave would be an artist's rendition of what the passageway into the depths of hell would look like. The bare bones fractured and snapped as the heat made them brittle.
The single live pony in this sea of undead shattered through dozens of skeletal creatures using the strength that she had developed living with a thunder of dragons for 95% of her life.
The massacre went on for quite a while, even with Midnight dispatching the enemies left and right. They just kept going, and Midnight was growing tired. Her movements became slower as she frantically panted for breath. Her flame cloak had begun to recede, becoming less fierce with every second, 'I can't keep this up forever!' She looked around as she tripped a skeletal hydra and the shine of a puny object reached her slitted eyes.
With nothing else to go on she began to work her way through the legion. Half-way there her flame cloak had completely fizzled out. This meant she had to work twice as hard to refrain from being hit.
As the pony drew closer to the small shining object the boney creations grew more frantic. One flailed and jumped in her way as she closed the distance. The earth pony shattered it with a head butt and was rewarded with a bone fragment in her forehead as she now stood over a small obsidian stone with magic emanating from it.
Without a second thought she used a fluid movement with her aching forelegs to scoop the stone from the floor into her mouth. Then she chomped on it.