//------------------------------// // XI: Torment // Story: Gates to Renascence // by Material Defender //------------------------------// C h a p t e r 1 1 : T o r m e n t We know little of those who died when the Trickster first invaded. As much of the knowledge was lost over the course of the war, records on the exact nature of the burials were unknown. The most we have to go on are archives detailing total numbers dead, where they were buried, and in exceptional cases due to the nature of the enemy they fought, how they died. We know what happens if a man dies in this world. We do not know what happens to a man’s life when a great evil of insurmountable power claims it, and even as I write this, I question whether or not we will like the answer, if we ever learn the truth. -Ghosts Walk Among Us, Grand Scholar Amadi Sol-Mahim, 1500 RY Kandro wheezed and choked, vacating a gulp of water from his mouth as he coughed into the mud on the riverside. His eyes blurred with the dizzying feeling of nausea as he stared at the translucent blade gripped in his hand as it was plastered into the ground, his hands fighting to support him. The first to catch himself, he calmed his nerves and steadied his breathing long enough to check on the others. Twilight had again been deft with her magic; when they had fallen into the Roaring River, the rapids had threatened to take them under time and again, and they certainly would have been taken down the river straight into the northern lands, or even drowned, had she not pulled them straight for the shore before they even met water. Hooves and feet stomped onto the wet ground as the sounds of relieved sighs and groans of exhaustion were aired among them. Bodies plopped onto the ground as the remainder that still crawled onto shore embraced the soft purchase of the unmoving earth. Artim was the only one to avoid falling, instead deciding to move further inland to rest at the base of a tall tree. “Once again, Twilight, we owe you our lives,” he said, scraping off the drying mud from his boots using the tree’s roots. “As you can see, swimming in the Roaring River is a foolish affair.” “Yeah…” Twilight was splayed out flat on the shore as the river’s waters lapped at her rear hooves. Her robes were stained with mud, although the shining magic of the cloth had begun to tear away at the grime and strived to return it to its pristine state, an action that all of their regalia followed. “Th-that… let’s not do that again…” A crack, like a bolt of lightning striking the ground, tore through the air and they all arched their heads to look. Where Ghiraza stood on the bridge to Fort Renot seemed to glow afire with powerful magic as a golden maelstrom began to materialize, its focus the glowing white gem that burned so brightly that it was a pinprick of blinding light, even at a distance. “Ghiraza…” Kandro said. “That staff… such powerful magic. I’ve never seen anything like it.” “An enchanted artifact,” Artim said, patting down his bandages with a dry cloth from his bag to rid himself of the uncomfortable moisture. “One of many of our arts lost to time, the same as the Legacy of the First. To think that we once were able to not only wield magic as simply as breathing air, we could do greater things with it. Wonders like that staff, although the price for it being as steep as it is would be no favorable resource to have at hand.” A round of gasps were elicited from the whole group as the light, impossibly bright at it is, began to grow seemingly ever brighter. A great dome of empyrean magic began to enclose Renascence, growing from the skies above the portal and encircling the entire city up to its walls. The staff called down righteous bolts from the heavens, and struck down every demon that attempted to escape, smiting them from the ground and air and stemming the spread of the Trickster’s influence. The earth shuddered and quaked at the presence of such powerful energy. Rocks and dust fell off the bridge by the number as it began to crumble, and Ghiraza’s staff began to flicker as the shield that protected him began to fade. “What in tarnation is that man doin’?” Applejack asked. “Did he seriously just drop a whole dome over the entire city?” Twilight’s mouth hung open in awe. “The fact that he can even achieve such a powerful spell like that only means that what he was speaking about the artifact was true. Even my brother’s shield during his wedding is like a marble compared to this… and he was barely able to keep it up the whole time!” “He’s planning to seal off the whole city,” Reugas said. “Not permanently, I’d wager. But it’d be enough to buy us some time to escape safely.” “Speaking of which,” Sehyia chimed in, wringing out the last of the water from her flowing skirt before she primped her hair. “I believe now would be a good time to gather our things and make haste north for Lherren. We must find General Tiraen and the Empress and notify them of our situation, while we still can.” “But we’re far from the main roads, and there are still plenty of the creatures roaming the countryside,” Tehin said. His staff remained none the worse for wear as he slung it across his back, and he looked to the hills behind them. “We are far from the city… perhaps farther than we would like.” “Tehin’s right,” Rarity said, shaking her head as droplets from her mane sprayed in every direction. “We do not have your sandrunners, so it’d be dangerous to attempt a journey via the road. Perhaps we can find another way, or obtain faster transportation?” “If we go north from where we are now, it will take us directly to Lherren,” Artim said. He unclasped his bag and withdrew a small book from within, nodding in thanks as the pages remained unsullied. “Therein lies our problem, of course. We must go through cursed ground to reach our destination.” “Yes,” Tehin said, his voice low as he folded his arms. “The Plains of Eternal Spite.” “A name like that doesn’t really make it sound like a place we want to travel through,” Rainbow said. “You sure we can’t just walk around?” “Going around would at least double the time—that’s four days— it would take for us to reach Lherren, if not triple, and that is a chance we cannot take. We don’t know how long Ghiraza’s shield will hold,” Artim said. He nodded his head towards the spectacle, and they all followed his gaze. As if on cue, Ghiraza’s shield exploded, taking his entire half of the bridge along with it as the shockwave cascaded out from the epicenter and tossing up dirt into their eyes. “By the First!” Through the fading light, the great figure of the behemoth they had encountered was present, a leg and arm obliterated by the explosion, and they watched as blood poured from its wounds and splattered onto the bridge columns as it plummeted into the river below. “Farewell, Ghiraza,” Kandro said, clasping his right hand shut over his chest as he bowed to the late soldier. He righted his helmet and rapped a short rhythm on his chestplate to gain their attention. “Artim is right: we have no choice. The longer we take, the sooner the demons will reach Lherren, and we cannot chance that. We march north… and pray that the ghosts tolerate our trespass.” “Er… ghosts?” Fluttershy asked. She shrank away from his gaze as he looked to her. “I… I don’t like the sound of that.” “Well, we can just giggle at the ghosties, right?” Pinkie said. “They can’t be that—” “Pinkie,” Tehin began. “These aren’t the sorts of ghosts you experienced in Equestria. These are restless dead we are speaking of here, not things of shadow.” “The Plains were the first atrocity committed by the Trickster at the onset of the conflict following his appearance,” Artim said, stowing away the book and recalling the details from memory. “Thousands of civilians evacuated across the great savannah to escape the western lands where the Trickster’s armies advanced from, with half as many soldiers with them. They never reached safety.” “What… what happened?” Twilight asked. “The Plains of Eternal Spite gained its name for a reason. It’s a graveyard, a place filled with statues of every man, woman, and child of that doomed group, all dead, dying, or stricken with terror as their forms were petrified. It’s cursed ground, because it is widely assumed that their souls were never allowed to pass on to the afterlife.” “And we’re going to have to go through that,” Applejack said flatly. “Yes. We have been blessed with empyrean magic.” Artim looked away, frowning as he delved into thought. “Though I’m not sure whether that will help. While the energies of the void and empyrean are diametrically opposed to each other, their conflicting properties may not help when it comes to dealing with active ghosts. They are not chaotic, merely deposed without rest.” “Their passing was at the hands of the Trickster, though,” Reugas said, already making his way up the hill, pausing halfway to let the others catch up with him. “We’ve all read of the expeditions. It’s as cursed as the Tomb of the First, except with this one, we know where to find it.” “And that’s the other thing: we don’t know if there are actually ghosts in there, or something else,” Sehyia said. “If we’re lucky, ghosts and nerve-wracking eeriness will be all we have to deal with.” “And if we run into something worse...?” Rainbow asked. Sehyia shrugged. “Then we’d best hope that it bleeds when cut.” The sun beat down on their backs with its scathing touch as they continued north. No longer were the deadened gray and black of Renascence’s skies present; now, so far from its destruction, normalcy had returned. They had returned to the Empire’s lands now, passing through tufts of dry brush and rolling hills of picturesque sands as they made their way towards Lherren. “The scholars will be more than ecstatic to see us, if not myself since I’ve been gone for too long,” Artim said, his voice a tired drone as his hand reached for his canteen. He attempted to squeeze what remained of the precious liquid from the hide-bound flask, only to receive only a few meager drops on his tongue. “And we’d best find somewhere to rest soon. We will not make it much longer without stopping for rest and water.” “How much longer do we have to march, anyhow?” Applejack said, panting with exertion as she dragged her hoof and shook it loose of sand. “Can’t say that the folks who made these armors didn’t have the sun in mind… these things are mite more drafty than wearing straight up clothes.” “Form and function, my dear Applejack,” Rarity said, struggling to move her hooves forward. “Though I do… have to agree… it feels like we’ve been at this for eternity.” “Reugas, what say you to this predicament?” Kandro asked. “Do you know of any spot where we can rest in this region?” They reached the bottom of another dune, only for the group to look up at yet another that they had to traverse. Reugas came down their previous hill on his rear, paying no attention to the sand that ingrained itself into the fabric of his pants. “Not that I know of, m’lord,” he said. “The sands here bear no fruit in food or water to any traveler. But we have been traveling north of Renascence for a while now, so we must be nearing the savannahs. There, we will find our reprieve.” “One step closer to the Plains,” Artim said. “The sun won’t be at our backs for much longer. It’s beginning to set.” The solar sphere sported a bloody orange, situated behind a hazy mirage as the heat still stood strong over the course of their journey. As they reached the apex of the next dune, Artim stopped. “Look!” He pointed into the distance. “I think I see an oasis. There’s a valley here, and it’s right in the center of it!” “Mirages can be dangerous, Artim,” Tehin said. “Are you sure that it’s real, and not your eyes playing tricks?” Tehin joined him and raised a hand to block the light from his squinting eyes. “Blast, I see it, too… Reugas, want to make a bet?” “Twenty crowns. It’s a fake,” came the immediate reply. Reugas smirked at him and gestured to the palm trees wavering in the distance. “Come on, man, the moment Artim said ‘oasis’, your mind started looking for one, even if it isn’t real. Hell, even I see it, too.” “Better than nothing,” Twilight said. She sighed as a breeze caught in her hood and rippled the cloth as its sweet coolness blew past her ears. “I feel a bit… dizzy…” “You’re still recovering from your effort in Renascence, Twilight,” Sehyia said, putting a hand on her back to reassure the unicorn. “It’s only expected that you would feel exhausted, especially when you had to act again so soon after saving us from the fall off of the Spire.” “No, it’s not like…” Twilight bit her lower lip and looked away. “It’s not like that. I don’t feel tired, I just feel… drowsy. Like… my mind is in a haze, and all the details seem to be passing me by.” She looked at Artim, her brows curved with worry. “Don’t you feel it, too? It’s like…” She paused, blinking idly for several moments before scrunching her face in concentration. “Like something is trying to dampen my acuity.” “I’m afraid I feel nothing of the sort, Twilight,” Artim said. He patted Reugas on the shoulder and gestured down the hill. “Reugas, take point. If anything, with your eyes, we’ll at least be able to determine whether or not what we see really is an oasis.” Reugas nodded, holding tight onto the bowstring that burrowed into his chestplate as he slid down the slope. “You just need rest, sugarcube,” Applejack said, patting Twilight on the back. “We’ll get to somewhere safe soon enough, and you can lay your head down and get some real rest. I think it’s ‘bout time that all of us got some good shuteye to clear our minds.” They descended, following the parallel lines of Reugas’ slide and watched as the ranger came to the top of a smaller dune in the distance. He raised his arms and held them high with two thumbs up, and shouted, “It’s an oasis, alright! Twenty crowns to you, Tehin, you bastard!” “Thank the ancestors,” Sehyia said. As they approached the pocket of life amid the desert, Reugas begrudgingly handed off his crowns to Tehin, staring at the coins falling out of his hand as they fell into Tehin’s gauntleted palm with a series of clinks. “You win this time. Spend it on something nice, will you?” Reugas said, walking away before Tehin could air his response. The quartermaster simply gave a hearty laugh in response, and the whole group found themselves tugging to take off their equipment before they reached the first blades of grass at the periphery of the oasis. The air became humid, cooled by the shade of the trees, and soothed their irritated noses. “Sweet crisp water,” Artim said, bending down low to refill his canteen as he fiddled with his fingers submerged beneath the surface. The others began to fan out, finding appropriate locations to bed down and patted the area clean of residue and pests, except for Twilight. He heard the soft thumping of hooves against the ground and turned his head to peek at Twilight from behind the corner of his hood. “Something wrong, Twilight?” “It’s… I’m serious,” she said, stamping her hoof gently onto the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust. “It’s been really hard for me to think straight. I… do you think being able to wield this much power can affect us?” “If it can, Twilight, then I’m afraid that it’s a price we must pay,” Artim said. He withdrew his canteen from the pool, handing it out towards Twilight. “Drink. We’ve been traveling for the past half day now, and Applejack is right: it’ll do us well to finally rest.” Twilight looked between the canteen and Artim, only accepting when he pushed it closer to her face. She held the canteen over her mouth and wringed the liquid out of the vessel. The cool touch of the drink cleared her mind, if only a little. “There,” he continued, smiling as Twilight returned it to him. He topped it off and stowed it away on his belt, beckoning for Twilight to follow him, and they both took a seat in the shade of a palm tree, where they could see the others attending to their recuperation. Twilight’s ears twitched as she frowned at the ground. “Now, then. Describe to me in detail what you are feeling. While I do believe you are overreacting… there may be other symptoms, to an extent.” “I know, and I have a feeling that the others are worried that it might be something else, too…” she began. Rainbow Dash conversed with Fluttershy as they stepped out of their metal boots, dipping their hooves into the water. Next to them, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were already laying out the beginnings of their sleeping mats, made from spare cloth split by Rarity with her magic. Twilight averted Rainbow’s gaze when the pegasus broke from her conversation to throw her a curious glance. “But I don’t want to worry them.” “It’s worse to avoid being open with your problems, Twilight,” Artim said, fidgeting in place as he settled into his cross-legged position. “We are going through tough times, and we have to learn to rely upon each other for support. No soldier in the history of the Empire ever won a battle by himself. Not even the First.” “Not even Yhimit?” she asked, eyeing the disciple as he only leaned against a tree, observing the others. Not even sitting, he showed no signs of the fatigue that plagued the others, never even stopping once to reach for the canteen that hung unused from his belt. “He seems…” “Different?” Artim chuckled. “Even Captain Ghiraza seemed to have more of an idea than any of us do. He’s not a member of the Brotherhood, despite his claims and the information he had with him… which I find quite interesting.” He stared at Yhimit with a studying eye as he whipped out a hand-sized notebook along with a quill and a small inkwell before taking down his spoken note. “Perhaps he is one. Not officially, of course, but I digress. You say you feel… drowsy, but not tired. Please elaborate.” Artim looked at her, only to find a blank stare fixated on the crest of dunes around them. He waved a hand in front of her face, then gently patted her on the side of her face, and only when he snapped his fingers next to her ears did she finally return to reality. “Uh, what?” she blinked and the glaze over her eyes disappeared. “Hmm? Were you… saying something?” “I think you need to explain what you’re experiencing,” Artim said. “You just dozed off. With your eyes open, in front of me. You were staring at the horizon.” “Yeah, the horizon, and beyond that. That’s where they are.” “Who is ‘they’?” “The lost ones, of course. At the Plains of Eternal Spite, like you said. Lost souls, forever unable to escape to the afterlife, forever tormented to suffer the ends of their lives until the world is consumed.” Her head turned, and while her eyes flickered with awareness, her expression was deathly empty. “I don’t feel scared, Artim, but I should be. I don’t know what’s happening.” “Twilight, what’s going on? What’s happened to you?” He checked her over for injuries, prying his way through the layers of cloth and then checking her head for blunt injuries. Her mane billowed with the light wind as he removed her hood, and he found her unscathed. “Is it your magic? What’s causing this?” “What? What are you talking about?” Twilight blinked, and looked down at her body. “When did I take my hood off? Wait, no, this… Artim, I just had the strangest dream.” Artim was already scribbling furiously in his notebook. “Tell me. You’ve just lapsed judgement thrice, all within the span of several minutes, Twilight. Something is happening to you.” “No, it’s just that… well, that feeling I told you about earlier? That drowsiness? That’s not drowsiness. It’s… well, it’s something else.” She looked out at the dunes again, ignoring his piercing stare. “The magic. It’s still here. It’s deep, hidden far away where it can’t be touched. Hiding, waiting, hoping for the day where the Trickster is driven away from these lands.” “How do you know this?” “Because it’s speaking to me.” Her eyelids drifted down, and she found herself mumbling. “You don’t hear it, Artim, but I do. I hear their voices, like whispers carried on the wind, traveling across this desert. My magic, they tell me. It’s my magic. I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student, a prodigy unlike anything before. It’s what makes me special, makes me able to talk to them. Because I am the Element of Magic, Artim, and I… am a conduit.” “A conduit for their voices?” Artim asked. His pants ruffled against the sand as he moved closer to her, tapping the side of her cheek with the back of his hand. “Twilight, don’t leave me now. You’re about to make an incredibly important discovery. Tell me. Do the voices know of what we are set to do?” “No. They’ve stopped talking to me now.” She pressed her hooves deeper into the sand, watching the sands displaced from her hooves gather. “They don’t know why we’re here. They don’t even know that we’re here. They only know that I am, and even then… they can’t communicate with me, not clearly.” “We march through the territory on the morn,” Artim said. “Will they let us pass?” “They will. I can at least guarantee that much.” The pair watched the others gather around the beginning of their campfire, cobbled together from what spare rocks they could find and fuel taken from the trees and brush that surrounded them. “But they showed me a vision. That was why I lost my train of thought. It felt like I was watching a different world through a window.” “And what did this vision involve?” “I saw Yhimit,” she said. “He was running, wearing armor I’ve never seen before. I’m sure that’s what they showed me: the past. Hundreds fleeing across the savannahs, with as half as many soldiers, all doomed to never reach safety… I saw it all.” Yhimit joined the rest of the group, inserting himself into the circle surrounding the fire as they began to consume their rations. The sky was a soft hue of soothing orange, the upper tiers of its reach beginning to turn to Luna’s star-laden night. Artim tapped the tip of his quill against his page, a dot of ink pooling in anticipation of the next note he would take. “You saw Yhimit… in the past,” he said. Twilight nodded. “Yes. He was with the others, but he wasn’t wearing the armor that he’s wearing now. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew it was him. The voices told me so.” The quill began to write on its own as Twilight took control, flipping to a blank page and plastering the space with lines and dots. Artim held the book for her, jumping when Twilight snapped her head to the page, eyes shooting about as she matched the quill’s manic pace. As the lines formed, shapes became apparent: short stubby figures with appendages that appeared to be people, dozens of them, craggy cliffs surrounding the landscape with scratches of lines blanketing the ground for the savannah’s tall grass. And behind them all, the sky grew pitch black as she drowned the heavens in ink, leaving only a shape behind in the white space remaining. Not a shape, once she had finished, but a face: a skull with great curved horns, a jeering grin, with fiery eyes and jagged teeth. The quill rose and levitated to his face as the vision was completed, and Twilight looked at Artim with grim knowledge. “Ancestors protect, Twilight… is this what they showed you?” “They showed me their end,” she said. “And they also gave me one more message, one that I don’t think was meant just for me, but for all of us, or whoever might be traveling with me.” “And what would that be?” “That they’re waiting for us.” “At this point, I don’t doubt any path we take on behalf of the ancestors.” Kandro raised a curious brow at Twiilght, who in turn looked to Artim. The arcanist nodded, taking the time to partake in their evening stew as they sat in a circle around the humble fire. “Though it does remain a mystery as to the extent of the power they held, if they are so able to affect us even in this day.” “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring bad news,” Twilight said. Artim proffered her a cup, which she gladly accepted as she took the small wooden bowl into her hooves, staring down at the muddied liquid, filled with vegetables as they rose to the surface. “But… what do you think they hope to accomplish with this?” “Guidance, perhaps. If they cannot interact with us directly, then they must take alternate measures, like contacting us through a medium.” Kandro shuffled around in his spot, tossing another handful of tinder into the fire. “Perhaps death has affected their awareness, and even they do not fully understand what it is they do now.” Artim handed the book around so that all could see the signs that Twilight was given. “You sure this isn’t some sort of… trap?” Rainbow Dash said, grimacing at the sight as she and Applejack shared their glance at the page. “What’s to say that this isn’t the Trickster trying to get into our heads or something?” “I doubt it,” Artim said. “If the Trickster was truly behind this, a trap would have already been prepared and we would have no clue that we would be walking into it. Still, though: it would be unlike what we’ve seen to be notified of a trap beforehand.” “It seems like those Plains might be a perfect place to lay one,” Applejack said. “Unless somethin’ else is stoppin’ him from doin’ so. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it’s more than a mite bit strange that we haven’t run into a single demon ‘round these parts for a long while now…” “They could be following us, biding their time,” Sehyia said. “That’s true, but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the bastards since we began our walk,” Reugas said, a handful of toasted seeds gripped in his hands as he spoke with a mouth half full “The demons can hardly be called subtle, from the smallest imp to the largest beast. In small groups, they would fare badly against us, but too many and they would give themselves away.” “So let’s just assume that the dead are, indeed, speaking to us,” Tehin interrupted. He looked at Artim and gestured to him, and then the book. “We are on the verge of a discovery that not even the most dedicated scholars in Lherren have managed. But that then raises the question: why tell us all of this? Why not just simply let us pass?” “My best guess is that they’re protecting something,” Twilight said. “That’s what it has to be. They’re protecting something very important, something that no one can see in the fear that what it is might get out. But they know me, and I know you. They trust me, and I trust all of you. Whatever they’re guarding, it’s important for me—us to know, so that we can take it to Lherren with us.” “The Tomb, perhaps?” Artim postulated. “It may be where the legacy that Kandro’s father spoke of may be kept within. We already hold signs of that legacy, present in the empyrean energies that bind to us all now. Perhaps we are being given knowledge based upon being recognized as holders of that ancient power, like the warriors of old.” The book completed its round and found itself in the hands of Artim again, where it was returned to its bag. For a moment, the group sat around the fire, staring into its embers as they contemplated the next day’s advance, and Kandro looked around and opened his mouth to speak when a clap sounded off, interrupting him. Everyone looked at Yhimit, who shook his head. “What do you mean, Yhimit?” Kandro asked. “Do you think this is a trap?” Yhimit shook his head. “That they mean well?” He nodded, although he fetched a stick next to him and began sketching in the sand in front of him. He doodled a building, blocky in its architecture and wide and encompassing, writing down the word ‘First’ in the sand before crossing it all out. “So it’s not the Tomb, then?” Kandro said. This earned him a nod. “This is by far the most concrete clue on the Tomb we’ve received yet,” Artim said. “So we know for a fact that we are not being led to the Tomb. Would you know what awaits us, then?” To that, Yhimit merely held his arms up and shrugged, and Artim nodded. “I figured as much. No doubt that the Plains have had few living visitors since the deaths.” “Ill intent or not, we’ll find out what we’re trudging into come morning,” Reugas said. He patted his hands free of dirt and stood to leave. “Best get some sleep soon. Ancestors know we’ll all need it. I’ll take first watch. Who wants to go after?” “I’ll do it,” Applejack said. “Just keepin’ an eye out for the critters and such, right?” “Yeah, just an eye for anything suspicious. The empyrean will raise your hairs if there’s anything demonic nearby, from what experience I’ve had with it,” Reugas said, giving a part wave as he headed off to the empty space, a short span that separated the sleeping areas between the two. He found his perch on a boulder half his size, where he sat and gazed at the dunes around them. “And if you see anything, you tell him, one of us, or all of us,” Kandro said. “I assume you’ve not done much in the way of guard duty before, so a better course of action should danger befall us should be to get us prepared as quickly as possible.” Applejack nodded. “I know. Ain’t like I’m goin’ to take on all of ‘em by myself, right?” She chuckled, and was the next to stand as she strolled off to her sleeping mat before she was joined by Rainbow Dash. The pegasus made repeated points of her hoof at the desert around them, and the two settled down before returning to their secreted conversation on their mats. Kandro tossed the last handful of dry shrub into the dying flames before he looked at the others, seeing the fatigue reflected in their eyes. The respite of the night had been more than welcomed, and now their bodies were beginning to set into that slump that was so normally associated with huge expenditures of power and effort. Blessed by the empyrean as they were, the energy’s potency was only as effective as its user. “The rest of you, get some sleep. I’ll take up the shift after Applejack, and I suppose the rest will be free reign to whoever wants it,” he said. “I’ll go after you, my liege,” Artim said. “I’ve been meaning to delve further more into the findings presented by Twilight. We might learn of the motivations behind their contact if we read between the lines. And I assure you, I can run completely fine on only a few hours of sleep.” “Only when you’re all hopped up on tea, my friend,” Tehin said, chuckling as he slurped down the rest of his stew. “You, out of us all, should be sleeping. Your mind will drag you to your grave if you keep following it. I’ll take the watch after Prince Kandro.” “Fine, then,” Artim said, bowing his head to the quartermaster before he followed up with one to Twilight and the others. He gave his good nights before he, and the rest began to file off one by one, eventually leaving a lone Kandro sitting at the fire. He stared up at the night sky, watching as the stars twinkled in tandem with each other, and closed his eyes. The cool night air brushed over his face, and he caught the musty scent of the desert until he caught something else with it—the faint tinge of perfume. He frowned and lowered his head, staring at the fire at it licked lazily at the air around it. “I thought you were going to sleep?” he spoke to the empty air. “I can’t sleep,” came the grumbling reply. Twilight returned and sat down beside him. “A part of me just… kind of doesn’t want to. Like those visions I had earlier today will just come to life in my dreams, and then I wouldn’t be able to get out. Princess Luna taught me a bit about dreams once, how they’re like this… sea of wandering minds, each able to be visited. I’m not sure if what we’ve gone through has affected any of that.” “You mean to ask if they can control your dreams.” “Y-Yeah…” Twilight frowned and looked up at him. “What do you think?” “I think…” Kandro sighed, his response a mere shrug. “I think there’s a lot still to be learned about it, really. The ghosts, they may be real, they may be not. Those pictures you drew were starkly clear, details finer than any muddled dream can provide. And that… that skull you drew…” “Have you seen it before?” “I have. In a dream.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “You did? Why didn’t you tell us?” She bit her lip, pursed it, then scrunched in irritated thought. “So it’s not just me. You’ve had them, too, right?” “I had them, yes,” Kandro said, looking at her with amused eyes. “It just so happened that in most of those cases, I was either knocked unconscious or at a point of near-death. Perhaps the mortality of the incident sparks a response from the magic, and allows me to view these dreams.” “And what happens in your dreams? Do voices talk to you, show you things and all that?” “Almost. You say that the ghosts relayed to you scenes, pictures, general vague ideas of happenings that even you do not fully understand.” Kandro folded his arms, pausing as he stared idly into the fire. Twilight watched him, eventually following his gaze and looking upon the flames herself. “For me, it’s not voices, but rather, a voice,” he finally said. “It speaks to me, and is clearly aware of who I am, who my traveling companions are, and what we seek to do.” “Is it dangerous? Can we trust it?” Twilight asked. Branches crackled as Twilight grasped a handful of spindly sticks and tossed them into the fire. “I feel like Artim now, asking all of these questions. Still, they’re worth answering.” “The voice is not out to hurt us, of that I can ascertain,” Kandro said. “As for trust… well, I did pose that question to him. He simply said that he could do nothing to prove his allegiance, but that he has worked with the Brotherhood of the past, and knows of the bigger picture better than any of us.” “Him? It’s a male?” “The voice was male to me. It’s merely an extrapolation.” Kandro picked up the helmet next to him and picked at a few errant scratches on the otherwise flawless plate. The steel was resilient, due to being treated by arcanists as befitting a warrior of his rank, yet the beating his armor had taken would have shattered any imperial armor a hundred times over. The empyrean was to thank for its current condition. Twilight tapped her chin. “Hmm… you don’t think it might be the First, do you?” “The First is dead. Accounts of his burial are well-documented, and his procession was nothing short of spectacular.” Kandro paused, eyes darting every which way as he humored the idea. “At least… that’s what we think. He was given the proper rites, sent off on his way. It makes me wonder now if he had any plans for the future…” “Well, he had the Founders of Lherren to help him with that, didn’t he? We have the runes, you have the Blade,” Twilight said, clapping her hooves together with a quiet clack. “He had that much in mind. And then there’s still the Brotherhood, too, though we don’t know exactly how much of a hand he or the Founders had a hoof—er, hand in that.” “And then there’s the wall,” Kandro said, trailing off into silence until he felt the cold press of metal on his cheeks turn his head to stare into questioning violet eyes. “You’re zoning out, Prince Kandro.” As she finished, her eyes widened and she delved into a thoughtful expression, eyes turning up to the sky. “Or is it Emperor now? Does it matter?” “Honestly, it doesn’t,” Kandro said, gently pulling her hooves away from his face. “Sorry for losing my focus there, it was just…” “That was what happened to me earlier. Were the things you had more of a vision than a dream?” she asked. “Dreams aren’t usually something you can remember so clearly when you wake up, but I remembered every single vivid detail. The skies, the demons, the people, the land—it was even more empty than it is now, did you know that? There’s sands here all around us, and that gives it its own life, but back then… well, if there’s a better way to describe a dead land, I can’t think of a better example than what I saw.” “No, I didn’t… and I’m wondering just how much the voice I spoke to knows. He alerted me to the existence of this ‘wall’ that we’ve been sent to find. First, it was from the voice, and now, from Ghiraza.” He scratched his chin, feeling the burn on his eyes as he closed them—sleep called, yet an ominous chill hung deep in his chest despite the fire. “I hope our arrival at Lherren will answer more questions than it presents.” “Will we be safe there?” Twilight asked. Kandro gave her a dry look, and she realized the nature of her question with the knoweldge she knew. “I mean, well… General Tiraen and the Crown Legion will be there, right?” “And the arcanists, as well,” Kandro said. “Some of the finest in the Empire, with a proficiency equal to or greater than Artim. Besides that, the Grand Scholar wanted something from Renascence—the relic Ghiraza carried with him, and it was stored deep in the archives. I want to know what he wanted with it, and how he learned of it.” “It’s very possible that Ghiraza might have just told him about its existence to help the war effort,” Twilight said. Still, even she found curiosity getting the best of her. “Though I guess I want to know, too. A lot of lives perished trying to get that, and that’s not even considering the loss of all the ancient works when the dragon showed up.” “The dragon!” Kandro hissed, balling his hands into tight fists as they sat on his knees. “I had completely forgotten about it. It might have already set off for Lherren. I shudder to think what destruction it could cause on a city without walls as great as Renascence’s to defend itself with.” “But… the arcanists can… well, it sucks away our magic. I don’t think they’ll be able to deal with that. They’ll have other plans, right?” “I would hope so. Dragonslaying is not a common profession, even among our most capable fighters, Twilight. That’s also not delving into the other two complications about it: that it’s an ancient dragon as half as large as the Capitol Spire is now, and that it’s a corrupted dragon that may be tapping into the Trickster’s own energies to fuel its magic.” “Well, if it’s that large, and if it’s already set off for Lherren, I’d say that it’d be something pretty hard to miss, wouldn’t it?” she said, her only consolation a sheepish smile. “True,” he said, shrugging. “The creature’s form would be visible for miles around, even through the desert’s mirages, not to mention that it would be hard-pressed to avoid a gathering of demons around it. The Trickster might even use the dragon as a focal point of an attack, to bolster an attacking force’s power and intimidate the defenders.” “See, you’re thinking this through,” Twilight said. “I’m sure General Tiraen and the arcanists are discussing no small number of ways to deal with any problem as they arise. Let’s just worry about getting through the Plains first, and then we’ll worry about having to deal with that dragon again, okay?” Kandro sighed. “Okay.” “Good. Now, you look absolutely exhausted, and I’m pretty sure I am, too. So I’m heading off to sleep now, and so should you.” “Mm-hmm.” “Pinkie Promise me, okay? You are not going to stay up worrying about all of this. You aren’t any different from any of us, Emperor Kandro, and like what Tehin said about Artim’s obsession with research dragging him to the grave, your pitfall is your sense of duty and leadership. You might be Emperor, but you have to learn to rely on others, not just yourself,” she said, her smile growing ever so slightly as she recited what she had been told earlier that evening. “Fine,” he relented, throwing himself back onto the ground and resting the back of his head on the palms of his hands. “I Pinkie Promise.” “That’s not how it works, silly,” she said. “You have to do it the way Pinkie made it.” “And that is…?” Twilight inhaled, waving her hoof and beckoning him to sit up straight again. “Okay, repeat after me,” she said, “and do exactly as I do. Cross my heart—” She waited, smiling as Kandro fumblingly followed her gesture. “—hope to fly—” Kandro mirrored her movement as he swung his arm out. “—stick a cupcake in my eye.” She watched as Kandro completed the promise, tapping a finger on a closed right eye and nodded with approval. “Great! That’s a Pinkie Promise, so be sure not to break it, okay?” “I won’t, but… what makes it any different from a regular promise?” “Oh, nothing…” Twilight said, standing up and turning to leave. “But you know how Pinkie’s usually peppy all the time?” “Yes…” “You don’t want to know what happens when she isn’t. And trust me, if you break a Pinkie Promise… she’ll know. And with that said, I think our conversation has been productive, at least for me. Sleep well, Emperor Kandro.” She bowed her head and left, her form fading into the muted darkness as the pale light illuminated her form. Kandro did not join the others, instead finding himself nodding off as he laid in front of the fire. He found no solace in its flames as the visions swam in his mind, and the last thing he saw before slumber took him was a horned skull, burning, with a wicked grin staring back at him through the light, and the echoes of a title that felt out of place to a man who still felt he was a boy playing soldier. A scream awakened Twilight from her slumber, and she opened her eyes to find that no longer was she surrounded by the tranquil oasis and its verdant life, but a desolate landscape blanketed by dry sands, colored blood red as far as the eyes could see. The skies were as dark as the ones that hung above Renascence, but worse: where the skies then were only darkened ash from the destruction, here the winged demons gathered en masse. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she saw humans around her, all running, screaming, fighting. She blinked, and recollections of last night’s discussion bombarded her mind’s eye. And then followed the realization that what she was seeing was not an illusion, soon reinforced as someone bumped into and caused her to flinch. “Wh-what?!” She jumped up, looking around to see a woman carrying a baby sprinting past her as a towering beast, two stories tall and with horns and the elongated face, like an undeveloped ancestor of the minotaur, thundered across the ground for the hapless mother. Twilight’s mouth hung agape as she observed the pursuit until the shock wore off and her mind whirred into gear. The ends of her robes billowed as they caught the whirlwind coursing through the plains. Her padded hooves dug into the soft earth as she followed along, weaving her way around other battles as the world seemingly ignored her. Sand blew into her eyes, and she squinted as she pulled her mask over her mouth, taking in a deep breath of air free of sand grain. Ahead, she saw the beast sweeping its arm as it continued, sending a pair of men reeling from the blow, and skid to a stop as the woman tripped. Her horn glowed and a snap of a bolt cracked through the air as the projectile impacted into the rough hide of the beast’s back. The beast’s head turned to look at her, and snarled at the sight of a unicorn on the battlefield; the mother, in the distraction, looked to her with thankful eyes and scrambled away. Twilight smiled, panting as she stooped low, her horn glowing brighter as she prepared to unleash a volley, when she felt claws grip both of her rear hooves. A yelp of pain was the only sound she made as she fell flat on her belly, and a sharp pain bit into her left leg as she quickly whirled around onto her back to see what had ambushed her. A canine demon had bitten into her leg, thankfully not a serious injury due to the dog’s size—a diminutive runt about as big as Applejack’s pet Winona was. Blood ran out of the corner of its mouth as it withdrew from tearing into her flesh to bare its teeth at her. Twilight rewarded it with a point-blank blast to the face. She righted herself onto her four hooves again to find that the minotaur beast had already closed the distance between them and was already dropping a hammer of a fist to crush her. Hairs stood on end, her body tensed, and her teeth gritted as her horn sparked, and she felt her form rush through a blurry field as the fist collided… on empty space, where it threw up a plume of dust. Calling upon the reserves of energy she invoked before she was knocked to the ground, Twilight charged her horn and unleashed thaumaturgic fury onto the beast’s back again… earning only the same reaction as it had the first time. The ponderous beast had been curiously peering underneath its fist in hopes of finding Twilight’s pulverized corpse underneath, only to be reminded who it was dealing with when the missiles hit its back, and it let out a minor grunt as it snorted and turned around. Twilight narrowed her eyes and slowly began to step backwards. Her horn charged on and off as she threw more projectiles at it, each more powerful than the last but still with no greater effect than the first. Her blows became erratic and more frantic as the beast gained speed, on top of gaining the attention of the lesser demons around them. A faint hiss sounded off behind her as flesh mended and the skin sealed itself, and Twilight took a split second to give her leg a quick shake to find the movement without pain. Her lips thinned into a crease, and she zipped around the beast’s charge, moving around to the side as the demons were caught unaware and struggled to reposition. The smaller ones—the dogs and the imps—were the first to be dealt with, finished off with zaps from her horn. She grimaced as the headless bodies each fell to the ground as their approaches tapered off; clean kills as they were, the empyrean magic was far more effective against them than she had thought. No longer did she have the shield of the Pillars and Prince—Emperor now, she reminded herself—Kandro to hide behind. Now every action in this fight was hers. Dream or no dream, the demons could harm her, and she wasn’t going to test whether or not dying in this realm would wake her up… or kill her. The beast stood at a distance, circling around her as it sized her up, clearly unfamiliar with the quarry on guard before itself. Twilight did the same, and they mirrored each other’s movements. Once they had made a full cycle, Twilight made the first move. Her horn glowed again, and she pulled the magic, willed it into a point, gathering energy at the tip of her horn as the air rippled violently around her. The golden-white magic coalesced into an orb that grew steadily brighter, and she strained underneath the power with hooves digging into the sand. If the hide was too thick to cause any damage, then she would simply have to pierce through it. The point was a swirling sphere of energy, a pool of power so great that it left lingering tails in the air as it spun. Twilight inhaled, and held her breath; the beast charged, and had cleared half the distance between in the moment it took for her breathe. And then she exhaled, and her mind focused on manipulating the magic into a beam. A roar sounded across the plains as Twilight unleashed a beam as half as large as the beast’s width, and half as tall. It struck dead in the chest, cutting its charge short as it stumbled, at first, giving a short yelp of pain, followed by unbridled howling as the empyrean magic tore into its flesh and then through it. Flailing, it futilely attempted to dive aside, crawling on the ground as her beam remained on target. She snapped the beam off and watched as the beast’s mouth hang open, head on the ground and with drool pooling under its cheek, blood under its gaping wound. She calmed her breathing and surveyed the situation around her, and found them normal, or as normal as can be as the madness continued around her without recognition of her presence. Then it was on to the next step: she needed to learn where she was, find her friends and the humans. If she was here, then it was in her hopes that they were, too, yet there was much ground to cover, and little direction she had to go on. Her mind split its attention two-fold, one to maintain awareness of her surroundings, and the other to hatch a variety of plans for her next course of action. Neither served her well. She galloped around the field one moment, looking for familiar faces, then the next she was tasting the sand and wheeled around with magic at the ready. Rainbow Dash’s face glowed in the light with a relieved smile. “Twilight! Oh, thank Celestia, it’s really you!” “Rainbow?” The pegasus stepped off and allowed Twilight to stand back up before continuing. “So you’re here, too?” “Of course I am. I think everypony else is, too. Is this the place that they were talking about? The Plains that we were supposed to be going through?” she said, nearly shouting over the din of combat. “There’s no doubt that this is the place,” Twilight said, looking over Rainbow’s shoulder as she did hers, both scanning for enemies. “But this is in the vision. This is how everything went down during the Trickster Conflict. I guess the ghosts were serious when they said that they were waiting for us.” “Isn’t this just a dream, though?” Dash asked. “They can’t hurt us, can they?” “They can.” Twilight gave a lingering glance to her hind legs. “One of the canine demons managed to get a bite in on me. It’s healed now, though, thanks to the empyrean magic. We should stick together and see if we can find the others in this mess.” “Yeah, I think I saw Applejack running that-a-way earlier,” Rainbow said, pointing a hoof out past Twilight’s shoulder. “There’s no way I can miss her tail color and armor in all of this, but I think she was following someone else.” “Did you catch who she was following?” Rainbow shrugged. “Some guy in golden armor, kind of like that champion from that one place… Tandreat, yeah. The guy was like him, except bigger and more glowy. He was leading her somewhere.” “It might be one of the soldiers,” Twilight muttered. They matched their pace as they began to follow Rainbow’s lead, sprinting for endless minutes until they caught sight of Applejack’s familiar shape and color. The earth pony had stopped, joining with the unknown warrior in a battle with demon footsoldiers, but was kept away as the man held his hand up for her to stay back.. “I can handle ‘em!” Applejack said, stamping her hoof down as she huffed at her partner’s request. “You don’t have to do this by yourself!” The man declined to respond, merely pointing a finger at Twilight and Rainbow’s direction as they joined. “Applejack! I knew it was you!” Rainbow said, skidding to a halt as she put a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “You alright? You didn’t get hurt, did you?” “I’m fine, Dash,” Applejack said, gesturing to her own armor. “It’s gonna take more than a few bites and cuts to hurt me through this. How’re you two holdin’ up?” “Just fine,” Twilight said. “Had a bit of a tumble earlier, but everything’s good now. Have you seen the others?” Applejack shook her head. “Not since I got here. Ran into this here feller, darn near saved me from gettin’ my head chomped off. He’s been leadin’ me ‘round this whole hootenanny since then, though I think he’s trying to lead me to Pinkie. We saw her cartwheelin’ ‘round the place like nopony’s business.” “And what about that guy, then?” Rainbow asked, nodding her head towards the warrior, who was now standing off with a pair of demonic footsoldiers. True to Rainbow’s observation, the man stood decked out in gleaming golden armor from head to toe, yet his plates were gargantuan for a warrior of his size, painting him as more of a wall than a soldier. He held two swords in each of his hands, each a shining sliver of light contrasted against the hideous dried blood red on the blades of the demons he fought against. His red tabard fit snugly over the plate, tattered at the ends from battle. “I don’t know. I just woke up and found myself fightin’ off a snarlin’ beast from tryin’ to make me into its lunch, then this guy just comes along and gives it a solid boot to the face and helped me up.” Applejack flinched as a bolt snapped from Twilight’s horn and struck the body of an imp that had strayed too close. “I’m not even gonna bother tryin’ to ask where we are now, other than the fact that Twilight’s right, isn’t she?” “Yeah. Isn’t this all supposed to be in the past?” Rainbow asked. “Why are we here? Those ghosts must have a lot of power if they can just drag us back in time.” “That’s because this isn’t the past, Rainbow,” Twilight said, shaking her head. She watched as the warrior made the first move, engaging the closest demon. He began with a straight thrust from his blade, easily parried, but provided a transition into a kick to the demon’s right side, where it couldn’t respond as its blade arm was still recovering from the glancing blow. It faltered, and the warrior segued into a second stab from his left blade and straight into the side of the demon’s torso. Ichor spilled out, lapped up greedily by the earth. The demon fell to its knees with a howl of pain, and the warrior lopped its head off with a smooth motion from his other blade. With a flick of his wrists, he cleared the bile from his blades, reclining into a low stance as he eyed the second demon in anticipation, almost daring the creature to make a move. “Out of the way!” came a cheery voice. From behind the demon soldier came Pinkie, doing a backflip in a grand flourish as she dropped a pair of canisters on the ground. The demon responded, bracing for the attack, but found only an explosion of confetti that bounced harmlessly off of its body. The attack that came afterwards did not. Twilight tilted her head and peered curiously at the warrior as he finished his second target, marching towards it to confirm his kill with tentative steps until his helmet, a golden piece protected with an expressionless mask, turned to her. “It’s just like his new mask…” she whispered to herself, eyes widening. Her head arched back as he strode towards her, and her mouth dropped as his full size became apparent. “Two swords? Wearin’ a mask? Real good at fightin’ demons?” Applejack raised a brow. “Yhimit?” The man nodded. Twilight shook her head. “But… are you the Yhimit we know now? Or the Yhimit from back then?” She gulped as he continued staring at her in silence, foregoing the conversation to look at her friends. “We need to find the others. Rarity should be fine on her own for a while, but it’s Fluttershy that I’m worried about. If we’re lucky, they’ll be with each other.” “I think I saw ‘Shy flying about back, uh…” She closed one eye and stuck her tongue out, twirling in place with hoof outstretched until she slowed to a stop. “That way! I didn’t see any of the humans, though—well, not all of these humans, they’re everywhere—but, you know, our friends.” “Is it just us here, Yhimit?” Twilight asked. Yhimit shook his head, then pointed towards the horizon, away from the storm that gathered at their heels. Through the dust, Twilight could make out a strange sight in the distance, wavy growths on the horizon that she recognized as trees. “Oh, right, I forgot the Empire back then was more verdant. Will we find them there?” “Who cares? It’s better than staying here, right?” Rainbow said. “This is, like, ground zero for when everything just gets thrown to the wind. We definitely don’t want to be here for that, and I’m sure everyone else has the same idea. Let’s head for the trees.” “And what if the others are still stuck in here?” Twilight frowned at her. “We can’t just leave them here. We might have an idea to regroup, but the others might still be lost and confused.” “Then I’ll go find them! I can fly, you know.” “Will you be okay on your own?” Applejack asked. “I’ve had more than a few pointers on how to fight off these demons. I’m not looking to beat them, I’m just looking for our friends. I’ll be on the move all the time, so they won’t be able to catch up with me, anyway.” She flexed her wings and hopped into the air, hovering inches off the ground. “Trust me, I’ll find them. And for you, big guy—” She looked at Yhimit. “—keep ‘em safe.” With conviction, he slammed a fist into his chest. The sound rang true through the cacophony and earned a smile from Rainbow. She nodded at him and took off, a blurry rainbow line that streaked through the sky. He turned around again to find a legion waiting for him—not of men, but of more demons. From the abyss behind the fleeing refugees, armies poured forth, and only then did they realize the futility of their small victories. For every demon they felled, twenty more took its place. Twilight and Applejack joined next to Yhimit, legs spaced wide and torsos forward to minimize their silhouettes; Applejack prepared to charge, and Twilight was with horn aglow. Pinkie took up their rear flank with her cannon, and all three expected Yhimit to charge… yet he did not. “Yhimit?” Applejac muttered from behind gritted teeth. “Now’s a good time to… you know, stop all those demons coming our way?” Yhimit sheathed his swords, pushing the two ponies at his side back. He pointed behind them, towards the treelines, and then nudged them away. At first, they looked on confusedly at him, until Twilight realized the truth and attempted to stop his push. “Wait, you don’t mean to take on all of them at once, right?” He nodded. Holding his hand up, crackles of golden lightning—the same that Ghiraza had channeled during their escape from Renascence—gathered at his fingertips. But whereas the old man required the use of a focus to cast his spell, Yhimit required none. His magic was cast unabated, one crack after another as their eyes were blinded by the fusillade of bolts. The first formation was obliterated in the span of mere seconds, and the ponies watched in awe as the power that the humans’ ancestors were said to wield was displayed before them. “Come on, Twilight, we gotta go!” Applejack said, tugging at her cloak. “He’s got this from here on out. We have to find the others and get to the bottom of this ruckus!” “No problems with me!” Pinkie said. She kicked the wheels of her cannon’s cart and it jumped into action as it began to roll alongside her as she led the retreat. “I’ll take the lead, so don’t fall behind!” Twilight took a few steps away before looking over her shoulder at the then-Yhimit. His back was to her, standing stoically against the endless tide, bursting with empyrean energies as he glowed as bright as the sun itself. His bolts had all but disappeared, merging together so that it seemed that two solid beams originated from his hands, beams which he snapped back and forth as he dwindled the numbers of the advancing formation. Then, before she could react, his right hand stopped casting. With an imperceptible flick of the wrist, he knocked her away with a blast of telekinetic energy, less of a blast and more of a shift, like she had been picked up and gently tossed away. The message was clear to her, and Twilight caught up to Applejack and Pinkie as an earsplitting noise crashed through her skull, like a hoof across a chalkboard. She heard the flapping of wings and felt her heart soar, looking up in anticipation of Rainbow Dash and good news, but what she saw made her blood run cold. A spear’s tip had made it barely halfway through her hastily-casted shield, the resulting force still enough to knock her off balance. She tripped, and her cheek grinded into the ground. “Twilight!” Applejack said. A pair of armored figures, their coat and hides covered by ominous black armor and with feathers of jet-black on their wings, landed in front of her, spears crossed. “Griffons…” she muttered. “Duck!” Pinkie shouted, and Applejack fell flat to the ground as her form gave way to the barrel of Pinkie’s cannon. A burst of confetti and streamers shot forth behind a pink paper-mache cannonball, and the griffons stared lamely at it until the ball landed between them and exploded with a stream of fireworks, each as large as Pinkie herself. The griffons were sent flying away as a pair found their marks in their chests. “And don’t come back!” “Yeah, you show ‘em, Pinkie!” Applejack said, sneering at the griffons as twin puffs of dust in the distance marked their landings. Her cheer was cut short, however, and Twiilght noticed that her smile had disappeared as quickly as it had come. “Uh… T-Twilight… you might wanna take a look at this…” “That’s…” was all Pinkie could manage until her jaw gradually dropped. Curious, Twilight looked to the sky that they remained affixed on, and then she saw it. The black skies were swirling with energy, but through the battle, had hung in the distance, itself benign to the world. Now, tendrils began to slink and snap at the air as a presence made itself known, and a deep chill ran over their bodies. Twilight watched as her friends bristled at the sensation, herself joining as her lips thinned into a crease. Fire swallowed the darkness—so Twilight told herself, as no fire could burn such a deep red. Two points slowly made their way out of the space, expanding with the clouds as the portal expanded. Through the firestorm, she made out features: hard lines, bone ebony in color, and then came the finality of what she truly held before her. “Just like the vision…” she whispered. The eyes exploded to life, and the maw opened to reveal rows of serrated teeth, a skull that bore a darkly empty smile. Fire left its eyes last, leaving not the burning intensity that she had expected, but blips of unliving indifference staring down upon the realm of mortals. Demons upon the field dwarfed the din of battle with their own cacophony of monstrous roars as the unmaker of all life took the field. “Celestia help us…” Applejack said. Twilight hooked itself onto the information: at this point in time, Celestia was, just not right here, and not right at this moment. She stared down the plains, watching as a lone Yhimit stood out as a small column of light against the blackness. The attention of all against them now fell upon him. The Trickster had arrived.