Cavern
Twilight made her way along a narrow ledge. She trailed behind Applejack. A rope around her waist lashed her to the rest of the ponies in the line. She’d made missteps, but with two surefooted earth ponies, one with a magic set of shoes, and two pegasi hovering nearby, it never resulted in catastrophe. The chasm beneath dropped into darkness, the bottom somewhere far beyond what her horn illuminated.
“Visions and all, are you sure we should be going toward that thing?” Applejack said over her shoulder.
Twilight glanced at the glowing sphere looming in the cavern. “It’s the Moon. It’s not going to hurt us.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash said, flapping lazily beside her. “The Moon has always been a crescent, and how could it be in a cave?”
“Celestia sealed her away,” Twilight said. “It’s not unthinkable that this place is Luna’s prison.”
“A prison,” Fluttershy said. “I guess it looks like it could be a prison.”
Twilight gazed out across the alien landscape. Sharply contrasting shadows thrown by spectacularly large natural limestone columns left areas in near-complete darkness, including where they stood. At the moment, her horn was the only thing that lit their path. Far away in the distance, near where the Moon rose from the center of the cavern, a city straddled the banks of a vast underground lake. With all the distance between her and it, she strained to make out the signs of civilization, but hard angular lines matched the profile of an outer wall. Piers stretched into the lake itself, little more than black lines against the reflective surface at this distance. It appeared most of the structures were built into the spires and rock itself.
The rope jerked against her waist, and she quickly took a step forward to catch up. “Celestia told me the Moon was whole once. This must be where she put the missing piece.”
“Still, it is rather strange,” Rarity said, following a few steps behind her. “What kind of ponies would live down here?”
“Maybe they’re not ponies,” Pinkie said at the back of the line. “Maybe they’re intelligent city-building cave spiders of unusually large size!”
“Ugh,” Rarity said, “I sincerely hope not.”
“Then you uh... probably shouldn’t look up,” Pinkie said.
Twilight looked. Eight compound eyes set into a fanged, insectoid face stared back at her. The spider, at least as large as a pony, hung motionless from eight legs, barbs and claws holding it onto the rock face. “Aiee!” Rarity shrieked, prancing in place on the ledge as she readied her bow.
The spider lunged, its legs coming forward in a blur of twitching motion. Its fangs reached toward Twilight. She reacted. With her levitation, she seized the spider and ripped it off the wall. The body left four well-anchored legs behind as it plummeted into the deep below. A spray of fluid leaking from the joints where the appendages had been ripped free reigned down on her.
“Ack, it’s in my mane,” Rarity said.
“Come on, Twilight, that’s not how you initiate diplomacy!” Pinkie said.
Twilight stepped forward along the ledge. “You’re right,” she said. “I should have used my swords. It would have been a better introduction.”
Applejack leaned around a bend. “Well, we’ve got more company for you to introduce yourself to— woah nellie!” She jerked back, a metal bolt punching through the air from around the bend. It glanced off of her shoulder-plate with a shower of sparks and spun away into the darkness.
Immediately, Twilight cast a Shield spell. Stoneskin would offer more complete protection, but she was trying to conserve resources. “How close are we to something solid!” she said. “We need to get off this ledge!”
“Not far!” Applejack said. A second bolt whizzed from the shadows. Pinkie deflected it with a hoof, and it lodged into the wall beside her. She shuffed off the rope around her waist and took off running up the wall. A moment later, she was gone. Another bolt pelted into Twilight’s shield, shattering against it into a dozen metal splinters.
Twilight flared her horn. The bright light illuminated figures in the air. Ponies with dark coats and slit-pupiled eyes hovered on bat-like wings. Each had a pair of crossbows attached to a harness, one on each side. Deep grey plates of armor protected them. They shrieked and cringed away from the light. Rainbow Dash launched at them, closing the distance in a blur. She whirled among them, sparks and blood trailing off her wingblades.
“Push!” Twilight shouted. Applejack moved around the bend. She followed, one hoof in front of the other on the narrow ledge. She slipped. Her hoof plunged off the ledge, and she overbalanced, falling
The rope jerked for a moment as she dropped, and then Rarity tore away from the cliff behind her. A second jerk, and Twilight came to a sudden stop, the rope cutting into her midsection. Then a third, the force squeezing the air from her chest, when Rarity stopped beneath her. Rarity’s bow spun past her in the air. Twilight dangled beneath Applejack, who braced herself on the ledge, and Rarity hung beneath her. As she swayed, a bolt sunk into the stone wall beside her.
Where’s Fluttershy? Twilight thought as she evaluated her surroundings. They’d made it around the bend, but the plateau they were trying to reach was still a few hoofspans away. Rarity recovered, caught her bow in an aura of levitation as it dropped past her, and returned fire. Her crystal blue arrows left lancing lines of light in the dark.
Choice profanity entered Twilight’s mind when a unicorn stepped out of cover. She had the same dark coloration, and the same slitted eyes, as the bat-winged ponies attacking them. Her horn lit with a silvery-blue glow. “Kill them!” she shouted. “Purge the Surfacers!”
Twilight answered with Magic Missile. Six lavender orbs launched from her horn and tore into the unicorn. Her target reeled, the glow on her horn instantly fading.
“Hang on!” Applejack shouted. The rope pulled on Twilight, and she swung toward the plateau. Rarity reached out, nearly catching it, then they swung back again.
On the second swing, Rarity caught the ledge, but the unicorn emerged from cover again. This time, a shimmering Globe of Invulnerability protected her against weaker spells. A swarm of small, dark shapes moved against the rocks around her. A faint buzzing filled the air. Her horn glowed again, but before she could complete a spell, a swarm of insects surged over her. She cried out in pain.
Rarity clambered up onto the plateau, and Twilight was left hanging between her and Applejack. With another point of stability, Applejack moved along the ledge again. After Applejack took a few steps, and Rarity drawing in some of the rope, Twilight grabbed the edge of the plateau and pulled herself up.
There, on the solid ground, a mesh of brambles protected by an oversized bunny glowed with green light. Across a flat slab of rock channeled by the flow of water, bat-winged ponies fired on the glowing brambles from behind a ridge in the stone. Despite the heavy chunk that accompanied the release of each bolt, none of them penetrated the barrier, and most thudded harmlessly into the wooden rabbit. Swarms of insects descended on the bat ponies, and they kept moving, hopping short distances in the air between cover to avoid the bugs.
Rarity caught one of the bat ponies with an arrow as he moved. She moved at the same time, launching arrows to pin down her targets as she took up cover behind a stalagmite. She’d already slashed the rope around her waist with one of her needle-like daggers.
Twilight went over a quick headcount in her mind: seven still moving bat ponies, one unicorn, and five corpses cut down either by arrows or wingblades. Rainbow Dash shot overhead, pulling a tight turn. She whipped around and collided with the far side of the formation attacking Fluttershy. Among them, she created space with powerful gusts of air, then took wide lunging strikes with the openings.
Applejack, finally on a solid surface, bucked Truthseeker through the air. Bolts glanced off her armor and plunged into the stones around her. Another bat-pony died, a shrieking cry of panic cut short by the impact of unerring twin golden spikes. A pink blur dropped from the ceiling and landed behind the rock the unicorn had been using for cover. A moment later, a sickening snap sounded.
Twilight winced at the sound. She only killed once, she thought. Twin strikes rattled off her shield with a stattico crack-crack, bringing her back to the reality of combat. She drew her swords, cut the ropes binding her to Applejack, and moved. The bolts came in too fast for her unenhanced mind to react to. The lack of Improved Haste left her feeling sluggish. She kept her head down behind her arcane shield and found cover next to Rarity.
A bolt rammed into the upper portion of the stalagmite, sending chunks of rock and limestone dust reigning down on them. Rarity popped out and launched an arrow. A pony gurgled.
And then, nothing. Twilight pressed her back against the stalagmite, her heart thundering in her chest. No more bolts came. The buzz of insects died down.
“All clear!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Everypony okay?”
“Good here!” Applejack called.
“I’m fine,” Fluttershy said, her cage of brambles receding back into her cloak.
“A-Okay!” Pinkie yelled.
“Bruised, but all in one piece!” Rarity said, rubbing her midsection where the loop of rope still hung. She glanced at Twilight. “Twilight?”
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m good.” If circumstances had been different, with the terrain and the numbers they were up against, she would have teleported into the midst of her enemies, cast Sunfire, turned invisible, and wreaked havoc. To conserve resources, she’d relied on her friends, and they came through unscathed.
She stood, grunting at the soreness in her abdomen. She approached the bodies. Pinkie moved out from behind the rock. “Well, that’s that,” she said with a smile, as if they hadn’t cut a swath of death through thirteen living creatures.
Twilight glanced past Pinkie. The unicorn lay with her head fully twisted back, her neck obviously broken. She looked away. What happened to you, Pinkie? she wondered.
Using her magic, Twilight moved one of the wings of a dead bat pony aside, revealing the mechanism of the crossbow attached to his side. A semicircular clip fed into a slot. Extra clips were contained in bags on the bat pony’s flanks. The dead pony had reloaded moments before she died, and the metal crossbows arms strained with tension. The repeating design explained the high volume of fire from a relatively small group of attackers. She peered closer, trying to determine how they reloaded such a heavy draw weight so quickly. Arcane runes provided the answer.
“I was wondering how they were getting off shots so fast,” Rarity said, standing over another body.
Twilight nodded. “Whatever they are, they obviously have a high degree of both technical and magical competence.” With a few careful cuts with Solstice, she detached the metal plate protecting the dead mare’s chest. She prodded it with a hoof. It shifted, lighter than its thickness would have led her to believe. A small “x” on the inner face, a manufacturers mark, glinted in the light of her horn.
“Now why did they shoot first and ask questions later?” Applejack said.
“Xenophobia, maybe?” Twilight suggested. She looked up, staring at the Moon in the distance. “Let’s hope we don’t run into too many more on the way.”
“You know, that’s pretty close to their city,” Rainbow Dash said. “Still determined to go there?”
“Yes,” Twilight said. “There’s somepony there who might be an ally. And, we need to figure out where Trixie went.”
“And why are you so sure she’s here?” Applejack said.
“She’s been through here alright,” Pinkie Pie said. “And so has he.”
Twilight nodded. “It’s like I can feel the piece of me they took. We must be getting closer.”
Twilight rubbed her eyes. She stared at a blank page in her journal. Her friends snoozed around her in a hollow at the base of one of the massive columns, their soft breathing and quiet snores filling the air. She sighed. At least she was on watch now. It was incredibly hard to stay awake when she was lying there pretending to sleep. Explaining to her friends she had simply decided to not sleep after the incident in Spellhold would not go over well. Instead, she’d lain there going over what Discord had said. She set her quill to the page.
Unknown Date, Nightfall(?) 944(?)
Magic comes from life. That much is evident, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. More than that, the property emerges due to the connections between life. Ley Lines come from population centers.
What heights did we reach before the Time of Troubles? How ingrained was magic into the web of our society? Manehattan had an arcane tram network. Were those secrets lost due to the destruction, or did they simply cease to function from due to the millions, maybe billions that were snuffed out? When something no longer works, how long before it is forgotten by the weight of time?
Were Wizards then bound by the same limitations they are now? Standing in the waters of coursing rivers of power grown from a weight of souls so vast it seems incomprehensible, could they cast spells in a manner far more inefficient than the methods of formula?
And the Alicorns. Discord seemed to imply they came about as a result of ponies. Most ponies seem to believe that we are three distinct races because we are the children of the gods, somehow each carrying a piece of their perfection.
But Alicorns are not perfect, and God is the doom that claims you in death. There is no justice. We all have crimes, but we all meet the same fate. We are all equal after the touch of the Reaper. Maybe the only escape is to kneel before him. Lichdom, or worse.
Twilight yawned wide. It was hard to tell how long she’d been awake. Twenty-four hours, at least, but in the cavern, there was no night or day. She hadn’t seen the Sun since they entered Spellhold. She set down her quill and rose to her feet. She had to get her blood flowing.
It was probably past the end of her turn at watch, but she hoped her friends wouldn’t notice. She paced across the rim of the hollow, staring out into the shadowy space beyond. After their first unfriendly encounter, she’d kept her horn largely dark. Once, they’d passed within a few hundred hoofspans of a group of the ponies that inhabited this place. Fortunately, they hadn’t been spotted. Fights were exhausting, and she intended to avoid them if she could.
She looked over at the Moon. It loomed over her. It’s size was tremendous. Only half of it rose from the floor of the cavern, and still it reached nearly two-thirds of the way to the ceiling. Every inch of its surface glowed with silvery light. They’d chosen to loop around , avoiding the city on the edge of the lake entirely, and it had cost them several hours, but perhaps it had also avoided a full-fledged battle with the cavern’s denizens. Aside from squashing a few spiders, their journey had been largely conflict-free.
“It’s my turn,” Pinkie said, right beside her.
Twilight jumped, magic momentarily bleeding off her horn as she reached for her swords. Glancing over at Pinkie, she relaxed. She sighed. Nothing for it. “I’m not sleeping.”
“I know,” Pinkie said, calmly sitting next to her. “You’re afraid it’ll come back.”
Twilight nodded. “If she was going to take it, I wish she had taken it all. Then, at least, I’d be free of it.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said, staring off into the distance. “I haven’t changed into something else, but I can still feel it.”
“You killed that pony,” she said, still looking at the Moon.
“I did,” Pinkie said. “She was number two.”
Twilight turned to look at Pinkie. “Why?”
“Because, Twilight,” Pinkie said, “there are things hiding in the dark. I used to think I could hide behind a smile. I used to think that staying away from the dark would keep me from having to be you. Now I’ve realized the only way to keep from being dragged under is to be the biggest, baddest thing in the dark.” She met Twilight’s eyes. “Or at least, be friends with her.”
Twilight hoofed awkwardly at the cold, hard limestone ridge beneath her. “I’m not anymore, if I ever was.”
“Is that what you really want?” Pinkie said. “To be free of it?”
Twilight froze for a moment. Finally, she shook her head. “No,” she said. “I want it all back. Not just because of what’s left, but because it’s mine. It’s a part of me.”
Pinkie looked down. “If we ever find them, and if we can make them give it back, will you take it all?” Her hair drooped, falling around her face like a curtain.
Twilight nodded slowly. “If that’s what you wanted, of course I would.”
Pinkie closed her eyes tight. In the dark, a droplet of moisture falling from her snout caught the moonlight. “I hate it,” Pinkie said. “I hate Sombra, and I hate Trixie. I’ve never hated anypony in my life, not the way you hated the Black Knight, or the way Applejack hated that dragon. First, she used me to get at you, and then she used me for what I had. I didn’t even want it in the first place.
“I remember every cut, in my mind, and in my flesh. She kept me weak for those three days, always on the edge of death, so that I wouldn’t be able to fight her or figure out what was real and what wasn’t while she was busy tearing into your mind. She gave me just enough healing potions to stay alive. Then, she left a few where I could reach them. I was too afraid to try it, but she was gone for long enough that I risked it. Now I realize that’s what she’d been counting on, so she could get us both there.”
Twilight pulled Pinkie close. As soon as she was in Twilight’s embrace, Pinkie broke down. Her body heaved, wracked with sobs. “Stuck in a box,” she choked out between sobs. “Nothing’s real. Days and days. Nothing’s real. Fake, fake smiles.”
“Shh,” Twilight said, running a hoof through Pinkie’s mane, wishing she could do more. She grit her teeth. I’m going to make them both burn. They chose to be monsters. When I come knocking on their door, they will beg me for mercy, and I will show them a true monster.
As time stretched forward in an endless dark, Twilight held Pinkie.
Twilight peered over a ridge formed from the base one of the cavern’s massive columns. They’d cut around the city and the large underground lake, reaching the moon nearly on it’s opposite side, costing them hours. She’d hoped to avoid more contact with the strange ponies living here. Unfortunately, a massive rift separated the Moon from the cavern floor. She suspected it didn’t actually touch the stones, but instead floated in a cratered bowl.
She’d asked Rainbow to touch the Moon, and when that didn’t work, she’d had Rainbow carry her over to touch it. Nothing had happened when her hoof contacted the cool surface. They’d kept going, circling around the moon looking for a solution. Even though everything looked the same in the Cavern, by her reckoning, they’d nearly looped all the way back to the city.
Now, she evaluated a lone structure built near the moon. Bluish-grey metal spires polished to a reflective sheen stretched upward, their sharp points framing an arching threshold. Two imposing doors hid whatever lay within. Large enough to contain an entire block of Ponyville, and with angled architecture, the building was beyond imposing.
From the back of the structure, a gossamer bridge stretched between it and the Moon. The bridge swayed gently with the cavern’s internal airflow. She squinted. This close, the Moon was bright enough to be uncomfortable to look at, but she thought she could see the bridge disappear into the glowing mass.
“Great,” she uttered, ducking back down behind the ridge. She stifled a yawn. Time blurred down here, but she’d been awake for at least forty-eight hours. Once she’d hit a point, about twenty-four hours in, her body had seemed to accept that it wasn’t going to get to sleep anytime soon. Still, if she sat still for more than a few minutes, she started to nod off. “Looks like we’re going to have to knock, or try and get to that bridge by going around somehow.”
“Still not sleeping?” Rarity said.
Twilight nodded. Hiding her decision from her friends had turned out to be a fantasy. They were more perceptive, and more understanding, than she gave them credit for.
“It’s not healthy, Twilight,” Applejack said from the base of the ridge.
“For the hundredth time,” Twilight said with an exasperated groan, “I’m not letting that thing out again.”
Applejack gave an unconvinced grumble. She stalked up the ridge, her hoof falls heavy. “Let’s go knock then.”
“No sense wasting time while you string yourself out,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight sighed. The disadvantage to her friends figuring out that she wasn’t sleeping meant they stopped sleeping too, so that they could move faster. The end result: they were all tired and irritable. “Fine,” Twilight said. “But we’re knocking my way.”
With a flare of her horn, Twilight cast Knock. It was one of the more specific spells in her arsenal, but it performed admirably. The doors flew inward, ripped free from their mountings, and crashed into the space beyond.
Twilight stood poised in the doorway, her ears ringing. Slots cut at precise angles into the ceiling and the back walls let shafts of moonlight shine into the room. The domed structure in Canterlot had been a temple. This was a cathedral.
Rows and rows of empty stone pews, some of them shattered by the doors’ passage, faced an indomitable lectern. Behind it, the Moon shined through a stained glass window. The murky colors depicted a lone Alicorn. She held her head low, her eyes closed with a serene sorrow. Fine silver chains snaked around her neck and coiled at her ankles, trailing off her in a rain of links.
Etched into the metal ceiling above the altar, words read, ‘All who enter here, fear no evil, for God is Great’.
A chill ran down Twilight’s back. Do they worship Him? she wondered. She eyed the window. Why is Luna portrayed so reverently if they worship Him?
A smaller door on the side of the sanctuary opened. A pony stood in the doorway. He had neither a horn nor wings, but his pupils were slitted, and he had a dark coat and mane. His eyes widened when he saw the ponies standing in the doorway.
Rarity raised her bow, but Twilight lifted her hoof. “If there’s an alarm, I already triggered it. Let’s get to the bridge.”
“Mistress!” the pony screamed. “The surfacers are here!”
Ignoring the screaming pony, Twilight made her way down the center aisle. Her hooves, covered by nine thin layers of stone, clicked on the metal floor. She’d come prepared. Her friends fell into a wedge shaped formation behind her, with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash joining her at its apex.
A figure stepped onto the cathedral’s raised stage. He possessed a horn, but his eyes glowed instead. Twilight launched into motion. One hoof forward, she teleported.
... And appeared next to the cleric. In a single motion, she drew Solstice from it’s sheath and split the cleric open from one shoulder to the top of his skull. Blood sprayed onto the window. Can’t afford to see what you were going to do, she thought as the corpse fell. Mistress, Twilight thought, her mind tracking what the first pony had said. That one was male. There’s more.
Beyond the lectern, twin alcoves flanked the window. She glimpsed steps. They have to lead to the bridge, Twilight thought. “Come on,” she shouted.
Rainbow Dash landed beside her in a rush of air. The others reached a set of steps leading up to the stage. Twilight turned toward one of the alcoves and found her path blocked.
A unicorn covered in plates of armor perched on the back of a hulking blue spider nearly three times her size. With a flash of magic, the unicorn freed straps holding her in place and dropped toward the ground, a levitated glaive floating behind her. While Twilight drew Celestial Fury, she swung Solstice at the spider and triggered the Sequencer stored in the blade. The spider shimmered, warped silver light playing across it’s carapace as if it were at the bottom of a pool.
Solstice sang through empty air while the Improved Haste stored in the Sequencer took effect. The powerful spell was all she’d managed to package in the blade. The spider was gone, lost in a brief flash of light, but a golden chain punched past Twilight. The tip of the chain tugged to the side, making the whole thing curve. The armored unicorn’s hooves touched the ground. Twilight dropped to her belly as Truthseeker redirected, the chain sweeping over her head.
The chain caught the armored unicorn and swept her legs out from under her. Twilight brought Celestial Fury down as she stood, and severed the unicorn’s head from her shoulders. She turned to watch Truthseeker find the spider, out among the pews, and skewer it.
In shimmering flashes of light, another six spiders appeared around Twilight. Glaive wielding unicorns leaped off their backs. Rainbow Dash hit one of the ponies with a blast of air before he touched the ground, and he flew into the wall with a crack.
Pinkie dropped from above. She landed on one of the spiders. Together, they vanished.
A floating glaive swung at her. She noticed it had no handle, not even for emergencies. The glaive was a metal crescent, all sharp edges. Almost casually, Twilight raised Solstice to block.
Metal rang with the contact. The glaive battered Solstice aside. It flew from her grasp and punched into one of the metal walls deep enough to lodge. Twilight blinked as the glaive connected with her Stoneskin. Her unusually strong levitation hadn’t deserted her, even without her divine essence, but this unicorn could compete.
Fine, Twilight thought. Unnaturally swift, she took a step toward the unicorn that had swung at her and brought Celestial Fury arcing down. Blood misted as Celestial Fury bit through the armored plate protecting the unicorn’s forehead. She drew it back, at the same time pulling Solstice from the wall.
In the corner of her eye, she spotted a blue blur of motion. She turned to face a spider. As it lunged toward her, she planted the point of Celestial Fury between it’s eyes, simultaneously picking up the two fallen glaives from the unicorns she’d killed.
She ripped Celestial Fury free before the spider’s corpse could hit the ground. A glancing blow shattered another layer of her Stoneskin, and she whirled to face the unicorn who had dealt it. She claimed his head with Solstice. The remaining three eyed her warily, glaives ready. Twilight started to spin the two glaives she’d picked up, sending them around her in an orbit. At first, it captured her concentration, but a moment later, it became a rhythmic motion.
“Wizard!” Rarity shouted. “Lectern!”
Twilight turned as she added a secondary spin to her glaives. Sure enough, a unicorn stood next to the lectern, in the middle of a stumbling sideways lurch. Layers of shimmering protection surrounded him, including grey stoneskin covering every inch of his body. He looked like he’d just come out of a teleport. Twilight noticed a glowing array set into the back of the lectern.
Twilight moved. As she watched, a layer of magic flared at the base of his horn and built toward the tip. Two glaives clipped the space she’d occupied moments ago. Twilight wasted no time. She started to cast Breach. A full glow engulfed the wizard’s horn.
Near simultaneously, their spells completed. A ray shot from his horn, shattering every layer of her Stoneskin. Her ray passed his in the air. It punched through the layers of protection he had against magic and tore away his stoneskin. His eyes widened. A whirling glaive tore into him in a mist of gore.
A flying chip of bone stung Twilight’s shoulder. As she whirled back around to face the glaive-wielders, she caught a glimpse of the combat around her. Two more spider corpses lay on the floor, one taken out by Truthseeker. The other’s head had been smashed in. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy kept their backs to a corner on the stage, Angel lunging as a spider came too close. She glimpsed Pinkie on the back of another spider as it teleported out of her field of vision.
A spider appeared next to her, only to be obliterated by a whirling glaive. A spray of fluid coated her left side, forcing one of her eyes shut. I can’t afford to get hit a single time without Stoneskin, she thought as the remaining three unicorns closed on her. Where’s Rainbow Dash?
A moment later, she had her answer. A rainbow blur came whipping in from her blind side. Sparks flew as Rainbow clipped all three unicorns while she arced past. She skidded to a stop on the metal floor, both of her wingblades trailing droplets of blood through the air.
The unicorns stumbled, struggling to stay on their feet, as their weapons dropped from the grasp of their levitation. Twilight was on them a moment later. All pretense of accuracy gone, she cut through them with speed and power, the metal plates of their armor splitting before the edges of her magical blades.
“How many spiders?” Twilight called as she wiped the gore away from her eye with a hoof.
“Two left, can’t see ‘em,” Applejack replied, her voice echoing through the suddenly quiet
cathedral.
Quickly, Twilight scanned the ceiling. It was empty. The spiders must have fled. “Pinkie?” she yelled.
“Here,” Pinkie called back as she jumped off the corpse of a fallen spider. “Now I know how you feel, disappearing and reappearing all over the place.”
Twilight eyed the alcoves while she brought her spinning glaives to a gentle halt. “Let’s get to that bridge.”
The tell-tale hiss of an object moving through the air caught Twilight’s attention. She turned, but it was too late. Pain exploded from her foreleg. She crumpled, her mouth widening in shock. Another bolt hit her. An emptiness accompanied its passing – a vague lack of feeling below the middle of her back only noticed so quickly due to her Improved Haste.
“Twilight!” Pinkie screamed.
A third bolt hit Twilight, and blackness followed.
The Slayer opened its eyes, such as they were. It did not perceive the way the Vessel did. It saw only in life and not life. A world object and beings surrounded it. Its own form was damaged, riddled by three holes. Immediately, it began to seal them, knitting them together with shadow.
It raised its head, salivating. Confusion rippled through its thoughts as a lifeless lance of metal glanced off the ground next to it. The object’s motion were off, as if it was moving too slowly.
Hunger.
There was no time to dwell. It turned towards its attackers. Light aided the eyes of the living, so from its back, the Slayer spread darkness. It could feel a burning source of light at its back, terribly close, but within the space around it it was able to achieve void. With purpose, it loped toward the exit of the structure rising around it.
Bolts hissed towards it, but the Slayer could perceive them, and its attackers could not see it. Most missed, but one did make its mark. The Slayer shrugged it off. These bolts did not burn as the chain had. Still, they moved too slowly. The Slayer even ducked one. Then, it was upon them. The first victim, it battered to the ground with a clawed paw, then tore through lifeless plates into the living core of the creature.
The Slayer closed its teeth around the pulsing center of its prey before it could die. Flesh hit the Slayer’s throat. Flesh, and satisfaction. It would make the Vessel into the Whole again. With enough death, it would be Whole. No alternative solution presented itself. Another bolt rammed into it, ripping into its hide from behind. With a deep, guttural growl, the Slayer descended upon another victim.
The second victim flapped wings in a vain effort to escape. The Slayer leaped after it, cresting the jump over five times its own height, and swatted its victim from the sky. It landed next to the broken, gasping body of the living creature. It could have simply yanked this victim from the sky with the powers of levitation granted by the Vessel, but the Slayer found connecting with its victims physically far more satisfying.
Another living being appeared behind the Slayer. It did not need to turn to look to know. The Slayer whirled to meet the pouncing attack and sunk its teeth into its enemy. Beneath a bulk, the Slayer fell to the ground, but the Slayer had already won. With a victorious, abyssal howl, the Slayer tore the creatures segmented body asunder.
The Slayer tasted something else in this larger creature – an innate pulse of living magic. Due to the Vessel, the Slayer was able to dissect this arcane power. A set of nodes spread before its sight, gleaming points of intersection in a webway of living connections. The Slayer set its mind to the task, and arrived at another point on the webway, next to another victim. Again, with wings, its victim tried to flee.
Life existed to feed the Slayer. Resistance was a futility born of emotion. Fear compelled irrationality. The Slayer found the rules quite simple. All outcomes lead to victory. It was unstoppable. It jumped to another node, directly in the path of its victim. The living creature flew into its jaws. The Slayer tasted metal, but pressed through to the flesh beneath.
Once the life had been snuffed out, as it fell, the Slayer transited to another node, and extinguished another victim. Then again. And again. It chased another of the large, arcane creatures through the webway, and consumed it as well, though there was nothing extra to be gained from it. Soon, the closest source of life was back in the building. Five in particular clustered within.
The Slayer had to jump through five nodes to reach them, but it appeared next to the five beings soon enough. The Slayer stumbled. Suddenly, every motion it made had become a struggle. Resistance. The Vessel. The Slayer roared. A pair of golden points flew toward it. With Resistance, the Slayer could not react. Burning spikes of pain drove into the Slayer’s shoulder, and with that shock, the impossible became reality. Resistance broke through.
Twilight stood in the ring of moonlight. The shackled Alicorn hunched before her. Luna looked up at her arrival. This time, she didn’t cringe away.
“Nothing happened when I touched the Moon,” Twilight said bluntly. “I think ‘they’ found me first.”
“I’m sorry,” Luna said. “I thought you’d sleep. I could explain further in your dreams.”
“I have a bit of a sleepwalking problem,” Twilight said.
Luna tilted her head. “You’re broken.”
Twilight hoofed awkwardly at whatever passed for ground in this place. “Yeah,” she said. “I am.”
Luna’s eyes widened. “You’re sleeping right now.”
Twilight blinked. I’m dreaming, she realized. “So I am,” she said.
“That means its awake!” Luna said.
Twilight took a step back. “Oh no,” she said. She spinned in place, looking for a way out. Only blackness surrounded her. “I have to go!” she shouted. “Get me out of here!” She had to stop it before it could hurt her friends.
“I can help you,” Luna said. “When you wake, come to me.”
With that, Twilight was driven into a strange body. Five brilliant sources of color, blue, yellow, pink, orange, and white glowed before her. She poised, about to pounce.
“No,” Twilight thought.
Twin golden points flew toward her. She wanted to strike, before they hit her.
“I will not harm them,” Twilight said.
Pain shocked her.
“I am my own master!”
Twilight woke with a gasp. Warm, red blood coated her neck. Soothing healing magic pulsed through her shoulder, extinguishing a fire of pain.
“Skies above!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “What the hell just happened?!”
“I have to get to the bridge!” Twilight cried, pushing Fluttershy’s hooves aside as she stood. Though fatigue weighed on her, she felt invigorated. She ran for the alcove.
“Wait, Twilight!” Rarity called after her.
Her Improved Haste was still with her. By the time the words reached her ears, she had already bounded halfway up the steps. A second later, she reached a balcony built into the back of the cathedral. She paused, the rift between the moon and the cavern yawning beneath her, her hoof poised to step on the gossamer bridge. Threads of spider silk formed it, interwoven enough to make a mat. It looked solid enough, so she took the step.
A vibration ran along the bridge, sending a wave along the strands until they disappeared into the brightness of the moon. Hesitance gone, Twilight ran out onto it. She placed her hooves carefully. Though there were ropey railings, the mat-like core bridge was barely wide enough for a pony. Individual strands surrounded it in a supporting network, making it stable enough.
“Halt, interloper!” a voice called from behind her.
Unable to quickly turn on the narrow bridge, Twilight settled for glancing over her shoulder as she ran. On the Cathedral’s balcony, a lone unicorn stood, her eyes alight with divine power. A silver bow floated in the grasp of her levitation.
Twilight came to a stop on the bridge. “Shoot me, and you’ll die.” If she lost consciousness again, the monster would take over. On the narrow bridge, there was nowhere to dodge. She could try and cast a spell, but there was no guarantee she could complete it before the arrow landed.
The unicorn narrowed her eyes. “I know what you are, Celestial assassin, and I saw what you transformed into, but I would sooner see myself pass unto the Moon than allow you to strike down our Goddess.”
“This standoff won’t last long,” Twilight said. “My friends will be following me.”
“I have blocked their passage,” the cleric said. “Our Lord offers many solutions to his faithful.”
Twilight sighed. “I’m not here to kill anypony I don’t have to. I’m here to help your Goddess.”
“Then why do you carry the Sword of the Traitor?” the unicorn asked. “Surely, Celestia has blessed you.”
With a forceful push of her magic, Twilight threw Celestial Fury at the Moon. It embedded next to where one of the bridge’s threads anchored. “Satisfied?” she said, glancing back at the unicorn, but already moving.
Wasn’t it the other way around? Twilight thought. Azrael influenced Luna to turn against Celestia. At least, that’s what Celestia told me. She could feel the cleric’s eyes boring into her back as she neared the moon, but no arrow came.
She squinted her eyes nearly shut as she stepped off the bridge and onto a surface of pure silver light. The Moon was oddly cold beneath her hooves, despite the glow coming from it. A pure note filled her ears, soothing. Her eyelids grew heavy.
For a moment, Twilight shook it off, but her body wanted sleep. Just a nap, she told herself. Exhausted, she slumped to the floor and closed her eyes.
Luna waited for her in the circle of moonlight. Her chains clinked as she stood to face Twilight. “You made it.”
Twilight hesitantly stepped forward. “I’m dreaming again, aren’t I?”
“Don’t worry,” Luna said. “You are at peace. I made sure of that. The Slayer will not come.” She smiled. “In fact, you need not fear it any longer.”
“Why am I here?” Twilight asked. “Why is this where I need to be? Have you seen them? Trixie and Sombra?”
“Yes,” Luna said. “They came two weeks ago. They conspire to release the Nightmare and unleash an army of the night upon the Crystal City. And they will succeed.”
“Two weeks?!” Twilight shouted. “That’s impossible! We took portals to get here!”
“It depends on how fast you can teleport, Twilight Sparkle.”
Precisely where and when, Twilight thought, remembering the words Discord had said. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Luna said. “But if you had caught up to Trixie here, I doubt you would have survived the encounter. Even the Slayer couldn’t have saved you from her.” She shrugged. “Regardless, it places you here closer to the Winter Solstice of the thousandth year of my imprisonment, and my followers are prepared for my release.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Celestia imprisoned you for a reason.”
Luna shook her head. “Celestia imprisoned Nightmare Moon, not me. You will free me from Azrael. This had to be her plan all along.”
Twilight snorted. “You place too much faith in your sister. All she sent was a Shadowspawn. I don’t see how that helps your predicament.”
Luna blinked. “You mean... you don’t know?” She slumped. “Maybe she really did send you to kill me then.” She swallowed. “I watched you from the stars. I knew Azrael had gotten to you, but still I hoped.” She met Twilight’s eyes. “If you are broken, if the Elements don’t work, you must stop Nightmare Moon, no matter what it takes.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight said.
Luna smiled sadly. “It appears that I am a stone in your path. For the moment, you are as trapped as my followers. The enemies you seek used the Fragments to escape, and you do not possess that power. Until I am free, you will not be able to find Trixie. You will have to secure my release, and then you will have to kill me.”
Twilight took a step back. She stared at Luna. Regal, chained, an Alicorn. A Goddess. Celestia’s Sister. “I’m not going to kill you!”
“Really, Shadowspawn?” Luna moved forward until her chains pulled taught and her muzzle was inches from Twilight’s. “Death is your nature! Consider yourself lucky that you are a tool of the Moon instead of the Abyss!”
“I’m not a tool!” Twilight growled.
Luna chuckled. “No, you are a pawn. You’re too afraid of your own power, too afraid that you are unworthy, to be anything else.” Her eyes flared silver. “Awaken, and be the Night’s favored!”
Wakefulness coursed through Twilight like lightning. She shot to her feet. The Cleric stood over her, her bow floating beside her. Her eyes widened in awe, and she bowed low. “Chosen!”
Twilight blinked. Colors were muted, but the world seemed brighter. Outlines jumped out at her, their contrast starkly obvious. She lifted her hoof, staring at it. The normal lavender color of her coat had turned deep violet. Twilight looked past the bowing cleric. On the balcony were five ponies. Two had bat-like wings. The colors of their coats had shifted, but she identified them all by their Marks and what they wore and carried. She and her friends had been transformed.