"It is of the uttermost importance that we now look after each other," said Corvo. "Unlike the last stone, we should keep watch all about us."

"I deem it better to leave it to your imagination," said Corvo. "Other than that, we can absolutely be more ready now. Good for me; good for you; good for all."

"Great!" said Twilight in an encouraging voice, looking over the levitating map. "Neighagra Falls sure seems a lot safer than the previous places we've been to."

"Also, Ah heard it's a pretty place to visit, with the friendly critters 'n' all," said Applejack.

"I just hope Neighagra Falls doesn't come to life like that last cave," said Rarity. "This scavenger hunt is just... well, getting dirty."

"Oh, come off, Rarity," said Pinkie Pie. "Maybe the Falls will try to eat us and put everypony in absolute darkness. At least we'll be ready, like Corvo said!"

"And since we already know the sixth stone's location, our journey will soon come to an end," added Corvo.

"It's a shame Corvo will have to leave after all of this," said Rainbow Dash, flying to his side. "I kinda like having him around."

They all laughed and nodded in unison; and Twilight said: "Maybe he could stay for a bit after. There's still so much to show him, here in Equestria." She then turned to him. "Corvo, sorry for such a bad impression with these disasters and these stones. This country is usually a lot nicer than this."

The fellowship ventured in between high mountain walls of terrible height and a wide tundra of grass; and they saw the mountain bearing Canterlot in the misty distance. To their right snowy peaks looked down upon them, as if ready to crumble above, its shadow seemingly waxing as the sun lowered. But as they walked, in front of them a forest drew near. Unlike White Tail Woods this forest was much shorter and spread thinner, and the trees were crooked with bright light weighing down upon the wood.

The main six walked and talked among themselves, several ells ahead of Corvo and Luna, who remained behind.

As the wood drew closer Luna said: "So, Corvo, what do you think of this adventure so far?"

"An odd yet correct choice of word," said Corvo. "Anyway, you ask what I think? Well, it has been difficult so far, and I would not expect these dangers to wane anytime soon. But by the time we gather the last two remaining stones, everything should be at peace."

"What about the magnitudes?" Luna now talked with deliberate slowness. "Have you noticed any chances as more stones are placed?"

"I would hope so! We hear that these occurrences have been dwindling into nothingness as we continue. Initially there were more illogical events than one could count. Now, well, I have read that these—we shall say—'magical' happenings appear very few times. It could only mean a sign of progression."

Corvo thought it was confusing, for he was only answering what he knew, but a grey shadow grew over Luna's face. They both felt distant from each other; and her expression told him that she was deep in thought.

"I can tell something is bothering you; or you are attempting something but are failing at it. Would you care to tell me?"

Why must he know all of the sudden? thought Luna, trying to keep her eyes to his. I cannot tell him that I am trying to get something from his words—to prove that he may be behind all of this—but the way he talks, acts, and sounds all point to him being just as clueless as Tia and I. "Err, just that these stones are very tedious to gather," she finally said. "I know that you went by yourself to Canterlot yesterday. Did you figure anything out there?"

"Hmm, I have. It took many hours, but by the end I got almost no lead to the tree and the stones."

"That is the mystery. I only managed to figure out that a being with a consciousness must be the suspect."

Luna nearly laughed. "Corvo, we figured that out a while ago!" she said. "It could only be something with great power."

Luna's face immediately straightened upon hearing that. "How come?" she said. "Equestria would be the only source of this. We have already ruled out other countries for—"

"No, that is not it," said Corvo. "It is most likely someone with a similar power of my Mark. I ruled that option out quite some time ago, but it is the closest lead we have got."

"Hey, come on, you guys!" called Twilight from up ahead. Both Corvo and Luna realized that they were in front of a great arch of trees, leading into a twisted path. The other ponies were walking through, with Twilight behind and beckoning to them.

"We are coming!" answered Corvo back. They both made their way through the entrances, with which he brushed off twigs and thickets from his sight. "As I was saying," he continued, "it cannot be from Equestria."

"There you have it. Outside of Equestria there have never been any legitimate knowings of dark magic concerning its inhabitants. The only one who used dark magic that I know of is this King Sombra; but it cannot possibly be him."

"Then what do you suggest we do? Collect all the stones, not know who caused it, and leave it just like that?"

Corvo furrowed his brow. "Warding Equestria is important, but if we cannot figure out who is doing this, then I am afraid we will have to leave it be."

"But we have to!" said Luna. "What if this happens again? If we get to the bottom of the case then we would be ready the next time."

"Equestria already seems to be adapting," said Corvo. "Please, I promise to try my best; but I am incapable of promising that I will succeed." Luna groaned silently to herself, and remained quiet with a bowed head. Corvo saw this and laughed, and said: "Do not feel dominated by such a situation! Have you ever considered this possibility: that once we collect all the stones, something may happen to reveal the perpetrator? Of course, we may only guess so much."

Luna did not reply, but listened intently and kept wandering forth. Corvo sighed, and he too remained walking.

After nearly an hour of the wood, Corvo and the ponies made their way out of a passage from the trees. They turned round a corner, and over a hill, and beyond them a massive wall of withering water fell into the feet of a river. Below the rough splashes were many jagged rocks, and a heavy fog lolled about them. Neighagra Falls was enormous, encompassing the view of the fellowship. Corvo could not help but stare in wonder.

They now made their way close to the falling water, at a point where the underneath rocks turned into dirt, creating a wet dike travelling down into the falls. The white fog emitting from the water was now much stronger and thicker, shooting hard about the land.

"Everything seems to be okay," said Twilight. "Other than the stronger fog, Neighagra Falls was always like this."

"Are you sure we're in the right place!" yelled Rainbow Dash from high up, viewing the angle of which the water sharply fell downwards.

"It must be here," said Corvo. "There is no other place I can think of. It is most likely in these waters."

"Allow me," said Luna. Upon her horn burning bright a wide beam of pale-blue light shot from the tip. The beam stretched wider the further it went out, painting a large circle against the water. And within that circle everything became transparent. The ponies could now see past the white water and into dark depths. Luna moved about, scanning the falls and what lay beyond them.

"Very good," said Corvo. "Once we find it, all that will be left is to—" But Corvo froze when he touched the falling water, for instead he felt a solid wall of ice, with water running along it.

Corvo withdrew his hand; and with his arm he pressed against the water, but he still felt a wall. "It appears to be solid, even though one would not be able to tell with a first glance," he said.

"I found something!" said Luna from afar. They all ran to where her light was and looked through the transparent hole. Indeed she did find something, for a stone lay cold in the distance, its form withering wildly from the water effect.

"Please keep your scan activated," said Corvo. He drew closer and tapped his fist against the falling water. The sounds it made were of splashing, but just an inch through it turned to cold ice. "Is there some barrier that we are not aware of?"

"No, there isn't," said Luna. "After a secondary scan, I can be sure that this is completely normal water."

"Is... anyone surprised?" said Corvo. The ponies each shook their heads and answered 'no.' Corvo breathed out heavily and put a fist under his chin. "I am also not surprised. Luna, is there anything you could do?"

Luna narrowed her eyes, focusing on the faraway stone, and her horn flickered with white magic. She grunted and pulled back, but nothing happened. "I cannot get a lock on it," she said with clenched teeth. "There might be some form of magic involved here—but I wouldn't know of it." She then tried again and again, but to no avail.

"We must hurry," said Corvo. "Sunset approaches and I would hate to be out here at night."

"There is still an hour or two before that," said Rarity. "That should be plenty of time still."

"Time will pass by fast," he said, tapping a finger against his cheek. "One or two hours is never enough when we wait; and before we can even notice, well, the sun shall vanish from sight."

"I am sorry, Corvo, but there is nothing to pull that stone out of there; and I do not see you doing anything," said Luna, groaning, smoke emitting from her horn.

"But it is a barrier, not heavy water," said Corvo. But he thought for a quick minute, and said: "Actually, the latter would make more sense, to tell the truth." He picked up a stick from the ground and pressed its end against the falls. With powerful force he digged the crooked stick through the water. Slowly it pushed forth, but he could not see to the end. And when he pulled it back, what he was seeing of the stick was what remained of it.

"So the water even destroyed the stick!" said Twilight, feeling very bewildered. She thought for a moment, pondering a hoof over her temple, and said: "There's... no safe way through then."

"Do not jump to hopeless conclusions yet," said Corvo. "Maybe a way to stop the water would be to use its own pressure with—gah!" Corvo felt a dull pain hit his left rib; and he lowered down to his knee, gripping at his side.

"Corvo, are you okay?" asked Twilight quickly, rushing to help him up. "Well, obviously you're not from that scream, but what did you just feel?"

"My left side here is injured," said Corvo, and he sighed with painful heaviness. "It must be from those Diamond Dogs."

"We never were sure if you were fully healed," said Luna, looking to them. "Maybe your ribs are still broken."

Corvo wandered to where the stone was, limping on one side. "Yes, that may be it. We will leave it for later." He removed a shaking arm from his torso, and stood straight. "It is only an annoyance."

"We'll have to take care of it later," said Twilight. "Are you sure you can keep walking once we head back?"

The entire time Luna watched with a curious glare. Practically everything he did made him seem oblivious to the causes behind the tree. She could not get anything from him, now thinking that maybe her sister was wrong. But when she turned back to the falls she became aghast, for the stone was gone; only darkness remained.

Corvo inwardly gasped upon hearing that, and said: "Dear me, that is an inconvenience."

"Where did it go?" said Rainbow Dash, too surprised to remain flying. "It just disappeared like that?"

"Wha—I... I mean—what!" Twilight stammered. "Oh, no, no, no! It can't be gone! We can't lose the stone now!"

"Do not worry, Twilight," said Corvo, bending low to look beyond the falls. "This might be a trick. An illusion! Yes, that is a definite possibility. We now only need a way to get through to be completely sure."

"Um, hey, girls?" said Fluttershy, walking in front of where the stone used to be. "There's no need to worry now. I got the stone. It's here with me." And to their surprise she rose a hoof, boring the sixth, ashen-cold stone.

All the ponies silently gasped and stared with open jaws. Luna creased her brow, raising many questions in her head. Corvo was nearly taken aback. "Fluttershy! How did you ever manage to obtain that stone?" he asked, grabbing it and inspecting it.

"Oh, it was nothing," she said, nearly laughing to herself. She turned to where a small river met the falling water, and called out: "Come say hi to my friends!"

"I just asked those two guys to get the stone for me," said Fluttershy. "It wasn't all that hard."

A moment of silence passed by, as they all stared with wondering eyes, even after the fish left and dived back into their rivers. And then they all laughed, sitting down on the ground and hugging Fluttershy.

"That was wonderful!" said Corvo. He did not hug her, but bowed and said: "You ponies were right in saying that even the critters here are nice. Very helpful!"

The ponies all now gathered in a line, with Twilight in front; and she turned back and said: "Great job, girls! We now officially only have one stone left to collect!" They all cheered in joy, chatting about as they headed back to the break in the wood.

"Very interesting," said Luna. "Putting ridiculousness aside, I will say that I am much happier now."

"And good thing, too," said Corvo. "It is getting dark rather quickly. We should hasten ourselves so you can raise the moon."

Luna smiled, feeling much too weary to act suspicious upon him. Whatever she did to try and make him seem like the one against Equestria, she had failed. Maybe he was always good to begin with. Luna was nigh sure of that. She could only guess that something connected to Corvo's mark was behind this, but not him at all. "Yes, let's hurry up," she said.

As they ventured through the forest and out into the tundra, Corvo sang a song. A song of encouragement and victory. Soon they would gain full trust among one another, and hopefully know the truth.

And here we stand, upon the end
We gather now with wills not bent
We approach the Crystal throne
As the sky shall be shone

Through hardy toil, we see the door
And close, we walk the floor
A burning star, and a bright moon
Such a tree of darkness hewn

Unmarred by monsters of nightshade
In all goodness, justice was made
Fair and bold is this world
And nigh is the end of evil old

Such a struggle was after falls
We now walk in bright, long halls
And there lies a mind, where his thought is best
May it appear not until we rest

"I'm glad to hear that Fluttershy actually managed to convince two fish to get the stone. Rather impossible in a waterfall, but nothing surprises me nowadays," laughed Celestia. Corvo, who sat opposite of her in his seat, hummed and nodded.

The two were in one of Canterlot castle's many rooms, with the moon waxing in the sky and shadows all about them.

"It's just good to know that we draw close to fully neutralizing what's in this country," said Celestia. "Tomorrow we'll be off to the Crystal Empire."

"Yes, that is good," said Corvo. But he sighed and leaned closer to her, and said: "But I need you to answer me this: why would you have Princess Luna try to 'reveal' me, if that is what you called it? Why try to bring something out of me? Pointless attempts aside, I knew why she was there before we even reached Neighagra Falls."

Celestia's eyebrows both outwardly lowered. "How did you ever come to that conclusion?"

"Observation," said he. "Too obvious; but I need not explain. If you do not trust me still, then I would not even come close to blaming you."

Corvo stared very hard at her calm demeanor, and sighed in his mind. "This is all because of me," he said. "These stones are borne with my Mark, and this tree is of dark magic. That must be outside of this world. I... even considered myself, but it cannot be." He clenched his fists as his face shook. "I tried to figure out this reasoning; but I assure you that I have no doing here."

"Yes, well, I appreciate that," said Corvo. "But even if this somehow correlates to my world, I would have no knowing about it. If I were you, I would not trust me. I understand that; but now we cannot keep trying to beat each other down like this is a chess game."

There it is again, thought Celestia. "I am sorry to cause you all this trouble. I was just taking precautions. Still, I need to know something before we all go to our beds."

"When you first saw the tree, you suddenly came to the conclusion that we needed to place seven stones and Equestria would slowly heal. While there were seven slots, you cannot expect me to believe that you bear random guessing powers. Tell me, how did you ever know? While you were right, your reasons of knowing were never explained. The whole thing was a massive jump in logic."

Corvo slowly rose a finger, holding it up to Celestia, and resting his back upon his seat. "Seven stones and seven slots," said he. "Placements were obvious. Darkened room compared to others meant that that room was abnormally dark. There were no torches or any light sources at the time. The tree was physically connected to the crystal wall; and after a few seconds of narrowing things down, I came to the conclusion that its power must have something to do with the room, and the stones for it had those depressions. The rest—with it bringing Equestria back to its normal state—was mostly a hypothesis that I deemed to be close to true back then. I also knew a bit about Equestria via quick research, so that helped me."

"Not very adequate, but I'll take it," said Celestia. "I have to smile, though, Corvo. We really would be lost without you. Even if we could ourselves place those stones, this would all take much, much longer." And then she finally smirked, and stared at him with saddened eyes.

"Oh, I would hate to take too much credit." He rose to stretch his back, and wandered to the door. "You too are spectacular. Please keep a close eye on me—for Equestria's sake. It can only do good at this point."

"Wait," said Celestia, interrupting his gait. "What about the seventh stone? We still have no lead to where it may be."

Corvo resumed to walk. "We will try to find it tomorrow," he said. Opening the door and looking past a dark hallway he said: "Please do not lose any faith in what I do; for I do my work best. It is almost the end, Celestia, and I see no analogy between my morality and these doings." And he left.

Waiting to no longer hear his foot-steps, Celestia's expression changed to that of worriment. Her twitching eye wandered over a nearby candle as she breathed sharply, thinking very carefully. I don't understand this! His expression, the way he acted—I fully read him, and yet he seemed to be one-hundred-percent oblivious to the turning-points underneath the causes. But the way he played... that couldn't be for nothing. She looked past the door into the still-darkened hallway. We'll see how this turns out, Corvo. Something must happen in either the sixth or last stone, or maybe both. We will end this with full knowledge on everything.

"Cadence, it has been a while since we have last spoken to each other," said Corvo, bowing to the pink alicorn.

"It's good to see you, too," she said, bowing as well. "I heard that you were able to deduce nearly all of the stones' locations up to this point. Very impressive!"

"Thank you kindly," he said. Looking over his shoulder he saw the main six, as well as the two princesses approaching them.

"Good to have you girls here," said Cadence. "It's been a while since we've gotten any of this information concerning the most recent locations. Shining Armor and I pulled off all-nighters nearly every day, for the past four weeks, to ensure that the Crystal Empire was running well."

"That's relieving to hear, Cadence," said Celestia. "But soon all of our troubles shall be put to rest." She levitated the sixth stone over the room, handing it now to Corvo. "Would you please place it?"

"You do not need to ask," said Corvo, wandering to the black tree. As he stopped in front of it he looked up, noticing how high its branches stretched. Many thoughts went about his mind at that moment: all the break-through moments they worked hard to discover, the journeys they shared, and the friends he made. Corvo was genuinely saddened that this would soon end. He turned to them and said: "With this placement, only one shall remain—with the help of you all."

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy both nodded and smiled; and Rarity said: "My, don't think this is over, darling. One stone and we'll be done, but at least we have accomplished all of this together."

"Well, after this, maybe we could take a day-long break," said Twilight. "I think we deserve it after this long."

Cadence remained smiling by Twilight's side; but Luna and Celestia were both together in the back of the room, by the door, watching with precise eyes.

"Um, of course!" said Corvo, his eyes nearly widening. "Tomorrow we could continue to toil." His hand was now closer to one of the last two remaining, rounded depressions, about to place the stone. But he paused, let out a very long and deep breath, and said: "Just one more after this." And he placed the stone.

A sudden pulse of electricity appeared before his eyes and into his mind. Corvo's eyes widened as many flickering images flashed into his sight, burning his brain with a flood of darkened visualizations. For half a second he sounded as if he were gasping for breath. Then he took a step back and exhaled heavily, away from the tree where six stones were.

"Hey, Corvo, are you okay?" said Twilight, walking over to where he was. "You just sounded out of breath when you put that stone in its slot."

"Ahem!" Corvo turned round. "Yes, sorry for that. It was merely a sigh of relief. I guess it made me sound like I were gasping for air!" he laughed, wandering back to where the ponies stood. "Anyway, I shall be at my room. If any of you need to ask me of something, do not hesitate to come by."

"Err, okay then!" said Cadence. "Well, I should be going. See you later, girls. See you, Corvo." She waved goodbye as they did, too, and she headed for the double door.

But Corvo bore a heavy shadow over his face, yet his expression remained friendly, waving off to the ponies and heading for his room. "I will inform you if I discover anything new," said he to the princesses as he walked by them. Celestia and Luna both nodded, but kept their eyes locked on his figure until he vanished from sight.

Walking down a long, crystal hallway, Corvo only felt success. About him seemed to darken as he gaited; and underneath the shadow over his face, there was a red gleam in his eyes. He grinned widely, nearly chuckling to himself out loud. Perfect! he thought. Absolutely perfect now. Where I am, everything seems to be in sync with what has been planned. My goal draws ever closer: to kill Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It is only a matter of time and patience.

Elements of Honor

by SpitFlame

Chapter 13: Gaining Nigh