Deep within her hollow tree home, Fluttershy was caring for her animals. Well, more like comforting them. Angel Bunny didn't care much about the situation at hand, but the rest of her animal friends were terrified of the sickly green sky and the monsters that had invaded the land. In truth, so was she. If she could have her way, she would be hiding under her bed, stricken with terror, waiting for the world to end around her. But she knew she wasn't the only one who was afraid. Right now, her little friends needed her to be their pillar of strength, and she would at least try to be strong, for their sake. It was rather difficult, though, constantly resisting the urge to scream and cower away. Had this happened over a year ago, before Twilight had arrived, she would have certainly cracked.
Feeling a light tap on her back, she turned to see Angel Bunny directing her to a specific animal. For as cruel as the small white rabbit could be, he always helped out when it mattered. Maybe a bit too much. She had a quick flashback to the last Nightmare Night, and the looks of pure terror in her friends' eyes as she.... She dismissed the thought, and moved to the animal Angel had singled out, a weasel that had somehow gotten a big gash on its back. Fluttershy's pupils shrank in shock as she rushed to the injured weasel. Examining his injury, she was relieved to see that the wound wasn't deep or serious. He just needed a certain herb and he'd be better in no time. But Fluttershy had run out of that herb, and the only place she could find it nearby was in the Everfree Forest. It wasn't that far in, but still....
Pillar of strength, Fluttershy, pillar of strength, she thought to herself to boost her confidence. Right now this little weasel needs your help. Brave face on the outside, screaming on the inside, she walked off into the Everfree.
The forbidden forest got dark fast. The green sky blocked the sun's rays to a certain extent, and the thick concentration of trees in the forest blotted out the light anyway. It wasn't long before the pale yellow pegasus found herself in complete darkness. Her defenses started to break down. Her pupils shrank in terror as they darted toward every little noise she heard, frantically searching for the source. She imagined ferocious beasts all around her, waiting to pounce. The pressure of it all froze her with fear where she stood.
"Aw, are you lost, little girl?" Fluttershy whimpered, stricken alert by the mysterious voice in the darkness. It carried a sadistic tone, bringing malicious implications to the otherwise tame question.
As her blue green eyes adjusted to the darkness, Fluttershy noticed the outline of a tall figure, just barely visible against the pitch black. "You know, I think we can help each other out," the figure mentioned. Again, his voice implied malicious intent. Fluttershy backed away one step, then another, and then she turned around and flew for the exit.
The world spun around as she crashed head first into the figure, who had somehow teleported in front of her to bar her path. She crashed to the ground, disoriented. The figure, still enveloped in darkness, knelt down and put a hand on her head, his fingers running through her pink mane, as she could do nothing but stare on in horror.
"Don't be scared. I promise this won't hurt," he told her in mock sympathy. And then the world went black.
Once again, Daniel struggled to climb his way up the cold, steep, unforgiving mountains of northern Equestria. He found the climb to be significantly harder this time than during his last attempt. He supposed that was to be expected, looking back at the makeshift backpact he now wore. Within the sack, shoddily made from his tent tarp, Twilight lay curled in a ball, still sleeping off her injuries.
Daniel had become a little impatient these past few days. He had seen firsthand what kind of damage his old adversaries could do to a pony. After seeing Twilight in that state, he had become that much more determined to see her home, so that she'd never have to experience that kind of pain again. Besides that, he was enticed by Luna's promise of happiness. Not only had she promised him the one thing he had ever wanted, but he knew she could actually deliver. That was why he decided to just carry Twilight up the mountain, once her injuries had healed enough for her to be safely moved. The faster he sorted through this whole mess, the sooner he could finally live his life in peace.
He grabbed onto the next rock ledge, and pulled the two of them up onto it. There, he saw the entrance to an ancient ruin, the stone bleached by the frozen air, much as it had been for Rainbow's version of the forsaken temple. As relief flowed through him, so did exhaustion. He fell face first into the snow. Twilight rolled out of Daniel's backpack, the cold waking her from her slumber.
"Uh, how did I get here?" Twilight asked groggily.
"You're welcome," Daniel grunted before going comatose himself.
Twilight's pupils dilated, and her mouth drooped off her muzzle, as she just noticed the human who had worked himself to his limit by trying to carry a live pony thousands of feet up a steep mountain range. Acting quickly, she grabbed him with her magic, and brought him into the temple. Once she laid him down on the warmer stone floor, she finally had time to think. The first thing she realized was that she was alive. She had almost forgotten in her groggy state, but she remembered now how that silver-haired sorcerer had very nearly killed her. And yet, by some miracle, Daniel had managed to save her. The next thing she realized, however, was that he couldn't save her completely. She felt...different after that battle, though she couldn't put her hoof on how. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a blue object near Daniel: the pocket mirror. She picked it up, and opened it to see what had changed.
What hadn't changed? Twilight barely recognized herself. Having been marinated in her own blood, its red hue had mixed with her purple coat, leaving her a sickly dark red color. Her cutie mark, the symbol for harmony and magic, was similarly tainted, looking like a warped representation of its original meaning. Her mane and tail were also tinted dark red, or at least what was left of them after being shredded by ice. Her wings had been torn apart; maybe half of the feathers remained intact, and the rest were replaced by nauseating scars. Her once bright eyes had dimmed considerably, becoming two dark gray pits in the center of her dull red face. The way she looked, she wondered if she had actually died on that mountain, and if she had somehow been brought back as an animated corpse.
A chill ran down her spine at that thought. She looked at the darkling human sleeping beside her. He had told her that his dark powers had their basis in death. He also said he hadn't tried necromancy before, but...could he have "revived" her in what was left of her broken body? Her mind descended further down that line of thinking, dwelling on that possibility and the way she now looked. She made herself nauseous, and threw up in a dark corner of the ruined hall.
Having evacuated her final meal, her disgust turned to anger. She trotted over to Daniel and punched him hard across the face with her hoof. His head jerked from the force, shocking him awake. He slowly straightened his neck as he got up, one eye closed from the pain, the other swirling with irritation and confusion.
"What did you do to me?" Twilight demanded.
"What?" Daniel's irritation was replaced with more confusion.
"Answer me, honestly!" Twilight demanded with more force. "Did I die on that cliff?"
Daniel went to answer, but then stopped himself. A look of puzzlement spread over is face, before being replaced with dread.
"What's wrong?" Twilight asked, running out of patience.
"I...I don't know," Daniel replied. "I just tried to save you. It didn't even occur to me that you could..."
Twilight looked away in disgust, both for him and for herself. It was possible that she had truly survived the battle, but the damage, the pain, had been so great.... She couldn't even begin to imagine that miracle.
"So I'm just a zombie now, huh," she noted. "Celestia's gonna love this."
"Hey, we don't know that," Daniel corrected. "Look, no matter what happened, you're here now. You're alive in my books. So we've still got to get you home, okay?"
He pointed further into the ruin as he said this, and only then did he notice the figure approaching them. His body, colored different shades of blue, was nothing like any creature he was aware of. In a hand at the end of his tail, the beast held a gold chalice. Ahuizotl's eyes dilated as he noticed the pony and human standing in front of him, the first living beings he'd come across in days.
"I'm saved!" he cried out. "If I may ask, could you please direct me to a way off this Celestia-forsaken mountain?"
"Wait. Ms. Glowmane's the best you ponies can get to pass for a god?" Daniel asked, facepalming into a grimace. "Anyway, I'm guessing that's the Chalice of Reflections you've got there? Yeah, sorry, but we kinda need that."
"Oh, I see," Ahuizotl replied sternly, curling his tail to defend his prize. "Another pair of treasure hunters. I will not allow you to lay claim to my prize!" He turned around and ran further into the temple.
"I'm gonna kill him," Daniel said flatly, before giving chase.
Ahuizotl ran as fast as he could back down the empty stone halls of the temple. He looked back, and grimaced as he noticed Daniel giving chase. It wasn't quite clear why everyone seemed to be after his cup, but he didn't really care. This was his prize, and he wasn't going to just give it up for anyone or anything. He raced further and further into the ruin, taking every turn he came across, frantically looking for an exit. If he could just find a way out, he'd be home free.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, and his thoughts cut out completely, as he was encased in a giant block of ice. Standing before him, Alex stared at the frozen beast coldly, eyeing his treasure. The chalice was held at his side, just barely through the doorway that was now sealed by Ahuizotl's icy prison. As he approached it, the ice around the chalice, and the tail hand that held it, melted away, allowing him to take it with ease.
"Sorry you had to be caught in this mess," he apologized to the frozen blue creature. "Thank you for playing your part."
As he turned to leave, he froze the chalice, and made the ice disappear with the treasure still in it. This was a little trick he used to store important objects for later. He walked off into the depths of the room...but was then hit hard in the back. The Ahuizotl iceberg pinned him to the wall, having been forced out of its spot in the doorway by a powerful blow from Daniel's scythe. He sighed as he telekinetically removed the block from his back, knowing at this point that another confrontation was unavoidable. He got to his feet, and turned to face his adversary.
He stopped when he saw the dark red-violet alicorn standing next to him. "So you chose not to heed my advice," he noted. Suddenly, a chill went down his spine, and he looked at her again, really looked...and realized what he had done.
"Why would I ever listen to anything you said?" Twilight queried, her eyes and voice filling with rage. "You killed me!"
The ice mage turned away, guilt flowing into his eyes. "You gave me no choice...," he responded somberly. "Had you run like I asked you to, or given up the fight earlier, you would still be alive."
"Yeah, about that," Daniel queried, raising his scythe. "Why did you attack Twilight to begin with? Why did you need to separate us?"
"Because she's the only reason you have to leave this place," Alex answered, turning to the grim reaper, determination once again filling his eyes and voice. "I am truly sorry for what I did, but my guilt changes nothing. I cannot allow you to cross back over to Equestria!" He pulled out his katana hilt, and formed the blade.
"Stay back, Twilight," Daniel cautioned the bloodstained alicorn. "I'm not risking your life again."
He rushed toward Alex with blinding speed, bringing down his blade as he closed the distance between them. The blade sank into a wall of ice, hastily raised to protect its caster from certain death. It wasn't long before the wall shattered from the force, but by then Alex had moved behind his opponent, ready to end things right there. As he thrust his katana forward, Daniel twisted his body, just barely dodging the blow. Seeing his chance, he untwisted his body right there, stretching out his scythe arm to take advantage of the momentum. Too slow, Alex jumped back as the curved blade split his right cheek in two, cold white magic bleeding out from the new gash. In desperation, he formed ice on the wall behind Daniel, which quickly grew into a spike and stretched forward to impale its target. Daniel simply grabbed the end of the spike, stopping it in its tracks, before breaking it off.
Their battle continued for quite some time. The room began to fill with ice as Alex sprang trap after cunning trap. Had his opponent been anyone else, they would have been dead long ago. Daniel, however, knew his enemy well, and seemed to anticipate each trick that was thrown at him. The result was an epic stalemate, at the two countered each blow in turn. Yet, as evenly matched as they were, a winner began to emerge. Daniel managed to land a hit on his chilly foe every so often, and the small cuts and gashes were beginning to wear on Alex. Finally, he began to pant heavily. His body felt heavy, as his minor injuries still leaked a large amount of his power. At this rate, he would surely lose the fight.
"What's the matter?" Daniel mocked, a cocky grin plastered on his face as he shrugged. "Had enough?"
Alex looked up at his opponent with the fiery determination of a man who had nothing to lose, who would go to any extreme to reach his goal. He began to scream, as he let loose all of the power he had left. All of the ice in the room became denser, and expanded further into the room...until, all of a sudden and all at once, the ice grew into spikes that filled the room, turning it into a chilly iron maiden. The spikes completely blocked Twilight's view of the room. She ran up to them, and started to bash them with her hooves and magic, hoping, against all odds, that her one ticket home was still alive. A few seconds later, the ice disappeared...
There, in the center of the room, stood Daniel, very much alive, with his scythe run straight through Alex' body.
Alex looked down at the pole in his gut with shock, then looked up at the grim reaper in pain. "You don't...understand...," he muttered painfully, white power leaking off of him. He appeared to have more to say, but before he could finish, his body turned to ice, and shattered. A gold chalice took his place, and fell to the ground around the remaining wisps of cold magic.
As Daniel looked down at the Chalice of Reflections, Twilight walked up to him. "Stay close to me," he reminded her, before reaching down to pick up his prize. As he held the chalice, he could feel a mysterious power latching onto them. The two began to glow, and the wind picked up around them. The glow got brighter, and the wind got faster....
Suddenly, a tremor hit, forcing the two to flinch as they tried to keep their balance. The ruin seemed to fall away, to be replaced with the sickly green clouds that filled the sky. No, not quite. These clouds were darker, and they whipped violently around them like a storm.
"What the hay is going on!?" Twilight yelled over the cacophony of the magic storm.
"I don't know!" Daniel replied, closing his eyes to shield them from the violent winds. Dread filled him then, as he realized that Alex was right to try and stop him.
As the two disappeared, a ray of green light rose from where they had been, penetrating the roof and piercing the skies. Then all was quiet, leaving the still frozen Ahuizotl as the sole occupant of the room.
Sweat covered Trixie's forehead as she pulled her cart across the empty plains of Equestria. It had been so long since her show was popular that she had forgotten this little aspect of her work, the one aspect she had always hated. It was hard work lugging that entire traveling stage from town to town. It wasn't a unicorn's work, and it certainly wasn't a showmare's. Sadly, she could never get anypony to carry the stage for her, so she was always stuck carrying it herself. In time, it had become a part of the mask she put on to impress her audience. If the Great and Powerful Trixie can defeat a great Ursa Major, then surely such a small cart is nothing to her.
She froze in place as a tremor shook the planet. The force of it blew her hat off, and even ripped her cloak from her neck, leaving a frightened blue mare with pupils the size of peas. After overcoming the shock, she looked to the north, where the earthquake had come from, just in time to see a green pillar of light pierce the skies. As she got over her fear completely, it was replaced with irritation. She levitated her clothes off the ground, set her hat back on her head, and retied her cloak. When she looked up, she was annoyed to see another one of those green wolves blocking her path.
Her irritation was once again replaced with fear as she stared at the lone Riftspawn. It was...snarling at her, and baring its fangs. Its whip-like whiskers and tails seemed primed to strike. Its once green eyes were now blood red. Trixie wasn't sure what had changed the Riftspawn, but the beast that stood before her was now clearly hostile.
The wolf pounced. Trixie flinched and closed her eyes, waiting for death...
The silence of death, thankfully, never came. Realizing she was very much alive, Trixie opened her eyes to see what had happened. Standing just to her left was Alex, holding out his bladed katana. Apparently, he had just let the monster jump onto his blade.
"Alex? What just happened?" Trixie asked in confusion.
"Your friend...," Alex began. "I hurt her. I KILLED her. And it changed nothing." Guilt and sorrow swirled in his eyes as he turned toward the pillar of light, which had by now subsided, and stared blankly into the sky where it used to be.
"Daniel Hayes, know that what comes next is your own doing."