Trial of Errors

by Amethyst-ACE

Hopes

Monochrome stared at the core of Tartarus. Two magical energies, one black and one white swirled and danced around one another, radiating brilliant pulses of light. The efforts of Monochrome, Twilight Sparkle, and their friends had not destroyed the core of Tartarus, but instead had ‘reset’ it. An unstable magical force wiped all the evil creatures from the forsaken wasteland, leaving only Monochrome and Cerberus behind, while Twilight and her friends just barely escaped with their lives. All of Equestria now believed that Monochrome was dead, but in reality, the core had adopted him to take on his new role. He was the keeper, the protector of Tartarus, and all of its secrets. Monochrome had no issues with this; the core represented everything he had ever wanted in his life. It was a brilliant yet complex source of magical energy that Monochrome could spend his entire life studying and still never figure it out completely.

He understood the minimal details of the core. It was a fountain of magic, able to bring one’s very thoughts into existence, if only for a brief moment. Tartarus was created to keep the core sealed as well as the thoughts of its watcher. The colt concentrated, and a magical glow began to form from his broken horn. A flickering illusion of Twilight Sparkle appeared before him. The image smiled and the colt smiled back, soon after the image faded away.

The colt continued his experiments. He shot spells at the core seeing how it would react; sometimes mysterious creatures would appear, and sometimes the spells were shot back. It wasn’t until Monochrome began using dark magic on the core that he stumbled upon something he almost wished he hadn’t.

A vision flashed before Monochrome. He saw Endermen, the previous keeper of Tartarus and…something…Monochrome couldn’t make it out. The vision was clouded and the creature appeared to be little more than a collective mass of black misty essence. Whatever it was, it was of Endermen’s creation, and the wicked ex keeper of Tartarus was speaking to it.

“I release you now. Live, and grow hidden to all who live on this world, and when you have grown in strength, emerge, and destroy the harmony that binds this world together.”

Whatever this creature was, it was going to take more than the Elements of Harmony to defeat it. Twilight and her friends would need the aid of the Elements of Order, but they stopped working shortly after Monochrome’s apparent “death.” He had to find replacements, so he departed Tartarus that day, to seek six new ponies. For the sake of time, he decided to start with the most powerful of all; the element of Balance.

~~~

ACE, Lilly, Chroma Sketch, and Ravewind finally arrived to the outskirts of Baltimare. It had been a long and tiring journey for all of them, and they were all looking forward to some much needed sleep. Lilly, the blue earth pony with a golden blond mane, turned to her traveling companion and boyfriend ACE, a brown-maned white unicorn.

“Alright ACE, the usual drill if you don’t mind.” Lilly’s tone had long since returned to the usual soft and sweet; implying that ACE was finally completely forgiven.

“Absolutely Lilly” ACE replied. There was a combination of happiness and excitement in the colt’s tone.

“What are you guys doing?” Chroma asked curiously.

Lilly turned to face the white Pegasus with black and red mane.

“Before we begin a concert ACE always goes out ahead and sneaks around the city. He puts up flyers and leaves requests on doorsteps of ponies telling them what we’re going to need.” As Lilly was talking, ACE began working his magic. Several playing cards spun around the colt glowing with a light warm green light. Some became miniature posters while others began to turn grey and radiate a dark aura. This was one of ACE’s favorite spells.

“Not gonna’ lie Lilly, that sounds pretty creepy.” As Ravewind joined the group he let out a huge yawn after his comment, and looked at his friends with only one eye open. Ravewind wasn’t particularly fond of camping, and he probably got the least amount of sleep out of all of them. On top of that, everyone else was pretty sure he had been drinking cider all night.

“Yeah well that’s just how we’ve done it. The discretion helps keep our audience to a minimum. At first it was just a curious few, but it’s been slowly building to an overwhelming following.”

ACE pocketed the spells in his pouch aside from his cards. “Alright Lilly, I’m off.”

“Don’t go picking up any mares while you’re in town.” Lilly shouted to ACE with a wink.

“There are a million mares in Baltimare, but there’s only one of you.” ACE winked back and took off for town.

“So we just wait for ACE to get back?” Asked Ravewind who was starting to yawn again.

Chroma sketch reached into her vest pockets and pulled out 3 pairs of scissors, and 3 sheets of paper. “I know what we can do to pass the time.” As ACE entered the town Chroma Sketch explained the game.

ACE pulled out one of the dark grey cards and threw it on the ground, after a short burst of smoke he was completely invisible. ACE ran quickly through the streets of the city, tossing the mini card posters along the walls. On contact with the walls the card expanded to full sized posters advertising the arrival of Lilly as well as the location of the concert. ACE continued to toss out the posters, stopping only briefly to occasionally toss down a new invisibility card. When he was finally out of cards he retreated to a nearby ally where he stopped to take a breath.

“Up to your old tricks again I see.”

ACE turned to see who was addressing him. It was him, the white colt with the broken horn and shades that had been following them since their adventures began.

What do you want?” ACE demanded to know.

“I’m out of time ACE. I was hoping to follow you a little bit more, but I simply cannot do so anymore.” The colt responded.

“You’re not making any sense.” ACE replied.

“Your trials will start soon; you need to be ready to accept what I am going to give you.”

“Again,” responded ACE this time with a much more annoyed tone. “You are not making any sense at all!”

The colt didn’t respond, he simply faded away like he always did, once again not explaining anything about who he was or what he wanted.

ACE looked at the ground and began to talk to himself. “Soon? How soon is soon? Is he planning to do something during the concert?” ACE shook his head. “I need to get back to the others; I’ll just be on a higher guard than I normally am at these events. Hopefully he’ll wait till after to confront me.”

ACE returned to the others and found them playing a game among themselves.

“One, two, three, shoot!” They all shouted in unison before Ravewind tossed out a rock between them, and Lilly and Chroma both tossed out sheets of paper.

“Ha I win!” Ravewind shouted to the others.

Chroma slapped her forehead and groaned. “For the last time Ravewind PAPER IS BEATEN BY ROCK!”

“I still say that doesn’t make any sense!” Ravewind pouted.

“You all seem to be having fun.” ACE interrupted as he trotted back to the group.

“Oh yeah tons of it,” Lilly responded half sarcastically. “You sure took your time.”

ACE shrugged. “Yeah well Baltemare’s a big place. I underestimated how many posters I would need and I had to stop and make more.”

The group waited around for another hour to pass, to let ponies catch the posters and let word spread of the upcoming performance. After that they headed into the city to scope out a hotel to stay in. As they made their way to the hotel, ACE began to whisper to Lilly.

“There’s a colt that’s been following us for a while now, if you see him, try to avoid him as best as you can. He’s a white unicorn with a black mane, shades and a broken horn.”

Lilly was perplexed by ACE’s description of the unicorn. She was use to unicorns with magic that didn’t function. One of her best friends, Gem, was a unicorn that didn’t use her magic at all, but a unicorn with a horn that was broken? That was just strange, about as strange as…well her relationship with ACE now that she gave it some thought. None the less, Lilly nodded in agreement and they continued on their way.

Lilly was well known in Baltemare, and the hotel manager allowed her to stay at no cost in exchange for agreeing to sing at the owner’s son’s upcoming wedding. Unfortunately he had to charge Ravewind and Chroma Sketch for a separate room, but Ravewind paid with little contest. A well-known clothes designer in town agreed to make the costume in exchange for some publicity, and even the mayor provided Baltemare’s concert hall for use for the performance, as long as the group covered any damages. Ravewind once again, was willing to pay.

The concert hall was set up in no time, and soon enough it was time for the performance. ACE stood outside Lilly’s dressing room. He was equipped with his standard bodyguard attire, a black collared shirt with grey glasses. Ravewind and Chroma were dressed similarly, though they took the rout of white vests over a black shirt. They stood at either exit watching the concert from the back. Ravewind grumbled about how far away they were but Chroma Sketch simply replied at least you don’t have to pay. This almost appeared to be a relief to the Colt.

Lilly walked out on stage, garbed in a fabulous white dress with sky blue trim and a gem studded back. She smiled as she looked out to the crowd of ponies that were cheering for her. It was almost double the audience since the last time she was here. Word travels fast in Baltimare it seems. As the lights dimmed the background music began to play and Lilly began to sing. Her voice lived up to the legend. It was almost magical, so much that first time attendees found their jaws dropping to the floor, and even veterans to her concerts were still overwhelmed with her ability. Singing was definitely her talent.

At the conclusion of the first song the entire stadium was in an uproar with applause. Mares and Colts alike rose to their hind legs and applauded Lilly for an amazing performance, then sat back down again eagerly awaiting her next song. Just as she was about to start however, the lights suddenly began to dim. Soon they were flickering on and off causing fear and panic to run through the audience. Ravewind and Chroma stood at the ready, and ACE ran on stage and stood by Lilly’s side. The sound of magic radiated throughout the concert hall and suddenly all the lights went out. One by one the members of the audience began to fall asleep. Shortly after the audience had drifted off to sleep, Ravewind found himself passing out onto the floor. Followed by Chroma Sketch, and lastly ACE and Lilly who fell asleep on top of one another each one holding the others hoof.